u/AsleepPen9974

Given the recent update on rant tolerance and me having just recently finished Nahida's first story quest (I know I'm very late... sue me), I thought I'd post a little (kinda long actually) rant/discussion about Nahida's characterization, especially with how it relates to Dottore.

Long story short, I don't think that Nahida should be treated as a wise or kind character as much as she is. In my opinion, she is naive, impulsive, and refuses to see any nuance in her opponents' arguments.

I remember when Sumeru came out a few years ago, and I remember being super excited to see Genshin's "god of wisdom" character, especially coming off of Inazuma which I thought was pretty weak overall. I had always imagined an older Archon with immense knowledge and experience in dealing with her people, and an impartiality that's often associated with such wisdom. I guess we (kind of?) got this with Rukkhadevata. But then we got Nahida. Now, I'm not opposed to having my expectations subverted for characters, but Nahida is... something else.

On one hand, she's supposed to be a naive type of character who needs advice from the Traveler to understand things such as empathy and human emotion. But on the other hand, she's supposed to be an all-knowing Archon who has the capacity to handle large-scale crises in her nation. I think there's a way to go about this and craft a compelling character arc, but I don't think they handled it well with Nahida. And this was only highlighted by playing through her first story quest. Maybe this perspective also comes from having played that SQ after the 6.6 AQ, and I'm sure I would've been more lenient having played this SQ when it first came out, but...

I can't help but feel that Nahida comes off as pretty elitist in this quest. I understand the overall message of "it's not good to stay trapped in the past, you need to move on eventually". I typically agree, and maybe I've come to expect too much from Genshin's writing, but it was just so horribly handled in this quest. Nahida essentially forces people out of the dreams/fantasies that are comforting them (coping mechanisms, essentially). It almost came off with the same energy as someone going "You're depressed/anxious? Why don't you just stop letting those emotions control you!"

I thought that the "enemy" character in Nahida's SQ had an interesting quote. "If you... had also experienced firsthand the absolute devastation of loss, then perhaps you wouldn't be so cold towards us." After which, the Traveler can insist "She's not cold!"

But why? The truth is that Nahida doesn't know the first thing about actually experiencing loss or grief, besides Rukkhadevata - which I don't count because Nahida doesn't even know she experienced loss in this case.

Nahida has always been accepted and loved, as far as her current memories are concerned. She doesn't know anything different. She hasn't experienced true hate or abandonment in the current moment.

Which brings me to Dottore. As someone who never experienced those things, what gives Nahida the authority to tell Dottore that he's wrong for feeling the way he does? There's never a discussion of "Hey, your approach to this issue might not be the healthiest way to acknowledge the pain and suffering you've been through". No, it's just "You're wrong and evil", which serves nothing but to perpetuate the cycle that Dottore has come to accept as the truth of the world and relationships. How many of us could honestly say that we wouldn't want to entirely overhaul the world if we had been abandoned, rejected, and hated by everyone around us? I suspect very few.

So let's talk about responses to grief and coping mechanisms. In my experience, it very, very, VERY rarely works to tell someone "That idea isn't true/logical. You're wrong for thinking that way and you should come back to reality". I think we can mostly agree that Dottore doesn't have the healthiest coping mechanisms for his trauma, but is the way Nahida handled it truly "wise"? I don't think so. But this is how she's shown to handle any situation that isn't the socially accepted or "right" way to respond to grief or trauma. It's interesting for video games (or media in general) to tackle issues like this, but with Nahida specifically, it feels that all nuance goes out the window. This is especially disappointing given that she's supposed to be THE character of wisdom and empathy.

I think a better direction would have been for Nahida to actually analyze what brought Dottore to his current worldview. Instead of just insisting "he's wrong!" why couldn't we have had an actually intellectual discussion about the reality of grief changing the way a person views the world, in addition to the inherent unfairness of Teyvat's systems? The funny thing is, we've had that discussion before with other characters! Wanderer, Xiao, Raiden, Furina, etc. all got (at least somewhat) justification for acting in a way that hurt or endangered others because of the horrible situations they've been through. That's good! We need more of that! There's more to characters than just "good" or "evil" and I love characters who aren't the most "good" still being portrayed as sympathetic or worthy of love.

With that all being said, I hope Hoyo addresses this in the future story. I actually overall really enjoy Genshin's writing! There are some really powerful messages hidden away in the game's narrative. I've been impressed with Snezhnaya so far, and I have hope that the story is moving in a more mature/nuanced direction (ESPECIALLY considering how weak I found Natlan and Nod-Krai to be, story-wise).

I know this is probably an unpopular opinion, even here, but I'm open to discussion/disagreements! I really do wish I could like Nahida more since she's such an important character.

Having just finished the 7.0 Archon quests, I find it really funny how obvious some of the Capitano and Dottore resurrection foreshadowing was (at least in my opinion).

During the act 2 quest, in which we find ourselves trapped inside the murder mystery in the theater, two deaths in particular stuck out to me: Valeriy and Mitya.

Valeriy seemed to be an obvious parallel to Capitano, being the only person to die while sitting in a chair (everyone else was on the ground/floor), in basically the same position as Capitano. This is also on top of him being a Fatui-aligned military leader. His death also involved him giving up his life (as "Mr. Door") in exchange for the protection of the Traveler and Chugunov. This is similar to how Capitano used his life in exchange for Mavuika's.

But on to Mitya. His situation is almost an exact parallel of Dottore's, including three "deaths" that were highlighted in the story. Mitya's first "death" was one week before the incident in the theater. Similar to the original Zandik's death, his body was found by an unrelated passerby (Pantalone in Zandik's case and Odette in Mitya's). Mitya's second "death" was when he wandered out into the snowstorm. But obviously, this wasn't a real death - just as Moonttore's defeat in Nod-Krai wasn't a true death either (being only one part of Dottore's soul). Mitya's third and final "death" was in the armory, on the brink of completing his greatest experiment. Very similar to Datattore. I also found it interesting that Mitya called himself a "heretic" at one point.

I really, truly do not think that Hoyo would put in these glaring parallels and NOT do anything with them. Why would resurrection be such a huge point of act 2 in particular if they're not going to do anything with it?

Sorry for how rambling and incoherent this might sound. I'm running on no sleep on account of binging the quests lmao.

What are some of your unpopular opinions about Dottore? Could be about his story, potential kit, headcanons, speculation, etc. I tend to see a lot of uncommon opinions getting downvoted so let's make a space here where either none of us get downvoted or we all get downvoted (lol). The more unpopular, the better!

I'll go first:

1. I do not want electro DPS Dottore. I think he would be interesting with an off-field support/healer kit.
2. Exalted Master of the Heretical Path (Datattore) is the better boss fight in every way (difficulty, music, etc.) compared to Heretic of the False Moon (Moonttore).
3. Mick Wingert (English VA) does the best voice for Dottore and it's not even close. Seki Toshihiko (Japanese VA) does my least favorite performance for Dottore.

Despite my hiatus from this subreddit, I still have hope and you should too! Here's a few little hopeful points I took away from the 7.0 special program:

1. Dottore still doesn't have a TCG card. A lot (if not almost all?) major bosses get TCG cards, except for those who become playable (such as Tartaglia and Arlecchino). If Dottore doesn't get a boss form TCG card, I think that's pretty good evidence towards them waiting to release his playable form card. Obviously, not undeniable proof though.
2. There were soooo many comments spamming "playable Dottore" the entire time, more than any other unreleased character or other topic. I love to see it. Hopefully the message is getting across to Hoyo about what the players want.
3. At the end of the livestream, the hosts kept hinting at upcoming "surprises". Sure, that could be a lot of different things, not necessarily Dottore. But I think it's a good sign that Hoyo seems confident that they can still surprise people, even with the oversaturation of leaks that we have.

Speaking of leaks... please don't treat them like gospel. If leaks say today that Dottore will not be playable, tomorrow they'll say he will be. It's a never-ending cycle of throwing darts at a board. Some will be true, but a lot more will be total random guesses. I think having some reasonable doubt about Dottore's playability is good! That's what drives strong, creative theories based in the game's evidence. BUT please don't immediately give up all hope and doom because of an unverified comment you read on the internet.

Dottore WILL be playable. Have hope :)

Might be a little late to the party on this one, but this interaction between Sandrone, Citlali, and the Traveler in the 6.7 event leaves no doubt in my mind that Dottore will return. Sorry if someone has posted this exact same thing before.

> Citlali: By severing their souls?

> Sandrone: Yes. After Rene successfully awakened, the two continued their research, and all the severed souls ended up merging into Rene's consciousness. After you saved Fontaine by turning Fontainians into true "humans", these souls returned to the Ley Lines. But the souls severed before Rene awakened had nowhere to go, doomed to forever wander the waters of Fontaine as listless spirits.

> Citlali: Almost as if they exist outside the bounds of this world... unrecognized by the Ley Lines or fate. No wonder I couldn't sense them.

> Traveler: Breaking free from fate... was also one of Rene's goals back then.

The parallels to Dottore's story are glaring and I love it. This dialogue basically confirms our theorizing that Dottore can still be alive through existing "outside the bounds of this world". Also, I can't ignore the repeating of breaking free from fate by the Traveler. AKA Dottore's goal.

It's too much of a coincidence to write off when 6.7 is the version closing out the arc dedicated to Dottore AND summer event quests have had foreshadowing in the past (e.g. Simulanka).

Have hope!!

Maybe some of you remember this controversial post (by yours truly) from a month ago...

In the PV today and the introduction cards, we got a clean 50/50 split of yet-unplayable male and female characters... Just kidding I lied. We got MORE male characters than female characters.

Don't believe me?

Female: Vodyanitsa, Odette, Vesna, Danica, Tsaritsa

Male: Alyosha, Valeriy, Pulcinella, Pantalone, Noy, Mitya

To put this into perspective, in the Nod-Krai trailer we got Varka, Flins, and Durin for playable male characters and Aino, Lauma, Nefer, Nicole, Columbina, Jahoda, Ineffa, AND Sandrone for playable female characters. It's almost like Hoyo looked at trends in gaming (both Genshin and other gacha games) and realized male characters WILL SELL.

This is amazing news for us as Dottore fans. If Hoyo no longer cares about imposing strict limits on male characters, that only increases the chances of his playability. Also holy shit the fanservice?? The way I haven't seen anyone actually mad or disappointed by this trailer? This proves to me that Hoyo actually listens to what we want. DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE FOR DOTTORE.

(Also I told you so hehehe)

No pyro gnosis? The other six were shown on the Tsaritsa's chessboard - just not pyro.

Who do we think has it? My guess is Dottore or Pantalone. Remember, it apparently disappeared after the 6.6 quest.

In light of the possible PV later and some of the rumors going around about Snezhnaya (>!"no new playable Harbingers in Snezhnaya"!<), I thought it would be fun to make a game out of it. At the very least, maybe we can have some fun during a time when (male) Harbinger fans are very nervous...

So let's predict some of the comments and/or "leaks" that will be posted about Dottore and the other Harbingers here after the PV. The more ridiculous the better. I'll go first:

• "Dottore is gone it's so over" (yes we've known he's "gone" for over a month now)
• Dottore's playable ID leaked... Avatar_Female_Catalyst_IlDottore (4 star btw)
• Sohreh's actually ALIVE and comes back to talk about how evil Dottore was and how she was victim #589 of his super evil deeds
• Pantalone was actually married to someone else this entire time (she becomes playable in 7.1) AND his "about Dottore" voiceline is "Dottore? To tell the truth, I've always disliked him."
• The 7.0 quest involves the Traveler creating a support group in Snezhnaya in which all members take turns saying how Dottore hurt their feelings. Quest length: 10 hours

On a more serious note, all of us gathered here should agree not to fall into dooming if we don't get confirmation about Dottore later. Have hope Dottolings! We'll get playable Dottore one day!

There's been a lot of speculation about what does/doesn't make a character seem playable. While nothing is confirmed right now, maybe I can bring a little hope by clearing up what is and isn't possible with playable characters. Here's three major points and counterpoints I've seen thrown around regarding Pantalone's playability:

1. Model Changes and Transparent Hair

Despite improvements in even NPC models, playable/future playable models have certain characteristics that NPC models just don't have. Compare characters like Jeht, Fujin, Direidyth, and Minnie (some of the best NPC designs imo) to any playable character. The main differences are that (newer) playable characters have transparent hair, unique eye designs, and detailed clothing with volume/layers (Pantalone has all three). It's also possible for characters to have redesigns of their NPC models before they become playable - take Skirk, Varka, and Sandrone for example.

Obviously, the two counterpoints to this example are Rerir and Celaeno. But...

1. Rerir is almost definitely going to be playable since he got drip marketing which no non-playable character has ever gotten and the physical signs of playability. I also find it hard to believe that Hoyo wouldn't market the Sinners, one of the major hyped factions alongside the Harbingers, Hexenzirkel, and Shades.
2. I believe Celaeno will be playable. This is more personal opinion than anything, but I live by the idea that if it looks playable, it's probably going to be playable. Her design has all the hallmarks of playability and it would make sense for her to release in Snezhnaya, her home nation.

Note: I'm not including Signora in the "not playable" category since I believe she'll be released down the line. Same with all other Harbingers (Capitano, Dottore, etc.)

2. Not Having a Vision

Outside of obvious examples like the Archons not having/needing Visions, Snezhnaya is introducing the concept of Stellar Linchpins - basically, Visions without being Visions. Sandrone has one instead of a Vision and is playable. There's nothing stopping Pantalone from getting one for himself. In fact, it would fit much better with his characterization than if he did receive a Vision because of his disdain for the gods. This is also ignoring the presence of Delusions.

And if we want to get bogged down in the details, Genshin would have painted themselves into a corner a long time ago if they cared about NEEDING playable characters in the lore to always have a Vision/elemental powers. If you never played Furina's story quest or Wanderer's interlude thing and used them in gameplay, both of these characters would technically be Visionless and without powers. It's all about suspending your disbelief.

3. Limited Lifespans

There's no reason a character with a limited lifespan can't be playable. I mean, really, all human characters have limited lifespans in Genshin. It's a video game. Again, suspend your disbelief. But in specifically talking about having only a handful of years left, there's already playable characters with the same condition.

1. Baizhu has a chronic/terminal condition and his whole motivation is finding a way to become immortal.
2. Xilonen gave up part of her lifespan to forge the Traveler's ancient name.
3. (Probably scrapped but) Lisa supposedly gave up part of her lifespan for knowledge. Even if it was scrapped, this at the very least proves that the devs are open to the idea of playable characters with limited lifespans.

Once again, this is also ignoring the possibility that Dottore comes back or Pantalone finds some other way to create the elixir of immortality - in which case, this point is null.

Other Minor Points

"Pantalone isn't a fighter/says he's physically weak" - canonically, neither are a whole ton of playable characters like Barbara, Ningguang, Qiqi, Sucrose, Yanfei, Layla, Baizhu, Kaveh, etc. etc.

"Pantalone isn't allies with the Traveler" - we don't know Snezhnaya's story yet but he specifically said during the 6.6 quest that "present enemies may not be enemies for life" or whatever. As long as he isn't actively trying to kill or harm the Traveler, and provides some form of support, that's good enough I think - since I don't believe he'll ever fully "join the Traveler's side". I'd argue we already have characters like this too (such as Alhaitham) who worked alongside the Traveler (a "means to an end" sort of situation) but ultimately don't care much for them.

Don't put all your hopes on the IDs.

A lot of people keep saying "just wait for the IDs" but I don't think that's the solution either. There's a high chance Pantalone's ID will be hidden (such as with a placeholder name) and/or not revealed until later. I hope people don't immediately fall into dooming the second we don't see his name in the first list that gets revealed.

As others have pointed out, don't forget the mistakes leakers have made even when IDs are first revealed. Wrong elements, wrong names entirely, missing characters, etc. Hoyo's probably going to be extra careful with hiding info given how we're at the point in the game when major, highly anticipated characters are going to be released. Not to mention the recent crackdown on leakers.

Just because we don't immediately see Pantalone in the ID list DOES NOT mean he won't be playable!!

Trigger warning for the productive: lots of rambling ahead

Something I've been stewing on recently is the overall themes and morals of Genshin's narrative and how they relate to Dottore. From my observation, a lot of characters fall into one of two generalized arcs:

1. Overcoming fate or defying expectations. These characters basically ignore the path laid out for them (either by fate, their role, their family, etc.) and find their own place in the world. Some examples would be several of the Archons, Linnea, etc.

2. Working through past trauma. These characters can start off questionable but eventually get closer to the Traveler through overcoming their past difficulties and (sometimes) acknowledging their faults. Examples would be Scaramouche, Xiao, etc.

These arcs generally convey a pretty optimistic view of life. You aren't defined by your past. You can work hard to make a better future for yourself. There's no one defined path for you, and you have the freedom to become who you want to be. No one is beyond saving. So why is it that all of these messages are ignored when it comes to Dottore?

Right now, assuming (as the game wants us to) that Dottore is 100% dead and gone, never to return after 6.6, here's how the morals of his story sound:

If you're dealt a bad hand in life, you're cursed and can never overcome it. Even if your distrust for others is rooted in past trauma, it's something to be shunned. At the end of the day, any progress you make in any field will be discarded and forgotten to time. When you try to convince others of what you believe is right, they'll backstab you (literally). You'll eventually be "defeated" by the power of friendship and you'll only ever have one person who truly stood by your side. Your fate was laid out, unavoidable, from the start.

That sounds really depressing and so unlike the rest of Genshin's cast. Take Scaramouche's story's morals:

It doesn't matter how many betrayals you face, you'll eventually find those who care about you and want to see you grow. Yes, you did some horrible things because of your past trauma, but those can be forgiven because you're trying to overcome them. Your experiences will help you guide others who look up to you. All those who wronged you will eventually get what's coming to them, and you'll be able to finally live peacefully.

I've seen people call Dottore's ending fitting or poetic. I think it all depends on context, and in the narrative set by Genshin, it's more hypocritical than anything. Why is this one character in particular the victim of fate, unable to overcome their past? Why is his trauma rarely acknowledged when other characters who committed horrible things are portrayed as misunderstood?

It feels immature, like the friendless caricature of a bully in a kids movie who picks on others for no reason other than being mean. There's a reason villains typically have human motivations and even relatability in content made for more mature audiences. They want to change the world based on the injustices they've seen, but it's not always sunshine and rainbows with zero suffering.

Maybe it's just disheartening to people like me, who have at one point or another felt like an outcast, to see the state of being left out or "not like the others" being portrayed as something shameful and villainous.

But anyway there's two ways we can look at this:

A. Dottore's writing was fumbled so badly that the moral of his story basically tells people to give up and that they're defined by "fate".

or B. Dottore is coming back and there's more to his arc.

I'm definitely leaning towards option B and I really hope I'm right.

What did Dottore actually do that's so incredibly "evil" and unforgivable? It's the question no one seems to really be able to answer. Unethical, sure. But evil? I have to believe that these people either a) didn't fully read the lore around Dottore and believe everything they see on the internet or b) are naive to the discussion around ethics in the real-world medical field because nothing is ever fully "ethical".

Here's the major points I can think of and why I don't think they make that much sense:

• Dottore lured Ursa the Drake to Mondstadt --> unethical and manipulative, but not evil. He ultimately didn't want/need Ursa to kill anyone. He just wanted to be the "savior" by making it seem like a danger, then killing it himself. I don't think Crepus's death was intentional. Also, this is ignoring that Tartaglia basically did the same thing during Liyue's quest (Osial) and no one is calling him "unforgivable" for it.
• Dottore killed Niwa --> fine, this is evil. But that's ignoring the context that basically every character has murdered people at some point. Especially the Traveler, who people love to call the "good guy" now.
• Dottore killed Sohreh --> this is unconfirmed. The circumstances around her death are suspicious, but it's never been confirmed that Dottore killed her.
• Dottore experimented on Scaramouche --> Scaramouche agreed to these experiments because it made him stronger. We also don't know the extent of the experimentation.
• Dottore experimented on Collei --> I guess I can see why this is considered unethical, even if I don't think it is. The truth is that Dottore managed to cure people of Eleazar (or at least stop its progression) by using the dead god remains. This is where my point about the real-world medical field comes in. Lots of actually effective treatments are unpleasant for people, but that doesn't change the fact that they save people's lives. It's a valid discussion, but definitely not a black-and-white one. Also, Collei got cool powers out of it.
• Dottore used Columbina --> he literally just asked her to move some boxes and she whined about it.
• Dottore stole the moons' power/took over Irminsul --> are we forgetting that the Shades and Heavenly Principles are not good guys? Dottore did this to try and overthrow the system that is in no way fair. He wanted to challenge the Heavenly Principles, which is basically what the Traveler's goal is. He's just more efficient at it.

And that's all ignoring the stuff people just completely make up about Dottore. Like he assaulted Collei and Scaramouche? That literally never happened and I'm so sick of seeing it spread around as fact.

I feel that the tirade against Dottore takes away agency from the other characters and strips them down to caricatures of themselves. No longer can any character make decisions to go through with experiments to become stronger or cure their incurable disease. Now it's just "trauma". Every morally gray character becomes pure and innocent as soon as Dottore shows up. Scaramouche never did anything wrong all because Dottore was mean. Collei can't have any positive or complicated feelings about her super special god powers all because Dottore was the one who gave them to her. This isn't even mentioning characters like Alice and the other Harbingers who denounce Dottore when they themselves aren't righteous in any way.

This turned more ranty than I thought oops... But still, I'd love to have a discussion about this, especially if there's anything Dottore did that I forgot about.

It's me again... the Escher theory's #1 supporter. Sorry in advance for the rambling nature of this post.

I saw the same video you all did and read the same caption. However, I didn't see it as a reason to doom. Instead, it gave me hope. It didn't present anything we didn't know already - Dottore's death and the supposed finality of it. We already got that information from the quest itself, so the caption isn't any big surprise.

The key word I want to focus on is "IF". As in, "IF the hour of my death has come."

I'm not going to ignore the weeks we spent creating solid and thoroughly researched theories based on in-game context, precedents, and foreshadowing just because of one caption. I wouldn't fight for my theory so much if I didn't have absolute confidence in it. So often we switch back into dooming when we need to trust in our instincts more.

The truth is that if (or WHEN) Dottore becomes playable, Hoyo is going to hide it as much as possible. They're not going to have a caption that comes out and says "Jk guys Dottore's actually alive AND coming back in a few patches!". I didn't put much confidence into these captions in the first place for this very reason. Hoyo wants us to believe that Dottore is dead and gone forever, but we know that there's too many unanswered questions for that. What's up with the lizards? Why did Escher return to Teyvat? How did Dottore stop time to split his soul?

Even if SOMEHOW, Dottore does not become playable, this is NOT the end of his story. I'm begging you all to just wait and see what happens instead of dooming every time a new tiny scrap of information comes out.

One sentiment I’ve seen spread around a lot lately is that Genshin is moving away from male character releases and/or decreasing the quality of their male characters. Respectfully, this is nonsense. Why are we still using this as a point that Dottore (or other male Harbingers) won’t be playable?

Here’s some numbers I crashed:

In the 1.x versions (Mondstadt and Liyue), we had 21 female characters and 11 male characters (approximately 1.9 female characters for every 1 male character). Of the 11 male characters, 6 were 5 stars (about 55%).

In the 2.x versions (Inazuma), we had 11 female characters and 5 male characters (approximately 2.2 to 1). Of the 5 male characters, 2 were 5 stars (about 40%).

In the 3.x versions (Sumeru), we had 10 female characters and 7 male characters (approximately 1.4 to 1). Of the 7 male characters, 5 were 5 stars (about 71%).

In the 4.x versions (Fontaine), we had 11 female characters and 6 male characters (approximately 1.8 to 1). Of the 6 male characters, 3 were 5 stars (about 50%).

In the 5.x versions (Natlan), we had 13 female characters and 4 male characters (approximately 3.3 to 1). Of the 4 male characters, 1 was a 5 star (about 25%).

In the Luna versions (Nod-Krai), we have (as of 6.6) 9 female characters and 5 male characters (approximately 1.8 to 1). Of the 5 male characters, 4 are 5 stars (about 80%).

So what do these numbers mean? It means that yes, obviously during Natlan Hoyoverse stopped caring about male characters. Having only one male character for every 3 (or more) female characters is pretty egregious, especially when only ONE of those male characters was a 5 star (Kinich). HOWEVER, since Natlan, they have apparently reversed this business decision, since our ratio of current male and female characters is pretty standard for Genshin. Also, we currently have the highest percentage of 5 star male characters in any version with Flins, Durin, Varka, and Lohen.

I’ve just been tired of seeing the same argument about Natlan when Natlan ended almost a year ago. Clearly something didn’t work, since they went back to making a higher percentage of male characters per version. IF Hoyoverse was ever going to say screw it with all male characters, why didn’t they do it after Inazuma when Raiden’s banner blew everyone else out of the water? But no, after Inazuma, we had the highest ratio of male to female characters in Genshin’s history in Sumeru.

Obviously, Hoyoverse has more of a priority for female characters. I’m not arguing against that. And there are obviously valid reasons against Dottore’s playability, which I don’t need to spell out here, but the whole male character thing isn’t one of them. You’re all letting yourselves be influenced by the doomers. Stop that.

Over the past few days, I and a number of other members here have posted a lot of theories in regards to Dottore’s possible return. In this post, I hope to compile the major findings from each of these and tie them together in a succinct theory that proves beyond a reasonable doubt (in my mind) that Dottore will return. (TL;DR at the bottom)

Credit where credit is due, here are the major posts I am referencing. I encourage you to read them for yourselves, since I won’t be copying them word-for-word and I can tell a lot of research went into them. Feel free to come to your own conclusions based on these and share them. Let’s discuss.

My previous posts on the Escher Theory (here and here), along with the comments by u/Dependent_Hyena_8963 beneath the first post
u/Background-Chair7377 and their Escher Theory (here)
u/melancholicprophet and their Escher Theory (here)
u/BananaShagnus and their Lizard Theory (here), along with the comments by u/cloth-gowns-only beneath
u/DottoresPet and their investigation into Escher's name (here)

Without further ado, with a HUGE shoutout once again to u/Dependent_Hyena_8963 since I would have never thought of this level of detail without their comments):

Sometime during his lifespan, before the segments existed, Zandik learned of a process called “Shattering Atmagraha” – a process which splits one’s soul into three: heavenly, earthly, and human. Ever hungry for improvement and removing his weaknesses, Zandik split his soul.

His heavenly self was known as Omega – the Dottore we see in Sumeru’s original archon quest and Nod-Krai’s archon quest. Omega sought to reach godhood and ultimate control, so he implanted a false god (Scaramouche) into the Akademiya. After this plan failed, he turned his sights towards Nod-Krai and the moon marrows. He (now known as the Heretic of the False Moon) succeeded in getting the moons’ power, but was defeated by Columbina.

His earthly self, the second piece of his soul, existed in the form of data, injected into Irminsul by Pantalone after his heavenly self’s defeat in Nod-Krai. Datattore hoped to transcend or change fate by taking control over Irminsul. Although succeeding at first and becoming the Exalted Master of the Heretical Path, he was defeated by Nahida and the Traveler. Upon fighting this boss again, there is a possibility that it will drop some of Dottore’s memories.

So, now we’re left with the last remaining piece of Dottore’s soul. “Escher” – his human self. Although Escher supposedly was a painter, Dottore masqueraded as an engineer. He appeared in Tatarasuna many years ago, creating a large disaster. Then, at some point in the future, he came to the Temple of Space. He was later exiled for “defiling the laws of space” and returned to Teyvat, losing his memories in the process. The only thing he says to us is that he’s looking for a Statue of the Seven, but can’t find it.

Now this brings up some obvious parallels to Zibai’s story, as introduced in version 6.3. Her heavenly self was trapped in the reflection of the false moon. Her earthly self represented her memories, with a focus on logical data. Her human self was trapped inside of a painting. Zibai was resurrected once the three parts of her soul were combined again.

So what’s up with the lizard? Well, as pointed out by several people, including u/cloth-gowns-only, Escher’s arrival in Tatarasuna was heralded by a lizard that Niwa held. The lizard (specifically, a blue horned lizard) has then appeared in several crucial scenes where Dottore is being talked about, but not in any scene where he is not mentioned. Why a lizard? I think this Dottore quote from 6.3 sums it up best: “I’ve always thought it is wiser to flee than surrender.” Lizards, literally per the in-game description, will break off their tails when caught. Is that not exactly what Dottore is doing? Cutting his losses with old pieces/segments of himself to flee and live another day? I’d say the lizard is more likely symbolism than an actual personification of Dottore, though.

But back to Escher. His name literally means “ashes”, “ash tree”, or “born from the ashes”, as found by u/DottoresPet. I believe the reason he was exiled from the Temple of Space is because he was a “distortion” in that he’s an incomplete soul. In terms of other symbolism, one of Dottore’s major themes is “inversion” and illusions, both of which are prominent themes found in the real M.C. Escher’s paintings. Lizards and birds (similar to those that appear when Dottore is mentioned) are also found in some of them. There’s a lot of mentions of “nirvana” (an eternal state of freedom from suffering in Buddhism and Hinduism), which would relate to Dottore’s ultimate goal of transcending fate. Also, relating to the scales that are focused on during Dottore and Pantalone’s conversation in the Sanctuary of Surasthana – there are two weights and a coin, added by Pantalone. Could these represent the three parts of Dottore’s soul? One weight and the coin, representing the heavenly self and earthly self (added by Pantalone) outweighing the other weight (the only remaining living piece: the human self).

So, where do we go from here? How will Dottore be re-integrated into the story? Here’s my theory. We will encounter Escher once again. He’s actually searching for the inverted Statue of the Seven we found in Liyue, which is originally from Dornman Port. This Statue was supposed to be used to create a false god (per the original quest it appeared in) and has some deep, secret connection to Irminsul, as hinted at by Nahida. We’ll go back to that cave with the inverted statue, probably with Zibai to remind the players about the “splitting of the three selves” plot. Then comes Dottore’s resurrection. As it says in anomalous tree marrow 3, “one half of my soul enters the Ley Lines through death, while the remaining half is injected as pure data… We might consider that as one of death’s rare oversights. Something that is even more eternal than eternal life itself?” So, these two parts have already connected again in the roots (?) of Irminsul, which can be accessed through the inverted statue. Escher will come along as the final, third piece. Once all three are reunited, boom – resurrected Dottore. 
In fact, I think we have proof of the first two pieces reconnecting: Dottore’s own arms dragging him into “hell”. Since the segments resemble Omega/his heavenly self (the soul that entered through death) and Datattore represents his earthly self (the soul injected as data), it would make sense. He did seem awfully calm during that scene, didn’t he? I think it’s because everything was going according to plan.

Hold on, I can hear your questions already.

1. But Zandik is dead! He died at 85 years old!
   1. Yes he did. Technically, so did Zibai’s original body after she separated her soul into three. The status of the original body is not a factor in the continuation of pieces of the soul. And, just like Zibai was, someone can be resurrected if the pieces of their soul combine again.
2. But how did Zandik create the segments if he already split his soul into three?
   1. The segments don’t have souls. Wanderer doesn’t need a soul to survive, just a “core”, and since the segments are based on his technology, they are more like robots than living beings with a soul. They are engineered, not born. Also, Dottore literally says “Once the soul is transferred out, you will find that creating a physical body is far simpler than creating a puppet” – possibly hinting that his soul was already split before creating his segments.
3. Isn’t everyone in the Temple of Space required to be part of an ancient or destroyed civilization?
   1. Not necessarily. Istoria states, “The gods had meant [the Temple of Space] to be an exhibition hall for the conservation of fallen civilizations… But the sisters of that one great god… had other ideas. And so they put whatever they thought interesting in here, willy-nilly.” Certainly they would have found Zandik/Escher interesting due to his intelligence, if not for the fact that he studied ancient civilizations through the giant ruin golems in Sumeru.
4. Couldn’t the Escher in the Temple of Space just be good old (real) Escher, not Dottore at all?
   1. Very, very, VERY unlikely. If we are to presume that Escher was a real painter from Fontaine and came to the Temple of Space on his own merits, why would he be acknowledged as an engineer by Istoria? The “engineer” Escher was a fabrication by Dottore. Also, when we first meet “Escher” at the Statue of the Seven in Dornman Port, why does he have the Dottore glitch around him? In addition to this, if he WAS such a skilled and famous painter, why would characters, such as Istoria and Castiglione, refer to his artwork as “unsettling” and even “abysmal”?
5. If Dottore is still alive, why wasn’t there any glitching at the end of 6.6, like at the end of 6.3?
   1. The glitching was a sign of Datattore infiltrating Irminsul. Now that Datattore is dead, it probably won’t happen anymore. But just because Datattore is dead doesn’t mean no part of Dottore survives.
6. Those “goodbye” scenes looked pretty final. Doesn’t that mean he’s gone for good?
   1. They did to me too. Then I remembered Rerir’s “goodbye” scene with Dainsleif. That seemed pretty final to me at the time. Then, not even two updates later, we got to see Rerir again and there’s some strong evidence pointing towards his playability (official promo art).
7. Wow this is kinda desperate and obsessive. Do you have a life?
   1. No.
8. Wouldn’t Dottore have just told Pantalone to go find Escher instead of vague hints about souls and memories?
   1. This is probably the biggest point I can think of against this theory. However, I’d argue that, much like Zibai’s selves didn’t fully understand the existence of each other, Dottore wouldn’t fully understand how he could be resurrected either.
9. Why haven’t more people pointed out these connections?
   1. I think it’s because a lot of people skip the lore and/or don’t play the world quests. Of those who go out of their way to play through hours of unvoiced quests with only NPCs, even fewer will analyze the lore in the way we have. And how many people actually remember the name Escher? Remember, that was like four years ago now. If you’re a very casual Genshin player it’s unlikely you’d remember this niche piece of lore.

So why trick us and make everyone think there’s no chance of a playable Dottore? Two things.
First: Outside of our little community, people hated Dottore. This was the major obstacle I thought of back in 6.3 and before when people talked about a playable Dottore. The majority of the fanbase would throw a fit. They had to make him redeemable in some way, as they do with all Fatui Harbingers. I want you all to go do something. Go to any comments section beneath a Dottore video or post, then look for comments written before AND after this update. There’s a change in the narrative around Dottore, slow but growing. People are starting to sympathize with him, if only a little. Tempers are quelled. Collei got her revenge. Wanderer got his revenge. Nahida got revenge. That’s why we have to wait – because creating the Dottore who we know and love without lobotomizing him fully is a precarious balance when it comes to the fanbase at large.
Second: Literally just that he needs a new model. They’re not gonna use Avatar_Male_Claymore_IlDottore. But if they suddenly changed his look halfway into 6.6, everyone would be like “yep Dottore’s playable”. They don’t want us to think that right now. The suspense is the point.

If I haven’t made myself clear, let me say this: This is NOT the time for dooming. We’re about to see one of the greatest plot twists in Genshin’s history, built on details that have been scattered around for YEARS, but couldn’t be connected until now. There’s too many coincidences for it to not mean anything. EVERY Luna version has had something related to this theory, from the archon quest itself to the world quests to Lantern Rite.

And I, for one, literally don’t care what people in the main sub or anywhere else says. You’re allowed to be disappointed or angry or sad. You’re allowed to love or hate 6.6’s quest. But most importantly, you’re allowed to have hope. Don’t let naysayers tell you you’re stupid or desperate for wanting your favorite characters to come back or survive – and that goes for Signora mains, Capitano mains, etc. Genshin is a game and we’re supposed to be having fun with it. People like us are the backbone of the fandom.

TL;DR: Dottore, like Zibai, split his soul into three: heavenly (Omega/Moonttore), earthly (Datattore), and human (Escher). Two are “dead”, combined in what remains of Irminsul and will be accessible through the inverted Statue of the Seven in Liyue. Escher is alive but wandering without his memories after being outcast from the Temple of Space, but can remember through the manifestations of Dottore’s memories we received from the latest weekly boss.

Maybe this is a dumb theory and I'm really grasping at straws here, but hear me out. It's been a couple weeks since I finished playing this quest so there might be some lore stuff I'm not remembering correctly.

Here's what we know as facts:

1. Young Zandik was an avid researcher of the giant ruin guards in Sumeru during his time at the Akademiya

2. Dottore disguised himself as Escher during the Tatarasuna incident

3. We encounter Escher/Maukie during the Temple of Space/Dornman Port world quest, in which he is trying to find a Statue of the Seven in Mondstadt and has lost his memories

4. Escher/Maukie resided in the Temple of Space until recently

So, this is my theory:

The Escher/Maukie we encounter in the Temple of Space/Dornman Port world quest is a segment of Dottore. As others have pointed out, every time someone's "soul is split" in Genshin, it is into three (for example, Zibai). It doesn't make sense that Dottore would be the only exception to this rule, so I think it's a fair assumption to make that there's one more Dottore left out there somewhere. (Also, not to mention the "Anomalous Tree Marrow ONE") And it makes sense he'd be in the Temple of Space. As someone who researched ancient civilizations (via their ruin guards), he'd be a great person to choose for the preservation the Temple of Space is built on.

Escher was exiled from the Temple of Space before the events of the quest because he "defiled the laws of space". What does that mean? One of the rules of the Temple of Space is that one cannot try to make progress. At his core, Zandik is a person who wanted to make progress by any means necessary - an ideal incongruent with the values of the Temple.

For one to leave the Temple of Space, even by exile, they must lost their memories (as Zeitlind showed). Escher has no memories upon his return to Teyvat. But guess what the Traveler has after the 6.6 world quest? Dottore's memories. Dottore and Pantalone even hint at combining a soul and his memories for a sort of revival. Why is that dialogue there if not setting up a possible future event?

Another weird connection is Escher's search for a Statue of the Seven. In the leaks, there's a piece of dialogue from Nahida (I believe?) that mentions something about a Statue of the Seven, but its location is censored. What could this mean?

Why make it such a central point (the first scene of the world quest) that Escher is back in Teyvat and without his memories if it goes nowhere? We have no resolution at the end of the world quest and Escher (the original, not Zandik) honestly has no relation or importance to the plot. It only makes sense to me that this Escher we see now is related to Dottore. I'm also not opposed to thinking that Escher is the OG Zandik, although I don't know how this could be possible with his death and autopsy (unless it was a lie).

Despite the general consensus on this sub, I believe in the writers at Hoyo. And I sort of like what I've been seeing from the 6.6 leaks, as ironic as that might seem. I think it sets Dottore up as a tragic character, shedding light on Zandik's death and showing his relationship with Pantalone. While I understand the disappointment a lot of people feel, I think we should wait until the quest is actually out (in like 12 hours) to make major judgments about it. I don't think it would have gone over well if they released a playable Dottore right now. For most people, he's still a villain. Then again, that sixth shadow looks an awful lot like him imo.