[content warning for mentions of abuse, though no specifics.]
While I’m not trying to defend Hoyoverse as a company or as writers, I saw a lot of people claiming that Columbina’s recounting of how the Fatui treated her cannot coexist with the new short released that shows the Fatui girls enjoying a night together. I need people to understand that one or several positive experiences do not negate an abusive environment. Columbina was used and exploited by the Fatui, even if she had friends there. Dottore very explicitly used her, and her voice lines imply that Regrator has as well (I have not yet completed the new AQ, though, so I don’t know much more about him)… Columbina’s belief that relationships are transactional were explicitly (and otherwise obviously) encouraged by the Fatui. Although she had friends in the Fatui, she was still abused and taken advantage of by the Fatui as an organization, like Arlecchino and Childe (and probably others)… And seeing the clip, I don’t see anyone questioning Arlecchino’s trauma/abuse at the hands of the Fatui. People seem to like criticizing Columbina a lot, some of it is understandable, some annoying, but this actually makes me disappointed to see.
It may seem funny to feel a need to correct this, but people apply this logic to real-life abuse, too. Abuse doesn’t exist in a 24/7 vacuum of horrific torture. Abuse should not be discounted because a victim also has positive memories. Ideas like this spread outside of fictional media and impact real people! As a Genshin blog, yeah, stuff like this annoys me. But as a human being who cares about people, misinformation like this is harmful!