u/Bestlife73

Liyue AQ, Childe's story quest, and the ending of the Mondstadt AQ. At the end of the Mondstadt AQ, Venti literally tells Traveler that Tsaritsa changed after the Khaenri'ah disaster, and he doesn't know what her goals are. Immediately after going to Liyue—in the main story quest, not some side mission—Traveler meets Childe, a Fatui Harbinger, and he directly tells them that not all Fatui are evil. And it's all 1.0 content. So no, Fatui were not depicted as pure evil in the beginning of the game. The whole Liyue story is us working with the Fatui until Childe unleashes the old god to lure out Morax, and it turns out it was all a setup between Zhongli and Signora. One of the ideas this quest tries to drive home is that the Fatui is not a monolithic organization, with Signora working behind Childe's back, and they are not mustache-twirling villains. And then there's Childe's story quest.

Why do you think the writers had us work with the Fatui throughout the entire Liyue Archon Quest? Why do you think Yae Miko gave away the Gnosis so easily? Why do you think Raiden was working with the Fatui during the Inazuma Archon Quest? Why do you think Raiden didn't object to Yae Miko giving away the Gnosis? Why did Zhongli give away his Gnosis? It was clear from the beginning what the writers were setting up.

Can people stop making up retcons about Fatui being pure evil from the beginning and actually revisit the content that's already been in the game from the start? I can bring up countless examples from 1.0 or 2.0 where Fatui are not depicted as pure evil.

Replaying the game on a new account really gives you whiplash. I feel like the entire community has forgotten how the Fatui were depicted in the early AQs. For example, even in Mondstadt, during their first introduction, they try to use the situation with the Abyss Order just to get the Gnosis, using political games rather than force. Even after Signora takes the Gnosis, we get a long dialogue from Venti explaining that they have some kind of plan—but he doesn't know the exact reason because he doesn't talk to the Tsaritsa anymore. At no point is it implied that they have some evil plan that should be stopped, which is the total opposite of how Venti talks about the Abyss Order. In Liyue, things get even more interesting. As soon as we meet Childe, he starts explaining that not all of the Fatui are evil, and he really tries to drive home the point that all Harbingers have different methods of doing things. Right from the beginning, the story tries to hammer in the idea that the Fatui aren't monolithic, and that the Tsaritsa allows them to operate differently. The whole Liyue AQ drives this idea even further: Signora makes a deal with Zhongli behind Childe's (and his division) back, and Zhongli willingly gives up his Gnosis, implying their plans might not be as black and white as we originally thought. Again, the whole Liyue Archon Quest consists of us working with the Fatui, only for it to turn out that Zhongli was just using both us and the Fatui to test Liyue's new leadership. The entire point of these Liyue Archon Quests is to show that the Fatui are not some kind of monolithic, comically evil faction that can't be reasoned with.

In the recent Archon Quest, world quests played a huge role; Aaru taking the place of Irminsul was a perfect payoff for the world quest incorporated into the main storyline. I also just realized that the burning of Irminsul was teased in Winter Night’s Lazzo, which was released long before the Sumeru world quests—meaning they planned this payoff well in advance. Including world quests in an Archon Quest is a very bold move, especially when many players are asking for a skip button. However, I’m glad to see that the Genshin devs are not willing to change their story and vision at the whim of the fans, unlike some other gacha developers. Personally, I don't want a story written to satisfy headcanons and popular fan theories.