Eureka!

Thursday, September 26th, 2024 17:10
cashew: Sakura looking visibly upset (CCS:CC // Waaaah!)

So, like, I made some blah blah blah posts about 仙舟 being a homophone for 先周 and something something 六军 stuff.

But but but! There's another more obvious homophone I wasn't thinking of and only just recently thought about because I was listening to some old songs and got reminded.

So, in Chinese, 神州 (Shen Zhou) is the shorthand for 赤县神州 (sourced 《史记·孟子荀卿列传》). 赤县神州 is the ye olden name for the political entity know as 中国 (Middle Kingdom). (Technically not China due to complicated political definitions across historical eras, but also is China.) Later, 神州 became the poetic name referring to 汉地九州 (Han Di Jiu Zhou). 汉地九州 refers to the, uh, Han dynasty's territory of nine provinces (冀州、豫州、兖州、青州、徐州、扬州、荆州、梁州、雍州). (Yes, that one's literal.)

Now, the character 神 (shen) is often compounded together with the character 仙 (xian) to make the compound phrase 神仙 (which can refer to either gods or god-like immortals). What I'm trying to say here is that 神 and 仙 has a very strong association. (Although they do in fact mean different things; 神 is god while 仙 is immortal, and the two groups of divine people have very different cosmic bureaucratic responsibilities.)

Sooooo, if we replaced 神 with its commonly associated 仙 and 州 with the homophone 舟, then we effectively turn 神州 into 仙舟. And and and, the Xianzhou fleet had nine ships initially. Guess what 神州 has? Nine 州 (provinces). (Chinese language does not have plurals. So yeah, the singular and plural is context dependent and interchangeable.) So.

What am I saying? Well, I feel like it's reasonable to conceptualize each ship in the Xianzhou fleet as a "州" (province) in terms of its political reach. Like, I get that canon says technically these ships are the size of planets, but at the same time, the political system is more like a provincial government than a country level government. At least scale-wise.

Of course, this doesn't change the fact that there's still this complication that the transportation carrying 天将 (Arbiter-Generals) from each ship is also called 使节舰, a diplomatic envoy, which implies that these 天将 are more similar to being an ambassador/emissary. That suggests the governance on these ships have a certain level of autonomy. Yet at the same time, there's apparently some kind of higher-up/hidden political body that can apply political pressure on the Marshal...

There's essentially no real consistency to the political structure and either interpretation ("each ship is a province" or "each ship is a state") is completely reasonable.

Not sure how to end this blathering, so I'll just stop.

cashew: Sumomo acting like Sumomo (Default)

The math.

I'm noticing three assumptions:

  1. Using modern interpretation of 少年 even though the Chinese used in Xianzhou material is semi-archaic (such as calling domesticated cats 狸奴 and not the modern name 猫). As I've mentioned before, up until 1911, the phrase 少年 was used to refer to people as old as 25-30 years old.

  2. Zero regard for appearance and age mis-match, especially when judging age of long lived species. No acknowledgement of the fact that Baiheng is also described as 少女 and thus should be around the same age (appearance-wise) as Jing Yuan.

  3. Asserts that Xianzhou Natives long lived species matures at the same rate as short lived species as fact without citation. The only "support" we have is the lore stating 成年后身体不再衰老. Note that for Foxians the wording is 成年后面目不老.

The thing about point three is that for Xianzhou Natives the description is "after maturity the body no longer undergo senescence", while Foxians state "after maturity the appearance no longer ages". This is immensely important difference! This means Foxians age physically, but their appearance don't. In contrast, Xianzhou Natives don't undergo senescence, which does not mean lack of growing, it only means the falling apart aspect of growing stops.

So basically, Xianzhou Natives have lobster biology. Much like lobsters eventually grow too big for their physiology to keep up with the energy cost (2nd law of thermodynamics does not forgive and never forgets!), the Xianzhou Natives' system (in this case their brain) starts breaking down at the 800-1000 year mark due to not being able to process the psychological trauma.

But this still means we have zero clues on the maturation rate of all the long lived species (Xianzhou Natives, Foxians, Vidyadhara) and no way to guess at the actual age.

I notice that the math post once again asserts that Dan Feng was 600-700 years old with no citation. Given 2.5 patch confirming that Vidyadhara do appear old and decrepit toward the end of their cycle (per Dan Heng's own words), Dan Feng's fairly young appearance is pretty good evidence he was nowhere near the end of his cycle. (Edit to add: OTOH, Qingzu's appearance throws that claim out the window, so it's more like the appearance is not a very good estimate for age. We need actual events.)

One thing I am wondering is if the Sword Champion title is something one can get repeatedly. The math post asserts Jingliu got it for the first time and that was the day Yingxing gifted her the sword, but we actually have no clue how the Sword Champion thing works. Previously the assumption was the Wardance might have something to do with it, but we know in 2.5 that traditionally the 龙尊 is actually the one charged with being the ringmaster (that's how they translated 守擂?) and the whole thing has nothing to do with swords Champion competition. So the Sword Champion is something else. (Plus the last time Jing Yuan took the job instead, why?) Anyway, point is, is Sword Champion title that needs defending? Because if so, then it's very likely at the time Jingliu got her sword from Yingxing, that wasn't her first time as Sword Champion.

cashew: Minako's transformation pen (SailorMoon // pen is mightier)

As I said, I was going to expand on this point because it's too complicated of a concept for a single bullet point.

How Ethics Inform Writing

Long explanation of the basic principles )

In short, what the narrative frames as "good" vs "bad" is determined by the writers' ethics. We must keep this in mind as we continue to dissect HSR's 2.4 and 2.5 patches.

What HSR writers consider "good"

There's four major conflicts the mainline narrative of patches 2.4 and 2.5 uses to drive the plot. I'll go through each separately and break down what the narrative frames as "good" vs "bad" and why there are...issues.

4 arcs, all bad )

In conclusion:

Even looking past the terrible technical aspects of HSR writing, the ethics underlying the story is genuinely horrible. Again, this does not refer to what the characters consider good or bad. I'm talking about what the narrative is portraying as "good" vs "bad". To concoct a situation such that ethically unsound actions can be portrayed in a positive light does not speak well of the writers' as people.

cashew: picture of delivery cat from Another Eden dressed in pumpking costume (Another Eden // Pumpkin Cat)

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.

Hoolay math

Thursday, September 12th, 2024 17:38
cashew: Immortal's Delight item from Honkai: Star Rail game (Star Rail // Boba)

I've actually been meaning to bring this point up for a while now...

So, Hoolay is supposed to have been defeated by Jingliu about 700 years ago.

The Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae happened 721 years ago. (Source: see video description. Patch 1.3 date 8100 - Sedition date 7379 = 721 years.)

The other thing we can be fairly certain is that Jingliu loses it while killing the abomination dragon (based on that one egg memory that recalls seeing Jingliu stab the dragon and kills everything around her, so she's clearly losing control). Even if she doesn't immediately go crazy, it's still within a very short time, seeing as she escapes prison in 7380 (the year after Sedition).

And immediately preceding the Sedition was Battle of Shuhu during which time Tengxiao plus >90% of Cloud Knights died.

HOWEVER. The Marshal decided to imprison Hoolay on Luofu as a response to the Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae. In which case, it is highly unlikely that Hoolay was captured before Battle of Shuhu, as that would mean somehow the trial of Hoolay continued while Luofu is suffering through an absolute massacre by Shuhu then immediately had to deal with the Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae. Like, the Marshal just had the trial go on and on while a flagship is getting battered. This scenario seems a bit unlikely.

The other scenario is that in the small sliver of time between Sedition and her arrest, Jingliu went off to capture Hoolay...which also seems immensely unlikely given her mental state.

The only other way I can see this happening is capturing Hoolay was part of the extended Battle of Shuhu, in which case, Hoolay's immense longevity may have something to do with Shuhu. This seems the most likely explanation, but we know from Jingliu that she was assigned to protect Dan Feng during the Battle of Shuhu where he goes batshit, so it's unlikely she could be off capturing Hoolay then coming back to deal with Dan Feng.

In short, none of the explanations I can come up with fits comfortably into the timeline that the story gave us so far. Does miHoyo actually have a timeline or are they just throwing out numbers without looking at what they wrote before?


Ok, just watched a little bit of 2.5 and confirmation miHoyo has no timeline, since Jiaoqiu says "整整七百年过去了", meaning exactly 700 years. That would put Hoolay's capture at 21 years after Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae.

Either Jiaoqiu is bad at history or miHoyo is ret-conning.

Ooooooh!

Tuesday, September 10th, 2024 16:44
cashew: Sumomo acting like Sumomo (Default)

When watching Feixiao PV, I was thinking that the PV is evidence Jing Yuan is Cantonese, because of Feixiao's comment on the food being under-salted. Canton cuisine is know for being of a lighter palate, and if Feixiao's cultural inspiration is from a more modernized place, like Shanghai, then it makes sense why she'd find Luofu food to be "too light". (Shanghainese cuisine is known for being salty.)

Then, as I looked up location names for Luofu ship (for fic reasons), I realized it's named after Luofushan tourist region. Quote:

方圆260平方公里,共有大小山峰432座、飞瀑名泉980处、洞天奇景18处、石室幽岩72个,山势雄伟壮丽,自然风光旖旎。罗浮山,素有岭南第一山之称,秦汉以来号称仙山,史学家司马迁把罗浮山比作“粤岳”,是中国十大名山之一。

I feel like I should've figured this out sooner. But also, apparently 朱明洞天 is one of it's 18 major sites, further evidence that the tourist region inspired the game location. (BTW 洞天 is translated as "delves" in English version.) Am surprised English wiki fails to mention this.


Also found 卜易局 and am having waaaaay too much fun feeding names into it.

丹恒名字性格印象
虽然辛苦奋斗,表面温和有礼,但待人不太合群,容易引起反感,有好奇心,喜新厌旧。应培养果断力,方能成功。

丹枫名字性格印象
为人难诚恳正直,对待晚辈也宽厚慈祥,有好充面子的倾向,但不耐吃苦烦重的工作,做事不够积极,容易放弃好机会。一生发展较缓慢。

景元名字性格印象
本性善良,勤勉持家,稍好面子,但有消极的倾向,又好出风头,讲话不认输,亲友无助,靠自力更生,追求异性较大方,对喜爱的人能积极争取。

cashew: Immortal's Delight item from Honkai: Star Rail game (Star Rail // Boba)

If you want detailed responses, see previous two posts.

Specific to Part 9:

Part 9 thoughts )


In summary:

  • I maintain that this arc is set up around the politics of "some politicians hate Jing Yuan so now we have this mess". I get that it's meant to introduce new characters, but if that's the only drive, they really should've just have the story take place on another ship.

  • One of the main problems with HSR writers is the inability to separate writer knowledge from character knowledge: Jing Yuan's reaction makes no sense when placed into the context of him knowing he's being targeted politically. Why write the plot such that he places himself into a vulnerable position constantly? Even in a "using himself as the bait" trope, this is really poor writing. (Plus, using himself as bait also does not inspire "genius tactician" vibes...)

  • Feixiao is... I want to like her, but she's just a collection of tropes at the moment. Gimme more Jingliu. She's both metaphorically and literally cooler.

  • Yunli is awesome. I like her. I will not hear another bad word against this girl.

  • Yanqing continues to be feckless and annoying.

  • The entire jail break stuff is just...an excuse to get the party into a new map. It's not very good. Also what is even the point of the super dramatic cutscene with 丹恒 throwing his spear and then we fade to black?

  • Too much over explaining banal details, not enough showing, and not enough clarification of details that actually matter. Like, age is a big fucking deal in terms of understanding character, especially in East Asian cultures. 辈分 is huge in terms of social dynamics and relationships. Why is the game so reluctant to give this information?

  • I really, really, really need one of the Xianzhou Alliance officers at some point say the line "宁仙舟人负我,毋我负仙舟人". This is such a key part of the (good guy) officers' mentality and I'd like to see it explored by having it come up against outsiders who believe self preservation is of the utmost importance. Especially since I think this is what's causing the clash between the other long lived species and Vidyadhara. But also the line is just cool, so I wanna hear the voice actors say it.

  • Maybe I'm reading the situation wrong, but I feel like Jiaoqiu is still, hm..., what's the word for 顾全大局? He has his selfish reasons for doing stuff, but when it came down the wire, he seemed to pick the selfless option. But his voice actor sucks, and combined with the a lot of deliberately vague lines, it's like...you can read him as a traitor or read him as someone who's being strategic. Both seem pretty valid at the moment. We'll have to see how later patches play out.

Now...where do I find the sidequest cutscenes again?

cashew: Immortal's Delight item from Honkai: Star Rail game (Star Rail // Boba)

I'm trying to figure out why Blade is so popular, but also I realized that a huge driver behind the Blade/Dan Heng ship is because of this line from Jingliu:

“我们几人中,要说谁和他走得最近,那只能是你。”

【【星穹铁道】镜流同行「云无留迹」全剧情流程】 【精准空降到 26:19】

The "you" here refers to Dan Feng/Imbibitor Lunae.

I think a lot of fans take this to mean Dan Feng is the closest to Yingxing, but that's ignoring the order of the pronouns. What Jing Liu is saying is that Yingxing is an arrogant little shit and of the four friends, he grew the closest to Imbibitor Lunae. What this sentence does not imply is that the person closest to Imbibitor Lunae out of the Quintet is Yingxing.

It is still entirely possible that the person closest to Imbibitor Lunae was...someone else. I don't think I need to clarify whom I would like that to be.

Shipping goggles off, I do think that Dan Feng and Jingliu were probably not old friends, since Jingliu accused Dan Feng of failing to understand her, Jing Yuan, and Baiheng's feelings when it came to dying in battle. This greatly suggests that Jingliu, Jing Yuan, and Baiheng have far more front-line experience than Dan Feng (and we already have confirmation that Yingxing was never on the front-lines). It also suggests that Dan Feng went off to revive Baiheng knowing Jingliu and Jing Yuan wouldn't approve. Baiheng's ghost doesn't approve either. Meanwhile, the civilian Yingxing was far less accepting of a "noble death in the battlefield", so it makes sense why he was the one Dan Feng turned to for help.

In short, I don't think Dan Feng and Yingxing going off to do taboo revival experimentation has anything to do with them having the closest relationship, and everything to do with them being the only two who couldn't accept their friend's sacrifice.

Shipping goggles back on, I do think it's relevant that Jing Yuan is the only one who has been shown to call Dan Feng by his name rather than Imbibitor Lunae. Now granted, Baiheng was joking around, Yingxing was mocking the title, Blade and Jing Liu intentionally use the title to make a point to Dan Heng that they don't see him as anything but the continuation of Imbibitor Lunae. Nonetheless, it's very ship-worthy that Jing Yuan always calls Dan Feng (and Dan Heng) by name rather than using the Imbibitor Lunae title. This suggests that he has a very casual, accommodating, and definitely equal relationship with Dan Feng. Jing Yuan also seems to be the person most considerate of the angst that every incarnation of Imbibitor Lunae is burdened with memory fragments of their past selves. And my shipping brain chooses the headcanon that Jing Yuan intentionally avoids the title out of respect for each incarnation's personality and treats them as different people. Which is why he apologizes for overstepping when he failed to do that with Dan Heng initially.


Also, at this point, I'm starting to get tired of trying to find evidence of the Quintet's relative ages. Fandom has collectively decided that Jing Yuan is the youngest. However, since we never hear Baiheng refer to Dan Feng as anything other than 饮月君 or 龙尊大人, I'm going to assume Baiheng is actually younger than Dan Feng, hence the polite speech. Based on that logic, Jing Yuan is probably of a similar age as Dan Feng. Meanwhile, we know Yingxing met Jing Liu as a very young child (no taller than her sword), but also that upon first meeting, the two were not friends and Jing Liu always felt Yingxing was too arrogant. So it's likely that Yingxing is actually the youngest of the group and acted out a lot, while the older people kind of...well, tolerated his arrogance due to him being young.

Ergo, the order of ages is something like this:
镜流 >>> 丹枫 ≈ 景元 > 白珩 >>> 应星

Since we know Baiheng was a Nameless traveler on the express earlier in life and she wrote at least one book documenting her adventures, and the median lifespan for Foxians is 307, it's reasonable to assume she settled down in Luofu after growing out of her "adventuring" phase. Assuming a linear conversion rate, 200-years-old is a pretty decent time to "retire" from adventuring, given she would've spent close to 2/3 of her lifespan doing what she wanted. (Assuming 84 is the expected human lifespan, the equivalent human age is ~56yo, which, trivia moment, is just past the retirement age for women in China.) So, I would place Baiheng's age somewhere between 150-200 years old at the time of Quintet becoming a thing. At the time of Sedition, Baiheng likely has passed 200-years-old, but nowhere near 307. If Baiheng had been close to the median life expectancy of Foxians, I doubt Dan Feng would've tried to bring her back to life, seeing as she would've lived a pretty full life.


Finally, I think this is the moment Jing Yuan fully emotionally accepted Dan Heng as someone with no connections to the Quintet. I think he's always known it on an intellectual level, but this is the moment he's accepted the loss emotionally. The voice acting here is the coldest, most distant, I've ever heard Jing Yuan utter. Not only is he curt, his words are also accusatory(“我想你也离开了” aka "It's about time you left already"). It's almost like he's saying Dan Heng has nothing to do with this and it's time for him to stop hanging around a place that holds special emotional importance for Jing Yuan. Dan Heng is, at this moment, an intruder on an old memory.

I mean, granted, I also think Dan Heng is a fucking idiot to angst over his identity and be like "I should go" when the man he's talking to is obviously emotionally distraught. I imagine had this been Dan Feng, he would've said something to soothe Jing Yuan's angst, but since Dan Heng has no words of comfort, Jing Yuan in this moment gave up hoping for any kind of emotional support from the guy. And consequently, this ship is sunk.


I just want an AU where Jing Yuan gets a happy ending. o(TヘTo)

miHoYo, wtf

Wednesday, August 28th, 2024 15:27
cashew: dude with sunglasses looking confused (Misc // Haa?)

So, I'm watching:

At 4:48, 青镞 is all "这样啊……持明转世,前生的一切果真烟消云散了。" I don't know how the English translation handled this line, but here Qingzu is confirming that yes, in fact, Dan Heng has forgotten his previous memories. But she's saying it a) very seriously and b) as if she were surprised.

From a character perspective, this is a weird writing decision, since Qingzu herself is also a Vidyadhara, why would this be surprising to her? Like, if she were a normal Xianzhou Native, then OK, I can understand needing first hand confirmation, because she wouldn't have the same lived in experience. But she experiences this stuff herself. Why would she be surprised?! It's maaaaybe possible to read this as Qingzu isn't quite believing Dan Heng's claim that he doesn't have memories of the past but like...the voice acting definitely does not convey this.

And no, I don't think "Qingzu is a troll" is enough to explain this line. She's clearly someone who picks her timing when pulling on the protagonist's leg. 1.4 is an emotionally heavy story that touches on Jing Yuan's past emotional trauma. She's been shown to be very worried about Jing Yuan's mental and physical health, so she wouldn't be joking around with something this serious.


At 16:56, Yanqing finally remembers 白珩 from a book he read, suggesting that despite being Jing Yuan's disciple, Jing Yuan never talked to Yanqing about his past friendships. Makes me want to smack Yanqing, but also WTF, how is it possible that the names of the Quintet aren't remembered despite the Quintet being immensely famous? Like...just exactly how famous are the Quintet?

But also, why can you create star skiffs randomly during this quest? Like how regulated is the travel anyway? Again, I don't see why the story needs this frankly ridiculous excuse when it can just have us fold a paper boat and send off a light instead of making an entire star skiff to deliver this via cutscene...


At 28:45, Jingliu basically says Yingxing used the flesh of "丰饶令使" to help Dan Feng try to revive 白珩. So uh...which is it? The flesh of Shuhu (presumably what's being referenced) or was it 建木? I'm going with the corpse of Shuhu, mostly because this is directly from one of the original Quintet, thus probably the most accurate recounting of the event.


At 36:03 Bailu's advice to drink lots of hot water (多喝热水) is um... I'm pretty sure this is completely lost on any non-Chinese person, because that specific line is a well known slang for "useless medical advice". I can't tell if the story is trying to say Bailu is a good or bad doctor...


This is bringing up a point that I've been wanting to make about the Luofu/Xianzhou arc for a while now, and that's miHoYo's writing has been immensely inconsistent when it comes to the backstory. The lines are often written in a way that's meant to deliver lore without consideration for the character, which makes me seriously question what is and isn't canon, and how much editing the writing actually goes through.

For example, let's look at the two PVs for the story arc: A Flash and Ichor of Two Dragons. In A Flash, Jing Yuan never refers to Jing Liu by name, always uses 师傅 title, because he's a good little soldier. The events of A Flash is supposed to happen after the memory that Dan Heng is reminiscing in Ichor of Two Dragons, and yet, in the latter PV, Jing Yuan calls Jing Liu by name. Furthermore, JY also states that both Dan Feng and Yingxing are still sore over losing a sword fight to Jing Liu. This is patently nonsense since we know Yingxing never learned how to fight until after he got pulled out of jail by Jing Liu.

Meanwhile, in A Flash, the implication is Jing Yuan actually kills Jing Liu, what with the foreshadowing of Jing Liu telling Jing Yuan to cut her down once she befalls Mara. Yet this is in direct contradiction of the actual game plot. Similarly, it's impossible to place when Ichor of Two Dragons takes place during the game plot line, since in the game story Dan Heng only gets together with the rest of the party to fight Phantylia, then they immediately leave 鳞渊境 with an unconscious Jing Yuan in tow. There's basically no time during this for him to reminisce about the past.

So at least for these two PVs, it's heavily vibes based and metaphorical. Any literal reading would simply result in way, way too many contradictions. In A Flash, the general message is that despite Jing Yuan losing basically everyone that mattered to him, he puts the pain behind him and faces the future without letting the past crush him. In Ichor of Two Dragons, Dan Heng overcomes the memory fragments he inherited from Dan Feng to make new friends and find a new family that knows him as only Dan Heng.

(The fact that this completely kills the JY/DH ship is another matter altogether. I'm honestly surprised how much miHoYo keeps trying to push this pseudo-bait when they keep sinking the ship over and over.)

(Parenthetical 2: At this point, I think 凤求凤 is more appropriate to JY/DF ship than JY/DH ship, mostly because the plot points to a situation where all of JY's emotional connections to DH is carried over from his relationship with DF. Even if DH does reciprocate at some point, JY himself doesn't see DH as a close friend. He's seeing "offspring of my friend DF" in DH. JY's protective feelings over DH is because he sees him as an unfortunate victim of the Sedition, not because he sees DH as a person on whom he can actually rely. I know he said a few lines about how they still can read each other and he's trusting DH to watch his back, but he's basically talking to a ghost the whole time, which DH clearly sees and doesn't like. This is especially the case in 2.4 story when JY starts treating DH as his own person instead of an extension of DF, at which point he's significantly more reserved.)

(Parenthetical 3: I still haven't found anything that clarifies Jing Yuan is the youngest of the Quintet nor any indication that Dan Feng and Jingliu were old friends prior to her taking on a disciple. All I have is confirmation that Yingxing was shorter than Jingliu's sword when they first met. Which, again, doesn't tell us anything about their ages. I don't understand why people cite this patch as proof of Jing Yuan being youngest. What the hell am I missing?)

cashew: Immortal's Delight item from Honkai: Star Rail game (Star Rail // Boba)

Previously...

...continuing in a new post since old one's comments was getting really long.


Part 5 )


Part 6 )


Part 7&8 )


TBC...

April 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
13141516171819
202122232425 26
27282930   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Page generated Wednesday, May 28th, 2025 12:50
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios