...but given the WEALTH OF RELATED CONTEXTUAL CLUES, F'lhaminn's glasses are almost definitely there to imply that her vision has gotten worse with age, not because someone decided to moeblob her up out of personal preference or because she's supposed to be implied to be an intellectual NPC. Seriously. She's Minfilia's mother. NPCs very early on in the new story content refer to her having aged. Grey hair. Comparatively modest clothing for a character in Eorzea. And honestly, if she was supposed to come across as an egghead, that would actually be conveyed in any of her dialogue. A retired songstress with a talent for mining isn't exactly the same as an Arcanist, let's keep in mind.
Seriously, is it that hard to believe that the creators of the game didn't make facial presets for elderly/middle aged Miqo'te women because they didn't think anybody would want to play one, not because they wanted to imply that Miqo'te don't age the same as, say, Hyur? The same thing, you may note, is the case with women of the other playable races. Go into the character creator and try to make an aged-looking Elezen, Hyur, Roegadyn, or Lalafell woman. You'll notice the same thing across all five playable races- there just aren't presets there to make a character look convincingly older than their 30s, if they're a girl. There are certainly options for the men, but pretty much across the board there are little or no options for women. And this points towards a fairly obvious answer regarding F'lhaminn- she looks as old as the game will let her look.
Seriously, is it that hard to believe that the creators of the game didn't make facial presets for elderly/middle aged Miqo'te women because they didn't think anybody would want to play one, not because they wanted to imply that Miqo'te don't age the same as, say, Hyur? The same thing, you may note, is the case with women of the other playable races. Go into the character creator and try to make an aged-looking Elezen, Hyur, Roegadyn, or Lalafell woman. You'll notice the same thing across all five playable races- there just aren't presets there to make a character look convincingly older than their 30s, if they're a girl. There are certainly options for the men, but pretty much across the board there are little or no options for women. And this points towards a fairly obvious answer regarding F'lhaminn- she looks as old as the game will let her look.
