mesqiri-draco

[mesqiri-draco]

****Spoilers 5.6 Archon Quest****

I've seen some more discourse suggesting the paralogism is Albedo essentially mimicking the primordial one by him conveying his (subjective) viewpoint that dragons are actually evil and that they are better off as humans. I completely understand where they are coming from but I'm still sceptical because there are enough video games that are horrible at writing philosophy but still mean it exactly like they say while accidentally communicating something completely different (and often contradictory to their intended message). So I think there is a chance that Hoyo genuinely thought this quest made sense and Albedo did a good thing.

Perhaps it's indeed Hoyo's intention that Albedo will go completely off the rails.

But I think it is still possible that they really meant what they wrote and believed it doesn't contradict their world building.

I think you could also read the whole storyline about Durin becoming human as a very contrived way of saying "it's justified in this case, dragons are normally pog, but here we had no choice (also we want to sell you human Durin)". Esp. the way Venti, whom I have always perceived as critical of Celestia and a friend to dragons, was on board with everything all the way to the end, made me feel like the writers needed a pretense why creating human Durin was necessary. And that it is not supposed to be an implication that Albedo thinks all dragons are primitive beasts and only have meaning when turned human but that Durin's (and Susbedo's) special circumstances meant he as an individual (not categorically as a dragon) needs to be handled like this. As in, he is too far gone. But they wrote it so horribly that it really came off like the opposite. (Do I think that would make it any better? No, definitely not.)

Maybe I'm putting too much trust in Venti here but I perceive him as too smart to be fooled by this situation. I want to believe he would pick up on it if somebody was starting to become so unhinged they could end up as Gold 2.0. So if he thought doing something as transgressive as playing god and creating life on a level that rival's Rhine's would be a huge danger then I am not sure he'd be so enthusiastically involved.

But perhaps I'm wrong and my confidence in Venti is going to bite me in the butt.

The way they pontified about the philosophy of life and family also felt too much like a genuine try-hard attempt to say something deep on the meaning of life. Could it just be a smoke screen? Definitely. But personally it gave me too many pretentious "we're so profound bro" vibes.

There's also the thing with the Rhinedottir-Albedo parallels. Here too I think you can read them both ways: You can see them as a precursor of Albedo becoming as unhinged and dangerous as her. Or you could see the narrative as trying hard to establish that he is not like her in points where it matters. That he is similar when it comes to his alchemistical ambitions (and in that sense he is the "son of his mother") but that he is able to draw the moral boundaries Gold is not.

Whether you think the latter is just a red herring or whether you think they really mean it and their writing was just incredibly clumsy throughout this quest, I think both points have merits.

So whether you're convinced Albedo is foreshadowed to go insane like Rhinedottir and his acts mirror the PO's acts (and the quest itself might not even be "real" but a full paralogism in itself)

or

if you think Hoyo was actually trying to write an honest story and truly believes what happened is justified and they did not actually intend to convey the message that Albedo thinks dragons are inferior:

I think both perspectives are legitimate.

And I think at this point in the story nobody is stupid or "doesn't get the lore" or whatever for choosing one of the two options.

Sometimes writers play smart and layered games with their lore.

Sometimes writers are just not very good at their job when they try to write complex and "philosophical" stories.

Both are possible so I think both interpretations regarding Albedo are fair.

Spoilers: 5.6 Archon Quest „Review“ (or something)

My thoughts on:

The quest design and the story (parts of it)

Jean

Albedo

Jean and Barbara's moment

Jean and Venti's relationship

Link in the screenshot:

Edit

[mesqiri-draco]

****Spoilers: 5.6 Archon Quest****

Jean and Barbara's moment

(I wanted to put this in a separate post because this topic was quite important to me.)

Jean and Barbara

I thought they had a really sweet scene together.

Jean telling worried Barbara „Don’t worry, I’ll look out for myself, I promise“ while giving her a bright and reassuring smile reminded me of those confident anime protagonists who comfort their loved one(s) before a big battle. It felt like a meaningful and sweet moment of bonding (as opposed to Jean rejecting help or wanting to shoulder an unreasonable burden on her own for example).

I mean, look at this face:

I know it’s just a small scene but I hope that this little moment can soften people up to the idea that Jean’s and Barbara’s relationship is not actually catastrophic and they are not estranged in the most literal sense of the word. This sweet and gentle foundation was always there and the nature of their (dis)connection is one of complex subtlety.

Their relationship is definitely not worse than ragbros at least (and I’d argue it never was and that it is ragbros who have grown to reach Jean’s and Barbara’s „level“ but that’s a topic for another day.)

[mesqiri-draco]

****Spoilers: 5.6 Archon Quest****

Jean and Venti's relationship

(I wanted to put this in a separate post because this topic was quite important to me.)

Jean and Venti

One thing that I really noticed this patch is how much I like Jean and Venti’s relationship because he is one of the few free-spirited “go with the flow” character whose wit and fun don’t come at the expense of Jean. It’s never „used against“ her in any way.

Her seriousness is never the foundation for a joke to prop up Venti or to tease her in a „It’s just a joke, relax! You’re taking this too seriously. :)“ kind of way. There is no dynamic of „vexed serious person vs. their joke-loving libertine counterpart“.

Venti seems to genuinely respect and cherish her because of her seriousness. It’s not a trait that he believes needs to be „fixed“ with some joking commentary or actions.

It’s like he appreciates her because of his close bond with Venessa, to whom Jean is similar in his own words, all without projecting Venessa onto her. He really seems to see and like Jean for who she is.

At the same time Jean really doesn’t seem to be annoyed at all by his go-with-the-flow nature (she even offers him to have a drink while he’s performing as the Windblume star lol) and treats him with nothing but genuine respect and reverence.

Their conversations feel so natural and grounded. They are humble and full of mutual respect and praise but also genuine and not inhibited by status.

I think her relationship with Venti really shows that Jean is not somebody who is stubbornly hyper-fixated on rules and order but who is able to really appreciate and see the value of free-spiritedness, even if her own personality is quite different. She only seems to mind it if it causes trouble for others or is actually impolite/disrespectful.

Jean’s and Venti’s relationship is the perfect representation of what I’d want the dynamic between a serious and free-spirited character to be.

[mesqiri-draco]

Spoilers: 5.6 Archon Quest „Review“ (or something)

My thoughts on:

The quest design and the story (parts of it)

Jean

Albedo

Jean and Barbara's moment

Jean and Venti's relationship

Link in the screenshot:

Edit

[mesqiri-draco]

The curve of Jean's upper eye lid

I swear this shape created by this particular angle has awakened something in me. Her eyes are so perfect. Their sleek, elegant, cat-like shape, their colour that switches from bright clue to a stranger grey depending on the light, the small lashes on her lower eye lids. Her gaze that ranges from soft to piercing. I'm obsessed.

[mesqiri-draco]

One thing I’m slightly worried about is that tomorrow’s AQ will lead to undeserved Jean hate and unfair scrutiny.

(„Wait, worry in advance“ you say? Why, of course! I have an image to uphold!)

(I'll post screenshots of my wall of text because I don't want to format everything again for Tumblr.)

I wanted to write this much earlier but didn't manage to do so tbh.

Even though it's technically patch day already and I now only have a couple of hours before I can see it age like milk I still wanted to finish it for the sake of completion, haha.

[mesqiri-draco]

Jean style practice

[mesqiri-draco]

Jean Study

[mesqiri-draco]

Some rudimentary AU sketches

[mesqiri-draco]

To clarify: I'm fully aware of the emotional significance the events of the letter have for Jean ingame.

What I'm commenting on is the context of the meta-narrative those events play out in.

The letter would have a very different meaning for me if the overarching story was one that looks at Jean's upbringing with appropriate criticism.

Because of course you can have very deep (and complicated) feelings for your parents even if their way of raising you harmed you.

My problem lies with the fact that we will (most likely) not get this critical narrative context and instead will be served a feelgood story about how Jean's upbringing was a "bit tough" at the end of the day, yes, but look at this heart-warming and loving family they ultimately are.

How cool and great and tough Frederica is and how much Jean looks up to her, how inspiring she is for her daughter.

In the end, all is well and there aren't any *truly* deep problems here.

It's like with Jean overworking herself. Yes, she keels over and needs to go to the Church of Favonious' ER on a regular basis, but that's nothing you can't cure with some happy holiday vibes.

The fact that Jean probably has deep trauma is completely ignored.

Really not digging the yassification of Frederica. It doesn't undo in the slightest the horrible upbringing Jean was put through but with every new feelgood story I suspect people will be less and less aware of it.

(I will absolutely die on this hill that Frederica was a horrible mother. I’ve thought hard and long about this for almost 3 years and you won’t change my mind on that anymore. I'm sorry.)

And I'm (only semi-) sorry (tbh) to be so negative on Jean's birthday but this kind of trivialising and sugarcoating of her family dynamic really doesn't do Jean's character justice, so it happening on her birthday out of all days (the day Frederica never let her celebrate btw lol) bothers me in particular.

She suffers so many (canonically documented but ironically even by the game never truly acknowledged) far-reaching psychological effects from her childhood and Frederica's way of raising her (and I always have the feeling if Jean was a male character people would be a lot more receptive/cognizant of this fact).

Keep in mind that Jean was not just raised with the pressure of putting her family first, or her clan or her village. No, she was raised since birth with the doctrine that she is responsible for the well-being of an entire *nation*. The psychological consequences (and the - even if unintended - emotional and moral blackmail that is inherent to this kind of teaching) on the mind of a *child* are so profound that I'm not sure most of us can even realistically imagine them.

So I'm really not here for Genshin's decision to treat this as some cute feelgood story and just use Jean's backstory for some "sacrificial maiden" aesthetic without the willingness to take its consequences for Jean's character seriously.

The more Frederica content we get the more evident it becomes that Jean will not get the honest and critical exploration of her upbringing she deserves and I'm honestly not gonna enjoy the "actually Frederica is totally cool, look she's so strong and graceful, what an icon, hero of Mondstadt" ride (and there's a good chance this will really put me off the last bit of Genshin lore I still care about because I don't like to see my favourite character being treated like that).

That's why I also really, really hope Frederica *won't* become playable. Because as soon as a character becomes playable they have to become a marketable poster character. There is no room for any true conflict or tension. You can see this really well with Arlecchino. She was expected to be a morally highly questionable person but turned out to be a badass anti-hero (personally I don’t mind it with Arle but it’s clear she is not treated as morally grey by the game the way many hoped she’d be). Her actions, even wrt her orphans, are treated as mostly justified and truly benevolent (whether you agree is a different question, but that's how the game frames it).

She's now marketed as this tough but caring parental figure whose relationship with her children gives you warm and nice feelings (see her various comments, letters and voice lines about them).

So if Frederica ever becomes playable I have little hope that they'll ever hold her accountable to the level she deserves and look at her through a sufficiently critical lens. Unless they miraculously address all of this before she becomes playable. But looking at the tone she's already framed with it doesn't seem likely.

So honestly, I'm not looking forwards to the future of Jean's lore.

[mesqiri-draco]

Really not digging the yassification of Frederica. It doesn't undo in the slightest the horrible upbringing Jean was put through but with every new feelgood story I suspect people will be less and less aware of it.

(I will absolutely die on this hill that Frederica was a horrible mother. I’ve thought hard and long about this for almost 3 years and you won’t change my mind on that anymore. I'm sorry.)

And I'm (only semi-) sorry (tbh) to be so negative on Jean's birthday but this kind of trivialising and sugarcoating of her family dynamic really doesn't do Jean's character justice, so it happening on her birthday out of all days (the day Frederica never let her celebrate btw lol) bothers me in particular.

She suffers so many (canonically documented but ironically even by the game never truly acknowledged) far-reaching psychological effects from her childhood and Frederica's way of raising her (and I always have the feeling if Jean was a male character people would be a lot more receptive/cognizant of this fact).

Keep in mind that Jean was not just raised with the pressure of putting her family first, or her clan or her village. No, she was raised since birth with the doctrine that she is responsible for the well-being of an entire *nation*. The psychological consequences (and the - even if unintended - emotional and moral blackmail that is inherent to this kind of teaching) on the mind of a *child* are so profound that I'm not sure most of us can even realistically imagine them.

So I'm really not here for Genshin's decision to treat this as some cute feelgood story and just use Jean's backstory for some "sacrificial maiden" aesthetic without the willingness to take its consequences for Jean's character seriously.

The more Frederica content we get the more evident it becomes that Jean will not get the honest and critical exploration of her upbringing she deserves and I'm honestly not gonna enjoy the "actually Frederica is totally cool, look she's so strong and graceful, what an icon, hero of Mondstadt" ride (and there's a good chance this will really put me off the last bit of Genshin lore I still care about because I don't like to see my favourite character being treated like that).

That's why I also really, really hope Frederica *won't* become playable. Because as soon as a character becomes playable they have to become a marketable poster character. There is no room for any true conflict or tension. You can see this really well with Arlecchino. She was expected to be a morally highly questionable person but turned out to be a badass anti-hero (personally I don’t mind it with Arle but it’s clear she is not treated as morally grey by the game the way many hoped she’d be). Her actions, even wrt her orphans, are treated as mostly justified and truly benevolent (whether you agree is a different question, but that's how the game frames it).

She's now marketed as this tough but caring parental figure whose relationship with her children gives you warm and nice feelings (see her various comments, letters and voice lines about them).

So if Frederica ever becomes playable I have little hope that they'll ever hold her accountable to the level she deserves and look at her through a sufficiently critical lens. Unless they miraculously address all of this before she becomes playable. But looking at the tone she's already framed with it doesn't seem likely.

So honestly, I'm not looking forwards to the future of Jean's lore.

[mesqiri-draco]

My own take on/redesign of Barbara

[mesqiri-draco]

Super cute Jean!

[mesqiri-draco]

There was a post about the meanings of vision elements but then Tumblr refreshed and I lost it before I could comment. Dx

So I want to add my opinion regarding Jean on my personal blog at least:

Anemo was classified as a desire to be free from a burden by OP (I don't know the exact phrasing anymore but it was along those lines, sorry).

As for Jean, they put the following idea forward (again, not a direct quote): wishing to be free from the burden of her family to be able to read romance novels and focus on personal goals.

I would argue that Jean's themes go a bit beyond that.

I want to address:

The romance novels

2. Her Family Burden

3. Her fight for Freedom (a point not mentioned)

Romance novels

Her reading romance novels is already a substitute act for what she really wishes. So I don't think her desire for freedom takes shape in her wishing to read romance novels - because she already does that - but in her wishing to have what happens in those romance novels. Those novels give her a little window in a possible life that is/seems unattainable to her so if she can't have this real life then she can at least dream about it as a substitute/an act of "compensation" via reading. But I think if Jean was free her primary goal would not be to read more but to pursue what those novels stand for.

I don't think they only stand for romance by the way. In my eyes they also represent general freedom which can be felt when reading her friendship story:

"In her office, deep at night, Jean once again finishes reading "Vera's Melancholy."

"If I have the time, it should be fine to go to Cape Oath, just before daybreak... right?"

Lowering her head, Jean peeks out her window at the glittering stars above."

She not just wishes for romance/"those emotions as subtle and fragile as spider-silk" here. She wishes she could go out in general and experience the beauty and freedom of the world, being able to wander to beloved and wonderful places. You could argue this is also a form of poetic romance but it's of course an abstract type of romance vs. romantic love.

The novel in this scenario is the substitute that inspires this desire/ignites this wish to go outside in her (whether she actually goes out or not we'll never know I guess). The fact that she has read Vera's Melancholy repeatedly also shows how she has one/some recurrent dream(s) since she uses the same novel over and over again to experience this dream in her mind. I think this emphasises how romance novels are more of a symbol for her dreams and not her dream themselves, since she already would be able to read other novels than Vera's Melancholy (which she surely also does) but she deliberately chooses to spend the time she has (and she could allocate to other books) to read the same story - to dream the same dream - over and over again.

Her Family Burden

The desire to be free from her burden I agree with (even if it's probably still kind of unconscious because I don't think Jean is ready to admit yet that she wishes for more than just being the Gunnhildr clan's vessel - she is still very much imprisoned by the idea that she has to give her entire being for Mondstadt and that it's fine if she as a person comes last) which is also reflected in her level-up material, Dvalin's plume, which features strong themes of (yearning for) freedom.

"A feather from the tail of the Dragon of the East. As a dragon's feather it has experienced more than a thousand years' worth of winds. One senses within it a yearning for freedom so strong that it could whip up a light breeze to rescue it from its current confines. Its former owner's recognition of you is what makes it content to stay in your hands."

Because of Mona's voice line about Jean I do believe she will stay a knight at the end of the day and become grandmaster but I think she has to become grandmaster on her own terms, after finding her true self. Right now she is an acting grandmaster on the terms of Varka and her mother because those are the teachings that still completely determine her view on herself.

Her Fight for Freedom

While I agree that anemo is often connected to a burden I don't think the more direct or obvious aspect of just freedom should be dismissed/ignored as a reason for Jean's element.

I do think her very genuine and strong desire to ensure Mondstadt's freedom is a big part why she has an anemo vision.

She doesn't just want to be free, she also truly believes in freedom - i.e., freedom as a principle.

Her situation is of course very paradoxical because even though she is the one who fights "the most"* for Mondstadt's freedom she is one of the least free people in Mondstadt. Due to her family motto her fight** for freedom is her personal prison.

However, I don't think this means her belief in freedom is the problem. In my eyes due to her upbringing she was never allowed to develop a healthy (healthy for her and her well-being!) view on and relationship with freedom. What she has to correct is that relationship/view not her belief in (fighting for) freedom itself, which goes back to Mona's voice line and the prospect of her indeed becoming grandmaster. She needs to uncover for herself how to fight for freedom while remaining free herself. Like this her beliefs and her personal desires will be aligned. Right now they are still (unconsciously) at odds to her own detriment and disadvantage.

---

.* I don't want to downplay at all everybody else's fight for freedom in Mondstadt because of course everybody works very hard for this goal, be it Amber, Kaeya, Lisa, Rosaria, Diluc etc.

But it can't be denied that this is Jean's central theme and (so far) the sole purpose she was ever allowed to have for her life. And even if/when she emancipates herself I still think it will remain her central purpose but in a healthy and sustainable way. Imo thematically/in terms of character design tropes she just is the symbolic freedom character, the "sentinel"/protector/knight of freedom if you will.

.** (Her fight is indeed quite successful - for the others who benefit from her efforts.)

[mesqiri-draco]

I've just finished one of Noelle's anecdotes and let me say this:

Jean, you have the patience of a saint.

You are so calm, considerate and compassionate even when somebody messes up so badly that everybody else would probably be fuming (and feel like they just narrowly avoided death by accidental decapitation).

Even when Noelle catapults a sword through your office window so hard it gets stuck in the ceiling and nobody can get it out you not only don't scold her, you go out of your way to help her improve (in a very encouraging way and while praising her a lot) and comfort her with humour (which also calls the reputation that you are not funny into question - I loved Jean's reply, it just sounded so...human/down-to-earth and nice).

I honestly never want to hear how "mean" or "bad" Jean is to Noelle ever again. It was never true before anyway - this idea is based on an incredibly bad-faith reading of the lore that ignores pretty much everything in favour of Jean and also everything that would demand a critical look at Noelle's behaviour (not at all in the sense that Noelle is a bad person or anything, but in the sense that she is unfortunately so resistant to any kind active, direct input from Jean, who tries so hard to help her, that Jean is pretty much out of options - and yes, I have examples and lore “citations”).

Jean has this very weird misfortune that she and her actions are often viewed in a uniquely bad light that assumes all kinds of unfavourable motivations underlying her behaviour, when in reality those assumptions are untenable and inaccurate. All while the things that are positive about her or that harm her are often not taken (as) seriously or not given as much weight (with very hard-hitting lore that would be front and center in analyses, if she was for example a male character, sometimes barely being relevant in discussions).

----

I think this anecdote also really underlines how bad Klee's destruction has to be for Jean to take such drastic measures when trying to contain her because it really disproves that Jean is just some super-strict rule fetishist that punishes Klee because she's a stuck-up mean "mom". She is so lenient and understanding with other people's mistakes and it takes a lot to make her angry. She makes an effort to solve problems empathetically and productively and only when things *really* (and repeatedly) cross some very important lines she feels like she has to resort to tough measures (but also very clearly doesn't enjoy those). And even with Klee, we've never actually seen the real Jean be *angry* angry . She's still mostly just stern (with a strong dose of softness shining through).

(We only ever see an exaggerated monster version in Klee's imagination and tales but this is not reflected in any actual behaviour we have ever seen from Jean.

Tbh this whole "angry cartoon Jean" is a very deliberate move by Hoyo to (unfairely) cast her as an irrationally raging, nagging "mom" figure for their running gag when this image has a) very little to do with the real-life Jean and b) conveniently downplays/turns into a joke the very, very canonical danger that Klee's bomb pose to life in Mondstadt several times a week.)

[mesqiri-draco]

I might post more lore and character analyses in the future. Just as a heads-up so you are aware of it in case this is not really your cup of tea! (Which is perfectly valid!)

[mesqiri-draco]

Spoiler for Amber’s anecdote

I just played Amber’s anecdote and it really underscores why it bothers me so much when people hold it against Jean that she works so much by interpreting it as an act of prioritizing her duty/career over the importance of family and viewing it as a sign of neglect – of Barbara in particular and of her friends/family on a broader level.

Amber tells us that everyone she is working with has been run ragged and is incredibly tired just because of their fight against the aggression of slimes. And it’s not just the knights. They have enlisted the help of the Adventurer’s guild too. So even with combined forces they are overextending themselves and end up exhausted and overworked.

Not treasure hoarders, the abyss or ruin guards. Slimes. (Which may sound funny to us but to visionless and/or untrained citizens they are a legitimate threat.)

As we know Varka has taken 4/5th of the knights iirc (even if this is not the correct number, the point is he has taken the vast majority of knights).

So this shows us two things:

Mondstadt has to deal with serious threats to their people/their peace (despite the game’s relaxed atmosphere in this region). Treasure hoarders, hilichurls and abyss mage activity (with some even trying to assassinate Jean – I feel like this is a point not often talked about, like, Jean was(/still is?) on an actual hitlist… – but either way they are an ongoing, active threat), slimes, ruin guards. Even if Mond is not on the verge of war (which, as we learned from Lantern Rite might be the case soon anyways) its “everyday” threats are serious enough to affect the safety of Mondstadt’s people.

The KoF are seriously understaffed. With Amber’s anecdote we see how much it actually affects the knights working to maintain peace in Mondstadt. They are physically exhausted because there is more work than there are people to take care of it. (Until Albedo can come up with an alchemy-based solution which, by the sound of it, is not in sight yet.)

This means, if the knights – and especially Jean – don’t work tirelessly people will get hurt. These are direct, material effects on people’s lives.

Think of Jean going out to defeat 5 ruin guards in a day. Impressive but also, 5 ruin guards threatening Mond’s safety in a single day is a rather unsettling number.

Whereas Jean in particular also overworks herself with tasks that shouldn’t be on her plate like finding cats and delivering food, her job as a whole is a key to Mondstadt’s safety.

She is not the CEO of a capitalist company that needs to maximise profits for shareholders or somebody who wants to climb the career ladder for her own benefits. (In fact she makes it clear that she doesn’t care as much about being acting grandmaster as about being a simple knight who helps people, nor has she ever tried to follow Varka or her mother in their pursuits to become legends and make names for themselves as heroes. She’s so far on the other side of this spectrum that she is fine with being Varka’s glorified assistant allowing him to reap all the benefits of status and glory as long as Mondstadt is safe – which is not good either, she deserves better).

The KoF are responsible for several areas of civil safety: police, military but also health services (the church is Mondstadt’s version of a hospital and the KoF manages the church), business oversight/economic stability and growth (Kaeya’s hangout mission in Sumeru to help their alcohol industry), administration, foreign relations, environmental safety (e.g., the fish invasion during the Klee event), science and development (think of their alchemy and Jean’s endeavors to strengthen the growth of those areas during the alchemy event), etc. And then there are probably also areas not explicitly mentioned such as firefighting/the fire brigade, disaster control etc.

Normally, all those institutions would  be run by different organisations and require a lot of personnel. So with the KoF being so understaffed and with so many critical areas of public health and safety relying on Jean specifically, with her basically having to manage all of this in some way (even if it’s just on a very high level – she needs to have some basic knowledge of what’s going on in order to approve or deny things landing on her desk) failure on the KoF’s part and more importantly on Jean’s part can have very tangible consequences for people’s lives.

So, she is not prioritising a career nor is her sense of duty grounded in pure ideology (or self-importance disguised as altruism). Realistically the knights have more work to do than they can take on and there are consequences if things go wrong.

This is illustrated by Amber who also overworks herself in her anecdote. Amber displays literally all the traits (and even uses many of the phrases) Jean uses (which is also a testament of Hoyo’s lack of imagination when writing (female) characters…thinking of this year’s Lantern Rite where 4-5 female characters were all reduced to “I’m (over)working (myself) so hard” Sara, Keqing, Ganyu, Candace…)

She talks about how it’s her duty, how Mondstadt is her priority, she is exhausted but is convinced to keep going despite being at her limits, MC notes how she is way overworked, she emphasises how witnessing Mondstadt’s freedom  (at the top of the cathedral) is the thing that makes her happy and inspires her to keep going. She even makes finding cats part of her duties (though apparently cats are such a problem recently that people even ask the Adventurer’s guild for help…maybe that puts Jean’s cat troubles into perspective a little xD).

You could give these lines to Jean (and a ladder so she can climb on the cathedral’s roof) and you wouldn’t notice they aren’t hers.

Yet it would be unfair to question the honesty of Amber’s altruism. I don’t think she has a saviour complex or is selfish/self-centered in her self-sacrificial endeavour (I'd classify it as self-sacrificial because she does sacrifice her health as we learn), nor do I think it means she loses sight of the people around her (even though she actually literally looks at Mond from a bird’s eyes perspective when she sits at the top of the cathedral and it’s this perspective in particular that gives her peace – and funnily enough she can immediately spot when Margaret needs her help, i.e., when her duty calls).

In the same vein I don’t think it would be fair to question the honesty of Jean’s altruism underlying her self-sacrificial motivations given the seriousness of her burden.

Imagine a doctor or a fire fighter in understaffed institutions. Even if they value family really strongly, if there’s an emergency and somebody could get hurt or even die then it would only be sensible that they prioritise their duty in that situation. Unfortunately that is the reality of some jobs that focus on helping others. You can’t control when other people need help. Ideally even in those jobs you’d have a proper work-life balance but when you are understaffed then this is often not possible. I’m reminded of the nurse shortage in our hospitals in Germany where nurses often have to do 10+ hour shifts back-to-back because there are not enough people and if they don’t work then patients will suffer.

So I don’t think Jean focusing so much on her duty is mutually exclusive with her really caring about the people close to her. To me this kind of perspective feels very unfair and unforgiving in light of the very real responsibilities and their related consequences Jean has to navigate in conjunction with lacking people to properly take care of these issues. It’s a double bind.

Coming back to the more “mundane” problems she also takes on, I just can’t classify those as “selfish” but rather as Jean’s inability to say no, i.e. not a deliberate judgement but rather something she can’t control or lacks the means to manage, a compulsion, that is born from the very unfortunate combination of her upbringing which already etched the principle of serving Mondstadt at the expense of her own well-being into her brain since birth, plus the very real problems Mondstadt faces, plus their personnel situation. That she is not able to draw boundaries around herself and can’t differentiate between all the duties raining down on her, all while being heavily influenced by her upbringing which also included strong lessons of guilt and “debt” (the feeling that she owes her service to Mond – and if you owe someone something, if you are indebted, then you are obligated to pay your debt back) is not surprising I think.

(I really want to expand on that whole topic regarding compulsion, debt and guilt because I think this is one of the most crucial themes of Jean's character but I can only give a very shallow outlook on this topic here to prevent it from becoming even longer. Perhaps I'll find the time to write about it another day.)

So all of this is a very long-winded way of saying that Mondstadt has serious problems that require not only Jean but all the knights to overwork themselves (despite the happy-go-lucky mood their stories are always set in) and that are not rooted in a false sense of duty but in very real circumstances. As a consequence I don’t think Jean’s (or Amber’s or any other character’s) self-sacrificial commitment to their job as a knight should be held against them as unreasonable or self-serving choices or as signs that they don’t care enough about their friends and family with the criticism being they are too hyperfocused on their jobs, but rather as, perhaps imperfect but very understandable, reactions to legitimate problems. That imperfection is not rooted in selfishness or ignorance. It primarily affects and hurts them (and their health/well-being). I think they deserve empathy/sympathy for how they are the ones to suffer from their duty (and also suffer from the circumstances superimposed on them – what are Jean and Amber gonna do about Varka taking 80% of their colleagues…they are the ones to bear this burden he created) instead of turning it into something they hurt others with (in the sense that it is often treated as Jean in particular making a criticizable decision/as it being a failure of judgement worthy of scrutiny when she acts in a self-sacrificial manner vs. acknowledging that it is something that hurts and happens to her (because of 1. external circumstances and 2. compulsion that is to her own detriment, resulting from the psychological prison of her upbringing) and that it creates suffering for her that she deserves compassion for).

The pressure on Jean is honestly unreal. Having to shoulder all of this at the age of 23-24 without having a mentor or an older figure with experience to turn to who can help her to navigate all those weighty issues placed on her shoulders after Varka and both of her parents left her with the responsibility of a whole city while taking the majority of resources with them. (It’s not only the missing knights. Imagine how much easier it would be to defend Mondstadt if they had horses. Stop crying, Kaeya. They are not coming back. You and I both know this.)

--

Also clarification: Yes, many of those public safety institutions are often tied to governments and the KoF are the government but even in those cases, those issues are often tackled by institutions/departments that are independent of each other. Disaster control doesn't also overlook economic stability etc.

But in the case of the KoF it seems as if all those departments are connected much more, so that the same people - at least on a leadership level - have to deal with solving both the administrative *and* practical problems of many different areas (e.g., Kaeya doing paperwork, traveling to Sumeru for economy-related reasons and catching criminals/doing police and detective work, Jean doing paperwork, patrolling and fighting ruin guards, helping citizens with practical problems, diplomacy, developing their economy, fighting dragons, etc.).