La Signora

It’s interesting to see how differently La Signora treats the two archons we’ve met in the two respective scenes we’ve seen her in.

With Venti, she’s derisive; with Zhongli, she’s a lot more polite/ respectful. She calls Zhongli the “Geo Lord” while Venti’s a “rodent ruler”. While La Signora isn’t exactly nice to Zhongli, calling his insistence on formality and contracts sanctimonious, there’s a definite difference in her behavior towards the two Archons.

This seems to be due to a combination of a few things, including the archons’ different power levels and the two different situations they’re in.

Venti and Zhongli are in vastly different situations when it comes to how their interactions with La Signora play out. Venti gets ambushed at the back of a 7/11 outside of a cathedral, while Zhongli has been planning to get rid of his gnosis since Childe arrived in Liyue at least a year prior to the main storyline. Zhongli made a contract with La Signora (and he does not like when people break contracts), while Venti just gets ambushed.

Venti is, in his own words, the weakest of the seven archons. La Signora could probably beat him in a fight, especially considering that Venti wouldn’t even take the fight seriously unless something important to him was at stake. Zhongli, meanwhile, is the oldest of the archons and has the respect of pretty much every Liyue citizen. La Signora knows exactly what Zhongli is capable of, stating that Zhongli could have easily reeled Osial and Childe in.

This brings me to a question, though— why exactly is La Signora so disrespectful towards the weaker Venti but respectful towards the stronger Zhongli? Is she walking on eggshells and hiding her true nature around Zhongli because he might just snap and call off their deal or hurt her if she calls him a rodent? Does she just not like Venti? Or does she simply respect those with power more than those without?

If I had to guess, I’m leaning towards the latter two option. Rex Lapis does not break contracts— he wouldn’t break his deal with La Signora. If La Signora was afraid of Zhongli hurting her (killing her would mean breaking the contract), she could just put “no attacking the other party” into the contract. So La Signora probably isn’t acting polite around Zhongli because she’s afraid of repercussions— she seems to genuinely respect Zhongli more than Venti.

It’s possible that La Signora’s respect towards people stems entirely from (her perception of) their strength.

Childe states Signora uses lethal force towards Fatui recruits and she’s derisive towards the weakest Archon. She tolerates Childe but seems to see him as, well, a child— in one line she essentially tells him to be quiet while the grown ups talk (well not quite like that, she just interrupts him and tells him to stop wasting time).

La Signora is similarly dismissive towards the Traveler during their first meeting, ignoring them and leaving. Interestingly she pays more attention to the Traveler in Liyue, saying that she’s happy they remember her name— Childe states that the Traveler is more powerful during the Golden House fight than La Signora told him they were in Mondstadt. Maybe La Signora’s good at judging how powerful a person/ being is at a glance, and her saying more to the Traveler during their second meeting is a reflection of her respect for their growing power? Or maybe that’s me going out on a limb.

And finally, La Signora seems to respect the Tsaritsa and Zhongli, both of whom are powerful archons with the respect of their countries’ people (at least as far as what we know so far not including the Teyvat storyline trailer).

So from how she acts in the scenes we’ve seen her in, along with how Childe describes her, La Signora seems to respect the powerful much more than the weak. I’m verrry interested to see how she acts around the other five Archons we haven’t met yet, along with if her behavior towards the Traveler changes as they acquire more elemental powers and regain their original abilities.

As always, this is all just my interpretation of Genshin and should be taken with a grain of salt. I could very easily be dead wrong about all of this (another possibility is that La Signora just doesn’t like Venti or Childe’s personalities). I can’t wait to see more of this character and learn more about her! I can’t stop picturing her as the Tsaritsa stop it brain she’s just a harbinger