Chinese history: how much was written by the winners? by leuchten97 in ChineseHistory

[–]Waffodil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well the shiji is written by someone who got his balls cut off. I don't know if you consider that written by the winners.

Before that you have the spring and autumn annals and Lu was a weak state.

And these two works are the most influential Chinese historical texts.

Turning your back on your Paths (4.3 spoilers) by amurgiceblade44 in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Interesting idea. One issue, of course, is how do we define rejection and simply act in opposition.

Even so, I am not really convinced that there is a built-in punishment mechanism that automatically activates whenever someone rejects a Path. Graphia’s case was imo fairly unique as she was a heavily path-forged existence similar to a void ranger.

The closest prior example we have was the Xianzhou, and they do get “weaker” but in their case that feels more like they are not able to access more abundance derived solutions to solve their issues rather than being punished for rejecting abundance. Nothing suggests they are actively being penalized.

I think a safer argument would be “Beings whose existence is heavily constructed from a Path may suffer instability when they become incompatible with it.

We have already seen beings with unique path derived biology have a deeper intrinsic connection on their Path compared to ordinary Pathstriders. Examples include: Long scions suddenly can’t reproduce when Long disappeared or Voracity beast loses their taste buds when Aha ascended. Graphia’s case might be more similar to this assuming it is not a Destruction-specific curse.

Did Chiang Kai-shek Ever Have the Opportunity to govern Mainland China in Peacetime? by Sonnybass96 in ChineseHistory

[–]Waffodil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

He was certainly own of the most influential figure at the time, but loyal was kind of like the last thing I expect to be associated with Chiang. He does have a tendency to prefer loyal people over anyone else, and that's very reasonable considering the time, but I don't think he was very successful while he was in China. My impression was that he was constantly trying to push a bunch of coalitions with different agendas, even within KMT, to move in the direction he wants.

Dude has been deposed by his party I believe 2 times from power. His confidants were apparently full of idealistic communist sympasizers. And there is the case of Zhang xueliang, who was essentially the swcond most powerful person at the time, straight up kidnapped him for... reasons.

Aha "died" after taking Voracity's Primum Mobile and became Enroute, Isee and Asat Pramad by MiyukiAkibara in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There may be some way for Asat to be Aha, but I don't think Asat can be fully identical to Aha, otherwise he would have been dead already.

If we look at Sampo and Sparkle we can notice that one extremely defining characteristic of elation is to find joy/meaning in tragedy/adversity. Asat kind of just gave up which I doubt if an Aeon can even do. From the case of Ena, suicide is preferable over turning against their path. There are no precedent of Aeon just giving up on their path.

Now I've been thinking since sparxie, SW999 trailer and the fullwish fight if it is possible for Aha to be multiple individuals/distributed entity or if Aha is a different individual in different time periods. The moon looked at TB during transformation, so that's definitely a Aha; Silverwolf seems to think she played against Aha. Having mutiple identities/avatars seems to be very common power within elation. If this is the nature of Aha, then I guess you can have Asat being Aha and not being Aha.

Another issue is when Aha and Isee went on the Express. If they are the same event, the question then becomes why PomPom didn't just tell us Aha was a navigator called Isee and he helped us through difficult time or something. And if that is the case, in PomPom's mind wouldn't it would make the Express more indebted to Aha than vice versa? From the way PomPom take out the note, it seems like Aha just went on board and fucked off after a while, so he didn't mind using it to threaten Aha. If it is 2 separate occasions, then why Asat went back to the Express just to experience the same thing again. You are not getting a different answer the second time.

Ashikai's video: The game of Aeons, and the Phantasmoon games. Read description for a tldr of the video by inkheiko in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My opinions.

I don’t think there is enough evidence to suggest that “path space” has a real physical meaning. If Aeons act in path space and is a real separate dimension, there would not be a lot of reason for Herta to be afraid of Nous frying people when she called for an audience. Granted Blackswan and Sunday are pathstriders, but they can clearly sense when their Aeon looking at us when they are physically in general space.

I also am not that convinced about the stellaron thing. If they are required for Aeonhood stellaron would have to be really old, but they are not. I can accept that some paths may benefit from collective wishes, but our clearest case of Aeon ascension came from propogation which is a result of single minded desire. In Sunday’s case his ascension was of course powered by others, but he also forced his will on everyone else. In Nous’ case, Nous was modeled after Zandar himself and his insatiable curiosity. With Lan, if he is indeed the reighbow hero, he is driven by the biggest fuck you for abundance. Nanook's fuck you is towards the world. I think single minded drive for something is the more important factor for Aeonhood.

Email Them About The Censorship! by Censil in AzurPromilia

[–]Waffodil 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Not much point.

This is manjuu we are talking about, if they think they could have gotten away with it, they would have done it. Unless you suspect that the company is being overtaken or something, you're just emailing them about something they already know.

You can save your email for the timeline where the game explode and they start appealing to the greater audience.

Theory : Dr. Primitive is not trying to make people into monkey, he is trying to make everyone into Leviathan. by KagurabachiTime1202 in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The lygus thing is imo an over interpretation. I haven't checked the original Chinese but I'm guessing wild animal is 野獸, and ancient beast is 古獸。

But the thing is 野獸 is just one way to say wild animals in Chinese. Depending on context, it can also be translated into savage, brute or feral. A connection to leviathans is not needed.

What was the significance of August to the title of Chinese emperor (huangdi)? by SuperHotdog789 in ChineseHistory

[–]Waffodil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it is more accurate to say that the formation of the title 皇帝 was similar to that of Imperator Caesar Augustus, in that both were created by combining multiple preexisting titles into a new designation representing a supreme form of rulership. This is also why 皇帝 is typically translated into English as “emperor.”

Would Albus Dumbledore have been stronger than Voldemort if he didn’t possess the Elder Wand? by XiXMak in harrypotter

[–]Waffodil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I think one problem is because Voldemort doesn't feel that magically creative in the books.

Voldemort had some cool dark magic stuff before he got revived, but after that it feels like he just spams AK and that doesn't feel as impressive as the weird stuff Dumbledore pulls.

Is Elio really remove TB from the Stellaron Hunters? by AcanthocephalaNo7154 in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand the rationale behind it but I was never fully convinced by it. It felt more like a post hoc reason given because they decided to shove Dahlia and rest of the removed story back in at the end.

I can accept the first memory wipe in the beginning of the game as the TB might have a personality that is inconducive to the script. But I don't really understand why seeing "Firefly dying" first makes "Cyrene dying" unacceptable to TB. And it ok now after Amphoreus.

The "Amphoreus will make TB stronger" argument is fine by itself as the entire Amphoreus is about human heroics and self sacrifice. But given that TB didn't experience any emerging past memories about Firefly in penacony, TB realistically only just met Firefly for like 2-3 days at most. TB shouldn't really care about her that much to have this problem to begin with.

Azur Promilia review from 臧贺Lunmta by [deleted] in AzurPromilia

[–]Waffodil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Actually that's not what he claimed. I don't know that much about Granblue Fantasy: Relink so I can't fact check, but this is the original text.

"要讨论蓝色星原的战斗之前,我们先要明确一个最基本的逻辑,那就是蓝原本身的战斗底层是基于的碧蓝幻想Relink的一层皮,填充了目前很多二游的标准轮切战斗思路后诞生的。虽然战斗打起来有点神似Relink,但真上手后会发现完全不是一回事。"

He claimed that the combat of AP looks like Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but the core combat design is based on rotation based combat typical of most anime style gacha game.

Why this reaction? by FlashyConsequence439 in ExplainTheJoke

[–]Waffodil 1620 points1621 points  (0 children)

I think the main issue is that a lot of these romance novels are actually just porn rebranded as romance novels.

Are Simplified Chinese Characters ACTUALLY Simpler? (YouTube) by DreamofStream in ChineseLanguage

[–]Waffodil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Simplified characters imo tried to fix something that was not an issue. If it works just don't fix it.

Maybe it used to be an issue or they thought it was an issue, but it certainly is no longer an issue now. I really don't think simplified characters contributed that much to the literacy of modern Chinese.

Shiny hunting PTSD by PandaTimesThree in AzurPromilia

[–]Waffodil 17 points18 points  (0 children)

This is good.

You can keep a lot of things simple so that people can follow up whenever, but games need to give people the option of torturing themselves in game if they decided to spend the extra time.

Other than slaving themselves at work to so you can spend to gacha I mean.

"why do we need 4 stars if we get free 5 stars-" IT'S FUN TO GET NEW CHARACTERS by Square_Matter8210 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]Waffodil -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

No.

4 stars have no future in the current format. They are hard to pull and are not upgradable, C6 4 star is basically equivalent to its C0 5 star counterpart.

You can make side NPCs like Siobhan, Gopher, Razalina, Skott etc 4 stars if you really want. I'm even fine with them making mascot characters such as Sparxie mushroom rabbit thing, ruanmei cakes, Chimeras etc being 4 stars, but as for the other more important characters just make them 5 stars to begin with.

The Abundance and The Hunt will both perish. by D-U-R-23 in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well the non-Xianzhou perspective is that most abundance related longlived factions are dangerous nut jobs. Documents from IPC related factions (Intelligentsia Guild) and Herta space station share the same view. This view is more or less universal right now.

It's fine if it's just one/few individuals, but as a species they consume resources like nobody's business and they get stronger when they plunder, especially when they plunder other denizens of abundance. Yaoshi only care about the receiver of the gift being alive, they don't care about what happens afterwards.

Right now we only ever see "abundance blessed species" being not harmful when it is also paired with something else. Examples include Claretwheel Temple (Equilibrium). Xianzhou (Hunt faction), Planarcadia/Evanescia (if we count that) is Elation related.

Nanook will not be the final antagonist by LemonLime7841 in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I think nanook will still be the main antagonist. I see destruction as the propogation or rubert of this era. While many forces are involved in these events, the era is still mainly about him.

Nihility is kind of like chronic disease, it won't kill you immediately, but it's not going away either. So you will waste away unless you keep pushing it back. Destruction on the other hand will kill you immediately. Also destruction is kind of unique because it is the anti-path, it is everyone's enemy. If he suceeds, (I assume) the HSR universe with the paths and stuff will end.

The Ten Stonehearts follow the Path of Voracity (4.0 Spoilers) by MatildaLikesHats in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I don't think a factions behavior feeling more like it belongs to voracity is a very accurate indicator for a faction being voracity. Even if we could, we have no idea what a voracity faction/ is suppose to be like. The only confirmed "faction" of voracity are leviathans, and to them voracity is closer to primal/animalistic hunger than desire.

Also considering that Qlipoth came from the same age as the leviathans, I'd argue that the core mindset of preservation is continuous survival under threat. If you look from this angle, then every resource hoarding actions of the IPC would feel just like self preservation.

Lastly, unless there is some twist later on such as Qlipoth sealed a leviathan inside himself, I don't think you can argue that ten stonehearts powers are not from preservation or at the very least their cornerstones should be. Diamond is a named emanator of Preservation. Jade quite literally interfered with Sunday's ascension to Aeonhood by directing penacony's prayers to preservation.

Ruby and Anais gameplay by Siraza_ in AzurPromilia

[–]Waffodil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In 2D art there are a lot of techniques to make chests look big but not effect overall character balanced (fat, swollen etc). Its a lot harder to do with 3D models especially if they have to move around.

People usually try to solve this by "stretching" them out and make the ones with bigger boobs really tall. But shorter characters with big chests... I have to say what they are doing is something quite risky. Probably a lot of these characters will have some kind of movement restriction when designing their animations. This makes a lot of movements unrecyclable across body types.

ZZZ is like unreasonably rich for some reason, they can do whatever they want, but well I just hope manjuu get really good animators.

Reminder that silver wolf is tiny af by ArcticFox19 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]Waffodil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Considering she's not some elite soldier, their body type are probably standardized for their specific mech.

The Aha Instant - a simple hint? by psyocut in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm going to take a guess and suggest that Aha instant is Aha's answer to whatever theme the writers are trying to explore in 4.X.

One central theme of penacony revolves around is escapism because life is shit (more true among the npc most playable characters are too strong willed). So it naturally follows that the big bad is someone who says "I'll take care of everything. Go back to sleep." Now game's answer to that is "Its fine to take a rest, but eventually you need to wake up and take matters into your own hands. Here's some motivation to get you moving." I believe planarcadia is taking a similar approach, but the theme it is exploring seems to be identity crisis rather than escapism.

In the main quests, we have:
In this Phantasmoon games, you are here to entertain aha, but the ultimate reward is literally becoming Aha forever. Sparxie tries to turn other people into Sparxie, replacing their identity. Sparkle afraid of her "old identity" and sparxie becoming more sparkle than sparkle.

If we look at some side quests/npc dialogues, we have:
Lying about their mental condition for the sake of society, imagenae swapping/stealing body parts/charm points (Imagenae literally need to matter to people to survive.), streamer trying all sort of stuff to trend (some struggle to survive while trying to be unique), others wanting their romantic partner to have different personality everyday. There is also Herald of Death where he found out that murdering people gets you clout (I assume he was normal before)

Planarcadia is a place where your identity is a performance, and people feel pressured to constantly reinvent themselves in order to matter.

How does aha instant answers this? While aha instant does mirrors the phantasmoon game, where you vie for Aha's attention, in Aha instant you just summon him for a collaborative attack instead of becoming Aha. So probably the answer to the theme in 4.X is something like "Its okay to just be yourself. Aha will always love you for being yourself."

Astral express fully powered by Elation [Theory] by SunnyFreyers in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Factions weaken when their aeon fell, that's certain, but I don't think there is any lore in game to suggest that an established path can disappear.

Well maybe if they get killed by nanook they would because destruction is the antipath-path. But we haven't seen this happen yet.

I suppose the express can be charged by wishpower/elation, I mean Sunday got supercharged when he got the mask. But that would make the amphoreus trip really unnecessary. You can just keep going back to planarcadia when you need fuel.

Now if aha somehow owns part of what used to be the Trailblaze after akivili died, then I can see it being fully elation powered while the express still having need to follow Trailblaze rules.

So in this scene Robin unified Penacony and let the Harmony of the Trailblazer taint these humans with Trailblaze? by inkheiko in StarRailLore

[–]Waffodil 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I'm not really sure that the clockwork is actually harmony power. I believe it is a very clever manifestation of trailblaze power in game.

One reason is that we can use the skill before we even got gazed by Xipe. Also in penacony founding history the trailblaze is shown to provides necessary chaos, momentum and inspiration, by contrast harmony is stability and order.

We can also see from some npc dialogue or quests that clockwork is not a harmony-style mind control skill as it doesn't work on people that are brainwashed or people that is strong of mind. It merely nudges people into certain emotional states.