#also yes this is why renheng is only interesting when dan heng is also fucked up about their history

[aha-chuu]

Today's controversial post is that Dan Heng isn't interesting on his own. Like his whole thing is avoidance and "amnesia" and he's fun when he's making quips with March and Trailblazer, but the actual meat of his character is Dan Feng stuff. Dan Heng's entire characterisation is framed around somebody else, but since Dan Heng refuses to interact with that concept he just totally falls flat.

And, yes, refusing his past life is ~something~. But that doesn't work in this context, because hsr hasn't aptly set up DH's individualism outside of DF. His past (even in his current life) is entrenched in DF's actions; landing him exiled and pursued by Blade, eventually escaping to the Express. But DH has sunk so far into avoidance that he's literally like "this has nothing to do with me" when during his current life he's been dealing with this! Dealing with DF's bullshit is his main conflict, and so the DH characterisation can't hold up to him ever actually separating from it.

And because of this, as a player we know that DH can't actually let go of DF, because it wouldn't be interesting. It's not that DF is the only interesting thing about him, it's that DF is the only thing about him! So watching him struggle against this and refuse DF is like... "Okay, but get on with it."

And this is also why Blade actually works as a character, because he is tragically aware of the fact that he cannot escape his past - the sins are him and he's him and that's a flesh prison he's not escaping.

DH only works in one of two ways:

Like how we saw him in Belobog, where the whole characterisation is that he has a mysterious past that he's trying to escape. That is interesting by virtue of being vague.

Since we can never go back to that characterisation, DH has to embrace that he was DF and that he's stuck with that.

It does not help that all the info on DF frames his personality as much stronger than DH's, who is reserved purposefully in opposition to the past life that got him in so much trouble. And again, this would be cool and could be cool, but himself is so staunchly against the connection and keeps brushing off any mention of it, to the point that it's like "yes ofc Blade is pissed with you! I am too!"

And ik some people think that DH rejecting DF is interesting and it is a whole dynamic that's a strong enough foundation to build DH's characterisation upon. But then the story has to acknowledge that DH is really nothing without that past, and considering March and the Trailblazer's amnesia having pretty much already well-tread the "person without a past" Thing™, the only intriguing thing to do with DH is have him embrace that he doesn't have the luxury to follow suit.