#And I love Dan heng too

[artheresy]

See in my head, Dan Heng and Blade are hoyoverse's fave ocs in two different ways like hear me out

Dan Heng is the oc that gets all the art, they're the one that gets the most time to shine. The oc that gets doodled a lot and talked about a lot. Also for some reason gives similar vibes to the giddiness and love someone has for an oc they made years ago and are now rediscovering and making a ton of stuff for and redesigning them too like. Even if Dan Heng most certainly was made as apart of this project and didn't have that history of creator, he gives the vibes of an oc like that given how Hoyo treats him yknow?

Meanwhile, Blade is a classic favorite oc type, the Punching bag. Yanqing may take L after L in fights, but Blade takes L after L in life. He's Hoyoverse's whump king. Just when you think his backstory can't get any sadder, Hoyoverse goes "XD guys!! I added more details to his backstory look!" and it's just the most tragic things ever added from brainrot. He would be featured in those "My oc if they never went through *x trauma* videos on Tiktok" though if they actually did that, he probably would just be a headstone then lol. Blade is the oc that doesn't get shelved because each day at some point, they spend time to think about ways to make his life worst, either in the past or in his unfortunate future!!

And Hoyoverse is honestly so real for that, I'm absolutely eating up everything about both of their characters

[su-rodriguez]

(no supe como traducir esto a inglés, sorry xD)

[yuzuuu4]

pov: you spot someone inputting things in the data bank late at night (you're in space)

[feroluce]

Not pictured: Aventurine asking Ratio if he remembers where they parked

[moeblob]

A lil guy !

[haunted-xander]

I might've gone overboard with these I made so many

[redcallisto]

[...]

[guujikaroko]

On the dead of night, I think of Dan Heng, who spent his life in prison and could only find reprieve in reading. Of Dan Heng, who is the Astral Express archivist, who goes on expeditions for the specific purpose of cataloging wildlife. Of Dan Heng, by far the most reclusive of the Nameless, who still wants to learn about the universe.

And then I think about Stelle, who is the one who brings books and letters and notes and poems and whatever else to the Archives. Stelle who looks at the most random things sometimes and is reminded of something Dan Heng said or something Dan Heng wanted or likes. Stelle, who is discovering the galaxy and wants to share that discovery with Dan Heng even if he isn't nearby.

[nomohmoss]

to lose my life or to lose my love that's the nightmare i've been running from

[itsbluesaint]

I have never winned a 50/50 on this game to date, please just stop this torture I can't take it anymore. ╰(ɵ̥̥ ˑ̫ ɵ̥̥ ╰)

[artheresy]

I can’t stay quiet about this, I need to scream it to SOMEBODY ANYBODYYY

Dan Heng and Blade were Dan Feng and Yingxing. “Dh and Bld are Df and Yx!” Nope, their current selves aren’t them, that lacks nuance. “Dh and Bld aren’t Df and Yx!” THAT ALSO LACKS NUANCEE they are still connected and fundamentally shaped by their past identities, they aren’t entirely separate from them while also still being separate in a way. The best way I can describe it is like a venn diagram, there is overlap, but there also are still areas where they don’t.

To expand more, I wanna talk about the way they foil each other a bit in this sense. For Dan Heng, even if he is a botched rebirth, simply a “de-aged Dan Feng” not fully reborn, he is still not Dan Feng. While Dan Feng has made up the basis of his personality and he accepts him as his past, I think we forget that Dan Heng had his own entire childhood after the molting rebirth was completed. One he spent imprisoned by the Ten Lords Commission, and then he was exiled when he was old enough leading to his whole journey until he became apart of the Astral Express crew etc etc. Dan Heng is made up of a basis of Dan Feng + All of his own memories and experiences. While he shares traits with Dan Feng such as personality aspects like his stubbornness, his technique with a spear, and being able to connect with his old items, he also is very much himself with his own outlook and traits shaped by what he’s learned rather than what he has been born with. To treat him as if he is Dan Feng exactly is a disservice to both of their characters and the greater narrative that they apart of. He may still carry the burdens and karma of Dan Feng, but Dan Heng is still making his own future.

Now, Blade. Blade similarly is not Yingxing, not completely. Though he accepts Yingxing’s sin as his own and is intent of repaying the sin of Dan Feng and Yingxing (and getting Dan Heng to repay it too), there still are distinctions between him and Yingxing. In fact, I’d argue there are more things separating them. I could talk for so long again about the layered use of craftsmanship to connect, or rather disconnect, the two identities of Blade and Yingxing, but there’s more than that. “Now, ██ had died. His first — and only — death.” “From this moment on, that body will be the one and only "Blade."” Although Blade was Yingxing, a disconnect exists between them through the death of Yingxing. He awoke with no memories of his past, no even his name, until Jingliu came along, instilled in him her ideologies, made him remember, not only his past sins but the feeling of death so that he might inflict it onto others. As she said, he was reborn and had even given himself a name…

I want to add that the specific ways in which their current identities exist in proximity to their past ones foil each other. As I said, Dan Heng, in part as his sabotaged rebirth, is built upon the foundation of Dan Feng and all of his own experiences and memories. He has the capacity to gain back more memories of Dan Feng as his DH IL character stories outline, and though he is still himself and still moves forward, we see him accept his relation to Dan Feng eventually. Though that past life of his is clouded by fog and mist, he may eventually be able to push away the clouds that block him and understand more, about Dan Feng and in turn about himself. With Blade, it is so heavily emphasized in game from his relic lore to the very sword he uses that his mind is essentially broken, due both in part to the trauma of Jingliu’s “teachings” and the mara that was brought on by those lessons. He can’t fully remember everything about Yingxing, in fact actively remembering such or seeing familiar things is harmful to him. Like his shard sword, he is made of broken pieces, put together in a way that can never erase the cracks, and continuously shattering before being glued together again. His life is shaped by Yingxing’s past, the trauma he has endured is directly caused by his past actions. Unlike Dan Heng, he hasn’t had this whole life to build up and live. Though he’s experienced new things, they don’t shape him and change him in the way that Dan Heng’s built his identity up.

Where Dan Heng basically has supplements to Dan Feng’s identity that make him who he is, Blade is the broken shards and pieces of Yingxing that weren’t lost to the waves, making him who he is. Dan Heng is a next chance, finally free from the Preceptors’ control and of the role that stripped his past selves of their individuality, meanwhile Blade is the husk left behind of Yingxing’s regrets, broken by trauma caused due to Yingxing’s past actions, forever tormented by his past until he inevitably is able to die. If Dan Heng is more than just Dan Feng which is why he is separate but intertwined with him, than Blade is less than Yingxing, in a way that has caused such a severe disconnect that has caused Blade to have his own identity still shaped. And looking at this, not to again bring up my craftsmanship post about Blade, Dan Heng can connect to Dan Feng. He can clear the fog, remembering his memories through dreams even if he can’t fully connect emotionally to him, and he finds sentiment in many of items that once were his, smth not many Vidyadhara actually are capable of doing. To contrast, Blade is forever separated from connecting completely to Yingxing’s identity. His memories will always be fragmented, his own path entirely changed. He can’t connect to Yingxing’s past goals and passions, seen through the distinct decision made in his character stories to talk about how he can no longer use his hands to forge weapons (something that completely defined Yingxing’s life and legacy, tied to his childhood trauma and hatred of the Abundance, something that became his genuine passion), and how none of that mattered to Blade.

All of this, the ways they foil each other and the separation between their past selves and current, just makes me love their dynamic and their lore a lot. Makes me want to cry most days of my life if I’m honest. And it’s part of why I do take issue with the way nuance has completely left this argument, only having two extremes of “Dan Heng is Dan Feng!” Or “Dan Heng isn’t Dan Heng!” Again… Dan Heng WAS Dan Feng, he wouldn’t be Dan Heng without Dan Feng, but he is still himself. That’s part of the tragedy between them. They are still fundamentally defined and shaped by their past selves, similarities able to be spotted if they can be remembered, but they’ve also experienced so much that has changed them, and they can never truly go back to being Dan Feng and Yingxing. It would never be fully the same again.

[endlesslytired]

[itsredpaint]

sleeping arrangements

[rachelclowny]

i've been thinking a lot about march 7th and her new path/form because at first i was kind of disappointed when it was first announced. i, like lots of other people expected her to get a five star, lore drop form like dan heng eventually, and the whole new path/new element really brings a bit into question about how the universe actually works. is march now able to control imaginary? could anyone do that? this new form has occured under completely different circumstances than everyone else's, no big change occured to bring this new march into existence. it just feels kind of anticlimactic, right?

whilei still have some nitpicks with it all, but i've come to really appreciate this idea of march being able to change paths and styles so easily, especially while playing through her event. she has 67 different versions of her life to choose from, after all. she doesn't want to miss out. just as the trailblazer's determination to forge their own destiny has brought them the gaze of several aeons, march's ambition to take her life by the reins has brought her the unique ability to completely transform by herself and bring those futures to life.

it's funny because i think lots of people expected a new version of her based off the remembrance and Fuli, and while i hope we still get that, i think it's important to see that march wants to know and understand her past, but she also refuses to let it change the life she's lived since, the memories she's made and the love she's shared. she's able to forge these new paths all on her own because of the intense passion she holds for living and her desire to experience as much as she can, as long as she can.

[feroluce]

Clank clank clank clank cl-

[revserrayyu]

One HSR Character a Day Day 9: Boothill