Viera Should Of Happened

[Galaktica]

Why Viera?

I really want to know why the Viera are so darn popular. Is it because of Fran from FF12? Is it because of the bunny ears? Or is there something more? I'm not knocking anybody for wanting it, I'm genuinely curious. I've joked about it, I've read about it, now I want to know about it.

Thanks!

My theory? There's not just one all-encompassing answer, but I think a big reason, if not the big reason, is that at the end of the day, a lot of this playerbase has a preference for "hot girls with animal ears." I'm not trying to put anyone down or anything of the sort. It just is what it is. The vast majority of the active player characters are miqo'te and au ra. That's not a coincidence.

Before Au Ra were introduced, a big thing I kept hearing/reading is that in the grand scheme of MMOs, Miqo'te were a unique race which is why they were so popular. That's all fine and dandy, but when Au Ra were revealed, instead of all those people going "oh, that's a little disappointing. The women seem very similar to Miqo'te," they were met with mostly open arms and people loved them. Now here we are with two undeniably similar races with different animal ears and people are clamoring for a third.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that is because people want diversity. If people truly wanted more diversity, Viera seems like the least likely candidate because let's be real, even if you take their FFXII incarnations and cover up their ears, at a quick first glance, they hardly seem all that different from regular humans which is the biggest complaint you see about Miqo'te and Au Ra currently. And I say this as someone who recently played and loved XII, as someone who still thinks that Viera are a cool addition to the FF universe, and as someone that thinks Fran was an awesome character.

I fail to see how Viera of all things could possibly be considered unique or seen as adding diversity in the FFXIV universe specifically though so that's why i continue yo believe that again, most people just want hot characters with animal ears. There's nothing at all wrong with that. I'm just calling it like I see it.

All that said, I am not trying to ignore the possibility that XII is a popular FF game. You ask 100 different people to rank every game in the franchise and you'll get 100 different answers. From my understanding though, XII in particular tends to be one of the most divisive games in the series regardless of if you're asking casual or hardcore fans. So based upon that - which I cannot stress enough is just based off what I have seen personally and should not be taken as gospel - I'm hard pressed to believe that everyone who wants Viera does so because XII is one of their favorite games. Or hell, maybe they hated/were indifferent towards XII, but just really did love Fran. Who can say?

Like I said originally, I don't think there is one clear cut answer. I am simply throwing out my own theory.