#i know ggz himeko died too but i don't know enough of the details to go into that

[jpedottxt]

i don't want himeko to die in star rail not just for the obvious reason of "not wanting her to be dead", but also bc no matter how it's done there will unavoidably be comparisons to final lesson in hi3rd, and i don't think they can make that parallel without it coming off as a cheap callback. himeko's death in hi3rd was significant for reasons integral to the plot and kiana's character arc and you can't really try to re-do that in a new universe without stripping the context and emotional weight that made it work in the first place. it would feel like they're killing her off just for the sake of the reference, which would REALLY suck

even my own feelings aside, i don't think that they will kill her bc she has such a different role and place in the narrative than hi3rd himeko. the latter was a tragic figure from the beginning- we knew she was already doomed to die from the artifical stigma, we knew she had lost her squad and mentor at a young age, we knew she wouldn't reach the stars like her dad inspired her to, we knew she was never going to find true love like she wanted. her sacrifice was her embracing her fate and choosing to die on her own terms, for the sake of kiana and her other students. star rail himeko is still a mentor-figure, but riding the astral express and following akivili's path of the trailblazer is the fulfillment of her dreams in both universes. she's the version of himeko who was able to achieve what the other could not. star rail is literally the "better ending" that hi3rd himeko didn't get, and ripping her away in the middle of it would be a waste of her character and disregarding how much it means across the series that she IS alive