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

[Jaywalker]

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.

Lol I do disagree with you there. "Come take a swim with me WoL", "lets have a sparring match just the two of us WoL", "observe as I stretch in a way that shows off my exposed and insanely fit midriff in mid-conversation WoL". XD I adore Lyse and her character development to pieces, and honestly more than almost any other character I felt like she was smacking the WoL over the head with flirting. WoL also does the :O!!!! looking her up and down saying how good looking she is in her new outfit. It's at a point where I'd feel hard-pressed not to see it as flirty with any WoL.

I originally wasn't into Lyse when she was introduced in ARR as Yda because she came across as one-note, but was totally won over in Stormblood. Y'shtola I am still pretty apathetic about, although the "little sun" bit won points with me. Minfilia too tbh, and while I care a bit more about Yugiri I think her potential hasn't been reached. More invested in F'lhaminn. Adore Alisaie, Sadu, Kurenai, Krile, Nanamo, Lucia, Hilda, Ysayle, Suzaku, Cirina, Nashu, Julyan, Matoya... even Yotsuyu and Fordola, if in a more complicated way. Don't really hate female characters but I'm probably most apathetic about Minfilia currently. Need to see more personality from her I think, more concrete details.

I still adore Aymeric and Estinien, don't get me wrong. Haurchefant I find interesting in some ways but not as attached compared to the other two. I don't think it needs to be a contest really. Have no problem with people fanning over the guys (it's actually refreshing compared to fandoms where that kind of thing has been repressed and been driven underground) but I'd love to see more celebration for the ladies too.

[kidalutz]

I love absolutely love all the characters in this game. I even liked that poor one eyed lancer you meet after Satasha even with their three lines. And Averes group as well. Oh cant forget my bestie Alisae.

[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...

[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. ;-;

[Vidu]

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 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. ;-;

I think your impression that a lot of people only talk about Y'shtola when it comes to female characters of the game is related to her being the "postergirl" of the game and from her representing FFXIV in Dissidia - so Y'shtola has a lot more "audience" compared to every other female character in the game.

Another thing that might contribute to seeing less talk about specific female characters might actually be that we have more female characters in prime positions than males! If you want to fanboy over a male character, you're basically limited to Aymeric, Haurchefaunt, Hien, Raubahn... maybe Estienien, maybe Alphinaud... I'm sure I'm still forgetting a few you could fanboy about and I want to apologise to all those Arenvald-fans out there who I offended just now!

With female characters the general attention can (and probably is) spread a lot more between Minfilia, Lyse/Yda, Y'shtola, Tataru, Ysalye, Moenbryda, Hilda, Yugiri, Zhloe, Khloe, Nanamo, Kan-E, Merlwyb, Naago, Kurenai, Alisiea, Krile, Yotsuyu, Fordola... I could go on.
So, for the males you devide the community into 5 or 6 groups with a certain preference - for the females... I'm pretty sure everyone in my FC could pick a different females as their favorite (and probably did).

[Iscah]

Another thing that might contribute to seeing less talk about specific female characters might actually be that we have more female characters in prime positions than males! If you want to fanboy over a male character, you're basically limited to Aymeric, Haurchefaunt, Hien, Raubahn... maybe Estienien, maybe Alphinaud... I'm sure I'm still forgetting a few you could fanboy about and I want to apologise to all those Arenvald-fans out there who I offended just now!

* fanboy or fangirl over

Also the Urianger Augerelt fan club has been in session since 3.4. (Please tell me I'm not the only one in it.) Smart enough to outplay Elidibus, and good-looking besides. And no, it isn't that hard to understand his speech patterns.

[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.