So I like Genshin.
That's it. That's the bit.
No but fr I wouldn't really describe myself as a gamer, I played with my dad, brothers and friends A LOT growing up and I do adore and buy new releases of like 5 or 6 franchises every time they come out but I don't just buy new games anymore really if i dont have that already connection. There was a time in uni id buy story ones to just complete and dissociate to. 
that time has passed.
But like I ended up playing genshin for a bit during covid and just fell in love.
I thought I'd hate it cos I'd seen how horny and gross the fanbase could be and some of the outfits and jiggle physics ๐๐๐ i mean all the outfits are beautiful and I'd absolutely wear them but like omg who's fighting gods in heels with no support RAIDEN?!
but like what I think what hooked me was the fact that outside of their aesthetic design, all of the women were written great.
Not like feminist icons to stand out (lmao they absolutely do cos the blatantly male lead staff have a bias towards the female characters) but just how they are written as people.
I can't quite put it to words in how it's different from a jrpg but like when I've played jrpgs in the past I feel both ashamed of my body and an object as the opposite/foil to all the usually positive traits male protagonists get given.
In genshin I just feel bad about my body!! Yey!!! ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ
I'm not making sense maybe. Genshin women feel like people. In terms of their characterisation they are people with motivations, not women with motivations if that makes sense?
When Jrpgs do it they get close but then BAMN the writers could not make some sexist reference or comment or characterisation. And it reduces us back to "women" vs a person who is a woman.
Actually that said there's like a few character that fancy the MC. What's funny is because I'm playing as Lumine, for me Genshin characters (ayaka who you dancing for girl? I fell for childe like an entire chapter ago, im locked up) who have flirted with me now makes my teyvat wholy sapphic and I love that.
So yeah it's not feminist by any stretch but it's also not sexist (relative to comparable games) in how it depicts women. It's genuinely been a pleasure to play the story as it's just powerful female character after powerful female character AND it feels like I'm just playing a life bite anime sometimes and that's so fun.
I dunno nobody feels like they are written as an object for men either or as a women to just push the male characters along. Instead women are written as real characters and that's so refreshing.
And then like furina, the whole ptsd plot hit hard. She's my favourite and nobody else is allowed to like her now (as well as siegwinne, mualani and citlali. Sorry not sorry)
I dunno, feels like in the west and Japan even when writers try to write strong women or just not be sexist they end up condescending us somehow. Here's genshin that I seriously doubt set out to do anything for women and did a way better job by accident.
If we ignore the aesthetic design and jiggle physics, WHICH I CANT AAAAAAAAAAAA THEY ARE SO BAD SOMETIMES.
But like yeah I dunno, it's weird that I'm seeing better written female characters in a gooner gacha mill and outside of a few romantically leaning scenes (childe ๐) when I'm playing everyone's just a person. Not a man or woman but just a person and imo I think that's why I personally got so attached to all of the characters and their little stories and motivations.
Also melusines, the melusines are the best bit and they are so cute and precious and I love them and my bf says I like them because I'm similar in my manorisms but that's stupid because they are so adorable and I'm not so narcissistic (I hope) and they have this big back story about how they were discriminated against and they get they're rights eventually and become beloved by the fontanian citizens and it is a legal decree to use she/her pronouns for them instead of it and that's super cute and I feel so happy for them and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa snxkdkfmelcnskwmdmekxjenxnend3mdms
Can we have some melusine emojii gif things please ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ
Edit: tbh childe is just the meme, it's all about our sensitive soft boy neuvillette and bad boy wriothsley ๐
I remember seeing some stuff about natlan and people saying "oh but everyone's white washed including china->liyue so it's fine that's just anime art style" and being like ๐๐๐ not sure that's it champ.
I saw one that made a comment about China aren't imperialist, don't have the same history of imperialism and therefore it's not got a historical racist element to it like is being suggested or something and again it's like are we not now weaponising socialist rhetoric to justify our treats instead of just taking the L? Especially given how much some of the community spoke over others.
Lmao poor indie devs? Hoyo own a nuclear reactor don't they or something silly from all their whale bucks.
I've not played star rail, my adhd can't hack turn based games outside of pokemon and persona lol.
Yeah that's exactly where I got off the bus lmao. Like, even having all the 5*s I cared about wasn't enough to keep me around after that. The whole "well they're Chinese, they don't have Black people like that, representation wasn't on their mind bc Chinese product"-- that doesn't fuckin matter to me anymore as soon as a property goes international; but these white treathounds will never internalize that because their developers can't get us right either! I just hit a point of "y'know what, this is gonna be a waste of an argument if I ever have it again no matter how I slice it next; lemme change the password on this account to a twenty-character random noise generation and fuckin forget about these people".
Lmao white treathounds is funny.
With the community it does feel like a moment where someone starts mouthing off and you try to just shut them up but you can't. Every day. All the time. Omg.
Like i don't think splitting hairs between white fetishisation in anime art style and racism in western games or whatever is productive especially when it's about genshin of all things lmao. At least thats what it felt like some people were doing. Like regardless of how it's split or framed it's still supporting the structures of white exceptionalism right? I'm powerfully white and a genshin fan lmao so I could be way off I'm sorry if I am.
What 5*s did you have??? Can we talk about that or is it still raw?
Oh, it was forever and a day ago; it's not so much that it's raw, it's just that the memory informs how I look at most players at this point. I had Xiao off his first banner run, Venti and Diluc off their second banner runs; and did not give the first fuck that they didn't quite gel together that well, these were some of my favorite designs in general out of that game, so they all went into the team unless I EXPLICITLY needed a dedicated healer.
I'll take that L on the chin, we don't deserve respect lmao.
Yeaaah! We play with our favourites! I named Lumine after myself being that little saddo, got dead attached to her as a result and not knowing how the game works, used her as a main dps all the way till Sumeru because I'm an idiot, then got dendro for her and was like oh this is cute and then hyperbloom clicked and I finally learnt how to play lol. I should of just looked for a guide but I was like "wtf this boss takes like 10 minutes every time!!!" and DREADING my world level going up cos my team took so long to kill anything.
Xiao the short king and venti are both precious lads.
I was never a fan of fire batman but I adore kaveh and everyone rips on him so lmao i clearly have melusine taste
Atm I have Furina, Siegwinne (melusinesssss aaaaaaa I love them!!!), lynette and Mualani on my team and I don't care if it's not "meta".
Favourites gang ๐ช