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salty-dracon · 5 months

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Honkai Star Rail 2.2 Liveblog

Link to 2.0 Liveblog

Link to 2.1 Liveblog

In which I joke about something funny I want to see in the boss fight, and lo and behold my wishes are granted.

Before we begin, a quick recap of 2.1...

After Aventurine and Black Swan save us, Aventurine entices us to accept his help in dealing with the Family and reveals that his goal is to bring Penacony back to the IPC. Black Swan asks us to be careful of his intentions, as well as of Acheron, who she believes is dangerous (hmm i wonder if this has anything to do with the big gay rondo). She also gives us a playing card which we can use for something. We then contact the Astral Express family to inform them of our safety.

A pair of interlocked flashbacks reveal how Acheron's fight against Sam went, along with her fight against Duke Inferno. Acheron said she knew that her fight was not against Sam, knowing who was under that armor (Firefly), and that there was something deeper at work. Whereas Duke Inferno willingly gave his life to protect those of his children.

After meeting up with Himeko, March, and Welt, we exchange information. We come to the conclusion that Robin's murder was targeted while Firefly's was likely more impulsive. They discuss the goals of the various factions including the fact that there's no evidence that if you die in a dream, you die in real life as well as the tense political situation. We all agree that the Family is hiding something, and decide to officially ally with Aventurine of the IPC in order to get to the bottom of it all.

After the group separates, Acheron meets up with Welt and the two discuss a potential alliance with each other as well as the meeting with Black Swan.

Meanwhile, Aventurine (after a dream about his sad past) decides to follow Sparkle's advice of befriending a "mute", especially after the confirmation that something has been strange about Robin for a while. He and Dr. Ratio follow a summons/hearing to the Dewlight Pavilion, where Sunday is. While trying to recover his Cornerstone (artifact that lets him tap into the power of an Emanator), Sunday uses his Harmony powers to get into Aventurine's head and erode him from within while interrogating him about the danger that the Cornerstones pose. Once the interrogation is done, Sunday informs Aventurine that he has 17 hours to live, and says he'll consider letting Aventurine live longer if he manages to dig up some useful information about Robin's murder. A flashback reveals that Ratio seemingly betrayed Aventurine to Sunday by revealing his plan to smuggle his Cornerstone into Penacony. However (and I don't remember if Ratio was in on it) Ratio double-double-crossed Sunday and actually aided Aventurine's plan to smuggle his Cornerstone into Penacony by making Sunday think he'd already foiled Aventurine's plot to smuggle the Cornerstone in.

Welt and Acheron continue their discussion, bringing up the systemic issues baked into the dreamscape as a result of people hunting down their dreams in a place they will never be realized. Then, they spend a large amount of time discussing HI3rd lore. I don't know anything about that, but it's clear that Welt met an alternate Acheron (Raiden Mei).

Black Swan goes to Acheron's room in the Reverie to find her invitational music box, and wants to use her powers of Rememberance to find out its history. However, she realizes that the memories of the music box have been tampered with (theories say it was the Enigmata) and Constance of the Annihilation Gang (supposedly. enigmata and all) contacts her. A few minutes later, Boothill calls Acheron's phone. Black Swan asks Boothill what Acheron is, and his reply is "an emanator who should not exist"- an emanator of Nihility. The two decide to team up.

Aventurine is in dire straits after a time limit is put on his life. He bids for Sparkle's attention, and Sparkle offers him a "mutually assured destruction" button that will blow up everything.

While hunting for clues about the case (and running into Those IPC Guys From Belobog, Topaz and Aussie 'n' Friend), TB alongside Himeko and March decide to (fuck with Blue Hair's mind and) ask the security officer. After tracking down Gallagher, he takes us back to the Dreamjolt Hostelry, where we meet THE COOLEST HALOVIAN LESBIAN EVER AAAAAA!!!! (at which point i seriously began to suspect gallagher of being the murderer for really stupid reasons). Chatting with Gallagher we learn that the Watchmaker is the enemy of the Family and there is someone out there who has taken up the Watchmaker's name (Misha, the invisible bellboy).

Gallagher takes TB, March, and Himeko to the Clockie Studios Theme Park where he explains that Clockie and his friends in the Clockie animation are based on real life people who fought to free Penacony from the IPC. The Nameless were among the battle. He reveals he's one of the Watchmaker's followers, he's Thirteen (Death, the 13th tarot card), that the traitor is most likely someone in the Oak family, and then leaves.

Welt and Acheron go to Dewlight Pavilion to investigate Sunday on their suspicion of the Family being responsible for at least some of this. They find a list of victims (seemingly random) followed by a letter from Robin where she explains that there might be a traitor in the Family, followed by a letter asking for Sunday to stop misappropriating funds to track down Death, followed by a list of Family members and their physical traits and features (its significance is that Gallagher has copied some part of all of them, and Acheron realizes this). Then, Sunday shows up and explains that the IPC is not responsible for Death. He warns them away from the truth.

On the streets of the Golden Hour, Aventurine is NOT having a good time as visions of his past self and his future self follow him around and recount his horrible past - born to a tribe called Avgin on the desert planet of Sigonia, he was blessed with extraordinary luck from Giathra Triclops. After his mother, father, and older sister ended up dying from a battle with another tribe, he was enslaved and branded. He was later sold to the IPC and has worked for them since. Now, wishing for the grandest death, he begins his preparations.

Welt and Acheron reunite with TB, March, and Himeko. They are lured by Aventurine to go to the Clock Studios Theme Park stage. There, Aventurine harnesses his Cornerstone to gain the power of an Emanator and threatens to fight the Nameless to the death. However, as he unleashes his final attack, Acheron steps forward and with one instantaneous sword slash, kills him.

In a voided space, Acheron and Aventurine have a chat, where she mentions that this entire gamble by the ever-lucky Aventurine was really just to prove that death exists within the Dreamscape, by publicizing his own death in a way no one could ignore. She reveals that her blade has carved the Harmony out of him. A note from Dr. Ratio reminds him that death is not impossible in the dreamscape, but dormancy is. And with Aventurine now supposedly dead (we do not believe he is really dead), he is free from the IPC.

Trailblazer, whose consciousness was also blasted away by Acheron's attack, wakes up deep in the Dreamscape, where they find Sam wanting to talk to them. Sam reveals that he has tried to talk to the Trailblazer a few times already, and then reveals the ultimate truth- that he is Firefly.

Meanwhile, Gallagher walks into Dewlight Pavilion, where he is confronted by Sunday. Sunday reveals that he knows who the killer is, and that Gallagher is a minion of the Enigmata who stole the traits of all of the Family members (oh god is he even real LOL). Sunday demands an answer as to why his sister had to die. Gallagher's answer is "it's fate playing a cruel joke on us", before his weird dog Memory Zone Meme Something Unto Death kills Sunday too.

Theories

uuuuuuuuuuuh i got none this time. sunday threemouths at least once before he hits us with the boss fight. i guess. :3

Actually...

Sunday, Robin, Firefly, and Aventurine aren't dead. As stated before, Something Unto Death captures souls and traps them in a nightmare in its boss fight, which it probably also does to people in the Dreamscape. That's why the bodies of all four are probably comatose in the real world. That being said, the indications that each one will live are different. Firefly survived as Sam in part 1, and we fought him after seeing her death. Aventurine was told by Ratio and Acheron to not die and use his luck to get out. As for Robin, her tether is mostly marketing- it's a lot weaker.

But Sunday will still end up dying. This one's based more on vibes than anything. I know a lot of people want playable Sunday (ooooh me too i like it when the characters in your party are straight up fucking evil) but the fact that in the boss fight against Septimus, he seemingly calls on Xipe the Aeon in phase 3. He also uses Xipe's power for nefarious ends on Aventurine, leading me to believe that he's not going to be able to "survive" that power if he uses it too much. Cocolia seemingly died after using the Stellaron's power as well. In terms of story, it would be pretty poetic for him to die protecting his beloved sister especially since marketing has put so much focus on her and their relationship. But it would still suck to watch Sunday die. I like this weird angel. He's so fucked up and he does the :3 thing.

Penacony will be taken over by the IPC or there will be an attempt to take it over by force. I'm an American and I'm unfortunately well versed in the capitalistic shit that every American ACME does. And nothing screams capitalism and classism like this place based vaguely on Vegas, which Acheron already mentioned is a very capitalistic sort of world. And what's a good match for capitalism? More capitalism of course! We unfortunately can't escape capitalism! (I'm still foaming at the mouth after Microsoft closed down the studio that made one of my favorite games of all time.) Now the question is, will we, the players, still be allowed to traverse it for free after the Charmony Festival ends ingame? And if so, how?

Jade will be an outright terrible person. It would annoy me a lot if they kept trying to make these IPC executives cool and reasonable, when the moral nuance in the game does not match well with their so-called moral nuance in the real world. Luckily Jade seems to sidestep that and she is outright pretty terrible! Oh god can they please keep her terrible. It would be really funny if everyone wanted murderkillers Blade and Gallagher on their teams but not Jade because she's basically Jeff Bezos LMAO. Murder is fine but we draw the line at writing contracts made to screw over the little guy. Based on Jade's leaks, it looks like they're not trying to make her seem less bad either, or give her a personality that's anything other than "oh god here comes the worst parts of capitalism".

We'll learn that Gallagher is behind Something Unto Death close to the middle of the quest. The trailer shows that a) clearly Sunday returns somehow, b) I mean he definitely knows who killed him and why. Plus I doubt that the Trailblazer will go long without knowing what he really is, leading to maybe a rematch against Death? IDK. Either way, this isn't the kind of game that lets secrets stay hidden long for the player, so it'll happen.

------

The Liveblog begins here!

Here we go.

DAN HENG I MISSED YOU SO MUCH- BOOTHILL???

So, uh, remember my theory that someone was going to try to steal the Astral Express? I thought it was the IPC, not a space cowboy trying to do a train robbery.

Listen I know you're out here tangling with our guard (and the person who would probably choose to talk it out instead of screaming and hiding or threatening him) but. yeah no you're uh. learn some manners

MUDDLE-FUDGER

LET POM POM SAY MOTHERFUCKER!!!!

Dan Heng: If you believe I'm an impostor, here's the Jing Yuan Stamp of Approval.

The Jing Yuan Stamp of Approval: *it's just a piece of paper with a chibi Jing Yuan smiling on it that says "the astral express saved us from a stellaron crisis :D"*

Yup, he's after Acheron. We been knew.

Weird, I thought that it was established in canon that there are known emanators of IX. That's how they know that those emanators have plants growing from their bodies. And how there are those emanators who in truth want to befriend IX or help it out of its misery.

not the first creepy talking child we've had in this game. okay it's an adult pepeshi. okay.

Oh, you know what this crowd reminds me of? Remember when everyone was crowded around Misha during 2.0, but no one could see him and to everyone but the Trailblazer it looked like everyone was crowded around Acheron? Yeah.

These language patterns make me think that Sunday is speaking through the Pepeshi. Sort of in the exalted way he talks about Penacony and how the sky watches and how they're telling Acheron to get out.

Ah. "Dreammaster". So, I totally forget- is this person allied with the Watchmaker or against him? I think it's against him. I also forget if the Dreammaster is Sunday.

107,336 members of the Oak Family are now this guy's eyes, ears, and consciousness.

Yup, there it is. Someone is deliberately misusing the power of the Harmony (Sunday it's you LOL)

switching to robin's POV???? HUH?????

Well we're clearly still in the Golden Hour, so I don't think that's Robin! I think that's Sparkle!

you get a bomb! and you get a bomb! and you get a bomb! everybody gets a bomb!

AUSSIE AND FRIEND!!! ... did they change their english voices??? NOOO BUT I LIKED THEIR VOICESSSS

According to Firefly, what she did was... First, she realized that there was another dreamscape. She asked Silver Wolf to help her and the team get there by telling the crew to venture back into Death's domain again. While she intended to lead the group down into the dreamscape, the script foresaw that she would seemingly just die randomly instead of getting the chance to explain what she was doing. In truth, she'd arrived at the Land of the Exiles (probably Dreamflux Reef). She couldn't even explain it as Sam due to the script. But now, thanks to Acheron breaking up the dream, March, Welt, Himeko, and TB can now see it for themselves.

I really thought that Firefly and Trailblazer had spawned in a red car LMAO I was going to be "that's so random" but nope it was a flashback

???????????????????????? BLADE YOU DRIVE??????????????????

So I think the Jepella Brotherhood was from Kafka's trailer, it was a very metropolitan area. I don't fully remember, I actually experience all of the trailers through watching other streams... But yeah they did end up destroying it LOL

Awwwwww. I know Blade does have a personality, but it's really nice to see him outside of his revengeance arc being a kind person to Firefly.

YAY ITS DAD :'D (and there are so many games where the "YAY ITS DAD" is followed by "oh no...... it's dad.......")

ohhhh. oh. So yeah, all of those theories were right. "Death" in Penacony just means you end up here in Dreamflux Reef. ... Does that mean we're going to find Robin and Aventurine somewhere playing cards like every meme said we would? But I guess it was actually more of an intentional misdirection, not something that the Family just sidesteps for the hell of it.

oh no....... it's dad....... (gallagher is here somewhere)

"himeko and march have already made a move- er, stelle, where are you going?" "MOM AND LITTLE SISTERRRRRR IM COMINGGGG"

I swear we're going to find Robin and Aventurine sitting on a pair of crates under a flickering sign, and it'll go like...

Aventurine: I'm going all in. ... Do you have any 8s?

Robin: Go fish.

Aventurine: *draws a card, puts it in his hand of 6, throws it down on the ground to reveal three matches* I win.

TB: What are you two doing?

Robin: We're playing Poker Fish. It's like Go Fish, but we're allowed to hide any matches we have before we put them in the discard pile. The first person to 0 cards wins. I'm not very good at it.

Aventurine: I'm leading her 11-2.

TB: Sounds fun. Now, are you two like, okay?

SAM- Strategic Assault Mech.

dad is sus of other dad :) i like it when games have two dads :) and one is a little more fucked up :)

I could translate all of this graffiti if I wanted to, but I don't.

OHHHH THAT CLOCKIE'S EYES MOVE I DON'T LIKE THAT. REMINDS ME OF EPIC MICKEY OR BENDY AND THE INK MACHINE

misha jumpscare

oh my god he calls something unto death "sleepie" and he rides it from down below to the hotel that's so cute

misha loves gallagher's big weird dog :D

misha: who's a good boy! who's a good little sleebie boy!

memory zone meme something unto death: *SCREECH*

of course mr. yang would know what a black hole is. he literally fights using black holes. there are black holes in his cane

Every time I see a new Halovian I learn more about Halovians. But I still can't figure out how they get their halos. It appears some have wings (Sunday, Robin, their mom) and some don't (Siobhan, Kaimee). They can have halos that don't match Sunday's or Robin's which is something we learned from Kaimee's halo, but the halos are possibly hereditary (Robin's halo is a nonsymmetrical version of her mom's).

RAZALINA?!

Okay, we're accelerating to the end of the world then. That's not good!

Part of our assignment on Penacony was to learn what happened to the old Nameless who came here. I think Welt's a bit sad to learn that though she worked hard for this world and did lots of research on memoria, she ended up dying without leaving much of a legacy to anyone except memoria aficionados.

"why didn't I get to go to heaven" says guy who went to hell

He's dead.

Yeah, that's a good point. This feels a lot like the dreamscape that was originally built all those years ago when Penacony first broke free of the IPC. People here are happily taking care of each other without the flash of the world above.

Someone was saying "oh boy autism mention in a hyv game, i remember the tears of themis incident" and... oh boy there's gonna be discourse about this line isn't there. (For reference, ToT is largely a game about uncovering a conspiracy behind a pharmaceutical company, and at one point two characters talk about curing autism, or when it's brought up that a character might be autistic, they make it Actually Not The Case, which, uh, yeah I think it's definitely a reflection of the writers' views on autism.) I do think this line is a little bit fucked, but I think this convo is about slow starts in general since in the same breath they mention two war orphans which alludes to trauma. And in the end they never say their disabilities are cured, but rather that the dream has helped them learn to deal with it. Which in my experience is really the best way to handle autism and trauma- to just learn to live with it.

Oh yeah, and Robin's there too. Good to see you, Robin!

Interesting. So, she actually intentionally let herself get skewered by Something Unto Death so she could visit the Land of the Exiles. And she outwardly admits that the resonance of the harmony is clearer here than it was in Golden Hour.

Fun fact about me: I've hated idols in everything ever. I just don't like them! For some reason they always piss me off, or lean into traits that make me particularly angry. I think the only two games with idols I didn't completely despise were Caligula 2 (the idols are allowed to have personalities outside of being idols) and one of the games I'm currently playing, Buried Stars (it's partially a murder mystery game where several idols die horribly and there's plenty of discussion on how shitty the industry is, though honestly the plot beats lean heavily towards "tropes I hate" towards the end). I was sort of afraid I'd hate Robin, and the fact is I kind of do. Maybe it's because everything about her feels a bit cliche to me. She's the unflappable perfect idol who does everything perfectly, who can never be her "true self" but that's never discussed further in depth. Which is literally every other idol ever. Still, it's nice to see an idol that tangles with darkness willingly, going up against her own family to do so.

Robin's seen the truth and decided that the Charmony Festival doesn't stand for Harmony anymore. And she won't step on their stage! Good for her!

borb.

(stand back! i'm beginning to borb!)

that is not a "kind voice", that sounds like the goddamn dreammaster

fun fact about pigeons: pigeons are ugly as shit when they're born. they look like human babies with bird skeletons covered in yellow hair.

interesting, so robin and sunday are the two best at hearing the "great one's" will. that's probably xipe.

fucking dope, conceptually, that you can stand in front of a guy, stab him, take him to another plane of existence, and still be standing in front of him.

wh- COOPERATE? SENSE OF JUSTICE??? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? Like, is the traitor someone else that's not Gallagher or Sunday? Is that what they're getting at here?

LOL THATS NOT ROBIN THATS FIREFLY

i already know gallagher has been the source of some truly fucking funny memes but i can't wait for people to draw him doing the "is this a pigeon?" pose but it's "is this a robin?" and pointing to a firefly.

i really thought they were gonna hit me with a puzzle

I love Micah staring up at the sky like. basically every time some hardened general is remembering something

razalina and tiernan, one a scientist and one a fighter, both died in the war for independence. ... I wonder if Tiernan has any connection to Firefly with both being wiped out by the storm, and Sam being a "glamoth cavalry unit".

the angel siblings are back together yayyyyy :D

He's behind everything? The invitations, the battle for the Watchmaker's Legacy (who knows if it's real at this point, and what does Misha have to do with it) and all the trouble?

It always comes back to the Stellaron. Of course it does.

Oof, information overload.

To summarize, when the Stellaron first entered the system, the Watchmaker's rivals sought to use its power to further refine the Dreamscape. After the three Nameless disappeared, that's exactly what they did. The Family representative that came to help the Watchmaker managed to seal it. But not completely. In truth, the Dreamscape uses the allure of grandeur and pleasure, partially exacerbated by the Watchmaker's invitation, to slowly feed on people's souls and spirits to maintain itself and the dream. That's why the people who come here are eventually taken in by the artificial pleasure, and eventually end up coming out different than when they came in... or never leave at all. But now the Family has grown too powerful, and won't let this fact be known. Gallagher himself used the Enigmata and created Something Unto Death, aka Dormancy, aka Sleepie, to take people to the truth.

And the siblings have taken our side too! (but not for long, probably). They want the Stellaron sealed too.

Yup, the Mr. Gopher Wood, aka Kind Voice, is the Dreammaster.

*bass boosted* BUT NOT FOR LONG, PROBABLY

kill you pretty angel kill

NOT THE JUJUTSU KAISEN REFERENCE- AND THE UNTITLED GOOSE GAME MEME

... I forgot about the chip. I forgot about Aventurine's fucking chip. Oh my god, he's been planning to sic the IPC on us from the start that BITCH

welt if you DIE. like i JOKED about in the 2.0 liveblog

my biggest fear when going up to the watchmaker was the fear that he would be an NPC model. nope, he's a well-modeled old man and ARE WE STEALING HIS HAT?!

nothing....

back to dan heng...

YOU BOYS ARE SO BAD AT LYING. I LOVE YOU IDIOTS. YOU ARE SO BAD AT LYING.

WELL ILL BE FORKED

we knew boothill was smart, but at least he's smart and good at working with other people.

"it's called standing up for your rights" he's so fucking american. an american king.

i love how dan heng can handle a genki girl and a feral raccoon wearing human skin, but he can't handle a cyborg cowboy superhero big shot. who is also like 4 inches taller than him

ROCKET... FUEL?

If I had a nickel for every time a character drank straight rocket fuel, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but I guess we're never getting that RWBY Seasons 1+2 remaster now.

I realize that the Memokeeper can influence memory and has no physical form and that's how she managed to leave that note for Boothill, but it's funny to imagine she managed to stealth mission behind the bartender while listening to Boothill talk about hostage taking.

Oh right!! Acheron was exiled, and we hadn't seen Black Swan all quest. Looks like she saved Acheron on her own. Despite the big gay dance.

Acheron wants to jump out of the Asdana star system and go save the Astral Express crew. Plus, she needs the help of a Galaxy Ranger to go do something important- "to return his relics to their rightful owner".

yo this CG imagery is CRAZY! black liquid pouring out of that black hole, and all of the branches that look like hands reaching up to touch it, amid the sea and the rain...

put da angel in da confessional. make him listen to the sins of others.

reminds me of how in persona 5, you could just. take your friends to the confessional to bond with them. including a certain character who hasn't done anything to hurt you.... YET.

da pretty angel in da confessional

if you put my angel ocs in confessionals, grey would actually try to play the part of the clergyman as a conduit to god like sunday is doing here. oliver would be on the other side confessing he manipulated a boy into hating his father and loving him instead... and also killed a lot of people, shocking the clergyman on the other side. lyra would know what a confessional is but all of the sins he would confess would have to do with his past life when he was a child laborer. does leander count? idk but he'd take it seriously.

YOU CAN SELL CHILDREN INTO SLAVERY IN PENACONY?!?!?!

who the fuck bought him out

I don't know too much about Catholicism (confessionals are a Catholic thing, right?) but like, yeah. chatting with priests was basically the early, accepted form of therapy for many Catholics. Now that we're working on destigmatizing mental health, things have gotten a lot better.

I was kind of hoping he wouldn't be a "good intentions" sort of guy, but I think he does agree that if the dreamscape were really built on the foundations of the strong defending the weak, it doesn't explain all of the suffering people have undergone here in Penacony.

Oh. Ohhhh. The "Harmonious Choir". Those are those monsters from the trailers that look like cages, candles, and lanterns.

So, I don't remember if I mentioned but like, yeah, I live in a big American city that is often regarded as the place where "anyone can make it". I know that this illusion is unraveling among the public, but truly, you can't just come here with three dollars in your pocket and a dream. There are many homeless here. Everyone is suffering in their own way. I'm living a "dream life" myself, and I rent is still more than 5/6ths of my expenditures every month. So I guess these bits about Penacony not really being as perfect as it is on the outside hits harder with me. I love it here, but because of my illness I haven't had the chance to experience the city yet. When it happens, I'll be sure to enjoy it before I leave for greener pastures.

oh he's twisting. HE'S TWISTING. HES TURNING EVIL. KILL PRETTY ANGEL KILL

they're DISAGREEING!!!

his voice went up an octave when they started wandering around. i seriously think he's gonna snap and try to defend the dream at all costs now.

HE'S THREEMOUTHING. I REPEAT SUNDAY IS THREEMOUTHING. HE'S GONNA GO EVIL AAAAA

... wait. the mention of the raven (that's Sunday, I thought) and the mention of the sweet tooth... is that not Sunday? Or was Sunday overtaken by the Dreammaster?

Also could just be my ears, but is Robin's voice becoming more distorted again?

and i guess the trailblazer team figured out what Mikhail's last wish was. Which is.... a musty old hat!

To expose the Stellaron, we must get close to it, and the Family won't let us in so easily now that we know they're enemies.... you know what that means! HEIST MOVIE!

I'm so excited to see the Moment of Scorchsand! I love festive atmospheres!

"I'll have to add to that data bank of yours"- you're an Enigmata guy, so make sure you don't FUCK with my data bank.

"Hi, I'm March 7th, an ordinary girl who loves adventures!" "... Hi, I'm Firefly! ... also an ordinary girl who also loves adventures!" Wonderful, now I have two girlfriends who are way too alike. Is this a harem anime?

NOT THE JUJUTSU KAISEN REFERENCE- AGAIN!!!

Wait a minute, that Pepeshi talking about Beauty, and a man with red hair who cleared instantly.... ARGENTI.

FRIEND! where's aussie.

SWEET GORILLA WHO'S BEEN FORCED TO PLAY A MONSTER-

the fake product placements are funny as shit

The NPCs really put their everything into doing these voices. Seriously, major shoutout to everyone from 2.1. And also shoutout to this Guide.

Firefly sounds so fucking DONE. I love her. Like actually fucking DONE. Let her cook- with the blaze of her flying fire kick.

firefly loves explosives. good to know.

argenti jumpscare.

argenti mid boss jumpscare good lord this man is tough

hi sunday.

oh. fuck.

yes mr. yang, hit him with the hard questions. does he really serve the harmony?

oh. fuck.

yup. there it is. the true traitor to the family was sunday. and the one he serves isn't xipe the harmony, it's ena the order long since thought absorbed by xipe.

he's evil as fuck but i can't take him seriously with his fucking threemouth. it's hilarious. i mean like i can because that is an evil ass threemouth. but it's hilarious

RESURRECT A GOD YOU PRETTY ANGEL RESURRECT A GOD

wasn't there an event about making hard decisions like this? eh. whatever. it was a while ago

ROBIN ALMOST FUCKING DIED?!-

It's pretty obvious with Sunday that he is very strongly motivated by the love he has for his sister, and while that's not entirely why he became the way he is, it's certainly one big reason. Unfortunately, he's been forced to shoulder the weight of a lot of unfairness, and he thinks that the Harmony isn't the way out.

of course the guy named "sunday" loves his long weekends

Like what do I think of his philosophy? I think that this is why we built a strong social safety net and stop putting drugs in the dream juice!!! You're in fucking capitalism! That's why you're like this!!!

Misha was the true recipient of the dream bubble that the Watchmaker handed down? I didn't expect that, but I guess it makes sense since we believe that Misha was Mikhail's grandfather.

we're back where firefloof got fucking skishkebobed....

and there's the confirmation that mikhail is misha's grandfather.

???? but.... mikhail was a nameless. why are they saying he's a seafarer?

It's cool how this place seemed so creepy and fucked up when we first wandered through it. Now that we're following Misha through it, it seems less hostile. Plus, we have a purpose for that random "safe room"- it was important to Misha.

So, the Mikhail Legwork, founder of the Dreamscape, and the Watchmaker, was not a former Astral Express crewman. He was actually just a seafarer who met them. He went on a voyage, but never came back. But he told Mikhail to await the sound of a train, and to follow them on their grand adventure.

Ohhhh. Ohhhhh, that didn't even hit me! Mr. Yang could see Clockie, but no one else even conversed with him! That means that Clockie is only visible to Misha and the Nameless. *soft gasp* we can make clockie attack sunday. he LITERALLY won't see it coming.

four stars be like, the literal key to the plot. hello, mikhail char legwork, the watchmaker himself, whose grandparents lived on that oceanic planet.

i love how this slide show looks so much like posters of old east european films from the 1910s and 1920s, particularly german film since i did study that for a semester.

wait.

wait. MISHA. DON'T DIE. DON'T DIE RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. YOU'RE LITERALLY A KID. YOU'RE ALSO CENTURIES OLD BUT YOU'RE LITERALLY A KID

behold. THE UNIVERSE'S MOST POWERFUL HAT.

hell yes. time to stop the jokes and bust out the hype.

The story thus far has made it clear- the Watchmaker's dream is to free Penacony from the Stellaron's sweet poison, not use it to create a new world where people continue to drink it.

And there it is- Xipe's gaze. Yup, guess what happened the last time the Trailblazer had the gaze of an Aeon. That's right, the main villain fucking died. (Geez, I hope not. They're turning Sunday into Cocolia 2.0.)

he is NOT happy about Xipe glancing at us either LOL

oh he's just. gonna walk away. okay

i was joking before about how the Harmony Trailblazer better not have a splash art that shows all of the Penacony characters working together like the Preservation Trailblazer, because literally everyone in this game was at each others' throats. It was leaked a month ago and I was curious so I took a peek LOL. Luckily this one doesn't, it just has all of their pictures on a stage.

LET TRAILBLAZER SAY "FUCKED AROUND AND FOUND OUT". They are going overboard with the memes this time it's crazy.

Hmm. I'm not sure what to make of Firefly's statements. She'll suffer three "deaths". The first was when she was killed by the meme. The second will be now, if she's to battle Sunday and lose. And the third, which she wants to prevent by running away for the moment, is the plunging of all of Penacony into the throes of the Order.

I love how Firefly's transformation is so magical girl esque. Even though she turns into a big mecha.

Wait, don't tell me FIREFLY will choose to die here. But nooooo. But we had such a great time being yuri together. Nooooooo. I thought you were getting along with March too. Nooooooooooo.

A lot of people were wondering "what exactly is Gallagher, and is he even real?" The answer is, now, I guess he may not be real. He was real once, calling upon the power of Enigmata, but his power will soon cause him to fade away.

Acheron and this guy she's wandering with are like. They're the kind of thing people make whole animes about, but in those animes, there is no old man and Acheron, just two cute headpat-ifiable girls. There actually was an anime like that, but I forget its name. On Neocities there's this one person who does anime reviews, and they had a big rant about how Frieren? I think? was coomer bait solely for men who had a headpat fetish or something. Honestly? Wack. Wait, what were we talking about?

... Dan Heng it's been like a month. I know you love us but like, calling on the entire cavalry of one of the most powerful factions in the universe to take care of this dream system is like. I think that's a bit overkill. We also have the IPC to deal with. Jesus fucking christ dude be careful.

Sunday is going to die. Horribly. Protecting his sister. Because of course he is.

that candle monster has jiggle physics.

i love it when bible symbolism

keep trashing him march, i'm sure it pisses him off

i love it when video games have UI that ties into the psychological horror of it all. Like STAB from Omori or that scene from an Itch game where there's an unclickable option that says "TELL HIM WHAT YOU SAW" in bright red after you had visions of your friend being disemboweled.

oh i don't like how it jerks around too when you try to change it, that's fucked. i love it!

I think one thing I will say is that the pacing of this act is not great. I won't say it needed more time in the oven, I think the problem is that they tried to tie in way too many plot threads into this one story, and resolving them all sort of killed the pacing. I also don't think too many flashbacks are a good thing in stories. After a while you get sick of them. This one isn't as bad as another story I've read, but it teeters on the edge. Like, having one less character with one less plot thread could have improved this pacing significantly.

the church choir. oh boy.

bro.... you're not doing okay.... like I'm eating this up because I love evil angels that seek to control and manipulate and kill others..... but sunday you are NOT okay...

he actually wants to be the orchestrator of everyone here. alongside the dreammaster. oh boy.

HES T POSING. THIS IS ABOUT TO GET... oh. regular monsters.

... or a multi target boss fight.

GOOD LORD. HES HUGE.

So a lot of people have pointed out the little things next to the boss. I think that there's a theory that they're meant to look like Sunday and Robin's plushies from when they were children, but to me they also look like sea angels, which you've probably seen before- cute little slugs that look like, well, sea angels. It's appropriate IMO considering that the Halovians are obviously based on angels and that the Dreamscape has the ocean as a theme both linguistically and visually.

... Man, I sort of wish Dan Heng weren't currently calling on the Xianzhou. Can you imagine a scene where the Astral Express crashes straight into the boss, and you here three terrified voices screaming and one "YEEHAW" as they ram straight into an angel? Before Boothill walks out with the biggest fudgin' smile on his face, and Dan Heng looks like he just went through the second biggest traumatic moment of his life?

... Honestly, they rammed a DRAGON straight into the boss instead. That's like 50% as funny. Though FR I was really wishing we'd get to beat up that angel and defeat him Persona style.

DAN HENG YOU SAVED US THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU BUDDYYYY

... Acheron is gone, and with her, all of our memories of her. Sigh.

Hello Jing Yuan! Thanks for the save (totally forgot he was an Emanator). And the Astral Express family is now all back together again!

... Yeesh. Time for politics. So, Sunday's alive. He's just been treated as a traitor. The IPC is putting him on trial after the Family abandoned him (no news on Gopher Wood, who really pushed him to do all of this). Robin is going to have to deal with her beloved brother under arrest for trying to hit an entire planet with the mind control beam. Hopefully the Xianzhou can mediate a discussion between the IPC and the Family, but I don't see that going well. I think the IPC is going to try to take over the whole thing.

AVENTURINE YOU LIVED!!! Well, we knew that. But... Geez, he's back with the IPC after how badly they treated him? Poor guy.

... See, in real life this would never happen. A fucking lotus eater machine? Do you see how much money Disney World makes? Do you know how hard they've worked to circumvent labor laws? Do you know the story behind EPCOT? Any corporation would jump at the chance to take over Penacony.

Thinking more on my OC Grey, who's actually very, very similar to Sunday (a literal angel, very sweet kind and professional, knows the Bible front to back, lowkey manipulative, absolutely adores his sister over all else, has power over dreams and illusions which he can use to control people including making them fall into an endless slumber where they feel no pain, hates all suffering, is absolutely capable of killing someone) I think that if Amazon ever put him on trial, he'd just dream power his way out of everything.

So it looks like, a) The IPC will relinquish its hold and interest in Penacony completely. and b) Both the Intelligentsia Guild and the IPC will assist in the rebuilding of Penacony since it kinda got wrecked and Sunday was also twisting things. That seems, as stated before, WAY too good to be true.

We're leaving already? That's way too fast! That's way way way too fast! What's going on here?!

???? BOOTHILL AND BLACK SWAN ARE TRAVELING WITH US NOW???? Something is wrong here. Something is weird.

Hmm. Where to go next... ?

Lushaka, an oceanic planet, where Mikhail was born. Melustanin, an "alluring" planet that was the site of a past Stellaron disaster. "Edo Star", which is embroiled in a war against the Antimatter Legion, where we have heard distress calls from. And "The Glass Belt Patrevia", a belt of asteroids that houses an acting troupe.

Melustanin it is.

... the end of this was really nothing more than a deus ex machina- oh, wait, you meant the whole thing. yeah, that's a funny pun.

... Wait. WAIT. Is Black Swan saying, when "only you personally experienced the entire thing"... Is she saying what I think she's saying? That the Trailblazer did actually experience the POVs of everyone else? I thought it was a joke at the end of 2.1 , but it wasn't?!

HUH??? WDYM ??? AS MARCH HUH? HUH?????

... What. What the hell. I'm so confused. So, the thing is, we never actually defeated Sunday, it was supposedly Jing Yuan and DHIL. And then everything ended happily ever after, but this isn't that kind of story. But Black Swan knows the truth.

... Oh no. It's Firefly. She's dead. ...

Wait. WAIT. ARE WE SAYING THAT EVERYTHING- EVERYTHING FROM WHEN WE FIRST GOT SCHLORPED INTO THE ASDANA BUBBLE TO NOW, WHEN WE'RE LEAVING- WAS THAT ALL A DREAM?!

... Or everything we experienced was real, but Ena's order suffused with the Stellaron and the memoria resulted in a dream that somehow became real?

Okay. Okay I'm detangling this. Everything was real, but we were in a dream blended with reality when it happened. However, the dream of Sunday's defeat was a false truth. Currently, everyone in Penacony has become a puppet of the Order under Sunday, who yet lives and is continuing to control us all. That means there WAS another phase! I was like, oh yeah there was that animation where Septimus/Dominicus/whateverus touches Xipe's, or actually Ena's hand.

Time to use the power of Harmony or Clockwork to make everyone determined enough to wake up!

DAN HENG STOP JUMPING RIGHT TO THE JADE ABACUS OF ALLYING OATH-

Like, it's really funny actually. We thought Dan Heng was the sensible one, but his response to everything now is literally just "I will call in the army of an entire fucking nation". And everyone just shouts at him, "NO!"

Finally, FINALLY, every faction on Penacony (most of them) are now working together to save all of the people trapped in here! Boothill will rally Galaxy Rangers from across the Universe, while Robin will use the infiltrated Dreamscape and infuse it with the spirit of the Trailblaze, prompting everyone to wake up and seek new adventure. Hopefully this could save Sunday too.

WHAT. WHAT??? oh my god. there was one of the three Penaconians who died in a war on a distant world. That man Acheron was talking to the whole time. That was Tiernan. That's her connection to Penacony and why she went there. To fulfill his dying wish.

... the questions from the beginning... and this time, the trailblazer has their own, definite answers. they would feel no fear at severing these bonds with their allies. they would never wish to live in a dream. and should everything, absolutely everything, end in nihility, no matter where the journey goes, would you still embark on this journey? we would blaze a trail without hesitation.

Raiden Bosenmori Mei.

HELL YEAH! WE GOT MOM! DAD! SISTER! BROTHER! AND ME! IT'S TIME FOR A FAMILY SIZED ASS KICKING!

.... NO WAY THEY ACTUALLY HIT SEPTIMUS WITH A TRAIN AHAHAHAHAHAHA. THANKS ROBIN YOU'RE THE BEST

Random but I think it's really cool how they change the shader for Harmony TB's ult.

It's also so cool how all of the Trailblazers have different quotes for using the Trailblaze/Harmony fusion temp ultimate on Septimus.

I like that answer. Why do we choose to slumber? Because we will wake up from our dreams.

Oh. He's dead. Sunday is so dead.

Yup... he's dead.

Still question marks for March. Who is she?

... Yup he's so fucking dead. Wasn't in the "In loving memory" section, but he must be dead.

Yup! And now it's time for realistic capitalism!

OH. OH!!! That's why Argenti was here- Argenti saved Aventurine from Dreamflux Reef!

... And that's what I expected to happen, for the IPC to move into Penacony and start "harvesting". And give Aventurine a nice thumbs-up.

kill it king.

Oswaldo Schneider... I do recall the name, Aventurine brought him up during the Topaz quest and said he "won't be laughing now".

And that's the end.

---

Final thoughts.

I think overall this was the weakest out of the three Penacony main quest segments, mostly due to pacing issues. I did really like the story, I think its wrap up section was incredible, and I had a lot of fun learning about Sunday the same way we learned about Aventurine. In terms of plot, I think there are some bits that could have been communicated better, but that's what the wiki and the data bank are for. I think the ultimate resolution was fantastic, while the leadup was as I said before too much of a slowburn that tried to combine too much stuff all at once.

Most of the good writing in this segment went to Sunday and Robin TBH. The other characters had their time to shine in previous patches, and Boothill will get his time to really shine next patch combined with his appearances here. Those are my thoughts, anyway.

Animations went hard, though nothing could top Acheron cutting up the literal sky in 2.1. That scene where the Trailblazer refutes Sunday's argument and Robin saves him was wonderful. As were some of the smaller details like the Odes before Sunday's first fight and getting literal music notes dropped on your head by cute sea angels. And of course, mad props to whoever did those amazingly complicated animations of the Trailblazer and Clockie for the Harmony TB ultimate.

There are still some unanswered questions...

What do Sparkle's buttons do? Release confetti? Probably.

What exactly is the IPC going to do to Penacony? My guess is take it over Capitalism style, even though the Family is the only group of people skilled enough to manipulate the Dreamscape. Thanks Jade, hate you girl!

Seriously, is Sunday dead? The cutscene said no, Robin managed to break him out of the Embryo of Philosophy. But like, are they okay?

Are we going to get any explanation for how Gallagher, referred to as a "character", and Mikhail who is a memory zone meme, are actually able to leave Penacony and find themselves on the Express?

Also, is Misha dead? Like... is he dead? That conversation with Clockie made it sound like he was about to die.

I realized that for the characters in the credits, the names that weren't "x AS x" and were "y AS x" instead, those y's were usually the real names of the characters involved, like kakavasha as aventurine and raiden bosenmori mei as acheron. so obviously march 7th isn't march's real name, it's a name she chose for herself (though it doesn't make it any less real imo.) the question marks make me think that she will be the focus of the next arc. It's not a universal rule though, as sparkle as sparkle is still a thing.

Is the Express still going to Melustanin? I'd imagine not, since that entire segment was a dream, right? Or thinking more on it, we had a nice arc for TB and Dan Heng, so March is next. Your turn to get stabbed, sweetheart!

I realize there's a legitimate plot reason for not having Dan Heng accompanying the Astral Express to Penacony, but would it hurt to watch the guy enjoy himself a bit like TB and March were? Watching the three of them getting to act like siblings or BFFs is one of the biggest reasons I love this game. Anyway, I hope we get it on the next planet. You're coming with us to, uh, Planet Alluring Post Apocalypse, buddy.

The next patch should be around six weeks from now, so around mid to late June. While Penacony's fate WRT the IPC will definitely be a hot topic during that patch, I'm curious to see what else they have in store.

#liveblog #honkai star rail #hsr 2.2 spoilers #<- this should be obvious

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