"What if these two people would interact and kiss, that would be an interesting idea to play around with" - That's what shipping should be about no matter which ship and how popular it is or rare, shouldn't it? If you love your ship then contribute on "selling" your idea to others by making at least a thread on why you like to see these two together. You won't achieve that by being rude towards other shippers and just because a ship might be more popular while yours is rare doesn't give anyone the right to be rude towards them. Respect is a two-way street.

Mentioning how ttli has a lot of NSFW and saying we are all just horny here to see two tall men bang is silly. Yeah sure- with the amount of food it might appear we have a lot NSFW, but are we going to ignore the percentage that TONS is SFW? We could say this to every other ship, there is always quite an amount of NSFW, nothing can ever escape Rule 34! Ttli really isn't that special in this category. And still, if NSFW isn't for them, there really is enough SFW arts/fics to look at. And oh- these people gonna be very surprised how many NSFW artists/writers are analyzing the lore of the characters, before they draw/write about them. Just because a person likes to see ZL getting railed in ttli doesn't mean they don't know Ch's & ZL's lore and didn't do their homework.

Myself, I enjoy seeing them in love and the idea of them having sex just comes with their relationship, because why not? Childe is a young adult and Zhongli is enjoying his retirement, now living life like a mortal. It's just harmless fiction (and a challenge to draw). HCs might differ between ppl here and not everything might be your thing, but it's really not that difficult to skip the things you don't like and eat what you like. Just like ppl really don't need to come up with arguments why they don't like a ship; learn to ignore what isn't created for you, instead of being rude.

Goldfish memory seems to be the case and then we also have many new ppl joining the game, who will not even know about these past web events and these other time limited events. But yup, we will keep creating and spreading love for our ship, if they like it or not, because WE love ttli and why should we care that other ppl don't? There are so many reasons why I adore this ship and it stands out for me and why it is loved by many others too. Reason why we have so many arts, comics, fics, events and more even after 3 years.

And yes, you would be naive to deny that the earlier ship influenced the newer ships, because hoyo isn't blind and knows what sells well, hence you are seeing some similarities between them. How did this became some kind of competition between the ships though, when you can just enjoy multiple ships and eat more food? And if you don't like a ship, then don't interact with their stuff, learn to mute/block. Nobody is forcing you to ship them, ship what makes YOU happy and respect each other.😔

Yeah... these ppl need to take a look into the mirror.😔 There is really no use to discuss with these kind of ppl that only seem to love spread hate in hope for us to stop loving what we love. "Live and let live" is important to create a nice environment and they aren't helping at all here. Wouldn't it be better to use your energy to create more fanworks for your ship and spread love instead of spreading hate towards what you don't like? Is being united to hate on something together, what makes your ship better? It all keeps boiling down to: you only hate it because it is popular. Nobody would care to attack us if it wasn't. The many times I had to read that we only ship them because it's two tall men. Just leave us alone then, why is it so difficult? Isn't it funny when even "neutral non-shipper" lore enthusiasts talk about them being friends and having canon interactions, while the group of ppl who obviously hate the ship, are denying it?

It's very strange to me, because when I first started GI with 2.0 (I already was aware they were kind of a popular ship & I started because Raiden Shogun is my waifu voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro in JP) and then when I got to meet these two, I immediately understood why ppl ship them together. Their dynamic, them being harbinger and an archon--- there are so many things that made me fall in love with these two, but I can also understand when it's not someone's cup of tea. I would still respect the character's relationship even if I didn't end up shipping them just like I do with many other characters and their relationships. But hmmm, guess it's no surprise knowing how majority of the fandom lacks reading comprehension. Where everything was heavy implied in the older patches, in the new writing style everything is just presented directly to the reader. And then we have the many times paimon repeats something in AQ again which was already in many cases obvious to make absolutely sure we understood things correctly.

Now going back to older updates... how can anyone read 1.1, trying to understand Childe and Zhongli's character and come to the conclusion they didn't interact? It shows that we do not share the same base for a discussion. We had a bunch of crumbs in dialogue, Ch revealing "secrets" about ZL, other fatui members saying that ZL is a close person to Ch, the Fatui working together with WFP... all which showed us that they must be close friends. THEY EVEN HAVE VOICE LINES ABOUT EACH OTHER! But apparently for many ppl this isn't canon, because the game does not straight up spoonfed you and now with the change of writing makes me wonder if ppl are trying to invalid their relationship even harder. I do wonder.... Has too much time passed since 1.1 that people just forgot all these scenes and lines of dialogue? Or did many ppl just skip the story, because they had no interest in it?

Really though... it's been 3 years! And here I thought these ppl's attention already shifted to new ships and we can just continue ship in peace, but apparently it's still a cool thing for these ppl to intrude our space, shit on tartali and be rude towards their shippers just because it still managed to stay popular. (Well no surprise here, because it's a damn good ship!? However no one is forcing you to like it and afterall everyone has different taste) I'm really wondering if it's because gshn in general has a quite young playerbase and many ppl being new to shipping. Many ppl seem to not even understand that you can even enjoy more than one ship. Personally there are many ships I enjoy (and I'm lowkey sad, when shippers from that ship are shitting on my fav ship), but childe x zhongli is that one pairing that makes me never run out of ideas to create more art/fics and I enjoy interacting with the community a lot. And that is what shipping is about isn't it? Having fun with your play dolls!

And yeah 3 years is not "old" at all... is it because GI gets a new region every year with new characters?! You really don't have to jump a ship completely with every new big region update, turning your back towards the ships you used to love, just because of new characters get introduced and the whole thing about ppl seeing it as competition, hoping to see the new ship "to beat ttli" in popularity (I saw this with inazuma for first time when I just started GI and was new to ttli, realized with sumeru this just keeps repeating itself every big patch and new (especially mlm) ships being introduced). Also the thing with ppl comparing which ship is more "canon" than ttli due to having more ingame interactions is quite strange to me... 😔 Look, ttli didn't have interactions since 1.1 and is still is so very loved by many, because to be honest, we got a great basis for an awesome ship in just one single patch which kept us going for all these years and that is most important. THERE IS JUST SO MUCH POTENTIAL HERE! Really though, just ship what makes you happy and no! Comparing and bringing ttli down, doesn't make your ship look any better.

And after all... every shipper is delulu, wanting to see our fictional ppl kiss and hold hands, but this is exactly what keeps us going and keeping a fandom alive many years after a story/series is already finished, creating more wonderful stories for them. 🤗 I am absolutely sure I will still continue shipping tartali even if GI story is done, that's just how perfect they are to me and how much I love them.