ADDITIONAL NOTES (will add more if needed to address more questions): About Tingyun-disguised Phantylia. - If you go to see Fu Xuan at the Divination Commission after the 1.3 quest, she will tell you that the Tingyun the crew met since they arrived on the Luofu had always been Phantylia. She didn't know when the real Tingyun was replaced, where she could be right now, whether she was still alive--but she could say for certain that the one AE met had always been Phantylia. - Also, remember the Foxian Trailblaze continuance quest? There was a heliobi that took the form of Bailu, and then hung out with the real Bailu herself. So, yes, conjuring up an illusion of another living being is a thing that heliobis can do, too.
I'm pretty sure that Ruan Mei drugged the trailblazer because she didn't want us telling Herta that she did a bunch of dangerous experiments with the Swarm in her space station.
She wouldn’t be doing suspicious and dangerous experiments with the acquired fossils then? Or I guess if she wouldn’t be doing it at the Space Station then it doesn’t matter much.
@@mangasinatanaelpanjaitan3048 There's a reason why Herta is one of the only two Emanators of Erudition alongside Zandar, a lot of people are so misinformed when it comes to the emanators of Erudition, not everyone in the genius society is a emanator
@@idontspeakjapanese6289 ye, it also makes sense why ruan mei isnt an emanator because she wants to be her own aeon of her own path i wonder what aeon she will become though, something to do with life but that kind of intrudes on abundance's territory, maybe resurrection?
OK, I did not know Ruan Mei tried to bring her parents back from the dead. This gives me flashbacks to Full Metal Alchemist, where the Elric brothers tried to do the same thing with their parent(s), but with alchemy, and, the result was a disaster. I imagine Ruan Mei's results weren't as disastrous with the failure of trying to bring her parents back from the dead as the Elric brothers had with their attempt to bring their dead parent(s) back from the dead in the FMA anime. Okay, I now see Ruan Mei has a past that makes sense with her trying to become an Aeon. Nobody is horrible to begin with. Our pasts and the experiences in said pasts shapes us as a person. Otto Apocalypse from HI3rd was a horrible person. Not only was Kallen the only good person in his childhood, his entire family was horrible. Not even his sister was a decent person. And Otto spent 500+ years trying to find a solution to bring Kallen back from the dead, as he was indirectly at fault for her death. And therefore blamed himself for Kallen dying. If Ruan Mei manages to find a way to revive the dead, Otto could've benefitted from her power. He wouldn't have needed to die to get a fruitful outcome of his goal. Otto spent 500+ years trying to find a way to bring back the dead. Only to find a conclusion that you can't bring back the dead. So, his best result that would be fruitful for his main goal, was to have someone kill him to send him closer to the Imaginary Tree, so that he could manipulate it to create another "branch", an AU, where that moment of his past had a different outcome and Kallen didn't die. Sacrificing himself even beyond death, as the price to pay for that. I apologize for keep bringing up Otto Apocalypse at every time I watch a video of the topic of Ruan Mei reviving the dead, but I can't help it. The idea of being able to bring back the dead sparks my memories of Otto Apocalypse from Honkai Impact 3rd. As I am a HI3rd Captain. He only extended his life on Earth through Soulium body doubles just to buy time to find a solution to bring back Kallen from the dead. That's a super high obsession. No wonder people like to jokingly call him "Simp-sama"
@@Yea_Just_Bread No. There's been a series of misinformation regarding the Erudition's Emanators claiming all of them are Emanators which is ridiculously false. From the database, only Herta and Zandar are the only ones who are considered as Emanators of Erudition, yes they are all invited by Nous to join the ranks of geniuses but only two were promoted as Emanators. See even the Enigmata propaganda is at work with the lore of the Erudition's 🤣
Phantylia is a Heliobus so I can't really imagine her wanting a fake, empty body with no benefits. She'd want the body's knowledge, memories and mannerisms for the infiltration and she might also want to feed on Tingyun's emotions like the rest of her kind. Meaning Tingyun should have been more useful to her alive for a while rather than leaving her corpse behind at a wreckage. She would at least need to spend time absorbing everything she needs from a living Tingyun before setting off to the Luofu. I also doubt the smoke would have posed a problem if Phantylia has such an iron grip on the body. If Tingyun's body was indeed left at the wreckage, then it might be possible that Phantylia left split embers of herself in it, which may be very relevant to Ruan Mei's interest(and will require containment). That said, you know who else seems to have an interest in the dead returning ? Sir Coffin Whisperer himself, Luocha who has a voiceline hinting that he's met Tingyun... but Tingyun(Phantylia) has a voiceline of her being confused that she doesn't have his records or remember such a businessman. Luocha like his other incarnation strikes me as a very 'rules-lawyer' kind of deception guy so if he says something it's probably at least right on a 'technically' level. I wouldn't be surprised if he has his fingers in even more events happening without him needing to get off his seat or people knowing he set it off.
Isn't it implied by that Luocha line that the Tingyun we have as a playable character is indeed the real one and not Phantylia? Which would make sense, since he and Jingliu did claim that they were responsible for the Stellaron so the Lord Ravager having contact with them while the real Tingyun doesn't even know about him (which makes sense since he only arrived at the Luofu while she wasn't there) seems plausible. And aside from the in-universe logic, writing wise the game really did a lot of work to tease that the real Tingyun is indeed out there. Blatantly stating it right after Phantylia revealed herself and keeping to back it up with arguments like "Well, Phantylia wouldn't have just killed her, she would have rather kept her alive to torture her" and such. Narratively speaking it wouldn't make sense to drop *so* many hints without there being more to it, so my guess would be that she was indeed left by the wreckage, especially now that we know that there a) was a wreckage and b) that Ruan Mei was there. In what state she was left behind is anyones guess though
Well, Tingyun always refused to accompany the crew whenever they were to meet Yukong, which I think was because she feared Yukong might know something was off about her. Also, how do we know all of her mannerisms when she was being the crew's tour guide was the real Tingyun's mannerism to begin with? As long as she could avoid meeting the people who were close to Tingyun, I think she'd be good not having to get Tingyun's mannerisms down to a T. You can also go see Fu Xuan at the Divination Commission. She'll straight up tell you that the Tingyun we met had always been Phantylia.
Randomly stumbled on this channel, and I am very happy I did! It's hard to find good lore content about star rail sadly... But your videos are just great!
i think the only reason why she didn’t drug himeko because himeko not doing any dirty work for her. She just asked her to deliver a leviathan fossil to her, while we tasked to clean up her dirty work a.k.a stall a literal cosmic disaster😂
A lot of fair points and a theory that ends up being in line with what we know about Ruan Mei and her (inexistant?) morals. Great job Rain, can’t wait for your next theory!
As I watching lots of your vids, My suspicion about Himeko had been greatly increased everyday. I've thinking about how the 'navigator' seem to know so much yet we know so little or just so plain about everything around her. The most obvious thing definitely be her VAST connection through everyone.
Right? Then we come to her asking about her, and she’s like, “Ah, I don’t have an interesting past.” Ma’am, you fixed a vehicle of an Aeon, there’s gotta be more to that. Good friends with Herta, has a connection with someone from the IPC, etc. There’s more to Himeko than she lets on.
After watching this I thought a bit and it kinda makes sense, it even gives Phantylia a valid motive for going after Tingyun specifically. Assuming Tingyun indeed does have some sort of borosin dna in her that piqued Ruan Mei's interest, then it's very likely that Phantylia knew about it too, probably through Danshin (forgot her name). If that were the case Phantylia targeted Tingyun not only because she would be a valuable way to sneak into the luofu, but being a foxian with borosin dna she could be useful for infiltrating the borosin as well. During the Trailblaze quest, it was mentioned that a foxian with nine tails appeared within the borosin and started corralling them into rescuing Hoolay. It was immediately agreed upon that the foxian is Phantylia. What if that form she used was Tingyun's form but in that moon rage state, or atleast some half between foxian and borosin that helped her gain the trust of the borosin? Since she's not only a heliobi but also an emanator, having the ability to copy not only Tingyun's normal form but her moon rage form may be within her powers.
Several things I think they could've done with the story around Tingyun and the funeral. First and foremost, they should've had us meet her on another planet like, I don't know, Jarilo 6. Her ship's route was taking her pass that planet when the Stelleron also happened to affect her ship and she had to make an emergency landing there. At the same time, the Express also has to make the emergency stop because of the Stelleron and we meet up with her on our way to Belebog and just have that adventure with her. The cast and the player now got to know this character more and her funeral and doubts about her survival have more impact. And one thing I do gotta say. I am disappointed that Tingyun didn't survive on her own and come back with more power on her own or have the story with Yukong going out to find her to redeem her times in the war. No, it had to be the mary sue scientist who is gonna bring her back which kind of hurts character development for Tingyun and Yukong.
I was also hoping Yukong would be more involved. When she said she would find out the truth about Tingyun’s disappearance, I thought she would be the one flying out, following Tingyun’s trail. She stopped taking to the sky after she lost Caiyi; now she’s flying one last time to save Tingyun. That would’ve been a good closure to her character arc. Or maybe they still have that in store for us, who knows? Once Ruan Mei is done with her experiments and everything.
Your theory is very good overall, one thing you missed and it's so fundamental it makes me find it hard to believe your theory at large. Phantylia is a heliobus, a memetic lifeform that needs a living medium to realize its power. Yes Tingyun was a real, living, foxian in the luofu. Tingyun that met with the Express in the entirety of the luofu story was also the real Tingyun. Why? Because we (the players) see with our own eyes that Phantylia came out of Tingyun's body and that wasn't an illusion
The body you were talking about disappeared right after Phantylia came out of it. That's the illusion part. The body. It disappeared. If you play the Foxian TB continuance quest, you'll know that heliobi can conjure up an illusion that takes the form of a person. The one that took Bailu's form was so indistinguishable from Bailu herself it scared her caretakers.
But then again, that would be a bad writing since her death wasn't even emotional at all, its also hard to sympathise w yukongs situation when we dont know them well, unlike Firefly's "death" was kinda more emotional as we literally spend our time w her and know more abt her story, while Tingyun was kinda just there and we can only learn abt yukong and tingyuns bond through their story rather than the main quest itself
So when did Ruan Mei meet Tingyun? Or her body? Was it before we woke up even... Because Ruan Mei could have worked with Phantylia to make a clone body... But why would she?
![[2.5] Godslayer Protocol: An Alliance with the Genius - Honkai: Star Rail Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BeK60LzCzEo/mqdefault.jpg)
![[2.5] Godslayer Protocol: An Alliance with the Genius - Honkai: Star Rail Theory](/img/tr.png)
![[2.3] The Express' End is the Hunters' Beginning - Honkai: Star Rail Theory](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rg7UR6TgPyg/mqdefault.jpg)
![F.HERO Ft. JSPKK x ลำไย ไหทองคำ x M-PEE - ไม่สนิทบิดหมด (Thai Riders Anthem) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPJZ0UihBfk/mqdefault.jpg)
![[2.5] Tingyun’s Return and Ruan Mei’s Ascension to Aeonhood - Honkai: Star Rail](/img/n.gif)
ADDITIONAL NOTES (will add more if needed to address more questions):
About Tingyun-disguised Phantylia.
- If you go to see Fu Xuan at the Divination Commission after the 1.3 quest, she will tell you that the Tingyun the crew met since they arrived on the Luofu had always been Phantylia. She didn't know when the real Tingyun was replaced, where she could be right now, whether she was still alive--but she could say for certain that the one AE met had always been Phantylia.
- Also, remember the Foxian Trailblaze continuance quest? There was a heliobi that took the form of Bailu, and then hung out with the real Bailu herself. So, yes, conjuring up an illusion of another living being is a thing that heliobis can do, too.
I'm pretty sure that Ruan Mei drugged the trailblazer because she didn't want us telling Herta that she did a bunch of dangerous experiments with the Swarm in her space station.
She wouldn’t be doing suspicious and dangerous experiments with the acquired fossils then? Or I guess if she wouldn’t be doing it at the Space Station then it doesn’t matter much.
Still hate her for drugging us like that
Herta already knows though. You can see her dolls stationed in Ruan Mei’s lab after all
@@mangasinatanaelpanjaitan3048 There's a reason why Herta is one of the only two Emanators of Erudition alongside Zandar, a lot of people are so misinformed when it comes to the emanators of Erudition, not everyone in the genius society is a emanator
@@idontspeakjapanese6289 ye, it also makes sense why ruan mei isnt an emanator because she wants to be her own aeon of her own path
i wonder what aeon she will become though, something to do with life but that kind of intrudes on abundance's territory, maybe resurrection?
Ok，now ~Tingyun is back and so pretty. Thank you Doc. Ruan Mei
everybody say thank you ruan mei
OK, I did not know Ruan Mei tried to bring her parents back from the dead. This gives me flashbacks to Full Metal Alchemist, where the Elric brothers tried to do the same thing with their parent(s), but with alchemy, and, the result was a disaster. I imagine Ruan Mei's results weren't as disastrous with the failure of trying to bring her parents back from the dead as the Elric brothers had with their attempt to bring their dead parent(s) back from the dead in the FMA anime. Okay, I now see Ruan Mei has a past that makes sense with her trying to become an Aeon. Nobody is horrible to begin with.
Our pasts and the experiences in said pasts shapes us as a person. Otto Apocalypse from HI3rd was a horrible person. Not only was Kallen the only good person in his childhood, his entire family was horrible. Not even his sister was a decent person. And Otto spent 500+ years trying to find a solution to bring Kallen back from the dead, as he was indirectly at fault for her death. And therefore blamed himself for Kallen dying.
If Ruan Mei manages to find a way to revive the dead, Otto could've benefitted from her power. He wouldn't have needed to die to get a fruitful outcome of his goal. Otto spent 500+ years trying to find a way to bring back the dead. Only to find a conclusion that you can't bring back the dead. So, his best result that would be fruitful for his main goal, was to have someone kill him to send him closer to the Imaginary Tree, so that he could manipulate it to create another "branch", an AU, where that moment of his past had a different outcome and Kallen didn't die. Sacrificing himself even beyond death, as the price to pay for that.
I apologize for keep bringing up Otto Apocalypse at every time I watch a video of the topic of Ruan Mei reviving the dead, but I can't help it. The idea of being able to bring back the dead sparks my memories of Otto Apocalypse from Honkai Impact 3rd. As I am a HI3rd Captain. He only extended his life on Earth through Soulium body doubles just to buy time to find a solution to bring back Kallen from the dead. That's a super high obsession. No wonder people like to jokingly call him "Simp-sama"
congrtas bro you pretty much guessed it😭
Ruan Mei is the epitome of “how many times do we need to keep teaching you this lesson old woman!?!?”
And if she ends up resurrecting Tingyun, what then? You’re still gonna be nagging her?
I am really surprised she is not an Emanator of Erudition considering that she embodies the same thirst for knowledge like Nous does
@@idontspeakjapanese6289 Aren't all members of The Genius Society considered as emanators of The Erudition?
@@Yea_Just_Bread No. There's been a series of misinformation regarding the Erudition's Emanators claiming all of them are Emanators which is ridiculously false. From the database, only Herta and Zandar are the only ones who are considered as Emanators of Erudition, yes they are all invited by Nous to join the ranks of geniuses but only two were promoted as Emanators. See even the Enigmata propaganda is at work with the lore of the Erudition's 🤣
@@idontspeakjapanese6289 Thanks for the correction lol
Phantylia is a Heliobus so I can't really imagine her wanting a fake, empty body with no benefits. She'd want the body's knowledge, memories and mannerisms for the infiltration and she might also want to feed on Tingyun's emotions like the rest of her kind. Meaning Tingyun should have been more useful to her alive for a while rather than leaving her corpse behind at a wreckage. She would at least need to spend time absorbing everything she needs from a living Tingyun before setting off to the Luofu. I also doubt the smoke would have posed a problem if Phantylia has such an iron grip on the body. If Tingyun's body was indeed left at the wreckage, then it might be possible that Phantylia left split embers of herself in it, which may be very relevant to Ruan Mei's interest(and will require containment).
That said, you know who else seems to have an interest in the dead returning ? Sir Coffin Whisperer himself, Luocha who has a voiceline hinting that he's met Tingyun... but Tingyun(Phantylia) has a voiceline of her being confused that she doesn't have his records or remember such a businessman. Luocha like his other incarnation strikes me as a very 'rules-lawyer' kind of deception guy so if he says something it's probably at least right on a 'technically' level. I wouldn't be surprised if he has his fingers in even more events happening without him needing to get off his seat or people knowing he set it off.
Isn't it implied by that Luocha line that the Tingyun we have as a playable character is indeed the real one and not Phantylia? Which would make sense, since he and Jingliu did claim that they were responsible for the Stellaron so the Lord Ravager having contact with them while the real Tingyun doesn't even know about him (which makes sense since he only arrived at the Luofu while she wasn't there) seems plausible.
And aside from the in-universe logic, writing wise the game really did a lot of work to tease that the real Tingyun is indeed out there. Blatantly stating it right after Phantylia revealed herself and keeping to back it up with arguments like "Well, Phantylia wouldn't have just killed her, she would have rather kept her alive to torture her" and such. Narratively speaking it wouldn't make sense to drop *so* many hints without there being more to it, so my guess would be that she was indeed left by the wreckage, especially now that we know that there a) was a wreckage and b) that Ruan Mei was there. In what state she was left behind is anyones guess though
Well, Tingyun always refused to accompany the crew whenever they were to meet Yukong, which I think was because she feared Yukong might know something was off about her. Also, how do we know all of her mannerisms when she was being the crew's tour guide was the real Tingyun's mannerism to begin with? As long as she could avoid meeting the people who were close to Tingyun, I think she'd be good not having to get Tingyun's mannerisms down to a T.
You can also go see Fu Xuan at the Divination Commission. She'll straight up tell you that the Tingyun we met had always been Phantylia.
Randomly stumbled on this channel, and I am very happy I did! It's hard to find good lore content about star rail sadly... But your videos are just great!
i think the only reason why she didn’t drug himeko because himeko not doing any dirty work for her. She just asked her to deliver a leviathan fossil to her, while we tasked to clean up her dirty work a.k.a stall a literal cosmic disaster😂
I’m curious what Himeko would say about it now that she’s returned.
A lot of fair points and a theory that ends up being in line with what we know about Ruan Mei and her (inexistant?) morals. Great job Rain, can’t wait for your next theory!
this aged well
As I watching lots of your vids, My suspicion about Himeko had been greatly increased everyday.
I've thinking about how the 'navigator' seem to know so much yet we know so little or just so plain about everything around her.
The most obvious thing definitely be her VAST connection through everyone.
Right? Then we come to her asking about her, and she’s like, “Ah, I don’t have an interesting past.” Ma’am, you fixed a vehicle of an Aeon, there’s gotta be more to that.
Good friends with Herta, has a connection with someone from the IPC, etc. There’s more to Himeko than she lets on.
@@Rainthority Himeko dies in every honkai series, it maybe that Ruan mei revived her in Star rail.
I just want a five star Tingyun ready already.
Man, Tingyun can't catch a break, from dead character to "ginuea pig."
It’s hard being the IT girl you know 😔
Tingyun being the target as usual
Another clue, that can make theory of Himeko being a Ploka Kakamond this whole time, to be a true... intriguing...
At the end of the 2.5 Story quest **SPOILER AHEAD**
Tingyun's voice is heard just saying her name at one of the ending cutscenes.
After watching this I thought a bit and it kinda makes sense, it even gives Phantylia a valid motive for going after Tingyun specifically.
Assuming Tingyun indeed does have some sort of borosin dna in her that piqued Ruan Mei's interest, then it's very likely that Phantylia knew about it too, probably through Danshin (forgot her name). If that were the case Phantylia targeted Tingyun not only because she would be a valuable way to sneak into the luofu, but being a foxian with borosin dna she could be useful for infiltrating the borosin as well.
During the Trailblaze quest, it was mentioned that a foxian with nine tails appeared within the borosin and started corralling them into rescuing Hoolay. It was immediately agreed upon that the foxian is Phantylia. What if that form she used was Tingyun's form but in that moon rage state, or atleast some half between foxian and borosin that helped her gain the trust of the borosin? Since she's not only a heliobi but also an emanator, having the ability to copy not only Tingyun's normal form but her moon rage form may be within her powers.
RAINTHORITY, please make a amphoreus theory video and MY LIFE IS YOURSSS
I've got you.
This is great! Ty 4 the vid🎉
WAIT. WAIITTTTT.
LET HER COOK
You're gf is a CHEF! ♥️
Several things I think they could've done with the story around Tingyun and the funeral.
First and foremost, they should've had us meet her on another planet like, I don't know, Jarilo 6. Her ship's route was taking her pass that planet when the Stelleron also happened to affect her ship and she had to make an emergency landing there. At the same time, the Express also has to make the emergency stop because of the Stelleron and we meet up with her on our way to Belebog and just have that adventure with her.
The cast and the player now got to know this character more and her funeral and doubts about her survival have more impact.
And one thing I do gotta say. I am disappointed that Tingyun didn't survive on her own and come back with more power on her own or have the story with Yukong going out to find her to redeem her times in the war.
No, it had to be the mary sue scientist who is gonna bring her back which kind of hurts character development for Tingyun and Yukong.
I was also hoping Yukong would be more involved. When she said she would find out the truth about Tingyun’s disappearance, I thought she would be the one flying out, following Tingyun’s trail. She stopped taking to the sky after she lost Caiyi; now she’s flying one last time to save Tingyun. That would’ve been a good closure to her character arc. Or maybe they still have that in store for us, who knows? Once Ruan Mei is done with her experiments and everything.
Yukong knows, Fei xhao tell her
Patently waiting for that inevitable Aeon RM boss fight.
Or better yet, we have Aeon Ruan Mei as assist while fighting other Aeon boss
2:05 thanks for reminding me again🥲
It pained me too :')
Making it sound like Ryan Mei is about to be an emanator of abundance
Actually upon further reflection it seems very on brand for her to catch Yaoshi’s gaze considering all she does is cultivate/create life
No shes a pathstrider of harmony and wants to be Aeon of nurturing
But fexhao got better after 2.5 quest because of the crimson moon given to her by hooley the borison warhead
Ting yun theories we are so back
10:43 you're cooking so good
"unalive"
Dont ever cook again...
“cook”
Dont ever comment again…
Your theory is very good overall, one thing you missed and it's so fundamental it makes me find it hard to believe your theory at large. Phantylia is a heliobus, a memetic lifeform that needs a living medium to realize its power.
Yes Tingyun was a real, living, foxian in the luofu. Tingyun that met with the Express in the entirety of the luofu story was also the real Tingyun. Why? Because we (the players) see with our own eyes that Phantylia came out of Tingyun's body and that wasn't an illusion
The body you were talking about disappeared right after Phantylia came out of it. That's the illusion part. The body. It disappeared.
If you play the Foxian TB continuance quest, you'll know that heliobi can conjure up an illusion that takes the form of a person. The one that took Bailu's form was so indistinguishable from Bailu herself it scared her caretakers.
Pinagsasabi mo ate ko
When are you gonnnna streammmm
I love tingyun, but i would prefer if they keep the only dead character on our side dead, especially since it set up a yukong story
But then again, that would be a bad writing since her death wasn't even emotional at all, its also hard to sympathise w yukongs situation when we dont know them well, unlike Firefly's "death" was kinda more emotional as we literally spend our time w her and know more abt her story, while Tingyun was kinda just there and we can only learn abt yukong and tingyuns bond through their story rather than the main quest itself
Gallagher? MISHA?
5:05 "Steel wool's doing" someone played a lot of fnaf lately, nah?
I just cannot English that’s all.
First and keep cooking
These "first" comments stopped being "cute" long time ago, at least be creative
@@vincikeeper1581 I never intended like that lol, also it isn't just "first."
@@FormerEmiliaBestWifi yeah ok
So when did Ruan Mei meet Tingyun? Or her body? Was it before we woke up even... Because Ruan Mei could have worked with Phantylia to make a clone body...
But why would she?