Fighting/Fat: Fighting Game Characters and the Emptiness of Video Game Fatness

Abstract

The fatness of fat characters in screen media, video games included, is well understood on an aesthetic level. However, this research asks: Is there a mechanical dimension to the fatness of these characters? Fighting games, with their need for common toolsets among playable characters, offer a useful ground to explore that question. While the characters in this study did not exhibit a “mechanical fatness,” they do reveal that certain combinations of aesthetic fatness with gameplay mechanics may offer a potential site of resistance to the pervasive fatphobic tropes present in video games.