任是无情也动人

So Ratio x Aventurine is the ship I've been following after mostly giving up on the JYxDH ship.

There's more fics in this ship, so naturally there's also a larger number of badfic along with the ok-fic and good-fic. It still means I have to slog through a lot of the badfic, even after automatically filtering the ones that are recognizably bad from the title/summary/tags before even clicking in (I mean, WTF does ice skater AU make any sort of sense? Or there's the genderflip/trans AUs..)

Still, I still get to actually read a lot of badfic before closing them out. Or even decent fic that is ok in some parts while still driving me nuts in others. So while this is on my mind, I might as well also get it off my chest...

( Pet Peeves )

( Headcanon )

The Good: The storytelling has improved. It's like they took all the feedback players had against the old 1.0-1.3 patches to heart, and learned from them to make the Penacony and now the new Xianzhou update. The storytelling is tight, with the relevant information directly presented to us instead of hidden in separate side quests or readables/item descriptions.

The political tension lurking beneath the surface of the Xianzhou is also well done, laid out clear enough for us to get the basics of, but still leaving room for complexity as if we're just looking at the tip of the iceberg. The fact that the upcoming crisis we're gonna deal with appears to be a xanatos gambit/conspiracy mashup from at least 3 factions (or more?) gives a good sense of suspense (at least for me), and balances out the fact that 3 arbiter generals + protagonist party which really takes the suspense out of any direct combat scenario (we've curb-stomped grander boss-fights).

Also, I hear the new Hunt-class March 7 is pretty buff, and has at least 2 ways she can be built, as either normal sub-DPS or in a break build. That's pretty awesome, and I am looking forward to slowly building mine (probably as sub-DPS since I have more leftover gear for that build).

The two major side quests that came with the patch was also well done. The story behind March's sword training is hilarious: Skott of the IPC is...well, hard to put into words to describe him, but definitely hilarious for the player. The companion quest for Yunli was quite moving, though not for anything related to Yunli, but the story told by the magic sword was well told and a gold mine of lore info.


The Meh: The characterization we've seen of Yunli so far does not make me want to pull for her. I don't feel she's outright bratty as some haters see her on various forums, but she's definitely... a kid. Like, the way she thinks and acts is immature and what I would expect of a kid. Which is fine, and IC. But... I don't play this game to raise kids. So.

Also, I am conflicted about Yanqing. The characterization in the story is pretty good, and he's clearly matured since we saw in the 1.2 patch. We see the officer side of him who has learned to reign in his temper and deal with politics and diplomacy. But... He still sucks for gameplay, and I ended up pulling his 3rd eidolon from the standard banner, when any other character would've been strictly better. -_- *sigh*


Undecided: Feixiao looks fine and her characterization is ok, but doesn't blow me out of the water or anything. She is a wind element main-DPS to fill the hole in my teams...but I hear mixed reviews of her kit online. Some say she's great, some say she sucks, some say you have to get E2 be decent... I dunno. It's possible her kit hasn't even been finalized yet, so I can wait and see.

Ling Sha's visual design looked really nice on the preview art, but in character, she looks...like a clone of Sparkle with a neater haircut. Also reminds me of Yuuko from xxxHolic. I dunno, will hold off until I learn more about her kit and how her bunny pet will show up in combat before making any pull plans.


The Bad: The updated killed any inclinations I had of pulling Jiaoqiu in the second half of the banner. Just... this dude has nothing resembling Zhuge Liang except for his fan. His characterization is barely above that of a NPC and his attitude... eh. Doesn't feel like he's got the "excellence" to be a 5 star, honestly.

His fellow emissary from the Yaoqing, Moze, is somewhat similar. Though at least this guy is only a 4 star. I don't see what people like about this guy though, since his performance in the story so far is...somewhat lacking. Talks big but doesn't really back any of it up. I'm thinking it's more due to the design being from Impact 3rd?


( Main Story Lore )


( Side Quest Lore )

( Addendum: Side Quest timeline )


( Musings )


JY x DH slash: Eh... other people have collected the evidence and made the analysis. I don't feel like repeating this work. So will just link some stuff I've found here...

https://2532355088.lofter.com/post/1e22df10_2bc6bf7e2
https://xieshi83733.lofter.com/post/4cbe9fa7_2bc6bf1c5
https://heisuigui.lofter.com/post/30cdc103_2bc6bc152
https://shinian00807.lofter.com/post/31908c0e_2bc6cd04e


Addendum: Misc stuff

Found this post which shows proof that less than 5 months passed between the Stellaron Crisis on the Luofu, and the start of this patch (Lingsha just recently arrived).

We also know that the main quest of Penacony took place within 48 hours. In other words, our various filler missions and side quests in between chapters took up the majority of time, looks like. =P

Every time the topic comes up, I want to facepalm. Lets face it, this game mostly runs on animesque rule of cool than it does paper-scissors-rock or logical numbers system.

Individually, we can sorta say Aeons > Emanators > Pathstriders explicitly blessed/glanced at by an Aeon > Regular Pathstriders > Normal people... except then we have outliers like that time Elation turned a worm into an Emanator for the laughs, or the much debated topic of whether the Xianzhou's Arbiter-Generals count as emanators or not.

But the most we've seen an onscreen emanator (Archeron) do, is overcome the defense of the Aventurine stone (which is less than 1/10 the power of Diamond, Emanator of Preservation, and thus not a surprise), and to slash a conceptual crack in the layers of Penacony's dreamscape.

As for "normal" pathstriders, we see Firefly blow up a planet in her backstory trailer (and then, it's not clear if she had self destruct bombs already on her as she had just come out of a suicide raid mission). We have Argenti poke a hole through a solar system sized bug. Seele literally outrunning a bullet after it's fired. And let's not even get into the madness created by the individual members of Genius Society.

And then, when it comes to factions... Everyone thinks immediately of the IFC because they "own" the universe through the credit system and economics. But, the Antimatter Legion has no need of money when all they do is to attack and destroy everything in their path. So really, the IPC's accumulated soft power only matters with the other factions for which politics and money actually matter too, and that automatically rule out the factions of Destruction, and the remnants of the Swarm... and even possibly the Denizens of Abundance.

Specifically regarding the Xianzhou, they don't seem impressive given on paper, since they've only got 6 planet-ships and are regularly outnumbered and stalemated by the Denizens of Abundance. Except their ace is that the Aeon of the Hunt consistently answers when they call. Most any other faction can do is to call up an Emanator or two. Other Aeons mostly don't get involved in mortal matters, at least not generally at the specific behest of their worshippers. This is what gives the Xianzhou their superpower status on the cosmic stage.

For self reference: https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline

So new patch, new story chapter, new pulls. What can I say, my luck at gatcha pulls are just... eh. The previous 5 star banner characters I wanted to pull almost all failed their first 50/50, and I end up having nearly reaching hard pity twice before getting the character.

This banner, I didn't really care much about the 5 star banner character, but I did want to get copies of the 4 stars on the banner (all 3 of them). So I pulled...and got the banner 5 star on the first pull. And then another one on the second pull. -_- When was this luck when I was pulling for dragonboy!?!

Of course, since my luck was really good last night, I got curious and just used up the rest of my saved pulls on both the limited banner and the standard banner. And voila, I also got 2 more standard 5 stars. This is definitely worth a yay!

It also means a headache on choosing which one(s) to level up.

The current 5 star banner is really strong. Numbers-wise, gameplay-wise, she's the obvious pick. But... I was kinda meh on her backstory. And of course I don't have the waifu factor going for me. So I level her just a bit but held off on pouring too much in until I did the new character story mission for her. And... yeah. Did not make me like her any more.

( Commentary: )

So yeah, probably not going to continue building Jingliu, strong character or not.

I pulled Clara last night and she is also a pretty good 5 star attacker. I'll probably proceed to build her and make her the core of my secondary team.

Then after that, will consider building Gepard (who I also pulled last night), or Qingque (a 4 star attacker who's being going up the ranks).

As for banners, not planning on pulling the rest of this one or the next one (even if I kinda like one of the 4 star's design), or the next duo after that. Gonna save up for Jing Yuan rerun, whenever that's gonna be.

I know it's still early in the life of the game and there's a whole lot of unknowns to the lore. But we are near the end of the 仙舟罗浮 arc, and I've been reading a lot of fic, spoilers, commentary, and other lore stuff in the build up to the recent release of cute dragon guy, and I have opinions.

( Here's what we know in terms of fact: )

( Timeline of events related to Dan Heng: )

( Is Dan Heng still liable for Dan Feng's sin? )

( Did Jing Yuan abuse his authority to exile Dan Heng? )

References:
Dan Heng story 1 story 2
Bailu lore

And finally, on another topic, here's the current state of my account:


Currently at equilibrium level 4 (character max level 70). Waiting to raise my world level until I have built enough resources to upgrade the ~4 main damagers close to level 80 (which may take some time).

And then after that, I'll start seriously on the gear grind.

Been reading a lot of KS fanfics lately, and coming across a lot of common tropes that got me thinking about just how justified they are by canon. Figured I'd jot down some of my ramblings so I can keep my thoughts straight. =P

( Read more... )

I've read several KS fics now where the author takes the chance to get all soapbox about defending nuKirk's cheating on the Kobayashi Maru test. Mostly it's all waxing poetic about how Kirk is smart and wise and better at designing tests than all of Starfleet, with a retread of the usual criticisms of the idea of the Kobayashi Maru test that I've seen floating around fandom/fanon...

IMO, the idea that the author feels they have to put themselves in nuKirk's mouth to defend him like that says a lot. (Then again, the excessively Mary Sue treatment I'm generally seeing of nuKirk in fanfics is a whole separate issue that I have.)

I agree with nuSpock that nuKirk completely missed the point of the exam. However, I also think nuSpock might have missed the point too. Or, at least, he was horrible at trying to explain it during the inquest (and not just because he hits on nuKirk's berserk button). The meta reason for this is obviously whoever wrote the scene failed to think things through and just wanted to stir up interpersonal drama between the two main characters. In-story however...

Look, the Kobayashi Maru as shown on screen in the reboot movie cannot be to experience "fear in the face of certain death", because the people taking it are aware that it's a simulation! This isn't Wesley Crusher's academy entrance exam in TNG where he doesn't know it's a simulation when he's psychologically tested. If it's fear the test taker is experiencing, then it's the fear of failing the test, not the fear of death!

On the other hand, I don't agree with nuKirk's argument that "the test itself is a cheat" just because the simulation is unwinnable either. Because the fear of failure is still a valid driving force and stressor, and the test itself is not asking for the testee to have a "correct answer". It's not asking them to find the "right" solution, it's trying to reveal the *method* by which the cadet approaches a problem, under stress.

I'm reminded of interviews I've done at work (for a sorta IT-ish position) where the question is an opened scenario of "the customer reports this thing is not working, what do you do?" Then as the interviewee goes through the things they'd ask or check for, the scenario builds with "and then what happens if this didn't work out?" and "what if you get this result back?", etc. The point is not to actually fix the hypothetical problem, but to test if the person knows enough about the technology to go through enough relevant steps, and if they can approach troubleshooting in a methodical way rather than just throw wild guesses at the board.

Anyway, IMO this is what should've happened in the movie:

nuSpock would've reported that nuKirk cheated on the exam. Instead of a formal inquest, whatever admiral is in charge of the academy should've called Kirk in for a personal interview to determine why Kirk did what he did, and then set him right on what's the point of the Kobayashi Maru exam. Giving him a commendation for original thinking may or may not be in the picture, depending on Kirk's answers and/or attitude. No disciplinary actions are filed though, since extreme persistence in the face of overwhelming odds in and of itself does say something about Kirk's suitability for command - which is what the exam is testing for to begin with. Now, afterwards, Spock may protest the decision, in which case, the same admiral should also take *him* aside and explain what the Kobayashi Maru is supposed to be testing for, and why Kirk's actions is not so much cheating as a valid solution to the exam. And then of course both of them are ordered into silence on the specifics of what happened, as well as maybe forced to work together to secure the exam against future tampering (you can sneak in interpersonal drama that way much more organically).

(I also think nuSpock should've taken the exam too, before he's handed the job of programming it, since he's obviously changed over to the Command track once Pike chose him for his future-XO. IMO the Academy should not be setting precedents of letting students skip critical exams based on race, and rather should be adjusting said exams to non-humans. Prime!Spock not taking the exam is more reasonable since he was Science track all the way, and served more as CSO than XO to Kirk, honestly. He basically had to pick up "how to command" on the job, as seen in the Galileo 7 episode, and didn't have the luxury of a stint at the Academy in between deep space missions.)

For my own reference, some interesting and relevant online discussions of the Kobayashi Maru exam and it's treatment in original TOS and the reboot movie:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/4kwqbq/did_they_keep_the_kobayashi_maru_test_around_for/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/1xxdkf/abrams_idea_of_how_kirk_solved_the_kobayashi_maru/
https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/580cjo/the_kobayashi_maru_ethics_discussion/

I guess one thing that I'll give for the reboot Trek films is that they've inspired a new generation of fans into the general franchise. I'm seeing a fairly large demographic range on various reddit threads and so forth, which is cool...even if sometimes rage-inducing.


Take this thread on reddit speculating on how the major races in ST would view homosexuality. My god, the number of people who immediately jump to "Vulcan's wouldn't approve because having sex without making babies is not logical" makes me want to *stab* something.

In case anyone cares, I personally feel most Vulcans wouldn't care, in the way that they're already closeted heterosexuals who mentally treat the whole topic of sex as anathema and taboo, so any closeted or non-closeted homosexuals wouldn't even stand out next to that. I feel that they also wouldn't "logically" equate sex with reproduction, since their biology is literally screw or die. If someone screws another person of the same gender or alien or whatever for the purpose of *not dying*, why wouldn't that be "logical"?

As for reproduction, I feel that modern Vulcans would prefer to do family planning "logically" outside of pon farr, which means they can essentially have babies by mail if they feel like it, and the whole thing can be "logically" divorced from the mentally taboo subject of pon farr, not to mention optimized for scenarios such as race-rebuilding in the reboot universe, or general population planning in the prime universe.


Another topic that comes up a lot is the Prime Directive. Generally, a lot of people are critical of Starfleet's non-interference code. Granted, there are also a lot of controversial (and sometimes baffling) on-screen depictions of the PD, such as why it even applied to the Klingon Civil War during TNG given the Klingons were a empire of technological parity to the UFP.

But IMO the core idea of it was based on the anti-colonial sentiments that followed WWII, and the stricter interpretations of it in TNG onwards was influenced by Vietnam. The "White Man's Burden" is an incredibly tempting slippery slope, and it's quite visible from how much that is evident in the criticisms against the PD.

I think it also helps that for me, I've also seen the POV of the recipient of such "well-intentioned intervention", which characterized China in the 19th and 20th centuries. I've read many alt-history fics by probably-Caucasian authors covering those time frames, and inevitably when they get to China, it's "and now our uber-wanked alt-UK/USA/Russia/Germany/etc. will now civilize the corrupt/powerless court or lawless/savage warlords of China by reprising the Alliance of 8, seizing more concession areas to civilize modernize..." ...And then I want to stab someone, again.

*long breath* Back to Star Trek. Occasionally, though, there are well written posts that don't immediately get my hackles up on behalf of intervention. This one is a very relevant modern day example.

In my honest opinion, I am actually fine with the stricter Prime Directive as it's shown in TNG (and as it applies to primitive societies, not advanced ones!)...as a Starfleet directive. (I'm less impressed with some of the rhetoric that the various characters use when discussing it, whether for or against breaking it for any specific episode case.)

I think that the formal "rule" should be "don't intervene". HOWEVER! It should still be within the prerogative of the individual captain to break that rule if the captain felt an exception should be made. HOWEVER! The captain should also be fully aware of the fact that they will then have to justify any intervention before a court martial panel. If they are indeed justified in their intervention, they will have to prove it.

This will allow there to be an form of automatic legal protection of less advanced planets from potential well-intentioned colonialism. It will also allow exceptions to be made in exceptional cases such as when the alternative to intervention is extinction. Further, it will give captains who are tempted by "White Man's Burden" an extra impetus to pause and really think before they act.

If they still feel it's a cause they are willing to potentially sacrifice their career for... well, that means they would have done it anyways PD or no. And this system would give Starfleet a way to quickly weed out captains who are wrong about their intervention, while retaining those who are able to make a valid case. In other words, the person choosing to intervene should bear the full burden of consequence for that intervention.

So I've been reading more TOS fics. Including the reboot Trek stuff since beggars can't be choosers. Been noticing a lot of fanon poppping up that didn't make sense in context of the new series. Then I went back and looked over some episode transcripts of TOS and lo and behold, it wasn't really canon there either.

( Read more... )

I still couldn't find anything online about the actual contents of the Accords aside from that one page which appeared in the trailers. I suppose it's a good idea not to show it so that movie watches wouldn't nitpick the thing to death instead of enjoying the movie itself, but still, that prevents me from nitpicking the thing to death. =P

Also, it seems that even internally, Marvel isn't very consistent about what the Accords do. Pretty sure movie canon takes precedence over TV canon though.

Anyway, I found this article online which pretty much explains a lot of my feelings about what we do know of the Accords, better than I can. Of course, this would be in a realistic USA in a realistic universe...so of course that wouldn't include the MCU. -_-!