The True Unveiling of the Path of Joy! The One Closest to Aha!

Upon seeing this question from Ratio, Rion, Miss Yun, and even many viewers in the livestream room instantly thought of two factions:

The Masked Fools and the Mourning Actors!!

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: Damn, so that's how the Masked Fool and the Mourning Actors came to be?

: Suddenly everything makes sense!

: Hiss... but something still feels off.

: Two sides of the same coin of joy? Interesting.

...

The bullet comments swept across.

Rion remained silent.

She continued reading Ratio's post.

"When a person is born, they already wear a mask. Our self-personality is shaped after birth. The self we present with these pseudo-personality masks can only experience limited things."

"A person born into a privileged family, carrying high expectations from their parents, becomes a successful entrepreneur. But the pleasures he can obtain are also restricted by the identity of being an entrepreneur and the mask he wears."

"In other words, the world is a stage, and each of us wears a mask shaped by our environment."

"Most people wear this mask for a lifetime, but the Masked Fools recognized this point."

"Since all selves, that is, all masks, are shaped after birth, then tracing back all the way, we'll find that our original self is a faceless one."

"So why be bound by worldly norms, choices, and morals? Why not wear the mask you want and experience different lives?"

"This is where most Masked Fools stand."

Reading this, Teachers Rion and Miss Yun suddenly had a realization.

Maybe it wasn't so intuitive to the audience, so Miss Yun digested Ratio's words and then said with deep feeling:

"Because we often livestream, and the version of us during livestreams and the version off-camera are two completely different people, it's like wearing different masks."

"So when we saw Ratio's explanation of the masks, we immediately understood."

Upon hearing this, Rion nodded in agreement, then added:

"But that doesn't mean we are Masked Fools, because we don't see our livestreams, or our lives, as mere performances."

"Some people, however, recognize this, and so they can wear different masks. In real life, you'll find that this concept is often associated with thieves, liars, playboys, and other deceptive identities."

"They can fully switch their masks based on who they're dealing with."

"This is also why clowns, or jesters, in film and television often give off an unreliable, lying, morally questionable vibe."

Both hosts shared their insights, helping the audience gain a clearer understanding.

So the Masked Fools are a group of people who have seen through the essence of the world and choose to treat themselves and the world with an objective mindset.

Masked Fools believe that since values and self are shaped after birth, they don't need to follow societal norms to experience the world.

Because those norms are false, illusions built on the discipline of order and morality, and not real feelings.

Why do I have to be a good husband? Because society expects it, otherwise I'll lose my job, be scorned, be cursed.

Why do I have to be a responsible person? Because society needs responsible people, and my parents expect it.

People created society, and then society in turn reshaped them.

And when a person is born as a baby, they do not possess a self. They are a stone sculpture waiting to be carved.

The expectations of parents, early teachings, all these objectively shape a person from the outside.

This is not the baby's own will.

Because babies are chaotic, pure, and ignorant.

A baby has no mask, no self , they are a faceless person.

When people return to their original state and realize their true self is faceless, they make one of two choices:

Either fall into nihilism, Or search for meaning on their own.

And the order of society exists precisely to put masks on everyone, to prevent them from wandering in meaninglessness.

Masked Fools have realized that the world is a stage, and that they are wearing masks.

They can no longer allow others to put masks on them.

But without a mask, they would fall into nihilism.

In the end, they chose a more radical path.

Since my essence is faceless, I can choose which mask to wear.

But once I wear a mask, do I have to live according to it?

No, because everything is fake anyway.

All of it is an illusion. The meaning that the mask gives to life is also fake.

So what can be done? Laugh!

Because only the pleasure born from a fleeting moment of joy, and the laughter that follows, are entirely, purely human emotions.

Unaffected by masks, order, or morals.

Only when emotion feels joy, are you truly yourself, only then does your life have a fleeting moment of real meaning.

Other than that, everything is an illusion.

Everything is an illusion; all things are meaningless.

If everything is fake, then I can do whatever I want, as long as it brings me joy.

Thus, the Masked Fool was born.

When he wears the mask of a doctor, he can become a doctor like no other.

Because the essence of Masked Fools is to not be bound by any rules or morality, this doctor may seem bizarre.

He might save people, or he might stop halfway through.

Of course, most Masked Fools will choose something "stimulating," something highly creative.

In the world of Honkai: Star Rail, this is why these Fools seem like jokers, everything they do is for fun.

The deeper meanings expressed in Myriad Celestia Trailer were unveiled layer by layer by Ratio's words.

The audience might not have felt it deeply, but they've begun to grasp the key points.

...

: Now I finally understand the underlying logic of the Masked Fools!

: Hiss... Thinking back, was Aha's loud laugh on the Tree of Existence because he encountered the same idea?

: On the Tree of Existence, there is nothing. The meaning of existence itself doesn't exist , is that why he laughed so loudly it echoed across the universe?

: So thought-provoking. Even Star Rail's jesters have such logical joy.

: But what's the deal with the Mourning Actors then? And how come Sparkle seems to match this description, but feels a little stronger than that?

: Don't know, let's see what Ratio says.

...

After understanding the Fool, the viewers gradually began to face the desires behind the objects.

And Rion continued flipping through the pages.

"I think many people have this question, why not just explain what kind of mask-wearing Fool Sparkle is."

"Those who think this way have already missed the most important part."

"Because if you don't understand the fundamental logic of the Fools, you won't understand where Sparkle truly stands, she is not an ordinary Masked Fool."

"Like I said, discovering the world is a stage, choosing to wear a mask, and seeking amusement, that is a Masked Fool."

"And those who go deeper down this path will gradually realize that the essence of performance is suppressed emotions."

"When you're playing a role, the pleasure and emotion you gain is limited, because you know you are acting."

"Only by completely immersing yourself, not even that, by completely becoming part of the mask, can you feel everything the mask allows."

"Joy is amusement; despair is suppressed amusement."

"You treat the identity the mask gives you as truly your own."

"But at the same time, you must clearly know, you are you, a masked Fool."

"It's difficult, isn't it? To be fully immersed, while still clearly aware of your own self."

"Some pleasure seekers eventually lose themselves."

"During the Frontier Prison War, a Masked Fool on Mikhail's side blew himself up."

"During the Swarm Disaster, some also severed their connections entirely."

"And others went too deep, so deep that they felt boundless pain."

"They became masked Fools to escape the world, then put the mask back on for pleasure, only to be given new insights about joy through the identity the mask gave them."

"A 'father' witnessing the death of his offspring, a 'worker' seeing the destruction of his factory."

"They no longer feel joy, but endless pain and sorrow."

"They began to hate themselves, hate having once become Masked Fools, hate having treated it all as amusement, and only realized their regret when they lost everything."

"But why could these people still gain the power of joy?"

"Because pain is also a part of emotion; it is also a kind of pleasure... For those who realize the truth, as long as they are pursuing emotion, they are walking the path of joy."

"Of course, the Mourning Actors don't think so. But in reality, they are still followers of the Path of Joy."

...

: Whoa, the Path of Joy has finally clearly unfolded before me…

: Ratio explained it way too clearly!

: I suddenly thought of that Mourning Actor in Beautiful Dreams of the Past, the one who kept crying, cried a whole river even. Maybe he used to be a Masked Fool, lurking around Mikhail and the others, only to eventually get lost in the role?

: If you see it this way, extreme pain is also a way of walking the Path of Joy. No wonder Aha sometimes personally gives these Mourning Actors power.

: If I were Aha, I'd give them power too… Watching them destroy themselves, I'd definitely laugh my head off.

: Aha: I absolutely have to reward this.

: Damn! What kind of top supporter is Aha supposed to be?

...

After the audience in the livestream learned about the Mourning Actors, Ratio's lesson came to an end.

"Sparkle is someone who fully commits to her role, but never loses herself."

"Who is Sparkle ? Anyone can be."

"Sparkle can be anyone, any mask (identity)."

"But Sparkle is only Sparkle ."

"I, am also becoming her."

"The last five characters in the PV already marked the difference between Sparkle and all the other masked Fools revealed in the information."

"She is absolutely not an ordinary Masked Fool."

"Because the current Masked Fools shown, except for Old Sampo, all remain in the performance stage. They know everything is false, but have not realized the meaning of the self in a meaningless universe."

"Among the current Path followers, only Sparkle has shown that she understands the meaning of 'I'."

"And the only other being in this Path who has expressed such meaning, is Aha."

"In a way, Sparkle is the one who has come closest to Aha so far."

"This is what Sparkle 's PV and related Myriad Celestia Trailer content is all about."

"Remember! Don't let the information in front of you blind your eyes."

Ratio concluded with this last sentence, also giving a bit of criticism to the post viewers.

Rion and Miss Yun both let out a breath, even the entire audience in the livestream room.

They didn't expect two short PVs to contain such massive, profound information.

...

: Ratio spent two-thirds of the time talking about Joy, about those philosophical concepts, and only a small portion talking about what we most wanted to know about Sparkle.

: But we understood it all in an instant, and it's so clear!

: So that's it. Those ridiculous arguments can now end.

: This kind of explanation, this kind of analysis, finally matches what I imagined Joy and Sparkle to be!

: No wonder Joy is so powerful, because this Path is already infinitely close to the philosophical peak, even touching on the question in metaphysics: Who am I?

: Giving oneself the meaning of existence, awesome.

: This is true sophistication! Joy! Aha! My god!

: I have a prediction: Aha's power…

: Say something we don't already know.

: No, I mean, later on, some insanely powerful characters or abilities might appear, but they'll be instantly taken down by Aha.

: Using very simple, but incredibly shocking means to display absolute power.

: If that's the case, then I'm really looking forward to it.

...

While the audience was discussing in the livestream, a large number of people also left comments under Ratio's original post.

In short, with Ratio's help, the debate sparked by Sparkle was finally settled.

"That was amazing."

Rion had finally digested the overwhelming amount of information.

Then, she looked at the PV content of the two people side by side with anticipation.

"Sparkle 's PV revealed the Path of Joy."

"As for the Acheron PV, I'm even more excited."

"This equally mysterious woman is about to reveal her hidden side to us too!"

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T / N: I understood this but did not understand it at the same time!