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**Timestamps**
0:00 Intro
0:45 Disclaimer
1:21 Event Recap
7:15 NordVPN
8:35 Event Conclusion
12:35 Joserf
15:15 The Real Albedo?
21:25 Outro
source
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*VIDEO NOTES*
– Windflowerlia over on Twitter has an excellent thread breaking down the questline. She has a different take on the ending conversation that I think is really worth reading. https://twitter.com/windflowerlia/status/1467406298077614083?s=20
I actually never noticed the mark until it was explicitly mentioned. I felt something was wrong because a) overused tropes get spotted pretty quickly b) susbedo's behaviour and speech are very different. Add to that the spoiler that the trailer is, and it's easy to see it coming.
Regarding the popular susbedo/susdaddy theories, I'd read about them and actually found the latter quite believable. However, your counter-arguments are sensible and you also clear up the vanishing mark issue quite nicely. Thanks for the video!
When the event ended, for a brief moment I was suspicious, but then that feel almost immediately went away when we realized he was most likely just pulling a prank on us. I literally yelled “you jerk” at that moment, but he’s still such a lovable guy that I didn’t hold a grudge against him.
The transition to the sponsor was amazing
I believe the dragonspine events will have their own continuity. That's a common move for limited events in gacha games. The popular ones can has sequels
double whopper bedo
The only reason I still kthink it could be susbedo at the end of Act 3 is because… well, let me explain first. I apologize in advance for the long post!
The Traveler was able to sense something off at the beginning and during the event up until whopperbedo attacked them. They didn't choose to admit what they sensed after the battle with whopperbedo, which makes me think that they thought it'd be too complicated to explain, even to Albedo. Because how do you explain something you're feeling without being sure of what that feeling is?
Albedo then says that he felt grief when he backstabbed whopperbedo- which makes me think that, after having a fight with susbedo in the final cutscene of act 2, he didn't kill susbedo at all, because if he felt grief backstabbing a mutated flower, he must've assumed that he would feel even worse killing somebody who came into being by the same hand of his mother.
I speculate that after the fight and sparing susbedo's life, susbedo simply goes away. From what I gathered in all of these three acts, is that susbedo is highly ambitious, more than Albedo. So what I theorize is that, after going away, susbedo spies on them, probably to know what when wrong in his plan of desposing of the traveler and Albedo. After the conversation between them two, he could've guessed that something 'aura-wise' (to call it somehow) and not physically wise is what gave his identity away.
And well, susbedo stole Albedo's notes to expand what he knew about alchemy (the whopperbedo could've been an experiment, too), so what if, after figuring out it wasn't something visible that gave him away, learned how to mimic Albedo's 'aura'? After all, they did fight, and with such a close encounter, I'm pretty sure susbedo was able to identify and study Albedo's 'aura'.
Before coming down the mountain, Albedo tells the traveler that he can't come with them, since he had stuff to do. This could've given susbedo an opportunity to switch places with him in Mondstadt. Quite some time does pass before act 3 begins, time susbedo could've used to improve and perfect his aura to match Albedo's- and that's why the traveler can no longer feel anything off, yet they're still confused.
And because susbedo is practically Albedo as well, they could share personality traits (but not all of them). I don't think Albedo would joke about his birthmark, even if he's incredibly smug, less to pull such a bad prank on the traveler, who which Albedo thinks fond of. But susbedo could, because he doesn't feel anything in particular towards the traveler besides being a big burden to his original plan. Heck, he even wanted to kill them.
While I do think that nothing in the story in the future would drastically change whether you played the event or not, it's still an important key and something to keep in mind. Just like they showed one of the 11 Fatui Harbingers in a teaser/temporary event.
I'm theorizing that in the future story and if players didn't/couldn't play this event, it could've gone like this:
Albedo deals with the situation alone. Susbedo makes experiments to practice his new adquired alchemy knowledge. Albedo stops his plans, killing one of susbedo's experiments. He experiences that grief, so when he faces susbedo, spares his life and lets him go. Susbedo learns what could've gone wrong and improves his overall appearence (physical, mental, aura). Encounters Sucrose and Timaeus again, and learns that they feel the same way they would with Albedo. Since this was handled by him all alone, the traveler can no longer differientiate Albedo and susbedo (just like the end of act 3).
Now, story-wise, Susbedo, being the twisted jerk that he is, is finally able to make Albedo lose control with alchemy (by transforming him, by possessing him somehow, however). Albedo is confident that he can rely on the traveler to stop him, to end his life to safe the life of others. However (and what I'm hoping for), the traveler is able to purify him, like he purified Dvalin's tears at the very beginning of the story (and I can't remember right now if the traveler told him about this or not). Then they go to fight off susbedo who transformed into something more evil, twisted and "perfect", they succeed, susbedo (or transformed albedo) becomes a weekly boss and they all lived happily ever after.
Whopperbedo when? also looking forward to next one Ash and yes that event gave trust issues
Thank you for coherently putting the evidence out. I am still not convinced about everything being Ok after the event but I am leaning into that explanation.
Just to add a bit of information about Joel's father fate, I remember that after completing the world quest 'Lost in the snow', where we learn about what happened to him, you can actually go to the end of the cavern where he took a 'leap of faith'. It is a cliff at the side of Dragonspine.
If you jump from the cliff and go to the bottom (imitating what Joel's father may have done) , you will actually find some bags covered in snow, and a copy of 'the Boar princess'. This is the book that he read to Joel and was mentioned during the quest.
Of course, we didnt find anybody near these remains. That happened when 1.2 came.
After seeing that I was almost convinced that he was dead. The fall was quite high and he was out of supplies. But maybe, by checking the location around where 'the boar princess' is found, we could get another clue.
bennet trapped in a wooden cage….hmmm…some 1 who has a pyro vision and locked in a wooden cage …intresting
Alchemy cook book: recipe for a philophers stone, for all your transmuational needs
For today's recipe you will need some common house hold items
1 white stone (Albedo's name means white)
1 black stone
And 1 red stone.
Once you have all your ingridients your stones need to be dripped through a dragon.
And voila. Your easy make philosopher stone is done
With your new philosophers stone you can transmute any metal into gold and make an elixir of immortality
This recipe comes from nicolas flammel (not the one from the harry potter books but an actual person). You can find the original recipe in a several foot long scroll that actually exists in a real life british museum
Heya! I think there is actually a hole in the cave albedo went into at the start. We cant really get into it but welp yeah.
Love your theories as always!! This was basically my thoughts on the quest, but this helps clear a lot of things up! Though one thing that confuses at the end of the quest: why did mihoyo decide to show a flash back of Albedo walking away from the Traveler in the beginning of the quest? It's quite odd to add that flash back if it was the real Albedo. It's true that people over look how Albedo is calm but also a playful person. Though it felt more mocking than playful. It's like mihoyo was saying "look it's actually Susbedo!" by showing the flashback, and the Traveler piecing together that he might've not had the star from the beginning. And for sake of simplicity, the quest ended with the Traveler thinking, "oh so it was a prank!" just so the event can end and the plot can go on normal until something occurs in the next Albedo event. This is just a theory though! Curious if we'll get more answers next time they continue this plot! ^-^
Dam my head hurts
I'm leaning towards Joserf getting affected by Durin's blood. If he was fatally wounded no way he could have survived that long. Also, if we take the imposter option, it would mean that somehow Susbedo was already operating a year ago to get an idea how Joserf looks like. Unless of course, Joel gave him an accurate picture.
Anyway, thanks for the golden archipelago clip, it wiped my suspicions of the real Albedo. This means that the Real Albedo does breakout out of character from time to time and display his playfullness ^^
That’s what I was saying!!! Yes Albedo is very analytical, but he also teases the Traveler a quite a bit. There’s an established closeness, where they both know it’s alright to do something like that with each other. Given how stoic (?) protobedo is, I don’t think that’s something that he would be able to replicate with the traveler.
Also if you’re playing in ENG dub there are subtle differences with how Khoi delivers lines between the 3 Albedos. This is why I wish we could replay scenes from the archive bc in the moment, unless you are very familiar with Albedo’s usual tone- its not smth you’ll notice right away
In that final scene, where Joel's dad returns, I actually thought the reckless palad could be susbedo. That could just be because he is pretty suss all on his own though 🤣
One thing that made Joeldad suspicious for me was his JP voice acting, which was extremely monotone and didn't really sound human. Found out later that the EN version wasn't like this at all, though, and the first could have been intended to show his memory loss, not that he's a whopperflower. Either way, just because of the timing, one of the Albedos must have been involved in his revival… maybe as a test subject for creating clones of himself.
For Albedo(s), I still feel like there have been two of them all along, mainly because that would be more interesting than introducing a brand-new fake one just for this event story. The one who tells us about the "subjects" implies that he's One, but seems to know an awful lot about Two's inner thoughts and motivations. The Albedo at the end in Mond could be the same one from the camp (because he seems to remember the conversation) or the other one (because his personality is different); it's hard to say for sure, which seems intentional. When we've seen Albedo acting smug in the past, this could prove that he just has a weird sense of humor and the Mond Albedo was the real one, but it could also mean that we were seeing the alternate Albedo in those cases.
Side note: though Albedo's tale says this started when his notes were stolen, his notebook was stolen by a hilichurl way back in the 1.2 event… possibly at the behest of his "brother," and maybe not for the first time.
Joserph surviving thanks to mystical powers of Durin's blood was a close 2nd choice for me but with more context / dialogue lines that I've missed from this video I'm thinking now this is more likely.
i read somewhere that this whole whopperflower imitating thing will be sumeru's whole plot point along with the description of the dendro slime in the archive which states the dendro slime is similar to the whopperflowers.
Always love your theory vids. That was very nice.
So Gold is an old, old girl who somewhat survived the cataclysm that she supposedly caused and somehow knows Klee's mom, as her "favorite child" (Albedo) was left to Alice's care while said old girl is currently nowhere to be found, but seemingly is one of the writers of monster descriptions on the encyclopedias we find around Teyvat?!
confused Pikachu look ~Sus Bedo best Bedo~
My paimon level of iq didn't really understand this event, at all. But Ashikai always manages to find a way to make it short, sweet and easy to understand. Thank you so much for all the hard work and CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FIRST SPONSOR (I think it's your first anyway)
love your theory videos. they have so much thought n attention to detail, that even though i try to play the quests n events slowly, these theories make me want to pay even closer attention to each step in the story!
I see, people said that Realbedo is supposed to be still in Dragonspine for whatever his business is, and that's why it's sus for him to suddenly be in Mondstat. I think what he did in Dragonspine is to make the alchemy to hide/show his star mark, and so he came down immediately to test us. I think that sort of project is easy enough for someone like him, that's why he got so fast to meet us in mondstat
Joserf woke up with Durin´s blood all over him. Someone resurrected him.
This quest is basically among us but more sussier
Disappointed. Your other theories or lore videos has better quality to it.
Before finishing the video, I want to believe that the real Albedo, and the second one(Alfredo), came to an understanding that alfredo can live his life as Joel's father. That way he can get to experience the joy of being loved and albedo gets to keep his brother alive.
That, and I believe the one we met back in mondstadt is alfredo, cuz we know him to be able to alter his appearance. Plus, when albedo was talking, he did not like the idea of being called creator (Gardener). But the one in mondstadt said he wouldn't mind being a Gardener (Creator).
So we know that Gold is the reason Dain is immortal. We know that she's responsible for Durin, Albedo, Sus-bedo, and Whopper-bedo. I've seen a few theories sugggesting that since Dain and Kaeya are both from Khaenri'ah, and that Albedo is too (just born AFTER the cataclysm), that Dain might also be a synthetic human. That said, I have a belief that Kaeya is as well, as Dain and Kaeya have the same star pupils as Albedo has star mark on his neck. If we go down that rabbit hole, could the primordial human project be the entire nation of Khaenri'ah and why they didn't have an Archon? The more I hear of Khaenri'ah, the more I feel its more Labratory than Nation, and that we're going to end up in some horrifying trap of seeing multiple of the faces of important characters such as Kaeya or Albedo when we actually get there. That said, there are of course going to be SIGNIFICANT differences because if we go with Dain and Kaeya also being synthetic along with SusyBaka and Whopperbedo, they're all going to be made with different components, none of which will have a "natural" feel because whatever was used to make them, was nearly/almost complety wiped out by the cataclysm and/or is lacking in the other test subjects. Which brings me to Kaeya. If he is a synthetic human, his creation must have been drastically different so much so that its the reason why his skin color is more aligned to what we've seen in the comics with Vanessa and what little they've given us of the Muratan people/Natlan Nomads.
You think we will be getting a Dragonspine/Albedo event each year around this time?
From observation I jest that the whole world is full of defective artificial people. Katherine being the worst off as she reboots and errors occasionally. And 90 % of the time when you talk to an npc its like the first time they have met you, or is that just sloppy game design…
I suspect that Albedo's "gardening" is him wanting to basically nurture or "raise" any of Gold's failed experiments, so they don't have to be as bitter or lonely as Susbedo. I think that's why the event story has that bit where everyone basically has a sleepover in Albedo's cave–it's him realizing that acceptance truly is possible for an artificial human like himself, so maybe he can bring it to other artificial humans, too.
So…minor theory detail.
During the whole thing with Whopper Abledo or whatever we're calling him, it stands out to me that the only two people able to tell something was off about him were the Traveler and Eula. I don't think it was merely an issue of Eula being just a guarded or suspicious person. I think the thing most likely to be the tell here is related to the Cryo energy being used by Whopper Albedo.
The Traveler has Elemental Sight that allows them to perceive any and all of the elements. I don't think this is unrelated to the idea that they will inevitably one day be able to use these same elements as though they had a Vision. I think on some level a core point of using elemental power via a Vision is the ability to feel, see or otherwise perceive that element, or at least to be able to view it differently than others. It may not even be obvious to the people doing it but it's something they could at least tell on an almost subconscious level. Which also makes it understandable that it may be difficult to explain or quantify. Eula doesn't cut off Whopper Albedo's head as she walks past likely because she's not sure what it is that's telling her the Albedo she sees is a fake. She only knows that there's something to this one that she doesn't sense from the real one.
(This would add a secondary interesting wrinkle to the idea because Rosaria – also a Cryo user – has strong suspicions about Albedo not tied to any concrete evidence. Is it possible she's seen a Whopper Albedo and then had a gut feeling something was off? It's hard to say, mostly because it's impossible to tell exactly how long the Whopper Albedo(s) have existed. Again, this is just a side thing, though.)
At the end of the event, it's possible Albedo has put this all together. And his "joke" to the Traveler may be a clever way to test his hypothesis. He doesn't believe the Traveler used his star mark to tell the fakes apart. So he makes his own mark disappear and this is the first point when the Traveler seems to notice something is amiss, though they immediately dismiss it when the mark returns. As the real Albedo and having his normal Geo Vision, he would've looked perfectly normal the entire time. As soon as the mark is back, the Traveler is immediately certain it's just Albedo being playful or joking, and that's the end of their suspicions entirely.
I'm not sure if Susbedo has any sort of elemental power or not – via Vision or artificially created. But even if he wields Geo as well, it's entirely possible that the Traveler can perceive it more clearly than simply telling which element is which. They certainly don't understand it, but it's possible they can tell two users of the same Vision apart from one another just by subtle differences in the element in and around them. So even if the fake turned out to have a Geo Vision, it doesn't kill the theory. (I'm not sure whether or not to refer to Susbedo in the past tense, so writing these sentences are a bit tricky.)
And lastly, having a key part of being able to use elemental power being tied to a person's innate ability to see it would make the "Vision" terminology an interesting extra layer. Maybe it's that simple. But I suppose we'll find out how things work in Sumeru or later. If the smart people don't know how Visions work I'm assuming it'll be a later game reveal – like year five or six.
I'm curious if this theory holds up to any level of scrutiny.
okie
Finally someone who doesn't think Joserf is a fake and the Albedo we meet in the end of the event isn't the impostor! I just want Joel to be happy, the kid's been hanging around a desolate camp for months waiting for his dad. And yeah this event gave me trust issues but my first impression was that Albedo was testing us and our ability as a impostor detector, just started doubting myself a bit when everyone else was insisting the two were fakes… Its sad people see Albedo as a completely stoic character when in reality he has a sassy streak. His comment about Timaeus in his character demo, his general attitude in the Golden Apple Archipelago. Even when we first meet him and did experiments there were times when it felt like he was messing with us just a little but we wouldn't know that because its our first time meeting him.