I just wanted you to make a movie: You made a Honkai Star Rail movie

”Maybe the information in there won’t just help us understand Sparkle better, but also give us indirect insight into the true meaning of joy...”

As she spoke, she clicked on the video titled Myriad Celestial Trailer: Sparkle, Behind the Curtain, right next to the PV.

---------------------------------

Even when Rion was about to click on the video, the comments were still fiercely discussing the recent PV.

...

: Sparkle definitely has mental issues! Otherwise, this is way too crazy!

: This kind of crazy and beautiful girl, I just love her so much!

: Hahaha, being a little unhinged is good, makes her a fun character.

: Feels like a case of schizophrenia.

...

The audience naturally assumed Sparkle’s behavior was like someone with a mental disorder.

Rion frowned.

Because with comments like that, Sparkle’s portrayal started to feel a bit superficial.

But something in her gut told her otherwise, yet with the current information, she couldn’t tell much.

So, before clicking into the Myriad Celestia Trailer, she glanced at the video description.

Surprisingly, the description was quite long.

”When you realize this is just a play, you try to leave the stage.”

”Only to find that apart from Sparkle’s stage, there’s nothing else.”

”The whole world is like a circus, endlessly performing the farce of beasts fighting.”

”And the difference between us fools and others is: we know we’re performing.”

”Liking and believing are two different things, but people prefer to believe the stories they like are real.”

- A masked fool, Sparkle.

Looking at the text in the description, Rion couldn’t help but silently recite it once in her heart.

Beside her, Miss Yun also noticed the content, her eyes flickering, clearly deep in thought.

Both hosts, well-versed in literature, were digesting the implications behind the words.

Meanwhile, the audience in the livestream was already urging them to play the PV.

”Alright, alright, don’t rush. Let’s start watching.”

Pulled out of her thoughts, Rion smiled helplessly and clicked on the video.

In the footage, first flashed the miHoYo logo, then a calm, sweet voice-over began.

”It doesn’t matter,”

”Who I am offstage.”

The camera started from a pair of legs in white ankle socks, slowly moving upward.

Until the full face was revealed, a serene beautiful girl wearing black-rimmed glasses, a sailor uniform, and a pleated skirt.

She was holding her bag obediently, smiling as she faced the mirror.

With straight bangs and long hair to the waist, she looked so pure.

”Th-this is...”

Miss Yun’s eyes widened: ”Is that Sparkle?”

”Huh? That’s Sparkle?” Rion was stunned.

And not just her, at least half the audience didn’t realize it right away.

The long-haired straight black-haired JK (Japanese schoolgirl) beauty in front of them was actually the same wild and crazy Sparkle from the earlier PV!

...

: Damn, that contrast is insane!

: Where the hell is this? Is this still Penacony? Where’s my Sparkle?!

: Could it be... this is from when she was still mentally stable?

: This is such first-love material! And that sweet, cute voice! I love her even more now!

: I really want to know what happened to make Sparkle turn into that.

...

Once they realized that the adorable beauty on screen was Sparkle herself, the audience’s curiosity ignited.

The drastic contrast made them especially eager to know what happened to make Sparkle turn into the version they were familiar with.

”All the audience needs to know is,”

”that when I’m on stage,”

”I’m just Sparkle!”

With the sweet voice narrating, a series of scenes flashed by.

Sparkle, in her everyday clothes, walked into the backstage area. Then in front of a mirror, she began the process of transforming into her familiar stage persona.

But this Sparkle didn’t show the same expression as before. Her smile was gentle, with her mouth slightly curled, reserved and elegant.

She smiled as she embraced her mask, saying joyfully:

”It’s you, my beloved mask.”

”When I’m happy, you’re smiling too.”

”When I’m angry, you’re still smiling.”

”When I’m sad, you keep on smiling.”

”You’re like a veil that I can hide under.”

”The one wearing the veil- that’s Sparkle.”

Holding the mask joyfully, Sparkle crossed her arms, pouted her cheeks in adorable mock anger, and even silently shed tears.

Until finally, she personally put on the mask and walked toward the stage.

The background music began to rise, gentle but rhythmic violin notes.

This version of Sparkle was truly beautiful.

Her various small gestures made many audience members, including Miss Yun, an intellectual and graceful woman, let out soft chuckles.

Lively, cute, girlish.

That was the impression the first act left on viewers.

But before the audience could even voice their thoughts, the footage rapidly shifted.

JK Sparkle returned to the backstage and began doing her makeup.

Within just three seconds, the previous sequence replayed, and the scene returned to the beginning of the first act.

Only this time, Sparkle’s smile was a bit brighter, no longer reserved, but more joyful and cheerful.

”It’s you, my beloved mask.”

Her voice also sounded a bit stronger.

Then, the violin suddenly did a stylish modulation.

It sounded cool, but in that scene, it felt a bit ridiculous.

”When I’m happy, you’re smiling too.”

”When I’m angry, you’re screaming too.”

The lines that had just appeared were repeated by Sparkle, but this time, her tone was filled with even stronger emotion.

The corresponding emotional scenes, the elegant straight posture and clear expressions.

The angry Sparkle, with furrowed brows and wide-open mouth, was clearly in a state of uncontrollable rage.

”When I’m sad, you’re crying too.”

And when it came to pain and crying.

Sparkle’s tone had already begun to tremble, heavy with sobs, and the line was delivered in a pitiful, stammering voice.

”You’re like a mirror, showing my reflection.”

”The one in the mirror- that’s Sparkle.”

The Sparkle in the mirror pressed her lips together and clenched her fists tightly.

The Sparkle in front of the mirror wore a sorrowful mask.

The background music that was originally only violin had now merged with rapid drumbeats.

...

: Wait, this is starting to get a bit creepy!

: Damn, is there going to be a twist?

: Hold on! Let me get some armor first!

: Why does this smiling feel so off now, like something’s really wrong? What happened?

: So which one is the real Sparkle?! Damn it, my brain is breaking again.

: Is the mask becoming more and more humanlike?

: Could it be that after performing for so long, Sparkle gradually developed split personality?

...

As the barrage of comments scrolled past.

The next moment, the scene switched again, just like before.

When the screen returned to the shot of Sparkle holding the mask tightly, a disturbing blood-red filter was now over the image.

”It’s you, my beloved mask.”

”When I’m happy, your screaming.”

The violin climbed from the lower registers to the higher range.

And under that especially piercing melody, Sparkle held her face with both hands, revealing a distorted smile that defied words.

A sneer, a gleeful glint in the eyes, under which was a smile that seemed on the verge of collapse.

And the lines, nearly the same as before, were now spoken with a near-hysterical tone.

”When I’m angry, your crying.”

”When I’m sad, your smiling.”

”You’re like a face, staring at me.”

”The one wearing the veil, is Sparkle.”

She had gone mad...

At that moment, the audience was dumbfounded, with only one thought in their minds.

And after the last line was delivered, Sparkle’s tone finally changed.

”I... I’m not Sparkle.”

She sounded like she had just discovered some terrifying truth, her tone panicked and slightly stammering.

And in the final scene, Sparkle was suspended mid-air by ribbons, with a look of relief, or perhaps resignation, as she closed her eyes and shed tears.

And above her,

A pair of mocking eyes stared down at the bound Sparkle, delivering the final line:

”No, I am Sparkle!”

With grand music, the entire piece was pushed to its climax.

Seeing this, both the two hosts and the live-stream viewers now had a vague but certain conclusion in their hearts.

...

: As expected! She lost herself from acting every day, couldn’t distinguish between role and reality, and went insane!

: This might be Sparkle’s emotional journey, an actress falling into depression, on the verge of collapse, saved by joy, and thus turning into a deranged performer.

: This PV is really deep. Which one is really you, the one acting, or the one not acting? It’s messing with my brain.

: Though the content is still a bit abstract, as I understand it, everything that happened to Sparkle ultimately pushed her toward joy. Her only goal: to find her true self.

: Looking at it this way, Sparkle is actually kind of pitiful.

: The three segments correspond to: unable to immerse in the role no matter how she acts, then perfectly immersed, and finally endlessly acting until she goes mad?

: The repeated elements are used so masterfully, artistic yet directly conveying the message to us.

: Tsk tsk, I’m just full of admiration now. Whether it’s the PV or this Myriad Celestia Trailer, they’re both short, sharp, and full of artistic value!

...

The audience naturally arrived at more or less the same ”truth.”

A pitiful, beautiful actress whose mind broke after immersing in her roles for too long.

They even began to praise the brilliance of this Myriad Celestia Trailer with satisfaction.

Even Miss Yun, who was especially sensitive and emotional, didn’t find this interpretation wrong.

Instead, a sense of sympathy began to rise in her heart.

But at that moment, just as everyone thought it was over, Sparkle’s calm voice suddenly rang out.

”So...”

In the very next second, the once-soaring music vanished at her words, instantly dropping to a soft, subdued background tune.

Until now, the piece had used music and repetitive scenes to keep heightening the emotional pitch.

At the emotional peak, it led the audience to mentally fill in stories and theories, leaving them with a satisfying feeling.

Because this Myriad Celestia Trailer matched everyone’s ”imagination.”

But that emotional crescendo came to an abrupt stop with Sparkle’s line.

Many people didn’t realize.

Their emotions, from the very beginning, were led by the content of this Myriad Celestia Trailer.

”When I realized life was just a play,”

”I wanted to leave the stage,”

”Because offstage... There’s an even bigger stage.”

Amidst the fireworks filling the sky, JK Sparkle took off her mask and smiled brightly at the camera.

It was as if those manic scenes and the process of going mad had never happened.

A red thread rose from behind her, extending beyond the screen.

Here, Xia Wen added a special effect , a pseudo-3D effect, turning this scene into a picture-in-picture. After the thread passed through the ”frame,” it rose into another image:

The red thread returned to the hands of the familiar Sparkle wearing her red dress.

Her face was flushed, her peach blossom eyes staring tightly at the screen, and her hands were wrapped in countless red threads, each connected to a television.

Inside each screen was a different Sparkle:

A witch Sparkle riding a broom, a JK Sparkle laughing under fireworks, a strange Sparkle dressed as a Herta doll.

”Who’s the real Sparkle?”

Sparkle, manipulating the red threads, leaned close to the camera and whispered.

This question, breaking the fourth wall, should have elicited many responses.

But the live comments were completely silent.

Before this, Sparkle’s questions were interpreted by the audience as rhetorical.

Because from the audience’s perspective, this PV was created by miHoYo to showcase the character Sparkle.

The audience were the subjects, using this PV created by miHoYo, the object, to perceive Sparkle.

From this evaluative stance came all the speculations in the comments earlier:

That Sparkle had gone mad due to this or that reason, experiencing mental issues.

But in this final scene.

Sparkle’s direct question to the camera clearly broke the fourth wall, asking the audience: who is the real Sparkle?

Subject and object were reversed, Sparkle became the subject, and the audience became the object.

This sudden reversal shocked the audience, who had been immersed in the previous perspective.

They felt played with.

So much so that many sensitive people had an absurd thought.

At this moment, Is Sparkle the one in the mirror being watched, or is the audience the one in the mirror being watched by Sparkle?

Or are both true?

A sense of dislocation in time, space, and perspective filled everyone’s minds.

In this short Myriad Celestia Trailer, the amount of information and twists still overwhelmed the audience’s minds.

In the livestream, Miss Yun, dazed, came back to his senses and asked blankly: ”Are we saying we were just collectively played by Sparkle?”

”Be bold, don’t say ’are we.’”

”We were thoroughly played.”

Rion took a deep breath: ”All of us thought the content here was Sparkle’s experience, but looking at it another way, isn’t it what miHoYo, or ’Sparkle’, deliberately wanted us to see?”

”Do you remember that line from the introduction?”

”Liking and believing are two different things, but we are willing to believe what we like.”

”We liked the story of ’Sparkle is a pitiful actor who lost her mind due to long-term roleplaying,’ so when the third part ended, we immediately concluded she was that kind of person.”

”But in reality, Sparkle, or rather, the Elation she and Aha represent, would never produce a Sparkle who could wander through Penacony for such a laughable reason.”

Miss Yun became even more confused.

So did the live comments.

...

: Indeed, Joy, Aha, is itself a philosophical concept that’s still somewhat vague but extremely powerful. If Sparkle really became the Masked Fool due to mental issues, then she’d be just another nameless puppet.

: Then, if even the content here can’t be trusted, who exactly is Sparkle? Who is the real Sparkle?

: The Sparkle we see , is she really the real Sparkle? Including the one in Penacony?

: I originally wanted to learn more about Sparkle, but now the more I look, the less I know what’s real?!

: Host, host, do you know which Sparkle is the real one?

...

Looking at the questions in the comments, Rion, who has always been exceptionally well-versed in miHoYo’s plot and world-building, shook her head blankly.

”I don’t know...”