Hm… honestly, I’ve seen people talk extensively about DS’ Durin being labeled as the ‘Evil Dragon’. Honestly, I was confused and a little upset at first too, but then I did the sq, which was a story book talking about durin’ story in metaphors and titles, never in their real name. So, here’s my take on the matter:
This got longer than I expected so here’s a tldr:‘Evil Dragon’ was a characteristic to the character named ‘Durin’ in Teyvat’s stage show. It didn’t matter how the actor who took the role was, fate would dub him as such anyways.
In a play, does it matter whether the actor/actress who plays the character of a villain is ‘good or ‘evil’? Not really, no. What matters, on the other hand, is the ‘role’ they played and the effects their character had on the show.
Teyvat’s fate is that show. It was pre-written, with each and every actor assigned to a role unknowingly. Without even knowing that there was a script in the first place, ‘changing the script’ is near impossible. Sure, when you know that you’re in a show, you can try to influence the narrative by improvising. Still, the rest of the cast will unconsciously act accordingly and push the narrative back to where it was supposed to be. You can thrash the show, or even exit the stage. But, even then, the director will still find someone else to play the role of the character you played; in the end, what you felt or thought when you played the role didn’t matter. ‘Fate’ will push the narrative according to the script anyway.
‘Durin’s’ role in Teyvat was simple. He was the dragon who terrorized Mondstadt before, and will be revived and do so again one day. The first unfortunate ‘actor’ who played the character ‘Durin’ was, of course, the Durin of Dragonspine. He was not aware of the script and, because of his abyssal corruption, thought that his role was completely different— he thought that he was befriending everyone. This actor was a bright and innocent one, he was kind hearted and felt deeply guilty about the destruction he caused and died on the snowy mountain. However, unlike most, his ‘role’ in the show isn’t done yet. There was a ‘Part Two’ for him, after all. And so, his existence persisted for another five hundred years even after death, before it was time for his story to begin again.
His ‘role’ after this was to terrorize Mondstadt, and might even succeed in that endeavor. Even if he didn’t, great loss would still happen, and Albedo couldn’t have that. We don’t know what Albedo’s idea had been before his time in Simulanka. It might be the same, it might not, but in the end his choice was to ‘replace’ the actor before this Part Two begins. But, before that, let’s look at the second ‘actor’ who played this role.
If Teyvat was a massive platform, made big enough for the heavens to see, the Simulanka was a small, niche stage for only a tiny amount of people to watch. This small stage had a show which was derived from some of Teyvat’s famous works— they really need to start worrying about copyright laws by the way, because Teyvat has such a legal team strong enough to rival Nint*ndo. They really didn’t like borderline infringement like this, and so Simulanka’s director had a bright idea. She changed the name and characteristics of her characters, but keeps their roles close enough to the original to make stories of her own.
However, when she encountered a story thread whose main character, ‘Durin’, has such a tragic story, she decided to act against her previous protocol and named her child ‘Durin’ explicitly. This immediately makes her child the second actor who plays the role of ‘Durin’. Her friends warned her that Teyvat’s legal team will be on the case, and when that happens her child will be forced to follow the script of real Teyvat. But the director didn’t like that, and, instead of forcing her child to take the role of a different character, she asked for her dear friends’ help to find a way to change Teyvat’s script instead.
Badabe badaboom, witch magic here, power of friendship there, and you get ‘Mini Durin’ who plays a character with the same narrative as ‘Durin’ of Teyvat up until the character’s final moments— that being he didn’t die and made friends instead. ‘Mini Durin’ can perform on the small Simulanka Stage forever, and he knew this. But, because the director was no longer around, Simulanka’s script became stagnant, and there would be no growth for him at all. He would be eternally the same, a child in a dream, grieving for him mother’s bygone comfort.
But he didn’t choose that. Instead, he accepted Albedo’s invitation to the bigger stage— one that has a yet never ending story, one that he could grow and actually live.
He could change Teyvat’s script. By taking his previous acts and plastering it on Teyvat’s records, he now be acting as ‘Durin’ in this story too. But, because there was no continuation to Simulanks’s script, there was so much ‘Mini Durin’s’ existence could do to replace ‘Durin’s’ next story.
And so he took up a pen and write his own script instead, forever replacing the main one with his own. By doing so, he would replace the previous actor’s place. The previous actor who, after such a long hiatus, had had many changes within him and would most likely follow Teyvat’s main script written for him again. He was aware of this, and he felt guilty as seen in his dialogue in-game. He had known that his mother had read the previous actor’s performance and analysis on his acting written by a bard, so he likely knew to some degree that there was little difference between him and his predecessor. But the difference was a difference, and he was willing replace the other nonetheless. He dubbed this act as “selfish”.
So, we get to where we are now. The actor had replaced the script by writing his own, and ‘Durin’s’ character was now a strange factor added to Teyvat’s fate. He was not an ‘Evil Dragon anymore. The actor act according to his own will, and Teyvat had accepted that. Welp, putting it like that it was kinda like a self-insert thing ngl.