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chirpycloudyrobin · 21 days

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"Saving one person is child's play. Saving the world is as hard as reaching the Heavens."

Do I press forward? Or run away?

"... back when he made the decision, he fully understood the situations that he had to face."

...although he thought that his heart was like a stone, in the end, he was still human, not some emotionless grass or plant.

In which I make connections between MDZS' Wei Wuxian and Honkai Star Rail's Jiaoqiu solely because both are pretty much my blorbos. I'll start off with the easiest connections and I will inevitably end up making the longest of reaches so come along for the ride ! :D

Contains spoilers ahead for both Mo Dao Zu Shi and Honkai Star Rail ~ Be warned :3

The quickest and easiest connections are the most surface-level ones. Both characters are attributed with the colour red (or shades/variants of), foxes, and spice.

Jiaoqiu is a Foxian, an in-game humanoid species with vulpine (fox-like) features, Wei Wuxian has been connected with foxes by the fanbase (see: popular fox!Xian and dragon!Ji type fanfics)

Both characters favour spicy dishes, so spicy that no other person could withstand their spice tolerance. For Wei Wuxian, canonically it's because he grew up eating spicy dishes. For Jiaoqiu, trauma numbed his sense of taste and only the spiciest dishes could make him feel alive for the first time (see: Jiaoqiu Character Story III)

Jiaoqiu's in-game abilities' aesthetic is also based heavily around the Yuanyang Hotpot, where the hotpot resembles the yinyang symbol and one of the broths involved is a spicy broth.

Their character designs feature the colour red as a significant colour. (Jiaoqiu's in-game abilities, top, fan, and phone case; Wei Wuxian's hair ribbons and clothing accents [and his powers in the donghua])

Yes, I do completely admit that my brain went "omg jiaoqiu = wwx" when I saw that Jiaoqiu was a fox connected to red and spices. What can you do?

For a while, the connection stayed that way: Surface-level and with a bit of reach. But now Jiaoqiu has been released, we can see his Character Stories, and we've seen him in action in-game !

Our Foxes and their Wish to Help

The biggest and most important shared character trait they have is their dedication to helping/saving other people. Some people call this a "saviour or hero complex" in regards to Wei Wuxian, but that's just not what it is. I'll explain.

This lifelong dedication is not something you can immediately see at first glance. Both Wei Wuxian and Jiaoqiu look and feel like the archetypal trickster character with their pleasant smiles, natural charisma, and that vague sense of 'hey maybe this guy may have something planned but we don't know what'. Wei Wuxian is definitely seen by others as a lax troublemaker, while Jiaoqiu has been described in his introductory blurb as "greeting people with a smile on his face and a scheme in his heart".

They're both devious little trolls ! In the Primaveral Swordsage Event, Jiaoqiu literally slipped laxatives to IPC workers so March 7th can win and if that isn't the most Wei Wuxian thing ever then I don't know what is.

But as you go through their stories, you realise that beneath all that is a soul who just really wants to help people. Jiaoqiu walked a different path from his Alchemy Commission family to become a combat medic because "it is ultimately not compatible with my wish to practice medicine for the masses" (Character Story I). Wei Wuxian risked his already shaky position in the gentry to save the Wen Remnants who have been condemned by the rest of their society.

Both are also well-acquainted with the phrase "no good deed goes unpunished".

Jiaoqiu watched so many of his patients walk directly back to their death after saving them that he literally had to quit practicing medicine. Each death whittled away at his heart piece by piece until he was left questioning his purpose as a healer.

Wei Wuxian stuck with his decision to help the Wens until the very end. He died reviled by the Cultivation World and people still curse his name over a decade after his death. The very people he risked it all for are also gone, save for two.

The tragedy of their lives are intrinsically connected with their entirely selfless desire to help others, especially since they both have the skills to do so and, in Wei Wuxian's case, because no one else wanted to do so.

The difference between the two of them is how they coped after their respective tragedies. Jiaoqiu ended up pretty jaded by the war he went through and quit practicing medicine. In his words, "Those I saved only ended up as another dead soul when they dived head-in back into the battlefield." His retirement doesn't last long though. He was then approached to become his General's healer and he accepted. Despite it all, he still wants to help. His heart is terribly broken, but even it couldn't squash his innate wish to help and heal.

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian is introduced and he immediately jumps into saving a couple of strangers. A couple of teens, because he had the assets to do so and because no one else was around who could. And he continues to help even after the contract that brought him back was fulfilled because he can and he wanted to. He went out of his way to help those who he thought hated and condemned him because that's just who he is.

They don't go around helping people because they want to be the hero. They aren't looking for any kind of glory or prize for all their efforts. They just happen to be people who want to contribute to the betterment of the world. They both feel that they do this best by helping where they can. They're not reckless or neglectful of themselves. Jiaoqiu left when it became too much for him, Wei Wuxian exhausts all possible avenues first before he goes for the last resort. Their perceived mistakes and losses weigh down on them by the time the audience meets them.

This dedication is their biggest asset and at some point became their worst detriment. Wei Wuxian's story is finished and we know it ends in a hopeful note despite all the losses and heartbreaking revelations. Jiaoqiu's story is still ongoing and I can only hope that my boy gets the happy ending he deserves :(

Smaller Connections

Jiaoqiu and Wei Wuxian have a few more traits they share !

They're both good with kids ! Wei Wuxian is pretty fond of the juniors and they are very fond of him right back. Jiaoqiu's interactions with the younger characters are soft and cute, and they fuss over him as much as he fusses over them !

They're both inventive lil dudes ! Wei Wuxian's inventions have improved the quality of night hunts by the time he is summoned into Mo Xuanyu's body. Jiaoqiu has been mentioned to continuously improve upon his family's medicinal formula while in the midst of war and his medicines have been described to be "unusual but profoundly effective". His Character Story I has an old man say "Others can hardly even invent a few decent medicines in their lifetimes, yet a single day is all you need to achieve that and more." in regards to his medicines

They both don't like plain foods because they're "boring". Though Jiaoqiu's may just be a side effect of his diminished sense of taste from trauma.

BONUS: They both have a quieter companion who are perceived by others as "cold and distant" and are known to be particularly clean and tidy.

So, that's it ! :D This is literally me peddling my WWX-IS-JIAOQIU-AND-VICE-VERSA agenda for funsies ~

#mdzs #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #wei ying #honkai star rail #hsr #hsr jiaoqiu #jiaoqiu #mine : cloud rambles

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penmeetspage · 3 years

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I'm most of the way through No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished and I think I've decided what ticks me off the most about Myron Rollins!

It's that right along with freaking out about the mess made by Ghost and Marci's breakout (fair, that has to have looked scary from the outside) he's looking at the Reclamation Land and going "a wonder. A beautiful, untouched land of primordial spirits like nothing else on earth" and then later "You're making something extraordinary here"

and what he's looking at is a power-gathering setup fuelled by two mass murders (that we know about! At least! And he knows about both of them at this point!) and that has already been used as a WMD once (and he saw that on live TV!)

but it's clean and pretty and apparently in his eyes that means it's good.

Like.

That is comically shallow for a supposedly genius scholar of magic.

I've never contemplated what it would look like to have a charact whose villainous motivation is apparently (partly) romanticising pretty pastoral scenes??

#dfz verse #spoilers for no good dragon goes unpunished #heartstriker series

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applegelstore · 7 years

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I teased and then @eachainn and @shamingcows/@defragmentise low-key encouraged me, so it had too happen sooner or later. I hope you see this post if I tag you! Sorry it’s just a rough sketch! (for real, sorry it’s just a sketch, but I honestly don’t think I’ll ever scratch together all these days that I’d need to do a clean illustration of this :<. Or, to be, fair, even if I could, there would be other paintings I could do if I could manage to scratch together so much time, too)

Kingmaker AU is actually really fluffy if you blatantly ignore 99,9999999999% of the events in it. Other people create art to cope with their feelings, whereas I, presumably an adult, just bask in the power of my denial.

Fun fact: I made a playlist for working on this sketch and it’s so similar to one I made for a certain abandoned (?) original story of mine that I feel called out. Anyway, I suggest Iona’s A Million Stars for this piece.

PLUS A BONUS SCRIBBLE AKA the happy AU of the AU, it exists now, you’re welcome

THEY’RE HAPPY NOW, MY JOB ON EARTH IS DONE, ANYONE ELSE WHO STILL NEEDS HAPPINESS IN THIS AU??? I’LL BE HERE ALL DAY

My tags are full of (vague) spoilers

#applegelartstore #Tales of Zestiria #Kingmaker AU #on a scale from 1 to Kingmaker how heartbreaking is your AU #officially tagging as “The Saddest Shit I‘ve Ever Read”#also known as “Not Okay" (TM)#it’s good in the sense of “I cried fucking real tears”#srsly though it’s super well written and has a really interesting premise actually #I actually have a thing for the theme of sacrifice #and for the no good deed goes unpunished trope (and its consequences)#but if you’re not crying about it you have no heart #spoilers ahead it’s the one fic in which I constantly take back my wishes #I want dragon babies!! :DDD => oh wait no maybe that’s not a good idea #let Rose do shepherd things! => OH MY GOD ROSE NO DON'T #Sorey needs sleep => NOT WHAT I FUCKING MEANT #anyway someday I will build a shrine for Meebo’s hair end of message

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flightlessbirdsstudios · 5 years

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How Persona 5 Got Me Out of My Gaming Slump

ORIGINAL BLOG LINK

Persona 5: Rio Drift.

I have a very bad habit of getting into a game, or a game series, or fine, yes, anything BioWare, and then not coming back out for quite a while. When I’m done with one game I get nostalgic and replay another one, and it’s a vicious cycle. When I saw this thread on Persona 5, it was like the universe shoved the game at me and said, “Here. This is your jam. Please give Dragon Age a break for two weeks that’s all I’m asking”.

So, not wanting to let the universe down, I gave it a shot. It turns out that a lot of the things that I love about the BioWare games crop up in other games too. Sort of like these things are indicative of rich gameplay experiences or something. Absolutely wild. Full disclosure, I have never played any of the other Persona games, and may do something when I get my hands on a copy at some point.

In this iteration, our mostly unnamed protagonist gets himself into some trouble and gets shipped off to a new guardian and a new high school. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. He and his new friends discover the Metaverse, a world where desires and vices can be manifested into Shadows and Palaces.

First, because even if I don’t know my audience I sure know myself, let me be absolutely clear that there is romance in this game. It is painfully straight (Ryuji, my goof-off fashion icon fave, may some mod out there give you the smooches you deserve), which I consider a heads up and not a spoiler. The main character is a dude, and all of the possible love interests are delightful even if not always appropriate*.

I love them.

Now that that’s out of the way, the rest of this review is in no particular order. Game-play was fairly intuitive, in that I didn’t completely forget what I was doing after setting the controller down for a few days. Things are pretty clearly labeled or explained memorably. The fusion system seemed clunky and excessive but, while I’m sure I didn’t make the best choices or utilize the fusions to optimal pairings, with a bit of experimenting it made a bit more sense. I get attached easily, so once I found a fusion that I really liked and maxed out, it was hard for me to swap them out for something else. There’s a story mode (safety) which gives you a do-over if you die in combat. This is delightful if you don’t fancy the idea of dying within sight of your next checkpoint/safe room. Otherwise there’s the typical easy, normal, and hard. If you’re feeling very frisky, there’s also a ‘merciless’ difficulty that you can find via a free DLC.

Speaking of not making the best choices or utilizing things to their maximum potential, the confidants were sort of amazing. I love them all. One of my absolute favorite tropes is found family and Persona 5 has it in spades. An absolute cast of misfits and dreamers pit against society wanting to grind them down.

Honestly, one of the best tropes. Six of Crows, Dragon Age (okay, a lot of BioWare actually), One Piece, and other stories like that just always get me right in my feels.

Mini-games or stat-building exercises are always a good time for me, as long as there’s variety, and there sure is variety here. Be it doing laundry to clean up some found gear, hitting the batting cages (so to speak) to raise proficiency, or browsing shops in Shinjuku, there’s fun to be had just in exploring the world. Unfortunately you only get so much time a day, and while you can eventually stay out a bit later and get some help so you can multitask, it just seems like a lot of time is spent waiting to go to bed. It would have been nice to be able to spend a little of that before sleep time confined to your room but still able to read, or even a mini-game that didn’t raise stats. I understand wanting to keep your system balanced, but having to hear that I’m too tired to do anything, or being yelled at by my cat to go to sleep, sure gets old. (I already get yelled at by my real life cats enough as it is.)

The soundtrack is top notch, and vocalist Lyn has some catchy tracks that are perfect for staging your own heists a run around the neighborhood. Shoji Meguro is an absolute master at mixing the high energy music one would expect of a flashy heist with calm, walking around the rainy city music. That’s pretty much all I have to say on that part. Catchy as heck. Nobody will know if you’re pretending to be a Phantom Thief in your head.

The art, likewise, is gorgeous. It’s interspersed with anime quality cut-scenes (and indeed, there’s an anime prequel and series to be found as well), and the character splash screens are delightful. I hadn’t been paying attention to the fact that it was an Atlus (and P Studio) game going into it, but the minute I saw the MC straight-on I recognized their animation style.

One thing that could really go either way is the framing narrative. I love a good framing narrative, and this works as an in media res start to the game while also providing a fairly solid, narratively appropriate tutorial level. It can, if you’re new to the series, require a lot to be taken on faith. It answers many of the questions eventually (while raising a few more, naturally), but compared with many games that provide an info dump at the beginning it can be a bit of a surprise. A welcome surprise, to be sure, as I was immediately hooked by both our MC and Sae Niijima.

Go get ‘em, Tiger!

Overall, I realize people tend to like hard numbers and ratings so I’ll say it’s an 8/10 from me. It loses a full point for the unnecessary homophobia, and another for general mechanics that tired me out. Otherwise, it’s a solid *expletive* game.

Content warnings for the game:

suicide

self harm

sexual assault/abuse

child abuse

anxiety portrayal/discussion (I personally found this to be handled well, but to each their own. I do wish I had known it going in.)

homophobia /queerbaiting*

adults dating minors

Persona 5 is available now on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. It was released September 15, 2016.

*Atlus has a history of iffy romance portrayal and a history of homophobic jokes and situations. Catherine was a game I love/hate played and has legitimate transphobic issues, which Persona 5 skips in favor of homophobic stereotypes. There is a bartender that shows up eventually that isn’t so cringey, but I can’t say the depiction does much to balance out the rest of the queer portrayals.

Author: Kalyn E. aka EvaSerrate (on Twitch)

#persona 5 #atlus #skull #mona #morgana #ryuji yamazaki #ann takamaki #panther #joker #game review #flightless birds

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