>>111204
Me too thanks
>>106649
My breakdown of Camellya's writing will be in 7 parts of pure mongolian autism.
Backstory
Camellya was created/turned into a resonator hundreds of years ago to "hunt" Rover. The reason why is not explained. Her love for him (if not a programmed emotion) is not explained.
Her backstory is revealed in reverse chronology. They are as follows:
>Once Upon A Time
Lady Flora's "creation" by an unknown organization, that wants her to have
>Eve
Lady Flora is released and enda up at Petalfall.
>A Fleeting Moment
Lady Flora's first time at Black Shores.
>Labyrinth
Camellya's first post-Rover disappearance story. No character development occurs between now and Once Upon a Time—Camellya is depicted as a purely static character, even after Rover's supposedly traumatic disappearance.
Thematically, the name Camellya refers to the "flower" she wanted to give Rover—she herself, the thing that would neither
"wither nor decay unless she perished" remains a static theme from the beginning to the end of her character stories. There is not even a change in perspective between the first and Labyrinth—both end purely on the instinct to pursue Rover:
>"I'll follow my instincts until death finds me."
In Once Upon a Time:
>Most days, the injections left her in a fog, drifting through a semi-conscious haze, with only her instinctual yearning for a certain person carved deep into her heart.
>[...]
>But just as quickly as it came, the thought vanished into the chaos of her mind, leaving no trace behind.
She is presented in her backstory as a purely static character with no form of complexity at all, save the excessively sentimental language.
We finally reach the culmination of her character arc, which coincides with her CQ.
>To the Days Ahead
This can wait for what will be said later.
Nuance
Instead of complex motivation behind her actions, she simply wants Rover because that's what she was programmed to do. Her urge to fight and match Rover? It isn't some nuanced desire to prove herself, it's just because that's what she was programmed to do. Her presence at Petalfall?
>Lady Flora mused hazily. Perhaps the Tethys System would lead Rover to her since she had already revealed herself in this mission.
That's right. Programming.
What fundamentally changes about her at Petalfall? Nothing. Again, what is the reason behind her attachment to Rover? Nothing. Making a case for complexity in Camellya's character is an exercise in futility. The best that can be done is pure conjecture, what amounts to a tween's FnaF, Undertale, or TADC fan theories.
Camellya's sole growth was only in her final quest, but it did not mark a significant departure from her previous character. It was unearned, it was cheap, it was unrealistic—somehow, this psychologically broken girl reaches a state of contentment with Rover because of a short, corny dialogue with her subconscious? And with dialogue like this no less:
>How pathetic... Everything will be forgotten anyway. What is the point?
>What do YOU know!?
>*epic anime slash 1!*
>Teeheeehee! You will never be his equal. Ever!!
>Raaah! *epic anime slash 2!*
Even with the most generous view of this
extremely puerile attempt at a psychological dialogue, it doesn't even fit in with Camellya's development shortly before. We never see the shift in perspective, we never see this exploration of psychological themes, Camellya never actively confronts herself in any capacity. All of the development between the start of the Stellar Matrix and the end hinges on her seeing the ways she was fated to meet Rover, which is her justification immediately following the atrocious dialogue above.
Worse than that, as I wrote earlier, Camellya's character doesn't fundamentally change. Her belief in direct fated connection is already mentioned in Eve:
>It felt more like the weight of a heavy chain, one Lady Flora could not resist.
>Yet she felt no hatred for this chain.
And the way she rested on instincts to as comfort:
>Even as she teetered on the edge of forgetting everything, she could always rely on her instincts.
>In truth, beyond her instincts, there was nothing left for her to hold onto.
Meaning that what little character development there was amounted to little more than her finding comfort in the same thing as always, only with a :) instead of a :(. It peurile,
garbage writing.
[Expand Post]
My previous interpretation of Camellya's motives—that her love began at Petalfall—is an alternate way to salvage her story hinging on her being an unreliable narrator and this quote:
>The interval between unconsciousness and consciousness became shorter with each passing day. Lady Flora was starting to find it hard to tell where her dreams ended and reality began. She couldn't even recall when this disorientation had started.
In this way, many of the plotholes and contrivances cease to be contrived at all. Camellya becomes a self-loathing, fearful, delusional, girl that latched on to the man who saved her. Her obsession with Rover, especially her desire to meet him in strength, is very easily explained by the deep fear of being a parasitic burden on him. She even says she would
>rather die than need his pity for love and affection (paraphrase)
And her subconscious tells her
>You will never be his equal... ever.
And this is further highlighted in how the Stellar Matrix sequence begins: She only shows her love for you after demonstrating that she can be your equal in a fight. In can be interpreted that she wants to show you that she's worthy too, even of someone like Rover.
Unfortunately, along with so much else in the game, Kuro simply cannot stop fucking everything up: https://wutheringwaves.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hidden_Treasure_of_the_Black_Shores
Relationships
One way characters are judged is on the relationships they have with other characters in the story (such as the MC). Like almost all characters in WuWa, she hardly, if ever, interacts with any character other than Rover. Worse still is that unlike characters such as Jiyan (the trauma of losing his old team, his memories of the war, his relationship with the valley villagers), Camellya's only relationship at all is with Rover. For reasons already described, it is extremely one dimensional, one sided, and undeveloped—Rover's end of the relationship is never explored at all (despite the alleged backstory).
One can accept a lack of relationships at all. They can accept a single relationship with the MC. They can even accept a one sided relationship. But an uninteresting one, based on an unexplained plothole, that is never resolved, evidently one-sided, and is handled like a tween's fan fiction? Not really.
Symbolism
This may be the only manner in which Camellya may shine, although it ultimately won't save her. Her relation to the Camellia flower is obviously symbolic—camellias represent love, adoration, and persistence through their natural, perennial blooms. Natsume Sōseki's Kokoro, a novel about intense love, pain, and tragedy, notes this in a passage about fickleness:
>"You are like a man in fever. When that fever passes, your enthusiasm will turn to disgust. Your present opinion of me makes me unhappy enough. But when I think of the disillusionment that is to come, I feel even greater sorrow."
>[...]
>He seemed vexed as he turned his face towards the garden. Not long before, the garden had been full of camellias. But now, the flowers, which had brightened the scenery with their rich, red color, were all gone.
>It had been Sensei's custom to look out his room, and gaze at them.
The camellias are only once ever mentioned in the novel, but they form a strong symbolic meaning both in the context of the scene and the novel itself—the perceived fickleness of love, the way his view changes over time, and the suicide within.
Even a German author uses camellias, in a slightly different way, to represent a psychological bloom in the penultimate page (it is also a book about China):
>Sunny jags of granite peaks. Dreaming tucked-in landscapes. Slender fan palms with clear voices. Camellias a hundred thousand.
>[...]
>"Be calm, not resist. Have I the strength?"
Although it was a while since I read the book, I still remembered the camellias in that scene.
A Korean poem that utilized Camellias:
>Camellias are a blaze of blood-spewed crimson
>As a lazy spring day dips past noon,
>The water mill turns without a care.
>Children sing nonsense rimes to their dance,
>And downy chicks cull feed in the sunlight.
>On a village path where shimmering heat drowses,
>Knowing, unknowing, in a weary daze,
>I stroke my gaunt cheeks and return.
If nothing else, using the camellia to represent her is an excellent stylistic choice. But the quality ends there—while the symbolism directly connects with Kuro's intent, it's still only a shallow representation of the depth of themes of love, pain, and renewal reflected in the other two novels. What has been said prior about her writing should be enough for you to note the lack of quality in comparison to genuine literary fiction—you yourself implied you were a reader. It should go without saying that a gacha character falls short of literary ones.
This isn't unusual, and I don't hold it against Kuro, but I'm not going to claim gacha waifus are as well written as classic characters like Achilles, Philoktetes, Samsa, even side characters like Caliban, or the characters of lighter fiction like Frankenstein and the Monster; The latter two of which form a greater exploration of obsession than Camellya and Rover.
The other form of symbolism has already been mentioned previously and it is her status as a possibly intentional foil for Shorekeeper. While interesting, this is a very rudimentary literary device that isn't actually explored in the story itself.
Plot
The plot is so contrived it's almost comical. A thingy macguffin is going to do [bad thing] so you need to stop it. By pure chance (le... Fate!) it holds Flora's memories, so you get to accidentally psychologize her while stopping the completely unrelated phenomenon by... just killing the core?
The reason for the coincidence is unexplained. Did Camellya do it? I thought so at first, but they never mention it or anything that happened again. Like every unrealistic, contrived plot device and plothole, you are expected to chalk it up to fate and mystery. That's it.
Agency
As a character, Camellya's choices are genuinely inconsequential for the story itself. From 1.0 to 1.4, her impact on the narrative was minimal. Even in her CQ, none of her choices ultimately mattered. Whether she died, overclocked, or disappeared completely, Camellya is functionally irrelevant to WuWa's story. One might be able to tie this in to her continued struggle with irrelevance, and the conclusion if her CQ is her coming to terms with being an utterly irrelevant character:
>She understood that this was still not her path, yet she no longer resisted observing it. Just as one pebble meets another, sending ripples across the water's surface, she embraced the idea of being a "variable" in this dance.
But this doesn't address the underlying problems mentioned, and still requires outright ignoring half of what is said in the CQ and her backstory.
And?
As a whole, Camellya, as expected, is NOT a literary character. I have said this before and I'll say it again, there's no reason to hold gacha characters to the same standard as literary characters. It just isn't reasonable, and that's okay. Gachas don't have the time or resources to expend in 80-150 pages of narrative just to sell a character. There's nothing wrong with that, and I don't expect a gacha character to be strong because so few are.