Ask Me Anything:

Hey there non shippers and shippers alike,

LAST EDITED: 1/16/24 (Read Dead Costume) and I still don't feel like unpacking Lyney yet

[ANON FORM IS CLOSED FOR NOW]

I may update this when I feel like it but I'm not taking anon requests for a while. You can make a comment and go public if you really have something to ask.

Hoyolab seems to have a very strong opinion on this ship, so I want to try and extend an open hand to anyone curious without judgement. I would like to try and have a civil conversation with you where you can ask questions if you would like to.

Note: I will not try to convert you over to the ship. I will answer your questions. I will correct information where it needs to be corrected. This is not an attempt to convert or coerce anyone.

Do I ship them? Yes. It's in the title. But I recognize there's a ton of room and ability to see them as platonic too. It's just a preference on my part and probably yours. Sworn Brotherhoods do not have to be romantic in nature. I respect your choices and hope you respect mine.

So ask me anything about the klk ship you would like to know.

The rules are simple, and fairly obvious:

Be respectful. If you get nasty with me I will block you and that will be the end of it.

I have backups of this entire convo in the event it gets pulled down.

Stay on topic. Bringing up someone's age, race, or gender is literally irrelevant to this conversation. Know that I am a grown adult with a fulltime career that plays Genshin for fun, not discord. I find teaching / helping others to be satisfying, so that is why I am doing this.

So whenever you guys are ready.

Answered questions will appear up here and in person when not anon.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Isn't he Adopted? Crepus and Kaeya.

Answer:

The simple answer to this question is no. The long answer is much more complicated...! But still not really. However you can choose to see them that way if you want because Hoyoverse made it very dubious intentionally.

Without using the age old correction "they are sworn brothers!!" (which is true, but not quite the answer to this question) let me explain by breaking down the terms and what they mean:

The words used for kaeya and crepus are 义子 and 义父. These are hard to translate for english speakers. Because there is no direct translation for it in English. We do not have this type of relationship at all. It's a completely foreign cultural concept that is easy for us to misunderstand, even if EN does it all the time without realizing.

It roughly means something along the lines of 'the man who raised' or 'child of responsibility'. The closest concept English has to this is a "ward" or a "godparent". It can actually be taken literally as a "sworn son" or "righteous son" as well, though it's unlikely you will ever see that.... because an EN speaker would have absolutely no idea what that meant. So they used 'adopted' because it's a word we can recognize and somewhat correct, though loses all of it's nuance.

There's also the aspect that 'adopted' could mean different versions of itself in English as well. You can adopt a puppy, adopt a habit, adopt a child, adopt a lifestyle. We use this word liberally in our language. In regards to Kaeya, it's closer to adopting a habit or lifestyle than a child in severity or legality- because they both choose to do it. They adopt each other and accept the relationship.

For more info on 义子 you can check here and use google translate for a rough ROUGH translation.

The word for "adopted son" is actually "养子".

The first character '养' can also mean "support" or "Foster" depending on the context, but I'll break down the characters a bit more in another section of this post. (see: "The Chinese means Adopted- I checked!")

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

What is a Sworn Father?

A sworn father relationship is more akin to a paternal figure who you choose to see as a quasi family member. In the west, we don't really have a word for this time of relationship, but it is similar to "big brothers, big sisters" or a mentor role.

The major difference for it and "godson" and 义子 is that the child actually chooses to recognize it or not. It can be revoked just as easily, and it can be made legal but it is not usually. The word "义子" is very old and dated, most of the time it's just "godson" in more modern CN (from what I understand). It's called a "Nominal Kinship" (干亲). We don't really have this in EN, just like we don't have sworn brothers. It's a cultural thing.

Contextually, Kaeya was not legally or emotionally adopted by the Ragnvindr clan- in his story notes and Ballads and Brews, he directly calls his father his father in the Chinese. He also calls him his "biological father" in Story 4. The voice we heard in Ballads wasn't Crepus, either. "Forgive me Kaeya" was said in a dialect tone for sadness or remorse- as if asking his son not to hate him. He still calls his father his father in 3.5 as well, while still referring to Crepus as his Sworn Father.

I cannot confirm this because this concept doesn't exist in EN, but i feel a good example of a "Sworn" relationship from Western media would be Joel Miller and Ellie Williams from The Last of Us (Part One). The relationship between Sarah Miller (if she was alive) and Ellie could have been a 'sworn sibling' in the same way that Kaeya and Diluc are.

Also:

I did read into 义父 a little as far as the 'modern' term goes. From what I understand, the actual word for "godfather" (干爹) has some slang meanings that would make the relationship kinda.... gross looking and unsavory. Could be part of the reason they chose one over the other. (psst: it means 'sugar daddy')

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Lost Lore from the Translation

There is something lost in the sauce of removing this from the translation, however. 义子 means Crepus is his 义父. This is confirmed by Kaeya's voice lines. He's the interesting part- it can mean that Crepus saw Kaeya's father as his sworn brother, and thus makes Kaeya his 'sworn son' and Diluc and Kaeya sworn brothers by default proxy. This would also mean the "sworn" relationship between Diluc and Kaeya wasn't formed by their own choosing- and would almost be considered a bit more flimsy.

Without getting too far into the theory craft, this adds some more mystery into WHY Crepus took in Kaeya. Both Wardships and Sworn Brother takes on this add more layers to the story and we just don't have in the English at all.

For more on this, you can check my THEORY on kaeya's father and the section within about this kind of relationship.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Aren't they brothers? Diluc and Kaeya.

Diluc is referred to as a friend- a sworn brother. This is a similar relationship that can tie into the other or be caused by proxy, but is not always exclusive.

There's multiple ways this relationship could have occured.

It could have been the boys choosing to take this bond to each other.

It could have been by proxy, through Crepus.

It could have been by proxy, through Kaeya's Father.

It likely actually happened later, probably when they were in their preteens or as budding teenagers. It's not a "adoption" thing at all and considered a separated relationship to Crepus's sworn fatherhood in 2 of the 3 methods of forming.

It's a bond between two very close people to be eternally in each other's corner and path. They chose to do it between them two. It can be platonic or romantic, but is not actually familial in it's core meaning. You can see it that way, but it's kinda... off? There's a different term for that.

Even if Kaeya DID see Diluc as a brother, if you're going to say the EN translation is correct-He clearly says he doesn't anymore.

As a wild fun fact to show how 'non family' this bond is- the traveler has a sworn sibling in game: Xingqui. In his dialogue he actually insists on becoming sworn siblings with us, so I guess we found our sibling if everything else fails.

A person reminded me that a REALLY good example of "Sworn Brothers" that the Western Audience can understand is The Three Musketeers by Alexandre ****s (​D​​🇺​​🇲​​🇦​​🇸​ - hoyo why is this censored?).

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

"Well if it's wrong, why didn't Genshin fix it?"

Man if I had the answer for why every hotshot million dollar company did or didn't do something- I'd be rich myself.

However, this one is fairly simple.

• Censorship. They can't make them more queer without legal repercussions. China isn't as privileged as EN fandom. Even if it's allowed in our side of the world- it's still a Chinese company and follows Chinese rules. A couple does not need to kiss or h*ld h*nds on screen to be queer, and doing so would expose the ship and the company to danger. There are other ways, and Genshin does it all the time. KLK has a ton. There has already been complaints about the 'homosexual content' of genshin and they have to be careful to avoid further consequences.

• Genshin was made for a Chinese audience. If they got really huffy they could yank down Genshin EN servers tomorrows if they wanted to and still make millions. They don't care. They have never cared what the EN fandom does and think if we misunderstand their culture, it's our own fault. Our ignorance isn't their problem and it shouldn't be their responsibility to explain to a foreign country what their culture is like in the same way we don't expect them to understand ours.

• NUMEROUS issues have not been fixed. An easy one to point out is Adelinde's idle lines in the Winery. She was released in version 1.0 and wasn't fixed until 3.5. And then they STILL didn't do it right. Remember Heart of Glaze in Liyue? The translation for Heart of Glaze was so bad that it had to be re-recorded. The line of Childe saying 'he doesn't care about the weak' was changed to 'rarely involves himself with the weak' as it should have been. This isn't the EN's first time messing up, and it's very rare anything is done about it. Alley Flash calls blood related half brothers "sworn" in the EN, so unless Hoyo thinks blood relatives are adoptive, mistakes have been happening.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

"The Chinese means Adopted- I checked!"

Answer:

I'm glad you did! I fully encourage everyone to learn a little about the language. It's very interesting.

But- this is actually where I have to sit down and explain that Chinese and English are different languages. They are structured and written differently. English has one meaning for every letter and that is just the end of it. A usually means A. Chinese this is not the case. Words change meaning and syntax just slightly to become something entirely differently.

It's closer to read (a book), versus read (a person), versus read (into something). The word "read" has multiple uses, and while we don't do this as often in English, it the main way Chinese works. Each word has context and you have to learn to read that context as part of each character.

A good example is actually Zhongli "钟离" so let's demonstrate with him.

钟 "zhōng" - Can mean any of the following: Clock, time, bell, goblet, handless cup, to concretate

离 "Li" - Can mean to leave, part, be away from, without, independent of, or in old texts mythical beasts

So it depends on the words around it what the actual meaning of these characters is. Zhongli literally has a joke name and we love that for him, loosely meaning "taking time off", yet that is not a direct translation if you look. Chinese is very difficult to translate into english for this reason. If you don't send the FULL story and sentence to be translated, you will not get the correct words back.

Now as for Kaeya, and I am heavily leaning on help from a reddit post that goes into more detail about this, but the word does not actually mean "adopted brother" - that is simply the easiest translation into english. It is an honest mistake. Contextually speaking, it should have been translated differently. Please see the very expansive reddit on this topic from a native chinese speaker who was very kind as to explain the words in detail and how this misunderstanding happened.

On my own research using a translation website, I can tell you that:

义 means justice; righteousness; meaning; foster (father etc); adopted; artificial (tooth, limb etc); relationship; friendship

子 means son; child; seed; egg; small thing;

So you can read it as "adopted son" just as easily as you could read it "justice egg" (if you're translating character by character and don't know any better). That's not the real meaning- obviously- but the words take meaning based on the character's around them contextually. Note, 义 also means friendship and foster. "adopted son" in Kaeya's description could have easily been "foster child", "ward", or "godson" which is not an adopted relationship in the same way English considers the word. We don't have the word 父子 or 义父 in English at all.

It's just a misinformed, weird translation for something we do not have and that is all.

OR it's blatant censorship... Which is probably more likely. Well get into that in the "why is everyone g/ay" section.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

"The Chinese literally says Adopted Son-"

This is the part where I have to bat for both teams. I am a kaeluckae'r but I will not hide the truth from myself or anyone. Kaeya does, in fact, call himself an adopted son twice. Only twice. However, it may not be the way people expect it to be. The line is less conclusive than it seems to be- and riddled with Kaeya's doubt and self loathing for what he should be doing versus how he actually feels. This is the part where I'm a bit biased- because it is actual interpretation of a character's story, but there ARE some strange translation errors.

So let's dig in.

身为养子的凯亚始终陪在一旁，却无法真正融入这场父子惨剧。

- - Character Story: Vision

English Translation:

"Kaeya was Diluc's brother by adoption and was always by his side, but on this occasion Kaeya did not partake in the final moments shared between father and son."

Without a doubt, if you squint you will see the word "养子" - this is adopted son. This is the real and true word that English speakers consider to be 'adopted'- completely. This is not a sworn son, or a godson. This is an adopted child. Again, this word can also mean "supported" child, but it's easy to put together this context is adopted or considered as close as such.

But the line says roughly "As an adopted son, Kaeya -" and that is not what the English translated it to. They changed it to "Kaeya was Diluc's brother by adoption and was always by his side" which is... odd looking even in English.

Diluc's name 迪卢克 does not appear in the sentence at all.

The sentence itself is awkward- "Kaeya was Diluc's brother by adoption". We would normally write this "Diluc was Kaeya's adopted brother" or similar. Grammatically speaking, this particular word use is very strange and looks off.

So why did the English translation team take that extra minute to add these fluff words that were not there? Why bring up Diluc at all here? This was about Crepus.

But let's keep going. Like I said before, a lot of Chinese is contextual.

而克利普斯之死打破了天平的平衡。凯亚因而感到解脱，又为这份自私感到羞愧。作为养子，他本该救下克利普斯，却来晚一步；作为义弟，他理应帮迪卢克分担痛苦，却躲在兄弟背后，思考着那个古老的阴谋。

- - Character Story: Vision

English:

"But now, Crepus' death upset this delicate balance. He felt liberated, but also ashamed of how selfishly he was responding. As an adopted son, he should have saved Crepus, but he had arrived moments too late. As a brother, he should have shared in Diluc's grief, and yet as their father lay dying on the ground, he had hung back behind his brother, that ancient plot running through his mind."

Again, "养子" appears here too. And again translates "as an adopted, son he should have-" this part was translated the same as google translate did. I confirmed my (very tolerant) Chinese speaking friends that this is correct.

In English, if I were say "As a red apple, it should be delicious" you become immediately suspicious if it is or isn't delicious. It's a doubtful statement. The wordplay causes you to doubt one part or the other. If it's delicious, is it a red apple? If it's a red apple, is it delicious? If it's not delicious and is a red apple, is it truly a red apple?

This is the same type of writing here, only in Chinese. The wordplay is to really drive home that kaeya does not consider himself part of the Ragnvindr family- it's displaying his doubt in the same way English does.

"As a foster son, [Kaeya should]..."

He should be sad- but he isn't. He's relieved.

So is he really Crepus's son or not? Is Crepus someone he considers a father?

He is doubting himself. He is doubting his place. The story even states he does not get involved in the father-son moment.

Why? Because he doesn't see himself as one.

He does not see himself as Crepus's son, but acknowledges or implies in the same sentence that Crepus -may- have been something of a father to him. Oh the Angst! The Angst! Even if you choose to see them as a familial relationship, this is a very important thing to note and very core to Kaeya's character.

The vision story is the first time and only that Kaeya ever refers to himself as 养子.

If you go to his official chinese wiki page, you can firm this yourself with CTRL F of the character "养" - adopted.

And then there's the real star of this story- "义兄" or "义弟"

if you remember my details from above, this is "Justice/responsibility" and the other word is "younger(弟) / older(兄) brother"

If you've read this far, congrats, you have seen that even when Kaeya is questioning what to see Crepus as, he still calls Diluc his "Sworn Brother."

Kaeya references 义兄 or 义弟 four times in his stories. Three in reference to himself (in the vision story, no less), and once in reference to Diluc (character details). Twice as much as Crepus. Even after Dad dusts out of life and Kaeya is doubting everything- he calls Diluc a "sworn brother".

This is up to you to interpret.

It is very, painfully clear that Kaeya never saw himself as a member of the family, even at the last second in his vision story. He then tells Diluc the truth about who he is and we all know what happened next. If you want to say that they are brothers and the 'sworn' relationship simply is more important to Kaeya- that is valid in both platonic, ship, and familial takes on the words.

However, they are not JUST adopted 'siblings' any way you want to argue it. They are so much more than that.

Diluc, unfortunately, does not reference Kaeya as his sworn sibling or otherwise in any of his voice lines regarding the past relationship they shared. Maybe someday we will have that closure. Typically only the older brother get's honorifics so unless Diluc specifically mentions it we may never know. Works for censorship purposes too.

Shame the Traveller never asks and we are stuck in their POV.

I go over this more in my post Translations: Crepus and Kaeya, a Loyalty Beyond Legality

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

The 3.5 Update- 'Adoptive Father'

The term 义父 is what is used in 3.5's Caribert so I thought I would add a small detail about it. This word was translated to "Adoptive father" in EN, which is the same they've been using so.

For my fellow English speakers, i would like to point out that in most modern relationships we don't walk around saying "my adoptive father" unless the "adoptive" is some sort of importance. We just say "father." If we have a step father, we say that. If we have a foster father, then we say that. When you consider someone your parent, that prefix is normally dropped in casual conversation.

Also, -ive is not the same as -ed.

Still, this is actually a BIG thing for Kaeya and we should all be happy for him because, though sad, he started to recognize Crepus as a paternal figure after he died.

In CN, a wardship, godson, or foster son would call their caretaker by this term. It doesn't really have any meaning beyond what has been already discussed. Only that Crepus was important to him and deserves that amount of respect. The angst continues.

This is another subtle nuance that is lost in the EN because of the translations lacking substance.

I go over this a bit more because it's actually very soft in my post Translations: Crepus and Kaeya, a Loyalty Beyond Legality

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

The Hangout Update- 'Adopted Son' and 'Diluc's Brother'

Sighs because y'all keep making the same arguments.

我是克利普斯老爷的养子,迪卢克老爷的兄弟,一直在西风骑士团工作,不常出现在酒庄。

Yet again. Interpretation. If you want to see them as brothers, go for it. If you want to see Kaeya and Diluc making out in the back alley after a bender, that is fine too. The above line didn't change anything (unfortunately).

养子 means adopted OR fostered. That hasn't changed. He has been flip flopping Yangfu and Yifu since day one. See the teal text for more context on why this isn't as definitive as it seems.

兄弟 can be familial OR platonic friendship. It can be used for sworn brothers, and if you don't like that explanation- Kaeya doesn't see Diluc as a sworn brother anymore. He even said that in English.... so he just calls him a brother (close friend). In the exact grammar of this sentence, however, it CAN'T mean familial because it would be both a younger and older brother at the same time. Kaeya's just one person, sothe actual grammar forces this use to mean "Friend".

This word is used in other places of Diluc and Kaeya's stories and doesn't mean blood relation. Here's one instanceof it being used to describe some of the Knights of Favonius (by Alice, talking TO him, not him speaking for himself). It's also used by Beidou's entire crew for each other.

Now the contextual clue on how to decipher this further: 老爷 is on both names.

Do you call your father "Mister [Dad's Name]" or your older brother "Mister [Name]"?

.... no. This word means Lord/Master. It's there in the English too.

Kaeya is still distant from them, he is referring to them with high honorifics as if he was subordinate to the family and not actually part of it. He's speaking as if he's still a ward.

Catch me next update when they call Crepus a Yifu again.

Kaeya. Honey. Make up your danged mind. Hoyoverse, you too.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Info:

Sworn Brothers vrs Blood Brothers... What are they?

This surprisingly hasn't been a question but I'm going to answer it anyway because I see "blood brother" thrown back in retaliation at people saying they are sworn a lot. They are not the same thing.

A Blood Brotherhood is a concept similar to Catholic's belief that when one dies, the other steps in and takes care of their family (and their wife, if you know what I mean). The ceremony of this union is usually blessed and ordained by a church or similar figure and it is seen a strictly family- by sharing literal blood, you become blood related, in a sense. This is a very, very old concept and is generally fairly rare even in texts and historical dramas in the same level of severity. We have some variations of it today, but not in the same level of "oh hey, I am taking over your household, marrying your wife, and taking care of your kids when you die."

A Sworn Brotherhood is a somewhat similar concept to Blood Brothers, but not the same. The major difference is that a Sworn relationship is not seen strictly as familial. In many ways, it's deeper than that. The basis did not really see each other as family but more a deep bond of similar interests and goals- in one larger case of this 108 people all became sworn siblings with the common goal of correcting wrongs. In a sworn relationship with someone, you swear an oath that their life is as important as yours- meaning you will willfully die for them and in their place, should it be necessary. You will always, always, no matter what happens, be on that person's side for the sake of your bond.

There is no direct translation for Sworn Brothers "义兄弟" (or "義兄弟") in the English language.

We simply do not have a relationship that equates to the same level of depth. We have phrases like "I would die for you" or similar, but no relationship that completely clicks the phrase as a specific dynamic- and that is what Sworn Siblings are. A vow, an oath, and promise that you will always be in each other's corner for the bond you share. If that bond happens to be each other, it is extremely, deeply seated. You will die for them, they will die for you, and you cannot be separated no matter what happens. You will always believe in them, and they in you, until death.

It's frankly sad that the relationship between Kaeya and Diluc is mistranslated as just "adopted" siblings. The real depth of their care and loyalty to each other is so much deeper, and what happened to them is so much more tragic as a result. We simply lack a term or proper wording for it.

In modern Danmei culture and queer coding, Sworn Siblings has became a means to hide a relationship that is more intimate than family but greater than friendship. It is intentionally a bit confusing to pass censorship. I get into this more on the question "Why is everyone g/ay" and about coding. It has also been referenced in the MXTX series directly in the book glossary for this very reason.

In many definitions the words "as close as family" are used- but please think about this for a moment beyond an immediate familial standpoint. Humor me, for a moment. When you marry someone... what happens?

They become family. Husband and wife are family.

It really is as simple as that.

I do not personally think Diluc and Kaeya are 'married' but they are definitely extraordinarily close with open interpretation as to how close. They are 'fated to be doomed together' and have an oath to each other. You can see them both ways because Genshin wants you to be able to.

--

TLDR: Sworn Brotherhoods are an oath as serious as life and death. You will gladly trade your life for theirs and nothing can separate you. A Blood Brotherhood is a vow of family- you accept this person as your actual brother. They are not the same.

As a nudge, as gentle as I can, in the right direction, I will say that Blood Brotherhood is a European concept. By willfully choosing to ignore that the translation says "Sworn" and translate it as you please- you are Localizing a Chinese game to suit your standards and needs. That is not what it said. This is a form of xenoph/obia and should be handled carefully. Please be respectful of Chinese culture and let it be what it is.

ADDED:

There is a completely different hanzi for "Blood Brothers" in the European context:

Sworn Brothers 义兄弟

Blood Brothers: 血兄弟

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Info:

"This CN person said they're adopted brothers and the CN characters can mean the same thing."

This may shock the shipper side, but yes. That's true!

However, there's some nuances here that come into play. They CAN mean the same thing, meaning it's less a translation error and more a cultural misunderstanding from Anti-Shippers in the EN audience. It's up to personal interpretation of the content (which is how censorship like this work) which meaning the terms take.

If you want to see them as adopted brothers? You're welcome to.

If you want to take the 'pseudo' route with sworn? You are welcome to.

If you want to say they were never brothers? You are welcome to!

Hoyo made this dubious and unclear on purpose to allow everyone to enjoy the content as they see fit.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Cynari and the Comparison to KLK (ft Haikavetham)

Answer:

In the second Windblume, the Cynari world got rocked by the translation and censorship doing the same disservice as KLK all this time. Welcome to the BrotherZone.

To recap for anyone who may have missed it, Cyno and Tighnari are also "brother coded" as of the second Windblume. They say in game that they see each other as siblings, and make a comment that they Collei could be added. Many antis rose up, people became ill, and it caused a huge spike of the "brothership" controversy that was hypocritical or devastating.

TLDR: They aren't brothers.

Brother/Sister is a term of endearment in Chinese.

It's like calling someone bro or sis in the West.

It's very normal and not at ALL familial. The reason this was even suggested was to dispel the rumors that Cyno and Nari are queer and appease censorships. (Censorship is covered in the "Why is everyone g/ay?" section of this post). They had the choice to either "friend zone" them or add a female option into the ship- and chose the former.

Is it similar to KLK? No. Not really. But it's getting the same level of censorship.

What couple IS similar to KLK?

Haikaveh.

Both are bird themed

Red x Blue (Orange x Green)

They bicker and fuss at each other

One is "homeless" and one is rich

One is taken in by the other

One is short worded, one never shuts up

One is romantic, the other isn't

Both are exceptionally talented

Child prodigy x Hard Worker

Kaeya and Kaveh both love wine and drink frequently

Sword x Claymore

One is left handed (Kaveh), One is right

Both grew up together since they were younger

Both even get the "but he hates him!" misunderstanding.

The list goes on. Ever since we got the first crumbs of Kaveh, people have been making comparisons to Kaeya and how similar the ships are. HKT is basically the college AU version of KLK and made more dramatic.

Kaveh and Kaeya would be besties.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

"Is it inc*st or wrong to ship them?"

Absolutely not. Especially not in CN culture and context. Even if you see them as brothers, it's perfectly fine.

See, in Eastern culture- "Pr0shipping" doesn't exist.

They do not have the concept. At all. The word is made up by eastern fans (and inaccurate but I will cover that in the section called "A funny thing about Proship logic").

Fairly recently a Japanese creator had tocreate a document to explain it to their peers and actually encouraged fellow artists and writers from their side to block and remove any person that has "Pr0ship DNI' in their bio because it's so aggressive and foreign to them.

Let's play the ballgame for a moment and say they ARE legally brothers. In CN culture, this is still acceptable to ship and considered a fairly standard trope. There's nothing wrong with it so long as there is no blood relation. This is not inc*st to the CN media circles, andisn't in MOST of the United States either. Another Source. England and Wales they get a bit picky but it's allowed technically. It's actually easier for ADOPTED siblings to get married than step. Canada is the only one who put their foot down about it, and even then it is technically possible to get around (such as parents divorcing or dying, but I did not dig too far into this to be sure).

Step-siblings and adopted family dating a "taboo" in western audiences but not eastern as it's not actual lncest.

And even if they were? It's just a fantasy and part of a fictional story anyway, so it does not matter. Many CN fans see them as brothers legally and ship them anyway for this reason. I see 'ragbros' use chinese speaker's words all the time to prove they're brothers and then it turns out that chinese speaker ships them. Again, the Eastern world doesn't have proshipping and doesn't care about what happens in a fantasy.

There is a process for a 'sworn son' to be considered a legal adoption, but it's voluntary and can be revoked just as easily with a document sent to the civil register's office. Source.

So even if Kaeya was legally adopted by Crepus, he could un-adopt himself just as easily.

Source: Article 1105 and Article 1115

In English we call this emancipation.

It's taboo to date a step/adopted sibling in most parts of the world IRL, but it's not illegal.

It's not illegal for fictional characters in any part of the world. Blood related or not.

And here's a list of 135 movies or shows for you to avoid if you have a problem with that from IMBD. Not sure if Star Wars is on there, but Star Wars, Dexter, Game of Thrones, Clueless, and Back to the Future to name a few.

EDIT:

"What about in Germany? Since Mond is German-"

Don't get me started on how Xenophobic the second half of the statement is. Mond may be based on Germany, but it's generally multicultural in nature and has a lot of references to the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Wales, the UK, and many other places all over Europe. Just like Sumeru is a melt of many cultures from the middle east (and arguably poorly done), Mond has a lot of anglo saxon origin just the same.

Genshin is a Chinese game. They do not make everyone in Mond speak German, Inazuma speak Japanese, ect ect. It's written for a Chinese audience and has Chinese terminology. They are not going to use German concepts and don't in the same way they didn't for any other region or country in Teyvat.

However, since you asked- yes. It's legal in Germany to an extent. The law states any relationship is forbidden between blood relation, half siblings, or adopted children. Marriage is blocked between all of those and mentions the same including family by affinity (this would be step siblings or adoption). However, they have a law that says you can marry if the affinity is terminated and there are no other issues preventing marriage (blood relation).Source. But you can actually just be in a relationship and never get married. There's no laws against relationships between adopted/step siblings.

This may be a bit shocking to some: They seem to share the similar laws as California. It's actually legal to be with your blood related sibling so long as there's no chance of producing children. So queer couples? Legal. You can't get married, but you can date, kiss.... and h*ld h*nds.

Mind you, this is MODERN Germany. If we're going to play the logic headgame that this is Germany and should be German rules- then it was allowed to marry and hold hands with your adopted sibling for a very, very long time. It was actually very normal. The plot of the book "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley includes it as one common name example. Elizabeth Lavenza was adopted into the family to marry her now adopted brother (and cousin!) Victor Frankenstein. He refers to her as "my more than sister."

You'd actually be better off arguing that interracial couples were banned in Germany until modern times (1945), and you still can't marry a foreigner without express permission from the court. But that would be a different can of worms, wouldn't it?

Kaeya and Diluc are legal in the real world.

And they're definitely legal in the fictional one.

If we cared what was legal in fiction:

NO QUEER SUMERU SHIPS ARE LEGAL.

Queer relationships are illegal in Iran, Egypt, and Iraq. So Cynari? Dehyzard? Dehdance? Haikaveh? Nope. None of them. Be careful what battles you pick because it's easy to have it turned on you.

Some are even punishable with death. Be safe, friends. RIP Kaveh, I guess, if you want to make that argument.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Doesn't Diluc hate Kaeya?

answer:

Goodness no! He adores Kaeya. He's just an ldiot. Kaeya is also an ldiot. They're both silly. The fanon tends to make this interaction between them much more aggressive than it seems based on misdirection from the EN voice actor. This was revealed in Ballads and Brews as well as Hidden Strife.

They exchanged letters and even teased each other the entire time Diluc was away. Both of them kept all these letters, memories, and gifts. Kaeya still has seashells from the golden apple and a letter from his father, as well. He puts Diluc's 3 sentence letter on the same level as the last thing he has of his biological father. Kinda says a lot!

As for Diluc, he keeps every single letter Kaeya has sent him and the admittedly ugly vase on -display-. This is a man who said blatantly he doesn't keep anything that isn't of use anymore, but has every single letter Kaeya has ever written him and doesn't dispose of them. To him, they are important.

They're just really awkward and silly boys with two different love languages. They have been reconciling without us knowing, slowly.

Sean Chiplock, the voice of Diluc, has also said he was too aggressive when talking about Kaeya and admits this was a mistake. He has a much better understanding now and enjoys their dynamic. (He supports KLK even if he doesn't ship it personally) He is a champion of the EN community and frequently tries to ask people to stop the infighting despite the backlash it frequently gets him.

Also this story is told from TRAVELLER's point of view. So unless the MC asks, we may never know.

For some reason, the EN version loves to make Diluc, Paimon, AlHaitham, and several other characters really aggressive. The "fight" between Kaveh and Alhaitham is a good example- in CN they were just bickering. It's not the VAs fault, mind you, it's the direction they are either not given or misguided to perform. A decent enough example with the translation itself occured in Ballads and Brews.

During the dinner, we got a fade to black screen with this text: The group dines to the sound of Kaeya's jesting and Diluc's disapproving grunts...

What it says in Chinese is: 在凯亚的笑声与迪卢克的「哼」声中，众人共进了晚餐…

Pop this into google or a decent translator and you get:

Amidst Kaeya's laughter and Diluc's "hum", everyone had dinner together.…

Note the word "disapproving" isn't there at all. Diluc's little huffs and grunts are quite normal. Not sure why they decided to put 'disapproving' on it. This is the same event where Paimon called Razor's stuff "trash" while the the languages said stuff or things. It was a mess, translation wise.

The line with Adelinde walking around was also changed. In every other language it's "When will Master Diluc finally make up with Master Kaeya." In EN we got: "When will Master Diluc resolve his issues with Master Kaeya?"

There's a weight difference there. "Make up" is a very casual, softer way of saying two people had a falling out. "Resolve his issues with" make it sound like Diluc has a problem with Kaeya and it's more business and formal. You make up with a friend, you resolve issues at work. It's nuance to make Diluc sound harsher.

Sadly it's not just Diluc. They do this to Alhaitham a lot now too.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Why doesn't Diluc apologize?

answer:

This is a bit of fanon wilds. We don't know if he has or hasn't, as it's never addressed in game. We don't even know if Kaeya holds that night against Diluc to be sorry for, either. If anything, based on story v, he blames himself for what happened. We don't know what he said to Diluc, but we know it had to be very, very bad. Both boys were in shock, young, and not the smartest. Mistakes were made on both sides.

As a fanon consumer and creator, please consider this:

Perhaps Diluc doesn't think Kaeya wants him any closer. If you look, he never stops Kaeya from coming around him and has a very open policy to letting them in his life. He doesn't correct the comment that the winery is his home. He doesn't bar him from Angel's Share. He allows Kaeya every opportunity to talk to him, whenever Kaeya wants to. The one stopping it- is Kaeya- who excuses himself and leaves. Diluc does not try to stop him and lets Kae make his own decisions. He is frankly the only one allowing this, too. Sad.

Adding on due to a comment:

Yeah, Diluc has some responsibility here too. He's rough around the edges. I will point out that his Chinese voice is WAY softer than his English one in tone and wordage and Genshin has been making him more aggressive in the EN version. I'm not sure why? He's not great at expressing his feelings verbally, and Kaeya is very sensitive. So there's a little wishy washy fault on both sides and guilt. Diluc thinks he shouldn't be around Kaeya out of guilt and doesn't want to force him; Kaeya feels guilt for what he did and doesn't think Diluc wants him.

They're ldiots. Adelinde is going to have grey hair and cry herself to sleep at this rate.

Small additional detail. Kaeya has said he goes where the wind leads him... and where does it always seem to take him? Dawn Winery. Even Venti is hoping these two losers reconcile.

Again, Traveller POV.

Update 7/14:

There's actually some suggestion in the CN that they may have actually made up or do not hold their fight against each other. Their hesitations are something else. You can read more about it here.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Why do you ship KLK?

Answer:

I just think they're pretty. I love the starcrossed lovers trope, slow burn, and deep emotional connections.

A funfact about me: I never saw them as brothers. I didn't have much interest in kae or Diluc until almost a year into playing the game. I sped run mond and didn't pay attention to it. I found about them later and got the corrected translations at the same time as the English ones while doing research for a fanfic called "Running Before Walking" (Chiluc fic!). It was a little confusing at first but once I got it, I fell madly in love with Kaeya and their relationship. It's very sweet.

I do love the HC that Diluc saw Kaeya as a brother, but Kaeya never did. It makes it extra spicy and two flavors of unrequited love that are resolved through character growth and communication.

Imagine losing your father and then your "brother" telling you he never saw you that way. That he's entangled in all this mess and your entire concept of him was shattered. This was your best friend- possibly the last person you saw as family and someone safe you can trust... and he lied to you. Your entire image of him from start to finish was wrong.

Mmmmn~ Delicious.

Diluc and the No Good, Horrible, Terrible Very Bad Day.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Discord:

Why does every relationship in genshin have to be g/a/y? Can't they be straight? Why do people ship every character that interacts for .5 seconds?

answer:

You'd have to take it up with Hoyo for this one, honestly. They were coded to be that way, and people picked up on it.

So let me explain for a moment- I'm older and it's actually shocking to me that the younger generations don't understand this. You guys are so lucky and you don't even realize it.

Back in the 90s and 2000s when Anime first started trickling over to the west, it was heavily censored. The best example of this is the Sailor Moon series in it's OG glory. Sailor Ura/nus and Sailor Neptune, specifically were extremely censored or the show was not allowed to air on TV in the west. These ladies were les/bians and it was obvious- but the translation, being the way it was, decided to make them "cousins" to put an end to it.

Surely people wouldn't ship cousins, right?

Spoilers: people caught on and shipped them anyway.... which arguably made it worse (lol).

(There were two other characters that were changed as well, causing Sailor Moon to feature one of the first transfem characters in anime- making it a het ship rather than a queer one. Similarly, The arc with the Starlights took ages to come out in EN for similar censorship reasons.)

Content creators retaliated and created or found 'codes' to hide the queer couples in their works. Signs and details to show that two characters were more than what they seemed.

In China, there is actual fines and legal action against showing LGBT couples (especially male) in games and shows. So they use these old codes to show the relationships in whatever way they can, and you have to read between the lines while having reasonable doubt that they may or may not be a couple to appease the censorship. Sworn brotherhoods are a very common way of doing that. MXTX is somewhat famous for their very obviously queer couples that are 'sworn brother's.

This is also why every g/ay couple in Genshin has a 'straight' option.

For Diluc, it's Jean. For Jean to have 'reasonable doubt' for her being in a relationship with Lisa- there's Diluc. This addressed both potential couples by giving them an 'out' for censorship purposes. Ningguang, who is known for her thing with Beidou, has Zhongli as her 'hetero' option. Beidou's is debatably Kazuha. Thoma and Ayato, another common couple, have Ayaka and Thoma as a 'debatable' option. Ayato also has Yae, which addresses Yae and Ei. Itto has Sara to address Gorou. This is a repeating pattern. (New! Nilou and Kaveh- Haikaveh, Cyno and Nilou - Cynari as well as the "brother zoned" thing in Windblume)

Quick reminder that Genshin CAN NOT say a couple is canon unless it's hetero. (They have done this before in Honkai and struggled for a while to keep the content up- see Bronseele for more information). They have that option whenever they want it and choose not to. If a character was straight, they could say it at any time. Any. Time.

And they don't.

So why is every genshin character gay? They aren't. They're all bi. Every single one of them. You can decide the couples, and pick up the clues as you wish. It's part of the fun of the fandom. Arguably every ship in Genshin is viable if you watch for the signs of it. Hence "crumbs".

Gentle reminder that gaming is typically mark.eted to the CIS straight man. Not women. Not queer people. They hide what that specific group doesn't want to see and have to make their games sellable to the 'majority'.

It's also a marketing tactic not to confirm any couple or ship in the game, but we won't get into that here.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

A funny thing about "Proship" logic

This is the little note from me where I get a bit petty. Technically speaking, KLK isn't even a "proship" (because it legally does not classify as lncest), but while I have your attention for a moment let's discuss this.

I am putting the word in quotes because technically it's not the word it's used for. Proship means "pro shipping" and welcomes all ships- even if you don't personally ship or enjoy it. (Japanese people call it "omnivorous" I believe.)

The word antis mean is "Probship" which is Problematic ( but "taboo" would be more correct) or "comship" for complex/complicated dynamics. Pro- and Prob- are so vastly different it isn't even funny. ProRights and ProTrans literally means you support something. Proship means you support ships.... not problematic content.

Now assuming "Proship" is a concept that should be allowed to even exist, the definition of it constantly changes.

There is no truly 'unproblematic' ship in Genshin.

What you consider to be 'fine' is blasphemy and horrible to another person.

Cynari? Xiaoven? Haikaveh? Kaebedo?

They're queer.

To a 'phobic person, these are problematic ships. They should be banned.

According to that community, no queer couple should be presented to young people (under 18-21) at all. It's immoral and wrong. Genshin is corrupting the minds of young people- something, something g/ay agenda. I'm not even going to dignify putting the argue here because it's so ridiculous. I heavily disagree, of course, but recognize this is a point of view in many countries and parts of the world. This is why censorship of queer couples exists in the first place. This is why China has the censors it does.

Jeanluc?

He's corrupting her. Diluc is a legitimately horrible person in many ways (I love him) who has killed people off screen. In Character Story V it is blatantly said that he has hung people upside down from the statue of Barbatos. This can be read as blaspheming "God", breaking multiple laws, and terrorizing the people of Mond. He also attacked Kaeya, committed on screen patricide (webtoon), and almost died once to put an end to his killing spree in Snezhnaya. Diluc's kind of a traitor and not "good" by any means- an Anti-Hero. I, and many people love him, but many things he's done are unforgivable. He's arguably toxic if you choose to see him that way.

(Jean deserves better imo)

Chilumi?

Similar thing. Childe has committed actual war crimes in Liyue and blatantly tried to unalive multiple people in the span of ten minutes. He's arguably not a good person. (I love him). There's also the fact the Traveler is centuries old and Childe is in his early twenties-ish. Many people believe he legitimately put his brother in danger for no reason and he is a horrible, horrible person.

Kaebedo?

Inherent borderline 'put the token black characters together' aside; Albedo has been shown not to have full emotional capacity or understanding of feelings. He's basically a child in his grasp of humanity- and Kaeya needs someone to give him affection no matter what way you look at them. Albedo cannot do that. Kaeya "teaching" Albedo how to love is just a fancy way, nicer way of saying he's basically gro/oming him. Kaeya will never get genuine affection and Albedo cannot give it consensually.

Disagree with the above? Good for you, but someone out there agrees. They look at Chilumi and think it's a "proship". They look at Cynari and see a "proship" (spoilers, it technically could be and not for the brothers thing but that is horribly off topic).

Any ship can be a "proship", toxic, or unfavorable/immoral in some way depending on personal choices and perspective. There really is no middle ground. When you start censoring one thing and saying it's not allowed, you open the door to more strings of censorship that will go far beyond just what you personally believe is unsavory. Today it's loIi, tomorrow it's trans people, then it's queers, and then it's your right to play a game online if it's made by China.... no more Tiktok.

Never welcome any form of censorship.

Fiction Does Not Affect Reality. You Prove it Every Day.

The Eastern world doesn't even have a word like "proship". So every time you say "fiction affects reality" and truly believe it, please look to our friends in Japan, Korea, China, and such. They do not believe that. They have never believed that. Their societies and social structures are flourishing and they are some of the best in the world. Their social structures are more of a community and supportive than ours in many ways.

"Fiction Affects Reality" is essentially the "Vaccines cause Autism" of the internet world. It's a scare tactic to make people stop doing something that one specific faction doesn't like to justify it's removal. Just like the Vaccines, there are articles claiming it's true and swearing up and down that there's bleach in the water supply. Things like this are normal.

As an older person from the "I got Bombarded By 100 Different Disasters and The World Ending" generation, let me share this little tip:

"Psychologists/Therapists/'Mental Health Experts' believe-" is a red flag sentence.

Psychology is an extremely muddy science and every single human is different. It is almost impossible to determine anything with the human mind on a small scale unless it has a very real physical effect. There is no "blank slate" to base it on either. Find one truly healthy, correct person in the world.

"Believe' is the key word. Believe is an opinion. It is not a fact. it's no different than that one guy in the commercial trying to sell you his neck massager to help your spine because he's a PhD in Neurology and Spinal whatever. Maybe he has a couple good points, but it's likely for the cameras and probably very circumstantial.

This has been an argument for ages and ages from songs, to plays, to novels, to television, to video games, and the internet. It's never got anywhere and likely never will because there's so much proof against it.

If you read a tear jerker story about a terminally ill patient finding love doesn't mean you ever want that to happen to anyone. If you read a story about an ex cop who suffered hardship learning to live again because of a dog doesn't mean you want that to happen either. Reading a story about the zombie apocalypse tearing friends and families apart isn't something we actually want to happen IRL either. We all consume these tropes and stories like Mafui AUs, Bad Cops, Princesses kidnapped by Monsters- but we'd never actually want any of that to happen.

It's just stories and they exist for your entertainment. Some may leave an impression on you, but it's just a story until you drag it out of the fictional world by force and make it happen.

Pixels do not feel pain.

Pixels cannot cry.

Pixels do not have rights.

But the new artist that is drawing her favorite blorbos kissing can.

The writer who finally got brave enough to post their first work can.

The person in your life that is hiding their identity because they are afraid of rejection, can.

Know where fiction ends and reality begins.

Remember the old phrase "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?" same here. You wouldn't call the person who said that to you as a child a proshipper, pro lgbt, pro choice, pro anything- it's just common sense and being a decent person.

As I said in one of my most impactful fanfictions:

"The gravity of words can be either crushing or weightless, depending on the speaker and to whom the words are spoken."

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Discord:

How do you see this as a ship? Where is the evidence?

Answer:

OH BOY.

To prop the door open, let me preface by saying no one needs a reason or evidence to ship ANYTHING. People used to ship pixar characters across different moves as crossovers (Jack Frost x Elsa was very popular). It's just for fun. Ship and let ship.

But tbh I could probably write pages of why I ship Kaeya and Diluc. The more you read into these two, the more you find. I'll keep it short and sweet for the sanity of every person reading this and try not to repeat what I've already referenced. There's a lot that screams these two were literally written with each other in mind- the Sworn Brothers trope is HUGE in the East in the same way we have "Beauty and the Beast", "Cinderella Story," and "Rivals to Lovers" in the West. Red x Blue is blatant and always has been. So many tropes. So many memes. But here's a few finer details a lot of people miss:

• Hidden Strife revealed that Diluc and Kaeya communicated the time that Diluc was traveling. Kaeya repeatedly expressed that he wanted Diluc to take care of himself, but received a "take care of yourself, instead" as a response. He then kept all 9 letters that Kaeya sent him. Numerology in Chinese says that 9 means eternal and longevity- it's commonly used in Chinese courtship. Diluc sent 2 back- another lucky number because "All good things come in pairs." They both kept all of them in their own way. (QUEER! /points) Genshin has used numerology like this before in the Samsara quest- the number 4 means death. 3 means life. (Now look at the fatui symbol vs riptide~ go Childe go)

• In the webtoon, they are frequently shown with matching items. Look at the picture of them at a table and note their gloves match. Diluc's new costume "Red Dead of Night" has numerous 4 pointed stars on it.

• Voice Lines in other languages are much more liberal about their relationship than English. In the first GAA event, Japanese even went as far as to say "we would be asleep on one of the other islands." CN Diluc is way softer than EN Diluc, in the GAA there was a conch shell we found of them talking from the first one. This means that they did talk more than what we saw in the first GAA and they start talking about when they were younger. In the CN version, you can hear Diluc actively become softer as he realizes Kaeya still holds on to their memories together.

• Diluc constantly listens to Kaeya. Constantly. If Kaeya says he wants something, Diluc usually finds a way to make it happen. We have never actually heard Diluc say "no" to Kaeya. (He did take a bottle away from him in one event and Kaeya POUTED but was never told no). An example shows up in the first Windblume, Kaeya mentions his "mouth feels a little lonely" and he could use some appetizers. In the second, there is a mention that Angel's Share is giving away free Chicken Skewers. Not only did Diluc get his appetizers, he got his signature dish.

• Multiple characters reference or call out Kaeya for talking about Diluc. He does it all the time. Venti in the first Windblume (and then he writes "I love you" in Hilchurlian as his love poem). Rosaria calls him out in Of-Drink-A-Dreaming. Lisa in Ballads and Brews. He talks about him so much it's basically a meme.

• This scenewhere they stare at each other over a distance from Ballads and Brews. It's the scene after Kaeya leaves post-dinner, and one of the only times we see him actually smile and mean it. Diluc watched him leave the entire time and only moved from that spot after he was sure Kaeya was gone.

• The TCG cards. That's just... really queer man. That wasn't a standard card... so he had it made??? Queer. That's so queer. Kaeya, why were you carrying around your personal Diluc card and leaving it for people to find? "But he abandoned it" - reminder he knew Diluc would be there. He knew.

Of course, these are in game examples with limited interpretation on them, you can take them as siblings from all of those (except maybe the TCG card. That's a bit... hmn.) So here just a few personal HC based on end game events and theories.

• When Diluc confronts Hilichurls at the bridge, he attacks each one swiftly and effectively. In the Darknight Hero cutscenes, he 1v1s a mage with the same level of efficiency. The one time Diluc loses his cool, busts down a door with fire, rushes in- grabs a mage by the face, yeets it, and then runs up with his sword scratching the ground like a feral madman was when he attacked the one looking at Kaeya. Take that into consideration for a moment and remember Diluc knows who Kaeya is. He probably knows what the Khaenri'an became, and some of what the abyss is after. Pretty easy to guess why Diluc lost his cool and goes after the abyss instead of the Fatui in Mond as of late. No Touch >:(

• Kaeya and Diluc use each other's flowers as ascension talents. Diluc uses Lantern grass- a little plant that has a deep blue and glows in the dark. Kaeya uses Calla Lily which has reddish orange petals and thrives in the sun. They are literally using flowers that resemble the other person as their personal growth item to ascend to their strongest version of themselves. It's subtle, but kind of reads like they cannot be stronger without each other.

• Ballads and Brews we saw Kaeya and Diluc interact directly and talk. Diluc asks why he's there, and Kaeya says he's there for the knights but he's allowed to come home when he wants. Diluc does not correct him, nor does he decline anything Kaeya requests. In fact he says to cut to the chase and give it a rest- suggesting he knows the knights sent him against his will. Diluc does not say the winery isn't his home- and then asks the traveler if they'd like to stay. Kaeya takes this as himself being left out and tries to leave- and you can see Diluc get upset about it. Neither of them realize that they accidentally rejected the other. Kaeya doesn't need an invite to his own home, so Diluc invited the guest. Kaeya didn't understand what Diluc was implying or meaning, and pushes himself away- rejecting the offer. Adelinde rushes in and saves the day, flustering Kaeya as he's not really sure what to think now- one person is suggesting he's welcome to stay, but Diluc isn't inviting him and he feels out of place. She even comments that he's nervous afterwards and the atmosphere was not something a 'lowly maid' can comment on.

• Referencing above and some other interactions we see- Kaeya is somewhat of a pushover at times. If the Knights ask him to do something, he does it. He's very sensitive to being rejected and deeply wants to connect to someone, but tends to skitter away when they get too close. In Jean's birthday party, he refused to take credit for the hard work he did. He stays distant on purpose. Jean, Lisa, Venti, a few others have been referenced using Kaeya to cash in favors to Diluc. Kaeya's story also suggests that he is constantly struggling with his choices to Mond vs Khaen. He will be used. He will be a tool in a game he doesn't want to be in. While Diluc, on the other hand never tells Kaeya to do anything other than take care of himself. He is allowing Kaeya to make the decisions to come around him. If he wants to come back the Winery, he's allowed to. If he wants to go to Angel's Share, he's allowed to. It's mentioned in Hidden Strife Kaeya actually stayed at the Winery while Diluc was gone for a while and no one saw this as a problem. He doesn't ask Kaeya to come back, he allows him to make that choice rather than telling him what to do. Like I said in points above, he listens to Kaeya. He actively accommodates him, just not verbally because Kaeya's actions are more honest than his words.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Hoyolab:

What is the appeal to you?

Answer:

Kind of a hard question to answer, because it's like asking why blue is your favorite color. I went a little into it in "How do you see..." with my headcanons.

KLK has many tropes I like- enemies to lovers, bickering like a married couple, teasing, miscommunication, ect ect.

There is something special about a ship that overcomes the odds. A good boy will save the world for you, but a bad boy will destroy the world to save you. Kaeya and Diluc are the latter. They're both morally grey anti-heros and gladly suffer for the others' happiness- which is what got them into the weird miscommunication issue they're having. I fully believe they'd kill for each other and they'd burn the world if need be.

They are probably the most intrinsically entwined ship in genshin at this time with the most story potential imo. Theirs is far from over- and as a writer and artist, that's delicious decadent substance.

Honestly KLK is one of those ships you have to look into a little bit. Sworn Brothers are a beautiful, very romantic concept. Once you know more about them and see the nuances- it becomes very, very deep. The lore junkie in my brain loves it.

If it's not your thing, that's perfectly fine. Genshin has flavors for everyone to enjoy. They're just not as blatant as HKM, Beigguang, and Xingyun until you -know- about them.

Short answer:

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

"Arent Kaeya also refers Crepus as fuqin (father) and yangfu (adoptive father) in his CN character story?"

I'll assume you mean fuqin as in 父亲 and yangfu as 养父.

The answer is... yessss???? He certainly uses the words. The way they are used is a bit up to interpretation. At no point does it say "he's adopted" or "Crepus is his father" in clear cut means. It's all worked in as part of the story and the meaning skews based on how you want to see it. The only ones who can say 'yes' or 'no' to the true meaning of what this implies is Hoyo's writing team, but they are likely never going to do that because it's part of connecting with the story and characters. No one right answer.

父亲 appears twice in reference to Crepus (a couple times to his own father and once as Diluc's father).

养父 only appears once and at a very crucial part of the story.

In the hanzi, 父亲 is segmented out in boxes- and in CN grammar this means quotations or apostrophes. I am not sure why that part did not get translated or transferred over. Yet another odd choice from the EN team, but regardless it's there in the CN.

Here's the actual lines:

他与迪卢克共同的「父亲」操纵着来历不明的不详力量击退魔物，随即被力量反噬，死于非命。

The 'father' he shares with Diluc-

共同的「父亲」倒在了血泊之中。

Their common 'father' fell-

In English, we use quotations to denote sarcasm, emphasis, or special terms. CN does the same, they just use a different character (the box brackets).

You can read this how you like, but it's more or less that he's not seeing it the same way- he has to emphasize it somehow because it's not his normal way of thinking. Things in quotations are meant to be doubted or questioned.

This is an important distinction for when you get to 养父. The two lines above happen in Character story V. This word (养父) occurs after the fact when Kaeya is reflecting on the events. It has a much heavier meaning but ties into what he was struggling with in Character story V on how to see himself (an adopted son, or not?).

狠心舍弃他的生父与收留抚养他的 养父 ，他应该帮助谁？

Or his adoptive father, who had loved him and raised him?

So this is a bit of story interpretation. If you had just this bit, you would easily assume Kaeya was legally adopted. Dust your hands of it and call it a day. However, we know previously he put it in quotations- even he is emphasizing this to himself and to the reader that it's something he's arguably not sure of. You could even argue that it was sarcasm based on how cracked in the head you think Kaeya was at the time.

Here, he is debating between his biological father and the man who raised him- that he should see as an adopted father and himself a son as he struggled with a lot in the "The Chinese literally says Adopted Son-" section I have above that comes immediately after this. The back and forth after is frankly heartbreaking because he is trying so hard to figure out what he feels.

What that means is for the reader to decide. He definitely TRIED to call Crepus something of a adopted father and himself an adopted son. If he really did believe his own words is reader choice.

In 3.5 Kaeya calls Crepus his 义父 - a father figure and someone he respects very much. Crepus was important to Kaeya, he just may not have realized it until it was too late. In his hangout, he flips back to 养父. Man cannot make up his mind how much Crepus matters, only that he does.

(Ow, my feelings.)

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

"In that one Mondstadt quest, Kaeya literally says "our father" to Diluc"

I assume you mean "Should You Be trapped in Windless Land" - venti's Archon Quest? That's the only one that comes to mind for "our father" and that's still not what it says so you'll need to be more specific if that's not what you meant, anon ;;;

Ah-! This is the "throw me out with the trash!? >:(" pouty Kaeya scene.

TLDR: He's teasing him.

This scene includes a back and forth with the CN that was translated a bit harsh in EN.

It's way funnier in Chinese than it is in English.

Diluc says not to get drunk.

Kaeya claps back with: "Oh? You're saying if I get drunk, you'll sell me to the garbage dump?"

Diluc, confused: Sell you?

Kaeya, in the dramatic whiney way says: "你不是常卖东西吗？父亲的旧宅也是你卖掉的。"

Which translates to: Don't you often sell things? You also sold father's old house.

It doesn't say our, your, or my. It just says "father's" in refer to who owns the house and it's rather ambiguous in the conversation based on how you want to read it. So yeah? I guess? One of my friends I asked to double check me said the line said 'our' would be closer and another said 'your'. Both agreed it's based on how you want to see it.

This is a kind of dialogue banter is called "Saijou" (撒娇). It's commonly used between close friends, siblings, lovers, ect to get something they want. Kinda like when a boyfriend goes up to a girlfriend and is like "But You SAid YoUD alWayS LoVeEE MEeeeEEE" or siblings pick on each other using affection. Kaeya does this very frequently. (Link to a CN native going through a bunch of lines and how different EN Kaeya is to CN Kaeya because of this).

So if he's referring to Crepus as "our" father here, sure- it could mean their actual dad, father figure, or shared relative.

But it could be no different than me going up to my husband after my father in law said we'd get ice cream and I start whining that "Dad Said I Could" when my husband says I should eat first (guilty as charged). They share a father figure, so there'd be no need to put the possessive for 'your' there.

The scene is another "if you want them to be siblings, they are siblings; if you want them to be dating, they're dating" thing. No big deal, and nothing new.

tldr; Kaeya was being a brat, no matter how you choose to see the relationship.

You could argue this scene is Kaeya calling Crepus his father, but it would be a very weak argument because, like the others, it's still up for interpretation.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

"You said Kaeya uses 父亲 twice in his character story, and 养父 once. What about 义父?"

Ah! 义父 (Sworn Father) doesn't actually appear in his story. His story is so much drama. So much.

However, 义子 "sworn son" appears on his immediate character details when you pull up his profile.

Like so:

凯 亚 · 亚 尔 伯 里 奇 ， 酒 业 大亨 「 莱 艮 芬 德 」 家 的 义 子 。

Unofficial CN translation: Kaeya Alberich, sworn son of the wine tycoon Ragnvindr family.

The words are kind of a two part combo? One is directly related to the other.

Just like if you're a step-son, you have a step-father. If you are a sworn son, you have a sworn father. It's relatively the same concept here. Crepus is the head of the family... it's kind of obvious and not necessary to say yifu here.

义父 did directly appear in 3.5's Caribert quest when he says Crepus dragged him back to the winery.

The KLK and CN side largely knew this bit already because you can't really be a yifu without a yizi, but in Caribert it was nice (and tragic) to see how Kaeya sees Crepus after all this time. (Sir, My feelings are already paste. Please have mercy).

If you want to know more about the relationship: there's a Reddit Post (I think Dakota reposted this on hoyolab) that goes into it that is frequently referenced for explanation of Yizi and Yifu. They break down the hanzi themselves for a more in depth explanation of the relationship. In addition, here's a post that predates genshin explaining it as well from quora that has a lot of good information on it in a translation standpoint.

I also did my own post Translations: Crepus and Kaeya, a Loyalty Beyond Legality

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

What about the one in genshin fandom?

"It says "Kaeya's Character Stories in Chinese refer to Kaeya as both 义子 "foster son" and 养子 "adopted son" in relation to Crepus, who is also referred to as 养父 "adoptive father" in relation to Kaeya (收留抚养他的养父 "his adoptive father who took him in and fostered him"" WAS IT WRONG TOO??? (If you already explained about this one, no need answer me)"

Answer: I have answered this, but for your own sanity given the size of this AMA, I'll give you the short version.

It does say both, technically, but the way "adopted son" is used is in a doubtful way when Kaeya is questioning what he actually is. The full sentence is "As an adopted son, he should-" in both instances it appears. Who should he chose? His blood father or his adoptive one that raised him? It's not really as conclusive as many antis like to think it is, and you can choose to read it either way based on other contexts. Kaeya is literally berating himself and the stronger words are used to show the depth and drama of the situation he's in and choice he's forced to make.

The full explanation is above in "The Chinese literally says Adopted Son-"

义子 is used on his direct character profile, and referenced in Caribert, so this would be the most "recent" viewpoint Kaeya has on Crepus. The word isn't fostered- it's "sworn". We don't really have an English meaning for it sadly. It's more mutual than a godparent, more deep than a foster, and not as severe or legal as adopted. It's very soft and very deep- you choose this person as your paternal figure. Some translations use 'chosen' father as a result.

The fandom website is very heavily managed by antis. Even if we KLKers wanted to go in and add constructive context in the notes section to support both sides of the argument, it would just be deleted and the page locked. (Speaking from experience, I have tried.)

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

"Kaeya just said he's adopted son and Diluc's brother in the hangout quest"

You really shouldn't have picked this fight. Because I'm going to tear you apart grammatically and contextually.

Normally I am much nicer about this, but y'all pushed some buttons you shouldn't have. One of you little ragbro brats even tried to spoil the event for me. So for the ones of you who are kind and leave shippers alone? Ignore this post. This isn't directed at you.

But you wanna play this game? FINE.

THE HANGOUT PROVED WITHOUT A DOUBT THEY ARE NOT ADOPTED BROTHERS. THEY'RE JUST FRIENDS.

Let me repeat that:

THE GAME HAS MADE IT CLEAR THAT YOUR PRECIOUS "FAMILIAL" RAGBRO PROPAGANDA IS HEADCANON ONLY.

Let me make an graphic in case you only look at pictures:

The Hangout has condemned your familial bonds to HC status. So sorry.

Here's one Chinese Speaker saying that they aren't brothers. <--- This is a repost, the OP is not a KLK shipper and was harassed like one, got tired, and took it down.

Here's another different Chinese speaker saying the same exact thing! Wow!

But we many of you won't read beyond 2-3 words in a single sentence before getting hoity:

Unless Kaeya is two people in a trench coat- He's not Diluc's legal brother in any way

兄弟 IS TWO WORDS. It's BROTHERS.

This is not hard to figure out.

兄 is older brother. 弟 is younger brother.

Put them together, how many brothers do you have? Two. One older, one younger.

So unless Kaeya is simultaneously both a younger and older brother to ONE person (Diluc), this word means friendship in Chinese standards. You would NOT use 兄弟 for your legal, adopted, or actual brother in this way. Here is a link to an actual chinese teaching website for ELEMENTARY level education that says it. Have another. Haitham said to do things in threes, so here's another.

You CAN use it for a SWORN brother-- because that's a FRIENDSHIP.

So they're friends. Homies. Brothers of another mother. Bros.

Maybe even-

if you know where this gif came from, you know what i'm getting at

The fisherman in the SAME HANGOUT calls both KAEYA and TRAVELER 兄弟.

Alice refers to the entire KNIGHTHOOD as Diluc's 兄弟 and friends, plural.

So unless Albedo, Mika, Huffman, Jean, Lisa, Sucrose, and Kaeya are ALSO siblings of Diluc?- It doesn't mean legally adopted. It's friendship. Literally just bros. Brothers in Arms if you wanna get fancy. Brothers from Another Mother.

It literally does not get easier than that, and if you can't figure it out with this basic of a breakdown and the two links above, you're 250 and should probably consider uninstalling Genshin. You can't handle any amount of Chinese cultural context.

THERE'S NOTHING SAYING YOU HAVE TO SHIP THEM,

BUT THEY. ARE. NOT. ADOPTED. BROTHERS.

THE END.

See them as familial if you want, but know you'll always be a HC.

The canon says friends and nothing more.

If you disagree with anything I say above, you're lying to yourself, coping, or! Being rac/st and rejecting the CHS as the actual canon game, because Genshin Impact is Chinese.

It's real name is 原神 (Yuánshén).

Sorry, I don't make the rules. It is what it is.

-

NOW AS FOR CREPUS - as I've said before. Who in their insane MIND from an adopted family calls their DAD and FRIEND "Master"??? This is like us saying "Mister" in this context. He is introducing himself to a stranger who does not know him.

But even then, it's weird. It's not "being respectful". He's putting distance between him and the Ragnvindr family and talking about them in the same way the staff of Dawn Winery does. Adelinde speaks this way to Diluc. So does Tunner, Elzer, and Conner.

This is NOT how an adopted child speaks to or about their parents and family. Ever. Even in Chinese, he would have taken their last name and referred to them as "My father" not "My ____ father" and DEFINITELY not "My _____ father MASTER Crepus."

Now watch how Adelinde and Elzer react to him in this scene, and their immediate "You are always part of the DAWN WINERY family" makes sense. That is why they're acting this way. They're trying to grab him and make him feel like he's still part of the collective, even if he never sees himself as anything more than a ward/foster.

Crepus you can say is his "Adoptive" father all you want. Kaeya doesn't even know what to call him. Man has gone back and forth on his terms for crepus over and over, this isn't new. This is context and your choice because there is no clear cut answer as of right now.

But he has NEVER switched terms for Diluc.

Diluc has, as always, been his sworn brother- his friend.

The EN is treating you like you're an ldiot who can't understand basic concepts.

Quit proving them right. READ.

Listen to the Mainland Chinese speakers and not some 33 year old twist from Texas on twitter (xtter?) because she has some Asian friends.

Quit making EN look bad because you're intolerant, ignorant, and uncultured brats.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

"Does Kaeluc is the same as BronSeele, EreMika, LukeRosa, and MikaYuu?"

I don't know all of these ships well, but I assume so!

EreMika and LukeRosa YES. Pretty much the exact same same on those two.

MikaYuu I'd have to look into, but I assume yes based on what I've seen.

BronSeele from Honkai 3rd, a little bit. They weren't together nearly as long of a time period, but the gist is there.

They just grew up together and Kaeya was fostered or a ward of the same household. Wuthering Heights is a fantastic example of this being a romance trope long before Anime was even a thing and it's an English novel hailed as one of the best of the romance genre to this day.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

"What about Xingqiu? he says sworn brother too in the EN ver"

He does! It's actually funny you mention that because the Hanzi for his is actually different. He asks you to become one, so he isn't calling you one- so instead of the nouns, we see the verb.

CHS: 我要和你结拜，就去绝云间的祭坛那边。

EN: We should become sworn siblings, let's go to the altar at Jueyun Karst.

The magic word is 结拜 <-- this is a verb!

Basic Explanation from the link-

非亲属关系的人因感情深厚或有共同目的而相约为平辈兄弟姐妹，称为义兄、义弟、(it goes on to list them all)

Rough Translation:

"People who are not related to each other are called sworn brothers and sisters when they meet as equals because of deep affection or a common purpose. They are known as..." (and then it lists them) 义兄 and 义弟 are specifically mentioned and the first in the list.

Xingqui is telling you that he is taking you as his sworn brother- to share his hardships and his successes. He considers you that important to his person and is binding you to him to take care of each other. How nice! (I wonder who the older is supposed to be haha- It's traditional the 'older' of the group takes care of the younger.)

Reminder that "brother" (兄弟) is just another way of saying friendship in Chinese.

But to address the question:

Yes, the traveller is sworn brothers with Xingqui just like Kaeya and Diluc are with each other- IF they became so through the standard, traditional method. There's other ways (through Crepus being Sworn Brother of Kaeya's father, for example) but this is the most common seen method in most novels from what I understand, so it's safe to assume this is what they did.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

That one line that said "taken in" from Carbiert

So, I'm a Kaeluckae shipper. And we all know about [@Z***Gee], right? She's a popular anti. In one of her post I once saw a screenshot from the CN text, i think it's from Caribert quest. It shows that Kaeya himself saying he's adopted. Using the letters "收养" which specifically means adopted. I think in the EN ver they just translate it to "Dawn Winery has just taken me in". I don't know was the screenshot real or no, but can you maybe explain?😭

HAHA, Yeah I know that one. The aforementioned Texan Twist. I lovingly call her "Geegee" because she's so obsessed with brothers and it's pronounced the same as "big sister" in Chinese. A bit of a joke on my part.

Anyway, this is going to be long, so strap in.

收养 is in Caribert. It's actually in one of the screenshots above this question if you look ("You said Kaeya uses 父亲 twice in his character story.." portion) The line was translated to "taken In" by the EN translation, which is weirdly backwards to how they usually do things for Kaeya, correct for a change, not uncommon in Genshin overall, and I was happy to see that!

CHS: 好吧，既然你们有兴趣听…那时的我年纪还非常小，刚被晨曦酒庄收养不久。

Roughly translates to: "I was just [收养] by the Dawn Winery] - so Verb usage, not noun.

Now here's the sticky part: 收养 can mean adoption? But it can also mean to take in, bring up, raise, or care for a person by default- including pets and elderly. It's one of those multiple use words where context is important, and seeing as Kaeya calls him "Adoptive" (义) / Sworn pretty much immediately after... legal? No. Just cared for in the household (as we already knew).

Link One , Link Two, Link Three <--- note all three have THREE definitions for the same hanzi. And it's the same three definitions across the board. It can mean both. It's yet another fairly ambiguous read based on how you choose to. UNLESS you are reading it from a purely legal standpoint and not a story one. The only time 收养 only specifically has one meaning is when it is in a legal document.... which Genshin is definitely not.

Here's were I'm going to have some fun with you~ because this isn't a new word! It's appeared before and you may never have noticed it. If people won't believe ME, why not reference some other characters that use the exact same Hanzi?

References to other characters:

The same Hanzi appears on Kujou Sara (the Kujo Household), Arataki Itto (Granny Oni), and Ayato's voice line about how the Shuumatsuban would take in orphans to raise them for loyalty (More About Kamisato Ayato: IV- so arguably Thoma and Sayu). The Boreal Wolf’s Milk Tooth also uses that same Hanzi to describe how Andrius takes in abandoned babies and raises them (ie: Razor). Lots of "adopting" going on in Inazuma, I guess.

Note only one of these are a true legal adoption as far as EN gets fluffed over the word- and she took the family name. But it gets better! She has a line where she specifically says "I was fully adopted" in the EN.

CHS: 虽然名义上是九条家的养子，但孝行大人看我的眼神，与看镰治时的不同

EN: Although I was fully adopted by the Kujou Clan, I know that Takayuki does not look at me the same way he looks at Kamaji.

This translation isn't bad! She specifically calls herself 养子 (adopted child) and specifies that it's 名义上 ie, "nominally" which "official" is a synonym of. She directly states she was officially, even if only in name, adopted by the Kujo Clan (kinda sad). It's just interesting to me because she directly has to specify that she was fully adopted and not just "taken in".

So there you have it- an in game reference and example that a character had to make a specific clarification that they were legally/fully/actually adopted using the same exact Hanzi we've seen before. By default in a STORY like Genshin, 收养 does not automatically mean legal adoption but you can see it that way if you want to and it would not be wrong either way.

You could make the argument that Kaeya has called himself 养子 if you want to (as mentioned before), but it's just as much a waste of time and splitting hairs. Going through the "What if" hole with that will make you run circles. Just see it how you want to because that word like all the others have multiple meanings and there's a lot of context to make Kaeya's utterly confusing on purpose. It's supposed to be readable either way, and it is.

I find it VERY funny and pretty hypocritical that Kujo Sara is referred to as Kamaji and Masahito's "adoptive" sister on the fandom wiki when she WAS legally adopted. Granny Oni isn't listed as Itto's family at all. Neither is Andrius for Razor.

I'll update this block later if we see it again on the House of Hearth with the Fontaine update coming. I am fairly confident we will given the context of what the Fatui does there. (Orphans being adopted and raised together to become soldiers)

Conclusion:

EN was not necessarily wrong to say "taken in" for this particular term and it leaves more room for the player to decide how to see them, which is correct for what Hoyo wants us to be able to do. They have used the same words for multiple characters, most of which are not legally adopted in any capacity. If you see Itto, Razor, and the entire Shuumatsuban all equally adopted, then by all means.

It's literally the same problem and issues we've been having since day one.

If Kaeya and Diluc had been properly localized from the start or had translation notes to clarify the misunderstandings, none of this would be so messy.

As an extra treat: I'll remind you all again that the relationship between Kaeya and Diluc and the relationship between Kaeya and Crepus are VERY different and separated entirely. Kaeya has still, to date, never called Diluc his legal, foster, or adopted brother in any capacity in the Chinese- Crepus is the one he's confused and waffles with.

About GeeGee and I:

This is the weekly reminder that I literally wouldn't care if Kaeya's "adopted" because I don't have a problem with the romance trope in the slightest. I have enjoyed it in many other mediasand I enjoy it as I see fit.

I am just here to give information to help out with the fact that these terms are literally purposely ambiguous.

GeeGee, however, likes to go back and forth on which is "correct" to suit her narrative and insist that there is only one correct way to see the relationship between these three characters.

When the EN says adopted but the CHS doesn't- the EN is correct! That's what the Chinese meant!

When the CHS implies possible adoption but then EN doesn't- suddenly now the CHS is correct. The English is wrong!

I'm just gunna sit back with my coffee and give the information with the ambiguity included and let you decide.

That is what this AMA is for and why it remains available to the public.

For my well earned cup of opinion:

Geegee stalks me and my friend's twitters sometimes. It's very cute. We take turns laughing at her because wow... do you not have anything else better to do but argue with shippers over a language you don't speak? Girl went at it with a native mainland speaker and still wouldn't admit she was wrong- then started attacking her Diluc build instead??? Like honey.... sweetie... stop.

Honestly if this one line out of the SLEW of others contradicting the implied meaning is the hill GeeGee wants to die on, pop off queen. More power to her, ig and I hope it makes her happy. Just wish she'd hush up, be satisfied with what she has, and stop trying to enforce it as the only narrative of Genshin like she wrote the game. She makes me want to apologize on behalf of Americans for being so embarrassing.

I wish I had that level of passion, but sadly I want nothing to do with that level of obsessive negativity. I would much rather spend my time teaching, learning, and experiencing the world with things I enjoy and people I am proud to call my friends.

You only have so much time to do so, why spend it being hateful?

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Google Form (ANON):

The Hanzi in Diluc's Red Dead Costume

"In the info the clothes skin of diluc or whatever the name is there is hanzi 长子 which means diluc has at least 1 younger sibling"

Sighs and here we go again with the nitpicking. Let me just say if this is your "gotcha!" you're in for a rude awakening because it literally changes nothing. Maybe on someone denying that Crepus had any form of paternal relationship with Kaeya this argument would work, but when have I denied that?

长子 means firstborn or eldest son. Diluc is the oldest son.

So yes, that's what it says. It's correct. Kaeya is Crepus's 义子 (Sworn son) or 养子 (AdoptIVE / Foster Son/ Ward) depending on his mood that day. So this is... literally just saying what we already know- that Crepus has another son of some sort that is younger than Diluc.

.... Call the press I guess? This is old news.

We know Kaeya is in a 义 or 养 relationship with Crepus. This one (长子) is referencing another (义子 or 养子), which has a meaning that changes based on reader interpretation. If you wanna read it as yifu/yizi and more a mentor mentee bond- then go ahead. If you want to read it as stone cold adopted like Kujou Sara without the title, go ahead. It's your choice.

The line in the costume is also not coming from Kaeya or Diluc specifically, it's just generalized description. You can't use it as a reference to say this is how they see each other because it's not them talking. Everyone knows Kaeya is the whatever-kind-of-son-for-the-week of Crepus. It's not new. It's just repeating what we already heard before in a quicker way.

Just see Diluc and Kaeya how you want to see them.

That's what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to treat all of this information. There's room to see it every direction you want to tilt them- adopted, not adopted, friends, lovers, and even exes or strangers. I've said this at nauseum.

If this is your "gotcha" then you're just slamming your head on the wall. Like come on now... we know all this. Even in English this meaning doesn't change. Crepus had a (insert word of the day) Son... which makes Diluc his eldest son. It doesn't change the fact Kaeya's a foster, ward, adoptive, godson-- whatever you personally choose to read him as.

It's just a reference.

EDIT 1-16-24

It's came to my attention (a few days ago but whatever) that this is also used in wills and descriptions. Even if you don't have another son, you can still say this. So uh... yeah. It means nothing unless you want it to. You would use 长子 when describing a family tree, which is exactly what it's doing here.

A conversation:

"I leave my legacy to my first born son"

"You only have one son."

"Then that should be easy to figure out."

It doesn't inherently imply anything, but like I said before, even if it is a reference to Kaeya, it's moot point because we already knew this.

----⋆⋆✧✧✦⋆-✦-⋆✦✧✧⋆⋆----

Closing Statements:

At the end of the day, Kaeya and Diluc are no different than any other ship in Genshin.

You can choose to see them as family, friends, partners, or lovers. Hoyo will probably never declare them or any other ship as canon, nor will they deny it. (Though it has happened in Honkai with Bronseele in HI3rd and a couple others.) This is the job and fun of fandom consumers and content creators. If you do not like something, simply scroll by! The only way a ship as silly as this begins to hurt someone is when someone uses it to.

On one of my posts on hoyolab, I personally received 2 death threats, 2 derogatory insults of my race or gender, and countless people telling me I was disgusting or mentally ill. I do not perpetuate this behavior and I ask you do not either. It is not my job to police what people are and are not allowed to enjoy on the internet, but I hope this document and guide helped bridge some of the understanding for someone.

Thank you for reading, please remember to be respectful to any and all ships- even the ones you disagree with.

Please feel to share anything posted here with friends or peers, repost, ect. I do not mind.