#the only one I'm really unhappy about is ayaka's sq

[blood-orange-juice]

I have a newfound appreciation for Kokomi's story quest and now I think she wasn't really done dirty. The fandom's collective headcanon of her just clashed with the story Hoyo were trying to tell.

The thing is, she is not a good general. She has neither the talent nor the taste for war, dislikes being a leader, is awful is delegating work and has very little idea of what's happening in her own army (the whole delusions fiasco).

She is, however, a brilliant diplomat and a good ruler for peaceful times (more on "creating and navigating laws" side than on the leadership side). She's also an extremely diligent person, so she compensates by putting in extra effort. A lot of it.

Her books and instructions for all sorts of situations are crutches.

And it's beautiful that her final victory was achieved not with her Book Of Smart Plans but through serendipity, her talent to notice even the less important people (she saw the two Kujou soldiers who looked uneasy when the Fatui were mentioned) and her ability to control the conversation.

It is, in a sense, a story of a person perfectly suited for peaceful times thrown into a war and barely managing. She managed, yes, she was probably slightly better than an average military leader, simply because of the amount of effort she put into it, but it's not her main strength.

That story is good and it's concluded.

And yeah, when her lines about military strategy sound stupid and extremely basic there's a reason for it. Military treatises she reads tend to be exactly like that.

I often hear that with her Hoyo were telling things instead of showing but I think it's their usual case of loudly declaring one thing and showing another.