#Masked fools

[shortchoco]

Its now basically confirmed Sampo is from planet Kalevala according to the new textmap leaks for his upcoming event :)

Ok I think our theories of him being forged by SOMEONE or some aeon is slowly becoming true BUT the question is who?

It could be the HSR alternate of Illumiren that crafted sampo or even the Preservation. Why do I think that? Well simply put, preservation is trying to preserve anything it can possibly do-- and additionally, qiloph has a giant hammer, it would make sense for them to "make" sampo, not only for the sake of Belebog but also Kalevala who is in a similar situation as them.

The poem Sampo singing in these leaks literally talk about HIMSELF and I'm pretty sure the word "Sampo" is going to be highlighted in yellow/red during the game BC of these odd "RUBY" text around it, just to emphasise something about SAMPO.

Sampo happily singing about himself or his supposed "purpose" makes me think he's a mix of 3 paths (as in he believes in them or he embodies them in some way):

The Preservation-- he has been consistently running around belebog behind the scenes, even as far as going to penacony to get his mask back from sparkle. He's obviously trying to *preserve* belebog and save it from destruction

Elation-- this is pretty obvious. Sampo braking the 4th wall, his mask, his talk with Giovanni and scamming people. But something that doesn't add up I think is him not having his mask during the belebog quest. I think the reason why he didn't have his mask was not only BC he was retired as many people mentioned but ALSO the fact that the masks that the fools carry can corrupt them. If U watch Sparkle's myriad celestia trailer, U can tell she's being possessed by someone else like an evil spirit and how her mask has half red, half white parts. But then I think ABT Giovanni who has the same feature on his mask but doesn't seem possessed like sparkle herself. He seems very similar to Sampo, calm and rational which explains why SAMPO'S friends with him in the first place. But even then sampo seems to refuse sharing his beliefs until someone asks him and I think that shows his reluctance to return to elation

Nihilty-- this is SAMPO'S ingame path and I didn't only choose it BC it was his ingame path. You see elation and Nihility are practically the same thing. Both believe that life is nothing/joke but the only thing that sets them apart is that nihility just does nothing and awaits for that meaningless end, while the elation is just like "if everything is meaningless than I might just have fun". I feel like Sampo does fall under this category and his backstory will have elements linking to the nihility but that's just my speculation.

I also suspect that sampo was hired by Elio like sparkle BC how else does he know the future? I thought that since sampo may be the emanator of elation, it might relate to that but if he did know the future, during the penacony masquerade duet quest, why did he make a surprised expression when sparkle said she wouldn't give his mask back as a joke? Shouldn't he have known that sparkle was joking if he knew the future? I don't think he was acting here

so I'm thinking that perhaps, Sampo was also hired by Elio. There isn't much to prove this, but if you have a look at firefly's trailer, you can see the stelleron hunters walking on a bridge located in belebog

Also, I think a person on twitter found a note in rivet town from blade saying "you will never get away from me" (dan Heng I pity U).

Since the stelleron hunters didn't take the stelleron from belebog, and let tb do the work, why were they even there to begin with? To give sampo the script methinks.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

[b1adie]

WHAT AN ODD THING TO SAY. TO REFER TO HIMSELF DIRECTLY AS A CHARACTER. SPECIFICALLY A SUPPORTING CHARACTER. YKNOW THE ONLY OTHER PPL WHO DO THAT?

MASKED FOOLS.

DOCTOR TRUTH REASON I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE. 🪱

[chattematsu]

Wanted to draw this

original by https://twitter.com/CM_CM_CM3/status/1826190283056525691

[qweaenr]

HONKAI STAR RAIL - Aeons:

Lan - Hunt / Nanook - Destruction

Xipe - Harmony / Yaoshi - Abundance

Mythus - Enigmata / Fuli - Remembrance

Aha - Elation / Qlipoth - Preservation

Nous - Erudition / IX - Nihility

[wishingstarinajar]

Listen, I had some thoughts after seeing a particular light cone

[201918b]

the worsties

[clayspacestation]

He’s just a little silly

[slooshee]

More hsr art I forgot to post oops

1- robin (mv/redesign)

2-3- Sunday (two outfit concepts :p)

4- black swan (mv/redesign)

5-Gepard (mv/redesign)

6-Sampo (mv/redesign)

7- Gepard drawing (mitski lyrics jumpscare)

8-Ratiorine/Aventio sketch

9-10- my masked fools Sampo design/concept art

[thesaart]

Jester

[kroosluvr]

if you play your cards right...

(i know aventurine isnt a masked fool. but i think its funny. also this image)

[kinig1]

I'm a fool 🎭✨

[ricochetlovebombs]

The ask I received yesterday made me think of something about Sampo, along with some recent posts involving everything I'm about to point out.

I'm starting to wonder if Sampo isn't themed around love, but rather heartbreak.

We have his eidolon "The deeper the love, the stronger the hate"

Along with his line "...if the answer's no, then you'll break my heart."

His ultimate attack involves a heart shaped box with a bomb inside that explodes.

His snake design is of a dead one.

This one is a stretch, but the way his black outfit is designed in a kind of zigzag pattern reminds me visually of a broken heart. (edited this one in that I remembered after posting)

This could also be a duality, themed around both at the same time.

[essefryu]

What the fuck was this though

I initially thought that he’s just being a bitch about everyone making noise about the bombs in the group chat, which is very in character for him, but I’d expect him to at least do something about these on his own.

But the situation was resolved completely without his involvement

For which I can think of 2 possible explanations

Either he has a ridiculous amount of trust in everyone, to the degree he was just chilling waiting for good news while the airship was on countdown to be exploded by 1000 bombs, which would lead to unpredictable consequences for anyone caught in the explosion

Or

Or the worm theory people aren’t as tinfoil hatted as I used to think, and he knew about Sparkle’s plan all along

[amezero1p]

Masked fools characters be lovin their explosives

[carass1us-aur4tus]

so is nobody gonna talk about how this feels pretty foreshadow-y for the Aha!Sampo theorists

[falling-star-cygnus]

i was watching Sampo cutscenes for a fic im writing and- -> the fic in question <-

Sparkle just- immediately gave herself up in Penacony, right? like- i was watching the scene where she was following Stelle and Firefly and this man does not carry himself like that [and especially doesn’t talk that flatly]

obviously, the most clear tell was when she mistook Firefly for March but-

he never introduces himself as just 'Sampo' -> it's literally always with his last name, even when he's just speaking in third person: "Sampo Koski" or "your friend Sampo Koski" the only time he doesn't is when he's saying "Sampo's friends" or the like -> which has so far only been twice and one of which was when the Nameless were passing out

she got close here, with the cheeky wink, but misses with his smile and eyes -> Sparkle's brows are pinched and her eyes curl upwards, her smile is more forced -> Sampo's eyes lilt downwards and he's got a lazy sort of satisfaction about him [i think it's just the lighting but her colors are darker too]

Sparkle, ironically, plays his character a bit too shy i think

Sampo is loud and lilting and takes up as much space as he can until he doesn’t. He’s distracting and leading with flailing limbs and forced clumsiness before he’s gone in the time it takes to blink. He’s reserved, but subtly so, and walks with a sort of laidback confidence and swagger that belies his goofiness

He leans forward when he talks, Sparkle leans back

She waltzes into a conversation, Sampo just appears

Sampo feels like a natural presence in a conversation but Sparkle’s dialogue as him is all stilted and awkward as she overplays his silliness