Sneznaya is specifically described as being a black and white land like belobog in HSR. The reason why Natlan and to some extent Sumeru was colourful is because of the IRL cultures, they wear vibrant clothes quite often and have unique clothing and customs so its not surprising. Aside from the cultural accuracy it's likely also a reference to flames and how they can exhibit multiple colours and especially stars (The symbol of the pyro archon's throne is a star and the tribes are the colours). It would be like trying to make the movie Coco but without the bright colours and neon paint, not only would it be inaccurate but it would also take away from the cultural traditions that are hidden by media. Natlan has an over arcing theme I've noticed of "Not needing a savior" which is very clear when Mavuika's plan works out and the Captain's plan is rejected despite being the safer option. Each nation sends some message about the world and its locations and I think one of those messages for Natlan is that any plan that erases the culture and history of its people should be rejected and would be a huge loss. Hawaii, Native American, African and Native Australians had their infrastructure improved by white settlers but they also effectively erased much of the history or tokenized it in some sort of fetishistic way. That is why my personal opinion goes as thus: "Natlan having these exuberant colors does indeed take away some aspects of the dread of war but is necessary on a cultural level. Afterall if hoyo were to make a place based on New York or smth I wouldn't want it to have 0 neon signs and big screens just because the theme of the location is grim such as human exploitation". The world may find it odd but thats simply because media has repeatedly hidden these interesting cultures and concepts from media and put a layer of paint over it effectively white washing and dumbing down alot of the authenticity for western audiences. Last but not least I feel kinda off about commenting when complaining or challenging your viewpoints rather than commenting about the story or smth but I just find more to talk about in these convos so I hope you dont mind me raining on your parade lol.
Think I agree with most of your points - I'd only want to say that they did whitewash the playable Natlan characters, though I am certain it wasn't with malicious or negligent intent. Chinese beauty standards do emphasize the paleness of a person, as those who are more tanned historically did more physical labor and were thus of a lower class. No doubt making the playable characters tan would likely hurt sales greatly in their home country, but there's no shortage of tan NPCs in Natlan, which to me, says that's the only reason the playable characters are pale. Given it's a free game (even if many players don't play full F2P), I don't fault them for making the playable characters pale under the circumstances. I doubt there was any negative intent, and it's clear to me that apart from the playable characters' skin color, they paid great attention to and treated the cultures with respect in pretty much every other aspect.
@@okamiman73 Agreed, and to be honest this is hardly a genshin or chinese thing and its been a wide spread issue in asia and europe. From my personal experience living in the middle east I can tell you alot of the more conservative groups have similar seniments about certain beauty standards. Its the whole issue with Japan and anime having racist depictions or no depictions at all of black individuals. While I think genshin has one of the best mordern portrayals of many small aspects of the cultures and locations they are inspired from I do agree that more natlan character should have had darker skin. In particular I think Kachina and Xilonen could have had darker skin (Mualani's skin tone is accurate to where she's represented), and with Iansan and Ifa on the way who we know have dark skin I think they've reached the bare minimum quota. A thing to note is that Kachina actually has a different skin tone than other nations, her skin is more flushed and less pale. Its a very small detail but one worth mentioning as its a cool detail unique to her. I think Kinich's skin tone meshes really well with his colour pallet and colour distribution, Chasca's design makes more sense being pale. It's sad but considering that 50% of Hoyo's income is chinese (I saw that somewhere a year or two ago), it makes sense to appease them the most especially considering their proclivity to reporting games for minor issues which could get genshin investigated and exposed to the CCP the anti establishment themes of later nations such as sumeru and whatnot.
Did my first comment disappear 😭 well, anyway- - This Chasca TC/SQ is really great. I loved seeing her family relationships ;u; - All I thought about Coyllur wanting to "ride" us was "oh no" but thinking Chasca would get mad for what the Traveller did is- 😭 Chasca?? - *Alright! Get ready...* - man, I love Chimpu, Coya, Chime 😭 - XILONEN RAAAAGH - 1:21:07 just imaginging Paimon punching with her puny little hands lol - 1:25:21 THE FACE AHAHA but really, the trigger for the quest is huuuge xD - I mean, we already got the d & balls near Windrise lol - 1:50:42 the live sound reaction lmao - 2:01:20 I never thought of the Geo Traveller rocks disappearing - that's crazy 🤣 - It was so dang sweet Cusco just talking Coya's ear(?) off about Chasca 🥹💞💞 - CHIEF MUTOTA AND HIS ABS ARE SAFE ‼️‼️ - yeah really, I love this sm. And seeing Chasca more is a treat for me
I don't know what I love more about this quest, Traveler's reaction to all those maneuvers Coyllur wanted to do or Chasca's line "You don't get to die a hero today" denying Allpa her chance to escape the consequences of her actions. Also, seeing how similar Chasca and Coya are, if Chuychu had been close to the latter too, she'd have been doubly stressed out about how reckless the two are.
While not one of the best ones, this quest was quite good for what it was trying to convey. Tradition vs Technology is always about change and those that are either for or against out. The twist wasn't obvious to me until that first encounter with the merchants, but even then I still wasn't sure. As a quest, this one is an 8 out of 10 for me.
Funnily enough, when I saw Allpa's anemo vision I was like "Oh, anemo. So, who did you lose?" As a joke, so imagine my shock during the reveal 😂
Sneznaya is specifically described as being a black and white land like belobog in HSR. The reason why Natlan and to some extent Sumeru was colourful is because of the IRL cultures, they wear vibrant clothes quite often and have unique clothing and customs so its not surprising. Aside from the cultural accuracy it's likely also a reference to flames and how they can exhibit multiple colours and especially stars (The symbol of the pyro archon's throne is a star and the tribes are the colours).
It would be like trying to make the movie Coco but without the bright colours and neon paint, not only would it be inaccurate but it would also take away from the cultural traditions that are hidden by media.
Natlan has an over arcing theme I've noticed of "Not needing a savior" which is very clear when Mavuika's plan works out and the Captain's plan is rejected despite being the safer option. Each nation sends some message about the world and its locations and I think one of those messages for Natlan is that any plan that erases the culture and history of its people should be rejected and would be a huge loss. Hawaii, Native American, African and Native Australians had their infrastructure improved by white settlers but they also effectively erased much of the history or tokenized it in some sort of fetishistic way.
That is why my personal opinion goes as thus: "Natlan having these exuberant colors does indeed take away some aspects of the dread of war but is necessary on a cultural level. Afterall if hoyo were to make a place based on New York or smth I wouldn't want it to have 0 neon signs and big screens just because the theme of the location is grim such as human exploitation".
The world may find it odd but thats simply because media has repeatedly hidden these interesting cultures and concepts from media and put a layer of paint over it effectively white washing and dumbing down alot of the authenticity for western audiences.
Last but not least I feel kinda off about commenting when complaining or challenging your viewpoints rather than commenting about the story or smth but I just find more to talk about in these convos so I hope you dont mind me raining on your parade lol.
@@Fuphu haha it's completely fine, it's cool to learn your perspective as well! Very informative too
@@GoDogChain ❤
Think I agree with most of your points - I'd only want to say that they did whitewash the playable Natlan characters, though I am certain it wasn't with malicious or negligent intent. Chinese beauty standards do emphasize the paleness of a person, as those who are more tanned historically did more physical labor and were thus of a lower class. No doubt making the playable characters tan would likely hurt sales greatly in their home country, but there's no shortage of tan NPCs in Natlan, which to me, says that's the only reason the playable characters are pale. Given it's a free game (even if many players don't play full F2P), I don't fault them for making the playable characters pale under the circumstances. I doubt there was any negative intent, and it's clear to me that apart from the playable characters' skin color, they paid great attention to and treated the cultures with respect in pretty much every other aspect.
@@okamiman73 Agreed, and to be honest this is hardly a genshin or chinese thing and its been a wide spread issue in asia and europe.
From my personal experience living in the middle east I can tell you alot of the more conservative groups have similar seniments about certain beauty standards.
Its the whole issue with Japan and anime having racist depictions or no depictions at all of black individuals.
While I think genshin has one of the best mordern portrayals of many small aspects of the cultures and locations they are inspired from I do agree that more natlan character should have had darker skin.
In particular I think Kachina and Xilonen could have had darker skin (Mualani's skin tone is accurate to where she's represented), and with Iansan and Ifa on the way who we know have dark skin I think they've reached the bare minimum quota.
A thing to note is that Kachina actually has a different skin tone than other nations, her skin is more flushed and less pale. Its a very small detail but one worth mentioning as its a cool detail unique to her.
I think Kinich's skin tone meshes really well with his colour pallet and colour distribution, Chasca's design makes more sense being pale.
It's sad but considering that 50% of Hoyo's income is chinese (I saw that somewhere a year or two ago), it makes sense to appease them the most especially considering their proclivity to reporting games for minor issues which could get genshin investigated and exposed to the CCP the anti establishment themes of later nations such as sumeru and whatnot.
Did my first comment disappear 😭 well, anyway-
- This Chasca TC/SQ is really great. I loved seeing her family relationships ;u;
- All I thought about Coyllur wanting to "ride" us was "oh no" but thinking Chasca would get mad for what the Traveller did is- 😭 Chasca??
- *Alright! Get ready...*
- man, I love Chimpu, Coya, Chime 😭
- XILONEN RAAAAGH
- 1:21:07 just imaginging Paimon punching with her puny little hands lol
- 1:25:21 THE FACE AHAHA but really, the trigger for the quest is huuuge xD
- I mean, we already got the d & balls near Windrise lol
- 1:50:42 the live sound reaction lmao
- 2:01:20 I never thought of the Geo Traveller rocks disappearing - that's crazy 🤣
- It was so dang sweet Cusco just talking Coya's ear(?) off about Chasca 🥹💞💞
- CHIEF MUTOTA AND HIS ABS ARE SAFE ‼️‼️
- yeah really, I love this sm. And seeing Chasca more is a treat for me
I don't know what I love more about this quest, Traveler's reaction to all those maneuvers Coyllur wanted to do or Chasca's line "You don't get to die a hero today" denying Allpa her chance to escape the consequences of her actions.
Also, seeing how similar Chasca and Coya are, if Chuychu had been close to the latter too, she'd have been doubly stressed out about how reckless the two are.
that's actually crazy !!
While not one of the best ones, this quest was quite good for what it was trying to convey. Tradition vs Technology is always about change and those that are either for or against out. The twist wasn't obvious to me until that first encounter with the merchants, but even then I still wasn't sure. As a quest, this one is an 8 out of 10 for me.