I just want something to soothe the angst

[cashew]

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.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

> This just means male units are being de-prioritized into less good roles

There is Sunday coming up. Even though I don't like his character. But apparently he's really popular. I guess a lot of girls like his winged aesthetic. And it seems like a lot of CN players like his slogan of "everday being a weekend" due to the oppressions of the CN workplace, or something. *shrug*

> The game is still trying to cater to the "waifu" gaming crowd and girl gamers get thrown a bone from time to time.

Side note: Looking at recent earning records, it seems like there's a new otome based ARPG called Love and Deepspace which is doing very well and proving that there's plenty of female audience for ARPG properly targeted to their demographic. I'm not planning on taking up another game, but it might be something you can consider looking into?

> Three Body Problem

IIRC the social structure depictions of that novel, at least for Earth, doesn't really stand out. At least, not until either the TV or movie industry manages to make a successful enough adaptation of it that enters the social consciousness.

> then the comparable era in Chinese history would be the 民国 era aesthetics

I'm guessing that era is not often used because of the political sensitivity. Like, any novel that touches on the early development of the CCP run the risk of too much attention from censors. I have seen some historical fiction authors refusing to write for the Qing and Republic era because it's just safer to play in the more distant past, and they are only writing for entertainment/money.

[cashew]

seems like a lot of CN players like his slogan of "everday being a weekend" due to the oppressions of the CN workplace, or something.

But his "weekend" is stuck in a dream world and never leaving. Ever. And everything is fake.

Also, if players are mostly children, why is working age sector of the fandom driving the sales decisions? And if the working age sector is the majority, why not write a story that's more fitting for a more mature audience? I mean you can't have it both ways. Either the adults are driving sales, ergo write a more complex story, or children are driving sales, ergo no reason to cater to the "work sucks" adult crowd.

Side note: Looking at recent earning records, it seems like there's a new otome based ARPG [...] might be something you can consider looking into?

...oh I've been looking...

not until either the TV or movie industry manages to make a successful enough adaptation of it that enters the social consciousness

There's both a CCTV adaptation and a Netflix adaptation... I feel like that's as successful as you can ask a webnovel to get.

I have seen some historical fiction authors refusing to write for the Qing and Republic era because it's just safer to play in the more distant past

I mean, I get not explicitly naming those eras, but I feel like pulling on the aesthetics of those eras are still perfectly fine (especially Qing because...I mean just look at the ridiculous amount of Qing dynasty dramas). Like, one of the super popular re-imagined 哪吒 movies basically used the 1930's aesthetic while having nothing to do with the 1930's in terms of plot.

[tanithryudo]

> And everything is fake.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of people who would've preferred to live in his false sweet dream utopia and damn the long term consequences. =/

> Also, if players are mostly children

Young adults is the feel I get, anywhere from high school to college-ish age, but before starting a family.

> CCTV adaptation and a Netflix adaptation

I get the feeling they weren't all that popular though. The stats for the CCTV adaption wasn't all that high compared to other CCTV shows. And I've heard more waves in EN about the book more than I have about the Netflix adaptation. Certainly nothing that comes close to the cultural impression caused by major english IPs such as Trek, Star Wars, or even Marvel's GotG.

[cashew]

heard more waves in EN about the book more than I have about the Netflix adaptation. Certainly nothing that comes close to the cultural impression caused by major english IPs such as Trek, Star Wars, or even Marvel's GotG.

I mean a huge part of that is the US-centrism of English language media. Three Body Problem not only has to overcome a significant cultural barrier, but also has to compete with the fact that the story does't have an American protagonist. Just look at how long it took for anime/manga to make any kind of wave in US general media, and, to this day, general audience media publications still don't talk about anime/manga IPs. You need to look for dedicated anime/manga news sites to get any sort of idea of what's "hot". The only franchise that seems to have made any headway in the common cultural awareness was Pokemon, and compared to the US-centric media of Star Trek, Star Wars, GotG, it's also pretty...meh.

When the New York Times put out think pieces worrying about a Netflix adaptation and what it means for evil Chinese brainwashing, I think that's about as much as one can hope for in terms of international impact from any non-US made media. I'll take that back when I see Xianxia stuff getting the same kind of hand-wringing from US mainstream media.

As for the CCTV adaptation, yeah, I don't know, I haven't been following it very closely. But I figured if I'm barely paying attention and still know about the work, then surely it has pretty good word of mouth for me to hear about it.