We're not going to know until the beta at this point.

Source is netoll on X

Just a cute role reversal.

Only reinforced my love for him. Really, REALLY hoping he gets some more focus next patch even though it will most likely revolve around the Tsaritsa, with the amount of screentime Vodynaitsa got this patch she probably won’t be around as much as a main push character typically is.

Do you think Omega even realizes the extent of the harm he caused Pantalone by being at the epicenter of every time Pantalone lost Zandik?

This is a really cool little write-up I saw on Tumblr and I asked the creator cyan-is-pantalonely for permission to share. Enjoy!

Reminder that Pantalone is not named after pants. Pants are named after Pantalone.

Our modern English word pants comes directly from the 16th century commedia dell’arte stock character Pantalone, whose costume famously included a pair of egregiously tight-fitted trousers.

Pantalone’s outfit was so well-known that, when similar trousers came into fashion in the late 1600s, they were referred to as pantaloons because of him. This is where we get the shortened words pants and panties, so he’s pretty much a fashion icon.

Extra fun fact: the stock character’s name might have been a tongue-in-cheek reference to Saint Pantaleon, patron saint of doctors.

Yeah… yeah...

Commedia dell’arte history, a sprinkle of Shakespeare, and some thoughts on the patron saint of physicians ↓

Commedia Dell’arte Background

Unlike a lot of modern theatre, commedia dell’arte performances aren’t scripted. Instead, they’re more like highly-structured improv where performers take on the roles of stock characters and act out comedic scenarios following an outline from the Director (hi Pierro).

Most scenarios are built around pairs of archetypes, which include:

• Vecchi, the old men (Pantalone, Dottore)
• Zanni, the trickster servants (Colombina, Arlecchino, Pulcinella)
• Innamorati, the lovers

and then a handful of other characters that combined tropes such as Capitano, Signora, or Scaramuccia

To ensure the audience could immediately recognize stock roles across scenarios, these characters needed distinctive looks that could be carried from town to town, generation to generation. To that end, each character had a unique mask and costume tied to their characteristics.

Pantalone’s was one of the most recognizable by far.

Pantalone as a Stock Character

Pantalone’s inclusion among the stock characters dates back to at least the mid-1500s. As one of the principle “antagonists” (along with his foil, Dottore), Pantalone was often the catalyst of the action making up many of the routines. So he needed a recognizable appearance.

And, whoo boy, did he get one.

Keep in mind that the commedia dell’arte was hyperbolic. Everything was exaggerated, and Pantalone was the ultimate exaggeration of a greedy, lecherous, materialistic old man prone to emotional outbursts.

One of the defining features of Pantalone’s outfit were his long, red, extremely tight trousers, a stark contrast to the more common wide knee-breeches worn at the time. These were so tight that they flaunted his codpiece—a piece of fabric that cups the genitals. During the Renaissance, codpieces had started to become increasingly padded and sculpted, not to hide the crotch but rather to call attention to it*.*

(In some cases, instead of wearing the codpiece, Pantalone would wear a strategically-placed money pouch around his waist, and you can probably imagine what that looked like... )

The effect was meant to be vulgar and comedic. Here’s an old, greedy, horny man whose tight trousers and slippers make him look frail, yet he’s walking around with his hips cocked, showing off a his codpiece.

The audience found him hilarious because raunchy humour never goes out of style. And yet, while he satirized the ego-driven fool, he also served as a melancholic musing on aging. Even Shakespeare nods to this role in As You Like It, when the fool Jaques gives one of his most famous monologues on the link between life and theatre:

>All the world’s a stage
...
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side

That’s our guy, a representative not only of older characters but also of older actors whose time on the stage was coming to a close.

When long, tight-fitted breeches came into fashion in England during the Restoration Era in the late 1600s, they were called pantaloons after the Anglicized name Pantalone. He was so popular that the role defined an entire clothing item.

By the 1700s, pantaloons came to be used to refer to any long trouser, regardless of cut and also began to denote women’s undergarments as well (earliest record for that is from 1797). Pantaloons was eventually shortened to pants, and it also gives us the word panties. Do with that information what you will.

The Patron Saint of Doctors

There’s been a lot of speculation over where the name Pantalone came from in the first place, since the earliest attested records are from the commedia dell’arte itself.

One of the potential inspirations—and the one noted in the Oxford English Dictionary as the likely etymological root—is San Pantalon (Saint Pantaleone), a Christian martyr who was condemned to death for miracles of healing and who earned the title all-compassionate for begging Heaven to forgive his executioners.

San Pantalon was a popular saint in Venice, and Pantalone is one of the primary Venetian characters in the commedia dell’arte. The audience would absolutely recognize the irony that the extraordinarily greedy stock character Pantalone is named after an all-compassionate saint who, notably, gave all his money to the poor.

What makes this potential origin so so delightful is the fact that Pantaleon is a patron saint of physicians

Given that Dottore and Pantalone had a deeply intertwined relationship in the commedia dell’arte—as sometimes rivals, often friends, always ridiculous together—this also feels quite fitting. (Pantaleon is also the patron saint of lottery winners, funny enough, so that works here too.)

Are you suggesting I worship you as a god?" "No, but as a Saint might be nice."

Wearing the Pants

All this to say: the reason we have the modern word pants is because of the stock character Pantalone. Our Ninth Harbinger is not named after the clothing item, he’s its etymological origin. His costume helped bring them into fashion.

So the ludicrously tight pants he wears in Genshin? Canon event. He started that trend. Give this man his royalties, please.

Once again, thank you for cyan-is-pantalonely for the interesting write-up!

[removed]

Sorry Reddit ate Mitya’s pixels.

Another good sign of him coming back for Lantern Rite if they are giving him more lore about his former master

Credit goes to happy dear on Tumblr!

Right besides Kokomi in terms of importance to Inazuma’s politics but only gets mentioned by his sister once and has never made an appearance in a main quest or stayed onscreen for more than three minutes during an event.

Kokomi got done dirty, but at least she got to be part of the story and contribute.

And this is coming from someone who likes Ayato’s SQ, as it did an excellent job showcasing what exactly Ayato is all about (very shady political work to keep balance between the Tri-Commissions) and he doesn’t just role over and spill his entire life story to the Traveler.

At lease no one can claim Emilie was supposed to be important.

Note: I started writing this in 6.6 but never got around to finishing it so it doesn't include any of the leaks regarding the 7.0 artifact lore. But I don't think it's relevant beyond the confirmation that the people he grew up with saw him as a monster and his life has been just as bad as Pantalone's so I won't be mentioning it.

This post is partially being made because I'm tired of people mis-reading the Wise Doctor's Pinion and also partially to acknowledge how Genshin has given us just enough to outline the nature of Dottore's childhood without the explicit details. Oh, and I'm tired of people saying that "Dottore didn't have a bad childhood" and we're just making shit up. Now while there is a bit of feels-crafting in here, it is consistent with the narrative direction Genshin has laid out so far.

(All cited stuff is from the Genshin wiki)

Sumeru is not the same as it was 500 years ago

First and foremost, we know Zandik was born sometime after the Cataclysm, but before the events of Tatarasuna. I looked through all of the notes, the animation and the marrows again and can't determine exactly what age Dottore was when he went to Tatarasuna, so I'll be generous and say he was 30 then, putting his birth year anywhere from 10 to 70 years after the Cataclysm.

This becomes incredibly important when you start to think about what Sumeru's culture must have looked like at the time. They had just lost their archon. Sumeru was the epicenter of the Cataclysm and also suffered the worst centralized damage next to possibly Inazuma. Most importantly, their entire forest is littered with the ruin machines, including the massive one in the forest that served as constant reminders of the horrific nature of the calamity. Sumeru most likely adopted a highly conservative approach to most things, as is the nature of humans when they experience a life-threatening event.

The whole point of this is Zandik, a child who was naturally curious and unfazed about challenging the limits of knowledge was born in a society that at the time, did not want to support or encourage that. Made more frustrating by the fact that this nation was meant to be the focal point for learning and research in all of Teyvat.

Zandik's Early Childhood

Before we can theorize further about what his childhood looked like, I have to clarify something. The fact that so many people have just been throwing around the terms "psychopath" and "sociopath" because neither of those things exist. There are several different types and variations of personality disorders, and all of them are only allowed to be diagnosed in adults because they can be prevented in children with proper counseling and therapy. Children can display anti-social tendencies, but ultimately it takes years of trauma, neglect or some kind of abuse for it to manifest in actual APD. Something very significant happened to Zandik if he can claim he lost his sense of human compassion at eight. Which also implies, he had what Zandik considered measurable amounts of empathy early in his childhood. Zandik was not born without compassion and empathy, which overall makes it much worse.

As many people on here have already pointed out Dottore's emphasis on the transactional nature of "family" with Columbina is very telling. That is a very specific, messed up worldview that Dottore had to learn from someone, somewhere. Especially because as Arlecchino explained this is the approach he takes with all his "professional" relationships (his relationships with people he respects or sees as equals).

I figured it had to be his family because based on what we knew he didn't have another named connection at the Akademiya other than Sohreh until he met Pierro. And then, in the animation at the end of 6.6 when Pantalone says Dottore told him "a story about a young scholar from a merchant family in Sumeru". Specifying a merchant family seemed incredibly deliberate, and then I remembered one of Zandik's notes from the recent Sumeru event with Thoth:

>"My supplies have run out. Unless I wish to die here, I will have to leave this place.
But I still refuse to accept anything from Thoth. People like him, who only talk benefits and never mention the cost, are a dime a dozen at the Grand Bazaar."

I don't think Zandik grew up in Sumeru City because otherwise it would cause issues with other parts of his lore, but I wouldn't be shocked if his parents did business there where Zandik was brought along and observed the behaviors.

Unfortunately we don't have much else to go on when it comes to Zandik's parents, though I suspect a parent or a close family member must have had ties to the Akademiya. I also haven't been able to puzzle out what might have happened to get Zandik driven away from his village, so I will leave that topic there.

Moving on, to the Wise Doctor's Pinion

>Thus declared the youth from his lectern in the seedbed of wisdom.
If one were to disassemble a part of this machine and make enhancements to it,
Its performance could be greatly amplified.
With or without a Vision, and irrespective of their physique or combat skills,
"Enhanced humans" would surely display strength far beyond the average.

Despite the risk of being denounced as a heretic and permanently cast from the circle of the wise,
The youth candidly jotted down these thoughts in the margins of his research notes:
I. As anticipated, no research breakthroughs are possible, given the working style of the Akademiya.
II. Nevertheless, being expelled would be a loss. One needs an environment conducive to research.

Following a trail of rumors of heresy, the first of the Fatui tracked him down...
"Merely an enhanced human? If your great nation can furnish me with sufficient resources and ample time, I could even manufacture that which you would call a god. What say you?"
In the desert that shone bright like liquid gold, he inquired of the Snezhnayan diplomat:
"Will you treat me like the Akademiya did? Will you call me a monster, a madman?"
"Or will you treat me as my hometown did, and chase me away with pitchforks and clubs...?"

There are three main chunks here.

>Thus declared the youth from his lectern in the seedbed of wisdom.
If one were to disassemble a part of this machine and make enhancements to it,
Its performance could be greatly amplified.
With or without a Vision, and irrespective of their physique or combat skills,
"Enhanced humans" would surely display strength far beyond the average.

Dottore is sharing his theories and ideas with others, probably hoping that in a place proclaiming to be the "seedbed of wisdom" he will find like-minded people who will connect with his ideas, and hopefully him.

>Despite the risk of being denounced as a heretic and permanently cast from the circle of the wise,
The youth candidly jotted down these thoughts in the margins of his research notes:
I. As anticipated, no research breakthroughs are possible, given the working style of the Akademiya.
II. Nevertheless, being expelled would be a loss. One needs an environment conducive to research.

Unfortunately this does not happen. Dottore falls out of favor in the eyes of the Akademiya and is shunned for his line of research. Zandik realizes his ideas will not be accepted here but doesn't want to leave because he will have no other way to access resources to conduct his research.

>Following a trail of rumors of heresy, the first of the Fatui tracked him down...
"Merely an enhanced human? If your great nation can furnish me with sufficient resources and ample time, I could even manufacture that which you would call a god. What say you?"
In the desert that shone bright like liquid gold, he inquired of the Snezhnayan diplomat:
"Will you treat me like the Akademiya did? Will you call me a monster, a madman?"
"Or will you treat me as my hometown did, and chase me away with pitchforks and clubs...?"

This is the most important bit that I keep seeing people misread. Zandik is asking if Pierro will denounce him and his research the same way the Akademiya did OR chase him away like his home town did. The text is clearly identifying these things as two separate events, and is the main reason I don't think Zandik grew up in Sumeru City. And considering my extensive experience with english diction, when you frame a sentence like this, the second half of the sentence is meant to hit harder. Which lines up with Dottore's desire for true connection and understanding being a sorer spot for him than people rejecting his ideas or having differing opinions from his.

Finally, Sohreh

Sohreh is an incredibly interesting case because she is both the key to truly unlocking the effect Dottore's childhood had on his earliest mindset (she is the only character from Zandik's time at the Akademiya who is named) and yet there is a signficant aspect of their story that is missing. What actually killed her.

Sohreh was an Amurta scholar who ended up on the same expedition as Dottore when he discovered that the ruin machines were from an "unknown" kingdom. Note from inside Devantaka Moutain:

>...Fiddling with these components almost caused a delay in my work. These exquisite mechanical parts have a unique and ingenious style, which is not likely to be found in the handcrafted artifacts under the rule of Archons. I am going to take them apart, and record the size and shape one by one...

...But first of all, this secret must not be revealed to the other team members...

This note does strike me as a little bit odd because it seems weird for Zandik not to have heard of Khaenriah. And this isn't something that can be framed as awkward timing or some kind of lapse in the writer's timeline because they have had Dottore's age set at minimum since Inazuma. But anyway, this note indicates that Dottore wouldn't be revealing the secrets of the ruin guards to his peers, justifiably because at this point they are shunning him. All except Sohreh.

>...Explored the jungle with Zandik. Its local biodiversity is impressive. Although the growing effects of The Withering in other areas have also affected this place, it has yet to pose a great threat... We discovered a few new micro-scarab species. I suppose I could name them "Nahidad Scarabs," which means "the Dendro Archon's Boon" — a good name, I'd say!

>...Zandik was attracted by the ancient machines left behind by some civilization here...

>...He's young — handsome, too. But he's too rigid, and the research approach of his Darshan has nothing in common with Amurta. As a result, we have nothing to talk about even though we are exploring this place together. That's pretty annoying...

>...Zandik and I discussed the traits of local plants and animals. We also exchanged views on their evolution models. We had a great time and decided to go on a picnic tonight...

I can't even think about what might have been going through poor Zandik's head. To our knowledge he hasn't had a single person interested in talking to him genuinely about his ideas and opinions. I really hope part of Zandik's marketing when he comes back includes a full scene with him and Sohreh.

>Ragged Attendance Record: "...Trainee Dastur Zandik has acted without authorization for the third time... It brings unpredictable risks to the investigation team... Punishment is advised..."

>Ragged Attendance Record: "...Dastur Sohreh of AmurtaBiology has been critically injured under the attack of Rishboland Tigers. In need of first aid...

The action in question most likely refers to Zandik messing around with the huge Ruin Guard in the Valley of Dahri. And naturally, the first potential friend Dottore makes immediately gets injured.

>(Someone seems to have burnt the contents in a hurry. Only a few words remain legible now.)

>...Thank goodness, Zandik reacted quickly. Otherwise, the whole team would be in serious trouble...

>...The terrifying killing machine has stopped. Zandik insisted on bringing it back to the Akademiya to be disassembled and reverse-engineered. That was absolutely ridiculous! Sage Sharnama reprimanded him and removed him from the author list.

>...We buried Dastur Sohreh and sent the wounded back. Looks like this field research has come to an end...

I'm curious who burned this and why. The location of the note doesn't mean much because all of these notes except for Sohreh's are found far away from where the events took place.

>..The deceased...Dastur Sohreh...
Multiple trauma wounds...
Lacerations... contusions on internal organs... hemorrhage...
...But the fatal injury is the wound on the throat... fractured hyoid bone...
Mechanical asphyxia... unable to ascertain the cause of death...

This to me is what seems pretty suspicious. They would not have had the resources to perform an autopsy out in the middle of the woods. That means at a later date, someone went back, dug up her corpse and autopsied it.

I know this is meant to imply Zandik killed her, but it just doesn't make sense. He would have had no reason to. In the absolute worst-case scenario, Zandik got a little excited and took Sohreh to see the massive Ruin Guard, she got upset and was going to report him to the professors. So he somehow orchestrated her getting injured, and killed her in the chaos of everyone dealing with the Ruin Guard.

But that entire situation is so absurd and unlike Dottore since he doesn't particularly care about his reputation in the Akademiya that I refuse to believe it. I think it's more likely that Zandik performed some kind of mercy kill after seeing how bad her wounds were, or someone else killed her. I'm very curious to learn who at the Akademiya really had it out for Zandik, since the systematic burying and destruction of evidence speaks to some deliberate attempt to obscure the situation.

Sohreh's death might have had a greater impact on Zandik than we've thought when you consider the events of the Eleazar Hospital happened next and was the start of Dottore's more unethical experiments and determination to allow humanity to "transcend its earthly boundaries".

After Zandik returned from the hospital, the Akademiya grew increasingly concerned with Zandik's actions and started thoroughly investigating him. Part of that was highly likely to be Sohreh's autopsy.

Eventually he was expelled. However, I cannot find a document or mention from anyone who has clarified his official reason for expulsion other than Nahida, who has only claimed "unethical experimentation".

From there he most likely ended up in Aaru Village before Pierro found him.

To summarize:

- Zandik grew up in a family of merchants where he learned as a child that the best and most functional relationships are purely transactional ones.

- Something happened that led to Zandik being chased out of his village. Most likely when he was eight, but I also can see there being some kind of inciting incident that lead to Dottore getting chased out a few years down the road because it would also make it so there wasn't much of a time gap between then and when he joined the Akademiya.

- Zandik enters the Akademiya at a young age and immediately starts testing boundaries. Slowly growing more and more outspoken in his ideas in a time where "blasphemous" lines of thought about the nature of Teyvat and of humans were heavily shamed and rebuked.

- After his expeditions in the desert he ended up on an expedition in the forest alongside Sohreh, a scholar from a different Darshan who he apparently shared some kind of amicable conversations with since they went on a picnic together. She died due to injuries after being attacked by Rishbond Tigers. Between the attack and when she died a Ruin Guard came to life and started attacking the camp.

-After the Akademiya grew more and more concerned with Zandik's behavior (they probably heard what he was doing in the Eleazar Hospital) and ideas, the people at the Akademiya were looking for reasons to get rid of him. They ended up autopsying Sohreh's body after it was initially just buried and discovered that the actual cause of death was much more uncertain. They blamed Zandik and due to his other significant forms of misconduct he was expelled.

-Pierro found Zandik shortly after.

The whole point of this is, the truth of Zandik's backstory would immediately recontextualize all of his actions in a much more sympathetic light without trying to make it seem like his four-hundred years of wrongdoing and the horrible things he has done are just being excused.

And considering how strongly everything we've seen from Dottore in the past few patches has tied to readables and events from years ago, I'm happy if nothing else Hoyo has remained consistent with him.

If you notice anything I missed, please feel free to let me know.

Also for all of you who bothered to read this far, I present my hope for Dottore's future:

Snezhnaya Archon Quest Act 8: Zandik's Legacy

So Pantalone not only engages in self-destructive habits, he apparently also seems not to value his own life at all. No wonder Dottore has always been so concerned about him.

Additionally, the fact that Omega commented on Pantalone being sold off to a medical lab seems so much more cruel now that we know it WAS HIS OWN MOM THAT DID IT.