HighCastle

b-mommy:

Bioware: Look at this image. This is a model heavily made-up for a photoshoot. 

See how she has a dark blush color used below her cheekbone as a contour color? That is what you have been doing in your character creators for years and years and years. But guess what? Blush doesn’t actually go there 99.9% of the time. Blush actually goes on the apples of the cheeks!

Most people who wear makeup and aren’t makeup artists or print or runway models don’t wear anything there at all! And even then, they generally don’t wear a blush shade (peach, pink, mauve, etc.), but a neutral shade that matches the natural play of shadow on the face. The point:

Is Shepard a makeup artist? No, of course not! She is a soldier. Contouring is some time consuming shit and she has things to do!

Stop putting blush in weird places.

This. I’ve never entirely seen the purpose of makeup sliders in any setting where your character is a soldier or in heavy combat. It’s just not practical. As someone who used to work outside twelve or thirteen hours a day, I can say just how easily dirt gets stuck in that gunk and clogs your pores. It’s not healthy and it’s often uncomfortable. Even leaving that aside, there’s the little matter of a character like Shepard having a lot more pressing needs than makeup. And what about military regulations? Sure, Shepard becomes a Spectre, but she starts out in the Alliance, and usually there are restrictions as to just what you can wear.

This might sound like me complaining about a lack of realism. Sure, that’s part of it. But there’s a larger principle here. I think there’s something a little troubling about needing femme!Shep to look like a runway model while m!Shep is battle-scarred and completely natural. Maybe I wouldn’t get so bent out of shape about this if m!Shep could rock some eyeliner or paint a star on his face. Sound ridiculous? Sound like he should have better things to do than make himself into a member of Kiss? That’s kind of the point. If it’s ridiculous for one gender than it’s most likely the same for the other.