I honestly don’t care how much hate this gets here. This post is about Nahida and Dottore, so if you’re a hater, you can just scroll away. I don’t want to argue with people who won’t understand anyway. (Spoiler)
I’m still deeply upset about Dottore and the fate he was given. I can’t fully accept it even now. Nahida tried so hard to forgive and heal Scara despite all the pain he caused her, and we saw that hateful puppet consumed by darkness slowly learn how to be human and start caring for his companions. But with Dottore… maybe if someone had noticed what was happening to him as a child, everything could have been prevented from the start. (I’m not blaming Nahida here, because the Archon during Zandik’s childhood was Rukkhadevata.) Why didn’t Nahida show the same effort she showed Scara to Dottore too? Even Venti still considered Signora one of his people, so why did Nahida call Dottore “the Harbinger of Snezhnaya”? Isn’t he one of her people too? Doesn’t he deserve love as well? Even his own family hated him enough to give him the name “Zandik,” a Persian name meaning “heretic” or “deviant.” Imagine being rejected so deeply that the very name given to you already defines you as something wrong.
The original Dottore dying and the others being segments changes nothing to me. Those segments are still him, his memories, emotions, personality, everything just versions of him from different ages. After the last cutscene, I realized Dottore wasn’t completely selfish. If he were selfish, he wouldn’t have allowed the original Dottore to die. He hated himself so much that he didn’t even bother trying to save himself.
I also feel frustrated that we know so little about him in-game. They could have explored his memories, his childhood, his relationship with his segments, or even the bonds he had with the other Fatui members. There was so much potential to understand him beyond just “the evil scientist.” I just wish Nahida had given him a chance. During the Sumeru quest, he even said he didn’t want to be rejected for a third time. Maybe that’s why he became so loyal to Tsaritsa. The warmth, kindness, and sense of home that his own god never gave him were instead given by the Cryo Archon the very Archon who shouldn’t even symbolize warmth.
I love him so much. Every single part of him is precious to me. I just wish I could give Zandik the world. Seeing such an intelligent character end up like this genuinely hurts me. I’m not defending his experiments, but maybe if someone had truly tried to help him, his intelligence and knowledge could have been used to help countless people. Dottore isn’t selfish, he’s someone who hated himself and devoted everything he had to his research :( I never saw him as pure villain, and I never will.
Also Webby is SO SILLY Why didn't they add his stupid bowtie and outfit to the game? He he ho ho
