#or any hyv game for that matter

[buryam-soul]

Smth smth I'm too tired to teach ship etiquette to a total stranger, but isn't it common sense to NOT tag ships when you're saying stuff like "I don't get this ship lmaoooo"??

[strwbrryfire]

ur such a cool n creative artist i followed u for like genshin stuff (which i've since stopped playing) but i've rlly liked seeing ur style in other fandoms !!

ahh thank u so muuch !! yeaah i am def in the process of taking all my favorite genshin characters and just making them mine lol . kaveh childe and diluc will be have to pried out of my cold dead hands

ty ty for stickin around through my brainworms <333

tell me on anon why u follow me !

[iodrawsandtalks]

please pass on this info within the next 10 days BEFORE Star Rail 2.1 because when the version starts everyone will talk over this with their OWN character issues and own impressions from the game.

I’ve explained this about 10 times before getting censored on 3 subreddits and ignored about 5 times. I’m used to it.

Honkai: Star Rail’s new region, Penacony, has served to erase black people, black history, and black influence from the Jazz Age.

I’m rather used to this getting swept under the rug with their other games, Honkai Impact 3rd, and Genshin Impact, but given the amount of money they had been shilling for this game I expected a fresh start. Sooo as a black dude myself I guess it’s been easier to pick up on microagressions plus I’m autistic so my brain runs through things for details well(I’m also a gay dude desperate for representation so yeah I pick up on EVERYTHING).

The Jazz Age itself was a unique period in American History with the rise of prohibition of alcohol and black families celebrating their newfound freedom post slavery and slowly attempting to integrate into a White dominated American society. During this period, African-Americans from New Orleans cultivated the musical style we now know as Jazz.

Black jazz musicians were the main reason the Jazz Age reached worldwide popularity and Jazz broke out all over America. To sum this up, Black people making the most of their struggles in this time period are responsible for the Jazz Age.

Now it goes without saying that HYV, no matter how much they try to humanize themselves and make the people at the top look innocent, have more or less never been even remotely kind about positive representation of black and brown people in their games.

we sadly know there are no black characters in Penacony. there was NO attempt to pay tribute to African-Americans and their soul in the birth of Jazz. They just stole it to portray magical fantasy white angels devils and robots.

So, they’re spending all this money on advertising with LA events, buying the Vegas Sphere at one point, giving players gratuitous free pulls, making their anniversary into a party, to obfuscate their appropriation and theft of black history.

i’m tired and I know a lot of fans dont have a reason to get invested in the problems of their big fixation or what their favorite game company is doing wrong, you can help if you continue asking them at every new corner, every new promotion, every new character,

Why? Why not depict any black characters in this Jazz fantasy? Why not let us have this one thing? Why release this faux Jazz area to speak over black history month? Why won’t you add Black characters? Why?

[pearl-blue-musings]

This will probably be the last time I will talk about hyv and genshin regarding this topic

Hoyoverse has shown us that they have the ability to make and create fantastical worlds based off of real life people and cultures. They’ve shown their vast knowledge of different time eras with genshin regarding architecture and music. They’ve shown their “diversity” of npc’s with those of differing body types, eye color, hair color, height, skin color, clothing, dialogue, facial marks, etc.

And with that showing of “diverse” npc’s they have shown that they can make multiple playable characters of color. They are making the conscious choice to not do that. It’s not like “oh it’s just a game” when Inazuma is directly based off of feudal Japan and Liyue on China in days of old. Their food, music, buildings, clothing, all reflect those cultures in a fairly correct way even down to the skin tone of these characters, for the most part. Why is making a character based off of Nigerian culture and folklore have the correct skin tone so difficult?

The livestream with the music portion, which was done incredibly well, showed that yes they can and do respect these cultures to a degree to use musicians of this culture to represent and perform the music in the style they want. So the diversity is there, we won’t be able to see it in game.

Again, hoyoverse is making the conscious decision to not have playable characters of color. What we as players of Black and/or African descent want is to be represented correctly. If you have characters that are based off of real places, doesn’t it make sense to have them look like the places they represent? Yes it’s fiction, but if it’s copying reality then you’re just being colorist and racist. Like, we’re not asking for everyone to have the same pigment as Lupita N’yongo or other beautiful dark skinned people, but just a little more than a tan. Being tan and being a person with more melanin in their skin is not the same thing.

It’s kinda like this. Say you’re putting on a play thats based off of real events and the events happen to be in a certain place at a certain point in history where there are particular rules set in place. Let’s say it’s the story about Rosa Parks. And you as the director want it to look as accurate as possible. Would it make sense for a white guy to play the role of Rosa Parks? Would it make sense for any person of any other race or ethnicity to play this role if you have this specific vision? What about the movie Crazy Rich Asians? Would you believe it if it had mostly black people in the cast???? But it’s a work of fiction, right? So it shouldn’t matter, right???

That’s the part of the point we’re trying to make.

It’s weird, it’s off putting. It should make you uncomfortable. That’s how I and probably others feel about it! BUT

We know hoyoverse isn’t gonna do anything about it. They’ve shown that they can do it but choose not to. And it’s hard to change a big company like that’s mind. So, I’ve learned to be uncomfortable with Natlan. I’ll live on in my head that they are correctly melanated, look at fanart and shit and that’s it. Thanks for reading my tedtalk

[wutherwaves]

hello i hope you're well! i had a question: were you considering explaining how the pity in wuwa works? if i have the wrong person i apologize!

thank you! and yes, i believe i was :) keep in mind this information may easily be wrong/incorrect as it's based off of pre-release versions (mostly CBT2)

putting under a cut because it's a lot LOL

banners include

a beginner banner (intended for new accounts to receive at least 1 standard 5* character at only 50 pulls (10 pulls should also be at a slight discount, making it really cost 40))

a permanent standard character banner (includes all standard 5* characters and likely all 4*'s added to the game)

a permanent standard weapon banner (includes all standard 5* weapons; this has a 100% guarantee rate-up for a weapon of YOUR choosing)

a limited character banner (includes a limited 5* character for a set amount of time, as well as three 4* characters having a higher pull rate)

a limited weapon banner (includes the above banner's character's signature weapon; like the standard one, it has a 100% guarantee)

similar to HYV games, limited 5* characters drop on a 50/50 chance, which becomes a 100% guarantee if you lose the first time. the conversion rate of IRL currency to astrite is also identical to HYV's rates, and astrite to pull currency is also the same (160:1)

unlike HYV games, the "hard pity" point (at which you get your 5* no matter what) is a bit lower, at 80 pulls, and soft pity is speculated to begin around 65

as far as i know there are also 3 different pull currencies, which may incentivize astrite hoarding rather than converting early; 1 for all standard banners, 1 for limited characters, and 1 for limited weapons

other things to note that may or may not be true for launch:

the beginner banner may have a 5* character picker (meaning, you choose who your guarantee drop at 50 pulls is)

gaining a 5* character on the beginner banner before your 50th pull should not reset or cancel out the banner (meaning you can get multiple if you're lucky)

you gain oscillate coral and afterglow coral from pulling weapons and characters. while you can use afterglow coral to buy more pulls, CBT2 saw the ability to purchase wavebands (constellations/eidolons/etc.) for characters, including currently running limited ones. if this feature remains at launch, saving your afterglow coral can mean getting up to 2 (iirc) extra copies of a character, though i believe this can only be redeemed after obtaining said character once

hope this helps!! i can try to answer any other questions + if anyone else has differing/additional information that is also appreciated

[finisnihil]

I read your post from 4/10 and wanted to double check: you mentioned that Sunday took Sparkle up on her offer to pose as Robin, but I don't remember a time when that happened? He mentioned the family had a plan + the emanator post by hyv basically says they can take on the form of other family members. If you mean the convo between Aven/Sparkle couldn't that have just been Aven's misconception? She never confirms it in that convo as far as I remember. Loved the post btw just curious

That could very well be the case as well! It's all very vague so I went with what I thought made the most sense based on context clues, which was Sparkle replaced her.

Looking at it from a meta perspective I don't see why the writers would have Aventurine say that unless the statement/question held some genuine weight. When writing you wouldn’t typically introduce the idea of Sparkle replacing Robin by her demonstrating her ability to do so believably, having her offer to do it for the Family to upkeep airs, and then bringing it up again later as Sparkle being the culprit if that’s a plot line you don’t intend to actually upkeep as it would be redundant and take up time and space.

Speaking of Sparkle not confirming it, it’s in line with her character. Sparkle as a Masked Fool lives to invoke chaos. Just because she didn’t confirm it doesn’t mean it can’t be true, think back to her conversation with Aventurine some more. She doesn’t lie to him but she doesn’t reveal her hand enough to help too much. Basically her attitude about it all can be summarized by a quote from her character trailer: “Let me tell you what foolishness is, pretending to be smart like you do. Then what is a fool? Knowing when to act clueless, like I do”.

It’s only when he’s found the right questions to ask he’s able to push her for more details, and even then she’s cagey about the information she shares. Sparkle enjoys watching everyone run around trying to manage the disaster because that’s Elation to her. It would be more out of character for her to give a clear yes or no on the matter, hell the closest she gets to giving one is implying that’s the answer by saying “…and if I say ‘no’?” Adding to this she only gets this close to giving a clear yes or no because Aventurine entices her with the idea it will cause further chaos.

But then again, 2.1's writing decieved us in a lot of ways so like you said, it could've been a misconception. This is just my take on the matter based on what we’re given.

By the by, which Emanator post do you refer to specifically? I don’t recall seeing the information they can take on the form of other family members on any Insta posts (I don’t use Twitter/X) or the big Emanator rundown the official HSR account posted on HoyoLab. If I missed it I’d like to know!

Tbh when analyzing media like HSR, which is constantly updating in real time, you're always running the risk of getting something wrong simply because you're working with an incomplete puzzle. Some of my analysis posts don't hold nearly as much water as they did before 2.1 and whatnot so if I am wrong on that I wouldn’t be too surprised. I try to keep up to date on the lore to the best of my ability as it’s the main reason I even play the game but until Penacony is complete and we have a full picture to work with I really appreciate people like you bringing possible holes in my analysis to my attention!

I’m really glad you liked my post and tysm for the ask! Have a great day, mwah!

[ninas-gf]

For the character ask meme: Eula, 2, 3, 7, 8, 22? and Kujou Sara, 4, 9, 20?

oh gosh, this is gonna be a long one :D

Eula:

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

honestly, i think the main reason why i’m so obsessed with her is rooted in how much of a mess she is. her personality is just all over the place, but that just makes it soooo much more interesting to actually analyze her as a character imo

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

probably the way she’s written in her quest </3 for some reason, hyv really wants her to be this absolute girlboss who can do no wrong, and i think it would have been *so* much more compelling if they delved deeper into why she acts the way she does and how her trauma has shaped her and her flaws… instead of basically using paimon to tell the audience how to feel about her, yk?

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

the fanfics! there are soooo many fanfics out there that genuinely do her character so much justice (more than hyv could ever offer tbh) and i really enjoy seeing how different people interpret different aspects of her character… and of course this includes your work as well! <3

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

it’s very, very obvious that a large portion of her fanbase in particular only really values her for her looks, and idk why but it bothers me so much 😭 like as much as i think everyone is entitled to enjoy characters the way they want to, it does make me a little sad that people will ignore everything about her personality because they only see her as a waifu or whatever

also i think she’s one of the most heavily mischaracterized characters in the entire game but i’m also extremely biased when i say that

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

i love it when writers explore her childhood

i dislike it when she’s portrayed as overly aggressive or angry… she just doesn’t seem like the kind of person to lash out that easily

Sara:

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

definitely an animated tv show! not only because i love animation in general, but also because it would give her the chance to have some pretty badass scenes!!

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

i think sara would be a very clean and quiet roommate, but i would also be a little intimidated by her so…. maybe?

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

kuki shinobu 100% <3

[outivv]

Okay, look. I found your post because it was in the ToT tag, and while I agree with the sentiment, it doesn't do the movement any favors to bomb all Hoyoverse Games overall. If lay people look at the movement and don't understand why it's being bombed, then all that's been done is drive people to their fandom corners.

This happened years ago. People who were with Genshin before over the anniversary debacle a couple of years ago did it too, but nothing changed except the large amounts of hate sent to people who were Themis players.

Change may happen, but only if there's a clear and concerted effort, and if it's clear to Hoyo why games are being bombed.

To that end, if you and other readers insist on bombing other Hoyoverse games like Themis, then I hope that the critiques made (and of the low rating itself), tie itself back to Themis, rather than Genshin or HSR to make a stronger argument to the devs of the game and lay people reading the reviews.

I don't know if the development team who work on Themis also work on ZZZ, HSR, or Genshin. Maybe these games share developers. Maybe they don't.

If the developers aren't shared among the different games, then a blanket bomb with no explanation or an explanation that only relates to a different game may not be taken seriously by the dev teams for the games.

In my opinion, I think it would be easier to drive people towards the movement against colorism in Hoyoverse games, by pointing out the colorism and tying it back to the game itself. (I.e. There's colorism in this certain part of the game, and it makes me feel uncomfortable, etc.)

With a nuanced review, people could read thoughtful reviews, understand what is being protested against, and then act as a warning for people who decide to download the game. In addition, I think it would be easier to make the game developers (for their respective games) take the issue more seriously. Not to mention, having a thoughtful comment also makes it harder to flag a comment for spam.

So in the case of Tears of Themis, for a good while, people have brought up the colorism that occurs in Themis when it comes to various past events. The biggest ones being Romantic Rail Getaway, and the Secrets of the Tomb - which are inspired by real life locations.

So for further reading and research, I would recommend checking out some of these posts so that any critiques of Themis stay grounded within the game itself and in service of the bigger picture of colorism in Hoyoverse games, rather than comments and critiques blanket bombing games.

[Regarding Romatic Rail Getaway in game event] https://www.tumblr.com/obei-me/668539823841263616/reading-mariuss-rrg-story-stuff-finally-catching?source=share

[ Regarding another in-game event, Themis put out called Electrifying Night] https://www.tumblr.com/sweetcinnamonlove/679939710597169152/sweetcinnamonlove-rant-and-me-just-rambling-it?source=share

[Regarding the Secrets of the Tomb in-game event] https://www.tumblr.com/joeyglowy/683004535124443136/the-problem-with-sott?source=share

No, no, I agree! That’s what I was trying to like kinda say, or if I thought it would be obvious that when reviewing a Hoyoverse game that you should focus on the individual game issues, because all of the games have their own issues, which I have talked about before multiple times so I’m not gonna do it again cause I am TIRED BAHAHAB.

Hoyoverse as a whole has been extremely racist and colorist, so it doesn’t matter if the independent dev team who works on ToT also work on zzz, hsr, and genshin- because it is a company issue overall, and like you said ToT has had issues with colorism and racism in the past with previous events. I stopped playing ToT a long time ago, but even I know vaguely about these things because it’s just a shared fandom space across all Hyv games.

The reason for the review bombing is to stick to Hyv games, target the individual game’s problems while bringing attention to the company that this is a company wide thing, and also to lower the rating of the games overall because that is what scares Hyv. They care when their rating goes down, and when they don’t make as much money- so that’s why boycotting and review bombing are such important things to get change from Hoyoverse.

I do overall agree, we should be organized in the movement, but I’m just a one man band- so it’s hard for me to organize people on tumblr, especially because a lot of the discussion on the boycott is on Twitter. I’m mainly focusing on just informing and educating, and discussing the issues with Hyv since most of my account is based around Hyv games. I recommend looking at #HYVboycott, and following @ HYVBoycott on Twitter, just for a lot of info and their petition!!

[hsr-texts]

i don't play genshin anymore but i still think it's wild how cheap hyv is with their rewards esp after 3 years. i wanna believe they're waiting until their 5th anniversary to go all out but with the rewards being more or less the same each year, i won't be surprised if they dont

the thing is, anniversaries for gacha games to gacha players is meant to be like christmas for filipinos. it's THE event you look forward to the most in the year.

but hoyo doesn't seem to take advantage of that and instead makes lantern rite that event that players are meant to look forward to.

which, i suppose makes sense but it still sucks we don't even get a nice celebratory event during anniversary where traveler can relax and look back on how far they've come since they started their journey and this could even be a lovely feel good opportunity for paimon to be like "it's been a long journey but we have each other!"

they don't even have to give us like 1000 wishes, i just think this would be a nice way to add the special holiday atmosphere ingame.

OR THEY COULD JUST USE IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RERUN PAST EVENTS

Players have been asking to be able to play certain events they've missed like all the lore-relevant Albedo events.

If they're too lazy to make up a new event for anniversary, they can let players do previous events they missed so that it's a way to see how the events were like when genshin first started.

someone once said that anniversaries are a way for game companies to express their thank you to all the players that support the game and i think that's a good point.

unfortunately people will always keep spending and whaling on genshin no matter what and i think hoyo knows this so they just don't do shit because they won't suffer any losses AT ALL.

[ac-liveblogs]

We Will Be Reunited ch4; Caribert

dain quests are usually solidly alright, by genshin standards.

dain. why did you do this to me. daaaaaiiin

Points of note, because I don’t have much to say:

Kaeya

It’s bad. I’m sure a lot of people are going to love that Kaeya immediately reassures us that he doesn’t care or know that much about Khaen’riah anyway, he’s not going to betray Mondstadt, but the entire conversation with him absolutely obliterates the drama HYV seeded back in his Character Story at launch. Two years of waiting for any kind of acknowledgment, and we get;

Kaeya just tells us, completely unprompted, he’s from Khaen’riah. This is a secret he’s kept close to him for years, the revelation of which absolutely devastated his relationship with Diluc to the point that his best friend and sworn brother attacked him over it but yeah, sure, Kaeya’s just gonna tell the first person that vaguely asks about his past. In the context of “have you been to Sumeru before”, sure, whatever. Not that HYV hasn’t quietly been making the Kaeluc situation less explosive than it originally seemed for quite some time now.

Dain and Kaeya meet purely so that Dain can exposit Alberich family lore. You know this is why they met, because as soon as the lore is dropped and Kaeya’s assured Dain he’s not gonna do anything, the plot no longer has any further use for him so he leaves mid-conversation and we don’t see him again for the rest of the quest. Bye, dude. That spice merchant was definitely more important than anything we were talking about.

Kaeya very conveniently doesn’t want to betray Mondstadt. Given the will he-won’t he was the main drama present in his character concept along with his relationship with Diluc, HYV has now successfully defused any drama with his character. Off-screen. I love offscreen character arcs. They just keep happening. Sure, they could revisit it later, but I seriously doubt it after how they handled Collei. I will genuinely be shocked if it matters in any considerable way.

Basically, if you were interested in Kaeya’s character concept at all, fuck you. He’s a vehicle to deliver lore, just like Kazuha and Scaramouche were.

The Lore

It’s... ugh. Okay, firstly, while this “surprise! you were in a flashbackall along!” deal where you at least get to interact with what happened Way Back When is infinitely preferable to us standing around and getting lectured at, it doesn’t escape my notice that the clever plot twist (revealing you were in your sibling’s memories the whole time at the last second) did mean that HYV got to avoid writing your sibling and Dainsleif interacting for any extended period of time in the context of a serious plot.

Convenient, that. It’s so wild how that keeps happening. These writers are seriously allergic to player characters having serious conversations in serious situations. Not like that’d be interesting or anything.

It’s also really convenient that Dain just so happened to remember the lore in Sumeru now that Sumeru is unlocked, huh.

Disappointing as it is that even the godless nation of Khaen’riah still ended up worshiping something because not worshiping SOME kinda deity is illegal unless it’s stupid (Keqing), the story with the son was... fine. Except for Eide’s eng voice direction, that was hilarious. Mostly just sucks that we didn’t get to see our sibling’s thoughts on the matter, since we were apparently them. Convenient, that.

The lore drips are... whatever. The plot seems to be trending towards Khaen’riah having screwed themselves over, which... I would probably be more accepting of in a different game, but I’m sure this is just gonna turn into “Heavenly Principles did nothing wrong”, so....

I’m just so unenthusiastic about the mysteries in this game because I know HYV will always take the easy way out on writing them. Man. I don’t even care about the twins’ lore anymore.

I think the only thing I really liked in this quest was Dain wanting to finish his drink before doing plot shit.

I’m gonna go do Windblume, anyway. Mondstadt usually delivers on fluffy fun.

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

I just saw somebody, who went on a whole self-aggrandizing rant about showing MHY the errors of their ways('never caring about Genshin players') by not spending any money on GI in 4.4, spend $1500 to get E6 Kafka in HSR.

Yesterday, many of the people who were on and on about not playing the 4.4 update at all to 'stick it to HYV' have gone on to Wish for Cloud Retainer and are exploring to build her as well as buying the new skins for Ganyu and Shenhe.

Genshin is still making more money than HSR. It has a more loyal fanbase as well thanks to being around longer. Choosing to give HYV money through a different, slightly less popular game, will not teach them a lesson.

If you really want to boycott, you need to mean it. Stand ten toes down on that shit and commit for life. It's like those Republicans who bitched about that trans person promoting a brand of beer, and claiming they'd spend their money on a different beer, only to get dragged cuz all the beers in question were owned by the same company. It doesn't matter which one they bought, the money goes to the same place at the end of the day and hurts nothing. Solves nothing.

You want to teach HYV/MHY a lesson? Don't play Genshin Impact. Or Honkai: Star Rail. Or Honkai Impact 3rd. Or the other less popular games they have under their belt. Don't buy official merch. Don't watch videos they post. Don't interact with their accounts and content on social media. Don't watch streamers who play it. Don't listen to their game music on Spotify. Learn how to actually boycott if you're so heated about how they treat their Genshin players.

Throwing $1500 at them, even in a different game, won't solve anything. You planned to spend until you got C0 Xianyun but now, in protest, you're going to spend ten times that amount on HSR for a different character? Really?

[fictionkinfessions]

If hyv doesnt give me confirmation on my playable element I am going to scream cry and throw a tantrum /dramatic

I have memories of anemo, cryo, and dendro. Have pulls toward electro- (And pyro on the rare occasion) Like I know I could utalize any element if I wanted because I made the soldiers weapons.. But elemental infused weapons arent a vision. Or a delusion. Or whatever I end up having I guess-

And I've seen a strange amount of fan merch label me as hydro just because Im blue... (Even though Cryo is also blue??)

sigh.

As long as Im not geo I dont care what they give me as long as Im cool. (Sorry geo weilders, thats Pantalones domain. Zhongli you should acknowledge his achivements sometime. (Pantalone dont say I never did anything for you.))

Oh and dont make me physical.. Im sorry but physical is so bad in our game... Im number two of the Fatui Harbingers. I should be meta (I mean meta doesnt matter in the game but Im sure yall understand what I mean. I want myself to be good.)

SIIGH I dont want to wait ANOTHER two years >:( Three was enough..

~Il Dottore 🕯♟

📦

[pinkseas]

[parasocial bestie] VENTI MY BELOVED WE ARE SHAKING HANDS WE ARE CRYING i barely rmb how it goes anymore but hes. still such a comfort 2 me and uehrghshhdjhf anyway answerimg dat respons,..

"they could have such little conversations that even for a short time could bring his mind away from the exhaustive pain that is Everything Else"  like REAL SHT THATS WHAT IM GETTING AT,... for the ppl who had been caring for him and talked directly even if theres a few. id sorta think zhongli doesnt rlly allow ppl to visit xiao for the sake of not overwhelming him with guilt, and the only healer that came for rare check ups directly being madame ping and zhongli usually go straight to the pharmacy for more advice. not even bringing qiqi or baizhu along too. he knows xiao well enough not to have a lot of visitors no matter how Worried they are bc xiao doesnt worry for himself even in this condition, why bother when he doesnt even, cant even, walk out of the inn.

i got a lil scene abt that but like YEAH PAIMON?? paimon is so great in theory and to me when it comes to her in-game i just go entirely on my theory and Selectively Read her dialogs anyway whatever feels like its My paimon i do that KFHSHDHDH despite her being the most talkative character Ever she rlly deserves more than sumkind of hyv scapegoat fr and theres way too much unwarranted hate even on harmless scenes bc the game dialogs and text alwsys gets lost in translation and en voice acting. can be misleading than the og cn too. cn paimon is the most chill ever. id like to think paimon in this brainrot tho,.. and how i interpret my paimon in general shes still a lil childish but in a good way without those annoying lines amd if she has it she learns. and xiao over time has a soft spot for her like he does to other kids. lil pai pai nugget actually. ive had lumine hold her like a plushie sometimes.

anwyay back 2 brainrot [idm published but this makes me shy again uhehe] she's that lil spark in the weeks when xiao is asleep bc of that blunt innocence she naturally has, and lumine zhongli sometimes find it hard to escape their own thoughts everytime they see xiao on bed unmoving. its depressing its still worrying despite it being a form of recovery, and venti's flute already stitched the most grave of wounds. "but people who know xiao, whether just barely or through zhongli speaking of him or through lumine speaking of him, wishing him well sending regards and how does that make any sense? that those who know so little about him would care that he gets better?" u see like, i had this cute but sad scene once that since zhongli doesnt allow too many visitors but ppl have also caught on when lumine sees Other People once in a while esp when she can only roam in liyue (whether usual traveler stuff, or she has a hand in the exorcist family duty of helping in the fallen conquerer of demons' stead after the incident) they sense that grief and asked, and it doesnt take a lot to connect the dots regarding the incident bc ppl know abt that demonic presence but only a few can guess its xiao too.

and taking that message, and out of respect knowing xiao would feel even more guilty to be visited, sends their well wishes their own way. occassionally during pre-awakening, they get letters and gifts at the inn. short get well messages. herbal tea. adeptal medicine recipes. lots, and lots of flowers from both the qixing and adepti. they had to make use of the flowers somehow before it wilts, and paimon had the idea of weaving it to crowns. she fails once, at lumine's amusement, fails twice, and a few more times until she manages a sloppy looking once out of liyue's flowers. who's it going to be for then? her traveler partner would ask halfway through a perfect crown of her own. well, guess! but not a single smug one is correct, not the inn staff not the boss lady not even herself or zhongli. surprise surprise; the first to get the honors is xiao, as the activity was done on the very bed he sleeps so he can 'have fun' too. paimon proudly, but also so gentle and careful, puts the crown as if it and xiao would break under the gesture. he looks pretty. he looks serene, if one can take away the eyebags and slow breathing and unmoving fingers and bandages lightly decorated around him. he's pretty for his own good, even in slumber. lumine chuckles at the whole deal, but she wasnt sure out the amusement or that shes touched of the ideas her companion does that doesnt feel too much and genuinely lighting up such a dull day.

her voice cracks. she didnt mean to, she didnt mean to be sad all over again when paimon made a happy decision amidst it all. xiao has such pretty flowers on his head that paimon tried her hardest to make and he still hasnt fucking woke up, people have been gifting have been writing good wishes have brought zhongli to smile once in a while and she knows he's grieving with the way the older god can still break on his own personal guilt she'll never know completely and he still hasnt fucking woke up. its a simple mess that brings her down under, and shes back to remembering the incident again. paimon knew, she always notices, always watching throughout the week, brings a flower next to the inteyvats that still adorned her head, and tells her traveler partner. hey. paimon can make another one for you too. lets use all the flowers for everyone, so it has a use and doesnt die without it. xiao would always say what's the use of mortal gifts and we're using it!

and they proceed to make use of every single one, and every staff of the inn wears one for the whole day; like a sign of a special time everything is still okay.

"id sorta think zhongli doesnt rlly allow ppl to visit xiao for the sake of not overwhelming him with guilt, and the only healer that came for rare check ups directly being madame ping and zhongli usually go straight to the pharmacy for more advice. not even bringing qiqi or baizhu along too. he knows xiao well enough not to have a lot of visitors no matter how Worried they are bc xiao doesnt worry for himself even in this condition" this is SO OUCHIE !!!!!!!!!!!! but also so fucking correct, zhongli Knows him far too well to let visitors in. itd probably be really fucking uncomfortable for xiao tbh? unable to understand any of the worry and being overwhelmed by all these people who DO worry and express care and concern, unable to reconcile that with his own emotions like Why does it matter to you im useless right now i cant do anything why bother? madame ping being the only healer also makes SO much sense and is so good i love that...

"and how i interpret my paimon in general shes still a lil childish but in a good way without those annoying lines amd if she has it she learns. and xiao over time has a soft spot for her like he does to other kids. lil pai pai nugget actually. ive had lumine hold her like a plushie sometimes." I LOVE THIS SO BADDDDDDDDDDDDD childish in a good way is SO real like god, and xiao having a soft spot for her ohhh my god. okay so like. not to Totally talk abt smth else but. one of my FAVORITE games from when i was really little is called dust: an elysian tail. and the protagonist is kinda serious but also friendly and MAD powerful and has no memory of who he was before, and!!! he has!!! a small flying companion who acts as his guide through the world and people often refer to as a toy or a mascot. her name is fidget. and her fandom treatment is HORRIFIC from what little ive seen but. but. ingame. their dynamic is EVERYTHING i wish paimon and the traveler had. dust is kind to her, they argue a little bit sometimes because they dont always understand each other but fidget grows really close to him, she has SO much faith in him even when he lacks faith in himself, she pulls him back when his mind starts to get to him, she's always there by his side stays there even in battles because her magic is really weak but dusts own abilities are able to make use of an amplify it. they're a team !!! they're a genuine team. there's a point where they try SO hard and they save this town but a sick character they were really trying to help in doing that still dies, and fidget is a bit younger a bit more naive and it REALLY gets to her. like. "but we did everything we were supposed to do..." not understanding how he still passed when they did everything right. and dust just kind of quietly has to tell her how sometimes even that isnt enough. and they learn SO much from each other and its just !!!!! fidget is treated like her own character, not a mascot or a scapegoat, and its SO good, and i think of them every time i think about the traveler and paimon its unreal. that's the treatment paimon deserves she should be a teammate and a person and a guide not. That.

"she's that lil spark in the weeks when xiao is asleep bc of that blunt innocence she naturally has" NO BC THIS IS SO GOOD even when zhongli and lumine are getting caught up in their own heads and are down and upset and unable to muster too much energy, paimon being able to focus on the simple stuff making sure they're still taking care of themselves staying more positive and cheerful and being blunt !!! telling them outright at somepoint that they're wallowing and that wont do xiao any good, and he'd scold them if he saw them like this, too, so they should get up and do something etc etc man. Man.

and PEOPLE SENDING THEIR WELL WISHES TO THE INN OR THROUGH LUMINE........ god that's so. herbal tea medicine recipes....... crying shaking sobbing.

"and lots of flowers from both the qixing and adepti. they had to make use of the flowers somehow before it wilts, and paimon had the idea of weaving it to crowns. she fails once, at lumine's amusement, fails twice, and a few more times until she manages a sloppy looking once out of liyue's flowers. who's it going to be for then? her traveler partner would ask halfway through a perfect crown of her own. well, guess! but not a single smug one is correct, not the inn staff not the boss lady not even herself or zhongli. surprise surprise; the first to get the honors is xiao, as the activity was done on the very bed he sleeps so he can 'have fun' too. paimon proudly, but also so gentle and careful, puts the crown as if it and xiao would break under the gesture. he looks pretty. he looks serene, if one can take away the eyebags and slow breathing and unmoving fingers and bandages lightly decorated around him." CRYING SHAKING SOBBING. thinks about xiao just sort of idk. Caring the way that he does, acknowledging paimon in the way not everyone does and making sure she's not hurt after bigger fights and ensuring her safety and paimon caring about him sm in return wanting him to get better wanting him to have that first successful crown, working so hard over and over again to get it right so that he can wear it. god.

something about the grief lumine feels, all the gifts theyve gotten all the mourning theyve done all the hardship and the effort and through it all xiao still isnt awake, that hits SO fucking hard. god.

"and tells her traveler partner. hey. paimon can make another one for you too. lets use all the flowers for everyone, so it has a use and doesnt die without it. xiao would always say what's the use of mortal gifts and we're using it! and they proceed to make use of every single one, and every staff of the inn wears one for the whole day; like a sign of a special time everything is still okay." THE ENTIRE STAFF WEARING THE FLOWER CROWNS...... explodes and dies. handing out crowns to the staff and the people staying there and those just stopping by and the kitchen and the children and and and. some confused some grateful some knowing all accepting, all wearing them

[raidenei]

lets say the hyv decides to be extra generous with this year's anniv rewards and lets you choose any of the following:

C6 of any 5* character of your choice + 1 extra random constellation of a 4*

2 R5 weapons of your choice but has to be the same weapon type

A free 10x pull, and you get to unlock a hangout event for one of the 4*s you get in that pull

which one would you choose? :D

Are you telling me I could get both C6 Childe AND that last Sara constellation that's been avoiding me like the plague for the past year???

Nah, let's be honest, if it's random I would end up getting C57 Ningguang, Fischl or Bennett because it doesn't matter what the real banner is, those three are ALWAYS the rate up 4* in my game lmao.

But yeah, a C6 of my choice is too tempting, so I'd go with that.

[narcoticwriter]

:\ if they can't get accurate inspo regardless of reason, they probably should just avoid that as inspo at all... just becomes classless cultural appropriation at that point. Not sure what convos you're having or with whom, but it's tiring seeing excuses be made as to why people rightfully upset should just not care or whatever. Not trying to be mad at hyv but I'm still disappointed, regardless of the reasons behind it.

Anon, you make a really good point there. You really do. If the main focus was accuracy and ensuring legitimacy, I would agree with you to a certain degree.

But if you would allow me to get a little philosophical:

No matter how flawed or inaccurate their research and access may have been, at the basis of it all, the inspiration remains the same. If we wanted accuracy in every high-fantasy game that draws on inspiration from other cultures, we would have next-to-nothing.

The fact that there is an attempt to begin with speaks volumes to how much they care. If there weren't any attempts, would anything genuinely be made at all? These individuals saw a rich and vast culture that they would have loved to incorporate into their game and they did with whatever limited resources they had.

I'm not making an excuse for a multi-million dollar gaming company, I'm stating their unfair circumstances and comparisons in the digital space. Instead of lambasting them for bothering to even try with what they have, why not ask the question of why this information is held behind a Great Firewall to begin with? Why is all of the stuff they would need to have a more faithful inspiration base kept from them as not only a company, but a people and a nation as well?

Sure, they have their biases and their cultural assumptions, but in comparison to other things I've seen in my life of being a media consumer, this is arguably better. I'm sure I could find better things than Genshin Impact in due time, and I likely will! But I cannot ignore the fact that they tried to do it, and that's what matters to me.

Feel free to disagree with me if you want, but before you do, let me ask you one last question: If any creative wanted to do anything, would it be better to let them grow by making mistakes and try again, or simply bash them for even bothering to try to do it in the first place?

[ac-liveblogs]

(1) As one of the 5 Chongyun mains who exists (I even use him as an Rosaria substitute in abyss so he comes to floor 12 when I need freeze) I really hate this lantern rite more than any other so far. Instead of having a story that involved any characters we might possibly play (outside of shenhe and ganyu), use, or who might have character conflicts or quirks, it focuses on some random adepti who will never matter in the grand scheme of things and the concept of music.

(2) Like im being petty bc I like chongyun, but it's not that its only him, it's that he's the most blatant case of casting aside four stars because he has a genuinely interesting character quirk and conflict which is directly ignored. Why did he Attend a Rock Concert? Did the writers forget what happens when he attends rock concerts? is he just an extra? are they all just extras to the unplayable adeptal castes? Kill me.

I sympathise a lot, anon. I know I tend to get it pretty easy in Liyue as a Xiao fan, it never actually feels like HYV cares to do anything interesting with him. I remember my first year of Genshin, rolling Xiao right before the Lantern Rite, reading his mats and thinking "OH, THE EVIL GODS THAT APPEAR IN THE LANTERN RITE. SURELY THEY WILL BE RELEVANT"

And what did I get?

Well, Xiao dating simulator aside, not that! The event was very preoccupied with an Adeptus called Skybracer who did not matter then and has not mattered since. Or Xiao's quest, which really cared about Pervases. Or the Chasm, which really cared about Boscasius. Or Zhongli's quests, which cared about Havria and Azhdaha... All of whom, let's be real, should be less important than Xiao and Zhongli!

Like, fuck me for thinking Xiao and Venti's first on-screen meeting would be something meaningful, right? After the scraps we got when Xiao dropped? Two years ago???

Regarding Chongyun, I'm starting to think his yang energy doesn't exist, because I've sure never seen it, and Xiangling only ever did her insane cooking in her introductory quest and never again despite entering a cooking competition in Moonchase. I start to wonder if Genshin is a little too embarrassed to write those two being as zany as they should be - I know HYV is definitely uncomfortable actually writing anyone responding negatively to Fischl's quirks. I genuinely think they design characters that are too difficult for them to write as scripted. It's wild to me.

And, like. Chongyun has beef with Xiao! It's in his mats!

I have the utmost respect for Adeptus Xiao. It's just... Why must he be so disparaging toward us? He says our repertoire is lacking and our power is trivial. I'm sorry, but I just can't accept that.

You'd think if they ever met it might come up?

Realistically, yeah. I think most playable characters are just designed and their profiles are thrown at the writers to pad out enough to fill out the prerequisite number of Paragraphs and if we're lucky, any of those paragraphs might at some point get integrated into the story.

The Li and Yue cooking styles in Xiangling's story? Nah. Amber's missing grandpa? Nothing yet. Kaeya's sadism?? Towards his own allies? Nada. I don't even think we've seen Xingqiu and Diluc act as vigilantes more than once... since launch, and I don't think we've ever seen Rosaria do it. Remember Collei's storyline in the webtoon? HYV couldn't wash their hands of it fast enough, because it definitely wasn't important in Sumeru! Cyno wasn't the focus of his own quest. Neither was Nilou, neither was Ayato, neither was Kazuha.

This is not the game you come to for strong characterisation. The writers don't really care about that when it comes to the vast majority of the cast. I still feel intense disgust whenever I think about the Kazuha and Scaramouche situations.