r/TsaritsaMains

I only see negative comments towards Tsaritsa being an expy. But even if she has the same hair, it's not like she's gonna be exactly the same character and have the same design.

So as long as they get her story right and she looks stunning, I don't really mind if she was an expy!

What about you?

I am going to so much hate for this. So, for the longest time that it was believed that the Tsaritsa was going to be an Bronya-Expy. This was further reinforced by the fact that supposedly, Childe's betaline had "Bronya" in it. I myself believed this.

But as over time, I began to doubt that theory due to lore that came out, like her name being "Anastasya Feodorovna Snezhnaya" and her possible connections to the descender. So I thought, maybe she'll be an expy of Ana Scharic.

Then finally, the 6.6 livestream, and we finally got a brief glimpse of the Tsaritsa's statue:

https://preview.redd.it/b7g1lbaas40h1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52f33ebfa6e9cbf318f97f3afb38854cbdb1ac00

As the most notable feature everyone noticed about her is the pointed-ears, like the snow fae. At first, it could be a given.

But this lead to conclude that she was going to look like of Elysia/Cyrene. There are a lot of arguments for this:

1. As said by the Devs in the 6.5 Livestream, Cryo is about preservations and memories. Cyrene's path in HSR is about Remembrance.
2. While, Elysia is a physical in Hi3, Cyrene is Cryo in HSR.
3. In Hi3, Elysia is the Herrscher of Humanity: Ego, and has a love theme to it, basically like she loves humanity. The Tsaritsa is speculated to be the Archon of Love.
4. Elysia is Russian, and Snezhnaya is Russian inspired
5. Elf Ears. This one is relatively minor since a lot of characters have pointed ears. But it contributed by the previous evidence.

However, the biggest evidence I've seen about this possibility is the release date of Snezhnaya: 8/12. Want to know what else was released that day?

https://preview.redd.it/uoiaze15u40h1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=43d40ca5bab07d9ab8822b67adfea36236a3112a

The dates matches up too much to be a coincidence. And we know Hoyo doesn't skip out on dates. Like how they did with the Lunar days, or just recently with Collei's birthday being the same day as the 6.6 livestream, featuring Dottore. So, this cannot be a coincidence.

Now, will the Tsaritsa look exactly like Elysia, like how Cyrene was in HSR? No. There are key differences, like the possibly hairdrills. And I cannot for the life of me see her have pink hair. But there will be strong chances that she'll have some similarities to Elysia/Cyrene, in the same way you can argue Mavuika has with Himeko

Now there are also three counter arguments to this idea:

First, is the Bronya Betaline. Some argue that proves that Hoyo has intentions of her being a Bronya expy. But again, this was the betaline. So overtime it could've been changed, like how Venti met Furina before for sapphire wine, which never happened.

Second, is that some argue the Tsaritsa predates Elysia's release and Cyrene's release in HSR. Again, this wasn't set in stone. I have my doubts that Hoyo made a concept of the Tsaritsa all the way back in Version 1x. And like I said, the development of her could've changed.

Third, is the possibility of her connections to the Descender, and how she "had no love for her people." This counter-argument has more water. But again, expies in Genshin aren't direct copies like HSR. Things changed in Genshin, like Raiden Mei never had a twin sister. Sure, there are some parallels, but never direct copies. So this could be complete original story for the Tsaritsa detached from Elysia or Cyrene.

Now, we'll have to see what happens when the Snezhnaya gets released. All I'm saying, prepare for anything.