why are they white Hoyo

All of them look so much better than what we got :( I mean Navia's canon design is one of the better ones (even then wouldn't go so far as to say GOOD good) but Ei, Cloud Retainer, and Rukkedevatta's are pretty bad.

- I'm confused by the choice to have Traveler and Paimon join Brigitta and an npc to fix a cannon instead of going to help with the Wild Hunt? Cause that's what they normally do, they actively offer help and go off to fight things.

- that being said, the cannon sequence was alright. It wasn't very long, and gave some nice insight on how the cannon works, as well as the relationship between the Craftshop, Nasha Town, and Lightkeepers. Due to what uh... the rest of the game is like, I automatically thought 'oh god no' when I realized what we were doing, bc I assumed it was going to lead to half an hour of pure dialogue lol. But it turned out fine, so forget about it.

- Sousi's design would look really good... if the fur wasn't plastered to his body. You know, fur? The stuff that's really poofy? For some reason, I find it oddly distracting that part of his design is modeled normally, while other parts are awkwardly stickered-on like a normal npc?

- Paimon is so... presumptuous about Nefer, even moreso than she has been towards other characters. She has been given no reason to see Nefer as a greedy person who profits off of others, yet here she is saying that she doesn't want to go to her for help, and thinks to herself 'Hmph... More like "make a profit off of the Wild Hunt!" Paimon doesn't believe a word she says!' It's because she's (presumably) from the desert, isn't it.

- actually, the way Paimon starts immedietaly planning to trick her into helping them, and Nefer realizing this but deciding to convince her to calm down instead of getting mad, reminds me of Kaeya's story quest. Except here, instead of behaving like that because of his skin colour, Paimon is giving Nefer this treatment because Writer Intervention told her that she's Egyptian. And, well, she's still pale-skinned, so ultimately Paimon is willing to give her more of a chance than she gave Kaeya.

- on that note, good on Nefer to point out that Traveler and Paimon get mora from doing daily commissions, and are also in Nod Krai for their own gains. Adding her to the list of playable characters who are willing to criticize the protagonists.

- would've be nice to actually explain wtf the banquet is before using it as a plot point. What is it, exactly?? Explain, please??

- the bar sequence was a bit of a surprise, mostly because it references that bartending event from... some time in 1.X I think? I've never played it, so I don't know whether the barebones minigame they had you do was using resources from that event. It sure felt like it did, because the choices of ingredients felt random, and the animations weren't very good. I swear I've never seen a lemon in Genshin before. The whole sequence is useless, all you do is put ingredients from a list into a glass, serve it, and ""hide"" to listen in on conversations a couple times, never learn any important info, and then move on to other stuff. Probably should've improved the drink mixing mechanics and left it for an event.

- the roulette game was such a waste of time, but also kind of funny? I wonder whether Nefer knew Traveler didn't drink alcohol because someone gave her that info, or if she figures it out herself. I like the idea that she's been collecting info on the mysterious and suspicious Traveler for a while.

- after the decent pacing of the first act, the bar investigation was disappointing. We spent like half an hour in there, and only learned one important piece of info. We already knew that the fake Abyss Sibling was a unique phenomenon by the end of act 1, we didn't need to walk around a bar to confirm it.

- I feel like we should've just helped Sousi a bit more, go to the Lightkeepers and ask them directly. Fight some Wild Hunt with them, and eventually Sousi would tell them that he's investigating the growing gap in defeated Wild Hunt and Lightkeepers defeating them.

- I did like both of Nefer's one-one-one conversations with npc's, though. They did expand her character a bit. Unfortunately, it's not enough to save the bar investigation. At first, I thought going to Nefer the info broker made sense, but as time went on and it turned into yet another half assed Genshin investigation, it just became boring. She's more interesting when with another playable character.

- it's really shitty of Genshin to hype Columbina up as the third of the harbingers, and have Childe and Scara fear her, just to conveniently 'forget' abt it and stop treating her like a harbinger altogether the moment she appears. This is similar to what they did with Arle, except Arle's case was about how shitty of a person she is. As far as I'm concerned, you could've had this backstory and personality for her without just making her a cute, sad little baby who sits around in a cave all day, doesn't do anything of her own accord, and is never treated like a harbinger. She can have motivations that she actually acts on, you know. Yes, even if she's traumatized and depressed.

- I've only had Columbina for a day and a half, but if she gets waifu-d for the straight male audience I'm going to kill everyone in this room and then myself.

- the reveal that Rerir is involved is... seriously? Are we seriously watching the third of the harbingers hype up a member of a group we were only just introduced to during Fontaine? We don't know nearly enough about the 5 sinners to put this much weight on them, let alone on one of the sinners we barely know anything about, in which everything we do know comes from random descriptions most haven't read.

- I like (read: hate) that they genuinely expect you to not only care about the 5 sinners, but also to be alarmed that the leader of the Wild Hunt is some guy named Rerir. Like.. no???? No I DON'T care about the sinners, and I DON'T know enough about this guy and the sinners to assume he's dangerous, actually. Rerir is set up as a proper threat, I'll give him that, but you seriously dare to assume that I see the sinners as this super duper uber powerful and scary and dangerous group over the main antagonist factions we've known about since the beginning of the game?! I swear, if the 5 sinners were just made up so that Genshin can redirect all Abyss and Khaenri'ah lore onto them over the Abyss Order and Kaeya I will be so pissed. I genuinely only care about Rhine here, for obvious reasons.

- did NOT like the sequence where you have to shine light onto the shadow things to keep them away. I hate it when they force you to walk slowly to extend the length of the quest, and I died twice. Dying in a painfully slow mandatory minigame isn't fun.

- GOTH FAE BOY IS REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- unironically, working with Flins gave us results so much faster than working with Nefer. Plus, him and his lantern shenanigans are funny, while Nefer without other playables to bounce off of acts similar to every other calm and collected character you make investigation plots with. The difference between Nefer's writing in act 1 (where she's with Lauma and Jahoda) and act 2 (where she's largely just with the protags and npc's) is very glaringly different.

- after years of Genshin's crap, there is something refreshing about getting a new weird, lore relevant, immortal man that I actually like. Other than Neuvillette, who is just a stupid dictator who exists to remove Furina's agency in her own nation (I'm not sorry), we haven't really gotten any new ones in a long time. I will forever defend many of Hoyo's female characters and speak against the sexist fans who only care about male characters, but the truth is- female Genshin characters get treated like shit I this game no matter what you do. With male characters, you don't have to shift through gross sexist bullshit from the game and fandom, or be afraid of Hoyo turning them into cutesy waifu bait. And it's just... relieving to not have to deal with that sometimes, you know?

- Rerir is pretty okay as an antagonist, actually. I sort of appreciate that he's better set up as an antagonist than pretty much any other main antagonist in the aq's, but I'm also really bitter that this random ass guy we were only introduced to recently is doing so much better than the harbingers and Abyss Order that I actually care about. The very LEAST you could've done for the fandom's sake is have the sinner be Rhinedottir, because most story fans actually care about her.

- ...Rerir has a harbinger-like introduction title. Oh, the sinners are definitely going to take over Khaenri'ah and Abyss lore....

- I do like his design, though. He has a chance to make me actually care about him, I guess.

- just when I was worried that new male character would screw Sandrone over as an antagonist, she appears to fight him!! .......And then as soon as I start feeling happy for her, she almost looses, gets saved by Columbina, and starts acting like a cute tsundere towards her and it immedietaly destroys all of the setup act 1 gave her as an antagonist I feel threatened by. I hate Genshin for how it treats female characters so fucking much. Fuck you.

- I'm sad to see that Lauma has been reduced to 'just another member of the cast' as early as the update she was introduced in. Just like how Hillsi Island and the Frostmoon Scions feel like Watatsumi, Lauma feels like Kokomi- the opening for her being a really important character who leads a cool resistance is right there, it's painfully obvious, but Genshin refuses to go that far and leaves her in the dust. They don't actually like these women, either as leaders of people being discriminated against by an archon's people or as people with direct access and connection to important lore that could've led to a great story. They don't actually like minority cultures, let alone women from minority cultures. This character who can literally feel things from beyond the false sky will never be treated with the importance she deserves. It's so sad.

All in all, I definitely did not like act 2 as much as act 1, and in fact I'm preparing for the rest of the archon quest to get worse. After all, Columbina and Sandrone have so far been handled terribly, and then the rest of the archon quest should come with even more highly awaited characters, as well as *sigh* Fake Durin. But I still hold that the prologue and act 1 was really good by Genshin standards.

- when Paimon and Natlan characters started talking about a goodbye party, I was SO worried that Genshin was going to make me sit through yet another Natlan party. Thank fuck they didn't, cause you know they have the balls to do it.

- have I mentioned how much Nod Krai is blatantly similar to Fontaine, the nation people fell in love with before the disaster that is Natlan? I mean, similar pseudo-steampunk aesthetic, the metal plates drilled together that don't make sense everywhere, dragging people in with "we swear things are going to actually happen in the aq this time!", having a hydro character as a stand-in for the archon, etc. Anyways, the Fatui informant spying on Traveler was literally exactly the same as the beginning of Fontaine.

- I would assume they're doing that on purpose, because they know many people want to go back to the way Genshin used to be, but they're not willing to go too far back, so they're copying the most recent nation that was extremely successful and beloved by fans.

- "This is where our spaceship landed when (Abyss Sibling) and I first arrived in Teyvat" "A-Are you sure? But... how come you've never mentioned that before? Seems pretty important to Paimon!" Making fun of your poor writing decisions STILL doesn't make up for them being poor writing decisions, Genshin.

- funniest part of this spaceship bullshit is that the ship landing in Nod Krai- specifically the half-nation that that was made up recently- makes it even more obvious that reintroducing the spaceship WAS in fact a random thing they only recently pulled out of their ass.

- ...how did we go from fantasy game to (paraphrased) "I must find my spaceship, maybe the flight logs will give me information"...

- kuuhenki are so cute, I really like them. Moon seelies!! I hope that Genshin still remembers the Chasm and made Chasm seelies and moon seelies the same colour on purpose, cause that has some Interesting Implications for the Chasm seelies. Would that be too much to ask for? From Genshin, maybe? But maybe not? They surprise me all the time. Please??

- why do we have to have mechanics to play as them, though. There is absolutely NO reason for that whatsoever. You literally just did that because you don't want to let go of Natlan's bullshit indwelling mechanics. Why. It sucked.

- is Ineffa talking about the 'civilization of the angels' the first time we've ever heard someone directly bring up the original civilization? Thank you best girl :D

- "The probability of an ordinary person encountering a kuuhenki lies in the single digits. Many here consider them heralds of good fortune." and we're seeing one in the middle of Nasha Town and no one is batting an eye-

- not a fan of the new puzzle mechanics, but I was expecting that from the get-go. I've pretty much been thinking that since at least the second half of Sumeru. I've never been a fan of the whole 'insert ten new mechanics into this new area that only exists in this part of the nation that we will never use again' thing. I think the Chasm was the last time that I 100% loved a new area. Which isn't to say that I've hated everything that came out since, just... I don't enjoy constant new mechanics with long explanations in the tutorials when you can just make a few new things that you figure out on your own.

- also not a big fan of Nasha Town's appearance. It would've fit much better in hsr. In Genshin, it doesn't fit at all- not even Fontaine or Khaenri'ahn ruins look quite this. This isn't a fantasy town in the same world as a medieval European inspired city, this is a town from a dystopian sci-fi game.

- that doesn't mean I hate all technology in the game though, obviously. Despite only complaining about Natlan previously, I did think some things in Fontaine were pushing it- namely the filming industry that doesn't exit outside of Fontaine (and that was introduced to you in Inazuma!). But... we started with 'Khaenri'ah had robots and Snezhnaya has magic powered guns' carefully placed into a largely fantasy world. It didn't have to turn into every nation from Fontaine forwards having unique technology built on some random new element that purely exists for the gacha system. It can be really fun to mix tech into your fantasy world... if you don't do it like. That.

- that being said, I like Aino's cannon thing that alerts and protects the town from the Wild Hunt. Nice world building.

- the moment Ineffa brought up the lantern fae and the Lightkeepers I thought "please let Flins be a lantern fae please please please please please-"

- I laughed out loud when I got my first piece of rye. How did we go from Natlan giving us GraInFrUiT instead of corn back to normal, real life ingredients. This isn't a complaint, it's just that I spent the entirety of Natlan groaning everytime I got a gRainFrUiT and seeing it next to the completely normal ingredients Mondstadt introduced you to. There is something to be said abt how Natlan refused to make any ingredients native to real life America or Africa, despite tomatoes already existing in game, and instead made up new plants while other nations have unique ingredients like renamed orange, sakura petals, tofu, beans, etc.

- I can't help but get mad at Paimon for insulting their hotel room. Girl quit bitching about a place 'looking a little worn out', you're acting like a racist white tourist.

- and then, not even 5 minutes later, she calls Flins weird for.... not minding living near a graveyard I guess? Which was completely unprompted, especially since Flins himself was nothing but nice towards her. Paimon is such an asshole.

- thank you, Sandrone, for giving us the first somewhat decent harbinger introduction in a while. It was so weird to me that Arlecchino and Capitano were introduced through flashbacks that Traveler wasn't a part of. I like how they utilized her whole deal with Katherine. Even more importantly, she's actually directly mean towards Traveler and Paimon, which I've been seriously missing these past few years.

- the way that Genshin tries to make Traveler sound 'smart' by pointing things out to you is hilarious to me, because often times they're just pointing out something that you already realized. Sometimes, you realized it years ago due to something someone directly told the Traveler years ago. In this case... Nahida literally directly told you that Katherine is a puppet from Snezhnaya, and you're only thinking that the Fatui might be involved NOW?? You NEVER questioned what's going on with Katherine, you dumbass.

- I do have to appreciate Dori being here. Enjoy her laying on the counter of her shop. I sincerely hope that this is leading up to Genshin FINALLY expanding on her relationship to Alice. I've been wanting to know about that for so. fucking. long. You can't just go out of your way to have Alice voice her miscellany (she didn't even voice Klee's!!!!) and then keep it from us for so long!

- I wish you could actually buy important information from Dori, instead of her just offering up some basic introductions to the factions. I remember also wishing that you could actually buy knowledge capsules from her back in Sumeru. They could do SO much with not-so-legal info trading mechanics with Diluc, Kaeya, Yelan, and Dori's info networks. That could've been super fun!

- even with the business rival context, I'm not sure how I feel about this merchant from the forest badmouthing a merchant from the desert. If this were a different company, I would've thought that they were purposefully showing an example casual discrimination, but in Genshin? It tends to be more like the creators themselves voicing their own discrimination through characters.

- Nod Krai's rain is gorgeous! I really want Genshin to do more with the weather tbh. They could do stuff like give Mondstadt a special extra windy weather, or make electro slimes spawn from thunder and hydro slimes spawn from rain, stuff like that.

- the natural environment is also really really beautiful

- on one hand, I'm super happy that Aino and Ineffa's house is not only part of the map, but actually a pretty big part of it, but also... it looks like crap, for the same reasons that I didn't like Nasha Town. It makes perfect sense for the craft shop to be filled with technology, but it would be nice if it didn't look literally identical to Fontaine. And if the technology resembled Ineffa's own body even remotely. And if Aino actually matched the aesthetic of her own house even remotely.

- I absolutely adore Aino and Ineffa. My babies....... amazing lil blorbos........ if only Genshin refused to give me Ineffa I could've had them both on one team by now :( I already prepared artifact sets for both of them

- god, I can't remember the last time a child character in this game was actually fully allowed to act like a child, even Kachina was forced through a concerning 'growing up' story and doesn't let herself be a child because no adults in her life (or the writers themselves) will let her. I'm genuinely shocked by how well fleshed out Aino and Ineffa are.

Okay this is already getting long let's put the rest under a cut

At the end of the story, Lygus goes to destroy Amphoreus. Everyone goes for one final boss battle. He succeeds in destroying the simulation, but while the battle distracts him, Herta and Screwllum somehow steal the data of every ai in the simulation...

...and put them all into Herta puppets.

The last part of Amphoreus is an epilogue where Welt, Sunday, Asta, Arlan, and the rest of the space station are suddenly swarmed with a shit ton of equally confused Herta puppets. Screwllum is off helping the trailblazers get back to the Express, and Herta went to.. wherever else she keeps puppets (cuz they're probably not all on the HSS, there's so many) to deal with that, so neither side has any idea what's going on.

Insert Welt and Sunday offering to help, and them, Asta, and Arlan running around like chickens with their heads cut off to deal with the situation and- more importantly- figure out what the situation actually is.

As soon as the trailblazers are back on the Express, Screwllum fills them in and they go straight to the HSS. Trailblazer and Dan Heng go around identifying which Herta's are the Chrysos Heirs.

Conveniently, Herta and Screwllum managed to keep the data/memories of both cycles the trailblazers were a part of, bc we can't just abandon the one we spent most of the story in, right?

Eventually, the HSS will dive into a huuuuge project to give everyone android bodies that look like their simulations' appearances, and everyone will move to their own spaceship, probably named New Amphoreus. But that would obviously take a really long time, so there's a funny period where the HSS is full of confused Amphoreus characters, with the situation getting revisited every so often in events and whatnot.

"We're giving players some characters they want and promising some moon lore and overarching plot that actually goes somewhere. Giving them the bare minimum should distract them from the lunar mechanics and extended constellation system, right?"

2 more constellations. After getting a character 7 times already. Now, you need 9 in total. To make them level 100. Leveling them up via gacha. Not by playing the actual fucking video game, which the leveling system is made for, but by paying the gacha system. Making absolute sure that no one can get limited 5 stars to level 100 unless you pay for it.

In 'exchange', a new permanent event that gives you one free con for an older 5 star, 4 times per YEAR. FOUR times per YEAR. Waiting to give us such a miniscule amount of free cons until the very update that they pull this shit. And on top of that, not only is it just the constellations (meaning you can't get a new ch and still have to pull them), but you can only get a character's constellation once. Run out of 5 stars you have (and still use) in this specific list you want a con for? Well, you'll just have to pull for another one, or you'll never use this super rare con you can only get once every few months!!

After Hoyo went out of their way to scrap the original honkai centric plot for the game, specifically to cater to the larger Genshin fanbase,

And even making the gatcha system, ui, character building, and writing style similar to Genshin instead of hi3,

And with two characters- one of whom is a main character who has been here since the beginning- being from hi3's universe,

Looking at the names of all of the Natlan characters, combined with the lore that actually came up (ie Night Kingdom, spirits, the false sky, etc) in the archon quest, I would've thought that Natlan would be all about sky and spirit related lore, as opposed to dragon and element lore that is mostly blatant retcons that still annoy me to this day. Phlogiston my belothed.

Like, Mavuika and Kinich are both named after sun gods from Aztec and Mayan mythology respectively. Mualani is named after a Hawaiian princess- but the name itself means 'sky' or 'heaven'. Chasca is named the Incan god of dusk and dawn. Citlali is named 'star'. Even Ifa is named 'oracle' or 'divination', which is closely connected to stars in Genshin lore. That's half of Natlan's cast with sky related names.

Personally, I think we've been long overdue an explanation of wtf the sun is, because it must be something important when the moon has all of that. Natlan would've been a great place to learn that- both bc it's thematically appropriate to discuss the flaming sky ball in the pyro nation, and bc it's right before the moon 'nation'. Plus, imagine if that was paralleled with Capitano telling us more about the Khaenri'ahn sun we've heard even less about.

There aren't nearly as many spirit related names, but Kachina is named after an species (? is that the right term) of Pueblo spirits. So there's that. And outside of names, well *gestures vaguely at the Masters of the Night-Wind* canon already has a lot of spirit stuff going on. I don't have to explain that one much. I think the spirit stuff is one of my favourite things about Natlan. I love what we already got, and I would like to see more. Preferably through a Night Kingdom you can actually fucking explore.

I got 14/25 right, albeit with a few of them being 'well, that's close enough right?' (namely the pyro dragon one and Capitano being from Natlan. Technically the dragon isn't currently here, and Cap isn't from Natlan, but I mostly meant we'd get pyro dragon lore and a Natlan backstory for Cap)

I didn't do very many world quests, because I don't want to, so there could've been a stupid comment about gladiators that I missed? But overall, I think I've done enough to decide that not enough brown npc's were brutish/stupid/antagonistic to mark that one off. Half of the racist treatment of brown npc's (out of what I've done at least) is Traveler and Paimon being assholes to brown npc's who are acting completely normal, which isn't the same thing.

I had marked off the 'forgetting Bennett' part back in 5.6, when he cameoed in Paralogism cutscenes but didn't do anything, and I'm genuinely super happy that I had to take it back! Good for him :D

Also I don't want to be the only one going insane about her being the second woman whose namesake implies she has a - relationship - to Columbina that will probably never come true-

Plus it connects her to weaving fate (which is HUGE in Genshin deep lore, also connected to moon lore), and the whole thing about them being guardian spirits of orphans when there are so. many. orphans. in this game. There's a lot to chew on, especially since the moon stuff implies Genshin actually researched her name for once. Unlike Kachina (who is also named after a kind of spirit), I think she actually IS a lauma.

The ENTIRE island is the specific brand of racism they did with Mualani and the People of the Springs but multiplied by 100. Mualani herself is back in 'excitable tour guide and Nice Brown Person who helps pale tourists' mode we had left behind in 5.0. This event, over all of the previous events, is the one that is staying as permanent content, because they forcefully tied the Mare Jivari itself to it, so that you can't go to it without going to Tourist Attraction Island.

Bennett got way more than I was ever expecting his story to get, and thank god for that, but was still screwed over MASSIVELY. There was absolutely no buildup to someone luring him into the 'Mare Jivari', and then we spent 5-10 minutes of dialogue there and left in the most anticlimactic way possible- and then his reunion with his bio parents and discovering what happened to them got interrupted by a completely unrelated cutscene about the Natlan characters performing on stage out of nowhere!!!! Definitely makes me feel like Genshin cares about Bennett.... totally...

- (sarcasm) great to see that Ifa's first appearance in permanent content was him showing up briefly and dipping 5 minutes later. Topped off with Traveler and Paimon acting like they know him, even though nobody starting this game after 5.7 will know him.

- "well, pain can be a useful parameter. Experiencing pain is how is how baby humans and saurians learn what to do and what not to do (...) imagine you're a bigshot shaman from the Masters of the Night Wind, and you send your disciple on an errand to the Flower Feather clan. To stop him from treating it like a vacation, you might put a curse on him that causes a physical and mental breakdown if he strays from the right path." Jesus christ what the fuck Xilonen that is not normal. This line of thinking is why Kachina is so traumatized by everyone's treatment of her.

- despite the above quote, Xilonen having Ineffa clean her workshop was a bit funny.

- thank you Ineffa and Ajaw for being the only playable characters directly connected to Natlan deep lore... god I wish there were more. And god I wish we could've gotten more from them, it could've been so fun!

- I actually really liked the transition to the Natlan characters talking about Natlan lore that was actually pretty natural (compared to how unnatural and awkward Genshin dialogue usually is), leading to an accidental 'trigger'- Lianca. And then, the transition to the 11th Lord talking to 'Malfunction' and Ineffa glitching and freaking out.

- Ineffa instantly became my favorite character in all of 5.x. Which says a lot about how the rest of Natlan went, considering that she's the last character in 5.x. That's not to say that I dislike the rest of the cast, but none of them really got the... oomph? That Ineffa and her story has? You know? Letting at least some of a character's potential shine does a lot for them.

- for once, I actually liked a lot of the npc moments in this quest. The Nod Krai npc's do a decent job at setting up Nod Krai. Since Ineffa's story revolves around her memory loss, she can't introduce it herself, so they actually feel like a necessary addition to the story.

- also I like the npc kid's outfit more than Aino's. I also thought the Frostmoon Scion npc's outfit looked better than Lauma's when that teaser was released. I really like Nod Krai npc designs tbh.

- just in general, I really like the 11th Lord butting in constantly and talking to Ineffa, and the random fragments of memories popping up. It spices up the normally boring dialogue pretty well. Usually, Genshin puts no thought into the setup of the story (beyond making the quest as long as possible), instead pouring most of their energy into Making The Ending Look Cool.

- I'm much more interested in Ineffa and Chasca's dynamic than I am in... any dynamic between Chasca and every other Natlan character combined.

- it's never going to happen, but I want Ineffa to get a Flower Feather Clan skin sooo bad now.

- I'm fed up with how Ajaw is treated. Every single one of the Super Duper Moral And Good playable characters treat him like shit at all times because *checks notes* he says mean things. Traveler has probably killed hundreds of npc's at this point, and they and Paimon are massive bigots, but they draw the line at saying mean things towards pale skinned characters.

- couldn't have had Ajaw freak out on Ineffa and reveal any of this soverign ruler lore on screen, no! We had to have Kinich punish him like an abusive parent with a toddler for- I kid you not- not wanting to tell Kinich what's on his mind. Off screen, too, with Citlali coming along to tell everyone this information. And pretending that Kinich isn't acting like an emotionally abusive parent getting mad at a toddler. And here I thought that Kinich cared about Ajaw, and just wasn't saying it out loud... guess not...

- Ajaw, Ineffa, and the 11th lord could've made SUCH a cool story- but no! Who cares about them, Ajaw is a meanie and the 11th Lord is a bad robot, aren't these playable characters sooo much better morally? The ones that are perfectly okay with sending a child to fight and die in the Night Kingdom as long as she comes back, among other things? Ajaw acts mean, so he doesn't DESERVE to have his own story!

- honestly, what has gotten into Natlan characters in this quest? Kinich was never actively mean and abusive towards Ajaw (only dishing out the same energy Ajaw gives him), and Xilonen is normally one of the characters getting shit on for being 'lazy'- not one of the perpetrators of Genshin's concerning 'moral lessons'. At least Citlali endorsing abuse is in character for her, even if that's probably not the takeaway I was supposed to have from her relationship to Ororon.

- actually, this quest is a great reference point for Natlan's (probably accidental on the writers part) societal issues, if I ever want to analyze that. Whooo boy there is a lot of concerning things being said by these people that they think is normal.

- Chasca is actually my favorite Natlan character in this quest. They're finally utilizing her backstory, and it's really nice! When they first found Ineffa, she treated her like a mindless object like the rest of the group, but she's spent time with her now and realizes that she IS her own person. A struggling person who needs help. Everyone around her gave her a chance, back when she was a child who wasn't 'easy to help' (to put it simply, though I feel it doesn't do her justice...), so why can't she give Ineffa a chance? And why can't the rest of you?

- I would've loved to see an actual conflict come out of that. Chasca vs Xilonen, Citlali, and whoever else in Natlan deems Ineffa a threat that needs to be taken out. I would've loved to see that one almost-argument go somewhere. I would've loved to see Xilonen and Citlali mistakenly think that Ineffa was harming the npc's when they follow her immedietaly after the argument and make the situation worse, u know? Just imagine;

- Chasca, who was forced to live with stranger humans by her mother, who believed that she can't live with saurians forever, and got repremended by the humans whenever she did something they deemed 'wrong'. Chasca, who still believes that you can have multiple families and homes with different species, 'learns' to love them all anyways, even though they don't understand her and try to force her to act 'human'. They're only doing what's best for her, right? Now, after finally finding someone she understands on a personal level, she watches as people who accepted her vehemently refuse to see Ineffa as anything more than a dangerous machine, refusing to give someone who isn't human or saurian autonomy. Chasca, the peacekeeper, bearer of the name of her tribes founder, the founder who wished for union amongst the species who were fighting each other, a human seen as inhumanly fierce, protecting the same person the founder did thousands of years ago.

- (is she even human? Why do we never acknowledge that she looks like an elf...?)

- the parallels between Lianca and Chasca are EVERYTHING to me now. Ough if only the writers didn't force her to be mean towards Ajaw like the rest of the cast, that could've been a great duo too. If only Ajaw was taken the slightest bit seriously, that would also be a great part of the conflict- they don't know which lord he is, so what if he's a dangerous one?

- imagine Kinich initially being on the 'let's kill the robot' side, until the conversation turns to Ajaw. He clearly hates humanity, right? If Ineffa can become the 11th Lord again and kill us all, he could too, couldn't he? But Kinich knows Ajaw, knows he wouldn't, and defends him. Chasca uses that to bring him to her side. And thus, we can get the Ineffa and Ajaw interactions we deserved, and Kinich reflecting on his relationship to Ajaw.

- or maybe he believes that he would, and feels conflicted. It would be much better if they didn't risk it, right? And then we see Ajaw acting threatened and scared, and Kinich using his power over him to shut him up and lock him away, and Chasca is horrified. It reminds her of how humans treated her as a child, whenever she acted out. They weren't abusive, per se, but they hated her anger and fighting, and they never tried to understand how she feels. Even though she would eventually force herself to calm down and be understanding towards them... she would get angry at Kinich, maybe even attack him, trying to make him let Ajaw go. Maybe knocking him unconscious and bringing Ineffa and his body somewhere safer, promising to keep her new friends safe. Ajaw having never seen someone go so far for him before, having no idea how to react. Paralleling Lianca and Ineffa.

-... wait, that suddenly makes Kinich getting mad at Ajaw for not cooperating with him and forcing him to tell him stuff against his will even worse. Jesus christ. This quest might single handedly turn me into an Ajaw apologist.

- wow that was a really long tangent. Oops. Back to the review-

- again, it's really sad that all of this is happening in the very end of Natlan. Before now, I saw Chasca as one of the most boring Natlan characters. My feelings about Kinich have worsened significantly between the Fontaine event of 5.7 and this quest, while my feelings about Chasca have improved.

- and that brings back a previous point- see how much utilizing a character's potential can do for them? Back during Natlan's archon quest, Citlali and Ororon became my favorite Natlan characters because of their conflict. Even though it didn't last long, it was still more than what most characters got. All Chasca got was a dead sister, a stupid kit, and a boring tribal chronicle, so I just saw her as a Shenhe/Razor copycat for the longest time.

- the domain was really really cool. I'd love to have been able to explore it on my own tbh.

- even if it was mostly revealed/confirmed in a long winded info dump, and was followed by Paimon being annoying and repeating it like she was talking to a child ("bad bot" "good bot" WHY DO YOU THINK LIKE THIS?! IT'S BEEN YEARS PAIMON!!!), I really really like Ineffa's story. Favourite 5.x character for sure!

- so, Sandrone not only created Katherine, but has also created other human-like machines that work as her Fatui soldiers? That's really cool... good for her :D

- and the cutscene was actually REALLY GOOD. I mean, they always have good /animation/, but what happens in them isn't always that interesting, exciting, or important. This is the first one I've genuinely loved in quite a while.

- npc dude I thought your leg broke??? Why are you running around now??? Genshin you did that like 20 minutes ago, how did you forget already???

- and wrapping up the story with the letter from the beginning, and with a greeting letter from Varka that actually tells you who he is instead of expecting you to already know. Nice finishing touch!

But less than an update later, we see a really unique female character whose bio is full of genuinely important lore, and everyone not only completely ignored it, but laser focused on her cleaning and started wailing SHE'S A MAID LIKE NOELLE!!! YOU ALREADLY HAVE ONE!!! WHY DOES SHE EXIST!!!! SHE SUCKS SO MUCH!!!!