#this week's thought is...

[silentsthoughts]

My Thoughts On: Chapter 3

WARNING!!! CONTAINS SPOILERS OF CHAPTER 3!!!! IF YOU'RE A NEW PLAYER PLEASE READ AT YOUR DISCRETION!!!!

Hey everyone!!! Sorry for the weird disappearance, life caught up to me so I had to take a break for awhile. I can't guarantee that I'll be posting weekly but we'll see but for now, let's sit down and talk about Chapter 3 (aka my favorite chapter).

I loved it. That's it. End of entry.

I'm kidding--not the loving it part--I actually really did love Chapter 3 a lot for several reasons, definitely not because Cyno was in there no sir. To start off, I loved the eerie trippy-ness of it all simply because of the time loops and everything that had to do with dreams and consciousness and all that. I think that it was a nice twist and breakthrough from all of the typical, cliche storylines that we had previously encountered in the game. When we first met Nahida and she explained to us that we were in a time loop, I kid you not, my brain was struggling to take in half of the information on what was going on. Of course, it didn't get better when the storyline continued to progress...but on a side note, did anyone else cry when Dunyazard "died"? Cause I sure as hell did (and if no one did, then maybe I'm just a big cry baby).

Another thing that I absolutely loved in the chapter was the fact how 'real' it all felt. This one is kinda hard to explain but I really loved how Hoyoverse along with the VA's (I have it on ENG fyi) made each character come more into life and how raw(?) their emotions are. Like, you can just feel how hurt Nahida is when she talks about how she's always feeling less and second compared to Greater Lord Rukkadevata and you can just feel the sass that Tighnari and Kaveh have and you can feel the anger Dehya feels when fustrated AND we surely can't forget how distraught Scaramouche was when his Gnosis was being taken away. But it's not all of these characters, you can also feel the anger that surges within Traveler after Dunyarzad "didn't make it" and they took their anger out on the Eremites. Each characters' emotions felt so real and raw that you just can't help but feel so immersed in it all.

Besides the emotional aspect of it, I LOVED the teamwork that the Sumeru characters along with Traveler had done. Unlike Inazuma where it was "teamwork" (aka Traveler just did everything and was the errand runner more than anything), Sumeru used the power of compromise and friendship lol to come together and save their rightful archon. I lowkey felt like Traveler barely did anything cause all they did was just show up in front of the Grand Sage with AlHaitham and go to solitary confinement afterwards lmao except when fighting The Balladeer. Towards the end, when Rukkadevata had erased the memory of herself from the world, I was beyond shooketh because the fact that she can have the powers/abilities to do such a thing is crazy to me--which makes me believe that she's the third strongest amongst the archons (intellectually).

Of course, we can never forget about the ending where you ask questions about your future/sibling. Tell me why Nahida has been the ONLY useful archon that we've come across!? It's been 10,000 years and we have now finally learned shocking news that our sibling's presence has been recorded in Irminsul but not us. In case some of you guys have forgotten/didn't pay attention, Irminsul is the "core" of Teyvat and it records the history of Teyvat along with the people who reside within the world UNLESS you're a Descender. So in Traveler's case, we are the 4th Descender, meaning that they don't belong in Teyvat and everything about their journey is not recorded within Irminsul. I'm very interested to see how the story line will unfold now that we know our sibling IS part of Teyvat and if the Hydro Archon will be just as useful.

Overall, I loved the chapter so much. It took a long time to complete but I really like how this time it extended to a total of 5 acts. I think by doing so, it gives the chapter time to develop not too fast but not too slow either so I'm hoping that Hoyoverse will continue on doing that--if not 5 acts, then at least 4. Now then I think this is a wrap for my thoughts on Chapter 3. I was initially thinking of doing the interlude chapters since they do play a key part to the story line as well but I think I might take a break from that for now and I might continue onto doing characters or something else. But in the meantime, thank you all so much and look forward to the next "My Thoughts On..." post.

Have a great day/night!!!

[silentsthoughts]

My Thoughts On: Chapter 2

**CONTAINS SPOILERS OF CHAPTER 2 SO IF YOU'RE A NEW GENSHIN PLAYER, READ AT YOUR DISCRETION**

Hello everyone, I am BACK with another "My Thoughts On..." blog!! Last week, I mentioned that I was going to discuss about Chapter 2 to which I am and I'm very much excited to because I have A LOT to say about this chapter. So let's get right in to it!

"So Silents, what are your thoughts on Chapter 2?," you may ask. Well, thanks for asking cause my thoughts on this chapter was that I was quite disappointed in it , if not "quite disappointed", I was very much disappointed in this chapter. I know a lot of you can relate to me as well (maybe) because--don't get me wrong, I still thought that it was pretty damn cool but the execution of the lore was just not it. Let me start of with Ayaka: at first she comes off as this sweet, innocent and good-natured woman right? Wrong. Cause a lot of people--mainly on Tik Tok--have pointed out the fact that she was the very first one to manipulate the Traveler in helping out the country and their crisis which was the Vision Hunt Decree. And of course, after what the Traveler had witnessed (We Will Be Reunited Chapter), they were even more desperate in wanting to find their sibling and just bounce out of Teyvat but things aren't easy, are they? But after the events that had occurred, it made the Traveler really get their shit together more so than ever and it's pretty obvious and shown based on the dialogue choices the moment we reach Inazuma (i.e. when Ayaka pleaded for help, you had the options to say that you weren't interested, along with other quests where Traveler had said something similar). Back to the main topic here, 'manipulate' is pretty intense of a word but if you really think about it, what she did do was well, manipulate you. If memory serves me right, she mentioned during the first meet that you two are "friends/allies" and that friends/allies should help one another out and in a sense, Ayaka went as far as guilt tripping the Traveler by saying that if they cared about others so much, then they should help out with the three people who had their Visions confiscated by the Vision Hunt Decree. Again, my memory is kinda foggy on that so please correct me if I'm wrong.

The second point (more like person) I want to bring up is Yae Miko: sly, elegant and in my opinion, very manipulative which I'm not a fan of. Because we were already six feet deep into helping out the Vision Hunt Decree the Yashiro Commision way, Yae Miko decided to butt in and assist in the cause but THIS time, we were given the main task in breaching into Ei's Plane of Euthymia and only then, would we be able to change her mind since the Electro Archon roaming out and about is actually a puppet. I don't really have much to say about Yae Miko in all honesty but I just had to bring that topic up so I guess that leads me to my next point which is Raiden Shogun/Ei. I've seen a lot of people bash on Hoyoverse for failing in making Raiden an antagonist and I kinda agree cause goddamn she would make a really good antagonist, but I would be liar if I said that I didn't like her soft spoken self and her love for sweets (she's so cute, I love her). So far into the Archon Quest lore, Raiden has been the only archon who has gone hostile on us whether it was her puppet or not and I did find that a pretty interesting turn of events in the story. However, it was pretty unexpected and disappointing to realize that she's not cold hearted (we're talking about Ei here just an FYI) but if you really think about it: she actually is pretty cold hearted(?). The reason why is because her puppet was made by Ei herself and a puppet can't function properly without given commands so what was Raiden's orders? To find eternity and by doing so Raiden started the Vision Hunt Decree and the Sakoku Decree and thus was everyone's Visions were confiscated.

My third and final point why I found Chapter 2 to be pretty disappointing to me is the lack of team work and communication amongst the characters. I felt like the story was made to be seen that everyone you have met in Inazuma had all combined forces and worked together and saved their home nation right? Wrong again. I felt like it was all of the Traveler's hard work (along with Teppei, RIP Teppei)that had managed to save the entirety of Inazuma and the burdens of the damn nation. They were given so many favors and requests and had to run so many errands to meet with that person, help the other, etc. and you can very much tell that the Traveler was tired of it but they still managed to do it because it if were me, I would've just up and left. I think another thing that made things worse is that everyone was so fucking useless when it came to the Traveler's sibling. I felt like no one had a sense of empathy or sympathy towards them and they were just like,"Oh no, you lost your sibling? Well that sucks but help us fight in this war."

To sum things up, good lore (to an extent) but bad execution. I really do think that Hoyoverse could have done better in executing the Inazuma chapter but who am I to say y'know? But with that, I think that about wraps things up for my thoughts on Chapter 2!! I know that I said I had a lot to say but I'm not sure about that reading the entry again lol. To me, it felt like I did have a lot to say but oh wells. Next week, I shall be going over Chapter 3 which I am also excited to talk about because *spoiler alert* it's by far, my favorite chapter and you'll see why. Stay tuned for next week's thoughts and have a great rest of your week. Byezers!