Just saying, description of the animated short sounds like talking a Honkai Impact 3rd story that depicts the fall of an extraterrestrial civilization for failing in overcoming Finality: Great Black Sun (IX of Nihility): Cocoon of Finality or similar existence Kami: Herrschers & perhaps super high rank Honkai beasts (like planetary class Honkai beast Jyahnar in GGZ) 12 Edict Edges: 12 Divine Keys Could it be Acheron or her template had become HotE like GGZ Kiana in the past?🤨

One of the BIGGEST "fuck around and find out" moments in Honkai Star Rail history

Came for the Yuri, left with fear and panic. Truly a Honkai experience. Also our boi IX has some of the wildest characters on his path. Man's a just blob of mass in space chilling and all his followers are busted.

Someone need to call Kiana and tell her, her girlfriend is going crazy :D

RIP to Duke Inferno and his family. We will remember him as relics moving forward.

So the running theory that I personally really love is that yes, she is the Emanator of Nihility. She has no memories in her base form and just runs on emotion/instinct. The thing Black Swan was saying in the end further proves this: a silent abyss filled with those who drowned in it. No true memories, only fragments of her actions (killing). Hence her not remembering the Annihilation gang right away - she only has fragments of memory the moment she killed Duke and associated them with Duke. Now, for the hunter x prey motif of the 2nd half of this video. Black Swan does NOT have a physical form, she's a being of memory. Acheron is an emanator of Nihility - a blank slate/no memory. Literally dancing with the one thing that can destroy her. When the video takes the turn, Black Swan can be visibly seen trying to escape by scattering as birds. But she couldn't. She's in the emanator's domain. There were also frames of a black hole devouring a star which connects to the final frames of Black Swan being torn apart by the abyss. If Acheron actually felt that Black Swan was a threat: Black Swan would be dead.

Shaoji was cooking something, but today he cooked black swan.

They way Acheron ripped feathers from Black Swan and the bird skeleton, I had chills

Whe Mei after leaving the ER decided to live by Kalpas' ideals

acheron's way of saying "get outta my head" 💢

They really dug into tango dance moves! I love how the dance starts with Black Swan taking the "male lead" role, but ends with Acheron switching in the second half.. Very very well done. And very yuri. Love it!

Fun fact for the description: It mentions that the people of Izumo created 12 divine weapons, so they most likely slayed (at least) 12 Kami. The first Kami was named: Sovereign of Revelation The word Sovereign can be translated into german as Herrscher. This to me mirrors the Previous Era of HI3. And just like there, despite defeating the 12 Kami, they were still wiped out. The Embrace failed and everything was lost. This place might actually be our next destination: In the livestream they mentioned that Acheron will be very important to "upcoming content", so she might give us a reason at the end of Penacony (2.3 epilogues) to go towards Izumo. As for how we would go to a place that is no more? Well it wasn't said that Izumo was destroyed, it only "disappeared". It is possible, that Izumo and Takamagahara sunk into the Sea of Quanta after the failed embrace. Also another fun fact: In the livestream, we were shown 2 new planar ornament which usually contain planet lore. One of which is called "Izumo Gensei and Takama Divine Realm". Based on the image of the Izumo part of the image, it is identical to the planet that was featured in Sparkle's Myriad Celestia trailer. So is Sparkle also from Izumo before it was ""destroyed""?

If she's a Nihility emanator, they say the first thing the Nihility takes from you is your memories. No wonder she often forgets even the recent event

Fun fact, there is a consumable that you can obtain from a shop in cloudford called ‘Izumo Miso’. I think so far this is the only mention of Acheron’s ‘homeworld’ tho it doesn’t have anything to do with her lore, I think it’s pretty interesting nonetheless. Here is its description if you are interested: A fermented food item created by an outworld civilization. A delicious pot of soup can be created by just placing a tiny chunk of this in boiling water. Additionally it can also be used to stirfry, prepare a hotpot, or additional flavoring for meat. The poetic piece "Litany of Miso Hotpot" described it thusty: "Green are the waters on which fragrant celeries glide, and yellow the daylilies that cast their deliciousness astride. As the boiling flow tumbles like fabrics bundles in a bind, the warmth of the taste does hollow stomachs a favor most kind."

A Kalpa is the length of time between the creation and recreation of a world/universe etc, also known as an "Aeon". Terminus, the Aeon of Finality born at the end of the Universe is most likely whom Acheron is an Emanator for. Rondo as a dance usually contains contrasting themes, which accurately not only describes the dance they had, but also Acheron herself with her dualistic nature. This entire animation is filled with double meaning, easter eggs and hidden elements. A duo dance across the creation and recreation of the universe in the eyes of the Emanator of Finality, and Swan witnesses the final end, glimpsing the true nature of Acheron. Beautifully done

Someone call Kiana on speed diel cause Mei expy has gone crazy lol

Finally found some one read the description, a lot just look at the animated shor and guessing but actually every release from hoyoverse from post to video normally also will include something related to the lore.

I love how you're always so sincere with your emotions during reactions!! and how you're always connecting the honkaiverse with your observations too 🫶🏻

13:08 "You evoke memories of an old friend. In the haze of my recollections, he/she stood shoulder to shoulder with me, much like this surreal dreamscape where we stood close, yet forever out of reach."

Thank you to Acheron for providing a better relic for my Himeko 😊

fyi; if you look at the final scenes with the bodies That’s Penacony, and the grand theatre

One of the most terrifying animations I have ever seen. Based on the description, people are interpreting Acheron is HSR’s first actual interaction with Honkai (besides Welt, of course). This whole thing gives me HI3 Ch 18 “emotionally dead” Mei vibes… only 1000x worse. This really makes me lean harder into the idea that Acheron is the Mei who lost her Kiana - or even killed her own Kiana - in this universe. And it was phenomenal in EN as well.

Acheron is literally Mei..... But Kianaless wahahaha also hey Kodla... Missed ya lots girl... It's been awhile since I commented on your vids haha

Im pretty sure she is Nihility, Nihility is about 2 thing: 1. IX the black hole 2. Chaos So, in my opinion, what BS experienced there was the Chaos of the silent abyss.

12:20 the way black swan took back acheron's hands were SENDING MEEEEEE

Kiana punching drywalls, smashing keyboards, breaking monitors right now 👊

Them legs though

lmao i had the same thought when i saw Kalpas on the title 😭

BS gazes at the abyss and the abyss gazes back 💀💀

When you stare into the abyss and Mei looks back

And that's when Black swan realized, she fucked up

5:55 the cursor

It is said that first thing that nihillity takes are memories so her forgeting things are due to her being an emanator of IX

Black Swan was (i assume) diving through acheron’s “sea” of memories. She sifts one memories to the next, narrating what she sees e.g. “she’s definitely after the Watchmaker’s legacy”. Its ballroom dancing. Black swan elegantly leads Acheron around, gaining intimate insight to her follow. By the time Black swan reaches the memory she seek as shown when she narrated “What did you do, beautiful Ranger?”, Acheron replies by taking the lead, switching the lead-follow role. Acheron is ruthless. She is crude and she leads the dance violently, symbolising her merciless deed to Duke Inferno. Truly a predator Acheron is to her preys. Besides that, I find it interesting that BS says that Acheron’s past is like “a silent abyss”. To me, it could be interpreted in two different ways. 1) abyss => dark nothingness Maybe BS is talking about how dark Acheron’s past is. The abyss could be referring to aeon IX. “Filled with those who drown in it” gives the imagery that the abyss swallows everything like a black hole or sea. 2) abyss => literally nothing Ever heard of “gaping abyss of vacuum”? It is a combination of words that could describe space’s nothingness. In other words, her past is literally nothing because she travels backwards in time (and thus no past). Of course, this interpretation is very likely to be wrong but it’s interesting that it could also be interpreted that way considering the fact that Acheron was also theorised to be Finality’s Emanator.

Acheron has her persona side just like Mei has HoT persona... These two...

Acheron slammed Black Swan at the end of their first 'dance'. Just lifted her up and smashed her on the ground.

the best person to see the reaction is our beloved Raiden Mei enjoyer!!!

and Nihility is the opposite of remembrance

I just had a revelation the inner acheron was tourtering black swan as if she had already tortured her before and as the flashes of hunting she don't years before as the the digrestion of evolution from land to water to plants and back to XI all will come back to the end of things so either its finality or XI of smth of both OR raiden mei losing everything as most people speculated of the lore of that friend dying in XI

She's Nihility, we can see IX when she's pretty much torturing Black Swan. People expected Yuri and it was an one sided torture session 💀

People need to remember that she's a freakin emanator of nihility,we had to bring out all the crew just to barely let it leave.

How you call IX (Nine) alphabetically is cute. The name of Nihility Aeon is literally a (roman) Number. But yeah. The Aeon is called Nine (IX) the Nihility. Black Swan gazed into the Abyss, and the Abyss answered her gaze. Perhaps another perfect allegory would be "Curiosity kills the cat".

She is the emanator of xl

I call IX - Nine

absolute adore this animated short it have so much lore and symbolic its just chef kiss

This has so much lore behind but my brain on thinks... SMASH!

I would assume Black Swan took a lot of damage from that since aren't memokeepers basically an amalgamation of memories or something? Their description says they gave up their bodies and explore the universe in the form of memories. You would think they'd at least be the masters of memories and be able to help someone afflicted by IX to prevent their gradual memory loss but it seems the power difference is huge.

You're one of the first from all these react videos I've seen that actually paid attention to the representation of IX(the black hole) in the animation and even remembered Acheron being an emanator of nihility.

Finally, been waiting for your vid

Like she off screened duke and then forgot about him💀😭(I’m rlly happy beidous va got to voice Acheron she deserves to voice 5* character and some genshin fans were rioting over this☠️) I knew hi3 fans were gonna coooom over this😂

Black Swan? More like Hunted Duck! XD

I know damn well kiana is kicking her feets and giggling in the background looking at her girl being loyal

This is such a masterpiece. I love how much mixed feelings you got from this xD This trailer is definitely a cocktail drink, fitting for Penacony vibes.

MY GAYZE

I don't know what to feel I love Acheron and want to see her more but at the same time I'm pretty much coping that Duke inferno is still alive somehow... Maybe it happened right before we met Acheron for the first time and so he just woke up in reality? I just can't accept it that DI was Npc'd by Acheron right after having him get a mini arc in V1.6 and a whole trailer for him and his children, I also can't accept that if Acheron did do that she'll just let the other 4 members leave like that, another thing I can't accept is that DI got nuked and his children just scattered off and seperated Idk if I'll ever accept it... Regardless I love the fact that that video has a lot of HI3 easter eggs, what would her myrid celestia be like I wonder? Best ones for HSR so far imo are Sparkle's and Kafka. If life is a game and Acheron's in it then V2.1 will break us all in all kinds of ways.

Kodla's reactions were pretty much my reactions xD

the entire time i was like stop seducing mei and then in the end that wild thing happened imma say mei without kiana is the most depressed mei

We won with this trailer hopefully the rest are are as good for acheron excited for her myriad/demo trailer

Like this entire trailer went from a yuri damce to cosmic horror. What exactly did Black Swan even see for her to be this terrified!?

yuri no yomi 💀

3:02 you guys feel hot? why is it hot in here?

She said i want to know WHAT she is and not WHO she is... That's so ominous...

6:00 shes the emantor of nihility as this teaser confirms so does her ultimate as a blackhole is in the background. The hunt path is not this harsh and neither causes extreme behaviour or memory loss and if it was the finality a full moon wouldve been in the background not a blackhole.

KalpAss

Also, you can just cut out the red acheron sequence and go straight from "excuse me, are you asking me?" to "who's the annihilation gang?", implying that Acheron's memories and past are just so messed up that it can automatically eviscerate black swan, and acheron might not even be fully aware, or that's my running thought. After all the new info such as combat animation, this short, and the hoyolab post about emanators (it's a lore-heavy read and might have just foreshadowed the whole ending of penacony), I'm more convinced that acheron is emanator of nihility.

4:50 is basically look like HoT or HoO back

I love they are making characters like this and the animation had that primal predator vs prey vibe that was amazing need more please

I have a theory that the aeon of nihility is just a husk , a shell of another aeon. So I think IX is a husk of finality cuz they both similar in terms of shape with Cacoon of finality and the ball with IX .since IX is a hunks of finality, maybe that y Acheron is alternate mei that is an enemator of nihility . Or maybe IX is the aeon of other dead aeon combined ?

Great to see someone talking about the meaning of the video and not just the sexy dance. lol. She definitely seems to be the emanator of IX based on this. Once BS got deeper into her memories, IX shows themselves. I love how BS came into it so confident, but by the end she is terrified and says it's their "final engagement"--she doesn't want any more of that! Amazing storytelling by Hoyo!

Peak, but like damn I can’t get over Duke Inferno 😭 his character and VA was godly imo and it stings a tiny bit that we most likely won’t see him on screen/playable..

black swan really went full "I can fix her" mode but got broken by acheron instead 😭😭😭

say gex to violence

My crack theory is that IX is the aeon Terminus and that at the end of time IX becomes terminus and then starts their journey backwards through time. And that Acheron is both a emenator of nihility as well as finality through like an alter ego thing like with HoT with the red text stuff in game being related to her finality side. Would explain why acheron is so much stronger than other emanators we have seen like BS and herta

When you look in the backround when they dance with Acheron in the lead and they are all black, you see a Snake killing a Swan.

Sad to see roommates break up like this

So Mei without Kiana becomes depressed and psychotic?

This happens if Mei is Kiana Less she goes unhinge. I need Durandal in HSR and I need her to be a Knight.

I think she is an Emanator of finality because the Short's title is Rondo Across Countless Kalpas, Kalpa means the very long time between the creation and recreation of universe. In H!3rd the Herrscher of Finality was responsible for creation and recreation of the universe, so I think an Emanator of Finality would would live across 'Countless Kalpas' to create and recreate the universe.

I was wondering if she was the nihility eminator after seeing that. This cinematic was so wild.

the description for the video gives some insanely HI3 sounding parallels with the disappearance of Izumo. And with the hoyolab posts they made to explain emanators more, it seems like maybe Frebass, the girl from the diving relic set, was a self-annihilator and Acheron was a doctor of chaos trying to save her?

Yes I'm also afraid that acheron will torture my collection of jades

Positive and wholesome.

Inner Acheron: *brutally murders BS multiple times* Real Acheron to BS be like: So... was I good dancing? Acheron was not aware that, whatever was inside her, was literally slaughtering BS.

Not exactly convinced she just forget things. It seems to me it's a dual personality thing. One is the emanator half, but it's too strong to be bearable full time, and the other is the human half who's too weak to live with the consequences of the emanator's actions, so she does not get to access the emanator memories or when she does get access, they are faded and muted. When BS asked "What have you done?" is the emanator that is responding "Are you asking me?" and then proceeds to show her what is behind the sweet, sad, goofy Ranger that she invited to dance with the purpose of getting into her memories, but ultimately finding more than she can take.

if what BlackSwan See in Her Past Memories then i want to KNOW deep in it, Good lord

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Between the YT description of the animation and Shaoji saying her path ultimately became nihility, does this mean that following the path of the hunt, could eventually lead to the path of nihility? Devoting her whole life for the hunt and at the end of the hunt is the finality, and past that is nothing (nihility)

Dev did mentioned and confirmed she is nihility emanator during live stream

What no kiana does to a mei expy:

Just rewatch Myriad Celestia and pay attention to part where word "infant in the mirror" is. Hint are right here, on plain sight. As for indifference, aloofness... (I reiterate for better understanding) "Numb your mind so approaching darkness may strike no fear in you Let it not burden you and your stride" That's why Hokushin have Nihility "path".

duke is gonna be so upset that she can't even remember the dude that she killed. That disrespect though lmao.

this happens because she doesn't meet a fuckin Tuna

Alot of people are missing it. When she asks, "What have you done?" It's not Acheron in the present that asks, it's her switched version in the past. "Excuse me.. Are you asking me?" As if to clarify which version of Acheron is Black Swan asking

When your know that "Acheron" is the name of the infernal river of pain in Greek Mythology... This make sense XD

Ayooo yuri going very hard

2:44 Is that the kiana and mei scene on the roof of the school??

Hi,it was nice seeing your react. Could you tell me the name of your outro song,pls?

The yuri bait goes crazy

Is IX pronounced as roman numeral IX or literally? All this time i called the Aeon 9..

IX is just a silly guy giving his powers to silly girls~ Also, is not very doomed yuri if you consider Black Swan was already flirting with Acheron again just moments later (the dance happened when we were on a date with Firefly), lmao. She must be like "ok, that was bad but maaaaaaaaaaaybe if..."