is the raiden shogun the WORST archon? (in terms of writing) | genshin impact character analysis

today's video is gonna be about genshin impact's raiden shogun and the misconceptions that people have about her especially when it comes to her writing. genshin impact has always had fascinating lore and with ei being one of the most important characters in the game, i've always found her to be terribly misunderstood. so i made a 20 minute video about her lol.
time stamps:
0:00 so, why do people hate ei?
1:34 the badly paced inazuma archon quest
7:24 the infamous first story quest
11:40 scaramouche & the other 3 archons
14:35 in defense of raiden ei
reddit post mentioned: www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Lore...
Credit to the footages: @LyurGG

[@Livtha]

If Raiden Shogun had a harsher punishment or if we had the option to be mean to her and if other characters held her accountable I would dislike her less. But, I feel like I have to compensate for that fact she gets away with pretty much everything scot free. The injustice bothers me so much!

[@otsuucurry]

Yup exactly! It also bothers me how the traveler is so cautious around Childe bcs of what he did in Liyue but somehow had no qualms in forgiving Ei 3 seconds after she tried to kill us like whattt😭

[@birubluebiru6861]

They solve this problem but in their other game 😑. SPOILER. If you play HSR Belobog is pretty much the same like Inazuma, but the people there revolt if their leader fck up, hell the people even assassinate her by putting a bomb on the previous Supreme Guardian. And in HSR main quest MC sidekick, March 7th didnt care about current supreme guardian cocolia death. You can even call out cocolia horrible act to her daughter even after cocolia death

[@negaro9113]

"gets away" my guy no one can punish a god that's fkcn delusional, she did do a lot of stuff to fix all she did, did you not care about her second story quest???

[@Livtha]

@@negaro9113 @negaro9113 If her Raiden Makoto and other Archons can be killed or Nahida can be made forgotten surely Raiden Shogun can be punished. Besides, the real problem isn't her punishment, a punishment should be used to correct past behavior to prevent the same thing from happening again. While I believe that she is less likely to do something like this again she does not seem remorseful enough to be extra careful. Her second story quest only addresses what happened almost 500 years ago not the present and certainly not her plans for the future of Inazuma. In the present she was fully aware of the situation with delusions but, chose to do nothing because it did not affect her version of eternity. This lack of compassion is a huge problem. When we see her in events she even seems clueless as to why people are afraid of her. Don't even get me started on what she did to Wanderer she hasn't remotely resolved that. In her story quest all I could think about was how much she had to make up for and that in the future I hope her people's faith in her isn't misplaced.

[@negaro9113]

@@Livtha you are almost wrong with everything, in later events she has appeared and is still the best version of what a god can be to her people, she's learning, she's not gonna do it again you are just making stuff up that's the issue with Eis critic, her story addresses what happened years ago, and her taking responsibility, don't tell me you forgot the remorse she was having seeing her soldiers and the guy who makes tea??? Don't tell me to forget that in order to change the shoguns will which only somone serious would dare to went inside and fought for 500 years I think, I'm pretty that's evidence enough of her redemption, abolishing the decree was just expected, there's is literally no flaw here it doesn't make sense for you to ignore Eis reasoning of her losses, she was never fit to be a leader she just had to after her sister died, she didn't ask for it, it's like. Me saying nahida shouldn't exist because she's incapable and weak unlike ei who's only weakness is her inability to forget the losses, it doesn't make sense, if you critique Eis character then nahida gets ripped apart of I decide to nitpick and rewrite her character and ignore the "suffering" part which was significantly less then ei, her choosing to do nothing makes her bad but then you sre forgetting about the commissions colluding in other words for matters, her view of eternity doesn't make her a bad character, that's what the story is supposed to change, her entire story quest is about changing and evolving, you missed way to much

[@theddae]

I wish that Scaramouche's story quest tackles the relationship between him and Ei. I really want a confrontation. Scaramouche doesn't need to forgive her but we need to see Ei held accountable. You could argue she just lost many loved ones can't bear to get attached to someone again but it doesn't change the fact that she abandoned him. I just hope it's handled with care

[@joyhammer3148]

It's not that she didn't want to get attached, she wasn't feeling in any way able to take care of a child when she created him. He wasn't even meant to have emotions (surely she made an error when dealing with his settings), and when she discovered he did, she literally sleep-moded and SEALED him because not only she didn't want to kill him, but he also was not supposed to get out of the dungeon. Yes, she abandoned him and gave him proof of her protection in case he would wake up some day, but it's not like he was MEANT to wake up in the first place. At least not before she would have made her mind up regarding Inazuma's Eternity. But I agree with, I also want to see him confront her. I don't think she completely forgot about him since she is still the one who created him, so I'd like to see their interaction.

[@reactiondavant-garde3391]

@@joyhammer3148 What I don't understand is thet Wanderer never was a child, like, he was always an adult in mind capabilitise like Raiden Shogun or we think thet Raiden Shogun was originaly a kid as well? They are puppets so I assume the were always adults at least when some to coginitive abilitise it is true thet emptionaly Wanderer was hurt by Ei but I think her fault in this is not the same when someone abandoding a literal child because Wanderer still was able to function alone and her protection was still a signifire about thet she cared about him on some level. (Mind you I think Ei's story quest should been about how she repair what she broke + I agree it would be satisfing a Wanderer and Ei meet up)

[@theddae]

@@reactiondavant-garde3391 Personally I’ve always viewed early Wanderer as a child (early referring to not long after his birth, or his kunikuzushi years) he was brought into the world knowing nothing. Giving him a curiosity and naivety of a child. His mother left him in a building, not visiting once, essentially giving him no parental figure or stability until someone found him. During the story teaser: The “Divine” Will (also known as the 3 betrayals scene) Wanderer says this about the sick child he met “The third one was one exactly like me. A hope for the future… a fledgling barely out of the nest” Wanderer called himself a fledgling barely out of the nest, so I feel like he viewed himself as a child in those early years, despite looking grown. Just because of his lack of experience and naivety. I don’t think it’s fair to group Wanderer and Raiden Shogun in the same category. Wanderer was meant to be his own person. Raiden Shogun was meant to be another version of Ei Edit: I feel like a person has to learn or become an adult. Most people would agree that when they were born they weren’t an adult straight off the bat, they had to grow into one. That’s the same way I view Wanderer’s character

[@reactiondavant-garde3391]

@@theddae Fair enough it was more a question about the whole topic becuase it is a little bit fuzzy for me. Like why Wanderer mind was so young but Raiden Shogun was adult in mind, maybe this was the inperfection?

[@anemouche5838]

@@reactiondavant-garde3391 It could be explained in sevwral ways, there was a malfunction which just made scaramouche young in mind and made raiden old in mind or its just raiden had more time and was taken care of by ei so she was more mature. Raiden shogun is pretty much emotionless just following what raiden tells her yet scaramouche is not like that so

[@Sonamy5673]

I really hate how the traveler immediately become best friends with her and wish we got to see their relationship develop through out the years (like xiao) but also idk when i see how genshin fandom react to traveler being slightly mean to childe and they way they hate on them for it for weeks I’m just like maybe it’s for the best that traveler become best friends with her 💀

[@darkreunion7882]

the way the traveler treat and talk to wanderer too, is that reserved to the fatui? even more wanderer did help him in the end, even as scaramouche with irminsul. The worst isn't traveler being way too suspicious about him, it's paimon with the way she talks to him.

[@alexprus7953]

​@@darkreunion7882 Traveler's morality is very black&white. Monsters and Fatui = bad. Like when we meet harmless fatui people during a quest, but there's no option to be nice to them (I'm thinking specifically about the Chasm quests here).

[@darkreunion7882]

@@alexprus7953 yeah it really sucks, that's why sometimes I don't agree with the traveler's choices. I'm the kind of person who prefers the antagonist in a story because of how complex and twisted they are. To understand the "why" they became like this or "why" they made this choice is really the most interresting for me. So to see our protagonist not trying to understand the point of view of the fatuis and other ennemies irks me a lot. I'm of the point of view that everyone should try to understand the other better before making a judgement.

[@spellcheck5393]

True -_- Ei gets everything easy after all crap she put everyone through.

[@mekolayn]

@@alexprus7953 that actually makes me feel so immersed as I have the same hatred for the Fatui as the Traveler does

[@mrbackslash8049]

Ei has left me incredibly conflicted, before I started Genshin, I saw her and went "Wow she's so cool looking and intimidating" and when I actually finished the archon quest I felt incredibly empty, conflicted and confused despite enjoying the ride. I really want to like her more but I often end up feeling indifferent about her if not conflicted. Its very clear that the Devs wanted to make her a Flawed character but not an irredeemable character. But given how much screen time they gave her and all the plot points they had simply couldn't be developed properly in that time. I biggest problem with her character is that for someone who is basically mourning FOR 500 YEARS, she is very calm, serious and stoic. I find it incredibly hard to believe that someone would be able to stay stock composed mentally especially when someone actively challenges her. I feel it would have been more compelling if she was so mentally worn down by the solitude that when we actually see her in her plane, she can't control her emotions, she's angry, she's sad, she's cold. Someone who needs to get out and seek help but is too stubborn and broken to do so, which would also lead to an interesting idea of "Does an archon need the help of others? They are Gods after all". The only issue with this idea of mine is that it would contradict all that we know about her and her story as of now and would require heavy re-writing which is just not feasible.

[@xrosslegends1279]

I think Ei is supposed to be the Kuudere arquetype, not to mention her being a warrior and having a lot of blood in her hands, also losing her sister and close friends (which I suppose were her only friends) probably made her not want anymore relationships, so emotional maturity doesn't seem to be her thing, she probably only cried when Makoto died.

[@joyhammer3148]

Imo you're right about the devs wanting to feel conflicted about her. Then again, before becoming a true Archon Ei was a warrior only. So not showing her emotions in front of adversity (which we were when we met her) should be thoroughly inscribed in her. Also as a god and a leader, she can't go around bawling her eyes out in front of just everyone. Remember, it took her literal centuries to start trying to face the pain she is feeling. She's not that expressive about her depression or emotions in quests because we're not that close (in terms of time spent together in the story) yet. We are good friends, yes, but not best friends (Venti and Zhongli are still keeping secrets from us, remember?). So far only Yae Miko has had the privilege to see the Almighty Narukami no Mikoto, the Electro Archon, pout and wail for light novels and dangos. If you read through her voicelines or pay attention to her expression when talking about the past or with Makoto (her 2nd quest), you'll notice how her impassive mask crumbles and how lost she actually feels. And I think that's what the devs were aiming for: you have to spend time and really pay her some attention if you want to see the actual Raiden Ei.

[@mrbackslash8049]

@@joyhammer3148 Like I said, my idea of her being mentally unstable would require heavy rewriting which isn't feasible. It was just an idea that I would find more compelling if they went for it. Ei is such a weird case, because I can see what they were going for, and maybe if they gave her as much time as they did Nahida she'd be significantly better, but every time I look back at the archon quest I just feel like "wow, that's it?" and the story quests shouldn't function as a band-aid for a main story, they should be additions. Her story quests (to me at least) feel like a band-aid for the main archon quest.

[@lolk7726]

YES OMG

[@Lovelain777]

Imo her idea of seclusion and how she exclude inazuma from the rest of the world is somewhat understandable? She went into the plane of euthymia because of her grief and she finds that stillness brings no pain, hence why she started the sakoku decree. She enjoy being in stillness for 500 years as for her nothing effects her but thats obviously not true for her people. Thats why i think adding some sort of unresolved emotion to her character such as angry sadness etc might not work a bit, the reason she fights for eternity so much is because she believes it works, if she herself suffers from it, then it might not work. Which brings about problem because all archons adhere to their ideal. Bad or good.

[@JayDay04]

"Teppei is a badly written NPC" YES SAY IT LOUDER PLEASEEE GOSH, FINALLY Someone said this

[@aldomeylano9278]

Yes!

[@aeroscantsee1665]

They should have committed her to be a complete asshole character. Like the magnificent bastard character type that you LOVEEE to HATE. It also would've been refreshing to see an Archon like that after we've already met two dudes with typical sad pasts that are still good people. They tried too hard and achieved so little with Ei. I wouldn't mind if she was done well, but it's painful how they handle her. She got away so easily with so many deeds. She seems to barely do anything to recover the damage she does in comparison. Basically not terrible writing, just butchered up writing.

[@ViralwingX]

So this the part I hate about Inazuma's quest line after the Archon Quest the Information board on Narukami Island contains what Ei does to help Inazuma along with Yae Miko to forge a better future. The developers screwed up the show don't tell part the the end of the quest line because she works pretty hard to fix her mistakes but nobody knows about it because we are never shown it in the game. First rule of of visual media is show don't tell and the developers didn't follow that rule.

[@aeroscantsee1665]

@@ViralwingX it's not the only problem though. The problems got solved WAY TOO quickly. Their responsibilities are never brought up again even including Kokomi's screw ups during war period like tatarigami crisis she caused on yashiori island. The inazuma setup for archon quest had so much potential and they just threw it away. At least world quests are awesome.

[@ViralwingX]

@@aeroscantsee1665 Well Kokomi's and Ayato's story quests did show that Inazuma had a lot of work to do behind the scenes on both sides of things not just the Shogun's government I believe this was to show how deep the corruption went on both ends. Both sides had a number of flaws but they aren't mentioned again afterwards like you said. Not even on the information board which I think is a big missed opportunity.

[@tacopok895]

If the hydro archon isn’t a cute little awful tyrant I’ll be significantly disappointed

[@ViralwingX]

@@tacopok895 honestly we need the rest of the Archons to be against us because everyone liking us the minute we walk into the nation is stale.

[@krdt1111]

This gets worse when you think about nahida, who was taken away by her people and locked up. This shows people don’t need to love their archon. So why do they still support the shogun after she indirectly killed a ton of people 😭

[@YaeGuuji]

because of bad writing :(

[@sully42O]

it’s giving stockholm syndrome

[@Undeviated]

She didn't kill a ton of ppl tho.

[@anezuka2464]

@@Undeviated they said indirectly. Ei didn't stop her soldiers from arresting watasumi soldiers who only wanted basic rights. So indirectly she's causing deaths among her people. there's also many things but i don't want to make a paragraph

[@salceds]

Because majority of them don't care, simple as.

[@obseed3041]

They should've made Ei realize that she has achieved eternity already. By putting an unfeeling robot in charge of her country and cutting herself from the real world, she has literally put herself in a position where she cannot lose any loved one at all; because nobody can connect to her at that point. By pursuing eternity to avoid losing everyone else, she failed to see that she has put EVERYONE in inazuma in the same position she was in years ago. People lose their sons who are forced to use delusions to fight for their rights. Families have to watch their elders slowly go mad the longer they are away from their vision. Eventually, the whole country would become a ghost town just like that one island shrouded in fog. And by then will Ei only realize the eternity that she has sought for so long. When she was walking down the streets of Inazuma for the first time casually in years, people should've been VERY afraid and avoidant of her. If she tried to approach and apologize, the people should've been hostile and angry. Telling her the suffering she had put them through. Even I felt quite awkward watching her just order dessert after abolishing the decree. And the people are just "wow, the shogun isn't so scary after all." BITCHES??? THIS WOMAN HAS COMMITTED WAR CRIMES!!! I love Raiden Shogun, she was my very first 5 star and I was jumping when I beat the 50/50. But she deserves to be made accountable for her actions.

[@SharkNash]

Yeah, she without realizing had reached Eternity, by cutting contact with the ouside world at all, however, such pursuit of her ideals would only make people to relieve what happened years ago, conflicts would still arise on Inazuma, growth or not effectively repeating the cycle and tragedy she lived which to me makes no sense. The awkward part is that she doesnt realize the damage it caused and seeing her naturally walk on the streets without people just being alert or scared left me a bad taste. Ei's character is just a product of bad and butchering writting, the fact that nobody batted an eye nor called her for her actions makes it plain dumb, because we do know that very few people just cant easily forgive her, but how come a big amount of the population dont realize the catastrophe she made herself due to her negligence?

[@marcusaurelius4777]

I think with Furina now being an Archon, you can see that she isn't taken seriously, or, people can see that she's flawed and Neuvi legit reprimands her for trying to sneak out on the trial lol. I think Furina's handling is a really good change. It's a shame that NAHIDA of all archons was treated as trash/useless by her people/akademiya when she ironically was wanting to work the hardest. The issue is: Ei never has to DEAL with the fallout. Like, we aren't asking for her to be executed or imprisoned...but forcing her to SEE what SHE did through her ACTIONS to the people. Having her see struggling and starving people, having to see the destruction on Tsurimi island and Yashiori. Seeing the Furnace issue, having to see the shitty soil of Watatsumi and the desperation of the people there...SEEING the problems that she RAN AWAY from because she was sad and didn't want erosion to happen to her. Her idea of making the shogunbot to make sure the people of Inazuma always had a capable leader seems like a good idea, but it fucked them over so bad and allowed the Fatui to fuck around. Yes, some of the people in the commissions were corrupt and she "dealt with them" but it was so hollow. Everyone just kind of went back to business as usual. No one questioned Ei. If I had my family starve I'd be PISSED I wouldn't give a fuck if she was a god, like, people I loved starved and suffered for no fucking reason. That's so ridiculous. Like no, I"m not asking for her to be jailed, but like FORCE HER to see the the consequences of her actions, having her face the reality not just with the past but the present, and amend her ways. Be more active. Yes, become like Makoto: an active leader in real people's daily lives. Not some god figure, but a real leader that responds to the needs of her people.

[@CapriciousWriter]

Yeah, exactly. People can say "a god is a god" all they want, but that doesn't change the fact that gods still act on human minds.

[@spellcheck5393]

Well furinas people treated her really bad in 4.2 - but like 500 years they loved her and doubted only when people died. Nahida was kind of hated irrationally. Idk they wanted to replac enahida whit Scara? Like really!

[@pacificnebula4899]

1) Government indirectly but deliberately ended many lives 2) Didn’t care for ppl just goals 3) Got away with it and no punishment 4) Basically everyone forgot about what happened and doesn’t give a shit 5) Transformed from menacing dictator into “Waifu material” Literally Japan in the last 100 years LOL 😂

[@N_ei_L]

Oh how this comment has aged like rotten milk after 4.2 Furina deserved NONE of that treatment. She probably worked harder than any being in the entirety of Teyvat.😭

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

What are you even talking about? She saw through the action of others the effects of her rule in her Story Quest Part 2.

[@justenoughforacoffee]

Comparing Ei and Scara regarding writing scara was much more well written. Regarding reform, taking accountability and working towards fixing what was done wrong (we wouldn't even have the 3.3 archon quest if scara didn't take accountability for what he did and try to fix it when he learned the truth. Man even said about apologizing to the raiden gokuden, who now didnt even know who he was as the story had been changed.) However, admittedly they are making amends regarding the people's reaction to her post-sakoku and Vision hunt decree. (Namely the tcg event where it shows that her people fear her.) My issues with her as a character start and end with her writing in the archon quest and story quests. That includes the second story quest for me however, i felt they paced it too fast to try and fix the mess the archon quest and 1st story created. Its clear they can handle it well. Including the traveler's reactions. (Again, look at scaramouche. How his story was handled.) I don't like her. I probably never will fully like her. But i don't hate her. I hate how she was written and i hate how her "reform" was handled because of the pacing, but her characterization is fine, admittedly a bit out of place to me because i feel they try to push the whole "innocent waifu" thing too much when theres a lot more to her character depth. (The fans are a big player in that however.)

[@JayDay04]

The fans are also never satisfied. I saw a lot of criticisms towards Scaramouche after his redemption because "oh, he's buddy buddy now" and that's clearly not the case lmao unlike with Raiden Scara had no pacing issues and still is not a fully good person. Besides, he had a lot of time to shine as an antagonist (and a very competent one at that), so I really don't see where's the problem. So, to sum it up, people will always be complaining about stuff due to their biases.

[@justenoughforacoffee]

@@JayDay04 yeah. And you can't properly do a character analysis without having your own biases (as i stated im my comment. I don't like her, so im gonna be a bit more harsh. Is it warranted, probably not, but I cant just, change my mind on a dime. I didn't even like scara when you first met him in game-archon quest, not event-the reason I like him now is because of how his character developed and that took awhile.) Looking at it from a writers standpoint (as a writer) the biggest thing that drives me, and a lot of other players away from ei is the poor development. (Another big thing is, again, trashy fans but you get those with every character, even unreleased ones.) Honestly, i like doing character analysis things, and i will start to enjoy a character because of it at times. And biases will change. I don't have ei so i havent done a character analysis on her. So, little has changed.

[@jadecoolness101]

"they are making amends regarding the people's reaction to her post-sakoku and Vision hunt decree. (Namely the tcg event where it shows that her people fear her.)" Honestly, limited time events are meaningless to me. If anything, it makes less sense. So hoyo wants me to believe that the people of inazuma love her soooo much while she had the country shut down and businesses were failing, vision wielders were being kiIied, there was a literal CIVIL WAR going on because Raiden wanted the right to oppress a minority.... No one feared her or disliked her (though people wre risking drowning in the ocean to escape, but it had nothing to do with Raide for some reason? lmao). The people loved her through aaaaall of that...... And then SUDDENLY start fearing her after the war is done and she's NOT slaughtering her own people for having the audacity to Not Want Depression? Makes no sense.

[@spellcheck5393]

I am glad Scara got new mom now

[@funnynamelol3156]

I honestly didn’t mind Scara until the “third betrayal” stuff which just immediately made me hate him lmao.

[@philkersonchong9848]

I just dont like the fact there seem to be no character or npc hating the raiden shogun after the vision hunt degree and civil war. It just didnt feel realistic that everyone seem to forget all those bad deeds instead of acknowledging them in some subtle ways.

[@hana-a-cha]

You're so right! At the very least, the entire resistance (and Kazuha) has loved ones being destroyed mentally and/or physically because of her emo girl tyranny, but now everyone's just going "oh no it's fine we can work together now", it's infuriating how dumb Inazuma arc's ending and epilogues are. People should hate the f out of her.

[@killsthelight5511]

Kazuha still doesn't likes her as it was showed in one of events

[@crimssson]

Gorou’s line about her shows how he still doesn’t like her

[@atlas2661]

​@@killsthelight5511incorrect. Listen to his voice line about the Shogun. He basically forgives her simply because his friend wanted to face her

[@MrMeisterRoxas]

Because most people didn't care.

[@alis_the_kiwi]

Honestly, it'd be a lot better if Ei actually did not know about the vision hunt decree ( because she locked herself up due to her grief ), and it was Raiden who was just executing orders poorly. It would make Ei a more believable "good person" and would explain why we end up being on friendly terms with her. Also, I believe it would make her story quest ( of getting to know the world around her and noticing that maybe change isn't that bad ) more emotional and cuter

[@salceds]

Ei does know about the Vision Hunt Decree, but not all of it. She's not omnipotent and was fed misinformation. She's also arrogant and naive and doesn't take things as seriously as she should be because she's quite literally all up in her own head.

[@spellcheck5393]

​@@salcedsyep most arrogant archon.

[@dairoku2017]

​@@salcedsi dont think she arrogant and naive tho since she just ignore everything around her even after knowing what the fatui plotting. Yes.. She knows what the fatui plotting in her nation but ignore it because it not dangerous to her😅

[@salceds]

@@dairoku2017 She's arrogant because she thought the Fatui wasn't doing *real* harm and if they were she would've just killed them. She was naive because she thought human ambitions were nothing to worry about and that hers were above them all.

[@v.emiltheii-nd.8094]

@@spellcheck5393 Best Archon.

[@MutevaziEgoist]

I really hated when she LITERALLY turned into a waifu material in her quests. I wanted to see much more of a strong personality, someone more harsh, not another waifu for the general base to simp for her. It also sucks how she deliberately ended a lot of people's lives, destroyed a shit ton on people mentally, she was a literal dictator who didn't cared about her own people and just for her goals didn't get ANY type of proper punishment. She just, you know, got away with it. Just like how she suddenly stopped being that determined woman, she also stopped being a "criminal".

[@Boricosa]

Something that really bothered me is that during her first "key needed to unlock" quest, none of the people the traveler and Ei run into show the effects of the war and the sakoku decree. It's almost like they were oblivious to it

[@MutevaziEgoist]

@@Boricosa RIGHT? LIKE AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED AND SHE DIDN'T MASSACRED A SHIT TON OF PEOPLE JUST TO TRY TO GET THEIR VISION OR SOME SHIT.

[@Boricosa]

@@MutevaziEgoist in my opinion, they could have conveyed the theme of that quest (inazuma changed while u locked yourself in your room) while not making it seem like her actions were inconsequential. For example: if Ei wanted the traveler to visit some festival with her that occurred 500 years ago, but it was held in a place ravaged by war. The place would be deserted and Ei could acknowledge her actions and later they would find that the festival still existed, just being held elsewhere. To me, it is a better ending than "take this picture with me" "what the f is a camera?"

[@MutevaziEgoist]

@@Boricosa with your version at least she would see what she caused and probably understand what she had done with that small brain of hers. Even her "son" accepts getting some sort of punishment but she straight up doesn't cares

[@MutevaziEgoist]

@@Boricosa also the way she has audacity to get mad at people of Watatsumi for destroying Narukami Shrine and get mad because they started rebel as if they got mad out of thin air is magical

[@KawaiiCupcake09]

My other problem with her, is how much the game tries to force you to like her..Sure part 2, was nice but to me it was too little too late we waited 6 to 8 months for an update. I will never like this character, HOYOVERSE!! I would have liked her to remain a morally ambiguous archon, but nope Hoyoverse had to "waifu" her up for sales.

[@moonawilks8240]

Is it safe to assume you don't have/ will ever pull for Raiden (because you don't like her) ? Or do you have/play her because she is strong gameplay wise?

[@cyb3r_81]

​@@moonawilks8240Genshin is an easy game he's probably going to use his own liked characters despite ei being a good unit

[@KawaiiCupcake09]

@@moonawilks8240 I'm not pulling her due her story and awful characterization..idc how "op" she is..The story ruined my idea of her..Infact, I know it's silly but whenever I see Kokomi share banner time with her I get Kokomi every time to "spite" Raiden and Hoyoverse. Also I love Koko, despite her lackluster story..Those pastel colors, man..XD

[@KawaiiCupcake09]

@@cyb3r_81 Exactly, I'm a girl btw :) I do have a electro/dendro team but I have a good built Kuki, I'll use her before I even think about getting/usingRaiden...XD

[@cyb3r_81]

@@KawaiiCupcake09 im building eula lol, she trash unit but i like her, i literally use amber and collei and theyre like the worst characters in the game apparently

[@Blue-Sky-1707]

I liked the analysis of Ei, and I agree with what you said. She is a complex character that has her potential kinda wasted in the beginning. Even so, she's able to grow to become a better archon or person. That would be why I felt emotional when Ei tackles with her grief more on the 2nd Quest. She has to face it, in order to move forward for the people of Inazuma. This makes me wonder on how Inazuma could've been rewritten, in terms of how the story went... After all, Act 3 kinda just rushed it all...

[@otsuucurry]

Ty for watching! Yeah Act 3 was unfortunately a lot of wasted potential considering how good the build up was in Act 1 & 2. If only they could rewrite and make it 5 acts like sumeru instead of only 3😔

[@commanderminh7402]

​@@otsuucurry Hey there is the game call Limbus Company. It has F2P aspect,good gameplay and have very good story.

[@Rar830]

@@commanderminh7402Why are you replying to a convo about Raider with something completely unrelated?

[@blankuser987]

@@Rar830 it's probably a bot

[@expressrobkill]

I like her character, i just don’t like how inazuma moved on, i really think she needs a part 3 to really wrap up the what the people think not what Ei thinks.

[@toastedghost5524]

i think the way that they tackled how grieving can affect people and make them stuck in the past was very good (i'm kinda going through that myself), but when you think about the fact that she basically caused a civil war in inazuma purely because she was grieving it's just like.. what..

[@jadecoolness101]

When my grandma died I didn't start saying we should go oppress a minority and kiII them if they resist lol. Like, there's grieving, and then there's whatever the heck Ei was doing.

[@BBP-OMO]

Honestly my biggest issue with Ei is that she comes off as a bit of an idiot during her quests. In the main quest we resque Thoma so that's a fail on her part, Miko outsmarts her, her own generals lie to her, she disgards Scaramuche (granted that wasn't the worst idea but it still turned out terrible so im counting it), then she perceeds to walk around her war-torn nation for shits and giggles / a date AND THEN her own body just says shes a weak dumbass and rebels. I'm sorry but how am I supposed to think of her as cool or intimidating when it seems shes as dumb as a box of rocks. Compairing her to the other 2 archons out at the time makes this look even worse since venti for all his drunken partys always seems in control of the situation and zhongli straight up out plays the traveler and Liyue for a good chunk of his quests

[@diveblonde]

"venti for all his drunken partys always seems in control of the situation" I agree Ei's kind of a blockhead but the finale of Monds is literally Venti getting the crap beaten out of him by Signora

[@BBP-OMO]

@@diveblonde Yes but everything before was either him being in control of the situation or making new plans to regain control of the situation (even arguably right after since he runs off right after), and more importantly that's not a failure of his based on Venti being dumb but Venti being more of a lover than a fighter. Besides even if that counts, Ei is no better since she fails to beat the Traveler while still having all the other times shes being at least a bit irrational

[@TheJH1015]

@@BBP-OMOand Venti *let* himself get beaten up by Signora. The guy terraformed Mondstadt to what it is with his wind powers, even if he is weaker, there's no shot that was all he could do against Signora xD

[@BBP-OMO]

@@TheJH1015 idk, i doubt it because genshin powerlevels are kinda just whatever the writers need them to be.

[@CapriciousWriter]

As I said before"If you want to make a stupid character, have the story treat them as such"

[@lightning_11]

10:18 "People who started the game after 2.1 might have a different perception of the first story quest." As someone who didn't get to Inazuma until after update 3.0 was released, I can confirm that my perspective was a bit different. The first story quest felt like a necessary step in convincing Ei to change her mind... although I'm still disappointed that she was never held accountable for her actions. I also feel like comparing anyone to Nahida is unfair since Nahida is such a nice person. She makes practically everyone look bad.

[@agpa-4.002]

My personal issue with Raiden is to the point made about Nahida, that she always tried. Tried to live up to expectations, tried to be a leader, tried and tries to be there for her people. They never really show Raiden trying... the 'date' in her first quest was somewhat shallow, even if the concept made sense. The idea of her truely understanding the current Inazuma and accepting change is a good step forward, until it got solved immediately and there was the other plotline of dealing with corruption in the government. That's really as far as Ei goes to talk to her people, to try to be a better leader. She had 500 years, yet she chose to neglect reality. And that wouldn't be a problem if the game didn't try so hard to make you feel bad for her flaws. As if her flaws justify what she did during the entire main quest. I just can seem to have empathy for her when she never apologized to her people (I believe she said one sentence of apologies and that she would improve). The latest quest of 3.7 with the TCG tournament just proves she hasn't been trying at all. People are still afraid of her because Miko confirms that Raiden doesn't leave the palace. Yes, it makes sense for her being shy, introverted, or even scared of going out, but they don't tell us that. They don't give a reason, but they give her a sad back story so we should feel bad, or at least inclined to feel bad for her. This is just a rant. ty.

[@Chronicallyalive80]

Fr tho, Nahida literally tries to become the leader that could make her people safe while Ei be literally throwing tantrums bc she couldn't have enough desserts 💀 ASS WRITING

[@jadecoolness101]

"As if her flaws justify what she did during the entire main quest." Exactlyyyy. They had Raiden commit literal crimes against humanity and then went "but she's depressed!" like.... so? How does that relate? Stay on topic here dude. "...Miko confirms that Raiden doesn't leave the palace. Yes, it makes sense for her being shy, introverted, or even scared of going out, but they don't tell us that. They don't give a reason, but they give her a sad back story so we should feel bad, or at least inclined to feel bad for her." Even if they did, that's not an excuse. She's the archon, she needs to put on her big girl panties, or step down. She seems to want all the glory and power of being an archon, but none of the responsibility and obligation to her people.

[@Chronicallyalive80]

@jadecoolness101 It never justifies it if she's a bad girl or depressed, IF SHE WANTS ETERNITY THEN SHE COULD'VE HELPED HER PEOPLE INSTEAD OF HURT THEM BECAUSE OF HER FALSE IDEOLOGYYY

[@melodicholy]

this comment is exactly why I can't stand her. I loved her as a villain, and I believe she should have stayed that way. If they wanted redemption, the least they could have showed was a moment of remorse. We see her get bamboozled by f*cking DANGO MILK, not kill someone and then say she was a bad leader. None of this is remorse, this is just basic human decency. She should have stepped back and admitted that not only she was wrong, but that she felt REMORSE for all the years of pain and suffering she has caused. Not once do we actually see that. It all feels like a wish-wash excuse to avoid people bashing on her as villain...

[@Chronicallyalive80]

@@melodicholy SPEAK LOUDER BLUD!!! Also, Raiden if she never felt any remorse then she could've, would've, and should've stayed as the "villain" persona than a dango milk enjoyer like WHY WOULD THE TRAVELER BABY HER, GIVE HER SWEETS, AND HAVE FUN WITH HER WHILE SHE COMMITED DOZENS OF WAR CRIMES LMFAOOO

[@chumbum3041]

I think the biggest issue with her is literally just WRITING. The devs wanted to have a strong imposing villain but at the end, they just tried to “waifu” her up which is stupid, genuinely. I would not mind a female character being an asshole, because it makes sense for Ei to kind of be like that because she’s a shut in. Hell, why not give the leader position to kujou Sara or someone else?

[@chumbum3041]

@@bighatastrea I don’t want her to be a miserable villain, god no, that’s awful, and I do agree that yes she is inexperienced and took L after L. But I do not BELIEVE for a minute that she will just change once the traveler wrecks her shit. At best right? I want her to stay like a selfish person who only helps because it’s for herself, but then later on, she realizes that humanity is worth it. I don’t want that switch up to happen so fast and her being like, “I’m sorry for basically fucking up everything and possibly killing innocent lives, my fault og!” I’m not trying to downplay how she wasn’t ready for the leader position, but having everyone just forgive her and her just changing like that? HELL NAH, That’s just forced! In my personal opinion, humbly, no hate or anything.

[@spellcheck5393]

Yep the worst was when they showed her being manipulated by some dude hiding documents! Like seriously what is her IQ

[@SharkNash]

@@spellcheck5393 Probably less than a brick

[@SharkNash]

@@chumbum3041 If anything, maybe a direction that could had went was leaving the leadership to someone else whom was more knowleadgeable because clearly being like 500 years isolated didnt help her reflect and polish those social interaction skills, maybe Sara or Yae could have been the obvious choices and had let Ei explore more the outside world because being real, she jusr wasnt fit for the job. But yeah, things happened so suddently that its hard to believe she changed and people are just okay with her "oopsie, i almost make my own nation crumble". Its really just not convicing that people are with good terms with their ruler after such events.

[@arturvieira9991]

So, I found this video after making a joke about how Raiden's Gnosis has more plot development than its owner. In my eyes, what puts her story in the negative is how disappointed I was with the execution of the plot. I can see what caused everything to happen in the quests, so I didn't feel disconnected with some of the things she did, because they were things I expected, but in the end I couldn't help but feel that everything that happened was just ridiculous. I find the comparisons to Nahida outside of the memes somewhat ridiculous as well. Sumeru was better executed than Inazuma, that's all.

[@spellcheck5393]

At this point Nahida is only one comparable as Venti is non existent god while morax gave up being god. Even Focalors never really ruled Fontaine. So currentl Nahida and Ei are only fulltime archons and well they are polar opposites

[@jadecoolness101]

13:53 "Even Venti, Mondstadt's resident alcoholic and absent archon, still cares a lot for his people" I always find this very frustrating. The idea that Venti being "absent" is a negative. Mondstadt is, by far, the most peaceful nation. Liyue has god remains, and sleeping gods (osial) just chilling around. Inazuma has Ei, and 3/6 Islands are completely uninhabitable (Yashiori, Seirai, Tsurumi), while another can't even grow food (Watatsumi), and another is a military base (Kannazuka), just surviving is a miracle there. Sumeru has/had Sages and Eleazar and the tainted wildlife. Fontaine has the water dissolving people prophecy, an insane legal system that changes daily with crazy specific laws like "you can't have flying objects in the city during the first 3 days of the month". Generally, when the fandom is asked where they'd like to live if they lived in Teyvat, most people say Mondstadt. Mondstadt is in an AMAZING state. It was truly built by people, and for people. Venti became their archon by fighting against a tyrannical dictator. He fought alongside humans, and was a witness to what humans are capable of. Ultimately, he decided that as an archon, he should not do anything to overstep human's authority because humans are fully capable of ruling themselves and FOUGHT to rule themselves. He fought alongside them so they COULD rule themselves, his friend died so humans could rule themselves. And he was RIGHT. LOOK at Mondstadt. The only time he overstepped human's rule was when some corrupt humans were enslaving other humans, thus those slaves were not able to be free like he and his friend fought for all those years ago. The problem however, with letting humans rule themselves, is that an archon's power is tied to how much they "rule", as stated by Venti. He is still strong enough to protect the nation when it needs protecting from god-like powers (Durin), but it takes a LOT out of him. When he is "absent" for hundreds of years, it's because he is basically in a COMA recovering from whatever fight he was just in. When we first enter Mondstadt, we see Venti trying to talk to Dvalin, aka Stormterror. He was trying to get Stormterror to stop threatening Mondstadt on his own, and only really involved Aether and Favonius when he realized the purification abilities. The reason why Venti isn't in a coma right now and is able to sing and perform for his people as nothing more than a humble bard is because he trusted a select few of his people to help him. But he would've fought alone to the point of century-long-unconsciousness if he had to, as he always has. Honestly Venti is a VERY interesting character for me. He is a god, and he made the active choice to be weaker because he believes in his people. He spends decades, if not centuries in recovery after bigger battles where humans need some support. He sits in the seat of "the anemo archon" solely to stop anyone else from taking that throne and dictating Mondstadt. He wants none of the power of archonhood, and his people don't want an active archon either. He spends his days among his people, or sleeping in recovery after saving his people. It feels unfair to say he is "absent" as a detraction when the reason he's absent is because he was hurt/completely exhausted while fulfilling his duties. Tying him with Signora's lore also opens up a fun conversation of "What is really fair to expect of a god?" But I've gone and written an essay now. Whoops lmao.

[@sofiazee8611]

So true!! Thank you for saying this

[@jadecoolness101]

@@sofiazee8611 it just irks me when people go "he's useless he does nothing he sleeps for hundreds of years hahaha" like.... yeah? He's made the choice to be so weak he has to spend dacades to centuries sleeping in recovery, all so that the people of mondstadt can rule themselves on a day to day basis. He loves being a bard and being with his people, but he's chosen to lose out on his fun for their sake. He is weak, sure you could say that's a flaw, but he's weak BECAUSE he trusts his people and believes that an active ruling archon is not what they need. And he is right, Mondstadt is the most peaceful nation. You would think after 3 years people would look more into it but... no..

[@tide7107]

Mondstadt's relative (Yes I say relative because it too has a rifthound problem) habitability also contributes in part to it a boring nation on the surface level, which on a tangent opens up about how life of an average person in a fictional location usually corresponds inversely to the level of interest it can draw in. Most of Mondstadt's surface level lore is "peaceful city once ruled by tyrant then by totalitarians and now it is cool" and tinge of "big dragon" and "big wolf". Dragonspine goes crazy with lore but on the SURFACE, it's just "Big mountain with nail and Albedo." And Venti-Istaroth relations and Hexenzirkel are a bit less surface level, they're deep lore. Meanwhile Liyue's surface level exposure involves SEVERAL elements of lore - The whole Chasm, Yakshas, mentioned God residue, Osial, Azhdaha, the Star Core, Guili, Dunyu... all very harmful to the average citizen for sure but very interesting to us, the readers. Inazuma's story quest may not be a point to sport but its surface level exposure is FANTASTIC. Orobashi, Enkanomiya, Dragon Kokomi hints, The Thunderbird, Seirai Island, and Tatarasuna are just a FEW to name. Sumeru's story quest and deeplore alike are BUSTED GOOD. Irminsul, Deshret, Khaj-Nissut, HELL EVEN DENDRO ELECTRO LORE INVOLVING RUKHDEVTA TO JUSTIFY AGGRAVATE AND SPREAD, it's all too ridiculous. On a side note Eleazar is wiped now thanks to Rukkha's erasure. Oh and there's the whole "Entrance to Khaenri'ah" stuff, a living sovereign Dragon and so much more. It's interesting to see how the most lore heavy and interesting regions are for the most the part the most uninhabitable ones at the same time and this is a general rule in most other fantasy settings too. It was an unrelated tangent but the correlation between quality of life and interest sparked among readers is surely an awesome one.

[@feliz695]

@@jadecoolness101 THANK 👏DAMN👏 GOODNESS👏 Someone gets it! Venti's "absent" because he believes in what his people are capable of and only steps in when he's really needed. Heck! Even Zhongli decided to follow his approach.

[@jadecoolness101]

@@feliz695 No really I'm tired of the Venti slander... I know OP said it as a joke, I'm not like ~offended~ but it's just SUCH a disservice to his writing to go "he's lazy and absent hahaha funny bard clown guy he's drunk all the time lmao" he is so much deeper than that.

[@leegunring]

Although Nahida's body is under house arrest, she is connected to Irminsul after all, and she can sneak into children's dreams at night to communicate with them, which allows her to maintain her knowledge and innocence at the same time. It's a shame that Devs still wants Raiden to be a Waifu after all, and I kind of want to see her portrayed as a harsh, ruthless but determined, principled archon. Her plot references Akira Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" and Japanese mythology's Ama-no-Iwato.

[@tylosenpai6920]

Ruthless but determined...that's Kebin...i hope we'll see someone like that in the future

[@NerylaLouvel]

I super agree. I had many problems hearing her story. Introuncing a dark plot but being scared to actually commit to kill a meaningful character, turning Teppe into a disposable prop to try manipulate the kokoro and turning Ei silly and nice. Ignoring the established darkness and suffering. (Also add Delusions to the list of unexplained, vague and unknown "painful somehow" diseases of Tevat. Next to Karmic Debt, Forbidden Knowledge, Yang energy and Adeptus energy radiation.. thing.) I feel that her being a competent super stern and dedicated cold WARRIOR directly conflicts with her response to grief alone for 500 YEARS. I'd expect her becoming more of a dictator, Big Brother type, but no.. Inazuma was mostly fending for itself. Ironically, eroding fast from the inside. I know loss is... unhealable, to say the least. But an avarage healthy human can "move on" to some level from it in under 10-20 years of the death. This feels weird to me;; Maybe Dainslief is right about the gods... And also, if the obsession was to keep things as they are, the obvious mathematical answer is... temporal stasis. Find the God of time, stop time forever. Erosion stopped. Eternity achieved. Clearly quality of life wasn't her focus. Ironically leaving Inazuma to literally erode as she found her answers in her own head (which she didn't have) felt like an oroborus of ignorance (but yeah she's Intelligent not Wise, i get that much). At least leaving a nation frozen would've stifled much of the people's suffering while she pondered... idk And like you stated, we left Zhongli and Venti who are great Archons in their own little way, despite their loss, flaws and DEEP suffering.... she was too much of an sudden sharp offset. By the time she found her answer there wouldn't have been an Inazuma. Maybe because she's lejitimately an amazing engineer (friggen made live puppets) she thought she could find the answer... like how scholars think? But yeah, I just gave up and submitted to the feel-good story they wanted to tell with her silly sides and redemption, because there's A LOT of plots Inazuma has not resolved. And I don't want my OCD to keep beating a dead horse xD. Also you're right. I don't feel bad for Kazuha's friend. He knew what he was getting into. Touchy feely nakama story but also... sorry bruh :T ya played yerself. GG though.

[@NerylaLouvel]

Ps: Fantastic video analysis, Otsu!!

[@otsuucurry]

IKR, Ei is inconsistent as a character.. her decisions contradicts all of the set up and backstory hoyo gave us. She just feels sooo messy as a character especially when compared to the previous 2 archons & Nahida :/ and like you said they wanted to go the darker route with her morality but it does seem like they chickened out that people would hate her too much and wouldn't pull for her LOL so they half assed her and what we got was a character that wasn't good but also wasn't fully bad... but not in a good way, just in an indecisive kind of way. It's like they had a fully fleshed dark & complex story when designing her character lore but they also wanted her to be the cute uwu waifu everyone loves, which....SIGH. (also youre right hoyo does seem to have a pattern on making vague illnesses and never bothered elaborating on them like what is erosion, forbidden knowledge etc LIKE WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS HERE HOYO... the most fleshed out one we got was eleazar but that also magically disappeared by the end of sumeru xD) i hope hoyo learns that they can't have it both ways. If they did want to show how the gods in this game are flawed then they should have just doubled down on Ei being terrible (bc let's face it she is lol) and then make her atone for her mistakes. also thank you so much!! and thanks for watching & letting me know ur thoughts again, it's always fun to discuss genshin characters :D

[@NerylaLouvel]

@@otsuucurry Yooo I forgot about the Eleazar thing!! hahah, man. It is very fun to story craft. For the longest time I've thought of powers in stories. Light and dark seem to be the most emotionally dependant ones since they're vague, still soft magic systems aren't bad though, just gotta set priorities and commit. Now with the "sky issue" and Fontain being a place of technology, plus a mention somewhere that ghosts are a leak on data from the lay-lines? It makes me question the mysticism & superstition. .. Like how Alchemy used the be the early & VERY crazy version of Chemistry. Idk how their Cosmology is designed, I'm very curious.. like... if there's information to be taken from the sky they see... who put it there? In what way is the sky compromised? And yeah, they should've doubled down on Ei. I actually thought they'd finally kill a focused character we cared about in Dunyazard. I was excited for the idea of a tragedy, making us understand how horrible Nahida's existence was. Unable to help her people, possibly not the first this has happened in 500 years... But they also went back to happy feely town with everyone's magically saved even after a terminal diagnosis. And again, it's not bad, but when framed as tragedy it feels a little... well... I'm conflicted...? Because unrealistic.. but also cartoon fun game... : T 🤷‍♂️. Either way I'm not scared these writers will kill anyone... though some suspect Childe has some clues that might suggest an early death? Forbidden Knowledge was confusing because I thought they'd go a Lovecraftian route. People going mad and crazy / obsessed because their knowledge just docent add up and they obsess over it ala Junji Ito spiral.... Somehow instead they grow scales and get the plague? (How does knowing something give you a skin condition??) In any case, they seem to have their favorite stories and they're definitely getting better! Sorry for writing so much, I just love analyzing Lore, I can see why people love the game. I'm curious if they will keep adding more and more characters;; seems like squeezing too many lemons at once.. at some point we might not get back to some characters 1 on 1 earnestly in... years? Anyhow, sorry again, and keep up the good work!!

[@Gh.stKng.]

The thing is what you thought about "an average healthy human" Ei sure has the emotion of a human but she is STILL a god, every human reacts different to trauma, She was literally fighting for her all existence; killing gods, she admitted into saying that she is not good at politics and stuff with mind and brains because thats what Makoto does, which is why she is sh!t at ruling, she is not a great ruler or a great archon because she knows she is only good at fighting and only do what she thinks is right, I want to let you know that the fatui was covering what happens to her people and Ei only knows whats up about taking people's visions blah blah blah but she doesnt know about the fatui's schemes until her story quest comes, It is also stated by ayaka? or kokomi? that they only started being against on the shogun is the vision hunt decree, Most inazuman NEVER complained about the sakoku decree but they complained about the vision hunt which is also the start of the resistance, literally even after the archon quest, most people still worship her fully and appreciate her (from what I have saw in some npcs because the other npcs pray for her) my proof for Ei fighting in her whole existence is in her character story and the book that she confirmed that is actually accurate💀

[@Gh.stKng.]

I agree with the act 3 of being rushed, even though i think they have given you quite the explanation if you really did pay to dialouges and not the cutscenes also the fighting in my perspective

[@tootletubs]

Ei is the only archon that wasn't fully developed until she takes on her redemption ark that helps her to grow. I enjoyed the quest, however, the damage was too great and she went too far. Similar to a serial murderer who commit murders because of their beliefs, and then realize they are at fault. Will people forgive them and let them walk free if they simply publicly announce that they were wrong, they have changed and they like sweets? (Given the Inazuma brain washing education about shogun is always best and shogun protects inazuma, the residents there will most likely to blindly believe in her). Moreover, what is good about eternity when her people are suffering, and she knows fully well about it and did nothing. Whats eternity when she created her puppet son and just leave him to rot? There were so much pain and grief that she has caused to whole nation. She is able to be like this because she is a God and no one can actually keep her in check, and that makes it a very scary place to live in, because at the end of it, the whole nation is still living under her mercy, when she has shown she is fully capable of being uncaring to her people for years on end. (I vaguely remember she said something along the lines of 'you wake me up just to talk about these people? I know they are suffering btw, laugh out loud'). People rarely change fully, certainly not after they try some sweets, talk to some random people, and finish a fight. (Granted the story mentioned her fight with baal lasted a long time off screen) Moving forward, I think there should be more redemption arks that aims at repairing the damages, starting with scaramouche.

[@otsuucurry]

yes exactly! Ei as a character leaves a lot of room for growth (and hopefully hoyo explores her morality further in the future). Given where we left off with Inazuma, she did essentially get away with everything a bit too easily solely, like you said, because she's a God, so it would be nice if someone of equal status in the future be it her own creation like Scara or another archon holding her accountable for all of the horrible things she did.

[@NerylaLouvel]

@@otsuucurry And with the Irminzul issue it makes that an even more exciting reunion I can't wait to see~ > v >

[@NerylaLouvel]

Makes me think of how people talk about serial killers like rock stars :v They didn't seem to know exactly what to commit to. Dark oppressive or Dark neglectful? 1984 or Hunger Games? It annoyed me Ei had to ponder for an eternity to make, what seems to be, a simple choice. And while I get her Eternity shtick means she hates change its kind of a looping error message. Choice = change; Eternity =/= change; ... crap wait Ei please, Hot Dog or Hamburger : T

[@xmetalgamerx]

I totally agree and this made me despise the Raiden Shogun for the longest time. This was perpetuated by the fact that literally everyone else simped so hard for her when she was just objectively a terrible, ignorant, irresponsible, and emotionally-driven leader. I don’t mind her as much now because people seem to be catching on a bit more and acknowledging her flaws. But I still don’t like her and wouldn’t pull for her even though she’s strong. Hoyoverse can do better and will likely write better characters in the future, although her sales didn’t disappoint so who knows. I do believe she was necessary in the story, but she could’ve faced harsher consequences for everything she’d done, and more animosity from her people.

[@shadowpriest2574]

I mean, she no longer even remembers Scaramouch so I don't see how they could even do a redemption arc with him. He will remember, but he no longer means anything to her.....well even less than he already did.

[@AnArtistInAVoid]

I feel like the big thing that hindered Raiden Shogun’s story was the Inazuma Archon quest. The entire problem was that there wasn’t enough time to develop multiple concepts in the story. Also Ei’s first character quest would have been more interesting if 1. Ei got more opinions from different sources for what Inazuma was like. 2. She actually took a look at the devastation that the civil war had caused.

[@MrcreeperDXD777]

Inazuma should have been 5 acts, like Sumeru. We literally get introduced to the resistance, lose one of the characters you just met an act ago (Teppei), meet Scara in the delusion factory, get saved by Yae and "train" with her, get evidence of Tenryou Commission's betrayal with the help of Sayu, confront Kujou Sara, fight Signora, fight Raiden, and it all just magically gets resolved in the last 5 minutes. All in a single act.

[@AnArtistInAVoid]

@@MrcreeperDXD777 true

[@jadecoolness101]

It would've been so easy to at least decently reform Raiden. They just had to do ONE thing. EMPATHY. Raiden simps love to go "she's a god she can't understand short lived humans!" But she was aaaaallllllll sooooooooooo depressed because her sister and friends died. Her only family was gone, she was alone, how tragic. How... very HUMAN of her. In her depression, she caused MANY people in her country to die. Those people were sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, children. She directly lead to the death of many other people's family members. All that hoyo needed to do was have ONE person confront her. One soldier who lost everything, his comrades, his brothers, his sons. He no longer fears execution from Raiden for his defiance, he has lost EVERYTHING because of this war. And then they have Raiden realize "oh, huh, this is like when I lost my sister..... oh............ oh no what have I done?-"

[@AnArtistInAVoid]

@@jadecoolness101 that would have been so great.

[@danielhounshell2526]

Here's the thing, showing her the harm caused by the decree wouldn't really work in terms of how her character was written. She had convinced herself that it was all necessary and that it was for the greater good of her people in the long run. The only way to show her how wrong her actions were was to show how fundamentally flawed her concept of eternity was, and the story did that by forcing her to see that this city that she tried to keep stagnant had developed new art, food, technologies and culture to the extent that she didn't recognize the place. Seeing this is essentially being confronted with the fact that she'd been living a lie for 500 years, and that change not only still happened under her rule, but that it was helping her people and enriching their lives. She's also forced to see how her negligence, distance from her people, and overall lack of involvement has hurt her people and weakened their government when she goes to resolve the issue with the Kujou clan. This then gets expanded on in the second archon quest where she is forced to confront what's at the heart of her old philosophies. You can dislike her character, but she is well written. At most she suffers from bad pacing at the end of the archin quest.

[@lusees616]

ei reminds me of younger zhongli, both were warriors and more brawny while having someone else to rely on for all the thinking (zhongli had guizhong and ei had makoto) however their other half died and they had to take up the role of leader they were not so fit for. They also weren't so good at handling grief, zhongli literally sliced off a portion of the mountain right behind liyue harbour where most of his people lived which aint really big brain. The difference being zhongli had years to learn to be that leader and had a good support system with all the adeptus while ei went into meditation and didnt really have that support system with how literally her whole friend group died. I like to think ei would've turned out similar to zhongli later on or if she was luckier.

[@Azaro_64]

Personally I still can't believe she's the most popular character in the game, her design is so bland and underwhelming considering the build up we had prior to Inazuma and it's Archon being a powerfull warrior dictator, Inazuma's archon quest was sooooo bad and honestly her personality is so bland and boring as well, plus the whole thing with the puppet shogun and her mind dimension just feel like random noise that adds nothing to her character, it was already enough with her having a long dead twin sister who was the former electro archon, the puppet shogun ends up being a random gimmick to inflate the story and get away with the blame for everything bad she did for Inazuma, having half of a character's actions being brushed off to and empty shell that just "follows instructions" and acts without thinking is just stupid writting, hell specially when Ei is directly responsable for creating the Shogun puppet and allowing it to do everything it did under her instructions. I honestly think this is just a case of the game brainwashing people into liking her with her dmg numbers and the story shoving her in your face saying "look she's cool and and has big boobs you HAVE to like her"

[@CapriciousWriter]

FINALLY! someone said it!

[@ndiyabucaphukelaubusobakho1732]

It's just booby propaganda istg

[@crimsonECH1DNA]

I don't think Ei is a bad character, I just think she's a victim of Hoyo's sloppy writing. Her first character story was trash so the full weight of the resolution of her trauma was thrushed into her Second Character story. And in it she learned to heal from her personal trauma but we never got true reconcilliation with her people. So it feels like only half the work was actually done. Ei haters use that as ammo to demonize her while Ei Stans will equally downplay and brush it aside. I think my biggest issue at the end of the day is Hoyo now treats her people legitimately fearing that she'll kill them over the smallest slight as a punchline just like they did in the 3.7 TCG event.

[@sebastiancastro3524]

"Ei haters" the classic "argument" of the SIMPS of Ei like YOU

[@Venat2322]

Here's hoping we get more content for Ei in the future because I agree it feels like there's still more to be done with her.

[@masterbeishline542]

Ei is a bad character BECAUSE of Hoyo’s sloppy writing, but what most people don’t understand is that you should blame the writers for screwing up the character, not the character itself.

[@spellcheck5393]

She is Bad character. Like she locked herself on her own accord for 500 years and passed judgement without checking what impact it had! How TF she got manipulated by some old man like seriously! At this point Kokomi was better archon

[@Venat2322]

@@spellcheck5393 That doesn't make her a bad character though. Bad leader maybe, but not character. If she stayed like that once all was done I'd agree, but we see she does acknowledge her own shortcomings and try to improve in her second story quest.

[@Tovy]

To be fair Ei had a life before she isolated herself, while Nahida was isolated immediately

[@HeatherLominsa]

Yeah but that life was basically just her being Makoto's living weapon, or at least that's what she viewed it as I'm sure killing yourself so your sister can rule leaves some effect on someone's psyche

[@guillermocervisalmeron2209]

​@@HeatherLominsawhy she had friends then?

[@vennisan7268]

​@@guillermocervisalmeron2209People can be mentally ill and do horrible things and still have friends.

[@shakunimama936]

​@@vennisan7268as a mentally unstable and a horrible person who has friends I can confirm

[@randomperson093]

I mean technically speaking,loss and grief is basically the bread and butter of nearly every god's lore we've known about thus far,and lo and behold,they actually did the "god suffers,god loses beloved person,god begins to isolate themselve and fall into depression,god does questionable stuff,the nation's fucked,god has to do something about it" much better in semeru with my man deshret whose story is basically endless suffering from start to finish

[@Ahmed_ElSayed01]

I absolutely hate her character, she's like a villain that they're trying so hard to excuse. I didn't pull her the first time because she was my most hated character. unfortunately I know need her gameplay wise

[@himerunrun_]

Bruh Nahida went through worse than Ei but she did a better job at being an archon

[@Rainbow_Star_Blossom]

don't compare trauma, trauma is still trauma in the end

[@justsomeguy335]

Nahida is everyone's cute little cabbage after all. In terms of story, Nahida >>> Venti > Zhongli >>>>>>>>> Ei

[@CastDeathGames]

Finally someone that calls out Raidens horrible behavior. Love the video hope you make more!

[@otsuucurry]

Thank you so much for watching

[@treasure9342]

I've been getting death threats for Comments about her bad writing for a year now (she's most peoples favorite because of being hot, this is just true because when I ask for reasoning of good righting they give me none, and instead call me a delusional wreak, waste of human space and a awful person to humanity........) God hoyo is good company in multiple departments but in the fanbase........most toxic fan base that I have EVER seen

[@Rapiers-and-flowers]

@@treasure9342 those genshin fans are delusional af and probably the reason why non-players despise the community so much

[@itwillhappennduwillbehappy]

​@@treasure9342man those ei stans on twitter are AWFUL. god forbid you even say anything slightly bad about their waifu or they will COME for ur throat 😒

[@treasure9342]

@@itwillhappennduwillbehappy I already know that feeling......happend more then once when I just said that "ei has bad writing and here's a way to improve it (gave multiple reasons)" 😮‍💨

[@absalomii8564]

In my opinion, Ei is lucky to have people like the Traveler and Yae Miko to take care of her, otherwise the people would have rebelled against her, maybe not in 10, 50 or 100 years, but it would happen eventually. Remembering that, with Decarabian, God of the Storm, it took 400 years for the people to rebel against him, even though he had much more valid reasons to keep the people trapped inside the Old Mondstald.

[@NoNo-lt9bi]

Raiden is childish, selfish and cowardly, to run away from negative feelings is childish and cowardly(not to mention foolish), to do so at the expense of your people is selfish, she is responsible for a bunch of dumb stuff, if elon makes a robot and that robot kills someone, we would hold elon accountable, if someone commits a crime without knowing its a crime, they are held accountable, Ei should be ostracized for her incompetence and be reduced to a mysterious wanderer stricken with grief and anger (it would've made her character so much more interesting) either that or just falsify her death like zhongli and then learn from other people, mortals and fellow archons alike

[@morbincrusader5123]

Ei is the prime example of what you get when you put a warrior in charge of a kingdom instead of a wiseman. Makoto was the brains and heart of inazuma while Ei was the muscles. When the former passed away, the latter was no more than a grieving woman who has no clue on how to rule other than through battle. The Shogun is the robot that embodies and amplifies these negative traits and she ruled with an iron fist.

[@amayas4516]

When you think about it... Furina and Ei's stories are very similar... but it seems like the writers tried to redeem themseleves by giving Furina the judgement that Ei should've recieved 🙃

[@Avi73974]

Ei or previous electro archon didn't commit any crime like eageria did so execution doesn't make sense here.Focalors died for her people if she wanted to live the death of fontaine was certain and that's not the case with inazuma or ei.

[@Avi73974]

And no furina/focalors story is not similar to ei/makoto

[@4NSW3RM3]

So, the thing with "holding her accountable" and "Watsumi Island calling her out," I don't think people really understand how complex the issue is. Inazuman's were not rebelling against the Raiden Shogun, the were rebelling against a decree (arguably two, though I don't know how much they hated the Sakoku Degree). She is still, in their eyes, the divine Shogun, a god who rules by right. They likely don't find her to be infallible or unquestionable, but they aren't going to see themselves as capable of "holding her to account." As far as the Watsumi Islanders go, I don't understand why people keep lumping them in with Inazumans. They are their own sovereign nation, with their own religion, god, and political structure. They rebelled against the Shogunate because, in thier view, the Shogunate is a foreign invader. I have 0 doubt that if deserters and rebels didn't escape to Watsumi, and if the Shogunate didn't try to enforce the decrees on Watsumi, that Watsumi island would have sat back and let Inazuma tear itself apart. I might view the entire Ei debate differently because I rolled into Genshin during 2.7, but outside the Fatui feeling forced into the story, I didn't have a problem with the Inazuma Archon quest. Not saying it was perfect or riveting, but I found it serviceable. I also don't see Ei as Pon Waifu, but then again I also don't see Xiao as Edgy, so maybe I'm just out o step with the rest of the player base.

[@opyams3054]

The people of inazuma fear shogun to the point where in her first story quest, the mc has to explain to her that you must pay for the things from vendors because Ei is so used to just taking things since no one would dear ask the Raiden to pay. Inazuma is terrified of the Shogun. Watsumi is a part of the Inazuman archipelago, its just very far away from the capitol and has unique history, causing it to develop its own culture. After the abolishment of the vision hunt, we're even told that negotiations are going on to reconnect Watasumi to the rest of inazuma (politically) under the shogunate. Plus Raiden killed their god

[@aeso3555]

You can't have a redemption story without accountability, which was severely lacking in the first story quest. There's a good reason why its so infamous because it horribly botched a lot of fans perception of Ei and left a nasty first impression, which is why she remains one of the most polarizing archons in the game.And while the average Inazuman reveres her and wouldn't likely try to call her out, we as the audience aren't from the world of Teyvat. We're expected to view her as this tragic, misguided, figure yet in the first story quest, we felt more like babysitters going on a shopping date. It was completely out of place with the dark story and provided no resolution. And all of this was before the second story quest which took great strides to fix the issue.

[@JC-ie3gj]

Watatsumi Islanders are still Inazuman lol, have you not heard of autonomous regions before?

[@edenrom2349]

My biggest grief with Ei, which is admittedly based on memories and emotions from 2 years ago, is how the story quest kept trying to pose her as the antagonist but also not really. First they show how bad the people suffer because of their archon's persistance and then theres a storyline about how its actually the fatui and kujo clan manipulating the information Raiden recieves- but no she just goes "yeah I know they changed the facts I wasnt manipulated just truely believed in it" and then Yae shows up all like "Actually Ei is in the puppet and has no idea what the puppet has been doing" and then when we tell Ei about it she just goes "yeah duh Im obviously aware of what my body is doing I just dont think shes wrong" and then her character is just left this muddled "I know my puppet made decisions that harmed people in a council that ignored multiple facts that harmed people and Im totally agreeing with it" so you can fight her but also still have no idea of anything so you could take her on a date and shed be this cute waifu that has nothing to do with the character the story was failing at building up. I wouldnt say shes a bad character when compared to the people who showed up only in their profiles and single story quest like Itto or Eula, if you take the deep dive into her profiles and the history of the nation shes pretty cool, just like you said, and the story certainly did dirty to more characters like Kokomi and Gorou. She just had the biggest bad role in this story and thats the first impression and maybe only impression for some I just feel like the writers tried to have their cake and eat it too with Ei and it ruined the whole plot that was set up. Instead of being fully aware and still resolved in her persuit of eternity no matter the cost she was unaware of what the nation is like and a snack, camera, light novels and ambitions she was knew were stolen prove to her not all change is bad and also the changes she made were bad. Instead of being a victim manipulated by those who understood the puppet's code or disconnected ruler unaware of the consenquences of her persuit she keeps time and time again claim she knows everything and that nothing surprises her because her eternity is beyond the vision holders ambitions or anyone in any generation that may currently suffer.

[@hiparifu6889]

I think Ei getting away with everything she did could also be a parallel to Japan also getting away with the crimes they committed in WWII. I completely agree she should’ve been held accountable though; OR because she’s not held accountable as of now, they should’ve explored the theme much deeper with Inazuman NPCs and the effect she’s had on the country and her people (ik the world quests all somehow correlate back to her, but it’s not enough to be in junction her personal writing as a character).

[@abceckswhyzee7169]

Uh wtf?@user-xd4nl9sq9x

[@prismofcolors]

This is extremely detailed information about the Raiden Shogun and encapsulated perfectly what was people’s misconceptions about her, 10/10 would watch again.

[@ilucasz]

Now, being serious here: Furina really looks like a fraud when we see her acting, but she at least seems to be TRYING to help her people, unlike Ei, who still has to do something.

[@albedo-sama9778]

tbh what pissed me off with what the writers did with her character is how all the other playable inazuman characters, her citizens (excluding kokomi) didn't seem to dislike her or see her in an unfavourable light, in their voicelines, after what she put them through? Its like magically all of them forgot the mistakes tht took place during her rule and while yea noone can punish or hold her accountable since she's the Archon, it would have been interesting if one of these characters disliked Raiden but can't voice out their distaste because she's their ruler. But noooo, everyone has to like the traveller and every other character because that is how they can emphasise how much of a "misguided" and depressed waifu she was instead of a flawed ruler. Thankfully sumeru has gotten better in tht regards, but i atleast hoped for one of the inazuman characters' be like "yea no not a big fan of the Shogun she's basically a tyrant and dgaf abt us but she's trying to change now ig" instead of all of them suddenly acting like everything she's done is for their benefit and praises abt how she is a good ruler (just why..) in their voicelines after the archon quest ends. Im not saying these characters should have gone out and tried to assassinate her or some bs, they could have made some of the characters say they feel iffy around Raiden in the voicelines. Its ok if one character dislikes another because thats how people are and it makes them have more complex and interesting interactions and dynamics with one another. I think hyv tried to do this with itto and Ayato, with Ayato's english va depicting the "About Arataki Itto" voiceline in a way tht it felt like he found Itto very intrusive and too overfriendly and overbearing despite Ayato not being close enough to him (idk if this was intentional or not). I loved this iteration of the voiceline sm compared to the backlash it got from the rest of the community cuz no Ayato has no obligation to like Itto just because majority of the players find him lovable because he is a goofy, himbo and impulsive dork. I don't blame Ayato, because as an introvert i would be hella pissed if someone i barely talked to once, would be too overfriendly and try to force being friends with them (despite, once again not being very close to that person and only after having talked to them a handful number of times)

[@catdacat5863]

the thing that messes me up the most about Ei is the side quests about the ex soldiers and the people who had to leave their homes. like... I cared more about the kid in the abandoned mining town than the guy that died in the rebellion lol

[@lilfreak1491]

same! I accidentally triggered the little boy quest, but I genuinely cared more about him than anyone in Inazuma's archon quest/Raiden story quest.

[@sozen4131]

Good call, and sure the character of her does excuse SOME aspects however, her actions still did affect the people of Inazuma and although her loss of Makoto hurt, she was still given the role and responsibilities of the Raiden Shogun as well as being Inazuma’s Archon. I don’t hate Ei nor Raiden Shogun but there is a line she walked and the writing isn’t quite well fleshed out.

[@bclubofawesomeness2894]

My complaint with Raiden has never been her being a “bad archon” when it comes to leadership. Personally, I love the idea of her being a bad archon. But, for a character who spent 500 years in self reflection, she sure doesn’t seem to do a lot of introspection. I just wish the story was more accepting of those who didn’t feel like she made up for her past actions yet. It can take a person out of the story when you’re thinking “how tf is purchasing dango making up for killing ur sister” and paimon is like “wow, what a helpful archon” and your only options in response are “yup” and “i agree!” And, as mentioned in the video, the lack of backlash from in-game characters doesn’t help, though in my head I always saw it as a “she can cut you down in a second, i’m not sure if criticizing her to her face is the best way give feedback” kind of way. Honestly, I want an archon that we’re supposed to dislike, and it seems like the only opportunity for that will be the fire one, which is definitely going to rub me the wrong way if that is the case 😅

[@jadecoolness101]

"the lack of backlash from in-game characters doesn’t help, though in my head I always saw it as a “she can cut you down in a second, i’m not sure if criticizing her to her face is the best way give feedback” kind of way." Honestly the lack of backlash has always confused me. Many people risked DROWNING in the ocean to escape inazuma... and none of them place blame on the ruler for ruining the country to a point that they NEED to escape. Or place blame on the ruler for making it inherently dangerous TO escape. Like they're fleeing, but for what reason? Just for funsies? It is CERTAINLY not because of the Raiden, we can't have her be accountable for anything!

[@bclubofawesomeness2894]

@@jadecoolness101 you would think that, now that the shogun is “nice,” they’d at least talk amongst themselves, saying that they’re glad she came to her senses or glad the traveller was able to convince her to stop.

[@helloneighbour2408]

This. I'm not mad that she indirectly caused people to die and let the vision hunt decree go on despite being a fatui plot, I'm mad that it contradicts her beliefs and that the game immediately forgives her

[@phatbeatz1311]

we need more character analysis like this. This amazing insight, instant subscribed.

[@kindlingking]

I think there's a large chunk of the video where "good person" and "good (well-written) character" got mixed up. Imo Ei is neither, but I honestly couldn't care less whether character is morally good or not if they're well-written and offer something to the overall narrative. And Ei just gives me conniptions. I absolutely hate the puppet "twist", this is the most blatant example of Hoyo trying to have their cake and eat it too. Imagine if Ei was an anti-villain, a stubborn up in her ass despot who deals with problems in the most direct way possible - by slicing them in two. But no, we need a clear antagonist, but we also need a marketable product, how convenient that we have Fatui as our disposable villains of the week to blame everything on. What's that? Ei's personal trauma from losing someone very close? Resolved just as fast as it's introduced. Also what was Miko doing for 500 years of Ei's questionable rule? Was she just waiting for protagonist to show up and solve everything? And she's supposed to be smart and conniving type? Inazuma is just so all over the place. So many undercooked potentially great characters, themes, ideas, etc, it's like they were scrambling for a deadline and threw everything they could find into a pot without thinking how it would mash together. Also it's most likely a hot take, but I don't think Raiden's second story quest does anything good for Ei either, because it the goddamn double think potrayal where she's both a rutless indomitable warrior and a highly emotional younger sister. The vague "eternity" is a nonsense she came up with to overcompensate her loss is fine, but not if she genuinely believed and never questioned it deep down. Which makes her look stupid - "Wow, Inazuma changed over 500 years, who would've thought". Adding to that the great toll of her idiocy on people of Inazuma (which btw is never addressed in the story) and you start questioning whether archons are the good guys after all.

[@f4llenleaves]

IKR Yae just chilled about, observing humans and poking fun at them while some of them fell victim to the vision hunt decree until Traveler came and she decided "Nice, that's the cue I've been waiting for." Not only does it make her character more shallow-it also makes it hard for me to believe that she cares about and misses Ei. Does she care more about witnessing a compelling plot featuring a passing traveler and the Fatui than helping Inazumans? She's literally just like an omniscient reader in that whole arc.

[@diveblonde]

I feel like Ei stuck out compared to Zhongli and Venti because she's kind of at the start of her journey, unlike those two who were already kind of at the end of it and already went through their development The execution wasn't great in the archon quest but her second story quest like you said is genuinely really good and it makes me want more serious Ei content Too bad she's relegated to events now to be Miko's accessory but I still have hope I guess 😅 Great video, your channel deserves more subs, this was a great analysis of Ei

[@aeso3555]

"Too bad she's relegated to events now to be Miko's accessory but I still have hope I guess " - You know, I could say the same thing about Eula until the recent update where she was not stuck to Amber by the hip.

[@sebastiancastro3524]

No. The second mission was just damage control to try to justify the war crimes he committed. She must be punished by making her suffer physically and they can do it. The problem that people don't see is that Ei has the power of the script on his side. and they forget that in the past evil gods in teyvat were defeated BY HUMANS WITHOUT HELP.

[@diveblonde]

@@sebastiancastro3524 1. Ei's a woman 2. the second story quest didn't justify anything, in fact Ei says she was wrong multiple times 3. She suffered physically for her mistakes in her second story quest already 4. If you're referring to Decabrian (I think that's how you spell it) or the Goddess of Salt they were many times weaker than Ei, Ei is for all intents and purposes the original winner of the Archon War she only didn't have the title because she gave it up so her sister could have it

[@diveblonde]

@@aeso3555 They do this a lot sadly, it's not an issue that only effects Ei or Eula You're seeing it with Alhaitham lately too, he shows up to mention or orbit Kaveh I get these ships are popular but still, it does get a bit frustrating sometimes

[@sebastiancastro3524]

@@diveblonde 1. I know Ei is a woman. 2. mistakes? He let his people die and caused unimaginable deaths. According to your logic, the deaths caused by Hitler are mistakes. 3. literal a Simp who defends Ei, with incoherent arguments and trying to justify the genocide he caused in Inazuma. 4. I'm sorry but you are WRONG. Decarabian is much stronger than Ei and that is confirmed the same with the goddess of salt and Ei IS NOT THE WINNER OF THE WAR OF THE ARCHONS NO ONE WON, EVERYONE GOT NOTHING. In fact, she obtained the title along with her brother, all of this confirmed, the problem is that a simp like you does not investigate and invents all kinds of lies to defend your dear wife Ei because "waifu"

[@timeisntrealtheuniverseisalie]

one other thing, the anti- raiden shogun training you do had me stuck for LITERALLY 5 MONTHS! i haven’t seen many other people with this issue and i thing its because i play on mobile but omg it was just a terrible experience overall

[@unoreversecard1761]

Ngl, I hate to say this and I’m sorry I can’t put myself in your shoes, but I did that second try and then complained it was too easy

[@xianahmed277]

Just discovered your videos and I am absolutely in love with them. Please make more of these and keep up the good work! Love you

[@mirveno]

i really love how you analysed this and i am surprised that you are so underrated. this was an incredible analysis, it made me subscribe immediately

[@RainyFun]

I love her story but I feel instead of a walk around town her first story quest is her being forced to face the consequences of her actions more, and I'm hoping that happens for Focalors

[@opyams3054]

All this could be fixed if she was sat in a room with Kazuha or Itto or any human. Just one person to lay down frustrations

[@RainyFun]

@@opyams3054 a therapist is what she needs

[@ViperDivinity]

nah she needs a better writer to just define her whole character

[@genplayer836]

She's just too complex a character for most people to understand, and can't help to put the other archons on pedestals even though they also have their faults. It's also annoying how people defend the other archons with the same reasons that can be used to defend Raiden

[@aggersoul23]

I love your editing style and narration. And that Inazuma counter is beautiful.

[@kosta5571]

I love your cute drawings of the characters, great video

[@thitharaudiya8033]

The problem with Ei is every quest that involved her only make her look dumb, ignorant, and stupid. - She claimed she know everything that happened outside but still proceed with her eternity pursuing anyway. But then except the effect on people who lose vision, she barely addressed other problem like civil war, commission corruption, fatui infiltration, etc as if she's oblivious of them. It make you think whether she actually know everything or she think she know everything even though she don't know anything. - At first she's shown as this determined woman who pursue her ideal of eternity even at cost of her people, only for her to be convinced in 5 minutes by Yae and traveler. If it can be done that easy then what her people suffered for? Her quest make it even worst. The idea itself isn't wrong but the timing is bad. It basically played down the suffering of her people as it only worth a dango milk, light novel, and kamera to change her mind. It should be the people's suffering and strong will to face the future as opposed to her who trapped in the past. - Her decision to abandoned Scaramouche is pure ignorance. Yae has warned her and yet she still do it and even see herself as giving him a chance to choose his path freely without her interference. She literally let this sentience being with a body that able to hold god's power roaming free just like that. 'But he isn't supposed to be awake in the first place', if that's the case then it make Ei even more stupid for placing him in a place that easily accessible by human instead hiding him in some hidden ruin or secret dungeon. - Back to Ei's story quest. Comparing her to Nahida is an insult since Nahida is just too good. But it can't be help because she is the only newborn archon so far, compared to her Ei is as old as her sister which is one of original archon. Yet, why in that particular part of her character quest, she act like some clueless 5 yo who never left her house. She's oblivious as to why people scared of her, didn't knkw how money works, and have no idea what fiction mean. The only acceptable one is kamera since it's a brand new technology. The other is, something that someone who's live for thousands of years should more or less aware even if she didn't understand the concept completely. The excuse of her being a god or introvert isn't good anough since it didn't explain why she act even more clueless than Nahida when she's literally just born. Did the 500 years of seclusion corroded her brain or what? Talking about stupid archon, we now have Furina who also not the brightest archon out there. But compared to Ei which just a total mess of several character troupe being half cooked into one, the way they show Furina character is just way better. She's dumb, yes, and sometimes childish, yes, and that's exactly why she's not the one in charge of her nation. Her people loves her and worship her, but they also just view her as a symbol, an idol, or even a mascot instead of someone they should fear and dedicated their lifes for. This is how it should look like when a deity figure is supposedly flawed. The lack of part where Ei is being confronted by Inazuma people for the result of her mistake which make it looks like she get off easily is straight out bad.

[@CapriciousWriter]

That's what I've been thinking. It's okay to write an incompetent character, but the story has to treat said character as such. Moreover, when the character is riddled with that many contradictions, it becomes absolutely impossible to defend her.

[@puck9222]

I think the thing that made me hate her story arc and character is the lack of remorse she seems to have (no real redemption, no real punishment, no remorse...). That's why she will always be my least favorite archon (I don't think we will get worse), and the fact that she had countless fans saying that she was the best character and that she did nothing wrong didn't help ^^"

[@sebastiancastro3524]

It's literally the only reason why they love her because "a pretty waifu who doesn't know how to cook" in other words they are just Ei SIMPS

[@leonthomas2020]

your artwork in this video is so good and gives it a lot of personality!

[@karlab95]

I think people complaining that Ei wasn't held accountable are thinking of Archons as political leaders, forgetting that Archons are literally gods. To the traveller (and, by extension, the player), Archons are just your regular Joe, but to the people that live in their nations they are divine beings. How do you even hold a God accountable? It's not like you can depose them as your Archon - not unless you feel you're capable of defeating them in battle. Which, let's face it, they aren't. Not *her*. To quote that one Kujo dude, "what would they do against the power of the Almighty Raiden Shogun and the Musou no Hitotachi?" And that's a *feeling* people have. They worship her. They revere her. They fear her. She's the person they PRAY to. The reason why Watatsumi Island was the only one to rebel was because they don't practice the same religion as everyone else. They say in Kokomi's story quest that the relationship between Narukami Island and Watatsumi Island has been tense for centuries because the Raiden Shogun killed Orobashi, *their* God. And even though they were technically absorbed into Inazuma politically, in practice they remained very much independent. The rest of Inazuma was run by the three commissions, but Watatsumi Island was run by the Divine Priestess. They perceive the Archon's rule as a foreign power and, as a result, are WAY less loyal to her. It also doesn't make sense to compare her to Nahida because, thanks to the Akasha, Nahida had a direct window to her people's lives and memories. Nahida was not revered by her people, and the contact she had with them was interacting with children in their dreams. Of course she would be sympathetic and want to protect her people and see their lives and existences as valuable; specially because, being locked up, she didn't really have an existence/life of her own. I do think it's weird that the Traveller goes straight into friendship so quickly but it also happened with Childe, so I'm starting to think the fights to death maybe aren't as big of a deal for them as they'd be for me 😂 Ei isn't a bad character - as in, badly written. The way her people react to her makes perfect sense when you consider the broader context. It's just that, morally, she really isn't *good*, but that doesn't mean she is poorly written.

[@_Chimproshi_]

Too right too right, she's a God not a dictator not a leader but a God...People need to start realising they can't compare world leaders to Gods from Teyvat.

[@theresnothinghere1745]

But people in Inazuma before the completion of the Archon quest share grievances over the decree's the shogun brought. Ei is badly written because all of those greviances dissapear with the completion of the archon quest despite it never working like that. Those who lost their homes during the war are still in the process of slowly moving back in, the lives lost to the decree and war are not reobtained etc... Why set up a redemption arc for Ei at all if she's never going to acknowledge the real impacts of her decree? You don't even need the people of Inazuma to take it out on her but just have her witness their suffering and react to it. Like I'd imagine she'd have a strong reaction to anyone in Inazuma that lost their family as a result of the war given that's a huge part of her motivation for her pursuing eternity, yet the irony of her actions creating the exact situation she wanted to avoid is ignored.

[@_Chimproshi_]

@theresnothinghere1745 The raiden shogun isn't badly written the problem is you people treat her like a leader more than an archon if anything. You guys have to act like she owes the whole world an explanation for what happened and she should apologise to every family. Her redemption is stopping her previous idea of eternity and starting a new with the eternity her people can be apart of and appreciate. The people in inazuma did share some grievances but that wasn't everyone in inazuma or even the majority. Others still chose to respect her and follow her just like her people have done for centuries because she is their God. The only point that makes sense is the ending with the raideon shogun and how they showed us to have a date with her or whatever. But thay obviously had to happen as that is how Hoyoverse conducts their characters. They always give a happy end so the characters are liked by the community more. But understand the best all of Inazumas people could ever hope for is for the shogun to change her idea of eternity and nothing more. She doesn't need to change her whole personality to suit that. If you want a God that apologises to everyone go to Sumeru.

[@theresnothinghere1745]

@@_Chimproshi_ "The raiden shogun isn't badly written the problem is you people treat her like a leader more than an archon if anything" She is, again why is she having a redemption arc when the story never acknowledges the real consequences of her actions? I don't care if the people of Inazuma condem her or not, I care that we just finished a story quest going over all the effects of the war. People dying, people being robbed of ambition and people being left homeless. But not one bit of any of that ever enters Ei's mind. It just makes her redemption feel insincere as it barely looks at the surface level of the suffering she created in Inazuma. Does Ei even realize that by her actions leading to a war means there's several people who will share her trauma as a result? We will never know because the story doesn't care to explore the consequences of her decree past the archon quest.

[@buttermanaws4693]

Honestly I think the main problem is just how fast it happened and how little resistance their was to change, like one thibg I would have liked to see in retrospect would be something like the Shogun seeing Yae as a threat to eternity during the first quest with Ei while checking out her book store causing the Shogun to want to get rid of Yae which goes against the reason why she wanted eternity in the first place which could make Ei realize the cost of "eternity" and have that be about moment of reflection as perhaps the reason why she was so apathetic to her people's suffering is because it was not personal as the people of watasuni were technically not a part of her nation and they were mainly the ones who opposed her. Another thing I think the story could have done better was to make Ei find out that Makato dying when she did was the better outcome for her as Celestial would have made her kill her sister to be recognized of the electro archon since the war was about the strongest god not the best god.

[@sanchofagasta64]

The thing I'm most looking forward about in terms of character story, is the development of Ei and Wanderer's relationship. I hope it gets addessed. Also, Anne Yatco's work on Raiden second story quest, is my favorite in the game by far. I don't get how that isn't something people talk about more. She did voice for three extremely similar, and at the same time different characters, and nailed each one

[@f4llenleaves]

Except that the Irminsul reset made it almost impossible for Ei and Wanderer to reconcile or even interact properly. I liked how Wanderer made it clear in the end that he's willing to roam Teyvat and pay for his crimes and but I just *didn't* get what the Irminsul plot was for. Changing the past was all for nothing since he realized that he didn't want to run away anymore. How is people being unaware about his crimes gonna make Wanderer's repentance the least bit satisfying?

[@stargateMimhi]

You hit the nail on the head with her first story quest, I started a few months ago and took my time doing the character quests. So playing it after doing events around Liyue again for a while made it a very cute story quest that does well to humanize her and works to establish the groundwork for her second, absolutely amazing, character quest. It probably helps though that from the beginning I cared most about her internal characterization and her dynamic and interactions with Yae, so some of the issues people had with it slowing down the story didn't really bother me very much (moreso the lazy Fatui twist bugged me).

[@sebastiancastro3524]

No. The second mission was just damage control to try to justify the war crimes he committed. She must be punished by making her suffer physically and they can do it. The problem that people don't see is that Ei has the power of the script on his side. and they forget that in the past evil gods in teyvat were defeated BY HUMANS WITHOUT HELP.

[@stargateMimhi]

@@sebastiancastro3524 No. People who think the reaction to someone doing wrong things should always be punishment, let alone physical suffering, are the true monsters. Ei's wrongs to Inazuma at large were done through inaction, leaving the Shogunbot in charge with such simple commands and not directly controlling or managing her, and when Ei fought the traveller it was always because we entered her mind palace. Frankly a kind of justified situation to start fighting someone. Now, realistically? Her punishment should be dethronement. Certainly not physical suffering. But that's what I think of all unelected governments so that would apply to more than just Ei.

[@sebastiancastro3524]

@@stargateMimhi Boy, that's what I'm talking about, that they can dethrone her and even overthrow her or at least demand her resignation. with clear punishment that can make her suffer physically because other gods were defeated by humans so Ei IS NO EXCEPTION. what they can do is rewrite EVERYTHING inazuma from scratch. (they have money to make it impossible this IS NOT) and that the new version is with Miko waking up from a dream and it was revealed that everything in the game was just a dream of Miko because, Ei was defeated and "killed" by the traveler and that Ayato is the new ruler and that Miko, unable to accept Ei's loss, isolated herself by falling into a deep sleep. They can do that because the game is a poorly written fanfic, a hitler

[@sebastiancastro3524]

@@stargateMimhi and I tell you that you only criticize Ei by demanding punishment for her. SIMPS of Ei appear to defend her without any argument like the virgos they are.

[@stargateMimhi]

@@sebastiancastro3524 Please don't call me a boy. And, no, we are clearly not talking about the same thing. Retiring from rule, something Ei, kind of, already tried to do (just in the worst way possible by installing a fake doppelganger of herself), does not in any way require physical punishment. That's just fucked up. Torturing people as punishment is not punishment, just petty revenge.

[@Marewhy]

I would also like to add that different people deal differentely with death. Great video!

[@basilhibiscus6119]

I am someone who loves morally grey characters! But lack of consequences makes me kinda annoyed? It just waters things down relationship wise. That’s why Raiden and Childe annoy me, especially when [spoilers] Lyney and Lynette did less but got way more consequences when we were super buddy-buddy with someone who not only did way worse but obviously hasn’t changed.

[@ap0llogetic427]

I love the idea behind her character. A woman who has been so scarred by the losses she faced that she turns her back on the real world around her desperately trying to create a essentially nation frozen in time so nothing bad happens ever again. I love tragedy, I should add. This aspect of her character is also why I really enjoyed her second story quest. Sadly, I can't say the same about the resolution of inazuma's archon quest. I wish we could go back in time and get the 5 acts that seem to be the standard now because it desperately needed them. It was all so... anticlimactic. For a god so stuck in her ideals it caused a civil war in her nation a single meeting with miko should not have done... all that. Especially since a lot of the changes in inazuma occur basically off screen and are never addressed again. Yes the sakoku and vision hunt decree are lifted but... that's so... impersonal? The ending of that archon quest felt like almost nothing got resolved character wise. (I'd bring up too how Ei never properly was held to justice or to take responsibility of the lives lost in her ignorance/absence but the people have already done that enough here) and even tho we got some reconciliation between watatsumi and narukami island in Kokomi's quest it was all so... nothing. Everything in inazuma was so rushed and it makes me so sad that it makes what could've been a great story so weird and messy. I like Ei's second story quest and the overall theme of her character but how we get there is absolutely painful Edit: I found a better way of finalizing my thoughts. I think what bothers me is that she just kinda... changes. For almost no reason. I just wish she would've maybe seen all the death and destruction her decision caused to her own people. We know she cares for inazuma and thought that what she was doing was the only right way. So have her own people change her mind. Make inazuma the reason she changes. Yk... the nation she fought for. Have her start walking on the path of redemption like that. Just... anything but what actually happened

[@lofilome2413]

Hey i just wanna say that your videos sound extremely nice!

[@meowraiu2]

i love your videos

[@godsweakestwarrior]

In my opinion, Ei is a genuinely interesting character who deserves to be explored more thoroughly but it seems Hoyoverse prioritizes her being marketable as a waifu before anything else, so that means neutering the more flawed parts of her character. I'm sorry but her first quest really is like a date, you talk to her as if she wasn't dead-set on killing you a while ago, proceed to take her on the most casual stroll around town; and somehow a few novels, Inazuma's present appearance along with a camera manages to make her begin to reflect on herself, not the citizens that she hurt. Then when you come back you have to play captain-save-a-hoe when her sudden change in ideals forces her into a 500 year long battle with her puppet. Yes I do know the other parts of the story in her second quest contribute to her change, but it happens way too fast to hold any significant merit. To be honest I think that if her first story quest actually showcased the consequences of her actions, with the Traveler being uneasy around her and her citizens being visibly terrified of or straight up avoiding her; her second would've hit so much harder.

[@momori636]

Didn't the Tenryou ppl literally lie to her in their reports? So she really didn't know the full scope of what was going on.

[@chiaki.hayakawa18]

Yes, you're right.

[@bunny-xc6hi]

Thank you for speaking I feel so heard right now 😢

[@augmenautus]

There seems to be a disconnect between people saying Inazuma should oust their archon like Sumeru did to Nahida and that Raiden never faces consequences for killing a ton of people. That's the point she is able and willing to kill people to stay the archon. Her people have to do what she decrees. She literally commands lightning itself and decapitated a snake the size of an island. Nahida doesn't have that kind of power, and even if she did, she wouldn't use it against her own people.

[@yumanol]

I don't agree that it's "not bad but badly paced", pacing is a big thing for writing and bad pacing does make a writing bad. It's just annoying how Hoyo did not do anything to hold her accountable, freaked out when the backlash started and just tried to patch things up real fast telling us oh well you see she spent 500 hundred years fighting so we're good now. How about show not tell? And how exactly hanging out with your inner demons justifies all the lives ruined by actual war? Maybe offer some apology at least? I don't believe that she is badly written just because she is a bad archon, not everyone should be good, but the execution of that bad-ness is simply lacking.

[@idk_5681]

I personally love her character but I understand your points. I thought the first story quest of her felt like a dating sim and it would have been more interesting if she stayed a morally ambiguous character instead of just magically becoming besties with the traveler. I hate to say this but Hoyoverse could definitely have written her better tbh-

[@dad1375]

I am living for your art style and effort you put into this video, amazing analysis of Shogun!

[@champagnegascogne9755]

Hoyo, I DEMAND a complete rewrite/reboot of the Inazuma arc, NOW!

[@bree7209]

Ppl who defend her actual character and say shes the "best archon" are srsly just so down bad for her (we know why 😮‍💨🙄) and its so sad but funny lol idk i think we all know here shes been a horrible leader and archon

[@BellBOYd128]

My favorite fan comic will always be (I wish I could find it again): Scara: all right, Buer, let’s practice you being my new mother. Nahida: I don’t wanna be your mother. Scara: awesome, you already know the lines.

[@convergeman7825]

I definitely remember being dissatisfied with Act 3 of the Archon quest and her first story quest as a launch player myself. During Acts 1 and 2, we had ample time to explore places like Yashiori island and read about the harrowing experiences of the citizens outside of Narukami island who were displaced or suffered during the war. I was looking forward to seeing how the story would address all this and I was disappointed to see that none of it was ever even mentioned during Act 3 or even during Raiden's story quest. Making her a detached and nonchalant ruler would have been perfectly fine with me, as we can see how she got to that point having suffered loss after loss over her lifetime. But neither of the story quests really forced her to awknowledge the pain her decree caused to ordinary citizens outside of the main island, which I can't help but feel was a missed opportunity. All that being said, I think the reason she never really got directly punished for her actions was because she's still pretty much the strongest being in Inazuma (as far as we know at the moment), so the citizens would still see her as the one most placed to protect their country regardless. The most punishment I can see her getting is her stepping down from leadership and literally just being a general like Sara. The fact that Inazuma as a country is on the edge of the known world, bordering an ocean shrouded in mystery and superstition, kind of explains to me why the citizens would value strength in a leader above all else.

[@allenearl1514]

I think what they TRIED to do with her was interesting. The problem of the last part of the Inazuma Archon Quest being terribly paced definitely hurt things, but they had a chance to course-correct in her story quests, which they managed to a degree. My biggest problem is that we don't see very much of her confronting the problems that she created by becoming the biggest shut-in of all time. This is 500 YEARS of suffering, and we only see her take a small look at what happened in the present day. While it would be nice for the people of Inazuma to hold her more accountable, I think that having some time to see her actively holding herself accountable (outside of her second story quest, which was the MINIMUM of what she could do) would go a long way to show that she does indeed feel guilty and recognize the damage her actions have caused. There's SO MUCH story potential in an absent goddess returning to the mortal realm and personally correcting the mistakes she made over the course of the 500 years she was gone, but we only see a sliver of it. That's why I don't like her: the little that she has done to correct her mistakes was certainly nice, but it isn't even close to being enough to redeem her. As it stands, she made one correctional decision and promises to do vague work to improve things, but until we see that, it comes across as if she's done next to nothing.

[@cocogoat2131]

While I wish Raiden was handled differently, people in the comments saying "I wish she was punished" or "she got people killed with no consequences" are missing the point. This is not a modern society, with a legal system, and trials, this is medieval, fantasy Japan. You can't punish the literal, unstoppable god, who can cleave an island in half with her sword. "I wish traveler could be mean to her-" Her power literally sent Traveler into shock after Signora's execution. You think the traveler would have the balls to be hostile to her after that? My wish for her is that she'd abolish the vision hunt, but remain a strict shogun, still not accepting any nonsense, and that traveler, and everyone, remained intimidated by her.

[@elkiza4]

Do her second story quest, she abolished the Sakoku Decree and toned down her vision of eternity

[@cyb3r_81]

the traveller is still stronger than ei, after beating her ass, the traveller should of at least shown some anger

[@elkiza4]

@@cyb3r_81 the traveler only won when yae miko was there.

[@Frmasna]

She's a good character trapped in a shit story, many such cases At least her second story quest was way better

[@Lizardon1012]

(Before I go on with a whole ass essay, I have to say the video is really good and I would love to see you do one on Scaramouche/Wanderer) Ei is my favorite character so here's why I dislike how she was treated in the story, as well as why I like her. Firsly, let's start with the bad. The Archon Quest seems like Ei tried to cook it. It started off good but the middle steps were skipped and it went all the way to the end. The first story quest was misplaced or not done well. Them becoming fast friends with Ei is just something I completely ignored in my mind, since I generally ignore the Traveler period because they're always inconsistent and more of a plot device than anything. Unless it's a cutscene I don't consider them as Aether or Lumine but a puppet on our strings. I came back to Gesnhin in 2.8 so I didn't have to wait for the quests, but knowing that there was long period of time between them just makes it worse. After everything was said and done, despite her acknowledging her faults... HoYo just fucking ignores her because they have to move to a new region so the development just ends. I was so fucking pissed when doing an event in which I picked Kazuha and he just fucking dipped when we saw Ei. Bro, go to her and make her feel bad and then leave. You literally don't have to fight her, just be a bit passive-aggressive and leave with the wind. HoYo, have your characters fucking interact with each other. Have Kokomi confront her so she can further feel the consequences of her actions. Or rather, inaction. Ei's story is incomplete as opposed to the others. Now, this might be longer because the short story is this: I relate to Ei. A lot. Most of the times when experiencing pain and loss my reaction would be to shut myself away. It was easier than to keep going through the pain, confronting it or moving past it. And in that isolation there is no progress. Everything comes to a halt and you think you have the right idea. You're the only one who's right. In exchange everything you come in touch with suffers because of your attitude, everything collapses around you. That stubbornness is difficult to defeat, which is why I do like that she doesn't instantly change her mind. Leaving your bubble of isolation after ages, seeing people, observing reality and realizing that you've been wrong all along is... a lot to take in, to say the least. So her first quest was kind of necessary for the second to happen. It was cute, but I just wish it was done better. Less chummy would have worked. Her second quest is amazing because it does "redeem" her a bit. You finally found out what her deal is, even though it should've been earlier than that. You start to understand the pain she went through. I played through Inazuma after my brother passed away so I completely understand. Being in the shadow of your sibling, relying on them and then how difficult everything becomes once they're no longer there. I feel like a lot of people really don't understand Ei or even half of what she's been through. We often hate what we don't understand and even dismiss it. Sometimes we compare the suffering of characters to each other as if everyone deals with pain the same way. What the second story quest also does well is making Ei accept reality and strive to change. The whole eternal battle shows her resolve to make things right. She says goodbye to the Sakoku Decree and embraces change... Which is why I'm pissed at HoYo for fucking stopping there with her. Nothing happens afterwards. They've been ruining her character by doing NOTHING with her. Anyway... does her pain justify her actions? Not really. Could she have been done better? Absolutely. Should she be held accountable for her (in)actions? Oh for sure, if HoYo would fucking care. Is she a badly written character? No. She is not a badly written character per se, just the circumstances around her story just made everything worse. I don't necessarily think it's right to hate the character for a bad story. She was clearly going to fix things, they just didn't continue the story. It's incomplete and it's not really Ei's fault her Archon Quest sucked lol.

[@hadeness789]

I agree with you. I think keeping character development stuck in time is what happens with all Genshin characters, for example Venti hasn't had any since 1.0. And I agree that this is all because of Inazuma's rushed Archon Quest, I would love to see Heizou and Ayato in the main quest, a lot of lost potential. Let me point out that I'm a huge fan of the FF7 protagonist Cloud Strife, and what he goes through in my opinion is similar to Ei, both in personal history and the fandom not really understanding the character. Both witness a major traumatic event (Cataclysm/Nibelheim Incident), both lose someone and need to carry that someone's legacy, including their swords (Makoto/Zack), both create another persona/personality to escape these pains (Shogun/SOLDIER), both have a important person that have entered their subconscious (Tifa/Yae), both have isolated themselves from loved ones because of depression and PTSD, which has obviously hurt them (Cloud's family and friends/whole Inazuma) There is a difference between being a good character and being a nice character, there is also a difference between agreeing with someones actions, or just understanding them. You've probably heard that before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That's great advice, if you want to judge someone, you should imagine what it would be like to be them, however, I've noticed that too often when people try to walk a mile in someone elses shoes, refuse they to take their own shoes off first. They don’t think “what would it be like to be him/her”, they think “what would I do in that position”. But they're not you, and you cannot judge him/her by how you would act, you've not gone through the same things he/her has, your thought patterns aren't the same etc. I understand why people don't get Ei or Cloud, they suffer from obvious mental health issues, and mental health issues simply are not something that the general public understands, even today. Do you think you can honestly judge them by going "that's not what I would have done"? Would that not be incredibly presumptuous? Have you suffered from depression as a result of severe post-war PTSD and a lifelong feeling of inadequacy combined with a fear of failure and the belief that many of your loved ones died because you failed and were inadequate? (Cloud context here, and a bit of Ei too) Saying “Going through trauma in the past is not really an excuse for his/her behavior” is just incredibly short-sighted, your behavior is determined by who you are, and who you are is determined by what you go through in the past. You can't expect a broken child to become a well-adjusted adult when being a well-adjusted adult is the result of having a normal childhood. I also don't want to cause offense to anyone, but this really is a mindset that should change, because this mindset is one of the most pervasive and damaging ones in our society, it's the one that probably bothers me most when I hear it because it makes zero sense. It's like breaking a robots self-repair unit, and then being angry at it on the grounds that the self-repair unit should have fixed it. It's also very insensitive in general, it's the equivalent of saying "why are you depressed, just stop being depressed", people don't choose to be depressed, people don't choose to have a fear of failure. People don't choose their emotions, they're just there. They can be influenced by behavior over time, sure, but behavior is equally influenced by who you are and your emotions, which, as mentioned before, is determined for a large part by your past. People don't just "snap out of it". They fight and fight and fight, and sometimes they win and break out of the spiral, and sometimes they lose and it breaks them. Cloud and Ei's story arc is all about that struggle, and during those struggles you will have high-points, and low-points. It shows both trying, it shows both wanting, it shows both failing, but it also, ultimately, shows both prevailing. Sorry for the long text haha.

[@Lizardon1012]

@@hadeness789 That's why I don't tend to really "hate" characters a lot of times. Obviously there are some that I don't stand (Diona etc.) because they just show flaws as just being quirky. Or they make them arrogant and/or immature without a clear justification because they think it's cool. That's why I think Yelan's character was relatively shallow and in your face. I don't hate her per se I just don't really think she's very interesting. I tend to look at characters in a similar way I look at people. I don't hate everyone, I just don't care. In the new Pokémon anime the MC is an insecure girl with no real motivations that got dragged into things and she just has to adapt and her main goal is tied to someone else's. In serious battles where she needs to protect something she's learned to have the courage to stand up for them, but in competitive friendly battles her will can be swayed by others' desire to win. Since she has no motivation she just threw battles because others had a strong reason to win. In exchange the opponent got upset and she learned that's not something she should do. She's also a child btw. Someone on KZbin went into every comment on a video replying "that's not an excuse". No dude, it's the fucking reason. It's mind boggling how many people don't understand other humans.

[@Swooncraft]

i wish you didnt add the inazuma counter ding. like this is a crucial part of the subject of the video, you could do the same for several other words throughout the video

[@Kita15190]

My take on Ei's story and her character development is akin to someone suffering from grief and depression. The cataclysm scarred her so in a way that it reinforced her ideals of eternity, hence why Raiden did the Sakoku Decree and the Vision Hunt, as both of them tries to enforce her ideals of eternity. One thing that I believe a fair amount of players might overlook is the "Plane of Euthymia" - why was this name chosen? This intrigued me a lot, as on mental health, euthymia would mean the normal humor - in a way that person still feels emotions, but all in a normal range. The answer lies in the philosophical realm, where it is defined as the state of mind where you believe in yourself and trust the path chosen is the correct one, without ever doubting by other paths you could have taken. The greatest irony of it all in Ei's decision is that her unwavering belief was reached by isolating herself - so it begs the question - has she truly reached euthymia? Or was she in an apathetic state that made her shut herself in her own world? Her 500 year fight with Raiden has two purposes - one more explicit, where she fights to prove her changes are not due to Erosion, and another, more metaphorical, where it is a struggle against herself, and overcoming that state she was previously in takes time and a lot of commitment to make it true. Part 1 and 2 of her Story quest reveals to us her change of view and ideals, and her inner struggle to overcome her grief. She still needs to prove her changes in palpable results. This is reflected on how there are still mistrust between both Resistance and Shogunate army in Kokomi's story quest and how the civil war ravaged the land. Sadly, Hoyo could have made a better story quest for Kokomi, fleshing out these aspects in a more compelling way.

[@hadeness789]

Well but that's the right way to analyze Raiden Ei, that's what Hoyoverse wanted to portray, that she's a tragic character with PTSD and depression, it's the core basis of her character (just like Cloud from FF7, I think the two are very similar), there is a difference between agreeing with a character and simply understanding them.

[@sebastiancastro3524]

SIMPS EI

[@inthenameofcontractlendmem983]

People of Narukami Inazuma probably don't hate her much because Sakoku and Vision hunt decrees are only around for 2 years and she has been fighting for Inazuma since the very first days of it. And the one who tried to fight against her was Watatsumi Island, whose God for no reason attempted to invade their land to them. (only Traveller, Paimon and Celestia knows the reason currently. I dunno if Kokomi knows). If you explore further into detail, you will notice Ayaka only showed us the ones who have gone mad after loosing to persuade the Traveller who refused to help at first and there are people who had no effect at all. Example - the Samurai at Komore teahouse, Arataki Itto. Only people of Watatsumi and Yashiori island were painfully devastated by the War. Even after all of this I don't defend her option or the writing of Archon quest. Ei was indeed a failed clone of Obito Uchiha.

[@The4Tifier]

The most poetic justice for Raiden would have been to exile her. Take away her Electro Archon status, and force her to be a wanderer in foreign lands for all eternity; never to return to Inazuma.

[@thebuddhasmiles]

Yup. Raiden straight up FAILED as an archon. It'd be one thing if she was misguided but she straight up said "lol rip bozo I don't care". I don't want her to undergo some grueling punishment. She should be exiled so that she can actually consider her way of thought and how it contrasts with Makoto. Makoto LOVED humanity.

[@Polkavona]

The constant inazuma beep really messed with some audio sensory so i couldnt finish the video but it was a good topic! 😢

[@diwucalberich462]

Let's be real she is just a money-maker character for the company, let those simps swipe their credit cards for the booba sword

[@moriko-chan1059]

As someone who really loves Scaramouche a lot I just... cannot stand her for what she has done to him. Grief is no excuse to abandon a being that mentally was a literal child in this way. She should have at least given him to some foster parent instead of just abandoning him. It would have been a better way of handling this situation. But she didn´t even tried and just...let him fend for himself with nothing not even tiny guidance or teaching of the workds workings. She created something that was her responsibility and messed it up so badly ...which was a catalyst for the stuff he went trough and his actions. She isn´t responsible for what he did to Inazuma but she laid the seeds for it. I am still hoping she has to take accountability for that in the story.

[@Venat2322]

I mean Ei did leave him that feather that was supposed to protect him and put him in a place where she thought he would be safe. She still fucked up but those actions do show she had a care about his wellbeing. It's also heavily implied that Scaramouche was never supposed to wake up in the first place, and the only reason he did is an "unknown error". Ei didn't see him as a son, she saw him as a prototype to a synthetic god. The original plan was to just destroy him but she seemed to be not willing to do that to something that had developed emotion so she put him to sleep in the Shekkei pavilion instead. Scaramouche took this as her abandoning him for being weak which led to what it did.

[@moriko-chan1059]

A feather isn´t a being that can give him guidance. Sorry but this doesn´t count that much for me. Even if she didn´t see him that way he was a being with feelings and stuff - kinda like an accidental child. And it happened from her choices so she had to take responsibilit - and sealing a child in endless sleep / abandoning it is one of the worst things she could have done. Both things aren´t excuses the latter firthers Ei not being responsible.@@Venat2322

[@Venat2322]

@@moriko-chan1059 You're preaching to the choir, I agree that she still messed up and needs to be held accountable for it. She thought she was being merciful and sparing him from the fate of having to hold the gnosis but he took it differently instead. My point is just that there was more nuance to the situation. Like Yae said Scaramouche was basically a walking WMD and objectively it would be safer for Inazuma if Ei had just destroyed him. It's debatable if Ei just leaving him to sleep is mercy or not but Ei thought it was since he was at least still alive. Ei wasn't exactly the pinnacle of rational thought at this time, remember she put herself to sleep in a very similar way as well to try and preserve Inazuma. It's why people want them to meet again. Scaramouche can realize he was wrong about Ei's intentions and she's not a cruel heartless god (remember he hated the nameless kid too until he learned that he never actually betrayed and left him) and that she's changed a lot since his creation, and Ei can realize that regardless of her intentions she still messed up bad and needs to atone for it as well (she kind of implies she's on this path in her CN voiceline about him, it's a bit different in the EN translation for some reason).

[@ankui_]

In the past, I hated Ei not just because she was a dictator, but because of how I thought everyone just swept everything she did under the rug, even Mihoyo, just because she was cute. Honestly when I got to Inazuma and went through the first few quests, I had this feeling of "man, it would really suck to live here... everyone's either suffering or blind by worship because of the shogun". That's to say, looking back I really came to appreciate how good the writting was, yes there were some bumps, but I came to like how Ei was written, not like her just because mihoyo tried to speedrun a redemption arc in her first quest.

[@fredbijl3709]

Take this with a grain of salt because I do not remember when this was said, but I remember Ei saying that she would fight for her people never to feel loss again. I think that shows that while she isn't a good leader, she did try. Her actions and commitment to eternity were not only selfishly motivated(as in, to prevent her from ever losing someone again) but she wanted the same for her citizens, hence why she decided to eliminate great change in pursuit of stasis for all of Inazuma, not just herself. Doesn't make what she did ok, but does explain it a little and make it less bad imo. I also like that they gave her a new voice line about Scara explaining why she abandoned him, which again her reasons do not make it completely ok but I can now see that she did it with his best interests at heart. I am also one of the players that started after 2.1(I started playing when Yelan was just released) and I do think that definitely provides a different perspective on Raiden's character and writing. It's still weird to me that she was never held accountable by anyone(I had never thought about cultural reasons but still) and that the traveler immediately trusts her(though unlike Childe, she actually said she was thinking about changing her ways and she was open to reason), but I never really saw her as a bad person, just as someone who did bad things due to her incompetence and grief, bad things that are still not completely ok but understandable at least. Just my thoughts, really liked the video!

[@invu_lynn]

My favorite pastime is ripping Raiden to shreds especially after the Fontaine quest. I think it’s crazy they didn’t make the puppet being evil a result of Celestia punishing Raiden for trying to defy nature to become eternal. You expect me to believe she made not one but TWO sentient evil puppets and she’s a precious uwu baby? I can talk about this for hours 😭 AND HAVE

[@RoryRose_]

oh, please do!

[@invu_lynn]

@@RoryRose_ don’t tempt me………

[@f4llenleaves]

These ppl don't get that a character with reasonable motivations shouldn't get the innocence pass. It's bias at its finest. Dunno 'bout the others but I criticize Ei with the desire for better character development. Her past is nicely written, and I appreciate that her neurotic, withdrawn personality is juxtaposed with Venti and Zhongli's superior mental fortitude in handling death. But how she deals with the present is so far just..... no thanks please do better ma'am

[@user-wn1oo5uc8o]

I hate this lame excuse boo hoo my friends died so i became a dictator. She is actually the worst written character and other Inazuma characters not much better. Like genius Kokomi, who is dumb as a rock, and righteous Sara who had no problem sinking sivilian ships

[@byeebitch]

I agree. She's the worst. Kokofish shouldn't even be a strategist. She should keep playing priestess in her temple and splash in water like the mermaid she is. ...Sara? She only kisses Ei's butt. Nothing relevant at all.

[@Elpresidente98]

I really liked Inazuma's quest due to the first two parts. Apart from the fact that I really love politically charged stories such as civil wars in fiction, it set up Raiden Ei as not another waifu. She was a straight up dictator who not only wanted us dead but she was actively harming her nation and people. Someone you wanted to defeat, an antagonistic Archon! But then, they dropped the ball. The civil war part of the quest definitely needed more time to be flesh out. For the player to feel the struggle of a grueling war of people fighting against an unjust God that is supposed to protect them. We never even got to fight the puppet directly! Then Ei got away scot free. She needed to be punished somehow, for all the suffering she caused her people. Maybe she could have even been relegated to a figurehead with no real political power. Have the tri-Commissions set up a new democratic government for Inazuma. Echoing the government of Japan after WW2. I think people would've perceived her character much better that way.

[@Xaiken]

Late to party but I think they should have made her personally deliver the visions back to the three vision holders we met. She should see what her actions did to the people and maybe talked to the old man in the battlefield looking for keepsakes of hid son.

[@OOwly]

There is no misconception in “Inazuma arc is hot pile of garbage”. Look, Thoma’s vision meant to be 100th, so we had 96 other people who definitely unhappy with this, but in general doing okay. While whole “bad VHD” is based on !three! random ncp’s who gone nuts? Cmon, give me a break. Also Ayaka’s and Yoi’s quests is hard requirements to continue archon quest (till this day) and we all know what are they.. Completely out of place. Side note: in before we arrive in Inazuma, we met a lot of npc/characters who don’t give a single fuck about visions. So “they took my vision - I’m nuts now” is way more questionable. All in all - bad writing full of white spaces :/

[@jesthebin1595]

raidens actions mostly harmed the vision holders,who are few in number to the general population so makes sense why there were so few people involved in the war

[@burgerbrush]

this makes so much sense now :o

[@giuba98]

That's not completely true though... The Sakoku Decree made it extremely difficult to travel in and out of the Nation (many people had no ways to meet their abroad family) and it also made the economy drop because of trade difficulties

[@Tralala0927]

​@giuba98 this. We even had a quest about one of inazuma's soldier and other citizens (who had no vision) running out of food or something. But i guess everyone just forgot about them

[@giuba98]

@@Tralala0927 yeah I remember, and anyway Watatsumi Island was suffering a lot but it had no help from the nation iirc

[@giuba98]

Even if it was, is it even that good harm a minority? It's like saying that it's ok to harm gay or trans people, or disable people, only because they're a minority (and their families can be hurt in the process anyway)

[@princesspeachgaming4162]

subbing! i love your analysis you did ei Justice i love her sm. Her second story quest rly made me cry and made her one of my favorite characters. Thanks for the video!

[@zuzuzuzuzuz]

I can understand why NPCs wouldnt question or be mad at the shogun to her face, but i'd love to see them still be scared and angry at her when u approach them behind her back