#hoyo you need to solve it

[ihatechosingnames]

HSR Timeline

While I was reviewing my screenshots, especially the ones about Yanqing's Companion Quest, I started having doubts about the timeline of events on the Xianzhou Arc.

HOW did Jingliu get on Luofu after it was sealed shut? We can assume she was at the port after Dan Heng and company left, just in time for Yanqing to miss them but for him to meet Jingliu. Yanqing is after all the youngest lieutenant of the Cloud Knights and Jing Yuan's retainer, he realizes something is wrong (unlike Sushang). He starts quietly interrogating her with the excuse of making conversation (look at my clever boy).

Luckly for everyone, Jingliu is not there to bring more havoc to Xianzhou, at least not directly. Her presence is a problem anyway, since she is there to catch and kill (again) Blade (too). Poor Jing Yuan, not only Blade is crazy and a terrorist and Dan Heng doesn't recognize him, now even his previous master is on the same ship.

[Funny thought: From Blade's backstory we know that Jingliu killed Blade many times, so we have

Dan Heng that escapes from Blade, killing him in self-defence because he doesn't remember a thing about his time as Dan Feng.

Blade that follows Dan Heng to kill him

Jingliu that follows Blade to kill him. A murder-chain. With only Blade that gets killed. Ahahahaha. Sorry.]

HOW did Jingliu know that Blade was on Xianzhou? From what I got, they shut down the port, kept the Loufu in lockdown and I don't think they comunicated with the other ships telling "we have a Stellaron Crisis, the Cursed/Blessed Arbor revives and we lost a Stellaron Hunter that was in our custody". It's bad reputation. And it is possible that the other ships aren't even near the Luofo. Does she have a GPS locating Blade just like Blade can locate Dan Heng? And even if she did, HOW did she get in Luofo? While Luocha had the convenient excuse of being a merchant, Jingliu doesn't strike as one. I mean, look at her, she looks like she will murder you.

One thing that I am at little puzzled is that there is no way to tell how much time has passed from one mission to another, how to collocate the companion quests in between the storyline.

Look at Luocha:

during the Trailblazer mission he was with Dan Heng just before his fight with Blade and consequent awakening

but we already have his companion quests where it is said "This was two days before the Ambrosial Arbor came back to life."

Bailu's Companion Mission is also difficult to collocate in the timeline, it definitely happens in a few hours, but between which Trailblazer Mission?

Since I have some problem, I'll try to make a timeline but seriously need some help or some kind of official timeline from HOYO.

[starcurtain]

I wish everyone collectively understood aventurine’s character like you…things would be so much easier! I genuinely don’t understand how people keep getting his motivations wrong??? Could it be because some of the most popular Aven fanfics were written prior to his release? That could have contributed to some of the takes we tend to see about him…thoughts?

I struggled all day to come up with a concise way to answer this and couldn't think of one, so here, have a long-winded ramble:

I don't think early fic writers have much impact in the situation with Aventurine's character now, since most people can look at when a story was posted and go "Oh, this was before we had ____ information."

I think that Aventurine's problem is being a male character in a gacha game. Gacha game characters are designed to sell. Hoyo can sell female characters very, very easily. Give her huge tits and a visible underwear strap and you're good to go. I love all my guy friends, but I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: straight men are not the hardest audience to please. Hit a particular fetish (feet, spandex, dommy mommy), and you're gucci.

Nah, we all know why Jade's trailer is Like That.™

Male characters in gacha are harder to sell because women as consumers are a little harder to predict. Does every woman want a tall, ripped hunk? Shit, no, small cute boyish models like Aventurine are selling better now? Why?! Would a bad boy be more popular than a nice guy??? It's harder to account for women's tastes, especially because they are often (a little) less visually-oriented.

Hoyo is good at what they do though, and they've figured out that male characters sell very well when they possess at least one of two specific traits:

Endearing vulnerability/helplessness

Gay ship tease

Give a character both, like Aventurine? They might as well be printing money.

That sound you hear is Hoyo's stock prices rising.

So, from the very beginning, Hoyo is incentivized to create a character that appeals to people, a character people will want to crack their wallets open for. And they achieved this, first and foremost, by giving Aventurine traits that female players (in particular, but men too), find especially appealing: emotional and physical vulnerability.

We see Aventurine's pain. We sympathize with his grief. We identify with his struggle to make meaning of his difficult life. He's our woobie, blorbo, babygirl, whatever the hell they're calling it now.

He can't hide his suffering anymore. He's on the very edge. He's a dude in distress. He's surrounded by enemies! He misses his mama! He's been betrayed! No one understands him like you do, dear player!

The ultimate feeling evoked is: He needs to be saved.

When people talk about male power fantasies, I think they forget that women can experience them too, and "Emotionally vulnerable man that only I (or my favorite character) can fix" is actually a female power fantasy.

And from there it's really easy, right: the people who shell out cash to buy warps for their harmed-husbando feel like they've saved him; the people who are into mlm ships look for the nearest hot dude to be the savior Ratio was waiting for his time lol.

Morally and intellectually, this type of deep-down-golden-hearted, emotionally-wounded male character is very easy to digest. There is nothing to dislike about this type of character or role in the story: this character is a good guy who has just gone through so many terrible situations, whose victim status makes him endearing, and whose lack of agency means that any of the questionable or downright bad things he does are always the result of someone else forcing his hand, and never something he would have chosen himself.

His motivations are always clear and consistent: get free, heal, and live happily ever after.

Insert the Wreck-It Ralph meme: "Do people assume all your problems got solved when a big strong man showed up?" But to be fair, a big strong man did kind of solve Aventurine's problem, so--

Anyway, it's simple. It's straightforward. Morally, it's pretty cut and dry, black and white: Aventurine is our hero, which means everyone dictating the course of his miserable life is evil.

Hoyo is not remotely discouraging people from literally buying into this emotional appeal.

And trust me, I get it. I'll be the first to admit that hurt-comfort is its own entire genre in fandom because it is so appealing. People eat up Aventurine's tragic backstory like candy! The idea of watching a character go through hell at the hands of bad guys just to finally find a happy end is like the definition of everyone's favorite story.

In fact... people love Aventurine's suffering so much, they have invented whole new ways for him to suffer that aren't even in the game.

This is where we get all the headcanons that Aventurine was a sex slave, every single person he meets hates him because of his race, the Stonehearts are executioners holding knives to his throat, Jade enslaved him to the IPC with a lifelong contract, his material possessions belong to the company, the IPC is forcing him to take only the most dangerous missions where he is being required by his evil jailers to continually put his life on the line... You name it and I promise you, I can find a fanfic where Aventurine suffers from it. 😂

Bro can't even sleep in on his day off; life is so hard for this man.

Being serious: if the game is telling us that Aventurine is a victim... Why not make him the perfect victim?

Why not envision an Aventurine with no freedom, who bears no responsibility for any of the horrible situations he is in or any of the dubious things he does?

It's so natural to like that version of Aventurine, so appealing to see a totally powerless underdog use his own wits and charms to claw his way up to freedom. Or, if you're the kind who really relishes angst: It's even appealing to see Aventurine lose more. To delight in fics where he loses his wealth, where the IPC punishes him for past crimes while he's powerless to stop them... (I assure you, this is many people's cup of tea and the fanfics prove it!)

Ultimately, there's nothing wrong with liking characters who are exactly this straightforward! It's completely fine to embrace characters that are intentionally written to be morally above-board, whose primary role in the story is to generate angst by being a good person who suffers, or those characters who never show unlikable traits, bad decisions, or contradictory actions.

The problem is that that's just not who the game is telling us Aventurine is.

Hoyo may be capitalizing off people who love to envision poor Aventurine still living his life as a slave... But the game also needs to tell a complicated enough story overall to appeal to people who don't care about this specific husbando--Aventurine's role in the actual game's plot has to be interesting enough for almost everyone to appreciate it, not just Aventurine's simp squad. (Don't get mad, I'm in the simp squad with you.)

So his character doesn't stop at just being a pure-hearted victim who is still waiting to be saved.

Aventurine is not that easy to label, and I think the biggest struggle in this character's fandom right now is between people who prefer the even-more-angsty, still-a-slave Aventurine versus people who want a morally grey, self-destructive character instead.

To me personally, while I greatly understand the appeal of fanon!Aventurine and the joy of a really juicy angst fic where characters lose it all, I think that missing out on the depth that canon is suggesting would be a real loss on the fandom's part.

The character motivations that Aventurine shows in the game are complicated. They cancel each other out. They're basically self-harm! He makes almost every situation he's in worse for himself--on purpose.

He is a good person, but also a person who has done unspeakable things. He does have morals, but he's not above allowing those who don't have them to use him to their advantage.

He's both the victim and the victor. He's his own worst enemy. He's a lost little boy who's been making terrible decisions for himself since he was like eight years old, and a grown ass man who is barely managing to fake his way through an existence that destiny is not letting him quit.

This kind of character is a lot harder to embrace. He's done things that most people would find appalling--like willingly joining up with the organization that let his entire race be massacred. He's invented a whole new peacock persona to frivolously flaunt riches he doesn't even care about (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 101). He actively plays into racist stereotypes about his people to manipulate others through their preconceived expectations. He's made a mockery of his mother's and sister's hopes and dreams by endlessly trying to throw his own life away.

He has flaws! He bet everything he had on a ploy without doing his homework to find out if the people he was risking his life for were even still around. (Maybe he already knew, and couldn't bear to admit it, even to himself.) He's intentionally off-putting and obnoxious to everyone he meets (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 102). He terrifies everyone who gets close to him by (seemingly) carelessly throwing himself into the jaws of death without the slightest provocation.

He knowingly allows the IPC to exploit his power and talents for profit. Did everyone forget that his role in the Strategic Investment Department is asset liquidation?! Like, his actual day-to-day job is ruining people's lives. Canonically, Aventurine kills people when his deals go bad.

His motivations change off-screen in two lines of story text. We're told in one line that his biggest reason for joining the IPC was to make money to save the Avgin, then in the next line we find out that's impossible. And... then what? What motivations does he even have now? The whole point of his character arc from 2.0-2.1 is that he was on the edge of giving in to utter despair and nihilism because he couldn't even perceive a single reason to stay alive. He has no purpose in life before Penacony, and that didn't start with the Stonehearts at all??

People keep saying Aventurine was held in the IPC by golden handcuffs, but how do you tie down someone for whom profit is meaningless? What can you offer to a man whose only desire is to bring back something already lost forever? How do you imprison someone whose only definition of freedom is, canonically, death?

Working for the Stonehearts is obviously not healthy. But that's why Aventurine was doing it--because taking dangerous missions allowed him to put himself at risk. The job that he originally pursued hoping to save his people became a direct means to self-harm, and the IPC's only real role in that was just happily profiting off the results.

The journal entries for Aventurine's quests are there deliberately to tell the player what is on his mind, and none of it has to do with escaping from his job:

Like... Work is the least of this man's problems.

At really the risk of rambling on too long now, he's also just a massive walking contradiction:

Aventurine is among the most explicitly religious characters in the game, yet he's one of the only people in the entire game that we have ever seen actively question his people's aeon.

You might be tempted to think Aventurine's risky gambles with his life as an adult are a result of giving up after finding out about the Avgin massacre... Butttt no, Hoyo makes sure to tell us that even at knee-high in the Sigonian desert, Kakavasha was already willing to risk himself in a fight to the death against monsters because even back then he found his own life to have less value than a single memento.

He's the "chosen one" who will lead his people to prosperity... except they're all dead.

He's explicitly suicidal... andddd also a pathstrider of Preservation.

He wants to die... He doesn't want to die. He wants to make it end, yet goes to staggering lengths to continually survive. (Every plan risks his life on purpose--but every plan's win condition is also to live.) He life is the chip tossed down, but his hand is trembling beneath the table. When faced with an otherwise unsurvivable situation, Aventurine literally became a winner of the Hunger Games. He beat other innocent people to death with his own chain-bound hands just to come out alive.

He knows the IPC failed the Avgin and left them to die... and he still willingly sought out a position of power in their organization. Maybe he really is after revenge... but maybe not.

He starts his journey in the IPC with a truly noble goal in mind: to help his people using his newfound wealth and power. He's a good guy who did genuinely want to save the Avgin and repay all those who helped him. But once it became clear he was too late, once it was obvious he would have no use at all for that monetary wealth and power he risked his life to get... What did he do with it? Unlike Jade, we don't see him over here donating to orphanages. (I'm not that heartless; I'm sure he does actually do a lot of good things with his money on the side, but the point is that the game does not show us that--it shows us, over and over again, Aventurine putting on a wasteful, over-indulgent persona toward wealth. We've supposed to feel how meaningless money is to him, how meaningless everything is becoming to him.)

He outright refuses to use underhanded tactics or to cheat at gambles, which is meant to show us that's he's more morally upright than his coworkers. There's an entire exchange where he says that he'll never stoop to using manipulation the way Opal does. But... he doesn't have any issue fulfilling Opal's exact agenda. He was never remotely morally conflicted about denying the Penaconians their freedom by dragging Penacony back under IPC control.

He's willing to risk his own life, which is one thing--but he's also willing to risk other people's well-being. Topaz accuses him of constantly egging their clients on into dangerous situations; we've actively seen him shove a gun into Ratio's hands and pull the trigger with no care for how Ratio would feel about that on their very first meeting... Dragging the Astral Express crew into the entire Penacony plan in the first place was exceedingly dangerous...

To me, I just think it's vital to understand his character through the lens of these contradictions because they demonstrate the extreme polarity of Aventurine's life: from rags to riches, from powerless to empowered by multiple aeons, from willing to kill to survive to killing himself... He has quite literally lived a life of "all or nothing," and while he is the victim of many terrible situations out of his control, his arc as a character involves facing the truth of himself and the future his own actions are hurtling him toward.

Frankly, the Aventurine that canon is suggesting is a little annoying. You want to grab him by the shoulders, shake him, and say "Why are you like this?!" And he won't even have an answer for you, because he doesn't even know why he's still alive.

In the end, to me, this is so, so much more interesting. I can read an endless supply of hurt-comfort fics where Aventurine escapes the evil IPC and Ratio is there to fill the void in his life with the power of love and catcakes and be a perfectly happy clam online, but I want canon to continue to serve us this incredible mess of a man who constantly takes one step forward and two steps back.

Who is fully aware of his role as a cog in the grotesque profit-wheel of cosmic capitalism and still manages to say he never changed from the rags-wearing desert rat of the Sigonian wastes.

Who over and over again flirts with nihility but, ultimately, even if he has to wrest it from the grip of the gods themselves with bloody, chain-bound hands, chooses life.

[verxsyon]

canon-compliant gi. wrio x f!reader.

everyone say thank you to hoyo for wrio's fabulous teaser which gave me a lot of inspo to continue this idea i sent on discord.

childhood friends to lovers au that starts from wriothesley's arrest which is about a decade prior to the game to after the archon quest. reader's parents were sentenced by neuvillette to be guilty and sent to the fortress. one day, she thought of getting herself arrested so she can investigate and there, she met an inmate her age.

what if her parents belonged to a spy organization and defected when her mom found out she was pregnant with her. this org's all about not letting personal feelings get in the way of work, but her parents' love for each other was so strong that they stopped killing according to orders and didn't want their child to be exposed to their job and get hunted down by their former colleagues.

somehow, their enemies found out that they've been hiding in fontaine, and the only way to draw them out is to accuse them of several murders, which they actually committed in the past. this particular case was investigated by the gardes, which resulted at a dead end due to little evidence. as all the evidence points to them and they have no reason to lie about it, they were sentenced to the fortress of meropide.

before going there, her parents told her that they'll be on a business trip. although they've loving, reader's frustrated that they sometimes leave for long periods at a time and won't tell her anything.

due to this, reader grew up to be nosy. she overheard things about two new convicts, a couple, at the fortress of meropide being true perps of the murder case and immediately assumed they were about her parents. the thing is, "how do you go there?" so, she decided to be a menace by causing public disturbances at the city by slandering the iudex and the hydro archon.

she didn't mean it, of course. she needed to do something offensive that would definitely get her ass to jail.

"another kid?" don't tell me..." she heard the guards say in passing on the way to her dorm. similar to the traveler's routine in act iii, reader spends time in between looking for her parents. got stuck here lol, but an incident led her to meet wrio who helped her solve it.

wrio has met her parents who treated him very well and told him about their daughter who's around his age, which he guessed to be her. he agreed to help discover the truth about her parents' sentence and escape from prison, but only for the price of learning the ins and outs of the fortress. reader's nosy nature's useful to perceive info very quickly and she already found out some things that she didn't mean to, so he declared her as his unofficial informant.

remember when charlotte asked paimon and traveler to get info about wrio since they were sent to the fortress? well she found their intel to be insufficient. reader at this time serves as wrio's informant and with her, her parents are his oldest allies. she managed to pick up their convo at the cafe. bored out of her mind, she decided to talk to them and tell her story about her relationship with wrio: from childhood until the present.

[coconox]

whb QoLs that i would like to see

boredom post lol, just dumping my thoughts into the void of what id like to see be added in whb but probably will never happen 🫠

1. separation of character and artifact banners

pretty self-explanatory. w the roster being huge and it only increasing from here there needs to be a distinction btwn characters and artifacts. im sure many ppl atp have gotten tired of the false hope they get when they get the gold glow from one of the kings at the beginning only to find out that its just one of his sig 💀💀

1.1 for patches w 2 l-rank debuts, have the selector work even before you hit pity

i get having the selector for if you reach hard pity, but its a bit greedy for it to apply only when you wasted so many seals (esp when f2ps dont get as much seals as they should). i would like the chance of knowing im guaranteed that char from the beginning even when i get the char early

1.2 if there exists an artifact banner, let there be a selector for which one you want to pull for

same logic as prev points. the rosters getting huge and ideally id like to have smth guaranteed for when i do my pulls

2. update characters' skill descriptions to be more specific

theres too many "[dmg/healing] is proportional to [some stat]." i want to see what that actual proportion is, like "dmg is proportional to x% of stat" where x is some number. or in skill menus theres "increase passive effect" like just tell me what youre specifically increasing in the passive !!!! i shouldnt need to actually lvl the passive to figure out whats changing, it should be stated from the get-go

3. have someone at the very least proofread the text

now i've seen my fair share of typos in games, hell, i literally play one where they couldnt even spell their own game name properly during the earlier yrs of its release lol *cough pgr cough*, but for the most part theyve resolved that issue and simple typos are easily spotted and fixed, but ive never seen there be this many typos or language switches mid-sentence. literally just 1 thorough proofread couldve easily solved most of these grammatical issues.

4. better optimization

im sorry but this is getting to like hoyo lvls of optimization w the fact that whb, which just hit half anni a month ago, is getting close to the amnt of storage an almost 3 yr old game has is wild to me (completely disregarding the fact that pgr has 3d models, l2d cgs, etc). imo, the amnt of storage whb holds should be around or even lower than what neural cloud has (which mind you, also has 3d models and l2d art 😭😭)

incoming very weird comparison but vanilla minecraft, a game that gets regularly updated, both on pc and pe take less than 1 gb

literally improving the optimization would make the game more accessible i.e. get more players to play since it wont take up a lot of storage !!! as someone who used to have 64gb or less on my phone, i could barely play any games on it bc nowadays they unnecessarily take up so much storage

5. add more daily/weekly tasks

keep the 9 daily requirements and 32 weekly requirements the same, just give more tasks for each so that we arent strictly set on doing specific ones. id like to see more stuff like "battle any stage x amnt of times" (emphasis on any, not a specific stage) or "interact w the lobby character at least once," just really anything that doesnt involve investing in a character or artifact. i feel like im wasting resources from lvling chars i dont wanna lvl, + we dont get enough tears per week to properly invest in so many characters at once.

giving more breathing room to hit the 9 and 32 achievements would put less stress on me cause then i'll know that if i cant complete one task, i can just do another and still be able to get all the rewards obtained for the week. im sure a fair share of ppl atp have missed out on getting all the weekly rewards bc they accidentally missed 1 daily task which is painful

5.1. get rid of the lvling artifacts weekly requirement and lvling characters requirement

briefly mentioned it prev but wanted to make its own section. its useless, especially when i ald have the artifacts that i need lvled up. its a dumb requirement that makes me waste mats and pulls just so i could lvl some artifacts properly.

6. get rid of the rng boxes and make them selectors

5.2 increase the daily/weekly rewards

dailies (w pancake shop): 9 tears, 7 key boxes (rng)

weeklies: 4 tears, 5 red keys, 2 yellow keys, 50 seals

i dont think i need to explain much here thats like scraping the bottom of a barrel for important mats/gacha currency

they suck. i do not want resources to be gacha too

7. make all shops cheaper

self-explanatory. everything is too expensive (esp in red gems shop) and therefore is borderline inaccessible unless if you hoard mats or 💳

7.1 add the ability to convert red gems to seals

red gems have very little use now ever since seals were introduced. id like them to have some important use if we keep getting a certain amnt of them every week. we can covert them to red/yellow keys, so by that logic we should also be able to convert them to seals too

8. get rid of uncommon/useless currencies

pretzels, artifact enhancement stones, and blue guilty gems are the 3 that come to mind. ik pretzels were originally supposed to be from the friends system, but that was removed a bit after launch and still hasnt showed up despite pb promising itd be launched around this time. aside from that the other 2 serve little to no use, as artifact stones dont lvl up the artifact all that much and blue gems died when seals became a thing

9. auto-clear for story stages

i mean that after getting a perfect clear on a stage, then have auto-clear be an option. since candy boxes are farmable through story, i end up falling asleep or getting bored of having to sit through fighting the same stage like 20+ times a day. this is honestly one of the more nit picky ones in this list lol, i just play the stages in the bg while i do other stuff but ideally id like to get stuff done asap

10. make lvling characters cheaper

we only get 13 tears a week from dailies + weeklies + pancake shop. assuming you start from scratch and want to get to char lvl70, it takes 3 weeks to get there without the help from other shops. thats almost a month for 1 character, it shouldnt take that long to invest in someone (it also shouldnt be that expensive 💀)

if we're getting such low numbers of essential materials per week, decrease the character lvl prices to reflect that. or alternatively, increase the number of mats we get per week to easily lvl characters

10.1 increase the character lvl cap to 100

40 tears for one level is not worth it, having the cap be 100 would make it feel like its worth it (not really tbh, its still real expensive when lvl70 provides more than enough to clear all content 💀)

10.2 add a resource stage for pies

getting pies only through shop (rng boxes btw) and events isnt enough to compensate for how much skill lvls cost. either decrease the skill lvl prices or increase the pie income to balance it out

11. have the ability to backread txt msgs before choosing a reply

self-explanatory. the game doesnt allow you to backread before choosing a reply which sucks :/

as someone who usually cant process txt after reading it once i kinda just sit at the replies like :/ girl i forgor what he just said and i cant go back and read so i'll just leave and re-enter the chatroom again ig

12. have the game automatically lock l-rank artifacts as soon as you get them

ik theres a lock feature, but you need to lock all artifacts manually. id rather the game lock l-rank artifacts for me once i get them so that i dont accidentally recycle them when cleaning out my inventory and then i manually unlock them later if i want to

13. give seals, keys, or just any sort of general gacha currency as compensation rewards

receiving only ap feels like a slap to the face, and seals/any other currency would only be given out if there was smth that was severely (and i mean very severely) hindering everyones gameplay. the ap given isnt even that much either which is like rubbing salt in the wound

14. decrease ap requirement in stages

considering stages can go up to 32ap as a req (given this is only seen in events, the usual hovers around 25 but my point still stands), you cant really do all that much if the cap hovers around 250 (give or take, i havent seen anyone w 300ap yet so 250 im considering is the avg rn for endgame players). w each stage at highest difficulty being 25-30+ap, we essentially only play like 10 stages max before needing to wait.

1 solution ppl would have in mind is to just buy the 300ap from red gems shop or buy more ap from selecting the ap counter directly to get more for the day, but i want smth thats more accessible. i shouldnt need to pay w some currency to get literally the bare necessity of being able to play this game.

i think keeping all stages at 15ap is perfect, hell, even 20 would also work since w 250ap you can get more than 10 runs in one session

15. make the battles less reliant on needing certain l-ranks

this is just smth ive noticed when testing out stages w other chars or just playing realm of seraphim lol, but theres a huge imbalance w l-ranks vs s and a+-ranks. theres also a huge imbalance when it comes to the classes too (i'll get to that in a bit)

take beel's camp for example, there is no one in beels camp that can essentially mimic or closely mimic what beel does kit-wise (dmg ik will be different cause lower ranking and all). imo, the go-to non-l-rank alternative for beel isnt even from his camp, its from belphegors !!!! (if you didnt catch on im talking abt andrealphus lol)

or take mammon for example, no one in his camp (as of making this post) deals dmg on ult, they only either shield themselves or take the hit for ppl on the team, which tends to do more harm than good.

element-wise, take juno for example. juno being an l-rank fire unit significantly changed how fire team worked, i.e., you can actually use that team to clear most story content now (minus water enemies lol). that should probably put into perspective of 1. how l-ranks are a bit too important in this game and 2. how unbalanced light as an element is compared to every other element

15.1 give us more tanks and healers

i need yall to see how crazy our current roster is

(dont mind the title of the table lol its from the spreadsheet, also for reference if ppl see this in the future this is pre-lucifer (victory))

why do we have so many close-rangers??? so many marksman????

we have such little supports (tanks + healers) that it makes me fully convinced the gameplay pb wants to achieve is full on dps and not yk a well-balanced team w dps AND support. dont get me wrong if players want to full on dps that is totally fine by me, the issue im having is that the devs appear to want a full on dps team, completely ignoring the idea of how to properly balance a game where they also introduce supports. of course there are marksman/close-rangers that can support i.e. buff the team (juno, dantalian, ronové, phenix, the list of examples goes on), but im specifically talking abt the classes in general. for the most part, marksman and close-rangers are usually dps while tanks and healers are usually support.

if youre gonna introduce supports in this game, 1. have more than just 1 tank unit for each non-light element, 2. make the healing be higher than 1% of a char's hp, 3. have an equal amnt of tanks and healers as close-rangers and marksman.

the fact that if you dont have mammon as your designated tank or lucifer as your designated healer, youre essentially screwed over is wild to me. their camps' s/a+-ranks should be able to hold just as well without their kings. satans camp is the perfect example of that. chars like minhyeok (who is quite literally mini satan kit-wise lmao), gabriel, leraye, nostalgia leraye, hell even ppyong (the a+-rank ver, not juno lol) are all perfect alternatives for if you dont have satan and that is amazing. we currently dont have that for supports and i genuinely hope thatll change in the future

—

this game is very, VERY far from being at least somewhat balanced in my eyes. i really do wish for the best w this game but man as someone who loves to dissect gameplay down to the numbers, seeing all this gets real frustrating for me from time to time.

anyw thats all for now– this was a bit of a rant more than anything lol

[gold-rhine]

Hsr update was a thing that happened... I'm just wondering what is HAPPENING with the writing?? Like it was never good imo but they know how to write in a few companion quests. Like belebog are y'all okay?? I've unistalled the game temporarily so I can have space for my other games but am wondering if I should even bother going back (I probably will for Like a character design I like or for nanook or yaoshi or xipe) the story just keeps getting more confusing in terms of direction. Like what are they trying to show here? Even the game play can't keep my attention long.

Anywhoo I think this can all be fixed if they just give the people what they want

Nanook

right???? like idk whats happening on luofu bc they don't tell you shit and i'm not piecing together drama from expedition clues, thank you very much.

but for belobog its like. hsr spoilers btw. first we gonna lie to ppl that the tyrant that segregated half of them in underground mines without ever letting them see the sun and sent the other half to senseless wars with monsters is a hero actually. so they don't lose hope and bronya gets to conveniently step into position of tyrant herself, which everyone is like yeah she's the best option, shes so great!

then space amazon shows up and demands that they own the entire planet to cover 700 yold debt. they promise to solve ecological catastrophe, but everyone is gonna be amazon slave now. which ok, i can believe space amazon is this scummy, sure. but then instead of fighting it, instead of finding out precisely whats gonna happen to people, asking success rate, which methods are gonna be used, you know, asking ANYTHING. bronya reads letter from amazon union breaker executive whos like "my planet was bad too, and then we were sold to amazon and everything is a-okay now, so amazon's slavery is good actually:) you should trust me:)"

bronya is like hhm she sounds trustworthy:) then she asks opinion of like. 10 ppl. and is ready to sign ALL OF HER PLANET TO AMAZON SLAVERY

then himeko shows up like hey so i googled it, and amazon terraforming only succeeds in 60% of cases, otherwise you guys might die. bronya is like wow no slavery then >:\

and then she wins over amazon executive corporat by showing like. the giant engine first tyrant ordered to make. and union breaker, who btw took control of all robots and already sent them against local military AND fought main character directly, is like oh wow! your planet has strong leaders which my planet didn't, so your planet can stay free :)

like... the implications... bc "strong leaders" are literal tyrants... who, again, locked half of ppl into underground mines... and last tyrant was ready to destroy the whole planet... that these tyrants are the reason belobog is special from "weak" planets who can't survive by themselves and need to be owned by amazon... like what the actual fuck hoyo

oh and then we're supposed to feel sorry for amazon corporat bc she got demoted one rank :( boohoo i hope she gets shot, like?? are you kidding me??

its like if nahida didn't took akasha down, and instead dottorre demanded she has to let him use all the power of akasha and energy from sumeru's ppl minds as payment for akademiya debts. and she convinced him not to with power of friendship (but she kept exploiting ppl's dreams with akasha). and then we see a scene where dotorre is reprimanded by tsaritsa and we're supposed to be sad for him. like lol. lmao even.

also, i think plot expects me to fight nanook in the end. which like. no. i hope yall are getting crushed by his giant gold titties.

[samsspambox]

Maybe it’s just me, but the anniversary event didn’t really feel like… any anniversary event? I haven’t finished it fully yet so maybe my thoughts will change, but right now it’s just kinda lackluster to me. Even the interactions with the various male leads aren’t too interesting :// (plus I have a vendetta against the minigames, I’m not great at them) and wanted to get your opinion. It just seems like another random event than an anniversary story.

howdy howdy! i wanted to wait until the anii event was over (and,,, reread it again i've kinda been playing tot on auto pilot for a year,, i haven't played any card from fluffy time onwards which is so bad ajhdskajh) also *shakes your hand* listen, i don't mind the mini game just don't... don't time me on them please. i hate timed mini games LMAO

but I kinda get your point! you could go either way, honestly. from a story standpoint, it did feel a little bland. it was just more of "hey, we need to do a job and also here's a sidequest". imo... it felt a lot like the Hoyo event! Yk, the one where they go to the amusement park? You had to solve riddles and then there was a side story abt someone who died.

at least, from the other two annis, this one didn't have the city anni as a center staple as the other two? Well, 2nd anni was more "stellis tradition" rather than city anni but i'm going on a tangent here lol

it was still a fun event nonetheless! i really enjoyed the drone mini games! and while the story was a little meh, i liked the interactions! artem being good with kids was so cute to see again!!

the last two anni's felt more robust, for sure. with this one i can just go ahead and say "yeah. this was an event" bc it did feel just... there, but take my opinion with a grain (or a buttload) of salt since i did kinda speed through it.

[e17omm]

Interesting. Welp, lots of thoughts about HSR 2.2 below.

Lots of thoughts so Ill start with a checklist.

Firefly: good so far. It doesnt seem like she hates her life being trapped in the SAM suit, and thats good. I was worried they were going to make her despise having to be Sam. Seems that she can survive for a while without the suit, which I find fine.

Now as long as they make her fight AS Sam and they wont really have screwed up anything with her. Not everyone needs to have superpowers. Let Firefly's powers come through Sam. She'll be a really unique character that way. Seriously, who else fights using a mechanical body armor like an anime Iron Man in a Hoyoverse game? I'd have no issues with Firefly then.

Well, except one thing, but I'll get to that later.

Now, the fucking plot twist? Holy shit. This really went from "that was kinda anticlimactic. We really went from "we do the cool thing" to "someone else does the cool thing" to "we pass out before we see the cool thing" like, really? Everythings solved and we're already ready to leave? We get on the train, have a chat with everyone, vote on where to go. And (presses hands together in front of my mouth) holy fucking shit.

My one issue is that I wish they actually ended the 2.2 story after the plot twist reveal. Of all the "cliffhangers" and "plot twists" they have tried to do, THIS WAS THE SPOT TO DO IT. THIS WAS IT. This was HUGE. Its in the third Penacony mission, so it would have avoided that thing with "oh yeah you totally wiped out the Herrscher of Dominance halfway through the second chapter" thing. Like, this is the end. We're done. We won and are leaving. In the 3rd story mission. This was THE moment to reveal the plot twist, just barely start it to not leave everyone confused, and then end it and save it for a 4th story mission in 2.3

But it was way too short. It was way too easy to just, get all the crucial pieces and solve the puzzle. We started Act 3 of the story and it only lasted like 20 minutes. It really could have done with SOME difficulty in getting all the important pieces to solve everything.

But we just learn about the plot twist, everyone important groups up, and we fight the final boss. Just like that.

Next on the list, Acheron! Or should I say, Raiden Mei? When that shadow asked for her name, I was PRAYING that Hoyo knew what they were doing, and they did! They didnt skimp out on it! Didnt go the whole "I have lost my memory of it" which would have been such a cop-out. But nope! They did it!

And the Honkai music? Fuck I had chills. And this is pure nostalgia of the best parts of HI3. Those parts were so good that you remember the music and the feelings you had with those notes.

I cant remember much of the music at the later stages of HI3. The story just hasnt grabbed me like chapters 5 to 25 did. (Hoyo should take notes of their own work, ngl)

Now... onto "Death"

"Death" might be the WORST character design I have ever seen. Not from the looks, but from their role in the story and how Hoyo uses it.

A shady character shows up, pulls out a gun, and shoots another character in the head. And later you tell me that that wasnt actually a murder? Bullshit. Get that garbage out of here.

And you know the worst part? ONE SCENE is what ruined "Death" for me.

Firefly's "Death" scene. Delete it. It ruins so much. She is the only one we see "Death" "killing". Why. She's not dead. Why did you show that "Death" "kills" like that? Who sat down and wrote that part? Literally just make us not see this scene and heavily imply that it killed her like they implied that "Death" killed everyone else and this would've been fine!

I can buy that Robin and Sunday are alive because we see neither of them dying. Robin is off-screen and Sunday is hidden from the camera.

But we saw a death when it killed Firefly.

Next time someone is shot in the head on screen I will be expecting it to be an imposter, a stunt actor, an illision, or WHATEVER ELSE. BECAUSE EVEN WHEN THEY SHOW DEATH THEY CHICKEN OUT. AND ALL THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF FIREFLY'S TRACES DISAPPEARED RIGHT BEFORE WE COULD SEE HER. WE COULD EVEN SEE "DEATH" SNEAKING AWAY AS WE ENTER THE ROOM. BUT DONT SHOW THE DEED BEING DONE.

...

Onto the final boss. ... Its... I mean, the boss fight is neat. Um, not sure if Hoyo now thinks that "big thing is intimidating" but this boss was just kinda, eh.

We've already defeated two big things with Cocolia's (now our) mecha, and then Phantylia. And now this sympthony thing.

Uh, Hoyo does know that big doesnt immediately equal "intimidating" or "scary" or "impressive", right? I just wanna be sure. Because this boss is none of that.

Uh the music also get a bit too pop-star-y? Its not bad, I just feel like it goes against the tone of what the story wanted this moment to feel like.

I also wish that Acheron actually did something to help in the end. She kinda just "eh well you can fight now. Me? Byeeeee~" I know that she had a glory moment in 2.1, but like, come on. Sunday just gives up fighting because we told him that people dream in order to wake up. Which doesnt sound philosophical enough to me to make Sunday have a freaking reality check and fall from the platform in shock and defeat.

Hoyo has really been trying to make so much of their stories in the Honkaiverse have a higher meaning and be a matter on philosophy, and then they keep asking why birds fly and I am so fucking tired of it.

Like, this is all they got and its not even a joke.

So, yeah. I kinda really wanted IX to show up and just, consume Penacony. That would've been cool and been decently foreshadowed. Could have had everyone go numb or like, whatever happens to us when we get close to IX in the Simulated Universe, and then have most people try to scramble to the ships to gtfo, and then have IX appear and consume the place.

But as long as we head to the Edo Star next, I'll be happy.

A place under attack by the Antimatter Legion and their distress signal recently went out? Send me there. Right now. Not even a question. I want to see the Antimatter Legion actually live up to what everyone has said about them. Dont fucking bait me on this Hoyo.

Oh yeah, another thing before I finish this!

Where are our ability to hear Stellarons? Did Hoyo forget that we can hear the voice of Stellarons? That is like, one of the most interesting parts about the Trailblazer!

Imagine a world where we get to Penacony in 2.0, and everything's fine and the same as it was. Except... we can hear the voice of a Stellaron. But, there's no signs of it. There's no Fragmentums. There's no sign of it at all. But we keep hearing its voice.

It could have slowly told us the story of Penacony over the course of these three patches so that we didn't have to get a history lesson before the climax of the story.

It would have easily added some mystery and questions while basically requiring no changes to the current story. Is there a Stellaron on Penacony, or are WE the only Stellaron on Penacony?

Speaking of the Stellaron inside of us... It has barely mattered after Belobog...

Hoyo... This should be a big deal throughout the story. Herta is shocked that a human body can host a Stellaron. We can hear the voices of other Stellarons. We could go nuclear if it goes out of control. Why has it not really mattered after Belobog? Hoyo, this isnt something you should just wave off like you have been doing with the Traveler's ability to wield 5 of the 7 elements. Dont make the same mistake twice.

This is dragging out, but I just keep remembering more things!

Hoyo, please dont tell me that you are unable to make long-term stories anymore. Everything has been self-contained recently. And sure, you've TRIED to make it feel like it has a larger impact, but in the end it always hasnt.

HI3 Part 1.5? It MIGHT be important later. I dunno if Vita has any importance at all to part 2 so far. All the regions in GI are basically self contained. You could take Mondstadt Traveler and toss them straight into Fontaine and you would basically not have to change them at all. All of HSR has also been rather self-contained. Happy that Dan didnt actually call the Luofu, that would have just made this all seem even more miniscule and also extremely convenient.

But... Remember when Himeko fucking died and the next 16 chapters was the fallout of that? Remember when we could have big story moments that still mattered for more than 3 months of real time?

Penacony's story is over, and I dont think that anything that happened here will have any impact on the next destination. Did we even actually pick up any new crewmembers?! Please tell me that the cowboy and Black Swan actually joins us for a while. You Chekhov's Gun'd it all the way back in Belobog!

So in short. I liked Penacony act 2 and 3 a lot. Not close to anything in HI3 chapters 5 to 25, but it was good. Could have been a lot better with (imo) rather small changes.

Also wtf is up with Hoyo's budget allocations? They put so much budget into the filler generic battle part of act 3. That was so much effort put into just filler. What's up with that?

[toomanyideasandfandoms]

Honestly I'm honest to god bored rn so I'm just gonna like write random shit about genshin/hsr/zenless guys that are either self aware or not (idk I'm typing this as I go)

Fair warning some might end up as smut thoughts since I have no filter while waiting for 2.2 to come for star rail

Okay but like- Wrio is a beastman right? We're all in agreement about this aren't we? Like I know he doesn't have ears or a tail but if Lyney is blood twins with Lynette then that mean beastmen genes don't always show!! I know we classify beastmen as characters with those traits but realistically wouldn't any children with their blood be classified as that race? Since it's not a transformation thing within Hoyo then you can have the blood of one and not have the more showy traits. With these points in my I will always assume Wrio is a beastman YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY MIND I REFUSE TO DEBATE ON THIS

That said....does this mean Lyney has barbs-

COUGH OKAY ILL STOP MY BARBED LYNEY AGENDA LMAO

Actually speaking of cat like men, Jing Yuan really like sets me off. Idk how but I just see his face and I wanna punch it. He just very much gives me the vibes of liking tsuns and I hate that the dynamic in my head makes me go insane. LIKE THEY COULD BE THE MEANEST BITCH AND HE WOULD JUST BE HAPPILY SMILING CHEEKILY WHILE CUDDLING THEM AS THEY CHEW OUT SOMEONE. It sounds so cute.

Also like Ratio very much fascinates me, like Alhaitham. I just really wanna pick the brains of those that are super smart, probably cause it could lead me to somehow becoming more "normal" and smart dhskdhf. Though I don't with how abnormal they are, but still I would love to talk with them about how the difference in emotional and logical responses have their importance in certain situations and also how idiocy is more so curable if you can get past the human ego.

I honestly have no idea how the dynamic between me and them would be like. Alhaitham I feel like it would be a mix of how he is with Kaveh but also mixed with a dumber version of him.

Ratio....honestly I think he would just see me as an idiot and not want to be around me LMAO. Like I can be smart...in certain topics dhskdj. But that's mainly only in art, video games, and tons of random trivia for various things. If he asked me to solve something like in math, if it's isn't a simple equation (like middle school x=y bullshit easy) I got no fucking clue. I can do simple math fast (Fast Math my saving grace, where are my fellow Fast Math champions!), not human calculator fast but fast enough to be the first one to answer most of the time.

Though maybe talking about art could be my slight savior? Since while I don't know specifically physical art techniques (besides for maybe watercolor, but it's been years since I transitioned to digital), I do love the process of art very much. Not so much art history but more so just the passion into it it takes (it's why ai art pisses me off but I'd rather not get into that). Like the meaning or reason as to why someone created something. Why would someone create an image in one way? To experiment? Because why not?

I'm not smart enough to really get philosophical or anything, but I do enjoy talking about such things with others. Though even I need to get over my ego since sometimes I know I'll shut down conversations if I realize I'm sounding like an ignorant idiot (a real big problem I have. I just hate feeling like one so much because then I have a harder time expressing myself or I think the person looks down on me somehow).

Oh god I rambled a lot about these two and myself dhskfjfk. Either way, I think I could at least be able to converse with them. But who knows if they would have positive feelings with me.

Moving topics LYCAON BEING FERAL- cough. Okay but come on!!! Like even his introduction gave hints of him being less refined as he shows himself. I WANNA SEE IT. While I love characters that are like this I just also want to know what makes them tick I WANNA BE THE ONE TO FIND AND PUSH THOSE BUTTONS. Like I don't want them to hate me oh no, but I just wanna see them snarl and rage in combat. WHAT REALLY MAKES ME CRAZY IS WHEN THEY DO GO BATSHIT ITS TO PROTECT THEIR LOVED ONES GOD AAAA

Ahem, anyway-

Honestly if in a self aware au I wonder how Lyney and Arlecchino would feel about the player simping over them both. Like how awkward would that be???? Idk if I could face them if I was isekaied into genshin because of this.

Actually I wouldn't be able to face anyone in genshin or Star Rail cause I've said SO MUCH DIRT ABOUT MYSELF AS I PLAYED, EVERYONE WOULD JUST KNOW ABOUT WHO ID WANT TO FUCK AND WHAT MY HC OF THEM WERE GOD. I would permanently live in the isolation just so I could avoid any possible looks of disgust or curiosity because I REFUSE TO TALK ABOUT IT.

It would really be hard with the characters I like because I'm already running away from them on sight, I don't need that to make me even more embarrassed.

Actually now thinking about it....I wanna know how certain characters would react if someone was running away from them on sight because they're too scared to interact because of their crush on the characters. That sounded really weird but hopefully someone gets what I mean. Cause this is me with like....almost all the guy characters in both games lmao. And some girl characters too.

I just have this thought process of like "Oh there's no way someone likes me like that, I'm too weird and loud for most." Which causes me to avoid them because if I have a crush then that means it's gonna be obvious and everyone will know, so I have to prevent that by not being around them at all!

This is mainly for fictional characters and scenarios btw, not real life. In real life I still think this way but I don't avoid people, that's rude.

I've actually had this scenario talk with my friend and it's really funny just how much I would think about avoiding the characters I love.

Like going around the chasm just to avoid having to go to Gandharva Ville to avoid Tighnari LOL. Even thought of a plan of, since that first plan of avoiding the place would fail after testing, us going there at night hoping he's not on night watch and getting a night watch ranger to escort us to the main city.

Or that fact that I would sit at the very back of the theater just so Lyney wouldn't see me in the crowd (would most likely fail) and also happily knowing I got no shot going on stage since it's a 1/168 chance (yes I counted the seats, this excludes the balcony section).

I could probably write a whole self indulgent series of how the reader would avoid certain characters and most likely fail at it. I would want to make it romantic since while I think realistically I don't think the characters would like me back, I am unfortunately a simp so I have this pesky hope of maybe.

Anyway there's your idea dump

[windblume-wishes]

❦ 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕖𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤, 𝔻𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕣𝕤! ❦

It seems that once more I must hop on the bandwagon of informing people of “artists” who pride themselves on tracing/stealing another’s work.

Please note this post is not to encourage hateful behaviour or violence of any sort towards the individual mentioned. This is simply a post to inform in hopes that people become aware of this unfortunate situation.

Today is the birthday of Genshin Impact character Kamisato Ayato and as per the tradition that Genshin Impact keeps up, a birthday art is made for that character by a fan (mainly a creator in their content creator program). This time it seems that Genshin Impact unknowingly chose an individual who is notorious for tracing/stealing designs of artists. I doubt that HoYo knew of their involvement in theft and tracing but it certainly does not look good considering Genshin’s record as of late- especially after the recent incident involving many of their VAs. (See source tweet here)

This is yet again another stain on the already quite dirty Genshin Impact name, while HoYo is likely unaware of this fact, the fans were quick to take notice and inform the fandom on Twitter, some even pinging Genshin Impact’s official Twitter account.

While this is not anything new considering the Ugigiugi situation in the TWST community, it is still a sad thing to witness as an artist. I like to take inspiration from what I see- never trace. However sometimes tracing can be a good thing, how so you ask? Simple, by using it for practice. That is how I learned to draw, I used it to memorize proportions and positioning- a trick I learned in 5th grade art class as a child. Now I no longer need it and I can draw smoothly with only looking at a reference pose using a 3D model. Never once did I post the “traced” work I made back then (I was quite young and did not have the technology).

In the end I suppose one can only spread awareness in hopes to eventually tackle this problem once and for all but alas we all know that it may never be truly solved. Never hurts to make a little bit of noise about it, eh?

- Windblume

[divinepriestesskokomi]

I just did (most) of Lynette's hangout event, so I wanted to share my thoughts. Spoilers for the hangout undercut

For the most part I really liked it! I'm so happy we got to see more of Lynette and really get to see her personality shine!

I loved the two different story threads I got to see, the mystery solving one and the movie one.

The mystery one was my favorite, and my first playthrough I got the "Adventurers, Investigators, and Cats" ending, which ended up being my favorite ending of the bunch! I loved the interaction between Lyney and Lynette, of Lyney being very protective of her (which was super sweet), but I also really loved Lynette standing her ground and telling him that she doesn't need to be protected anymore, that she's grown and can handle herself. And I loved that Lyney heard and respected her feelings, it was just such a sweet interaction between them 😭

The story for the mystery itself was definitely convoluted and very sad, but I loved that Lynette was just as protective of the animals as I was. I was ready to fucking throw hands with those hoes for hurting those animals

The movie one was also really good, I really loved the whole message about how genuinely good actors are getting pushed aside and their roles being given to mediocre celebrities because it will garner more attention. That's such a huge problem in the entertainment industry today (side eyeing Crisp Rat) so I was super happy, and very surprised, to see Genshin addressing it so openly!

It's funny too because one of the things I love about Genshin is how the voice actors aren't just random big name celebrities and instead actual super talented voice actors who don't have big celebrity status. So I hope this is a sign that Hoyo intends to keep supporting actors who aren't big names.

My only complaints with the hangout quest are:

1: Freminet didn't show up at all, which was disappointing. Where is my boy Mihoyo. If you could include Lyney you should have included him too, don't leave him out! Even if he was in a separate route or something.

2: The perception check RNG thing is annoying as hell. Why should I miss out on things just because I got a low card.

3: They made it fucking IMPOSSIBLE to get the final ending because you have to rely on the stupid perception check. I've tried over and over and over but all I get are the one card and the 3 card, so I literally can't get that ending. I eventually gave up. Honestly I'm so annoyed I'll probably leave feedback for it because why the hell should an ending be locked behind shitty ass RNG

Other than that, I really loved the hangout event, I think it really did Lynette justice! I hope this will help make people appreciate her more

[mewsmagic]

DAMN YALL REALLY LIKE THE IDEAS OF ARLECCHINO MAFIOSA AND FISCHL GOTH FASHION DESIGNER HDOSNSKSKDODNZ THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH FOR THE VOTES!!!!

I’ll definitely be considering each one for sure!!! I’m beyond impressed even the less popular ones got at least some votes 🥹

I gotta check with hoyo staff if criminals count as a profession (cofcof Arlecchino) or are even allowed LOL but the rest of the characters should be good to go!!

I’m thinking of mainly Kirara delivering a package to someone, and then other characters in the background.

A good candidate for the receiver of the package would be Fischl, since a fashion designer definitely does need online orders!!

Another could be Lynette, who just received a package of her new dress, for the next show 🧐 naturally, this would make Arlecchino one of the main characters alongside her (the heart siblings would still be underground criminals under arle, if this is allowed) 👀 Kirara would be leaving for another delivery, and the rest would be passerbies or something!

I’m also considering having Furina, Kazuha and Navia (and Arle if I go with the Fischl idea, or vice-versa perhaps?) hanging out at a café nearby! Perhaps I can make the Wangsheng Funeral Café an actual thing lmaoo???

Of course, I’m making another poll for these ideas 👀 I got some business stuff to solve so I still have time to think about ideas and make a decision!!!

OH FUCK. THIS IS MY CALLING YALL I'M DEFINITELY PARTICIPATING???!!@!

Ngl I'm almost certain I'll at least include Kirara bc I already have some ideas for her delivery girl outfit and how she'd fit into the final illustration, but I'll probably add multiple characters so the help is still very much appreciated!!

Gosh I'm SO excited to start already LOL this project never saw the light of the day, but I used to have a small project in mind, in which I'd make several illustrations for lots of Genshin characters in stylish outfits literally just for fun.

I still have a whole pinterest board just for saving outfits that inspired me for each character I wanted to make!

So them launching a contest focused on fashion takes me over the moon to say the least LOL I'll definitely be using the board for inspo!

[gold-rhine]

Oh just remembered a fun question: I love the Itto is gonna be next geo archon theory, but if other archons needed replacement, who do you think would become the next archons? Or you can just imagine whichever character of your choosing would do if they were given archonhood.

i mean best case scenario we're dismantling archon system altogether tbh. archons only exist to regulate the power of element from breaking free and going back to natural order, i.e. dragons, that was directly stated now. like with geo specifically i think there will be smth with new archon bc liyue archon quest talks about future mora crisis several times and how there needs to be new lord of geo to mint new mora. so unless hoyo just leaves it as plothole, it would need to be addressed somehow. otherwise i'm not sure how hoyo will handle both like archons and dragon restoration, started with neuvi. like azhdaha seems too corrupted and far gone to be just given power back? and someone has to like regulate the element. but idk, even if new geo sovereign shows up, they probs won't care about like mora minting, so mb the duties can be split?

sorry i know that was not the question, but it got me thinking on that and this is context for like, why i dont really care about archons aside from specific circumstances. like for my money, unless they do smth specific and actually needed, they should just retire. i hope when endgame celestia conflict ends one way or another, archon thrones will be destroyed without need to kill the archon like focalors had to.

bc like what do archons actually DO that is archon-restricted? mora minting is like almost single veritable thing we have. like what does venti do? he shows up in times of crisis and doesnt even solve crisis himself, he inspires ppl to do it, and he's a keeper of stories and songs. he doesn't need to be archon for that. we don't need another anemo archon if venti is gone tbh, we'd need another bard. idk, kazuha, who already functioned in same role venti did for mond, but for inazuma rebellion, and is now collecting stories from all over the world.

what does nahida do as archon, now that akasha system is dismantled? leads and advises her ppl, helps in research, etc. also doesn't need to be an archon to do that. if you give dendro throne back to apep, so regulation of element is taken care of, nahida can be just like, idk, a grand sage.

what does raiden do other than keeping isolation storm and boob-nuking ppl who disagree with her. raiden retire now. and like i don't think its even interesting to imagine someone else in her place tbh.

[shittysawtraps]

Hoyo, Elmert

Beofre you are six different buttons. If you press one the mechanisms will activate and start shooting shotguns into your eye balls. If you press an other button the door opens. But besides that I’ve also put you in a trap where you’re stuck in a bear trap and to open the bear trap you need to solve this math problem. Next time don’t cut in line Elmert, or we may just be doing this again.

[archivalle]

considering pre-archon-ness zhongli is free real estate rn and i doubt m//hoyo care Enough to put that much lore in bcus it wont make them money - rambling under the cut

see in my head zhongli’s personality takes a lot of practise you can’t just wake up one day like, calm collected and intelligent, and based on chara stories and his history he seems to be kinda... how do i word this. i disagree w a lot of fanon about him bcus im a stickler for portrayals and THE MISTRANSLATIONS AND LACK OF CARE / STEREOTYPES THE FANDOM FALLS INTO  JUST GET TO ME But 

i honeslty picture a younger zhongli being much more - chaotic? HMM idk if that’ll read right. i dont know what word to use im like hmm m mm m. i’ll come back to that if i find a descriptor that works better im not saying chaotic but thats the closest i can come to

HEAR ME OUT. he seems  to have in the past exhibited pretty uncharacteristic behaviour that absolutely leaks into his present behaviour and im gonna have to take y’all on a journey 

1) i think a lot about in particular his ‘that which rises from the sea’ story. he made himself insanely uncomfortable to the point that it bothers him probably thousands of years later all for a contract and — idk man that’s a little childish to me? IS THAT THE WORD IM LOOKING FOR? i see him forcing himself through things to stay true to his morals, and needing to force yourself for your morals is very childish to me. he doesnt do things like that any more. 

2) sealing osial instead of killing him. i have a couple theories on why he did this and why it was done in panic instead of thought out as thoroughly as one might think — havria. i bring her up because as his side story showed that when gods are killed the energy released is immense. and if im allowed to make my own assumptions on timelines, if this happened before osial, it stands to reason zhongli took this as a lesson seriously and sealed osial out of fear bcus damn what the fuck if he accidentally destroyed everyone

3) and losing guizhong ... man. guizhong was his brains. she literally is described as gentle and intelligent, using her wisdom compared to zhongli’s raw strength. why would he need her if he had the intelligence when he was younger? i think in particular about one of her commandments;

"Teach with wisdom, be bound by virtue, fortify the bones, unite in ambition"

Sounds more like present Zhongli, right?

4) i’ve alwasy felt like some of the other adepti seem quite parental towards zhongli. maybe thats just me. madame ping and cloud retainer especailly i feel like m not saying they act like parent figures im just saying theres this like??? IDK HOW TO WORD IT MAN I HATE ADHD I WISH I WAS BETTER AT PHRASING THINGS. it’s a care that feels less like they treat him like the prime adepti and more like an equal or something similar.

bcus like. we know his title ‘god of war’ is a mistranslation - i’ll find the tweets on this bcus my chinese is only hsk1 and nowhere near good enough to explain this thoroughly (yes i should be studying rn too dont tell) and he’s no god of war at all. seeing as thats the pyro archon’s title yaknow. 

i just think he must have been so different when he was only 1-2 thousand years old. still fresh. still learning. still with this ‘i can solve everything’ mindset that took him years to outgrow. and losing guizhong probably pushed him there. 

anyway i think this is why he gravitates towards people like xiao or childe

ill finish this thought eventually for now take this typos and all.

[sleepy-aletheas]

Sunday is a great representation of a Good Person =/= Good Result. In many ways it shows the flaw of believing that just because someone has good intentions, or is "morally correct", then they automatically know how to handle situations and solve problems.

Him being a concoction of idealism and pessimism with a side of defeatism, and sprinkled over with childhood trauma (and basically growing up in a cult), he was doomed by the narrative from the get-go.

Him trying to create the Perfect Dream (a utopian reality) is fundamentally impossible, not just because of, as you said, the lack of rewarding feelings of accomplishment, but because everyone's 'perfect life' is completely different that such a reality cannot coexist without changing someone's whole personhood from the core. Someone's ideal life can be locked alone in their room, reading and not interacting with anyone. Someone else seeks thrills and adventures and dramatic beauty. And then someone else sees it in fistfights in bars and getting away with crime. Individualism is the antithesis of Sunday's Perfect Dream, and him trying to change everyone to match it is also going against that dream.

(In a sense he became the new Clockie of reality; not just because he was under Gopher Wood's shadow and care, but because he himself got so lost in dreaming of better lives that he lost touch with the reason why it even matters to have a choice)

Just because he was the bad guy really doesn't mean he is a Bad Guy. Misguided for sure. Absolutely lost in delusions of grandeur and martyrdom. Hopelessly fighting against himself, because his idealism and pessimism inherently stood on opposing sides at all times. Hoyo cooked with this little winged scoundrel for sure; not because he's perfect or necessary likeable or because he's morally right, but because he's sympathetic in a very human way.

I love him so so much, I need to toss him into a washing machine to see him spin.

Sunday’s worldview sucks, his outlook and perception of himself and others sucks… and that’s why he’s so interesting

In honor of his drip marketing releasing tonight (or maybe yesterday for you depending on when I get this out), I’d like to talk about why I think Sunday’s beliefs and perspective is very, very flawed and how his own biases rather than the actions of those who oppose him are what led to his downfall.

Sunday is entirely responsible for his own failure, and that’s exactly why he’s incredible.

This contains mentions of leaks and spoilers for the Penacony quest line… you have been warned

To start with, oh my lord do Sunday’s preconceived notions kick him in the ass. 

I think the best example of this is his conversation with Dr. Ratio in which Ratio pretends to betray Aventurine, selling out his plan to Sunday. Now, what’s incredibly interesting about this exchange is that Ratio doesn’t fully lie to Sunday once in this exchange, rather he says half truths and makes vague statements which Sunday himself interprets as being in support of him. 

Take what Ratio said the whole, “A scholar knows their position and wouldn’t forsake it for the sake of petty pride.” In retrospect, we know this line is actually referring to Aventurine- aka Ratio is saying he’s not just going to sell him out to Sunday for the sake of information about the Stellaron (which he would get anyways if the IPC attained Penacony, plus Mr. Incredibly Dedicated Knowledge Spreader probably has other means of gaining it then through The Family). 

However, since Ratio answered the invitation Sunday gave him, Sunday assumes that Ratio is on his side, believes his cause is righteous, and that he won Ratio over with offering him information about the Stellaron, therefore making that previous statement of Ratio’s null, because Sunday interpreted it as, “convince me this is worth my time + prove to me you’re correct,” when it really meant, “there is no way in hell I’m about to sacrifice my friend to you, and there is nothing you could offer me to make me do so you crazed lunatic.”

But why did Sunday not weigh the options? Why did he unquestioningly believe his perception of the situation was the correct one?

Well- partly it’s because Ratio and Aventurine were doing their damndest to make it seem like they hate each other and that their plan was going off the rails.

But the more important part is that even without Ratio saying a word or even accepting the invitation, Sunday already believes he’d be on his side. 

Let me demonstrate this through Sunday's perspective:

I am a righteous person, I am doing the correct things, my worldview is the correct one. Dr. Ratio is also a righteous person who seems to be doing the correct things. Therefore, since we are both on the side of good, and Aventurine is clearly not on that side considering his status as Stoneheart and his negative relationship to Ratio, then Ratio will naturally want to be on my side. After all, the good guys work together, do they not?- and together will vanquish this evil villain.

This perspective is a simple one, but Sunday’s unshaking belief (up until the end of 2.2) that he is 100% in correct and in the right, that any and everyone who he also perceives to be in the right (like Ratio) would believe/side with him without truly needing to be convinced. Sunday doesn’t come out the gate offering the Stellaron information- he only keeps it as a backup just in case. 

However, this is complicated because Sunday is also not an idiot, and he’s extremely paranoid, so he’s going to make sure that the way he views the world is 100% correct on the off chance he’s wrong which could foil his plans- which is why he invited Ratio in the first place. Nevertheless, this isn’t him hunting for new perspectives, but rather him desiring to prove himself right again, which is a bad thing because Sunday is very much not right. 

A perfect world is a perfect pris- *gets shot*

Reference that approximately 2 ½ people will get beside, Sunday’s ideology that he is fully confident in.. sucks. It sucks ass, it’s terrible, and let me explain.

I’m not going to try going over all the little intricacies to how the dreamscape works because I a) don’t know and b) don’t particularly care because they aren’t relevant to the argument I will be making- which is that Sunday’s ideology is inherently flawed and immediately falls apart under scrutiny.

Essentially, he desires to create the perfect fake reality, enveloping the whole galaxy in Ena’s dream and fulfilling their every desire and whim within it, with himself as the sacrifice to allow it to exist. The seven rest days, no illness, no pain, no challenge, you get the idea. 

And, this perfect world paradoxically sucks ass because of its perfectness.

Improving society is great, eliminating hardship is great, increasing quality of life is great.

But declawing reality itself- absolutely not.

I’m going to try to explain this through my favorite strangely specific anecdote- the process of obtaining diamonds in Minecraft.

Stay with me now.

You essentially have two options- go out and mine them yourselves the hard way, which takes hours, gives you less diamonds per the amount of time spent on it, and likely with you exhausting some of your resources like food, torches, and tools which you will need to replenish.

Or.

You can just.. get them from creative mode or commands, and you can get as many as your heart desires.

However, despite the fact that option one is harder, gives you less diamonds and takes significantly more time, I, as well as hopefully you, would pick it every time (at least in a survival world, although honestly idk why you would even need pure diamonds in creative).

And that’s because the first option is rewarding. 

You did not earn the diamonds you easily and magically summoned into your inventory, there is no struggle, no journey, no challenge to it, therefore it feels entirely unremarkable, as compared to the feeling you (hopefully) get from mining diamonds, which makes you happy because you earned it. Yeah, it was harder, but the process itself is fun- the anticipation of not knowing when you’re going to find them, if at all, the danger, the fighting and digging and mauvering you will have to do in the process.

And with this unconventional example, the fatal flaw with Sunday’s ideology is revealed- it’s boring. 

It’s boring as shit.

Yeah, for the first few months or even years it might be enjoyable- having everything you could ever want served on a silver platter. However, humans are a) inherently a bit greedy and b) desire challenge, and this scenario fulfilles neither of those things. Naturally having everything means your desire for more can never be fulfilled, leaving the wanter forever unsatisfied, whereas in the real world, things are truly out of your reach, meaning that even if you never end up getting them, they are still a tangible thing just out of reach… as strange at it sounds, we like being tantalilus-ed more than you think. After all, if what you want is so easy to get, you will never run out of things to want, and eventually that gets draining. 

Continually, if everything is easy, if everything is just right there whenever you want it- existence itself no longer has stakes. 

And that’s the problem, because much like how a story with no stakes is extremely hard to find compelling, a life with no stakes feels boring at best and downright pointless and meaningless at worst.

I’m just saying, there is a reason why the Nihility was such a strong presence and problem in Penacony.

Anyways, like with the diamond problem, a lack of stakes means that nothing you do feels rewarding, because you didn’t truly earn it. 

Which is where the Sunday’s idea of a “perfect” reality falls apart, because the most enjoyable reality for humans to live in is not one literally devoid of any possible flaw.

So why does he believe in it? When it’s so clearly flawed?

Well, it’s because Sunday doesn’t think a better alternative exists.

The world made you this way.. and you chose to continue what it started.

I’m sure I don’t need to repeat the story of the Charmony Dove all over again because trust me, we’ve all heard it before. Nonetheless, it reveals something important both about Sunday’s personality and his ideology- he’s fundamentally a defeatist.

He doesn’t believe that there is any alternative for the dove, that it could ever be able to fly again with its deformed nature, so instead of being “cruel” and letting it “inevitably fall to its death,” he’d rather keep it in a cage all its life where it has no freedom, but at least it would he alive and “happy”.

And this is where his defeatism reveals itself- Sunday doesn’t believe reality itself can get better because improving it when there are so many factors and things out of your control is hard at best and impossible at worst. Therefore, he resorts to creating an escapist, false version of it- a perfect golden cage, because constructing that is far, far easier than trying to help the dove fly again. 

The universe has endless possibilities, if Robin and Sunday had tried hard enough, they probably could have found a solution. Sure, they were both children, so the capabilities necessary to even attempt that were likely far out of their reach. However, it was still possible, but Sunday doesn’t believe in possibilities- he believes he’s right above all else, which is where that stubbornness and arrogance comes into play again.

Sunday doesn’t think better solutions than his exists, and he believes everyone would could possibly stand in his noble way are either villains, or horribly misguided; so it’s his job to show them the light.

This is why he lets the Express Crew + Firefly try to change his mind- Sunday wasn’t actually interesting in shifting his perspective, or really what they wanted to say. Rather, he just wanted to let them say there peace, because well, Sunday’s a good, righteous person (at least from his perspective), and good, righteous people listen to others. Good, righteous people will let these poor, ignorant souls offer their foolish words before exposing them to the harsh truth- or at least that’s how Sunday sees it. 

Moreover, this also explains his arrogance. If he believes his worldview is the sole correct one, then why listen to anyone else? He’s this world's savior, or at least he’s been raised to believe that- so why not relish in it? He enjoys punishing Aventurine, enjoys the bastard who stood in the way of Sunday’s plans, shrinks away in “defeat” and get what he “deserves.” Despite how miserable it sounds, Sunday also takes pride in having to be a martyr to bring about his beautiful dream. The belief that he is a selfless, good person is a selfish desire of his, even if a genuine one, and it’s what leads to his downfall.

Sunday could have actually listened. He could have reevaluated his loss to Aventurine and realized it was not through the others clever deception, but through his own biases. He could have actually taken the Express’s and Firefly’s advice. He could have looked for other avenues to help the people he truly does care about. 

Despite Gopher Wood’s manipulation- Sunday’s decision to go forward with the pain is entirely his own, because he truly believes- even with all the evidence for the contrary- that he is correct.

And that’s why he fails. Not because of the Express. Not because of Ratio. Not because of Aventurine. Not because of Gopher, or even the rest of The Family.

No, Sunday fails because he is flawed, and he is wrong, and he is the arrogant, selfish and biased one, and his worldview is wrong.

So what now?

This might have seemed like I think Sunday is pure evil and irredeemable, but I think it’s quite the opposite.

He has very good intentions, and he does genuinely care about it the well being of other people around him. He gives Aventurine a chance to prove his innocence, even if he never intended on changing, he does listen to what the Express + Firefly have to say. He pauses when Robin shows up, as she’s the one person (until the very end) he’s actually willing to accept the perspective of. The whole reason he ended up here in the first place is because Gopher Wood twisted Sunday’s good intentions into a fatal arrogance and utmost belief in a flawed worldview. 

However, what really sells me on Sunday’s goodness is when eyes widen at that final moment, the light draining from him as he realizes he is wrong. 

And once Sunday realizes he is wrong, those flaws that bind him can finally be examined and improved upon, as they all stem from that worldview he no longer believes in. 

His whole life, Sunday has been enacting out someone else’s plan for him, even if he’s come to internalize it over time, at the end of the day- it was never his, and without it, he’s empty.

Which is exactly why the only place he can go now is the Express, and the only thing left for him is redemption and growth.

Dan Heng is right- Sunday has a noble soul, and now that he has stopped believing in himself, he’s no longer shackled by the past either. Improvement or utter demise (in a likely nihility-flavored manner) are his only options remaining.

I understand a lot of people want to see him become a Stellaron Hunter, but imo, that just does nothing for him. He’d still be following someone else’s path/script, and Mr. I Will Sacrifice My Whole Existence To Become The Sun To Illuminate These Wandering Souls probably wouldn’t be so on board with the whole.. terrorism part of being a SH. Like yeah, they are our friends (kinda), but they absolutely kill innocent people and cause millions of dollars in property damage to people who don’t deserve it. 

Also, being on the Express Just Makes Sense. This is a game about choices, a game about accepting the mistakes of your past, but not letting them define you in order to move on and forge a better future for yourself and others- with the Astral Express + Trailblaze as a concept being the literal embodiment of it. There’s a reason when you switch to the Trailblazer’s POV in stories, it includes Kafka’s most important words to us- “When you have the chance to make a choice, make one you won’t regret.”

Therefore, I hope the choices Sunday will make in 2.7 are ones he’s proud of, and I can’t wait to see how exactly they get him on board with the crew, because there still is a LOT of development he needs to do before then. 

Anyways, thank you so much for reading, and if you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them. This was a stream of consciousness mess, but I hope it was still valuable nonetheless! Also if you are reading this on the day it was written, I hope we don’t get disappointed by his drip marketing!

[laconservancy]

Forty Years of Leadership: A Conversation with Margaret Bach and Wesley Phoa

The Los Angeles Conservancy turned forty years old on March 20, 2018. As part of the year-long celebration of this milestone, the organization is looking back and ahead—reflecting on how it has evolved while looking forward to its role over the next forty years.

On Thursday, April 5, Larry Mantle of KPCC's AirTalk will lead a provocative discussion about the future of historic preservation in Los Angeles. Panelists include Christopher Hawthorne, current architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times and soon to be the city's first chief design officer; Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell; Luis Hoyos of the national Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; Michelle Magalong, a leader in the preservation of culturally significant places; and Margaret Bach, the Conservancy's founding president.

In advance of the panel, Cindy Olnick of the Conservancy asked our Bach and our current board chair, Wesley Phoa, for their perspectives on the past and future of the Conservancy and preservation in L.A.

Current board chair, Wesley Phoa, and our founding president, Margaret Bach. Photo by Cindy Olnick/L.A. Conservancy.

Cindy Olnick (CO): Margaret, what was the preservation climate in L.A. when you and other concerned citizens formed the L.A. Conservancy in 1978?

Margaret Bach (MB): Preservation was a fledgling movement at that time, and L.A. was trying to define itself. Bunker Hill had just been redeveloped, and I think there was ambivalence about where the city was going.

There were big ideas in the air: the legacy of the political activism of the ’60s and ’70s. The environmental movement, which underscored the importance of conservation and stewardship. Our dismay at the failures of urban renewal, and, dare we admit, of the modern movement (despite its recent resurrection). And we woke up to the extraordinary urban landscape of our city, from internationally renowned landmarks to the quintessential vernacular.  

Statewide, important moves were afoot. Californians for Preservation Action (now the California Preservation Foundation) emerged, and our friends to the northeast launched Pasadena Heritage [both in 1977].

In Los Angeles, we faced serious threats to landmarks that defined our city—the Central Library, Watts Towers, the Pan Pacific [Auditorium]. [We also had] fresh remembrances of losses sustained—the Dodge House, Angels Flight, Bunker Hill, the Richfield Building. It was a time when, as so aptly described by architecture critic Joseph Giovannini, “No less than City Hall was trying to sell the ground out from under one of its major historic monuments, the Los Angeles Public Library… There was a void of cultural leadership about how to handle the city’s built patrimony.”

In this context, the Los Angeles Conservancy was born. We were not sentimentalists but saw historic preservation as an essential tool to create an urban future, with a vibrant mix of old and new.

The Art Deco Richfield Building in 1968, one week before scheduled demolition. Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library.

CO: What challenges did the Conservancy face as a young organization?

MB: Number one, identifying and building a constituency. We were twenty- and thirty-somethings, fresh from protesting the Vietnam War, concerned about the environment and passionate about architecture, asking, “What’s important about Los Angeles?”

Also, how were we going to get the word out? This was in the dark ages, before the digital world. And, Who’s doing the work? We were all volunteers. We identified some real allies in those early years. One was Alan Sieroty, who said, “Take an office in the Eastern Columbia Building, which my family owns.” That was really important first step for us. [The pioneering preservation developer] Wayne Ratkovich was very important as well. We sought advice from near and far, and many people generously gave their time and expertise.

Obviously, funding was a challenge. Somehow, we managed by the early ’80s to hire our first executive director, Ruthann Lehrer. She had that passion for preservation—the fire in the belly—hugely important to our young organization. We all shared a sense of urgency that Los Angeles needed an organized voice for preservation.

Another challenge was reaching the decision makers, because L.A. was experiencing the fallout of the redevelopment mentality—tear it down and build anew—and that thinking started to migrate over to the Central Library.

In those early years, we had the benefit of major allies like Wayne and Alan, and institutional allies like the American Institute of Architects, which became a leading advocate for the Central Library as the Conservancy was emerging.

The tide was turning, and the Conservancy was out there beating the drum for changing the conversation. It wasn’t just the Conservancy; there was a convergence of forces who challenged the status quo and came together to save the library. But I believe the Conservancy played a major role in catalyzing opinion at that point. It created a new mindset—a new way of thinking about Los Angeles.

The Central Library in 1977. Photo by William Reagh, William Reagh Collection/Los Angeles Public Library. The threat of demolition of the Central Library helped spur the creation of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

CO: In many ways, the Conservancy has changed dramatically in the past forty years. Wesley, what kinds of challenges do you see these days?

Wesley Phoa (WP): We’ve become so much more established. But that’s the risk for us, I think. We should not be seen as a stodgy organization that just stops things from happening. That’s not what it’s about. What preservation is really about here is helping Los Angeles bring its history, its past, into the future.

It’s very easy to spend all of our energy on individual advocacy issues, because L.A. is just full of beautiful buildings and important places, and something is coming up every day. But we need to continue to step back from that as well and see the forest for the trees—to play a broader role in making sure L.A. keeps what’s precious about the past and brings it into the future. We’ve done this for years—for example, helping cities create and improve their preservation programs, fueling downtown’s revitalization through the Broadway Initiative, participating in re:codeLA, and working with residents to conserve the character of their neighborhoods.

Some things haven’t changed [since our founding]. One of the really staggering things [I noticed in] joining the Conservancy is just how many people have dedicated so much of their lives their energy, and continue to do so, for the Conservancy. We couldn’t exist without that. We have an army of enthusiastic people who [as volunteers] are showing people in the city what they have—and what they have to lose.

The other thing you mentioned, Margaret, is about strategic allies, which is just as important now as it was then. Preservation issues are complex, each with different stakeholders and variables, and we can’t solve them on our own. Our ability to identify allies and to work with them is really important.

We have a process that—when people engage thoughtfully and participate in good faith—works very well and delivers good outcomes for the city, the county, and the people here. That’s a big strength.

The Conservancy has worked for years to bring revitalization to downtown’s Broadway district through the Last Remaining Seats series, our Broadway Initiative, and working with partners such as Bringing Back Broadway. Image from Bringing Back Broadway’s Night on Broadway event in January 2018. Photo by Mike Hume.

MB: At its core, preservation is about making a livable city. We sensed this in 1978—and today, in the face of issues around housing, homelessness, density, and the environment, the issue of livability becomes even more urgent.

As the Conservancy reaches age forty, what is its role apart from recognizing and helping to preserve great places? What about the great place that is Los Angeles—the urban fabric—with the need for densification and housing?

WP: What’s interesting is that preservation is not in opposition to all these practical challenges that Los Angeles faces. Very often, preservation helps to offer a solution to problems like a lack of housing, homelessness, environmental difficulties, traffic problems—because it makes you think about those problems in different ways.

Maybe it’s a good thing that if you have an old, beautiful building that functions very well, the footprint of reusing it in an intelligent way, environmentally, is going to be a lot smaller than the footprint of starting from scratch. So I don’t see any inherent conflict between preservation and these very important social and economic objectives for the city.

Preservation is about making a city a livable place and making sure it continues to be a livable place, and a meaningful place to live. I think that L.A. is only going to remain an economically vibrant place if it’s a great place to live—if people want to come here and stay here, and can live interesting and meaningful and fulfilled lives here. We have to think a lot about our built environment, and about what surrounds people, in order to make sure it stays like that.

L.A. is also a very easy place to feel alone, and preservation helps you not be alone. You know that you’re part of this historical river, that what you’re doing means something, that you are the future of those people who were there before, and you’re helping to be part of the future of the people who are going to be here in forty years’ time.

MB: That’s the existential question, Wesley. You talked about making Los Angeles not only a livable but also a meaningful place.

WP: That’s why we don’t preserve just beautiful buildings. We preserve sites that mean something—where people did something important.

MB: Yes. And this meaning cuts across a whole swath of human activity. It’s meaning from the grand mansion to the shotgun house, and neighborhoods and places that are infused with history and complexity. We have new definitions of significance—that’s something that’s changed; how you view preservation. It’s not just beautiful buildings, although they’re certainly important. Significance exists on many levels. Our work is about creating a meaningful urban existence for people who live here.

The Black Cat Bar in Silver Lake is an example of an architecturally modest building that holds important history. In February of 1967, hundreds of people gathered outside this bar in one of the first documented demonstrations for LGBTQ civil rights. In 2008, The Black Cat became the first L.A. landmark designated for its association with LGBTQ heritage. Photo by Laura Dominguez/L.A. Conservancy.

CO: What kind of impact do you think the Conservancy has had over the past forty years?

MB: In terms of individual accomplishments, the Conservancy has saved many important buildings and had led many successful campaigns. For example, the Preservation Report Card and the kind of advocacy work the Conservancy’s been doing—putting pressure on municipalities in the region to up the ante on their preservation programs. The Conservancy has emerged as a respected, credible voice for preservation in the Los Angeles region.

And let’s not underestimate the fact that the Conservancy has also been a training ground for people who’ve taken positions in the public sector and other organizations. The Conservancy has been an incubator for great ideas and great talent that have made additional impact.

WP: That’s a long game that plays out over decades.

MB: I also think the city has matured in a really interesting way. L.A. has become an incredibly culturally vibrant place. The past forty years have seen a remarkable development of cultural institutions and the creative community. There is a process of discovery, and of re-discovery—I love seeing how younger generations discover the richness of Los Angeles. The Conservancy is very much a part of that, and it has encouraged a tremendous interest in the city.

WP: Forty years ago, you wouldn’t have said L.A. was a cultural capital of the world, and now you absolutely would. And to keep on being that, it needs the built environment and a variety of places, of venues. You can go to some small venue, and [for example] Schoenberg played here, and now some new composer is having a premiere in the same place. That’s really fantastic.

CO: What else has changed in terms of preservation in L.A.?

MB: Well, the emergence of neighborhoods. Forty years ago, Angelino Heights was our one recognized historic neighborhood. And soon there was West Adams, and now Los Angeles has more than thirty-five historic districts, formalized in Historic Preservation Overlay Zones, or HPOZs. It now seems as though Los Angeles has become a collection of villages, the Reyner Banham idea of Los Angeles, where he compared our metropolitan area to London. I believe this trend has brought a great deal of vitality to the city—the rediscovery of neighborhoods.

And speaking of neighborhoods, the revitalization of downtown L.A. is largely due to the adaptive reuse of historic buildings—finally the marketplace has caught up with the aspirations of preservationists. The Conservancy’s first walking tour was titled “Can You Believe Downtown L.A.?”—and now, we can!

And lastly, while there was certainly an awareness of the cultural diversity of Los Angeles when the Conservancy was founded, it wasn’t firmly embedded in the preservation ethic at that point. Both locally and nationally, the preservation movement has matured and gained a much more multi-dimensional awareness of what makes places important.

Victorian homes in Angelino Heights, the City of L.A.’s first HPOZ. Photo courtesy of the City of Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources.

WP: We’re not doing this to save a bunch of buildings. We’re doing this for the community. And in order to do that—to carry out our mission effectively—we really need to understand what different parts of the community care about, what matters to them. Having a diverse board is a tremendous advantage when we’re trying to learn about different perspectives and see things from different points of view. And that’s what we need to do, in order to put together solutions that really work.

CO: What do you think the Conservancy needs to succeed in the next forty years?

MB: Engaging people so that they feel like they have some responsibility, a stake in what happens. Maybe you engage with the Conservancy by joining or increasing your financial support, and you use the Conservancy as your advocate, your voice for a more vibrant Los Angeles. But the idea of ownership, of engagement, seems really important. And partnership. Who does the Conservancy need to partner with to be effective, to deepen its engagement with the people of Los Angeles?

WP: In another way, we need the same things that we’ve always needed. We need members who care about preservation. There’s no selfish reason to join the Conservancy—you only join if you care about your community.

We need resources, because L.A. is booming. More and more issues come up every day, for good reasons—it’s a really vibrant place. But we need to be able to participate constructively in those [issues]. And we need partners. The different issues we face are complex and require a lot of people to come together to solve.

Explore the future of preservation in L.A. at the Conservancy's panel discussion on Thursday, April 5