When you try to cheer up your friend by showing them your really cool stick

jaemin // 230622 Mnet M Countdown - 'Broken Melodies'

(000606) happy birthday haechan 🎂

jaemin // 230625 SBS Inkigayo - 'Broken Melodies'

Genshin Impact Version 3.8 ✩ Secret Summer Paradise

something i made years ago, but still rings true. i made this specifically about my experience with being a loveless aromantic

fun fact, i recently allowed myself to say i'm nonhuman. its kinda funny that those threads showed up here, years before i considered the idea

230625 – NCT DREAM · Broken Melodies

hearts with haechan 🫶❔

Idk how fans keep assuming Venti's concept of freedom is absolute freedom rather than freedom of choice

Because in the archon quest, there was the whole "freedom when demanded of you by a god, is really no freedom at all" and how in the end it was up to Dvalin to choose if he wants to leave or not

Then we have the history of Mondstadt and how it was ruled by Decarabian, who while wanting what's best for Mondstadt, ended up being very controlling to the point of even the city itself reflecting it. Everything had a place, but with how restless people became and how Gunnhildr's clan even chose the outside blizzards over his suffocating rule, most of the people didn't have the luxury to choose for themselves in these conditions. When Venti became archon, he made sure Mondstadt could fend for themselves and then left the rulership up to THEM

And in the comic, when Venti tried offering freedom to Vennessa, she chose to earn it by herself just so she can be sure her clan is freed too. And Venti respected that! He also only showed up after Lawrence chose to bet the property title of the city on Vennessa, and was there to make sure he held up his end of the deal.

We also have the fact that Mondstadt is just full of families of choice. We have characters that chose to leave and chose to stay. Not to mention all the narratives of choosing your chains with both anemo and Mond characters

The theme freedom when it comes to Venti and Mondstadt seems to be all about having the ability to choose

Oh yeah and also, the fact that I've seen far too many viewing Venti as flightly and irresponsible because again, the assumption of "absolute freedom"

When in reality, while he does leave, Venti always comes back again and again. There is an entire festival dedicated to it, he immediately went back into the city after waking up in the comic, and let's not forget his literal first lines in the game is him comforting Dvalin by saying that he's back now

Yeah there's the parts from Zhongli's character story 5 with the whole "To forsake one's duty to deliver a single bottle of wine" but if you look at what the passage is trying to tell and how it ends with finished duties, wouldn't there not be much to do if Mondstadt is already operating independently from their archon at that point? Plus, he's meeting his neighbor and building bridges, nothing wrong with that, it's called developing work life balance. And also the "nor would the wind ever return again" which was like, after the Cataclysm. Y'know. The event where several gods died. There's a very good likelihood Venti could've died too. Just a thought

He's pretty dedicated too as seen from the Wings of Shimmering Galaxy lore description where he didn't even think anything would come out of what he's doing, yet he still does it anyway. He's also very firmly keeping up the hands off approach unless it's absolutely necessary to intervene

Going back to the previous point of choices, he could've just left right after the rebellion, he could've left everything behind before it could inevitably hurt, he could've just completely abandoned Mondstadt after it had forsaken the ideals he valued. But he chose to stay, chose to go through with everything, and chose to try again. He could've become a god of another ideal, but likely went with what the people of Mondstadt needed more