hazarambling

[hazarambling]

its 2024 we need to put some respect on baiheng's name

please quickly before any analysis look at my lovely wife i really like her my wife is soft and i like her... look at her she's so pretty WAHH ok analysis time

ok so i was reading the wiki a few days ago and i saw this:

and oh my GOD it pissed me off BECAUSE SHE FOLLOWS THE HUNT!! SHE FOLLOWS THE HUNT!! SHE FOLLOWS!! THE!! HUNT!! like is this not common knowledge?? its almost certainly the driving force to her central conflict as a character, whether to remain with the xianzhou and risk her life for the hunt or to abandon it and become a nameless

like in those bits we see that she, like her parents, was a nameless, but also that she had great luck and used that luck to help the xianzhou in combat, and also she joined the hcq and the hcq were all labeled as outcasts, so maybe her long absences from the yaoqing/the orbit fleets drove a divide between her and her duty to the xianzhou because she just wanted to trailblaze, and this divide between her allegiance to the hunt and the trailblaze is what made her an outcast

also that line from blade always sticks out to me because baiheng is depicted as the one to bring wine to the hcq

so baiheng is bringing them (and consistently, jingliu, but we can assume since nobody else is mentioned to bring wine to them that baiheng is bringing wine to all of the hcq) wine which they used to "drown [their] sorrows"... i wonder who introduced that habit to them, considering she also introduced wine to them... but regardless this isnt directly stated in cannon so i wont focus on it

ok tldr

like just from the fact she fought with the xianzhou (and chose to return even after she'd go trailblazing) shows that she follows the hunt, i dont understand why her lore path is listed as just the trailblaze when its so clearly the main conflict of her character that she follows both the trailblaze and the hunt

ok enough yapping next point

SHE IS LITERALLY ONLY APPRECIATED INSIDE OF 1 SHIP. (LIUBAI) BUT SHE EXISTS AS HER OWN CHARACTER!!! but nooo instead we must have arguments about her because she "ruined the lore" no she didnt, the lore is fully coherent! ofc we dont have all the details but who cares! dan feng and yingxing tried to revive her thats all we need to know in regards to parts of the hcq's lore that had widespread consequences!! im whipping out my passerby analysis im sorry if the image is very small but tldr the beloved FRIEND cant be any other than baiheng its 2024 we need to stop arguing about passerby ok fellas

like im so sick of people only bringing her up in relation to ships, i am like one of like 5 other people who actually like baiheng for being baiheng and not just inside of a ship. baiheng is super cool!!! and so integral to the hcq story!! and also she's really pretty!! and we should talk about her more and appreciate her more!!

also i hate the thought that yingxing making the flask for her and "finally" making up his mind to give it to her has to imply something romantic, she was his beloved FRIEND and even those small words of encouragement she gave him on the zhuming gave him some confidence and optimism. them being friends and these words affecting yx (bearing in mind baiheng seems to be one of the first people to give yx encouragement, because he "seems to have a brighter expression on his face" after baiheng talks to him, why would he react like that if he was praised often) so deeply show how important they are to each other.

and also his choice to do the sedition with df can also be way more impactful because baiheng changed yingxing's life so much for the better, and now he cant stand the idea of her not being around and was grieving so much that he agreed to commit a major crime with dan feng just for a chance of bringing her back

ok now let's wrap this all up and put a bow on it (baiheng would look so cute with a bow in her hair omg)

the fact the WIKI cant even get this right when its so obvious baiheng followed the hunt is just crazy to me and people really need to appreciate baiheng as baiheng!! yes liubai is an amazing ship but she exists outside of it and her platonic relationships with ALL of the hcq are so important! people need to appreciate the hcq as a platonic family-esque quintet and also recognize the individual characters and dig into them all!! ok boom, take the hcq again i love them i hope we get stuff about them in 2.4 i really miss them

[hazarambling]

Ok that Stonehearts trailer is making me think more about the IPC and I need to yap

The thing that struck me the most while i was watching it was this sequence of events where the resources bleeding out from the colonized planets was the thing that healed the cornerstone, but then opal says that "we will follow the preservation to the end"

this violent colonization (look at boothill's planet) inherently goes against everything the preservation stands for, so why are the stonehearts even able to call themselves followers of the preservation, much less draw power from it like the cornerstones themselves?

it could be linked to the IPC voracity theory but i dont like that theory so i won't go too in depth on it. it makes sense, but it's a bit boring tbh.

instead, let's get bogged down in semantics and interpretations of what 'preservation' can be seen as

because i think that's more interesting and can explain why the ipc follows the preservation and why qlipoth is fine with the ipc using their power.

the word preservation means "maintaining something in it's original state", "retaining a state of affairs", "maintaining a quality of something", "keeping something safe from harm or injury" and those are just 4 contexts where the meaning of the world is a bit different.

as we know, people can follow a path but not agree with all of it's ideals (lan was born to destroy the abundance, yet galaxy rangers, who don't care about the hunt-abundance feud, exist and can draw power from the path of the hunt). and since we know there are so many interpretations of the WORD preservation, it makes me wonder if the stonehearts do care about 'preservation', but fix it to suit their own need.

i think the clearest example of these extraordinary interpretations of preservation come with obsidian.

(notice how the stones of the more scheming, bloodthirsty stonehearts are right next to diamond (opal and obsidian), while amber (who "prefers to remain neutral") and topaz (who is seen as the least controversial) are much further away?)

obsidian's interpretation of preservation

aside from being another gorgeous dangerous lady voiced by the wonderful Erin Yvette (yay!!), obisidan is clearly a bit loopy. BUT, she draws power from the preservation (she has a cornerstone, and is a high rank in the ipc, p46, only being under diamond, a confirmed emanator, at p47.) so how does she interpret "preservation" to exist as such a contradictory state to the safety that qlipoth wants to provide?

i think her form of preservation is the preservation of the selfish part of humanity and the preservation of human indulgence.

firstly, we can see from her luxurious home, with everything enlaid with obsidian and covered in blood, shows the materialistic and violent side of obsidian's selfishness. she's here when making a decision about aventurine's fate, and her only comment about it is that SHE would "like everything to become more of a bloodbath". she doesn't care about him individually, she just cares about manipulating the status quo to suit herself - which she can easily achieve in the selfish and greedy ipc.

obsidian, as a stoneheart, being a famous person within the ipc, and an important ipc representative in the cosmos, can also serve as a personification for the cruellest parts of the ipc - the colonization, the violence. its important to recognize that obsidian is pretty, but that's just meant to MAKE us like her, so we ignore the wrongdoings of the ipc.

this wish of her's to maintain the status quo and only manipulate it when it suits her also links her to opal, who seems eager to rush off and get more power from diamond in the upcoming war among the aeons. opal seems to be selfish and manipulative too. i imagine they're quite the devilish pair when they want something.

i also think obsidian has something to do with life, considering the pomegranates (which represent life) we see next to her bath of blood, and also that obsidian blades were used in the distant past, and that obsidian is formed by volcanos (something destructive that also keeps life in check. the aftermath of volcanic eruptions is death, but also fertile lands).

considering these links to life (pomegranates), death (her love for bloodbaths and watching prey suffer), and pleasure (her extravagant home and preference to indulge in her violent hobbies), it seems that her view of preservation is one that encourages the preservation of the self indulgent, selfish side of humanity.

i think her having so many links to life, death and pleasure can also link to the ipc's motto "all for the amber lord" - everything, life, death and pleasure are all the domain of qlipoth and can be manipulated as much as anyone likes, as long as it suits the ipc and therefore qlipoth.

her viewpoint is that things should remain as they are, and that humanity should remain selfish and self-indulgent (which obsidian relates to, she has her obsidian bath of blood and her wine in her goblet, she wants to relish in the thrill of the hunt of her prey).

(of course, i'm going off of 2 pieces of symbolism, but stick with me. i wonder if any of this will turn out to be right? also HOORAY ERIN YVETTE VOICING SOMEONE IN HSR!!!)

[hazarambling]

FeiQiu inverting gender stereotypes and also their complementary motifs and stuff is rotting my brain (this will mention leaks)

Ok feixiao isn't even out yet but a) feiqiu are rotting my brain and b) we have SOME info about feixiao so i just need to yell into the void

they have matching colors ok hear me out there's a deeper meaning to this

so jiaoqiu has the whole red theme with the fire, and then we got leaks of feixiao's appearance and i might be going just a little bit insane because the colors compliment each other so perfectly but like THE BLUE COMPLIMENTS THE RED SO PERFECTLY and also pink/red being associated with femininity and blue/black being associated with masculinity... and also feixiao having more power as the general, jiaoqiu being HER alchemist, HER counsellor, he doesn't have power over her in any meaningful way

and also i need to scream about how HE IS LITERALLY HER CHEF. he cooks for HER. like it's a complete flip of gender stereotypes and i ADORE IT because it gives such a refreshing dynamic to explore, where feixiao is so obviously the dominant one even though she's a woman AND OH IT'S DELECTABLE. and also HE came back to alchemy for HER.

and now moving onto a deeper analysis of the gender stuff in relation to their characterization:

jiaoqiu is more emotional and "feminine" and feixiao is more emotionless and "masculine" (ofc this is a surface level analysis of all of this but im applying this to the content we have for feiqiu and how it adds to their characterization)

i feel like jiaoqiu's lc describes this the best, it shows how emotional he is about the whole process of war but also how he's somewhat forced to become numb from it, but everything still takes an emotional toll on him. but overall it shows how emotional of a person he is and that it does affect him a lot

(sorry if the image isnt very clear)

and also the mention of him withdrawing 'from practicing medicine due to a broken heart' such an emotionally driven action could also link back to gender stereotypes where men aren't allowed to express their emotions but women are (even if they're shunned for it) and instead jiaoqiu is the one being ""overly emotional"" by leaving alchemy BECAUSE of his broken heart.

and also adding to this, maybe feixiao is colder or less emotional (which makes sense because she's a military general and an emanator of the hunt, it makes sense that she's numb to the emotional side of war. and also she could be half borisin ("spoke different languages") and was enslaved by the borisin ("they won't chase you anymore", so she was chased/enslaved by them in the past) so she's especially used to war and violence)

also feixiao is the one saying to the previous general that SHE wants the borisin dead, and even the previous general feels bad and omits that part of the verdant knights recruitment and training thing, she doesn't want feixiao to feel like she was born for war and that her destiny is to die for war.

so tldr jiaoqiu is more stereotypically feminine and feixiao is more stereotypically masculine - and of course they don't have to follow stereotypes just to mean they are or aren't that certain thing, i just think it's interesting

and one thing that fascinates me about their dynamic is how they're such opposites in terms of like, EVERYTHING.

he's a chef (away from the violence), she's an arbiter-general (surrounded by violence). he hates war, she rushes off to war. and his whole anti-war thing is so interesting because HE CHOSE TO RETURN TO ALCHEMY FOR AN ARBITER-GENERAL. like as you can see by his lc (and my analysis of it) like this man does not enjoy ANYTHING about war, but he comes back for someone whose whole role and position and even EXISTANCE relies on the fight against the hunt, and revenge against the borisin?

also they could have matching earrings/earrings in the same ear/their colors already match how about their accessories too and if i think about them for too long i start going insane. ALSO NOTICE HOW HIS EARRING IS ONE OF HIS ONLY ACCESSORIES THAT ISN'T RED OR PINK??? hmm?!

anyway as you can tell by the length of this thing i really really love feiqiu and i cant wait for them to come out so i can analyze them even more

[hazarambling]

reposting this here because im gonna use this acc where i post my analysis stuff hehe

i cant stop thinking about pardo so i'm going to ramble about her

OK THIS CONTAINS HI3 SPOILERS AND I KNOW SOME OF MY FRIENDS HAVEN'T PLAYED YET SO BE CAREFUL

The way the only USEFUL thing she could do for ANYONE was to die... and in chap31 her monologue...

"Flying to the Moon to battle the Final Herrscher? That's way out of my league! Besides... I'm the best at running away! There's no way I could have died there! That's right... the real me must be alive, I know she's basking in the sun somewhere..."

'But why did her feet, which should be taking her to safety... take her back to that path?'

'She ultimately made the same decision, even when she had no way to convince herself.'

LIKE AAAAAAA like I think pardo is such a good demonstration of the cruelty of honkai, herrschers and the PE because she was literally just having a fun time with the cats of sundown alley but ended up becoming a mantis and having to learn about the cruelty of honkai. (and i think her recollection about sakura's death makes this hit the hardest:

"Here… SAKURA. This is the snack I promised to find for you. You don't know how hard it was to find… No one can make 'sakura mochi' anymore···" [...]

"…SAKURA. My heart is still broken…"

All kinds of possibilities linger in her mind. The endless "what ifs" make her speechless.

"This really... this really feels worse than death." )

and her being so innocent and likeable in the elysian realm and just a silly character in general makes the cruelty and bravery of her sacrifices (both in the real world and in the elysian realm) stand out more. it wouldnt be as impactful if it was someone like kosma (and honestly he deserves his own analysis too) because he had always sort of willingly dedicated himself to the cause, but pardo was basically an ordinary person who ended up making one decision (by accidentally becoming a mantis) that defined her life and was asked to shoulder horrible sacrifices. :(

but i also think it's such an amazing part of her character that she CHOSE to go to the moon, KNOWING there was basically no way she'd come back, because she felt a sense of duty because she was a flame-chaser (even if she was the weakest). it really highlights both pardo's bravery, and that even the bravest and kindest people were still annihilated by honkai so cruelly in the PE (elysia and eden are good examples of this too).

considering the flame-chasers seem like they're meant to be a microcosm of the PE, and that we go so in depth into their stories to make us grow very emotionally attached to them, and i think that's why pardo hits so hard as a character - because she's just a NORMAL person, her recollections are literally just called "MORTAL'S MEMORY"; and then you expand that view out to look at kevin before and after he became a mantis, before and after su became a mantis... they were all NORMAL people.

i think that's also why the revelation of the samsara hit so hard because we know that the PE wasn't the only time people have died fruitlessly trying to stop honkai, the PE wasn't the only occasion in which the earth was destroyed by honkai and had to start again, people like pardo have lived and made their sacrifices maybe countless times before, and it's all ended so awfully until the CE.

that revelation is what made me love the moon arc so much because FINALLY, humans have found a way to counter the honkai, to quell it and make the earth safe again, and it was only possible through the sacrifice of the flame-chasers, especially pardo and elysia. (and the moon arc is also such a good testament to kevin's trauma but that deserves it's own analysis.)

i dont tend to be a fan of happy endings, but the hi3 cast (especially kiana) went through SO much that it feels so lovely to finally see things work out, and especially because of the efforts of the flame-chasers (and in this image from graduation trip, the way elysia has turned to look at the trio... she's watching what she and the others helped to make flourish...)

tldr because this ended up being so long PARDO IS SO BRAVE AND I LOVE HER