#hsr analysis

To begin with, I did not think they would interact this patch at all. Blade's release is presumably in 4.3 so I thought the plot would build tension on their imminent meeting with 4.2 maybe ending with a cliffhanger of them running into each other. But imo having that tension build through their interactions works out a lot better, especially with what we now know of Ashveil's history with the quintet and the involvement of the Abundance.

Firstly I just want to point out that Dan Heng went from going out of his way to prove he wasn't Dan Feng, to taking all of one patch to betray the Xianzhou- apparently, Tingyun doesn't know why he left, and Sunday doesn't tell her.

Which means a couple of things: That Dan Heng isn't particularly invested in the Xianzhou's view of him, and also that he doesn't trust them.

He goes to find Blade, entirely of his own volition, with the explicit purpose of not apprehending him; he emphasises that keeping an eye on Blade is as far as he'll go.

And Blade is surprised about this, because of course he is. They haven't interacted since before Penacony. He has no reason to expect Dan Heng would seek him out or help him, and he's probably going to be further blindsided in their future interactions by the fact that Dan Heng no longer considers them to be strangers.

So anyway, Dan Heng gets straight to leaking intel.

He warns Blade that Yao Guang is after him, and of the potential threat from Shuhu.

And then that last line. "The only part of you that I would consider violent is the one that isn't even you" from the guy Blade tried to kill however many times is insane. Dan Heng does recognise that Blade isn't an inherently violent person, despite everything.

Also, this is so fucked up. Just in general. Nearly all Blade ever does is get used by other people, get hurt as collateral damage.

It's not even Blade himself that's the threat, it's some creature that's way more powerful than him using his body. And this is probably where the blank script comes in: The significance of it is Elio saying that he's giving Blade the choice, and that Blade has to make a choice for himself. Loss of agency is definitely something he has in common with Dan Heng, but Dan Heng has learned by now to take comfort in making the best choices he could with what few options he did have. Blade, meanwhile, is resigned to fate, and his arc in Planarcadia is very likely to be centred on overcoming that resignation.

You can also tell from the camera work during the above line that Blade is worried about Shuhu. He knows Dan Heng is right and he's probably scared. In the next shot, though, he smiles, and tries to intimidate Dan Heng, but the thing is-

He doesn't actually argue. What he's really saying is "There's nothing you can do about it," because that's simply what he believes. A weapon is supposed to be used. A weapon shouldn't fear being used.

At this point Silver Wolf says what we've all been thinking which is that this is kind of gay and i mean. yeah.

Blade is worried about Shuhu, and there's a lot of internal conflict going on. But at the same time, he is also not going to admit under any circumstances that Dan Heng is right.

It's actually kind of fascinating to me how what was Star Rail's biggest ship, and is still one of the biggest, was built nearly entirely off of backstory and implications. They had a whole two onscreen conversations and Blade was only in his right mind the second time around. We heard secondhand about how close Dan Feng and Yingxing were, despite how their personalities should have clashed, but we never really saw it. For me it was always less "they seem like they're in love" and more "they deserve to love each other again", and so giving them an actual dynamic and having them play so well off each other was definitely the best thing the writers could have done for them.

I like that the writing makes fun of them, too. They act like they're fighting but they barely actually disagree on anything. They're both normally pretty calm people but they clearly bring out the worst in each other. Their dynamic is conflict, even when there's no reason for it to be. They each think they can intimidate the other into backing down, and they're both wrong, and that does make them kind of look like idiots.

That said, they do calm down a little when Silver Wolf leaves, and interestingly, this is where they do actually disagree with each other.

Dan Heng thinks they can change fate. Blade does not. Dan Heng even says he's not interested in arguing on the subject, because it probably doesn't matter to him whether or not Blade agrees. He's said on previous occasions that what Blade does is Blade's choice. He does value Blade's autonomy, probably more than Blade himself does, and he doesn't need Blade's help. He's arrogant enough to believe he can change fate on his own. Tracking Blade down was just is just as much a means to make sure he doesn't interfere as it is to keep him out of the Xianzhou's hands.

Nothing in particular to add about this part, I just like that they have this casual banter about what should probably be a sensitive topic. It shows their familiarity with each other, and it's not over something from the past. There actually seems to be more sarcasm and taunts involved where they're familiar with each other, compared to when Dan Heng brings up his experience with the Express- something Blade knows little about- and Blade doesn't respond.

And then, despite all the previous posturing, Blade goes ahead and gives Dan Heng all the information he's asking for.

He doesn't offer information, but he doesn't withhold it either, and Dan Heng keeps his questions straightforward. And Blade does end up being right about there being more than one source of Abundance- there's both the research society and Evanescia.

And then this line. There is so much to unpack in this one.

Keeping an eye on someone can mean keeping them under control, or it can mean keeping them safe. In this case, it probably means both. Dan Heng fitting "I'll protect you" and "I'm the stalker now, asshole" into one sentence, only to sort of backpedal by clarifying that he's only keeping an eye on Blade, not trying to hurt him, is a perfect encapsulation of their current relationship. The fact of the matter is that they're simply too important to each other to not care, but that, at the same time, they've hurt each other too much for caring to be simple.

I also think that they probably just needed to fight a bit for enrichment, because they do calm down over the course of the scene. They've argued enough that they both feel they've gotten across the message of "I don't forgive you, just so you know", and so now they can cooperate without either of their pride taking too much damage. Blade even seems like he might be happy with the arrangement.

The fact that Dan Heng actively draws attention to the fact that he's reversing their roles is meaningful on a narrative level, too. The camera angle is very similar to earlier in the scene with Blade's "So, what's your plan? Kill me again?" Like this is Dan Heng's answer to the question. His plan is, put simply, to turn things around one way or another. He believes he can change their fate- probably not just within Planarcadia, but in general. I'm fairly sure this is something he'll be able to convince Blade of in due time, too.

If it's about taking back control, that makes me think that Blade's arc in Planarcadia is likely to result in him gaining some control of Shuhu's power, enough that he isn't constantly relying on Kafka to stave off the Mara.

(This is also still very gay. For all that they feel the need to say something sarcastic and/or condescending every other sentence, they don't seem at all uncomfortable with each other. Neither is scared of the other, and nothing they say is ever particularly cruel. They let each other into their personal space when there's plenty of room to back away.)

For some goddamn reason, I’m seeing many people portraying Lygus as some sort of salty loser who’s just mad his own creation is smarter than him (especially twitter Anaxa mains 🫩.. Anaxa actually seems incredibly cool in this context and I’ll get to that) although that’s absolutely true in the *vibes* he gives off (his EN voice acting is incredible) that’s… that’s not the point guys.

Guys.. Lygus is RIGHT.

About Nous, at least.

Okay so, Phainon in greek is "Φαινων", which is a participle form of the verb "φαινω" (faino), the verb means to bring to light, and thus the participle means bringing to light. So Phainon (Φαινων) means bringing to light.

Next up is Mydeimos, spelt "Μυδειμος" in greek, which is derived of "μυ" and "δειμος". "μυ" is a rewriting of μι’ which is a shortend version of μια and means one. "δειμος" is one of the greek words for fear, so Mydeimos (Μυδειμος) means one fear.

Aglaea (Αγλαεα in greek) is more simpler, being a different spelling of the word "αγλαια" meaning splendour, beauty or magnificence.

Anaxagoras is also simple, spelt Αναξαγορας in greek, and is named after a famous philosopher. Other than that, αναξ is also a greek word for lord or master and γοργας (the closest to goras i could find) meaning fear or terrifying, thus αναξ γοργας means lord fear or alternatively "lord of fear/master of fear."

Hyacine, Ὑασινε in greek, is from what I can conclude named after ὑακινθος (in greek)/hyacinthus (in latin), which is either the flower, hyacinth, or Apollo's lover, Hyacinthus, who he turned into said flower.

Castorice is one that made me laugh at first, because the latin word castor and the greek kαστωρ both mean beaver, castoris or καστορος then meaning beaver's. With further reading I think she's named a lesser known greek god, and not beavers. Castor plus the latin suffix -trix, later -ice in english, to make the name feminine. Castor and his twin brother Pollux are patrons of sailors.

And lastly (I chose to only do the characters we've met in game, I might add to this as the story progresses) is the one that made me sad, Tribios, Τριβιος in greek, created by adding the greek prefix τρι-, meaning three or three times, to βιος meaning life, thus Τριβιος means three life or life three times or three times life.

Followed by Tribbie, τριβιε, which honestly I think is just meant as a nickname, βιε is just a different form of the word βιος, so Tribbie and Tribios mean the same.

Trianne, Τριανε, has two options; either τρι + αν, αν here being a particle of emphasis, so "three!". Or τριαν, from τριας, which means three or triad.

And last is Trinnon, Τρινον, whose name made me the saddest, it can either be comprised of the prefix τρι- and the greek word νοον, from νους, meaning heart or soul, so three times heart/soul. Or the again the greek prefix τρι- and the latin non, meaning not, thus her name meaning not three.

Tl;dr: Mydei is likely around 26-27 years old and Phainon is between the ages of 27-29 years old. That puts the Chrysos Heirs ages as follows from oldest to youngest: Tribios (oldest), Cerydra & Hysilens, Aglaea, Castorice, Cifera, Anaxa, Hyacine, Phainon, and Mydeimos (youngest)

Disclaimer: This is all conjecture and my personal analysis, so take this with a grain of salt. It’s also important to remember that the birth years for the heirs vary from cycle to cycle, so for the sake of this analysis, I’m going to only be talking about the 336 cycle (the cycle that was written into AIW and turned into the data used for Amphoreus’ rebirth. This means that after Amphoreus is realized, the 336 cycle will basically be the “canon” cycle).

Honkai is terrible at giving us actual dates and ages for Amphoreus, which means we need to take a lot of the clues given to us in canon and figure them out for ourselves. Let’s look at the canon dates that we do have first. We know that Mydei left the sea of souls at 9 and spent 10 years with the Kremnoan Detachment before killing his father at 19 (source: AIW). We know that Mydei spent time in Kremnos after killing Eurypon since he himself stated that he lived in Kremnos’ inner city for a few years during the 3.1 storyline. Mydei was also familiar with the layout of the city, enough to not need a map, so let’s say he was in Kremnos for a minimum of 1-2 years before moving his people to Okhema (this would also explain why all Kremnoans, not just the ones from the KD, are familiar with him and acknowledge him as their king. They wouldn’t do that if Mydei hadn’t spent any time with them after killing Eurypon and moving them to Okhema). In the 3.1 story we see Mydei playing with Kremnoan kids who were all born in Okhema but old enough to play on their own (with Krateros’ supervision), so they would have to be at least 4 or 5. After adding a year to allow for the conception and birth of the kids, this would put Mydei’s age at a maximum of 26 or 27 years old. Personally, I view Mydei as being 26 years old at most.

Going off of this, Mydei’s age timeline would be as follows:

Left the Sea of Souls: 9

Killed his father: 19

Left Kremnos, arrived in Okhema, and had his duel with Phainon: 21

Age at the start of the Amphoreus storyline: 26

Phainon is a lot more tricky to pin down. Phainon’s story in 3.4 tells us that he was between the ages of 13-15 when Aedes Elysiae was destroyed and he wandered until he was an adult and found by Aglaea, so he would’ve been around 16-18 years old when he came to Okhema (boys became men at 16 in Ancient Greece, but we don’t know if Amphoreus is the same so I’m leaving room for error). This is where Phainon’s age gets tricky to extrapolate. We know from readables that after he moved to Okhema, Phainon went to the Grove to study under Anaxa and participated in at least 10 Great Debates. Side note, but this is where Hyacine was confirmed to be older than Phainon. This is because she was already working as Anaxa’s TA at the Grove when Phai started studying there. If Hyacine started working as a TA when she became an adult at 16/18, that means she would be at least a few years older than Phainon since, as stated earlier, she had already worked under Anaxa for a while before Phainon came to the Grove. That puts Hyacine currently somewhere in her late 20s to early 30s, she just doesn’t look like it because she’s very short (rip).

Getting back on track. It’s unlikely that the Debates happened once a year because that would have meant that Phainon stayed at the Grove for a decade (since he participated in at least 10) and would be in his 30s at the earliest. A much more likely conclusion is that the Grove functions like a university with two semesters per year and the Debates happen once a semester, meaning Phainon studied at the Grove for 5 years before graduating and returning to Okhema around the age of 21-23 at this time. This timeline is the most likely option since Phainon had to have been in Okhema when Mydei and the Kremnoan refugees arrived 5/6 years ago, otherwise their famous 10-day battle wouldn’t have been possible if Phainon was still at the Grove.

After returning to Okhema at ~21-23, we know that Phainon joined the Okheman city guard and officially took up the mantle of Chrysos Heir full-time. I believe that he spent at least a year training before Mydei arrived in Okhema, since I don’t think they would’ve sent a green soldier fresh out of the Grove to face the Prince of Castrum Kremnos in diplomatic negations lol. Therefore, Phai probably spent 1-2 years training before Mydei arrived at Okhema. Since we established earlier that it’s been around 5 or 6 years since their 10-day battle (going off the ages of the Kremnoan children born in Okhema), that puts Phainon in the age range of 27-29 years old. Personally, I view Phainon as 27 years old and 1 year older than Mydei.

This means Phainon’s age timeline would be as follows:

Aedes Elysiae was destroyed: 15

Found by Aglaea and came to Okhema before being sent to the Grove to study: 16

Returned from the Grove and started training with the city guard as a Chrysos Heir: 21

Met Mydei and had their duel: 22

Age at the start of the storyline: 27

That puts the Chrysos Heirs ages as follows from oldest to youngest: Tribios (oldest), Cerydra & Hysilens, Aglaea, Castorice, Cifera, Anaxa, Hyacine, Phainon, and Mydeimos (youngest)

Hello, in this post I'm going to go over the various references to Finland in Honkai Star Rail (Also touching a little on HI3) and explaining them the best I can so that non-finns can understand how hilariously delightful they are.

_

Starting with a funny one: Welt Yang.

Thinking about this endless circle motif of the Ravagers' own interpretation of 'dawn', bringing not a new day but an apocalypse instead, and how they cumulate into the black sun that drips golden blood, the symbol of Nanook.

And Phainon . . . with sun motifs . . . In the middle of his own circle.

The way I see it, Gepard is basically the complement of Aventurine. Gepard's family is still alive. Gepard is surrounded by friends he openly cares about and who care about him in return. The people from beyond the stars saved Gepard's civilization. Gepard walks the path of Preservation without hesitation, without other paths ever tugging at his soul.

But most of all there is Serval. Aventurine only knew his sister as his sister, his caretaker, his guardian. She was only a few years older than him when she became his primary caretaker and even with the help of the other clanswomen (assuming the Avgins have the same type of developing societies we do), the responsibility was likely all-consuming. From the little info we have on their childhood, Serval played a similar, though less overwhelming, role to Gepard. But he was able to watch Serval grow past that identity into one of her own, one that's bursting at the seams - researcher, mechanic, and punk-rocker.

I wonder how Aventurine would react upon meeting her, at this unabashedly punk-rock, sisterly woman who looks like him, like her. His sister is frozen in his memory as that brave adolescent girl who urges her brother away to safety in the rain with a smile. I wonder if he would go back over the scraps of memory he has of her, trying to imagine what she would look like as an adult, trying to extrapolate what she would pursue from the few times she's not in 'big-sister mode'. She told him quite a few bedtime stories about Avgin history, would she maybe become an archivist or Avgin historian? Or what about how she would listen to that rusty little radio in their tent while she did chores? Maybe she'd become a singer, like Robin? It's miserable to try, especially considering how few his memories of her have become. But it comforts him to think about how he would help her, the strings he could pull to make her dreams a reality even if they never would now. A world where he would be good for something.