#come on Mihoyo- this is an audiovisual medium. let the visuals do the talking for once

[tea-cat-arts]

(Disclaimer- I am fucking tired while writing this. I’m getting thoughts down cuz I can’t sleep. I have no idea if this makes sense) I don’t know whether to call this a hot take or vague, 5am thought-

You could take Elysium Everlasting’s writing exactly as is, but end but instead of that ending scene where real Kevin is talking to Mei and saying he felt to ashamed to face Elysia and Mei just automatically understanding why, actually have Mei force him to explain himself and it would improve the writing significantly. Elysia has always been characterized as a romantic and a liar, and the Elysian Realm itself has always been stated to be an unreliable collection of highly biased memories, so her presenting her own life as “a flowery thing where everyone loved her and even her death was perfect” is entirely in character.

Kevin, on the other hand, has always been pretty blunt and prone to see the worst in things. In the hallway scene, you could have him explain to Mei what actually happened and what Ely’s funeral was actually like. Maybe instead of the beautiful set piece, show a destroyed base. Instead of the majority of the moths not showing up because they were busy fighting, or some just were genuinely mad at Ely. Maybe instead of Kevin having a nice dance with Ely, he lashed out and said something he deeply regrets.

I feel like this could also help justify Mei’s sorta back-and-forth on if she thinks her experience in the realm was upsetting or not. Rather than just flip flopping between “oh ya, my time there was great and I learned a lot” and “I just watched 13 people I care about die and I’m deeply upset,” explicitly frame it as her desperately wanting to believe Elysia’s fairy tail while simultaneously knowing that Kevin’s pessimistic version of the events is probably the reality.

TLDR: I don’t think what we’re shown with Elysium Everlasting is the problem so much as it is that it’s ALL we’re shown. The other flame chaser’s perspectives (especially Kevin’s. Come on Mihoyo, stop making us dig for our MAIN ANTAGONIST’s characterization) on Ely’s death were desperately needed to really drive home that everyone here is an unreliable narrator