Here my wild speculation about the psychology of a fictious character that is not even a whole character but just a painting...

My guess is she feels not attractive enough and thus tries hard to look feminine and enhances that by bleaching her hair in the attempt to look more like the beautiful Crane maidens... after all they are known for their beauty and every Emperor is marrying a Crane.

But I would not mind if it is actually a guy who feels feminine and thus goes with that gender representation.

Either way, I see no big deal about it. L5R has a long history about gender representation questions, that some people thought Kachiko was over sexualised, or that Hitomi was not feminine enough and so on. So, why are so many trying to ruin those interesting and flavorful characters by pressing them into gender expectation boxes? How about we enjoy the diversity the setting offers instead?

9 hours ago, Gaffa said:

Much like "I'm not a racist, but...", there's no way to begin a sentence with your example and then not be offensive.

I personally don't think my post is offensive, but I thought some might, which is why I put it there. It's about a fictional character and asking if there is a back-story because they seem different than the rest. It is not intended to be derogatory in any way. I thought there was a chance that maybe it was a picture of someone who won a L5R tournament and wanted to be "in the game", so that is why I put that statement as a "just in case". I also think comparing it to a racist statement is highly inappropriate.

9 hours ago, Nagori-A-Go-Go said:

I'm a little baffled at how one can open a thread that they acknowledge could be deemed controversial, only to get this defensive when they get a negative reaction.

I'm not being defensive. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. My opinion is that I personally thought his post was silly and inaccurate, so I was pointing that out, in what I thought was a humorous way. Sorry if it didn't come across that way.

4 hours ago, Drudenfusz said:

Here my wild speculation about the psychology of a fictious character that is not even a whole character but just a painting...

My guess is she feels not attractive enough and thus tries hard to look feminine and enhances that by bleaching her hair in the attempt to look more like the beautiful Crane maidens... after all they are known for their beauty and every Emperor is marrying a Crane.

But I would not mind if it is actually a guy who feels feminine and thus goes with that gender representation.

Either way, I see no big deal about it. L5R has a long history about gender representation questions, that some people thought Kachiko was over sexualised, or that Hitomi was not feminine enough and so on. So, why are so many trying to ruin those interesting and flavorful characters by pressing them into gender expectation boxes? How about we enjoy the diversity the setting offers instead?

I agree. I have no issue at all with diversity in the game. In fact, I welcome it. This was simply a question on if anyone knew of a back-story behind this person, because they seemed to be intentionally different than similar cards. It seems some people understood that and others didn't. Maybe it wasn't clear enough.

16 hours ago, BCumming said:

I'm not betting against the person who determines the content of their podcast.

I do, but I don't generally 'rant' about a single post (I don't generally 'rant' much at all, these days). And, unlike the Kachiko x Hotaru thing (which I did rant* about), this is basically just the one post and didn't drag anyone from FFG in. Bringing it up on the podcast wouldn't be so much about one post on the internet being worth ranting about, but about using that one post as a springboard to reiterate the notion that maybe we shouldn't analyze women (or depictions of women) primarily through the lens of whether they meet some standard of femininity and/or 'looking like a model.'

* I'm not sure that it actually qualifies as a "rant," but it's more entertaining to "rant" about something than to negatively comment on it, yes?

2 hours ago, Daramere said:

I do, but I don't generally 'rant' about a single post (I don't generally 'rant' much at all, these days). And, unlike the Kachiko x Hotaru thing (which I did rant* about), this is basically just the one post and didn't drag anyone from FFG in. Bringing it up on the podcast wouldn't be so much about one post on the internet being worth ranting about, but about using that one post as a springboard to reiterate the notion that maybe we shouldn't analyze women (or depictions of women) primarily through the lens of whether they meet some standard of femininity and/or 'looking like a model.'

* I'm not sure that it actually qualifies as a "rant," but it's more entertaining to "rant" about something than to negatively comment on it, yes?

You've clearly missed the point here. It's not analysing women through the lens of whether they look like a runway model or not. It's analysing why the art on a card is different than the art on similar cards. If you have an issue about the cards looking like they do, then that's an AEG or FFG issue and not pertinent to this specific thread.

1 - It's Japan Rokugan.

2 - Gender is weird.

9 hours ago, Daramere said:

I do, but I don't generally 'rant' about a single post (I don't generally 'rant' much at all, these days).

Actually Chris, it's seemed like you've had a "rant" of sorts in quite a few of the recent podcasts.

I don't mind a little "diversity" (I hate that word now) in the looks of my characters. Give me some "ugly" ones, some battle scarred, attractive, old, young, etc. It's much more realistic and fun.

7 hours ago, slowreflex said:

It's not analysing women through the lens of whether they look like a runway model or not. It's analysing why the art on a card is different than the art on similar cards.

"This courier looks particularly manly. Is there a story there? I mean, it's just that all the other females on cards I've seen so far for the game could be runway models. This card just doesn't fit with that theme for me. I'm not saying that all women need to look like models, just that this is a bit strange to me in this context."

You are apparently curious about there being people with different physical appearence ("this is not runway model!"). Which should not be a surprise at all. The surprise would be everybody looking like a top model (male or female). Or a supposedly battle hardened veteran with no scars and just looking fabulous. That would require a story.

1 minute ago, Wintersong said:

Or a supposedly battle hardened veteran with no scars and just looking fabulous. That would require a story.

He is just that good.

7 hours ago, slowreflex said:

It's analysing why the art on a card is different than the art on similar cards.

Different artists have different visual styles.

30 minutes ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

Actually Chris, it's seemed like you've had a "rant" of sorts in quite a few of the recent podcasts.

Yeah, but now it's a few minutes complaining about card design in Guilds of London, instead of half an hour every other episode complaining about [REDACTED]. That hardly feels like a rant.

14 minutes ago, Daramere said:

Yeah, but now it's a few minutes complaining about card design in Guilds of London, instead of half an hour every other episode complaining about [REDACTED]. That hardly feels like a rant.

Alright, alright. I'll let you have it. Lol

You are assuming, that Otomo Courtier is a manly looking woman and I am just sitting here asking myself:
- What if HE is a feminine man, who is trying his best to survive in the courts

- Does it really matter?

1 hour ago, Wintersong said:

"This courier looks particularly manly. Is there a story there? I mean, it's just that all the other females on cards I've seen so far for the game could be runway models. This card just doesn't fit with that theme for me. I'm not saying that all women need to look like models, just that this is a bit strange to me in this context."

You are apparently curious about there being people with different physical appearence ("this is not runway model!"). Which should not be a surprise at all. The surprise would be everybody looking like a top model (male or female). Or a supposedly battle hardened veteran with no scars and just looking fabulous. That would require a story.

But from what I've seen of the cards so far, that seems to be the case 99% of the time? I don't know all the old art, but I'm not seeing realistic art across the cards, hence the question in the first place.

2 hours ago, slowreflex said:

But from what I've seen of the cards so far, that seems to be the case 99% of the time? I don't know all the old art, but I'm not seeing realistic art across the cards, hence the question in the first place.

A fair point. I think the problem is that some are perceiving sexism on your part, real or imagined, intentional or unintentional, and are acting in response to that rather than the topic question at hand. It might have been better to frame your question in the manner of, "Why are all the girls in this game smokin' hot?" versus "Why is this one girl not hot?" TL;DR you probably should've stopped digging that hole when you said you would.

3 hours ago, Oliveira said:

He is just that good.

Or that cursed. Scars aren't bad. They are supposed to be awesome and desirable. Indeed, you could probably write a fun story about someone cursed to never be able to form a scar, and then having to live with the fact that they will never get the rep they deserve because a scarless child could never be a true XYZ, it must be a coincidence and they simply share a name. Or even worse, an impostor :P!

I mean it would be nice, in fantasy game art in general, to see more characters that look like normal people instead of just models. FFG has said that representation is something they're striving for in L5R, and they want to have plenty of people of both genders and of different ages so that everyone will have someone they can identify with. Hopefully they'll do the same for body-types, too.

15 minutes ago, Mandalore525 said:

I mean it would be nice, in fantasy game art in general, to see more characters that look like normal people instead of just models. FFG has said that representation is something they're striving for in L5R, and they want to have plenty of people of both genders and of different ages so that everyone will have someone they can identify with. Hopefully they'll do the same for body-types, too.

I'm curious what they plan to do with the Greatest Prize in Gaming in that regard, as some of us look decidedly gaijin and might not want to be standing next to a bunch of Rokugani and feeling like we're whitewashing the thing.

Well, they are reusing artwork. They happened to have this picture of a courtier.

Since it was a woman and not particularly attractive, just sort of... average looking middle aged (which means bad in a fantasy sense), they used the artwork for a neutral card because they didn't want to put an a less than super attractive woman on any of the 7 clan's artwork.

I would agree with the speculation that this was originally meant to be a particular Crane Clan man who dresses as a woman, but naturally-- they didn't want any of the Crane women not to look hot nor did they probably want to use the cross-dressing aspect to the character (it'd be difficult to explain given there is no where they can put such a story).

They could have tossed out the artwork entirely, I suppose, but they wanted to make an Otomo Courtier card and so they might as well use the art they already had than have something new produced.

2 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

Well, they are reusing artwork. They happened to have this picture of a courtier.

Since it was a woman and not particularly attractive, just sort of... average looking middle aged (which means bad in a fantasy sense), they used the artwork for a neutral card because they didn't want to put an a less than super attractive woman on any of the 7 clan's artwork.

I would agree with the speculation that this was originally meant to be a particular Crane Clan man who dresses as a woman, but naturally-- they didn't want any of the Crane women not to look hot nor did they probably want to use the cross-dressing aspect to the character (it'd be difficult to explain given there is no where they can put such a story).

They could have tossed out the artwork entirely, I suppose, but they wanted to make an Otomo Courtier card and so they might as well use the art they already had than have something new produced.

I do believe the original character was a woman in AEG.

3 hours ago, Builder2 said:

I'm curious what they plan to do with the Greatest Prize in Gaming in that regard, as some of us look decidedly gaijin and might not want to be standing next to a bunch of Rokugani and feeling like we're whitewashing the thing.

Does the winner of that get put on a card or something, like in Magic? In real-life history, there were a few notable cases of people from lands very far distant from Japan becoming Samurai, such as Yasuke (an African who served as one of Oda Nobunaga's Samurai), William Adams (an Englishman who became an adviser to Tokugawa Ieyasu) and Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn (a Dutchman who became a samurai and adviser to Tokugawa alongside Adams). With this real-life precedent, they could always say that a certain character does not look Rokugani because their mom or dad was a gaijin, but was such great warrior that the Hida or the Mirumoto or the whoever gave them a title and lands.

11 hours ago, ricefrisbeetreats said:

Give me some "ugly" ones, some battle scarred, attractive, old, young, etc. It's much more realistic and fun.

Play Crab we can get all of the above on one card.

I'm all in favor of seeing more strong-jawed/muscular/scarred/old/just plain ugly women in the artwork. The men range from bishounen pretty to "did the midwife think she was pulling an oni out?"; it gets boring as hell when all of the women are model-level gorgeous, because then the range of available "looks" is incredibly narrow.

8 hours ago, Builder2 said:

A fair point. I think the problem is that some are perceiving sexism on your part, real or imagined, intentional or unintentional, and are acting in response to that rather than the topic question at hand. It might have been better to frame your question in the manner of, "Why are all the girls in this game smokin' hot?" versus "Why is this one girl not hot?" TL;DR you probably should've stopped digging that hole when you said you would.

Yes, clearly I didn't write the OP correctly. There was no hint of me saying I preferred women to look like runway models though, but some people seem to have jumped to that conclusion. It was honestly just a question about lore for this specific character. The only question in the OP is "Is there a story there?". I suppose because I put in parts about not wanting to offend people and digging holes that that's why some people took it the wrong way. I used to play Netrunner and the World Champion got his face/torso put on a card. So, I was thinking, maybe the story is that someone won a Championship and said they wanted to be put on a card as a courtier. That is why I put the part about not wanting to offend anyone. I'm new to L5R and am not sure how the "altering the lore through winning" stuff worked. Below is the Netrunner example that I was referring to. Anyway, writing, and communication, is not my forte. Sorry for the confusion.

Which character was the art originally from, anyway? I don't recognize the piece.

3 minutes ago, Nagori-A-Go-Go said:

Which character was the art originally from, anyway? I don't recognize the piece.

Easier to post a link.