#did they just make the quest for us to interact with sumeru characters again? it wld be odd but I’m not complaining

[sugarcubetikki]

whilst it was nice to see the sumeru folks again, “an odd textual mystery” seems like a very random quest? the fact that it’s a time-limited quest apart of the event when it doesn’t relate to it at all? why?

[akaiuchiha]

Spoilers Paralogism quest!

Mostly Ragbros but well...

I ramble at the end, you've been warned!

I took some pictures and I struggled to make them good to share because I took them with my phone, in daylight, from the tv...

FIRST

(Translation: After all, I am Barbatos' herald... it's my duty to keep the Anemo Archon informed if the people of Mondstadt are in danger.)

(I don't know what term is used in English to refer to them, in French it's Mondstadtois)

Yeah Dahlia knows who Venti is.

At this rate, the question will be, who DOESN'T

I'm pretty sure some characters are just playing along (*cough* Kaeya *cough) but his identity is not a secret anymore

I was a bit surprised with how fast the trial went and honestly, I still can'g forgive Hoyo for making Albedo's events TIME-LIMITED WHEN IT'S LITERALLY THE TOPIC OF THE QUEST...

Anyway

When we reach the bridge

You can't even realize how happy I was at that moment

THEY ARE STANDING TOGETHER

PROTECTING MOND

AFTER YEARS OF YEARNING FOR THEIR RECONCILIATION

This is the closest they gave us to an ACTUAL reconciliation (and I'm not talking about how their relationship kept improving throughout the years but again, in EVENTS...)

(Translation: Haha, right. Say... when did you realize that something was off?)

I love their interaction I might be crazy

(Translation: first pic : at the first trial.

Second pic: because of the fake Hertha?

Third pic: no, because of you.)

So

You're telling me

(Translation: me? What? Was my defense not up to par?

Second pic: it's not that. You just weren't nervous enough.

Third pic: tell me Master Diluc... did you ever see me nervous?

Last pic: we'll see. Monsters are coming.)

That Diluc almost understood everything because his brother wasn't nervous enough???

Does it confirm that Kaeya IS anxious?? Nervous??? There are a looot of headcanons about how Kaeya may really be reserved (which he is) but was a shy, quiet kid, following Diluc like a shadow. It kinda was confirmed when Diluc invited him to stay for dinner during the wine event (I can't write that name, but the event about Razor's parents mostly) and he was SHY

And Diluc is still as perceptive as ever as he noticed immediately that something was off because of his brother's behaviour

(Translation: Copy that!)

Yeah so it made my entire day, just so you know.

I can't put more pictures and I don't have more pictures BUT there are some points I'd like to share with you.

Overall the quest was a breeze of fresh air. I know many people liked Natlan and that's honestly good for them, at least they enjoyed it completely. But I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Fontaine and Sumeru (I won't talk about Inazuma because...yeah)

Back in 2021, I used to play daily. Like, HOURS of my days went into genshin and it helped me a lot, I have to admit it. In 2021, college students in my country were still confined to their home and it was my first year of uni. The amount of work I had to do was crazy and genshin helped me through this first year. It helped me escape and I enjoyed playing with my friend sooo much. I literally fell in love with it, and I hadn't fell in love with a game since Final Fantasy XV (I know it's not the best FF but it's my first and I loved it so much). Kaeya never left my team since 2020, when I started playing. At first, it was out of efficiency. A character that can easily freeze its enemies and creates bridges was really useful.

But then I started to learn more about the lore, about the theories, about a looot a things and I just couldn't stop.

Now that I'm done rambling, let's get to the important part.

Honestly, I lost that spark. I still like the game and I don't regret playing it but Natlan just felt...off. As if it wasn't really the genshin I knew.

And now we get Mondstadt back.

I had a looot of expectations and honestly they did meet some.

I disagree with their way of doing things (if y haven't played Simulanka and the fake Albedo event you might have been completely lost). It was really wrong and, let's say it, stupid, to not put AT LEAST Albedo's event as permanent content. These lore points are essential to understand everything (and I'm even speaking about the title of the quest which is, near the end, "The gardener") and yeah...wrong thing to do Hoyo, wrong thing to do...

The ending felt a bit abrupt. It just stops. Everything goes back to normal, even Donna is back to liking Diluc, as if nothing had happened. It was a bit unnerving how it just felt like a dream.

Albedo once again dropped key points (he must be Dainsleif brother to give us so much informations) with Rhinedottir eating the god of life itself???

Mini Durin is now a human child, or at least, young teenager and I'm sure he'll become playable.

And we didn't get any update about the people who had been corrupted.

Where the hell did the fake Hertha go? Did they catch her? Can we have an anwer?

Some things were not very smooth and their transitions made me laugh because if felt like someone had just discovered power point and its transition.

However the fights were a bit underwhelming. I know they knew everything and were prepared but the intensity wasn't very present. They did a good job though, I did enjoy this part even with the lack of intensity.

The two cutscenes were beautiful. The fight against the queen and the king was good, I did struggle a bit.

What else...

I liked how we finally had a glimpse of Varka after all these years of imagining what he was like. I have to say, I thought he may have been around 40/50 years old. He was already the Grand Mastee back when Jean, Diluc and Kaeya were teenagers and I always thought that him and Crepus were around the same age. I guess not now.

ABOUT THE HEXENZIRKLE

Isn't it the third name we got?

I mean

I knew Alice (obviously) and Rhinedottir. I knew about Nicole from Simulanka I think? And for Mona's master, I think we only knew her nickname? I might be wrong, sorry if I am.

I am excited to know more about them! However they also have their lore hidden on events...

I gues it's a curse

For now I said everything. The quest was good and I enjoyed it from beginning to the end even though it is far from perfer. It had been a long time since I last felt thag excited about genshin and honestly I had almost stopped playing.

Now I hope that they'll realize how poor of a choice it was to hide the lore in events

[gold-rhine]

so. the new volcano world quest, the culmination of our pet suarian world quests in natlan. and why its fucking bad. spoilers, of course.

first of all, nothing fucking happens in this quest line. it starts with intriguing premise, but there is no actual story by the end of it. like first world quest in a chain is just to go to a temple bc not sus at all guy tells you to, do the puzzles, get some lore descriptions from the murals, thats it. then in the next world quest, you go to ruins, do some puzzles with random girl you just met, get long walls of text of lore descriptions for the victim of dragon eugenicist experiments, then you have to fight him to put him to peace or whatever, and he dies. thats it.

wait no, random girl is actually a ghost? and she disappears? it doesnt matter bc in the end turns out shes actually dragon eugenicist in disguise, but even before that reveal, i have no idea why was i supposed to care about her. she's just there to plot device you thru puzzles, you don't know who she is or whats her deal.

i know that there's lore about her in cinder city description and some weapons and whatever, which leads me to my first point. hidden lore given in random parts is not a story. its one of the possible ways to introduce worldbuilding to the player, and it should SERVICE the story. i think too many games trying to copy dark souls with this shit, and even dark souls rarely gets it good. in this natlan quest, there is no story to service with lore. its just random bits of info. compare and contrast to remuria, which also has a lot of associated lore in golden troupe and item descriptions, but when you get there, all characters and story stand on their own. you don't need to read these descriptions to know whats going on and care. reading additional lore gives more depth, but it does not try to pretend to be the main narrative.

next, the eugenics victim, och-kan, who we have to kill in the end. like. sad and bad for him, still not a story. nothing we do in that quest have anything to do with him, we just get lore descriptions outside of our current narrative (solving puzzles bc we think it will help our baby pokemon) and then we are told to kill him. again, compare and contrast with elynas' world quest. he also has a tragic backstory that we learn during the quest as lore drops, but we also have a primary story about melusine connecting with him as her father, about elynas choosing to protect melusines even if it costs his own chance at new life, we get to see that conflict of self-sacrifice and loneliness and interact with him in the context of that larger narrative. if instead we just learned his tragic backstory from walls of text, did some puzzles, and killed him, it would literally mean nothing. lore has to exist in the context of current narrative to have meaning.

now, to the last part. can you guess the plot? you do the puzzles with nothing else going on. and then you get to the ending "choice". yes, there are walls of text lore drops too, but like these transcripts of zoom meetings of dragon bureaucrats telling each other to get good do not actually contribute much, and i actually want to make another post on worldbuilding and exploration and have this one focused on a story.

so the ending is "plot twist" that the dragon eugenicist was actually like every single npc we met in this quest chain. which like. who cares, these npcs were plot devices players wasn't attached to anyway. i really doubt anyone's mind will be blown be the reveal. but thats small beans, the main part is that eugenicist evil plan.

which is too use the prev pyro sovereign's created mcguffin to turn everything in natlan into phlogiston. like. BEGGING hoyo to come up with the villain plan that is not merging everything into evangelion mush. like at least in previous quest chains there were a lot more going on on top of the merging into mush. in sumeru it was a story of my girl Jeht and her father, there was akademiya researcher learning to respect desert history, there was jebrael's history with other mercs, there was jeht's struggle to fit in and desert politics. in fontaine, each word quest had a complete narrative able to stand on its own, but all of them were interconnected and coiled together. in this natlan world quest, there is not even one story able to stand on its own!

and like lets look at why our villain wants to do the phlogiston mush. he thinks dragons are evolutionary dead end, so initially, he was into eugenics and wanted to create a human dragon hybrid. that shit failed, then he says he decided to wait and give humans time to prove themselves. but now he thinks they failed too and they will not be able to stop the abyss, and so to make sure abyss doesn't consume teyvat, he wants to turn teyvat into phlogiston mush.

which like. grandpa, what the fuck are you talking about. natlan JUST defeated the abyss and threw it out. hes like ugh i hoped humans would become ubermensch, but they still worships ~the archons~ like weaklings. like bro, our mary sue queen mavuika literally took no Ls. name one problem she didn't steamroll. she won the war, she threw abyss out, she actually beat up the heart of the abyss, she got out of ronova's death deal, she had capitano merge with night kingdom, making it immortal. if this is not a proof that humans can defeat abyss, i dont know what the fuck do you want.

so this creates a clear dissonance, bc this world quest has pre-existing end with the mush, but writers don't know how they can come up with any plausibly non-evil explanation for it. so they ignore actual state of the world - which is that natlan just kicked abyss out, - and use abyss as just an excuse for the mush even it it makes no sense.

now to the mush "choice." you, as a pokemon we've traveled with, need to choose to mush everything into phlogiston or not. and we get a hsr fake choice where if you pick to do the mush, game just resets you on the dialogue before it. so you HAVE to pick to not mush it to progress. and like who is this fucking for??? players who do want the choices in video games like myself will only get infuriated bc this is obviously bullshit and fake choice. ppl who do not want the choices will not even notice and click thru. so why is this here.

like fucking OBVIOUSLY they will not actually let you turn the world into evangelion mush. not even 5 years old will buy this as a real option. so if they really wanted to center this stupid quest around this fake pokemon choice, they could have at least faked it better. like. we have all these mini quests with our pokemon we get during exploration. they could have added little choices here. like. support your pokemon or not? help him make friends or not? obviously absolute majority of players would choose to be nice to a baby pokemon. but even so, if in the end the pokemon listed these actual choices the players made, players would feel like they actually did sometjing that mattered. and for the assholes who were mean to pokemon on purpose, they could have a boss battle with the pokemon. it doesnt show up outside of its own world quests, so it would affect literally nothing in global. and like it would still be bad quest line, don't get me wrong! but it would at least not be so egregious.

so what we have is a quest line with no plot and with a cliche fake choice at the end. this is rock bottom of quest design. also, someone please tell natlan team that character walking forward while repeating phrases about how they should give up show up in the air is not a groundbreaking character conflict they think it is, bc it was already bad for mavuika.

[oh-my-may]

I'm still alive omg!

Lots of irl things happening atm, BUT I managed to play through Penacony 2.2 (stretched over 3 days, no less)

Woah. Just ... woah. So much happening, so many characters interacting, so much lore, IT WAS GOING ON FOREVER but I loved it nonetheless. Of course they had to make the finale of Penacony long and epic.

FIRST OF ALL I KNEW IT! I TOLD Y'ALL!!! Literally in my post about 2.1 I talked about how Misha definitely has some close connection to Mikhail/the Watchmaker. I suspected him to be a child of his or something but the actual thing was close enough, I guess. My sweet boy. I love him. Mikhail being a Nameless was so cool. I'm really glad we're finally getting more lore and info about Akivili and previous Nameless, but I feel this was only the beginning.

I'm still madly in love with Sunday and Acheron. Robin is such a cutie too. I'm not gonna pull for her because I need my savings for Mr. Boothill and then Jade but I'll try and pull for her on a rerun. Sway to My Beat in Cosmos is such a banger. Caught myself constantly singing "riiise into my wooorld" (ofc much worse than the one and only lol)

On the topic of Boothill... my god. Love him. The way they can't make him swear so they just make him say??? Whatever??? Whose idea was that 💀 mother loving instead of mother fucking?? What the fork?? Wubbaboo?? I would die for this man. He looks so hot too. Again I have to say that HSR never misses with male character design. THEY'RE ALL SO PRETTY.

On the topic of pretty men... SUNDAY. My little radicalized bird man. I cackled when Sparkle called him chicken boy. She's just a hater, love her for that. Serious question... is he straight up dead now? I have only played the main quest so far so in case it'a mentioned somewhere in game don't spoil me but if it's not... tell me will I get to see him as a playable character... pls...

The whole thing with Ena the Order was so interesting to see. The fact that they made Order so similar to Harmony... AEON LORE. Love it. Resurrecting an Aeon is possible, you say? Kind of? The way they make Sunday'a motives understandable... he's just a boy

So I had the feeling that facing the boss Dominicus was a bit too easy the first time around. Wdym he has only one phase. I should have known there was more to it. Nevertheless loved to see IL and Jing Yuan cameo. They slayed (literally)

But then the eerie feeling I got when Black Swan talked to us on the Express... the way she makes us question everything that happened... GENIUS. I did kind of get flashbacks to Sumeru act II. The line between dream and reality, who is dreaming, what happens outside of the dream, the repetition of events... not critiquing or hating, but the concepts were just similar to me and I liked it :) Penacony just put a different twist to it.

The final fight was still very cool. The several toughness bars to break is really interesting, and the fact that you get a shield value the more bars you break. Also the Astral Ecpress literally crashing into Sunday??? I barely realized what I had just watched ghe first time around. Idk why, but the concept is hilarious to me. And the question remains... is Sunday dead now??? What about Robin?? Are they both dead??

Aventurine isn't dead either?? What about the present that Sparkle gave out to several people? What was it and what did it do? Is there smth I don't remember about that rn? Did I miss it? Also if Robin didn't actually die, how come we saw her body? If she just got transported to Dreamflux Reef, then there wouldn't have been a body, right? ALSO is Firefly dead too? She didn't make an appearance throughout the second part after we see her leave and she talked abput the way that the script said she would die 3 times in Penacony... I'm so eternally confused. It's part of the reason I think there's still gonna be more in the next patch... They're not gonna give us playable Firefly without at least a Story Quest for her, right? And Jade, too? She had one appearance in a throwback during the story, the Trailblazer hasn't interacted with her in person yet so the IPC probably hasn't finished their business with Penacony yet?

And since I mentioned Trailblazer... HARMONY MC??? LOOKS SO GOOD? LOVE THE MOVES?? THE HAT? The Significance of it had me 😭😭 my MC obsession ks back y'all. He looks so good. Caelus ily. The silly little dance with Clockie 😭 Can't wait to build him, I heard Harmony MC is really good.

I also briefly have to mention my girl Acheron. So they've literally just casually confirmed that she's Raiden Mai? I actually don't know what Bosenmori means or it's significance BUT RAIDEN MEI. And her whole flashback with Tiernan... I had my suspicions about his identity but the reveal was interesting, anyway. I've got the feeling this is not the last we've seen of Acheron. I never played HI3rd far enough to fully understand Raiden Mei's story, but I'm really intrigued with the whole thing. How come her and Welt exist in noth universes, how did they end up in HSR and what's their motive?

One thing I'm also still hung up on is the Annihilation Gang... no more mention of them? We don't get any real eyplanation as to why Acheron killed Duke Inferno? No little animation of the scene? I'm guessing it's gonna play a role later? The reason they talked about it is probably to tell us that Acheron was dangerous but like... idk what to think of it. No question the other members of the Gang are gonna appear later and maybe then we'll get more background? But if they don't play a large role in Penacony, why introduce them to the players prior to it in such a grand way?

Anyway, I judt have lots of questions still but no doubt the game is gonna answer them when the time is right... I had a really good time playing the quest, went through a whole lot of emotions during it, fell in love with even mlre characters... the new maps are GIGANTIC and look so cool and let me just say rhe music was so so epic too. Can't wait for the OST for this to get released.

I also wanna mention here (outside of discusaions about the story) is that having a fully leveled Acheron with pretty decent relics paired with a tank Aventurine feels like playing the game on easy mode. Nothing can penetrate a fully def stacked Aventurine, and Acheron's damage is straight up insane. Gonna take a while before I get tired of using them. They helped me clear basically all Stage V of every SU World I hadn't done yet... legends.

Now we wait for Boothill... The grip that Hunt characters have on me is unbelievable. Meta wise I know I should invest in Harmony characters... Ruan Mei or Robin but... HAVE YOU SEEN BOOTHILL? HAVE YOU???

Alright, that's it for now. Really excited to dive into exploration and events and quests of the new maps. Might post a little about it.. or maybe not. I still have to tell you about my thoughts on the Arlecchino quest and Remuria exploration, I began a post about that and never got around to finishing it.

As always, have some cool screenshots from the story!

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

I need y'all to understand that this quest and the following event sucked ass, and the best parts were Boothill and the hot but shady director.

I don't know what it is but the dry patches of HSR that don't really push the main story of the game are way worse than the dry patches of Genshin. Penacony was so good for the first 2 updates of it but anything afterward(including the finale of the main quest) has just been draining, repetitive, and annoying. I'd rather go back to Belabog and I can't stand that place.

As for the new character... It's so interesting how lame she is but how the 'hold them accountable' crowd is nowhere to be seen. They've helped make her so unlikable on top of how HSR refuses to give anyone who is playable melanin. How many more characters with designs or lore that mirror those of ethnic groups irl, are going to be pasty white?

I saw someone complaining about lacking representation in Genshin, and were especially mad cuz Mavuika isn't brown, but then salivating over Rappa. They got mad because I asked why they weren't offended that the pale character is a bad rapper and how, once again, HSR has added no brown characters to the cast since release and won't be adding any anytime soon based on leaks.

Something about a pale-skinned woman rapping badly and using Japanese terms somewhat incorrectly depending on localization, but also having an 'urban' style and interest in a type of graffiti that originated in the Bronx doesn't sit well with me. All the opportunity to make her not white and they dropped the ball on it quite hard.

Her character was obnoxious, and I couldn't stand her talking. Voice actress was great, but the writing was God awful.

I picked every mean option I could. I did not want to be there. I did not like the environment or the music this time. The characters were really grating on my nerves. The only people I listened to all the way through were Boothill and the sussy director guy. And March, oddly enough. Her VA has grown on me, especially since she's entered Genshin, and I like her portrayal of Citlali as a character.

Something I've been thinking about recently, that I think I finally have come to understand, is that being tricked into helping people in Star Rail is far more annoying than it is in Genshin. In Genshin, it's mostly just like NPCs who actually can't really do anything without elemental powers or martial arts training, but in Star Rail, it's literally Pathstriders and people in high positions of power who seem incapable of doing anything on their own(or are just lazy).

And the bigger problem is that the MC doesn't really feel appreciated. Genshin's Traveler gets credit for everything even when they set the record straight about who was involved, but in Star Rail, it feels like the Trailblazer is given another useless title and then people are less grateful for them doing all the work, and more interested in trying to use a connection to them for their own benefit.

"It's the Shareholder!" followed by something greedy. "It's the honored guest!" followed by something greedy. "It's the hero!" followed by something greedy. "It's the Nameless!" followed by something greedy.

The one person who feels like they genuinely appreciate the MC is Jing Yuan. He's still thanking them like a year later and including them in events and stuff. And comes to help if there's a problem even when he'd rather be sleeping.

Sumeru is so special in Genshin because almost the entire cast of characters from there, are connected. They all know each other to some extent, and even when the Traveler isn't there, they have regular interactions with each other. Their stories and their lives continue on even when the Traveler isn't present, and they have new things to share whenever the Traveler comes back. The Sumeru crew-meru feel like friends/family. They feel like people with real relationships and lives. I get a similar feeling from Mondstadt's crew as well.

HSR just doesn't have that feeling yet. It's been a year and a half, and we're 4 unique 'worlds' in, and it is still missing something.

[a-bonafide-genshin-fan]

fide's fontaine experiences + opinions!

right so fontaine recently released and i figured i'd make a little compilation of all the stuff i've done!

This is a very long post, so i'll be adding a keep reading just so this isn't a massive block of text!

firstly, the actual region itself (not story related so no spoilers)

i immediately got hydro before i even started the quest bc i'm a little adventurer who doesn't do what the game tells me

i'm very excited and impressed with the region thus far, all of the areas look super pretty and i adore the underwater sections, though the combat did take me some time to get used to

i very much enjoy the fact that most of the underwater enemies require you to attack them first, really makes it fun to traverse underwater without being chased by some random hillichurl every five seconds

additionally, once again, the enemy desgin of this game is top tier, like i cannot stress this enough, genshin design is wonderful

from the land enemies, my favourite by far are the doggos, i love them so much. i was in vc with a few friends when i was exploring and we all starting gushing about the dogs. they are so cute

as someone who adores transformers, seeing such lovingly designed robots in my second favourite piece of media was such a treat, bit of a shame that i have to fight them though

i also love the environmental worldbuilding. the fact that the court of fontaine has several buildings and structures crumbling into the water really sells the idea that the water levels are rising and it is actively having an impact of the structural integrity of the city and its surrounding regions

i very much like the fact that the two robots bosses (i forgor their names), require you to ask an npc to fight them. and the fact that their fight is a dance just makes me so, apoirjapoghdpsfaog, like i love bosses like that, that have a story behind their fights, that aren't just throwing punches but fighting with such elegance. add that their robots and mwha! chefs kiss

i also find it interesting that part of the region has a massive dragon skeleton, similar to inazuma, i'm very excited to find out what happened to it

right so onto the actually story itself, i will be spoiling some majour parts of fontaine's main story quest so readers beware!

first furina. i'm iffy on her. on the one hand, the idea of an archon who is less of a god and more of a mascot for their respective ideal (in this case justice) is very interesting to me. on the other hand, god is she a little bitch. but that doesn't mean i hate her! i think her annoying personality and general lack of ability to read a room work towards establishing her as the face of fontaine, a country that defines itself by showy clothing and the performance of both the opera and the trial. i think it's very neat that hoyoverse is willing to make a character like this, particularly a female one considering many of the women in this game, as much as a i love them, have very similar personalities in terms of how they interact with both the traveller and other npcs in the game.

also i think that compared the other archons, furina seems... i don't know a bit absent. she's very showy and her people, while adoring her performances don't really hold that much respect for her. she's a performer, fitting in perfectly with the themes of her land and i find that fascinating but at the same time it makes me wish that there was more interactions between characters (and regions as a whole) between each other. none of the game's areas feel like they exist as an interconnected world. like, is fontaine's rising water levels affecting liyue and sumeru. i know that the sea is technically an inland lake so the surrounding cliffs would likely protect those regions but still, that would affect trade and business and a bunch of other stuff. just a thought

like i said earlier, i was in vc with a few friends while playing through the story quest and we were all so confused through the first act of the game. i definitely think that it's one of genshin's weaker opening story quests. i found it rather odd that we, the traveller, were selected to be lyney's lawyer. like??? the traveller does not have any qualifications to be doing this. just because they have saved several nations (mostly via combat) does not mean they have any qualifications to be defending someone in 1. a court of law, and 2. a court of law in a country we just arrived in. that was weird

i do not have much of an emotional attachment to lyney and lynette. i think they are very interesting characters but i do not care about them in the same way that i do, someone like, yanfei or venti, characters. i do find their story rather interesting though, being raised in the house of the hearth and thus being part of the fatui. i also think that the traveller has every right to be upset with them over that reveal though, especially since they are defending lyney in a court of law. that is key information that should have been provided at the beginning.

regarding childe though. i find it strange that people are saying that the traveller was being too harsh with lyney and lynette while being to peaceful with childe. from what i can recall, the traveller has somewhat reconciled with childe and has known him for quite some time in comparison to the twins, whom they met only a few days prior. personally childe is one of those characters that i think is overhyped by the fandom (like hutao) but i enjoy him quite a bit. he's a headstrong individual with a strong personality and a very loose set of morals. so i'm interested to see where his story will go in the following updates since he got put in jail lmao

also the fontainian legal system is a clown show. no not a clown show, it's an entire circus. it's so silly. the fact that so many people were clapping or shouting during the trials of lyney and marcel made my blood boil. like these are murder trials, show some goddamn respect for the victims you pricks, people have died. the blatant lack of respect from furina for both the victims and the accused, along with the fact that lyney had literally no reason to commit those murders, is one of the reasons why i tend towards disliking her more.

neuvillette. god neuvillette where do i start with you my dear. firstly, one of my friend's wants his coat so bad, she threatened to seduce him and then steal it from him so that was a joy to listen to whenever he showed up on screen. i also like his personality. he's so autistic, you can rip that headcanon out of my cold dead hands before i give it up. i actually really enjoy him, he serves as a nice character foil for furina, providing a calm to her otherwise bratty personality. very good narrative foil! i also like him just by himself. his lack of understanding towards humans and their emotions is something that i, an autistic with a trouble towards understanding their own emotions relates to heavily. also he just looks visually neat. even though he and furina are both very blue, he has a lot less stuff going on in his design. furina is very loud, lots of accessories and so much noise, but neuvillette is very quiet and sleek.

i didn't really find navia to be all that interesting to be honest. i like her story and that's nice and all but she feels forced. i do not enjoy the fact that she simply barged into the traveller's case. i would have enjoyed her simply offering to help and then have the traveller turn her down. then upon being shown the box by lyney, have navia tag along and offer some advice when paimon expressing being stuck. then let her become their partner. act II feels weird because this continues the trend of the traveller helping other people with their problems when they really shouldn't have to. i do like the idea of the traveller helping simply because they want to help, it's my personal interpretation of the game and why they help so damn much, but i do not like the fact that game basically gives you no options to say no.

if it were up to me, i would have the traveller and navia have their little lunch date and then they would go near the fountain. upon having the little hallucination the traveller would wake up and paimon and be really worried. then i think we should see navia emerge from the opera house and then the robots would have attacked. upon being caught up in the cross fire, only then would the traveller feel motivated enough to help, because now their life has been threatened and so has paimon's.

other than navia i really enjoyed all of the characters! even navia herself has a really unique design, though i do wish her upper body wasn't so cluttered design wise, her exposed shoulder's + collarbones would have worked better with a full lace shirt covering her skin rather than just bare skin. it breaks up her palette too much in my opinion.

i was a little surprised at how little a role arlecchino has played so far. like from the trailers it seemed as though she'd be front and center but i do enjoy the idea of her bailing childe out of prison and i do like the fact that she does not seem actively malevolent.

oh do i hate the legal system. like citizens of fontaine, please get a better system than an a.i. who gets to make all the decisions. you're archon is a fucking ipad baby with a god complex and should not be allowed within 20 yards of the building if her accusations thrown towards lyney having anything to say. part of me (the yanfei main part) really wants a dialogue line from by babygirl talking about how much a clown show fontaine's legal system is compared to liyue's.

the idea of the primordial sea is really neat, however, i do hope and beg and pray that we'll get an actual explanation as to why its effects only work on those born from fontaine.

i'm so happy marcel got dunked on. my friends and i were all rooting for his demise the entire time he was in the fountain

anyways i'm rambling so much rn! but i really do like fontaine so far despite my gripes with the legal system being absolute dogwater. i'm very excited for the rest of the region to be released and the continuation of the story. thank you for coming to my ted-talk!

[iamcassian]

TO THE FIRST LIKER, THANK YOU. THIS IS FOR YOU @nira-eris

PREPARE FOR YAP CENTRAL.

Okay so first off, remember back when they were in Old Mondstadt? And Venti was just a little baby spirit with his friend? Remember how he wanted to liberate his friend so, so badly? How Venti sang songs about gifting freedom to his friend, and his friend sang songs about the freedom of the people?

When Old Mondstadt was liberated, who was one of the people that died? His friend.

Who did Venti want to free most? His friend.

What is one thing all Anemo vision weilders have in common? The one thing that everyone laughs about and jokes about?

A dead friend/loved one/significant person in their life, be it good or bad.

Another strange thing.

In Venti's 'Hello' voiceline, he greets the Traveler and says "Ah, Traveler, we meet again! What, you don't remember me? Ahaha, well allow me to join you on your quest once again." Now, this could only mean that we've forgotten Venti, but I deem that unlikely, as we helped him cure Stormterror.

That leaves us with another plausible option.

Teyvat runs on a time loop.

We've seen time loops in play in the Sumeru Archon Quest in the Samsara Cycle.

On Time Island in Mondstadt (the island to the East of the beach Traveler wakes up in that you need a Cryo character, usually Kaeya, to get to), the quest revolves around time. To interact with the sun dials (used to tell time) it needs to be around two in the morning.

My final theory is less of a Venti Theory and more of a Mondstadt Theory. The giant statue outside the Cathedral has words engraved around the pool beneath it. If you look closely, you can make out that it says 'The Gateway To Celestia'.

I don't know what this could mean, other than Mondstadt is most certainly endgame. Shnezhnaya is not the end of Genshin Impact.

Neither is Khaenri'ah.

Celestia and Mondstadt are.

THIS HAS BEEN CASS YAPS YOUR EAR OFF FOR FIVE MINUTES STRAIGHT.

WHO WANTS TO HEAR ME YAP ABOUT VENTI BEING THE ARCHON OF DEATH SOMEONE PEALSEPELAPLEAPSELPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE