Eyes on FF Exclusive Lightning Returns Preview! Part 1!

[Formalhaut]

It's really odd how SE makes their main females so masculine and their main males so feminine.

Eh? I never quite understood how some people thought Lightning was masculine? And really, I disagree as a whole. Look at any of the Star Ocean female protagonists. Then Ashe, Tifa, etc.. None of them are masculine.

I guess what she meant was that they had a steely, determined personality. I agree with you thought Jayme. I think the characters you mentioned certainly had a determined, take no s**t attitude, but they still were identifiably feminine in appearance. Tifa, for obvious reasons, but Lightning certainly doesn't dress in a masculine way, she shows abit of leg with her outfit, and even Ashe doesn't exactly dress like a nun.

I do sort of see Maybee's point about the main character males being feminine, but only to a point. Famous examples include XIII's Hope Estheim, X's Tidus and VIII's Squall, sort of. Definitely with Hope, be it through his whinyness or tendency to have a slightly high voice, he definitely have some feminine qualities. Tidus and Squall appear masculine, but they have some elements of femininity. However, this isn't the rule. Cloud is definitely quite masculine, Auron is badass, even Snow is the "hero".

[Del Murder]

Wow, so being whiny is feminine and being the 'hero' is masculine? You might get into some trouble with that one, bro. I don't think Hope was feminine at all. His 'feminine' qualities as you put it are just part of being a kid.

Lightning's cold emotionlessness is probably her most stereotypical 'masculine' quality. Her body/face design are certainly not that masculine.

[Raistlin]

I agree with Del entirely. There was nothing particularly feminine about Hope, unless you consider "not being a cold, physically strong badass" to be feminine. He was a whiny little kid, sure, but kids whine.

Lightning's calm, mostly emotionless personality is only "masculine" due to how stereotypically feminine most female characters have been. I'm glad SE has started getting away from that.