Ok now that I’ve seen the Sumeru trailer and can actually judge the new content properly (cough, judging too early from leaks is never a good idea, cough), it seems like having a child model for Kusanali is kind of necessary and enhances the narrative, if I’m right about this. Obviously the skin color is probably still an issue (I don’t really want to speak over the actual people who are supposed to be represented but that seems like the general consensus), but her being a child is not.

Unlike the other archons, the people of Sumeru seem to treat Kusanali as a mascot or a funny little girl instead of a revered god. Stuff like making sure “the birthday girl” is happy shows how they respect her, but not in the way that the other nations respect their archon. I mean I can’t really see the people of Inazuma celebrating Ei’s birthday and calling her “the special birthday girl”, right? 

The sages too, it’s really clear that they see her as incapable of ruling and have ruled the nation for the past 500 years instead of letting her grow into the position. The whole point is that Kusanali is seen as an incapable replacement for the former Dendro Archon, even if she is 500 years old. Because with how things seem, she’s probably been locked up in the palace they mentioned in the livestream instead of being allowed to make her own decisions. So yeah, she might as well still be a little kid.

Anyways, how does this relate to her design? I’ve seen some people say they could’ve just given her the teen girl model, but like, that defeats the whole point. We’ve seen that model used for many capable characters, from teenagers (Fischl, Barbara) to adults (Keqing, Ganyu, Hu Tao, Kuki Shinobu, Ayaka). Especially with the nebulous ages of Genshin characters, if you see a teenage girl model character, the usual assumption is that they’re probably an older teenager or a young adult who’s pretty capable of doing stuff. 

The point is, seeing the nation treat this very capable looking teenager/young adult like a child would be kind of weird. It would’ve been fine, I guess, but it doesn’t have the impact of “oh that god is a kid why is she a god” as much as using the child model would bring. With the child model, it’s understandable why the sages might think she’s incompetent. I mean, even the entire Genshin fandom pretty much agreed the moment she was leaked that she wasn’t suited to be the archon cuz she had a kid model. “How can a kid be an Archon?” “Why is she a literal baby?” “Why does she have a less impressive design than the other Archons?” yeah that’s the point. She’s supposed to look odd and incapable and unfitting of an archon cuz that’s what everyone thinks of her.

Also, to the argument that using the child model is loli-baiting, it really isn’t. There is an actual point to using it in the narrative instead of just appealing to messed up people. I get that you usually want to assume the worst in gacha games, but honestly, if Mihoyo wanted to make more money, they could literally just make her a hot woman with huge boobs or like a super hot tall guy instead of appealing to the weirdos and would probably earn more profit than making her a kid anyways. Just look at Raiden’s banner.

(Personally, I think some people are just mad they can’t sexualize or simp for another archon. Like, there’s a reason why a whole horde of people wanted Al-Haitham, the conventionally attractive tall-male-model character, to turn out to be the actual Dendro Archon for some reason instead of literally anyone else. But whatever that’s just my own theory.)