also i wanna add my 2c about The Splash Art because I've seen on multiple platforms people struggling to fit it into Boothill's story when it really isn't meant as a 1:1 representation of him becoming a cyborg
This image is meant to be taken as a whole, this is a visual representation of Boothill's current mindscape in response to whatever the monkey robot did. This part of the narrative right here is saying straight up that what you're seeing isn't real.
That guy was trying to create a version of Boothill that would be malleable to suggestion and safe to experiment on, by capitalizing on his strength of mind/character and bringing him to a point in time where he didn't believe that killing was okay so that he would be unable to fire his gun. Unfortunately for him Boothill's self determination is stronger than anything else at all period but that's another post.
Little Boothill in the bottom left is holding some bright light in his hands, its implied to be his innocence/the goodness of his heart that monkey robot was digging for in order to protect itself from Boothill's retaliation. It's meant to be the first thing to draw the viewer's eye in the image and its immediately communicating something abstract.
In the back center is the current, Real Boothill, with his back turned to the scene-- this is going on inside of his mind and heart, the Real Boothill has no conscious input into this which is why he's not engaged with it at all. (When Boothill does wake up and return to his senses later he does mention being worried he wouldn't be able to do it but ultimately he trusted himself to make the right call even after walking directly into a trap he knew would leave him compromised)
Now for the most interesting element-- the Inbetween Boothill.
...First and foremost this is honestly also fanservice, the artist had an opportunity to let us see his hips and abs, everybody say thank you hoyo art staff, save a horse, clank clank clank, etc 🙏
Anyway this is just exactly what it looks like- a dream version of Boothill stuck in an inbetween state of being human and being a cyborg. He has half a white shirt on which he does not wear in the present but did in the past, and his same leather pants that he does wear in the present with the bullets on his belt. I've seen it pointed out that his left arm is drawn differently in this image than it is in reality-- I believe that's because this "moment" in Boothill's experience is meant to disarm him so he's depicted without the gun in his left hand that we know he has today. So no bronze brace, no gun in his hand, it's just a plain prosthetic arm. This is also his left side so his heart would be right where that cable connects, suggesting some kind of outside life support. There's a single tear on his cheek and he's also bent over backwards as if helpless, with no control of the position or the pain he's in. Inbetween Boothill also has the "hidden eyes" trope in anime/manga where a character whose feelings are being obscured/hidden or maybe are too complex to be communicated are drawn with no eyes or shadowed eyes, or sometimes its also used to show that the figure is a background character with no impact on the scene. Both of these can be true for this image-- adult Boothill is not in control right now, Little Boothill is as shown by his open eyes, actively regarding the light he's holding, being the largest figure in the image, and literally being its light source both illuminating and casting shadow on the others.
Little Boothill is illuminated with vibrant, bright and warm colors, while the other two are drawn in cool tones, even though the Inbetween Boothill has warm light cast upon him. Little man is still alive in there, influencing all of Boothill's choices in his current life. Even though he is now a killer when it wasn't necessarily in his nature to become one, he has his reasons and he's confident in them, and he always listens to his heart.
....anyway this is just such a fudging cool piece of art I need to eat it okay thats all for my attempt at analysis bye
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hihi sorry to rant in your inbox but i hate when people use aven's line about jade that says her kindness comes with a price to make their relationship seem worse than it is. while the ipc is. well. the ipc i dont thinl it would benefit her to harm him like theyre both stonehearts AND hes her subordinate. personally i think the price he mentions is like, testing him like she did in her social media post with the ores. it certainly would be less incongruous with her want to guide those that come after her..
I think that people really struggle with Jade. They took one look at her dommy mommy appearance and her status as one of the top three in the Stonehearts and they just want her to be unrepentant evil soooo bad.
Don't get me wrong, she is definitely a master manipulator and she definitely has a specific personal goal she's working toward using the IPC as her vehicle to do so. Her overall idea of creating an endless vortex of desires that can't ever be sufficiently met is very Voracity-coded and not really the kind of idea a very well-adjusted person would be espousing. We have no idea how loyal she really is to the IPC's goal of aiding Preservation against Destruction in the War of the Aeons.
But she's also, over and over again, been painted as having "True Neutral" moral alignment in-game. She's literally xxxHolic's Ichihara Yuuko with a bad case of capitalism: She always demands a price, but never asks more than is fair.
It's literally Fullmetal Alchemist's first law of alchemy: Human kind can not gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.
All of Jade's exchanges are equivalent and none of her customers enter into a bargain without understanding the price they are paying. In fact, she won't even let Firefly try to make a deal at all without doing her research in advance to truly realize the extent of what she is asking for. Jade is inherently an honest businesswoman.
The issue is that greed is all-encompassing. The ability to have any wish granted is a temptation that virtually no one can escape in the end.
Therefore, I think the best way to understand Jade is as the Honkai Star Rail equivalent of Mephistopheles. In the legend of Faust, the eponymous Dr. Faust longs for more in his life--he is endlessly pursuing knowledge and power, but has hit the limits of his own ability. He meets the devil, Mephistopheles, who agrees to enter into a pact with him: Mephistopheles will fulfill all Faust's wishes while Faust is still alive, but then Faust's soul will belong to the devil when he dies. The deal is fairly presented. The terms are not unclear: If Faust agrees to the bargain, he knows what will happen to his soul in the end.
Mephistopheles doesn't trick him or force his hand when it comes to this bargain. Faust could say no. He could resist. But he doesn't. He agrees, because human greed and pride are simply that overpowering. He thinks he's smarter than the devil; unlike the thousands of others who have come before and suffered damnation for their deals with the devil, Faust thinks he is different, better than others, more deserving... The actual temptation doesn't come from the devil. It comes from human hubris.
Like Mephistopheles, like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Jade merely presents the choice--it's humanity's endless desire that leads to the downfall.
It's a snake and an apple and a contract for a reasonnnnnn, Jade haters.
So, I don't think that Jade represents any danger to anyone who can resist temptation. Firefly walks away from Jade's exchange entirely unscathed. Trailblazer isn't pressed into surrender.
But Aventurine?
To be honest, I think his relationship with her is a bit more complicated.
Aventurine likes Jade. She did him a solid when he was at his lowest in life. His character stories make it clear that he views her as, essentially, someone "safe" in the IPC, unlike other Stonehearts.
But... I do agree that Aventurine approaches Jade more cautiously than he approaches others. And I think that probably stems from a couple of different factors:
Jade has positioned herself as Aventurine's "pseudo-mother," and Aventurine responds to her as if she, indeed, a mother figure he has to obey. He is more respectful of her than anyone else we see him interact with in the game--Diamond and Opal get called by name, but Jade is always "Ma'am." Which is very close to "Mama;" this is not an accidentttttt. When Jade disrupts his banter with Topaz, Aventurine immediately does as he is told, hands over his room card, and simmers down. Even in joking social media posts, when Jade asks Aventurine to do something (judge the uncut jade stones she sent him), he does it even when she rejects his high demand for profit sharing.
But:
2. Jade actually failed Aventurine's moral litmus test. From the beginning of his adulthood flashbacks, we see Aventurine explicitly troubled by the fact that his human dignity was denied and that a market value was assigned to his existence. And not even a high value. He was sold for pennies. It's the ultimate mortification, and we can tell it is still bothering him to this day because even "future" Aventurine brings up the sting of that bone-deep insult during Aventurine's long walk through Penacony.
In response to the indignity, Kakavasha gave his original master a moral test: Kakavasha says that he'll go willingly into the hellscape of the death maze if his master will give him 30 copper Tanba, just half his market value. His master refuses, demonstrating that he does not view Kakavasha as a human being, worthy of any respect. By refusing this tiny, insignificant request, the master exhibits his utter moral depravity, from which there is no return. In response, Kakavasha ultimately kills him and takes the 30 copper coins he asked for (nothing more, nothing less) from his corpse.
When Kakavasha meets Jade, he then makes the exact same demand: He wants 30 copper coins and exactly 30 copper coins. At this point, it is very clear that--to Kakavasha--the coins are emblematic of his value as a human being. (I promise you, somewhere in his apartment right now are the 30 bloody coins he took from his master's cold corpse.) His freedom, his dignity, his worth... All of these things hinge on being able to acquire the original 60 Tanba coins. Thus, those who refuse his requests for the coins also symbolically refuse his request for basic respect, his request to be seen as an equal human being who deserves to not be reduced to mere pennies on a bill of sale.
And Jade refuses this request. She treats the demand for Tanbas like a paltry sum and instead ignores the specificity of the request to give a general "We'll give you riches beyond your imagine, more than you could have ever thought to want." But that isn't what he asked for. She stepped over the request he actually made in order to supplant her ideas, on her terms. Kakavasha made the tiniest, most easily completed request in the world, and in failing to actually just respect what he personally wished for, Jade demonstrated that she ultimately will not really respect him.
Just like his slave master, Aventurine represents a value on a page to Jade.
For this reason, even if she extends pseudo-maternal behavior to Aventurine and he laps it up like a starved kitten drinks up milk, we see that he remains more cautious toward her than he does to any other female character in the game. Aventurine comes across as more comfortable talking to Acheron than he sounds when he talks to Jade... Because in failing the most basic and seemingly meaningless test, Jade revealed exactly to what extent Kakavasha can--and cannot--trust her.
Does Jade actually mean Aventurine any harm? No, I really don't think so, and you're right, those who claim that she does are really over-exaggerating Jade's negative traits, mostly because they've almost universally got a strong anti-IPC agenda and hate everything from the IPC except Aventurine on principle. Everything in Jade's character stories points to her honestly wanting to develop the hidden talents of others, to "polish" rough cut stones into true gems, and to see her fledglings thrive. Kakavasha is someone she picked up out of the dirt and dusted off. If he excels, that means her faith was well-placed, her judgment was correct, and her team as a whole excels.
It's exactly like a business owner who takes great pride in producing a fantastic product. Only when the product succeeds can the business itself succeed.
But business owners see their products as objects, not equals.
Jade is a fairly neutral figure and I think she wants to see Aventurine grow and achieve greatness. But at the end of the day, their relationship is very predicated on the notion of investment (Jade puts up the original capital to make Aventurine great, and he repays her faith in him by generating wealth for the IPC). It is clear she just can't be trusted to value Aventurine as a person above a means of profit--and Aventurine knows (and accepts) that too.
I didn't have time to include this with the last update but along with the distribution of food parcels, Mona was able to provide clean water to countless people!! Thank you to everyone who donated, you have helped provide so many families with clean water. Your impact is more than you can imagine. Every dollar counts! If that's all you can spare then don't hesitate to send it their way! P*ypal.
G*f*ndme to distribute basic necessities in Ghazzah.
G*f*ndme for Mona & her family to evacuate.
Instagram to keep track of progress.
(If you live in India or Pakistan and want to donate, contact her through the means listed on her account).
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if jade ever has a tragic backstory i dont want the tragedy to be because of something drastically terrible like most are.. personally id like it to be a slow descent of sorts, years of disappointments and such leading to a view of existence so perfectly tuned to the cold and exploitative realm of ipc business
