Why is it so hard to get this guy's fic?!

[cashew]

OK, I don't get it, JY wins the 2024 popularity poll and yet the most popular pairing is Aventurine/Dr. Ratio?!

Why?!

Fandom, FFS, what are y'all doing?!

Edit: I am highly amused that Argenti squeezed into the top 8. Less amused at Blade's ridiculously high rank. Have to say I'm a bit surprised by Kafka's high ranking.

---

Meanwhile, this guy agrees with me that 骁卫 is second-in-command only to the general. Glad I'm not completely barking up the wrong tree.

Additionally, the sequence of events is slightly clearer. Jingliu was sent to protect Dan Feng in the battle against Shuhu... Wow, Dan Feng must feel like crap... (Also, apparently Jing Yuan was not yet promoted during battle against Shuhu. There's apparently a document where Jing Yuan noted his first job as general was cleaning up the Imbibitor Lunae mess, meaning he got promoted in the midst of battle, which is also presumably when the previous general died. Man, piecing together this timeline is difficult.)

Comments

[tanithryudo]

Kafka is obvious fanservice, and was clearly used to advertise to male fans in the build up to game launch, so her popularity is understandable.

Blade's popular probably for the same reason Draco is.

Jing Yuan is popular for representing Space!China. But is too goody two-shoes as a character to enjoy much fic following.

Aventurine definitely seems to be the dark horse of this race. His popularity came out of nowhere. I guess it is because Penacony shoved all of his sob story into the main questline instead of a personal quest line.

Looking at the comments, I like this person's suggested timeline:

藤宵战死余倏忽之乱，景元前往元帅之处授封，丹恒应星造就孽龙，镜流带队诛杀孽龙，景元授封回来刚刚碰上引月之乱，这个顺序理论上是合理的。

[cashew]

I feel Jing Yuan isn't really a goody two-shoes, tho'. He's constantly bending the rules and looking for loopholes, not to mention tricking people into doing stuff they don't want to for his goal (of advancing Luofu's interests). I mean, he's only a goody two-shoes if you consider the likes of Captain America a goody two-shoes, and he most certainly is not. Jing Yuan has a strong sense of responsiblity and moral compass, but he's not exactly a follower of the rules. Now, Yanqing, OHTH, is someone I would call a goody two-shoes.

(A friend I was talking to thinks fans are too initimidated by the character to write JY, and I'm inclined to agree. He's every major Chinese heroic archetype mashed together, it feels like one can't do this guy justice in smutty fic. Much easier to write about emo dragon boy or edgey psycho dude.)

I haven't followed up on Aventurine's story yet. Is it worth investing into?

Also, if we're talking sob story, frickin' Jing Yuan's story is also pretty traumatic. Man had to watch his friends either die, go crazy, or turn their back on him for a chance at freedom. He's the only guy that got left behind and he has to clean up everyone's mess. It's like the video pointed out, he's literally the only one who actually is still dealing with the fallout of the entire mess; everyone else moved on.

Re: timeline - I like the idea that Jing Yuan got promoted in the midst of the Shuhu mess as that adds to the tragedy of the character. Like there's a huge scramble to get him into the power vacuum, control the chain of command, boost morale and before he could get off on the right foot, Dan Feng's batshit hits. There's just something sad about the fact that his first job as the General is having to manage the political fallout from Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae and then he's basically stuck playing politics, a job he's good at but never wanted in the first place.

[tanithryudo]

JY gives the impression of goody two shoes, with his manipulation hidden such that if you don't dig into his story most casual gamers don't grasp it. Also, this is compared to a lot of other very obviously shady or bad boy characters.

Aventurine... I, uh, didn't pay too much attention and fast clicked my way through his quest, so I'm probably not the best source on this. But his story is definitely more sobby on the surface, because they throw the whole genocided clan, slavery, self destructive ISSUES right into your face. With multiple cut scenes.

With Jing Yuan OTOH, his sob story you actually have to dig into the lore on your own; the storyline doesn't it tell it to you directly. And most people don't really dig that deep into the lore.

[cashew]

JY gives the impression of goody two shoes, with his manipulation hidden such that if you don't dig into his story most casual gamers don't grasp it.

I mean, sure, but there's also tons of explainer videos, so even a person who isn't playing the game (like me) can grasp the characterization... Also, I greatly doubt someone who's not paying too much attention to the story is going to be inspired to write, regardless of whom they're shipping, while the ones who do end up writing would probably look deeper into the lore.

throw the whole genocided clan, slavery, self destructive ISSUES right into your face

... I feel like the game's writing is very much not qualified to be addressing those issues and have suspicion that it's just there for sympathy points rather than actually dealing with the lore.

And most people don't really dig that deep into the lore.

I dunno, given the message board discussions and the extensive character lore compilation articles, I feel there's not an insignificant amount of people interested in the lore stuff. Especially when it comes to all the literary references.

[tanithryudo]

Em, I am not convinced that many of the fanfic authors actually bother to research the characters before writing them. Especially given that 99% of all fics in this fandom are OOC. Some are even tagged OOC outright because the author just wants to slap the pretty faces on their AU or head-fantasy.

People on message boards & forums are generally not the casual majority... I am also not sure there is that much a cross over between the boards/forums and the fanfic authors. The former tends to lean more towards minmax gaming and memeing.

[cashew]

I mean, fair enough I doubt the casual majority are bothering with writing fanfic either. But my general feeling is the writing part of fandom definitely just ignores the characters and write their own original fantasy then slapping the faces on after the fact. At this point, tho', I wonder what is even the point of fanfic. Might as well just write original fic. ಥ_ಥ

And this is why I'm leaning toward music videos more and more...