He changed Tiwat

In the case of the "scattered soldiers," they were abandoned and sealed away by the creator, the Thunder God, and were "betrayed" for the first time. After awakening, they lived with the swordsmith in Tamasa. During the cataclysm, they went to Inazuma Castle for help but found that Niwa had "fled out of fear of punishment." Katsuragi was beheaded in his place and was exiled by Nagamasa, which was the second time they were "betrayed." They witnessed the death of their adopted child due to the "evil spirit," which was the third time they were "betrayed."

During this period, he experienced various hardships and bore a heavy mental burden.

Nietzsche's original words are: "All these heaviest burdens, the burdened spirit carries them on its own back, like a camel carrying a heavy load towards the desert; the spirit so hastily enters its desert."

Lion: The Fool's executive officer "scattered troops", "the collapse of the nation".

The lion symbolizes the spirit of daring to break traditional norms. This stage is the spiritual stage where self-awareness begins to awaken. It is a stage of actively fighting to break free from one's own constraints, strengthening one's will, having the ability to resist, and pursuing the values ​​that one identifies with.

"Scattered Soldier" clearly believes that his past is full of pain, and his puppet identity itself is the source of his pain. Therefore, he decides to become "God," believing that the identity of "God" can end his suffering.

He followed the "clown" and joined the Fools to take revenge on the "Five Thunder Gods" and participated in the plan to seize the heart of the Thunder God.

In the original work, the "scattered soldier" will later run away with the Heart of God and eventually ascend to godhood in Sumeru ("the God of Righteousness").

But according to Nietzsche's philosophy, the lion is only the second stage. The lion cannot create new value, but it can fight for its own freedom in order to engage in new creations, which is the prerequisite for the "soldier" to gain true freedom.

Nietzsche's original text is: "But in the most desolate desert, a second change occurs: the spirit becomes a lion, seeking freedom and reigning supreme in its own desert. It seeks its last ruler: it will contend with the last ruler, its last god, and fight the dragon for victory."

What is this dragon that the spirit no longer wants to call its ruler and god? This dragon's name is "You Should." But the lion spirit says, "I Will."

Baby: "Wanderer".

This is the third stage of the "Skirmisher." In the original game, after the "Skirmisher" rushes through the tree, he deletes his past history and becomes a nameless "Wanderer." Incidentally, the term "Wanderer" appears multiple times in Nietzsche's works; the title of the first chapter of Book III of Thus Spoke Zarathustra is "Wanderer."

The baby represents the power to create new value after destruction; it is the possibility of everything.

This stage represents the highest level of the "three spiritual transformations," namely, spiritual independence and freedom.

Nietzsche's original words are: "The child is purity, forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self-rotating wheel, a nascent movement, a divine affirmation. Yes, for this game to be called creation, my brothers, a divine affirmation is needed: at this point, the spirit desires its own will, and the one who has lost the world will gain its own world."

Therefore, I say that the character of "Scatter Soldier" was created strictly according to Nietzsche's philosophy, and his experience is the experience of "three spiritual transformations".

The "scattered soldiers" have not yet completed this "three spiritual transformations" in the current storyline, and are still on their way.

Let's think about why the lion failed to achieve the final transcendence. Didn't it possess the power and free will to destroy everything? Wasn't it supposed to fight and defeat the dragon called "You Should"?

The answer is obvious: "The dragon slayer becomes the dragon," and "it seeks freedom and reigns supreme in its own desert." The lion simply becomes the next dragon—a "scattered soldier" pursuing divine status. In reality, the dragon slayer becomes the dragon.

Therefore, he should not "become a god," but rather "shatter the throne of the gods"—this is where the greatness of Fontainebleau water god Fucarus is manifested.

Smash the most valuable item, along with the tablet on which it is placed, and that is what is meant by "God is dead, and the gods are dead with him," and "wildflowers bloom on the grassland where the gods are dead."

After destroying the old value system, the "infant," that is, the "transcendent" with the purest soul, can design a new value system on the purest land, redefine values, and build a new world.

Nietzsche said that there has never been a "transcendent" in human history, nor was he a "transcendent," because in Nietzsche's time, the figures in history were all "emperors taking turns, this year it's my turn," a cycle of dragon slayers becoming dragons themselves.

But in the new world established by the "Transcendent," there is no dragon that says "you should," no justice, and no throne.

"At this point, the spirit wants to have its own will, and the one who has lost the world will gain its own world."

Thus, everyone is like a "wildflower on the grassland where the gods have died," free to bloom.

The "noble soul" in the event's storyline that made many people grit their teeth refers to the "infant" in Nietzsche's "Three Transformations of the Spirit," which is the soul of a "transcendent being."

However, it is obvious that most players have never even heard of "Three Spiritual Transformations", so how could they possibly associate it with this meaning?

This is the biggest failure in the portrayal of the character "scattered soldier," and it is also a failure of the "literary youth" (a term referring to intellectuals who are preoccupied with trivial matters).

In my update a few days ago, I wrote about a debate between Xiao Han and the "scattered soldiers," in which I mentioned—

"You keep talking about destroying an old world, but you never think about how to create a new world after destroying an old world."

"The new world I want is not something given to me by anyone, but something created by the combined efforts of everyone."

What I wrote was actually the same thing.

But what is my expression?

Yes--

"We are not only good at destroying an old world, we are also good at building a new world!"

This is the most down-to-earth statement from the author of "Talks at the Symposium on Literature and Art," and every literary and art worker should read it.

Nietzsche's philosophical essays are too rigid and difficult to understand; we need to use the language of the new era to speak in plain language.

2. "The Will to Power" and "Eternal Reincarnation"

As we discussed earlier, the continent of Teyvat is currently in a "cycle".

Nietzsche was influenced by the Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation and proposed a similar concept called "eternal rebirth" (die ewige Wiederkunft, also translated as "eternal recurrence").

Nietzsche himself said of his work: "Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the greatest gift I have ever given to mankind. The voice of this book will resound for a thousand years, because it is not only the supreme book in existence, but also a book that exudes the breath of the mountains—below it, infinitely far from it, all human facts are below it—and it is also the most profound book, which comes from the deepest wealth of truth, like an inexhaustible well, every bucket dropped in is full of gold and silver treasures."

"'Eternal rebirth' is the core idea of ​​the book 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra,' and the doctrine of eternal rebirth is '6000 feet above sea level'!"

Nietzsche regarded it as the "most sacred truth" in the entire history of mankind, and it was also the "greatest focus" of his own thought.

Reading Nietzsche is impossible without encountering this doctrine, as it is the core concept of Nietzsche's philosophy, and many doctoral dissertations in philosophy are related to this doctrine.

The problem is that Nietzsche's direct exposition of this doctrine is very limited and unsystematic. Moreover, his extensive use of metaphor in his writing has led to ongoing debate about the meaning of "eternal rebirth"—the little story I mentioned above is a common occurrence for philosophy researchers.

Moreover, because his arguments are not systematic, understanding Nietzsche's thought is not about reading a book; you have to read the complete works of K.S.A., piecing together fragments from different sources... So what you are about to see is a jigsaw puzzle of me piecing together fragments from different sources.

There's no way around it; that's just Nietzsche's style—very Souls-like narrative. (Now you know why Genshin Impact's text is so fragmented—it's because of Nietzsche.)

To understand "eternal rebirth," we must first discuss another important concept in Nietzsche's philosophy—"will to power" (der Wille zur Macht).

The "power" here does not refer entirely to things like "political power"; the scope of this power is much broader. "Will" refers to desire or aspiration. Nietzsche is discussing an "instinct" in human nature, which has evolved into the "will to power," or the lion's "I want" in the "Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit."

For example, I want a fully-fledged pink-haired fox, but luck can't save you from bad luck, so I can only rely on spending money to change my fate—one side encounters resistance from the other, and by overcoming the resistance, one's power is enhanced—in the face of the blue and green modifiers, my power is unlimited!

According to Nietzsche, humans are inherently driven to pursue power, and once they achieve it, they release that power. However, if they lose their power, they will continue to pursue new power.

It's like feeling a moment of satisfaction after drawing this card, and then immediately preparing to draw the next one. What if you run out of money to draw cards? So I start writing books to earn royalties; that's a kind of "will to power."

This will to power is constantly rising, and people are constantly drawing upon and releasing power. As a result, people need to constantly overcome any resistance, including their own mental resistance, and this process is eternal.

Of course, this concept is very complex to describe in philosophical terms. It involves "epistemology," which is the tool and method Nietzsche used to understand all things. Explaining this in detail would require another book.

Therefore, we will only discuss this concept using the most basic and superficial understanding here—for humans, "will to power" is "I want" and "subjective initiative".

In fact, Nietzsche described "will" in "Beyond Good and Evil" as follows: "In short, the one who uses willpower is quite certain that will and action are, in some respects, the same thing."

"Will and action are, in a sense, the same thing." If a person has a strong desire, then doesn't he also strongly want to realize that desire, get what he wants, and do what he wants to do? Thus, this will is transformed into action, and the desire is transformed into reality.

Doesn't this feel a lot like the concept of "God's Eye"? A person's strong desires are seen by the gods, and thus they gain the power to fulfill those desires.

So what is "will to power" called in Teyvat? To put it simply, it's "Will Power".

Now you all know why the "Willpower" setting suddenly appeared in the Inazuma version of the game, right? It's because Inazuma has a "scattered soldier" storyline, and he embodies the concept of "Will to Power".

Well, the screenwriter probably majored in philosophy, reading both Buddhist scriptures and Nietzsche, so "will to power" was transformed into "wish power"... The screenwriter of Honkai Impact 3rd also likes Nietzsche, I wonder if it's the same one.

Having understood the "will to power," let's now look at "eternal cycle of rebirth."

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote the following passage:

Zarathustra and the dwarf had a fierce argument at a crossroads called "Moment".

Here, the road is a metaphor for time. Two endless roads stretch towards each other, one pointing forward and the other infinitely backward, both leading to eternity; the two roads converge at the crossroads of a "moment." This can be understood as follows: in any given moment, there is an infinite extension of time both forward (to the future) and backward (to the past), and they converge in that instant. Therefore, the moment belongs to both the past and the future.

Since the past and the future always meet in an instant, does this mean that the flow of time is a continuous stream from the past to the future? To this question, the dwarf muttered dismissively, "Time itself is a cycle."

Linear time is merely an illusion; the past and future will ultimately overlap, surging endlessly in an eternal cycle. This is the dwarf's understanding of time in "eternal reincarnation."

But Zarathustra felt the dwarf's answer was too easy. The dwarf had overlooked an important element, and Zarathustra reminded him: "Look at this trick!"

Here we use the most common explanation: Dwarfs are blind to the "moment" and only see the flawed and incomplete cycle of time. If dwarfs could notice the "moment" and the time before the "moment," they would find that everything they see has appeared in the past, has "happened, been completed, and gone through the same path."

From a temporal perspective, "eternal reincarnation" has no beginning or end; from a spatial perspective, "eternal reincarnation" also removes depth and hierarchy, and in the infinitely continuing cycle, every moment is equally important.

Let me translate this in a more human-friendly way: The time in which all things exist is finite, but time is infinite. Therefore, within infinite time, finite existence inevitably leads to "repetition".

This is similar to the probability concept of "a monkey writing Shakespeare": give a monkey an infinite amount of time, and it can randomly type on a printer. Eventually, it will print out a complete set of Shakespeare's works—because Shakespeare's works are finite, while the monkey's time is infinite. An infinite number of permutations and combinations will inevitably result in an overlap with Shakespeare's complete works.

Therefore, the dwarf in the text says, "Time is an infinite loop."

Zarathustra, however, noticed that since time was in an infinite loop, the passageway symbolizing the "moment" must have appeared countless times as well.

In *The Gay Science*, Nietzsche used this analogy: "If one day or one night, a devil... told you: 'You are living the life you are living now, and you will live it again, and countless times; all the trivial details of your life, or the grand, glorious peaks, will be repeated again...'"

Every moment in your life—exams, relationships, work…every single event, every moment that makes you regretful or grateful—has happened over an infinite amount of time, and it will happen again and again in the future; this is simply an inevitability within an infinite amount of time.

Nietzsche wanted to tell everyone that the moment you realize such an infinitely repeating possibility, all the worldly success, happiness, and all the "purposes" of life lose their meaning.

Because everything has already happened and will repeat itself infinitely in the future, there is no such thing as "chance" in life.

Nietzsche's philosophy is one that aims to "create value." All of humanity's intellectual and spiritual abilities are meant to "create value," which is why it foreshadows the later concept of "eternal rebirth."

In this sense, Nietzsche's philosophy can be seamlessly connected to Teyvat's "false heaven".

In other words, the world described by Nietzsche, like the world under the control of natural law, is a "deterministic" world.

In a world of "determinism," everything loses its meaning and inevitably leads to "nihilism."

Whether I have "free will" or "what I want" or not, things are inevitable.

Most people hope for an afterlife, hoping that the next life will be different. But if the next life is exactly the same as this life, and the life after that is the same, would you still want an afterlife?

Nietzsche then wrote in "The Will to Power": "How much mercy you will need when you face yourself, when you face your life, in order to thirst for nothing more passionate than this infinite, eternal, closed judgment."

In other words, can you maintain your enthusiasm for life when faced with such a meaningless and empty existence?

Ordinary people obviously don't have this kind of motivation.

So what should a person do when they realize the futility of life and the existence of "eternal reincarnation"?

Nietzsche's answer remained "to become a transcendent."

Because "transcendent beings" are those who, even after perceiving "eternal reincarnation," continue to transcend and create value.

At the end of Zarathustra, Zarathustra calmly accepts that "life is the will to power" and continues in eternal rebirth.

The highest form of "will to power" is manifested in loving life even when finite life is constantly repeated.

The highest form of love for life is this: I don't think one life is enough. I hope there is an afterlife. I hope to live again and again, even if each life is a repetition and doesn't change at all.

Nietzsche called "eternal rebirth" the highest form of affirmation of life.

This is the "eternal cycle" of the "Transcendent One".

Background music should be playing here: "I really want to live another five hundred years".

From this perspective, Nietzsche's philosophy is a very positive philosophy, a philosophy of struggle. That's why even a heartless puppet can become so inspired and ascend to godhood after studying half of Nietzsche's work... Nietzsche is very effective at providing "chicken soup for the soul."

Having understood the concepts of "Will to Power" and "Eternal Cycle," we can move on to the next stage: one of the deepest foreshadowing elements in the Genshin Impact storyline—the "Eternal Cycle" of the "Skirms."

This is the cyclical fate of the world (QED)

(Due to the website's word count limit per chapter, a separate chapter must be created to continue the story.)

3. The "Eternal Cycle" of the "Scattered Soldiers"

As we mentioned before, the term "Transcendent" appeared again in Fontaine's 4.2 version.

While I was doing my research, I went back and reviewed this part of the story again.

Regarding the term "Transcendent," three different expressions appear in this storyline: "transcending humanity," "the form of the Transcendent," and "the Superman's relation to humanity." As you know, the Genshin Impact writers often use nonsensical language in the Chinese storyline, but due to the limitations of the localization translators' foreign language skills, they can only translate the dialogue in English or Japanese into more colloquial terms.

and so……

Nazisen Cruz: I am very happy to see "you" and this person, Anne.

I am most pleased to see “you both”, as well as Ann.

Nazisen Cruz: Your current state can be said to have transcended that of humans and water spirits; you are in a state of transcendence.

Your present state could be said to be something beyond human or Oceanid. A state of transcendence.

Nazisen Cruz: As man is to ape, Superman is to man. You are now the meaning of Fontaine.

As human is to ape, so is superhuman to human. You are now the meaning of Fontaine itself.】

"Beyond human," "superhuman," etc. These are common expressions, and there's no problem with them. The problem lies in "the form of transcendence"—"A state of transcendence."

The word "transcendence" is a proper noun in philosophy, familiar to those who read academic literature. It originates from the Latin word "transcendere," meaning to cross a boundary.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato used this word to describe the Creator.

The German philosopher Kant used this term within his system of "transcendental idealism."

The German word *Transzendent*, translated as "transcendental," refers to the thing-in-itself, which is considered to transcend experience, have no connection with experience, and cannot be known by human experience. Another German word is *Transzendental*, translated as "a priori," which refers to its sensible forms and intellectual categories, which precede experience but are still components of experience. They are considered to precede experience but not transcend it, and are related to experience, serving as conditions for its formation.

This refers to the philosophical concepts of "transcendental" and "a priori".

The psychologist Abraham Maslow, who is familiar with the "Maslow's hierarchy of needs," proposed a sixth level of human needs in 1969: transcendence.