Lalafell and Dwarves... Plot Hole Potential?

[Mansion]

If they're identical to their Source counterpart like all the other races(based on the cinematic at least), then NPCs taking off their beards and helmets so that they can emote during cutscenes is hardly a stretch. If you have a base model that's rigged, it makes sense to use it.

Of course but they can emote while keeping them, right? If they are a beast tribe and I guess it's not that far fetched to assume they could be the crafting beast tribe quest, we don't need deep interactions with them really.
Now they can use lalafells models and their base set of animations for anger, panick, suprise, joy emotes, and just not include anything requiring facial expressions.

I'd personally rather have a real new beast tribe with Dwarves having a proper lore of these 12 000 years from lala ancestor to dwarves (like they could not fit in mines narrow corridors with fat lala heads). Have them have their own voices, gimmicks and all.

[Daralii]

Of course but they can emote while keeping them, right? If they are a beast tribe and I guess it's not that far fetched to assume they could be the crafting beast tribe quest, we don't need deep interactions with them really.
Now they can use lalafells models and their base set of animations for anger, panick, suprise, joy emotes, and just not include anything requiring facial expressions.

I'd personally rather have a real new beast tribe with Dwarves having a proper lore of these 12 000 years from lala ancestor to dwarves (like they could not fit in mines narrow corridors with fat lala heads). Have them have their own voices, gimmicks and all.

I meant with their faces, which is what humans identify the most. The non-player races(save for minor variations on their models, like Padjal and pureblood Garleans) don't have the rigging or even polygons to do much more than lipflaps.

[ObsidianFire]

One of the main points of the Beast Tribe quests is to make the characters and players question why "Beast Tribes" are a thing at all. All Beast Tribes have the same mental faculties as the player races do and that has gotten more and more focus as the game has gone on.

The Lalafell's being a "Beast Tribe" is just progressing that idea even further. By now, "Beast Tribes" might as well be a gameplay term for a type of daily quest system instead of an in-universe term for races that are somehow "lesser".

[Iscah]

The standard beast tribe models have no character variation (even for the human-faced Ananta) and minimal ability for facial expressions. As an equivalent beast tribe, the dwarves don't need it either, just because we know in other circumstances they could have it.