#oh god I don't have the time to ship focalors x barbatos

[scrion7]

post 4.2 furina

It might be just me, but I vastly prefer Focalors to Furina.

From a logical standpoint, Furina really should be one of my favorites, right up there with Venti and Hu Tao, but somehow I don't really enjoy her to the same extent. I think its because she hasn't really had time to be Extremely Herself (and not Extremely "Archon") at other characters, as during the Archon quest and her story quest she's either playing a role or being depressed. I think that once she appears in a limited time event and talks with other characters I'll like her more.

In particular, I really want to see what Arlecchino thinks about post 4.2 Furina. Honestly, I think she'd really respect her for successfully pulling the wool over her eyes, as well as essentially being undercover for 500 years. As a spy and a parent, she'd probably have Opinions with a capital O on putting a 'newborn' human through such a deep undercover op without any check-ins like that. I've got a post 4.2 Fatui!Furina AU rolling around in my head, but I'll wait until we get more Arlecchino to get that started.

On the other hand, Focalors is absolutely my favorite part of the update. Her calm and elegant manner juxtaposed with "Anyway, so then I cursed her" is. Perfect. That plus "I'm a genius, I know" cemented her as my favorite archon we've seen yet, even above the tone deaf bard. You can just tell that in an informal setting she'd be a complete menace. "The sweet sound of bewilderment" indeed. There's also almost as many hidden nuances in her words to Neuvillette as there is in an average Venti-Hu Tao interaction, so expect a long post about that coming soon (tm)!

Her dynamic with Neuvillette is also really interesting. I bet a bunch of modern AUs are going to crop up with Neuvillette and Focalors parenting kid Furina.