Florans are creepy

They are adorable in pixel version
but when they are "drawn" —
They look like real life creepers.
Do the devselopers officially intend them to look so creepy, or is it just normal for us fans to give them that look?
I honestly think they shouldn't have mouths and do photosynthesis lol
I also can't even see the difference in the genders


FLORAN FLORN FTW

 

Plants don't get everything they need from photosynthesis. Much of it comes from the soil, and some plants live in places where the soil lacks sufficient amounts. So we have plants like the venus flytrap. And since Floran aren't rooted in soil, they eat.

 

*NeoslayerX Thinks*

 

I personally like them. They're cool-looking, and some have pretty foliage (looking at you, Nuru.) Also, being plants, they have both genders. So, technically, they are neither and both at the same time. Also, please take that hot Floran action elsewhere.

 

hahaha

have another cheeseburger

 

iirc they were said to not have a gender but who knows what CF changed in lore since then.

I still have troubles when fanworks show them with 5 fingers and 5 toes, as this is mostlikely unlikely how they are given they originate from plants. But I guess even CF mainstreamed that one.

 

Florans actually had an incredibly sinister and dark storyline previously, with Greenfinger basically being a mad bioscientist creating insane brute floran (who did you think populated the floran hells...?). But a lot of the lore entries relating to these were removed, and the floran are now super polite to the hylotl, while previously they were super threatening and made you legit think they were gonna jump and eat you.

 

yes once the universe was a darker more intrigued ones. Now its rather much a overhauled with mainstream political correctness stereotyping

 

Welllll plants can only have one gender. All combinations are possible really. Plants with both reproductive organs in every flower a plant having male and female flowers or a plant producing female organs or male ones after it went through the respective male or female phase as seen with corn plants. Orrr plants can be one gender throughout their whole life as seen with willows or cannabis plants. So them having one gender is entirely possible (but the plants of the last group I mentioned are a minority)


Edit: As for the main post ispano is right. Photosynthesis is a complex process (won't go into detail) where a plant basically captures energy from the sun but it's just that energy, just like us plants also need elements to build themselves up as ispano said with carnivorous plants they most often populate soil with low nitrogen which is the most important element to a plant and which is found plenty in insects (amongst other things)
So it makes sense they have mouths

 

Just think about this:



This is basically they before all the protectorate thingy



Edit:

Some sweet extra codex

 

The main theme behind the florans from the beginning was: Plant people, except they're dangerous, savage hunters! They're meant to play with your expectations, hence why they look outwardly cute, but still have terrifying maws filled with teeth.

 

I miss the old lore always managed to crack me up

 

The developers fully intended for the Florans to start out creepy and sinister but then the pixel models ended up being too cute, so this became their advantage of being beautiful but carnivorous.

 

They're still my favorite race in Starbound, regardless of how they look. Just their whole concept is great, and they do manage to look quite neat on top of that.

In my mind though, they're less cute and more, well, this:


(I really should color that sometime)

 

Yeah, and this is chalked up to the Floran having "forgotten" that they almost wiped out the Hylotl.
They forgot perhaps the biggest hunt they've ever been on. GOOD JOB LORE GUYS!
All of the lore has been replaced with much more generic, much less entertaining, and much less interesting stuff, unfortunately... Not to mention far less of it, too...

 

some Floran are still cannibals, much of the Floran race is still rather aggressive compared to other races.

just because the available lore doesn't explicitly say they're still crazy plant people doesn't mean they're not still crazy plant people.

 

I do like the fact that they've forgotten about it though. Really gives some character to Floran culture, and how they value history.

 

I think what they are going for here is that the floran/hylotl war was a very long while ago and while the floran aren't very into intellectual things, like history, they may have forgotten, while the hylotl remember. This or the new greenfinger(S) are trying to turn the floran race around and making them more civilized.

 

It's the latter. In fact, the lore piece talking about advice to new Greenfingers discourages them to let their Floran tribes from acting in certain ways...Such as eating each other.
Overall, the new Floran lore has actually made the bit in the intro of them struggling to see that the fleshy species aren't just talking prey actually relevant (Just read the old lore. It doesn't depict Florans as anything but savages, and was too easy to agree with the Hylotl PC's genocidal thoughts towards them).

 

Unlike them novakids..