[2.1] A (very) Speculative Analysis of Scaramouche

scaramouche is on the surface a two-faced selfish trickster that does whatever he wants however he wants whenever he wants regardless of how questionably ethical his means or goals may be at first glance he seems like a particularly great villain he's the type you love to hate the villain that always seems to somehow have the upper hand against the hero which can be absolutely frustrating but hey he keeps things interesting but there's a lot more to this guy than you may realize and it all has to do with kabuki i bet none of you saw that coming and okay before we continue let me quickly remind you that all of this is just a theory i am human and i am fallible so i'll get stuff wrong from time to time this video is not meant to be taken as a statement of fact it's for entertainment purposes only but if you learn something in the meantime that's awesome i'm proud of you but also make sure to check the pin to comment below just in case there are any corrections and please make sure to do your own research with that out of the way let's dive back into the video but where were we oh right kabuki the overly dramatic traditional art of japanese theater which is probably still confusing to you guys since this is a video about scaramouche so let me give you a little context if you're not already aware the fatoui harbingers are each named after characters from the comedia dellarte which is a form of italian theater from the 16th century we know from senora's drop materials that being a harbinger requires you to throw away your identity and this is probably one of the reasons behind their use of masks because where are decorative masks like these usually used in the theater so anyway i've had this idea for a while that the fatoui harbingers will each represent a type of performance art from around the world for example senora can be associated with the ballet de torre with the opera and scar moosh with kabuki and child as okay i have a hard time with this one i think he's supposed to be like a russian soldier dance but i'm not 100 on that it could also be the circus but i think the circus is reserved for pirro right so anywho kabuki scaramucci i still have not explained this there are two very prominent things linking scaramouche to kabuki the first is his mask now kabuki performers don't really wear masks but they do paint their faces in a manner that's known as kumidori kumidori makeup usually begins the layer of white over the entire face then black accents are added to exaggerate facial features while markings of red or blue are used to denote the archetype of the character being played brown on the other hand is used only for non-human characters scaramouche's mask is brown which is fitting because he's not human he's like an autonomous marionette but more on that in a bit the second prominent thing linking skara moosh to kabuki is his name no not the name skara moosh because that's his fatoui harbinger name i'm talking about his real name kuni kuzushi kuni kuzushi literally translates into destroyer of provinces which is a really weird thing to name an autonomous puppet that you released into the wild o wise archon not sure what you were expecting of him when you gave him that kind of name but anyway it's not like kunikazushi was a name given to a type of portuguese breech loading swivel gun that was used in the mid-16th century and later used by otomo sorin as part of toyotomi hideyoshi's campaigns to seize control of kyushu which was eventually successful right no it absolutely was it totally was weird name to name your puppet just saying well anyway independently around the same time the name kuni kazushi began being used in the kabuki theater to describe a type of katakyaku or villain that was intent on seizing control of the country weirdly enough though the markings on scaramouche's mask have more resemblance to the markings of an aragoto hero or an angry passionate hero than they do the markings of a supernatural being in fact a lot of his design inspiration looks like it could have been taken straight from a kabuki character known by the name of umeomaru his typical clothes are red and white with distinct purple checkered pattern as well as some plum blossoms hence ume omaru ume meaning plum note the checkered pattern on scaramucci's bag and these tiny little plum blossoms on his hat accessories as an aside i will point out that plum peach and sakura blossoms are easily confused peach and plum more than sakura which is kind of funny because peach blossoms as well as plum blossoms are often associated with the infamous momotaro which scaramouche bears some small but hilarious similarities to i'll leave a link to that story if anyone wants to read it anywho weirder still umaru is a hero character who fought against a kuni kuzushi the story goes that umaru's brother was tricked by this kuni kazushi and the two then became enemies as umaru fights to stop the kuni kazushi from actually seizing control of the country i think some of you already see where i'm going with this but first just a tiny bit more history i'm sure by now you're all familiar with the sakuku decree in inazuma so it should come as no surprise that the sakoku decree was a real thing in the ido period closing the country off completely allowed japan to achieve an incredible level of economic stability during this time the common folk had a lot more expendable income which led to a rise in popularity for the theater namely kabuki prior to this time period the art of theater was mostly restricted to no which was only really able to be attended and understood by the aristocracy no in general was extremely spiritual philosophical and abstract with subdued visuals and blank masks worn over the actors faces in contrast kabuki was full of stimulated colors heavily exaggerated movements costumes and sensational plot lines that often poke satirical fun at governing bodies if you're interested in learning a little bit more about no and kabuki i'll leave a link to an excellent video on it by crash course in the description box what's kind of incredible about the stark contrast between these two forms of theater is that it immediately applies to how a and scaromoosh view the world a is preoccupied with enlightenment scaramouche is entrenched in the messy web of the world they are no and kabuki embodied and and fun fact kabuki led to the creation of another form of japanese theater known as bunraku which is like crazy uncanny valley puppet shows that makes a mama the embodiment of no skara sun the embodiment of kabuki and the shogun puppet daughter the embodiment of bunraku just hysterical to me also worth noting before we proceed though in japanese scaramouche and the shogun puppet are not called puppets they're called ningyo or dolls this is part of the reason why i think his constellation is the doll with a heart and not the puppet on a string because that one's definitely sandrone traditionally ningyo were used not only as toys but as talismans for example protective ningyo could be given to someone like say a pregnant woman in order to protect her and her unborn child from any sort of diseases harm and ill will this is a nuance that did not translate very well into english in my opinion this nuance plays off this idea in japan that the ningyo in and of themselves were typically considered to be like living creatures often possessing a heart and soul of their own they're like tiny guardians or spirits taking on their owners sins burdens and problems like some kind of supernatural bodyguard they are therefore treated like living beings even when being disposed of ningyo should always be given a proper sort of funeral typically like a burning service because it's believed that the failure to do so will result in the ningyo returning to their owners in order to seek revenge or just haunt them you know your problems come back to you anyway so scar much doll with a heart constellation i'm like 99 sure of this at this point but enough fun facts for now because you're probably wondering why we started this video with a real world history lesson and completely skipped scaramucci's backstory and that's because his backstory is actually a little messy and that requires the kabuki connection in order to find all the pieces and stitch them together in a messy little quilt of a weird anyway you'll understand why in a minute see scaramouche's backstory is really scattered all over the place and it was more of a tell don't show kind of thing in version 2.1 he's most notably mentioned by yayamiko at the end of the inazuma archon quest as well as in the pale flame artifact set's surpassing cup but he's also mentioned in two other places once in the description for the sake pavilion and again in the rather aged notes scattered across tatara tsuna now there are six rather aged notes three of them mentioning a character known as the wandering eccentric the thing is the localization does not do this term justice the original text actually says kabukimono that's right kabuki the kabuki mono were initially like gangs of wandering former servants of samurai that wore very colorful clothing as a form of rebellion against the norm of the time which favored more subdued colors and that aesthetic was then inherited by kabuki performers and yes kabukimono is a term that can be used to refer to someone who does or performs kabuki incidentally scaramouche refers to himself on several occasions as a vagrant from inazuma vagrant meaning wanderer wandering eccentric vagrant of inazuma kabukimono you with me now these notes were also found in an area crawling with fatoui and even mentioned the fatui themselves remember this for later now the shocking pavilion is also found in tatarasuna hidden behind a rock wall that you have to blast open with a cannon which may or may not be based on a breech loading swivel gun and the description of this domain also mentions this wandering eccentric or the kabuki mono if we combine the rather age notes yay nico's commentary a's voice line the surpassing cup and the description of the shokkai pavilion we are left with scaramouche's mostly complete backstory which i think goes something like this after the death of the electro arkhan makoto 500 years ago her sister a decides to create an artificial body to house her consciousness in in order to avoid erosion unsure if this venture would be successful she creates at least one prototype using long forgotten technology this divine creation is scaramouche he bears a strong likeness to a's fair features destined to a long life and a hollow will as her potential vessel but he was only a prototype so she cast him aside likely within the sake pavilion where someone would later discover him disheartened and alone but through some error awake he spent years perhaps centuries wandering around inazuma unable to age yet watching the humans around him and perhaps wondering why he was the exception to the death that came for all of them at some point a became aware of his awakening but decided to leave him be instead of attempting to deactivate him she had already sealed his powers so he wasn't a danger to anyone but alone and without guidance scaramouche believed himself to be superior to the humans that aged and died the humans that were forced to follow the fates outlined within their constellations he considered himself to be above all others and in complete control of his own destiny yet he still spent time with the common folk learning their ways until finally the future found him he joined them on a whim merely because he found them entertaining and they granted him power through experimentation unlocking the powers a had sealed away and perhaps further enhancing him still these powers allowed him to climb the ranks of the fatoui harbingers until he was named the sixth in tldr scaramouche was abandoned by his mother and left to wander the streets alone until he was found by a russian crime syndicate that took him in trained him and made him into a grade a weapons dealer absolutely a plus parenting miss electro archon a ma'am also i've said it once i'll say it again it's a really weird thing to call your kid the destroyer of provinces when you're the one ruling a province it's like you're asking him to overthrow you so don't be surprised if it happens i mean the guy does have the gnosis after all which he never told anybody about i mean he had it for three days at least before the traveler had that duel with senora and she didn't seem to be aware of it or else she probably would have been gone already looking for the dendro archon so this begs the question what in the heck is skara moosh trying to do the first time we meet scaramouche he appears to be in montsett on a mission from the jester orpiro investigating the unusual meteor shower it's not clear whether this is an official fatoui mission or whether or not pirro just said something that prompted scaramouche to check out the phenomenon for himself regardless his findings during this event that this guy is a lie seemed to have left a lasting impression for those of you who weren't around for the unreconciled stars event here's what i mean by the skies a lie basically the sky is actually a dome-like firmament littered with stars that are actually rocks known as earmancel fruit these fruit contain the consciousness of the people they belong to forming patterns known as constellations that dictate one's fate which is supposedly determined by the gods themselves now by nature scaramouche isn't someone who believes that gods can or should meddle in his affairs learning that his fate is literally written in the stars probably came as a shock but if this wasn't the fact that disturbed him it was something relating to this so let's just go with this for now fast forward a few in-game months and we meet scaramouche again this time in the depths of the delusion factory it struck me as extremely odd that he seemed genuinely surprised that we were angry about the fact that delusions were being widely distributed it's like he expected us at some level to recognize the benefits of giving people access to delusions he certainly thinks they have some merit at least although his role in distributing and manufacturing them is currently unclear this line implies that scaramouche isn't even the mastermind behind the delusion operation although he does seem to be participating rather actively to what extent i'm not sure he then taunts us by telling us to go get the real mastermind and he won't stop us it's probably safe to assume that he doesn't care at all for any of his co-workers individually and his arrogance suggests that he doesn't even think we'd be able to put a damper on their plans even if we did take out a harbinger or two his confidence as he tells us about how important the vision hunt decree was to their operation also suggests that scaramucci's current goals are in line with his own vendettas or were at least until he got a hold of the gnosis for himself because at that point scaramouche had an interesting choice to make does he give the gnosis to senora or the saritsa and gain some clout or does he keep it for himself and live up to his name of kunikuzushi and use his newfound power to seize control over inazuma himself as of right now it's very likely that the gnosis is still in his possession three days at least have passed since the aimiko gave it to him yet senora seems to be completely unaware that he has it that means scaramouche has either kept it for himself for his own purposes or gone to return to the saritza directly the latter actually seems really unlikely to me because scaramouche doesn't really care much for gods he may work with one currently but you know what's better than working directly for a god becoming a god yourself and he has the capacity because he's basically built like a god right and this is actually where scar moosh gets very interesting to me because he has all the hallmarks of a very misguided hero character you know kind of like an anti-hero he says human life is worthless and i know what this line sounds like but in context this doesn't actually sound like it's his opinion exactly to me the context makes it sound like this is what he's discovered as the truth of this world it's how the world and maybe the gods perceive the value of human life it's worthless to them i say this because his next line is they were always going to die so who is they in this context it's not all humans it's the soldiers because that's who was given the delusions not humans in general scaramouche is suggesting that the soldiers were always going to die because they were probably fated to die as was written in the stars so why not let them go out with a bang why not give them a real shot at changing their destiny if only for a moment they could be really truly free from the god's oppression i get that this sounds like a bit of a reach i really really do but skara moosh's words and actions contradict each other way too often for me to believe that he has one singular evil goal of erasing humanity as we know it he's definitely no hero but i don't think he's a villain either he's working towards a very specific goal and that goal is very likely going to match that of the travelers in the near future don't get me wrong though scaramouche isn't doing what he does in order to save everyone in the world and his methods are definitely not the best but while it doesn't weigh on his conscience like i feel like it probably should if he was a little more human he does seem aware that his actions are awful but for this appalling automaton the ends definitely justify the means and let's be clear i am in no way trying to redeem skaramoosh as a character because it's this morally gray zone that he exists within that i find so interesting to begin with he's acting in his own interest and if it benefits other people great if not also great all he wants is to achieve his goal anything else is just icing on the cake he's literally a loose cannon but hey speaking of the traveler does anyone else think it's weird that out of the three harbingers we've met so far only scaramouche has actively tried to kill us twice senora had no interest in killing us and only fought us because we challenged her to a duel and child didn't really care that we got swept up in his attempt to flood leeway harbor but he didn't directly target us either it's almost like scaramouche is aware of something regarding the traveler that no one else is like a same hat kind of situation or he's just being a jerk either or we'll look into that a little bit more in the traveler's analysis video later on what what what do you mean i missed something i didn't miss anything totally didn't miss anything i don't know what you're talking about okay all right fine fine i'll address the queen-sized elephant in the room yes scaramouche will do the fandango meaning yes i think he'll be playable for many many reasons one of them being that a couple of his voice actors especially the one in japanese is really famous and if they let that one go to waste for anything less than a playable character that would be shocking to me i mean just think of the meme marketing that you could put around this guy they've already started like in a story quest for example she discovers that she really enjoys dango milk which would make her a fan of the dango milk which means she might be doing the fandango and the sheer amount of bohemian rhapsody puns that are in inazuma just kind of scattered everywhere is absolutely ridiculous and scaramouche is responsible for all of those simply because of his fatty harbinger title but also because they went ahead and named his theme song the ominous fandango what better marketing scheme could you have than getting people to think of your game and your character every time that one of the most popular songs of all times comes on i mean it has to be intentional that scaramucci's entire backstory is literally the lyrics of bohemian rhapsody right like if it is not intentional and it's just a coincidence then that's just spooky that's all i'm saying so let's do scaramouche's backstory take two this time in bohemian rhapsody now i won't read out the entirety of the lyrics and i will not be playing the song on here because dmc8 and all that fun stuff uh also the song is like six minutes long um but i will be putting the lyrics on screen so follow along as we revisit skara moosh's backstory bohemian rhapsody style basically it goes like this skaramoosh wakes up probably disoriented but he's a poor boy who needs no sympathy he rolls with whatever life gives him but then there's an accident allah rather age notes where the blacksmith dies and he possibly experiences a small crisis he has to convince himself that the death didn't matter eternity stretches out over a long time after all then at his lowest low the fetus see a little silhouetto of a man and give him the name scaramouche and he does the fending i mean he decides to work for them his powers are unlocked like very very frightening thunderbolts and lightning and then piero sends him out to investigate the meteors and galileo being the reference point here as a famous astronomer and here's where i start speculating at this point i think scaramouche after learning the truth of this world and of his own fate actually being written in the stars he demands to be released from his shackles of destiny bismillah basically means in the name of god the most gracious the most merciful in arabic so we can assume he petitioned the gods either directly or just swore an oath to himself that he would no longer be bound by fate alternatively he could have decided that he no longer wanted to work with the fatoui but that seems like a bit of a stretch with our current information with his goals being aligned with theirs anyway beelzebub is literally his mother here so having her put a devil aside for him is probably a reference to the gnosis that she relinquished and this is where the inazuma archon quest ended but i think these next lines foreshadow scaramouche challenging a in combat in one way or another the line so you think you can love me and leave me to die is basically describing her abandoning him as he sees it shortly after he first woke this could go one of two ways either scaramouche is outright defeated by a which would be kinda boring or the shogun puppet grows a little more emotionally and feels sympathy for her brother hindering a's combat ability and let skaramoosh get the upper hand only to successfully manage to talk him down and convince him not to kill and developing her own personality at the same time which i think would be really kind of cool for character development anywho at that point i hope he runs not far just far enough for the traveler to find him he's had his views challenged and he's once again lost and alone until the traveler extends a hand and scarra moosh tries one more time to challenge his own destiny maybe with less questionable methods this time we hope anyway thanks so much for watching this video you guys i hope i was able to give you some more insight into scaramouche's character regardless of whether you love him or you hate him his story is really fascinating to me so fingers crossed my predictions hold and he will become a playable character in the near future and for those of you grumbling about his imminent death simply because senora got offed well i have a funny feeling she'll be back not the same way that we remember her but she'll be back and that's all from me for now folks thanks again for watching take care guys and i'll catch you in the next video bye

Channel: Ashikai

Views: 118,587

Keywords: game theory, genshin impact theory, genshin impact, mihoyo, theory video, game lore, genshin lore, scaramouche, fatui, character analysis

Id: 3vNddrd1f7E

Length: 27min 4sec (1624 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021