Do guys find the amazon introduced in FGO appealing? As I understand it people are attracted to a wide range of body types, and 'fit girl' seems like something common enough?
Penthesilea does have notable abs in her drawing, and some arm muscles depending on the artist though still does have an overall waif design.
I think her bond lines mention how she doesn't like her adult body since that was the body she was not just beaten and killed in, but also humiliated in.
So she apparently feels more like a warrior in her younger body.
Are there any muscular looking female characters in official Nasuverse art besides Pent?
I definitely don't recall anyone female with the comically huge muscles on the level of characters like Lu Bu or Herc.
Most adhere to the common tropes in lots of fiction of relatively thin frames, short height, large breasts (where even many of the smallest is above IRL average), moe beauty. Even the thousand year old vampires. Though that's true for lots of fiction.
Saber is cool cause Excalibur.
Say it with me;
WAVE
MOTION
SWORD
That is a defensive tool of the planet for beating up aliens also.
She is cool for lots of things, but I think the laser sword is a main draw. It's something that leaves an obvious impression.
As I understand it Saber doesn't look muscular because Takeuchi didn't want to draw her that way, because I guess even then he'd awakened to his origin. Waifuism, not even once, etc. However Nasu's text is kind of back and forth on her athleticism. On one hand Saber talks like her brother made her swing a sword every day and that she goes jogging in plate armour, on the other Shirou is like 'I reckon Rin could beat her in an arm wrestle.'
Choose your own adventure.
IIRC, Nasu said something along the lines of Saber's Mana Burst being a service for the male audience of the game, justifying the state of her body despite her strength. He also said something about different Servants having different justifications for their Parameters.
"A service for the male audience"?
I don't quite understand that, so a justification to have that build without having a body type most associate with lots of strength or fitness?
Is that it, or am I missing a thing?
There was a bit about how Saber Alter's strength was from mana burst not muscle in the prologue IIRC.
She's a normal girl without prana burst.
The thing is when you're a dragon you're a non-stop jet engine.
So with here dragon core, could she do Independent Action like Gil and supply herself with mana, depending on class summoned as and skills picked?
That was always kinda silly even back in Stay Night, made only more silly by the multitude of slim female servants with decent strength stats in the series since then, without some particular skill to explain it.
Rin has the same issue, come to think of it. She's meant to be pretty toned due to all the martial arts training she's done under Kotomine, as well as general fitness, but any artwork seen of her in the VN... doesn't imply this. Can't recall if the UBW anime did, although I do remember a scene of her facing off vs Luvia at the end in a wrestling match.
Yes there's lots of slim people. Rin for example is supposed to actively exercise a lot and do strength training, but depending on some scenes I've seen she seems to flux between hilariously strong and skilled even without magic boosts, to laughably weak and clumsy.
Her build also doesn't look muscular in most art styles.
But this is true for a lot of characters, including male ones like Shiro. He usually isn't drawn with massive muscles or abs (nothing Archer Emiya level, and certainly nothing Hercules or Lu Bu Servant level which are comically large except in the what if future Limited Zero Over CE Shiro who is a different person from a different verse and a potential future).
He's drawn like a lot of visual novel and light novel protagonists in build. Relatively slim, looks a bit like an everyman type of personality.
Other characters like child Gil are also extremely strong apparently even without magic, despite having a build most wouldn't expect to have lots of muscle, as well as being a child.
Shiro also has some extremely heroic scenes where he shows off strength and durability a normal human should not have, but that's typical for lots of series with their protagonists. Even relatively 'grounded' series like John Wick through the magic of deceptive camera cuts and choreography show off a person with superhuman reactions, able to anticipate people coming through a door before they're even seen through a room full of noisy gun fire, weird cases of super speed like catching someone with a minute head start in a race in seconds, taking hits without going down, as well as lifting heavy objects with much less effort then it would need (since the heavy objects are plastic props).
There are some characters with a body type build many associate with strong muscles though, like Archer Emiya or Herc for extremely huge ones.
"Guys won't crank it to a buff Amazon."
Weak. Foolish. Cowardly. Short-sighted. Perish for your insolence, mushroom.
Everyone has their own tastes. Nasu will likely write to cater to his own, or perhaps what he thinks more people will be receptive towards.
Still there are other series, or doujin at least, that might have something more to the tastes you feel Nasu is leaving out.
I myself wouldn't mind more variation in character design in this direction too, though I don't need it to enjoy the series currently as is.
The writing has lacking somethings I might prefer and has in it some I dislike, but still has a lot I like.
I feel adding Amazon type characters would at worst be neutral for me, and at best be good.
But I know some who think it would make the series awful, and the devs and writers have to account for that too.
They already have lots of characters, ideas and themes to juggle and give measured amounts of screen time and strength to.
As far as I can remember, I think something in the original VN stated that without her using her Mana Burst, Saber was about as weak as a regular 16 year old girl. I don't think it's been brought up since, because it doesn't really make sense that she's nearly the only exception for something like that.
Thing is some of the scenes seem to play for laughs her as weaker then a 16 year old girl. Rin has a set of 2 kg barbells in the VN built for reps and not weight, and Saber can barely lift those without struggling.
That isn't 'weak as a regular 16 year old girl' unless all 16 year olds I've known have been abnormally strong.
I think that scene is played for laughs and Nasu doesn't actually think 16 year old people would struggle with light weights, but Saber does.
