The Road Not Taken – REACTION & ANALYSIS | Genshin Impact Animated Short



This video is my full reaction and analysis of Genshin Impact’s new Animated Short “The Road Not Taken” during Version 4.7 Developer livestream.

Hope you enjoyed the video!

#GenshinImpact #Aether #Lumine #Animated

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48 thoughts on “The Road Not Taken – REACTION & ANALYSIS | Genshin Impact Animated Short”

  1. In 2:08 of the short we see what appears to be flash backs in what's clearly teyvat so its leaning towards something I've believed for a long time that is

    The twins have arrived and traveled teyvat shortly before the cataclysm happened.

    But because the traveler said they were woken up by their twin to leave teyvat all of a sudden, we assumed they were asleep the whole time as far as I know.

    But this short has disproven this considering we see Lumine and Aether in Inazuma together during the flash backs.

    Mind you, every animation short that wasnt made as a promotion has happened canonically as far as I know.

    And it explains how traveler lumine can have inteyvats in her hair, which she mentions that it was aether who put them there and that he did.

    And let me remind you that the traveler has lied about things. Their name for example. Even if you give them their canon names they will still insist you call them 'traveler'. The twins are for all their friendliness are private people and have a tendency to bottle things up.

    But that doesn't mean they lied, we just incorrectly estimated how long they were asleep for.

    Reply
  2. From this animated short I suddenly realized how heavy the psychological pressure Lumine was bearing.
    I mean, Aether saw Lumine kinda at the beginning of his journey, really got to talk to her, exchange thoughts, and found tracks of her along the journey.
    But for Lumine, she had non of that, she really was wondering in the mist with memories overflowing out of her heart yet had no signs of her brother at all, plus the great emotional damage from the cataclysm.

    Plus Dain doesn't seem to be a cheerful companion like Paimon frfr.

    Reply
  3. The title of the animated short "The Road Not Taken" is a reference to a poem by the same name written by Robert Frost.

    The poem is about a traveller who is walking a path that was diverging into two and they are at a dilemma at which path to choose.

    During the We will be reunited quest, the sibling was confident that we will be siding with them instead of Dainsleif by the end. On top of that Dainsleif was kinda menacing in this trailer wasn't He? Like telling (probably) to Lumine that He is going to have his vengeance. (Also keep in mind that Dainsleif said we will be eventually fight him…)

    So is it possible that this is the quest where the traveller seriously starts thinking about siding with His sibling? Just like the traveller in the poem having a dilemma.

    Reply
  4. Lumine's clothes here 1:31 has a "light" color unlike Aether's anemo/geo/electro/dendro colors throughout the video.

    That might mean Lumine finished her journey AND THEN traveled with Dainsleif OR her powers didnt get sealed because in this 0:32 when she woke up (might be the start of her journey or its just her waking up) she still has the "light" colored clothes.

    Reply
  5. has anyone noticed how aether actually placed the inteyvat flower in lumines hair? like that means traveler really did go to khaenriah before, either brief or long before they got captured by the heavenly principles. traveler definitely has some lost memories.

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  6. This animation really showed how lonely Lumine was, I can see why she fell into the abyss princess role.
    seeing the difference between how close Paimon and Aether are, and how distant Lumine and Dain were is horrible.
    Paimon this whole time has been a pillar of brightness for Aether keeping him positive, while Dain didn't seem to be capable of the same thing for Lumine so she ended up broken.
    I imagine the difference between Lumine and Aether's journey and the answer they came to will have alot to do with the companion that they journeyed with.

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  7. I don't know if I am thinking too hard, but I realized Aether''s light (our time) starts with Mondstadt (green), Liyue (gold), etc. and Lumine's light is white since the beginning. Could it be that her story is that she already had full power, didn't need help from the Archons and that's why her path differs from ours (although we share similar moments like a mirror) ? Our sotry is more the power of friendship is supreme. Also the sunrise for Lumine and sunset for Aether might mean that Lumine was there at the beginning of the loop and we are at the end of it ?

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  8. As someone said :

    Aether (mc) : where's my sister?

    (Meets his sister in the span of 1 Chapter)

    Lumine : where's my brother?

    (No news of his whereabouts for 500 years for her)

    Reply
  9. first i believe khaneriah exist right now i feel the non khnaeriahns and those left the country were basically transformed into hilibillys then those pure ones are still in khaneriah and the hp mightve just altered the memories of ppl to think the khaneriah is a destroyed nation which isnt ofc it is not in its best shape but i believe like some ruins exist their
    second the crimson moon strikes again at first i was bit skeptical but clearly now i believe crimson moon rose once again in khaneriah and prbly the whole quest may be kinda centered around khaneriah's last moments or irmin getting overthrown the hunters event or quest whatever i highly suspect that somehow this crimson moon dynasty is involved in this stuff and somehow i beilieve that dyansty did something opened up a big portal to abyss and then stuff leaked in to stop hp sealed khaneriah and as it was already a some sort of curse the ppl who ran out of in panic turned hilibilys those who survived were punished with immortality and the new dynasty was kinda framed for that why? i believe they new dynasty ofc didn't liked this and already suspected that thing might turn out like that but however they mightve not thought that those ppl still exist they mightve been their and may just got've mixed with the new dynasty to suspect less
    yes so things like that mightve played out morever idk what is crimson moon? i do think its a sentient entity? or is it the corpse of moon sister and is cursed that whenever destuction will come in teyvat crimson moon will rise?? or that it is a type of tool used to basically alter the memories or go in a trans state? woah excited a lot
    DONT MIND MY RUMBLING

    Reply
  10. Fokus on lumine and aether costume, lumine never change the element during her journey, but aether change his colour costume when monsdat, liyue, inazuma, sumeru.. maybe thats clue, what happen to lumine during her journey.

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  11. based on that Kaenriah short from one of the festivals, Lumine was summoned and stayed in Kaenriah, because Kaenriahns summon descenders, that's the mystery of the twins, are they even twins. Anyway, after the cataclysm Lumine journeyed with Dein

    Reply
  12. Little observation before I watch your analysis :
    At the start of the animation, Aether wakes up during sunset and shortly after we briefly see the moon, while Lumine wakes up during the sunrise.
    However at the end of the animation, Lumine resumes her journey with Dainsleif during the sunset. Maybe it signifies that Lumine is headed towards the same path as Aether, or she is going to Aether? I don't really know what it means but it seems like an important detail.
    Also, dandelions and sunflowers have their importance too because each flower seems to represent one of the twins because a majority of each appear during each twin's shots.

    Reply
  13. Honestly, what I think happened is Abyss Twin woke up In Khaenri'ah while the Traveler was still asleep. And they stayed in Khaenri'ah waiting for Traveler to wake up. Then the Cataclysm happened and Abyss Twin woke up Traveler to leave, opening cutscene happens, they get separated and Abyss Twin wakes up, Dainsleif probably found them and then they went through their journey through Teyvat.

    Reply
  14. This is just my personal guess

    Let's try to imagine

    If we swap the positions of lumine and Paimon in this video

    We can conclude that "Paimon" traveled around the world after the disaster,

    and the twins they traveled together

    Also, you and I both know "that power related of time"

    So the "meaning of travel" is actually to achieve the conditions for swapping positions.

    Reply
  15. Lumine never got help from archons, her element kept on light, while Aether met or received every element each time he cross. So… probably the present journey give us more understanding while Lumine only see the harsh situation and the destruction of Khaenri’ah hence she seemed to never met the archons.

    Reply
  16. You know this game is special when we can tell where the characters are and the places or the cities they are in, just by looking at their background. Also the emotional intensity going higher and higher as we progress through genshin story.

    Also the furnitures, aesthetic, vegetation, animals, people and their clothings, are all unique for each nation in teyvat that you can tell which nation they are in. Also the terrain and geography are also iconic with special features or monuments that they are all memorable and easy to recognize. Damn the world of genshin is well made.

    Reply
  17. About the animated short, sourced from a recent interview, the Genshin Impact dev team has decided to have an internal 2D animation unit so we really cannot expect this kind of quality/art style for the actual Genshin Impact anime collab with Ufotable unless both decide to get the new Genshin 2D animation team to help with the official anime.

    Would the official anime be good? Most likely since it's an actual animation studio that also produced the entire Demon Slayer anime and THE Fate series (idk if they did the whole Fate anime) but it will not be the same art style as the animated short.

    When is the Genshin official anime gonna come out or any updates about it? Ufotable, from what I've seen, only makes one anime at a time. Right now, they're entirely focused on the Demon Slayer anime and there's still probably 2-3 arcs (idk much about the manga so don't take this as a fact). The Genshin anime is NOT Ufotable's priority so expect the anime to take years to cook. Most studio's also don't make "updates" about the project, they just do the project announcement and then the actual trailer when the anime's done cooking. (this is just what I observed with anime production as a whole. again, don't take this as a fact)

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  18. Seeing the smile in Island's face and super excited analyzing again with these Genshin Animated Short o7

    Basically, what I get from this is Lumine have already travelled Teyvat while Aether is only starting out following the same locations her sister has been.

    While Lumine's adventure has been all serious and only focusing on finding his brother (plus whatever Dains and her mission is), Aether's encounters has been mostly positive (with travelling besides Paimon) and that he already knows her sister is somewhat safe.

    Lumine's Teyvat travels has been more heart-wrenching than her brother. As she travelled, there were no signs of her brother in sight.

    Reply
  19. Ah bro i fucking chilled up when watched this animated short! A lot of goosebums and vibes was in this video: happiness and depression, loneless, dreams like: "was be like that if this damn God didn't separate us"(as i can expext, when we seen twins together and we also seen the lumine and aether pov, so a can do an assumption that it were both of them dream)

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  20. Some points:
    1. We all know from the very first archon quest with Dainsleif that Aether has memories of Khaenri'ah, because Lumine woke him (assumingly during the Khaenri'ah fight) so that they could get out of Teyvat, and then the unknown Goddess stood before them and they were separated.
    2. Now regarding Lumine's journey with Dainsleif, we have yet no info when it happened. Did it happen before he woke Aether to leave Teyvat, or after when they were separated by the unknown Goddess.
    3. My personal guess is that Lumine's journey with Dain happened after they were separated by the unknown Goddess.

    Reply

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