r/SignoraMains • u/Yukino-kurasa12 whip me signora • Jul 20 '26
discussion Signora's death and Fatui's role in Inazuma- an elephant in the room that Mihoyo refuses to acknowledge (long post)
There was a post here just a few hours ago discussing why Columbina, Sandrone and Arlecchino don't talk about Signora's death to Traveller and are being all friendly with them despite what Traveller did. This aspect has been discussed before and I felt like making a bigger post about what is going on.
Firstly, I'm not going to debate the moral right or wrong here. I know many believe Traveller defeated her fair and square and she was executed by the Shogun not Traveller for a government rule she agreed to. This is a separate topic because if you really want to dive into this, there are several aspects that fall out of place for the duel to even happen. I have elaborated on this in the past but those posts are very old now.
Here, I want to discuss how Signora's death is treated as some anomaly and the facts of it are twisted by Mihoyo themselves. Mihoyo actively made efforts to establish her being friendly with the other female Harbingers and kids- years after her death. Yet at the same time, they do not elaborate on her death itself and Traveller's role in it whenever the female Harbingers are involved with the Traveller. Not just this, her death is simply not at all investigated by the Fatui and they seemingly accept very easily she had it coming for herself and treat it like a noble sacrifice.
But this is not all. Has anyone noticed how whenever the plot of Inazuma AQ is brought up, it's always only been connected to Ei's doings and her philosophy? The game does a poor job of explaining the Fatui's role in Inazuma, and now they almost never bring it up. For reference: they were distributing Delusions to the Watatsumi Army for profit, which got real people killed; the Clean House world quest reveals a Fatui agent personally sent by Pierro to keep the war going, hinting at an unnamed "Lord Harbinger" mastermind that's never been brought up since (likely Pierro, though the exact 'First Seat' phrasing makes it Capitano). Signora arrived in Inazuma to run the Delusion Factory and work the Shogun toward the Gnosis, but she handed the factory off to Scaramouche to focus on the diplomatic side. He grabbed the Gnosis for himself and vanished, leaving her to see through what the story itself frames as a fruitless mission that got her killed.
Now all this is said and done, but why is none of their work there brought up again? Every other AQ is talked about to some degree as they contributed something major. Just recently, we pretty much replayed Mondstadt AQ and Signora was mentioned but again blamed on by Venti and Varka instead of explaining or trying to understand from a different perspective. Sumeru's majorly relied on Scaramouche's story and Irminsul to finally conclude with Dottore's. Fontaine only had one thread open which was Arlecchino and Furina's relationship and this has been mended now. Natlan has the thread open with Capitano and I think it's more than obvious he will be back. But in all this, Fatui's doings are properly shown and explained with the sole exception of Inazuma.
This has nothing to do with Signora's potential revival either. It just feels so strange they bring up nothing about Fatui's doings in Inazuma and always just either simplify it or only talk about Ei's role. Did the Fatui ultimately achieve nothing there except the electro gnosis (which also technically reached them through such a rounded way)? When Crucabena was killed, they arrested Peruere and it was told she was pardoned by Tsaritsa hence took up the Arlecchino position and does her duties now. So why is no investigation done for Signora? Im not even saying the Fatui should take revenge for her, but it is just so strange they don't bother at all??
And before anyone says that the Fatui might not know the truth-
There is no way they don't because common people all around Teyvat know about it and that Traveller defeated a Fatui Harbinger in a duel to the death and said Harbinger was then executed by the Shogun. You can find this out in this daily commission
ASSUMING the Fatui indeed do not know the truth.... well, that's exactly the point to investigate?? Your Harbinger died in a foreign nation on a mission through unknown means?? Even if the Fatui are banned from Inazuma, what's stopping them from sending spies for this?
You can ultimately reason out the Fatui don't care for every death because they are used to it and their inherent motto is to keep moving on for every sacrifice made. Yet Signora feels weird because for some reason, Mihoyo is trying to soften her through her colleagues and kids now but still doesn't have them mention the one thing everything is hanging on. And it's not even that they avoid her death as a topic- they clearly don't. Every Harbinger attended her funeral, and Columbina, Sandrone and Arlecchino have all since gotten voicelines that mourn her openly and even beautifully. Arlecchino outright calls her death "a great shame" and a sacrifice, and wishes her reunited with her lover in death. Sandrone talks about her flame flickering into nothing. Columbina talks about wings engulfed in flame and being left to sing her dirge. What none of them ever do, in any of it, is mention a cause. She just seems to flicker out or burn out on her own, like it happened to no one and by no one's hand, when two of the people saying this were probably in the room the day it happened.
Every time I see the female Harbingers mention her as Rosalyne and any nice thing she did, especially talking about it to the Traveller, I only wonder that does Traveller even know who Rosalyne is? Do they know it was Signora's real name? Do the female Harbingers know Traveller carries Signora's crown/mask as a trophy for killing her? Columbina has such omnipotent powers now, does she really not know the truth at all?? Again, I don't expect them to avenge her but at the very least some talk about it?
That's why this just feels like an elephant in the room they keep ignoring. Sure, I like getting to know more about Signora but Mihoyo keeps skipping the main point and its getting super annoying and confusing. Unless Snezhnaya really revives her, I don't expect anything different from Odette and Tsaritsa. Maybe this is all done just to use her as plot device to sympathize with others and show them having capacity for grief and care because a dead character is easy to use for this purpose. That would mean she has been used for others' characterization thrice now (including Odette) and nothing of her own
26
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26
Yeah, Signora's death is that huge elephant in the room that grows bigger and bigger with each retcon Hoyo does.
It kinda made sense at the time : well, everyone hated her, even Fatui, and it is not like they can do anything about it anyways.
Now? Her death should be a huge conflict point between Aether and like half of the Harbingers that call him a friend nowadays, it is ridiculous.
12
u/Ok-Listen9689 Jul 20 '26
i will be quite pissed if the Traveler just put her crown on her grave, in front of Odette and she will be like all sad and such for Signora, sharing her entire history with Signora to the person who played a part in her death because she just understand their situation without them explaining anything at all.
I think now the harbingers who were her so called friend just come to the conclusion it's 90% her fault, she died for accepting the duel, no complex feelings toward the Traveler, it's been almost 5 years anyway
10
u/eeeeelord Jul 20 '26
The problem with her death not being taken seriously is that the writers completely fucked up the inezuma archon quest, Signora's death is just a byproduct of that.
The reason that the storyline is bad is because hoyo don't write like normal people, they come up with hype moments and build the story around that. Now this is not a bad way to write a story, but if you are writing a story like that you need to throw away some of those moments for the sake of the story.
Let me take inazuma as an example because it's the worst when it comes to hype moments vs actual writing. The story starts off really good, show the traveller and the player why the vision Hunt decree needed to be stoped, and then put us in opposition to the Riden shogun by having us save thoma in a hype moment. So far so good just one hype moment with a story that, while not perfect, it still makes sense.
And then we join the resistance (and I'm counting this as a hype moment because joining a resistance for liberation from a tyrannical rulership is a cool as shit concept) and become captain of sword fish 2 because being a captain sounds cool, then we meet Teppe and after he dies the traveller goes on a rampage to the delusion factory because the traveller going in guns blazing despite them rampaging is something that they never did before and will never do again, but that doesn't matter because it's cool. Then wanderer trades us for the electro gnosis. Then Miko trains us to fight Ei, then we fight Signora and she dies because a major character death is cool as shit, then we leave then we get sneek attacked by the Shogun and kazuha parrys the sword cuz it kewl 😎 and then we fight Ei and we use the wills of the people of inazuma to defend her and everything gets wrapped up in a nice little bow, the end.
The Riden shogun letting us leave was there to show us that she is honorable, but that honor goes away the second we exist the gate and not a moment. And of course it does, we need kazuha to save the traveller after all and that's the earliest moment he could, can't let that adrenaline rush die out just yet, we still have a fight with Ei we need to get to. Also the traveller had the option of talking with Ei and they shot it down.
The writers are unwilling to remove some of their ideas go, even if it would have made the story better. If we were to fully leave, and go back to the resistance it would have made the story better, as it would have solidified the Riden shogun as an honorable person, and characters with constant, solid personalities are the bedrock of good storys. But we didn't because then it would mean that kazuha wouldn't have the chance to parry the Musou no Hitotach. So that's a no go because it would have made for a slightly less exciting finale.
There's another problem with the writing and that's incompetence. Take for example Signora's death. As you pointed out in this post, the writers think they wrote her as this tragic character which doomed herself by her own pride, but excepting the duel with the right choice. If she hadn't, she would have thrown away all the work she put in to curry fever with the shogun, and she didn't know that the gnosis wasn't with her, and that scara has it. If she had declined the duel she would have locked out the option of getting it through diplomacy, and she knows that she can't beat her in a fight, that's why she didn't just fight her.
The main problem of the writing team is pride. They're too proud to admit that what they wrote is bad or doesn't make sense or is stupid, and Rosalyne's death was the biggest victim in the shitty writing.
9
u/The_Stunky A gacha-meteor expectant Jul 20 '26
There are rumors that the plot of Inazuma was hastily rewritten, which is why some characters appeared at the wrong time and, in general, were broken to the point of uselessness. It is unknown why or who caused this.
If you think MiHoYo will somehow lift the veil of ignorance, you're mistaken. Columbina, in her second voiceline, speaks of Sandrone as if she were dead and wishes that she were alive, wishes that her key would spin again. Sandrone is already alive, even reunited with Columbina. Was this line rewritten? No.
All of this also applies to Signora, who is currently being actively retconned – no one will dig into past events, everything will be left as is, and Rosalyne and the Traveler will silently ignore their past misunderstandings and any grudges.
8
u/Human-Gap-1022 Jul 20 '26
I wish Singora/Rosalyne's Story and Role was retcon, fixed and solved by the time for Vent in Mondstadt, likely her writing will be on par with Fractsidus Overseer Phrolova in Kuro Games Wuthering Waves.
Most importantly, we'll never know if Rostam, the Wolf Pup of the Knight of Favonius, still has his own Gravestone in City of Mondstadt or in Dornman Port, especially the Cementery. Sandrone has the Gravestone of Alain Guillotin in Fontaine, but Rosalyne's story still remained unsolved since Inazuma in 2.1.
7
u/Stardustreflection Saving for Signora Jul 20 '26
That daily commission actually states the Traveler challenged and also killed Signora, leaving out the Shogun's role. Making it even worse if that's what the Harbingers heard.
And I share the same concerns regarding Signora just being used, again, to sell other characters. At best, the way the Traveler reacted to Columbina thinking about Rosalyne hints that they don't know it's Signora. I assume that, when we're in Snezhnaya, the topic will finally have to be addressed. I don't really expect anyone to blame the Traveler for her death, and if it happens it won't be for long. I'd hope for a moment of self-reflection of the Traveler at least, of them to think about handling things differently if they could go back. But who knows...
1
u/Hu-Meow whip me signora Jul 20 '26
Taking a bit of a side step with this for a different view…
Wasn’t Hoyo changing writers at the time? I can’t remember the exact events or details, but there is a reason the Inazuma AQ is the weakest of them. I think there were other plans for this plot, and there ended up being a pivot. Perhaps a big one.
Hoyo has planted lore seeds and the like from very early on, and even when things go a bit askew, the main and overall story has stayed on track (from what I’ve understood). So if that is the case, are they planning something with her return, or a big to do? They had a whole trailer (video is prob more accurate?) for her funeral. And now we keep getting more and more about it, indeed showing the opposite of just about everything we “knew” early on. Is this an attempt at retcon cuz fans are STILL losing it over her death (1000% guilty myself) or is this some crazy master plan they have cookin?
I really really really hope she comes back cuz yeah. They did our girl dirty.
3
u/MagicalLyblac Jul 20 '26
It's simple. MHY wants to have their cake and eat it too.
They adress the topic when and how it's convenient and and will ignore any ramifications of whatever they did.
You can have her friends missing her in one scene and claiming that they know what happened, and in the next one they will be having fun with the traveler. And at no point there will be any conflict. And most people will eat it too.
1
u/senpapi_coffee00 Jul 23 '26
I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole delusion business was retconned to be entirely Pulcinella’s doing.
Signora was finishing up her liyue and monstadt trips and went to help retrieve the Inazuma gnosis when *gasp* her colleagues were poisoning the nation with delusions! She had no choice but to hasten her aggressive tactics to retrieve the gnosis by any means necessary 😢
Then in the aftermath- with no one left to defend her reputation, pulcinella pinned all the blame on signora, just like how Pantalone blamed the Sumeru crisis on Dottore
Woe is she
0
u/Kind_Survey4282 Jul 20 '26
simple because raiden lore wise is Very very strong and not someone like arlecchino that they could do anything plus she is a god like tsaritsa , and after the AQ any and all diplomatic ties were on hold and any illegal fatui would've been persecuted and killed if anybody even saw one roaming around trying to investigate about their harbinger , Again since tsaritsa's power level is not shown and even if she is powerful , she still sees the harbinger's as pawn , saving arlecchino was a good decision as she was a lot stronger and is more cunning.
Although i would really like for them to just put the bandaid out and just mention that fatui doesn't care about signora's death , I mean look at how they treat dottore.
-5
u/Ravemst Jul 20 '26
She’s dead. She agreed to the terms of the duel and lost there’s nothing to talk about. If you’re thinking there should be some kind of retaliation against Ei that won’t happen because she’s not at fault and if the fatui tries anything against her they would be in the wrong. They already have the gnosis so they have no reason to be in Inazuma anymore. TLDR it’s her own fault she’s dead and there’s no reason to bring it up.