snowqueen_gh

Firstly it's said Mihoyo might have accelerated to bring Inazuma earlier than planned cause the fandom was getting restless for new content. It was their first time making a game like this and they got an unexpected amount of success with it, I personally believe they would have eventually made it more like hi3 if the game didn't explode as much as it did. But keeping that aside, early leaks of Inazuma story involved stuff like Ayaka being a candidate to be the next Electro Archon cause the current one was just a puppet and Thoma was in fact her fiancé. This, as expected, caused a huge uproar in CN community and they changed Ayaka to be Traveller waifu. Mind you, Signora was nowhere mentioned in these early leaks, the first ever leak of her death appeared just a few weeks before 2.1 and it was a blurred shot from the cutscene.

Secondly, after the disaster of 2.1 there were insider claims that the writing team changed some months ago because mihoyo wanted to put the main writers on hsr so Genshin got some newbies. Hence the veterans went there and the newbies in Genshin had to somehow manage a huge game like this. Their vision might have been different from the old team and they made last minute changes to 2.1 hence how so many things are messed up. Not just Signora but even other characters and plot points were done terribly, they tried to damage control through Ayato's demo and other quests later throughout Inazuma. Another thing, during late Inazuma we got the first ever mentions of Arlecchino in a world quest and she was referred as 'Lord Arlecchino', then after her reveal in Lasso this was in fact changed to Lady Arlecchino. Similar edits have happened elsewhere like with Dendro Archon.

It's not an overstatement to say that Winter Night's Lasso is one of their most hyped teasers till date. They smartly used her funeral to reveal the rest of the Harbingers, conveniently drawing away the attention from a mournful event to making it super hyped. After this, everyone wanted to know which Harbingers will be playable. Mihoyo obviously keeps track of community trends, they saw the hype and how much everyone wants them especially Arlecchino, Columbina, Pantalone, Dottore and Capitano. At that time; Sandrone, Pulcinella and Pierro were arguably the least hyped. So then, Sumeru happened and we got Childe and Wanderer's voicelines about each of them and— I'm not saying those were facts and should be taken at face value— but some contradictions are quite big to simply brush aside as an unreliable narrator trope.

Then came Fontaine, would you believe that around February-March that year there were story leaks that Arlecchino will die in Fontaine? These appeared a few months before Fontaine teaser released btw. The leaks said there are several drafts of Fontaine story and Arlecchino dies in some of them and it's actually a worse death than Signora, as in it's even less honourable. Ofc these were all 50/50 believable cause same leaks also said Sandrone will appear in Fontaine, but ig you could say this wasn't entirely wrong now. I'm sure Mihoyo plans things well ahead so what I believe is that multiple drafts indeed existed and they had plans to kill her in some but because of her popularity from Lasso, they went with the one she would be alive and playable in the safest way possible. This can be further argued with the way her story was eventually integrated, every single bad thing about the 'Knave' was associated to Crucabena who was simply created to be a scapegoat for her. In retrospect, Crucabena is the worst treated Harbinger.

Oh and, this is the first time we got the switch up of Signora's character through Arlecchino's voiceline. I had criticized it back then and I still do even tho I accept that it is more in character than her present portrayals, but the fact they said something like that gave me the gut feeling they are changing things and I wasn't looking forward to upcoming stuff— which voila, my intuition was right. Then fast forward to Nod Krai and for one, she's referred as Rosalyne 99% of the times by everyone atp which is so weird to see cause why is it only her and not others like Childe?? What happened to the lore of her giving up her true name and identity to don the mask of Fatui and be devoted to Tsaritsa's cause?? Sure you could argue they are colleagues but imo it reduces the impact if they all just casually say it especially for someone like Signora with such deep and traumatizing lore about it.

And so we reach the present time where everything just feels so.... disoriented and as if they are 2 different characters. I know the underlying cause is simply that they softened all Harbingers, especially female, to make them good enough to be playable. Dottore essentially became the next scapegoat, tho I still think he can be back and playable unlike Signora. Signora's case is so confusing cause at one point there is 0 hints for her return— like actual hints of her state and any possibilities related to her powers that could bring a resurrection— and at other point, they keep portraying her this way and using her for other people's stories as if they have more plans for her. I'm utterly baffled by all this. This Odette stuff about replacing her makes me scared although it's not much of a big deal, but I'm 99% certain they will use Odette to give flashbacks of her past and show Signora being her caretaker/mentor etc etc

See, I always hc'd her as the ice queen trope so I fully expected to see a softer side of her but I used to believe it would happen gradually. Like she would appear in every region and we'd slowly interact with her more and find out about her and eventually see the big lore she has that connects all the way back to the Cataclysm. It was a perfect setup in my head to eventually make her the person who takes us inside Snezhnaya to meet Tsaritsa. But at the moment, not only is this soft side way too soft, it's all happening after she's dead and being done from other characters' perspectives to add to their story. So she's essentially being a plot device still which has messed up her own original writing.

They are literally making her LESS of a Tsaritsa devotee....can you believe that???! She said there are aspects of Tsaritsa's vision that she shares.... ASPECTS??? DO U KNOW WHAT SHE SAID IN PALE FLAME?? IN THE ARCHON QUEST?? SHE SAYS ASPECTS AFTER SAYING TSARITSA'S DREAM IS THE PUREST AND MOST NOBLE IN ALL WORLD?? AFTER CALLING HERSELF A TOOL FOR THEIR SHARED GOAL??? AND ALL THIS FOR WHAT?? SO SHE CAN TAKE CARE OF CHILDREN???