i think i've just had another HoV revelation, this time about Captainverse HoV
paging @sacron1143, i feel like you'd like to see this and you might know enough about the captainverse to add any supporting or disproving evidence to this theory of mine!
so obvi many of the captainverse events were meant to be less serious and more silly, so I think that stuff like the recurring gag of NEET Water Djinn (the common Captainverse version of HoV) isn't meant to be analyzed too deeply. Water Djinn appears everywhere cause it's funny, that's it.
buuuuuut, if we were to try and analyze her as a character, then there's one thing that's always struck me as a bit odd, which is that she appears so often even in places that she seems totally foreign to. like in Odd Drifter we meet her in a desert despite being a "Water Djinn", or in Seele's dream in the Estival Seaside event. We even see the writers themselves poke fun at this in the 2nd-to-last Captainverse event when we meet a Water Djinn somewhere on Himeko's bubble world and Captain is just like "why r u everywhere, r you mass-produced lol" and she's all like "bro what's your problem, piss off"
however there IS one bubble world where the Water Djinn has a clear origin, where she actually seemed to belong and where there were other characters with a meaningful relationship with her... which was the Honkai Quest bubble world. In that bubble world Water Djinn was one of two spirits, the other being a blue-eyed version of her, and the orange-eyed one corresponded to HoV and the blue-eyed one w/ Kiana. But the two of them weren't identical copies per se; they were sisters. And then we had the forest spirit Bianka to boot, who didn't have an explicit connection back then but now with the revelation of Bianka being the real Kiana it's plausible that she was related to the two water spirits too.
The thing is that older Water Djinn (HoV) didn't "die" in the events of that story- she disappeared. Into a rift. We know how screwy the Sea of Quantum can get, so for someone like Water Djinn to get yoinked out of her world by a Quantum rift wouldn't be unusual at all. Water Djinn was established to be a powerful fighter at that time, and she only got pulled into the rift because she was weakened at that moment. It's possible, though not necessarily plausible, that she was still strong enough to survive after being taken by the rift even if she wasn't strong enough to avoid getting swallowed up by it. And we've seen plenty of times where healthy & powerful characters get yoinked by a rift without their consent, i.e. Misteln semi-accidentally kicking Kira out of the SSHC bubble world.
All that is to say- what if all the random Water Djinns we see in the Captainverse are somehow derived from the original Water Djinn of the Honkai Quest bubble world? I doubt they're all the same individual because of the varying circumstances we find them in, but they're always in a weird limbo where they're out-of-place in the world they're at and they don't seem to have a clear purpose or direction. Just like the Captain's mind apparently split from Kongming's portal shenanigans, maybe the Water Djinns throughout the SoQ are fragments of the original one, or maybe they're echoes of her wandering through the SoQ and the "real" one is still out there.
of course we'll never know because the Captainverse is over now, but i hope there's still an alive-and-well Water Djinn out there looking for a chance to be reunited with her younger sister, the younger sister who so desperately searched for even the smallest trace of her bigger sister after she disappeared from the world.
finally caught up with the current HI3rd event, the Luna one! so time to share lots of random thoughts, hehe
It felt a bit surreal first seeing this conclusion to the Captainverse story, but now that I've gone through the whole thing I can say that I really liked the way Mihoyo handled it. Of course there are details that I'm still iffy on, like the whole Luna-aged-over-10,000-years thing is pretty clearly fan service-y; but even that doesn't bother me too much.
More than anything else, I appreciate how the Captainverse gave us a happy ending for the "holy trinity of depression" in HI3rd's main story: Kallen, Himeko, and Sirin. All three of them suffered so much in the main story, after all.
Even if these bubble-world versions of them aren't the originals, it's still heartwarming to see them looking forward to a brighter future, instead of being faced with certain doom in the face of powers beyond their understanding.
Himeko especially hits me in the feels, not just because of Final Lesson but all the way back in her late teens when she lost her father, as we saw in the Alien Space manga. It was a completely life-changing event for her, and if she hadn't lost her father there then Himeko could've followed her passions and lived a very different life.
The Captainverse Himeko isn't the same Himeko, but it feels like she's carrying on that same dream. It's almost like a different version of the Kiana-MemoryHimeko reunion in the Flamescion arc; but instead of a mature Himeko seeing off her student, it's the young Himeko starting a new adventure and following her dreams...
I also loved how well Mihoyo wrote the Captainverse cast. The way everyone interacts w/ each other felt so natural imo, it was really nice seeing all the different connections that started popping up. The rivalry between Luna and Kongming, the budding friendship between Bronie and Sirin, Himeko & Captain, and so on. There was very little technobabble or convoluted plot stuff (at least in my opinion) for most of the Captainverse events. All these fun character interactions were the center of attention, and it was an absolute blast! ^.^
There's two final thoughts I have about the Captainverse, and I know that Mihoyo probably isn't going to explore either of these possibilities, but I'll choose to dream that it'll happen someday >.<
First: The Main Story showed us that HoFi Kiana has the power to stabilize an entire bubble world. Even if she didn't, the Earth civilization is still pretty advanced thanks to the Divine Keys (1st Key and 2nd Key especially). So if the Captainverse Hyperion crew ever encountered Earth and met our Main Story cast... wouldn't that be the perfect solution to the bubble world dilemma? After all, much of the pain these characters have gone through was the result of the inevitable decay and collapse of unstable bubble worlds (which is nearly all of them).
I doubt it'd ever happen in the story, but I'd still love to see how the Hyperion crew would react to meeting their "real" selves, and to discovering that there's a way to save all these worlds. Of course there's probably countless bubble worlds so not ALL can be saved, but every world saved is still a massive achievement!
And I'm curious how they'd react to the existence of the Imaginary Tree. As far as I can tell, none of their bubble worlds seem to have any idea that the Imaginary Tree exists. They likely have no clue that there is a Cocoon of Finality, or that Earth is a thing and that it's part of a solar system, and so on. So learning about all these things would probably be a huge revelation for them. Kinda like a Plato's cave allegory. Which is quite fitting tbh, since bubble worlds are basically shadows of the "real worlds".
Second: I genuinely believe the Captainverse cast would fit perfectly in the setting of Honkai: Star Rail.
One obvious point is that the Hyperion crew is a clear candidate for a Path of Trailblaze faction. Instead of traveling across the Imaginary Tree with the Astral Express, they travel through the Sea of Quanta on their own Hyperion. They don't connect "real worlds" and I don't think it's accurate to say they connect bubble worlds, but they're still able to travel between them and transfer people and ideas. Surely with enough time they could come up with a way to truly bridge the gap between different bubble worlds, and then they'd be a near perfect thematic parallel of the Astral Express- just in the Sea of Quanta instead of on the Imaginary Tree.
Then there's also the fact that most of the Hyperion crew members have a strong ambition to travel, explore, adventure, and so on. Bronie and Himeko want to see what lies in the countless worlds of the Starry Sea, Captain wants to continue traveling between worlds and helping people, Sirin wants to grow stronger and learn how to better protect her own world, and so on. Almost any of these characters could feasibly join the Astral Express if given the opportunity (and if they weren't already part of Hyperion).
I also feel like their character dynamics would fit HSR's balance of sillyness and seriousness. The Captainverse crew can all get serious when they need to, but they're also capable of plenty of fun shenanigans. I could imagine them getting into trouble and engaging in a bit of tomfoolery just as easily as I could imagine them facing down the Antimatter Legion and fighting to save a world from its impending doom.
Again, there's basically 0% chance of this happening... but I'd still love to see it someday. The Captainverse crew might be a bunch of familiar faces but they all have their own unique origins, ambitions, skills, personality, and so on. They're not just mere copies of the "real" versions of themselves, but they've become their own characters through this story.
It does hurt a bit, knowing that this cast is ultimately going to be relegated to side stories and temporary events. I believe that if you changed some of the terminology and character designs a bit, then the story of the Captainverse could probably stand entirely on its own as an independent piece of media. The concept of traveling between unstable and decaying worlds in the Sea of Quanta, the use of consciousness mapping and how it affects both the world & the user, the Ether Anchors; all these ideas are well-developed and they're conveyed in a story with a lovable cast. There's so much potential here, and this story doesn't really need the rest of the HI3rd story to give context to these characters and the setting they're in.
If this is truly the end of the Captainverse, I'd still be satisfied. If we still get Captainverse content but it's just minor stuff, I'd still be satisfied. I think this event did a great job of answering questions, tying up loose ends, and leaving things open for the future.
But despite that, I still wish we could see more of this cast. I want to see Bronie reuniting with Ciora and Theresa, Sirin growing stronger with time as she explores the Sea, Himeko's excitement in traveling across worlds, Kallen & Luna bonding and growing past their troubled past.
at this point I probably care about the Captainverse as much if not more than the Main Story. I'm excited about Mars, don't get me wrong... but the Sea!!! the bubble worlds!! Himeko & Sirin & Kallen & everyone else!! >~<
a little follow-up to my recent text post about the Captainverse event we just had!
I wanted to share some of my favorite quotes/scenes from the Captainverse cast :)
the event's about to end but spoiler warning I guess?
glad to see Kallen's fully embracing the Kaslana tradition of sacrificing oneself to protect others even though said sacrifice will just cause them great pain
asgkaghdfjladjboadfmbadfh i love them so much they're the absolute best!!!!1!
sirin has grown so much in such a short time and it warms my heart so so so so much to see her finding companionship, ambition, and a future to look forward to <3
Sirin absolutely deserves the title of honorary Kaslana because she cares so much for the people she loves ^.^
Captain giving Kallen the therapy she desperately needs
Captain... never let her go
I don't even know where to begin with this... all I can say is that it's wonderful seeing Bronie still thinking about her home and her family T_T
I don't have a good screenshot of this scene's text but here's the one of the first lines of it
it's so strange learning about FR Rita's origins and seeing that it's pretty much totally different from what I once thought
I'm also still having trouble understanding exactly who is who when it comes to the early events, especially Sanguine Nights. either way, it's still nice to see confirmation of where FR Rita came from, she's been one of my all-time favs in Honkai ever since I was new to the game!
i wonder how many people still remember Delta's origins and how she's easily a top 5 contender for one of the most tragic HI3rd characters... :(
KASUMI MY BELOVED ToT
there's definitely more since these are mostly from the ending of the event, but it's getting quite late so I'll stop here for now x-x
