~SaltyJaguar

Okay so just a disclaimer. I know diversity is a touchy subject, especially in the west so before I dive into this very very long rant about character design, I'd just like to clarify that I advocate for diversity but good storytelling should come first before diversity, so trust me i roll my eyes as well when disney has some new race or sexuality they want to parade but hide in more homophobic countries, and when i say diversity I'm talking about it being the appealing kind, not the way modern western game studios feel the need to turn established and new characters unappealing because of spite or turning non lgbt characters lgbt and the lazy race swaps. I'm talking about diversity that exists in ATLA , Adventure time heck even MLP fim, you know actually good diversity, something organic and believable. I'm also not talking about all genshin fans as a whole (duh) since I also love the game , just those select people who really are, for a lack of a better word, braindead with that out of the way feel free to read away.

I know what you're thinking "Salty? Aren't you a gooner?" And I'd like to say that I'm not, contrary to popular belief, porn artists like myself have alot more going on than just drawing adult material. I like watching videos about paleontology/ichthyology/eccentric people (lolcows)/ true crime. I'm a novice plant keeper, i have a nepenthes plant, three orchids, two snakeplants one of which is of the moonshine variety, and a lush philodendron mayoi. I train occasionally in the flow arts with my ropedart, I've recently been studying fashion while watching drag race among other things, the point is, making porn art and indulging in it is but a small part of who I am and i trust that some of my followers are the same way, my clients wouldn't be able to pay me for commissions if they spend the whole day jerking off, or I doubt any gooners would sit through this really long journal because they'd rather goon.

"What is this about salty?" you might be asking well Its about genshin impact fans being blind to the state of the character designs in the game for the sake of appeal and their own personal fetishes, I know I know this is abit rich coming from a fetish artist that exclusively draws musclemen, the difference between me and those genshin fans is, I don't whine like a little bitch when there's characters in a game i personally don't find bangable, I know I whine alot about genshin design but thats not because I don't find them bangable, its because its the same lazy shit that gets praised by the braindead masses stick thin characters carrying huge weapons with overly complicated non practical clothing both to cosplayers and their fighting styles (like i know in fiction you need to style your characters in order to look appealing and fiction gives you leeway on making your characters appealing to make eye-catching designs) the reluctance to make their character designs actually reflect what their characters do. And I actually do appreciate character designs that I personally don't find sexy .In skullgirls there's Squigly, she's a zombie girl with her mouth sewn shut that comes out of coffins with a dragon parasite on her head, like thats cool as shit, or Umbrella, a small child wearing a raincoat with a disgustingly well animated living umbrella slobbering saliva everywhere that she wields as a weapon. I even acknowledge how good character designs are when it's actually a turn off for me, for example Muscle girls in a sexual scenario makes me nauseous but in this game call Smash Legends theres this huge oni lady called Aoi, she's a powerful, silent, collected individual who has an air of dignity and her character design actually reflects that, and she's fun to play as. And they have this evil old cyborg lady called Zepetta who is a scientist whos working for the main big bad that she's planning to betray in the game and guess what, the scientist is wearing a lab coat and her face shape is sharp with sharp facial features aligning with her deceitful nature, or this new game I've been playing there's this skinny pale pretty boy called Ludovic, his design is amazing the way that his black semi see through boned victorian clothes contrast his pale skin and the beautiful lillies he's carrying and in his skill just ties in his whole look together, thats just amazing character design. The point is I appreciate diversity in character design even if i personally don't find them attractive, unlike those kinds of genshin fans or people on other adjacent communities that shit on character designs because it's not a twink in dress pants or barely legal looking adult woman with huge knockers.

This whole rant is basically started because a new god character is going to get released in genshin impact, a high fantasy game with rpg mechanics, and the god character has a... Motorcycle and the character that got released before her rides on a flying gun.. in a fantasy setting (where bows are a among the available weapon types) me and my boyfriend were obviously shitting on it because of how immersion breaking the newer character designs are so I decided to look up people discussing how genshin how ugly/cluttered/repetitive character designs and my findings were interesting to say the least.

I see some genuine genshin impact fans wishing for diversity in character designs, big small, skinny, fat, monsters, muscular, old, evil, morally grey, anything that isn't just the basic formula of good looking effeminate characters thats does good things because they're a good person( A sentiment I've also heard from my brother who simps for an in game character named Keqing, a friend of my boyfriends and probably alot more people) This is a fantasy setting if you're gonna go there, fucking go there, and the response I've seen regarding innocent sentiments like that are just met with mostly hostility and excuses, lets go over the points of the excuse makers or the Gooners. If you think I'm being harsh, I've been called a fetishist whilst using an account with no ties to my internet persona for mentioning that muscles should be on a character that physically exert themselves in fighting.

Here's the points of the excuse makers that I've seen

- "Asian Culture especially china has a set standard of perfection that they need to uphold when it comes to character designs, so pale skin and a skinny figure is a must"
• I am asian and i would know, from a young age colorism is a huge part of my culture and I'm glad I grew out of that, i remember family members giggling whenever someone black would make it far into the ms universe pageants and the would make comments on how her skin is too dark. If you're making anything in fantasy setting when there are beings thats more than human, restricting character designs to just superficially human is a waste and I'm not only talking about skin color especially since its super fucking weird having swordsmen/spear/and greatsword users built like fucking korean clothing models .

- "Darker skinned characters and muscular characters wouldn't sell well thats why they won't ever make them"
•the amount of diversity that exist in successful Anime should be enough to drive home the point that giving your game a bit more diversity might be beneficial, like seriously people never shut up about JoJo's bizarre Adventures or One Piece

-"Theres already dark skinned characters in the game and a buff characters so there's no problem in the game in terms of diversity"
•first of all kaeya, dehya, xinyan, and candace are all half assed attempts on making dark skinned characters their skin is ashy even in official art, as someone who just recently started drawing darker skin tones dark skin tones should be warm not ashy, I love xinyan to bits by the way I relate to her so much , and don't even get me started on itto, alhaitham, wriothesley looking like amateur drag kings with ugly hair.

-"Diversity Shouldn't be a concern as genshin is a fictional game thats based on reality so it doesn't have to be 100% accurate"
•As we all know, art should reflect reality in order to be compelling and amazing, harry potter despite being set in europe was pretty diverse and thats amazing. As someone on yt said if someone can be born with natural vibrant purple hair then someone can be born with brown skin in genshin, plus it's just so glaring how characters that are older don't look their age or how physically active characters don't look it.

-"Genshin Impact is a game made to appeal to people who collect waifus and fujoshis who cream themselves while seeing effeminate men make eye contact because they can't admit that they actually lesbian so of courses they're gonna look like that"
• I actually have no arguments for that, but if I have to see some straight bullshit on a new gay game that has been advertised to be gay, some fujoshis can see some bears and actual men and waifu collectors can fucking see some women
above the age of 16-21 point blank period.

-"diversity isn't really the vibe of genshin as it would ruin the immersion"
•bro, what immersion?? We have a girl in a fantasy setting wearing a whole ass leather jumpsuit riding on a motorbike, or a terribly designed girl on a flying gun (while also having a bow as a weapon at the same time), we have a guy from a nation supposedly stricken with wars wearing some denim jeans and a hoodie

-"exposed muscular bodies are to fetishy"
•ah so a cat loli making moaning sounds while stretching isn't fetishy, a nun wearing leggings with excessive jiggle physics isn't fetishy?, Fischl a 14-16 wearing a lace outfit that almost look like lingerie isn't fetishy? Ok, most female characters wearing skin tight body stockings isn't fetishy? ok the amount of straps on a fem flirty male magician isn't fetishy, ok, I can go all day by the way, the excessive amount of men in croptops, the moaning when they get hit, but god forbid people that look like they're in peak fighting form exist in a game that revolves around fighting.

-"monsters can't and shouldn't be playable as they can't earn visions (an accessory in game that gives elemental powers) this game doesn't cater to dnd nerds"
•first of all thats bullshit, the mc of the game doesn't have a vision but can manipulate the elements, and most monsters in the game actually utilize the fucking elements to fight us, and second of all genshin in a fucking rpg you dumb cunt the weapon types are inspired by every rpg game that cane before it and probably dnd at the end of the day

-"its hard to rig bigger characters that's why Genshin doesn't give any"
•if they can do it for the diverse cast of enemies, they can do it for other characters

- "an elderly woman wouldn't fit on my body pillow, i don't wanna see an old woman be playable because it turns me off"
• the person who made this comment is obviously a gooner moving on

I know at this point I'm screaming into a void, but I continue to do so because i really love the game and want it to be better, this is also partially the reason why i draw buff manly genshin characters and some genderbends here and there because i want to piss off assholes that are too immature and narrow-minded to even admit to themselves that their fandom has some problems, and judging from the comments on r34 I did piss off alot of people lol. I also do it in dedication to weirdos like me, because genshin fans really like to declare that they're furries for liking kemonomimi characters but would make fun of furries, they say they're into older men despite any older playables in Genshin superficially resembling a young adult, they like saying they like big muscular men but would make fun of you for liking actual big muscular men whilst calling them ugly, I saw a post of a fan saying they like dragons because a character is one (despite not looking like one) with positive reception, they like to co opt terms weirdos coined like "hear me out" "himbo" and use it to praise characters with lackluster designs because they're as unoriginal as the makers of the game, they want to have their bland tasteless cake with no sprinkles and eat it too, they want to masquerade as weirdos and use terms weirdos use but most of them are just basic bitches that make fun or attack the actual weirdos that just want to share differing opinions.

So sadly thats the state of things, it's just excuses after excuses, excuses that enables a company's laziness when it comes to making characters because they're close minded, as close minded as the people who decided to take inspiration from cultures around the world but didn't take the skin colors with it. Don't be close minded and when I say don't be close minded I'm not saying you should shift your entire attitude to be the opposite for example like I mentioned earlier my family have said some colorist things around me but look at me now, dark skinned musclemen drives me nuts it doesn't matter if a muscle dude is American, latino or asian, if theu have dark skin you know I'm drooling over that shit. I personally thought that drag queens were weird and I admit seeing them made me uncomfortable but seeing the artistry and craft that goes into it, i came around to really appreciate it and being put in drag is probably in my bucket list now. But those Genshin fans and people from adjacent communities like living in a delusional world where everything should look like an elementary school art project plastered on a conventionally attractive anime model, and anything slightly different is ugly or weird while proclaiming how quirky they are.