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Don’t Leave Me 

Angela Washko

2011-2012

Video

“Don’t leave me!” is a phrase frequently cried out by female characters in the role-playing video games I played religiously throughout my childhood. The scenes depicted in Don’t Leave Me are moments from role playing video games I grew up with- including Final Fantasy (2, 3, 6, 7, and 8), Metal Gear Solid, Valkyrie Profile, and Chrono Trigger deconstructed from a developing feminist’s perspective.

Recently I began realizing that my expectations for a romantic partner that will jump in front of a sword for me and be my over-bearing protector and savior are more than a bit unrealistic, and that these demands have been formed as a result of over a decade spent playing video games in which such storylines are heavily prevalent. Female characters in these games are frequently collapsing, dying, running scared, afraid of being alone, and always in trouble. Male characters who exhibit these traits within the same games either do not exist or are portrayed as effeminate and possibly homosexual. The existence of these not-so-subtle anti-feminist plots reinforce negative gender-based stereotypes and turn women (like me) into emotionally draining, depressed, needy people. The way the deaths of these women in games are romanticized furthers the archetype of woman as simultaneously a helpless creature doomed from the start and a martyr or saint. Broadening the spectrum of human sexuality will continue to be an uphill battle if mainstream games continue to institute such black and white binaries.