#But I think the more exaggerated parts especially his outward declarations are played up a bit by him to give off a certain facade or image

[artheresy]

Yingxing Appreciation 🎉🎉

hi, hello, it's Yingxing appreciation time and I'm dragging you into it bc he is my baby and I need more ppl to talk about him

Y'know I see a lot of people like in awe and hyping up DF and just giving him tons of appreciation while analyzing him specifically as an individual which is all so so valid, DF is amazing and very intriguing as a character and I love him sm, but I sadly don't see the same for Yingxing despite him I think also being so interesting. I also see him more so dismissed in the "literally God and some guy" kind of fashion sometimes

So I'm here to rant just a little bit about Yingxing, why I love him, why he's epic and why he ruins my day every single time I think about him! This is for any of my fellow Yingxing lovers who are also starved of any content of him

Firstly, this man is a genuine genius, like lest we forget this is from Baiheng's travelogue in which she met a young Yingxing who was still a child by this point.

He was a young boy but had already become a craftsman, a sign of his ability to learn exceedingly quick under Huaiyans tutelage. And his ability to work and progress incredible fast continues into his time as a young man on the Luofu.

We know he arrived probably somewhere around 18-21 (in my personal estimate) and by the time he saw Jingliu again (which itself was likely early into his stay on the Luofu given HCQ ages and timing), he had already impressed the Master Craftsmen of the Luofu's Artisanship Commission and earned himself a title.

There are also multiple things in game that emphasize his achievements and creations he crafted, some offhandedly mentioned in a readable or item while others are emphasized with importance.

Casually mentioned in the Discarded Ingenium Parts is his feat in the Great Trial of the Furnace (perhaps that trial is for gaining the furnace master title? Once again signifying an earlier achievement in his legacy) where it took him only a day and night to create a whole mechanical lion that moved and looked just like a real live lion from a bunch of defective parts and waste.

More recently in 1.5, they released a readable, the Ten-Lords Criminal Directory, which mentions an imprisonment method designed by Yingxing that keeps “Mirage” in a perpetual state trapped within a hallucination of their own making. Utilizing it’s own powers in order to keep it imprisoned. Something that with proper maintenance seems to have lasted for around 700 years so far.

And of course, how can we forget his most famous creations

The beautifully crafted weapons of the High Cloud Quintet, from Jingliu’s incredibly heavy sword remarked as being as heavy as three thousand catties, to Dan Feng’s Cloud Piercer with the ability to even cut through dragon scales, and the Devastator Glaive as well as Baiheng’s recurve bow. Each impressive in their own ways and seemingly crafted pretty early as well into his time on the Luofu with the HCQ given the distinction of Jing Yuan who (even if he likely was more a teen than a boy) still wasn’t an exact adult yet. So once again, let me emphasize this man’s skill here. With how many things he managed to do so so early into his time on the Luofu. A genius craftsman who deserved all of the praise he had garnered with his works.

Additionally, I know they keep harping about “ugh arrogant craftsman, ugh he’s so full of himself” but every single time we’ve seen his personality, he just seems like a genuine joy to be around. Bright, charismatic, sure he’s cocky but he also gives the impression of being incredibly fun and a bit silly if you ask me.

His behavior as mirrored by the mirage echo in Scalegorge Waterscape is distinctly playful even in what might be a more tense situation, lightly bantering with Dan Feng and even chuckling in certain languages.

In Jingliu’s character stories, it even furthers this bright, playful attitude he gives off with his distinct cheekiness shining through especially with that “toothy grin” of his. And if you listen to Jingliu’s (at least her English) voice lines during Clouds Leave No Trace when she speaks about Yingxing before getting into his transformation, there is a distinct fondness or amusement in her voice as she speaks of him especially that cocky nature of his despite her distaste for it at first.

While Baiheng is hailed as this kind figure in the High Cloud Quintet, perhaps their sun even casting light upon them, it doesn’t seem too far off to say Yingxing was a shining star among them in his own right. His easy going nature with them bringing about a bubbly playfulness similar to Baiheng given their closeness from when he was young. I could go into way more especially in regards to the casualness at which Yingxing seems to speak and treat others allowing for a more equal formation of relationships especially with Dan Feng but I’m saving that for another rant.

And all of this about him especially how expressive he seems at certain points he’s been mentioned, really just makes me so incredibly sad when thinking about Blade now. How severely separated he is from this identity. A division that exists from not only his death but from the way his mental state has been severely warped from his time with Jingliu and being affected afterwards by the mara.

The sheer dehumanization and lack of a personal identity in place of seeing himself as a solely a weapon when put next to Yingxing, with such a clear bold individual identity, really makes the transformation of one into the other all the more jarring and tragic. Especially with the emphasis on how Yingxing hated the abominations of Abundance only to become one himself, something that is still implied to have not been by his own hand. Blade is an immensely tragic character, but that tragedy only holds weight because of the life and identity Yingxing had. It is only with Yingxing’s light which shined despite the circumstances of his life that his descent into darkness hits harder, and it makes me so sad that I haven’t found many others talking or expanding upon this despite my searches because he really is such a well written character with so many details in his story that are both interesting and utterly heartbreaking.

And additionally, I want to say that I think there is a lost potential in examining the Xianzhou through Yingxing. Specifically in the way he is treated as a short life species. We know how the relationship between the Vidyadhara and the Natives, especially as it’s changed after Dan Feng, but there is a very interesting relationship to be explored between the Xianzhou and the Short Life Species the end up there, especially through Yingxing’s relationship to the different Artisans guilds whether on the Luofu or the Zhuming.

In the end, it becomes another sad element to Yingxing’s story. Yingxing managed to change his attitude regarding how the Zhuming masters treated him and even grew more of a confidence, but even in the Luofu's Artisanship Commission, he can never truly get as far as he deserves. Just as Jingliu says

Even with his work impressing the master craftsmen of the Luofu, even after more than showing his skill and earning the title of Furnace Master for that skill, he still would be denied higher positions and could only prove his true worth by the High Cloud Quintet.

And just let me say it again, him being a short life species allows for such an interesting examination of the world and people around him based upon that. While we don't know exactly how they met, we do know that Yingxing was Huaiyan's personal disciple and the only one he mentions of the celestial masters to treat him with respect and believe in his capabilities despite knowing he's a short life species. Through his treatment of Yingxing, we learn quite a bit about him. Through Baiheng's treatment of him as well, we learn a lot about her, more than anywhere else.

He's just UGH I need more exploration from Yingxing's perspective, the lack of it feels as if I'm being starved. He's so interesting, he's so fun, he's incredibly tragic, and he makes me cry every single time he crosses my mind. Please do yourselves a favor and think more about his character so you'll end up as sad about him as me. Or don't maybe. I dunno. All I know for sure is that you absolutely need to read Views of the Universe From a Starskiff: The Zhuming if you haven't. Anyways bye, thanks for listening to this rant, I gotta go cry over him.

Peep the tags also for a rant about my own characterization of YX if you wish to witness my insanity

#Let me rant about my own personal characterization of Yingxing based on this and its OVER #It's OVER #Firsy off We need to acknowledge before we get into anything that YX is severely traumatized #Before becoming a teen (we don't know exactly how long he was at the Zhuming before he met BH so he could have been p young) #He had already lost his entirely family in an incredibly brutal fashion to the Borisin #His home planet was conquered destroyed and turned into a weapons nursery for the Borisin #And he ended up somehow on the Zhuming (it's my hc that Huaiyan himself found him but we don't know the canon details) #And on top of that seemingly only Huaiyan his master was kind to him as the rest of the celestial masters on Zhuming degraded him for being #A shortlife species to the point he A CHILD tells BH he doesn't know if he'll live to see his parents avenged #So yeah he's gone through some shit #And we know his arrogance begins after Baiheng says kind words to him but ngl I don't think he switched up so fast from a few kind gestures #I think that arrogance of his begins as a coping method inspired by her especially given the exaggerated nature of it as jingliu describes #When he was a child #Kind of a fake it til you make it #And by the time he ends up on the Luofu I think it's half genuine confident half fake it til you make it #Specifically in that he does really see the people around him as equals no matter their status or species including someone like HE IL #And in that he's probably pretty judgemental all things considered #But I think the more exaggerated parts especially his outward declarations are played up a bit by him to give off a certain facade or image #In order to garner respect when paired with his actual genuine skill and talent #That's just a reduced summary of my characterization of him tho with his relationship to his confidence I have more to say but #ALSO YINGXING WITH SURVIVORS GUILT #WHERE IS MY YX WITH SURVIVORS GUILT CONTENT *bangs my fist against the floor* #That 100% plays into my personal characterization of his relationship with his confidence #Also I view YX as being AuDHD for so many reasons but esp with what we know in canon of his obsession with crafting and his #Overworking himself tendencies regarding it #Yingxing #Hsr blade #Hsr #Honkai star rail #Don't let me mention how this affects his relationships I'll be even more annoying than I already am

[dundunny]

FFVIIR: Bitching About Minor Details

Here’s where me as a hardcore fan comes in to nitpick about stuff that doesn’t matter and weren’t a deal breaker, but I just wanna vent:

This was something the developers could not control, but I still miss: The shitty graphics allowed funnier situations. Because they literally only had eyes and no face, the characters needed to use exaggerated motions to convey body language. Remember how Sephiroth laughed, how he would put one hand on his mouth and raise the other hand? Who does that? Or how Cloud would raise his fist to his breast and swing it outward to show he’s making a declarative statement? Or how they fucking jumped? With their arms stretched to the heavens and their legs pointed downwards like they were preparing to drill into the earth? Or how they jumped literally everywhere? You’d be talking to someone and suddenly they’d leap twelve feet across the room instead of walking like a normal human being? Oh man, that was so much fun to watch.

Whoever designed the weapon upgrades menu deserves a special place in hell. When I saw that little animation that zooms you in on the “solar systems,” I knew that was gonna get old really fast, especially since this seems to be a place you return to often. I was right. You know what also would’ve been great? A list that shows me all the bonuses on the weapons. On paper one weapon may be shit--less attack or whatever--but it has other buffs like increased MP regeneration. How do I see that? Well, go through the zooming animation. Flick through all the “solar systems” to read all the buffs. Go through another animation to leave. Move to the next weapon. More zoom animation. Flick through. Oh wait, did the last weapon have increased wind attack? Gotta go through a zoom out animation. Go back to the previous weapon. Zoom in. Flick through. OK, it didn’t. Zoom out again. Back to the second weapon... That was fucking stupid. Just let me press square or something as I’m highlighting the weapon and see what I’ve done with it.

The new music was shitty and you spent the whole time waiting for Uematsu’s music to come back on.

Why is there daylight? That was part of the problem with Midgar; no one could see the sun anymore. NPCs would mention it, and even if you flew over it on the Highwind all the sun was snuffed out. As late as Crisis Core this was a thing, so why suddenly bring in the light? Having no sun shows how fucked up Shinra and Midgar was: so much pollution that everyone’s circadian rhythms are thrown off and you can never tell what time it is.

Still on the fence being privy to Shinra’s plans beforehand in Reactor 5. It was shocking to suddenly see President Shinra appear in the original, but it was interesting to see the steps the company took beforehand.

The Turks were mishandled. Let me say they look a lot better than in the original because their clothing actually fits instead of this zoot suit nonsense before. But the Turks were hard. The first fight was three vs. one on top of the pillar, and Reno ended it just because he ran out of time. We were insects compared to him. Allowing Cloud to beat the shit out of Reno at the very beginning takes away their badassery, but I’m thankful they’re not the comedy relief like in Advent Children.

Also on the fence about attaching Wutai and AVALANCHE. I can see how Shinra uses it to stir up fears, but Wutai was so thoroughly neutered that no one in Midgar talked about them.

If Don Cornello is personally involved in the coliseum fight, and he should’ve seen Aeris and Cloud beforehand and knew something was up. We’re supposed to be keeping this on the down low. Why did they also gas them and put them in the torture room? Why not just lead them to the room? it’s a weird and unnecessary step.

The pillar collapse scene was magnificent in the original. You could hear the screams of thousands of people as the plate started going down, and suddenly it was cut off as they all died simultaneously. Then you hear another voice and for a moment you think it’s more screaming until you realize it’s opera, and it’s fucking President Shinra in his office, watching the whole thing and listening to the goddamned opera as innocent lives were extinguished on his orders. Everything ends with a shot of the Shinra Building, and it really stuck it in your gut how fucked up the whole situation was and who was responsible. I can’t expect an exact replica, but damn, that was so nicely done.

The Shinra Building is in my top three favorite dungeons of all time, so there was no way they would be able to achieve my expectations, but what I loved about it is each floor had a unique puzzle you needed to solve to progress to the next one. That was for the most part removed. Also, why give the option to go up the stairs if I need to walk in the front door anyway?

Why the hell is the Shinra Building so fucking dark? Do you remember in the final Harry Potter movie when they’re in Malfoy Manor and the director exaggerated the black to signify their wickedness that became laughable because no one would live like that in real life? The Shinra Building reminded me of that. It was so bright before because it’s a goddamned electric company.

Seriously, I can’t play as Red XIII? Seriously? C’mon. This isn’t Final Fantasy XII. I was so looking forward to playing as him and then I got a punch right to the gut.

Also, you were allowed to reorganize your materia between the Rufus fight and elevator fight, and they took that out so fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.

Chocobo/Mog was so ridiculous back in 1997 I couldn’t stop laughing for a good minute when I first saw it, and this cute thing I got now isn’t gonna cut it.

EDIT: Sometimes when you saw Legolas in The Lord of the Rings, his shit got kinda ridiculous, right? Like when he took down an elephant by himself? Yeah, cool, he’s an elf, elves are cool, but it’s getting to be too much? Cloud on a motorcycle is like that. When did he manage to get those skills? He was never in SOLDIER. He was a fucking grunt. Unless Jenova has mad cycling skillz, I don’t know where he got this from.

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#final fantasy vii #ffvii #ff7 #ffviir #turks #shinra #game design