Scarahida

"Sorry if I have a slightly different perspective on things. But I don't feel like I've been duped. The wisest leaders are fated to end up with the best helpers... I can live with that."

- Scaramouche to Nahida during the quest Inversion of Genesis.

Scarahida is the het ship between Nahida and Scaramouche from the Genshin Impact fandom.

Background
Both Nahida and the Nameless Puppet are born five hundred years before the events of Genshin Impact as a direct consequence of the Cataclysm. Although they do not meet before the Sumeru Archon Quest, they have similar divine origins and purpose. Additionally, they were both betrayed and discarded early on in their lives. These experiences lead to their contrasting worldviews, and eventually result in them being enemies.

The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings
During the 3.0 and 3.1 updates The Morn a Thousand Roses Brings, Nahida and the traveler progressively discover that the main reason for the Samsara of the Sabzeruz Festival is for the sages of the Sumeru Academy to have as much time as possible to create a new Archon in Sumeru to replace Lesser Lord Kusanali, the God of Wisdom they don't consider like their Archon. In the 3.1 Update King Deshret and the Three Magi, Traveler realizes that the Arcane Archon the Academy is trying to create to replace Nahida is actually Scaramouche, whom they are trying to elevate to godhood.

Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises
The 3.1 Archon Quest Akasha Pulses, the Kalpa Flame Rises shows the first interaction between Nahida and Scaramouche, because even if they never talked to each other before, they still knew each other. During their first meeting, Scaramouche is in the state of Everlasting Lord of Arcane Wisdom created by Dottore. He keeps telling Nahida to come and fight to celebrate his birth as the new god of Sumeru, to which Nahida does not respond, not wishing to fight with Scaramouche. After a battle with Traveler and Nahida who stood in front of Traveler to protect him, Scaramouche grabs Nahida with his robot hand and pulls her up to face him, and tells her that it is supposed to be a battle between gods, but that she chooses to hide behind a mortal, and asking her why she would sacrifice herself for a human when she herself is an archon. He then asks her if she is enjoying proving to herself a heroic sense, calling her by her demon name, "Buer", and after having charged an electro attack, plants his arm in Nahida's body in order to steal her Gnosis. Nahida, who didn't react until then, puts her hand on Scaramouche's arm telling him that the data collection is almost complete, and asking him if he knows how many times he tried to steal her gnosis, making him understand that Nahida created a Samsara to trap Scaramouche into a dream to have as much time as possible to defeat him. Nahida then asks Scaramouche if he is aware that to create his Archon form, the people of Sumeru were forced to live trough the exact same number of Sabzeruz Festival and Samsara cyrcles. After asking her when did she used the power of dreams on him, he then mocks the fact that she can't defeat him, even in a dream, and asks her what does she hope to achieve with this trick.

After Nahida gives Traveler the knowledge he needs to defeat Scaramouche, he loses patience and shouts that meaningless tricks won't save her, and asks her if she is done with her tricks, cause he wants to take the fight as a real battle between gods. After a battle between Traveler and Scaramouche, he is exhausted and frustrated at not being able to defeat Traveler and Nahida who refuses to fight him. He collapses on his knees with his robot and Nahida takes the opportunity to fly to him to extract the Electro Gnosis from Scaramouche to finally defeat him. While she takes the Gnosis, Scaramouche begs her to take 'anything but the gnosis' and screams at her that it is his, and if she takes it, he can never go back. Knowing Scaramouche and his arrogant personality, if he comes to beg someone saying "No! Wait, Please! Anything but the gnosis!" he must have been really exhausted, proving that Nahida's plan worked as she wanted. While he begs her to stop, he steps forward as best he can to prevent her from taking his gnosis, but Nahida succeeds. The cables that held Scaramouche locked in his robot then broke, and he fell, crashing to the ground and falling into a coma.

Inversion of Genesis
In the Archon Quest: Inversion of Genesis, Scaramouche, as per the agreement with Nahida, helps the Traveler access and browse through the data of Irminsul's inner sanctum. During this process, he finds anonymous information (that Nahida has obtained and carefully relayed back to him), detailing the truth of his mistreatment at the hands of humans. It becomes apparent that Scaramouche was a victim of manipulation by his former allies, and was conditioned into a weapon of war that suited their ends.

In despair, Scaramouche attempts to erase himself from reality through the Irminsul. However, he only succeeds in erasing himself from the perception of it in the eyes of Teyvat's inhabitants, and has to be found by the Traveler under a new, simulated identity - as the Wanderer.

Wary of such an outcome, Nahida has a back up data memories of Scaramouche in a fairytale story as a living wooden kitten, carved from a white tree.

The traveler bring back Wanderer, who's now Scaramouche without any past memories meet Nahida. Once Wanderer receives his memories back along with his own Anemo vision, he still being stubborn, thinking himself as an evil and a prisoner that doesn't deserve being helped. Nahida reassuring him she's not using Wanderer like how Dottore did before. He starts to be gentle to her. Accepting Nahida's offer, Wanderer agree to help her from behind the scenes.

Despite him being her enemy and fighting against each other, Nahida decides to shelter the puppet from their respective agents and hides him "like one would a feather," nursing him back to health and giving him partial autonomy. According to her, after his touch with godhood, Scaramouche "(has) retained a number of very useful features," and "there are still some mysteries left in him" which soon become the basis of a tentative work agreement between them.

This unlikely cooperation is successfully tested inside of the Irminsul inner sanctum, and is cemented into a partnership born out of mutual respect during the 3.3 quest Inversion of Genesis. In the story, Nahida takes steps to introduce Scaramouche to the truth of his existence as the enemy of mankind, and then after his self-deletion, painstakingly reintroduces his memories both to the Traveler and Paimon, and eventually himself, under the simulated identity of the Wanderer.

The trusting Wanderer is an existence unsullied by trauma, but troubled by the emptiness resulting from his missing memories. In such a state, he is more open, vulnerable, and receptive to the influence of others. Nahida honors the trust he puts in her, respects and furthers his values, and responds to his questions to the best of her ability. Because of this, once Scaramouche is reintegrated as the two-lived Wanderer, he lets his resentment for gods and humans subside, and chooses to be loyal to her in return.

The Wanderer is, as of version 3.8, considered Nahida's personal agent, bodyguard, Irminsul co-operator, and kagemusha. He has a pragmatic and pessimistic attitude, and finds some of Nahida's therapeutic designs for him daunting, but nonetheless does everything she says.

"Then I guess I'll be helping you from behind the scenes from now on."

Parade of Providence
The dynamic between them who were enemies before now becoming friends sparks a new bond. That bond starting to grow well during Parade of Providence event. Wanderer helping Nahida by competing other Darshans as the Hat Guy, and at the same time watch over any harm incident along that event. During investigation with Alhaitham, he beats up some bad guys hired by Jiwani ,Sachin's son. Soon after the event ended, Wanderer and Nahida seen to show up together in Aaru Village to reveal the reasons behind this event. At the same time, Nahida teases Wanderer using the name she gave him, The Hat Guy. Wanderer told her to stop calling him that name though he's fine with it. When Nahida mentions about him to become a scholar in Sumeru, he tried to decline, saying he's just a prisoner who doesn't deserve this. Nahida keeps stating she didn't see him like that, knowing how bad his past was like, he deserve to gain education like others do.

Baseline
The ship originates as an enemy ship between Scaramouche and Nahida, both vying for the position of being Sumeru's rightful god, resulting in a brutal fight of attrition.

This changes once Scaramouche is defeated and loses both his power and status as a Fatui Harbringer.

Because Scaramouche and Nahida are enemies-turned-allies, fans like to create fluff, angst and hurt/comfort of them and their journey to fixing their broken relationship. Other interpretations are possible predictions of the present and future of the two near-immortals, or imaginary scenarios where the two are faced with problems and have to work together to overcome them.

While describing Scaramouche and Nahida, a lot of attention is paid to the circumstances of their creation and the way they were - and are - treated by human beings as divine non-humans. Both of the characters were forced to fight and then trust each other in turn, and it leads to a comfortable familiarity while they interact, allowing them to be open about their feelings and ideals. Having come from opposing sides of the idealism and cynicism scale, the two characters often discuss philosophical matters, and enrich each other's worldview.

Since it is so hard for the God of Wisdom and the False God to feel truly seen and understood by those around them (with the Traveler being the only person to know the unaltered truth of their lives), their relationship is valuable to them, and is seen by fans as a trustworthy companionship, budding love, or a found family that fulfills voids in both their hearts.

If not interrupted by future developments, it is speculated those two could be companions for thousands of years.

Romantic (Scarahida)
Scarahida is a ship that is based on the journey of Scaramouche healing. In this ship, Scaramouche has shown his genuine care from his side. In his voice lines about Nahida, he admit with honesty that she can see through him, which means that Nahida can see that he is lonely.

It is also possible that because Nahida was trapped in her own cage before the Traveler rescued her, she relates to those feelings of loneliness and self-hatred that Scaramouche encounters with Raiden Ei. Since both characters have been traumatized by their abandonment, they cope with it in different ways, with Nahida being a people-pleaser and Scaramouche being emotionally closed off. Many works involving this ship will have the two serve as foils for each other, with Scaramouche teaching Nahida how to be assertive, and Nahida teaching Scaramouche how to be emotional.

Many popular alternate universe interpretations of this ship have a human-sized age gap, often with Nahida being older than Scaramouche by a couple of years, but still looking younger than him. Alternatively, those set in the future of the canon events of the game will have Nahida be taller than Scaramouche, with his height remaining stagnant due to his nature as a puppet.

This ship is incredibly popular in the Eastern Fandom, both the Japanese and Chinese fandoms.

Platonic (Lodish)
Although the term 'Scarahida' is a convention used for couples, many fans enjoy a more platonic relationship between Scaramouche and Nahida. Using the terms such as 'BROTP', 'platonic', 'familial', 'parent and child', 'auntie and nephew', 'Lodish' or the blanket 'Scaramouche/Wanderer and Nahida' tag, they celebrate the relationship of friendship, contract, and found family between the two divine entities that is not necessarily rooted in romantic attraction.

Fans of this dynamic may make all forms of derivative works using any desired mediums, and not all of their work is equal. However, aside from the baseline (viewed platonically), some common themes and jokes have emerged since the relationship was first considered.

A popular joke/interpretation of the relationship is of Nahida, who is an extremely kind and merciful god, adopting Scaramouche as his mother or aunt in place of Raiden Ei, the god who he considers his 'birth mother' and who has has emotionally neglected him. This results in humorous depictions of Nahida attempting to parent Scaramouche, sending him to school, preparing him lunch, assigning him chores, and Scaramouche begrudgingly accepting her company and kindness, or outright embracing the newfound familial affection he is given. The height difference is sometimes exaggerated to add to the comedy. This humorous interpretation became even more popular when in patch 3.8 Nahida assigned Wanderer a role in the Vahumana Darshan of the Akademiya to conduct both undercover operations at her behest, as well as strong-arming him into studying cause and effect, history, and other forms of human sciences to gain a better understanding of himself.

Another humorous joke/interpretation for the characters is that Nahida is Scaramouches trusted therapist, after

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Trivia

 * Scaramouche and Nahida are both approximately 500 years old; Nahida is older by a few decades. Whether he has covered the chronological gap during his Abyss missions is unknown.
 * They are both crafted at least partially from the Irminsul world tree - Nahida is a living branch, while Scaramouche is assembled from carved wooden elements.
 * Scaramouche has the ability to recognize, block, and respond to Nahida's mind-reading ability. When an attempt is made to do this, he replies with "Do you really think you can see through me?"
 * He can also naturally perceive and interact with Nahida's familiars, the Aranara.
 * During the 3.6 Interdarshan Championship, Nahida lists Scaramouche's name as "Hat Guy" as a little joke and continues to call him so even after the competition has ended. Different languages localize the nickname with their own hat (and sometimes also cat) jokes, such as "ā Mào", "Kasacchi", "Don Sombrero", "Om Topi", and so on.
 * Both of them are often paired together in Genshin marketing, like on this advertising cylinder in Japan, or this merchandise Photo-shoot.