Which body type fits the bill of a female assasin

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Leishua, Jun 23, 2018.

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Which is a better design

  1. 1

    6 vote(s)
    20.7%
  2. 2

    17 vote(s)
    58.6%
  3. 3

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. 4

    6 vote(s)
    20.7%
  1. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    I agree with those who've said if she's a cyborg, she doesn't need to build a bulk of muscle.

    Muscle definition isn't always indicative of strength anyway. I've trained with women many might call chunky or even fat, but they've lifted stupid amounts of iron or have packed impressive punching power. If they've conditioned their muscle memory the right way, they can also be quicker than someone who's slim. I know that's a bit moot, but thought I'd mention it. Off-season fighters, body builders and fitness models look quit a bit different.

    Also, guns are the great equalizer. If she's got a sniper rifle, she could take down enemies from afar without ever having to trade punches with them. Or, in your character's case, use the tail, I suppose. :)
     
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  2. Privateer

    Privateer Senior Member

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    Assassinations are often carried out by snipers or other gunmen but poison and explosives are, while perhaps more risky in terms of likelihood of success, slightly safer in terms of keeping the assassin out of sight and out of jail, so they get a fair bit of use, too.

    So...body type doesn't really matter for an assassin. As long as they look fairly forgettable and can use their trigger finger or remember the number for the 'phone they've rigged as the detonator, they're good to go. She could be a pudgy little old lady and still be just as effective. Perhaps more so.

    That would be a bit of a bugger, wouldn't it? Being hunted by a bionic granny.
     
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  3. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I'm with "blends in with the background", especially if her physicality is mechanically / technologically based.

    I mean, did a girl teach us nothing? ;)

    e2e8ae5e26359068-661x400.png
     
  4. cherrya

    cherrya Active Member

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    Hey, maybe consider the fighting style of the character in question? This would help determine the sort of muscle mass she could have built. Some martial arts that female warriors normally go for are focussed on turning your adversary strenght against him (think about Scarlet Johansson in the Marvel movies, or Evie Fry in assassin's creed). If you look at their fighting style, their attacks demand way less muscle strenght than their adversary (who tend to depend on it). This means they are built leaner and less musclar than a womam who might specify in something like box or muy thai, which demand a lot of physical strenght. Females who do mma are quite musclar as opposed to women who might do kung fu or aikido or things like that. Hope that helps.

    Just a tip, but if your character is supposed to be an assassin, I'd go for something that demands a leaner build. But that's just me.
     
  5. Malisky

    Malisky Malkatorean Contributor

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    I voted lanky because I've seen many acrobatics female bodies and although they are athletic they are not so ripped. I mean they are ripped but not soooo. Bodybuilder is the worst type. Not agile enough and stands out too much. Not so athletic as well. In a fight, they'd lose. Assassins (especially women) work with tools (weapons), stealth and a plan. In case they fail to kill a target, they care to stay incognito and exit gracefully. They plan for the next time. It's more of a brainy style I think than combative.
     
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  6. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    Somewhat depends on the weight class, of course, but generally muay thai seems to build leaner muscle than boxing.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I've trained both, and have to say eventually my body type turned out to be much more suitable for muay thai. Could be a coincidence, I guess.
     
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  7. John Calligan

    John Calligan Contributor Contributor

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    I imagine the increased value of clinch fighting in MT demands more muscle (and together are why it’s so dominant in MMA compared to boxing, karate, or kick boxing, which have to be more heavily adapted and paired with more cross training).
     
  8. Leishua

    Leishua Member

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    There already is a bionic granny in our story haha. She comes off as a creepy spider obsessed lady XD

    @KaTrian and noted!
     
  9. Write4Fun22

    Write4Fun22 Banned

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    Although I'd say the leaner and more slender built would work better but if she's got cybernetic powers then couldn't that just enhance her speed and reflexes, regardless if she's muscular or not? I think it depends if she's more human or not. Someone who's more human like Black Widow would need to be more agile and skilled rather than rely on brute strength and size. Someone isn't very human and super enhancements could probably maintain having big size of muscle mass and if she's skilled at shooting from a far distance what will it matter? If she's a sharp shooter or can kill without you seeing her, will her appearance make a difference?
     
  10. Mark Burton

    Mark Burton Fried Egghead Contributor

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    I would go with superficially nondescript but with hidden athletic ability. The last thing you want is for your assassin to turn heads when she walks in a room as she would then be noticed. That is, unless you are going with the James Bond approach, which has always struck me as laughably inaccurate, but who am I to argue with such a successful franchise!
     
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  11. evenflow69

    evenflow69 Member

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    For a book cover type two is the one I would go with as the most people would like to sleep with this type. Type to can also change their body toward the body builder or toward the leaner body dependant on situation. Their MO for killing would be highly influential on the body type. Our bodies are formed and influenced by repetitive tasks. There would be hall marks of the trail so to speak by how she wnet about her buisness. Her body woul also have to change according to mission or environment. For instance if I were a sniper my body would have to change in accordance to where I was taking the shot. I would change my body for a desert shot as opposed to a shot taken on a cold tundra.. For the desert I would lean out and carry less body fat due to having to spend large amounts of time motionless in the heat. On the other hand were I to have to do this same shot on a tundra situation I would want more body fat for insulation. Also please note desert snipers many times remove all the hair on their body to keep cooler and to avoid infestation by bugs commonly found in this area. Research and then write what you know. I get pissed when I see snipers not using SOP. Most people do not know what SOP is in this situation but it is noce when an expert watches or reads a description and it fits what they know. ANother thing that drive me nuts is when I see a golfer or lets say a baseball pitcher that are no where neer the correct mechanics. I get turned off by this. Create ares of expertice for killing in this situation. If this person is a sniper interveiw some snipers to see how they go about it. I am not fond of cyborg assasins as it robs me of writng their trainning and watching their bodies change. For instance with a sniper who sits and waits they can become aware of a scar on their hand and reflect on how that scar was obtained while they are waiting. Experts will pick apart your story and love to do it in front of others. Some people are very observant. For instance there was a kid on my sons football team who's father was an HVAC guy. Only problem when I looked at his hands they did not beart the hall marks of the trail. When using sheet metal there are certain injuries I expect to see on ones hands. Sheet metal developes very sharp shards which tend to cut up the persons hands when they cut and put the metal in place. His hands were absent of these hall amrks of the trail. Further more when I looked at his tools most of them had never been used and the ones that were used were not worn in the correct places. I determined very quickly that this man was not an HVAC tech. There are only two groups of people that front like that cops and criminals. This guy was a cop. I could tell by the hall marks of the trail. If I were to have some basic understanding of how this person operates and what their mission is. I could be more helpfull!
     
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  12. Leishua

    Leishua Member

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    Gotcha, Shark-Face does have quite a bit of a backstory. Although she appears has a simple hunter type antagonist her role is expanded later on in future volumes. In summary, she was a choir singer in a military youth wing for orphans. During training exercises she was noted for having superior marksmanship and was sent for sniper training. When the country collapsed, she became a mercenary and at some point was critically injured and was saved with cybernetics. Which gives her the towering appearance she has today (2.1 meters). She resumed being a mercenary since hunting mutants. She is selectively mute and only talks an elder merc whom she confides with and her A.I companion Rits. Cybernetics have given her enhanced strength but she prefers long distances primarily because mutants produce spore size worms which are airborne pathogens that could infect through contact of skin. When needing to go close range she tends to activate a cloak to hide herself but her cybernetics put her at a stealth disadvantage.

    Her most common strategy is to not go directly into the path of attack or position of the attacker. Preferring to strike from lesser expected angles with her pro tractable tail which is the hardest part of her body. She releases the tail like a harpoon it extends agressively smashing concrete and other obstacles in its way to impale her prey. The range is about 12 meters. Her cybernetics are regularly replaced and repaired at base after they are damaged during missions.
     
  13. TWErvin2

    TWErvin2 Contributor Contributor

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    I suggested lean. Whatever would allow the assassin to blend in better.
     
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  14. evenflow69

    evenflow69 Member

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    I have not thought with a scifi mind. Scifi is not my genre. It will take slightly different thinking than what I am use to. It sounds as if she would use similar stratigy with the tail as lets say a scorpian. Is this tail also capable of taking advantage of the laws of rotational force and harmonics to produce a whipping action and a sonic boom. Side to side wipping could certainly produce decapitation or even sever the body in half at the hips which would produce dramatic blood filled scenes with super amounts of gore. Further more the tail could have fins that rise mid swing that create mass displacement of air as a defense against the spore size worms basically fanning them away. An atomized liquid mist could be sprayed out during the fanning action to kill the airborn spores. Running out of this mist could cause alarm for our hero and a reason to go back to base early or end up on an unexpected hunt mid mission to find the materials to re-op on the spray. The mist at night could cause a slightly green effervesant Halo around her at night that would make attackers around her groggy and unbalanced. During the daylight hours this same mist could be excited by the photons of sunlight and excting the mist more toward the violet part of the spectrum to form a purple haze halo around her that would produce a euphoric effect on the victoms having them go to the sweet by and by with a smile on their face occasionally leaving a decapitated head on the ground with a smile permenantly imprinted on the face. Certainly a little humor could be incorporated here this could make the suicidle actually go search her out as a way of death. The sonic boom is pretty self explanitory. When I think of the body type needed for this organism and the stresses caused at the root of the appendages I start to lean more toward the body builder big boned body in order to deal with these type of stresses. The way around that body is to have nano tech incorporated. The nano tech could take injested carbon and create carban nano tube fiber that surrounded the bones in the places of attachment. These nano bots could lay dormant in her body and come back to life when she is injured and spin a web around the injury sealing it for a time until she can go back to the shop and get worked on. This nano tech could be controled by her AI freind giving her a more simbiotic relationship with her AI. I would likely watch video's of scorpians attacking and videos of wips to determine her movement and strategy while in a fight.
     
  15. evenflow69

    evenflow69 Member

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    What is the method of protraction? Does it coil like a monkey tail or snake, or does it telescope? Either way it would take a very stable base with strong footing on the ground to launch some thing with that type of presure. You know the whole equal and opposite thing. She would likely have very pronouned gluteus maximus(large but muscles) to provide resistance when the tail actually hit an object so the resulting opposite force would not move her off her base. If tale is the main weapon the bottom half of the body would likely be extremely well developed. If she takes advantage of rotational force with her tail she would have very pronounced hips bones and obliques muscles. I do not see this being as needing a great deal of upper body pronouncement for her methods of attack. The lower back and stabilizer muscles would also have to be well developed to complete the chain of motion for my understanding of her attack method.
     
  16. Leishua

    Leishua Member

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    Indeed her bottom half is entirely cybernetic and is her strongest part carrying no vitals. As for her tail it coils when she is out of combat or in long distance combat. She can wrap herself in it for protection. She uncoils it to strike if she is in close range.
     
  17. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    The only reason Shark-Face is dangerous is because her target is a 10 year old boy who can't fight?
     
  18. Zerotonin

    Zerotonin Serotonin machine broke

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    In this regard, her appearance doesn't really matter all that much. Unless, of course, she does regular reconnaissance close to the target. However, you've already stated that she's quite noticeable up close, so that may not be her best bet. From how you've described her, I'd assume that her M.O. would be to scope out her target, following them on rooftops and the like, to observe from afar.

    Being that she's a sniper, I would assume that she would have both of her eyes modified, as well as enhancing her cognitive abilities to help in the calculation of her shots. Another cool idea may be that she's had a number of small, reusable cameras linked directly into the cybernetic portions of her brain. She could strategically place them all around the target's predicted location, as well as around her, to give her a better scope of the "battlefield" so to speak and to protect herself from a sneak attack.

    I know almost none of this pertains to how she actually looks, but I geek out about this stuff and I couldn't contain myself!
     
  19. Leishua

    Leishua Member

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    Nah, she's just really an okay hunter. She hunts average prey including other mutants like yziah and kara and izuru whom she killed prior to this. Its just shown later on that she usually goes after easy or average prey. She doesn't take on high risk mutants unlike her seniors. So those high tier mutants on the wanted list like Miller, Zim, Resus are simply not in her preference.

    She does have enhanced visuals, her entire head has been spliced cybernetically and genetically. she avoids close range unless she has to . In the case of the main character its more of a torch and burn op. The main character is a sidekick of a mutant she killed and holds incriminating evidence on her client. Her role is more to seize the data. An easy job to her snatching and killing a kid holding a piece of data. She just has the misfortune that another stronger hunter is also on the same-task for personal reasons and way more than her match.
     
  20. MikeyC

    MikeyC Active Member

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    I haven't had time to read all the replies, but presumably she would need to fit in, not standout in a crowd. So slim and athletic must be the way to go!


    Rgds
     
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  21. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    I'm beginning to think you modelled your story after anime :D
     
  22. Leishua

    Leishua Member

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    I actually don't watch a lot of anime haha. Shark-Face is an idea my designer came about. Sharkface and her A.I Aeon are based off her real relationship with an otaku.
     
  23. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    So what's with all the Japanese names?
     
  24. Leishua

    Leishua Member

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    The A.I company in the universe is owned by a japanese magnate. All his models and products are named in japanese. But characters wise only izuru is japanese. No one else has a japanese name. Kara, Aeon, Shark-Face, Tim, Tiffany, Glimm are in english. Yziah is hebrew
     
  25. Marthix2016

    Marthix2016 Banned

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    I’d say lean athletic for sure. Obviously, a female assassin should have some meat on her bones. In case she’s stealthy and uses guns/weapons, if there ever was the scenario where she got her weapon knocked out of her hands or ran out of ammo, she needs to have physical combat expertise as a backup. Girl needs muscles obviously if she’s good at combat. My quick two cents anyway
     
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