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| Xingqiu represents me. Collei represents Alevius. |
Maybe I'm crazy but I enjoy being friends with people who think similarly to me. And there are very few such people in the world—simply having Asperger's syndrome is enough to isolate me from a large group of people, especially given how hyper-individualistic I am compared to the mostly collectivist world.
To give a specific example, people with AS (and other forms of autism) have at least one special interest: something that they are extremely interested in and have deep knowledge of...which most other people don't have. Often, the special interest is a niche topic including but not limited to animals, TV shows that are unpopular or considered "inappropriate" for the person's age (e.g. Thomas the Tank Engine being enjoyed by adults with AS), and in my case, certain Genshin Impact characters. I swear that I'm one of the very few people who like Xingqiu for reasons other than the meta or shipping.
It may have taken 24 years but I'm surprised to have gotten one such friend. You may have known her from my D&D posts as Alevius, someone I met on Personality Database (PDB) who I met through a shared interest in Genshin Impact and a knack for studying things in detail. At that time, not gonna lie, I was surprised that she likes Collei: a character who was largely forgotten since she was featured in the official manga that had its last English chapter published in January 2020 (the game proper was released in September 2020). Over the months of us talking, I discovered more and more reasons that she likes Collei, including how relatable she is to Alevius and how she feels inspired and touched by the character. Combined with appreciating Bennett, Kaveh, Sucrose, and Xingqiu at somewhat similar levels to me, I thought, "She be like me for real!" Heck, I challenged her to write a 1,000-word essay about Kaveh and she churned out 1,500 in two hours—I have high standards as a teacher but I graded it an A!
But the reality is no two humans will ever be truly alike...and that's a good thing. Everyone brings different strengths to the table. I bring meta advice, a fiery passion, and a...bloodthirsty attitude when playing others' Genshin Impact accounts. Alevius brings lore expertise, emotional comfort, and Cyno-level humor.
And the differences naturally extend as well to personal preferences which I will explore in this post.
This is in no particular order.
I Like, Alevius Dislikes: Faruzan
This is a very weird one by external standards, I admit. But I relate a lot to Faruzan. We're both expert language teachers (Haravatat, Faruzan's Darshan, specializes in languages) who act a lot older than we look and have high standards for both academic performance and etiquette. We both have a "come at me, bro!" attitude when it comes to combat (based on Faruzan's combat voicelines). We're both frequently told to do something we refuse to do: Faruzan doesn't want to be a Kshahrewar scholar and I am not joining the saps who drill Mobile Legends and Apex Legends into my brain.
Alevius, on the other hand, gets reminded of her...morally questionable professors when thinking of Faruzan, I think. There's one who Alevius nicknamed the "crazy participation lady"; last I heard, she forced students to prepare for and take an exam that the students later found out was only administered to make the university look good. In other words, it's overly showy nonsense at the expense of the students' time, energy, and sanity.
Alevius also got upset at a certain other professor who raged at students and reiterated common-sense academic stuff like providing citations and complete, detailed answers. Yet...let's just say this professor isn't as competent as Faruzan in that some of Alevius's assignments have remained ungraded for months. (And I thought I was a slacker in writing my students' notes for improvement—I try to get them all done within less than 12 hours.)
But thankfully, we can agree on some things related to Faruzan. #1, we like the friendship Faruzan and Kaveh built in the Interdarshan Championship despite being opposing competitors. #2, Alevius is not intimidated by me specifically despite teaching like Faruzan and having Shenhe's temper.
Alevius Likes, I Dislike: Gorou
Alevius loves pets in general. She has a hamster, a bearded dragon, and two dogs if I remember correctly. She loved the cat petting event. Heck, her dad is a hamster nerd!
But I generally dislike dogs. As a little kid, I was terrified of them because domesticated dogs often barked at me. Sometimes, they alert an entire street's dogs in the process. I have also been chased by dogs before, both in real life and in dreams.
So I used to think it was weird that people would like these bite-happy monsters.
Even though my family already owns a dog named Oreo that follows my commands more or less, I still somewhat have a disdain for other dogs. I'm still scared of dogs in shanty areas, for example, thinking they aren't trained to calm down in front of strangers at all.
One thing Alevius and I mutually share regarding Gorou is he does not stay in the freakin' Poké Ball. We both got copy after copy of Dori in the first Chiori banner and I think we only got one Gorou each. She tried to pull Gorou back in Arataki Itto's Version 2.3 debut, for crying out loud. And I was gunning for C6 to supercharge my Noelle but I'm stuck at C5.
And another is we all dislike Yae Miko. She makes fun of Gorou, much to his disgust...and fear. Alevius and I are cheering on Gorou to help him beat that crazy fox lady...and if a physical beatdown or Genius Invokation TCG match is necessary, I'll do those too 'cause she stole what could've been a nice spotlight for Sangonomiya Kokomi in the Archon Quests.
But Sucrose is also a literal dog person! Why do you love her?
Because let's just say that in both official lore and fanon, Sucrose is shown to have much more human-like than dog-like behavior.
Gorou additionally has a tail and whimpers much like a dog when his ears are petted.
I Like, Alevius Dislikes: Jean
OK, let's get it out of the way: I mainly like Jean because she looks and acts like my mom. Both have thicc thighs. Both are physically strong. Both are staunch in their personal values. Both have a commanding personality...especially when I get treated similarly to Klee. Additionally, Mom's hairstyle is kinda similar to that of Stephanie Southerland, Jean's English VA.
Not to mention that my mom also looks like and has similar interests as my niece. Both like physical fitness, sweets, and lightning, for example. And since I compare my niece to Klee, Nahida, and the Raiden Shogun, I use those ugly nicknames plus "Jean" for my mom.
But Alevius has long suffered a curse. She had C3 Jean long before she could pull a copy of Diluc, Keqing, Qiqi, or Tighnari (and she still doesn't have the latter two (Edit: she got Tighnari for free in Version 5.0 at long last.)). She also dislikes the aforementioned commanding personality of Jean and, by extension, my mom. Alevius strongly believes that even though Klee is a chaotic little kid, she does not belong in solitary confinement.
So she rage-raised Jean a little bit in hopes of satisfying "my mom" to the point of stopping stalking Alevius's pulls. When I got Alevius's login details (with her permission, of course), I took on and finished that challenge by successfully raising Jean to Friendship 10. I then finally got Jean for the first time in Xiao's Version 4.4 rerun...along with Xiao in the same 10-pull.
Unfortunately, on April 19, 2024, I got cursed as well... While attempting to pull Neuvillette, I got C1 Jean at 83 pity. Fair enough, I slacked off again on freelance work and made Mom rage in real life.
Alevius Likes, I Dislike: Kamisato Ayato
Speaking of parents, Ayato partially reminds Alevius of her dad. Both are diplomatic and casual yet sly and witty thinkers. They generally dislike using force to get their way—I remember when Alevius's dad helped her talk it out with a guy who was desperate for her attention. Ayato similarly covertly helped Kazuha escape Inazuma and the Watatsumi Island resistance reach Tenshukaku despite these being "illegal" (but the morally right thing to do). It's also incredible to both of us how Ayato can get along with the loud and brash Arataki Itto even though they have very different personalities (INTJ and ESTP respectively) and how Alevius's dad maintains his composure around highly emotional people.
Warning, though: Alevius's dad is also very much a Cyno. Stay away from him if you value your life because he'll torture you with puns. For crying out loud, his punnery rubbed off on his daughter and I'm getting destroyed.
It's kinda weird but I mildly dislike Ayato. I agree with the general community that Ayato's Story Quest is too heavy on politics, subtlety, and talky-talky bits. Sitting through his Story Quest was a pain. But at least all's well that ends well, I guess; they ended what could've been a huge political scandal.
While Ayato and her sister Ayaka carried me through the Version 2.6 Spiral Abyss by keeping those stupid Hydro Abyss Heralds Frozen for 18 seconds (my Xingqiu was in the other half, Keqing killed my 50/50 in both Kokomi banners prior to Ayato's debut, and Mona has terrible uptime), he's just...inferior nowadays. Tartaglia enables Xiangling better with his faster Hydro application and Neuvillette deals significantly more DMG and has a humungous AoE with the 360 Hydro Pump technique. Furina and Kokomi are superior in their off-field Hydro application uptime.
Plus, Ayato shares the same Chinese and Japanese VAs as Otto Apocalypse, an antagonist of Honkai Impact 3rd who is using Honkai (a monster-creating energy that has a 100% mortality rate on those who get infected by it) to revive Kallen Kaslana. While I won't be too quick to say Ayato will turn evil, I wouldn't be surprised if he (and Luocha from Honkai: Star Rail who also shares the same VAs) did.
I Like, Alevius Dislikes: Xianyun
Yeah, I know this is once again related to cuteness. Even though we don't like how haughty Xianyun is, it's outweighed by the reason I like her: her cute stories about Ganyu when she was a baby. I thus think Xianyun is cute by extension.
And since Ganyu is sometimes portrayed by fan art as Qiqi's mom, I sometimes call my mom "Ganyu"...and my now-deceased grandma "Xianyun". Funny enough, I used to call my grandma cute when she was still alive.
Alevius Likes, I Dislike: Zhongli
Super controversial, I know. But hear me out—put down the torches and pitchforks.
To be honest...Alevius likes Zhongli for similar generic reasons as most other fans. He's super smart, silly with his seemingly perpetual lack of Mora, calm like a nice grandpa but firm when he needs to be, and has the strongest shield in the game. In fact, Alevius saved an insane number of Primogems after losing to C3 Jean and she pulled C3 Zhongli. And her original goal was C2 'cause she often supported her weaker friends in Co-Op!
At the same time, I'm glad that she's calling out Zhongli for his terrible financial management. Accountants be like.
As for me, my problems with Zhongli are small, to be honest. I used to want Zhongli back in Version 1.1 but when I realized how he's a DPS loss compared to hyper-focusing on offensive elemental reactions, I got used to playing without Zhongli and am sweeping through Spiral Abyss cycles. I admit, however, that I have a mild disdain for those who put Zhongli in every team ever (even despite them constantly switching their other three characters) since I see it as a "skill issue". I'm trying to work on accepting it as a personal preference or a legitimate reason to compensate for one's lack of dexterity; it's unfair to impose pro gamer standards on others.
To make things easier for Alevius when she plays my account, I raised my Layla: another character she relates to.
Conclusion
Even though we dislike some Genshin Impact characters for varying reasons, some bigger than others and reflecting different personal values, it's still amazing how Alevius and I have a lot in common and can respect each other's differences. It's just a game at the end of the day and we connect with each other in other ways like a shared commitment to making the world a smarter and more interconnected place.
Plus, we can always agree that Arlecchino, Bennett, Collei, Firefly, Huohuo, Kaveh, Luka, Nahida, Sucrose, Tighnari, and Xingqiu are amazing while Alhaitham, Aventurine, Chiori, Dottore, Kafka, Keqing, Kujou Sara, Lisa, Sparkle, the Wanderer, and Yae Miko can go jump off a cliff. Make sure the Wanderer's Elemental Skill is disabled, by the way.
Bonus: I Like, Alevius Dislikes: Acheron
OK, I mostly like Acheron because she's the Raiden Mei expy of Honkai: Star Rail and much like the Raiden Shogun, Acheron's favorite food is something sweet: peaches. I love that Gimnaeng video where Acheron wandered off to Sumeru and Nahida fed her a Zaytun Peach. Since my niece also likes swords, I think Acheron is cute...and I bought peaches for my niece IRL.
Alevius be like, "PUT ON SOME PROPER CLOTHES!"
