#isn’t an unfair assessment for the specific reason of these fics being written from childe’s perspective

[pwurrz]

what?? no. no he doesn’t. he knew from the outset that childe was going to be sent to liyue harbour and stir up chaos. in fact that’s exactly what zhongli wanted him to do. why tf would zhongli feel betrayed?? while childe did technically use zhongli for information on rex lapis, he was only doing what was required of him by the tsarista for the mission of retrieving rex lapis’ gnosis.

zhongli was the one who lied about his identity and strung childe along only to use him as a pawn in his retirement plan. childe didn’t make friends with zhongli to eventually betray him because he had no idea that zhongli was rex lapis. but it could be argued from childe’s perspective that zhongli befriended him for the purpose of using him. in fact, that could actually just be what happened, because zhongli did want to make sure that childe was out of the loop and there was no better way to do that other than making sure of that himself.

anyway that’s why i think childe was completely justified in how he reacted and that his reaction does not make him a hypocrite. it’s clear that childe expected betrayal from signora and therefore doesn’t care that much, but he did genuinely think he was on good terms with zhongli and did not expect to be used the way he was. that’s why he’s so angry and that’s why he specifically asks zhongli why he’s not saying anything after making a fool out of him (paraphrasing).

and i don’t think zhongli is a jerk or an asshole from an objective standpoint. i don’t think he meant to hurt childe at all. and i completely understand why he did what he did. trust me i am a big advocate for zhongli retiring and taking care of himself. it’s completely possible that zhongli didn’t think of the effect his actions would have on others. which is unfortunate yeah but it doesn’t make zhongli a bad guy.

tldr the zhongchili breakup was just a big misunderstanding on both sides and the actions of both sides are justified. zhongli was justified in using childe to stir up chaos in liyue (because he didn’t have a choice, childe was assigned to the mission) and childe was justified in using zhongli to get information (because again, he didn’t have a choice. it was for the mission). because of that initial misunderstanding, childe might feel like his friendship with zhongli was just a lie, which would suck because zhongli is like his only friend, but if they talked to each other it would become clear that zhongli never harboured any ill intentions towards childe and didn’t intend to hurt him and i think they’d be fine.