Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Senn]

Real world biology matters to the extent which the in-game lore doesn't explicitly contradict it - it's still operative, and where they feel the need to specify other factors, e.g. the presence of Elementals in Gridania, or Eorzea's aether-richness, they do so. Nonetheless, this argument is seriously flawed. The reason I didn't see the need to respond to Tabbs was because that whole discussion was proceeding on a different tangent, about whether they're "fierce" or not, which like "formidable", can be taken in multiple different ways.

At the end of the day, you're just speculating. In terms of martial prowess, male and female viera are equal. If we were to look into the synonyms of martial, I guess you could say the females are just as aggressive/military/war-like as the males. In terms of raw physical strength between males and females, if you don't count them as being equal in martial prowess as physical strength, then nothing has been confirmed on that end. It's a video game. Real world biology doesn't matter. We can just agree to disagree here.

However, in-game stats don't mean anything.

I don't know, if we're talking about getting male viera as a playable character, and if we're discussing whether the males and females are equal in strength, then I think those stats speak for itself. I am not aware of racial stats being removed from the game, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Here's a link to the racial stats that I have found - it includes viera stats as well: https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w...ing_attributes

The stats differ between races/tribes, but not between genders. So, if male viera were to be implemented into the game, it would most likely have the same exact stats as its female counterparts. That means the same amount of strength. I know stats are so insignificant that it doesn't really make much of a difference gameplay wise, but that's not really what we're discussing.

And in response to the rest of your post, listen... I don't really care if people prefer one type of viera over the other, and if they choose to express that here. I don't mind when you do it, either. I may disagree with you, and I may have my own preferences when it comes to how I'd like male viera to look, but I don't mind you having your own opinion. I know I can come off as harsh sometimes, but I genuinely have no problems with you, just disagreements.

It's one thing to state your opinion and disagree with people. But it's another thing to rile people up intentionally, which is not what I'm saying you did, but it has been happening by the "one or two people who take it to those extremes" like you said.

[Theodric]

I mentioned Gladio earlier in the thread, though I overlooked another great character from FFXV who could serve as inspiration for the core design of male viera. Namely Cor Leonis:



He has a nice battle hardened look to him, which is well suited to how viera men are described.

[Tabbs]

The reason I didn't see the need to respond to Tabbs was because that whole discussion was proceeding on a different tangent, about whether they're "fierce" or not, which like "formidable", can be taken in multiple different ways.

Sure, it was proceeding on a different tangent. Okay Formidable can mean a few things, but when you combine that with the context of "martial prowess" it can only mean so much.

Still waiting on those sources, buddy.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I mentioned Gladio earlier in the thread, though I overlooked another great character from FFXV who could serve as inspiration for the core design of male viera. Namely Cor Leonis:



He has a nice battle hardened look to him, which is well suited to how viera men are described.

He's a man that should be dead considering what he's been through.
Heck Yeah he is Battle Hardened.

[Alleo]

There have definitely been attempts to hijack the cause, though. Or are we now pretending that Yoshi-P didn't have to make a statement specifically saying that they will not be designed to resemble children...? It was unfortunate that he had to point that out in the first place.

And how many people in this very thread want them like children? Being smaller is not like being a child.. A few people want them to be a bit smaller than the females (which are still quite tall) or have something simple as a better height slider for them. And even less people want them to be even smaller than that. The most discussion we had was about how their bodies look. Which is something none of us will know. If they are to be similiar to the females (as you stated yourself) than they cant be that masculine either. Why? Because the females look like models..so if they should look like the race than males should look similiar too which means a bit more muscle but still much more slender than highlanders.

Yoshida as far as I remember (I do believe Senn posted it) also described them more as elezen like. That is far away from quite masculine either. And the creator of the viera even liked a picture of someone drawing a male Viera that is slender and has muscles at the same time.

Agree to disagree also goes both ways. If someone posts their view on Viera in this thread (and the person who "started" it again just wanted to post their view without any attacks) that does not mean that everyone that wants something else must suddenly post pages of pages on why they disagree with that and how this hijacks a race. One could have simply agreed to disagree there either.

Edit:

After thinking more about it, the word Hijacking makes no sense in that situation at all. The word means: to take control of or use something that does not belong to you for your own advantage.
So for example if I had an idea and brought it up with others and they take that idea, change it and release it as something else.

Nobody in this very forum will be able to take the male vieras, change them to their own view and release them like that ingame. None of us. So there simply cant be any hijacking happening. Its all just opinions or siimply just wishes...just like people wishing that female Au Ra had been more like older concept arts are not suddenly hijacking the race either. x)

[Melichoir]

I'd definitely hate to see the gender/race combo hijacked to appease those who want the men to be drastically different to the women for the sake of being niche.

I dont think anyone is hijacking anything but rather just explaining their preferences, which is no different than what youre doing. I mean, if we go by how you are contextually using the word, than you yourself are also guilty of 'hijacking' the thread for getting your preferences front and center rather than just stating what you personally like to see.

There have definitely been attempts to hijack the cause, though. Or are we now pretending that Yoshi-P didn't have to make a statement specifically saying that they will not be designed to resemble children...? It was unfortunate that he had to point that out in the first place.

Theres a few breakdowns here. First, I know other people have mentioned how yoshi P envisions them, but hes not the sole designer. If anything hes the rubber stamper. He can have his input and put his vision out there but he is not inherently the person who solely picks what goes where. He literally has professional designers on his team that do the bulk of the designing and is extremely likely that they throw out a ton of design variations that are all drastically different jsut to see what works and what doesnt. Thats design basics 101. So nothing is ruled out just because Yoshi P said his personal PoV on it.

This is important cause yes, we may end up with dimorphic males for Viera. Males that could be smaller or different from the females. The point though about "Oh they wont be designed like children" is an oversimplification and misread of what people were asking for from Yoshi P. Generally speaking on the OFs, people werent asking for the males to be children (typically, as I know there were a few people who wanted that) but wanted cuter male characters. Theres a drastic difference but for some reason people are equating cute means child. The driving point is that people wanted a design that isnt big chiseled block of wood laquered in raw testosterone, but something cuter and softer in design. That there is a difference between child like and cute. Frankly the game could probably benefit in the end from that IMO, because we actually have pretty much every basic Trope of design for males so far (Fierce, Rugged, Average, Elegant, Funny).

Consider it this way, Fem Viera and Fem Roes are designed to be more sexy than cute, and by comparison, Fem Miqote and AuRa are definitely have design aspects to make them more cute than sexy. Neither of them would be construed as being children. Are we gonna suggest that because a character is male that they cannot be designed cute unless theyre specifically designed to be a child analogue? That the only way to have a male character is if theyre ripped, tall, and rugged?

[Theodric]

I found another viable piece of art that could be used as inspiration for their design:



Handsome, strong and perfect for everybody's tastes.

[Senn]

Just now, I stumbled upon this art of male viera, and I really liked it, so thought I'd share it here.

Art by twitter user @Riocakes
Please check out their twitter, they have some awesome artwork.

[Theodric]

Hien's physique would be well suited to viera, I reckon:



He has the right features to look pretty good with a pair of bunny ears, too.

[Senn]

This is important cause yes, we may end up with dimorphic males for Viera. Males that could be smaller or different from the females. The point though about "Oh they wont be designed like children" is an oversimplification and misread of what people were asking for from Yoshi P. Generally speaking on the OFs, people werent asking for the males to be children (typically, as I know there were a few people who wanted that) but wanted cuter male characters. Theres a drastic difference but for some reason people are equating cute means child. The driving point is that people wanted a design that isnt big chiseled block of wood laquered in raw testosterone, but something cuter and softer in design. That there is a difference between child like and cute. Frankly the game could probably benefit in the end from that IMO, because we actually have pretty much every basic Trope of design for males so far (Fierce, Rugged, Average, Elegant, Funny).

I'm sure he's aware of all of that, but he'll try to mischaracterize what people are saying. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's like he's throwing a tantrum lol I was in the middle of posting art I just found, and didn't realize he's been spamming more pictures until I refreshed the page.