#+ my issues with hyv and the sumeru characters

[outivv]

I’m so disappointed with the natlan teaser because like. Girl. All of those characters would straight up look better if they had even the tiniest bit of melanin don’t even lie hyv.

I’m gonna go on a fat rant here so below the cut, fair warning because it’s messy as fuck I’m just pissed off

No because how are you going to straight up take the inspirations, and clear liberties from Aztec, Māori, Qichwa, Nigerian, Hawaiian, Native American, And Mayan (according to this image from @ HYVboycott on Twitter highly recommend btw they have good info imo)

And then you’re not gonna represent them in terms of their skin color??? Yes there are pale people in all these countries and pale people apart of these cultures, HOWEVER the vast majority of people, or the native people are not typically fucking white. I am white and I literally am darker than the majority of the genshin characters, even in winter when I don’t fucking tan. Like the genshin characters don’t even look ALIVE for Christ’s sake. Hyv are a bunch of cowards who take inspiration from poc, and don’t properly represent them, even in their other games like honkai Star rail. Boothill is Native American. Blatantly. “Oh, no he’s not!!” Yes the fuck he is, his entire backstory is based off of native people, he’s also part Hispanic because the original cowboys were Hispanic people called vaqueros, his home planet in the original CN version of honkai Star rail is literally two native tribes put together I believe. He is Native American, and Hispanic, and hyv TOOK that inspiration and that culture and then was too much of a coward to AT LEAST make him tan. Don’t even get me started on aventurine. So it’s not just with genshin that they do this shit, it’s a hyv problem as a whole, but with genshin it’s so like… common, and genshin has so many issues that make it feel like a cash-grab kinda game, and like the devs are just spitting in our face CONSTANTLY, especially when it comes to characters, and representation. It’s so depressing to see a game that at first had so much fucking promise, now just be such a fucking letdown after like what? 5? 4? Years? Like you’ve built up so much hype, and lore, and excitement just for Sumeru and Natlan not having any representation like fuck off. Hyv CAN fix these issues, they just don’t want to and they have expressed that time and time again by making dark skinned enemies, and enemies with dreadlocks. They know that they can, they just don’t want to because they’re too pussy. And it’s not because they’re a Chinese company, I mean obviously I understand that there is a complicated relationship with tan skin and China, HOWEVER that is no excuse because genshin, honkai Star rail, zenless zone zero, and honkai impact 3rd are all worldwide games and they need to appeal to their WORLDWIDE customers, and I’ve seen plenty of CN players fucking just as pissed off that there isn’t any actual diversity for like any of their games. Plus other Chinese companies have made diverse games, like Dislyte which I’m honestly a huge fucking fan of because of their diversity. Having diversity would BENEFIT hoyoverse a hell of a lot, but they are just trying to appeal to greasy old white men who are the same men who have a tantrum while making a reaction video to a game trailer and go “OH MY GOD SHE ISNT GOT ENOUGH!! LOOK AT HER!! SHE ISNT SEXY!!”, “OH MY GODDD THEY HAVE PRONOUNS NOW!! THE WOKE SNOWFLAKES GOT TO THEM”, and “OH MY GOD ASSASSINS CREED IS MAKING A BLACK SAMURAI THE MAIN CHARACTER!! NOOOO THATS NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE!!” Because they’re all pathetic, and that’s who hoyoverse is trying to cater to.

Okay I’m done, this went all over the place but I’m so pissed off so fuck hyv, give them the feedback they deserve, have a great day.

[actiniumwrites]

i went back and forth on speaking on the natlan issue (in detail) because i like to keep this blog centered only around writing and less of the fandom related stuff, but honestly fuck it because it’s insane what hoyoverse is doing right now. i think it’s important everyone is aware of this and willing enough to help try to change it before natlan is released. i’ve already shared my opinion on a few other posts, but here we go:

so, in case you weren’t aware, natlan is primarily based on latin/mesoamerica with some indigenous and african influences. i’m not 100% educated on each and every culture that the characters and region are each based on, but i think it’s abundantly clear that they aren’t supposed to be white. and as a white person myself, some of these characters are paler than me. that is absurd.

they’ve once again made npc’s and enemies darker than the in game characters. here’s a screenshot of an npc from natlan versus the playable characters:

speaks for itself doesn’t it?

if you’re interested in a more detailed comparison of the characters and the cultures they’re derived from, here’s a twitter thread that covers each of them in depth: the link

anyway, hoyo issued a statement today that really showed where they stand here (in case the colorism wasn’t enough). this is from their official twitter page:

they’re paying attention. natlan has been trending on various apps, specifically from people calling out hyv. yet, yesterday when they changed neuvillette’s charged attack, people were so quick to call them out on the nerf that they backtracked within 12 hours and have decided to issue everyone a 1,600 primos (a ten pull) because of the outrage. so they can change something that won’t even affect most players, but not the skin tones of their characters which have been complained about for not just natlan’s release, but sumeru two years ago, and even at the start of the game which came out four years ago now.

interested in helping change this problem?

here’s a link to a post that has lots of information and options on what you can do to help bring more attention to the problem. i’m also going to reblog it (should be the post before this one).

the more we speak out and let hyv know this is an important issue that’s making players less inclined to play the game, the more they’re going to be willing to change it.

there is still 6 weeks left until the release of natlan. it’s not hard to change the skin tone of their characters. we still have time and i highly encourage you to take action if you actually care about this game

[daybreakrising]

okay, quest thoughts under the cut, but again, i'm not really saying anything other people on my dash haven't already said-

i'm gonna get the negatives out of the way first, bc i like to end things on a positive note. i promise you, i do have positive things to say, but-

genshin peaked at fontaine. i'm sorry, maybe there's a little bias involved there, but i genuinely believe that. i'd accept an argument for sumeru to be included too - the storytelling in both of those regions was amazing.

nothing in this story has grabbed me the way fontaine's did. i had zero emotional connection to any of the characters, most of whom i found to be severely lacking in any distinctive personalities beyond surface level traits. i just had no reason to care about them except that the story was basically telling me to, which... is very bad storytelling. if you want me to care about these people and their stories, then give me a reason to, show me why i should be invested in them and their stories. i had more emotional connection to the saurians than the people. as for the archon... listen, i may not have found raiden all that interesting, personally (in comparison to other archons, that is), but i could still connect with her and her story. mavuika? eh. i'm sorry, but she's just boring to me. yes, she's kind, she's strong, but is that... it ?? for her personality ??? and sure, it's sad that she said goodbye to her family so she could come back in 500 years but to me that's nothing compared to the sacrifices or the losses that other archons have faced. in my tier list of archons, she's at the very bottom with no competition. we'll see if her story quest changes anything, but based solely on what we get in the archo quest? i just don't care. i know some people love her but for me there's just not enough there to care about.

and the story itself... is boring. the idea behind it is interesting, some of the execution of it has been fantastic, but as an overall plot... ehhh. being force-fed "friendship is magic" themes over and over, the constant introduction of frankly pointless interludes that add nothing to the plot, the pacing of the story itself... it made me tune out and skip dialogue (by this i mean: i read the subtitles and skipped the voiced lines once i was done) and it felt like such a drag to get through. i saw this last act described as a 'slog' and honestly.... that's so accurate. it was.

that first half didn't need to be included, or if they had to shove it in there, why wasn't it part of the equally pointless (and very short) interlude quest last patch? it would have made more sense to have the 'post-war downtime' elements in the interlude so you can start off the final act with the actual action. i know i began playing when i was already exhausted, but it isn't the first time i've picked up an archon quest on little to no sleep and i've never before had to put down the controller and take a break because i was bored. nothing pulled me in, nothing gave me the motivation or the drive to finish it (or at least get as far as i could before i had to cave to exhaustion). i literally got to the point of "wait 2 more days" (again) and went: i cannot be fucking bothered with this. it honestly felt like a means of 'padding out' the story for the sake of content, and just frustrated me because i wanted to get to the point of the plot.

side note: i'm getting so tired of the constant "wait x amount of days" quest objectives. you can show the passing of time with a simply cutscene, or even just one of those black screens with text genshin likes to throw at us a lot. that and the "walk three steps, cutscene, walk two steps, cutscene, walk-" elements that are prevalent throughout hyv games but seem to be more frequent in current storylines are just... killing it for me. it's unnecessary and interrupts the pacing of the plot too much.

i have many issues with the storytelling in this region, some i've talked about before, some other people have put into finer words than i can produce right now, but it does come down to: there's no conflict, there's no real consequence, and it's not real enough. "but lauri, 2000 people died in this quest, how is that not a consequence?" - this is one of the positives i have about natlan because yes, we see actual consequence of war but at the same time... that's it. we get one act with consequences and then magically the world is all back to normal. i saw a video that touched on this exact issue: during that act, we saw the region torn apart and contaminated by the abyss, we saw people and saurians dead or dying - but then once we complete that part of the story, there's no follow-up (i do not count that pathetic interlude. it had promise and it failed to deliver imo) - and to prove this isn't entirely based on bias, fontaine did have the same problem. there was a huge ass flood and other than poisson, nowhere needed rebuilding?? there was no lasting damage??? genshin pls we know you can alter the state of the world around us - do better. and as much as i hated the trope of 'dead sister = awakened power', we should have seen more of how that affected chasca after it happened. instead, we got a few lines of dialogue and that was it. and idk if it's gonna come up again in a later quest of some kind but her whole "tainted by the abyss" deal just... never became relevant outside of her briefly losing control in her grief. i honestly expected that to play a part in the archon quest somehow and it... didn't.

because there's no conflict. & i'm not referring to the actual physical conflict of war, but conflict between characters, between elements of the plot, etc. everyone is just perfectly happy buddies that all magically get along and that is just.... not real at all. even when people band together against a common enemy, join forces to fight for their people and their home, you're not going to magically work together perfectly. there will be clashes, opposing opinions on how to move forward, etc. if there's conflict between characters, it makes it more meaningful when they do come together and fight for a common cause, it makes the victory even more impactful because of it. instead it just felt... empty. lacklustre.

i have never before finished an archon quest's story and gone: is that it? i did with this one.

i've rambled enough about the negatives so i'll close on one final thing regarding capitano and his story: there wasn't enough of it. there wasn't enough of him. again, other people have already touched on this with far more eloquence than i can muster at this moment, but as one of the only genuinely interesting characters in this quest, i was very disappointed that he was just... nowhere to be seen until the very end. 'but he didn't have an ancient name, he couldn't help with the final fight' - so wtf was he doing while it went on then? idk man i just think they could have showcased him a little more, especially since he's the first harbinger.

and now for the positives!

natlan as a region has a lot going for it from my perspective. i love the landscape, i love the saurians, i love the music (though it doesn't always fit the tone of the scenes happening in some of the quests), i love the different tribes and the culture of natlan as a whole. i may not like some of the playable character designs but some of the npc designs are fire (pun intended). the lore is fantastic too, and i've really enjoyed the world quests (which makes me sad they aren't voiced, bc i prefer them to the archon quest in this instance)

capitano saying a big fuck you to the lord of death was *chef's kiss*. i'm sad that his character has essentially come to a close now, but it was definitely clearly leading to that and it is a very fitting end to him. i loved that he was nothing like anyone really expected him to be & he's definitely up there amongst my favourite harbingers. the fact he asked to removed from the mission to collect the gnosis was a nice touch - further establishing the honour he upheld (i'm also curious who will be sent instead - given the new area incoming, perhaps dottore again? it's a shame the one i want to see the most canonically doesn't leave snezhnaya-)

and i didn't hate the story entirely, don't get me wrong. i know i've complained a lot about many elements, but that's only because i know they can do better. and some of the small things - vichama's sub-plot & the fact he does eventually get to reunite with his friend at last, people you've helped in the tribes or in world quests coming to your aid, etc - were very nicely done. it had such a good premise that was simply let down by bad storytelling and a lack of investment into making the main characters interesting enough and important enough for you to care about what happens to them. and i'm sure not everyone will feel that way - people will connect to characters for a multitude of reasons and that's very valid, but for me i just. i needed more.

i enjoyed it, but i enjoyed it in the way i enjoy a book with a plot that sounded promising but didn't quite hit the mark: i finished it, but it's not going to a memorable story that i'll come back to. it's gonna sit on the shelf next to inazuma and gather dust, whilst fontaine gets taken down and experienced again and again.

i can only hope snezhnaya brings it back around

[cheap-jumpscare]

here's my thinks on the Natlan update

[PT: Here's my thinks on the Natlan update /end pt]

disclaimer i do not support hyv i simply like genshin let me BE also spoilers (mild- I haven't rlly done the archon quest yet) obviously. and typos too I just don't care much. the Grammarly browser extension hates me :3

p.s. i added image descriptions just to make this as accessible as possible! it was difficult but I hope it works aa

NEW FEATURES

[PT: new features /end pt]

FIRST THING I DID was check the free character. you can choose between jean, diluc, qiqi, mona, keqing, tighnari, and dehya. if you don't know who to pick; TIGHNARI IS EXTREMELY STRONG FOR A STANDARD. just a nudge in his direction

I also wanted to mention; CHARACTER TRIALS ARE DIFFERENT FOR KACHINA AND MUALANI. you collect pyro particles while beating up dudes along the trail. not too difficult but MASSIVE WHIPLASH. For other characters you get the old trials, which are really nice. I didn't want to get TOO many changes so it's something they ease you into.

Next is our awesome artifact thingy; the Artifact Transmuter. To get it, you open the 'book menu' (someone tell me what the actual name for it is) and it'll be there after you complete a prerequisite or two that I.. Did not pay attention to. I cannot find WHERE I got it exactly, I just received it for free. Afterward it'll appear in your gadgets.

As for how to use it; you use up your existing 5-star artifacts to get Sanctifying Elixir, which then can get turned into the artifacts you want. You need a LOT to get just one. Two highish-level artifacts brought me up to 29 points, and you need 100 to get ONE sanctifying essence.

After you do that, though, it's pretty straightforward! Lucky me, because I am admittedly not bright. The flowers get fixed main stats; otherwise, you can make custom artifacts! As far as I can see, every artifact set is craftable. Good news for us! Checking the wiki we run into an issue, though... You can only make one artifact of each set every cycle. Okay, not too bad hearing just that, right? This cycle is gonna last for over a month. 41 days as of this post being written.

Now that's absolutely fucking insane and kind of the dumbest thing ever. Seriously genshin you were doing SO WELL. But admittedly, I understand why they thought such a long wait would be necessary. To be entirely fair, it makes building characters HUNDREDS of times easier. You can just pick their best stats immediately and not have to perform more gambling than just leveling up the artifacts. Still.. That's not reasonable at all to me. I don't think the Chinese fanbase will be normal about it.

THE OTHER STUFF (NATLAN ITSELF KINDA)

[PT: the other stuff (natlan itself kinda) /end pt]

So.. We're here. The meat of the update. Oh boy. Where do we start.

Another disclaimer; I HAVE NOT REALLY PROGRESSED ALL THAT FAR IN THE STORY! I HAVENT MET ANY CHARACTERS OTHER THAN KACHINA AND THE VILLAGE SHE LIVES IN THATS ITTTTT. Regardless.

I'm starting with a funny visual bug that I really want to know if anyone else's experienced. My daughter with every disease. She looks so stupid oh my fucking god.

Like.. Kachina what did they do to you. POV my little sister watching me explain things (she has no idea what any of the words I'm using mean). This is a sticker in me and my sister's discord server now because she looks SO SILLY. Kachina I love you forever and ever you're now the funniest child alive to me. Diona prepare to gain a sister.

After that conversation YOU GET HER FOR FREE!!! Giant surprise to me as I had not intook ANY Natlan content prior- completely blind going into it all.

For me personally, the map itself was easy enough to unlock. There's one creature you can take control of that can sort of grappling-hook around like those specific spots in Sumeru, so it was easy to get around. That being said, I have only gotten the Statues of the Seven and not the TP waypoints.. I think I'll do my sister's in exchange for her doing mine.. (And also bc she got me Kirara's costume and pulled Yelan for me)

Moving on to pyro traveler; You do not get them immediately. Or at all. Until you beat the archon quest maybe? (Or at least get to a certain point? I wouldn't know.) Regardless, Kachina shows you the Statue of the Seven, which does not grant you pyro powers like we originally expect it to.

That's really all I have for Natlan itself. It's good, what can I say.

IN CONCLUSION..

[PT: in conclusion /end pt]

I love the Natlan update. It's fun, the new features are fun, the ability to just SKIP TO NATLAN is AMAZING (because I will admit I still haven't gone through Sumeru's storyline.. Sorry) and also the characters are all really fun so far! Kachina my daughter. I love her so, SO MUCH. She's adorable and I'd kill and die for her. Amen.

I am very loudly and proudly dissappointed in the lack of melanin, but I've noticed that is a fandom-wide complaint with the natlan trailer. Where are the darker skinned characters, genshin.. Where did you hide the fucking melanin. WHERE ARE THE BLACK CHARACTERS.

One thing I am very very "HOYOVERSE WHAT THE FUCK" about is that one of the NPCs you first see when meeting Kachina has locs. Both NPCs talking to her are black (albeit horrendously ashy). The chief of her tribe has an afro. I just. How is it so easy to do with NPCs but so hard for the playable characters. Yes, Kachina and Mualani have tans which I HAVE NOTICED and admittedly do like, but oh my god how hard is it to make a character that's darker than Xinyan or Kaeya. How hard is that. I'm screaming at you, Hoyo.

That's the end. Hope you all enjoyed my screaming into the void.

[tenmissedcalls]

i love how in the video games i listed in the last post i have f/os from a majority of them HAHFDFKGD

[hematomes]

Send help I somehow ended up on Genshin tiktok and they're calling Paimon racist for "being mean" to Sumeru characters and having trouble with Aranara terminology.

She's obliviously rude to literally everyone and is portrayed to be a child, so she's gonna have issue with Aranara terminology (tbf it's hard to grip at first).

These ppl will reach for ANYTHING to scream racism jfc

oh no you're gonna hate me cries

i. don't think that paimon's racist ofc that's stupid the character in itself isn't racist at all. but it's not a secret that the company in itself is at least colorist (which makes "sense" in a disgusting way bc they aim for the beauty standard in china which is pale skin etc etc). and paimon would be an easy way to push their ideas bc she's comic relief and a child so no one rly questions what she says. but it's nothing concrete, as i said it could simply be comic relief (which doesn't make it better imo bc she still doubles down on micro-agressions)

anyway it kinda ticked me to see so many ppl talking abt it so i decided to research a bit and they're not exactly wrong on some parts. she refuses cultural food even tho girlie happily eats slimes, she made fun of the potion event girl's name (i won't mention the aranara bc it's a peculiar case & it's visibly meant to be "hard" bc that's how they communicate) and overall she's been kinda rude since 3.0. im not saying she wasn't initially, but she was.. less obvious and agressive? that's how i feel abt it anyway

then again the characters' attitude towards her is also very different from other nations. dehya, cyno and al-haitham keep telling her to shut up for some reason, so ig it kinda evens it out

ANYWAY MY POINT IS. paimon's rude and ignorant bc she's basically a kid, but it still feels like micro-agressions so i personally understand why they're pissed abt it. HOWEVER i still think calling her racist is weird and shows how a lot of loud genshin players are misguided and prefer hating on characters (or voice actors for some reason) than on the actual, real person's who created them that way.

then again im kinda biased bc my opinion on paimon is very inconsistent, i love her relationship with the traveler but otherwise she kinda irked me during the recent quests, precisely bc she's rly rude and also im still pissed abt her buying canned knowledge with my money even tho i refused ABDKAK

tldr; overall i agree with you abt how dramatic they're being but it's still a weird attitude imo, even for paimon, and i wouldn't put it past hyv to normalize micro-agressions as a form of comedy/comic relief

[yioh]

I'm south asian and it infuriates me that I actually like the sumeru characters 😭 I feel like I'm betraying my own identity and it genuinely pains me to think abt their designs for too long

Tighnari is the worst for me bc he became my favorite character in the whole game personality-of and I've grown to love his design because of it but???? I just feel so guilty for it bc I know it's just not. Correct???? And on top of that the english voice actors being told to pronounce the characters names wrong deliberately to make it easier is just so gross ughhhh. And I feel like I'm a bad person for continuing to play the game and indirectly supporting hyv's colorism as a result but I'm so attached to this game and these characters and im :'(((

omg bro don’t worry at all askdbdjdb ur absolutely allowed to enjoy the game, that’s exactly why we play it in the first place right🥺 like sure genshin gets a lot of stuff wrong but there’s also a lot that it does beautifully e.g. the entire world building in sumeru and the environment design is one of my favourites in the whole game !! for me, i just have lower tolerance and can’t stand hyv’s colourism as well as orientalism

but like… as long as you can acknowledge that the issues exists and don’t pretend like sumeru is just some cutesy exotic place (as i’ve seen a lot of people do 😭) it’s really honestly fine imo

like i agree that tighnari has a very interesting personality, also i’ve seen a lot of people complain abt his design but honestly i think the amazigh inspiration is one of the most obvious in the game and think it’s so wonderful that amazigh people get to be represented through such a cool character🥺 not to mention how much i myself learned abt all these cultures that are usually never talked about in other media, it’s really really cool !!! i also think his design in general is actually very pretty lol i really adore the mesh of colours and how it’s an obvious reference to amazigh clothing,

there’s really no correct and incorrect way to think about it because everything is so meshed together and weirdly structured, we can definitely agree that the colourism and orientalism is very much an issue (as seen with dori and nahida mostly), treating many brown cultures as interchangeable is also really annoying in general because of how much it already has been done in mainstream western media and the effect it already has is amplified, (abt the english translation i don’t even play in english because 💀 i never liked how they translated stuff in general to english tbh even before sumeru)

but at the same time, hyv brought light to so so many under represented cultures and stories, even the music !!! them using actual instruments we hear in our own music like the sitar is so amazing !!!!

don’t feel bad at all for enjoying the game, i always play it to destress and will continue in the future, it’s not like the company will ever listen to complaints or critisisms by boycotting the game anyways so there’s rly no point and u might as well enjoy what u like yknow😭 i only rly have a bone to pick when people are able to just . mindlessly enjoy the game as if it doesn’t have valid issues (which clearly does not apply to you hdfjbdkdf)

i talk too much but also i just wanna mention that… as a southasian the colourism bothers me the most but i feel like a lot of my disappointment in sumeru mostly comes from an aesthetics pov😭 i think in general i just had a different vision for the type of characters we’d be seeing, seeing cultural references in clothing has always w spiked specific joy in me because the history behind all the clothing just makes everything feel much more real and impactful ??? whereas other then tighnari, nilou, kind of layla, candace and maybe cyno (i haven’t read much on his design) everything just looks as if it’s been inspired by some generic anime rpg isekai fantasy game🥲 like kaveh, nahida, dori etc etc ,,, so rather then sumeru being ‘wrong’ moreso what hurts me is the potential is what it could’ve been ?? i think that’s why it bothers me when everyone gets so excited abt kaveh’s design or whatever when i’m just here like wow… another blonde white boy with a feather in his hair 😭😭😭😭 they can use sanskrit language and panipuri as food but not have the southasian inspired archon with hindu motifs wear cultural clothing or have even slightly darker skin as a lot of southasian people do 🤨 ok this is just me venting again LOL but basically . don’t stress at all it’s really really fine to like the characters you do (i can’t support positive opinions abt nahida and dori tho MDBSKXND i may be petty) but u Defo don’t have to feel guilty abt enjoying the game 🥺 most of sumeru characters aren’t even southasian so you’re not betraying ur identity at all !! merely enjoying new cultures :’) just make sure to remain critical and be observant of how the people of those cultures being shown feel abt these things and don’t let your opinions be dictated by whether it’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ often times in these situations it’s never that clear cut 😭

[timdrakeslawyer]

no spoilers but regardless of all the issues hyv has with the character designs, I cant deny that the archon quest was AMAZING imo! especially the second part with you-know-what ;) the writing and storytelling for this specifically was phenomenal and it’s def keeping me on my toes. I know a lot of ppl might dislike there being so much dialogue but the situation itself was SO out of the blue that it kept me reading even though I usually tend to briefly look and skip (unless it’s one of my fav chars). Also, learning all the new mechanics in Sumeru in the process kept it interesting I still haven’t even opened all the waypoints so I’m excited to explore more! the music is amazing too i just wish they did better with the characters :( so much potential lost cuz they refuse to give darker skin tones, esp when chars like Candace are BASED on ppl with dark skin

[transxiao]

they made a post saying they will block anyone associating their posts with irl social issues and totally disregarded the blatant colorism in hyv's sumeru character design by saying it's just fiction. Absolutely horrible.

eugh i completely missed that part of their pinned... idk why they would be so proud of that... ill block them and delete their rbs from my blog, but ill make sure to note what they may have posted i havent so i can repost and share so u guys can still see. thank u for letting me know

[outivv]

i have to agree with other anon. pessimistic? yes probably but they aren’t wrong there is no hope which is unfortunate that a game this popular and well known(for better or for worse eek) is this adamant on not changing stance but that is the unfortunate reality and while i don’t think the people telling others to just shut up and carry on is right obviously it’s hard to not take a “pessimistic” stance when they had over a year since sumeru to take the criticisms seriously and improve yet didn’t

while i am critical of natlan on my own personal socials i acknowledge that them fixing natlan just isnt apart of the equation and that the best we can do is be vocal about the issues now,during and after natlan because actually expecting change from them is bordering on delusional at this point

I do agree to a certain degree that hyv is a lost cause, however how the other anon sounded at least (but I might be misunderstanding) was kinda like a “just shut up about it, cut your losses and move on” which is what I mainly didn’t like- I wanna keep talking about it even after natlan is over even. I think Hoyoverse is shitty as hell, and that expecting immediate change is rough, but I still want SOMETHING to change. Will we get it? Likely not in the way we want.

I still think something will change, simply because hyv will go “oh no we’re losing money” and then change just the slightest thing, be like “oh wow now a character is like tan but not too tan, is that good enough?” Kinda like they did with changing npc skintones, but again- I still wanna have some kinda hope that maybe maybe maybeeee will they go a bit further and actually give good rep. Am I gonna hold onto that too tightly? Not unless capitano is tan.

I mean my faith in hyv is dwindling day by day, but like just hopefully SOMETHING will change now…

[ninas-gf]

i’m excited to see collei in sumeru, not just bc she’s one of my favorite characters and i want to see how her personality has progressed since she left mondstadt, but also bc of the archon residue injected into her… cyno may have neutralized it for the time being, but it could also become an issue in the future. besides, since collei seemed to be an early test subject used by the fatui, it’s likely that we don’t really know the long term affects of archon residue on the human body. i’m guessing that the fatui are still experimenting on people, and i honestly wouldn’t be surprised if there were corrupt researchers within sumeru academia who practice unethical experiments in private. i’m just SO interested to see what hyv does with all this