Childe
There are a lot of parallels between Parsifal and Childe — the Heart of Depth artifact set, the resemblance Childe has to the guy on the HoD TCG card, the fact that he uses the Freedom talent books from Mondstadt, etc. (The dead blue eyes also make me think a little bit of the Blue-Eyed Spear Witch, but that’s a brainrot for another day.)
Ashikai has a good video about this that I think will cover everything quicker & more efficiently than I can:
There was a time when I thought Childe might literally be a descendent of Parsifal and the Blue-Eyed Spear Witch — at this point, I don’t know if I think that’s true, and I also don’t really think he’s a literal reincarnation of the guy, but I do think there are too many really obvious connections here to ignore.
It’s possible that Parsifal is just one of the many historical figures of Teyvat that Childe represents in our current cycle (Ajax, Takamine, etc), or something. Genshin seems to really like using our current characters as vehicles to tell stories of the past, and I think it’s cool.
Dragonspine
I find it really interesting that Childe, Parsifal, and Eberhart all have ties to Dragonpine:
- The Heart of Depth artifact set, which tells Parsifal’s story, is in a Dragonspine domain
- Eberhart led that fateful expedition to Dragonspine
- Childe is shown in Dragonspine in one of his character videos
- Durin’s corrupted heart being in Dragonspine reminds me a lot of whatever is going on with Childe re: Foul Legacy & the abyss
- For some reason, the battle music in Dragonspine is All-Conquering Tide — a song that’s pretty clearly associated with Childe, was in the domain in his story quest, and is not even on the Dragonspine album
Irish myth stuff
via Wikipedia:
There are possible parallels in Perceval with the Irish mythological race of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The race has three central talismans, a spear, a cauldron, and a sword, that correlate with the spear, grail, and sword present in Perceval. Chrétien’s Perceval also includes many similarities to the Irish saga The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn. The main character, Fionn mac Cumhaill, is raised in isolation and undergoes many adventures akin to those of Perceval, suggesting that the narrative may have been a source of inspiration for Chrétien.
Without getting too in the weeds here, there’s a reeeeeally loose connection with a few degrees of separation between Perceval and a hero from Irish mythology named Cu Chulainn, who manymanymany people have speculated was a source of inspiration for Childe.
The only reason I’m bringing this up at all is because there are already a bunch of fun connections between Parsifal and Childe, so I don’t want to leave it out.