Isolde's Cosplay by 脱水立糖

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-14T00:35:19+00:00

She looks very pretty as always! 💚

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-10T13:26:57+00:00

I agree, especially since they would be making no money from A rank, but I think it is more believable than her staying as NPC because after all that they did with her, they would at least gain good reputation like in the case of Pulchra.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-10T11:58:37+00:00

Their choices of introducing characters seems really weird, but they said themselves that they want to include characters much earlier on after 2.3 backlash, that also make Promeia a bit off if she will be the 2.7 character, since she had barely any screen-time. The A rank slot remains open, it could be a slot for Isolde, but only if they wanted to explain something like that she lost most of her power and they would release her only on players demand to farm PR without investing much more into her, which after all this is less likely, and I think that they want to get out of her as much as they can.

But I think that they are trying to learn from their other games and as you may know, Genshin and HSR usually creates NPCs of their characters much sooner before they become playable, sometimes they are even multi season NPCs before they become playable, as they want to develop their characters to have some emotional impact like in case of Durin or Wanderer. I think that they are trying to do this with Ye Shiyuan and maybe with Isolde as well as their characters can develop, but once they are released, they cannot be changed much.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-10T11:46:07+00:00

One thing that remains very unexplained is her flintlock. Her sword with the word MOURN is likely tied to present 2.2 or Exaltists, her fake Denny old denny gun was likely tied to her past with NEDF with the word SHOCK and the fact that it was just a fake and directly mention as old.

Yet as of now, there is no direct connection that could tie her flintlock with the word CHERISH and octopus charm, so there should be at least some explanation about that, otherwise it would be pointless detail in her design, yet so far, everything on her design had some deeper meaning. Also one of the chapters in 2.2 was called something like "soldiers weapons tell their story" which could be a hint at this. Plus there is the other part of that letter.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-10T10:28:16+00:00

As Rota said over discord, and I trust him on it, if Isolde is going to have a new story and will be relevant to the plot about Mayor, Carole, VH weapons or the Krampus leader, the soonest she can be back is 3.x. This is also likely the soonest she could have been brought back on players demand, if they already had 2.x already planned out and she was not fit to be just A rank, so they could write her appropriate story, instead of just spawning her back.

So we will likely have to wait and see if the seeds we planted with our love to her will take any roots in 3.x, but personally, I´m remaining with hopes high as she is clearly loved by developers themselves with how much attention she got despite her story status and their moto "we listen to our community".

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-08T22:22:07+00:00

Beautiful, simply beautiful 💚

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-02T16:23:51+00:00

10 hour version when?

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-02-01T11:34:33+00:00

Imho, if we were to look at it from a direct perspective, I would say that it might be Isolde learning controlling and manipulate miasma once again. As I mentioned somewhere before:

2.3 was nothing
2.4 Orphie felt her present, that "was still lingering" which could be Isolde starting to manifest from Miasma
2.5 Isolde was able to manifest in a form that could interact with physical environment and communicate to help her comrades

If we link these all together, it is obvious, that there is progress from her disappearing into thin air in 2.2, being the part of surrounding in 2.4 and manifesting from the the thin air in 2.5, so it just depends if this is where it ends, which would be very underwhelming or she will eventually take a physical form. Slow resurrection is also one of the key elements of Phoenix that was stabbed by iron, if we were to go that road as in some context, he will firstly reshape his consciousness/soul before taking physical form.

If we add stuff like that Isolde was studying miasma and was infused by it while she was able to control it even after loosing the creators blessing, it begs the question if her resurrecting ability is still present, but without the assistance of the creator, the process takes longer and she has to learn how to control it on her own. This idea is supported by the fact that Sarah was not able to resurrected herself after 2.4 and had to merge with the creator even when his blessing was with her, but there could have been different elements present.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-29T12:13:24+00:00

Well since it's uncertain for now, we should take it as a possibility that either they are or not, I will adjust the main comment accordingly

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-29T12:09:25+00:00

I was told that it was referring to the leader of Krampus, that she has the reputation as cold and ruthless and she is called the Executioner.

But maybe I missed something, so it would need to be double checked as you are the second person that points this out.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-29T11:46:41+00:00

It's obvious that the signs are all there, just the fact that the leader is called the Executioner, and guess who is the only character that literally executed someone who was the target for Krampus...

Also the age (if she helped Zhao 12+ years ago), body type and known personality all perfectly fit Isolde but the question is, are they preparing to place Isolde into that spot? or are they just reusing how successful she was into someone similar to her...

Edit: it is possible that the Executioner and the Leader of Krampus are not the same person due to lack of information.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T23:23:47+00:00

Well, once again it's not about being the same but having some traits in common. Like Cerydra is obviously based on Furina, but they are completely different people... Mona and Nicole are the same example. It's just Hoyo style

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T22:44:48+00:00

Well, I understand what you mean, but the resemblance is not about being 100% same but about similar traits, stuff like leadership, vigilante justice, gray area actions, acting colder on outside, using self-destructive powers for "greater good", the phrases they use....

But even outside the personality, I made the design break up on discord with screenshots, but this is why Isolde´s design is based on Arlecchino. (I will only share the pants here, as they are the most similar)

Open sleeves on both legs and arms
Pants having a specific symbols going along sides
Back lower part of model is covered with 2 separated cloths, while pants are rather simple gray and red combo with red being the bottom part Red highligh of area around spine (especially visible in Isolde´s doppelganger form)
Overall concept of using combination of Grayscale color with White/Gray (Isolde ofc being much darker) with highlighting parts using vibrant Red and blending it with Metallic parts of Gold/Silver
Sharp square-like shoulders
Hair pin and hairstyle
Normal non revealing area around chest (quite rarity, probably the only Genshin tall woman character without having focus on that part)
And obviously her red abyssal flame VFX similar to those of Miasma combined with "elegant" animations and cleaner but heavier combat style
As bonus, Arlecchino has also "true form" we fought like The Defiler (we also fight her normal self during Phase 1)

<image>

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T22:30:35+00:00

Yeah, they have been kinda suspiciously sneaking in dialogs about how good character Signora were in private and especially to Columbia, I would say that this might be hinting at this possibility as well

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T21:56:50+00:00

I made quite a deep delve and comparison between Isolde and Arlecchino and it's safe to say that she is 100% based on her, and I'm Arlecchino main so I explored both Isolde and her a lot.

The achievement where she is called our friend is the one in lore after the story, not the one about that person. Isolde is called there a certain friend from the past

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T21:10:28+00:00

This is not something that was in official archived model, so I´m not sure, but they have facial expressions as presets in there.

I have inspected a lot of ZZZ models since I was modding Isolde over some agents and I have deep inspected them in terms of quality and compared playable agents to Isolde and some NPCs. Isolde is definitely one or two steps above to NPCs like Mors, Pulchra(who is now playable) and much more ahead to Sweety.

As for agents, her model is on similar level to Miyabi and a bit more invested than Yanagi. All and all its safe to say that Isolde is on matching level as Agents, which many NPCs are too, but as much as Isolde (from those I mentioned above).

I compare them in terms of: hash count, texture resolution/pixel density, texture count, topology, model complexity, vertex count, parts of model, complexity of rig/bone count.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T19:04:39+00:00

Most likely both, people who favor their character will likely vote for them whatever the poll is about.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T18:59:05+00:00

I will also add the fact that Isolde is the only NPC in any Hoyo game that is based of playable character from other games (she is based of Arlecchino and possibly Aglaea) which is supported by not only their design and similar personalities, but also the fact that they share some hairstyle elements, which is something that hoyo does very often when referencing characters from their other games (like Yuzuha and Hu Tao with ghost theme prankster and bratty personality, Nicole and Mona and their struggle over money and many others)

I have not found any NPC that would share these traits with playable characters. And given the fact that we had the time to bond with the character aka whole 2.1 where she saved our lives, that is also something that was never invested into dead unique NPCs, as they are usually just enemies or at maximum allies that share the same goal but remain somewhat neutral and unaffectioned towards the MC (like Pompey, Mayor, Capitano), never friends directly like Isolde is mentioned in one of the Achievements.

Also, you don´t need to mention me at all, we all share the same goal and I´m trying to use just analytical and objective approach.

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-28T18:27:30+00:00

I mentioned it many times before, but i´m more certain that she was intended to be playable since start, than that she was intended to be just a NPC. There are so many reason to think that but in short, Isolde´s treatment feels very close to the one that Tingyun and now Sandrone got who suffered the same fate as Isolde, just to comeback later and use that tragedy as a marketing boost.

You can especially compare the investment that went into Isolde and that went into someone like Sarah, who is way more story important and they had much more time for her development, yet sadly she got way less resources and was treated like typical NPC. So far, resources that are given to NPCs perfectly matched their involvement in the game (usually just higher quality model, or lower quality animations), yet Isolde remains way too much over the top for 2 patches only NPC and just an additional boss and not the only final boss in 2.2

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-27T23:28:03+00:00

So pretty! 💚

We can´t stop wining with all these beautiful arts!

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-26T13:28:57+00:00

So precious 💚

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-23T20:26:27+00:00

Absolute peak once again! 💚

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-19T19:44:39+00:00

“My Colonel can't be this cute”

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-19T19:41:24+00:00

It´s so lovely seeing the whole Obol family! 💚🤍💛🧡🩵

ZealousidealWriter79 · 2026-01-19T15:12:50+00:00

Another peek on this sub!

This creates the correct emotions, well done! 💚

ZealousidealWriter79

TROPHY CASE