#just because im analyzing zhongli and seeing how well written he is doesnt mean ill admit he has a personality

[probably-haven]

Hello! What do you think about Morax/Rex Lapis/Zhongli? And any thoughts about his relationship with Venti/Barbatos? I really like your Archon!Venti post so I thought I'd throw in an ask :D also feel free to drop Morax lore muahaha

Okay here goes! Also I'm realizing now that I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself with all the Liyue research since the ask doesn't really have to do with a whole lot of specific lore instances- opinions for now. 

Anyway! Let's get onto it! For now I'll be focusing on a combination of Zhongli as a character, and his relationship with Venti!

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So we all make the jokes about Zhongli being a grandpa in retirement and I used to be like "lol how funny he's a God, there's no way that that fits." but it actually kind of does.

See the thing with the different archons is genshin that I find really interesting is the fact that each of them portrays the idea of immortality differently- a different take on it if you will, unique in it own right. With Venti, it challenged the way a god is expected to behave in obvious ways. With Zhongli, it appears to challenge the idea of immortality in a way more centered around the idea of learned experience and separation.

See, both him and Venti are "gods amoung men" in the literal sense, but I just can't help but compare them in this sense because let's take a step back. Mondstatdt I'd viewed as a city abandoned by its god, when in reality it's god is right there with them as another civilian. Liyue is viewed a a city guided by it's god, when really, Rex Lapis was mostly absent aside from the rite of descention and the occasion where he would join as a civilian in order to do his incognito thingy- so he never really experience much of human life.

But now let's step back even further to the archon war. Zhongli wasn't all wise and smart back then, he was the god of war- the same guy who would just yeet mountains because he could. No, the brains of the operation came from the guilt assembly, and by that I mean primarily Guizhong, because we stan. Time and time again, Mihoyo has these dead individuals who strongly influence the way that a character acts and behaves and has grown, and for Zhongli, Guizhong is that character.

I'm going to reference a comic I saw one time- but basically it's about Zhongli and Guizhong, and they have a conversation and Guizhong says something along the lines of "if I die you will become wiser and more cunning than I ever could be, and lead Liyue in my stead" and I just think that's a really nifty concept. Because Morax way back when wasn't the smart dignified gentleman seen in the story today, he was metal af and a total impulsive jock type character, to oversimplify.

He has many memories and a lot of knowledge, but I think it was really only after she passes that he came to appreciate that knowledge.

Also I think it'd be really cool if the Guili Assembly fell apart because of a betrayal or something which established his whole contract "wrath of rock" thing- but there's really nothing to indicate that that I'm aware of.

But anyway, disregarding that, Zhongli actually has this whole character development arc of sorts before the story even takes place.

Because with the fall of the Guili assembly, Morax actually starts becoming more involved with the people he rules over, relocating them and teaching them architecture and stuff, which had previously been something that only Guizhong appeared to have done based on recorded history, and it's this whole theme of growing responsibility and an ever expanding favor towards the concept of order as opposed to the chaos and ebb and flow that the God of war seemed to embody before.

And this responsibility continues to grow, guiding both his people and those he takes under his rule into the future until we reach where the story starts now.

However, Rex Lapis is still a very seperate entity from the people of Liyue, and as involved as he is, he still lacks a complete understanding of the mort. What he does understand fully is the potential dangers that Liyue may come to face, hence why he felt his "test" was necessary. A rebellion against Celestia is approaching and to leave Liyue is to draw Celestia's ire. He would have to be sure they were strong enough to defend themselves.

Then of course there's the nice snazzy line in his story about overhearing someone tell a sailor they had finished their duty for the day which inspired his retirement that I think is just really interesting because it shows that he is self aware enough to know when he is no longer needed "the era of the gods is coming to an end" or something. He has become cunning and wise through his time as a God and realizes that one way or another he will be removed as an archon. Better to do that on his own terms than against his will.

So while he has all this big and expansive knowledge and intelligence that he's gained from his many many years of experience, it was really only after Guizhong's death, because of her that he actually came to appreciate it and value this rich store of knowledge that he had.

And while he has all this knowledge and is more active and in tune with the idea and workings of mortal life than, for example, Ei would be, I just think it's really interesting the fact that, despite how long he's been working at it, he's still new to it. See, Zhongli has been living as an archon and has been building habits around that fact for thousands of years; So with Venti we get to see a god who has been living among mortals for an extensive amount of time and has become experienced in it, but with Zhongli we get to see a number of the troubles/difficulties/complications that come along with the translation as well.

It's estimated that for someone to break an old habit, it can take anywhere from 18 days to 254. This is for people, who don't have nearly as long to get used to the habits as an immortal like Zhongli would have. Like shawtie had literal lifetimes to build himself a mindset and behavior pattern around the fact that he can do certain things. Now of course, I'm talking about him forgetting his wallet but I just think it's a really interesting concept. That and the fact that I enjoy finding the serious parts of funny things. It's a bit like when you hurt your hand and forget about it until you try and grab something and are all like "oh shit right I can't do that anymore."

also its really interesting how you can see a lot of Zhongli’s traits and character in a number of the other people throughout Liyue. Like I’m not sure if it’s because of the culture that he helped to sculpt or because of the whole ‘Liyue is a city that has had it’s god at its side sine it was formed’ type beat but i just think its really nifty for whatever reason. 

But yeah, Zhongli believes he has fulfilled his role in Liyue's history and has essentially retired, now joining them to watch the civilization that he has formed unfold.

now that we’ve got that vague approximation of thoughts hashed out(ill get into nitty gritty and theories and specific events and shit in later posts on the topic)

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Anywho, as for his relationship with Venti/Barbatos

i have.... a fair amount of unfortunate realizations to get out of the way first before i can get to the fun stuff.

firstly, in canon its heavily heavily implied that Venti and Zhongli didn’t actually meet until after the archon war. So thats a thing, but if that seems interesting to people i can go over a bunch of hypotheticals for what it might have been if they had, just for shits and giggles.

secondly.... the idea of mountain v. windblade fruit ninja was something that i had actually planned to include from the beginning despite not being anywhere near that part of the post yet.... but upon coming back to tumblr and going back over my notes(which that everything i made because i didn’t remember like anything lol) and checking sources.... i realized that the whole idea of Zhongli throwing mountains at Venti- despite how golden it is- has basically little to nno root in canon. Zhongli mentions throwing mountains as spears and Venti’s lore says when he sliced Mondstadt’s landscape the mountains yeeted off to other locations but that the closest that the canon lore actually ever gets to mentioning or implying that at all. which huge bummer- so much potential. so close but yet so far.

BUT now that that’s out of the way lets get into actually analyzing the canon relationship (for now)

First off- Zhongli is was paranoid as fuck when they first met and i just think that’s so funny because 1) it shows how much he’s changed, and 2) he’s totally in the right in his mindset. 

what basically happened in the canon was that the Archon war had only recently finished and Zhongli is just chilling, governing Liyue and guiding humanity as he had sworn to do as an archon... when the neighboring archon shows up without warning. 

And Zhongli is like “shit, this fellow archon who also swore to guide humanity just abandoned his duty to come to my region, must be serious, better be ready to help with whatever drastic happening warranted this visit” But Zhongli has never met Venti before and has absolutely no prior knowledge or warning to base his predictions on for what the archon might act/be like...

so then this bitch(affectionate) chucks some wine at him and says he was just sight seeing and Zhongli is just... y’know- they’re such contrasting characters in so many ways and i just love it so much- ill get into that later tho

but anyway Zhongli is probably like “well that was weird” but he’s duty-set so he mostly ignores it. Until it keeps happening and Venti keeps bugging him. 

And then the other archons join in. And then it becomes a kind of tradition. And then an event. And then the others start dying. One by one until they are the only two left. 

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To summarize? They hate each other.... mostly. Whether by nature, by ideals, by character, by personality, or by element, these two are just such opposing forces in so many ways, there's really no way they couldn't.

Also to clarify, whenever I say hate in this context, interpret it automatically to mean hate in a good way.

It's a bit of a self-inflicted external tug-of-war between where both thinks themselves and their own views/way of life to be correct and the others to be absolutely stupid, while also acknowledging that despite being completely unreasonable- the way other carries themselves and prioritizes things and such is simultaneously correct. That's an odd way to phrase it... More like mutually "I accept that you are an idiot for this but this works for you so get it I guess"

Which kudos! Archon solidarity! Except that Venti has a way of making his presence known which tends to get in the way of Zhongli's.... let's go with "steadfast dedication." To start out there is no doubt in my mind that Zhongli most likely outright genuinely despised Venti at first.

So much sacrifice and lives lost over the fight for who would become the archons... And this is who comes out on top? This immature alcoholic who constantly is abandoning his sworn duty of guiding humanity in favor of “sight seeing,” and distracting Morax from his own duty with wine(its good wine tho) and questions and just overall foolish behavior. I find this so funny istg- like please they just got out of a multi-thousand-year long war between gods and shawtie just turns up in a foreign nation - the nation ruled by the ‘god of war’ no less - unannouced as one of the 7 most powerful beings in Teyvat... to deliver wine... and Zhongli is supposed to be able to process this with some semblance of sanity? Zhongli of all people????

And then there’s Venti who doubtlessly sees Zhongli as a stuck up blockheaded old man with a stick up his butt who takes everything too seriously. The war ended and yet this guy is still as serious as ever. It’s dumb and it’s painful to watch him waste the precious peacetime as if it were never there at all(an over exaggeration ofc but basically)

Venti, for whatever god-forsaken reason is really fucking good at bringing people together, and that’s exactly what he did with the 7 original archons. It’s likely something Zhongli acknowledges as otherwise it would just be them in their seven separate nations, never knowing each other by anything more than name and reputation, and never leaving outside of business. It was likely that that made him stop absolutely loathing the guy’s presence. 

It 100% a whole lot of just Venti messing with Zhongli and Zhongli just being massively disappointed...... and throwing mountains. I mean come on, if we cant fit god on god fruit ninja into here than what even can we do? 

and then the archon start dying off(for whatever reason that as much as i want to- i have no idea about) and now in the beginning, even after getting closer I dont think it ever really went past Zhongli being the older-sibling-who-went-to-college-and-has-a-successful-job-now-figure and Venti being the younger-sibling-from-hell-that-you-never-asked-for-nor-wanted-but-has-their-perks-figure. 

But with each archon down, those remaining grew a little closer in solidarity and thus Zhongli and Venti became steadily closer in turn, growing from what i’d call reluctantly endearing comradery to well... the final two left standing. These two are suckers for tradition though so they carry on with the meetings, and as hard as both parties may try to maintain the atmosphere the gathering once had when all seven were there...

Counter to the original intentions, it gradually becomes more solemn over time with each time they meet, but meet they do without fail. They meet to drink, to talk, to mourn, to plan, to just be- to exist in familiar company in the knowledge that there is another, that they are not the last living soul who shares the burden of what they have been through and what they have sworn. Old friends sharing drinks they’ve had a thousand times and tales they’ve heard hundreds, some old, some new, but over time it blurs.  And through it all persists the knowledge- the ever-present reminder that there cannot be two forever. For nothing gold can stay and just as seven faded away to two, so too will two fade to one, and any further meetings will be held in solitude or not at all. 

And fade it did, leaving behind only one. 

“Nor would the wind ever return again.”

because idk, apparently Venti likes taking long ass naps without warning. And then when he woke up there was the Stormterror business so he didn’t exactly have time then. 

And with the stress on erosion seen in Zhongli’s quests i cant help but wonder if at times during the extensive period of Venti’s disappearance, Zhongli truly did believe himself to be the last one left.