jiang cheng rights

but in practice it's me and my 1* mydei against the world...

Granted, Himeko was always very tight-lipped about her past. But couldn't she have at least shown some indication that she was an art major? Even if she no longer actively creates art, the knowledge stays with you. Couldn't she have at least made some comments about art she comes across, much like how welt keeps talking about mechs at every opportunity? Establishing Himeko as an artists would have tied her much more closely to Planarcadia as a whole. As it is right now, it just feels like she happened to be a little girl who was groomed by Asat Pramad to be a Nameless, and the place of her birth has basically no bearing on her apart from the Weathering Curse. Planarcadia's culture seems to have made literally no impact on her, because her personality and past is only just Trailblaze Trailblaze Trailblaze. What about the artist part of her :( It's always present for Younger Himeko, but not the post-Express Himeko.

To be fair, I am in my head comparing 4.4 to the absolute juggernauts that are 3.4 and like, um, the whole Himeko-era of Honkai 3. 3.4/Phainon had the benefit of being our designated guide and closest friend on Amphoreus, in comparison to Himeko actively choosing not to speak about her past. Phainon was also clearly the protagonist even in the other Amphoreus characters' eyes, while Himeko was just one of many characters in Planarcadia. (She wasn't even a Supplicant.)

And HI3 had like. Years of buildup, so it isn't a fair comparison. But, man. Hearing Kiana's lines about rejecting sacrifices just made me go 🤨 Because in hi3 Kiana was literally at rock bottom and suicidal for much longer than TB was. When you invoke that line, I can't help but make the comparison. I can't help but remember how much more emotional weight was present in hi3 and absent here, instead of assessing this arc on its own merits.

Bad News: I need to make her a team that doesn't overlap supports with my other ones for Starward mode cri Might actually have to build Hunt!March

YAYYYYY-nooo hsjfndkdnd

but surely there are better ways to bring this across than a whole bunch of backstory that didn't even convey that anyway? or am i just dense?

polyxia loved castorice so much that she brought her back in the era nova -> accidentally curses castorice to millennia of solitude and angst

the elder that brought castorice forced her to execute/euthanise people, supposedly to teach castorice how precious life is -> if castorice didn't already inherently know the lesson she was trying to teach, castorice wouldn't have been so resistant in the first place. what was the point??? to test her??? if anything, her methods could've just backfired and desensitized castorice

literally the only part of her backstory that made sense to me was castorice's friend forcing castorice to kill her, therefore forcing castorice to make the split second decision to finally hug her. that was the only time where it seemed like the message of "we will all die anyway, so we may as well choose how we live/die" was clear to castorice, because it forced castorice to finally give in to her wishes and have a hug, even if it hurt (because losing the friend would have hurt regardless anyway).

I'm really hyped for Himeko Nova too!!!! I can't figure out how to build her teams properly though, since she seems to have so many permutations of supports,,,