u/StarJolion

For someone who was selfish Zandik picked something that seemed like a controversial job that potentially had no immediate benefit to him. Directly after being recruited by Pierro with his new "The Doctor" title based on the Wise Doctor's Pinion text.

Was he just doing it for the challenge? Maybe it paid well?

There's also the possibility that Sohreh had it and they talked about it...Which probably didn't help her when she got injured by tigers. Someone really cruel could've even abandoned her there because she would've died to Eleazar anyway. Like a selfish sage trying to force her to shut up about Zandik being written off the author list for the expedition?

Since he still seems to be getting new lore, merch specific to him and even VA interviews it looks like he still has the potential to become playable. With some VAs even saying that showing feedback and interest is helpful.

I can kinda see it happen in a "working together for a common goal" way. The stuff we learned in the recent patches have definitely lined up reasons that would make it possible.

Ofc most people would want Capitano playable first, but if we need a scientist with his skills to make that happen then they could both make it?

Here Dottore said that Pantalone is afraid of death, or well, more specifically a gruesome death.

But in the cutscene we saw that Zandik's death was pretty miserable, and Dottore didn't do anything to help him or ease his pain. He just...watched him die. If Pantalone believes that death scene...his best friend died the very death he fears dying himself?

His expression is not shown here, but I feel like it would be pain if he was allowed to show it? It sounds frustrating to be sad about a friend's death...yet having to swallow and hide those emotions otherwise the segments might potentially harm him. Then having to do the long run and keeping up neutrality for over 400 years because the relationship is transactional.

Though in most shipping circles I've seen people think the opposite of sorts. That Pantalone is actually happier around Dottore and there's no reason for conflict between them at all?

Tbh I wanna add whatever 7.1 brings to the table, so probably not going to write it until then. We knew Snezhnaya would bring us lore, and 7.0 already sorta did with the artifact set. I think more is on the way.

The list of points to digest is already kind of large (I tried to minimize spoilers):

AQ/SQ Dottore Journey - the "mad scientist" route

1. "Have you seen his "toy" research factory?" - Childe SQ, a small prelude
2. Sumeru and Winter Lazzo - the mystery begins
3. Collei's trauma - post-manga version
4. Cue Harbinger Omega-Build intro - getting introduced to him through Nahida
5. Zandik Incognito - the mysterious Boattore encounter
6. Segment talk with the God of Wisdom - first real look into his background
7. Wanderer's trauma - the Tatarasuna experiment in Inazuma and the fairytale about it
8. Nod Krai entrance - he's back, but hiding
9. Sandrone talk - aka Dottore's most vocal in-game hater
10. YOINK moment - he's back and already neck deep in causing emotional damage
11. Arlecchino and Childe - brief talks about him and it is not praise
12. Traveler and Dottore chat - our first real "meeting" from the Traveler's POV
13. Wanderer is back - and witnesses more reasons to hate him basically
14. Moontorre intro - a fight both won and lost at the same time
15. Columbina retrospective - with some timeline help from Sandrone's notebook
16. Sumeru Irminsoul episode - another crisis with his name on it
17. Pantalone intro - and how this ship set a permanent sail
18. Zandik the movie - abridged version because Omega is him
19. Post-Irminsoul friendship talk - a goodbye with 0 Pantalone tears so you know it's fake
20. His Mondstadt lab exposed - Lohen SQ, expanding on the angel research trail
21. Snezhnaya's theater doom dance - and how it's helping Dottore

Subtext Dottore Journey - the "wise doctor" route with wiki links

1. Zandik's legacy - his Sumeru exploration related notes and the Sohreh incident
2. Eleazar hospital notes and Abbas' escape - a deeper look than the AQ
3. Sumeru world quest mentions - both Aranara and Jeht line involved
4. Wise Doctor's Pinion artifact lore - a small but significant peek into his past
5. Zadith and Zohreh - these NPC names sure sound a bit familiar
6. Fungi event NPC Elchingen - his in-game fan
7. Cashflow Supervision weapon lore - the currency experiment with Pantalone
8. NPC story Letter for Anna - the only Natlan related activity we know of
9. Simulanka's Narration Footnotes quest - Antonio's story might be about him
10. Zandik's Ordered Notes - from the limited time event from Luna II
11. Moontorre and Datatorre drops lore - the word "virtuous" where you least expect it
12. Moontorre and Datatorre boss theme lyrics - a musical multi-lingual adventure
13. Anomalous Tree Marrows - the deepest look into the character so far, but still not 100%
14. Scarlet Proof artifact lore - timepiece + goblet + end of circlet, a quick look at Harbinger Zandik before his segments

Genshin Manga Journey - link to official site manga + ch. 14-16 link on reddit

1. What did Dottore even do? - a list of his visible actions
2. Barnabas, Krupp, Eroch and Ursa - there's no shortage of evil bad guys here
3. SegmentS - hindsight with a bit of new info from Varka's profile added

Phew, maybe all of the above is already enough lol.

I captured some parts that were a bit sus in the AQ. The 3 main points being:

1. Every time we "die" a person helped us escape the black mist. This always changes each time to one of the people that die IRL. However their dialogue is a bit odd. "Valeriy" even calls himself Mr Door which is almost uncharacteristic based on what we know of him. During Vodyanitsa's turn Traveler gets revived mulitiple times. But her dialogue implies she's calling to the spirits, and "listening to the spirits" is actually something Dottore talked about in Nod Krai.

2. We learn that each day Ronova can only take 2 souls into the Leylines, but the statement is untrue for the day "Stars Envoy" Odette helped us. Rampana says there was someone swallowed by the black mist already, yet both she and Kulish also got swallowed that day. That makes 3 people not 2. One "death" must have been fake. Plus doesn't "Star Key" sound like Simulanka's Wisdom flag?

3. The final clue is Sandrone talking about Odette and Rosalyn meeting, except Odette has no memories of this happening at all. As if someone disguised themselves as her and tried to mend things between them.

Given Dottore is a 400 year old researcher for Snezhnaya did anyone else think he probably dealt with this situation a lot? It sounds plausible that the helper was actually him because he's one of the few people that knowledgeable about the Leylines. More so than anyone of the people who helped Traveler and mysteriously seemed to know what's up.

Does it sound like a huge stretch?

Picture 1 is the goblet which is about Zandik. He has his glasses at this stage. His Dottore name is mentioned at the end too, so he's already a Harbinger.

Picture 2 is the circlet which is mostly Pantalone sitting in the theater, but Zandik arrives at the end from what we assume was his 10 day trip to the village.

It explicitly mentions Pantalone being 20, which would make Zandik 33 based on the ages listed in Marrow I.

Assuming he starts looking like Omega at age 35, this means the glasses segment is him between age 25 and 34?

Does that sound plausible?

1st screenshot is from the end of this video (it's not fanart but rather the editing was done by a fan):

https://youtube.com/shorts/sZDPODYglIM?si=oLyRm45ZQUDYypRS

The 1 guy missing from the burning scene, and also has a diamond shaped eye based on when Pantalone entered the room or when Zandik saw the glimmers. I feel like most theories for his comeback work better if there's 1 piece of him still left to help find the rest of his soul.

But if all segments were deleted, how could he be around still?

1st image is obvious. 2nd has them scattered around the edge. The 3rd is subtle but there are 3 small foxes.

Perhaps there was a prototype build before he got his hands on Scaramouche?

Fluff observation:

2 are staring at the water despite not having a reflection, while 1 is correctly looking at the "main" instead of the water. It's still observing the main in the 2nd image and then hiding behind the main in the 3rd.

These are mostly all from the same session as my 1st post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DottoreMains/s/lqjhMZDtI5

It was hard to only pick 20 pictures in the first round, so these are the "leftovers".

I should give Datatorre the 2nd round he deserves too at some point. I get better at predicting the attacks.

The method for those who ask:

Charlotte with the Zoom Lens gadget activated (item is from a world quest). Bring a shield + healer to keep her alive. Also helps to equip 3x DEF% artifacts from some support like Yun Jin/Xilonen and Prototype Amber for weapon and HP%. You want to start your skill at the end of his last attack and use low motion attacks like "send 2 minions" to refresh shield.

The doom blast (starting move for Moontorre, the charge behind the push wall for Datatorre) cannot be survived so don't bother too much lol. Oh and I found out he can't be taunted. Bro is too smart and unamused. :(

The 2 pics are just for fun.

So far, the Traveler never had to go explore his abilities and background because we always had people around with close and personal knowledge of him:

1. Scaramouche knew how his body worked since it's based on his own. During some sort of durability tests they made, Dottore even gave him the medal "most resilient test subject I ever come across".
2. Columbina got close enough for him to call her his sister. During Winter Lazzo he also hinted that she should know why he doesn't take "looking young" as a compliment.
3. Nahida glimpsed into his mind...twice. Once during capture and again during segment deletion.

This is all after the fight with Rerir emphasizing how important it is to know your enemy. It made me wonder if the next scenario will basically force us to finally address our lack of knowledge about him. There's also the question of what role Pantalone would play since he's yet another "get away free" card. Though the "soul experiment" from Datatorre sounds like it would rule him out, since it would implant him with only his Dottore related memories?

But even if we somehow confront those 2, there's way too much to address in a mere story quest:

1. How he got driven out of his hometown and lost his compassion
2. How he got expelled and what happened with the investigation team and Sohreh
3. What happened between his eyes and mask phases
4. How he met Pantalone, their business expanded and then they wanted an Elixir of Immortality (this could be part of Pantalone's focus story instead)
5. What transpired during Tatarasuna? The entire experiment sounds really messed up between Nahida's fairytale and those Inazuma texts (Escher was unnaturally bloodthirsty for some reason, as if the Tatarigami possessed him). Plus it was a mission given to him by Pierro.
6. How many segments were created? Did they really fight? How does he collect data from all of them? Were they already being made during Tatarasuna as Nahida's fairytale indicates?
7. His relationship with the other Harbingers, the Tsaritsa and how they convinced him to actively help with their mission

We are basically mostly wrapping up 7 and 4. I don't see the others getting addressed with all the other plot threads the region has going already. It sounds like a lot?

Why is it...cute?

I come back to laugh at this sometimes and though I'd share the...joy.

Between Scaramouche and Raiden + Alain and Sandrone... it's not that unlikely? The creator so far has been treated to be like a parent figure to their creations.

With "Dottore" we have a confirmed identity split off already:

>Dottore: The 35-year-old Segment thought of himself as "Dottore". Reserving the name "Zandik" for the original specimen. Of all the Segments, he was the most selfish.

Omega wanted to be separate from Zandik. The Pantalone soul experiment only reinforces the idea by making even the base for his soul different. Plus Pantalone didn't seem to know his early backstory which belongs to Zandik only. If he's not Zandik but based on him, he might as well be called his son/twin/family? Ofc like with Wanderer and Sandrone it takes many years for the creation to have so much awareness, but all 3 of these "puppets" happen to be around the same age anyway.

Even as early as Marrow II we have segment 35 saying:

>35: "If you ask me, neither you nor me are truly "me"s."

There's also the question of how OG Zandik saw it, but all we have on that is:

>Zandik: "Don't forget...you're one of...us."

It occured to me that maybe Zandik looked like the guy on the left for most of his existence. While Dottore (right) might have his own completely unique appearance that Zandik never used. It would solve the problem of why 85 year old Zandik looked like he never "discarded his eyes".

So in the "Those Who Shun the Light" cutscene, maybe the figures shown at the end were all the Zandiks, but not the Dottores?

Besides us regularly swapping between pinning him as 25 or 45. 2 shots have an earring while the 1st one does not.

Probably the most "irrational" thing Dottore did so far? Trolling Pantalone after his bank got so spooked by Dottore's life story that they begged their big boss to go and evaluate the guy?

Pantalone: "I was suggesting you needn't perform when signing a contract."

It seemingly had no purpose except Pantalone urging him to proceed with their business. He did not seem to want to listen to the song? :(

In my reading, it sounded like it was a warning from Dottie that his life story too, is a performance?

His move pool feels less impressive than moon boss. He looks a bit more mature though? Wider shoulders and thighs I mean.

It's unfortunate how short and clunky the 2nd phase feels since I like the music. At least the pictures gave me an excuse lol.

I like this boss in terms of visuals and mechanics.

Edit: The quality is a bit off, so I put them in an Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/qsAmd4Z