任是无情也动人

Organizing Genshin fics from fanqie app

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 21:19:02 GMT

Xover:
(FIN) 【星铁原】将军与帝君的国运之旅 -- Read most
+ Good MC interactions. Supporting characters are meh. Settings are so so.
(FIN) 星穹铁道：不朽的岩王爷 (aka 崩铁：摩拉克斯才是不朽正统) -- Read some then dropped
- Good premise/start, but gets meh starting with the Astral Express. Slapstick mischaracterization of HSR characters. Imbalanced xover.
(FIN) 崩铁：白厄，我名摩拉克斯 (aka 崩铁钟离，开局获得存户瞥视) -- Read most
+ Better written than above. Not canon compliant with full HSR Amphoreus arc. One sided 男频 harem-ish bits get annoying.
(DISCONT) Fate：开局召唤出岩王帝君
+ OP conceptual god Morax with useless annoying summoner
(DISCONT) 从原神开始观影万界
+ Video content features Genshin AQ (thru Natlan), HSR trailblaze missions (stopped mid-Amphoreus), and FGO. Reactions from these worlds plus other random worlds.
综英美：(DISCONT) 旅行者的异世之旅
- GI characters physically travelling to MCUxDCU fusion world. Starts with M!Traveler, Klee, Childe; focus is more on MU/DC side.
(WIP) 连接原铁绝的聊天群
- Interesting start and includes Zhongli as part of the starting main cast. Chat rewards are too often and too OP. Progress thru AQ/TBM is getting artificially rescaled for no reason.

国运:
(DIS) 国运领主，开局成为摩拉克斯 -- Nice premise, too short
(DIS) 国运原神：蓝星代表是钟离 -- Good start/premise. First challenge scenario dragged on too much; also no audience reaction.
(FIN) 国运禁地：扮演钟离的我尘世闲游 - OK start then skipped to end. Fake cosplay, actual reincarnation/conspiracy, BE ending.
(FIN) 【岩王纪】神州人类观测记录 - Cute start then quickly goes off the rails. But short and complete.

Ensemble 影视体 fics:
(WIP) 原神观影：空的旅程
- Initial audience are first gen Archons (many incorrect from canon). Later adds reaction rooms for "present" archons, and citizens. Lots of fanon/inaccuracies. Later arcs are pure copy pasta from canon and little reaction.
(DIS) 原神：魔神观影
+ Initial audience from Archon War era, much later joined by post-Liyue arc modern archons. Fresh read aside from dream goddess annoying exposition prompter. Emphasis on present day power levels.
(WIP) 原神：争取能写到至冬（aka 刷的原神视频怎么让原主看去了) - Dropped ~ch200
+ Questionnaire & reward format. Starts pre-game, system covers up thru Natlan. Favoritism towards Fontaine > Sumeru. Uses F!Traveller as excuse to harass loli characters. Zhongli treatment ok with some fanon cliches.
(FIN) 从祭礼之舞开始曝光原神热门人物
+ Starts pre-Fontaine then adds them near end. Competition questionnaire format. Biased towards Inazuma > Liyue. OK depiction of Zhongli's character, no obvious cliches. World plot derail with zombies.
(FIN) 原神：播放刀子短视频，全员泪目 (aka 原神短视频，开局死刑吓哭芙芙)
+ Starts pre-Liyue but lets storyline complete (with some deviation) before blowing Zhongli's cover. Videos cover through Fontaine. Lot of fanvids, but mostly respectful. F!Traveler hits on adult female characters.
(WIP) 原神天幕：开局播放可莉哒哒哒 aka 原神：开局曝光钟离马甲
+ Narrated by unknowing gamer pair. AQ up to Liyue, interrupted by fanvids and then derailed onto Luna version content. Lots of playing on memes/fanon.
(WIP) 原神：名场面都被曝光了！
- Dragged on with ID reveal. Dragging on with Fontaine story.
(DIS) 让历朝历代领略原神风采
- Awkward and longwinded Earth history sections.
(WIP) 历朝历代观影原神
+ up to middle of Liyue AQ. Hosted by HSR!Aha and features OOC chatroom for emperors.

Other:
原神：剧透未来给本人
+ Similar to 观影 style fics, but with a Gary Stu harem-ish protag interacting with cast and stealing Lumine's thunder. Goes off the rails starting with Sumeru; Dropped.
钟离捡回璃月的魈鸟是个战损版
+ Waffy start. But jumps the shark starting with Zhongli SQ2 (Azhdaha restoration); breaks SOD for illogical MC torture pr0n.
岩王帝君：与此世签订契约 -- Read to ch75
+ ISOT travel to modern setting. Loses focus after Venti & Ei show up. Skipped to end: timey whimey climax/resolution.
岩王帝君：玄神界尘游 -- Dropped. Sequel to 岩王帝君：与此世签订契约. Reads more like (lackluster) original xianxia.
原神：从璃月开始，身配六国相印 -- Nice poli-socio-economics worldbuilding. But also 男频 harem male protag; canon getting nerfed to build up MC.
原神：钟离有个聊天群 -- Dropped after ch 128. Cartoony. 男频 harem elements exceeded tolerance.
帝君穿书后，全师门都癫了 -- Dropped. Awkward/retarded characterization of multiple modern(?) transmigrators, plus HSR!Boothill (o_O). No plot in sight.
岩王帝君在异世界也要努力退休 -- Dropped. Same author as above. Some OOC + messed setting.
听闻涂山有个客卿叫摩拉克斯 (aka 涂山帝姬钟离 in app) -- Dropped. Plot forced bonds with xover setting & cast.
见证盘古开天后，退休岩神想摸鱼 -- Dropped. Reads like xianxia original with name transplanted.
天星坠诸界：岩王帝君的次元纪行 -- Dropped. Severe power imbalance and messed up setting background.

comments

Personal ranking of Genshin characters so far

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:25:53 GMT

Didn't feel like writing a big post, so got lazy and used an online tier list maker.

I tried to exclude any feelings about their gameplay kit from the equation. So this list is purely in terms of lore characterization and aesthetic design.

Kinda surprised myself that the majority of Liyue characters fell under the rose tinted glasses (ie. extension of feelings of their CN-style design as Liyue characters), while only fewer made it higher up as liked for being characters... While the like category has a pretty large number of Sumeru and Natlan characters (hm... probably one of the reasons I also rank these two nations pretty high up).

The ones in the "mixed feelings" category are mostly ones I really like the some aspects of the aesthetic OR characterization, but really don't like the others...

For example I really like Mauvika's characterization, and her hair (OMG her hair is so pretty!), BUT I really hate her overly fanservice biker outfit. Similarly, I like Columbina's ult and floaty movement animation, but her weird blindfold and fanservicey body proportions drive me nuts.

The ones I actively dislike could either be due to the visual design (eg. Mona, Diluc, etc), or due to characterization (eg. all Fatui).

The "Who?" category are characters I don't really recall doing any quests for. (Or ones I do recall the quest for, but draw a blank trying to recall what went on in the quest.)

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Personal ranking of Genshin main story arcs

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:40:49 GMT

Finally completed the Archon Quests up through the end of the Nod-Krai arc this past weekend. *Huzzah!* On reflection, I decided to do a personal ranking of how I liked the main Archon Quest story arcs. First up, the TLDR:

Sumeru > Natlan = Nod-Krai > Fontaine > Mondstadt > Liyue > Inazuma > Abyss Interludes

By Abyss interlude, I am lumping all of the extra acts at the end of each nation's archon quest, centered around Dainsleif and our main character's sibling.

( Details )

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Genshin AQ vs HSR Amphoreus story

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 21:53:35 GMT

This past long weekend, I did the Natlan archon quest and got started on the Nod-Krai arc, which I plan to hopefully finish next weekend. This will bring me completely up to date, at least with regards to the main storyline patches.

It's a little bit faster than I originally planned to go, actually. Since Sumeru, I have stopped doing world quests, and post-Fontaine, I also haven't done the 5 star character story quests. This does mean I will lose some of the first hand background lore context, but I feel like it's made up by the fact that I do frequent the lore reddit and CN forums, and already familiar with the most important lore aspects.

( cut for length )

Once I am done with the Nod-Krai arc, I might write up a revised ranking of nation-arcs at that point, since it's changed a bit since last I thought about it. Though I might also complete the character story quests first before doing so, in order to be more fair to the later arcs, which I admit to having rushed just a teeny bit.

...Not planning to finish all the world quest chains before writing my next analysis though. That would take way too much time. But it should be fine. Though I did some of Inazuma & Sumerus's world quest chains, I didn't finish either. Because they were just so gosh darn many/long. =P

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General Hoyo games update

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 07:48:17 GMT

I had to make myself play the HSR 3.8 patch the weekend after it came out, which says a lot about how much interest I've lost in the game, lol. I guess the story is...ok.

I did like that it filled in a lot of blanks (*coughretconnedcough*) the awful parts of the original Penacony arc. Especially, it fleshed out the motivations of the antagonists, so that we have more than just Sunday's horrible memetic dove speech. And they managed to make the philosophizing...well, still a bit abstruse, but at least not as much soapboxy anymore.

The sudden insertion of the current banner character into the plot, retroactively, feels a bit awkward and very sales motivated. And I don't really like Dahlia's character all that much. But I have to say at least it wasn't *badly* done, and at least the narrative logic is fine. Personal taste aside, I'll roll with it.

The actual part I didn't like was the shippy parts with Firefly. Because I am obviously not the target demographic for it; it is very obviously geared towards the male fans who want to date the popular waifu character. So, eh, I did end up skipping some of those bits in the end.

Oh yes, also liked the extra bits with Aventurine. And the slight shippy interaction with Dr. Ratio at the very end (tagged "Sweet" dialogue option, lol).

Anyways, with all of that over, I plan to take a hiatus from HSR for now. Will likely still follow news and stuff on reddit and other online sources though. If the story takes a turn for the better, I may consider coming back later. Maybe.

As for the Genshin side, it is still continuing to take up a lot of time investment, despite my best efforts to stay casual, eh. I have finished the main story line up through the Sumeru archon quest so far, which is maybe around half? Though maybe not quite half, considering later archon quests seem to get longer and longer compared to the earlier nations.

There's a ton of side quests that are still in the backlog, plus the interlude arcs, which I plan to try and finish over the Xmas holiday period. Then will see about doing the Fontaine archon quest over the New Years holiday period. Hm... not sure if that's too fast. We'll see.

So far of the 5 star characters I have, 3 are 1.x Liyue characters, and one is a Sumeru character from the standard banner. In other words, all quite "obsolete" in terms of meta-ness. :p I am getting by in the overworld by not doing the ascension quest for world level 7, which really doesn't give too much benefit at the current point since I have all that needs to be unlocked for function. And then my main team being overleveled for the current WL.

As for pulling more "modern" meta characters... I am considering it. The current banner's Natlan characters are supposed to be very great low investment meta characters. But then the next major patch is going to feature the "Archon" of the current Nod Krai arc, to be paired with a new Liyue character for the Chinese New Year. On the third tentacle, I don't really like the design of this "archon", but also not sure if it's worth pulling the Liyue character by herself. Hrm... planning to wait until there are more leaked info about the next update, I guess.

Regarding the story so far... I do have to say I enjoyed the Sumeru arc. It was quite lengthy but also well paced and did not feel like any of it was artificially extended; there just was that much stuff to pack in there. In comparison, the Mondstadt and Liyue stories feel like they are way too short. Understandable for Mondstadt since it's technically the "prologue" arc. But Liyue's story also feels like a prologue, part 2, as well. Inazuma's story was just horribly paced. Of course, it feels like Mondstadt is getting a sorta continuation in the current Nod Krai arc, since there.

Setting design... I totally like Liyue and its extensions (Chasm and Chenyu Vale) best. Totally not biased. :p

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No-CP Fic summaries

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:07:06 GMT

[8.0.54] (涟漪) 快穿：有怨气？疯批老祖帮你逆袭 by 过眼云烟风玲

MC was a cultivation world grandmaster betrayed by her favored disciple and died during ascension. She becomes a transmigrator with an multiversal agency working to preserve worlds from various raider forces. Instead of a system, she communicates with a handler agent at HQ. Missions involve temporary possession of the host to fulfill their wishes and fix imminent disruption to the world. Some arcs will return the body to the host at the end, others will remain while original soul reincarnates.

( chapters )

[12.3.54] (长离) 谢青 / 快穿之逍遥道

MC is an piece of the incarnation of the Greater Dao, going from world to world to re-merge pieces of himself. He usually does what he wants, warping the plot and fates of various “protagonists”, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

( Read more... )

https://www.69shuba.com/txt/48922/33006754

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Hoyo games and recent politics

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 22:09:15 GMT

Recently, the HSR forums/reddit has been abuzz with rumors that the upcoming entire 4.0 storyline is in danger because it's JP based, and is getting self-censored due to the recent political climate. The fact that announcement of the 3.8 patch infodump (scheduled for tomorrow) also came with the note that drip marketing for 4.0 won't be included, with no dates given for the delay...isn't helping.

Not sure what this means for the game as a whole. Like, we can't exactly hope that the politics side will die down over the course of the 3.8 patch. We also don't know if the original 4.0 story/setting was entirely or partially or only tangentially affected. So, I guess a lot is up in the air and just...wait and see is all I can do.

( HSR rant )

( Genshin update )

Note to self for future time reference...
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Archon_Quest_Achievements

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Hoyo games update

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:58:55 GMT

Finally took the time out to do the latest HSR story update this weekend. I had already read the spoilers online, and accordingly adjusted my expectations. The results were...pretty much as expected.

( Re: the climatic let down )

( Re: rant about the Xianzhou )

Eh... with that off my back, I want to reiterate again that there are good parts of this story, both in this part in and of itself, and as the coda of the entire Amphoreus arc.

( So, the good: )

So that's pretty much it for HSR. I pulled for Hyacine and E2 Castorice to fill up the meta Remembrance team, which should hopefully last through the 4.0 arc with its JP themed setting. This is all using saved up pulls, so didn't actually spend any $$ on the HSR side.

Oh, and the events that came along with it... I've only played a few matches of Currency Wars, but it feels pretty fun. A breath of fresh air from the Simulated/Divergent Universe, which has gotten rather boring.

Anyway, part of the reason it took so long for me to do the story update is because I have also been splitting my daily play time with Genshin. *sigh* It really is taking me back to the days of GW2 and the time investment needed.

( RE: Genshin thoughts )

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Star Rail going back to sci fi roots

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 19:06:30 GMT

Hoyo might finally do something with the fact that Star Rail takes place in a sci fi setting! Or this might just be false advertising where the only space opera stuff we're gonna see is gonna be in the trailers... Eh, we'll see...

As we can see from below, there are a lot of familiar names coming to join the party: We seem to have 2 Xianzhou ships arriving, which I am guessing is going to be the Luofu and the Yaoqing. Not sure if we might see a bit of Jing Yuan and Feixiao again in the next patch.

IPC is sending some ships, and also carrying out the evacuation of 5 neighboring planets within 120 hours. Man, that's some pretty sick organizational ability. I mean, unless by evacuation they mean shunting the entire planet/star system away rather than moving just the people there. If that's the case, it's still sick engineering ability. There's a reason why the IPC are top dogs in the HSR cosmos. Hail Preservation!

Several members of the Genius Society have already been involved in the last few patches on Amphoreus. So we only have one more addition to the team this time. But then Screwllum also brings in his entire planet, amounting to what I guess is going to be the largest guns for the fight, I guess.

The Galaxy Rangers are mentioned...and in charge of coordination? Not sure if the Family (Harmony faction) is showing up but here's hoping...

( videos )

On a somewhat different topic. I have mostly finished building the free Dan Heng Permansor Terra I got (I did end up pulling his LC) and have tried him out a bit. No complaints about his sustain ability or animations, though, he doesn't feel to be a *significant* buff over Aventurine, just sayin'.

Still getting used to his model's new height. It just feels kinda awkward to ship him with other guys in mind now, with his new form. And also, because the 3.6 was just so blatant at pushing the MC/March + MC/Dan Heng ships, that it feels like certain design elements are on purpose, just to push that "canon MC ship" over any other non-canon yaoi ships.

Eh. I guess it's also because I haven't really been reading a lot of Dan Heng fics lately. Got accidentally sucked into Genshin fanfics (Zhongli centric, specifically) lately and haven't crawled out of that hole yet. -_-

Addendum: Cyrene's kit is more or less finalized at this point, and the general sentiment on the various leaks forums/threads/etc have been negative. The main complaint seems to be that at E0 her ultimate takes way too long to charge, and her buffs are lame for non-Amphoreus characters. So I am most likely skipping her, and getting Hyacine instead, plus getting Castorice to E2. I should have enough pulls saved up for this.

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HSR patch 3.6 thoughts

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 21:14:32 GMT

The new patch came out on Tuesday and I finished the main story mission last night. We finally get the patch dedicated to the new March 7 and Dan Heng banners! Yay!

First of all, to get it out of the way: Yes, the story telling this patch was well done. Top marks continuing on from the last few patches. It was mostly all dialogue and cutscenes, with very little battles or puzzles to interrupt the flow.

Focus very much stayed on our two banner characters. The story didn't sacrifice a lot of screentime for the older Amphoreus characters, even though they did show up in brief cameos. Cyrene, as the next patch's only banner character and the acknowledged dev favorite this whole arc, did get more screentime, but I feel like she didn't overshadow March and Dan Heng in terms of the story.

( March 7 / Evernight )

( Dan Heng • Permansor Terrae )

As for my banner plans. Like said above, I am still dithering about pulling Evernight or later getting Cyrene. The new Dan Heng sp is free, and I am probably going to get his LC. The rest of my saved up pulls is going to wait out for Hyacine, and probably getting Castorice E2.

The Amphoreus arc is predicted to end in the next patch 3.7, which will also need to contain the aftermath and tie up loose ends. Thus, it's not likely going to introduce any further plot twists. Likely we will get a new climax boss fight, and then a bunch of aftermath stuff. After that, 3.8 arc is supposed to go back to Penacony. Then after that, the 4.0 arc will start introducing the new Japanese themed setting. I feel like I am probably not going to pull much in 4.x, so might as well invest more for gameplay aspects in 3.x (hence going for Castorice E2). We'll see.

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Genshin Fics

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 06:17:50 GMT

On AO3:

The Crack of Doom (CN version on lofter) - WIP
+ Silmarillion crossover taking place mostly on Middle Earth side. Zhongli making guest appearance as "Sauron". Looking good.
Mr. Zhongli Is Very Strange
+ Cute short fic starring Xiangling.
璃港缉凶录 - Discont
+ Starring Yanfei and Zhongli as an odd "detective" pair. Sad it's discontinued, but at least the plot progressed past the main climax and feels like it's only missing the wrap-up/epilogue.
Genshin fics by SIBiastophilia -- CN, 若钟 pairing, NC17

On jjwxc:

起猛了，看见钟离被上交了[原神] - Great premise and characterization. Some plot/humor lacking (especially the showbiz & comic-con parts).
[原神/综英美]世界的过去是提瓦特 - "Main character" feels like it should be Batman/Batfamily rather than Zhongli. Huge xover cast splitting the story focus. Somewhat OOC mary sue version of ZL.
璃月泡醋缸的第N个世界[快穿] - Same author as above. New WIP, 若钟, OOC but decent ship fic.
[综英美]摩拉克斯被当古神召唤后 - Not too fond of the Cthulhu xover. Plot/characterization is forced in places. Meh attempt to balance power levels between Marvel / DC / Genshin.
钟离先生一直在穿越 - The Detective Conan arc is probably the best. The rest are meh due to unfamiliarity with the anime/manga cross.
开局在魔神战争打璃月[原神] - Technically the main character is an OC and Archon War era Morax is only 2nd lead. But, he gets a lot of good screentime and characterization. This is one of the best depiction of war era Morax I've seen and you can see the "Zhongli" potential in him.
【崩铁+原神跨界直播体】寰宇杂谈 - HSR crossover. Not very nice to 龙师. Dips a bit into Genshin's banned history and Zhongli's origins. Ending is a bit BE though.
璃月父母爱情故事（原神若钟） - Rated PG-13 slash. Series of one shots, some AU.

Alt sites (for fics from fanqie)
(WIP) 古人看我玩原神 (alt)
+ Decent start. Aranara quest chain dragged on. Later skips WQs. Responses start getting repetitive. Fanqie version changed to Audiobook only!
(FIN) 钟离的综漫世界旅行
+ Multi-manga xover. Plot focused than character focused, behind the scenes plotting over action. Smooth read.
(FIN) 规则怪谈：五常在原神面前弱爆了 - Nahida centric

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Amphoreus Timeline

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 05:56:57 GMT

For my own records...

~Before LC 2000 Terravox born
LC 3720 Tribios born
LC 3760 Tribios ascends to the demigod of Passage.
LC 3851 Liberation of Loukas. Cerydra overthrew the tyrant of Loukas and crowns herself the Imperator.
LC 3860 Aglaea born. Hysilens born (met Cerydra the first time).
LC 3867 First Siege of Okhema. Cerydra became the ruler of Okhema.
LC 3870 Seliose slays Aquila.
LC 3910 Second Siege of Okhema.
LC 3930 Siege of the Grove of Epiphany. Aglaea ascends as the demigod of Romance.
LC 3942 Cifera born.
LC 3957 Terravox slays Georios and ascends with the Coreflame of Earth.
LC 3960 Siege of Janusopolis. Okhema conquers Janusopolis and obtains the Coreflame of Law.
LC 3961 Terravox dies.
LC 4065 Anaxagoras born.
LC 4071 Mydeimos born.
LC 4297 Hyacinthia born.
LC 4931 The Trailblazer and Dan Heng arrive on Amphoreus
LC 4931 End of cycle 33550337
LC 4932 End of cycle 33550336

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HSR patch 3.5 review

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 17:52:58 GMT

So, I have finished the story and also browsed through the v1 model/kit spoilers for the next patches new March 7 and Dan Heng new forms.

( story )

( upcoming banners )

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Reminder to self

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 23:53:52 GMT

Ne Zha 2 is apparently coming back to US theaters (with IMAX) starting Aug 22. Appears to be a new subbed version, which should be interesting.

8/24 Addendum: Ugh, forgot to check showtimes before the weekend. Now that I check, upcoming IMAX sessions is really sparse, and basically none aside from Oakland past Tuesday. Ah well. -_-

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Some CNovel recs

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 05:33:07 GMT

It's been a while since I've done any of these, huh. I figure I'd just word vomit some of my recent(-ish) reads that I rather liked. Caveat: all ratings are my personal taste, so YMMV.

BL:

魔尊也想知道 by: 青色羽翼 - 10/10
Everything about it is great. The characters are all great: those you root hard for, the ones you end up pitying, the ones you end up despising. The romance, IMO, was pretty well done, which is honestly a hard thing for any romance story these days -- the top (MC) is wonderfully understanding and non-toxic, while still having flaws; the bottom is adorable and scary same time; their relationship looks unbalanced on paper, but the characterization and progression makes it work out. The story's pacing is great, exceedingly short for a xianxia genre story, and the plot moves swiftly without being rushed. And the humor, OMG, there were chapters where there were honestly like 50 pages of comments mostly consisting of readers going "Ahahahaha" and the effect. And it's well written humor, IMO, not having to lean on slapstick or memes like many other stories that try too hard to be funny. I gotta say, the author did a great job of balancing suspense, humor, and romance in this story. Highly recommend.

嫁给铁哥们 by: 衣落成火 - 7/10
Length wise, this is the opposite of the above, being on the long side of stories. (Though, if we go by this same author, she's written many longer stories, so I guess it's actually on the short/medium side for her.) This story was also written as a side thing while the author was working through writer's block on her main fic, and the results of that show up in that there's not as much action/suspense in it as her other works of the same genre. It's actually more closer to slice of life kinda story. Personally, I really loved the earlier chapters where the main couple hadn't "fallen in love" yet and are just being unconsciously fluffy together, while supporting each other in their "downtrodden/weak" days. After the point where the ML fully recovered and they left their home region, the story starts getting more formulaic (especially to someone who's read the author's other xianxia novels). But it's still something nice to relax to when I just want something to turn off my brain.

BG:

这不是钓鱼游戏吗[全息网游] by: 萨巫 - 8/10
I've read a bunch of (VR)MMO genre stories lately, and a lot of the ones I ended up dropping were because they broke my SOD too much, in that the game feels like it's completely centered around the main character, to the point where it stopped feeling like a multi-player game and more like just pure transmigration. This story stands out in that it consistently feels like a multiplayer game, and it's...fun. While the MC and her team are standouts, there are still enough focus on the background characters and the various guilds etc also doing stuff and accomplishing things that matter, that it still feels like a game. People's *attitude* feel like this is a game. And when I read it, I often feel like I want to go play a MMO... (then I remember my MMO accounts are for GW and STO, and drop the notion. :p) The romance only starts near the end of the story (the MC's ML shows up earlier, but they are only acquaintances and didn't meet in person til like the last third of the story-ish), so any romance in the story is an afterthought. Read it for the urge to game, not for the romance.

路人，但能看见主角光环 by: 羽轩W - 6/10
I really like the premise of this story, and it did start out quite strong. Some of the focus parts are also very "cool" to read. However, I have to admit as the author added more and more side characters, it started to get bloated, and also started to break my SOD. The main couple starts off already in a relationship, so there isn't as much out-right romance as there's a steady stream of (slice-of-life-ish) fluff sprinkled throughout the story.

No CP:

在各个灾变世界装神仙 by: 糖中猫 - 7/10
Overpowered but (not-so) slightly cray-cray female protagonist physically world-hopping to save the multiverse, with the backing of her home government (near future semi-post-apocalyptic setting). A lot of feels everywhere. But also a lot of stretching of the SOD. It's also a fairly short and fast paced read.

大乘期才有逆袭系统 by: 最白的乌鸦 - 7/10 (also got a wip manhua adaptation)
Overpowered and slightly wacky (but still responsible adult!) male protagonist going around slice-of-lifing undercover (since the story starts off with him already cultivated to OP levels) while slowly unraveling the mystery of the cosmos. Also featuring some physical world hopping. It's long compared to the above jj stories, but pretty short for a qidian xianxia story, honestly. I really liked plotting, how a lot of things revealed in later parts are well foreshadowed (or Chekov gunned) in earlier parts. And some of the humor is also nicely done, funny without having to resort to slapstick. The downside of the story is that it's written by a male author and it definitely shows in a lot of places. While I wouldn't say it's outright misogynistic, there are parts that were uncomfortable for me as a female reader, and I have a pretty high tolerance given the amount of period novels I've read. So take that as a warning.

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OMG this is hilarious!!

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 05:31:08 GMT

This is what AI ought to be used for. XDXDXD

Direct link

EDIT: Oh, and something else I watched early today which is also pretty funny. A chess battle between ChatGPT vs Deepseek (bilibili link). Seems to start normal and then ends on a hilarious note.

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HSR x FSN collab

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 08:17:03 GMT

Played the story quest for the collab today, and speaking as someone who only barely knows anything about the FSN side aside from the basic premises, I kinda liked it.

The story didn't go deep into the FSN side lore or anything, but did fill in bits of the HSR side lore. Length and pacing was ok to me. Some people complained about the silent film parts, but I wasn't too bothered since I was actually almost ready to play it without turning the voice volume back up. :p (I guess it's cuz none of my favorite characters were featuring.)

For the characterization, I can't say much about the FSN side, but from what I've read online, there weren't too much complaints about the them being OOC or anything, so I think the writers probably played it safe.

Of the HSR characters, I mostly want to mention that I liked Aventurine's parts. In my personal taste, he's much more likeable here than for most of the actual Penacony arc (understandable, since he was under a lot of pressure and trauma there). I also like the fact that it emphasized that for all that the IPC has a bad rep, Aventurine is very sensitive and respectful of other peoples free will. You'd think this is something obvious given his slave background, but all I could think of was the irony considering the vast amount of fanfic that has him cast as stalker/controlling bf/ignoring or denying consent (this is usually when he's in the top role). He also very obviously acts as the brain of the team in the story quest, which is another irony when I recall all the fics that cast him as a brainless beauty that relies entirely on luck (this is usually when he's the bottom). Just...eh.

Also nice thing is that we got one of the collab 5 stars for free: Archer plus his lightcone! (Well, the lightcone was due to meeting the criteria of making enough pulls on the concurrent Tribbie banner.) Similar to Dr. Ratio, it seems like the damage numbers for the freebie is pretty good too. Single target quantum element is also a role I don't already have filled, so double-yay. ^_^

Afterwards, there's not much I'm looking forward to up til the new March and Dan Heng. I don't have high hopes that they'll show up much in the next story patch either. So... it's gonna be a long wait.

Addendum:

Played a day of the new gameplay event, and I gotta say, of all of my DPS, Anaxa is the only one that's crushing it all so far. It's unfortunate that my older DPS like DHIL and Jing Yuan aren't able to keep up with the times. But it's surprising that Castorice, which is a 3.0 DPS as well, wasn't able to keep up as well. Not enough damage done fast enough, especially since she's built for slow speed stat. Whereas Anaxa is able to sync well with half the buff lines - speed, break, ults. Tsk... Since he's also someone I like the design of, it makes me tempted to pull for his eidolons when he gets his rerun.

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HSR Patch 3.4 Review

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 03:39:07 GMT

The update came out yesterday and I finished it the same night. This is probably because this patch didn't get a new big map where we have to run around all over alongside the story. Rather, the patch is mostly one big exposition where a lot of the mysteries surround Amphoreus is finally clearly resolved for us. Of course, as I have been hanging out the various spoiler sites and lore posts, most of it is not really a surprise. But it's still good to have the various wild theories out there either confirmed or denied.

I do still think they they are doing a good job with the story, compared to previous arcs, even though it also means this one setting is looong and thus we're likely not gonna get any side arcs in older places (boo). The characterization per banner character is also pretty strong. The update did get me sympathetic for ~~Kevin~~ Phanion, the banner character. But...still not enough for me to pull him. :p

The second half of this banner is essentially replaced by the start of the Fate/Stay Night collab. I am not really interested in adding another franchise to track. So not planning to pull them either. Spoilers for the banner characters coming out next update aren't looking promising either. Not pulling the new DoT character because I don't have and don't plan to build a DoT team. The new support Cerydra appears to be geared very narrowly for Phanion and very few other DPS, and her appearance is meh (I know they're trying to go for chessmaster theme, but that dress looks like she's playing the Jester -_-).

Of the rerun banners... most are meh for me. I was a little tempted by Sunday's rerun, because he's turned out to be so damn useful omni-support character. But eventually decided to stick to my original decision not to pull him, because I just don't like that character (it's not even a "meh"). So in the end, I pulled the rerun Tribbie, without her signature LC since she can make due with the general DDD lightcone (which I got plenty of ^_^). She's a AoE damage support, which is a fairly general role that can slot into many teams.

Anyway, what I am really looking forward to is patch 3.6 (~3 months from now -_-) because that's when we will get the new 5 star March and Dan Heng. The much rumored tank flavored new dragon boy coming up!!

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Ne Zha 2 leaving theaters

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:41:25 GMT

Congrats for making world wide box office records all this time. I hear that it's finally finished its run yesterday. So now we start the wait for it to come online for streaming services. It's not gonna be the same as watching it on a big screen (and I never did get to see it on IMAX, boo T_T) but it's better than nothing.

That said, been browsing the various box office discussions in CN and US. Well, mostly CN because the topic has pretty much died off in the US aside from the really obvious anti-CN bots. Glad to see that the the tried and true adage of '人'红是非多 still holds true...lol.

So many haters dissing the movie for staying in theaters for "over half a year". Despite the fact there are 2 other movies also just leaving the theaters which were similarly finishing the 5 month run from the New Years bracket. But nobody cares about them. Or the fact that there is absolutely no other competition in the theaters this year, so what should theaters be kicking out its only money-maker be replacing it with? Feh.

And then there's the people claiming that the box office numbers are faked by a government conspiracy (these are usually voices from the US). Or are artificially driven up by propaganda urging the masses buying tickets as an act of patriotism (these are usually voices from CN). Quite the bit of historical revisionism going on. As mentioned before, I was following the CNY box office, and before the holiday period started, official state media were definitely helping promote some movies...but they were Creation of the Gods 2 and Condor Heros (both of which flopped *rolleyes*), not Nezha 2. Most serious prediction indicators had NZ2 making about ~30亿 (less than the total box office of Nezha 1, on the theory that it would be hit by sequelitis and the general "bad entertainment economy"). It was barely on the radar as a competitor by the other movies in that time bracket.

CCTV only started widely "promoting" Nezha after it started shattering box office records left and right. So in other words, state media belatedly hitched themselves onto this bandwagon after it had already strapped on boosters and took off. They were not the driving force behind its success. (IMO the "State" probably also had some of the conservative attitude of cartoons are for kids and only live action blockbusters are worth "backing"...but NZ2's success spoke for itself, and they still had KPI to fill. >.>)

And along the same vein, "patriotism" isn't the force behind it's success either. Because like with the 30e prediction, nobody was expecting it to make global records it did. Being proud of a Chinese film *after* it made said records, isn't the same thing as being the *cause* of said record. There's a thing called cause and effect; one comes before the other. *eyeroll*

Someone drew up this nice graph of Nezha 2's box office growth over time. As shown, it made the majority of its revenue during the holiday period up to 元宵.

Anyway, congrats again to Ne Zha 2. With those box office numbers, honestly it doesn't need to worry about the haters. Very obviously, the silent majority has already spoken with their wallets, and will likely do the same when Ne Zha 3 comes out.

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We are going to China on time! =P

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 07:18:53 GMT

LOL. XDXD

So I had my mind blown by the new HSR Myriad Celestia lore trailer earlier this evening. This led to some searching on various platforms for HSR lore stuff. And then youtube's algorithm pushed me this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1AwYpC8suY

"We are going to ~~China~~ America on time~~~~!"

HAHahaha, not sure if it's the hour talking (I really should be getting to bed) but I found this to be hilarious.

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Thinking of planning a trip to 西安 late October

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 19:47:30 GMT

My parents are planning to spend a few months in China this fall. They're going to tour a lot of places, Xi'an is just one of them. Most of the other places I am also not all that interested in. Xi'an though, although I've been there before (and more than once, I think), it was a long time ago, and I am interested in visiting again on a self-guided tour.

Tentatively, they are planning to arrive in Xi'an around Oct. 22-23 and spending around 5 days there. So I am thinking maybe doing Sat, Oct 18 - Fri, Oct 31, giving me a weekend's time to recover from jet lag when I get home.

Also, looking at airline bookings, if I go by Air China, the transfer is at Beijing, so I suppose I could also spend a few days there? Though that makes round trip bookings a bit more of a hassle if the source/destination locations don't match when booking... Hrm, maybe book round trip between SFO and PEK, then separate round trip or one way between XIY and PEK?

Still thinking about it. My dad hasn't bought his plane tickets yet, after all. So I still have time to ponder...

Some places I am interested in visiting:
昭陵 (tomb of 唐太宗) -- very far from city, might stay 1 night in nearby town (袁家村)
茂陵 (tomb of 汉武帝) -- outside of city metro reach
大唐不夜城 - specifically, the night scene (+陕西歌舞大剧院?)
北院门 (pedestrian food street?)
华清宫 - from what I hear they have performances?
汉阳陵 (汉景帝), 汉长陵 (刘邦) -- Uncertain if these are open/excavated

Places I've already been to before:
秦始皇陵 - IIRC I've been there twice before
乾陵
大雁塔
大明宫 reproduction

Also, shopping wise, thinking of buying a set of 唐装/汉服...not to wear out or anything, just for...reasons. :p Then aside from that, looking to buy 1-2 sets of pants because it's easier to find fitting sizes in China than here. -_-

For main city hotel, I am liking the look of this place

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HSR Patch 3.3 Review [Spoilers]

Thu, 22 May 2025 17:04:33 GMT

I just finished the main storyline mission last night, and have been still excited about it since then!

Ok, the first half of the story was boring and tedious. I get they were necessary as setup for the later parts. But it felt like a bunch of monologues one after the other. But! The last...1/3-1/4 of the story, just, wow! The climax this time was excellent! I would even say it's the best one so far: 3.3 > 3.0 > 3.2 > 3.1.

I know some people complained about how Aglaea's death almost completely took place off screen. We don't even get a cinematic about her dead body or whatever. But eh, I feel like we already got a glimpse of that during previous cinematics about the prophesized end of all the heroes involved in the Flame Chase quest. What I did like was that the story used the short segment related to her death to further develop her character. At first the audience is led to believe it as caused by the remnants of her humanity, ie. her mortal weakness and soft heart (which we'd all thought had been worn away). But then we find out that nope, there was no soft heart involved, it was a PR plot she masterminded herself, using her predicted impending death as a tool to destroy her political enemies and a catalyst to spur the growth of her protege. So yeah, still the same old Aglaea.

As for the slow unravelling about the truth history of the Sky people and Hyacine's lineage was paced fairly well, in retrospect, even if the first half was slow. The "twist" in the story was of course not unexpected, because we all know there was gonna be a twist and most likely, the good/evil bits of the legend is not gonna be the truth. However the actual true history that did came out wasn't too cliched (I was honestly half expecting the hero of legend to be more of a villain, or maybe even completely unrelated to the plight of the Sky people), but it holds up to its internal logic and is quite understandable, and very thematically appropriate for a (Greek) tragedy.

The climax boss fight was very well animated. I brought what I thought was a pretty good team, but still got stomped in Phase 3. I am not even sure if I hit all the major animation/story dialogue triggers in that fight... might need to search up some videos of it online to make sure I didn't miss any cool sequences.

Then came the story-side climax of Cipher's death. OMG! Here all this time I thought she was just the catgirl fanservice and gag character. And looking at reddit, I was not the only one who thought this. But as it turns out, she is the actual MVP of Amphoreus. Forget ~~Atlas~~Kephale. It was a f*cking thief who held together the world for the last 700+ years with her f*cking lies.

Looking back, the previous depictions of Cipher takes on a whole new meaning. She was chided by her fellow heroes for disregarding her duties as a demigod and fleeing all conflict... but now we know that's because she was already literally carrying the world on her shoulders, and her death would cause it all to fall apart, so of course she wouldn't risk conflict when she can run. Aglaea couldn't understand why Cipher suddenly turned her back on their friendship and couldn't stand to live in the same city anymore... but now we know it's precisely because of their friendship that Cipher couldn't run the risk of anyone getting to close to her to realize the Grand Con she was running, because the world must believe her Lie for it to remain Truth, and so she had to go into self-exile to minimize anyone getting close to her.

And now, at the end of the Grand Quest, when all the other coreflames of the old gods have been claimed and the heroes are so close to resetting things into a brand new world... Now, finally, Cipher choses to enter the conflict, set herself as bait for the Flame Reaver, and essentially sacrifice herself for one last gambit. She dies alone, with almost no one to know the truth that it was her who truly protected Ohkema up to this time. But she still bought enough time for Hyacine to take up the mantle of the sky and bring down the protection of her rainbow, and protected the last coreflame for our heroes to finish their task when we get back to the city.

Like, I was previously thinking of pulling for Cipher because I really like her art design. But now, I am totally all for Cipher as our catgirl woobie goddess!! *squee~~*

Ahem, other stuff I liked about the story... my boy Dan Heng finally remembered his dragon form!! LOL. It's like the first time since the original Xianzhou arc (the brief showing in Penacony climax turned out to be a dream, after all). We also get to see him sync with the waters of Amphoreus, study with the priests of the local sea god, and learn how to use the magic waters to open travel gates (like, whoa?). I wished we got to see more of his fight as DHIL against the Flame Reaver, but at least we know he's probably not gonna die like the other local heroes did, what with him rumored on getting a new 5 star banner up next patch. Looking forward for that as well.

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HSR patch 3.2 review

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 21:38:10 GMT

Finished playing through the main story mission and have browsed some of the stuff on reddit and CN forums. Figure I'd write down my thoughts while it's all fresh.

First of all, the story continues to be pretty consistent with previous patches. The pacing is definitely benefiting from given so many patches to work with, compared to earlier story arcs having to be smushed into 3-4 patches. On the other hand, the downside of this elongated storyline is also starting to show, in that we are *still* in the "buildup" phase of this world, and it is feeling a little more bland each time, with the per-patch endings no longer being quite enough to feel like a "climax".

Also, the story continues to do a good job of focusing on the banner characters of the patch each time, which I am guessing is something Hoyo has put effort into due to previous feedback. The upside to this is that people who pull for lore get to learn about the characters fairly deeply before deciding to purchase them. The downside, though, is that enjoyment of the story is also somewhat impacted by how much you like the focused characters in question...

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Castorice: I pulled her purely because I like her art design; she's really pretty. However, everything else about her after playing the story and her demos is kinda...meh. She is very obviously an archetypical "waifu" character, not really intended for my demographic.

Secondly, the whole philosophical meandering during her arc about how death sucks and she hates it and prefers the world to go back to the days of yore where everyone lived forever yadayada, and then transitioning to "learning" about how death is a necessary driving force of life/progress/etc... it's just so cliched and haven't we had this before back with the Xianzhou? Honestly I felt sleepy during some of her longer dialogue/monologue scenes.

And then gameplay wise, I can't speak for her numbers because I've been hearing contradictory stuff, but her mechanics are a bit finnicky, and I don't quite enjoy the mechanic of draining your own team's HP to fuel attack. But, she's a 5 star quantum AoE damager which I didn't have before, and she does give my Luocha a chance to be used more, so whatever I guess.

Anaxagoras: I also like his art design and will be pulling for him in the second half (even though he was probably cheated out of half his animation budget by Castorice). His personality is a lot more bombastic and standout than Cas, and I did like his role in the story for playing all sides of the politics just to use them both in order to further his own ambitions in human experimentation ala fusing divine corpses with his own soul, and then succeeding at his goals of uncovering a further layer of truth about the world, and paving the way for his future ascension to divinity... what can I say, this guy has definitely got the "mad" part down for "mad scientist", lol.

I've also seen people call him Ratio 2.0, and sure, there are some similarities between the two (both accomplished scholars, and professors teaching their knowledge/ideals to others, eccentric personalities, acerbic tongue, arrogance in their own intelligence, soft spot for promising students and cute critters, etc), but IMO, I am more likely to focus on the differences between them. The most obvious one is that Anaxa is much more ambitious, to prove his school of thought is the truth over the more pious branch of thought, to prove his theories on divinity, and to *become* divinity in order to reshape the future world. Ratio, OTOH, after having realized he wasn't going to gain the gaze of Nous and get invited to the Genius Society, seems to have come to terms with his current lot with the Mundanite Council of the Intelligentsia Guild; while he doesn't pursue worship of any Aeon, neither does he seek to become one and rewrite reality to remove the dumb from the world. Anaxa puts his personal goals of SCIENCE ahead of almost everything else, with politics and stuff just being stuff he manipulates to achieve personal goals. Whereas, we know Ratio is willing to work with mundane organizations such as the IPC. And y'know, maybe this is the reason why Ratio was never gonna get the attention of Nous, and why gameplay-wise, he's not an erudition unit. *rubs chin*

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Other updates this patch included a freebie 5 star (which I chose Ruan Mei E2) and other stuff that comes with the Anniversary. A lot of shop updates which the EN folks have been complaining about. I dunno, IMO it's the same kind of stuff I see in a lot of other mobile games, so I don't know what the fuss is about. It's not like you can't play through most of the game without pulling every banner. Nowadays I don't even try for full endgame anymore if it takes more than 2-3 build tries. It's not worth angst-ing about that extra couple dozen gems in rewards, or centering your pull goals towards that (for me, anyway).

The mini game that came with this patch is a reskin of the idle game mechanic, which I kinda liked. Almost makes me want to go back and play some of the older clicker games I've had before, until I remember how buggy bluestacks has been for me. -_-

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Honestly curious

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:06:41 GMT

I've been browsing a few history related videos on bilibili lately, and every time there's a video that makes comparisons to western history (eg. Ancient Rome, Greece, etc.) inevitably there will be comments that essentially parrot the western pseudohistory conspiracy theory (西方伪史论).

They claim something to the effect that those "golden eras" didn't exist, those civilizations/empires were made up, those famous people didn't exist or never wrote the great works they're known for...It's all invented out of whole cloth during the Renaissance to justify/glorify Europe's rise to power. Or even more hilarious: that the root of all western science was "stolen" from Ming Dynasty's 永乐大典, which those darn pirates like Newton, Copernicus, Da Vinci and ilk copied from, and then burnt the original in the heart of Beijing.

It all brought back bad memories from when I was reading historical based enovels in the 历史直播 genre I was into a while back. Every time some reference or comparison was made to western history, there would be commenters of the same stripe coming up and claiming Europe is all fake history. These were more egregious on qidian than on jjwtx (though possibly because qidian is more conducive to comments in general and has more history novels and audience than jj, which is more concentrated in the drama genres). It was annoying back then, almost to the same degree as those authors not bothering to research history and just writing around common cliches/inaccuracies.

I used to believe that these kind of people fall into the same category as flat-earthers, creationists, Korea universal origin claimers, and generally idiots that normal people should ignore for fear of dragging down one's own IQ. But, at the same time...amount of noise I see also makes me wonder if the belief is more pervasive in the population than the above-mentioned kooks. Or is it just a consequence of China's larger population resulting in a larger number of kooks just by the statistics?

Surely this isn't a view that normal people who've passed through the mandatory public education would hold. Right? Right?

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Zhou Shen full concert recordings

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 04:09:43 GMT

Saving this one here because it can't be saved to playlist...
~~https://www.youtube.com/embed/PUUYBURIYr4?si=axhq2-S18CculVHZ~~
...and it's been removed for copyright. :p

Also for the record:
Las Vegas day 1 (songs only)
~~Seattle~~ full
~~another New York~~
Toronto ~~Day 2 (far view) day 2 (close)~~

The ones on bilibili are slowly also getting removed. But there's more people (re)loading their recordings.

Smaller snippets consisting of one or a few songs don't seem to be getting hit though. Seems to be mostly the full concert length recordings being affected.

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