Back to making proposals after a four-month break, now with a very controversial candidate I could get my hands on. This guy was discussed on the Near Pure Good Wiki with the belief that his “lethal” prevention wasn’t fully subverted until I discussed with Kodikos that he fully subverts his lethal prevention.
To avoid further confusion, read the proposal carefully before voting, especially at the Corrupting Factors section.
What Is the Work
Genshin Impact is about an otherworldly Traveler on a journey to find their missing sibling.
However, we would be focusing on a side quest involving the playable character Neuvillette who reminisces back to his early days where he brought the sea-slug like creatures birthed from the blood of Elynas, Melusines into Fontainian society after contesting their rights to live free from discrimination, after one of his Melusine officers, Kiara got a threatening letter from a convict in the Fortress of Meropide for his capture.
Who Is He and What Did He Do
Vautrin was a captain of the Gardes who was paired with a Melusine named Carole who reminded him of his late sister Illaria who passed at a young age, part of the newly-formed law enforcement body Marechausee Phantom during Neuvillette’s early days of leadership where he brought Melusines to the outside world. Due to Neuvillette’s mysterious nature, attributed to his draconic origins, many people didn’t trust him, whereas the Melusines weren’t trusted either, and as a result were constantly subject to xenophobia. As a result, a group of radical hardliners of the previous regime sought to destabilise Neuvillette’s credibility while racially bullying Melusines. Vautrin defended Carole and drove away the hardliners, which resulted in Neuvillette rewarding them with Medals of Peace.
One day, the radicals lured Carole into a crime scene and pinned the blame on her as the culprit. The situation escalated into riots in which the Gardes were not successful at controlling; in the end, Carole offed herself in a desperate attempt to prove her innocence. Knowing that the xenophobes who aggravated the situation must be brought down with bloodshed, Vautrin took it upon himself to kill most of the xenophobes involved, asking for a list of suspects in the case to be slain one by one and not to inform Neuvillette about it.
Vautrin was put on trial for the extrajudicial killings of the hardliners. With the audience expecting that he'll get away with the deaths of the hardliners through his position as a Garde captain and association with Neuvillette, he pretends to be angry at the verdict upon being pronounced guilty, intentionally dropping his sympathy to allow the public to view Neuvillette as an unbiased judge who doesn’t let association cloud his judgment. Upon his arrest, his sacrifice led Melusines to live free from discrimination and solidified the people’s trust in Neuvillette as the Chief Justice through his impartiality.
During his sentence in the Fortress of Meropide, Vautrin reverted back to being well-disciplined, dropping any sense of hostility for the rest of his life. He founded the Mutual Aid Network and became its first president, aiming to protect disadvantaged inmates by unionizing with them, promote justice, and accept proper judgment, turning it into a better environment allowing for genuine reform.
Admirable Standard
Out of the characters that pass the standard in Genshin, Vautrin beats all of them in his resources and lower screen time as he was just complete nobody that became a police captain, only appearing in two quests in a single line. As for his admirability, it looks like he had done just enough for his lower resource tier as explained previously.
He sacrificed his reputation by pretending to be angry at Neuvillette pronouncing him guilty, to ensure that his superior can stay in power as a trusted head judge, leading to the liberation of Melusines from discrimination, which was so bad that Sigewinne had to partially take on the appearance of her teacher, the Witch, to access a little girl because her parents wouldn’t accept a Melusine in their house, as well as indirectly enabling Neuvillette to save the Fontaine region and turn the Fontainians back into humans, with Neuvillette admitting that his killings of the radical hardliners were done in the name of actual justice, even if it was done in the wrong way. Any hint of reliance on Fridge Brilliance is brushed away when you consider that Vautrin’s fellow witnesses expected Neuvillette to abuse his connections and let him off the hook.
Also, he turned the Fortress of Meropide into a safer place helped by Wriothesley's reforms that aided in the rehabilitation of felons through his Mutual Aid Network to protect disadvantaged inmates from oppression, sacrificing his own freedom and reputation to ensure that Neuvillette could be trusted by the populace, setting up his current reign over Fontaine. However, what helps him stand out for this case is with his aforementioned lower resource tier.
Corrupting Factors
Here’s the biggest elephant in the room: Vautrin declared the bloodshed must be needed to stop the hardliners who drove Carole to suicide after an angry mob accused her of murder leading to him hunting down and killing several of them willingly out of trauma as he saw Carole as like his late sister Illaria, then when he got convicted for his extrajudicial murders, he arrogantly expects the witnesses to defend him for his act of liberating the Melusines. But the twist that prevents this from becoming a full on corrupting quality is that Vautrin had faked his anger and overconfidence in court so that he could test Neuvillette’s impartiality and solidify his reputation as a fair head judge, allowing the liberation of Melusines, making his so-called arrogance entirely pragmatic. While he also didn’t have remorse for killing the racists involved in Carole's suicide, there is the strong implication that he had managed to cool down and drop all of said qualities during his time in the Fortress of Meropide, until his death, not displaying any feelings of aggression towards others which could mean that he actually subverted his lethality, helped by the fact that it was also triggered by the trauma of him losing his sister which led to him losing control after Carole’s loss, making his periods of aggression more of a one-time thing as well as the victims being implied to be fully deserving of their deaths for their involvement in Carole's suicide. And upon his term in the Fortress, he was apparently forgiven with his fellow Mutual Aid Network members gaining their respect for him, as implied by one of its members. Even Neuvillette gives him a pardon as he admits that he prefers not to speak about Vautrin’s trial while not deliberately hiding them, implicitly out of his understanding of Vautrin's decision to carry out justice.
Verdict
Weak yes, but it is up to the voters to decide.