It's not even an overthinking at this point, too many similarities, especially towards Primordial One.
As far as I know, that's the first time these two are referenced THAT blatantly obvious. Like, with second to no misinterpretation whatsoever.
As for the schedule of Snezhnaya versions, if nothing is interrupted by external events, version 7.3 shall be released in December 16 this year, given all previous versions being of usual 6-week duration. It's the version where Tsaritsa becomes playable.
Here, we need two things to consider. Obviously, Snezhnaya based on Tsarist Russia, at least for most part for sure. And Hoyo LOVES symbolism, since it happens A LOT in their version releases.
This date in itself, December 16-th, isn't that known for Russia, even Tsarist one, unless you dig a bit deeper. On the night from 16 to 17 of December (old style), in 1916, Grigori Rasputin, close advisor of Tsarina, was killed in Moika Palace in Petrograd (currently Saint Petersburg). Russian nobles orchestrated this in order to free Tsarina from his toxic influence that he was enacting via her son. They also believed that this would make things better for a country during global war.
As those same records states, Rasputin was ridiculously hard to kill, surviving things that would otherwise instantly kill regular people and only succumbing to cold.
Judging from recent Archon Quest by Pierro's unapologetic willingness to sacrifice entire Snezhnaya if war with Celestia goes this way AND his extremely close position to Tsaritsa, I coul not miss such a theory given that so many things align one way or another.
So there it goes: as I am convinced, in 7.3 we will be fighting Pierro, who becomes a Weekly Boss, in order to save Snezhnaya from being annihilated in the following war with the Heavenly Principles, regardless of who wins in that war.
Yet another argument for this is in this picture over here. Old one, but still works. Some of you certainly remember it.
Every single Fatui Harbinger with their faces siding left becomes a Weekly Boss, no matter if they turned out to be playable or not.
Pierro is the only one remaining, and I don't think that tradition is going to end with him.
Knowing almost all this even before Snezhnaya's release made me laughing in tears from this statement, and especially Pietro's words later. But I get why he says what he says, he's Khaenrian and would stop at nothing to achieve his goal. They are so full of themselves that they don't care about the fact that they became something way worse than Celestia they fight against.
For those who don't know, before this Ronova usually never fixed Leylines herself, as Irminsul did it for her... GUESS WHOSE SUBORDINATE FORCED IT TO BE DESTROYED?!
Fae were indeed a taboo, but to everyone's surprise, an overlooked one. They were favoured enough to the point that Beliy Tsar was given Archon position from Heavenly Principles despite being a creation of Hyperborean rebels, of all people.
And the last one here - again, for those who don't know, Snezhnaya's extreme cold was not caused by Celestia. Hyperboreans (who else, duh?) messed up with Cryo Dragon Sovereign's corpse and released this ultra-cold over the whole Teyvat. Celestia sent the nail to prevent said cold from spreading everywhere and mitigate Snezhnaya's suffering from it - Eye of Greae says is directly that before it Shezhnaya was almost 100% uninhabitable, even for most of the Fae, let alone humans.
So, yeah, I'd say that Shezhnaya is THE MOST favoured by the Gods among all nations, but sadly for it's people, one insane Fae and one immortal lunatic cause them to suffer more than they already had.
I know we're all having festivity with the nuke memes and stuff but we also know that the Heavenly Principles wasn't at all uncaring and bloodthirsty towards humanity like how others try to portray them to be.
In the book Before Sun and Moon, it said that Humanity was the Heavenly Principles' most cherished. And yet in my years of playing this game, I have never once saw somebody wonder how HP felt when they were forced to choose to kill a certain population of their cherished children just to save the whole bunch.
Not even just that, it came to the point that they started to become paranoid because of it. It took me back to Scaramouche's story, if this puppet made to be a standby for God could only take three betrayals, then what more could Phanes take before they snap from being backstabbed by their own children and supposed family?
Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed recent whitewashing of his character as Snezhnaya was released.
Wasn't he supposed to be treated as first Frankenstein-esque monstrosity of Teyvat that all fellow believers and normal creatures overall should at least despise and avoid constantly, while at worst hating permanently?
Considering what he was made of, and based on which philosophy he was planned to be made, he's kinda like Och-Kan, but way older and backwards. And we all know how horrible that one went.
Honestly, we should thank Odette for ANOTHER round of Fatui's hypocrisy right into player's faces. I can't even tell you how insanely ridiculous it was for me to listen to Pierro while knowing this shit.
And it's not just Signora. Pants Merchant too, and let's not forget Delusions being distributed overall. Literally magical drugs, sometimes EVEN MORE DESTRUCTIVE TO THE USER THAN ABYSS
When we compare it to Celestia blessing Gods and Angels to love humanity, which prevents normal nations from exactly this shit happening? It's obvious how horrific replacement of Celestia the Tsaritsa will be.
Anyway, cheers for that dead ass Signora being ridiculed once again, that bum had it coming.
Glory to the One and Four! May the Bastion in the sky hold forevermore!
Sheesh, 7.1 have A LOT to overcome if it wants to be higher in hypocrisy than this. Rhinedottir being the one helping against Ronova is a start, but damn, clown, you're saying it to a guy who saw every single one of your international terrorist attacks led by Harbingers and kicked THE SHIT out of, like, at least three of them.
Imagine Ronova erasing all of Snezhnaya once and for all, and then from Celestia, we hear: "The actions of the Shades don't represent the Heavenly Principles"?
It's always funny watching certain fandoms scream hypocrisy and beg for complex comprehension of motives while actively ignoring it themselves to complain about the Traveler.
It shouldn't be so hard to understand the most common reasons that would earn someone the Traveler's ire.
Both factions' fanbases that often cry and complain about them completely ignore that they've actively inconvenience or done harm to them since the very day they awoke on Teyvat.
Fatui: Self Explanatory
Celestia
Heavenly Principles: Hid their spaceship on the Moon
Asmoday: Sealed their powers and trapped them in a 500yrs long nightmare coma
Istaroth: Tricked them into a time paradox guaranteeing the destruction of Khaenriah using Direidyth, making them partially responsible for its destruction and allowing the Asmoday stuff to occur
Ronova: Made attempts on the lives of multiple innocent people including some of their friends ,attempted to take/kill Paimon, and actively antagonized them multiple times
At some point, one has to recognize its not hypocrisy when they've consistently reacted the same way to every antagonistic force since day 1.
Recent outburst of emotions from both sides regarding future progress of the story can't go unnoticed. And I do certainly have something to say for my fellow believers.
I have seen your desperation, regarding Ronova or the story going the way people think it is. And to be frank, I do not understand it. To resolve your justified wrath, I have no crazy lore theories, as those are for the insane to seriously ponder about that much.
Let's address to pure, calculated Reason. Did you honestly think that Hoyo would let Heavenly Principles and Celestia die at Shezhnaya Archon Questline, before we were given Celestia Chapter which devs themselves promised to us?
Think about it most bluntly. If Tsaritsa is to succeed completely, there is no story to be captivated in for players, when Traveler goes up to Celestia ruler by Archon whom he met in Snezhnaya. You can love or hate Hoyo, but they are known to meticulously include every single piece of the story into the plot, regardless of how niche they may be. It would be stupid to think that they won't let us to interact with THE MOST important region of Teyvat in it's original environment.
On the other hand, Tsaritsa can't completely fail, as it would mean her death. As for because she's playable, she can't die, at least for good. So she must be kept alive at the bare minimum.
It is really obvious that story shall go not in the way of Tsaritsa, and her desires shall not be fulfilled. Shezhnaya is her region nonetheless, and initially, story tries to convince us that her endeavour shall succeed. We must simply ignore leakers inducing panic via certain news about upcoming story.
After all, victory of the Heavens is sweeter when accompanied by thrilling illusions of it's difficulty!