Some possibly controversial thoughts about a dancer addition

[Shurrikhan]

Most arguments about gender and sex where the word 'natural' is thrown ends up in examples from nature that show humans' views on both concepts is not only subjective for the individual, but also bullocks besides. Tread carefully.
Or let the male Roe dance fancily. It's not illegal.

Let me put it this way then. I would be pissed if my Lala was attempting to grapple enemies five times its size. It could control a limb, sure, but not the whole body of the opponent; it's physically impossible. Which is why I'm glad the Monk animation, while frequently ridiculous, are at least not imbalanced in that ridiculousness.

Dance is not a contact art, but rather largely free-form and self-contained. Its iteration in game will likely be a mixture of the two, yet I trust that at least the contact will make sense for all sizes and genders, at least to the degree than Monk and Ninja, as fellow small-weapons melee classes, have managed it. But I've no precedent yet on which to base my expectations for the self-contained side of their animations. Thus I am voicing my concerns. I do not pretend to speak for everyone in doing so. If you prefer that male Roegadyns be doing ballet spins as a form of combat, then that is of course your opinion to hold. Mine simply happens to run contrary to it.

And while, again, I don't pretend to speak for everyone, there is at least a consistent cultural basis for a shift in what is seen as beautiful, impactful, or inspiring between large- and small-bodied dancers, of what seems "natural" to it. These things do not occur almost universally for thousands of years of a given artform with absolutely no basis or commonality of taste. Yes, it's subjective. But a survey of opinion, with its every point tallied subjective, is still a sample size approximating objective data: to what portion or extend is the given thought... thought? What portion of historical gender divisions, including how beauty is perceived therebetween, may be tautological is irrelevant; we're talking about a traditionally-derived job, in a setting that has its own gender conventions, and comes from a franchise with certain gender conventions woven through its length. It will adhere to them. To attempt to dismiss any and all precedents that may seem spurious to you on the basis that they are merely "human" systems -- What, is there a lively Chimpanzee discussion on 16th Century French Rivera Waltzes? -- or subjective -- As is any "good" book or film, mind you -- is a far more slippery slope than of what you're cautioning me.

Or. OR. You can just have all genders use the same dance animations. To stress the point, if you already acknowledge there's a set of movements that you'd accept for male charas, why not just have that be the unisex movement set instead of insist on what you imagine as a more feminine movement set? Boom, one movement set for everyone without even getting people complaining the male Roes know how to spin around themselves.

Or, or... if in the eyes of the vast majority of players the animation looks right for all sizes and genders, then save development costs and use it accordingly, and if it doesn't, then don't? Or, heavens forbid, maybe actually work some of the game lore into what we actually see in playable content or in-combat, instead of it relegating almost solely it to cutscenes and in-game books? Would it really hurt that much if we got to see a bit more of the Sea Wolf or Hellsguard cultures by having something unique to those, or Keepers of the Moon culture in dances unique to them? I'm all for discussing cost-to-output of development costs, but let's not pretend that strictly unisex animations are anything but a limitation.

Because you're thinking in extremes. It's not a binary switch, it's a scale. Not every dance has to be the Sundrop.

Now that I'll wholly agree with.