An apology and a doomer rant
In light of the recent Dottore news, I have an apology to extend. To Capitano mains, Signora mains, those who hate Raiden's writing, those who hate Scaramouche's writing, those who hate Colombina's writing, those who hate Arlecchino's writing, those who hate Sandrone's writing... (Did I miss anybody?)
I'm sorry, you were right.
To be fair, I am a very gullible person, and I will give people endless chances. With Signora I went, "Well, that was beginning Genshin". With Capitano I went, "Well, that was Natlan." With Raiden and Scaramouche, I thought it was necessary. Colombina I declared it was a headcanon. Technically, it still might be, but it is beyond clear to me now that the writing did, in fact change. You were totally right. Arlecchino I justified because she's always been a hypocrite.
Everyone owes the members of these groups, and r/FatuiHQ, an apology. They were right.
And as much as I hate what I think (know?) is coming, I am, actually, grateful. Because now I know I can't hope. I can't say, "Well, this character will get good writing!" Because they won't. Because all of the characters I just named didn't get good writing. And yes, Capitano and Signora mains are allowed to hate me, because my thought process was, "But MY favorite character will get good writing!" No, he won't. He's gonna die on Wednesday, and he might come back as a lobotomized dipshit, with a fate just as bad as Scaramouche's, or, just be assigned endless flashbacks, (like Signora, or Capitano.) "Have your crumbs, peasants!"
The Fatui will never be a competent organization again. Every competent member of their organization dies. I don't care about Snezhnaya anymore. Childe will die. They will kill him like they killed Dottore. The Tsaritsa will be "misunderstood". Pierro will be evil and die. Pantalone will probably die, too. Somewhere along the way, with the exception of Flins, Hoyo decided they didn't want good-at-meta playable male characters. Flins isn't even good without Colombina and Ineffa anyway. Look at what they did to Varka, turned him into a dipshit doofus.
This game has no villains. Not a one. Your "enemy" is some character we know nothing about, but they're a woman, so they'll be justified. The HP is some faceless genderless enemy we know nothing about. We already know the Tsaritsa will be done like Raiden. It's over, everybody. I'd mock this game and call it, "Friendship / My Little Pony / Carebear Impact", but that's an insult to those fans. Because even My Little Pony and the Carebears have villains, I'm sure. (I don't watch those shows.) Winnie the Pooh...I suppose, in some ways, their enemy is only themselves. That's a children's story, about child-aged characters. You good with that? Toddler Impact?
A lot of people say Genshin writers can't write. The writers got replaced at some point. The sad part is, the old writers COULD write. I'm sure they had a plan with the Fatui. But that's gone. Female war criminals? Paimon calls them friends. Male war criminals? They just die. Like, and this is something I noticed very early on - Paimon ONLY comes up with insulting nicknames for MALE characters. Venti, Zhongli, Childe, attempted with Alhaitham. Arlecchino, Sandrone, Colombina? Not so much!
I'm still going to play the game. I'm not going to quit it. I have characters to build. I like the worldbuilding scenery. I like the combat system. I'm going to play through NodKrai. If Snezhnaya sucks...like I suspect it will...I probably won't make it there.
It's not just the Fatui. If it were just the Fatui, well, that's only part of the game. But do you think the Traveller's sibling will have a satisfying arc now? Are you excited to see what they do with Alice? Do you think we'll EVER get answers to Kaeya's backstory? Do you think we'll ever find out anything about Venti or Zhongli? What about Dainsleif? What if they ruin those characters? This is Dottore. I could handle all the other mess-ups, "Well, if not Signora, they have Wanderer, and if not Wanderer they have Dottore." What the FUCK do we have now. Nothing.
I was okay with NodKrai's writing. Now I look at it and just go, "Oh, that's why the MC's dialogue is such garbage. This is - actually - garbage. They don't have a plan. They just had Dottore call them out on their obvious bullshit, and then they murdered him." Stick some gay flirting lines on Dottore and let him and Pantalone stand next to each other - NOT EVEN MAKING EYE CONTACT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, EVEN KAVEH AND ALHAITHAM MAKE EYE CONTACT - and have Pantalone watch him die. And then say, "Yep, cool, bye", and walk away. Is that good writing?! Like, I thought Natlan was just, the "worst of the worst". Now it's a fucking...state of being. This is what Genshin is now. Garbage.
