#and another qualifier bc i do think he should come prepared in most aspects of life but im gonna make my 1000th exception to that here

[imaginarypasta]

speaking of kaeya and money i think it’s a little funny if he for a very long time doesn’t have a concept of teyvat’s money. mora is accepted “in teyvat” and if we’re thinking of teyvat as a continent (vs world/planet) then i’m not sure khaenri’ah would count as a part of it. also the background/history of it would maybe make them less inclined to use it? but i digress... the important thing is that he doesn’t come to mondstadt with a great idea of their monetary system and then he’s immediately adopted by a super wealthy family. to me this means when he’s no longer with them he has literally no idea how much things should cost. this makes for several funny and lighthearted scenarios immediately following... all that

[elsaclack]

em i don't really know how i feel about this episode but i know that i usually agree with your opinions so if you don't mind, could you tell me where you're at emotionally speaking with the "problematic" moments from tonight?

oh yeah for sure but please keep in mind that it’s 4:45 am and i have not slept for one single second on this fine april evening

i will also qualify this by saying that i think everyone’s opinions are significant and not to be completely dismissed by those with differing opinions, and that sometimes people just Don’t Like A Thing. i am here to tell u that u should definitely take all of this with a grain of salt. if you disagree with me, that’s fine. if you disagree with me but can’t quite figure out why, that’s 100% valid and okay.

i’ll try to be brief, and i’ll be answering this with the understanding that there were three “problematic” moments in this episode: jake’s broad and sweeping “i’ve never wanted kids” statement, amy’s line about starting over, and terry’s whole scene talking to jake about not having kids.

jake is a very emotional person and has canonically reacted emotionally to situations before without taking the time to logically think through his options and the consequences of those options. the timing of his statement is particularly important in this scenario - he was unexpectedly put on the spot and made to have a very serious conversation on an evening in which he was in no way emotionally prepared to have such a conversation. he makes it clear at the beginning of the episode, his intentions are to have a lighthearted and fun evening catching up and laughing with amy, who he hasn’t really hung out with in a month due to their busy work schedules. him saying “i’ve never wanted to have kids” is a definitive statement - one clearly meant to end a conversation he didn’t want to be having in the first place, reflecting him kind of stubbornly clinging to the lightheartedness he intended for the evening. to me, it’s not only indicative of his tendency toward emotional responses to uncomfortable situations, but also one of his own sense of procrastination - another canon-confirmed aspect of his personality. it’s not the mature way to handle the situation, but it is very human, and based on my perception of who he is as a character, is in-line with who he is and how he handles things that make him uncomfortable.

which brings me to amy’s line. i won’t even lie i said “yikes” out loud as soon as she said it bc boy it made my heart hurt. but, again, the longer i thought about it the more it made sense. it was just as emotional of a response as jake’s “i’ve never wanted to have kids” was - hers cut deeper due to jake’s childhood and his own experiences with fatherhood. i need to word this carefully and my head feels stuffed full of cotton so hang with me here. up until this episode, we as a fandom seemed to universally accept the headcanon that jake Really Really wants kids specifically because of his throw-away comments that have been happening since season 1 - prior to him and amy even starting a relationship. based on the limited exposure we have to his dialogue, we inferred that he wanted kids. i don’t think it’s that outlandish for amy to have made the same assumption because of those very same lines. was it stupid to not sit down and have this conversation prior to getting married to ensure that they were on the same page? absofreakinglutely. but they’ve been dealing with major curveballs and setbacks from the very get-go that most Normal couples don’t have do really deal with - i think the more pressing issue for them was “we need to get married before jake gets wrongfully imprisoned or sent back to WITSEC again.” not to mention the road between halloveen and jake and amy was not exactly smooth sailing for the department as a whole. i think amy was pretty content with her assumption that jake wants kids since he hasn’t really done anything to stop charles from constantly dropping hints about it and always responds positively whenever there are kids around. so when jake hit her with “i’ve never wanted kids” i guarantee it landed like a punch to the gut and left her feeling ambushed, isolated, and extremely emotional (specifically the killer combination of angry/hurt/confused). her talking about starting over was just that, talk - born completely out of her emotional state, without any real consideration of the weight of her words and the effect they would have on jake.

(by the way, i think jake was also operating on an assumption about amy, considering she’s never directly talked about wanting kids in canon, and never specifically said “we should start trying for a kid” when she showed him the water park picture. again, a classic and honestly realistic representation of miscommunication between a married couple. amy “forcing” him to make a decision “right then” (which wasn’t actually right then, just faster than jake wanted to make the decision) was her heading off his tendency to procrastinate dealing with serious and uncomfortable situations. neither of them were mature or even in the right, but it all strikes me as realistic.)

the terry scene also makes a lot of sense to me. i think most people heard the “don’t have kids” part at the very beginning and were understandably ticked, but to me his main message was “don’t have kids unless you’re 100% sure” since it isn’t fair to the parents to have kids they don’t want, but it’s ESPECIALLY not fair to the kids, who did not ask to be brought into the world or to deal with (a) parent(s) who don’t want them. because parenting is hard work and it’s really not for everyone. terry isn’t trying to talk jake out of ever having kids, he’s just trying to ensure that if jake does decide to have a kid, he fully understands the gravity of that decision. EDIT: now that i’ve stood up/walked around/gotten blood flowing back into my brain, i also think terry was concerned about jake’s history of making rash decisions without thinking things through, which again plays into the “be 100% positive.” in terry’s mind, if there’s even a seed of doubt, it’s something that needs to be very seriously considered and discussed before making that decision. terry isn’t as privy to jake’s emotional state as amy is, nor is he as concerned with jake’s procrastination habits and the affect that has on amy’s ability to have kids further down the line. terry only knows a fraction of the situation and his advice was based on that fraction.

my only issue with this episode was that they didn’t really give the resolution to all of this enough time to resonate. i can kind of follow jake coming to the decision that he does want kids as he’s talking to…whatever the woman’s name was. pam? idk The Woman Who Tried To Blow Them Up, but i wish they’d dedicated more of that time to his conversation with amy after he diffused the situation. that part felt rushed to me, and i wish they’d done something similar to what @peraltasames wrote in her most recent fic. but otherwise, i did like this episode and i thought they did a good job creating a tense situation based on miscommunication without compromising anyone’s character to do so.

but again that’s just my opinion!!! opinions are entirely objective and based on personal perceptions and experiences so if you disagree with something i’ve said that’s 200% okay and you are entitled to that opinion but please be nice to me i’m extremely sleep deprived lmao