#it'd be pretty damn ironic for Khaenri'ah's last hope

[starcurtain]

Outing myself as a Genshin rarepair lover just to say that what I love best about Diluven isn't the "boy and his god" dynamic (though that is very good, chef's kiss yes yes)--what I love most is that both Diluc and Venti (literally, in Venti's case) are characters shaped by their grief, characters who have responded to loss in different and yet equally unhealthy ways.

Venti hides his grief behind a light-hearted veneer, using laughter and antics to dissuade people from taking him--and the things he's experienced--too seriously. He asserts a carefree (sometimes careless) exterior while internally hiding away the pain of his personal losses and the immense pressure of being an archon.

Diluc is the complete opposite. By all accounts, he used to be a happy child, but he's allowed his grief to completely reshape his external self, from a boy who smiled all the time to a quiet, brooding young man who feels best fit for the dark of night. Diluc carries his loss and his deep sense of atonement outside himself for everyone who knows his past to see. It's a weight he can't let go of and doesn't even try to hide.

But who better to help you heal than the person who has faced the same kind of suffering and chosen a different path?

Through Venti, Diluc can learn that a legacy of loss does not have to mean sacrificing joy and companionship in the present; that letting yourself freely express happiness here-and-now isn't a betrayal to the memory of those who are gone.

Through Diluc, Venti can learn that there's no shame to showing one's sadness nor selfishness in sorrow; that you aren't ignoring what was gained by mourning what was lost--that no one will begrudge their god for the times he doesn't feel like singing.

Until until, one day:

A Diluc with reasons to smile unreservedly.

A Venti with someone to sit beside his silence.

So yes, it's about a boy and his god. But also: it's about two people who have experienced the same profound grief and who both, in their own ways, are the exact type to soldier on under the burden of their duties to Mondstadt at deep cost to themselves.

It's about healing your mirror in order to heal yourself, and it doesn't get any better than that.

Like goddamn, what a dynamic.