The reason I say this is that literally all the info we had leading up to Sumeru and after it points to the Fatui being a group of people who just got along because they share the same goals, rather than actually liking each other. At the same time, they seemed extremely coordinated, from the event with Scara and Mona, and how the Fatui operated in that quest, to the quests in Liyue where we see Childe and Signora prioritise obtaining the gnosis and working together (albeit very shortly).
In Liyue, there are a few quests that involve Pantalone, like Landa at Wangshu Inn, and his description from items seems consistent, so he's fine. But literally what happened to the other harbingers? I would argue that Scara was always going to be playable, as was Childe, but all the other fatui harbingers, except Dottore and Pantalone, are either in the "traveller will ignore my evil deeds" or the "I swear I'm misunderstood" section.
Capitano, treated like shit, sacrifices himself, not evil. Arlechinno, child assassin organization head, "I'm bad, but traveller will ignore the evil shit I do anyway." Then fucking Sandrone was 100% rewritten because what in the ragebait is that "welcome to nod krai, dominion of the fatui" bit, it's fucking clickbait. Also, I hate how it's never addressed that she is a literal colonizer, and she will be playable with no attempt to address her evil deeds.
Columbina was also marketed as uncanny and unsettling. The forboding music used in Signora's funeral, as well as her humming, is there to make her seem unsettling and scary. The entire scene is supposed to be interpreted as scary, using Collei's reaction as a mirror for what they wanted the audience's reaction to be. So, for what reason did they shelve this idea and have every harbinger after Fontaine be interpreted by the audience as good?
What I mean by this is that most of the fatui are framed in such a way that the viewers are not to address the evil shit they have done, and this became a trend after Sumeru, starting with Arle and now Sandrone. Arlechinno, how uses child soldiers is not addressed in a bad light for any of these actions, the same with Sandrone.
They do this with Raiden as well, not addressing her evil deeds properly, which weakened Inazuma's story like crazy. Capitano has gotten this treatment too, and at this point, there's Pierro, the elf mayor, and Pantalone.
Why drop all these hints about an extremely scary and powerful force just to not use them at all, and then pretend like this was always the plan? The harbingers are all evil, and Columbina's character has been reduced to a love interest. I just hope Hoyo actually locks in for the rest of this shit because their best villain in Genshin is dead.
Dottore is a good villain because they actually allowed him to be evil asf without trying to minimize the shit he's done. It's part of what makes him a fan favourite and better written than all the other harbingers by far. It genuinely feels like the only harbinger who gaf or at least did their good with zeal was dottore, signora, and childe. I just hope they don't fuck up Pantalone as well as fuck up the tsaritsa, let them be evil for crying out loud.
Edit: Don't tell me they are morally grey, arle can't be morally grey for caring abt her children in the same way Pablo Escobar is not morally grey for loving his daughter. I'm also a lore player; we can debate in comments.
