#genshin critical

[vampireistic]

the problem with natlan / sumeru

warning: long post

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to preface this i’d like to say that i’m in no ways an expert in the topics present, i’m just an autistic dumbass with too much time on his hands who enjoys a bit of research — i’m in no way, shape or form trying to belittle players who are excited for the update, by all means i hope you enjoy it, i’m just trying to give criticism.

you can enjoy/play a game while criticising it simultaneously.

when it comes to the topic of racial diversity and a company like hoyoverse that’s based in china, there’s quite a lot of political baggage that comes along with it. while i’ll try my best to go over that, i’m afraid i can only give a very limited eastern european perspective on it and i’ll certainly get things wrong or misinterpret things — if you’d like a more thorough view on the politics, please go read the post made by @zeichannnnn (hope you don’t mind the tag my love)

firstly, i’ll be going over general misconceptions, ridiculous excuses and or stereotypes that i’ve seen commonly come up in this conversation.

any and all screenshots will have usernames cut off for privacy, i want to maintain a civilised discussion and not cause argument.

a lot of my critiques are more so towards the attitude the fandom has when it comes to this argument and their blatant colourism. as my friend above says, no one ever complained about characters in liyue/inazuma being paper white despite the fact realistically, no one in EA is that colour naturally. this of course stems from the beauty standards but that’s a discussion for later on.

the point is that if say a nation like liyue, had the same skin colour as a character like xinyan (who hails from liyue and has a liyue name) people would undoubtedly be upset. so why is it that when in terms of nations that are based off countries with a darker skin colour variety, complaining about the characters being white is seen as a problem?

culture isn’t defined by racial diversity, but when you’re monetising off the representation of different countries cultures, the very least you can do is show the actual diversity within said culture instead of slapping a cultural name on a white model (cue that one picture of the egyptian dude who looks like a plain american).

the idea that because it’s fantasy or anime, having black characters is surreal or improbable is rooted in white supremacy’s hold over unfair beauty standards as well as just the general consensus that black people are less desirable in media. which is completely false.

characters like dehya have proven that a character’s race is irrelevant when it comes to likeness, given the fact the chinese community ended up donating to charities because of said characters story.

the reason why the lightly toasted characters appear tan to you is because the rest of the cast is so horrifically pale (nahida’s hex code is #FFF7F1, cyno’s is #EEC6A6 which when placed next to each other may look like a big difference, but in reality the colours are on the same side of the colour wheel only a few spaces apart).

hoyoverse does in fact use culture as a mere aesthetic and costume to plant on white models. that is NOT to say they misrepresent culture entirely: this post goes over how hoyoverse is perfectly capable of doing impressive research to bring forth forgotten or unknown bits of culture.

even aside from the problems with racial diversity, the character design department has been known to completely fail when it comes to accurate representation. from the sexualisation of the kimono in characters like raiden shogun (which even the eastern part of the fandom have been upset about) to the character of yunjin where the chinese player based believed she was more like a lolita inspired caricature than a real depiction. they don’t understand how to mingle tradition with modernism.

in all fairness, it is difficult — and i will praise the game for making natlan much more technologically advanced and vibrant than people were expecting because having the one nation that’s based off africa and indigenous people be a wasteland would’ve ultimately been a problem. personally, i even love the slight mashup of “tribes” and the pokémon esque aesthetic — its new, and a smart way to bring two things together.

same thing cannot be said for how hyv ignores the fact darker people of colour are also significant when it comes to the building of culture.

please read over these that go more into depth about problems:

natlan being an amalgamation of three separate countries/cultures.

misrepresenting both continents natlan’s based from

another thing that’s always bothered me is the excuses people used in sumeru about the presentation of characters that were based off real people; specifically, kusanali.

yes, she’s based off a hindu moon goddess who’s described as pale and sure that could’ve been the reason she’s nearly the colour white — but how come candace, who’s based off kandake, a fully black woman, is presented as being slightly tan? you can’t pick and choose what you represent and honestly the idea that nahida’s character is supposed to be a depiction of the moon goddess is disrespect to the goddess herself (please go look at a singular picture of her and you’ll understand the utter tragedy).

hoyoverse also has a bit of a history with both whitewashing their slightly tan characters (nekomiya from zoneless zen zero, arlan from honkai star rail etc) but i think one of their biggest proofs of disrespect comes to carole pepper from hi3.

now, this is not at all me saying you can’t present female characters as very muscular — no. in fact, i would’ve loved if characters like beidou had a similar sort of build. but out of all the characters you could’ve chosen to give this to, you chose a black woman.

would this be a problem if it continued with other characters? not really. the issue lies within the fact the ONLY mother in game who’s presented as buff and “masculine looking” is a black woman — something that’s quite literally a stereotype against black women who are regarded as “naturally less feminine” than white women.

eastern beauty standards

the assertion that eastern beauty standards prevent the inclusion of black characters in video games is not only invalid but also reflects deeper issues of bias and systemic exclusion in the gaming industry. this argument is flawed for several reasons, including the diversity of beauty standards in eastern cultures, the global nature of the gaming market, and the responsibility of creators to reflect and promote inclusivity.

to claim that eastern beauty standards universally exclude black characters oversimplifies and homogenizes the diverse beauty ideals present in countries like japan, south korea, and china. these cultures are not monolithic and have their own histories and contemporary movements that embrace a variety of appearances.

creators in the gaming industry have a responsibility to reflect the diversity of the real world and promote inclusivity. video games are a powerful medium that can shape perceptions, challenge stereotypes, and foster empathy. by including black characters, game developers can contribute to a more inclusive and equitable society. this requires intentionality and a commitment to representation that goes beyond mere tokenism. the argument that eastern beauty standards prevent such inclusion suggests a lack of willingness to challenge existing norms and expand the narrative possibilities within games. hoyoverse have themselves stated in their mission statement that their goal is to show inclusivity.

that’s not to say it’s not clear that china’s beauty standards have unfortunately affected the gaming market: but for a game that brandishes itself on localising itself for a global audience (meaning, outside of its region), it’s a poor excuse. those standards aren’t universal and shouldn’t be used as gateway into designing.

once again, i am NOT at all very well versed in politics especially one that’s overseas (well, next door neighbour in a way) so i definitely will misinterpret or misunderstand things unintentionally and if i do, i’m really sorry.

historical nihilism to me doesn’t relate to black people, just actual story events (hence why hoyoverse had to put a warning label for fontaine that the events presented didn’t represent that of the real world and any similarities were mere coincidence). black people existing isn’t regarded as “politically harmful” neither is it an extraordinary idea — it’s just another group of people.

although, the CCP has a MASSIVE history about their demonisation and hatred of black people therefore, even without the idea that the censorship stems from something like historical nihilism, it’s likely something to do with individual prejudice.

politically, i can semi-understand why hoyoverse is in a tight space for racial diversity. but that doesn’t mean i’m willing to baby a company that profits billions worth of profit from other cultures that they misrepresent and i’m even less inclined to hold the hands of hoyoverse dickriders who believe people complain about race just solely to whine. it’s a real systemic issue, and one that’s prevalent in a multitude of games aside from genshin.

people from the cultures presented are rightfully upset and they shouldn’t be told to just “accept”mediocrity. it’s their culture and identities being ridiculed, it’s their identities being profited from for the sake of aesthetics for a game that preaches inclusivity to the people that are willing to ignore its prejudice.

hell, even as a polish person, just thinking about what they’ll do with snezhnaya upsets me even if it’s not racially based — once again, the media emphasises the idea that eastern europe / slavic culture is purely russia meanwhile they steal little things from all of the surrounding countries in eastern europe (won’t forget the fact they changed that password thing in sumeru from “ravioli” to “pierogi”).

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TL;DR hoyoverse uses other people’s cultures and identities as an aesthetic and proceeds to profit off of it while misrepresenting the sample of people they chose to depict and while a political argument can be made in this regard, ultimately the backlash from people rightfully feeling unjustified in the lack of racial diversity is what amplifies these colourist attitudes: and while hoyoverse has seemingly much more legal repercussions to commit to their idea of diversity, the fandom has no excuse for their disregard of different identities.

also just a funny thing my friend and i did to show just how white these characters are lol

“ blackwashing “ versus “ whitewashing “

i feel like i need to add this little section too because i know there will be a lot of people that draw or reimagine the characters in a variety of different skin tones, and i know a lot of people will be upset (usually it’s just the lowlife weebs who cry at the thought of a black woman being in the same room as them).

historically, media, including video games and anime, have predominantly featured pale-skinned characters, often neglecting the representation of people of color. this lack of diversity reinforces a narrow view of beauty and heroism, contributing to the systemic exclusion of non-white individuals. blackwashing helps to rectify these historical imbalances by providing a broader spectrum of racial representation. it challenges the default assumption that characters must be pale-skinned and introduces audiences to a more inclusive range of appearances.

representation matters profoundly in media. seeing characters that reflect one's own identity can have significant positive effects on self-esteem and cultural pride. blackwashing creates opportunities for black audiences to see themselves in roles and narratives traditionally dominated by pale-skinned characters.

critics (once again, youtube creators and tiktok lmao) of blackwashing often argue that it disrespects original character designs or cultural contexts. however, the impact of changing a character's skin tone is minimal compared to the harm caused by whitewashing. whitewashing often erases the cultural significance of non-white characters, perpetuating stereotypes and denying the rich diversity of the source material. blackwashing, in contrast, does not erase cultural identities but rather enhances the inclusivity of the media. it provides a more diverse and representative depiction without detracting from the character's original essence or storyline.

in addition, usually when a character is black in fantasy media or even just an anime/game with a lore based story, it’s because their race is significant to who they are (i.e tiana from princess and the frog who faces racial discrimination — without her being a person of colour, this storyline and the events that follow wouldn’t make sense).

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i’m sorry for such a long and probably nonsensical rant, but this has bothered me into absolute oblivion especially the community’s response to the uproar of people who rightfully critique and are upset by the company.

[btxtyuri]

Natlan Characters

[demdems]

genshin trying to explain why every playable natlan character is gonna be paper white but enemy npcs who get easy aggro'd need to be dark skinned

[evelynpr]

Why the fuck are there roller skates, dubstep, stage lighting, an LED screen, and all kinds of modern technology in Xilonen's trailer??? I thought Fontaine had the most advanced technology next to Schneznaya and arguably Sumeru, and every instance of high-end technology we have seen leaned more towards machinations with gears, magic, alchemy, essentially fantasy styled sci-fi???

The disrespect towards Native American and African cultures is enough to piss me off already, but it even goes against Genshin's own consistency with its fantastical world design..and for what? Just so you can have this...pop and gamer aesthetic???

Just look at these two bubbly and optimistic characters for me okay

Yoimiya's design isn't the most respectful and accurate representation of a Japanese firework craftsman, but at least you can damn tell she is Japanese. The large ribbons, hair accessories, tassels, leg covering, tattoo design, shoe style, and fabric patterns all allude to this (I apologize for not knowing the exact terminologies for these, this needs further research).

Then there's Mualani who has...what? Please do correct me if I am wrong here, but her character must be inspired by the real Mualani, a Hawaiian Chiefess. Additionally, her tribe's specialty is in tourism and vacationing, which further leads into the idea that she and her tribe are based off of Hawaii despite the known issues regarding Hawaii and tourism (if there are any good sources that summarize the issue, please do lmk).

I am not too familiar with Hawaiian culture, but there really is nothing about her design that reads as Hawaiian, or even just traditional, to me. What about a 2 piece swimsuit with bows and tails, a bow + braids + ponytail hair style, combat gloves (?), and an entire neon shark, is Hawaiian???

The characters, their designs, and their trailers, are just so culturally disconnected from their real life counterpart that it's even disconnected to Genshin's own world building and design. How the fuck is the fashion trend in Natlan denim pants. I feel like the only parts of Natlan that feel like Genshin Impact and culturally inspired are the in-game music and landscapes (God bless Hoyo-mix and the world designers).

[ace-ace-in-yo-face]

Can't wait to go to Natlan in genshin and be flashbanged by all em white people

[cowboycthulhu]

Kind of gave genshin a break for a few months, but I think the people who thought they lightened the Natlan characters' skin were onto something.

Here's Mualani. Her clothes and hair are pretty cute, but you have to look closely to even tell that she has tribal markings on her skin at all. Which is *weird*- the character designers at Hoyoverse are usually pretty good at making sure that their characters have enough contrast that you can appreciate every detail in their design, but Mualani has markings that barely contrast with her pale skin. If she was intended to be light skinned, why weren't her markings darker/colored?

Here's Kachina for comparison, who if I'm being charitable I can believe was meant to be either white or lighter skinned. Her markings are light, yes, but they're colored in a way that actually contrasts enough with her skin that you can see them at all. Pretty cringe of hoyoverse to cave to the racists this badly

They know how to make dark skin npcs so why did they clearly whitewash the playable characters? these npcs are even darker than a lot of the Sumeru npcs

[shinpikurage]

Warning: Genshin Leak

Lanya (also known as Madame Ping and Streetward Rambler) will be released as a playable character in version 5.4. She is a 5* Polearm Girl.

5.4 will be the Lantern Rite patch and will also see the release of a new 4* Catalyst Girl.

Okay, I have many complaints about this but let's go slow

First of all! Why is her name Lanya? Her human name is already (something) PING, why not keep it? Why not go to something similar?

Second, why her? We KNOW they are going to transform her into a young girl, and I think that takes away from her character. Madame Ping whole identity is being an old lady that guides young girls. She has taken YaoYao, Yanfei and Xiangli under her wing, they call her grandma! Wouldn't ot be weird to just make her a young woman now? One that looks around their age? And yeah, maybe they will keep the way she speaks, but isn't that too similar to Faruzan and Chasca? They are also elders that look way too young

Third, she's and old woman and lives with this body because of GRIEF, her life tells a beautiful story about love and how losing someone can take a toll on you. She loved Guizhong so much that upon her death, she took a form of an elderly woman. And wasn't that a great metaphor about grief, how much it affects you and your body, and how it can make you feel like time is slower without them?

Fourth, WHY PING? It's the year of the snake, then why oh why, focus on Ping? And not Baizhu, Changsheng, Chenyu Vale or the goddess of dreams?

I don't understand why they keep doing this, it took them years to release Baizhu, when they do, they make him connected to Chenyu Vale and the chasm, and then they just.. don't use him? Not even when Chenyu Vale, his HOME, where his drip marketing focus on, released. He hasn't been in a single event, and when we finally reach the year of the snake, they focus on Ping, a character that no one asked for to be playable (unless she was old)

This feels like a disservice to fans, to the characters and to their own game. There's is a lot to unravel about Baizhu, he has connections to a lot of things, a lot of people, he's very mysterious, and tricky. We haven't seen him or Changsheng in Chenyu Vale or talking to the adeptus there, we haven't seen him talking to ANYONE beside Qiqi and the traveler (and I guess Yelan that one time?), he hasn't visited any nation, didn't make appearances in events after becoming playable, there are parts of his story that just feel empty or untold, and he's a great character! Her legitimately a great person, a good person, plus Changsheng is super funny, he has devoted followers, especially in Asia, so why not let him have the spotlight for a few seconds? Why ignore him that much?

Honestly, my only hope rn is that he will appear alongside Pantalone

[samadhi-fire-forged]

i talked about this on another account (a non-genshin related account) but the way that culture in genshin is handled is absolutely awful in my opinion.

clearly, the devs for genshin/hoyo do not respect black, indigenous, and west asian cultures. we get this clearly demonstrated with both natlan and sumeru.

natlan has three different ethnic groups (broadly). african (specifically more northern, it seems), polynesian, and latin american. that means it's two completely different countries, as well as one region. technically, it could make sense with polynesia and latin america, but... for the most part... probably not africa included? unless you were interested in exploring like, the complex dynamic of afro-latino culture. which. likely not. (if you want more research on WHY it could make sense to have latin american - polynesian cross, check these sources: x x x x - all of these are relatively about the same content. dna crossing. if you want to ask me about how i, personally, would've wanted to execute natlan in this regard you can shoot me an ask).

sumeru is... well. we do see aspects of zoroastrianism iirc - west asia has a hodgepodge of religions, honestly, with having an incorporation of our very well-known abrahamic religions (judaism, islam, and christianity). but as i said, there's zoroastrianism. yet, most of sumeru's religious references tend towards vedicism, buddhism, so on so forth. which... is interesting. if it had clear influences from a lot of west asian culture (and north african, specifically egyptian), then why didn't it have much focus on zoroastrianism? why would we incorporate south asia for seemingly no reason outside of grouping so so many ethnic groupds together.

this might surprise you all, but inazuma is.. pretty interesting. i've had a few opinions on this, given the fact that i am japanese. inazuma is depicted as a pretty dictator-esque nation, as well as being isolationist. its ruler is horrible and the such - i genuinely believe that this might have been some bias on the devs' parts. given the fact that, well... china has historically had multiple dictatorships and was also isolationist, much like japan. i understand depictions of china given laws in china, so yeah, sure, but... throwing the japanese-based nation under the bus was pretty interesting. they didn't need to do that at all, and there could've been an interesting storyline without this at all.

mondstadt. god, no one thinks about mondstadt in this regard, but mondstadt is the only nation that pretty much has zero places named with the language its culture is based on, other than its own city name. even sumeru has this - albeit some names do come from sanskrit words (kinda... complicated? most of it derives from sanskrit, though, or egyptian in the desert). whispering woods, starfell lake, brightcrown mountains. all of that. even its characters - many of them don't have german names! (jean gunnhildr, diluc ragvindr) i understand that scandinavian and german do have incredibly similar roots, but... still.

like, no matter what hoyo does, it seems that the only culture that they really "respect" is their own. no matter how much research they do - and believe me, there is a lot they've done! listen to a lot of the music, you'll notice they incorporate a lot of traditional musical instruments.

and yet... when executing it? it comes out quite terribly?

and then, even with their liyue characters - there's plenty of characters where it'd make so much more sense if they were dark skin (ex: yaoyao). and yet.... they aren't? some of them are paper pale

i'm just saying. genshin is riddled with flaws.

and don't even get me started on just... their general character design.

[yael-art-den]

One of my IRL friends tried to show me the latest Genshin twink saying "I heard you like old men... Well you'd LOVE this ;)" and it was, indeed, a smooth faced like. 17 year old. And when I pointed that out they said "they're not Young™! Look he even has wrinkles"

He had. A wrinkle under his eyes. Genshin fans have lost touch with how people are like. Supposed To Look Like when old. Also:

[koko-heads]

finally uninstalled genshin

[vampireistic]

“annoying gays” aren’t the problem.

the problem with “straight” self-entitlement

the anime/gaming community isn’t known for being very lgbt friendly (the amount of times i’ve been threatened with SA because i’ve called a character zesty is actually psychotic) and to be fair, posting something like this to a website known for being infested with us gay critters seems silly, but i think it’s something worth a discussion.

overall, i want to go over a couple fandoms that i’m deeply engrained in that i’ve personally experienced the shittiest takes with: honkai star rail, genshin impact, jujutsu kaisen.

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“i hate ___ fandom”, do you? or do you hate the fact black and gay people exist in the same space as you? “oh it’s the shippers! they’re weird”, yeah i won’t deny a minuscule percentage are, but do you really think that overshadows the fact the CN part of the genshin community KILLED kittens because they hated scaramouche, the creepypasta fandom saw the emergence of several murderers that varied in concerning age, not to even mention the amount of l*li art that gets made using the excuse that the character is “akshually 500+!” — believe me, these are more egregious sins than simply: “they ship boy and boy so i don’t like.”

“FANON” VS “CANON”

some of you can’t differentiate between: “this makes me uncomfortable” and “this is wrong”.

“headcanons are losing their meaning”, “i miss when headcanons didn’t make sexualities their entire character” — what is it with people being upset that others are finding comfort in portraying themselves in a character they enjoy? “it ruins the character!”, “you’re belittling them and ignoring their backstory!”, how come these are the responses only queer people get?

it’s ok to not like it but you also have to acknowledge that it’s completely harmless and in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t matter. “you’re making it all about sexualities”, “you can’t make everything gay” etc etc — those are just basic homophobic rhetorics. gay people have been demonised in media excessively, of course we want to MAKE representation for ourselves if we aren’t going to get any canonically.

queer people shouldn’t have to be digestible to you and what you like for you to not have a hissy fit that they merely headcanoned a fun character as having xenopronouns. using the excuse that: “oh well, i’m also queer!”, is ridiculous, being part of the community doesn’t absolve you from any type of lgbtphobia. do you really think the straights are gonna come accept you with tears in their eyes because you’re not like those other fags?

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“SHIPPING CULTURE”

getting mad at queer people for not liking straight ships should be a form of comedy. throughout all those decades of entertainment, queer people have been given mere crumbs of what straight people have — why is it expected that we need to absolutely suck up and also enjoy something that we’ve already been force fed our entire lives? this sort of idea is a little predatory, in my experience at least, this rhetoric is the reason i used to HATE even entertaining the idea i could be a lesbian just because it was so disconnected from other sexualities where most revolved around some sort of attraction to men; i feel like this isn’t necessarily that uncommon of a situation either.

this sort of conversation surrounding the concept of “heterophobia” just sparks immediate homophobic rhetoric that intends to make queer people like some villainous group that’s goal is to gayify every straight ship in existence. no-one actually cares, you’re just upset because gay ships tend to get more talked about in fandoms because they’re well liked.

let queer people enjoy solely mlm/wlw media or pairings without making them feel othered or like a “fujoshi” for something normal. if i have to sit here and listen to why you think god should personally make mitsuri and obanai real so they can have a real wedding then you can handle me just stating “idk i think satosugu is good”. i can’t tell you the amount of times my own friends have made me feel weird or icky for watching things that relate to me because i specify i won’t read or watch romance stories with a hetero pairing — like i trusted y’all once with violet evergarden and look where that ended up…

“you’d like ___ if it was gay” / “you only hate ___ because it’s straight” … yeah, because i’m gay dumbass. why the fuck should i pour my energy into a straight pairing i can’t at least resonate with somewhat. there are some exemptions to this rule and i will forever be a hanako kun and nene lover — but that’s purely because they’re a straight ship written for gay people. and it’s actually quite easy to discern the difference between “straight pairing that’s intended for large audience” vs “straight pairing that’s intended to appease fans / soothe the lonely lowlifes who have never touched a woman”

the former being: hanako kun x nene, quite literally any pairing from disney movies, loid x yor, haruhi x tamaki… okay i’m out — and the latter being ANYTHING from the following animes: darling in the franxx, bunny girl senpai, my dress up darling, toradora etc.

also to add onto the whole “you’d like so and so if they were gay”, y’all would absolutely believe ships like satosugu, beigguang, acheswan, eimiko etc were canon if they were m/f pairings.

“QUEER CODING / IMPLICATION”

i don’t understand why this specific topic is so heavily discussed in such a negative manner — if there’s specific references to queer things in relation to a character, it’s obviously intentional. what’s the issue? that it’s gay?

queer coding has long been a subtle yet powerful tool in media, particularly in anime and video games. it involves the inclusion of characters whose traits, behaviours, or relationships suggest a queer identity without explicitly stating it. this coding allows for nuanced representations of lgbtq+ identities in contexts where direct representation might be risky or censored. two franchises where queer coding is evident are genshin impact and jujutsu kaisen.

however, the appreciation of this representation often gets lost in a quagmire of "canon versus fanon" discourse, particularly among straight fans, who degrade these characters and their relationships to fucking “shipping debates.”

“they’re just friends — have you never interacted with a friend before?” / “not everything has to be romantic / gay”

i don’t remember the last time i longingly gazed at my friend after receiving a compliment and smirking while stating: “only a true treasure captures the eyes of __, seems like i’ve struck gold.” homosexual undertones exist!! i don’t understand how this is something controversial or scary to discuss — just because a character isn’t DIRECTLY stated to be queer, doesn’t suddenly mean all the hinting doesn’t mean anything.

heterosexuality isn’t the “default”, why do you have to assume every character is straight? i don’t remember them staring down at the camera lense to specify.

you can’t be so disingenuous and media literacy constipated that you don’t know how to interpret very simple things like yae miko writing a sapphic book where the main two characters resemble her and ei, the fact kaveh and alhaitham’s introductory quest line is titled “pride and prejudice”, the entire story of xiao and venti meeting, and even something as seemingly dumb and simple as ajax being gifted chopsticks by zhongli. repetitive nuances aren’t there for the sake of silly dynamics, they’re there to get past censorship. believe me if they could they would’ve made yae and ei make out by now.

another gentle reminder: wriothesley is based off henry wriothesley, a homosexual man known for having gay relationships who had a close intimacy with william shakespeare. clorinde is based off a historical feminist and bisexual named julie d'aubigny with navia being based off of julie d'aubigny's lover, who was a lesbian. and if you’re going to argue semantics and say that these are either incidental and don’t mean anything — then neither does the argument that nahida was supposed to be based off the hindu moon goddess.

the weird anger that procures whenever gay ships are more popular is so baffling. yaeyato quite literally come along as a reactionary ship to eimiko because…they hated lesbians, straight ghuizhong and zhongli shippers have conjured up this rainbow demon that every zhongchi shipper hates them (despite the fact a large majority of guizhong shippers…are also zhongchi shippers).

similarly, jujutsu kaisen has characters whose relationships and characteristics are imbued with queer coding. the dynamic between gojo and geto, for example, is often highlighted as more than just a rivalry or friendship. their relationship is filled with an intensity that transcends typical "bromance," and the narrative hints at a deep emotional connection that resonates with many queer experiences of longing and betrayal. they’re made to be the exact mirrors of each other, pieces of a puzzle that when put together perfectly balance into a piece of art.

“my six eyes tell me you’re suguru geto. but my soul knows otherwise!”

some of you wouldn’t even have your own mother recognise you in such a manner let alone your best-friend who you haven’t seen in years. don’t remember the last time i purred and groaned my friend’s name while we’re on call and i don’t think i could ever bother staring at them lovingly while propping my cheek up with my hand. geto had this man nearly on his hands and knees in front of a public sidewalk near a non copyrighted kfc because he was afraid of him leaving.

what i find also particularly funny is how these same people will view labelling a character as something that somehow dirties them and then will turn around and ship something like anya and that ugly kid (i’m sorry but i don’t remember his name LMAO) — you don’t care about “pushing sexualities onto a character”, you give a shit because it’s queer.

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here’s some resources i found that managed to vocalise my thoughts rather perfectly:

annoying gays are not the problem

“i’m not one of those gays” - shut up.

a deep dive into the queer coding of genshin impact

is honkai star rail actually queer coded?

homophobia in the honkai star rail community

[productofaritual]

Im having the most fun sending ask's while talking with you in one random gdf!post lmao. I just want you to know that. And also that Im fukingh histeric of how fast are you giving feed back. Like wth, is gdf taking you life as much as mine? Bc this is my new hiperfixation godlord.

[The gift is you and me about gdf xd]

I fear it has taken over my brain as well. Also I'm on summer break so I have loads of free time to think about them. And oh boi am I thinking.

I am, also, thinking about learning a bit of the genshin art style, because fuck my art skills, I need my designs to see the light of day. First genshin region that has exactly 0 fan service designs and 0 oversexualized clothing, how could I let that remain just in my head? /hj

[ace-ace-in-yo-face]

New archon design in genshin is one of the most boring ones I've seen, they just put her in a skin tight jumpsuit and called it a day. What does it tell me about her region? how does it reflects the constant war Natlan is involved in? It doesn't, at least put her in armor or something give it a fucking boob window to give ur main audience a boner if u must. I'm so dissapointed ngl. She looks like she belongs in a different game also

[theographos]

Have you heard of Inazuma ?

Ahhh Inazuma... Land of eternity, who was mainly inspired by Japan and its culture.

I play the game since 2020, and I can say that Inazuma was a pretty big deal when it got out. First of all, it was the first big region that we were introduced to since the beginning of the game. Yes there was Liyue and Mondstadt, but they came with the game so... No real reason to get hyped about them.

It was also a region who got talked about a lot, like I remember that most of the Youtubers I was watching at the time were sponsorized by Hoyoverse to talk about it's region. And just the fact that it was based on japan made it even popular on the internet. What I want to say by that is that it was of course a trap for all of the weebs to fall into.

A good trap really, the region had a lot of new content, a bunch of really good characters like Arataki Itto (my lovely main) and the final result is just so pretty.

It was a lovely gift, made with the finest wrap and the biggest promises towards the players of the game. And when they all got rid of that wrap to actually get into the plot content of Inazuma, they (and me included) were delighted to see a plot line full of junk.

So a few disclaimers before we dive into why Inazuma's archon quest was a mess :

I am not blaming anyone for liking Inazuma. Just because you like something doesn't mean it's flawless, so don't come at me for that. I have no say over what anyone likes or dislikes as long as it's not illegal or obviously endangering someone's mental or physical health. And liking a region in Genshin Impact is none of that, so don't see any slander on any character of the game. I'm pointing fingers at the writers behind the region and most importantly Hoyoverse itself.

I will also criticize how they used Raiden Shogun's character quest to make most of the evolution of Inazuma. A character quest is not accessible by people under the level of 40, so there is no real reason as to why they did that. It just makes the main plot less accessible to the main players, and so I don't consider what happens in the Raiden Shogun's character quest as a valid part of the main plot line.

There will contain spoilers about Sumeru's archon quest, but none about Fontaine. For personal reasons that are too long to talk about in this post I haven't played Fontaine's archon quest yet. Yes, even the first act. And no, I do not wish to be spoiled about anything about Fontaine.

My whole rant, including the introduction and the disclaimers, is over 2.3K long, take it or leave it. I also happen to believe that longer is better. Yes it is time consuming to read all of this, but this is my way of showing that I care. Plus good storytelling needs time. Like I said, take it or leave it, if you don't want to read this whole rant then it's okay, as long as you don't blame me for not doing something shorter.

So now that we are clear on those points, we shall begin.

My first point is that the archon quest is too short.

Like way too short. We barely have time to get a proper tase of what Inazuma is like, and we also barely have time to process our traveler's character arc. The first part of the archon quest screams of how much the writers knew they had to add the part in which the Traveler refused to help anyone, but they were bothered by it. So they tried to wrap it up quickly by making the traveler see the problem directly. The second part is laughable at best, I mean we all saw the memes about how the war cinematic looked off, like we just have 10 soldiers and 10 rebels against one another and we're supposed to understand that the conflict is big ? And the last part is confusing, mainly because of the sudden apparition of Kazuha, who got a whole character arc while we trying to beat up Signora.

And it's not like Hoyoverse isn't capable of making a character arc during an archon quest. Venti had his little character arc, Scaramouche has his character arc behind the scenes during the Sumeru Archon Quest, but us player are still aware of its evolution, with for example the visions of that one npc researcher. And if we take a look at Honkai : Star Rail, Dan Heng also got to have a whole character arc really similar to the one with Kazuha, but they made it relevant to the plot.

They are capable of all of that, if they gave more time to develop it by having a bigger archon quest. Either by making a part 4 and maybe a part 5, either by making longer archon quests.

My second point is that there is too much unnecessary quests.

Sure, for gameplay purposes it's perfect to have a lot of quest, because it means a lot of content. But with Inazuma it really isn't the case.

We had a whole archon quest, well more like a prologue quest, to introduce Kazuha's motivations through Beidou's fighting competition. I would understand if it was a world quest, i mean they did that with the chasm : an archon quest locked behind a world quest. The world quest could have been about the whole trip towards Inazuma, with the beginning about the fighting tournament. But nope, it's overly long for almost nothing, and it raises another point of mine

They based their whole plot on making the players like their characters. It's not a bad thing, I love Kazuha with all my heart, but our time with him isn't making the plot come forward. Just like, having to do Yoimiya and Ayaka's character quest have nothing to do with plot. You just hang out with them and learn a bit about their personal lives. It's great, but what about the plot ? Okay cool you made a deep dive into Raiden Shogun's motivations during her character quest, but what about the plot ?

They gave too much time over things that weren't necessary for the plot, and like I said previously, didn't give enough time to important parts.

My third point is that it doesn't even fufill the concept of an Archon Quest.

Every archon quest makes a deep dive into the Archon's motivation, how it affected their land and how they'll arrange the situation. For example :

Venti's entire core is to fight to let his people be free. He gave them everything they needed, and let them take their own decisions in order to not become another tyrant. But some people, like Dvalin, saw that move as him giving up on them. So, he made everything clear towards Dvalin and stayed to help him get better.

Zhongli's entire core is to fight to protect his people. He saw war, he saw death but he survived. He created the Adepti to help him, he also sort of created the Qixing to help him rule over Liyue. But now he becomes old, and doesn't want to see everything that he has done come to rot after he passes away. So he decides to retire himself from his position to force the Qixing and the Adepti to work together without him to help Liyue.

And if we compare Raiden to that well... She makes her people suffer, only she is happy with eternity, and she reflects upon that after the archon quest. But she has the potential to be so much more than that, heck it's not like she didn't become popular with the few times we see her in the archon quest, so looking back now there was no point in making her not that present in her own archon quest. Even Nahida, who is locked inside her own temple at the time we meet her, gets to have an equal amount of screentime as every other archon during their quest.

And also every archon quest shows how much every archon is different by their way of ruling :

Venti thought the bestest thing for his people was to leave and give them the freedom to do anything.

Zhongli thought the bestest thing for his people was to give them a safe haven and to dedicate his whole life to serve them instead of trying to really "rule" over them.

Nahida's people never gave her a chance to actually try to be their leader. They stayed focused on the past and let bad people morphed the values of Sumeru into something horrible.

And Raiden Shogun was supposed to show that for her the bestest thing was to keep her land in check, to make sure everything stays at the right place, so that no one has to ever feel grief and feel "nostalgic" of the past like she did.

Which brings me to my fourth point, which is that Raiden Shogun has control over nothing.

Yes she controls what the commission do, yes she has the power to do a vision hunt decree. But, when we take a look at Inazuma, we can see that she do not have any actual control. Four of the six islands in Inazuma are not liveable, and the fifth island is actually full of people who do not worship her, who do not want her. There is a rebellion going on, and she hasn't done anything more than send her army. The magical sakura tree in Narukami is slowly decaying, but nope there's nothing she can do about apparently. It's as if she doesn't even know it's happening.

She is described as omnipresent over the mortals. She is described as always making sure Inazuma reaches the goal of "eternity", and yet everything is going nuts, she doesn't have full control over who goes in and out of her country since there are still immigrants in Rito. I would have understood if Monstadt was in that state for example. After all most of the problems in the islands are god-related, so really no one except a god can do anything about it.

And I would have understood if the main problem was that she thinks she is omnipresent but really everything is out of control, but no, the point of the archon quest is to make us understand that the people want things to change, they don't want her to be overly in control.

I'm not against the fact that the Traveler is often the one who has to do everything, but at least make it understandable. For example, ofr the Aranara world quests, the traveler has to be the one who does that because Nahida isn't capable of helping the aranara, and because the traveler is an adult who can still see the aranara, it makes him important to them.

But in Inazuma we're just doing Ei's dirty work, as if an omnipresent deity would want someone other than them to be supervising big problems.

My last point is that the archon quest doesn't feel like it's happening in Inazuma.

None of the problems in the archon quest are talked about in the world quests, it's barely mentioned in some small quests, and the archon quest is royally ignoring all the problems of the world quests. Sumeru doesn't do that for example : it talks about the decaying of pretty much everything in the archon quest AND the world quests, aranaras are showed in the archon quest, and really the archon quest goes to a lot of key points in sumeru, meanwhile for the archon quest in Inazuma it's only 4 different places, 6 if we count the comissions.

Inazuma have so many different species cohabiting together, has a lot of mysticals things happening everywhere, there are even cat who can talk and yet none of this magic is showed in the archon quest.

Honestly it just looks like a showcase of everything that Japan has to offer and that's it. Yes I see tanukis, I see sakura trees, i see the clothings and the buildings. But what else ? What is the core of anything that Inazuma has to offer ? When we take a look at every other region, we see that they at least tried to give them a proper identity with the inspiration material. Meanwhile Inazuma is just the inspirational material.

When they included nobility in Monstadt, they really did it. They showed how much they were accepted into present society (plot twist they aren't), their role in history, how they feel about a society where no one wants them anymore (with some clans who are okay, clashing with the Lawrence clan who aren't ready to admit 'defeat' yet), they included etiquette and made them active in society.

This just doesn't happen with the tanukis, the onis or the kitsunes. The onis have a bit more depth since they have Itto to develop this part, but really unless you go into the forest you will not encounter kitsunes or tanukis in inazuma.

My conclusion,

The main problem with Inazuma's archon quest is that they didn't give enough time. They didn't give enough time for the plot to unfold correctly, they didn't gave enough time to the worldbuilding, and dare I say Hoyoverse didn't gave enought time to the writers to be able to do anything more than the minimum. I have seen what these writers could do and it is so much worth it, but damn Inazuma is to me, something that Hoyoverse should be ashamed of in terms of storytelling.

And I feel like no one is talking about that. As of now the only things I found on the internet about it are slanders of some characters, or really just people who hate the whole "inspired by japan" thingy, and are just mad about that.

Hoyoverse is a big enough company to have decent storytelling, to give a decent amount of time for their writers to work, and so on and so forth.

To be honest I feel like that if you truly care about Japan and its culture, you should be mad at Inazuma for doing a poor job at representing it, but that's just my opinion.

[tiangouaway]

crazy how genshin impact used ei/inazuma for racial and religious criticism of colonial japan (sangonimiya to represent the ryukyu islands and their people) and then the next region came out as a downright textbook of colonial fantasies of west and south asia

[uncaught-coolfish]

Needed to clean space off on my computer for blender shit and upon seeing the Natlan character designs I now have an idea for how! :D