You know… When I first saw Arlecchino in Winter
Night’s Lazzo… My first thought was… Oh… She’s pretty cool… Hmmm, cool… Yeaahhhh… Nothing ever
back then could have prepared me… FOR THIS: So, as you can probably see… Arlecchino
ended up being… A teeny tiny bit more than just… ‘Cool’... Her overall design and
aesthetics turned out way better than I could have imagined when I first saw her back in the
day, which is a pleasant surprise, to say the least… Hoyoverse really did a good job with her
design… So much so, that because of her I am now reevaluating everything I know about Capitano,
Columbina, and Pierro… Especially Il Capitano. But this video isn’t about Columbina, Capitano,
or Pierro… It’s about The Knave… Arlecchino. So, let us start with who Arlecchino
is… And trust me, as you're gonna see throughout this video… There is A LOT
more to her than what meets THE EYE. Arlecchino, whose real name is Peruere, was a
cursed orphan girl who was found and raised by the Fatui’s Intelligence Collecting Department,
specifically in a special orphanage they operated known as the House of the Hearth in Fontaine…
Over time, a conflict of interest led Peruere to kill the previous Knave, Crucabena, a
feat that certainly no one should overlook… Especially for a kid her age… … Eventually,
she was pardoned by the Tsaritsa and granted the title of a Harbinger herself, which led her
to take over the responsibilities of Mother. After that… Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow… Hold on,
stop right there… Let’s rewind a bit… You know how I said earlier that Peruere was raised in
Fontaine?... Yeah, I picked my words carefully, because unlike what the game might lead you
to believe… Little Peruere over here is NOT a Fontanian… And although simply not being Native
to Fontaine is generally enough to point out since the Fontanians are Oceanids transformed by Egeria,
making them inherently different from the rest of Teyvat… The distinction here in particular
IS… More prominent than you might think… You see, Peruere is not a Mondstadtian,
not a Sumerian… SHE… Is Khaenri’ahn… Perhaps not by land… Probably not
by land… But undeniably by Birth. After fighting The Knave in the Story
Quest, When the Hearth-Flame Goes Out, you will be able to go to the Archive and
access the backstory behind her power… There, it is explicitly written that Peruere is a
direct descendant of the Crimson Moon Dynasty, the Royal Bloodline that ruled Khaenri’ah before
the rise of the Eclipse Dynasty who overtook them. In that same quest, Arlecchino goes out of
her way to confirm that she does not belong to Fontaine and only says otherwise for the
sake of diplomatic maneuvering… This is all further backed up by the fact that, unlike
native Fontainians, Peruere cannot jump out of the water which is an immediate indicator that she
belongs to the Crimson Moon Dynasty of Khaenri’ah. Alright, now that we have gone over who she is…
It’s time for the main purpose of this series, which is analyzing the design of a character by
examining all of the sources of inspiration that we can find behind said character… And when
it comes to Peruere… Oh Boi… She has A LOT… And I mean A LOT even by the standards
of Hoyoverse… So… Let’s get into it. As a Harbinger of the Fatui, Peruere takes
on the name and role of one of the stock characters of the Commedia Dell'arte, a type of
Italian theater which uses masks to designate a character’s role in the story… And Peruere’s role
in this story happens to be that of Arlecchino. The Arlecchino of the Commedia Dell’arte, also
known as Harlequin, is a character famous for his acrobatic abilities and physical agility, often
portrayed as a cunning servant or trickster, who maneuvers himself into and out
of trouble with equal parts wit and athleticism. This character, with his
vividly colourful patchwork costume, traditionally symbolizes the light-hearted and
subversive elements of the play, reflecting the duality of human nature –
both the clever and the foolish. In their adaptation, Hoyoverse incorporated
this element of duality almost perfectly into Peruere… After all, she is referred to as a
woman who bears the Fire of Two Worlds… Much like the Orphaned Outlanders who were taken
in by her ancestors as described in the Book Perinheri… Furthermore, Peruere is incredibly
fast as her fighting style boasts swift and fluid movements with deceptive strength
behind her attacks… And in her Boss Fight, Arlecchino spends much time dashing and
jumping around silk threads reflecting the agility and acrobatic prowess that her
Commedia counterpart is so well known for. Her general outfit is a combination of
various artworks of Arlecchino made by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso… Now
Picasso was self-admittedly fascinated by the character of Arlecchino which drove
him to make many variations of it throughout his life… And for OBVIOUS reasons,
we do not have time to go through all of them… This video is primarily about
Dark Souls and Sekiro, NOT Pic-Ass-O. From Picasso’s work, the following three
stand out the most to me… This one, Harlequin with the Black Mask, is
almost certainly the piece that inspired Peruere’s Fatui Mask in Genshin,
which you can see in this scene right here, where she does look a lot like a character
called Raven from Honkai Impact 3rd. This one has the flared accents you see
at the end of her sleeves and pants, and finally, you have this one… Which invokes the
duality of Arlecchino that I mentioned earlier, this duality that as you will soon see,
is fundamental to Peruere’s character. The first and most eye-catching
part of Perrie’s design is her eyes, which are certainly directly based on
Pretzel Bread… Yes, I don’t care if this is what the developers intended or not, now
suffer with me every time you look at her. But, to be more specific, what makes her eyes
stand out are their X-mark-shaped pupils… And this cross mark shape is not just on her eyes…
It’s all over her… It’s on her chest ornament, her clothes, her back, her Scythe, her boss fight
animations, the icons of her Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst, and on the animations of
her Elemental Skill AND Elemental Burst… EVEN WHEN SHE THROWS HER SCYTHE
TO THE GROUND, IT LEAVES AN X-MARK I mean for God’s sake, she’s got
so many X-marks all over her that I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me her lead
character designer was freaking Elon Musk. On a more serious note, aside from any
Story-Specific relevance to the cross mark that we might still not know about…
All I can tell you regarding it is that it is supposed to symbolize Death… After all,
the children in Perinheri had to undergo some sort of death… And Perrie is a character
surrounded by death ever since her childhood. Alternatively, for some more “creative”
interpretations… The cross mark could symbolize the Unknown… For example, When
solving for a mathematical equation comprising a solitary indeterminate, it is customary to
designate this variable with the symbol X. A cross could also symbolize… Well, the
crossing of two different paths… The merging of two fires… Once again,
just as described in Perinheri. And if we chose to take a literal approach…
Pun intended… Crossing something out marks it as wrong… As incorrect… Something that
is the opposite of what should be… This one will explain itself once we get to
her transformation… And to get to that, we’re gonna have to talk about her colour pallet. Peruere’s attire is dominated by
three colours… Those being White, Red, and Black… Her tailored coat, which
takes up most of the space on her body, is predominantly white and splits into what
resembles two wings, or a bird’s tail feathers. The reason this is so interesting is because
white is generally considered the colour of purity and Peruere's design incorporates
numerous angelic motifs. The hair tie at the back of her head consists of a White
Angelic Wing paired with a Black Feather… She also has several crimson eyes on her outfit,
reminiscent of the Biblical Angels who are described with many eyes scattered across
their bodies, especially on their wings. Actually, on that topic, Peruere has Nine
Eyes… She has two functional eyes on her face along with six of these Crimson
Eye Embellishments on her front… Then, you have the Vision on her back… Which
is considered a symbolic type of eye. And this is where the real genius of her design
comes into play… When unleashing her power, Peruere replaces her two Angel Wings with Six
Spider Appendages which she can further morph into these six giant crimson angelic wings,
each with an eye of its own… This definitively makes Perrie a Seraphim, as those are also
described in the Old Testament to have Six Red Wings… And what I find so cool about
these wings is that the Six Eyes on them are actually the same Six Crimson Eye
Embellishments she has in her normal form. I wasn’t sure of whether that was really
the case at first, so I took some time to compare the two models and then noticed this
Red Spine running down her back… It also swaps positions when she transforms and ends up
on the front across her chest and abdomen. So it’s almost as if Peruere,
when unleashing her power, is inverting herself… A masterful depiction
of the duality that the Commedia dell'arte’s Arlecchino embodies… Which in Genshin
became the Cinder of Two Worlds’ Flames. Another interesting detail is the fact that
she ends up with 10 eyes instead of 9… Her vision becomes a delusion, which is called
an Evil Eye in Chinese, and she gains an additional Crimson Eye Embellishment on her
head… This is significant as the number 10 symbolizes total completeness in the Bible
and absolute perfection in Chinese Culture. However, the fact that this is her perfected form…
Also carries with it a hint of irony… Because to achieve it, Peruere somewhat abandons a part
of herself by embracing the gaze of the Crimson Moon… And in the process, she burns away her
angelic wings and replaces them with spider legs. This transcendence, so to speak, is also
symbolized through the change in her colour pallet where most of the white in her is replaced
with darker shades of red and black… Here, her appearance becomes more in line with this version
of Harlequin by the French painter Paul Cézanne. Earlier I talked about how White symbolizes
purity and is a colour commonly associated with angels… And when Peruere transforms she does
not only lose all that which is white in her clothes… In that form, even the angel-wing hair
tie she wears on the back of her head is gone. And this is the Irony I’ve been talking about…
Her transcendence is also a fall from grace… Like an Angel that burns away all
that which makes it pure… Leaving nothing but Ash and Cinders…
A choice only made by a Fool. Knowing this, I am sure that you can see
why the Developers at Hoyoverse chose to flip her front and back during her
transformation… It is a brilliant trick to convey the idea of both her
Fall and Transcendence at the same time… That she becomes the opposite
of an angel… A Fallen Angel… A Demon. On that note, the name of the Commedia Dell’arte’s
Arlecchino… Well, both of his names actually, Arlecchino AND Harlequin, are derived from two
different demons… When it comes to Arlecchino, the name originates from that of a Devil
featured in Dante Alighieri's "Inferno” known as Alichino… This Devil
is tasked with punishing corrupt politicians and is part of a group known as
the Malebranche, which means the Evil Claws, who are renowned for their cruelty
and enjoyment in tormenting sinners. How this ties into Peruere is self-evident… She
is called The Knave, her constellation IS a claw, and her hands… Eh, I don’t think I need
to explain this one… Furthermore, part of Peruere’s job is to carry out assassinations
against extremely high-profile figures, and most of the time such people end up
being wealthy businessmen, political leaders, and fake philanthropists… Just like Magante
Tartuffe whom she kills in her Character Teaser. On the other hand, Arlecchino’s other name,
Harlequin, is an evolution of Hellequin, which is the name of another Devil that
appears in Old French Passion Plays about the Crucifixion of Christ… And Hellequin
is in turn an evolution of an English mythological figure known as “King Herla of
the Wild Hunt”… My very next video is going to be about King Herla of the Wild Hunt…
However, to avoid overinflating this video, all you need to know for now is that Herla was a
great Welsh King who was Cursed to eternally lead a spectral procession hunting and gathering the
souls of the dead or those who are about to die. Now, there is A LOT MORE to Herla’s
story with Peruere… Just wait for the upcoming video and you will see…
But, even from the little I told you, we can still make a clear design connection…
Just like Herla, Peruere is also technically a “King”... After all, that was her purpose
when she was under the care of the previous Knave, Crucabena… To kill all the other
children and emerge as the One True King. Additionally, just like Herla, Peruere was also
Cursed and both their Curses are heavily involved with Death… … From Arlecchino’s first
story quest and Fourth Character Story, we learn that her curse causes those who die
by her flames to leave behind afterimages… A sort of Soul Fragment or Shadows… Kinda
like the Shades of Tokoyo from Enkanomiya. You can see these afterimages gathering
around Peruere right before her boss fight, taking the appearance of either these faceless
fairies or these single-eyed ones right here… You can take a closer look at them since they
linger around the boss arena after the fight. The correlation between Herla and Peruere
collecting souls is further emphasized by the giant scythe she wields which is
a strong symbol of harvest and death. As a matter of fact, Arlecchino’s scythe
is a perfect segue for the next part of this video... Now that we’re done with her
character… It’s time for her animations and I am really excited since now I get to talk about
my favourite video game franchise, Dark Souls… The Knave’s Boss Fight is primarily inspired
by three characters… The first two are Sister Friede and Slave Knight Gael whom we will
talk about shortly… And the third is this woman right here… Lady Butterfly from
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice… Which is an absolutely amazing game made by the same
people behind Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Now in the game itself, Sekiro,
who is also known as The Wolf, is entrusted to Lady Butterfly by his “Father”
The Owl so that she may train him in the arts of the Shinobi and teach him how to kill… Also,
I want to quickly point out that Owl was not Sekiro’s biological father… When The Wolf calls
him “Father” it’s just a title, exactly like how Arlecchino is called “Father” without actually
being one… So in that sense, Lady Butterfly was, and I say this with heavy quotation marks,
kinda like The Wolf’s “Mother” figure. When it comes to the fight itself, the most
obvious and GLARING similarity between the two is how both women jump around on
these Silk Threads and attack you from above… Which by the way, when I
saw the Trailer for Patch 4.6, the first thing that IMMEDIATELY came to my mind
was Lady Butterfly due to how iconic that move is. Additionally, we know that Arlecchino’s Curse
keeps memory fragments of the people she kills, which we can see throughout her boss fight…
They even persist after her second phase where new variations of them appear… The
key consideration here is that these are afterimages which means that they are not
the actual souls of the people she kills. And those of you who fought Lady Butterfly
know very well that in HER second phase, she summons a bunch of illusionary
phantoms to attack Sekiro. But aside from their fighting styles,
the similarities between Peruere and Lady Butterfly go a bit deeper than you think…
Hold up, some of you are gonna REALLY like this… Both Lady Butterfly and Peruere jump on
threads of silk in mimicry of the animals they represent… It is well known that all
butterflies have to produce silk during their larva stage in order to metamorphose from
a caterpillar to an adult butterfly… However, Peruere represents a Spider… She’s got 8
appendages, just like a Spider… Six being on her back and then the two Scythes she holds
with her hands… Her Animated Short has her bury her pet spider… And if you choose to ignore her
vision due to its placement on her back and only look at her from the front, then she ends up
with 8 Eyes, just like your average spider. So in that regard, unlike Lady Butterfly,
Peruere’s Bloodfire Silk is mimicking a Spider and not a Butterfly, right?...
Weeeeellll, yeeees… But there’s a Catch. If we take a closer look at Peruere’s unleashed
model… We can see that her spider leg thingies make up a certain outline, so to speak…
To help us visualize this, let’s grab an image of … Uh, I don’t know… Butterfly
for example, and, Yeeeeaaaahhhh… Exactly. Thinking about Arlecchino from this
perspective reminded me of a former member of the Narzissenkreuz Ordo named Caterpillar…
Back when Patch 4.1 came out, a lot of people noticed the parallels between Caterpillar and
Arlecchino… Leading them to conclude that since Caterpillar took on the appearance of a Hilichurl,
then so too must Arlecchino be one as well. I talked about this in a really old video
that I made where I explained that the similarities between the two characters
are more superficial rather than literal… And why Arlecchino cannot possibly be
a Hilichurl because she has a Vision, which is essentially an instantaneous
disqualifier… Fast forward to now and we know that this is indeed the case…
NEVERTHELESS… Superficial similarities are still similarities intended by the developers…
So there’s still some merit to this idea. When The Traveler and Caterpillar confront
the founder of the Narzissenkreuz Ordo, Jakob Baker, the latter expresses
his disappointment towards the fact that Caterpillar has not yet
metamorphosed beyond his cocoon. Recall that Jakob once attempted to
turn Rene into an artificial Descender, despite Rene not possessing the inherent qualities
of one. In a similar vein, although Caterpillar and Arlecchino are not the same creatures…
What Peruere IS, represents the fulfillment of Jakob's aspirations for Caterpillar—to
evolve into a 'True Butterfly,' an Angel. And earlier I talked about how Peruere can morph
her appendages into giant wings with eyes akin to those on the wings of Biblical Angels… And since
the outline of these appendages resembles the shape of a butterfly’s wings, I cannot ignore
the fact that many butterfly species, like the Peacock Butterfly you are looking at right now,
have evolved eyespots on their wings… And once again, this is where the genius of Peruere’s
character comes into play… It’s the ability of the developers to seamlessly integrate various
traits and aspects into a single coherent design. Which finally brings us to Slave Knight Gael…
For those of you who don’t know him… Well, first of all, you REALLY REALLY should, because
Gael is the final boss of The Ringed City and by that, I don’t mean the final boss of
Dark Souls 3, but rather the final fight in the entire series… The story of Dark Souls
ends with Gael his master, the Painter Girl. When it comes to Slave Knight Gael himself,
he is directly based on an old children’s fairy tale called Little Red Riding Hood… I am
sure many of you have heard about it before, like my mom used to tell me
this story when I was kid, it is stupidly popular… BUT… The twist in
Dark Souls is that he is the Big Bad Wolf. By the end of the story, Gael devours
the Pygmy Lord in order to harness the Dark Soul of Humanity so that the
Painter Girl can then use his blood to draw a new world… However, the Blood of
the Pygmies drives him to insanity and he ends up confronting the Ashen One in
a final struggle for the future of life. Now I know Gael’s story pretty
well, and as far as I can tell, there aren’t any solid lore elements that
carry over from him to Peruere… In that regard, he will likely have more in common with either
Il Capitano or Dainsleif… Perhaps even both. The real similarities come into play with their
animations… You see, while Arlecchino uses Crimson Bloodfire, Gael uses Red Soulfire obtained
from devouring the blood of the Pygmy Lords… Gael’s red coat also splits into what resembles
two wings and if you take a look at the fight, the coat will sway and swing along
with Gael’s claymore as a follow-up on his attacks to support the blows and
make them deadlier and harder to dodge. As you can probably guess at this point,
a very prominent feature of The Knave’s fight is her red wing which not only
burns like Gael’s red coat but also mimics the follow-up attack motion
that it does… In a similar fashion, both The Knave and Slave Knight Gael share
a lot in common in terms of their motifs and animations with wide sweeping attacks, homing
fire missiles, and huge jumping gap closers. And finally, we get to the third major
inspiration behind The Knave’s animations, Sister Friede from Ashes of Ariandel… Elfriede
herself is the eldest of three sisters, the other two being Yuria and Liliane, who joined
a covenant with the Primordial Serpent Kaathe, becoming his maidens… Kaathe taught the sisters
the art of the Dark Hand allowing them to absorb the souls of those whom they killed, which is
close enough to Peruere’s Curse… Kaathe then tasked the three sisters with the objective of
usurping the First Flame to end the Age of Fire established by the Gods and find a Dark Lord
strong enough to usher in the Dark Age of Man. Long story short, Elfriede, Yuria, and
Liliane fail miserably after which the eldest completely gives up, changes her
name to Friede, and sequesters herself to the Painted World of Ariandel where
she convinces the Keeper of the Realm, Father Ariandel, to give up with
her and let everything rot away. Just to be clear, I am not oblivious to the
similarities between what I just said and the story of the Moon Sisters in Genshin…
However, this is not a theory video so I am not interested in discussing any of that
here… We can save it for a different time. Knowing that he was not strong enough at that
time to take out Friede… Slave Knight Gael convinces the Ashen One to go into the Painted
World under the guise of meeting his master, the Painter Girl… In reality, Gael’s actual plan
was to stir up a conflict between the Ashen One and Sister Friede so that the Ashen One would
get rid of Friede and Ariandel on his behalf, leaving the Painter Girl alone
with the Ashen One and himself. As you can imagine, this is exactly
what ends up happening which is how we end up with what players consider
to be one of the hardest boss fights in Dark Souls 3 alongside Darkeater
Midir and Slave Knight Gael himself. Now when it comes to the animation similarities, well, Peruere has a Scythe, Friede has a Scythe…
Peruere creates blood spikes, Friede creates ice spikes… Peruere pulls you with her Scythe, Friede
pulls you with her Scythe… Peruere has Bloodfire, Father Ariandel has Bloodfire… Oh look!,
Peruere has two Scythes now? Oh look, Sister Friede has two Scythes now… Peruere
jumps into the air and delivers a spinning Bloodfire strike with her Scythe, Friede…
Well, I think you get the point by now. The Knave’s boss fight is basically a
combination of the boss fights of Lady Butterfly, Slave Knight Gael, and Sister Friede…
Obviously while lacking the difficulty from all of them because Genshin Impact is a mobile game,
which is something that I somehow always forget. For a few honourable mentions that likely inspire
Peruere’s character design but are not as involved as the aforementioned three we have at the top
of the list, Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. Look, I am sure many of you are gonna be
surprised to see me putting Lady Maria as just an honourable mention because one would
imagine that a Hunter who went after the Blood of the Great Ones in a Nightmare controlled
by a Crimson Moon would have more in common with Arlecchino… AND… Yes, she does… But most
of it is in Lore… And I did say earlier that this is not a Theory Video so I want to
minimize speculation as much as possible. Nonetheless… I also said that the very next video will involve Herla of the Wild Hunt…
And Maria, being a Hunter herself, might have a lot to do with it… Soooooo,
keep an eye out for that if you care. In terms of their animations, both Maria
and Peruere use Bloodfire and both are dual wields… Aaand that’s really about it…
The similarities in their attack are not as pronounced as either Butterfly, Gael, or
Friede for me to put her above any of them. When it comes to the dashing
attack with her Spider legs, it reminds me of Sara Kerrigan from StarCraft…
For those of you who played Heroes of the Storm, you probably know that Kerrigan has
a similar attack with her wings. This laser attack she does is likely
taken from Armoured Core 5 which is another of FromSoftware’s games… And since
I brought up Armoured Core, I might as well mention that Perrie’s English voice actor
is the same as Ayre from Armoured Core 6. But a voice actor is not the only thing
they share… Perrie’s Purgatorial Dance is identical to Ayre’s Coral Blades and possibly even a simultaneous reference
to Malenia’s Phantom Spirits. And the plunging strike at the start of her second phase is probably a homage to the start
of Malenia’s second phase in Elden Ring. Her Bloodtide Banquet from Phase
1 is literally Kafka’s ultimate from Hoyoverse’s other game, Honkai: Star Rail… And before we enter into extreme copium
territory, I will end this section by saying that her animations also have a hefty
amount of overlap with Dante from the Devil May Cry series which isn’t surprising when
we take into account that her Fatui name, Arlecchino, originates from Alichino, a
Devil that appears in Dante’s Inferno. Alright… Now that we’re done with the animations, time for some mythology and
anime influences behind Peruere. As you all know, Perrie’s constellation is
Ignis Purgatorius, which means Cleansing Fire and symbolizes the process of purification
and rebirth… But regardless of what you cleanse with fire, it always leaves behind Ash, which
manifests itself as the creeping black curse on Arlecchino’s hands… Perrie even references this
when she ignites her hands during her story quest. In her fifth Character Story, Pierro tells Peruere
to read the Book Perinheri to learn about her origins, and in that book, it is written that in
the distant past when the Crimson Moon still ruled Khaneri’ah, an orphanage would take in Outlander
children from beyond the Sea of Stars and make crawl through a Dark Chimney filled with Ash until
they meet the gaze of a titanic horrified eye, the Crimson Moon, after which they die
and get reborn in the Fire of the Hearth. The Fatui named their orphanage the House of the
Hearth, likely after the Khaenri’ahn counterpart and Perrie chose to keep that name after she
took over from Crucabena… Perrie herself says that she decided to keep the name because the
fire of the hearth sounds warm and welcoming, which would help the children feel safe and
united as a family in their home’s hearth. This immediately correlates her with Hestia, who
is the Greek Goddess of the Hearth… Hestia is the youngest of the Olympians and is renowned for
being a Virgin Goddess who presides over home and family… You will notice that such characteristics
align perfectly with Peruere… After all, she took on the title “Father”, where a
father is traditionally the head of the household and Perrie is the head of the House
of the Hearth… Where she takes in children and gives them a home and a family despite her not
being the biological mother to any of them. Finally, I would like to add that Hestia’s
Hearth is a symbol of purification and divine sacrifice… And her Fire represented
Kingship… And at the start of this video, we talked about how Crucabena’s goal
was to turn Perrie into her King. OK, we are now almost done… There is still one
final “Eye Catching”... Ha ha, ha ha, you’re about to get this joke… Design aspect of Perrie that I
noticed… And trust me, I left the best for last… Towards the end of her fight with the Traveler,
Peruere does this move that you see right here where she flashes her eyes and pulls the
Traveler into her Domain… Which… Should be some sort of a Realm of Consciousness… Not too
dissimilar from the ones that Baal, Beelzebul, and Morax can make… Now, these attacks are identical
to the Domain Expansions that you see in Jujutsu Kaisen… BUT, in this particular instance, as I
saw Peruere opening her Domain, Jujutsu Kaisen was not the first thing that came immediately
to my mind… I first remembered… Madara Uchiha. You see, in Naruto, there is this clan called
the Uchiha who carry one of, if not the most, iconic eyes… Not just in anime, but ALL OF
FICTION, PERIOD… Their eyes are so popular that I am sure all of you have seen or heard
about some in some way shape or form before… The Sharingan. Under certain conditions, a Sharingan Eye
can evolve into a Mangekyō Sharingan Eye, which unlocks an ability known as
Tsukuyomi that allows the user to create an Illusionary Dreamscape where
space and time are under their control. What really adds a layer of depth to all
of this is that the name of this ability, Tsukuyomi, is also the name of the God of the
Moon in Japanese Mythology… And in Genshin, we know that the Crimson Moon Dynasty
worshiped the Crimson Moon and forced certain children to meet its gaze so that
they could bear the fire of two worlds. The main antagonist of Naruto, Madara Uchiha,
sought to create a world free of suffering and war… To accomplish this, Madara subdued
a World Beast and transformed it into a Divine Tree… Madara then turned the Moon into
his Crimson Third Eye and what’s crazy is that in Genshin, Visions are considered a
Third Eye… But it doesn’t END HERE. Madara then, using the Moon as his Eye, cast
an Infinite Tsukuyomi on the ENTIRE WORLD, binding the people to the Divine Tree
and forcing them into his Dream… An Eternal Paradise, with neither want nor need…
Where Madara became the Master of the Dream, and ALL THE DREAMS OF THE PEOPLE belonged to HIM. Listen, there is way more to this than
the summary I just gave you right now… And the more I looked into it, the more
I found until I went insane because Oh My God does this Rabbit Hole run DEEP… But this
is not the time, so I am cutting it right here. Before we close off, there are two minor details
that I would like to elaborate on… Arlecchino’s normal attack, Invitation to a Beheading, along
with her infusion state, Masque of the Red Death… Both reference stories written by
the authors Vladimir Nabokov and Edgar Allan Poe respectively… However, these
stories don’t have anything to do with her character design and are instead in theory
territory… So we won’t discuss them here. Secondly, and this one is very important, I am not implying whatsoever that Peruere is
the Genshin equivalent of Madara Uchiha in this video… What I am saying is that
it seems like Perrie’s Bloodline, the Crimson Moon, may be based to some degree
on the Uchiha Clan from Naruto… That’s about it. Welp… This sure was one hell of a video
to make… I originally started with four bullet points to discuss regarding Arlecchino’s
character and those were: Commedia Dell’arte, Lady Butterfly, Sister Friede, and Madara… Yes,
I went in with Madara in mind since the start. But the more I dug in, the more treasure
I found and I have come to realize just how much thought Hoyoverse have put
into making this character… Honestly, makes you appreciate their efforts a bit more. Anyyyyway, this is… FINALLY… The second
video in the Design Origins Series after the first one came out… How long ago?...
6 months?... Yeah, it’s been a while. The first Design Origins video was about
Paimon, and the reason for such a long delay since then is mainly due to the
fact that I ended up being dissatisfied with how that video turned out… Not because
the information presented in it is incorrect… But rather because I have come to change
my vision on the totality of what Paimon is… And that video no longer covers everything
regarding her design and sources of inspiration. So I ended up getting stuck in this limbo
state where I kept delaying all the other Design Origins videos I promised while
debating whether I should make a Part II to that of Paimon to expand on the missing
pieces… However, after discovering the OVA Angel’s Egg and learning how all of that
ties into the grand mythos of Genshin… I realized that we are still missing A LOT
of information about Paimon’s character. So… I am just gonna bench Paimon for now until she
comes out as a playable character where I can make a proper assessment of her design… And we will
continue with the other characters as intended. Last but not least, Huge thanks to everyone who supports this channel on Patreon… And
thank YOU for watching this video all the way until the end… Not that many
people do that, so seriously, thanks. But, for now, I’ve been My Name For Now, take
care, and I will see you… In the next time!
