#hyv-studies

[shuuumaaaaa-main]

Blog update (2024-04-13): Reorganization efforts

In the year since reviving my Tumblr account, I initially set this blog page as my Genshin blog. However, ever since learning about the possibility of maintaining multiple blog pages (subordinate to this "main" page), I have decided to reorganize my Genshin posting to a separate blog page:

I have a rudimentary set of featured tags on that page, which I will try my best to abide by, but those are more of tag minimums than tags I will exclusively use on that page.

To be clear: due to how primary and secondary blogs work, I can only follow and fully interact from the main page, but if you want to see my future Genshin-related stuff, I will endeavour to post it first on my hyv-studies secondary blog, and then just reblog it on my main.

As for old Genshin-related posts I have on the main page, I will leave them up for posterity, but I might post revisions or reblogs of it in my secondary blog at some point.

At the moment, I am considering slowly reinserting gaming in my daily life, and with regards to my worldbuilding studies, the main target development this year would likely be me converting some of my older works into LaTeX PDFs (I want to consolidate my worldbuilding studies into big documents based on the categories that I set for them, e.g. a PDF file of my progress on area studies, a PDF file on allometry studies, etc.)

That's all for this blog update. Relevant comments would be appreciated! Thank you for reading!

[urlocalhumannn]

aventurine

came home + weapon so this js my reward🔥

[harmonysanreads]

Just thinking about making pillow fortresses with Aventurine or doing a little pillow fighting session with him, doing a little bit of everything he missed as a child.

[indilaras]

No thoughts, head empty, only Tess (started as a warm up sketch and now she's here)

ID: a drawing of Tess from Aurora, with a white frame and a dark background. She is smiling, and she has one hand on her hip.

[spiriteddreams]

i was thinking about why gaming looked so sad in the trailer and then it hit me that he doesn’t have a lion dance partner with him. lion dancers perform in pairs, one as the head and the other as tail, sometimes we switch etc etc but at the end of the day we work very close together. when you’re in a performance, you’re literally two parts of a whole (that sounds cheesy and cliche but bear with me).

so what if maybe he lost his partner (maybe around this time maybe not) and the lantern rite makes him super nostalgic? he's watching all these people revel in the festivities and he's literally missing his other half so i wouldn't be surprised if it's making him a bit sentimental

[justanotherfluffreader]

man i sent in a message to hoyo's suggestion box abt natlan and i think they straight up just ignored it?? less than 5 seconds after i submitted the report it was marked as cleared so uhhhh... also sent in one abt unrelated things (bringing back chronicled banner, typo in arlecchino's character story).. the chronicled banner one was also immediately cleared, the only one that's acc getting reviewed is the one abt arle

yeah if ur not going to even READ suggestions then whats the point of having a suggestion box in the first place

anyways! go review bomb them on the app store <3 hyv deserves it

[rainswept]

Gojo or Dazai

dazai. in a heartbeat. not even a competition. i have never seen jjk. i know they have the same en va though

[raazberry]

i have so many strong feelings abt kaveh i need hyv to release him from their basement already

[frozenambiguity]

Very long Initial thoughts and first impressions on the Caribert Archon Quest in the tags. Spoiler alert!!

[nc-vb]

fr tho... they couldn't have named the main cities in Teyvat something more creative... City of Mondstadt...? Liyue Harbour...? Inazuma City? Sumeru City??? EVERYWHERE ELSE has a catchy name/title.

[devotedlystrangewizard]

me writing gallagher is kind of what i want in a man he just fits the mold well enough. sunday scenes are character studies gallagher scenes are "wouldnt it be hot if" scenarios

[pocketsizedowls]

My Conspiracy Theory about Natlan's Pale Characters

I started playing Genshin Impact around the 3.7 update, right after the Interdarshan Championship. While I wasn't around during the initial spark of outrage against Sumeru due to the characters' overall lack of melanin, I eventually learned a lot about Sumeru's cultural inspirations through the SWANA and South Asian creators in the fandom. I think it's beautiful how we learn about each other's cultures through Genshin, and I believe the designers at Hoyoverse do lots of research to facilitate these conversations. This is why I think it's a shame that Natlan, which features rich Indigenous cultures in the Americas, Africa, and Pacific Islands, features primarily pale characters AGAIN.

While it's possible that through the art, story, and fashion of Natlan we will once again learn about the diverse cultures of Indigenous Americas, West Africa, and the Pacific Islands, I don't think it's enough. Considering a lot of these cultures take pride in their skin color and bodies through tattoos, body paint, and other markings/piercings, Hoyoverse is doing a disservice to today's Latin American, African, and Pacific islander fan base by making the majority of Natlan characters pale. To insensitively cherry-pick what traits of each culture to represent and what to discard is the definition of cultural appropriation and racism, which is such a shame because of how many discussions about culture that Genshin has started since 2020. As a Chinese American player, I'm especially disappointed that the company who educated so many people about my culture is failing my brown and Black friends to such a spectacular degree.

Many people have come up with excuses such as it's just skin, it's just a game, Hoyoverse is a Chinese company so what do you expect, Latin America also has white people, etc. I won't bother debunking these myths because there are plenty of people doing this labor already, but what I do want to bring people's attention to is the fact that many Natlan characters were most likely designed with darker skin in mind. Through fanmade recolorings (here's an example), I noticed that Mualani and Kachina's tan lines and skin details look more pronounced with darker skin, while Xilonen looks more mature and Kinich looks more brooding. Having studied studio art during undergrad, I cannot unsee these intentional artistic decisions and cannot shake the possibility that the researchers and character designers of Hoyoverse were forced by higherups to whitewash everyone at the very last minute. If this is true, I hope Hoyoverse will find some way to reverse their decision or turn a new leaf in the future. Considering many other Chinese games like Reverse: 1999 and Dislyte already have diverse representation and melanated characters, Hoyoverse should find no problem following their lead.

As of right now (i.e. 4.8 update), Genshin players from all over the world are expressing their dissatisfaction with Hoyoverse through boycotts, review bombing, and posting on social media. The Chinese fanbase - Hoyoverse's primary audience - is especially vocal and organized about their efforts, which means if Hoyoverse doesn't notice now, they will notice soon. Despite how much we like using Genshin as an escape from real life, it's important to recognize how insidious the consequences of erasing melanated characters can be. Anti-Blackness and colorism harm people on the daily, which is why we must speak up when a company as big and influential as Hoyoverse is doing the harming.

Thanks for reading! Here are some related threads from X, formally known as Twitter:

Petition to "Stop Cultural Appropriation and Whitewashing in MiHoYo Games"

Valeria Rodriguez, i.e. Surcrose's English VA's thoughts on Natlan

Natlan Characters Look Better with a Dark Skintone

Kaveh rerunning in 4.8 is a ploy for WHAT!?!?!?

We Should All Email Hoyoverse

Official Account for HYV Boycott

[urlocalhumannn]

happiest birthday to my wife, my girlfriend, the loml, my situationship, and so on 🐯💜

[harmonysanreads]

I had a really good sleep and had this dream consequentially : an ocean themed otome-game where your objectives are to go on various quests around the ocean, meet the love-interests and find out what your ‘true identity’ is with their help? The love-interests were Alhaitham, Neuvillette, Dr. Ratio, Zhongli, Capitano and some other hyv male characters that I can't recall.

But what I remember vividly is that, in Ratio's ending, the player becomes this hideous sea-creature but Ratio (who's a human) loyally remains by their side because he's committed to studying them and finding a way to revert them back to the way they were???

[rice-fae]

do you think that sumeru is just as bad as natlan? i was so upset when people stopped talking about it

Sumeru is bad. It's pretty, I'll give it that, it was my favourite nation when I used to play the game (I mained Faruzan), but it has its sum of terrible things

I don't know much about the source material, aka the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. My post was about Natlan because if there's something I know about is my homeland.

I regret overlooking the signs hyv gave us of its racism early on, in 3.0. Seeing the Natlan trailers and leaks really opened my eyes on how I was being the kind of person that doesn't speak up on bad things when they happened to others. I don't wish that upon anyone. I hope we can have our eyes open for other games showing these signs in the future.

I won't "rank" that kind of thing because 1. I know next to nothing about Sumeru's source material (except for my share of self study in it's pattern art history) and 2. Natlan is not out as of now. I think it's bad, but I don't actually know much beyond the whitewashing.

I hope Hoyoverse didn't use their Gods' names similarly with how they dis to us, yoruba and candomblé. I can't remember. All my love to my brothers and sisters around the world, in those places!

Thank you for the ask!

[odyssean-flower]

Bouncing off of anon’s prior ask… I have a few questions of my own bc I’m curious about people’s take on his character. Also because I’m down tremendously for him but shhh—

What do you think dragon man is like when he’s in love? How does he treat them before and after relationship? Like is it a sudden realization, is he romantic? Hmmm many thoughts—

Ideal traits for a partner/mate?

For Yan Neuv, (because your yandere lil fic with him was lovely!!), do you have any headcanons on that aside from what was written?

Sorry if anything has been asked before as I’m rather new to your blog :)

But yeah anyways I hope that’s not too rambl-y! Ty for sharing your lovely stories and thoughts :333 I’m so excited for him in 4.1 and if you roll for him, I wish you luck in getting him! ❤️

Hi~~ thank you so much for reading my fics! Don't worry about being too rambly or repeating stuff, this is actually very helpful for me as it helps me flesh out my ideas as well 🤗 i apologize if any of this stuff isn't very creative lol

May we all get neuvillette and his weapon (and constellations) 🙏

When Neuvillette is in love (before relationship)

So I think Neuvillette would just be A Mess

He's not very good at figuring out emotions, particularly feelings of romance and love, because he always assumed that he would never fall in love

so when he does fall in love, it takes him a while to understand what he's actually feeling (probably after much studying and discussion with the melusines)

imo i feel like he'd be a bit conflicted bc as the chief justice, he feels like he shouldn't have such personal feelings for anyone, but on the other hand, even dragons feel lonely and want love, right?

he would observe you (discreetly and probably unconsciously), memorizing everything about you. He might unknowingly let the things he learned slip into conversation, causing much awkwardness

he finds himself thinking of you at random occasions and associating certain things with you

he noticeably softens when he's interacting with you. it's obvious to everyone except you two

would give you the most sincere and heartfelt compliments, but it doesn't even count as flirting for him, it's just him being himself

even though the chief justice is known to be reclusive, for some reason he would suddenly start frequenting the place where you work. He doesn't even stay there that long, but just makes some awkward and extremely polite conversation (doesn't show it on his face but he's super nervous and self-conscious)

speaking of self-consciousness neuvillette is pretty self-aware about the difference between himself and humans in regards to feelings. He's aware that he's not always the most knowledgeable about human emotions and behavior, which can cause misunderstandings between him and others, but he tries his best to make up for it

When Neuvillette is in love (after relationship)

congratulations for finally reaching this stage

i think neuvillette would be a latent romantic. As in, he has all the potential, but he's never been in a situation where that potential can be explored

but once he's in a relationship...prepare to be swept off your feet

he loves taking you to all the hidden, secret places only he knows about, like an out-of-the-way coffee shop, an inconspicuous nook with a great view of the mountains, maybe even an underwater ruin he really enjoys

will probably take you out on a boating ride

he also enjoys just spending time with you back at his home (hyv please show us where he leaves. i just wanna know)

basically, he'd prefer to spend time with you privately bc he's well aware of the tabloids and paparazzi and doesn't want your life to be ruined by them

does a lot of preparation for your dates. like, an absurd amount, because he would hate it if anything inconveniences you or makes you feel uncomfortable

will continue to say the most romantic and poetic things with the straightest face you've ever seen

not much pda even when it's just you two. a bit of hand-holding (l e w d), brushing his hand against your cheek, maybe even...forehead kisses???

if you are the one who initiates affection with him, his brain would short-circuit, simply because he's not used to having someone do that for him

likes to hear you talk about your day or just anything in general. would also talk about his own day. it makes for some fun lack of congruence

when he's sad, he'll come to you (vice-versa). you two don't talk much, but simply stay by each other's side until you feel better

when you're happy, he feels happy. and when you're sad, he feels sad as well

would be very protective, but would also respect your personal space

melusines will be your biggest supporters. they act as your go-betweens basically

bonus: i feel like furina will be amused by neuvillette's newfound relationship and will probably try to follow you on your dates. she'll attempt to disguise herself but nothing can hide that giant ahoge. and neuvillette can see right through her anyways

Ideal Partner

i think he'd be drawn to someone with a strong sense of justice, someone who has strong beliefs and sticks by them, even if they clash with his own

he would be the type who would welcome being challenged and debated; he would find it refreshing honestly

someone with a similar temperament to him would work, but he'd also find himself unexpectedly attracted to a more fiery, outspoken person

big bonus points if they're nice to the melusines as well

Yandere Mermaid!Neuvillette

i don't know if you're talking about this one but i'll assume you are

hmm i don't know i feel like i put everything i wanted into that fic

so during your weekly meetings, i think neuvi would have moments where he'd imagine himself coming onto land and being with you there, i think he'd also be grudgingly curious about the human world especially after hearing your stories about it, but his sense of responsibility towards his people and his distaste for humans are strong, so his desire to turn you into a mermaid wins out

the underwater garden: he really did believe you'd feel better and that you'd fall in love with him (or at least act warmer towards him) when you saw it

after that fight (?) at the end: i think y/n kinda gave in because they realized that if they didn't accept their new life and the different morals of the mermaids, they would eventually go mad, since they were never escaping. so afterwards, y/n would throw themselves into getting familiar with mermaid customs (aided by neuvi) and just try their best to forget their old life. would probably be very clingy towards him bc ironically, neuvi is a part of their old life

neuvi, for his part, would be happy to see his mate finally accept him, but deep down he knows that it isn't out of real love and that his feelings will probably never be requited in the way he wants them to be. but he decides not to think about that bc having you broken but next to him is better than having you happy but separated from him

so yeah it's a very warped, co-dependent relationship