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Ammy & Kushi 🍀💚

Happy birthday Qiqi

Art by @Nekot0_sabu

Final turn! Oh wait wrong game

There's a joke floating around that Hu Tao survived the ritual because Zhongli C6'd her (by finishing her poem, which is her constellation). I absolutely love that joke because funny haha aside, it shows just how well this event is written. As someone who plays genshin in CN, I love how they incorporated Hu Tao's constellation into the event by making it not only the poem Hu Tao recites before the climatic ritual, but also a foreshadowing of how she might be saved.

It would be difficult to tell at first if you only play in EN, since localization completely gave up on preserving the poetry in Hu Tao's constellation, but if you play in CN or look up the original text, the intent literally jumps out at you (the en constellation names are italicized) :

赤團開時斜飛去 A butterfly dances in a crimson bouquet (C1) 最不安神晴又復雨 For fear of the ominous rainfall that may soon show its face (C2) 逗留採血色 With one last, lingering glance at that carmine hue (C3) 伴君眠花房 She lies among the petals in the garden of eternal rest (C4) 無可奈何燃花作香 As she sets the floral incense ablaze. (C5) 幽蝶能留一縷芳 The lone butterfly left, but not without a trace. A fragrance remained, her butterfly's embrace. (C6)

The last two lines are especially pertinent to the event bc the word for word translation is: "With no other choice, she burns the flowers as incense, but the lone butterfly will leave a trace of fragrance". The first line calls back to the Lone Butterfly's sacrifice centuries ago and foreshadows what Hu Tao is prepared to do. However, the second line reflects how Old Man Wuwang preserved the Lone Butterfly's legacy AND how there's still a chance to help Hu Tao, which Zhongli drops hints to the Traveler with the subtlety of a meteor; and the Traveler uses the plum branch Hu Tao gave them—the "fragrance" left by the lone butterfly—to reach Hu Tao in time and pull her back from death.

A garden for you and me