I definitely agree that the Church of Favonius has a lot of fridge logic involved in it. It seems decent enough at first, but there are certain comments and teachings that are mentioned SO casually from time to time that rub be absolutely the wrong way as someone who was raised in an extremely strict purity+obedience religion, and I can see the concerning undertones in how the CoF is depicted. I can tell it isn't intentional and that the game, in my opinion at least, is just trying to depict a christianity based / catholic inspired "religion", but.... but it's uncomfortable, particularly when it's meant to be a religion of Barbatos.
I love seeing fics where the church is portrayed in a better light than the game, less strict and more geared towards Freedom, but I also believe that the strictness is intentional to a certain degree, because all of the nation's are kind of shown to be at odds with their gods ideals.
Morax with the contract to "end all contracts", Ei with her people rebelling against her eternity, sumeru keeping knowledge and wisdom exclusive and behind pay walls, the obvious mishandling of justice in Fontaine. So it makes sense that the church of Barbatos is infringing on people's Freedoms. But while I've spend hours, weeks, months thinking about the church and its dichotomy, it's not something I often see people exploring.
From time to time, they will acknowledge it, but I rarely see it explored. I'm really enthusiastic about you diving into the topic because it clearly, clearly needs to be dived into.
i actually had to google what 'fridge logic' was, so thank you! widened my vocabulary hehe but god, yeah, it's actually so devastating, because there is SO MUCH POTENTIAL here. because i totally see what they were going for! and from a storytelling perspective, having the god of freedom's church be so stifling and stiff is absolutely BRILLIANT, and would open up so many doors for so much character development in so many different characters, but it's so poorly executed here. they need to either lean into it fully, or get their shit together and clarify everything that contradicts itself, because this just ain't working. yes! i haven't seen many fics like that (where do you find them??) but i would LOVE to see stuff like that. just some continuity, man. i definitely agree with you that it's intentional to a degree, much in the same sense that i really think they were aiming for that juxtaposition of "god of freedom vs restrictive church" because of the storytelling potential, but they just fell short of the mark. it's interesting that you point out that the gods' churches/nations' ideals are at odds with their own ideals, though, i hadn't noticed that before! you're absolutely correct, though; that's fascinating. tbh i feel like mondstadt in general gets forgotten a little by the devs. which is unfortunate! it's definitely one of my favourite regions, and i wish more stuff was done with it. i mean, we were teased doreman port AGES ago, and nothing came of it, and then dahlia's kit just... completely flopped. it's a little disappointing. well thank you!! i hope i'm able to do the topic justice, lol; i'm kind of viewing this fic as a sort of 'teaser' for something greater, if that makes any sense? like i'm testing the waters and getting a feel for dynamics because i can feel a bigger fic bubbling under my skin re this topic, and i'm very excited about it. regardless, though, i hope you enjoy the fic! :D
Ohhhh well I am thoroughly enjoying the fic so far, and the characterizations, and I am absolutely thrilled by the idea that you might be doing even more explorations of this theme.
Comment on sure it's a calming notion (perpetual in motion)
The_Cinderninja on Chapter 1 Wed 13 Aug 2025 07:01PM UTC
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kjm126316 on Chapter 1 Sun 17 Aug 2025 11:37PM UTC
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