just don’t be an asshole 🥹

💜The Most Popular: Genshin Impact Hexenzirkel Alice Cosplay Costume

Cookie Run Kingdom X Genshin Impact :

Where the Hexenzirkel are the witches(they are by now but eh) of CRK.

The Archons are the acients or the guardian's of nature and such.

The Traveler is Gingerbravr and their sibling is probaly idk,for plot,Dark Enchantres??

And such lol.No one can change my mind but Venti IS Wind Archer Cookie,i swear.

That was a request I got a few weeks ago, I wrote a whole thing then accidentally deleted it and Tumblr does not have a "request memory" so I couldnt pin the original comment. 😭

I can only hope this will make its way back to whoever made the request!!!

Well a grand hello to this philosopher !

Sorry for the time it took me to get to this take, its my first vear of medical school fresh out of high school so pressure was on lmao.

This is a very interesting take so i took some time to think it through.

I have shared a few short. surface level rants on the hexenzirkel before - mainly focused on Rhinedottir - but this just gives me the opportunity to delve a little more into details and just kind of recap what we have so far about the hexenzirke and their future.

Now the Kaeya part is actually interesting and i've never really thought about what would become of his character if he'd been a woman instead. This is going to be a good opportunity to expend my ideas on my favorite character.

That being said, and as a wise short Italian plumber with a mustache and a red cap once said; Let's-a go!

PS : Keep in mind this is just a personal opinion based on my interpretation of the lore :) You are free to disagree and I'll gladly hear you out on it!

ROADMAP:

1. Morality of the hexenzirkel- or the lack thereof.

2. Fandom perception of morally gray characters according to gender and Hoyoverse's role in it

3. Kaeya

4. Conclusion

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I. Morality of the hexenzirkel- or the lack therof

First, let's establish some basic facts about the circle before judging its morality.

The Hexenzirkel is a supposedly mysterious group, founded by Alice when she was still a young child known as the "little merry-witch." They don't seem to have any overarching goal as an organization unlike, for instance, the Fatui. The individual members largely pursue their own goals. That's because Alice's admission standard wasn't nobility or virtue. Her only requirement is to be interesting. Which is why Rhinedottir became a prized member of the circle of witches.

That is already a problem, in my eyes. While never being explicitly cast in either a benevolent or antagonistic light, this does not imply neutrality. Willingly associating with problematic people because they are 'interesting' isnt a neutral or good stance.

An easy example: whenever human rights are up for debate (abortions, queer rights, workplace inequalities) there are people who vote to protect them , and others who vote against. Those who remain silent and do not vote are just as guilty as those voting against, because they aren't doing anything to defend those rights.

And if only it was just them associating together! Alice explicitly says in the Nod-Krai Archon Quest that she would "clean up after dear Rhinedottir." She also took in Albedo at Rhinedottir's request. It was Alice who brought him to the Knights of Favonius, believing they had the resources to build him a large research lab. She is still a reliable friend to Gold.

So basically we shouldnt expect the Hexenzirkel to be a family-friendly order as it was created by Alice, who is herself deeply problematic and selfish.

To start off strong, Alice is well aware of the cataclysm and how the innocent people of kaenriah were cursed to transform into monsters and suffer for the rest of eternity. She still does not have a shred of sympathy for them.

Her "experiments" include launching Hilichurls at high speeds towards the sky just to see if they'd reach Celestia. She has tied Hilichurls up inside cabins of active Ruin Guard. According to the Teyvat Travel Guide, she even attempted to make a Hilichurl slave farm to power Mondstadt's windmills by putting them in giant spinning balls (yes, the same ones we use for hamsters), feeding the older, exhausted Hilichurls to the stronger ones to "recycle them" and keep the mills going.

In the city of fucking wind, mind you. Wind mills only need wind to function. It's in their name.

She also blew up a large portion of Stormterror's Lair and its surroundings because she thought it wasn't aesthetically pleasing enough, with no respect for wildlife, nature, or the potential casualties if a group of adventurers or knights had been there.

Overall, Alice's "experiments" have no scientific basis. They are purely for her own enjoyment. She is deeply amoral, if not outright cruel, and she has no respect for life or smaller, weaker creatures. This is also showcased in more niche anecdotes: like how she emotionally scarred Yae Miko or injured one of Sara's wings.

As such, one cannot expect morality from a group that was:

1. founded by someone deeply amoral,

2. filled with people that amoral person liked, and

3. composed of people who accepted to associate with her and the other members she chose.

Remember: in some situations, neutrality is only convenience or cowardice, rebranded as peace.

I dont even feel like i need to talk about Rhinedottir's crimes as everyone is quite aware, but for the sake of being thorough |'l still summarize them here.

She created a wide variety of creature as experiments, most of them being somewhat sentient and having a will of their own, only to experiment on then and discard them if they displeased her.

The only subject she was satisfied with we know of is Albedo. whose creation also produced many failures like Subiect Two, whom she disposed of by leaving in Durin's stomach. Subject two was the only one who survived this.

Her other creations were let loose, endangering the rest of the world and even beyond the boundaries of Teyvat. Examples include the Bakunawa, whom she couldn't control and who even injured her; the Rifthounds and Riftwolf Whelps; the Fellflower; and the Golden Wolflord, who is obsessed with invading worlds outside his own just to "make a name for himself" because Rhinedottir never gave him one.

And thats not even including the doomed dragon duo. Durin who was still an innocent child, was corrupted beyond recognition and unleashed upon mondstadt only to be killed by Barbatos and dvalin even if he was mentally corrupted and never realized he was hurting people. He was left to rot on a freezing moutain, only visited by his mother when she wanted to use his stomach as a gravesite for his other siblings.

And the Elynas who managed to realize he'd been corrupted and was harming others through his existance and was so distraught by it he took his own life.

She also doomed Khaenri'ah by choosing to partake in Abyssal energy. The five sinners were repeatedly said and shown to have been able to break the Khaenri'ahn curse, but they never did.

II. Fandom perception of morally gray characters according to gender and Hoyoverse's role in it

I think the title of this segment speaks for itself because we have a very glaring exemple presented by the game itself : Rhinedottir vs Dottore.

Now, while there is a large community in the fandom that loves Dottore, it is undeniable he has his haters. Very vehement haters who despise him and not without reason. Most of the hate stems from the fact that he caused the suffering of many, including beloved playable characters such as Diluc and Scaramouche.

But...doesnt this remind us of someone else?

Rhinedottir is related to basically every bad thing to have ever occurred on the surface of Teyvat in the past 500 years. She caused the suffering of playable characters and beloved NPCs like Dainsleif and Capitano. Yet I have yet to see any hate account for her. The comment sections of posts she appears in are just a bunch of people calling her "mommy."

I do believe hoyoverse contributes a lot to this narrative and double standard because it never holds its female characters to any level of accountability.

If alice had been a man, she would've been called an absent, neglectful dad. She litterally only sees her kid once a year.

"B-but she sends klee fun things! Like the dodoco islands and the Veluriyam Mirage!"

Ah yes. You mean the fun toys and experiences she provides once a year to excuse her absence? No different from a neglectful dad that tries to buy his kid's affection with tablets and pocket money. Alice wouldve been flammed for this if she was a man. How can I say that for sure? Just look at the amount of people hating on varka.

But Hoyoverse refuses to see it through that lense, instead making her seem like a cool, fun mom. I refuse to believe klee doesnt miss her mother or father - any kid would- but hoyoverse burries that natural consequence in order to prevent Alice from looking bad.

Same thing with Rhinedottir. We started getting some real talk about her in game during the paralogism archon quest.

And they tried so so hard to press on the aspect of family, of making Rhinedottir a mother, albeit a horrible one.

"Ah yes, my mother who is responsible for the downfall of a nation, the eternal suffering of innocent people she could undo but doesnt want to and abandonned all her kids but me because I was born perfect. She s just unusual."

So we're supposed to feel bad for her now? Because she suffered from the madness she willingly chose by absorbing abyssal power with the other sinners? We're supposed to be happy for her??

Meanwhile, when someone tries to bring up how Zandik might not have been evil from the start; how he was chased out of an entire village by angry adults with fire and spikes as a child, and "lost" his empathy at age 8 (meaning he did have it at some point), people start complaining that we should just let Dottore be evil. That we don't need to give a sad backstory to everyone, or try to redeem them.

But if its a hot woman - who is arguably worse than dottore - then its not so bad right?

It also ultimately boils down to hoyoverse refusing to let women be villains or have complex psyches, they always have to redeem them in some way or make them allign with the traveller even if it doesnt make sense lore wise while they allow male characters to have different stances towards the traveller, like Pantalone who watched the mc's journey closely but also understands they are a liability to his plans and does not hesitate to stand against them.

Even xiao who is often clowned on for being shipped with the traveller establishes clear boundaries not to push, like not speaking ill of Rex lapis.

To some extent, I do understand that Hoyoverse might not be able to make (female) characters truly evil if they are to be playable. But in that case, I would much rather they introduce NPCs who could take that role. For example, Wuthering Waves puts actual effort into their NPCs, and some of them become vital allies or villains in the main quests. A few examples are Cristoforo, The Shaper, and Avidius. (Not to mention their designs are GORGEOUS).

It would at least prove they arent incapable of writing morally gray/evil women, thet just can't make them playable. And that would've been fine.

III. Kaeya

Now this part was a little more tricky for me because I'd never stopped to think about how being a woman would impact Kaeya's character.

So let us start by shaping a little ID card of him:

□ At first glance, Kaeya doesn't seem like a very complicated character. Our first interactions paint him as charismatic, someone who can resort to unorthodox means to get what he wants. At this point, nothing would make a difference. We have characters like Yelan who are quite similar to him in this aspect and still well liked.

□ But then you start looking a little closer, and you realize Kaeya's character is torn in more ways than one. First and most obviously: his conflicting loyalties to his homeland and the land he came to view as home.

□ With that comes his behavior. He pushes others away and refuses to let himself be read—and yet he still does good in the shadows, where he thinks nobody will notice his gentle heart. Like when he threw Jean a party during her story quest, but refused to take credit and asked the MC to pretend it was their idea instead.

During the quest "a commission from 'that guy'" (the guy being kaeya), kaeya and his informant Vile work in the shadows to protect a woman named Jiliana being stalked by treasure hoarders. He stops the traveller from involving the knights in this, because Vile mentions during the prerequisite quest A Surprise Gift, the Knights of Favonius have a habit of being too thorough and bureaucratic.

If they caught wind of Treasure Hoarders extorting a Church sister, they would launch a massive, loud, public investigation. That would expose Jiliana's past as a Treasure Hoarder and ruin her reformed life where she married and had a lovely daughter. So basically kaeya went through a whole convoluted process to deal with both the official affair of a sister being threatened and keeping Jiliana and her family safe without ever trying to boast about it.

In all segments of his hangouts, kaeya is shown helping others by outsmarting bad guys. And they want us to focus on him pulling his strings and spinning his shady kaeya things, but you just have to look a little longer to see he did it all to help someone, like how he scammed a scammer in Liyue, or how he asked if the sumeru play would loose money if altered the script, etc.

So basically we can summarize him like this :

•morally ambiguous without being outright villainous,

•emotionally guarded,manipulative while still deeply compassionate,

•traumatized without having that trauma excuse everything he does,

•charismatic enough that different people can interpret him very differently.

So as he is, I do not think the fandom perception of him would change had he been a woman. His traits arent inherently gendered.

But.

The question is whether HoYoverse's writing patterns suggest a female Kaeya would receive the same treatment in the first place. Would gender bend kaeya really just be kaeya with boobs or would he be shifted into something a little different?

Female playable characters in Genshin often end up with stories that emphasize empathy, nurturing, or emotional accessibility (and i dont mean they end up kind! Just that they always end up showing emotional vulnerability, like we have seen with Sandrone). Even when they're morally gray, the narrative frequently spends time explaining or softening their actions.

Male characters are somewhat more likely to be left intentionally inscrutable. Kaeya, Dainsleif, Childe, Wanderer, and even Zhongli keep major secrets for years without the story rushing to justify every aspect of their behavior.

For the sake of academic honesty, I'll still add the counter exemples of Arlecchino and Yae Miko where those writing problems arent as bad, but they are genuinely the only female characters I can think of that were allowed to be morally complicated and manipulative (even though most of it is off screen). But also 2 female characters in almost a hundred not fitting the trend isnt exactly a feat.

Male Kaeya's appeal is built around mystery. The game is comfortable leaving questions unanswered:

◇ Is he a descendant of kaenriahn survivors or something more interesting?

◇ Why does he hide his eye?

◇ What are his true loyalties?

◇ How much does he actually know?

If Kaeya had been female, it's possible the writers would have felt more pressure to make her motivations emotionally explicit earlier, rather than letting ambiguity linger for years. That's a trend seen in some —not all— of Genshin's female story quests. I also doubt her relationship with diluc would've been untouched because it wouldnt be a good look for diluc to fight a visionless younger girl, almost kill her and abandon her there.

So my view would be:

- Would hoyo allow fem!kaeya to be complex: Probably yes, because it's tied to the central narrative of kaenriah.

- Presentation of that complexity? That's where I think gender could plausibly have changed things, with a female Kaeya potentially receiving more overt emotional framing and less prolonged ambiguity.

And without a male kaeya to compare it to, I think fem kaeya would ve been peak too and I dont believe the fandom would suddenly hate her. But I do think she would be less liked than male Kaeya currently is because of how genshin tends to conform female characters to certain standards and it makes their characters loose a small spark of individuality.

IV. END THOUGHTS

So basically, anon's hot take consisted of "kaeya would be hated if he was a woman" and "the hexenzirkel would be hated if they were men".

I understand where the first take was coming from, and right out the bat i was tempted to agree. But with the reflexion i have written across this vlog, I believe it would not be the case.

However, I am much more inclined to agree with the second part.

I don't believe the Hexenzirkel would be hated if they were male. I think they would be reviled. I think the fandom would call them exactly what they are: a group of amoral, dangerous individuals, some having caused immeasurable suffering and face no consequences for it.

But because they're women, because Hoyoverse refuses to let them be true villains ; they get a pass.

My best way to argument this is just using dottore. While he is broadly liked as a villain, he is also criticized and his acts are never forgotten. If he'd been a woman, chances are Hoyoverse wouldve written him a lot more differently and perhaps he wouldn't have died.

So that was my position on Anon's hot take ! I hope i could remain as objective as possible even if i never quite hid my distaste for the hexenzirkel, especially Alice and Rhinedottir because I actually like the others if not for the fact they continue to associate with them 🫣. As always, if you agree or disagree feel free to comment why. I am very prone to changing my mind as I am quite open minded (or at least I try to be) so its always nice to hear people's opinions!

I wish you guys well! I m excited for Snezhnaya! :D

Adding to the collection (once again Ivanovna MIA)

Also video of me showing that they are likely the same thing: