This is a graphic novel: My MC and one of her most dangerous enemies a guy who looks roided out like the Hulk just survived the equivalent of an atomic bomb. Their clothes are understandably incinerated despite limited magical protection. I basically have him reduced to wearing a loincloth and her something similar but that also partially covers her chest. These two are uber powerful and very ferocious and she's an acrobatic fighter. I can't help but think ass, boob, and so on would show in some shots. In her case I'm torn on whether during flips I should show her boobs escaping out of realism or do one of those suspension of disbelief things where the characters just assumed to carry nautical amounts of double sided tape just because of nudity standards in the west.
It's high time the west escapes the whole taboo surrounding nudity. At least to a point where it can be openly expressed in media / art. Anyway, I'd say you should do what you want to do. If that means putting your intended audience before yourself, then more power to you.
If she's an uber powerful acrobatic fighter who survived the equivalent of an atomic blast, I don't think you're bound by realism at this point.
We still can't be hung up on nudity? It's so dumb. You're characters are superhuman, why oh why would they care about being naked? I have no superpowers at all, and I freely show myself in all my pale white glory at the drop of a hat. Be bold, show both your character's fun parts without conveniently positioned props and clothes that don't obey the physical laws of the universe.
"You just got smacked by the long dick of the law." Are you familiar with the Heavy Metal comics, or movies? (The first movie is better than 2000 in my opinion.) Basically it is all about violence, and Badasses of both genders, with no shortages of sexualized women. Here is some art that I can show you, as a lot of it is not appropriate to post on here (this barely is) To be fair it originated in France I do believe.
I haven't seen that one but I've seen Lady Death/Purgatori/Witchblade and so on. Comics like those do go by the no nipple or areola rule. No genitalia either of course. I think what I'm going to do is address the issue. The backflips that lead up to the killing strike her boobs will be exposed but then off page she binds with the remains of the top until a replacement can be found. It's not that she cares about nudity per se, if it were up to her she'd just be fighting topless, but in terms of storytelling focus, it is distracting from the plot to have her chest hogging reader attention.
It seems to me that fighting topless would involve bits of anatomy moving around randomly, which would surely be distracting? So securing them seems to have a practical use. I recently saw the Bob's Burgers episode with the nude beach, where they made a joke of people's Not Safe For TV parts just happening to be concealed by random things. But unless your novel has a comedy vibe, that's probably not an option.
I don't even know if she feels their weight at this point. Probably does as she's exhausted. But she has to speak to her brother and her best friend the princess after that so it makes sense to cover up anyway.
@Phil Mitchell in Heavy Metal they show everything and don't care who or what. Secondly @ChickenFreak is right for a good reason. This is going to sound sexist (so don't shoot me), but having a distraction means that the one they are fighting will lose the upperhand in a fight, or even leave an opening for the MC to attack where there wasn't one before. This may help explain the theory behind what we are saying.
No not for this one. The dude she's fighting hates her to such a degree he would get infinitely more pleasure out of ripping her head off than anything sexual. When left alone with her friend for no reason at all he cracked her skull by trying to stick his finger in her brains. She has four consecutive fights one after the other. The male aspect of the creator of the universe. The personification of strength itself. The female aspect of the creator of the universe. The spirit of the Earth. None of them are going to care if she's nude or not. It's the audience's focus I was worried about.
Well unless her clothing is invincible, you could show that there is some realism. It can be used against them as it is a grab-able thing that they can be tossed around by, so pull all the stops out and make it as gritty and nasty as you seem to want to portray it. Hell you even show how much they don't care by using her breasts against her, by thrashing her around by them. How is that any worse than dragging them up off the ground by their hair just to punch them in the face? If they are just as happy to stick their fingers in her skull, then they are not above using her giant boobs to toss her around like a plaything. Get freaking gruesome and have one of these horrible beings actually tear them off. It would definitely be one hell of a twist, that no one would see coming.
No, but even the best get their asses handed to them at some point or another. Also like I said no one would expect it. If Batman can go toe-toe with Superman, then it is not out of the realm that your character can't get knocked down a peg by one of your antags. It would actually give the MC sympathy from the reader for suffering such a painful and humiliating injury, as well as show just how vile and viscous the antags. really are. It is far more tame than what Konrad Curze does to criminals in Warhammer 40k. Hell even the Humunculi in the Dark Eldar (WH40K) are far worse than what I am simply stating.
The 1981 Heavy Metal was Canadian, as I recall... which makes it the only musical thing exported from Canada that isn't boring as hell. Ah yes, the Heavy Metal movie, such wonderful memories.
Of course. 40k is grimdark fantasy. Pretty sure tearing boobs off is a mortal wound lol. A fight winning move at least.
You're doing a graphic novel, so you have total and complete control over the camera angles. Have you seen "Beowulf"? There's a fight scene where the hero is butt-naked, but always seems to end up with something in the way of his dangly bits. From about 1:30 is where it (fails to) gets interesting. Spoiler: Concealed Nudity
Magic exists right? Why doesn't she just magic up some cloths? Maybe just enough to keep the girls from flapping around.
Well that depends. Fight winning perhaps, but lethal only if left untreated. This is based of the torture method. Where the victims died from infection and not the infliction of the wounds themselves. Ultimately you are going to do whatever you want, all we can do is offer suggestions. So good luck to you, you know what your looking for and eventually it will find you.
I've often been asked "Why the hell do you know that?", but rarely had the opportunity to say it. I salute you, sir.
I go by what I'd think if I saw someone else do it. If someone else had her and muscle dude fight - bear in mind they're fought once before and she got KO'ed the first time, if she got her boob ripped off in round 2, I'd be like OK this "warrior" just sucks. It' be like of Bane ripped Batman' balls off in the Dark knight Rises 3rd act. As shocking as that would be, the novelty wears off fast.
The West? What do you mean by that? Because in the majority of 'the west', Europe, being the actual west, nudity is very acceptable, especially in art - probably more than anywhere else on earth. With minor exceptions, every other geographical area currently has issues with it (not historically), such as the Middle East, Asia, and most of North and South America, but certainly not a majority of 'the west'. Or do you just mean 'the US?'
Thought so. Nothing to be sorry about. Just curious. I find it absurd myself that the US finds nudity offensive and violence acceptable. Very strange place.
In my experience, problems with nudity only arise in public. Then everybody goes home, but before they go to bed they make sure their search history has been cleared. Public opinion differs from the large majority of individual opinions. It's basically everybody feigning that they are of high moral standard. They don't know why they're obeying this mysterious standard, or what's so "great" about it, but they obey it anyway, lest they wish to be ostracized. Oh, and Christian fundamentalists still have a hold on media and entertainment. Go Puritans!
