#hi3:concept trailer

[hoyotunes]

Paradise of the past from ELYSIUM Vinchi, HOYO-MiX

[blazingblorbos]

So the Golden Epic Trailer came out.... didn't it?

hmm I have many thoughts. many thoughts. And not all of them are Honkai (Impact 3rd) related, even...

I'll start off with something I've noticed about Star Rail itself (for a long while now). Because it k e e p s being brought back up in my mind every single time they release one of these trailers: The Star Rail team is absolutely INCREDIBLE at, what I'm going to call, "Discontinuous Storytelling".

Hoyoverse as an entire company and artistic team has an unrelentingly powerful streak when it comes to their over-arching storyline trailers.. Genshin's Teyvat Storyline Preview trailer; Zenless's Lore teaser; Genshin's Overture Teaser; Winter Night's Lazzo; the Stonehearts' Myriad Celestia Trailer (even in spite of the fact that these last 2 may have served as a distraction from colorism-related outrages during their respective releases...); ANY!! FUCKING MYRIAD CELESTIA TRAILER, FOR THAT MATTER (FABLES ABOUT THE STARS PART 1 SPECIFICALLY, I AM STILL NOT OVER THAT).... And of course the one that has had perhaps the most profound impact on me to date: The Elysian Realm Concept trailer

And I've noticed for a while now that the stories told in a lot of the Star Rail trailers have felt,, very disjointed from the game's actual story. With any of their other games, even Zenless! now included, their trailers have had direct, VISIBLE connections to the events that played out in the game's actual storyline around the time of the trailer's release. It was a real, well-thought-out, well-crafted, teaser for what was to come [very soon!] for the playerbase in-game. And it's possible that.. maybe the pay-off period is just 10x longer in Star Rail than it has been in any of their other games...

but things like the Ever-Flame mansion and Duke Inferno's family was something that was teased in a Trailer, during a PIVOTAL hype season! and yet-!! was NEVER paid off!!! DUKE INFERNO WAS INTRODUCED TO LITERALLY JUST BE KILLED OFF LMAO (don't get me wrong, he had some pretty banger lines during 2.1 but. dude dropped mayyybe 9 banger lines out of.. what 27? during a flashback and dipped). Constance was the ONLY one of the children to have even a sliver of importance in Penacony's story, and the sliver is near microscopic at best.

THAT^ was perhaps the strongest offender of this "Discontinuous Storytelling" that Star Rail likes to do. But even before that: there have been so many.. things. just! A bunch of random things!! in Star Rail. Select tidbits of information, a mere taste of a specific corner of Worldbuilding lore, that's been dropped on players through a variety of ways that have just,, not been followed through yet! They love expanding on their world through things like Myriad Celestia trailers. And it's fascinating!! But for all intents and purposes, those random lore tidbits do not really make an appearance in game... and it just leaves me wondering, well.. What was this for?

A screenshot of a conversation between me and my friend that I think helps to contextualize What Exactly I'm Talking About:

anyways. I just hope this Golden Epic narrative is not that.

______________________________________________

Onto the Honkai Impact 3rd brain...

I'd be lying if I said 'I wasn't concerned'. I am. For a couple reasons. One reason being.. yeah.. the much, MUCH wider audience that's about to be introduced to a very Honkai Impact 3rd [from now on, to be referred to as simply "Honkai", as I've always done]—inspired set of characters. I'm not tooooo concerned about that; it mainly exists as a "Oh boy here we go again" kind of thought sitting at the back of my mind, and I plan to promptly go about my own business and continue to avoid the circles of illiterate video game players that exist in every fandom .

But the other reason I'm concerned... is because I'm worried over just how much these new Star rail characters are going to parallel the Flame-Chasers and their story. Honkai means a lot to a lot of people, and it will always mean something different depending on who you ask. The Elysian Realm is no exception.

To me, Half the beauty of Elysia and the Realm comes in how their story ended. Emphasis on ended... The reason I love her so much is because she's gone. The reason she had such a lasting impact, is because she's not here anymore. When I played through Elysium Everlasting, I recorded my playthrough. The thing about that though... is that I have still never watched that recording back. For a long, LONG time, I didn't explicitly revisit,, any part of the later half of EE, because (I locked in so hard and) wanted what I took away from that moment to be whatever I remembered of the experience naturally.

The Flame-Chasers' WHOLE THING, was: Here is a recorded history of what we did. YOU are the sole witness to our story. Witness it, remember it, and carry it with you into the future; we are past our time.

The entire fleeting nature of the Realm is something I hold so dear to myself. Their message of us continuing where they left off is the shit that got me crying, bro. Elysia ended the Realm with her and the Flame-Chasers' own 26 hands... because they exist in the past; their only job was to inspire the future, not live in it.

Having Star Rail characters that parallel them is fine, and I'm sure it'll be great! (As long as they don't do what they tried to do with the Seven Shus. Oh yeah. I saw that one. I felt it, I'm not blind. I knew it was there, but I chose to ignore it because 1) it didn't land and 2) paying attention to any traces of it that did manage to land would have ruined what the Shus ALREADY had going for them. Which- for like half of Part 2 wasn't much -- it got better later). It's more than "fine" actually, they can do whatever the hell they want with them! "Honkai" is in the title for a damn reason. I just hope it's in good faith.

Anyways.. I'm interested to see what they do with them.

[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

[auroralecchino]

INTRODUCTION

BASIC INFO:

age: 18

birthday: August 2nd

country: 🇵🇭 (GMT+8)

pronouns: she/her

gender: woman

sexuality: lesbiromantic aegosexual

ABOUT ME

A daydreamer on a regular basis, escapism into the realm of fantasies to cope with reality. A sense of belonging I feel whenever I am simply just within my own world. The life pressures and expectations are forever my struggle. My own existence is merely a bane in the household, I seek to reignite my hobbies that lost its own spark long ago. One of those is writing, and so I do look forward to correlating my hyperfixations through literature.

How did I discover Arlecchino?

Around the release of the Genshin Impact's Fatui Harbinger trailer: The Winter Night's Lazzo. I was not part of the community, nor did I play it due to low device specifications. I created my account back in 2020-2021, but the in-game lag was too much. Yes, I ended up even getting the beginner wind glider skin expired.

The moment I saw Arlecchino, I was fascinated, allured even. The androgynous appearance was incredibly gorgeous, I knew that after my Natasha Romanoff hyperfixation since would come to an end (since she did fall from cloud nine and snapped her back). I've been obsessed ever since, fanfiction content was limited, and just bread crumbs at the time I almost went insane. Fortunately, my December 2022 gift was a gaming laptop with great specs for me to play the game and save up! Except, I got Neuvillette and Navia with my impulsive gambling.

Would I ever publish fanfics of her?

Thank you!

Certainly, hopefully , I also get around writing my fanfiction ideas for her. I have a bunch of concept tropes for Arlecchino and reader, who would most likely be a projection of my own character within that story. Hehehe...

Am I comfortable with 18+?

Definitely, as the saying goes but with my revision "Mentally a slut, spiritually only in my wildest dreams, physically could never." Unless, a real life Arlecchino drops from the heavens. Why not?

Do I cater to men readers?

Apologies, but I sincerely could not. I could only go as far as writing women with a strap or transfem/women. I have absolutely no clue if I could ever write for ya'll ヾ(´･ ･｀｡)ノ

Will I ever write for other characters?

Someday in the future, maybe. For women characters only, most likely. If only I could literally hyperfixate entirely on Dan Heng or Aventurine, sadly, I'm not too invested in HSR even if the lore is interesting. I'm not a huge fan of modern looking RPG games or futuristic. It's also why I dropped HI3 as soon as hit 40. (⋟﹏⋞)

For dropping by to read, and if you ever consider sending me an imprompt idea for Arlecchino.

Do feel free to send and ask for requests! 💌

╔══《✧》══╗

MASTERLIST

╚══《✧》══╝

Incoming Post Soon . . .

[buqbite]

ok so!!!! i have. so many thoughts about penacony. aventurine the man you are...... his obsession with facades and masks... his future self shit talking him.... 2.1 truly delivered. his dynamic with ratio is also so interesting.... the contrasts... aven not taking care of himself at all vs ratio the self care king........

there's so much unexplored potential for a friendship between acheron and aven... their similarities as people who lost everything ... how acheron works in the shadows and aventurine flaunts himself yet acheron is much more willing to be... openly vulnerable about her past? as compared to aven..... i care them both dearly anyway!!! i have many thoughts on 2.2 but i don't want to intrude or make this too long ajshldfkjasdjf but yes!!!! im having a good time so far (though i'm kinda fed up with the sunday boss fight) and !!!! looking forward to meeting aven again (myriad celestia trailer!) + seeing what other adventures the astral express goes on...

I FORGOT TO REPLY SORRY

aventurine is just such a fun guy. i become attached to characters who try to sell a specific image of themselves pretty much immediately, because the gradual detachment from their own identity and struggle to properly connect with others is always a delight to see. and aven does it so well! he's completely out of touch with himself - kakavasha and aventurine are practically different people by now.

i care deeply about depictions of cptsd in media, particularly when they acknowledge that it really isnt just depression + anxiety + flashback induced panic attacks in a spot the person you ship them with can conveniently find them in and calm them down. such a big part of it is the way it can completely fuck up your self-concept and worldview cuz yknow. your brain structure is altered. it's the key factor in that disconnect that i just talked about. and that constant sense of impending doom and emptiness are a part of that, which often leads to stupidly reckless behavior. i don't even need to bring up aven's whole gambling thing here, do i?

(also please do note that, as i wrote this bit, welt was even further on the forefront of my mind than he usually is. because of course he would be)

him and ratio are also a fun match, because ratio does not care for the way aventurine flaunts himself (to pretend he has his shit together) in the slightest. he'd do a good job at getting aven to just... slow down, and wouldn't allow their relationship to develop into something unhealthy either.

(its one of the reasons i like avenpaz + ratio, bc aven and topaz on their own would most certainly enable each other's bad habits. they have a bit too much in common in that regard.)

AND ACHERON. ACHERON...

miss raiden bosenmori mei i love you so damn much. she does the "oh, i'm doomed? my struggle was meaningless? well if nothing matters then i will do what i want" thing so well, and every dynamic she has with the other characters is fascinating to me.

one really big thing to consider is that, since acheron's whole backstory is essentially the bad ending of honkai impact 3rd, she's already seen all of this dreamscape shit. she's been living in the waking world for a long time now. in the quest "when the sacred ginmill closes," her and welt talk about kevin kaslana, someone who used his last resort to try and save humanity from the uphill battle against the honkai and plunge all of humanity into a dreamscape (etc), robbing it of its future.

a big part of hi3 is the direness of the situation, and the way people push themselves to go further and further in hopes of reaching this unattainable peace. it's an absolutely sisyphian task. and acheron let go - she defeated her version of kevin (why would you name him that) and let her homeworld be enveloped by the nihility.

so acheron's been there. she lost the people she loved, struggled against a meaningless end and was changed so irreversibly that she's not even human anymore. and there's a lot of potential for her to properly guide aventurine out of the nihility (i mean that's kind of her job?) and onto a path that's a lot more meaningful to him.

also, i'm saving a lot of my acheron thoughts for when i actually finish hi3, but there's a few dynamics that i could pick apart and think about forever. my favorites being aventurine and his whole (gestures at this post) stuff, black swan as someone whose whole being consists of memories while acheron perpetually erases them, welt as someone who shares the same experiences and black hole related powers, and firefly, who exists in the moment because she can't dream in the first place, and chooses to fight against the inevitable without being afraid of it.

...also also also i fucking love black holes and i love how it's connected to sun imagery and i think the idea of icarus reaching the sun only to discover a hopeless abyss beyond it is my favorite hsr symbolism thing ever. black holes are like THE thing to show hopelessness and meaninglessness and emptiness and a point of no return, because they devour everything and leave nothing. we don't truly know what lies within a black hole!! we might never find out!!! there are so many suns out there that will end up as black holes but we can appreciate their beauty nonetheless, can't we??? ive never seen a character with black hole (or sun) imagery that didn't fuck severely. a person who will figuratively consume you in your entirety if you get too close. they can't even help it. it gets me every single fucking time. can you guys tell that interstellar changed my brain chemistry when i first watched it as a kid. i need to punch a wall

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

You can watch it here! Non-canon until proven otherwise though, it's a concept trailer.

Hi3 has a lot of good animation shorts like this.

Yeap! There's even an officila animation of Sparkle vs Vita

Comic-anon

Ngl, I don’t know shit about HI3. Only that the homie welt is from that game, and that sparkles gonna be in that game. It’s the only reason I downloaded the game, I WILL get sparkle in that game.

[niteshade925]

Speculations

I’m gonna make some guesses here, see if I turn out to be right when Mihoyo finally release Act.??? and Khaenri’ah

(SPOILERS BELOW)

Been thinking about the Genshin story trailer (the one titled “Travail”, dubbed in Japanese by Kaiba-kun Kenjiro Tsuda) in what little free time I had, and had a thought just now:

There are a few visual motifs that keep popping up throughout Genshin, I will list the ones I’ve noticed and some examples of each:

Four point star:

top of game’s logo

oculus location markings on the map

statues of the seven

Kaeya’s pupils and clothing

Dainsleif’s pupils and clothing

the Unknown Kiana God’s pupils and clothing

design of Traveler (both of them)

design of Paimon

Celtic knots:

walls of dungeons and abyss spiral

design of Unknown God

design of Dainsleif

Petal-shapes:

Paimon’s clothes

base of every Statue of the Seven

pillars in game’s intro loading screen

Stars, space, constellations, galaxies:

design of Paimon

design of Unknown God

design of Dainsleif

There are other "regional" visual motifs we can see so far, and these are the bird/feather/wings motifs in Mondstadt, and the square/diamond shapes we find throughout Liyue (also featured prominently as a design element for both the dragon and Zhongli...hmm......). These show that visual motifs do indeed connect places, characters, items, etc...so how are the archons, Dainsleif, Kaeya, the Unknown God, Paimon, and the Twins connected?

At the beginning of the game, the Traveler was talking to Paimon, telling Paimon what he/she remembers about how he/she came to be in Teyvat, and that it was a long time ago, 500 years to be exact. Paimon had apparently taught the Traveler/you many things shortly before the journey began, and was the one who suggested seeking out the seven archons in order to find your twin brother/sister's whereabouts. Incredibly, Paimon also has the ability to time travel into the future, but not the past.

In Mondstadt you meet Venti who is actually Barbatos, the anemo archon. After falling victim to the Tsaritsa's plan to take other archons' gnoses, Barbatos told you that anyone who has a Vision can make it to the island in the sky and claim a throne as a god, and that these chosen people are called genshin/原神 (the name of the game), or "proto-gods".

You journey to Liyue Harbor on foot to meet the geo archon Morax, but instead you saw a giant corpse, or so it appears. Wandering around Liyue, you come across various monuments and books telling of an ancient war between many gods, the Archon War, which established the current 7 archons of Teyvat. The Archon War was brutal, bloody and just frickin long, but the gods involved weren't all in it for the power. Some were forced, others had irreconcilable differences.  Morax became the geo archon when he survived and emerged victorious in the region of Liyue.

And that is what we currently know about the nature of Archons.  They are mortals (not mutually exclusive with the concept of gods here) of Teyvat who emerged triumphant in the fight for the “thrones in the sky”.  As for the identity of the Unknown God, Dainsleif, the Traveler twins, and Paimon, I can only speculate, but there are some clues, albeit not very solid clues.  Yet.

The first one is the background of the official art for the Traveler twins and the background of the official art for Dainsleif:

Notice the background?  That is virtually the same symbol, just colored differently.

Then there are the Celtic knots.  Notice the ones on the design of Dainsleif.  Notice the ones on the Unknown God:

Then notice the trailing ribbon-like pieces of fabric on the back of the Unknown God.  Notice the trailing ribbons behind Lumine.  

And the cape of Dainsleif vs. the cape of Aether.

Compare the bangs of the Unknown God to the bangs of Lumine, then compare the bangs of Dainsleif to the bangs of Aether.

Remember the sea of flowers in the Travail trailer?  Compare that to the flowers in Lumine’s hair.  Consider how the narrator of the trailer--which in the JP dub is the same VA who’s going to voice Dainsleif--talked about making Aether fight him in order to prove that Aether is more worthy to rescue “her”, the same “her” who he remembers “loved those flowers”.

I’m going to make a guess here:

The Unknown God is (an older) Lumine, and Dainsleif is (an older) Aether.

I know there are many who thought the Unknown God was God Kiana from the Honkai series, but at this point I think it was more of a reference to the Honkai series than a plot point (to introduce players unfamiliar with Mihoyo’s games to the Honkai series).  For one, I believe someone from Mihoyo did an interview where they said that a larger-scaled game like Genshin was something they wanted to make when they made HI3, but they simply did not have the resources to do so, and now they can tell the story they’ve always wanted to tell.  If this is true, and I think it probably is, then the world of Teyvat bearing similarities to the world of Honkai Impact is pretty well-explained:  they stemmed from the same basic story ideas.  Are there any connections plot-wise?  Maybe, but I don’t think so.

But why would an older Lumine and an older Aether exist in the same time as the younger Lumine and Aether?  How can the same people experience the same time point twice, isn’t that some sort of paradox?

There’s no way to answer this question right now, but there are definitely some time-traveling shenanigans going on here.  I mean, look at Paimon.  Paimon has time manipulation powers that we can utilize in-game, but interestingly she (?) can only travel to the future and not to the past.  Add to that the recurring motif of cycles (”that throne in the sky is never reserved for you” and the mentions of “usurper”)............maybe the Unknown God and Dainsleif as they appear now are past incarnations of Lumine and Aether.  If so, this won’t be the first time Mihoyo toyed with the idea of reincarnation (see Dr. Mei & Raiden Mei, Himeko & Himeko, Sakura & Yae Sakura, etc etc etc).

It’s also unclear where the twins actually came from.  There are two possibilities as of now, Celestia (island in the sky) or Khaenri’ah.  The former is somewhat supported by the Gnostic Chorus teaser (”glorious kingdom established among the heavens”), while the latter is hinted at in the Travail story trailer (Dainslief is introduced in the section for Khaenri’ah).  Ad astra abyssoque.

Finally, some random stuff I’ve noticed.  Genshin contains a few references to Norse mythology.  Dainslief is the name of a sword from Norse mythology that cannot be sheathed unless it takes a life.  And the white tree that spread its roots throughout Teyvat mentioned in various places.....Yggdrasil anyone?

[hoyotunes]

honkai impact 3rd masterlist

All songs are tagged with #hi3 and #honkai impact 3rd

Singles and EPs are italicized.

2024

Tides of Time Gone By Before Setting Out No Ceiling Beyond the Stars

2023

At the Fingertip of the Sea Da Capo The Day of Transcending Finality

2022

TruE ELYSIUM A Post-Honkai Odyssey 2 Paradox Regression

2021

Oracle Moon Halo Alive Yesterday Rubia

2020

Review A Post-Honkai Odyssey Starfall

2019 and earlier

Dual-Ego Cyberangel Onwards Honkai Impact 3rd Original Motion Picture Soundtrack / Impact*

There appear to be two versions of this album - the former labeled as an Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2017), and then Impact (2018) which appears to be a repackage with 3 additional songs. I have listed the overlapping songs under both whereas the last 3 are only listed under Impact.

from animated series (non-canon)

Golden Courtyard: New Year Wishes in Winter Honkai Impact 3rd ELF Academy Cooking with Valkyries II

misc tags (may not include everything)

Vocal Tracks

Combat

Animated Shorts Character/Battlesuit Trailers Concept Trailers Version Trailers

home

[hoyotunes]

Deepest from ELYSIUM Silver.J, HOYO-MiX

[hoyotunes]

Journey from Yesterday Vinchi, HOYO-MiX

[hoyotunes]

Detonation from Beyond the Stars Silver.J, HOYO-MiX

[hoyotunes]

Departure from At the Fingertip of the Sea Silver.J, HOYO-MiX

[hoyotunes]

Winter Memories from ELYSIUM Silver.J, HOYO-MiX

[hoyotunes]

Origin Station from The Day of Transcending Finality Hao, HOYO-MiX