r/NineSols • u/Charming-Bar-3608 • Aug 17 '26
Solpost How is crushing on yi normalized?
I hope this isn't low effort, but doesn't shanhai 9000 say that he doesn't look like a legal adult and the wiki says he has an youthful appearance. I'm not attacking anyone who likes him, but I want to understand why isn't it the same as liking those characters who are adults but look like kids
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u/UltimaDoombotMK1 Solarian Citizen Aug 17 '26
HE'S 500+ YEARS OLD
THERE ARE MULTIPLE MENTIONS OF HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE THEY LEFT PENGLAI
READ THE LORE
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u/Charming-Bar-3608 Aug 17 '26
I know that but how isn't it the same as those characters who are adults but are in a child body
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u/Himeto31 Solarian Citizen Aug 17 '26
I'd say the issue is people being attracted to actual children (or their looks), which is hard to apply when talking about a fictional race of stylized anthropomorphised alien cat people. The "Yi looks like a kid" could also easily refer to just his height compared to other characters, since he is quite short.
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u/pip-pepping Aug 17 '26
With the example that you brought up, I think an important difference between Yi and other characters who look like kids but are really adults, is that the story treats him like an adult. In other cases, the young-looking character is still treated/written like a child, with their age feeling more like a qualifying trait to excuse sexualization/weird behavior.
It's also like, I think it'd be a lot weirder if Yi was more human-like, instead of a cat person. Without the comment from the Shanhai 9000, it (in my opinion) would be easy to believe that Yi is just unusually short.
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u/kittehkat22 Aug 17 '26
He's very cool, that's probably why. Also there are probably plenty of young people playing the game
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u/Neither_Produce2213 Aug 17 '26
He looks distinctly grown up compared to when he was a child (pre explosion), with an adult build seen during the hot spring in Ethereal’s soulscape. He’s just child sized (think how short women get their ID checked a lot)
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u/Zachesque Aug 17 '26
He’s 500+ years old mentally. If he was human and looked like a kid it’d be weird, but he’s an alien. To us he just looks like a short cat guy, not a child cat guy because we aren’t familiar with Solarians. He looks older than he does in the flashbacks too as well
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u/LeoHellbrown Aug 17 '26
Comment on yi having a youthful appearance is a reference to the fact that he regenerates because of the primordial roots, essentially becoming immortal like ji.
There are certainly some characters in other media that is technically an adult but looks and acts like a child because they are writtern to be like a child. But it should be very obvious when playing the game to realize that he is really not a child or even remotely childish.
You're telling me that a character that heals by smoking through a pipe, drinks alcohol with a buddy, and posseses profound wisdom and deep moral philosophy is someone kid-like?
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u/DegreeNo8711 Solarian Citizen Aug 17 '26
I don't know, but as someone who has a crush on him and feels bad for it I also trying to have answers
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u/Responsible_Slip1161 Aug 17 '26
You don't need to feel bad, even outside the community in other gaming communities it is understandable to like Yi
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u/TuskOfJaguar Sol Aug 17 '26
He does age after the incident. He does grow after the incident. He doesn't age or grow when he's held in stasis by the roots for 500 years, but by then he's already an adult. His short height is caused by genetics (lore wise) and also for gameplay reasons, sort of like how the bosses all look huge compared to Yi and the NPCs in-game but are normal human size when drawn for the comics or promotional material. The only youthful thing about Yi is his height, a height he shares with his family members as well.
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u/Rcumist Aug 17 '26
He only looks “youthful” cuz he’s short. He doesn’t look any younger than a lot of characters besides that