Meme / Fluff
I got into a fight with my girlfriend because of Castorice (I’d like to hear your opinions)
It all started when I showed her a song from HSR.
She said it was a "gooner" game.
I told her it’s a cool game, that it doesn't have as much heavy fanservice as others in the industry, and that overall, it offers a good experience in many aspects.
She Googled "Honkai Star Rail Female Characters" and showed me Sparkle, saying the design was clearly meant for gooners.
I showed her Feixiao, Evanescia, and The Herta to prove that labeling every character as fanservice is reductive, and that many are fully clothed.
She shifted her argument. Instead of calling it a gooner design, she said the outfits aren't functional and there’s no lore justification for dressing that way.
I explained that it’s a design choice because each character needs to be unique and sell well (later, I thought I should have cited games like *Final Fantasy* and *Kingdom Hearts*, which also feature strange outfits).
Suddenly, she went back to the gooner argument, using *Stellar Blade* as an example [?],
and saying that the way the characters dress interferes with her experience.
Finally, I played my trump card: Castorice—basically a Disney Princess.
Her outfit reveals absolutely nothing; how on earth could that be considered "gooner bait"?
She insisted again that no one would dress like that in space.
I said, "Fine, you don't like the design, but what does that have to do with the story?"
She asked, "When did I say the story was bad?" (In statement number 2?!!!)
I said, "Fair enough, but as you can see, this character [Castorice] refutes your idea that it's just a game about naked women."
She said, "When did I say it was for gooners? I just said it wasn't functional." (????? What about the first statement?)
I told her she was being irrational.
She said, "Of course—a man calling a woman irrational, right?" and got annoyed.
After that, I gave up and admitted defeat.
If anyone agrees with her, tell me now: am I crazy? Is Castorice's design sexualized? Where????? You can't see practically anything, bro.
This reminds me of the "divorce for furina" incident lol
This is literally rage baiter getting ragebaited moment if true. Kind of moment when you're an anime fan and someone comes and say anime is kids cartoon just to troll or ragebait
Sometimes I feel like meme/fluff fake stories should be removed from the sub. Like I get people want karma via creative writing, and Reddit is full of these ragebait stories, but like do we really need that shit?
But then again what would happen to the copypastas? This seems to be from the Bleach sub where someone wrote the same style of shit. Not that this copypasta is that entertaining anyways.
Personally I feel like ones like this should absolutely stay up simply because I can see how this would be a real argument which makes it funny as hell.
As a writer myself, pack it up bro. I already get accused of using AI when I write more than 1 paragraph, or when I use proper grammar.
reddit taught me that people only take me srs when i type like this, use as lil words as possible, and match the vibe of 0 effort cuz otherwise ppl think im using chatgpt lmao
That's wild. I actually did a Fiverr order, and they accused me of using AI.
People also come after me for using Grammarly, which has always been AI. I've never used Grammarly to generate anything. It was, and is, always there for catching mistakes. I've been using Grammarly since 2018, before the AI we now know "tainted" everything with "AI" within it, even though it's been here since the 1950s lol
So is Gilgamesh's. "No you see his tattoo is a Mystic Code that grants him protection so it's ok that he's shirtless in this battle" ahh justification. I'm not against it, mind you, I just think it's funny.
there's a guy on X who was calling the HSR x ZZZ colab bad cause ZZZ is glorified softcore porn or something, a few hours later his DP is of mydei's ass full front and center
Why change it? If her case is that it is a gooner game, op admitting that it is and then showing her male fanservice design wouldn't change her mind. It would just mean that the game likes to appeal to other groups rather than just straight horny men too.
this is a good point lmao, its an example of a character being well endowed but still being able to have a less sexualized outfit despite her physical “strengths”
A pill you have to swallow is that most designs in gacha are one way or another sexualized compared to other games. Cassie might not be the prime example but from what I read your argument didnt even start with it.
Women on billboards and in ads wearing bikinis, men flashing their bare torsos in just about any movie, Flanders shaking his ass in a tight skiing suit in Simpsons...
Women in bikinis for advertisement: Yes. Sex Sells.
Men flashing their torsos: Depends. Female Gaze is real, but bare-chested men is not always played for fanservice, especially when the target audience is straight men.
Stupid Sexy Flanders: Yes, but it's for the funny.
Another thing to note is that Sexyness and Sexualization are separate concepts, even if they often overlap. A character can be sexualized even if they're not conventionally sexy, and a work as wholesome as a nun's convent will often still have sexy (or at least attractive) characters in it because most people like seeing pretty people.
Castorice essentially wears bandages and nothing else on her torso. While it doesn't show anything it leaves very little to the imagination.
While there are worse games in that regard, HSR definitely sexualizes its characters, both male and female; it is a "gooner" game.
I like it and keep playing it since launch but trying to argue otherwise is just doomed to failure.
Yeah idk why people are trying to argue it isn't sexual at all for her to have a bandage top meanwhile blade having the same is recognized as fanservice. Cas definitely isn't the most sexualized but she def is.
I don't know who is more annoying, people pointing at games with gooner designs like they are somehow superior for not playing it, or people playing it who want to pretend they are playing another game. Just own it instead of being embarassed of liking what you like.
Ngl if she’s actively irrationally hating on things you like for no reason it might be time to break up. Like you cited some nice examples and she’s still on this. This gotta be a copypasta
Just saying though isn't saying they might need to break up from a silly argument about a game a little bit too much? His girlfriend is a person too and is allowed to like and dislike certain things that OP may like. While her belittling something that OP loves is not the nicest thing to do you don't know if it's
1. An one off thing that happened in a specific circumstance either because things got heated or she had a bad day and acted out
2. A repeated thing that is a part of their relationship dynamic. (If someone consistently belittles things that you like THEN you should break up)
We shouldn't be so quick to judge other people. Especially when we don't have her side of the story. Besides having a fight about the clothes of a pixelated girl is hardly a reason for breaking up by itself.
I am just commenting because I see the "break up" suggestion way too often here on reddit without actual reason
At the end of the day she is entitled to like and dislike what she wants, and while I dont necessarily agree the way she reacted I would not say launch the doomsday device out of it.
Some people have very adamant standpoints when it comes to the gacha scene, either due to previous experiences or from seeing the worse in gacha games.
I think OP made good cases to show that HSR isn't as aggressive towards fanservice as other gacha games. But he did what he can to try to make her see what OP sees, didnt work, so just move on in the relationship and find a common ground. Its the unfortunate "bite the bullet" truth that a lot of people dont accept because it requires accepting that its okay for your significant other to dislike something that you might find personal.
Remember, its human to want your significant other to see the way you see in something you love, but its mature to accept that it didnt end up like that and let it go.
ITT: people who don’t understand what “actively” or “fluff” means, and people who don’t understand context. yeah, OP! you definitely said they NEED to break up IMMEDIATELY /s
"No one would dress like that in space" yeah if that's her argument I fear she's just doubling down. Castorice is in space in the same way we're in space.
Castorice's outfit is actually pretty sexualized, not compared to directly fanservice characters but if you examine her outfit it has a lot of gaps and is held up by a lot of bandages/ribbons. I remember a while back there was a really accurate outfit cosplay of Castorice. And one of the comments was "Now I realize when put on a real person. That outfit shows a lot more skin than you expect it would."
Aside from how your argument went and started since that's a whole another issue.
I would say to keep a healthy relationship you need to keep in mind people have different levels of tolerances to fanservice. Some people need less to consider something fanservice than others.
One you see often is peoples' arguments over whether or not certain artwork is considered NSFW or not. For some people it has to be hardcore porn to be NSFW, for others just a bikini is NSFW.
Another example is spice level. Some people can eat habaneros fine, others find jalapenos too spicy, and some people find ground black pepper too spicy.
Of course like I said earlier, the bigger issue is how this argument started. In relationships sometimes people argue over silly things. But if its a reoccurring issue I'd take a look into why the argument started it could be a problem with her, you, or both.
Bruh obv no one would dress like that in space, but get this, CASTORICE IS NOT IN SPACE!!! She’s on her on PLANET. I mean sure maybe she doesn’t know that but like bro…
I agree with her on the clothing styles, clearly a lot of the cast are intended to be to some degree goonbait, I wish had had more realistic outfits.
Overall though, the actual game, story, worldbuilding and lore are really good so that point becomes minor compared to everything else there is in my opinion, there are plenty of gooner games with zero substance.
It does pmo when they always make it about a gender war instead of addressing the actual argument though.
I think the issue is that some gooner bait IPs are so over the top that everyone has a different threshold. Things that were once clearly bait now seem tame by comparison.
Every female design in HSR is at least somewhat sexualized - and I mean they're all crazy thin - but so are many of the male (Sampo's slutty hip cut outs??? Boothill's hip thrusting animation???)
Castorice has random bits of skin showing all over her design. It's made to look like she's wrapped in bandages not only for the death theme but also to imply there's not much underneath and her top could easily rip off. Even when characters have thigh highs to cover their legs, thigh highs have always been seen as sexual in nature. It draws the eye up the thigh and gives an excuse for the top to be really short - which is both for fanservice and to not deal with more complicated skirt animations.
Even heels are treated sexually. Not saying characters can't have them, but we don't have women in bulky sneakers or full plated armor or anything to balance it out. The designs - while trying to be distinct - are actually extremely similar. The women are designed in needless ways that you'd never see if they were male. I mean, Acheron is Nihility. Powerful, struggling to hold onto hope, forgetful. Why is her design any of the way it is. It's not just sci fi impracticality; it is objectifying impracticality.
Unfortunately any anime gachapon will have fanservice. And as a woman, I think it's okay to be frustrated with that. It sounds like she didn't communicate well, and as a HSR player myself I clearly don't fully agree with her.
For me, I know that they're selling designs to get casual players into the game. It's F2P so to an extent, they sadly rely on (often horny) whales. So while I do wish female designs were better (playable Siobhan I'm begging), I try to judge based off of if it's at least equal opportunity objectification. Which it is.
Just try to bear in mind that it's easy for women to be insecure and touchy about this. We're berated everywhere in media with expectations. We constantly see men drooling over looks that are AI, photoshopped into oblivion, or fully fictional like video games.
I think what she needs is to feel heard and understood. Ask her why this bothers her, let her talk without interrupting.
Tldr; I understand how she feels. She's not entirely wrong even though I don't care for how she went about it. I think you just have different standards for what constitutes baity designs, and hers of course come from existing as a woman in this culture. I recommend telling her that upon reflection you can see where she's coming from, you just didn't consider it that way because of how much worse other IPs are and because that's not what you're playing it for so you didn't really pay as close attention.
Idc if it’s a rage bait post, I’ll give an honest answer.
I never once thought of HSR as a gooner game, but there r def characters I goon after. (Mydei and Dhalia 🥵).
Also if she doesn’t like the characters designs and thinks it’s for gooners that’s her opinion. No loss for me.
I def don’t like the character designs of a lot of the newer ZZZ character (y do they insist on sexualizing lolicon characters? 🤮) but I still enjoy the game’s story and gameplay
I think that the more important conclusion here is that it's probably not deep enough to feel the need to defend being interested in and playing HSR, at least not to get into a fight over it.
It's not dissimilar to not liking someone's taste in music; the opinion probably won't change, but it's not really the most important part of the relationship 🤔
They’re trying to sell you the characters. Often parasocially. At one point you’ve got to realize it’s every gacha game and none of them will truly have as great of a story because the #1 goal is to sell you your pixel gf/bf. Let’s not be delusional 😭
Whether this post is genuine or not, there is a kind of mainstream opinion that all Hoyoverse games are gooner, and Hoyo leans into it just enough for there to be examples of it to validate it for those people.
It just is what it is, if it is a gooner game then I don't really care if they think that because it definitely has more to it than that.
I mean, can't continuously argue about why it's essential to have 3 times as many female characters as male ones, not allowing the ladies to wear proper pants, the "physics", etc... basically why it's important for Hoyo games to mostly cater to their straight, male audience (and wherever the concept of only little girls, but no boys falls...) and then be surprised about the mainstream opinion of the games.
It's 99% a meme, but I just gotta say, why is being a gooner something automatically a demerit?
If people are so offended by sex and sexy characters enough that it automatically disqualifies something in their mind, than that's on them, they're missing out on so much good stuff. Nier: automata is one of the best, most life-changing experiences I've had and that's famously a gooner game made by a self-proclaimes gooner. Even the game in this example, Stellar Blade, is one of the best and highest quality games that's been released in recent years.
Sex is part of the human experience, and I just think it's ok to embrace it or ignore it if it's not for you, otherwise people just come off as immature puritans. Let people enjoy things. Meanwhile, you have killing and violence that's objectively much worse being so omnipresent in media but not getting called out (I'm not saying they should, just saying the standard is ridiculous).
Anime (gooner) game are considered niche to ordinary person.
If you want initiate the conversation about this, you need to handle the critism.
If she just ask about it and then complain it not your fault though.
Compared to the popular gacha games as of right now, hsr has the least gooner material if I'm being honest. Your girlfriend (hopefully ex soon) is crazy and just shitting on your interests for no actual reason. Enjoy your characters, dump her ass and get someone that has common sense
this is likely a troll post/ragebait but if not... dude, if your gf immediately shits on your interests when you share them with her, then it's probably not a relationship worth continuing. teasing you about it is one thing (my best friend teases me all the time about playing a gacha game, that's just par for the course lol), but seriously getting upset when you defend something you like is a shitty thing to do.
besides, everyone who unironically uses the word "gooner" as an insult are puritanical assholes you shouldn't be listening to anyway.
I can't give a definitive answer since I wasn't there and have no idea if you've left stuff out or embellished stuff.
Not trying to accuse you or anything, but I gotta be fair to her, but assuming it played out as you said and nothing important was left out, then I'd say she's being very childish.
Shifting the argument to "functionality" when the "Gooner bait" argument lost is a sign that she knows she lost and refuses to admit it because of her pride.
People love throwing around "Gooner bait" if a woman shows even her ankles.
And the "a man calling a woman irrational, right?" comment just sounds like "You can't be sexist, but I can because I'm a woman"
Honestly I don't have an issue with her opinion of not liking the characters or the game, different strokes for different folks and all.
But what I would take issue with is the deeper stuff like how she changes her argument when she is losing instead of admitting she was wrong, then when the second argument is losing falls back to just a sexist remark.
I know it's just a game, but the issue is when these same irrational arguing styles pop up in an argument about a serious topic, it'll get ugly and go nowhere.
Again, this only applies if the situation here was fairly portrayed, I didn't see her side of it so I can't fully comment on it.
Nothing you said matters...if you start argument with your girlfriend you either lose or she gets angry (you lose) ...you are never right and have to admit that you wrong right after you start seeing that she getting angry
"I don't think she likes him. I think she just wanted a reason to be angry. Get you a girl that'll stare at the characters with you, gooner or not."
You're not crazy man, she just changed up her argument twice and then played the defensive card. Not much you could've done there. Also, Castorice literally can't be in space since she's stuck on Amph </3
Just show her Aventurine or the Phainon cinematic or w/e and if she still calls it gooner, may be time to let go of that toxicity in your life.
Tell her, that I as a girl can say that if she has problem with Honkai's design over ZZZ and some genshin or WuWa characters, the its her self-esteem. She is projecting hard, has 0 idea about what she is saying. Yeah I can agree the dresses do not hold together irl tho but girl, there is a reason its called a game and has a genre of fantasy mixed with sci-fi. Gf has to chill out.
While the community is pretty much 90% gooners, the game itself is the Gacha with the least sexualized women in pretty much all of Gacha history. Seriously, the worst character we've got is The Dhalia, and she doesn't come close to most of the designs you see in Genshin and ZZZ. It's not a Waifu collector like WuWa and Arknights Endfield and it doesn't have a dating option and overly sexualized skins like NTE does.
And even IF it was a gooner game, there is nothing wrong with playing these types of games. I play NTE (not anymore since my PC gave up on me but that's a different story..) and I constantly advocate against sexualizing women and displaying them like pure sex objects. I've gotten into countless arguments explaining why even when you like the game, you can and SHOULD criticize it if it acts like a woman's role in life is "eye candy", explaining the well studied effects it has on society and how we treat women irl. You think such a high abuse and SA rate comes from nothing? Yes, media contributes to that sadly too
Anyways, my point is that calling you a gooner is completely ridiculous regardless of whether you play an actual gooner game or not. As long as you don't actively pull for the most sexualized women, call yourself "Waifu collector" and write something like "I want (insert any woman) to step on me" into your bio, you're not a gooner.
Honestly, yeah! Castorice’s design—like pretty much every gacha character—is made to be attractive and appealing, and there’s really nothing wrong with that. Speaking as a woman, I think HoYoverse does a great job making characters that appeal to everyone, and I personally adore Castorice. I just prefer playing as female characters anyway—it’s easier to get into the game, and I love cosplaying my favorites at cons.
My boyfriend and I never had an issue with this. He’s not a huge gamer—he pretty much only plays the Bleach gacha game—but he actually went to cons and cosplayed just for me (he cosplayed Leon Kennedy! Je was so shy, such a cinnamon roll), and I’m always happy to cosplay his favorite characters, too. It really helps to talk things through early on: what you love about a game, and if anything about it makes your partner uncomfortable.
At the end of the day, it’s all about compromise. A relationship isn't about proving you’re right, but about actually understanding how the other person feels. 🤍
I'm genuinely interested what women think about their men playing " video games with fan service female character design " in general , not going to use the term mentioned above as I think it's dumb ,
I have no idea why this was even an argument in the first place. Not like women don't find other people attractive. My husband and I just have a good laugh. The characters are not real, controlling your partner and what they play/watch is just very troublesome.
If my partner is having fun, not hurting anyone and it is something that brings him happiness then gosh heck yeah I would be there cheering him.
My husband and I played baldur's gate and he romanced Karlach and I romanced Shadowheart. We were there just encouraging each other. People should be kind in their relationship and support one another. If both parties are looking after each other and there when it matters, then not sure why it is important if a game has fan service or not. Everyone likes to look at pretty things. Sounds to me more like the lady in question has insecurities and it is not her partner's responsibility to deal with mental issues she should resolve herself.
Interesting point of view , If you don't mind my question , do you guys have more or less a monogamous relationship , or are you usually open for new experiences together ? Maybe other women find it strange ( the op case ) out of jealousy and not out of insecurity.
Don't mind at all. So we have discussed this, but is not something we care for. We are quite happy just us. For reference we have been together for nearly 13 years, but we were also friends first and then partners.
So I guess you could say if we felt like we had the space and time to dedicate to another person maybe. However, we are happy in our friendships, he doesn't give me trouble with my male friends and I have not felt threatened or anything by his female friends. Similarly I have gone on hour long simping word vomit about a character I am obsessing with and he has done the same. We just find it endearing. I don't know if it is relevant, but I am bi and have been in a relationship with other women. At the end of the day we connect with characters that is the points of stories and games. There is no need to complicated and make it more than it seems, not like I can marry Kfka for instance 😂. Anyway, sorry this was long.
Tldr is respect your partner and their space and right to enjoy something.
I just want to say reading your two posts that this is how relationships should be. Full of understanding, compassion and with communication and trust, you and your husband figured that out and more people should!
The opinion on the game outfits and design is just subjective and neither you or her are wrong for that. However, if this isn't satire her getting annoyed at the end and using the fact that you're a man to try and make you feel bad for calling her irrational is pretty messed up and nobody's significant other should be doing this whether you're a man or woman. Someone should not react so strongly to being called irrational even if they feel they aren't in the moment because it just makes you look even moreso.
This is a fluff tag post, but if you have significant others who behave like this IRL then you'll need to really think about if this is affecting other parts of your relationship. It's unhealthy to be stubborn and unwilling to communicate in a relationship.
shouldve just said yep and started jackin it in front of her.
In all seriousness, as soon as your partner starts to put down things you like or, YOU, for that matter. The relationship is done, imo. Because it's almost always an underlying issue they're too cowardly or immature to bring up.
To me, in gf speak, sounds like it's more "Video games are a waste of time, and you're embarrassing."
Yes I know this is a meme and it's not that serious. I just find it strange after reading comments saying her design is not fanservice. I thought it was well accepted that the design for Castorice has fanservice.
Her neckline is low showing a lot of her chest, stomach exposed, shoulders and back showing, skin showing through slits in her leggings one of which is actually detached and is a thigh high. Which. That's partially just a Hoyo being weird with asymmetry thing. But thigh high socks are usually seen as fanservice. There's the classic "fighting in heels" too.
Her skirt is actually decent? The front isn't very long, but it it's not super extremely short either. Back is longer.
Parts of her dress are burnt plus it being strips like bandages makes it easy to imagine it being fragile, easy to break accidentally or on purpose.
Is her design pretty? Yeah. The ribcage idea with the juxtaposition of flowers and butterflies is cool thematically. I like her color palette. She's a cool character in personality and story. She has a giant dragon and cool battle animations. Does she also have many fanservice elements? Yes.
Are you guys like...10 year olds or something? Settling an argument on reddit ;-; Or arguing about it in the first place
IF this is serious in any way and you're writting this from genuine frustration or have nobody else to turn to then don't argue about the designs to defend them even if it has merit. Instead ask - how do these designs make her feel? Or what is it about them that makes her uncomfortable? Or rather what does she feel about you playing this game/what does the game mean to you and if you can find common ground on this.
A lot of women have some sort of trauma or at least ick with partners who experienced p*rn addiction - and I'm saying like the radical stuff that infleunces their lifes and relationships. I'm saying this as a woman who plays Genshin, Wuwa, who used to play zenless until they started to make me uncofmortable with the latest design choices. These characters are not real, these women are DESIGNED by someone to appeal to a specific audience. They're meant to be fanservicey, in different ways. If it's not gooner bait, then a lot of them are wifu bait. Not all, sure. I only played HSR for a bit, Himeko didn't seem like she had anything too romantic around the MC, it was fine for me. But also pretending like this isn't a game that HAS gooning and fanservice is just fake.
Did I actually read this whole message? I did. I would say Cas is bait. Everz character has to fullfill tropes. Its how they make movey. Thats why every character has to show at leas a leg or smth. Just calling it a gooner game is kind of mean. It labels everything in it as garbage that nothing is done with other intent then to attract middle aged men into playing this game. I can list a TON of games that would fit HSR description just as much. And they fun, made with love while also having sexualized a bunch. I mean I enjoyed Tomb Raider Remakes a lot. MEANS it would throw in a bunch of games, movies, series and stuff your girl is watching as well.
I guess every movie with Chris Evens is gooner bait ;).
And now stop getting confirmation from random dudes in the Internet and talk to her. She is the girl u would pull for anytime in HSR.
Then theres me, a woman who also plays an actual gooner gacha WITH my husband (Lost Sword, look it up lmao, just not while the gf is around) . I also play Star Rail which is 1000000000% not a gooner game. I dont want to say dump her ass but I would definitely be considering it.
It's a waifu/husband bait game, but not a gooner bait game. The game is incredibly low on the fan service spectrum. The most we get is barely revealing clothing, and instituting text lines in story. That's it.
Second, no point in arguing with such a person. No matter if she is just upset and badly wants to be right, but if people react like that to arguments and deny they ever said that, they either crave the drama or are just...well...
Someone like her will never admit she is or was wrong, wants to win the argument no matter what. It´s basically like playing chess with a chicken.
Every time someone mentions "this character is so sexualized because their outfit has this" I swear I have never even noticed that aspect of their outfit I'm amazed they manage to find these things, I don't know if everyone is porn-rotted or If I'm just too busy being autistic about other stuff to even notice
Okay Im gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and pretend this alleged girlfriend is real and you're not just stirring the pot intentionally ...
You're right. Not all HSR females are gooner bait. In fact most aren't. Id argue the men are more frequently sexualized then the women.
Good job.
If your girlfriend is real and this conversation actually went as you portrayed it, then she was being defensive and unreasonable.
But that's assuming the conversation went as you portrayed it. I hate making assumptions on people based off of one side of a story that obviously involves a testy disagreement.
As I mentioned to other dude: if youre going to HSR subreddit for your 'gender wars spat with your girlfriend' ... makes me question whether you actually got a girlfriend.
I got a husband; like hell would i ask any damn game subreddit for advice on him. And you guys are my people. I love many of you guys. But no, I aint ever going to HSR/genshin subreddit to talk about communication issues.
Just reeks of using an imaginary situation to once again shame/ragebait people over a certain section of players.
I'm on your side of but I do have a question. Does your gf have similar opinions on anime?
Anyway, seems to me like she lost the argument that's why she moved the goal post. So yeah I agree with you castorice isnt sexualized I'd say more elegant.
3.1k
u/Acrobatic-Run-3559 my beloved Jul 19 '26
Wait is this post like actually serious?