About the Sundrop Dance naming scheme

[Cilia]

Gonna throw out that I think the theme in play is "lost in translation." In native Vanu the name conveys the force and terror of the dance, but translated into Eorzean Basic (or whatever they call it) by our Echo it just sounds really cute and mild.

I don't think it's an Echo goof (since people besides us can understand the Vanu), it's just a cultural difference.

As you noted, the Sundrop Dance is based on Haka, a traditional war dance of the Maori people. Like the Sundrop Dance, its purpose is to psyche up the dancer(s) and intimidate their opponent(s). It's basically a challenge, "come get some!"

From our point of view, it's just a silly and goofy dance, since we're far more prone to immediately getting to the stabbing and shooting. It's very important to the Vanu, however, because it's a part of their history and culture, and allows them to resolve conflicts without bloodshed. (Unless you're dealing with the Vundu, but we all know they're jerkholes anyway. Maybe I should try using it the next time I'm sent on a mission to steal their food...?)

[Fenral]

I don't think it's an Echo goof (since people besides us can understand the Vanu), it's just a cultural difference.

If you reread my sentence and cut off "by our Echo" the rest still applies, and yes, it is a cultural difference.

[Cilia]

Well, I tried using the Sundrop Dance on the Vundu who come to stop you from stealing their food like I said I would...

... didn't work.

All the more reason to put them out of their misery! Shame on them for not respecting their cultural history!

[Rocl]

A dance to shake the heavens and drop the sun unto thine enemies! THE SUN DROP DANCE

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Now I wonder what the dance is called in the other languages...


And dropping the sun should be an actual attack.

[Yuyuka3]

Now I wonder what the dance is called in the other languages...


And dropping the sun should be an actual attack.

German: Sonnentanz (sun dance)
So, basically the same, just without the implication that you drop the sun on them.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

We should summon Aynonamoose in here!

[CyrilLucifer]

I think it's just a play on words and that it doesn't have anything to do with "dropping the sun." Sundrop, as contrast to moon drop, which is generally just a poetic way of saying moonlight. So you're dancing the dance of the sun.

If I was forced to theorize anything, they're not as directly based on Mayans and their sun worship as the Ixal are, but there may be some sun reverence there, since you have the ancestral "mother" and "father" in the quests. In many cultures, the father is typically the sun, the mother the moon. My most liberal interpretation of this is, since you need to earn the recognition of their ancestors in order to dance it, you may be doing something of an ancestral-channeling dance, in who best represents the ancestor-father (the Sun) is the most intimidating.

There's a lot of possible reasons for the naming, but I feel this is a case of the simplest explanation being the correct one.

[Serilda]

In Japanese it's 太陽の舞 I believe ('Dance of the Sun'). To be honest I'm pretty sure they adjusted the name purely to avoid the connotations of 'Sundance' in US English, since there's a risk of confusion with native American culture. The English name is cute so I like both.