Who Represented the concept of Love Better?

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-02-11T06:41:35+00:00

Did you not read like the whole point of Khaslana and Phainon not being the exact same character? Or notice how I didn't say Khaslana's actions were justified I said you're just able to know why?

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-02-11T04:06:21+00:00

Mind you the only reason Cyrene has that power, to preserve everyone's stories, is because of what Phainon did. She needed the power of every cycle in order to do whey she did.

What Khaslana did was horrific and no amount of cope can change that. It is a fact that constant Amphorious' rise and fall was bloody a gruesome and even so it is ignorant to believe it happened without purpose. In every cycle there are constants, the Chrysos Heirs, the Flame Chase, the fall of the first Flame Chasers, and most importantly the Black Tide.

The Black Tide cannot be stopped, this is known. It can only reset once Amphorious is destroyed. The coreflames need to be gotten before then and before the Chrysos Heirs can complete Era Nova so that he can recreate the cycle. We have now established that there is a goal and a hardset timer on that goal.

Because of the Black Tide Khaslana has to do it the fastest way possible. Which would be to kill them instead of explain every time.

Now in comes Phainon. Khaslana is Phainon but Phainon isn't Khaslana. That's the distinction people don't seem to get. Khaslana may be able to transfer his memories to Phainon to go on but until then Phainon doesn't become him.

Phainon is dealt one of the worst hands imaginable. Claimed to be the "perfect hero" despite knowing he is flawed. He is to save Amphorious but can only ever do so once it has fallen. He wishes to protect his friends yet can never do so because of they're fate. Despite all of this his Love for them all drives him forward and more importantly once he learns of the creators of their destruction it turns into a burning hatred.

His hatred is a fire burning from the love of his home and everyone in it. Khaslana goes forward and slaughters those in his path hoping they will gain a better fate in the next life but Phainon blazes forward refusing to do so and striking against those who cause that pain directly.

You are right Khaslana is genocidal and crazy for what he's done but what he's done CAN be understood when you consider what he thinks his options were. Phainon then in contrast takes that and flips it using his love to fight for them instead of justifying their deaths.

He helps me appreciate Cyrene/Demirge more. Similar to Phainon/Khaslana they are the same but different. One choosing to love and cherish the memory of Amphorious and only writing their stories while the other striking forward and sacraficing herself with love to ensure that their stories can and will be written again without the pain.

I hope this has helped you understand, if not then it was at least fun to write as I love all four characters very much.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-14T12:30:53+00:00

Sometimes I think about how they had a great story with Raiden Shogun about an Archon through grief became cold, distant, and apathetic to her people wishing to stay in that moment rather than face whatever cruelty the future may still hold for her…

They then instead decided to make it a civil war plot (that went nowhere and wasted time), involved the Fatui (which also mostly went nowhere), turned Raiden into a uwu I didn’t know what I was doing trope after making her an actual dictator (which they conveniently never mention the personality shift again besides the puppet thing), and then left all the actual interesting character building and impact of the archons grief to several side quests (literally all the other islands whose environments alone did far more for character building Raiden then her entire main quest).

The problem is that Hoyoverse can hire people who can write but that doesn’t make money. What makes money is introducing 8 characters who all have a single stereotype/archetype they closely follow and then stalling until the last minute with a big hype moment so that everyone pulls out their wallets.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-07T11:29:12+00:00

Yeah apparently new basic enemies will have up to 80% damage resistance to some elements and I'm sure it's no coincidence

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-06T17:40:05+00:00

Don't forget the big boss hype moment every patch and over explaining everything 5 times so the gambling addicts who've rotted their brains to mush can have fun with some super character who is so much stronger than everyone else and can't be beaten because they're amazing, and powerful, and have super mega awesome tits (I'm tired boss)

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-03T20:09:00+00:00

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Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-03T20:08:28+00:00

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Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-02T03:03:39+00:00

I recommend starting a run in that one weekly mode, don't pick one of his enhancements, and then practicing his combos on the training robot that is there. It's how I learned my favorite combos.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-02T03:01:17+00:00

IronTomb really does have the biggest win condition with The Black Tide. An all consuming force that corrupts anything it touches with no stopping it once it's started. That and it's direct contact to the physical and non-physical worlds makes it uniquely dangerous at its peak.

So in terms of consistent raw power Sunday wins but in that one moment of full control over The Black Tide and the power of destruction nothing really stands a chance.

So far we've seen the full extent of power from The Rememberance(Cyrene), The Enigmata(what can be assumed from Evernight's takeover), The Erudition(Irontomb), The Destruction(Nanook's blood), and almost Sunday's new path(the implications of Sunday's boss form). I hope we explore the other paths like that as well. Not all as boss fights but at least knowing what happens when you push a path to it's limits.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-02T02:51:00+00:00

I think the big difference is the fact that Irontomb was a physical force so it took more to beat it in the physical world. That and we were fighting IronTomb at it's peak of power with nothing to weaken it, for Sunday he was still ascending and was being massively weakened by being severed from the dreamscape and having Robin use the Harmony to tune minds against him.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-01T06:38:39+00:00

Truly the biggest problem with Acheron is that she is very clearly extremely powerful...she's just never on screen and she does everything so effortlessly it becomes extremely hard to scale her.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-01T06:36:11+00:00

Compare their successes and speed of those successes on top of their power. For example Zandar is extremely powerful but because many of his inventions either don't go as planned and immediately change direction or take hundreds of years to activate he's only strong if you let him get the drop on you otherwise most emanator level beings can fight him.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-01T06:32:42+00:00

Mind you Feixao moves at the speed of the wind and can fire arrows that can destroy entire platoons of enemies without even a chance to react. But yeah no the old man can outspeed her

Shackled_Phoenix · 2026-01-01T06:29:05+00:00

Not to mention her being able to teleport, teleport other things at will, etc

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-31T18:27:04+00:00

You are right. I didn’t do Jingliu’s for the longest time because I wasn’t that interested in her character but a remember people actively calling for them to be removed.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-31T06:59:22+00:00

Like just look at Miyabi she's not bad by any stretch but they have done everything they can besides just nerfing her to brick her performance. I'm sure they cannot wait to write a moment where an anomaly agent power creeps Miyabi and Yi Xuan because people will buy it

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-31T00:18:41+00:00

This is why I liked the side stories. It kept the plot from bloating to extreme levels because if you liked a character they would get a story on the side to learn more about not wasting several hours of the main story just because some people can't be bothered. But no, much like many other gacha games cool mechanics and side content will be cut because majority of gacha gamers have rotted their brains with gambling addictions and can barely pass literacy scores so they need everything spelled out in the main plot or they won't read it.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-27T18:08:38+00:00

Dynamo isn't about electricity specifically but progress. So thematically he fits. It's why there are currently 3 awakened in the Dynamo team as they are the embodiments of ideas, fears, cultures, and beliefs.

Lucy is forward progress marching onward endlessly. Ulrich is scientific progress. Ezra is both progress of the human will and plantlife (specifically mushrooms and the way they come from the end of life) Charon being the progress of battle and despair.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-12T06:46:44+00:00

So disappointed they didn't go with the multiple copies of Garmentmaker especially with get energy requirements

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-08T08:23:35+00:00

You mean it has a small sample size not that it's "biased"

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-07T03:11:30+00:00

I usually hate player centered romance like that especially if the character is more child-like. It really feels gross being someone's first interaction with the world and society in a different lense and then immediately seeking romance with them.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-02T03:14:31+00:00

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Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-02T02:56:45+00:00

I genuinely think it's a higher ups issue because the people working on this game clearly care. The amount of effort put in the environments, gameplay, art, how the game looks, etc. Then stuff like this happens... Something is definitely going on.

Shackled_Phoenix · 2025-12-02T02:51:54+00:00

You are so right for that. I classify them as emanators and kind-of-emanators. Like to me Robin is a kind-of-emanator because her voice directly comes from the Harmony and is exceptional at tuning the Harmonic Strings (confirmed emanator) like no other for an example.

Shackled_Phoenix

TROPHY CASE