youtube is pushing this video out right now they are full of evil and malice but to save you time i PROMISE you im not bashing the harbingers i enjoy them all im just talking about what led people to believe this and such! (And i also made sure to make it clear that it was unfortunately the community’s fault for believing columbinas char would be analog horror because of that hoyo fair video.) BUT ALSO please don’t blame people who believed her character was going to go one way based off of childes voiceline because a lot of people didn’t know what to expect at that time and were unsure of how unreliable he was!!

I like Columbina, but MAN I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping and expecting her to be this psychotic, spooking freak we all thought she was. And the fact that Sandrone is yet again a sassy girl that’s secretly sweet on the inside is just tiresome.
ARE ALL THE HARBINGERS NICE GUYS????

Supposed to be evil or not, the Harbingers had this melancholy aura that they've lost. Every scene they stepped into, you could feel the tension shift. Having that kind of energy doesn’t always depend on if the character had beef with the MC or not. With Scaramouche, they went gradually. He's still a bit mean and reserved even after his redemption. His personality change feels natural. But Arlechhino suddenly wearing cat ears in public (regardless of the reason) feels jarring. Sandrone being called "not a bad person" by Paimon feels forced.

Watching the fatui switch up in real time has been devastating

only Dottore is allowed to be evil because there's like 30 versions of him, they know they can just release a female Dottore who's in love with the traveler and hasn't done anything wrong in her life.

my absolute worst fear is when Snezhnaya inevitably comes out that they're gonna put ALL the blame on Pierro and Dottore to make the Tsaritsa seem like an innocent uwu girl who didn't know what was going on to absolve her of any crimes and make her marketable

they defend this slop by saying that we were "head canoning" her 🕊️

Hoyoverse cannot allow the Fatui or the Abyss to be 100% corrupt, evil, and brutal. Because that's bad for their marketing. It's why the Abyss in Natlan was nerfed to hilichurl abyssal mimics, and abyssal pylons.

OMG YOU SAID EVERYTHING IN MY MIND AT COLUMBINA SECTION!!! THAT'S MY LITERAL OPINION EVEN THE "we don't have creepy characters" I NEED AT LEAST ONE CREEPY GIRL WHO IS UNSETTLING AND NOT SWEET AND INNOCENT INSIDE AND OUTSIDE!!!

hoyo creates expectations with the lore and trailers and then doesn't deliver. classic

what people wished for columbina: eldritch angel, what they got: Damsel in distress

Genshin's problem with Fatui is that

> They want them to be morally gray at best and have a friendly relationship with the traveler.

> They made them look consistently evil, pragmatic, and only caring about their gains till the Sumeru region.

So for years, players had expectations of Fatui and harbingers being "villains" of the story (as in standing against the traveler's goal), but of course, in Mihoyo, only Dottore is allowed to be pure evil, which makes every villain look weird when they are friendly towards the Traveler (Columbina, Capitano, etc).

"But childe was good to the traveler!" Childe was literally planning to destroy liyue just to make Rex Lapis show himself and claim the gnosis from him. The only reason he is being friendly to the traveler afterwards is that he had no reason to act against us; he fought with the traveler and already lost. He is a battle addict, yes, but he is not a fool to challenge him just to get stomped minutes later.

Abyss Order looks better as main antagonists at this point ngl.

I love Dottore so much. I hope Pantalone will be villainous, too.

I like the Fatui and the Harbingers especially.
Which is why I'm getting tired of them being all buddy-buddy with Traveler.

Why are they acting more like Traveler's best friends than the menacing bosses that they are supposed to be?

What annoys me is the fandom's hypocracy.
They keep complaining about the harbingers becoming too vanilla but then when we have Dottore, a dude who's an unapologetic villain, they hate him ?!?!?
What the heck do they want ?!
I guess vanilla characters ARE all they can handle even if they refuse to admit it.
They better stick to their redeemed ex-adversaries, uwu girlfriends and cat eared not so menacing Arlechhino then.
Bunch of babies.

Tbh I have a theory that the original CAPITINO was changed because listen to Childes voice line about him and how it says he’s not strong enough to get him to notice me but then sandrone says that capitano “brought childe around to get to know the other harbingers”

in my opinion, lynette being the reason that arlecchino wears the cat ears is just a poor excuse to have her wear them. obviously its all because of fanservice but it still upsets me, even as someone who hasnt done the archon quest.

ALSOOOO THERE ARE LITERAL NPCS WHO GOT MORE SCREENTIME THAN CAPITANO!!!!

Hoyo is terrified of making evil playable characters. If they're playable, they're nice. And if they're not playable then we get an actual villain (aka Dottore). Nothing can redeem Dottore, nothing.

New Columbina may have a likeable personality and whatnot, but after the Luna quest I'm going to forget about her. Yet, if she was a villain or a creepy angel I'd actually care about her. I hate how Genshin made the Fatui lose aura and just not make sense anymore. Having al 109 or more of your characters be goody two shoes is boring and gets repetitive fast. That's why Dottore feels like a breath of fresh air. Also, if Hoyoverse wasn't allowed to make villains playable than I'd rather them make no Fatui Harbinger playable ngl. Also, La Signora feels like the only "real" Fatui Harbinger to me. She was mean, rude, crueal and actually did her job and hated the Traveler. Abd yet, the other Fatui are way too friendly with the Traveler. I don't mind Wanderer's redemption arc it was actually well written. However, the writing for Arlecchino, Capitano, Sandrone and Columbina, especially Sandrone and Columbina has been so bad abd boring waifu bait.

To answer the question in the title: YES
The harbingers were once intimidating, a real threat. Now? A joke.
This is not just about Columbina btw. I did actually expect her to be the one harbinger who would switch to our side. But I did expect her to be more creepy, indeed. A character with a cute and also scary/creepy side. It's literally how she was depicted in the dialogues prior. Still, I thought she'd be the one to join us, exactly because I expected her not to have a real allegiance with the Fatui.
That being said, the other harbingers are way worse.
Childe is fine tbh, he is still very chaotic, violent and bloodthirsty even though he is also loving towards his family. It makes sense for his character.
But from there on, it goes downhill. Signora, the one who was actually a villain, died. Then we get Scaramouche, who is also a legit villain, but gets redeemed.
Problem?
Arle, Capitano, Sandrone and Columbina are the next to be introduced, and they are just... good people? Like, not evil at all?
This completely ruins the importance of Scaramouche's redemption arc, as it doesn't feel special anymore when we find out the majority of the harbingers turns out to be good people. Especially Capitano, who is such a noble and brave person, he fights for a nation that isn't even his, and sacrifices himself.
So... They are ALL good? We only have 1 of them who is bad? Rest aren't even morally dubious, and simply kind people? Ugh.
What even is the point of having them around now?

The characterizations of the harbingers made me go back and really appreciate the Raiden Shogun, the ONE time Hoyo dared to make a morally dubious character who was actually in the wrong.
But I suspect the Shogun is the very reason Hoyo retconned (yes, retconned. I know for sure they had different plans for the harbingers, Arle was literally said to hunt down and kill people who left the fatui, which forced several characters in side quests to fake their deaths in order to escape.) future characters to all be good. People were really bad at the Shogun, and to this day still hate her.