I’ve said many times that I love the dynamic between Kaveh and Al Haitham (even though I’d like to see them in the company of others besides each other), and at the same time I hate the way people analyse their relationship solely through a romantic lens; and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; the developers leave the interpretation of the characters’ relationship open (usually for the sake of baits and all that, but that’s not the point here). It’s just my personal opinion, but to me there’s a certain limitation in how people view such relationships as something romantic and deep, but never as something platonic and deep. Again, there’s nothing wrong with romance, but it feels a bit hackneyed and boring when it comes to these kinds of duos, like "computer, make me a duo so it’ll be really popular and make me money".
It may be my own personal issue that I can see why others find it romantic, but I don’t feel that way myself? Or maybe it’s that I can finally see a character who is so similar to me that I end up making two analyses: one that’s biased by my own self-perception, and another where he’s so sterile that he’d give off a distinct hospital-like smell. I don’t know, to be honest. Analysing these two separately or together, as the mood takes me, and discussing it with someone, I always come to the conclusion that yes, these two love each other, obviously, but they aren’t in love. It feels like family, but never like ‘they’re like brothers’ (not in that sense, mind you; I don’t actually see them as a family) or anything like that; it’s like that friend who’s like family to you, but not a relative? I don’t know how best to explain it. Someone you’d help simply because they’re dear to you — love is too complex a thing to reduce it all to the one and the same. Especially what happens in the last AQ, revealing more than bickering and teasing between them. Of course, it wasn’t without that, and yet, it was much better than what I’d feared at the start.
(One of the best and saddest moments for me personally was when Al Haitham talks about the sadness of loss that you can’t do anything about; I actually cried.)
Again, as I said, the HOYO allow to interpret the characters’ relationships however they like, mainly adding a few extra baits on top for marketing purposes, but the interpretation is still open. You can see these two (or anyone, really) however you like, but here’s my personal opinion, just to finally get this heavy weight off my chest. I simply don’t expect these two—whether together or separately—to appear anywhere else after story in 6.6, so I’d like to get it off my chest.
Perhaps what I’m missing is a deep bond of friendship in this kind of dynamic, rather than anything else.
This idea has been haunting me for a long time, but alas, I’m not skilled enough with words to turn it into anything substantial beyond a couple of paragraphs of raw text. That’s why I’m here—maybe someone will get the vibe and write something, because I can’t get it out of my head, and I don’t want this idea to be wasted.
"From Eden" by Hozier, but this is about Vedrfolnir and the Abyss Sibling (it doesn’t matter if it’s Lumine or Aether). The song uses a narrative of the loss of innocence in one sense or another, and I’ve added this whole theme involving a serpent with forbidden knowledge, which doesn’t just suit Vedrfolnir – it screams that it’s about him. Please, just see it! Basically, my idea was that after meeting Vedrfolnir, the Abyss Sibling didn’t literally join the Abyss Order straight away, but kept wandering in circles on their journey, still with Dainsleif, pondering things, whilst Vedrfolnir himself was egging them on here and there. All the lyrics in Hozier's song are like a ready-made text for a short fanfic or something like that, and yet I'm too daft to write something decent.
WARNING: this is quite a long post; it contains minor spoilers for 6.6. All interactions between the characters described here are portrayed strictly in a platonic manner; this is not an analysis, just my thoughts!
I recently wrote about how HOYO completely neglected Kaveh’s development right from the very start, using him either as a token in fan service (and doing so in an even more exploitative way than it seems, using his trauma and life circumstances as a basis, and the fandom only adds fuel to the fire by turning everything upside down because of orientalism) or as a plot device through his intellect on rare occasions and only then. But today I’d like to talk about Al-Haitham in the same vein.
There won’t be much difference in my thinking here, but I admit he’s lucky because he’s a five-star character who appears in the main Sumeru storyline. Although his personality ought to be examined under a microscope — mainly because he’s a rather peculiar sort of character, and here that really does apply — he’s still developed thanks to his extensive interactions with other characters. It’s just that his development ended immediately after his quest, and no one ever really touched on him again; after which he became the running gag of the main introverted loner whom we only ever see with Kaveh (because his friend keeps him on a leash like a lazy cat, dragging him into events against his will and asking his opinion merely for show) and only to either stand there in silence or annoy the architect. There are times when he says something important, but the context doesn’t change; we’re still in the same place.
I find it strange that quite a lot of Al Haitham fans—who’ve been playing the game since at least Sumeru, if not earlier—are still going on about the theory that he’s the reincarnation of Deshret, his parallel in the story and all that, or recalling that he and Kaveh represent the two halves of Deshret’s worldview. And this is still the case because it’s true; the dynamic between these two is literally built on opposing philosophies, which, to put it simply, boil down to a comfortable life versus a suffering artist (this is still valid, by the way; I have nothing against this view of the duo) And yet, enough time has passed to say that Al-Haitham’s old fans, at least the ones I’ve met, live in the past and dwell solely on the theory of reincarnation, as if they have no real desire to explore other aspects of his possible parallels. I found the idea that Al-Haitham is a parallel to Thoth interesting, but alas, I haven’t seen much discussion of it. Generally speaking, every character in Sumeru—or almost every one—has a parallel or a clear connection to a particular figure from the lore or a group. The most obvious examples are Nilou and Nabu Malikata, she literally plays her and represents her every time, or Cyno and his direct connection to Hermanubis; Tighnari is tighnarian (Valuka Shuna), which is the most obvious and well-documented example here. There are also cases where it seems obvious, but feels a bit far-fetched, such as Dori’s parallel with the jinni, who have their own substantial lore within the game as well.
But getting back to Al-Haitham. I see it as a missed opportunity that he, too, is never allowed to break free from that one duo; even though I do have a peculiar fondness for them, the sheer lack of any development and the constant stagnation leave me feeling very despondent. After the main plot of Sumeru, it became crystal clear that the other characters he met had become his friends, and I don’t particularly enjoy seeing how all of that has vanished into thin air over time. The only bits of information we have are his birthday posts, and even then, HOYO prefers to keep him within the fairly closed circle of the 4ggravate. And don’t get me wrong, I love this quartet, but even looking at the posts about his birthdays, you can see how people are drifting away.
Mostly these were posts featuring chibi-art showing which characters Al-Haitham interacts with and which ones he thinks about, and it’s clear that Nilou and Nahida have disappeared from his friends list. As for the post-story context, Dehya and Candace have vanished from view for good, as if they’d never even met (as if Dehya hadn’t been prepared, right in the story, to sacrifice her own hand for that bastard) Al-Haitham is now just: Kaveh’s annoying friend, whom he’s allowed to live with him, and ‘girl dad’ to Paimon (and even then, only in letters once a year).
All in all, if the upcoming story shows us a normal development of Kaveh and Al-Haitham as a duo, without their usual bickering, that will already be progress; the rest is just wishful thinking—they won’t be separated for the sake of the writers’ laziness and marketing.
Seeing the dialogue—or rather, how it’s structured—in the story in 6.6, it strikes me as a missed opportunity that Al-Haitham wasn’t given the chance to exchange a few words with Dottore; it’s unclear whether they’ll even share a single scene. I’d really love to see some interaction between them, even if it’s just verbal. A couple of snarky comments? Gosh, it’s too late to pray now, but I’d sell my soul to see a canonical interaction between my favourite antagonist—who is an outcast and has been literally KICKED OUT of Sumeru—and my favourite&close-minded character, who also has a rather specific reputation. I thought that would be interesting.
Overall, the interaction with Dottore and a couple of other characters in this storyline could have been interesting, but now I can only dream and imagine what it might have been like. What a shame.
Kaveh has way, way more lines than Alhaitham in 6.6 and most of them are in scenes where Alhaitham isn't even present. It kind of looks like you saw that he's in the game at all and immediately assumed it must be for fanservice...
Perhaps because most of Kaveh’s dialogue is with Al-Haitham? As for the fourth character in terms of the number of lines in the story, there’s nothing new about him. Besides, that’s only part of the problem; I’ve already outlined the main issue. It was simply the trigger for this post, which I would have written in one form or another regardless. A major problem with Kaveh as a character is that, apart from fan service, he offers nothing—or rather, the developers and writers don’t give him anything. Please read the whole post more carefully.
And I’m not against fan service per se, but it seems to have gone too far and is stifling both characters, especially Kaveh, who has nothing else to him apart from this storyline and this hangout. All his brilliance is reduced to a minimum; the rest is just padding out the dialogue and filling it with nothing but complaints and arguments. And if you don’t like that, I’ll put it even more plain: these two have exhausted themselves in the form we see them; they aren’t developing in any way. Just like many other characters and their ‘standard’ duos.
A rant about the obvious, which should have been said from the very beginning, but which many have kept quiet about. Until recently, that is.
Kaveh’s biggest hater must be a fan of Kaveh, seeing what they’re doing to him.
WARNING: This post contains minor spoilers regarding 6.6 and is quite long. There are no calls to hate the character or to hate the character as such.
Originally, I had the idea of writing a post about what I find interesting in the Sumeru characters and how quite a few of them have parallels with, or even directly relate to, various lore elements of the region, partly due to leaks regarding the plot of the next patch, but then they showed what the dialogues would look like. And oh my god... I’m a bit tired. Or actually, very, very exhausted. In fact, I’m really upset and angry. This applies to the entire cast of characters in HOYO’s games, but right now we’re going to focus on something specific. Or rather, on someone specific. But first, I’ll state the core of this post once and for all: THE FLAUNDERIZATION OF CHARACTERS.
And I’d like to discuss the flainderization of one of the characters I find particularly interesting – Kaveh. Of course, he isn’t one of my top picks, but he is one of the biggest and saddest victims of this kind of treatment by Genshin’s writers. He appeared at the end of the Archon Quest for literally a single dialogue with Al-Haitham, and then again at the end of Al-Haitam’s quest, and he has his own hangout in the game. That is literally all we have to learn about him. And you might ask, what about events? The problem is that, although he does have his own solo event and has appeared in others, these are temporary events, and therein lies the problem. We have no character development for Kaveh in the game; to understand what sort of character he is, we have to piece it together bit by bit, and as we all know, only the most dedicated among us will bother with that; many can’t even be bothered to read the character stories, which are meant to build friendship, and here we’re talking about a character where you just have to tap through the text, of which there’s so little anyway.
Despite all his charm as a person and a character, Kaveh is, first and foremost, a victim of fan service (just like all characters in gacha games). His character development is sacrificed for the sake of gags and the developers’ profit at the expense of fujoshi. The developers will keep making jokes until the very end — that is, literally forever — about him living with Al-Haitham, about him being afraid that people will find out, and about them bickering like an old married couple over the slightest thing. And again, fan service is a matter of personal taste; shipping is part of fandom culture, especially in gacha games, but all the factors I’ve listed above make for a very poor joke and erode the character’s personality, which hasn’t really been revealed to the average player in the first place.
There was a huge paragraph here about how the vast majority of people ignore the cultural nuances of what inspired it, but I don’t want this post to be any longer than necessary or stray too far from the topic. Maybe I'll write about it separately when I go into more detail. But I will say this: cultural nuances, specifically how the fandom itself interprets them, only make the situation worse.
I won’t bring up the subject of ships here, even if it were necessary for context and to what extent the work of not only the scriptwriters but also his ‘fans’ (or rather fujoshi, ship fans, rather than fans of Kaveh himself) is involved here, but simply to mention that most of Kaveh’s dialogue in the upcoming story arc in Sumeru will be exclusively with Al-Haitham. It’s too early to sound the alarm, I know, but knowing what the writers are doing with these two (not just their duo, mind you) and that this is a very important storyline, if they turn it all into yet another instance of these two bickering, it’ll be absolutely dreadful. And that’s not to mention the missed opportunities for interaction with other characters (you’d know how much I’d have loved for the Sumeru characters to interact with at least Dottore, not to mention ‘non-standard’ duos/trios/etc.) in this storyline, at the very least. This is the first and only time Kaveh gets this much screen time in the main storyline, but all his character development will go the same way as his hopes of moving out on his own, because the writers won’t let him. And the point, you see, isn’t the ship, but the fact that they won’t let the poor guy shine even when his moment to shine has finally arrived, amidst all the tiresome bait moments.
Kaveh had, and still has, potential as a character, but they simply decided to shelve him as unnecessary. His entire existence in the game has boiled down to a repetitive, same-old slop. And again, this is the writers’ fault, not the character’s. I’d like to see more of his interactions with other characters, if only for the sake of variety. I love his dynamic with Faruzan; I’d love to see him interact with Nilou in the game in person; I'm very curious about his interaction with Tighnari; I’d love to know what happened to his mother because, well, you know, THE FONTAIN ARCHON QUEST, RIGHT? I want to hope that they’ll add him to the side stories one day, and preferably separate him from Al-Haitham (as much as I love and relate to that bastard) – not just that he won’t be around, but that he won’t even mention him. But we’ll never get that, and all we can do is make our own headcanons based on scraps of information, and that’s it.
But we’re stuck in the same place, stuck because the developers, purely for profit and for that reason alone, feel compelled to include fan service for the fujoshi, rather than developing the character independently of the others.
And I’ll say it for the billionth time, this applies to a great many characters, if not all, in Genshin (and other HOYO games, but you get the picture). Clorinde, Itto, Shinobu, Eula... Oh, and Illuga, by the way, is following exactly the same path as Kaveh, except that instead of the hangout, he had the World Quest.
To be honest, I'm very tired and want to talk about this because after event in Sumeru, a problem came up that I wanted to forget about, but alas. The duo of Kaveh and Al Haitham is my Roman Empire and the main pain in the whole fandom. Let me say right away that I have nothing against their ship, it has a right to exist and all that, I just want to say that I'm tired. I'm tired of these two not being seen separately. I'm tired of people falling for the cheapest and most crooked queerbaits and shouting that it couldn't be better, because feeding on delusions and fantasies is fun.
These two are interesting and complex characters, and I LOVE their dynamic. They're the kind of characters I see myself in, and that makes me feel connected to them, but when you search for content featuring just ONE of them, you find nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's just unbearable. I'm not one of those people who shouts, "Let them be friends!" but it's as if that's the case here, because for some reason that is a mystery to me, any complex dynamic between characters is equated with a married couple.
But you might say, well, just block the hashtags with the ship and the problem is solved. But alas, no. It doesn't matter which social media platform you're on, but even blocking hashtags doesn't mean you can hide from what might annoy you. And in the case of Kaveh and Al Haitham, that's the case.
There are ships that I genuinely dislike for personal reasons, but for some reason, when I block certain Zhongchi (I really don't like them, but if you do, that's your business, everyone has different tastes), why don't the drawings, sketches, memes, and other stuff about Tartaglia or Zhongli disappear from my feed when they're separate? No! They're still there, loads of them.
But in the case I'm talking about, sadly, that's not how it is. And it makes me sad how the Hoyo themselves play out the same story, just with different sauces, with Al Haitham and Kaveh (and not only with them, but you already understand my problem here, right?) It's as if the writers themselves are afraid to create different duos. I love the duo of Kaveh and Faruzan, I love the idea that Al Haitham and Cyno could interact now, for example, but I get NOTHING, just like all the other players.
Maybe this is confusing and my cry of exhaustion from what I see, but it's true, it's already gotten to me. I want to see content with a character that is very similar to me, but instead I get ambiguous dialogues that either will only be understood as "oh, yes, they're making out behind the scenes!" and those who saw more are likely to remain silent or ignore them.
Hi! Ive read your last post abt Eldarya and it reminded me- were we given explanation what Miiko and Guard wanted to do with Erika? She was thrown into prison, ok, and if Lance and Leif didn't free her she would stay there for... how long? What next? They didn't want to open portal for Erika-the-friend to the point of mnemosyne, so I doubt they would be more willing for Erika-who-stayed-in-cell. Would she stay there forever? As a prisoner? Death sentence? Forced coma? What was the plan?
Hi! Thank you very much for your questions.
Looking through the character dialogues, I couldn't find anything about what Miiko might have done to Erika if she hadn't been released. But there are some pretty unpleasant comments from favourites about the protagonist's persona.
I don't think anything good would have happened to Erika anyway if she had turned out to be just human.
Would she have been held captive? Unlikely. Would they have killed her? Well, looking at the way she was spoken of, it's more likely she was released and then it's no longer the Headquarters' problem.
My guess is that Erika would have been mauled by some wild, not very friendly familiars or she would have met someone who was even less friendly.
Either way, there's no direct mention of what would have happened to Erica without anyone letting her out of her cage.
As far as the portal is concerned, it does not benefit HQ. It is just a waste of expensive resources that could be used for something else more important. Especially if something is always being stolen from under their noses. OK, they literally have the enemies of the world sitting under their noses and don't notice them, what can we say about resources.
Murder (direct or indirect) is the easiest way out of the situation the HQ is in, provided the protagonist has not escaped or turned out to be just a human being.
Warning: This is just a (A GAME) theory, which may be ruined by the next episode or episodes.
Taking all the available information that the writers gave last season of Eldaria and this one, I wanted to put together a more or less adequate picture of the world. What might have actually happened, without the victim and abuser positions.
In the beginning, humans and magical creatures really did live in peace and harmony. Humans used technology to develop the world, while magical beings controlled magic. Mana was the main source of 'fuel' for the mechanisms that, at that point in history, humans used. The MCs helped with everything.
But because humans were weak and fragile, and only acted with their invented stuff, some MCs rebelled and upstaged the rest of the MCs who might have double-mindedness or something. Naturally, there were also those who treated people well.
Reasons to think so:
Origins! Lance, Purrekos and the Kitsune. The first though wanted to destroy Eldarya, but also didn't like humans very much, the only reason not to kill Erika was because Leifthan had his eye on her. Purrekos, it's very clear from Purriry, but she doesn't have a negative attitude towards people or anyone else, if it pays, fine. But she has made her position clear that people are barbarians, in her mind. The Kitsune have literally killed every human that has entered their territory, do I really have to say here?
There were marriages of MCs and humans, the faeylins showed up. And as you can understand, those marriages weren't exceptional. Also before all this the MCs and humans lived in peace.
The war between the MCs and humans could easily have been fought under such conditions. The kidnapping of one of the nobles among the MCs (the elf queen) could really have been a turning point in the battle. And the MCs, who were for world peace, friendship and chewing gum, along with the humans, who had the same point of view, proposed a peace deal. The MCs, who were negative in their views, agreed, but, as we can see, with the conditions of some, with the MCs in another world, Eldarya, that the strongest representatives among the MCs and the faeliens must create.
The creation of Eldarya was what both sides had come to. And here's the best part, the missing mana and the dragons. From Charles' words and the video he showed, the dragons were the ones who were very active in this war and at the same time they were willing to sacrifice themselves? Sounds like nonsense for the sake of sacrificing themselves after an abusive. I mean yes, I already said that the MCs could have been speaking for different sides, but if those agreed to such a thing, then something is not clear here. Could the dragons, demons [aengel] and Fenghuangs that were on the MC's aggression side have "mucked around" with the mana? Pretty much. That, by the way, could have had a bad effect on the fertility of Eldarya's lands.
By the same action, they took away the powers of the very faelings that were heavily dependent on mana, making them just as "weak" as humans.
And the different kinds of hunting, on the MCs and their descendants, by people who remember the aggression and fear a repeat of history with the MCs is pretty logical. The only ones left are those who look like humans, or at least can take human form permanently without mana, that is, neither this nor that.
For people, such tales of dragons, vampires, elves and the like became fairy tales and the ravings of madmen over time, because someone had seen it? Captured it somehow? No, of course not, and the technology wasn't there for that at the time. And now, it's just a story. So, by the way, the Eldaryans' forays to Earth, for sustenance, could be passed off as "are you crazy, what werewolves?" or start a new alarm among a population that doesn't know, but believes the stories of their ancestors, that their great-great grandfather was mauled by a notional vampire.
In Eldaria they could use spells to erase all or part of the population's memory, to rewrite history in their own way so that they lived in peace and thought nothing of it. Again, the "obfuscation" of knowledge could be part of the Blue Sacrifice. And since there are many long-lived people in Eldarya who could not hear from their grandfathers but could see what was going on, it was a great plan.
By the way, the Fenghuangs could have been involved, given their status, but that's just a guess.
Reason to think so:
The situation with Lance. No one says a word towards Lance, don't you think that's odd? Could it be one of those kind of spells? Or the effect of some kind of potion? Yes, it's been seven years, I understand, but I'm sorry, he wanted to destroy the world. THE WORLD. And now he's just walking around HQ, being head of the guard and all. The worst thing he gets is spit in the soup from Karuto.
The Kitsune's attitude, as a different people, towards Lance. Yes, they're aware of the fact that HQ just has a hand dragon. Not what he wanted to do, but just having a dragon. Eldarya is medieval, the only way to send a message is to send a familiar, and how quickly it will reach (and whether it will reach at all) whoever is supposed to get the message is debatable. The only ones. Who were aware of what was going on, other than HQ, were the Fenghuangs. And, at the moment, the one in charge at HQ is Huang Hua. Are there any coincidences?
Missing and returning people, as was the case in the story of the monk and the farmer.
Again, there was a side among the MCs that favoured peace, friendship and gumption, so if a person might escape and find the likes of them, with a chance some might bring him back to Earth. Or he would escape to Earth himself by chance.
HQ is not as good as it seems, let's be honest. They're not as good as they think they are, and it's not fair to say there's a lot of people in there who are also for peace and cheese for breakfast or just running away (Ez ran away because he made a mess of helping humans, Nevra and Karen ran away because of the looks, Miiko ran away because of the gene etc), but they still make forays to Earth for provisions (that was in the past), were wary and even aggressive to people who got into Eldarya.
Erika and Mathieu serve as the exception to the rule here. Erika didn't really turn out to be that kind of person, and Mathieu came to Eldarya during a more or less safe period in history, when the main character's heroic story was on the radar.
The interesting thing is that portals were not guarded in Eldarya. If a man got in, he would be killed, no matter who or how, but he would be killed, and with a very good chance. On Earth, on the other hand, there were only beliefs that it was forbidden to enter around mushrooms or whatever, but that too has been erased over the years because people considered it superstition, because nothing could have happened (the portal could have already been used).
You know what? I really do miss the old Eldarya. And not in terms of the Origins.
The first clunky episodes that abruptly got a bit bloody and gave food for thought to the protagonist were evoking player emotions. I miss episodes like the Yvoni story. Simple yet productive episodes like this, where they show the rank-and-file work of the Guard, where the characters aren't just extras for the sake of a tick, but are really important.
I don't know about you, but to me Eldarya is just horny for horny's sake right now, nothing like that. Developing supporting characters? Why need to, we've got Lance. Not so clumsy to show that there's a traitor among the boys again? Why, when there's Lance. Explain how the new world works? No, we have Lance. Explain why Lance has changed so much? Why, keep it better with tons of disgusting and drawn out text about the protagonist having something "itchy" below the belt.
Maybe nostalgia is playing in me (I've been in the fandom since 2015 and actively started playing since 2016, when the translation came out in a language I understand better than French), this is childish something, but I really miss the times when they put their soul into the game in the first place and not trying to cash in on pubescent teenage girls.
I hope I haven't offended anyone with my outcry. And even if I did, I apologise.
For context, and all fans of Lance, I did find him interesting in Origins (more as a character than as an object of the protagonist's affection), but what the character has become is horrifying to me. And it's not just about Lance, he's just one of the clearest examples of the fuck-up going on.
