#hsr theory

[littlekiara96]

It's them.

I'm telling you.

These are Razalina, Legwork and Tiernan.

Also known as Glaux, Mikhail and Hanunue (a.k.a. "Gallagher").

#honkai star rail #hsr theory #hsr mikhail #hsr gallagher #hsr glaux #hsr hanunue

[hunny-pp]

PENACONY 2.1 SPOILERS /

[basically a more elaborate version of my twt thread on this]

I don't think I'm the first or only person to say this, but I do think Gallagher is v likely a memory zone meme

EDIT: heres pt 1.2 with additional evidence

Sunday deduces that Gallagher is an amalgamation of fifty-one Family members, who he's inherited physical traits from to create the appearance he has now.

Gallagher alludes in his own story that he may not be human

In short, Memory Zone Memes are amalgamations of multiple fragments of the Memory Zone, all have reflections of different memories, cognitions and emotions.

A meme in definition is when something, usually ideas, culture or behaviour is passed to another person through imitation or non-genetic means.

It makes sense for Gallagher, as he mimicked the physical traits of Family members without taking them or that trait away - these NPCs are very much fine and you can interact with them. It's more like a copy-paste onto himself.

Other little details include: -This could change in the future depending on if we get any fire units, but for Gallagher specifically, he takes the Raging Heart materials - which is harvested from a Memory Zone Meme-type enemy. This one's a bit of a stretch but it fits nonetheless

-His signature colour is magenta - shown in his clothing, his marketing materials and in the VFX of his attacks, his claw and his brew. This colour is specifically his and not something he had inherited from someone else.

Memory Zone Memes, especially "Something Upon Death" have stark magenta/purple/pink eyes and cores. When seen from afar or at least in a general sense, the shades are similar enough

-The writing style of Gallagher's stories feel strange, like different aspects of Gallagher's personality and life are on the outside looking in. Akin to a reflective surface giving off different reflections from different angles of the same subject. It adds to the idea that there are multiple aspects and fragments within Gallagher all looking within each other.

Mixology and The Dreamjolt Hostelry:

Gallagher's main interest outside of work is mixology. Like any culinary craft, there's an inherent science behind it, and it takes a lot of work and knowledge to craft well constructed cocktails and drinks. Symbolically, mixology complements Gallagher, as he himself is a combination of a diverse range of people. When you view these inherited traits isolated, you know they come from someone real - but when put together, they form One Complete Gallagher - cohesive and seamless.

While you can say the same for different branches of culinary arts, mixology in particular symbolically represents Gallagher the most. This is just from a layman's perspective but when I view the same with cocktails - from a general inspection it's one cohesive drink even if from taste or watching the process, I know it's all made with different components.

Notably, when Gallagher talks about mixing drinks, he describes it as akin to combining different emotions, experiences and memories into a singular cocktail and it's reflective of both customer and bartender's own current state of being.

His philosophy on mixology links back to the concept of Memory Zone Memes, manifestations of fragmented memories, emotions and cognitions nestled into a vessel.

The reason why I bring up the Dreamjolt Hostelry is because of the Vignettes in a Cup event (spoilers for it). It's not explicit in his stories or voicelines, but going by the Trailblaze quest, it's implied that the Dreamjolt Hostelry is the lounge/bar he regulars for a drink or to hone his craft as he's v friendly and familiar to Siobhan and is seen in the 2.1 trailer to be serving a Dreamjolt Domescreen (whether it's Lady or not doesn't matter).

Dreamjolt Hostelry is in the sealed off dreamscape Reverie, where the corrupted Dreamjolt Troupe monsters and Memory Zone Memes reside. Notably, where you encounter Something Unto Death in key moments of the story.

I'd like to believe Gallagher is very comfortable with the company of monsters, going by the fact that he himself is non-human.

In Vignettes in a Cup, Siobhan explains that the reason why she mixes drinks for the Dreamjolt Troupe monsters is that it helps regulate their emotions - since the dreamscape is falling apart and in turn they have become unstable.

Gallagher himself in one of his idle animations drinks an unknown concoction from his hipflask once his scar starts acting up - in which it settles back down. It's hard to discern in this point in time how long this has been going for, but as a non-human entity (meme or not), the dreamscape's decay is also likely affecting Gallagher and thus he has to regulate himself.

Why Do The Heathen Rage?: In the mission "Why Do The Heathen Rage?" we learn a lot of the Watchmaker's secret history as well as a general run through of Gallagher's own personal story.

First off, a lot of Penacony's trailblaze mission titles are references to songs, literature and media relevant to the themes of Penacony and/or by American classical authors or poets (ie Heaven is a Place on Earth, Cat Among Pigeons, The Tell-Tale Heart).

Why Do The Heathen Rage is both based on Psalm 2.1 Old Testament, but also it's a fragment of an unfinished novel by Flannery O'Connor. Fragment of a novel -> Gallagher is made of fragments of different people -> Memory Zone Memes are fragments of (I'm booed off the stage for being a broken record).

The story tells of a man called Walter Tilman who lives on his family's farm. There he starts to write letters to different people - particularly to Oona Gibbs, a black civil rights activist. However, he writes to her under the guise of a black man, and writes with the intention of testing the commitment and integrity of her beliefs.

Going with what we know in hindsight, Gallagher is masquerading around as a human, likely as a Memory Zone Meme as we've realised hopefully by now that they're the monsters most likely to pull something of Gallagher's calibre off.

This is all I'm gonna talk about from "Why Do The Heathen Rage" mainly because my additional theories are based off leaks and are more speculative.

Bonus section: "Something Unto Death" When it comes to Gallagher's connection to the Memory Zone Meme "Something Unto Death", a lot comes from his many symbols of death. This is just a bit of a bonus since we're talking about Gallagher likely being a Memory Zone Meme, we might as well address the elephant in the room as well.

For brevity, we'll call the little guy "Death Meme". Death Meme is a Memory Zone Meme created from the Dreamscape's fear of death and murder as "death" shouldn't be something that can happen in the dreamscape.

Gallagher has a FUCK ton of symbolism and nods to death. The most striking is that Gallagher's iconic "I'm Thirteen", which is the number for the Major Arcana "Death". (For additional reference I also think Thirteen could be the amount of Amber Eras he's lived in, or that he's at least 1300 years old. Also since he has a lot of dog theming, 13 dog years in human years is around 60-80 depending on the dog's size).

Additionally, thirteen is a common number to represent bad omens and misfortune - namely the well known Friday the 13th superstition, amongst other things.

When Gallagher makes you a drink, no matter what choices you make - the cocktail will have a memento mori/death/morbidly themed name and he will accompany most of them with a sardonic toast.

Gallagher's eidolons are names of different cocktails which fit his mixology theme. However, Corpse Reviver, Last Word, Death in the Afternoon and Blood and Sand are all death centric names, as if he couldn't get edgier enough.

There's also the call into question his playstyle, where he's a much more aggressive battle healer than the likes of Luocha and is the first abundance character to provide debuffs on the enemy, and derives healing through damaging opponents.

Conclusion: If you've read this far then I'm assuming you're as normal about Gallagher as I am. But yeah, there is so much to him I haven't touched on, his connections to the Enigmata, my continuation on this theory based on leaks and his shared past with Mikhail, what I think he'll do in the plot moving forward. This patch and its characters are themed around hiding secrets and that there's more than meets the eye. Gallagher in particular has proved to be the most mysterious of the trio, as while we've gotten a clear enough picture of both Acheron and Aventurine but there's still enough intrigue to keep them going, Gallagher's just given me more questions than answers man.

#honkai star rail #hsr gallagher #gallagher #honkai star rail theory #hsr theory #hsr spoilers #penacony spoilers #im normal about him (smile)

[waterfrontcomplex]

yanqing abundance + origin thoughts/theory

so, i was doing whatever and a thought came to me (story spoilers also there's a lot of text)

i took a look around the loufu and realized something; all of the people had essentially every hair color except blonde. the only exceptions are people not native to the loufu, such as luocha.

yk. the one who happens to be ON THE PATH OF ABUNDANCE

and who else has blonde hair?

YANQING.

yanqing's origins are relatively unknown, all we know is that jing yuan found him somewhere and decided to take him in for whatever reason. in yanqing's character story, it says that it's recorded in the military annals of the cloud knights how jing yuan discovered him, but not where.

yanqing mentions in his character introduction how he was RAISED BY THE GENERAL SINCE BIRTH which... like. what. ok thats actually crazy bc either

1) jing yuan took him from his parents when he was like a day old or something

2) he was given to jing yuan (although, this is unlikely considering it was mentioned jing yuan 'discovered' him)

3) jing yuan lied for whatever reason (to protect him)

4) jing yuan indeed found him when he was born, possibly from a fruit of the ambrosial arbor

in the pic above, yanqing says 'but as you know, children aren't grown on trees." is this foreshadowing? or just straight up dropping a hint that his 'birth' was not a natural one?

the ambrosial arbor was inactive for approx. 2579 years before the sedition of imbibitor lunae. after that, the seals on the arbor were weakened. i haven't exactly worked out the specifics yet, but since bailu was created around 700~ years before canon and is still a little kid, and dan heng was presumably an adult/teen when exiled, my guess is that if yanqing has the lifespan/growth rate of a xianzhou native, he would've been born sometime in between den heng's hatching and bailu's hatching, a little closer towards bailu's. but what could've happened during that time? please hear me out the next part is kinda crazy

my guess is that during the tampering of the transmutation arcanum to revive baiheng (and presumably to allow other species to become vidyadhara, although the wiki gave no source... i'll trust it for now), dan feng and yingxing fucked up and created yanqing in a fruit of the arbor, while during the transmutation arcanum ritual, bc dan feng previously fucked with it, it failed and created bailu (and separated his powers between dan heng and bailu)

now, this seems... really out there. how the fuck would yanqing and bailu, a presumably xianzhou native/humanoid and a vidyadhara, be created from the remains of a foxian? i'll start with yanqing. it was stated that after baiheng's death, only a few drops of blood and a tuft of her hair remained. dan feng and yingxing created yanqing in a fruit of the arbor (like some sort of hatching rebirth... but a fruit) using either the blood or hair (most likely blood) of baiheng. it was a somewhat failed attempt at reviving baiheng. yes, it created life from her remains, but it was not her (think how dan heng ≠ dan feng, and also how vidyadhara can be different genders than their previous incarnation). during the time he was in the fruit, it dyed his hair and eyes blonde/gold, and also created the ring around yanqing's eyes (his is unique, the other characters' eye rings if they have them are a lighter color while his is dark, yes ik silver wolf has it too but her's is different).

before bailu's hatching and after subduing jingliu, jing yuan eventually came across the fruit yanqing was being held in, or found him wandering about, probably recognized the blonde/gold as the effects of the abundance, and took him in because dude he's not going to kill a literal baby (even if he could). he knew it would be dangerous to give him to a regular family, so he took him in and trained him himself

for more info abt yanqing's connection to the vidyadhara, i suggest checking out this post by astralexpressarchives.

although he is not baiheng, he did take on aspects of baiheng's personality, such as her free will and even laughing/giggling while in battle. he also enjoys flying (although with his swords and not starskiffs) and even has eyelashes similar to her's. and, just like her, yanqing's missions would often be dangerous, but he would come out relatively unscathed.

now, about bailu. dan heng says she was created after dan feng's ritual failed. if you take a look at bailu, she strongly resembles baiheng, and even starts with the same 'bai'.

same hair, same eyes, similar eyelashes, she even has a similar eye ring to yanqing. there's not too much to say here. while yanqing got baiheng's personality and fighting spirit, bailu got her appearance. now, why did this happen? im thinking its because of dan feng's meddling with the transmutation arcanum. because of that, yanqing was born, but it was 'incomplete'. so while yanqing got one part of baiheng, bailu got the other. yanqing was made on purpose, while bailu was somewhat of an accident. maybe some of baiheng's 'life' from yanqing's creation was still there when bailu was created? idk

the funny thing is, their paths are like... the complete opposite. yanqing follows the hunt (although he was born of the abundance) and bailu follows the abundance (although she was presumably supposed to follow the destruction or hunt).

theory tldr; dan feng and yingxing fucked up and created yanqing and bailu out of baiheng's remains

this is a yanqing post, time to get back to yanqing. hooray! i took a closer look at yanqing's outfit, and noticed numerous leaf/plant symbols.

...which are closely associated with the abundance. especially the gold leaves.

this further solidifies my belief that yanqing has something to do with the abundance.

jesus christ that is. a wall of text. pls tell me ur thoughts on this whole thing, i took like 2 1/2 hours to write it and its 2:40 am so sorry if it doesn't make sense i just need to put these thoughts somewhere

#yanqing #bailu #jing yuan #baiheng #dan feng #yingxing #hsr yanqing #hsr bailu #hsr jing yuan #hsr baiheng #hsr dan feng #hsr yingxing #hsr #honkai star rail #honkai star rail theory #hsr theory #theory #fan theory #baby's first theory #abundance #yanqing abundance theory #or something #hsr spoilers #im so normal about this game #so normal #sososo normal #pls share ur thoughts in the comments/tags xo #ambrosial arbor #luocha #honorary luocha mention

[ahaclownery]

Something a bit Strange (its kinda abt Sampo)

Not much of a theory from this yet, but I noticed when playing Hanu's Prison Break, every single loading screen to enter the bubbles was Sampo's. I was like er, could this be a coincidence? But I checked on different accounts, and watched a few YouTube videos, and all of them also had Sampo as their loading screen. It makes me think it's either an error or something the devs intentionally did, as loading screens can be specific for quests to build up hype or drop hints. Maybe Sampo was the supplier for this dream? Tell me what you think abt this in the comments or tags <33

#honkai star rail #hsr #sampo #sampo koski #hsr theory #hsr lore

[spaceyprincely]

Boothill observations and theorys(?):

⚠️‼️Cw// leaks + possible 2.1 spoilers‼️⚠️

Hello tumblr I thought I’d share some observations I’ve made about boothill, an upcoming 5 star character. Particularly his name and how it relates to his cowboy aesthetic as well as his possible backstory. I also want to theorize his situation with Acheron as well. Well I’m not exactly an expert on theory’s so I doubt mine counts but I’ll share what interests me on boothill!

Boot Hill, Name origin:

First off, what is a “boothill”?

“Boothill” or “Boot Hill” are a type of cemetery most commonly referred to in western parts of the United States and America. What makes this cemetery unique is its association with cowboys, specifically ones that died in violent non natural fashion like shooting or hanging, “died with their boots on”.

How does this relate to Honkai star rail boothill.

- boothill is based of the typical western American cowboy , with the outfit, his accent , usage of guns, etc. so we have that connection .

- The HSR wiki says that he’s specifically a cyberborg. Cyborgs are typically depicted as robot human hybrid characters. Some cyborg characters like robocop and cyborg (dc comics) have backstories of becoming a cyborg by having had either died and came back to life through technology or damaged their human body greatly to the point they replace with artificial robot tech.

- Boothill in leaked eilodons shows his naked body. However you can quickly noticed his body is human. Not robotic like what we’ve been officially shown.

- Contrast this with his lightcone art, boothill has only part of his robot body. It looks like he’s being operated on.

- So how does this his name relate to his possible backstory

- As previously iterated, boothill is a name for cemetery of cowboys that died in violent ways. Pair this with how the leaked content having a human body which insinuates that he was at some point a human.

- So what I theorize: Most likely case is that boothill died/ got heavily injured, most likely due to a fight, so much that his only chance to survive was to make him a cyborg. The name boothill fits because he probably died in his boots (I’ll assume for now it happened on the job, maybe his job was the same before and after?).

- Interestingly There’s a leaked description of his lightcones. I’m not 100% sure about how true it is so I’ll have to take it with a grain of salt. However it details on him coming back to life after almost embracing death.

- - If boothill died, who killed him?

There isnt much to hint at who is to blame for cause of him becoming cyborg so far, given he’s a new character with little information.

At this moment, my best guess is the ipc which characters including topaz and aventurine are in. Boothill is revealed to not like the IPC as revealed in his introduction post. However there’s an interesting thing we need to observe.

- Notice how it states “the target of his revenge”, meaning the ipc most likely wronged him in some. I wonder if the ipc is the ones responsible for his death and transformation to being a cyberborg. But it’s likely it could be another reason for his distaste.

About Acheron

Cw/ this part gets into partial spoilers for 2.1 trailblazer main story quest

black swan receives a call from boothill. The call is immediately clear he is threatening Acheron with death.

- his tension with her seems very extreme to the point where hell even go after people affiliated with her when he threatened black swan under the impression she’s was working with her. And saying she shouldn’t exist.

do I think she was behind his death?

Unlike with the ipc one, I’m not really sure. I personally think that this possibility has less weight to it and there might be another reason for his dislike towards her. But it wouldn’t be surprising considering aventurine claims she brings death and finality.

- like aventurine, Boothill knows that Acheron isn’t an actual galaxy ranger however boothill himself is a galaxy ranger. Since Acheron is falsely claiming she’s a galaxy ranger, could this possibly cause tension with the actual galaxy rangers and her to be a target for them? I don’t really have much to theorize much more but would like to hear what others think

#acheron honkai star rail #boothill #boothill leaks #boothill honkai star rail #boothill hsr #hsr leaks #acheron hsr #hsr spoilers #hsr theory #hsr thoughts #Honkai star rail #theory #honkai star rail theory

[rye-bread-soda-iceberg]

discussion and a little theory about black swan and sparkle's companion mission under the cut (+ spoilers) aka listen to me yap about the blue thing until I go insane

the First sampo we meet in penacony, specifically the one that follows us as we're hanging out with firefly, is nothing like how sampo himself is

his personality is a poor attempt from sparkle to try and convince us that it's him, but perhaps she's not familiar enough with him anymore to know exactly how he acts. "he" is acting weird and a little bit mean towards firefly for not knowing things about penacony even though she should

I don't think sampo would do that, at least the one we met on jarilo-VI wouldn't

the second (and third) time sampo appears, and this time it's actually him, is during the girls' companion mission

during the entire quest him and black swan play this little detective game orchestrated by sparkle where she writes herself in as a murder victim and has the two find her murderer. it's fun and silly and very chaotic

the entire story unfolds inside a dream bubble created by black swan, and when it's over the giant eyeball guy tells us that even though we recognized the people in the dream, it is still a dream. it doesn't represent reality and could have been tampered with

I don't believe that

anyways so. in this sampo acts a little bit more like the one we know, maybe slightly over the top at times but I think he was putting on a performance to spice things up. he was helping out sparkle with the whole thing in exchange for his mask that she probably stole from him (that we sadly don't get to see) so I bet he really put some effort into that, even begging black swan to not skip the last murder case

But. the MOST important part of this entire quest is.. the end. and the end is definitely not a dream

after the trio finishes talking, the dream stops and we briefly return to the real world before going into a memory. and boy there's some stuff to unpack in here

first of all the way they talk to each other? they almost seem like friends. of course, their views on the pursuit of elation are still different

he is still very polite about it

sparkle doesn't mention anything except muttering "why so serious" to herself

but they do talk like old friends and it's clear that in a sense they may be

after he asks for his mask back, sparkle remarks that it is not like the sampo she knows and then this little exchange happens

it is now canon, as in acknowledged out loud by a character (in this case himself) that sampo Really did orchestrate almost every thing that happened in jarilo-VI

how did he know this was going to happen? how can sparkle guess the reason why he wants his mask back? has he done this before? well clearly, thinking back to all the chaos he unleashes on that planet, maybe some kind of catastrophe has already came to it that we don't know about?

also slightly unrelated but I think he likes living there. he genuinely enjoys living in belobog because if he didn't, he'd find a way to leave

so anyways what we can deduct from this sequence is that:

- this entire quest is most likely a memory, not a dream. black swan deals with memories and it could be possible that she had some slight changes done to it and passed it off as a dream. maybe. and this would mean that it's a real event, that happened before the jarilo-VI story

- consequently, before that sampo and sparkle were on friendly enough terms that he was willing to help her put on a show for black swan in exchange for his mask (of course, he's always willing to do something to get something in return)

so I did say I have a theory

sparkle is the reason for That One sampo eidolon, "the deeper the love the stronger the hate"

she's the only character so far that we are SURE he dislikes, and that's something knowing he doesn't admit that stuff so openly. source: listen to his lines about other characters, he always masks any kind of negative emotion about other people yet tells giovanni that if it were for him, he'd never see her again (still said in a polite way)

so the "hate" he feels, that he still masks by smiling even though his eyes are devoid of any light, as of right now can only be towards sparkle

I believe she betrayed him somehow and maybe doesn't fully realize that

she's childish, really mean, DEFINITELY cannot "read the room" in any way and I doubt she cares about other people's feelings enough, so if sampo who by nature almost does everything to hide how he truly feels about people ever felt betrayed by her, there'd be miscommunication and possibly confusion on her side and feelings of hate towards her on his side

in the main quest, before sparkle reveals herself, she mentions hearing about his deeds on jarilo-VI but doesn't seem to hold a grudge against him. she probably dislikes him as well but perhaps not as much as he does, which also leads me to think she wouldn't understand if she did anything wrong

them not talking anymore would explain why sparkle's rendition of sampo feels off and kind of out of character

this is a theory I had actually already saw circularing on here, around the time sampo and giovanni's conversation in the memory bubble got leaked. but if I'm correct it's not as discussed

sad cause it's very interesting and you know what this also means?

penacony might not be the last we see of sampo

he has so much going on behind him and this just adds to it. he doesn't speak much about his past himself, he is clearly hiding so so many things and hoyoverse wouldn't keep leaving these little crumbs of information behind if it wasn't for a greater purpose

I feel like I say this every time I talk about him and maybe I'm slowly going insane but I'm also very happy cause I want to see what my beautiful man will do in the future

thanks for reading this far if you did and sorry if this is really messy

I just wanted to let some thoughts out!

#i think i said everything i wanted to say yes! #feel free to add to this #star rail #hsr sampo #sampo koski #honkai star rail #hsr spoilers #hsr #hsr theory #hsr sparkle

[pigeonsplease]

I probably missed it by being late to the 2.1 party but i haven’t seen any art etc. about how Aventurine’s current outfit very much still reflects his slavery?

He’s running around with a thick leather neck buckle and a small chain to clasp his flashy shirt. he also has extremely thick metal bangles on both his wrists, and in combat they’re a focal point due to how he gestures for his attacks and their contrasting blue glow in his ult.

the slave flashbacks are him in a collar with chains and we learn he used his shackles as a weapon to kill to save himself, which is still haunting him

What’s the prescription for ‘using my millions of credits to upgrade my look and ending up wearing a flashier version of slave’? Horse tranquillisers?

#hsr spoilers #hsr #hsr aventurine #honkai star rail #hsr theory #yes i’m tagging my stuff for once for my non-gamer moots

[q-theeccentric]

Sampo Koski Lore Notes

Because we love our HSR conman, Trailblazers all over the internet have begun to form many theories surrounding our beloved scammer. There are a lot of details about this man that are peculiar, and for those like me who love to overanalyze their favorite characters and how they contribute to the lore, I have created a list of notes about Sampo that point to him being downright suspicious.

Warning: Very, very long post ahead.

He is has a lot of intel apparently... where does he get them from?

Knowledge Voiceline: "Come on, how did you guys end up in the middle of the Snow Plains? UFO? Let me guess, you took a train, haha. Seriously though."

About Natasha Voiceline: He's not from the Underworld.

He loves money; money is considered to be a form of pleasure; does this refer to the Masked Fools being hedonists?

Turn Begins 1: "We're just having fun." Elation??

Hit by Heavy Attack: "Hey! W-watch the face!" Sampo is not really the type to be narcissistic… unless this is a pleasure-related matter…

Ultimate: Unleash: "Betraying the king" is often seen in literary works and other similar fictional media, and these types of things are often used for pleasure and entertainment

Return to Battle, Health Recovery, Natasha's About Sampo Voicelines: He's also… altruistic?

Hook's About Sampo Voiceline: He can be everywhere

Character Story: Part I: He slips away easily

Character Story: He is good at disguises, as if he's an actor… as if he were wearing a mask… because actors and masks and roles… Masked Fools foreshadowing?

Character Story: Why did they choose this specific story to be the one in his profile? The tale seems so random… or is it?

Character Story: Everything is purely dialogue… almost as if it were a script. If we compare it to the others, they have character stories that match them well, such as Bailu, whose character story is in the format of a prescription because she is a doctor.

Light Cone - Eyes of the Prey: "In reality most prety don't realize when danger is encroaching. This one's no exception." After reading the description, it may seem weird since Sampo noticed the sniper BUT what if the sniper is the REAL prey?

Light Cone - Eyes of the Prey: "So that's what greed looks like. That amount is equal to several of my contracts already… No wonder someone wants him dead." Another reference to money being a form of pleasure.

Light Cone - Eyes of the Prey: "As if these thoughts were broadcasted out loud, the an in the scope turns his head, looking straight into the eyes of the sniper. 'I've been waiting for you. Would this much be enough for you to hear me out?'" The EYES of the PREY refers to the SCOPE of the SNIPER. The light cone depicts Sampo from the EYES of the PREY.

Splash Art: The city in the background is likely NOT on Jarilo VI

Splash Art: It looks like he's jumping off a ledge or something similar

Design: @littlekiara96 noticed that his design refers to death a little too much due to the amount of skeleton imagery on him…

Kit: His technique is to blind enemies, which may call back to the fact that he slips away easily without anyone noticing

Kit: Why are his weapons blades that turn into boomerangs and not anything related to his obvious line of work?

Kit: His basic attack is called "Dazzling Blades"; I might be overthinking but the word "dazzling" is something I would hear when one describes an actor…

Kit: His skill is called "Ricochet Love"; "ricochet" often refers to projectiles bouncing more than once off of a surface (verb) or a shot that bounces more than once off of a surface (noun)---so where does the "love" come into all this? Love is another form of pleasure; I don't know but this skill reminds me of the Masked Fools again just because of all the bouncing more than once off of a surface and the love thing..

Kit: His ultimate is called "Surprise Present"; Sampo can be called a master of the element of surprise as he often appears suddenly without anyone suspecting him to---the present can also be something unexpected and weird (like a RICKROLL) which gives off MAJOR Masked Fools vibes…

Kit: Why is his element Wind?

Kit: Why is his path Nihility? @gachagen pointed out that Nihility characters hide secrets (Welt, Pela, Silver Wolf, Kafka). For my own observation, Nihility states that the universe is meaningless while Elation states that the universe is one big joke; both paths seem to infer that the universe has little meaning…

Kit: Half his Eidolons are about his scamming business and the other half are about… love and enthusiasm; both aforementioned concepts seem to call back to the Masked Fools and Aha the Elation…

Achievements: Versatile Joker is a hidden achievement until it is unlocked… does this fact and the achievement itself indirectly infer to Sampo's secret connection to the Masked Fools and Aha the Elation?

Missions: Besides Pela, Sampo is the only other 4-star character from Jarilo VI who does not have a companion mission yet

Character Traits: He BOWS like an actor (as seen in the Jarilo VI Trailblaze Mission), as if he is bowing for his PERFORMANCE

Character Traits: If I had a penny for every time Sampo was aware that he was being watched like how Aha did in the Simulated Universe (Jarilo VI quest conclusion, Eyes of the Prey light cone), I'd have two pennies… which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice…

And that's pretty much it! Feel free to add more observations in the replies, or reblog too.

#sampo #hsr sampo #sampo koski #honkai star rail sampo #honkai sampo #sampo honkai #honkai star rail #star rail #hsr lore #hsr theory #cw long post #cueue's other thoughts #cueue's eccentric theories

[thesaart]

WHO? WHAT? WHY? SAMPO KOSKI

This is a summary/theories/rambles made by me, someone who has way too much brain rot for this character right now, hope you enjoy.

(fyi this is increadibly long)

First Black Swans companion quest, Im very much basing this entire thing on the theory that her quest plays before Belobogs main story. 

First the quest plays while Sampo is no longer a mask fool in addition it's also implied that he was on Penacony for at least a while. Not only did he have a VIP pass for the Pepeshi club but the Pepeshi people also trust him. Which leads me to think that he properly got that pass at least somewhat legitimately.

Granted we know this from the interaction between Sparkle, Firefly and the Trailblazer but I still think that this is also applicable in the situation within Black Swans quest. 

(also very importantly Black Swans quest is told via a Memory Bubble so knowing exactly when it happened is already nebulous at best)  

If the companion quest happened after the main events of Jarilo VI. Then what happened to Sampo, that in the span of, if we’re generous, a few months leads him to leave the mask fools? Sampo seems to have very strict rules/lines/boundaries for himself so to assume that something happened in the span of a few months which leads him to lay down his mask and go to Penacony but then a new catastrophe befalls Belobog and he immediately goes back to the fools, just feels a bit flimsy to me.

Him also calling himself an old timer with the fools is important. Basically this man has seen some shit so him going back, surprising even Sparkle makes me think that he was out of the Mask fools for a while. 

Also quick side note, that out of all places Giovanni could have chosen to host his event, he went with Belobog. The place he knew he could meet Sampo at. Or he at least knew that if he went there the chance of meeting him was quite high. Potentially because he could have seen the end broadcast of Sampos after the main story of Belobog or because Sampo told Sparkle at the end of Black Swans quest to “tell Giovanni I said hi”. I just find it interesting that the writers put that line here.

Anyway, the Next bit is my personal understanding/theory of Sampos timeline.

Sampo was a member of the fools for a very long time, something happened that went so against his boundaries that he left the fools. He either then immediately went to Penaconey or traveled around for a bit before going there, possibly wanting to settle down.

Sparkle arrives in Penacony for her own reasons. Finds out that Black Swans here too and wants to fuck with her a bit. So she enlists the help of her “friend” Sampo. 

They make a deal that he helps her and she then gives his mask back to him. (important side note the deal with the masks isn't just that they are a sign that you follow the elation but it's literally your entry ticket to the fools and the tavern.) 

The reason why she has the mask or at least knows where it is properly is because Sampo was the one who gave it to her. He initially doesn't tell her exactly why he wants the mask back. that's properly the reason why she mockingly asks if it's about Jarilo VI.

(I acknowledge that Sparkle referencing Jarilo VI makes more sense if Black Swans quest happened after Belobog but hear me out. Sampo clearly has not just knowledge of Belebog but also a huge interest and care for the planet. Maybe the other fools knew of this interest of his. Also I'm gonna talk about his knowledge of Jarilo VI and Belebog later.)

Back to the timeline, Sparkle and Sampo agree on the deal and Black Swans quest starts. Afterwards, Sampo goes to the tavern and gets his mask back. Now he is an active member again, ergo he could potentially get extra help from the fools (for example the potential care package you can find in Lynx’s companion quest that has Sampos name on it.) He arrives on the planet, if he goes first to the overworld or the underworld is anyone's guess. 

But anyway, he meets Natasha and helps her and in extension  Wildfire. Then he continues like Sparkle inspired him to.

Too late to take the stage? no matter, it's a wonder what you can accomplish if you're just a side character.

The Nameless arrive on Jarilo VI a few years later 

(if im not wrong around two years later)

And the main quest starts. 

After that he meets Giovanni at the Aetherium wars event. They have a chat and Giovanni tells him that Sparkle is on Penacony, to which Sampo replies that he doesn't want to see her.

Why? I'm not 100% sure. Sampo is an opportunist, him meeting Sparkle helped them both but they still fundamentally disagree on a few things especially their idea of Elation.

This is my reading of his potential timeline for now. (also another side note hes definitely keeping taps on the Nameless. Simply because of the bomb you can find on the Xianzhou.)

Sampo is strange and his knowledge confuses the hell out of me

He knows a lot about Belobog but the interesting/confusing part is that as an outsider he seems to know things that most if not all locals don't know about. 

For example the tunnels that he uses to travel freely between the over and underworld. Just how the hell does he know about those?

Svarog, a Robot built around 700 years ago, didn't know about them, that or he forgot they exist which seems unlikely.

If Svarog knew about them he would have sealed them off, but he didn't. 

We can assume that the tunnels are not just incredibly well hidden but also safe, because Sampo carried four unconscious people through them to the underworld.

Potentially those tunnels could have been here before the war and miraculously survived both the Antimatter Legion and the Eternal Freeze. This could explain why neither Svarog knew about them, being there before his time, and for the people of Belobog being also way before there's. 

We as the Players never get to see the tunnels but we can assume that they are potentially located in the layers between the over and underworld. 

Then Sampo has the knowledge to repair ancient artifacts from a planet that was isolated and forgotten for multiple hundreds of years. Granted there are people especially from the underworld but also from the overworld that know how to repair them but those include Serval, a gifted mechanic who also was an Architect at one point, so someone who was constantly surrounded by those artifacts and had still surviving documents of how to work with them. Clara, also a gifted prodigy of a mechanic whose dad is Svarog, who could absolutely help her if she has questions about some of those artifacts.

Sampo is an outsider though so how did he learn how to work with or just straight up repair ancient technology?

If we now go away from his connection to Jarilo VI for a second there's just a lot of other stuff that are really interesting/confusing about him. 

We can guess that Sampo is actually quite knowledgeable especially when it comes to making things. He made his smoke bombs meaning that he not only has the technical understanding of making the inner workings of a bomb but also knows how to make knockout gas that also doesn't seem to affect him. 

Same with his knives. I have my theory that either he made them himself or someone made them for him. The blades are just too tailor made for his fighting style to simply be a thing he stole from somewhere. 

The next few points I'm gonna get into were absolutely pointed out many times before by others but still I want to mention them too. 

Also this is already incredible long so fuck it.

First, the foot prints, him not leaving any in the snow is already strange. Granted you could argue that he uses the wind ability that his path grands him to erase them the moment his feet touch the snow but it's not just snow, in Penaconey there are fountains that you can walk over and Sampo is the only one the does not create any splashes, only little ripples on the water's surface.

Second, Brughel Poisson, first I love that his entire character story is about a heist/scam he plans and acts out while playing a different character. It's a wonderful and creative way of showing us a bit more about him and it characterizes him very well.

But also I have my doubts this was just him simply putting on an incredibly good disguise and showing off how good he is at crossdressing. One scene that always stuck out to me in the character story was how incredibly sure and confident Sampo was that the guard would not see through Poisson. Even showing off her hair as in saying, look at this, this is obviously my real hair, no wig at all. 

I have my theory that he could have shape shifted similar to what Sparkle does with the only difference that he did it not in a dream but in reality. 

Him having extra magical abilities would not surprise me, as I said before the smoke of his bombs do not seem to have any effect on him. He is potentially able to teleport or he's just incredibly fast. If he carried Bronya, the Trailblazer, Dan Heng and March 7th all at once to Natasha then he also is a bit stronger then what I think a normal human would be able to do. And the incredibly low temperatures outside of Belobog don't seem to affect him that hard or at all. 

Last point

Out of all the playable paths they could have given him they went with Nihility, the most similar path to Elation simply because Aha and XI agree on one thing and that is that the world and all its life is meaningless. 

It would be fascinating if Sampo first was on the path of Elation and then later switched to Nhility or that he always was on the path of Nihility because of something he went through in his backstory and then found kinship with the fools. 

There's so much potential for his story and his character and I really hope the writers of HSR have a plan for where they want to take him.

If you read all of this thank you so much          

#honkai star rail #honkai star rail sampo #hsr sampo #sampo koski #honkai sampo #theory #hsr theory #honkai star rail theory #ramblings #brainrot #sampo brainrot

[shadowingfas]

Ok, here's an actual theory.

Spoilers for the 2.1 ending ahead ⚠️⚠️⚠️

Continue at your own risk!⚠️⚠️

Trailblazer is from Penacony.

Who else has a watch?

Boom!

Misha!

Suspicious…

Considering we don’t know a thing about him.

Who else do we not know a thing about? Trailblazer. Sure, we know about the Stellaron hunters; but nothing beyond that.

I'll go ahead and recommend this specific video. gallagher is a memory zone meme (AND MORE !!!) // HONKAI STAR RAIL THEORY VIDEO ESSAY (youtube.com) Seeing as it's an interesting theory and is a good video! Doesn't necessarily have anything to do with my theory. Could! could not. idk lmao

Everybody knows about Gallagher at this point. So, I’ll just be straight up. Gallagher took traits from the family to create a good disguise, right? Well, let’s just take a look at something real quick.

They look similar, no? not one on one, but similar. Minus the bangs. the front has a similar look to Stelle and the back? To Caelus. Hell, even Stelle's back hair is still slightly similar to his.

The rest? most likely similarities to the other family members. Grey hair and Gold eyes? Maybe the Oak family. 🤔

Other similarities? the straight face. Even. their. humor.

No one is surprised at Stelle at this point (youtube.com)

Gallagher is 13!? | Honkai Star Rail (youtube.com)

Besides that, the theory that nobody besides us can see Misha? I think is true. Gallagher also has a voice line about Misha. I don't even think Acheron has a voice line about Misha. Which means Gallagher can also see Misha.

Then why can Gallagher also see Misha? I believe that he truly is a child of the watchmaker. Made by the watchmaker himself... You can see where I'm going with this right?

I believe Trailblazer is made by the watchmaker and that Penacony is their true home. Whether which trailblazer is cannon doesn't matter. At least I don't think it does, because I think both trailblazers are cannon.

Also. Misha has an express badge while Gallagher doesn't from what I see. Which I think is from the fact that he 'betrayed' the watchmaker somehow. Only the watchmaker's most 'loyal' creations get one.

Because from what I remember. Didn't Trailblazer have this since the beginning of the game? Even when they weren't part of the Astral Express; and Misha... who's said to WANT to go out and explore, but never has. Has one as well? Based on the light cone that has Misha in it receiving one that kinda looks like Trailblazers. I believe so.

Maybe Mishsa's new Badge color is because Gallagher gave him his? Maybe the color changes based on who gets it? or maybe Misha gave Gallagher his original one, but Mister Dog-Man refuses to wear it? idk. I'm just making shots in the dark on this one, but maybe it's true? After all, Gallagher has said he feels he betrayed the watchmaker by doing nothing.

Also by the end of the story of 2.1; didn't Acheron and Aventurine also say that they had found out who 'Miss Stellaron's' and 'Mister Stellaron's' identity was? Bold thing to say considering nobody else knows by now. I think this theory shows what they possibly know.

[One coincidence that I also think is neat. Both trailblazers have gloves. Just like most of the people on penacony. (This one's not that important just thought it was a neat coincidence :))]

#I feel really proud of this theory! #I couldn't get it out of my head #then I realized... #Hey! #I've got a place I can talk about it! #Without sounding (completely) crazy! #So all of you will have to deal with this :) #I may have struck gold lmao #idk #🤷‍♀️ #HSR Theory #theory #HSR #honkai: star rail #Trailblazer theory #HSR Misha #HSR Gallagher #HSR Trailblazers #HSR Stelle #HSR Caelus #HSR Aventurine #HSR Acheron #Trailblazer #Misha #Gallagher #Stelle #Caelus #aventurine #Acheron #HSR Penacony

[blehbet]

Firefly and Sam / the Past and the Present

Hi. Let's take ibuprofen together. And by 'let's take ibuprofen together', I mean that I have a theory and I am tying you down so that I can rant to you about it.

(Unless you don't want to see spoilers so MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HSR 2.1 AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!)

Okay, so. Firefly. It's revealed that Firefly is Sam at the end of the quest.

This theory posits that that is very much the case HOWEVER, it is not Firefly wearing a mech suit like some have speculated. Instead, Sam -- *Sam's body* -- his entire mechanical make, IS Firefly.

From story implications, it's alleged that Sam is a "remnant of Glamoth's Iron Calvary". According to Firmament Frontline: Glamoth's relic set, Glamoth's Iron Cavalry are "genetically engineered warriors that possess superhuman abilities" who fought against the Swarm.

"In their short lives..." No wonder her name is Firefly...

That aside, this leads me to believe that these so-called warriors did not start out as robots, but were instead manufactured by way of the disease that Firefly suffers from.

Entropy Loss Syndrome.

I want to emphasise the use of *reality* and *dreams* in this context for my next point. The distinction (or lack thereof) between reality and dreams is fundamental to how the Iron Calvary works. The cavalry was telepathically connected to "Titania", their empress. And according to the Relic Set, these warriors are "woven into dreams." This leads me further on to believe that in order to be woven into dreams, their physical forms have to slowly fade to then occupy and be turned into a mechanical suit that was ultimately built to serve its ruler, and protect its people from the Swarm.

So how does Firefly appear as she does in the Dreamscape?

I think it's Sam simply dreaming and wishing for the form that they once had. In reality, Firefly has either disappeared entirely OR her body's consciousness has completely detached itself to then occupy the mech.

This is further supported by her leaked lightcone image. It doesn't depict her occupying Sam, instead, she's in some kind of shattered vat (the 'icy medical cabin', if you will). A visual metaphor for the shattering of dreams and reality, perhaps?

So, TLDR so far: Firefly is Sam. Firefly was a citizen of Glamoth that was turned into a member of the Iron Calvary by way of Entropy Loss Syndrome in an effort to fight back against the Swarm. In the current reality, there's only Sam; Firefly as we see her in the Dreamscape no longer exists. Sam is dreaming of their old 'human' body whenever they enter the Dreamscape.

Now, at this point, you're probably thinking that I'm contradicting myself here by brushing over the 'icy medical cabin' possibility. Right now with what we know so far, it's only feasible either Firefly no longer physically exists OR she does, but she's trapped. But, stick with me, I'm going to explain how it's possible that both outcomes can 'co-exist'.

In Act 1 of the quest, it seemed like Sam and Firefly were in conflict with each other at one point. At first, I thought this was also evidence that goes against this theory. However -- this opens up an interesting possibility as to how these two interact in the Dreamscape. Firefly acts as the younger and possibly more idealistic version of Sam who brashly charges forth to achieve her goals, meanwhile Sam is Sam, the Stellaron Hunter and seasoned warrior with more experience under his belt.

Now, who runs in parallel to this possible narrative? Who have we, as players, *directly seen* go through an eerily similar Dreamscape experience?

From Aventurine's POV, we actively got to see this process of a person's Past and Present interacting in the Dreamscape.

Meanwhile with Firefly, we only saw glimpses of the process in Act 1 and the results of it in Act 2. It's possible that at the end of Act 2, the Past and Present of Firefly / Sam had come to accept each other and were now ready to confront the Trailblazer, much like how Aventurine had to accept his Past and Future in order to go through with his big gamble at the end of his arc.

So, back to the 'icy medical cabin' contradiction. The Firefly that has manifested in the Dreamscape is a Past version of Sam that was in the process of being turned into a Iron Calvary soldier.

Kakavasha's behaviour supports this notion too, given how he reacts to the Dreamscape in ways that would make sense to him in his current state of mind at the time of being a child.

This possibility also has the potential to explain a lot of what Sam was talking about here...

Is it also possible that these "11 times" he's referring to was Sam's attempts to save his Past self from 'dying' in the Dreamscape? Living vicariously through her, only to find out she was fated to be destroyed from the very beginning?

Another fun bonus! Doesn't help either that both Aventurine and Firefly have experienced 'Death' in the Dreamscape. It's as if the Dreamscape is allowing those who die in its grasp a final glimpse of their life.

"Life is flashing before their eyes" when they "Die" in the Dreamscape.

Anyways. Firefly transmasc canon is also what I'm trying to say YIPPEEE THANKS FOR READING IF YOU'VE COME THIS FAR, MWAH

#hsr #honkai star rail #hsr theory #theory hsr #theory crafting #fan theory #firefly hsr #firefly #sam hsr #sam #aventurine hsr #aventurine #kakavasha #kakavasha hsr #hsr 2.1 #hsr 2.1 spoilers #hsr spoilers #hsr leaks

[littlekiara96]

Oh, gods.

It's set like a scene in a western movie.

It's a parody of a duel.

A COWBOY DUEL

STARRING GALLAGHER

CAPTAIN REVOLVER, HANUNUE, MOTHERFU- Ahem. 'Scuse me.

That's why I love Sparkle. She brings me lore from my favourite 4-stars.

Also, her goldfish going "through" the black borders, "outside the screen"? Fourth wall break.

#honkai star rail #hsr gallagher #hsr sparkle #gallagher hsr #sparkle hsr #hsr hanunue #hsr theory

[saunne]

HSR THEORY - PENACONY AND THE FAMILY

Okay so when I saw Penacony, it made me awfully think of something but I couldn't pinpoint exactly what. Until this morning.

For a bit of context, let's review quickly what we know.

The introduction to Penacony is as follow :

Penacony, also known as the Planet of Festivities, is a planet currently inhabited by the Family in the Asdana star system.

It is said that it was once a prison planet owned by the IPC, until a Stellaron corrosion broke out, a bit like what happened on Jarilo VI. When it happened, Penacony took refuge under The Family and Xipe's patronage.

This prison used to work for the Garden of Recollection to retrieve Memory Bubbles and since it's Fuli domain, linked to memory and all that is unconscious/subconscious, Penacony gradually became a "dream-planet" cutted off from reality, with people's consciousness linked in dreams.

It was the over-present theme of dreams/memory and dream nation that made me go 🤨 the first time but nothing clicked until I went to check who the fuck was The Family. And soon enough, things started to feel strange.

In the vision of the Harmony, the diverse civilizations throughout the universe will eventually become as close as siblings, singing in unison the hymn of unity and joy.

They come from different worlds, belong to different civilizations, and have different identities, but they are, at the same time, the closest family members there are. There is never noisy disputes or even contradictions among its members, only eternal love and smiles — there is no more harmonious family in the universe than them.

Yeah. It sounds good, right ? Who doesn't want interstellar peace and happiness (except Nanook and their followers) ?

But at the same time, the tone of all that, it sounds a bit like a sect doesn’t it ? It seems a bit too good to be true, to be honest.

And it's when I got the Eureka moment of "what does it make me think of" if I may say so.

LOTOPHAGOI.

Also more commonly known as : Lotus-eaters.

In Greek Mythology, in Homer's Odyssey, the Lotus-eaters were a race of people known for their consumption of lotus seeds, a powerful narcotic that made them live in a peaceful apathy.

"Peaceful apathy" hm ? Interesting.

It is believed that this lotus could have been Nymphea caerula, also known as the "blue lotus" of the Nile, used by Egyptian to produce a soporific with psychotropic properties.

Soporific as in "dream inducing". Penacopy being a dream-nation, it's when I started getting suspicious. But then, psychotropic : a psychotropic drug is one that affects mood, thoughts, perception and behavior.

"There is never noisy disputes or even contradictions among its members, only eternal love and smiles". Yeah, well I personally believe they're high as fucking kites.

One of the most interesting things however is what happened after consuming the lotus : "After they ate the lotus, they would forget their home and loved ones and long only to stay with their fellow lotus-eaters. Those who ate the plant never cared to report or return." (x)

What did it say about the Family, hmmmm ?

And it gets even worse !

People are also curious whether any members of the Family had grown tired of the one and voluntarily abandoned the Path of Harmony? In the face of such a question, the Family smiles and replies “Never."

Yeah. I don't really feels like it's a good idea to go on Penacony anymore ?

Because an old prison-planet ? Cut off from reality and heavily linked to dream-state ? Under the full control of The Family ?

"The Family at Penacony issued formal invitations to many galactic factions for the first time in history."

And they invited a whole lot of important people too, how curious !

Addendum:

The universe will become a harmonious whole, with no discordant notes to disrupt the beautiful chords and no fools worrying about their own short-sighted futures.

Do you all know Percy Jackson? Well guess what Rick Riordan did of the Lotophagoi ? A fancy Hotel-Casino in which you got trapped and lost sense of time, without ever wanting to leave !

Planet of Festivities ? Casino ? Anyone ?

Yeah.

Well if they propose to you any suspicious flower-looking food or seeds or anything, same rule as in the Underworld : Do not fucking eat it.

#honkai star rail #honkai: star rail #honkai star rail theory #hsr theory #penacony #hsr xipe #hsr the family

[tree-obsession]

Aventurine, the Waste Land, the black hole, and luck- analysis on aventurine's possible fate

possible spoilers for 2.1 trailblaze mission

possible tws for suicide/suicidal idealization, mentions of slavery, and a massacre

ok there is. a lot to unpack for this mission but I would like to focus on the references to The Waste Land (by T.S. Elliot, fucking amazing poem btw) that were in Aventurine's parts?

First of all the achievements- the "Sibyl, what do you wish for?" and "She answers, I wish to die" or something like that. That is the very first thing in the poem we see- to put a long story short, it's a reference to how there was this oracle named Sibyl in Greek Mythology, blessed to live forever by Apollo. Apollo got angry after she refused to have sex with him and cursed her so that while she would live forever, her body would slowly waste away, eventually becoming dust kept in a jar. A couple of boys one day come up to this prison jar and ask her "Sibyl, what do you wish for?" and then she answers that she wants to die. This could be a reference to Aventurine, who is always so lucky but at that moment truly didn't wish to be lucky, and really did want to die. Yet he was stuck, unable to live- considering he is something of a "chosen" of Gaiathra Triclops, she could be the one who cursed him, in disguise of a "blessing" of good luck.

second, the maze scene. there were two references here, both from the fifth(fourth? it's been a hot minute since I read this poem, the details aren't all clear) part of the poem. it talks about a deserted waste land, where rain never falls, there is only lightning and rocks/sand. this matches up with descriptions of sigonia, as a desert planet that's referred to as "the unclaimed desolation", and also some of those lines are directly said in the white text that floated around the maze(which i'll be referring to as floating text from now on). the second reference was also in the floating text, which talks about how "there is another presence/person beside us", or something very similar. I don't have the direct quotation, but this is also a direct reference- within the poem, there are two travelers in this "waste land", and the narrator mentions feeling a presence that wasn't truly there. According to Elliot himself, his inspiration for this part of the poem was from an account of an Antarctic journey, where the person who wrote the account said he and his men were so out of it due to exhaustion they had begun to hallucinate another presence who wasn't actually there. this is probably referencing how mini-aventurine and present-aventurine both exist, and have existed, but the future-aventurine technically does not exist yet and literally is just popping up, clearly not "real" in the physical sense but definitely there. within the poem, there are a lot of speculations between scholars about why Eliiot decided to add this hallucinated dude in but one popular theory is that it's Christ, in disguise, which is really interesting considering The Family's Christian imagery. something to watch out for when Aventurine returns to the story (he def isn't dead, but as to when he's returning... :( i can't get my hopes up) or if anyone else analyzes this more deeply.

now, why the waste land? it's universally considered a pretty depressing poem, about how the world after World War I was torn apart and collapsing in on itself, and portrays a lot of characters who aren't living life to their fullest at all. it references many famous texts and literary works, pointing at literature as an amalgamation of all other literature and also acting as a metaphor for how everything builds off each other, so one thing collapsing could result in everything collapsing. there are a lot of references to different religions as well. perhaps the best way to put it is that Elliot was portraying a world under threat of total collapse, and asks the reader if there is anything humanity can do to save it, or if we must simply salvage what we can. the ending also implies peace is a far-off, perhaps unreachable thing since everything is so discordant. but you get the idea at this point- the poem is about decay and rotting over time. I don't have the greatest grasp on either this poem or aventurine's psyche, but the 2.1 quest revealed a lot- he is an incredibly lucky person who is in a lot of bad situations but gets out every time, and has never lost a bet (despite his life otherwise being absolutely terrible). the waste land itself could simply be sigonia, and then perhaps aventurine himself is a representation of the characters within the poem. practically all scholars agree that in this poem, all the female characters coalesce into one character, and the male characters do so too, and then there is one uniting character between the "male" and "female"- tiresias, who according to Elliot has "foreseen and foresuffered all". he is described as the most important figure in the poem by Elliot himself. Tiresias is an androgynous figure, but is referred to with he/his. he also is the only one to say "I" in the poem, and despite the fact he is blind he can see all, even the future- in mythology, he was a prophet like the Sibyl. "what Tiresias sees is, in fact, the substance of the poem", as Elliot says- in other words, what he sees seems to be the closest thing to the truth you will get.

now obviously that's pretty valuable, considering literally everyone is lying in penacony (in the livestream they said the entire guest list is filled with question marks in place of names, implying everyone's identities there were fake- other than Sparkle's, but she's a Masked Fool and will trick people just for the hell of it, so not exactly the best ally). however (this is where speculation starts) I think this could be possibly very subtle foreshadowing for Aven's return! and I know this may sound delusional but. it's established he's not dead. his stone is out, but that's quite possibly because he's next to a fricking black hole and also Acheron possibly had "freed" him, in some sense? that conversation he had with her obviously changed a lot of things for him as a character, and she said she could break the harmony's bonds on him... also, clearly if he wasn't dead while waking up next to a black hole, that's certainly a surefire way to tell his luck hasn't run out yet. the entire mission was spent establishing his luck is perfect, given by the goddess of his planet, and will never fail him. this is like near emanator-level shit- obviously not quite in terms of any special power, but he was specifically chosen by this goddess, was born on a special day, and due to sheer luck is the last one standing of his clan (apparently). literally everything was set up against him and he's only still alive due to a literal goddess-given power, which is absolutely nuts and almost overpowered if it weren't for the fact that he also seems to be in many scenarios where luck and gambling is the only way to get out at all. the massacre, the enslavement, killing his old master, the weird warlord thing that got brought up, penacony... his luck is purely for getting out of bad situations, it seems.

that was kind of a tangent. anyway! the whole mission was establishing how good his luck was. he got into this situation where the only solution is to walk into a black hole and see the other side of penacony- that is a classic example of "there is an extremely, extremely narrow chance of getting out alive". acheron did it, or something similar, so clearly it's possible- but luck and chance would be the only way. this is the cycle of his life- he's in an absolutely shitty situation, but he will get out due to luck. imo it's a terrible idea writing-wise to keep him explicitly alive up to the very end and going into a situation- alive- which he can survive in due to his luck, right after giving him fulfilling conversation with both acheron and his past self and seeing the uplifting note from Ratio... just to offscreen him, or kill him for some reason related to this "other side of penacony". it wouldn't line up with all that we know about him now. granted, I can't imagine it'll be pleasant and his mental state will be even worse at the end of it... but he'll be alive, and he's made it through a lot of hellish situations. he might not like his luck all the time, and it can be either a blessing or a curse given the scenario, but he's kind of stuck with it- until he withers away, just like Sibyl. Death does seem to be inevitable, but as of right now it's not knocking on his door.

tldr: for now, our boy isn't dead and his luck might be a curse to him but it's clearly going to keep him alive for quite a bit longer :)

tysm for reading and have a nice day!

#honkai star rail #hsr #aventurine #hsr spoilers #my fav poem and my fav character #whoo!!! #acheron #(mentioned) #hsr theory #honkai star rail theory #kakavasha #my beloved <<<333 #i wanted to squish mini-aventurine's cheeks SO BADLY whenever he came onscreen

[ahaclownery]

"true happiness always entails the manifestation of the dignity of mankind"

I completely forgot to write abt this quote hahaha

Essentially, Sampo is saying that true happiness always includes showing respect and treating people with dignity (manifestation of the dignity of mankind)

This again, further enforces his relative dislike for Sparkle. As this is a quote he lives by, he genuinely believes the highest form of happiness is only obtained by respecting the inherent worth of all people. Which collides quite a bit with Sparkle's more selfish approach to elation.

Moreover, it's interesting he uses this quote to essentially contrast what the Epsilon galaxy is. Maybe elation followers that have ideals closer to Sparkle's are more common.

Anyways, I will consider this proof of Sampo being best girlie <3

#honkai star rail #hsr #sampo #sampo koski #hsr lore #hsr theory #im so sleepy

[len-yx]

Penacony spoilers

Fixing what I said ab the voice calling out to “Mikhail”

The name Mickhail (Mikhail) is a variant of the anme Michael and Misha is derived from the name Saint Michael aka Archangel Michael aka the Angel of Sunday

Basically I think the watchmaker’s name was Mikhail and Misha and Sunday are both named after him. It’s a pretty common theory that Misha’s grandfather was the watchmaker so that explains why he’d be named after him. But Sunday could be a couple of reasons, Mikhail is likely his real name, he could’ve been named that by his parents/the family because they wanted some type of association with the name or it could be something more complicated which is more likely. Probably some weird immortal/reincarnation dreamscape shit. Idk.

Anyway.

I think the one calling out for “Mikhail” for most of the time we hear the voice is Misha’s memories of his grandfather

Whilst the voice calling out to “Mikhail” in the doors area is Robin calling out to Sunday when she’s dying

I believe the things going wrong in the dreamscape is because of this box both mention. (Presumably) Misha asks about the box and what’s in it. (Presumably) Robin yells that “Mikhail” said not to open it. I’m not sure which Mickhail Robin is talking about here since the box seems to have originally been the watchmaker’s but is now in the possession of the family so either could’ve said something about not opening it.

This is probably gonna be a reference to Pandora’s box (I’ll be real surprised if it’s not) so I want to mention that one of the sorrows of Pandora’s box is death and the memory zone meme that attacks us in the doors area and later kills Firefly is called “Something Unto Death” it’s likely that we heared Robin begging for the box not to be opened. It was opened and she was fatally injured, the boss probably wanted to get away from the box so left imediately which is when we have our first run in with it.

Basically I think more is going to come out of the box similar to this boss

Woah a little off track.. say hi to Mikhail, Mikhail and Mikhail!

Anyways tell me if I got anything wrong please 🙏🙏🙏

#hsr #honkai star rail #penacony #Misha #hsr misha #Sunday #hsr sunday #Robin #hsr robin #angel siblings #hsr theory #Mikhail #hsr mikhail