#imagine if paimon and the traveller actually had a pre-existing connection that neither of them were sure about

[watchmakermori]

I've been playing more of honkai star rail and getting quite into the story since getting to the xianzhou luofu. and while I think people tend to exaggerate how much better HSR's writing is compared to genshin's, I do think it's interesting to compare them and analyse why HSR's core character dynamics are so much more compelling

I don't think it's that HSR has an inherently more intriguing plot than genshin's. Genshin's central hook, with traveller of uncertain origin searching for their sibling, works pretty well, and I think most of the archon quests have pretty interesting concepts too. I struggled to get into HSR at first and don't think that the Belabog storyline was that well paced. both games have problems embedding exposition cleanly into their narratives, so the plots are kind of overwhelming and dense at first

there are obviously a lot of flaws in genshin's storytelling, much as it still intrigues me. But the most glaring problem, in my opinion, is Paimon

people dunk on paimon all the time, but the biggest issue with her isn't that she's annoying, and it isn't even that she does all the talking while the traveller stays silent. HSR has a similar dynamic, after all - March 7th and Dan Heng kind of fulfil that role for the trailblazer. but the key difference is that march and dan heng are both characters in their own right, with their own motivations and reasons to help the trailblazer. paimon doesn't have this

think about paimon as an actual character. what do we know about her? the traveller literally fished her out of the ocean, and she just stuck with them after that. she wants to be a guide, but she doesn't have an actual stake in the traveller's goals at all. We know nothing about her past, and there's no sense of there being a mystery to uncover there. If paimon were actually a developed character, who had her own reasons for wanting to track down the archons and find out the truth about the traveller's sibling, then it would make all the difference in the world.

Because that's what march and dan heng offer. they both have mysterious backstories to uncover, and they're both on the express for their own reasons, so their goals align with the trailblazer's but aren't exactly the same. Because there are two of them, they can bounce off each other and clash a bit more, in a way that you just don't get with the traveller and paimon duo.

it's deeply frustrating, because dainsleif is such a plot-relevant character who clearly has his own motivations, and he was literally the equivalent to paimon for the traveller's sibling. it's a bizarre oversight to not make anything of paimon's history and personal goals. if she had her own stake in the plot, she wouldn't just feel like a mouthpiece for the traveller. she'd still get to be the main expositor who does most of the talking, but she'd have her own reasons for asking questions and pursuing information, which might overlap with the traveller's reasons but would still be distinct.

it is absolutely possible to pull off a silent protagonist well, and it also is totally fine if that protagonist isn't even really the main character. We saw it in botw and totk - link is the protagonist, but zelda is the one that's really at the heart of the narrative. and likewise, the trailblazer in HSR feels like more of a narrative device than a proper character, but the supporting cast around them are interesting and driven towards a similar goal, so we have a reason to care about them all as a unit.

tl;dr: if you are going to make the protagonist's companion(s) the real main character(s) of the story, you need to give them character motivations. honkai star rail understands this. genshin fumbled it, which is why paimon is such a dead weight in the narrative