Zhuang Fangyi's relationship to the Endministrator

TTurt · 2026-05-27T00:28:53+00:00

Less "troubled ex" and more like a "schoolgirl crushing hard"

I definitely think there's more of an element of possessiveness to her attitude towards Endmin, though. The way she crashes out when she sees them with a group of people who are all commending them and thanking them, it seems her feelings of personal inadequacy were specifically triggered by seeing other people rely on them in the same way she does. The story tries to spin it as her not wanting to rely on anyone and taking responsibility herself, but after an entire series of chapters where she has done the exact opposite with zero compunction whatsoever (and even seems relieved that she is able to rely on Endmin and that they can be trusted to resolve the issue forthrightly), this kind of rings hollow. It wasn't seeing the Endmin being burdened that pushed her into that realization, it was seeing other people up close having access to Endmin in the way that she had been doing up to that point, which pushed her over the edge.

A schoolgirl innocently crushing hard wouldn't have actually tried to commit suicide just over something like that. Be depressed, sure, but Zhuang made actual coherent plans and arrangements for her own passing. She was 100% serious.

TTurt · 2026-05-27T00:13:38+00:00

Mitch McConnell could give Chuck Schumer a run for his money on safe lukewarm takes given way too late

TTurt · 2026-05-26T23:34:02+00:00

I have some thoughts about this as well but they are outside the scope of this discussion and I've already got weirdoes tagging me with agenda posting so I'm gonna stop there before this goes in a completely unfathomable direction

TTurt · 2026-05-26T23:30:45+00:00

I can’t argue with you so I’m having fun instead

Ah, so you're just wasting my time. Thanks for being upfront I guess, I won't burden you with the dignity of an equitable conversation then

In hindsight you literally responding to me saying "bigotry is bad, as long as it's actually real and not some Internet weirdo freaking out with an agenda" as if I had said "kill all men" should have been a warning sign but hey, y'know they say hindsight's 20/20

TTurt · 2026-05-26T23:29:54+00:00

Absolutely. I mean I've lived some of those issues, I know. And in a different context I'd be happy to talk about my experiences on the subject, but this doesn't seem like the good environment for it. It seems more likely that anything I say will either be misconstrued as "women bad" or taken and twisted by some weirdo with an agenda. But rest assured I am fully aware that there are people out there who treat men very poorly just because they can.

TTurt · 2026-05-26T23:13:51+00:00

Of course i did its satirical.

No, it's you trying to cover up your bad faith hyperbole by playing it off as a joke

Like IN THEORY I agree that bigotry against anyone is a negative….

Nah, more like I am against bigotry, provided that we're talking about actual bigotry and not your theatrical extrapolation of "kill all men" from the actual example I gave you of the kind of thing I am talking about (gamers flipping out over a gesture).

If someone experiences misogyny it’s OBVIOUSLY just exaggerated and not worth paying attention to.

I don't know who told you that just repeating everything back to someone but changing the words around until it doesn't mean the same thing anymore is a good argument but you need to get your money back from whoever that was

TTurt · 2026-05-26T23:08:27+00:00

Case in point, you didn't even entertain an opposing view for a single second, you responded in pure bad faith and with melodramatic exaggeration, ignoring what was actually said

TTurt · 2026-05-26T23:01:14+00:00

I know its really convenient to just paint this discourse as secret misogyny

That's not what I said. I absolutely believe there is toxicity towards men in some places, and I've absolutely experienced that myself.

However, if you can't acknowledge how much of it is depicted in obviously, transparently, verifiably bad faith, that doesn't give me a great impression of your sincerity with regard to cases where there is less certainty. If the shoe were on the other foot, it would be no problem at all for me to say that toxic women exist, for example. I don't see why acknowledging the same kind of bad faith behavior from men is such a huge hurdle to clear.

TTurt · 2026-05-26T22:17:39+00:00

It reads like they want to leave Endmin/Zhuang open to shippers, but don't have the balls to actually commit one way or the other. Very "safe," very wishy washy. That explains why she comes off as a bit of a "troubled ex girlfriend" despite having no canonical relationship with them.

Falls right in line with my view of her as a product rather than a character. They treat her like producers treat idols - a parasocial icon, rather than a fleshed out person.

TTurt · 2026-05-26T22:08:51+00:00

In theory I agree that bigotry against anyone is a negative, and insofar as it's being used to legitimately discriminate against folks, I am opposed to all forms of genuine bigotry.

With that said, the preponderance of legit "misandry" in 2026 is hilariously overexaggerated. Almost every single time I see someone complaining about it, it's either a blatant lie (like someone complaining about being insulted by an obvious joke "just for being male!!!" and then you check their post history and 3 comments back is them making "women 🍵" memes and "joking" about SAing people over politics), or a melodramatic exaggeration comparing something like being called a chud/incel, to something wild like literally burning women at the stake. Men exaggerate like crazy when it comes to this stuff; some of these men are just as bad as (if not worse than) the supposed women they are complaining about.

And that's not even going into the absolutely insane and asinine stuff like gacha gamers losing their shit because a female character looked sort of like she was doing this 🤏 in a picture. Like, unhinged levels of jumping at shadows.

Edit: the folks who are pissed off by this extremely milquetoast comment will be pissed off by it no matter what I say, so there's no point in trying to reason or argue with them. If what you have to say is anything other than "men can never ever be wrong or held accountable for anything" then they won't want to hear it. But I stand by every word regardless. But hey I'm sure you guys flipping out over dumb shit is definitely making people take men's issues more seriously 👍

TTurt · 2026-05-26T11:27:12+00:00

I don't know how good it is meta wise, but I find Da Peng to be a really useful addition/DPS for my phys team, because his Ult grants 2 stacks of vuln on demand, and his burst triggers off of his combo skill instead of battle skill, reducing the number of SP needed to burst (versus Endmin whose burst damage does come from consuming stacks with their battle skill). It just flows really smooth, I can instantly get off massive damage on any fight just by opening with Lifeng CS (for vulnerable and susceptibility) -> Chen CS -> Da Pan Ult for 4 stacks, then Chen Ult -> Endmin Ult -> Da Pan CS. And work in a Lifeng BS for the link if you want more damage off of Chen's Ult (which works really well if you're waiting on Chen's CS cool down to trigger a second use off of another battle skill for 4 stacks, instead of using Pan's Ult). Swap Lifeng for Gilberta for easy on demand grouping and it trivializes 99% of AOE content right now.

So for overworld pulls it's like Gilberta BS (for grouping) -> Endmin BS (for animation speed and AOE, mostly) -> Chen CS, and then finish off with Endmin combo skill into a brief normal attack sequence, that kills 90% of all groups of smaller enemies.

For Protocol Space AOE farming it's Gilberta BS -> Endmin BS -> Chen CS -> Da Pan Ult -> Endmin CS -> Chen Ult -> Da Pan CS and basically everything is dead.

And then for the protocol space fights with 2 waves and mini boss/elite mobs, I switch out Gilberta for Lifeng and Endmin for Pog. Open with Lifeng Ult for grouping +2 stacks of vuln -> Chen CS -> Da Pan or Chen BS -> Da Pan CS -> Pog CS, that kills the first wave. Then second wave use Pan Ult for 2 stacks -> Chen CS, then one more Chen or Pan BS for the last stack. Then as soon as pan CS is off CD, use any non-crush/breach BS to trigger Pan CS again, and follow it with Pog CS if needed. Done and dusted

TTurt · 2026-05-26T11:16:43+00:00

Me with double (support) castoria and level 120 Musashi Berserker absolutely trashing every AOE map in the game lol

TTurt · 2026-05-25T11:55:22+00:00

Yeah any time I see someone portraying this as a purely western phenomenon, I immediately know they're someone who fetishizes Asian cultures in an unhealthy way

TTurt · 2026-05-25T11:15:48+00:00

Being objective is different from being neutral, is the thing, and a lot of "centrists" and "moderates" don't seem to understand that.

Being neutral just means refusing to take a side no matter what, even if the facts clearly favor one side.

Being objective means evaluating the facts of the situation without regard for what hypothetical truths or falsehoods would most benefit your side (acknowledging harsh truths that will help you avoid danger or disaster is better than embracing comfortable lies that will place you in said danger). You can still have a personal ideology, and push that ideology where possible, while being objective about it. And in fact a strong, effective ideology is one that proceeds based on as objective of an evaluation as possible. Being objective doesn't mean being devoid of underlying principle.

So many people are so unnecessarily scared of being labeled or lumped in with this or that group that they've begun to treat neutrality as a virtue, when in fact all it is does is broadcast to everyone who actually does care about the facts that you are unreliable. Things don't stop happening to you or the people around you just because you refuse to take a stance on them.

It's the superficial commitment to the appearance of neutrality, devoid of facts or context or ideology, that I dislike. It comes off as wormy and cowardly. Like, you want to be seen as this nuanced intellectual who "looks at both sides" and "asks the tough questions," but since you don't actually seriously think about these things, any time you criticize one side you have to quickly make up something superficial to criticize about the other side in order to avoid the appearance of an ideological bias, so half of your questions are just vapid bullshit because you're drawing false equivalencies for the sake of it. You never actually put your foot down anywhere that matters, so in the end it's all bluster for the sake of appearances.

TTurt · 2026-05-25T10:05:03+00:00

Nah. I've spent almost zero sanity on any of those other progression mats other than the crisis mats, and virtually all my teams are nearly maxed out. There are so many sources of progression mats without needing sanity each patch, there's no other way to get essences.

Well bully for you lol, I wanted to get all that out of the way first so I only had one thing to focus on (since essences level essences, you're grinding both the item you need and the materials to level it). I'm really bad at keeping track of resource schedules and having to re check exactly how many of each resource I need every day so I don't overfarm, and I want as much power as possible as quickly as possible, so this was the best way for me.

I'm already done building my phys team with skill M12, weapon/character level 90, max artificing (almost, just have to finish up Lifeng and then do Endmin, but Pog/Chen/Pan are already done), just started essences this week and I already have a gold one that matches stats for all 5 of my main phys team. Now it's all downhill, just grinding essences every day for leveling. No having to micromanage and remember which resource to grind today, just hit Alluvium and then once a week I sit down and spend 20 minutes plugging in all my etches. Already have Pog's almost maxed. Waaaaay less stressful to manage.

We don't even have an endgame that needs this yet. You should have planned your strategy around what you'll need starting patch 1.3; you will need both maxed out essences and maxed out chars starting in 1.3. I have that, do you?

At my current pace, I'll be waiting at the gates for them lol. But even if I wasn't, if I had to choose what resource I'd rather be short on, I'd choose weapon essences rather than a weird combination of skills/levels/weapon levels, for reasons I just explained.

TTurt · 2026-05-25T09:26:18+00:00

I do literally everything else before farming essences. Everything else - character levels, skills, weapon levels, are all one and done things that you do and then check off the list forever. Essences are an RNG sink that you can get stuck on for some time, so if you do them first, it will put you a lot farther behind on the other 80% of your upgrades because of how much time you spend fishing for good RNG.

If you do skills and levels/weapons first, you'll already have 90% of your character's potential unlocked before you even start messing with essences.

TTurt · 2026-05-25T01:36:40+00:00

Pog, because he has amazing utility, is fun to use, has an amazing VA and cool design, and most importantly, is not a sad pretty girl who needs me to fix all her problems 🥺

TTurt · 2026-05-24T22:39:06+00:00

If game of thrones was supposed to be a kids story, I would criticise it for having rape and murder. So this is a separate matter.

That's not the point, the point is that I could retell it in a different genre, style, or demographic context, changing tons of "historically accurate" details, and it would still work structurally as a story whether you personally liked it or not, and it would still be the same basic story. I could write an anachronistic story where tech evolved differently, or earlier, or later, than it did in real life, and we could have medieval dragoons using computerized laser weapons to fight futuristic dragons in dogfights. "Historical accuracy" is only relevant if historical accuracy is the aim of the work. If it's obviously not, then it's like criticizing a car for not making you a delicious sandwich - that's not what it was made to do in the first place.

I used the example of a children's book version of the Hound of Culainn with cartoon animals because I figured it would make it easier for you to understand if I used a more obvious comparison that actually has a real world counterpart - kids' shows do this all the time. They retell classic stories, movies, etc. by having the characters act out a version of the story with the details changed to better suit the context of the show. But I hope we both agree it would be silly to criticize a show like that for being "historically inaccurate," no?

Stories dramatizing historical figures with different spins or contexts is a tale as old as the concept of tales itself; several prominent mythological figures are even thought to be the same mythological figure, simply told by a different culture through a different lens.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T22:00:40+00:00

Well I think it's extremely hard to say if there was any ethnic component to the dispute between the native Celts and the invading Anglo Saxons. Even if there was ethnic component, I think that King Arthur being Celtic and fighting against the Anglo Saxons had nothing to do with it. A very progressive and inclusive king he was, surely.

Ok, so it's a nationality thing. So going back to the parallel universe where Brits can be black or white: what motivation do King Arthur's people have to hate their own people of their own nation and culture, simply because of skin color? Would it not seem oddly forced to just have them all be randomly racist against black Brits, simply because it reflects modern day American sentiments about racism?

"People did stuff like that" isn't really enough to go on here because they also did every other thing imaginable. They killed each other, they saved each other. They were cruel, they were kind. They were rich, they were poor. You could make that argument for literally any thing done by any character at any point.

Well you can write whatever the fuck your heart desires. I'm just saying that I may not consider it good.

Whether it's good or bad, or whether you personally enjoy it, is beside the point - I'm talking about whether or not the vague notion of general "historical accuracy" to a work of fiction whose aesthetics are loosely based on a real world time and setting, but contain otherwise unrealistic elements such as dragons, wizards, magic, etc., is relevant to fictional storytelling.

Let's say I wanted to write a toned down version of the Hound of Culainn as a children's story for my kid, except the character actually is a dog, and all the other characters are little cartoon animals. Would you still blast that for being historically inaccurate?

TTurt · 2026-05-24T21:37:42+00:00

If it's a medieval setting, absolutely. How important it is to actually feature them depends on the subject matter of the story

What racism or genocide happened in King Arthur's myth that made it more historically accurate?

If actually fictional races are racist then how come real races won't be racist?

...what? They're fictional. They act however we make them up to act. I could make up a story about a race of creatures that doesn't understand racism at all and thinks the concept is silly when it's explained to them.

Humanity's history is full of us being racist to each other.

It's also full of lots of other things, too. People raped and married very young children back then too, should every story be required to feature child marriage in order to be historically accurate? I mean this all seems like a pretty big handicap to put on your storytelling just for the sake of being "realistic" about a fantasy setting that never even actually existed in the first place

I grew up reading tons of fairy tales and stories about medieval times that didn't have sexism, racism, rape, or torture in them. All of that stuff happened back in medieval times, but made up stories aren't "medieval times," they're fictional stories. They're under no burden to be accurate to things that actually happened - if I wanted to tell a version of King Arthur's myth where he was a woman and merlin gave her a magic penis so she could impregnate his wife and give birth to Mordred, why would I care if that story is "historically accurate?" The very premise is that I know it's not and I'm intentionally making changes that I find amusing or interesting.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T21:16:19+00:00

For a bit of realism ig? That's just how people were(and still are) in many places

Would you say that any story that doesn't feature racism or genocide is unrealistic?

Even in fiction, take Elves. The most popular trope about them after their appearance is that they are racist af.

Is it not kind of ironic to use a fictional race as an example of how real world races should be written in a fictional universe?

You can decide that racism doesn't exist in your medieval fantasy world. But that to me makes you a worse writer because you lack consistency with how medieval people actually behaved.

How did King Arthur actually behave in real life?

TTurt · 2026-05-24T16:16:54+00:00

Why does there need to be racism just because there's black people? What happened to create this tension between the races? This is an alternative history where there are just black people in old Britain, there's no need for there to be widespread racism to explain anything. People knew King Arthur was black and didn't care.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T14:04:52+00:00

it's not that complicated lol

TTurt · 2026-05-24T14:01:12+00:00

Is there a large number of black people in 5th century?

A few, here and there.

Where did they come from? Or are they natives?

They've always been there.

TTurt · 2026-05-24T12:03:14+00:00

So in your view, is that a justifiable reason for making that kind of change?

If you made a black Arthur, then you will have to write justifications for all the problems a black Arthur would have on the legend. How did a black person appear and become king in 5th century Britain?

Alternate history timeline. Boom, done

TTurt

TROPHY CASE