I just finished playing the story of the new Honkai Star Rail patch 3.8. Seriously, this was a great way to bring Penacony back into view while delivering lots of lore about the world before traveling to a new star. And of course, this was an ode to Firefly, who was basically the focus of the entire story. There will be spoilers in this post, so only read if you have already played the story or you don't care about them.

So basically, the ending that we saw in the original final patch was a fabricated lie built by a Cremator named The Dahlia under orders from the Stellaron Hunters. This was done to make sure that Stelle wouldn't end up attracting the attention of Destruction too early once arrived at Amphoreus. If this was not done, Elio said that it would bring about our death without completing the mission.

We get to see most of the story from different points of view (both Robin and Firefly) and see how the scenes that looked incomplete actually played out. I am not sure if this was a retcon (and the incomplete scenes were just due to budget originally) or if it was planned from the start, but they definitely made a lot of sense after this patch's content.

Turns out the original project of Gopher Woods (whose model we actually see in this episode) was to use the swarm of Propagation to instill fear and move the population toward the path of Order to revitalize the Aeon Ena. This is why he killed Firefly's friend and why he set all this plan in motion despite himself being long dead.

There were multiple surprising revelations in this chapter, but the most impactful one is the fact that the Stellarons are all part of Harmony and they were spread around the cosmos by Them. They haven't really explained WHY, but that is already more than enough reason to hate on Harmony too, considering what happened on Jarilo-VI.

Is there even any decent Aeon in this universe? The Hunt destroys allies and enemies alike, The Abundance creates abominations, Nihility wants to end it all, and Preservation protects the IPC which is basically a bunch of mass murderers. Remembrance again seems to be aligned with the others in wanting the universe to end. I mean, I can't blame Destruction for wanting to end all Aeons at this point...

We also got the confirmation that Stelle is directly connected to Terminus, the Aeon that will bring the end of all (yes, another one, haha), and this is all some preparation for the inevitable war between Aeons that has been brewing for a long time. We still don't know what kind of future Elio wants to bring us to, but I sure hope it is something that doesn't involve gods.

Dahlia says that Elio is an even more "special entity" compared to Terminus, and that makes me wonder exactly what he is. Oh, and by the way, Dahlia didn't get to be a Stellaron Hunter because Elio predicted she would betray them and become a Lord Ravager bound to destroy Remembrance should she join them.

The real ending of Firefly was also shown. The "Sweet Third Death" of her participating in the bomb search against Sparkle we saw in the final patch of the 2.x series was just a fabrication. She actually gets to die from her disease in the dream world, even if it doesn't actually reflect in the real one and she is still "fine there."

However, as shown in the final moments, something moved (an Aeon?) and allowed her to witness the fireworks. I really hope the writers have in mind a way to make her live a normal life at the end of this story (even though I doubt we are anywhere near the end at this point). She really deserves one.

Now we are going to wait 8 weeks for the new patch due to "political turbulences," with uncertainty about what the new world will bring us. It was supposed to be Edo Star, and it is very unlikely they can remake all assets in such a small time. So I am guessing it is either going to be a small reskin or we are going to get a few patches of "Luofu" and "Space Station" areas.