talks about genshin instead of doing work
Nov. 24th, 2021 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hereinevitablygot into genshin impact a few months ago. june i think. now i am in hell. yeah <3
this post, especially the first half, is SO messy because i've written it over the course of several months and obviously my account has changed a lot in between. so there are many edits in between and also it is Long as fuck. but hopefully at least one person (me) finds joy in reading it.
stats / general gameplay things:
i am ar 48??? i think. yeah we'll go with that. very f2p. main overworld comp is bennett--rosaria--barbara--chongyun sort of but i've been running more variations lately. such as bennett--rosaria--raiden--chongyun (which. yeah is kind of anti-synergy because i am not getting any use out of superconduct as a chongyun cryo crimes enjoyer + it messes up cryo status for 4pc blizzard strayer BUT raiden my beloved...) or bennett--rosaria--raiden--reluctantly diluc after i pulled him off standard.
(edit: post hu tao pulling have been enjoying bennett--rosaria--diona--hu tao very much <3 yes that's two healers with hu tao but bennett buffs atk and diona is shieldbot And also i'm bad at the game so. it works for ME okay)
I Have So Many Cryo Characters like genshin is obsessed with giving me cryo pulls. i have c1 for nearly every cryo 4* except kaeya, a c7 diona, and qiqi as my first 5* pull. this is very funny to me, ash started playing genshin because of the pyro characters requiemana. anyways the crimson witch domain at level 80 is SO FUN to me because i run diona--rosaria--qiqi--chongyun and it is just Superconduct Shockwave Go Boom constantly.
on the flipside i do not have a single anemo character besides the traveler it is ridiculous gacha gods please spare me T______T i think all my twitter mutuals know too with how much i have lamented.
(edit: i finally pulled sayu on hu tao banner Thank Fuck)
(this is pre-hu tao) if you could not tell, my singular well built (ish) character is rosaria. i say well built ish because she is only running a White Tassel (f2p pain) and the rest of her crit rate is pretty much only from the bs 4pc effect + cryo resonance. and the blizzard strayer domain genuinely hates my guts like i think i have gotten mayb ONE good bs piece in my months of grinding it. half of my healers / underinvested supports are probably just running scrap bs or hod arts because i have So Many hp and def pieces + substat rolls arghhh.
anyways rosaria my beloved <3 first 4* pull isms. she is just SO FUN to play like as someone who has trouble with basic movement things having an instant gap closer move with her e is amazing. like u know the pain of teleporting enemies? well imagine... ALSO being able to do that with the press of a button. this also has spoiled me so when i put someone else in my 2nd slot for abyss and press e and DON'T instantly zoom over the enemies it is just like what. very disappointing.
in general genshin is like. very funky for me because i actually am Obsessed with video games fun fact but never play them because classic strict asian upbringing you are not allowed to own any gaming console ever!! suck it kid. so this is like wow... i can actually play this game... it is free... not a pirate... and it is popular... and i am doing things... my own things... not just watching 2049 playthroughs on youtube... what a feeling.
also like the game is genuinely just gorgeous sometimes like LIYUE... i am in love with liyue the soundtrack the characters the locations... watching the sunset in huaguang stone forest for the first time was a transcendental experience.
favorite characters:
hu tao - genshin 1pick genshin 1pick i need her to come home. i have enough fates saved up for hard pity BUT i do not have guaranteed 50/50 because i pulled raiden on 20 pity after getting qiqi while going for sucrose. and didn't get sucrose. she is JUST....... she is insane guys she is so neat i think she was made for me. eccentric death obsessed liyue girl Just a rascal! wise beyond her years but also massive prankster! has FLOWERS in her eyes!! peak character design moment. i love her love her love her mihoyo please take pity on me and give me a hu tao.
(EDIT I GOT HER C0 LET'S GOOO fun fact i started writing this post at the end of July)
zhongli - would also pull if he were to miraculously get a 3rd rerun like childe. probably not but i can dream right? would be great for me aka Guy Who Cannot Dodge To Save Their Life Holy Shit that one challenge in the inazuma archon quest.......... that aside though i am zhongli lover no 1 like um. okay at first i was simply Oh yeah he's a pretty liyue dude > oh wait he seems like he could be kind of boring though idk (had not played any of the archon quest at that point just going off the wiki and vibes) > wait no he's a 6,000+ year old deity he's got to have shit going on > oh my god i am obsessed with him. he is wonderfully flawed and just Says shit and expects it to be fact as u do when u were a god for millennia. also i think it's so funny how many times we find him just listening to people debate / retell his own life.
(EDIT there are rumors of him getting a rerun which is great in theory but actually awful because i've just blown all my primos on hu tao and do not have much time to save up. meaning i am probably going to have to skip like the next few banners if it is true meaning No Shenhe Or Xiao. just for some rumors)
umm he is just so mega ultra earth sign like he is canonically a capricorn sun (yes he is a god and his birthday is probably bs yes teyvat doesn't have astrology like we do no i do not care) and i am making him a taurus moon. which, guess what sun and moon placements i have. Like Just the capricorn can only let go later in life Zhongli only letting go of liyue after 2,000 years to retire... the sense of duty and ambition... and then taurus materialism indulgent stability stubborness... zhongli so so so earth sign i love it here as a very strong earth sign enjoyer.
also i think in general i just like it when characters are Really Fucking Powerful and well. he is rex lapis.
kazuha - you know those characters that make you feel insane and there are things you could say to explain why they make you insane but none of those things feel like the full truth. like you are just insane. there is no rhyme or reason to it. that is me with kazuha he is just !@#$%^%$#@#$ kazuha... kazuha !! Kazuha.
like his one moment in the archon quest like Holy Fuck KAZUHAA.
rosaria - see above rosie luv <3 she's so fun to play probably shaped my current ideals of polearm supremacy + cryo crimes. fun fact i immediately switched out kaeya for rosie when i pulled her and will actively use her as a main dps over diluc let's go queen of overshadowing the ragnvindr-alberich men.
besides that though i just think her whole life. her backstory. her attitude towards things is so unique and i just wish she got more screentime like actual not just limited to an event screentime Mihoyo rosaria hangout event when?
amber - i luv amber <3 genuinely wish she was easier to play because um. i cannot use a bow at all. i did have her as my display icon for a while though pre-hu tao so there is that! anyways i just think she is so positive and cheerful and determined and just THE BEST PAL like the best person for the traveler to meet first in their journeys. also since her grandfather is from liyue she is therefore asian diaspora you can pry this out of my cold dead hands. anyways go pyro bunny girl go!
childe - um. this is certainly a surprise to me because i was Not Inclined to like childe at first... mostly because i play lumine and i Hate His Hey Girlie Line. but NOW... now that i have fully decided to just commit oc theft and make up my own interpretations of all the characters it is a firmly Buds Girlie and that is okay. but the first time i heard it i was like Lumine needs to kick this dude in the balls. anyways i'm not going to lie part of the reason why i gave him a chance post girlie-gate was just because i like his dynamic with zhongli a lot (more at eight). and by way of a lot of hurt / comfort reading and also his story quest... i've warmed up to him. he better not get his ass killed now with the whole scaramouche thing now that i'm actually emotionally invested in his life i swear to god.
klee - ADORABLE. i don't really have much to say about her though besides being important to albedo and alice. BUT STILL ADORABLE the one who got me to download the game actually!
all the archons, actually - i am obsessed with divinity and everything that comes with it so this is just easy. genshin's brand of divinity, at least with the archons because what the fuck is even going on up there in celestia, is fascinating and i am actually sooo excited to learn more about the other seven. like what's up with the god of wisdom? what did the god of justice do to drive away all the oceanids? what happened to the tsaritsa and what even is her ideal?
xiao - the most devoted guy ever conqueror of demons and yet so gentle... his story about hearing venti's music and dancing along after being pulled from the brink of corruption makes me want to smash my head against a wall like genuinely genuinely.
interjection: going to cut myself off there because if i kept going i think i would just run through nearly the entire cast. except baizhu fuck baizhu all my homies hate baizhu ! murder is okay but not actually caring about qiqi and only using i love you most as empty words to break her orders makes you The Worst.
but anyways i like most of genshin's characters and could probably brainrot about them given the right circumstances and information <3 as well as some characters i just think are neat and don't really have a super in depth reason for liking. though i will say that i think. mihoyo does a very good job of setting up really interesting people and whatnot but a Terrible Job following through a lot of the time. like kokomi or ei both just could've been much more fucked up. and in general i have decided that i am just stealing all of genshin's characters now and making them my own like! everything is being made up anyways. so i might as well join in. oc theft babey.
this also applies to the story quests. especially the main story quests because they're so constrained by the x numbers of chapters and acts formula I'm Talking About You Inazuma. like i tweeted about this on mainpriv too, but inazuma felt So Unresolved... you're telling me there's an entire War going on and you've showed us the resistance forces that are just barely hanging in there and the despair that happens when people get their visions taken away... and the resolution is just? Wow fatui bad. also isn't ei just a silly little child throwing her a silly little tantrum nothing we can't fix with just a stern talking to though. and then BAM the war is just over like that? no remaining resentment or tension? What is up with that mihoyo. re: really interesting set-ups, Really Poor Execution. sometimes characters are best pre-release when all we have are leaks because they cannot be done dirty yet </3
Anyways. back to the fun parts let's talk about pairings! here are some zhongli ones that i enjoy:
zhongli / venti: what if we were both archons and happened to have exact opposite elements and ideals and so on... and still managed to be friends and in fact are the last of our time... works both romantically (3,000+ years of pining baby... ) and also just platonically. love it when a relationship just consists of one guy pushing the other's buttons over and over again (see: The One Year I Spent Losing My Shit Over Baeksoo) love it when people are annoying.
zhongli / childe: once again this is so reluctant like. i think part of the reason why i actually enjoy this ship is because For Once i'm actually interested in a big ship T_____T very refreshing to be honest... like i have accepted the popularshiphater69 mantle But at the same time. it is nice to actually have fancontent and a living, breathing ao3 tag to explore for once instead of the like tags with under 20 works that i've been torturing myself with in kpop.
that aside though! i will say that i also think this pairing is fun because they are just so malleable. like you can interpret them in so many different ways depending on a) how much self-loathing you want to make either of them b) how unhinged you want to make childe and c) how divine you want to make zhongli. ALSO THE BETRAYAL the inherent homoeroticism of betrayal me reading 29348093 takes on the 1.1 events over and over again just to feel something.
zhongli / xiao: apparently my habit of being mostly only invested in pairings with my 1pick member in kpop... transferred over into genshin. sorry. anyways the DEVOTION of it all!!!! gold rush by miss taylor swift is about zhongli and xiao is the one singing it.
zhongli / guizhong: Pain.
zhongli / retuo: Pain Redux.
thoughts on the other popular pairings:
kaeya / diluc: The Elephant In The Room. all of the adopted brothers cultural differences mistranslations discourse fanwars etc. etc. Aside i just don't think they make a good romantic pairing like. nothing about their characters click together for me romantically Like two characters can have extensive history with each other, hurt each other deeply, reconcile... and then go on to love other people. like that is a thing that can happen. they're better off platonic especially since they both have better ships available to them!
venti / xiao: enjoyable in theory but 99% of their fans get their dynamic wrong i think... the real venxiao is that meme where XIAO is the sunshine and venti is the sunshine protector Not the other way around. that aside Where is zhongli............ < guy who is incorrigible.
traveler ships: i do not understand these like. the appeal of most genshin ships comes from either 1) the two characters have a long and or fascinating history with each other that makes them work romantically or 2) the two characters have personalities that would interact in really interesting ways in theory if they were to meet. the traveler cannot do either because Their Whole Schtick is being the outlander whose personality via dialogue is largely up to the player to decide.
the only mild exception i would concede is albedo because he is also an outsider. being a homunculi and everything... like the albedo durin connection against the traveler purifying abilities... there is something there, i will admit.
chongyun / xingqiu: heheheheh they are so fun... light and fluffy and sweet like cotton candy. re: love it when a ship is just one dude pushing the other guy's buttons always... also made a tweet a while ago that was like. some pairings are college au-able and some are not. like some pairings fall apart without the specific circumstances that forced them together... some people are NOT destined to love in every life and universe... etc. etc. BUT chongyun and xingqiu ARE very college au-able perhaps even THE most college au-able pairing.
wait so what are kaeya and diluc's better ships Well I'm Glad You Asked:
rosaria / kaeya: cryo x cryo shipping for the win they are both just so fucked up and have such depressing backstories and god... when you are the town's two charity cases. when you both got your cryo vision directly after your father figure died right in front of your eyes. When you both are outsiders but feel like you owe something to this city of freedom because of everything that its people have done for you Oh Man. also i simply think that... something about kaeya's origins being from khaenri'ah + rosaria's very unique outlook on the gods and religion would just mesh so well together.
also they are team rocket when put together with diona monde's trio of bitter cryo vision holders with daddy issues assemble
the only problem with this pairing is that No One Writes Them god i'm back to <100 work tags that never get any traction once more... when will i win
zhongli / diluc: i love zho-- [i am pulled offstage by a cane] okay no. i have legit not-just-rex-lapis-loving reasons for this one. sort of. first of all they are Taurus and Capricorn (see: baeksoo brainrot) which OH MAN. second of all i think both of their characters are very much people defined by loss. like i think they were both much more arrogant and much less world-weary in their youth and were quite harshly shaken out of that by death (crepus for diluc. nearly everyone that he knew for zhongli) and subsequent grief. and i just believe they would find a lot of comfort in each other and share experiences... especially diluc because diluc's way of coping is being married to his two jobs of wine tycoon and batman LARPer. whereas zhongli at least has had thousands of years of time to process.
ending thoughts:
if you are wondering about the lack of women ships in this it is because. i actually like quite a few i just have Nothing coherent to say about them beyond Women Hot... yeah. anyways there are a lot more random rare-pair ships i could talk about (esp poly ones), as well as an entire section on People i think should get locked into a room together just to see what happens... but i am cutting it off here because Holy Fuck This Is Getting Lengthy. mayb another day! if anyone managed to get to the end of this then? thank you and also my condolences. if you somehow got to end of this wanting MORE and don't follow me on twitter i am @/requiemana ! either way i am probably going to be back at some point with more genshin bullshit it is just a matter of when.
this post, especially the first half, is SO messy because i've written it over the course of several months and obviously my account has changed a lot in between. so there are many edits in between and also it is Long as fuck. but hopefully at least one person (me) finds joy in reading it.
stats / general gameplay things:
i am ar 48??? i think. yeah we'll go with that. very f2p. main overworld comp is bennett--rosaria--barbara--chongyun sort of but i've been running more variations lately. such as bennett--rosaria--raiden--chongyun (which. yeah is kind of anti-synergy because i am not getting any use out of superconduct as a chongyun cryo crimes enjoyer + it messes up cryo status for 4pc blizzard strayer BUT raiden my beloved...) or bennett--rosaria--raiden--reluctantly diluc after i pulled him off standard.
(edit: post hu tao pulling have been enjoying bennett--rosaria--diona--hu tao very much <3 yes that's two healers with hu tao but bennett buffs atk and diona is shieldbot And also i'm bad at the game so. it works for ME okay)
I Have So Many Cryo Characters like genshin is obsessed with giving me cryo pulls. i have c1 for nearly every cryo 4* except kaeya, a c7 diona, and qiqi as my first 5* pull. this is very funny to me, ash started playing genshin because of the pyro characters requiemana. anyways the crimson witch domain at level 80 is SO FUN to me because i run diona--rosaria--qiqi--chongyun and it is just Superconduct Shockwave Go Boom constantly.
on the flipside i do not have a single anemo character besides the traveler it is ridiculous gacha gods please spare me T______T i think all my twitter mutuals know too with how much i have lamented.
(edit: i finally pulled sayu on hu tao banner Thank Fuck)
(this is pre-hu tao) if you could not tell, my singular well built (ish) character is rosaria. i say well built ish because she is only running a White Tassel (f2p pain) and the rest of her crit rate is pretty much only from the bs 4pc effect + cryo resonance. and the blizzard strayer domain genuinely hates my guts like i think i have gotten mayb ONE good bs piece in my months of grinding it. half of my healers / underinvested supports are probably just running scrap bs or hod arts because i have So Many hp and def pieces + substat rolls arghhh.
anyways rosaria my beloved <3 first 4* pull isms. she is just SO FUN to play like as someone who has trouble with basic movement things having an instant gap closer move with her e is amazing. like u know the pain of teleporting enemies? well imagine... ALSO being able to do that with the press of a button. this also has spoiled me so when i put someone else in my 2nd slot for abyss and press e and DON'T instantly zoom over the enemies it is just like what. very disappointing.
in general genshin is like. very funky for me because i actually am Obsessed with video games fun fact but never play them because classic strict asian upbringing you are not allowed to own any gaming console ever!! suck it kid. so this is like wow... i can actually play this game... it is free... not a pirate... and it is popular... and i am doing things... my own things... not just watching 2049 playthroughs on youtube... what a feeling.
also like the game is genuinely just gorgeous sometimes like LIYUE... i am in love with liyue the soundtrack the characters the locations... watching the sunset in huaguang stone forest for the first time was a transcendental experience.
favorite characters:
hu tao - genshin 1pick genshin 1pick i need her to come home. i have enough fates saved up for hard pity BUT i do not have guaranteed 50/50 because i pulled raiden on 20 pity after getting qiqi while going for sucrose. and didn't get sucrose. she is JUST....... she is insane guys she is so neat i think she was made for me. eccentric death obsessed liyue girl Just a rascal! wise beyond her years but also massive prankster! has FLOWERS in her eyes!! peak character design moment. i love her love her love her mihoyo please take pity on me and give me a hu tao.
(EDIT I GOT HER C0 LET'S GOOO fun fact i started writing this post at the end of July)
zhongli - would also pull if he were to miraculously get a 3rd rerun like childe. probably not but i can dream right? would be great for me aka Guy Who Cannot Dodge To Save Their Life Holy Shit that one challenge in the inazuma archon quest.......... that aside though i am zhongli lover no 1 like um. okay at first i was simply Oh yeah he's a pretty liyue dude > oh wait he seems like he could be kind of boring though idk (had not played any of the archon quest at that point just going off the wiki and vibes) > wait no he's a 6,000+ year old deity he's got to have shit going on > oh my god i am obsessed with him. he is wonderfully flawed and just Says shit and expects it to be fact as u do when u were a god for millennia. also i think it's so funny how many times we find him just listening to people debate / retell his own life.
(EDIT there are rumors of him getting a rerun which is great in theory but actually awful because i've just blown all my primos on hu tao and do not have much time to save up. meaning i am probably going to have to skip like the next few banners if it is true meaning No Shenhe Or Xiao. just for some rumors)
umm he is just so mega ultra earth sign like he is canonically a capricorn sun (yes he is a god and his birthday is probably bs yes teyvat doesn't have astrology like we do no i do not care) and i am making him a taurus moon. which, guess what sun and moon placements i have. Like Just the capricorn can only let go later in life Zhongli only letting go of liyue after 2,000 years to retire... the sense of duty and ambition... and then taurus materialism indulgent stability stubborness... zhongli so so so earth sign i love it here as a very strong earth sign enjoyer.
also i think in general i just like it when characters are Really Fucking Powerful and well. he is rex lapis.
kazuha - you know those characters that make you feel insane and there are things you could say to explain why they make you insane but none of those things feel like the full truth. like you are just insane. there is no rhyme or reason to it. that is me with kazuha he is just !@#$%^%$#@#$ kazuha... kazuha !! Kazuha.
like his one moment in the archon quest like Holy Fuck KAZUHAA.
rosaria - see above rosie luv <3 she's so fun to play probably shaped my current ideals of polearm supremacy + cryo crimes. fun fact i immediately switched out kaeya for rosie when i pulled her and will actively use her as a main dps over diluc let's go queen of overshadowing the ragnvindr-alberich men.
besides that though i just think her whole life. her backstory. her attitude towards things is so unique and i just wish she got more screentime like actual not just limited to an event screentime Mihoyo rosaria hangout event when?
amber - i luv amber <3 genuinely wish she was easier to play because um. i cannot use a bow at all. i did have her as my display icon for a while though pre-hu tao so there is that! anyways i just think she is so positive and cheerful and determined and just THE BEST PAL like the best person for the traveler to meet first in their journeys. also since her grandfather is from liyue she is therefore asian diaspora you can pry this out of my cold dead hands. anyways go pyro bunny girl go!
childe - um. this is certainly a surprise to me because i was Not Inclined to like childe at first... mostly because i play lumine and i Hate His Hey Girlie Line. but NOW... now that i have fully decided to just commit oc theft and make up my own interpretations of all the characters it is a firmly Buds Girlie and that is okay. but the first time i heard it i was like Lumine needs to kick this dude in the balls. anyways i'm not going to lie part of the reason why i gave him a chance post girlie-gate was just because i like his dynamic with zhongli a lot (more at eight). and by way of a lot of hurt / comfort reading and also his story quest... i've warmed up to him. he better not get his ass killed now with the whole scaramouche thing now that i'm actually emotionally invested in his life i swear to god.
klee - ADORABLE. i don't really have much to say about her though besides being important to albedo and alice. BUT STILL ADORABLE the one who got me to download the game actually!
all the archons, actually - i am obsessed with divinity and everything that comes with it so this is just easy. genshin's brand of divinity, at least with the archons because what the fuck is even going on up there in celestia, is fascinating and i am actually sooo excited to learn more about the other seven. like what's up with the god of wisdom? what did the god of justice do to drive away all the oceanids? what happened to the tsaritsa and what even is her ideal?
xiao - the most devoted guy ever conqueror of demons and yet so gentle... his story about hearing venti's music and dancing along after being pulled from the brink of corruption makes me want to smash my head against a wall like genuinely genuinely.
interjection: going to cut myself off there because if i kept going i think i would just run through nearly the entire cast. except baizhu fuck baizhu all my homies hate baizhu ! murder is okay but not actually caring about qiqi and only using i love you most as empty words to break her orders makes you The Worst.
but anyways i like most of genshin's characters and could probably brainrot about them given the right circumstances and information <3 as well as some characters i just think are neat and don't really have a super in depth reason for liking. though i will say that i think. mihoyo does a very good job of setting up really interesting people and whatnot but a Terrible Job following through a lot of the time. like kokomi or ei both just could've been much more fucked up. and in general i have decided that i am just stealing all of genshin's characters now and making them my own like! everything is being made up anyways. so i might as well join in. oc theft babey.
this also applies to the story quests. especially the main story quests because they're so constrained by the x numbers of chapters and acts formula I'm Talking About You Inazuma. like i tweeted about this on mainpriv too, but inazuma felt So Unresolved... you're telling me there's an entire War going on and you've showed us the resistance forces that are just barely hanging in there and the despair that happens when people get their visions taken away... and the resolution is just? Wow fatui bad. also isn't ei just a silly little child throwing her a silly little tantrum nothing we can't fix with just a stern talking to though. and then BAM the war is just over like that? no remaining resentment or tension? What is up with that mihoyo. re: really interesting set-ups, Really Poor Execution. sometimes characters are best pre-release when all we have are leaks because they cannot be done dirty yet </3
Anyways. back to the fun parts let's talk about pairings! here are some zhongli ones that i enjoy:
zhongli / venti: what if we were both archons and happened to have exact opposite elements and ideals and so on... and still managed to be friends and in fact are the last of our time... works both romantically (3,000+ years of pining baby... ) and also just platonically. love it when a relationship just consists of one guy pushing the other's buttons over and over again (see: The One Year I Spent Losing My Shit Over Baeksoo) love it when people are annoying.
zhongli / childe: once again this is so reluctant like. i think part of the reason why i actually enjoy this ship is because For Once i'm actually interested in a big ship T_____T very refreshing to be honest... like i have accepted the popularshiphater69 mantle But at the same time. it is nice to actually have fancontent and a living, breathing ao3 tag to explore for once instead of the like tags with under 20 works that i've been torturing myself with in kpop.
that aside though! i will say that i also think this pairing is fun because they are just so malleable. like you can interpret them in so many different ways depending on a) how much self-loathing you want to make either of them b) how unhinged you want to make childe and c) how divine you want to make zhongli. ALSO THE BETRAYAL the inherent homoeroticism of betrayal me reading 29348093 takes on the 1.1 events over and over again just to feel something.
zhongli / xiao: apparently my habit of being mostly only invested in pairings with my 1pick member in kpop... transferred over into genshin. sorry. anyways the DEVOTION of it all!!!! gold rush by miss taylor swift is about zhongli and xiao is the one singing it.
zhongli / guizhong: Pain.
zhongli / retuo: Pain Redux.
thoughts on the other popular pairings:
kaeya / diluc: The Elephant In The Room. all of the adopted brothers cultural differences mistranslations discourse fanwars etc. etc. Aside i just don't think they make a good romantic pairing like. nothing about their characters click together for me romantically Like two characters can have extensive history with each other, hurt each other deeply, reconcile... and then go on to love other people. like that is a thing that can happen. they're better off platonic especially since they both have better ships available to them!
venti / xiao: enjoyable in theory but 99% of their fans get their dynamic wrong i think... the real venxiao is that meme where XIAO is the sunshine and venti is the sunshine protector Not the other way around. that aside Where is zhongli............ < guy who is incorrigible.
traveler ships: i do not understand these like. the appeal of most genshin ships comes from either 1) the two characters have a long and or fascinating history with each other that makes them work romantically or 2) the two characters have personalities that would interact in really interesting ways in theory if they were to meet. the traveler cannot do either because Their Whole Schtick is being the outlander whose personality via dialogue is largely up to the player to decide.
the only mild exception i would concede is albedo because he is also an outsider. being a homunculi and everything... like the albedo durin connection against the traveler purifying abilities... there is something there, i will admit.
chongyun / xingqiu: heheheheh they are so fun... light and fluffy and sweet like cotton candy. re: love it when a ship is just one dude pushing the other guy's buttons always... also made a tweet a while ago that was like. some pairings are college au-able and some are not. like some pairings fall apart without the specific circumstances that forced them together... some people are NOT destined to love in every life and universe... etc. etc. BUT chongyun and xingqiu ARE very college au-able perhaps even THE most college au-able pairing.
wait so what are kaeya and diluc's better ships Well I'm Glad You Asked:
rosaria / kaeya: cryo x cryo shipping for the win they are both just so fucked up and have such depressing backstories and god... when you are the town's two charity cases. when you both got your cryo vision directly after your father figure died right in front of your eyes. When you both are outsiders but feel like you owe something to this city of freedom because of everything that its people have done for you Oh Man. also i simply think that... something about kaeya's origins being from khaenri'ah + rosaria's very unique outlook on the gods and religion would just mesh so well together.
also they are team rocket when put together with diona monde's trio of bitter cryo vision holders with daddy issues assemble
the only problem with this pairing is that No One Writes Them god i'm back to <100 work tags that never get any traction once more... when will i win
zhongli / diluc: i love zho-- [i am pulled offstage by a cane] okay no. i have legit not-just-rex-lapis-loving reasons for this one. sort of. first of all they are Taurus and Capricorn (see: baeksoo brainrot) which OH MAN. second of all i think both of their characters are very much people defined by loss. like i think they were both much more arrogant and much less world-weary in their youth and were quite harshly shaken out of that by death (crepus for diluc. nearly everyone that he knew for zhongli) and subsequent grief. and i just believe they would find a lot of comfort in each other and share experiences... especially diluc because diluc's way of coping is being married to his two jobs of wine tycoon and batman LARPer. whereas zhongli at least has had thousands of years of time to process.
ending thoughts:
if you are wondering about the lack of women ships in this it is because. i actually like quite a few i just have Nothing coherent to say about them beyond Women Hot... yeah. anyways there are a lot more random rare-pair ships i could talk about (esp poly ones), as well as an entire section on People i think should get locked into a room together just to see what happens... but i am cutting it off here because Holy Fuck This Is Getting Lengthy. mayb another day! if anyone managed to get to the end of this then? thank you and also my condolences. if you somehow got to end of this wanting MORE and don't follow me on twitter i am @/requiemana ! either way i am probably going to be back at some point with more genshin bullshit it is just a matter of when.
