#it really is my ramblings and excuse to talk about one of my fave genshin characters lol

[ca-3]

Please share your thoughts about fanon's Beidou interpretation

It took me too long to get to this cause I couldn't decide if I wanted to make this a long answer or shorter but like... I feel like Beidou really got the short end of the stick in several cases in the fandom and in game, and how it possibly lead to how she's portrayed fanon-wise.

I'm tired of trying to figure out how to word this, so I apologize if it gets to me just rambling because it will. But also I'm a Beidou main and I want to talk about her, SO Y'ALL GONNA LISTEN.

I've been playing since about 1.1(?) and in the earlier days of the Genshin fandom Beidou hardly had any fan content to begin with.

Which made sense at the time, because she wasn't really present in the "Farewell, Archaic Lord" story a.k.a the Liyue Geo Archon quest like at all... But what is interesting about Beidou is that her presence was still technically there in game even when she wasn't officially introduced in the main story.

Like for example we had access to The Alcor and The Crux Fleet for a very long time and we could talk to her crew on it and get almost everyone's opinion about her. Almost all them had extreme respect for her and even crushes on her? Furong being gay for Beidou is a huge mood tbh and I got to share the fact women are indeed in fact attracted to Beidou.

In canon, Beidou is highly respected by so many. Literally "something of a cultural icon in Liyue" according to her character story, almost all the playable characters have nothing but good things to say about her. Even kids in Liyue role play as her when they play pirates and fight over who gets to be Beidou.

All these little details that you could find about Beidou while exploring was incredibly interesting to me and made me REALLY want to see what kind of person Beidou would be like in the story... and that's kinda where my issue with fanon Beidou begins.

Part of the reason I think she really did get the short end of the stick in the story was because she wasn't introduced until around June-July this year(?) with Kazuha at the same time...

Beidou's introduction wasn't super exciting for me... don't get me wrong, I'm happy we got this at all and I adore Kazuha but I sometimes wish we got a different introduction to Beidou and how we convinced her to take us to Inazuma. Her introduction felt like it got a little overshadowed by Kazuha and the whole The Crux Clash subplot.

And the reason I wished she got some introduction before we met Kazuha, is because fanon Beidou gets reduced to just being his doting mom figure.... like A LOT and that's it sometimes.

and before someone comes at me, please know I think there's nothing wrong with that. I actually really enjoy some Mama Beidou content, but my issue is that a lot of the content is never really about Beidou, her other qualities, or her character story. It's so hard to find that stuff it feels like.

I get where the characterization of "Mama Beidou" comes from, because it's canon Beidou gives out snacks to kids in Liyue sometimes and kids do like her and she does things like ruffling Xingqiu's hair which can seem like something a mom would do. SO I DO GET IT.

Another thing about Beidou's other relations, Beidou used to feel like she didn't exist outside of the ship Beigguang... AGAIN DON'T COME FOR ME, CAUSE I LOVE AND SHIP BEIGGUANG A LOT. IT'S A GREAT SHIP BUT again... like with Kazuha... Beidou just gets a bit mischaracterized there too sometimes.

By the way, I'm mostly speaking about how I've seen Beidou portrayed in fan art for clarification. I haven't gotten around to seeing how Beidou is usually characterized in fan fiction yet.

This isn't most of the time thankfully, but why does Beidou get characterized as the dumb or even irresponsible one in the Beigguang ship? That's a characterization that I've seen a few times and never understood.

Is it cause she seems like a rebel type? Because she enjoys drinking? Because she does Ningguang's "dirty work"? Because she has a lot of gossip surrounding her? Because Ningguang just seems to be more sophisticated to you? I don't know... But that's definitely my least favorite fanon Beidou.

It's a literal fact that Beidou is considered Ningguang's equal.

"...she collaborates with Ningguang on an equal footing: Beidou is her own boss and no one, not even Ningguang, is sitting in the background pulling the strings for her."

"Ningguang's advisers worry constantly that Beidou is too unpredictable and too much of a maverick. But Ningguang simply smiles and dismisses their concerns.

"On the contrary, Beidou is the most reliable person in Liyue," she replies. "Just tell her the truth, as well as what's in it for her, and she'll come around in her own time."

Also Beidou can even beat Ningguang at chess and very few can do that. Beidou is actually very intelligent and a good judge of character.

"Beidou has beaten Ningguang at chess. Twice. The important part is not so much that she did win Ningguang's money, but more that she dared to."

But now to prevent anymore tangents, basically I feel like a lot of fanon Beidou comes from her not being able to exist much outside of her popular relationships sometimes. She has many other connections with other characters but we don't that much. Maybe if we're lucky we will see more of that in the future.

All Genshin characters are mischaracterized sometimes for sure and some more than others. At the end of the day, fandom is all in good fun and I don't really worry that much about it despite me having a lot to say. So all this stuff is okay to exist.

It just sometimes saddens me Beidou doesn't get the actual cool or interesting parts of her talked about as much as some characters either.

Her backstory might be on the more generic side, but is also a more of a uplifting story than a sad one. Who Beidou is now is what is cool to me, and she has the one of the most badass vision stories in the entire game and you can't fight me on the that, I will debate.

If you haven't read Beidou's Vision story in her profile, I highly recommend you do. Just shows how powerful she is on her own and she definitely deserved her vision. I could talk about so many other things right now.

But anyways, it's late and this has been the passionate ramblings of a Beidou fan, if you made it through this congratulations lol