Thoughts on the Au Ra?

[Artigan]

That's pretty much how I feel. I got all sorts of ideas and plans cooking in my mind. The males in their starting gear kinda remind me of Oni while the females are just cute as all heck. Sorta remind me of Castanics in a way.

 

I was reminded of them a bit, too! (But the Au'ra are less, uh... sensual, to put it as nicely as possible.) I've already got a concept brewing in my head for one. Waiting's gonna be absolute torture!

 

Lmao, "less... sensual." You mean not as erotic or slutty?

[Kismet]

That's pretty much how I feel. I got all sorts of ideas and plans cooking in my mind. The males in their starting gear kinda remind me of Oni while the females are just cute as all heck. Sorta remind me of Castanics in a way.

 

I was reminded of them a bit, too! (But the Au'ra are less, uh... sensual, to put it as nicely as possible.) I've already got a concept brewing in my head for one. Waiting's gonna be absolute torture!

 

Lmao, "less... sensual." You mean not as erotic or slutty?

 

I SAID I was trying to put it nicely.

 

Edit: Plus, it's a synonym anyway, so...

 

 

Overall I'm excited about them and will for sure make one when they are released, I'm glad they made it a "dragon/hyur" mix instead of another "fluffy cutesy" race. But if I'm going to be nit picky I do see others point on how the men look too much like Elezen and the females miqo'te. They should have given the males less of a "elezen long neck" and more of a muscular and or "cardassian" kind of neck. But we will see, still excited regardless!

 

Totally agree with all of this.

[Brynhilde]

I'm really not a fan of sexual dimorphism when it seems to mainly exist to avoid making an "unattractive" female version, and I feel like that's what we're looking at here.  I also am not inspired by the idea of the race itself.  So, overall, I'll give a resounding "meh".  Don't think I'll ever make one :-]

 

This. The males look pretty badass, but the females are so disappointing. They look like Miqo/Midlander females with a scaly tail stuck on. They don't look like they are even from the same race, it's so bad.

[Kismet]

Actually, if I was going to add another nitpick... The males are kind of too slender and lanky for my tastes. The Elezen have already got that aesthetic covered. If they were broader, I'd be a lot happier with them. (And I'm saying that in addition to my wishes that the males & females were more equal visually.)

[Clover]

Sorta remind me of Castanics in a way.

 

Same! And this is the reason why I'm loving Au Ra males. Castanics have always fascinated me, and I don't regard them as mere erotic material; I see them as dark, feral, yet beautiful creatures in all their monstrosity. Also, the Au Ra females just killed me in the best sense possible, they look so fragile! If we add the general atmosphere Heavenwards seems to have, I'm getting dark and even melancholic vibes from the race as a whole, which my brain translates into pure inspiration.

 

What can I say? I'm in love. I need to know about their lore soon and check if it's anything like I'm imagining it to be. My mind has simply gone wild.

[Flickering Ember]

I'm really not a fan of sexual dimorphism when it seems to mainly exist to avoid making an "unattractive" female version, and I feel like that's what we're looking at here.  I also am not inspired by the idea of the race itself.  So, overall, I'll give a resounding "meh".  Don't think I'll ever make one :-]

 

I came into this thread to make a post that would share my discontent on the new race but this is pretty much exactly how I feel. Sexual dimorphism makes me quite angry actually. Other people seem to really be into them though. I don't want to kill anyone's thunder but since this is a discussion thread I will say what is on my mind.

 

Now, I knew that whatever race they would make it would be something pretty. That is just how Final Fantasy and Japanese games in general are. Even expecting that though, I figured there would be more features about this race that would set them apart from other races. My disappointment doesn't lie in the fact that they aren't beastial, but almost entirely in sexual dimorphism.

 

The males are fine to me. They have more of a bad boy feel to them than elezen do (who are distuinguished gentlemen). They are muscular but have more of a heartthrob appearance than highlander males do. So, I believe the Au Ra males have their own identity that makes them unique from the other races.

 

Female Au Ra not only look freakishly short next to their male counterparts, which I personally find disturbing, but the Dragon features are much less prominent on them. I believe that they could have made them a similar size with more Dragon features while still making them look beautiful, in a stereotypical fashion. That, and they just look like hyur females with tiny horns pasted on their heads.

 

But hey, people can take what I say with a lot of salt. I never really liked this game's race selection anyway and almost passed up on it for that reason. I am glad I didn't because Final Fantasy XIV is really such an amazing game. It's just not perfect, and this, to me, is one of its blemishes.

[Hayden]

The new race is a complete disapointment. The females look like Midlander's, while the males look big, bulky and kind of awesome. I don't know what I was expecting out of Squenix, but please those two do not look anything like the same species at all. 

 

 

:frustrated::frustrated::frustrated:

 

I agree with the previous post, Sexual dimorphism makes me angry!

[Norna]

While I love how they look (except how patchy some of the scale placement is, hopefully that'll be an option in Character Creation), I dislike the sexual dimorphism (they should just have made the two tribes/clans look different; one tall with muscle. Female could be sort of like Viera/concept art Elezen without the ears and bad feet. The other could have been short, petite and slender. They running theme could be that they're both very graceful). It's too different from the races we already have, considering that Titan and the Livestream Lore Panel basically confirmed the playable races are all human (this is actually a good Lore reason why they are not more bestial looking).

 

As far as I know, they're supposed to come from Doma, and while they could be Elezen/Dravanian, I don't think that's the case. That would make them the only playable race that originate in Eorzea (as far as I know, all the others migrated at some point in time, with Elezen being the oldest and Miqo'te the youngest).

 

Depending on their animations, my Midlander might become an Au Ra (I find playing the RL human boring, but so far they have the best animations).

[DreamedReality]

The only thing I really thought when I saw the males was: Great... they gave my elezen bara slider to the Au Ra. THANKS SE. >:c

 

I doubt I'll be rolling one and am interested how they're going to suddenly incorporate a new race into an existing setting. I'm not really a fan of games/worlds that do that as a general rule since it always just seems either too downplayed or so overplayed to be annoying. And why add yet -another- race when the current races still have a lot of history/interactions to explore?

 

So. It'll be interesting at least.

[Steel Wolf]

Roegadyn 'till sea swallows all.

 

That is all. :3

[Antain]

The only thing I really thought when I saw the males was: Great... they gave my elezen bara slider to the Au Ra. THANKS SE. >:c

 

I doubt I'll be rolling one and am interested how they're going to suddenly incorporate a new race into an existing setting. I'm not really a fan of games/worlds that do that as a general rule since it always just seems either too downplayed or so overplayed to be annoying. And why add yet -another- race when the current races still have a lot of history/interactions to explore?

 

So. It'll be interesting at least.

 

Very much this. You beat me to it yet again, Jaques!

[ProvaDiServo]

Probably won't do it. I'd like the ladies to be a bit bulkier, and I gotta get a good look at the horn types and etc for the males. The current male form the showed makes me think of a taurus wthat has taken human form.

 

I wonder who is going to be the first user with the name "Kirin Rathalos" or "Seathe D'scaless "

[Kellach Woods]

I personally like it when they add a new race because it gives more options to the player. Someone who didn't care for the five races now has an extra choice to see if they'd care more for that instead.

 

However, as mentioned by others, the sexual dismorphism is so freaking bad that I'm tempted not to roll one out of spite. IF I do, it'll be because it's overplayed in that screenshot and we can make 'em as beefy as the males.

 

Worst part is, if I do roll one... it'll be a dude most likely.

[Oscare]

I'm not entirely sold on how the male Au Ra look. The females look wonderful though. Not a fan of the male examples they showed, I feel like I need to see more options before I can say anything.

[Seriphyn]

I'm really not a fan of sexual dimorphism when it seems to mainly exist to avoid making an "unattractive" female version, and I feel like that's what we're looking at here.  I also am not inspired by the idea of the race itself.  So, overall, I'll give a resounding "meh".  Don't think I'll ever make one :-]

 

Yes, the size difference between male and female is bloody disgraceful, I don't know how they think they can so blatantly get away with being so obvious that the females are clearly fan service. All other races are similarly proportioned, except Au Ra.

 

I doubt I'll have much interest RPing with Au Ra, except for the men maybe. I will not be able to shake the feeling that someone playing a female Au Ra is only doing so "because they're pretty". IC this might be justified by the fact Kale will despise "bloody foreigners" or what have you. I also bet there's going to be freaking Eorzeanborn Au Ra, because someone's going to go "Meh lore, I love this race OOC, I love this class OOC, I'm going to make it work". It's not impossible, but it's going to be equivalent to someone from Imperial China being born in 1500s Europe. Very strange.

[Steel Wolf]

What kinda baffles me a bit about the dimorphism of the Au Ra is that I always got the impression that female dragons were larger than the males. If anything, I'd have thought the body shapes would be the other way 'round.

 

Eh...I enjoy playing the large and proportional races overall. I'm happy with my choice. Certainly don't fault those who are excited for the Au Ra. Enjoyment is the point, after all. :>

[Kellach Woods]

We know approximately zero lore on the Au Ra so let's not jump the gun on claiming something's against the lore, 'kay?

[Norna]

We know approximately zero lore on the Au Ra so let's not jump the gun on claiming something's against the lore, 'kay?

Though if SE does crossbreeds (they've said that they're thinking about it since it came second in the poll and was liked across all nationalities, plus lore panel on livestream hinted at some showing up in Heavensward), and Au Ra is compatible with the other playable races, it means that they too are human, which means that we need some lore explanation of the sexual dimorphism of close relatives that is not shown in the other races.

 

I'll LOL if the lore ends up being "men's baths were irradiated with corrupted aether after the Calamity, causing after-growth growth spurts and steroid-like growth of muscles" or something like that.

[Kellach Woods]

I'd laugh too but it's sadly going to be something likely worse than the concept of the dismorphism in the first place.

[cuideag]

I'm really not a fan of sexual dimorphism when it seems to mainly exist to avoid making an "unattractive" female version, and I feel like that's what we're looking at here.  I also am not inspired by the idea of the race itself.  So, overall, I'll give a resounding "meh".  Don't think I'll ever make one :-]

 

This. The males look pretty badass, but the females are so disappointing. They look like Miqo/Midlander females with a scaly tail stuck on. They don't look like they are even from the same race, it's so bad.

100% this. I love the way the males look and I am very interested in seeing what sort of customization options they'll have, but the ladies do nothing for me at all. Too petite, too dainty, ultimately even less appealing to me than midlanders/miqo'te.

 

 

 

Looking forward to the lore stuff though. VERY interested in seeing if they tie in with the story of Saint Shiva somehow. Seems very convenient.

 

[Naunet]

Female Au Ra not only look freakishly short next to their male counterparts, which I personally find disturbing, but the Dragon features are much less prominent on them. I believe that they could have made them a similar size with more Dragon features while still making them look beautiful, in a stereotypical fashion. That, and they just look like hyur females with tiny horns pasted on their heads.

 

I agree with your entire post. Also, this image sums up my feelings on the Au Ra:

 

 

Honestly, it's just plain lazy on SE's part. It would have been very possible to make female Au Ra as aggressive and beastial-looking as the males (though even they certainly aren't on the level of, say, aman) and still be beautiful. Instead they went the easy route. Disappointing to the extreme.

[Berrod Armstrong]

I'm really not a fan of sexual dimorphism when it seems to mainly exist to avoid making an "unattractive" female version, and I feel like that's what we're looking at here.  I also am not inspired by the idea of the race itself.  So, overall, I'll give a resounding "meh".  Don't think I'll ever make one :-]

 

Yes, the size difference between male and female is bloody disgraceful, I don't know how they think they can so blatantly get away with being so obvious that the females are clearly fan service. All other races are similarly proportioned, except Au Ra.

 

I doubt I'll have much interest RPing with Au Ra, except for the men maybe. I will not be able to shake the feeling that someone playing a female Au Ra is only doing so "because they're pretty". IC this might be justified by the fact Kale will despise "bloody foreigners" or what have you. I also bet there's going to be freaking Eorzeanborn Au Ra, because someone's going to go "Meh lore, I love this race OOC, I love this class OOC, I'm going to make it work". It's not impossible, but it's going to be equivalent to someone from Imperial China being born in 1500s Europe. Very strange.

I don't quite agree with this sentiment, because as someone attracted to males as well as females, I find the males just as much fanservice as anything else. Tall, broad shouldered, muscular, narrow-waisted with strong thighs. Yeah, the males are fucking sexy 'pretty' too.

 

As for not shaking the feeling that someone is playing a female Au Ra is doing so because they're pretty...uh. Exactly how is that anyone's business but that of the player's? Hell more than half the reason I rolled Highlander was because I liked the body.

 

I can see the merit of the sexual dismorphism argument. It made me tilt my head as well, then I realized, "Eh, maybe they wanted to go with the small and pretty vs big and mean thikng. Maybe that's going to be a part of the race that I don't know anything about yet. Maybe they were lazy after all but wow look at everything else!"

 

As for crying doom and gloom and predicting all the BADTHINGS roleplayers are going to do...masssiiiiivvvveee waste of energy. Better to just focus on your little sphere and see how thing are going to go forward. Goodness knows, none of us are infallible.

[Kellach Woods]

Yeah let's be real I said I'd be rolling a dude if I were to roll one anyway because pulling on dem horns while AHEM.

 

I think the problem here is that we're not giving them the benefit of the doubt because sexual dysmorphism has never been done well before.

[Steel Wolf]

I'd ride a male Au Ra like a naughty bicycle.

 

Nope. Not striking that one through. Just puttin' it out there. :3

[Oscare]

Sexual dimorphism is very common place in reptilians/reptilian-like creatures. I'm honestly not bothered by the fact that the males are 'larger' than the females because in nature, that tends to be the case anyway. Yes, it's a sex-appeal thing. Male lizards are larger than female lizards. While female snakes (anacondas, for example) are considerably larger than male snakes -- because it's a sex-appeal for the opposite sex.

 

... I shamelessly agree with Steel Wolf, by the way. Because god those horns are good.

 

Edit: I am kind of weirded by the lack of muscle mass on the females though. Usually muscle mass is equivalent -- males just have a more profound one. That did make me double-take, but it's not too bad once you get over it.