#im gonna be digesting this over the next months like a snake

[gaydogmarriage]

cyno sq2 messy thoughts

cyno quest 2 was pretty alright. its got the usual genshin jank writing disease but for what it was i enjoyed it. felt pretty crammed into a shorter story than it should have been tho. theres still a lot of gaps that remain unexplored and the exposition was dumped so fast... sadly most of the parts id like to see explored more revolve around cyrus so tough shit there, i doubt he's appearing again. unless something happens off screen and cyno tells us about it we're pretty much left to speculate on things like cyrus's motives and any talks they may have about this new revelation of cyno's past. which isnt a bad thing, its just a little frustrating just how much that was put aside in the quest

im really curious about what cyrus's thoughts and feelings that led to the decisions he made were, how much cyno feels he needs to know, how much cyrus is willing to tell.. hes one mysterious bastard

its worth noting that cyno refers to his spirit indwelling as the result of a deal he made willingly, despite him being a small child when it happened, definitely not fit to be making thise kinds of decisions. i already thought that was something to pick apart before, but now with this quest it gets so much more curious. his memory of that time is so hazy he didnt even remember the temple of silence and the other kid who went through the same thing he did. he was sold by his parents for the sole purpose of being a vessel which i doubt was something a small kid would just volunteer for, and then he had the fragment implanted into him. yet even as he's standing tgere in the temple, he refers to it as a deal he made willingly. he says it like its the only thing he knows and remembers about it. is it something he tells himself? is that how he copes, by retroactively trying to grant himself agency in a situation out of his childhood self's control? when he calls it a deal, is he referring to the people who put the spirit in him, or does he consider it a deal with the spirit itself? theres just so much to dissect here

and furthermore, cyno seems to completely forgive cyrus for the role he played in this. it really recontextualizes their whole familial relationship. we know how lowly cyno thinks of scholars who pull stunts like this, toying with life and death and god knows what else. he personally participated in putting a stop to the artificial god experiment, which reflects his own past more than he even realized at the time. yet he seems to barely even feel conflicted when it comes to cyrus. maybe he's just matured and become content with his life beyond the point of that truly shaking him up, but he should still have some issue with it on principle. but he's also known cyrus for seemingly all of his life that he remembers, and ultimately he did put a stop to it and get him out of there, and then proceed to keep him safe from the akademiya treating him the same. as a test subject, not his own person. he knows cyrus is no longer willing to be complicit in something like that, so he has no concerns. i don't know. there's just so much

on a completely unrelated note... tighnarians, huh? im still not completely clear on whether valuka shuna and tighnarian are synonyms, or whether one is an umbrella term including the other or what. the implication seems to be that the headdress cyno wears seems to actually be based on fox folk, rather than a jackal or a wolf? which... doesn't really make sense. technically it's never been mentioned in actual dialogue or lore as being either, but it still doesnt quite sit right. hermanubis already seemingly wore the headdress, but he was a tighnarian himself? meaning he had fox traits? but the helmet does not look foxlike? are all tighnarians foxlike? are there some that were of other canine nature? im so confused. what does this mean for my dog coding enjoyment. i need to refresh my lore knowledge

and. hm. that 4ggravate friendship and cynari huh. i rly dont like how hard hoyo seems to be trying to retcon their backstories to instead pretend theyve always been besties. we could have gotten a bit of elaboration on how it was for them when they actually met, with tighnari as student and cyno already as mahamatra investigating him, but the quest dialogue acts like they were just classmates. if the implication was meant to be that cyno was both mahamatra and student at the same time, thats fucking stupid and im ignoring it. the cnnri in this quest was both incredible and a disaster for the fanon

oh and i like sethos. hes got a lot going on

and i like how cyno's maturity is portrayed in this quest, while still showing his shortcomings. we've had a lot of silly cyno since the archon and first story quests, and im really glad to see the serious mature side of him in a story thats more about him personally. and when he stands there right next to sethos you can really see how much he has his shit together in comparison, through his own efforts and the support of his loved ones. go go cyno we love that for you cyno

anyway quest gave me fun ingredience for my hc's and interpretations, but also Problems to solve. welp, the genshin giveth and it taketh away, thats just how it is