thread on the mischaracterisation of xiao, including comparisons of his cn va to his eng va, bc i’m tired of edgy emotionless xiao lol

disclaimer; i’m not in any way hating on the voice actors for xiao, and i’m not hating on people who have a different idea of xiao bc of his voicelines. i’m just here to spread info ab his true character

ok we can start this thread by talking about some of xiao’s voicelines in cn compared to eng. xiaos voicelines in chinese are much more gentle, calm and distant then the eng one. i noticed when playing w eng va xiao voiced his lined a lot more aggressively-

and it gave off the impression that he was angry, ‘edgy’, emotionless etc. the way his english lines are voiced can actually skew a persons opinion on him a lot. ofc this isn’t the va’s fault, but the teams

xiao in his eng good morning voiceline says; “we’re wasting time. let’s go”

compared to the chinese line...

时候不早了。出发吧。
“it’s getting late, let’s get going”

xiao sounds more ,, aggressive ? in his english line, whereas in chinese he’s more flat toned

about the rain; in cn xiao says

魔物体不会因为下雨就休息。我们走。
“monsters won’t stop to rest because of rain; let’s go”

in eng it’s not that diff but the way he words and voices it is more harsh

“Demons do not stop for the rain. Move.”

about liyue; in eng xiao says

“Liyue is changing. Rapidly... Forget it, it means nothing to me.”

to me this sounds like he’s dismissive of liyue, much more sharp then the cn:

“近来璃月变化过于迅速了。。。。啊，罢了，我也没打算适应”

(cont-)

his cn line translated is;

“liyue has been changing/developing quickly recently... ah, i don’t plan on adapting to it anyway”

about the snow: xiao has a voiceline where he says
“Once the snow is thick enough, we can eat it.”
there is no translation error here, but rather a sad meaning behind this

the eng fandom views xiao eating snow as funny, but in the cn fandom he’s actually pitied. in ancient china people would often eat snow to stave off hunger during famines.
xiao is someone who had to suffer through horrible conditions, for ex during his time w another god

it’s possible that he eats snow because of this reason; he hasn’t changed this mindset of eating snow when he’s hungry. xiao’s time in teyvat when it was a wasteland led him to eat snow to cope with the hunger

i believe i covered this another thread but; xiao’s almond tofu line,

“The one thing I can manage to stomach is almond tofu.”

in cn and even jp it’s something more like, “almond tofu reminds me of the texture of dreams” referring to his role as the yaksha i believe

about zhongli; xiao is not mistreated by zhongli, he does not despise zhongli or resent him in any way. in fact, xiao became a yaksha as a way to express gratitude for zhongli.
xiao remains as the last yaksha standing because he’s accepted his karmic debt

he views himself (sadly) as a weapon, and he doesn’t have any regrets for sacrificing himself.

i see a lot of people call xiao an emotionless edge lord. i know xiao can come off as emotionless, but let’s go into why he’s like this

xiao, after being freed by zhongli and becoming a yaksha, had already suffered for a long time under the control of the old gods. right after his new freedom came the deaths of all his friends, witnessing his fellow yakshas succumb and break zhonglis contract

you have to remember; the karmic debt collected by the yakshas are all in xiao now, he views himself as a bad omen, someone who will hurt people who get close to him. so excuse him for being emotionally closed off,,, he’s afraid of losing people again despite how gentle he is

xiao distancing him and being alone at all times is what has led to him being unable to interact with others. so if u have xiao; pls feed him all the almond tofu u have T_T

if there’s anything i missed let me know! my cc’s and dms are open. here are my other threads: https://twitter.com/i/events/1386899974667993088

ahhh guys this thread was just for fun there’s no need to get angry at his va’s or mihoyo