Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[lilirulu]

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Or it could be a common sitting pose in japan like seiza? The W pose does actually have a practical purpose; it's more balanced then a regular sitting. I didn't find it longer to get out of; and it definitely wasn't longer to get out from regular sitting on the floor for my sister. If a bunch of Japanese girls, who I kinda doubt are all super flexible, can do it then I really don't think anything of us can say you "need" to be especially flexible.

If you don't want to play a female Au Ra, that's fine, but I don't see why you are wagging your finger at Square Enix for continuing to do what they have done for all the females. All the girls have their "moe moe~" factor as you put it. And really we've had a good idea how the female Au Ra were going to be since 2.3 seeing as they used a female miqo'te as a placeholder for Yugiri until the Au Ra female model/skeleton/animations were finished.

[Einherei]

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My thoughts exactly,
I think the pose is fine and fits perfectly with the direction SE has already been heading with Au Ra motions being quiet feminine / refined or as people have stated moe'.
Further more nothing that has been shown to us over the past couple of months through Yugiri or the preview clips Au Ra have lead (at least to me) that Au Ra would be in anyway fierce High Hyur/Roegadyn warrior women.

For the moment SE has been faithful to their own perception of how they planed to make the Au Ra and it just might be that their ideal perception of a refine mature auri women actions on mannerism differ greatly from ours - because it is different, it's an entirely different culture which we have no information on. Right now all we can do is wait until more information is released.
Personally i have no problems with the W sitting position, as you have to understand there are very few sitting positions people can take which is different than the ones used by other races and of major difference that people have failed to take into consideration is that Au Ra have tails, the W position might actually be very comfortable compared to other sitting positions.
(Much much less flexible tails than Miqo'te, allot less tail sway - you can see it in the running/walking animations)

[Cilia]

Stuff.

Ehh, we all knew they were going to be kind of cute when they first showed off the female Au Ra models. I'm totally OK with that. There's a significant difference between "cute" and "moéblob," though. Cute is just... y'know, cute. Moé implies child-like weakness to the degree they need to be protected; not exactly befitting an adventurer. I don't mind a little cuteness, but if moé was the aesthetic in mind when designing every aspect of Auri women... rrgh. That isn't exactly befitting of an adventurer, wouldn't you agree?

Not all the women (yes, women, not girls) have cutesy charms. I chose a female Highlander for a reason, and female Roegadyn are similarly lacking in cutesy charm. Now I don't want the Auri women to be tough and intimidating like those women, and am totally fine with their stature and body mass (it actually makes more sense than the males'). Even so, a woman out adventuring shouldn't have body language that screams "Protect me!"

Again, it's not the straw that breaks the camel's back. It is, however, pushing me closer towards playing a male instead.

[Sabeta]

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Pretty much this entire argument is shut-down by both male and female lalafells; which look identical to children. There's even a Roe in Gridania who keeps pestering a Lalafell saying he'll protect her, and the lala pointing out that she's not a child and doesn't need to be protected. Just because Auri look moe it won't change their ability or lore reasons to become Adventurers. Even among adventurers though there are the ones that need protecting. I will be switching to an Au'Ra and playing a healer. This fits perfectly within the Moe theme for the race, as the "big strong tank" will be protecting me from the baddies, while the rough-and-tumble players work together towards slaughtering it.

[myahele]

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Yeah I agree. I though they'd be closer to an Elezen's "elegant" emotes since they've said they've designed to be "elegant and mysterious" as stated by Yoshi P and crew. From the emotes we've seen thus far ... I just don't see it.

[lololink]

Yeah I agree. I though they'd be closer to an Elezen's "elegant" emotes since they've said they've designed to be "elegant and mysterious" as stated by Yoshi P and crew. From the emotes we've seen thus far ... I just don't see it.

They were designed to be the kind of girls you want to protect and shy.

[Xoriam]

Anyone who is not extremely obese or like 90 years old can sit like that... unless maybe you have some prosthetic legs or something...

I'm a 6'1 30 year old Male and I have absolutly no problem sitting like that.

[Kedrah]

I keep coming back to the fact that Miqo'te are hunters by nature, and some of them are quite feral, but they generally have cutesy animations and whatnot.
I don't imagine it's any different for Au Ra.

[lilirulu]

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The last word I'd use to describe Au Ra is "Moe Blob" especially when we have the Lalafell. I've never seen "Moe" or "Moeblob" used as a way of implying anything other then the character is cute. It makes no sense to say any of the races are in need of protecting especially when it's canon a Lalafell can pick up an adult roegadyn male. Just because someone is cute/moe/whatever doesn't mean they are unable to protect themselves at all.

I may make smooshy faces at lalafell tanks and go on about how adorable they are but I never think they are any more or less capable at their job.

Continueing onto Au Ra: There is a nothing about the body language that is "protect me". If they were huddling, limping,in a defensive posture or clearly in distress all the time then sure I'd be like they are asking to be protected but they aren't.They are just cute women.

And I don't know about you but my highlander alt is incredibly adorable:

[Cilia]

Yo!

Stuffs.

Moé. Edjumucate youselfs. Bam!

... doesn't that sound an awful lot like the stated direction of Au Ra women being designed to be "someone you want to protect" and "shy," and line up pretty clearly with their body language as has been shown thus far?

There isn't anything stating any race / sex is inherently more suited to adventuring, but Auri women have that moé aesthetic going on. It's not just height or body mass, now it's about body language - and what little we've seen of it thus far doesn't exactly engender itself to a strong, independent adventurer. 'course, that's not going to stop me from playing a gruff, no-nonsense female Au Ra Dark Knight... but the body language juxtaposed with the attitude is weird.

Look at a character like Lightning from XIII: tough and independent, and she has the attitude and body language to match. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

Anyway, off-topic but I designed my female Highlander to be a tough but still beautiful woman. Not cute, adorable, moé, or pretty, but a "realistically" beautiful woman you'd still see out on the battlefield. (Overdid it on the hair / eye colors, but the hair color grew on me and I can't change the eyes without a Fantasia... and fixing muh eyes is not worth $10.)