#i actually have hope that hoyo will pleasantly surprise me with his story!

[4giorno]

pleeeeaaaaase

[dandelion-wings]

I agree with how the hilichurls are one of the worst dissonances in the game. I'm pretty sure that part of it early installment weirdness as when you look at the prequel comics for the game they're around when Vennessa was still enslaved which whas 500 years before the cataclysm, with traits not shown in-game, like the wings, let alone the chapters that take place closer to the start of the game. Though the rest of it is just poor handling. (Not even getting into the everything of how badly said comics handled that and other parts of the story)

I don't remember when exactly but it was either around right before or slightly after Inazuma release that my headcanon was going to be that the hilichurls were remnants of the Khaenri'ah people's lingering grief and resentment given form after what happened 500 years pre-game. That being known to happen with the fallen gods sealed in liyue and Hanachirusato. Hence why they were so person like, with what happened to the actual people present then left unknown for multiple region releases, but whatever it was, was bad. And that maybe the justifications for why there was hilichurls before was from other people/civilizations that Celestia had doomed. Wouldn't adress everything, but not as bad as what they ended up going with.

As time passed, that got proven wrong, and now I'm kinda worried about the implications of Kaeya's appearance vs other other Khaenri'ahns. With how most other characters from that region shown having pale skin and light colored hair and it's going to be that why he has dark hair and his brown skin is going to be the effects of the curse being almost non-existant in him and not just how he looks. I know there are other characters with similar appearances like Dehya or Xinyan without being related to Khaenri'ah, but I've seen that trope play out before and it really sucks. (Again, not even getting into the lack of variety of skin tone in playable characters or NPC)

Along with the other frankly horrifying implications of the worldbuilding that Mihoyo doesn't seem to consider or care about like the emphasis with the differences in how the curse affected regular Khaenri'ahns and the "pure-blooded" ones, with Khaenri'ah having obvious Norse influences, or with Enkonomiya, and how some vishaps, called Reptilians, are said to be able to shapeshift and blend in with humans, except for some obvious traits.

This has been a really long-winded rant, but your post really helped me put to words just some of what I found so disappointing about the directions the plot in Genshin has taken over time. I've enjoyed the game so much since release and while I still care about it now, I look at what it's become and can only wish that it'll improve going forward.

Yeah, you have good points! The thing is that Hoyo is putting a lot of work into their story, but I don't think they're really paying attention to a lot of the implications of the tropes they use or worldbuilding they toss off. Which plagues all storytelling to some extent, and the more so when you have big sprawling worlds with lots of writers and designers involved. Some of this comes straight from Fantasy Tradition, Video Game Tradition, and the intersection of the two. It's typical in ways that still suck.

Which isn't meant as an excuse, just as to say that while these things are disappointing, I'm not surprised by them, and don't expect better from Hoyo in the future. Especially while marketability is also in the mix. Natlan gives me some hope, but I still do not expect to get many more diverse 5-stars, and very possibly not any event-banner ones, because of the nature of gacha and the target market they're going for--the people who can afford to whale, and are already invested in their style. Their model encourages them to stay in that lane, and while I'd like to be pleasantly surprised, I don't anticipate it.