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[Zanzetkuken The Great]

I constantly want to go "GUYS THEY'RE JUST BOOBS NOT A FUNCTION OF ALIEN BIOLOGY SIGH" but I don't want to interrupt your fun.

I'm wondering at this point whether this discussion has evolved into a form of litmus test that depends upon what you say in regards to the snakes.  What is being tested is a question I don't know the answer to yet.

[RAM]

You can see it in the whole body-shape, they are human ladies in uncomfortable snake costumes. I guess I just want my aliens to actually be alien, and this is a fairly blatant "we are stamping human bits all over our aliens to give them sex-appeal" that really just, ehh,it is out-of-character. If this was about human hybridisation and human anatomy was a common feature of the aliens, then you could get into that rhythm and suspend belief, but jammed in between the mutons which are kind of akin to slaadi and the crysalids which are like a centaur composed of a Predator from Predator on a Bug from Starship Troopers., the snake-ladies just don't match the theme... I mean, sure, they all have the basic arm+legs+bodies configuration, but aside from that their features are not all that familiar, but in this case they have obviously made the features as familiar as they can without sticking a blatant human up there...

[Rolan7]

It is about human hybridization, just look at the sectoid.
I like that, despite almost certainly being part human, the viper still moves and acts far more alien than the original snakemen, who were just... humanoids with no distinguishing abilities and a slug foot.  Yet no problem with stairs, two arms despite being a snake, upper and lower teeth...  The only interesting trait was the hinted possibility that they were related to chryssalids (appearing together and being egg-based, rapid breeders).  Otherwise they were just weaker mutons.

Also I almost forgot how incredibly human-like the original mutons were, heh.

I think Vipers *look* more alien than snakemen did.  Forked snake-tongue, looong tail, fangs.  Very inhuman movement, coiling.
But, it has breasts   I hate it when characters are sexualized as an easy cop-out.  I really just don't see that here.  It's really just that they announced it first and we have so little other solid information, which I guess maybe they did on purpose

[RAM]

It is a human female in a costume, you can see her legs...

[scriver]

I don't think they put boobs on them to sexualise them, I think they put boobs on them to feminise them. To emphasise that they are snake women. And thus boobs. But I haven't felt anything about them has been particularly sexualised until after the whole "snake with boobs! Boo!" became a thing on the internets.

[sambojin]

I actually think they did it to characterize them. SnakeMEN were oldCom lore, but just other mooks with guns. Thinmen were mooks with guns. But what if they were chicks with boobs? Thin-tonguey-snake-chicks?

Whatever.

We can discuss the actual thing if you want. Physiology, abilities, even human conditioning (or alien, this might not be their only ongoing occupation/war), but that's pretty much it. Gender-bending oldCom Snakemen to be more awesome with pixels from previous lore. So boobs and tongues.

[sambojin]

You wouldn't want to kiss a snakeman from oldCom. But you wouldn't want to shoot them with expensive ammunition either.

NuCom2's snakegirls are terrifying in so many different ways than oldCom's breed. They'll kiss you. They'll get right up in your face. They used to be mooks. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But you will use ammunition.

[Greenbane]

I don't think they put boobs on them to sexualise them, I think they put boobs on them to feminise them. To emphasise that they are snake women. And thus boobs. But I haven't felt anything about them has been particularly sexualised until after the whole "snake with boobs! Boo!" became a thing on the internets.

Yeah, it's the humanoid torso. If you don't put boob-like lumps on it, it'd look male.

That said, the torso could look more alien, remain slender and leave gender ambiguous. Mass Effect's Turians come to mind. Gender shouldn't matter, to be honest. The alien's name is Viper. Perfectly neutral. It's not like there's any need to justify "Snakewoman".

[RAM]

I am happy to accept that it may not be a secualisation thing, but it is certainly something to do with gender. I mean, the mutons do not need an obvious gender. Whether they are eyecandy or femme fatale or adding random females as a misguided attempt at feminism... I guess it is possible that gender is somehow important to gameplay, but they could do something cool like giving one gender brightly-coloured frills or something, or having them look the same but behave differently, if that were the case(and lets be honest, gender will have nothing to do with the game's gameplay).

[Teneb]

Or... Firaxis just added snake boobs to troll people that would get riled up by this kind of thing and generate publicity. It's not unheard of.

[Krevsin]

Or yaknow, the art designers thought it "looked cool". Like they tend to do.

[Teneb]

Or yaknow, the art designers thought it "looked cool". Like they tend to do.

It's most likely this, with troll as a somewhat distant second. I guess people want to rationalize the snaketits into the context of the game somehow instead of just ignoring it.

[Chiefwaffles]

Alternatively, it was just the easiest way to make the Viper obviously feminine. The designers obviously saw the viper that way because of the nature of its moves and the like and wanted to show that vipers are obviously feminine, like they imagined it. And of course the easiest way to do this is to add breasts.

[Aklyon]

Alternatively, it was just the easiest way to make the Viper obviously feminine. The designers obviously saw the viper that way because of the nature of its moves and the like and wanted to show that vipers are obviously feminine, like they imagined it. And of course the easiest way to do this is to add breasts.

Or breast-like lumps.

[RAM]

Is there anything obviously masculine about any of the aliens?