#buuuut i don't see that happening outside of fanfic so

[herrscherofmagic]

one more HSR thought before i go to bed

I love the Penacony story so far, but I do have one gripe- that the Trailblazer feels pretty powerless more often than not. It's still early in the story so things might change, but it feels like everything happens to us, and we don't get much of a chance to act on our own.

Not only do we not get to take much action, but we hardly even get to see the Trailblazer actually process what's going on. As a player with an outsider's view there's a lot of thinking I've been doing about the nature of the situation in Penacony, but it seems as though the Trailblazer doesn't get to do any of that thinking.

and I don't mind that much- the story still has time to change, and I trust the writers. Buuuut it does give me an idea... After the Penacony main story wraps up, I think I'm going to write a fanfic that basically "rewrites" the story roughly from the end of 2.0 onwards (probably a bit later depending on how things go) to give the Trailblazer more agency.

One of my headcanons is that the Trailblazer (in my case Stelle since that's who I play as) still has some lingering attachment to the Stellaron Hunters. We know they used to work alongside Kafka, but the player has the choice of whether or not they want the connection or if they'd rather push her away. I'm definitely one of the players that's gonna pick the Kafka-favorable option every time, lol

So I kinda wanna lean into that a bit more. Making Stelle act more like a Stellaron Hunter; still capable of putting up an innocent/naive/helpless facade, but also observant and willing to scheme.

I want a Stelle that makes a mental map of everyone she knows, who investigates by eavesdropping on bystanders' conversations, who pokes and prods into topics with seemingly innocent questions to gain insight into people.

I want a Stelle that coordinates secret meetings with people and who writes cryptic notes and slowly builds trust with a few select individuals (especially the Stellaron Hunters) and then uses those bonds to plan a sort of "big finale" to the crisis on Penacony.

I want a Stelle who takes risks, who stands up to people like Aventurine and plays tic-for-tac, sometimes losing against him but sometimes winning against him; a Stelle that'll take drastic but calculated actions

I want a Stelle who's willing to play the villain, who'd gladly go up on stage and say terrible things that she doesn't truly mean, willing to unite everyone by rallying them all against her... and then at the last moment, all the blocks fall into place and the stage is set for the battle against the "final boss" (whoever that may be). At the ending scene before the curtain call all is revealed, and Stelle stands as the one who made it all happen.

Basically I want Stelle to pull off a gamble so risky, so wild, so utterly absurd that even Sparkle gets blown away by it, and in the distance you can hear Aha laughing in amusement.

i have more specific thoughts but sharing those would be a mix of spoilers of the 2.0 story as well as spoilers for the fanfic I may write in the future, so that's all I'll say for now!

I feel like it'd be fun to write a sort of "alternate story route" fanfic that's narrowed to a single specific story arc. I've played with the idea of "alternate story route" fanfics before but usually in long overarching narratives where a lot of my mental effort goes into planning out settings and factions. If I do a story that's limited to just this Penacony arc being rewritten then I can really emphasize character relationships, and I think that'd help me a lot to grow in my writing skills! ^.^

#honkai star rail #honkai star rail fanfic #well... honkai star rail fanfic *idea* lol