this game's really cool and fun but also like very misogynist in regards to how it handles women. i will probably always prefer dishonored 1 to 2 but i'm so glad 2 stopped being like "turning a woman into a sex slave is a good thing actually"

Reviewed on Aug 15, 2020


9 Comments


1 year ago

what the fuck are you talking about man, go outside

1 year ago

your tone seems pointed

1 year ago

I don't see how the game supposedly endorses misogyny, apart from it being part of the world. Non-lethal takedowns are arguably always a fate worse than death and you don't even have to perform any of them for the good ending.

1 year ago

i also think the game where the only named female characters are caregiver, evil conniving shrew, and child has no problem with misogyny

1 year ago

Absolutely hit the nail on its head here. I get that it's supposed to be grimdark, but I dunno, something about Lady Boyle's Non-Lethal option always gives me the heebie-jeebies.

11 months ago

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11 months ago

@Goobur it's not that women are portrayed badly, it's that they are flat and archetypal with no complexity. the male characters have motivations and interiority. callista has the motivation of "gotta protect emily because i'm her new mother figure" and that's it. also, not to be mean but i don't really see how dishonored 2 has any bearing on my review of the first game. i love both games, but my critiques of both are exclusive to those games. jindosh's nonlethal doesn't have any real bearing on the scope of my problems with the first game because this was an identifiable problem before 2 came out. moreover, even if it did, i wouldn't say "the men get it just as bad" is necessarily a good thing, because it doesn't wipe away the misogynist nature of turning a woman into a sex slave.

2 months ago

Is it, really? I don't remember much about the story itself, but I do recall that the game portrays a sexist, racist and broken society. I don't think it mirrors the developers' views (especially considering how diverse Dishonored 2 is in terms of NPCs). Jessamine is shown to be the only leader who cared for the people (amid many evil and incompetent men). Besides, Delilah and Billie Lurk are two female characters who, as I recall, are shown to have motivations and depth. Billie Lurk even has a whole game dedicated to her (which would be as good as the other two if the original powers had been kept in :/ ).
Also, most of the non-lethal options are supposed to be horribly sadistic and immoral. You turn one of the overseers into a zombie and the two brothers into tongueless slaves. You can also electrocute an old man to death in a sex dungeon. There's just a lot of sadistic evil shit you can do in this game lol. It doesn't outright tell you it's bad, though. Questioning your actions (and the world around you) is up to you.

2 months ago

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2 months ago

@HurtingOtherPPl the idea is that the nonlethal options that the boyle women experience are specifically gendered. is turning the pendleton twins into slave workers for their own mine horrible and fucked? yes, but that can be done to specifically anyone. making lady boyle into a sex slave for her stalker is a specifically gendered punishment. i know the game treats it as dubious at best, but it simultaneously portrays it as a "merciful" option. why is making a woman a sex slave necessary to get the "clean hands" trophy? what is clean about our hands that we did this to a woman? sure, we didn't kill anyone, but does that change the vileness of our actions?

cruel mercy can be invoked here, but based on the treatment of other women (remember that part where piero peeps on callista and you can't do anything to either tell anyone else or even just reprimand the dude?) along with their portrayal makes me think the idea goes over their head a bit. at best, it's not very well thought out and i could see the arkane themselves agreeing. at worst, it's just another example of misogyny. again, i don't have any problem with killing/harming the women in this game when it's meant to be a dark and bleak future where people are killed rampantly, it's the fact that the way in which women are portrayed and harmed is specifically done in misogynist ways.

that's just imo though! i probably could've phrased this review with a bit more nuance but i didn't expect it to be a talking point 3 years removed (golly, time flies).

(i deleted an original version of this comment to repost it with a bit better explanation and to fix a few typos, apologies if you get a second notification because of that)

2 months ago

I get it. I'm generally averse to this type of gendered treatment of characters and events, but I find that this is a different case. It's part of the narrative, part of the world's immorality. You wouldn't be able to depict a sexist society if sexist events didn't take place in the narrative. "Clean Hands" is a very stupid name for the achievement and I don't think much thought was put into it, since most """"""""merciful""""""""" options have you effectively killing your targets anyway.
In the second game, the inclusion of women and different races in every social class (black aristocrats, female officers, etc.) makes it clear that the society achieved progress under Emily's rule.