Kidnapping Women, Conquering Countries: Female (Under-)Representation in Asterix Video Games

This extended abstract presents a work-in-progress investigation of the intersections of female representation and anti-colonial resistance within the following Asterix video games: ‘Asterix & Obelix XXL’ (2003); ‘Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission Las Vegum’ (2006); ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games (2007); ‘Asterix & Obelix XXL 3: The Crystal Menhir’ (2019); ‘Asterix & Obelix XXXL: The Ram from Hibernia’ (2022). Through a multimodal character analysis which pays heed to the narrative, audiovisual and procedural layers of the titles examined, I try to assess the extent to which these video games may be regarded as digital playgrounds wherein gender stereotypes and colonialist logics and practices are not only represented and reinforced, but also played with and, if not overtly subverted, at least occasionally resisted. Thus, I hope to contribute to the flourishing research on the (under-)representation of female characters in historical video games, while also seeking to encourage further work on Asterix video games