and rather than this being a venti feat it was his bard friend...who was always depicted as being shot by an arrow(did venti fabricate this?) but was apparently actually fucking Atomized as he was obliterated from time because his body couldn't handle using time's power

idk how much was planned vs changed in development but mondstadt's lack of corruption from their old god's lingering will was always suspicious, though before it seemed implicitly tied to venti's ability to cleanse corruption? but no decarabian's will was dispersed across time when he was slain

you're not my only source of shockwave with massive tits

and that I feel was always an important part of her dynamic with albedo, because he experienced parental kindness he never received from rhinedottir when she took him in but also knows better than anyone how nuts she is lol

alice is def less of an issue than rhinedottir too since she was always presented as kind and motherly to characters she interacted with. just with the "by the way this woman is absolutely fucking insane and does not have a normal sense of morals" being there to contrast that lmfao

rhinedottir being a core member it's impossible to properly reframe it as a 100% morally upright force for good that isn't even a little questionable and not feel weird. I always got a much more neutral impression I guess? like individual members have their own sense of morality

and I'm suuuuuure they're dropping that, barbeloth torments her apprentice for fun and it's more a comedic thing but kind of contributed to the vibe that these woman are not always the most morally sound...it's not that the hexenzirkel was ever presented as an evil organization or anything but

"albedo I'm so glad you finally realized all I ever wanted was for you to be happy" she wouldn't say this she was threatening to feed him to the dragon too(so to speak) if he ever failed to live up to her expectations. of all the characters to try to soften like she was comically awful

the more specific accounts of how she abused albedo are in his written lore tho and nobody fucking reads so they're like "lol you're mad bc your misogynistic abusive mom headcanons got disproved?" they weren't headcanons dude it's very explicit about how cruel she was to even her "greatest creation"

looking at what happened to the durins and laughing nervously

I had to cut myself off so I didn't start ranting about albedo and rhinedottir since we're focusing on durin mostly but these characters are too intrinsically tied

I feel like
albedo in 1.3-2.3 was written by the same people (and PEAK)

4.8 (introduces copy of durin) was written by other people but it was good!

5.6 (paralogism) was probably written by yet another new team and was a fucking mess, albedo character assassination, rhinedottir apologism etc