#kevin didn't really have a crashout moment he just started making do with the losses as he went on and never stopped

[guujikaroko]

Let's talk about Phainon, shall we? Specifically about how interesting of a character he is down to the littlest details, especially for those of us who accompanied Kevin Kaslana's story in Honkai Impact 3rd.

If you don't really now anything about HI3d, let me explain: Phainon is (at least regarding initial impressions) supposed to be based off the earlier period of Kevin's life, before all the tragedy. But observing him closely, he's already different in very curious ways.

See, Kevin was just a normal student up until a certain point, when he joined MOTH (the organization that fought against the Honkai in the past). In fact, he was still pretty much the same right up until he underwent a surgery in order to get his ice powers. A normal bright-eyed boy everywhere you looked.

But Phainon... Has never really been "bright-eyed" in his life? You might think he was during his earlier life in Aedes Elysiae, but he was already very down-to-earth as a child, at least to me. It's a little strange how he seemed to never entertain Cyrene's opinions about fate and heroism and all that. Actually, it seems Phainon only began giving thought to idealism when he joined the Flame-Chase Journey.

Also, Phainon already seems so... "Perfect", in a way? Kevin didn't become the Deliverer in a day. He had to claw his way up to becoming the strongest (reference intended), and that was further emphasized by paralleling him with Elysia, who was born extraordinary but was eventually surpassed in strength by Kevin.

Phainon wasn't exactly born strong either, but his attitude about it is so... Confident? Kevin was pretty humble about his strength in the beginning, and even when he became all cold and stoic he mostly touted his strength as fact or just straight up saw himself as a weapon against Honkai and nothing more. In contrast, Phainon is relatively cocky about it, even in his beginnings. Like he always knew he's supposed to be that strong, even before actually attaining that power.

Continuing about the differences in behavior, Phainon is so much more aggressive than Kevin. The latter is all about cold unfeeling logic, so you never really see any sign of aggression in him, but the former? Nikador proved more than once how susceptible Phainon is to bloodlust, it's kinda wild. While Kevin barely lets his emotions manifest in the first place, it looks like Phainon can't quite help surrendering to them—the negative ones, that is. That last moment in 3.3 with Phainon resigning himself to the tragedy of his mission and vowing to save the world despite it was extremely Kevin-coded, though.

All that preface is to paint you a picture of the man who's calling himself Phainon right now. A weary, anxious, skeptical, relatively belligerent, somewhat proud but still inwardly unconfident who chose to believe in a prophecy of salvation and is giving his all to be part of it.

Now, now, here's the catch: the "nice Phainon" we see isn't a facade, though. In fact, I'd say it would be pretty reductive to call it a facade. That's nothing more and nothing less than Phainon's genuine effort to become someone better, someone more worthy of being called a Deliverer. Therefore, it's already a true facet of "Phainon".

Kevin's character is pretty linear: a man who gradually shed himself of idealism, sharpening himself into a cold, unfeeling blade to be used against the Honkai. Meanwhile, Phainon gradually attained idealism instead, but hasn't fully changed from who he was before, and now is constantly juggling those aspects around. I wonder just where will he go like that.