Dottore as both Frankestein and the Creature. Dottore as the monster who was chased away from being different, but later becoming the Creator, who thinks himself superior enough to play God. Dottore's segments hating their Creator just as much as the original hates the gods. The segments and dottore as parallels between humanity's relationship with god, despite him being a heretic. Dottore as a man who claims to want equivalent chances for everyone, yet he has already repeated their actions, dooming his segments again and again, unable to break the cycle
A human is nothing more than a machine of a certain level of complexity..
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just some thoughts i had while struggling to finish this
i still think of dottore and his segments as father and the homunculi from fullmetal alchemist. him reaching out to “open the moon gate” didn’t help genshin’s case of plagiarism lol. my point is ogttore better be a crusty old man on the verge of death wired up to a million cables waiting for his moment to overthrow the god that chains him and limits his knowledge. he “just wanted to understand” dammit
another character he reminds me of is uchiha madara (and yes that is another crusty man wired up by a million cables lmao) but in madara’s case he was planning to build an ideal (one may say childish) world where no one dies and no one experiences pain or grief. literally what dottore was telling traveler
about the amputated arm theory:
this theory makes so much sense to me. there must have been a reason for his people to discriminate against him, and he was so young to have done anything (not that it would surprise me if he did) it would be more thematic if they hated him for something he had no hand in (no pun intended). and sumeru was entering an age where knowledge and the akademiya itself were limited after rukkhadevata’s death and the calamity, people would be superstitious about disability and deem it a curse from gods. giving him a reason to develop interest in medical and mechanical study and hate gods.
that could also apply to any illness not necessarily a missing limb. ofc it could also have been someone else’s disease that motivated/piqued his interest, and on that note i have so many thoughts about how the fandom sees him. like yeah i agree he’s a freak and cruel but you have to remember that he actually tried to do something no one else dared to. if you were cursed by the gods there’s no saving you from death, unless this psychopath did something bc he would not sit around and let such precious and rare test subjects go to waste. and i mean they never explained his obsession with eleazar (as far as i remember).
i hate how the fandom glorify the archons (and gods in general) but hate dottore, when they’re both equally bad imo. you do realize collei would have been dead by that disease, yes the treatment was agonizing and she shouldn’t have gone through that harrowing experience especially as a child but so is cancer treatment (not counting the torture), or alternatively she prays hard enough for years until a god decides to finally listen and be merciful to magically heals her, if they even existed or it was within their power to do so (case in point dunyarzad and imprisoned nahida).. tighnari said that collei’s eleazar case was stable while with dottore, so whatever he did it worked
as for archons; celestia fucking forbids they actually do something that doesn’t help them personally. they seek their own wants and freedom first every time, their subjects’ needs come second (they’re in a role of responsibility here). im still not over the fact that dead people and “culture” mattered more to mavuika than her actual living people, she would torture them to die over and over for 500 years bc dead people’s souls are still souls y’know, not that they would mind sacrificing themselves to buy their living families more time. and if it wasn’t for traveler being the specialist person ever her plan would’ve fucking failed, but that didn’t matter bc in the end no consequences came her way because she’s a playable character and we can’t kill those (yes im still mad about it, literally my most hated arc)
same thing with focalors, raiden and zhongli. they keep talking about how resilient and strong the human spirit is but they don’t really care, humans to them are just a collective, if some suffer and die more will come and replace them. and when an actual resilient soul comes in the picture to challenge them and change the rules they’re deemed bad people and uhh.. traveler please deal with that we couldn’t care less.
my beef with hyv (and i understand it’s cultural im just saying they have no obligation to represent any culture they choose to do this) is when they go “humans are so weak and stupid they can’t do shit on their own. dont you know they never invented anything of what defines humanity’s ingenuity, they couldn’t fight for their own freedom on their own, it was the gods who graciously gave them that knowledge and protection, because they really like humans and care for them” LIE!! they only find humans fascinating in concept, not a single person matters unless they interest a god or challenge them. and like yeah it’s the same for a certain mad scientist, im not saying he’s better im saying they’re on equal footing and should be treated accordingly.
i love his luna chapter appearance, i was so happy he finally got the spotlight. and ngl i was kinda disappointed that they made him a god, like buddy what? i thought he hated those.. why would he want to be one? in the song he says he wants to be like the heavenly principles hmm? the theory about him and tsaritsa testing heavenly principles’ limits is fun, but i don’t think it makes sense considering what happened in fontaine. were they unaware of focalors death? and by that logic wouldn’t the death of shouki no kami as the first false god be the first trigger? (i know no one remembers that now, i mean if enraging HP is the goal why didn’t that work) or are they sitting up multiple alarm clocks and waiting for them to finally wake up.. idk it’s confusing lol
one thing i find interesting is that hyv intentionally made parallels between him and nefer; he was expelled from the akademiya while she left of her own accord, he rejected thoth while she lied to exploit his power, they’re both smart and morally fucked up. their peers see them as deserving more (and beautiful hehe) while the akademyia puts them down bc of their origins and ideologies. it’s funny they mentioned dottore didn’t commit to one darshan in sumeru’s last event and i think that’s why he was kicked out lol.
another thing is: he made an artificial moon-marrow with his “normal” human abilities and i haven’t seen anyone talk about it. like he acquired the samples and started working right away, few days later boom artificial moon marrow. and then he ascended to godhood and your telling me he didn’t make more? those are basically infinite power sources. those are THE philosopher’s stones with untapped potential and he stopped at creating one? i refuse to believe that.
also he became a god so whatever restrictions nahida put on him are immediately nullified, he’s no longer limited by resources and he encountered his original inspiration (scara). he could make a million segments if he wished to and there’s no way in hell he didn’t. i saw someone point out that he got a New Character Intro™️ before the traveler stabbed him, not sure what to think of that tho.
finally, stupid thoughts on his death. im pretty sure we all agree this is not the last time we see him. besides my previous point and leaks, i think his boss battle having one phase is the most suspicious of them all considering all other harbingers had two phases each (and yes he’s no longer considered a harbinger idc, and yes he had a first phase in the lab but it’s not in the final battle and i want it so bad), also his final line sounded a lot like when he destroyed his segments, he didn’t sound sad or in pain, just disappointed (honestly with what traveler did i can’t blame him).
also for those curious about the text: its these lines in sumeru alphabet. they’re a little jumbled around artistically yk for artistic expression
Collected a lot of components, these spare parts of the huge machine, if only I could figure out its working principle and manufacturing process -Zandik's Note inside the golem
A human is nothing more than a machine of a certain level of complexity -Wise Doctor’s Pinion from the Pale Flame artifact set
Thus shall we defeat the natural cycle of life and death, and preserve memory forever! - A Time of Insight from the Deepwood Memories artifact set
+ the words “human, life, and death” in sumeru, deshret and khaenri’ah alphabit (death is scratched over, smart i know)
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