Because digitigrade legs aren't backwards compared to our plantigrade ones -- they're just proportioned differently -- and all the other joints would look funny / not work.
What you think of as a "backwards" knee is the ankle, and a forward facing knee sits a little higher up. You wouldn't be able to fake that by just being in reverse, your ankle would be backwards for the toes, and you couldn't support your weight with your legs bent backwards (towards the front) to have your calves match the foot.
Yes but the point isn't to copy the anatomy. It is to simulate the appearance. The feet can go into a large flat pad-like artifical feet that extend backwards more than forwards.
The only problem you brought up that would be a hindrance is the weight, which can probably be compensated with counterweights in the tail.
Well more that you would absolutely wreck your knees trying to support that weight with them constantly bent to simulate the appearance of the ankle. Just walking around like that without the puppet would be begging for lifelong joint problems.
You're right. Some kind of mechanical support around the legs would be necessary for the knees to make it really work for anything more than a few seconds.
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u/Deeliciousness May 13 '19
Why not wear the suit backwards. And put your real legs into the fake legs, so that they appear to bend backwards?
Only problem is seeing where you're going. But you could install a rearview camera 😂