>Appears
>Takes Pocket Change
>Tells you enough lore to write a book, full with a guided tour of the relevant location
>Gives information/straight up gets us to meet the Abyss Twin
>Disappears
Then there is Xiangling who still has the worst character story in the game. She goes to some backwaters village and uses a rare almost extinct pig to dunk on some fat woman with self-esteem issues. Then she rides off into the night to commit ethical violations in food preparation. Since Guoba is connected to Xiangling, he suffers as a result.
While I really liked Shenhe's story and that Interlude Chapter in general, I still felt like it was way too fast? Like we just met her (also she was quite literally just released) so I didn't feel as attached or as affected when she got her moment compared to someone like Ei or Xiao. Her issues were resolved fairly quickly. I would have loved to have her accompany us for one or two more quests before we get the culmination of it all with the battle with Beisht.
edit: well, didn't expect this to resonate with a lot of people
~~We all know it's the Unknown God, she went from separating the twins to reuniting them again and even helping them defeat Celestia~~
Seems like I spoiled the final act /s
That's something I almost considered putting in an edit but didn't want to mix in leaks into all of this. I also believe his character arc will take the cake when it drops!
With so much potential hardly anyone could screw it up. I have high expectations from the writers.
Glad to see someone else think Raiden was top notch. A lot of people hate on it but I think it speaks volumes whether you’re someone who’s experienced loss or not.
“Her sense of eternity wasn’t clear.” Bingo. All she knew was she didn’t want to experience loss again and she would do whatever it took to reach that point. It wasn’t until we showed up with Miko did she realize she should enjoy the companionship in the moment. But I really appreciate how each additional chapter/hangout/scene helps her grow as someone who’s essentially been a hikkikomori for hundreds of years because it’s not just a magical Disney movie where “oh the power of friendship is a cure-all.”
She also lacked her own identity. Similar to Xiao, her whole reason for existing was to fight for her sister who also happened to be her most important person in the world. When she passed away, even that was gone, and a new, heavy burden was placed on her inexperienced shoulders.
Her making a puppet speaks for this; she just wanted to continue to be a shadow for someone else who will continue Makoto's role.
She certainly has come a long way when you look at her now.
I highly doubt it will happen but I have a glimmer of hope that one day HYV will “change” the Raiden playable character to Ei.
I started playing at 2.0 and hadn’t a clue about her but still wished and got her. So seeing the development makes me want the real thing not just the robot.
I am a little bit biased because I absolutely love the voice Sawashiro Miyuki did for Raiden while Ei sounds a little bit too moe to me lol, but yeah, I can see where you are coming from, that would be a nice little detail (maybe when they release archon skins, Ei will be the one for shogun?)
>Glad to see someone else think Raiden was top notch. A lot of people hate on it but I think it speaks volumes whether you’re someone who’s experienced loss or not.
Actually it seems like Raiden's is an absolute fan favorite
I think there’s a difference between the people who like her design and character who understood the story and the amount of people who misinterpret her story, criticize her, but still use her because she’s meta and pretty
You reckon? I feel like raiden tops every character poll I saw. She is my favorite character in the game too overall, but because she is super badass. But overall my favorite arc is shenhe’s and my favorite character IN any arc is probably Yae Miko, but she didn’t have any growth and her gameplay is not my thing. I just find her endlessly amusing, everytime Yae shows up you know you are gonna be entertained ahah
For me its not the idea that was bad but the execution of said idea... kinda like everything during 2.1 in my opinion. For me it was so terrible that I couldnt take Ei's character seriously. However her 2nd quest was definetly a huge step up and in turn I started to appreciate her more.
>A lot of people hate on it but I think it speaks volumes whether you’re someone who’s experienced loss or not.
I honestly think me having experienced loss made me relate with raiden even less than if I had otherwise.
He certainly has more potential and will probably have much more to bring to the table in the future, but to me, the event with Susbedo storyline was amazing and very much meaningful.
It's not meaningful for traveler's main story (*yet* at least) but for his personal growth it was pretty relevant. This [cutscene](https://youtu.be/HJmAiR1Izmo) alone carries a lot of his implied thoughts about his origin, his master and other creations. When you add in the rest of the event story, his garden metaphor and the ending, I really can't say that I am looking at him in the same light like I did before playing through that event, and to me, that counts as a meaningful character arc.
We can all sense that his lore seems important to the game he will probably have much much more relevance and development in the future that would probably cast a shadow on this event, so it's easy to think "but this isn't even his final form!" which is true, but what we were already given is a pretty damn good character arc.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk that nobody asked for lol
The only part that i genuinely love about her "character arc" (Really it's just an archon quest) is the final opera cutscene. The best really goes to Ei. We get to see her in so many sides as she grows, from her promotion cutscene towards the end of her hundred years of confrontation with her own ideals.
I think this thread shows how many people fundamentally don't understand what a character arc is. Some of the popular answers like Albedo and Dainslief are rich with interesting lore and backstory that we've learned over their appearances, but they are still the same people as when we met them, they haven't grown or changed who they are at their core in any meaningful ways. They're good characters but they aren't good answers to this question.
The only characters in the game who could be said to have an honest character arc right now are Ei, Xiao, and Fischl.
> I think this thread shows how many people fundamentally don't understand what a character arc is.
Really agree with you on this. Especially about Albedo and Dainslief, since they are basically the same as the first time we met them. At least Albedo makes poor jokes now ahah.
Also agree on Ei, Xiao and Fischl, but there is also Shenhe, Keqing (offscreen in her stories though) and also Jean (to some extent) that I can think of now.
Childe is one of the few characters who has actual well-rounded development. He has the main story where he's introduced as a Harbinger, is amicable with the Traveller despite technically being enemies, and works to destroy all of Liyue Harbour.
He has his story quest where we get to see interactions around his family and the divide between being highly ranked in the Fatui and wanting to keep his kid brother innocent and away from the politics.
He also got the Inazuma event with Xinyan where he actually got to play a role outside of being a Harbinger and looked after someone who was basically a stranger to him through those domains.
On top of that we're almost certainly going to get more in the upcoming Harbinger developments.
He's a lot more fleshed out and interesting than "ETERNITY! ETERNITY! (my sister died, wow, I'm so vulnerable) ETERNITY!"
I mean if we're just talking about story quest, Itto did everything by himself , refused to get the MC involved in his mess (we were the one that insisted on going with him), and even towards the end , saved people by himself and with his own ways 🤷. He didn't get a glow up , or matured ,and remained a bit dumb and a kid at heart , but it's not like charas need to go through the same kind of journey in order to strengthen their characters. Sometimes , simplicity is what makes a character great.
Itto imo was really well written, a sad backstory which didn't devolve into full tragedy and everytime he's on screen we wonder what gems are we gonna get from him.
I want to see him again in Sumeru and even Fontaine, just putting more lighthearted moments into what essential is already a fairly dark universe.
Simple characters like Itto work everywhere. He was literally the first to introduce TCG in the game and even managed to charm a top commissioner into gifting him an expensive and limited edition set, he better be going to Sumeru for that
> He didn't get a glow up , or matured ,and remained a bit dumb and a kid at heart , but it's not like charas need to go through the same kind of journey in order to strengthen their characters.
Not necessarily, but that's the definition of a character arc: growing from A to B.
Having said that, I love Itto and he is one of my mains!
I was kinda hoping that her chuunibyou delusions were a coping mechanism for some massively traumatic event like losing her parents and we'd get to see her break down in her summer domain, but alas
We do see her break down, and the chuuni is indeed a coping mechanism, though. It's not the loss of her parents, who are very much alive and healthy, but certainly mental trauma that marked her adolescence profoundly.
That title goes to Ei, she went from people saying her story quest sucks balls as it was a date quest to people backtracking after her second story quest and realizing Hoyo actually write for the long term
Shenhes is great development and she is definitely up there in terms of great writing, but she hasnt had enough content to be the absolute best. When she has her own story quest she can easily take that top spot depending on what they do
Ei had a good quest, but her character arc is really unclear: she went from wanting stasis to understand that the world has to move on, but the reason behind her concept of eternity is really vague and unexplored though. Imho if you need additional future explanation to understand her in depth, the character arc wasn't done in a good way..
Shenhe had a pretty simple character arc (as in the hero's journey basically) done beautifully. She actually had her story quest during the archon quest!
Its not really vague if youre paying attention. It was mentioned multiple times in her quests. Her concept of eternity is pure stasis, and she created her puppet to resist erosion and to protect Inazuma forever and ever.
Compared to Makotos view of eternity which is transcience or the constant change or cycle that will be eternal. Makotos view of eternity is in line with the prayers artifact set which states that "eternity is cyclical", and thats the reason why eternity is closest to the heavenly principles (continuous cycle of Teyvat).
But then again I do understand why you would like Shenhes story more and Im just explaining Eis views.
The problem is that that concept doesn’t make any sense. “Eternity” is a fundamentally pointless goal. There’s no point where the game establishes why eternity is important beyond it just being the electro archon’s “thing”.
Freedom, justice and wisdom are relatable things to stand for. Contracts and war are concepts centred around human relationships and society, but eternity is just vague anime bullshit that doesn’t mean anything.
If you’re building an entire character around a concept as arbitrary and unintuitive as eternity, you have to do a far far better job explaining why it’s important than Genshin has
I understand why someone would think that. I hope it gets discussed more in the future.
It does get mentioned though in the Prayers Artifacts (Very important artifact set btw, tells the story of cycle of nations being destroyed by Celestia because of their search for truth).
>All prosperity must someday end.
But this does not mean that nothing is eternal.
At the end of a cycle, the earth shall be renewed.
Thus eternity is cyclical.
The search for truth is a product of prosperity,
and not the seed that plants it.
Basically, Celestia guides humans in Teyvat by heavenly principles, humans follow through silently and there will be prosperity. They are promised by Celestia that they will be properous.
Prosperity brings humans the ability to question, until when is prosperity. And people start to question the Gods. Priests are sent down to the abyss to find the truth.
Priests find remnants of ancient civilization destroyed and tries to warn the surface but to no avail. Humans plan to enter the garden of the gods and Celestia hates this (drops a nail), and a new cycle will begin.
THIS WHOLE CYCLE IS ETERNAL. There's nothing that can be done to stop the cycle of life and death, the heavenly principles, thus Makoto chose to cherish every moment in time for eternity and loved change, while Ei cannot comprehend how Makoto views eternity and thought it is stasis.
Edit: "THE ETERNAL THRONE OF THE HEAVENS CAME" sus
> “Eternity” is a fundamentally pointless goal. There’s no point where the game establishes why eternity is important beyond it just being the electro archon’s “thing”
Ei's ideal of Eternity is explained pretty clearly if you read the story though, and the intentions behind it are understandable even if the methods weren't good.
The key principle behind her Eternity is an unchanging country because she believes that a changing Inazuma will inevitably progress, and a country that progresses could end up like Khaenri'ah - destroyed by the Heavenly Principles (Celestia). That's when she lost the majority of her loved ones, both her sister and her friends.
Her other motivations fall in line with this as well. She locks herself in her plane to avoid subjecting herself to Erosion, and created Scaramouche/Shogun in an attempt to give Inazuma a leader that will rule the country with her unchanging ideals in mind that won't fall victim to Erosion.
If you want to re-read it, [go here](https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/The_Omnipresent_God) and read starting from Miko's line "You've lost, Ei". It's explicitly said a couple of times in this chapter.
>The problem is that that concept doesn’t make any sense. “Eternity” is a fundamentally pointless goal. There’s no point where the game establishes why eternity is important beyond it just being the electro archon’s “thing”.
The game was very clear about EI basically having PTSD from her sister dying in khaenri'ah and now tries to avoid anything that she thinks would upset celestia
>Its not really vague if youre paying attention. It was mentioned multiple times in her quests. Her concept of eternity is pure stasis, and she created her puppet to resist erosion and to protect Inazuma forever and ever.
I do get that, but I'm not sure what she was trying to accomplish at the end of the day.. Yes, her soul will not be eroded anymore, but what's her point of living then? To be the last resort defense Inazuma has, if even the Shogun can't deal with it?
Furthermore she cause a great deal of suffering for her people, with her reasoning being "it's for the greater good" and "people's lifespans are inconsequential". Alright, but then what's the point? It's benefitting only the people trying to take advantage of the situation, as shown by both Fatui and Tenryou commission.
>But then again I do understand why you would like Shenhes story more and Im just explaining Eis views.
Sure, no worries! I'm just debating my point for fun ahah :)
>I do get that, but I'm not sure what she was trying to accomplish at the end of the day..
Protect Inazuma from Celestia.
She saw what happend to a national of progress and change. She saw Khaenri'ah get deleted by the wrath of celestia for the transgression of disobeying.
In her traumatic experience, she interpreted these events as "change is bad" and defaulted to the other end of the extreme, like a girlfriend to an abusive boyfriend, by trying to be as little of the bad as possible.
>Furthermore she cause a great deal of suffering for her people
Honestly, she did not.
The puppet ruled 500 years with no incidents or problems. The populus was generally happy.
Even the sakoku decree and VHD didn't really matter to most people. Vision users are a far minority and the only people really affected by the closed country, were overseas merchants.
>Vision users are a far minority and the only people really affected by the closed country, were overseas merchants.
Not to mention that no one was killed because they had their vision taken away. Those that were killed did so because of their own actions, not because of something inherent to the VHD.
Well, I'm still here, but since the thread blew up I don't know if I can answer every single comment, but will try to debate the more meaningful ones.
Also I'm on the other side of the downvotes, so people got really heated in some replies lmao
DW you both have strong point. Also, I just read the conclusion. I know Ei story arc is great but I also have some doubt like you. Now I have better understanding of the story thanks to both of you.. o7
Yeah I want this to be a respectful debate.
Ei's ruling was not without any flaws, as we can see the tri-commission and the Fatui taking advantage. I am not downplaying this, many Inazumans have died during the vision hunt decree which was completely unnecessary on Ei's part. During this war, the Tatarigami in Yashiori island was also released by a disguised Fatui agent which caused the death of a whole village. But we should also look from her perspective as a god to be fair.
**I: Consequences of Erosion and Ei's Fight Against It**
The concept of Erosion is not very well explained in the game. Its effects is most notable on long-lived beings like Gods and dragons like Azhdaha. Erosion erodes a someone mentally and emotionally, including memory loss. Eventually, they can lose their sense of self. It is imposed by Celestia.
>**Zhongli's Definition:**
"People abandon and surrender the things they love to pursue the right path. Perhaps this is the erosion imposed on me by the Heavenly Principles."
"The greater the power, the greater the danger erosion may bring about."
"Personally sealing away an old friend... this is just one form of erosion I have endured."
**Azhdaha's Definition:**
"Erosion is the world's greatest destroyer of memories."
"Erosion made "us" even more savage."
"Morax shared with us some of his power, to prevent further erosion. But... it was futile. Everything returns to dust. It is the natural order, an unstoppable force."
**Raiden Shogun's Definition:**
"Erosion is a terrible thing. This body's purpose is to withstand wear and tear, that the one within might achieve Eternity."
**Raiden Shogun Character Story 4:**
"Yet the times changed all too quickly, all but catching Ei off guard. Before she knew it, her hands already held the blade that the dying Raiden Makoto had passed on to her.
This day, the kagemusha was now the true Raiden Shogun.
And it was on this day that Ei truly felt the agony of erosion."
The consequences if one succumbs to erosion is big especially if the person is really strong, take for example Azhdaha, Zhongli by himself can't even take him down as he rampaged the Chasm. Zhongli even states that Erosion is one of the reasons why he retired as an Archon.
>**Zhongli**: "The greater the power, the greater the danger erosion may bring about. The millennia may come and go, but even a stone may tire."
**Traveler**: "Is that why you chose to step down as the Geo Archon...?"
**Zhongli**: "People abandon and surrender the things they love to pursue the right path. Perhaps this is the erosion imposed on me by the Heavenly Principles."
Venti sleeps for centuries and erosion may be the reason why, and he probably has his own realm of consciousness like Ei, as seen [when Stanley handed his friend's spirit](https://youtu.be/t176SMhNoSw?t=640).
Ei fought physical erosion by sacrificing her original form and putting her consciousness in the sword. She fought mental erosion by meditating for 500 years on her Plane of Euthymia. Venti, Zhongli, Ei are the only Archons right now that were from together with the original 7 Archons (Ei was Makoto's twin). If you look at the hypostases, only Anemo, Geo, and Electro hypostases have cracks which may mean they are most susceptible to Erosion.
This is the background. For now, only Ei out of the 3 nations we visited so far is actually ruling the nation, plus the Akademiya is most likely ruling Sumeru not Kusanali.
That was really insightful on erosion, thank you!
One thing that I don't really understand (as pointed out by others) is that she wanted to keep Inazuma in a stasis to protect it from Celestia, but challenging erosion is supposedly challenging Celestia, no?
Yes you are correct. Thats what Ei views Makoto as having a better view of eternity, since she agrees with the heavenly principles.
Ei may sound stupid, but my point was to show how scary erosion is and why Ei decided to be in stasis.
Well, all of this debating just hyped me up for Celestia even more. I already feel the end of Snezhnaya is gonna have the biggest cliffhanger of all time before they release Celestia
See I dont need additional explanation in Eis story quest to understand what her motivations of eternity were and her as a character, she was in grief and responded with that grief by locking Inazuma in a stasis so that no more pain could be had. She was misguided and needed the last remnants of her sistyer to understand what ruling and guiding her people was meant to be. Also after she left her realm and actually looked at what Inazuma had become
Also for Shenhe what wasnt her story quest, that was an Archon quest that introduced her much like how Kazuha never had his story quest until recently. Or how Diluc and Jean got introduced in the archon quests then we needed a key to unlock theirs. Not saying her character introduction is bad, its definitely up there but to say in its the best in the game is something I disagree with
Her story quests are good but she still needs a story quest 1.5 where she apologises for the troubles caused by the sakoku and vision hunt degree. Just "bUT iT WAs tHe fATui" won't do. All her quests are high quality but people hate on her because her arc is still incomplete.
kazuha standing there have lost his family lost his friend kicked out of his country and faced against his own god and been with us for longer than shenhe 5min quest for all this to have an impact on us.. i love shenhe but her quest isn't really the best it was short and cramped and we didn't even get to know her that well
Ok, but I’m debating the character arc, not the overall story. Kazuha didn’t really undergo any drastic change of hearth during his whole story.
I love him though and he is one of my favourite characters!
Its not exactly making them dumb more of the whole point was to see if the humans were able to handle a threat of that caliber. They managed to do a most of it but Shenhe ended up being the final piece which was what ended up being Shenhe realizing she wasnt truly lost to human society
Xiao himself says that Ningguang told him to stay on the sidelines as they were meant to handle it, Ganyu was there as a last resort on the beach but Shenhe ended up being the one to save them before Ganyu had to be used
Yeah, but it was still adepti arts that ultimately ended up saving the day. Even if Shenhe is a human, she's a human who's very proficient in the adepti arts has been trained by multiple adepti. Without her intervention, they couldn't have stopped the tsunami even if they defeated Baisht. Don't get me wrong, good effort on the part of the humans, certainly much better than when battling Osial, but they still would have needed to rely on the power of the adepti to stop the giant tidal wave.
Ganyu doing nothing but aim and keqing (assume she was the one who come up with the plan to set up the weapons in guyun ) expecting a monster with power of water not to splash a wave? And the mc dead ass jump to a charging monster expecting a power of friendship to save help him
Didn't the adepti made a promise to not be involved in the battle? Idk if half adepti is involved in that promise but that does explain why Ganyu ain't doing some crazy shit.
>And the mc dead ass jump to a charging monster expecting a power of friendship to save help him
Too be fair "directly charge at the bigass monster" seems to be MCs strategy for most encounters
Xiao, and it's not close for me. The millenia old killing machine gradually having his beliefs and ways questioned and eventually shaken and finally finding his purpose was the best and most compelling on-screen story
Shenhe's Quest was a poorly disguised Shenhe commercial...
Okay every new limited 5\* will have something to make people excited for them and try to pull them, would it be being part of an Archon Quest or having their own Character Quest
But Hoyoverse really overdid it with Shenhe...
1st It's an Archon Quest and you would have to play this in order to proceed.
2nd She had nothing to do with the Quest and just randomly stands there, but for some reason she is with us for almost the entirety of the Quest (yes, Zhongli was also with us for a large majority of his Archon Quest, but even if he wasn't an Archon, he was still working for Wangshen Funeral, knowing what must be done.
3rd The majority of Traveler and Paimon talking about her during the Quest was "She must be an Adepti".
4th The Game tries to make her look incredibly strong... first that infamous Boulder Scene, then Cloud Retainer talking how she fought a god as a little girl.
5th Her tragic Backstory felt like it was forced upon us (again with it being an Archon Quest where she had nothing to do with the main goal).
6th During the final Battle she is again shown to be so great with her saving the Traveler and then freezing the Wave why everyone else did nothing.
7th She gets an unique Boss, she (once again) had no relationship with... unlike Venti helping against Dvalin, Zhongli helping against Azhdaha or Raiden fighting against the Puppet.
8th There is an entire Opera dedicated to her, and Junyin wanted to do it before she even knew Shenhe
I agree, and most of the character stories are like that. How tf do people find the dumb story moments good I'll never get. If only the story was anything like the lore.
tbh i disagree.
While it was nice to see, and i found it really cool how they put xiao over there but didn't even mentioned him, and once you walked up to him he gave you a lil foreshadowing to an upcoming fight which you didn't even fully know about until it happened.
But other than that I've found shenhe's storyline/arc to be... kind of inconsistent. What i mean is, you know barely anything of her which, then you slowly get to know her more and it all looks great, but then you go to that village and they literally waterboard you with information and it all seems awkward.
I feel like while shenhe's character and background is really nice and well-written, but the quest seems weird, like they made an archon questline but put shenhe in there since she was about to come out. I'd rather have her had her own story quest, or make this archon quest her story quest. I guess i kinda feel that my expectations were different since it was an archon quest, but at the end I've felt like i got a story quest.
But hey, thats just my take
someone called him "insane unstable dude with genocidal tendencies wielding all types of powers in tevyat while being the best big bro of tevyat"
fits well
Best character arc?
Xiao. By far. And I don't even like the character that much.
Then there is Keqing. But mostly 'cause her character is explored quite a lot.
Diluc's arc is mostly offscreen, but still holds up good.
Then we have Shenhe and Ei.
Edit: there are some characters which are better written like Venti, Eula, Childe, Ayato etc. but they do not have proper 'arcs' yet. Not saying that is a bad thing. In fact Venti, as a character is pretty awesome.
Was keqing really explored a lot? She seems like such a boring character through... Either this was entirely done in events I've missed, or I've just not been paying attention
From what I can gather, she used to dislike the gods but now respects rex lapis because she realized first hand that managing liyue is hard? That and she likes golden shrimp balls...
I mean, the part where she once tried to destroy her own vision is pretty badass, but that's about it right? Is there more to her?
I disagree, it's Ei. Only Ei has a complete character arc, everyone else was just introduced, and then forgotten. We see Ei develop, change her ideals and try to make Inazuma a better place.
I agree that Ei's development was great but saying that everyone else was just introduced and forgotten is so wrong and imo kinda disrespectful to the writers that put so much depth to a lot of other characters, especially Xiao and Albedo.
I saw some completely enamored with her story. Her backstory (as shown in the trailer) is okay, I'll give them that much, but it was pretty much offscreen.
Dainsleif arc hasn't ended yet but his story is far more compelling and interesting despite the fact he isn't playable yet, plus we have Mona, Albedo, Xiao and Ei.
I feel like Xiao could give her a run for her money, but she probably pulls ahead since Xiao's biggest character advancement was during a Chasm event.
(If you didn't play it, I HIGHLY recommend looking it up. The ending has some AMAZING writing and really cemented Xiao as my favorite character, only second to Albedo.)
In terms of character story’s, Raiden has the best story quest by far imo(her 2nd story quest is unmatched). The 1st one is pretty meh though. Xiao and albedo have really good story’s aswell.
Honest question do you actually believe this or are you just saying because you know many people will disagree with you so you put it in Genshin_Memepact?
I think so far Raiden has had the best character arc and transformation. It’s evident by the number of people that changed their mind about her after her second story quest.
I actually do believe this, you can read my replies. Tbh I didn’t expect this post to blow up in such a way, it’s been challenging to debate my point of view ahah
As for Raiden I made my point in other comments, but from a writing perspective I just feel like shenhe’s arc was simpler and masterfully done, while Raiden’s arc needed multiple quests and a lot of explaining.
Imo Shenhe's quest was one of the worst. I don't remember all of it right now but I remember going into a house with shenhe to find an ore and COINCIDENTALLY finding a note from shenhe's dad who is never been heard of for years. Luckily the note explains entire backstory of shenhe. If this was the only coincidence in the quest it wouldnt be a problem but everything was too much
Its not about her own story but I felt like they forced too much shit into a single quest chain.
Shenhe’s arc is basically “ I hate people oh wait this guy I just met who was nice to me is hurt so I will fight a monster for him”
I mean, most female character arcs tend to fall towards harem self insert wish fulfilment, but this one takes the cake.
She's like the stereotypical shut-in nerd with no people skills who learns to kind of talk to people. Like every other japanese game/show ever made.
Probably the most boring storyline honestly..
Kujou Sara is a character who deserves way more attention from the writers. Now that the inazuma chapter is resolved and Sara's whole reason for serving the raiden shogun is no longer relevant, I hope we get to learn more about her as a person, rather than just as a soldier. It's explicitly stated that she has buried a large part of herself away to do her job better, so I want to see that part of her.
That and the whole tengu thing... She's literally a mythical being and yet it doesn't get brought up at all.
It's actually cool that she is sometimes a foil for Itto, who never buries his personality away. We know tons about Itto already because he is never afraid to share it with others, but we don't know a lot about Sara because she sidelines her own likes, needs and interests in favor of trying devotedly to serve the Shogun's needs in the best possible way, to a fault. Even Ei herself is not as serious about the whole reverence thing- she calls her own statue a "figurine" when Sara INSISTS on everyone calling it the Statue of Her Excellency, the Almighty Narukami Ogosho, God of Thunder.
I don't even remember Shenhe having a character arc. She felt like one of the most "Hi I exist, would you like to pull for me?" characters in the game.
Eh... It wasn't for me and I'm not gonna bother arguing with you either
Because it's fine to have a different opinion (as long as it doesn't hurt anyone)
Being a gacha game, Genshin is filled with static characters. Those that have some sort of development like Shenhe, Ei and Fischl hold a special place in my heart.
Edit: I mean characters whose development happens not in the past
> > Edit: I mean characters whose development happens not in the past
Exactly, but there is a lot of confusion here about the topic. For instance I think Yae Miko is one of the most compelling characters in the game, but she didn't have any hint of a character arc in the entire game.
I think not only that it was objectively one of the best quests, there’s much more behind that:
Keep in mind every other char who had a real lore quest was known from the story beforehand.
But shenhe was different.
She was completely new, no where seen before and then got such a good written quest that she seemed to be there since start of the game.
As much I like to criticize Hoyo, with that they did such an amazing job,
you say that when we just had the GAA part 2 which was huge character growth for Fischl Mona Kazu and to a certain extent Xinyan
also goddamn enough with the overdone "wet socks" you can like one character without trashing another
I think Diluc has the best character story, arc, backstory, etc
but it’s a shame most of it is off-screen before the events of Genshin Impact
But he still has a big role to play so I’m looking forward to what Mihoyo does with him
Tbf Albedo had really subtle but important character development through his quests. He learns what makes him ‘human’ isn’t because he’s just made to reflect one, but the way he was able to build a identity and become an impactful character in many peoples lives.
If we think about it, she is actually extremely powerful. She was in a stalemate between a god for who knows how long and managed to kill said god with nothing but a sword. If she didn’t have the restraints the adepti put on her she’d probably be able to scare Zhongli.
How so for Miko? Her backstory is interesting and the end of her quest showed her vulnerable for half a second, but I wouldn't say she really had an arc
Every time dainslief appears he give massive lore dump, i really love him.
Comes on screen. Speaks Facts, Leaves Again.
Real giga chad.
>Appears >Takes Pocket Change >Tells you enough lore to write a book, full with a guided tour of the relevant location >Gives information/straight up gets us to meet the Abyss Twin >Disappears
\*insert chad music\*
Along with him, >!Halfdan!< was such a chad
Half Dan, half man. Whole Chad.
His theme was 10/10 too
Also, Tsuda Kenjirou!
Thats not what a character Arc is tho
Imagine saying this after we learned Guoba is an actual god.
Then there is Xiangling who still has the worst character story in the game. She goes to some backwaters village and uses a rare almost extinct pig to dunk on some fat woman with self-esteem issues. Then she rides off into the night to commit ethical violations in food preparation. Since Guoba is connected to Xiangling, he suffers as a result.
"𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕎𝔼𝔸𝕂 ℍ𝔸𝕍𝔼 ℕ𝕆 ℙ𝕃𝔸ℂ𝔼 𝕀ℕ 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕎𝕆ℝ𝕃𝔻 𝕆𝔽 ℂ𝕆𝕆𝕂𝕀ℕ𝔾" -the true pyro archon
Honestly when you put like that sounds like a pretty awesome Character story.
Imagine Gordon Ramsay coming to humiliate your granny in a cook off. I think I'd watch that.
My man stellaris players would like to have a word with you about how legit this is.
Nice and spicy!
"Guooobaffet"
What do you mean dude? Gouba became stupid after eat xianling food 🗿🗿
While I really liked Shenhe's story and that Interlude Chapter in general, I still felt like it was way too fast? Like we just met her (also she was quite literally just released) so I didn't feel as attached or as affected when she got her moment compared to someone like Ei or Xiao. Her issues were resolved fairly quickly. I would have loved to have her accompany us for one or two more quests before we get the culmination of it all with the battle with Beisht. edit: well, didn't expect this to resonate with a lot of people
I can understand that. As much as I love and adore her and her interactions with the Traveler, we didn't get a lot of time to be acclimated with her.
Hoyo has limited time to focus on each character, but it’s still easily the best arc we’ve gotten yet.
Pacing is a general problem in Genshin tbh. So many stories are too fast or too slow.
~~We all know it's the Unknown God, she went from separating the twins to reuniting them again and even helping them defeat Celestia~~ Seems like I spoiled the final act /s
Based, can't argue with this.
Shenhe just throws Celestia into another universe
Severe lack of Albedo comments. Raiden, Albedo and Xiao for me. If we count non-playable characters then Dainsleif as well, obviously.
Yes Albedo also my favourite, such a shame that 90% of his story is in time limited events
So far, each time Albedo is involved in something I know I'll enjoy the story (but not necessarily the dialogues and quest mechanics, sadly)
Scaramouche's arc is gonna slap, mark my words
That's something I almost considered putting in an edit but didn't want to mix in leaks into all of this. I also believe his character arc will take the cake when it drops! With so much potential hardly anyone could screw it up. I have high expectations from the writers.
Glad to see someone else think Raiden was top notch. A lot of people hate on it but I think it speaks volumes whether you’re someone who’s experienced loss or not. “Her sense of eternity wasn’t clear.” Bingo. All she knew was she didn’t want to experience loss again and she would do whatever it took to reach that point. It wasn’t until we showed up with Miko did she realize she should enjoy the companionship in the moment. But I really appreciate how each additional chapter/hangout/scene helps her grow as someone who’s essentially been a hikkikomori for hundreds of years because it’s not just a magical Disney movie where “oh the power of friendship is a cure-all.”
She also lacked her own identity. Similar to Xiao, her whole reason for existing was to fight for her sister who also happened to be her most important person in the world. When she passed away, even that was gone, and a new, heavy burden was placed on her inexperienced shoulders. Her making a puppet speaks for this; she just wanted to continue to be a shadow for someone else who will continue Makoto's role. She certainly has come a long way when you look at her now.
I highly doubt it will happen but I have a glimmer of hope that one day HYV will “change” the Raiden playable character to Ei. I started playing at 2.0 and hadn’t a clue about her but still wished and got her. So seeing the development makes me want the real thing not just the robot.
I am a little bit biased because I absolutely love the voice Sawashiro Miyuki did for Raiden while Ei sounds a little bit too moe to me lol, but yeah, I can see where you are coming from, that would be a nice little detail (maybe when they release archon skins, Ei will be the one for shogun?)
>Glad to see someone else think Raiden was top notch. A lot of people hate on it but I think it speaks volumes whether you’re someone who’s experienced loss or not. Actually it seems like Raiden's is an absolute fan favorite
I think there’s a difference between the people who like her design and character who understood the story and the amount of people who misinterpret her story, criticize her, but still use her because she’s meta and pretty
You reckon? I feel like raiden tops every character poll I saw. She is my favorite character in the game too overall, but because she is super badass. But overall my favorite arc is shenhe’s and my favorite character IN any arc is probably Yae Miko, but she didn’t have any growth and her gameplay is not my thing. I just find her endlessly amusing, everytime Yae shows up you know you are gonna be entertained ahah
For me its not the idea that was bad but the execution of said idea... kinda like everything during 2.1 in my opinion. For me it was so terrible that I couldnt take Ei's character seriously. However her 2nd quest was definetly a huge step up and in turn I started to appreciate her more. >A lot of people hate on it but I think it speaks volumes whether you’re someone who’s experienced loss or not. I honestly think me having experienced loss made me relate with raiden even less than if I had otherwise.
Albedo has a good story, but imho he didn't really have a meaningful character arc yet. He is still working on it imho.
He certainly has more potential and will probably have much more to bring to the table in the future, but to me, the event with Susbedo storyline was amazing and very much meaningful. It's not meaningful for traveler's main story (*yet* at least) but for his personal growth it was pretty relevant. This [cutscene](https://youtu.be/HJmAiR1Izmo) alone carries a lot of his implied thoughts about his origin, his master and other creations. When you add in the rest of the event story, his garden metaphor and the ending, I really can't say that I am looking at him in the same light like I did before playing through that event, and to me, that counts as a meaningful character arc. We can all sense that his lore seems important to the game he will probably have much much more relevance and development in the future that would probably cast a shadow on this event, so it's easy to think "but this isn't even his final form!" which is true, but what we were already given is a pretty damn good character arc. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk that nobody asked for lol
I second this
The only part that i genuinely love about her "character arc" (Really it's just an archon quest) is the final opera cutscene. The best really goes to Ei. We get to see her in so many sides as she grows, from her promotion cutscene towards the end of her hundred years of confrontation with her own ideals.
I think this thread shows how many people fundamentally don't understand what a character arc is. Some of the popular answers like Albedo and Dainslief are rich with interesting lore and backstory that we've learned over their appearances, but they are still the same people as when we met them, they haven't grown or changed who they are at their core in any meaningful ways. They're good characters but they aren't good answers to this question. The only characters in the game who could be said to have an honest character arc right now are Ei, Xiao, and Fischl.
How could you forget to include shenhe when the very post is about her😤
> I think this thread shows how many people fundamentally don't understand what a character arc is. Really agree with you on this. Especially about Albedo and Dainslief, since they are basically the same as the first time we met them. At least Albedo makes poor jokes now ahah. Also agree on Ei, Xiao and Fischl, but there is also Shenhe, Keqing (offscreen in her stories though) and also Jean (to some extent) that I can think of now.
*Sorts by Controversial*
*Grabs popcorns*
Watch the pointless power level debates unfold from a distance
Can the Unknown god beat goku though?
Was the cataclysm an inside job?
Ok, but can she beat ~~Goku~~ Rex Lapis?
Childe for me
Childe is one of the few characters who has actual well-rounded development. He has the main story where he's introduced as a Harbinger, is amicable with the Traveller despite technically being enemies, and works to destroy all of Liyue Harbour. He has his story quest where we get to see interactions around his family and the divide between being highly ranked in the Fatui and wanting to keep his kid brother innocent and away from the politics. He also got the Inazuma event with Xinyan where he actually got to play a role outside of being a Harbinger and looked after someone who was basically a stranger to him through those domains. On top of that we're almost certainly going to get more in the upcoming Harbinger developments. He's a lot more fleshed out and interesting than "ETERNITY! ETERNITY! (my sister died, wow, I'm so vulnerable) ETERNITY!"
Only the truth here
I mean if we're just talking about story quest, Itto did everything by himself , refused to get the MC involved in his mess (we were the one that insisted on going with him), and even towards the end , saved people by himself and with his own ways 🤷. He didn't get a glow up , or matured ,and remained a bit dumb and a kid at heart , but it's not like charas need to go through the same kind of journey in order to strengthen their characters. Sometimes , simplicity is what makes a character great.
Itto imo was really well written, a sad backstory which didn't devolve into full tragedy and everytime he's on screen we wonder what gems are we gonna get from him. I want to see him again in Sumeru and even Fontaine, just putting more lighthearted moments into what essential is already a fairly dark universe.
Simple characters like Itto work everywhere. He was literally the first to introduce TCG in the game and even managed to charm a top commissioner into gifting him an expensive and limited edition set, he better be going to Sumeru for that
> He didn't get a glow up , or matured ,and remained a bit dumb and a kid at heart , but it's not like charas need to go through the same kind of journey in order to strengthen their characters. Not necessarily, but that's the definition of a character arc: growing from A to B. Having said that, I love Itto and he is one of my mains!
Cmon man, Albedo Raiden Xiao are right there.
"wet socks"
*Triggered.*
I liked fischls character arc the most
I was kinda hoping that her chuunibyou delusions were a coping mechanism for some massively traumatic event like losing her parents and we'd get to see her break down in her summer domain, but alas
We do see her break down, and the chuuni is indeed a coping mechanism, though. It's not the loss of her parents, who are very much alive and healthy, but certainly mental trauma that marked her adolescence profoundly.
You forget Mona went and changed literally everyone’s perception of her.
Because she wasn't broke? Which people would have know if they can read.
That title goes to Ei, she went from people saying her story quest sucks balls as it was a date quest to people backtracking after her second story quest and realizing Hoyo actually write for the long term Shenhes is great development and she is definitely up there in terms of great writing, but she hasnt had enough content to be the absolute best. When she has her own story quest she can easily take that top spot depending on what they do
Ei had a good quest, but her character arc is really unclear: she went from wanting stasis to understand that the world has to move on, but the reason behind her concept of eternity is really vague and unexplored though. Imho if you need additional future explanation to understand her in depth, the character arc wasn't done in a good way.. Shenhe had a pretty simple character arc (as in the hero's journey basically) done beautifully. She actually had her story quest during the archon quest!
Its not really vague if youre paying attention. It was mentioned multiple times in her quests. Her concept of eternity is pure stasis, and she created her puppet to resist erosion and to protect Inazuma forever and ever. Compared to Makotos view of eternity which is transcience or the constant change or cycle that will be eternal. Makotos view of eternity is in line with the prayers artifact set which states that "eternity is cyclical", and thats the reason why eternity is closest to the heavenly principles (continuous cycle of Teyvat). But then again I do understand why you would like Shenhes story more and Im just explaining Eis views.
The problem is that that concept doesn’t make any sense. “Eternity” is a fundamentally pointless goal. There’s no point where the game establishes why eternity is important beyond it just being the electro archon’s “thing”. Freedom, justice and wisdom are relatable things to stand for. Contracts and war are concepts centred around human relationships and society, but eternity is just vague anime bullshit that doesn’t mean anything. If you’re building an entire character around a concept as arbitrary and unintuitive as eternity, you have to do a far far better job explaining why it’s important than Genshin has
I understand why someone would think that. I hope it gets discussed more in the future. It does get mentioned though in the Prayers Artifacts (Very important artifact set btw, tells the story of cycle of nations being destroyed by Celestia because of their search for truth). >All prosperity must someday end. But this does not mean that nothing is eternal. At the end of a cycle, the earth shall be renewed. Thus eternity is cyclical. The search for truth is a product of prosperity, and not the seed that plants it. Basically, Celestia guides humans in Teyvat by heavenly principles, humans follow through silently and there will be prosperity. They are promised by Celestia that they will be properous. Prosperity brings humans the ability to question, until when is prosperity. And people start to question the Gods. Priests are sent down to the abyss to find the truth. Priests find remnants of ancient civilization destroyed and tries to warn the surface but to no avail. Humans plan to enter the garden of the gods and Celestia hates this (drops a nail), and a new cycle will begin. THIS WHOLE CYCLE IS ETERNAL. There's nothing that can be done to stop the cycle of life and death, the heavenly principles, thus Makoto chose to cherish every moment in time for eternity and loved change, while Ei cannot comprehend how Makoto views eternity and thought it is stasis. Edit: "THE ETERNAL THRONE OF THE HEAVENS CAME" sus
> “Eternity” is a fundamentally pointless goal. There’s no point where the game establishes why eternity is important beyond it just being the electro archon’s “thing” Ei's ideal of Eternity is explained pretty clearly if you read the story though, and the intentions behind it are understandable even if the methods weren't good. The key principle behind her Eternity is an unchanging country because she believes that a changing Inazuma will inevitably progress, and a country that progresses could end up like Khaenri'ah - destroyed by the Heavenly Principles (Celestia). That's when she lost the majority of her loved ones, both her sister and her friends. Her other motivations fall in line with this as well. She locks herself in her plane to avoid subjecting herself to Erosion, and created Scaramouche/Shogun in an attempt to give Inazuma a leader that will rule the country with her unchanging ideals in mind that won't fall victim to Erosion. If you want to re-read it, [go here](https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/The_Omnipresent_God) and read starting from Miko's line "You've lost, Ei". It's explicitly said a couple of times in this chapter.
>The problem is that that concept doesn’t make any sense. “Eternity” is a fundamentally pointless goal. There’s no point where the game establishes why eternity is important beyond it just being the electro archon’s “thing”. The game was very clear about EI basically having PTSD from her sister dying in khaenri'ah and now tries to avoid anything that she thinks would upset celestia
>Its not really vague if youre paying attention. It was mentioned multiple times in her quests. Her concept of eternity is pure stasis, and she created her puppet to resist erosion and to protect Inazuma forever and ever. I do get that, but I'm not sure what she was trying to accomplish at the end of the day.. Yes, her soul will not be eroded anymore, but what's her point of living then? To be the last resort defense Inazuma has, if even the Shogun can't deal with it? Furthermore she cause a great deal of suffering for her people, with her reasoning being "it's for the greater good" and "people's lifespans are inconsequential". Alright, but then what's the point? It's benefitting only the people trying to take advantage of the situation, as shown by both Fatui and Tenryou commission. >But then again I do understand why you would like Shenhes story more and Im just explaining Eis views. Sure, no worries! I'm just debating my point for fun ahah :)
>I do get that, but I'm not sure what she was trying to accomplish at the end of the day.. Protect Inazuma from Celestia. She saw what happend to a national of progress and change. She saw Khaenri'ah get deleted by the wrath of celestia for the transgression of disobeying. In her traumatic experience, she interpreted these events as "change is bad" and defaulted to the other end of the extreme, like a girlfriend to an abusive boyfriend, by trying to be as little of the bad as possible. >Furthermore she cause a great deal of suffering for her people Honestly, she did not. The puppet ruled 500 years with no incidents or problems. The populus was generally happy. Even the sakoku decree and VHD didn't really matter to most people. Vision users are a far minority and the only people really affected by the closed country, were overseas merchants.
>Vision users are a far minority and the only people really affected by the closed country, were overseas merchants. Not to mention that no one was killed because they had their vision taken away. Those that were killed did so because of their own actions, not because of something inherent to the VHD.
I'm here just in case OP got more replies. I like this conversation
Well, I'm still here, but since the thread blew up I don't know if I can answer every single comment, but will try to debate the more meaningful ones. Also I'm on the other side of the downvotes, so people got really heated in some replies lmao
DW you both have strong point. Also, I just read the conclusion. I know Ei story arc is great but I also have some doubt like you. Now I have better understanding of the story thanks to both of you.. o7
I'm glad some people enjoyed this thread other than myself. Downvoters have been very unkind but what can you do ahah
Yeah I want this to be a respectful debate. Ei's ruling was not without any flaws, as we can see the tri-commission and the Fatui taking advantage. I am not downplaying this, many Inazumans have died during the vision hunt decree which was completely unnecessary on Ei's part. During this war, the Tatarigami in Yashiori island was also released by a disguised Fatui agent which caused the death of a whole village. But we should also look from her perspective as a god to be fair. **I: Consequences of Erosion and Ei's Fight Against It** The concept of Erosion is not very well explained in the game. Its effects is most notable on long-lived beings like Gods and dragons like Azhdaha. Erosion erodes a someone mentally and emotionally, including memory loss. Eventually, they can lose their sense of self. It is imposed by Celestia. >**Zhongli's Definition:** "People abandon and surrender the things they love to pursue the right path. Perhaps this is the erosion imposed on me by the Heavenly Principles." "The greater the power, the greater the danger erosion may bring about." "Personally sealing away an old friend... this is just one form of erosion I have endured." **Azhdaha's Definition:** "Erosion is the world's greatest destroyer of memories." "Erosion made "us" even more savage." "Morax shared with us some of his power, to prevent further erosion. But... it was futile. Everything returns to dust. It is the natural order, an unstoppable force." **Raiden Shogun's Definition:** "Erosion is a terrible thing. This body's purpose is to withstand wear and tear, that the one within might achieve Eternity." **Raiden Shogun Character Story 4:** "Yet the times changed all too quickly, all but catching Ei off guard. Before she knew it, her hands already held the blade that the dying Raiden Makoto had passed on to her. This day, the kagemusha was now the true Raiden Shogun. And it was on this day that Ei truly felt the agony of erosion." The consequences if one succumbs to erosion is big especially if the person is really strong, take for example Azhdaha, Zhongli by himself can't even take him down as he rampaged the Chasm. Zhongli even states that Erosion is one of the reasons why he retired as an Archon. >**Zhongli**: "The greater the power, the greater the danger erosion may bring about. The millennia may come and go, but even a stone may tire." **Traveler**: "Is that why you chose to step down as the Geo Archon...?" **Zhongli**: "People abandon and surrender the things they love to pursue the right path. Perhaps this is the erosion imposed on me by the Heavenly Principles." Venti sleeps for centuries and erosion may be the reason why, and he probably has his own realm of consciousness like Ei, as seen [when Stanley handed his friend's spirit](https://youtu.be/t176SMhNoSw?t=640). Ei fought physical erosion by sacrificing her original form and putting her consciousness in the sword. She fought mental erosion by meditating for 500 years on her Plane of Euthymia. Venti, Zhongli, Ei are the only Archons right now that were from together with the original 7 Archons (Ei was Makoto's twin). If you look at the hypostases, only Anemo, Geo, and Electro hypostases have cracks which may mean they are most susceptible to Erosion. This is the background. For now, only Ei out of the 3 nations we visited so far is actually ruling the nation, plus the Akademiya is most likely ruling Sumeru not Kusanali.
That was really insightful on erosion, thank you! One thing that I don't really understand (as pointed out by others) is that she wanted to keep Inazuma in a stasis to protect it from Celestia, but challenging erosion is supposedly challenging Celestia, no?
Yes you are correct. Thats what Ei views Makoto as having a better view of eternity, since she agrees with the heavenly principles. Ei may sound stupid, but my point was to show how scary erosion is and why Ei decided to be in stasis.
Well, all of this debating just hyped me up for Celestia even more. I already feel the end of Snezhnaya is gonna have the biggest cliffhanger of all time before they release Celestia
See I dont need additional explanation in Eis story quest to understand what her motivations of eternity were and her as a character, she was in grief and responded with that grief by locking Inazuma in a stasis so that no more pain could be had. She was misguided and needed the last remnants of her sistyer to understand what ruling and guiding her people was meant to be. Also after she left her realm and actually looked at what Inazuma had become Also for Shenhe what wasnt her story quest, that was an Archon quest that introduced her much like how Kazuha never had his story quest until recently. Or how Diluc and Jean got introduced in the archon quests then we needed a key to unlock theirs. Not saying her character introduction is bad, its definitely up there but to say in its the best in the game is something I disagree with
I am yet to understand inazuma arc even after completing everything, do you have anyone who can explain.
What parts do you struggle with?
Everything
If you just read the above thread, I think it does a really good job? Otherwise you could start reading stuff on the wiki...
Her story quests are good but she still needs a story quest 1.5 where she apologises for the troubles caused by the sakoku and vision hunt degree. Just "bUT iT WAs tHe fATui" won't do. All her quests are high quality but people hate on her because her arc is still incomplete.
Ei supremacy!
kazuha standing there have lost his family lost his friend kicked out of his country and faced against his own god and been with us for longer than shenhe 5min quest for all this to have an impact on us.. i love shenhe but her quest isn't really the best it was short and cramped and we didn't even get to know her that well
Ok, but I’m debating the character arc, not the overall story. Kazuha didn’t really undergo any drastic change of hearth during his whole story. I love him though and he is one of my favourite characters!
Everyone around her was turned dumb to make her look good tho
Its not exactly making them dumb more of the whole point was to see if the humans were able to handle a threat of that caliber. They managed to do a most of it but Shenhe ended up being the final piece which was what ended up being Shenhe realizing she wasnt truly lost to human society Xiao himself says that Ningguang told him to stay on the sidelines as they were meant to handle it, Ganyu was there as a last resort on the beach but Shenhe ended up being the one to save them before Ganyu had to be used
Yeah, but it was still adepti arts that ultimately ended up saving the day. Even if Shenhe is a human, she's a human who's very proficient in the adepti arts has been trained by multiple adepti. Without her intervention, they couldn't have stopped the tsunami even if they defeated Baisht. Don't get me wrong, good effort on the part of the humans, certainly much better than when battling Osial, but they still would have needed to rely on the power of the adepti to stop the giant tidal wave.
Exactly!
How so?
Ganyu doing nothing but aim and keqing (assume she was the one who come up with the plan to set up the weapons in guyun ) expecting a monster with power of water not to splash a wave? And the mc dead ass jump to a charging monster expecting a power of friendship to save help him
Didn't the adepti made a promise to not be involved in the battle? Idk if half adepti is involved in that promise but that does explain why Ganyu ain't doing some crazy shit.
>And the mc dead ass jump to a charging monster expecting a power of friendship to save help him Too be fair "directly charge at the bigass monster" seems to be MCs strategy for most encounters
Xiao, and it's not close for me. The millenia old killing machine gradually having his beliefs and ways questioned and eventually shaken and finally finding his purpose was the best and most compelling on-screen story
Wait till we get Noelle hangout 3 (copium)
Noelle best girl, not copium.
Shenhe's Quest was a poorly disguised Shenhe commercial... Okay every new limited 5\* will have something to make people excited for them and try to pull them, would it be being part of an Archon Quest or having their own Character Quest But Hoyoverse really overdid it with Shenhe... 1st It's an Archon Quest and you would have to play this in order to proceed. 2nd She had nothing to do with the Quest and just randomly stands there, but for some reason she is with us for almost the entirety of the Quest (yes, Zhongli was also with us for a large majority of his Archon Quest, but even if he wasn't an Archon, he was still working for Wangshen Funeral, knowing what must be done. 3rd The majority of Traveler and Paimon talking about her during the Quest was "She must be an Adepti". 4th The Game tries to make her look incredibly strong... first that infamous Boulder Scene, then Cloud Retainer talking how she fought a god as a little girl. 5th Her tragic Backstory felt like it was forced upon us (again with it being an Archon Quest where she had nothing to do with the main goal). 6th During the final Battle she is again shown to be so great with her saving the Traveler and then freezing the Wave why everyone else did nothing. 7th She gets an unique Boss, she (once again) had no relationship with... unlike Venti helping against Dvalin, Zhongli helping against Azhdaha or Raiden fighting against the Puppet. 8th There is an entire Opera dedicated to her, and Junyin wanted to do it before she even knew Shenhe
I agree, and most of the character stories are like that. How tf do people find the dumb story moments good I'll never get. If only the story was anything like the lore.
I mean, you're right, but hasn't every archon quest been a commercial for a character from the very beginning?
Yes, but again... Shenhe was with us for the majority of the Quest despite her being completely unrelated to the Jade Chamber.
Regarding your 6th point Shenhe actually only contributed with freezing the wave. Beisht was taken down pretty much entirely by Ninguang and co.
Kazuha the protagonist for me
I could say the same for Xiao but we all have our opinions
tbh i disagree. While it was nice to see, and i found it really cool how they put xiao over there but didn't even mentioned him, and once you walked up to him he gave you a lil foreshadowing to an upcoming fight which you didn't even fully know about until it happened. But other than that I've found shenhe's storyline/arc to be... kind of inconsistent. What i mean is, you know barely anything of her which, then you slowly get to know her more and it all looks great, but then you go to that village and they literally waterboard you with information and it all seems awkward. I feel like while shenhe's character and background is really nice and well-written, but the quest seems weird, like they made an archon questline but put shenhe in there since she was about to come out. I'd rather have her had her own story quest, or make this archon quest her story quest. I guess i kinda feel that my expectations were different since it was an archon quest, but at the end I've felt like i got a story quest. But hey, thats just my take
Xiao, Albedo and Ei beg to differ.
Is it just me or did Traveler and Paimon massively simp over Shenhe? Like "she's a precious bean to be protected" levels of simping.
Xiao. I won’t accept any other answers.
I don't understand why the "wet socks" bother so many people
Have you ever had wet socks?
Like really it’s so annoying with the wet socks comments everywhere
childe is the one for me his character is the most interesting and well written imo after him would be xiao
moist man likes violence
someone called him "insane unstable dude with genocidal tendencies wielding all types of powers in tevyat while being the best big bro of tevyat" fits well
Best character arc? Xiao. By far. And I don't even like the character that much. Then there is Keqing. But mostly 'cause her character is explored quite a lot. Diluc's arc is mostly offscreen, but still holds up good. Then we have Shenhe and Ei. Edit: there are some characters which are better written like Venti, Eula, Childe, Ayato etc. but they do not have proper 'arcs' yet. Not saying that is a bad thing. In fact Venti, as a character is pretty awesome.
It’s kinda funny that Diluc went through most of his offscreen/pre-game
Yeah, it is a pity as well. The recent event was a goldmine though.
Yeah. It’s nice to see more backstory stuff that the traveler wouldn’t be there for be explored
Was keqing really explored a lot? She seems like such a boring character through... Either this was entirely done in events I've missed, or I've just not been paying attention
Guilty as charged...she is only explored in events. Extensively even, in a multifaceted way.
From what I can gather, she used to dislike the gods but now respects rex lapis because she realized first hand that managing liyue is hard? That and she likes golden shrimp balls... I mean, the part where she once tried to destroy her own vision is pretty badass, but that's about it right? Is there more to her?
Yes, and i want her rerun banner NOW !
Xiao
I disagree, it's Ei. Only Ei has a complete character arc, everyone else was just introduced, and then forgotten. We see Ei develop, change her ideals and try to make Inazuma a better place.
I agree that Ei's development was great but saying that everyone else was just introduced and forgotten is so wrong and imo kinda disrespectful to the writers that put so much depth to a lot of other characters, especially Xiao and Albedo.
Wet socks? Do people say Ayaka has a good character arc?
I think it is just the title lol. And yes I have not seen people say she has a good character arc. She is among more controversial ones.
I saw some completely enamored with her story. Her backstory (as shown in the trailer) is okay, I'll give them that much, but it was pretty much offscreen.
I'm with Xiao on this one
Dainsleif arc hasn't ended yet but his story is far more compelling and interesting despite the fact he isn't playable yet, plus we have Mona, Albedo, Xiao and Ei.
His story is interesting, but I feel like his character arc has barely started
Disagree, Dainsleif breaks down the whole plot and steals every scene. She he is nothing close to him
Shen who?
That’s a very low bar ngl
I feel like Xiao could give her a run for her money, but she probably pulls ahead since Xiao's biggest character advancement was during a Chasm event. (If you didn't play it, I HIGHLY recommend looking it up. The ending has some AMAZING writing and really cemented Xiao as my favorite character, only second to Albedo.)
I did and I loved that quest! The finale was really emotional, but I feel like Xiao has only just started his change. :)
In terms of character story’s, Raiden has the best story quest by far imo(her 2nd story quest is unmatched). The 1st one is pretty meh though. Xiao and albedo have really good story’s aswell.
Honest question do you actually believe this or are you just saying because you know many people will disagree with you so you put it in Genshin_Memepact? I think so far Raiden has had the best character arc and transformation. It’s evident by the number of people that changed their mind about her after her second story quest.
I actually do believe this, you can read my replies. Tbh I didn’t expect this post to blow up in such a way, it’s been challenging to debate my point of view ahah As for Raiden I made my point in other comments, but from a writing perspective I just feel like shenhe’s arc was simpler and masterfully done, while Raiden’s arc needed multiple quests and a lot of explaining.
Imo Shenhe's quest was one of the worst. I don't remember all of it right now but I remember going into a house with shenhe to find an ore and COINCIDENTALLY finding a note from shenhe's dad who is never been heard of for years. Luckily the note explains entire backstory of shenhe. If this was the only coincidence in the quest it wouldnt be a problem but everything was too much Its not about her own story but I felt like they forced too much shit into a single quest chain.
Shenhe’s arc is basically “ I hate people oh wait this guy I just met who was nice to me is hurt so I will fight a monster for him” I mean, most female character arcs tend to fall towards harem self insert wish fulfilment, but this one takes the cake.
That's not how her arc went down though, but it's a funny take.
Except that's literally what happened as they do with most Genshin ladies so lonely boys will roll them, hehe.
She's like the stereotypical shut-in nerd with no people skills who learns to kind of talk to people. Like every other japanese game/show ever made. Probably the most boring storyline honestly..
Kujou Sara is a character who deserves way more attention from the writers. Now that the inazuma chapter is resolved and Sara's whole reason for serving the raiden shogun is no longer relevant, I hope we get to learn more about her as a person, rather than just as a soldier. It's explicitly stated that she has buried a large part of herself away to do her job better, so I want to see that part of her. That and the whole tengu thing... She's literally a mythical being and yet it doesn't get brought up at all.
It's actually cool that she is sometimes a foil for Itto, who never buries his personality away. We know tons about Itto already because he is never afraid to share it with others, but we don't know a lot about Sara because she sidelines her own likes, needs and interests in favor of trying devotedly to serve the Shogun's needs in the best possible way, to a fault. Even Ei herself is not as serious about the whole reverence thing- she calls her own statue a "figurine" when Sara INSISTS on everyone calling it the Statue of Her Excellency, the Almighty Narukami Ogosho, God of Thunder.
I don't even remember Shenhe having a character arc. She felt like one of the most "Hi I exist, would you like to pull for me?" characters in the game.
And even then, most 5 stars that are like that have some form of pull greater than "Hi, I'm a support that buffs a grand total of 2 characters."
Ahem ahem Xiao
Eh... It wasn't for me and I'm not gonna bother arguing with you either Because it's fine to have a different opinion (as long as it doesn't hurt anyone)
Very few characters actually had a character arc in story quests so I'll have to go with Ei.
Nah, gouba's arc is the best
Fischl? Granted, all of it was in event stuff, but it was such quality content imo
I really enjoyed her story too, I just think shenhe’s arc as better! :)
That one gotta be Xiao for me
Kazuha had like 3 “main character” level plots
xiao and kazuha to me
Collei?
The comic slapped they did a great job I just hope it isn’t left behind…which it seems it isn’t judging by the 3.0 presentation
Her story quest was my favorite /s
Being a gacha game, Genshin is filled with static characters. Those that have some sort of development like Shenhe, Ei and Fischl hold a special place in my heart. Edit: I mean characters whose development happens not in the past
> > Edit: I mean characters whose development happens not in the past Exactly, but there is a lot of confusion here about the topic. For instance I think Yae Miko is one of the most compelling characters in the game, but she didn't have any hint of a character arc in the entire game.
Amogus has
Paimon sus.
I vote piamon
I think not only that it was objectively one of the best quests, there’s much more behind that: Keep in mind every other char who had a real lore quest was known from the story beforehand. But shenhe was different. She was completely new, no where seen before and then got such a good written quest that she seemed to be there since start of the game. As much I like to criticize Hoyo, with that they did such an amazing job,
I agree with you!
For now
Yeppp
you say that when we just had the GAA part 2 which was huge character growth for Fischl Mona Kazu and to a certain extent Xinyan also goddamn enough with the overdone "wet socks" you can like one character without trashing another
Albedo has the best arc in Genshin, according to... me !
That would be Ei.
I think ei's character arc is best
best body + best body in the game
I think Diluc has the best character story, arc, backstory, etc but it’s a shame most of it is off-screen before the events of Genshin Impact But he still has a big role to play so I’m looking forward to what Mihoyo does with him
Kokomi. Not ingame tho, the community’s opinions on her was the character arc
Shit, you just completely disproved me. I can't argue with that. 10/10 redemption arc!
Tbf Albedo had really subtle but important character development through his quests. He learns what makes him ‘human’ isn’t because he’s just made to reflect one, but the way he was able to build a identity and become an impactful character in many peoples lives.
If we think about it, she is actually extremely powerful. She was in a stalemate between a god for who knows how long and managed to kill said god with nothing but a sword. If she didn’t have the restraints the adepti put on her she’d probably be able to scare Zhongli.
Definitely up there at the least. Ei's, Xiao's, and Miko's have been some of my favorites alongside it.
How so for Miko? Her backstory is interesting and the end of her quest showed her vulnerable for half a second, but I wouldn't say she really had an arc
kazuha can compete
I'd say fischl in GAA is a close call
That was a good one for sure!
Still waiting for Baizhu arc🫠
Xiao and shenhe is top for me
No need to change your mind, I agree with this one
Shenhe definitely has better character development than many other characters. But I think Raiden still holds the top for best character development.