Apex Legends writers reveal how WWE & Catwoman inspired Loba\u2019s design Respawn Entertainment \/ WWEThe newest Apex Legends character, Loba, is an illustrious criminal whose reported inspirations range from the WWE and Bayonetta, to Shakira and Catwoman. While much of the response to Loba\u2019s reveal has centered around her unique abilities and brilliantly developed story, the comments and memes about her appearance have been inescapable. In one specific example, a Redditor, \u2018moe_baj\u2019 contrasted the seemingly genderless portrayal of Apex Legends\u2019 initial female characters with Loba\u2019s clear femininity and the community\u2019s response. With that in mind, it\u2019s worth exploring how Respawn Entertainment\u2019s writers explain the shift in appearance and attitude, with a focus on the variety of sources that inspired Loba\u2019s design. As explained by writers Tom Casiello and Ashley Reed, Loba was first pitched by Casiello and finalized by Reed, with input from the office\u2019s women throughout. Initially, Casiello called upon his experience writing for the WWE\u2019s female superstars for early conceptualizations. While with the WWE, female superstars told Casiello that \u201cwhile they wanted to be equal, on equal footing as men, we shouldn\u2019t write them like men. Because they\u2019re still women.\u201d While the treatment of female characters as one-dimensional eye candy is a typical trope in gaming, Apex\u2019s women are storied soldiers, all the way on the opposite end of the spectrum. Although Casiello was fond of those characters, his chief push to create Loba was the realization that \u201cthere was just a complete erasure of s*xuality and \u2026 that\u2019s almost as s*xist as doing all s*xuality, and so I really wanted to introduce a female character who kind of owned her s*xuality and kind of owned who she is and liked to look good when she wakes up in the morning.\u201d In order to ensure that this inspiration, drawn from the sentiment of WWE\u2019s finest, was not misguided\u2014Casiello first pitched the character to all of the office\u2019s women: \u201cWe were heavily involved with all the women in the office, trying to make this realistic and not the typical female video game character.\u201d In a specific example, before Reed took over Loba\u2019s development, Casiello cites producer Tina Sanchez as instrumental to the character\u2019s creation, Tweeting that she was \u201cnot only part of the first Loba pitch, but was instrumental and vital to her look, her style, her personality and her story.\u201d Upon Reed\u2019s involvement, Loba\u2019s feminine, empowered and three-dimensional character became even further developed. From the beginning, Reed explained that she \u201cwas really excited \u2026 because it was a character I, in some ways, identified with.\u201d \u201cFor inspiration \u2026 I probably watched that Shakira \u201cShe Wolf\u201d video 100 times, just had it on in the background. \u2026 For video games, I thought about Bayonetta \u2026 widely beloved in my experience. She is definitely a very sensual lady, but she\u2019s also very much herself. You can see why that character is the way she is, so she\u2019s a complete person.\u201d Coquettish, seductive and, most importantly, an entirely self-owned boss. Whether the inspiration comes from a Colombian singer or an Umbran witch, it\u2019s clear that Loba\u2019s femininity is her own and not simply the skimpy attire of a classic RPG babe. As for the moment at which Casiello knew Reed had mastered the character he hoped to create, it came when she described Loba as Catwoman, but \u201cif Catwoman had Bruce Wayne\u2019s checking account.\u201d \u201cYou should smile more.\u201d *headshot* Clear front-runner for all-time favorite interaction in a video game https:\/\/t.co\/YVU5aCoHqm \u2014 Sam Maggs (@SamMaggs) May 8, 2020 Ultimately, Loba may be perceived as eye candy. But that\u2019s a character decision, not a visual one. The best example of her self-reflective turn on traditional tropes is her voiceline heard during the Season 5 trailer, in which she tells Revenant \u201cyou should smile more\u201d before putting a barrell to his dome. Flipping one of the most notorious, misogynistic lines is peak Loba energy and a testament to her influences. Reed commented that \u201cevery single woman who heard that line during production smiled or laughed\u201d and Sanchez noted that she was \u201cglad the guys trusted the ladies on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apex Legends writers reveal how WWE & Catwoman inspired Loba\u2019s design Respawn Entertainment \/ WWEThe newest Apex Legends character, Loba, is an illustrious criminal whose reported inspirations range from the WWE and Bayonetta, to Shakira and Catwoman. While much of the response to Loba\u2019s reveal has centered around her unique abilities and brilliantly developed story, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}