I HAVE A THEORY! And this is a theory regarding the newest character of Honkai: Star Rail, the rootinâ tootinâ, flamboyant, brash, and trigger happy space cowboy of the Galaxy RangersâBoothill! This will be posted on both Tumblr and AO3 for those who do not have either or for easier access! By the way, this theory contains mentions of leaks and in-game content, so if you don't want to get any spoilers, I advise not to read this theory at all.
For starters, I will admit that I havenât played Honkai: Star Rail in a while due toâŚwhatever reason I had, and one of those reasons was because of Twisted Wonderland! I was playing that for a whileâstill amâI was having a blast insulting Ace and having aneurysms over the studentsâ antics and methods of breaking people out (Iâm lookinâ at you, Rook). It was great! Then, Star Rail showcases two new characters on their Twitter page for their newest planet known as Penacony, one of them being Boothill who a lot of people were upset with due to them wanting the characters, Sam and/or Firefly who unfortunately met her demise in the newest update, andâŚwell, I fell head over heels for him and started saving for him (122 PULLS WITH 20 PITY BABY BUT HEâS MY FIRST FEATURED CHARACTER SO PRAY FOR ME). I kept up with leaks because I could care less about gameplay, stat kit, and character lore leaks since thatâs the interesting part and helps me figure out if I want the newest characterâŚlike my Al-Haitham theory which did not age well, this theory about Boothill does stem from exhaustion from not sleeping, but I feel like this is a more coherent and sound theory than the last, and I have to say that I have to take this with a grain of saltâand I advise the same for youâbecause itâs merely a theory. I can be wrong on certain things, but without ado, Iâll start with what really feels like the backbone of this theory, and that is Boothillâs name: Boothill.
So, just to give a little context, prominently in Asian mediaâmost notably Japanese and Chinese entertainment from what Iâve seen as I played HoYo games and watched a lot of animeâcharacters tend to have name pun which correspond with their personality, physical design, talents, etc., to give people a little laugh and be like, âOoooh! I get what they mean!â For example, Zhongli, in HoYoverseâs most popular game, Genshin Impact, written as é猝 in simplified Chinese, is a pun of his departureâhis retirementâas Rex Lapis: é ZhĹng being a homophone for the word for âclockâ as itâs spelled exactly the same, while 猝 LĂ is a common word for âleavingâ or âawayâ. Putting it together, it can be taken as âtime of departure/leavingâ or âoff the clockâ which foreshadowed Zhongli stepping down as Archon of Liyue.
With that knowledge in mind, I looked at Boothill's name and decided to Google it because I knew it was a pun of some sort! My only thought was that his name could have been a reference to a western (cowboy) film I never heard of which, to me, made sense as Boothill is modeled after stereotypical cowboys, and HoYo loves pop culture references with the Genius Invokation TCG which is a reference to the ever-so-popular card game, Yu-Gi-Oh, and how March 7th and Caelus made a reference to the movie, Fight Club, when the Moles were talking about the first rule of Fight ClubâŚnever talk about Fight Club! So, I thought Boothill was a nod to an old movie!
âŚNo! A lot of people have already Googled it, but for those who probably donât know, Boothillâs name comes from a burial grounds for gunfightersâwith headstones engraved with the gunfighterâs name or âunknownâ if the identity of the person has not been foundâin the Old American West called a Boot Hill, and that name derives from the phrase âthose who died with their boots onâ, meaning that the gunfighter died rather violently. I did see someone say that the phrase could also mean that they were hanged, and that part is correct as the context of the expression changed in the early 19th century. However, I donât believe that Boothill was hangedâalthough it is a possibility that I will keep in mind! Again, I have to take this theory with a grain of salt so I donât die on that hill again, but seeing Boothillâs situation that heâs metal and wires from the chin down, he most likely died in a very extreme battle in the past since the only thing human about himâŚis his head!
His body must have been blasted to oblivion to where it was beyond saving, beheading him from the impact of whatever and whoever killed him. Now, some people may think that they probably just beheaded him or he was shot multiple times in the chest: other possibilities I will keep in mind, but that would mean he could have resulted as some kind of Frankenstein instead because if the body was still there, the Interastral Peace Corporation or IPC (the people who rebuilt Boothill) would use that since he has things to salvage like a heart or liver, etc., yet if we look at another Star Rail character named Luka who hails from the Underworld, he is missing an arm which is replaced with a mechanical one. That is because Luka saved a child in a fire involving a monster possibly from the Fragmentum, and his arm was chopped off by the ax the monster wielded, giving him the prosthetic he has today. So, if we compare Luka to Boothill in terms of how bad the conflict in Boothillâs past was, Boothill lost too much of his body from the chin down for the IPC to even save, leaving him with a full body prosthetic.
Now, the question that we haveâŚwhy was Boothill killed? Who couldâve had such a grudge against him that they killed him off so violently? Well, that is where his Light Cone description comes in. Letâs focus on the middle of the description where it states:
âSome cruel memories resurfaced as the unforgettable hatred turned into a weak light in the darkness.â
The Light Cone entirely describes when Boothill was regaining consciousness and how he felt while briefly in a limbo before being greeted by a doctor in the IPC. What sticks out are these âcruel memoriesâ and this âunforgettable hatredâ that he has which calls back to what happened before he died. Iâll lead into this with another point I have to make this make sense a little bit: Boothill is a bounty hunter. Why do I think this? Well, we get a glimpse of this in-game in the newest update of Star Rail where Black Swan answers the phone to a mysterious Pathstrider of the Hunt who is part of the Galaxy Rangers (a gang who âswore to punish the wretched by any and all meansâ) who is tracking down Acheron, ready to kill her for reasons unknown as of right now: that was Boothill who has been confirmed to be a Pathstrider of the Hunt along with him being a Galaxy Ranger as he calls Acheron an âimposterâ who is also a Galaxy Ranger, most likely hinting that Acheron is going undercover and infiltrating the group. We also know it is him from his line, âMy bullets will find youâ, since he is a gunslinger with a bullet motif on his hat and actual bullets around his waist and one hanging from his left ear.
Going back to the point I made, heâs obviously smart with pinpointing someoneâs location such as Acheronâs and having at least some information on her like her being an Emanator. His Path, the Hunt, is said to âadmire determination, ruthlessness, and tenacious behaviorâ, which fits Boothillâs Light Cone description as well as his possible reason for his alliance with the Galaxy Rangers and why his finger is ready to shoot Black Swan if she was an ally of Acheron stating to âget [her] forehead cleanâŚand wait for [him]â. A bounty hunter would have to be ruthless with their target, showing little to no emotion as they are the person they are after, the person who wronged their client or the bounty hunter themselves, and it is obvious that Boothill is determined to gather any info from Black Swan to continue his hunt with Acheron.
Now, with that in mindâŚBoothill had to have been a bounty hunter in the past who was wronged as he had âcruel memoriesâ returning to his mind, and he had anger in his heart that was weakening but helped him return to the living world. If I were to guess, he may have had a loved one who died at the hands of someone else and gained the skills to become a bounty hunter in his previous life to hunt that person down because he had âunforgettable hatredâ, and that had to be at a level where he couldnât let go especially if he had âcruel memoriesâ, and those could probably be that he watched that same loved one get brutally tortured and/or murdered in front of him. As to who the loved one of Boothill could have been, it could have been anyone: his father, his mother, a sister, brother, a best friendâUnfortunately, we do not have the information to determine that for sure, but I truly believe that it could be someone he was very close to that was tortured and/or killed for, again, reasons unknown.
From what we gathered in the leaks and what HoYo has already established, it was the IPC that brought Boothill back with unknown intentions, but to me for this theory, itâs because of his skills as a bounty hunter since he must have been the best hunter wherever he came from. However, Boothill has a new grudge against the IPC as the his reveal information stated that, âHis flamboyant and brash actions were all to draw the attention of the Interastral Peace Corporation â the target of his revenge.â The man is very flamboyant as we can holler back to his Ultimate, his skillâŚthe freaking JoJo posesâ
â(somebody in HoYo is a JoJo fanâIT'S BECOME INCREDIBLY CLEAR NOW) so I can see him causing havoc and being flashy to purposely attract their attention so he can properly get his revenge on them due to them making him into a cyborg which he isnât happy about.
HoweverâŚif I go back to the Light Cone descriptionâŚat the very end, it said that Boothill âwould no longer live for himself.â Sounds a little strange, doesnât it? Here he is greeted by the doctor that saved him, and heâs clenching his new iron fists (literally speaking) because he knows what the IPCâs intentions are. If heâs no longer living for himself, that doctor would most likely have a sadistic tone when he welcomed him back because they experimented on him, testing him and his new body and using him for unspeakable things against his will, and why do I believe this?
Think back to Boothillâs gameplay and the leak of his gunâs range. That could be a reason, and a way I can describe it is by using Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, in the MARVEL franchise. In the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky was believed to be killed during a fall off a hijacked train in WWII in an attack against HYDRA, a sub-Nazi group led by the Red Skull, Steve becoming devastated by his best friendâs death. However, in Captain America: Civil War, it was revealed that Bucky was actually brainwashed, gaining a prosthetic arm (like Luka), and became a Super Soldier under HYDRA as they experimented to revive Dr. Erskineâs research for the original Super Soldier serum. Plus, HYDRA knew of his friendship with Steven Rogers and that Steve was alive but was going to expose S.H.I.E.L.D. for their lies, making him a threat. So, they trained and used Bucky as their line of defense since he was the only successful experiment that remotely compares to Captain America in strength and combat.
Because of Boothillâs skills in gunslinging, the IPC possibly saw this as an opportunity to have an effective line of defense in case something were to happen in their facility or if there was someone they needed to eliminate; they would have Boothill who had those qualifications to be their guard dog, but hearing how Boothill talks in-game for the first time, you could hear a hint of insanity in him as he keeps insisting that he will kill Acheron and Black Swan with lines such as âMy bullets will find youâ, âyou best find a casket store on Penacony, and ask the owner to reserve a good quality casket for youâ, âIâll leave a round for you, so get that forehead clean and wait for meâ, and âAre you askinâ me to write your will?â He wants to kill anybody who hurts him, still having that anger. That must have been how he felt when he was trapped in the IPC facility, going through experiment after experiment that broke him to the point that he couldnât take it anymore as he is still human; he still has emotions and a mind of his own despite being 90% iron and wires.
Boothill knew, from the sound of that doctorâs tone, that he would be seen as their Super Soldier, a little toy they could dispose of if he was deemed useless; he was nothing but a heartless, soulless object to them which most likely broke him. Boothill has calmed down since his possible escape from an IPC facility and killing people in order to have a successful breakout, but he still has that pain inside his heart because of the possible abuse he faced that heâs trying to protect himself from being betrayed or used again which is why heâs so expressive and flamboyant.
He wants to live for himself and show the IPC just how human he was. However, heâs still showing off how strong he is as a warning to others of what he can do to them if they ever crossed him.
Now, I cannot stress enough that this is just a theory (A GAAAAAME THEORY), and I have to take this with a grain of salt because there is still a lot we don't know about Boothill regarding his past or his relationship with the IPC. Heck, a friend of mine and I believe that Boothill may not actually be his real name, but there's no evidence of his real name to even prove that point. This is all speculation, and what I gathered and thought about using any resources I have at my disposal to produce this, so pleaseâfor the love of the QUEEN OF HEARTS HERSELFâdo not take this as actual, confirmed, or leaked information on Boothill's backstory since there are many unanswered questions. For now, I'll stick to what I got until Boothill is finally released!
And hopefully not die on that hill like I did with Al-Haitham...
