hellobitchlet

[hellobitchlet]

I don't feel like going into a long tirade for once, and I'm trying not to post about every single thing I dislike about Genshin anymore, but..... oh my god this event is so ass.

The ENTIRE island is the specific brand of racism they did with Mualani and the People of the Springs but multiplied by 100. Mualani herself is back in 'excitable tour guide who is the Nice Brown Person bc she helps pale tourists' mode we had left behind in 5.0. This event, over all of the previous events, is the one that is staying as permanent content, because they forcefully tied the Mare Jivari itself to it, so that you can't go to it without going to Tourist Attraction Island.

Bennett got way more than I was ever expecting his story to get, and thank god for that, but was still screwed over MASSIVELY. There was absolutely no buildup to someone luring him into the Mare Jivari, and then we spent 5-10 minutes of dialogue there and left in the most anticlimactic way possible- and then his reunion with his bio parents and discovering what happened to them got interrupted by a completely unrelated cutscene about the Natlan characters performing on stage out of nowhere!!!! Definitely makes me feel like Genshin cares about Bennett.... totally...

Ineffa and Bennett are doing the heavy lifting this update. But hey, we'll probably get the Mare Jivari tommorrow, and it looks super cool.

[hellobitchlet]

Thoughts on The Journey Home;

- (sarcasm) great to see that Ifa's first appearance in permanent content was him showing up briefly and dipping 5 minutes later. Topped off with Traveler and Paimon acting like they know him, even though nobody starting this game after 5.7 will know him.

- "well, pain can be a useful parameter. Experiencing pain is how is how baby humans and saurians learn what to do and what not to do (...) imagine you're a bigshot shaman from the Masters of the Night Wind, and you send your disciple on an errand to the Flower Feather clan. To stop him from treating it like a vacation, you might put a curse on him that causes a physical and mental breakdown if he strays from the right path." Jesus christ what the fuck Xilonen that is not normal. This line of thinking is why Kachina is so traumatized by everyone's treatment of her.

- despite the above quote, Xilonen having Ineffa clean her workshop was a bit funny.

- thank you Ineffa and Ajaw for being the only playable characters directly connected to Natlan deep lore... god I wish there were more. And god I wish we could've gotten more from them, it could've been so fun!

- I actually really liked the transition to the Natlan characters talking about Natlan lore that was actually pretty natural (compared to how unnatural and awkward Genshin dialogue usually is), leading to an accidental 'trigger'- Lianca. And then, the transition to the 11th Lord talking to 'Malfunction' and Ineffa glitching and freaking out.

- Ineffa instantly became my favorite character in all of 5.x. Which says a lot about how the rest of Natlan went, considering that she's the last character in 5.x. That's not to say that I dislike the rest of the cast, but none of them really got the... oomph? That Ineffa and her story has? You know? Letting at least some of a character's potential shine does a lot for them.

- for once, I actually liked a lot of the npc moments in this quest. The Nod Krai npc's do a decent job at setting up Nod Krai. Since Ineffa's story revolves around her memory loss, she can't introduce it herself, so they actually feel like a necessary addition to the story.

- also I like the npc kid's outfit more than Aino's. I also thought the Frostmoon Scion npc's outfit looked better than Lauma's when that teaser was released. I really like Nod Krai npc designs tbh.

- just in general, I really like the 11th Lord butting in constantly and talking to Ineffa, and the random fragments of memories popping up. It spices up the normally boring dialogue pretty well. Usually, Genshin puts no thought into the setup of the story (beyond making the quest as long as possible), instead pouring most of their energy into Making The Ending Look Cool.

- I'm much more interested in Ineffa and Chasca's dynamic than I am in... any dynamic between Chasca and every other Natlan character combined.

- it's never going to happen, but I want Ineffa to get a Flower Feather Clan skin sooo bad now.

- I'm fed up with how Ajaw is treated. Every single one of the Super Duper Moral And Good playable characters treat him like shit at all times because *checks notes* he says mean things. Traveler has probably killed hundreds of npc's at this point, and they and Paimon are massive bigots, but they draw the line at saying mean things towards pale skinned characters.

- couldn't have had Ajaw freak out on Ineffa and reveal any of this soverign ruler lore on screen, no! We had to have Kinich punish him like an abusive parent with a toddler for- I kid you not- not wanting to tell Kinich what's on his mind. Off screen, too, with Citlali coming along to tell everyone this information. And pretending that Kinich isn't acting like an emotionally abusive parent getting mad at a toddler. And here I thought that Kinich cared about Ajaw, and just wasn't saying it out loud... guess not...

- Ajaw, Ineffa, and the 11th lord could've made SUCH a cool story- but no! Who cares about them, Ajaw is a meanie and the 11th Lord is a bad robot, aren't these playable characters sooo much better morally? The ones that are perfectly okay with sending a child to fight and die in the Night Kingdom as long as she comes back, among other things? Ajaw acts mean, so he doesn't DESERVE to have his own story!

- honestly, what has gotten into Natlan characters in this quest? Kinich was never actively mean and abusive towards Ajaw (only dishing out the same energy Ajaw gives him), and Xilonen is normally one of the characters getting shit on for being 'lazy'- not one of the perpetrators of Genshin's concerning 'moral lessons'. At least Citlali endorsing abuse is in character for her, even if that's probably not the takeaway I was supposed to have from her relationship to Ororon.

- actually, this quest is a great reference point for Natlan's (probably accidental on the writers part) societal issues, if I ever want to analyze that. Whooo boy there is a lot of concerning things being said by these people that they think is normal.

- Chasca is actually my favorite Natlan character in this quest. They're finally utilizing her backstory, and it's really nice! When they first found Ineffa, she treated her like a mindless object like the rest of the group, but she's spent time with her now and realizes that she IS her own person. A struggling person who needs help. Everyone around her gave her a chance, back when she was a child who wasn't 'easy to help' (to put it simply, though I feel it doesn't do her justice...), so why can't she give Ineffa a chance? And why can't the rest of you?

- I would've loved to see an actual conflict come out of that. Chasca vs Xilonen, Citlali, and whoever else in Natlan deems Ineffa a threat that needs to be taken out. I would've loved to see that one almost-argument go somewhere. I would've loved to see Xilonen and Citlali mistakenly think that Ineffa was harming the npc's when they follow her immedietaly after the argument and make the situation worse, u know? Just imagine;

- Chasca, who was forced to live with stranger humans by her mother, who believed that she can't live with saurians forever, and got repremended by the humans whenever she did something they deemed 'wrong'. Chasca, who still believes that you can have multiple families and homes with different species, 'learns' to love them all anyways, even though they don't understand her and try to force her to act 'human'. They're only doing what's best for her, right? Now, after finally finding someone she understands on a personal level, she watches as people who accepted her vehemently refuse to see Ineffa as anything more than a dangerous machine, refusing to give someone who isn't human or saurian autonomy. Chasca, the peacekeeper, bearer of the name of her tribes founder, the founder who wished for union amongst the species who were fighting each other, a human seen as inhumanly fierce, protecting the same person the founder did thousands of years ago.

- (is she even human? Why do we never acknowledge that she looks like an elf...?)

- the parallels between Lianca and Chasca are EVERYTHING to me now. Ough if only the writers didn't force her to be mean towards Ajaw like the rest of the cast, that could've been a great duo too. If only Ajaw was taken the slightest bit seriously, that would also be a great part of the conflict- they don't know which lord he is, so what if he's a dangerous one?

- imagine Kinich initially being on the 'let's kill the robot' side, until the conversation turns to Ajaw. He clearly hates humanity, right? If Ineffa can become the 11th Lord again and kill us all, he could too, couldn't he? But Kinich knows Ajaw, knows he wouldn't, and defends him. Chasca uses that to bring him to her side. And thus, we can get the Ineffa and Ajaw interactions we deserved, and Kinich reflecting on his relationship to Ajaw.

- or maybe he believes that he would, and feels conflicted. It would be much better if they didn't risk it, right? And then we see Ajaw acting threatened and scared, and Kinich using his power over him to shut him up and lock him away, and Chasca is horrified. It reminds her of how humans treated her as a child, whenever she acted out. They weren't abusive, per se, but they hated her anger and fighting, and they never tried to understand how she feels. Even though she would eventually force herself to calm down and be understanding towards them... she would get angry at Kinich, maybe even attack him, trying to make him let Ajaw go. Maybe knocking him unconscious and bringing Ineffa and his body somewhere safer, promising to keep her new friends safe. Ajaw having never seen someone go so far for him before, having no idea how to react. Paralleling Lianca and Ineffa.

-... wait, that suddenly makes Kinich getting mad at Ajaw for not cooperating with him and forcing him to tell him stuff against his will even worse. Jesus christ. This quest might single handedly turn me into an Ajaw apologist.

- wow that was a really long tangent. Oops. Back to the review-

- again, it's really sad that all of this is happening in the very end of Natlan. Before now, I saw Chasca as one of the most boring Natlan characters. My feelings about Kinich have worsened significantly between the Fontaine event of 5.7 and this quest, while my feelings about Chasca have improved.

- and that brings back a previous point- see how much utilizing a character's potential can do for them? Back during Natlan's archon quest, Citlali and Ororon became my favorite Natlan characters because of their conflict. Even though it didn't last long, it was still more than what most characters got. All Chasca got was a dead sister, a stupid kit, and a boring tribal chronicle, so I just saw her as a Shenhe/Razor copycat for the longest time.

- the domain was really really cool. I'd love to have been able to explore it on my own tbh.

- even if it was mostly revealed/confirmed in a long winded info dump, and was followed by Paimon being annoying and repeating it like she was talking to a child ("bad bot" "good bot" WHY DO YOU THINK LIKE THIS?! IT'S BEEN YEARS PAIMON!!!), I really really like Ineffa's story. Favourite 5.x character for sure!

- so, Sandrone not only created Katherine, but has also created other human-like machines that work as her Fatui soldiers? That's really cool... good for her :D

- and the cutscene was actually REALLY GOOD. I mean, they always have good /animation/, but what happens in them isn't always that interesting, exciting, or important. This is the first one I've genuinely loved in quite a while.

- npc dude I thought your leg broke??? Why are you running around now??? Genshin you did that like 20 minutes ago, how did you forget already???

- and wrapping up the story with the letter from the beginning, and with a greeting letter from Varka that actually tells you who he is instead of expecting you to already know. Nice finishing touch!

Overall, this quest was obviously not flawless- and I don't think any Genshin quest will be- but it was actually REALLY good for Genshin. This is the best review I've ever given a quest- and I started doing these posts in 5.0. In fact, I think it's my favourite archon quest since the first few Traveler quests. I'm still really trying not to get my hopes up too high, but I hope that Nod Krai and 6.x follows the path that this wonderful prelude set.

[hellobitchlet]

I am endlessly pissed off by how the fandom was okay with Dahlia- the third Church of Favonius nun and second decon whose entire character is just Rosaria, Barbara, and Venti mashed together

But less than an update later, we see a really unique female character whose bio is full of genuinely important lore, and everyone not only completely ignored it, but laser focused on her cleaning and started wailing SHE'S A MAID LIKE NOELLE!!! YOU ALREADLY HAVE ONE!!! WHY DOES SHE EXIST!!!! SHE SUCKS SO MUCH!!!!

Holy hypocrisy guys

[hellobitchlet]

Alright, time to explain why I don't like the new space and spaceship lore. Both the twin's retcon, and the bullshit that is Skirk and Surtalogi's lore.

Before anyone says it, no I don't care about a cutscene that never made it into the actual game, that Genshin actively decided to cut. We don't call Kirara a geo character because she was originally going to be geo, we call her dendro because she's dendro in game, right?

So anyways, here are the problems I have with the spaceship/space stuff!

Traveler focused section:

Over halfway through the story is way too late to retcon what very little solid information we thought we had about the main characters-

This is the point where you should've been expanding on what we already have. And to be fair, we did do that as well. I may not like the execution of the traveler quest, but I liked most of the information we learned from it. Plus, we got more solid characterization from both twins that isn't Traveler being a dick than I feel we've gotten since We Will Be Reunited, which is good!

But the whole quest starting with a very glaring retcon that recontextualizes the entire 'fallen star' basis we thought we had for their characters? After knowing very little about them outside of the star thing for years? It was VERY distracting and off putting, as you can probably see in a certain previous post of mine...

I know this is just a personal opinion, but... 'aliens in a spaceship' is... very boring compared to what we thought was going on-

I would be significantly less disappointed if we hadn't gone into this quest having seen the twins literally being comets/falling stars/whatever ON SCREEN, in the very beginning of the game, no spaceship in sight. If we had only seen the twins fighting a god and get captured, and had no idea how they traveled between worlds, "they had a spaceship" would be an okay- if uninspired and basic- explanation.

But instead, we saw them shooting through Teyvat's sky as stars. We got an explanation, and it was a really cool one that immediately set the Traveler's apart from other isekai-type protagonists right from the get go. The story of these two living stars was once the lifeblood of the game, back when We Will Be Reunited came out and everyone had hope that it was going to actually go somewhere.

Yet, it's suddenly being scrapped in favor of them being 'basic ass aliens with a spaceship', something every other game (Hoyo's or otherwise) already has. And... why would you do that when the fandom was invested in the super unique concept that you already had? The concept that made people interested in the twins in the first place?

(Did Hoyo not realize that they wrote the twins like that...? I mean, the Nod Krai video claims that the writing team is genuinely much less aware of what the fandom thinks than I thought, but SURELY they didn't do all of that accidentally?? Especially when hi3 later gave Kalpas the exact same 'alien that crashed into the world like a meteor' backstory and was also clearly not in a spaceship, despite being in a futuristic game that is full of spaceships. Surely, that was inspired by the Travelers, because why else would they do that? And if it was, then why would they not have Kalpas come to Earth in a spaceship... unless the Traveler's weren't supposed to have one at the time? It's a vague connection to make, especially since I doubt anyone reading knows hi3, but it's a potential piece of evidence that I've been chewing on for weeks now.)

General section:

Genshin, Hi3, and Hsr were already struggling with their individuality as is-

None of Hoyo's games have had a huge distinction between each other in terms of design. Your games with completely different stories and settings should not be so same-y that they're hard to differentiate from each other.

Genshin, as a fantasy game amidst futuristic and sci-fi games, has the biggest differences imo, and I still stand by that. No new content is going to erase the unique vibes of the first half of the game. But... that doesn't mean that the new content itself can't look painfully similar to other Hoyo games, at the cost of it looking extremely different from the aforementioned first half of the game. This has been happening in Natlan, and from what we've seen of Nod Krai so far... they're just doubling down on it. Aino looks EXACTLY like a ZZZ npc!

And if you follow Genshin, hsr, and hi3, it becomes pretty obvious that Hoyo randomly shoves ideas they came up with in one game into another game. All lore enthusiasts know that they recycle ideas within the deep lore ofc- but I'm talking about two games just. having suspiciously similar (often random) ideas and releasing it within a few months of each other.

For example, hsr makes Rappa, a pale skinned but black-coded graffiti artist with a colourful paint aesthetic, right before Genshin released Natlan- a nation with a lot of graffiti, a colourful paint aesthetic, and white-washed black-coded characters. Citlali's kit has the same aesthetic as Theresa's new battlesuit that had come out soon before her, despite neither having a 'sleepy' aesthetic before that point. Diredyth, a new Khaenri'ah npc, looks similar to the npc's of Amphoreus- hsr's new planet that was released recently. Stuff like that.

Fuck, Genshin just released a new chef character who goes traveling at the end of her story quest (like Xiangling) at the same time that hi3 released a battlesuit for Li Sushang where she becomes a traveling chef with a cute lil chef animal buddy (like Xiangling).

We don't need Genshin tacking on lore about spaceships and other planets on top of what they're already doing, because both hi3 and hsr already had that covered. You literally spend half of both games on spaceships, why do you even need Genshin to have them? And learning about different planets and the relationships between them is what both hsr and hi3 part 2 is about! So why do you need that in Genshin?? Nobody came to Genshin to see the exact same things going on in Hoyo's other games!

Skirk and Surtalogi section:

We do NOT need Genshin tacking on lore about aliens in spaceships on top of everything else going on in the story-

Literally all we needed to know about the twins pre-Teyvat was what the their home world was like and why they left. We did not need Skirk to be from another world, and we CERTAINLY didn't need Surtalogi and that space faction to exist.

We are over halfway through the story and we still barely know anything about Khaenri'ah, Celestia, the Abyss, the Dark Sea, Snezhnaya, etc. I feel like the primordial dragons and the Hexenzirkel shooting up in relevance from Sumeru forwards was already pushing how much stuff Genshin can do at once.

I mean, Hexenzirkel stuff has completely taken over summer events and Mondstadt content, when Mondstadt is full of unexplained lore that isn't always Hexenzirkel related. And Natlan focusing so much on dragons cheated us out of Night Kingdom lore (which is much closer connected to pre Natlan lore + the playable cast), so hard that we never even got the Night Kingdom as an explorable map.

We still don't know what the Tsaritsa's plan with the gnosis are (if she's even the one in charge atp with how much shilling Pierro gets as the 'leader of the harbingers' over her...). We still have a whopping 5 harbingers left to introduce across Snezhnaya p1 and 2, + 3 already introduced harbingers with unfinished stories + 3 of Arle's kids + the Tsaritsa. We don't know wtf happened to Diluc in Snezhnaya, let alone who the 3rd party that saved him is.

We only JUST started to explain what the Abyss Twin and the Abyss Order is doing. We only JUST started hinting at an explanation of wtf Varka is doing. We only JUST got told that Makoto and Ei's eternity concept might be related to the moons. We're only JUST now getting an acknowledgement of whatever tf is going on with Bennett.

Ignoring the likely possibility of getting more new nations like Nod Krai, there are only 3 'nations' left to do ALL of this, as well as a shit load of other topics that I didn't even mention. Taking all of that into consideration... where are we even going to fit Skirk, Surtalogi, and whatever else follows them?

The Skirk and Surtalogi stuff also- in my opinion- overshadows a lot of the Abyss and Khaenri'ah lore we were (rightfully) expecting-

I know that we never knew for a fact that Skirk and the whale were abyssal beings, but there is a very good reason why people automatically thought they were. It's because it doesn't make sense to introduce them as beings Childe met in the Abyss, and have them purely exist as parts of Childe's backstory in the Abyss for years, and then have them have very little to do with the Abyss.

Again, we still barely know anything about the Abyss. Even if you didn't want to make Skirk Khaenri'ahn, or born an abyssal creature, or anything like that, there were many options for an abyssal character. Don't tell me that the narwhal being an abyssal creature (maybe a corrupted god or something?) wouldn't have been ten times more relevant and memorable than what we ended up with.

Not to mention the fact that literally all of Skirk's leaked concept art looks exactly like an Abyss character, which makes me suspect that they either changed her to this VERY late in development, or that there was a huge miscommunication in which the concept artists also assumed they were making an Abyss character. That's just speculation, though.

Similarly, why would you go out of your way to set up Surtalogi as one of the 5 Sinners just to pull a shitton of unrelated alien lore out of your ass?? It was assumed that the 5 Sinners were made so that we can FINALLY start to flesh out Khaenri'ah and the Cataclysm. And, you know, finally explain how the Cataclysm happened and who caused it. That's exactly why Rhinedottir is here, isn't it? Because she was the only 'cause of the Cataclysm' that we knew of before the establishment of the 5 Sinners?

So they should focus on the Cataclysm, and how and why they caused it, right? Because that's what they're here for. There is literally no other purpose for the 5 Sinners. So...... why is Surtalogi like..... that? Even with Perinheri and the whole 'decendder orphanage' thing, I can't imagine what some guy leaving Teyvat to live on a spaceship and kill people in space has to do with the Cataclysm. Or Khaenri'ah. Or Teyvat at all.

On the other hand, imagine what we could've gotten done with- say- a second Albedo story quest that focuses on him and Rhinedottir. Or a quest about Dainsleif and his brother. Or even just a version of Skirk and Surtalogi in which Skirk was an orphaned descender and Surtalogi was in charge of whatever tf was going on with that.

[hellobitchlet]

For the past year or so before the Shade reveal came out, I've been trying to make up my own concept of wtf is going on with Venti and Istaroth. I don't usually post this kind of stuff, but u guys really liked my last post about them soooo.....

While this 'concept' wasn't originally made to be a theory, a lot of it is me trying to sort through pieces of canon that doesn't make a lot of sense on it's own. So, let me phrase it as a theory anyways.

Tldr; Venti and Istaroth came together as Mondstadt's gods, and then they did something that pissed Celestia off so much that they placed a curse on Venti that forces him to sleep and erased a huge section of Mondstadt's religion from Irminsul. After the Shade reveal, I now suspect that they placed the curse on Istaroth too.

I've always been interested in the whole concept of using the Irminsul to erase history, and how exactly that works. We know from Inversion of Genesis that it doesn't just change memories, but also physical objects. It changes a physical paper that someone had written the true history onto, to match with the fake history where Scara didn't exist. Hence, authors who encrypt real events into metaphorical stories. Why is this relevant, you might ask?

Well, this use of the Irminsul is likely something that Celestia made it to do on purpose, as a tool to control Teyvat, right? We don't know the extent that it can influence the physical world, but it can, so it's not hard to claim that it could influence whole buildings? That leads to my first 'point that doesn't make sense on it's own';

How did Mondstadt completely forget that it used to worship two gods? How did they forget that they used to worship the Shade of Time herself? How did this seemingly have no effect on their modern religion?

Mondstadt isn't a stranger to remembering/not remembering things that don't make sense. The entire nation still holds a grudge against the Lawrence Clan after a thousand years (and the family themselves are also acting like they're important classcist nobles after a thousand years), but they didn't remember Dvalin, the massive dragon who openly protected them for... I would guess 500 years? Or the Crimson Witch who probably burnt half of Mondstadt to the ground in the middle of a borderline apocalyptic event. Or even Ursa the Drake, a dragon who was terrorizing them only like. a few years ago. This is no different, but it's also a question surrounding two of the most suspicious people in the game so....

Yes, I'm proposing that Celestia erased the memories of Istaroth's involvement in Mondstadt from the Irminsul. Including the impact she probably had on Mondstadt's society and religion.

Perhaps, the reason why those sundials are left is because what was written on them is a poem that doesn't directly mention Barbados and Istaroth by name? Or perhaps it's because Istaroth protected them somehow, for some reason? Venti doesn't have dendro powers, so the leaves that appear around the sundial in elemental sight had to be her.

(Off topic side note; I also like to think that Celestia tried to erase the original civilization. It gives Genshin a get-out-of-plot-free card that explains why such an important thing is never brought up in quests, but more interestingly.... why else would the only places you can find original civilization ruins on the surface be Dragonspine and Tsurumi? Because their ley lines are destroyed and wonky, not fit for carrying out erasures!)

Regardless, that begs the question- why did Celestia do that?

Perhaps I should've started this post with going over how Venti and Istaroth act, but I expect that to be fresh in everyone's memories right now. Istaroth helps Khaenri'ah and Enkanomiya. Venti helped a revolution against a controlling god. Yada yada yada. We now know for a fact that the other shades don't like that Istaroth does this, which certainly adds to my point.

I have no idea what they did, but they had to have done something that pissed Celestia off. Surely. Maybe they spoke out against something, maybe they tried to start a 2 person rebellion. Regardless, they probably did it on purpose, considering that they're both little shits.

I do know that it probably didn't include Mondstadters, cause otherwise the entire nation would be in trouble. So, encouraging a revolution amongst humans is out of the picture.

I also know that it had to have happened at some point between Venti befriending the other archons post Archon War, and him waking up in the aristocratic period of Mondstadt.

The other thing that Celestia did is put a curse on them that forces them to sleep most of the time. Or, I would assume it's a curse, like the curse of immortality and whatnot. I don't think I need to explain that one, as it's generally agreed upon (I think?) that him being forced to sleep somehow is the reason for him being absent 95% of the time. I believe it was Weinlesefest, when Venti dropped his cryptic lines about the anemo archon sleeping?

I originally thought that they just did that to Barbados and not Istaroth, but Istaroth acts suspiciously sleepy in the trailer so... they probably placed it on both of them.

They did this instead of outright killing them because they needed them. They need the Shade of Time, and they need an archon to protect Mondstadt. And the concept of replacing an archon after the original dies only started with the Cataclysm waaaay later on, so it would be odd to just replace him.

(I really don't think they were planning on doing the mortal human pyro archon thing until... Fontaine probably? So that would have no bearing on what they wrote in the beginning of the game. That whole thing messes with the older archon lore quite a bit imo, but that's off topic.)

And so, they set up the curse so that there are ways to wake them up to do their jobs in case of a disaster. It's pretty much all but confirmed that Venti can be woken up when his nation is in peril, and we usually assume it has to do with something like praying for his help.

(Insert what I said about the pyro archon but with Paralogism trying to force a pre-aq relationship with Dahlia and Varka onto Venti. And the Triparte Conference. I'm still so confused that they retconned Venti's 'let humanity do their own thing' philosophy just to hype up a new 4 star and characters we were already hyped for??)

So after all of that, here's the timeline of events that I've made up in my head:

At some point, Istaroth split her soul into a thousand pieces, forming the Thousand Winds. Lets say she was finding sneaky ways to help humanity through the Archon War, under the noses of the other shades. These lil guys are just helpful creatures who aid humanity- nothing special.

One of them somehow joins a full on revolution and becomes the anemo archon. After the war is over, the rest of the lil guys come back together to reform Istaroth (which is why we never see or hear from any other wind spirits), but she can't just take Barbados the archon! He's really come into his own person, and he's gained a lot of power on his own.

Instead, she befriends him. I'm imagining a mother and child who kind of act more like besties? They really like each other, and share similar views on humanity. They live on their little island, or at least hang out there, and generally let Mondstadt do it's own thing unless they call on them for help.

But, they bounce off of each other... a bit too well. Istaroth is very open to teaching Mondstadters (and Barbados) things, and Barbados himself encourages this. Mondstadters quickly develop a much greater understanding of Celestia than any other nation, and incorporate her and her knowledge into their religion.

At some point, a few centuries into this relationship, the two of them do... something against Celestia. Not sure what yet. Either way, Celestia deems this unforgiveable and steps in. But they can't just kill an archon, let alone a shade. So they place a curse on them that forces them to sleep constantly, to prevent them from doing more damage. They also remove all traces of Istaroth from the ley lines (... or so they think).

For Venti, he can only wake up when humans in Mondstadt pray for his help enough to wake him up (ie; during disasters where they need help). And when he does wake up, he only has a decade or so until he falls back to sleep again. For Istaroth, she only wakes up when called upon by the other shades for meetings (and also the Cataclysm).

The first time Venti wakes up is 1000 years ago, a few centuries after all of this happened. He is now deeply afraid of Celestia, as indicated by the Venessa manga, and has lost faith that he can do... whatever they tried to do with Celestia. In the decade that followed the revolution against the aristocracy, he would bring the Four Winds together in the hopes that they can act as the 'immortal protectors who do not interfere in human business' that he wanted himself and Istaroth to be.

500 years later, he would wake up again in the middle of the Cataclysm and (alongside the 4 winds) protect Mondstadt. Finally, he would wake up another 500 years later, a few days before Traveler and Paimon walk in on him talking to Dvalin.

Again, I am choosing to ignore Paralogism's retcons. I refuse to believe that he was awake during the Collei manga but didn't appear at all. It's so painfully obvious that they didn't think it through I'm sorry.

Seeing the reveal of the Shades now... these ideas may actually be at least partially true! I hope it is bc I really like my ideas... I think it would tie everything together really neatly, and make the story make a lot more sense in general.

[hellobitchlet]

Negativity aside, I am very interested in how Istaroth acts in the trailer. She acts really... sleepy. Low energy. Venti mysteriously falls asleep for centuries on end. We don't know why. Venti is against gods controlling humans. He has aided humans in overthrowing a god before. Istaroth helps civilizations that the rest of Celestia harms or ignores. The other shades don't like that. She starts regrowing the tree struck down by Ronova. There is something here. I don't know if Genshin is doing it intentionally.

Istg if Hoyo only drops Venti and Istaroth's lore through vague hints like this for the rest of the game I'm going to be so mad (they are very much going to do that)

[hellobitchlet]

Istaroth is the only Shade with a relatively decent design

I am so disappointed with Ronova and Naber-Dottir :( they look so ass I'm sorry. And I'm not just saying that because I wanted the shades of life and death to be Seele and Veliona expies. Ronova is especially disappointing, considering how amazing her biblically accurate angel form is. At least Naber-Dottir isn't super oversexualized, which is good for them. What the fuck is that hair.

I ADORE Istaroth's halo(?) though. The rest of her design is fairly bad but the H A L O. With minimal changes, it could easily resemble the sundial on The Secret Island. It looks so so cool

[hellobitchlet]

...in an event, Keqing talks Military Strategy about the disadvantages of your military taking too long to defeat a dangerous enemy, saying "A passive defense is always a losing strategy."

And Paimon responds with "sitting around and waiting for the enemy to attack sounds like it would really suck!"

During the same update that A Space And Time For You came out.

In which everyone in Natlan was sitting around waiting for the enemy to attack.

[hellobitchlet]

Thoughts on Skirk's story quest;

- I was surprised to start off with Traveler and Paimon going to Baizhu? I'm slightly confused that they didn't go to Tighnari (as we would presumably be in Natlan rn and he's the closest doctor we know) but considering how little screentime he gets, I'm not complaining.

- I have no idea why Traveler was describing what was going on on-screen during the dreams in excruciating detail?? We can... see it??? You're not in a book, you're in a video game with visuals and sounds...?

- I like Skirk's personality in the beginning. I was afraid they would make her sound nicer than she was in Fontaine (and they do, but I'll get to that later) so seeing her leave a stupidly tiny amount of mora for the drink and leave with "Settle the bill for me, will you?" was reassuring. And "The weak and the lowly have no right to remember me"! Sadly, the rest of the quest shows that Genshin was trying to go for 'she's just pretending to be an asshole bc of trauma and is actually really nice and well meaning like everyone else'. Which... sucks. We were so close...

- CONSTELLATION LORE!!!!!!! THANK YOU SKIRK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- and thank you for actually getting to the point when you talk, too. She's so straight-to-the-point that even after a brief detour to chill with Baizhu in the beginning, we actually know what the quest is about less than 10 minutes into it, and thank god for that. I don't know if I would've been able to take her seriously if she were as overly dramatic and talk-y as most of the important 5 stars.

- I'm glad that this didn't take place in Natlan, honestly. I am so bored of Natlan.

- it's been a while since Paimon gave out a nasty nickname, huh? Considering how sexist Genshin has been towards Skirk, I... don't like that her nasty nickname is something pointlessly gendered like "ice queen".

- the Abyss looks super cool! But uhhhh... of all the ways we could've ended up in the Abyss for the first time... we go with 'Skirk reappears and becomes playable out of nowhere, and casually brings Traveler to the Abyss to train them for a bit'? That's the best you could've come up with?

- Keqing (among others) definitely did not make this much of a lasting impression on Traveler. I am very confused about the whole 'Traveler thinks about the 'sword masters' they've met' thing. We've only fought alongside some of these characters once. Did we ever even fight with Nilou? Kaeya, Ayaka, and maybe Kazuha I will accept, but Keqing, Lynette, and Nilou are really weird choices. You didn't go through all of the sword characters, so why this selection specifically...? I would've at least had Jean.

- watching a backstory scene about someone committing genocide against Skirk's people and calling them savages during one of the top racist nations filled me with rage. Hoyo, you know exactly what you're doing when you pull racist bullshit. You knew exactly what you were doing with Sumeru and Natlan. You know what you're doing with the hilichurls. You know this is bad. You have no excuses.

- not to mention, hsr made multiple characters who survived the genocide and destruction of their planet already. You know what happened to them? The main characters befriended the genociders, and the protagonist acts really shitty towards Boothill for being openly against the genociders in question.

- how convenient that the Romani and Native American genocide survivors got racist treatment, while a genocide survivor who doesn't seem to have real life influences didn't :)

- spending an excruciatingly long time bouncing back and forth between 'training' with Skirk and being told about her backstory is... a very boring first experience within the Abyss.

- all that time, and how do we figure out who took part of Traveler's soul or whatever? Skirk finds him for us off screen. Come on.

- I'm okay with the concept of Skirk being from another world, but "there is a space faction committing space genocide that one of the Sinners may be a part of"? WHAT THE-

- WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! THERE WAS NO POINT TO ADD THAT TO THE STORY?! 'ALIENS GO AROUND KILLING PLANETS' WAS THE PLOT HI3 WAS SETTING UP FOR HSR THAT YOU SCRAPPED!!!! WHY WOULD YOU SCRAP IT TO MAKE HSR MORE LIKE GENSHIN AND THEN INTRODUCE IT TO GENSHIN INSTEAD???????????????????

- the least you could've done was have Skirk be connected to the recent deep lore about the crimson moon dynasty's Khaenri'ah making an orphanage to take in aliens for -mysterious reasons-. That seems like a pretty important thing that people should know about from a playable character that we actually care about and not a random book from a filler update, especially with the hints that the House of the Hearth may be connected to that orphanage.

- Skirk and Surtalogi ended up being exactly like I feared, which is 'new male character is More powerful and More important than this powerful and important female character you've been excited for since 1.1, she purely exists to give you lore about the male character.' Which is annoying as fuck.

- I feel like we got much more actual gameplay from this story quest than we usually do. But again, despite being in the fucking Abyss, what we ended up doing was.... essentially a playable montage of the protagonist training with their mentor to Get Stronger, except that Traveler is already super Strong and Powerful and Amazing, so there's no reason why they needed to train. Skirk was just like "you're powerful already but our enemy is more powerful so train" and Traveler was like "okay".

- they tried REALLY hard to convince you that the situation was tense but like... the person attacking us stopped and waited for us to decide to run away before he attacked. The enemies he summoned as you were leaving were regular ass hilichurls. I ran past them when I was leaving and only got hit by them once. I actually found it easier than the last training segment.

- most of the quest was training segment > Skirk backstory > training segment > Skirk backstory > training segment > okay we're done and Skirk found the culprit off screen > very mild confrontation.

- goooooood I hate this stupid 'Surtalogi and the narwhal are soooo super duper strong and surely no one from Teyvat is as strong as them!' thing. I DON'T care about random planets outside of Teyvat, actually. The only one you could even convince me to care about is the twins' home planet, and that's because it's important to their stories.

- (paraphrased) "Paimon has a feeling Skirk doesn't like being around new people- let's bring her to our friends house!" Paimon that doesn't make any sense.

- wdym we stayed in Baizhu's house for DAYS, and never saw him?? He wasn't there?? Neither were Changsheng and Qiqi??? Why did we go to Baizhu's house if we didn't want to write the 3 of them meeting Skirk????

- the seelie thing bringing you to Skirks 'mindscape' without her consent and them and Traveler literally TELLING you everything they already showed you was just. So stupid. I KNEW what was happening WAY before this point, Genshin. I'm not stupid. The only new information we learned from that was that the humanoid figure from the narwhal boss was Surtalogi.

- fuck spaceship lore. Fuck intergalactic trading. I don't give a single shit about any of this. This is what hsr is supposed to be about.

- they're going to use this space faction to make Celestia 'sympathetic' and excuse all the shitty things they did one of these days, aren't they. I swear to god, if this turns into "Celestia was trying ro protect Teyvat from the space faction, and the leaders of Khaenri'ah sided with the space faction so it's their fault that Khaenri'ah was destroyed actually" I will be so mad.

- I guess, at least the whole 'being from another world' thing allows Genshin's attempts to force a 'special' relationship between Traveler and New Woman to actually kind of make sense? But between how horrible the game usually is towards any woman they do this with and how shitty Traveler is as a person, I still don't like it.

- I never want to see that stupid seelie looking thing on my screen ever again. I don't care that it's also Skirk. Oh my god the amount of dialogue this thing put me through.

- I still agree with what I said earlier about the first run in being super easy, but the boss was slightly difficult, which is nice. I was surprised to get a boss at all.

- of COURSE the person who was responsible for all of this was a friend of Surtalogi who immedietaly starts monologuing about him. Of course he and Skirk just end up talking about Surtalogi for a long time.

- and of course Super Special And Powerful Surtalogi can casually break the curse of immortality. Of course he left because he doesn't care about Teyvat anymore. Why not. Why not trivialize everything in all of Teyvat just to prop up some random new npc over literally everything else. Why not.

- this is Elysia levels of shilling, oh my god.

- man, the cold, egotistical version of her that I liked did not last long. I already don't like the nice Skirk who makes generic monologues about hope and kindness just like everyone else in this game. I was hoping that she would, you know, remain a unique character?

[hellobitchlet]

In light of 5.7, let's review my theory

On one hand, I'm relieved that Dain came out of the traveler quest generally unscathed. But on the other, Skirk.... got the exact treatment I was afraid she would.

I'm kind of pissed that the man got so much more focus than in the past 2 tq's- just for that screentime to be him being propped up massively while being a complete idiot- while the woman actually proved herself to be strong and intelligent but was put down at every other moment with "but look at SURTALOGI! Look at the UNAMED SPACE FACTION! Look at SURTALOGI some more, isn't he so powerful? Skirk is nowhere near as powerful as SURTALOGI!"

Plus, Dain was allowed to act angry and uncooperative, but Skirk got a (pointlessly gendered) nasty nickname from Paimon for not being super nice right off the bat, and the writers tried to cool that down with "oh, she's like that because of trauma, Traveler! It's nothing personal!" just for.... being slightly cold and unapproachable.

Not that I would call "goes out of her way to help Traveler, trains them, and does literally all of the work finding the person who took part of their soul from them" cold, but u know. Maybe Genshin did that on purpose bc they didn't think a 'cold' woman would sell well (despite Arlecchino).

[hellobitchlet]

Maybe I was slightly overreacting about Traveler very briefly mentioning having a spaceship, but can you blame me considering how much Genshin has been retconning it's older lore lately? And everything going on with Surtalogi and Skirk?

Maybe I'll explain my feelings about all the unnecessary sci-fi ish space lore in more detail soon.

[hellobitchlet]

Thoughts on A Space And Time For You;

- SPACESHIP????????????

- S P A C E S H I P ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

- WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TWINS CAME HERE ON A SPACESHIP WHAT DO YOU MEAN TRAVELER HAS HAD A KEY TO A SPACESHIP ON THEIR PERSON THIS WHOLE TIME WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'VE ALREADY TOLD PAIMON ABOUT THIS

- that is such an infuriating retcon to make, especially over halfway through the story. You are YEARS too late to make this retcon. And in the middle of fucking Natlan, too...

- from the moment I saw the word spaceship, I knew Genshin had lost it's individuality from Hoyo's other games for good. We're never going back to Genshin Impact the fantasy game, are we.....

- the Abyss Order is planning on going to war with Natlan, but the archon quest had to be about completely different Abyssal entities. Come on guys, just let the Abyss Order do something outside of the traveler quests! I have no idea why post-Mondstadt Genshin decided that the archon quests can only focus on the Fatui, it makes no sense when you could've had a wholeass war against a character the players actually care about!

- Iansan is very casual about her tribe suddenly being attacked. Like, extremely casual. And so is Paimon and Traveler? Why are we leaving to ask the archon why they're attacking them instead of helping and asking the Abyss Order themselves?

- (sarcasm) man, standing around talking about the fights that are currently happening sure makes me feel like I should care about it.

- Mavuika, Iansan, and Citlali knowing about Traveler's sibling isn't going to matter at all, is it?

- speaking of Hoyo losing all of it's individuality, Direidyth looks literally identical to an Amphoreus npc. Wrong game, girl.

- actually, this would've been a pretty neat introduction to a playable character who is actually part of the traveler quests... if Direidyth was playable.

- except the waifu bait. Why are we making waifu bait with an npc?

- seriously, the 'Abyss Order attacks Natlan' plot was made for the archon quest- not a traveler quest! I don't want to be walking back and forth checking in on how everyone is doing in a traveler quest! None of the other traveler quests focused on the nation it's in, why did it have to change for NATLAN of all places?! Why are we repeating the archon quest instead of directly tracking down the Abyss Order?!

- thank you, Citlali, for actually wanting to take the initiative and not drag things out. Oh my god why isn't anyone else trying to like. Actually do something. About this.

- aaaand then we get a cutsy little jealous waifu moment.

- "Sorry if that came across as paranoid. It's just hard not to be suspicious of everything when we're in the middle of a war" says Iansan, who just had to be reminded that they need to actually do something about the 'war' by Citlali.

- Direidyth would be a cool Adventurer's Guild character. She would totally be an official adventurer if she was allowed to.

- I'm so tired of Genshin having Traveler and Paimon loaf around doing nothing for an hour, and then giving Traveler a Very Convenient Dream that gives them the information that they barely even tried to work for. This isn't even the first time they've had a Convenient Vision about their sibling giving someone an inteyvat in a traveler quest.

- "all these years, the Abyss Order has managed to either stay hidden or fiercely defend their position... This may be the first chance I've ever had to finally make a serious dent in their forces." Dain, sweetie, you've been fighting the Abyss Order for god knows how long, and not only have you not done much damage to them- but the first time you got a chance to is when a group of bumbling idiots found them for you??

- I like the detail that Dain deals a lot of damage to elemental shields, something that most Abyss Order enemies have. If/when he becomes playable, I hope they keep that detail.

- so the whole time we were replaying Natlan's archon quest through a traveler quest, we could've been dealing with Abyss Sibling using the Loom of Fate instead. Great. Good to know. That could've been the final act of the archon quest, with Abyss Sibling as the weekly boss instead of that fuckass dragon, but okay...

- slightly off topic, but I played through Deltarune ch 3 and 4 in between my last post and now. I won't spoil anything, but man, does Genshin refusing to let it's story actually go somewhere feel even worse after Deltarune did... that only halfway through the story. If you want a game that actually challenges you, gives a shit about the characters it makes, and actually goes somewhere- I would totally recommend Deltarune.

- back on topic, at least we fought a boss? He's the easiest world boss we've gotten in the past few years, but still a boss.

- as soon as Traveler and Paimon leave, Dain and the npc loredump for like 10 minutes. Great. This is totally the best way this could've panned out. Totally.

- and then Traveler goes back to Direidyth and Abyss Sibling shows up- again, with Traveler having put very little effort into finding them- and loredumps for another 10 minutes.

- whyyyyyy couldn't Direidyth be playable. I don't know why, but I liked her more than the last 2 npc's the traveler quests threw at us. It certainly helps that she has a meaningful part in the siblings story, and a decent design despite the Amphoreus resemblence. Even a small role in the twin's story (that gives us a surprising amount of Khaenri'ah worldbuilding) is better than the other two having a completely unrelated story. Just... come up with something other than a fucking spaceship key to have her keep, and don't force waifu-isms onto her, and poof! Perfect playable character!

- she was so hopeful that the Savior would come and save her nation but the news she gave them caused them to make the opposite decision :((( ough Direidyth you could've been everythinggg to meeee.

- it's hilarious that she put so much more effort into reuniting the siblings than the siblings themselves (or at least Traveler?) have though oof

- Abyss Sibling's monologue about how they could only use the Night Kingdom's ley lines for the loom, and that they got the Lord of The Night's permission to do so, doubles down on how Natlan's archon quest should've been about this instead of just... random abyss enemies attacking Just Because.

- same with Citlali's explanation. Wdym Abyss Sibling had been here and was making a new Khaenri'ah during the archon quest? I would've LOVED to hear how Capitano would've felt about that. Or Enjou.

- I spent literally the entire quest waiting for Skirk to show up, and now I'm ten times more confused about her being made playable out of nowhere than I was before. What was the point?????????????? I assumed the point was for her to be part of the traveler quest, because why else would they wait until the traveler quest update specifically to release her??????????? When Iansan said someone beat up all of the abyss enemies with ease off screen, I assumed it was her and not the borderline useless wet rag that is Dainsleif (no offence dude but like... come on). I haven't done her story quest yet and I am deeply afraid to.

Edit;

- I'm surprised that I forgot to mention this, but I am glad that this quest had some actual decent characterization for the twins, even if it came in the form of Abyss Sibling showing up out of nowhere, infodumping for a bit, and then leaving. I mean, I didn't really care about Traveler's stuff bc their normal behaviour made me hate them a LONG time ago, but the Abyss Sibling desperately needed some more expansion on their own story. Sooo there you go- that is one positive point I have for this quest. I liked it more than Paralogism, that's for sure.

[hellobitchlet]

Before we get to 5.7, I have a little theory that I don't want to happen, but am worried that it's what they're leading up to with Skirk-

Are the 5 sinners going to be handled like the Hexenzirkel was before Sumeru? As in, is sinner lore just going to be their students/younger relatives popping in to talk about them every now and then?

Hear me out! The main thing that makes me think that is the handling of Skirk, the narwhal, and Dain since Fontaine.

Before Fontaine, Skirk had been built up in Childe's character stories as his mysterious and powerful teacher who lives in the Abyss, which implied that she was important. Since he came out, many people have been interested in her and the narwhal. But then when they actually appeared for the first time, Skirk literally just talked about a......... brand new character we've never heard of before who is her teacher, and left.

(Fast forwards to now, we recently got her drip marketing and it was also focused on her master. More than herself.)

A few updates later, we got our yearly traveler quest- Bedtime Story. Before Sumeru, traveler quests focused on Dainsleif a lot. Caribert and Bedtime Story, on the other hand, didn't seem to care about him very much, and chose to focus on new npc's instead. In Bedtime Story, he introduces us to the 5 sinners, and reveals that his brother (who we had never heard of before) was one of them, as well as the new master of Skirk.

So long story short, in the span of a few updates, we took 2 characters who people have been interested in for a long time- who were clearly made to be important- and had them introduce new important characters that they're connected to instead of expanding on their own stories.

This is similar to pre-Sumeru Hexenzirkel bc Albedo, Mona, and Klee used to do this with their teachers/parents all the time, and sometimes they still do. Before The Hexenzirkel Cutscene, all we had to go off of with the Hexenzirkel was Mona's story quest and the 3 talking about them in events occasionally.

Being connected to an important teacher figure is not bad- that's not what I'm saying. Rhine's kids certainly benefitted from it, and so did Childe. But Klee has always just been 'the cute kid who is everyone's little sister', and the last time we even hinted at Mona getting her own plotline was in 1.1. Both Klee and Mona (especially Mona) have spent a lot of time just... referencing their masters, or being in the room when their masters are mentioned.

To list some examples- Klee's mainly played a big role in GAA 1 and Bottleland because her mom invited her there. Her Bottleland skin was literally a costume of her mom. Mona appears in Fontaine's aq out of literally nowhere JUST to drop Hexenzirkel lore and dip. They both only appeared in Windblume 2 to be there for The Hexenzirkel Cutscene. Etc. Etc.

(Side note, notice how the 2 with less notable content are the girls and the 2 with more are the boys. I feel like Klee works fine not doing anything bc she's a young child, but god I wish we continued what Unreconciled Stars had going on with Mona :( )

Hoyo's writing has changed since they wrote Shadows Amidst Snowstorms, and it's changed to prefer the kind of writing they did with Klee and Mona- connecting a character to something important, but then just using them to convey information about Important Thing to you, instead of building up an actual plotline about them. We rarely see anything meaningful come out of characters related to the lore Hoyo is building up- all we get is disconnected info to theorize on.

In recent times, we've seen this with Cyno and Sethos with the Temple of Silence. We've seen this with Neuvillette and dragon lore. We've even seen the House of Hearth kids doing this with Arlecchino and their orphanage! It's been quite a while since we've gotten an Albedo.

This is already a shitty way to handle things as is. It always has been. But if they do that to Skirk and Dainsleif? That's even worse.

Skirk was the female teacher of a male character, who many were excited for because she would presumably be a 'cold', badass, important female character in a game where few playable girls are allowed to be important or have less-than-super-nice personalities. And yet, when she finally comes out, she's suddenly all about this MORE powerful, MORE important male character we had never heard of before??? When her male student always stood on his own as a character, and never even mentioned her before Fontaine??? When he was able to reveal info about other characters without it becoming his whole personality???

And Dain is also an important character, one we've known since the beginning. He's supposed to be a character we meet up with throughout the main story, who is actively involved in the Abyss Order plotline. He's one of the only characters who was practically guaranteed an actual storyline of his own! Despite that, due to the snails pace the alleged AO storyline is going, he's barely done anything. For Genshin to finally decide what they want the traveler quests to be, just to further delegate him to the role of standing around info dumping about other characters... this time about his brother doing things he could've done instead...

That would just be. Shitty. For both of them. And that's not even going into Albedo's future after the bullshit that was Paralogism, since he's a 5 Sinner's student as well.

Again! This is a personal theory and analysis! Don't come after me for making observations that don't assume the best! I know I could be wrong and I hope I am! But hopefully you can see that the way they've handled Skirk and Dain since Fontaine is shitty and suspicious.

[hellobitchlet]

Not a fan of anything else going on in this event either, really.

Brown skinned npc's from Natlan, one of whom has a black hairstyle, goes to a white European nation to do illegal shit as soon as they got the chance to leave their own nation.

Kinich, a pale skinned playable character from Natlan, going out of his way to sneak into Fontaine because he "thought they were shady" the moment he saw them, and being praised by other pale skinned characters for telling the white police about them.

Chevreuse, a cop, allowing Ajaw and Kinich to beat someone up right in front of her without even mentioning it, because the person was a criminal.

Insulting GAMBLERS in a gacha game?????? Insulting the very people you want to play your game????????????? I get that it was because of Kinich's trauma and it makes sense for him to feel like that, but it's plain stupid to say that about your own customers?????????????

Traveler joking about Iansan whipping her trainees out of literally nowhere!!!!!! That was so uncalled for!!!!! First you give her the Xinyan treatment of having her show up as little as possible, now you're giving her the Kaeya treatment too??

Not a fan of Genshin using the deliberately ridiculous law that can get innocent people arrested and sent to jail over nothing as a punchline. Unironically. When Neuvillette has had the ability to change laws for over a year now. And can't hide behind the 'Furina is in charge, not me' excuse anymore. And has created laws when he actually wanted to keep someone- the melusines- safe even before he officially became the only ruler of Fontaine.

And joking that the police officers after Caucucu are shooting at him. For flying. As a bird.

How is Genshin SO tone deaf at all times...

[hellobitchlet]

Actually, here's some more thoughts now that I've gotten to sit and think about the overall quest:

- the entire framing of The Plan that the quest was focused on, and ppl like Albedo, Venti, and Jean perfectly executing it, was clearly the Hoyo tactic of 'trying to sound smarter than they actually are'. But uhhhh..... this was an extremely stupid plan. How many innocent civilians died in the MONTHS that the knights waited??? And how many died during the attack that obviously would not have been as big if you had taken action sooner???

- another stupid side effect of Genshin hyper-focusing on The Plan is that they spent SO much time on it that they didn't have time for much else. We could have dedicated all that time spent on the useless 'investigation' to Durin instead. But no! We spent like an hour on the 'investigation', and like half an hour after that info dumping! You're told over and over again that Durin is a big bad threat, but then your just fighting normal mobs (most of which you can literally choose not to fight), and everyone reacts unnaturally calmly to the situation. No one acts like Durin's a threat, so everything falls flat.

- for as cute as Alice was in this quest, the shoehorning in Hexenzirkel lore when Rhinedottir was the only one who was relevant to the plot also contributed to this. The only witch we needed to hear from- if any- was Rhinedottir herself. Alice and Barbeloth don't have anything to do with this, let alone the random chess board that we've NEVER heard of before! Why would you make the big boss of the Durin Threat quest anything OTHER than Durin??

-imagine for a second; Durin may not be able to move his corpse around (presumably), but what about his blood? Imagine a massive dragon the size of Dvalin, that is entirely made of bloody mist and crystals. That would've been SUCH a cool boss! Imagine what mechanics you could do with sheer cold, and using Durin's blood-body to stay warm, or needing to stay near him to prevent yourself from freezing.

- actually, if Hoyo wasn't so lazy, this chess themed boss would've been a pretty cool unique boss for the Imaginarium Theatre. Imagine if Genshin's endgame content wasn't so dam lazy. You know why the Elysian Realm is so popular in hi3? Because it comes with BOTH endgame content AND an actual story! That is what we need here! Some sort of Imaginarium Theatre questline would've been a great place to utilize Albedo, Mona, and Klee in permanent content- and a much better place to have Dodoco Alice and Barbeloth. Why couldn't we have done that?

- I don't think I emphasized enough how ooc Diluc is from his original appearances. For as shitty as the writers treat Kaeya, at least dumbing him down didn't include throwing away his /base personality/. Diluc, though? He actively expresses his hatred towards ppl constantly, and has actively DONE stuff against the knights on screen. So he has to be changed COMPLETELY if we want to avoid conflict. Now, he's a good civil servant who actively helps the knights and goes to them when he sees illegal things happen!! Which is. The exact opposite personality.

- and for Kaeya, while his surface level personality hasn't changed as much (bc he's not a born hater like Diluc), he still greatly suffers from the same problems. However, their relationship turning out fine despite everything has been happening for years, and Kaeya's personal stuff wasn't brought up in this quest. So, not as much to say about Kaeya for once. Which is probably a good thing.

- speaking of being ooc, I never would've thought that JEAN of all people would handle this matter in such a... dare I say Kaeya or Diluc like way? Last I checked, she would never allow civilians to be killed while knowing who the culprit is. Literally- the time we saw her go against the 'normal' way a knight would handle things in the aq was bc she knew they needed to act quickly for the safety of the people!

-even talking to Albedo and Venti was annoying! I have NEVER felt that way about Venti before. EVER. And that is really bad!! Like, REALLY really bad!! Venti has always been one of the most fun and interesting characters to interact with in the whole game- if even he is being sanded down and beginning to feel the same as everyone else... we're doomed. I'm serious.

All in all, the biggest takeaway I have from this quest is that it should never have existed. I cannot find a single good thing to say about it. Half of the characters involved act ooc at best and are ruined beyond repair at worst. It would have honestly been better if Albedo, Subject 2, and Durin's plotline from Shadows Amidst Snowstorms had been forgotten about completely. At least then, it wouldn't have been destroyed.

Thoughts on paralogism:

- starting off the 'expecting everyone to know event lore' quest strong with having you show up in the middle of the Windblume Festival.

- god, Genshin is SO bad at subtly. You go straight to Katherine and she TELLS you that somethings off and the game FORCES you to watch npc's act Not Normal for a good 5 minutes to set the tone as Something Is Off.

- what is the point of the storytelling mode? Is it really just to add Windblune decorations to Mondstadt and make a court room? It's not like Mondstadt's aq didn't temporarily change the city's appearance already without it. And the Wibdblume festival is largely irrelevant to the plot anyways.

- "A trial? But, this is Mondstadt, not Fontaine..." Paimon what are you talking about?? Other nations have legal systems too, obviously???

- the first trial was just talking. There isn't even the stupid court minigame they had you do in Fontaine or a thinking minigame because Traveler wasn't participating in it! Thankfully, though, it wasn't that long by Genshin standards.

- ...Amber knows that there are two Albedo's. Eula knows that there are two Albedo's. Bennett knows that there are two Albedo's. Two of those people are with the Knights of Favonius. We SAW that Eula was a part of the investigation team working on this case before the trial even started! The didn't-play-the-event bandaid recap even acknowledges this! Even when making a trial 10 minutes long instead of an hour, and the investigation was seemingly finished BEFORE the trial (fuck you for being so bad at your job Neuvillette), the mystery is still appsurdly obtuse if you think about it for more than a second.

- (I know that Eula was taking part in the plan, but you were still supposed to think that an actual investigation was going on. The whole purpose of the investigation stuff was still pointless with how obvious it was that Albedo wouldn't be the killer)

- the writers will forget that they had Rosaria say something as suspicious as "Time is like the wind- it waits for no one" about Venti, with all the connections between time and wind. Rosaria is one of those 4 stars who just... randomly says stuff that makes her sound suspicious/important all the time and nothing comes of it. This isn't important to this quest- the sus line just reminded me of it.

- I'm not sure how I feel about Dahlia. He's an unnecessary addition to the cast, and the concept of his role being to 'communicate Barbados's will to the people' doesn't fit in with Mondstadt's story. What happened to Venti letting his people choose their own path unless something goes horribly wrong? He doesn't tell his people what to do- if he wants something done he does it himself. I want to be happy that new Mondstadt characters feel more important than most other new characters from older nations, but there is so much more you could've done than... basically ripping the concept of Venti's friendship with Rosaria and Barbara away from them.

- also I liked Dahlia's original design more. The only reason I was ever interested in him was because the original metal design on his chest looked similar to an Abyss enemy, and despite everything, I had the tiniest of hopes that it was actually intentional. I don't know why I ever thought that.

- there's finally an upstairs in the kof headquarters!! Rejoice!!

- HOW DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR TRAVELER TO EVEN REMEMBER THAT THERE WAS A SECOND ALBEDO- "oh, I almost forgot!" HOW DO YOU FORGET THAT?????????????

- it also sucks that the return of Albedo's plotline- and arrival to permanent content- is Traveler casually walking into a situation that has been happening for years off screen. The fact that most of the quest is boring exposition of what Traveler missed is expected but disappointing.

- Albedo KILLED Subject 2 off screen. Are you fucking kidding me. I and many others have been interested in him for YEARS. He was one of the main focuses of Shadows Amidst Snowstorms, one of the best written quests Genshin has ever made, and one of the VERY FEW plotlines that actually had a chance to START going somewhere. And you. Killed. Him. Off. Screen. I am so pissed off. Fuck you.

- the sudden explain-a-thon of "actually, nothing went wrong and everything is under control and here's what's actually happening" did not help my investment in this stupid quest. This quest is 80% explaining what's going on 20% pseudo substance.

- still annoyed at the treatment of hilichurls. Nothing else to be said here that hasn't been said before.

- the Ragbros.... Genshin has been dumbing down and retconning their relationship conflict and personal conflicts since Diluc's skin event in Inazuma AT LEAST, to avoid actually writing their conflict. How do people still think that there's a conflict to be resolved.

- and of course, we had to throw in some hints of "Diluc doesn't mind the knights now, let's not acknowledge how he acted towards them in the beginning" as well. Give me ONE reason why he would've stopped using any excuse to insult them off screen, in the time between his story quest and paralogism.

- I feel like they mostly just put Kaeya in the marketing for 5.6 and made him Albedo's 'lawyer' bc ppl expect him to be a part of important Mondstadt stuff, and Kaebedo is Albedo and Kaeya's most popular ship. He didn't appear nearly as much as Albedo, Venti, and Jean outside of the trial.

- a team of just Amber and Mika was. Not fun. I had to use an attack boost food and I was fighting two normal hilichurls.

- it occurs to me that this is Mika's first appearance in permanent content. Mika himself is a plot point you were supposed to know about from events lol.

- the tripartite conference confuses me severely. When tf did Venti wake up in present times if he was around while Varka was still here? It's really hard to talk about the timeline of events in Genshin, but it feels like Venti wakes up whenever there's a disaster in Mondstadt that his people are struggling with, which made it seem like he woke up bc of Dvalin to me. But surely Varka didn't go on his expedition in the middle of that, right...? Surely the events of the manga (where he had already left) didn't take place at the same time as the situation with Dvalin that was never mentioned...?

- and again, this sudden angle of "Barbados doing stuff for Mondstadt as Babados in modern times" is very specifically NOT how Mondstadt works??? They're the nation that ISN'T led by their god in any capacity. That was a big thing.

- that is how you're choosing to introduce Varka? Over a bomb shaped phone? It was actually kind of funny that he casually mentions "I'm surrounded on both sides with a group on my tail looking to turn me into mince meat" and the writers chose to focus on him having a stash of alcohol. He sounds like a fun character. Please please please let me like him Genshin...

- I groaned out loud when Toy 'Durin' showed up. I'm sorry, but Simulanka sucked and I don't want some random new character who is not Durin but is named after him and was tacked onto Scara solely because he's popular. Just give me real Durin as himself, not a new character. I mean, the writers clearly didn't care about Toy Durin either, since they immedietaly shoved them into the stupid amalgamation of Durin and Subject 2 as well.

- they really made a Dodoco version of Alice to avoid showing us what she looked like. In this case, it's actually more funny than anything else, especially since no one (Paimon) is being all over-the-top surprised about it. I wonder if showing up in odd forms is just a normal Alice thing? If so, I like it.

- aside from the part where they're trying to drag the kof into it for no reason, I do like that they're doing something with Venti's relationship to the Hexenzirkel. It's nice to see Venti and Alice interacting on screen, and casually acting like friends. I was certainly more interested in that between Venti and Alice + Varka than I was in a new character.

- wait, this is the first time we're hearing Alice in a permanent quest too, isn't it? It's almost amazing how incomprehensible this quest is going to be to new players joining after all of this stuff. Like- they made a 'recap' of Shadows Amidst Snowstorms, but didn't realize that you ALSO need to know 2023 Windblume, Weinleslfest, and Simulanka AT LEAST to truly understand the quest. The writer in the Nod Krai video wasn't lying when he said that they couldn't keep track of what ppl do and don't know.

- Alice saying to Albedo "I find you facinating" is also so cute to me. That's how I think about my favorite characters too!

- I also like the concept of killing Durin again and reviving him as a human to prevent Mondstadt's destruction. I just hate Genshin killing off Subject 2 (possibly bc they could actually make proper ch vs ch conflict, now that I think about it), and then fusing Durin with him and the stupid fake Durin. Like, that's just making a new character. You made a new character out of the remains of older characters. If you liked any of the characters used in this process- fuck you! You don't get to have them! How the fuck did the writers even come up that and how did they think that was a good idea????????

- this weird not-Durin is like 50% boring Toy Durin, 40% unrelated matter, 10% the Durin this actually SHOULD be, 0% Subject 2.

- even with my anger at the treatment of Subject 2, I would have pulled for a human Durin SO hard if only it was the Durin I actually cared about. This Toy Durin, I... I never want to see Toy Durin become playable, ESPECIALLY if it comes with us acting like he IS Durin.

- imagine what they could've done with Subject 2 and humanoid Durin as separate characters that were still themselves! Imagine Durin having to get used to his new body and face everything he and his corpse did to Mondstadt unknowingly! Imagine him meeting Venti and Dvalin! Imagine Subject 2 actually getting to fuck shit up!

- Dodoco Barbeloth looks cool too, but a Barbeloth intro without Mona :/?

- I thought Albedo saw all of Rhine's creations as his siblings? I swear I remember him saying that. I didn't hallucinate that, did I? What would be the point of retconning that? I mean, he immedietaly started calling Durin his brother again at the end of the quest!

- wait, why did Albedo make human Durin in the city?????? Why was it so flashy and big??????? Why wasn't he anywhere near Toy Durin or the materials he was using the entire time???????? How did a song and some fireworks prevent people from noticing that something was going on???????? Why did he do it in the city?????????

- of course the answer of the important mystery "what did Rhine mean when she told Albedo to "find the truth of this world"" was that she was just telling him to get a life. Of course. We wouldn't want a playable character to be involved in something actually interesting. Of course.

- that was the most random and boring way to reveal that Rhinedottir ATE THE SHADE OF LIFE they could have possibly made.

[hellobitchlet]

Not a fan of Genshin using the deliberately ridiculous law that can get innocent people arrested and sent to jail over nothing as a punchline. Unironically. When Neuvillette has had the ability to change laws for over a year now. And can't hide behind the 'Furina is in charge, not me' excuse anymore. And has created laws when he actually wanted to keep someone- the melusines- safe even before he officially became the only ruler of Fontaine.

And joking that the police officers after Caucucu are shooting at him. For flying. As a bird.

How is Genshin SO tone deaf at all times...

[hellobitchlet]

Thoughts on paralogism:

- starting off the 'expecting everyone to know event lore' quest strong with having you show up in the middle of the Windblume Festival.

- god, Genshin is SO bad at subtly. You go straight to Katherine and she TELLS you that somethings off and the game FORCES you to watch npc's act Not Normal for a good 5 minutes to set the tone as Something Is Off.

- what is the point of the storytelling mode? Is it really just to add Windblune decorations to Mondstadt and make a court room? It's not like Mondstadt's aq didn't temporarily change the city's appearance already without it. And the Wibdblume festival is largely irrelevant to the plot anyways.

- "A trial? But, this is Mondstadt, not Fontaine..." Paimon what are you talking about?? Other nations have legal systems too, obviously???

- the first trial was just talking. There isn't even the stupid court minigame they had you do in Fontaine or a thinking minigame because Traveler wasn't participating in it! Thankfully, though, it wasn't that long by Genshin standards.

- ...Amber knows that there are two Albedo's. Eula knows that there are two Albedo's. Bennett knows that there are two Albedo's. Two of those people are with the Knights of Favonius. We SAW that Eula was a part of the investigation team working on this case before the trial even started! The didn't-play-the-event bandaid recap even acknowledges this! Even when making a trial 10 minutes long instead of an hour, and the investigation was seemingly finished BEFORE the trial (fuck you for being so bad at your job Neuvillette), the mystery is still appsurdly obtuse if you think about it for more than a second.

- (I know that Eula was taking part in the plan, but you were still supposed to think that an actual investigation was going on. The whole purpose of the investigation stuff was still pointless with how obvious it was that Albedo wouldn't be the killer)

- the writers will forget that they had Rosaria say something as suspicious as "Time is like the wind- it waits for no one" about Venti, with all the connections between time and wind. Rosaria is one of those 4 stars who just... randomly says stuff that makes her sound suspicious/important all the time and nothing comes of it. This isn't important to this quest- the sus line just reminded me of it.

- I'm not sure how I feel about Dahlia. He's an unnecessary addition to the cast, and the concept of his role being to 'communicate Barbados's will to the people' doesn't fit in with Mondstadt's story. What happened to Venti letting his people choose their own path unless something goes horribly wrong? He doesn't tell his people what to do- if he wants something done he does it himself. I want to be happy that new Mondstadt characters feel more important than most other new characters from older nations, but there is so much more you could've done than... basically ripping the concept of Venti's friendship with Rosaria and Barbara away from them.

- also I liked Dahlia's original design more. The only reason I was ever interested in him was because the original metal design on his chest looked similar to an Abyss enemy, and despite everything, I had the tiniest of hopes that it was actually intentional. I don't know why I ever thought that.

- there's finally an upstairs in the kof headquarters!! Rejoice!!

- HOW DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR TRAVELER TO EVEN REMEMBER THAT THERE WAS A SECOND ALBEDO- "oh, I almost forgot!" HOW DO YOU FORGET THAT?????????????

- it also sucks that the return of Albedo's plotline- and arrival to permanent content- is Traveler casually walking into a situation that has been happening for years off screen. The fact that most of the quest is boring exposition of what Traveler missed is expected but disappointing.

- Albedo KILLED Subject 2 off screen. Are you fucking kidding me. I and many others have been interested in him for YEARS. He was one of the main focuses of Shadows Amidst Snowstorms, one of the best written quests Genshin has ever made, and one of the VERY FEW plotlines that actually had a chance to START going somewhere. And you. Killed. Him. Off. Screen. I am so pissed off. Fuck you.

- the sudden explain-a-thon of "actually, nothing went wrong and everything is under control and here's what's actually happening" did not help my investment in this stupid quest. This quest is 80% explaining what's going on 20% pseudo substance.

- still annoyed at the treatment of hilichurls. Nothing else to be said here that hasn't been said before.

- the Ragbros.... Genshin has been dumbing down and retconning their relationship conflict and personal conflicts since Diluc's skin event in Inazuma AT LEAST, to avoid actually writing their conflict. How do people still think that there's a conflict to be resolved.

- and of course, we had to throw in some hints of "Diluc doesn't mind the knights now, let's not acknowledge how he acted towards them in the beginning" as well. Give me ONE reason why he would've stopped using any excuse to insult them off screen, in the time between his story quest and paralogism.

- I feel like they mostly just put Kaeya in the marketing for 5.6 and made him Albedo's 'lawyer' bc ppl expect him to be a part of important Mondstadt stuff, and Kaebedo is Albedo and Kaeya's most popular ship. He didn't appear nearly as much as Albedo, Venti, and Jean outside of the trial.

- a team of just Amber and Mika was. Not fun. I had to use an attack boost food and I was fighting two normal hilichurls.

- it occurs to me that this is Mika's first appearance in permanent content. Mika himself is a plot point you were supposed to know about from events lol.

- the tripartite conference confuses me severely. When tf did Venti wake up in present times if he was around while Varka was still here? It's really hard to talk about the timeline of events in Genshin, but it feels like Venti wakes up whenever there's a disaster in Mondstadt that his people are struggling with, which made it seem like he woke up bc of Dvalin to me. But surely Varka didn't go on his expedition in the middle of that, right...? Surely the events of the manga (where he had already left) didn't take place at the same time as the situation with Dvalin that was never mentioned...?

- and again, this sudden angle of "Barbados doing stuff for Mondstadt as Babados in modern times" is very specifically NOT how Mondstadt works??? They're the nation that ISN'T led by their god in any capacity. That was a big thing.

- that is how you're choosing to introduce Varka? Over a bomb shaped phone? It was actually kind of funny that he casually mentions "I'm surrounded on both sides with a group on my tail looking to turn me into mince meat" and the writers chose to focus on him having a stash of alcohol. He sounds like a fun character. Please please please let me like him Genshin...

- I groaned out loud when Toy 'Durin' showed up. I'm sorry, but Simulanka sucked and I don't want some random new character who is not Durin but is named after him and was tacked onto Scara solely because he's popular. Just give me real Durin as himself, not a new character. I mean, the writers clearly didn't care about Toy Durin either, since they immedietaly shoved them into the stupid amalgamation of Durin and Subject 2 as well.

- they really made a Dodoco version of Alice to avoid showing us what she looked like. In this case, it's actually more funny than anything else, especially since no one (Paimon) is being all over-the-top surprised about it. I wonder if showing up in odd forms is just a normal Alice thing? If so, I like it.

- aside from the part where they're trying to drag the kof into it for no reason, I do like that they're doing something with Venti's relationship to the Hexenzirkel. It's nice to see Venti and Alice interacting on screen, and casually acting like friends. I was certainly more interested in that between Venti and Alice + Varka than I was in a new character.

- wait, this is the first time we're hearing Alice in a permanent quest too, isn't it? It's almost amazing how incomprehensible this quest is going to be to new players joining after all of this stuff. Like- they made a 'recap' of Shadows Amidst Snowstorms, but didn't realize that you ALSO need to know 2023 Windblume, Weinleslfest, and Simulanka AT LEAST to truly understand the quest. The writer in the Nod Krai video wasn't lying when he said that they couldn't keep track of what ppl do and don't know.

- Alice saying to Albedo "I find you facinating" is also so cute to me. That's how I think about my favorite characters too!

- I also like the concept of killing Durin again and reviving him as a human to prevent Mondstadt's destruction. I just hate Genshin killing off Subject 2 (possibly bc they could actually make proper ch vs ch conflict, now that I think about it), and then fusing Durin with him and the stupid fake Durin. Like, that's just making a new character. You made a new character out of the remains of older characters. If you liked any of the characters used in this process- fuck you! You don't get to have them! How the fuck did the writers even come up that and how did they think that was a good idea????????

- this weird not-Durin is like 50% boring Toy Durin, 40% unrelated matter, 10% the Durin this actually SHOULD be, 0% Subject 2.

- even with my anger at the treatment of Subject 2, I would have pulled for a human Durin SO hard if only it was the Durin I actually cared about. This Toy Durin, I... I never want to see Toy Durin become playable, ESPECIALLY if it comes with us acting like he IS Durin.

- imagine what they could've done with Subject 2 and humanoid Durin as separate characters that were still themselves! Imagine Durin having to get used to his new body and face everything he and his corpse did to Mondstadt unknowingly! Imagine him meeting Venti and Dvalin! Imagine Subject 2 actually getting to fuck shit up!

- Dodoco Barbeloth looks cool too, but a Barbeloth intro without Mona :/?

- I thought Albedo saw all of Rhine's creations as his siblings? I swear I remember him saying that. I didn't hallucinate that, did I? What would be the point of retconning that? I mean, he immedietaly started calling Durin his brother again at the end of the quest!

- wait, why did Albedo make human Durin in the city?????? Why was it so flashy and big??????? Why wasn't he anywhere near Toy Durin or the materials he was using the entire time???????? How did a song and some fireworks prevent people from noticing that something was going on???????? Why did he do it in the city?????????

- of course the answer of the important mystery "what did Rhine mean when she told Albedo to "find the truth of this world"" was that she was just telling him to get a life. Of course. We wouldn't want a playable character to be involved in something actually interesting. Of course.

- that was the most random and boring way to reveal that Rhinedottir ATE THE SHADE OF LIFE they could have possibly made.