u/PaleVampireKnight

so I saw a few posts saying we should expect him potentially in the snezhnaya silhouette reveal, but to prevent doom posting when the time comes and to be realistic, I don't think that's gonna happen.

would they really spoil his return like that? I very much doubt that. I feel like his return will be very sudden and unexpected rather than revealed beforehand. and I don't think sandrone was on the silhouette reveal of nod krai either. I dunno, I could be wrong, but either way, I really doubt they would put him there.

I'd like to hear your opinions too

I had a few questions and all, so I wanted to share them.

if the pattern is the usual one, like the previous archon quests, then everything important should be concluded in 7.3. and if the rumors hold, then tsarita will somehow beat or weaken ronova, or take away her authority, thus helping thrain wake up and having him during the 7.4 story.

my question is, if her authority is taken away, then who rules over death? obviously, to break the curse, one needs to have authority over it.

on the other side, if the curse is lifted, what happens to the khaenei'ahns? do they just die? or does rhinedottir get involved somehow, fixing their bodies? restoring capitano's body, for example?

another question that kinda gives me more hopium is that, in the trailer, mistilteinn had no color shading of the gnosis. so does she fight ronova without the power of them? or could the trailer simply be symbolic?

but either way, it could mean that after defeating ronova somehow and bringing back capitano, he'll obtain the pyro gnosis and deliver it to her majesty to complete the mistilteinn.

in the preload, we had him mentioned in past tense. I honestly don't see that as a bad thing, cuz I believe everything previous being in present tense but now the new stuff in past tense, there's a very major change. either they're explicitly saying he's dead and not coming back, or it's just to have the stakes higher for his return, and I believe in the second one. why? having the lines change from present to past in such quick way obviously cannot mean death. it could mean a drastic change to his current state and finally some movement to his story, unless hoyo is very shit at writing (they've proven that multiple times). so I believe this is the setup for his return.

and also, about capitano's soldiers being transferred to childe, that's not a set back nor a particularly bad sign for him. he could return and take over, and have childe as his lieutenant or whatever without undermining anyone.

at least, I think it'll be like this. either way, we need to wait till mare jivari. if nothing there? then yes, we can largely put our hopes of his playability aside and only wait for khaenei'ah to see what we'll be presented with. maybe that's his place, although with much less relevance and impact.

so with the new leaks, many things became questionable for me. first of all, if khaenei'ah is its own nation, then dain becoming playable in 7.x means he's not the archon figure? that aside, the more story wise implication is that somehow khaenei'ah will be restored, obviously connected to the loom of fate, so I believe snezhnaya and khaenei'ah's story will be directly connected.

on the other side, they speculate mare jivari is in 7.8, but that's closer to the summer event patches rather than a map expansion, so I still believe in 7.4 mare jivari expansion. and with that, we got two scenarios. if capitano gets up from the throne, either it's before or during mare jivari, and if not present in mare jivari quest, he potentially could be the archon figure of khaenei'ah? or just a banner in 8.x cycle?

so I've been following the 7.x leaks closely and honestly don't know how to feel about them, cuz there are a few ambiguous factors.

first of all, the roster already looks kinda big, with some other characters being rumored playable.

on the other side, one thing that has my hopes up is cryo aggravate, so maybe a Noy and Capitano team?

on the other side, one other thing that concerns me is that Dainsleif is rumored to be playable at the end of snezhnaya, and the game said the last stop of our journey is snezhnaya, so could that mean no khaenei'ah nation? could it be a sub expansion? if that's the case, the roster is kinda tight for our lord.

not doomposting not sugarcoating just simply saying what's obvious on my mind

With the new leak about Dainsleif supposedly becoming playable toward the end of Snezhnaya, and Khaenri'ah apparently not being its own region but instead part of Snezhnaya's overall storyline, I'm honestly feeling a bit more confident about Capitano's chances.

It actually makes 7.4 seem even more plausible to me. It lines up with the Harbinger release pattern, falls around January, and also matches a lot of the symbolic hints.

Another thing is that Snezhnaya is essentially the conclusion of our journey through the Teyvat chapter. If the rumors about the next chapter taking place outside of Teyvat are true, then I don't really see Capitano having much narrative relevance after the Teyvat storyline is over.

Because of that, I feel like bringing him back during Snezhnaya makes the most sense. To me, 7.4 is still one of the strongest possibilities, and these new leaks make that window seem even more convincing.

What are your thoughts?

So let's assess the situation for a bit, because I feel like a lot of people are losing hope.

First of all, it was never expected for Capitano to show up in the early 7.x updates. If anything, most of us have thought that if he returns, it'd most likely be after 7.3. That wasn't a prediction, just what seemed like the most reasonable release window based on the Harbinger pattern.

As of now, nothing has really changed. 7.4 is still one of the strongest possibilities.

It also makes sense that the early 7.x patches would focus more on introducing Snezhnaya, the region itself rather than immediately jumping into the biggest story beats. I think some of the recent leaks even point in that direction, though correct me if I'm wrong.

Honestly, having Capitano return that early would feel a bit out of place. His comeback is a major story event, so it makes more sense to save it for when the stakes are much higher.

So I'm still looking toward 7.4 as the most likely window. And if not 7.4, then I'd expect him to appear during the second half of Snezhnaya's story, when the main conflict really kicks into gear and where Mare Jivari expansion happens.

Don't lose hope, comrades. We're still far too early into 7.x to rule anything out.

What do you all think Capitano's relationship with the Tsaritsa is after the new revelation?

I'm not sure how plausible this is, but could he actually be one of her direct descendants? Maybe that would explain things like his Cryo mastery, his reputation, and the amount of trust and authority he holds in Snezhnaya. It could also explain why he was able to send direct letters to Her Majesty after failing to obtain the pyro gnosis and why she continues to keep his seat vacant.

If that ends up being true, I think it would also make his eventual return feel a lot more believable, since he'd have a much closer connection to the Tsaritsa than we originally thought.

Y'all need to hear me out. I have a bit of a crack theory.

I honestly wonder if Capitano's original kit was reworked into Skirk's.

Here's why I think that. Natlan was basically the "waifu era." Hoyo leaned heavily into female banners, with Kinich being the only new male 5star. At that time, Capitano has a playable ID, a weapon type, and all the usual signs that suggested he was planned as a playable character.

Then Skirk suddenly showed up near the end of Natlan with almost no buildup compared to Capitano. We also know Natlan's development felt rushed in several areas. So I can't help but wonder if, at some point during development, Hoyo decided to delay or scrap Capitano's release and rework some of his gameplay ideas into Skirk instead.

Another thing that makes me think about it is that, across Hoyo's other games, characters that resemble Capitano in terms of archetype or fighting style usually have kits that feel surprisingly similar to Skirk's.

Obviously this is just speculation. I just think it's an interesting possibility considering how abruptly Skirk entered the picture and how much development time had already been invested into Capitano.