And I didn’t even mention what she did to Scara and Sara
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And to think i did not even mention the things she did to Scara and Sara since i was not including the lore.
i assume on paper crimes against humanity dont feel heavy enough. what also bugs me is that raiden was a warrior but dressed in the least convenient clothes.
i also explored some possibilities:
1. makoto only loved her sister of all people and was an awful ruler but raiden didnt want to be an archon so it backfired. sacrifices her freedom, in the "date quest" realizes pros of being an archon.
2. made her own puppet w/o anyone knowing, it becomes evil and gets rid of her, everyone thinks raiden went insane. in the end redeemed cos "well technically…"
3. is actually insane. exhiled or wears some thingy to make her harmless, breaks her spear which was somehow 1 of a kind etc
The worst part she didn’t even end up being a badass girlboss villain. It became oh Makoto was the brain and Ei was the brawn that’s why Inazuma been fucked up because Makoto dead and Ei isn’t as smart in canon. Now she’s just canonically the dumber one of the twins it’s not that she’s evil.
I don't care about the game story. I only care about the anime, if they fuck up her character in the anime and don't make her pure evil ong, amma losr my shit.
You brought up some good points in regards to her character being badly written and the weak story of the archon quest itself. But for the love of god stop using characters or story from MHA as some kinds of measuring standard for good vs bad. When you start comparing mediocre to bad then whole thing turns into a race to the bottom. Its also the third time I see a gacha/genshin CC using that title as a form of a good example for their argument.
The "Flaws of spiral abyss difficulty" video was the first one that I watched so I'm hoping to see more in the future but for now "dislike".
I agree on the fact that her first story quest was a mistake and that Inazuma has a lot of issues in terms of story. But to say Raiden is the worst written character in Genshin is a bit too much
Also, to label everyone that "defends" her as a "Raiden simp" is just pretentious: you're not the wielder of truth, and in fact you missed a lot of points in this analysis
The problem is, this video is dogwater: you literally copypasted everything people complained about 2 years ago and you're pretending this is your analysis. All the points in this video are either wrong or misconceptions about her and Inazuma. These points were bad two years ago and they are bad now:
-she didn't enslave anyone: you literally go to Inazuma with Beidou by boat, and she also said that she's done that for a long time, meaning they aren't completely closed-off to the outside world. If something, it's hard to go away from Inazuma, but not impossible;
-we literally learn with Inazuma that the archons aren't the ones giving visions to people. This point is just wrong;
-true, some people became "depressed" without their vision, but it's also stated that their lives also improved in some aspects. This is important because this dualism is the whole theme of Inazuma. Also, we know thanks to Itto that "depression" didn't hit everyone, as he was fine without his vision;
-she didn't start the war: the Watatsumi resistance did. But at the end of the day, it was all a plan by the fatui to have an easy access to her gnosis: if both armies were unable to stop them, they would've been able to do everything they wanted, meaning getting that gnosis would've been a lot whole easier. More importantly, she doesn't kill anyone, at least not directly: the only person we know she (or rather, the puppet) killed is Kazuha's friend, and he directly challenged her fully knowing the consequences if he lost;
-Raiden didn't know about everything, only about the decree: she literally says that she doesn't know anything, but "only that that pertains to eternity". And she didn't do anything about it because she agreed with it, so she let things as they were. Also, we don't "pretend" the fatui infiltrated the tri-commission, they did: the Tenryou commission leader is literally sided with them and the Kanjou commission is literally helping them getting crystal marrow to create the delusions;
-the teaser you're referring to was literally published before the final act. And that thing doesn't even explain anything, because it just implies stuff. In fact, her past is explained inside the last act with a cutscene, meaning this point is also wrong;
-she didn't "ruin the nation", as both the Sakoku (that you don't even mention) and the Vision Hunt Decree are fairly recent, and both her and the puppet are ruling by around 500 years. More importantly, she technically ruled the nation together with her sister and she is the only reason the country still exists. While she made bad choices, to say she "ruined the nation" is also wrong;
-the traveler doesn't "bring to her face" anything: they only tell her about the puppet and the fatui. They then proceed to fight;
-they don't agree on anything: she abolishes the decree because you beat her, but they didn't establish any conditions before fighting;
-true, she abolishes the decree off screen, but Genshin does this all the time: in Sumeru you don't get to see the sages' punishment, they just mention it. In Liyue, they say they are "ruling instead of the gods" but it just gets implied;
-reconnecting from the point above, at the end of the archon quest they also imply that people aren't over the war, but they are getting back to their normal lives. If you also talk with the Watatsumi army at the border they aren't happy with how the war ended, and they even try to kill Sara during the treaty (Kokomi's story quest). The reason why people are "afraid" of her is because they worship her: she's their god, so they try to be as perfect as they can be with her;
-yes, the first story quest was a bad idea, but at the end of the day you can still see her starting to change her mind, so it still does its job, I guess;
-the puppet doesn't "disrespect her", it's the literal opposite: the puppet literally tries to stop her from moving multiple times during that quest. Her change of perspective gets seen by the puppet as a sign of weakness, so she decides to test her inside Makoto's realm of consciousness. It's also worth noting that inside that realm time flows differently, so she didn't literally go away for centuries. Even so, she literally makes the traveler exit the realm to communicate to Miko the state of things, as she trusts her more than anyone else to rule the country. To say she "abandons her people" is wrong;
-Not Miko nor the traveler do jack: you literally play as Raiden for the whole time, and this is the only quest where this happens. She defeats the puppet and always her, at the end of everything, abolishes the Sakoku decree, saying that her job is to protect Inazuma from any danger that might come from outside, so to say she doesn't learn anything is wrong;
-Raiden was never intended as an "evil" character, that's your prespective. They wanted to create a morally grey character, but they couldn't handle her really well: the whole story is based off the good and bad ambitions can bring;
-funny how in your pinned comment you talk about Scaramouche and how she did "bad things" to him, when if it wasn't for her he wouldn't even be alive without her: Miko wanted to destroy him. Also, they're technically the same, only Scaramouche did much worse things for the sake of it, and he even gets even more scot-free because he literally erases his past. But apparently not having boobs means you're justified. Of course, that's your logic, as things are more complicated than that. Also, she's not the only one to try to kill you: Childe does the same thing, only to search for you because he needs a babysitter for his little brother, but that gets convienently overlooked
We have to accept a fundamental thing here: Genshin's writing is generally flawed. In fact, Sumeru's story is so poorly written that, between plot holes, fillers and poor pacing, it's probably even worse than Inazuma
Tbh I believe that most of it is the cope of her own nation. I wouldn't doubt that most ppl would blindly follow her (and honestly they did). Could be out of fear? Could be that they don't care as long it's not themselves in the line. It's complicated but maybe Inazuma has a majority of very conservative ppl, and only the most recent ppl ended up trying their best to change things, hence the resistance. Maybe she didn't had to be forgiven since no one truly blamed her for being bad, they just wanted some changes for the best and accepted it once it got set.
In case of second quest, it was more of the “cuz new worldview of Ei conflicts with original programming of Raiden, puppet tries to seize control and restore things to what they were – so we need to stop her” matter…
This doesn’t excuse Ei’s writing, or redeems her in any bit, but still – ‘tis better not twist “facts” so they would suite your opinion even more.
6:40 I was with you until this. This is a bad take – you can't ignore the "lore" because that's still part of Genshin and it's characters. I get that you only want to count the quest but Genshin is not a book where that is how you take the story, it's a video game and the medium has many ways of delivering character. Just because players don't (to you, an arbitrary 90%) read these supplementary in-game texts, it doesn't mean they aren't part of the game.
I think the way Ei was written in the Archon Quest was terrible but her actual characterization and development is why people like her and feel she's got more to her than the bad writing of the Archon Quest
Your read of her part 2 quest couldn't be more inaccurate. Ei didn't feel offended by her puppet, it was Ei from when she was cold-hearted and traumatized, unwilling to embrace a change to her idea of eternity. That battle was symbolic, and Ei was writing herself off as someone who was ineffective at running Inazuma anyway, and that Miko could do it. It's not a defense, this is just the characterization and it's who Ei is. Liking her for them isn't the same as overlooking her faults
I'm typing this as you childishly write off anyone who defends her as a simp. Sure.
Honestly I genuinely think some parts of her character and story are extremely interesting and well written. I agree with tje points here though, she shouldn’t have been forgiven so easily.
I'll be honest I like Raiden because her looks, but after watching your video I 100% agree that she is completely evil. And what she did to Scaramouche just make her case worse.
Nice video! Congratulations!
I hope this video will become viral across the genshin community, so more people will understand how badly written Raiden is, because this dude(I’m not subscribed to him) legit said everything that’s wrong with Raiden, and I also have been telling how poorly written Raiden is on my streams too, but I guess the fact that she has big boobas and that she can pull out a sword from her cleavage justifies everything ;-;
Raiden simps, WAKE THE FUCK UP. Thanks
I don't find myself rooting for Raiden Shogun much, but the Inazuma arc gave us some wonderful characters that are worth mentioning – with Kazuha, the Kamisato siblings and Yoimiya. They are all wonderful and the true heroes of this arc. Kazuha who deflected the Raiden's Sword, who must have been terrified to face her again when she literally killed Tomo. Ayaka and Ayato who are forced to lead their branch of politics at a ridiculously young age, yet are kind enough to accept an Outlander into their inner circle and show care for the people of Inazuma. Yoimiya who got herself into danger by hiding people from the doushin. These are the real heroes we should be raving about.
I think in the grand scheme of the lore and story is that Ei still was the Early Savior and Unifier of the country like Zhongli was for Liyue.
Ei mishandling of the current country is weighed against her previous massive positive accomplishment like defeating God's like Watsumi Island diety and the Thunderbird. With that in mind, the people of Inazuma could forgive or give a second chance to Ei as long as she swears to protect the country with her divine power.
Furthermore, I can see why the people of Inazuma would be neutral on Ei in that though she is the Head of the Inazuma state, she let's the people administer themselves through the Tri Comission. So while yes she didn't actively stop the Fatui it was the Military arm of the Inazuma state that was actively seeking the Fatui help against Watsumi Island.
Then again the fatui help was employed so to actually accomplish her Vision Hunt Decree so there's a huge source of responsibility that still falls back on Ei there.
Overall though, My second opinion about Ei is that though the Narrative of 2.0 was setting Ei as a Tyrant that the actual story was that the Hero and Unifier of Inazuma chose to set the country into one of a isolationist policy. There causing a civil war that resolution that caused her to reconsider her policy.
That simplification of the narrative kind of skirts over the immortal dilemma of how to deal with grief and suffering while handling the best interest of her country but, the point remains that there's good leaders/people that can make mistakes with the best of intentions which in this case is Ei.
Tl;DR for like 0 people that'll read this: Ei for hundreds of years was known as a Hero and destroyer of Evil Gods. Ei establishing the vision hunt Decree should be weigh in context of this in the short duration that it lasted in comparison.
I know this video is made for giggles and entertainment but good Grief It’s hard not to give some sort of reply to such a comment. Raiden is one of the best characters in genshin, her character lore and personality are so well put together and studied, she’s a wonderful collage of literary references, from the original Kojiki, to kurosawa’s kagemusha, up to some of the best traits of the meiji era’s dark heroes. I understand you don’t like her but the fact that she’s such a divisive character personality wise should already be a telling sign of what a great personality she is. I honestly think the inazuma story arc was held together by the amazing cast of characters and she was one of the pillars of that structure. I saw enough of your videos to know you gave it this edgy cut to make it fun and entertaining but to be honest when you reduce it to a joke even the greatest literary characters can be turned into nothing more than an idiot with terrible ideas: Hamlet, Don Quixote, Ulysses… at this point no one is safe. 😉
Happy to see I'm not the only person who holds this opinion and has them for the same reason
Even I have raiden shogun i still dislike her not only because of her story but I also dislike her character design and because of her design I totally have no respect for her even she is a Archon.
Well the problem is your idea of what the story is– is deeply flawed. And almost all your criticism of the bad writing is based on the story YOU framed, not the actual story. For example YOU are the one who expected Ei to say something like "Oh gee, I didn't know what was happening". The game does the opposite and says she knew – which you then criticize. Well which is it? Is it bad writing to say she didn't know (your story) or to say she did (theirs)? Obviously it's bad to say she was ignorant because that makes her an irresponsible moron. You criticize YOUR OWN frame. And even though you acknowledge that isn't what they wrote (even ignoring "the lore" as you say we must- just going by the basic quest text) you keep saying things like "the Traveler brings all this to [the Archon's] attention" which you know is your own head cannon and not the game's story.
Similarly your head cannon says that Ei is a tyrant and hated or feared by her people whom she was hurting. Again that's not the story it's just what you substituted. The story says she's literally worshiped by her people except the Watatsumi islanders. And you're right that your head cannon is bad writing. No disagreement there.
Your head cannon says Ei is an evil character. The game narrative says the opposite. Again you say YOUR writing is terrible and I won't disagree. I mean I guess a story about an evil Archon breaks lore but as a stand-alone story it could be made to work (since you want us to just ignore all the lore anyway). But that's not the story they ran. You say for example "they don't acknowledge how evil she is" but that's YOUR story you're attacking.
Next you say that Ei is a child who threw temper tantrum. That's your story not theirs. Well I should say that Yae Miko calls Ei childish but not for any of the stuff YOU say she's childish for (tyranny), and Yae Miko is patronizing to everyone.
Your story says Ei gets "bailed out by Yae Miko and the Traveler yet again" but this doesn't happen even once in the actual story. It's your head cannon. And you're right – it's bad writing. Makes the Archon seem childish. A good thing they never did it in the game. Your head cannon sucks. Well – as you yourself say.
Maybe you should re-write the criticism but critique the actual story not your head cannon?
Try NOT to do this:
Game: Ei is a good character.
You: Ei is an evil character.
You: this plot sucks so bad because Ei sucks as an evil character.
Instead try this:
Game: Ei is a good character.
You: Ei is a sucky good character because XYZ.
Really the only criticism I can see here is not one you make in the video but an implicit one that people who aren't paying much attention – like you – will get the wrong idea about the story. Having said that I think misdirection is a pretty big part of the Inazuma story. But it might be too confusing and odd. We go into Inazuma with 3 big questions: why has the Electro Archon banned visions, what is up with the statue she's making and why is she gathering visions to put into the statue? None of those questions get answered. We don't even get told who the statue is of. Ei says she didn't even know Electro visions were not being granted. And then we have the whole timey-wimey story. It's confusing. And apparently people not paying attention solve this confusion by just making up their own story because people don't like nuance. Yes it makes a lot more sense a year later and with the lore bits but you're right that it's probably too much for a player that skips over the talky talky bits and thinks the first character quest is a "date".
I guess Dainsleif was right about her in her collected miscellany 💀
Judging by the fact that people draw porn of Kim Jong Un's sister(and next in line for the throne) because she is hot, I think you hit it right on the nail with the Raiden Simps' relentless defending of Raiden
8:38 they were nervous sells man was nervous people talking behind our back but atleast make one of them more scared and not confused like actualy scared for there life so we can see how evil ei really is
Heaven principles are the practicaly gods above gods and kinda distroyed like 3-5 nations worth of people and cursed millions but cant stop the abyss
I think the stark comparison between Nahida and Raiden, made me dislike Raiden more. Also showed how hey actions affected even more of Teyvat. And no. Trauma is not an excuse for a character not to take any accountability for oppressing a whole friggen nation. 😒