ok this is like beating a dead horse atp but uhhh.
amphoreus! and the passing of the deliverer role. this feels short but also anything feels short when compared to my other actually researched kinda theory
i am in no way qualified to talk about building of narrative promises [an analysis i read WAY BACK WHEN] and disappointment or whatever— i just write what makes me happy tbh.
and it makes sense— trailblazer has to be involved in the story, and it’s very difficult to do that if the destined protagonist of this world is someone else
also someone has PROBABLY said this already i just wasn’t very interested in the topic when it was popular and didn’t really seek out posts about it tjey just kinda popped up so uhh.
but i think. because it’s in the format of a game, it’s difficult to express through character dialogue and thoughts but. phainon went through 33,550,336 cycles. i, personally, would go mental after like, 2 times. but the point is that phainon wasn’t getting anywhere.
not by being the deliverer, not by being the flame reaver/khaslana.
being ignorant (phainon without memories of cycles) wasn’t the way— but neither was taking all the core flames and hoping to become strong enough to put a stop to the cycles.
i think this happens maybe i misunderstood the story but i think some people forget that cyrene handed the torch to someone else, too. to the demiurge. the demiurge who learned to love the world and it’s people through cyrene and her stories. cyrene sacrificed herself each round for phainon to go back, but eventually he was able to do that himself?
because eventually, she stopped showing up at the end with phainon. i don’t know if that was immediately after the first round, but it happened eventually enough that each chryos heir was with phainon at the end at least once.
and cyrene dedicated herself to just. talking to the demiurge. and the weight of those memories without a break eventually crushed her.
anyway the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. and that’s exactly what khaslana was doing. no matter how much time he spent gathering core flames, nothing changed except him being the villain of his own story.
the rest of the amphoreus cast get a pass because they just. didn’t know they were repeating. and even they were doing different things, sometimes (the different people with phainon, anaxa being able to surprise the flame reaver, etc) but phainon kept doing the same thing over and over again. he kept himself alone to hold the burden himself because he wanted to grant everyone else’s wishes but—
—don’t they have a right to achieve their goals for themselves?
if phainon didn’t pass on the role, even if it wasn’t to trailblazer, he would have imploded.
and it’s not like having outside help wasn’t their plan the whole time? because think about it. if the loop goes exactly how zandar planned, it would be the Last loop. the birthplace of irontomb. it’s been looped, different characters same roles, again and again and again, and they are living code, but code nonetheless? the ‘computer’ keeps them in bounds, or whatever.
i do think they could have worded it better, but amphoreus was already. super long. no spare time to get into phainon’s mental deterioration into khaslana into flame reaver and how he never really wanted to be deliverer, anyway.
details MIGHT be wrong or me reaching i didnt feel like looking up dialogue i’m going to bed ugh
ok WOW i haven’t been on this account in a hot minute but i just binged the latest hsr trailblaze mission and i have THOUGHTS. the original post i had was a little disorganized and while that’s my normal i felt like this tied into a lot of thoughts and theories i don’t actually post. and just ramble about offline. so uh. organization! It’s still going to be rambly bc that is just who i am but!! hopefully the headers make it slightly easier
it's uhhhhhhh. a theory about Terminus and Trailblazer
SECTION 1) What is an Aeon vs a God? (paths vs belief)
okay i’m going to start this by saying: I AM NOT RELIGIOUS. so pls take my thoughts on god irl with a grain of salt!! i’m mostly thinking from a storytelling perspective because i am a writer and that’s what’s relevant to me. but stories also pull from real life beliefs and customs so.
what is a god? or even multiple gods?
there are two main ways people usually go when thinking of what god is– at least powers wise. either they are all powerful and know everything, ever (or at least within their domain if there are multiple gods), or they are not, and they have limits.
in real life there isn’t any. physical? or hard evidence i guess of god being Real and being able to affect the world in modern day, but they kind of follow the “only dies if they’re no longer remembered” rule for me.
in hsr, at first, i assumed that the Aeons were gods. gods who were mortal and ascended, and with limits, but the only gods that existed and aeons was just a fancy word for gods in this universe. and maybe it is, i mean they have a lot of similarities but to me, a god in hsr is just a being with more power than a majority of people in an area that is being worshiped, and even that last part doesn’t necessarily have to be true.
an aeon is different because their existence is confirmed throughout the universe–there are phenomena that are researched and directly attributed to them. they’re on a whole different scale. powerwise is only how creative they decide to be with it. [aha of elation, for example, and the Thing we learned about THEM.]
they are limited to only their Path (domain). how exactly that applies to humans or what they take is all up to them. THEY don’t need people to believe in them, necessarily? THEY can just make emanators if THEY want to.
SECTION 2) What Does it Mean if Aeons aren’t “Gods”? (Why Do They Exist? )
to me, a fundamental part of what makes a god a god irl is that they Do Not Die. maybe fade, but that’s different to me than ‘dying.’
but Aeons are capable of dying (hence why i consider THEM slightly different than gods). we’ve known this since version 1.0, with kafka. we were told two of three known ways of an aeon dying: overlapping concepts and aeons firectly killing each other. and now the third one is revealed: forcing an Aeon away from THEIR own path.
side tangent. i CALLED THIS A LONG TIME AGO im actually really excited about that. i just want to document that for myself because i used it for some story ideas and i wasn’t sure if i said it to a friend or if i read it and absorbed it from someone else’s post (which. might have happened too)
(oh ignore the name orien placeholder name for an oc for a fic that kind of vaguely centers on Aeons. and paths. but this section touched on that idea of straying and what it might mean.)
anyway the first two ways for an Aeon to die kind of have nothing to do with the dying Aeon themself. it is paths colliding (similar or directly opposing in a war) and being a casualty. but the wording of the last way. “forcing.”
It means instinctively knowing (since there are no records currently readable in game about it) that if the Aeon strays from the path that THEY ‘created,’ THEY die. in that first image, i used the word "can't" because of like. self preservation. in my head when an aeon ascends, they are the embodiment of their path. but ‘forced’ means THEY are at least a little more than that, but can’t/won’t act in any other way if THEY don’t want to disappear and die.
and i think my point with using Nanook as an example is that. THEY were watching their home world be destroyed. that was THEIR surroundings when THEY ascended. THEY probably, if THEY had any kind of humanity beforehand, want to destroy the Propagation doing it, but also with a motive of saving THEIR home.
but in that THEIR desire to destroy was so much stronger than THEIR desire to save, maybe, or maybe it was the easier Path/concept to embody for the universe, so THEY definitely did destroy the Propagation but also THEIR entire home world, because Destruction does not care for the crossfire, it just is.
and now that i'm thinking about it, Yaoshi is probably maybe similar, because hey being hunted by Lan all the time has got to be annoying. the easiest way is to just, fight THEM head on, but that goes against Abundance and life. and in the same vein, what will Lan the Hunt if THEY do catch up with Yaoshi and fight and kill THEM? what will THEY have to resort to hunting?
gods don’t have to worry about ‘consequences’ because their actions are divine and on a different scale of justice (probably) and they can’t die.
but Aeons can.
SECTION 3) Pathstriders vs Emanators
according to the hsr wiki, “A Pathstrider is a term referring to those whose wills align closely with a Path, regardless of their views on it, and are therefore able to draw power from it.”
genuinely i thought everyone was a path strider in hsr– maybe some are weaker than the rest, but also according to the wiki, there are regular people who “[live] in confusion and without a firm allegiance]” which is kind of like. no set determined path of how to do things, more like flipping between multiple depending on the situation. which is kind of maybe like aeons and mortals and switching paths.
it’s kind of like the “jack of all trades” but they’re not even ok at the trades. a weaker connection, so it's easier to switch. less resistance.
but even for normal pathstriders, i don’t think switching paths is as ‘easy’ as the Trailblazer makes it look. in-game characters can change what path they walk on (dan shu, even herta [an emanator] in that one scenario, etc) but usually it takes a Very Big Life-Changing Event.
pathstriders & the path they’re on is determined by how live their life and i think their game paths are mostly accurate. Healers are Abundance, but mostly because their outlook is like the path of Abundance in order to heal others? and similar lines for the others.
SECTION 4) Becoming an Aeon
this is kind of iffy because i’m not sure that it has to be a path that is unique, only that there’s an open path. Sunday is the one that puts the unique into question because i’m not quite sure if he was trying to become Ena or a mix of the order & (forced) harmony? people have argued for that because of Egg Dialogue. but he was also mainly following the order up to trying to ascend.
also ruan mei who tried to recreate the propagation bug. and failed but uh. kind of close? maybe?
so there’s an option to start up a new path or just reach the end of the path set by the previous (now gone) aeon. i just dont think many go that way bc 1) do they even know it's an option and 2) if that aeon’s died you’re infinitely more aware you aren't immortal if you go down that path. if permanence wasn’t permanent, then uh. what are the chances you don’t just get eaten by harmony again or something.
the wiki says: “The birth of an Aeon gives rise to a Path, which the Aeon then has power over.” to me, this reads as “an Aeon is intrinsically tied to its path, but a path isn’t necessarily tied to/reliant on the Aeon” all Aeons are ‘Paths,’ but not all Paths are/have an Aeon. the whole “all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares” logic.
which is why paths still exist even if the Aeon that they rose from the birth of die. THEY lay the foundation and probably know best about the Path, but the Paths themselves don't cease to exist without some Aeon with power over it.
SECTION 5) Fuli and the Pure Children of Anāsrava
this was just a minor thing i don't even remember why i brought it up specifically in my rough draft but looking at it now made me think about Terminus and Fuli and the "Pure Child of Anāsrava" and how THEY've both existed forever and only at the end of the universe
Fuli is memory [of things in the past] and is constantly recording/memorizing things and is moving forward in time. technically THEY haven’t ascended yet– but i guess THEY did that, and then started at the beginning and will do so forever until the end.
but Fuli & amphoreus were the first introduction to this kind of concept of
beginning and end and not yet existing but always being there for me. and it’s strange because there are so many “paths” that exist already (destruction was a thing before Nanook ascended) but it wasn’t formal? what makes an aeon exist beyond time and space and even their own ascension? what makes them qualified for options?????
so yeah Fuli was one of the first dominos about my (later) crack theory.
SECTION 6) The Stellaron Hunters (but also Fuli)
they’re a group associated with finality, but i think that’s mostly because Elio is their leader and he has some special connection/association with Terminus. but they’re also trying to prevent Terminus and the theory of four apocalypses.
they’re called stellaron hunters because it’s just. the most flashy thing they’ve taken that people attribute to them. we don’t actually know much about them. Elio gains members by promising to get the future they want to be reality, since there are options.
when they left the Trailblazer at the space station to be picked up by the astral express, they were made to forget. specifically. multiple dialogues, only feelings to guide them.
we also don't know exactly what Trailblazer's relationships with the stellaron hunters looked like before the game. i mean, it wasn't like the stellaron hunters immediately found the Trailblazer and sent them off to the astral express. they all trained them, and probably were friendly with each other. they knew and cared for each other, but why do that if Elio was always going to send them off?
SECTION 7) Trailblaze and Finality
the definition of trailblaze, according to google, is “to be the first to do something, create new methods, or discover a new path that allows others to follow.”
there are only so many ‘new’ things one can do, even with an almost eternal life. and “There are three directions on the compass of destiny — the Unknown, the Known, and the Unknowable. THEY can tolerate the Unknown, but will never bow to the Unknowable.” ← the wiki. the known has already been discovered. one can do things with the known to create new things that were previously unknown. the unknown is what gives Akivili the ability to ‘discover.’
bringing back my fic ramble, the aeon of trailblaze cannot stop. if the express crashed then Akivili couldn’t just. make a new one or repair it because the express has been damaged before. that’s not something ‘new.’ the express has been built before, and it really is perfect for trailblazing. if Akivili got trapped, THEY would be forced to Not trailblaze, because there are only so many things you can do on a single planet, and even less very quick new things that you can constantly do.
also i think it’s interesting that they also bring up destiny. Elio, destiny’s slave, associated with The Finality, destiny implies an ‘end.’ there are events that will happen and this will be how it ends.
Terminus is from the end. from the future, because nothing can go on forever, not even the world, and they don’t so much as live backwards as ‘remember’ all that has happened until the end. but endings exist all across time, even if it’s not the Real Final Finale, so that means that they exist outside of time and space (the cats), and if i go with my theory about not being able to stray from their path or risk Dying, then Terminus doesn’t have this risk because they ARE the end. no matter what THEY do, the end will come, and so THEIR actions all bring about/don’t affect the fact that the end is there which is THEM etc etc. it might extend or shorten the time until THEY become THEM, but THEIR path is the End.
SECTION 8) My Trailblazer Theory and the Entire Reason Why I Made This Post
and here's my crack theory: Trailblazer is/was going to become Terminus in the future Elio sees.
Elio being Terminus is too easy, i think. future sight (or having already lived it in backwards time?), associated with the Cats of Terminus, more reasons i can't think of right now, but i think Trailblazer being on the path to that future has just enough breadcrumbs and is just outlandish enough at this point in the story that it makes sense.
but i think a lot of people overlook the fact that Trailblazer DID in fact see the future. they saw bronya and seele and cocolia on the hill before leaving the space station, after blocking the blow for March and before their stellaron threatens to explode. they even saw a little of the past they should have forgotten (kafka and the stellaron being shoved into their chest)
and the dialogue there is interesting too. “You must see the end of your story” “Reach the end of the story in your own way” the path doesn't matter, as long as they reach an end, to whoever that voice is.
i don't think there are "pure children of anāsrava" [multiple possible people who would “inherit” aeonhood] that all have the possibility of becoming Terminus. THEIR ascension both already happened and has yet to occur. but i think Elio & them are trying to avoid it anyway. maybe something like silver wolf level 999. more complicated than just not using the cartridge, but something similar.
memories are tied to identity, in a way, so maybe that's why they had to go before joining the express. it's not like knowing they were a stellaron hunter before would prevent them from being an astral express member. and the wiki says "[Finality] is considered the antithesis of the Trailblaze." it is, to my knowledge, the only path that directly names its opposite like this. even with abundance and destruction, or preservation, or the hunt.
does dying as a mortal/pathstrider limit becoming an aeon? that would just be their ‘end’ and if Nanook was surrounded by destruction and became the aeon of destruction, does that just mean if Trailblazer dies for real, sees their “end,” it makes them become Terminus?
“beyonds the bounds of time itself” THAT SURE SOUNDS LIKE AN AEON QUALITY. AND ALSO OF FINALITY.
i know a lot of people like to write about how close they and Firefly were, but honestly? i think she was the least close to them prior to the game. because firefly's fate was to fall to Entropy Loss Syndrome and even if i think it wasn't always the plan, it probably was decided long enough ago that getting close to someone who had to forget everything and all the experiences you had together has got to hurt enough that you don't try at all, until after it's done and there is a chance to meet again and pretend its your first time meeting. a path of self Destruction, two people who know the end and can’t avoid it, one fated for eternity and a loop (going back and consuming until the beginning of the universe) and the other death.
i got off topic but while rambling i looked up the dahlia quest with firefly and. i guess i missed this dialogue???? but now i'm even more convinced.
and i think because the traiblaze is the opposite of Finality and because aeons cannot stray from THEIR path without Dying, and the fact that Akivili has been missing/disappeared/died a long long time ago, and you can kind of maybe re-ascend into a path if their aeon died (sunday), that Elio is trying everything to make sure Trailblazer does Not follow their destined path to become Terminus.
Destruction and Nihility and Harmony are all possible options to push the universe towards Finality. and what has the Trailblazer faced? Destruction at every turn, stakes getting higher at each and every world but not Nanook’s direct gaze since that Beginning cutscene (but maybe we were just seeing the future? like Elio in a way? maybe that also explains the ‘wrong’ endings of scripts). we have contact with acheron [Nihility]. we fought against Sunday [Harmony, if an off brand kind].
“Even Nous cannot calculate the next turning point of the universe's destiny.” it's vacant. has options. but one is remembrance and that’s one that has different endings because of who might/already has ascend(ed) into Fuli’s position.
anyway that's my main reasoning. but another bit of not-so-serious evidence is: the Pure Children of Anāsrava have pink hair and half-pink eyes. and the cats of Terminus have glowing yellow-orange eyes.
and what does Trailblazer have? (and im pulling specifically from the amphoreus mission where we see the not-chosen Trailblazer)
that's right, the same glowing orange-yellow eyes.
that's it that's my theory.
anyway, thanks to whoever decided to spend their time reading this. i had a lot of fun writing it out!!
Elation. it was like, really heavily implied last time we saw sampo at the end of belobog stellaron crisis, that he was a part of the Masked Fools, aka followers of Aha, The Elation.
and in sampo’s story, it’s implied that he. dressed up as a woman. convincingly. and he wasn’t called out on his voice, so he can definitely change his voice, too.
and he even has a mask— to play at the eccentric billionaire who funds a game on a whim. that seems like something he would do just for amusement.
and it starts on belobog, too. and sampo does have ways to get to other world— the joke bomb he sent with a signature proved that.
i forgot to take a screenshot, but pela + serval also say that he told them to not tell march and trailblazer who the really good player was (might be him) because : “adding an element of mystery to the story” and what story? our story, our game. what is that doing? breaking the fourth wall. who, aside from trailblazer, breaks the fourth wall?
sampo.
but why???? but have followers of the elation ever had reasons for what they do??? zhongshan (unshackled on luofu mission) did what she did just because. didn’t plan it out or anything, saw a chance, decided it was funny, and pulled trailblazer along to play her tune
anyway if he isn’t that’s fine but if he is that’ll be so funny.
ok i finished the event now and i am slightly disappointed it’s not sampo but!!!! more masked fools lore!!!!!
who’s her.
we’re probably going to meet her on penacony, but is she going to be like sampo and just assumed to be some funny little character until the end where she breaks the fourth wall? is she going to be like zhongshan/giovanni and just be really obvious in mask wearing, thrill seeking?
penacony is the planet of festivities, and we’re like. answering an invite to a party(?). that seems like something fun, but uh. elation is not normal “fun” (lying in wait to murder akivili’s followers and their train)
has someone in the elation faction actually infiltrated the “family”???? are they going to be our way in if himeko doesn’t know anyone there/isn’t related to a certain someone like people are half speculating.
what even. is the Family.
aaaaaaa penacony and masked fools and stellaron hunters.
Elation. it was like, really heavily implied last time we saw sampo at the end of belobog stellaron crisis, that he was a part of the Masked Fools, aka followers of Aha, The Elation.
and in sampo’s story, it’s implied that he. dressed up as a woman. convincingly. and he wasn’t called out on his voice, so he can definitely change his voice, too.
and he even has a mask— to play at the eccentric billionaire who funds a game on a whim. that seems like something he would do just for amusement.
and it starts on belobog, too. and sampo does have ways to get to other world— the joke bomb he sent with a signature proved that.
i forgot to take a screenshot, but pela + serval also say that he told them to not tell march and trailblazer who the really good player was (might be him) because : “adding an element of mystery to the story” and what story? our story, our game. what is that doing? breaking the fourth wall. who, aside from trailblazer, breaks the fourth wall?
sampo.
but why???? but have followers of the elation ever had reasons for what they do??? zhongshan (unshackled on luofu mission) did what she did just because. didn’t plan it out or anything, saw a chance, decided it was funny, and pulled trailblazer along to play her tune
anyway if he isn’t that’s fine but if he is that’ll be so funny.
is it. intentional, that dan heng (both 4 star and 5 star forms) and blade both have repeating first lines in all their character stories?
i would include bailu because!!! high cloud quintet!!!! but hers is medical journals/records which makes sense to be repeated first line (except the last one) and other characters have similar things (hook: diary, pela: reports, clara: logs by svarog)
i mean i know they did it for a reason but is it. high cloud quintet reasons. as the ones who are “alive but dead” “remember but not”. my theory will be “confirmed” when jingliu comes out and if she has that same pattern, as “one of the three who need to pay the price”
(i could probably look up her story there’s probably leaks but like. why.)
i’m just looking at this from story fanfic whatever perspective, but like. is it implying that they’re in a cycle. together. something needs to change, to break. either through death, or something else, i don’t know.
Dan Heng: A new dawn begins.
Dan Heng IL: He seemed to have returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg in the lightless dark, being ceaselessly churned in a sea of waves and elusive dreams.
He dreamed (different)
Blade: The only thing he could sense was a splotch of crimson in his sight and the taste of iron in his mouth. His limbs were unresponsive.
(Guardian of the Shoreline: drift bottle V) because i swear that in this game only really important/related text is highlighted gold like that. and this? this is a random daily quest. it didn’t do anything after.
i’m looking at the wiki and it doesn’t say that trailblazer says that line. who is that. because i thought it was just a game mechanic mocking you but that might have actual story significance?
there’s even more if you say you disagree. except only elation gets a repeat, and Aha’s simulated universe appearance is. interesting, considering they’re the only one to realize that they’re not the actual aeons.
not remembrance, but elation.
but back to the not-trailblazer narrating. because you would assume it’s just their thoughts, yeah? like any other game. but we do have that already, and they’re labeled trailblazer.
so who is narrating when it’s not?
right now, without anything else to go by(?), it honestly might be elio.
we have like, zero knowledge of who he is other than that the ipc wants him captured unharmed and alive unlike the rest of the stellaron hunters and that he’s probably a cat. but he could just be controlling it.
but the trailblazer has the option to make references that don’t quite make sense to the other characters, even though herta has been around for quite some time and is a genius (albeit one who loses motivation easily).
and elio is “cursed/blessed” with future sight, but that’s just the ioc’s description of him. the stellaron hunters talk about “his future” and “his script” and if kafka wasn’t lying during her truth and lies game in her companion mission? trailblazer is artificially made. according to blade, who has literally zero reason to lie, trailblazer followed kafka around, before they were left in herta’s space station.
there’s a theory canon idea thing that elio is the cat that was in Scene 47 Jepella Rebellion that was watching, which is great, but hsr is great at making your choices matter but not at the same time.
you get different endings, technically, but the main story will go on (elio’s script) will go on no matter what you do. even if you choose to not go to kafka and blade, they escape the xianzhou luofu anyway.
i don’t think the trailblazer *is* elio, but i think he’s more involved with them than anyone in the story realizes, just because there’s so little information about the stellaron hunters in general, and even less so about elio.
anyway.
is this implying that your dialogue options might actually change what path you go on in future story? that seems really unlikely but like. what if.
trailblazer might recognize elio, if they see him. i know kafka says she’s the only one that trailblazer recognized, they probably won’t see him in penacony, but i do think he’ll show himself not soon, but not like. final boss battle late.
i wonder if elio actually cares about trailblazer at all, since he presumably had hands in their creation.
or not, since he put them in kafka’s care for at least as long as blade’s been with the stellaron hunters.
When I read this on my game, I simply thought it was the same "entity" who gave you praises of Good Moral (or whatever the name is) and just a little easter egg from the devs in general? With the "why not try this path in SU next time?"
And this Seems important, mostly because of Elation and Aha, but that's just because the writing in HSR is Super Consistant. And going "no" at first IS a very Elated thing to do.
Not all easter eggs and references are meant to be taken literally and seriously lore-wise (just like each time the Trailblazer says something We the Player will get, but not the other characters).
i overthink everything LMAO. that is literally the singular purpose of this blog. it is my name, i am weird about it.
i don’t mind if hoyo never actually elaborates on this or anything else either because if it is meant just to be a “haha easter egg” but the fact that it was highlighted got me…
yeah the praise of high morals…. they’re kind of weird. i just want to go through the little details of the descriptions of every item because there is some actual Lore in them (blade’s relic set). i just have to. stop dying from work first.
(Guardian of the Shoreline: drift bottle V) because i swear that in this game only really important/related text is highlighted gold like that. and this? this is a random daily quest. it didn’t do anything after.
i’m looking at the wiki and it doesn’t say that trailblazer says that line. who is that. because i thought it was just a game mechanic mocking you but that might have actual story significance?
there’s even more if you say you disagree. except only elation gets a repeat, and Aha’s simulated universe appearance is. interesting, considering they’re the only one to realize that they’re not the actual aeons.
not remembrance, but elation.
but back to the not-trailblazer narrating. because you would assume it’s just their thoughts, yeah? like any other game. but we do have that already, and they’re labeled trailblazer.
so who is narrating when it’s not?
right now, without anything else to go by(?), it honestly might be elio.
we have like, zero knowledge of who he is other than that the ipc wants him captured unharmed and alive unlike the rest of the stellaron hunters and that he’s probably a cat. but he could just be controlling it.
but the trailblazer has the option to make references that don’t quite make sense to the other characters, even though herta has been around for quite some time and is a genius (albeit one who loses motivation easily).
and elio is “cursed/blessed” with future sight, but that’s just the ioc’s description of him. the stellaron hunters talk about “his future” and “his script” and if kafka wasn’t lying during her truth and lies game in her companion mission? trailblazer is artificially made. according to blade, who has literally zero reason to lie, trailblazer followed kafka around, before they were left in herta’s space station.
there’s a theory canon idea thing that elio is the cat that was in Scene 47 Jepella Rebellion that was watching, which is great, but hsr is great at making your choices matter but not at the same time.
you get different endings, technically, but the main story will go on (elio’s script) will go on no matter what you do. even if you choose to not go to kafka and blade, they escape the xianzhou luofu anyway.
i don’t think the trailblazer *is* elio, but i think he’s more involved with them than anyone in the story realizes, just because there’s so little information about the stellaron hunters in general, and even less so about elio.
anyway.
is this implying that your dialogue options might actually change what path you go on in future story? that seems really unlikely but like. what if.
trailblazer might recognize elio, if they see him. i know kafka says she’s the only one that trailblazer recognized, they probably won’t see him in penacony, but i do think he’ll show himself not soon, but not like. final boss battle late.
i wonder if elio actually cares about trailblazer at all, since he presumably had hands in their creation.
or not, since he put them in kafka’s care for at least as long as blade’s been with the stellaron hunters.
i am. not normal for dan heng. (or dan feng, as i’ve realized)
but ichor of the two dragons. god????? honestly i had ignored a lot of the animations from hoyo before because i just wasn’t that invested.
but i could talk so much about this one animation.
dan feng
(because i say “he” a lot and uh. it is kind of hard to tell)
general story
the animation basically states that dan heng, after the xianzhou luofu trailblaze mission, he visits places of significance to dan feng.
the whole thing, i think, is meant to convey dan heng trying to accept the fact that he was dan feng once, but reaffirming that he is not him. he remembers, feels, maybe, but that was not his life.
maybe it’s trying to put his (negative, complicated) feelings towards his previous incarnation to rest. because he finally had to confront it after constantly running from it, from sins he doesn’t understand.
i think dan heng believes he has put his past behind him. that’s why he goes (other than no longer being exiled)
i find it really interesting that the sky doesn’t turn dark until he starts to walk away. that it comes from behind him, and dan heng doesn’t notice until it overwhelms his world entirely and he can’t run anymore.
then the water comes.
water, cloudhymm, a power that comes specifically the man he doesn’t clearly remember being, a person that was denied the chance to live his full life, a person of a ‘home’ dan heng never had the chance to see and they both were locked away from.
he is drowning in memories of a past he wanted to deny so badly.
dan feng’s (i’m going to have a whole second on him so his dialogue isn’t the point) entrance is from behind dan heng. a constant shadow on his present life, a dark that follows him even as he can be happy, maybe especially because of that (light creates shadows).
the fact that dan heng and dan feng (in any language i checked the credits) do not share the same voice actor despite the fact that blade and yingxing do and that people keep seeing them as the same person. i’m 90% sure that was done on purpose because voice actors are great and i’m sure anyone who voices dan heng could go regal and proper and voice dan feng as well, and yet they chose not to.
the petals that fall down are the mara petals that the soldiers have. the red petals on the statue i can maybe excuse as a drink thing? but out of any color, they chose the gold of those consumed by mara.
and when dan heng ‘sees’ (i don’t think this portrayal is accurate to how he was in life?) dan feng, his immediate reaction, despite having a weapon to his throat, is “I have to leave.” he is frozen and can’t do anything against him (dead)
this establishes the theme: he still isn’t over dan feng’s place as his past. he still doesn’t want to face it.
he doesn’t look him in the eye—he can’t, he shakes and closes his eyes and avoids it—doesn’t turn completely, doesn’t defend himself. his first instinct—as it had been for blade when he had that nightmare right before the xianzhou luofu mission—was avoidance. but like the lightcone—there was “nowhere to run”.
kudos to the voice actors, because dan heng’s voice is shaky and quiet and dan feng is calm and constant. it matches the animation— dan heng is constantly moving his eyes and being taken off guard, but dan feng barely moves at all.
i’ve seen people talk about the next scene. but really. the symbolism? there is nobody but the two of them in that world, both have shadows, and yet there is a larger one vaguely resembling another person casting over the both of them.
and the next! the difference in their fighting styles is really apparent here, i think. dan heng is still in his human form, legs wide. dan feng isn’t using the spear (cloud piercer?) anymore. he’s preparing to use cloudhymm, something dan heng cannot (won’t?) do in his current form. something he never wanted to, because that meant confronting his past as dan feng.
the fight itself is so cool but i’m not very good at that but. dan heng keeps trying to move forward, is actively getting closer, but he does not land a hit on dan feng at all. he misses, is not enough, is pushed back. he cannot change the past, and dan feng is that past.
there’s no reason for dan feng to raise himself up— dan heng wasn’t managing to hit him at all. a symbolism, i think. the luofu does not see dan heng. they see dan feng, put him on a darkened pedestal, because despite if they think he was wrong or right in whatever sin he committed, there was no denying that he was one of (if not the, if i can remember the shade’s words correctly) strongest vidyadhara high elders ever.
okay i’ll say more about it later but dan feng now says “You have nowhere to run.”
—and then dan heng can’t even push back the water at all, unlike when he could at least deflect them earlier in the fight.
and he hasn’t gotten up. he’s not trying to catch up to dan feng and defeat him anymore. he’s just staring, until the very last scene before he’s hit by the water dragon and is dragged into the water, loses his grip on his weapon.
the resulting scenes of the past, of dan feng’s memories (jing yuan, yingxing, jingliu, the preceptors (?) not caring even for dan feng, just the knowledge only he holds)
darkness. for, not that long, but quite a while.
his eyes opening, bubbles, breathe, his life coming back to him.
the astral express. basically insignificant dialogue, but to dan heng, at that moment, they are the words he needed to hear.
himeko’s “you’re one of the express crew” he, dan heng, not dan feng, belonged. dan feng never was and so he cannot taint that. march, calling out his name, doing something simple and mundane with stelle having zero reason to be there but is anyway, just to see him.
pom pom’s doesn’t have much, but the fact that he remembers it means that one time, before stelle/trailblazer came abroad the express, he was in the main train cart with the rest of the crew. that sense of belonging.
his eyes, almost lifeless, blinking, instead of to avoid his last, to clear his head and to wake him up, to continue forward, upwards, to not be dragged down by a shadow of who he cannot be, even if he wanted to (he doesn’t, mostly)
acknowledgement. at last. “You are my past.” him finally understand that it doesn’t define who he is as dan heng. that he “won’t follow [him] into [his] future!”
explosion, breaking away from it all, light, genuine, bright yellow light, for the first time since the sun was out in the beginning of the animation.
aaaa i wanna talk about the line he says, but i’ll save that because it has to do with dan feng.
standing opposite sides of the statue of both of their past life as yubie. facing away, facing downward. mirrors, at last and always, and yet.
(the rain, washing everything away.)
dan feng, a constant, and yet a small shift. a willingness to let dan heng live, now.
“and don’t look back”
for once, it isn’t fear. it is advice, closes his eyes, and disappears into gold.
and he is at peace. doesn’t deny he was reminiscing at the statue. that (some of) his memories are dan feng, without having to reaffirm that “he still is dan heng” or that “i’m not him”
final shot, the astral express.
dan heng’s present, and his future.
(god i loved this animation.)
———
dan feng + dialogue
his entrance, to dan heng, came out of nowhere. he (it) crept up behind him until he couldn’t ignore it and it was threatening him.
my take on this animation is: it is not set in the real world. maybe, probably, some shenanigans happened with the sedition of imbibitor lunae that means blade is somewhat right in his insistence that dan heng is still dan feng in some ways more than just being his reincarnation.
but even if that’s not the case, i think the fight is all in dan heng’s head/conscious, in an attempt to reconcile his past in front of an area that shouldn’t be significant to him, a statue of his way past life, while he was trying to leave for his present.
note: i don’t think dan feng’s particular ‘punishment’ had ever been used as a punishment before because of the severity of the crime he committed and so there could’ve been unforeseen consequences of that. especially since the molting rebirth was messed with by the preceptors(?) to try to keep the transmutation arcanum alive.
his words, in particular i think, are dan heng’s subconscious listing all of his fears.
“how long will you keep running?” (that’s all he’s been doing since he was banished)
“you’ll find no refuge among the stars.” this line makes it clear to me (i think) that this isn’t dan feng. why would he know of what happened after his death? why would he be bitter(?) when he seemed so calm and at peace in “myriad celestial trailer — “history of the xianzhou: exodus of the five dragons””?
baiheng is confirmed to be the foxian of the high cloud quintet. baiheng was a nameless, someone who goes from world to world, among the stars. “dan heng’s” guilt of bailu’s existence (implied to have been baiheng because of her dreams starting after getting on the astral express + dan heng’s companion mission)
he doesn’t even say “escape, peace” he specifically says refuge.
“the high elder succession is as eternal and unyielding has the ancient sea” (he does not want the title)
“you are my reincarnation. a mirror image. a past life’s sin must be repaid in this one”
this line. dan heng struggles, so much, with his identity. half the reason i think he stayed on the astral express other than genuine fondness is the fact that they had no connection to dan feng (other than being nameless, but that was not dan feng’s title. it was not something exclusive to the luofu, that belonged to people unrelated to him. it belonged to someone dan feng cared for so much that he was willing to commit crimes that it probably subconsciously leaked into dan heng.)
he could protect (while he believes(?) that all dan feng did was destroy (doesn’t have his healing powers)) while not having to face his past because they did not make him.
and the part about past life repaying sins— i don’t think that is something dan feng of the high cloud quintet, when he was alive, would say. we only have one (what i consider) accurate scene of him chained in the prison, and he is calm, unlike dan heng’s light cone “brighter than the sun”. dan feng’s punishment was unique to him— usually, any sins were washed away after being reborn, because the vidyadhara believe that the reincarnation does not equal what came before them.
i think that idea got kind of muddled, after dan feng’s punishment. especially since in dan heng’s companion mission, all they see is dan feng. maybe it’s because of what the preceptors did, that made him so similar looking to dan feng, but that’s just a theory.
anyway.
dan heng responds to that, “I’m not you!”
dan feng is mostly. stationary. he moves his arms a little, dodges, but he is like a wall, that dan heng can’t cross, can’t break, until he does.
“i will blaze a path of my own.” his will, he wants to continue trailblazing with everyone, wants to be his own self, and he’s willing to fight for it instead of running and hoping for his last to never catch up.
“it is futile.” again, these are dan heng’s fears spoken through his greatest one: dan feng.
(well, blade scares him, yes, but because he is trying to murder him, and the fact that his existence screams to him that he is dan feng, that dan heng doesn’t and won’t exist towards others, that he cannot have things of his own because he (both dan feng and blade) will take them from him)
his transformation. he uses everything at his disposal to win.
(also, switch from left to right hand— is that something he consciously did? or is that one difference of dan heng to dan feng?)
