Hi guys I am Inotia King a youtuber, redditor and gamer who likes theorizing about the story. I actually cobbled together a list of some of my more important theories with respect to the game Genshin Impact and Star Rail that I have been basing all of my newer theories on. I'll be putting more of those up on Hive along with new stuff but if you're impatient I also archived all my theories here. I hope some of you guys are game theorists too. Let's try to figure out these great games together!

(This theory is very long because there's so much information to cover so I've added a summary at the end.)

I'd been theorizing about the Scaramouche story for a while. My earliest dealt with his participation in the Unreconciled Stars event all the way back in v1.1. That's how far his lore goes in this game. So for a character this deeply rooted in the game's history it's only right that it should develop as an ever-present backdrop interlaced with the progression of the main story right? Well miHoYo had different ideas. They just slapped him onto the Sumeru story and called it a day. I took major issue with this so let's talk about it.

As soon as it was leaked that Scara was going to become playable I had a feeling there was no way to tell his redemption arc properly with just a single Archon Quest Interlude. These arcs take time to tell since for as long as the villain was a villain they'd need a respectably equivalent amount of time to make up for it. As I said Scara's story started all the way back in v1.1 and continued to develop leading into the Sumeru Archon Quest. Thus far we only knew him as a callous villain. Only his abandonment by Ei and a few vague hints about an incident in Tatarasuna suggested any more to his character. Additionally good redemption arcs need to provide meaningful consequences for the reforming villain which are sometimes so impactful that the only outcome is a Redemption Equals Death ending. The worst thing you can do in one of these arcs is to blame it all on someone else.

So what did we get in Inversion? Right, they just blamed everything on Dottore. Then Scara's totally absolved of all his past crimes since "it wasn't his fault. He was lied to!" Even worse though and this wasn't something I had even considered since I thought it was beneath miHoYo's storytelling capability but they actually rewrote the story so that Scara would have to be absolved. It was quite disappointing. And let's also not forget the memory wipe part of the story as well. Good grief.

Side Note: And not only did they blame it all on Dottore but they even had him infect Scara with a heavy dose of Tatarigami just in case anyone still wanted to hold Scara accountable for the crimes he committed hundreds of years after this incident. He’s crazy now too! Insanity plea is on the table.

I want to use this first section to point out just how many issues there are with Inversion of Genesis. Right from the start we can raise red flags that Nahida would make a deal with a known Fatui Harbinger to give him access to Irminsul knowing full well he had the power to properly navigate and utilize its resources. But the worst part about this deal is that it predictably bore no fruit. At the end of the Archon Quest Nahida herself stated that Irminsul wouldn't have records about the Descenders which was confirmed when the Traveler is the only one able to remember Rukkhadevata. The excuse given was that Scara would know what to look for in the event anything was there. But as soon as Scara confirms there are no records of the Descenders in Irminsul what does he do? Explain the intel from the Fatui about the Descenders and the Traveler's sibling. In other words Nahida only needed to make a deal for Scara's Fatui intel and that didn't require sending him into Irminsul. In fact, we know from dialogue later in the quest that Nahida can find the information she needed directly by coming into contact with Scara just like she had Dottore and the Traveler. Had she told Scara to focus on the information he had about Descenders and the sibling, Nahida would have seen the information herself and then known what to look for in Irminsul thus preventing the entirely of the remainder of the quest.

But that wasn't the only problem with this. Nahida also tasked the Traveler with watching Scara in Irminsul. How? It was shown that Irminsul is difficult to navigate and required someone like Scara to do so safely. All he would have needed to do is tell the Traveler to go down a path he shouldn't or to touch one of those "sapling things" and the Traveler could have been lost in Irminsul forever. And she's the God of Wisdom right? Maybe the sages were onto something.

Now for the Tatarasuna Incident. Prior to Inversion we knew several pieces of information through the World Quests. The Mikage Furnace was built by Fontaine engineers, honing the power of the Tatarigami in the Crystal Marrow. It was sabotaged by the Fatui hoping to stoke the ware between the Shogunate and Watatsumi. This ties into Orabashi's Legacy where the Fatui damage Ei's Tatarigami prevention measures which caused permanent rainfall in the area. Tatarigami acts like nuclear radiation on the humans exposed to the area.

We also knew some information about the incident itself. We knew there was an accident that caused the furnace to be sealed off before the Fatui's sabotage in modern times. This incident had someting to do with Scara being acquainted with a detective Nagamasa and his subordinate Katsuragi who ended up being killed by Nagamasa for a crime Scara committed. Nagamasa is the adopted son of the oni Chiyo who went insane and Ei had to slice her arm off when she attacked. Based on the Husk of Opulent Dreams Nagamasa strove to restore Chiyo's clan's honor after this. As a result he eventually attacked Scara because he believed he was an abomination as a puppet and being acquainted with him could further tarnish his clan. Katsuragi helped Scara escape and so Nagamasa killed him for treason against the Shogunate. This then implies why Scara went after the Gokaden because Nagamasa was also a swordsmith. Now let's see what miHoYo came up with.

In Inversion we're told that Niwa and Nagamasa had investigated Escher and found out he was lying. But according to Dottore, Nagamasa didn't act on this because he was "being cautious?" Basically he was trying to protect his clan's honor and so he didn't report to the Shogunate with all the evidence against Escher and that leads to the incident which then required Katsuragi's death to cover for it and protect the clan's honor.... Wouldn't correctly reporting a plot against the Shogunate be a great way to restore the clan's honor? Wouldn't not reporting it and having it lead to the devastating Tatarasuna Incident be a huge disgrace to the clan's honor? And speaking of playing it safe, remember how all it took for the Shogun to execute Signora was that she lost a duel? I'm fairly certain proof of sabotaging the Mikage Furnace would have her Musou no Hitotachi Dottore in a heartbeat. On top of that, a patch earlier Yae Miko had somehow figured out a lingering Fatui plot was happening in Sumeru while she was still on her way there from Inazuma. How did she not notice what was happening in Tatarasuna? Short answer? Plotholes.

Also during Escher's conversation with Niwa he says that Niwa wouldn't want the truth from getting to the outside world? Why? You'd think "the Fatui are sabotaging our furnace and poisoning our people" would trigger worldwide red flags on Snezhnaya and stop the Tsaritsa's plans right away. Watching this made it seem like miHoYo's basically saying that the Fatui would have been wiped out if this one stupid Japanese guy just outted Dottore now with all this evidence. Instead he decides to pretty much commit suicide by confronting him alone and then also turning his back to him so he could stab him. You know back then some Japanese players thought that Mihoyo deliberately portrayed them poorly and I had disagreed with that. But with this stupid decision by Niwa? It makes it so much harder to defend.

Now for the lie. After killing Niwa, Dottore tells Scara that he had murdered a servant, cut out their heart, shoved it into Dottore's device and then fled Inazuma. So Problem No.1: Scara already knew and befriended Niwa. Why would he believe someone from Fontaine that Niwa was even capable of something like this? How fragile were his friendships that he could just believe Dottore's lie? Problem No.2: How did Niwa even know the machine needed a human heart to function? In fact, after the history changes Niwa instead dies alongside another person to do the same thing with the device. There was no reason to believe a heart was all that was needed. No.3: Even if both Scara and Niwa were this stupid you'd think Nagamasa with all the evidence against Dottore might have tried explaining the truth to Scara afterward. No.4: This all happened 400 years ago. You'd think even without anyone explaining it to him and with the assumption that he was very naive back then that at some point in the 400 years following the incident Scara might have looked back and gone over this deeply impactful event in his life. We see how much more aware and experienced he is at present so it's highly unlikely he wouldn't have noticed the obvious flaws of his actions that day.

Irminsul's malleability. Think about what we know about Scara. He became a god only through the use of Ei's Gnosis channeled through a robotic shell. The sages hadn't even gotten around to infusing him with the Divine Knowledge Capsules yet. Through this set up, he was able to connect to Irminsul. Isn't it concerning that someone with such a rudimentary stint as a "god" could so easily manipulate Irminsul's records? His actions canonized how vulnerable everyone's memories are.

And besides showing how easy it is to manipulate Irminsul, we're also shown how easy it should be to point out to people that they're memories were altered. After Scara erases himself Paimon is beside herself with worry so she starts listing off food. When the changes take affect she suddenly loses her train of thought. She doesn't recover from this and the Traveler has to then remind her that she was listing off food. Knowing this, all the Traveler ever has to do is remind people of an odd moment in their lives when they suddenly had a memory lapse. Unless it happens often to them they should realize something is wrong and so if they're given the explanation from a trusted source like the Traveler that "Irminsul was altered" they likely will believe it and be open to the Traveler's explanation like in this case, "The Balladeer erased himself. That's why you suddenly couldn't remember what you were doing." This wouldn't be an option if there was no dramatic pause in the continuity to accompany the change. For example, some time travel stories have the future suddenly appear differently and only the unaffected main character notices it. You can't explain to anyone that there was a change because they had all gone about their lives as usual according to their perceptions.

Irminsul's amateur editing. So the basic story behind Scara destroying the Gokaden was that he started off with the Hyakume and then worked his way across the other families. He got up to the Kaedehara clan, Niwa's clan before sparing Yoshinori after severely wounding the head of the Kamisato clan and then losing interest. As a result of failing to capture or kill Scara, Yoshinori and Kamisato decide it is best to keep their encounter to themselves and Yoshinori then stopped teaching Isshin Art to his family fearing that Scara would come back. Kamisato later dies from his injuries and his clan is ruined until the present day when Ayato is finally able to bring it back to prominence. In fact, Yae had to make a rare appearance to vouch for the clan just to prevent their removal from the Yashiro Commission. Then Scara erased himself and Irminsul had to account for this change.

In the edited version the Hyakume Clan became angry at the Shogunate and 300 years later one of them would go insane and carry out the same murders Scara did. So first of all, as a prominent clan in the Gokaden it is very unlikely that such animosity towards the Shogunate would go unnoticed and then to keep stability this clan would fall out of favor and likely be removed from the Gokaden. But why did they become angry? It was explained that the other person to help Niwa with the device was from the Hyakume Clan and after the incident no reparations were made to them for their loss. How would that happen? A prominent clan like this would definitely be taken care of if for nothing else than to keep them from becoming angry with the Shogunate. As such, having not done this would be a point of scrutiny and just like in the Paimon scenario, imagine the Traveler simply asked Sara about why they were never compensated. Failing that, why did the Tenryou Commission not notice for 300 years that this clan was becoming more and more antagonistic towards the Shogunate? Why were they never purged on suspicion of treason? This legitimately happened in Shogunate era Japan. Now going back to the Hyakume, the story goes that the one that finally cracked murdered his own clan first. This entire clan has been fuming against the Shogunate. How would it make sense for the one clan member to take out his clan's revenge.... by first killing his own clan? Wouldn't it have made more sense for the clan to unite under his banner and kill the other clans or to wage war directly against the Shogunate? Imagine in our real world if the Confederacy was so upset at the Union for wanting to abolish slavery that they killed themselves before starting the Civil War. Imagine the Nazis were so anti-semitic that they killed themselves before harming a single Jew. Anyway after killing his own clan, the story goes that Yoshinori and Kamisato eventually take him down. But then they feel sympathy for him and his clan so they choose not to report that they had resolved the crisis to the Shogunate and that precipitates their fall from grace. Again this all makes sense in the original Scara version because he was still at large and could come back. But in this edited version they successfully killed the perpetrator so the cost of ruining their clans for generations was because of sentiment? Imagine your best friend committed a crime and to hide their involvement, you ruin your family's reputation to the extent that your grandchildren will be suffering the consequences.

And of course I'm leaving the best part of this for last. If Scara's second betrayer is Niwa and then he goes on to kill everybody in the Gokaden as revenge on Niwa why did he start with Hyakume? What does the Hyakume or the Senju or the Futsu have to do with anything? I suppose it could be argued that Scara was saving Niwa's clan for last but he didn't because Amenoma was last. So is he resented Niwa of the Isshin Clan for this betrayal why didn't he go kill the Isshin Clan? To further the point, after killing the other clans and finally getting to the Isshin he spared Yoshinori because he was related to Niwa. Why? So Scara's plot for revenge was to kill everybody else besides his actual betrayer's clan? (And the Amenoma for some reason.) Imagine again that the Nazis scapegoated the Jews for all of Germany's problems and therefore they go and declare war on the entire world except the Jews who they are saving for last, actually second to last.

The extent of Irminsul's changes. One thing I was told when speaking about Irminsul's influence on Teyvat was that it could only change memories and could not impart any physical changes. This is disproven just by the existence of the Wanderer, an alternate form of Scara that resulted from not being involved in the Tatarasuna Incident. He doesn't have his Electro powers as Ei's puppet because in this version of events he never had them unlocked by Dottore. On top of that, Inversion introduced two NPCs who were writing about the incident. Their writings that they gave the Traveler to read are physically changed to accommodate the altered events.

Allegory. After Scara makes his changes anyone who is part of Teyvat has their memories affected. This included Nahida and so she took his memory of the incident and allegorized it to prevent it being erased by Irminsul. But this couldn't actually work. Question: How did Nahida come up with this allegorical story to begin with? Answer: The Balladeer. And then it gets erased with the other changes related to the Balladeer. However, because it is shown to work in Inversion, it is canon that Irminsul can be fooled this easily. Imagine a time travel story where the main character prepares for the possibility of the timeline being changed by saving a copy of established history as a nursery rhyme and despite the entire world changing, this nursery rhyme sticks.

The Sixth Harbinger. After the changes, Scara's place in the Fatui was removed. But what took his place? Nothing. Wouldn't that immediately feel odd for the other Harbingers? Why would they call themselves the "eleven" Harbingers yet be missing their sixth for centuries? Wouldn't at least higher ranked members like Dottore question this? And once they had they would realize something had changed and investigate, undermining Irminsul. Additionally, just like how difficult it is to justify the changes regarding the Gokaden it isn't that easy to replace Scara's role in the Fatui. He was sent to investigate the Abyss. Without him, which other Harbinger would Irminsul choose? Were they not involved in their own operations? If not a Harbinger then it would likely require a whole battalion of regular Fatui members to accomplish any of his feats. Would they not have had prior engagements as well? We're also told that in the altered events Dottore's Gundam had an empty cockpit. Scara used to occupy this cockpit as he was driving the machine. If it was empty who was piloting it? Actually wouldn't it have made more sense if the machine just didn't have a cockpit in the altered version? Because it still did, wouldn't Dottore wonder why he designed it that way? Who was he going to have pilot it? Why? It can almost be likened to a criminal trial. Scara's alibis for not being where he should be would fall apart no matter how Irminsul told it.

How to end the game today. Taking everything miHoYo made canon with this story we can actually use it to resolve all of the issues in this game right now and nobody would ever figure it out until Celestia itself attacked again. We can go into Irminsul and have it change the Cataclysm from involving the Archons and Celestia to just that Khaenri'ah imploded on its own. Without their involvement the Tsaritsa would not have her vendetta against Celestia. Without that there can be no Fatui organization. In fact, we could make the change that Khaenri'ah was abandoned prior to its downfall with all Khaenri'ahns joining other nations like the Schwanenritter in Sumeru. As deaths can be shifted we can change it so all Khaenri'ahn deaths had nothing to do with the Cataclysm which then eliminates the Abyss Order as well. Again Wanderer doesn't have Scara's abilities activated which means it is possible to change events such that the resulting people are different. It should extend to those afflicted by Abyssal Power as well. And so long as the Traveler's sibling can be recorded by Irminsul, it stands to reason they can also be affected by its changes so without the Cataclysm they would no longer have a need for revenge nor would they be able to side with the Abyss Order if the order no longer exists. After that it's only a matter of using allegorically stored memories of the true events to restore allies like Zhongli, Yae and Nahida and then find a way to depart from Teyvat to travel the stars again. Game over.

Ok so now you know all of the issues with Inversion. Now let me go over miHoYo's story with all of this in mind and you guys should be able to see how ridiculous it sounds.

Now let's see my version

Evasion of the Inversion of Genesis

My version starts at the end of the Inazuma Archon Quest. After getting the Gnosis, Scara leaves to hand it to the Tsaritsa but something tells him not to so instead he goes AWOL. Childe is then tasked with finding him and that's Labyrinth Warriors. The Gnosis continues to influence him, muddling his original thoughts about being above the gods and fate itself with using the Gnosis as a means of achieving this goal somehow.

With Scara unaccounted for how would Dottore's schemes in Sumeru get started? In the Winter Night's Lazzo, it's revealed that Dottore knows exactly what Scara plans to do with the Gnosis and how far he actually is from achieving his goal. As such and with respect to Dottore having been the one to reactivate Scara's sealed Electro powers it makes sense that he could be able to manufacture his own puppet Scara. On top of that, having in their possession two Gnoses already which are shown in their hands rather than the Tsaritsa's, it stands to reason Dottore would analyze them. Therefore, he may also be capable of manufacturing a fake Gnosis. Now wouldn't that be a scary thought? This sets the stage. Most of the Sumeru Archon Quest then plays out the same except that the Scara and Gnosis present are Dottore's fakes. His experiment is to test how successful of a forgery his versions are. His Scara is given all records of Scara's actual memories that the Fatui have access to which likely only extends to when Dottore reactivated his powers. Scara likely wouldn't have allowed himself to be tracked after that point. This faux Scara is then coerced by Dottore and the other Harbingers into thinking his ambitions only extend to becoming a god unlike the real Scara which suits Dottore's schemes with the Akademiya. After defeating this Scara, Nahida and the Traveler both realize something is off about him. Nahida will still successfully use the fake Electro Gnosis to reach Rukkhadevata but during her meeting with Dottore she'll accuse him of heresy. Dottore explains that the real Scara still has the real Gnosis but how did the God of Wisdom enjoy playing with a manmade facsimile? Humanity will no longer be under their thumb.

Dottore abandons his fake Scara as his experiment is over but this leaves him directionless. Nahida is honest with him and tells him of Dottore's actions and that he isn't the real Scara. "I had a very, very long dream... In it, people were holding hands, dancing in a circle, be they sages or fools, dancers or warriors, puppets or statues of gods... That dancing circle embodied everything about the universe. Life has always been the end, while it is wisdom that shall be the means." The Sumeru Archon Quest is about unity and acceptance. The sages didn't accept the arts. The Eremites didn't accept the truth. Deshret didn't accept the death of the Goddess of Flowers. And so to break the cycle the Traveler hears Nahida's words and "in spite of puppets or statues of gods" chooses to accept this fake Scara. He is a victim of the Fatui just like any other. He needs the chance to discover who he is which leads him to choose the identity of "the Wanderer." Being a clone of Scara though decidedly ties his fate to the real Scara which dictates that he'd be given an Anemo Vision as per the Elemental Character Traits Theory. This connection also therefore includes him in Ayato's anti-Scara team set up during Irodori.

With Wanderer in Sumeru it begs the question where is the real Scara? The only information on hand will go back to Labyrinth Warriors with Scara's odd behavior following his acquisition of the Gnosis. Yae arrives in Sumeru for the Fabulous Fungus Frenzy and just like before, she helps to resolve a lingering Fatui plot. She's unaccounted for for a time during this event which Paimon assumes she'd gone to find the matra to arrest the Fatui. However, what if she instead when to meet with her fellow Archon and confirm the success of her schemes? During the events of Irodori, Yae had also contacted Venti and with Wanderer now in possession of an Anemo Vision is stands to reason even Wanderer's creation was a part of her plans. She and Venti had also put Nahida in contact with the Traveler during the Summer Odyssey event possibly facilitating in the success of the Sumeru Archon Quest. Yae's endgame is set for a far future date when she predicts Kunikuzushi will return to Inazuma to wreak havoc. However, she knows even someone as powerful as the Traveler is still no match for one of Ei's puppets. Canonically, the Raiden Shogun is the only Weekly Boss they have yet to face. So part of the reason for giving Scara the Gnosis is to weaken him. With Ei's influence within it Scara cannot focus his full power in battle. It'd be a conflict of interest with Ei. It also bears Ei's memories and emotions including her pain of loss which motivated her creation of the puppets to begin with. This forces him to question his villainous actions.

However, Scara is too far gone at this point. He lashes out at the Gnosis. Interspersed across the next Archon Quests will be instances of Scara's activity. On one occasion perhaps he brutally attacks a village just to prove to the Gnosis that he's unremorseful and cares little for life. On another perhaps he performs an act of charity before realizing and lashing out in a vacant Domain in anger.

Alongside these events, Scara's history slowly unveils itself. This is different in my version. Niwa is not present at all and Scara is only found by Katsuragi and befriended by him and Nagamasa. Rather than Dottore's schemes with the furnace, it's Nagamasa's realization that he's a puppet abandoned by his Raiden Shogun that he believes he's an abomination and attacks him. Katsuragi saves Scara and in anger, Nagamasa calls it treason and kills him. Once he calms down though he regrets it and therefore destroys the sword, mourning his death. Nagamasa wanted desperately to restore the honor of the Mikoshi Clan and feared Scara would undermine it if he was cast off by the Shogun. Scara is embittered by this betrayal and decides to seek revenge on both the Shogunate and Nagamasa by concocting a plot to destroy the Gokaden, the most famed swordsmith clans in Inazuma as Nagamasa himself is a blacksmith. However, he's powerless to enact his revenge so he drifts for a time. That's when he meets Dottore who offers to reactivate his powers which creates the smug confidence he has in the present. As he comes into his power and chooses to enact his plot. He returns to Inazuma now empowered and experienced and takes down the Hyakume and Senju Clans with ease. However, during the onslaught he encounters someone with her own desire to destroy the Gokaden, Niwa. My Niwa is the daughter of an Isshin swordsmith. She confides in Scara that there is internal corruption across Inazuma. The rivaling clans of the Shogunate keep trying to ruin each other and her clan being one of the Gokaden is a prime target. She pleads with Scara to help her family and Scara experiencing love for the first time is helpless to resist. He agrees to help her and the remaining massacre is more geared towards allowing most to flee Inazuma than die. Over time Scara truly comes to care for Niwa but tragedy strikes. It's revealed that Niwa has a family and had been using Scara to protect them. Heartbroken and feeling betrayed, Scara flees again and there is a gap between his destruction of the Gokaden clans. Eventually he takes it up again and encounters Yoshinori who he realizes is Niwa's descendent. Despite how much he hates her, deep down he still loves her and so he spares him, only telling him to tell "her" that he has adopted the name Kunikuzushi, the nation destroyer. Afterwards, he loses interest in revenge because of his broken heart. It wouldn't be until the Inazuma Archon Quest that Scara would set foot in Inazuma again.

Finally, some time before Snezhnaya Scara will do the unthinkable. He will try to destroy the Gnosis and use it to punch a hole into the fake sky. This should prove he is above fate itself. The stage is set. He takes the Gnosis to Seirai and intends to use the devastating Bale Thunder to overload the Gnosis. The relentless bolts damage it over time which alerts all parties in Inazuma as the Gnosis cracks and releases its power in devastating bursts of Electro energy. Ei and Sara defend Narukami before Yae takes over to have Ei help Kokomi as the bolts start to reach Watatsumi. Preoccupied with defending the region, Yae has Ayato send out his anti-Scara team. Kazuha, Ayaka with Xingqiu and the Traveler go to face off against him. Albedo who also finds himself in the region again accompanies them which will set him down his own path later on. Finally the Wanderer will also reluctantly appear. Together we take down Scara and as he falls apart Yae informs the Wanderer that he still has a chance to save Scara from damnation. He is after all basically Scara too. It turns out with Scara having been influenced by Ei's Gnosis all the while he has long realized and accepted his evil deeds. This is akunin shouki and to be saved he will need to die to pay for his crimes. But his memories that led to this ending can be absorbed by the Wanderer and give Scara a second chance at life through him.

At first Wanderer rejects this because he's disgusted by Scara. And Scara is resigned to his death as deserved. His thoughts linger on Niwa who represents the core of his benevolence and by understanding it he can be saved through akunin shouki. Yae nudges Ei forward who pleads with the Wanderer to see the potential for good left inside of Scara and to do for him what she failed to. He is still hesitant since he still has the memories of what Scara did in the past and sees how monstrous he's become in the present. The team consisting of level-headed Kazuha, kind-hearted Ayaka, justice-minded Xingqiu and also an artificial lifeform Albedo also speak to benevolence which slowly gets through to him. The two Scaras have a conversation where Wanderer sees that Scara was also deceived by Dottore into becoming what he is. The Doctor has preyed on his insecurities and warped his judgment. In the end Wanderer accepts him and takes on his memories. As such Scara is allowed to let his evils in the past die with him while his memories live on in the Wanderer to move towards a better future. The rest of Scara breaks apart and crumbles to dust and the group embrace Wanderer, welcoming him back home.

What's in a name?

This all ties into my name for the Wanderer, Raiden Kuge. Having come back home, he follows the traditions of Inazuma and gets his surname from his "mother," Raiden Ei. His "sister" is the Raiden Shogun. Kuge then is a term during Shogunate Japan to refer to the nobility. As the Shogunate is an illegitimate military dictatorship technically ruling under the Tenno, Kuge fits Scara as he is "nobility" as Ei placed him in the care of Yae who would represent the Tenno. Kuge were also technically higher in status then the Shogun and Scara is the Shogun's older brother. Lastly, as the Shogunate only shows nominal loyalty to the Tenno the Kuge are powerless despite officially holding higher rank. Scara holds no sway in Inazuma compared to the Shogun. He had even been discarded by Ei.

Ok so in summary:

• Scara's story ended very poorly because the story is riddled with plotholes and signs of lazy writing.
• Redemption arcs tend to require a Redemption Equals Death conclusion to justify redeeming the villains after witnessing all of their crimes.
• The worst way to resolve these stories is to put the blame onto someone else as it removes agency in the character. This is what happened to Scara. Everything was blamed on Dottore. On top of that he had also been drugged by Dottore with Tatarigami, a substance known for causing violent and irrational behavior.
• Furthermore, the story played out in a way that all of Scara's victims were made to forget what he'd done to them further absolving him of responsibility.
• Nahida's deal with Scara to allow him into Irminsul is reckless. She would have known that he wouldn't find information on the Descenders and the need to prove her hypothesis is outweighed by the significant and predictable risk granting him access to Irminsul poses.
• She could have made the deal to have Scara divulge his Fatui intel and Nahida's mind-reading abilities would be able to fully comprehend it allowing her to find the Descender information on her own, safely.
• Nahida tasks the Traveler with watching Scara but since Scara knows how to navigate Irminsul and the Traveler doesn't there was no way to do this.
• miHoYo's version of the Tatarasuna Incident doesn't follow the previously established lore they had provided about it.
• Nagamasa and Niwa were sitting on proof of foul play by Escher and did nothing with it. Had Nagamasa reported it and Ei put a stop to the plot this would have restored the Mikoshi Clan's honor. Not doing this led to the incident which then required Katsuragi's death just to prevent further loss of honor.
• Yae was able to foresee a plot by one of Dottore's underlings in Sumeru. How did she not notice a Dottore plot right in her own backyard?
• Niwa confronting Escher on his own without weapons after knowing he faked his identity and is responsible for the issues with the Mikage Furnace is stupidly suicidal.
• Scara believing in a lie from someone as unfamiliar as Escher about someone who was a close friend like Niwa is unbelievable. And the lie itself was insanity. A stable and friendly person supposedly murders someone one day, rips out their heart and shoves it into a machine they don't even know how it truly functions and then flees the country just to insult his friend. How did miHoYo expect to pass off someone being gullible enough to fall for this?
• Irminsul is very easy to change and fool. It also have poor storytelling talent because the alternate history it constructs is also riddled with inconsistencies and is far too easy to point out.
• The original history of Scara seeking revenge and using his Archon given powers to murder the Gokaden clans before sparing Yoshinori and then leaving Inazuma is easy to accept. He is that powerful. Changing it to a single human killer who is then successfully brought to justice makes all of the consequences suffered by his victims not make sense.
• Scara sought revenge on Niwa by killing all of the other Gokaden clans besides Niwa's and then sparing his descendent and then abandoning his revenge plot. Hyakume sought revenge on the Shogunate by murdering his own clan first. This is Twilight Zone logic.
• Irminsul's changes can cause physical changes as well including the abilities a person has and what they've created. However it can't affect fictionalized accounts of historical events that were then changed despite those stories being based on historical events that no longer happened.
• Following Scara's changes we're meant to accept that the Harbingers didn't fill in their Sixth Harbinger rank for hundreds of years though they still consider themselves to be the Eleven Fatui Harbingers despite this meaning there are only ten.
• As a result of all of this information it would be a simple task of changing the events of the Cataclysm to prevent the creation of both the Fatui and the Abyss Order and this means the Traveler's sibling would not have joined the order and sought revenge on Celestia. Therefore they'd rejoin the Traveler and they could easily leave Teyvat and end the game.
• In my version of events, Niwa is now a woman from the Isshin Clan of the Gokaden who convinced Scara to help him save the Gokaden members from Inazuma's internal politics which are canon based on other information. She then reveals she has a family and was using Scara to help her protect that family. This is reflected by the Kagotsurube Isshin sword that was created as a consequence of Scara's attacks on the Gokaden. Scara stops his rampage when he sees Yoshinori because he is her descendent and he still loves her despite the pain she caused him.
• My Nagamasa feared that Scara was discarded by the Raiden Shogun and befriending him would be seen as an affront to the Shogunate and therefore he attacked Scara. This is reflected by the existing lore released prior to Inversion. As he is a blacksmith, Scara destroys the Gokaden for revenge.
• My Sumeru Archon Quest has Dottore build his own Scara and Electro Gnosis as an experiment to see if he could. He then deceives the sages into believing they are real and the quest plays out as normal until the Traveler defeats the fake Scara. Dottore promptly abandons him because the experiment is over and as a result the fake Scara becomes lost. Then based on Nahida's line from her Ascension Emerald the Traveler accepts him as a new friend. And thus the fake Scara adopts the name Wanderer and receives an Anemo Vision based on his lingering ties to Scara which he cannot escape.
• In the meantime the real Scara is being influenced by the Gnosis Yae had given to him which slowly creates a hint of good in him. However, Scara himself has committed too many evils to redeem himself and this evil makes a final stand by trying to destroy the Gnosis and punch a hole into the fake sky of Celestia thereby proving his claims of being above it. The collateral damage this scheme would cause forces the Traveler to end him.
• As per Yae's plan Ayato had set up a team to confront Scara one day and then she and Venti helped resolve Nahida's issues in Sumeru so that she could help nurture the creation of the Wanderer, a new life for Scara that can serve as his second chance. Following his final defeat, Yae has Ei, Ayato's team and the Traveler convince the Wanderer to accept Scara's memories, living the productive life that Scara would never be able to. And this fulfills Scara's akunin shouki path by giving him a new life while his ill deeds die with his old life.
• Raiden Kuge serves as my Wanderer's name because Raiden is a surname tying him to his "family" while Kuge is a powerless nobleman in Shogunate Japan which reflects his powerlessness in Inazuma as a discarded prototype of the Raiden Shogun.

Notes:

• Akunin shouki is a concept in Buddhism unique to Japan during the Sengoku Era. Shouki is the Buddhist concept of a review of one's life at the end of it. The akunin shouki therefore is a review of the life of someone who is supposedly "evil" for the sake of coming to terms with their actions so they can be saved. That's why it only works for Japan. Buddhism otherwise (like in China) is much more strict about the actions allowed. Immoral deeds no matter the circumstance are judged harshly and lead to a person's expulsion from the samsara into the Naraka. Akunin shouki was developed because of how bad the Sengoku era of Japan was. (btw when I say Sengoku I don't mean the official time period. I'm using the term as shorthand for all of Japan's broken up and chaotic phase.) Sorry for the confusion. But it's not easy to go "the Kamakura, Shogunate periods, Sengoku, Foreign exploitation, Edo (to some degree) Periods leading up to the Meiji Restoration" every time. As it relates to Scara, once Ayato's team kill him, it puts his life into the shouki review. He'd then see all his actions were motivated by immaturity and lashing out at the circumstances that made his life unfair. He's justified in that but it does not excuse his crimes. He'd come to realize this thanks to the influence of Ei's Gnosis. Then the Wanderer is there to provide him with a new life with the potential for good. And thus Yae's own task is fulfilled too since she had told Scara long ago that she'd help him.
• Nahida was able to sense everything happening in Irminsul from the outside. Scara could only interact with it while on the inside. This is one example to show the vast distance between a true Archon and Gundam Scara.
• Another plothole in the story is that the sages extracted a memory from Scara about the Tatarasuna Incident. Given that they analyzed it objectively and when Scara viewed this same history in Irminsul he realized the truth of the situation, what was Dottore planning to do had this information been uploaded into the Gundam Scara? Scara would have gone berserk and hunted Dottore. My version of this story would also have this problem but the difference is that a fake Scara of Dottore's manufacture could also have a failsafe planted in him. This failsafe could even come up in future interactions between the Wanderer and Dottore and act as an existential crisis for him, having his will under the total control of his creator. I think my version speaks for itself.

Topic originally created on November 1st, 2022. (based on even older theories extending all the way back to 10/27/2021 and acts as a compilation of those theories)