Eternity : Genshin Impact

I finished the second chapter of Raiden Ei's story quest and let me tell you - it gave me feels!

Deeper discussion under the cut, mind the spoilers!

The first kick in the feels was Ei opening up about her past, talking about the tragedy of Inazuma, about the loss of her sister, Makoto, about all the people she left behind. I have to point out how excellently Anne Yatco, her VA, portrayed Ei's grief. We only knew the Shogun as a ruthless ruler but this was a very somber look into the true feelings of Ei and it also shows how an excellent voice acting performance can elevate what seems like a very simplistic anime game (the models don't particularly show a wide range of emotions).

I like how it's a nice contrast to the first story, which felt more slice-of-life kind and made many people accuse Hoyoverse of "waifu-ing" Ei. In some ways a lot of the female characters do get defanged and softened, probably to make them more palatable as waifus, but in the second chapter of the quest we see how a more casual look at life opened Ei up to finally come to terms with her own feelings and her feelings towards the people of Inazuma.

She tried so hard to understand Makoto, how she loved not only Inazuma but her people too and what drove her to pursue her idea of Eternity.

Lumine is listening I swear! She is taking it all in slowly.

I love how both sisters had opposing ideas about Eternity, Makoto's was born out of her love for humanity, Ei's was more stubborn, sticking to the now and trying to preserve what she had. Once Ei learns to understand Makoto, she is able to let go of her grief, move on and accept a new Eternity.

Which leads us to...

After an emotional conversation with Ei, the fight against the Puppet which acts as the Raiden Shogun was a much needed pick-me-up. Let's just say the fight wasn't as bad but taught me that I am very bad at dodging. 😅

With a little help from Yae Miko we managed to win against the Puppet and Ei made truce with her too.

I love parallels and reoccurring themes and the fact that the Shogun Puppet wasn't destroyed or cast aside, but accepted as another part of Ei... poetic cinema, as the cool kids say.

And then Makoto appeared and the feels washed over me all over again. It's a good old cliche of "I knew you would do this, sorry for not saying goodbye, I will always be by your side" and you know what? I love it. I also loved the fact that the Sacred Sakura tree was planted by Ei in the now, affecting the past but only she noticed that the tree "appeared out of nowhere". The Sakura tree being the protector of the land with its purifying powers is a beautiful symbol in how Makoto still loves and protects Inazuma, even after all these years.

In the end, it was a pleasant conclusion, with a little bit of Miko's usual sass!

Can I just say - EiMiko is practically canon, they are so married, love that for them. It took me a while to warm up to Miko but now I very much like her, and yes, I did pull and get her. 🤣 So now the Shogun and her familiar can be together forever~

This ended up being more of a mini overview of the quest but I want to linger more on the emotional side of it. What makes me resonate with Ei is... her childish and reclusive ways of dealing with trauma. She is a god but still affected by grief and loss and in a seemingly infantile way she runs away to her "safe space" to sit in stillness and seek Eternity, basically being stuck in the past and refusing to move forward.

I see this as a way of showing what happens to a person when they refuse to acknowledge their feelings or when it hurts so much it seems more comfortable to simply hide in a different plane of existence. You might call it childish, but dealing with trauma is essentially talking to our inner child and consoling them.

I am a bit of a hermit myself. It's hard to put in words the desire to run away, to stay in one moment - a sort of disassociation. Obviously, it is a very personal matter and not something explained in a few paragraphs but reverting to childish safety is something some might understand very intimately, especially those who experienced great hardships in life and feel alone.

This time we get a happy ending, though! Inazuma is a very tragic land, with much strife and grief in its history that is hidden behind all the side quests and story quests so getting a glimmer of hope is always welcome. In the end Ei declared that she would abolish the Sakoku decree and open Inazuma up to outsiders... will we see more interaction between NPCs? Will we see more events? Only time will tell!

In other news - I can finally move to Enkanomiya, mostly because I need to unlock the Vishap boss to farm ascension materials. 😅 I put it off all this time because of a very silly reason, that is, I misunderstood one of the early puzzles so I just left it alone until Yae came home and I was forced by necessity. 🙇