Week 3: “Female sprites…[are]… trophies for the active, typically “male” sprites.”

Robert Mejia and Barbara LeSavoy discuss how in the Atari 2600 “gender and sexuality emerged from character interaction as opposed to representation” (87). While the female characters in Kingdom Hearts are not only “female” in their physical representations (I have yet to encounter a human female character who does not wear a dress or skirt), they are also very much “female” in their interactions with Sora. Just as Laura Mulvey argues that “’the presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a storyline, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation,’” this is very much evident in Kingdom Hearts. The “passive” female sprites only appear right before and immediately following the action/fight sequences in the game; in a sense, they “freeze the flow of action.” Sora’s primary interaction with these female characters occurs during non-interactive, passive cut-scenes, where these characters only talk to Sora to inform him of his purpose and further the storyline by telling him the tasks he needs to complete. It becomes apparent that most, if not all, of Kingdom Heart’s female sprites were created with the intention of serving Sora as “guiding lights” (for lack of a better term) when Sora first encounters Leon and Yuffie from the Final Fantasy franchise, but only battles Leon — even though Yuffie is referred to as the “Great Ninja Yuffie”. She even runs away (Leon tells her to leave) right before the battle between Sora and the Heartless commences (even though she is literally a ninja). The female characters in Kingdom Hearts signify both safety and/or that trouble is nearby — the Heartless and other NPCs do not attack Sora and his party when there is a female character present, unless the female character is the one in trouble and Sora and company were sent to rescue her (i.e. Kairi and Kala). The male sprites, on the other hand, are quite active and are (so far) capable of joining Sora’s party and battling the Heartless alongside him. Why aren’t the female characters capable of doing the same?