Confused

[Iscah]

A very vocal group of players has attempted to hijack the race to push a sinister agenda. Of those requesting such a body type, reading between the lines strongly suggests that they intend to dress their character in suggestive glamour and design them to be as young and slender as possible. Given that such would make them indistinguishable from children, it should be obvious why it would be a very bad idea.

Just because people want the small cute version doesn't automatically mean they want it for a "sinister agenda", any more than people currently picking Lalafell or the daintier 'human' races do. Especially since the concept art does exist for that design, as Sigria posted above - which makes me wonder whether it would have been brought up so much if we'd only ever seen the "warrior" concept art for the males.

Though it does seem strange to me that people would keep requesting the young version after we'd seen the confirmed female design was from the other set of concept art. Perhaps they were just fixed on the one version and kept hoping for it without really thinking about how the two went together.

But still. No automatic sinister agenda. Those "young versions" are really nice character designs, and I would maybe make an alt just to look cute - absolutely no suggestive glamour involved. There are certainly a number of costume pieces that I'd like to use for something, but don't look right on my current male characters. Particularly shorts, or the sailor top (which is cute but doesn't look right on my male or female characters), or a few things that I currently use for my Elezen but I think would look better on a smaller character - though not quite down to Lalafell size.

[Gwenorai]

snip

I'm unsure about honestly it makes me uneasy. The arguments in the thread were ranging from 'this is strange' to 'ah, I understand' - some wish the male Viera to be very small, skinny and cute. I understand the wish to be small in height and be slim. But some of their reasoning was questionable, not all, just some. Either way, I don't like it... I'm not into shota. I have zero desire to see a young (child) looking male dressed scantily. Though it seems popular to look like a cute young boy? I honestly can't see it happening anyway, the small type that is. Smaller than females, yes. A man that looks like a young boy, no.


As an add on; I think it's made worse by the idea that when a male goes through puberty most of the time you can tell. So to have a race where the males look like they haven't gone through puberty - or their version of male adulthood is to be stuck on the cusp of 'adulthood' like a padaj - it's frowned upon, as if something seems more 'wrong'. It's very weird. I can't explain.

[Iscah]

I'm unsure about honestly it makes me uneasy. The arguments in the thread were ranging from 'this is strange' to 'ah, I understand' - some wish the male Viera to be very small, skinny and cute. I understand the wish to be small in height and be slim. But some of their reasoning was questionable, not all, just some. Either way, I don't like it... I'm not into shota. I have zero desire to see a young (child) looking male dressed scantily. Though it seems popular to look like a cute young boy? I honestly can't see it happening anyway, the small type that is. Smaller than females, yes. A man that looks like a young boy, no.

As an add on; I think it's made worse by the idea that when a male goes through puberty most of the time you can tell. So to have a race where the males look like they haven't gone through puberty - or their version of male adulthood is to be stuck on the cusp of 'adulthood' like a padaj - it's frowned upon, as if something seems more 'wrong'. It's very weird. I can't explain.

I should be clear - I wouldn't want to get the "young" male Viera alongside the current female design. It seems clear to me that the tall females are supposed to match the tall warrior male design (and not just because the drawings are next to each other!).

But as a completely alternate concept, I would have liked the pair of young-looking Viera designs to be implemented together.

Though as I write that, it does occur to me that I'm thinking more in terms of individual character designs than a functional race.

Still, I like the idea of having a character that looks like that. And not at all scantily dressed - the outfits they're wearing in the concept art are the sort of thing I'd be finding for glamours.