˙ᵕ˙ rooney

2 — mondstadt (???) this one is more of a theory i suppose than anything, but its got its basis. for things to play out how they did with durin and nod krai, i believe wanderer would have had to be in mondstadt for a period of time and we just never saw him. i doubt wanderer would have simply sent mini durin off all the way to mondstadt on his own – and even if he hadnt personally gone with him, the birthday letter we receive from him that mentions mini durin being in mondstadt clearly shows he's been either visiting or keeping tabs on him, more than likely through albedo (because who the hell else would it be). given the fact that durin's 'birth' and the boat trip to nod krai happened in succession of eachother (given with a time gap), it seems more than likely to say wanderer would've been in mondstadt for a time during this. the way in which wanderer and albedo seem to know eachother could be additionally explained by them having spent more time together here 3 — that goddamn boat now this one is just outright stated and shown. lost my absolute shit when albedo was shown in the nod krai trailer, immediately followed by wanderer. traveler also comments "so they came to nod krai together..?" at one point wanderer, albedo, alice and durin travelled together on a boat, likely from mondstadt directly to nod krai. we don't have a damn clue how long that boat trip was but by god do we know it happened. who knows how many off-screen interactions could've taken place there, not only between wanderer and albedo, but between wanderer and alice, or wanderer and durin. lots to think about its a gold mine. absolutely loved this and forever will 4 — the core aside from the fact there was likely numerous minor off-screen interactions between them in nod krai, given the fact they were you know. there at the same time together. the core is a major one from luna IV someone had to return that core to wanderer after all the shit went down, and since sandrone couldn't, there's only one bet after that as to who would've had the mechanical and alchemical knowledge, as well as wanderer's trust, who could have returned the core that, of course, being albedo. we didn't really get any scene at all of the core being returned or directly after which i was quite disappointed about, but i think it's safe to assume albedo was probably the only man qualified to do that, and they would have seen eachother before they parted ways because durin would've been under legal obligation to say bye thankyou for coming to my ted talk and hoyoverse, please start actually showing some of these things on screen, i beg of thee

all of these ideas obviously follow the premise he's somehow still alive and hoyo really did do a fakeout, but hey, fun speculation my base would be that the dottore we killed was the omega dottore we met in sumeru, and omega being the last segment as per the name, perhaps there was still an alpha or first dottore who was kept as a sort of backup, maybe he just straight up lied, or perhaps the original dottore is somehow still alive and was not destroyed with the rest of the segments because nahida only told him to destroy the segments — 1, a full circle return to mondstadt, aka the place where most of dottore's og opps have connections to or actively reside. while i think him fucking up columbina's life was an alright addition, there's SO many people with very existing beef and hatred for this man that could provide amazing storylines. placing it in windblume easily allows collei to be present, perhaps even nahida, and wanderer already had a good reason to visit mondstadt (durin and albedo) so he doesn't really need the windblume premise but its a bonus there's a lot dottore could do here; start messing around in the thousand winds temple, interfere with decarabian's tower, actively try and subdue or kidnap someone because clearly he likes to do that durin would be a prime candidate for this given he has actively changed his fate, and this would get wanderer (alongside albedo and collei) even more personally involved. with diluc's infinite hatred for the fatui, amber and kaeya who have directly witnessed the impacts the fatui have had in collei, collei herself, wanderer being his arch-nemesis, two archons done with his shit, i think a mondstadt cast against dottore would be fucking grand and get him to go out with an absolute bang of meaningful, emotional events and fights — 2, a reappearance in sumeru, taking back to his own origin, and perhaps now returning for resources or information; the fatui certainly won't be keeping him around after this, so he has to head off somewhere. there could be a solid story quest around dottore posing as someone else, much like he did as escher in tatarasuna (fuck that guy), and getting close to the traveller in this way in an attempt to gain their trust and eventually sideline them, since trying to get them to cooperate hadn't worked dottore stays on the outskirts of sumeru for a time, gaining the traveller's trust first and foremost, as both nahida and wanderer have a good chance to clock him quickly. it could be cool if it turned into some sort of 'whodunnit' with some of the sumeru cast we haven't seen in a bit (tighnari, cyno, alhaitham, kaveh, dehya, collei) collei's presence would once again offer some amazing scene opportunities given her history with dottore eventually he'd be found out, and a fight scene consisting of wanderer, nahida, tighnari, cyno and collei would go hard as hell — 3, the barbatos route. effectively, the alpha/first/original dottore escapes and is now on the run from the fatui, who will absolutely murk him on sight. so he flees to the one place absolutely nobody is going to be chasing after him in; mare jivari. this finally gives us further chance to explore that place or get an actual location of it. the hexenzirkel could easily be involved in getting information about this, given alice, nicole and barbie all have easy eyes on teyvat, and word gets to venti perhaps dottore found some form of power source in there, and venti takes us there, alongside the little alchemical family trio present on behalf of the hexenzirkel. im not sure how to execute it, but getting most of them down and prompting venti to bring out some more barbatos would be awesome as hell. and then wanderer beats the shit out of him and he dies ❤️ the ending we need