flightnight

[flightnight]

Oh, never mind, the "can only play the trial fight on manual" seems to be the thing they used for Phainon only. All the others seem to be playable on auto lol

It's kind of ridiculous how little faith they had in that character. I mean, he's op enough for all the meta players to be forced to get him, but also you are forced to play his trial to pay attention, and they also combined his banner with their first crossover event and with a popular franchise, and again kind of forced all the people who wanted that free LC to spend a ton of tickets on his banner.

Why not make all trial fights for new characters playable on auto? I just want my 20 gems.

Being forced to see crazy numbers on all these new meta characters I'll skip anyways just makes me sad about the power creep in this game. And seeing these numbers dwarfed by the very next special girl or guy makes me less likely to pull for anybody at all because what's the point? With this attitude I'll just be saving indefinitely lol.

And since we basically dropped any pretense that decent numbers are possible with 4-star characters on the team (you rarely see a 4-star in a trial fight anymore), why not allow us to use our own team together with the featured character in these trials? To try and realistically integrate them into our existing teams? (we know why, because the numbers get much less impressive when you try to use anybody other than their specially dedicated support characters)

I mean, yeah, this guy I don't have sure works great with these 3 other guys I don't have. But I'm not interested because I'd need about 500 pulls to get all of them, plus about as much for their LCs, and maybe some eidolons to hopefully safeguard them against becoming irrelevant the very next update.

[flightnight]

There seems to be some kind of earth-themed Dan Heng now.

I thought every Xianzhou ship has its own element-themed unique Vidyadhara High Elder, and I've been lowkey looking forward to seeing them. Are they all going to be Dan Hengs now? (I'm sure a lot of people would be excited to get them all to have a full collection.)

For me it kind of ensures that we'll at least never see Mons Grandis of the Xianzhou Yuque, described as the successor of the Terrestrial Dragon, because they are kind of redundant as a character now.

[flightnight]

Why not make all trial fights for new characters playable on auto? I just want my 20 gems.

Being forced to see crazy numbers on all these new meta characters I'll skip anyways just makes me sad about the power creep in this game. And seeing these numbers dwarfed by the very next special girl or guy makes me less likely to pull for anybody at all because what's the point? With this attitude I'll just be saving indefinitely lol.

And since we basically dropped any pretense that decent numbers are possible with 4-star characters on the team (you rarely see a 4-star in a trial fight anymore), why not allow us to use our own team together with the featured character in these trials? To try and realistically integrate them into our existing teams? (we know why, because the numbers get much less impressive when you try to use anybody other than their specially dedicated support characters)

I mean, yeah, this guy I don't have sure works great with these 3 other guys I don't have. But I'm not interested because I'd need about 500 pulls to get all of them, plus about as much for their LCs, and maybe some eidolons to hopefully safeguard them against becoming irrelevant the very next update.

[flightnight]

I've heard a lot of Genshin nations have been winning today.

Also Neuvillette got stabbed. A decisive victory for a very niche nation, I'm sure

[flightnight]

So far, Amphoreus has been more glitchy than all the other planets combined.

Which isn't a good sign for the game.

But what if it's intentional? If Amphoreus is a simulation, then there are bound to be bugs. And the Divergent Universe is the buggiest part, being a simulation inside a simulation.

(don't mind Blade the Black here. He's just chilling. Made me restart the fight though)

[flightnight]

(meanwhile I have about 100 standard wishes saved already since Moze's release, waiting for the next one.)

[flightnight]

Jack: I love both my sons equally.

Also Jack: btw Lycaon, hold this spawn of evil's leash tight and strangle him with it when the time comes.

(but don't take lives)

[flightnight]

Is it me, or has the end-game content been rather easy lately? (even though I'm rather clueless about how to build characters or properly use them)

I wouldn't say it's trivial, but it doesn't take me an embarrassing number of attempts as it used to. I dread the moment when the new meta kicks in and things become too hard again.

Erudition units continue to reign supreme.

All the end-game modes' special conditions have been pandering to them for months with very rare exceptions.

For some reason, Rappa's team did much better in the second half, where most enemies have no imaginary or fire weaknesses. I appreciate the versatility. But I've been using her in all endgame modes regardless of the weakness types since her release, so no surprises here.

(my JY, Robin, Sunday, and Aventurine team, on the other hand, did terribly. My poor guy JY had been powercreeped TWICE already. That's not what he meant when he said that he wanted to retire)

Btw, I think Mydei is all about losing health? Kind of like Blade? Does it mean new supports for the hp loss mechanics? Is there a chance for some old characters like Blade to ever get reanimated and become viable again? I doubt it, but yeah that's not what he meant when he said he wanted to die either.

They are kind of similar, being immortal against their wills. Blade had the misfortune of being released early in the game though. I wonder what the difference is between them in terms of DMG numbers. Probably several times. It's kind of sad.

[flightnight]

Will Mydei die? Is Trianne going to stay dead?

Considering the HSR's writers complete inability to kill both playable characters as well as important NPCs, with Trianne they were able to thread the needle. She's not playable (Tribbie is) but not just an NPC either (other characters and players don't see her as a distinct and independent entity).

So they were able to turn her death into a decent and quite emotional story beat.

That's why I hope that they'll finally allow a meaningful death to stay. And not ruin it retroactively by bringing her back to life or retconning it altogether through some weird Amphoreus shenanigans (see below).

Remember when they "killed" Tingyun? How excited the fandom was! HSR is so much more mature than Genshin! Nobody is safe! Playable characters can die!

Robin and Firefly "dying" arguably also worked for some because by that time we didn't know that Tingyun would return (not for me though because you don't kill a playable character before they even release, and we've been told that you can't die in Dreamscape). But since then we've gotten like 10 more fake deaths! Some characters managed to "die" twice, for god's sake.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me ten times is bad writing.

What's worse, HSR seems unable to even kill NPCs. A character death is a powerful writing instrument.

Killing off a likeable character having meaningful relationships with others is a great way to show how serious the situation is.

Genshin is surprisingly good at it. Remember Navia's henchmen Silver and Melus, or Chasca's sister Chuychu? Or Atea. Or even Il Capitano (although they'll probably revive him later).

But in HSR, mega-powerful Flame Reaver could only kill a weak, dying child (she wasn't even killed by him strictly speaking, she sacrificed herself). Anaxa got killed and immediately revived. They couldn't even kill Krateros! Come on, it's a war, let main characters experience more personal loss!

And the second question - will Phainon kill Mydei? (let's forget that he fake-killed him once already, which cheapens the second time anyway). I don't believe for a second that they'll kill a 5-star character and let them stay dead.

But the comically convenient "that's the only way to kill me, and you are the only one who knows that" should play a role, right?

I think it'll have something to do with that Flame Reaver.

Theory time: he'll "kill" Mydei, striking him in his weak spot and thus revealing that he's Phainon. Our Phainon will travel back in time to become Flame Reaver, perpetuating a time loop (there is probably a loop, right? there is a reason Amphoreus looks like an eternity symbol). And it'll be our job to break the loop, which will probably undo all the deaths.

[flightnight]

What are the main ideas about the nature of Amphoreus in general? I've heard theories about how it actually might have perished long ago and what we see is just a memory.

But it can also be a simulation, with Black Tide looking like a visualization of corrupted data.

But can it be both? A simulation based on somebody's imperfect memory? It would make sense considering that two of the three paths on Amphoreus are probably Remembrance and Erudition. This might be why Nous stopped their calculations of the future - they were busy running a simulation of a whole world.

And when you don't have enough original data to base your simulation on, you'd probably support and supplement it with some real-life data too. That would explain some weird things.

Like being able to understand the language of Okhema, but not Castrum Kremnos (because the memory didn't include that language). Their technology being compatible with ours. How Aglaea and Tribby look like they aesthetically belong in this world, but all the other playable characters look like they arrived from a generic gacha-fantasy game (because their appearance is simulated). And why we can travel to the past as if it's just another normal location.

The limitation of a simulation would also explain some of the similarities between the titans and aeons. Zagreus is basically Aha (you can even hear them laugh sometimes). Kephale bleeds gold for like Nanook. Cerces looks similar to Yaoshi. Aquila's name sounds similar to Akivili (although their views on traveling to the stars seem to be opposite). Tribbie aging backwards as a result of Janus' blessing reminds me of Terminus, who travels backwards in time.

But also, some of the Chrysos Heirs weirdly reminded me of Stellaron Hunters. They are a group of people who are after certain powerful objects.

One of them is the special one, a Deliverer, if you will. One who can't die (Blade and Mydei), one who lost their emotions (Aglaea and Kafka, who lost the ability to feel fear), and Tribios, spending their souls' energy moving to inevitable death, remind me of Firefly.

My only problem with that is that it's a bit hard to crush a railroad car into a memory or a simulation.

[flightnight]

So Phainon is kind of implied to have something to do with "Flame Reaver", right? Probably some kind of evil(?) alternative version of him.

Because, first, he had been hyped up as the chosen one of the chosen ones, the specialest boy, basically the main character of this whole arc (there is even an option to tell him that all the Chrysos Heirs are doing it all for him personally). But he hasn't done much yet. He did some generic adventuring with us and failed a trial.

Second, his motivation is kind of generic so far. Every refugee who came to Ochema has lost their home and friends. One of the main characters needs a more unique connection to the main conflict than that.

Third, the spiky circles that are used as patterns both on his and Flame Reaver's models. I would expect visual similarities to mean something in this game at least once. Plus, his distorted voice and dramatic reveal of him wearing a mask indicate that it's somebody we know already. And the names of his attacks and skills are all about grief and loss. And that he's still called "nameless swordmaster".

Or they might pull a Sam and reveal a woman inside. Maybe an old friend, who hasn't actually die.

My third theory is it's Tribios in a trenchcoat.

[flightnight]

My ZZZ really loves her. I'm 2 pulls away from my 300 character choice and I'm very tempted to C6 her (even though I still don't have Lycaon or Nekomata.)

This never happened to me in another hoyo game, even though I've been playing them for much longer.

Can I have her weapon next, please?

[flightnight]

Robin and the suffocating horror of being loved by Sunday.

If there is a person Sunday owes a direct, open, personal, verbal apology to, it's Robin.

Let's face it. He deliberately hurt her in one of the worst ways possible. The way only the person she truly loved could. If there is anything Sunday has been shown to be really good at, it's striking people where it hurts the most, causing the maximum amount of pain. (case in point - if there is a second person Sunday should apologize to, it's Aventurine).

They both knew that the whole "a weak bird should be kept in a cage" metaphor is about her. They knew each other's opposing views on this question (strictly speaking, it boils down to 'should Robin be allowed to be free by her brother'. And if that's a disagreement you have with somebody in your life, run.) Sunday knows that her freedom is one of the most important things in Robin's life. She traveled around the universe, she visited war zones, she saw real life, she's extremely strong (and the idea of her brother seeing her as too weak should be so soul-crushing to her), she survived her injury and became stronger through it. She knew that her freedom might cost her her voice or even her life, and she still chose it. She's all about freedom. She sings about freedom. Even her splash art is her breaking out of a golden cage.

And knowing all of it, he still chose to take her freedom away. Because no matter what she did, she was still too weak in his eyes.

There are some points that are ironic but also make it so much worse:

1. The perfect dream he gave her was about how they nurtured the wounded bird to health so that it could return to the sky. He knew how much she wanted to be free. He knew what he was doing (I presume that all the other people's dreams were created automatically, but I'm sure he was personally involved in creating Robin's dream).

So he knew that most of all she wanted her brother to allow her to be free. And instead of doing it, he captured her and gave her an illusion of that.

2. She was the first who woke up. She knew that him allowing her to be free was impossible.

Imagine living with the knowledge that your brother respecting your autonomy and allowing you your freedom is impossible.

"Robin: I woke up for the same reason as all of you. In the dream, I experienced something that could never occur in reality…" "Robin: …The illusion was so impossibly blissful that I realized it was just a dream."

She literally realized that she can't be happy with Sunday around. She was happy in her dream. That's why she woke up. How horrifying is that?

3. She was the most important person for him to keep in the "cage". And yet she was the first who woke up. Was he about to change the "perfect dream" for her if he were to capture her again, to make it more realistic? So that she didn't escape again? Changing it to him not letting the bird free but keeping it locked up forever? Thus turning her supposed perfect dream into his perfect dream? Making the scenario doubly nightmarish?

4. Despite all of this, she was still prepared to sacrifice anything for his freedom. Unfortunately, the writers don't allow her to be a person around him. Her role is to smile and be agreeable, so she isn't allowed to say or even think anything about this biggest betrayal in her life.

And of course we can't inconvenience Sunday by the realization of what he's done to his beloved sister. No apology, no thank you. But it's a topic for another post.

5. And now he gets to enjoy what Robin yearned for - freedom. You can't be more free in the world of HSR than on board the Express. As Welt said, "Freedom is the only answer the Nameless can offer. I'm glad that Penacony needs it."

By the way, I've heard that Robin gave Jade the info that helped her wrestle Penacony back under the IPC's control in exchange for Sunday.

So his freedom basically cost Penacony its freedom.

But we can't have him realize that. Remember, no inconvenience. We don't want character development to result from that or something.

Meanwhile, Robin is more than ever roped into the Penacony business . She can't drop everything and leave these children in Dreamflux Reef and all the people relying on her. But that's the consequence that comes with being kind, compassionate, and helpful. It can cost you your freedom in a way.

---

But he loves her, right? He did it all out of love, for her safety! She should be grateful (that's called gaslighting, by the way). Let's not talk about the horrifying things an older relative who has absolute power over the person can do to them, justifying it with "love". It hits too close to home for too many people.

Unfortunately, the best example of how he still loves her I've heard is about how he's a fan of her songs (has he ever realized that he nearly cost her her voice?) That's cute, I guess? But she's an interstellar superstar; she has millions of fans, she doesn't need another one, she needs a brother who respects her basic human rights at the very least.

In a way it makes the "bird in a cage" metaphor even worse: "I don't care what you want. I like your voice. You nearly lost it due to your injury, so I'll keep you locked down forever." By the way, she nearly lost her voice from him messing with Order and Harmony. Did he expect that she'll be able to sing for him when imprisoned in Ena's dream?

And he was probably not even her only fan who dreamt of locking her up forever in safety and comfort because he "loved" her. Think about it.

[flightnight]

I like Aglaea.

I don't mind her strong reaction to us nearly ruining the secret of the world beyond the sky (presuming that she actually believes that trying to reach beyond the sky would end in death).

But I don't understand the other thing, when she threatened us to strengthen our trust and friendship with Phainon and Castorice, to help us in Castrum Kremnos. Was it needed at all?

Didn't we become good friends the moment we met?

I feel like there are a couple of bits missing from that part of the story for what Aglaea did to make sense.

Imagine if we nearly died from not trusting Phainon and Castorice enough. Aglaea witnessed it (maybe saved us) and realized that it's a problem. She did her thing with threatening us, forcing Phainon and Castorice to stand with us, proving that we are friends. And then in Castrum Kremnos something happens that tests our newly acquired friendship.

But as things are, nothing would change if she didn't threaten us at all. Or am I missing something?

[flightnight]

A crack theory: we are still in the perfect dream, based on 2.7.

(It's some kind of Sunday-centered dream.)

1. His whole return arc seemed to me as saccharine and unsatisfying as the first Dream we witnessed (when Jing Yuan and Dan Heng saved the day together and then everybody became friends). Everything went too perfectly for Sunday.

So how has his journey of seeing real life been going so far?

He was always in a good mood, perfectly comfortable, and nearly always in control of the situation, exactly as he used to. He was never challenged or inconvenienced in a meaningful way that was out of his control.

He didn't return to the unsightly Dreamflux Reef, free from the Family's control, he returned to the happy and familiar Golden Hour.

There was a convenient Robin for him to talk at.

There were convenient Tingyuns in need of a savior with exactly his set of skills, allowing him to play a hero.

Even the seemingly out-of-control occurrences lead to positive outcomes for him. He split in two to have somebody to have a nice chat with and indulge in some light, unchallenging soul searching.

He conveniently bumped into Welt, who was able to see through his disguise, only for Welt to offer him a lift.

Which of course results in him boarding the Astral Express (because the whole crew was conveniently on Penacony too), surrounded by his new good friends who are some of the most interesting and powerful people in the universe, on their way to their next exciting and fulfilling adventure.

Because that's the best way to see real life—in the most convenient, safe and luxurious way possible.

Turns out we even had a convenient piano for him to play!

2. Let's look at the normal antagonist to playable character pipeline in HRS:

They do a bad thing;

They get defeated by us in a boss fight;

They openly admit that they were wrong and unambiguously indicate that they also realize why they were wrong;

They decide to stop doing the bad thing.

Sunday is currently hanging out between steps 2 and 3. Just saying.

[flightnight]

I need help understanding Sunday.

I feel that there's a rift between how the game expects me to see him and how I actually see him. Would anybody be so kind as to help me clarify these two points?

1. What did he ever say or do that would indicate that he realizes that he ever did something wrong? Bonus points for addressing his core harmful misconception that led him to become a villain to begin with.

2. Which of his actions do you consider admirable?

Explanation of why exactly I have problems with these points below the cut:

1. His whole thing during the Penacony arc was that, in his opinion, people shouldn't be trusted to live their miserable lives by themself; they'll only hurt themself. Everybody (including Robin) is too weak, and he's the only one who's strong. So they should be forever imprisoned in the perfect boring dream their benevolent lord and savior Sunday created for them. From what I understand, he was going to start with Penacony and then imprison the whole universe under his absolute control. Okay, great, typical "morally grey" villain motivation, very well explained, no problem here.

Most of the characters, as well as, hopefully, the player, understand that it's the wrong thing to do. Nice motive, still evil.

My question is: what are the things he said or did since we defeated him that indicate that he's changed? Does he ever admit or imply that he did anything wrong? That human lives are precious no matter how miserable and flawed they are in his opinion? and how valuable freedom is? How strong can people be?

Because so far I only see the opposite: instead of indicating that he was wrong, he doubled down. He literally told us that he's going to do some research and try again.

I don't know, maybe I blinked and missed him getting in a situation where he has to confront his misconceptions.

I had very low expectations. I expected "I might have done something bad, but I might be persuaded to forgive myself," or "it wasn't me, it was my evil past self," or "it was somebody else's fault," or "I might have tried to take over the world, but look, I helped a grandma cross the road, so that's okay now.". All of these would be bad. And we kind of get a tiny bit of all of these, but only as vague vibes.

I saw people saying that he helped Tingyun for free, and it shows that he's changed. Are people implying that he was so morally repugnant that he wouldn't have helped somebody for free before? Even I don't think so. Is basic human decency an achievement for him now?

His problem wasn't that he didn't care about fixing other people's lives. It was exactly the opposite!

That's exactly the kind of thing he shouldn't be doing as a show of how much he changed.

A moment of growth for him would be if he realized that another person is strong enough to solve their problems by themselves, without his involvement.

Let's look at other antagonists turned playable characters.

Bronya's main motivation is to save her people. Her misconception—she has faith in her mother. She faces the fact that her mother isn't the person she came to love and respect.

Topaz's main motivation is to help Jarilo-VI survive. Her misconception—she thinks that being owned by the IPC is the only way for them to survive. She faces the fact that the people of Jarilo-VI are strong enough to survive by themselves.

Sunday's main motivation is to save people from suffering. His misconception—it's only possible if he imprisons them in a dream controlled by him. Does he ever face the realization that he was wrong? I don't care how many Tingyuns he helped, his problem wasn't that he was unwilling to help people. IT WAS KIND OF THE OPPOSITE!!!

And later on, when he kind of helps us, it does nothing to address his core misconception, the thing his whole personality is built around.

He's not a generic bad guy who can redeem himself by becoming a generic good guy! You can't write a complex character and then completely neuter him in his supposed "redemption arc!"

2. What did he do that's worth admiring?

And I think DH's "about Sunday" line indicates how we are supposed to see his return:

"Whether he can achieve his dream or not, being able to let go of everything and start again is already admirable enough."

(btw I'd like to remind you that his dream was to imprison the whole universe. And he wasn't "able" to bravely let go of everything. He was forced to. By being defeated by us. Hello!!!)

What did Sunday even do? Nearly turned Penacony back into a prison again. Got hit by a train. Lost a boss fight (as a boss). Got saved by Robin. Got what he deserved and what he tried to do to others—imprisonment. Threw a hissy fit, got immediately saved by Robin again, and was freed by Jade. Got accidentally split in two. Told Robin to touch the grass. Graciously allowed us to give him a lift.

DH, which of those do you find admirable???? How bravely did he overcome being a villain?

What would we expect a lesser, not so "admirable" person to do in his place? And he hardly even had any agency in most of these events.

Let's look at other characters again. Firefly apologized for lying to us. Topaz and Bronya admitted that they were wrong and backed off. They made a conscious decision to stop what they were doing after realizing they were wrong. They weren't forced to stop by just being defeated in a boss fight and imprisoned. That's admirable. What did Sunday do that's admirable?

And what about Welt's "about Sunday":

"Having an ideal and pursuing it is not rare, but being able to start anew after that ideal is shattered—this kind of willpower will carry him far."

Gramps, the last time we had to hit him with a train several times to stop his willpower from "carrying him far", wdym?

And I'm sure the game's writers are planning to give him more to do later, maybe dragging him through some long overdue character development (I mean, why else are we carrying this piece of cardboard they turned him into with us to Amphoreus?) Because 15 hours of monologue during Pencaony, plus 5 more hours during his triumphant return, clearly wasn't enough. All these new upcoming characters will move over to give Sunday 10 more hours of pretentious monologue.

But on the brighter side, things like this make me appreciate the previous instances of bad writing. At least Firefly apologized. At least Topaz admitted that she was wrong.

And there is one thing that tells me that I'm not the only one having problems with this. It's the fact that in most dialogues there are options to be mean and distrustful of him.

[flightnight]

I wasn't able to get all stars on the new Pure Fiction, so I had to urgently pull for The Herta a day before the next banner. But it was definitely worth it. (idk, maybe waiting for a day and getting Aglaea would be better, but I wouldn't even have a LC for her. I've been losing all my 50-50s lately so I'm broke)

And the first half used my Rappa team, who I've been using in all the endgame content since her release. I feel that she's extremely underappreciated by the players in general. She did good despite none of the buffs benefiting her in this PF (she uses enhanced normal attacks and BE.)

I tried using my Remembrance MC for my new Herta team, as recommended, but I had to switch them to Robin. They are supposed to be a support/sub DPS character I think but they don't seem nearly as good as my Harmony 5 stars. I haven't found a use for them yet. Maybe they'll be more useful when more remembrance characters release. Maybe there will be a character who buffs (or benefits from) several summons at once, unlike Sunday who only buffs one.

Speaking of which. Sunny, I have enough problems with you writing-wise; please don't get immediately powercrept by Tribbie or something in addition to that.