*Tl;DW:* Mavuika is a very good character who is utilized very poorly and is overhyped, most likely for the sake of driving sales up. I was completely fine with everything surrounding her up until the point when she defeated Xbalanque and then started shilling herself during Kinich’s celebration, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. On the bright-hand side, I am really excited for Amphoreus later today!
Mavuika really had the potential to be so great, but they kept having to add on things she "just so happened to be good at" which ironically made her feel the least human out of the Archons despite being the only fully human one. The resource management, her somehow being an amazing painter despite just picking it up, saved at the last moment by Capitano, and then her trailer basically being a music video (Xilonen's made sense - she's a DJ. Why is Mavuika singing - why is everyone else playing instruments?). Her death could have been really impactful, her character could have been entirely, but instead she feels like someone's very first OC - incredibly overpowered and flawless with talents tacked on carelessly.
I agree with you esp in the demo part... which is the reason why i didn't watch her demo in the first place (saw the thumbnail and I'm like... why is there a concert? Arent we supposed to prep with our fight with the abyss?)
My reaction as well 🤣 I was way more interested in him and Ororon (until he also submitted to bad writing) than in Mavuika..I really wish Bennett was Pyro Archon fr now 🫠
@krumi_hazuki1440 And that's why I liled about the guy. It makes his interactions with Citlali so much fun. Edgy looking boy is just a Silly Farmer whonloves his Vegetables. He only worked with Capitano because he's just that innocent funny enough. I love my Grandson
My biggest disappointment is that, traveler never got to talk to Xbalanque... We could've MAJOR LORE from someone as ancient as him and we learned more from Zhongli than Xbalanque, which says something because Zhongli is actively being forced to not reveal anything
You perfectly summarized all my issues with Natlan’s writing and Mavuika. Everything has served to paint her as this perfect being. There never felt like there was real stakes because she never had a moment where she actually had to struggle against a higher power. She just erased the abyss with a couple punches.
What are you talking about?? If she didn't struggle she would have beaten the abyss 500 years ago, the power she got that allowed her to "punch" the abyss isn't even hers, she was just the conduit of the power of the shade of death, that was only unlocked thanks to everyone in Natlan, yeah she was a great leader and a strong warrior, but that's not what "perfect" means.
@@naboume466 And that's the thing - it was told and not shown, yes, from what was told we can understand things, but in the quest itself she was represented as a character who solve any problem with just a snap of a finger, yea, there was tension that she must give her life, but cmon, none of playable characters died in Genshin so such trick would not work and there was Capitano, who was perfect candidate for that, so this tension they were creating all over the quest series was weak. "show not say" Especially after Furina and her representation in last Act, I don't mean that Mauvika also should sit and cry, but there are many ways to Show strong character that struggles, not say about that, especially saying it somewhere behind the scenes so player may realize whole struggle of the character.
For me, there was a lack of explanation - why is she so perfect? Why does she have so much strength even before being a Pyro Archon? I expected some hidden secret etc. Her story quest was fun, but it didn't say much about her lore. It's a bit like Mavuika's advert. "I'm awesome - buy me!"
I would like to also add that Mavuika has next to ZERO meaningful relationships with the other characters of Natlan. Lets compare her relationships with her people to Furinas. Mavuika/ Kachina - She's the Archon and she's amazing Mavuika/Xilonen - She requests some Blacksmithing commissions from her sometimes Mavuika/ Mualani - She's the Archon and she's amazing Mavuika/ Kinich - She's the Archon and she's amazing Mavuika/ Chasca - She's the Archon and she's amazing Mavuika/ Ororon - She's the Archon and he got in a little trouble for working with Capitano. (this lasted 2 mins) Mavuika/ Citlali - Citlali looked into her fate and saw death. Otherwise she's the Archon and she's amazing Mavuika/ Capitano - He was the ONLY person to ever butt heads with Mavuika and challenge her image of always being right. But then he was sidelined for the rest of Natlan and used to save her. My god Hoyo do not leave Capitano in this state. Furina/ Clorinde - They have a workplace/ bodygaurd type relationship, they grew apart after act 5 given they weren't around eachother all the time anymore. Furina/ Lyney Trio - In act 1-4 there was ditrust between the Hearth trio and Furina, given she had falsely accused them of murder. Furina/ Neuvillette - Pre act 5 Neuvillette saw her as slightly annoying and didn't understand her secrecy around the prophecy. Post Act 5 he sees her with a huge amount of respect for what she went through and for returning his Authority to him. Furina/ Wriothesley - These 2 never really interacted. I think it's safe to assume he viewed Furina pre act 5 the same way as Clorinde/Neuvillette. Furina/ Arlecchino - Arlecchino was highly distrustful of Furina being the Archon. Furina was always anxious and fearful around her. Post Act 5 Arlecchino has grown to respect Furina (according to her Voice lines) Furina/ Chiori - These 2 never really interact and we don't ever see Chioris thoughts on the Prophecy. Furina/ Chevreuse - Same with Chiori, I think it's safe to assume she had a similar relationship that Clorinde has with Furina Furina/ Sigewinne - These 2 never interacted. She most likely respects Furina. Furina/ Navia - Navia was highly distrustful of the Judicial system and how Furina turned it into a show. She like many others grew to respect Furina post Act 5. Furina/ Charlotte - Charlotte viewed Furina as a walking gold mine pre Act 5. With her being Fontaines biggest celebrity how could she not. We haven't seen Charlotte post Act 5 so it's hard to know her views on a non-celebrity Furina. They somehow went from a nation of characters with all these inter-woven relationships and feelings about each other, to a nation of absolute GLAZERS and next to nothing in regards to inter-woven relationships with eachother.
Not really. Mualani does race with Mavuika. Xilonen has to deal with her silly Request that she has to turn down. Honestly. I thik she didnt have enough meaningful relationships.
17:11 lmaooo 🤣 my reaction fr. I was hyping xbalanque existence since natlan leaks and they really did him dirty in that quest 😭 i'll just pretend i never did that quest oh god
@@kabukimonoo1 I have a serious vendetta against leakers for talking bs about Xablanque being “Hoyo’s favorite internal character” getting all this love and a crazy OP kit. Holy gaslight Batman!
I’ve heard so much abt this quest and I would usually be so hype for an archon story quest but this time I haven’t even done it yet and I’m actually kinda annoyed I have to do it still😭
For some reason, I kinda imagine that if Mavuika is visibly shown to be more weighed down by the people that died by the Abyss/had to be sacrificed for the 500 years plan, forcing her to view her upcoming death as an absolution of that guilt, then maybe...just MAYBE there could be more intrigue with the Archon Quest's ending. Maybe we could've even had a Mavuika who is struggling with the reality that she now has to LIVE with the guilt of not just everyone else's sacrifices, but also Capitano's.
honestly, I'm so disappointed with Natlan AQ because even though it was set up to be this tense important and world changing event with them defeating the abyss, it never felt like something was at stake in most of the cases. they had the ode of resurrection going smoothly, the people didn't seem to be bothered that they go to their death literally every so ofter to fight literal demons from the void, and the characters didn't behave like real people but more like caricatures. no matter how often and loud characters say "for natlan" i couldn't really get to feel for them, their struggles etc. there were a couple of moments i really liked e.g Chuychu's relationship with Chasca. I was surprised Hoyo made a character that felt real, i really liked that scene when these two were talking about Chasca's recklessness. the dialogue was good, filled with implications and shared history. it felt like a clever emotional moment, which is extremely rare to see in Hoyo's Genshin writing, bc usually characters just blatantly say what they did, are doing atm, stating all of their emotions etc. that scene was so good and it's not because of Chasca. I liked Citlali and her little history with her tribe and Ororon. I liked Capitano. He was rhe only reason i came back to Genshin after my burnout. Though, i admit, that his story felt almost hollow because there literally was no build up to him either siding with Mavuika and her plan when he had a different perspective on it, or him dying instead of her. His deal with Ronova didn't feel like a middle finger to the Heavenly principles as it was supposed to be interpreted. I'm sorry, maybe I'm dumb, but the whole quest felt hollow, uneventful, unimpactful on the broader world or on the people of Natlan. Hoyo just made the emotional side of the AQ story so bland. Esp in the last one. It was just yapping to distract the audience from the fact that this huge freaking company could've done better in characterisations, story arc and animation departments. However, rhe biggest downside for me was Mavuika. Her character contradicts the narrative so much. One minute she says that she doesn't possess the power of the Archon anymore and the other she defeats Capitano clearly using those same supernatural Archon abilities. She never doubted her plan, never expressed more emotional range than just being the understanding and capable leader and never regretted anything. For me, it's not only bad writing but also bad VA direction. I got really tired of hearing her "soft and understanding" sentiments sometimes. In conclusion of this whole yapping session, i don't feel that Natlan AQ really was as impactful, well-written and/or emotionally challenging or satisfying as Hoyo themselves clearly frame it to be, which is a shame since it demands a lot of your time to sit through it but giving almost nothing in return.
crazy how Xbalanque who had like 5 mins of screentime..... IS A FAR MORE BETTER ARCHON CHARACTER THAN HER. He was wise and exuded wisdom that of a god when he needed to, he was funny and actually acted like a true person, he was flawed coz he made bad jokes, he was arrogant and confident but had so much self doubt if he actually did the right thing just like a human.... he was so likeable with what little screentime he got! they also made him show that as a god he did so much for his nation and he was able to deliver that in two lines and it was absolutely believable... also he acknowledges other people's achievements.
They hyped Mavuika up at every possible opportunity. Even though she just got super super suuuuuuper lucky that her plan worked. Chasca awakened at the very last moment and without us there at the latest during the fight against the heart of the Abyss it woukd have been all for nothing. She is better, faster, stronger, smarter and always right out of principle alone.
it is supposed to be opposite of Fontaine story basically Focalors removed her divinity to be perfectly human in every way with flaws and everything(Furina) while Natlan is about mortals ascending to godhood and barely having any flaws. of course this makes Mavuika less interesting in the process but i get the intention behind this basically. she is supposed to be contrast to Furina basically
@@motemo8413 They clearly tried too hard to make her different than Furina which is weird because Furina was so universally adored by the community after 4.2. Maybe they wrote her character after seeing all the early receptions against Furina being a pompous snob before we all got the context. Either way, it was a mistake to run so far in the opposite direction. Every archon has had some imperfection that they have to face in their story; except Mavuika.
@@motemo8413 It's not the opposite of Fontaine story it's just the dichotomie of every GOD-god having been riddled with flaws so far while the HUMAN-god, seemingly, isn't. Expectation subversion. Like how Paimon pointed out in 5.0 every Nation they went to the Archon/Nation went bonkers on them, they expected Natlan to be no different, but sike it was.
@@Phantasm6969 and you're literally doing what all the little kiddy flamers did for Furina, judging the character before you know the full context/journey.
@@gaevlos1281 The archon quest is over buddy. We’re well past the point where we got Furina’s reveal. Everything after this point is exposition to bridge the gap into Szenhnaya. We’ve literally been doing this song and dance for 4 years now.
If she’s human it should have an EXTREAM toll on her psyche, there was moments when you could show that in existing story just making it look different like when she was trying to learn painting, traveler could see that her hand is shakey and in her voice we could hear that she’s about to collapse but she doesn’t want us to see,so she asks us to leave, or in her story quest when talking to xilonen she could say instead of “she’s more aloof in private” sth in style of “she’s more quiet in private and it takes her some time to unwind before she even has enough energy to speak”. We all get that she needs to be inspirational leader just give her some realistic flaws that support that statement, it would only better her to show that even pinnacle of human strength is also weak sometimes too.
True, but she is exactly a good example why sometimes it's important to give more screen time on some - "everyday" activities of characters, cos yes, it was told, shown a little bit, but it was a moment and end.... like OK, and almost no one will even remember it, but how many players remember Ei and how she reacts on new things in Inazuma that happen while she locked herself in Plane of Euthymia, people shitted on that quest, but such moments build character and makes them deeper and more alive, while Mauvika really felts sometimes like Captain Marvel (but not as toxic as CM was, but anyway, you get what I mean... I hope)
Ah, but of course her hand wouldn't be shaking! Creating makes her relax after all, just like her passion is being productive and working hard. And she never gets tired, because "she can't". And that's very realistic and completely doesn't lead to burn out and mental break at some point in real life, Hoyoverse... I know that she's supposed to be this amazing, competent leader (unlike some other, non-human archons) and that her circumstances put the pressure on her to be perfect and it's cool that she can manage that ig, but I also think it would help her be more interesting if we saw a moment of weakness from her. Like I KNOW her whole freaking thing is being strong, but that backfires and makes me feel barely any fondness for her as a story character. Her missing her family is not enough. That's why I liked when in Mavuika's SQ, after Xbalanque praised her, she had to put on her sunglasses to hide that she wanted to cry. We didn't see tears but that gesture isn't fooling anyone so that's some emotions we got out of her at least.
it feels like whoever wrote Mavuika wasn't allowed to go through and someone else took over; her buildup as a down-to-earth Archon with no visible flaws and a lot of power, but she has no private life, she even leaves her painting to tagalong to The People of the Springs, leaves her family for the future, etc. she could have been this grand character not allowing herself being imperfect for the sake of her nation and now falling hard eith her big plan being realized... Well, I guee Colombina's power should work even more on her than the traveler with what Scarameow (mine's called Shiki) said
Only that it was shown multiple times that she had a private life and close connections with her people. She just did not have enough free time for them for obvious (hopefully) reasons.
Now that you say it, it really was cringe that Mavuika stole Kinich's spotlight like that, but I was still sad about our goodbye with Xbalanque at that point so I didn't even think about it
She never stole Kinich spotlight. What you want throw Kinich against a god level threat like Capitano? She didn't steal anything it was the rightbresponse that wouldn't be Stupid.
It's not that mavuika "stole" Kinich spotlight, It's about the lack of communication and relation nuace for mavuika and kinich outside archon-civilian relation ship (More kinich screen time please)
Yeaaahhh I agree with you there. I can understand why Mavuika had to be strong and perfect. She had to be in order to become the literal light for her people, someone they can look up to and inspire them. If she fell in battle, her whole nation would have lost all fighting morale, and thus ultimately lose to the Abyss. In some moments, there were scenes that showed that being too selfless was Mavuika's flaw. She didnt care what happened to her as long as Natlan was saved. It took Capitano's death for her to realize that someone needs to lead Natlan after the war, and losing their Archon right then and there would have caused chaos from the loss of leadership. I just wished the writers leaned more heavily into showing how much lack of care she had for herself. Not like, overworking herself (like another Jean or something) but like showing her doing something for herself more, especially now that she gets to finally LIVE, other than just finish painting a picture. Her winning against Xblanaque was such a BS move. She only won bc the flame went out. If there was no such timer, he'd have whooped her ass. Also, being in that domain was the PERFECT chance the writers could have taken to show her inner most fears. But noooo they just had her smile and said, "No I don't lose hope." Using Xbalanque as a way to glaze Mavuika was such....a sucky move. He didnt deserve that :/ Like, you're telling me that the guy who defeated the Pyro Dragon Sovereign lost?? Fuck offff
i agree that she lack of failure. the way she act is fully coherent. i seen people saying the she should have doubt, but it would make no sens, she always was ready to sacrifice herself for Natlan (like the past 6 hero did) the problem is : she had a plan, and everything appended as she planed, with only minor unforeseen (+one big at the end with Capitano, but that was positive for her)
They had a strong build up on her trailer with the riding so long she starts doubting her mission. The end of the AQ could be her almost dying against the Abyss Dragon, remember this doubt and the traveler calling her to gather the hopes from her people like he did in Inazuma. IMO this would elevate both her and the MC's in the story. Also the Captain getting his W meant she'd fulfill her plan but lose purpose after. The whole Xbalanque coming back would serve to confront her without motivation. 1st round she loses then her quest to find a new one making her able to get one up on him.
I have never felt so little for an Archon. The Archon is what tethers me to their nation. If I care about the Archon, or at least feel something for them, I care about their nation. Imagine how desperately we wanted to save Nahida, how her birthday trailer still pulls emotional strings. How we all first hated Furina, then absolutely fell in love with her. The two older gods, Barbatos and Morax, both harbor regret and grief, opting to remain mostly hidden behind the facade of carefree lives to cope with their deeds during the Archon war. Even Ei, though she wasn't fully fleshed out, I felt for her. I saw her flaws, the characters saw her flaws. That's the thing about Archons, their flaws, in one way or another, impact the story. When you have someone like Mavuika, honestly, what are you supposed to feel? Nothing. She is a flawless queen I feel nothing for.
Thanks for the video and putting into words how I feel about Mavuika. My biggest gripe on Mavuika (outside of being the perfect goddess) is how egregious the motorcycle shill was. I cringed so hard when it appeared in the Sunset animated trailer like she didn't even have it during the entire 500-year journey??? And then her entire SQ was also a massive shill about the bloody motorcycle like dangit. I also didn't really like her trailer, it felt really out of place that she just has a music video trailer like dude she's supposed to be a biker and now she's a rock star as well? Even Furina, queen of the bloody opera house, only had a few singing lines at the end of her trailer (granted she got an entire song in her SQ but that made sense since she was performing). Like goddangit you could really tell how much they are trying to shill Mavuika and it annoys me so much. Probably first Archon I would just put in the "never pull" section because of how much I hate the entire package.
the title is so true because it feels like they want us to like her so bad from day 1 bc theres no reasons to not like her that exist. ironically her being a human archon makes the lack of flaws even more astounding and i get maybe thats what they were going for but it just distances her from us more. her story quest was the same i wish they'd have had break down to show immaturity/selfihsness/anxiety with Hine instead of holding back bc of her responsibilities. now she's living for "herself" after the war they shouldve taken advantage of it in the story quest to further develop her character... capitano also shares similar elements but him flipping off ronova at the end yelling in sheer anger had everybody shook shhzhzhzhdh
This video put into words all of my frustrations with mavuika's character. The massive mary sue treatment absolutely ruined her character for me. I was expecting to meet an archon that would be the easiest to understand and connect with due to her human nature, but turns out she's the most unapproachable out of a the archon because of how unbelievably perfect she is. Even the literal gods felt more human than her Mavuika's story quest was so disappointing I could cry. I was so hyped to see a more imperfect, human side of her that would explore her past and how she balanced her human nature with her duties as a deity, and then my hopes were shattered by the massive glaze fest it ended up being. The fact that they took xbalanque and turned him into an npc, then used him as a plot device to uplift mavuika EVEN MORE and then sent him back to the shadow realm was arguably one of hoyo's biggest L's along with what they did to capitano and it was a disservice to his character and all the depth he could've provided not only to the history of teyvat, but as a fellow human archon as well. I was so disappointed. I also find it hilarious that during the archon quest (I think) she mentions how it's weird for her to throw a feast in commemoration of herself, but then she goes ahead and steals kinich's thunder for no reason and everybody goes along. I'm hoping the person who wrote mavuika and the one who wrote mualani's trible chronicles are the same person so they can get fired already
Her story quest was the biggest disaster for me. It kinda just ruined everything, like I am trying hard to adjust to how they're making her perfect but then they try to make her seem down to earth like and shove that down our throats that shes not just uber perfect when by the end, her flaw is that shes too good. Let her crack, we won't dislike her if she slips up but Hoyoverse just seems to insist on her being, like even to beating Paimon in an eating constest, they cant even let her take trivial L's in her story quest like come on.. Its such an L because there was massive headroom to focus on her character evolution and development since losing to the Abyss 500 years ago. They couldn't even do that, instead they make her the all mother and everyone else as characters kinda suffers for it, in terms of ultimate development unfortunately. Like, I feel like Natlan as a story is a bit all over the place, like it doesn't want me to take it too seriously with its approach, so it can kinda get away with some of the directions it takes narratively and with some of the characters and I was able to adjust to that for some time but then her quest kinda tipped me over because even though it wasn't meant to be too serious for the most part, it continues to settle in that Hoyoverse didn't seem to have clear idea of the what they wabted to go for here. I could be fine with this if I didn't experience the highs of Sumeru and Fontaine already, I really thought that Hoyoverse was better than this now, perhaps I expected too much, even now.
@@F1ll1nTh3Blanks Honestly, imo, the obvious direction for her story quest would have been to show what happens when the cost of all the sacrifice in her life finally hits her. It’s a very human thing to do - avoid our own negative feeling when we have something pushing us forward. Once that thing is no longer a factor, it hits you all at once. This would have been the perfect opportunity to show that she is *not* perfect and was, like Furina, putting on a brave face for herself and her people to get through their crisis. Her entire life was shaped by this huge responsibility she had for saving her entire nation and she never got the chance to mourn or do anything for herself for hundreds of years. Exploring those feelings would have done wonders for her character and shown us a side of her we didn’t get to see.
@@Phantasm6969my biggest disappointment is that she defeated xibalanque. That dud defeated the soveraign of fire in a one vs one fight when he wasn't even an archon. We saw her being defeated by the abyse 500 years ago tupac have to carry her to the stadium. But somehow she is stronger then xibalanque. And she defeated captain is understandable because at the end of the day he is a normal human. But she defeated varka in a drinking compitition. The grandmaster of he nation of wine lol.
I have so many problems with mavuika and natlan as a whole, but one of my bigger problems is that I just *knew* mavuika wasn’t gonna die, hoyo saw her as too much of a money maker ofc she wouldn’t die- if this was any other game (even any other hoyo game besides genshin) I would feel the suspense of mavuikas fortold “death” and actually be worried if she would die or not. The character who gave me that feeling of being unsure and uneasy about whether they would die or not IS CAPITANO. I’m personally still upset over signora dying as well even though I’m not a super huge fan of her, because of her design and story being linked with resurrection and/or reincarnation themes. Signora dying with so many teases in her character about revival and then hoyo keeping her dead kinda felt like a slap in the face and I’m starting to get that feeling with capitano. I feel like the majority of natlan was rewritten VERY QUICK and so many years of hype for natlan just to be meh compared to Fontaine or even sumeru just feels sad. It seems like the bits and pieces of natlan we have gotten throughout the years is basically irrelevant to natlan funnily enough
2:59 ok but what she meant is like when moms say " I love all my children the same " and it doesn't even matter if one of them is doctor or one has no life
Mavuika frustrates me because I can see the contours of the kind of personal flaws the writers obviously had in mind for her (the flaws of idealistic leadership, of self-sacrifice, of personal ambition toward heroic grandeur) none of which are then fully realized. That in itself is not a new thing, I would actually argue that because of gacha games' need to sell characters most of Genshin's limited 5 stars don't have real flaws - however many of them still face struggles, struggle being something that can also make a character arc compelling. Mavuika's character does have personal struggle, the one point they keep driving home about her is her leaving her family behind for a goal without an end in sight, and when you watch the animatic that is at least somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, by the time of the archon quest, in the game that we actually play, she has already transcended any doubt she had, and so we don't even get any moments of weakness or uncertainty from her character. Even if thematically you wanted to show that a "human God" was better than all the other gods, that does not preclude the necessity of hurdles in a character arc. So if Mavuika has neither flaws nor personal struggle - if she doesn't make mistakes, if she never loses a fight, if she never wavers - what even is her character arc? When I started Act 5 I really thought we were going to get into Mavuika's character a bit more, see even just a little bit of her interior, but instead, time that could be used to better portray her character is used for cute vapid character interactions and also to show how good she is at her job, which all of us already know. It's amazing how much time is squandered on stuff like the send-off feast or the parade rather than actually writing the two most important characters' arcs (Capitano & Mavuika). I liked Natlan's AQ well enough but making Mavuika's writing just a big sales job is an insane travesty. And that extends to her story quest which (aside from being a rather average quest that also does not flesh out her character beyond showing us her casual side) as you say exists only to glaze her even harder. I don't care about Xbalanque, make him a literal baby for all I care, but at a certain point the pure adulation that the text itself has for Mavuika just makes me roll my eyes. It's really rough and I can only hope that Hoyo will not go this hard again on marketing a character. Not that I'm getting my hopes up...
I agree with Mavuika is oversold, but for the opposite reasons as you, if that makes sense. You say you had accepted everything up until the Xbalanque duel. To me the outcome of that duel was the part that actually made sense. Xbalanque himself set up the system where every subsequent Pyro Archon would become more and more powerful, standing on the shoulders of giants n such. What I don't like was that Xbalanque was only brought back narratively to talk about how amazing Mavuika is, and to let other dead people talk through him about how great Mavuika is. To show her temptation and for her to resist. If they were going to bring back such an important figure in Natlan's history I would have loved to see them take up the story in a future patch, maybe a 6.7 (they like to go back to previous nations in .7 patches) and make it entirely about Xbalanque coming back and giving him the spotlight for his own character's sake. Not as a narrative tool in the story of another character. Moreover, the use of Xbalanaque as a narrative tool served no purpose as a narrative tool: him coming back didn't highlight any flaws in Mavuika, it didn't further her character or deepen our understanding of her. So, why use the narrative tool to begin with? All the other stuff about Mavuika being great at everything from fighting to urban planning and project management, this is actually what I don't like about her character. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea of a human being the most perfect Archon. It makes sense that other Archons as elemental beings get to rest on their laurels a bit, so they don't really care to be perfect, they are already so powerful. But a human thrust into the possition of Archon, has so much to prove! It makes sense that she strives to be perfect in every way, and a responsable person, feeling the weight of their divine charge would push themselves to be good at everything and not let anything slip. I just wish we saw more of her struggle and pressure to be perfect. She doesn't need to be bad at something to have a character flaw, but give her anxiety about messing up, give her impostor syndrome, show us her doubting herself if she has what it takes and pressure herself into being absolutely perfect, to be, in her eyes, at the level of "real" Archons. So then we compare her to every other Archon we know and we get delicious irony. Hoyo was not afraid to show Furina struggling to fill Foccalor's shoes and it made her character universally beloved. TLDR: 1) Xbalanque was wasted. 2) Mavuika SHOULD have won that fight. 3) Mavuika SHOULD be perfect, but show us her struggle to be.
such a good point. I think Mavuika's purpose is to show the possibilities of humanity. They may be weak and need visions to control the elements. They may be selfish. But they are able to accomplish great deeds. But ughhhhh... so much perfection makes her seem less human, especially after Furina.
I honestly think Mavuika would've been ten times better if we actually got to see her being human. Like if she cried when she saw her sister again, or if she was at any point actually struggling against the Abyss on screen. Otherwise I don't think she's a bad character, she's just as you said- poorly utilized.
I love how every archon has a certain flaw. Im just sad mavuika doesn't have it. While even Nahida and furina have a flaw. Pls make the part two of her quest as good as raidens second story quest. MAke it so shes more human pls hoyo
It's such a disappointment that a game with such rich lore and world building like Genshin, they still absolutely do not know how to consistently deliver on their story. How did they go from Sumeru and the masterpiece that was Fontaine to the dry and tensionless flop that was Natlan's story. I did not connect with anyone, least of all Mavuika
Because they're trying to do something new with every update, they literally talked about it on the stream. Personally, I REALLY liked Natlan, as for me it is the best nation in the game, but I agree about the playable characters, Natlan's quests connected me more to the nation and NPCs than to Playable characters. Natlan's NPCs are the best, Bona, Ochkan, Sage and others in Tribal chronicles.
@@iosis9324 Doing something different just for the sake of doing something different is a terrible strategy, we all know what they really meant is that they're scared shitless that their sales are tanking YOY so we'll just throw shit at the wall, alienate half our fanbase by going hopelessly off script and hope that that can serve as a solution, wtf?
Tbf natlan is more about the nation not the characters, and I agree I didn't connect with mavuika even though I love natlan's story and lore. Mavuika for me, is my least favorite archon(as a character, not about her design or kit) but that doesnt hinder my enjoyment on natlan and that's fine, maybe not for everyone.
I think Mavuika being good at management is actually pretty sound and expected. She's not just a goddess who sits on her throne while other people feed her. She's the leader of her people, ACTUAL leader, so she is THE one who's managing people and resources in the nation. She even said many times how she's so busy, and that's exactly what I expected what she would be busy with. But what I find hilariously disastrous is her relationship with Kinich. Kinich, THE guy for cold analysis, THE guy who you can go to to weigh your options. THE guy who Mavuika ignores every time he voices his opinion, the guy who's always wrong when Mavuika is involved. I don't remember exactly the subjects, but I remember 3 times Kinich was like "Archon, are you sure? This plan sounds risky AF. This is gonna flop" and Mavuika was like "Nah, fam. Trust." and everything worked according to Mavuika's plan.
Mavuika writing is very funny because they literally just released a character archetype whom they meant to emulate for Mavuika and nailed it, yet stumbled hard with Mavuika herself. HSR General Feixiao The game literally glazes Feixiao before she appears as this amazing invincible war general. She IS as competent as other characters bragged her to be, but most importantly she *works* with others to cover her weaker parts as she's hot-blooded and prefers to throw hands so she left the strategies, diplomacy, and espionage to her friends and subordinates who are the experts. During the story event where they launched a rescue slash extermination operation against Hoolay who is holding Feixiao's most trusted advisor hostage, it wasn't just her one-woman show with everyone being cheerleaders. Feixiao worked with her fellow Generals to cook up a plan, she assigned the task to find her advisor to her subordinate who specializes in stealth, when she later was going to be in berserk mode then she tasked her juniors to hold her back. Then when the mission was over and they rescued her advisor, he's alive but very hurt then she actually showed the first visible regret on screen after having bragged of lacking worries. Oh, her funny quirk is being a lightweight and violent drunk which is her literal trailer. The crux of it? Feixiao was let to be near perfect, hypercompetent woman yet she delegates to and work with people of their expertise, the story doesn't let her be the only hero even as the star of the show, we got shown her true vulnerable moment with her arguably first on-screen failure of keeping her advisor safe which turns into her resolve to search for a cure (thus giving her future relevance). Most importantly, she's actually a person with friends and enemies.
I kid you not, the moment I decided to pull for Furina was when she was too scared to fight a bunch of Pyro slimes in her story quest. That little scene made her feel a lot more unique than the rest of the playable cast.
I'll always laugh that the first thing Furina did when she got her vision was go try to get revenge on a local legend only to get her ass kicked. Furina was a character done well imo.
Why tho- war never dies- the phoenix symbolism- they could write her to also come back- theres rumors abt dotore bringing capitano back soon so wtf not? What even is happening w the writing. I mean- the perfect thing could have been her ancient name accumulated knowledge or something, but like- it is too much Also what is the price of xbalanque coming back?- like what is happening theres no stakes everyone won
I see two problems here, first is that there was no strong antagonist and this is very important (you may say that Fontain also had no strong antagonist, but it had - Prophecy, in Natlan war itself was shown really good, but the ending part felt like we just entered one more dungeon for resource farming and not that we were fighting the main Boss of the Act, the outlude was very good, especially when you realize why Mauvika tried to distract Traveller and hold him back and the end part with Capitano, when Piero's chess game - Human vs AI was realized in actual quest, when in this move Human won against AI, this is very strong allegory they made there...), but how we went to that boss was not as strong as fight against Childe and then Osial for example, or as fight against Scara in Sumeru, or the Trial and the boss fight with Narval, also that they spend too much time on showing her strong sides, while only some dialogues on her flaws, in short - it was shown how good she is, but only told where she is not as good, on other hand same Zhongli they do show us some of his flaws, even some comedic ones, but in Natlan they went too serious on everything that is about Mauvika, but had some comedic parts on other characters, so she fell out. P.S. - It's not that Mauvika was written badly, but she was not shown properly as other Archons, even Raiden's first quest, that was just semi-comedic quest to show her other personality, but it still worked and then the second quest, hope that Mauvika's second quest will "open" her character more, by showing and not telling...
I 100% agree with you that it was a mistake on HoYoverse’s part to make Mavuika “Too Perfect” to the point where it is blatantly Cringeworthy. However, I want to offer a different perspective on her fight with Xbalanque (this is entirely my Copium btw):- Xbalanque tells Ronova that his legacy (Ancient Name + Demon Name in this case) will be passed down to many great heroes after himself to accumulate memory and power until it reaches the Archon who would eventually drive the Abyss off of Natlan. This Archon is Mavuika. So even tho Mavuika won against Xbalanque inside his Domain, if you look at it from this perspective, *it basically took the accumulated fruit of ALL of Natlan's Archons after him for over 2000 years up to Mavuika just to BARELY defeat him in battle.* If anything, this is a testament to how monstrously strong Xbalanque was on his own. I recognize that this is somewhat Cope on my part. I still agree with you that she should have lost the fight.
You are correct, however, you have to think of the monetary incentive behind every decision a company makes when the subject in question is a product they are trying to sell (this product is Mavuika). Many players (I would argue most) don't really care about Xbalanque, so when they hype him up throughout her story quest and then have her defeat him those players will see their favourite character "winning" and thus be more incentivized to purchase this character.
She was NOT too perfect, she was just ACTING like a true Archon should. She was preparing for 500 years using cheats like the Ode of Resurrection, and her ENTIRE nation to win a war she had already lost once in the past.
@@DragonMJEI would agree with you if they didn't make other choices that contradicts this notion, if they only wanted easy money, they could revive Xbalanque and make him win and then sell the character, and the same could be said about Capitano and signora, yet they chose not to do that, in fact an Archon is already an easy sell they don't need to make them look "cool" nor "perfect" to sell (Furina or venti for example). The thing is the archons always get special treatment, and that treatment manifests differently based on the story being told, and given the story of Natlan was focused on war, Mavuika is a great Leader and a strong warrior.
I agree. I could have been fine with everything until she somehow beat Xbalanque. To be honest, my big gripe with that "victory" was... I didn't see it. I saw a tie at best in the cutscene. And they wasted a perfect opportunity to give her the most interesting development her character was set up for: having to deal with a real failure and having someone she looked up to possibly be disappointed in her. I would have loved to see that. It would have been the perfect way to flesh her out from the way they set her up (outside of the written character stories, which always seem to be better though out than the actual rendered cutscenes... weird)
A character that is the strongest, undefeatable, the best representation of the power of fire and the sun. I'd love it if she were like Escanor from Nanatsu no Taizai (funny because I think the japanese voice actor of the adult Xbalanque was the same one). A character that is "perfect" in battle but really pridefull and also full of flaws that made him both funny and relatable. Instead they added to the game that student that said to do poorly on a test and gets a 9 instead of 10.
It really hurts to think about what Mavuika could've been man, the setup really was there, I thought her initial charactersation was fine and did the job, yes she did feel bland but I had hopes that Act 5 would do wonders for her, since we really didn't even know much about Furina until Fontane's final act, her animated short sold me hard ngl, in my personal interpretation it meant to solidify that her determination and willpower are the result of her honouring everything and everyone she has left behind and done all this for, her lines before almost sacrificing herself to the Sacred Flame like having her own hopes and dreams sold me harder, I really thought they were finally gonna explore her personality in her story quest but alas, nothing, I wouldn't go as far as to call her a Mary Sue because to me she doesn't really detract from other characters, atleast to a major degree, the Xabalanque stuff was very cringe but he's still awesome so I'll just ignore that, but yeah she is very bland still despite having amazing potential imo, in fact, her defeating the first Pyro Archon and providing that future generations are still capable could've been a really cathartic moment if it was given the proper build-up and thenatic relevance in the whole story but as it stands her victories don't feel earned, HoYo did the HoYo thing and forgot they have to set shit up and not leave everything for the audiance to make up.
when i first saw mavuika in the trailer i thought maybe her flaw would be showboating, or perhaps theyd reveal later that she has a short temper or isolates herself. instead she seems almost too level headed. even some anxiety or something, or keeping more secrets than she should for the sake of her people. something. anything .
Call it some serious copium overdose but since she still has her gnosis i have a feeling that she will get a second chapter of her story quest very soon (or there will be a part 4 to the archon quest) where we deal with whoever the tsaritsa sends over to take it from her, and i hope that she really gets put to the test in that and actually grows as a character or something. (I do like mavuika as a character but yeah, she's just way too good/perfect, bordering on mary sue levels of perfection but thankfully minus the obnoxious personality).
Thank you for your opinion. I used to think that only I consider her to be Mary Sue, everyone else thinks she’s cool. I really liked her opening story in the first patches, there she was a very reasonable leader, who just wanted to save her people. She emphasised there a few times of her being only a regular human, and such modesty was really something new and fresh. Then she began to talk in the latest patches. Her manner of speech with consistent laughter started to annoy me - it had “I know I am very cool and mighty, but ok, I’ll make my time and explain you something”. She almost never has a change of tone, only “tired leader explains something with laughter” thing. No anger, no irritation, no any other emotion. Her perfection and win over Shabalanke I explained myself by possessing a gnosis and having access to a divine throne (and somehow I was sure that getting a gnosis gives you memories and experience of all previous archons, Shabalanke included). But all her wins so far were pretty easily achieved (if it’s possible to say so in such circumstances). I want to believe, that next patches they’ll make something “bad” about her. She is already sold well, so it’s about time
The fact that everything was so straightforward in Natlan and that Mavuika was so perfect makes me think it is all setting us up for what comes next. We know Mavuika still has the gnosis and so whatever the Fatui do next to get it will likely put her well outside her comfort zone and endanger Natlan again. Mavuika isn't really flawsless she just made a really good plan that played on her strengths and executed it, and she is very very strong in combat. But I doubt she would handle intricate political scheming well, and I feel like she would be way to easy to get to sacrifice herself/her gnosis to save the people of Natlan.
This is my cope too. Something about Natlan's teaser trailer doesn't seem to have taken place yet in Genshin. At deeper glance, the teaser was actually about the future of Natlan after the archon quest instead of before it. And that's really interesting
Yeah... Character wise, I like Mavuika but story wise... It would have been interesting to see ''strong for too long'' type of scenario or a kind of screw up in her plan leading to her death and leaving Capitano to take the final act. And the story quest revolving on her resurrection, as a thank you for leading Natlan trow the Ultimate victory.
She's basically the polar opposite of Furina. A god who sacrificed her divinity to become human, versus... ...a human who sacrificed her humanity to be "divine". Now that I think about it, Pyro *is* the polar opposite of Hydro.... I wonder if there's any lore significance behind it.
Also why does everyone overlook the fact that Mavuika is the accumulation of all Pyro Archons? They make it a point that some Pyro Archons get complete personality charges. Shes an awesome character and im tired of this Slander
Yeah, I allowed my friend (I actually asked) to pull her in my Account, after saving for her, since I want to get the Archons, and I didn't mind the Motorcycle that much, at first I enjoyed her during the Archon Quests, but then, they erased any margins of consequences for her feats, and killed off The Captain, I wasn't going to save for him as a character if he was playable, but still, however i have to agree, her Story Quest was just all about praising her, and how 'perfect' she was so yeah, your point is valid and I appreciate your video, and now I regret not getting Citlali..... I tried, but lost 50/50.
Little did you know, her being a marry sue is actually lore. Teyvat is offten compaired to a story book. This just shows that whoever wrote natlans chapter wasnt an experienced/skilled writer. When the threads of fate are ours to reweave, we can write the story however we like
While I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get Mavuika's flaw in her SQ, it's also make me interested how Fatui's gonna get gnosis from her. I know that there's also a chance that Mavuika can give it to us to use as bargaining chip to Fatui but if Fatui choose to confront her directly and get the gnosis, how they're gonna beat her when they make too perfect? I think the biggest problem of Natlan AQ is they took way too much time developing the situation and story around the nation and didn't put as much effort on Natlan characters(Other than Citlali who got special screen time in act 3 for her own.) and Mavuika, who is the leader, took the most damage in term of utilization. So even tho I like Natlan AQ as a whole the most, I wish they would put more time developing character now that the war is ended but it looks like HYV hasn't been out of war phase yet when they made Mavuika SQ that they still make her too perfect. * While my favorite act is Fontaine act 5, I like Natlan AQ more than Fontaine AQ as a whole bc of how bad I felt in Fontaine act 3. For Sumeru, I think act 3 and 4 are a bit too slow. So, I think HYV still has problems in term of story writing.
Finally someone that is not afraid of telling how bad this was ... So many CC are justifying the unjustifiable, maybe they receive royalties from hoyo and can't speak the truth... Thank you sir.
Weren't you the one who said in the video "The Original of Teyvat's Gods" at 8:42 that the names of the gods represent all existence, time, and creation? You used Scaramouche as an example when he mentioned feeling as though he had lived for eons. In that sense, even though I found Mavuika strange for being a human who acted like a god, she is, in a way, nature itself. Therefore, she is "perfect." If having all the rights to be an Archon means achieving all previous knowledge, then what? You tend to praise Genshin's writing too much when, at best, it is mediocre. They take good concepts but develop or explain them only vaguely. The dialogues are poor, and there are so many unresolved mysteries that it feels like SNK ( You can't run a series for so long and expect it to sustain itself against the headcanons built around its mysteries for the so long. This happened with SNK, with ASOIAF, and it will likely happen here too.) For example, everything about Capitano was poorly written, and the final choice had no logic at all. That said, although I wrote all this (it's still the internet, and we can all rant about things we dislike), I enjoyed your commentary about Mavuika.
Yeeees she is, they literally took the drunk thing and gave it to another character it's sooooo frustrating. Why could not Mauvika have that problem after seeing ALL her friends DIE
I thought Mavuika despite supposedly being the most human of the first six archons felt too perfect and unbothered in the face of having to leave her family behind in the past and the fate of Natlan weighting on her shoulders, the only one to really call her out on a implied flaw of hers is Capitano and even he has almost nothing to say but praise for her. I was hoping that at the very least in 5.3 Mavuika's confidence if briefly was gonna slip giving the Traveler the opportunity to basically give her words of courage and embody the very meaning of his/her ancient name "hope" something Mavuika has been desperately clinging onto.
I would say Hoyoverse is also MBTI faithful in their narrative and Mavuika is a textbook ENTJ type, which is the rarest personality among women. To someone whose life is always used to being disorganized, and emotional, ENTJs would really seem a perfect human being. They are faithful to their plans, they have to see it to fruition even if it means being sacrificing in the frontlines. It would seem they do it out of heroism, but they just really want to push the boundaries because nothing is more important than to be able to execute their plans. So i am one of the few peoole who dont have an issue with her. A very planning and organized being, who actually is able to pull it off, will really be perfect on record. Tho it wont hurt for Hoyo to have another archon quest showing their hypercompetitive and gossipy side 🤣 😂😂
I think the character could be saved if in a later story line they take one of the more potentially dangerous parts of her personality (her risk taking combined with apparent implied her ego according to some characters like Citlali) and give out a bad outcome. In order to mitigate this situation, I think hear me out Mavuika should be our guide in case some sub-region of Natlan gets uncovered(similar to the Chasm). Where she makes a mistake of disastrous consequences. HOWEVER This should have happened in the main story more than anything. I actually quite liked the part where Mualani got angry at Mavuika over the death of Kachina. However I think Mualani should have been more aggressive when it came to helping Mavuika with her plan considering it too risky, but still doing it for the sake of Natlan. That would require changes to the story. But can later be expanded by showing emotional and rational arguments as to that "it's not right that we inherited such a reckless plan". These are complaints i have about Genshin where interpersonal relationships of characters aren't more aggressive like they are on HSR for example.
While I agree the Mavuika, honestly alongside quite a few Genshin characters, need more flaws... I don't think the act of beating Xbalanque was a bad thing, since frankly if he had won it would only insinuate he was dumb since he didn't make a similar plan to Mavuika's himself, which honestly would probably only have highlighted the flaw in that plan that it was a temporary measure in the end. I obviously agree the "Yoooo guys! Let's make this a celebration for both Kinich and I instead!" was admittedly a bit narcissistic, which is a flaw with negative undertones with it unless written in a very specific way (See The Herta for a direct Hoyo-character way of narcissism being written as an endearing character trait). Though at the same time with how her story quest was written her people were doing the "Whose stronger? I wanna know!" thing which was always going to lead to an outcome like that unless they wanted her people to become unsure of her or annoyed by her for keeping the outcome a secret. Which obviously inside of a story quest which is still optional content, they were never going to do a development like that, honestly the fact they only gave Xbalanque a "dressed up" NPC model, even if he was possessing a child, should've been a bit of a clue they were going to take a piss on him for a bit instead of going through any effort of giving him an actually unique model, even if he wouldn't be playable (Only Impact 3rd and Star Rail seem to get the right to do that). I feel like if I had to point out any other flaws Mavuika has though, at the end we see a bit of a martyr complex being showcased, which would've been highlighted a bit more if she argued with Capitano about this, possibly feeling like "A paradox could introduce unforeseen harm as much as it could good"... simply because it's a paradox and usually in real life we determine those to have dire consequences than bringing about any "good" which would tie a bit into being a "perfectionist" as her friendship lines call her to be. Additionally as others stated, perhaps more signs of weariness, reluctance, worry, nervousness in her body language at the least could've been done as while she is in a similar situation to Furina, she didn't really have to put on an act, she simply was. Technically they did show her with these sort of characteristics but it was only in her character trailers and not in the actual game itself where it matters most. Honestly thinking back to the travails trailer, it was mentioned the Pyro Archon had a secret to tell us because she had to, to be frank I don't feel like Natlan really delivers on that story beat that was promised to essentially be a thing unless 1. We haven't actually heard this secret yet, 2. It was so inconsequential or barely even a secret no one realized it was the secret being talked about or 3. Natlan's story had undergone massive rewrites to where that wasn't even true anymore. I feel like Mavuika could've been a more flawed and nuanced character if Natlan's archon quest was admittedly rather different, if the region as a whole was more different and a bit more painted like the Genshin Manga had done where not all the tribes were actually on good terms with each other, entire tribes were getting exiled from the nation (which with how we know Natlan operates now must've been a even more terrible situation), and other nations of Teyvat seemed completely willing to exploit Natlanese who left their borders. That or have it be, since she had time traveled 500 years in the future still with authority of Pyro Archon, have had Natlan suffer a bit during those intermediary years since the "authority" had not been "returned" it was without one for 5 centuries, or have it be by the time she did come back, have there already have been a present Pyro Archon for her to but heads a bit with due to conflicting ideas and ideology, though this would admittedly overwrite Capitano's current purpose a bit besides just being a plot device for the time being. Let's also be rather frank here, while we know Genshin takes place in the same continuity as Hi3rd and Star Rail, since we've been directly told as much in a conference a few years ago, we know Genshin's team was basically brand new with very little carryover from Impact 3rd's core team and such. It's kind of why outside of a cameo in a Hi3rd Manga from Dvalin, Genshin wasn't able to get a more serious crossover like Star Rail is with Impact 3rd (we do have the more light-hearted event, but Star Rail characters have been making appearances in the main story regardless) since the teams were a bit too different and couldn't really come together on a solid idea for that so we got a non-canon event instead. This is to say Mavuika was never going to be as... well-defined(?) as Himeko because they never actually WROTE Himeko before; I feel like the direct "as great as Himeko" stuff came from misplaced hype over Murata being name dropped in the manga that had part of its story take place 1,000 years before Genshin's main story. Which with what we knew at the time anyways: was going to be dead regardless because only Venti and Zhongli remained of the Original Seven, honestly there's probably a whole other conversation to be had here about archons and if they really hit the "soul" of the characters they're expys of in the way Acheron to Mei does as was described in a recent interview. Point of this paragraph being: Mavuika was never going to really hit the mark of the expectations of "Himeko" as none of the people who wrote Himeko were actually working on Genshin and were on other projects instead, let's be a little honest here the only Genshin characters that really do, usually surpass who they're an expy of because 1. They were barely a character in the first place (Wendy and Venti) 2. Decent chunk of the community doesn't even know the character they're a expy of (Sin Malin and Furina), and 3. The community is still fighting whether you're an expy or not (Theresa and Nahida). This is all to say, in my opinion, I feel like Mavuika's lack of nuance and could be better utilization, highlights Genshin's major flaw of not having great CHARACTER writing. I believe Genshin's world building, this is to say the writing for the world itself, is really good. But when it comes down to the individual character, most of them are just personality gimmicks and ride on their design and gameplay as a bit of a crutch as their active current existences as characters are rather static to be likeable to the traveler and therefore the player. Honestly only true exceptions to this that comes to mind as I'm writing this is Scaramouche who we actively see grow, who we actively see the backstory of rather than simply piecing a puzzle of it together or just be told and not showed, and is actively going into rehab. The other one is Furina who we are showed her backstory, we see that active suffering, we see the act she's putting on, we see the relief of her mask coming off, and we see her trying to find her actual "self". Admittedly Fontaine, while not all the characters do all of this, does have quite a bit of characters who actually show off that they're characters, as a whole outside some notable exceptions in Natlan's cast, I'd honestly have to put them somewhere around the level of Inazuma's characters, they're there, they look neat, but aren't well utilized and are a bit of a mess for the most part, perhaps like some of Inazuma's characters, a series of event quests could occur further developing some or one of them to be outstanding but overall I feel like Natlan's characters as a whole, not just Mavuika, were some steps back rather than going forward beyond the level of quality Fontaine built up to.
They sadly seemed to have given up on story telling this region and it makes me so sad because of all the potential 😭i just dont understand what happened why give up on this game
Mavuika losing to Xbalanque would have undercut the entire idea of how ancient names work, and Natlan's entire plot, it's supposed to be about building upon the previous generation mythology and accomplishments. Mavuika won because she inherited his will, and expanded upon it, the way all people who hold ancient names are supposed to. Even then, she only barely did so.
I feel like you and people complaining about her being perfect just fell for her mask, she's basically All might from My Hero Academia (I know, odd example), but without the injury that limited his powers, altho te hnicaply Mavuika also has a limited amount of power, it almost ran out during the final battle against the Abyss dragon in the Archon Quest. I mean, isn't Mavuika's flaw her self sacrificing nature? And also this fake out for her death beaing related to all her other deaths in the multiverse could eather mean she was saved from her death, or she still has to die at some point in the future, I mean Columbina is on her way as we speak. Finally, the way in which the selection of the archon works makes it so it makes sense that the one that was able to finally defeat the abyss would also be able to defeat their first archon, I mean if you have to be the strongest to become the new archon, and Natlan people are always training and fighting the abyss every day, doesn't it make sense that generation by generation they would become stronger, it's literally the JJK meme of "The strongest sorcerer in history vs the strongest sorcerer of today", but with Pyro Archons instead, also it wasn't a battle to the dead so maybe they weren't really going all out for real. In conclusion, she's just HER (altho I do think she should have struggled more in the final battle).
I don't think that Thrain saving Mavuika is a bad thing AT ALL. That scene caracterizice the very big (and realistically speaking, only if we don't talk about her workaholicsm) flaw on Mavuika, she can't look for herself. Thoose dialogues about being like the others, when she clearly isn't, it's the pure evidence about that. She can't think about herself being important. The rest is more important than her in her eyes and that's why she sacrificed having a family, all of her personal goods and even declined Capitano offer before he explained his plan. That drives me to other point, she lost her family and her life, she didn't won everything. Yeah, she won against Ixbalanque, and that sucked because it didn't even felt like a win. But she don't have an unbeatten record.
what im confused is why previous pyro archons are not celebrated or mentioned in any kind of way at all, also how does it work? does someone who wins the tournament with a dendro vision for example and become archon suddenly become able to wield pyro? I don’t mind mavuika being miss perfect a lot because I think it’s genuinely possible considering that in those “500 years” shown with her riding a motorcycle for that whole time she could have had a lot of time to mature with all that thinking to do and make it realistic for her to be so perfect together with her innate talents
I don't know how you can still stand by the writing in Natlan, it feels like a painfully mediocre fanfiction. CCs are usually either walking on eggshells while trying to "criticize" the game, or not doing it at all. Mavuika's has no interesting characterization and is simply bland, furthermore The Ode of Resurrection felt like watching the newest Fast and Furious installment. I'm really frustrated after having Sumeru and Fontaine back to back, but most of the player base seems content or even happy with literally anything...
The funniest irony is that the mighty DRAGON SOVEREIGN Neuvillette, the one who is initially detached and doesn’t even know the meaning of his existence, whose entire character arc was to try to understand human nature… felt more human and emotional than Mavuika, who is supposed to be the human Archon
everything about mavuika, but mostly this 17:07 and her teapot lines made me wonder if this is future plot related thing, like this is mega stupid but maybe natlan actually lost battle against abyss, mavuika is only one who survived and we are in her mind/dream/whatever, she's always amazing and perfect because in reality she wasn't and she lost? And ancient names are actually the same people in different scenario that she makes up in her head or something (like when while showering you win arguments in your head 2 weeks after you already lost lmao)? She's literally delulu. And we'll get clinical psychologist character right after mavuika hmmmm. And what better way to introduce first dead playable character in genshin than whole dead nation. Like there are celestial nails in NK, Liben event that didn't tell us about natlan but maybe actually told us about natlan (or we are not in real natlan rn) and it suggested some time shenanigans? I just refuse to believe that same people who made furina, navia, neuvillette, nahida, maybe arle (i probably forgot about best characters, sorry) also made natlan cast with mavuika on top. [HERE WAS LONG RANT ABOUT AQ THAT I DELETED] like i wanted to scream WHO WROTE THAT SHIT every natlan patch and mavuika is now literally my least favorite character in game because she's constantly glazed mary sue and others are used as plot devices for her sake without any logic but maybe we'll get more story patches in 5.x like they announced for hsr...?
For me they utilized both Mavuika and Capitano poorly. With her, they should show a flaw, like maybe she is forgetting her past life or something like this, to put a weight in her sacrifice. And Capitano simply showed up as an ex machina, while he could be in the final battle (that was also flawed, with no risk of losing at all, maybe Captino should come to help when we were losing or something)
I don't have a problem with her being perfect I expect a god to be perfect in everything but my problem is them painting her as a normal human and person just like anyone else in Natlan (still love her tho)
I really hope her 2nd story quest (if she gets one. Furina didn't) fixes a lot of these hiccups. I really like her but I do understand everything you've laid out about her as well. Mavuika feels like another Raiden Shogun/Furina situation to me where they needed her out at this point so fumbled her finale to get her out right this second when she could have waited maybe a little bit longer and had a better story quest. All the other archon SQs were so full of lore while Mavuika's was just a whole nothing even I, as much as I like her I went C0R1 asap, felt really whelmed by her SQ. Furina and Raiden's SQ's felt weird being available right as soon as the Archon Quest ended and Mavuika's being just more advertisement for her awesomeness is just really sad, as you've said and I hope, like Ei's 2nd quest, her 2nd quest if she gets one just shows us Mavuika the Mortal under the Perfect Mortorcycle Goddess she's built up. I feel like HYV played too safe with her and in general there's just a lot of lack of consequence in hyv games, so I wonder if that's a restriction they have or something they want to steer away from in general. I'm not sure, that's just a tinhat theory.
Thank you for your opinion I feel the same about how Mavuika was executed (by that i mean in writing). Other than Mavuika I personally think Citlali writing is also no any better. I pulled for both, Mavuika is an archon nonetheless I like to collect the archons so eventually I will still get her. On the other hand, Citlali make me regret pulling for her i am not even lying. I really tried to like her character back, and her SQ main plot is actually good but some scenes are so unnecessary I cringed. For me personally Natlan second half (5.2-5.3) it's just a disappointment. This is the only region where I actually look forward to the story of WQ more.
I'd just like to add that the sentiments felt in this video seem to resonate with the wider player base in terms of pulls. As it stands, Mavuika's pull numbers are a third of Nahida and Furina's first banners, and is somehow lulling behind even... Yoimiya. For a more recent comparison, she about neck and neck with Navia's first run, but still behind somehow. She is even behind Xilonen of all people, her no.1 support, so if that doesn't spell flop I dont know what does
To be honest for me i actually really liked it, specially mavuika, for a while now every character ive seen in a story and in anime, are just some edgy bad boy that hates the world, and for some reason the world hate them to, and mavuika was really a breath of fresh air because i feel like nowadays we dont get characters like her nowadays, and when we do they're usually portrayed as though they were in the wrong or just out right sideline them. But i do somewhat agree though, because it almost felt like they were making her a marysue, which isnt a bad thing as long as you portray it correctly but still, and i actually loved natlan archon quest, people are gonna argue about how bad it is or a total downgrade from fountaine, which in some parts i will agree that it kinda did, but it was still entertaining nonetheless.
Overall, I do like Mavuika as a character, definitely wished she had more repercussions for her actions in whatever she did. One thing I wish they brought up was when Capitano was criticizing her for how many deaths (100s-1000s) would it take for them to realize how dire the situation was. On average, most players had over 2k deaths during the 5.1 AQ. While they were triumphant in the end, it was the number Capitano was warning about. I wish there was some reminiscence or criticism for Mavuika to realize her plan did allow that many people to die. (Maybe I missed it somewhere in the dialogue idk) Just like how in Fontaine, Furina was and is still blamed for the obviously smaller amount of deaths in Poisson, where, in all sense she had even less power to do anything to stop it. Overall, love Natlan and its world but that's the main gripe that I had!
But she was literally right with the point she made at that time. 100s - 1000s vs the entirety of the Natlanese people. She chose correct. And I'm sure you can imagine how the 'perfect leader' beats themselves up over any life lost(she also mentioned this numerous times) but ultimately it's a choice that had to be made.
@@gaevlos1281 I'm more of specifically asking for more criticism, not judging her actions. 'It had to be made' yes and anyone can still criticize it. That's what I was hoping for in the story.
It's not that she NEEDS flaws, the real issue is that her story arc has no serious struggles that she can't find a way to overcome. Pretty much after "failing" the first time around she goes into the future and becomes a parody of a perfect goddess who knows how to do everything and is always correct.
@@1Kitsune1 I am sorry, where else outside of Natlan's Archon quest do we get to see her story arc progressing? Her story quest where she is even more shilled?
What you see with Mavuika is a person at their complete resolve. That's why you wont see her problems "shown", because she actively hides her weakness from us and her people. Mavuika has continuous sacrificed her happiness throughout the years, she left her family behind, she asked her dear friends to trust her plan and sacrifice themselves, she used up treasured items to save her people etc.. of course she will be resolved in her duty. That resolve fortified her mindset, that's why she comes off as non-flawed character. In her story quest you can also tell the way she usually present herself is not who she is as Citlali and Xilonen hints at her true behaviors outside the pressure of keeping face to her people. Some would then say, why didn't they show that side of her? Because it's not for us to know at the time, in her story quest you can see a different side to her, a more fun light hearted side. That's why when she bragged about winning the duel with Xbalanque, I didn't see it as her being boastful, I saw it as someone finally having all the weights lowered from their shoulders, someone that have fully came to an acceptance of her past and is moving forward, someone that can now finally, genuinely enjoy herself even around her people. """Also it's not in Natlanese nature to be humble when it comes to winning contests and competitions. Lol""" Mavuika to me, from my personal perspective is far from what I've seen the internet making her out to be, a bland and boring character. But I could just have been reading too much into her character 🤣🤣
My Idol what are your thoughts on 5.3 Main story, the part where Ronova was out speaking to Mavuika, Youhoultichutin (did I spell that right?) and later Capitano but didn't bat a single eye out of many that there was a descender within that people she was observing at the convo.
I skipped all Natlan character till now and just looking forward for the next Region or Varka. The last part about Mavuika raising a cup in her glory was so concieted I was laughing out loud.
FINALLLYYY someone said it She feels like a mary sue I think the best way to have balanced out her character is to give her imposter syndrome that she had to overcome throughout the story, and the climax of her growth would of been she REALLY gets in the zone and ends up defeating xbelanqe idk how to spell, where she goes wow i really am this strong! Like shes amazed in herself it would of been much better than just the nonstop glazing
Don't care, Flamestrider go vroom In all seriousness though, Natlans story is far from concluded imo, there are still at least 2 entire areas and 4 patches, not to mention her 2nd story quest and the fact that she still has the Pyro Gnosis. So judgement on the entirety of her character at this point feels nothing but premature. Sure you can make the argument that by this point last year Furinas character was done way more justice but most people should've noticed by now how Natlan is shaking up the formula. Either way, this needed more time in the oven. I mean I know it's the talk rn, strike the iron while it's hot and all but make sure you don't miss when you do. Like, you're going on and on about her flaws as a character but don't take the second to realize that you're pointing out the flaws, you're saying she doesn't have, yourself. Oh, now that I made it to that part of the video. Her celebrating herself at what is supposedly Kinich's party LITERALLY GOES TO SHOW ANOTHER FLAW - EGO(Which she exhibits at several points throughout the story). Like bro, can't have your cake and eat it too. Either she is perfect or she isn't because there is this, this and that wrong about her. At that point say that you don't like her because if this, this and that but don't make artificial points in the beginning if you just debunk them yourself later. Honestly just feels like you're butthurt because she isn't the character YOU wanted her to be. You were right the first time, it's a rant. Don't just want to be a negative Nancy though. This video might have not hit for me because I overall very much enjoyed every second she has been on screen so far, just like with Furina last year, but this definitely is the exception. Your lore bombs and predictions(sometimes str8 up spoilers lol) go hard and I'm here for every single upload. In conclusion MNFN = King but even the best leaders aren't perfect and if you fail to see her imperfections then you weren't looking hard enough. In the extreme even selflessness and perfection(-ism) are flaws. Also, for the unsavory candidates that need a reminder. I'm not suggesting they didn't take several turns to hype her up, they obviously did, it would be irresponsible for a company that has to make sales not to do so. What I am saying is that most everything about Mavuika, the quests surrounding her and Hoyo hyping her up are very much consistent with the character, theme and the story.
I didn't feel a problem while reading the story for those points so I don't really care. Maybe about the Mavuika story though I can definitely see those points better. I think it's because I connect the struggle Mavuika runs through her trailers with in the game maybe?
![A League of Legends Movie - The Lore of Riven is Brutal [4K]](/img/1.gif)
*Tl;DW:* Mavuika is a very good character who is utilized very poorly and is overhyped, most likely for the sake of driving sales up. I was completely fine with everything surrounding her up until the point when she defeated Xbalanque and then started shilling herself during Kinich’s celebration, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
On the bright-hand side, I am really excited for Amphoreus later today!
Mavuika really had the potential to be so great, but they kept having to add on things she "just so happened to be good at" which ironically made her feel the least human out of the Archons despite being the only fully human one. The resource management, her somehow being an amazing painter despite just picking it up, saved at the last moment by Capitano, and then her trailer basically being a music video (Xilonen's made sense - she's a DJ. Why is Mavuika singing - why is everyone else playing instruments?). Her death could have been really impactful, her character could have been entirely, but instead she feels like someone's very first OC - incredibly overpowered and flawless with talents tacked on carelessly.
I agree with you esp in the demo part... which is the reason why i didn't watch her demo in the first place (saw the thumbnail and I'm like... why is there a concert? Arent we supposed to prep with our fight with the abyss?)
i honestly feel like the archon quest sold capitano to me more than mavuika I NEED HIMMM
My reaction as well 🤣 I was way more interested in him and Ororon (until he also submitted to bad writing) than in Mavuika..I really wish Bennett was Pyro Archon fr now 🫠
@@dreamday988 How is Ororon submitted to bad writing. My Grandson was solid to what he was. I like my boy and his grandma.
@@silverhawkscape2677probably they mean that ororon is reduced to goofy farmer that happen to be clumsy grandson
@krumi_hazuki1440 And that's why I liled about the guy. It makes his interactions with Citlali so much fun.
Edgy looking boy is just a Silly Farmer whonloves his Vegetables. He only worked with Capitano because he's just that innocent funny enough. I love my Grandson
My biggest disappointment is that, traveler never got to talk to Xbalanque... We could've MAJOR LORE from someone as ancient as him and we learned more from Zhongli than Xbalanque, which says something because Zhongli is actively being forced to not reveal anything
You perfectly summarized all my issues with Natlan’s writing and Mavuika. Everything has served to paint her as this perfect being. There never felt like there was real stakes because she never had a moment where she actually had to struggle against a higher power. She just erased the abyss with a couple punches.
What are you talking about?? If she didn't struggle she would have beaten the abyss 500 years ago, the power she got that allowed her to "punch" the abyss isn't even hers, she was just the conduit of the power of the shade of death, that was only unlocked thanks to everyone in Natlan, yeah she was a great leader and a strong warrior, but that's not what "perfect" means.
The same as Focalors then. Damn, Natlan's AQ is at the same level as Fontaine's then...
@@OnigoroshiZero Bro, you are replying to every comment with the same shit. Charlotte folds all of Natlan chill.
Yeah, let's forget about the thousands of deaths because of Mavuika's plan.
@@naboume466 And that's the thing - it was told and not shown, yes, from what was told we can understand things, but in the quest itself she was represented as a character who solve any problem with just a snap of a finger, yea, there was tension that she must give her life, but cmon, none of playable characters died in Genshin so such trick would not work and there was Capitano, who was perfect candidate for that, so this tension they were creating all over the quest series was weak.
"show not say"
Especially after Furina and her representation in last Act, I don't mean that Mauvika also should sit and cry, but there are many ways to Show strong character that struggles, not say about that, especially saying it somewhere behind the scenes so player may realize whole struggle of the character.
For me, there was a lack of explanation - why is she so perfect? Why does she have so much strength even before being a Pyro Archon? I expected some hidden secret etc. Her story quest was fun, but it didn't say much about her lore. It's a bit like Mavuika's advert. "I'm awesome - buy me!"
I would like to also add that Mavuika has next to ZERO meaningful relationships with the other characters of Natlan. Lets compare her relationships with her people to Furinas.
Mavuika/ Kachina - She's the Archon and she's amazing
Mavuika/Xilonen - She requests some Blacksmithing commissions from her sometimes
Mavuika/ Mualani - She's the Archon and she's amazing
Mavuika/ Kinich - She's the Archon and she's amazing
Mavuika/ Chasca - She's the Archon and she's amazing
Mavuika/ Ororon - She's the Archon and he got in a little trouble for working with Capitano. (this lasted 2 mins)
Mavuika/ Citlali - Citlali looked into her fate and saw death. Otherwise she's the Archon and she's amazing
Mavuika/ Capitano - He was the ONLY person to ever butt heads with Mavuika and challenge her image of always being right. But then he was sidelined for the rest of Natlan and used to save her. My god Hoyo do not leave Capitano in this state.
Furina/ Clorinde - They have a workplace/ bodygaurd type relationship, they grew apart after act 5 given they weren't around eachother all the time anymore.
Furina/ Lyney Trio - In act 1-4 there was ditrust between the Hearth trio and Furina, given she had falsely accused them of murder.
Furina/ Neuvillette - Pre act 5 Neuvillette saw her as slightly annoying and didn't understand her secrecy around the prophecy. Post Act 5 he sees her with a huge amount of respect for what she went through and for returning his Authority to him.
Furina/ Wriothesley - These 2 never really interacted. I think it's safe to assume he viewed Furina pre act 5 the same way as Clorinde/Neuvillette.
Furina/ Arlecchino - Arlecchino was highly distrustful of Furina being the Archon. Furina was always anxious and fearful around her. Post Act 5 Arlecchino has grown to respect Furina (according to her Voice lines)
Furina/ Chiori - These 2 never really interact and we don't ever see Chioris thoughts on the Prophecy.
Furina/ Chevreuse - Same with Chiori, I think it's safe to assume she had a similar relationship that Clorinde has with Furina
Furina/ Sigewinne - These 2 never interacted. She most likely respects Furina.
Furina/ Navia - Navia was highly distrustful of the Judicial system and how Furina turned it into a show. She like many others grew to respect Furina post Act 5.
Furina/ Charlotte - Charlotte viewed Furina as a walking gold mine pre Act 5. With her being Fontaines biggest celebrity how could she not. We haven't seen Charlotte post Act 5 so it's hard to know her views on a non-celebrity Furina.
They somehow went from a nation of characters with all these inter-woven relationships and feelings about each other, to a nation of absolute GLAZERS and next to nothing in regards to inter-woven relationships with eachother.
that's a good point
Not really. Mualani does race with Mavuika. Xilonen has to deal with her silly Request that she has to turn down.
Honestly. I thik she didnt have enough meaningful relationships.
Which beg hoyo to make more screen time
17:11 lmaooo 🤣 my reaction fr. I was hyping xbalanque existence since natlan leaks and they really did him dirty in that quest 😭 i'll just pretend i never did that quest oh god
I was super let down after finishing it. Mavuika's story quest felt like a catfish with a PERFECT setup and a disappointing end.
@@kabukimonoo1 I have a serious vendetta against leakers for talking bs about Xablanque being “Hoyo’s favorite internal character” getting all this love and a crazy OP kit. Holy gaslight Batman!
same lol, If given a choice I would choose xbalanque as playable than capitano tbh. That's how hype I am with him.
I’ve heard so much abt this quest and I would usually be so hype for an archon story quest but this time I haven’t even done it yet and I’m actually kinda annoyed I have to do it still😭
For some reason, I kinda imagine that if Mavuika is visibly shown to be more weighed down by the people that died by the Abyss/had to be sacrificed for the 500 years plan, forcing her to view her upcoming death as an absolution of that guilt, then maybe...just MAYBE there could be more intrigue with the Archon Quest's ending. Maybe we could've even had a Mavuika who is struggling with the reality that she now has to LIVE with the guilt of not just everyone else's sacrifices, but also Capitano's.
The captain lacks screen time and mavuika lacks flaws that shows that she is a character.
at this point if Ronova herself shows up to fight mavuika they'll probably kill ronova for her
honestly, I'm so disappointed with Natlan AQ because even though it was set up to be this tense important and world changing event with them defeating the abyss, it never felt like something was at stake in most of the cases. they had the ode of resurrection going smoothly, the people didn't seem to be bothered that they go to their death literally every so ofter to fight literal demons from the void, and the characters didn't behave like real people but more like caricatures. no matter how often and loud characters say "for natlan" i couldn't really get to feel for them, their struggles etc. there were a couple of moments i really liked e.g Chuychu's relationship with Chasca. I was surprised Hoyo made a character that felt real, i really liked that scene when these two were talking about Chasca's recklessness. the dialogue was good, filled with implications and shared history. it felt like a clever emotional moment, which is extremely rare to see in Hoyo's Genshin writing, bc usually characters just blatantly say what they did, are doing atm, stating all of their emotions etc. that scene was so good and it's not because of Chasca. I liked Citlali and her little history with her tribe and Ororon. I liked Capitano. He was rhe only reason i came back to Genshin after my burnout. Though, i admit, that his story felt almost hollow because there literally was no build up to him either siding with Mavuika and her plan when he had a different perspective on it, or him dying instead of her. His deal with Ronova didn't feel like a middle finger to the Heavenly principles as it was supposed to be interpreted. I'm sorry, maybe I'm dumb, but the whole quest felt hollow, uneventful, unimpactful on the broader world or on the people of Natlan. Hoyo just made the emotional side of the AQ story so bland. Esp in the last one. It was just yapping to distract the audience from the fact that this huge freaking company could've done better in characterisations, story arc and animation departments.
However, rhe biggest downside for me was Mavuika. Her character contradicts the narrative so much. One minute she says that she doesn't possess the power of the Archon anymore and the other she defeats Capitano clearly using those same supernatural Archon abilities. She never doubted her plan, never expressed more emotional range than just being the understanding and capable leader and never regretted anything. For me, it's not only bad writing but also bad VA direction. I got really tired of hearing her "soft and understanding" sentiments sometimes.
In conclusion of this whole yapping session, i don't feel that Natlan AQ really was as impactful, well-written and/or emotionally challenging or satisfying as Hoyo themselves clearly frame it to be, which is a shame since it demands a lot of your time to sit through it but giving almost nothing in return.
crazy how Xbalanque who had like 5 mins of screentime..... IS A FAR MORE BETTER ARCHON CHARACTER THAN HER. He was wise and exuded wisdom that of a god when he needed to, he was funny and actually acted like a true person, he was flawed coz he made bad jokes, he was arrogant and confident but had so much self doubt if he actually did the right thing just like a human.... he was so likeable with what little screentime he got! they also made him show that as a god he did so much for his nation and he was able to deliver that in two lines and it was absolutely believable... also he acknowledges other people's achievements.
They hyped Mavuika up at every possible opportunity.
Even though she just got super super suuuuuuper lucky that her plan worked. Chasca awakened at the very last moment and without us there at the latest during the fight against the heart of the Abyss it woukd have been all for nothing.
She is better, faster, stronger, smarter and always right out of principle alone.
W take.Her story quest feels like a fanfiction not canon.
Humans, the most flawed creatures produce the perfect god, for some reason
it is supposed to be opposite of Fontaine story basically
Focalors removed her divinity to be perfectly human in every way with flaws and everything(Furina)
while Natlan is about mortals ascending to godhood and barely having any flaws.
of course this makes Mavuika less interesting in the process but i get the intention behind this basically. she is supposed to be contrast to Furina basically
@@motemo8413 They clearly tried too hard to make her different than Furina which is weird because Furina was so universally adored by the community after 4.2. Maybe they wrote her character after seeing all the early receptions against Furina being a pompous snob before we all got the context. Either way, it was a mistake to run so far in the opposite direction. Every archon has had some imperfection that they have to face in their story; except Mavuika.
@@motemo8413 It's not the opposite of Fontaine story it's just the dichotomie of every GOD-god having been riddled with flaws so far while the HUMAN-god, seemingly, isn't.
Expectation subversion. Like how Paimon pointed out in 5.0 every Nation they went to the Archon/Nation went bonkers on them, they expected Natlan to be no different, but sike it was.
@@Phantasm6969 and you're literally doing what all the little kiddy flamers did for Furina, judging the character before you know the full context/journey.
@@gaevlos1281 The archon quest is over buddy. We’re well past the point where we got Furina’s reveal. Everything after this point is exposition to bridge the gap into Szenhnaya. We’ve literally been doing this song and dance for 4 years now.
If she’s human it should have an EXTREAM toll on her psyche, there was moments when you could show that in existing story just making it look different like when she was trying to learn painting, traveler could see that her hand is shakey and in her voice we could hear that she’s about to collapse but she doesn’t want us to see,so she asks us to leave, or in her story quest when talking to xilonen she could say instead of “she’s more aloof in private” sth in style of “she’s more quiet in private and it takes her some time to unwind before she even has enough energy to speak”.
We all get that she needs to be inspirational leader just give her some realistic flaws that support that statement, it would only better her to show that even pinnacle of human strength is also weak sometimes too.
True, but she is exactly a good example why sometimes it's important to give more screen time on some - "everyday" activities of characters, cos yes, it was told, shown a little bit, but it was a moment and end.... like OK, and almost no one will even remember it, but how many players remember Ei and how she reacts on new things in Inazuma that happen while she locked herself in Plane of Euthymia, people shitted on that quest, but such moments build character and makes them deeper and more alive, while Mauvika really felts sometimes like Captain Marvel (but not as toxic as CM was, but anyway, you get what I mean... I hope)
Ah, but of course her hand wouldn't be shaking! Creating makes her relax after all, just like her passion is being productive and working hard. And she never gets tired, because "she can't". And that's very realistic and completely doesn't lead to burn out and mental break at some point in real life, Hoyoverse...
I know that she's supposed to be this amazing, competent leader (unlike some other, non-human archons) and that her circumstances put the pressure on her to be perfect and it's cool that she can manage that ig, but I also think it would help her be more interesting if we saw a moment of weakness from her. Like I KNOW her whole freaking thing is being strong, but that backfires and makes me feel barely any fondness for her as a story character. Her missing her family is not enough. That's why I liked when in Mavuika's SQ, after Xbalanque praised her, she had to put on her sunglasses to hide that she wanted to cry. We didn't see tears but that gesture isn't fooling anyone so that's some emotions we got out of her at least.
it feels like whoever wrote Mavuika wasn't allowed to go through and someone else took over; her buildup as a down-to-earth Archon with no visible flaws and a lot of power, but she has no private life, she even leaves her painting to tagalong to The People of the Springs, leaves her family for the future, etc. she could have been this grand character not allowing herself being imperfect for the sake of her nation and now falling hard eith her big plan being realized...
Well, I guee Colombina's power should work even more on her than the traveler with what Scarameow (mine's called Shiki) said
Only that it was shown multiple times that she had a private life and close connections with her people. She just did not have enough free time for them for obvious (hopefully) reasons.
Mavuika's second story quest. She 2v1s Raiden and Zhongli at the samre time then they both glaze her and let her rule their nations.
Now that you say it, it really was cringe that Mavuika stole Kinich's spotlight like that, but I was still sad about our goodbye with Xbalanque at that point so I didn't even think about it
Haven’t done the story quest yet and I’m dreading to bc of the goat Xbalanque leaving💔
She never stole Kinich spotlight. What you want throw Kinich against a god level threat like Capitano? She didn't steal anything it was the rightbresponse that wouldn't be Stupid.
It's not that mavuika "stole" Kinich spotlight,
It's about the lack of communication and relation nuace for mavuika and kinich outside archon-civilian relation ship
(More kinich screen time please)
Yeaaahhh I agree with you there. I can understand why Mavuika had to be strong and perfect. She had to be in order to become the literal light for her people, someone they can look up to and inspire them. If she fell in battle, her whole nation would have lost all fighting morale, and thus ultimately lose to the Abyss. In some moments, there were scenes that showed that being too selfless was Mavuika's flaw. She didnt care what happened to her as long as Natlan was saved. It took Capitano's death for her to realize that someone needs to lead Natlan after the war, and losing their Archon right then and there would have caused chaos from the loss of leadership. I just wished the writers leaned more heavily into showing how much lack of care she had for herself. Not like, overworking herself (like another Jean or something) but like showing her doing something for herself more, especially now that she gets to finally LIVE, other than just finish painting a picture.
Her winning against Xblanaque was such a BS move. She only won bc the flame went out. If there was no such timer, he'd have whooped her ass. Also, being in that domain was the PERFECT chance the writers could have taken to show her inner most fears. But noooo they just had her smile and said, "No I don't lose hope." Using Xbalanque as a way to glaze Mavuika was such....a sucky move. He didnt deserve that :/ Like, you're telling me that the guy who defeated the Pyro Dragon Sovereign lost?? Fuck offff
i agree that she lack of failure.
the way she act is fully coherent. i seen people saying the she should have doubt, but it would make no sens, she always was ready to sacrifice herself for Natlan (like the past 6 hero did)
the problem is : she had a plan, and everything appended as she planed, with only minor unforeseen (+one big at the end with Capitano, but that was positive for her)
They had a strong build up on her trailer with the riding so long she starts doubting her mission. The end of the AQ could be her almost dying against the Abyss Dragon, remember this doubt and the traveler calling her to gather the hopes from her people like he did in Inazuma. IMO this would elevate both her and the MC's in the story.
Also the Captain getting his W meant she'd fulfill her plan but lose purpose after. The whole Xbalanque coming back would serve to confront her without motivation. 1st round she loses then her quest to find a new one making her able to get one up on him.
I have never felt so little for an Archon. The Archon is what tethers me to their nation. If I care about the Archon, or at least feel something for them, I care about their nation. Imagine how desperately we wanted to save Nahida, how her birthday trailer still pulls emotional strings. How we all first hated Furina, then absolutely fell in love with her. The two older gods, Barbatos and Morax, both harbor regret and grief, opting to remain mostly hidden behind the facade of carefree lives to cope with their deeds during the Archon war. Even Ei, though she wasn't fully fleshed out, I felt for her. I saw her flaws, the characters saw her flaws.
That's the thing about Archons, their flaws, in one way or another, impact the story. When you have someone like Mavuika, honestly, what are you supposed to feel? Nothing. She is a flawless queen I feel nothing for.
Yeah the act 5 and her story quest is such a disappointment
Act 4 feels like peak. We felt the despeare of war. In act 5 we felt nothing at all.
Thanks for the video and putting into words how I feel about Mavuika.
My biggest gripe on Mavuika (outside of being the perfect goddess) is how egregious the motorcycle shill was. I cringed so hard when it appeared in the Sunset animated trailer like she didn't even have it during the entire 500-year journey??? And then her entire SQ was also a massive shill about the bloody motorcycle like dangit.
I also didn't really like her trailer, it felt really out of place that she just has a music video trailer like dude she's supposed to be a biker and now she's a rock star as well? Even Furina, queen of the bloody opera house, only had a few singing lines at the end of her trailer (granted she got an entire song in her SQ but that made sense since she was performing).
Like goddangit you could really tell how much they are trying to shill Mavuika and it annoys me so much. Probably first Archon I would just put in the "never pull" section because of how much I hate the entire package.
It's like they're bringing the primordial one and make him lose with humiliation against the traveler with a dull blade.
the title is so true because it feels like they want us to like her so bad from day 1 bc theres no reasons to not like her that exist. ironically her being a human archon makes the lack of flaws even more astounding and i get maybe thats what they were going for but it just distances her from us more. her story quest was the same i wish they'd have had break down to show immaturity/selfihsness/anxiety with Hine instead of holding back bc of her responsibilities. now she's living for "herself" after the war they shouldve taken advantage of it in the story quest to further develop her character... capitano also shares similar elements but him flipping off ronova at the end yelling in sheer anger had everybody shook shhzhzhzhdh
You're so real for this video
This video put into words all of my frustrations with mavuika's character. The massive mary sue treatment absolutely ruined her character for me. I was expecting to meet an archon that would be the easiest to understand and connect with due to her human nature, but turns out she's the most unapproachable out of a the archon because of how unbelievably perfect she is. Even the literal gods felt more human than her
Mavuika's story quest was so disappointing I could cry. I was so hyped to see a more imperfect, human side of her that would explore her past and how she balanced her human nature with her duties as a deity, and then my hopes were shattered by the massive glaze fest it ended up being. The fact that they took xbalanque and turned him into an npc, then used him as a plot device to uplift mavuika EVEN MORE and then sent him back to the shadow realm was arguably one of hoyo's biggest L's along with what they did to capitano and it was a disservice to his character and all the depth he could've provided not only to the history of teyvat, but as a fellow human archon as well. I was so disappointed. I also find it hilarious that during the archon quest (I think) she mentions how it's weird for her to throw a feast in commemoration of herself, but then she goes ahead and steals kinich's thunder for no reason and everybody goes along. I'm hoping the person who wrote mavuika and the one who wrote mualani's trible chronicles are the same person so they can get fired already
no wonder some people called her mary sue
Her story quest was the biggest disaster for me. It kinda just ruined everything, like I am trying hard to adjust to how they're making her perfect but then they try to make her seem down to earth like and shove that down our throats that shes not just uber perfect when by the end, her flaw is that shes too good. Let her crack, we won't dislike her if she slips up but Hoyoverse just seems to insist on her being, like even to beating Paimon in an eating constest, they cant even let her take trivial L's in her story quest like come on..
Its such an L because there was massive headroom to focus on her character evolution and development since losing to the Abyss 500 years ago. They couldn't even do that, instead they make her the all mother and everyone else as characters kinda suffers for it, in terms of ultimate development unfortunately.
Like, I feel like Natlan as a story is a bit all over the place, like it doesn't want me to take it too seriously with its approach, so it can kinda get away with some of the directions it takes narratively and with some of the characters and I was able to adjust to that for some time but then her quest kinda tipped me over because even though it wasn't meant to be too serious for the most part, it continues to settle in that Hoyoverse didn't seem to have clear idea of the what they wabted to go for here. I could be fine with this if I didn't experience the highs of Sumeru and Fontaine already, I really thought that Hoyoverse was better than this now, perhaps I expected too much, even now.
@@F1ll1nTh3Blanks Honestly, imo, the obvious direction for her story quest would have been to show what happens when the cost of all the sacrifice in her life finally hits her. It’s a very human thing to do - avoid our own negative feeling when we have something pushing us forward. Once that thing is no longer a factor, it hits you all at once. This would have been the perfect opportunity to show that she is *not* perfect and was, like Furina, putting on a brave face for herself and her people to get through their crisis. Her entire life was shaped by this huge responsibility she had for saving her entire nation and she never got the chance to mourn or do anything for herself for hundreds of years. Exploring those feelings would have done wonders for her character and shown us a side of her we didn’t get to see.
@@Phantasm6969my biggest disappointment is that she defeated xibalanque. That dud defeated the soveraign of fire in a one vs one fight when he wasn't even an archon. We saw her being defeated by the abyse 500 years ago tupac have to carry her to the stadium. But somehow she is stronger then xibalanque.
And she defeated captain is understandable because at the end of the day he is a normal human. But she defeated varka in a drinking compitition. The grandmaster of he nation of wine lol.
12:22 "ororon what you doing"
"Oh hi...im making trap for xbalanque"
"🐨💀👺🗿what"
I have so many problems with mavuika and natlan as a whole, but one of my bigger problems is that I just *knew* mavuika wasn’t gonna die, hoyo saw her as too much of a money maker ofc she wouldn’t die- if this was any other game (even any other hoyo game besides genshin) I would feel the suspense of mavuikas fortold “death” and actually be worried if she would die or not. The character who gave me that feeling of being unsure and uneasy about whether they would die or not IS CAPITANO. I’m personally still upset over signora dying as well even though I’m not a super huge fan of her, because of her design and story being linked with resurrection and/or reincarnation themes. Signora dying with so many teases in her character about revival and then hoyo keeping her dead kinda felt like a slap in the face and I’m starting to get that feeling with capitano. I feel like the majority of natlan was rewritten VERY QUICK and so many years of hype for natlan just to be meh compared to Fontaine or even sumeru just feels sad. It seems like the bits and pieces of natlan we have gotten throughout the years is basically irrelevant to natlan funnily enough
2:59 ok but what she meant is like when moms say " I love all my children the same " and it doesn't even matter if one of them is doctor or one has no life
I'll join in on echoing your thoughts. I hated how characters were used to further prop up Mavuika.
Mavuika frustrates me because I can see the contours of the kind of personal flaws the writers obviously had in mind for her (the flaws of idealistic leadership, of self-sacrifice, of personal ambition toward heroic grandeur) none of which are then fully realized.
That in itself is not a new thing, I would actually argue that because of gacha games' need to sell characters most of Genshin's limited 5 stars don't have real flaws - however many of them still face struggles, struggle being something that can also make a character arc compelling.
Mavuika's character does have personal struggle, the one point they keep driving home about her is her leaving her family behind for a goal without an end in sight, and when you watch the animatic that is at least somewhat interesting.
Unfortunately, by the time of the archon quest, in the game that we actually play, she has already transcended any doubt she had, and so we don't even get any moments of weakness or uncertainty from her character. Even if thematically you wanted to show that a "human God" was better than all the other gods, that does not preclude the necessity of hurdles in a character arc.
So if Mavuika has neither flaws nor personal struggle - if she doesn't make mistakes, if she never loses a fight, if she never wavers - what even is her character arc?
When I started Act 5 I really thought we were going to get into Mavuika's character a bit more, see even just a little bit of her interior, but instead, time that could be used to better portray her character is used for cute vapid character interactions and also to show how good she is at her job, which all of us already know. It's amazing how much time is squandered on stuff like the send-off feast or the parade rather than actually writing the two most important characters' arcs (Capitano & Mavuika).
I liked Natlan's AQ well enough but making Mavuika's writing just a big sales job is an insane travesty. And that extends to her story quest which (aside from being a rather average quest that also does not flesh out her character beyond showing us her casual side) as you say exists only to glaze her even harder. I don't care about Xbalanque, make him a literal baby for all I care, but at a certain point the pure adulation that the text itself has for Mavuika just makes me roll my eyes.
It's really rough and I can only hope that Hoyo will not go this hard again on marketing a character. Not that I'm getting my hopes up...
I agree with Mavuika is oversold, but for the opposite reasons as you, if that makes sense. You say you had accepted everything up until the Xbalanque duel. To me the outcome of that duel was the part that actually made sense. Xbalanque himself set up the system where every subsequent Pyro Archon would become more and more powerful, standing on the shoulders of giants n such.
What I don't like was that Xbalanque was only brought back narratively to talk about how amazing Mavuika is, and to let other dead people talk through him about how great Mavuika is. To show her temptation and for her to resist. If they were going to bring back such an important figure in Natlan's history I would have loved to see them take up the story in a future patch, maybe a 6.7 (they like to go back to previous nations in .7 patches) and make it entirely about Xbalanque coming back and giving him the spotlight for his own character's sake. Not as a narrative tool in the story of another character. Moreover, the use of Xbalanaque as a narrative tool served no purpose as a narrative tool: him coming back didn't highlight any flaws in Mavuika, it didn't further her character or deepen our understanding of her. So, why use the narrative tool to begin with?
All the other stuff about Mavuika being great at everything from fighting to urban planning and project management, this is actually what I don't like about her character. And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea of a human being the most perfect Archon. It makes sense that other Archons as elemental beings get to rest on their laurels a bit, so they don't really care to be perfect, they are already so powerful. But a human thrust into the possition of Archon, has so much to prove! It makes sense that she strives to be perfect in every way, and a responsable person, feeling the weight of their divine charge would push themselves to be good at everything and not let anything slip.
I just wish we saw more of her struggle and pressure to be perfect. She doesn't need to be bad at something to have a character flaw, but give her anxiety about messing up, give her impostor syndrome, show us her doubting herself if she has what it takes and pressure herself into being absolutely perfect, to be, in her eyes, at the level of "real" Archons. So then we compare her to every other Archon we know and we get delicious irony.
Hoyo was not afraid to show Furina struggling to fill Foccalor's shoes and it made her character universally beloved.
TLDR: 1) Xbalanque was wasted. 2) Mavuika SHOULD have won that fight. 3) Mavuika SHOULD be perfect, but show us her struggle to be.
You put it perfectly
such a good point. I think Mavuika's purpose is to show the possibilities of humanity. They may be weak and need visions to control the elements. They may be selfish. But they are able to accomplish great deeds. But ughhhhh... so much perfection makes her seem less human, especially after Furina.
I honestly think Mavuika would've been ten times better if we actually got to see her being human. Like if she cried when she saw her sister again, or if she was at any point actually struggling against the Abyss on screen. Otherwise I don't think she's a bad character, she's just as you said- poorly utilized.
I love how every archon has a certain flaw. Im just sad mavuika doesn't have it. While even Nahida and furina have a flaw. Pls make the part two of her quest as good as raidens second story quest. MAke it so shes more human pls hoyo
It's such a disappointment that a game with such rich lore and world building like Genshin, they still absolutely do not know how to consistently deliver on their story. How did they go from Sumeru and the masterpiece that was Fontaine to the dry and tensionless flop that was Natlan's story. I did not connect with anyone, least of all Mavuika
Because they're trying to do something new with every update, they literally talked about it on the stream. Personally, I REALLY liked Natlan, as for me it is the best nation in the game, but I agree about the playable characters, Natlan's quests connected me more to the nation and NPCs than to Playable characters. Natlan's NPCs are the best, Bona, Ochkan, Sage and others in Tribal chronicles.
@@iosis9324 Doing something different just for the sake of doing something different is a terrible strategy, we all know what they really meant is that they're scared shitless that their sales are tanking YOY so we'll just throw shit at the wall, alienate half our fanbase by going hopelessly off script and hope that that can serve as a solution, wtf?
Fontaine was trash. Sumeru was good, Liyue was best .
Tbf natlan is more about the nation not the characters, and I agree I didn't connect with mavuika even though I love natlan's story and lore. Mavuika for me, is my least favorite archon(as a character, not about her design or kit) but that doesnt hinder my enjoyment on natlan and that's fine, maybe not for everyone.
💯
I think Mavuika being good at management is actually pretty sound and expected. She's not just a goddess who sits on her throne while other people feed her. She's the leader of her people, ACTUAL leader, so she is THE one who's managing people and resources in the nation. She even said many times how she's so busy, and that's exactly what I expected what she would be busy with.
But what I find hilariously disastrous is her relationship with Kinich. Kinich, THE guy for cold analysis, THE guy who you can go to to weigh your options. THE guy who Mavuika ignores every time he voices his opinion, the guy who's always wrong when Mavuika is involved. I don't remember exactly the subjects, but I remember 3 times Kinich was like "Archon, are you sure? This plan sounds risky AF. This is gonna flop" and Mavuika was like "Nah, fam. Trust." and everything worked according to Mavuika's plan.
I think the thing with Mavuika is that her depths of her story is already done before we get there all that's left to show is the heights of it.
Mavuika writing is very funny because they literally just released a character archetype whom they meant to emulate for Mavuika and nailed it, yet stumbled hard with Mavuika herself.
HSR General Feixiao
The game literally glazes Feixiao before she appears as this amazing invincible war general. She IS as competent as other characters bragged her to be, but most importantly she *works* with others to cover her weaker parts as she's hot-blooded and prefers to throw hands so she left the strategies, diplomacy, and espionage to her friends and subordinates who are the experts. During the story event where they launched a rescue slash extermination operation against Hoolay who is holding Feixiao's most trusted advisor hostage, it wasn't just her one-woman show with everyone being cheerleaders. Feixiao worked with her fellow Generals to cook up a plan, she assigned the task to find her advisor to her subordinate who specializes in stealth, when she later was going to be in berserk mode then she tasked her juniors to hold her back. Then when the mission was over and they rescued her advisor, he's alive but very hurt then she actually showed the first visible regret on screen after having bragged of lacking worries. Oh, her funny quirk is being a lightweight and violent drunk which is her literal trailer.
The crux of it? Feixiao was let to be near perfect, hypercompetent woman yet she delegates to and work with people of their expertise, the story doesn't let her be the only hero even as the star of the show, we got shown her true vulnerable moment with her arguably first on-screen failure of keeping her advisor safe which turns into her resolve to search for a cure (thus giving her future relevance). Most importantly, she's actually a person with friends and enemies.
What are your thoughts on Furina?
I know she isn't an Archon, but in terms of characterization she is the polar opposite of Mavuika so I am curious.
I kid you not, the moment I decided to pull for Furina was when she was too scared to fight a bunch of Pyro slimes in her story quest. That little scene made her feel a lot more unique than the rest of the playable cast.
I'll always laugh that the first thing Furina did when she got her vision was go try to get revenge on a local legend only to get her ass kicked. Furina was a character done well imo.
@@Persephoneia01 Yes, that was funny
she's the opposite of garbage
Why tho- war never dies- the phoenix symbolism- they could write her to also come back- theres rumors abt dotore bringing capitano back soon so wtf not? What even is happening w the writing. I mean- the perfect thing could have been her ancient name accumulated knowledge or something, but like- it is too much
Also what is the price of xbalanque coming back?- like what is happening theres no stakes everyone won
I see two problems here, first is that there was no strong antagonist and this is very important (you may say that Fontain also had no strong antagonist, but it had - Prophecy, in Natlan war itself was shown really good, but the ending part felt like we just entered one more dungeon for resource farming and not that we were fighting the main Boss of the Act, the outlude was very good, especially when you realize why Mauvika tried to distract Traveller and hold him back and the end part with Capitano, when Piero's chess game - Human vs AI was realized in actual quest, when in this move Human won against AI, this is very strong allegory they made there...), but how we went to that boss was not as strong as fight against Childe and then Osial for example, or as fight against Scara in Sumeru, or the Trial and the boss fight with Narval, also that they spend too much time on showing her strong sides, while only some dialogues on her flaws, in short - it was shown how good she is, but only told where she is not as good, on other hand same Zhongli they do show us some of his flaws, even some comedic ones, but in Natlan they went too serious on everything that is about Mauvika, but had some comedic parts on other characters, so she fell out.
P.S. - It's not that Mauvika was written badly, but she was not shown properly as other Archons, even Raiden's first quest, that was just semi-comedic quest to show her other personality, but it still worked and then the second quest, hope that Mauvika's second quest will "open" her character more, by showing and not telling...
I 100% agree with you that it was a mistake on HoYoverse’s part to make Mavuika “Too Perfect” to the point where it is blatantly Cringeworthy.
However, I want to offer a different perspective on her fight with Xbalanque (this is entirely my Copium btw):-
Xbalanque tells Ronova that his legacy (Ancient Name + Demon Name in this case) will be passed down to many great heroes after himself to accumulate memory and power until it reaches the Archon who would eventually drive the Abyss off of Natlan. This Archon is Mavuika.
So even tho Mavuika won against Xbalanque inside his Domain, if you look at it from this perspective, *it basically took the accumulated fruit of ALL of Natlan's Archons after him for over 2000 years up to Mavuika just to BARELY defeat him in battle.* If anything, this is a testament to how monstrously strong Xbalanque was on his own.
I recognize that this is somewhat Cope on my part. I still agree with you that she should have lost the fight.
You are correct, however, you have to think of the monetary incentive behind every decision a company makes when the subject in question is a product they are trying to sell (this product is Mavuika). Many players (I would argue most) don't really care about Xbalanque, so when they hype him up throughout her story quest and then have her defeat him those players will see their favourite character "winning" and thus be more incentivized to purchase this character.
@@DragonMJE Yes, a company's goal is ALWAYS be maximize revenue in one way or another. There is no question about that.
She was NOT too perfect, she was just ACTING like a true Archon should.
She was preparing for 500 years using cheats like the Ode of Resurrection, and her ENTIRE nation to win a war she had already lost once in the past.
@@DragonMJEI would agree with you if they didn't make other choices that contradicts this notion, if they only wanted easy money, they could revive Xbalanque and make him win and then sell the character, and the same could be said about Capitano and signora, yet they chose not to do that, in fact an Archon is already an easy sell they don't need to make them look "cool" nor "perfect" to sell (Furina or venti for example). The thing is the archons always get special treatment, and that treatment manifests differently based on the story being told, and given the story of Natlan was focused on war, Mavuika is a great Leader and a strong warrior.
That's not a cope at all, that's literally what Xbalanque said.
I agree. I could have been fine with everything until she somehow beat Xbalanque. To be honest, my big gripe with that "victory" was... I didn't see it. I saw a tie at best in the cutscene.
And they wasted a perfect opportunity to give her the most interesting development her character was set up for: having to deal with a real failure and having someone she looked up to possibly be disappointed in her. I would have loved to see that. It would have been the perfect way to flesh her out from the way they set her up (outside of the written character stories, which always seem to be better though out than the actual rendered cutscenes... weird)
A character that is the strongest, undefeatable, the best representation of the power of fire and the sun. I'd love it if she were like Escanor from Nanatsu no Taizai (funny because I think the japanese voice actor of the adult Xbalanque was the same one). A character that is "perfect" in battle but really pridefull and also full of flaws that made him both funny and relatable. Instead they added to the game that student that said to do poorly on a test and gets a 9 instead of 10.
It really hurts to think about what Mavuika could've been man, the setup really was there, I thought her initial charactersation was fine and did the job, yes she did feel bland but I had hopes that Act 5 would do wonders for her, since we really didn't even know much about Furina until Fontane's final act, her animated short sold me hard ngl, in my personal interpretation it meant to solidify that her determination and willpower are the result of her honouring everything and everyone she has left behind and done all this for, her lines before almost sacrificing herself to the Sacred Flame like having her own hopes and dreams sold me harder, I really thought they were finally gonna explore her personality in her story quest but alas, nothing, I wouldn't go as far as to call her a Mary Sue because to me she doesn't really detract from other characters, atleast to a major degree, the Xabalanque stuff was very cringe but he's still awesome so I'll just ignore that, but yeah she is very bland still despite having amazing potential imo, in fact, her defeating the first Pyro Archon and providing that future generations are still capable could've been a really cathartic moment if it was given the proper build-up and thenatic relevance in the whole story but as it stands her victories don't feel earned, HoYo did the HoYo thing and forgot they have to set shit up and not leave everything for the audiance to make up.
It’s like they kept adding things and tried to make her OP in everyway and it just became unbearable, the glaaazzzzziiiinnnggggg
I was promised Sol Invictus, I got Sol Sadness!
when i first saw mavuika in the trailer i thought maybe her flaw would be showboating, or perhaps theyd reveal later that she has a short temper or isolates herself. instead she seems almost too level headed. even some anxiety or something, or keeping more secrets than she should for the sake of her people. something. anything .
I was definetly hoping for a hot tempered mavuika bc… yk… hot tempered- honestly cant imagine why they didn’t make her that way
Call it some serious copium overdose but since she still has her gnosis i have a feeling that she will get a second chapter of her story quest very soon (or there will be a part 4 to the archon quest) where we deal with whoever the tsaritsa sends over to take it from her, and i hope that she really gets put to the test in that and actually grows as a character or something.
(I do like mavuika as a character but yeah, she's just way too good/perfect, bordering on mary sue levels of perfection but thankfully minus the obnoxious personality).
Glad you've come to your senses lol
HYV really can't beat the allegations of AI usage with this AQ and specially Mavuika.
The more they glaze her, using her own actions in the story, the worse she will become as a character.
Thank you for your opinion. I used to think that only I consider her to be Mary Sue, everyone else thinks she’s cool.
I really liked her opening story in the first patches, there she was a very reasonable leader, who just wanted to save her people. She emphasised there a few times of her being only a regular human, and such modesty was really something new and fresh. Then she began to talk in the latest patches. Her manner of speech with consistent laughter started to annoy me - it had “I know I am very cool and mighty, but ok, I’ll make my time and explain you something”. She almost never has a change of tone, only “tired leader explains something with laughter” thing. No anger, no irritation, no any other emotion.
Her perfection and win over Shabalanke I explained myself by possessing a gnosis and having access to a divine throne (and somehow I was sure that getting a gnosis gives you memories and experience of all previous archons, Shabalanke included).
But all her wins so far were pretty easily achieved (if it’s possible to say so in such circumstances).
I want to believe, that next patches they’ll make something “bad” about her. She is already sold well, so it’s about time
The fact that everything was so straightforward in Natlan and that Mavuika was so perfect makes me think it is all setting us up for what comes next. We know Mavuika still has the gnosis and so whatever the Fatui do next to get it will likely put her well outside her comfort zone and endanger Natlan again. Mavuika isn't really flawsless she just made a really good plan that played on her strengths and executed it, and she is very very strong in combat. But I doubt she would handle intricate political scheming well, and I feel like she would be way to easy to get to sacrifice herself/her gnosis to save the people of Natlan.
This is my cope too. Something about Natlan's teaser trailer doesn't seem to have taken place yet in Genshin. At deeper glance, the teaser was actually about the future of Natlan after the archon quest instead of before it. And that's really interesting
Yeah... Character wise, I like Mavuika but story wise... It would have been interesting to see ''strong for too long'' type of scenario or a kind of screw up in her plan leading to her death and leaving Capitano to take the final act. And the story quest revolving on her resurrection, as a thank you for leading Natlan trow the Ultimate victory.
She's basically the polar opposite of Furina.
A god who sacrificed her divinity to become human, versus...
...a human who sacrificed her humanity to be "divine".
Now that I think about it, Pyro *is* the polar opposite of Hydro....
I wonder if there's any lore significance behind it.
still doesn't save it from being boring garbage
but did she really sacrifice her humanity? archonship didn't change her personality, her principles or her attitude to the authorities above her.
@@noxmoonstoneJust my way of saying she's too perfect to be a human lmao
Also why does everyone overlook the fact that Mavuika is the accumulation of all Pyro Archons? They make it a point that some Pyro Archons get complete personality charges. Shes an awesome character and im tired of this Slander
Yeah, I allowed my friend (I actually asked) to pull her in my Account, after saving for her, since I want to get the Archons, and I didn't mind the Motorcycle that much, at first I enjoyed her during the Archon Quests, but then, they erased any margins of consequences for her feats, and killed off The Captain, I wasn't going to save for him as a character if he was playable, but still, however i have to agree, her Story Quest was just all about praising her, and how 'perfect' she was so yeah, your point is valid and I appreciate your video, and now I regret not getting Citlali..... I tried, but lost 50/50.
I hope this is build up for the upcoming storm with abyss and fatui
Little did you know, her being a marry sue is actually lore. Teyvat is offten compaired to a story book. This just shows that whoever wrote natlans chapter wasnt an experienced/skilled writer. When the threads of fate are ours to reweave, we can write the story however we like
While I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get Mavuika's flaw in her SQ, it's also make me interested how Fatui's gonna get gnosis from her. I know that there's also a chance that Mavuika can give it to us to use as bargaining chip to Fatui but if Fatui choose to confront her directly and get the gnosis, how they're gonna beat her when they make too perfect?
I think the biggest problem of Natlan AQ is they took way too much time developing the situation and story around the nation and didn't put as much effort on Natlan characters(Other than Citlali who got special screen time in act 3 for her own.) and Mavuika, who is the leader, took the most damage in term of utilization. So even tho I like Natlan AQ as a whole the most, I wish they would put more time developing character now that the war is ended but it looks like HYV hasn't been out of war phase yet when they made Mavuika SQ that they still make her too perfect.
* While my favorite act is Fontaine act 5, I like Natlan AQ more than Fontaine AQ as a whole bc of how bad I felt in Fontaine act 3. For Sumeru, I think act 3 and 4 are a bit too slow. So, I think HYV still has problems in term of story writing.
Finally someone that is not afraid of telling how bad this was ... So many CC are justifying the unjustifiable, maybe they receive royalties from hoyo and can't speak the truth... Thank you sir.
Are these the same writers who was responsible for Fontaine?
Weren't you the one who said in the video "The Original of Teyvat's Gods" at 8:42 that the names of the gods represent all existence, time, and creation? You used Scaramouche as an example when he mentioned feeling as though he had lived for eons. In that sense, even though I found Mavuika strange for being a human who acted like a god, she is, in a way, nature itself. Therefore, she is "perfect." If having all the rights to be an Archon means achieving all previous knowledge, then what?
You tend to praise Genshin's writing too much when, at best, it is mediocre. They take good concepts but develop or explain them only vaguely. The dialogues are poor, and there are so many unresolved mysteries that it feels like SNK ( You can't run a series for so long and expect it to sustain itself against the headcanons built around its mysteries for the so long. This happened with SNK, with ASOIAF, and it will likely happen here too.) For example, everything about Capitano was poorly written, and the final choice had no logic at all.
That said, although I wrote all this (it's still the internet, and we can all rant about things we dislike), I enjoyed your commentary about Mavuika.
Yeeees she is, they literally took the drunk thing and gave it to another character it's sooooo frustrating. Why could not Mauvika have that problem after seeing ALL her friends DIE
I thought Mavuika despite supposedly being the most human of the first six archons felt too perfect and unbothered in the face of having to leave her family behind in the past and the fate of Natlan weighting on her shoulders, the only one to really call her out on a implied flaw of hers is Capitano and even he has almost nothing to say but praise for her. I was hoping that at the very least in 5.3 Mavuika's confidence if briefly was gonna slip giving the Traveler the opportunity to basically give her words of courage and embody the very meaning of his/her ancient name "hope" something Mavuika has been desperately clinging onto.
I would say Hoyoverse is also MBTI faithful in their narrative and Mavuika is a textbook ENTJ type, which is the rarest personality among women. To someone whose life is always used to being disorganized, and emotional, ENTJs would really seem a perfect human being. They are faithful to their plans, they have to see it to fruition even if it means being sacrificing in the frontlines. It would seem they do it out of heroism, but they just really want to push the boundaries because nothing is more important than to be able to execute their plans. So i am one of the few peoole who dont have an issue with her. A very planning and organized being, who actually is able to pull it off, will really be perfect on record.
Tho it wont hurt for Hoyo to have another archon quest showing their hypercompetitive and gossipy side 🤣 😂😂
I think the character could be saved if in a later story line they take one of the more potentially dangerous parts of her personality (her risk taking combined with apparent implied her ego according to some characters like Citlali) and give out a bad outcome. In order to mitigate this situation, I think hear me out Mavuika should be our guide in case some sub-region of Natlan gets uncovered(similar to the Chasm). Where she makes a mistake of disastrous consequences.
HOWEVER This should have happened in the main story more than anything.
I actually quite liked the part where Mualani got angry at Mavuika over the death of Kachina. However I think Mualani should have been more aggressive when it came to helping Mavuika with her plan considering it too risky, but still doing it for the sake of Natlan. That would require changes to the story. But can later be expanded by showing emotional and rational arguments as to that "it's not right that we inherited such a reckless plan".
These are complaints i have about Genshin where interpersonal relationships of characters aren't more aggressive like they are on HSR for example.
Totally agree I am hoping they do a 180 with the dain quest and the potential Final Interlude of Natlan if not than I'll be in Shambles...!!!
While I agree the Mavuika, honestly alongside quite a few Genshin characters, need more flaws... I don't think the act of beating Xbalanque was a bad thing, since frankly if he had won it would only insinuate he was dumb since he didn't make a similar plan to Mavuika's himself, which honestly would probably only have highlighted the flaw in that plan that it was a temporary measure in the end.
I obviously agree the "Yoooo guys! Let's make this a celebration for both Kinich and I instead!" was admittedly a bit narcissistic, which is a flaw with negative undertones with it unless written in a very specific way (See The Herta for a direct Hoyo-character way of narcissism being written as an endearing character trait). Though at the same time with how her story quest was written her people were doing the "Whose stronger? I wanna know!" thing which was always going to lead to an outcome like that unless they wanted her people to become unsure of her or annoyed by her for keeping the outcome a secret. Which obviously inside of a story quest which is still optional content, they were never going to do a development like that, honestly the fact they only gave Xbalanque a "dressed up" NPC model, even if he was possessing a child, should've been a bit of a clue they were going to take a piss on him for a bit instead of going through any effort of giving him an actually unique model, even if he wouldn't be playable (Only Impact 3rd and Star Rail seem to get the right to do that).
I feel like if I had to point out any other flaws Mavuika has though, at the end we see a bit of a martyr complex being showcased, which would've been highlighted a bit more if she argued with Capitano about this, possibly feeling like "A paradox could introduce unforeseen harm as much as it could good"... simply because it's a paradox and usually in real life we determine those to have dire consequences than bringing about any "good" which would tie a bit into being a "perfectionist" as her friendship lines call her to be. Additionally as others stated, perhaps more signs of weariness, reluctance, worry, nervousness in her body language at the least could've been done as while she is in a similar situation to Furina, she didn't really have to put on an act, she simply was. Technically they did show her with these sort of characteristics but it was only in her character trailers and not in the actual game itself where it matters most.
Honestly thinking back to the travails trailer, it was mentioned the Pyro Archon had a secret to tell us because she had to, to be frank I don't feel like Natlan really delivers on that story beat that was promised to essentially be a thing unless 1. We haven't actually heard this secret yet, 2. It was so inconsequential or barely even a secret no one realized it was the secret being talked about or 3. Natlan's story had undergone massive rewrites to where that wasn't even true anymore. I feel like Mavuika could've been a more flawed and nuanced character if Natlan's archon quest was admittedly rather different, if the region as a whole was more different and a bit more painted like the Genshin Manga had done where not all the tribes were actually on good terms with each other, entire tribes were getting exiled from the nation (which with how we know Natlan operates now must've been a even more terrible situation), and other nations of Teyvat seemed completely willing to exploit Natlanese who left their borders. That or have it be, since she had time traveled 500 years in the future still with authority of Pyro Archon, have had Natlan suffer a bit during those intermediary years since the "authority" had not been "returned" it was without one for 5 centuries, or have it be by the time she did come back, have there already have been a present Pyro Archon for her to but heads a bit with due to conflicting ideas and ideology, though this would admittedly overwrite Capitano's current purpose a bit besides just being a plot device for the time being.
Let's also be rather frank here, while we know Genshin takes place in the same continuity as Hi3rd and Star Rail, since we've been directly told as much in a conference a few years ago, we know Genshin's team was basically brand new with very little carryover from Impact 3rd's core team and such. It's kind of why outside of a cameo in a Hi3rd Manga from Dvalin, Genshin wasn't able to get a more serious crossover like Star Rail is with Impact 3rd (we do have the more light-hearted event, but Star Rail characters have been making appearances in the main story regardless) since the teams were a bit too different and couldn't really come together on a solid idea for that so we got a non-canon event instead. This is to say Mavuika was never going to be as... well-defined(?) as Himeko because they never actually WROTE Himeko before; I feel like the direct "as great as Himeko" stuff came from misplaced hype over Murata being name dropped in the manga that had part of its story take place 1,000 years before Genshin's main story. Which with what we knew at the time anyways: was going to be dead regardless because only Venti and Zhongli remained of the Original Seven, honestly there's probably a whole other conversation to be had here about archons and if they really hit the "soul" of the characters they're expys of in the way Acheron to Mei does as was described in a recent interview. Point of this paragraph being: Mavuika was never going to really hit the mark of the expectations of "Himeko" as none of the people who wrote Himeko were actually working on Genshin and were on other projects instead, let's be a little honest here the only Genshin characters that really do, usually surpass who they're an expy of because 1. They were barely a character in the first place (Wendy and Venti) 2. Decent chunk of the community doesn't even know the character they're a expy of (Sin Malin and Furina), and 3. The community is still fighting whether you're an expy or not (Theresa and Nahida).
This is all to say, in my opinion, I feel like Mavuika's lack of nuance and could be better utilization, highlights Genshin's major flaw of not having great CHARACTER writing. I believe Genshin's world building, this is to say the writing for the world itself, is really good. But when it comes down to the individual character, most of them are just personality gimmicks and ride on their design and gameplay as a bit of a crutch as their active current existences as characters are rather static to be likeable to the traveler and therefore the player. Honestly only true exceptions to this that comes to mind as I'm writing this is Scaramouche who we actively see grow, who we actively see the backstory of rather than simply piecing a puzzle of it together or just be told and not showed, and is actively going into rehab. The other one is Furina who we are showed her backstory, we see that active suffering, we see the act she's putting on, we see the relief of her mask coming off, and we see her trying to find her actual "self". Admittedly Fontaine, while not all the characters do all of this, does have quite a bit of characters who actually show off that they're characters, as a whole outside some notable exceptions in Natlan's cast, I'd honestly have to put them somewhere around the level of Inazuma's characters, they're there, they look neat, but aren't well utilized and are a bit of a mess for the most part, perhaps like some of Inazuma's characters, a series of event quests could occur further developing some or one of them to be outstanding but overall I feel like Natlan's characters as a whole, not just Mavuika, were some steps back rather than going forward beyond the level of quality Fontaine built up to.
They sadly seemed to have given up on story telling this region and it makes me so sad because of all the potential 😭i just dont understand what happened why give up on this game
Mavuika losing to Xbalanque would have undercut the entire idea of how ancient names work, and Natlan's entire plot, it's supposed to be about building upon the previous generation mythology and accomplishments.
Mavuika won because she inherited his will, and expanded upon it, the way all people who hold ancient names are supposed to. Even then, she only barely did so.
I feel like you and people complaining about her being perfect just fell for her mask, she's basically All might from My Hero Academia (I know, odd example), but without the injury that limited his powers, altho te hnicaply Mavuika also has a limited amount of power, it almost ran out during the final battle against the Abyss dragon in the Archon Quest.
I mean, isn't Mavuika's flaw her self sacrificing nature? And also this fake out for her death beaing related to all her other deaths in the multiverse could eather mean she was saved from her death, or she still has to die at some point in the future, I mean Columbina is on her way as we speak.
Finally, the way in which the selection of the archon works makes it so it makes sense that the one that was able to finally defeat the abyss would also be able to defeat their first archon, I mean if you have to be the strongest to become the new archon, and Natlan people are always training and fighting the abyss every day, doesn't it make sense that generation by generation they would become stronger, it's literally the JJK meme of "The strongest sorcerer in history vs the strongest sorcerer of today", but with Pyro Archons instead, also it wasn't a battle to the dead so maybe they weren't really going all out for real.
In conclusion, she's just HER (altho I do think she should have struggled more in the final battle).
I don't think that Thrain saving Mavuika is a bad thing AT ALL. That scene caracterizice the very big (and realistically speaking, only if we don't talk about her workaholicsm) flaw on Mavuika, she can't look for herself. Thoose dialogues about being like the others, when she clearly isn't, it's the pure evidence about that. She can't think about herself being important. The rest is more important than her in her eyes and that's why she sacrificed having a family, all of her personal goods and even declined Capitano offer before he explained his plan.
That drives me to other point, she lost her family and her life, she didn't won everything. Yeah, she won against Ixbalanque, and that sucked because it didn't even felt like a win. But she don't have an unbeatten record.
Xbalanque got the Luke Skywalker treatment.
what im confused is why previous pyro archons are not celebrated or mentioned in any kind of way at all, also how does it work? does someone who wins the tournament with a dendro vision for example and become archon suddenly become able to wield pyro? I don’t mind mavuika being miss perfect a lot because I think it’s genuinely possible considering that in those “500 years” shown with her riding a motorcycle for that whole time she could have had a lot of time to mature with all that thinking to do and make it realistic for her to be so perfect together with her innate talents
The implication tells us yes, everyone that inherited the will get the power to use pyro
I don't know how you can still stand by the writing in Natlan, it feels like a painfully mediocre fanfiction. CCs are usually either walking on eggshells while trying to "criticize" the game, or not doing it at all. Mavuika's has no interesting characterization and is simply bland, furthermore The Ode of Resurrection felt like watching the newest Fast and Furious installment. I'm really frustrated after having Sumeru and Fontaine back to back, but most of the player base seems content or even happy with literally anything...
The funniest irony is that the mighty DRAGON SOVEREIGN Neuvillette, the one who is initially detached and doesn’t even know the meaning of his existence, whose entire character arc was to try to understand human nature… felt more human and emotional than Mavuika, who is supposed to be the human Archon
everything about mavuika, but mostly this 17:07 and her teapot lines made me wonder if this is future plot related thing, like this is mega stupid but maybe natlan actually lost battle against abyss, mavuika is only one who survived and we are in her mind/dream/whatever, she's always amazing and perfect because in reality she wasn't and she lost? And ancient names are actually the same people in different scenario that she makes up in her head or something (like when while showering you win arguments in your head 2 weeks after you already lost lmao)? She's literally delulu. And we'll get clinical psychologist character right after mavuika hmmmm.
And what better way to introduce first dead playable character in genshin than whole dead nation. Like there are celestial nails in NK, Liben event that didn't tell us about natlan but maybe actually told us about natlan (or we are not in real natlan rn) and it suggested some time shenanigans?
I just refuse to believe that same people who made furina, navia, neuvillette, nahida, maybe arle (i probably forgot about best characters, sorry) also made natlan cast with mavuika on top. [HERE WAS LONG RANT ABOUT AQ THAT I DELETED] like i wanted to scream WHO WROTE THAT SHIT every natlan patch and mavuika is now literally my least favorite character in game because she's constantly glazed mary sue and others are used as plot devices for her sake without any logic but maybe we'll get more story patches in 5.x like they announced for hsr...?
Its not mavuika, i am the delulu one
For me they utilized both Mavuika and Capitano poorly. With her, they should show a flaw, like maybe she is forgetting her past life or something like this, to put a weight in her sacrifice. And Capitano simply showed up as an ex machina, while he could be in the final battle (that was also flawed, with no risk of losing at all, maybe Captino should come to help when we were losing or something)
I don't have a problem with her being perfect I expect a god to be perfect in everything but my problem is them painting her as a normal human and person just like anyone else in Natlan (still love her tho)
aaahh lemme come back when i finish Mavuika's story quest
I really hope her 2nd story quest (if she gets one. Furina didn't) fixes a lot of these hiccups. I really like her but I do understand everything you've laid out about her as well.
Mavuika feels like another Raiden Shogun/Furina situation to me where they needed her out at this point so fumbled her finale to get her out right this second when she could have waited maybe a little bit longer and had a better story quest. All the other archon SQs were so full of lore while Mavuika's was just a whole nothing even I, as much as I like her I went C0R1 asap, felt really whelmed by her SQ. Furina and Raiden's SQ's felt weird being available right as soon as the Archon Quest ended and Mavuika's being just more advertisement for her awesomeness is just really sad, as you've said and I hope, like Ei's 2nd quest, her 2nd quest if she gets one just shows us Mavuika the Mortal under the Perfect Mortorcycle Goddess she's built up.
I feel like HYV played too safe with her and in general there's just a lot of lack of consequence in hyv games, so I wonder if that's a restriction they have or something they want to steer away from in general. I'm not sure, that's just a tinhat theory.
looking forwards to the Kaeya video!
Thank you for your opinion I feel the same about how Mavuika was executed (by that i mean in writing). Other than Mavuika I personally think Citlali writing is also no any better. I pulled for both, Mavuika is an archon nonetheless I like to collect the archons so eventually I will still get her. On the other hand, Citlali make me regret pulling for her i am not even lying. I really tried to like her character back, and her SQ main plot is actually good but some scenes are so unnecessary I cringed. For me personally Natlan second half (5.2-5.3) it's just a disappointment. This is the only region where I actually look forward to the story of WQ more.
I'd just like to add that the sentiments felt in this video seem to resonate with the wider player base in terms of pulls. As it stands, Mavuika's pull numbers are a third of Nahida and Furina's first banners, and is somehow lulling behind even... Yoimiya. For a more recent comparison, she about neck and neck with Navia's first run, but still behind somehow. She is even behind Xilonen of all people, her no.1 support, so if that doesn't spell flop I dont know what does
To be honest for me i actually really liked it, specially mavuika, for a while now every character ive seen in a story and in anime, are just some edgy bad boy that hates the world, and for some reason the world hate them to, and mavuika was really a breath of fresh air because i feel like nowadays we dont get characters like her nowadays, and when we do they're usually portrayed as though they were in the wrong or just out right sideline them.
But i do somewhat agree though, because it almost felt like they were making her a marysue, which isnt a bad thing as long as you portray it correctly but still, and i actually loved natlan archon quest, people are gonna argue about how bad it is or a total downgrade from fountaine, which in some parts i will agree that it kinda did, but it was still entertaining nonetheless.
Overall, I do like Mavuika as a character, definitely wished she had more repercussions for her actions in whatever she did. One thing I wish they brought up was when Capitano was criticizing her for how many deaths (100s-1000s) would it take for them to realize how dire the situation was. On average, most players had over 2k deaths during the 5.1 AQ. While they were triumphant in the end, it was the number Capitano was warning about. I wish there was some reminiscence or criticism for Mavuika to realize her plan did allow that many people to die. (Maybe I missed it somewhere in the dialogue idk)
Just like how in Fontaine, Furina was and is still blamed for the obviously smaller amount of deaths in Poisson, where, in all sense she had even less power to do anything to stop it.
Overall, love Natlan and its world but that's the main gripe that I had!
But she was literally right with the point she made at that time. 100s - 1000s vs the entirety of the Natlanese people. She chose correct. And I'm sure you can imagine how the 'perfect leader' beats themselves up over any life lost(she also mentioned this numerous times) but ultimately it's a choice that had to be made.
@@gaevlos1281 I'm more of specifically asking for more criticism, not judging her actions. 'It had to be made' yes and anyone can still criticize it. That's what I was hoping for in the story.
Yes I agree Mavuika is very frustrating as a character in this game. For several reasons.
While I love Mavuika with all my heart, I agree that she needs a few flaws. They could have given her some similar flaws to Himeko to tie things back.
It's not that she NEEDS flaws, the real issue is that her story arc has no serious struggles that she can't find a way to overcome. Pretty much after "failing" the first time around she goes into the future and becomes a parody of a perfect goddess who knows how to do everything and is always correct.
@ fair
@@GitGud-y9b It's not her story arc, it's Natlan's Archon quest.
@@1Kitsune1 I am sorry, where else outside of Natlan's Archon quest do we get to see her story arc progressing?
Her story quest where she is even more shilled?
Having no flaw = flaw
You're literally complaining about that core flaw she supposedly has.
What you see with Mavuika is a person at their complete resolve. That's why you wont see her problems "shown", because she actively hides her weakness from us and her people.
Mavuika has continuous sacrificed her happiness throughout the years, she left her family behind, she asked her dear friends to trust her plan and sacrifice themselves, she used up treasured items to save her people etc.. of course she will be resolved in her duty. That resolve fortified her mindset, that's why she comes off as non-flawed character.
In her story quest you can also tell the way she usually present herself is not who she is as Citlali and Xilonen hints at her true behaviors outside the pressure of keeping face to her people. Some would then say, why didn't they show that side of her? Because it's not for us to know at the time, in her story quest you can see a different side to her, a more fun light hearted side.
That's why when she bragged about winning the duel with Xbalanque, I didn't see it as her being boastful, I saw it as someone finally having all the weights lowered from their shoulders, someone that have fully came to an acceptance of her past and is moving forward, someone that can now finally, genuinely enjoy herself even around her people.
"""Also it's not in Natlanese nature to be humble when it comes to winning contests and competitions. Lol"""
Mavuika to me, from my personal perspective is far from what I've seen the internet making her out to be, a bland and boring character.
But I could just have been reading too much into her character 🤣🤣
Show not tell
Replaced writers with ChatGPT.
My Idol
what are your thoughts on 5.3 Main story, the part where Ronova was out speaking to Mavuika, Youhoultichutin (did I spell that right?) and later Capitano but didn't bat a single eye out of many that there was a descender within that people she was observing at the convo.
love from the Philippines btw. You and Ashikai are my 2 fave lore and theorist within genshin. I hope that you 2 collab one day
I skipped all Natlan character till now and just looking forward for the next Region or Varka.
The last part about Mavuika raising a cup in her glory was so concieted I was laughing out loud.
FINALLLYYY someone said it
She feels like a mary sue
I think the best way to have balanced out her character is to give her imposter syndrome that she had to overcome throughout the story, and the climax of her growth would of been she REALLY gets in the zone and ends up defeating xbelanqe idk how to spell, where she goes wow i really am this strong! Like shes amazed in herself it would of been much better than just the nonstop glazing
Yeah
Don't care, Flamestrider go vroom
In all seriousness though, Natlans story is far from concluded imo, there are still at least 2 entire areas and 4 patches, not to mention her 2nd story quest and the fact that she still has the Pyro Gnosis. So judgement on the entirety of her character at this point feels nothing but premature. Sure you can make the argument that by this point last year Furinas character was done way more justice but most people should've noticed by now how Natlan is shaking up the formula. Either way, this needed more time in the oven. I mean I know it's the talk rn, strike the iron while it's hot and all but make sure you don't miss when you do. Like, you're going on and on about her flaws as a character but don't take the second to realize that you're pointing out the flaws, you're saying she doesn't have, yourself.
Oh, now that I made it to that part of the video. Her celebrating herself at what is supposedly Kinich's party LITERALLY GOES TO SHOW ANOTHER FLAW - EGO(Which she exhibits at several points throughout the story). Like bro, can't have your cake and eat it too. Either she is perfect or she isn't because there is this, this and that wrong about her. At that point say that you don't like her because if this, this and that but don't make artificial points in the beginning if you just debunk them yourself later. Honestly just feels like you're butthurt because she isn't the character YOU wanted her to be. You were right the first time, it's a rant.
Don't just want to be a negative Nancy though. This video might have not hit for me because I overall very much enjoyed every second she has been on screen so far, just like with Furina last year, but this definitely is the exception. Your lore bombs and predictions(sometimes str8 up spoilers lol) go hard and I'm here for every single upload. In conclusion MNFN = King but even the best leaders aren't perfect and if you fail to see her imperfections then you weren't looking hard enough. In the extreme even selflessness and perfection(-ism) are flaws.
Also, for the unsavory candidates that need a reminder. I'm not suggesting they didn't take several turns to hype her up, they obviously did, it would be irresponsible for a company that has to make sales not to do so. What I am saying is that most everything about Mavuika, the quests surrounding her and Hoyo hyping her up are very much consistent with the character, theme and the story.
retard alert
I didn't feel a problem while reading the story for those points so I don't really care. Maybe about the Mavuika story though I can definitely see those points better.
I think it's because I connect the struggle Mavuika runs through her trailers with in the game maybe?