I don’t see why existing dragons should be the standard by which we judge the Dracthyr. The Dracthyr is an all new race invented by Blizzard. Of the Dragonkin family, yes, but they are the results of Neltharion’s experiments in aiming to create “super” soldiers, essentially.
In a fantasy world, the Dracthyr coming out of those results as some sort of fusion - a dragon and a human - can easily establish a foundation for physical attributes that could be exclusive to the Dracthyr, which also makes them different to their draconic cousins.
If you want use your “super” solider ideaology on Dracthyr then where are muscles? As a super drake they shoud be inteligent, strong and have magic power. They body are weak and fragile. Even Tauren and Pandaren females looks stronger than Dracthyr.
However for reptilians the dimorphism can be a bit volatile. Like for snakes, the female can be larger than the male because easier time to lay/defend eggs.
While a study from a quick google search indicates larger head and longer torso for males in other kinds of reptiles.
It does suffer a bit by making the female face look more ‘cute’. There are more sophisticated ways to do it I think. Like many WoW races, they almost look like they belong to different species.
Quite like the difference between male and female Worgen, but not as bad as that. It’s worse on WoW because it affects the whole body.
It can look clearly male or female, and clearly be the same species. Obvious thing to say really, but you know… seems many game artists having noticed.
I know it seems somewhat contradictory what I say.
It’s just moderation. It’s required to use some Human traits so we can identify quickly if the character is male or female-- that tends - if female - to mean a smaller frame, certain mammal features, and again Human facial features like less pronounced brow ridges and no facial hair and such…
It doesn’t need to be as extreme as they do with those Charr or most WoW races. They just go too far with much bigger eyes - a cheap cutification - and a completely different bone structure. It’s much worse as I said in WoW with absurd differences like Troll’s or Tauren’s posture.
It doesn’t seem to make any sense for ONLY males to be hunchbacks. I do however understand that they know a lot of players expect a female to be as pretty as possible-- and dare I say it in my experience women who play this game almost universally want to play as a pretty character.
Kul Tirans, I think, are lorewise around 220 cm tall - which isnt too far fetched. Tauren are supposed to be taller lorewise (just like Zandalari), but they already have issues entering certain places due to their height. I think Blizzard should simply increase the height of doors and stuff so they can increase Zandalari/Tauren height to be more proper.
