#its raiden mei

[121231212i]

Star rail & Honkai Impact 3rd | Do you get Deja Vu?

[raven-sng]

'You were the song stuck in my head Every song that I've ever loved'

[raidenenthusiast]

obligatory post before acheron's release

obviously, it's established that acheron is a variant of raiden mei. her real name is not actually acheron (confirmed through the livestream, but...come on, we all already knew that). specifically, there's loads of similarities in her design to the herrscher of thunder above all else

similar hair structure, hair part, n hairpiece (n obviously the color, too),

sword structure, patterns, n nearly identical handles,

one "red" arm,

the bust/halter,

and of course, the color scheme as shown in acheron's "emanator" form, n the horns shown in the livestream

with all that in mind, i imagine acheron is a variant of mei who failed to save the person closest to her (her kiana, to simplify it), n/or watched them die, or even killed them herself. it's shown during her dance with black swan that there was obviously someone important to her in her past, conflict arose in a setting much like the one featured in the livestream, n there's even imagery of her walking alone with only the moon in the sky to keep her company

kiana has been associated with the moon n moon imagery since the flyme2themoon days; her origin was quite literally a game about blasting off to the moon

this teaser resembles thunders over nagazora to me, as well as mei watching kiana's end in honkai gakuen

there's also the fact that the type of emanator acheron is, an emanator of nihility, is classified as a self-annihilator; those who have felt the pull of nihility n been unable to escape drowning in it. self-annihilator's take the meaning of nihility to heart, so much so that it erodes their bodies n memories

acheron has been confirmed as the self-annihilator type in her character introduction posted recently. what really strikes me about this line is the phrasing of "existence is nothing"

sounds familiar, doesn't it?

mei is characterized by the tragedies in her life, n how they impact her. growing up isolated, a kidnapping at a young age, bullying at school, suicidal tendencies, n the constant reminder that the girl she loves more than anything in the world will always put the overall well being of humanity over herself

to me, acheron is a mei shaped by loss. the mei we remember from hi3 had the chance to grow n change; to learn from her mistakes, n to fight for a better world, bc she had the support of her friends n her most important person. acheron doesn't seem to have that level of support from anyone, at least not anyone still in her life currently

which brings me to my next point. she HAD a "kiana," but ultimately lost her. n this is the result

acheron is incredibly powerful, but her power seems incredibly volatile. she carries this innate sadness with her wherever she goes, n the very path she walks n the very aeon she became an avatar of strips life of all meaning, all the beauty from the world

it's a far cry from the mei we know, bc clearly, there was a very pivotal change in her development that i can only attribute to the loss of her world's "kiana"

[minxinq]

so… that new 7th anni art

[boycaca]

I think its somewhat telling that the gnosis was placed inside the shouki no kami rather than scara containing it in his chest the same way that venti did with his gnosis. I get that its probably more so because scara needed a much grander body for his god form and the electro gnosis just so happened to be at the centre of it… but i cant help but think of it as the games way of telling us that he truly is not fit to contain the gnosis, even in peak form when all his powers are unleashed, he still needs to build a whole new body as the gnosis’ vessel, that the so called “heart” he thought was rightfully his would not actually make him satisfied or fulfilled, as it seems to be the embodiment of all of scara’s obsessions

[cloud-ya]

the scar I gave you

[magicalgirlsirin]

it was rly funny when welt was trying to tell acheron how great kevin was and how it was thanks to him humanity survived. acheron responded no he died alone and it was other people who did that

Oh g-d actually I'm so esited because I get to powerlevel further

So like, the thing is that if you only have context with hi3 (summaries or otherwise), you're actually missing out on which version of Mei that Acheron is based on.

It's not hi3 Mei, it's ggz* Mei.

*Specifically before they rebooted ggz canon like 5 separate times to try and beat it into submission to align with hi3 canon more which I still don't agree with but that's not the point of this post.

And like, yes Acheron's trailer is functionally a hi3 recap, but in terms of emotion and meaning it's way closer to her ggz counterpart and what finality means there.

In hi3, the reveal is that finality is "time". In ggz, the reveal is that finality is the "end". In hi3, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya band together to overcome finality, which ultimately allows humanity more time to exist. In ggz, it's revealed that the future doesn't, will not, and has never once existed. Every action taken will always be preserved in the past, and the present is just a repeat of all those actions right back up to meeting finality.

In ggz, Kiana becomes finality, and kills Mei and Bronya.

In hi3, Kiana becomes finality, and overcomes the end with Mei and Bronya.

In hsr, Kevin becomes finality, but is defeated by Mei alone.

Because she hasn't actually overcome finality, Mei probably realized how futile her efforts were. Finality in hsr is Terminus, the aeon who is eternally moving backwards from the end that THEY have already witnessed... Similar to ggz's concepts about finality as the end.

(As a sidebar, Welt Yang didn't exist in ggz, it was just Welt Joyce who is wayyyy less noble as an AE leader.)

So like... neither Welt nor Acheron are wrong in their conversation. Kevin was a hero, but he was also the culmination of humanity's greatest threat. Acheron could not reach the other side, and she lost everything she cared about sacrificing her comforts to try and delay their ends just a little bit longer. She can't even doubt herself or even think to be stronger next time, because she knows she's the strongest (and loneliest) that she'll ever be. There is no next time, so there is no point in doing better.

That is the path of Nihility, succumbing to the pointlessness of existence. And there is no Kiana there to tell her to fight for all that's beautiful in the world, because she's forgotten how to see.

edit: to be clear, when I say that acheron is "based on" ggz mei, it's in regards to her relationship with finality, in case it wasn't clear enough from my post okay thanks bye

[anominous-user]

triple threat end card but with the honkai inpact trio. and also bald TT.

[evelynpr]

Acheswan dance right after Arlecchino drip marketing???

Hoyoverse gotta have some mercy on the sapphics right now. Please check on your sapphic friends if they are well

[e17omm]

I saw this be modded... And Hoyo really just needs to give Mei her horns. She looks too damn good.

[akatsukiky]

rip my heart out why dont you

[oathofkaslana]

sixth anniversary chibi wallpapers

[raven-sng]

Lament of the fallen

[hitokiri-izou]

a rotten crescent moon is laughing

[minxinq]

reversal

[the-roadtrip-system]

the system: *introjects a tall woman with long purple hair, purple eyes, a large sword and the power of lightning from a hoyoverse game*

the three scaramouches: