So about that Zhengui guy….
I'm worried about him due to the lack of mutual themes, cultivation, and capabilities with Ling Qi. Chiefly, the thematic and narrative implications.
@Arkeus did a good job of summarizing my thoughts, earlier.
But let's pull back a bit. Spirit beast bonds are pursued because they offer cultivation and manpower bonuses to the cultivator and opportunity to reach otherwise unattainable heights for the spirit. Also, a lot of spirits are just kind of forced into it, but whatever. At higher realms, there's gotta be interplay of some kind between the Ways of cultivators and their spirits, even just feeling out each other's boundaries, and probably especially with new cultivator families, or old spirit-blooded ones.
In any case, the fact that Ling Qi doesn't make much use of Zhengui's cultivation bonuses, paired with his naturally 5+ realm potential, mean the conventional purpose and promise of a spirit bond isn't being fulfilled, meaningfully. This isn't inherently a problem, and their relationship is one of family, but beyond that, as
partners there's a gap left. What good are they to each other? I disagree that Ling Qi's drive for improvement is in itself sufficient, or at the very least not satisfying, and the one stealth technique she imparted to him while he was a borderline sub-sapient infant is adorable, but more of a party trick than a serious capability.
When we look at Ling Qi's arts for common ground with Zhengui, keeping in mind that the mechanical benefits are only related tangentially, the selection isn't great. Elementally, there's no fire since Argent Current, and Wood consists of TRF, SES, and soon BKSD. There's also the unlearned Imperturbable Manor's Hearth which is both Fire and Wood, that we almost certainly won't ever cultivate.
Thematically, the problem is that almost none of this already narrow selection fits the philosophy of Zhengui's nature. TRF has overlap with his boundless vital force and the titanic growth common to xuanwu and really big trees. SES is also a tale of a tree, but its stubborn dogged grip on life seems out of keeping with Zhengui's nature of destruction and renewal. IMH's elemental overlap with Zhengui is skin-deep, having nothing to do with his themes. BKSD is the story of a final clash, so there's some potential looks into relevant destruction, but I'm skeptical, and a growth from destruction theme doesn't
look like it's where the art is headed. There's just very little that Ling Qi and Zhengui share, few things of substance -of advantage- that they're offering each other.
Which dovetails into my narrative concerns with how the two interact and other characters. Since they have that gap of ability between them, there has been a tendency for some 3rd party characters to be available within the context of helping Zhengui develop. It's clearly intended as a bonus freebie added to a social choice, but the narrative effect is that Ling Qi relies on outsourcing his growth to other people, and ones that she doesn't even know that well. If you look at the training they do alone, it's just kind of her watching him and giving occasional encouragement. It's a bit shallow. This feels uncomfortable given her themes and the basis of her Domain, both because it forces more intimate collaboration between him and only non-family and because she's sitting on her hands on the sideline.
There's a negative effect on the social interaction as well. For one, a weirdly large amount of Zhengui's established tension with other characters is that he's kind of a brat towards guys who Ling Qi is maybe kind of not really scoping out as marriage material(c'mon, Xuan Shi's lurking in the back of mind there to some degree), which is kind of weird. It also leans into the history of Ling Qi extracting a lot of favors and value from Xuan Shi, which I know more than a few players are uncomfortable with, while kind of reducing Xuan Shi's character to his capacity to be a conveniently on-hand member of the Xuan clan. Some interesting things have been simmering under the surface there like Zhengui emphasizing Xuan Shi as a water dude when he's mostly earth, or the latter's various discomforts and possible insecurities around Zhengui as a xuanwu and his own lack of a spirit. The problem is there's those hints, but another social event with the premise of "help make my turtle kid stronger" comes off as directionless and insincere, even inconsiderate. As long as Ling Qi isn't capable of meaningful independent collaboration with Zhengui, it's going to have a distorting effect on narrative depictions of their interaction with those who do have overlap with his elements or abilities, because the nature of the quest as a game incentivizes
@yrsillar leveraging them as a resource towards covering the gaps in our character's abilities. Here, that dilutes their use as characters with their own autonomy, and papers over some gaps that should probably be causing tension in Ling Qi's more personal affairs.
This is why I got morose at SNR cresting the horizon, despite thinking the art is cool. Our Fortitude(physical armor skill) is currently capped, waiting for the right circumstances to develop it into an advanced skill, and SNR is a fortitude keyword art. It's a darkness art, a yin art, and there's a lot of aesthetic and some thematic overlap with some of our core art suite, including FSS. When we equip SNR, we'll be unequipping TRF. Removing the one art that had significant overlap with Zhengui's portfolio from our loadout while we're on the cusp of internalizing greater understanding and formalization of our approach to personal physical defense doesn't bode well for increasing our understanding of our tortoise-child's Ways. Especially since there aren't really relevant arts lined up for building any. I get that this is mostly a matter of poor/weird timing of some of the many moving pieces, but that doesn't make it less of an issue.
An appropriate advanced skill would make all the difference, since it'd be a real mark of commitment to some mutually relevant (beneficial!) understanding. The arts wouldn't matter so much if there was something else on the playing field. If it were up to me, I'd have Ling Qi's advanced Fortitude skill build on some of the times she's been more seriously wounded and her semi-unusually outsized health pool to come to an understanding of ignoring smaller wounds as inconsequential. Not quite regenning like Zhengui, but still rooted broadly in the concept of vitality. Similar to Sun Liling's fighting at full strength if she's got a drop of blood left dealio, but funnier because Ling Qi isn't Sun Liling.
Anyway, Zhengui's not going to get Music to any relevance overnight, or maybe ever, because he's a spirit beast and they're so so much more limited in their flexibility compared to cultivators. The gap needs to be bridged from our side, at least a little. The current narrative of Zhengui "failing" in battle and then bending over backwards to improve while Ling Qi watches and does nothing of her own about it isn't satisfying, and I want to work past it. Synergy is a two-way street.
