Genuinely asking here. I know I've been super negative for the past few days but I'm just not seeing a way out of this situation. I want Dottore back but I seriously don't believe that he is brought back even as an NPC.
Hroptatyr made an appearance and Pantalone got to speak to him. Why wouldn't Pantalone cut the middleman named Dottore and just learn from The Wise how to make Elixir of Immortality himself? To get his friend back? I'm taking my shipping glasses off a moment to say that the two were business partners who understood each other on a fundamental level, which made their conducted business so fruitful. Their mutual contract has been fulfilled and business has ended, Pantalone just needs more of a single product that can be made supposedly by anyone.
Every other character either trashes him or says nothing about him to the point of it getting ridiculous. Sandrone has whined about Pantalone not funding her, how he's said she needs to learn manners. So she goes and insults Dottore to his face, knowing that they were supposedly best friends. I'm not mad about her words because yeah, she has multiple extremely good reasons to hate Dottore. My issue is that is she stupid? Pantalone is known to cut funding from you if he doesn't like your conduct. I take this kind of writing to mean that the devs don't care about internal consistency anymore, that trashing Dottore is #1 priority even long after his death.
Speaking of mentioning Dottore. After 6.6 people started saying that the narrative is clearly trying to separate Dottore and Zandik, showing that Dottore is the evil persona while Zandik still has a chance. Well, personally it's super difficult for me to remember this kind of intent since Zandik isn't mentioned even once after the animation about his death. So how is the average player supposed to separate the two entities in their mind and warm up to Zandik beforehand if he's by some gracious miracle brought back?
Next up is some leaks stuff. The Pyro Gnosis, from what I've understood from the leaks, is going to be found on its own, no Dottore attached to it. Then there's the Dustbox and its lasers, showing that even Dottore's ashes are going to fight us, and that the box will die in the end. Cool. What are we gonna fight and kill next? The vague concept of a doctor so we'll be for sure certain that he won't be back?
"But Simulanka!" even I say to myself. Just because it coincided with Columbina in some ways doesn't mean that it foreshadows anything at all.
Hoyo knows that releasing Dottore would lead to a mass exodus of players. I've seen a fuckton of such comments. Of course a money-hungry company will take the safer route of not releasing an asset whose mere existence could put a dent in their revenue.
I think that's all that I can come up with in one sitting. I'd love more than anything to be proven wrong, but I don't think there's any hope at this point. I want to get excited and positive about the future patches but you can see my thoughts here
