A small rant as a Kaveh fan
I'm not sure how appropriate this is for this sub, so if the mods feel it's too negative (or repetitive) then feel free to remove it. I just wanted to vent a bit about Kaveh and the Genshin fandom.
Kaveh has remained one of my favourite characters in Genshin since I started playing. I don't play Genshin nor engage with the fandom regularly anymore, but one good way to make me return intermittently is through leaks and updates involving my faves, including Kaveh. Though I have other favourites in Genshin, Kaveh has been a particular comfort character to me--his story is simpler and more realistic than most, and his thematic relation to art means a lot to me as an artist. He's a fairly harmless and charming character to me.
I'm sure, if many of you interact with the fandom especially on Twitter, you might've also seen that wave of hate towards Kaveh during the 6.6 leaks. It concerned his supposed shallowness as a character, his sole purpose as shipbait, and spouted an oddly aggressive (and borderline funny) Twitter rant thread.
That had been a bit of a surprise to me, since I've never seen that much hate for Kaveh, of all characters, before. It was also deeply annoying as a fan, naturally. It was particularly irritating when I saw non-fans say to Kaveh fans that the character has no fanbase outside of shipping and being a bottom or whatever. Many fans responded that that's untrue, and I obviously didn't agree with it either, but they were ignored. It felt so condescending and patronising, and even though I wasn't personally involved, it was the most insufferable the fandom has been for me in quite some time---especially since, again, he's a comfort character to me. Aren't some of his Hoyofair videos, particularly his fan song (which is essentially a character study for Kaveh), some of the most viewed hoyo fan content?
I didn't think the complaints were completely without merit, either. There's always something to criticise with Hoyo's writing, and I don't think Kaveh (or Alhaitham) has been immune to their writing blunders. Still, it seemed like part of the base felt Kaveh alone 1.) was somehow to blame for Sumeru's flawed character writing or 2.) deserved the undeserved hate and lack of focus female characters have been getting. Again, that was a surprise to me because in my view, Kaveh's strengths as a character is largely isolated from any main plot or intricate lore. He's an architect with a realistic story, some of his works can be seen on the maps, and that's what made him great.
Recently, with the current release of 6.6, I've been seeing a lot of love for his character again, of course, but I do still occasionally see that same hate from during the leaks. And honestly, now it feels like they're just having tunnel vision over the writing moments he has that they don't like. Yeah, he still has the banter and close interaction with Alhaitham---but he also has the chance to show his genius, his general polite character and niceness, his care for Alhaitham underneath the bickering, their ideological understanding underneath the pettiness. I guess everyone has the right to their opinions, I just don't like that I can't seem to love this character in peace anymore, that there's always going to be someone complaining about how vapid he is even when he's part of a larger story that shows more of everyone, including himself. I just hope this odd hate dies down again. Or, who knows, perhaps he really is still mostly loved, and all the hate is just a vocal side of the fanbase that won't really stick.