Weird Thing About The Penacony Ending | Honkai: Star Rail Pre 2.3 Story Analysis
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- So what happened in Penacony really? Timelines? Timeloops? Explaining the ending of the Star Rail Penacony story.
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Tbh, I think of penacony’s storyline more like a loop:
We lost to Sunday, and the event from 2.0-2.2 basically play out.
Everything from that time, before he wins plays out about the same, but when he wins, it puts us into a reality where everything is about the same, but more muddled, explaining sparkle’s info dumps, aventurine’s plan, misha being able to go into the irl hotel, firefly’ closeness to us, and being excited to see us when we don’t even know her, and Sunday’s confidence in everything turning out well all the way from 2.0 .
He knew he already won, and him and Mr. Gopherwood just needed to get rid of Acheron.
Due to Acheron losing more of her memories, she couldn’t distinguish which loop this was, and was why when we first meet her in 2.0, she said “it feels like their are multiple of you giving all different responses in unison.” Because she’s not affected, and to her, all of your responses would be overlaying upon what we’ve said in other loops.
In the end, Sunday would lose by not taking into account Acheron’s point of taking the title of galaxy ranger, as well as not being able to kick her out faster, which would allow her to set her plan into motion, which was to pull in other people, and true galaxy rangers like Boothill to wake everyone up in penacony.
The trailblazer’s higher sensitivity made them more able to distinguish the fact that this was a false reality, and is the reason why when we first go into penacony, we saw the “future.” Was because that’s the last point in time when we still had a linear mentality, and our consciousness, either because of the stelleron, or on own affinity, picked up on that, and projected the multiple loops we had as “visions.”
Once we came into penacony from that jump, we’ve been stuck in a loop up until the “beating” of Sunday, which doesn’t even wake us up, and just continued the cycle, like a movie, it wasn’t until Acheron got all the pieces she needed to put her plan into motion did we eventually truly wake up. (And her goals as a self-annihilator and releasing tiernman to the afterlife with the rest of the departed crew.)
Misha finally giving us the legacy probably came out of multiple coincidences that could finally be achieved in this loop;
-Acheron making contact, and getting Boothill into the dreamscape.
-getting/allowing firefly/sam to make contact after the 11 tries (which I believe was previous loops.)
-going along with aventurine’s plan and allowing him to escape the loop.
-letting sparkle and Gallagher do their things.
-letting the trailblazer get into contact.
I’m assuming that this loop was the one that allowed the breaking of Ena’s control, due to the legacy of Mikhail finally being passed, allowing Gallagher and misha to depart truly, since if not, I don’t think Xipe would gaze upon the trailblazer if that happened, since it would’ve happened multiple times, and from what I can tell, aeon’s arn’t affected by reality manipulation like the one Ena did, unless that was before the loop started, and the scene just keep playing on repeat no matter the loop.
Also to bring it up: the reason why Sunday wouldn’t try to apprehend Acheron of the astral express earlier, is probably because he couldn’t/ can’t remember.
The loop has to play out just about the same as it did before, since that’s what gave him the win, and until he fully merged with reality, I don’t think he could’ve changed the way the loop happened, meaning he couldn’t intervene, until the point after he got the power (which would presumably be after Xipe gazed upon the trailblazer in our loop, but maybe during the Sunday boss fight.)
Personally, the loop theory makes a lot more sense, and it keeps the timeline straight, and easier to understand why people like sparkle and firefly acted so weird in 2.0
Another way I think of it is like bendy and the ink machine:
That whole game is a cycle, playing as Henry, fighting Bendy, and then playing “the end.” Which just started the cycle all over again.
This is a similar situation to that, with “the end” that we see in the fake up probably being the end that Sunday was expecting of everyone until his mergin with the universe completed but they saw through that, and it’s only when everyone finally started to realize, did they finally be able to break out. (Like how Henry would eventually break out of the cycle of the ink machine by the time of the next game.)
It was all a big cycle, which Acheron would basically say, and praise firefly for being able to wake up so early from that fact. (Probably because she knew it was a dream, the script, and because of her past in the iron Calvary, and her brainwashing by Glamoth high nobility, she was able to wake up, and in turn, helped Acheron in waking everyone up.)
The dream was 100% from the begining because Dr Blues was in the hotel lobby in the "real world"
Dr. Blues is an exception. If you talk to him he'll tell you he can appear outside the dreamscape thanks to Gallagher's enigmata abilities.
@@Chrysostomus_17 ic
Surely Mihoyo wont debunk Potato Almanac again😏
They must still be trapped. Acheron saying "Not another one" right after we apparently woke up from Ena's dream was super sus, considering now we should be able to turn the tides, but this is Acheron's response upon seeing us? Flags.
Now it makes sense why credits roll when you choose certain options, the Penacony story ends and Trailblazer wakes up
But by the second time we fought Sunday we are supposed to be already awake
Ye @@zyzhang1130
I think you mean the story ends and then it loops again.
To be honest, I'm starting to think we never got out of the Astral Express in the first place. We entered the dream right after the warp, I totally imagine all the members of the express still there, dreaming or at least TB. That's the only certain moment that I know they're in reality. Then, the lobby, Misha = Not reality. We saw Misha around Penacony, so, still dreaming. What trips me up, is we just left Penacony in a sidequest to get Screwllum on the Chadwick quest. Is/was he real or not? Did that even happen? If it did, wouldn't someone like Screwllum detected something wrong with the location? Such as the dream merging with reality.
Then, there's Sunday and his ability to trap people in his mind? (Mr. Yang mentioned it) That's not Ena's dream or is it, because it seems there's just "layers" of dreams. Could the fight, first fight, occurred merely under Sunday's powers and when Black Swan wakes us up, it's us fighting in Ena's dream? Then we wake fron Ena's dream, and we're back to the Penacony dreamscape? But, just because Sunday is defeated doesn't mean the stellaron was sealed or that the anomalies disappear. It's clear that was not the end at all. So, conclusion it's trippy, my head hurts, thanks. 😂
Now, I dont support what Sunday was doing. But, the 0 hour work week, now...
inception: the anime gacha game
Yeah.... thinking about penacony makes my head hurt. Tho it has best story in Star Rail at this moment.
Also, new chapter summary of honkai impact when?
When Lanqiu chapter as in the whole town concludes we've been stuck in that backwards town for the whole 5 chapters 😂😂😂
I haven't played the new chapters yet. But I'll get to it.
@@PotatoAlmanac yeah the CN already got the heartfelt chapter with Songque so the rest will soon follow you likely seen the playable Valkyrie Songque herself eh potato.
I still liked Jarillo better tbh
Hmmmm..
Maybe the Real Bad Guy (Gopher Wood or his Boss) have a back-up Plan... And yes.. We are not finished to solve the Stelarron problem in penacony because it's still there and the Real Bad Guy is still alive
And Sparkle's buttons are left unpressed. It's probably a Red Herring (as she emphasized in Black Swan's story), but the question is a Red Herring to distract us from _what_ ?
Right...Gopher Wood didn't die. Sunday was defeated, and, we didn't go to the Express to plan our next stop at the conclusion of the arc. Typically, when a "planet's" arc ends in main story in this game, we go back to the train. This has been the case each time before, including in the fake ending after falsely defeating Sunday. Plus, next update (2.3.), it's proper name is containing in it a farewell to Penacony. We wouldn't get a full story update on the same "planet" if everything was actually resolved on that "planet". Plus, what we saw in the livestream, raises some concerns for 2.3.'s main story
the IPC hadnt given up as well
2.3 made me more confused idk
see this is the interpretation that makes the most sense to me, especially since the moment after black swan pulls us out from the dream shows us right back up against the sunday boss fight
I think we're still trapped after 2.3
Sunday put everyone in genjutsu
infinite tsukuyomi
Acheron losing her way, and going into Genshin 2:05 is on-character actually lmao
So in the end, from the time stelle/caelus slept in the purple bathtub in the hotel until the day he hit Sunday, he was all in a dream until he was slashed by Acheron and then sank into the water before returning to the real world, right? Explanation is too long
Close. It's returning to the "real" world in the Dreamscape, then we beat Sunday for real ending 2.2 and go to reality in 2.3 for epilogue. The dream Acheron flashed was the personal dream, a deeper dream Sunday used to give someone all they need which can only be done by making it personalized.
I think the end credits is just because... penacony was being treated like a stage play where characters were trying to resolve to situation (like how sparkle was potraying it and how harmony mc splash art is a stage). And stage play requires proper credits right?
You can take the example of scorchsand vacation, it was a "stage play" and we also got credits for it.
0:46 Nah, The Stellaron was the third option (Da rest good, good job sir 😋)
I can ride with this one timeline theory, but I don't think Black Swan forgot Acheron, more like she played along with it. Maybe, IDK what she's thinking with that belt on her skull
We are free from the dream they just decided to have real credits this time
That second credits gave me some PTSD kek
One thing that bothered me a lot was Sparkle gifting bombs, or whatever those buttons were, just to play play no role in the end.
It may play a role in a separate story, but that won't be very satisfying since the all build up was done in a separate story. If Sparkle's gifts are the hint that the story isn't over yet and the true ending was fake too, then that will amazing writing.
Uhm... did you watch the new trailer?
@@Baskat682 Yes go watch the new trailer... our "epilogue" is coming for Sparkle.
Ye so, no idea what that ending was, who ever hired sparkle to do all these must have been on crack or something
why the hell does she even needed to explode that place, and why does bomb need 100k buttons ☠️
@@nicolas._.2294it’s been out for about 5-6 days now, and it was discovered that SW hired Sparkle to do it lol
If it is a dream it could be Xipe's allowing penacony to exist as it is for her own reasons, heck it could be why she let sunday cook
I did not expect to see Serbia Strong in a HSR video
This is a theory I've been toying with for a while. Personally, I think you're correct about the us actually being the Trailblazer in this questline and it being presented to us as memories with the credits symbolizing us reaching the end of the string of memories we're being shown. But I feel like the original/false timeline setup still happened and I think that the Acheron we see all through Penacony's story is the real Acheron who actually entered the memories we're seeing, possibly with the assistance of Black Swan to help push us toward realizing the truth. One of the stated effects of Memoria exposure, especially for someone that's overly sensitive to it like the Trailblazer is include distorted and missing memories. So I think that more or less the events of 2.0-2.2 played out as we see them until the fight with Sunday where we lose and were put into Ena's Dream and we can't remember them. So I think we're already in Ena's Dream the moment we open our eyes in that dreamscape after the jump. I think the perspective switches are Black Swan showing the Trailblazer those memories, and I think that the red text is Acheron's power of Nihility bumping up against the control of the Order over the Trailblazer.
But what about people clearly not being able to remember Acheron during the fake Epilogue? Ena's Dream clearly can't recreate Acheron in the dream because she's unaffected by the Order. But I think her physical presence in the scenes can't be distorted or hidden by the Order either and it can only manipulate the people who can see her or otherwise perceive her. You can kind of see this when the Trailblazer and Black Swan run into Acheron in the dreamscape version of the Hotel during the quest "Should One Awaken at Midnight" if you try to refuse Acheron's help. Eventually you'll be forced to accept her company with one of the options being red. I think in this instance the white options are the choices the Order is offering you, and the red option is Acheron pushing against it to offer you another option. The Trailblazer also talks about a weird feeling that seems to come when those red text bits come up. I think they feel weird because they're feeling the influences of Acheron and the Order clashing. There's another scene that seems to illustrate this as well. There's a moment in the quest "Lost Generation" where the Trailblazer and Welt are talking and Welt asks them about their thoughts on Miss Acheron. The Trailblazer, who doesn't see Acheron has 4 options. 3 of these options are unsure responses about her being powerful, mysterious, or gentle that lead to a red version of the 4th option where the Trailblazer says "Weird... I can't seem to remember." Welt however doesn't seem to react to us saying we can't remember. He seems to react as if we said something because he says that it "fits the stereotype of a Galaxy Ranger to a T." Then after the Trailblazer walks away he reveals that he could sense Acheron's presence and asks her to come out.
A big reason I believe this interpretation is that it parallels the scenes we're shown throughout Penacony of Acheron and Tiernan, especially the Sin Thirsters. Tiernan of course is revealed to have been dead the entire time with Acheron staying by his side to eventually help guide him out of the Nihility once he realizes that he's trapped within it. In the cutscene during the quest "Bullet & Brain" he says this.
"Sin Thirsters... the obsessions of the Pathstriders. They emerge from the depths of IX, seeing themselves as masters of their own destiny, unknowingly repeating the actions of their past lives."
He also reveals that these Sin Thirsters were once his companions and it's his goal to save them and not let them be "puppets of the Nihility" which parallels our desire to save those trapped by Ena's Dream from being "puppets of the Order". The next scene comes a little bit before we enter the false Epilogue and discover the flaw in our dream during the quest "Everything that Rises Must Converge" and sets up the thing that will eventually make Tiernan realize he's dead. The "flaw" in his "dream" if you will. Then, after we've awakened from Ena's Dream and are about to fight Sunday again during the quest "And on the Eighth Day" we see the scene of Tiernan realizing he was dead all along. We also get the same description of Sin Thirsters again which I think is to drive home the idea that we were also unknowingly repeating the actions of our past life while trapped by the Order. And just like Tiernan took Acheron's hand for her to guide him out of the Nihility to whatever comes after and fulfill his final wish, we take Acheron's hand for her to guide us out of the Order's dream to confront Sunday one final time.
Im wondering why Acheron asks if the Trailblazer still remembers her. I understand that she doesnt get affected by the dream but why would she not know about Ena dream in that case and act accordingly?
(disclaimer: at this point 2.3 is released but i havent played it yet so if the answer shows up there no need to spoil)
"Seven day in a week will be Sunday"
- Sunday -
Alright, I agree with this take, but, I think we are seeing it live. The memoria was leaking into reality before we got there right? What if part of the leakage dragged Misha into the hotel lobby???
I think at this point the Penacony story rabbit hole is just too deep to come out with a theory with out any flaw
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Wow, I was just looking for a new Potato Almanac vid this morning 🎆
As far as i understand our dream connected to the Penacony dreamscape and everything in it was real
watching your video like go to the movie and asking for the ending, nonsense!
Shes not an illusion because she just got shit memory lel
I just realized that we essentially got pulled into an infinite tsukuyomi
Having seen the newest bit of story, I guess those credits meant nothing? That’s all I can interpret that makes sense.
Man the Penacony story felt like a rushed mess, definitely their least cohesive work thus far.