Hi guys i'm doing a quick survey and your votes would really help! Mods if this counts as NSFW i apologize and feel free to remove it Been designing one on the antagonists a hunter cyborg who hunts the MC for the first half of the story. I've been looking to pick a body type that would best describe the villain Shark-Face from a popular opinion stand point. When you hear the term female assassin/ female hunter or femme fatale. What kind of person comes into mind? Body type wise 1. Muscular 2. Lean Athletic 3. Body Builder 4. Lanky Your answers and votes would really help! Sharkface is will likely be on the cover of the book. Hence i would like to get her as closely associated in shape to the archtype she is associated with to establish a degree of familiarity.
I'd say "muscular," but I'm biased. I just... happen to like muscular ladies. How does she kill people?
Well it is going to rely on what type of assassin (Ass Ass In Yeah I had a derp immature moment). Lean and Athletic is good for multi-approach, giving them good agility and strength, while not coming off as intimidating. And are good for seduction hits as well as more direct means. Easily able to move about and scrap pretty well. Muscular is about the same as L&A, but can be considered more of an imposing figure. Though Muscular and Body Builders can use much heavier weaponry, and are more likely to not shy away from a physical confrontation when necessary. Lanky would be more of a seduction type. Getting close utilizing poisons, planting bombs, or simple upclose and personal stabbings. The ability to blend in and look 'innocent' plays to their advantage, since they will appear more feminine and gain favor over being accused. I say Lean and Athletic, due to that being the most versatile, giving you the broadest range of methods and mobility. While still being able to blend in where needed to.
Tough choice between 4 and 2. I mean she's a cyborg assassin right? Maybe it would be easier for her to infiltrate her target looking more softer and slimmer cause she'd blend in more, where the other ones, she stands out more as a female fighter, which might draw more suspicion that she's dangerous?
@CoyoteKing She has many ways, generally she uses guns, snipers, silencers, she is a stealth expert with a large protractable cybernetic tail to lengthen her figure to look more intimidating. @Cave Troll Haha! I wouldn't consider her a seductress kind of femme fatale. She's normally a distance killer. But she has cybernetics to increase her strength on heavier weaponry. She doesn't shy away from physical combat if needed but she prefers to kill them quickly from a far or go behind walls and launch her cyber tail out to pierce through the wall and kill her target. @writer4fun22 Possibly, well in the later chapters its shown that while she is dangerous to the MC. Its really just because his 10 years old and doesn't have any capability of fighting. In the later half, another better hunter comes in, who is even more terrifying. But definitely Shark-face herself is a decent fighter just not the best. An average hunter doing her job but not a celebrity killer to the likes of other established hunters.
If she's a cyborg, I don't see why she needs to be the least bit muscular. She'd be best off with a look that would absolutely disarm suspicion. I'd go with Helen Hayes in old age: https://thewonderfulworldofcinema.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/293601__13752-1411179419-500-500.jpg
If she's a cybotg assassin, she might be better off being able to blend into a crowd without drawing attention to herself, so I would think lanky.
@ChickenFreak @Cave Troll there is another assassin with that appearance haha, a deadly old lady with an obsession with the summer of love. She doesn't appear in that volume though but she's really agile. @ThunderAngel Fair point! Although given her current state, i would say even if she is lanky she would definitely stand out to most people. But most of the people here would just see her more as a weirdo or a freak than anything dangerous.
I agree. It's a cyborg, so whatever the designer wants. They would probably build her to fit in wherever she was going to be activated. Also, normal human women don't need to be huge to be 100% stone cold killers:
I think you should go with the one that blends in most, her being an assassin and all. I think the whole purpose of an assassin is to not be known or seen for that matter. So even in public she would blend in so easily, you wouldn't even notice who she was if she even walked by you. You'd guess she's just a regular bystander. But again, I don't know what kind of world you're building. So if it's filled with everyone looking like some heavily guarded, artillery combatants where the average female is like SheHulk size then yeah her looking like a normal size female or even smaller and lankier would stand out easily. But if the general environment in your WIP with humans looking how they do now then a cyborg assassin disguised as a more average or petite female would work better. Ever watch Kick Ass 2? Mother-Russia is a good example of this, big, strong, tall muscular woman that goes full Hulkish mode in her killings and she stands out from other females, where someone like Hit-Girl would blend in more in that situation. If most of your females in your surroundings are of Mother-Russia's size then someone big and muscular like her could work.
Well the world is fairly militarized in mine. Humanity is facing the emergency of a second intelligent life bent on destroying it. Shark-Face in many cases isn't required to blend into the public. And the public generally see her not so much as a cyborg but a highly advanced security android made by the government to hunt mutants. The size of people in this universe varies quite widely but there are definitely big female characters that are at the build of Mother Russia. Interesting you put up Mother Russia into comparison haha. Was just talking to my illustrator about it ystd, although we had not decided on Shark-Face's physique she did note that Shark-Face and Yziah's fight reminds her of Mother Russia and Hitgirl in Kickass 2. Except Shark-Face wins. A tall shark themed assassin vs a rather short women with minimal martial arts training and skill in poisons and drugs fighting each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0LuDSiX63M Some good examples of deadly beautiful, lanky assassins in action
I always thought that was a pretty cool female fight scene Well in that case of the type of world you are building, then maybe she would work just fine being big and muscular and you say she's also top security, so her looking intimidating as a guard and built for that body type would show. Is Yziah the MC?
Yziah is the guardian adoptive mom of the MC's friend. Yea haha we were def thinking about Mother Russia especially considering Shark-Face's slavic background @Write4Fun22 Good references!
I agree that it fits well. I'd make sure that Shark-Face is not so easily beaten imo, if she is later on in your plot or not. Seems like a really neat assassin character!
As others have said, if she's a cyborg then physical strength may not be so important as her enhancements could compensate for any lack of physical strength, while also improving reflexes, accelerating cognition, heightening senses etc. However, her enhancements will presumably increase her density and thus make stealth more difficult. It's harder to creep across a creaky floor if you've got bits of metal inside your body making you heavier. So I think an important consideration is her stature. The smaller she is, the easier it will be for her to maintain stealth while full of cybernetic implants.
Just another thought... if you have time, read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Not only is it a great book, one of the main characters (Aomame) is a female assassin. The descriptions of her physique, her training regime and her skills is very tastefully done and paints a very clear picture of how she is built.
Gotcha and good points! She is rarely the type that goes up close. Generally she takes targets out from a distance. She is quite easily noticeable in close distances due to her cybernetics so she prefers far range methods. But if she does it close her typical method is to make her victim aware and run themselves to a corner and use her tail from behind a wall or so to break through and kill them
Ah, this is quite a different character to Aomame who, if I remember correctly, Spoiler: 1Q84 spoilers sneaks up and breaks her victims' necks, or stabs them. If you're intending for your assassin to be conspicuous and to use this to her advantage in this way (which is certainly not unprecedented in predatory animals, some of which also frighten prey out into the open or into a trap before striking) then you need to account for the fact that this will make her vulnerable. If the victim can see her, then so can potential enemies. This will mean she will be vulnerable to attack or capture while stalking her victim.
Also, if your character uses a (presumably very strong) tail to kill her victims, then it probably doesn't matter about the build of the rest of her body.
Good analysis! That vulnerability does lead to her downfall in the middle of the story. She was fairly confident a child wouldn't be too much trouble but it also alerted her to the "other hunter" who impales her in the belly and fights her over her skill allowing the MC to escape. Her tail is the strongest part of her entire body. Its generally what she uses to ram through walls and kill people hiding in defensive positions. Its also a deceptive technique in the sense that she tries to make people attack her from behind where she is the strongest with her tail.
It's good that you've used her strength (her physical size and method of killing) as a weakness. This is an excellent way of handling what could otherwise have made her infallible.
