#gachagames — Public Fediverse posts

Natlan’s Dragons Make Me Uncomfortable but Not For the Reasons You Think

1. Comparisons
2. How Could They Do It?
3. This is Not Their First Rodeo
4. Conclusion

It Starts

When I was watching someone play the last parts of the Little Buddy quest, it felt too familiar. All throughout the quest I was praying it wasn’t going where I thought it was going, and it did. It felt a little bit like my lore but repurposed.

Technologically advanced dragons isn’t anything new, but it’s something that is rare. Sure, paranormal romance authors have tackled this, but none have gotten as expansive as mine (and now Genshin‘s).

I think Mihoyo might have searched me and found my works and the lore of my dragons that I’ve talked about in online spaces. Now, ‘why would they do that‘ and ‘they don’t know you,’ you ask? I’ve messaged them before.

Mihoyo has responded personally to my messages before. It’s not pre-written like it is now when someone messages them. They thanked me for my dragon scaramouche idea and said it was very interesting. The message I sent regarding that included me asking them to give Scaramouche a dragon pet or have part of his body ingredients come from the electro sovereign.

That wasn’t my first message to them that got a response. My very first message to them was a loooooong message about what African cultural references they can include in Sumeru and Natlan. I included many African references and they thanked me for “writing so much.” It’s not far fetched to think they googled my name and found my work.

Comparisons

Here’s a rough comparison of my dragons and theirs:

• My dragons used to rule on earth and arrived in the pre Cambrian time, as detailed in one of the short stories. Mihoyo’s dragons have been on Teyvat since the beginning as well.
• In EOD, it is implied through art that dragons created humans, because one of the first dragons to land on earth had a human form. I suspect Genshin lore will do this.
• My dragons have their own AI, androids and cyborgs. No dragon-made cyborgs in Natlani dragons but they have their own little bots and AI. Ineffa somewhat counts because her core is one of Xiucoatl’s management AI.
• A short lore piece of mine released in December 2, 2022. A flash story detailing the total annihilation of a planet, but careful enough not to create a void via chain reaction. There is a similar weapon in the ending of the Natlan dragon/Little Buddy quest.
• dragons going to war with humans, but mine ‘win’ and an uneasy peace treaty is signed. The planet is taken over by them. In Genshin, dragons and humans fought in the Funerary War.
• One of my dragons, Rin, is left behind at the end of the universe and lives into the next one. The same happens to Little Buddy in Natlan if you choose to phlogistoize Teyvat.
• My dragons have made worlds similar to dyson spheres. Tollan itself seems to be a world within a contained area like a Dyson sphere.
• My dragons have metaphysical connections to the knowledge within the universe (some of these lore tidbits are in the ebooks/short stories I made, as well as scattered across my old author twitter), and Tollan’s phlogiston pools seem to grant dragons metaphysical knowledge and memories.
• Phlogiston seems to be like Substance in my world, where my dragon characters have it in their bodies to help them shapeshift and stay alive beyond death.

How Could They Do It?

I hear you over there saying, “Mihoyo is Chinese! They don’t have access to American bookstores!”

WRONG.

I stupidly put my books on a Chinese bookstore (or pirate site I think). Two of them: The Love of an Italian Dragon and il cyborg divina. They’re both unavailable as-is on current bookstores due to bad reviews they were getting (I was a teen when I wrote them), but they still exist on that bookstore.

These could show up in a Chinese search engine, and therefore open a rabbit hole that will bring them to my blog, where all of the Dragon’s War stories existed.

Also, I am pretty sure VPNs exist in China, and my books may be on more pirate sites that I don’t know about.

Lastly, my site is very much accessible in China. I still get views from there. Heck, the past three years, Hong Kong SAR China is ranked 4 for visitors regions to my site from the last three years. China itself ranks a little lower.

This is Not Their First Rodeo

Mihoyo has also taken before from little people. A small Korean artist had their OC used as a reference for Lion boy Ga’ming, and there’s Korean blogs about many things they took from/referenced. For example, it was a huge controversy that the Aranara plot line was lifted from the game Kena: Bridge of Souls.

Links

To preface, I don’t know if some of these can be pushed as references or not, a lot of these (like the Elden ring pony) are frame for frame animation yoinking.

• Hoyo and JJK, and Dr. Stone: https://www.inven.co.kr/board/webzine/2097/2168800
• Hoyo and Zelda but with more things people haven’t caught like Monster Hunter, Eula’s moveset being taken from another game, etc: https://bbs.ruliweb.com/etcs/board/300780/read/53681697
• This is old but Hoyo and Nier Automata: https://www.dogdrip.net/283264592
• Nier dashing animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y763xuJqNq8
• Vergil’s DMC5 move set on various characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OP_rKc3dAs
• Itto and Dante: https://arca.live/b/genshin/40383801
• Aranara quest using similar storyline to the indie game Kena: https://arca.live/b/genshin/59876455
• Ei literally using the same time stop attack as Vergil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7h1S5bX60
• Scara’s move set: https://m.dcinside.com/board/aoegame/23612738
• Elden Ring pony prance: https://x.com/shincry/status/1692666496613249216?s=46&t=udoc7y1aLMkQD8fC0yzjYA

They also traced Oumi Janta’s dance and her mannerisms, but they ultimately removed it. People claim what she did was a common dance move, but they traced her mannerisms like the way she moved her hands.

Also, they love heavily referencing obscure media, like the manga Edo Never Sleeps. You can find comparisons and analysis here: https://x.com/candlenara/status/1931440726770168051

These links were sent to me by an excellent Korean artist who quit Genshin after finding out these controversies.

A writer I knew who quit Genshin had also done so due to the extreme similarities to Final Fantasy 14 (the online one). Basically:

• Fandaniel pretends to be an ally to the player (Scaramouche does the same in Unreconciled Stars)
• Is part of a group of 11 baddies (Scaramouche is part of the 11 Fatui Harbingers)
• Suffered bad trauma and thought ascending to godhood was a way to cope with it (Scaramouche tries to become a god after suffering much trauma caused by Il Dottore)
• Tried to kill hi self and gets the main character to help him by going to ‘a representation of the Moon.’ (Scaramouche tries to ‘kill himself’ by going through Irminsul, but it doesn’t work the way he wants)

The latest moon map has also been compared to Mare Lamentorum. I’m not sure in what ways, since I do not play FF 14.

Conclusion

Someone said the scifi elements is a retcon, because the twins were summoned to Teyvat. I remember this being part of the lore. Defenders will argue and claim “everyone is an unreliable narrator, just like real life.” You all forget, real life has historians for a reason.

A friend of mine said they are abandoning the fantasy concepts because all of the popular Gacha that are out right now (like Wuthering Waves) are Scifi-Fantasy or Scifi. I can see that happening. Mihoyo chasing a trend is nothing new, but it is a little upsetting because they used to be trendsetters, not followers. I actually love the scifi elements being added to Genshin. I just… hate when it involves dragons.

If they added a reference to my work, like maybe an NPC named after Ashuton Karrucci, I would possibly forgive this. Possibly.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots.

The thing that also upsets me is that the dragons and their tech are not even African inspired. We already have many tropes about the advanced South American civilization. Mihoyo could’ve kept it mixed with South American and African inspirations in the dragon tech. Africa barely gets a spotlight in these gacha games (or anime games in general because of their fascination with Europe). A society of African or Afro-mixed dragons in a big game like this would’ve helped encourage the youth of today to explore more about Africa.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots, but I also feel like I would’ve felt proud? Significant African representation was all I wanted in Natlan.

It feels so uncomfortable now to play Genshin. They don’t care about losing me. I am just one person whose lore helped them be inspired.

I just want them to say it. Or thank me by letting the world know, with an NPC.

(I also got invited to something but that’s all I can say)

Cover image from this YouTube thumbnail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DKpAgQpnc

Rate this:

Natlan’s Dragons Make Me Uncomfortable but Not For the Reasons You Think

1. Comparisons
2. How Could They Do It?
3. This is Not Their First Rodeo
4. Conclusion

It Starts

When I was watching someone play the last parts of the Little Buddy quest, it felt too familiar. All throughout the quest I was praying it wasn’t going where I thought it was going, and it did. It felt a little bit like my lore but repurposed.

Technologically advanced dragons isn’t anything new, but it’s something that is rare. Sure, paranormal romance authors have tackled this, but none have gotten as expansive as mine (and now Genshin‘s).

I think Mihoyo might have searched me and found my works and the lore of my dragons that I’ve talked about in online spaces. Now, ‘why would they do that‘ and ‘they don’t know you,’ you ask? I’ve messaged them before.

Mihoyo has responded personally to my messages before. It’s not pre-written like it is now when someone messages them. They thanked me for my dragon scaramouche idea and said it was very interesting. The message I sent regarding that included me asking them to give Scaramouche a dragon pet or have part of his body ingredients come from the electro sovereign.

That wasn’t my first message to them that got a response. My very first message to them was a loooooong message about what African cultural references they can include in Sumeru and Natlan. I included many African references and they thanked me for “writing so much.” It’s not far fetched to think they googled my name and found my work.

Comparisons

Here’s a rough comparison of my dragons and theirs:

• My dragons used to rule on earth and arrived in the pre Cambrian time, as detailed in one of the short stories. Mihoyo’s dragons have been on Teyvat since the beginning as well.
• In EOD, it is implied through art that dragons created humans, because one of the first dragons to land on earth had a human form. I suspect Genshin lore will do this.
• My dragons have their own AI, androids and cyborgs. No dragon-made cyborgs in Natlani dragons but they have their own little bots and AI. Ineffa somewhat counts because her core is one of Xiucoatl’s management AI.
• A short lore piece of mine released in December 2, 2022. A flash story detailing the total annihilation of a planet, but careful enough not to create a void via chain reaction. There is a similar weapon in the ending of the Natlan dragon/Little Buddy quest.
• dragons going to war with humans, but mine ‘win’ and an uneasy peace treaty is signed. The planet is taken over by them. In Genshin, dragons and humans fought in the Funerary War.
• One of my dragons, Rin, is left behind at the end of the universe and lives into the next one. The same happens to Little Buddy in Natlan if you choose to phlogistoize Teyvat.
• My dragons have made worlds similar to dyson spheres. Tollan itself seems to be a world within a contained area like a Dyson sphere.
• My dragons have metaphysical connections to the knowledge within the universe (some of these lore tidbits are in the ebooks/short stories I made, as well as scattered across my old author twitter), and Tollan’s phlogiston pools seem to grant dragons metaphysical knowledge and memories.
• Phlogiston seems to be like Substance in my world, where my dragon characters have it in their bodies to help them shapeshift and stay alive beyond death.

How Could They Do It?

I hear you over there saying, “Mihoyo is Chinese! They don’t have access to American bookstores!”

WRONG.

I stupidly put my books on a Chinese bookstore (or pirate site I think). Two of them: The Love of an Italian Dragon and il cyborg divina. They’re both unavailable as-is on current bookstores due to bad reviews they were getting (I was a teen when I wrote them), but they still exist on that bookstore.

These could show up in a Chinese search engine, and therefore open a rabbit hole that will bring them to my blog, where all of the Dragon’s War stories existed.

Also, I am pretty sure VPNs exist in China, and my books may be on more pirate sites that I don’t know about.

Lastly, my site is very much accessible in China. I still get views from there. Heck, the past three years, Hong Kong SAR China is ranked 4 for visitors regions to my site from the last three years. China itself ranks a little lower.

This is Not Their First Rodeo

Mihoyo has also taken before from little people. A small Korean artist had their OC used as a reference for Lion boy Ga’ming, and there’s Korean blogs about many things they took from/referenced. For example, it was a huge controversy that the Aranara plot line was lifted from the game Kena: Bridge of Souls.

Links

To preface, I don’t know if some of these can be pushed as references or not, a lot of these (like the Elden ring pony) are frame for frame animation yoinking.

• Hoyo and JJK, and Dr. Stone: https://www.inven.co.kr/board/webzine/2097/2168800
• Hoyo and Zelda but with more things people haven’t caught like Monster Hunter, Eula’s moveset being taken from another game, etc: https://bbs.ruliweb.com/etcs/board/300780/read/53681697
• This is old but Hoyo and Nier Automata: https://www.dogdrip.net/283264592
• Nier dashing animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y763xuJqNq8
• Vergil’s DMC5 move set on various characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OP_rKc3dAs
• Itto and Dante: https://arca.live/b/genshin/40383801
• Aranara quest using similar storyline to the indie game Kena: https://arca.live/b/genshin/59876455
• Ei literally using the same time stop attack as Vergil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7h1S5bX60
• Scara’s move set: https://m.dcinside.com/board/aoegame/23612738
• Elden Ring pony prance: https://x.com/shincry/status/1692666496613249216?s=46&t=udoc7y1aLMkQD8fC0yzjYA

They also traced Oumi Janta’s dance and her mannerisms, but they ultimately removed it. People claim what she did was a common dance move, but they traced her mannerisms like the way she moved her hands.

Also, they love heavily referencing obscure media, like the manga Edo Never Sleeps. You can find comparisons and analysis here: https://x.com/candlenara/status/1931440726770168051

These links were sent to me by an excellent Korean artist who quit Genshin after finding out these controversies.

A writer I knew who quit Genshin had also done so due to the extreme similarities to Final Fantasy 14 (the online one). Basically:

• Fandaniel pretends to be an ally to the player (Scaramouche does the same in Unreconciled Stars)
• Is part of a group of 11 baddies (Scaramouche is part of the 11 Fatui Harbingers)
• Suffered bad trauma and thought ascending to godhood was a way to cope with it (Scaramouche tries to become a god after suffering much trauma caused by Il Dottore)
• Tried to kill hi self and gets the main character to help him by going to ‘a representation of the Moon.’ (Scaramouche tries to ‘kill himself’ by going through Irminsul, but it doesn’t work the way he wants)

The latest moon map has also been compared to Mare Lamentorum. I’m not sure in what ways, since I do not play FF 14.

Conclusion

Someone said the scifi elements is a retcon, because the twins were summoned to Teyvat. I remember this being part of the lore. Defenders will argue and claim “everyone is an unreliable narrator, just like real life.” You all forget, real life has historians for a reason.

A friend of mine said they are abandoning the fantasy concepts because all of the popular Gacha that are out right now (like Wuthering Waves) are Scifi-Fantasy or Scifi. I can see that happening. Mihoyo chasing a trend is nothing new, but it is a little upsetting because they used to be trendsetters, not followers. I actually love the scifi elements being added to Genshin. I just… hate when it involves dragons.

If they added a reference to my work, like maybe an NPC named after Ashuton Karrucci, I would possibly forgive this. Possibly.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots.

The thing that also upsets me is that the dragons and their tech are not even African inspired. We already have many tropes about the advanced South American civilization. Mihoyo could’ve kept it mixed with South American and African inspirations in the dragon tech. Africa barely gets a spotlight in these gacha games (or anime games in general because of their fascination with Europe). A society of African or Afro-mixed dragons in a big game like this would’ve helped encourage the youth of today to explore more about Africa.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots, but I also feel like I would’ve felt proud? Significant African representation was all I wanted in Natlan.

It feels so uncomfortable now to play Genshin. They don’t care about losing me. I am just one person whose lore helped them be inspired.

I just want them to say it. Or thank me by letting the world know, with an NPC.

(I also got invited to something but that’s all I can say)

Cover image from this YouTube thumbnail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DKpAgQpnc

Rate this:

Natlan’s Dragons Make Me Uncomfortable but Not For the Reasons You Think

1. Comparisons
2. How Could They Do It?
3. This is Not Their First Rodeo
4. Conclusion

It Starts

When I was watching someone play the last parts of the Little Buddy quest, it felt too familiar. All throughout the quest I was praying it wasn’t going where I thought it was going, and it did. It felt a little bit like my lore but repurposed.

Technologically advanced dragons isn’t anything new, but it’s something that is rare. Sure, paranormal romance authors have tackled this, but none have gotten as expansive as mine (and now Genshin‘s).

I think Mihoyo might have searched me and found my works and the lore of my dragons that I’ve talked about in online spaces. Now, ‘why would they do that‘ and ‘they don’t know you,’ you ask? I’ve messaged them before.

Mihoyo has responded personally to my messages before. It’s not pre-written like it is now when someone messages them. They thanked me for my dragon scaramouche idea and said it was very interesting. The message I sent regarding that included me asking them to give Scaramouche a dragon pet or have part of his body ingredients come from the electro sovereign.

That wasn’t my first message to them that got a response. My very first message to them was a loooooong message about what African cultural references they can include in Sumeru and Natlan. I included many African references and they thanked me for “writing so much.” It’s not far fetched to think they googled my name and found my work.

Comparisons

Here’s a rough comparison of my dragons and theirs:

• My dragons used to rule on earth and arrived in the pre Cambrian time, as detailed in one of the short stories. Mihoyo’s dragons have been on Teyvat since the beginning as well.
• In EOD, it is implied through art that dragons created humans, because one of the first dragons to land on earth had a human form. I suspect Genshin lore will do this.
• My dragons have their own AI, androids and cyborgs. No dragon-made cyborgs in Natlani dragons but they have their own little bots and AI. Ineffa somewhat counts because her core is one of Xiucoatl’s management AI.
• A short lore piece of mine released in December 2, 2022. A flash story detailing the total annihilation of a planet, but careful enough not to create a void via chain reaction. There is a similar weapon in the ending of the Natlan dragon/Little Buddy quest.
• dragons going to war with humans, but mine ‘win’ and an uneasy peace treaty is signed. The planet is taken over by them. In Genshin, dragons and humans fought in the Funerary War.
• One of my dragons, Rin, is left behind at the end of the universe and lives into the next one. The same happens to Little Buddy in Natlan if you choose to phlogistoize Teyvat.
• My dragons have made worlds similar to dyson spheres. Tollan itself seems to be a world within a contained area like a Dyson sphere.
• My dragons have metaphysical connections to the knowledge within the universe (some of these lore tidbits are in the ebooks/short stories I made, as well as scattered across my old author twitter), and Tollan’s phlogiston pools seem to grant dragons metaphysical knowledge and memories.
• Phlogiston seems to be like Substance in my world, where my dragon characters have it in their bodies to help them shapeshift and stay alive beyond death.

How Could They Do It?

I hear you over there saying, “Mihoyo is Chinese! They don’t have access to American bookstores!”

WRONG.

I stupidly put my books on a Chinese bookstore (or pirate site I think). Two of them: The Love of an Italian Dragon and il cyborg divina. They’re both unavailable as-is on current bookstores due to bad reviews they were getting (I was a teen when I wrote them), but they still exist on that bookstore.

These could show up in a Chinese search engine, and therefore open a rabbit hole that will bring them to my blog, where all of the Dragon’s War stories existed.

Also, I am pretty sure VPNs exist in China, and my books may be on more pirate sites that I don’t know about.

Lastly, my site is very much accessible in China. I still get views from there. Heck, the past three years, Hong Kong SAR China is ranked 4 for visitors regions to my site from the last three years. China itself ranks a little lower.

This is Not Their First Rodeo

Mihoyo has also taken before from little people. A small Korean artist had their OC used as a reference for Lion boy Ga’ming, and there’s Korean blogs about many things they took from/referenced. For example, it was a huge controversy that the Aranara plot line was lifted from the game Kena: Bridge of Souls.

Links

To preface, I don’t know if some of these can be pushed as references or not, a lot of these (like the Elden ring pony) are frame for frame animation yoinking.

• Hoyo and JJK, and Dr. Stone: https://www.inven.co.kr/board/webzine/2097/2168800
• Hoyo and Zelda but with more things people haven’t caught like Monster Hunter, Eula’s moveset being taken from another game, etc: https://bbs.ruliweb.com/etcs/board/300780/read/53681697
• This is old but Hoyo and Nier Automata: https://www.dogdrip.net/283264592
• Nier dashing animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y763xuJqNq8
• Vergil’s DMC5 move set on various characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OP_rKc3dAs
• Itto and Dante: https://arca.live/b/genshin/40383801
• Aranara quest using similar storyline to the indie game Kena: https://arca.live/b/genshin/59876455
• Ei literally using the same time stop attack as Vergil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7h1S5bX60
• Scara’s move set: https://m.dcinside.com/board/aoegame/23612738
• Elden Ring pony prance: https://x.com/shincry/status/1692666496613249216?s=46&t=udoc7y1aLMkQD8fC0yzjYA

They also traced Oumi Janta’s dance and her mannerisms, but they ultimately removed it. People claim what she did was a common dance move, but they traced her mannerisms like the way she moved her hands.

Also, they love heavily referencing obscure media, like the manga Edo Never Sleeps. You can find comparisons and analysis here: https://x.com/candlenara/status/1931440726770168051

These links were sent to me by an excellent Korean artist who quit Genshin after finding out these controversies.

A writer I knew who quit Genshin had also done so due to the extreme similarities to Final Fantasy 14 (the online one). Basically:

• Fandaniel pretends to be an ally to the player (Scaramouche does the same in Unreconciled Stars)
• Is part of a group of 11 baddies (Scaramouche is part of the 11 Fatui Harbingers)
• Suffered bad trauma and thought ascending to godhood was a way to cope with it (Scaramouche tries to become a god after suffering much trauma caused by Il Dottore)
• Tried to kill hi self and gets the main character to help him by going to ‘a representation of the Moon.’ (Scaramouche tries to ‘kill himself’ by going through Irminsul, but it doesn’t work the way he wants)

The latest moon map has also been compared to Mare Lamentorum. I’m not sure in what ways, since I do not play FF 14.

Conclusion

Someone said the scifi elements is a retcon, because the twins were summoned to Teyvat. I remember this being part of the lore. Defenders will argue and claim “everyone is an unreliable narrator, just like real life.” You all forget, real life has historians for a reason.

A friend of mine said they are abandoning the fantasy concepts because all of the popular Gacha that are out right now (like Wuthering Waves) are Scifi-Fantasy or Scifi. I can see that happening. Mihoyo chasing a trend is nothing new, but it is a little upsetting because they used to be trendsetters, not followers. I actually love the scifi elements being added to Genshin. I just… hate when it involves dragons.

If they added a reference to my work, like maybe an NPC named after Ashuton Karrucci, I would possibly forgive this. Possibly.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots.

The thing that also upsets me is that the dragons and their tech are not even African inspired. We already have many tropes about the advanced South American civilization. Mihoyo could’ve kept it mixed with South American and African inspirations in the dragon tech. Africa barely gets a spotlight in these gacha games (or anime games in general because of their fascination with Europe). A society of African or Afro-mixed dragons in a big game like this would’ve helped encourage the youth of today to explore more about Africa.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots, but I also feel like I would’ve felt proud? Significant African representation was all I wanted in Natlan.

It feels so uncomfortable now to play Genshin. They don’t care about losing me. I am just one person whose lore helped them be inspired.

I just want them to say it. Or thank me by letting the world know, with an NPC.

(I also got invited to something but that’s all I can say)

Cover image from this YouTube thumbnail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DKpAgQpnc

Rate this:

Natlan’s Dragons Make Me Uncomfortable but Not For the Reasons You Think

1. Comparisons
2. How Could They Do It?
3. This is Not Their First Rodeo
4. Conclusion

It Starts

When I was watching someone play the last parts of the Little Buddy quest, it felt too familiar. All throughout the quest I was praying it wasn’t going where I thought it was going, and it did. It felt a little bit like my lore but repurposed.

Technologically advanced dragons isn’t anything new, but it’s something that is rare. Sure, paranormal romance authors have tackled this, but none have gotten as expansive as mine (and now Genshin‘s).

I think Mihoyo might have searched me and found my works and the lore of my dragons that I’ve talked about in online spaces. Now, ‘why would they do that‘ and ‘they don’t know you,’ you ask? I’ve messaged them before.

Mihoyo has responded personally to my messages before. It’s not pre-written like it is now when someone messages them. They thanked me for my dragon scaramouche idea and said it was very interesting. The message I sent regarding that included me asking them to give Scaramouche a dragon pet or have part of his body ingredients come from the electro sovereign.

That wasn’t my first message to them that got a response. My very first message to them was a loooooong message about what African cultural references they can include in Sumeru and Natlan. I included many African references and they thanked me for “writing so much.” It’s not far fetched to think some intern on the story team googled my name and found my work.

Comparisons

Here’s a rough comparison of my dragons and theirs:

• My dragons used to rule on earth and arrived in the pre Cambrian time, as detailed in one of the short stories. Mihoyo’s dragons have been on Teyvat since the beginning as well.
• In EOD, it is implied through art that dragons created humans, because one of the first dragons to land on earth had a human form. I suspect Genshin lore will do this.
• My dragons have their own AI, androids and cyborgs. No dragon-made cyborgs in Natlani dragons but they have their own little bots and AI. Ineffa somewhat counts because her core is one of Xiucoatl’s management AI.
• A short lore piece of mine released in December 2, 2022. A flash story detailing the total annihilation of a planet, but careful enough not to create a void via chain reaction. There is a similar weapon in the ending of the Natlan dragon/Little Buddy quest.
• dragons going to war with humans, but mine ‘win’ and an uneasy peace treaty is signed. The planet is taken over by them. In Genshin, dragons and humans fought in the Funerary War.
• One of my dragons, Rin, is left behind at the end of the universe and lives into the next one. The same happens to Little Buddy in Natlan if you choose to phlogistoize Teyvat.
• My dragons have made worlds similar to dyson spheres. Tollan itself seems to be a world within a contained area like a Dyson sphere.
• My dragons have metaphysical connections to the knowledge within the universe (some of these lore tidbits are in the ebooks/short stories I made, as well as scattered across my old author twitter), and Tollan’s phlogiston pools seem to grant dragons metaphysical knowledge and memories.
• Phlogiston seems to be like Substance in my world, where my dragon characters have it in their bodies to help them shapeshift and stay alive beyond death.

How Could They Do It?

I hear you over there saying, “Mihoyo is Chinese! They don’t have access to American bookstores!”

WRONG.

I stupidly put my books on a Chinese bookstore (or pirate site I think). Two of them: The Love of an Italian Dragon and il cyborg divina. They’re both unavailable as-is on current bookstores due to bad reviews they were getting (I was a teen when I wrote them), but they still exist on that bookstore.

These could show up in a Chinese search engine, and therefore open a rabbit hole that will bring them to my blog, where all of the Dragon’s War stories existed.

Also, I am pretty sure VPNs exist in China, and my books may be on more pirate sites that I don’t know about.

Lastly, my site is very much accessible in China. I still get views from there. Heck, the past three years, Hong Kong SAR China is ranked 4 for visitors regions to my site from the last three years. China itself ranks a little lower.

This is Not Their First Rodeo

Mihoyo has also taken before from little people. A small Korean artist had their OC used as a reference for Lion boy Ga’ming, and there’s Korean blogs about many things they took from/referenced. For example, it was a huge controversy that the Aranara plot line was lifted from the game Kena: Bridge of Souls.

Links

To preface, I don’t know if some of these can be pushed as references or not, a lot of these (like the Elden ring pony) are frame for frame animation yoinking.

• Hoyo and JJK, and Dr. Stone: https://www.inven.co.kr/board/webzine/2097/2168800
• Hoyo and Zelda but with more things people haven’t caught like Monster Hunter, Eula’s moveset being taken from another game, etc: https://bbs.ruliweb.com/etcs/board/300780/read/53681697
• This is old but Hoyo and Nier Automata: https://www.dogdrip.net/283264592
• Nier dashing animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y763xuJqNq8
• Vergil’s DMC5 move set on various characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OP_rKc3dAs
• Itto and Dante: https://arca.live/b/genshin/40383801
• Aranara quest using similar storyline to the indie game Kena: https://arca.live/b/genshin/59876455
• Ei literally using the same time stop attack as Vergil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7h1S5bX60
• Scara’s move set: https://m.dcinside.com/board/aoegame/23612738
• Elden Ring pony prance: https://x.com/shincry/status/1692666496613249216?s=46&t=udoc7y1aLMkQD8fC0yzjYA

They also traced Oumi Janta’s dance and her mannerisms, but they ultimately removed it. People claim what she did was a common dance move, but they traced her mannerisms like the way she moved her hands.

Also, they love heavily referencing obscure media, like the manga Edo Never Sleeps. You can find comparisons and analysis here: https://x.com/candlenara/status/1931440726770168051

These links were sent to me by an excellent Korean artist who quit Genshin after finding out these controversies.

A writer I knew who quit Genshin had also done so due to the extreme similarities to Final Fantasy 14 (the online one). Basically:

• Fandaniel pretends to be an ally to the player (Scaramouche does the same in Unreconciled Stars)
• Is part of a group of 11 baddies (Scaramouche is part of the 11 Fatui Harbingers)
• Suffered bad trauma and thought ascending to godhood was a way to cope with it (Scaramouche tries to become a god after suffering much trauma caused by Il Dottore)
• Tried to kill hi self and gets the main character to help him by going to ‘a representation of the Moon.’ (Scaramouche tries to ‘kill himself’ by going through Irminsul, but it doesn’t work the way he wants)

The latest moon map has also been compared to Mare Lamentorum. I’m not sure in what ways, since I do not play FF 14.

Conclusion

Someone said the scifi elements is a retcon, because the twins were summoned to Teyvat. I remember this being part of the lore. Defenders will argue and claim “everyone is an unreliable narrator, just like real life.” You all forget, real life has historians for a reason.

A friend of mine said they are abandoning the fantasy concepts because all of the popular Gacha that are out right now (like Wuthering Waves) are Scifi-Fantasy or Scifi. I can see that happening. Mihoyo chasing a trend is nothing new, but it is a little upsetting because they used to be trendsetters, not followers. I actually love the scifi elements being added to Genshin. I just… hate when it involves dragons.

If they added a reference to my work, like maybe an NPC named after Ashuton Karrucci, I would possibly forgive this. Possibly.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots.

The thing that also upsets me is that the dragons and their tech are not even African inspired. We already have many tropes about the advanced South American civilization. Mihoyo could’ve kept it mixed with South American and African inspirations in the dragon tech. Africa barely gets a spotlight in these gacha games (or anime games in general because of their fascination with Europe). A society of African or Afro-mixed dragons in a big game like this would’ve helped encourage the youth of today to explore more about Africa.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots, but I also feel like I would’ve felt proud? Significant African representation was all I wanted in Natlan.

It feels so uncomfortable now to play Genshin. They don’t care about losing me. I am just one person whose lore helped them be inspired.

I just want them to say it. Or thank me by letting the world know, with an NPC.

(I also got invited to something but that’s all I can say)

Cover image from this YouTube thumbnail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DKpAgQpnc

Rate this:

Natlan’s Dragons Make Me Uncomfortable but Not For the Reasons You Think

1. Comparisons
2. How Could They Do It?
3. This is Not Their First Rodeo
4. Conclusion

It Starts

When I was watching someone play the last parts of the Little Buddy quest, it felt too familiar. All throughout the quest I was praying it wasn’t going where I thought it was going, and it did. It felt a little bit like my lore but repurposed.

Technologically advanced dragons isn’t anything new, but it’s something that is rare. Sure, paranormal romance authors have tackled this, but none have gotten as expansive as mine (and now Genshin‘s).

I think Mihoyo might have searched me and found my works and the lore of my dragons that I’ve talked about in online spaces. Now, ‘why would they do that‘ and ‘they don’t know you,’ you ask? I’ve messaged them before.

Mihoyo has responded personally to my messages before. It’s not pre-written like it is now when someone messages them. They thanked me for my dragon scaramouche idea and said it was very interesting. The message I sent regarding that included me asking them to give Scaramouche a dragon pet or have part of his body ingredients come from the electro sovereign.

That wasn’t my first message to them that got a response. My very first message to them was a loooooong message about what African cultural references they can include in Sumeru and Natlan. I included many African references and they thanked me for “writing so much.” It’s not far fetched to think they googled my name and found my work.

Comparisons

Here’s a rough comparison of my dragons and theirs:

• My dragons used to rule on earth and arrived in the pre Cambrian time, as detailed in one of the short stories. Mihoyo’s dragons have been on Teyvat since the beginning as well.
• In EOD, it is implied through art that dragons created humans, because one of the first dragons to land on earth had a human form. I suspect Genshin lore will do this.
• My dragons have their own AI, androids and cyborgs. No dragon-made cyborgs in Natlani dragons but they have their own little bots and AI. Ineffa somewhat counts because her core is one of Xiucoatl’s management AI.
• A short lore piece of mine released in December 2, 2022. A flash story detailing the total annihilation of a planet, but careful enough not to create a void via chain reaction. There is a similar weapon in the ending of the Natlan dragon/Little Buddy quest.
• dragons going to war with humans, but mine ‘win’ and an uneasy peace treaty is signed. The planet is taken over by them. In Genshin, dragons and humans fought in the Funerary War.
• One of my dragons, Rin, is left behind at the end of the universe and lives into the next one. The same happens to Little Buddy in Natlan if you choose to phlogistoize Teyvat.
• My dragons have made worlds similar to dyson spheres. Tollan itself seems to be a world within a contained area like a Dyson sphere.
• My dragons have metaphysical connections to the knowledge within the universe (some of these lore tidbits are in the ebooks/short stories I made, as well as scattered across my old author twitter), and Tollan’s phlogiston pools seem to grant dragons metaphysical knowledge and memories.
• Phlogiston seems to be like Substance in my world, where my dragon characters have it in their bodies to help them shapeshift and stay alive beyond death.

How Could They Do It?

I hear you over there saying, “Mihoyo is Chinese! They don’t have access to American bookstores!”

WRONG.

I stupidly put my books on a Chinese bookstore (or pirate site I think). Two of them: The Love of an Italian Dragon and il cyborg divina. They’re both unavailable as-is on current bookstores due to bad reviews they were getting (I was a teen when I wrote them), but they still exist on that bookstore.

These could show up in a Chinese search engine, and therefore open a rabbit hole that will bring them to my blog, where all of the Dragon’s War stories existed.

Also, I am pretty sure VPNs exist in China, and my books may be on more pirate sites that I don’t know about.

Lastly, my site is very much accessible in China. I still get views from there. Heck, the past three years, Hong Kong SAR China is ranked 4 for visitors regions to my site from the last three years. China itself ranks a little lower.

This is Not Their First Rodeo

Mihoyo has also taken before from little people. A small Korean artist had their OC used as a reference for Lion boy Ga’ming, and there’s Korean blogs about many things they took from/referenced. For example, it was a huge controversy that the Aranara plot line was lifted from the game Kena: Bridge of Souls.

Links

To preface, I don’t know if some of these can be pushed as references or not, a lot of these (like the Elden ring pony) are frame for frame animation yoinking.

• Hoyo and JJK, and Dr. Stone: https://www.inven.co.kr/board/webzine/2097/2168800
• Hoyo and Zelda but with more things people haven’t caught like Monster Hunter, Eula’s moveset being taken from another game, etc: https://bbs.ruliweb.com/etcs/board/300780/read/53681697
• This is old but Hoyo and Nier Automata: https://www.dogdrip.net/283264592
• Nier dashing animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y763xuJqNq8
• Vergil’s DMC5 move set on various characters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OP_rKc3dAs
• Itto and Dante: https://arca.live/b/genshin/40383801
• Aranara quest using similar storyline to the indie game Kena: https://arca.live/b/genshin/59876455
• Ei literally using the same time stop attack as Vergil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7h1S5bX60
• Scara’s move set: https://m.dcinside.com/board/aoegame/23612738
• Elden Ring pony prance: https://x.com/shincry/status/1692666496613249216?s=46&t=udoc7y1aLMkQD8fC0yzjYA

They also traced Oumi Janta’s dance and her mannerisms, but they ultimately removed it. People claim what she did was a common dance move, but they traced her mannerisms like the way she moved her hands.

Also, they love heavily referencing obscure media, like the manga Edo Never Sleeps. You can find comparisons and analysis here: https://x.com/candlenara/status/1931440726770168051

These links were sent to me by an excellent Korean artist who quit Genshin after finding out these controversies.

A writer I knew who quit Genshin had also done so due to the extreme similarities to Final Fantasy 14 (the online one). Basically:

• Fandaniel pretends to be an ally to the player (Scaramouche does the same in Unreconciled Stars)
• Is part of a group of 11 baddies (Scaramouche is part of the 11 Fatui Harbingers)
• Suffered bad trauma and thought ascending to godhood was a way to cope with it (Scaramouche tries to become a god after suffering much trauma caused by Il Dottore)
• Tried to kill hi self and gets the main character to help him by going to ‘a representation of the Moon.’ (Scaramouche tries to ‘kill himself’ by going through Irminsul, but it doesn’t work the way he wants)

The latest moon map has also been compared to Mare Lamentorum. I’m not sure in what ways, since I do not play FF 14.

Conclusion

Someone said the scifi elements is a retcon, because the twins were summoned to Teyvat. I remember this being part of the lore. Defenders will argue and claim “everyone is an unreliable narrator, just like real life.” You all forget, real life has historians for a reason.

A friend of mine said they are abandoning the fantasy concepts because all of the popular Gacha that are out right now (like Wuthering Waves) are Scifi-Fantasy or Scifi. I can see that happening. Mihoyo chasing a trend is nothing new, but it is a little upsetting because they used to be trendsetters, not followers. I actually love the scifi elements being added to Genshin. I just… hate when it involves dragons.

If they added a reference to my work, like maybe an NPC named after Ashuton Karrucci, I would possibly forgive this. Possibly.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots.

The thing that also upsets me is that the dragons and their tech are not even African inspired. We already have many tropes about the advanced South American civilization. Mihoyo could’ve kept it mixed with South American and African inspirations in the dragon tech. Africa barely gets a spotlight in these gacha games (or anime games in general because of their fascination with Europe). A society of African or Afro-mixed dragons in a big game like this would’ve helped encourage the youth of today to explore more about Africa.

I guess if they had put something African in Ochkanatlan, I would’ve had more ground to be extremely weirded out, because my dragons’ top rulers and most powerful bloodline have African names, and the earth kingdom’s bloodline has African roots, but I also feel like I would’ve felt proud? Significant African representation was all I wanted in Natlan.

It feels so uncomfortable now to play Genshin. They don’t care about losing me. I am just one person whose lore helped them be inspired.

I just want them to say it. Or thank me by letting the world know, with an NPC.

(I also got invited to something but that’s all I can say)

Cover image from this YouTube thumbnail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DKpAgQpnc

Rate this:

Du bist diesen Sonntag am Japanfest München?

Du willst dein Wissen über Anime, Manga, Games, Gacha Games oder Vocaloid testen?

Dann schau doch bei unserem Stand vorbei (Plannummer 20) und nimm an ein einem (oder mehreren ^^) unserer Quizze teil.

Wir freuen uns darauf dich am Japanfest an unserem Stand begrüßen zu dürfen.

LG dein Animexx-Standteam 💖

P.S.: Solltest du die Antwort auf Frage 1 kennen, kannst du sie uns gerne in den Kommentaren hinterlassen. ^^

#animexx #japanfest #japanfestmuenchen #muenchen #kultur #japan #quiz #animequiz #anime #manga #games #gachagames #vocaloid

Du bist diesen Sonntag am Japanfest München?

Du willst dein Wissen über Anime, Manga, Games, Gacha Games oder Vocaloid testen?

Dann schau doch bei unserem Stand vorbei (Plannummer 20) und nimm an ein einem (oder mehreren ^^) unserer Quizze teil.

Wir freuen uns darauf dich am Japanfest an unserem Stand begrüßen zu dürfen.

LG dein Animexx-Standteam 💖

P.S.: Solltest du die Antwort auf Frage 1 kennen, kannst du sie uns gerne in den Kommentaren hinterlassen. ^^

#animexx #japanfest #japanfestmuenchen #muenchen #kultur #japan #quiz #animequiz #anime #manga #games #gachagames #vocaloid

I play Wuwa because the story is really focused on the main character..

What about you? Why do you guys love Wuwa?

#wutheringwaves    #Wuwa #gachagames

Midnight Gaming: Hooked on Gacha-Phonics part 2 - June 20th 2025

Welcome back to another round of Midnight Gaming with part 2 on this Gacha game special. Last time we looked at Cookie Run Kingdom and Reverse 1999 and this time we'll have a look at two more before we wrap this whole thing up.

[Future EJ here, if you havent read part 1, please consider doing so]

So next up on the chopping block is Fate Grand Order, a game in which you go back in time to stop humanity going extinct by 2019, so basically you're playing the bad guy here.
![media-1]

So fates gameplay is pretty much a turn based rpg where you order your "servants" to attack via picking cards out of the ones drawn with various effects being applied depending on the combo of 3 you pick. For example picking cards that all feature the same character will grant that character a bonus 4th attack in the sequence. Cards are colored based on the three attack types with Red being Buster, Green being Quick and Blue being Arts with the first cards color determining the type of bonus you get though if you manage to include all three colors in your combo you can get the 1st level bonus for all the cards types or get a maximum boost of one type if your combo cards are all one color.

Your servants also have skills you can activate at the start of your turn so you can apply buffs or heal your team and they each have an NP bar which when full will spawn that servants Noble Phantasm which is basically an ultimate that plays a cinematic and damages enemies. The other thing in this game is C.Stars which to my understanding boosts the chance of an attack being a critical hit and you get them when you land a critical hit or when you keep damaging an already dead enemy which you can do so long as your combo doesnt swap to a different character, otherwise that enemy will despawn and the rest of your combo will target the next enemy instead, which if you werent going to go for c.stars in the first place is definitely a good thing so you may want to keep that in mind when your picking out your cards. Since C.stars boost your crit chance and crits can gain you more stars you can get a bit of a loop of picking your highest percent attacks to farm stars which in turn will raise your crit chance for your next attacks. So thats neat.

Thats more or less the gameplay from what I've played, its simple enough for a mobile game that you can occasionally go back to when you have a few minutes to kill. But thats not what the Fate series is well known for is it? I mean yeah theres Astolfo, the patron saint of femboyism, but theres also the fact that this series features a lot of historical figures in a very very loose interpretation of them. For example, I pulled Sir Francis Drake from the gacha and they look like thisprofile showing sir francis drake, who is a woman in this game.

Yeah, this isnt an isloated incident, a lot of the characters you pull from Fates gacha differ greatly from what their historical selves, atleast according to what historians believe these people look and acted like according to some artifacts and writings of the past, I guess the excuse is that this version of humanity has magic available and things like Christs sippy cup are in fact real but still….this is a bit silly. You ever recall how some folks got pissy about the recent Assassins Creed featuring Yasuke the black samurai from Japan? How they accused the game of being "historically inaccurate" in a series that featured a centuries long feud between templars and assassins over magic golden items? Despite the fact that Yasuke was a real person in japans history having served in Oda Nobonagas army? What do you suppose they'd think about how Fate Grand Order interprets historical figures like the famous King Arthur of Britain being secretly a woman this whole time?

Actually that kinda fucks…… if ubisoft made yasuke a black woman with big boobs, do you think the game wouldnt have had to deal with controversy from "historical accuracy" crowd and wouldve sold more?

Moving on….

But yeah thats the gist of this game, you go through time and encounter several fights as you try to change history to avert humanity's fate, while subjecting it to a worse one later on. Its a decent premise for a gacha game as you do get a number of characters "inspired" by various figures in history. One character I got was Romulus who is essentially a roman soldier who could heal himself and Y-poses against his enemies. I ended up using a max level up gift on him and, that might have been a mistake since his ascended potrait looks like the pfp for one of those right-wing youtube channels that complain about video game women not being fuckable to them. Someone keep him from starting any podcasts.

The one thing I find strange and really annoying is the support system this game has. You can select up to 5 servants to join you, 3 on the frontline and 2 on reserve but theres also a 6th in the form of a support servant which you are required for every combat encounter to pick one from a list and you can either have them on reserve or on the frontline. So you cant really just have a squad made up of only your servants and to be honest theres no reason not to since there isnt really a limit to what servant you can bring, theres nothing stopping you from inviting a max level fully decked servant into your encounters to act as a carry for your team.
This was honestly a strange mechanic especially since after combat, you're often prompted on weither you want to send a friend request to the servants master, with the benefit being if you are friends you get to summon thier servant any time rather than see if they're available in the list. And this raised an interesting point, why exactly would I bother playing the gacha till I get the character I want and then spend the resources to level and ascend when I can just befriend someone who has already done all the legwork?

Lets say I wanted Astolfo, I could play the gacha to hopefully get him or wait for an event that hes featured in so I get a better chance, and then spend several resources to ascend them each time they reach their level max. I could do that OR I could just summon Maxed out Astolfo as a support for a battle, send a friend request afterwards to their master "WhiteWhaleWillie" and if they accept, I can have him on tap for any combat encounter I want him on, no strings attached, so long as I remain friends with his master. Kinda morbid huh? Being friends with someone solely so you can use their femboy servant to help you fight enemies?

Thats a title for a manga series right there.

Honestly, I lost interest with this. I dont think its a bad game, for a lot of people I can imagine the gameplay is good for a quick session regularly and seeing all the interpretations of historical figures would be a major appeal for some just to see what the hell they've done to a figure from history. But for me, I'm not gonna come back to this, sorry. I've beaten the opening and then logged off figuring I've had my fill. Maybe this wasnt the definitive Fate experience and I should've played a different game but this is a gacha and we are covering gachas here so maybe another time. I think what really killed any desire to come back to this was when I got to claim a free 5 star rarity character and I came across Jack The Ripper.

That Jack the Ripper, the serial killer from londons whitechapel, who murdered several women and was never found. The Jack the Ripper who in this game…… is a teenage girl…
![media-2]

I….. I was at a lost for words for this. Its just…..why? Why… why….. why???? In what sense was it to make someone who has murdered female prostitutes, into a teenage girl? Whats next? Jeffery Dahmer as an 8 year old boy whos a 5 star chef????? Why???

Ok well its still a 5 star rated character so they have some decent skills right? Just need to level them up and ascend them to unlock those skills and NO NO NO JESUS CHRIST WHY!!!!
![media-3]

NEWS ROUNDUP!!!!

Obsidian says outer worlds will still be comedic but a lot more grim - So i'm quite hopeful for Outer Worlds 2, wanting to see it improve on what Outer worlds has brought to the table. So hearing that Outer Worlds 2 is gonna be adding a bit more bitter to its sweet is certainly interesting. The emerald vale opening and the peril on gorgon dlc were the best moments in OW1 for the fact they were pretty dark in its coporate dystopic future so seeing that the second game will build on that does make me hopeful that it'll hit it out of the park…. oh the price is 80? Goddammit….. atleast obsidian came out and said they dont decide the prices and offered some sympathy. Also the 1st games corps are gonna show up here as a whole faction invading the new colony so the board ending is looking to be the canon one.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/the-outer-worlds-2-game-director-says-its-writing-has-a-less-silly-darker-tone-than-the-first-game/

Nintendo drops suprise announcement for Splatoon Spinoff - So out of nowhere, Nintendo announced that a Splatoon spin-off is on the way. Splatoon Raiders is the name and it seems to feature the idol group from 3 accompanying the player character to an island. Speaking of 3, Splatoon 3 got an update to introduce a number of new items, maps and fixes, no doubt to support it being playable on the switch 2.

Steven universe sequel series announced called lars of the stars - So Steven Universe was a cartoon series that honestly did manage to make some large steps with its lgbtq representation, something which a lot of people forgot as they criticise it or just make memes on it. But now it seems ro be coming back with a new series called Lars of the Stars which features one of the side characters called Lars who by the end of Steven Universe is a captain of his own spaceship. Cool to see this make a comeback.

Disney and universal have launched a lawsuit against midjourney - Yeah it pretty much speaks for itself. Disney and Universal have launched a lawsuit againstnthe ai-regurgitation tool Midjourney citing copyright infringement. Some questions are being brought up such as why are they only just now doing this as well as how horribly this could go. I mean Disney is quite infamous for screwing up copyright and the public domain rules for its own benefit so its not hard to imagine that if they win it may embolden them to try and stifle fanworks. On the other hand its not like fanworks arent illegal, its just that it ends up causing more harm for companies like disney to go after them then it would do good. Not much to say about this other than fuck ai-gen.

Voice actor for sheogorath, wes johnson is teaming up with fallout 4 modders for charity livestream - So the voice actor for everyones favourite cheesy daedra prince, Wes Johnson, is gonna be teaming up with notable fallout 4 modders for a charity livestream to raise money for the American Alzheimers Association. It'll be taking place across twitch on June 28th and 29th so if your interested maybe give it a look.

[Future EJ here, this event is over so Im not including the link for this article]

NEWS ROUNDUP OVER!!!!

So now our next and final game for this 2 parter is gonna be Nikke: Goddess of Victory.
![media-4]

[Future EJ. I'm actually working on a revist to this game so any opinions expressed here are likely to change]

So in Nikke the world is in pretty rough shape because of a robotic alien race called the raptures and as a result humanity has had to withdraw into the underground and build robotic soldiers to keep fighting the alien threat….. now why humanity decided to make their robots into straight up looking like sexy robot woman?? Honestly I can't really answer that..

So gameplay in Nikke has you shooting rapture robots until eventually an elite robot shows up which you'll need to destroy to end the encounter before the timer runs out, sometimes you need to destroy robots before enough of them cross a border or you need to destroy robots to keep them from controlling a point or you're destroying a big robot where you have to shoot weakpoints in order to weaken it. Either way you're gonna be shooting a lot of robots and I mean that literally. Unlike the previous games which were turn-based, this one has you aiming for these robots, often firing when your crosshair is over an enemy or if its a rocket launcher/sniper rifle you release a shot when you let go with the damage based on active charge. So you do have an active role in combat if you want and the nikkes you can get are all in different classes and such.

One thing that the games tutorial recommends is that your 5 person squad should contain nikkes who are class 1, 2 and 3 respectively for the purpose of its burst mode. How that works is as you destroy raptures, you'll raise a bar labelled burst which when full will enable you to activate your nikkes skills. It starts with class 1 nikkes, then when you activate one of their skills, you can then activate a skill from one of your class 2, then finally you can activate a class 3 skills. Once you activate a class 3 skill you'll enter a full burst mode where all your nikkes attack at whatever you're targeting so you can focus fire on priority targets. You cant get the full burst unless you have a nikke from each class so you can activate skills from 1, 2 them 3 and if they happened to be on cooldown, you may end up losing the chance since you have a limited time to choose a skill. And of course skills are usually buffs, shields, and attacks that may or may not require you to aim them.

So yeah, seems pretty neat huh? I'm sure theres no other reason that people like this game other than the shooting and the grim apocalypse setting?

Oh…right….there's also the whole "all our soldiers are sexy anime women" who during gameplay you're positioned behind as they shoot at raptures, with their butts sticking out towards you and shaking from the recoil as they lean over cover to shoot….
Slightly related but do you remember miniclip.com? That flash game site? I recall playing a george bush shooter game where you shoot terriosts storming the white house as george bush… there was also a second game where george bush was in england with queen elizabeth II and you play as them making their way to Buckingham palace as they shoot terriosts. This game is kinda like those flash games, possibly like a lot of old shooter flash games.

So one big complaint I can say about Nikke is that this game probably plays a lot better on a tablet or a pc than it does on phone. Since i'm playing on phone, a lot of the time the games playing on a vertical screen so it feels a bit… cramped. Its kinda difficult to drag and aim in order to shoot at raptures since my hand will block the screen at times, and it becomes a hassle to avoid damage since you need to stay in cover to avoid most attacks (some attacks that are able to attack you behind cover require you to shoot an area to prevent the attack) and many of the raptures will telegraph when they are about to shoot, with some elites outright highlighting a nikke they are targeting necessitating a switch to control that nikke to ensure they stay behind cover until they stop targeting. But yeah, playing on a wider screen definitely seems perferable if you ever want to play this game so that you can actually see the whole battlefield.

Anyways onto the gacha thing, you basically recruit more nikkes of various types and rarities with duplicates being used to "limit break" your nikkes to improve their stats along with equipping armor and leveling them. Another way however gets unlocked at the 3rd chapter where you get kicked out onto the outpost where the nikkes often live, where you can then acquire passive resources over time, build new buildings and also unlock at your command center the ability to advise your nikkes which just prompts a dialogue choice with a chance to raise your nikkes affection. You can also gift them an item which will raise affection a lot and affection itself raises their stats much like leveling, limit breaks and equipment.

Honestly as I said, I wouldve like this game a bit more if I played on pc or a tablet since on phone its a bit of a hassle. There is an auto mode you can enable to let your nikkes aim and shoot on their own as well as an option to allow skills to activate automatically. The nikkes do have some neat militaristic/pinup designs. Honestly this game is like the amalgamation of some of the trends of late noughts/early 10s gaming with cover-based shooting, gun metal gray military designs, post-apocalypse, robots, anime girls and ass.

Ok so, just laying this out here but… whats the ingame reason for why all these robot soldiers look like human women? Whats the justification for the few resources humanity has available being used to make the robot soldiers look like skimpy clothed pinup models?? I know you wanna ask why it matters? Just play the game and dont worry about it but I am curious as to why its like this? The game makes it clear that you treating these "human looking" robots as if they were human was the exception and not at all normal, one thing of note being how you apply a bandage to the first nikke you're with who notes that it doesnt work that way for them. If the general idea was that nikkes are mass produced to serve and defend humanity but are often treated as expendable compared to humans, with even your nikkes in the early chapters making mention that most commanders dont often run with the same group of nikkes and would commonly execute them for the smallest reasons and even sacrifice them to save themselves.

So why is it that nikkes aren't designed to look less human? Whats the reason for having nikkes with skimpy clothing or large breasts? Who on the arks nikke design team thought "you know what we need more than robot soldiers that look like women? Robot soldiers that look like teenage girls"

"thats a child"

"shes a robotic soldier designed for combat"

"THEN WHY DID YOU DESIGN HER LIKE THAT??"

Ignoring the whole child robot soldier implication, I'm not criticising the game for having sexy women robots. Im just curious as to what the ingame reason for why sexy women robots exist and why it is that humanity kinda discriminates them when they have pretty much human-like intelligence and straight up look human. You telling me the devs couldnt make fuckable robot soldiers that look more robot than human? Look at artists like Otsumegaplus and ZZZHADOZZZ, those kinda robots look capable of wiping out hordes of raptures and would have people shelling out their life savings to recruit them.

Eh….. honestly I guess it doesnt matter, if you like this good for you, treat your nikkes nicely.

Finally we are done. Thanks for reading this, im gonna take a long break from these gacha games and play some other stuff. Feel free to leave comments and game suggestions. I'll talk to you all another time. Peace

A Masterlist of African Dragons (and Dragons Natlan Could’ve Used)

This list is about African dragons, but let me preface this with why this list was made:

I was so excited for Natlan. Mihoyo had a chance to do something popular media doesn’t do: combine African culture and dragons. Unfortunately they chose the easy route of going for the standard “super smart South American civilization.” Sumeru’s Egypt doesn’t count because everyone uses Egypt and there was only one Sovereign and she is based on Egyptian culture, not Kush culture.

I suppose my last hope is my own series and stories on this blog getting adapted.

While I am grateful African influence is present in Natlan’s music and some of the environment, it was the dragons I care about more than anything. Also, the culture mixing made it hard to tell who had African clear references (the key word here is clear). People fought over who can claim a character because of this. I hope no other game repeats this mistake, or at least keep all or most culture references clear. Ororon, for example. On Genshin’s Japanese and Chinese Twitter, he has the name of a Nigerian god, but fans argue his name is Māori like the bat (Ororon), despite his name in CN and JPN being written for the African god, Olorun. In my opinion, people from both cultures can claim him.

Anyways, here is a post about African dragons/serpents I wanted to see in Natlan but they didn’t use any, so I hope some other game uses this list! If you find this list useful and want to research more into these African cultures, I am very happy if you do. Let me know if this post helped you and credit this list, if possible!

This is reposted in its entirety from my Twitter with some new dragon info added.

1. Masingi
2. Monyohe
3. Aida Hweddo
4. Mami Wata
5. Tyanaba
6. Ninki Nanka
7. Kinkobongo
8. Indombe
9. Kirimu
10. Mukiti
11. Thakane
12. Bida
13. Grootslang
14. Mamlambo
15. Mokele Mbembe
16. Bunzi

Masingi

Masingi is a healer serpent from Shangaan culture. When the Mashava family’s head of the house (leader) fell ill, each of his sons were told to seek Masingi. All but one, Matirhumi, was afraid of Masingi. Matirhumi came home with Masingi wrapped around him, and everyone applauded.

You can read more here: https://www.news24.com/news24/masingithe-great-serpent-20140312

Monyohe

Monyohe is a half human half snake from Sotho culture. In one variation of the story he is a serpent that is (unjustly, in my opinion) killed and revived as a human to marry a girl. In another, his mother and her daughter in law turn him into a human, but meets an unfortunate fate later on.

Someone was kind enough to upload his story here, but unfortunately you need to be part of a school to access it: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7560/746084-011/html

Aida Hweddo

Ayida-Weddo/Aido Hwedo (Vodou religion) is a godly serpent from Vodou religion. She is the Ioa of fertility, rainbows, wind, water, fire, wealth, thunder and snakes. She is also considered a female half of Damballah.

Art: AlectorFencer and Bloodhound Omega

Mami Wata

Mami Wata is revered in many African religions and cultures. She is a water spirit and sometimes has a fish or serpent lower half. Sometimes she has a snake around her neck and represents divinity, wealth, healing and good fortune.

Tyanaba

This snake god is from Fulani culture.

Conflicting reports I have seen state this dragon is a man’s wife who become a serpent when he laid eyes on her, causing her to flee.

Another states Tynaba is used by the supreme god Gueno to communicate with people.

Others state Tyanaba is a twin of Ilo and was born from an egg.

He is also a flute player who can summon wind when he plays flute, suggesting he has a human form (he would be the perfect Anemo tribe member in Natlan…if they actually used African dragons. Which they didn’t).

Find the conflicting reports here:

• https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Myth/FulaniMythology
• https://www.pulse.ng/articles/lifestyle/food-and-travel/3-intriguing-myths-and-cultural-beliefs-of-fulani-people-2024072521292644012
• Mentioning of Tyanaba’s dance: https://kumakonda.com/nomads-wodaabe-of-chad/
• More Tyanaba info locked behind a school. If anyone has a copy of this uploaded, let me know: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315677095-71/koumen-initiation-myth-peul-herdsmen-nicole-goisbeault

Ninki Nanka

A dragon from the Mande/Mandinka people of Gambia. It lives in swamps and rivers and is considered the god of knowledge and the spirit world. It can also camouflage itself. It respects nature, is associated with water, and shows up during acts of bravery, respect for natural rule and the consequences of your actions.

It’s also stated to be similar to Chinese dragons.

Ninki Nanka also have its own kingdom separate from humans. A human king tried to make servants of them and sent a letter requesting such, but the Ninki Nanka king wrote a letter (with his claw) to the humans mentioning how funny and entertaining the letter is, and laughed about it. The human still wanted to be their king, so he got advice from a dragon hunter and said hunter suggested they use mirrors to kill the dragons (and make sure the humans are not seen first).

• Find out more about how this story ends from this podcast: https://wadr.org/our-heritage-ninki-nanka-the-fascinating-creature-from-gambian-folklore/
• More information here as well (does not include the story): https://spookysight.com/ninki-nanka-african-dragon/

Kinkobongo

This seems to be a bird-serpent-dog creature called a Kirimu, though I do wonder if it is from the Mwindo Epic.

Information is sparse but can be found here, without sources unfortunately. Take with a pinch of salt: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Myth/NyangaMythology

Indombe

She is the dragon-serpent of death, motherhood, fire and life. She is several miles in length and 3 ft wide, with flames inside her. She is as old as the sun and associated with sunrise and sunset.

She easily could’ve been the Pyro Sovereign 😕

In her story, Itonde tried to catch her because his pregnant wife wanted to eat a snake. He tussled and tussled with her, healing himself in the process with his magic bell. He brought Indombe home but she ate everyone. Literally. He killed her in retribution but had to eat every part of her so he would survive (as per her warning).

He didn’t eat every piece, and she survived. I don’t know why but she

Find more here: https://abookofcreatures.com/2016/11/11/indombe/ which references this book: Knappert, J. (1971) Myths and Legends of the Congo. Heinemann Educational Books, London.

Kirimu

Kirimu (Congo, Nyanga people) is a seven-headed dragon and brother to the Lightning Hurler, Nkuba. It was killed by the protagonist of the story, a kid named Mwindo, and he was punished for killing Kirimu. He was taken to the skies to suffer through extreme heat and cold for a year. Afterwards he vowed to never kill again.

A fitting punishment for killing a dragon, especially one that happens to be a brother to a human.

I archived an overview of the story here: https://dragonshortstories.wordpress.com/2025/05/24/preserving-the-free-upload-of-an-african-dragon-story-the-mwindo-epic/

Mukiti

Mukiti, also from the same story, is a water serpent, river spirit and husband to Mwindo’s aunt, Iyangura.

Thakane

Thakane is a princess who slayed a dragon for her brothers. They wanted to wear the hide of a dragon. Common beasts weren’t good enough for them, so she went on a journey to slay the dragon. I’d like to see her as a dragon tamer or a dragon herself.

Read about her on Rejected Princesses: https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/thakane

Art: Rejected Princesses

Bida

Bida is the serpent of Wagadu. Maidens were sacrificed to it in exchange for gold spewing over the city. Mamadi’s girlfriend was sacrificed to it and he killed the serpent as revenge. Its head landed on the Gold Coast, and is the reason for gold being plentiful there.

In a retelling, Bida protected the tribes of Ghana. Maidens were still sacrificed, but one guy, Amadou, put a stop to it so his girlfriend wouldn’t be sacrificed. He cut Bida’s head many times. Without Bida, a drought overcame the city. He had cursed the land before he died.

The art on the left is from the picture book La legende de Ouagadou Bida. You can find scans of it here (you need to scroll): https://anasvetlanaamegankpoe.blogspot.com/

Grootslang

Grootslang (South Africa) is a legendary Python with diamonds eyes. It lives in a pit full of diamonds. Local legends say it is older than the world and will protect its treasure forever.

Another legend states it guards its cavern from treasure hunters and its presence is marked with overwhelming evil.

Mamlambo

Mamlambo (South Africa) is the goddess of rivers and a giant snake-like creature. Mamlambo is also called a brain sucker because of some murder cases that occurred in 1997 where people had parts of their head missing…

Art: Pathfinder

Mokele Mbembe

Mokele Mbembe (Congo) is a brachiosaurus-like herbivore. It’s a controversial creature due to disputes of its origin.

Bunzi

Bunzi (known to some Congolese tribes as Ngoma, too) is a multicolored serpent that rewards her worshippers and loves being in the river at sunset. She has a mountain on Venus named after her!

Art: Eve Harms

Okay, everyone! That’s all for today! Leave a comment if I missed any. I want this to be the best master list of non-Northern African dragons. For now I am not focused on the north except from Sudan (Kush Empire too), other explicitly black african parts of the north, and saharan tribes like the Tuareg and Amazingh. I will research their serpent legends soon.

Check this Reddit post by KwesiStyle for more about dragons from our cultures:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mythology/comments/gt175k/some_dragons_of_african_mythology/

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Ever wondered about those blue robins in some famous gacha games? 🤔
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