She's rather frumpier than I imagined from the book considering generations of knights have been dying, literally, to please her.
Guess not every plane is populated by the likes of Teysa, Judith and Emmara.
I haven't read the book, but I would imagine she has more value than just how she looks.
She is the lady of courtly love reference, she should be the most pre-raphaelite being in Magic history regardless of her other many features.
If we're going to completely ignore the fact that this is a fantasy setting, don't you think it would be a bit anachronistic to project modern standards of beauty (id est, your definition of 'frumpy') onto 16th or 19th century art? Or maybe we can pretend that the artist commissioned for this particular card was learning more towards the spiritual facets of courtly love rather than its carnal elements.
Yeah let's follow the references until they don't fit in with CURRENT YEAR political agendas. A glamer-casting witch playing the damsel in distress to recover her trinket (the grail expy) is much better with a nose fit for a hieroglyphics figure and eyes nearly swollen shut than those problematic modern beauty standards because girls prettier than me are photoshopped dolls who don't exist in real life/s
I mean if we were really trying to be accurate, everything would be about birth. A person's quality isn't about how strong, or smart, or talented, or good-looking they are, but just about their lineage.
If you are of the yeoman class, nobody cares how great you are. You are a base villain of the vulgar masses, and have no right to speak in the presence of your betters unless so bidden. And yeoman isn't the lowest class. Being a mere woman of decent birth automatically makes you worth twenty such knaves. More.
Yeah let's follow the references until they don't fit in with CURRENT YEAR political agendas. A glamer-casting witch playing the damsel in distress to recover her trinket (the grail expy) is much better with a nose fit for a hieroglyphics figure and eyes nearly swollen shut than those problematic modern beauty standards because girls prettier than me are photoshopped dolls who don't exist in real life/s
Each card spoiled thus far has been a clever allusion to European folklore, not a 1:1 translation. Why does it have to be an agenda, instead of simply accepting that the cards are going to diverge from their real-life inspirations at some point?
Yeah let's follow the references until they don't fit in with CURRENT YEAR political agendas. A glamer-casting witch playing the damsel in distress to recover her trinket (the grail expy) is much better with a nose fit for a hieroglyphics figure and eyes nearly swollen shut than those problematic modern beauty standards because girls prettier than me are photoshopped dolls who don't exist in real life/s
Each card spoiled thus far has been a clever allusion to European folklore, not a 1:1 translation. Why does it have to be an agenda, instead of simply accepting that the cards are going to diverge from their real-life inspirations at some point?
The fairy tale flavor is almost 1:1, actually 1:1 in things like Beast and the Golden Eggs Goose. It's the arthurian stuff that's getting subverted.
Well, unfortunately WoTC is based out of one of the most liberal cities in the country. I’ve been playing for 20 years and I’ve seen quite an agenda being pushed. I’ll try to quote examples as far back as I can in sets.
They had Alesha the transgender warrior.
Chandra is bisexual now (with nissa?)
Ral zarek is gay now with a forbidden love story.
Black elf in core set 2020
All the planeswalkers are either female or oppressed.
Oko is Highly sexualized for some reason.
Mostly female knights in Eldraine which never happened in European folk lore.
Killed off all the strong white male characters (Domri, Dack, and gideon) to be replaced by crappy ones. Kaya, Chandra, and Vivien are Muh strong female lead, and feel extremely pushed on us.
Im sure I can find more examples but it’s not worth it to me.
I’m a liberal and believe everyone has a right to their opinion but they’re sure as hell pushing a political agenda through cards.
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Mod - Ignoring a Moderator Request
Yeah let's follow the references until they don't fit in with CURRENT YEAR political agendas. A glamer-casting witch playing the damsel in distress to recover her trinket (the grail expy) is much better with a nose fit for a hieroglyphics figure and eyes nearly swollen shut than those problematic modern beauty standards because girls prettier than me are photoshopped dolls who don't exist in real life/s
Each card spoiled thus far has been a clever allusion to European folklore, not a 1:1 translation. Why does it have to be an agenda, instead of simply accepting that the cards are going to diverge from their real-life inspirations at some point?
The fairy tale flavor is almost 1:1, actually 1:1 in things like Beast and the Golden Eggs Goose. It's the arthurian stuff that's getting subverted.
I disagree. The fact that they are easily identifiable tropes does not make them 1:1 translations, and where they are translated they are obviously adjusted to better suit the needs of the setting. I would ask why Robin Hood is red, and not legendary, but people are already doing that for me. The answer is simple: because this is a fantasy card game, not reality.
Is she intended to be akin to the Queen of Air and Darkness, i.e Morgause of T.H. White's Once and Future King iteration of Arthurian lore?
Morgause is Queen in Arthurian legendsm wife of Uther Pendragon, and mother to Agravain, Clarissant, Gaheris, Gareth, Gawain, Mordred, and Soredamor, from way back in the 13th century. Could represent her, could represent Morgan le Fay (one of Morgause's sisters, mind you, Morgan was a largely benevolent individual in the old Arthurian myths, and ally and protector of Arthur, who was a powerful healer that saved Arthur's life, then evolved into a stark duality figure capable of both profound good and uncaring evil).
So my guess is Ayara is the modern mixture of Morgause and Morgan.
Is she intended to be akin to the Queen of Air and Darkness, i.e Morgause of T.H. White's Once and Future King iteration of Arthurian lore?
Morgause is Queen in Arthurian legendsm wife of Uther Pendragon, and mother to Agravain, Clarissant, Gaheris, Gareth, Gawain, Mordred, and Soredamor, from way back in the 13th century. Could represent her, could represent Morgan le Fay (one of Morgause's sisters, mind you, Morgan was a largely benevolent individual in the old Arthurian myths, and ally and protector of Arthur, who was a powerful healer that saved Arthur's life, then evolved into a stark duality figure capable of both profound good and uncaring evil).
So my guess is Ayara is the modern mixture of Morgause and Morgan.
She actually doesn't closely or even partially mimic any arthurian character, she's a minor character who advocated for unity between elves and humans and ended up as lady of the black court. She's also not antagonistic, but she does have a very dangerous quest in seeking her eternity cauldron, and doesn't mind sending her seemingly endless smitten suitors on such a quest. She represents the concepts of the enthrancing sorceress and the damsel in distress of courtly love rather than a figure of Camelot.
She is meant to be beautiful, and as someone who is not below average and thus doesn't feel the pangs of jealousy at the sight of the aesthetically privileged, I'm upset that she looks like Dewey Wilkerson in an ugly dress.
I'm sorry you feel that pretty women are underrepresented in fantasy genres.
Again, I haven't read the novel, so I'm on shaky ground here, but - do we know how old she's supposed to be? Is it possible that her art is depicting just one solitary moment in the entire span of her lifetime, possibly in her older years? Is it possible that, in the years leading up to the moment of her depiction in the card, she was as beautiful as you insist she must be to match the narrative within your mind?
Medieval fashion was quite a bit different from ours today. I see a lot of inspiration from various points of medieval fashion in the art style of this piece, from the large shoulders on the dress, the tight fitted top, a corset-looking addition, and a looser more flowing bottom part to the dress. Even the hat and veil fit in well. I think the artist did a pretty good job pulling together inspiration from various styles of courtly dress, and tying them together in a dark and sinister vibe that befits the card and colors.
Why're people saying she's ugly? She's wearing an ugly dress, there's a difference. It's also highly fashionable on Eldraine, I'll have you know.
You can only see her face, and you can barely see that. What, are the 2 milimeters you can see of Judith, the Scourge Diva's face really so much sexier than the 4 milimeters you can see of Ayara's? You guys must have impeccable eyes.
I'm sorry you feel that pretty women are underrepresented in fantasy genres.
Again, I haven't read the novel, so I'm on shaky ground here, but - do we know how old she's supposed to be? Is it possible that her art is depicting just one solitary moment in the entire span of her lifetime, possibly in her older years? Is it possible that, in the years leading up to the moment of her depiction in the card, she was as beautiful as you insist she must be to match the narrative within your mind?
She's an elf.
You're going way out of your way to justify Dulcinea incarnate not being pretty. If not her, who?
Action women have been largely and understandably desexualized, and even seductress type characters are avoided and those we have to keep around like Liliana keep getting covered up further and posed in less glamorizing scenes than they used to. You may celebrate the abortion of harmless stereotypes if you must, but when the exemplar vessel of courtly love chivalry is not allowed to be beautiful ***** has gone too far.
She's an elf.
You're going way out of your way to justify Dulcinea incarnate not being pretty. If not her, who?
Action women have been largely and understandably desexualized, and even seductress type characters are avoided and those we have to keep around like Liliana keep getting covered up further and posed in less glamorizing scenes than they used to. You may celebrate the abortion of harmless stereotypes if you must, but when the exemplar vessel of courtly love chivalry is not allowed to be beautiful ***** has gone too far.
I'm sorry you feel that pretty women are underrepresented in fantasy genres.
Again, I haven't read the novel, so I'm on shaky ground here, but - do we know how old she's supposed to be? Is it possible that her art is depicting just one solitary moment in the entire span of her lifetime, possibly in her older years? Is it possible that, in the years leading up to the moment of her depiction in the card, she was as beautiful as you insist she must be to match the narrative within your mind?
She's an elf.
You're going way out of your way to justify Dulcinea incarnate not being pretty. If not her, who?
Action women have been largely and understandably desexualized, and even seductress type characters are avoided and those we have to keep around like Liliana keep getting covered up further and posed in less glamorizing scenes than they used to. You may celebrate the abortion of harmless stereotypes if you must, but when the exemplar vessel of courtly love chivalry is not allowed to be beautiful ***** has gone too far.
She's not ugly though. She's not sixteen (like most people we hold up as the exemplars of beauty in our culture) but if you zoom in as far as it will go... she isn't ugly. She's just not. I think you're just responding to her fashion sense, not to her face, which again, we can't see very well even as far in as it will allow us to go at this resolution. Her face is attractive, and under that wool and steel dress, there's no reason to believe she doesn't have all the right curves in all the right places.
And in response to your question of "if not her, who": Trapped in the Tower. She won't be 18 for a few years, but she is every bit the standard that our culture says is perfect beauty.
Medieval fashion was quite a bit different from ours today. I see a lot of inspiration from various points of medieval fashion in the art style of this piece, from the large shoulders on the dress, the tight fitted top, a corset-looking addition, and a looser more flowing bottom part to the dress. Even the hat and veil fit in well. I think the artist did a pretty good job pulling together inspiration from various styles of courtly dress, and tying them together in a dark and sinister vibe that befits the card and colors.
Not to mention, what's considered to be sufficiently alluring and revealing differs not only from society to society, but from social class to social class within a society. In some societies, expensive, elegant clothing that hides a lot but leave just hints of where a person't curves and angles are is considered much more alluring than something revealing far more skin. Such clothing would never be considered "frumpy" by those societal standards. Frumpy means clothing that is out of date and generally very banal in appearance for the culture it is appearing in. In other cultures, the wealthier you are, the more you're allowed to walk around with very little to nothing at all on, as a sign of your status. Literally so, where a poor person could be arrested or worse for wearing little to nothing, while a very wealthy person is allowed to walk around naked as a status symbol. And everything in between also occurs. It's terribly nuanced.
But yes, for a medieval style culture like Eldraine has, clothing that covers you up a great deal, including veiling part of your face, while revealing just hints of where curves are and things like lips being highlighted by veils or the like, is often considered FAR more alluring for a seductress than wearing something revealing. Only the peasantry wears such revealing clothing or so few layers of clothing in many such societies. The wealthier you were, the more layers of and complexity of undergarments and overgarments you could afford to wear. So wearing something that covers you up entirely while showing off your wealth and status would be highly seductive indeed, and the lower classes would emulate those looks as best as they could afford to whenever possible.
In fact, a lot of details on Araya's clothes match late medieval high nobility dress. That hat? Hell, yes. The form-fitting upper body clothing, but with extra layers of detail on the corset/girdle? Yep, only the very upper classes were even ALLOWED to wear metal or jeweled girdles and the like; even low-upper class people were forbidden to do so. The much larger, exaggerated shoulders? Yep, a whole lot of late medieval high fashion for woman has large amounts of extra material bunched around the shoulders rather that fitting the form of the shoulders snugly. The veil? Yep, the Church basically required by law that women wear veils, but the wealthier you were, the more sheer the veil as you could afford the richest of materials that allowed such veils. And those styles of hat were designed with the veils in mind.
This whole outfit screams cutting edge medieval upper class. The exact opposite of frumpy. This would be considered extremely appealing in upper class society.
Not to mention, physical beauty standards are subjective and related to the culture they come from, as well. What we consider traditionally beautiful today is not what every culture considered the same, or even what OUR OWN CULTURE considered beautiful mere decades ago. At all. We have no idea what is considered stunningly attractive in Eldraine society.
Think Rubenesque women being considered a sign of being wealthy, healthy, and beautiful. Why? Because it meant they had sufficient means and luxury, and that was a highly physically attractive trait. Ancient Greece, the Italian Renaissance, and Victorian England are times and places where the ideal beauty standards of the time explicitly list features such as a heavily rounded belly, prominent rounded hips, etc, were flat-out considered very beautiful. The roaring 20s in the United States were the opposite, where a flat chest, boyish figure, short hair, and androgyny in general, was considered the most beautiful of "ideal" look for a woman amongst many.
Same with things like, oh, noses and eyes. In many times and cultures, having a larger and/or sharper nose was a sign of beauty. Especially if that nose type was prominent amongst the nobility but not the common folk. Same with various shapes or types of eyes. Even some terms used indicate these preferences. Handsome women, for example. When that term was in use a lot, the term "handsome" meant sharp-featured. Literally sharp-featured. As in, sharp, angular nose and jawline, etc. A handsome woman was strikingly beautiful BECAUSE of her sharp, angular features.
There is no one-size-fits-all objective standard.
Modern beauty standards are just that: modern. They hardly represent anything resembling what even a handful of decades ago differed in beauty standards. I am quite certain there are many times, places, cultures, and people, who would and do find someone who looks like this art of Ayara to be stunningly attractive. It's most assuredly not even close to objective that she's anything approaching unattractive. And it's not even close to close that what she's wearing would be considered unsexy by the upper class in particular. Very, very, very much the contrary, what she's wearing has a whole helluva lot in common with middle to late medieval upper class standards that would be considered cutting edge, would dominate within the courts and ballrooms, and so on.
Again, she looks like Dewey Wilkernson in a dress. Her eyes are nearly swollen shut she has a na`vi style t-zone. Her complexion is not aided by the zombie purple skintone and while I'm willing to forgive this because Magic is anything but consistent, the art is way too grim for a character who's up there with the likes of Yahenni as a selfish but not malignant mono-black character.
Yes the few pixels we see of Judith are much more beautiful, endearing and attractive. She is a celebrity, her pose and outfit show she knows it. Her expression is of unhinged exitement which ironically gives her impish appeal, and still her features are harmonic and accentuated further with make up. We also have access to art of both ladies at high resolution thanks to this wonderful thing called google.
When I read abour Ayara I pictured a modestly dressed Akroma. Not the child of Tilda Swinton on cheek botox.
I'm curious if this theme of 'death by a thousand cuts' is going to become normal for black creatures? It seems like pinging via multiple triggers is becoming more and more...obvious.
I'm sorry you feel that pretty women are underrepresented in fantasy genres.
Again, I haven't read the novel, so I'm on shaky ground here, but - do we know how old she's supposed to be? Is it possible that her art is depicting just one solitary moment in the entire span of her lifetime, possibly in her older years? Is it possible that, in the years leading up to the moment of her depiction in the card, she was as beautiful as you insist she must be to match the narrative within your mind?
She's an elf.
You're going way out of your way to justify Dulcinea incarnate not being pretty. If not her, who?
Action women have been largely and understandably desexualized, and even seductress type characters are avoided and those we have to keep around like Liliana keep getting covered up further and posed in less glamorizing scenes than they used to. You may celebrate the abortion of harmless stereotypes if you must, but when the exemplar vessel of courtly love chivalry is not allowed to be beautiful ***** has gone too far.
A stereotype that has not harmed you does not make a given stereotype inherently harmless, but I'm not convinced our conversation need digress that far. For someone so quick to perceive an agenda, you're awfully keen on perpetuating one yourself. The lady doth protest too much, eh Gertrude?
Really though, let's not make this about you. There are various and sundry ways to explain the art, any one of which could or should be acceptable. The fact that such explanations - which permeate this thread, by the way, and originate with posters aside from myself - don't meet with your pre-conceived notions of classical beauty doesn't make them any less viable.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Aside from artwork and subtypes, what an uninteresting legendary. And I say this mostly because it feels like the thousandth iteration on the same mechanical themes like she came off a conveyor belt.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Warriors, torch-bearers, come redeem our dreams
Shine a light upon this night of otherworldly fiends
Odin's might be your guide, divorce you from the sane
Hammer's way will have its say, rise up in their name
Scratching hag, you rake your claws, gnash your crooked teeth
You've taken slaves like ocean waves, now feel the ocean seethe
- Children of the Elder Gods by Poets of the Fall
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---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
If you are of the yeoman class, nobody cares how great you are. You are a base villain of the vulgar masses, and have no right to speak in the presence of your betters unless so bidden. And yeoman isn't the lowest class. Being a mere woman of decent birth automatically makes you worth twenty such knaves. More.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Each card spoiled thus far has been a clever allusion to European folklore, not a 1:1 translation. Why does it have to be an agenda, instead of simply accepting that the cards are going to diverge from their real-life inspirations at some point?
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
Mono legends that’s care about their color
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
They had Alesha the transgender warrior.
Chandra is bisexual now (with nissa?)
Ral zarek is gay now with a forbidden love story.
Black elf in core set 2020
All the planeswalkers are either female or oppressed.
Oko is Highly sexualized for some reason.
Mostly female knights in Eldraine which never happened in European folk lore.
Killed off all the strong white male characters (Domri, Dack, and gideon) to be replaced by crappy ones. Kaya, Chandra, and Vivien are Muh strong female lead, and feel extremely pushed on us.
Im sure I can find more examples but it’s not worth it to me.
I’m a liberal and believe everyone has a right to their opinion but they’re sure as hell pushing a political agenda through cards.
I disagree. The fact that they are easily identifiable tropes does not make them 1:1 translations, and where they are translated they are obviously adjusted to better suit the needs of the setting. I would ask why Robin Hood is red, and not legendary, but people are already doing that for me. The answer is simple: because this is a fantasy card game, not reality.
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
Morgause is Queen in Arthurian legendsm wife of Uther Pendragon, and mother to Agravain, Clarissant, Gaheris, Gareth, Gawain, Mordred, and Soredamor, from way back in the 13th century. Could represent her, could represent Morgan le Fay (one of Morgause's sisters, mind you, Morgan was a largely benevolent individual in the old Arthurian myths, and ally and protector of Arthur, who was a powerful healer that saved Arthur's life, then evolved into a stark duality figure capable of both profound good and uncaring evil).
So my guess is Ayara is the modern mixture of Morgause and Morgan.
She is meant to be beautiful, and as someone who is not below average and thus doesn't feel the pangs of jealousy at the sight of the aesthetically privileged, I'm upset that she looks like Dewey Wilkerson in an ugly dress.
Again, I haven't read the novel, so I'm on shaky ground here, but - do we know how old she's supposed to be? Is it possible that her art is depicting just one solitary moment in the entire span of her lifetime, possibly in her older years? Is it possible that, in the years leading up to the moment of her depiction in the card, she was as beautiful as you insist she must be to match the narrative within your mind?
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
You can only see her face, and you can barely see that. What, are the 2 milimeters you can see of Judith, the Scourge Diva's face really so much sexier than the 4 milimeters you can see of Ayara's? You guys must have impeccable eyes.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
You're going way out of your way to justify Dulcinea incarnate not being pretty. If not her, who?
Action women have been largely and understandably desexualized, and even seductress type characters are avoided and those we have to keep around like Liliana keep getting covered up further and posed in less glamorizing scenes than they used to. You may celebrate the abortion of harmless stereotypes if you must, but when the exemplar vessel of courtly love chivalry is not allowed to be beautiful ***** has gone too far.
And then you grow sad.
She's not ugly though. She's not sixteen (like most people we hold up as the exemplars of beauty in our culture) but if you zoom in as far as it will go... she isn't ugly. She's just not. I think you're just responding to her fashion sense, not to her face, which again, we can't see very well even as far in as it will allow us to go at this resolution. Her face is attractive, and under that wool and steel dress, there's no reason to believe she doesn't have all the right curves in all the right places.
And in response to your question of "if not her, who": Trapped in the Tower. She won't be 18 for a few years, but she is every bit the standard that our culture says is perfect beauty.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Not to mention, what's considered to be sufficiently alluring and revealing differs not only from society to society, but from social class to social class within a society. In some societies, expensive, elegant clothing that hides a lot but leave just hints of where a person't curves and angles are is considered much more alluring than something revealing far more skin. Such clothing would never be considered "frumpy" by those societal standards. Frumpy means clothing that is out of date and generally very banal in appearance for the culture it is appearing in. In other cultures, the wealthier you are, the more you're allowed to walk around with very little to nothing at all on, as a sign of your status. Literally so, where a poor person could be arrested or worse for wearing little to nothing, while a very wealthy person is allowed to walk around naked as a status symbol. And everything in between also occurs. It's terribly nuanced.
But yes, for a medieval style culture like Eldraine has, clothing that covers you up a great deal, including veiling part of your face, while revealing just hints of where curves are and things like lips being highlighted by veils or the like, is often considered FAR more alluring for a seductress than wearing something revealing. Only the peasantry wears such revealing clothing or so few layers of clothing in many such societies. The wealthier you were, the more layers of and complexity of undergarments and overgarments you could afford to wear. So wearing something that covers you up entirely while showing off your wealth and status would be highly seductive indeed, and the lower classes would emulate those looks as best as they could afford to whenever possible.
In fact, a lot of details on Araya's clothes match late medieval high nobility dress. That hat? Hell, yes. The form-fitting upper body clothing, but with extra layers of detail on the corset/girdle? Yep, only the very upper classes were even ALLOWED to wear metal or jeweled girdles and the like; even low-upper class people were forbidden to do so. The much larger, exaggerated shoulders? Yep, a whole lot of late medieval high fashion for woman has large amounts of extra material bunched around the shoulders rather that fitting the form of the shoulders snugly. The veil? Yep, the Church basically required by law that women wear veils, but the wealthier you were, the more sheer the veil as you could afford the richest of materials that allowed such veils. And those styles of hat were designed with the veils in mind.
This whole outfit screams cutting edge medieval upper class. The exact opposite of frumpy. This would be considered extremely appealing in upper class society.
Not to mention, physical beauty standards are subjective and related to the culture they come from, as well. What we consider traditionally beautiful today is not what every culture considered the same, or even what OUR OWN CULTURE considered beautiful mere decades ago. At all. We have no idea what is considered stunningly attractive in Eldraine society.
Think Rubenesque women being considered a sign of being wealthy, healthy, and beautiful. Why? Because it meant they had sufficient means and luxury, and that was a highly physically attractive trait. Ancient Greece, the Italian Renaissance, and Victorian England are times and places where the ideal beauty standards of the time explicitly list features such as a heavily rounded belly, prominent rounded hips, etc, were flat-out considered very beautiful. The roaring 20s in the United States were the opposite, where a flat chest, boyish figure, short hair, and androgyny in general, was considered the most beautiful of "ideal" look for a woman amongst many.
Same with things like, oh, noses and eyes. In many times and cultures, having a larger and/or sharper nose was a sign of beauty. Especially if that nose type was prominent amongst the nobility but not the common folk. Same with various shapes or types of eyes. Even some terms used indicate these preferences. Handsome women, for example. When that term was in use a lot, the term "handsome" meant sharp-featured. Literally sharp-featured. As in, sharp, angular nose and jawline, etc. A handsome woman was strikingly beautiful BECAUSE of her sharp, angular features.
There is no one-size-fits-all objective standard.
Modern beauty standards are just that: modern. They hardly represent anything resembling what even a handful of decades ago differed in beauty standards. I am quite certain there are many times, places, cultures, and people, who would and do find someone who looks like this art of Ayara to be stunningly attractive. It's most assuredly not even close to objective that she's anything approaching unattractive. And it's not even close to close that what she's wearing would be considered unsexy by the upper class in particular. Very, very, very much the contrary, what she's wearing has a whole helluva lot in common with middle to late medieval upper class standards that would be considered cutting edge, would dominate within the courts and ballrooms, and so on.
Yes the few pixels we see of Judith are much more beautiful, endearing and attractive. She is a celebrity, her pose and outfit show she knows it. Her expression is of unhinged exitement which ironically gives her impish appeal, and still her features are harmonic and accentuated further with make up. We also have access to art of both ladies at high resolution thanks to this wonderful thing called google.
When I read abour Ayara I pictured a modestly dressed Akroma. Not the child of Tilda Swinton on cheek botox.
A stereotype that has not harmed you does not make a given stereotype inherently harmless, but I'm not convinced our conversation need digress that far. For someone so quick to perceive an agenda, you're awfully keen on perpetuating one yourself. The lady doth protest too much, eh Gertrude?
Really though, let's not make this about you. There are various and sundry ways to explain the art, any one of which could or should be acceptable. The fact that such explanations - which permeate this thread, by the way, and originate with posters aside from myself - don't meet with your pre-conceived notions of classical beauty doesn't make them any less viable.
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
Why not both?
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Shine a light upon this night of otherworldly fiends
Odin's might be your guide, divorce you from the sane
Hammer's way will have its say, rise up in their name
Scratching hag, you rake your claws, gnash your crooked teeth
You've taken slaves like ocean waves, now feel the ocean seethe
- Children of the Elder Gods by Poets of the Fall