#Liyue was a very neat quest imo

[xstarlightxstarbrightx]

thoughts on how the Liyue Archon quest went [7]

the quest for the Cocogoat is 10/10, can i just say.

like it's literally just Qiqi: Cocogoat please Zhongli, who has never ever heard of a Cocogoat in his entire existence in Liyue: checks out, let's go.

when they fix up the Guizhong Ballista, the more Zhongli yaps the more Kaeya's like "oh, maybe i was wrong", but it's with the "we should focus on Qiqi's contract" that makes Kaeya go "oh, no, i was wrong. he IS the Geo Archon. whack."

also Lumi being a total Mom and having to sit w/ Qiqi and explain that coconut milk comes from coconuts and not a Cocogoat adepti beast??? 10/10. i love her sm, please

also??? Zhongli treating????

Zhongli: i've decided to treat you to a meal. Lumi: Zhongli. Treating. Kaeya: like paying for food. for us. and not the other way around. Zhongli: i won't forget the Mora this time.

i feel like at this point, Zhongli is kind of curious abt the Traveler Trio b/c he's a lil more focused. especially b/c, like, y'know, one of them is a Khaenriahn and the other two definitely aren't human.

obviously tho, he can't glean too much b/c, y'know, they're there to relax and then Ganyu shows up and askes the Trio to head to the Jade Chamber, and Zhongli's like "oh okay."

also speaking of the Jade Chamber, favorite bit has to be how Ganyu just,,, forgor to tell them how to get there. also, b/c of Keqing's spiel about the time of the Adepti passing, i kinda feel like Lumi and Kaeya kinda figure out like "oh, is that why he's stepping down?" and them being confused why he didn't just,,, step down.

current h/c for the Jade Chamber thing tho is Kaeya kind of nudging Paimon towards a very specific antique box from the Jeweler's b/c he's like 'I doubt the snacks will do shit, but this antique might be a different story'. also he and Lumi are incredibly impressed by Ningguang's reach in Liyue; very much a moment of "wowwwww, lotsa power u got there" meanwhile Paimon's freaking out b/c "OH U CAN JUST,,, KNOW THINGS"

and speaking of knowing things, Lumi and Kaeya figured that, w/ all of Paimon's yapping, Childe has already moved to betray them. i mean, this happened in Kaeya's quest for a reason, so they're not unaware, yk?

anyway, after the whole thing in the Jade Chamber and getting steered towards the Sigil stuff, i feel like Lumi sends Kaeya to meet up w/ Zhongli and essentially buy her and Paimon some time before they meet up to complete the Rite.

[hellonoblesky]

I just realized that I don’t nerd out about Genshin lore that much on Tumblr so here’s a list of My Favorite Teyvat Historical Figures And Why, followed by my Least Favorite Teyvat Historical Figures And Why:

Favorites:

Kunwu: Literally found the sundial (in the petra set) and went “wow Rex Lapis sure is a good craftsman, I’m literally going to be as good as him” and he. He was. Solar Pearl literally got a Devine blessing or something when it was finished?? He’s cool, what a guy

Parsifal: Literally Eula’s ancestor and I think this is where she gets it from ngl. Dude literally stole a Sword, a Catalyst, and Bow, left the Aristocracy, and be came such an icon for the revolution that the Favonius set is styled after his weapons?? Also he was in love with the spear witch and after Eberheart killed her and then orchestrated his funky trap thing on Dragonspine, he left for Liyue and joined a ship. He also owned Iron Sting and the Heart of Depths artifact set belonged to him. He’s kinda like a historical Kazuha imo

Skipper: If Parsifal is a historical Kazuha, Skipper is his historical Beidou. The guy literally slayed sea monsters as a hobby and commandeered a ship with ease, both feared and adored. 10/10 very cool, his weapon was Serpent Spine, I think he’s neat :)

Vennessa: If you’ve seen any of my The Falcon and the Peacock stuff you know. I simply find her story very interesting and love her dearly <3. Actually though I would like more content for her please and thank you I love her

Guha: A favorite more for lore intrest to be honest? I think he’s neat and he’s the second record of a Celestia ascensio, so. Lore :)

Durin: I love him ver much and he makes me sad :(. In all the weapons where we get lore of his thoughts he’s just a little guy,,, he just wanted to see the world and fly with Dvalin and Venti and tell them about his homeland,, :( mad at Gold/Rhinedottir for corrupting him via some sort of dreamstate. He was just a little guy,,,, :’(

Rhinedottier: I know I just said I was mad at them but oh my goodness the lore this person carries on their shoulders? Immaculate please tell me everything they are so interesting to me <3

Rostam: Also makes me sad but he may have been secretly running an unnamed secret organization that I very much would like to know more about also I think he’s neat </3

Bloodstained Knight: Went from monster slaying to defending post-cataclysm Khaenri’ah, and if that isn’t An Arc I don’t know what is

Dawn Knight Ragnvinder: Literally what is up with that library, I’ve read Favonius Codex Lore buddy what was up with that fire??? Overall only a favorite because he and that one Ragnvinder (who was in the Venti cutscene, you know the one, the one with Decabrian and the Unnamed Bard) really interest me, especially with Freedom-Sworn lore and such

Blue Spear Witch: She didn’t deserve to die Eberheart what the hell, she was good :(. Her story makes me sad and I love her dearly

Pervases: He also makes me sad :(. I had one of my mains using the Fillet Blade for a while and I swear, every time I get bored and start looking through weapon lore this one Hurts. He just wanted Grilled Ticker Fish for one last time :(

Boacious: Yea the trend here is that the Yaksha make me sad, I did not expect their world quest when I stumbled upon it, and it kinda hurt man :(

The Chi: Funky snake dragon dude? Idk what’s up with ’em but I hope we can learn more some day, also the fact that they had a whole little section of Liyue and then Zhongl just killed him makes me kindaa sad,

Crimson Witch of Flames: Does she count as a historical figure if she did actually end up being a Harbinge? I think yes

Pierro: Jester man of the Cataclysm :)

Least Favorites:

Eberheart: I hate this man. The peak of Lawrence Tyranny is this man right here. He learned the spear from the Spear Witch, then killed her. He lured his half brother and friends out onto Drgaonspine with the full intent of killing them. Literally if you want to get mad about Lawrence tyranny, don’t yell about Eula, yell about this guy. Because Eula takes after Parcifal. Eberheart is terrible and I hope he rots for eternity.

[genshin-djinn]

Genshin Impact Chapter 1 Act 3: A Reaction.

Chapter 1 Act 3 is what took my experience with this game from “good game” to “masterpiece”.

THIS POST CONTAINS MANY, MANY SPOILERS FOR GENSHIN IMPACT CHAPTER 1: ACT 3

Genshin Impact has some problems— actually, it has a shit ton of problems. But during the fight against hordes of Fatui, with the Adepti channeling their abilities through my gang, flying through them as Oz, decimating them with Diluc— I just thought, this is the best time I’ve had in a mobile game in my life.

This game might not be perfect now— it’s only a quarter of the way done if we’re counting Karenri’ah. But it will be a fucking masterpiece once it’s all out. If this is the level of quality we’re getting for our archon quests, this game is going to be an amazing time on story alone.

KEQING

I love Keqing with all my heart. If she were alive today she would be a socialist here to topple the ruling 1%. When ningguang asked Aether who they trusted more, her or Keqing, I hit the Keqing button as fast as possible.

I think one of my favorite things about Keqing is that she’s so completely honest, which is unusual for a Liyue politician. If she doesn’t like something, she’ll speak out against it. If she thinks something else should be happening, she’ll make it happen. She can probably be deceitful at times, but in general she’s straightforwards in that she wants a government for the people and by the people.

I can’t wait for her story quest!

NINGGUANG

pretty.... voice pretty....

Ningguang is cool. Her JP voice is very pretty, like she could do ASMR videos online or smth. One thing I decidedly did not like about Ningguang is how her personality just ???? flips? In the middle of the quest, for no reason other than “because plot”.

It’s established that Ningguang cares about two things more than anything— the Jade palace and Mora. Why, then, would she destroy the Jade palace for the sake of Liyue? I get that she’s a good person at heart at all, but I want to see more of her indecision, her brain saying “mora” and her heart saying “Liyue”. The way she just flips on a dime isn’t really strange but it does contradict with her preexisting characterization.

Childe’s Boss Fight!

The section of this quest from Childe’s fight to the Adepti + Qixing battle is just nonstop adrenaline.

Childe is IMO a lot more fun than Dvalin (sorry Dvalin). I’m at WL5 and have a tendency to play fast and loose with important mechanics like.... dodging, for example.... and Childe’s Mask Electro form ended up destroying my team. I killed him with Guoba because everyone else besides Xiangling was dead. I

Another thing I really enjoy about Childe’s boss fight is that in the irrationalities of Childe as a character, it actually makes sense. Genshin is decent at making weekly bosses logical excursions— Andrius wants you to get stronger, Dvalin’s weekly fight is ~~all a dream~~; but tbh sometimes the weekly bosses don’t make sense. Andrius wants to train us, not murder us! How does dvalin, a dream slash memory that doesn’t exist, manage to knock someone out?

Childe as a weekly boss actually makes perfect sense. He’s an adrenaline junkie addicted to the thrill of fighting people— to put this in modern AU terms, he’s the guy who’s first in line to ride the rollercoaster that failed all of its health and safety checks. Childe wants to befriend the Traveler entirely because they’re stronger than him, so that he can fight them over and over again until he’s the strongest. Of course, this will never happen, because the Traveler is the MC and therefore is stronger than all others. However, in this way Childe being a repeatable boss makes 100% perfect sense— he actually wants to fight the Traveler again and again and again.

The one question I have about Childe is how in the living feck are the Fatui letting him join the Traveler and fight for them *against the Fatui*??? I think this might be touched on in Childe’s Story quest, which I’ll do in a bit, but like????? They let him keep his delusion and just walk over to Aether like “aight fam I’m on your team now”? How?

Jade Chamber/ Guizhong Ballista vs Sea Monster Fight!!

Basically, all my charged adrenaline from nearly dying to Childe just came to a head in this one huge fantastic fight.

And Xiao :)

I absolutely loved seeing the Adepti and the Qixing work together. This fight was probably my favorite fight in the whole game— the music was amazing (soundtrack where), the graphics were so nice, the adepti were so feckin cool, using everyone’s abilities was n I ce. My adrenaline was reaching its highest point at this fight and it was just perfect. It was just so fecking fun after days of WL5 pain, having to pop like five ultimates to kill one hillichurl, to be able to just demolish swathes of enemies with Fischl and Diluc, run around like a madman thanks to Xiao, have infinite health idr who did that for me but bless them, just absolutely destroy.

Ever since I hit WL5 I haven’t been able to really just go insane during a fight and stop caring about HP/ when to use skills/ dodging and this have me that opportunity.

Zhongli’s Deal

*punches Zhongli across the room with the power of being the player character* I love this man so much.

Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli Zhongli. I AM VERY ANGRY AT HOW THE PLOT RESOLVED HIS STORYLINE. But it also makes a lot of sense. And I think, for once, Zhongli should be allowed to be selfish.

Because choosing to leave Liyue was a bit selfish. He’s leaving the country that adores him, loves him, gives him shit for free; to its own devices and then to a completely unknown fate once the new Geo Archon becomes god and takes over. But he made a frankly fantastic plan and can now leave the country, for now, in peace.

I was absolutely delighted to see Zhongli in Morax form. Making deals with La Signora, being a complete and utter puppet master who set this entire situation up and played Childe like a kazoo; but just like his dear friend Venti, I think Zhongli is happier when he’s just Zhongli, the eccentric mortal. He seems so much happier and so much more relaxed when he’s forgetting about mora and eating dinner with Aether and Paimon. Rex Lapis might have just put Liyue through the wringer, but he can now put down his 3000- year long reign and just be the happy, eccentric Zhongli.

Zhongli’s little bit of insecurity over being a “bourgeois parasite” makes perfect sense now— he doesn’t want to be seen as Morax, a superfluous god who’s using his name to get whatever he wants from the humans he watches over.

But also the part of my brain that feeds off lore nEEDS to KNOW what Zhongli got from Tsaritsa. What could be worth a gnosis? His own happiness isn’t enough— Tsaritsa is likely going to use his gnosis to try and destroy Liyue. What could be worth that?

My main thought would be either “someone’s protection” or “another gnosis”, but I don’t think the latter is possible. The former could be possible but doesn’t really make sense either— a) whose protection is worth putting an entire country, much less the world, in danger and b) the Fatui are out to kill everyone who isn’t Fatui, so they won’t agree to spare a major player in the war to come like that. Brain go brrr.

I’m very hyped for Zhongli’s story quest, which I think is coming with his banner on Dec 1, when Childe’s banner ends. I really hope that Zhongli visits Mondstadt and chills with Venti for a while, but anything with this guy would be fine lol.

LORE

We got a lot of lore this update and I am delighted by it.

Firstly, we get a tiny hint of how Visions are bestowed— “if a person shows true strength of will at a desperate and fateful moment in their life, the gods will look upon them with favor.” Vague but more than we had before.

Next we got some neat lore about Inazuma— firstly, that it’s led by a god named Baal and secondly that it steals everyone’s visions. I’m very hyped to visit because guess what fam aether doesn’t have a vision.

Final Thoughts

In case you can’t tell from my insane ramblings, I loved Chapter 1 Act 3 and I absolutely cannot wait to play through Childe’s story quest and Chapter 2 and beyond.

The Prologue in Mondstadt set the stage for Genshin. We started out in a fantasy environment with a fantasy tale of an immortal bard and a dragon. Mondstadt was an excellent introduction to the world of Genshin.

And now? We’re starting to build on that. Chapter 1 brings us another story of another god and their relationship with the country they watch over. Liyue is much less of a traditional fantasy setting and takes the darkness we saw in Mondstadt— a friendship ruined by manipulation and suffering— and build on it. Now we don’t just see the Fatui more often but we also see more of the Treasure Hoarders and the way both groups kidnap and experiment on humans.

Mond started to introduce us to the Fatui, but Liyue is where they really start bringing continuous plot relevance. Inversely, we saw much more of the Abyss Order in Mondstadt than we did in Liyue. I’m extremely disappointed we didn’t see any more of the Princess this chapter, but it makes sense given that Chapter 1 was really more about the Fatui than the Abyss Order.

All I’m trying to say is the Liyue arc was an excellent continuation to the stage Mondstadt’s arc set. Now, we’re on to the world of the Eternal Shogun, Baal! I’m really excited to meet new characters and experience new stories of Inazuma, but I hope we’ll continue to see Mondstadt and Liyue in the future. Mondstadt is likely going to be the most “boring” of the countries we experience, cuz it’s just so classically fantasy- themed, but it will always be the first country we explored in this world.

After Inazuma (if I had to take a shot in the dark, inazuma’s arc will take from December 23 to maybe March or April) we’ll go to Sumeru, which I am really extremely hyped for because it sounds extremely different from Mond and Liyue and we’ll meet Cyno and possibly even Collei! (just me extrapolating lol). I can’t wait to see where Genshin Impact goes story- wise, because its first major update has brought so much to the table.

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