cashew | I just want something to soothe the angst (Reply)

Spent a whole day reading way, way too much 卢俊义×燕青 fanfic. One, Water Margins fanfic is significantly better written. Two, Water Margins fanfic almost exclusively fades to black when it comes to porn because no one can figure out how to write passable porn in Classical Chinese, so like, kudos that that one explicit PWP in Classical Chinese for Jing Yuan/Dan Heng ship. Three, all this just makes me even sadder about the state of Jing Yuan in HSR.

I feel like miHoyo bit off more than they can chew with this character. MiHoyo writing is already pretty shit, but they really don't seem to know how to write characters as bad-ass. The voice acting is pulling a lot of the weight, but the plot makes no sense. (Yes, I finally watched the next part of 2.4 patch...I'm not impressed.) Character motivation is all over the place, or it's opaque for the sake of being "mysterious", but I suspect even the writers themselves have no fucking clue what they actually want to do with Jing Yuan anymore. Cool and tactical, a gentle giant with nerves of steel and...that's it. Is he meant to be tragic? Heroic? Scapegoat or savior? There is no plan!

Why does Xianzhou higher ups want to pull down an immensely talented general who has proved himself over and over and over? Who knows...the writers are just throwing in the "evil magistrates" trope and ignoring that those "evil magistrates" characters had personal interests that conflicted with whomever they're trying to frame/slander/murder. What is the political structure of Xianzhou? Who knows, let's just drop cool names that sound ancient. What's the chain of command and how is the military organized? Who the fuck cares, here's a new character, pay us.

I feel like Xianzhou is miHoyo's attempt to do Wuxia (or Xianxia) but in SPAAAACE, and it honestly sucks. It has all the dressing of the genre but none of the emotional core. Wuxia is a genre that's defined by its exploration of what makes a hero, both in feats and in the emotional journey of trying to live up to conflicting expectations while fighting for a balance between personal desires and social responsibility. Xianxia is an exploration of the complex interaction of elements that makes up an identity set in a fantasy world where rules don't always follow that of our human understanding, which allows us to breakdown how lineage, upbringing, ideology, sexuality, gender norms, and inter-personal relationships contribute to fully realizing personhood.

Meanwhile, HSR is...Heeeeeey, look, funny rivalry.

What's frustrating is that there's actually so much here that can be expanded upon. A deeper delve into these characters by having their actual backstories, seeing them deal with events and respond to other characters, would have been a rich mine of genuine emotion. Showing us, the players, characters with vulnerability and flaws and frustration and failures would serve so much more to make these characters fleshed out and real. Instead, miHoyo is too busy vibing and thinking up new game mechanics to question the character of the characters they've released.

All we're left with is just a bunch of walking tropes. Here's the sly one, the cool one, the reserved one, the scheming one, the brash one, the thoughtful one, the loner one, etc. etc. etc. Accidentally, they'll create something that has so much potential that it almost seems like a fully realized character. But then the story proves that actually, no, there's nothing. It's just all smoke and mirrors.