#just something little because the alhaitham voiceline

[anantaru]

cw. none, something sweet for our greenflag kaveh

kaveh being overly sensitive in a relationship, he‘s emotionally connected to you from the very start, sharing each good but also hardcoming with you. The moment you feel hurt, he feels the pain as well, almost immediately. Or when you cry? he cries too, everything he experiences with you was surreal, hypnotizing and so powerful, soul stirring. Kaveh would do everything, just anything so you would finally feel happy again, because whenever he sees you break down, have a bad day with tears flowing down your cheeks, he can perceive it in the deepest depths of his kind heart— too kind, that is. Kaveh was one of those people who sadly, were too good natured but rarely got anything in return, still, he would never change his views on life, nor the people of teyvat. However, it was gradually continuing to affect his soul, yet nevertheless of all those factors, in the end he would never leave your side, ever.

©2023 anantaru do not share, copy, translate any of my work

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

I’ve been so excited for more sumeru content! We were treated with an odd textual mystery but now we’re being fed again! I love this cast so much, so i've broken down my thoughts having finished nahida's birthday event <3

the birthday surprise for nahida is so sweet and so well deserved, and I’m so glad we’re finally get to celebrate it in-game especially after her birthday letter last year

dehya getting inspiration for the birthday surprise by talking to dunyarzard… yeah, I know what you are

candace, my beloved, hangout when? It was really nice to spend some time with her one on one, and to see her being a pro haggler due to her efficiency in being a guardian, enough so that she bested dori? Amazing, capable, practical, I love her

candace’s ancestry is so !?!?! interesting to me, and the fact that her being a descendant of the people of king deshret is something that I would love to see explored in relation to the temple of silence? hoyoverse... i am begging... (also the traveller for once not have access to some mystery power,, its funny to me, candace is the main character here)

cyno seeing hat guy and saying, oh sethos has talked about you, as if cyno hasn’t already technically met hat guy in the Interdarshan championship… no, instead cyno knows him through sethos talking about him, oh……

haikaveh’s first appearance being labelled as ‘suspicious’ because they are having a private conversation in an alley is something that is so… sethos’s voiceline is so relevant here I fear, okay queercoding <333

Alhaitham telling paimon that her jumping to dark conclusions says a lot about her mindset, it’s FUNNY!! But I am making parallels to kaveh’s mindset pre-and-during a parade of providence, I am once again asking for clarification hoyoverse, kaveh second hangout pls

HAIKAVEH FLASHBACK!! Making a record I see, with a flashback in their home in cyno’s second story quest, and now in port ormos, there’s just something so special about getting to see these little fragments into their daily lives together

The line ‘Like I said, that's not it! We have more than just a heartless, transactional relationship... You're overthinking the whole thing!’ is VERY interesting, since we’re given no context as to what this is about until alhaitham’s following line, this reads as kaveh’s perspective on his and alhaitham’s relationship, and I think that’s um interesting(!!) given his previous thoughts on why Alhaitham offered him a place to live!

Sick… I think its sick…. Kaveh yapping to alhaitham about mehrak coming up with wild theories, Alhaitham says that mehrak could feel extorted, and then calls out kaveh being in port ormos and having found him, while he’s supposed to be working,,, as if he hasn’t been ENCOURAGING kaveh the whole time??  Can you say fond!!!

Kaveh wanting to show Alhaitham his proposal, and Alhaitham saying that he thought kaveh is confident in his abilities, is something that is so gentle and supportive

kaveh replying by saying that he does have confidence in his abilities, but he wanted to confirm something with Alhaitham anyway, and then pursuing this further by seeking alhaitham’s opinion on his proposal – it’s so notable on kaveh’s part how much their relationship has progressed, as he now actively seeks Alhaitham out!!

Kaveh wanting to show Alhaitham the plans for the route of the flower carriage, saying he’s glad to have run into him, reminds me of an odd textual mystery where kaveh says he’s been looking for Alhaitham everywhere, and them serendipitously meeting in port ormos is giving ‘the universe is playing tricks on us’, a destined reunion, how can I be normal

Every single time we see haikaveh in canon hoyoverse is insistent in furthering their intimacy, wdym kaveh programmed mehrak to recognise alhaitham’s voice!?!?!?! This scene further establishes how important mehrak is to kaveh, and by kaveh wanting to have mehrak recognise and know Alhaitham as he knows kaveh is something that is so soft I think

Mehrak leaving to go and find coffee beans, okay youre a family we get it, the haikaveh coffee motif is something that is so meaningful to me, I’ll have to make a post about it at some point!

Faruzan showing her ‘true senior’ status to avoid being caught by nahida and scolding kaveh, for him to be :(((??? i love them

kaveh lies about not having the plans, and then uses Alhaitham as a scapegoat - ‘The plans... Oh, I almost forgot! My friend has them! That guy's always causing trouble, hahaha... I'll fetch them in a bit.’ Kaveh’s friend?? His FRIEND?? We have officially come full circle from kaveh denying this association in alhaitham’s character quest! I have MANY thoughts about this!! I’ll share them when I get the chance!

Nahida offering kaveh guidance and advice is something that is so <3333

King deshret and goddess of flowers lore mention!!! Also candace having heard their voices because of the power of the wedjat eye is !! intriguing to say the least, since they seemed to be planning the birthday celebration, just like the cast in the present. cyclical occurrences, oh im sick. The wedjat eye being placed in the custody of the temple of silence makes me hopeful for a future event exploring the temple of silence in more detail (im hanging on by a thread)

The fulfilment of sethos’s and the wanderer’s voiceline about each other. wdym people told sethos to fetch the wanderer because they know that they have a personal relationship?? Sethos saying he knows the wanderer pretty well now, commending him on his achievements, and the wanderer giving in and following sethos to the celebrations because sethos asked?? Sumeru… I know what you are!!!!!

Taking a picture to commemorate the moment of happiness in place of the wedjat eye and nahida saying that experiencing everyone’s kindness and warmth was like being a bird tucked in a nest, contrasting with her motif of a bird locked in a cage, now she is safe and secure? This is so beautiful?

This event was so fun to play through! Seeing characters from other sumeru quests, the exploration of sumeru’s history, and the development of characters and events that could lead to future storylines, I’m so grateful for being fed <3 HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAHIDA!!

[xxmaxwellxx]

Can someone help me find some Sagau fics?

1. Alhaitham begs to see author/writer reader’s work and they’re a little insecure about their writing so they hand over some of their work and panic about what he thinks about it, eventually reader forgets giving to him only for him to publish their work. Reader panics and goes over to his house and kaveh opens the door and reader asks to speak with alhaitham and when they do he’s spewing praises. Edit: found this one! It’s Language Shenanigans by thatdeadaquarius!

2. There’s some kind of written language barrier in teyvat where the reader can’t read there and the characters can’t understand what they write and alhaitham kinda recognized what the reader was writing so he took them to the library and there’s like slang from 2015 carved into stone and it kinda horrifies reader. Edit: here’s the link! https://www.tumblr.com/thatdeadaquarius/706940879634628608/about-language-brainrot-imagine-writer-creator?source=share

3. Headcannons where the reader is playing shirtless and it flusters the characters, I remember reader going to the character selection and all of them were flustered, blushing and one sqeaked and stuttered through their voiceline

4. Reader stimming by clapping their thighs while playing and the characters are confused and flustered because they think something else is going on, I think xiao was in it and was blushing really hard lol Edit: I couldn’t find this on the master list so here’s the link! https://www.tumblr.com/fandangotales/698730573789806592/500-followers-event-about-your-prompt-could-you-do?source=share

5. Reader gets isekaied to teyvat and is very flustered by the characters because reader thinks they’re hot, they constantly avoid eye contact with the characters and it makes the characters think that looking at reader is some kind of grave sin, eventually reader bumps into zhongli and they make eye contact and reader blushes really hard and stutters and tries to look away but zhongli thinks something is wrong with reader and goes and fetches a healer only to find out that no, there’s nothing wrong with reader they just think the characters are hot. Edit: It’s a simp in Sagau by hiraya-rawr!

6. archons reading readers fanfiction. It somehow got into book form and has been circulating to the archons, I remember zhongli sitting behind the desk at the funeral parlor and being so focused on reading that he didn’t notice reader coming in and reader snatches the book from him only to be horrified because he was reading fanfic they wrote and him being like “is this another universe creator?”

7. The archons reading imposter au fanfic, I remember ei reading it and sobbing because she would never do something like that to the creator and zhongli says he would never kill reader because he’s worshipped them for years and why wouldn’t he recognize the creator???

8. Headcannons where The characters get isekaied into readers world. I remember reader walking into their office and finding the characters and thinking they’re cosplayers so the reader yells to their secretary thinking it’s a joke only for them to be real, I’m pretty sure scaramouche was in this one

9. The reader being isekaied into teyvat and thinking it’s a dream so they go to the dawn winery and gets drunk and accidentally cuts themselves to reveal gold blood, cue everyone freaking out and when diluc comes in for his shift the reader is sobbing asking why he hasn’t come home yet. Edit: Here’s the link! https://www.tumblr.com/hiraya-rawr/677068166680166400/diluc-drunk-creator-reader-creator-reader-waking?source=share

10. Headcannons where Reader likes to play glider chicken with them. They think their god is going to kill them only for them to pull out a glider last second and if the reader does it to much it becomes a tradition or something. Edit: I looked through their master list and I couldn’t find the name so here’s the link! https://www.tumblr.com/fandangotales/698541977190449152/i-have-a-request-for-the-500-follower-event-if?source=share

11. Venti sleeps with reader in their world and when reader is isekaied to teyvat. venti’s upset because the social standards are different and in teyvat if you sleep together that basically means you’re married so he’s upset because I think reader started flirting with the others? The last part is a little foggy but I remember venti being upset because he thought they were exclusive and reader is just like ‘wat?’

12. Reader being isekaied to teyvat and albedo keeping them at his house. They live with albedo and Klee and they only get discovered because they went out for a picnic or something and someone discovers reader and albedo is brought back and is to be punished but reader stops them from punishing them

13. Characters being isekaied to readers world and having nsfw thoughts about everyday items, this one is a little fuzzy so I can’t remember the details but one of them having nsfw thoughts about a spoon and thinking about readers saliva and other doing their laundry and wanking it over the washing machine. Edit: found this one! It’s Reverse isekai, Childe and Heizou in reader's home (MATURE CONTENT). By fandangotales!

14. Reader gets isekaied to teyvat with a gun and shows the characters how to use it

15. Sagau reader helps wanderer/kuni. It’s where reader goes out to his house to help him and at night when they’re in their futons he gets a boner and reader decides to help him in other ways

[cat-downthestreet]

hey, listen! this is a rant post about neurodivergent characters in Genshin and my frustration with the fandom's reading comprehension skills. if you're in a bad place or just don't like angry rants, please don't force yourself and go read something else instead. <3

Okay, so, I watched this video recently, and let's just say, I have some thoughts.

https://youtu.be/tYK3297p4rk?si=eMaf8NF57HFlUhfd

This isn't just a Xiao problem- the entire fandom is terrible at characterization. The example that makes me the most angry is the mischaracterization of neurodivergent characters.

Take Alhaitham for example. He's often seen as rude and narcissistic by the fandom- which is especially apparent in Haikaveh content, where people portray him as straight up abusive.

You wanna know why this makes me so mad? The supposedly narcissistic and rude traits Alhaitham has are actually just exaggerated symptoms of autism.

Like, come ON, people. Don't skip dialogue. Better yet, go read through his story quest again. He straight up tells someone who sees him as narcissistic that he doesn't see others as less than himself. Also, his voicelines basically confirm this- he's extremely socially inept and he doesn't care. He has difficulty showing emotions as readily as his peers- that doesn't mean he doesn't have them, just that he expresses them differently. He comes across as rude because he doesn't get that people don't like to hear what they're doing wrong, and he probably doesn't care because that's not his problem. If people don't like how blunt he is, that's their problem. At least, that's how I think he views the world.

And like, there are SO many hints that he's autistic. He wears sound-blocking earpieces, for crying out loud. Hell, the ENTIRE REASON why he helped out during the Archon quest was because he didn't want his life to change too much. Preferring routine is an autistic trait.

And the worst part is, when I talk about this outside of neurodivergent groups, people tell me I'm wrong and that he couldn't be autistic DESPITE THOSE PEOPLE NOT BEING AUTISTIC THEMSELVES.

And I'm not saying that every autistic person relates to Alhaitham, but I certainly do. And I'm actually quite friendly because I'm anxious about being rejected. Alhaitham isn't, and I'm so jealous of him for that. He's living his best life.

Finally, back to the Haikaveh thing... Alhaitham isn't abusive. He doesn't say horrible things to Kaveh, and the one example of him doing that I could find, he immediately backtracked and subtly tried to make Kaveh feel better. Hell, Alhaitham doesn't even actually care about making sure Kaveh pays rent. He says it as a joke, but because he's autistic and his tone of voice doesn't give that away as well, he's portrayed as abusive and misunderstood as narcissistic. Y'all just don't like neurodivergent people and it shows.

Yes, neurodivergent includes Xiao. PTSD is often viewed as a form of neurodivergency, and there are many MANY characters in Genshin that have PTSD or some other form of neurodivergence. Yet people refuse to see them as such and mischaracterize them as "edgy," "narcissistic," "unapproachable," "weird," and the like. Yet none of these characters are any of those things.

You wanna know the true narcissists? The true edgelords? The actually rude people? Might I direct your attention to Scaramouche, Childe, and Dottore, whom everyone makes out to be as misunderstood pathetic little meow meows that need love.

Reminder that only two of those three are actually redeemable, and one is STILL an edgelord who is more rude than Alhaitham could ever be, while the other is a certified insane person with a weird set of morals.

(Side note: I love Scaramouche and Childe as characters. I'm just tired of people acting like they aren't worse than the autistic characters. Scaramouche is extremely rude, but he's trying to be better as Wanderer thanks to Nahida's help. He has severe PTSD, and Childe does, too. But both of them are actually messed up and have done horrible things, yet people portray them as better and more in need of love than the characters with unlikable (read: neurodivergent) traits.)

Don't even get me started on how people portray Kokomi, Sucrose, Fischl, Diluc, Zhongli, Cyno, Furina, Neuvillette, and Albedo. Especially that last one- I WILL get mad if one more person tries to tell me he's just emotionless and rude.

Also, if anyone is wondering where I've seen people misunderstanding these characters, it's mostly on Hoyolab site discussions. There's one too many posts talking about how "rude" and "annoying" these characters are.

With Alhaitham especially, I see many people writing him as abusive in Haikaveh content. I see people arguing about the ship being toxic because Alhaitham is "abusive," "unfeeling," and "cruel." Even people who like the ship portray him as such. And I've seen too many people comparing him to Dr. Ratio, who is literally just a narcissist who views others as beneath him. Don't get me wrong, I understand the comparison. It's just... very obvious that people skipped dialogue during Genshin's Archon and story quests.

And it's frustrating because I've been misunderstood in the exact same way. I've been called "rude," "annoying," and "unfeeling" in the past and it's screwed me up. Seeing people do the same thing to a character I so deeply relate to makes me lose confidence in both myself and people around me.

If that's how you view a fictional character with autistic traits, how do you treat real people with the same traits?

Thanks for reading this far. My previous post seemed to get a lot of attention, so I felt more confident about posting my full perspective on this subject. Can any of you think of other characters that have been constantly misunderstood in the fandom? I'd love to hear about it.

[aha-chuu]

Kaveh's Drip Marketing

I have a lot to say about the connections between the Kaveh info that released today and Alhaitham (and what we know about their relationship with each other). I'm not looking at this in a romantic way necessarily, but just in how tightly knotted their characters are with one another.

First, Kaveh's title and description:

"Empyrean Reflection", or more simply, 'Heavenly Reflection'. This ties to his constellation, "Paeadisaea", which is the genus for the birds of paradise. 'Paradise' is a more general term for Heaven, but neither of these are particularly divine in nature in a deity sense. Personally, I think they might be denoting a reference to the Golden Ratio, AKA: Divine Proportion. It's a mathematic concept often used in artistry, which matches well with Kaveh's archectural design profession and his education from the Ksharewar Darshan, which is the Sumeru school of technology.

So that's what it means for Kaveh's own characterisation/lore imo, but it also links to Alhaitham. Firstly, Alhaitham's constellation is also a bird (Vultur Volans, or essentially 'vulture' even though his name means hawk), which is a nice match to Kaveh's birds of paradise. But more interestingly, this is what Alhaitham's Character Story 4 has to say about why he lets Kaveh live with him:

He views Kaveh as a "mirror". What is Kaveh's title again? "Empyrean Reflection".

And the mirroring is all over the place. Here's a section from Alhaitham's drip marketing from December:

He is

Largely unknown

Only puts in the minimum effort required to do his job

People don't pay attention to him

In contrast, here is a corresponding section that came out with Kaveh's drip today:

He is

Extremely well known

Incredibly hardworking

People pay attention to him even when he isn't asking for it, as a by-product of his career

Basically exact opposites; complete mirrors. Here's something else, first from the end of Alhaitham's description and then second from the end of Kaveh's:

Alhaitham's life is super comfortable, ideal in every way he desires. Meanwhile Kaveh is practically crippled by anxiety, made uncomfortable by his life circumstances. The wording itself is mirrored!

Ofc, Kaveh and Alhaitham provide one another's corresponding quotes in the drip marketing. Here is what Kaveh has to say about Alhaitham:

This is an amusing quote, basically a backhanded compliment of "oh he's very smart but he's too self-centred so his talents are made worthless since he never uses them to help others". Alhaitham's quote about Kaveh goes like this:

Alhaitham is a little more wordy so I'll simplify -

Talented people have a lot of outside pressure on them, which can be a burden

However, letting other people get you down is a character flaw, not an inherent part of being talented

Kaveh disagrees

Once again talking about an individual's talents and how worthwhile they are in the context of a society. Where Kaveh complains that Alhaitham can never accomplish anything worthwhile with his skills because he doesn't take other people into account, Alhaitham argues that Kaveh gets nothing done as a consequence of listening too much to other people's expectations. It's not surprising, then, that Kaveh is bankrupt but successful and Alhaitham is comfortable but unknown.

It's like - can these two stop talking about each other for five minutes? Anyway, this post turned out to be more of a collection of Kavetham quotes, but I think it's hard not to draw comparisons. I'm looking forward to seeing Kaveh's actual voicelines if there's this much material just from one marketing post lol

[venticuliao]

Overanalyzing Cyno and Alhaitham's current relationship

These characters are the first to have a significant on-screen development in genshin, from enemies to circumstantial allies to..?

It seems they didn't get any specific resolution post archon quest, so I decided to take a steady look into the breadcrumbs left behind.

When they clash at Aaru Village, they both have reasons to suspect each other of compliance with the Akademiya sages, and Cyno vows to "eliminate" him if he finds Alhaitham guilty to any degree. However, after the events of King Deshret And The Three Magi (act IV of the Sumeru archon quest), Cyno's about Alhaitham voiceline is immediately unlocked:

Although a bit reluctant, Cyno acknowledges Alhaitham's motivations to be harmless and doesn't consider his behavior threatening, he knows he's different from regular scholars so his position of relative power as the scribe isn't something Cyno has to watch over, and he even implies Alhaitham can be of help in keeping order. At this point, he has dropped all the initial animosity he once felt, and the voiceline is unlocked early to let the player know Alhaitham is a genuine ally.

In summary, Cyno trusts Alhaitham, even with his shady antics.

Fast forward to the Toast to Victory in the last act of the chapter, they share a short conversation with a bit of playful banter:

Cyno: Why didn't you accept the Akademiya's invitation to become the Grand Sage? Alhaitham: Are you trying to say that I'm fit to be a sage? Cyno: Heh, not at all.

So they are on good terms, though they retain some of the rivalry in dialogue just annoy each other a little bit.

After the Sumeru archon quest is over, Alhaitham's voicelines about other characters involved in it are unlocked (Nahida, Nilou, Dehya), but not Cyno's. At this point, Alhaitham has nothing to share about him.

We learned what Cyno's opinion about him was an entire act ago, but there's no reason why Alhaitham should be aware of it. As far as Alhaitham is concerned, just because he's on friendly terms with the General Mahamatra doesn't mean he'll stop acting behind the Akademiya's back in his shady yet harmless way, which isn't ideal from the perspective of the matra. Even Kaveh is surprised that a matra can hang out so comfortably with scholars, but him and Tighnari don't behave questionably like Alhaitham. And Cyno is also keeping a distance and avoiding asking questions that he's not willing to answer anyway:

From his character story 2

Alhaitham, who had no interest in boasting about how he remained unscathed, answered Nilou's question with another: "As far as I know, Cyno and Dehya are also curious about this, yet you are the only one who has raised this question. Were they just too shy to ask me themselves?"

Alongside this character story, after completing his character quest The Illusions of the Mob, his about Cyno voiceline is also unlocked:

This voiceline is rather unfortunate in that it.. doesn't really say anything. There's no additional context or tidbits about the Hivemind case, we already knew it wasn't his fault and that the matra intervened at the end just by playing the quest. It doesn't say anything about his relationship with Cyno either, nor about Cyno or Alhaitham themselves as characters.

Usually, those are the purposes of the "about character" voicelines: provide additional or missing context from a quest, insight about the character mentioned from the perspective of the speaker, or about the character itself in contraposition to the mentioned character. For example, Raiden's "Who?" about Itto serves as comic relief that shows he doesn't have a presence in the nation despite what he himself believes, since the Shogun puppet doesn't even know him; or Childe's (now erased) about Scaramouche, where he doesn't share any personal opinion about him (despite doing so for all other Harbingers), but explains he ran away with the gnosis, which is information that was originally revealed during a time limited event (Labyrinth Warriors) and players who didn't participate in it wouldn't know otherwise.

So voicelines about a character usually have a purpose, and if there's nothing of note to add, then a voiceline isn't mandatory. For insantance, Cyno doesn't have an about Dehya (we've been robbed). Therefore, if Alhaitham didn't have anything relevant to say about Cyno, it wasn't necessary to have a voiceline about him. And if it is only meant to be random dialogue without value, just to establish the two as acquaintances (even though the player should already be aware by virtue of them spending half the archon quest together), then why go through the trouble of locking it behind Alhaitham's character quest?

The only new information in this voiceline is that Cyno didn't bring up the case in the aftermath, so this is what I'm focusing on.

Alhaitham seems surprised that Cyno hasn't even complained about the workload, and he rationalizes that it must be obvious he's not to blame for the case. Cyno is an intelligent man, after all, he must realize that.

In retrospect, it's funny that Alhaitham is concerned about that. As the Acting Grand Sage, he made sure to consolidate the authority of the Matra as an independent entity from the Akademiya, and even chastises the matra working on the case for caring about his opinion when they should be telling him to stay out of the way (like Cyno would). Not only that, but he also made sure to leave a letter for Cyno detailing everything he knew and predicted about the case, he did need the matra to show up at the end to perform the arrests, but he could have just left a note asking for the collaboration of the matra left in charge, no details required, yet he chose to let Cyno know everything that was going to happen. And then not only that, but he also left a breadcrumb for Cyno to follow (knowing he'd figure out what the mark was for) throughout the quest.

This is a man that, despite being used to acting shady, does not want Cyno to suspect him. And Cyno doesn't, he follows the unwritten instructions in the letter without question and doesn't ever confront or ask Alhaitham for explanations afterwards.

After all, Cyno has already revealed he trusts Alhaitham's judgement and actions all the way back in act IV. It's just Alhaitham didn't know that yet, he went through the trouble of making his intentions transparent to him from the start, and then still wonders why Cyno didn't approach him to homoerotically fight him at any point or just question his involvement in the aftermath.

Cyno doesn't seem willing to put himself in a position where Alhaitham has the upperhand, so he might have never told him how he felt. In Alhaitham's teaser video, he acts very defensive when Kaveh suggests Alhaitham is stronger than him, there's a certain pride that comes into play when Alhaitham is involved, yet seeing how he stops playing TCG just to talk about his hidden strength, he also seems very intrigued by him. We see him later say his iconic "you keep your cards close to your chest" line, which Alhaitham quickly shuts down with a nonchalant "not at all". Seems a bit hard to open up to him with honesty about this trust Cyno has placed in him if he's being annoying like that lol.

It's either Alhaitham has yet to connect the dots, or his quest and voiceline about Cyno are where he figures out that Cyno holds him in high regard and trusts him.

But either way, they seem to be getting along beneath the surface.

[divinepriestesskokomi]

Long rant undercut cause certain mischaracterization has been getting on my nerves lately. Feel free to ignore.

It frustrates me SO much to see people constantly mischaracterizing Tighnari as being mean and rude when that's like, the complete opposite of how he is in cannon.

Like people just see his sharp wit or how he will lecture people and take that to mean he's some sort of jerk without actually looking into his character at all.

Like we are talking about the guy who:

Was apparently so pleasant to talk to during his Akademiya days that tons of other students would come to him for help on course work.

Would let people take pictures with him even though he hates having his photo taken.

Took in and cared for Collei, an abused and deeply traumatized child with a terminal illness, and was so kind and patient with her that she's now grown confident and has made incredible progress in her life.

Took full responsibility for her education, teaching her to read, write, and cook, and is now teaching her all about the duties of a forest ranger and how to perform basic medicine. Even when it was assumed that she would die young due to her eleazar, he still encouraged her dream of studying medicine.

Is very protective of Collei and attentive to her needs, making sure to change her forest ranger duties around to accommodate her eleazar and doing his best to make sure her feelings aren't hurt.

When Collei felt self conscious about being illiterate, he comforted her by saying "We all start having no knowledge — in this you are no different from anyone else."

Will gladly teach anyone whose willing to learn.

Has an idle voiceline where he says to not be afraid of making mistakes because it's all a part of the learning process.

Let the traveler stay in his hut TWICE while they recovered.

Had a passionate speech about how all life is important and deserves respect.

Left the Akademiya because he disagrees with the way they commodify knowledge.

Frequently turns down high ranking positions in the Akademiya because he is so passionate about protecting the forest.

Took in and cares for Karkata even though it could get him in trouble with the Akademiya.

Comforted and encouraged Layla when she was feeling self-conscious during the Interdarshan Champsionship.

Constantly invites his friends and family over for dinner.

Dotes on his friends and family, even scolding them for not taking proper care of themselves.

Planned surprise parties for both Collei and Kaveh on their birthdays.

Dropped everything to go to the desert, a place he struggles in, just so he could be there to support Cyno in a difficult time,

Made a point to remind Cyno that he is his own person outside of his job and Hermanubis.

After the events in the Temple of Silence, has gone out of his way to make Sethos feel included in their friend group, even introducing him to the rest of their friends.

Is described by Cyno, Collei, Kaveh, Alhaitham, and Lisa as being a good, kind person.

He's a teacher at heart, so of course he's stern when it comes to teaching people, especially when they've done something wrong. But it's not like he yells at people, I'd describe it more like "I'm not mad, just disappointed" energy.

Yeah, he looses his patience and gets snappy with people who actively choose to be ignorant despite constantly being corrected. But honestly, anyone who has a job that works with the public will understand just how exhausted it can be to constantly be reminding people of information that is right in front of them. Lord knows I'd be more frustrated with Farbod for repeatedly eating poisonous mushrooms after telling him not to.

I don't know. This was a very long rant, but I just hate seeing people constantly paint Tighnari as some bad guy just for getting frustrated at people doing foolish things. He's really caring and thoughtful, and anyone who did even a little bit of research on his character could see that. He can be both kind AND witty, those things aren't mutually exclusive.

[tavwrote]

okay so, kaveh voiceline leaks beneath the cut and also me losing it a little bit,

don't mind me just dropping both lines about alhaitham because i'm insane but like

" I guarantee you'll never meet anyone else who is as infuriating as him! And for the record, yes, I would say that to his face. Sure, he's smart, and sure, geniuses often come with a bad temper. But that's only half the story with him. He knows perfectly well how to appear friendly and likeable to others, he just doesn't want to! If he ever gives you the impression that he doesn't really have a temper, or that he's rigidly logical like a machine, then you just don't know him well enough yet. He definitely has a personality, it's just... too big a personality. Most people wouldn't get it. "

"Alhaitham helped me out a fair amount recently. If we were still as close as we were during our student days, then I'd be thanking him every chance I got. Now, though, I can't seem to get a word of appreciation out of my mouth. Even if I could, I wouldn't want to give him the satisfaction! *sigh* I guess you could say our relationship is something of a mixed bag these days. Honestly, with everything that's happened, it almost feels like the universe has been playing pranks on us. It's hard to make sense of it all, too much to process for one lifetime. I will say it's not everyday you get to know someone like him. I just wish he could rein in some of the worst excesses of his personality. ...Okay, yeah, that's never gonna happen. "

iM JUST,,,,, i had coherent thoughts coming into this but theyre all gone now , basically they just make me sad >:'(

[m-for-now]

So, i'm just writing this spontaneously, so my thoughts might be a bit unstructured and all over the place, but i agree with everything OP said here and wanted to add my own little thougts.

I feel bad a lot because I don't like AlHaitham much. But I don't like to say this, because I don't dislike him because of his behaviour. He isn't being rude or abusive or anything, as OP said. The reason I personally don't like him much (also no strong dislike, just,,, don't like him) is because he has the things I want.

He has a stable place to be, a stable job he enjoys, he is confident in himself in a way that makes me think he understands himself very well, he has a stable support system that is there for him, understanding, and sees him for who he is. (I think one of the voicelines about him from someone specifically talks about how they understand that he wears noise cancelling headphones because noises get overwhelming and how that's okay and everything. I'm not sure whose, since i mostly think and research about other characters, but i'm pretty sure it is there.)

His entire demeanor of being blunt and being himself without changing for others or caring about what they think, without masking, is something I found myself to be very jealous of. So I like to avoid his character, because during his story quest, and even during the archon quest, i continuously found myself thinking something along the lines of "why would you say that? They wouldn't understand, say it differently!" or "Haven't you learned that saying this would be seen as rude? It's bad to say that!"

Those thoughts (that i have struggled to articulate) weren't me thinking he was doing anything bad, but my response to behaviour I have learned to mask. I am a person that struggles a lot with unmasking and someone who used to have a list of social rules that I didn't realise everyone else innately knew about when I was younger. So seeing him say these honest, blunt or just true things always flipped the little switch in the back of my brain that I installed, that says "If you do this now, people will think you are rude. You should do what you've learned they want you to do, so they don't think you're rude."

It's not just AlHaitham, but other characters as well. Sometimes the things they say or do give me just a little bit of anxiety and start my defense mechanism of over explaining my intentions so that others might not misinterpret what i mean.

I think this is just a long way of saying; i don't really like AlHaitham, because the way he acts is a way i know i won't be able to act anymore, even if I want to. Not because I think he's rude or any of the other traits.

It's a me thing, not a him thing.

But that's also why, even though I was really excited when Kaveh came out and liked him a lot, i usually don't try to look for content about him (which inevitably involves AlHaitham). I am not one of the people that actually understands him and like shim and portrays him accurately. But I also disagree with the people who dislike him. I don't want to be associated with the latter.

Anyways...

I was gonna start talking about my favourite characters but realized i want to make sure what i write about is actually how they are portrayed in canon vs the fandom instead of how i read them, so i'll probably add that some other time

hey, listen! this is a rant post about neurodivergent characters in Genshin and my frustration with the fandom's reading comprehension skills. if you're in a bad place or just don't like angry rants, please don't force yourself and go read something else instead. <3

Okay, so, I watched this video recently, and let's just say, I have some thoughts.

https://youtu.be/tYK3297p4rk?si=eMaf8NF57HFlUhfd

This isn't just a Xiao problem- the entire fandom is terrible at characterization. The example that makes me the most angry is the mischaracterization of neurodivergent characters.

Take Alhaitham for example. He's often seen as rude and narcissistic by the fandom- which is especially apparent in Haikaveh content, where people portray him as straight up abusive.

You wanna know why this makes me so mad? The supposedly narcissistic and rude traits Alhaitham has are actually just exaggerated symptoms of autism.

Like, come ON, people. Don't skip dialogue. Better yet, go read through his story quest again. He straight up tells someone who sees him as narcissistic that he doesn't see others as less than himself. Also, his voicelines basically confirm this- he's extremely socially inept and he doesn't care. He has difficulty showing emotions as readily as his peers- that doesn't mean he doesn't have them, just that he expresses them differently. He comes across as rude because he doesn't get that people don't like to hear what they're doing wrong, and he probably doesn't care because that's not his problem. If people don't like how blunt he is, that's their problem. At least, that's how I think he views the world.

And like, there are SO many hints that he's autistic. He wears sound-blocking earpieces, for crying out loud. Hell, the ENTIRE REASON why he helped out during the Archon quest was because he didn't want his life to change too much. Preferring routine is an autistic trait.

And the worst part is, when I talk about this outside of neurodivergent groups, people tell me I'm wrong and that he couldn't be autistic DESPITE THOSE PEOPLE NOT BEING AUTISTIC THEMSELVES.

And I'm not saying that every autistic person relates to Alhaitham, but I certainly do. And I'm actually quite friendly because I'm anxious about being rejected. Alhaitham isn't, and I'm so jealous of him for that. He's living his best life.

Finally, back to the Haikaveh thing... Alhaitham isn't abusive. He doesn't say horrible things to Kaveh, and the one example of him doing that I could find, he immediately backtracked and subtly tried to make Kaveh feel better. Hell, Alhaitham doesn't even actually care about making sure Kaveh pays rent. He says it as a joke, but because he's autistic and his tone of voice doesn't give that away as well, he's portrayed as abusive and misunderstood as narcissistic. Y'all just don't like neurodivergent people and it shows.

Yes, neurodivergent includes Xiao. PTSD is often viewed as a form of neurodivergency, and there are many MANY characters in Genshin that have PTSD or some other form of neurodivergence. Yet people refuse to see them as such and mischaracterize them as "edgy," "narcissistic," "unapproachable," "weird," and the like. Yet none of these characters are any of those things.

You wanna know the true narcissists? The true edgelords? The actually rude people? Might I direct your attention to Scaramouche, Childe, and Dottore, whom everyone makes out to be as misunderstood pathetic little meow meows that need love.

Reminder that only two of those three are actually redeemable, and one is STILL an edgelord who is more rude than Alhaitham could ever be, while the other is a certified insane person with a weird set of morals.

(Side note: I love Scaramouche and Childe as characters. I'm just tired of people acting like they aren't worse than the autistic characters. Scaramouche is extremely rude, but he's trying to be better as Wanderer thanks to Nahida's help. He has severe PTSD, and Childe does, too. But both of them are actually messed up and have done horrible things, yet people portray them as better and more in need of love than the characters with unlikable (read: neurodivergent) traits.)

Don't even get me started on how people portray Kokomi, Sucrose, Fischl, Diluc, Zhongli, Cyno, Furina, Neuvillette, and Albedo. Especially that last one- I WILL get mad if one more person tries to tell me he's just emotionless and rude.

Also, if anyone is wondering where I've seen people misunderstanding these characters, it's mostly on Hoyolab site discussions. There's one too many posts talking about how "rude" and "annoying" these characters are.

With Alhaitham especially, I see many people writing him as abusive in Haikaveh content. I see people arguing about the ship being toxic because Alhaitham is "abusive," "unfeeling," and "cruel." Even people who like the ship portray him as such. And I've seen too many people comparing him to Dr. Ratio, who is literally just a narcissist who views others as beneath him. Don't get me wrong, I understand the comparison. It's just... very obvious that people skipped dialogue during Genshin's Archon and story quests.

And it's frustrating because I've been misunderstood in the exact same way. I've been called "rude," "annoying," and "unfeeling" in the past and it's screwed me up. Seeing people do the same thing to a character I so deeply relate to makes me lose confidence in both myself and people around me.

If that's how you view a fictional character with autistic traits, how do you treat real people with the same traits?

Thanks for reading this far. My previous post seemed to get a lot of attention, so I felt more confident about posting my full perspective on this subject. Can any of you think of other characters that have been constantly misunderstood in the fandom? I'd love to hear about it.