Tell me about it, to this day I have no fucking clue what was going on there... (Still hoping for a PS4/5 port, neither my PC nor my phone can handle these games)
@@SonnyFRST mei use the remaining data of her memories and the flamechaser to revive elysia so that she can erase the elysian realm along the hersher of corruption, mei go out of the reaalm and elysia before erasing the realm, she has her last "dance party" with the remaining memories of the flamechasers against the hersher, erasing the hersher, the realm and themselves.
This is the song, of the girl who loved humanity. And the song of the thirteen who fought for the future. Do you choose to walk in the same path as them? Or do you choose to diverge from said path? Either way, you're granting their wishes. A future.
@Gottes God that’s the best thing about art though, it’s about how you interpret it in your own way! You’re projecting your refusal or inability to read & interpret the medium as a way of feeling superior to others seems kinda silly, don’t you think?
At the end in the credits the scenes really illustrate the human side of most of the flame chasers. Pardofelis, playing with stray cats when she was living on the streets Griseo with her parents Mobius and Klein Kosma and Dystopia Kalpas in the orphanage Sakura with her sister Rin, who would eventually be killed by her comrades after becoming the host for the 12th Herrscher. Eden, singing her last song to a desolate world Su and one of his patients Aponia, using her power to make sure that humanity passes painlessly during their defeat at the hands of HotE. Fu Hua at the Dojo before her life was turned upside down. Vill-V with each of her personalities reflected in the mirrors. And then there’s Kevin, fighting a honkai beast with nothing but a baseball bat.
Of all those featured Flame Chasers, the one that would maybe resonate with you the most is Eden (long, maroon hair and dress). She was an incredibly popular vocalist/artist in the previous era, until the 7th Herrscher destroyed Sydney and turned the rest of Australia into a fiery wasteland. She joined the fight to try and stop Honkai after that. When they lost to the Herrscher of the End, and those few survivors were loading into cryo pods to wake in the future and help rebuild humanity, she chose instead to stay, believing that she belonged to her era and that she should die with it. She walked out into the desolate, wasteland alone full of deadly honkai radiation, singing her final song to humanity and her era.
what’s more is that she’s an opera singer!! despite agents telling her that no one listens to opera anymore, she was determined to ‘find her own stage‘ and broke through as probably the most famous and influential singer of that era. her story is beautiful even through its tragedy
Seconding this sentiment! Without giving away any specific details, Eden truly believes in the power of art and her story resonates with that feeling. Such was the gift of the golden diva, that "heavenly voice", much like her likely namesake, the Garden of Eden. As a player who got attached to learning about all the Flamechasers the more I played through and read their stories, Eden's I think made me cry twice because I felt her a lot (as well how she moved those whose lives she touched too). Truly an artist. I can see why she was loved deeply. There's beautiful moments in the story (both the main story and in the Elysian Realm interactions & memories) about that philosophy of hers and reading about it was a deeply moving experience I cherish. So beautiful.
To add even more context, she wasn't just singing for humanity and the past era. In fact that was probably more of a surface level reason/excuse. She actually stayed to be with and to sing for her dear friend Elysia.
Fun fact. The code you can see bottom left is actual code. You can see how the enemy Herrscher attacks and cripples Elysia. Pretty cool in my oppinion.
@@Kryto_Gaming Someone broke it down in the comments of the cinematics. Basically it erases components which relates to what Elysia has taken away from her (her eye, her bow, her arms)
i personally used to skip the opera bits because in earlier videos the volume was way louder on them and it actually just hurt my ears. a lot better now, and i don't skip them any more!
elysia is the christ of honkai, she is the daughter of god (imaginary tree), she has 12 apostles, 1 judas, a crown of thorns, her pure love for humanity, her last banquet and her sacrifice to bring hope to the people of the next era, elysia has never been human but has always been a herrsher since her birth SHe wanted to create his own paradise (elysian realm)
Yes! Elysia is Hoyovere's twist on Jesus Christ. Elysia even ressurects in the cinematic: 3 chapters - kind of like 3 days of death in the Bible. Her cartoon chibi short has her younger self walking in a ruined city, all dirty and tattered. (She was "born human" and took on the blame and was killed later in life.) Biblically, God is the groom and Humanity is his bride. Elysia is the inverse being the bride marrying humanity - the groom. (That's why she has a wedding dress) I love Elysia. She is also the #0th Herrscher. (I guess Alpha and Omega. It Starts and Ends with Elysia - said Kevin.) P.S. out of all the cutscenes, this battle was the most decisive of them all... Elysia was just that damn powerful, her kiss/wink Godray attack showed so much sass.... like she is now finally showing her true self. (Absolutely powerful) Compared that to Everlasting Flames - that was a tough fight.
She feels like if Jesus in a anime waifu 🤣 with the eternal love like Jesus, a herscher and human at the same time (Jesus is 100% God and 100% human%), there are 13 flamechaser (including elysia) and there are 12 students of Jesus
To be fair, apart from Cyberangel which was pure hype, which MiHoYo animation hasn't made everyone cry like a baby? I feel like that's just the risks that come with watching a MiHoYo animation at this point xD
@@triopsate3 At this point whenever there's a new cinematic I'm less curious if I'll cry or not, because I know I will, but what sort of tears will those be. Because it's not just sadness, it's all kinds of emotions from loss to "I'M SO PROUD OF YOU KIANA LET'S FREAKIN GOOO!!". I've never cried to any piece of media as much as I do to this dumb game lol.
An interesting little detail is that the creature controlling that digital world had gained such control it could even rewind time and rewrite reality, but when Elysia is talking about "moving forward" and the creature tries to rewind time, she ACTUALLY CHASTISES IT and forces time to keep moving forward. Such is her power.
The story of nameless girl thad once awaken in the forest, she was bring to village by man and live there in orphanage, but she was different than others, always smiled and cherish. Once she get book about man who goes on the yourney to find his paradise, but he never find it, insteed he meet more people who goes with him to search, in the end they created their own paradise together, their Elysium. Elysia chosed her name and the same as a man from the story, she also go on the same yourney, where she meet all sorts of people, some of them were good, others bad, some helped her others not, some were honest, others lied to her, but she still loved them all. After her yourney she chose to become a Moth member and fight for humanity... even so she never was a human in the first place, yet she was more human than most other... in the end she chose to die, to give another future to humanity. The story of Elysia the first traitor of Honkai, the Herrscher that become human. Herrscher of the human ego.
"Ushering in a new era" is so scarily accurate, it's so impressive how he can get so close to the situation in the story without ever actually knowing anything about it. Though, the actual animation is definitely made for the people who have followed all of these characters from the beginning; it's kind of hard to just jump in without any context and understand it fully.
Fun fact: Elysia's Chinese voice actor is the same as Lumine's Chinese voice actor (Yes, the Lumine from Genshin Impact) She suddenly became my favourite Chinese voice actor after I know about that. I always enjoy voice actors who can change their voice to fit a character so well and also hard for fans to even tell apart.
Nahhhhh... NAHHHHHHH!!! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!! I CHECKED AND YOU ARE RIGHT, WATEFAK!!! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT- AHHH HELL NAH WAIT, SHIT!!! NOELLE AND QIQI TOO!!!
(In the event this hasn't been noted) Elysia's 'bestie' (and perhaps her lover) - the Flame Chaser, Eden - was the Golden Diva and the most popular singer and songwriter of the last days of the Previous Era civilization the Flame Chasers lived in. Eden had wanted to write a song for Elysia, but could never work out what best suited Miss Pink Elf, and never completed it before Elysia - and then Eden - died. Some fans take "TruE" as the song Eden finally wrote for her friend, as a sim in the Elysian Realm. The music video for the song, featuring the vocalist, could be interpreted to represent that as well, with vocalist in the role of Eden. You & Eden are kindred spirits, Marco. ;-) Eden met Elysia when Ellie attended one of Eden's opera performances.
Now maybe it clicks, when elysia asked sakura for music inspiration for eden's new piece, since sakura's music taste is either techno or smth idk and then 'TruE' is made
@@adem1829 There are numerous comments on Elysia's part to infer it. And I'm far from the only member of the community to reach that conclusion. But feel free to interpret it however you wish. The suggestion of multiple possible 'truths' is perfectly in keeping with so many of the themes of the story.
As always, you've picked up on the majority of the context through the lyrics and the music! There's a few more bits of context that can't be gleaned from the video which might be of note: (spoilers for Honkai Impact 3) The Flamechasers were the heroes of a previous era of humanity, that was destroyed by Honkai long ago. They ultimately failed to save humanity from the honkai, and as the last Herrscher appeared and made the planet uninhabitable, most of them died buying time for what remained of humanity to go into cryosleep, which lead to the current era. Elysian Realm is a digital reconstruction of these thirteen Flame Chasers, to tell the story of their lives, their happiness and sadness, and victories and griefs, not just the cold facts that they had fought and lost. The digital copy of Elysia, the main character of this animated short, had been guiding Raiden Mei (from Honkai World Diva) about the Realm to tell her about these thirteen people and by extension, the struggles and pride of the Previous Era. In particular, Elysia herself was a Herrscher, with the power to be human - and she sacrificed herself to let all future Herrschers (such as Mei) the opportunity to stay human instead of becoming slaves to a power that wishes solely to destroy. (cutting out everything but the most pertinent information-) The Elysian realm is invaded by an AI Herrscher which wishes to devour the entire world and everyone with it, and after much sacrifice and with the remainder of the flame chasers being consumed by the Herrscher of Corruption, Elysia makes the choice to fight against it alone, to restore her friends for one last battle (that they had never done before) before she destroys the Elysian realm to stop the Herrscher escaping. And she knows the world is in good hands, because Mei and her friends are there to guide this story to a happy ending. Letting go of the past for the new future to be told by the younger generation...
Amazing explanation, you are the only one I've seen out sooo many people and specially out of 4 youtubers that cover honkai lore notice that it was Elysia that freed future Herrschers from becoming slaves of destruction.
Elysium Everlasting. A both reference to Greek place called Elysium Fields And the whole story of Elysian Realm being a reference to a absolute spectacular and magnificent, special: Fire MOTH DLC of Honkai Gakuen. Elysium Everlasting is the succesor of FIRE MOTH DLC, a time spanning across 7 years, yet that 7 years ago story still impacted the whole Honkai story writing about optimism. That's how powerful that story is. And finally, the most beautiful side story got a successor, both of them are side stories, but they delivered a optimism, and lesson in a narrative that is fable-like told by Aesop himself. Elysium Fields, a place where heroes rest, where never again they would pick up their weapons and live in the paradise. However, these heroes are nameless, because no one knows them, no one remembers them, so if a living being that who can leave in this place enters it... They would want to relieve their memories, share their ideals and memory, and leave a legacy. Because the one truly became dead if no one remembers them. Living in a world where no one remembers you, your emotions, your pain and grief for living, and the legacies you want to leave behind just to prove you have existed in this world is painful. So they want to rely and live on the living's memory, inspiring them and move on. They are gone. Flamechasers are gone. They will remain in the past. Flamechasers will remain in the past. The living will move. Mei will move on. Towards a future those heroes paved, way beyond their graves. They will walk past and way beyond the Flamechaser's graves where the future they creates ends. And the living will create their own path. Mei will create her own future. If you ever feel tired or in pain. Just look back and you will see. That they are always there, waving towards your accomplishments. For the past 7 years, FIRE MOTH DLC is the only one who made me cry for 7 times of playing the whole arc, not because it's depressing tragedy, but the bitter optimism. And now, it feels like it's a throwback to 2015. Thank you Flamechasers Thank you Mei Thank you Kyuushou Thank you Fire MOTHS Thank you MiHoYo. And thanks to myself and other ancient beings supporting the game. "Do not lament the passing civilization, embrace the future with your hands." -7th Flamechaser, SU
miHoyo/Hoyoverse loves to use story parallels between all their games. The events at Nagazora is very similar to the opening chapters of Honkai Gakuen or GGZ as well, and Raiden Mei's character background is very similar thematically with Raiden Ei in Genshin
@@zackang4731 how is Ei's and mei's background similar? Ei didn't tried to jump from rooftop nor her father ran away to get milk. Nor she was possessed by something
@@PowerMiner It is thematic, not so much the exact details. Both plays out the concepts of dual, clashing wills in a single body - which eventually reconciled
I want you to know Elysian Realm is basically a cyberspace and the "visitor" is Raiden Mei, The Herrscher of Thunder. Mei is also the purple haired girl in Lament of The Fallen & Will of The Herrscher. EDIT: Reaver 225 made a MUCH better comment than mine 8 minutes before mine about this.
@@lichtsarf4775 tbh, the "visitor" applies to Mei and the Herrscher of Corruption as they were the real visitors of the Realm, but some can say that she is also breaking the fourth wall because she understands that she is a simulation so she is also talking to us the viewer... there are many interpretation to what she means but the most literal meaning and metaphorical meaning but both are equally sad to know
I think TruE and Because of You animation are perfectly summed up in one sentence said by Elysia herself; "Tragedy isn't the end. It's the beginning of hope". She said that line after seeing Eden's opera play, which is also their first time meeting each other. It's amazing how much context a song can do to other forms of art and it even amplifies what message the creators are trying to tell its viewers/listeners. What is even more amazing is how you can easily pick these up, translate, and understand the meaning. You even understood what the end credits show, it's their beginnings before the Honkai ruined eveything, with the exception of Eden's where it shows her end.
The elysian realm arc was definitely the hardest for me to do, easily cried the most during it out of any other arc, such a amazing story and the animation and music did not let down especially the ending of the animation when showing all the flame chasers, it hit hard.
Made you realize how twisted we are when Elysia was too good to be true being kind to everyone, made you think she has an evil side and ulterior motives. Turns out she was the purest definition of LOVE OF HUMANITY. She loved everything there is in humanity and embraced them. Which in turn the 13 Flamechasers reciprocated when they dedicated their lives to her.
It's interesing when you mentioned the word "tree" on the lyrics. Within Hoyoverse, trees play an important role within the world of both Honkai and Genshin. The World of Tree, where all Universes and timelines are there as branches --- the Irminsul Trees which the Ley Lines remain there, collected as the memories of the past, present and future. The Venessa Tree, the Dragon Queller and the Great Sakura tree of Narukami Shrine, all these trees served as memories for the Archons that had lost someone dear to them. I like to believe that this particular line is about history. And since trees are know for living for a long time, holding memories for those had planted that seed, and it's up to that person to carry on the whispets of these stories.
I adore the ending credits version of TruE, it sounds so melancholic and it absolutely slapped me in the face with feels, especially after going through the storyline and every character's stories. Tbf the whole thing beats you up with emotions, like that one scene where they were all together supporting Elysia. It's sadder to imagine that everyone lead normal lives like we did, then everything went downhill and suddenly they have this huge burden of fighting for not just their survival, but all of humanity. It was an amazing cutscene to honour the legacy of the 13 Flamechasers who were never perfect, but were heroes nonetheless :') Thanks for the video Marco!
Fun fact about "Because of You": The Display aspect ratio was reduced from 16:9 to 4:3 when Ely suffered tremendous damage fighting the eye, went back from 4:3 to 16:9 when Ely transformed, further upgraded to 21:9 when all the flame chasers' past were introduced.
14:08 "This is the True Ending". If only... If only... Nice video, really impressive how much your deduction are accurate about the story even if you don't play the game.
TruE is such a banger, straight up pop song vibes from a video game. Is it wrong to feel a little ashamed that I love this song so much? Like it's not something I would listen to with a friend or a parent. It's just so hard to share this song with people who don't play this game. I always feel like I'll be judged harshly just for enjoying this music.
Damn, what do your friends/parents listen to that you're ashamed to play this to them? As another old guy let me say this: I'm very toxic to some genres but my own musical preferences are broad af so just enjoy the songs you love, like I do. 👍
14:08 Actually its not the ending, this little slideshow is (for the most part) the lives of the Flame Chasers BEFORE joining the MOTHs and becoming MANTIS/Flame Chasers. By the time of the animation all of them (aside from 2, though a couple are ambiguous) have long since died, with the animation being the destruction of the Elysian Realm which contained simulations of the Flame Chasers created from psychic scans of their minds. The first is Pardofelis way back before she even knew what the MOTHs were, when she was living on the streets of Sundown Alley, where she would often hang around the stray cats. The second is Hua back when she stilled lived with her father who ran a martial arts dojo. The third is Griseo and takes place when she was still living with her parents, before they died and she was forced into becoming a MANTIS to save her life. The fourth is Mobius with her assistant Klein, this one actually takes place while she was with the MOTHs as Mobius is one of the founders of the organization, when this takes place I'm unsure but likely after one of her self experimentations, potentially the one that turned her into a MANTIS. The fifth is Kosma hanging around with Dystopia, personally I'm not too sure about when this takes place. The sixth is Sakura with her sister Rin, likely taking place before she joined back when she was working as an assassin to protect and provide for her little sister. The seventh is Su back when he was working as a doctor, before he suffered from a Honkai infection and joined MOTHs after being cured. The eighth is Kalpas back when he was living in an orphanage in Sundown Alley. The ninth is Vill-V doing her magic shows. The tenth contrasts the others by showing an ending, this being Eden right before died, singing her final song to civilization as the Final Herrscher destroyed everything around her. The eleventh I really don't know but it's Aponia sometime after becoming a MANTIS. The twelfth is Kevin's beginning, taking place during the 3rd Eruption and right before he joined the MOTHs. And, well, the thirteenth is Elysia right after destroying the Elysian Realm to defeat the Herrscher of Corruption. If you invert the order and switch Kevin and Elysia you actually get the ranking of the Flame Chasers as well, Kevin being 1st, Eylsia 2nd, Aponia 3rd, Eden 4th, Vill-V 5th, Kalpas 6th, Su 7th, Sakura 8th, Kosma 9th, Mobius 10th, Griseo 11th, Hua 12th, and Pardofelis 13th. Also fun note, the rankings aren't based on strength or anything, but the whims of Elysia. Kevin is 1st cause he's the leader, Elysia WAS the 1st to screw with Kevin but changed to 2nd when he gave no reaction, Su was 7th because he was the balanced "voice of reason" among the group so he was given the middle number, Mobius was 10th because she's dangerous and Elysia wanted to mitigate any potential authority a higher rank would give, while Griseo, Hua, and Pardofelis were given the bottom three rankings due to being the youngest of the group and Elysia wanting to keep them out of the politics of MOTH (Pardo being dead last because she was the weakest of them all).
Pardo was prob the mvp of the battle on the moon sacrifised herself so Kevin could land the blow that delayed the HoTE, alluded when sim pardo held open the gate for Kevin.
looking at old comments, the statement Pardo is the weakest is so funny because she absolutely bodied everyone else in the Flame-Chasers battle voting Event (at least in SEA)
This video is like.. the feeling your grandparents left us a memento that we could remember them by. And then because of circumstances, we have to part with that memento forever.
TruE and Because of You are another great example of Honkai's favorite move - start sad/melancholy/hopeless do a lot of flashy and epic fighting and finish on hope. The story does this with Meteoric Salvation, Shattered Samsara and Moon Halo and once again with this. The fandom likes to talk about how gut-wrenching and sad the story is but I think a lot of people forget or just miss that it is ultimately more of often than not a story about finding hope. Even if you have to dig in the ruins of tragedy to do so. TruE is also a passing of a torch of sorts but I can't speak in detail about it without spoiling ALL of the Elysian Realm story and some other stuff besides.
Forgot to mention one detail. The last part of the song has a lot of flower-related imagery, which is not a coincidence. The symbol on Elysia's signets in the Realm depicts a flower (a stylized rose), and the item which increases the chance to get said signets during a run is a crystalline flower. Some of Elysia's skill names (both the Miss Pink Elf and the Herrscher of Human battlesuits) contain references to flowers. In some of the interactions with her she likens herself to a flower. It seems that the lines "petals linger about awaiting one last dance" refer to Elysia's memory sim, and the final battle with the Herrscher of Corruption.
Elysian Realm and the story of the Flamechasers has been such a great ride. It's amazing how Hoyo managed to not only introduce a new game mode but also integrated it into the story in such a clever fashion that players that aren't up to speed on the whole plot can enjoy the mode and its story while for veteran players it fills in all kinds of blanks about lore that is hinted at in the game but which predates the main plot but 50k years. The ultimate fate of the Elysian Realm is also really cool to think about when you consider that some of the characters that exist as memory simulations in the Elysian Realm are still alive in the present era for various reasons while side-lore and story content in the in-game Elysian Realm mode reveals the ultimate fate of other members of the group that died 50k years ago. Clearly the people writing the story for Honkai put a ton of effort into it and have also planned out a lot of their story content years in advance, what with all the foreshadowing that you encounter in other parts of the game. I guess the only realm problem with Honkai is that it's narrative components (Visual novel + Web Manga + Animated shorts) appeal to a very specific player niche and are also nested in a kind of game (action RPG gacha) that has a specific appeal and as a result the overall audience is probably significantly smaller than it would be if it was told in a more traditional form. Personally I'm hoping that if the Genshin anime series sees a lot of success then maybe Hoyo will make a proper Honkai Impact series. Certainly for Hoyo the universe and story of Honkai is their favoured child (No offence intended to any Genshin players, I enjoy that game too but not for the narrative) and it would be great if they could introduce more people to it. I think that if random gacha games like Girls Frontline and Princess Connect can get an anime then Honkai Impact certainly deserves a shot...
As Elysia (The MC of this animated short) said, "Tragedy isn't the end, it the beginning of hope" I'm really amazed with your reaction. Despite going in blind, you still managed to get the story. Cuz for real, this animated isnt that easy to understand without the content. Keep this up. I like your vids.
First pause for analysis and you pretty much already nailed it. To what most of us would be a sad and somber message, is told with hope and happiness by Elysia. "Tragedy isn't the end, it's the beginning of hope"
This one is hardest to understand without context and you pretty much nailed it(minus the details)which is insane..love your reactions to music and animations
Lore is one thing, but there's so many blink-and-you-miss things in it. Music inserts from past trailers, Elysia smiling as she gets absorbed, the giant Ellie NGE reference, the image format and animation style changes... They went deep and clever with this.
This was such a perfect sendoff. Hoyo had us get to know the 13 Flamechasers over the past year before killing every one of them off over 3 updates. Once again telling a story lost in time because it's the second time the Flamechasers had died for humanity. The song is a love letter from Elysia to a world she'll never get to know. To the billions of people who'd live thousands of years after her death. It speaks of her hope that the new humanity will surpass her own era and defeat the honkai. "Save your tears for the day so far away ... the ships that run aground relaunch their sails." She's singing to the future comrades that'll pick up the fight that she lost. Your stories have yet to start. It's a very hopeful but sad song, perfectly fitting Elysia. Elysia also has a sort of Jesus arc and in the Elysian Everlasting, her final storyline it goes to a very close allegory. The daughter of God descended down to Earth spontaneously born into existence without any parents. She makes a home of everywhere she goes, brings comfort to those suffering and spreads a message of hope and love to all of humanity. That was the Elysia that lived 50000 years before the start of the game. The Elysia in the realms dies on the first day of the Elysian Everlasting storyline and she raises from the dead on the third. It's the story of her and her 13 disciples, the other 12 Flamechasers and Mei bring hope for a new era of humanity. They defeat the very enemy that wiped out almost every human of the previous era and leave Mei with a gift that allows her to help bring closure to the repeated cycle of annihilation that wipes out every 50000 years. Elysia died for humanity 50000 years ago. Then she dies for humanity again when she defeated it's second greatest enemy before it could get out to the rest of the world and commit untold atrocities yet again.
As player this arc really hit me hard. Now this video make me understand more deeply about this music i nearly cry myself. The 13 flame chaser is like a legacy left behind to help future generation. The previous era had a hard time dealing with Honkai. There not so much for me to comment because look like other had explaining about this arc without spoiling so much. Well there some spoiler so be careful hahah XD
Im telling you. Everytime I see all of them standing together to actually fight together which they never did when they were alive, I was ponding my chest to show respect man
I'm still shocked at how well you´re able to interpret the lyrics, you´re able to figure out the base of the story even before watching the animation. Thanks for listening Marco, I hope you keep covering to future Honkai songs
Fastest notification click in the west Edit: This is me once again thanking you Marco for bringing such a rich outlook on video game music to your audience. Keep up the hard work . Nothing but love
this is a story about the flamechasers, the 13 people who failed to become heroes, and most importantly this is a story about elysia a being who was created by pure honkai energy and later known as the 0th herrscher and yet unlike other herrschers of the previous era who seeks destruction, she fell in love with humanity and wishes them to grow and prosper this story unfolds inside the elysian realm a super advanced AR VR mix built using the memories of the 13, inside this realm they live their life as sims waiting for visitors from the current era to retell their stories, their struggle, the small victories and their eventual defeat in the hands of the honkai further replies will be spoiler heavy!
visitors from the current era that are deemed worthy are given a choice if they want to bear a signet inheriting the will of a flamechaser on fighting the honkai. but those who are deemed unworthy were kicked out or worse, killed inside the realm. their current visitor is a peculiar one a herrscher who is fighting for humanity, raiden mei and she unknowingly brought a dormant herrscher with her while visiting the realm how would a group of people who are specialized on neutralizing herrschers reacts when they meet an anti-thesis of what they were fighting? How would elysia a herrscher that fights for humanity reacts when she meets the fruit of her effort? how would raiden mei reacts when she saw a different version of her friend, hua? how would the flamechasers react when they realized raiden mei brought a herrscher that almost killed the remains of humanity in the past era?
This PV! Has been haunting my recommends for weeks and I love it so much! It's so sad and beautiful. The slow version of TruE at the end with the stills of the other chasers gets me so much. I'm crying atm ; w;
I literally just finished this chapter and arc of the story today, as I'm trying to catch up. Having gotten to know all 13 of these characters throughout this arc, seeing everything they fought for and everything they sacrificed, and seeing it all come to it's conclusion in this animated short had be bawling my eyes out. Elysia was so in love with humanity and wanted all the best for us. It was beautiful. Seeing you react to this, not knowing the characters, but being able to understand what the emotion was behind all of this, will always impress me. It's such a joy to see you do these breakdowns, and maybe one day even play the game if time allows you! The final credits, with you understanding it was a verse of mourning for them, made me tear up watching this all over again. Mihoyo is so good at expressing emotions through this game, I haven't experienced something quite like this before.
i meat detail is that when elysia is shaken off the tower, and other moments the jp is different than the cn. jp elysia still keeps ups her flirty saccharine voice, and little jabs at the herrsher. cn is more reaction noises to the movements, both are good but ive loved the way elysia is in japanese, her voice work is so perfect for such a pure pristine being
a little headcanon type thing i saw (on the video itself iirc?) is that, in verse at least, Eden (the redhaired woman that helped start off Elysia's counterattack) is an opera singer herself. And, you could see this song as something she sung (i personally like imagining it as Elysia herself helped with the lyrics in a way). Especially when you take in account that Elysia and Eden are close friends
Great analysis as usual just from the musical context, the part at 4:12 was practically spot on since the story is remembered by Mei who was the only one from the current era in honkai to witness the latest events of the Elysian realm, also being the only one receiving all 13 flamechasers’ signets
This song is a eulogy, basically. This is why, although it's a happy song at first glance, it evokes so much emotion and sadness when you have the full picture of what it's about. Did I mention Mihoyo are geniuses of musical storytelling?
This song capping off the story of the Flamechasers probably hit me harder than almost any other storyline in the game to date. It's just so crushingly bittersweet yet also motivating.
this song is so golden. the fact he could describe the 13 flame chasers feelings and will by this song alone... they did so well with this song 😭😭😭 It brings about new feelings. still, the end is the ending we wish they all had before the previous era was destroyed....😭😭😭 I feel pain
This is the story of 13 flawed individuals, they were neither heroes nor saviors, but when the world started to collapse, they took on it's burden. Pardo- a simple girl who wants to live a carefree life, she believes things should be enjoyed and being carefree is her way of doing that Su- a man with an ambition, to help the world by saving people as a doctor, he believes in kindness and goodwill. Griseo- a girl who sees the world as a canvas, which she slowly paints over, indicating her growth in life. Kosma- a young man who believes in heroes, but could not become one because he didn't believe in himself Vill-V- a talented fool who decieved the world, she just wanted to leave her mark in the form of a performance Fu hua- a girl who didn't know herself, she was confused on what she wanted to be, but soon she realized that spirirt and will are what defines a person, that is who she is. Sakura- a warrior standing on the border between her humanity and was loosing it, but as cold as her sword is, her heart will never freeze, as long as she's sworn to protect her loved ones. Kalpas- a kind man who cant express it, his good heart hidden behind a mask of rage. Mobius- she is often misunderstood because of the lengths she would go through, but in reality, she's just desperate to keep hold on what she has left. Kevin- a boy who is straightforward, he just wanted to be a hero for his loved ones, but in the end, he had to carry the whole of humanity in his shoulders, despite being in pain because of the burden. Aphonia- a soul who is chained by fate, she could see it, but she could not change the outcome, but in the end, she believes in miracles, because the journey is what's important Eden- a star that symbolizes all of humanity's art, to her, life is like music, and like all good music, everything has an end, even so, she believes in beauty through melody And finally Elysia- a being born to destroy humanity, yet she fell in love with it, she believes tagedy does not have to be the end, instead, she knows that it's what continues the path forward, she believes in humans, and their ability to push forward, which is why her love for everyone never faded, even after her death.
@@Clubqaz3 Honestly from every reaction ive seen its all been positive. Even those who hate him, end up appreciating what he's done. The amount of time and devotion he's put towards his goals is very respectable no matter how evil of a person he is
I've listened to the song at least 30 times since it came out and it still brings tears to my eyes. I'm glad you were able to understand it so well without context. Belated happy birthday by the way.
I loved every bit of the story leading up to this animation and last good bye. But it also broke my heart ... multiple times throughout. Also, Tetracalyx wrote the lyrics ... as always.
Something about all this, even without having really played the game for very long, is still enough to bring tears to my eyes. What even. Why? How? I could scream.
I didn't cry to this until rewatching it alongside you after the song breakdown. I already understood the thing fully to an extent of outsider knowledge but hearing the analysis beforehand makes the animation hit different. This is probably one of the first Honkai songs I've seen a few recommended covers from followed creators of too since its release. Amalee and Falkonne covered it with a vocal cover by Lee and a symphonic metal cover by Falkonne with Rena doing vocals.
yet again a great Reaction and awsome explanation, your Content is some of the best on youtube and its been great that i found you with Genshins soundtrack. So keep up the good work! PS: I will bet on all my Crystals that Eden is going to be your favorit Flamechaser ;)
Dear Marco. You are very prolific youtuber! I admire your energy and commitment. 👍❤️ I stayed for the music, and my goodness am I happy I did. 😭 Your version of ‘Una furtiva lacrima’ nearly made me cry. 🥺
That's honestly what a lot of the community say after each animated short. I thought Everlasting Flames was the best until Thus Spoke Apocalypse came.. and then this XD
La prima analisi tra pezzi di canzone... È stata incredibile. All'inizio non apprezzavo molto la coanzone ma, sentendola più volte, dando più attenzione alla lirica e, soprattutto, venendo meglio a conoscenza della storia... ho iniziato a pensare sia spettacolare e hai perfettamente riassunto con così poco così tanto della canzone e della situazione. Penso che sia la canzone in grado di esprimere tutto ciò, che tu, in grado di comprenderla, siate stati incredibili The first analysis between songs pieces... Was incredible. At the start i didn’t really appreciate this song but, listening to it multiple time, giving more attention to the lyrics and, most of all, getting to know better the story... I started thinking it's spectacular and your perfectly summarised with so little so much of the song and the situations. I think that both a song capable of expressing all of this, and you, capable of comprehending it, were incredible Penso di aver capito tu abbia origini italiane? Per questo ho voluto fare il doppio commento I think i understood you have italian origins? Hence why i wanted to make a double comment
I love how you break down each and every nick of the songs you react to, I'm such a nerd for music and I know nothing about it lmao. Thank you Marco for your content, keep doing it! I hope to see more 🙏
everytime i hear elysia's jp voice actress says "mei~" i get hit with the wave of nostalgia and pain as well as joy for their bond and experience between the two
These characters are... people from the previous era. They... Could not avoid their destruction, but they try to make sure the next era of humanity is more prepared then they to face what eventually destroyed them. They are the 13 commoners, who are not perfect, but chose to stand up for humanity against odds far greater than they could actually handle The credit where you thought was the "true ending" was actually their past, the commoners they are, who stood up and was called heroes. This music video, is their pseudo "last dance", they went out gloriously, and hope future generation who witnessed them can achieve victory where they could not.
First of all, I didn't skip the part where you sing opera, I'm certainly not a connoisseur but definitely an enthusiast who likes to experience art to open new horizons. I always enjoyed listening to your opinions about music because I find a realization in your words about my own emotions, somehow your explanations make me better understand my feelings when listening to music and Honkai is without a doubt, one of the games that has squeezed my heart the most. But at the same time I realize that you yourself have not experienced the full feeling, in theater, opera, movies and so on, one finds the time to understand and empathize with the characters, understand their motivations, ideals, frustrations, ambitions, fears and other feelings make every moment of sadness or happiness something much more enjoyable for the viewer as well. This video made me cry not only because of the music, but also because of knowing what it entails in each character and what the resolution of the end of this video implies. I really hope you can find the time to play yourself and re-experience the music and videos with a deeper interpretation. Everything changes when you understand things better and this is a beautiful game, really beautiful, very human. As always, I love your videos and hope to keep watching them for a long time to come. Thank you very much.
Yet again, you got it right. Not sure that context is even needed at this point, since you understood the essence of the song so well - but I'll try to sum it up anyway. There's a lot of relevant backstory, so bear with me. Spoilers for the entire Elysian arc ahead (duh). The Elysian Realm is sort of a virtual reality, and the flame-chaser that inhabit it are actually simulations recreated from the memory scans of the real flame-chasers who lived in the previous era (around 50 000 years ago). The realm existed for millennia without issue, however, recently it was infiltrated by the Current Era's Herrscher of Corruption. Unlike a "normal" Herrscher (if there is such a thing, since all of them are unique in one way or another) it can corrupt both people's minds and computer systems. In fact, in the Previous Era the previous Herrscher of Corruption destroyed the last remaining human cities by hijacking the nuclear arsenal and launching missiles at them. That's actually indicative of how the war went back then. Technically humans won each battle, but those were Pyrrhic victories, so eventually the civilization fell. Anyways, when the inhabitants of the Realm realized what is happening it was almost too late. The Herrscher grew too powerful. The Flame-Chasers understood all too well that the Herrscher cannot be allowed to escape into the real world, even if they have to sacrifice themselves and destroy the Elysian Realm to stop it. I'm omitting a lot of story details and oversimplifying what happened - after all, the Elysian Realm arc was started a whole year ago, and only now wrapped up - but that't the basic outline of what happened. It's a bittersweet finale, which is quite fitting. Yet again, the evil had been stopped, but the heroes had to pay dearly for that. Even after death the Flame-chasers can't catch a break. Then again, it wouldn't be Honkai Impact without a tragic finale to a tale. The song itself is sung from Elysia's perspective. This is the second time she sacrifices herself for the sake of humanity. Here's the thing - Mihoyo loves to use mythological allusions and religious undertones in the stories, but in case of Elysia I'm not even sure those count as "undertones" - the imagery is really obvious. Elysia was never an ordinary human. In fact, she was the very first Herrscher to ever appear on Earth. Moreover, unlike the rest of the Herrschers she didn't hijack anyone's body - rather, she materialized as a child in a forest where she was found by a local. Also, unlike every other Herrscher of the Previous Era, she didn't harbor any ill will towards humanity. She also didn't have crazy powers like other Herrschers either - instead she was sort of like the idealized version of a normal human, incorruptible and free of vices. That's why she was referred to as Herrscher of Human. She was also the one who gathered the Flame-chasers together. Thirteen flame-chasers - Elysia herself and 12 followers. Moreover, as the very first Herrscher she was the beginning of everything that transpired. And her self-sacrifice for the sake of humanity marked the end of the era, making her also the end. And she even organized a banquet for her fellow Flame-chasers on the evening before the last day. If the allegory wasn't obvious enough, there was even a cutscene where she wore a garland of thorny flowers. And, of course, the lyrics also refer to the humanity's new start. The survivors of the Previous Era had to repopulate Earth and rebuild the civilization, hopefully learning from the mistakes of those who came before. That's why it feels so bittersweet. Phew, that turned out to be quite a wall of text. I hope I didn't bore anyone with my ramblings.
Finally being able to clear my backlog and finish this chapter today. The short completely blew my mind. As usual Hoyo has mastered the art of attacking viewers' sensations from all directions. The subtle and seamless transitions between 3D and 2D retro styles hit particularly hard for those grew up in the 90s, as it invokes a sense of nostalgia that overlaps with the feeling of the character within the story. The entire pieace is timeless .
I think the saddest part of this is the fact that all of the flame chasers (besides fu hua, and Kevin) are dead. And the cinematic shows the destruction of the LAST records of them from a destroyed forgotten era. So we carry on their wishes and also remember them so they’ll live forever into a future they wished to save.
The more I play Honkai the more this cutscene makes me cry, honestly. Especially after starting the Elysian realm. There are just layers and layers. My favourite part is the last, where most of the flamechasers are shown living comparatively normal lives before the cataclysm that destroyed most of humanity, and led to the human experiments that changed them. I thought about this for a while because Aponia and Eden appear post-cataclysm (Eden, quite literally, right before her death, singing a last song amidst the wasteland). My conclusion is that they were represented at their most human.
I like how "the future breaking out of shades from the past still ablaze" fits with Honkais previous era and current era and of what happens inside of the elysian realm. Clever writing.
"Save your tears for the day so far away To irrigate the wilderness that's still asleep In the world waiting to be lit To spread over the riverbeds, so dry and dead Let ships that ran aground re-launch their sails" It is literal. The "Previous Era", when all 13 Flame-Chasers are from, ended with absolute destruction of the Earth surface by Herrscher of the End. btw, Elysian Realm is just a data-base. Or, you can say, an epitaph of Thirteen Flame-Chasers written by themselves for the future successors.
I personally like to believe it's created and sung by Eden who was a singer and more 15:00 singing at the end of the world (Previous Era) a song dedicated to her best friend Elysia and the rest of the Flamechasers. Elysia and the rest of the Flamechasers as nothing but simulation data even managed to save the real world or prevent another catastrophe long after they're dead. Respect o7 Also, the concert hits different once you know the story..
This video needs a lot of context to understand properly, so here it goes: In the previous chapters, Kevin, one of the survivors of the previous era, invite Mei, one of the main protagonists, to his organisation so she can go explore the Elysean Realm and get some answers. What is the Elysean Realm? It's a virtual world where the 13 flame-chasers, the elite warriors from the previous era, recorded thier personnalities and memories to create sims of themselves. The ER takes 3 very long chapters, where we get to know and get attached to each of those characters. In the later part, we learn that the ER also had another purpose aside from transmitting their experience to future generations: it was a trap. You see, in the previous era, The flame-chasers suffered catastrophic losses while fighting the Herrsher of Corruption, which made them unable to defeat the next one, the Herrsher of Binding. So, in preparation for the current era, they repurposed the ER and made their own sims into an irresistible bait for the future HOC, while also preparing measures to destroy the whole ER. We also learn the the Herrscher of Corruption piggy-backed Mei to enter the ER without her noticing. In the video, we see Elysia get deleted, but somehow get restored. This is because Eden sim had sacrified a lot of her own memories to make space for Elysia's, and act as her secret backup.
from 12:11 , any words which Elysia said were same as this video (th-cam.com/video/Ofg2_qN3MrQ/w-d-xo.html) from 02:07, except Chinese version change “your(singular) travel” into “your(plural) travel”, which means captain(player) and Mei.
Your thoughts nailed it so accurately. About the song being beautiful. What the creators tried to aim for with the character of Elysia, was that everything about her was beautiful, the simply beautiful kind. And it all makes a callback to one of the mottos of the game, "fight for all that's beautiful in the world". I really want to thank you, how well you understood most of the stuff happening just from the lyrics of the song itself without delving into the animated short yet. Kudos to you!
Not sure why I don't get notifications from some channels including this, but I'm happy to have caught this early. To say my piece on the song though, it references how the Previous Era ended. Human civilization was destroyed, but some were preserved in Cryo Sleep to lead the next era.
Love the reaction/analysis as always. Elysia really is an amazing character. You start story of Elysia realm starts with you seeking answers about the nature of the Honkai and the war in the Previous Era (PE). Journey starts with far more questions then answers, and you view Elysia herself with suspicious, she is far too mysterious, playful and kind, a stark contrast to her comrades in the Flame Chasers. Your suspicions of her grows as you get deeper into the realm, helped by a healthy dose of Red Herrings throughout the Elysian Realm arc. But then when the truth is revealed, you realize that she is perhaps the most genuine person you meet in the story. Her actions in the PE had mind-blowing effects that ripples lead all the way to the current era's story. "Tragedy is the birth of hope." really does fit Elysia and by extension the Flame Chasers stories. The 13 who "failed" to become heroes. "Because of You" is made even more amazing by the fact this is the first time the 13 Flame Chasers really got to stand together. The first and last time so to speak, hence why Sakura says "This has never been seen before, right?" Various circumstances/tragedies in their own era prevented them from ever fighting as one team, but throughout the story of Elysian Realm they are given the chance to fix at least that one tragedy of their story and find some closure. As far as future Honkai Songs/reactions, take it at your own pace. but as others have said, Moon Halo should be one of the last songs as it is an amazing turning point in Kiana's story. For reference the order would be something like: Befall, Nightglow, Starfall and then finally Moon Halo as they are very specifically about Kiana's journey. Cyber Angel, Honkai World Diva, and Rubia also play a part of telling the stories of her friends which run parallels with her own journey, but you have already done the latter two so don't sweat it.
with the context after the quest this cinematic becomes 10 times more emotional. Because it's an ending to a 13 very significant and very cool characters
Lloré muchisimo con la cinematica, sobre todo al terminar el capitulo, más cuando tienes ya el contexto de como acabaron los 13, sobre todo el timing en el coro cuando aparecen Yae Sakura y Rin, Eden cantando sola para Elysia en el mundo que ha sido eliminado, Aponia rezando atada en espinas, que simbolizaba su capacidad de ver el destino pero no podía hacer nada, pues no podía evitarlo y las penas que cargó consigo. El trabajo audiovisual de esta gente es simplemente perfecto.
So glad to see you get to this one! Its really hard to explain the context of this one without spoiling a lot of major plot points but you definitely grasped the emotional themes of this animation. A really big theme of this story arc is legacies and holding hope for the future.
This cinematic is probably the hardest to fully understand without in-game context to be honest.
And he still nailed it!
Truth
Tell me about it, to this day I have no fucking clue what was going on there...
(Still hoping for a PS4/5 port, neither my PC nor my phone can handle these games)
@@SonnyFRST mei use the remaining data of her memories and the flamechaser to revive elysia so that she can erase the elysian realm along the hersher of corruption, mei go out of the reaalm and elysia before erasing the realm, she has her last "dance party" with the remaining memories of the flamechasers against the hersher, erasing the hersher, the realm and themselves.
I think “Seele” it’s pretty hard too for someone without context
This is the song, of the girl who loved humanity. And the song of the thirteen who fought for the future. Do you choose to walk in the same path as them? Or do you choose to diverge from said path? Either way, you're granting their wishes. A future.
Goodness that was beautifully said
@@soft.gamergirl I think it might be a quote from Elysia herself. Or partly at least
ah yes, this epic sentence
@Gottes God Pretty deep if you know the whole story of the flamechasers
@Gottes God that’s the best thing about art though, it’s about how you interpret it in your own way! You’re projecting your refusal or inability to read & interpret the medium as a way of feeling superior to others seems kinda silly, don’t you think?
"The 13 Flame chasers who failed to become heroes, they weren't perfect but they were the only ones who showed up.
This is their story."
At the end in the credits the scenes really illustrate the human side of most of the flame chasers.
Pardofelis, playing with stray cats when she was living on the streets
Griseo with her parents
Mobius and Klein
Kosma and Dystopia
Kalpas in the orphanage
Sakura with her sister Rin, who would eventually be killed by her comrades after becoming the host for the 12th Herrscher.
Eden, singing her last song to a desolate world
Su and one of his patients
Aponia, using her power to make sure that humanity passes painlessly during their defeat at the hands of HotE.
Fu Hua at the Dojo before her life was turned upside down.
Vill-V with each of her personalities reflected in the mirrors.
And then there’s Kevin, fighting a honkai beast with nothing but a baseball bat.
the mitghy weapon of the kaslanas house: a baseball bat
I have a question does that mean that the flamechaser are gon except Kevin
I don't want them to be gone😭😭
@@kurosaki-kageyoshi3164 Hua lives on as Fu Hua, Su is MIA, and Kevin is a major villain. The rest are dead.
@@Clubqaz3 nooooo I love them all except vill v bc she killed Pardo
Of all those featured Flame Chasers, the one that would maybe resonate with you the most is Eden (long, maroon hair and dress). She was an incredibly popular vocalist/artist in the previous era, until the 7th Herrscher destroyed Sydney and turned the rest of Australia into a fiery wasteland. She joined the fight to try and stop Honkai after that.
When they lost to the Herrscher of the End, and those few survivors were loading into cryo pods to wake in the future and help rebuild humanity, she chose instead to stay, believing that she belonged to her era and that she should die with it. She walked out into the desolate, wasteland alone full of deadly honkai radiation, singing her final song to humanity and her era.
what’s more is that she’s an opera singer!! despite agents telling her that no one listens to opera anymore, she was determined to ‘find her own stage‘ and broke through as probably the most famous and influential singer of that era. her story is beautiful even through its tragedy
Seconding this sentiment! Without giving away any specific details, Eden truly believes in the power of art and her story resonates with that feeling. Such was the gift of the golden diva, that "heavenly voice", much like her likely namesake, the Garden of Eden.
As a player who got attached to learning about all the Flamechasers the more I played through and read their stories, Eden's I think made me cry twice because I felt her a lot (as well how she moved those whose lives she touched too). Truly an artist. I can see why she was loved deeply.
There's beautiful moments in the story (both the main story and in the Elysian Realm interactions & memories) about that philosophy of hers and reading about it was a deeply moving experience I cherish. So beautiful.
To add even more context, she wasn't just singing for humanity and the past era. In fact that was probably more of a surface level reason/excuse.
She actually stayed to be with and to sing for her dear friend Elysia.
@@kurorekku *”and they were roommates”*
@@icevee686 _"ohmygod they were _*_roommates."_*
Fun fact. The code you can see bottom left is actual code. You can see how the enemy Herrscher attacks and cripples Elysia. Pretty cool in my oppinion.
Does the code have a meaning that people can decipher, or is it just fluff text to indicate when HoC is messing with the Elysian Realm?
@@Kryto_Gaming if im not wrong, it is decipherable, someone done it i recall
@@zenox0940 if i remember correctly it is C or something like that, an actual programming language
@@Kryto_Gaming Someone broke it down in the comments of the cinematics. Basically it erases components which relates to what Elysia has taken away from her (her eye, her bow, her arms)
@@lyswenn This. I just thought that was a cool example for the attention to detail mihoyo has.
I watched it with subtitles don't be mad at me. If you skip my opera singing do you actually like me? ;)
We love you always, also NEVER SKIP THE OPERA SINGS GET THE SINGING INTRO BACCCC PLS?????
hope to see your reaction to Lament Of The Fallen animation o7
th-cam.com/video/v1sd5CzR504/w-d-xo.html
Not rlly into opera , but i apreciate every type of music😘
Actually didn’t skip it this time quite liked it this time
i personally used to skip the opera bits because in earlier videos the volume was way louder on them and it actually just hurt my ears. a lot better now, and i don't skip them any more!
elysia is the christ of honkai, she is the daughter of god (imaginary tree), she has 12 apostles, 1 judas, a crown of thorns, her pure love for humanity, her last banquet and her sacrifice to bring hope to the people of the next era, elysia has never been human but has always been a herrsher since her birth
SHe wanted to create his own paradise (elysian realm)
Yes! Elysia is Hoyovere's twist on Jesus Christ.
Elysia even ressurects in the cinematic: 3 chapters - kind of like 3 days of death in the Bible.
Her cartoon chibi short has her younger self walking in a ruined city, all dirty and tattered. (She was "born human" and took on the blame and was killed later in life.)
Biblically, God is the groom and Humanity is his bride. Elysia is the inverse being the bride marrying humanity - the groom. (That's why she has a wedding dress)
I love Elysia.
She is also the #0th Herrscher. (I guess Alpha and Omega. It Starts and Ends with Elysia - said Kevin.)
P.S. out of all the cutscenes, this battle was the most decisive of them all... Elysia was just that damn powerful, her kiss/wink Godray attack showed so much sass.... like she is now finally showing her true self. (Absolutely powerful)
Compared that to Everlasting Flames - that was a tough fight.
Just saying though....there's a group of people in social media named " Church if Elysia that started because of a meme of Elysia being Jesus "
@@ambrielsglobalrange2226 lol. I saw the meme. Catholic christ statue replaced with Elysia
@@yharnamiyhill787 Well I found my new religion. I believe in the one TruE Goddess
Ellie and the Jesus parralel, how have I not realised this until now
I really felt Elysia's pure love for her companions when playing and seeing this in game.
She had pure love for the entire humanity, including her companions
She feels like if Jesus in a anime waifu 🤣 with the eternal love like Jesus, a herscher and human at the same time (Jesus is 100% God and 100% human%), there are 13 flamechaser (including elysia) and there are 12 students of Jesus
Also the fact she has a human and herscher form like how Jesus has a human and spirit form
@@nathanaelwalakula4743 she even got a thorny crown as an item in ER. That practically solidifies that.
@@TunesByAI2024 And the last banquet with her companions can be compared to the Jesus' last supper with his apostles. And she got resurrected.
You can't just come here and make me cry because of this damn animation again
Same...I cried like a baby all over again. 😭
To be fair, apart from Cyberangel which was pure hype, which MiHoYo animation hasn't made everyone cry like a baby? I feel like that's just the risks that come with watching a MiHoYo animation at this point xD
@@triopsate3 I was gonna point out ELF Academy, but then I realized that makes you cry from laughter...
I always cry when watching the animation and let me tell you it gets super close whenever I listen to True.
@@triopsate3 At this point whenever there's a new cinematic I'm less curious if I'll cry or not, because I know I will, but what sort of tears will those be. Because it's not just sadness, it's all kinds of emotions from loss to "I'M SO PROUD OF YOU KIANA LET'S FREAKIN GOOO!!".
I've never cried to any piece of media as much as I do to this dumb game lol.
An interesting little detail is that the creature controlling that digital world had gained such control it could even rewind time and rewrite reality, but when Elysia is talking about "moving forward" and the creature tries to rewind time, she ACTUALLY CHASTISES IT and forces time to keep moving forward. Such is her power.
The story of nameless girl thad once awaken in the forest, she was bring to village by man and live there in orphanage, but she was different than others, always smiled and cherish. Once she get book about man who goes on the yourney to find his paradise, but he never find it, insteed he meet more people who goes with him to search, in the end they created their own paradise together, their Elysium. Elysia chosed her name and the same as a man from the story, she also go on the same yourney, where she meet all sorts of people, some of them were good, others bad, some helped her others not, some were honest, others lied to her, but she still loved them all. After her yourney she chose to become a Moth member and fight for humanity... even so she never was a human in the first place, yet she was more human than most other... in the end she chose to die, to give another future to humanity. The story of Elysia the first traitor of Honkai, the Herrscher that become human. Herrscher of the human ego.
Because of You was the best send-off for the 13 that we could have hoped for.
"Ushering in a new era" is so scarily accurate, it's so impressive how he can get so close to the situation in the story without ever actually knowing anything about it. Though, the actual animation is definitely made for the people who have followed all of these characters from the beginning; it's kind of hard to just jump in without any context and understand it fully.
Fun fact: Elysia's Chinese voice actor is the same as Lumine's Chinese voice actor (Yes, the Lumine from Genshin Impact)
She suddenly became my favourite Chinese voice actor after I know about that. I always enjoy voice actors who can change their voice to fit a character so well and also hard for fans to even tell apart.
Nahhhhh... NAHHHHHHH!!! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!!
I CHECKED AND YOU ARE RIGHT, WATEFAK!!! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT- AHHH HELL NAH
WAIT, SHIT!!! NOELLE AND QIQI TOO!!!
(In the event this hasn't been noted) Elysia's 'bestie' (and perhaps her lover) - the Flame Chaser, Eden - was the Golden Diva and the most popular singer and songwriter of the last days of the Previous Era civilization the Flame Chasers lived in. Eden had wanted to write a song for Elysia, but could never work out what best suited Miss Pink Elf, and never completed it before Elysia - and then Eden - died. Some fans take "TruE" as the song Eden finally wrote for her friend, as a sim in the Elysian Realm. The music video for the song, featuring the vocalist, could be interpreted to represent that as well, with vocalist in the role of Eden. You & Eden are kindred spirits, Marco. ;-) Eden met Elysia when Ellie attended one of Eden's opera performances.
Well this interpretation just made me cry all that much harder when I watch this animation. Absolutely beautiful.
Now maybe it clicks, when elysia asked sakura for music inspiration for eden's new piece, since sakura's music taste is either techno or smth idk and then 'TruE' is made
Lover ? There’s literally nothing to draw that conclusion from. They literally have been referring to each other as “best-friends”.
@@adem1829 There are numerous comments on Elysia's part to infer it. And I'm far from the only member of the community to reach that conclusion. But feel free to interpret it however you wish. The suggestion of multiple possible 'truths' is perfectly in keeping with so many of the themes of the story.
@@adem1829if you don’t see it, you’re either completely blind or have selective sight
As always, you've picked up on the majority of the context through the lyrics and the music! There's a few more bits of context that can't be gleaned from the video which might be of note:
(spoilers for Honkai Impact 3)
The Flamechasers were the heroes of a previous era of humanity, that was destroyed by Honkai long ago. They ultimately failed to save humanity from the honkai, and as the last Herrscher appeared and made the planet uninhabitable, most of them died buying time for what remained of humanity to go into cryosleep, which lead to the current era.
Elysian Realm is a digital reconstruction of these thirteen Flame Chasers, to tell the story of their lives, their happiness and sadness, and victories and griefs, not just the cold facts that they had fought and lost. The digital copy of Elysia, the main character of this animated short, had been guiding Raiden Mei (from Honkai World Diva) about the Realm to tell her about these thirteen people and by extension, the struggles and pride of the Previous Era. In particular, Elysia herself was a Herrscher, with the power to be human - and she sacrificed herself to let all future Herrschers (such as Mei) the opportunity to stay human instead of becoming slaves to a power that wishes solely to destroy.
(cutting out everything but the most pertinent information-)
The Elysian realm is invaded by an AI Herrscher which wishes to devour the entire world and everyone with it, and after much sacrifice and with the remainder of the flame chasers being consumed by the Herrscher of Corruption, Elysia makes the choice to fight against it alone, to restore her friends for one last battle (that they had never done before) before she destroys the Elysian realm to stop the Herrscher escaping. And she knows the world is in good hands, because Mei and her friends are there to guide this story to a happy ending. Letting go of the past for the new future to be told by the younger generation...
Amazing job on this comment.
Yep, let's get this to the top, really nice explanation.
Indeed
amazing resume...
Amazing explanation, you are the only one I've seen out sooo many people and specially out of 4 youtubers that cover honkai lore notice that it was Elysia that freed future Herrschers from becoming slaves of destruction.
Elysium Everlasting.
A both reference to Greek place called Elysium Fields
And the whole story of Elysian Realm being a reference to a absolute spectacular and magnificent, special: Fire MOTH DLC of Honkai Gakuen.
Elysium Everlasting is the succesor of FIRE MOTH DLC, a time spanning across 7 years, yet that 7 years ago story still impacted the whole Honkai story writing about optimism.
That's how powerful that story is.
And finally, the most beautiful side story got a successor, both of them are side stories, but they delivered a optimism, and lesson in a narrative that is fable-like told by Aesop himself.
Elysium Fields, a place where heroes rest, where never again they would pick up their weapons and live in the paradise.
However, these heroes are nameless, because no one knows them, no one remembers them, so if a living being that who can leave in this place enters it...
They would want to relieve their memories, share their ideals and memory, and leave a legacy.
Because the one truly became dead if no one remembers them.
Living in a world where no one remembers you, your emotions, your pain and grief for living, and the legacies you want to leave behind just to prove you have existed in this world is painful.
So they want to rely and live on the living's memory, inspiring them and move on.
They are gone.
Flamechasers are gone.
They will remain in the past.
Flamechasers will remain in the past.
The living will move.
Mei will move on.
Towards a future those heroes paved, way beyond their graves.
They will walk past and way beyond the Flamechaser's graves where the future they creates ends.
And the living will create their own path.
Mei will create her own future.
If you ever feel tired or in pain.
Just look back and you will see.
That they are always there, waving towards your accomplishments.
For the past 7 years, FIRE MOTH DLC is the only one who made me cry for 7 times of playing the whole arc, not because it's depressing tragedy, but the bitter optimism.
And now, it feels like it's a throwback to 2015.
Thank you Flamechasers
Thank you Mei
Thank you Kyuushou
Thank you Fire MOTHS
Thank you MiHoYo.
And thanks to myself and other ancient beings supporting the game.
"Do not lament the passing civilization, embrace the future with your hands." -7th Flamechaser, SU
miHoyo/Hoyoverse loves to use story parallels between all their games. The events at Nagazora is very similar to the opening chapters of Honkai Gakuen or GGZ as well, and Raiden Mei's character background is very similar thematically with Raiden Ei in Genshin
@@zackang4731 how is Ei's and mei's background similar? Ei didn't tried to jump from rooftop nor her father ran away to get milk. Nor she was possessed by something
@@PowerMiner It is thematic, not so much the exact details. Both plays out the concepts of dual, clashing wills in a single body - which eventually reconciled
I want you to know Elysian Realm is basically a cyberspace and the "visitor" is Raiden Mei, The Herrscher of Thunder. Mei is also the purple haired girl in Lament of The Fallen & Will of The Herrscher. EDIT: Reaver 225 made a MUCH better comment than mine 8 minutes before mine about this.
The 'visitor' here not only mean mei but also the player, us.😔
@@lichtsarf4775 tbh, the "visitor" applies to Mei and the Herrscher of Corruption as they were the real visitors of the Realm, but some can say that she is also breaking the fourth wall because she understands that she is a simulation so she is also talking to us the viewer... there are many interpretation to what she means but the most literal meaning and metaphorical meaning but both are equally sad to know
I think TruE and Because of You animation are perfectly summed up in one sentence said by Elysia herself; "Tragedy isn't the end. It's the beginning of hope". She said that line after seeing Eden's opera play, which is also their first time meeting each other.
It's amazing how much context a song can do to other forms of art and it even amplifies what message the creators are trying to tell its viewers/listeners. What is even more amazing is how you can easily pick these up, translate, and understand the meaning. You even understood what the end credits show, it's their beginnings before the Honkai ruined eveything, with the exception of Eden's where it shows her end.
I’ve analyzed lyrics for years so I think that helps me!
The elysian realm arc was definitely the hardest for me to do, easily cried the most during it out of any other arc, such a amazing story and the animation and music did not let down especially the ending of the animation when showing all the flame chasers, it hit hard.
Yes got me crying as they made me fight Griseo 😢 my poor baby
@@that_missing_link yeah griseo fight was painful, what really got me though was the scene with Pardo, that hurt allot.
@@maxtech23 yes cried at that part too. Honkai never fails to make us cry
Damn arc made me cry so much I was left with dry eyes I couln't cry anymore. It was SOOO GOOOD
Made you realize how twisted we are when Elysia was too good to be true being kind to everyone, made you think she has an evil side and ulterior motives.
Turns out she was the purest definition of LOVE OF HUMANITY. She loved everything there is in humanity and embraced them. Which in turn the 13 Flamechasers reciprocated when they dedicated their lives to her.
It's interesing when you mentioned the word "tree" on the lyrics. Within Hoyoverse, trees play an important role within the world of both Honkai and Genshin. The World of Tree, where all Universes and timelines are there as branches --- the Irminsul Trees which the Ley Lines remain there, collected as the memories of the past, present and future.
The Venessa Tree, the Dragon Queller and the Great Sakura tree of Narukami Shrine, all these trees served as memories for the Archons that had lost someone dear to them.
I like to believe that this particular line is about history. And since trees are know for living for a long time, holding memories for those had planted that seed, and it's up to that person to carry on the whispets of these stories.
"Tragedy is not the end, but the beginning of Hope"
“Tragedy is the start of hope.”
I adore the ending credits version of TruE, it sounds so melancholic and it absolutely slapped me in the face with feels, especially after going through the storyline and every character's stories. Tbf the whole thing beats you up with emotions, like that one scene where they were all together supporting Elysia. It's sadder to imagine that everyone lead normal lives like we did, then everything went downhill and suddenly they have this huge burden of fighting for not just their survival, but all of humanity. It was an amazing cutscene to honour the legacy of the 13 Flamechasers who were never perfect, but were heroes nonetheless :') Thanks for the video Marco!
Fun fact about "Because of You": The Display aspect ratio was reduced from 16:9 to 4:3 when Ely suffered tremendous damage fighting the eye, went back from 4:3 to 16:9 when Ely transformed, further upgraded to 21:9 when all the flame chasers' past were introduced.
14:08 "This is the True Ending". If only... If only... Nice video, really impressive how much your deduction are accurate about the story even if you don't play the game.
The way you sing where you can control your voice to make it steady while singing those long-sounding notes is cool.
Thank you! Took ten years!
TruE is such a banger, straight up pop song vibes from a video game. Is it wrong to feel a little ashamed that I love this song so much? Like it's not something I would listen to with a friend or a parent. It's just so hard to share this song with people who don't play this game. I always feel like I'll be judged harshly just for enjoying this music.
You should never be ashamed of what you love, from an old guy who was the same as you, enjoy life :)
I have a group playlist on Spotify and I just shoved this in there, it's a great song
Damn, what do your friends/parents listen to that you're ashamed to play this to them? As another old guy let me say this: I'm very toxic to some genres but my own musical preferences are broad af so just enjoy the songs you love, like I do. 👍
14:08 Actually its not the ending, this little slideshow is (for the most part) the lives of the Flame Chasers BEFORE joining the MOTHs and becoming MANTIS/Flame Chasers. By the time of the animation all of them (aside from 2, though a couple are ambiguous) have long since died, with the animation being the destruction of the Elysian Realm which contained simulations of the Flame Chasers created from psychic scans of their minds.
The first is Pardofelis way back before she even knew what the MOTHs were, when she was living on the streets of Sundown Alley, where she would often hang around the stray cats.
The second is Hua back when she stilled lived with her father who ran a martial arts dojo.
The third is Griseo and takes place when she was still living with her parents, before they died and she was forced into becoming a MANTIS to save her life.
The fourth is Mobius with her assistant Klein, this one actually takes place while she was with the MOTHs as Mobius is one of the founders of the organization, when this takes place I'm unsure but likely after one of her self experimentations, potentially the one that turned her into a MANTIS.
The fifth is Kosma hanging around with Dystopia, personally I'm not too sure about when this takes place.
The sixth is Sakura with her sister Rin, likely taking place before she joined back when she was working as an assassin to protect and provide for her little sister.
The seventh is Su back when he was working as a doctor, before he suffered from a Honkai infection and joined MOTHs after being cured.
The eighth is Kalpas back when he was living in an orphanage in Sundown Alley.
The ninth is Vill-V doing her magic shows.
The tenth contrasts the others by showing an ending, this being Eden right before died, singing her final song to civilization as the Final Herrscher destroyed everything around her.
The eleventh I really don't know but it's Aponia sometime after becoming a MANTIS.
The twelfth is Kevin's beginning, taking place during the 3rd Eruption and right before he joined the MOTHs.
And, well, the thirteenth is Elysia right after destroying the Elysian Realm to defeat the Herrscher of Corruption.
If you invert the order and switch Kevin and Elysia you actually get the ranking of the Flame Chasers as well, Kevin being 1st, Eylsia 2nd, Aponia 3rd, Eden 4th, Vill-V 5th, Kalpas 6th, Su 7th, Sakura 8th, Kosma 9th, Mobius 10th, Griseo 11th, Hua 12th, and Pardofelis 13th.
Also fun note, the rankings aren't based on strength or anything, but the whims of Elysia. Kevin is 1st cause he's the leader, Elysia WAS the 1st to screw with Kevin but changed to 2nd when he gave no reaction, Su was 7th because he was the balanced "voice of reason" among the group so he was given the middle number, Mobius was 10th because she's dangerous and Elysia wanted to mitigate any potential authority a higher rank would give, while Griseo, Hua, and Pardofelis were given the bottom three rankings due to being the youngest of the group and Elysia wanting to keep them out of the politics of MOTH (Pardo being dead last because she was the weakest of them all).
i think marco knew and thats why he referred that as the "TruE" ending (How it should be) even tho its not the real one
The Aponia one also can be she using her discipline in the rest of humanity to make the end of the world less painful.
Pardo was prob the mvp of the battle on the moon sacrifised herself so Kevin could land the blow that delayed the HoTE, alluded when sim pardo held open the gate for Kevin.
looking at old comments, the statement Pardo is the weakest is so funny because she absolutely bodied everyone else in the Flame-Chasers battle voting Event (at least in SEA)
This video is like.. the feeling your grandparents left us a memento that we could remember them by. And then because of circumstances, we have to part with that memento forever.
First time listening to the song with no context:
Me: "Damn, Who died?"
Some dude: "A Whole Planet"
“… ushering a new era”
Hitting the nail on the head, again, as always
“This is the true ending.”
Man…. How we wish it was…
TruE and Because of You are another great example of Honkai's favorite move - start sad/melancholy/hopeless do a lot of flashy and epic fighting and finish on hope. The story does this with Meteoric Salvation, Shattered Samsara and Moon Halo and once again with this. The fandom likes to talk about how gut-wrenching and sad the story is but I think a lot of people forget or just miss that it is ultimately more of often than not a story about finding hope. Even if you have to dig in the ruins of tragedy to do so.
TruE is also a passing of a torch of sorts but I can't speak in detail about it without spoiling ALL of the Elysian Realm story and some other stuff besides.
Forgot to mention one detail. The last part of the song has a lot of flower-related imagery, which is not a coincidence. The symbol on Elysia's signets in the Realm depicts a flower (a stylized rose), and the item which increases the chance to get said signets during a run is a crystalline flower. Some of Elysia's skill names (both the Miss Pink Elf and the Herrscher of Human battlesuits) contain references to flowers. In some of the interactions with her she likens herself to a flower. It seems that the lines "petals linger about awaiting one last dance" refer to Elysia's memory sim, and the final battle with the Herrscher of Corruption.
Elysian Realm and the story of the Flamechasers has been such a great ride. It's amazing how Hoyo managed to not only introduce a new game mode but also integrated it into the story in such a clever fashion that players that aren't up to speed on the whole plot can enjoy the mode and its story while for veteran players it fills in all kinds of blanks about lore that is hinted at in the game but which predates the main plot but 50k years.
The ultimate fate of the Elysian Realm is also really cool to think about when you consider that some of the characters that exist as memory simulations in the Elysian Realm are still alive in the present era for various reasons while side-lore and story content in the in-game Elysian Realm mode reveals the ultimate fate of other members of the group that died 50k years ago.
Clearly the people writing the story for Honkai put a ton of effort into it and have also planned out a lot of their story content years in advance, what with all the foreshadowing that you encounter in other parts of the game.
I guess the only realm problem with Honkai is that it's narrative components (Visual novel + Web Manga + Animated shorts) appeal to a very specific player niche and are also nested in a kind of game (action RPG gacha) that has a specific appeal and as a result the overall audience is probably significantly smaller than it would be if it was told in a more traditional form.
Personally I'm hoping that if the Genshin anime series sees a lot of success then maybe Hoyo will make a proper Honkai Impact series. Certainly for Hoyo the universe and story of Honkai is their favoured child (No offence intended to any Genshin players, I enjoy that game too but not for the narrative) and it would be great if they could introduce more people to it.
I think that if random gacha games like Girls Frontline and Princess Connect can get an anime then Honkai Impact certainly deserves a shot...
Everlasting Flames rivals this cinematic. All about the willpower of love. 🔥
Honkai impact's theme is righteous perseverance against pure injustices
As Elysia (The MC of this animated short) said, "Tragedy isn't the end, it the beginning of hope"
I'm really amazed with your reaction. Despite going in blind, you still managed to get the story. Cuz for real, this animated isnt that easy to understand without the content.
Keep this up. I like your vids.
First pause for analysis and you pretty much already nailed it. To what most of us would be a sad and somber message, is told with hope and happiness by Elysia. "Tragedy isn't the end, it's the beginning of hope"
This one is hardest to understand without context and you pretty much nailed it(minus the details)which is insane..love your reactions to music and animations
Lore is one thing, but there's so many blink-and-you-miss things in it. Music inserts from past trailers, Elysia smiling as she gets absorbed, the giant Ellie NGE reference, the image format and animation style changes... They went deep and clever with this.
This was such a perfect sendoff. Hoyo had us get to know the 13 Flamechasers over the past year before killing every one of them off over 3 updates. Once again telling a story lost in time because it's the second time the Flamechasers had died for humanity.
The song is a love letter from Elysia to a world she'll never get to know. To the billions of people who'd live thousands of years after her death. It speaks of her hope that the new humanity will surpass her own era and defeat the honkai. "Save your tears for the day so far away ... the ships that run aground relaunch their sails." She's singing to the future comrades that'll pick up the fight that she lost. Your stories have yet to start. It's a very hopeful but sad song, perfectly fitting Elysia.
Elysia also has a sort of Jesus arc and in the Elysian Everlasting, her final storyline it goes to a very close allegory. The daughter of God descended down to Earth spontaneously born into existence without any parents. She makes a home of everywhere she goes, brings comfort to those suffering and spreads a message of hope and love to all of humanity. That was the Elysia that lived 50000 years before the start of the game.
The Elysia in the realms dies on the first day of the Elysian Everlasting storyline and she raises from the dead on the third. It's the story of her and her 13 disciples, the other 12 Flamechasers and Mei bring hope for a new era of humanity. They defeat the very enemy that wiped out almost every human of the previous era and leave Mei with a gift that allows her to help bring closure to the repeated cycle of annihilation that wipes out every 50000 years.
Elysia died for humanity 50000 years ago. Then she dies for humanity again when she defeated it's second greatest enemy before it could get out to the rest of the world and commit untold atrocities yet again.
As player this arc really hit me hard. Now this video make me understand more deeply about this music i nearly cry myself. The 13 flame chaser is like a legacy left behind to help future generation. The previous era had a hard time dealing with Honkai. There not so much for me to comment because look like other had explaining about this arc without spoiling so much. Well there some spoiler so be careful hahah XD
Thank you for reacting to this! This is such a beautiful song & hearing your insight is really fascinating! Thank you!
The way Marco can piece together the whole story from just lyrics, amazes me every time.
@@deliriumyearswwg Totally!!
Im telling you. Everytime I see all of them standing together to actually fight together which they never did when they were alive, I was ponding my chest to show respect man
elysia becoming the arrow at the end always gets me for some reason 😔
once again nice video! ^_^
Your opera singing sounds absolutely beautiful, love it!
I'm still shocked at how well you´re able to interpret the lyrics, you´re able to figure out the base of the story even before watching the animation.
Thanks for listening Marco, I hope you keep covering to future Honkai songs
❤️
Fastest notification click in the west
Edit: This is me once again thanking you Marco for bringing such a rich outlook on video game music to your audience. Keep up the hard work . Nothing but love
this is a story about the flamechasers, the 13 people who failed to become heroes, and most importantly this is a story about elysia a being who was created by pure honkai energy and later known as the 0th herrscher and yet unlike other herrschers of the previous era who seeks destruction, she fell in love with humanity and wishes them to grow and prosper
this story unfolds inside the elysian realm a super advanced AR VR mix built using the memories of the 13, inside this realm they live their life as sims waiting for visitors from the current era to retell their stories, their struggle, the small victories and their eventual defeat in the hands of the honkai
further replies will be spoiler heavy!
visitors from the current era that are deemed worthy are given a choice if they want to bear a signet inheriting the will of a flamechaser on fighting the honkai. but those who are deemed unworthy were kicked out or worse, killed inside the realm. their current visitor is a peculiar one a herrscher who is fighting for humanity, raiden mei and she unknowingly brought a dormant herrscher with her while visiting the realm
how would a group of people who are specialized on neutralizing herrschers reacts when they meet an anti-thesis of what they were fighting? How would elysia a herrscher that fights for humanity reacts when she meets the fruit of her effort? how would raiden mei reacts when she saw a different version of her friend, hua? how would the flamechasers react when they realized raiden mei brought a herrscher that almost killed the remains of humanity in the past era?
This PV! Has been haunting my recommends for weeks and I love it so much! It's so sad and beautiful. The slow version of TruE at the end with the stills of the other chasers gets me so much. I'm crying atm ; w;
I literally just finished this chapter and arc of the story today, as I'm trying to catch up. Having gotten to know all 13 of these characters throughout this arc, seeing everything they fought for and everything they sacrificed, and seeing it all come to it's conclusion in this animated short had be bawling my eyes out. Elysia was so in love with humanity and wanted all the best for us. It was beautiful. Seeing you react to this, not knowing the characters, but being able to understand what the emotion was behind all of this, will always impress me. It's such a joy to see you do these breakdowns, and maybe one day even play the game if time allows you! The final credits, with you understanding it was a verse of mourning for them, made me tear up watching this all over again. Mihoyo is so good at expressing emotions through this game, I haven't experienced something quite like this before.
i meat detail is that when elysia is shaken off the tower, and other moments the jp is different than the cn.
jp elysia still keeps ups her flirty saccharine voice, and little jabs at the herrsher. cn is more reaction noises to the movements, both are good but ive loved the way elysia is in japanese, her voice work is so perfect for such a pure pristine being
a little headcanon type thing i saw (on the video itself iirc?) is that, in verse at least, Eden (the redhaired woman that helped start off Elysia's counterattack) is an opera singer herself. And, you could see this song as something she sung (i personally like imagining it as Elysia herself helped with the lyrics in a way). Especially when you take in account that Elysia and Eden are close friends
Yes, I too subscribe to the theory that TruE is basically a farewell song to Elysia sung/written by Eden.
Holy shit I was waiting for this for so long man. Thanks, love your videos keep it up.😁
Great analysis as usual just from the musical context, the part at 4:12 was practically spot on since the story is remembered by Mei who was the only one from the current era in honkai to witness the latest events of the Elysian realm, also being the only one receiving all 13 flamechasers’ signets
This song is a eulogy, basically. This is why, although it's a happy song at first glance, it evokes so much emotion and sadness when you have the full picture of what it's about.
Did I mention Mihoyo are geniuses of musical storytelling?
This song capping off the story of the Flamechasers probably hit me harder than almost any other storyline in the game to date. It's just so crushingly bittersweet yet also motivating.
this song is so golden. the fact he could describe the 13 flame chasers feelings and will by this song alone... they did so well with this song 😭😭😭 It brings about new feelings. still, the end is the ending we wish they all had before the previous era was destroyed....😭😭😭 I feel pain
This is the story of 13 flawed individuals, they were neither heroes nor saviors, but when the world started to collapse, they took on it's burden.
Pardo- a simple girl who wants to live a carefree life, she believes things should be enjoyed and being carefree is her way of doing that
Su- a man with an ambition, to help the world by saving people as a doctor, he believes in kindness and goodwill.
Griseo- a girl who sees the world as a canvas, which she slowly paints over, indicating her growth in life.
Kosma- a young man who believes in heroes, but could not become one because he didn't believe in himself
Vill-V- a talented fool who decieved the world, she just wanted to leave her mark in the form of a performance
Fu hua- a girl who didn't know herself, she was confused on what she wanted to be, but soon she realized that spirirt and will are what defines a person, that is who she is.
Sakura- a warrior standing on the border between her humanity and was loosing it, but as cold as her sword is, her heart will never freeze, as long as she's sworn to protect her loved ones.
Kalpas- a kind man who cant express it, his good heart hidden behind a mask of rage.
Mobius- she is often misunderstood because of the lengths she would go through, but in reality, she's just desperate to keep hold on what she has left.
Kevin- a boy who is straightforward, he just wanted to be a hero for his loved ones, but in the end, he had to carry the whole of humanity in his shoulders, despite being in pain because of the burden.
Aphonia- a soul who is chained by fate, she could see it, but she could not change the outcome, but in the end, she believes in miracles, because the journey is what's important
Eden- a star that symbolizes all of humanity's art, to her, life is like music, and like all good music, everything has an end, even so, she believes in beauty through melody
And finally Elysia- a being born to destroy humanity, yet she fell in love with it, she believes tagedy does not have to be the end, instead, she knows that it's what continues the path forward, she believes in humans, and their ability to push forward, which is why her love for everyone never faded, even after her death.
Marco you 100% need to react to everlasting flames. I hope thus spoke apocalypse is coming soon
Yesssss IRAS is definitely next and the video!
@@MarcoMeatball enjoy that. Some are divided on an arc focuses on a man like Otto Apocalypse, who many hate, but I personally LOVE it.
@@Clubqaz3 Honestly from every reaction ive seen its all been positive. Even those who hate him, end up appreciating what he's done. The amount of time and devotion he's put towards his goals is very respectable no matter how evil of a person he is
I've listened to the song at least 30 times since it came out and it still brings tears to my eyes. I'm glad you were able to understand it so well without context. Belated happy birthday by the way.
I loved every bit of the story leading up to this animation and last good bye. But it also broke my heart ... multiple times throughout. Also, Tetracalyx wrote the lyrics ... as always.
Something about all this, even without having really played the game for very long, is still enough to bring tears to my eyes. What even. Why? How?
I could scream.
Yeah this game and it's animation/music dept makes you feel emotions you didn't even know you had lol.
I didn't cry to this until rewatching it alongside you after the song breakdown. I already understood the thing fully to an extent of outsider knowledge but hearing the analysis beforehand makes the animation hit different.
This is probably one of the first Honkai songs I've seen a few recommended covers from followed creators of too since its release. Amalee and Falkonne covered it with a vocal cover by Lee and a symphonic metal cover by Falkonne with Rena doing vocals.
yet again a great Reaction and awsome explanation, your Content is some of the best on youtube and its been great that i found you with Genshins soundtrack. So keep up the good work!
PS: I will bet on all my Crystals that Eden is going to be your favorit Flamechaser ;)
Dear Marco. You are very prolific youtuber! I admire your energy and commitment. 👍❤️
I stayed for the music, and my goodness am I happy I did. 😭 Your version of ‘Una furtiva lacrima’ nearly made me cry. 🥺
🥺🥺🥺🥺🥰
Finally, I have been waiting for this for so long :D
I like to watch your analysis of Honkai songs and animations
this was my favorite animated short ever by honkai, i honestly don't think anything can beat this, this short has set my standards really high
That's honestly what a lot of the community say after each animated short. I thought Everlasting Flames was the best until Thus Spoke Apocalypse came.. and then this XD
My favorite cinematic is still Cyberangel but as far as Because Of You goes, I haven't cried this hard and loud since Nightglow. Now THAT is a bar.
I love these reactions, this game and these songs mean so much to me.
As Elysia says in the story "Tragedy isnt the end. It's the beginning of hope"
La prima analisi tra pezzi di canzone... È stata incredibile.
All'inizio non apprezzavo molto la coanzone ma, sentendola più volte, dando più attenzione alla lirica e, soprattutto, venendo meglio a conoscenza della storia... ho iniziato a pensare sia spettacolare e hai perfettamente riassunto con così poco così tanto della canzone e della situazione.
Penso che sia la canzone in grado di esprimere tutto ciò, che tu, in grado di comprenderla, siate stati incredibili
The first analysis between songs pieces... Was incredible.
At the start i didn’t really appreciate this song but, listening to it multiple time, giving more attention to the lyrics and, most of all, getting to know better the story... I started thinking it's spectacular and your perfectly summarised with so little so much of the song and the situations.
I think that both a song capable of expressing all of this, and you, capable of comprehending it, were incredible
Penso di aver capito tu abbia origini italiane? Per questo ho voluto fare il doppio commento
I think i understood you have italian origins? Hence why i wanted to make a double comment
After finally watching this cg in-game I'm here to see your reaction and boy, you got almost everything, I'm amazed how you do it.
I love how you break down each and every nick of the songs you react to, I'm such a nerd for music and I know nothing about it lmao. Thank you Marco for your content, keep doing it! I hope to see more 🙏
everytime i hear elysia's jp voice actress says "mei~" i get hit with the wave of nostalgia and pain as well as joy for their bond and experience between the two
Yay~ Finallyyy
Always glad to hear your thoughts on different music :3
The samples used here are just eargasm-level, love it
These characters are... people from the previous era.
They... Could not avoid their destruction, but they try to make sure the next era of humanity is more prepared then they to face what eventually destroyed them.
They are the 13 commoners, who are not perfect, but chose to stand up for humanity against odds far greater than they could actually handle
The credit where you thought was the "true ending" was actually their past, the commoners they are, who stood up and was called heroes.
This music video, is their pseudo "last dance", they went out gloriously, and hope future generation who witnessed them can achieve victory where they could not.
First of all, I didn't skip the part where you sing opera, I'm certainly not a connoisseur but definitely an enthusiast who likes to experience art to open new horizons.
I always enjoyed listening to your opinions about music because I find a realization in your words about my own emotions, somehow your explanations make me better understand my feelings when listening to music and Honkai is without a doubt, one of the games that has squeezed my heart the most. But at the same time I realize that you yourself have not experienced the full feeling, in theater, opera, movies and so on, one finds the time to understand and empathize with the characters, understand their motivations, ideals, frustrations, ambitions, fears and other feelings make every moment of sadness or happiness something much more enjoyable for the viewer as well. This video made me cry not only because of the music, but also because of knowing what it entails in each character and what the resolution of the end of this video implies.
I really hope you can find the time to play yourself and re-experience the music and videos with a deeper interpretation. Everything changes when you understand things better and this is a beautiful game, really beautiful, very human.
As always, I love your videos and hope to keep watching them for a long time to come. Thank you very much.
Yet again, you got it right. Not sure that context is even needed at this point, since you understood the essence of the song so well - but I'll try to sum it up anyway.
There's a lot of relevant backstory, so bear with me. Spoilers for the entire Elysian arc ahead (duh).
The Elysian Realm is sort of a virtual reality, and the flame-chaser that inhabit it are actually simulations recreated from the memory scans of the real flame-chasers who lived in the previous era (around 50 000 years ago). The realm existed for millennia without issue, however, recently it was infiltrated by the Current Era's Herrscher of Corruption. Unlike a "normal" Herrscher (if there is such a thing, since all of them are unique in one way or another) it can corrupt both people's minds and computer systems. In fact, in the Previous Era the previous Herrscher of Corruption destroyed the last remaining human cities by hijacking the nuclear arsenal and launching missiles at them. That's actually indicative of how the war went back then. Technically humans won each battle, but those were Pyrrhic victories, so eventually the civilization fell.
Anyways, when the inhabitants of the Realm realized what is happening it was almost too late. The Herrscher grew too powerful. The Flame-Chasers understood all too well that the Herrscher cannot be allowed to escape into the real world, even if they have to sacrifice themselves and destroy the Elysian Realm to stop it. I'm omitting a lot of story details and oversimplifying what happened - after all, the Elysian Realm arc was started a whole year ago, and only now wrapped up - but that't the basic outline of what happened. It's a bittersweet finale, which is quite fitting. Yet again, the evil had been stopped, but the heroes had to pay dearly for that. Even after death the Flame-chasers can't catch a break. Then again, it wouldn't be Honkai Impact without a tragic finale to a tale.
The song itself is sung from Elysia's perspective. This is the second time she sacrifices herself for the sake of humanity. Here's the thing - Mihoyo loves to use mythological allusions and religious undertones in the stories, but in case of Elysia I'm not even sure those count as "undertones" - the imagery is really obvious. Elysia was never an ordinary human. In fact, she was the very first Herrscher to ever appear on Earth. Moreover, unlike the rest of the Herrschers she didn't hijack anyone's body - rather, she materialized as a child in a forest where she was found by a local. Also, unlike every other Herrscher of the Previous Era, she didn't harbor any ill will towards humanity. She also didn't have crazy powers like other Herrschers either - instead she was sort of like the idealized version of a normal human, incorruptible and free of vices. That's why she was referred to as Herrscher of Human. She was also the one who gathered the Flame-chasers together. Thirteen flame-chasers - Elysia herself and 12 followers. Moreover, as the very first Herrscher she was the beginning of everything that transpired. And her self-sacrifice for the sake of humanity marked the end of the era, making her also the end. And she even organized a banquet for her fellow Flame-chasers on the evening before the last day. If the allegory wasn't obvious enough, there was even a cutscene where she wore a garland of thorny flowers.
And, of course, the lyrics also refer to the humanity's new start. The survivors of the Previous Era had to repopulate Earth and rebuild the civilization, hopefully learning from the mistakes of those who came before. That's why it feels so bittersweet.
Phew, that turned out to be quite a wall of text. I hope I didn't bore anyone with my ramblings.
Finally being able to clear my backlog and finish this chapter today. The short completely blew my mind. As usual Hoyo has mastered the art of attacking viewers' sensations from all directions. The subtle and seamless transitions between 3D and 2D retro styles hit particularly hard for those grew up in the 90s, as it invokes a sense of nostalgia that overlaps with the feeling of the character within the story. The entire pieace is timeless .
I think the saddest part of this is the fact that all of the flame chasers (besides fu hua, and Kevin) are dead. And the cinematic shows the destruction of the LAST records of them from a destroyed forgotten era. So we carry on their wishes and also remember them so they’ll live forever into a future they wished to save.
man it hits me everytime even though the time spent with the flamechasers is rather short
The more I play Honkai the more this cutscene makes me cry, honestly. Especially after starting the Elysian realm. There are just layers and layers.
My favourite part is the last, where most of the flamechasers are shown living comparatively normal lives before the cataclysm that destroyed most of humanity, and led to the human experiments that changed them. I thought about this for a while because Aponia and Eden appear post-cataclysm (Eden, quite literally, right before her death, singing a last song amidst the wasteland). My conclusion is that they were represented at their most human.
Su in his time as a doctor
*man*
Im gonna cry
I like how "the future breaking out of shades from the past still ablaze" fits with Honkais previous era and current era and of what happens inside of the elysian realm. Clever writing.
Man every one of these you do and absolutely nail the analysis of is so cool. Awesome opera singing btw :)
"Save your tears for the day so far away
To irrigate the wilderness that's still asleep
In the world waiting to be lit
To spread over the riverbeds, so dry and dead
Let ships that ran aground re-launch their sails"
It is literal. The "Previous Era", when all 13 Flame-Chasers are from, ended with absolute destruction of the Earth surface by Herrscher of the End.
btw, Elysian Realm is just a data-base. Or, you can say, an epitaph of Thirteen Flame-Chasers written by themselves for the future successors.
I personally like to believe it's created and sung by Eden who was a singer and more 15:00 singing at the end of the world (Previous Era) a song dedicated to her best friend Elysia and the rest of the Flamechasers.
Elysia and the rest of the Flamechasers as nothing but simulation data even managed to save the real world or prevent another catastrophe long after they're dead.
Respect o7
Also, the concert hits different once you know the story..
This video needs a lot of context to understand properly, so here it goes:
In the previous chapters, Kevin, one of the survivors of the previous era, invite Mei, one of the main protagonists, to his organisation so she can go explore the Elysean Realm and get some answers. What is the Elysean Realm? It's a virtual world where the 13 flame-chasers, the elite warriors from the previous era, recorded thier personnalities and memories to create sims of themselves.
The ER takes 3 very long chapters, where we get to know and get attached to each of those characters.
In the later part, we learn that the ER also had another purpose aside from transmitting their experience to future generations: it was a trap. You see, in the previous era, The flame-chasers suffered catastrophic losses while fighting the Herrsher of Corruption, which made them unable to defeat the next one, the Herrsher of Binding.
So, in preparation for the current era, they repurposed the ER and made their own sims into an irresistible bait for the future HOC, while also preparing measures to destroy the whole ER. We also learn the the Herrscher of Corruption piggy-backed Mei to enter the ER without her noticing.
In the video, we see Elysia get deleted, but somehow get restored. This is because Eden sim had sacrified a lot of her own memories to make space for Elysia's, and act as her secret backup.
14:09 "This is the TruE ending".
from 12:11 , any words which Elysia said were same as this video (th-cam.com/video/Ofg2_qN3MrQ/w-d-xo.html) from 02:07, except Chinese version change “your(singular) travel” into “your(plural) travel”, which means captain(player) and Mei.
I love your content so much! Your song analysis are always spot on! thank you so much for this💗
❤️❤️
Your thoughts nailed it so accurately. About the song being beautiful. What the creators tried to aim for with the character of Elysia, was that everything about her was beautiful, the simply beautiful kind. And it all makes a callback to one of the mottos of the game, "fight for all that's beautiful in the world".
I really want to thank you, how well you understood most of the stuff happening just from the lyrics of the song itself without delving into the animated short yet. Kudos to you!
Not sure why I don't get notifications from some channels including this, but I'm happy to have caught this early.
To say my piece on the song though, it references how the Previous Era ended. Human civilization was destroyed, but some were preserved in Cryo Sleep to lead the next era.
I just woke up to this, and man, you made my day!
Love the reaction/analysis as always.
Elysia really is an amazing character.
You start story of Elysia realm starts with you seeking answers about the nature of the Honkai and the war in the Previous Era (PE).
Journey starts with far more questions then answers, and you view Elysia herself with suspicious, she is far too mysterious, playful and kind, a stark contrast to her comrades in the Flame Chasers. Your suspicions of her grows as you get deeper into the realm, helped by a healthy dose of Red Herrings throughout the Elysian Realm arc.
But then when the truth is revealed, you realize that she is perhaps the most genuine person you meet in the story. Her actions in the PE had mind-blowing effects that ripples lead all the way to the current era's story.
"Tragedy is the birth of hope." really does fit Elysia and by extension the Flame Chasers stories. The 13 who "failed" to become heroes.
"Because of You" is made even more amazing by the fact this is the first time the 13 Flame Chasers really got to stand together. The first and last time so to speak, hence why Sakura says "This has never been seen before, right?"
Various circumstances/tragedies in their own era prevented them from ever fighting as one team, but throughout the story of Elysian Realm they are given the chance to fix at least that one tragedy of their story and find some closure.
As far as future Honkai Songs/reactions, take it at your own pace.
but as others have said, Moon Halo should be one of the last songs as it is an amazing turning point in Kiana's story. For reference the order would be something like: Befall, Nightglow, Starfall and then finally Moon Halo as they are very specifically about Kiana's journey.
Cyber Angel, Honkai World Diva, and Rubia also play a part of telling the stories of her friends which run parallels with her own journey, but you have already done the latter two so don't sweat it.
I love that you include your opera singings !
with the context after the quest this cinematic becomes 10 times more emotional. Because it's an ending to a 13 very significant and very cool characters
Lloré muchisimo con la cinematica, sobre todo al terminar el capitulo, más cuando tienes ya el contexto de como acabaron los 13, sobre todo el timing en el coro cuando aparecen Yae Sakura y Rin, Eden cantando sola para Elysia en el mundo que ha sido eliminado, Aponia rezando atada en espinas, que simbolizaba su capacidad de ver el destino pero no podía hacer nada, pues no podía evitarlo y las penas que cargó consigo. El trabajo audiovisual de esta gente es simplemente perfecto.
So glad to see you get to this one! Its really hard to explain the context of this one without spoiling a lot of major plot points but you definitely grasped the emotional themes of this animation. A really big theme of this story arc is legacies and holding hope for the future.
One last time and the first time the 13 Flame chasers fight all together
What a powerfull ending for the forgotten heroes