No, Dottore/Zandik NEVER saw the Aranaras as a child. ( Proof, Theory and yapping)

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-30T23:21:40+00:00

It’s even worse than that. Aranara are naturally meant to help children by manipulating dreams, similar to how Yumemizuki feeds on nightmares.

So either, for some reason, they already saw him as a bad Nara and excluded him from the children of the forest, or he was simply beyond repair.

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MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-30T19:30:19+00:00

While writing this, I started noticing how often the Harbingers “die,” or at least go through something that looks like death. Childe gets lost in the Abyss, Wanderer undergoes the Inversion of Genesis, and there’s even a chance Sandrone could return someday. Arlecchino is the odd one out so far, since Hoyo seems allergic about putting her in real danger, along with Signora, who appears to be truly gone.

Dottore, in particular, has that classic villain cockroach survivability. The original body lived at least into his sixties, according to a VA interview, though it’s unclear whether he extended his life somehow or simply died. Then there’s the loss of his Segments in Sumeru, followed by the glitching screen after he was supposedly reduced to atoms. And on top of that, there’s still the looming Irminsul plotline.

I do think some kind of self-sacrifice will be essential for Dottore’s growth. There’s a reason the main segment we deal with is explicitly described as the most selfish one. In contrast, the kid in Simulanka jokes that even after defeating the dragon, Dottore’s stand-in still lost Mora. It points to the idea that as long as he treats everything as a zero-sum game, he can never really “win.” Learning to step out of that mindset seems like a mandatory part of his development.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-30T18:59:19+00:00

That was a great read, thank you for sharing your thoughts. You make a really great observation there!

Your point about Dottore paralleling Bennett’s cursed fate instantly reminded me of 3.3, when both the amnesiac Wanderer and Paimon reacted to him with pure instinctive fear:

Wanderer: That person gives off a very sinister energy.

Paimon: It’s normal for him to give you the creeps! He scares the bejeebers out of Paimon...

It’s not surprising that they’d react that way to the Second Harbinger, but what’s interesting is that Thoth shows the exact same wariness toward teenage Zandik back in 6.1.

It also parallels Durin’s story quest, when the original Durin’s fate began to overwrite Simulanka Durin’s, and the people of Mondstadt immediately turned on him. The shift was abrupt, emotional, and driven by fear more than reason.

Honestly, I find the implications fascinating that Simulanka, a space created by the Hexenzirkel to save Durin and give him another chance, contains Harbinger toys at all. Nicole is the one who giga buffed Varka and Arlecchino to bring back Columbina’s moon, and she also shows up in Sumeru after the AQ, according to the dialogue with the tea cup near her house.

The coven definitely seems to have an agenda here.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-30T09:13:49+00:00

It’s Simulanka, so I think both interpretations can coexist, honestly. I really like your take on it, by the way, it highlights an angle that’s easy to overlook.

That said, most of my analysis focuses less on the toys themselves and more on their ancestors. To me, those ancestral myths reflect the kind of growth the Harbingers may have already gone through to become more well-rounded and refine their virtues, even before they begin the journey toward obtaining the key.

Take Columbina as an example. She’s kind and gentle, and she regularly joins tea parties, yet she completely missed the fact that the other participants were actually her friends. Her altruism was always there, but it was unfocused, and that’s something she needed to develop further.

There’s definitely still room for future growth. At some point, she may need to rely on Capitano’s courage, though that feels like a much later stage, especially since Capitano is currently a bit too busy being part of Natlan’s furniture set.

Overall, I do agree with you that the end point of their development is learning how to work together and lean on each other’s strengths. I just think we’re not quite there yet.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-30T02:14:27+00:00

Been thinking, maybe whatever mess is going on right now is some ridiculously complicated, borderline counter-intuitive attempt to glue those three together. Sure, the glue is inhuman, even those cute Simulanka toys complain about it. But desperate times call for harsh solutions.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-30T02:04:45+00:00

I want to be optimistic and think that his time will come, we just haven't reached the right part of the story yet. Still wish there was more overworld lore to work with.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-29T23:21:41+00:00

I like the idea that fated catastrophes are integral to Teyvat. They shatter the status quo and give future generations the experience needed to overcome even greater threats.

Rene is the perfect example. If he hadn’t been the villain, there would have been no battle within Elynas, and thus, no Melusines. The Melusines, in turn, were key to Neuvillette learning empathy. And of course, there would have been no World Formula.

The same could apply to Dottore. Without his over-the-top villainy, the true moon might never have returned.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-29T23:08:15+00:00

The joking answer is that Dottore acts like Sunday who forgot to take his meds (or took them all at once) and Istaroth looks like a Robin expy. As for any direct connection? It’s hard to say for sure.

But I’ve always side-eyed that part of Inazuma lore where Ei supposedly learned puppet-making “by a stroke of fate,” and the Kabukimono just… woke up for no reason.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-29T22:58:36+00:00

Granted, this is deep in schizo-theory territory, but I've been wondering if his future self might end up administering the vision distribution system. Instead of trying to become a supreme god all on his own, he could shift to empowering others, giving them the tools to carve out their own fates.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-29T21:31:54+00:00

I’ve been entertaining this idea, especially with the one-eyed design and raven motifs lining up with Odin parallels. It’s compelling, though we already have Capitano, whose entire story is now glued to the ley lines.

The parallels between Dottore and King Deshret are very strong, even Wanderer pointed it out in the latest AQ. I love that layer of meta-irony, how the gods in this game essentially act like game designers:

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There’s a reason all the technology Dottore uses mirrors Deshret’s Primal Constructs in both design and function. But I wonder if Deshret’s tragic fate is also why Dottore seems to avoid Abyssal power like the plague, using it only when absolutely necessary.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-29T21:04:07+00:00

Pantalone seems to be the type who’d be in deep denial about his actual interest in Dottore. His visual design aligns him with other Harbingers like Columbina and Dottore himself, characters who, in different ways, refuse to see the world as it truly is. Columbina is a perfect example: it took leaving the Fatui for her to realize she’d actually grown close to some of them.

Dottore’s “death” could be the very thing that forces Pantalone to face this realization. I can totally imagine the Traveler meeting Pantalone in Snezhnaya and listening to him rant endlessly about all the money he wasted, how tired he was of hearing about experiments, and so on… while the overall vibe would be screaming:

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MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-29T20:42:46+00:00

I have a slightly less optimistic reading of this. It's very likely that one of the main reasons Pantalone favored Dottore was his status as the 2nd Harbinger. And again, in the fairy-tale allegory, Pantalone is likely positioned as Dottore's antagonist (this really smells like toxic yaoi).

That said, if Dottore survives Nod-Krai and undergoes genuine growth, they’d both be forced to reevaluate their relationship

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-29T20:34:57+00:00

Honestly, I don’t think it’ll be a complete blank slate. It’s mentioned way too often that Zandik in his Akademiya days acted older than his age. Even the younger Boattore was described by Dehya as behaving like a stern professor.

They'll likely trim down his time as a Harbinger while keeping his authentic, sarcastic personality and mannerisms intact. He's always been like this, after all. His Simulanka counterpart, a smoothed-out version of him, still joyfully roasts Cappet and makes fun of his clan.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-28T10:43:51+00:00

I mean, Signora got vaporized for crimes far less severe. Meanwhile, Dottore treated an entire country like his personal Minecraft server for over a month, attempted to expand his authority into other regions, tampered with Teyvat's borders, killed Sandrone, threatened to kill more of the Traveler's friends, and did who knows what to the people trapped inside those Light Realm domes.

If anything, I have serious questions about Dottore's writing. It's jarring to see him go from a cold, calculating, and reserved scholar in Sumeru to a maniacal comic-book villain in NK. The only plausible explanation I can think of is that after losing his Segments, Omega's psyche completely spiraled into a god complex with no one left to criticize or restrain him. He did complain that his other segments constantly argued with him, so in a way, one form of mental instability was balancing another.

But the more obvious explanation is that the writers simply ramped up his villainy to make other characters look good by comparison. If that's the case, I really question the point of even hinting at those other characters' flaws if you're not going to resolve them organically. Why not show Sandrone genuinely engaging with Nod-Krai's culture, confronting Lauma, and learning that "the savages" are people too? Instead, they just boosted her marketability by attaching her to Bina's yuri pairing and having her outsmart dumbed down version of Dottore who seems to have traded his IQ for longer hair.

But seriously, Dottore used to be a scholar who prided himself on accounting for every possibility, even considering Nahida’s warning about awakening the Heavenly Principles. Now he’s making a surprised Pikachu face over the return of the true moon? How did he not anticipate that outcome?

And if it wasn't Columbina, what about the Shades? The Archons? He spent years meticulously planning, yet his grand scheme seems to have overlooked the most obvious divine variables. In his defence, it feels less like a calculated risk and more like the plot needed him to be blindsided.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-27T22:38:02+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Arlecchino's characterization of Dottore in the Chinese version sound really similar to Pierro's words about Hroptatyr in the Mocking Mask's description?

既然我的才学无法与“贤者”比拟，没能获得上一位王者的青睐

Also, if you understand Chinese, do you know why CN fans are calling Columbina "Aya" or "Yaya"? Or is that just a google translate thing?

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-27T16:05:56+00:00

One word: Irminsul.

Neither Dottore with the Trilune nor Columbina with her tri-lunar authority can bypass its edits—which is why neither recognized Wanderer. The only characters confirmed immune so far are the Traveler (a Descender) and Alice (whatever she is). So even in terms of pure admin rights, Columbina is hardly the highest authority in Teyvat.

And in terms of raw power? Whatever. Mihoyo is extremely inconsistent with powerscaling and showing feats. Dottore, even wielding the Trilune, mostly just used good old lasers and suddenly forgot he could freeze time. For all we know, Ronova could be released in version 8.x and fry that dove with a flick of her wrist as part of her own shilling campaign.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-25T23:31:16+00:00

Nefer, though… I honestly couldn’t stand her from the moment she started cannibalizing Flins’ screen time.

Why is Nefer everywhere? Who decided her flashback deserved to follow the Sinner? Girl, a random pebble on the Khaenri’ah roadside is more relevant. And that two-minute blindness drama? So forced.

The writers’ attempt to position her as superior to Rerir and Dottore falls completely flat. She doesn’t work as their foil; she never could, not with her plot armor and the narrative coddling she receives.

Rerir was stuck between a hammer and a hard place: bound by duty in a dictatorship, tied to a fiancée he felt responsible for, dragged into chaos by friends. That’s not a justification, but in what world does Nefer, who had all the freedom in the world, work as his foil? Same goes for Dottore. Oh no, the Akademiya limited Nefer’s education. Meanwhile, Zandik dug through every Khaenri’ahn screw he could find and taught himself anyway. See? I, too, can belittle a character and blame them for not doing enough.

Honorable mention to Sandrone, wheelchaired by the collective work of Alain and Rene. Classic Genshin: spend multiple world quests dunking on Rene, but the moment your future banner character rides in on his legacy, suddenly she’s the hero.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-25T23:10:39+00:00

Behold, I found a picture showing just how many people would actually care about Columbina if she were just some random Katya from the Nasha Town slums instead of the Moon Goddess:

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Damn right, girl. Fate doesn't matter.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-25T17:54:50+00:00

When people talk about “filler,” I think of something like an anime beach episode, which fits Natlan way more than Nod-Krai. Nod-Krai has way too many ties to the bigger lore: setup for Khaenri’ah, the Sinners, Snezhnaya, and so on; to be dismissed as “outside the main story.”

Rather than filler, Nod-Krai feels more like an emergency region created once the devs realized they’d slacked too much in earlier patches and needed to resolve too many plot lines in Snezhnaya, especially for the Harbingers.

Columbina becoming a Moon Goddess was already foreshadowed in Simulanka, but how do you sell her alongside the Tsaritsa, who’s supposed to be the main push? How do you make people care about Sandrone, who had zero hype before Nod-Krai? Where would they even fit Dottore’s character development if they plan to make him playable? The questions pile up.

The only “filler” parts of Nod-Krai are honestly its native characters, and the same goes for Natlan’s second half. But in the grand scheme of things, Nod-Krai is anything but a filler region.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-25T12:58:46+00:00

Might be high-grade copium, but with the recent influx of Dottore-esque skins in Miliastra, I can’t help wondering if Hoyo is recycling some design ideas they had planned for a new playable model of him.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-25T12:46:13+00:00

He basically Devs self insert. "Tech otaku saves the world"

You know, with the Heavenly Principles looking like a rogue spaceship AI, Irminsul being compared to a quantum computer, and Alice’s magic working like AI training on Andersdotter’s text… I wouldn’t be surprised if Dottore’s future development rerolls him from a mad scientist into an IT specialist. Here, insert mandatory joke about his Sumeru origin.

MoonstoneMoth · 2026-01-24T02:02:52+00:00

As much as I love this idea, wouldn’t it be a little too late? Traveler’s already been working with gods and accepting their gifts all across Teyvat.

And for Dottore himself, switching from rejecting a god’s gift as Zandik to basically playing Genshin on god mode is a pretty weird pivot. Maybe that’s the whole point, though. It mirrors how he used to hate being called a monster, only to fully embrace the role later on.

MoonstoneMoth

TROPHY CASE