#but damn he’d be so cute auughhhh

[paimonial-rage]

Could I request something for Gorou? I have two prompts I'd love to see you write. You can pick which one you want to go with (or pick neither lol). And it can be a fic, headcanons, analysis... anything. Don't worry about what you think I'd like because I just want to see what you'd do with this.

1) Gorou trying to prevent his crush from seeing the Ms. Hina standee at the Yae Publishing House when they’re Ms. Hina’s biggest fan (This is literally a prompt in your rules LOL)

2) What do you think Gorou was like as a child?

- @mimi-cee-genshin

Okay I am so sorry for taking so long with this. I’m gonna be answering #2 here and saving #1 for later. When I first got this ask, I didn’t realize how actually intricate it is? And because I need to explain my thought process from start to finish, you’re gonna have to sit through roads of me rambling. I um… apologize ahead of time.

The interesting thing about Gorou is that, despite seeming like one of the older siblings of his family, it’s mentioned that he’s probably the fifth son instead. Not fifth child, but fifth son. This means that he’s either in the middle of near the youngest of his siblings. When I first realized that, I wondered how in the world he became so dutiful and responsible.

Upon more thought, though, I came to realize that Gorou actually exhibits traits found in older siblings and younger siblings. No doubt is he dutiful, responsible, and driven (older sibling traits). But he’s also naive, feels pressure to measure up, and can be quite reckless (younger sibling traits). So what does this mean?

This is going to be pure headcanon and speculation here, but I imagine Gorou as a young child was very cute. He probably was the youngest for a good amount of time, so I can find the adults in his life and his older siblings doting on and spoiling him a lot. But I think Gorou would hate it. I honestly think he had a great adult(s) to look up to, so he’d want to be just like them. He’d admire how they’d take the lead, treat others, and also how they’re respected in turn. So he’d do his best to act like them, not realizing that all he’d accomplish is looking more adorable in the long run.

I can see at some point him not being the youngest anymore? Like either getting younger siblings or perhaps his older siblings ended up having kids? So he’d become even more strict on trying to imitate the people he looks up to, probably taking himself a bit too seriously. He’d do his best to be a role model, although I can see him thinking it’ll be simple and then getting completely overwhelmed trying to control a bunch of toddlers. HAHA

So to give you a picture, as a young child (younger than 5 years old), I can imagine him constantly trailing after his older siblings. Whatever they do, he’ll attempt to imitate them perfectly (often trying to do things much above his age bracket, thus causing people around him to panic). I can see him getting depressed when people coo over him, but when older ones in the village call out after him like, “Oh wow, Gorou, you’re such an adult! So responsible!” I can see his ears perking up and his tail wagging happily as he marches proudly after his siblings.

When he starts acting like the older sibling to children younger than him, I can see him doing his best to be mature (just like his idols!), and then it absolutely backfiring. He’d probably spend a lot of his time running after them and keeping them out of trouble, mediating fights, etc. No doubt he’d probably need peptalks from the adults in his life because he’ll eventually end up thinking he’s not good enough after not succeeding as well as he’d like.

At least… that’s how I imagine he’d be as a child. Basically, this kid that is trying his best to be just like his role models because he admires them so much.