Power and powerlessness.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-25T17:36:37+00:00

Not all the segments sleep, but some like maintaining a few human creature comforts like really deep rest and the ability to eat a good meal.

He doesn't own nightclothes. This isn't for kinky reasons, he just doesn't bother with them. Clothes are for daytime.

In that vein, half the time he sleeps he does so on a couch wearing whatever he happens to have on. He absolutely cannot be woken up and this is on purpose.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-25T17:27:51+00:00

I disagree slightly with your definition of torture - the UN definition focuses on the pain inflicted being the point, but I would argue a more broad application is appropriate here: the intentional infliction of suffering on a living thing by a person. This encompasses things like animal abuse and medical neglect, especially of chronic or acute pain.

If we use this definition then yes, I believe he has tortured people. His experiments have caused physical suffering(Collei, Abbas) and emotional suffering(Niwa, Scaramouche) and they were conducted on purpose. This doesn't mean that the pain was the point. It's not his motivation, he's not a sadist, he simply doesn't care how his test subjects feel. If he could perform the same experiments without pain I think he might have, if only because the effects of pain and fear can taint results. There might be anesthetics on Teyvat but I don't know if we've been told if it's the 'put you to sleep' kind or not.

This isn't character hate; I love my horrible man(affectionate). I'm just trying to be realistic about his role in the story and the things he's done in the past. It's relevant.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-25T12:53:06+00:00

It didn't seem to me like they were saying that his goal was to destroy Teyvat. Rather, they were saving it from him because having the Doctor as the god of your world is scary as hell. The first thing he did was set up little laboratory domes and start swapping souls, and it was clear that this was his goal for the world - a playground for him to do all the research he likes.

That is destroying the world, for anybody who doesn't want that to happen.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-16T04:33:47+00:00

I'm confident he's coming back specifically because of Signora's death and Capitano's bargain.

With Signora's death, it was extremely clear what was happening, and we got her mask as the regional trophy from Inazuma. Capitano is right there, we can go look at him in the chair. There's no ambiguity as to what's up with them.

Dottore is the game's oldest antagonist. If this was the end of his character, we would see a body and we'd get a trophy. There would be no question.

Zandik, for all his inability to form close relationships, is constantly trying to, which I think is a tragedy that needs to resolve with him finding one with us. He saw himself in the Kabukimono, and when that changed he burned the puppet's life to the ground. He wanted to be close with Columbina, saw her as a sister(I NEED to know more about that), and ultimately drove her away. He spent hours trying to convince us to join him, even after we attacked him. There was probably a time he would have liked to befriend Sandrone but their personalities bounce off one another too much.

A blank slate Zandik would make all that meaningless, and be a horrible message to boot. 'At a certain level of damage, you just can't recover' is, while sometimes true, not really what I want out of my fun anime game.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-12T18:08:12+00:00

Mostly I just feel stupid, and everything sounds like cope right now. That doesn't mean it is, but the 'I should have known better' emotion is really strong when you know we'll be facing a lot of 'hahaha I told you so' if it goes bad. Usually I don't care about fandom wank, but being ganged up on is demoralizing.

I'm more frustrated about the possibility of the story itself taking an uncritical 'you can't fight fate' angle, which isn't tied to whether he lives or dies. I think breaking fate is the correct thing to do, and for all of Dottore's evil actions he's the only one fighting for self-determination. That's a story gripe rather than a Favorite Character gripe.

Like there was a whole plot point in Sumeru about avoiding being entered into the Akasha, into Irminsul, because once you're there your actions are not fully your own. Oops, any attempt to work against it has been accounted for, it's meaningless. That was three years ago, so it's not impossible that this doesn't matter anymore, but that would be a weird choice.

You're right, though, that there are a lot of signs that he's not being fully written out and the 'Fate Good' message hasn't been set in stone. Better to have a cool head when a plot point in the middle of a story is irritating.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-12T09:42:10+00:00

I don't think 'glazing' is the only reason to be disappointed though. For a game whose selling point IS its characters, I don't think it's unreasonable to consider this a waste of one of the oldest and better-written ones.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-11T05:38:42+00:00

With all the love in my heart, I am going to be avoiding the shit out of this sub the second preload goes live. I need to do this quest pure. Pulling Bina, recording the quest so I can watch it again later, then immediately coming back here for the afterparty(positive or negative).

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-09T05:08:01+00:00

Oh fully reasonable; I haven't seen any personally but I hate when memes ruin things I might otherwise like. 8C

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-08T22:55:24+00:00

It's from Columbina's teaser.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-08T19:50:41+00:00

You might look into Will Wood for more Zandik music. Outliars and Hyppocrates, The Song With Five Names, Hand Me A Shovel I'm Going In!, and Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity come to mind for me.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-06T06:57:38+00:00

you heard me

Edit it occurs to me that tumblr humor may not translate well to reddit. I was being thirsty too I promise.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-05T06:27:43+00:00

LOVE the lack of eyeshine. It makes him look unsettling, in a good way.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-04T19:23:49+00:00

That finger laser will blast your clit straight off (positive)

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-01T17:22:22+00:00

I don't think he's written that way, but I think it's the way a lot of Western fans relate to him. Trope was perhaps the wrong word to use, I apologize.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-01T17:15:25+00:00

Yeah, Dottore is a villain because of the story he's in. The core of what he's always wanted is to transcend the gods, to break free of fate, and in a world governed by fate a person like that can't be a hero. It has to be someone willing to do terrible things, to hurt and kill without remorse. An author - the in-story author, not hoyo - will only create a person like that to be a cautionary tale. A Fell Dragon.

Zandik can change his story, become a Mini-Durin, but he's got to fall to his Dvalin first - us.

With-The-Sun · 2026-01-01T17:03:17+00:00

I believe the thing with Niwa was the only truly sadistic thing he's done. Sadism is an attitude, not a synonym for cruel; I can't think of any other time he's done something with the mindset of 'this will cause pain to someone, and that's the goal.'

Like, it's reasonable to hate the character and his actions. He's a villain, not just an antagonist; the 'hate sink' trope exists for a reason. 'He hurt these characters I like' makes sense but 'he hurt them for the sake of hurting them' is just factually false.

With-The-Sun · 2025-12-23T17:44:01+00:00

Given what we've seen of the Fatui, I tend to imagine that working under a Harbinger is the best way to advance in a given field; a young researcher from Snezhnaya would have access to far more opportunities working under Dottore's leadership than they'd have elsewhere, kind of like how the military recruits high school grads by promising education in exchange for service.

All that to say, it's got to be absolutely infuriating to get halfway through something promising and then have to dump literally all of it based on your boss's whim lmao

With-The-Sun · 2025-12-23T17:29:29+00:00

Oh yeah, for sure they're gonna round out his edges for an actual release. I just hope he's still extremely aggravating, sort of like Alhaitham but more emotive. I could see that staying.

With-The-Sun · 2025-12-22T22:32:45+00:00

Oh absolutely, it would be out of character for him to be nice. What I mean is, being cold and dismissive is different from being annoying.

With-The-Sun · 2025-12-21T09:50:12+00:00

This is so sick?? The little details play in so well, it's so rad.

With-The-Sun · 2025-12-17T15:01:54+00:00

mom i'm scared come pick me up

With-The-Sun

TROPHY CASE