Love for the female characters

[Keyblademage]

Hello there
I wanted to talk about something that's been on my mind for awhile now. This isn't going to be a political thing about gender treatment it's much more lighthearted then that I hope. But I've noticed that in the community and even in game that the male NPCs get a lot of attention, I mean A LOT. (Slight spoilers I guess)

Haurchefant, Aymeric, Hien, Thancred, Estinien even Urianger have a lot of fanart and fangirls talking about them being hot and they're there husbandos. Nothing wrong with that of course people like something or someone and want to express it more power to you. But the thing I find kind of odd is that you can say the exact opposite about the female NPCs in the game.


The ONLY female NPC I ever hear anyone talk about in a positive light is Y'shtola. While I think she's okay and 4.4 helped me connect to her a little bit more, I can't shake the feeling that a majority of why she's popular is because she's a mioq'te and the community is obsessed with catgirls. Can't blame ya I like catgirls as much as the next guy (though I prefer bunnies but that's just me ). Also the fact that square seems to be hellbent on trying to make her the face of FFXIV. Better than derplander I guess (such a punchable face).

But something I do say a lot of the time is dislike and outright hate for certain female NPCs and I'm pretty sure you can guess at least one of them that gets a lot of hate. I don't have strong feeling either way about Minfilia but I do understand were a lot of the hate comes from. I think the problem with her has more to do with her writing than her actual character. I can see people hating Minfilia for the same reasons someone would hate Princess Peach or Princess Celestia. They're someone held in high regard in universe but the writers often don't show them doing anything to earn it. One of my biggest hopes for 5.0 is to rectify this when Minfilia comes back.

The one female NPCs I see a lot of hate for reasons that deeply elude me is Lyse. I often hear people talk about how useless she was in SB or how disappointing her arc was or the most baffling is how she took all the credit for liberating Ala Mhigo. And I'm just like, did we play the same game? She's right next to me punching dudes in the face. I do know that the transition from Yda to Lyse put some people off but I thought she was fine in the story. Could it have been better? Of course but I still liked her and thought she was fine. She and several others are aware that she was given the role of leader of the resistance out of nepotism but she wants to be a leader by her own merits and we see that in 4.0-1. Nanamo goes though a somewhat similar arc were she wants to stand on her own feet and lead Ul'dah to a brighter future without relying on Raubhan who she wants what's best for him.

[Keyblademage]

I might of hallucinated it but I'm pretty sure I saw more from Lyse than Aymeric mostly because he's much more experienced and has most things worked out in terms of what to do. But I mostly just saw him behind a desk in Ishgard or out getting his ass kicked. Except for that time he barely defeated "Not Twintainia" offscreen. Also when he inadvertently doomed dozens of people by telling the WoL and Alphinaud to throw Nidhogg's eyes into the abyss and we do because I guess we just forgot that ascians can teleport and levitate and thus Shinryu is born from this. But hey, he took us to dinner so I guess it evens out.

Btw that's another thing as to why there's so much fawning for male NPCs is that they literally flirt with our character and none of the female NPCs do which is just bizarre. The closest I can think of is Khloe tell my character she thinks he's handsome. It honestly makes me wonder what if the WoL is canonically female and the reason no one talks about any female NPCs being there waifu is because there female WoL is already there waifu.

But yeah I know this kind of turned into some kind of mini rant, but I wanted to get that of my chest and hear what other people have to say on it. I like a lot of characters in FFXIV both male and female, but I kind of want to hear a bit more love for the ladies beneath the sea of Haurchefant and Aymeric worship. So you tell me, who's your waifu or just a female character you like and/or enjoy even if it is Y'shtola.

Thanks and have a good one

[Barraind]

But I've noticed that in the community

Girls like to talk about guys. And make fan art. and ship them with other guys. or themselves. or inanimate objects. or anything and everything.

Guys are like "hey, minfilia is cute, and lyse is cute, and hilda is really cute" and thats the extent most care. Unless they're really annoying to the point they stop being cute. Then they're annoying,


discord in the last year I've heard "Hey, lyse is cute without the mask" and "Minfilia is cute".

and hours upon hours of how "omg hein is so hawt omgomgomgomgomgomgomg" "is he hotter then haurchefaunt though" "are either hotter than aymeric" "omgomg theyre all hot omgomgomg"

[Vidu]

First, little tip: You can bypass the character limit by editing your post - type your novel, copy it, post a placeholder, edit the novel in.

Secondly... I cant help but feel that you've been delibratly overlooking female characters here - Alisiae has been a very strong presence since the end of HW.
During HW we had Ysalye who traveled with us.
Yugiri might be a bit more in the background but she makes an apperance during certain points in the SB-story.
Something similar could be said about Tataru.

...you mention Khloe and who shes the only one who "flirts" with your character - I recommend you go and visit her sister, Zhloe, who apparently greets you in a way that a japanese wife would greet her husband when he comes home (at least in the german translation and at least according to my boyfriend, who felt strongly reminded of that).
Personally I also had a LOT of fun with reading everything Lyse said as her hitting on my character - it was probably absolutly not intended to be like that, but with a bit of effort it worked. Making fun of her that way made the character at least bearable for me...
In regards of male NPCs flirting: I think you can limit that to Haurchefaunt, whos not really supposed to "flirt" with you but is rather this crazy-obssessed-with-you-type of character, and Aymeric, who in my opinion was only making an effort to be nice to the hero who ended the war and wasnt really intrested in anything...
Personally I also dont think its bizarre that the female characters dont flirt with us - why is that bizarre in any way? Its not like male characters are throwing themselves at us all the time and this almost reads as a complain from someone who wishes Y'shtola would mention how handsome you look...

Personal favorite btw and still mad she died and especially mad she died to save Minfilia: Moenbryda. I miss her. Shes still with me during the mainstory though - I always summon her (minion) when I pick up the next mainstory-quest.
A quest, that usually features a more or less strong female character...

[Enla]

Wait, can I only pick one or can I gush?

In the interest of gushing, I'll start by saying that I'm still upset over Moenbryda's death and wish very deeply that she had stayed around and become a permanent fixture of the Scion's. She wasn't around long enough to leave a lasting impression on the fanbase, but what was there was amazing and I greatly mourn for the character we barely knew. I very much think the Scions, particularly pre-HW reformation would have been strengthened by her continued presence and her interactions with Urianger in particular always put a smile upon my face. Sadly we just didn't see enough of her to know what kind of character she might have become in the subsequent storylines or how she would have grown or potentially regressed, but the foundation was solid and she remains perhaps one of my favorites for that reason.

Actually on that point, I wish we saw more of Merlwyb as well. It makes sense she's basically been put into the sidelines given where Limsa happens to be in relation to the ongoing plot, but I've always found her unflinching pragmatism to be refreshing. It's also nice to see that the writers are willing to call her out on her flaws as well while having it be entirely sensible (though not necessarily agreeable) why she would handle matters like the Beast Tribe incidents in the manner that she did. The matter is kind of dropped and picked up whenever the writers have need of it, but it's the thought that counts for me.

Then there's Sadu, Cirina, Tataru who became quite the little urchin and has perhaps my favorite arc of any Scion barring Alphinaud, Ysayle, Alisaie, Jesse, Nanamo has a few ups and downs because her arc was kinda thrown aside after 2.55 but her latest contributions to the story have been nothing short of stellar. Honestly the list of female characters I don't like can fit on one hand.

[Burningskull]

I'm sure you can find a LOT of fanart for the female cast if you look in the right places... It may not be safe for work mind you but uh... I'm sure it's there... (Probably the guys to for that matter)

[JunseiKei]

I'd think it still largely depends on what language option you play the game on. There's slight differences; Lyse, for example, loses all girlishness in her English dialogue that is present in the Japanese. It's nothing like the fiasco between English and Japanese Haurchefant, but the subtleties are there.

[Vidu]

...actually, thinking about Moenbryda and how much I miss her and how much I'd loved to see her stay with us and then reading Enlas post echoing that sentiment, I had to think of this:
I had to take it with my phone, because I forgot to bring my camera to FanFest this year >.<
But to me its pretty obvious that there is love for the female characters amongst the playerbase, specially for Monebryda. Enough love and caring about that character for someone to bring a framed picture of her to FanFest to put it up there (there was one of Haurchefaunt aswell).
And as you can see, someone placed a picture of Ysalye there aswell!
Now, you might say, that people are only doing that because those characters passed and we're now only mourning them, but... it still shows a lot of love to those two female characters that people cared enough about their deaths to actually do that.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Gemina]

Go figure. I'm one of the few that actually like Minfillia, and one of the few who is not a big fan Y'shtola. But that has more to do with their personalities than how they are written. Y'shtola is a total badass, but I've never could really stand characters with a stoic personality. Such tightwads, and you couldn't pull a needle out of their butts with a tractor. Minfillia is the typical shonen wamen. I know. Nothing got resolved when she was around, but rather she always seems to be in the middle of whatever was exploding. However, she's the opposite of callus, rude, and pompous. Basically, irl I'd sooner be friends with Minfillia than Y'shtola.

I suppose Lyse was supposed to be a bounce back kind of character, but when you think about it she doesn't really do a whole damn lot, but at least she didn't get herself captured which is one of the biggest stereotypes with women in fiction. The Weapon of Light is basically used to wreck the schite out of anyone who opposes her though. The WoL is just one of Lyse's many powerful allies who bring more firepower than she does.

But when thinking about some of the other female characters, I am not too sure I agree completely. Several of the things we've accomplished have only come from the sacrifices of some of our female fallen. Y'shtola is a badass, as I said before; Ailisae is absolutely wonderful as she is a mix of a headstrong woman, but still shows a vulnerable side that she poorly attempts to hide which makes her even more loveable.

So the positive qualities might not be at the magnitude of creating barrier and omega breakers like Cid, but there are other qualities that I do enjoy about our female characters that balance things out a bit.

[Keyblademage]

First, little tip: You can bypass the character limit by editing your post - type your novel, copy it, post a placeholder, edit the novel in.

I haven't posted on forums in a very long time especially with a post this long so I deeply apology for my stupidity.

I based my statements on what I've seen, hear and experienced though game, forums and twitter. I could be entirely wrong about how much a certain character gets talked about but I just wanted to hear from a specific view. The flirty section (and the Aymeric part in general) was a bit of a joke from my experience so I thought I'd add that in there but I'm not complaining just found it a little odd is all. No offence to anyone see something I'm not. Btw yeah Moenbryda's death hit me pretty hard too. ;-;