pouring out my varka brain stew 🍲
AKA i need to talk about the way that i think about/interpret his character before i explode. i’ll add on to this in the future once he’s playable ^^
there’s definitely more to varka than he lets on. it’s clear that he’s really smart when he wants to be, despite having the occasional “dumb” moment (dumb in quotations because i don’t think he’s actually dumb). just listen to any of the dialogue he has when the mood in a conversation is serious, he’s wise in the way that he interprets and handles things a lot of the time.
“you can plan a hundred steps ahead and still slip up—that’s just life. no one knows what tomorrow holds. you can’t predict which way the wind will blow next.”
to me, every humorous moment he has had so far has been the product of being too brutally honest with the people around him,
“i used to doze off every time the pre-knights of favonius era came up in class.”
playing something up for the hell of it,
“this was part of my grand plan all along, hahaha!”
or when he gets too ahead of himself
“hmm, maybe something she’s wearing will give it away? like, uh, a windblume pinned to her chest, or something.”
“wait a minute. alice never said nicole was from mondstadt.”
varka’s very silly by nature, it seems like he uses humor as a tool to redirect conversations or lighten up the mood. and maybe also as a coping mechanism? who knows. he jokes around a lot as a form of communication so often that people sometimes take his words seriously by accident. in the recent preview for the luna IV update however it seems that even his humor has a limit when there’s little left to smile about.
he also loves getting involved. doesn’t matter what it could be, i think this ties in with him gathering intel as part of his job as grand master so (maybe) it doubles as helping out and investigating a matter further. he gives 110% when he does get involved (him roleplaying with the phantoms for a second, FUNNY but there was a reasonable purpose for it with trying to see if he could change the progress of the “storyline”—this truth is revealed later in the quest too). can’t a guy get a little goofy on the job? 🙄
i don’t think he’s a “lore skipper” because he cut nicole off. he wanted to cut to the chase given the fact that time was of the essence for columbina’s sake. he gathers intel for a living so if he actually had the time to spare, i’m sure he absolutely would’ve let her ramble on.
varka seems to thrive in company, (even making an effort to turn things into a team activity) which makes me very curious to know if his smile drops when he’s the only one around.
he’s gone at least three days without eating before…
“haha, count me in, too. three days without food? i can handle that.”
…🤨 i need the backstory on that.
anyways, i think it’s funny that he gets a bit upset when his ego’s bruised—
“you think this is funny? i just lost to a young lady in an arm-wrestling contest. i’m never gonna live that down!”
—but he doesn’t make a big, annoying stink about it.
“huh, everyone except the moonchanter got beaten, guess i don’t need to feel so bad after all… ahem, uh, i mean, looks like this isn’t gonna be as easy as we thought.”
i don’t even think it’s due to him secretly being a narcissist or even that he “lost” to woman specifically, i see it more like “i have to look cool at all times so that i can live up to my title, and this moment in particular made me look not cool.” kinda in the same vein as itto but more subdued.
natural morale-booster. like in,
“many have told me that teyvat’s destiny is fixed, and that does appear to be the case. well, what makes dottore so sure he’ll be the exception? and since he was able to stack these ‘variables’ up, who’s to say we can’t do the same? you, of all people, should not be discouraged…this isn’t over yet.”
“…you’re not alone in that. everyone here does, whether they’ve spoken thus far or not. but none of us are the type to sit back and wait for the sun to shine again. that’s exactly how a knights should roll—they knock you down, you get back up and get back in it…”
this was such a good bit from the archon quest and i’m being so serious when i say that. this moment sets the mood we can expect with this cast of characters (not just varka) moving forward with the story. shit is only gonna get more intense and you know it when mr. giggleshits decides to lock in.
i think that’s all i wanted to say for now…i’m totally normal about varka <- (has been hoarding over 20,000 primogems specifically for his upcoming banner)
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