Is Phainon the next Irontomb? Full breakdown of Honkai Star Rail's Latest Trailer
Phainon Trailer — "Coronal Radiance" | Honkai: Star Rail
The brand-new trailer of the game, the Coronal Radiance trailer of Honkai Star Rail Version 3.4, aroused heated debate among players, and for good reason. Instead of putting it all on spectacular fights or mechanics, the emphasis is placed on a strange being named Phainon, who lives in a simulation of reality, Amphoreus, with no exits to be found.
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Being more than 33 million cycles old, Phainon's life is not so easy. The trailer brings up identity, failure, and an unavoidable change, and all this is done with a hint of a chilling possibility: that Phainon is becoming the feared Lord Ravager, Irontomb.
The Irontomb Connection and the Fate of Phainon
The core of the trailer is a haunting question of whether Phainon still remains himself or whether he has turned into something much worse. Many hints point towards his transformation into Irontomb:
Infinite Loops and Erosion of Emotions
The counter 33,550,336 is something more than a background detail.
It is a pain record. Phainon failed, he survived, and he saw the annihilation of the world over millions of cycles. This repetition over and over again is cumbersome and saps his humanity and willpower. Following the numerous resets, even the strongest sense of self starts to fall apart.
The Flame Reaver's Blade and Golden Ichor
When Phainon holds the weapon of the Flame Reaver, golden ichor flows from his hand, a substance commonly associated with Ravager corruption.
It is later found out that this weapon is Dawnmaker, his own sword. This scene represents the protagonist and antagonist completely overlapping, where Phainon may no longer be fighting the enemy but becoming it.
Monstrous Transformation
As the trailer advances, the body of Phainon is mutated—having clawed hands, breaking effects of light, and ethereal fragments of the other Chrysos Heirs. His mutated body harshly resembles that of Irontomb, a Ravager that ruins civilizations by the systematic breakdown of the system instead of conquering them by brute force. Such a visual transformation has a suggestion of something irreversible.
Reality Falling Apart
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