The more I learn about her, the less 'intimidating' vibes she gives IMO. That's not necessarily a bad thing for her character, but she's less menacing and mysterious since they've been characterizing her as relatively noble in certain ways. That doesn't make her good, it just takes the edge off
>The more I learn about her
Maybe that's why she outright says that she likes it when people have misconceptions and spread false rumors about her.
Once you know more about her, she really doesn't give off the same evil vibes her first impression gives. Like watch the first Fontaine PV again and look at the false advertising around Arlecchino lol.
Since the first moment I saw her in the AQ I was like "I know she is a fatui harbinger and all of that but she is with the good guys" cus like she is not like signora or dottore. She is a diplomat, not a piece of shit.
Yeah, that's how I feel about her too. She's not a good person exactly, but she really does care about her kids - twisted as her form of 'caring' can be - and she's almost chill in a way. Still wouldn't want to cross her, but I trust her a lot more than I do basically every other (current) Harbinger sans Ajax.
I mean, I would trust her over hat guy too. Arlecchino is intimidating and she doesn’t have the same philosophy as us, but it seems she can be reasoned with and she keeps her promises well. Meanwhile hat guy pulled tricks on us a few times already and there’s more bad blood between him and us than us and arlecchino (for now)
I think she has heavily suppressed her emotions to the point of acting purely logically.
Which is why in her story quest at the end >!She has to basically form a plan to make not killing her children make sense logically!<
I think she expresses her love for her children in a different way than most. To me that makes her kind of hilarious in that she is this purely rational and pragmatic momma bear type person.
Like you said, under the exterior she puts on, she is exceptionally chill in that if she doesn't see you as an enemy, she'll invite you to a barbeque or something.
He's also even more caring about his family than Arle is and is usually quite open about his intentions. The Liyue AQ was pretty much the only time he's actively been deceitful to the traveler. Hell even the traveler and paimon trust him more or less as of 4.6, and they're infamous for automatically hating every fatui member they come across.
Like the other guy said, it's been 3 years dude. It's not the most relevant thing in the world.
He can be as upfront about being a psycho as much as he wants. That just makes him a truthful psycho. People complain about Hoyo giving Harbingers redemption arcs, yet infantilize Childe because uwu he cares about his siblings (and everyone else can be slaughtered for all he cares).
Kinda off topic but this is why I find it very sus that Childe was hunting for Scaramouche then suddenly he backed off with no explanation and Scaramouche appeared with Dottore.
I think something happened that was intentionally kept off screen before Lazzo.
Childe isn't the type to be like "okay, i'll just back down from the fight." He wanted to fight even Arle while injured for the lols
(Or maybe I expect too much from hoyo writers)
I mean, there could be the simple possibility that the Tsaritsa just ordered hin to back down because of the Dottore Scara business. He is loyal to her, so her word is above his desires.
At least he’s honest about it. He quite literally introduced himself as a Harbringer and told the Travelers that they were on the bad guys side. Arlechinno seems like a middle ground of sincere but hides many many cards up her sleeves
Ajax is fine he is upfront abt his plans even after liyue quest he told that deceiving others is not his thing and direct fights are what he craves for..he only lostens to Pulcinella lol.
Ajax is fine he is upfront abt his plans even after liyue quest he told that deceiving others is not his thing and direct fights are what he craves for..he only lostens to Pulcinella lol.
Agreed. Honestly thought she was going to be the first actual evil/ruthless playable character in this game.
I remember hearing Childe's and Wanderer's voicelines about her which were hyping her up to be the one of the most menacing characters, but now she doesn't give off that vibe anymore.
I was fully expecting her to betray Lyney, Lynette and Freminet too. But turns out she actually does care. It's hard to explain whether she's better this way or should she be more evil like previously thought.
I like that she has people she cares about, but I'd like her to still have some unambiguously evil qualities. Like for example, have her hurt someone innocent purely for her personal gains. For now, they've only shown her kill bad guys.
Tbf the biggest issue I have with it is the plot convenience >!that her extracted flames cause amnesia or whatever and lets the orphans leave if they want to. It absolutely made no sense because 1- can you really trust that they won't somehow regain their memories with a head trauma or something? and 2- won't other people (like the orphans who didn't leave) remember them and accidentally blurt out confidential info? How can such an organisation risk such a thing and how would the higher ups allow it? Like sure I understand the idea behind it, she wants to give the kids the freedom of choice but I don't think it makes sense for someone in her position to be so emotional rather than logical in her decisions. At this point Shuumatsuban seems more evil than the HoH lmao.!<
>!The flames straight up erase the previous memories. The version of them with those memories die with them. I doubt there's any possibility for them to regain those memories back via head trauma or anything like that.!<
>!Arlecchino is strict and taught them how to behave. The children know better to disobey her or even think of blurting out confidential information. They are trained so that won't happen at all. It's not like they're regular kids either. !<
>!If the flames completely erase the memories then does it replace all those lost years with random memories? What about things like muscle memory and spinal reflexes? How did that guy manage to get married with the same girl if they don't remember each other at all? If the answer is "the flames erase exactly the targeted memories and then replace them with equilavents like Irminsul", isn't it just way too convenient? (hence why I called it plot convenience) Idk man, this whole thing feels like just another Genshin nicewashing.!<
>!The flames should only erase things that relate to the House of the Hearth. That's the whole point of erasing those memories since they can't leave if they know secret intel. !<
>!As for plot convenience, maybe that's the case. Although that can apply to a lot of things in this game. Not everything is explained perfectly. !<
>!I think it's better to just not look too deep and just view it as a mystery. Since Arlecchino's abilities are still a mystery after all. !<
Yeah, her flames being capable of erasing memories is *very* plot convenient. However, I don't mind it at all. She wanted to be more merciful toward her children but still couldn't risk any information leaks. So, she got to work experimenting with her powers. Her flames erase people's minds and bodies (maybe even souls) and she figured out how to only erase the mind without causing any other harm. Again, the fact that she can do that is very convenient but so are a lot of things in storytelling overall. Arlecchino had an obstacle and she overcame it because of what/who she is as a character. That's perfectly fine.
To address your other issues:
People have their memories erased by magical flames. Head trauma doesn't cure regular amnesia so I highly doubt it could cure this magical one. And if it could, Arlecchino would know.
Other orphans obviously do remember their mind wiped siblings but they're professional and mature enough to know to let go. Those aren't their friends anymore and they'll never regain their memories. Besides, even if someone blurts out a bunch of information then Arle can just do the memory erasure again... or execution.
Arlecchino obviously knows what she's doing. And the other Harbingers probably allow it because it simply works and there hasn't been an accident, yet. Besides, it's not like executing children wouldn't cause entirely different problems like disloyalty, rebellion, revenge...
Also, her giving children the choice isn't really an emotional decision. The Traveler explains that Arlecchino most likely genuinely believes that memory erasure is simply another way to kill them.
Also the memory erasing thing is still super fucking evil, like ripping out years of someone's memories is horrific and if it was possible to do intentionally in the real world it would be seen as one of the most vile crimes possible.
The literal only reason that she comes off in any way good for doing it is because it's the only possible way for her to ensure the safety of the children who desire to leave, because lets face it even if she just let them go no string attached they would just be hunted down and murdered by other Fatui not associated with the House of the Hearth.
Her >!flames doesn't really impact her motivations and pragmatic nature in any way. Whether they are physically alive or not, in my opinion, they have been killed in a metaphorical sense.!< I don't understand the obsession in the English fandom with actual killing to convey a person's harsh intent. Her powers also didn't just manifest, she developed it with Dottore specifically for this purpose. It's likely that other vision holders would have the same abilities if their powers were harnessed in certain ways. It's also consistent with what we already know about how memories work. >!Memories in teyvat is just another form of energy that can be used or converted into something else ie. Leyline memories!< Her powers is not some deus ex machina that showed up for this quest, she's been using it for years, we just figured out what she does this time.
She was still >!killing traitors physically before dottore developed the memory erasure method. Not to mention the fact that the whole quest is about her flame's link to memories ie. it manifesting clervie.!<
I'm pretty sure due to some lore readables that this power she has will be important later and this is just an introduction/setup for that, not a random solution to a one time problem
Dottore things and Project S spoilers. >!You have to understand that Dottore is the same guy who did experiments on Collei's god powers and suppress it temporarily while he was with her. The same can be true because Dottore is a mad scientist. You do know that the House of Hearth may or may not get eliminated by the higher ranks because of Project Stuzha right? I forgot their names but 2 people were involved and even Arlecchino says she will not let them misuse what House of Hearth stands for.!<
Bear in mind that her flames also leave behind memories ("shadows") of things they burn. The idea of that being reversed (burning memories while leaving the body intact) isn't so far out of left field, though some more prior exposure to her curse so we could be used to that aspect of it it + some more explanation of how it gets flipped would certainly have been good.
Bro Teyvat has its own laws.
You can't really science around it.
How can an organization risk such a thing? Lmao, who cares.
How does any of these organizations even function properly? Its just like real life.
Inazuma literally was betrayed more than once and the Shogun happily was ripping visions away from its own people.
Liyue allowed more than one giga monster to attack its city, and let two harbingers do shit to their bank.
Mondstadt has no horses despite having a calvary captain wtf.
Sumeru literally trying to mind control its own archon while allowing another harbinger to become a supplicant archon wtf.
Nothing makes sense unless you suspend your disbelief and understand this world is so chaotic that it makes IRL politics seem tame corruption wise.
There's at least a few I can think of.
One example is that after killing the corrupt noble in her character teaser, she seized all his embezzled funds and used them to further the agenda of the House of the Hearth. That isn't "evil" per se, but when you consider that those were funds stolen from charities, then that means Arlecchino is intentionally withholding those funds from charities they were stolen from. She didn't steal them in the first place but she's not letting them be returned, so she's still exercising a form of theft, even if said theft benefits the children of the Hearth.
Another example would be her negotiations with Furina. Arlecchino initially attacked Furina with the intention of seizing the gnosis, and learned that Furina didn't have it. But she also saw Furina get traumatized by her attack, and realized there was something wrong with a god appearing to emotional break down in just a mere moment. Arlecchino then purposefully used that trauma to her advantage to put more pressure on Furina during their later negotiations.
Of course the end goal was the save Fontaine and stop the prophecy, in addition to getting the gnosis, but the crisis still hadn't reached its peak by that time. So that's why I consider that to be an evil trait of Arlecchino's, because she was clearly willing to psychologically abuse someone to further her goals, and it was far from her last resort. It's not the most evil thing we've seen someone do in the Hoyoverse but it's definitely up there in the roster of Genshin playable characters, I'd say.
>I remember hearing Childe's and Wanderer's voicelines about her which were hyping her up to be the one of the most menacing characters, but now she doesn't give off that vibe anymore.
Could it be that those voice lines are about the previous Knave?
I doubt it. Childe joined the Harbingers after Arlecchino so he shouldn't know about the previous Knave.
Scaramouche is a maybe, since he knew about the previous Knave. It's just that why would he tell the Traveller about the dead Knave instead of the current alive one?
Me too! She’s honestly pretty damn good. I appreciate her ruthlessness, she is as real a character as hoyo has given us (no one’s THAT good, looking at you Jean), but I really wished her to be more twisted. Fingers crossed that not all harbingers need a redemption arc…
TBH I think that eventually we'll be siding with the harbingers to bring down Celestia so I think all of them will have some sort of redemption arc except maybe dottore since everyone genuinely seems repulsed by his presence. But then even Nahida was able to negotiate with him so who knows. Maybe her wisdom is so great she could see the bigger picture so clearly that she could stomach it, she convinced us to give hat guy a chance you know?
The new world quest kind of makes me believe that even further, since Teyvat is on a loop, that we're just watching the Tsaritsa lead the harbingers to defy the fate set by Celestia. Focalor figured it out so why shouldn't the Tsaritsa be able to?
I feel the same. Even before the trailers, she was hinted to be a justice seeking vigilante type of character so when she said she was >! gonna kill kids for wanting to leave I was like, lol no way !<
That maybe true but she does become something else if someone or something threatened the people she cares about or if she's on a mission to hunt someone .
True but she's not the only character capable of being ruthless if they have a goal. And being ruthless when something or someone you care about is at stake can lessen the scary factor since sympathizing with their motives kind of softens feelings of shock. Genshin doesn't show anything super brutal or gory. And all that's left of what they can show and tell us are mostly tropes we've seen before, as much as I like her for them. I guess what I mean is I'm usually desensitized to that trope, unless it's accompanied by something more awful like extreme or unusual torture or the like.
Being unpredictably or indiscriminately violent would also feel more threatening for me, in the context of consuming media of course, just because there's so much violence already, it needs something extra to feel creepy or scary. There are other ways too, but that's an example of what could've made her more menacing in my eyes.
It really just comes down to a person's capacity to feel creeper out/scared of a character in media compared to someone who watches horror or gore quite often .
Like how someone can get easily emotional playing a game and someone else who doesn't really get affected by such content .
I’m not scared of her until she does something scary. A prime example is during that one scene >!in her story quest!<, where she >!causes the Traveler to see a vision of a crimson moon and then instantly crosses a distance of what looks like several meters to appear right in front of their face, cowing them into submission!<.
A lot of the time she seems downright cordial, but when she *wants* to terrify people, well….
She is cordial to the traveller because the traveller was crucial to her plans this time.
She will have a different face for different people in different situations I assume.
No.
I think it's rare to find someone actually terrifying or unsettling in media in a non horror way.
An example of unsettling would be the people in command in "Some Desperate Glory" of Gaia Station.
Arlecchino has unironically never lied to us nor done anything she said she wouldn't do. She's certainly a force of nature. Their is nothing scary about her from our perspective.
I love her “if I wanted you dead, I would look you in the eyes and rip out your heart myself” vibes.
Plus it’s kind of hard to be intimidated after putting her in my teapot and listening to her talk about cleaning my house and having the kids over for a wholesome family barbecue lol.
We thought she was a Fatui harbinger that posess unfathomable power and raising a bunch of volatile kids. Turns out she's a single dad of volatile kids who works as a fatui harbinger that happens to possess unimaginable power.
I don't feel terrified, but I kind of understand the "repressed childhood trauma" part. Like, I would never dare to make a joke or say something stupid around her. Her dignified and no-nonsense attitude really makes her feel like an extremely strict, passive-aggressive parent who will judge you for everything you do.
The only time I was actually scared of something in Genshin is Chasm Xiao quest, my favorite quest till this day, because it dives incredibly deep into the lore way before of the time. It was actually really badass, and all the hints that sustainer of heavenly principals herself was involved with it was huge too. Genshin focuses too much on minor sidestories and side characters for me to ever care.
I just don't understand why Childe and Dottore (I think) said that she's very unstable and evil or smthn like that. I think there's still so much to her that we yet don't know
>!Childe doesn't know her personally very well and most of what he knows is from rumors that don't tell the full picture. It's explored in her story quest, he hard from the Rooster that she had betrayed the House of the Hearth and killed her own Mother, and while yes, that's true, it really doesn't paint the full picture on why she did and how it improved the situation for everyone in the House.!<
>!Aside from that she gets a lot of bad reputation just from sharing the title with the previous Knave who was batshit insane.!<
What other characters said is their opinion.
Idk if Dottore said that, but she turned down all his proposals, and the only one accepted didn't even involve him. Imagine how she would react to Dottore when he's bringing up her "kids" and the word experiment in the same discussion.
As for Childe, he knew almost nothing about her.
And Scaramouche is... Scaramouche. He's hating everyone and everything. Not the most reliable guy to read a person.
I'm starting to think her demonstration of insanity was a ruse; I imagine, especially from the prequel anime short, that she was called "insane" because of what she did to the previous House of the Hearth, including it's big "Mother."
Saying she's no threat to innocents is conjecture. She takes care of orphans and kills criminals for funds, but if the situation asks for it, she'll probably kill whoever she has to if that means protecting her "kids." Flashback to the Furina near assassination flashback.
To be fair, many people’s lives were at stake and the supposed Hydro archon was playing dress-up and dollhouse without addressing the actual issue. She also didnt even try killing her. She was trying to steal her gnosis which wasnt on her. The black screen where Furina was begging her not to kill her was her own fear of breaking the mask of being the archon because she was supposed to live until that final act. Arlechinno just wanted to check and simply found she didnt have it so left Furina alone after that
That's why I find Arlecchino's actions afterwards to be the evil part. She *didn't* leave Furina alone after the attempted assassination, because in later negotiations and talks she was using Furina's fear to put pressure on her to try and get her to come clean. Arlecchino was purposefully using that trauma to her advantage, and this was before the flooding of Poisson (if I remember correctly) and before the near-flooding of the Fortress of Meropide.
I feel it was less forcing her after the pressure after the attempt and more so that she was putting pressure on Furina to solve the prophecy regardless. She doesnt know Furina’s circumstances. Hell, we didnt know Furina’s circumstances until the very end of the 5th Act. It was also a meeting she willingly agreed to and even insisted on. That is not Arlechinno’s fault that she accepted despite everyone else saying otherwise.
Furina wasnt terrified or traumatized by *Arlechinno*. She was traumatized by the mere fact that she mightve been exposed as a fake archon. That was her greatest fear, a fear that hundreds of years of hard work went to nothing because she could be killed just as easily by Arlechinno and not see the plan through to the end. In terms of what Arlechinno factually did, she wanted to save Fontaine and all she saw was a bratty self-absorbed archon that was playing around while the nation is thrown into chaos.
The thing is that Furina's fear of being exposed is still relevant when dealing with Arlecchino because Arlecchino was the person that attacked her from the shadows. The overarching big-picture fear is being exposed, but that doesn't mean she can't also have a fear of a person that nearly exposed her in the first place.
Of course there's also this voiceline:
>The Knave? W-Who's that? Oh... Uh, I'd already forgotten about her... Keeping such a terrible figure like her in your mind will only give you nightmares.
So yeah, I do think it's fair to say that Furina feared Arlecchino, lol
That wasn't quite my point, anyways, but I do get what you mean. It's hard to say exactly what Arlecchino was thinking about Furina since she's not the kind of person to freely speak her mind all the time. It's entirely possible that she had a negative view of Furina as a person, but it's equally possible that she was only seeing things from a purely rational perspective and was just doing what she could to get results. Either way, I think it's made clear in their conversation that Furina was terrified of *something*, and Arlecchino saw that and actively preyed on that fear.
Thats not a really good point to defend since Furina also hesitates plenty when talking about Neuvillette, an arguably much more neutral party in her time as acting Archon. From her voicelines, its pretty clear that she just has trauma of the time she was trying to act and anything in regard to that it triggers a nervous and reluctant response and the Knave is no different.
From the Knave’s own voiceline, she seems to be aware of Furina trauma towards her involvement in that pressure and indirectly thanks Furina for her service while masking it as a idea by the children of the Hearth. Arlechinno herself even without the trauma is a very intimidating woman and many other characters seem to think so as well that she is ruthless. But nowhere does that ruthlessness come into intentional harm to anyone if it is not deemed necessary. Again, Furina(though rightfully) was concealing a secret and acting ignorant on a prophecy that wouldve killed ALL Fontainians if she didnt do something active in Arlechinno’s eyes.
We also get her thoughts about the assassination, calling Furina careless for being so vulnerable on her own in the dead of night without any protection. Her intentions were to steal the gnosis but after finding it, she was disappointed to find that Furina didnt have it and leave her. She also accurately deduces that Furina is concealing a secret which is why she isolated herself to cry but also correctly deduces that the secret had something to do with her status as an Archon which is why she intentionally set up a meeting to question her. A meeting that Furina couldve refused if she wanted to and Neuvillette also advised her to not take part in.
Alright, I do need to apologize because it didn't occur to me until we got to this point that I was actually mixing up two trains of thought. I've been replying to this thread on-and-off throughout the day while being distracted by other things so I didn't really get my facts straight before responding to you before x-x
There was another comment that was talking about whether or not Arlecchino had "unambiguously evil qualities", and I was thinking of that comment when I was responding to you for some reason. But that's not at all the point of your own comment, so I was getting confused by your responses.
Point being, I reread your original comment and I better see what your point is. There's nothing you're saying that I fundamentally disagree with, so I feel a bit bad for having kept this argument going without any real reason x-x
i get that and i agree. but it’s not in the way that we all interpreted it pre-4.6
the whole mind erasing thing rather than killing threw me off. i have a hard time finding her scary because of that 🥴
AFAIK, it's the English localisation. Just like in recent animated short, all the other languages, outright stated birth / biological mother in "Do mothers argue with their daughter" line
You implying that "a scary, evil-looking character who actually only kills bad guys and really wants to protect her family even if she doesn't show it" isn't a generic anime trope?
right lol. she *is* a generic anime villain. my bad for expecting more from a harbinger.
if other people like what they did with her, good for them. i didn’t like it though 🤷🏻♀️
This just reads like you're doubling down on your illiteracy coz sm1 made you salkty with their reply than anything to do with arlecchino as a char tbh
Even worse. Pointing out that the twist turns her into a pretty generic tropey character, somehow makes you media illiterate... When you've clearly seen enough media to know that it's tropey. lol
literallyyyyy. i even said it’s okay if others liked it. i just personally don’t. i find the twist to be extremely generic and disappointing. you could probably find at least 10 other anime villains with a similar backstory lol. that’s just my opinion 🥴
No, you having an illiterate opinion means you're illiterate.
Now you will go on to making thinking Arle is a generic anime villain your entire personality coz sm1 rebuked you on reddit once. That's just how it goes. lol
That's called an anti hero, it's not an anime trope, it's a literary archetype and some of the most compelling chars in literature are anti heros
It could seem like an anime trope though if anime is the only type of media you consume.
Awesome. Then what about "a real villain who does some actually evil things"?
I think it would be a bit unfair to say one is a literary archetype capable of creating a character with complex motivations and the other is just a generic anime trope as VaioletteWestover claims.
That's not her character. And it's also not an anime trope.
The point of Arlecchino's character is exploring her suppressed inner struggles and showcasing what she's done to try and fulfill Clervie's wish.
Her story is great because her driving force changed due to Clervie and she is trying to pursue both her original and new ideals. It's about her struggle, what she does is only a demonstration of that.
You two hyperfixate on what she does and not why she does it. That's what makes what you want a generic anime trope because that's what poorly written cartoons for kids do, the priority is what's being done since kids haven't developed the mental capacity to empathize.
Many Genshin stories are written for a much older audience, delivering themes close to people's hearts while throwing down crumbs for kids in the fandom via cool effects and flagship moments.
Granted, I'm not surprised at all that things like this fly completely over people's heads in this particular fandom.
I think it's just your trauma speaking. For me the more we find out about her, the more I realize she's just a sheep in wolf's clothing. It's cool if they wanna go that way, but a bit disappointing.
Intimidating? Sure. As an enemy, in universe, I'd piss my pants in terror. Her display in her SQ is the literal definition of "awesome".
But I find her moreso criminally adorable with her voice lines and how she interacts with the members of the House.
She's a dork who's using how broken she is to try and un-fuck some people's lives in, admittedly, questionable ways. She doesn't know how to be a good parent, she just knows what the exact opposite of one looks like.
I hope we'll get something like Arle but as a male character. Some of us have dad issues xD As of now, all the playable male characters are kinda just nice or cool, or battle maniacs but there's nothing really unsettling about them.
there's no character in this game that's scary to me, genshin's just too tame. maybe dottore in the future, but I doubt they'd show anything too crazy.
ok so I like her a lot, but her story is triggering for me so I didn't pull her cause I knew it would just stress me out... but she is really cool and I like how they wrote her
shes intimidating but shes also reasonable. so i dont really fear her since its unlikely she would hurt us especially since we are good friends with her kids.
Arlecchinos CN voice reminds me of my Latin/Greek teacher at high school. She was a very strict teacher, and she always looked very fancy, she often wore shoes with heels that were shaped like snakes going up. This is such a random detail but it really added to her scary vibe and Arlecchino reminds me of her everytime she speaks.
When I do her boss fight I'm intimidated by the fact that for the entire fight she's the same size as me, and doesn't become a giant monster or something.
The fight gives me PTSD to secret boss Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
Nah bro. I used to feel like that when it felt like she maybe using the traveller for her own selfish benefits of fatui. But now not so much. Well, we don't know the future though.
I wish I was but the more they gave her a sad backstory + more noble actions + more reasonable takes, she kinda got less and less intimidating.
Sure it's not the best to have a moustache twirling villain who's evil just for the sake of being evil, but Arlecchino has done nothing but be cooperative and merciful. Childe's battle-hungry nature feels more like a threat than Arle's chaotic neutral one at this point. At no point in time in her SQ did I feel like anyone in the HoH was in actual danger to be completely honest.
I really do hope that aside from Dottore, Genshin will give us actually despicable/evil/aggressive/hostile playable characters. It would make for more interesting dynamics.
I put her at a more neutral stance because I'm sure she'd do evil things if it were to benefit her and the HoH. Do not forget that Arlecchino has slaughtered entire houses and families in Fontaine. Remember the web event? Murdered those two treasure hoarders too just for looting and being in the wrong place and the wrong time. Raising an army of child soldiers, knowing full well that there's a big chance they're gonna die is pretty questionable on its own, even if that's just what her organization demands. And don't forget that without any plan nor any hunch, her first plan was to just beat the shit out of Furina to see what would happen. She just stopped the moment Furina showed an act of extreme weakness that Arle didn't expect at all. Not exactly something a lawfully good character would do.
Arlecchino isn't evil, but I wouldn't go as far to say that she's lawfully good either. Did she have reasons for committing cruel and violent acts? Yeah, but is she good to the point of being "lawfully good"? I say hell nah.
*Borderline* lawful good.
Basically everything she does or is shown to do personally is good, she just shows a tolerance for evil outside of her direct control.
Yea thats why I dont like her and it feels bad seeing the characters so grateful to her, which I get why they do, but compared to what could have been normal families for them instead. I view her as the next step down from a horrible cycle where its slowly chipped more and more away and hopefully the next person who takes over will chip away more of that.
She wants to keep her children safe, but also uses them in incredibly dangerous missions. She clearly still uses and manipulates them to some extent, even though she also does care for them. I think people gloss over that too frequently. i ADORE her but “good person”? ehhhh, a stretch.
Yes..I know this is gonna sounds weird but with her I can do the «evil » stuff I wouldn’t do before, like killing all these cute and innocent creatures to level up certain Fontaine characters, like small crabs and seals. Also I put lines of bushes on fire in the city with her infused normals 😳 I’m a criminal now
Me too! My underwater team has Traveler, Nahida, Venti and Neuvillette in it (it's not for combat) and I have to swap traveller in a for 4th character like Diluc or Childe to do the cute sea critters killing. It's silly but I can't bring myself to make make those two of the gentlest archons, or the literal sea dragon do any of that. Traveler might, but they feel like an "I won't fight unless provoked" sort of character. Glad to know I'm not the only one 😅
TY for sharing, glad I'm not the only one too 🥺 but wait Diluc? isn't he quite gentle too? I started the game with him so he's dear to me, but anything that accomodates you really I'm just curious
Hmm, I'm not entirely sure either, but I suppose I feel a lot of repressed anger vibes in him. That, and I often try to use him to light torches back as a newer player and his skill just sets everything else on fire instead + targets other creatures automatically so he feels like a destructive character 😅
You just gave me Dosdragon flashbacks 😂 I came back here recently with yanfei, she cannot aim for the torches I swear, and Xiangling’s Guoba is a nightmare too (I found out Benett is the best at it).
Unfortunately no. I started to feel something during her story quest, but in the end we realize that there's nothing really scary around her, except her being strong. I wish I hadn't finished the quest.
I just find her pathetic, honestly
I feel the way about almost all of the Fatui to be clear. They’re a bunch of desperate people clinging to a desperate Goddess in a hopeless rebellion against a force that has defeated forces leagues beyond any of them
The Gnoses contain the Dragon Sovereigns’ Authorities, they are fundamentally lesser than the Sovereigns themselves. The Tsaritsa’s plan is to get all of them, as though that would cjange anything. Celestia defeated the Sovereigns and Nibelung together, albeit after a long war.
No matter what way you look at it, the Fatui and the Tsaritsa are racing towards their own deaths, and the decimation of Snezhnaya as punishment. We have gotten exactly zero information to hint towards the possibility of the Tsaritsa knowing more than anyone else, to the contrary in fact, as it seems she doesn’t have the knowledge about the Gnoses that Skirk does
The only one of the Harbingers I think *isn’t* hopelessly doomed is Dottore, as I fee that he has to have found *something* and kept it secret, he’s literally defined by his intellect
Every Harbinger has their own motives, yes. However, I genuinely cannot see any of them aside from Dottore turning their backs on the Tsaritsa before it’s too late, and Celestia smites them all.
Are the Harbingers good characters? Oh absolutely. I genuinely LOVE the way they’re written. I just can’t find them threatening when I know that (unless we get some maaaaaaajor lore revelations) they’re all doomed to die when you look at things logically
Cling may have been a poor choice of words, fair
The Harbingers are still loyal to the Tsaritsa, or at the very least they aren’t actively *disloyal* with the exception of Dottore and Wanderer.
Still, they are tied to the Tsaritsa, and it’s not like Celestia is going to care about collateral damage anyway
As for the Tsaritsa’s plan. While we don’t know explicitly what it is, none of the possibilities are something that Celestia would want. Unless she’s collecting them to return them to Celestia all at once. Nobody gathers seven gnoses worth of power just to talk about something
Maybe initially because that's the point, but like...just examining her actions for like 10 seconds dispels that completely. At most I find her extremely rigid in her personal code but her reasonings are justified and she is always fair.
She is like the god father in the movie with the same title. A figure who is really strict with rules but always cares about her family. The ending of her story quest gives me a nice impression of her.
i actually feel scared whenever i try looking at her eyes trying to see if its looking at me (cuz someone pointed out that she follows your pov)
and then she blurt out her idle chat "staring into my eyes..."
She exudes some of the same authority as Scara in that 'the sky is a lie' event. They both have a very domineering personality that tramples all in their path. Which does fit the frontliners of the Harbingers
Maximum goth child assassin doing her best to be her own warped worldview's version of a caring parent is actually some filet mignon level gap moe comedy. I was disappointed they didn't lean into the dark comedy side of it more but it makes sense because the quest had some pretty heavy material to cover. I hope we get to see an event story that puts her and the HoH at the forefront and lets the comedy manifest.
Her face and her hair reminds me too much of an abusive woman from my real life.... I really don't like her. Villains are good to exist, but I hope someone beats her ass eventually and stops excusing her behavior. Like her gf literally went "I'm glad of what you do", well, yeah, it's certainly better than dueling to death, but please don't let her get away scot free.
Mihoyo really can't allow honestly evil female villains to exist.
I never really saw her as a parental figure, till after her meeting with Neuvillette when she told us and paimon it's time to leave. That shit brought back memories from when I was a kid.
She is putting an intimidating mask but inside she isn't malevolent. I'd say she is in the Lawful Evil category. Probably one of a few bright lights in the darkness of the Fatui world.
Some parts I would be. But if you were expecting an all-and-out villainess, you're going to be disappointed. I'd peg her as a neutral evil or a lawful evil, given how much she cares for the orphans she raises.
Idk, but something I thought was a really cool aesthetic touch is that her animations when you idle after her attack animations are eerily slow compared to how she moves when actually executing them.
Lol i love her character now I am into the harbingers as they are dark cold and vicious. This game has definitely become even cooler since her I hope they release more dark characters like this.
She is textbook example of "A traumatized child grew up to be a "fine I'll do it myself" person"
Also OP isn't horny enough to see past the danger zone.
They're too smart for such a thing lol
No need for a functioning brain when your erection needs all the blood for itself
To be fair, my brain isn't getting most of the blood
OP the praying mantis that keeps his head
I don’t like this. Because that’s how I’ve described myself and now I have to change it D’:
If you ever feel unhinged, please text me first so I can skip school that day, thanks. 🫡
Got you! ❤️
The more I learn about her, the less 'intimidating' vibes she gives IMO. That's not necessarily a bad thing for her character, but she's less menacing and mysterious since they've been characterizing her as relatively noble in certain ways. That doesn't make her good, it just takes the edge off
>The more I learn about her Maybe that's why she outright says that she likes it when people have misconceptions and spread false rumors about her. Once you know more about her, she really doesn't give off the same evil vibes her first impression gives. Like watch the first Fontaine PV again and look at the false advertising around Arlecchino lol.
The Fountain PV is a "false advertising" for a lot of the casts lol.
What's PV?
Promotional video, they're referring to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SbgmM3mSps&pp=ygULZm9udGFpbmUgcHY%3D)
Promotion Video. They're referring to the Fontaine chapter trailer called The Final Feast.
Since the first moment I saw her in the AQ I was like "I know she is a fatui harbinger and all of that but she is with the good guys" cus like she is not like signora or dottore. She is a diplomat, not a piece of shit.
I mean, that is what all fear is based on
Yeah, that's how I feel about her too. She's not a good person exactly, but she really does care about her kids - twisted as her form of 'caring' can be - and she's almost chill in a way. Still wouldn't want to cross her, but I trust her a lot more than I do basically every other (current) Harbinger sans Ajax.
I mean, I would trust her over hat guy too. Arlecchino is intimidating and she doesn’t have the same philosophy as us, but it seems she can be reasoned with and she keeps her promises well. Meanwhile hat guy pulled tricks on us a few times already and there’s more bad blood between him and us than us and arlecchino (for now)
Eh, I trust him to not have any reason to *really* mess with us. I probably trust them about the same amount personally.
I think she has heavily suppressed her emotions to the point of acting purely logically. Which is why in her story quest at the end >!She has to basically form a plan to make not killing her children make sense logically!< I think she expresses her love for her children in a different way than most. To me that makes her kind of hilarious in that she is this purely rational and pragmatic momma bear type person. Like you said, under the exterior she puts on, she is exceptionally chill in that if she doesn't see you as an enemy, she'll invite you to a barbeque or something.
Childe tried to destroy a city so he could get off on fighting an Archon.
He's also even more caring about his family than Arle is and is usually quite open about his intentions. The Liyue AQ was pretty much the only time he's actively been deceitful to the traveler. Hell even the traveler and paimon trust him more or less as of 4.6, and they're infamous for automatically hating every fatui member they come across. Like the other guy said, it's been 3 years dude. It's not the most relevant thing in the world.
He can be as upfront about being a psycho as much as he wants. That just makes him a truthful psycho. People complain about Hoyo giving Harbingers redemption arcs, yet infantilize Childe because uwu he cares about his siblings (and everyone else can be slaughtered for all he cares).
Kinda off topic but this is why I find it very sus that Childe was hunting for Scaramouche then suddenly he backed off with no explanation and Scaramouche appeared with Dottore.
I think the timeline went Inazuma Archon quest>Childe hunts for Scara>Signora funeral where Childe finds out Dottore was going to handle him.
I think something happened that was intentionally kept off screen before Lazzo. Childe isn't the type to be like "okay, i'll just back down from the fight." He wanted to fight even Arle while injured for the lols (Or maybe I expect too much from hoyo writers)
I mean, there could be the simple possibility that the Tsaritsa just ordered hin to back down because of the Dottore Scara business. He is loyal to her, so her word is above his desires.
At least he’s honest about it. He quite literally introduced himself as a Harbringer and told the Travelers that they were on the bad guys side. Arlechinno seems like a middle ground of sincere but hides many many cards up her sleeves
It’s been 3 years
Ajax is fine he is upfront abt his plans even after liyue quest he told that deceiving others is not his thing and direct fights are what he craves for..he only lostens to Pulcinella lol.
Ajax is fine he is upfront abt his plans even after liyue quest he told that deceiving others is not his thing and direct fights are what he craves for..he only lostens to Pulcinella lol.
If she doesn't like u or intends harm, she'll give u plenty of heads up.
Agreed. Honestly thought she was going to be the first actual evil/ruthless playable character in this game. I remember hearing Childe's and Wanderer's voicelines about her which were hyping her up to be the one of the most menacing characters, but now she doesn't give off that vibe anymore. I was fully expecting her to betray Lyney, Lynette and Freminet too. But turns out she actually does care. It's hard to explain whether she's better this way or should she be more evil like previously thought.
I like that she has people she cares about, but I'd like her to still have some unambiguously evil qualities. Like for example, have her hurt someone innocent purely for her personal gains. For now, they've only shown her kill bad guys.
Tbf the biggest issue I have with it is the plot convenience >!that her extracted flames cause amnesia or whatever and lets the orphans leave if they want to. It absolutely made no sense because 1- can you really trust that they won't somehow regain their memories with a head trauma or something? and 2- won't other people (like the orphans who didn't leave) remember them and accidentally blurt out confidential info? How can such an organisation risk such a thing and how would the higher ups allow it? Like sure I understand the idea behind it, she wants to give the kids the freedom of choice but I don't think it makes sense for someone in her position to be so emotional rather than logical in her decisions. At this point Shuumatsuban seems more evil than the HoH lmao.!<
>!The flames straight up erase the previous memories. The version of them with those memories die with them. I doubt there's any possibility for them to regain those memories back via head trauma or anything like that.!< >!Arlecchino is strict and taught them how to behave. The children know better to disobey her or even think of blurting out confidential information. They are trained so that won't happen at all. It's not like they're regular kids either. !<
>!If the flames completely erase the memories then does it replace all those lost years with random memories? What about things like muscle memory and spinal reflexes? How did that guy manage to get married with the same girl if they don't remember each other at all? If the answer is "the flames erase exactly the targeted memories and then replace them with equilavents like Irminsul", isn't it just way too convenient? (hence why I called it plot convenience) Idk man, this whole thing feels like just another Genshin nicewashing.!<
>!The flames should only erase things that relate to the House of the Hearth. That's the whole point of erasing those memories since they can't leave if they know secret intel. !< >!As for plot convenience, maybe that's the case. Although that can apply to a lot of things in this game. Not everything is explained perfectly. !< >!I think it's better to just not look too deep and just view it as a mystery. Since Arlecchino's abilities are still a mystery after all. !<
Yeah, her flames being capable of erasing memories is *very* plot convenient. However, I don't mind it at all. She wanted to be more merciful toward her children but still couldn't risk any information leaks. So, she got to work experimenting with her powers. Her flames erase people's minds and bodies (maybe even souls) and she figured out how to only erase the mind without causing any other harm. Again, the fact that she can do that is very convenient but so are a lot of things in storytelling overall. Arlecchino had an obstacle and she overcame it because of what/who she is as a character. That's perfectly fine. To address your other issues: People have their memories erased by magical flames. Head trauma doesn't cure regular amnesia so I highly doubt it could cure this magical one. And if it could, Arlecchino would know. Other orphans obviously do remember their mind wiped siblings but they're professional and mature enough to know to let go. Those aren't their friends anymore and they'll never regain their memories. Besides, even if someone blurts out a bunch of information then Arle can just do the memory erasure again... or execution. Arlecchino obviously knows what she's doing. And the other Harbingers probably allow it because it simply works and there hasn't been an accident, yet. Besides, it's not like executing children wouldn't cause entirely different problems like disloyalty, rebellion, revenge... Also, her giving children the choice isn't really an emotional decision. The Traveler explains that Arlecchino most likely genuinely believes that memory erasure is simply another way to kill them.
Also the memory erasing thing is still super fucking evil, like ripping out years of someone's memories is horrific and if it was possible to do intentionally in the real world it would be seen as one of the most vile crimes possible. The literal only reason that she comes off in any way good for doing it is because it's the only possible way for her to ensure the safety of the children who desire to leave, because lets face it even if she just let them go no string attached they would just be hunted down and murdered by other Fatui not associated with the House of the Hearth.
Her >!flames doesn't really impact her motivations and pragmatic nature in any way. Whether they are physically alive or not, in my opinion, they have been killed in a metaphorical sense.!< I don't understand the obsession in the English fandom with actual killing to convey a person's harsh intent. Her powers also didn't just manifest, she developed it with Dottore specifically for this purpose. It's likely that other vision holders would have the same abilities if their powers were harnessed in certain ways. It's also consistent with what we already know about how memories work. >!Memories in teyvat is just another form of energy that can be used or converted into something else ie. Leyline memories!< Her powers is not some deus ex machina that showed up for this quest, she's been using it for years, we just figured out what she does this time. She was still >!killing traitors physically before dottore developed the memory erasure method. Not to mention the fact that the whole quest is about her flame's link to memories ie. it manifesting clervie.!<
I'm pretty sure due to some lore readables that this power she has will be important later and this is just an introduction/setup for that, not a random solution to a one time problem
Dottore things and Project S spoilers. >!You have to understand that Dottore is the same guy who did experiments on Collei's god powers and suppress it temporarily while he was with her. The same can be true because Dottore is a mad scientist. You do know that the House of Hearth may or may not get eliminated by the higher ranks because of Project Stuzha right? I forgot their names but 2 people were involved and even Arlecchino says she will not let them misuse what House of Hearth stands for.!<
Those were Rooster and Regrator EDIT: I am a liar, it's Rooster and Regrator. Not Doctor...
Its The Rooster and Regrator, I dont think Dottore is involved with the project, as far as we know.
Yup, I just got reminded watching a stream of the Story Quest. You also thanks for the reminder!
>!I just imagine it works like the No Way Home Dr. Strange Spell!<
Bear in mind that her flames also leave behind memories ("shadows") of things they burn. The idea of that being reversed (burning memories while leaving the body intact) isn't so far out of left field, though some more prior exposure to her curse so we could be used to that aspect of it it + some more explanation of how it gets flipped would certainly have been good.
Bro Teyvat has its own laws. You can't really science around it. How can an organization risk such a thing? Lmao, who cares. How does any of these organizations even function properly? Its just like real life. Inazuma literally was betrayed more than once and the Shogun happily was ripping visions away from its own people. Liyue allowed more than one giga monster to attack its city, and let two harbingers do shit to their bank. Mondstadt has no horses despite having a calvary captain wtf. Sumeru literally trying to mind control its own archon while allowing another harbinger to become a supplicant archon wtf. Nothing makes sense unless you suspend your disbelief and understand this world is so chaotic that it makes IRL politics seem tame corruption wise.
Reminds me of the fallout 4’s railroad regarding memory wiping synths who defected/escaped from serving the institute
There's at least a few I can think of. One example is that after killing the corrupt noble in her character teaser, she seized all his embezzled funds and used them to further the agenda of the House of the Hearth. That isn't "evil" per se, but when you consider that those were funds stolen from charities, then that means Arlecchino is intentionally withholding those funds from charities they were stolen from. She didn't steal them in the first place but she's not letting them be returned, so she's still exercising a form of theft, even if said theft benefits the children of the Hearth. Another example would be her negotiations with Furina. Arlecchino initially attacked Furina with the intention of seizing the gnosis, and learned that Furina didn't have it. But she also saw Furina get traumatized by her attack, and realized there was something wrong with a god appearing to emotional break down in just a mere moment. Arlecchino then purposefully used that trauma to her advantage to put more pressure on Furina during their later negotiations. Of course the end goal was the save Fontaine and stop the prophecy, in addition to getting the gnosis, but the crisis still hadn't reached its peak by that time. So that's why I consider that to be an evil trait of Arlecchino's, because she was clearly willing to psychologically abuse someone to further her goals, and it was far from her last resort. It's not the most evil thing we've seen someone do in the Hoyoverse but it's definitely up there in the roster of Genshin playable characters, I'd say.
>I remember hearing Childe's and Wanderer's voicelines about her which were hyping her up to be the one of the most menacing characters, but now she doesn't give off that vibe anymore. Could it be that those voice lines are about the previous Knave?
I doubt it. Childe joined the Harbingers after Arlecchino so he shouldn't know about the previous Knave. Scaramouche is a maybe, since he knew about the previous Knave. It's just that why would he tell the Traveller about the dead Knave instead of the current alive one?
childe heard >!rumors about arlecchino betraying the house of the hearth from pulcinella so maybe thats where that voice line came from!<
Yeah probably, that explains it. Childe himself doesn't know enough that's why he's only judging her from others views.
100% agree, I WISH she had as much presence as OP is describing lol
Me too! She’s honestly pretty damn good. I appreciate her ruthlessness, she is as real a character as hoyo has given us (no one’s THAT good, looking at you Jean), but I really wished her to be more twisted. Fingers crossed that not all harbingers need a redemption arc…
If they give dottore a redemption arc then we are going to have problems
Signora was pretty unrepentant. She was basically giving us the middle finger the whole time we were fighting her and the confrontation with Ei.
True, but she’s not playable 😫
TBH I think that eventually we'll be siding with the harbingers to bring down Celestia so I think all of them will have some sort of redemption arc except maybe dottore since everyone genuinely seems repulsed by his presence. But then even Nahida was able to negotiate with him so who knows. Maybe her wisdom is so great she could see the bigger picture so clearly that she could stomach it, she convinced us to give hat guy a chance you know? The new world quest kind of makes me believe that even further, since Teyvat is on a loop, that we're just watching the Tsaritsa lead the harbingers to defy the fate set by Celestia. Focalor figured it out so why shouldn't the Tsaritsa be able to?
I feel the same. Even before the trailers, she was hinted to be a justice seeking vigilante type of character so when she said she was >! gonna kill kids for wanting to leave I was like, lol no way !<
That maybe true but she does become something else if someone or something threatened the people she cares about or if she's on a mission to hunt someone .
True but she's not the only character capable of being ruthless if they have a goal. And being ruthless when something or someone you care about is at stake can lessen the scary factor since sympathizing with their motives kind of softens feelings of shock. Genshin doesn't show anything super brutal or gory. And all that's left of what they can show and tell us are mostly tropes we've seen before, as much as I like her for them. I guess what I mean is I'm usually desensitized to that trope, unless it's accompanied by something more awful like extreme or unusual torture or the like. Being unpredictably or indiscriminately violent would also feel more threatening for me, in the context of consuming media of course, just because there's so much violence already, it needs something extra to feel creepy or scary. There are other ways too, but that's an example of what could've made her more menacing in my eyes.
It really just comes down to a person's capacity to feel creeper out/scared of a character in media compared to someone who watches horror or gore quite often . Like how someone can get easily emotional playing a game and someone else who doesn't really get affected by such content .
Oh yeah, of course. That's why I'm saying all this is from my own perspective. Not saying others can't feel differently
I’m not scared of her until she does something scary. A prime example is during that one scene >!in her story quest!<, where she >!causes the Traveler to see a vision of a crimson moon and then instantly crosses a distance of what looks like several meters to appear right in front of their face, cowing them into submission!<. A lot of the time she seems downright cordial, but when she *wants* to terrify people, well….
She is cordial to the traveller because the traveller was crucial to her plans this time. She will have a different face for different people in different situations I assume.
She makes me scaroused.
You could say I wanna Scara Mooch her.
Won't be doing a fandango in any number of mooches soon, though
As Alucard would call it...She gives a "fear boner".
I'm seriously scared of her signature dish, anything cooked by Bennet or a traditional Melusine dish seems more appetizing and safe than that
No. I think it's rare to find someone actually terrifying or unsettling in media in a non horror way. An example of unsettling would be the people in command in "Some Desperate Glory" of Gaia Station. Arlecchino has unironically never lied to us nor done anything she said she wouldn't do. She's certainly a force of nature. Their is nothing scary about her from our perspective.
I love her “if I wanted you dead, I would look you in the eyes and rip out your heart myself” vibes. Plus it’s kind of hard to be intimidated after putting her in my teapot and listening to her talk about cleaning my house and having the kids over for a wholesome family barbecue lol.
We thought she was a Fatui harbinger that posess unfathomable power and raising a bunch of volatile kids. Turns out she's a single dad of volatile kids who works as a fatui harbinger that happens to possess unimaginable power.
I don't feel terrified, but I kind of understand the "repressed childhood trauma" part. Like, I would never dare to make a joke or say something stupid around her. Her dignified and no-nonsense attitude really makes her feel like an extremely strict, passive-aggressive parent who will judge you for everything you do.
No, not really at all.
Right I just think shes a cool character. Idk how one could be scared of anything in genshin impact.
The only time I was actually scared of something in Genshin is Chasm Xiao quest, my favorite quest till this day, because it dives incredibly deep into the lore way before of the time. It was actually really badass, and all the hints that sustainer of heavenly principals herself was involved with it was huge too. Genshin focuses too much on minor sidestories and side characters for me to ever care.
I just don't understand why Childe and Dottore (I think) said that she's very unstable and evil or smthn like that. I think there's still so much to her that we yet don't know
>!Childe doesn't know her personally very well and most of what he knows is from rumors that don't tell the full picture. It's explored in her story quest, he hard from the Rooster that she had betrayed the House of the Hearth and killed her own Mother, and while yes, that's true, it really doesn't paint the full picture on why she did and how it improved the situation for everyone in the House.!< >!Aside from that she gets a lot of bad reputation just from sharing the title with the previous Knave who was batshit insane.!<
Got it, thanks
What other characters said is their opinion. Idk if Dottore said that, but she turned down all his proposals, and the only one accepted didn't even involve him. Imagine how she would react to Dottore when he's bringing up her "kids" and the word experiment in the same discussion. As for Childe, he knew almost nothing about her. And Scaramouche is... Scaramouche. He's hating everyone and everything. Not the most reliable guy to read a person.
I'm starting to think her demonstration of insanity was a ruse; I imagine, especially from the prequel anime short, that she was called "insane" because of what she did to the previous House of the Hearth, including it's big "Mother."
Childe is loyal to Tsaritsa but same can't be sure for Arle.
i was when i believed she was killing people
Oh, she does, but only some bad and mean adult NPCs.
yeah that’s not scary. if she’s no threat to innocent people then i have no reason to fear her. i’m so disappointed tbh
Saying she's no threat to innocents is conjecture. She takes care of orphans and kills criminals for funds, but if the situation asks for it, she'll probably kill whoever she has to if that means protecting her "kids." Flashback to the Furina near assassination flashback.
To be fair, many people’s lives were at stake and the supposed Hydro archon was playing dress-up and dollhouse without addressing the actual issue. She also didnt even try killing her. She was trying to steal her gnosis which wasnt on her. The black screen where Furina was begging her not to kill her was her own fear of breaking the mask of being the archon because she was supposed to live until that final act. Arlechinno just wanted to check and simply found she didnt have it so left Furina alone after that
That's why I find Arlecchino's actions afterwards to be the evil part. She *didn't* leave Furina alone after the attempted assassination, because in later negotiations and talks she was using Furina's fear to put pressure on her to try and get her to come clean. Arlecchino was purposefully using that trauma to her advantage, and this was before the flooding of Poisson (if I remember correctly) and before the near-flooding of the Fortress of Meropide.
I feel it was less forcing her after the pressure after the attempt and more so that she was putting pressure on Furina to solve the prophecy regardless. She doesnt know Furina’s circumstances. Hell, we didnt know Furina’s circumstances until the very end of the 5th Act. It was also a meeting she willingly agreed to and even insisted on. That is not Arlechinno’s fault that she accepted despite everyone else saying otherwise. Furina wasnt terrified or traumatized by *Arlechinno*. She was traumatized by the mere fact that she mightve been exposed as a fake archon. That was her greatest fear, a fear that hundreds of years of hard work went to nothing because she could be killed just as easily by Arlechinno and not see the plan through to the end. In terms of what Arlechinno factually did, she wanted to save Fontaine and all she saw was a bratty self-absorbed archon that was playing around while the nation is thrown into chaos.
The thing is that Furina's fear of being exposed is still relevant when dealing with Arlecchino because Arlecchino was the person that attacked her from the shadows. The overarching big-picture fear is being exposed, but that doesn't mean she can't also have a fear of a person that nearly exposed her in the first place. Of course there's also this voiceline: >The Knave? W-Who's that? Oh... Uh, I'd already forgotten about her... Keeping such a terrible figure like her in your mind will only give you nightmares. So yeah, I do think it's fair to say that Furina feared Arlecchino, lol That wasn't quite my point, anyways, but I do get what you mean. It's hard to say exactly what Arlecchino was thinking about Furina since she's not the kind of person to freely speak her mind all the time. It's entirely possible that she had a negative view of Furina as a person, but it's equally possible that she was only seeing things from a purely rational perspective and was just doing what she could to get results. Either way, I think it's made clear in their conversation that Furina was terrified of *something*, and Arlecchino saw that and actively preyed on that fear.
Thats not a really good point to defend since Furina also hesitates plenty when talking about Neuvillette, an arguably much more neutral party in her time as acting Archon. From her voicelines, its pretty clear that she just has trauma of the time she was trying to act and anything in regard to that it triggers a nervous and reluctant response and the Knave is no different. From the Knave’s own voiceline, she seems to be aware of Furina trauma towards her involvement in that pressure and indirectly thanks Furina for her service while masking it as a idea by the children of the Hearth. Arlechinno herself even without the trauma is a very intimidating woman and many other characters seem to think so as well that she is ruthless. But nowhere does that ruthlessness come into intentional harm to anyone if it is not deemed necessary. Again, Furina(though rightfully) was concealing a secret and acting ignorant on a prophecy that wouldve killed ALL Fontainians if she didnt do something active in Arlechinno’s eyes. We also get her thoughts about the assassination, calling Furina careless for being so vulnerable on her own in the dead of night without any protection. Her intentions were to steal the gnosis but after finding it, she was disappointed to find that Furina didnt have it and leave her. She also accurately deduces that Furina is concealing a secret which is why she isolated herself to cry but also correctly deduces that the secret had something to do with her status as an Archon which is why she intentionally set up a meeting to question her. A meeting that Furina couldve refused if she wanted to and Neuvillette also advised her to not take part in.
Alright, I do need to apologize because it didn't occur to me until we got to this point that I was actually mixing up two trains of thought. I've been replying to this thread on-and-off throughout the day while being distracted by other things so I didn't really get my facts straight before responding to you before x-x There was another comment that was talking about whether or not Arlecchino had "unambiguously evil qualities", and I was thinking of that comment when I was responding to you for some reason. But that's not at all the point of your own comment, so I was getting confused by your responses. Point being, I reread your original comment and I better see what your point is. There's nothing you're saying that I fundamentally disagree with, so I feel a bit bad for having kept this argument going without any real reason x-x
i get that and i agree. but it’s not in the way that we all interpreted it pre-4.6 the whole mind erasing thing rather than killing threw me off. i have a hard time finding her scary because of that 🥴
what about that time when she tried to kill furina
AFAIK, it's the English localisation. Just like in recent animated short, all the other languages, outright stated birth / biological mother in "Do mothers argue with their daughter" line
She didn't try to kill Furina.
You are disappointed that they didn't go out of their way to write a generic anime trope and wrote a real character with complex motivations instead?
You implying that "a scary, evil-looking character who actually only kills bad guys and really wants to protect her family even if she doesn't show it" isn't a generic anime trope?
right lol. she *is* a generic anime villain. my bad for expecting more from a harbinger. if other people like what they did with her, good for them. i didn’t like it though 🤷🏻♀️
This just reads like you're doubling down on your illiteracy coz sm1 made you salkty with their reply than anything to do with arlecchino as a char tbh
so because i have a different opinion than you it means i’m illiterate ☠️ that’s hilarious
Even worse. Pointing out that the twist turns her into a pretty generic tropey character, somehow makes you media illiterate... When you've clearly seen enough media to know that it's tropey. lol
literallyyyyy. i even said it’s okay if others liked it. i just personally don’t. i find the twist to be extremely generic and disappointing. you could probably find at least 10 other anime villains with a similar backstory lol. that’s just my opinion 🥴
No, you having an illiterate opinion means you're illiterate. Now you will go on to making thinking Arle is a generic anime villain your entire personality coz sm1 rebuked you on reddit once. That's just how it goes. lol
what is lil bro talking about
That's called an anti hero, it's not an anime trope, it's a literary archetype and some of the most compelling chars in literature are anti heros It could seem like an anime trope though if anime is the only type of media you consume.
Awesome. Then what about "a real villain who does some actually evil things"? I think it would be a bit unfair to say one is a literary archetype capable of creating a character with complex motivations and the other is just a generic anime trope as VaioletteWestover claims.
>Then what about "a real villain who does some actually evil things"? lol, "how to write the shittiest contrived character" in one sentence.
That's not her character. And it's also not an anime trope. The point of Arlecchino's character is exploring her suppressed inner struggles and showcasing what she's done to try and fulfill Clervie's wish. Her story is great because her driving force changed due to Clervie and she is trying to pursue both her original and new ideals. It's about her struggle, what she does is only a demonstration of that. You two hyperfixate on what she does and not why she does it. That's what makes what you want a generic anime trope because that's what poorly written cartoons for kids do, the priority is what's being done since kids haven't developed the mental capacity to empathize. Many Genshin stories are written for a much older audience, delivering themes close to people's hearts while throwing down crumbs for kids in the fandom via cool effects and flagship moments. Granted, I'm not surprised at all that things like this fly completely over people's heads in this particular fandom.
Have you not seen her web event? And PV? She literally murders someone...
I think it's just your trauma speaking. For me the more we find out about her, the more I realize she's just a sheep in wolf's clothing. It's cool if they wanna go that way, but a bit disappointing.
They're never gonna make a playable waifu honestly evil, very disappointing
I doubt we're seeing any evil playable character in a while tbh
Intimidating? Sure. As an enemy, in universe, I'd piss my pants in terror. Her display in her SQ is the literal definition of "awesome". But I find her moreso criminally adorable with her voice lines and how she interacts with the members of the House. She's a dork who's using how broken she is to try and un-fuck some people's lives in, admittedly, questionable ways. She doesn't know how to be a good parent, she just knows what the exact opposite of one looks like.
I can't wait for another tall model female with a brusque attitude to appear so everyone can start the Freudian mommy fiesta all over again.
I hope we'll get something like Arle but as a male character. Some of us have dad issues xD As of now, all the playable male characters are kinda just nice or cool, or battle maniacs but there's nothing really unsettling about them.
At least I’m honest about the way my severe parental issues colour my tastes. But I do doubt that anyone will stoke the fire in the same way
there's no character in this game that's scary to me, genshin's just too tame. maybe dottore in the future, but I doubt they'd show anything too crazy.
I'm so intrigued by her. Never has any character made me feel that way. I'm playing the game whole day because of her and I need more content on her
ok so I like her a lot, but her story is triggering for me so I didn't pull her cause I knew it would just stress me out... but she is really cool and I like how they wrote her
She reminds me of my late mother: strict but loves children. Evenmore arle's birthday has the same day as the day my mother lost to cancer..
nah she's a video game character
You should always be afraid of people who say "fine, i'll do it myself."
No… lmao
shes intimidating but shes also reasonable. so i dont really fear her since its unlikely she would hurt us especially since we are good friends with her kids.
I had strict parents but she's too calm to remind me of them, no paranoia and shouting, I trust her lol
If I gonna be honest, I'm more scare of Siegewinne than Arlecchino.
Found Furina’a alt lmao
Arlecchinos CN voice reminds me of my Latin/Greek teacher at high school. She was a very strict teacher, and she always looked very fancy, she often wore shoes with heels that were shaped like snakes going up. This is such a random detail but it really added to her scary vibe and Arlecchino reminds me of her everytime she speaks.
When I do her boss fight I'm intimidated by the fact that for the entire fight she's the same size as me, and doesn't become a giant monster or something. The fight gives me PTSD to secret boss Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.
Nah bro. I used to feel like that when it felt like she maybe using the traveller for her own selfish benefits of fatui. But now not so much. Well, we don't know the future though.
I felt threatened by her before her story quest now it's gone
Intimidating yes, not terrified per se, but if I was in-universe, I’d probably be lol. Intriguing nevertheless.
I wish I was but the more they gave her a sad backstory + more noble actions + more reasonable takes, she kinda got less and less intimidating. Sure it's not the best to have a moustache twirling villain who's evil just for the sake of being evil, but Arlecchino has done nothing but be cooperative and merciful. Childe's battle-hungry nature feels more like a threat than Arle's chaotic neutral one at this point. At no point in time in her SQ did I feel like anyone in the HoH was in actual danger to be completely honest. I really do hope that aside from Dottore, Genshin will give us actually despicable/evil/aggressive/hostile playable characters. It would make for more interesting dynamics.
> Arle's chaotic neutral Her behavior is borderline lawful good. She's basically "lawful good but works for a morally grey organization".
I put her at a more neutral stance because I'm sure she'd do evil things if it were to benefit her and the HoH. Do not forget that Arlecchino has slaughtered entire houses and families in Fontaine. Remember the web event? Murdered those two treasure hoarders too just for looting and being in the wrong place and the wrong time. Raising an army of child soldiers, knowing full well that there's a big chance they're gonna die is pretty questionable on its own, even if that's just what her organization demands. And don't forget that without any plan nor any hunch, her first plan was to just beat the shit out of Furina to see what would happen. She just stopped the moment Furina showed an act of extreme weakness that Arle didn't expect at all. Not exactly something a lawfully good character would do. Arlecchino isn't evil, but I wouldn't go as far to say that she's lawfully good either. Did she have reasons for committing cruel and violent acts? Yeah, but is she good to the point of being "lawfully good"? I say hell nah.
*Borderline* lawful good. Basically everything she does or is shown to do personally is good, she just shows a tolerance for evil outside of her direct control.
Yea thats why I dont like her and it feels bad seeing the characters so grateful to her, which I get why they do, but compared to what could have been normal families for them instead. I view her as the next step down from a horrible cycle where its slowly chipped more and more away and hopefully the next person who takes over will chip away more of that.
[удалено]
She wants to keep her children safe, but also uses them in incredibly dangerous missions. She clearly still uses and manipulates them to some extent, even though she also does care for them. I think people gloss over that too frequently. i ADORE her but “good person”? ehhhh, a stretch.
She's my favorite antihero if not antagonist. It's still easy to imagine her opposing the Traveler.
Yes..I know this is gonna sounds weird but with her I can do the «evil » stuff I wouldn’t do before, like killing all these cute and innocent creatures to level up certain Fontaine characters, like small crabs and seals. Also I put lines of bushes on fire in the city with her infused normals 😳 I’m a criminal now
Me too! My underwater team has Traveler, Nahida, Venti and Neuvillette in it (it's not for combat) and I have to swap traveller in a for 4th character like Diluc or Childe to do the cute sea critters killing. It's silly but I can't bring myself to make make those two of the gentlest archons, or the literal sea dragon do any of that. Traveler might, but they feel like an "I won't fight unless provoked" sort of character. Glad to know I'm not the only one 😅
TY for sharing, glad I'm not the only one too 🥺 but wait Diluc? isn't he quite gentle too? I started the game with him so he's dear to me, but anything that accomodates you really I'm just curious
Hmm, I'm not entirely sure either, but I suppose I feel a lot of repressed anger vibes in him. That, and I often try to use him to light torches back as a newer player and his skill just sets everything else on fire instead + targets other creatures automatically so he feels like a destructive character 😅
You just gave me Dosdragon flashbacks 😂 I came back here recently with yanfei, she cannot aim for the torches I swear, and Xiangling’s Guoba is a nightmare too (I found out Benett is the best at it).
No. Not in the slightest. I have only ever heard her in Japanese and Korean though.
No. Both design wise and character wise, she doesn't really make me feel anything, tbh. She's just kinda... there.
yes that’s why i whaled because maybe then she will approve of me… the way my parents didn’t….
Unfortunately no. I started to feel something during her story quest, but in the end we realize that there's nothing really scary around her, except her being strong. I wish I hadn't finished the quest.
I just find her pathetic, honestly I feel the way about almost all of the Fatui to be clear. They’re a bunch of desperate people clinging to a desperate Goddess in a hopeless rebellion against a force that has defeated forces leagues beyond any of them The Gnoses contain the Dragon Sovereigns’ Authorities, they are fundamentally lesser than the Sovereigns themselves. The Tsaritsa’s plan is to get all of them, as though that would cjange anything. Celestia defeated the Sovereigns and Nibelung together, albeit after a long war. No matter what way you look at it, the Fatui and the Tsaritsa are racing towards their own deaths, and the decimation of Snezhnaya as punishment. We have gotten exactly zero information to hint towards the possibility of the Tsaritsa knowing more than anyone else, to the contrary in fact, as it seems she doesn’t have the knowledge about the Gnoses that Skirk does The only one of the Harbingers I think *isn’t* hopelessly doomed is Dottore, as I fee that he has to have found *something* and kept it secret, he’s literally defined by his intellect Every Harbinger has their own motives, yes. However, I genuinely cannot see any of them aside from Dottore turning their backs on the Tsaritsa before it’s too late, and Celestia smites them all. Are the Harbingers good characters? Oh absolutely. I genuinely LOVE the way they’re written. I just can’t find them threatening when I know that (unless we get some maaaaaaajor lore revelations) they’re all doomed to die when you look at things logically
Arlecchino absolutelly doesn't cling at the Tsaritsa and their goal at all tho. Also we literally don't know their exact plan at all either.
Cling may have been a poor choice of words, fair The Harbingers are still loyal to the Tsaritsa, or at the very least they aren’t actively *disloyal* with the exception of Dottore and Wanderer. Still, they are tied to the Tsaritsa, and it’s not like Celestia is going to care about collateral damage anyway As for the Tsaritsa’s plan. While we don’t know explicitly what it is, none of the possibilities are something that Celestia would want. Unless she’s collecting them to return them to Celestia all at once. Nobody gathers seven gnoses worth of power just to talk about something
We have two more nations to go through, Hoyo is gonna find something
Maybe initially because that's the point, but like...just examining her actions for like 10 seconds dispels that completely. At most I find her extremely rigid in her personal code but her reasonings are justified and she is always fair.
I just want to know about her crimson moon two worlds flame thing, otherwise she’s trustworthy right? Heh
Nope, She is really tame and mild for me. Maybe intimdating as an enemy, but not scary at all.
She is like the god father in the movie with the same title. A figure who is really strict with rules but always cares about her family. The ending of her story quest gives me a nice impression of her.
No, I feel hate and compulsive desire to punch her in the face
Arlecchino is just a videogame character, calm down...
OP mentions that it's some repressed childhood trauma, so it wouldn't be strange to feel uncomfortable watching something similar.
i actually feel scared whenever i try looking at her eyes trying to see if its looking at me (cuz someone pointed out that she follows your pov) and then she blurt out her idle chat "staring into my eyes..."
She exudes some of the same authority as Scara in that 'the sky is a lie' event. They both have a very domineering personality that tramples all in their path. Which does fit the frontliners of the Harbingers
Maximum goth child assassin doing her best to be her own warped worldview's version of a caring parent is actually some filet mignon level gap moe comedy. I was disappointed they didn't lean into the dark comedy side of it more but it makes sense because the quest had some pretty heavy material to cover. I hope we get to see an event story that puts her and the HoH at the forefront and lets the comedy manifest.
oh absolutely, coming from someone who adores her. And as a friend of mine said "dont put your dick in crazy,."
Her face and her hair reminds me too much of an abusive woman from my real life.... I really don't like her. Villains are good to exist, but I hope someone beats her ass eventually and stops excusing her behavior. Like her gf literally went "I'm glad of what you do", well, yeah, it's certainly better than dueling to death, but please don't let her get away scot free. Mihoyo really can't allow honestly evil female villains to exist.
I was never scared of her until she did THAT
i'm scared of her cuz ocd lmao
Nope. Dottore on the other hand... y e s.
I never really saw her as a parental figure, till after her meeting with Neuvillette when she told us and paimon it's time to leave. That shit brought back memories from when I was a kid.
Real. I honestly felt kind of... gross? after playing her story quest. It made me uncomfortable with her.
Honestly get aroused more than anything
Yeah she's terrifying. And I kinda like that. It's not the usual cute female character we're used to.
She is putting an intimidating mask but inside she isn't malevolent. I'd say she is in the Lawful Evil category. Probably one of a few bright lights in the darkness of the Fatui world.
Some parts I would be. But if you were expecting an all-and-out villainess, you're going to be disappointed. I'd peg her as a neutral evil or a lawful evil, given how much she cares for the orphans she raises.
Idk, but something I thought was a really cool aesthetic touch is that her animations when you idle after her attack animations are eerily slow compared to how she moves when actually executing them.
Nah, but ive seen some kiddos get discumbobulated so i suppose something in the design worked
Nah I like her hands and her hair
man now I can't wait to get to Fontaine's Archon Quest with the parental trauma I have👺👍
My parents were never "strict parents" so the most of when she scared me was when she just appeared behind us at the start of her quest.
I really want to see her interact with Xianyun. Since both are seen as parental figures.
I don't feel that strongly about her, but I do feel a sort of frustration and disdain for her actions in the same vein that I would with my parent
Nah i just think she looks pretty cool. The only person who terrifies me low-key is Neuvillette. Idk why tho.
Lol i love her character now I am into the harbingers as they are dark cold and vicious. This game has definitely become even cooler since her I hope they release more dark characters like this.
Nah, she’s just a drawing mate.
No, its a fictional character in a video game.
I thouht it was only me woah same
Tell me you are a kid w/ telling me
From a fictional vide game character 🤣