Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Lycomis_Lycoli]

I joined the forums just to say what I think about this topic.

I'd like to see male Viera and female Hrothgar added to the game. They could offer cool new ways to express male and female forms for the WoL in the way that the Miqo'te men and Roegadyn women did. The lore isn't a problem for the latter two existing as playable races, so I don't think it would be a problem for the former.

I hope the developers take the time in the coming patch cycles to rig and develop female Hrothgar and male Viera models as player characters because some interviews from Fanfest indicate they had to decide between one gender for each race. The 5.x series would be a good timing to allow them to make these, considering they had the ability to do so over the 4.x series.

[oiyum]

Ever thought that something is not about you or LGBT? Ever heard about Bishounen/Ikemen, yeah... many of us girls like these type of male beauty as well and are not that into the macho ones. So not everything is a LGBT issue. And this decision is neither homophobic against anyone or sexist.

i said generally. also, bishounen and ikemen are barely ever sexualized, theyre idealized prettyboys. if viera males were to follow the same design archetypes as the women, they would be scantily clad and sexualized, which makes straight men much more uncomfortable than bishounen do.

[Atreyu]

one of the main groups who were excited for male viera were the LGBT, and pretty/sexy men are generally associated with gayness (women generally enjoy a different type of male beauty than men do).

as someone who is gay, the majority of people i personally know that are mad about viera are LGBT, while the rest dont really care much about it. anecdocal evidence, but still seems to be common.

That's a stretch and a reach if I've ever seen one. Come on now.

[xbahax92]

You're the main offender in the "throws random political buzzwords and doesn't provide any decent explanation" category.
Still waiting your answer regarding the fact that by your own argument you like war, injustice and human sacrifices.

All this is only happening because YoshiP said he finds bunny men "weird".
I do also think male Viera have less to do with LGBT, but I guess thanks to Yoshis statement few years ago, some feel hurt that he might not want them cause of their appearance apparently?
I mean it took like how many years to get the bunny suit for male races? And in the end the female designers just created that cause the male dev team felt uncomfortable. We can only assume, but thats why we have this unnecessary discussion here right now.

[Indefiinable]

I have to thank Square-Enix for the amazing job they have done recreating Final Fantasy XIV from Scratch. Especially the inclusion of Missing Genders which we petitioned for in good faith. This was proof to us players that the Developers are truly Sympathetic to our requests and that being honest and vocal can pay off with the amazing characters we have who are Female Roegadyn, Male Miqote, and Female Highlanders. Thank You SE, Thank You Community Team, Thank You Yoshi-P.

This was posted on the official forum on the 14/04/2011 I just find it so sad and disappointing that we have now taken a step backwards

[VyelChuChu]

I don't believe the devs were being homophobic and the likes; but I think the line of thinking was this.

Rabbits are seen as feminine - a man wearing rabbit ears or the likes is thus seen as camp or gay - which isn't true. I never viewed male Viera to be cute/camp/gay (just by appearance)- I imagined them as men who were very icy, yet beautiful and barbaric.... anyway - Thus the imagery of a feminine or 'beautiful' man is viewed as gay in some places of the world. Add this to an old interview where Yoshida said that the male Viera was 'wierd' with no explanation why other than only the males would be 'weird'. It could have been the lore he was talking about or the weirdness of adding them in as they weren't seen - or it could be that he thought that they were feminine looking and thus lies the issue.

Another reason is that the female is overly sensuous, attractive and beautiful. While the male Hrothgar is looking like 'me dumb, me brut, roar' - overly muscular and fierce looking. People are arguing that a man or a woman can be either or. A man can be beautiful and attractive, a woman can be fierce and muscular. If Male Viera [Strong, beautiful, elegant] was added and Female Hrothgar [Muscular/Fierce/Strong] was added instead of their other counterparts - I have a feeling some folks would applause it - while still asking for the counterparts but they'd still applause.

Anyway - that's what I believe. I don't know what the motives are. All I wish is for the 'tall/lean/muscular' version of male Viera and the fierce female Hrothgar.

I think that's a good summary!

[Repliku]

All this is only happening because YoshiP said he finds bunny men "weird".
I do also think male Viera have less to do with LGBT, but I guess thanks to Yoshis statement few years ago, some feel hurt that he might not want them cause of their appearance apparently?
I mean it took like how many years to get the bunny suit for male races? And in the end the female designers just created that cause the male dev team felt uncomfortable. We can only assume, but thats why we have this unnecessary discussion here right now.

They made male catpeople, that shows that they aren't uncomfortable with the idea of making male versions of kemomimi characters. Ockham's razor tells me that the weirdness doesn't stem from what people force themselves to assume to try to get leverage from the oppression argument.

[Dasya]

I'm in full support of male Viera for various reason. More customization, FFXIV having a take on the race instead of just copy/paste FFXII/FFA lore, and because locking out a sex option for a race is just silly (you know, like how Miqo'te and Roe).

This isn't even a lore issue. There's always the outcasts from every society that doesn't apply to the norm. Not every male Viera would hide away to defend their wood, just like not every female would stay in their wood. Look at Fran, and others, who left their home knowing they would be branded outcasts, but still left for their own reasons.

I appreciate the addition of both races, and the time the dev team took into including them. I do hope they continue to work hard for us, and give us the missing half of these races.

[VillainQueen]

This whole quote chain was replying to someone assuming mainly fetishizers/fujoshis wanted male viera though, lol. We're not making this about ourselves, but simply saying that there's all kinds of people who wanted them as well.

Well he is not that wrong tho, many fetishize them. I do too to a certain extend as well. I enjoy looking at sexy anime man. I mean is it different with female Viera? Or all the guys who chose to play as girl Miqo'te in Colosseum gear? No, it's not, that's fanservice. And we don't know how they would have ended up looking like. Who said they won't be macho bunny man? And I still can't see there any of this is homophobic or a LGBT issue.

[Kilieit]

As a personal preference, I don't really like playing female characters whose design emphasis is on making them ""sexy"". I'm not interested in playing female viera, for that reason. And since, again, as a personal preference, I don't like playing ultra-bulky muscular male characters either, I'm not really interested in playing a male hrothgar instead.

So as it is, neither race announcement has anything I'm interested in. I was honestly pretty bored by the announcements; they're not my thing. I know some people were excited, but I wasn't.

However...

If the team came out with something innovative for the design of a lithe, petit, athletic male character (such as a male viera), or a bulky, muscular, strong female character (such as a female hrothgar), then I might begin to be interested... and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.

And the existence of such things wouldn't be taking away from the existence of female viera and male hrothgar. So, it'd simply be increasing the number of people interested in the new races. If it's something that would get more players interested, then I can't see how it's a bad thing.

Even if they were to be added in future patches (rather than on Shadowbringers launch with the viera F/hrothgar M), I'd still be interested to see the development of the designs, and I'd still be very excited for the implementation.