About the Tsaritsa’s stance toward Dottore and his actions thus far

This discussion is for entertaining purpose only, once more official materials are released, it might not be relevant anymore given that the Tsaritsa might be retconned to be more appeal to the player base. However, up to now, I really like how the Tsaritsa is portraited and would like to discuss more about that.

In Chinese, there is a saying “like king, like subjects.” This indicates that the rulers tend to select subordinates who resemble them. Considering her choice of the Eleven Harbingers and their true natures, we have a glimpse on the Tsaritsa’s character.

Of course, given the fact that it was Pierro who took responsibility in recruiting the members, one could place the blame on Pierro. However, it was the Tsaritsa who appointed Pierro in the first place, so she must have known of and agreed with his philosophy from the beginning. If the Tsaritsa knew nothing about the Harbingers’ actions, then it would be illogical that she could still retain her throne and authority over her kingdom.

Not much about the Tsaritsa has been revealed, so but her actions and decisions reflected her character.

Thus, the recruitment of Zandik.

The reason why Zandik got expelled from the Sumeru Akademiya was not yet confirmed, but whatever action he took, he gained the notice of Pierro, who went all the way to Sumeru to recruit him. From Wise Doctor’s Pinion, we could see that Pierro agreed to work with Zandik even after hearing his ambition to “manufacture that which you would call a god.” If that was exceeding the Fatui’s expectation like Arlecchino said, Pierro couldn’t have agreed to it from the very beginning. 

The Tsaritsa gave the Harbingers freedom to act on their will, but it is still illogical if she allowed someone whose will she deemed go too far to become her direct subordinate. And yet, Dottore became the Second Harbinger anyway. Thus, she must have somehow allowed his actions.

Even though in the Nod Krai AQ, Arlecchino stated that Dottore had gone too far, but that might be subjective. Arlecchino had only joined the Fatui for at most 20 years, so she might not know about the Tsaritsa as much as she thought, given the Tsaritsa and the Fatui had already been there for hundreds of years.

That the Tsaritsa removed combat exception for Dottore after his attack on Columbina barely means anything. At that point, if she had not done that, Arlecchino and possibly Sandrone would still go ahead and fight against Dottore anyway. Her lack of action would cause her to lose at least one more harbinger and their loyalty, which isn’t even worth it.

There was internal investigation but given the little information that has been revealed so far that investigation was more for other nations and some harbingers to see. Because else, how could Pantalone immediately go to Sumeru right after to carry on Dottore’s plan not long after? He did not even go on his own, he carried with him a whole army. How did that go undetected?

At the end of AQ 6.6, there was a letter from Pulcinella about Snezhnaya’s action upon the situation. There is two part of the letter which should be highlighted. First, even though Dottore’s action did not represent the Zapolyarny Palace, he was only subjected to internal censure. With Dottore being gone, it was hard to say if that internal censure mattered. And there is nowhere that mentioned Dottore had been deposed by the Tsaritsa, so unless there are changes in the future, he would still be a Harbinger. The second part of the letter is even more deceptive. The letter stated that Snezhnaya would “deal with Dottore’s subordinates in accordance with Snezhnayan law, holding all those involved in his crimes accountable.” But hey, the subordinates who was involved in the Sumeru incident was Pantalone’s, not Dottore’s. Hence, would they even be charged at all? And do you think that the Tsaritsa would convict Pantalone for his action? From my perspective, if we are seeing Pantalone when we reach Snezhnaya, the Tsaritsa would have likely not.

I must admit though, that the letter itself helps the Tsaritsa a lot in gaining her reputation among the players. Yet, back in the 3. AQ, Dottore did plenty of damage and the Tsaritsa sent nothing. If that could be attributed to the former Grand Sage of Sumeru and thus classified as an internal conflict, then what about Childe’s actions in Liyue? Unless Rex Lapis took all accountability in explaining to the Liyue Qixing and thus solved the issue without the Tsaritsa. But from what I know Snezhnaya gave no explanation. To be honest, I am not sure if sending out a letter now is a retcon to the Tsaritsa’s character.

While it might likely be retconned, I would like to mention the “enhanced human” Pierro told Dottore about in Wise Doctor’s Pinion. How could one make an enhanced human without doing experiment on human themselves? And given the fact that the Fatui provided Dottore his research facility. What do you think about the Tsaritsa's actual take in his work?