u/losingit303

Source

This is actually one day late as it was yesterday but I had really bs work stuff hope you'll forgive me

Sources as always 1, 2, 3

Sources - 1, 2 and 3

3.x was an interesting patch cycle in HSR. It told a very long, continuous story, with the exception of 3.8, which I will touch on in the end to cover the allegory section. We'll start with my favourite fact about 3.x

• 1. The Canon

Now, this is quite often a pipe dream for these sorts of games. But 3.x, and specifically 3.1 through 3.3, delivered the only undeniable canonically queer relationship in HSR and quite honestly all of modern Hoyo history (Post GI). For those in the know I am obviously talking about Cerces and Mnestia. The titan duo, despite being just NPCs, are both fem-coded and are a canonical romantic couple. With one of them, Mnestia even being the titan of Romance, while Cerces is the one of reason. This is a classic pairing because it explores the contrasting tension between emotional passion (romance) and rational thought (reason). Some of my favourite in-game tidbits about them I have screenshotted. There is a whole readable in the game you can read here. About what Hoyo chose to designate their 'forbidden love'. This is also in-game, mind you its just too long for just a single screenshot. But here's my favourite bit;

"...Intellectual, yet also romantic?" "Perhaps... it's because I... hibernate? You see, in my long dreams, I've made promises to countless lovers." "...Really?"

The butterfly-winged girl suddenly rose from the thicket before Cerces, startling her slightly. After all, at this moment, the distance between them was virtually nonexistent. Gazing directly at Mnestia's face, allowing the light reflecting from her lips to pass through her eyes, a hint of crimson flashed across Cerces' face — almost imperceptible to onlookers. Of course, her composure wavered for only a moment. Then, Cerces wrapped her arms around the girl's waist and, as if pulling up a radish from the ground, gently lifted her from the flower thicket.'

This is here for you, for me, for us, dear reader. It's unquestionably an expression of sapphic love with what's hard to classify as anything but made from the heart. Its a story someone wanted to tell and was able to push through for one reason or another, and blessedly no one cared enough to get it censored.

• 2. The Subtext

Now 3.x has a lot of sapphic subtext, but the undisputed victor of the most has to be Cerylisens. Now, I would like to start by saying that purely conceptually, a noblewoman and her loyal knight is something that goes back in yuri subtext for a very long time (the bodyguard AU you are all familiar with exists for a reason). Namely, one of the earliest works of shoujo that blurs into yuri has been Ikeda's Rose of Versailles and specifically the relationship between Oscar Francois and Marie Antoinette. Now, one of the defining things for the flamechasers and something tied into their stories is that each gets a prophecy. Cerydra and Hysilens are no different; that said, theirs are rather unique as they are a mirror of each other. No other prophecies interact in that way; they are the only ones that basically have each other's prophecy but in reverse;

"You shall complete your conquest in the ocean at the boundaries of this world, and eternally slumber in the sounds of tides." - Cerydra

"You shall eternally slumber in the sounds of tides, and complete your conquest in the ocean at the boundaries of this world." - Hysilens

This is obviously very intentional, as Hoyo are very careful with their portrayal in even marketing. For example, in Evernight's magazine, they reveal the personality types of all the chrysos heirs. Why is this relevant? Well, ISFP and ENTJ share the same cognitive functions in reverse order (Te-Ni-Se-Fi vs. Fi-Se-Ni-Te), creating a strong potential for attraction and growth. Now, whether you believe in Miers Briggs or not is immaterial; it's that this was a very conscious choice Hoyo made when creating the material. Just playing through their portrayals, the game goes out of its way to textually inform you that they're closer to each other than anyone else.

Hysilens and Cerydra are both very incomplete until they meet each other - Hysilens is a Princess of the Sirens, wandering aimlessly along the shoreline after the fall of her people, until she meets Cerydra and finds herself drawn in by her light/flame.

Cerydra is the former Princess of Hyperborea, locked away and used as a political pawn until she manoeuvred her way into leading an army and staging a coup. She sets her sights on building an empire and recruiting Hysilens, the most skilled swordswoman there is, which greatly facilitates this goal.

Once together, the two are rarely apart, with Hysilens acting as Cerydra’s personal bodyguard. Hysilens slays thousands, if not more, on Cerydra’s campaign, and Cerydra offers to reward her with anything she wishes. Each time Hysilens asks only for a bountiful feast, and so they regularly dine and celebrate together.

The friction comes with the fact that Hysilens’ loyalty is tested when Cerydra willingly sacrifices many of her own soldiers in order to claim the Coreflame of Law. This is a bit of a wake-up call for Hysilens, where the veil is parted, and she sees now that Cerydra is more ruthless than she thought, that the claims of her being a bloody tyrant are not unfounded. Despite this, she does not abandon her.

Towards the end, Cerydra realises that she can rewrite the code of Amphoreus by sacrificing a demigod in exchange, and she chooses to sacrifice herself. She has Hysilens kill her, and it’s a drawn-out emotional moment that highlights just how much trust the two have for each other, just how close they were.

Cerylisens is subtext in so far as someone is willfully ignorant of any media literacy. It is not explicitly stated at any point, no, but its the type of queer coding you will find little pushback against from anyone that isn't specifically homophobic. I will leave off Cerylisens with the bet that had me crying as I played. Hysilens going;

My Imperator is dead. My fire is dead. My light is dead. My heart is dead

Some more misc.

The next one I will talk about is actually, still involving Hysilens, girl is a sapphic through and through with all she gets. Its nice to see the untouchable Aglaea can be entranced by someone else too, rather than always the other way around for once. 50 letters, with this being number 50, Aglaea sent to Hysilens. There's also this. It's really easy to read how much Aglaea has missed and yearns for Hysilens. Their as I've written also talk about each other.

There's also the brief RuanHerta interaction we've gotten. It wasn't much, but it also spoke volumes. When Herta called her council of geniuses and laid out her extremely risky plan I am far from the only one who noticed that Ruan Mei's response was quite literally 'after everything comes visit me so we can eat sweets.' This utter unwavering belief she has that Herta won't fail is just beautiful.

There are a few other small bits, such as Cipher consistently teasing and calling Castorice a princess, with Castorice finally finding the courage to tease her back. There's Cipher's death message post 3.3, stating she's not afraid of death because to her death means reuniting with Castorice. She's part of the 3 callamety titans and is often presented alongside Castorice and Mydei. There's also that scene of Cassie and Cipher in the bath that was... y'know.

• 3. The Allegory

Now 3.8 closes off with a return to Penacony. Where I want to talk about Firefly. Specifically, Firefly as a trans allegory. I think the reading is rather obvious when you play through 3.8, and how in your face it is with her conversation with 'Sam'. That in and of itself is kinda telling. Sam is this masculinised figure with a deep voice, and it's how the outside world sees her. Sam is on all the wanted posters. Sam is the one who gets the bounties. Sam is how Firefly engages with the bureaucratic world. She was created as "AR-26710," a Titular Knight of Glamoth. "SAM" is her alias and her armor’s designation. By choosing the name Firefly, she is engaging in an act of radical self-definition. "I am Firefly": When she tells the Stelle, "I hope that you will remember me as Firefly, and not as SAM," she is echoing the trans experience of asking to be seen for who she is, rather than a label (or "deadname") assigned to her at birth or by society.

The conversation with herself or Sam, depending on your reading, is also contributing to this allegory. Sam appears in this conversation as 'Past', and is asking Firefly what she wants to become in the future and her response is rather simple, 'an ordinary girl'. The reply she gets is one I've been told isn't unfamiliar to trans women, "that's impossible in even the perfect dream, and you are better off dead because it cant happen." To which Firefly has an incredible response, 'Whos to say that an ordinary girl wouldn't act like me in the circumstances I was placed in?' She also talks about how she has to once again use Sam, even though it pushes her closer to her death. The tragedy of her character is that she is often forced back into the armor to survive. This mirrors the pain of closeting, where an individual must revert to a "shell" to navigate a world that isn't yet ready to see the person inside. This is all in the screenshots btw. Like this entire conversation happens I am not adding anything but interpreting it through an allegorical lens that's hard to ignore.

Penacony itself acts as a metaphor for a safe space. In the Dreamscape, Firefly can walk around without her armor. She can eat, breathe, and interact as a "normal girl." Her joy in the Dreamscape isn't about power or anything like that; it's about the mundane reality of being a girl. For many trans people, "passing" or simply being gendered correctly in daily life provides a similar sense of peace, a "dream" where the friction between the self and outward perception realigns as one.

Now I actually had a bit more, but honestly, this has taken up 3 hours of my time already, including running around in-game to find certain things, or the names for the readables in the wiki, and even replaying certain quests for the bit of dialogue I needed, so I will leave it there. All this is to say that no, I'm sorry, this game isn't just queer bait.