Dottore-simp

*totally not me writing this to 'how bad can I be' playing in the background*

Okay, so I've seen this theory flying around the fandom for some time now, so maybe you've heard that already. But as a total Dottore-brainrot-person I wanted to dig into it myself and try to put it together according to the timeline.

So, is Inspector Eroch Dottore?

Short answer: probably

Long answer: To be honest, it's up to interpretation and I'm here to lay it all out!

Let's start with some timeline analysis.

Crepus somehow comes into possession of a Pyro Delusion (we do not know however if he'd stolen it from someone or one of the Fatui gave it to him on purpose) Anyways, let's note that Crepsus (haha lmao, yeah I know not funny)

The day is Diluc's 18th birthday and he's going back home with his father. Suddenly, some mechanical fatui thingies appear (which were confirmed in the manga to be the doing of Fatui; most likely Dottore) and lure out Ursa the Drake

We don't know if it was a failed Fatui experiment and the death of Crepus was just an unfortunate accident or he was killed on purpose (In my opinion he might have been attacked on purpose, like come on, this man may have been a role model in Diluc's eyes, but to me he was pretty sus)

Inspector Eroch insists to cover up everything, because it might ruin KoF's reputation.

This leads Diluc to resign and leave Mond for the next four years.

Dottore defeats Ursa the Drake and makes Mond indebted to the Fatui.

Okay, so let's stop here for now. Later on it was revealed that somewhere during Diluc's absence, Eroch was kicked out of KoF, found guilty of scheming something with the Fatui. A pretty... interesting coincidence.

That would very much explain why Eroch wanted to cover up the accident with Crepus. To avoid any further investigation onto that case (and discovering it was all previously planned by Fatui). WHICH leads me to conclusion that Crepus had some unfinished business with Fatui and that made him got killed.

Then Dottore steps in, killing Ursa the Drake. Aaand this is the part, where the theory might have a small hole, but not necessarily...

Because IF at some point in the story Dottore personally met Eroch to talk about their plans of indebting Mond to Fatui, them being the same person is impossible. BUT, we do not know that. Maybe Dottore just killed Ursa and then disappeared *poof*. Or more like, went back to KoF headquaters and started the next phase of his plan. And it might make sense, looking at this manga panel:

Basially, Dottore was just *casually walking around* and *casually* killed Ursa the Drake. (yeah, not suspicious at all) And then he just *casually* walked away.

So this is the part, where it's up to one's interpretation. That's the part of the story that wasn't covered either in manga or the game, so... we can just theorize.

But let's get back to the timeline:

Eroch is kicked out of KoF

Diluc comes back to Mond after 4 years, the banquet described in manga happens; where also Dottore appears

Then Diluc basically kicks his ass and Dottore leaves etc. etc.

Now you might ask - If Dottore were Eroch, why Diluc didn't recognize him?

Well, for us it's obvious. But take a note, that when Diluc wears his Darknight Hero mask, no one recognizes him. (Yeah, I know, pretty stupid, since he's like THE ONLY ONE WITH LONG RED HAIR IN MOND) But remember it's genshin. And when Traveler puts on that funny mask, no one seems to recognize them either.

Also, I like to headcanon that if Dottore really IS Eroch, then after getting kicked out of KoF he fled to Liyue, where he tinkered with Ruin Guards for some time. But then, well - got bored and returned to Snezhnaya, where he experimented on other people along with Krupp. (who later was turned into that ruin guard thing lmao)

Now moving onto the visual evidence!

Interesting that they didn't show his face.......

I MEAN COME ON, EVEN THE TURTLENECK AND SHIRT LOOK THE SAME

Photo credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/kd5th0/il_dottore_is_eroch_theory/

AND ONE MORE THING that piqued my interest: the ring. Which, the manga artist also might have wanted to draw our attention to.

That *twinkle* thing isn't there only for a decoration, I can assure you :)))) And you know what the ring reminds me of? Something.... shiny...

It pretty much looks like a Hydro delusion to me. I know this one is a little bit tricky, since thanks to some manga panels we can theorize that the delusion being wielded by Dottore is an Anemo one. (And we know that most likely he doesn't have a Vision - since he simply despises Vision users.) Tho, I still think it's worth mentioning this ring, because well - Eroch was sus as hell and that ring was the final evidence to him working with the Fatui.

If you've read through the whole theory - congrats and thanks for reading! I am really curious if this theory comes true someday. If not, well, I'm still curious about how Eroch looked like.

I really hope MiHoYo would make some kind of webcomic to cover everything that happened then (or just make a character story quest about it, but I feel like a comic gives more freedom in storytelling)

If Diluc has been to ALL nations of Teyvat, he had to be in Inazuma too. How did he got there? Probably had something to do with pirates. Did he go undercover? (I live for pirate Diluc supremacy, istg) Maybe he knows Beidou as well¿ Was he hunted in Inazuma by Sakoku Decree?

And also, I wanna know more about his near death experience!!! (I suppose it was in Snezhnaya)

What did he think then? He was on the verge of death, but SOMEOME came and rescued him (and then let him join his organisation) WHO WAS HE?? (or she) I NEED MORE ANSWERS!!

There's a possibility we'll get to know some of his story while Traveler searches more about Delusions in the future (since Diluc researched them as well), but I don't think we'd get the whooole long story about his travels.

So I beg you MiHoYo, gimme a comic about that. Or at least some kind of in-game journal written by Diluc during his adventures.