49 thoughts on “[3.3] Time, Magenta and the Goddess of Flowers – A Genshin Impact Theory”
*ANNOTATIONS AND CORRECTIONS* – It's not 100% true that the red and blue color receptors don't overlap but those overlapped areas only occur where green ALSO overlaps. I thought explaining this in the video would make everything to complicated, so I left my explanation a bit oversimplified. – One more thing I over-simplified: the definition of extra-spectral colors. There's a lot of debate about what constitutes extra-spectral and I couldn't get much in the way of reliable conclusions on the subject, so for the purposes of this video I'm assuming colors like brown do have a wavelength of around 620nm while colors like magenta do not have a wavelength at all. This is not 100% accurate (in regards to brown) as this depends very much on the shade, but it's like, 80% true enough for the purposes of video game lore… but if there's a physicist in the comments, I'm all ears. – Lotuses come in far more colors than the four listed in the video. The four I listed are mostly the ones with the most mythological or cultural significance.
The thing is, when it comes to magic and stuff which i read a really long time ago from my cousin's book is yellow is what air or in genshin case anemo, represent, and Ive been using yellow as air's color whenever I draw too because of that
Some scattered thoughts WRT color in Genshin. Having the colors acting as wavelengths of light could explain the absence of orange (I prefer to reckon geo as yellow; just go with it), and most everything else maps reasonably well from there, save anemo, which by default would correspond to white. Given how much white Venti wears, this still works pretty well. On the other hand, perhaps anemo should be cyan, with cryo as white (the color of snow and ice). This latter scheme also works from a "nature of creation" angle: energy (electro) + earth + air making up the material world, with their interactions yielding water, warmth (pyro), and life (dendro). Combining all three primary colors yields an absence of color (white or black, depending on whether we're talking lightwaves or pigments), which maps pretty well to cryo (absence of heat, inimical to life), and also the Abyss. Thing is, cold and wind go hand in glove, so you could probably make a similar argument for white corresponding to anemo (and there is the whole "plume of death" thing, which points to anemo and the Abyss having a link. I'm not as keen on that thought, though).
The amount of times I had to stop and say "No goddamn way-" while watching this video (a similar amount to the three parters actually) is proof that you're getting in my head with this crazy theory stuff and I love it
Hey, physicist here. First things first, I really enjoy your lore-digging and theories. But this talk about colors was a bit too confused. It really should be stated how "color" is defined, and for every time the word "color" is mentioned. All colors "exist" if we talk about ink or even digital art. Furthermore, there are some differences between "physical color" and what I'm going to call "anatomic color", which you ended up treating as the same thing. I understand the mixing up since digital art is based on light, so magenta being a creation of our brains due to the way our cones identify the physical colors causes a lot of confusion. But lets remember black, white, gray, brown, etc. are also "not physical colors", because besides wavelenght, digital art colors (aka formed by light) are also defined by saturation and brightness. And a final take on physical colors: it's just a convention. The visible range of wavelenghts is a continuum (or can be treated as such since we live in a scale much larger than quantum states), we just adopted the division by 7 because… I'm not sure why, but it probably dates to early history eras with a lot of myths. We could as well divide the rainbow in 10 colors or 100 colors or even the 7 Genshin Impact element colors. Anyway, all points about biological colors were pretty interesting (specially the takes on lotus colors)!
My mind is on fire and steam and smoke is literally coming out of my head I love the two top comments about magenta being the absence of time, and teal being connected to time — the colors themselves are inverted of each other, and so perfect pairs, and opposites. We see a lot of all of that stuff during our time in Mondstadt. The other one talks about the vishaps — which has connections to the world of Teyvat even before the archons and gods and humanity. This theory itself though?!? My brain is fried.
Ashikai, do you have any theories abt the irminsul branch at the eternal oasis, at the island in the center? I didnt spoil anything, but you have to complete the quest to see it
There are a slew of colors that we have separate names for that don't "exist" in the basic sense of the word, they only exist as lighter or darker variants of the light spectrum colors. The words themselves exists because we as humans distinguished that specific color as more unique in it's shades and tints.
Like all Pinks are just light Red, but it's unique enough to warrant a special name. Brown also doesn't exist, it's actually a shade of Orange. Magenta doesn't exist, it's apart of Violet visually,, As humans we've observed it so we named it special names for being unique. Cyan/Teal/Turquoise are for green and blue, which many cultures don't even really separate these colors.
Japan for example often calls green things [aoi], or blue. They do have a word for green, [midori], but it's relatively a newer word for this separate color. Like their greenlights for traffic are more blue tinted, and they call them [aoi] rather than [midori]. [Aoi] is also used for plants and fruits even if they are green. The famous forest around Fuji-san called [aoikigahara] translates to "area of blue trees" and [aoiki] is the name of the Japanese Laurel tree, with it's name just literally being 'blue tree'. It's a whole thing.
Ashikai!!! I have a random lore bit I saw on tik tok I wanted to share (although you’re so smart you may already know) someone had mentioned how Alice voices Scaramouche’s gameplay explanation video instead of Dainsleif, because Dain doesn’t remember him due to irminsul deletion BUT Alice can voice it insinuating she is a descender too!! Because her memories weren’t altered!
Fun fact: apparently we cannot see yellow, only a mix of colours making our brain see it. But the real yellow… Goldfishes have the sensors to see it. Not us
Magenta not being real actuallu makes sense, especially if the GoF is a moon/moon sister since the light of a moon isn't real either, but is illuminated by and reflecting the sun's light back towards the Earth. The moon gives the illusion of light so magenta being an illusory color that couldn't be replicated by a being made from/falling within the light spectrum makes sense
1000000iq move from mihoyo: GI v3.4 Honkai and associated with it colour doesn't exist in genshin so calm down. Mihoyo in GI v7.0: SURPRISE – honkai exist in genshin! Have Impact in impact bonk kekw
This reminded of The Color Out of Space (2019), a movie adaptation of a popular Lovecraft story. Basically a meteorite falls down on a family's backyard and an incomprehensible alien lifeform came along with it which presence/influence was described as a color impossible to describe with words (Typical Lovecraft). The movie used the color magenta to represent it which was kind of an ingenious choice in retrospect.
Oh my, this just reminds me of the Yajna Grass (Padisarah), Zohar Mushroom (Rukkhasava Mushroom), and others that we had to get during the Aranara quest and how their colours are not natural? Colours cause I remember clearly that the padisarah is actually magenta and the rukkhasava mushroom was cyan or light blue or smthn
Not only that I also remember that one of the Aranara that was in that quest also mentioned how they (the Yajna grass and so on) were “the last of their kind” or smthn, so could it be that the Goddess of Flowers is capable of making colours in all spectrum (even the non-real ones) or perhaps just a connection between those plants and the GOF?
3:27 I thought this was actually the less likely theory on color vision since it doesn't explain color blindness the way the opponent-process theory does (three receptors, one for red-green, one for blue-yellow, and one for dark-light)
I just realised something. The primordial one had 4 shades right? So he is one person who can also be 4 other people right? And the traveler is also one person who can also be up to 4 other people (cause thats the max team number)!! and like in game those act as independent from eachother cause they can die and have diffrent hunger bars and stats but they are also all the traveler cause during cutscense or when talking to important npc they always switch back to the traveler! And what if thats how the shades for the primordial one work (wait does that mean the traveler is the/a primordial one?!)
The interesting fact about electro and time is also Raiden second quest where there is a literal time confusing thing with the Sakura tree being planted in the present and in the past at the same time
Maybe the Heavenly Principles are kind of like UV light in this theory, which would explain how Violet/Electro is the "closest" to them. Comes with a very strong sunlight feel ascociated with it. Likewise Infrared could be associated with the Abyss in that it is most associated with seeing in darkness
this was such a cool theory! I wanted to point something out involving your connections between anemo and electro when it comes to time. There are two characters in the game who have used both anemo and electro as elements. Kazuha during his fight with Raiden and then Scaramouche used electro before getting an Anemo vision. I havnt completed the scara archon quest so I may have missed something but i just wanted to point that out lol.
As one commenter said, horsetails are supposed to capture the color of the sunset yet the NPC has never seen a sunset of that color a.k.a. Magenta. The Archaic Stone is partly magenta with the description: "The ore itself has incredible clarity and its colors are dazzling, almost seeming to glow with an inner light that brings out its blue-violet beauty, which is like the distant and lovely sunset sky." Everlasting Moonglow is a magenta weapon, "A string of lovely jasper from the deep sea. It shines with a pure radiance like that of the moon (just like the Archaic Stone), and just as ever-distant(distant and lovely sunset sky)."
Magenta = Moon and Sky = Three Moon Sisters = Istaroth
The original Padisarahs were magenta, which are closely related to Istaroth. (crack connection: magenta = sunset and moon, sunset = setting of sun and rising of moon perhaps further connecting Magenta to Istaroth)
The Amakumo Fruit, a magenta fruit, in Japanese is directly translated to the "Sky Cloud Grass Fruit".
Electro also comes in, Purple is closest to Magenta (Time). Lightning is directly correlated to clouds, the sky. Naku Weed another slightly magenta plant, "the Naku Weed grows strongly in areas saturated with Electro energy. Due to its great affinity for lightning, it is often used by residents to predict storms".
Then, we have the Sakura Trees and the Irminsul which have pink/magenta leaves. If we go with Ashikai's theory that the Goddess of Flowers is in-fact the God of Time, then both the archons associated with these trees have a connection with Istaroth. Not to mention that Electro and Dendro are already heavily connected in the first place with Catalyze, dreams, time, memories, being the inverted-color versions of each other, etc.
Resin is literally shaped like the Moon, a crescent being the fragile resin with a branch of an Irminsul Tree, and Condensed Resin which is a Full Moon with a whole Irminsul Tree.
Transient Resin is a magenta Resin connected with time, " Pure energy that will dissipate with time. In this, it is similar to all else that is lovely in this world. But seize this opportunity and go make the world a slightly better place, as is fitting for one who dwells within the bounds of "time." "
you mentioning scara's outfit reminded me that the top of his hat has the colors red, yellow, light and dark green, blue and purple. i always wondered why they included that since it seemed so out of place, but it definitely seems intentional if they've incorporated color theory into the game. considering they also included lotuses and moon references in his design, he was probably a hint about the connection to color theory
11:00 if irminsul records 'in light' then could it be that the abyss sibling "suddenly appeared" in khaenri'ah because it was the end of their journey and they restored their powers of light/their true identity and only then were finally able to be recorded/recognized by irminsul
If cyan was the past , magenta was the unknown future, maybe gold/yellow is the present since our traveler also wears color of gold and we drive the story forward but on the lens of the traveler. Also Gold/Rhinedottir molded albedo on the image of the traveler maybe we are the original Gold in some sense?
*ANNOTATIONS AND CORRECTIONS*
– It's not 100% true that the red and blue color receptors don't overlap but those overlapped areas only occur where green ALSO overlaps. I thought explaining this in the video would make everything to complicated, so I left my explanation a bit oversimplified.
– One more thing I over-simplified: the definition of extra-spectral colors. There's a lot of debate about what constitutes extra-spectral and I couldn't get much in the way of reliable conclusions on the subject, so for the purposes of this video I'm assuming colors like brown do have a wavelength of around 620nm while colors like magenta do not have a wavelength at all. This is not 100% accurate (in regards to brown) as this depends very much on the shade, but it's like, 80% true enough for the purposes of video game lore… but if there's a physicist in the comments, I'm all ears.
– Lotuses come in far more colors than the four listed in the video. The four I listed are mostly the ones with the most mythological or cultural significance.
The thing is, when it comes to magic and stuff which i read a really long time ago from my cousin's book is yellow is what air or in genshin case anemo, represent, and Ive been using yellow as air's color whenever I draw too because of that
Some scattered thoughts WRT color in Genshin. Having the colors acting as wavelengths of light could explain the absence of orange (I prefer to reckon geo as yellow; just go with it), and most everything else maps reasonably well from there, save anemo, which by default would correspond to white. Given how much white Venti wears, this still works pretty well. On the other hand, perhaps anemo should be cyan, with cryo as white (the color of snow and ice).
This latter scheme also works from a "nature of creation" angle: energy (electro) + earth + air making up the material world, with their interactions yielding water, warmth (pyro), and life (dendro).
Combining all three primary colors yields an absence of color (white or black, depending on whether we're talking lightwaves or pigments), which maps pretty well to cryo (absence of heat, inimical to life), and also the Abyss. Thing is, cold and wind go hand in glove, so you could probably make a similar argument for white corresponding to anemo (and there is the whole "plume of death" thing, which points to anemo and the Abyss having a link. I'm not as keen on that thought, though).
The amount of times I had to stop and say "No goddamn way-" while watching this video (a similar amount to the three parters actually) is proof that you're getting in my head with this crazy theory stuff and I love it
Your pink haired waifu is fake
I Should not have watched this on a screen so close to my face….
Gonna be seeing dots for a while. 😅
👏😄
Dude I work as a professional artist. And I didn’t know half of this color theory stuff. 😂
Hey, physicist here.
First things first, I really enjoy your lore-digging and theories.
But this talk about colors was a bit too confused. It really should be stated how "color" is defined, and for every time the word "color" is mentioned. All colors "exist" if we talk about ink or even digital art. Furthermore, there are some differences between "physical color" and what I'm going to call "anatomic color", which you ended up treating as the same thing.
I understand the mixing up since digital art is based on light, so magenta being a creation of our brains due to the way our cones identify the physical colors causes a lot of confusion. But lets remember black, white, gray, brown, etc. are also "not physical colors", because besides wavelenght, digital art colors (aka formed by light) are also defined by saturation and brightness.
And a final take on physical colors: it's just a convention. The visible range of wavelenghts is a continuum (or can be treated as such since we live in a scale much larger than quantum states), we just adopted the division by 7 because… I'm not sure why, but it probably dates to early history eras with a lot of myths. We could as well divide the rainbow in 10 colors or 100 colors or even the 7 Genshin Impact element colors.
Anyway, all points about biological colors were pretty interesting (specially the takes on lotus colors)!
My mind is on fire and steam and smoke is literally coming out of my head
I love the two top comments about magenta being the absence of time, and teal being connected to time — the colors themselves are inverted of each other, and so perfect pairs, and opposites. We see a lot of all of that stuff during our time in Mondstadt. The other one talks about the vishaps — which has connections to the world of Teyvat even before the archons and gods and humanity.
This theory itself though?!? My brain is fried.
my pink lover self is crying
Ashikai, do you have any theories abt the irminsul branch at the eternal oasis, at the island in the center? I didnt spoil anything, but you have to complete the quest to see it
Hoyoverse Devs: Magenta because looks great.
Ashikai: We need answers
P.D. Hoyoverse take notes from your videos
Regarding the Yellow color, could it also be Electro ? Since electro slime can also be yellow
If only this video was posted earlier then I would have gotten a higher grade on my exam
ive never taught that what i learn in my art school would something to do with genshin lore
Anemo Dendro and Electro definitely are the most sus element in the game lore wise
What background ost did u use please
There are a slew of colors that we have separate names for that don't "exist" in the basic sense of the word, they only exist as lighter or darker variants of the light spectrum colors. The words themselves exists because we as humans distinguished that specific color as more unique in it's shades and tints.
Like all Pinks are just light Red, but it's unique enough to warrant a special name. Brown also doesn't exist, it's actually a shade of Orange. Magenta doesn't exist, it's apart of Violet visually,, As humans we've observed it so we named it special names for being unique. Cyan/Teal/Turquoise are for green and blue, which many cultures don't even really separate these colors.
Japan for example often calls green things [aoi], or blue. They do have a word for green, [midori], but it's relatively a newer word for this separate color. Like their greenlights for traffic are more blue tinted, and they call them [aoi] rather than [midori]. [Aoi] is also used for plants and fruits even if they are green. The famous forest around Fuji-san called [aoikigahara] translates to "area of blue trees" and [aoiki] is the name of the Japanese Laurel tree, with it's name just literally being 'blue tree'. It's a whole thing.
Why is are other electro slimes yellow?
I am TRIPPING OUT
Could there be a connection to the abyss' cursed statue or to Durin? Though Durin is obvs more of a pink red
why are yanfei’s eyes blue..
Ashikai!!! I have a random lore bit I saw on tik tok I wanted to share (although you’re so smart you may already know) someone had mentioned how Alice voices Scaramouche’s gameplay explanation video instead of Dainsleif, because Dain doesn’t remember him due to irminsul deletion BUT Alice can voice it insinuating she is a descender too!! Because her memories weren’t altered!
Fun fact: apparently we cannot see yellow, only a mix of colours making our brain see it. But the real yellow…
Goldfishes have the sensors to see it. Not us
When Aishikai vídeo makes u doubt reality 😂😂😂
Magenta not being real actuallu makes sense, especially if the GoF is a moon/moon sister since the light of a moon isn't real either, but is illuminated by and reflecting the sun's light back towards the Earth. The moon gives the illusion of light so magenta being an illusory color that couldn't be replicated by a being made from/falling within the light spectrum makes sense
so wait… magenta is the absence of green as cold is the absence of heat?
I work in the printing press industry. If magenta doesn't exist..
THEN WHAT ARE WE GONNA USE FOR RED!?😅
1000000iq move from mihoyo:
GI v3.4 Honkai and associated with it colour doesn't exist in genshin so calm down.
Mihoyo in GI v7.0: SURPRISE – honkai exist in genshin! Have Impact in impact bonk kekw
This reminded of The Color Out of Space (2019), a movie adaptation of a popular Lovecraft story. Basically a meteorite falls down on a family's backyard and an incomprehensible alien lifeform came along with it which presence/influence was described as a color impossible to describe with words (Typical Lovecraft).
The movie used the color magenta to represent it which was kind of an ingenious choice in retrospect.
Oh my, this just reminds me of the Yajna Grass (Padisarah), Zohar Mushroom (Rukkhasava Mushroom), and others that we had to get during the Aranara quest and how their colours are not natural? Colours cause I remember clearly that the padisarah is actually magenta and the rukkhasava mushroom was cyan or light blue or smthn
Not only that I also remember that one of the Aranara that was in that quest also mentioned how they (the Yajna grass and so on) were “the last of their kind” or smthn, so could it be that the Goddess of Flowers is capable of making colours in all spectrum (even the non-real ones) or perhaps just a connection between those plants and the GOF?
Im confused at how magenta doesnt exist if my art teacher says it does 🗿
3:27 I thought this was actually the less likely theory on color vision since it doesn't explain color blindness the way the opponent-process theory does (three receptors, one for red-green, one for blue-yellow, and one for dark-light)
I just realised something. The primordial one had 4 shades right? So he is one person who can also be 4 other people right? And the traveler is also one person who can also be up to 4 other people (cause thats the max team number)!! and like in game those act as independent from eachother cause they can die and have diffrent hunger bars and stats but they are also all the traveler cause during cutscense or when talking to important npc they always switch back to the traveler! And what if thats how the shades for the primordial one work (wait does that mean the traveler is the/a primordial one?!)
The interesting fact about electro and time is also Raiden second quest where there is a literal time confusing thing with the Sakura tree being planted in the present and in the past at the same time
Genshin lore is gonna make me study quantum physics soon
I just remembered that there is actually yellow electro in the game but it’s considered mutant
Maybe the Heavenly Principles are kind of like UV light in this theory, which would explain how Violet/Electro is the "closest" to them. Comes with a very strong sunlight feel ascociated with it. Likewise Infrared could be associated with the Abyss in that it is most associated with seeing in darkness
why did you blur hasan 💀
Decade fans:
this was such a cool theory! I wanted to point something out involving your connections between anemo and electro when it comes to time. There are two characters in the game who have used both anemo and electro as elements. Kazuha during his fight with Raiden and then Scaramouche used electro before getting an Anemo vision. I havnt completed the scara archon quest so I may have missed something but i just wanted to point that out lol.
soooooo interesting
It's weird how Magenta is connected to the sky.
As one commenter said, horsetails are supposed to capture the color of the sunset yet the NPC has never seen a sunset of that color a.k.a. Magenta.
The Archaic Stone is partly magenta with the description: "The ore itself has incredible clarity and its colors are dazzling, almost seeming to glow with an inner light that brings out its blue-violet beauty, which is like the distant and lovely sunset sky."
Everlasting Moonglow is a magenta weapon, "A string of lovely jasper from the deep sea. It shines with a pure radiance like that of the moon (just like the Archaic Stone), and just as ever-distant(distant and lovely sunset sky)."
Magenta = Moon and Sky = Three Moon Sisters = Istaroth
The original Padisarahs were magenta, which are closely related to Istaroth.
(crack connection: magenta = sunset and moon, sunset = setting of sun and rising of moon perhaps further connecting Magenta to Istaroth)
The Amakumo Fruit, a magenta fruit, in Japanese is directly translated to the "Sky Cloud Grass Fruit".
Electro also comes in, Purple is closest to Magenta (Time). Lightning is directly correlated to clouds, the sky.
Naku Weed another slightly magenta plant, "the Naku Weed grows strongly in areas saturated with Electro energy. Due to its great affinity for lightning, it is often used by residents to predict storms".
Then, we have the Sakura Trees and the Irminsul which have pink/magenta leaves. If we go with Ashikai's theory that the Goddess of Flowers is in-fact the God of Time, then both the archons associated with these trees have a connection with Istaroth. Not to mention that Electro and Dendro are already heavily connected in the first place with Catalyze, dreams, time, memories, being the inverted-color versions of each other, etc.
Resin is literally shaped like the Moon, a crescent being the fragile resin with a branch of an Irminsul Tree, and Condensed Resin which is a Full Moon with a whole Irminsul Tree.
Transient Resin is a magenta Resin connected with time, " Pure energy that will dissipate with time. In this, it is similar to all else that is lovely in this world. But seize this opportunity and go make the world a slightly better place, as is fitting for one who dwells within the bounds of "time." "
Just some connections that I found interesting.
columbina has pink color scheme 👀
1st video of yours I ever watched and I just have to say I really love how you explain and connect the dots in your theory!
you mentioning scara's outfit reminded me that the top of his hat has the colors red, yellow, light and dark green, blue and purple. i always wondered why they included that since it seemed so out of place, but it definitely seems intentional if they've incorporated color theory into the game. considering they also included lotuses and moon references in his design, he was probably a hint about the connection to color theory
11:00 if irminsul records 'in light' then could it be that the abyss sibling "suddenly appeared" in khaenri'ah because it was the end of their journey and they restored their powers of light/their true identity and only then were finally able to be recorded/recognized by irminsul
If cyan was the past , magenta was the unknown future, maybe gold/yellow is the present since our traveler also wears color of gold and we drive the story forward but on the lens of the traveler. Also Gold/Rhinedottir molded albedo on the image of the traveler maybe we are the original Gold in some sense?