[Nod-Krai Act 8 Spoilers] Some very glaring Chekhov's Guns I haven't seen anyone mention (plus one everyone is talking about)
1. First and foremost, the glaring Chekhov's Gun is the glitches at the end of the Archon Quest. The glitchy circuitry effects are very clearly the exact same as the ones used when you open the map while inside Dottore's energy field experiments.
2. The energy field experiments themselves. We only saw inside two of the energy fields, with one running body swap experiments and the Kuuvahki Design Bureau being Dottore's playground as far as we know. Since the beginning of Genshin, Hoyo's done an excellent job of showing us Dottore's experimental history and payoffs, such as with Collei in the manga's payoff being his extensive history in Sumeru, his Khaenri'ahn robotics research combined with Wanderer's body leading to the development of Segments, then the Shouki no Kami being a foundation for becoming the Heretic of the False Moon. The AQ NEVER once elaborated upon WHY Dottore was running so many energy field experiments, or what the relevance of the body swap experiments were. Dottore does cruel experiments for sure, but not pointless ones.
3. **The curse.** This was brought up during the AQ as a means to keep the gang in Nod-krai and for us to not have an excuse to run, but think back on its reveal. Sandrone detects the curse, and decodes a message that taunts her to run. **Sandrone makes her own assumption that the curse will activate if we leave.** There is never actually any explicit confirmation of the curse's purpose or effects. Most importantly, while Dottore is dead or defeated. **The curse was never mentioned post-defeat. It has not been activated nor mentioned to be deactivated.**
4. **Edited this in:** this is a bit of a reach depending on how literally you take Dottore's statement on the difficulty of crafting Segments, but there was literally nothing stopping Dottore from teleporting to some cave on the opposite side of the continent (or one of the unexplored energy fields) to conjure a segment for free with the Trilune. He conjured a giant hand platform and bit weaponry out of nowhere, a segment may or may not be unfeasible.
I thought these were very interesting points and wanted to share my thoughts with the community. I think it's obvious to us all at this point that he's not dead, so let's get that out of the way. How do you all think this will relate to Dottore's future plans?
2. The energy field experiments themselves. We only saw inside two of the energy fields, with one running body swap experiments and the Kuuvahki Design Bureau being Dottore's playground as far as we know. Since the beginning of Genshin, Hoyo's done an excellent job of showing us Dottore's experimental history and payoffs, such as with Collei in the manga's payoff being his extensive history in Sumeru, his Khaenri'ahn robotics research combined with Wanderer's body leading to the development of Segments, then the Shouki no Kami being a foundation for becoming the Heretic of the False Moon. The AQ NEVER once elaborated upon WHY Dottore was running so many energy field experiments, or what the relevance of the body swap experiments were. Dottore does cruel experiments for sure, but not pointless ones.
3. **The curse.** This was brought up during the AQ as a means to keep the gang in Nod-krai and for us to not have an excuse to run, but think back on its reveal. Sandrone detects the curse, and decodes a message that taunts her to run. **Sandrone makes her own assumption that the curse will activate if we leave.** There is never actually any explicit confirmation of the curse's purpose or effects. Most importantly, while Dottore is dead or defeated. **The curse was never mentioned post-defeat. It has not been activated nor mentioned to be deactivated.**
4. **Edited this in:** this is a bit of a reach depending on how literally you take Dottore's statement on the difficulty of crafting Segments, but there was literally nothing stopping Dottore from teleporting to some cave on the opposite side of the continent (or one of the unexplored energy fields) to conjure a segment for free with the Trilune. He conjured a giant hand platform and bit weaponry out of nowhere, a segment may or may not be unfeasible.
I thought these were very interesting points and wanted to share my thoughts with the community. I think it's obvious to us all at this point that he's not dead, so let's get that out of the way. How do you all think this will relate to Dottore's future plans?
Commentaires
FatuiHQ member spotted, no wonder you can't understand a basic post.
So even more work for Lauma (can Columbina talk with animals, I don't remember), since she should be able to communicate with them.
During the Moonprayer Night, when you play as her, you could talk to a bunch of animals in the Frostmoon Scion section of the festival.
So the existence of adepts and youkai may be a hint that those people can still be saved.
No snark intended, what you say IS plausible, but no on ever mentioned the curse to Columbina, and she herself never indicated noticing it.
Edit: being downvoted for respectfully ending a conversation with someone who does not care for the same developments I do is crazy
I simply believe the more plausible alternative ending teaser of the glitchy screen is the heavenly principles or more likely the shades finally intervening as they were teased in the god's limit's trailer, they simply wouldn't stand still as the authority they usurped was used taken and used to such a scale
Dottore cast the curse before he finished the artificial moon.
Or are you indicating that the curse happened at the first confrontation with Dottore, when he first kidnapped Columbina? At that time, either the curse was on everyone but Traveler, due to the delay-mechanics he used (which Traveler was immune to), or it was only on the Traveler, because only the Traveler fought with Dottore.
But Dottore has already corvid bird motif, it would be nice to see this kind of bird somewhere in game.
ONE DAY, AFTER DINNER intensifies
**... To the bare intellect of the one who is free.**
**TO THE ONE WHO EVERYONE OUTCASTED**
**AND HIS OVERWHELMING INTENSITY!**
What is the price of killing a god?
–Pierro in Nod Krai trailer
If this was planned then maybe Dottore wasn't lying when he said that he is not going against the higher ups. I can't also recall him talking down on the Fatui in general... Only a beef with some colleagues.
What if he is watching now with Pierro, what happens.
Edit: I'm not disagreeing, I'm just saying I'm not suggesting what you say I'm suggesting, but I do think it's interesting and plausible
Snezhnaya being Fatui: Civil War continues to look more and more likely to me...
During the fight I also had this weird impression, as if Dottore was waiting for the situation to escalate even more, as if waiting for the moon goddess to be brought back. Looks like stage play of HP usurping authority from Moon Sisters, but it reaches alternative ending, which could mean that the fate can indeed change...
Part of me wants to believe it was all a very well crafted scheme. Only a god could complete this, and that wouldn't clash with old Dottore&Fatui lore and current Pierro's goals.
I also definitely agree, Dottore already knows the Heavenly Principles are sleeping due to Nahida, this whole thing felt like him trying to see how far he could go before they woke up. I don't think he necessarily PLANNED to be defeated but he did plan FOR his defeat. I think he wanted to keep the power but also prepared for the (in his eyes) unlikely event he was defeated/killed.
Look how much of his game is based on giving people choices. If he was main actor-executor, then the Tsaritsa could get the answers, that even with wildly attractive offers from the oponent, they won't abandon the mission. He is less fighting than trying to pull everyone on his side, even his Harbinger colleagues.
Also between gods were those who accepted Celestia's offer, and those who didn't.
It's either me overthinking, or there is a possible method in this madness.
Like, it's pretty hard to lay out a plan of how everything is gonna go from start to finish, and the longer a story runs, the harder it is to preserve what you originally intended. I'd rather they change it and give us an interesting story (and this Nod Krai AQ was REALLY GOOD) than they feel forced to preserve it because hype and aura and it ends up being uninteresting.
Nod Krai wasn't even supposed to be in the game, but damn if they didn't deliver. So I don't mind they change their plans, as long as it continues being fun
‘Hmmm, now that’s an idea.’
“ALWAYS HAS BEEN”
Granted, that second segment (the only one that remained, at least as of the end of the Sumeru AQ) essentially still threw that first segment and all others under the bus as soon as he saw a benefit for himself to do so, but they were collaborating before that.
I also assume segments that are from more different ages are more likely to disagree than segments that are very similar to each other. Young segments might not agree as much with old segments since they represent different points of Dottore’s life and as such, vastly different perspectives, but similarly “aged” segments might be more agreeable.
And if this Segment is "close" in nature to the one we see in the quest - well, that Dottore admitted to Nahida that he was a particularly selfish version, so the "close" Segment would likely be, as well. Would a selfish Dottore really care enough about his clone to die for the sake of the clone's spiteful revenge plan?
If he wanted a Segment to cooperate in such a plan, he might actually be better off choosing a younger, more angry-at-the-world segment. Maybe like one from the time in his life when he was freshly expelled from the Akademiya...
This is largely just Omega since he considers himself the most selfish of all the segments. Pretty sure he even implies that if it had been another segment, that part of the deal wouldn't have happened.
Idk if it was mentioned and i missed it, but the gli5ches at the end of the quest also spell out in morse code at the top of the screen "you did not stop me" i saw a post showing the translation and the morse code earlier on reddit as well as on tiktok. This peobably is dottore saying that.
Many things in this quest does not make any sense.
1. Clear space as you said.
2. Columbina had portal to when she created lunnotar but if portals bound to her how portal exist if lunotar not exist yet.
3. How Columbina was born in Nod Krai in the first place.
4. Why ship was on the moon if sibling only 500 years ago woke us up. It means it was in Nod Krai all these years and only after cataclysm Asmoday found it?
5. Why Teyvat is a globe while its flat 🤡👍
Fun fact the very first time glitch fx appear in quest MC said line "its all not real"
And why the f quest ended twice?
It all like whole Quest was one big fan fiction by Dottore where he used knowledge only he knew hence why there is minor mistakes in plot line. Just like the first scene after kidnapping in town where he had no idea about NPCs lore hence why we spotted fakeness.
Edit: and this talk of Dottore about dreams and perfect life just like Penacony some sort. Happy ending? Columbina doesnt believe in endings...
Its like just another experiment: "what if" to see what Traveller actually can do. Can they kill a god?
If yes, they want kill a God, how convenient.
Number 3: Harry Potter and his Parents come to mind in the 3rd book of that series. He tried to cast a patronus, but it did not work. Then he saw one that looked exactly like his dad's was supposed to look like, so that is what he thought happened. Then when he traveled back in time, and realised *he* was the one who cast it, he did it, and knew it would take, because he had seen the result. Same goes with Columbina. She knew she would be reborn exactly when she would be needed.
Your number 4: Columbina said that the HP put the spaceship on the moon. Then (IIRC) Traveler went inside the ship, looked at the logs and found out they never even landed on the planet. They flew by once, with both of them in the spaceship, and many years later, only the Traveler flew by again. No landing, but they did wake up in Teyvat.
Number 5: what makes you think you are looking at a globe? Why can't it be looking at the world from straight above, with a flat surface? Did we see it rotate? I did not, in any case... I did not stay there long enough.
I do think Traveler could kill a God. They just do not have a reason to do that.
Now the implications of a moon physicaly moving x hundred or thousand km closer... xD
(He could even repeat the illusion over and over to get the most accurate results. There seem to be some Irminsul shenanigans going on because Godttore has the irminsul lines on his arm, but that's a different tangent.)
In this illusion the universe looks vibrant and alive because thats what Teyvat's fake sky looks like; Dottore can create thriving illusions, but he has to base it on what he knows. And he simply doesn't know that Teyvat is drifting through a dying universe.
We saw his "godness" only in those bubbles. Why he need those to test powers? Only if its just his technology and has nothing to do with gods powers.
So final fight in town can be just another bubble he created on the spot
Even Varka wondered why he did nothing when Scara saved MC. Simply cuz he coudnt do a shit outside of bubble
Oh, and as he said himself its a good choice to flee at the right moment. Doubt he would die easily
Edit: but if he was a god with full auhority its just stupid how he lost to a bunch of vision holders 🤡👍
After killing niwa, he transformed his body from Escher back to his regular form and the whole screen glitches.
I could even see himself installing a segment of himself within one of the people that was there and shunted to an animal body. So they get up and leave as normal, but down the line, we meet an animal (with the help of either Columbina or Lauma that can talk to animals) that says they used to be a human until the bubble experiment and Dottore took over their body.
I also forgot about the curse. yeah, I think it might activate next time we meet him to let him get away by stopping everyone that was there the first time he was defeated. I don't think it will activate upon leaving Nod-Krai though, since Lantern Rite is coming up soon and will likely involve leaving Nod Krai, which we can now see on a canonical timeline.
We seen it all with the dream samsara back in Sumeru, and Penacony’s fake ending in HSR.
We didn't actually defeat Dottore, and the end of the AQ, we are inside his experiment. The quest complete banner 'glitch' we see is an indication of that. May be Dottore got a glimpse of the 4th wall like how Alice is aware of it?
The curses probably got dispelled when Dottore is down, consider Arlechinno and Wanderer both leave Nod Krai without issue at the end. Maybe it not even real but lie to fucked with the cast.
The energy fields is interesting, we known what happened in 2 of them, he test soul swap with animals and playing trick with Traveler. We dont known what happen in the other. Could he just trying out his new godlike power ? Dottere said he is basically a god now with no draw back, but most of his feat is inside these energy fields, could it be that he still not 100% in control of his new power ?
1. The non glitched version with Columbina and Traveller from the moon looking down at Teyvat
2. The glitched version with afterimage of Dottore's technology hijacking the 4th wall after the scene of Varka's letter to Mondstat
My theory is though he may have been obliterated, he exists and persists in the traveller's mind hence we can go to the false moon institute (Dottore's trounce domain).
He's a parasite that is feeding off the traveller's ability to bear witness to the world of Teyvat, hence why we saw Irminsul burning in Sumeru AQ and thus Dottore
Persists in the Traveller's memories.
I'mma take a page out of the Phantom Pain and say...
Hence why Dottore knows the only way to be untouchable is to persist at a level wherein Teyvat cannot influence the traveller but the Traveller themselves cannot purge Dottore from their memories as doing so would be ill-advised. And thus Dottore can torment the traveller while the outside world and the rest of Teyvat might percieve the Traveller as being paranoid of a problem that doesnt exist or a problem wherein people in Teyvat wont believe the traveller because from their perspective they see that everythinf is fine when there is dottore messjng with stuff in the background and only tbe traveller can see the real truth.
Also Dottore almost managed to sense Neffer peering into the Traveller's memories. Rerir also did this when the gang was looking into his memories in the earlier Luna patches...
That glitch after Varka's letter to Mondstat could also be fake in a way because Nicole said to us we should percieve the world as it is for what we see is the real truth... Given that Dottore said that Time was the hardest to manipulate... he likely went back to another segment in time... hence Wanderer was saying he left a large amount of destruction and chaos in his wake across time...
There, I summed it up for you and it isn't even a theory, it's a an actual fact.
I think his nefarious plans to become a god are over. But he might have another segment as a backup somewhere that is more sane and eventually becomes playable should Hoyo wish to do so. Maybe that segment goes on to burn Irminsul. Who knows.
Otherwise I agree. This was clearly an experiment. I do believe Dottore knows he cannot usurp the Heavenly Principles without the help of a Descender.
He was using the opportunity of running his experiments to “shoot his shot” with the traveler, but ultimately that wasn’t his main goal.
I don’t think he fully expected to win or lose in the end, but either outcome is more data.
Or, albeit is a bit of a long shot, the experiment is ongoing in some way and we didn’t defeat him at all.
Point (1) is not a “Chekov’s Gun” thing because it literally happens at *the end* of the story chapter. It’s a cliffhanger. If, in future updates, it’s never brought up again, then it would be a “Chekov’s gun” but right now it’s just a cliff hanger.
(2) one of things we do concretely know about Dottore is that he experiments. The Albedo and Hat guy section was literally used to show us what was in those fields (thus removing the “Chekov’s gun” element). He’s also been experimenting in the background this whole time. So imo, it doesn’t really matter what other experiments he was running in the other places, it’s just in character for Dottore to set up and run even more experiments, now with god powers.
(3) Yea the curse is very close to being a “Chekov’s Gun” but, combined with the ending screen glitches, it may still actually come back to be “fired” and have story relevance. But as a narrative device to keep the characters within Nod Krai, it is *very weak* and almost unnecessary. Everyone affected was going to stay regardless because it was either their home, or to bring back Columbina. Certainly within this version it is a “Chekov’s gun” but, again, like Arlecchino leaves Nod Krai at the end. But, Nod Kari’s story isn’t over yet as a whole, and as we saw with Columbina being the “secret ally” this whole time, the curse may come back to be explained in the future
4) That’s not a “Chekov’s gun” situation. That’s just speculations made on what we know Dottore is capable of or potentially capable of. But let’s set aside any speculation and look at what the story presented us with. He did not actually foresee Columbina coming back as the Trilune Goddess with the *real* power of the 3 authentic moon goddesses. Remember, Dottore only had 2 marrows and a fake moon, we see the Iridescent marrow get taken, and then his fake moon gets crushed. Segments aside (cause I mean thats just speculation) it would be quite the ass pull for something like teleportation to just occur like that while under the pressure of fighting another True god.
"Chekhov's Gun", noun, "the literary principle that a writer should not include an object, detail, character, etc. in a story that is not necessary to the story"
**or**
"an object, detail, character, etc. that appears near the beginning of a story and does not seem important, but becomes important later"
(the original definition as coined by Anton Chekhov, and the commonly used layman's definition)
Have you perhaps confused it with a red herring?
Wanderer mention that the segments were based on its own mechanism so if dottore forgot him then also its research on wanderer is gone.
Like when childe is surprised dottore is building a god even if it was the whole point of sumeru. Nobody remember that project too.
- He had some deal with Dottore (if I don't mess him up with Ororon or Rerir)
- Stood in THICK shadow in Curatorium during early mentions of Dottore in Nod-Krai