I saw it as a moment where Luna was used as an object to portray Ardyn's villainy.
The reason for that is because the camera focus is on Ardyn and his actions rather than on Luna, meaning the purpose of those scenes was to characterize Ardyn. A close up on his face turning angry, then a zoomed out view where Luna is not facing the camera but Ardyn is, and his action is the centerpiece.
In comparison there was a scene I saw from a Chinese drama where a kneeling woman goaded a man into slapping her, and the camera focus in that scene was on her, both before the slap (there was a brief cut of the anger on the man's face, but it was not a close up) and the shot after the slap was solely focused on the woman on the ground and her reaction. The scene was about what SHE wanted from him, not about him looking more villainous by slapping her.
"Seeing confrontation" doesn't equal strong character. The problem thus far with Luna is the portrayal of passivity. The speeches presented in trailers as "leader/strong character" moments are actually weak and lame. Gibberish to Leviathan and canned generic hero lines to a tiny crowd.
In comparison, (again a Chinese drama example) in a trailer a woman dressed in extravagant robes addresses a sea of fully armored and spear-wielding soldiers, her voice filled with conviction and her facial expressions emphasizing her words: "Soldiers! Today, we adopt these new laws in our country of Qin. Tomorrow, the whole world could also adopt these same laws. For every effort you make, you will be rewarded!" It is the implication of this cut in the trailer that this is how she gains the support of the army; even without the historical context of her story it is understandable and admirable. The woman who addresses this army is properly fierce, her presence commanding.
To put it bluntly, Luna is not special, intriguing, active, or compelling in any way. From my perspective, there's just a bunch of excuses and desperate explaining as to why Luna is so passive, how she is so strong, how awesome and important she is, but this is all tell and no show. I've seen more, and I've seen much better.
Well, I just watched Kingsglaive, and I disagree then. I
super disagree. I don't see how Ardyn's villainy and Luna's cunning are mutually exclusive. It really just feels like we're starting at "she's passive and weak" and just working backwards.
Luna is easily the most emotionally resolute character in the story thus far to me, the only one who has it worse than her is Noctis, but I can't even say that because Noctis has a powerful backbone supporting him in his friends even after the passing of the King, not to mention his bloodline abilities. Luna has had literally
everything taken from her by the people who's thumb she's under, including her brother, who's still living but nonetheless not even on her side. The fact she's still managing to get shit done despite her limited ability to do so or defend herself is pretty damn admirable. What I see in Luna is that she's just really determined to see her duty through because she realizes the gravity of it. If she was mentally weak, or less insightful, she would be like her brother. If her sense of duty was any less, she would be just like her brother. And Noctis and the rest of the world would be presumably really fucked.
Again, I just feel like people are being overly critical of her portrayal more because of what they
wish she was, rather than because she's legitimately showing concerning trends. Luna being slapped by Ardyn is more valuable ammo against her than anything she's been shown doing otherwise. Even if she could go apeshit and murder all the magitek troops with some serious magic power, she still has a duty to her people and that would put them in danger, if Kingsglaive is any indication.
I feel like Luna is, thus far, a decent example of a character in a dire situation making due with what she has, which isn't very much. Luna doesn't
have to be loyal to Regis or Noctis, Ravus has turned ship and it seems to have landed him in a pretty favorable spot. She does it because she wants to, and that's easily the most difficult choice she could make in this situation. Luna is essentially Yuna, without the broken ass aeons and without the unwavering support of the rest of the planet.
It's pretty egregious dude.
This is
not egregious sexual body language. At all. This is essentially regular body language, just with a really skimpy outfit. And one guy who got the perfect camera shot lined up on that second image.
If you put her in a jump suit and covered the cleavage, there would be nothing alarming here.
http://i.imgur.com/naCsOA7.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/D86QgpB.jpg
^ These are egregious examples of sexual body language. It would raise eyebrows regardless of whatever the fuck she was wearing. It's completely unnatural and pretty much only exists so you can check her body out.
