so is anyone gonna talk about how the traveller forgot to destroy the inverted statue AND how dainsleif ran off after the

so is anyone gonna talk about how the traveller forgot to destroy the inverted statue AND how dainsleif ran off after the abyss carrying the very thing he didn’t want them to get?

We could have definitely destroyed the eye, or he could have given it to us for safe-keeping; there’s no way this won’t fuck us over later. The abyss has already shown they can corrupt very powerful creatures and concoct new methods to do it, and now with the traveller’s sibling fully on-board, I really don’t think dainsleif could do anything to stop getting corrupted himself…but I don’t think they would make him into their next monster, considering he’s human (relatively speaking?) and has quite a few limits to his powers/strength/size.

The only reason I don’t think we’ll have another osial encounter is simply because it would be too soon from a story-telling/game standpoint, so I want to say they will target azhdada next, but what would be the excuse for them not going after osial once they have the materials that they need? Will osial prove to be too injured/in a deep sleep? Will the abyss order corrupt both at once? again, confronting osial literally after we just quelled it would be an odd writing choice, but not an impossible one.

When we get to fontaine, the lochfolk will DEFINITELY play a big role. The lochfolk already don’t like the current hydro archon, and since they’re made of water and they do that whole “love meld-with-each-other thing,” I bet they could be corrupted the easiest and also be super deadly. They’re spread all across Teyvat, powerful oceanids (at least) can poison waterways, and Rhoedia literally acted as a siren for a bit, leading an entire village to their death. I want to add “hydro seems like an extremely important element to the abyss order” but I doubt there are only hydro abyss heralds or that childe will be the only vision-holder who had ventured into the abyss.

Also, the way I interpreted Dainsleif’s distain for the archons, is that it seems obvious he truly hates them more than not. The only reason he doesn’t believe in “hunting” them is because it will hurt the mortal people of the nations–basically what the abyss order is doing right now, trying to bring down the gods by harming their nations and putting their people in danger (whether they mean to or not). Dain may also see the gods as some sort of necessary evil to society; either way, if it weren’t for the common people, I think he would have no problem eradicating the gods if he could.

People skeptical of the gods’ power or goodwill seem to be a very small and relatively frowned-up minority (this might change with future region releases) so Keqing could also play a sizable role.