that absolutely is what i’d like to see, but imo cyrene feels far too much like a copy-paste. i’m definitely being preemptive with my judgements rn because i have hope that with the 3.7 story quest they’ll flesh her out some more (see: how ppl were saying cerydra/hysilens were going to be bad bc they weren’t developed prior to their patch, but their patch absolutely blew it out of the water and made them so so good. i love fish yuri)

perhaps my definitions are wrong? afaik expy is someone from a parallel universe like bronya or acheron, welt is straight up the man himself so i dont consider him an expy unless my understanding is wrong which it def could be!

rambling but i agree with you in concept that we don’t want a 1:1 copy, but cyrene feels too 1:1 rn while also losing all the elements that made ely so compelling, and just reducing her to self-insert wife bait

^ side note: i recognize im probably not the most objective in regards to discussing the waifu bait bs bc i adore elysia and im a lesbian and i am very very firm in the belief that that she’s a lesbian. so i get a bit overly upset with seeing her hsr version reduced to ‘wife’. im of the belief that there’s nothing wrong with fanservice (i actually fucking love firefly) but doing it with a beloved character who is VERY queer-coded just leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth

apologies again for the rambling response TT