I'm a cinematographer and don't play Honkai Star Rail but have had a friend recently introduce me to these Cinematics. I personally really enjoy the Myriad Celestia trailers as they are FULL of Symbolism. The team behind these trailers are extremely talented in encapsulating an ideology, theme or story only in a matter of minutes. You can Chalk this trailer into three parts. "The Premiere Performance", "The 99th Showing" and finally "The 990th Showing". To those who might need some help understanding this trailer, I will go over each showing. 1. The Premiere Performance - Sparkle is completely separate from the mask. She monologues about her true vulnerable human emotions while the mask always remains the same. Also side note, and just my theory, the cherry blossoms during this entire "premiere" symbolize the transience of life. Life is ever changing and in this case ever fleeting. The majority of the music during this is bouncy and fun with a very subtle somber undertone leading us to the 99th showing. 2. The 99th Showing - Sparkle is now being gradually engulfed by this "Character". Her monologue in this Showing is telling us that the mask is now reflecting her emotions. I especially like the use of reflection/mirror imaging. In Cinema, mirrors or reflections can symbolize lies and deceit, aging and death, or in this case madness and corruption. She is becoming corrupt by this "Sparkle" character she is playing indicated by the final quote "the one in the mirror, that's Sparkle". (Side note - You see two Kitsune statues next to her at the end. Kitsune are a Trickster foxes and have supernatural abilities. The one ability that fits this scene the most is Metamorphosis. She has a kitsune mask also but this showing is much more significant as Sparkle has reached her transitionary point.) The music in this Showing has become a little louder, forceful and aggressive foreshadowing the dark, chaotic finale of the 990th showing. 3. The 990th Showing - She has lost herself completely by playing her character "Sparkle" for so long. The Mask is no longer imitating her but instead, displaying it's own emotions based on her monologue. The Red Spider lilies really caught my attention as they were in almost every scene. Red Spider Lilies most notoriously symbolize "Death and Rebirth". At the end of the the third showing, Sparkle is hanging from ribbons completely helpless to the masks looking down her which is portraying death of herself. The Masks lifeless eyes appear in the background looking down on her helpless body with the quote "I am not sparkle". The Eyes then change to her own life-filled eyes looking down on her followed by the quote "No, I am Sparkle" indicating her rebirth. She has been completely devoured by the character she is playing. The music has hit it's Crescendo, with the melody becoming quicker and much more chaotic. The final quote "Who's the real Sparkle" to me is a little cliché but I understand the "mysterious" direction they are going with. All in all this is absolutely incredible story telling from the cinematography to music design. Very deep for being a game. I continue to look forward to more of these Celestia trailers as they are a blast to dissect scene by scene and sometimes even frame by frame. If you've read all this, props! Hopefully you've enjoyed this breakdown and possibly helped you realize or understand some of the scenes better. If I missed anything significant please let me know!
I can think of a lot of reasons to be excited for Sparkle! Many of them are the additional skill points that my Imbibitor Lunae or Seele will receive. I might even build E6 QQ 👀
@@akqua_meow ok? i wasnt talking about it having weight and consequences now was i, i'm just saying you can't bear ignorance to the fact it does exist, which a lot of people are thats all
at her beginning part where she forst talked abt the mask, she saw it just as a mask- it didnt change expressions or have a conciousness, the second time she taks about it, she sees it as a mirror of herself and a way to express her emptions, making it more than just a mask, and the third time she talks about it, which is the 990th show acording to her the mask turns into another personality that has hostile feelings towards her, becoming a whole entity that she snaps out and in to. So basically over time, from her first show to her 990th one, her role slowly takes up a part of her mind until it becomes another entity
I understand the issue, and I wish there wasn’t one at all, but I just wanted to mention it to show why we weren’t going to be talking about it in this video!
So many lies to her personality that she becomes an anomaly to the true personality that you become unrecognizable. Who is sparkle? Id rather not reach for it because im scared lol
i couldnt care less about the "drama". Ive pulled for mass murderers, twisted psychopaths or even worse in other gacha games aint no way im not gonna pull for such a cute and awesomely designed charakter just cause shes a racist lul. People need to go outside, touch grass and not get triggered over what a fictional charakter said about another fictional charakter in a video game. Sparkle fans, try and ignore terminally online people on twitter and other platforms , youre allowed to be hyped about her and pull for her without feeling bad in any way shape or form. "drama" like this is just gonna boost her sales even more lul.
@corrin-1976 Some Twitter drama about the way she spoke to Aventurine. It was relatively racist in a way as she insulted his race but meh. Compared to some of the shit others have pulled in this story this is nothing
@@hikarugenji1737 as an aventurine enjoyer, he probably deserved it too lmao, I’m glad sparkle isn’t just a bratty being without reason and they’re giving her this lore
@corrin-1976 hehe indeed. I love that everyone is basically morally grey or outright evil in penacony. Even beyond that. I think only The first world had clear black and white view. But after that we have been dealing with grey and dark characters. It's kinda funny how those guys shit on Sparkle but ignore everything Kafka and her team did.
I had a very different take from the trailer... I didn't see any 2 faced or her struggles for acting and instead felt like she was explaining her joy in life, her path of elation. First she hides behind the mask to observe Second she takes the stage to act her play Third she leaves the stage to watch "sparkle" and sparkle being the character she was acting as. This is noticable when the eyes change and say she is sparkle and the "sparkle" she is watching is the mask she was wearing. After leaving she looks to find another stage to play on. Thinking of it in this way we can see how she matches with shampoo as a masked fool. Also why they don't get along even though they were once colleagues. Same path but vastly different joys in life.
@@RobinOsiria It's a weird way to look at it but strangely ties everything together. Espcially the sparkle and sampoo. Sparkle enjoys playing as people and sampoo enjoys playing with people while Aha enjoys killing people lol Also in another strange way it actually makes them... not inherently evil either. Quoting the elation path data bank. "The elated one understands that only the wise and sentient possess the privilege of understanding joy. Neither the dusty rocks nor the distant stars can fathom the humor that life entails. A quest for formidable adversaries in games of strategy and activities to while away the time bears no winners or losers. Instead, a search for the kind of laughter that leaves one breathless, will lead to the unexpected delights that uplift the soul toward divinity."
