#also lots of interesting new lore for arlecchino just from this

[almonddirge]

Some interesting hidden dialogue in Ritou of all places, after a quest I never would’ve realized existed without the wiki.

Do you think Arlecchino also inherited her Commedia name from him, which is why it’s masculine? Did she also inherit her position in terms of numbers?

[oh-my-may]

LET'S TALK GENSHIN AND REMURIA AND ARLECCHINO BEFORE I FORGET AND WE'RE ALREADY IN SECOND HALF OF THE PATCH WHY DOES TIME FLY WHEN YOU'RE AN ADULT

I'm gonna start the post with a few paragraphs I wrote just a few days after the patch went live:

So I finished the first Remuria world quest - it was beautiful. And really not as long as I first expected it to be. I probably could have finished it on the first day if I wouldn't have been as tired as I was

First of all the new map is beautiful. You'd think after 3? patches of map expansions where we already got underwater stuff it would feel repetetive but somehow it looks and feels different and refreshing. Maybe because majority of the map are caves where you can walk normally or they're ruins... idk.

I couldn't help but draw parallels between Remuria and HSR's Penacony tho, especially look-wise, the talk of a dreamscape and the theme of music. Especially now after finishing Penacony 2.2 I can't help but feel the two are very similar in certain aspects... the motive of Harmony and Song and Peace and saving a people and Gods? Also the way Remuria looks is so similar to certain things in Penacony? I already said rhis in my post on HSR, this is absolutely no hate whatsoever. I reckon there's only so much you can do with these motives? It's interesting how differently it looks in both games tho.

So yeah, Remuria is beautiful. The music is an out of body experience and encapsulates the whole thing perfectly. I haven't explored all of the map yet, but I like the new mechanisms a lot. The floating books look so cool and just generally the significance of music through it all... *sigh* it's so enjoyable.

So far for Remuria... i definitely missed a few things I wanted to say but it's been like 2 weeks since I played this and I definitely forgot something haha

AS FOR ARLECCHINO THO

First of all she's broken omg. It is kind lf annoying that it'll take weeks to max out her talents, rn for me she's sitting at crowned NA and skill and burst are level 7 each. But she still hits for like over 50k with each normal attack when she has a bond of life. Don't even get me started on her with Yelan MY GOD.

Okay with that out of the way let me talk about her story quest. First of all I find it very intriguing that hyv gave up on the usual pattern of having the second weekly boss for a nation be tied to the Archon and their respective second story quest (besides Mond ig)... i mean yeah Fontaine's archon situatipn is very peculiar but technically Neuvilette has taken over the role for now, right? Neither him nor Furina getting a second story quest makes me think Neuvi's probably gonna get his way later because it'll be HUGE. Again I wanna say that lore wise Neuvi is my fav character... HES JUST SO FNDNDBDN. And Furina is probably gonna get a pretty "random" one at one point kinda like Yoimiya did or Cyno... like its gonna be a good quest but it'a gonna be random. ANYWAY

I wonder how much different I would habe perceived the quest if I hadn't watched the Animated Short about Arlecchino that they put on Youtube... like it's her whole backstory? I could see where the quest was going right from the beginning because of it... that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, tho

Childe's little surprise cameo made me so happy c: MY BOY. He's alive snd well AND IN FONTAINE. Let me remind ypu we last officially saw him in the last Atchon quest gwtting yeeted into a black hole by Skirk. Then it was mentioned at the end that he was being treated and sent gome to Snezhnaya. Well...

The whole cryptic talk between Arle and Childe was quite interesting... so this project by the Fatui, right? (Forgot the name rn bc it's been a few days since I played the quest) Is it fonna be significant for Natlans story? What does it entail?? THE TEASE NNNNGNNGHH

I wonder if at some point in the game we're actually gonna see Lyney become the new head of House of the Hearth. Like... it's mentioned quite a lot in his story as well as in everything that has tp do with the House and Sröecchino herself... I wonder 🤔

Throughout the story I was reminded that one of the first things we heard about her (Childes voiceline that came out in like??? 3.0 or so???). It was that she would turn her back on and betray the Harbingers (AND THE TSARISTA) without second thought. She even says this herself in her voicelines. I just wonder what her ultimate goal is? To free herself from the curse? Which btw they tell us nothing about in the story. Story is all about the House and its inner workings and Arle's feelings about it and plans for the future (which I love btw but still not quite understand)... we also casually get told that Arle is not even that old??? Like the whole thing with Crucabena is so recent that Freminet remembers her???? Amd Arle was maybe a Teenager when she killed her so like??? She's only around 10 years older than the kids????

So how come she's a descendant from Khaenri'ah? I don't know if I read somewhere abput it or if its a rumor but not confirmed or if its said in her personal story which I haven't read yet but... she'a from the crimson moon dynasty? Or has some ties to it? And her curse is definitely related to it BUT WHAT IS HER CURSE EXACTLY. WHY DOES SHE HAVE IT. If she's only in maybe her late 20s she couldn't have been an actual Khaenriahn citizen (same as Kaeya and he still gives me the same headache thinking about this) so how does it all tie together in the end?? Does it have to do with the God of time maybe??? (Nevermind if this is talked about in her personal story in her profile I haven't read that yet)

So yeah... the fight woth her was so cool. The animation??? I saw people get upset about the fact that Traveler couldn't beat her but I actually love that?? Like... She'a #4 of the Harbingers and has some curse probably tied to Khaenriah and she KILLED A HARBINGER WHEN SHE WAS A TEENAGER??? Traveler nlt being this almighty MC makes them so much mlre likeable like yeah... they are obv far from having their actual power back? It took us ... how many times to fight Shuki No Kami before we could defeat it in the final try to learn all the patterns? The game wants to tell us that there's much more powerful enemies in Teyvat and rhis is only the beginning. Let me tell you yeah we beat Signora but it was Raiden who killed her... it was Zhongli who subdued Azhdaha. We only healed Apep with Nahidas help. Traveler has never been able to easily defeat these big enemies, they always had help. Yeah they have been getting stronger, they've been getting access to more elements but the bis enemies are just getting stronger and bigger too... I wonder where that will lead. Maybe the twins are only gonna get their true power bavk once they're united... ANYWAY

Her weekly boss fight is cool too. Using different mechanisms again, with the whole Bond of Life thing and all. She does this one attack in her second phase that I just... can't get behind tho. Someone always has to be the victim, THE SACRIFICE, to get me through haha. Idk how to dodge or avoid that attack. The one where she floats above the arena and then these bombs? Idk? Come down and basically crash down on the whole arena and I haven't found a spot where you can aboid getting hit and therefore killed immediately idk.

So yeah that's all for now. Very excited to play Cyno's second story quest. Heard only good things so far about it, which is good because I really didn't like his first one 💀 probably gonna get around to play it one of these days. Same as with the rest of Remuria exploration, gonna need mlre Clorinde funds :3

(Gonna add screenshots later, it's been so long that the ones I took aren't saved in the PS App anymore 💀)

[lopposting]

I absolutely love your lore theories for LoP! Very new to the fandom :). Stayed up all night reading your posts abt it whahaha please keep making them!

Just wanted to ask what you think, if Camille was the recorded first puppet with an awakened ego and was Carlo's mom... does that mean Geppetto let his wife be experimented on by the alchemists upon her death or???

Another thought, do you think Sophia knew Geppetto's plans? Given that she reached out to P at the very beginning and called him by name ((geppettos puppet)) She knew Simon's plans yeah. But what abt Geppettos?

Thank you so much for your kind ask!!!

I panicked briefly because I thought I lost this ask somewhere. I have a LOT of thoughts surrounding Camille and parts of the game that I struggle to put together really cohesively, so on certain topics, i'm just going to ramble.

So, there is this image from the opening cutscene.

Maybe it isn't literally Camille and Carlo, but it may be alluding to them. [And what are they shown playing here? dundundun]

There is a particular affinity and focus the game has on the Piano as well.

Music is so linked to humanity in this game, i think it's very sweet.

There was also this really interesting post about the blue fairy (in the og collodi novel) that I don't think I can dig up anymore, but I remember it was something like this. It was pointing out that, realistically, the blue fairy really isn't a good parent. She lets a seven year old child be hanged on a tree, she watches by as he is enslaved; she makes him "work" for the right to be a real boy instead of reasonably granting him it, etc. The blue fairy also appears omniscient or goddess-like, appearing as a child, a young woman, a goat, and a mother (in perhaps her most adapted incarnation).

if Sophia's knowledge is endless, couldn't she have warned us about geppetto? wouldn't she know about carlo (someone she knew as a child) being tortured in a box? was it her discretion to let us suffer, because he needs to be able to suffer to be strong? Does that make her a moral or ethical person? Can any personhood with omniscience, who, in a sense, allows evil to happen, be moral or just? Perhaps, herein lies the philosophical, inherent flaw, in any relationship with an omniscient being, but I digress.

However, I think Sophia's endless knowledge that Arlecchino [sadly I write his name wrong every time] refers to is spiritual, or emotional, in a sense: that because she could manipulate time, all of it was at her disposal. When we wake up in the train car, her words are: "There you are, I've been looking all over for you!" She could not have known where we were, if she was searching for us (possibly through the blue butterfly figure we see). Also, I think she could've warned us about Geppetto.. but maybe then we wouldn't have gone to save her, and her goals are to get us to save her from Simon, which I believe she either says or suggests are "selfish" intentions (although I think she is very well within her right to have tbh). I don't think she is all-knowing in the way that Simon's world of truth would be. Maybe it's just a plot hole, perhaps it's just a "flaw" innate in writing any story with an omniscient character, but I don't think she was omniscient in that fashion.

And then coming back to Camille: One of my absolute favourite things about the game is the Saintess of Mercy Statue/Pieta Motif that we see in the Grand Exhibition. And Camille, who is inferred to have been the mother of Carlo, is said to have engineered the statue. She is directly connected to the game's central visual motif of death and rebirth. And then the statue also being diegetically[not a word apparently?] associated with rebirth and renewal ("Bring new life to puppets") in that you are "re-setting" and re-spec your character's stats there??? Equal parts beautiful and spectacular and touching.

[I feel SO sad that apparently, not every gamer got to see the statue. Opening those doors after the phone call riddle and then the camera panning up to the statue is such an amazing and special moment to me, and then the fact that it's also raining (another symbol of birth) too]

I don't know if the Camille puppet was literally the same Camille (who may have been the wife of Giuseppe), though. We know that she seems to have saved a baby from falling, on which afterwards she says "bring me back to my child". Not only is the Camille puppet a devoted mother character, she's also the first puppet to awaken (in other words, being associated with the idea of birth). "Camille" is so tied to the idea of motherhood and birth, that I think the Camille puppet is another connection here, and may not literally be the same Camille who was a technician. Although, I don't put it past Geppetto to be doing nefarious experiments with puppets, even if it were his wife. It might be a little ominous in regards to his attitude to P, that he doesn't see puppets as "people", but he does see people as puppets.

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Fontaine and Natlan Archon Quest Thoughts

I haven't played Genshin in over a year and I just got back into it. So, I had to speed run all the archon quests in order to feel like I can manage the insane amount of quests I have to do. Let me tell you, the Fontaine Archon quest line might just be my favorite in the entire game (my prev fave was Sumeru). But wow, Fontaine really stepped it up from the scale of the story to the characters.

The first part of the archon quest involves an incident at magician Lyney's show, leading to his trial for the disappearance of a woman. This later connected to another case in which women were disappearing from all over. I really loved how the story neatly transitioned from the small scale of Lyney's trial to the overarching case. It was honestly very intriguing and I really enjoyed the game mechanic of playing lawyer. Furthermore, the quests did a great job involving the various characters. Although Navia initially starts off as someone helping us defend Lyney, she becomes an integral part of finding out who kidnapped all those women. Her story about her father also was very heartfelt and Navia is easily one of my new favorite characters. Plus, Silver and Melus are awesome. The eventual reveal about Marcel and what he did was genuinely chilling.

Once we wrapped up the missing women case, Neuvillette has the player investigate something for him. This leads us to the Fortress of Meropide which is honestly such a cool location. The music and sound design really has stuck with me (and it finally got me off the ear worm that was Sumeru's music bc I think I spent too much time in that place; thanks Kaveh). Anyways, although we were stuck there for a while, it never felt boring. Wriothesely and the people that lived there set up a very interesting community. This is eventually culminated in the primordial sea breaking through its containment.

The third part of the archon quest involves Furina's trial as being a false archon and the fated prophecy of Fontaine. I think this archon quest excels so much is because you have that underlying prophecy connecting everything. Lyney's trial involved a women who went missing. The eventual reveal showed us that she was dissolved per the prophecy's words. In the Fortress of Meropide, the primordial sea almost kills everyone. We also learn that smaller amounts of the water can be made into a drug. Even Childe got some more lore reveal in connection to the sea. When it all comes together for Furina's trial, it hits so hard. This girl has spent hundreds of years acting as the archon and trying to protect her people, using a facade to create a sense of security. But in reality, she's not ok, the prophecy is still fated to take place, and Furina is very lost. It's heartbreaking.

In truth, Furina is the human side to Focalors. Focalors herself put her consciousness in the Oratrice. She tells Neuvillette the truth about the previous Hyrdo Archon, the revelation about the Fontainian people, and what she did in order to try and stop the prophecy. Furthermore, we learn a lot about Neuvillette and who he truly is. (Btw, this beautifully connects to his story and journey about belonging). Everything, in my opinion, is so well written and you really begin to feel for these characters. Both Neuvillette and Furina have such compelling and tragic stories which the archon quest beautifully highlights. Overall, just phenomenal.

And that's not even going into everything with Arlecchino. I wound up really, really loving her involvement in the story, the lore behind the House of the Hearth, and her boss fight in her story quest. She's a fascinating character and I look forward to seeing her again in future content. It also adds depth of Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet. They're fatui via due to the House of the Hearth, but they're not malicious like other Fatui characters the Traveler has encountered. I love all three of them very much and their sibling bond is very heartfelt.

That's not to mention all the other amazing characters like Clorinde, Sigewinne, the other Melusines, and Charlotte.

I loved this quest, can't you tell?

Natlan time. Spoilers because it's still quite recent.

We're still early in the Natlan archon quests but it didn't grab me as much as Fontaine's did. Overall, it was good and there's still more to come. I think the strengths for me came from the characters. Kachina is a very endearing kid and you genuinely want to help her out and do the Pilgrimage (at least I wanted to). Mualani is very kind and positive. I loved her right away and pulled for her even though I just got back into the game. She's awesome. Kinich is cool. I need to go back and watch his cutscenes at some point. I don't like Ajaw though. I wanna yeet that thing.

The Pilgrimage itself was pretty fun and I loved the teamwork with Kachina and Mualani. I enjoyed going around Natlan as well and seeing Mualani's home. After the Pilgrimage, Kachina is unable to be resurrected and we have to go into the Night Kingdom in order to save her. The design of the place was really cool and I like the distinction between the Night Kingdom monsters and regular ones. The souls who wander were also really spooky when they came at you. Overall, I liked the aesthetic of Natlan and its characters.

Where it kinda fell flat for me was with Mavuika and Capitano. I like her as a character and how Natlan chooses a different Pyro Archon ever couple hundred years or so. However, it feels like Capitano kinda shows up out of nowhere. I was really excited for the fight scene between them and it looked really cool. But it happens so fast that I wish we got a little more build up to it. The Abyss is the prime antagonist of Natlan and Capitano kinda just manifests. I really thought we were going to get a scene were Mavuika meets the Traveler and then Capitano arrives. Like, we barely know Mavuika because she's just sitting there for the first archon quest. I really didn't feel much when she and Capitano fought. She looked really cool, but I think we needed a bit more. Anyone else feel slightly underwhelmed?

There was so much hype in the trailer and it then it comes and goes by so quick. At least Capitano is sticking around for now. Perhaps this will all hit different once we get the rest of the Archon Quests in the Natlan storyline. I also wonder what the power levels are since Capitano, Dottore, and Columbina are supposed to have power that of a god. Mavuika I think has the same thing since she's a human who was granted divinity.

That's just me though.

I am very much looking forward to what's coming next and how Natlan will stave off the Abyss before it's entirely consumed by it. (I just realized this is very similar to Fontaine and Sumeru. All three nations are plagued by some sort of supernatural event that will destroy them, whether it's the withering, the primordial sea, or the Abyss. Hopefully, Snezhnaya will be different.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the everything right now. I love the characters and Fontaine Archon quest went so hard.

[ownedbythescribe]

Teyvat — Overture Teaser (Fontaine)

🌱 This is a bit late post, but I’m just really happy and quite overwhelmed to get a teaser from Hoyo for Fontaine! It is so surreal how last year, we just got Sumeru, and it possessed quality stories most particularly the Archon Quests. They improved with their writing considering that Inazuma was not expounded properly.

The side quests such as the Aranara, Golden Slumber, Dirge of Bilqis, and Khavarena of Good and Evil were also notable. Although not voiced, for lore enthusiasts, the stories enlightened missing portions of lore read only through books or articles scattered around the region. I particularly like the Aranara Quest despite its lengthy missions.

🌱 Moving on to Fontaine, we get a glimpse of the characters who will play major roles in the quest.

💧Freminet — Cryo Claymore — Automaton

Hoyo introduced this character first, and we see that he’s a diver of some sort based on his appearance. Lyney also mentioned that he is his older brother. Whether it would be by blood or not, we will know in the future.

💧 Lynette — Anemo Sword — Felis Alba

Next we see are the twins, Lyney and Lynette. Lynette appeared to be more robotic in a sense, and on the drip marketing, she was mentioned as Lyney’s assistant who seemed to prefer keeping to herself. She preferred Lyney to do the talking than anything else. For what reason? Still unknown to many.

It’s interesting really because Lyney seemed to care for his siblings a lot, and others may have already known but they were from the House of the Hearth headed by Arlecchino “The Knave”.

💧 Lyney — Pyro Bow — Felis Fuscus

As for Lyney, he was the narrator for the teaser, and he has been hinting about the current situation in Fontaine. I’m really excited to see how things will go from here on out especially since Sumeru was a blast!

Other notable characters we see in the trailer are:

💧Navia — Geo ???

💧 Charlotte — Cryo ???

💧 Sigewinne — ??? And Wriothesley — ???

By the way, they look so cute here! Wrio looks like he’s teasing her with choosing the tea instead of the other drink! It’s still unsure what their relationship is, but they look like siblings huhuhu

💧 Clorinde — Electro ???

As I’m looking at her, I’m also desperate for Hoyo to have a gun shooting character. Like a gun weapon type, but I’m not sure if they’ll ever introduce another weapon type because Mika has cross-bow, and not even a new type. A big sigh of disappointment leaves my lips.

She’s so cool though! Aaah! I’m so excited to see what’s her relationship or occupation in the Court of Fontaine!

🌱 Arlecchino — The Knave

Then we got Arlecchino looking so hot and ominous at the same time! The way she talked about Lyney and Lynette as well as the traits of a good actor makes me wonder if she’s treating the situation in Fontaine as nothing more but a trivial play.

🌱 Last but not the least, we get Furina and Neuvilette.

💧 Furina — ???

💧 Neuvillette — ???

If others may have remembered, we already heard of Neuvillette from Nahida’s drip marketing. He’s the Chief Justice in Fontaine and the one to head any cases in the court. He also mentioned once how he admired the Dendro Archon unlike his, but I think he has some sense of respect to his archon.

He also has some theories already speculated by the mass such as him being a Khaenri’ahn because of the eyes while others think he’s an oceanid in human form. Whatever he may be, we’ll know soon. I’m definitely pulling for this daddy man 😋

As for Furina, one thing that comes to mind is she’s definitely the Hydro Archon. This is not coming from leaks or whatsoever, but from pure reasoning alone. Nahida mentioned that the Hydro Archon loved to immerse herself in the feeling of the courtroom but not engaging in it. So it means that she’s usually seen just hanging around the court and never interacting with anyone. In the trailer, she’s seeking a surprise to finally come her way. This makes me think that maybe that surprise she’s looking for will involve the Fatui and Traveler. Whatever conflict it may be, Furina wanted to find delight in that.

🌱 Anyways, that’s all! I just really want to talk about it. I may not be making sense at some parts, but I try. One more patch, and we’re finally seeing our fifth region. I’m so excited!

[1010ninetynine]

venti and lyney are very similar characters. i'm going to talk about sales tmrw but today. i'm going to talk about them in terms of character.

Now obviously they're different people. Venti's arguably the more interesting of the two in terms of lore (not story, i mean like celestia lore) - but people will probably like Lyney more, not just because he's a main dps and a support, and Venti's lost his CC king title, but because he's fontainian. He's connected to a better archon quest and his penchant for the traveler is made very clear from the word go. It would have felt like heaven to me if I'd liked lyney more (and I'll get into my experience with him).

I want to first talk about Venti and what I think defines his character. For me, it's that sense of just wanting to be some guy. Venti's never wanted to be this Anemo Archon of The Seven, and it doesn't show in any place best than when he gave his little speech to us as the Anemo Archon and it was...him telling us to get to know teyvat, rather than speedrun it, a value he cares deeply about, and the immediately after went back to silly goofball. It's what I love about him. He's wise, because thousands of years have left him with a lot of time for thought, but he doesn't seek to be this imposing figure. He seeks to be someone who's not revered, but respected. Like, if someone who saw his heroism personally was like 'you're pretty cool you drunkard' i think that's the ideal scenario for him.

I mean hell, one of his lines when he opens a chest is "Thank Barbatos...wait a minute-" so like. He's really gunning for it.

Compare that to his polar opposite, Zhongli, who liked leading and all but just got tired of it. He didn't actually tire of being revered, he doesn't try to mingle with people as an equal, he's just tired of taking care of every problem Liyue deals with. He still wants to be their dad archon, just a retired one.

Lyney, on the other hand, I think is defined by seeking validation, or more accurately, trying to get paid, whether that be in adoration which means more people coming to his show, or in just straight up mora. So naturally, he has reasons to pretend to be someone he's not, in comparison to Venti, who is naturally charming and sociable, but often has to force himself to be because grief took a bit of a toll.

Call it intuition but i was suspicious of Lyney's socialness being a bit fake when he said that things would be quiet if he and lynette were alone on an aquabus. I, for one, know something. If you are genuinely close to your sibling (as Lyney is to Lynette, by all counts), and as social as you seem, then hanging out with your sibling is a time of great joy. My sister is social, and with me, becomes even more so. I'm not very social, but even so, my sister makes me want to talk.

then he came out and his voiceline literally said "yeah im not actually this social naturally" and i was like FUCKING KNEW IT YOU LIL MAGIC MAN

*ahem* anyway point is he's developed a skill of being charming to survive and also is very pretty and by all counts, I should have fucking adored him.

but here's why i didn't - the ayaka and ei effect

*dramatic pause*

Now, one thing I have very little patience for in gacha games is being explicitly "pandered" to (except when I'm deep into them, like I was with Arlecchino and for a bit, Kokomi) Ayaka's story quest is a prime example of this.

Ayaka's lack of friends, journey to discover her mother's desire for freedom, and all of this leading her to love the traveler, but accepting she cannot leave Inazuma...and all this while I could still pull for her...it was so immersion breaking. And it felt kind of pandery the whole time to me. Like, they're pandering to a male audience with female charas like her obviously, and it's so fucking similar to every other overworked waifu in this game that while her being lowk trapped is a new dimension, it's not one that makes me feel any sort of way cuz uhh i could literally pull for her, and she'd go wherever I'd want her to, and it was so obvious that they were trying to sell her.

Same with Ei's story quest, it was just a shopping date, and while I mean I love evil women more than sane women so I was willing to ignore a lot of the pandery stuff, but what I couldn't ignore was the fact she'd literally tried to kill us right before the beginning of the story quest, and thus the whole quest made very little sense in the grand scheme of things. It was frustrating. I chose to ignore canon and pretend me and ei worked out shit over 4 months or so.

Now, I know what you all are thinking "but lyney's a well written character! his motivations for liking the traveler are well explained (imo no and ill get to that), and he's not a boring snowflake nor a poorly written villain." ok well consider this. I've already had two story quests somewhat dulled for me by the gacha system/poor placement and the supposed romance im supposed to be feeling has been soured, then lyney spends so much of his screentime flirting with the traveler, and I do self insert as the traveler btw, and I wanted his father, and I don't get why they don't just leave the rizz lines to the teapot. Least you can decide who gets to rizz you up then.

Second of all actually, no, I don't get why Lyney cares so much about our trust. Ayaka's reasons made sense, we kind of represented freedom to her, plus she's canonically into good sword skills, Lyney's reasons actually felt more like spontaneous attraction to anything.

And nothing's directly wrong with that, just, he's a fucking fatui member. Soon to be harbinger (supposedly). The traveler is not, in fact, famous for their favorable dealings with the fatui. We kind of caused La Signora's death, we regularly farm fatui insignias for some weird alchemical ritual, oh not to mention, we got on Dottore's bad side too. Childe's adoration for us makes sense, all he cares about is a good fight, he's not entirely in support of the Tsaritsa's actions per say - but his morals take second place to his desire for good fights so he rolls with it. Leaves it up to the players. So he sees a friendship with us as not a big deal.

Lyney on the other hand? Just straight up IGNORES all the implications of flirting with the traveler, at least, so far. And sure, it's nothing serious yes, just a rainbow rose and some on the edge lines but that's the thing, that means he knows he likes us, or he does this with everyone which is its own brand of annoying.

And his fucking magic show. The tricks were cool. But the goddamn dig at amateur magicians...call me a prick who cares too much abt stupid shit but like cmon. we know all mistakes are staged in this show. why are u speaking as if that's something that could organically go wrong. second of all, i don't like someone saying "hurr durr im not an amateur hehe im so fucking cool" like goddammit least favorite behavior.

And it's not like I think Lyney's a worse character than Ayaya or Ei, if anything, he's probably more developed than Ei at the very least. Im just like...specifically annoyed at him for minor details no one really cares about.

Another thing - the fact we decided to serve as an attorney during the archon quest despite no experience was kinda ehh to me. Like Fontaine's laws, known to be complex and silly, and some foreign traveler's gonna be the attorney? I wish we just offered to help gather evidence or smthn it was silly to me.

if you got this far and you liked lyney, uh, i commend you for being open to alternative takes but uh...mind the tags if that wasn't the case, for future reference.

[ipcearn]

So I finished the most recent Archon quest a week and a half ago, as well as Furina's (first) story quest and I had some time to process and get my thoughts in order

Beware a long, rambly post beneath the cut

I knew what the ultimate twist of the Archon quest would be concerning Furina and Focalors, though not the details of how and why before I played it since I procrastinated on it so long and I didn't evade spoilers, but I wanted to play it before I dug into the meat of the Film Festival event

But damn, that was pulled of very well, with the shifting perspectives (but also ooof, the guilt everyone had to feel when the verdict came down when they made the plan to get Furina on trial, even if it was all planned by Focalors, that would and should haunt people for a while, particularly Furina)

The thing with the narwhal whale was a bit left field, but damn did Childe eat during that cutscene, I do have thoughts on Skirk and her design that I am going to stew over for a while longer

I know people have been talking about this since the trailer had dropped and we got that first look at her, but yeah, for a character with her build up, I kinda expected to be a bit more wow'ed which is all I am going to say for now

Her lore drops though, damn, the revelation about the gnoses and how much more important the Hexenzirkel is becoming - suddenly it tracks very much why Mona is randomly in this quest

Maybe we will finally get that Mondstadt expansion soon I can dream right

But on the topic of the gnoses, I am gonna admit how confused I was that Neuvillette gave that to Arlecchino because I honestly thought that the trick Focalor pulled was essentially destroying the gnosis

I need to look over the earlier quest dialogues again because my understanding had been that the gnoses were given out by Celestia to a god/person which made them an Archon (though a dying/dead Archon can also pass their gnosis to their replacement apparently, I assume Makoto did this with Ei as well, but we get the confirmation that Egeryia did that with Focalors), and god does not need to equal Archon as we get in Liyue's lore regularly; now we know the gnoses are made of the remains of the third descender as revealed by Skirk, because like the Traveler the third descender could channel multiple elemental energies, but those elemental energies that elevated a god/person to an Archon were taken from the Ancient Dragon Authorities by Celestia (as revealed by Neuvillette)

To me that meant that the gnoses were the focal point for that power and we know once those get taken away from an Archon, they still retain enough of a charge of elemental power to pass as vision holders - see literally every Archon we encountered so far, it's either Venti or Zhongli that first explains that, coincidentally also the two Archons with fake visions - so I thought the trick Focalors pulled was by killing the Hydro Archon, she was destroying the gnosis to return the power to Neuvillette permanently

Because couldn't Celestia very easily now just decree the Hydro gnosis to a new person??? Which would create a new Hydro Archon??? We know the Heavenly Principles are not challenged lightly

Or is the Hydro gnosis now essentially powerless? Which would imply the Tsaritsa either isn't aware that is a possibility or that she was never interested in the elemental powers they hold and more in that they are made from the remains of the third descender since we do know the Fatui and by extension the Tsaritsa are aware of the Descenders

Also, very, very intrigued and admittedly worried how much more important the term 'planet' became in this quest, both used by Skirk and Neuvillette, since before it was always 'world'

I genuinely hope the storytellers know what they are doing and are not overloading the lore because planet is a word that comes with a lot of implications, particularly with "the sky is fake" as we heard in Sumeru from Dottore, if it was just Skirk, I could excuse that maybe (I need to look into Mona's story dialogue again because she I could also see using the word which would have strengthened the connection to the Hexenzirkel) but Neuvillette throwing the word around without question is what gave me pause

Plenty of questions, plenty of theories, plenty of concerns

Now to Furina's story quest

I thought they really did an amazing job in it with her dealing with the emotional trauma she suffered from having to play an Archon for 500 years... until the very end of the quest came around

Her setting her boundaries so very firmly really made me applaud her and the writing, and I personally thought where that quest would leave her would be her realizing a joy in running the behind the scenes of a theater troupe and play writing, finding her place in something that made her suffer but rediscovering the joys of it without having to retread what hurt her

And her emphasis that she would never act on a stage again felt so very important and in line with that, and even though a number of characters kept repeating how great she is on stage, her being adamant on her choices felt very important to her healing

And then the quest forces her to do it at the end anyway

Now obviously the art was beautiful and I was bawling during that cutscene, but it cheapened what I thought made the quest great before that

Though at least in the Film Festival event we get to have that director Furina running the behind the scenes instead of acting herself

(Edit after this post sat in my drafts for a few days: I saw that one of Neuvillette's profile stories digs into how the Ancient Dragon Authorities are linked to the gnoses, it doesn't really dispute my understanding, but also doesn't quite match it, though it does say that Neuvillette is now the one responsible for new Hydro visions; I'll need to reread that one a couple times before my brain computes it fully, so maybe I will make additions to this post at a later date)