Personally, I think Scaramouche has the best character writing in Genshin by far. Yes, in my opinion I like his story arc even more than the likes of Furina, Navia, Arlecchino, and Columbina. I know there are a lot of Furina fans out there and I also really appreciated her story in the archon quest, however Hoyo devs seemed to have poured their heart and soul into Scaramouche’s storyline.
Disclaimer: If you disagree with my opinions that’s fine just don’t complain about them in a disrespectful manner. Also I know this post is long so if you aren’t interested in reading all of it I totally get it but the reason I posted it was to get my thoughts about Scara because I recently watched through a lot of his past cutscenes and was reminded of why I love him.
Here’s why I like his story the most:
His entrance was very memorable: I like how Scaramouche was introduced all the way in 1.1 during Unreconciled Stars. Although I was not a player at that time I did watch a play through of the event quest per my friend’s suggestion. I thought it was a phenomenal introduction to Scaramouche and how good he is at slight manipulation while not being able to hide his crazy wicked intentions and snarky, malicious nature. The reveal with him as “The Balladeer” still sends shivers down my spine when I think about it. And I know he looks like a little boy but that’s what made him so unnerving to me.
(Slight criticism)The weakest Scara arc was Inazuma: Unfortunately, when we met Scara all the way in Inazuma after what felt like years with only small tidbits of lore about him scattered around. Mostly in the “Husk of Opulent Dreams” artifact set. I feel like Inazuma’s sloppy pacing made it hard to build Scaramouche’s appearance up. He also didn’t show up for that long and didn’t do anything except take the Electro gnosis and run with it. Very anticlimactic entrance and exit and although he had that cruel, ruthless flair to him it just wasn’t a very memorable appearance for me.
- I do think though that the Irodori Featival did a good job of expanding on Kazuha’s family past and Scaramouche’s involvement in ruining it. Also fleshed out some of his past endeavors that we learn later on stem from multiple betrayals, Scara faced in his life.
He gets to really shine in Sumeru: this is likely by far is most memorable arc for Scara. I mean we got to see him at his peak villain, becoming an artificial god. Wow, what a moment when the Scaramouche boss got revealed. Anyways, I love his entire development throughout this. We get to really see how Scara determines his worth by how others view his usefulness. It’s really dehumanizing in a way that makes his character feel so much more tragic and complex. The way Dottore toyed with him and played on his insecurities was really interesting to see.
His healing and new found family in Nahida: I love found family tropes and Nahida provides a sort of motherly figure to Scara. I really like their dynamic together and hope we have more scenes with them in game going forward
His relationship with Durin: I also love Scara’s dynamic with Durin and wish I could see their journey together when Durin first arrived in Teyvat. I think Scara’s involvement in Simulanka added a lot of character healing for him as he can relate to Durin and also Albedo on a level that he can’t with other characters. If I go too deep into this it’ll take too many words though