What do you think of Trailblazer/Acheron as a pairing? And your opinion on Acheron in general?

-the Gundam anon

Trailblazer/Acheron was actually one of my fave ships for awhile! They just got outclassed by others, but i still find them cute. Part of that is majorly as a result of her lack of spotlight in the story tbh.

They’ve got a really fun dynamic. Angst potential is high and I for one, am someone who likes angst a ‘normal’ amount.

two people on journeys liable to end with their deaths over anything else, walking in wholly different directions; one who has the the habit of remembering everyone and everything so they never lose it, and one who physically cannot remember because her own power and choices are eating away at her… very fun.

On a less sad note, they could also lowk have a Deadpool x Death dynamic. TB is goofy enough, and dies frequently; and Acheron is someone who guides lost souls.

I was actually so hyped when Acheron showed up in 3.2 to keep TB on track leaving the realm of the dead. Like yes, relevancy! .. briefly..

Acheron/Trailblazer got lowk wholly overshadowed by Firefly, but out of the penacony cast, women at least, id argue that Acheron is probably the closest to them.

Oh, also I remain believing in the theories that Acheron & TB met at some point pre-express. Its not like its impossible.. or that either would remember it properly.

As for my opinion on Acheron herself? I love her. Tbh i have all of one gripe with her, and its not even really about her, and its lowk a compliment.

Acheron ruined emanators. Not in a negative way. But the way she was done, it ruined the perception of emanators. They’re rare, yes, but emanators are not actually of the same make as say, void hunters in ZZZ or archons in Genshin. Its a feat to be an emanator, but its a feat because it means you’ve been acknowledged in some way by your/an aeon.

But our playable cast is made up of the people who are generally Special. Its not like in genshin where we have more normal people, no. For the most part, playable characters are going to be the characters more liable to be skilled/powerful/special enough in some way for an Aeons acknowledgment.

Emanator status SIMPLY means you have power drawn and given DIRECTLY from the aeon.

Acheron is as speciak as she is because she’s an Emanator of Nihility specifically. Her existence basically goes against the path as a whole. She is the ONLY emantor of ix, because she lowk found a cheatcode and broke nihility. (Self-annihilator ≠ emanator)

She was also the first anniversary character. So she got more special treatment than other characters.

The combination of her specific status + being an anniversary push basically culminated in entirely fucking over the general perception of Emanators. They’re special, but not nearly as rare as people seem to believe after Acheron.

Cyrene, Phainon, Evernight & March, Jing Yuan, Feixaio, Yao Guang, Herta, Evanescia, technically Trailblazer- all of these people ARE emanators. Because they draw their power directly from the Aeon in some form. (Im counting TB as a Remembrance Emanator here, specifically in the realm of Amphoreus, because Cyrene = Fuli, and RMC tied directly to Cyrene.) March/Evernight are Emanators, because children of anasrava are considered a special form of emanator.

Ofc, Emanators are NOT made equal.

For example, the hunt’s path is narrow. And the Generals get theirr emanator status as a result of their spiritus. Meanwhile, the destruction is a much broader path, and Phainon draws his power from Nanook much more directly.

Or to compare two of the same path- March is much, much weaker than Cyrene. Part of that is because March’s connection to the Remembrance is alot weaker. It was unknowing. She embraced the Remembrance, but it was secondary to Trailblaze. Cyrene has more or less always fully embraced both in equal measure. She is the stronger Remembrance emanator.

Back to the hunt- Marshal Hua could probably utterly destroy the generals. Her connection to the path is stronger, more direct.

Emanators are special, but not as special assume. For the most part, if a character has a direct tie to an Aeon, chances are high they’re an emanator in some form.

Acheron basically wholly built the general perception of Emanators as way rarer. Thats insane. One character. One character, and she completely took over the perception of how an entire class is perceived!

Acheron is inevitably going to reenter the story. Penacony was an introductory world after all. Her arc will continue.

And honestly, if Acheron lowk more or less forgot everyone but TB, id be fine with that. Let Trailblazer keep breaking how shit is supposed to work. And also, Acheron didnt really build that close of ties to anyone in Penacony.

Black Swan did NOT make as much of an impression on Acheron as vice versa lmao. Acheron was over here like “nice dance, id enjoy doing it again. lowk a weirdo tho.” and meanwhile Acheron has wholly traumatized this woman. Oh- Acheron also warned Trailblazer about Black Swan. They ended on decent terms off, but like.. they weren’t actually thst close.

Tbh, legitimately Acheron didnt give nearly as much of a fuck about anyone as much as she got attached to TB. Acheron shared her name with them.

Also considering TB has the strange relationship they do with Nihility, Acheron remembering them more clearly than the rest makes sense.

Im hoping she’ll show back up in 5.x. I cant see her showing up for any reason in Planarcadia or Astropolis. But considering that we’ll have gotten an update on every Penacony character/faction by the time we’ve finished up 4.x, it’d be due time to see Acheron.

Oh, Acheron also more or less seems to keep an ear out for the Trailblazer’s exploits! Its sweet. Trailblazer was an ally for a brief time, they never once traveled together. But Acheron still seems to keep an ear out.

Also we have more TB=star theming with Acheron imo. A wanderer & a north star.. Acheron described them as bright- in her anniversary letter, she specifically says “Your light must shine far brighter now than when we first met.” in reference to their growth and exploits since penacony.

All in all, i really like Acheron on her own, and i do still really enjoy Acheron/Trailblazer as a ship. Even if its a rarepair in all honesty.

ngl, you’d probably be hard-pressed to find a ship i actually dislike. are there ships that i dont particularly care for? Yeah absolutely. Like tbh, im not much a fan of the IPC characters in general, im more neutral on them, so i dont really care for their ships. But i dont dislike them. You’ll probably find me having avenratio as a background ship in fics. I just dont particularly care to interact with content of them specifically.

Barring illegal ships, if its not something i actively ship fo some degree, im liable to just be neutral on it. I think the only legal ships i can think of that i actively dislike is… Welt x Anyone In The Express Crew. That man is their communal (grand)father figure, and i dont like seeing him be romantic with them because it just feels strange.

And even then.. if someone wants to ship Himeko x welt or welt x tb.. ill just move on. They’re fictional characters and all adults. Same thing with most ‘toxic’ ships too. Like lygus/tb or phainon/lygus… is it lowk weird for people to ship characters with their abuser? Yeah. But the characters are still adults, and it doesnt actually affect me. Its all fictional, these arent real people… but you put a child with an adult, and im liable to block (or report if theres like.. weird art). Still fictional, but its still fucking weird… those are kids..

But yeah. Those are much rarer situations. 9 times out of 10, if its not something i personally ship, ill be wholly neutral on it. Like, i like Hertamei alot! But ive also seen a fair amount of pretty cute Screwherta art. I dont ship it personally, but I can see the appeal, its cute!

Sorry i went on a tangent about shipping. Im pretty sure my opinion on ships is probably a bit more rare, but like. ive been in fandom since single digits. i am too jaded to bother with ship discourse.. i will very gladly ship and let ship, dont like dont interact. My life is gonna be way more peaceful that way.

Considering we got one about the Aeons, and then one about the the Lord Ravagers?

I imagine that part 3 would be about another faction directly connected to an Aeon. So most likely, another faction of Emanators.

The Xianzhou plot is still only in the background, advancing slowly. So it wouldnt be them, and we’ve already got a myriad celestia about them anyways.

Same with the stonehearts.

Its hard to tell when we dont know about Emanator factions, yk?

I do have one idea. Particularly if we get our part 3 this year, particularly during the later half of the patch cycle.

And that would be the Harmonic Strings. Why?

Because Beatriz is most likely going to be involved in Astropolis. That red dancer lady? Thats Beatriz, almost certainly, or at least ig someone connected to Beatriz if not directly her.

The Harmonic Strings would be directly involved in Astropolis’ story. So would the Family, through Robin. Getting a Fables pt3 about them would be reasonably timed.

Not to mention that the Harmony is one of the four finalities as well. We’ve already fought Dominicus technically…

If we dont get pt3 soon, im not sure though. Or hell, it’d be about some other totally outta left field group.

As for the next myriad celestia in general..? Who knows man.

Like yeah sure, they’re normally about the current character and plot in some way, but who the hell was expecting a Stellaron Hunter Myriad in 3.7?? We didnt expect the Lord Ravagers fable! And the Ever Flame mansion one took like, two years to get pay off.

Could a person even be the general if they weren't an emanator of hunt. Lowkey been thinking about the dynamics of the different emanators since herta space station and especially ruan mei

It’d be interesting to learn about a General that got rejected by a spiritus! Far as we know currently, hasnt happened, but we’ve only actually stepped foot on one ship, and we still dont have much info on the others histories. Learning about one that happened to would certainly be possible, and absolutely interesting.

The spiritus are moreso like heirloom weapons over fully sentient beings with proper will of their own. And you don’t have to be an Emanator to become a General. You probably can be- hell, maybe Hua was a General before tje Marshal, and an emanator before that as well, but its the role and spiritus that properly gives you the emanator status. Tbh, i kinda doubt being an emanator before a general, mostly bc it feels like something that would land them a role more like Marshal Hua’s.

And then Ruan Mei isnt an Emanator. The only Erudition emanators we know of are Herta, Zandar/Lygus, and Dr Primitive. Not even Nous’ favorite Genius Hitman of Polka is an Emanator.

The Genius’ are people acknowledged by Nous, but that doesnt make them Emanators, because its solely an acknowledgement of their intellect and potential. (And also Nous is lowk using them lol.) If the Genius’s were ALL considered Emanators, then the Trailblazer is an Emanator of thus far 5 paths, because its the same level. Or six, actually, because Nous DID also gaze and CONVERSE with them through Herta. (Which is a bigger feat than a fair majority of Genius Society members can claim lol.)

To get direct power from Nous, you basically have to be a special type of insane/overly curious. Or be Nous’ insane dad. Herta asks questions for the question, Herta researches what holds her interest and then moves on to the next question. Dr Primitive is.. insane, and reallt fixated on the monkey thing, but part of why, is because he basically views it as resetting life to overcome where it has stagnated so it can evolve further- iirc. Primitive is fucking wild. Zandar/Lygus wants to discover the prime mover of life, and has split himself into 9 fragments to figure that out. And also he wants to kill his aeon child.

Compared to the other geniuses… they all have an expertise. Ruan Mei is researching life, Screwwy.. is Screwwy, Polka wants to keep the circle of knowledge as is, Stephen literally is just a kid whose insanely smart, he just wants to be left alone but his genetics said ‘no <3 lock in kid you’re gonna do things <3’

Basically, with Erudition Emanators, you have to be tje right combination of insane fenius and curious. Its not enough to be insanely smart.

All the Aeons have specific requirements for emanator status.

Nous, curious & smart enough. Aha, entertaining enough. Nanook, powerful and connected to some other path/aeon to want to kill the mf. Basically you need to align with the aeons ideals in a specific way.

Theres seemingly two exceptions. IX, bc IX is too nihilistic to care or bother (hence why Acheron is so unique). Fuli, because their emanators are fragments of them because they arent born yet, and will be from one of those fragments.

Terminus might also function similarly to Fuli, but all things considered, I’d argue that a Finality Emanator (cough, Elio, cough) is someone that would be acknowledged with Terminus’ ascent at the universes end, and follow Terminus’ path backwards.

Imo, emanators are prettt simple when you boil the concept down to its core. They’re just people that have managed to align with the Aeon in a way closest to how they themselves ascended to govern their path. It gets complicated when you start looking at the specifics- or trying to compare the emanators of different paths. No two emanators of a path will truly be the same, and that goes like, 5x as much for emanators of separate paths.

Oh, also. You can use something derived from an Aeon’s power without being an actual emanator. You can draw power from something blessed/gifted by a Aeon (for example, Fu Xuan’s gift from Nous) but if its not drawing power DIRECTLY and ACTIVELY from the Aeon, it dont count.

You can be both acknowledged and blessed by an aeon without being an emanator. What qualifies you as an emanator first before any other specifics, is drawing from the Aeon and path actively and directly. (Conduits can still count, such as the cornerstones and spiritus. You’ll just be a ‘lower grade’ emanator.)

And not all Emanators get the same treatment and access. Like, Silver Wolf & Acheron have more or less unhindered access. Their limit is based on themselves and how much they can withstand rather than the aeon deciding to cut them off. Meanwhile other Emanators have a hard limit as to the amount of power they csn call upon, on the Aeons side. Id argue Herta, Stonehearts, and Generals are like that. And then the amount of power that say, the Generals can call on compared to Marshal Hua is absolutely different, or Diamond vs the other Stonehearts.

Again, emanators are pretty simple as a core concept. The amount of discourse around them in wild. Like it should not need to be so explicitly stated whose one and who isnt. Context clues are always there!

One of these days, the Trailblazer is liable to become a proper emanator (of Trailblaze or Finality, hell mb both)… and hoyo could basically look straight at the camera and say “They’re an emanator” and there would STILL be people going ‘idk.. do they really count though..”