Deirdre Wrote:So I'll stick with Gospels side on this one. Yes, 7'7'' is gonna make you look freakishly huge, kinda like a beastman.
You just ... really love that word, don't you? I mean, I don't know what it is, but it's definitely grinding my gears. Like it's almost being used in a demeaning or a flippant way. Of course maybe I am just overreaching, or perhaps I'm a might bit sensitive? One way or the other ...
Anyway, just so we're clear, neither of us even knows what build or height setting the characters are in the official image art you posted, right? Because that's a very important thing to consider here. Is the Elezen a small? The Roegadyn? Is that a large Lalafel (try saying that ten times fast)? Are all characters represented as 'average'? We simply do not know.
Consider, too, what I posted in the previous thread. You've seen what characters look like when placed side by side, and how they measure up in that regard. Now tell me, do in-game screenshots have more, or less, clout than the image that you've provided? Because to me, the actual screenshots weigh more importantly in this matter, and it's because this is what we see when we are playing.
I'll humor you, though, and use the promotional artwork to show that either your height estimates are off, or the promotional work itself is pretty bunk.
Let's assume that everyone in that picture is set to the average height of their specific race and gender. Do you know what the average size of a male human head is in terms of length? If you take a typical male who stands around, oh, 5'7" to 5'11", and consider that the proportion of the head on a normal human male is about 1/7th of the total height (thanks, Encyclopedia Britannica!), and measure from bottom of the chin to top of the head ...
67 / 7 = 9.5714..., so let's just round down to the tenth and say 9.5".
So let's take Mr. Hyur's head, who stands at 67 inches (5'7") by your measurements, lop it off (this is one macabre experiment, huh?), multiply it and pile heads on top of one another (very macabre!), and see where we wind up on this scale. This is possible because, going off the promotional art, everyone is basically standing next to one another, with no differentiation in regards to one of them standing too much in front or back, thus screwing with perspective and, in turn, comparison to the head. We won't use anyone else's head as a gauge of measurement because (a) their races are fantastical and as such we can't effectively relate them to real-life, and (b) he is not tilting, twisting, or otherwise at an angle (hence using his versus the Hyur F), making for a perfect representation of 'per head'.
Fortunately for us, Mr. Elezen is standing upright at full height as well, so there shouldn't be any concerns over slouching here. Anyway, going off of the comparison, the Elezen stands at 9 3/4 heads.
9.75 * 9.5 = 92.625
Converted to ft/in: ~7'8"
Keep in mind this is a rough estimate, so you're free to go ahead and dock a few penalty inches if you find where I started measuring to be off (heel thickness adding to height, for example). That still puts the Elezen beyond what your measurements were by a country mile, however.
But what about everyone else? How does the measuring head size them up? Well, let's look at Mr. Hyur himself. He comes out to about 8.8 heads, give or take a little.
8.8 * 9.5 = 83.6
Converted to ft/in: ~6'11"
Interesting, huh? After seeing that, I knew something must be off. So I cropped the male Hyur and measured by pixels. Maybe his proportions were off somehow?
Entire body (toes to head tip): ~645px
Head (chin to head tip): ~72px
72 / 645 = .11162...
Turned to percentage (rounded to the lowest tenth): 11.1%
Let's compare to what Encyclopedia Britannica said, about a male human head being 1/7th of their height:
1 / 7 = .14265...
Turned to percentage (rounded to the lowest tenth): 14.2%
Looks like Mr. Hyur has one tiny cranium in comparison to the rest of his body, and 'normal' humans as a whole, and by a hard-to-ignore amount! That's a whole two inches! 7.4" vs. 9.5"! Now see, that actually gives you the measurements you were giving, but I think this brings up more questions than anything else about the validity of promotional work versus actual in-game comparisons. This leaves me to conclude a couple possibilities:
-The promotional art is all sorts of all over the place, and is really a rather invalid thing to use in this argument because it laughs in the face of what we know about body proportions for every single person, including the people who are based off an actual race in real life (see: us).
-The promotional art is in fact a valid gauge for measurements, which leaves us to conclude that everyone who is not a Lalafel is actually a giant, and as such everyone is 'freakish' and beastmen-like both in height and proportions.
Either way, I'd sooner rely on actual in-game measurements over gussied up promotional work that leaves me with more questions than answers. All I know is that by using typical, reliable averages of measurement in real life and translating them to both Vana'diel and Eorzea, I don't feel that I am wrong here.
In the end, of course, we'll just have to wait and see what happens when we get everyone side-by-side in-game and see how that pans out.
Isn't debating fun?
A friend to the end to depend on you can.
I walk through the sea, swim through the sands.
To the edges of the earth, to your rescue when you hurt,
Only thing I learnt is I'm not Superman.
~Giant Panda - Strings
I walk through the sea, swim through the sands.
To the edges of the earth, to your rescue when you hurt,
Only thing I learnt is I'm not Superman.
~Giant Panda - Strings
