Au Ra physiology and other lore.

[Cilia]

There is exactly ONE unique male Au Ra hairstyle that wouldn't take hours of time and/or several cans of hair gel or hairspray to do.

I went with one of the tamer ones. Sort of.

[Lydeck]

I only see people posting Au Ra men with anime hair. Do they have any more subdued hair styles?

Yeah. Here's mine:

[Sigiria]

There is exactly ONE unique male Au Ra hairstyle that wouldn't take hours of time and/or several cans of hair gel or hairspray to do.

I went with one of the tamer ones. Sort of.

Well, that's also what you expect from a final fantasy.

[Isklexi]

at LEAST 10 cans of hairspray

You know a man takes his haircare seriously when he's willing to punch a new hole into the ozone layer every morning.

Well, that's also what you expect from a final fantasy.

The best part about that picture is that the girls have the most reasonable hair.

[Balipu]

As mentioned in Crisis Core "Sephiroth uses an entire bottle of both shampoo and conditioner to wash his hair. Both are provided by the Shinra Company and are scented with thirteen kinds of perfumes" Hair is a serious business for final fantasy characters.

[Sabeta]

I want to go back to the whole "Guardian" complex thing. Unmarked spoilers for Fate/Unlimited Blade Works, so if you don't want that turn away now. (I hate large blocks of black text/spoiler blocks more than I hate unmarked spoilers, deal with it!)

The man above is known throughout most of the series as "Archer", and without going into too many details he travels back in time to kill his younger self. His younger self is a would-be ally of justice, who wishes to protect anyone and everyone he meets. At some point he gains superb magical powers to help him fulfill that dream as a "Guardian Spirit". Ironically, this meant travelling to different points in time and murdering people by the dozens. Why? Because if he didn't, hundreds, thousands, and sometimes even millions of people would die.

Saving everyone wasn't an option, he had to kill people to save others, and eventually he took his own life. Instead of finding rest, he became a Heroic Spirit, and must constantly relive his life. With his "ideals" broken he joins the Holy Grail War where his younger self participated, so that he could try and eliminate himself; hoping to cause a paradox that eliminates his Spirit and sets him free.

As a military servicemember I have a very similar worldview (except that I accept this reality, rather than trying to shut it away). I may at any time be called to kill hundreds of people in order to protect the millions back home. That does not make me the good guy, nor my enemies the bad guys. It just means I have something to protect.

More on topic: I think Au'Ra are cute and perfect in every way. My biggest complaint is that horn options are locked to face options (Horns 2 with Face 1 please!)

[Cilia]

Military service, huh? I got a lot of respect... but I...

... I wish I could still be in the service, that I was a "normal" person...
... but I can't be, and I'm not...

...

... really hits a personal sore spot. Not going to say any more.

*sigh*

More on topic, my main complaint is the women's moé mannerisms; the rest I'm OK with, male and female alike. But what's done is done.

[Sabeta]

snip

I'm not exactly "normal" either; I won't say anything else past that, but let's say there's a reason I always play female characters.
Like I said though, I don't really consider the Au'Ra Moe. Lalafells fall more into that demographic. Au'Ra strike me more as petite asian girls. More "kawaii" less "moe"

[Kaiser-Ace]

Define normal and then we can make a thread discussing it.

My greatest and only gripe about the Auri in general, both male and female, is the fact that horns are locked to faces. I either gotta pick the younger looking face or the horns I like but can't have both. Shame really. Maybe they'll add that in the full release.

[Samcaesar]

Hmm my biggest complaint, as I'm sure you all could guess, is how the two clans look exactly the same! Ideally I would've wanted the girls to be massive on one of them and the guys to be small and moé. Or maybe small moé men and women on both and big men and women on both.. But eh, I've always got references for my Au Ra.

One of my friends commented on how they seemed "Nadeshiko" which I actually really agree with them on that.