My thoughts on Inazuma vs Natlan so far. Is that Inazuma dropped the ball. There's no questioning that. It was rushed and the resolution lacked weight, and it almost definitely needed a lot more space to breathe and probably would've benefited from the 5 act structure instead of speedrunning with 3 acts (such as needing actual time spent with the Watatsumi Resistance rather than spending like 30 minutes tops).
HOWEVER. I feel like the initial Act I-II of Inazuma did a great job established the STAKES. It showed us the very real damage being caused by the various unjust decrees and why people are fighting. Natlan I kinda felt like did a lot of telling instead of showing, and any potential stakes feel kinda... Unserious? Because no one's really seriously hurt and even if they're saying Natlan will explode soon, I'm not really feeling like it's as dire as they're trying to sell it.
BUT IVE BEEN INFORMED YOU CAN DO NATLAN OUT OF ORDER??? Like you could in theory do Natlan BEFORE Inazuma thru Fontaine (with the quick-start function) which is why Natlan is more 'self-contained' which is absolutely insane to me?? Like HELLO???
Overall, I feel like the concepts and plot presented in Natlan is fine. But they didn't do a good enough job of selling to me these things. Like the whole child soldiers stuff kjadf like we actually dwelled on it for longer than a millisecond, we'd probably realize that's super fucked up!! But instead we gloss over it, making the whole quest seem fairly light-hearted despite everything.
Rubs my hands together ok anon lets talk cuz yeah i have thoughts
About inazuma
I definitely agree with you that Act 1-2 (especially 1) of inazuma did well setting up and showing how much negative impact the shogun's rule has impacted the people:
Vision holders literally losing a chunk of themselves (or worst, their lives) from their vision being confiscated.
Non-vision holders risking their lives for helping said vision holders (the resistance)
International traders being stuck in the nation, repressed by local government, and scammed by local traders just to keep business alive.
Local government bloating the price of everything!!! (And being able to get discounts only if you have connections)
Corruption even in the highest positions (gestures at the Kujou clan)
Fatui meddling that lead to the deaths of many for profit
The shogun literally programmed her robot to be that heartless because she herself dont give a shit about any of these issues. As long as her eternity stays.
Fr after venti and zhongli, getting an archon that acts as a proper ruler of a nation AND an antagonist sounds COOL AS FUCK. The booba sword scene while yeah, boobs wooo, also was a wonderful show of her authority over her nation.
After that they tripped and fell in Watatsumi. While i appreciate the environmental story telling of Watatsumi's and Shogunate's bases during the war, we barely get enough time to do... ANYTHING of substance. If i remember correctly, we became team captain, then do a bunch of training and defeating vagrants (on our own because friendly npc fighters didnt exist yet) and thats it. Where is the plotting? Wheres the planning? It was all just an anime training montage we barely get to see or feel. I genuinely feel like we couldve just replaced the entire Watatsumi arc with 'the fatui is selling delusions to people with confiscated visions to help them cope with the lost so traveller go to the delusion factory' and NOTHING wouldve changed. Hell it wouldve made ALOT more sense why yae came to save us at the end if the whole thing happened in Narukami.
Also after all that SHOWING they did alot more TELLING about wooo how smart kokomi is she is so smart and cool and the savior of the resistance. Like girl the fatui had their grip on your soldiers to the point they almost didnt want to surrender their delusions what are you on about. While you can argue she was only a priestess before the war and had no war intellegence skills, the people prop her up as such, kujou sara took her seriously. So she has to have some merit. Well im not seeing any (fight me on this i dont fully remember what happens in watatsumi)
Also at the end we fight the literal dictator of the nation with the power of friendship then everyone and i mean EVERYONE forgave said dictator...... cool. They would definitely benefit from an extra act so that watatsumi adds to the idea that this civil war and the shoguns current decree is causing damage.
About AR
The thing is that the requirements for you to start Natlan AQ is to be AR 28 and finish Liyue AQ (which requires AR 29 for the entire thing). While starting Inazuma requires AR 30, Sumeru needs AR 35, and Fontaine needs AR 40 (highest AR requirement by far).
Id argue that each nation is supposed to be a self-contained story. Even so, based on AR requirements theyve been chronologically in order because you NEED to complete the previous AQ to start the next. EXCEPT for Natlan.
While this is obviously to be more open to new and returning players, it really.... decreases the stakes, like you would assume the more we progress the tougher challenges we will have to face. But Natlan? Nawww you can go to Natlan without fighting the dictator 👍
About Natlan
I AM ADDRESSING THE CHILD SOLDIER THING FIRST BECAUSE YES. THEY DEFINITELY DID ALOT MORE TELLING THAN SHOWING HOW THIS CHILD APPARENTLY CAN BE SENT TO WAR WITH A REAL CHANCE OF DYING!!!!! I talked about this before because they ironically did alot more showing how child like Kachina is which adds more to the FUCKING CHILD SOLDIER THING.
HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY WITH THIS??? Oh its our nations culture, its just the culture shock, OKAY YEAH BUT THE TRAVELLER AND PAIMON ARENT NATLAN NATIVES AND THEY DONT FEEL ANYTHING ABOUT THIS????? Wow yey cheer for the child to go to war! BRO SHE DIED AND WE WENT JACOOZIING WHILE WE WAIT FOR HER TO RETURN FROM WAR...............
ITS VERY OBVIOUS INFANTILIZATION BECAUSE IANSAN DIDNT FUCKING GET THE SAME TREATMENT. You know, the other small girl character there, nah she went to war just like Kachina, lived, and stood by the Archon and WAS READY TO THROW HANDS WITH A HARBINGER IF THE ARCHON DIDNT FUCKING FIGHT HIM HERSELF.
Everything just feels so.... chill? So relaxed with no stakes at all. I mean yeah the Abyss is creeping into the nation's roots but instead of sending armies we make it a tournament. Yeah people die in these excursions but we can revive them so we can ignore the horrors of experiencing death. Yeah the flames are dying so the archon has to give up some of her power to keep it lit but its okay! The harbinger is a gentleman that wont take this opportunity to do some scheming. We need the power of the chosen one of each tribes to save natlan but hey cant rush it! We got a year after all teehee.
Man. Head in hands. What the fuck.
Not even gonna go into the whole the archon is human but mavuika is the one that got reincarnated to retake the role just in time to solve a national crisis thing. Because i dont even know if THAT is accurate.
If they somehow trip and fall worse than inazuma id actually be amazed because the bar is very very low.
Made it to s2e5 of Nocturne, and I've come to the conclusion that Annette should've been the main protagonist, not Richter. I'm slowly starting to like him more, but honestly half of that affection is as an extension of Annette, rather than him as his own person. I think the problem here is that Annette has SO MUCH going on, both in her backstory and just in general (Edouard being turned, figuring out aspects of her powers, etc.), and it seems like Richter is just there to fulfill the "1 Belmont per party iteration" role.
A good example of this is in s1. Richter's entire backstory is explained in about 5 minutes: mom killed; moved to France. Meanwhile, we got over half an episode in infodump/flashback for Annette and Edouard. Maybe this is just a personal peeve, but if the character's backstory is so dense that they have to take half an episode to explain it to their party (and by extension) the viewers, why not just SHOW the backstory as its own episode, preferably at the start? Like, if Nocturne started with Annette and her life, I would've been HOOKED. Even if it was just a little speed run of the main points. Richter is the one that could've had the mid-episode flashback.
That's not to say I dislike the story: I think s2 is definitely becoming more interesting. I was excited to see Alucard, though the design change was definitely a shock, lol. Kinda wish his hair was still more blonde :/ He kinda looks like they forgot to color him in. I'm lowkey surprised that light doesn't straight up reflect off him like tin foil. I still don't really care about the rest of the cast (Juste, Maria, the mom, etc.), but I'm glad to see Alucard, Richter, and Annette on the move!
Interestingly, I find the villains to be way more fascinating this time than most of the good guys. I keep looking forward to seeing Drolta and Erzsebet and Whatever's Going On between them. It's somehow not gay while also being gay af. I thought it was cool that Drolta was the one to approach Erzsebet. Most of the time, the minion is the one being approached with an Offer They Can't Refuse. So it was great that this time, it was the underling with the proposition. It makes their relationship make way more sense, because usually someone as self centered as Erzsebet wouldn't value anyone that much, no matter how useful they are, because they'd be like "I have all this power and you WILL serve me. Because I'm Just That Cool." But since Drolta was the one who somewhat gave her this power, it makes sense that they almost have a bit of a friendship going on. I was pleasantly surprised when Erzsebet teared up at Drolta's death and kept her corpse the way that noble lady kept her husband's head, and then demanded that the church guy bring her back (though I didn't think foremastery worked that way? Though they seem to be changing/playing with the mechanics of forging in this series). I don't hope they win, but I do hope they go out with a bang!
this is mainly a lazytown blog, but i also post about ávaxtakarfan and benedikt búálfur on here, if you don't want to see that you can block #not lazytown
tags:
#my post - all original posts
#im adding - reblog additions
#my art - i do fanart sometimes! look here!
#hc - headcanons
#obscure lore - lore analysis, the original concepts, the gritty reboot that didn't happen, weird production details, that sort of stuff. very proud of this collection!
#obscure lore ávaxtakarfan edition - same principle, but for ávaxtakarfan
#obscure lore benedikt edition - same principle, but for benedikt búálfur
#magnús wtf - things about magnús scheving that make me go "magnús, wtf???"
