Your entire race should not fill me with FEMINIST RAGE.

[fuyu]

So I got to Eruyt Village, and we're about to go looking for Mjrn.

I'm sorry. I still don't like the viera.

If there was some - variation, I don't know, if they weren't all basically the same nubile, lovely rabbitgirl with exotic dark skin! and silver hair!, and if they didn't all friggin' wear stiletto heels to keep their balance (hint to designer: if you have designed a race where individuals cannot support their own body weight without artificial aids, you did it wrong), maybe I wouldn't hate them so much. As it was, I was going through Eruyt and thinking "What a beautiful village, and such interesting concepts, so utterly wasted on a village full of thinly-veiled sex objects!"

I possibly found the "ew, humes" attitude even more annoying because of this than I might otherwise have. You're some guy's bunnygirl fantasy, where do you get off sticking your nose up at humes? At least I don't need shoes to stand up, bitch.

Honestly, I - I can't really look at any aspect of the viera and think of them as anything other than some guy in Squenix getting off on bunnygirls. Their feet somehow evolved against all possible logic into forms where they need high heels for balance, sexy! They're a secluded race that live in and with the forest, but they have exquisitely manufacted clothes with metal and stuff, sexy! They're aloof and unattainable, it's even against their laws for you to be here, but oh, they won't kick you out; just feel free to wander around their village and admire the view, big boy, even if you are a dirty hume, teehee. Sexy!

I can't even get behind Fran, even now. Oh, so you're the rogue from the xenophobic race who protests This Need Not Be The Only Way, and now you're sad because your race hates you. Yeah, um. Sorry, I think I've seen this plot before, and it was a lot more interesting when it wasn't acted out by bunnygirl fetishes. And she still doesn't seem to me to have a personality outside of "I'm a viera!" ... actually, come to think of it, I feel like I could say that about every viera in that village...

I just. Nnnnngh. Ivalice is such a deeply interesting, well-built world, with fascinating politics and creatures and everything. And then there's the viera.

Comments

[pyrasaur.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see how the viera fail pretty hard in some ways. Canon flaws are an invitation to find clever fanon workarounds, though -- humans have done some unusual things throughout their history and there's no reason fictional races should be any different. Maybe the vieras' heels and balance issues are an intentional modification, like humans' foot binding or neck extention? Maybe they're increasing their height to mimic trees, practicality be damned? I haven't played FF12 myself, I've just watched my roommate's play a little, but I bet a race so secluded and so devoted to their faith could start practicing some pretty farfetched things.

[fuyu]

That would be a fantastically interesting idea, but the given anthropology is that that's just how their feet are structured. It's not something the viera do to themselves, it's how they are. Unless there's some Lamarckian evolution going on there... :/

You're right there, about canon flaws, but I think this is one flaw for which no fanon workaround will satisfy me. :/ It's just too much of a flaw, on too many different levels, and... I feel like the burden of justification should have been on Square for this crap, not us.

[pyrasaur.livejournal.com]

It's actually stated that they just evolved that way? I'd have to see the context, but I'm imagining it as the viera copping out because humes are annoying. "WE'RE JUST LIKE THAT GTFO."

And yeah, it is canon's responsibility to develop this stuff properly. Squeenix probably just cut corners they thought no one would consider anyway. My inner worldbuilder just finds it hard to believe that flawed-designed fanservice would be in a world as intricate as FF12's. FF7's, sure, because Red's race doesn't even have a frickin' official NAME, never mind any development. FF9's, absolutely, because there were tons of cool anthromorphs wandering around for no apparent reason. But FF12? No, Inner Worldbuilder insists, there must be some really cool cultural motivation there. Even if I have to completely make it up! (This is what high fantasy worldbuilding does to your brain after a year or three.)

[fuyu]

I haven't seen any mention of it in the game; I've only seen it, so far, in the info blurb for the viera in the official strategy guide. Which, I would assume, has some source considered canon... But yes, at least there, it's actually said they wear the heels to maintain balance because THEIR FEET ARE LIKE THAT.

I find it hard to believe too, but apparently it is so. And it enrages me, because Squenix is usually so very good about this kind of thing. Hello, plethora of strong female characters! Hello, fascinating variety of races that all make sense in context without a plot-crowbar! Hello, badly-thought-out sexy bunnygirls-- wait, what?

[pyrasaur.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty lame. Guess it can be counted as another race getting the shaft -- vieras were much less fanservicey in FFT:A, and nu mou had an actual significant role. I'll never really forgive FF12 for taking the cool magic-wielding intellectual doggypeople and stuffing them into the background of temples.

[bassclefsolo.livejournal.com]

Unless there's some Lamarckian evolution going on there... :/

That's how Pokemon breeding works in the games; the baby is born with skills the father knows, even ones he wouldn't normally have learned (TMs, etc.)

VIDEO GAME SCIENCE. :D