how hoyoverse writes the MEN in genshin (are they ACTUALLY BETTER?) 

addressing my statement on cyno: yes this video was made & edited before the 4.6 livestream and yes i can't wait to play his second story quest BCS ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME

Hot take, but i think itto is probaly one of the best written chars in all of genshin, cause the nailed what they wanted him to be perfectly, he is just a guy, whos an idiot, who wants to have fun.........they dont need to give a char a "oh so tragic" story to make them well written and alot of people think thats a requirment, which is just wrong

"razor hasn't been explored since his story quest" the mondstadt event where he's the main character and focused on the question of who his parents were: *am i a joke to you*

Neuvillette's story gives me hope for Capitano. I realy hope they stick with the uber powerful but honorable and noble member of the Harbingers while still giving him the nuance to show why he is the way he is. Also, plz keep the helmet on Hoyo.

Xiao liking us is very understandable though. Xiao devoted his whole life to protecting Li Yue to show his gratitude to Morax, Li Yue is what he fought for for thousands of years, and the Traveler helped him protect the most important thing in his life from being obliterated, he was a pivotal figure in bringing people and Adepti together to protect Li Yue from being destroyed, so it doesn't feel like a stretch that he likes us more than others. We were the link between humans and Adepti that helped to save Li Yue, and because protecting the harbor is the most important thing to Xiao, he feels inclined to support this link to the humans. In the way he acts towards the Traveler he shows gratitude for helping him in the duty he devoted his life to, I just don't see much fanservice or romance there, even if there was - it looks very organic in the story.

I think at the end of the day, Hoyo's reason for males over females in lore is just, males don't sell the same on design alone. Male characters unfortunately need to be sold a lot more than the female characters.

I think that Xingqiu has a very endearing backstory to him that usually gets overlooked, like, people just think that he is some bookworm kid that likes to bully Chongyun and thats it, when there is so much more to him, you just have to dig a little deeper. I find it so relateable how he struggles between the life he wants to live and the life he is forced to live by his family, and how he has to constantly lie and put up an act while edging closer and closer to a breaking point where he wont be able to take it anymore. I would love to see Hoyo explore his story more!

Well, now we got Cyno story quest 2

Baizhu is NOT evil. He is seeking immortality so that no one else would ever have to inherit the contract. He wants to keep Changshang, his Adeptus snake friend, alive, but for that to happen she needs a host. She in turn provides them with longevity (as long as they don't get killed, nor overdo what their body can handle, they would have a longer than normal lifespan). Changshang and Baizhu care about each other and about their patients. There are no ulterior motives, Baizhu is a genuinely good individual. Plus, even if he seems secretive at times, newsflash: EVERY CHARACTER HAS SECRETS!!! Hu Tao and Baizhu are opposites in the sense Hu Tao wants you to die while Baizhu would do everything he can to keep you alive. Qiqi was resurrected by his predecessor, not by him, and simply letting Hu Tao bury her would go against his morals since, while she is undead, she is still fully sentient (unlike Resident Evil zombies which are mindless). He sacrifices his own health to ensure his patients survive if conventional treatments fail. Everyone, Changshang included, warn him about overdoing it yet he is adamant in his goal. "My Mortality is no one's concern but mine." his line from his teaser, he would sacrifice himself if it meant saving Changshang and his patients. I hate it when people try to make it seem he is after immortality for his own benefit when he is doing it to save others.

I feel like 4-stars such as Kaeya and Kaveh have become some of the most well-written characters in the game. Their depth, their natural growth/development, the reveal of more information about them overtime, and their character interactions with others have been such a delight. They felt like proper payoffs to the build-ups that were established. Sometimes, they felt more like 5-stars in terms of their treatment by Hoyoverse. And, honestly, I hope more 4-star characters get this type of treatment cause one less of a star shouldn't take away from their potential. Thankfully, with Fontaine, I feel like we're seeing more equal treatment. And Sumeru, while not perfect, felt like a step in the right direction. I also feel like if Hoyoverse places more care and focus on 4-star stories, both old and new, it'll help strengthen the writing of 5-stars who either felt a little meh at the start or have suffered more stagnance in their development over the years. For example, Diluc. I love the guy but he's been pretty stagnant lately in terms of lore and development. However, if you look toward the writing and focus lately placed on Kaeya, I feel like that suddenly opens potential doors for Diluc's development. Heck, it probably already has cause of their connection. Overall, great video! I love the bois in Genshin, so this was a treat to watch and get another perspective on the writing quality for the men.

Kaveh, kaeya and freminet are good examples of well written characters where as heizou on the other hand, was treated as fanservice

We’re getting Cyno’s second story quest next patch and it’s about the temple of silence and the nature of cyno’s power! I’m super excited for it

i'm surprised you didn't talk much about kaveh. yes some of his screen time is locked behind alhaitham's story quest and an event but he also has a hangout that fleshes him out very nicely and he's just very well written (biased opinion but still)

I unironically think that Ayato's story quest showed us a lot about Ayato's personality and the way he does things as head of Yashiro commission, on par with Childe's. The marriage between the heads of other two commissions didn't suit him, so he went and got it cancelled , and the bride and groom to be even thanked him for that. The dialogues with the Traveller, when he never says his objective directly, just pushes us along the way, were also very amusing. To me, it never seemed to be about npc's problem. Otherwise, great video!

Kaveh is really a great example tho of how well executed male characters can be, we have all our questions abt him answered before he is basically all of what we wished ayato would have, you really should have talked more abt him considering the amount of lore and character development, layers he has he got basically the Alhaitham treatment we know all we need to know abt them

I want to give a shoutout to Gorou’s hangout quest as having my favorite and least favorite ending. The ending we get to see Gorou the war general grieving over his fallen comrades has stuck with me. The ending where he and the traveler run away from yae miko was certainly……one of the endings

I have several comments about this video Why no mention about 4 star character event also highlight male 4 star more frequently, Razor windblume, Kaveh Interdarshan, Freminet Thelxie No mention about hangout quest? Or is it for another video? About Xiao vs Ayaka, the reason many likes Xiao Traveler ship so much (Like SO MANY people like it), I think is because the writing for Xiao gradual attachment to Traveler is more believable 1. Xiao didn't outright head over heels to Traveler from the start, he even shoo them in their first meeting, meanwhile Ayaka already admired Traveler from the start and she ask for help and trust Traveler from the start 2. Xiao start to trust Traveler because Traveler is the one that pursue Xiao. Xiao told Traveler to not get involved many times, he keeps refusing Traveler invitation to Lantern Rite, but Traveler keeps getting themself involved with Xiao. Meanwhile with Ayaka, it's Ayaka the one that do the pursuing and Traveler is just following her 3. Traveler genuinely changed Xiao's life, unlike other characters that have their own story and character development without Traveler. Traveler IS part of Xiao's story and character development. The involvement of Traveler in Xiao's character development is so big it makes the illusion (or maybe not illusion) that Traveler also have a thing for Xiao. (that waterborne event fanservice, such a personal moment) Then we have an event featuring Ayaka having character development on her own (making new friends in Fontaine), without Traveler involvement at all, her interaction with Traveler is only very little too

Gorou being so forgotten that he didn't even get mentioned... I think he had some good moments in the Inazuma story, even if just a little. His hangout is good, just a bit simple. But then his appearances have been mostly reduced to being bullied by Yae and being afraid of... Let's say "teasing" women, like Lisa in the latest event. Wish we would get more of him being a loyal soldier and a natural leader, or explore why he's part dog. Maybe some Youkai genes? Or something like the Katzlein?

The day i get to see heizou outside of work is the day i will be a very happy man I’ve been begging hoyo to see heizou outside his work because in the 3.3 event he was working and in his hangout he was also working. We only ever see him in work mode and i want to see more of his lore and character development He has really interesting lore and after the 3.3 event you can see him not taking part in the festival. I want hoyo to explore that more for him bc he has trauma related to festivals. I really want to see him finally overcome that trauma and take part in a festival

The main deal one has to understand with this subject it’s that gacha characters are products first and characters second, they are made to appeal to certain demographics and within those limits they build everything else and we have seen how volatile this fanbases can be,there are certain topics and conflicts they won’t touch to avoid angering the fanbases and sadly the main demographic that pays for waifus it’s quite…vocally active when something doesn’t go the way they want, even having a female character interact with a male one in a too friendly manner can be seen as “cheating” limiting even more how they are written

the way I started to tear up by just seeing the karkata cutscene... I WANT THAT CRAB IN MY TEAPOT!!!!!

Honestly, i think Tartaglia's second story quest will appear after the end of Snezhnaya and connect the lore a LOT.

as a writer myself i eat this content up. time to play this in the background while i get all geoaculus

Can I just say I love your videos sm. I love seeing genshin writing being criticised whether positively or negatively, ur vids are my fav

the strides we would make if we just had other characters in people's story quests. (like other characters not npcs) the best part about Alethiam's quest is just... the fact that Kaveh was there! like Baizhu's quest was great because Hu-tao and Qiqi were THERE! !!! it ate! So many characters have accompanying ofther characters which should be pivotal to hanging out with them but it just... doesn't??? like- HEY why weren't any of the resistence present for Kokomi's story quest? I would love to see her dynamics with them now that the war is over. Lynney's quest is great because his VERY lore relevant sister is also there playing off of him. The traveler doesn't talk outside of dialogue choices and Paimon has just about as much chemistry as your average beetroot (like her random beef with Alheithem? idk what that is she's just 40% more obnoxious when he's on screen)

2:10 ok, I will tell you: Because *it shows us how, contrary to Ganyu's internal belief, she's deeply connected to the Human society in Liyue.* She knows how people work internally, how to exploit that, but can also connect to the people close to her quite easily. THAT is what Ganyu's story quest shows us. She does, in fact, fit into human society perfectly well. She's just too self-conscious about something most people either don't know, or don't care about. People respect her and what she does not because she's a (half-) adeptus, but because of her accomplishments and reputation of being an incredibly reliable person, worker, and a great mentor. In other words, what a Story Quest should be about.

The worst thing about npc impact is the opportunity loss from the lack of character interactions. 99% of story quests only involve the titular character. Making Ayato's story quest without involving Ayaka or Thoma is criminal. I mean, come on, that quest would've been a opportunity to flesh out all three of them. And they somehow managed to do nothing for any of them, even Ayato. How?

i just want more playable characters to be allowed to be assholes. not even EVIL evil, just... let them be annoying or mean. Chiori for example is a good direction for the game. sure i know she will be hated by many people and it's fair imo, but she feels unique. it's not even like Hoyo can't do it. i mean look at HSR, half the cast in that game is insufferable and they still sell well all the same so what are hoyo scared of ? 😂

as much as Ayato is daddy AF to me but goddamn. Itto's story and personality is PEAK.

In my opinion, Xiao's and Cyno's story quests' problem isn't about having too much focus on NPCs, but about not touching on much new about the characters' personalities (and boring execution in Xiao's case). Both characters have a lot of interesting lore, but the story quests don't really go into it and instead regurgitate stuff we already know about the characters.

For Xiao’s affection towards the traveller, I’m a fan of the Xiao fan service in comparison to Ayaka’s simply because Xiao’s affection makes more sense than Ayaka. The reason? Ayaka has friends and family that she cares about. Even though the traveller helped her save her nation, this was the joint effort of many other people. Ayaka has strength that doesn’t come from the traveller. Ayaka could’ve gone through her character arc without the traveller. As for Xiao, even though he was saved by Rex Lapis, the traveller was the one who opened his heart up to the potential of warmth. The traveller taught him that he was allowed and deserved to feel compassion. That’s why it makes more sense for Xiao to be compassionate with the traveller in comparison to Ayaka, who seems to pander to the traveller for no apparent reason? Don’t get me wrong, I loved the interactions that both of them have with the traveller, but I think Ayaka’s affection towards the traveller doesn’t make too much sense.

24:04, to me, it makes sense narrative wise. Yes, the Traveler was friendlier, but that was the point, to rebuild their relationship. The Traveler initially left Lyney in act 1, apologizing and basically saying they needed some time to think about it. They aren't inherently mad at Lyney and closed up to any sort of reconciliation, and understand his pov; his story quest making them further understand his psychology. During act 3, they also have to team up with Lyney. It's in a different context than his sq, which is why they're on their guards still, but at no point do they seem mad at him, no frowning, no turning their backs... just a polite refusal at first, before accepting as Lynette makes a comment about how Lyney just wants to spend time with them again, and genuinely appreciates them, which is what makes the Traveler give in. For that, Lyney's story quest seems rather undeniable, it needs to be played before act 3. It is narratively good and makes sense, I really don't understand how it doesn't.

childe being send to an important mission but giving up and going shopping instead is so funny to me for no reason

Parents and other family are something I'd like to see more of so it doesn't feel like these characters came from thin air and/or their family just disappeared/tragically unalived or is just super negligent/absentee. Was expecting to get some hint to Kaveh's mom since she's supposedly in Fontaine now (maybe in the future). I'm not expecting to meet Timmy's dad anytime, and I know Jean and Barbara are siblings, we've met Diona's dad and even done commissions for him, Shenhe and Chongyun, and stuff like that: but everyone comes from somewhere. Why don't we know more about them? Especially after maxing friendship we should probs have learned SOMETHING about their families. Although many tend to be ancient beings, orphans and stuff. Where are the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.?

With such a large amount of females you’d think they’d be more variety but nope mihoyo was stuck in the past off oh waifu=money however ever since Fontaine they’ve been cooking on both the men and women I was genuinely surprised on how well written xianyuns and chihoris quest were so well done and nevuilette and lyneys quest as well(we don’t speak about wriothesely)

i think the reason a lot of the male characters feel better written is cause a lot of the female characters suffer under the male gaze, whether it be in their designs or their personalities going into waifu mode (ganyu being a shy secretary sterotype, raiden's first story quest being a cute date after years of martial law, etc). i've heard people say the female fontaine characters don't suffer from this as much and i agree, which is such a breath of fresh air. for a long time its felt like the two female archetypes have been shy and submissive or "step on me mommy" (or a combination of both) and it feels like they're finally moving away from that with characters like navia and furina

I loved that in the archipelago event with Kazuha, we learned a big part of his story and he was just like "well I learned nothing really, might pick up bonsai as a hobby".

You missed thoma lore. His dad went to go visit his homeland but died in a shipwreck. So when Thoma was old enough he was like 'you know what I should go visit it to see what it's like' (and also I guess to find belonging.) and then he got in a shipwreck So the siblings found him and took care of him in exchange for him taking care of them and the house. And he kind of got really attached to his Lord to the point where he's like 'I'm not leaving even though your dirt broke and we all might get assassinated' and got his vision

Dottore better be playable and send us a food that instantly kills our active character on his birthday 😭😭 I don't think he would get redemption arc because hoyo has written multiple mad scientist type of characters in their other games none of them were redeemed to be playable.

I feel like you can't really have a conversation like this without including the four stars. In my honest opinion it makes this discussion kind of hollow

DIDNT EXPECT IT TO COME OUT SO EARLY Thank you:))

Another banger video you made ❤

I think the problem with female characters is despite how well written their story quests are, in the end they'll always have a soft spot for the player, ocer literally any other character growth or traits. I love Shenhe but I genuinly find her soft spot for the traveler a noting, she should be more distant with us, but mihoyo wants to pander to a certain audience so the female characters have to always like us. The male characters are less important (since a lot of the time certain parts of the fanbase hate them eg Lyney and Scaramouche) and hoyo can give them proper characterisation without conforming to the "you're my special little silly rabbit traveler" rule. The male characters can be standoffish, they can keep secrets from us, they can be mean or sly and they don't need to like us.

I am glad female characters got better in Sumeru - Fontaine. Nahida, Dehya, Navia, Furina, Cloud Retainer/ Xianyun, Arlecchino are all good written and had important roles. The males were written well since Mondstadt on with Inazuma being a low again. Inazuma writing was just overall bad. Kazuha is good written but you need to have been tehre for numerous events to really get all.

For me it's been surprising how within a year they released 3 MALE CLAYMORE 4* characters with good quality characterisation (at least in my opinion), which I think is a funny coincidence for them to have so many similarities, and additionally, the events they were featured in were super enjoyable for me. The Parade of Providence featured a good half of the Sumeru cast and served as an amazing exploration of Kaveh's past and how guilty he feels about his father's death. Gaming (along with Xianyun and Shenhe of course, they are officially a comedic duo) made this year's Lantern Rite very refreshing. And Thelxie's Fantastic Adventures was one of the few times when I've actually deeply cared about an NPC (even though I would've liked to learn a bit more about Freminet). After the 4.6 trailer, I'm hoping both Freminet and the twins will get even more development alongside Arlecchino.

In terms of recent events, I also enjoyed the Thelxie event, while it was mostly about the NPC's story (which was also heartbreaking, ngl), I liked that we got a glimpse of Freminet from how he seems dreams/fantasy and also that bit of him mentioning how some of the Hearth members fared mentally before.

Only thing i don't agree is Xiao's being basically the same tier as ayaka in terms of fanservice with the traveler, it doesn't feel the same cause their relationship actually had believable development, I don't really care for the ship but the their interactions and friendship feel very genuine to me and they keep getting momets together to this day and i think that's why many ppl would not put them on the same level, not that ayaka's not genuine but the difference its clear as day

I love Albedo’s and Kaeya’s stories so much, I just wish we had more lore on them, they’re such interesting characters

the whole of inazuma could be its own video in absolute boredom save for a few cutscenes. but it was the worst pacing ever. also i wish they would write in ayato more. he's legit the biggest missed potential for real. alhaitham also shows different sides to him around kaveh, so anytime they're together, it's really entertaining, especially his development in the PoP event. which well sadly, suffers from being an event and not everyone will see him. both him and kaveh are very relatable as people, living together, having normal jobs ( in comparison to other genshin characters lol ). and that makes them more loved for me

Thank you for the deeper dive into Ayato. He always felt very underwhelming to me as a character, and I pondered why that never got better with time. The answer turned out to be both obvious but also more than that, and I appreciate how this video gave my messy thoughts more clarity, lol. It makes me a little sad that he was so close to being a far more interesting character, but it felt like Hoyoverse took what time and effort should've desperately been used for Ayato and placed it into Ayaka. He definitely should've been introduced a lot sooner. Hoyoverse also seemed to have a pretty noticeable issue in Inazuma with the, "telling and not showing" trope when it came to a chunk of their characters there.

Aether and Lumine’s writing seems pretty similar in quality imo 😏

Can't wait for cyno second story quest coz desert for me is the most interesting and vibing place, soundtrack is crazy good and the hidden story is thrilling and so so dark. I return to the lower desert every day

We're FINALLY getting Temple of Silence lore in the coming update - YES!!!

Theres different levels of tragic backstory if you ask me. XIao`s backstory is many times more tragic than Ayaka because its less relatable. If you meet people in Ayaka`s situation IRL, friendless orphans. they are most of the time more tragic than Ayaka cuz they arent the 1%(yes i am saying Ayaka looses tragic-ness points because she`s rich and her name has influence) Whats Xiao`s irl situation? A war veteran who lost all his buddies to mentaly debilitating diseases they got from service and yet continues to serve so trying to re-acclimate him to society, show him what his team sacrificed themselves for before his own mind goes too?(and yes Xiao does earn tragic-ness points due to the time bomb that`ll Hoyo`l never trigger)

I think the big difference between Lyney and Xiao vs Ayaka is how the former are allowed to interact and have relationships with other characters besides the traveler (Lyney and Lynette are always together, I think that helps him become more dynamic), Ayaka had us waiting for her to talk with her brother until 4.2, and had a very interesting arc about learning to make new friends skipped/go off screen.

One thing that many people might miss is the note Furina wrote to Neuvillett on the table before and after his quest XD Although Furina doesn't show up, that note did show a lot Furina character and her relationship with him

Personally I’m convinced the writing or design of male vs. female characters comes down to who they are designed for. I would say female characters have to appeal to the male gaze and vice versa. I think staff at hoyoverse is almost 50/50 as well as their player base - which I’m thankful for since I think their design is rarely too fanservicey. I’m amazed how they improved their writing of the female characters but I’m also impressed how male characters can be meta defining now. So all in all I think they doing a great job. I miss Wanderer tho.

50 MINUTES, HELL YEAH

I'm from the future (I just watched after 4.6 was out) I can safely say "Father" is one of the few very-well written female characters in the entire game, Hoyo really went all out on her.

I really love your videos! (Please make a video about the knave once she’s out)

Albedo's events should be remade into story quests for him, imo.

Honestly, I hope you make a 2 hour video just talking about Genshin characters. Also I would love for you to do a deep dive on more of the 4 stars, like Kaveh cuz I’m biased. Or just how some 4 stars sometimes are more interesting than 5 stars. Especially in the early game in my opinion. Like I think we can all agree that Beidou should have been a 5 star

I think the issue of storage for the limited time events could come in the form of dlc, if you want to see the extra bit of lore you can just download it at your own decision

Maybe it also has something to do with the way the female playerbase handles fandom things in general. Like, look at all the fanart and fanfiction out there, I'm sure a lot of them are done by female players. And of course, to do those content, we tend to delve deep into the lore, their personalities, their backstories. Heck, some people even make headcanons based on those lore, no? Also some comments have pointed out below that design and gameplay alone is enough to sell female characters for guys. They prefer the visuals and action generally, after all.

Alhaitham's story quest have a very interesting lore implication, the hive mind idea is very consistent in genshin lore, from the golden slumber to the narzissenkreuz ordo plans, it seems they have taken the opportunity to explain the idea even more, especially that we are in sumeru where the irminsul tree is.

I love your videos make my life at campus a little less dull haha

Hoyoverse writing males : A lot of variations Hoyoverse wrting females : Variatuons of our overworked moms

I 50% agree with you about the male story quest. However, i think it's bigger issue. all the character quests feels lazy, offers no additional insight from what we already know, and un-engaging content for a game. for instance, Xiao's character during the chasm quest, or giving ayato screentime during the storming of Raiden's castle would have done more service than their character story quest can ever do.

Good timing on the Cyno bit-- it's getting some explanation in the upcoming patch. There's a new character that seems to be some kind of Cyno rival for Hermanubis, and he has a unique enough charcter design to be playable in the future.

For the story quests,hoyo can litrally add it as dlc quest with minor rewards, it will occupy less storage and we can even delete it later.

Hii otsuu! Since you made a video for both male and female characters(loved them both), I am hoping to hear your thoughts on Arlecchino! After her story quest I think she really takes some traits from both male and female characters, also something about her origin, backstory, development and role in the story feels so unique and fresh. I think for a really long time the entertainment industry thought people do not like intimidating strong women but Arle's existence kinda proves that otherwise since she's really hyped and well received. I think she's truly a character for the mature audience especially women, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! (I'm sorry for writing this request under a male char video tho 😭)

The Arlecchino's comment did not age well, she in fact was not evil, actually very merciful lol Maybe we'll get evil ladies in Natlan?

Crossing finger we'll get Bennet story quest or some role in Natlan's Archon Quest 🤞🏼

I love the anemo boys stories.

I won't call them bad per say, but even the "worst" ones are ok in terms of story quests. Most stpry quests available are Act1 of the character's story an introduction to the character's personally, the way they behave, the way decide to deal with things in their own ways are things that are focused on more so then their lore or backstory in most cases as it's their introduction not a complete story arc. Many character don't particularly have their "Character moment" because it has already happened, these characters that we see and experience aren't characters whose stories have just storted but character's who have already grown from the original person they started off as, now they are not complete charactets they are still and will continue to grow but grow requires reason it just doesn't happen juts because and sunce the character's live in a more peaceful life there is little necessity for growth. That's where the continuation of their story quest (otherwise known as act 2) comes into play outing the characters in either an unfamiliar situation that tests them or situations the puts them face to face with their past. Genshin's stories both the Archon Quests and Story quest showcase a more of a peaceful time, sure there have been internal problems within each nation but those don't particularly affect the peace of a nation (mostly because the traveller's Dull blade wacks stops the problem before they get out of hands). I'd say Liyue's probably the only nation who's peace was actively threatened due being attacked by sealed god and such. My point being that hoyo is staging up the world all stories that place in the present are meant yo show the peace of the continent and how people and characters live(the over archinh story is still in it's opening act even if we've reached Fontaine and will cross over to Natlannin a few months) only so it can all be destroyed in one fell swoop when the final act of the story begins. I would talk about Inazuma but i don't think that would work seeing how many mistakes were made by the inazuma writing team which inevitably caused the characters to suffer alongside their stories with the sole somewhat exception of Ei. Now i have seen people complain alot about how Ei's first story quest was just a date with traveller without ever putting in the smallest thought into what story quest meant. I really liked what they did with Ei's first story quest it held up very well when compared to the entirety that was Inazuma's Archon Quest. After the Archon Quest's event Ei is left confused and unsure what to do next as she was basically forced to abandon her idea of Eternity that so proudly proclaimed before (thanks to the power of the Dull blade). She basically locked herself in from the outside world because she believed that locking herself and her nation in dtate of stagnancy everything will remain the aame but her walk with traveller showed her that regardless of all her attempts things still changed nothing she remembered as Inazuma wete the same and then continuation of the story quest showed us why she did what she did. She tried to put everything in stagnancy because she wanted to protect her people because she thought change will cause them to suffer eventually. She wanted to create a Nayuon of her people that existec for Eternity. Her story quests are probably the only one's yhat held up any hope of Inazuma to me. Character story quests that rely on NPC interactions will always feel a bit weak since the character will take place of the problem solver then the problem itself and I'm not against this kind of approach. As YOu said Ganyu's story started good with her adeptus training and ended not si good with a fraud case investigation but i don't really see it like that. It's just part of her character the dual nature of being half adeptus and half human. First we experience the adeptus side with ger training with Xiao, the adeptus choose to follow Morax none of them were forced to do so and they left Ganyu's life choices to her they never wanted/forced her to stay in the monntains and do the adeptus stuff that they all do but the doors are ipen if she vhooses to. And on the complete opposite side of the spectrum are the humans who actively need her due to her experience and knowledge as the secretary of the Qixing and part of the Ministry of Cuvil affairs(shady goverment organisation) there are and will always be thing that will need her expertise and experience. Her story quest is more about choosing does she go on with the life she was supposed to live considering her own lineage or live a life where people really need her (desperately) note: Ganyu is i think the only secretary that we know of so she basically habdles work detail of all 8 members by herself of course the other members have their undelings probably, maybe not kequing but still that's alot of work not to mention she's being doing it for multiple generations of the Qixing. I can see the Xiao and Ayaka comparison but i don't necessarily agree. Ayaka is fan servicy for no reason like there is literally no reason for it she just starts like that and that's why i don't like her very much. Xiao's on the other hand is a different case. The traveller was the only person who managed to put the idea (if not convince) Xiao that what he's doing is bad and that he's allowed to rest and live life. As From Xiao's introduction he trues to keep people at a distance being worried for their safety, alway fighting, he cinsidered himself as kind of brink of a monsters but throughout his continued interactions with the traveller his perspective starts to change. Like the first lantern rite we barely managed to get him close to the city, the second lantern rite tho he participate in the festival we still see him watching the fireworks go off, the chasm interlude he ginally starts to acept that he's not all bad and can consider himself a hero a good guy like everyone does (this time indtrad of the full blade we needed help from the great words spoken by none other then Ushi), and frim then on we see him attending thr frdtivals snd even participate sometimes even if he fid it off his oen will, was a noyed into it orcoversed into it.

The recent event with freminet made my eyes re-hydrate africa

You get a like for your hard work

25:30 in mr magic man's dairy (spare me from the trouble of having to spell his name okay i forgot lol) he mentions how jemma approached him and told them that she didn't like lyney and lynette back when he took them in. when she said to him "their eyes are too piercing" jemma was referring to the twins :D essentially; mr magic man took the twins in while jemma was around so that's how they knew about her. great video as always! can't wait to see your thoughts on cyno's second story quest if you ever make a video about it :) take care!

48:30 - I feel like you could also say this about Kaveh since I think his mom lives in Fontaine? His dad isn’t alive but I think his mom lives in Fontaine so I definitely feel like they have a similar situation with their parents, wonder what happened.

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 really think that they need to put the Event Story quest as actual story quests that you can unlock with the purple keys and play for that 40 primo and lore, most of those events primos are from mini-games so I don't why they are not making those permanent and don't say its because of the size of the game cause it's too big already for most Phones 😂

I no joke smiled when at the end of Neuvi's story quest those guys almost lynced the guy who threatened the melusine.

do you play honkai star rail? if so i feel like a video comparing hsr's way of handling character-centric quests vs genshin's would be very interesting

37:56 except for the chasm quest. But we don’t talk about that one scene. Or the fact that they WROTE HIM OUT OF THE REST OF THE QUEST

Love your character analysis videos! Btw, did u play arlecchino Story Quest? I personally didn't like it, and i want your opinions on it.

I really like ayato's story quest, ayato mostly sticks to shadows in tht quest which I feel is kinda in line with his personality unlike others

"Did I get him? Yes, after a full year since his release." -in reference to Tighnari Me: "Omg me too! Me too!"

This is super unrelated, but I’d love to see you do an arlecchino video, as I feel like she’s very interesting in terms of just design alone :)

Honestly I think the issue with the game is the characters never get set up with the right amount of screen time that they're supposed to get and how useful they could have been throughout the storyline maybe that's just me but I feel like that's the one thing the developers of the game fell to do to make it where every character felt that they were well developed

I don't play genshin but based on what I usually hear about the story I'm of the opinion that similarly to how female characters are designed to be very physically attractive to appeal to a male player base, male characters are often written with a romance novel trope in mind. because of this, their personality is very important to their sales, and they often have one other character in particular that their relationship is particularly fleshed out with to use as an audience stand in for the trope. Alhaitham and Kaveh have their roommates situation and their banter, Neuvillette is very much so the powerful and cold guy who is actually very sweet and will take care of your kids, etc. problem with this theory is that I also don't read a ton of romance novels so correct me if I'm wrong TvT.

Well I'm still too early to comment and I'll finish watching this to it's 50 minute entirety, but I have to pre-say: Arlecchino is hands down one of the best written characters so far and with so much potential for future developments that it isn't even funny. Yes I know this video came out before her legendary quest came out.

16:41 I started screaming at Paimon and Lumine when they started throwing beans

I actually hope hoyo would released all of the event story and make it permanent. It's very limited to know a character just from archon quest and their own story quest as not everyone would get their act II, act III, etc. (I hope so but I believe not) I agree that a lot of character really get fleshed out from event story and the experience will change if you missed them. In my opinion, Xiao is still acceptable because I don't feel he flirt with traveller. He just trust the traveler now. But Ayaka feels so abrupt. I only see her in archon quest, her own story quest, and almost missed all of the other event quest that she shown up. Then suddenly i met her in the limited event when she get new skin and she kind of flirt with the traveler. I get so much goosebump and almost skip the entire story line because I just don't get why this character became like this. It's also weird when it came to albedo. I am fortunate enough to get to play the event story when we get to know about his clone so I don't feel that he is weird. But if I play his story quest then suddenly met him in recent events, he had changed so much (in my case, I use the JP voice, the acting direction had changed extensively) that it feels so weird. When it came to story quest, there are not much that stood out in the early versions. The only story quest that stood out to me is Zhongli, Venti, and Hu Tao. I like Hu Tao's story quest because of the mysticism concept in it so it's kind of biased. I feel they handle the story quest better especially for the female character since Ye lan and Raiden act II, i don't feel they are just a tool for hoyoverse to sell waifu anymore so it's kind of a good improvement. But there are still some story that are not interesting enough such as Nilou's story quest. And personally, I hate how they handle Navia. I feel that they just dump all of the tragic, sad, and injustice to her to get our sympathy. But they just keep repeating the same pattern (she lost her father, lost her close subordinate, than get betrayed in story quest). All of this just put me off. Navia kept repeating that she usually don't cry but most of the time I see her crying 😅

Great video, lot of of interesting point ! I do not agree with you on the relation between Lyney and the traveller, during his trial and following the revelation that the Lyney is a fatui. I don't understand the travellers reaction because yes he is a fatui but we did help the fatui in some side quest in the chiasm but also we babysit childe's brother and help him after he tried to destroy liyue by unleashing an ancient god on the city to escape.

I normally pull for characters my account needs to get stronger teams... Shadows amidst snowstorms event made me pull for Albedo and it was the only time I pulled a character for their story...

Otto Apocalypse Moment

I think that the male characters fell deeper/better written can be attributed to how acceptable it is for characters to have traits of the opposing gender. Since male characteristics in females is often seen as a downgrade or disservice to the soft femininity they are supposed to have, males having more emotional depth and being kind/caring is less noticed, especially if that depth comes from a tragic backstory (males are the ones enduring hardships in traditional thinking)

My goal is to build an entire team with the Harbingers, I already have Childe and Arlecchino, but I NEED Dottore and Columbina, I also want Pantalone but idk if he’ll be playable

Diluc too is very lore intensive like he's had an entire event dedicated to him he's for some reason connected to Nicole and his father had a delusion of abyss origin like hoyo really need to hit on that.

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