Penguin/Owl (POwl) VTuber ✧ Asian American Nonbinary (They/Them) ✦ Storyteller | Musician | Voice Actor for fun | Cosplayer ✦ Messing around to find out ✧ All videos are from twitch.tv/eve_ningmusic streams every Friday 8:30 EST
I think the forbidden fruit test is basically seeing if it’s smart enough to go against the rules and commands you give it? Like how Adam and Eve took the forbidden fruit and gained knowledge even when God told them not to. Kind of like saying they’re sentient. I’m not surprised the Prototype is sentient if it is, it’s been in the hollow for a while and seems to be smarter than the machines Grace builds. Even though it’s older. (How Grace mentioned that her machines became smarter and started to ignore orders when the prototype contacted them)
Now for the actual pull advice. Mualani is a good Neuvillette replacement if you don’t have him, and as a bonus has phenomenal exploration capabilities *while in Natlan*. Kinich is much the same, being at least on par with or even better than Alhaitham in terms of Dendro dps in the right scenarios, as well as being arguably even better for exploration than Mualani. Kazuha is, 3 versions later, still an absolute must pull and should be prioritized over anyone else. Raiden is nice as well, but I’d say she’s on the lower end of the priority list unless in desperate need of an electro dps, but Fischl is a more than serviceable replacement. Overall, Kazuha first, and the rest of them are genuinely up to individual discretion, falling into the same general realm of priority.
Comparing Mualani with Neuvillette is kinda wild considering Mualani is very strictly single target dps while Neuvi is small AoE type/long multihit type. Both playstyles are very different. Add the fact Mualani is really very single targeted that really awes you. Hu Tao despite being ST as well, can kill multiple targets if they're grouped Mualani is not like that. She has mini bouncing damage but majority of her damage is on the shark which strictly targets one person unless with cons which is why I don't think she should be seen as Neuvillette replacement given both have very different playstyle. Neuvillette changged the game, Mualani became like every new character just an "addition", doesn't change how things are. She was simply added that's it. Hoyo adding Mualani is like when they added Candace. Just another hydro character to fill the need of adding a character but will not change the game at all as there's better options.