"We are the Penacony" ahh ending
There are 2 ways the quest can end up, and my review will change depending on the direction it takes.
1.) this was the last of Penacony; then this quest really sucked. It broke essentially every bit of dream logic, unexplained and unfinished conflicts (Trailblazer crying at the start of 2.0, Ratio's involvement, Sparkle's bomb, Firefly's "death"), and off-screen shenanigans that we are expected to believe happened in days since 2.2. I hardly believe it's the end of Penacony, or it was the biggest fumble of a story I've seen yet.
2.) We are still stuck in a dream. There's so much evidence pointing to this, and after the follow up quest I'm all but certain this was the route. I'll include some evidence below in no particular order (there's more that I'm missing but oh well):
-The latest HSR promo vid of Sweet Dreams Curtain Call, Sparkle all but confirms this saying "a perfect ending, but you're still not completely satisfied, are you?"
-2.3 is a mock in the exact way 2.2 ended when we were in the dream. We wake up in the dream hotel, all the characters come together, then Black Swan meets you in the train. Like Topaz and Aventurine literally talk to you the exact way they talked in the fake dream.
-Welt talks about the events in 2.2 fake ending as if they were REAL even though it happened in trailblazer's dream.
-NPCs right after the quest question if everything was a dream saying things like
"Hold on, I can't still be dreaming, can I...",
"Do you have this feeling that everything around us doesn't feel quite real... Like you've been living in a dream all this time?",
"feels like there's a lot more to the story..."
-REALLY sus text after reviewing memories on the TV saying "You can't tell what's real or fake... but that's enough for you... And so, you decide not to think about it anymore".
-The clock view from the train is STILL stuck on Penacony; time is not moving forward still.
-After doing the world quests on the new ship, the text says stuff suggesting that trailblazer is a "a brainwashed actor who is living in a false dream"
-The follow up quest as a whole was a mock of the fake dream ending. Like just do it and you'll see.
-The follow up quest QingQue says she feels "odd" like "something's missing" and that "everything was wrapped up too perfectly"
-Trailblazer STILL needs to wake up from the dream crying, which hasn't been resolved yet.
-2.4 event leaks are showing events that are related to dreams, even though we're likely going back to the Xianzhou. They're labelled like "Operation MEMORIA", and "that gray friend you once met in dreams".
-Acheron's messages being held for 2 versions until 2.3 where in the quest she emphasizes how we may likely never meet again, but in her text messages she says she's STILL on penacony.
-After the quest, you can buy a Hanu TV onto the express, which can only be used if you're in a dream.
Ratio's involvement as a whole being sus, purposefully not involving himself in this quest, and there's a lot connecting to him actually solving the anti-organic equation.
-Ratio also saying he's just a "supporting actor" when sparkle says everyone sees themselves as the main characters; either broken logic or he's purposefully doing so as a part of a plan (everyone needs to realize they're not the mc in order to wake up)
I hardly believe they would put in all these clues, break all the rules they established, and intentionally make the ending as uncertain as possible if not for the reason that wasn't real. The red herring in all of this is that we are likely going back to the Xianzhou next update.
Here's my final thoughts:
-The entirety of 2.3 is in trailblazer's dream, but certain scenes were real. Firefly's "death" in that scene was probably real, and trailblazer couldn't cope so locked back up in dream. It also explains the unusually cheesy ending with Firefly just descending after off-screen destroying Sparkle's bombs. It would ALSO explain Trailblazer finally waking up crying. Sunday and Robin's scenes were likely real though, and that's how it played out.
-We will still be sleeping in 2.4 and maybe onwards until they finally reveal the twist that something's wrong. The train has only 2 warps left in 'reality', so my assumption is that the train will go to Xianzhou, then back to Penacony.
There are 2 ways the quest can end up, and my review will change depending on the direction it takes.
1.) this was the last of Penacony; then this quest really sucked. It broke essentially every bit of dream logic, unexplained and unfinished conflicts (Trailblazer crying at the start of 2.0, Ratio's involvement, Sparkle's bomb, Firefly's "death"), and off-screen shenanigans that we are expected to believe happened in days since 2.2. I hardly believe it's the end of Penacony, or it was the biggest fumble of a story I've seen yet.
2.) We are still stuck in a dream. There's so much evidence pointing to this, and after the follow up quest I'm all but certain this was the route. I'll include some evidence below in no particular order (there's more that I'm missing but oh well):
-The latest HSR promo vid of Sweet Dreams Curtain Call, Sparkle all but confirms this saying "a perfect ending, but you're still not completely satisfied, are you?"
-2.3 is a mock in the exact way 2.2 ended when we were in the dream. We wake up in the dream hotel, all the characters come together, then Black Swan meets you in the train. Like Topaz and Aventurine literally talk to you the exact way they talked in the fake dream.
-Welt talks about the events in 2.2 fake ending as if they were REAL even though it happened in trailblazer's dream.
-NPCs right after the quest question if everything was a dream saying things like
"Hold on, I can't still be dreaming, can I...",
"Do you have this feeling that everything around us doesn't feel quite real... Like you've been living in a dream all this time?",
"feels like there's a lot more to the story..."
-REALLY sus text after reviewing memories on the TV saying "You can't tell what's real or fake... but that's enough for you... And so, you decide not to think about it anymore".
-The clock view from the train is STILL stuck on Penacony; time is not moving forward still.
-After doing the world quests on the new ship, the text says stuff suggesting that trailblazer is a "a brainwashed actor who is living in a false dream"
-The follow up quest as a whole was a mock of the fake dream ending. Like just do it and you'll see.
-The follow up quest QingQue says she feels "odd" like "something's missing" and that "everything was wrapped up too perfectly"
-Trailblazer STILL needs to wake up from the dream crying, which hasn't been resolved yet.
-2.4 event leaks are showing events that are related to dreams, even though we're likely going back to the Xianzhou. They're labelled like "Operation MEMORIA", and "that gray friend you once met in dreams".
-Acheron's messages being held for 2 versions until 2.3 where in the quest she emphasizes how we may likely never meet again, but in her text messages she says she's STILL on penacony.
-After the quest, you can buy a Hanu TV onto the express, which can only be used if you're in a dream.
Ratio's involvement as a whole being sus, purposefully not involving himself in this quest, and there's a lot connecting to him actually solving the anti-organic equation.
-Ratio also saying he's just a "supporting actor" when sparkle says everyone sees themselves as the main characters; either broken logic or he's purposefully doing so as a part of a plan (everyone needs to realize they're not the mc in order to wake up)
I hardly believe they would put in all these clues, break all the rules they established, and intentionally make the ending as uncertain as possible if not for the reason that wasn't real. The red herring in all of this is that we are likely going back to the Xianzhou next update.
Here's my final thoughts:
-The entirety of 2.3 is in trailblazer's dream, but certain scenes were real. Firefly's "death" in that scene was probably real, and trailblazer couldn't cope so locked back up in dream. It also explains the unusually cheesy ending with Firefly just descending after off-screen destroying Sparkle's bombs. It would ALSO explain Trailblazer finally waking up crying. Sunday and Robin's scenes were likely real though, and that's how it played out.
-We will still be sleeping in 2.4 and maybe onwards until they finally reveal the twist that something's wrong. The train has only 2 warps left in 'reality', so my assumption is that the train will go to Xianzhou, then back to Penacony.
4 Comments
the "we're still stuck in a dream" theory is based on a horrible misunderstanding of how the story works and it doesnt even make any sense within its internal logic
-welt talking about jing yuan is correct, black swan and acheron both confirm in blatant detail in 2.2 that there is a single dream under ena's order and that everything we experienced was still real. if the jing yuan thing was exclusively in the tb's dream, then nothing in penacony happened. this is dogshit writing
-not a single thing about qingque's line should be applied to 2.3 because it is a sidequest and she is referencing the sidequest
-the "brainwashed" actor line is because the blocks that give you that dialogue are related to the elation, it's 4th wall shenanigans
-the npcs are referencing being in a dream because it is a dreamscape
-the tb single handedly restarted the dream out of grief for firefly but firefly doesnt make any progress on her ELS? how does that make any sense? she openly rejects jade's deal
-"unusally cheesy ending" the entire arc is extremely cheesy, tb's big philosophical revelation is that "people sleep because they will wake up from their dreams."
-ratio was there to help aventurine make an opening, he literally says this
-they are not going to throw out one of if not their most popular character for the sake of a shock twist over three patches after the story actually ended, especially with how much she has set up to be relevant into the future
-most of the other evidence here has really plausible alternate explanations with a lot of the key evidence behind the theory being frankly dogshit (most of the npcs are in the dreamscape, the trailblazer's dialogue after the projection thing is really not that suspicious, it's kind of an open plot point of penacony wanting to expand the dream outside the planet so any outside reference to it should not be taken with weight)
-the same twist being done twice would be really fucking stupid
this twist being real would be a million times worse than what we got in 2.3
-welt talking about jing yuan is correct, black swan and acheron both confirm in blatant detail in 2.2 that there is a single dream under ena's order and that everything we experienced was still real. if the jing yuan thing was exclusively in the tb's dream, then nothing in penacony happened. this is dogshit writing
-not a single thing about qingque's line should be applied to 2.3 because it is a sidequest and she is referencing the sidequest
-the "brainwashed" actor line is because the blocks that give you that dialogue are related to the elation, it's 4th wall shenanigans
-the npcs are referencing being in a dream because it is a dreamscape
-the tb single handedly restarted the dream out of grief for firefly but firefly doesnt make any progress on her ELS? how does that make any sense? she openly rejects jade's deal
-"unusally cheesy ending" the entire arc is extremely cheesy, tb's big philosophical revelation is that "people sleep because they will wake up from their dreams."
-ratio was there to help aventurine make an opening, he literally says this
-they are not going to throw out one of if not their most popular character for the sake of a shock twist over three patches after the story actually ended, especially with how much she has set up to be relevant into the future
-most of the other evidence here has really plausible alternate explanations with a lot of the key evidence behind the theory being frankly dogshit (most of the npcs are in the dreamscape, the trailblazer's dialogue after the projection thing is really not that suspicious, it's kind of an open plot point of penacony wanting to expand the dream outside the planet so any outside reference to it should not be taken with weight)
-the same twist being done twice would be really fucking stupid
this twist being real would be a million times worse than what we got in 2.3
adding to above
- ratio was almost entirely responsible for aventurine's plan working out. he's a "side character" because he was not the main actor in the plan. also, him not seeing himself as a main character ties into his overall character which is unrelated to penacony.
-elio's entire thing with firefly was that defeating ena the order would result in her third death not coming true in its most terrible form, which would be...to remain trapped in a dream. i guess elio was just wrong and cant be trusted anymore? why are the hunters following him again?
-we already saw firefly die once and that didnt make us freak out so bad that we restarted the entire thing.
-sparkle's entire character is a red herring. this is all over her character story and several of her skills are named after things like this. im not sure why her doing the silly in 2.3 is any strange.
-the reason the story still isnt closed up is one, the entire swarm thing, two, the ipc conflict isn't resolved yet.
-this is the same game that didnt even fully commit to killing tingyun, as it was left open ended. gallagher and misha were respectively, never real and already dead. also gallagher's creator is left unresolved so you can't even be that sad for him. not sure why they'd deploy the ball twister now. on their most popular character.
-firefly's three deaths were literally all metaphorical. the first one was her getting stabbed by The Taxi. the second was her getting slashed and booted to lobby. why does the third one need to be real exactly?
- ratio was almost entirely responsible for aventurine's plan working out. he's a "side character" because he was not the main actor in the plan. also, him not seeing himself as a main character ties into his overall character which is unrelated to penacony.
-elio's entire thing with firefly was that defeating ena the order would result in her third death not coming true in its most terrible form, which would be...to remain trapped in a dream. i guess elio was just wrong and cant be trusted anymore? why are the hunters following him again?
-we already saw firefly die once and that didnt make us freak out so bad that we restarted the entire thing.
-sparkle's entire character is a red herring. this is all over her character story and several of her skills are named after things like this. im not sure why her doing the silly in 2.3 is any strange.
-the reason the story still isnt closed up is one, the entire swarm thing, two, the ipc conflict isn't resolved yet.
-this is the same game that didnt even fully commit to killing tingyun, as it was left open ended. gallagher and misha were respectively, never real and already dead. also gallagher's creator is left unresolved so you can't even be that sad for him. not sure why they'd deploy the ball twister now. on their most popular character.
-firefly's three deaths were literally all metaphorical. the first one was her getting stabbed by The Taxi. the second was her getting slashed and booted to lobby. why does the third one need to be real exactly?
@winter_stars I heavily disagree with this, but I suppose we'll see whose correct in a couple updates time. I cannot believe that this theory is seen as a misunderstanding when the entire 2.3 story was a disappointing, illogical downwards slope. Let me go into your points.
-You're totally right about this; I had assumed that each character waking up from their own interpretation of the dream meant that it was their own personal dream.
-It's not a random side quest; it is literally the follow up quest to the main story quest. Even if it were, the side quest is directly related to the plot with playable characters giving important info on their (theoretical) futures, so I have no idea why you think it's irrelevant. After doing the very silly missions and running into familiar faces, and one of the final interactions ends with QingQue saying this. If you don't think it has any possible foreshadowing, then could you tell me why you think they included it? No idea what your point was.
-That could be a part of it, but you're also ignoring the entire second half of the actor "living in a false dream".
-1.) The NPCs only do this after the quest. 2.) Other NPCs in different areas of the dreamscape don't have this type of dialogue; if they're referencing the dream they are mentioning their happiness/indulgence in it, while these lines are all kept vague, confused, and suspicious. You're being obsolete if you can't differentiate the intent behind these lines. If not, then tell me the intent behind them.
- I'm sorry, I'm lost on this point; are you saying that TB should have cured Firefly's ELS? If so, then maybe- I honestly have no idea if that would hold up in logic. I'd assume that's what Firefly would dream for given her convo with Jade, and TB would just wish for her life. Even then, I'm not so sure since they're following the path of Finality and Jade told her hypocrisy in 'struggling against her destiny'.
-You're taking one cringe ahh cutscene line to represent all the philosophical discussions that weren't even centered on TB. The purpose of the arc was for all these characters of different philosophies to figure out how they should live life. Aventurine vs Acheron's nihility, Robin vs Sunday and the dove, The Astral Express in 2.3, even Mikhail and Sparkle to an extent. Keep in mind, I am open to this story just straight up being ass; but with things as they are rn and most of my musings still not being shut down, I don't buy it.
- I am aware on Ratio's actions on Penacony, I was talking about 2.3 specifically. The moment he left the gc with a "K" was severely ooc; I mean just look at how he texts in his daily messages. Why did he just leave? What was his involvement this quest?
-I hardly doubt it would be a perm death; they'd probably pull some bullshit. I agree with you; I think they just set up her interactions with the Stellar hunters and it'd be idiotic to kill her off completely. Giving them the benefit of the doubt because they have 'killed' off Mikhail, Gallagher, and technically the version of Tingyun we see if we count her.
-If you think the evidence is wrong, then please expand on it don't just say there are possible explanations. Also what do you mean expanding the dream outside the planet? Are you talking about the dreamscape leak? I think it's silly to break the established rules
-I'm not happy with it, but I'm also not happy with the ending now so where do we go from here. To be fair, it does have some potential in execution showing some irony in a double bluff. I think it'd add some layers to HSR's writing if they are able to pull off a character making the wrong decision twice, then having to make the real decision.
You also did not go into depth on some of my other points like the clock view from the train, the HSR vid, the events, or the hanu tv, but no pressure or anything; writing essays discussing video games can be annoying lol. Maybe you just think they're unimportant, to which I would disagree.
If there's more I'm missing, feel free to correct me (I like discussing theories, and I'm writing this super early in the morning). There's also evidence suggesting the ending of 2.2 was a dream I can go into if you'd like. The common factor in all this is that we're still in a dream, and that there's stacked suspicious foreshadowings on this, despite this being the 'perfect ending'. I don't think you've convinced me; it's still a 50/50 on if it was just ass writing or not tbh.
-You're totally right about this; I had assumed that each character waking up from their own interpretation of the dream meant that it was their own personal dream.
-It's not a random side quest; it is literally the follow up quest to the main story quest. Even if it were, the side quest is directly related to the plot with playable characters giving important info on their (theoretical) futures, so I have no idea why you think it's irrelevant. After doing the very silly missions and running into familiar faces, and one of the final interactions ends with QingQue saying this. If you don't think it has any possible foreshadowing, then could you tell me why you think they included it? No idea what your point was.
-That could be a part of it, but you're also ignoring the entire second half of the actor "living in a false dream".
-1.) The NPCs only do this after the quest. 2.) Other NPCs in different areas of the dreamscape don't have this type of dialogue; if they're referencing the dream they are mentioning their happiness/indulgence in it, while these lines are all kept vague, confused, and suspicious. You're being obsolete if you can't differentiate the intent behind these lines. If not, then tell me the intent behind them.
- I'm sorry, I'm lost on this point; are you saying that TB should have cured Firefly's ELS? If so, then maybe- I honestly have no idea if that would hold up in logic. I'd assume that's what Firefly would dream for given her convo with Jade, and TB would just wish for her life. Even then, I'm not so sure since they're following the path of Finality and Jade told her hypocrisy in 'struggling against her destiny'.
-You're taking one cringe ahh cutscene line to represent all the philosophical discussions that weren't even centered on TB. The purpose of the arc was for all these characters of different philosophies to figure out how they should live life. Aventurine vs Acheron's nihility, Robin vs Sunday and the dove, The Astral Express in 2.3, even Mikhail and Sparkle to an extent. Keep in mind, I am open to this story just straight up being ass; but with things as they are rn and most of my musings still not being shut down, I don't buy it.
- I am aware on Ratio's actions on Penacony, I was talking about 2.3 specifically. The moment he left the gc with a "K" was severely ooc; I mean just look at how he texts in his daily messages. Why did he just leave? What was his involvement this quest?
-I hardly doubt it would be a perm death; they'd probably pull some bullshit. I agree with you; I think they just set up her interactions with the Stellar hunters and it'd be idiotic to kill her off completely. Giving them the benefit of the doubt because they have 'killed' off Mikhail, Gallagher, and technically the version of Tingyun we see if we count her.
-If you think the evidence is wrong, then please expand on it don't just say there are possible explanations. Also what do you mean expanding the dream outside the planet? Are you talking about the dreamscape leak? I think it's silly to break the established rules
-I'm not happy with it, but I'm also not happy with the ending now so where do we go from here. To be fair, it does have some potential in execution showing some irony in a double bluff. I think it'd add some layers to HSR's writing if they are able to pull off a character making the wrong decision twice, then having to make the real decision.
You also did not go into depth on some of my other points like the clock view from the train, the HSR vid, the events, or the hanu tv, but no pressure or anything; writing essays discussing video games can be annoying lol. Maybe you just think they're unimportant, to which I would disagree.
If there's more I'm missing, feel free to correct me (I like discussing theories, and I'm writing this super early in the morning). There's also evidence suggesting the ending of 2.2 was a dream I can go into if you'd like. The common factor in all this is that we're still in a dream, and that there's stacked suspicious foreshadowings on this, despite this being the 'perfect ending'. I don't think you've convinced me; it's still a 50/50 on if it was just ass writing or not tbh.
MiraMiraOTW
3 days ago