She is a strong character in that she is a good Empress, was beloved by her citizenry, and everything went to shit after she stopped ruling. We don't need explicit statements of what specifically she's done to get to that point, but she is immediately and then continually portrayed as good at her job.
The conjecture that Corvo and the Empress may have been involved and that Emily may be his kid is unconfirmed (and intentionally ambiguous), but whichever way that coin-flip falls, it would do absolutely nothing to change what Corvo does over the course of the game.
But still, would you then deny that it is an example of a woman's role being to be killed to propel the plot forward? I get that a bunch of political machinations and intrigue happens after her death, but it still sounds like this is an example of a woman being killed entirely to motivate the other actors in the story.
Yes, I would absolutely deny it. That she dies is due to other actors in the story already having strong motivations, and well... I'm struggling with a diplomatic way to put this:
The protagonist is a
bodyguard to a political figure. I mean, hell, when the police and secret service investigated the JFK assassination was JFK assassinated "entirely" to motivate the secret fucking service?
I'll just add this in since no one's posted. My main question is: If this is an example of what games are doing wrong with regards to female characters, how and why? Because from where I and a lot of other people are sitting it looks like it should be fine. Is there something we're missing? Is Sarkeesian just taking an extreme viewpoint? What's going on here?