Tsaritsa identity: Bronya or Ana or maybe neither
Anastasya Feodorovna Snezhnaya is her name, that is all the info we got about her identity after 6 damn years.
Since day 1, Honkai Impact 3rd players have been sure it would be Bronya: Venti is Wendy, Raiden Ei is Raiden Mei, but that is where the Herrschers ended. In Liyue, we didnt get Hua/Senti equivalent. In Natlan, we didnt get Himeko and so on.
The name alone would hint to Ana, who was the Herrscher of Ice, so it would be fitting. In HI3rd, she had a tragic romance story, and apparently, Tsaritsa lost her lover, presumably because of Celestia. Ana lost her mind and became pawn of Honkai due to tragedy, Tsartsa lost her "love" and became obsessed with whatever her goal is (likely to bring down Heavenly Principles). So:
Tragic romance? Check.
Name Ana? Check.
Ice powers? Check.
Drastic Personality Change due to Tragedy? Check
Then we have Bronya, who is admittedly a fan favorite. She is likely NOT the Tsaritsa, but copium goes hard. Tsartsa's personality is described in the official wiki as "The Tsaritsa is diametrically described as being cold and stern, as well as being gentle and compassionate, although it was suggested that she had sealed her emotions beneath her icy demeanor. From her actions immediately after the Cataclysm, she may be considered iron-willed, if not to the point of ruthlessness, particularly in her eradication of the Fae." Bronya's personality could fit that, due to the "accident" (no spoilers) HI3rd Bronya couldn't really feel much until she became a Herrscher then we see how much of a gentle and compassionate individual (well, even before that, her love for her friends was obvious). Bronya's case was medical and Tsaritsa seems to be psychological, but both experienced a drastic change after the loss of somthing/someone. So yeah, her being Bronya at this point is pretty much copium.
Tsaritsa is either Ana or someone else entirely. My bet is on Ana.
As for Bronya, I don't think Hoyo would separate the best trio in any of its verses. Kiana (Sustainer of HP) is team Celestia, Raiden (M)Ei is Team Teyvat, so Bronya is either gonna be a third party or part of one of them.
My bet is on Celestia. Maybe even Heavenly Principles or Phanes, since Bronya is Herrscher of Reason/Truth, and we already have Life, Death, Space, and Time in Genshin, only missing the identity of Reason. Probably not HP themselves, but someone from Celestia.
Since day 1, Honkai Impact 3rd players have been sure it would be Bronya: Venti is Wendy, Raiden Ei is Raiden Mei, but that is where the Herrschers ended. In Liyue, we didnt get Hua/Senti equivalent. In Natlan, we didnt get Himeko and so on.
The name alone would hint to Ana, who was the Herrscher of Ice, so it would be fitting. In HI3rd, she had a tragic romance story, and apparently, Tsaritsa lost her lover, presumably because of Celestia. Ana lost her mind and became pawn of Honkai due to tragedy, Tsartsa lost her "love" and became obsessed with whatever her goal is (likely to bring down Heavenly Principles). So:
Tragic romance? Check.
Name Ana? Check.
Ice powers? Check.
Drastic Personality Change due to Tragedy? Check
Then we have Bronya, who is admittedly a fan favorite. She is likely NOT the Tsaritsa, but copium goes hard. Tsartsa's personality is described in the official wiki as "The Tsaritsa is diametrically described as being cold and stern, as well as being gentle and compassionate, although it was suggested that she had sealed her emotions beneath her icy demeanor. From her actions immediately after the Cataclysm, she may be considered iron-willed, if not to the point of ruthlessness, particularly in her eradication of the Fae." Bronya's personality could fit that, due to the "accident" (no spoilers) HI3rd Bronya couldn't really feel much until she became a Herrscher then we see how much of a gentle and compassionate individual (well, even before that, her love for her friends was obvious). Bronya's case was medical and Tsaritsa seems to be psychological, but both experienced a drastic change after the loss of somthing/someone. So yeah, her being Bronya at this point is pretty much copium.
Tsaritsa is either Ana or someone else entirely. My bet is on Ana.
As for Bronya, I don't think Hoyo would separate the best trio in any of its verses. Kiana (Sustainer of HP) is team Celestia, Raiden (M)Ei is Team Teyvat, so Bronya is either gonna be a third party or part of one of them.
My bet is on Celestia. Maybe even Heavenly Principles or Phanes, since Bronya is Herrscher of Reason/Truth, and we already have Life, Death, Space, and Time in Genshin, only missing the identity of Reason. Probably not HP themselves, but someone from Celestia.
Commentaires
I don't mind it if they aren't too heavy-handed and can stand as their own characters, unlike some cheap copypastes that HSR got :(
I've always thought that if I have to look deeper than their immediate appearance for similarities, then it's hard for me to consider them an expy. You could instantly see if a character is an expy, Raiden, Venti, and Yae are prime examples.
This is a double edged sword.
By being overly insistent on projecting one variant onto another, people can easily miss what makes these characters unique or interesting. This is a problem we see with Cyrene in HSR. Cyrene has many very obvious differences from Elysia, and has her own story and identity. However, people largely neglect this because her Elysia likeness is so overt. (And many take the assertion that they're 'the same' at face value without really knowing who or even what Elysia is)
Conversely, Nahida is rarely compared to Theresa despite being believed to be variants, due to how different they are, and an aversion in this fanbase to bringing up older games. However, this does rob us of a lot of interesting thematic contrast that can be discussed. Like how their difference in age and position is reflected in how they approach a similar situation: Trying to convince someone to not escape into dreams.
What makes variants interesting is not that they're the same. It's that they are *not* the same, but their 'relatedness' as variants invites comparison.
How do they act differently in a similar scenario, and how do they act similarly in a different scenario? What themes carry over and how do they express these themes? Where do they overlap, and how do they contrast?
Unfortunately, this conversation is rarely given the opportunity to mature into these ideas worth exploring. Instead, we're typically just stuck on the 'is it a variant to begin with?', or worse, petty infighting over whether mentioning another game is somehow offensive.
I guess I've just seen too much of things like...even before a character is released, they're already talking about how the character looks like \[insert HI3 character\] so their story is totally going to have \[event\] and they're going to be like \[personality trait\]. People were doing it to Ayato (making leaps of logic, inverting his color scheme, etc) to suggest he was actually going to be an Otto variant.
(to be fair, my current knee-jerk reaction is probably so sharp entirely because of how Cyrene was treated, haha)
A lot of it stems from people really not understanding what these variants are or how it works. Ironically, this is also a symptom of these topics getting shut down so easily. A self perpetuating cycle, in a sense.
Like whenever someone goes 'This character dies in one game, so she's doomed in this other game too!' The response often boils down to 'lol, yeah' or 'go away'. And thus the misconception stays, and the conversation keeps repeating. When really, if you know how these variants work, you know that's simply a false conclusion. And thus the exchange wouldn't happen if the person simply understood that.
I am a firm believer in Ayotto though, but the reasons are a bit much to get into now. Regardless though, even if you assume Ayato is 'an Otto', it's not really right to say he's the same person or even destined to the same path. And that's a point a lot of people miss.
Also, when did the Tsaritsa ever have a lover
Saarelainen is commonly believed among theorists to be the Third Descender. Pakkaisukko is assumed to be the previous Cryo Archon, Belyi Tsar. The Tsar's "gullible daughter" is thought to be the Tsaritsa in her younger days.
Saarelainen is described as being killed and divided into seven pieces by the "Lord of Seven Calamities" (assumed to be the Heavenly Principles) after trying to break into Pohjola (Celestia) at the behest of the Tsar, his condition for marriage to his daughter.
If all these actors are who they seem to be, then the story can be summed up: The Third Descender wanted to marry the Tsaritsa. Her dad opposed, and sent him on a suicide mission to prove his worth. He broke into heaven and was killed by the Heavenly Principles, who then used his body to create the Seven Gnoses.
Assuming the desire for a wedding was mutual, the Third Descender would have been the Tsaritsa's lost lover.
Pakkaisukko is not Belyi Tsar since its stated that the winter caused by the Celestia nail dropped predates Belyi Tsar, and Pakkaisukko was there before the Celestia Nail was dropped. If the tsaritsa was Pak’s dsughter, then that would make her older than Belyi Tsar.
Also, if the Tsaritsa was Snegurochka, I dont think she’d be playing games with her dead lovers body teaser. In the Winter Night Lazzo we can see her playing gamez with the gnosis, it really doesnt seem anyone who loved a person would do.
The timeline also has 0 correlations to everything we learned about the Tsaritsa. She became an archon after the cataclysm, she changed 500 year ago, meaning it har to be some time during the cataclysm. If we were to use the theory that she came to know about her lovers death after she gained the gnosis, then it wouldn’t make sense either since the fatui were created for her goal of taking the thrones from the heavens, and she wasn’t an archon by the time the fatui was created. Meaning she hated Celestia before she became an archon and the gnosis couldnt have possibly been the thing to show her that her supposed lover died.
It's a subtle expy and only if you connect the dots.
1. A very similar style of strand of hair between the eyes
2. Uses leg replacements (Skirk) and leg prosthetics (Bronya)
3. Connection to some kind of otherworldly power (primordial sea, sea of quanta)
4. Skirk's 1st Ascension is called "Reason beyond Reason" (Herrscher of Reason)
5. Both orphaned at young age and trained by the baddies (Surtalogi, Russian gangs)
6. Emotionless expressions (Skirk's trauma, Bronya's X-10 experiment)
7. Some of Skirk's fighting animations look similar to Herrscher of Truth's
So my candidates for the Tsaritsa are Ana (most obvious one, matching name, cryo/ice authority), Cocolia (just fits the vibe of a cold ruler type of woman), or Seele (for a funny twist because there were theories that if Tsaritsa is Bronya and she's collecting the gnoses to revive 3rd descender, then what if 3rd descender is Seele? Would be funny if they switched places)