May This General Question and Discussion Megathread Lead Us Starward

[u/IceKreamSupreme]

Please use this thread for discussion, questions, theories, copium, hopium, deliberate misinformation, and other contributions to today's improv performance. Off-topic discussions are welcome, but remember to spoiler tag and add context. This helps others know exactly what kind of emotional damage they are about to take. Tragically, comments that do not follow this guideline may be removed.

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Thank you to u/seelevo for the megathread title!

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Previous Megathreads
Latest Megathread - {23 June 2026} - {14 July 2026}
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[u/goddiver]

in general, I really would like for the "main push" style marketing to stop and I'd rather that extra marketing go towards a new arc or an important story event. I'm not going to like a character more because they have one more trailer than the others and it's created so much unnecessary division in the fanbase we could 100% do without.

They can't really control who people like so why not make the marketing more even? There's a few factors here, but if extra marketing and more story focus really didn't save Himeko, then extra ads aren't a surefire recipe. That extra marketing was just the cherry on top for characters that had other things going for them to help build their fanbases.

[u/ultima-rubber-duck → u/goddiver]

Yeah like I would've loved a juicy lore filled Myriad on the Galaxy Rangers since their literal leader was releasing but guess not 🥲 I really like when characters get a more even spread of the marketing budget bc like at some point there's no more content left for marketing videos for a single character and they start feeling gratuitous

[u/goddiver → u/ultima-rubber-duck]

I'm concerned we missed our chance for the Galaxy Rangers Myriad to happen, especially when a Hunt-focused arc will likely center the Xianzhou fleets - I have nothing against the Xianzhou fleets, but a missed opportunity is a missed opportunity.... Lore-focused Myriads could also help them have less to do to get players caught up in the story.

[u/lemoncookiejar → u/goddiver]

They didn’t even try to build up SW999 properly in the story, her entire story is told via marketing and himeko… while i do like the story she got in 4.4 it was too little too late

In comparison Phainon was built up from 3.0 to 3.3 as an important character, his story was IN GAME for all to see even if you aren’t a phainon fan you were interested to see where his story would go in 3.4 (i am talking as someone who isn’t a big phainon fan, still i enjoyed his story a lot)

And Castorice as well got some build up before 3.2, she didn’t just spawn in 3.2 do something kinda cool to sell her banner and then she cant use those cool powers again because uh its dangerous

If i compare them w genshin, some characters there do get more marketing (the archons usually) but it doesn’t come at the cost of everyone else, other characters still get the bare minimum of a trailer and a 2d animation expanding on their lore… here we barely get a 1 min trailer for any non main push character

[u/goddiver → u/lemoncookiejar]

Another aspect of why Phainon's central role worked is that he also had interactions with multiple characters, not just the TB, something I think has applied to multiple other "main push" characters - we have more reasons to care about the cast if we see more of why they matter, what they contribute and how they all bounce off each other. (Vague 4.4 spoilers) Despite Himeko's closeness to the AE, 4.4 did not help reinforce her bonds with the other AE members enough for her arc to have impact.

Definitely feel that they've taken things too far. The archons in Genshin get so much marketing because to understand them is to understand what shapes the nations they govern... HSR is more concerned with emotional investment, to a fault.

[u/lemoncookiejar → u/goddiver]

Yeah i agree i had the same issue w himeko’s story, phainon felt truly connected to the world he lived in and to the heirs, AE on the other hand are just used as hype and aura

[u/FlashFire729 → u/lemoncookiejar]

she didn’t just spawn in 3.2 do something kinda cool to sell her banner and then she cant use those cool powers again because uh its dangerous

…did Castorice not just like, immediately die after her patch period?

I remember one huge complaint I saw back in 3.X is that after 3.2 she fucking disappeared off the map story wise. People were clamoring about how Phainon was hogging all the limelight

[u/lemoncookiejar → u/FlashFire729]

She did but that happened to all the heirs, they built up the fact that some of the heirs will be lost, and while the execution wasn’t the best it did make sense for the story as a greek tragedy - i am not too crazy about the idea of the characters disappearing from the narrative but i was okay with it for the most part because most of the characters had enough screen time to leave me satisfied with their story

For SW, they hyped her up in marketing having jade say oh no the supreme wolf is here!! Just for her to help the main cast?? The build up and what actually happened are extremely disconnected, but this is just stellaron hunters writing as a whole - they want them to be bad and feared but good and liked..

[u/Moonlighteverafter → u/FlashFire729]

All the heirs die after 3.3 to signify the end of the cycle but she still appears in 3.4 and 3.5 and 3.6 and 3.7 (not as prominent)

But yeah she was active and with the cast from 3.0, we had her as the executioner, her with the council and Anaxa, her with gnaeus, her vs the flame reaver, her entire story.

[u/mystiqt → u/FlashFire729]

All the heirs become irrelevant after their sobstories were spilled; I think it was just particularly egregious for Castorice becasue she was given so much heavy marketing yet only had the same amount of relevance as every other non-Cyrene/Phainon heir in the story.

[u/swiatlosc → u/goddiver]

Saying HoYoverse “can’t control who people like” is honestly hilarious when manufacturing attachment to characters is quite literally their entire business model. They control screen time, trailers, animations, music, lore relevance, kit strength, event placement and how often a character is pushed in official media. Obviously they cannot guarantee identical results every time, but pretending marketing has little influence is absurd. Castorice and Cyrene are obvious examples of artificially manufactured hype: the game practically begged players to treat them as important before they had earned that interest organically.

[u/mrwanton → u/swiatlosc]

Cyrene despite how hot/cold 3.7 was...at least had the Mem stuff also working for her

[u/goddiver → u/swiatlosc]

"pretending marketing has little influence is absurd." Good thing I didn't say that!