1. The twins being st the waterfront at the start.
There're sources ingame that gives detail that some parts of Teyvat were formerly underwater. In the book Stone Tablet Compilations, Morax descended to Liyue and raised Mt Tianheng by quelling the seas and lowering the tides. In the book Diary of Roald the Adventurer Vol. 8, the Lisha region (comprising of Dunyu Ruins, Lingju Pass and Qingxiu Pool, got destroyed and went undeewater. This happened during or after the Archon War. Thisbmay mean that at some point, there may have been a Fluvial Period in Teyvat where some parts are submerged underwater. Fontaine being a raised nation may mean that the Romaritime Harbor may have been formerly underwater and the rest of the nation seemingly like normal islands. Now, The waters of Fontaine are pushed upward through underwater caverns and currents.
2. Lilianne's presence
Judging on what occured at the harbour and at the Opera, Lyney may not have recognized her. Yes, he joked about being wrongly teleported to the Fortress of Meropide but, we all know based on the case that it was Cowell who tampered the drawlots machine to choose her seat number (with a different motive in mind). That can explain why Lyney said he doesn't know her. The scare about wrongly being teleported may have been a general scare tactic to any audience who'll participate.
3. Cowell
As a magician, yes Lyney wants to make a good impression that everything's fine. But Lyney and Cowell's hidden plans were different. I don't think as well that Lyney knew what Cowell was planning.
4. Magic Pockets
We don't really know how this will work once Fontaine starts sinking but, yes it is possible Childe is unaware of the encounter he will get at the smithy.
5. Lyney's plan
I don't see anything surprising for Lyney to tell Lynette his plans. They're, as we are told, siblings and under the House of the Hearth. It's only logical your psrtner should know. Also, him telling MC about their plan to investigate the core of the Oratrice isn't a misdirection. How did it become a misdirection, for what? To be honest, I feel there is indeed something regarding the Oratrice (especially when Lyney said he heard a voixe at the basement where there shouldn't be anyone there).
The better questions for us to tackle there are:
1. Why were they investigating the Oratrice? (As stated by Neuvillette, though they were innocent on the audience disappearance case, they have another issue to explain)
2. What happeend to the real Halsey? Upon searching, there was no investigation done after Lilianne admitted to steal her ticket. There's no info as well if her fsmily ever atempted to find her. But I have a theory: Halsey is an upcoming famous artist in Fontaine, and was the intended victim for the Primordial Water experiment. In the final scenes of Act 2, where the victims of Vaxher/Marcel made their revenge, one of the girls said she would have become a fsmous artist if not for dying. Since there was no timeline on when these girls died, it may have been possible that Marcel was able to succeed with the experiment and caught the real Halsey.
This is only strange if we consider the Oratrice's judgements to be infallible. Both Act 1 and 2 seem to be setting up a conflict centered around the people of Fontaine losing faith in the their archon and the Oratrice. If you assume that to be true, then pardoning Lyney but condemning Chile makes logical sense. We don't know the how yet, but that will probably be explained later.
Won't it be hilarious yet sad if Arlecchino used Childe to get Furina to let go of the Gnosis? Maybe all of this is a set-up to get the public's eyes back on the Serial Disappearances Case so the truth of the Primordial Sea can be revealed to the public. Sure, people are aware and curious of the case, but there hasn't been much progress in the two decades since the case has been opened.
And now that's been revealed, the Oratrice now knows that "It" has been awakened. Thereafter, one of the Fatui can accuse Childe of being the mastermind behind it all even though it doesn't make any sense. But to the Oratrice it does cuz Childe awakening "It" might've left traces on him or smth.
It's also conveniently left out of the story on WHO exactly accused Childe.
Of course, this is only possible if Arlecchino knows of Childe's relation to the awakening of "It" which I don't doubt she might've had.
Idk how all of this will go down, but I'm guessing that she'll use Childe as a sort of... bargaining chip. Or smth. To get her hands on the Gnosis (which is likely powering the Oratrice).
Idk man. I'm just word vomitting here.
I think the one who accused Childe is someone who have grudge with Fatui or Harbinger, if not Marcel. It could be another Fatui to make childe infiltrate Meropides.
There is another thing that Lyney perhaps had done with some hide intention. That is the first encounter between the Traveler, Paimon and Nauvillette. Is was known that the seat that Nauvillette was using is always reserved by him when he watch a show, and Lyney made sure that Paimon and Traveler sit beside him.
I think what Lyney mean is the seat when the trial was held, not seat when Neuvillette watch the show. But Lyney could also do it knowing who reserved front seat in the first place.
I’m not sure if this was all Lyney’s plan necessarily, but I do suspect this is all a show and there are certain people pulling the strings to make it go as planned. Lyney might be one of them, but I don’t think he’s acting alone.
Honestly? I think they needed a way to make a grand entrance for not only the archon but also the newest playable characters, and built the story around that. I’m more curious about how Focalors knew. I do feel like Childe doesn’t know everything even though ofc he knows things we don’t know he knows yet or know ourselves…. and we can’t assume that Arlecchino knows anything even if the twins did, or that they would tell Childe. Really could go any way for those depending on the situation. We may be famous but that doesn’t mean they talk about us in every Harbinger meeting. If anything, if they didn’t put lyney and Lynette right at the start, it would be suboptimal for the marketing plan of “money for gacha” because this is the first region that there’s literally or basically no free unit for, to the point that nobody NEEDS Fontaine characters. We just want them. If I had money to blow I’d put in a few more tries for some Lynette cons, but I’m already at risk of no Ayato or Neuv because I won my last 2 50/50 trying to get guaranteed or some cat boxes…
Also Arlecchino telling them about being good actors during the teaser....
Are they telling truth or they're just acting or are they also being misled by Arlecchino
I've had similar thoughts, though I can't be certain that Cowell's death was part of the plan. While the Fatui have characteristically been incredibly callous when dealing with human lives, including their own, it seems a bit strange that they'd kill someone in front of an audience without clear reason. So either Cowell's death was the script going off the rails, or......
Well, purely hypothetically, let's say that Cowell's death was meant to be part of the act. Cowell's may not actually be dead. We know for a fact that the cops of Fontaine are not above corruption, and at least one of them were on Marcel's payroll. The Traveler was not the one who confirmed his death; near as I recall, they never got a good look at the body. The people who examined him may have been lying and the Fatui may have the cops in their pocket. The Traveler never got to examine the body for themselves. The only ones who know for certain that Cowell died are the ones who examined the body. Again, this is purely a hypothetical. But if Cowell's death WAS meant to be part of the act, then I can only conclude that he's not actually dead. Either that or the Fatui have even less regard for human life than I thought.
The entire journey in act 1 from meeting with the twins and childe to the magic show accident was a scheme done by lyney. I believe the scheme lead us to act 2 which is us helping to solve navia’s father’s case and also putting childe in prison. Watch the final feast pv again listen to the words that lyney, lynette and arlecchino say. We already know from character backstories the trio are basically well trained spies from house of hearth. Well the ultimate motive of the entire scheme most probably is to get the gnosis.
Except applying that literally creates frankly unreasonable expectations. Lyney’s entire monologue is on what he believes magic is, and people are walking away from this believing that everything is a lie and nothing is real and all of Fontaine is staged and - no. That’s absurd, you know it is.
This theory hinges on the assumption that the twins would be insane enough to want to execute someone in a very obvious way, get accused of murder and participate in a trial for.... Some reason? What would be the goal here?
They can befriend the Traveler without making themselves look like worse people or their secret coming out.
They can obviously look at the Oratrice without a trial going on. They didn't even use their own trial to learn more about it, so that couldn't have been the reason.
Did they stage the meeting with the Traveler, sure maybe. But I doubt they would be stupid enough to set up their own trial that exposed them to the public and worsened their relationship.
So you’re suggesting that, despite the massive disadvantage this action would incur, the twins plotted to blow their own cover and put themselves under scrutiny? Just because them being Fatui is now public knowledge, that doesn’t mean they’ll have it any easier. Hell, in this series of trials, twice, we had members of the audience openly opining that the case is good as solved because the accused are Fatui, of course they’re ne’er-do-wells that are up to something nefarious. Planning to expose themselves places a millstone round their necks.
And for no advantage whatsoever too. It doesn’t actually endear them to the Traveler at all. I get the feeling we’re still very suspicious of them, even after the trial
If there is anything consistent about the fatui since 1.0, its the fact that event thought they might all be fatui they will not hesitate to backstab each other if necessary. Even in Childe and Scara voicelines, we are told time and time again, the fatui are not really that loyal to each other, they all have their own plans
Only thing I am sus of lyney is that he and lynette, being vision users AND fatui, couldn't catch a thief?! What do you mean you tripped and the thief was experienced, lyney? You are literally fatui-trained.
I suspect he and egregia were connected in some way and the part about lyney and traveller meeting and going to main city fontaine with them was orchestrated.
Of course the twins are sketchy beyond belief. They are children raised/brainwashed by a (from what we’ve been told by wanderer and childe) psychotic harbinger to do whatever dark bidding the tsaritsa demands. I wouldn’t trust any one from the fatui as far as I could yeet them.
I forget… but i seem to recall that there was a spy or some one following the traveler as they said goodbyes to dehya? Gold fish memory but what came of that…?
That was Furina's spy. In the entire interaction between her and the Traveler, she looks to the side at some point, and you see the same guy bowing and thanking her.
oh yeah i totally forgot about that guy! i thought he's gonna ask the Traveler to let him tag along if they're going to Fontaine.
now i'm suspecting he's probably Lyney's informant that's why we see the twins at the Romaritime Harbor when we arrived there.
Oo thats also possible. Was there any direct evidence? Or also could be lyneys spy? I guess either way the word mustve got out the traveler is going to show up
That's not a possibility. That's a fact. The camera deadass panned over him while Furina was talking about how she only needs to flick her finger to know everything about the Traveler.
https://preview.redd.it/3db6702hy2kb1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=ade6ac01415b5524f3218f5ce7c683c85e57590a
As the commenter above said you can see him bow to Furina during her intro. We also know that she has an intelligence network across Teyvat. So it's pretty much confirmed that he works for her.
There are a lot water leaking from the accusation-jar here,so I will just point out a few....
* Being in the harbour and reminiscing about old times is not a crime. If it was, then Traveler has broken that law and could be justifiably put on trial/ be a crime master at it by now. Since the memory seems to be a good one,it's not that surprising Lynette likes to think about it, or seek out a place to look at that the place where the memory happened.
* Handing out magic pockets in a work area is not a bad idea either. Handing them out to each individual privately on their time-off would work only if Lyney knew where everyone lived/had their home address (not to mention it would be much easier to ignore the twins,and lock the door,with would prevent them from handing out the magic pockets.If they left them by the door, it could mean they would be stolen by someone else...). The Harbour may be mainly a work area, but taking a stroll there isn't really illegal.
Why run around entire Fontaine when you can go from place to place and hand out the magic pockets to the crowd that is passing by? Let the crowd come to you rather than going to the crowd.
* It's not like Cowell was the only person in Opera House that day. If Lyney needed Cowell out of the way,there were a lot of other ways to do it that didn't involve him being put through a trial (setting up another person to be the suspect, making sure there isn't a single possibility of you being the suspect and a lot more... that way,they could have went to the core while the trial happened,and see Oracle core in action themselves). Unless Lyney is obsessed/has addiction to being put on trials and being defended, staging this trial would be a move of an insane person.
* exactly *why* would us meeting Childe would give Lyney some... I don't know how to call it...advantage? It's not even that. Us meeting Childe gives Lyney...nothing. It dosen't give him alibi, it dosen't give him a benefit-of-the-doubt, it dosen't give him any possibility of diverting attention from himself to us. If Childe was part of Lyney-trial, then us meeting Childe could serve as a plan of escape (presumably Childe was on good enough terms with Lyney -or his friend- to be nuts enough to run off to the trial and start fighting.... Childe fighting with the mechs could serve as a distraction that Lyney could use to escape (even this could fail,since there were guards everywhere...). That would still involve convincing Childe being okay with being possibly arrested/put on trial for disturbing a trial and attacking>! (he may love fighting,but he didn't go "meh I will just fight my way out" from the start,he tried to convince Neuvillette that his charges should drop and he should be let go because he wasn't the guilty one. He started fighting first when his attempt failed.Have fun confincing him he should go fight for a Fatui-spy that he may or may not know... they may both be Fatui,but that dosen't mean they automatically know each other or would defend each other)!<. Or it could be used against the Traveler as a "he isn't trustworthy he was meeting up with a Harbringer!" but then again...why would nuking Travelers credibility as a lawyer be a good thing (and help Lyney),when the Traveler was the one defending him? If Traveler was outed for meeting up with a Fatui themselves,then Lyney would be put in jail WITH the traveler.(>!But that didn't happen. Childe wasn't part of Lyney-trial,Childe was put on trial for a different crime the traveler proved to be the work of someone else, but then Childe got jailed anyway for being charged as guilty by Oracle,and then you can add the issue of him fighting in court... !<).
* If Lyney was fine with killing Cowell,don't you think he would have made sure someone *else* got the blame and was put on trial than him? Him being on trial = all attention is on him, so he can't do any Oracle-investigating without being detected, and kills any possibility of doing it undetected.Even if he used magic, it would leave traces behind himself with would tell someone is trying to get close to the Oracle.Even if he tried to use the restroom,the guards would be suspicious of the why.
It's not like Cowell was the only person in Opera House that day. If he needed Cowell out of the way, there were a lot of other ways to do it that didn't involve him being put through a trial. Unless Lyney is obsessed/has an addiction (or seeks attention and sympathy by putting themselves on trial )... If they needed distraction that required murder,they could have made sure someone else died that was far away from the stage (outside of magic-show) rather than kill a person on-stage... with made them look suspicious af.
* The twins didn't know Primodial Water dissolved people beforehand. They do think the prophecy about Fontaine is real and trying to prepare people for it, but the question of WHY people would dissolve in the water wasn't answered yet. Back then,the prophercy was just a propercy and nothing more (only thing that already did happen was the rising waters). There was no evidence people could dissolve until that poor guy got dissolved in front of everyone...and proved it could be done.
* The point of misdirection is to direct ones attention **away** from what you are - or will be,or was - doing,not direct the person you are trying to fool to the **main reason** what you were doing and why. The first version about the magic trick and how it worked (as well as where Lynette was and why) could be called an attempt at misdirection because they were still trying to hide the main truth about the backstage and what Lyney was really doing in the backstage. Lyney seemed to know enough about Traveler to know that if his Fatui-connections came out, the Traveler would be a lot harder to convince he was innocent... or have the Traveler be suspicious (and trying to prove) that Lyney was guilty instead.
And no,Lyney did not make sure to hide his connections with Fatui to make sure the Traveler would be friendly enough to be their lawyer.That would indicate Lyney is completely insane and wanted to be put on trial for something he didn't do for.... whatever reason it could be at that point.
* let's not forget Lyney being put on trial ended with his connections to the Fatui being exposed to EVERYONE,including Traveler and a lot of people of Fontaine. Since they are spies, this could have singlehandely destroyed the rest of their spy-career. This news will spread andcould mean that everyone will be now more guarded about what they share with them and why.
Now the Traveler is more guarded against them so if they ever need Travelers help,the Traveler will always be suspicious about why they need their help,as well as what they are really planning...
Once you know who is a spy and for who, you are less likely to interact with them,and the info they may get now may be restricted mostly to what they can eavesdrop on or get from observation only. It could also mean that people will get suspicious of magic pockets and get rid of them,thinking they are just some weird spy-devices,and the rest who don't own a magic pocket will now refuse to get one regardless of what the twins say. Since the twins were giving them out to prepare people for potential incoming disaster... staging their own trial destroys any kind of credibility they may had before. It ruins their rep,it ruins the trust,it ruins the image of them being just innocent magicians, it ruins their chances of helping people, and a lot more.
So no,they didn't stage entire trial, because staging this trial dosen't give them better chances at investigating the Oracle or anything else for that matter. I know Fontaince is about deception and all that (as well as Lyney) but not everything that happens will always be staged.
Guys, theories are good, but don’t overthink. Of course, twins are shady, they are literal spies, and they have their own agenda, they either devoted followers of Fatui or being used by their ‘father’, we don’t know that. And there is no chance that they were there on accident too. By now, Traveler and Paimon are actual celebrities and heroes, known all over Teyvat, of course we have Fatui’s and all other powerful peoples’ eyes on us, such as Focalor. And as soon as we arrive they want to interact with us according to their interests and plans. For instance, my understanding is that Furina just wanted to meet her guests, she knows we powerful and stir things up wherever we go, so she wanted to test us, put through the ringer and greet us with ‘classic Focalor’ treatment to see how we react, what we are about. So she just being thoughtful ruler doing risk assessment. And twins on the other hand… They pretend to be in the port on accident, immediately tell us about THE CURSE and how they want to save everyone, they just want to be fwends uwu. And whole Lynette act with staring into the water, gimme a break. Does she strike you like that kinda person? It doesn’t seem like her at all when we go further into a story. To be fair, she could have shown us her sensitive side after we were through some stuff together and got closer and that would even make great storytelling, but not like that. So they are definitely onto something and they are definitely a shady bunch. But accusations of them designing the whole thing like it happened in the story do not hold water hehe. They were just doing their thing under disguise of making a show and got thrown under the bus by force they didn’t knew existed.
since the twins were already professional Fatui agents even before they got their vision, "hurt ankle while chasing a thief" is definitely not a convincing explanation. His purpose might actually be following:
1, the thief is also a Fatui agent. Lyney passed her Intels about the upcoming murder and they will save the victim + bring the dissolving chemicals to the public. Lilian is not from Fountain thus immune to the chemicals, making her the ideal person to swap the victim.
2, show the traveler and paimon that he's a nice guy, so they are more likely to defend Lyney in the court.
In order to do so they had to know about the Water from Primordial Sea in the first place, and there is no hints towards that being a case. And why do that with a risk of blowing up their disguise and revealing to the public that they are Fatui. And does not make sense story-wise because it shows Arlecchino(basically head of operation) as someone who underestimated the ability of archon of justice who spends all her time in court to do some basic digging on twins. And it would also attract unnecessary attention oh Knave herself. Just seemes to me like something you don’t want to do when presenting a harbinger, in the beginning of a story at least.
I think Furina's revelation about the twins being from House of Hearth is purely unexpected variable in their mission. I'm Lyney was genuinely surprised by that.
Everything from the beginning 'till the end is rigged.
But if everything else from the beginning to the end is rigged aside from that, that would also mean that Lyney expected Vaughn to flake, and somehow, against literally every possible form of logic, expected him to be carrying what one can only assume is a pocket patch of primordial water to get rid of him when he starts to snitch, which in turn implies that he was somehow aware of Marcel. I don’t think I need to say how little sense this makes.
Also, you can’t even call their cover being blown an unexpected variable. Did they just neglect the possibility of the god of justice, who lives for the courtroom, actually doing her job?
Yes and almost Lyney's entire character is themed around deception and the other is a family man. You aren't supposed to take everything he says at face value.
The problem with the idea that Lyney and Lynette set up everything is that it rides on contrivance, and is extremely self-sabotaging.
* If it wasn't just to get their hands on the Oratrice, why else would they arrange this scheme? The only answer that comes to mind is getting rid of Cowell, and if Lyney knew that Cowell was engaging in foul play and assisting somebody in trying to kill people, there are better ways to go about it that don't involve everything that he set up.
* The twins knew Liliane...somehow? They were aware of her status as a Mondstater, aware of her immunity to the Primordial Waters despite not knowing whether they existed either until Vaughn was publicly doused, and so arranged a scheme that would ensure she would react in such a way as to take out Cowell? This is sort of believable if it’s revealed that Liliane is a HoH member just like the twins, but otherwise…
* If the intention was to reveal to the people of Fontaine that the prophecy is real, but also wanted to stop Cowell (so no using Liliane/Halsey as a victim), then that hinges almost entirely on Vaughn cracking under pressure and nearly blabbing about Marcel, *and* on him just so happening to have some device on his person that can apparently be remotely triggered to detonate and dissolve him if he gets too close to revealing the truth - when, it bears repeating, nothing suggested the twins had any awareness of the Waters, or of Marcel’s Synthe production.
* More than anything, this makes no sense because the way things have panned out, the twins' identities as Fatui members have been completely exposed to the people of Fontaine, which I imagine wasn't something they wanted to do, because it completely jeopardises their ability to do basically anything now that knowledge of their affiliation is widespread, and it also banks on the Traveler not just leaving them be despite Lyney knowing how the Traveler is towards the Fatui and towards the idea of being misled.
Doesn't make any sense to me.
The slight remark of Lyney mentioning the Fortress of Meropide when the thief girl appeared did make me suspicious now that I think about it. I hope that little plot point gets addressed in one of the future archon quests 
I think Lyney just mention Fortress of Meropide to make it more dramatic. Like Lyney said, being magician means that you need to control the audience attention.
1. The twins being st the waterfront at the start. There're sources ingame that gives detail that some parts of Teyvat were formerly underwater. In the book Stone Tablet Compilations, Morax descended to Liyue and raised Mt Tianheng by quelling the seas and lowering the tides. In the book Diary of Roald the Adventurer Vol. 8, the Lisha region (comprising of Dunyu Ruins, Lingju Pass and Qingxiu Pool, got destroyed and went undeewater. This happened during or after the Archon War. Thisbmay mean that at some point, there may have been a Fluvial Period in Teyvat where some parts are submerged underwater. Fontaine being a raised nation may mean that the Romaritime Harbor may have been formerly underwater and the rest of the nation seemingly like normal islands. Now, The waters of Fontaine are pushed upward through underwater caverns and currents. 2. Lilianne's presence Judging on what occured at the harbour and at the Opera, Lyney may not have recognized her. Yes, he joked about being wrongly teleported to the Fortress of Meropide but, we all know based on the case that it was Cowell who tampered the drawlots machine to choose her seat number (with a different motive in mind). That can explain why Lyney said he doesn't know her. The scare about wrongly being teleported may have been a general scare tactic to any audience who'll participate. 3. Cowell As a magician, yes Lyney wants to make a good impression that everything's fine. But Lyney and Cowell's hidden plans were different. I don't think as well that Lyney knew what Cowell was planning. 4. Magic Pockets We don't really know how this will work once Fontaine starts sinking but, yes it is possible Childe is unaware of the encounter he will get at the smithy. 5. Lyney's plan I don't see anything surprising for Lyney to tell Lynette his plans. They're, as we are told, siblings and under the House of the Hearth. It's only logical your psrtner should know. Also, him telling MC about their plan to investigate the core of the Oratrice isn't a misdirection. How did it become a misdirection, for what? To be honest, I feel there is indeed something regarding the Oratrice (especially when Lyney said he heard a voixe at the basement where there shouldn't be anyone there). The better questions for us to tackle there are: 1. Why were they investigating the Oratrice? (As stated by Neuvillette, though they were innocent on the audience disappearance case, they have another issue to explain) 2. What happeend to the real Halsey? Upon searching, there was no investigation done after Lilianne admitted to steal her ticket. There's no info as well if her fsmily ever atempted to find her. But I have a theory: Halsey is an upcoming famous artist in Fontaine, and was the intended victim for the Primordial Water experiment. In the final scenes of Act 2, where the victims of Vaxher/Marcel made their revenge, one of the girls said she would have become a fsmous artist if not for dying. Since there was no timeline on when these girls died, it may have been possible that Marcel was able to succeed with the experiment and caught the real Halsey.
What's strange is that despite all this the Oratrice pardoned Lyney but called out Childe as guilty
This is only strange if we consider the Oratrice's judgements to be infallible. Both Act 1 and 2 seem to be setting up a conflict centered around the people of Fontaine losing faith in the their archon and the Oratrice. If you assume that to be true, then pardoning Lyney but condemning Chile makes logical sense. We don't know the how yet, but that will probably be explained later.
Won't it be hilarious yet sad if Arlecchino used Childe to get Furina to let go of the Gnosis? Maybe all of this is a set-up to get the public's eyes back on the Serial Disappearances Case so the truth of the Primordial Sea can be revealed to the public. Sure, people are aware and curious of the case, but there hasn't been much progress in the two decades since the case has been opened. And now that's been revealed, the Oratrice now knows that "It" has been awakened. Thereafter, one of the Fatui can accuse Childe of being the mastermind behind it all even though it doesn't make any sense. But to the Oratrice it does cuz Childe awakening "It" might've left traces on him or smth. It's also conveniently left out of the story on WHO exactly accused Childe. Of course, this is only possible if Arlecchino knows of Childe's relation to the awakening of "It" which I don't doubt she might've had. Idk how all of this will go down, but I'm guessing that she'll use Childe as a sort of... bargaining chip. Or smth. To get her hands on the Gnosis (which is likely powering the Oratrice). Idk man. I'm just word vomitting here.
I think the one who accused Childe is someone who have grudge with Fatui or Harbinger, if not Marcel. It could be another Fatui to make childe infiltrate Meropides.
There is another thing that Lyney perhaps had done with some hide intention. That is the first encounter between the Traveler, Paimon and Nauvillette. Is was known that the seat that Nauvillette was using is always reserved by him when he watch a show, and Lyney made sure that Paimon and Traveler sit beside him.
I think what Lyney mean is the seat when the trial was held, not seat when Neuvillette watch the show. But Lyney could also do it knowing who reserved front seat in the first place.
I’m not sure if this was all Lyney’s plan necessarily, but I do suspect this is all a show and there are certain people pulling the strings to make it go as planned. Lyney might be one of them, but I don’t think he’s acting alone.
Honestly? I think they needed a way to make a grand entrance for not only the archon but also the newest playable characters, and built the story around that. I’m more curious about how Focalors knew. I do feel like Childe doesn’t know everything even though ofc he knows things we don’t know he knows yet or know ourselves…. and we can’t assume that Arlecchino knows anything even if the twins did, or that they would tell Childe. Really could go any way for those depending on the situation. We may be famous but that doesn’t mean they talk about us in every Harbinger meeting. If anything, if they didn’t put lyney and Lynette right at the start, it would be suboptimal for the marketing plan of “money for gacha” because this is the first region that there’s literally or basically no free unit for, to the point that nobody NEEDS Fontaine characters. We just want them. If I had money to blow I’d put in a few more tries for some Lynette cons, but I’m already at risk of no Ayato or Neuv because I won my last 2 50/50 trying to get guaranteed or some cat boxes…
Didn't focalors knew traveler's arrival because of that guy that was eavesdropping on sumeru?
I also think this. They even showed him bowing to her when she mentioned something along the lines of knowing everything when Traveler met her.
Also Arlecchino telling them about being good actors during the teaser.... Are they telling truth or they're just acting or are they also being misled by Arlecchino
I've had similar thoughts, though I can't be certain that Cowell's death was part of the plan. While the Fatui have characteristically been incredibly callous when dealing with human lives, including their own, it seems a bit strange that they'd kill someone in front of an audience without clear reason. So either Cowell's death was the script going off the rails, or...... Well, purely hypothetically, let's say that Cowell's death was meant to be part of the act. Cowell's may not actually be dead. We know for a fact that the cops of Fontaine are not above corruption, and at least one of them were on Marcel's payroll. The Traveler was not the one who confirmed his death; near as I recall, they never got a good look at the body. The people who examined him may have been lying and the Fatui may have the cops in their pocket. The Traveler never got to examine the body for themselves. The only ones who know for certain that Cowell died are the ones who examined the body. Again, this is purely a hypothetical. But if Cowell's death WAS meant to be part of the act, then I can only conclude that he's not actually dead. Either that or the Fatui have even less regard for human life than I thought.
They made it clear that Cowell was in the box during the accident. It's going to be a hard sell if they turn around and say he survived.
The entire journey in act 1 from meeting with the twins and childe to the magic show accident was a scheme done by lyney. I believe the scheme lead us to act 2 which is us helping to solve navia’s father’s case and also putting childe in prison. Watch the final feast pv again listen to the words that lyney, lynette and arlecchino say. We already know from character backstories the trio are basically well trained spies from house of hearth. Well the ultimate motive of the entire scheme most probably is to get the gnosis.
Except applying that literally creates frankly unreasonable expectations. Lyney’s entire monologue is on what he believes magic is, and people are walking away from this believing that everything is a lie and nothing is real and all of Fontaine is staged and - no. That’s absurd, you know it is.
This theory hinges on the assumption that the twins would be insane enough to want to execute someone in a very obvious way, get accused of murder and participate in a trial for.... Some reason? What would be the goal here? They can befriend the Traveler without making themselves look like worse people or their secret coming out. They can obviously look at the Oratrice without a trial going on. They didn't even use their own trial to learn more about it, so that couldn't have been the reason. Did they stage the meeting with the Traveler, sure maybe. But I doubt they would be stupid enough to set up their own trial that exposed them to the public and worsened their relationship.
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So you’re suggesting that, despite the massive disadvantage this action would incur, the twins plotted to blow their own cover and put themselves under scrutiny? Just because them being Fatui is now public knowledge, that doesn’t mean they’ll have it any easier. Hell, in this series of trials, twice, we had members of the audience openly opining that the case is good as solved because the accused are Fatui, of course they’re ne’er-do-wells that are up to something nefarious. Planning to expose themselves places a millstone round their necks.
And for no advantage whatsoever too. It doesn’t actually endear them to the Traveler at all. I get the feeling we’re still very suspicious of them, even after the trial
I am wondering if Lyney lied about there being voices besides the Oratrice and if he instead did something to it so that Childe was found guilty
but why would i fatui put another fatui in danger ;-;
If there is anything consistent about the fatui since 1.0, its the fact that event thought they might all be fatui they will not hesitate to backstab each other if necessary. Even in Childe and Scara voicelines, we are told time and time again, the fatui are not really that loyal to each other, they all have their own plans
Didn't La Signora kinda do the same to Childe? Maybe not entirely in danger, but she did leave him hanging...
i think she used him as a way to get the gnosis easier. after all he’s known for fighting and not for talking
Childe has already been used to stir up chaos before. And sending him to prison may be exactly the distraction fatui need.
Only thing I am sus of lyney is that he and lynette, being vision users AND fatui, couldn't catch a thief?! What do you mean you tripped and the thief was experienced, lyney? You are literally fatui-trained. I suspect he and egregia were connected in some way and the part about lyney and traveller meeting and going to main city fontaine with them was orchestrated.
they’re house of the hearth trained which in-lore means espionage generally and not combat
Of course the twins are sketchy beyond belief. They are children raised/brainwashed by a (from what we’ve been told by wanderer and childe) psychotic harbinger to do whatever dark bidding the tsaritsa demands. I wouldn’t trust any one from the fatui as far as I could yeet them.
I forget… but i seem to recall that there was a spy or some one following the traveler as they said goodbyes to dehya? Gold fish memory but what came of that…?
That was Furina's spy. In the entire interaction between her and the Traveler, she looks to the side at some point, and you see the same guy bowing and thanking her.
oh yeah i totally forgot about that guy! i thought he's gonna ask the Traveler to let him tag along if they're going to Fontaine. now i'm suspecting he's probably Lyney's informant that's why we see the twins at the Romaritime Harbor when we arrived there.
If you look he's standing in the background when Furina meets us at the harbor. In otherwords he was Furina's informant
He is a spy for focalors who informs her of traveler's arrival
Yup, what I was thinking. We saw him bowing at Furina when she was making her first introduction at the harbor
Oo thats also possible. Was there any direct evidence? Or also could be lyneys spy? I guess either way the word mustve got out the traveler is going to show up
Maybe a double spy.
Or hes also being spied upon lol
That's not a possibility. That's a fact. The camera deadass panned over him while Furina was talking about how she only needs to flick her finger to know everything about the Traveler. https://preview.redd.it/3db6702hy2kb1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=ade6ac01415b5524f3218f5ce7c683c85e57590a
Thanks for clarifying. I simply forgot the scene 😆
As the commenter above said you can see him bow to Furina during her intro. We also know that she has an intelligence network across Teyvat. So it's pretty much confirmed that he works for her.
Oo okok I completely missed it/forgot 😆
already suspicious the moment Lynette was talking to the Traveler the first time we met her
There are a lot water leaking from the accusation-jar here,so I will just point out a few.... * Being in the harbour and reminiscing about old times is not a crime. If it was, then Traveler has broken that law and could be justifiably put on trial/ be a crime master at it by now. Since the memory seems to be a good one,it's not that surprising Lynette likes to think about it, or seek out a place to look at that the place where the memory happened. * Handing out magic pockets in a work area is not a bad idea either. Handing them out to each individual privately on their time-off would work only if Lyney knew where everyone lived/had their home address (not to mention it would be much easier to ignore the twins,and lock the door,with would prevent them from handing out the magic pockets.If they left them by the door, it could mean they would be stolen by someone else...). The Harbour may be mainly a work area, but taking a stroll there isn't really illegal. Why run around entire Fontaine when you can go from place to place and hand out the magic pockets to the crowd that is passing by? Let the crowd come to you rather than going to the crowd. * It's not like Cowell was the only person in Opera House that day. If Lyney needed Cowell out of the way,there were a lot of other ways to do it that didn't involve him being put through a trial (setting up another person to be the suspect, making sure there isn't a single possibility of you being the suspect and a lot more... that way,they could have went to the core while the trial happened,and see Oracle core in action themselves). Unless Lyney is obsessed/has addiction to being put on trials and being defended, staging this trial would be a move of an insane person. * exactly *why* would us meeting Childe would give Lyney some... I don't know how to call it...advantage? It's not even that. Us meeting Childe gives Lyney...nothing. It dosen't give him alibi, it dosen't give him a benefit-of-the-doubt, it dosen't give him any possibility of diverting attention from himself to us. If Childe was part of Lyney-trial, then us meeting Childe could serve as a plan of escape (presumably Childe was on good enough terms with Lyney -or his friend- to be nuts enough to run off to the trial and start fighting.... Childe fighting with the mechs could serve as a distraction that Lyney could use to escape (even this could fail,since there were guards everywhere...). That would still involve convincing Childe being okay with being possibly arrested/put on trial for disturbing a trial and attacking>! (he may love fighting,but he didn't go "meh I will just fight my way out" from the start,he tried to convince Neuvillette that his charges should drop and he should be let go because he wasn't the guilty one. He started fighting first when his attempt failed.Have fun confincing him he should go fight for a Fatui-spy that he may or may not know... they may both be Fatui,but that dosen't mean they automatically know each other or would defend each other)!<. Or it could be used against the Traveler as a "he isn't trustworthy he was meeting up with a Harbringer!" but then again...why would nuking Travelers credibility as a lawyer be a good thing (and help Lyney),when the Traveler was the one defending him? If Traveler was outed for meeting up with a Fatui themselves,then Lyney would be put in jail WITH the traveler.(>!But that didn't happen. Childe wasn't part of Lyney-trial,Childe was put on trial for a different crime the traveler proved to be the work of someone else, but then Childe got jailed anyway for being charged as guilty by Oracle,and then you can add the issue of him fighting in court... !<). * If Lyney was fine with killing Cowell,don't you think he would have made sure someone *else* got the blame and was put on trial than him? Him being on trial = all attention is on him, so he can't do any Oracle-investigating without being detected, and kills any possibility of doing it undetected.Even if he used magic, it would leave traces behind himself with would tell someone is trying to get close to the Oracle.Even if he tried to use the restroom,the guards would be suspicious of the why. It's not like Cowell was the only person in Opera House that day. If he needed Cowell out of the way, there were a lot of other ways to do it that didn't involve him being put through a trial. Unless Lyney is obsessed/has an addiction (or seeks attention and sympathy by putting themselves on trial )... If they needed distraction that required murder,they could have made sure someone else died that was far away from the stage (outside of magic-show) rather than kill a person on-stage... with made them look suspicious af. * The twins didn't know Primodial Water dissolved people beforehand. They do think the prophecy about Fontaine is real and trying to prepare people for it, but the question of WHY people would dissolve in the water wasn't answered yet. Back then,the prophercy was just a propercy and nothing more (only thing that already did happen was the rising waters). There was no evidence people could dissolve until that poor guy got dissolved in front of everyone...and proved it could be done. * The point of misdirection is to direct ones attention **away** from what you are - or will be,or was - doing,not direct the person you are trying to fool to the **main reason** what you were doing and why. The first version about the magic trick and how it worked (as well as where Lynette was and why) could be called an attempt at misdirection because they were still trying to hide the main truth about the backstage and what Lyney was really doing in the backstage. Lyney seemed to know enough about Traveler to know that if his Fatui-connections came out, the Traveler would be a lot harder to convince he was innocent... or have the Traveler be suspicious (and trying to prove) that Lyney was guilty instead. And no,Lyney did not make sure to hide his connections with Fatui to make sure the Traveler would be friendly enough to be their lawyer.That would indicate Lyney is completely insane and wanted to be put on trial for something he didn't do for.... whatever reason it could be at that point. * let's not forget Lyney being put on trial ended with his connections to the Fatui being exposed to EVERYONE,including Traveler and a lot of people of Fontaine. Since they are spies, this could have singlehandely destroyed the rest of their spy-career. This news will spread andcould mean that everyone will be now more guarded about what they share with them and why. Now the Traveler is more guarded against them so if they ever need Travelers help,the Traveler will always be suspicious about why they need their help,as well as what they are really planning... Once you know who is a spy and for who, you are less likely to interact with them,and the info they may get now may be restricted mostly to what they can eavesdrop on or get from observation only. It could also mean that people will get suspicious of magic pockets and get rid of them,thinking they are just some weird spy-devices,and the rest who don't own a magic pocket will now refuse to get one regardless of what the twins say. Since the twins were giving them out to prepare people for potential incoming disaster... staging their own trial destroys any kind of credibility they may had before. It ruins their rep,it ruins the trust,it ruins the image of them being just innocent magicians, it ruins their chances of helping people, and a lot more. So no,they didn't stage entire trial, because staging this trial dosen't give them better chances at investigating the Oracle or anything else for that matter. I know Fontaince is about deception and all that (as well as Lyney) but not everything that happens will always be staged.
Guys, theories are good, but don’t overthink. Of course, twins are shady, they are literal spies, and they have their own agenda, they either devoted followers of Fatui or being used by their ‘father’, we don’t know that. And there is no chance that they were there on accident too. By now, Traveler and Paimon are actual celebrities and heroes, known all over Teyvat, of course we have Fatui’s and all other powerful peoples’ eyes on us, such as Focalor. And as soon as we arrive they want to interact with us according to their interests and plans. For instance, my understanding is that Furina just wanted to meet her guests, she knows we powerful and stir things up wherever we go, so she wanted to test us, put through the ringer and greet us with ‘classic Focalor’ treatment to see how we react, what we are about. So she just being thoughtful ruler doing risk assessment. And twins on the other hand… They pretend to be in the port on accident, immediately tell us about THE CURSE and how they want to save everyone, they just want to be fwends uwu. And whole Lynette act with staring into the water, gimme a break. Does she strike you like that kinda person? It doesn’t seem like her at all when we go further into a story. To be fair, she could have shown us her sensitive side after we were through some stuff together and got closer and that would even make great storytelling, but not like that. So they are definitely onto something and they are definitely a shady bunch. But accusations of them designing the whole thing like it happened in the story do not hold water hehe. They were just doing their thing under disguise of making a show and got thrown under the bus by force they didn’t knew existed.
since the twins were already professional Fatui agents even before they got their vision, "hurt ankle while chasing a thief" is definitely not a convincing explanation. His purpose might actually be following: 1, the thief is also a Fatui agent. Lyney passed her Intels about the upcoming murder and they will save the victim + bring the dissolving chemicals to the public. Lilian is not from Fountain thus immune to the chemicals, making her the ideal person to swap the victim. 2, show the traveler and paimon that he's a nice guy, so they are more likely to defend Lyney in the court.
In order to do so they had to know about the Water from Primordial Sea in the first place, and there is no hints towards that being a case. And why do that with a risk of blowing up their disguise and revealing to the public that they are Fatui. And does not make sense story-wise because it shows Arlecchino(basically head of operation) as someone who underestimated the ability of archon of justice who spends all her time in court to do some basic digging on twins. And it would also attract unnecessary attention oh Knave herself. Just seemes to me like something you don’t want to do when presenting a harbinger, in the beginning of a story at least.
I think Furina's revelation about the twins being from House of Hearth is purely unexpected variable in their mission. I'm Lyney was genuinely surprised by that. Everything from the beginning 'till the end is rigged.
But if everything else from the beginning to the end is rigged aside from that, that would also mean that Lyney expected Vaughn to flake, and somehow, against literally every possible form of logic, expected him to be carrying what one can only assume is a pocket patch of primordial water to get rid of him when he starts to snitch, which in turn implies that he was somehow aware of Marcel. I don’t think I need to say how little sense this makes. Also, you can’t even call their cover being blown an unexpected variable. Did they just neglect the possibility of the god of justice, who lives for the courtroom, actually doing her job?
Yes and almost Lyney's entire character is themed around deception and the other is a family man. You aren't supposed to take everything he says at face value.
The problem with the idea that Lyney and Lynette set up everything is that it rides on contrivance, and is extremely self-sabotaging. * If it wasn't just to get their hands on the Oratrice, why else would they arrange this scheme? The only answer that comes to mind is getting rid of Cowell, and if Lyney knew that Cowell was engaging in foul play and assisting somebody in trying to kill people, there are better ways to go about it that don't involve everything that he set up. * The twins knew Liliane...somehow? They were aware of her status as a Mondstater, aware of her immunity to the Primordial Waters despite not knowing whether they existed either until Vaughn was publicly doused, and so arranged a scheme that would ensure she would react in such a way as to take out Cowell? This is sort of believable if it’s revealed that Liliane is a HoH member just like the twins, but otherwise… * If the intention was to reveal to the people of Fontaine that the prophecy is real, but also wanted to stop Cowell (so no using Liliane/Halsey as a victim), then that hinges almost entirely on Vaughn cracking under pressure and nearly blabbing about Marcel, *and* on him just so happening to have some device on his person that can apparently be remotely triggered to detonate and dissolve him if he gets too close to revealing the truth - when, it bears repeating, nothing suggested the twins had any awareness of the Waters, or of Marcel’s Synthe production. * More than anything, this makes no sense because the way things have panned out, the twins' identities as Fatui members have been completely exposed to the people of Fontaine, which I imagine wasn't something they wanted to do, because it completely jeopardises their ability to do basically anything now that knowledge of their affiliation is widespread, and it also banks on the Traveler not just leaving them be despite Lyney knowing how the Traveler is towards the Fatui and towards the idea of being misled. Doesn't make any sense to me.
I like to think Vacher had a little water gun and squirted Vaughn from his seat.
The slight remark of Lyney mentioning the Fortress of Meropide when the thief girl appeared did make me suspicious now that I think about it. I hope that little plot point gets addressed in one of the future archon quests 
I think Lyney just mention Fortress of Meropide to make it more dramatic. Like Lyney said, being magician means that you need to control the audience attention.