#natlan fucking drained me

[lordsardine]

Tagged by @nyhne !!

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and tag as many people as you have wips.

i have three main projects ive been working off and on for the past three and a half-years

...and a lot of these are re-writes so the document titles will reflect that

1.) BETWEEN THE TREES V2

2.) VEILED SECRETS

3.) Superheroes? Take 2

(this is the most wip so the cover, uh, reflects that)

.......4.) [aka the genshin fic ive been putting off horribly]

new genshin fic

tagging @waywardwondersmith!

[gold-rhine]

Hello, you said you would change some things about mavuika in the archon quest. 👀 Would love to hear your thoughts on her. I liked her a lot and thought it was a great introduction to her character.

i generally liked her and as i said, im not commenting on bigger plot until i see what they're cooking, the problems i have is with presentation and dramatization

1.i think they should have made tournament a bigger deal. yeah, kachina can have central role, but we could have time to run around as traveler in between her segments and see other fighters, bc rn its like. oooooh nation wide sacred tournament!!! and then its kinda just kachina has 3 fights and thats it. fountain act 1 i think did better job at presenting opera and trials as gigantic centre of attention and being important for the entire country.

2.ode of resurrection failing to call kachina scene is good as plotpoint, but execution is very mid. idk if its my own audio, but it sounded to me that the ode as mixed very quietly contrasting to dialogue, as like background music. they should have BLASTED it, like they have insane piece of music, they should have utilized its power to the full. if you havent heard, please do. it gives me chills every time, except for how it was used in game. like. stadium is almost empty, you had like giant rows of seats with about 3 ppl on the row. hoyo fucking come on, crowd in some npcs. it should feel massive, not like 15 guys at a local village football match. and like. mavuika just walks off screen and then walks back like hey guys our resurrection failed. this moment has so much drama potential!

like. we're shown the CROWDED stadium. chorus rises. the sacred flame is growing bigger and bigger. chorus almost at its peak, blasting. mavuika is reaching to the flames, her own hair turning into fire. music at crescendo, flames are roaring sky high, and then WHOOSH purple abyss flash, flames flicker, almost going out completely, mavuika is thrown back, crowd is scared and flailing mb we have a momentary frame of seeing scared crying kachina in the night kingdom. much more obvious impact to emphasize what a big deal sacred flames are

3. mavuika giving up her power is another great plot beat that was executed super meh. like. nothing against iansan, but she's standing there looking at mavuika the whole time, like are you done with your traumatic event? was it very traumatic? mavuika is like haha im dying on the inside but its fine, lets go. no music, no fanfare, very little emotional gravity for how important this is.

instead it could be like. mavuika dismisses iansan, like, this is something i need to do alone. she's slowly walking up to the flames. ode of resurrection theme starts playing, but no chorus, its very somber version. natlan is about unity of ppl, no one fights alone, etc, but at this moment mavuika feels very lonely and deep down, scared. she doesnt know capitano doesnt fight weakened enemies, she's giving up what she thinks is her last line of defense, she believes in her ppl, but in this moment she feels powerless. her fair turns to fire, she reaches out, hesitant, music is a single wind flute playing natlan theme, and mavuika lets go of her power, fire draining from her hair slowly, she's visibly distraught, its a melancholic and quiet moment that lingers for some time. then she gathers her strength, puts on the brave face and goes to iansan to joke about taking photos, but she's allowed the moment of vulnerability, for the latter acts contrast to when natlan ppl will be coming together.

4.the moment when group is trapped in night kingdom and rescued is already good, but i think itd be insane if we had resurrection ode call back. like they just fell, the gap in the ceiling just closed, they are looking at each other in the dark, scared. natlan theme starts playing, very quietly at first, the chorus is barely audible, but as the cracks are showing on the cavern ceiling, it grows lowder and lowder, until the darkness shatters, we have that great shot of mavuika breaking the border between 2 worlds, and the chorus is finally able to reach the highest point, in contrast to how it had to break short of it the first time. and then the group is immediately AT THE STADIUM, crowded with all the people here singing. the mavuika shot already shows stadium behind her, lets just get there, have a wonderful call back to natlan people coming together and greeting them as heroes coming back, including kachina, who can finally be treated as a hero. like we can say its magic, time moves differently, whatever, its much more cinematic flow than the group wakes up at the random hill and has to waddle back to mavuika's room, and then like 20 minutes of info dump later we get stadium scene of praising kachina.

[1010ninetynine]

it's been a month, so I think I'll let myself rant.

frankly, most of it is in fact the simple fact that I do not like wallowing in misery. Choking down on the inescapable feeling of being slightly dissed whenever I looked at Sumeru stuff took its toll, I won't lie. But I accepted the fact that China is a racist country. At least I thought I did.

Natlan hit me like a load of bricks. Basically no dark characters (like 2) despite the fact it looked like a country of dark skinned people (the aztecs).

There's no clearer way to be told you're too ugly to be marketable than two regions based on cultures with dark skinned people to barely feature them. And I guess I took it too personally. And so I began the process of letting go.

No, it wasn't an act of protest. Protest implies hope that things will change or a desire to change the current social landscape. I have none, at least, not in regards to most of the media I consume. Because it's all silly or gay or interesting shit. mostly gay and interesting.

i am simply done. you might not be, and that's ok. my frustration doesn't have to be yours - it's something I feel because I am dark skinned and sensitive, but perhaps this is not something that stings for you, in which case, make financially responsible decisions (aka don't spend 100s of bucks on anime girls. no idc how much tectone spent, he makes most of that back by advertising spending that much on genshin to people who aren't going to make it all back.), and enjoy genshin. Seriously. I am beyond thrilled you still can, because it's got an incredible world, great gameplay, many totally not gay characters, and arlecchino.

I simply can't enjoy Genshin anymore, that's all there is to my decision. It's deeply personal for me - and it's not going to be for a lot of you.

Like growing up, I blamed my culture for not assimilating well into American society. People thought I was a teacher's pet because my parents would not let me be as casual with them as my peers were. People thought I was a weirdo because I bowed to my grandmother's feet at graduation. I felt weird wearing overly girly kurtis to school because of diwali and other such celebrations, not only because I hate being feminine, but also because I knew I looked different than my peers and I hated the stares.

at least when i was forced into makeup and shaving, it was socially rewarded. not saying it's not fucked up that women are socially pressured into spending loads of money on cosmetic alterations - but saying that it felt less draining as a child for that reason.

So seeing my culture represented with like...barely any dark skinned characters, it stung. Seeing a similar thing happen again is just a different kind of cut.

so yeah. i will not be playing genshin. and if you tell me they only made that decision because of the ccp, i'll stop playing chinese games. because it's not a matter of trying to change what genshin was, is, and continues to be. it's a matter of choosing to not deal with that shit.

in other words, yes I do miss genshin. not more than I love Not Wallowing In It.

I watched ignition. i. might finally quit genshin