Entertainment
War Between Knights Becomes A Battle Over Whether Women Should Be Attractive
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
Two RPGs set in the medieval era were recently announced. However, the games couldn’t be more different from each other: one is a classic story about knights, and the other is about a lesbian “knight.” Fans and even the social media teams of both games have been debating whether and why women in video games should be attractive, a debate that began over a decade ago with the Gamergate incident.
A Knight’s Path is advertised as the classic story of a young man’s quest to become a knight. The game is set to focus on combat styles, with emphasis on weapons and armor. However, it is also an RPG, which means establishing different types of relationships with various in-world characters. Along the way, the playable character can meet romanceable NPCs, one of whom is Amelie, a conventionally attractive young woman.
When the X account for A Knight’s Path posted a screenshot of Amelie, a user expressed a “hope” about “LGBQT representation” within the game’s 16th-century chivalric setting. The Knight’s Path account answered, “We care about gaming and fun, not modern agendas.”
Representing the modern agenda is 1348: Ex Voto. Their game is about a lesbian knight, Aeta, with a monk’s bowl-shaped haircut, on a quest to rescue her “closest one,” a girlfriend named Bianca. Other than fairly average graphics, all that’s really been talked about with relation to this game is the lesbian romance at the heart of its 14th-century-inspired setting. In response to A Knight’s Path, the social media account for Ex Voto asked that players put the release date for the game on their “modern agendas.”
Fans of modern agendas immediately went into an uproar, falsely accusing A Knight’s Path of using AI and being homophobic. Two camps emerged from detractors of A Knight’s Path.
It’s A Visual Medium, The Battle Over Attractive Characters
One camp has been spending a lot of time retconning history to justify the gratuitous inclusion of presentist characters. This includes all the usual lines we’ve been hearing since Gamergate about inclusion in video games and how people want to see themselves “represented” among their characters. These protests borrow the Gamergate tactic of dismissing all defense of the game as mere bigotry to be ignored.
The other is wondering about the motives of people who want to see attractive characters in video games. The prevailing logic with this group is that gamers only want to see attractive characters so they can be sexually aroused. This is also a direct result of Gamergate, which slammed gamers who wanted attractive characters as incels and misogynists, ignoring the fact that female gamers like to look at pretty things, too.
The idea that sex is a motivator for video game players also ignores decades of strong female characters like Tifa, Lara Croft, Jill Valentine, Commander Shepard, and Samus. The same people crying “misogyny” about A Knight’s Path are projecting the qualities of these strong females onto Ex Voto, but somehow think that Aeta’s deliberate ugliness makes her better because she’s not there to be a sex symbol.
Neither were the others. What made them alluring was their capabilities. That they were fun to look at was also important, though, because video games are a visual medium. It’s right there in the name.
Gamers Run Away From Ugly Inclusivity
Ever since Gamergate, there has been an activist push to make video games “more inclusive.” What this has actually meant is that any time an American video game is released that dares to tell a traditional story, it gets decried as bigoted: homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, colonialist, or white supremacist. Games with artificial inclusion, like 1348: Ex Voto get uplifted as kinder and “more realistic.”
But even Aeta’s ugliness is not within the realm of realism, medieval lesbianism aside. Her appearance bears more resemblance to a monk of the early Italian Renaissance, not a knight or squire. This detail points to yet another deliberate attempt to subvert beauty standards that have existed for thousands of years because some people are offended that beauty exists.
Gamers seem to agree. In just a few short weeks since the games were released on Steam, A Knight’s Path has overwhelmed Ex Voto for interest and activity, with three times as many followers.
The game’s social media account even asked its followers what types of female characters they liked to look at. Would you believe that “bombshell” only garnered 14 percent of the votes? Most voters (in an admittedly small pool of 540) chose attractive or average characters. People don’t want porn stars in their video games, but they don’t want deliberately ugly characters, either. To reiterate: it’s a visual medium. Even ugly characters must be nice to look at to sell a game.
There’s Room For Everyone, But Activists Won’t Allow It
There’s nothing wrong with inclusion in games. Ex Voto could wind up being really great gameplay. It is obviously appealing to some portion of the gaming audience. Fans of unattractive lesbians in a fantasy medieval setting should be able to have games for them. There’s nothing wrong with that.
However, what the artificial inclusion endorsed by activist gamers means is that games like A Knight’s Path shouldn’t exist. Their protests include accusations of -isms and -phobias that associate people who prefer games like A Knight’s Path with hate speech and sexual violence. This goes beyond merely panning a game because you don’t like its characters; it’s an attack on the core fanbase of video gaming, which is still predominantly young white males. This audience deserves video games, too, even if the demographic isn’t particularly popular among the activist class.
In a world that was truly inclusive, A Knight’s Path and Ex Voto could exist side by side, and everyone’s inclusivity needs would be satisfied. However, fans of each game live in two different worlds: one that recognizes its core audience and creates games for it, and one that panders to activism and thinks the core audience is literally evil. The gaming market favors the core audience, though, so if Ex Voto doesn’t live up to the hype, prepare for more bashing of gamers as hateful people who caused its failure rather than acknowledgement that the game was made by and for a niche audience.
Both games are available for preorder on Steam and can be added to whatever agenda you prefer.
Entertainment
A Fully Loaded Potato Salad for Dinner
I love potato salad. I love the creamy kind, the vinegar-y kind; I’ll take a warm one with dill, whatever you’ve got. And yet, I’m about to make a bold claim: this potato salad might be my favorite. Why? Because it’s decidedly not a side dish. It’s the whole damn meal.
This recipe comes to us from Melina Hammer, who calls it a “Niçoise-ish” potato salad, because it’s souped up with tuna, eggs, and other classic Niçoise elements. “You get those bright, bold flavors,” says Melina. It adapts easily for the season, she adds, suggesting winter radishes — like purple daikons or watermelon radishes — if you make it this month. “You can also swap the green beans for two cups of chopped escarole or Napa cabbage, and I’m always a fan of thawed frozen peas. No need to cook them any further — just toss ’em in!”
Here’s the full recipe, plus some pointers from Melina:
Niçoise-ish Potato Salad
by Melina Hammer
Serves 4
3 eggs
salt
1 dry quart small red potatoes (approximately 2 lbs), any larger ones sliced in half
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp (or more) freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp capers, strained
2 1/2 oz thin green beans, stem ends trimmed and sliced into 1 1/2-2 inch segments on a diagonal (or swap for peas, cabbage, etc)
1 5-ounce can albacore tuna
3 radishes, ends trimmed and sliced in halves, then thinly sliced
2 tbsp finely sliced chives
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Bring a medium saucepan with enough water to cover the eggs by an inch to a boil. Lower refrigerator-cold eggs into the water and cook them on a simmer for 8 minutes, then plunge the eggs into an ice bath until they are cool enough to handle. Peel and then slice the eggs into six wedges apiece and set aside.
Bring the potatoes to a simmer in well-salted water. Cook for 8 minutes or until they yield easily when pierced with a sharp knife. Strain them into a colander with a slotted spoon, reserving the cooking liquid. Transfer the potatoes to a mixing bowl and add the oil, mustard, black pepper, and capers. Gently toss to fully coat.
Blanch the green beans in the potato water for 30 seconds to 1 minute — just long enough for them to turn bright green. Strain, and add to the potatoes. Add the tuna, flaking the fish into the bowl, followed by the radishes and chives. Toss to incorporate, then add the eggs and lemon juice. (Note: “If you’re making this a day or more in advance, hold the lemon juice and add it just before serving,” says Melina. “Otherwise, it will dull the color of the green beans.”) Gently toss once more. “I like to use a silicone spatula and work up from the bottom of the bowl, folding the ingredients together with a light hand so the yolks remain mostly intact.”
As you serve the potato salad, make sure to scoop up all the last bits of custardy egg, straggler chives, and mustardy goodness clinging to the sides of the bowl. Enjoy.
Melina Hammer is a chef, food stylist, recipe developer, and the award-winning author of A Year at Catbird Cottage. Her recipes have appeared on Bon Appétit, Food52, and Edible. You can follow her newsletter, Stories from Catbird Cottage.
What other dinner salads do you love? And do you have a house salad?
P.S. Five ways to upgrade a regular green salad, and white bean soup, because it’s February.
(Photos courtesy of Melina Hammer.)
Entertainment
Streaming deal alert: Get 3 months of MUBI for only $1
SAVE $43.97: Through Feb. 9, new and returning subscribers can get three months of streaming on MUBI for only $1. Usually $14.99 per month, that’s nearly $44 in savings.
If you’re looking to venture away from Netflix and its extravagant costs, MUBI is an excellent choice — especially if you’re a movie lover. There are never any ads, it’s brimming with hand-picked quality cinema, and for a limited time, it’s just a buck.
Through Feb. 9, new and returning subscribers can get three months of streaming on MUBI for just $1. It typically costs $14.99 per month (or $9.99 per month with an annual membership), which means you’ll save nearly $44 total across 90 days. After the promotional period, of course, the price will jump back up to $14.99 unless you cancel first.
MUBI is made for cinephiles, as it prides itself as a place to “discover ambitious films and series by visionary filmmakers — from iconic directors to emerging auteurs.” You’ll find mainstream and independent films, classics and new releases, award winners, and even Mubi originals. That includes one of our favorite movies from 2025, Die My Love, and one of our favorites from 2024, The Substance. It’s also where you can watch Lili Reinhart‘s new show Hal & Harper, as well as Twin Peaks in its entirety.
Mashable Deals
Streaming deals this good don’t stick around long — be sure to secure your $1 subscription by Feb. 9.
Entertainment
The Series That Scarred 80s Kids Forever
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Every child of the ’80s carries with them scars to this day. We watched Artax lose the will to live in the Swamp of Sorrow, half the Autobots blown up in the first 10 minutes of Transformers: The Movie, and Punky Brewster turning refrigerators into the scariest household appliance. Even the original 1983 G.I. Joe got in on the action with surprisingly dark episodes, including one in which a traitor is consumed by piranhas, but none hit as hard as “There’s No Place Like Springfield,” a two-part psychological horror focused on breaking Shipwreck, a fan favorite character, so that he’d give up the secret formula that turns water into an explosive. Cobra never did anything the way, so the master plan was to pay homage to the mind-bending sci-fi series The Prisoner.
G.I. Joe’s Psychological Horror Season Finale
After the required bumper saying “G.I. Joe will return after these messages,” Shipwreck wakes up in a hospital and learns that his family was concerned about him. Not Uncle Al, but his wife (Mara, the Cobra operative spliced with fish DNA who previously fell in love with Shipwreck) and daughter, which is news to the career soldier who had given up on ever having a normal life. Haunted by nightmares, Shipwreck nonetheless falls into a routine with the family he always wanted in the idyllic town of Springfield.
The two-part episode is the equivalent of a slow-burning episode for G.I. Joe, which normally wrapped up the entire story in 22-minutes with a massive gun battle. “There’s No Place Like Springfield” slowly peels back the curtain as Shipwreck realizes there’s something wrong with the town, and he uncovers the Cobra conspiracy behind it all. With the town burning down around him when the Joes arrive on a rescue mission, Shipwreck is confronted by Mara, the woman he loves, who’s still fighting for Cobra, and his daughter, armed with a rocket launcher.. Until they melt into goo.
G.I. Joe was a very light-hearted children’s show designed to sell toys, which is why the sheer anguish in Shipwreck’s voice when he realizes that his family were synthoids is so haunting. He knows he’s been lied to by Cobra, he knows everything is fake, but in those final moments, he’s still hoping that it could be real. A glorified commercial wasn’t supposed to include deep themes about life, love, and trauma. All it needed was for the loved ones of a fan favorite character to start melting as he helplessly looked on.
G.I. Joe’s Best Episode
“There’s No Place Like Springfield” clearly took cues from Patrick McGoohan’s psychological sci-fi drama by dropping the hero in the middle of a perfect town, where other residents use various methods, both overt and covert, to get information from him. Shipwreck’s house is also located at 6 Village Drive, an obvious homage to Number Six and The Village from The Prisoner. As a kid, it’s easy to miss references to a show from the 60s, even the large, white, gelatinous mass that attacks Shipwreck is a direct reference to The Village’s bouncy, balloon security device, Rover. All the kids cared about was that Shipwreck made it out alive.
G.I. Joe ended Season 1 with the two-part psychological horror, but when Season 2 came around a year later, Shipwreck wasn’t shown dealing with the trauma; instead, he was reduced to comic relief. The addition of Sgt. Slaughter in Season 2 forced Season 1’s fan favorites to get less of the spotlight, but of all of them, Shipwreck deserved to remain a featured player, and he deserved to eventually settle down with the real Mara.
Melting loved ones turned “There’s No Place Like Springfield” into a memorable G.I. Joe episode that’s remained at the top of fan favorite lists for decades. 80s kids were used to horrible, horrible things happening to their heroes ever since we watched E.T. get sick. There had to be a better way to introduce new toys than to kill off the old favorites.
If you want to relive the 80s or check it out for the first time, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV.
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