Fontaine Is The Worst Place To Be A Kid | Genshin Impact Lore and Theory
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
- Fontaine is one of the most corrupt places in Teyvat.
Wriothesely, Lyney, Lynette and Freminet and the recent event Roses and Muskets has shown us that something is seriously wroung in the Court of Fontaine. heck out my analysis of why the people of Fontaine seem so bad. - เกม
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You know theres a problem when a sneznaiyan spy network is one of the safest places for kids to grow up.
exactly. Thats messed up
Like they're the 'bad guys' in the story but they seem chill af. I would join in a heartbeat
It only became chill after Arlechinno became the Knave tho.
I don't get it, why you say it like Sneznaiya is something bad
@@reverendnon5959i mean they have done fucked up shit (mainly dottore), and are the main villains right now
I like the idea that the Fontainians being originally Oceanids makes them a little less than human and why so many more inhumane acts were carried out by them.
Regarding the question of why Neuvillette didn't do much to guide them in being better people/humans, I wanted to point out that Neuvillette doesn't know what that is. He spent the past 500 years as Chief Justice, but also as an observer of "humanity". His task wasn't to better the Fontainians, but to enact the laws the Fontainians largely set by themselves. Though he is credited with a couple laws related to the Melusines, we can see in his SQ he took the difficult approach of slowly working towards reform rather than just... laying down new laws and enforcing them. Up until his SQ, he himself still felt like an "outsider."
Anyway this is a really interesting point of discussion. Fontaine could be an interesting way to show what it means to become human, depending on what happens now that the absent Hydro Archon is gone forever and Neuvillette has taken over and everyone has become "real" humans.
Will there ever be a new hydro archon? Dont they respawn or smth
@@k-skope7562Focalors destroyed the ability for another hydro archon to appear with her execution. That's why she needed 500 years to gather the power. With her death, there will be no more hydro archons ever again
@@k-skope7562nope Hydro throne has been destroyed so no more of that, only the Hydro dragon sovereign rules over the hydro element now which is Neuvillette
@@k-skope7562 As long as Neuvillette is around, nope, since he's holding the "Hydro Throne" himself. And I guess Archons do not "spawn", that is an exclusiveness to Nahida since she was made sprout by her predecessor, as in, she's literally an made by the dendro archon as backup.
@@k-skope7562 So far, we have not seen any new being appear just to become an archon. Focalors was a high-ranking oceanid in Egeria's reign. Ei was Makoto's twin sister. Rukkadevata created Nahida to be her successor. Morax seems to predate the concept of archons. And Venti took power in a revolution.
It is not clear where gods normally come from. Or if there is such a thing as "normally" for gods.
They say that gods are immortal and eventually respawn if they die. But we don't see it happening much. No new goddess of salt anywhere in sight. But Neuvillette did respawn. And Makoto is said to have resurrected Ei somehow. And Nahida can reduce herself to a twig and regrow again. So perhaps it is some kind of exaggeration that gods respawn, while in reality they can just recover from injuries very well.
Lynette’s story just makes me sick to the stomach. I mean she was what, 5, 7 at the time? Like that’s just downright awful. And then don’t get me started on child trafficking.
Fontaine is so dark I just want to hug its entire cast and never let go.
Probably closer to 10 but still absolutely horrible
She was 8-10 years old, and the story goes that her and lyney were adopted by a noble who wanted to use lyney’s skill with magic tricks to make money, but they went along with it for food and shelter, but one day lyney returns and finds lynette is missing. When he questions the noble, he says that he had sold her to another wealthy man who had taken notice of her, and that surely lyney could manage with a different assistant. lyney breaks into the residence of the man she had been sold to, fully prepared to kill him, but instead finds arrlecchino, who had slain the man and rescued lynette herself
@@axolotdraws9946 Ever hear of the Outlaw Dutch Van Der Linde? Similar fellow, though through multiple losses, and manipulation his morality and sanity deteriorated all too much. Those he considered his sons, and partners in crime wound up either ended up dead or left him. I'm hoping a similar storyline is explored with Arlechinno, she is perfect for the role.
oh boy, then you'd be puking all over the floor when you read about the crazy shit medieval history has to offer
"It's a positive and wholesome story" - said Hoyoverse
Mondstadt really feels like Switzerland. No ruler, no problems, just wine and pure water from mountains (which is strange because there is the toxic rotting corpse of a huge artificial dragon in the mountain from which springvale gets its water)
Also Venti is similar to William Tell to some extent, bearer of freedom, uses his bow horizontally like a crossbow and loves apples
switzerland has no ruler ????
@@louyou6614 it does, but it's very complicated to explain, especially when you're not well versed in the topic like I am
But it does however not have 1 ruler. The job is shared between many people with not much power.
Also a lot (I'd say most of them but I'm not sure) the laws of the country must be approved by the entire population through a votation happening 4 times a year before being added or modified. So it's pretty cool but can be quite inefficient when the law is needed but the people say no
I'll see if I can find a video explaining it well, if you're interested
Also, you're right about water reflecting the social state of affairs. It's made obvious through Neuvillette's various stories that water carries emotions for a reason.
2:56 There was something else even before that, being the whole emotional neglect both Lyney and Lynette suffered from the noble who took them in. It was him who sold Lynette to another noble, causing Lynette to start hating on her feline features and Lyney to have his trust issues that'll resort into lying and an overdependence on his sister by fear of losing her again.
That's so right. I read both of their character stories and it's so heartbreaking how afraid they are of losing each other because how much they have been through. I mean Lynette got a vision before him in the House and because he was not left behind in missions he was really unraveling. Their world pretty much consist of each other because no one else was looking out for them.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer That's right, as Lyney told us, they're each other's truth.
I came to analyze Lyney's mentality/psychology in an essay-ish blog and video, and am starting to reflect on Lynette's as well. Lyney feels very much alone and is trying to have connections other than his sister to receive the love he couldn't get as a child, may it be through his spectacles or in everyday life, but he is unable to do so because of his lying tendencies that result from his trauma (betrayal, lack of trust, lack of sense of self worth and self-esteem). His sister being one of the only people who knows the real him (others being Arlecchino, Freminet, the Traveler and eventually Paimon, all people whom he met after his sister), he'll do anything to not lose her and that love and sense of connection/belonging he gets from her.
I'm not sure if Lynette also performed tricks to reach the same goal as Lyney (gain love and approval), but it seemed to have the opposite effect as people mocked her ears and tail. That trust she placed in the world that Lyney's is both placing and retrieving simultaneously was already gradually shattering. From what I get, if Lyney is desperately trying to have connections to others even though they're fake and unsubstential in a childish way, Lynette grew up too fast and actually realized thanks to Arlecchino that those bonds they have to their audience and those who mock her are superficial and is not something she should worry about. She grew a sort of emotional detachment from most people she knows is not close to, she doesn't want to bother for them and drain her energy for people that are unworthy of it. Only her brother is one of the people she should worry and care for, only him and the few other connections they currently have, such as Freminet, Arlecchino, possibly the Traveler and Paimon. That'd be why she doesn't bother to focus with daily tasks and breaks things up all the time, but never on Lyney's stage. She doesn't perform as a magician for her audience, she performs besides Lyney for him and only him, because she knows it's something he needs to do (to feel loved) and with her (stage fright and lack of self-esteem).
@@kiyomi_kamimotothis is so good and sad😢
Interesting observation! I think a big component to consider is that the characters and quests in each nation are *heavily* influenced by the culture and stories that said country is based on. For instance, the reason clan politics is such a big deal in many Inazuma quests and character arcs but not in the other nations is because that stuff comes up a LOT in Japanese history and literature. Meanwhile Mondstadt is based on Germany, where a lot of their iconic works are fairy tales like Rapunzel or Hansel and Gretel - aka stories where bad things happen, but the source of the problem is a pretty obvious villain and things tend to work out in the end. The Mondstadt arc and quests tend to follow this trend too.
Then..... you have Fontaine, which is based on France. Which oh boy oh boy, does France LOVE exploring misery in its popular literature. Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Hunchback of Notre Dame are some of the most popular french works and just about all of them have central characters with EXTREMELY depressing backstories/childhoods (Les Miserables in particular is just a very thorough depiction of all the ways it can suck to be poor in 19th century France). Not only that, but Fontaine seems to be based on French Revolution period, which... to say it was a rough time to live in France would be a SEVERE understatement. So I'm not surprised the Fontaine characters and quests would reflect this those darker trends.
In other words, your observation about the increase of miserable childhoods is on point, but the reason why is most likely because Hoyoverse is extremely detailed and thorough in their research and tries to reflect the unique storytelling styles of the countries they're pulling inspiration from.
Thank you for that intriguing analysis! I think you are definitely on to something. Hoyoverse is indeed very thorough and as you named those iconic French works I realized that could very well have been a point of inspiration for the nation. In fact the actually deliberately had the Kamera originate from Fontaine because it was an iconic invention of a Frenchman in the 1800s named Jaques if I remember correctly. So they are sticklers for details which I love. And kudos to you for the observation.
Who said the genshin community isn't smart 😜.
Thanks for watching and for the thoughtful comment. 😁
It’s also based on the Industrial Revolution and a lot of the literature out of that period involves themes of poverty and neglected children. Charles Dickens comes to mind with David Copperfield and Tiny Tim’s family in A Christmas Carol, both stories touch on poverty and its effects especially on children but that was the reality at the time. Dickens actually lived through it and had to work in a factory as a child to get his family out of debtors prison.
That's a really good analysis! Though, it does make me think that we might see even more misery when we get to Snezhnaya. We already know the inspiration in italian theatre, which can already get pretty tragic, and the fact that it's mixed in with Russia might not help, since its literature has a reputation for exploring darker themes. 😅
Fun fact: on the topic of fairytales, we'll probably see extensive references to Pinocchio there, since not only is it an italian tale, but it has a well-known Russian adaptation as well (called Buratino). Some Commedia Dell'Arte characters also appear in the original version of the story (Pulcinella being one of them, and he's the one shown in that chapter's preview).
Bruh, i already feel, like Shezhnaya will be so messed up... "Mumu", "Crime and Punishment", things like slavery, oh boy...
@nikshev6007 probably lmao. Though a big thing is that they had peasants, not really slaves.
I already imagine things like "dead souls" getting a homage with a small quest which ngl is sad, but fits the nation of love that doesn't have love anymore
I love how when you mentioned Diluc and the others protecting their nations, I immediately thought of “what if Fontaine needs a Batman of sorts to bring fear in certain criminals’ hearts?”
I thought of as a lil joke at first cuz you said Dark Knight Hero for Diluc, but then I thought to myself, “Is there any notable character that brings justice in the shadows of Fontaine?”
Like how Diluc does or how Xiao takes care of karmic evil and archon residue. So I kinda think Fontaine actually needs a Batman of sorts to keep the crime world at bay, on top of the justice system there too 🤔
Truth be told that could have been Wriothesley. That's why people don't see the Fortress so much as a prison but as the underworld. A place that despite its hardships is exceedingly fair because of His Grace's oversight. Some even prefer to stay than deal with the overworld again. If Wriothesley could operate like this above ground. There could be some real change.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer Oh you’re right about that, and I was gonna say that the only thing stopping him from keeping things under control was him being restricted to the Fortress, but yeah Wriothesley being able to have jurisdiction above ground would be a game changer! 🤔
@theunlikelygenshingamer the thing is that European Jail is also extremely fair compaired to the likes of the US.
@@javelinmaster2 I have heard of this and I think it's a shame. To add to the matching statistic this country also has the largest prison population in the world as well. With the highest repeat offenders. Obviously they aren't being truly rehabilitated in the a large number of cases. 😔
@@theunlikelygenshingamer The whole point of the American prison system is to make money. Pretty much all of the prisons are privately owned resulting in long sentences for minor crimes to maximize profits. The prison system here in Canada isn't much better though. The only real improvement is that it isn't about money.
I think the worst places in teyvat to be a kid are probably the sumerian desert as we have literal canon stories of babies being left in the sand and it's just not a very hospitable place lol. and then probably natlan as it is in a constant state of war and violence. but probably fontaine right after those two? 😅 I think Teyvat in general is not great for kids to live in except maybe Mondstadt and Liyue. Enkanomyia was one of the worst places for kids to live too. And Serai island. Idk I feel like these are worse than Fontaine. I'd rather be an orphan in Fontaine than be a starving 5 year old orphan running from dragon monsters in the dark everyday in Enkanomyia
Don’t forget about the sun children〜
Gotta Guve credit to Venti for Mondstat. He seems lazy but name its clear why. He managed to get a nation that is by far the best place to live no cap. 😅
😁 Jokes aside though. I think there is something more powerful going on. It's almost like he's mind controlling them but to softer degree. This actually just occurred to me as I was finishing this video, but the oceanid in the cutscene mentions that the songs of that land put her at ease and Venti also uses his music to soothe Xiao's painful karmic overload.
I'm starting to think that Venti's songs are very very powerful and that's why his nation is so calm.
I mean Liyue doesn’t seem that bad of a place to live either. Although that could be because their archon is forcing people to obey their contracts lest they suffer the wrath of the rock.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer
You mean, something like an atmosphere that incites peace? Almost like people in Mondstad are less inclined to crime and such thanks to a kind of atmosphere?
Exactly, it's like they are just not inclined for the most part because they are happy or content with what they already have. After all that's what drives people to commit crime right? either understandably or plainly greedily being disgruntled with what they have. Most in Mondstadt seem to just enjoy drowning wine for the plain taste and feel of it.
Well, tbh being a kid in Mondstat sucks, (Dion’s and Mika lore as an ex) but way much better than being a Fontainian kid
I think Natlan and Shneznaya are going to be as bad if not worse than Fontaine for various reasons. Natlan is always in war, with many children losing their parents from these wars, and it's possible that they are trained from a very young age on how to be skilled warriors and have the mindset of kill or be killed. Shneznaya is the home of the Fatui, whose member population are largely people who were orphaned and raised in the House of the Hearth. But it's also possible that most of the Shneznaya-born members were never orphaned but were selected and trained to be soldiers
Based on the fact that that one inazuma world quest showed that Arlecchino is in the business of making orphans and scara and Childe say she's crazy, I think more of those recruits may be orphans than we think.
Fatui consist from orphans and non-orphans. The problem however with Fatui lies in the writing field (different people write different Fatui appearances: so while in the 1.0 dailies you work with Viktor in Mondstand and get to know him before his departure to Sumeru, you instantly become somewhat hostile with him in speech while meeting with him in 3.0 dailies that should happen after 2.8 event and Chasm quests where you had no problem helping Fatui and was less hostile in speech with them). The same thing happens with how Fatui soldiers are chosen (however here the content is not mutually exclusive and complement one another): while 2.X and some of 3.X content (Inazuma quest, Chasm quests, Aranyaka questline) go with route "Fatui members are orphans" the 3.4 (or 3.6) world quest content actually states that there are members that go to work as a Fatui just for money as some member states that he got into organization to "pay for university for his sister". Right now there was no mention of "selection and training" but it may come. Although it should be done either how soldiers were reqruited in Russian Empire or selected into KGB in USSR as just usual conscription of every able-bodied citizen even to serve for a set amount of time before being discharged would result in a situation where 90% of citizens are Fatui members that is just dumb considering the game has different Vision for Snezhnaya and Fatui members (Snezhnaya with addition of they insignia) and that while plotwise there is a call for maximization of Fatui members given the scope of they influence, they're still not using trained citizens that had experience due to mandratory service (if they would then there wouldn't be usual Snezhnaya NPCs or there would be way less of them due to most of citizens being in organization because of current demand).
@@theunlikelygenshingamer lets not forget Shneznaya is where doctor is mainly located and his expriments are pretty horrific, also manga dosnt paint that place in a postive light either
@@theunlikelygenshingamer Well, i dug into arlecchino for quite a bit and i can say that from what the game so far tells us about her, that's the way she operates. She makes us of the situation in fontaine, striking again two birds with one stone: get very effective spies, get a decent tactical foothold in fontaine.
As for the statements of Childe and Scaramuche, we'll have to wait until she's playable to hear her view on both Childe and Scaramuche since the Fatui Harbingers aren't really too fond of eachother to begin with. Right now, everything hints at her being either a moraly grey character, a yang-type character, simply an opportunist or psychopath by definition. What we can all agree on though is that she's hiding something dark, may it be about her herself or about her occupation.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer actually that quest was about the previous knave, not the current arlecchino. The "teacher" was just using arle's name to trick the grunts into doing what he wanted
It is funny that you mention Monstad as being the safest/happiest nation since a few centuries ago it wasn't. When the noblemen rule the nation Monstad was on a similar situation as Fontaine, with the dictatorial rule of the nobles over the people in the nation. It wasn't until they finally rebeled that things changed and I can safely say the wound of those days still run deep within the collective psyche of the inhabitants, this is why the nobles are so hated to this day and why the nation is so safe. They understand that nothing good comes when others start to impose their will and have a gut reaction to stop those who think themselves above others, who think they can take their freedom away.
It won't surprise me if we fully dive with this topic on a future Character quest of Furina/Neuvillete, a new world quest or even as part of the Archon questline. I mean, Fontaine is based off France, the place that popularized the lovely and lost tradition of beheading oligarchs and nobles, the country many consider the birthplace of the revolutionary movement. And I think this storyline will involve the Knave, this is where we will work with they once again, as they told us at the end of the Archon quest.
I like how you brought up Old Mondstadt because it's true that a dark history can be found there as well but in some way, perhaps through the approach you mentioned that they not only moved past this but also have risen to the state they are now. If they explored this in a later quest line u would love that.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer Just a few years before traveller met Paimon, Mondstad already had corrupt people selling children away. At most it's safe because it has less of a population. Even then there are kids like Razor/Rosaria/Bennett, who are orphaned because their parents died. Teyvat in general has a problem with kids and child labour, with the only nations lacking it be a result of how small in population they are. Fontaine's population is decently large with many kids orphaned because of floods and their parents being sent to jail. In a Fontaine questline, a little girl is stuck in jail, as a result of her mother birthing her there, because she doesn't have the documentations that would allow for her to leave. Fontaine's way of handling things is too complex and extra that it enforces these poor vs rich gaps and keeps many of it's citizens stuck in unfortunate circumstances. I hope Furina's second story quest will be her starting to fix these things because that's what she was alluded to doing in the future.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer Oh no, no no! Old Mondstadt had its own problems, but the Aristocratic period of Mondstadt was under Venti. Look up how things were at the time of Vennessa.
@@nerobernardino88 oh I know about the difference between Decarabian's Mondstadt and Vanessa's. Sorry for the confusion. I just used the name old Mondstadt because it's... well... older lol
They definitely had problems back then as well
@@theunlikelygenshingamer Ah, aight!
It might just be me, but I noticed that not just children, but being a woman in Fontaine seems to also come with incredibly higher risks than in other regions of Teyvat. Am I wrong? Just think of the young women disappearence case, Navia almost dying in the ruins/having assassination attempts, the recent Leroy case where *spoiler alert* he sold his young daughter into marriage to a rich old man then gave his granddaughter up for adoption for money when daughter was sent to Meropide, Furina suffering for 500 years straight/Focalors sacrificing herself... I'm sure I'm forgetting an awful lot of stuff from secondary quests/world lore, but you get the picture
I am SO glad that there is a video covering this topic. Like a third of the Fontain quests has to do about orphans or parental stuff and NO ONE was talking about it. So, I really appreciate that this GLARINGLY OBVEIOUS systemic issue finally being brought up.
I was afraid someone would beat me to it because it's so blatant. I think it herald Hoyoverse going in a darker direction with story telling but the whole kids situation is definitely diving in.
I was already creeped out that one Dainsleif story where we found that thief dead in front of the defiled statue. I thought it wouldn't get any darker, but I was mistaken. Signora got smited, human experimentation and trafficking, and so much murder going on in Fontain. I think that Natlan is going to have slavery going on at this point and would not be surprised. @@theunlikelygenshingamer
@@princelula5981 With how Natlan is based on mesoamerica, I'm worried about potential of human sacrifice. Raiding neighbors for sacrifice victims seemed to be a major point of conflict in that region.
omg this topic has been on my mind ever since fontaine came out!! for a long time i could not see how such a disparity of social classes fits into the idea of justice and why on earth neuvillette hasn't done anything about it (though it is accurate to france's history lol).
i think chevreuse's dialogue the roses and muskets event really solidified the idea for me that fontaine's "justice" is based on a set of rigid laws that aren't necessarily moral. it is built to be entirely objective with no room for subjectivity. that way, everyone is judged "fairly" even though it would be considered morally "unfair" when taking into context, like in wriothesley's case. and so this definition of justice doesn't extend to the quality of life. instead, its entire purpose is to uphold the laws put in place with black-and-white logic.
as chevreuse said, everyone's personal ideas of justice are very different, as people have varying moral compasses. by holding up strict, unwavering rules that are blind to moral reasoning, fontaine has a universal, objective form of justice that can be applied to everyone.
i think some of furina's dialogue in her story quest was a metaphor for this as well. she set strict rules for herself and talked about not wanting to make any exceptions to those rules. by breaking those rules in the end, it was representative of her breaking out of her role as the god of justice, or rather, the god of upholding strict rules :)
that being said, my theory is that fontaine's law system isn't actually "corrupt" in the sense that the rich and powerful can get away with whatever they want because they're rich and powerful. i think that people are able to get away with trafficking because they have been able to find legal loopholes that anyone could use, regardless of social status (lyney mentions this in the archon quest as well). you will be convicted if you explicitly break any rules, but you can also get away if you DON'T explicity break any rules. since the law is very black-and-white, i imagine it'd b very possible to find ways around certain things if you know which rules not to break.
i think that's also why murder is taken so seriously in fontaine. they mention in the game that it's incredibly hard to claim self defense without a witness, so i imagine that murder is one of the charges in fontaine that has almost no ways to logic your way out of. if someone can prove you killed someone, you go to jail, regardless of who you are or your reasoning behind it.
that also explains why neuvillette doesn't do anything about the social class or trafficking situations. we've already seen this kind of nation once before, in ancient mondstadt. venti, as the god of freedom, stepped in to change that, while focalors / furina / neuvillette have not. this is because in mondstadt, freedom is equal to equity, while in fontiane, justice is equal to equality. while everyone in mondstadt is elevated to the same level, fontaine judges everyone under the same standards, without altering the structure of the society in place.
This was so intelligently put! You perfectly get it 😁. I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned Chevreuses idea of how justice is to be upheld. And as I was saying to someone else and as you pointed out in the case of Venti vs the Mondstadt nobles, in all the other nations it is the presence of a Judicator above the limitations of the populace ie the Archon who is to be the final moral judge of the law in which way the complex and nuanced situations that would stress the law and make it fall short of morally fair judgement can instead be addressed by the Archon.
In truth that is what the Archon of justice should have been a perfectly impartial yet moral judge of the law, like Neuvillette.
Interestingly this feeds into what Zhongli said about none of the new Archons who have taken seats after the various falls of the original seven, upholding their original duty of guiding and protecting mankind. For one reason or another there ability or desire to do that job is lacking.
Egeria in fact probably did a far better, if not perfect job but once she died it went down hill.
Thank you for watching and sharing your thought provoking comment 🙂
The way I see it, Fontaine is largely devoid of safety nets. Child without parents? The only ones to take care of him are foreign spies.
Other life troubles? Mafia can help. Usually.
While in Mondstadt, if a child's mother is away, the whole police/army force takes care of her, and even gives the child an official post.
And if in Liyue a child is without a guardian, the adepti themselves will adopt the child.
The first thing I thought of with this title was the Thelxy event, imagining a young boy just unaliving himself just pains me
Ikr? That event was so sad. For both the child and his mother who simply broke from reality from grief. Poor kid just wanted to not feel so lonely anymore.
And to think that Freminet has seen numerous kids at the orphanage who suffered from the same thing.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer Ngl at first I was already kinda expecting that hoyo might drop that Freminet had the illness but this was equally as saddening.
The House may not be the most heavenly of places but in a place like fontaine, everything else would be considered heaven for these kids which sucks so hard.
00:10 this opening statement is true, and it always bothered me why. in Fontaine the only way to reproduce is to pray by the Fountain of Lucine, i.e. it should mean that there is no unplanned, unwanted pregnancies. logically, Fonatine should have the least amount of, as you put it, disadvantaged children.
so why the heck is it the opposite?
I'm really glad you brought that up because I have a theory. After reading Navia's character story and seeing how much Navia turned out just like she envisioned, and at the same time learning that when oceanid reproduce they are basically dreaming up a mini me. Then what if everytime the child they receive from the fountain isn't what they imagined they just discard them and try again and that underbelly of amorality is what makes it not even strike them as unthinkable.
I mean when Dulphy said that she was abandoned for having a incurable disease,it really stuck me: these blokes are wishing at the fountain and when they lose the 50/50 they just dump the kid and try again.
Scary stuff
@@theunlikelygenshingamer you know, I thought about this some from some and... why the reason child trafficking is suge a huge business in Fontaine is *because* there's so little children (in this case cargo, ugh) to go around?
what I mean is, whenever the demand is higher than supply, the prices go up, which would make trafficking a tricky, but lucrative business. it fits with Freminet's backstory, whose parent's only option was to sell *him* to settle a debt. if we assume they still had a house of their own at that point, it could literally mean that kids were getting sold at prices rivalling real estate.
In any case, this would mean that any kid who is even a little less lucky than others could end up trafficked.
@@alexremus3415 You've really hit on something. I was running around in Fontaine the other day with a friend and we were noting how few children there are roaming around compared to other nations. And interestingly thosr you do see are dressed exactly to match the parents you see them with like literally color coordinated mini forms of their parents. And it got me thinking that all the kids who are well taken care of are down right doted on but the ones who aren't are estimed as nothing more than a burden 😔
This is why I love Fontaine, way more darker less hand holding story telling.
Exactly, feels like Hoyoverse is acknowledging that we aren't babies.
Any place with that many guns is an awful place to be a kid
Source: I'm from the States
Can confirm that's a valid source. (I here about another mass shooting, often involving kids in this country every other day.)
Thank you! I’ve been saying Fontaine is an orphan factory. For playable orphans you also forgot Navia as well as technically Furina
i have been thinking of the same thing.. wonder how natlan will be. this video made me remember how pulcinella has childe’s family in his hands, wanderer’s voiceline made me think about how if something goes wrong with tartaglia, and he’s connected to arlecchino, what if his siblings get trafficked or something? or get taken in by the house of the hearth, when it’s not exactly innocent :P
I never even thought of that. I want to think that Pulcinella cares but it could really be a ploy to keep Childe obedient. Hopefully Scara's cynical way of looking at the world doesn't pan out.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer I'm afraid that Wanderer's opinion on Pulcinella holds some water, if you look at his opinion regarding Arlecchino. He basically says that the holy father figure towards the orphans is a facade and beneath it, she's simply insane. Now, take a look at Tartaglia's voiceline regarding her, he doesn't trust her, informing us that she'd surely betray Tsaritsa if she saw a profit out of it, and - you guessed it - also mentioned that she's nuts. Now remember the whole bunch of fatui npcs we've met throughout the nations - the Gendou Ringo quest in Inazuma, Alphonso in Vimara village - how did the members of the House of Hearth operate? Nasty methods were used, and the twins + Freminet's voiceline's regarding the Knave's "parenting style" gives signs of a very twisted and sick version of parental love, so she's certainly as devious as the boys have described her to be. So there's also a big possibility on their takes on the rest of the Harbringers' to hold some ground. The Rooster struck me as not good when he said in that trailer to pause everything in Rosalyne's memory for merely _half_ a day, and then even Pantalone called him out on this sarcastically. They really gathered a bunch of psychopaths up in the higher seats, and i say that with all the love i have for Wanderer (he needed that reality check and Nahida's therapy sessions).
Fontaine the LEAST likely place id want to settle down and raise a family. Id rather be in Sumeru or Liyue. Maybe Snezhnaya despite cold? Snezhnaya still up in air. Natlan, Inazuma, and Fontaine are big fat NO if you want to settle and have kids. 😢😭
Nahida was pretty much kidnapped by the sages too
i wouldnt say kidnapped but moreso held captive
@@willow4083 She was grounded.
I also think the Prophecy itself could have something to do with criminal activity. Rising water levels made a lot of people lose their homes, and that also could increase the divide between the lower and upper class.
__Maybe the people of Fontaine are new to this, being human.
They are learning how to be human and making allot of mistakes.
I think the Oceanids thought it was normal to sell children.(Which is bad).
One more thing. I think the other race are evolving into humans. Like Seigwinne.
Did Phanes change Teyvat like those Kryptonian who brought their World Engine in that Superman Movie?
That's an interesting theory that I'm inclined to believe (the bit about the oceanids) someone I was talking to suggested that since oceanids were really just wishing for children at the fountain of Lucine, perhaps when they child they received wasn't how they imagined they would just abandon them.
Kinda makes me shudder to be honest.
Even though Natlan and Snezhnaya might outrank Fontaine in regards to this topic (we'll have to see after their release), I wholeheartedly agree! You brought up some points a lot of us forgot or delegated to the background lol
I'm quite concerned about what could the situation of Natlan be like, I live in a hispanic country and the joke of "get me out of LATAM" is no joke.
Not only criminality is really high, but laws are really volatile and corruption is so common that police can be bribed with very few money in some countries. Not only that, but also urban legends aren't better:
La Llorona revolves around the mourning spirit of a mother who lost her children, in some versions through murdering them on blind rage against her husband and in others through them drowning when she wasn't paying attention
El Silbon is an errant ghost of a boy who murdered his father in cold blood and is condemned to carry a sack of his remains for all eternity
The Patasola is the vengeful spirit of a beautiful woman who was mutilated and burn alive by a jealous village who saw her beauty as witchcraft.
Hispanic legends often revolve around tragedy, specially familiar ones so I'm sure this will somehow traduce into Natlan's stories
Those legends are fascinating and of course tragic, I would be surprised if such a thing isn't brought to the fore when we reach Natlan. The regions this nation is to take inspiration from are no walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination so Natlan may very well be exponentially worse. Or Hoyoverse msy fully well completely surprise us with a curve ball.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer For what I have seen, each nation has shown more and more messed up things, just as how in Honkai Impact the game starts quite normal and with a bubbly protagonist just to descend in trauma.
In this case we go from a seemingly typical fantasy medieval story of defeating a dragon to an archon seemingly having died, to a civil war, to an archon being rejected by her own people and people being errased from existence by modifying the world and finally to an apocalypse where a whole nation could potentially die and an actual archon dying in front of us.
Genshin is slowly loosing the fear of adding trauma inducing topics into the picture so god knows what will happen in Natlan, and then in Snezhnaya
Now that I think about it, being a kid in Fontaine, and Sumeru sucks. Sumeru sucks especially if your born in the desert, then there’s trafficking in Fontaine in which is way worse. For the nation of Wisdom and Justice they sure have a lot of hypocrisy of the values their gods upheld.
In Sumeru Nahida is quite explicit that wisdom is in short supply there. Plenty of knowledge, but not much wisdom.
THANK you. I'm very autistic and criminal justice and child trauma are my spins, and Fontaine's legal system is horrifying on every level. Why is the nation of justice best known for child trafficking? should at least be a question *explored* , but instead Focalors and Neuvillette are both portrayed as kind, responsible people, which doesn't make sense with how poorly structured the government is. They also entirely ignore how easy it is for people to disappear in Meropide- it's referenced as a joke, or as a frustration, but both the vanishing of Childe and the *cult* in Wriothesley's story quest were entirely preventable with the most basic of security measures. People get murdered there, absolutely, but no one knows or cares, because the paperwork is messed up and society is structured so that all crimes, from murder to petty theft to plagarism, are quite literally lumped together, and and then totally isolated, both during their prison stay and upon release- if they can even survive being released, since Meropide credits are useless elsewhere and no one will even interact with ex-cons, much less hire them.
It's almost certainly because the way Fontaine's justice system is set up isolates people and increases risks of recidivism. As a general rule of thumb, when the government doesn't allow journalists, there are human rights violations involved.
You're very welcome😁 I love seeing how much everyone is taking note of the ins and outs of this game's world because it's well thought out and intriguing to discuss
sorry i didnt watch the video and im not going to because of spoilers but how is fontaine responsible of child trafficking?
But Fontaine does have journalists? They have The Steambird and Charlotte? What are you talking about?
Obviously, Furina and Focalors were too busy trying to prevent the prophecy that would've killed Everyone, so they didn't have time to worry about the nation's cases. It's better to save the whole nation than have no nation at all which wouldn't even have any crimes?
@@Aaaaidkhelplolakajwjmem. Basically, a number of character backstories involve child trafficking. There seems to be a child trafficking network that's about as big as Synthe trafficking network. It was never made clear if vigilantes got them all, or if it still exists.
Fortress of Meropide doesn't seem to prohibit normal people or journalists from entering or leaving. At least, under Wriothesley.
We even get a short quest about a trainee journalist trying to get some good photo shots there. And Melusines can just come to visit their sister who works as a doctor there.
Wriothesley and Neuvillette themselves aren't fond of interviews, though. As is their right, given how Fontaine is crawling with journalists.
If I was them, I would hold press conferences occasionally.
Honestly I feel like Fontaine as the most advanced region is reflecting the current state of our world
I agree with this. In fact I feel like on many levels Genshin Impacts story is a deep and ongoing social commentary. It's why I'm so intrigued to see what they will do with Natlan. As a person of African descent I really am curious to see how our culture and history will be handled. I've already seen some promising details in the "Talking Stick" weapon description. Over all I think Genshin is far deeper than most give it credit.
Exactly honestly
Exactly what i thought
All of this happens in real life and fontaine showing that despite being the nation of justice hits hard
I'd like to know who makes the laws in Fontaine. It's not Neuvilette, he's a judge not a policy maker. It may be Furina but still just as unlikely as she lived 500years not knowing what to do.
I have two ideas:
1) It's a bit like how the Fatui penetrated Inazuma's system to create more conflict and more orphans for the House. This may be answered when we get to know more about Arlecchino and her political stance in Fontaine & Snezhnaya
2) It is part of the punishment sent by Celestia or the Heavenly Principles for Egeria's original sin... but since the Orphanage existed before then, It could be something else dating back to when the lochfolk found Fontaine...
That is a very good question. I can't imagined it's the challenged clerks at the Palais Mermonia. Perhaps they were set by Egeria from long ago but in her absence have not fully evolved with the times. It also seems as though the Oratrice in a large way handled this alone. Like people were surprised that a death sentence was something it could do because it's workings were mysterious. They just took for granted that they were fair because it was made by an archon and Neuvillette agreed with it at all times. And yet they must be written somewhere 🤔
egeria established most of the laws, fontainians probably participated too
Gotta pump those orphan numbers for house of hearth 😂
This is why i hate it when people said "theres no conflict about the rich and poor the leaks were wrong" YES there is you weren't paying attention!! What's maddening about it is that it seems like furina and neuvilette don't seem to do anything about it
Ikr? And I can kind of understanding Furina hiding behind Neuvillette and so not being aware of the problem, she even pointed this out in her story quest that she want to get to understand her people more. But Neuvillette knows and understands but still doesn't really change the law. It's why so many folks actually decide to stay in the Fortress. Wriothesley's brand of justice simply comes across as more fair. No need for iron clad evidence. If everyone agrees that someone is a piece of scum they'll get handled. That give people more faith in their rights being upheld.
@theunlikelygenshingamer yeah and for example the disaster in poisson happened because of their negligence in the first place. They absolutely have the funds to get the people that live there in a betyer situation. As much as i live neuviletye hes not free from criticism. Now that he has the responsibility of an archon i hope he does something about the poor
@@mybeaniebooz9601 learning what I did in research for the Narzissenkreuz story video, I realized that there has always been a scornful division between the rich and poor and it's how places like the Fleuve Cendre and Poisson came about. The Purge of Fleuve Cendre really stinks of the upperclassmen pushing the poor out of existence because they were undesirable instead of help them. Of course that was before Neuvillette but he hasn't done much afterwards either because the laws are the same.
The Fontaine archon quest didn't point any of it out directly. It's all in the environment.b
@@mybeaniebooz9601 That's the little Problem. He sees himself as the Supreme court taking the role of Judge and that's the jist of the Problem.
He isn't the leader he's the Court.
I remember thinking once, well thinking about Fontaine...
"What's up with all the child trafficking?" And that's BAD VERY BAD
I knew other people had to be thinking about it because it was pretty much everywhere.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer Right??? What's up with that?
I really like your points and find them very interesting! my personal idea on why fontaine has so many more criminals is because having such a rigid justice and law system also provides methods of conduct for criminals in a way, where if they work around the law they won't get caught. Most other nations so far work with a far less rigid system, so criminals have no laws to hide behind really
I totally agree. It's like if the criminal s don't know where the goal post is they can't move it. And I think a good example of the difference in justice systems between say Inazuma and Fontaine is in Heizou's hangouts wherein Ryuuji was nearly convicted of a crime he didn't commit because all the evidence was stacked against him, but based on Heizou's and Kujo Sara's gut feelings and them having the ability to act on it, they could dig deeper and bring the real truth to light. In Fontaine, the peoples belief in what they had been presented would have tipped the Oratrice in the direction that would have landed him in jail because the real culprit would have worked the system to his advantage.
I could never fathom how there even in real life have been people who used children as nothing but tools to be tested on, used and/or sold, but seriously how could anyone in Fontaine still be happy knowing that this injustice towards children and others happend on a seemingly regular basis. But seeing how much more wonderful and safe of a place Mondstadt seems to be to grow up in, thank goodness Kaeya's father choose to leave Kaeya behind in Mondstadt instead of Fontaine.
People who argue this video has "availability bias" sound like they've completely ignored half of the video literally spelling out the fact its a *systemic issue*...which means it isnt just "a few cases" we see focused on the story we as the travelers are forced to experience, its literally outlining whole past and current history of numerous regions and Fontaine's ongoing society.
Thank you! You get it! It's precisely why I structured the script that way. Stare my point and then support it. I'm assuming those folk have a confirmation bias of their own why they ignored everything else. But it really isn't a case here or there. It's everywhere.
Sounds like the same kinda people who “don’t like” politics shoved in their favorite games. Meanwhile their favorite games wear their politics on their sleeves.
9:38 I actually broke down crying at this part
I only read the Thumbnail was a about to throw hands, lol.
Jokes aside, good observation, felt like there was something off with many of Fontaine's characters for a while, now I know why.
I knew this thumbnail was going to hook some fish lol. I knew other folk could sense something kind of off about this place but maybe weren't sure what it was. Thanks for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed. 😁
God and listen to the death note musical song "where's the justice" it's basically described Fontaine's problem with the justice system
About your comment about the whole Fontainians being oceanids, and wondering if there was "something wrong in the process." I myself believe there might have been an intention to it, or still a headcanon either way. And it has something to do withboth Egeria and Focalors.
Indemnitium, Focalors explains that it's harvested via the Oratrice from the peoples beliefs on justice during the trials. I've always wonder how much "belief" is required to make a reasonable amount of Indemnitium and how does one produce so much indemnitium to power an entire country? And the nation of justice just so happen to have such vile people, so much vile things happen that it quite literally powers an entire country. Was it intentional that these people end up being so vile?
I don't think Egeria saw the future that is Focalors plan to destroy the heavenly throne. But its still a non-zero chance. Perhaps Egeria would know that the next Hydro Archon will have to bear her sins, and maybe Egeria would try and prepare the next hydro archon by intentionally creating flaws in the false humans. Basically turning them into livestock to be milked off for their "belief".
Anyways, glad I found this channel.
Now thats a thought provoking theory. it would certainly be some 4d chess to pull a move like that. and yet it isnt outside of the realm of possibility. welcome to the club
As more law is passed, ppl are more likely to do atrocity to find a loophole. That being said, without law, chaos would ensue. So it really comes down to the collective effort of the citizen to make their living conditions better for everyone. This is rare but Mondstadt showed us what would happen when people are at peace in the middle of anarchy. There’s Knight of Favonious but they’re literally just peace keepers or guardians of Mondstadt. That is why you cant blame them if they have hatred to the Lawrence Clan.
I mean the orphans is probably the academy blowing up. The flooding probably caused the homelessness situation. It all makes sense to me.
I don't think Fontaine Research Institute blew up that long ago. All people involved seem pretty young.
It's not just that one Melusine who lost her job due to the explosion.
@@kotarouinugami1745 Right…? Hence the large number of orphans still being relatively young…?
@@ZhongliArchonofSwag What I mean, is that Wriothesley look older than any researcher we meet, and can't be their orphaned child. And Liney and Lynette seem to have become orphans much earlier than the Institute exploded.
off topic but i really don’t like how hoyoverse showed us that there’s a clear division between the poor and rich in fontaine, to the point there are people literally living in the sewerage, a whole town, but it’s not brought up in the archon quest at all. not a single playable character talks about it, like it is natural. why add this theme to fontaine if you don’t anything with it?
Maybe the remnants of their Oceanid nature are still present despite being humans. Or maybe since Fontaine is inspired by France... which is known by their works about misery.
I think both things are true actually and just perfectly inform one another. They really do take in all sorts of aspects of the different nations and yet still make them their own place.
Bro had us with the first half with that thumbnail 💀
It's because of those Baguettes and Croissants...
Hm. In Fontaine, children have chosen to be born because they wanted to experience the heights and depths of emotion and drama. Also importantly, stories about bad childhoods don't become discreet neighborhood gossip, they go into the newspapers - and once there, the topic becomes suitable for discussion with and among relative strangers meaning you. You're also probably spending more time early on in Fontaine interacting with the police and justice system at the level of individual cases: we know basically nothing about the backstories of Raptor and little about the bosses of the Treasure Hoarders in Liyue, and in general have never explored criminals' pasts much until Fontaine because while we've cared about stopping the crime and catching the criminal our involvement has usually stopped there.
The thing is a couple throws a coin then they have a baby, but Focalor never interaced with more then 10 humans before and there is no way she knows what kind of *ahem* process it took for a real human to make a baby, I mean there are no screening process there a high change people screaming in the next before the dad declares they going to get milk. More PTSD for Furina.
Nice video but you left out something important. While you talked about the nations that we have so far in-game, there is one left out, Inazuma. What are your thoughts about the legal system in the nation of Eternity?
It's true that I didn't go into detail at all about Inazuma because I felt the video would become too long. But I definitely have considered them.
Inazuma, being based on feudal Japan strikes me as very strict but quite fair.
If we think back to before the very recent enactment of the Vision Hunt Decree and it's accompanying war, which brought undue suffering, Inazuma enjoyed a state of piece and prosperity that most sought to preserve. The tenryou commission, inazuma justice commission essentially, has a quite a long leash in terms of interpretation of the laws of Inazuma and what sort of punishment to give out. The prison is relatively small and not often full while individual crim itself seemed quite low.
I think a part of this is true fear of the Shogun judgement should they deviate from what is acceptable and with most people being satisfied with their lives apart from yearning to leave the nation entirely.
The overarching theme of honor and reverence for the Shogun seems to permeate through most aspects of life so that most dishonorable acts are marginalized and minimal like the Nobushi and rogue Samurai.
Inazuma is also quite small population wise, which does play a part in how complicated the justice has to become to cover all posibble scenarios but I think the biggest factor in that nations calmer criminal atmosphere really is the knowledge that the Shogun does have the last say. So when the Tenryou Commission did step out of line by cilluding with the Fatui, she stepped in, above any written laws and rectified the problem so that the current clan leader had to step down. That I think more than anything, the presence of a impartial judicator who is above the law keeps the human errors that can corrupt the system to a minimum. Sorry for the long analysis but I do enjoy these intellectual discussions in the comments 😁
Great analysis video! ❤
Thank you!
It’s actually depressing knowing that most Fatui members are simply orphaned children from Fontaine who never truly got to have a childhood. Sure, we know that the House of the Hearth is a caring place, but the fact that most will go on to serve the Fatui and use delusions that’ll slowly kill themselves it’s kind of dark.
Also Charlotte is like the only playable character from here who has like no trauma. Lmao
My point exactly
We should send off Timmy to Fontaine.
revisiting this video after Arlecchino's SQ really does add a lot of depth to this video, are you going to cover it at some point?
I wish you'd played a clip of Nuevillete talking about the water of the different nations when you said he was describing the state of the nation but its fine i'll look it up great vid :)
Sry about that, I figured so many people have heard him say that over and over again. It's like his most common idle animation.
Anyway thanks for watching and commenting glad you liked it.
I think for me tho, it’s because of an archon’s influence and how some people go contradict it.
For a quick example, Mondstadt was reigned by they Lawrence clan and was robbed by their freedom, Liyue’s sight of contracts are rather inconsistent, Inazuma’s way of getting over Ei’s definition of “eternity” (because of the loss of her sister) and is now living in progress, Sumeru’s wisdom being taken advantage of by smuggling Knowledge capsules and now Fontaine’s definition of justice.
To be honest, the people contradict their God’s title and who knows if Natlan ppl contradicting their God’s value of War.
Imagine if natlan's people are just a nation of hippies, to the Pyro archons disgust 😂
It does surprise me, as I would expect it more of a problem in Inazuma, due to the civil war and starvation...
Speaking of real life, while none of my relatives were orphans, they did struggle a lot especially due to war and financial crashes and it was obviously so many others as well... Children were abandoned left and right because people couldn't feed them or had bigger worries than raising children. My grandfather was basically a slave and worked on a farm, paid with food scraps, and the permit to sleep on hay, in the farm! That was frigging Austria! Even worse: the catholic orphanage of Vienna (again Austria) was for a long time the butt of many jokes implying that it was the city's biggest brothel! Turns out, it had about as much substance as the h-caust jokes before the g3noc!de became public knowledge... Orphans whose parents were killed in WWII, or children, who were the product of Soviets R-ping and pillaging the lands, were tossed in it and no one wanted to see them... that is until some got old enough and attractive, then they could make up for being useless eaters by being forced into p-stitution... The ugly ducklings were partially turned profitable by forcing them into medical experiments, obviously without their consent or any legal or moral standards upheld. God, I really _love_ the church! They've always taken such great care of their sheep... I'd like to point out that children obviously ran away from the orphanage, but street kids were even more hated than orphans and thus they got beaten up by the police and returned to their abusers... who punished them even more...
The police knew for a LONG time of the crimes, but it was simply nothing they were keen on investigating, as it only hit people without a vote, so to speak...
That's why the story of the Fontaine orphans hit really close to home for me, though I've heard of other countries having similar stories, most notably Ireland, Spain, (in both cases, the catholic church was involved AGAIN!), and Japan...
It's a common theme in human history the strong, rich and powerful will always oppress the weak, forgotten and impoverished. Best wishes to you friend 😔
@@theunlikelygenshingamer What I don't get though is that the weak will still gladly participate in making other weak ones suffer by those who have power. It's completely irrational how much hate orphans and homeless get even from people who are just a step away from joining their ranks... I've also seen over and over how supposed friends sabotage their friends when they are about to improve their lives, be it that they find a nice GF, or stopped a bad habbit...
Coming up... the Pyro Nation and Cryo Nation 😂
Don't forget Khaenri’ah, who knows what the heck is going on down there.
Honestly natlan having orphans make sense and would be less evil than in Fontaine, because it's a nation of warfare, parents are ganna die, while in Fontaine kids are just abandoned or straight up SOLD
Liyue still the safest in my opinion, look at most of the characters there
That's such a bad misinformation saying Fontaine has a bigger criminal rate or unsafe knowing the backgrounds of others genshin's character that aren't fontanian, also have their share of childhood trauma. Rosaria's is all about bandit killing and burning ALL her village and kidnapping the children and those very same murdererers adopted her and made her kill and steal to survive. Shenhe's exorcist family literally perfoms sacrifice rituals of young children to monster and she became that very end sacrifice by her own father, Ryuu's story literally about him becoming a sacrifice too, Enkanomiya's children also all had their share of horrible lives. Mondstadt centuries ago had SLAVERY system
The difference is that those are either isolated incidents (Rosaria and Shenhe) or are historical events. With Fontaine, children suffering is a recurring theme in modern Fontaine. The country practically has orphans as its main export.
*had* slavery
Oh my god
This is why i like the nation so much outside of the aesthetics
The storytelling is so much different from the other nations
Yes it's like Hoyoverse realized we can handle it, no need to be babied.
Watermelon scara say hi
Thanks for stopping by 👍
girl i came her to hear answers and you left me with many questions instead lol
They're indeed some questions swirling around to be answered. I hope when we come back to Fontaine for Furina's 2nd Story quest or to find out more about Arlecchino we get some reveals.
Anyhow thanks for watching I really appreciate it 😁
@@theunlikelygenshingamer i love your content keep going!!! 💗
It's a clear representation of what could happen to a nation that lacks the Archon influence to guide the masses and lead them.
We know almost little to nothing of how Ageria ruled over Fontaine so I'm a bit hesitant to say that this is not due to the Fontainians being originally Oceanids.
Tho Furina managed to capture the perfect image of an Archon in the publics perspective she at the end of the day lack the power, Carisma and feats that the other Archons have.
Venti tho known as the absenty Archon still has done alot for Mondstadt which earned him the steadfast devotion of the knights and the Church. As the nation of Freedom Mondstadt has no ruler the knights simply act as the peacekeepers and Church gives the people a God to put people's faith in, which is all people need i suppose.
Rex Lapis stood as the protecter for Liyue for many millenia a feat unmatched till this day. Tho he didn't rule his people directly he still made appearances once every year to provide guidance to the people. And as he is the one who basically started the concept of contracts, obeying the law is a kin to paying respect to the God who "walked with the land and its people for millennias".
The Stories of him making cameo appearances probably also played a part in it.
Inazuma doesn't need much of an explanation seeing how the God of Eternity rules over the people with an ironfist . Stories of her power and feats were more than enough to keep the people in line.
Tho Nahida also lacked the feats, power and Authority of an Archon the Akademiya's reverence towards Rukhadevta helped keep the people's mind at ease knowing the people incharge are followers of a God that created and provided for the nation. Tho this wasn't ideal for the actual Archon and had it's consequences this did protect Nahida from the same scepticism and doubt that Furina faced during her debut, tho they probably wouldn't have been much of a problem given time. This also favoured Nahida when she was finally saved and overthrew the tyrannical Akademiya giving her the boost in reputation and helped her establish herself as the new Archon incharge
Now I'm not saying that none the other nations have any issue related to the law and injustice like Fontaine has but the people's faith in their Archon and then knowing that there is someone watching over them most definitely lowered the possibilities by a lot
I agree wholeheartedly. The people in Fontaine essentially rule themselves entirely and that was quite a problem. The laws that Neuvillette follows so vociferously were written largely by the people as a group. And because of the fact that these laws can also be known by all without a supreme authority to overrule when some one is abusing them (finding loopholes) then the whole thing can spiral out of control.
I'll use the example of Wriothesley again. When he found out what dougier was doing the guy tried to quote the law back to him about Wriothesley said no torture or cruel punishment.
Neuvillette would have adhered to this and found some more "fair" way to exact punishment because he's not above the law himself. But Wriothesley has no qualms about stepping above it when necessary that's why it was so decisively comforting for the people who were wronged when he told Dougier that the rules can't be quoted back to him because they are to keep the masses in check not him.
Now of course without a fair and righteous leader this approach is inherently flawed but without it masses that need a form of authority to govern them cant have that authority be subject to the same limitations as them.
Neuvillette would have been perfect to act as archon in this respect because he is unerringly impartial meaning he could always be counted on to act fairly.
At the moment they really rely on Wriothesley to finish the application of justice in the way only an archon really can.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer I do agree for the most part but I see Wriothesly's approach as more effective and necessary for the current state Fontaine. I agree that Nuvilette will make a good Archon due to is impartial nature and his strict adherence to the law but there's a major flaw in this idea, primarily that Nuvilette can only judge the cases that are brought to the surface and attention of the authorities whereas cases like Lynette's and even other unjust trials like Caeser (Magician teacher of lyney and Lynette). Cases like these that have no direct law or that get covered up are things that Nuvilette is very unexpected about as he lacks the understanding of humans.
And Wriothesly's way is technically within his authority as the Fortress has complete autonomy and cannot be influenced or interfered with by outside parties. Wriothesly can infact make anyone disappear if he so wishes as there is no inherent obstacle in his way. Nuvilette himself is also aware of Wriothesly's actions yet he too doesn't or can't object to them
You aren't wrong. Yoimiya literally spells it out for us that Before the Sakoku Decree Inazuma was effectively a nice Old man retirement location. All the Bandits we encountered were caused by the chaos of the war.b
@@silverhawkscape2677 yeah i think some nobushi are due to Scara's wild rampage the Raiden Gokuden incident
So basically Gotham city but also with sunny days
Lol, apt description 😁
For kids in teyvat there are far worse places than Fontaine, while Fontaine isn't that good it also ain't that bad either, it's mostly the playable characters that had problems in their childhood, but Inazuma and Sumeru(specially desert part) are far worse to live in as a kid
I'm curious to know what are the evidences of disproportionate hardship for children specifically in Inazuma and Sumeru? Alhaitham actually comments that Kaveh was gullible for falling for a scam that fronted as a charity for children because child welfare is well looked after in Sumeru as for the desert, it's harsh for everyone. And I can't think of any specific instances in Inazuma except Arlecchino's isolated operation to make orphans in Watatsumi. And Inazuma's situation is current not enduring. This came about ever since the vision hunt decree.
Fontaine has had this problem since before the Cataclysm with many npcs affected.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer for Inazuma you can think of Ruu from Tsurumi Island who was sacrificed to the Thunder Bird, Kito and Kina who died on the same island because the bird cursed the islanders, the sick child who was dear to Scaramouche passing from a Tatarigami type illness, Chouji who sold crystal marrow to survive by himself because his mother was being treated for Tatarigami in Sumeru, etc For Sumeru I havent explored much so I'm only aware of Collei being afflicted with Eleazar and being sent to Dottore only to end up becoming a test subject.
@@coco-wc1czthis isn’t really a normal day for Inazuma, where as Fontaine, everyday child trafficking is still going on.
People looking to live in Paris, please take notes.
wonder what they will do with natlan since it a land of war
Worst case scenario something like sparta
A legal system and people in it that follow justice perfectly... lacks flexibility. When one side plays by the rules and the other doesn't, guess who has the advantage? And people always come up with ways to cirumvent laws more easily than to make good laws to counter such that don't also restrict others.
Mondstadt is a very good place to live, abundance to be had. Largley more spread out, most gathering are more communal in nature to bolster the community, and have fun together. An ideal place with little need for crime from most people, an easy life to live there But they do also have some people that work flexibly behind the scenes to deal with those that do make trouble, in addition to those who work in the public view to keep things going well. Often more focused on protecting people or helping people, than constraining people or doing internal security, most people see them as a positive element.
Liyue is a bit worse, but still mostly ok. The society still focuses heavily on families and ancenstry and bonds, contractual or familial, and with plenty of "honor" and "trust" being a focus of merchants and their people being under the Archon of contracts, everyone is pushed to hold this image and act with it in mind. Crime is limited, and families do decently well. Overall, another pretty easy place to live, though not as much as mondstat. And for any larger groups trying to interfere with that stability, the main frontal legal groups are assisted by many very capable information and back end agents like Yelan, so despite being a larger more economic focused society, they do a good job of keeping things in check.
Inazuma... they had plenty of issues, but were under such tight control, that most organized crimes or groups to interfere with society wouldn't make it. Children were valued heavily as required for the future, and as soldiers for the fighting, so the government had support and interest in making sure they could survive and grow up. And family structures were VERY strong here, so all families would value and protect their children, and later on the children their parents or grandparents in turn. Families were central to this eternity they held, and must keep going. So while there was fighting, and varoius issues that created problems, the societies overall focused on family and very rigid rules meaning most kids always had someone to take care of them, and no one could exploit things too badly without overwelming force being brought in by the government and it's main clans to deal with it. Still, between wars, and some issues there are a number of such children, most had other families or neighbors that would help out with most villages having that close knite reliance on eachother mindset, but for others they've been taken care of by Aratakki and his gang among others, meaning even at the worst most kids could get food, and had some good... if interesting, role models there to help them out.
Sumeru... seems to have a fairly strong social setup so kids could be taken care of even if there are issues with parents, but with the control of the academy in both law, and brainwashing, people were kept in control and so big issues or failures to raise future scientists didn't take place for the most part. On the other hand in the desert, plenty of such things showing up with more parental figures dying... but even then the tribes of the desert had very strong group bonds so unless the whole group died, kids would likely have adults present, and their kids were tought to be tough young, so even if worst happened, many could find some place to work at or steel for their own food as raiders. So there are issues there, but limited in how badly it arguably effects most children.
How the main forrest and academy side will fair in the future does make me wonder.. but given their archon and how well she can notice all issues people have and micromanage things from the shadows, I doubt any big issues will crop up she can't handle.
And then Fontaine... Fontaine doesn't seem to have unlike all of these other groups, particularly strong family bonds. Many still value family plenty, but for most who do care it's their image they care about, and getting rid of children not "noble" or such is more convenient to the image. They care less about their local group and family and more about appearances. In the city, work is the focus and appearances are everything. Nobles care little for those bellow them, or peasants easily can fail in business and go under, and with drugs and other trades spreading in such a dense society plenty of problems happen that can break families. Crime is, in this competitive business and popularity focused society out of control as people backstab eachother to get ahead. This society is corrupt, broken, and has too many bad actors already present. The part so many robots do jobs meaning many people can't get their own jobs and make living wages seems to not help either for the lower class. Overall Fontaine is perhaps like what Mondstadt would be if they didn't overthrow the nobles. They are stuck with their older, corrupt elites and such, and with the strict rule of law those older groups know how to play and manipulate, it is very hard to remove them from positions of power as long as they are somewhat smart about their crimes. They are a society with rules, built by and to suit those who were in power, and change has been slow and limited. Their legal forces are very by the book, robots especially, limiting how well they can deal with these organizations like some other countries. Yelan would have a field day here. But nope, no big revoltes, and everyone must for appearances act happy or liek they are doing well, even if failing... so it's harder to create that overall group mentality needed for a revolution to just rip the band aid off if you will. And a society distracted by fashions and other things is, arguably, more vain, having more value in those than your simple family. The people who would arguably be exceptions, living outside the city, have also not been doing well with the rising water levels, and other disasters going on, helping to focus all people into these bad situations at very high densities. The question then is... why didn't Neuvillette and Furina at least set up a better system for catching the kids falling through the cracks? Did they try, but those who became in charge of those institutions were always from old seats of power and thus always corrupt? Were they not able to find a single good person to be a director of such orphanage programs? I mean... we find lots of good characters they've found in various places be it running a prison, doing crime fighting, or assisting them in other ways... yet they couldn't find or take one of them and put them over an orphanage? Navia and her family are possibly the best social net you'd find for many... but they've been falling behind lately with her parents dying due to that same corruption... So maybe it's that anyone who is in a position of power in Fontaine who isn't corrupt, is killed off to quickly, Neuvillette surviving only because no one can kill him? And the only competent person who's not badly corrupt in a position of power otherwise seems to be... Wriothesley, he's the only person who plays behind the scenes well, and can break rules to do what needs doing at times. And that's because he's in a prison, not Fontaine proper and stuck following all their rules. If he went surfice side to "clean up" would he not just get sent back by others painting him as a criminal with valid or not charges that Neuvillette would enforce because justice!
It kind of feels like they're stuck withp owerful nobles that are corrupt in charge of much of society, yet can't get rid of them because the rules don't allow it currently, and because they have "justice" and law and order and rules as their "good" side, the "good" side can't just go and deal with the problem directly, and is indirectly stuck protecting them...
Overall, Fontaine is not a great society or culture, sumeru with it's extreme focuse on academics was also not great, but still not quite so violent and cutthroat or competitive to the point it'd cause such problems. Also might just be that... this was something they wanted to write more about, being gold for tragedies and you know how the writers for Genshin love them some tragedies.... And they just decided to go all out this time. Also a society with "justice" as it's symbol must have something to do with that justice and law, like fight criminals... so basicly Fontaine is for story purposes like a location with superman or batman in it... that by their very existence requires a joker or other villian to show up and match them. So for fontaine to show justice and law... they must have crime and injustice aplenty as well.
I have a late reply but this is a very nice writeup!
I am disagreeing with the hook on this video, fontaine is the perfect place to raise and nurture kids, hence why the trafficking industry is much more developped.
With liyue you're ultra likely to die to some random ahh monster in the wilderness.
With inazuma you were literally in a warring state, enemy soldiers defo cutting you down. Famines, resource, power and territorial structures. Not to mention the horrid climate/weather that makes travelling (especially on boat a deathwish)
With fontaine you have a very well structured city and modern-esque environment/civilization. That kind of maturity in affairs is what breeds the trafficking org. The mass mass majority of kids probably grow up healthy lives with mekbots, various divisions of authority, and the most in-depth criminal/punishment system out there as both a deteral and a rehabilitation centre.
An abundance of showcased characters/stories would not in any way correlate to actual crime rate, it would simply be what sells.
And arguably almost every character has some sort of conflict in their background which would stem from childhood age, so it isn't a point in of itself.
If anything we should be happy about the prevalence of orphanage opportunities on our cast, because otherwise their stories would likely go untold (if you know what I mean).
An argument could be made that "trafficking is a bit too common here", but with all the rich people you'd be damned if not a single one was corrupt enough to delve into the "industry"
Or rather, their society is so developed that the nature and consequent disgust of crimes follows suite. Better punishment decreases the frequency of crimes, but increases the severity, probably. It's also arguable that all of the issues stem from a slightly lopsided economy, where you literally have an entire underground world as opposed to the rich haven that is fontaine's overcity, with the disconnect between that and the fortress meropide the cause of meropide's purity and effectiveness.
No bribing, hardly any influential status, it's the ideal prison and contrasts fontaine well.
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With mondstadt, it isn't just the church, but the knights, and most importantly the influence of the adventurer's guild which (when paired with the relatively small city/region that is mondstadt) makes for a very hospitable environment. At every waking moment an adventurer is testing the limits of safety of the area, and people are stationed in that happy-go-lucky vibe naturally, so any true threat would not be out of corruption; instead outside forces (like the fatui or abyss) (which would also need to be in-defeatable by diluc's rogue org, knights of fav, stray adventurers, etc). Hence, mondstadt's only real trouble was the giant first wind dragon that could probably level any region if it was irked on more.
Basically, fontaine suffers from success, so we are open to see the more vile side of both it and crime in general. As opposed to something like liyue where stealing or committing fraud is productive enough. The status of audience for potential criminals naturally factors into this.
A rich guy hardly needs money, but a cheaper form of labour aside from meks (which are restricted to guard duty only anyways?) ?
It's just the appealing crime.
And it certainly doesn't mean a child in fontaine is worse off than anywhere else.
(Just realised I completely forgot about sumeru, which is probably worse than liyue for monsters in the forest, and environmental/weather issues in the desert).
i feel like liyue is probaly the safest place to live
1. they not only have a whole ass military (that actaully does stuff) as well as the adepti
2. they actually have a very well run government/ruling power that cares for their people and their saftey
3. liyue (as of right now) is very ecenomically strong and we havent really heard of any big troubles with money in liyue
I like how genshin nation seemed to be advancing in technology....but then it gets darker and darker
Spoilers ahead, i think
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Mondstadt doest have many issues, just hillichurls and everyone seemed to have fun and KoF seemed to take care of everything. Its all sunny and nice
Liyue have the death of a god (imagine how jarring to see the corpse of your god, in the shape of the dragon, just fell off from the sky), but the people of liyue are protected with ningguang and the adeptis, and most notably, none of the people suffer (with very few exceptions who are unlucky)- very rarely the story centred around heavy stuff
Then we move on to inazuma, where it gets a bit darker, starting off with tomos death and civil war. Many orphans, notably by the jokatsu mine, and many victims of war. The unattended village is apparent, and so does the remnants of shogun running amok.
And then we went to sumeru that seemed to be a bit more brighter, until we noticed that it was on a loop, the akademiyan at the time are very cruel, etc etc, basically being a human experiment. Whilst id argue its not worse of than a war, it was an unknown virus. The people thought they were safe. I suppose its more on the psyche of the residents.
And then theres fontaine....
Wonder how natlan and snezhnaya will be
Don't forget about the desert. That was were we first got introduced to some really gritty concept (cannibalism, dismemberment, patricide, forced marriage) but only through the world quests, and then they decided to bring a taste of it to the fore in Fontaine' s archon quests.
So yeah, Natlan, Shneznaya and Khaenri’ah are going to be gnarly.
@@theunlikelygenshingamer i almost forget it..yeah kaveh's dad dying in the quicksand is the least feral thing to happen..not to mention we see jebrael basically die on screen. The difference with rex lapis daying was: 1) zhongli faked it and 2) jebrael was human (or at least in human form, making it more jarring)... The place where the time stops, where jeht place her mom's notes and jebrael's axe made me cry
We all know Fontaine sucks, but hey it beats having to live with hilichurls, or PM’s city, I don’t think anyone wants to live in the city (for context, being an orphan in the city is basically a death sentence)
That's very true
Vennessa did order her clan to form a circle to protect the elders and children so there is that
Yes in many places although the atmosphere is dire, the strong will defend the weak and helpless like the children, and at that point can we really say it's worse than a place that actively esteems them as nothing more than a commodity?
@@theunlikelygenshingamer I think the Pyro archon isn't just a war hunger psycho, but rather her values lie in protecting the weak thrugh strength, and other thinh like Honor and honesty and not fighting someone who can't defend themselves,
I think these are the values the pryo archon holds up and want their nation to live by
Considering Fontaine is practically Paris, only with prettier girls and bois (!), would that really surprise you? You guys do know how Paris has been like in the last 20 years?
You have a point there. its been no joke, but then where has been really?
Paris is a very special place and city, It still didnt had any decent sewer system until the mid 19 century yet had rail, steam boat, electricity and gaz light. in the 1950-60 it was still covered in slums then the poor got kicked out slightly farther away and given social housing. Every rail system go from and to Paris making it the center of every movement of capital logistic and ressources... it is thus incredibly powerfull rich corrupt safe and dangerous at the same time depending on where your going...and who you are...
Well for a simpler description of Paris... it is the brightest most beatifull and ugliest shadiest city of France and even maybe of all Europe... it centralise so much of all that make France you can find the absolute best and worst in a single square kilometers...
When all Fontaine story quests are released, will you rank them?
If people would like to see a video of that, I don't see why not. 😁
I think there may be different issues. The fact that they used to be oceanids may be one of it. It could also be that it's the only nation as far as we know with strict laws, and no laws=no crime. But it's true that in other nations we never heard of children being trafficked, or manipulative cult-ish groups forming. Maybe part of the reason may be that prison isn't scary. Many people resort to their own justice because prison, the way it is built, simply is too lenient of w punishment. You get to go down there, start a new life, no one knowing what you did. It's like you never committed a crime in the first place. It's more focused on reformation than punishment, so people feel it is unfair. That can be seen in the musketeers event, or that one world quest with the rouge npc, or wriothesley's story quest, and so on. In short, it wouldn't fix things completely, but a prison built more like ours would stop PART of the crime. In particular the revenge moved ones
Very interesting
wouldn't natlan be a worse nation for a kid? whit volcanoes and tribe stuff etc. ? Also being the nation of War and seperated in multiple tribes who fight over who rules... no it's not safe...
It could be objectively worse for everyone and many orphans may arise but if the children are cherished and protected by the adults around them in spite of the turmoil or perhaps because of it,then we can't really say that it's worse for them because they aren't esteemed as nothing or little like what often happens here in Fontaine.
Yall i came after three days while listening to Samudrartha while looking at the cover and i was like ;-;
This is very interesting! It make me think alot! This is amazing video!
Thank you!! Delighted to entertain and inform.
I think they need a gato con botas
Well, worst place so far. We know a little too… well, little, about Natlan and Snezhnaya to be 100% sure.
Lore accurate french bruh
I think there’s something to be said about how the nation with the most systemic injustice and criminal activity is also, conveniently, the nation which gets a large part of its economy fed by the labor done in its prison system. It seems like there’s something going on there.
Also, many of the criminals who avoid the Fontaine justice system (Morris from the Roses and Muskets event, Vacher, the nobles that Arlecchino killed, the ones from Wriothesely’s backstory,) are notably rich and/or powerful
This is what I was noticing, like why are there so many disadvantaged people AND rich powerful folk skirting the law. That's one of the surest signs of some sort of corruption.
@theunlikelygenshingamer Yeah, exactly
im sorry for the off-topic “remark”, but freminet is so bbg
He is precious isn't he 😜
I think natlan maybe more akin to spartan greece than it is for mayan or aztec.
I think that nationale is actually what was the inspiration for Enkanomiya, even the naming convention which is usually the biggest clue is based on ancient Greece. And strength and combat prowess were very important there too.
finally someone else who sees this
Meanwhile Natlan literally going to be iraq:
i think the reason might be because fontaine is the most developed nation and therefore their criminal systems are also the most developed
so basically yharnam
D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Diluuuuc!
I’m just gonna say Revenge is great! L Chevrolet cyclops with musket
My theory is because fontaine's people used to be oceanids. They couldn't have children through normal means, and its likely they we're just born from the primordial waters before taking a human form as the children of Fontaine and since they had no parent they'd be alone right from the beginning, and there's no system in place to control the amount of new people and where they end up
Counter point: They had 500+ years of making offspring and aging out. Furina was also in charge for 500 of those years and wouldn't just let anarchy reign if she could help it and even she was taken by surprise that they were really Oceonids and we do know that they age and die when we see in Furina's memories from her first meeting with a lady then later met that same lady's offspring nearly 200 years later. Clearly Fontainians aren't semi-immortals at a loss of what to do with an explosive population.
@@starkiller1289 they can't make offspring, Oceanids can't have children and it was clearly stated, even after being turned into humans because they still we're never truly "human" until after Neuvillette made them fully human, it was clearly stated so, and the children basically just "appear" out of seemingly nowhere.
Yep, it's france alright.
Does no one remember the kid getting sacrificed to the bird on Tsurumi Island?
Was not an institution. Just ignorant people decided to sacrifice this one child because the thunder bird had taken a liking to him.
I haven't enjoyed Fontaine. It isn't bad it just doesn't feel like Genshin to me. I've been waiting for Natlan tbh. Back to the less advanced path. A tribal area of war. Much more exciting to me. I've really missed the vibe that is Genshin and Fontaine was just a stroll in the city.
Although I haven't minded the world atmosphere of Fontaine I definitely know what you mean. I sure can't wait for Natlan
For the ppl who said Fontaine ppl used to be Oceanid that’s why they did this. This argument is weak cuz ppl from the present doesn’t know they are Oceanid and they are likely human know by psyche, as older generations interact with humans and as humans also teaches their hald oceanids children. So yeah, Fontaine’s case is just another case of what human would be capable of
I think you misspelled the title |w°)
Thanks for the heads up. Fixed!
Fontaine is french history accurate..don’t be a French kid between the French Revolution of 1789 and the Great War 💀💀💀