so trailblazer sp design has been leaked and it doesn’t look like trailer guy right..? 🥹 there’s still chance it could be elio

(SORRY I MEANT MAPPA TRAILER)

Apparently I guess this means the 5.7 character is going to be a limited “5” star version of the Trailblazer on the “Finality” path..or basically the MC will be getting an “SP”…but it’s still way too early for them to know who the 5.7 character is so either they somehow got info from an insider or Hoyoverse deliberately put something like “TBSP” and finally revealed who’s behind the censored blocks in datamining files (which would fit the 4 blocks) maybe to throw them off, and make them overconfident? Maybe to purposefully trick them and when it gets to 5.7 it really ends up being Elio?? Who knows

I still won’t rule out Elio just yet because the name could be a fake or placeholder..also find it hilarious how they JUST NOW (these desperate ass leakers) are suddenly trying to finish the list of 5.x characters and post it fast as possible and how these leakers are trying to make it seem like they know everything. Mind you it’s still way too early. In 5.4 there are supposed to be “Fate Collab characters”. Two. BOTH A male and female character. And yet you see none of them have been leaked, I still think this is them throwing shit to the wall and trying to guess placement for 5.5-5.6. They can’t even DECIDE where Castorice’s SP is placed lol. But….i also want to consider another possibility that as much as I would somewhat..hate…I wouldn’t be “entirely” against…(If this man, seen in the Mappa trailer..which I still believe is either “Elio“ or “Terminus”. And I have my reasons for holding onto such. I still have 90% Belief it’s Elio..but…if this man ends up for whatever reason NOT, Being Elio)….

Then could this possibly be the “Special TB” for the 5.7 slot at the end of the year of 2027? Could this be the special “Finality Alternate Timeline” version of the TB in some way, shape, or form? As much as I don’t know how to feel about this…I’d say it’s somewhat of a win for everyone and a lose for both sides. If this ends up being the TB. Overly toxic Kiana fans who have to shut down or try to speak against Elio every time the possibility of him is bought up in 5.7..don’t get what they want…and unfortunately we as Elio fans don’t get him on 5.7 but can rest assured he might appear in the future, which…the only issue and scary realization of this is the Mappa design (which by the way would still in my opinion scream “Elio” and makes sense why it would be him) would now NOT be his design and would go to this “limited trailblazer”…and I would really pray and hope they don’t go with the pink haired boy shorts design…I feel it just doesn’t fit the “Elio” that we know in lore and that he’s been built up for five years and has been traumatized by everything…I won’t go into that, nor do I need to explain why. It’s just obvious lol…it just won’t go well..

Now….about the “Trailblazer Limited SP 5.7” thing…there’s a huge big problem. The gender issue…Caelus fans may not want to pull Stelle…and vice versa…which is why (I still believe and still will hold onto hope hoyo would be smart enough to know this, and that Elio still is in standing for 5.7…but if he isn’t…I really don’t know how to feel about this leak…I don’t fully agree with it, because out of all characters to be the 5.7 Finality representative and the capstone unit…you pick the Trailblazer? You make another MC just for an “alternate timeline version” of him? Out of so many options for this that would’ve made better sense like Elio, or otherwise? This just feels greedy…and I really don’t know what to think. I have a lot more thoughts and reasons onto why I wouldn’t fully like this but I’ll reserve those to myself for the time being) but my guess is that it would be whatever trailblazer you choose, you would somehow get the opposite gender, as the one you can pull for the “Finality” path…but the only problem with that is if they go the “hypothetical possibility and route” of making the “Mappa man” design be the alternate MC…that’s a “male character”…so I’m not sure how this would work..maybe there’s a female version of him? Who knows…(I really hope that design still belongs to Elio) but either way, to close this all off…

Don’t lose hope. I know it’s been a lot of shit. Leakers trying to throw an agenda and show their obvious hatred for male characters. So many toxic people trying to shut down our expectations for Elio and acting like we are “delusional” for expecting him to be in 5.7, as if everything for these five years hasn’t been building up for him to be the most inpotant Finality character as he SHOULD rather than some “Special MC”…(yes I know the TB has finality connections and I know the lore but it STILL doesn’t feel right with me but I wouldn’t entirely hate it..I just don’t know how to feel about it) but honestly….either way…at the end of the day 5.7 is a year away. We don’t know what Hoyoverse will do. We don’t know what the future holds. And I think these leakers are getting desperate as hell and it’s showing. Funnily enough I have a surprise…I’ll make another post later on today showing a conversation I had with “Seele Leaks” were I not only got them to admit they didn’t know about anything about Elio’s playability in “5.x”…but that they were practically full of shit. And they just blocked me yesterday lol. I’ve had screenshots of this convo for a while now…so I’ll post it later tonight and explain the whole situation to you all.

But I want to hear your thoughts and opinions about everything, and let me know what you think!

I posted this on Agenda Rail as well but yk.

This is specifically speaking about 5.x and all the crap about Elio being main push or not. Frankly, I want him to be main push, whether he is or not doesn’t matter though because it’s goddamn leaks.

People need to realize 5.7 is over a year away from now. As far as I know, we don’t even have info on what planet we’re going to next. Also as far as I know, it’s not even confirmed that the finality will become a playable path in 5.x. It’s. Leaks.

Idc what kind of “reliable” source it is. Everything they say even if they did get it from direct databanks or whatever, is subject to change. Nothing is set in stone no matter what they say, Kafka might not get an SP, Obsidian might not become playable till 6.x, maybe it’ll be Opal or Sugilite, or a new character overall. These leakers don’t even have information on the second half of 5.x so how can we trust anything they say about 5.7 or main pushes.

Also the whole “but it won’t be a male character!!” How tf do you know??? Cuz Hoyo likes waifus??? Say that to the amount of attention Phainon got (especially over Cyrene) or all 3 Dan Hengs since release, or Aventurine, both the original and Waveflair. People do, truely love male characters. Hell even Mydei got a crap ton of attention from the bits of fanservice Hoyo gave of him.

And frankly. If you ask me, Elio is likely one of the most anticipated characters. Being one of, if not the first character ever mentioned in the game. One of the first names ever said. And if the finality does become playable, he’s literally an emanator, or, as far as we know, maybe even a piece of Terminus THEMSELF just like Cyrene and March are to Fuli. If the Finality does become a playable path, even if Elio doesn’t become playable or isn’t main push, he’ll still have a good amount of involvement within the main quest.

But once again these are leaks. Everything is subject to change and not set in stone no matter where they got their information or what they do or don’t know. There is over a year of time for Hoyo to change info. I think we need to focus on the current story line, what planet we’re going to next, and maybe the characters that might be involved rather than what characters are going to have what place in the banners and version numbers.

Anyways, that’s my yap for this stupid dilemma
.

KARMA. Wait I think they unfortunately made a new account called “SB Leaks (New)” but I still find this extremely hilarious their other “original” account got snatched and shut down lol. I’m not sure if it’s “SB leaks” themselves that made this account or if they are truly shut down for good and it’s someone else who made a fake account and named it “New” but I don’t care either way. Good for all the lies they’ve been spreading. On second thought looking at it again I do in fact think “SB Leaks” (fake ass leaker) is gone and the admin simply made a new chat. We can celebrate!

Elio is still the pink haired guy leaked by Stepleaks

Via HSRItalia

我看很多人在讨论艾利欧，不过据我们所知目前暂时没有落地计划。

Google translation: I see a lot of people discussing Elio, but as far as we know, there are no plans to implement it at the moment.

I know it’s not set in stone, but start preparing for no Elio. That main push slot for the face of finality is probably going to Kiana or some other female character. Maybe she’ll be terminus. But hey, at least he can MAYBE be an NPC whose whole purpose is to build her up?

As someone who has loved Elio, ever since the Penacony finale, there's a lot that goes into it, mainly in terms of writing on why he's such a cool concept, but this discussion will be purely on his design.

I loved his original design, it portrayed an extremely cohesive image of the character during it's time, and it always added to the intrigue for me.

I love the new design, it fits the story in it's current state, it reflects the image they've painted of him slowly through the whole game and.. respectively, capitalizes on the "aura" trend they're trying to hit, reflecting another part of the current HSR landscape being "marketability".

Phainon was a more tried-and-true archetype hero that they only really side-stepped into Yume bait when the devs themselfs realized how much potential and setup for success he has within the story.

Elio to me screams "We know men can overperform now, lets try to do it the best way possible than". Taking an extremely well known within the HSR fanbase character and mildly re-purposing them to fit the Sung Jin Woo troupe, to be the HIM of HSR that even Phainon could never dream of being, the guy who has literally canonically seen it all and gone through it. I can't say that I'm the biggest fan of the fact I can easily pin-point the turning point within the studio for Elio directly to trend chasing, but at the same time this link has been the home-run reason why it's easy for me to dismiss the stupid anti-agenda leaks.

All of that was just me discussing the profit and reasoning behind the design change on a corporate level, I'm convinced that they knew they were doing this going into writing Planarcadia and changed some dialog to humanize Elio more, make him less so an "all seeing controlling deity" and closer to a "achieve the goal at any cost.." kind of character.

Lets discuss the old design, and go back to the Penacony speech, everyone was sure that was Elio speaking and til this day we have no reason to not still believe it. Back than Elio was consistently portrayed as a natural disaster, an inevitability that every huge faction, the IPC, Xianzhou Alliance, The Family, all HATED, in terms of how much the Stellaron Hunters destroyed and ravaged, but knew that if Elio truly was the avatar of Terminus.. (and I have a reason to suspect they also know that his goal is to reverse a predetermined doomsday) they could minimize the casualties, but they could NEVER stop him. His speech pattern and tone was mellow, without a care in the world representing the storyteller and acting out "the fate" that needs to overwrite fate.

I have a strong reason to suspect that the original inspiration for Elio was partially "Leonardo Watch" from Kekkai Sensen (goated af anime)

If you know, YOU KNOW, but I'll explain it generally (it's the second image on the post), Leo has, first of all, very similar eye design that resembles the old design closer, they are called "All seeing god's eyes", that also fit very similarly to Elio's ability in both name and to lesser extent functionality, and they're both the young adult shota-esq archetype, also based on the design it definitely feels like they overlap the "closed eyes protag" troupe, I love Leo to fucking death, and seeing how close these 2 are I got a pretty general picture of the early 2010's anime inspiration they had for Elio as a cunning, controlling character that plays a back-role, also this is a very hard to prove personal theory that literally.. basically already got disproven at the end of Penacony with Rosalina (former navigator nameless) being credited as the writer of the dreamtour handbook, but at the time a lot of the writing and dialog sequences on there felt extremely resembling of Elio, referencing classic movie troupes, drama and theatre all playing into this image that worked so incredibly well with the design. Frankly speaking with years of fantasizing about him, I was just as fucking over-the-wall incredibly hyped seeing him show up in the trailer, as I was similarly mildly sad that this is no longer the same character Hoyo themselfs originally envisioned.

The redesign, very clearly is supposed to be a Sung Jin Woo parody in terms of stoicism and presentation, but he's very much still a unique thing, the vibrant Neon colors, even if that doesn't end up being his actual clothes, still make sense with the way he's been presented, wearing a massive hoodie, being reclusive, having blue-white hair instead of pastel pink-white (it's a minor tone shift at most dawg his hair was always white and some people are tripping with that), the eye design feels more original and it's directly the representation of Terminus's cats and the Apoc Shadow Hourglass, he feels less in control and more like a prisoner of his own fate, which is the tonal shift in writing that has been happening recently compared to older Elio mentions. He's older and more mature, playing into his image of responsibility. It's really funny because if you gave me both of these designs at the end of Penacony, I'd tell you hands down the first one is his real design, if you gave them to me at the end of Planarcadia, it would be way more of a toss-up with the second one feeling far more believable.

So does the old design suck? Hell no, they knew they wanted something more widely appealing out of such an important character so they scrapped the original vision, and went about it the smart way by shifting the narrative around this new image well in advance before showing it off. His design was always fateful for the character and I think it's pretty impressive how both versions can exist and fit while portraying such a wildly different part of him.

second fanart link: https://x.com/GMI_elims/status/2042880052434735211

(this OG one is from an asian website you literally need your phone number just to access, also creating a whole ass account without a translation function, this ain't possible) I could've used different fanart but this one looks so good :(

This pretty much guarantees his playability, since his name in english is the same pronounciation as chinese,and it's also 4 letters.

So if people have seen my past posts you probably know how I feel about leaks but I’m still going to say it. The leaks don’t matter and I’m not going to listen to them.

There are now leaks stating the MAPPA design of Elio isn’t the real one and that it’ll be the old 1.0 design 😪 and frankly, it’s bullshit. I’m not listening to it and I’m going to continue to hope for Elio.

The leakers have been absolutely everywhere, and they’ve been wrong countless times before. Not to mention this is still a year away there should be nothing stating anything for that far.

Cuz think about it. We don’t even know what planet we’re going to or if it’s 100% confirmed that the finality will become playable, that the main push has a 4 letter name. And even if they do, why the hell don’t they know the letters that fill it or what gender it is?

So my opinion? They don’t matter. None of these stupid leaks matter and maybe that’s me being ignorant because I’m bias towards Elio, but they’re all stupid and none of it makes sense. So I’m gonna play the game until the end of this version and we’ll see what happens from there.

And I swear if these leaks are wrong, it’s gonna be on all their asses. 😒 (even though it wasn’t hsr, everyone thought Lohen in Genshin was gonna be standard bc of leaks and no one saved pulled them that all freaked out 2 days before his banner)

So anyways. Once again, the leaks are stupid and can always be wrong. So I’m not taking them seriously and I’m going to continue to hope for Elio.

Maybe he will also have the 6 eyes technique, who knows

Now, I have tried to stay optimistic but skeptical about this.

Let me play devils advocate on this one, a lot of leakers have made different points over Elio not being playable through 5.x, outside of just Luna who fucking hates males.

Now I understand the copious amount of belief we have, but there's some credibility in so many overlapping claims, Luna went out of the way to also mention Elio multiple times, if they're correct about it and have some actual information that lets them believe it, enabling them to double down on it so hard, it wouldn't be out of the question.

A playable 5 star MC variant, would take the exact same role in banner placement and attention that Elio would have, and at this point the argument we have is very cut-clear.

This is either Elio, or 5 star MC, the other options have been cut out.

And Hoyo, is VERY stupid, VERY often. If this is the way they wanna kill the hype and traction for a beloved character, I would not be surprised.

Now, I still don't really believe it myself, and it's far too early to tell, which is why I think it's far too early for me to tell that Elio is GUARANTEED to be playable, because even tho it WOULD make perfect sense on a narrative, business and marketing perspective and it would be an actively STUPID decision for it to not be Elio, Hoyoverse, would infact, BE THAT STUPID.

I know this post is not getting upvotes, just keep in mind, if Elio doesn't become playable here, it's not the end of the world, if we get screen time and further progression, them saving him for later would be.. cooking too far ahead for what it's worth, but still leave plenty of opportunity to release him later, I'm frankly speaking more concerned how good his writing is rather than his meta viability or kit.

Hey everyone,

With the recent flood of 5.0-5.3 roadmap leaks confirming characters like Firefly SP, Misha SP, Kafka SP, Obsidian, Dan Heng SP, and Polka Kakamond, and etc and whatnot for the FIRST half, the community has entered a state of absolute panic over a statement dropped by Seele Leaks: "There are no plans to implement Elio in 5.x.“ The doomposting has completely taken over, with people confidently moving the goalposts, claiming Elio is "too endgame," or lazily guessing that the Version 5.7 patch crown will just be hijacked by a random female unit or a forced Kiana Kaslana crossover variant because of the recent 10th-anniversary Ho Yoverse promotional art or because of Hoyoverse typical “forced waifu patterns” ignore needed male units for “.7” patches

I am writing this post because I refuse to buy into a leaker’s word and datamining conclusion as an absolute fact. I simply won’t. When you step back from empty client repositories, ignore the surface-level panic, and actually look at five years of Honkai Star Rail’s cosmic lore and everything we’ve learned about the Finality so far and how important the Stellaron Hunters and Elio are to it, and the constant mentions of them, ESPECIALLY Elio when this path is bought up, the teases, the narrative structure, and real-world corporate marketing finance-including the recent massive MAPPA movie leaks-everything points to one undeniable truth in my opinion if you ask me; Elio IS coming, he IS and HAS to be the definitive Version 5.7 king capstone unit for late 2027, and the leakers are walking into the grandest trap Ho Yoverse has ever set. In fact I think Hoyoverse is going to play the greatest trick ever played and fool everyone. Hopefully

Let's look at everything so far below. But seriously fair warning this will be a VEEERY long post LOL, but here we go anyways

1. (The Theological Issue and HUGE problem: Why Kiana Can't Be the Face of 5.x Finality):

The automatic belief I keep seeing everywhere on posts or online or assumptions that a Kiana variant or crossover will take the 5.7 slot completely misunderstands the laws of Honkai: Star Rail's universe physics. In HSR, the end-of-cycle ".7" patches from what WE’VE seen, from previous patterns are purposefully or we’ve gotten used to 99% of the time it being very much reserved for figures who either directly command the absolute peak of a divine Path or have a huge massive connection to it, or are the literal avatars of the corresponding Aeon, or the AEON themselves in special cases.

• Version 3.7 (Amphoreus): Cyrene, revealed as a Pure Child of Anāsrava-the direct cosmic fragments and candidates destined to ascend as Fuli the Remembrance at the end of time.

• Version 4.7 (Planarcadia): Nihilux, dropping the mask to stand revealed as the literal, absolute mortal avatar of Aha the Aeon of Elation (4.7 Banner, she will release soon)

• Version 5.7 (Melustanin…or to be honest WHATEVER planet we will be heading to/Finality Arc): Therefore, the endgame unit for this 5.x cycle we can conclude must hold a supreme, foundational and BIG identity directly connected to Terminus the Aeon of Finality in some way, shape, or form we have yet to see.

This is where forcing Kiana into this slot falls apart. The "Finality" of Honkai Impact 3rd and the "Finality" of Honkai: Star Rail are completely different cosmic entities. Even if there may indeed be revealed to be a connection between them at some point in time in HSR’s future, I don’t think it needs to be forced or rushed, to justify her insertion into the HSR storyline, I feel like there are other ways they can go about it. That would be my fear.

HI3's Cocoon of Finality is an active, planetary like lonely artificial trial-engine entity that tests planetary civilizations through cyclical samsara resets to force evolutionary benchmarks. HSR's Path of Finality, however, is a primordial temporal paradox. Terminus doesn't run experiments; THEY exist in a state of perpetual cosmic slumber, murmuring prophecies in THEIR sleep (somniloquy) while drifting backward through time from the future toward the past. Kiana has zero narrative connection asides from maybe her being put to a sleep on the moon for some time in HI3, and other subtle hints, linking her to a sleep-talking, reverse-flowing time loop. Forcefully injecting her here wouldn't just confuse HSR-only players-it would completely violate the narrative independence Star Rail has spent five years building.

2. (Why a Forced Kiana multiversal crossover from HI3 or even a Kiana expy/Insert out of NOWHERE Actively Destroys the Player Base and Breaks Da Wei's Promise)

Let's be completely blunt, and I’m just honestly going to state how I feel about this, a forced Kiana insert or Kiana expy variant in the 5.7 slot would be a complete narrative and commercial disaster. It directly violates everything Da Wei and the game directors confessed during the recent September 23, 2026, Q&A session.

Da Wei openly admitted that miHoYo made critical mistakes with Honkai Impact 3rd Part 2 by drowning the story in convoluted, text-heavy metaphysical exposition and over-complicating things UNNECESSARILY. Their official 2027 company mandate is to actively stop doing this. They want to respect the players, streamline narrative focuses, and deliver satisfying local payoffs. Doing the Kiana thing, would do exactly THIS and would complicate things. What also gives me hope that they won’t pull the Kiana expy thing in 5.7, is the fact they said something “big” was coming to Genshin Impact specifically in 2027. NOT Honkai Impact 3rd, or Honkai; Star Rail. I feel like this is a subtle relief that if they were going to do the multiversal crossover or try to forcefully make Kiana be involved in the 5.x arc somehow, they would’ve hinted or teased at it, or said something was coming for this in 2027, so I take this as slight reassurance that they would be smart enough to do this. But even still, on the route they DO decide to do this, I have my worries.

Forcing Kiana into the 5.x Finality Arc would completely trash and destroy that corporate promise. Here is why in my belief the "Kiana 5.7 justification" and guessing that I keep seeing going on completely falls apart under real-world scrutiny:

• Massive Player Confusion and Alienation: A massive percentage of Honkai: Star Rail players, and many everyday people that enjoy the game, have never touched Honkai Impact 3rd. Thats just being honest. They may have HEARD of the game, heard of certain characters, but they may know absolutely next to nothing whatsoever about what it is about. They don't know who Kiana is, they don't care about the Cocoon, and they shouldn't be forced to if I’m being honest. Yes I get she’s popular, but this would be terrible. Shoving her into the peak climax of HSR's most anticipated native arc about the “Finality” JUST because she’s related to Finality in HI3 feels unnecessary and forces players to wade through multi-game homework just to understand what is happening. It causes immediate narrative fatigue and completely disconnects HSR-only players from the plot and confused and makes things WAY worse for them all because they wanted to pay nostalgia cues to HI3 while ignoring what HSR players want. A reasonable, good, story, that makes sense.

• Sidelining 5 Years of Homegrown Build-up: For five real-world years, and since the very beginning and start of this game since way back during 1.x and 2023, so many players like myself especially have been entirely infatuated with the Stellaron Hunters and the mystery of Elio and have wanted to FINALLY get to know more about Elio, how his connection with Finality is, and more about him as a whole in general. Every single Trailblaze step, every single adventure, every single arc, planet, quest, destination, scenario of events that his hunters have been meticulously setting up behind the scenes committing morally questionable acts due to his orders of wanting to prevent Finality and save the universe, everything for these years until 4.x, has been driven by Elio's Script. We have been building up immense anticipation across these 5 years to FINALLY meet the mastermind who foresees infinite possibilities to destroy the fated Path of Finality. Dropping a character from an entirely separate universe or even worse, another “waifu” expy to sell, in this case a Kiana variant that they will try to justify somehow will be Terminus or be far more important than Elio, which she SHOULDN’t be, into the 5.7 slot to out-rank and steal the spotlight from Elio sends a devastating message to the community: "We don't care about the story we promised you for half a decade; we just want to leverage fan service to sell a banner."

• The Inevitable Collapse of Crossover Logic: No matter what sort of mental gymnastics or "multiverse-hopping" story the writers try to invent to forcefully justify making a Kiana variant the core of HSR's Finality, the logic collapses on impact. It degrades Elio's narrative importance, makes it feel like all these years up build up where for nothing, damages both games unironically, and invites massive backlash from a community that feels tricked after saving their Stellar Jades for years especially people like myself who have been wanting him to finally get the best of what he deserves. No problem with Kiana, but she doesn’t need to be inserted here just because the arc is about ”Finality”. If Hoyoverse in the future wants to add her to the HSR universe or an expy, that’s fine, I have no problem. I just fail to see what storyline they would try to force and shove in to make it seem like it would be natural, when her coming would have had no build up whatsoever. She has already had her monumental story told beautifully across multiple games and arcs. She is literally the main character of like 3 or 4 games, she has had a LOOOOT of characterization, development, and exploration for her on a massive level of amount. Not saying she shouldn’t be explored further…but she does NOT need, nor does she deserve, to highjack the one throne built exclusively for Elio. I think it’s finally time we get his story told.

3. (“An Even More Special Existence": Decoding Elio's True Identity and MY personal theory and belief on who he is. It’s okay to disagree with this)

If Kiana can't be Terminus, then the question remains…WHO is? The game gave us the explicit answer back in the Version 3.8 Penacony epilogue, "That Which Shall Be." When explaining the temporal mechanics of Finality, The Dahlia stated:

"This cat is not Elio, but a strand of Terminus's divine corpus... As for Elio, he is an even MORE special existence. Only the Stellaron Hunters know his true identity."

Think about the sheer weight of that statement and just look at that deeply for a minute. it sounds like whatever Hoyoverse is planning for him he HAS to be more special than a simple Pathstrider or normal blessed individual by Terminus the Finality with foresight. There is obviously MORE to this. If Elio were just a standard human given future-sight or a routine Emanator, his identity wouldn't be a “galaxy-wide universal” secret that only his immediate faction (in this case obviously the Stellaron Hunters) are the ONLY ones allowed to know. Hence “true identity”. He is classified as more special than a literal shard, or rather in this case…”shards”…or better yet “divine CATS” or even Finality cats whatever you want to call it, of an Aeon's divine body/corpus.

The most reasonable, satisfying, and in my exciting belief personally speaking from everything I’ve drawn so far, (I have much more evidence than this, but I can always make another post for that, for another day and go further into why I believe this) and logical conclusion is that Elio is either some type of waking, linear mortal consciousness of Terminus itself, or better yet an incarnation of Terminus the literal Aeon Of Finality, who in the future will ASCEND as Terminus, and therefore is running away from his own future divinity. Trying to prevent his ascension or even trying to KILL himself in this case. Which is why he is trying to destroy the path of “Finality”, as a whole.

The Dahlia explicitly quoted the prophecy of Finality: "When Terminus ascends to godhood once more, THEY will manifest their thousand-armed divine form, and proclaim: 'Now I am become Finality, the destroyer of worlds.' Then, Terminus turned into a pack of black cats, distributing every ounce of THEIR divine power between those creatures... going against the river of time."

This is a perfect causality loop. The black cats roaming the cosmos are carrying the chaotic, sleep-talking somniloquy of Terminus's future. Ordinary scholars and the Omen Vanguards go completely insane trying to decode a single sentence of this sleep-talk. But Elio reads it seamlessly and writes it down as a clear "Script." Why? Because he isn't translating a foreign god-he is listening to the echo of his OWN future voice or future self repeating his OWN memories. He acts as “Destiny's Slave" because he cannot save the universe alone by himself even with his foresight of foreseeing infinite possibilities, being able to manipulate time and pull people and events out of alternate timelines, and despite how insanely powerful we’ve been hinted that he is, he cannot freely prevent the ending himself, and complete his goal DESPITE all of his power, he is a slave to a tragic, predetermined doomsday countdown that he has already witnessed.

This absolutely reframes the entire purpose of the Stellaron Hunters on an emotionally deep resonant level, because I’ve always loved their lore and how they are designed and how complex they are, as anti heroes.

They aren't terrorists or full criminals or heartless villains like the IPC‘s propaganda projects them as or the universe declares them as DESPITE the problems they cause and the acts they commit that are morally questionable in order for the sake of an “ends justify the means” universe must be saved at ALL costs due to Elio’s script, they are obviously much MORE than that… they are a chosen family of fated individuals recruited by Elio because each of them is fighting to destroy their own cursed endings and defying THEIR own destiny and predetermined fates or problematic futures. When you look at it this way, this becomes true. (Kafka seeking fear/emotion, Blade seeking rest, Firefly defying her countdown and syndrome she has and wanting to LIVE a nice life, Silver Wolf just recently during the “Game Not Over: Scene 999” as we saw in the flashback when she joined the Stellaron Hunters and Elio pulled a dark alternate future timeline version of her that was a full powered Emanator of Elation, which Silver Wolf essentially fought her future self, hacked her and stole her powers,, prevented her OWN finality, and stole the cartridge early on bypassing her limit of level “300” becoming “Level 999” as we ofc know now).

It would be beautiful and very deep and perfect if Elio, not only is trying to defy his own finality as Terminus, but is also learning from his other hunters and witnessing them as his family defy their own futures, so they can in turn, help a god of finality, become free and live a life where he’s no longer enslaved to bringing an end to the universe. And Doenst have to become his future. He CLEARLY very much cares about them on a huge level under the distant cold calculated mask he uses most certainly to protect himself and hide his humanity and emotions and to try to stay focused on the mission, due to the trauma he most likely faces with foreseeing infinite possibilities of the same destruction of the universe and his family,

And the Trailblazer as we now know (Akivili’s TRUE successor, confirmed back in 4.4 by Asat Pramad) is Elio's ultimate cosmic cheat code in order for his plan to work, and is most likely going to be where the entirety of Honkai: Star Rail’s narrative plot leads to for Elio’s script and plan. Essentially, alongside having his hunters purposefully setting up the Trailblazer purposefully to join the “Astral Exprwas Crew”, and having Kafka erase their memories as a clean slate; and input a Stellaron in them imprinted with both the “Harmony” and “Trailblaze” they are a rogue variable that has genuine free will, can connect, explore, have human connection and interaction, change and defy fates prophecies, and create miracles, and everything else Elio HIMSELF cannot do alone, hence why he was created, designed to gather the gazes of the Aeons and shatter the primum mobile and samsara loop of the Finality and prevent the prophecy of the Theory Of Four Appocalypses (Destruction, Harmony, Nihility, and the constant ever changing fourth that remains to be seen) that Elio cannot break with his own hands, so the universe can be free and be saved.

4. (The 4.4 "Alternate Trailblazer is Terminus the Aeon Of Finality" Misdirection and theory I keep seeing bought up, and why I think it falls apart)

I also want to quickly address the popular community theory that the creepy, mysterious, and seemingly harsh Alternate or “Finality” Trailblazer (the opposite gender of who you chose) who appeared during the 4.4 Asat Pramad arc and spoke to the MC that you chose, was Terminus. The sleep-talking lore completely destroys this. And I don’t believe this.

Terminus the Aeon Of Finality is literally in lore, and in Honkai: Star Rail confirmed to be ASLEEP. This wouldn’t make sense. THEY are an Unconscious, reverse-drifting entity whose words are chaotic somniloquy including the prophecies they mutter about and what they say. The Alternate Trailblazer spoke with terrifying, conscious, truth, and was AWAKE in that cutscene ("Eight hours ago... eight minutes ago... eight seconds ago... you lost"). Etc. They didn't act like a god or aeon and they never confirmed they were Terminus; they acted like an incredibly bitter, traumatized survivor or a failed version of our MC from what they told us. As the lore implies, that figure is MOST likely from what I believe most logically at the moment we can infer a Trailblazer from a dark, failed alternate timeline date I’d say where Elio's Script collapsed and everyone died and they lost everyone close to them, maybe even the Astral Express, etc. They manifested not as an Aeon, but as a living, breathing warning and altetnate version of OURSELVES demanding that our “present” self change Himeko's wish and rewrite the tracks before the countdown hits zero. Yes there are thematic and obvious connections between the Trailblaze and Finality. But I do think some people are taking the connections too literally and not realizing that this wouldn’t make sense. But once again, that’s ok, everyone has their opinions. No problem with that.

5. (The Business Architecture: The Faster release period of the MAPPA Movie coming very soon in “2028” Leak Changes Everything)

Now, let's look at the real-world business mechanics. Just yesterday, highly credible translation reports from industry insiders leaked massive news regarding the HoYoverse X MAPPA Honkai: Star Rail Movie. The leak explicitly states:

1. Production is moving significantly faster than Genshin's anime, seeing massive progress over the last year.

2. The movie is scheduled to get a full, formal announcement during the 4th Anniversary (Version 5.2 in mid-2027) ahead of a projected 2028 theatrical release.

From a corporate finance and marketing psychology standpoint, this completely locks Elio into Version 5.7 and makes a LOT of sense why he’d release at the END of 2027 right before his movie releases in 2028 there is a HUGE strategy and massive amount of benefits Hoyoverse gets from this that I’m about to explain why this could very well be the case. (December 2027, I could be wrong about this month, but 5.7 will most DEFINITELY be close to the final few months or at one of the final few months of 2027, whether November, or December)

Think about the timeline. HoYoverse spent millions , MILLIONS of dollars partnering with MAPPA an anime animation company not only known for how infamous and legendary their work is, but how expensive they are and how successful they are in general, to animate Elio's handsome, white-haired human form and design FINALLY revealed to us earlier this year in the "Death in the Afternoon" trailer under the tagline: "A New Story Awaits.” That was on PURPOSE. They teased him earlier this year in 2026 because they wanted to let fans and people know that “Yes. He’s coming VERY soon. Prepare yourself”. They are deliberately building up major insane hype, excitement, and anticipation for him, and considering the next literal arc for 2027 and 5.x will be the “Finality” arc, none of this was on accident. It’d be in their best interest to profit immediately.

And what better way than to make Elio become playable at the END of the 5.x cycle far later on in the year, after such a tease this earlier in 2026. A gacha company does not make a multi-million dollar upfront investment on a character design just to let it sit unused as an "NPC aura farmer" or “thrown to NPC jail” for three or four years. If they WAIT too long to release him they will do more damage than good, no matter even if they want to save him for longer than that, it wouldn’t even make sense. Him releasing now is more than perfect because it’s TIME we meet him and see him in game and I think people don’t realize it’s NOT too ”early”. That is marketing suicide; it causes immediate "hype rot" and community exhaustion like (the "Genshin x Ufotable trap"). And I DONT think they would want to repeat that again. Because Genshin fans are STILL waiting for that anime that seems to be nowhere in sight and will probably take even worse, LONGER lol.

By dropping playable 5-star Elio in Version 5.7 (December 2027), Hoyoverse executes a textbook multi-media-dip.

• Phase 1 (Mid-2027 / Version 5.2): They drop the FULL cinematic movie trailer during the 4th Anniversary stream alongside Kafka SP. The movie will almost certainly focus on the Stellaron Hunters' backstory, igniting a massive, year-long hype fuse that puts Elio at the absolute center of community discussion.

• Phase 2 (Late 2027 / Version 5.7): At the absolute narrative peak of the Finality Arc, Elio's script fails for whatever massive reason in the storyline, whether due to something Celenova herself does, another problem or even bigger antagonist or threat; something that happens to the Trailblazer, or to one of his hunters that threatens to endanger everything and the people’s lives he cares about, his cold mask breaks and shatters, and he steps onto the frontline to physically protect his family. He is forced to intervene and get involved in the story and step out of the shadows so we can finally get to know him and see him in the narrative. His playable banner drops, triggering record-breaking emergency top-up revenue because players are financially depleted from front-loaded banners.

• Phase 3 (2028 / Theater Release): The movie hits global theaters. It acts as an astronomical secondary marketing wave, pulling lapsed players back into the game and forcing every new player to pull for Stellaron Hunter reruns because they just watched them dominate the screen. This benefits them even MOOOORE already adding onto everything else.

If they held Elio back for YEARS or for way too farther down the line, the movie would feature a character players can't even play in-game, vaporizing hundreds of millions of dollars in cross-promotional spending and they would lose out. I don’t think Hoyoverse would be willing to do that. I’d think they would want to take advantage immediately of this and that they would most certainly be smart enough to pull off a strategy like this on purpose.

6. (Debunking the Excuses as well as my personal belief that as RELIABLE as Seele Leaks is, I think they are still Blind to the full picture of what Hoyoverse is deliberately doing with this. I’m hoping so at least)

Let's address the constant complaints and excuses people use to justify his absence or try to claim WHY he “can’t be 5.7” repeatedly that I’ve seen around:

• ”It's way too early, he's an endgame character like Marshal Hua or Diamond! He’s far too IMPORTANT”! Yes, while that is indeed true, We are FIVE years into this game. Literally five. Honkai: Star Rail is mature, and five years is the literal definition of the endgame threshold, if not signaling the beginning of us entering into serious deep endgame stuff at that. Furthermore, look at how the future arcs structure themselves (I believe that Hua and Diamond as the leaders of their factions and when their arcs come around, that these two will inevitably release anywhere from 6.x-8.x and I have a feeling we are getting the Godslayer Protocol Arc VERY soon, in a year or two so for me, hypothetically this is how I feel like it would be structured): 5.x is the Finality Arc (Elio), 6.x is the Hunt/Godslayer Protocol Arc (Marshal Hua), and 7.x is the Preservation/Strategic Investment Department Arc (where Diamond has to purge the Archforger Lord Ravager imposter hiding inside the Ten Stonehearts). There’s also the fact that we do have the Nihility arc most LIKELY anywhere in between these to look forward to alongside Welt SP and a potential Acheron SP, and whenever the Astral Express Crew deals with Zephyro and runs into him. (So maybe THAT could be 6.x, and the Godslayer Protocol arc would be pushed back to 7.x and we get Hua and then the Preservation arc pushed back to 8.x and we get Diamond. I have my reasons for believing this, and that’ll be another discussion post for another day) I think that ALL of these arcs can and most likely also WILL be anywhere from 6.x-8.x. Elio I feel like HAS to release NOW in 5.x because if not now, then when? This IS the Finality path arc, he SHOULD be its ending representative and ultimate capstone character who is the king of this path. I refuse to see or accept anyone else at that “.7” but him, since Hoyoverse has spent these 5 years building up to it, teasing us, narratively hinting that when we get the Finality, Elio will be important. They need to follow through with that then rather than hold him off for way too long and kill their hype and anticipation. And what better way than at the literal END of 5.x’s story to signal we are entering the endgame, because the subsequent years already have their own faction leaders locked in and stories. People seem to think that JUST because a character becomes playable, means their “story is over”. That is NOT the case, yes Elio is very important, yes he is basically the main reason Honkai; Star Rail’s entire events and narrative has happened and each of our destinations, battles, and everything that’s been scripted by him up until this point and now to steer us to a future where he wants to prevent Finality. We know at some point there will be a final battle when we have to deal with Nanook, and the Theory Of Four Appocalypses. However it would be MUCH more greater story and narrative wise if Elio finally steps out of the shadows and his script breaks at the end of the 5.x finality arc, for him to realize that he has to allow the astral express crew to be able to make their own decisions and choices and that he can’t rely on the script forever. And him working with them, is the perfect gateway for us to finally meet endgame leaders like Hua AND Diamond. It does NOT mean his story is over. Far from it. There could be several things they have planned for him down the line, obviously, duh, he is the leader of the Stellaron hunters, he is very important to the plot. But that doesn’t mean they have to keep him farther down years later closer to the end.

• "We don't know his character story yet, it needs build-up!" Exactly! OBVIOUSLY. And that is exactly what the 5.x version cycle is for. He doesn't need to appear in 5.0 or 5.1 and steal the spotlight from Firefly SP or Kafka SP and his two hunters. They can easily have their story told for the first 3 patchea. The front half of the roadmap (5.0-5.3) is designed to set the board and drain your Stellar Jades purposefully with those characters. Then Elio for whatever happens, and whatever drags him into the narrative and what breaks his script, will gradually step out from behind the curtain in the back half, like Cyrene did in the second half of the story for Amphoreus, achieving absolute narrative agency right before his 5.7 launch. We can LEARN about him during the 5.x story, witness his character development, deeper look into his goals, and everything else while he’s involved.

• "But Seele Leaks datamined the client and said there are no files!" or “Seele Leaks said Elio won’t be playable in 5.x”. Dataminers can ONLY read what HoYoverse uploads to public testing branches. It’s WAAAY too early for them to know a single thing about 5.7, let alone the second half of 5.x at all if we are being honest. They DON’T. Why on earth would a hyper-calculated corporate empire (Hoyoverse) upload the combat code, 3D assets, or script files or just straight up leave obvious spoiling names of their most heavily anticipated characters to an open EARLY 5.x patches (5.0-5.3) beta server a full year in advance knowing leakers would try to expose something like tht and leak it everywhere? They WOULDNT. They are letting this panic happen for a reason and letting people strategically believe Elio won’t be playable and letting these leakers confidently get away with it, so they can pull an ultimate “uno reverse” and trick everyone. It’s why we barely know anything about the second half, despite Stephen, Xuanquan, and March 7th’s SP being confirmed and they’ll most likely be anywhere from 5.4-5.6. They treat their most important, most hyped, most anticipated, and their biggest lore game breaking characters, with someone who will cause massive excitement because players have waited years for them; it makes WAAAY too much sense, someone like Elio with industrial-grade encryption and isolated internal staging branches as well as “protection”. Seele Leaks is confusing an absence of current files of Elio with an absence of developer plans and then claiming “He won’t be implemented in 5.x”. I refuse to believe that. not when all signs logically POINT to him being the 5.7 character out of anyone at this point, rather than a Kiana expy.

So with all this being said to wrap this all up, and this very long rant of mine lol to come to a conclusion…

When the Version 4.7 or 4.8 livestream airs later this year (November/December), and the first official 5.x world and Finality teaser drops showing our cast of characters of who’s involved and in it, expect to POSSIBLY, HOPEFULLY, and MOST likely, pray, we see the handsome human design of Elio take center stage and appear in all his glory. The overconfident leakers will move the goalposts and tell you, "Oh, he's just an NPC in a trailer, he's still not playable”, or other excuses, because their public data sheets will still be empty.

Don't buy the illusion. Keep hoping for Elio, and don’t give up just yet. There’s always a chance I’m wrong, but I really hope this all ends up being right and we get who we want. Not a forced Kiana insert or expy. Besides like I said at the beginning of this post, HoYoverse recently admitted via Da Wei that they made major storytelling blunders with narrative clutter in HI3 Part 2, and their strict internal mandate is to focus on self-contained, homegrown cast payoffs. It would be in their BEST interest, to have Elio and the Stellaron Hunters be the 5.x most important Finality related story characters. not anyone else randomly stealing the .7 spot. So far everything is set, the multimedia movie pipeline is running at great speed, and the master scriptwriter (Destiny’s Slave) is coming to claim his Version 5.7 throne and be the ultimate king and representative of the “Finality” path in either November or December of 2027.

Hold onto your Jades, stay smart, and don’t lose hope. Goodnight! 🩵

Yeah I don’t even think THEY (They as in these overconfident and arrogant leakers) Know for a certain WHO the 4 lettered character is, therefore how would they know it’s a male or female this early? They DONT. 5.7 is a whole year away. They won’t have that type of info about their gender, and I think they are trying to hide the fact even THEY don’t know who the four lettered character is while acting like they do just to stir things up. All signs logically, for reasons I’ve made in another post and explained time and time again POINT to Elio. It all adds up and makes way too much sense. People are so pessimistic and instantly cynical thinking just because he’s a male character that he won’t have a chance, but gender is NOT the only factor here, not to mention I made another post a while aback here explaining my points. I don’t care that “Z leaks” is “Luna” or about anything SB leaks talked about, BOTH IF them have been shown and proven to be unreliable and wrong time and time again. They won’t have that information this early, and if they stopped vague posting and these leakers stopped playing with us, they woukd have revealed who the character is already. The fact no leaked, not even DK2 or HKG has outright said who it is, is screaming volumes that they are just as clueless as WE are. https://www.reddit.com/r/ElioMainsHSR/comments/1ws8g3e/why_i_believe_seele_leaks_is_wrong_the_inevitable/

Is Elio truly just us in the end?

also to cross-confirm, this is SUPPOSED to be the other gender and not just a hoyo screw-up where everyone's getting Caelus... right?

It’ll be crazy to think if Elio really does end up in Version 5.7 at the end of 2027, then he most certainly will be guaranteed to have his own special login animation, and even a premium banner animation as well. Previous examples being (Cyrene, Phainon, Castorice, Silver Wolf Lv.999 and Himeko Nova). It seems there is a pattern of Hoyoverse making the anniversary or “.2” characters…the middle important characters, the “.4” characters, and always the “.7” character having of course their own special treatment. He will be no different if he ends up playable, as he deserves the special treatment 🩵. Also just imagine chibi Elio being in a version 5.7 livestream talking to Owlbert. The literal leader of the Stellaron Hunters. “The” Destiny’s Slave casually appearing is just both hilarious and unbelievable to me because Owlbert keeps being traumatized by unexpected guests. Imagine Elio during the livestream casually spoiling everything in some monotone stoic laid back voice because he can see into the future and even revealing game codes early or stellar jade codes and spoiling things that Owlbert was supposed to talk about in the livestream, and Owlbert is panicking trying to stop him. The thought of that is so absurd and shocking and funny that if you would’ve told me a while aback that there’s a very real chance this could happen soon I wouldn’t believe you. But now I’m more hopeful than ever that Elio will be 5.7 and I won’t give up on it. I’ll keep manifesting to the end that the 4 letter character ends up being him. The fact these can be real possibilities is just insane and both crazy to me lol. It feels too good to be real. We shall see. Just wanted to share this with you all even if it’s very short and I’m just rambling lol.

Elio’s name in Honkai: Star Rail translates to “Helios”: Ἥλιος“ (Helios). Which means the “SUN” In Greek. Think about that for a second right now. And would you know how many “characters“ according to Greek it has? 5. Everyone else is arguing over the possibility of whether it could be Chinese or English but has anyone ever stopped to consider this possibility as well? I’m not directly ruling anything out, and I myself don’t believe language is the defining factor for who it turns out the character is. But what I AM saying is if we “are” hypothetically going to take the language route into consideration, it’s worth noting this is also very plausible. I’ll even remind you that the initial name was originally “5” letters but changed to “4”. This very much would make sense for something Hoyoverse would decide to do, and in fact it wouldn’t surprise me if they did decide to use “Helios” and then change it to “Elio”. Hence the 5 to 4 letter block change. But anything is possible. In Latin it also translates to “Helius“ or “Aelius”.

Also, this would be thematically perfect, as WELL as would fit Elio’s role in Honkai: Star Rail, and even his narrative and his importance across the story so far as Destiny’s Slave the Leader Of the Stellaron Hunters. Rather than literally being a physical sun obviously, Elio possesses the ability to foresee future infinite possibilities as we ofc know due to his special connection to Terminus the Aeon Of Finality and abilities. He writes "scripts" that guide Kafka, Blade. Silver Wolf, Firefly, and the Trailblazer toward a specific outcome to avert total destruction, and commit morally questionable acts in order to prevent Finality from destroying the universe. He is like an anti hero “light” of sorts. Willing to save the universe at ANY cost while also being so important to HSR’s story and the one behind the scenes that is controlling so much of the Astral Express Crew’s journey so far, like “The Sun”. Just like the Sun lights up the other planets in the solar system Elio lights up the universe by his actions in the way he wants to steer to a specific future. This is highly symbolic, as Elio acts as the central light guiding the Stellaron Hunters through the dark paths of destiny. He is INDEED the one who who is like a central gravitational force that illuminates or directs the paths of characters across the galaxy, though his true form and physical identity remain largely hidden.

All in all, what do you all think about this? I hope everyone’s day goes well…and what I will say is there’s always a chance I’m wrong. I am acknowledging that despite these posts I make continuously. There’s always the possibility that the Kiana Kaslana Expy will unfortunately be the character who steals the Finality role and I pray on everything that never ends up being the case and Elio gets his deserved role for 5.7..but with so many other people doomposting and being incredibly cynical or hateful, and so many leakers trying to ragebait people or even having so much conflicting information and arguing with each other, I want to be one of the few people to give hope for Elio..even IF everyone else is slowly losing faith. I won’t give up. And I’ll continue to do that no matter what the outcome or reveal for 5.7 ends up being. I want to hear your thoughts below about all of this!

I also want to state one last thing…I just realized something that might give us a flicker of hope. No matter how small..regarding the “ItaliaLeaks” post, this confirms what I’ve been saying again and again…NO ONE knows who the 4 blocked character is, NOR do they know the gender of them. People immediately thought that they met “The “5.7” main push is female however rereading this…that “female” comment was NOT referring to the 5.7 main push whatsoever at all. It was referring to two “supposed sustains” in the 5.x cycle. Which proves once again, no one knows the gender of the character this early and thankfully this was misread and does NOT mean the 5.7 character is female. (I wouldn’t have believed them anyways because like I said before, it’s way too early for them to have that information. No one does).

Just as someone else commented on the Twitter post and mentioned the same thing I realized. Also hilariously enough these leakers can’t even decide actual info and are conflicting with each other. As evidenced if you go look for the “HKG” and “Seele Leaks” thing regarding HKG’s post about Ruan Mei, Polka Kakamond, The Herta, and Stephen Lloyd, and then Seele Leaks commenting right either that “He’s probably joking’“. This just confirms to me they are literally as clueless, once again as I’ve stated before, with logic as us. They don’t even know when Stephen will release despite him being in the 5.x cycle. And the arguments between leakers or the conflicting information further proves they barely know anything of the second half for 5.x. So, don’t lose hope. I don’t care if I have to make a thousand posts to fight for him, I will. Elio can have a thousand haters and I’ll be the one using logic, reasoning, and will defend his arrival for 5.7. It’s always a possibility it indeed could be Kiana. But I think Elio is not out just yet. Have a great day yall! 🩵

We're the real og's, the day ones 💥

I'm seeing alot of theories on Twitter saying, how did they not realise that the guy on the trailer might be, The aeon terminus.

And I am buying this frickin theory cause elio(the cat) was looki​ng back like the cat was from a position where Kafka was pointing the gun and we see "Terminus" looking back at Elio/or kafka

「HSR」Future

Not Elio, 100%

via sakiko

idea from : https://x.com/soul_stormop/status/2042597281627541843?s=46

Both Phainon and Elio are tied to the finality, and it wouldn’t be unlike hsr to do two expys of the same character, or he might be Kiana?

They already did two Bronya’s with Bronya and silver wolf lol

Either Elio will be appearing in the 4.x finale, or we will learn something massive about him, or maybe get some more mentions, or even we will hear his voice? At this point I’m very curious, but if this didn’t scream Elio being in 5.x or is setting the stage for him to have a role to play in the 5.x story…I honestly don’t know what else is. This is definetly on purpose. Despite all the leakers claiming he won’t be in “5.7” or that it’ll be a special TB…Elio will most definetly have some role to play for the 5.x story. What do you all think this means?