[3.3] The Complete Scaramouche Design Analysis

Kabukimono, Balladeer, Scaramouche, Wanderer... whatever name he goes by, this character is by far one of my favorites. He has one of the most complete backstories of any character in Genshin Impact. and so many layers of references in every one of his incarnations that I had to go over them one by one.

Stick around to the end for a small bonus theory! :)

(Contains content up to version 3.3, Inversion of Genesis, SOME EVANGELION SPOILERS at 9:40)

**PREVIOUS VIDEOS**

**TIMESTAMPS**

0:00 Introduction
2:30 Kabukimono
4:40 Balladeer
9:40 Shouki no Kami
12:00 Wanderer
20:15 Combat & Kit
21:50 Constellations
28:25 Samsara (Theory)

**FUTHER READING & SOURCES**
**CREDITS**
Special thanks again to Zaura for her work on Scaramouche's constellations and kit references!

[rue]

Considering mihoyo as a company was started by 3 huge evangalion fans, I definitely see scara being a eva reference

[KallaTheYapper]

What I like about Scara's new design is that the position of his vision is placed where the human heart is located. Which clearly says he now has his divine heart that belongs to him and no one else. Unlike the Electro Gnosis.

[momslayer]

I feel bad for scaramouche because azar said " in the event that a successful connection is established, his body will become permanently bound to the machine, and he will be unable to move independently of it" meaning when he desperately tried getting the gnosis back from nahida. He couldn't stop his fall because he was completely paralysed

[danielm]

People say that Scaramouche was discarded because he was weak- but I think the opposite- he was made too well. Ei was flawed in seeing emotions as erratic and unpredictable, which was contrary to her ideal of Eternity which was Stasis. Given the fulfillment of her storyline to this point, one must wonder if she would have chosen to dispose of him today.

[nuane_]

also a fun thing i’ve remembered, makoto loved drinking tea as we know from ei’s story quest. and scara’s favorite food is well.. tea

[semideadnat]

You know I find it very fitting that Wanderer wears women's clothing at the beginning of his character arc in his backstory. Ei wanted to create a puppet who could hold her sister's powers yet not completely replace her. So, she at the time created a puppet to be a boy rather than a girl as she was hit with so much grief, she probably didn't want to make a puppet look too much like her. However, what she did not realize was that she did not have much clothing for this new puppet, or the knowledge of hair styles the men of Inazuma would wear.

[Celesgosa]

There's another interesting detail in his Balladeer's design - the stylized Evil kanji on his veil (悪), divided in two. Evil itself consists of two kanjis: Asia (亜) and Heart (心). And it literally depicts the name Kunikuzushi: divided, or broken, Asia which relates to his homeland, Inazuma, and divided, or broken, heart. Together they, imo, poetically can describe this: "Heartbroken, I destroy my homeland".
And Evil itself describes how he sees himself.

[kanrakiddler]

If he was more or less subconsciously created in the image of Makoto, would losing the feminine clothing elements as Wanderer be a further symbolism of him becoming his own person?

[Hoshiamekei]

In fact, there are also elements of women's clothing on the wanderer. The collar of his kimono is completely worn by women, and the exposure of the back of the neck means vulnerability (sorry, I used a translation software)

[hazaubel]

my favorite part of the video is when you explained the theory of Scaramouche being made out of Makoto, girl i was legit screaming

[Schnubi]

The second Ashikai compared Scara to Shinji I immediatelly thought about that image of Shinji sitting on the chair facing the floor, but with Scaramouche 😂

[wheattins]

The Samsara theory is very compelling. There’s another YouTuber RedFlaim who made a video that theorized Scaramouche being a reincarnation of Makoto over a year ago. It just makes so much sense, especially now that we have the complete backstory of Scaramouche. In addition to the whole idea of Ei trying to bring her sister back, I like to believe that she placed the remnants of Makoto’s divine essence into the prototype puppet which ended up creating Scaramouche as a different entity. This could explain why he gained a consciousness of his own and has free will unlike the Raiden Shogun puppet who only follows a set of directives.

[protagkun]

12:17 "Someone who stays on earth to assist others in their journey to enlightenment"
Scara in the background: *Die!*

[jonathanwilson]

*Ashikai & Chill with Aster competing with each other to see who’s the bigger Scaramocuhe enthusiast XDD*

In all seriousness though, This was so fun to watch. Historical references are so freaking cool, and studying genshin character design is so much fun. Anyway, I’m gonna post a couple little thoughts I had here.

9:30 This is interesting in retrospect, because wasn’t one of Nahida’s major metaphors for herself about being a bird in a cage? They really were meant to be mirrors huh?

20:26 thinking about that now, that’s honestly friggin hilarious. Considering all the evangelion references that is. In fact, doesn’t his mech also have similar attacks?

22:24 well considering the traveller being an exception for everything, and Dain’s message relating to re-weaving the threads of fate, I’d say it’s possible for beings of teyvat to change their fate, albeit to a much lesser extent compared to say an outlander. Teyvat laws be like XD man, now I miss Dainsleif.

I was gonna comment on the makoto resemblance thing, but you literally took the words right out of my mouth XD so these are where my thoughts end. It’s really nice to see how detailed each genshin character can be. Props to hoyoverse man.

[corpiew]

Makoto’s name (眞) can also be read as Shinji :) One of the reasons I wanted to call him that in-game (though I didn’t in the end lol) I just thought it was a fun piece to share

[kiaradoesart]

If mihoyo really did have all this in mind when designing him, their concept and narrative teams are god tier (and they actually talk to each other!)

[Dizzykathie]

The fun thing about his new shugenja monk identity is that he never choose it for himself, since the past can't be changed and only memories can. In reality he has never been a monk and his soul searching as a shugenja never happened - this was a fake memory created for him by Irminsul. Now to the fun part. In the last desert quest the goddess of flowers was called "a guardian of monks and lost wanderers". They even mentioned it twice for some reason, once we enter the eternal oasis. And remember video by Ashikai thorizing that the Goddess of flowers could be Istaroth herself? Remember that mysterious voice at the end of Scara's quest who obviously observed Scara's attempt to change past. And remember how he got a vision at the end of this little adventure? My theory is that Istaroth herself took Scara under her wing and granted him this new identity of a monk, when he attempted to delete himself. This would also explain the lotus and moon Lady references

[Squonkalicious]

Something that I find really interesting with his new outfit which wasn’t mentioned, is that the neckline is dipped in the back like a traditional women’s kimono, so perhaps thats a nod to the feminine parts of his previous designs?

[adityawidarma]

Well Scaramouche probably made in the image of Makoto. The color White choice of her garment, and long sleeve Ei's choice of adding emotion since Makoto was more of an Expressive/Emotional Ruler (sometimes teasing Ei by 'bit of blunt to Ei' and i'm pretty sure Yae Miko took some note from Makoto personality). And i think Ei cast Scaramouche aside and won't lift a finger with the intention of not repeating her tragedy (irony). When he don his Balldeer outfit. He does look more as Ei before the tragedy. Short sleeve and prodominaly Black color garment. He dress in a more practical use. The Balladeer is more emotionally fragile just as the state of Ei creating him. And now his Wanderer outfit reseble the current Raiden Shogun with combination of Black and White color. And also all of his clothes are combination of the Nation of Monstadt (The postion he put his vision like a Kaeya/Eula), Liyue (His Flowing cloth having Liyue bird motif), Inazuma (His Footwear and overall style), and Sumeru (Lotus motif hat).

[charliandluca]

I personally think that his constellation changed bc in his fatui constellation it was a kokeshi doll, kokeshi dolls have a dark past of being associated with murder or abandonment at birth, so it would make sense for fatui scara to have this bc he was still wounded by the fact that his mother or creator abandoned him at birth, he lived to prove himself worthy to her, but when he became wanderer the image on the con became himself which means the scars are healing and he is improving ❤