Genshin Impact 7.0 Act 2 - Ronova and Tsaritsa. Workaholics?

And today I managed to finish up with Act 2 of the Genshin Impact 7.0 storyline, and whoa, it was even better than the previous act, letting an extremely clichéd "closed-room murder mystery" become the central focus before the confrontation with the real main story of the Snezhnaya chapter.

The plot is simple: Tartaglia gives us a ticket to a rehearsal of a theater show, and we go to enjoy it, assuming we'll find his little sister there. Once there, everyone is stuck because of a snowstorm, and then people start dying every day as the various actors fight about who is the real culprit.

Ronova is absolutely gorgeous, but she emits that 'I'm so tired of this job you can't even imagine' aura. Poor girl has been doing this for hundreds of years...

The real Tonia is adorable as much as the fake one. Hopefully we get to see her in some other light occasion together with Tartaglia.

Odette comes out as Lelek, but she's clean when it comes to killing people. Eventually, the culprit is revealed to be Ronova, the Ruler of Death herself. The full reason behind the cycle of death and resurrection was about stopping the development of the Tsaritsa's plan.

They also touched on the relationship between Rosalyne (La Signora) and Odette, and they showed how she actually cared about Odette without completely redeeming her. She deserved to die for the disasters she incited in the various countries, but she also had a human side like everyone else. She's just a human...

Odette managed to really grab my attention as her story developed over the second act. It solved my qualms with her cold attitude completely.

Odette was the MVP that saved Lumine and granted her the chance to actually go and reach Paimon before it was too late.

Once the murder mystery was solved, things started to move a lot faster, and we got the revelation of Project Stuzha, which is the creation of a weapon using the gnoses to strike down the Heavenly Principles and free the world from the control of the Heavenly Principles.

Ronova is working to stop the Fatui from having that weapon, as per directives received by her superior, and is directly clashing with Lumine over Paimon. Paimon is revealed to be a creation of Celestia, but doesn't seem to have any power linked to it. The disappearance of Asmoday doesn't match the timeline, so Paimon must be something different, maybe the new body of the Heavenly Principles?

Ronova's eyes looking at Lumina. I mean, she's just shy! Ronova is not an evil Shade, just a workaholic one. I can feel her pain considering the others are...

The arrival of the Tsaritsa with her underlings. All of them playable so I can't wait to see what kind of skills they'll have.

Now the wait is back, and it'll be a month before we know what's going to happen. Allying with the Fatui was inevitable, considering we're in Snezhnaya for the entire patch, but I honestly can't see Ronova as an enemy. She's just a bored office lady who just wants to get over with her job.

The Tsaritsa Anastasia isn't cleared of being an enemy in my eyes either. Pierro mentioned that once she wins she will "recreate the world," and I'm generally scared whenever someone in an anime-themed story talks about recreating the world. It usually ends up being quite a problematic thing.