goumang deserved mildly better [spoilers for all endings]

[aub]

not that much better, but i did find it weird how disproportionately messed up her death is compared to all the other major characters. debatable i know, because obviously what she did was wrong, and she could've surrendered to yi to prevent her demise, but still. eigong (and even yi) debatably did way, way worse than her, and they get off easy, getting a quick and (in their respective eyes at least) virtuous death.

and goumang has a pretty empathetic backstory. yi decides he's justified in turning her into a zombie, and then immediately we find out there were complex (albeit irrational) motivations behind her recruiting zombie servants, and that she was ultimately obsessed with making sure no one ever again had to suffer like she did as a child. but then you turn around and she's kind of just disappeared and it's like "ok that decision that i didn't make was permanent."

i kinda figured she and her servants would reappear as a boss/miniboss encounter later on, at which point they'd die for good and be put at peace, but nope. they never appear again in the standard ending, and in the "true" ending they're shown sitting in her atrium just to confirm that yes, they have been suffering this fate for the entire game and are only just now being granted the sweet release of death. which in the return to penglai ending, i guess means... idk, is she just like that forever??? did yi forget???

i do think that earlygame yi deciding to do what he did to her is in line with his character at that point, as he starts off pretty ruthless. it just feels weird not to circle back around to it, and instead have her be stuck in that stasis for the rest of the game, whereas everyone else at least gets to die without being tortured for days on end.

idk maybe i'm wrong and y'all hate her lmao. this could be my zombie bias speaking. i hate zombies. creepy things... :(

[Seisachtheia]

I think you hit the nail on the head with yi's charactization in early game. We see repeatedly throughout the game that of all the Sols Goumang was the most antagonistic and hostile toward Yi. They very clearly disliked each other. We see how ruthless and unbothered Yi is about doing something horrible to her...and I think this is why she features in the true ending. A reminder to the player about where Yi started in his journey and the effect Shuanshuan had on him.

[aub]

Originally posted by Seisachtheia:

I think you hit the nail on the head with yi's charactization in early game. We see repeatedly throughout the game that of all the Sols Goumang was the most antagonistic and hostile toward Yi. They very clearly disliked each other. We see how ruthless and unbothered Yi is about doing something horrible to her...and I think this is why she features in the true ending. A reminder to the player about where Yi started in his journey and the effect Shuanshuan had on him.

yeah i just think that as a way to circle back to her, it doesn't tie up her story as nicely as it could've. idk, i just felt really bad for her lol. she could be put to rest later and that'd tie into the theme of yi learning forgiveness and peace and whatevs

[Axolo]

I agree, I thought because she was the only Sol left alive that maybe she'd be relevant later in the story. But she's just kinda there which is disappointing, also reading the prequel comic makes her fate feel even more terrible :(

[Tendou Arisu]

Yeah it’s pretty sad
I wished she got freed eventually though. At least in the normal ending she doesn’t die.
I think she is one of the more reasonable sols in the game. As far as I know, the only life she harmed is live stock and other species. It’s morally questionable to some extent. But she did it to help her people. And we humans do that all the time. Yi on the other hand lost his mind after his revival and became a serial killer.

[Tendou Arisu]

is crazy cuz Eigong and Yi where the major master mind behind the entire modern solarian society. However Eigong had more power than anyone. Either way, Yi lost his mind when he got betrayed and decided to rampage all the sols. Including those who once worked under him. Even is AI was hesitant about his actions. But those who question him dies or suffers. Eigong is probably the most crazy sol. But Yi is a close second.

[Tendou Arisu]

So yeah I felt like she deserved a lot better. But this story is cruel. Everyone suffers

[Bard]

IMO, goumang is a prime example to show that not everyone who comes from an impoverished state keeps their empathy when granted power.

Just because you had a hard life doesn't mean everything you do afterwards gets brushed off. Arrogance, self-righteousness, jealousy towards peers who are more talented than you, it doesn't matter. She was simply brought back down to where she was before.

Never let someone else weaponize your empathy against you.

[Tendou Arisu]

I still can’t figure out what Goumang did that was so bad in her past. Yi and Goumang was arguing something about freedom. But no one cared about the freedom of the apemen. Not even Yi. Because Yi was the one who co designed the eternal cauldron project. Which included the harvesting of the apeman brains. No one is doing the right thing here. It’s two people who hate one another so much that they are willing to justify any act of violence towards each other. [\spoiler]

[Tianhuo]

I think people in this thread have made a lot of good points about Yi and his treatment of her. However, if we are talking expressly about whether Goumang deserved it, I don't think there is much of a debate to be had here.

Goumang enslaved living beings against their will using them for whatever purpose she deemed fit. In one of her Sol panels after defeating her, she has the line "work hard, and I will let you live longer than the others". Though I understand she had a few redeeming traits, such as her dream for the people of Penglai to never go hungry - her noble dream does not justify her means of obtaining it.