Finished 2.5 patch story...

[cashew]

Kinda rushed through the story because I was watching it on my phone, so wasn't listening super carefully. A few points:

• Bad writing continues to be bad. Since the story clearly intends to dehumanize the Borisin, having them yap a lot is a bad move. Should've just stuck with Borisin being a one-dimensional cackling evil monster species rather than trying to write them as having some kind of weirdo warrior ethics that drives them to be vicious killing machines. One-dimensional villain > racist stereotypes.

• Writers can't separate writer knowledge from character knowledge. For example, why are the Cloud Knights going under cover as reporters on 竞锋舰? Why is March 7 acting like she doesn't know the competition has been postponed? Even if we interpret that this is meant to fool potential spies that might be observing the deck, why are Yunli and March 7 still talking as though they don't know anything while in private?

• Eh, Jiaoqiu surviving isn't really a bad move from a narrative standpoint. Gamers that complain clearly never heard of a red herring. On the other hand, Jiaoqiu is a horrible doctor. Ever since ancient times, doctors are not supposed to cause harm, Hippocratic oath or no. Like, it bugs me greatly that miHoyo thinks Jiaoqiu is a good guy when he so blatantly violates the doctor's oath. (Yes, combat medics are expected to save enemy soldiers in war. It's been like that since ancient times. I will fight you on this.)

• Also don't give me this "do no harm" is some kind of western value BS. 本草纲目, China's oldest medical text states 夫医之为道，君子用之以卫生，而推之以济世，故称仁术。 Translation: The practice of medicine is to protect lives, and must be extended to save everyone in the world, that's why it's called the humane art.

• Jiaoqiu and Hoolay give conflicting accounts of the imprisonment length. I'm going with the "Jiaoqiu failed history class" excuse.

• MiHoyo writers are really dumb. The fact that they're attributing the cause of internal disunity to external influence is just such a brain dead take. No external force can "cause" internal disharmony FFS, it's always domestic policy fuck ups that cause disunity!

• The problem with copying story beats from much better material is that much better material recognizes that no coalition is a monolith, but miHoyo treats each faction as a monolith. So what we get is a group of people having different opinions (not a monolith) but for some reason assumes everyone will always be united (is a monolith) and those who don't agree will be "a few bad apples". It's absolutely grating.

• I take serious exception to miHoyo's ethics. It's not even that the writing is bad anymore, the story's ideology is anti-society and destructive. I guess the only points I agree with are slavery is bad and indiscriminate killing is bad. This concept is too complicated for a bullet point, I'll expand on this in the future.

• Xianzhou Alliance politics, political institutions, size scale, laws, customs, etc. are a complete mess and have no internal logic. The story is a classic case of "written by engineers". The human element is nonexistent. Emotions are apparently a foreign concept.

• MiHoyo don't know how to set up emotional pay off at all. Yanqing arc, Jiaoqiu arc, Lingsha arc, Feixiao arc all failed in different ways. Yanqing's set up was horrible so didn't earn his payoff. Jiaoqiu's backstory was word vomited at the audience with no time for us to really sympathize before the story tried to pull a twist. Lingsha's arc is all mystery and no resolution (plot-wise or emotional). Feixiao's "darkness before the dawn" moment was more like "slightly dimmed lights" so it just feels like narrative filler.

• Despite Jing Yuan being exposition monkey, he's somehow still the most humane character. I swear Jing Yuan showed more depth than everyone else in this story when all he did was explain backstory and demonstrate he is sympathetic towards people's emotions, even the ones who hate him. Ok and he was the one that came up with the plan, nice to see him living up to his strategist reputation.

• Huaiyan is getting on my nerves. They're over playing the "old sage mentor" and now he's just a frustrating foagy. He honestly contributed nothing. He doesn't even have a world view. His only characteristic is "old". Like...we never see him care about anything. He's not the cool old guy his character design suggested, he's just a boring old man who won't shut up.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

> the story clearly intends to dehumanize the Borisin

Does it? I didn't get that sense. I mean, the depiction of Hoolay vs Mutok(?) are pretty different. And in the wardance event we also get to see the pacific Claretwheel Temple faction. I don't think they're *trying* to dehumanize, even if it maybe ends up being that way...

> Writers can't separate writer knowledge from character knowledge.

Yes.

> Jiaoqiu is a horrible doctor

Probably why his class is nihility rather than abundance and he's missing any healing from his kit. >.>

LOL, more seriously, yeah, I was feeling uncomfortable about him since the last patch, when in one of the if-endings of March's training event, he had Moze spike her opponents with laxative to win her the match. Most people liked it and found the scene funny (because Skott is great comedic relief character). And there were jokes about March going dark side. But when you think of it, it was actually Jiaoqiu who acted against medical ethics to do that, but everyone just glossed over him. (He was too much of an NPC at the time -_-)

> it's always domestic policy fuck ups that cause disunity

Could MHY be trying to avoid accusations of depicting domestic disunity in Space!China?

> The story is a classic case of "written by engineers".

Hey, the engineers do not accept this charge, because the devs/coders don't do the writing. Let the blame fall where it should. MHY just hired shitty writers, and also their policy put story consistency at too low of a priority.

> I swear Jing Yuan showed more depth than everyone else in this story

How much of that is the VA's contribution?

[cashew]

the depiction of Hoolay vs Mutok(?) are pretty different

Uh, making a race/species' defining trait being "eat raw meat and kill sapient creatures for fun, also go into crazy bloodlust" is dehumanizing. The prioritization of animal instinct and valorization of animalistic language is textbook case of dehumanization.

he had Moze spike her opponents with laxative to win her the match

I mean it would've worked if the story didn't also act like Jiaoqiu was a good doctor. At least make him somewhat ignoble since he's using his medical knowledge for harm. Like, guy has medical knowledge beyond his moral capabilities and people are rightfully scared he might go to the dark side completely.

But no, instead he's depicted as a noble person who sacrifices himself and it's like...uh...no.

Could MHY be trying to avoid accusations of depicting domestic disunity in Space!China?

But it's space!Ancient China... Like Xianxia and Wuxia depict that stuff all the time.

But if they're trying to avoid that problem, then they can just ... not set up internal warring factions or breaking trust between alliance members and make it a giant center piece of Feixiao's "darkness". They should have written a different type of conflict in that case.

MHY just hired shitty writers, and also their policy put story consistency at too low of a priority.

At this point I'm not even certain they hired writers... Literally even Lofter fangirls write better than this. There is no way whomever wrote this is a professional.

How much of that is the VA's contribution?

It's less that Jing Yuan is good and more a case of everyone else was shit. The characters that got the least focus escaped character disembowlment by shitty writing and looked better by contrast.

[tanithryudo]

> But if they're trying to avoid that problem, then they can just ... not set up internal warring factions or breaking trust between alliance members and make it a giant center piece of Feixiao's "darkness". They should have written a different type of conflict in that case.

I feel like they want to have the cake and eat it too. They want to make subtle potshots at CN society/government/issues but are also scared of backlash by fans/censors.