This Genshin Impact video is quite a bit different than any I’ve created in the past. In this first video of my new “You Don’t Understand Series” I address 5 popular misconceptions about Raiden Ei in an attempt to help you all understand her character a little better. Additionally it should help to better illuminate this character’s potential for future story advancement with upcoming patch versions as well.
Special thanks to SammichIzGud on reddit for creating this awesome animated version of one of the most beautiful Raiden Ei artworks out there.
Check it out for yourself:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/tvx8td/i_animated_this_official_raiden_art/?st=L1KTYAYL&sh=e426433c
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Considering all this, the archon quest was overall handled very well. It now makes sense that the resistance was less focused on, because the point of the quests was to get every perspective needed on the electro archon and eternity, while learning about Ei’s past, followed by Ei’s story quests, which gave her perspective, and showed us how that perspective changed.
well my take on this is that there are no misconceptions, just different opinions. I would honor ventis ideology of freedom and people can believe whatever they want. we humans are challengers of nature and the archons are the embodiments of it and we would do our best to reject the rules applied by them
(yeah i know it sounds like dain and khaenriah but thats how we are)
no venti and zhongli shouldnt develop anything more. ventis and zhonglis ideologies of freedom and honouring agreements are perfect already, while eis goal has been wrong from the start, nothing stands still, nothing is permanent. She failed to comprehend that and held onto it just because of her losses. Zhongli and venti experienced similar losses but they didnt choose to resort to extreme measures like ei did
Even the Traveller states that getting involved with Inazuma was a waste of time ( when we arrive the Travveler attempts to escape the whole literal ordeal, is in his dialogu options). And it has been. As much as i like Raiden, this entire arc is conceived to stall the player attaching some sort of story " ex post" to justify 7 months of nothing.
Agree
I personally loved all of Inazuma's quests and it's lore, definitely my favourite region 💜
Ei is a good character, that doesn't mean the execution of the later half of the archon quest and her first story quest wasn't terribly flawed. It's unfortunately, but i don't think any of your poitns have truly countered that view point. You've mostly laid such out such things as the general narrative text as well as the background information that can be found in Inazuma. All these things are true.
However, that is not what most of us mean when we say that the later half of the Archon quest was terribly executed and rushed. The resistance arc was largely dominated by the Teppei story, which while it isn't bad in itself, largely kept the majority of the true struggles of the resistance out of sight, rather pushing a large share of the blame conveniently upon the Fatui, rather than on the realities they had to grapple with, to, in the first place, incite the civil war, and then later to make the unwise decision to trust a sketchy backer. A few throwaway lines about lacking supplies and power does not mean that the rest of the situation should be left off screen. Furthermore, the part of the story involving Sara and the Tenryou commission became largely meaningless and contributing to a waste of a spy plot that did not respect the audience enough to allow them to truly engage with any of the important politicing, in favor of being an unthinking chess piece for Yae Miko. A character that later would resolve the rest of the quest, largely through exposition. Sara ultimately contributed a secondary set up to something that was already set up and then confirmed by multiple sources – ie. ultimately a redundant, silly way to resolve out the role of the Tenryou Commission, arguably because the writers had accidentally written themselves in so much of a corner they couldn't get traveler into the capitol otherwise. It feels cheap, because it is cheap, and lacking in the sophistication, atmosphere, and necessary maneuvering displays so excellently in acts 1 and 2 of the same archon quest.
A story is more than plot points or lore information. A story is an experience, and Inazuma's act 3 was simply so impatient to deliver it's information, that it forgot to design a satisfying experience. it should have slowed down and allow the atmosphere of dread to settle in further and allow the feelings of rage, pity, and distrust to truly settle in, and only then begin the final two arcs of the story.
I wouldn't call her a villan, but she did make some horrific choices I will never be able to excuse. I personally can't stand the type of people who don't care about what's going on around them and are unwilling to take any action. Therefore I don't like Ei as a person and as a character. But she is well written, I can give her that. I still think she's overrated though, especially in 'waifu' category
Okay but why not make her 'growth start' more interesting than drinking some milk, c'mon…
thank you!! agree with you on all points!!
I'll be linking this when any or all of these criticisms of Ei and her storylines come up in conversation.
There is a lot of confusion, and I think some of that owes to how detail-oriented Hoyo is versus how detail-perceptive average people are. Which isn't to say that people are simple, but that there's so much that can be missed when they're going through at their own pace. I've also missed a lot of things and had to go back and watch a video or see a friend play through it before I caught them, such as the tonal shift in the voice of Ei against the voice of the Shogun puppet.
Another part, which I think is probably equal in culpability for the misunderstanding, is the memes. "Date quest," "dango milk and light novels archon," memes are things that inherently stick in your head more stubbornly and more noisily than background information or nuance. So it's easy to miss the forest for the trees when you don't pay a hawk's eye of attention to every little part in the story and find yourself remembering what happened most vividly through character-based memes in the community that don't give good, quality insight because they aren't supposed to. They're memes; Half of them consist of taking the nuance out of everything and making a reductio ad absurdum because that's what makes them funny, as is their main purpose for existing. It arguably doesn't help- as little as anyone is obligated to help make everyone understand crystal-clear everything about the story- that Hoyo participates in memeing their own game for promotional and community-friendly reasons as well.
I'm sure there are more reasons, but those are the greatest points of concern I can think of.
Tbh, the reason Inazuma's archon quest felt "rushed" is that the production is in the state that the game already released, while the other two was made way back where the deadline is still far, further than the Inazuma's archon quest, also Mondstadt and Liyue's archon quest is much simple imo, while in Inazuma, there's a lot of things happening in it, the real fault is the one who made the deadline ig
can someone explain the kaedehara clan isshin art. is it the same that one the shogun uses and did the shogun pass down her knowledge of the isshin art to the kaedehara clan?
after her 2nd story quest, ei easily became one of the best written characters in the game imo. shame that some people see her as a typical evil villain or a flawless god when she is much more complex than that
This is Why Ei is my Favorite Character… ♥️♥️♥️
I think se people refer to the 2.1 Ei quest as a "date quest" because they wanted that quest to be lore and drama heavy, with big revelations. And Some other people wants to held Ei accountable for everything that Shogun and Tricommission did, so they wanted that quest to be about Ei watching what has become of Inazuma in much more depressing tone.
Raiden Ei is one of the top 3 characters in game with her lore, people really don't get it and had a lot of complains because they just focus on the superficial aspects. She has many layers when you start analysing every part of her quest and over imposing it based on her past.
Agreed with your points on Ei, but I do differ on the takes on the misconceptions…
Firstly, although it is true that Ei was perceived as a villain at first…the more accepted/prominent take on her character is portraying her as a naive kid. This, although an exaggeration, is pretty accurate until the ending of the 2nd storyline.
Secondly, most people I have encountered term Ei's first story as a "date quest" in jest. And the sentiment is pretty well understood considering the fact that there were so many possible ways of setting up her 2nd quest – and each one I can think of does the job a lot better than what we were given.
Third…yes that is true…
Kazufrend wanted to see the booba blade…
Fourthly, it was definitely rushed and poorly written…
Mondstadt's archon quest, which was literally termed as 'prologue' is still the best written one among the nations. It gave us enough knowledge on the land, its history and its main players, its stance on the present Celestia and its overall vibe.
Inazuma's quest was lacking. It was not Ei's quest, it was Inazuma's. The civil war happened…and then it didn't. Same with Liyue's main archon quest thread though. Both were downgrades…
About your concept on plotholes…I agree.
Although I'll prefer it if the developers refrain from demo infodumps in the future (Ayato demo)…but atleast we got something.
That being said…the quest quality has improved a lot with Ayato's quest…flawed, but much better than Ei's 2nd and the joke of a quest that was Miko's.
I enjoyed the inazuma archon quest compared to the liyue one… I mean all the archon quest are cool.. but
Inazuma just hits different… I was so hyped on seeing an active archon.. and for me they did no disappoint on it… The war is also good.. the whole archon quest was not boring at all.. i have never skipped a dialogue while doing it.
That short anime video/trailer of Inazuma's story back then may very well mean that the open-ended story threads about all the past and future and the "plot holes" of Ei and Inazuma is super intentional.
this video helped a lot i really liked ei's second story quest but i was still on the fence about her and this made me understnad her character more the comparisone with zhongli and venti is what really helped
Honestly, as much as I am one of those that say the archon quest was, pretty unsatisfying, I can't say Ei is not a good character, I actually enjoyed the first story quest and the second was so g r e a t. I feel like the opinion on Ei was a culmination of many other dissatisfactions around the time, I know that my own was for a while.
You know, maybe you could also make a series of these kind of videos! Like one about Yae Miko, she is a very hard character to fully understand afterall
The thing is…. we totally get her motivations and traumas. That doesn’t excuse the HORRENDOUS writing and magically make her a sympathetic character just because of it. Nor does it make up for the complete lack of EARNED redemption just because she had a cool standoff with her own self and had a pity story. We still have not seen her explicitly in game make amends for the years of murder and chaos she caused. If you’re gonna use the lore as an explanation it goes both ways. She was a MONSTER. and she has yet to make up for it. Simple as that. The fault does however lie with the game devs and not the character itself. But that doesn’t give the character a free pass either. She’s a TERRIBLE character who was also written TERRIBLY.
Ei is a complex and interesting character, and while she is not an outright villain, she's still a very flawed character. And that's , wherein lies the divisive feelings on her based on one theme: forgiveness. There's a lot of people out there who feel frustrated because they see her as someone who's easily forgiven, despite having caused a lot of her through her own inactions even if it was done with the best of intentions. Like Alan Grant from Jurassic Park said "some of worst things imaginable have been done with the best of intentions". It's not just a singular incident but rather a symptom of a trope called "easily forgiven" where characters who have hurt a lot of people and done a lot of terrible things are let off because they have some tragic backstory. This is especially prevalent in anime and jrppg games. For many players, Ei's story is just another facet of that trope, hence the frustration.
Also, aside form that, there's also the rise of "anti critics" who either vehemently defend anything and everything done in the game or try to gatekeep what can and cannot be criticized, all the while labelling these players who have complaints as internet losers. This not only fails to convince them of other arguments but also reinforces their own believes about Ei. In other words, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
I disagree.
1 It doesn't matter that she wasn't aware that the puppet was being manipulated by the Fatui. She made the puppet. Everything the puppet does is her fault. If she made an exploitable puppet, thats on her still. The puppet used her powers and authority to do all that damage to Inazuma, it is her responsibility.
2 Her "date" was more a way to waifunize her than be romantic. Its annoying because it makes it so we are supposed to just forget all the messed up stuff that happened because of her puppet and go "aw look at how cute and a boomer she is", meanwhile a lot of people suffered and died because of her actions(or inactions).
You can't just dump all the fault on the puppet when it was specifically created by Ei. Its like saying you made a car with a flaw and the car malfunctioned in the road and killed dozens, so its exclusively the car's fault.
3-5 Feel very subjective though.
This video has pure simp energy poured into it.
I agree with you except for the first point ei already knew everything that is happening in inazuma because inazuma is a part of eternity. During our second confrontation with her, the traveller were given a choice between the fatui was giving delusion and the vision hunt decree but ei just say that everything that happen in inazuma is not a threat to her ideals and if it does ei would have personally take care of it and not the shogun. This is shown when the traveller openly opposed the shogun. It was ei who confronted him and when the shogun failed to kill the traveller the second time, ei steps in. The shogun main purpose is to maintain the eternity that ei envision while preventing her from erosion. And the war was never a threat to inazuma to begin with. the resistence was just fighting a losing battle and this was acknowledged by the traveller and miko.
My main problem is not the fact her actions are justifiable or not, or that she deservs redemption or not, my problem is the lack of consequences for her, no matter how much you guys cope to justify her actions "ah bruh it was her puppet not her" still this creat an imense amount of problems for an entire region, the fact that we get to this point and she does not even utter a single "sorry" its just tell me that she is not even aware of the damage she caused wich makes her even more dangerous and villanous than someone like scaramouche.
Lol kazuha stan is just wimpy ass kids,the shogunate is pretty fair in my pov, you have fair chance to defend your vision and protect your honor by 1 vs 1 deathmatch,just like the way of samurai. And your opponent is also a mortal with vision,general sara,its not like you need to fight the goddess of thunder herself to defend your vision.its a fair match,if you win then you win,if you lose you die just like signora. the way of samurai or 'Bushido' is not something these kazuha soy boy stan can understand,if the shogun really want to exterminate the whole resistance army and vision holders she can just split kokomi island into dust,just like how the old original seven archon delete khaenriah,no fair math,no argument,no chance to survive,they just delete the whole civilization
I strongly disagree with point 5. Inazuma was indeed rushed. The first part was fine though. The pace of our first entrance to Inazuma until we escaped with Thoma was fine. Good even. But after that, once we entered Watatsumi… Ooooooh boi. It was rushed af.
We spent too little time with the resistance. We spent too little time with the key players in the resistance. And we spent too little time with the guys that died that was supposed to be heart wrenching. When I was playing that part of Inazuma's story, I could clearly tell that they rushed it too much. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember feeling along the lines of "Oh that NPC died? Huh? Was he supposed to be close to us? We've only met him 3 times!". Seriously… a better example of what they are trying to do with that guy is in The Chasm. I think her name is Zhiqiong. We spent sufficient amount of time with her. We see her doing her best, struggle, interact with other NPCs, etc.
By the end of the story, I felt like "We took a shortcut here. There's no deeper emotional connection here. There is only my feelings of basic human decency about oppression and the underdog". Like that. Honestly, I was disappointed. How the heck could Genshin lose in terms of story telling when compared to my other main game FGO? Genshin has 3D models that they can use to SHOW urgency and stakes. They could not only describe the events, but also SHOW us through animation. FGO only has a background and 2D pictures moving around and texts! That shitty game did it, why couldn't Genshin did it too? Hell, Honkai could do it! Honkai is by league and bounds better at story telling compared to Genshin at the moment. AND THEY ARE MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY FFS! Sheesh!
Anyway, at the moment I will stop my judgement. FGO needs 4 chapters of story for it to really get good. Honkai needs 7 or 8 chapters until it gets good too. So I'll give Genshin time too. I'm hoping for Genshin to be good too. I stopped playing Honkai because the gacha there is stupid bad. So I wouldn't be able to experience the continuation of Kiana's story first hand anymore. Here's to hope that Genshin would be better gacha wise and story wise.
Her recent arc is very much like a redemption arc. Ei realizes that she neglected her nation and her people.
Her stubbornness of 500 years long isolated meditation for Eternity became a 500 year battle with her Puppet in her subconscience.
Ei's resolve never changed, she changed in spirit.
ZhongLi and Ei should have a get together. I bet he can give her a few pointers.
I feel like many people who criticized how rushed the resolution was in the Archon quest, in particular to how quickly the VHD was abolished, don't understand Ei's personality at all. She fights through honour. That's how she's always done things. That's why she "gave up" so easily, because she was honouring her word. Likewise when she agreed to go out into the city with the traveler. She was honouring her word in losing to the traveler, to find a new way for Inazuma to move forward. She has a code of Bushido, and one of the eight virtues of Bushido is honour. Bushido was a thing that existed ever since the first shogunate in real-life japan, so this is definitely intentional.
And with Ei's quest being a date quest? Yeah, then so was Venti's because their formats were LITERALLY the same.
First half: Walking around their nation chatting with the traveler
Second half: More epic stuff (Kujou Kamaji with Ei's, and Stanley with Venti's).
It infuriates me to no end that the people complaining about Ei's quest being a date, and use this as the only basis to say that it's worse than the other Archons' quest, completely forget that Venti's was, by their logic, also 'just a date".
people also tend to mix up Ei and Makoto's names ( beelzebul and baal ), i really dislike the fact when people refer Ei as baal and sometimes even calling her "baalz" 💀
I think the Shogun could be considered evil. Definitely not Ei. However, the Shogun is designed in Ei’s beliefs and acts on how Ei would act. So while the Shogun’s seemingly evil deeds might not align with Ei’s current ideals, it previously did.
I understand her. I just irrationally hate her and I can’t change that.
Thank u, thank u for addressing this. I've been telling this to the people who misunderstood her in the internet but ppl don't listen they just wanna mock her. Thank u. A character I relate a lot
question, when "ei" is present, does she assume control of the puppet vessel? if my understanding is correct, ei has no physical body anymore right? so her and the puppet share the same vessel. since keeping a physical body is susceptible to erosion.
(sorry if it has an obvious answer. i just wanted to clarify)
But one thing seems to be amiss is what happened to her friends in the past (exception being saiguu), this part also has some chances to being in a quest in future atleast i hope so.
well technically people expects that ei is that strong not uwu girl but a sassy strong in her story quest and they also view her as a villain which is sad that they dont understand her story quest well some of them dont and I have seen people call her "Sad girl uwu kawaii girl" 😞
childe is the main villain in liyue arc, then people forgave him.
idk why the same people can't forgave ei and stamped her once a villain always a villain.
I agree so much about the Ei "date" quest. It doesn't feel like a date to me, there's no romantic aspect involved. It's more of a "fish out of water" situation than a date situation, with Ei seeing Inazuma again in person after ~500 years. Furthermore, the part with Kujou Kamaji is also really good. It's a characterization moment for both Ei and Kamaji, and also planting seeds in Ei's eventual change of heart that ambitions aren't inherently harmful despite not congruent with the concept of eternity. Her first Story Quest isn't my favorite, but it's so far from what one can call "bad".
Raiden Ei's character should be analysed together with concepts of Zen Buddhism and other philosophies associated with mono no aware, or the sad acceptance and appreciation of transience. The crux of the archon quest in inazuma is actually about this. This is also one of the hallmarks of some of the most enduring Japanese fiction, poetry, and literature.
Raiden ei/shougun has more motifs related to transience than eternity. I mean, their theme song is a dead giveaway.
I would argue that the geo archon and liyue has more themes and motifs related to 'eternity'/longevity, based on their emphasis on tradition. Go praise mihoyo for incorporating this irony in her character. In fact, lightning is another symbol for ephemeral glory.
Raiden Ei, become my favorite the moment I saw her and ever since, she never left my team and never will be. Call me a simp but I love everything about her, that's why I have never turned my back on her even though most people did. That's why I thank you for making this video, to open the eyes of those who chose to closed them.
You know what would of been a nice touch: After you complete her 2nd story quest in the character menu it will say Raiden Ei instead of Raiden Shogun.