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Jan 21, 2022

[2.4] Character Analysis: Scaramouche's Transient Dream

It turns out that I am still thinking about puppets and artificial life in Genshin, so it is time to do an ambitious but hopefully insightful character analysis of Scaramouche with some meaningful inclusions of the Raiden Shogun and Ei where appropriate. Scaramouche is a character with layers of complexity that require careful consideration to properly tease apart, and I don’t pretend this is something I’ll do successfully at every opportunity, but here is an attempt nonetheless.

SPOILERS: Husk of Opulent Dreams lore, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Pinocchio(?), The Phaethons’ Syrtos, The Very Special Fortune Slip, and Omnipresence Over Mortals.

TL;DR: Although Scaramouche seeks power and control, he repeatedly chooses situations where he is not in control at all. As one who dares to challenge fate, he dreams of subjecthood and agency, elusive though they might be to an object created as a means rather than an end.

Innocence, Fate, and Sin

When he first roused himself from slumber, Scaramouche is referred to as a “blank sheet of paper” to illustrate his innocence as a newly sentient being, with no impression of the world around him or his role within it. At Tatarasuna, he learned kindness and goodness from Sir Katsuragi, but soon after learned the potential for ugliness in human hearts and the cruelty of the gods, as well as the circumstances of his own birth. As he moves through the world and gains life experience, his innocence gradually gives way to sin – he harms others, exploits weakness, manipulates, and is manipulated. Whereas he once pursued subjecthood (by attaining a heart of his own), he strays from this path as he is tempted by power, illusory though that power may be.

Scaramouche follows a similar journey to many literary figures, a fact many theorists have noticed in their comparisons between him, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Pinocchio. In these stories, the artificial being learns about the world most vividly through his relationships with others, particularly through how he is received by others. Pinocchio examines how dependent an artificial being is on these relationships in order to successfully integrate into human society, and how easily they can be led astray. What interests me about these similarities with Scaramouche’s story is the way that power imbalances in the artificial being’s relationships create illusions of equality and control. This dynamic plays out multiple times in Scaramouche’s story, and it is a major fault in his character: although Scaramouche seeks power and control over his life, he frequently chooses situations where he is not in control at all.

To begin, let’s take a closer look at Pinocchio’s journey. The Disney adaptation of Pinocchio (1940) features an iconic scene near the beginning of the movie after Pinocchio is swiftly deceived by Honest John and Giddeon to join Stromboli’s puppet troupe. Pinocchio is instantly the star of this show as the world’s first marionette with no strings:

“I've got no strings

To hold me down

To make me fret

Or make me frown

I had strings

But now I'm free

There are no strings on me

Hi-ho the me-ri-o

That's the only way to be

I want the world to know

Nothing ever worries me

I've got no strings

So I have fun

I'm not tied up to anyone

They've got strings

But you can see

There are no strings on me”

The song positions Pinocchio as a higher subject than his stringed-puppet peers, but Pinocchio’s reactions to his own show demonstrate how little power he actually holds here. He is uncoordinated, awkward, and confused, completely missing the suggestive undertones of the female puppets’ dance segments. Instead of ogling their wooden bodies, he is absorbing his castmates’ movements and trying to learn from them, mimicking the “Russian” puppets’ dance and promptly messing up their tempo. It is also important to note that this scene’s setting is a theater stage, but I’ll return to this in a later section.

After the show, Stromboli counts the money Pinocchio made him while the puppet still naively believes he is free to go home to Geppetto. This illusion is shattered as Stromboli locks him in a cage and informs him both of his new role as a cash cow for the troupe and of his disposability once he no longer fulfills that purpose. Even after the Blue Fairy forgives his transgression and allows him a second chance to resist temptations, Pinocchio has only learned to not trust Stromboli again. He is exploited and led astray several times more before the film’s conclusion, when he finally displays the bravery, honesty, and selflessness that earns him real boyhood (and in a much more dramatic fashion than his book counterpart’s story. In fact, Book Pinocchio is a lot less adorable and a lot more of an asshole).

There are also palpable echoes of Neon Genesis Evangelion in Scaramouche’s story. This comes as no surprise given Evangelion’s position as a seminal piece in the anime industry and its existing influence on miHoYo’s work. Innocence, fate, and sin are at the heart of this series and its characters' relationships. Shinji Ikari, a fourteen-year old boy struggling with the death of his mother and subsequent abandonment by his father Gendo, is immediately thrown into a lose-lose situation when Gendo suddenly calls on him at the beginning of the series. This reunion is a calculated ambush to designate him as the “Third Children'' and make him pilot Unit 01, the first non-prototype Evangelion. Evangelions (or “Evas” for short) are artificial humans, more specifically cyborgs, designed to combat the threat of Angel attacks.

When Shinji refuses to be used by NERV, Gendo commands Rei Ayanami, the “First Children,” to pilot Unit 01 despite her terrible condition. Rei is emotionless, disposable, and willing to do anything for Gendo, similar to a certain puppet-vessel in Genshin. As Nicole Veneto points out in "I Am Not A Doll," Rei is "a tool" to Gendo, existing only to trigger Third Impact and Human Instrumentality, a total merging of the human consciousness that would allow him to reunite with his dead wife Yui. Once Rei’s purpose is fulfilled, she will be cast away as well.

The nominal and literal designation of Eva pilots as children underscores the imbalance of power in the relationship between the pilots and NERV. Adults give the orders, and the pilots (particularly Shinji and Asuka) are consistently reminded that they must obey their commands – any illusion of power they hold is shattered at every chance, culminating in Gendo’s implementation of the Dummy Plug system in one of the most cruel moments in the entire series. If you know, you know.

In Evangelion, humans are tainted by Original Sin as the progeny of Lillith, the Second Angel, and initiating Human Instrumentality would supposedly wash humanity of this sin. Children are essential to realizing these plans, but NERV (more specifically, Gendo) conceals this truth from them to preserve their innocence, and therefore their ignorance, in order to remain in control. NERV and SEELE’s use of children to fight Angels is often remarked upon by employees, but never truly interrogated by them no matter their proximity to the truth of the organization, thus perpetuating a cycle of abuse as more motherless Children are recruited as pilots. Genshin makes this analogy many times in its storytelling as well, where human children and childlike non-human beings are used as unique sources of innocence that can be taken advantage of for an adult or God or organization’s benefit: Ruu, the Sunchildren, Durin, Scaramouche, and the Raiden Shogun come to mind.

Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Kaworu are NERV and SEELE’s puppets, and their character arcs deal in part with their willingness to resist this assigned role. For Shinji’s part, the internet likes to give him a hard time for his refusal to “get in the robot” and his whining throughout the series, but it’s also important to remember that Shinji is reacting in a perfectly reasonable way to absurd circumstances. He is a fourteen-year old boy who wants a semblance of normalcy in his incredibly fucked up life, he wants acknowledgement from his father who pushed him away when he needed him most, and he wants so badly to relate to others in a healthy way, freely giving and receiving the love to others that Gendo denied him. He does not want to be a tool for war, especially if he is not the one deciding that for himself. And while I would love nothing more than to launch into pages of comparisons between Genshin and Evangelion (just examining parallels with Scaramouche-Shogun-Ei, nevermind anything else), I’ll leave this thread here in hopes that you’ll watch the series with Genshin’s story in mind.

from eva 1.11: you are (not) alone

To be clear, there are real problems with simplistic narratives of innocent characters vs. sinful ones, particularly ones that frame children as inherently innocent beings and adults as the sole corrupting sinful forces, and they certainly don’t help us appreciate Scaramouche’s complexity or of characters like him. In the previous two works I discussed, which I believe serve as inspiration for Scaramouche’s character, there are no purely innocent or sinful actors at the beginning or the end of the story. Sheltered as Shinji and the other pilots may be from the truth of the Angels, manipulated though they may be by numerous adult figures, their transgressions against humanity and each other are plentiful, and they are their own. Similarly, Pinocchio’s status as an animated object in need of guidance to discern right from wrong is not a pass for him to hurt others, as the Blue Fairy states. Innocence and sin can coexist within one person, beings can be both deserving of pity and held accountable for their actions.

Genshin supports this line of thinking in “The Phaethons’ Syrtos,” in which the Traveler meets Clymene, a sinshade who once was the caretaker of two of Enkanomiya’s Sunchildren. The Sunchildren ruled Enkanomiya after Abrax was imprisoned, but Clymene states they were “mere puppets” being manipulated by powerful individuals operating behind the scenes:

Paimon: The Sunchildren were innocent!

[Clymene]: Innocent? Oh no, they were not.

[Clymene]: As far as the people of Byakuyakoku were concerned, their ignorance was the greatest sin of all.

[Clymene]: A sin, even committed in ignorance, can hurt others. Can a person who commits such transgressions truly be called innocent?

The seven Sunchildren ruled in succession of one another. Once their predecessor had reached a certain age, after which they would not be as easily manipulated by these shadowy background figures, they were to embark on their “Rite of Solar Return,” where they were carried into the heat of Hyperion and incinerated alive. Interacting with their afterimages upon the completion of “The Phaethons’ Syrtos” also makes it clear that they were not aware of what the ceremony truly entailed, though they were aware of its existence. They died in ignorance, with the impression of this execution evading their representation as memories of Enkanomiya.

Before leaving, the Traveler asks Clymene why she still wishes to pay respects at their graves if they were so hated, to which Clymene replies:

“Though I knew that they did wrong, and though I was aware that they were being manipulated...They were still children that I watched grow up. I pitied them, and I grieved for them...In the end, I could not hate them....”

Her internal conflict reflects the power imbalance inherent to the relationship between the Sunchildren and their puppet masters, a clear sign that these relationships functioned exactly as they were intended to: they created illusions of control, grandeur, and superiority where in fact the Sunchildren had little to none. Even as their anxieties arose, Clymene could offer them no comfort or insight because she was under surveillance as well. There is no record of how each child was selected to rule, just that they were “born into their role,” as if by chance, or worse by fate.

The Fatui are no strangers to this relationship dynamic either, as seen in “The Very Special Fortune Slip.” Through a clandestine Shuumatsuban operation, the Traveler learns that Lyudochka Schneitzevna is posing as the Grand Narukami Shrine’s Gendou Ringo for a mission to stir up political turmoil between the Shogunate and Sangonomiya once more. It is Lyudochka who informs us that she is one of many orphans that the Fatui take in at their orphanage run by Arlecchino, an as-of-now unnumbered Fatui Harbinger (it’s me from the future - she is #10).

Orphans are given the last name “Snezhevich” or “Snezhevna” as a means to reconstruct their identity, indeed possess them, and to locate them within the structures of power in the organization. Mired in such a complicated relationship with the Fatui as their captors and caretakers, orphans are trained from a young age to fight for them as Agents, Mages, and perhaps also as Skirmishers should they be subject to human experimentation by Il Dottore. The Fatui orphanage is also not restricted to Snezhnayans, taking in parentless children from the entire continent of Teyvat - it is implied that some of these orphans may end up in the Fatui’s care due to the organization’s own warmongering activities. It makes Lyudochka wonder: was her fate in fact a creation of the Fatui’s? How deep does this deception go?

Scaramouche and the Raiden Shogun are products of war as well, created out of Ei's grief from witnessing the Cataclysm. As the one abandoned from the outset of his creation, Scaramouche begins life with no identity, and his existence eventually draws the attention of the Fatui:

Yae Miko: Later, this puppet wandered Inazuma as an ordinary human male with his own consciousness, until... the Fatui took an interest in him.

Paimon: Ugh, not the Fatui!

Yae Miko: Some eccentric geniuses in the ranks of the Fatui made adjustments to the prototype, not only unsealing his power, but very likely rendering him even more formidable than his original specifications.

Traveler: Surely you don't mean...

Yae Miko: Mm-hmm. The object of divine creation is the one who has now taken possession of the Gnosis... and the prototype puppet is now known as "The Balladeer."

Paimon: What in the... What a crazy story!

Yae Miko: It is, isn't it? Who can say whether it's coincidence or destiny.

Following his devastating failure at Tatarasuna, Scaramouche was once again confronted with his powerlessness - but perhaps these fun masked people held the key to changing him? If he was truly a divine creation meant to house the Gnosis of an Archon, then there was power dormant within him waiting to be unsealed. However, by joining the Fatui and delivering his artificial body to unscrupulous strangers, Scaramouche ironically forfeits autonomy in exchange for the illusion of control over himself. The notion that these alterations made him even stronger than Ei originally intended is not an empowering one either - instead, it points to him being subject to further experimentation than was necessary, and that would only benefit Dottore’s curiosity as someone interested in engineering humans who surpass the gods.

Even Pierro can’t help but draw attention to the power imbalance between himself and Scaramouche in Unreconciled Stars. When Scaramouche awakes from his dream, he wonders aloud if “the Jester” knew what he might discover on this mission, as if Pierro was already aware of the meteors’ implications and wanted to see how Scaramouche would react. This scene is a rare lucid moment for him, at least that we are privy to, where he outwardly acknowledges his ignorance relative to his peers. On some level, it seems that Scaramouche is aware that he is being used, and that any power he holds within the organization is conditional at best, and a farce at worst. This illusion of power is even inscribed in his Italian commedia dell’arte name, Scaramuccia, which means Little Skirmisher, subtly grouping him with the cyborg Fatui Skirmishers who have hollow wills “encased in war machines,” despite the fact that he is a high-ranking executive officer. Still, he remains with the Fatui for quite some time after the events of Unreconciled Stars, suggesting that it didn’t matter too much to him, or that he hadn’t grown completely bored with them yet.

When Scaramouche does abandon the Fatui, he does so not out of contempt for them, but rather due to the sudden redirection of his attention towards the goal he had so long ago: to acquire a heart of his own. However, this decision also carries questionable connotations of control over his current situation given his body’s response to the Gnosis. Only time will tell how true that assumption may be, though I hesitate to think that the moment Scaramouche finally attained what he thought he desired the most would also be the first moment he truly shifts power in his favor.

The Theater of Autonomy

“A hat that once shielded a wanderer from sun and rain. It eventually became a convenient tool with which faces might be hidden and expressions obscured.” -Skeletal Hat, Husk of Opulent Dreams.

Honest John: “School? Ah yes, then you haven’t heard of the easy road to success.”

Pinocchio: “Uh-uh.”

Honest John: “No? I’m speaking, my boy, of the theater!”

Subjecthood is extremely tricky to define with any academic rigor, and that’s not really my goal for this analysis as is, so I will try to define it within the highly specific context of Genshin Impact as a video game, and as it concerns Scaramouche as a being who is “neither man nor mechanism,” occupying a complicated space in between. If subjecthood is attained through autonomy, the quality of possessing a will or ambition (or a heart) of one’s own, then objecthood is the absence of that will - a being who is closer to an automaton. And Yae Miko calls him precisely that: an “object of divine creation,” perfectly illustrating his dilemma as a being of divine origin who is regarded as little more than a "thing." At least, by those who are aware of his origins in the first place.

The Fatui heavily references the Italian theatrical form of commedia dell'arte, where masks are what determine a character’s role. Mask culture in the Fatui follows this idea as well, particularly for the unique Harbinger masks, concealing identities and expressions from others. Behind a mask, they become unknowable. La Signora’s Funerary Mask further supports this, stating that the mask is a way that they erase “all they once were.”

What a tempting opportunity for one so jaded and resentful of his origins and of the one who created him. If the past no longer mattered, if he could again become a “blank sheet of paper,” then there are no limits to the lies he could spin. Like Pinocchio’s performance for Stromboli’s puppet show, he could construct a theater of autonomy that obscured both his synthetic origins and his “strings,” creating an illusion of power and of humanity.

This illusion is what Edmond Couchot identifies as the “natural human/artificial human aesthetic relationship.” In this relationship, the human watches the artificial being’s movements, expressions, and "gestures" for signs of autonomy, a sign that they do (or do not) “share something with us” in order to empathize with them. While Couchot was writing about real life autonomous robots and virtual humans appropriated for theatrical use, Scaramouche presents a fictional account of this relationship from the perspective of the artificial being, specifically one who is invested in being perceived as autonomous. Couchot suggests that the more convincing of an actor the artificial being is, the greater empathetic response they produce in the human watching them, and that it is through this empathy that they can transcend objecthood and be perceived, if temporarily, as a subject.

Scaramouche (thinking): But who was that mage? She could not have known who I am. Perhaps her powers reveal to her things unseen?

In Scaramouche’s case, he does not have mechanical joints, speech, or movement to compensate for - from the outside, he does look like any other human. Notably, he also does not wear his Harbinger mask near his face, unlike Signora and Childe, instead concealing it on the top of his hat. This is part of the illusion as well. Don’t you see? There’s nothing to hide here.

The theater of autonomy doesn’t need to correct for his appearance, but rather for the perception of his past. It has to correct for the perception that he is anything other than a powerful human being, that he was abandoned and deemed defective for his capacity to emote, that there is a piece of him missing, that he does not have a heart at all. It is precisely for this reason that he does not voice his curiosity about Mona’s foresight aloud in Unreconciled Stars - because his underlings are nearby, they are watching, and the illusion must be preserved at all costs.

Scaramouche: Are you deaf, or just stupid? When did I give you the right to issue your own orders?

And he constructs that illusion through his authority as a Harbinger, abusing his underlings if they unknowingly undermine him, and in turn the “terror and helplessness” he instills in them reinforces that illusion.

The theater of autonomy, then, is Scaramouche’s mask. It is only in the brief moments that this mask slips that the truth of him is laid bare - the fact that he himself is “brimming with selfishness, hypocrisy, cunning and curses, all wrapped in an amiable husk.” For Scaramouche, that truth seems difficult to swallow.

A Transient Dream

“This dream was ever so real, and it, too, passed like a shadow.” -Raiden Shogun, Character Story 5

Considering that Scaramouche is so jarringly rooted in reality and the present moment in comparison to his creator, it seems odd (hypocritical, even) that he would pursue an illusion of power for an unknowable number of years. But where dreams are a place of fantasy for most humans, for Scaramouche they are the place where he experiences the truth. Reality is where he is cloaked in his lies.

“Gnosis” comes from the greek word “ginóskó” meaning knowledge, but it is specifically referring to personal knowledge gained from lived experience - knowledge that you perceive. If the Gnosis can behave like a mirror, then perhaps what Scaramouche saw as he slumbered in the beginning is what brought him to tears.

The song of his life, the truth of himself, whatever the full implications of that may be, is a source of pain for him. Despite his preoccupation with the false sky, the bold claim that he would go out and find the truth, to this point Scaramouche has shied away from it at every opportunity. When the Gnosis reflects the truth back at him, he rejects it again: “Good and evil are the song of sentient life, useless and cacophonous.” How dare this Heart of God judge him, the one who surpasses all?

But I’m not sure if he can run for much longer. He’s effectively backed himself into a corner. And while I’m personally ambivalent to him having a redemption arc, I’m afraid for those who are entirely opposed to it that the writing is already on the walls. I would wager that in the same way that Domon’s story foreshadowed Ei’s reasons for descending into eternity hell, Lyudochka’s may be foreshadowing the resolution of Scaramouche’s Third Act.

Paimon: Ooh. That's true. It's not that she doesn't have dreams, but she doesn't dare to face herself because she's worried that she doesn't deserve to be happy.

In the Bloom Times artifact, Scaramouche has a dream where he see's himself as he was before, dancing to music under the moonlight. He knows that this self is what is beneath his "suffering and resentment," and it will emerge once more when they are resolved. He resents Ei for abandoning him, his origins as a synthetic being, the perception that he is defective both with the Gnosis in his body and without it. He may, in fact, even think that these realities have doomed him from the start. That the life he has led is inevitable, that it is a fate he is powerless to change. But I think he may find something far more empowering to hold onto when he does face the truth of himself, and that accepting that truth is what will grant him a heart of his own.

Is that more than a little corny? Totally. But it's miHoYo, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's what actually happens. And personally, I'm excited to meet the person who's left when the dust settles.

[Edit]: Honorable mentions go to Mewtwo from Pokemon, Yusuke Kitagawa , and Goro Akechi (as well as Haru Okumura, to some extent for both him and the Raiden Shogun) from Persona 5 as other similar media characters to Scaramouche. The parallels are truly scary. Anyway, this little fucker wore me out with all his hypocrisy and illusions and shit. Researching and writing this was so fun because I LOVE cyborgs and queer theory, but it also ruined my life so I’ll be back when I’m back. Let me know what you think, I am at my wit’s end with umbrella man.

[Edit2]: sobbing because his character teaser summarized the argument I was trying to make here in two lines!! two!! I gotta take notes from the genshin writing team.

Reading

https://www.animefeminist.com/not-doll-rei-ayanami-escapism-objectified-images-desire/

https://www.tor.com/2015/04/30/smoking-and-heroism-disney-pinocchio/

http://archee.qc.ca/images/edito-2018-03/Archee_2018_03_Couchot.php and also here https://thetheatretimes.com/automatism-autonomy-and-aesthetics-in-performing-arts/

https://biblehub.com/greek/1097.htm

https://biblehub.com/greek/1108.htm

https://www.britannica.com/art/commedia-dellarte

Artifacts/Quests

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Husk_of_Opulent_Dreams

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/The_Very_Special_Fortune_Slip

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/The_Phaethons'_Syrtos

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Unreconciled_Stars/Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XySRYqfT_cY

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/A_Swordmaster%27s_Path_Is_Paved_With_Broken_Blades

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Wishes_(Quest)

https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Pale_Flame#Surpassing_Cup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XySRYqfT_cY (Where I obtained Unreconciled Stars screenshots)

Other folks’ Scaramouche theories and analysis for reading/watching linked in this post

https://www.reddit.com/r/ScaramoucheMains/comments/q933c2/scaramouchefrankenstein_parallels/

[2.1] A (very) speculative analysis of Scaramouche by Ashikai

[2.3] Dr. Ei’s Little Monster by Ashikai

Scaramouche: The Pinocchio Symbolism by Chill With Aster

#genshin impact #scaramouche #kunikuzushi #raiden shogun #raiden ei #the very special fortune slip #the phaethons' syrtos #sunchildren #analysis #long post #fatui #genshin theory #enkanomiya #lyudochka schneitzevna #arlecchino #husk of opulent dreams #unreconciled stars #genshin 2.4 #genshin impact 2.4 #fatui harbingers #scaramouche character analysis #character analysis #genshin lore #inazuma #inazuma lore

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