ngl, this video had me to reconsider my "relationship" towards Scaramouche. I still don't like his behaviour, but his lore and backstory were so... cool (even tho I didn't understand it at first) ah yes, Nahida turning him into kitten in her tale and literally raising him were the most adorable and heartwarming things ever <3 just like your videos, otsuu :3
In defense of Traveler, I never really had the big whiplash most players did. Probably because I have a bias towards Traveler because I adore analysing their reactions, dialogue and hidden personality that most players doesn't discover unless they read and to through Traveler's voicelines. (Yes am a nerd leave me alone) Traveler has become more and more cold to Teyvat after Liyue's Archon quest. Which is when "We Will be Reunited" took place, they found their twin and their twin tells them to discover this world's "truth". Now their goal has changed, its no longer "Find my twin" it's now "Find out this world's truth" which involves traveling all around Teyvat. Now, we reach Inazuma's quest Act 1. At first, Traveler rejected Ayakas request for them to help. Which is understandable, their goal now is to travel through Teyvat as fast as possible and find out Teyvat's truth. But after some guilt-stripping and convincing from Ayaka. They agreed, which led to several brutal battles. Traveler was struck by Ei's lighting, fought in the resistance and etc JUST because they agreed to help. And afterwards "Requiem of Echoing Depths" happened, where they discover the sheer cruelty Khaen'riah faced caused by the gods. Sumeru's Archon quest was interesting because Traveler DID partake in the rescue of Nahida. But that was because they were quite literally trapped in Sumeru unless they helped, also that the akademiya is an ass. Anyways Caribert happened and we finally reach Fontaine's Archon quest. Where Traveler is immediately greeted by Furina and was challenged by her to a duel, they agreed but Furina chickened out and then they were almost sent to jail because of Fontaine's weird laws. Normally, each (Other than Ei) Archon had a rather positive first impression. Venti was a endearing bard that Traveler saw had close relations with Dvalin. Zhongli was a knowledgeable councillor from Wangsheng funeral parlor who was broke. Nahida was a good and friendly god who was imprisoned by her own people. Pair that against Furina who challenged them to a duel then tried imprisoning them. And like the player, Traveler only saw Furina as the cocky and confident Archon of Fontaine who didn't seem to care about the prophecy all too much. Up until the end, Traveler's impression of Furina was mainly negative. Yes her story is tragic and sympathetic, (trust me I was bawling when Focalors death happened) but through the eyes of Traveler. They never had the best relation with them, and with the increase of the cruel knowledge of Teyvat's past. It seems they are becoming less and less sympathetic to Archons and the people of Teyvat in general. Traveler is becoming colder to the people of Teyvat and I love them for that. The Traveler isn't a self insert, they have their own personality and view and it would make sense that their opinion of the characters sometimes clashes with the players. They live in the world of Teyvat and the storylines are the truth to them and I'd think if I lived a world where the monsters were actually humans that was transformed to monsters because god didn't like their vibe. I'd give them the side-eye too. Am not dismissing their asshole behaviour though, I disliked how they acted towards Furina but I can also understand why they acted that way. (Also I love how savage Paimon is bro said "Can't cope? 🤨" to a ex-Archon 😭)
This fish girl is not strategist 😂 no wonder the rebel losing. The shogunate have battle hardened Sara and the rebel have her. Its like the senate of rome trying to fight Julius Caesar and his legion **directly**
on his second story quest, we dig into more detail of what the temple of silence is, how it was founded and how cynos related to it but we dont get an explanation on how its connected to khaenri'ah, we also dont really have a full image of his backstory we can only get ideas from what it was mentioned, we also dont get a full explanation behind his powers that was specifically shown in the manga. and on top of that we never knew where he was exactly from even after unlocking the entirety of the desert. his family and etc. sounds to me that theyre still gate keeping stuff
This video completely summarizes how I feel about the Raiden Shogun to a T. She's not a bad character but the way they executed her development early on was a train wreck. The second story quest recontextualized everything I thought about her and everything just made sense. She's the most complex and flawed archon and she's probably one of my favorite characters in this game.
its sad how i learned more about kazuha, fischl and xinyan in a limited event quest that isnt playable anymore by new players (that quest was amazing tbh)
I think Genshin is held back so much by its status as a gacha game - and a gacha game hugely popular in multiple countries too. You need to keep earning revenue, and to keep earning revenue, you have to sell people on those characters. It's easy to sell people waifus. The Inazuma story quests were the worst for this - Ayaka's story quest, with the dance she put on specifically for you, was the first time I felt Genshin was *blatant*, the first time I realised "oh yeah, they're trying to get me to wish on her banner". It's incredibly easy to get people to spend money on women they find hot - especially male anime fans, let's be real. Male characters are much different in the sense that, as some have pointed out in these comments, they don't necessarily have that appeal to the straight men most likely to sink money into this game. As such, their writing is perhaps more detailed. This need to sell characters also explains why not many characters are objectively morally grey, or outright evil - some people might not want to wish on a murderer, for example. Again, look at what happened in Inazuma with the Raiden Shogun, and how much she was woobified.
Me as a big fan of a lot of cast of characters I really felt myself drawn to the male characters than females in terms of writing but overall always wanna gacha both as certain females and males have writing flaws yet some once they do well are bangers
Thank you for putting all the thoughts I had into words, as you've voiced all the same arguments and opinions that I held and still hold. I truly appreciate it and love this video.
I personally disagree with your assessment. This is too late for a comment but the thing that pisses me off all the time is not that she was not punished or was remorseful or even the fact that she is a terrible archon, it's how the game tries to tell us even now that Ei is a revered archon and how none of the playable characters or the npcs show actual resentment for the unimaginable suffering her actions have caused throughout the years. I mean we literally see the devastation her misguided actions have caused to the people and even the environment of the Islands. I get that the people are conditioned ( the Japanese shogunate argument) but it's not just the people of Inazuma. The game never lets us see any real meaningful criticism of Ei even from outside onlookers and you cannot convince me that it's not because Genshin used to be scared of selling female characters who display a modicum of villainy. It's bad story telling not just for Ei but also for Inazuma and the rest of Teyvat that no one has actual grievances against her. She doesn't have to be punished for her actions but other characters should be able to make value judgements or even question her at the very least in the voice lines which are usually structured as characters being vulnerable with the Traveler. Let other playable characters express dislike for a character or their actions especially when their actions directly affect them (I'm looking at Watatsumi Island). This entire thing reminded me off that TCG event where Sara and Gorou were being pleasant to each other when they were enemy generals who had their people killed at the hands of each other. I'm not saying they've to be at each other's throats but they could at least show the very real tension that might exist in situations like those. Genshin can never decide if it wants to be a kids game where everything is handled with kid gloves or if it wants to be a dark game with its super dark world quest lore and in the end the writing always suffers for it.
When Lisa was in the dialogue....I thought a different Lisa but eeh yoh she....ok and the part Lisa clicking photos is something even my mum did in her student days and for some reason this cheeky details made it so wholesome 😊 my fav for now
I actually quit Genshin during 2.x patches because it always annoyed me so so much how the female playable characters were written and in Inazuma the male characters were also inflicted with the same problems. But when I picked up the game again during 3.x I found that the character writing was actually better. Your video majorly focusses on the story quests of five star characters even though you mention the other aspects towards the end, I feel like that's really inadequate to truly understand how the character writing has improved. In Sumeru the vast majority of what made the characters likeable or rather interesting was not what happened in the story quests but their individual roles in the archon quests, 4 star hangouts and events in general. I think moving away from the story quests as the only source for character interactions and development is the way to go. Almost all characters since Sumeru have felt far more alive because of the changes in the writing and I'm not just talking about the 5 star male characters. The writing for Kaveh and Faruzan in their hangouts have been amazing. They also went back to Mondstadt and made me care about fucking Sucrose during the Windblume. Nilou could've very well been another Ayaka whose sole purpose was to be a Traveler orbiter but she is surprisingly not used the same way. Fontaine as you pointed out has seen even more improvements. I don't even like the trope behind Furina's character but she is already far more interesting than any of the male characters from Inazuma and so is Navia for that matter. TL;DR I just think they should stop using story quests as the only way to meaningfully interact with characters and continue incorporating meaningful interactions not just between the character and the traveler but other characters and even relevant NPCs in the story quests and other events (I ate up Cyno SQ2 tbh. Such a banger for all characters involved)
See, The Masquerade of the Guilty urked me to no end with how they just made Furina vanish, but i feel that it was a somber fit for her. The hero of Fontaine wasnt meant to go out in a big showing, or meant to be a role in the fight, she did her part, and as one of my friends said "the star exited stage left quietly, leaving no trace of her presence behind" She didnt want recognition, she didnt care for her own needs, she just wanted to save Fontaine and be free. and she immediately did just that as soon as she learned of it. Would you not isolate after centuries of lying and being told youre useless?
I am genuinely so happy with fontaines characters, because I have never been so invested in a female characters story quest than i have with Furina and navias, I haven’t even done arrlechinnos yet and im already really interested in her lore, i cant think of a single character that desperately needs more development
Interesting fact (if I’m wrong please correct me) but there was a huge translation error of Furinas story quest. In the Chinese version the traveler and paimon are insanely friendly with furina and still comfort her but somehow someone made such a huge mistake that gave us this version where the traveler and paimon are insanely mean. But yes in the original version traveler is actually furinas friend
I completely disagree with the way you assumed about Yoimiya based on her first story quest. She was always a social butterfly that has an empathetic heart for the people. Thats why she is the anithesis of Ei's journey. Its not about being "nice" but about "kind"
Well saying this after Arlecchino’s banner has gone by, she’s an antagonist in such a good way. Like I feel as though her design makes it kinda obvious but she’s very much a morally grey character. Not going to spoil her story quest, but I have to say her story quest was the best one in Genshin in my opinion, compared to every other character.
Imo the best written male characters in the game for me are Kaeya and Kaveh. While I do think Kaeya’s specific lore is very much intriguing, we are going to get much more Khaeriah lore until 4.7 I believe. Either way, both characters are still very interesting, and Kaveh specifically is probably my favorite character from sumeru. It’s definitely due to me being an artist, but I relate to that sort of idealistic sort of thinking, or wanting to be kind to others. Either way though, I feel like while I’m going to have to watch more of the video to see if it’s mentioned, I feel like a chunk of the people who are really into the male characters often are usually chill about it, or will go in to say “x character is all just fanservice” if you were to mention Yelan. Like not denying that there is fanservice, but I feel like a lot of characters on the fem side of Genshin characters have usually been disregarded due to this point. Either way, my favorite bit of Yelan lore is how she stole from Pantalone, and that the jacket she wears on her model is what she stole from him lmao Either way, in terms of how Genshin makes writing choices, while I’m happy for the upcoming P2 to cyno’s story quest since I do love his characterization to death, I really hope this sets a precedent to add more story quests for seemingly forgotten 5 stars like Diluc. While not all of the characters in Genshin are the best or worse in terms of writing, Ayato personally alongside Diluc have the weakest sort of writing that just isn’t shown in the plot, which sucks. (I’ve read the Diluc story quests, and I’ve read the Genshin manga.) It sucks especially considering Diluc in canon is a lot less cold than how he seems in most quests or events. Him in the manga I think personally portrays him best. He hates the fatui, though despite this is able to have a round table conference with Dottore alongside Kaeya. I hope at some point that gets mentioned, but I’m not really sure since even Cyno was in the manga as well.
To mention, I personally find Fontaine’s story quest to be one of the strongest archon quests so far. I think a part of it is due to how the traveler does have less importance within the story. I also agree, Furina being human, in general, being very multidimensional makes her my favorite archon so far. And yeah, while some people do baby her, I just ignore that. She’s fine on her own, and I loved reading the story quests about her making macaroni. Plus I feel like a majority of people get she’s resilient as hell. Speaking of archon to archon interactions, the 4.4 event story quest was honestly very wholesome to see between Furina and Zhongli. Like Zhongli very much respected her during that, and I thought that was truly a sweet moment. I hope we get more interactions with Furina and her friends, meaning Clorinde and Neuvillette. I feel like that would be a sweet sort of continuation of her story quest, her hanging out with Clorinde and Neuvillette, and having to confront how she feels she failed them, to then be assured by her friends that she didn’t. And finally an interesting thing I’d like to point out is, Wriothesley has a voiced line about his murder trial, and I find it interesting how he took Furina leaving the courtroom during the trial as his trial being “too boring” when in reality, she was devastated by it and had to leave the room to not get more emotional in front of her people.
For me personally, I can’t say I’ve ever hated Furina, I just always thought she was hiding something, which is later proven in masquerade of the guilty. I do agree though, they really did put a lot more care or time into writing Furina and just her simple involvement throughout the quests itself. I agree though, the masquerade quest really got people from hating her for being “bratty” to sympathizing. Edit: I also don’t like how the traveler approached Furina during her story quest either.
I genuinely hate when games have important character lore in their event quests. I love Scaramouche, but I wasn’t able to play during the events he was in because of lack of storage or not being able to access the area (wasn’t able to do Iradori Festival because I didn’t finish Liyue, Chasm or Inazuma archon quest). They did it with Honkai Star Rail, why not Genshin?
I think Noelle is a solid version of the “overworked waifu.” She’s overworks because she is part of a lower class and feels compelled to do her job to please the knights and lords. However, she has dreams of becoming one of the higher classes. In fact, she has more talent than 90% of the Knights of Favonius. She just needs to believe in herself more. I loved her hang out quest because it literally was just hanging out. She’s your friend who you know will go places as soon as they get tiny bit of confidence.
It also seems like seeing all the fan content making use of lore and such made them maybe try harder knowing that a lot of players do care about the lore. Not just the stats and combat like most youtube video creators.
lol watching this after arlecchinos release makes the "ig well have to wait for her to get an evil woman" so funny shes more on childes level (albeit for different reasons) in that shes really.. grey. like she has great intentions, but she couldnt care less how she gets there, at least not to the point that it affects her actions
I'm pretty sure Benny will return when we have to cross Mare Jivari to reach Natlan. And some Mondstadt characters will return for the port Dornman expansion, but that may happen much later than we think.
I love Genshin and HSR where there are actually male developed characters since they're much more appealing to me, so I don't mind even if they're better written. Since a handful of games are already 99% anime girlies since fanservice and male gaze
One weird thing about male characters that feels related but not part of their writing: sensible everyday clothes. There are a lot (a few) female characters in genshin that wear an outfit for a specific event, except they wear it all the time. The stage performers are the biggest offenders here. There's no way Nilou and Yun Jin wear stage costumes 24/7 but thats the look they're stuck with. Xinyan, she lives the rock lifestyle and probably does always dress like that. But as the men are defined by more than a single role they play, none of the male outfits are glaringly stupid to wear all the time. Oh yeah all the high heels are bad too but that just is what it is.
