#but I at least hope they get a good reunion that isn't just glossed over

[feroluce]

Some off the cuff 1k of Skirk & Tartaglia (skirtaru???) hcs before 4.2 proves me wildly wrong, they are very much a dynamic in process to be changed as we see more of them and as I think and consider them more, but I wanna see them interact so BAD.

Anyway. Tartaglia is an idiot who develops a crush, or at least something like a crush, on anyone who can give him a good fight. Obviously there are plenty of people who can just kick his ass- he's ranked at the bottom of the Harbingers. But they all suck, and there's no passion when they fight! They don't appreciate it the way Tartaglia does! So it's not a good fight and those assholes don't count!

So I think little Tartaglia was doomed the second he saw a very very pretty lady with a very very sharp sword and she immediately beat the shit out of him. Like she awakened something in him right then and there, unfortunately for the rest of the world haha

And then! Not only could she beat him one handed! But she took the time to teach him! And this! This was exactly what Tartaglia had wanted when he ran away from home with nothing but some food and his sword! He'd wanted an adventure! He'd wanted something new and different and wild!

And he can have that now, with Skirk and the Abyss! So his crush could have instantly dissolved right there, but it didn't, because Skirk was weird and interesting and Tartaglia adored that.

((Wheezing imagining Tartaglia trying to show off because he wants to impress his shifu, and she genuinely is impressed because Tartaglia progressed so fast, but then she pops his teenage boy ego with a pin and he deflates sjzjnskdkz))

He develops such an endless amount of respect and admiration for her. He's so happy and so proud of himself when he masters the Foul Legacy, because this was a goal laid by his shifu and hell yeah, he blew it out of the water!! And I'd like to think this was when Skirk said those words in his profile-

"You shall ever be the eye of the storm,"

"And the clashing of steel shall ever accompany you."

"The pitch-black memory of stepping into uttermost darkness,"

"Shall, at last, become the strength by which you will overturn this world."

-with Tartaglia knelt before her and her sword at his cheek, as though she were knighting him. And Tartaglia realizes then that oh. He likes it here. He likes being in the Abyss. He likes being with Skirk. He likes hunting and killing and surviving here in the Abyss with Skirk. Morepesok is and will always be home, but it was stagnant there. Too much of the same. No room for growth.

But the Abyss is boundless possibility to explore in every direction, and Skirk has never flinched away from him even once. Tartaglia can be as violent and bloodthirsty as he wants; Skirk is worse. She gives zero shits. She loves to fight and hunt and kill and make things bleed. Tartaglia is free to explore and revel in all of his worst inclinations and instincts and that is what the Abyss and Skirk become to him. Freedom.

And then he falls out of the Abyss just as suddenly as he had fallen into it. He didn't even get to say goodbye.

And it's not all bad or anything. Tartaglia isn't miserable. He's plenty capable of making his own happiness. He brings his own joy everywhere he goes (derogatory, unfortunate for everyone else ndkdjdjkd) and he genuinely likes being around other people. He would have missed a lot of things if he'd been permanently trapped.

But now there is an itch that he can't scratch. And it's driving him nuts. And he misses Skirk. She was fun to be around. He liked her.

He finds himself seeing things in everyday life and wishing he could show her. He pulls out ingredients in the kitchen for dinner and wants her to eat his special dish and show off how good he can cook. He reads through reports about the Abyss and he never finds what he's looking for (a swordswoman, an entrance, anything-), but he wants to ask her her opinions about them. He sees a really nice sword and wonders if she would like it. Little things.

Tartaglia decides he's going to find her. Even if it's just for a chance to thank her. Even if it takes years, decades. He just wants to see her again.

And then, it finally happens! They really do get to reunite! I have no idea what will happen in the archon quest of course, but like. I really like the idea that after things settle down, Skirk decides to stay for a while. She doesn't really want to live here or anything, but she's curious. She wants to see what Teyvat is like. She especially wants to see Snezhnaya, like Tartaglia used to talk about. And Tartaglia decides to go with her, he's an experienced traveler, a man of the world after all! He'll take her wherever she'd like to go.

And I'd love for them to say goodbye to The Traveler and Paimon and depart from Fontaine on a classic will-they-won't-they sort of vibe, where it's obvious that Tartaglia has Some Feelings about Skirk, but it's not clear how Skirk really feels about him yet. But it's the kind of thing where it's hopeful, and you want to root for the guy to get his love interest haha.

(The Traveler and Paimon bump into them a few months later and Paimon chides Tartaglia because Childe have you seriously not confessed yet the hell have you been doing all this time, which he responds to with hey, Skirk is a classy lady, give me time to do it right! and meanwhile The Traveler can see around Tartaglia to where Skirk is sitting at their campfire, manspreading on a fallen log, eating raw meat with blood on her face and dripping down her arms BNSKXJSMKDMD)

#genshin impact childe #genshin childe #genshin impact skirk #genshin impact tartaglia #skirtaru #I think I saw some post somewhere on here or twitter that said something rude about how people are going to ship them once Skirk releases #buddy I've been sailing this little ship single-handedly for a while now bold of you to assume I need to wait for canon dkxjdkkfkd #what the fuck do I even call this #i like skirtaru because tbh i never even call Tartaglia by his actual name he's always Taru to me haha #just had to get this all out of me before 4.2 drops and kills all my hcs instantly tomorrow nzksndkd #Skirk and Taru are one of those pairs that like. i think I could love them no matter what. #Romance? LOVE IT. Qpr? WONDERFUL. Found family? HELL YEAH. #tbh I don't have a lot of high hopes that we'll see them interact a ton in canon... #but I at least hope they get a good reunion that isn't just glossed over #they deserve it. taru has been searching for her for years. he's earned it. #I think as long as they care about each other I'll be happy ♡ #I'm so excited to see what Hoyo will do with them!! #genshin impact #tartaglia #skirk

[fantastic-rambles]

Here's a lil input on the discussion about Reki.

I do get what you're saying about "got it" being more of a consideration than a promise(tho i perceived it as more of a promise at first), i don't think that actually matters because the reason behind Reki's behavior isn't Langa breaking his promise(and nor it is him being jealous of Langa's abilities). All of that stems from him losing his sense of self-worth. He was aware of Langa's potential before, and was absolutely ecstatic about it. Also i think he would've been pretty chill if Langa "broke" his promise to him if he wasn't doubting himself so much. Reki making Langa promise him not to skate against Adam is out of pure concern at first. Like, as much as it can be infuriating to the receiving party, if a person thought that doing X would make smb dear to them potentially harm themselves, they sure as hell would do anything to prevent that, even if it's smth that that smb wants. Later tho I believe Reki thought that Langa breaking his promise served as further proof of him not having any worth as a skater, and he's not angry at Langa but rather at himself(him yelling at langa not to apologize to him during their fight) for being so upset with Langa (and at this point wanting him to stick to that promise is sorta Reki's attempt at trying not to get left behind. He thinks that Langa deciding to skate against Adam means that he doesn't need Reki anymore).

As to him avoiding Langa at all cost and breaking his own promise to Miya of not disappearing on him, I also think that that kind of behavior is a given considering how he feels about himself. Interacting with a group of people(especially Langa) phenomenally good at what he himself loves so much but can't be as good at is straight up painful, so naturally he'd try to avoid them as much as possible. He does realize it's a shitty thing to do tho, based on how he ponders about what to say to Langa("how i acted so terribly against him") when he goes to meet him. Him not being able to apologize out loud is another thing lol. But i think Langa at that point already had an idea on what was going on with him, so Reki actually hearing all the truths from him that he himself had forgotten was much more important. That being said im actually pretty satisfied with their reunion :D I just really hope Reki apologizes to Miya later.

Anyway i hope this makes sense at least a bit, cuz Reki's character is written so well too imo. Him eventually breaking despite his happy-go-lucky personality and then finding himself again is GOOD stuff lol :D

So... I’m not opposed to justifying Reki being a jerk as long as you’re not opposed to justifying Adam being an asshole. -blink-

I’ve been trying to keep my content in line with the majority fandom (anti-Adam) argument that problematic behavior is problematic behavior regardless of the reason for it since I don’t want to deal with hater drama for my love of Adam, but that means I’ll look at all the characters with the same critical eye, which is why I can’t gloss over how problematic Shadow is either. But I’m not going to be hypocritical and apply one lens to characters I like and a different one to characters I dislike. (Or at least, as much as I can, I try not to, though I obviously have my own preferences and biases.)

So if we’re gonna talk on the premise that people’s backstories/traumas/mental states are valid reasons for the way that they act, then yes, Reki’s actions are understandable (if extremely obnoxious, to me, because again, I don’t generally like child/teen characters).

Reki obviously loves skating, and from the start, he has an inflated sense of ego, such as when he’s bragging to Langa about how he learned how to do an ollie faster than average. So it’s all the more crushing when he sees how fast Langa picks up skateboarding and when he completely loses against Adam, who didn’t even take him seriously. He legitimately thought that he was a “good” skater, but after Adam shows up, in addition to the appearance of Cherry and Joe, as well as a parade of others including Miya, Shadow, etc., his confidence is entirely shattered. Yeah, he’s probably a bit better than the average skater, but he’s clearly not at the level of the top skaters: Adam doesn’t even remember who he is because he’s so unremarkable. xD

And like any angsty teen who can’t deal with the reality that he’s not special, he lashes out at others and blames them for his failings. And that’s why he ends up being such a jerkass towards Langa and Miya. He is entirely selfish, not caring about what Langa wants, just to try to keep up his feeling of self-importance that’s crashing around him. He’s afraid of losing his new friend: not to injury (though that was part of it, when he first tried to persuade Langa not to race against Adam), but to more skilled competitors, and of being left behind, as you said. In school, at least, it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone else who is really interested in skating, so Langa’s the only one he can really talk to, share videos with, etc. But when he feels that Langa is slipping away and striving for a higher level, he gets jealous and tries to issue an ultimatum “me or Adam” and also tries to guilt-trip/gaslight Langa by accusing him of breaking a promise he never made (imo). And that has the exact opposite effect of driving a wedge between them. Again, highly obnoxious and toxic, but understandable.

And no, he’s definitely jealous that Langa and Miya are better than him. The whole reason he has his whole angsty “go hang out with your cooler friends” thing is because he’s not a top skater, even though he wants to be. And he struggles to accept that he’ll never be at that level, especially when he really did think he was special, so instead of confronting the problem, he chose to run away from it, no matter how much it hurt other people. It’s also not an uncommon reaction for people in general, to avoid things that make them uncomfortable.

But even though I understand all of this, I still don’t like him as a character. I don’t hate him as much as I did pre-episode 10, but he’s still not “likeable” to me because the way the situation was resolved was so superficial. I agree that he probably has the second-most characterization/development after Adam, and I am glad that he’s made up with Langa (and will probably make up with Miya), but he’s just such an... ordinary character. A typical, obnoxious teen who needed a smack in the face with reality more than Cherry. xD

Adam is a far more terrible person, yes, but I enjoy him because he’s entirely open about who he is and owns his actions. He doesn’t apologize for the things that he does--in part because he has no moral compass, at least currently--but also because he is absolutely truthful with himself and with others, at least when it comes to skating.

#sk8 #sk8 the infinity #skate the infinity #sk8 reki #kyan reki #reki kyan #analysis #long post #mine