I made this post because I found out that the analysis format is kinda limiting, and I wasn’t able to discuss too many things that are unrelated to Signora’s resurrection arguments. This post was made over the course of a few weeks because my scatterbrained self couldn’t be assed to finish this in one sitting.

Thoughts and opinions

My current wishlist

At first, I decided to abandon my old wishlist when the NK character drip marketing came out in 5.8 and just consider getting all the major characters of 6.x: Durin, Columbina, Varka, Nicole, and Sandrone. However, with Columbina being primarily a supp unit and useless as a DPS without Lauma, Ineffa, and C6 Aino, that threw a spanner on the works and I had to readjust my plans. My current wishlist is:

• 6.5 - C1 Lauma
• 6.7 - C0 Sandrone (optional)
• 7.2 - C6R1 Rosalyne This isn’t set in stone, though. I pulled for the Elegy bow simply because it has Signora’s lore on it, and out of nowhere, it was rerunning in 6.4’s chronicled banner. Because the Mondstadt chronicled probably won’t be rerunning again until around 2 years from now (it debuted in 2024), and Venti’s weapon banner was replaced by the new DPS bow tailored for him, I might as well get it so I could make a meme build featuring Signora and Venti with the bow just for some irony.

C1 Lauma is a must, as I’ve committed to building Columbina as a main DPS, out of frustration that Hoyo decided to make her more of a sub-DPS and supp. I’ve gotten C6 Aino at the cost of wasting my 50/50 wins on C3R1 Neuvillette and C1 Zibai, when I only needed C1R1 and C0 respectively. Lauma’s C1 provides healing capabilities, something her BiS DPS team otherwise lacks.

I’d like to get C6R1 Signora just because I wanted to prove a point that I’m fiercely pro-Signora. I’ll assume that playable Signora will be Rosalyne, as per my analysis on how Hoyo seems to be trying to separate the two identities and how the latter is portrayed positively unlike the former, likely to make way for a “redeemed Signora”.

Sandrone is optional as I’m not sure if I’m wiilling to spend so much money to get her AND Rosalyne on their debut. Sure, I don’t buy all top-ups at once, and I have just enough disposable income to spend on these, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow and it really just shows how predatory the gacha model is. You get a bit too interested in some characters and suddenly you’d end up having to spend hundreds of dollars just to give you a better chance at guaranteeing them.

Assumption: All double crystal top-ups bought ($201)
Version	Name	Probability
6.5	C1 Lauma	100%
7.2	C6 Rosalyne	~93%
7.2	C6R1 Rosalyne	~79%

This doesn’t look very hot. I’d love to get her signature weapon because if I’m willing to spend this much money to get her C6, might as well get the signature too for the best experience.

Buying additional $50 + $15 top-ups in early 7.x seems to address this issue:

All double crystal top-ups bought Another $50 + $15 after top-up reset ($266)
Version	Name	Probability
6.5	C1 Lauma	100%
7.2	C6 Rosalyne	~98%
7.2	C6R1 Rosalyne	~90%

This leaves us with Sandrone, though, and the results aren’t looking so good either without burning through even more cash:

All double crystal top-ups bought Another $50 + $15 after top-up reset ($266)
Version	Name	Probability
6.5	C1 Lauma	100%
6.7	C0 Sandrone	100%
7.2	C6 Rosalyne	~87%
7.2	C6R1 Rosalyne	~71%

C6R1 is non-negotiable, so in order to get there, I’d need to get another $100 and $5 top-up after the double crystal reset:

All double crystal top-ups bought Another $100 + $50 + $15 + $5 after top-up reset ($371)
Version	Name	Probability
6.5	C1 Lauma	100%
6.7	C0 Sandrone	100%
7.2	C6 Rosalyne	~97%
7.2	C6R1 Rosalyne	~90%

This is getting quite expensive for what’s essentially “proving a point”, and I’m not even whaling yet.

If I luck out on Lauma and the probability of getting C6R1 Rosalyne is at least 90% without having to spend the full $250 to get there, then I’ll definitely consider getting Sandrone. That 90% probability is just a buffer to anticipate for the worst-case scenario. After all, true randomness is unpredictable, and if you can’t afford to lose, then you gotta prepare yourself.

Just for fun, here’s how much money it takes to go all-in and get C6R5 Rosalyne.

All double crystal top-ups bought in 6.x and 7.x 6x $100 top-ups + 1x $50 top up without bonus ($1050)
Version	Name	Probability
6.5	C1 Lauma	100%
6.7	C0 Sandrone	100%
7.2	C6 Rosalyne	100%
7.2	C6R5 Rosalyne	~90%

The “technical debt” of playable Rosalyne

Some people think that Signora had always meant to be a playable character, just intended for a Snezhnaya release. However, there’s strong evidence that suggests otherwise, along with the technical debts they have to overcome as a result of this.

Bringing back a character who was turned to ash

After losing her duel with the Traveler, Raiden executed her with the Musou no Hitotachi, reducing her to ash. To leave absolutely no doubt about the finality of her death, the game provides a black transition screen that reads “Signora… is slain.” Months later, A Winter Night’s Lazzo reveals the other Harbingers have encased Signora’s remains in a coffin, confirming her death for good. This is almost certainly a sign Hoyo made to imply that everyone should move on, as they had no intentions of bringing her back. The fact that she was completely vaporized means that they didn’t even want to entertain the players the thought that this was somehow a fake-out, as leaving a dead body would leave it open for interpretation.

This is a potential issue, because how do you bring back someone who was reduced to cinders? You can’t just resurrect her like Qiqi because the body was completely destroyed. The answer probably involves a lore element that’s yet to be explored in-depth, and conveniently brought up when the time is right, as was the case with Zibai. To recap, Zibai was an angel who died millennia ago. In order to bring her back, the Traveler was tasked to retrieve the Three Deadly Selves, which are some kind of soul fragments. This was never explained prior to the release of the event quest in 6.3, and the White Horse Adeptus itself wasn’t a thing until it was brought up in 2025 Lantern Rite in 5.3, suggesting that this was simply designed to fill in the yearly Lantern Rite characters. This kind of “asspull resurrection” worked because Zibai was not an established character; she just came out of nowhere and became playable, and therefore, players didn’t have any emotional attachment or lore knowledge that would’ve otherwise led them to nitpicking this story beat.

On the contrary, Signora’s resurrection will have to be dealt with carefully, because players have been waiting for almost 5 years since her death, and the current sentiment is that most have grown fatigued from the lengthy wait and the lack of reassurance for her return, especially when some of these people were originally expecting her death to be a plot twist waiting to happen. The biggest problem they have to deal with is how to make the resurrection captivating for the audience without it feeling like an asspull, because if it’s not done right, then it would definitely upset these people who have been waiting since launch or her death in 2.1.

The easiest and most obvious way to do this would be to resurrect her in Mare Jivari. It’s a region that Hoyo themselves is currently gating, likely in anticipating for a major story beat that takes place there. The region has a poorly-explored lore (Liquid Phlogiston) that may be conveniently connected to the Liquid Fire, and the fact that how she acquired Pyro abilities is currently unknown. This could save the writers the effort of having to construct an unnecessarily complex revival arc that doesn’t sound like an asspull. However, detractors have doubted this, questioning the connection between her and Natlan/Mare Jivari, as so far there hasn’t been any build-up that directly connects her there.

About her VA

Signora’s VA chose to remain anonymous. While some speculate that this is due to the harassment Signora fans get, it’s more likely that the real reason has something to do with her union status.

SAG-AFTRA’s Global Rule One prohibits full union members from working on non-union productions. Genshin Impact is a non-union production, as Hoyo doesn’t operate under SAG-AFTRA agreements. A full union member taking a role in a non-union game risks disciplinary action, fines, and potential suspension of union membership. The anonymity was some kind of legal protection. If she’s not credited, the work is harder to prove, and the union has less to act on.

This arrangement worked for a non-playable weekly boss because the credit requirements for that kind of role are minimal. The game doesn’t formally credit NPC and boss voices the way it credits playable characters. But a playable Rosalyne changes everything. Playable characters are credited in the character profile screen, in marketing materials, in promotional videos. The VA is publicly associated with the role in a way that makes the non-union work completely undeniable and therefore completely indefensible to the union. And while it is possible for VAs of playable characters to remain anonymous, like those that replaced VAs who were fired due to misconduct during the strike (Kayli Mills, Valeria Rodriguez), the circumstances in here is different.

Those VAs were easier to be anonymized because the characters they’re voicing have already been playable since long ago, so they wouldn’t have to awkwardly exclude the VA from appearing in the Special Program VOD announcing the character’s availability, or naming them in the VA reveal drip marketing as “Anonymous”. In contrast, Signora isn’t playable yet, and thus, when the time comes for her to be playable, this would cause all sorts of logistical issues, such as how to feature this new 5-star character in the Special Program without having the VA present on the video, or how to do a “VA reveal” when said person wishes to stay anonymous.

There’s a few ways they could take to deal with this, and each has different implications. The cleanest solution is that Genshin Impact signs a SAG-AFTRA agreement before Rosalyne’s release, making the production union, which retroactively legitimizes the VA’s work and allows her to be credited openly. Judging by what happened during the 2024-25 SAG strike though, this is unlikely to happen, as Hoyo decided to simply wait it out until the strike ended, even if it comes at the cost of pissing off their players due to missing voices.

The second option is that the VA has since left SAG-AFTRA or gone Fi-Core. Financial Core status allows union members to work non-union productions while maintaining some union benefits, at the cost of full membership rights. If she made that transition in the years since 2.1, the problem resolves itself without requiring Hoyo to change their production status.

The third option, and the worst-cast scenario, is recasting. A new VA performing Rosalyne’s voice for the playable version, while the weekly boss retains the previous VA’s performance. This would be jarring and almost certainly generate significant negative reaction, given how this was exactly the reaction people had with many of the recasts, but unfortunately, this is very likely to happen, given how Hoyo is willing to do this, and some VAs (Maya Aoki Tuttle, Jennifer Losi) decided to resign due to pressure from SAG-AFTRA.

This is a fairly strong evidence of her being designed against playability. The decision to use a full SAG union member for a non-union production, under anonymity, only makes sense if the people making that decision were confident the role would never require public credit. You don’t create that problem for yourself if you’re planning to eventually release the character as playable; you either use a non-union/Fi-Core VA or you sign a union agreement from the start.

Someone at Hoyo in 2020 made a casting decision based on the assumption that Signora would never be playable. They found the best possible voice for the character, hired her on terms that only work for uncredited roles, and moved on without considering what would happen if that assumption turned out to be wrong.

This is literally a contractual and legal problem that requires active resolution before anything else can happen. The original casting decision probably took five minutes. Finding the best voice for a boss character, hiring her under terms that protect everyone involved, moving on. The downstream consequences of that five-minute decision are now an actual logistical problem that Hoyo has to solve before they can release a character they’ve been building up for return thus far.

The “Funerary Mask”

Upon completion of the Inazuma Archon Quest, the players were given the Funerary Mask item, which is quite literally the mask she wore. This is a 5-star memento item: something that was given as a trophy for completing the AQ chapter of a region. The memento item system is, in essence, a one-way design. You receive these items as permanent markers of narrative completion. They’re souvenirs of closed chapters, not active plot objects. The Inazuma chapter ending with the player holding Signora’s mask works perfectly as a narrative full stop if she was always meant to stay dead. The mask as memento says: “this chapter is over, here is what remains of the antagonist, keep it as a trophy of what was overcome”.

No other memento item has ever been reclaimed because none of them has ever needed to be. The design assumption baked into the system is that these chapters stay closed. Signora’s mask being in that category is probably the clearest possible expression of original authorial intent: the people who designed this item for Inazuma genuinely believed they were closing a chapter permanently. This, in turn, creates a problem where, if they now want her to return, they’ll have to solve this problem of the Traveler getting a hold of one of her belongings, especially when memento items weren’t originally intended to be taken away from the player’s inventory as you’d end up with the Inazuma trophy awkwardly missing.

If Rosalyne returns as a playable character, there are a few ways this could be handled, and none of them are perfectly clean:

• The first option is that they simply ignore it. The mask stays in the inventory, Rosalyne appears without it, and the game never addresses the discrepancy. This is the laziest solution and also probably the most likely one given Genshin’s track record with loose threads. Most players probably won’t notice or care.
• The second option is that her return quest involves the Traveler returning the mask. This would actually be narratively elegant: the Traveler carrying her mask this entire time, the object that was taken from her in her most humiliating moment, and having to hand it back when she reappears. That’s a loaded interaction. The mask being returned could even be the moment the Traveler fully confronts the Rosalyne/Signora connection, recognizing that this object they’ve been carrying belongs to the same person who has been described warmly to them for multiple versions.
• The third option is that the mask’s presence in the inventory becomes part of her story quest. Perhaps she doesn’t want it back, because it represents the identity she’s shedding, or perhaps she does want it back as an assertion that she is still who she was. Either direction has interesting implications for where her character arc is going, though the former is more likely to happen to allow the player to keep their Inazuma memento.
• The fourth option is a technical solution. They could so something similar to the Wonderland Cosmosphere where, upon completion of the quest that involves her resurrection, her mask gets renamed to something else, and the description changes. It may even involve the mask icon itself changing. The Cosmosphere was originally known as “Dazzling, Mysterious Gift”, but was renamed when UGC came out in 6.1.

The funerary mask detail is actually rich with narrative potential if they choose to engage with it rather than ignore it. Signora’s mask in the game is presented as her face. It’s the barrier between her public persona and whatever is underneath. The Traveler holding it is, metaphorically, holding the face of the Crimson Witch as a trophy of having defeated her.

If Rosalyne returns without the mask (as herself, under her real name, rather than as Signora), it remaining with the Traveler could be read as the narrative literally acknowledging the Rosalyne/Signora split I’ve predicted. The mask, the Signora identity, stays with the Traveler as a closed chapter. What returns is Rosalyne, who never needed the mask.

That would actually resolve the inventory problem thematically without requiring any mechanical removal. The mask stays where it is because it represents something that isn’t coming back. What returns is what was underneath.

This detail, more than almost anything else, confirms that the original design never accounted for her return. Memento items are one of those systems where the assumptions embedded in the design reveal authorial intent more clearly than any explicit statement could. You don’t design a permanent trophy item around a character’s death if you’re planning to bring that character back.

Each of these problems represents a short-term decision that made perfect sense within the assumption of permanent death and creates a specific obstacle within the assumption of eventual playability. Taken individually, each is solvable. Taken together, they look like a series of decisions made by people who genuinely believed they were closing a chapter permanently, none of which anticipated having to reopen it.

The fact that the current team appears to be doing exactly that, systematically addressing each obstacle while simultaneously building the narrative groundwork for the return, suggests that the decision to bring her back was made seriously and with full awareness of the cleanup required. Given all the complications they have to deal with, this is a major production commitment that someone greenlit knowing exactly how much work it would entail.

That level of commitment, more than any individual piece of narrative evidence, is probably the strongest signal that the return is genuinely coming rather than being indefinitely deferred.

The end goal, as I see it

With all the “technical debt” I’ve explained above, you might be wondering: What exactly is Hoyo trying to achieve by bringing her back and releasing her banner?

My guess is that they wanted to hype up Snezhnaya and its Archon Quest. Think about it: this is where shit actually gets real, and people have been wanting to know what exactly the Tsaritsa is planning. They’ve been releasing several major characters, such as Durin, Columbina, Varka, and soon, Nicole and Sandrone. They’ve been showing the tension between (ex-)Harbingers by having the first Dottore boss fight in 6.3 and soon a second one in 6.6. But all of that pales in comparison to literally having a character who has been dead for 5 years be resurrected and playable, something many people thought was unlikely to happen.

Marketing cycles work best when you build up hype that something big is about to come up, but not stretch it too long that the audience gets burned out. Signora’s resurrection is perfect for this, and here’s what I think is happening and will happen next. First, you get people to pay attention by constantly mentioning Rosalyne positively, while contrasting it with the negative Signora mentions to imply that she’ll be playable as the former. This gets people to stay because they crave for more of her mentions in the next versions. Then you actually bring her back in late 6.x, right before Snezhnaya drops, doing the “impossible”, so that people wow at both this massive resurrection arc and the next region. Finally, you release her banner in early 7.x, likely before the final act drops, so people go apeshit over it, actually pay attention to the AQ story, and portray Rosalyne as a good person, neutralizing the negative image she had over the last 5 years for good.

Crackpot theories

Lunar reactions don’t have Cryo and Pyro reactions because that will be Signora’s key reactions in Snezhnaya (“Qosmos reactions”)

It only makes sense that they’re saving up these reactions so they could release bundled characters for Signora in Snezhnaya, likely the Tsaritsa, much in a similar vein to how Columbina mainly buffs lunar DPS like Flins or Zibai, but performs worse for non-lunar DPS that you might as well use her as a standalone DPS unit instead.

After all, why would they name the only surviving moon the Frostmoon if it doesn’t even give you Lunar-Freeze, despite the reaction involving Hydro just like other supported elements?

A new leak for 6.6 artifact set has surfaced where it confirms that Snezhnaya will have a new “Team Bonus” mechanic: “Qosmos”. Presumably, this will be where we could finally get buffed reactions for Superconduct, Melt, Freeze, and perhaps even Swirl (Qosmo-Conduct? Qosmo-Melt? Qosmo-Freeze? Qosmo-Swirl?)

My theory is that, because she has a Cryo Delusion and Pyro innate element, she’d fulfill the niche of forward melt, which is typically ignored by players due to reverse melt usually being more consistent as it consumes less of the pyro aura. It could be that her Q would allow her to simultaneously unleash Cryo and Pyro and alternate between applying Cryo and then triggering forward melt, much like how Columbina is able to use Dendro with her special CA despite being a Hydro character in order to make her a viable DPS when paired with Lauma, Ineffa, and C6 Aino. Alternatively, “Qosmo-Melt” could be a more agnostic reaction where it relies less on the Elemental Gauge Theory and thus the aura consumption from the forward/reverse direction matters less.

Additionally, this should give the much-needed Pyro DPS refresh if Nicole turns out to also be a support just like Durin, even if that element is oversaturated with DPS.

Reverse melt is rather ignored these days anyway, with Skirk focusing on freeze and Wriothesley performing poorly. Having Signora fulfill an even rarer niche (forward melt) would be interesting, as it’s similar to how taser, bloom, and crystallize were hardly ever used (aside from Nilou bloom), but the lunar characters finally encouraged players to use them.

If 6.x doesn’t contain any Pyro and/or Cryo DPS, then it might strengthen this theory

It seems that Hoyo occasionally puts certain elements into irrelevance by killing the popular meta at the time, or induce “element drought” by not releasing any DPS of a specific element, until they’re ready to shill a new one much later, with a kit that’s far more powerful than their predecessors, causing a resurgence in that element. Take Cryo for example. They killed freeze meta sometime around 3.x with the introduction of Dendro (which doesn’t react when Cryo is applied), and throughout the region, we didn’t get any new Cryo DPS. Then we finally got some in 4.x with Wriothesley and Freminet, but both were rather underwhelming and most people opted for Neuvillette or Arlecchino instead, not to mention that around this time, Eula, Shenhe, and Ganyu, had not been rerun for over 500 days. It wasn’t until 5.7 that Skirk finally made Cryo somewhat relevant again as she deals insane DPS on top of being easy to use.

However, now that we’re in Nod-Krai, it’s clear that they’re currently pivoting to Lunar reactions and Hexerei buffs, with Cryo taking a backseat and the only confirmed new Cryo character being Lohen, and even then, he’s part of the standard banner, so it’s unlikely that he’ll be a game-changer. Sandrone is rumored to be a superconduct DPS due to a leak of a new artifact set in 6.6 that buffs superconduct reactions. However, since her kit isn’t live yet, we still need to take it with a grain of salt. If it turns out that she’s a sub-DPS or support, then we might be getting a new, powerful Cryo DPS in Snezhnaya instead, which could be Rosalyne.

Similarly, in Nod-Krai, we’re currently having a Pyro DPS drought because Durin is a sub-DPS and support while Nicole is rumored to be another support. Granted, Varka is able to use Pyro when he has Pyro teammates, but he’s still an Anemo DPS. If it turns out that Nicole is confirmed to be an off-field unit, and there’s no other Pyro characters released in late 6.x, then suffice to say that Rosalyne could be the Pyro DPS that would finally end the drought, introducing a new Pyro meta after almost 2 years.

Q&A

You’ve been saving up for C6R1 Signora. What if it turns out she’s not in 7.2 or earlier?

Then I’ll just save up further for C6R5. That, or I just pull whichever character I’m interested in. It’s that simple.

Why not commit to C6R5 in the first place?

Because the improvements of going from R1 to R5 are usually marginal compared to going from C0 to C6 that it’s just not worth it. I’m not a whale, and I’m only willing to spend so much to get all the initial top-up bonuses. It’s simply unreasonable for me to commit to C6R5 when it’s likely that there’s gonna be a whole bunch of characters I might be interested in in 7.x. However, if I luck out and ended up getting C6R1 in far fewer pulls than expected, I might actually go for it.

You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment if it turns out she’s staying dead…

Being disappointed is my passion.

What role do you want her to be?

Main DPS, of course. Given how she’s got a weekly boss domain, and every other harbinger who had that became a main DPS, it only makes sense if she’s also a main DPS so she’s at the front and center of your builds. Also, the weekly boss looks an awful lot like a showcase of the harbinger’s powers, with them 1v1ing your MC without any external help, so it simply wouldn’t make sense if Signora were to suddenly become a sub-DPS or supp unit that relies on someone else doing the bulk of the damage.

Do you think she will use her own boss mats?

I don’t think so. While the other playable harbingers who have a weekly boss domain do use their own mats, you have to remember that they were all released within the same region, so the mats were still relevant at the time of release. We’re operating on a wildly different time scale here. Signora will be released around 5 years late, and thus her boss mats from 2.1 would no longer be relevant, and it’s likely that she’ll use newer ones instead, like Dottore’s or the ones from the chess boss.

Do you think Hoyo will keep her original VA?

Unfortunately, after seeing how Hoyo recast some VAs in 6.x, in the aftermath of the SAG-AFTRA strike, even if they didn’t participate in the Kinich VA harassment campaign (as was the case with Nicole’s VA), with some resigning on their own volition (Charlotte’s and Ganyu’s VA), I have a feeling that Signora’s VA might be one of those people who chose to voluntarily resign and be recast. This is because she’s a full union member, and thus was never supposed to voice a non-union project like Genshin in the first place, unless if she chose to be Fi-Core. This could explain why she’s the only Harbinger VA who chose to stay anonymous. If she were to become playable, then she probably would be forced to reveal her identity, as it would be required for the credits in the character profile screen and promotional videos featuring her voice.

One can only hope that the new VA is as good as the original one. Personally, there are recasts that are just as good or even better in their performance. Paimon’s new VA (Penelope Rawlins) is a good example. She’s less squeaky than Corina and doesn’t make my ears bleed. Nicole’s new VA (Sophie Shad) is even better than the original (Amber Connor), as the new voice direction makes her sound really adorable and somewhat shy, in contrast to the original lines that sounded more monotonous and serious.