Houtu and Coatlicue make Gaia's redesign look even worse

[connorjl]

We now have two pantheons with perfectly normal-looking mother earth goddesses, and then there’s Gaia looking like a lonely Marvel fan’s deleted browser history.

As if she didn’t already look like hot garbage in the context of her own pantheon. The whole conceit behind Retold’s art direction for the Atlantean gods was to move away from the pop fantasy aesthetic toward a more classical style, so why was Gaia the exception? It’s a bizarre choice. Even if you enable the legacy portraits pack, her statue is there looking like nothing an ancient civilization would ever sculpt and pray to.

[ぐる.しい_くる.しい]

I am Groot. - Gaia, probably.

[fpod]

I think the point is we already have so many normal human looking gods. Making her unique seems more interesting to me, though I am not sure why they tried to make her a tree and also hot. Just a tree would have been fine.

[connorjl]

Why is she a tree at all? She’s mother earth, not mother tree? And her design is not “unique.” It’s just Groot with tits.

[ChippyLaMonk]

Anyone ever wonder why people whine about gaias design so much but never kronos? It’s almost always reactionary screaming too, never just a normal expression of disagreement.

My money is on it being a form of misogyny. They can’t accept a feminine vaguely humanoid earth creature but are fine with a masculine vaguely humanoid earth creature.

[connorjl]

Oh stfu. Kronos has been monstrous-looking since the 2002 release, and he looks more human-like in Retold. Gaia’s appearance was deliberately changed from her original human appearance to an ugly tree monster which makes no sense lore-wise (she’s mother earth not mother tree), and is very obviously influenced by the MCU’s Groot. It’s mega cringe and no one should have to “accept” it. A lot of people are sick to death of the MCU poisoning everything like a cancer, and it’s especially insulting when it’s an existing character who has had an iconic in-game appearance for over 20 years.

I would actually have had no problem with a more elemental Gaia design if she looked something like Te Fiti from Moana or Poison Ivy or even just more traditional depictions of mother nature. Not fucking Groot. Anything but Groot.

[fpod]

I feel like trees were around before groot. Like ents from lord of the rings have the same style.

[connorjl]

Wow, yeah they were. You’re very clever. Have a cookie. But there are two problems: first, Gaia is Mother Earth, not Mother Tree. Second, look at her face. That is very specifically Groot’s face. Not an ent’s or even an in-game dryad’s. G R O O T

[ChippyLaMonk]

But have you considered the chance that the devs put no more thought in gaias design than OP did? Anything with a plant on it is groot and the earth has no plants on it so the personification of earth having plants was caused by evil marvel? It’s pretty simple tbh.

[connorjl]

Way to move the goalposts. She doesn’t “have plants on her.” The original Gaia design had plants on her. Retold Gaia is a walking tree with a conspicuously similar design to another walking tree from a certain popular film franchise.

It’s completely disingenuous to deny the obvious Marvel influence. You would have made it big on 2014 tumblr the way you deliberately misread clearly articulated statements for internet culture war gotchas.

[ChippyLaMonk]

Way to not know what moving the goalposts means or read a previous comment. We’re making fun of you for insisting that anything covered in plants is groot and not the most direct and simplest way to depict a mother earth character. Do you honestly believe that a rock person covered in plants to personify the earth is such a novel idea that it could only be made once and everyone else must be copying it? FFS, did god of war 2 copy marvel?

Did people make fun of you online in 2014 and you’re still stuck in that moment? Please learn to move on from your past.

[connorjl]

You really shouldn’t be pointing fingers at anyone for not reading your comments when you apparently haven’t read a single word I have typed.

Allow me to break this down into bite-sized pieces hopefully even you can understand:

1. I have never at any point stated or even implied that “anything covered in plants is Groot” and you know it. That would be an absurd thing to say, and it is an absurd way of interpreting anything I have said, especially given that the original Gaia design was also “covered in plants”, as are the other characters I listed as examples of this archetype done right. This is a perfect example of how you are willfully disinterpreting everything I say and, yes, moving the goalposts.

2. I compare her to Groot because she looks like Groot and you know it. I’m not going to waste time explaining something you already know. See point number 1, above.

3. “a rock person covered in plants” is not what we are discussing. We are discussing Retold’s version of Gaia which we have established is an anthropomorphic tree. At this point, you are straight up lying to my face about what I said to make my opinion look more absurd than it is, and I’m not sure who you think you’re fooling.

4. No, God of War 2 did not copy Marvel and you know it, as you know I know it. God of War 2’s Gaia was based on the Venus of Willendorf, one of the oldest known mother goddesses, and she did not in any conceivable way, shape or form resemble Groot. For one thing, she was an earth elemental with trees growing on her, not an anthropomorphic tree. For another, she had a human face, not a nose-less Groot face. If Retold’s Gaia looked more like this, I never would have made this thread and I wouldn’t be having this inane conversation with someone I am beginning to strongly suspect is a child. At least I hope you’re a child.

5. I bring up 2014 tumblr, because that’s where your reading level seems to have been frozen. It’s anachronistic, frankly. Like I’m talking to a primitive man thawed from a glacier, though I admittedly feel a little bad about insulting our prehistoric ancestors with such a comparison.

[Armilus]

I was a defender of the Gaia redesign.
Keyword being was.

That was before I saw Oranos and the minor gods, other than Oceanus. Back then I thought that since Kronos looked monstrous in the original, they adapted the titans, or rather, the “Atlantean Gods” as monstrous, in order to give the Atlanteans a distinct identity. Keeping Kronos’s monstrous apprearence that’s not accurate to mythology, and making his mom look like that as well, but with a theme fitting her domain.
And I was in support of a redesign like that. I thought it was a step in the right direction.

And then, Gaia remained the only one to recieve such a makeover. Not even Prometheus got a portrait matching his titan-form.
Since then, I’m like WTF were they thinking? Why did they do this? I genuinely can’t see the logic behind it.
Had Oranos been a primordial being made out of clouds and stars, and Prometheus looked like the Prometheus Titan, and so on with all the “Atlantean” Gods… Tree-Like Gaia would have absolutely made sense.
But like that… It looks odd and out of place.

[connorjl]

And even if that was the intent, the creepy nose-less face is what pushes it into obvious Groot ripoff territory. They GAVE Kronos a nose but Gaia can’t have one?

Oceanus and Theia’s redesigns are also crap. Thank the gods for legacy portraits.

[ChippyLaMonk]

I have never at any point stated or even implied that “anything covered in plants is Groot”

This is the only reason you provided up to this point. Later on you bring up the lack of a distinct nose, a very unique trait to groot that must have inspired the design of gaia in retold and the dryads in 2003.

especially given that the original Gaia design was also “covered in plants”,

Dishonest comparison. The covered in plants of retold gaia and GoW gaia (plants growing out of them everywhere) is distinctly different than the “covered in plants” of original gaia and poison Ivy (green bikini, trust me bro they’re plants). Your comparison is so broad that it’s meaningless.

“a rock person covered in plants” is not what we are discussing

Hey look at the character that statement directly lead into, https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/godofwar/images/b/bb/Gow2-gaia.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080308184943. You might notice that it’s the most “rock person covered in plants” that ever existed. Let’s move onto your next point where you continue to discuss this rock person covered plants. lol.

God of War 2’s Gaia was based on the Venus of Willendorf

Mr reading comprehension here went to the fandom wiki and misread the part where it referenced the Venus of Willendorf. GoW gaia is based on the Venus of Willendorf IN TERMS OF HER FIGURE, nothing to do with being covered in plants. This doesn’t support your point at all and just serves to show that you couldn’t properly read the single sentence that references it. You didn’t even google what the Venus of Willendorf was before posting lmao.

I bring up 2014 tumblr blah blah blah

Your projection aside, I’m glad you’re obsessed with tumblr because it brings us nicely to my original point: themes of your misogyny.

Why Tumblr specifically? If your goal is to accuse someone of wild misinterpretation or lies then twitter would be the obvious choice, the site is built to encourage it. The qualities that make tumblr posts distinct from other socials would be referencing previous lolcows without much context or incredibly niche special interests (AKA shameless autism). If you’re curious, posts that are longwinded while adding nothing, have bare minimum googling to be contrarian, and show a strong desperation that the poster look smart would be exemplified by Reddit. Just an unrelated example.

So again, why Tumblr? I’ll be the first to admit that correlation doesn’t mean causation but if you spend enough time online you start noticing some trends with people who never stop complaining about tumblr despite never using it. Chief among them, generally sexist attitudes. Your giant double standard between kronos and gaia are of course more evident of that, but your love hate relationship with tumblr is a nice cherry on top.

Anywhoosle, I feel bad that everything you said was wrong so I’ll make a tumblr-esque comment that you can (now correctly) compare to tumblr: do your 3 girlfriends also play as gaia?

(PS, that was from 2015, not 2014. Make sure to adjust your insults accordingly )

[ChippyLaMonk]

I also think that a more monstrous or primordial design would be great if it was made a theme of the atlanteans vs the greek. A shame they didn’t go all the way.

Another great candidate could be Atlas. There are myths of perseus turning atlas to stone with the head of medusa, so a petrified atlas taking the form of a great mountain or rocky cliff face could make an excellent portrait. Kinda like this classic picture, but more epic. (from Ovid’s Metamorphoses)

Leto might be a bit harder to make a portrait for. She might need to be Sobek-ed.

[connorjl]

Bruh, what the fuck are you even saying anymore?

This is the only reason you provided up to this point. Later on you bring up the lack of a distinct nose, a very unique trait to groot that must have inspired the design of gaia in retold and the dryads in 2003.

I gave multiple reasons in this thread and that was not one of them. Also, the dryads have noses. Retold Gaia is obviously inspired by Groot. Everybody knows this. You are being deliberately obtuse at this point.

Dishonest comparison. The covered in plants of retold gaia and GoW gaia (plants growing out of them everywhere) is distinctly different than the “covered in plants” of original gaia and poison Ivy (green bikini, trust me bro they’re plants). Your comparison is so broad that it’s meaningless.

Okay. Who cares? The point is you made a dishonest statement that was undermined by the very premise of this post.

Hey look at the character that statement directly lead into, https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/godofwar/images/b/bb/Gow2-gaia.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080308184943. You might notice that it’s the most “rock person covered in plants” that ever existed. Let’s move onto your next point where you continue to discuss this rock person covered plants. lol.

A character you brought up to make a point. This post is not about her. It’s about Retold’s Gaia, who is an anthropomorphoc tree.

Mr reading comprehension here went to the fandom wiki and misread the part where it referenced the Venus of Willendorf. GoW gaia is based on the Venus of Willendorf IN TERMS OF HER FIGURE, nothing to do with being covered in plants. This doesn’t support your point at all and just serves to show that you couldn’t properly read the single sentence that references it. You didn’t even google what the Venus of Willendorf was before posting lmao.

Don’t tell me I don’t know what the Venus of Willendorf is, you little sod. I already knew that’s what she was based on without having to read the wiki page. I never said it had anything to do with her being covered in plants. I brought it up to answer your assinine rhetorical question of whether or not she was copying Marvel.

I’m not going to quote your multiple paragraph incoherent spew concerning tumblr but suffice to say, I am autistic myself, I do use tumblr and while I don’t have 3 girlfriends, weed-smoking or otherwise, my one girlfriend does play Gaia and she was as appalled as I am by her grootification.

[Armilus]

What do you think?

[EverybodysFoo1]

i really like them but you know this already. i like the more primordial design. and i think “groot” gaia comes closer to this than “sandman” oranus. i personally would agree that gaia gets an overhaul if oranus and kronos get one too cause i think despite being “groot” gaias design is still the best of those three in my opinion.

[Akleoni]

Ouranos would look better with more “Cloudy” and less “Rocky” design in my opinion in the body itself.