Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this Webtoon Review. Please read with caution.

On October 13, 2020, I started and finished Genshin Impact Webtoon’s Chapter 2: Flame Born Parts 1 and 2. The story kicked off with an exposition dump about Kaeya and Diluc’s brotherhood, which I found annoying as it breaks the “show, don’t tell” rule. The information was placed simply to be there, when it should’ve been shown through their scenes or dialogue.

At least the story continued with the same characters—Kaeya, Diluc, and Amber—from chapter 1. Jean showed up in this chapter too, but she wasn’t given a proper introduction. Speaking of these characters, the Webtoon has failed to make any of them a distinct main protagonist. While all three have potential to become the main protagonist moving forward, the Webtoon hadn’t made a clear decision on that front yet. It’s a bizarre thing to critique about, but yeah Genshin Impact currently has no clear main protagonist.

The story was also difficult to follow—and it also dragged when I eventually figured out what the storyline was. I listed the creator’s note on the synopsis below:

Synopsis for Chapter 2: Il Dotorre left Mondstadt and withdrew his envoys, but a freak accident threatened to break the peace. Sir Kaeya of Ordo Favonius suspected an old friend to be behind this while his young aide Amber the Outrider made a chance discovery.

Kaeya’s exposition dump kind-of makes sense as inner thoughts, if I were to reach for reason and just assume he was trying to convince himself that Diluc wasn’t behind the freak accident. Amber’s storyline on the other hand is her just whining about being treated like a rookie, but we’re given little to no information on why she shouldn’t be treated this way other than… don’t treat people horribly. Like there’s no background on how skilled Amber really is as an Outrider.

Overall, Chapter 2: Flame Born had too much exposition dump on Kaeya and Diluc’s bromance but not enough information on Amber. What an interesting mixed bag this chapter had going for it. The good news is that the chapter did leave us on a cliffhanger, so chapter 3 will follow up with Kaeya, Diluc, and Amber. Also, I would still recommend reading this Webtoon for those playing the video game. It’s very nice for the beautiful artwork and character / world background.

Thanks for reading this Webtoon Review, everyone! Let’s keep it reading!

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