Both in the macro and at the micro scale, Genshin Impact is about communism. so we all know how in genshin impact there are archons, gods that are appointed by celestia that rule the 7 nations that currently exist, and there are civilizations long gone. So far we have discovered two celestial nails that wiped out the civilization at dragonspine and the other civilization. we know that the nations that were wiped out were advancing far beyond their capabilities, and potentially looked to usurp celestia’s throne. so my theory is that they were smitten by celestia (america) because they were communist. also khaenriah is the biggest example of this, but this is obvious, which is why i did not bring it up until half way into my memerant. additionally, as the traveler we are the witness that can record information even as we go through samsara, which is what i would call Marx and Communists et al. as we saw through the lies of the dominant class to attain class consciousness no matter the point in time during our world’s cycle. also in the latest archon quest (spoiler alert for masquerade of the guilty AQ) we learn that focalors was cursed by celestia, so she hid herself and used furina to take over her role as an archon, until she sacrificed herself to stand up to celestia. this is reminiscent of how china is playing with the bourgeoissie in their country to pretend they are capatilism. (end spoiler) also also also we know that there were old old civilizations like the seven sovereigns that existed in what was yet to become teyvat when phanes came and killed or subdued them all representing the settler state of america. actually the world of genshin has discrete periods of time that could potentially represent the well known developments of historical materialism if i cared to stretch the truth enough.
I hope this elucidated the world of Genshin Impact and convinced you that it is Marxist. Please repost to /r/Genshin_Lore
edit fuck turns out someone did this already ironically-unironically on the actual sub 💀💀
Shitpost aside Fontaine is realy cool with all the references to the industrial revolution, the horrible consequences(literal slums in the sewers), I wont spoil the story but it also has heavy themes of climate change, the “ruling” class being looked up to solve a crisis etc.
If you want the actual shittiest take I’ve seen about Genshin lore on reddit take this: Inazuma was a reference to Hong Kong independence. Why? Because clearly it wasn’t the simplest reference to pre-industrial Japan but rather the resistance to the shogunate is a message about resisting to the SEESEEPEE.
…Hong Kong independence??? 😭😭
I really enjoyed Fontaine - not as much as Sumeru, but it was really innovative compared to the other regions - but in some aspects it fell flat. Things like: the slums just did not feel like slums and the Corsican mafia was too collaborative with the authorities and did not give me the impression of a mafia at all. I get that it’s a kids game and all, so they can’t portray it too bleakly, but when they play with the themes they do in the deeper lore, I think it’s also expected that they up the ante on the face-value stuff as well (like you can’t just portray the mafia so one dimensionally).
I agree though its hard to make dark gritty stuff with the general colorful pallet and designs in the anime style they use, it just wouldn’t ever work.
But I think the point for me was more like, how much more obvious do you have to make, the people living in the slums while the city is the epitome of French renaissance architecture or something. The “Queen of Justice” was seen as a literal mascot(my favorite line ever from an NPC referring to Furina lol). It is there if people want to notice it. The problem is generally HYV is not too assertive, they leave a lot down to interpretation and for the player to pick up the references and clues themselves.
The lore YTers(I love Ashikai) explain this a lot and it is so nice to see how many real world references they use, it is just sad it goes over the head of most players because of media literacy and just general lack of education.