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shoezuki · 6 months

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Thinkin bout Sampo Koski rn as like. His character n what we get of him in honkai star rail and he fucking. He confuses me like. There has to be So Much more to him like

The general vibes of him and especially how other characters treat him is that of comic relief, a punching bag, a goof, just a slick conman causing trouble. It's genuinely difficult NOT to insult him n treat him badly with dialogue options and any time he's even mentioned March 7th hisses at him. He's literally a cryptid in belobog. He's a joke.

But. But. There's his light cone. It makes me insane. It contradicts all of that.

In it he's competent. He's badass. He's omnipotent. He's able to somehow know a sniper from however far away is locked on him and address them specifically.

And even like... in the entire plot of jarilo-vi he's spoken of like he's not much. He's a 4 star character. But he's practically as present as bronya and seele and Gepard and his involvement in the story is ASTRONOMICAL. He has a part in every major event. He's the one who drags the Trailblazers and bronya into the Underworld. He's the one who takes you to svarog, to the overworld again. He gets Natasha and saves you from svarog. He's the first character you ever meet on jarilo.

And he seems to just vanish before you confront cocolia. But no. Sampo is the one who has the last word and wraps up the entire mission on jarilo-vi. He fucking breaks the forth wall. Jarilo-vi both begins and ends with Sampo.

He calls himself shadowy comic relief yet he seemingly orchestrated everything. What is he. What the fuck is he doing. What else is up with him and when will we get more of him. I want to bite into him and tear him apart.

#sampo koski #honkai star rail #IM NORMAL IM NORMAL IM NORMAL #the fact he's 4 star vexes me #like.hes more present than gepard and clara and they are 5 stars #my theory is like dan heng we'll get a 5 star version of sampo #but also if he never gets more screen time i will fucking eat my own foot #like whay is he. who. what the fuck is going on #and is this a masked fools thing??? are the masked fools about this shit?? like. is it all just to put on a show?#or is he actually wanting to fix communities and help people #why did he go and get natasha. thay one gets me. thats such like. out of his way obvious selflessness #and he's shown and spoken of more like a smarmy selfish bastard only for himself #but he went and got natasha. he brought bronya to the underworld. he lead you to belebog at the beginning #i literally havent played hsr in months. because i have sampo brain worms #he is the worm aha made an emenator and he is in my brain

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flightofthejackdaw · 1 month

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2.2 Spoilers!:

Boothill mentioning that emanators hide their identities, and some may turn their backs on the Aeon they’re supposed to follow if found out (or literally DESTROY everything and everyone). Got me thinking about a certain blue haired boy

Especially since right after saying that, Boothill states that he met a eminatior of Elation who seemed completely normal, and just like the rest of the clowns (masked fools)

It’s really adding to the emanator Sampo theory, also adding the idea that Sampo for some reason put his mask down giving up Elation, turning to Nihility. But is now going back to playing the fool and continuing his fun

#hsr sampo #honkai sampo #honkai star rail sampo #sampo #sampo hsr #sampo honkai #sampo koski #honkai star rail #hsr theory #aha hsr #emanator s #boothill #hsr boothill #honkai star rail boothill

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falling-star-cygnus · 21 days

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i wonder if Sampo assumed that The Nameless were Masked Fools at first

i thought this whole beginning spiel he does was just him thinking the Nameless were Underworlders -> but that doesn't make sense when later it's revealed that literally almost everyone on Jarilo-VI knows who the Silvermane are

this isn't even five minutes into introductions and Sampo's already treating them like they're all part of one big- and pardon the pun- inside joke. i wouldn't even put it past him if he was purposefully using double entendres in case he was wrong -> "pricing your stock" can also refer to attributing your strong points//talents -> "same side" "same line of work" "charade" "vigilance" "sincerity" "an art to it all" Sampo frequently refers to their 'shared job' with entertainment monikers

i think he realizes relatively soon after this entire conversation that the Nameless are, in fact, not Fools though- so he doesn't ever hedge closer to the subject aside from calling himself a "senior in the field"

also he changes his phrases so that they're more reminiscent of his conman occupation rather than his Fools occupation

im also pretty sure he immediately pegged us as offworlders too?? -> this is after saying Jarilo-VI was uninhabitable anywhere other than Belobog

#i still don't have him and im so mad about it #if sampo koski has no fans im dead #hsr #honkai star rail #hsr sampo #sampo koski #media analysis #character study #hsr theory #sampo #the nameless #masked fools #jarilo vi #belobog #underworld

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feroluce · 3 months

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I've only recently started having my own thoughts about Emanator!Sampo and I think my favorite version of this is that he is technically an Emanator, it's just that he doesn't talk about it because Aha is a dick who only blesses people that don't want it and Sampo hates it here dkjxkdkdck

Aha blessed the Mourning Actors! A whole faction of people who have specifically made it their life's mission to resist Elation! THEY made a literal worm THEIR Emanator just to see if it would be accepted into the Genius Society! And when it wasn't, Aha just as easily killed it and tossed it aside! So I feel like there is a good possibility that Aha looked down at Sampo, this little oddball who doesn't seem to even like Epsilon or a lot of the Masked Fools and was like.

Hey.

You know what would be really really funny.

And I feel like being an Emanator wouldn't even be a plus for Sampo, because of how he operates. Sampo excels at blending in; he managed to smuggle himself onto a planet

that had been isolated for 700 years,

with only one (1) single city on it,

and going even further, he snuck himself into the Underground,

where the population is even more sparse,

and STILL. Not a single accusation of him being an alien! Not even after the Astral Express lands and proves that interstellar space travel is possible! Sampo is so thoroughly ingrained into Belobog that yeah, some people admit they don't know his origins, but none of it ever comes with the question of whether he actually is a Belobog native or not. Sampo knows exactly how to blend himself into his surroundings in the most subtle way possible. And being an Emanator, something far more powerful than any normal human or Pathstrider could ever hope to be, would only throw in a massive extra variable for him. Sampo would have to be so so careful to keep a lid on his Emanator traits, to keep up the appearance of being totally normal and average at all times. It doesn't help him at all.

And this part is pure indulgence, but I love taking Aha's closeness with mortals, and THEIR tendency to take human form, and twisting it into a case of THEM using Sampo as a vessel.

I want Aha to look at Sampo the same way all of us look at Sampo. A chew toy. A plaything. Something to shove through the meat grinder. Aha thinks Sampo is hilarious and a funny, silly little guy, and THEY want to put him in Situations just to see what he does. Sampo is not a fan.

This though, this is what makes Sampo so wildly entertaining as a vessel. Because Aha knows that Sampo does not want to be a vessel, does not even want to be an Emanator, and THEY find it SO much fun to watch the mental gymnastics he has to pull to convince himself he's ok with it, this is fine actually, because he's not exactly about to tell off a literal god. He doesn't feel like getting a smiting today, please and thank you.

Because squeezing yourself into a human vessel is so different than merely adopting a human disguise, there's already a human soul in there, it's kind of a tight fit. If Sampo doesn't make room, doesn't all but dissociate right out of his own body, it could cause. Consequences.

And so, Aha always gives a warning, just to watch him squirm.

It begins with the sound of bells.

Just little ones, at first. Small, clinking little sounds that could even be considered nice. Something almost gentle, like a wind chime in a pleasant breeze on a warm day. This is the signal for the countdown.

Sampo breathes in, breathes out. Makes himself as small as possible within his own body.

The bells rise and multiply, tinkling wind chimes give way to sleigh bells, to shopkeepers bells, the sound of something inevitable approaching, something entering.

Sampo breathes in, breathes out. Dilutes himself, weaker and weaker concentrations.

The bells rise and rise, multiply and multiply, celebration and tragedy resonating in the sound of church bells, ringing bright and loud, the sounds of weddings and funerals both the same.

Sampo breathes in, breathes out. Becomes like smoke, like vapor. Hollows himself out.

Empty, empty, empty until he echoes, like a bell, like something with the sole purpose of being shaken and rattled around, a thing to be struck, the sounds jarring and punched out and gasping and piercing the air, the lung, the eardrum.

Sampo breathes in.

Beaten he rings, bashed in he sings.

Aha breathes out.

#sampo koski #hsr sampo #hsr aha #emanator!sampo #emanator sampo #hsr #honkai star rail #my fics #pardon me I've been listening to a lot of kara kara kara by kikuo lately dkxjkskdmd #I really like Emanator Sampo theories and even think canon is pointing that way- assuming he isn't just Aha in disguise #but I also like Sampo being a pathetic little guy. a squeaky toy. just a little dude.#and thus. this skzjnskdkd #an Emanator but pathetic about it haha #stringing Sampo up like a piñata so I can beat him with the possession angst stick ☆#he just has a lot of personality. Sampo is very bright and vibrant and distinctive-#-and always perfectly in control of himself to put on the best show.#so I think it's most jarring to see him dissociate- to see him go completely still and quiet just trying to breathe and settle #breate and settle breathe and settle breathe and settle #until he looks distant and hazy and goes unresponsive. until he feels like he is barely within his own body.#aha thinks this is funny #sampo tells himself he does too because it's easier that way #(shaking hands with Aha and Sparkle as I too like to mess with Sampo and put him in situations snkzjsjdkd)

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m-says-hi · 1 month

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of course my first post on this blog is about to be something that is probably a little unhinged but

I saw the sampo picture from the topaz trailer. the one where he was getting his ass kicked and i noticed there was a... wanted poster? or something with words on it

and i remembered the hsr fandom wiki has a thing to help translate the hsr language so i checked there and found something interesting. This poster thing is written in penaconian script

I did my best to translate and got

SANGBO wu shi xain yin qin fei jian ji dao zhi xuan hui de bu xu an dui de

I was vaguely worried I was doing something wrong when I translated what should've been Sampo's name but instead came up with "sangbo" but as I went on it became clear that it wasn't english. Unsure how to translate it, I just pasted the whole thing (minus what I assume is his name) into the search bar and found a website that told me this

i tried entering the second part and find out the meaning but it didn't come up with anything. So if anyone else could figure it out...

But! I still find this really interesting. This trailer is from before penacony so I find it weird that this poster thing is written in that type of script. I would've expected it to be written in the universal script or the belobogian script

all three scripts are very very similar but by all the extra embellishments you can tell that this poster is specifically the penaconian one.

Another thing I find interesting is the idiom it translates to as interesting. Solicitous means someone who cares or shows interest, so it's basically saying someone who cares or shows interest in something without a clear reason is hiding evil intentions.

Sampo has known to show up randomly and help us out for seemingly no reason at all. I mean that's basically what he did for all of the belobog trailblazer quest. But it also feels like a weird statement for the ipc to make about sampo (I'm assuming the poster has to do with the ipc considering it involves topaz). I originally thought I'd translate this and find out more whatever loan he took out or debt he owed but found this instead.

Maybe the other half of it provides more context, but I can't seem to find a way to translate it, so that's all the thoughts i can give for now

#sampo koski #hsr sampo #honkai star rail #lore #theory #sampo lore #god this is longer than i thought it'd be #am i crazy for this?#a little bit #maybe

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sunderingstars · 1 month

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☆━━━━━ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ━━━━━━☆

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ INTRODUCTION ⌝

sampo analysis m.list

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— hello & welcome to my dark twisted mind (full of sampo theories)

— this is the first major analysis project i’ve taken on, so i’m very excited to lay out all the evidence i’ve found — i’m trying to keep it as open-ended & -minded as possible, even though i’m biased out of sheer interest towards the aha!sampo theory.

— i’m sure there are things in here that are common knowledge, but since i tracked down every single sampo reference and voice line (literally) on the wiki during an obsession-induced state for the better part of two months, i’m hoping there’s some information here that may be new or less-discussed as well!

— i’ll be uploading each sub-topic as a separate post (because i have a lot to say about so many things), but depending on your preferences you can always follow/block the ⌞ 🎭 ⌝ tag, which is going to be the tag i use for anything relating to this project.

— here’s a brief outline of the topics i’ll be covering:

visual cues + art (aha splash art, kit, body language & confidence, performance & performative emotion, eidolons, etc.)

vocal cues + voicelines (third person references, voicelines, worldview, self-awareness, gender, etc.)

scene analysis (intro scene, belobog, sampo & sparkle’s conversation, fourth wall breaking, mr. cold feet, dream bubbles, etc.)

specific topics (placement in the narrative, jokes & situational comedy, the astral express, etc.)

specific theories (“retirement,” playing the long game, risk vs. reward, man or muppet?, “committed to the bit,” aha is not exempt from The Rules, etc.)

extra info on the masked fools as an organization, aeonic consciousness, and sampo character details outside of elation!sampo theories

as well as counterarguments and a conclusion + anything i feel like adding along the way!

— the next few posts i’ll be uploading will be my masterlists (yes, plural, i am insane 😔💔) so i can get ahead of the curve, then it’s onto the real meat of things. this is a passion project for me, so i am very grateful for everyone’s support thus far (seriously, y'all are so sweet) !!

— as always, feel free to send me asks if you want elaboration on one thing or another, or just want to talk about your own thoughts/theories. hope you enjoy!

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#⌞ ༄ cosmic.wind: hsr ⌝#⌞ 🎭 ⌝#sampo #sampo koski #hsr theory #analysis #hsr #honkai star rail #honkai: star rail #aha the elation #aha!sampo

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littlekiara96 · 2 months

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Just done posting this on Hoyolab, have it here, too.

All of my wild guesses about Sampo

He's getting a 5-star version. That character won't be named Sampo, as he'll be using his Masked Fool persona.

He's smart, actually, so that version of him will be on the Erudition Path.

Type is harder to guess. I'd say either Physical, Imaginary or Quantum, but Quantum sounds a teensy bit more plausible because he would go well with Sparkle, a fellow Fool.

Also... Nobody will recognise him, not even the Trailblazer.

And at the end of the new Belobog arc, he will break the fourth wall again and say something like "At least, you recognised me right away, didn't you? My dear audience~"

#honkai star rail #hsr sampo #sampo koski #hsr theory #heehee~#samposting #now. what will his name actually be...#........ I can smell the 'he's actually Aha' brainrot again.

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ahaclownery · 3 months

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Something a bit Strange (its kinda abt Sampo)

Not much of a theory from this yet, but I noticed when playing Hanu's Prison Break, every single loading screen to enter the bubbles was Sampo's. I was like er, could this be a coincidence? But I checked on different accounts, and watched a few YouTube videos, and all of them also had Sampo as their loading screen. It makes me think it's either an error or something the devs intentionally did, as loading screens can be specific for quests to build up hype or drop hints. Maybe Sampo was the supplier for this dream? Tell me what you think abt this in the comments or tags <33

#honkai star rail #hsr #sampo #sampo koski #hsr theory #hsr lore

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q-theeccentric · 2 months

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i know aventurine has taken over this blog

BUT we can't forget about what sparkle said about sampo needing his fool's mask.

something coming to belobog?? bigger than the fragmentum disasters?? are they bigger because sampo needs his mask ??? chat is this real ????

#sampo #sampo koski #hsr sampo #hsr sampo koski #hsr #honkai star rail #hsr theory #star rail #star rail theory #sampo theory #sampo koski theory #cueue's eccentric theories

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kuijoon · 21 days

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Sampo used to be a self-annihilator before becoming a masked fool

Note: this is a crack theory(?) (not even a theory tbh as I don’t really think it’s true and more so a different view on him)

First of all, this started with the similarities between Acheron and Sampo. Dark hair with white parts, dead snake imagery, diamond shaped pupils, leaving purple slashes in the air with their weapon, both nihility, etc. Obviously, this isn’t enough to warrant speculating about Sampo being connected to Acheron/the self-annihilators, so let me elaborate:

White hair: As we know, Acheron has a streak of white hair and completely white hair when she is in her alternative form. Self-annihilators are mentioned to “lose their color” as time goes on, which I think the white hair symbolizes. Sampo also has white hair, however it only is at the end of his hair (=he was losing his color back when he was a self-annihilator but after escaping the nihility and becoming a masked fool, it stopped- I’ll explain this idea more later on)

Snake imagery: As I think every Sampo fan is aware, he has skeletal snake imagery all over his design and it was even confirmed to be intended by hyv in the notes discussing Sampo’s beta design. Acheron possesses some of it too, albeit much less prominent: the spine thing on her back, similar belt decoration to Sampo’s, long spine painted (like that of a snake) on her sleeve, diamond eyes that could kind of resemble that of a snake (just like Sampo btw) and a spine in the background of her splash art. She even has a shoulder guard like Sampo, although it doesn’t directly resemble a snake and more so a vague bone structure (then again Sampo’s snake design elements are exclusively from snake bones). Other than Acheron, we have another known self-annihilator that features snake imagery; the one from the SU occurrence “Kindling of the Self-Annihilator”. Here, they are described as someone who’s a serpent below their waist, with dark green scales that give off a metallic glint- may be a coincidence, but for the sake of this theory I will choose to believe it’s intentional.

Besides Acheron’s and Sampo’s similarities, there are also a few more reasons to support this:

Aha saving a self-annihilator: In the Swarm disaster, Lepismat Part VI, Aha pays a self-annihilator a visit and they are described to have a “heartfelt smile on their face”, as if being rescued from the nihility’s pull due to Aha. Now, my theory would be that the same happened to Sampo- he was slowly fading away (his hair started to turn white), but then Aha showed up for whatever reason and Sampo was able to get out of IX’s shadow, becoming part of the masked fools instead when he realized the joy of life- turning from nihilism to absurdism, as the two concepts are closely intertwined anyway (hair stopped turning white).

Sampo’s in-game path is nihility: Now, if what I said before was true and Sampo stopped following the nihility, why would his in-game path being nihility support this? Well, I think don’t think that he has to completely turn away from nihility- as I already said the nihility and elation are closely connected in the belief that nothing matters, so still having sharing some beliefs would make sense to me.

Anyway that’s it for now (probably forgot something but wtv)

#aha turning Sampo away from nihility also supports emanator of elation theory lol #this has been rotting in my brain for forever now #sampo koski #hsr

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papamado · 1 month

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A "theory" regarding Sampo's abilities

okay so this is an absolute mess and more of a ramble but I think it might be worth sharing so here I am Since I'm very normal about Sampo Koski, I've noticed some paralels to.. osme things... and i ended up with a concept that Sampo might be aware/know the future/what is supposed to happen, aka the same/similar thing to what Elio is using as a base to write his scripts, or is aware of the scripts that Elio creates. On Belobog we don't encounter stellaron hunters (for obvious reasons), but Sampo does end up being the one who affects the way the plot goes and actively puts it in motion, he's the one in control (to some extent) He also appears to be aware of stuff that has yet to happen and its possible outcomes (getting Natasha even before we started fighting Svarog, knowing that we will arrive on Luofu despite it being an unplanned stop, the possible future Belobog catastropy) There's 2 ways to approach this: 1. He works with how it's supposed to go, (following the trailblazer around, kinda like stellaron hunters happen to do) 2. He deliberately works against it (Jarilo VI is supposed to face destruction but he prevents it, could be for personal reasons) Theres also the whole thing about him breaking the 4th wall, which could be connected. Awarnesss of the fact that this is a game could result in him having a knowledge of what the plot of said game is.

I strongly HC Sampo to be an Elation emanator, so I thought about what being an elation emanator could mean, as in, how realistically the powers could manifest From the recent guide that was released along side the 2.2 stream, we have a small entry about Masked Fools which confirms that the path powers are DIRECTLY tied to their masks (this could mean both metaphorical or physical masks but from what i get from the context here it most likely refers to the physical ones?? the concept works with both possibilities tho so whatever <3 )

We know that sampo doesn't have his mask currently (which also works in a symbolic way, Masks represent the devotion to Elation, him not having it could represent how he wants to distance himself from what Elation is considered to be and pursue his own idea of it instead. The general description provided here for how masked fools are doesn't exactly fit him either whichmight further prove that idea, i should write a seperate post on that, anyways-) , so how the hell can he do shit that we assumed earlier was Elation-related powers? i have 2 possible explanations for this 1. Him being an emanator lets him use the path powers without a need for a mask, if thats the case - the mask would only provide a powerup 2. Elation emanator powers are something else altogether

when we look at his current power set/abilities it can all be tied to the fact that this is a game so, him bieng an emanator of elation would allow him to ignore the rules of this world/mainupulate said rules, simple as that it would also explain why he can break the 4th wall, why he is aware of the future events, what leads to them and/or how to stop them in the first place and how he can do stuff that contradicts what's been established lore vise (like how nobody should be able to cross the barrier between the Overworld and Underworld), those rules don't apply to him, he's beyond them. But there's more we DO have an in game example of people already messing with the reality in the same manner - Silver Wolf From what I gathered (with help of some friends of mine mwah mwah), the "reality editing" abilites of Punklorde people are directly tied to a technology present in said world - that combined with the world view of those living here results with them reating the world they live in as if it was a game

Adding onto that, during "punklorde mentality" mission we get to hear Leonard say this:

"Masked fools believe it really exists" so are the Masked Fools aware that someone could posses *actual* (not provided by technology) power to alter/manipulate reality and ignore the established rules of the world? We can kinda see such thing happening with Aha in stimulated universe, not only do they break the 4th wall, but according to Herta they also seem to be affecting the stimulated universe itself Aha's manipulation of reality is also mentioned in the "Glimpses into the Beyond"

So maybe to wrap it all up: 1. Sampo could be aware of the possible future events and use the reality manipulation abilities/the fact that the rules don't apply to him to achieve a desired outcome 2. Him and the Stellaron Hunters have some paralels in the narrative when it comes to the role that they play and what they do?? kinda??? 3. Punklorde people could be affiliated with Elation to some extent, even if not directly blessed by it I am probably VERY wrong about all of this but honestly I'm having fun with this theory so idc <3

#sampo koski #hsr sampo #honkai star rail #masked fools #Aha the Elation #theory #stellaron hunters #I need to throw Elio into the blender to learn their secrets #hsr silver wolf #hsr thoughts #5 star sampo needs to come out faster because im losing my mind here yayyyyyy

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rye-bread-soda-iceberg · 4 months

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discussion and a little theory about black swan and sparkle's companion mission under the cut (+ spoilers) aka listen to me yap about the blue thing until I go insane

the First sampo we meet in penacony, specifically the one that follows us as we're hanging out with firefly, is nothing like how sampo himself is

his personality is a poor attempt from sparkle to try and convince us that it's him, but perhaps she's not familiar enough with him anymore to know exactly how he acts. "he" is acting weird and a little bit mean towards firefly for not knowing things about penacony even though she should

I don't think sampo would do that, at least the one we met on jarilo-VI wouldn't

the second (and third) time sampo appears, and this time it's actually him, is during the girls' companion mission

during the entire quest him and black swan play this little detective game orchestrated by sparkle where she writes herself in as a murder victim and has the two find her murderer. it's fun and silly and very chaotic

the entire story unfolds inside a dream bubble created by black swan, and when it's over the giant eyeball guy tells us that even though we recognized the people in the dream, it is still a dream. it doesn't represent reality and could have been tampered with

I don't believe that

anyways so. in this sampo acts a little bit more like the one we know, maybe slightly over the top at times but I think he was putting on a performance to spice things up. he was helping out sparkle with the whole thing in exchange for his mask that she probably stole from him (that we sadly don't get to see) so I bet he really put some effort into that, even begging black swan to not skip the last murder case

But. the MOST important part of this entire quest is.. the end. and the end is definitely not a dream

after the trio finishes talking, the dream stops and we briefly return to the real world before going into a memory. and boy there's some stuff to unpack in here

first of all the way they talk to each other? they almost seem like friends. of course, their views on the pursuit of elation are still different

he is still very polite about it

sparkle doesn't mention anything except muttering "why so serious" to herself

but they do talk like old friends and it's clear that in a sense they may be

after he asks for his mask back, sparkle remarks that it is not like the sampo she knows and then this little exchange happens

it is now canon, as in acknowledged out loud by a character (in this case himself) that sampo Really did orchestrate almost every thing that happened in jarilo-VI

how did he know this was going to happen? how can sparkle guess the reason why he wants his mask back? has he done this before? well clearly, thinking back to all the chaos he unleashes on that planet, maybe some kind of catastrophe has already came to it that we don't know about?

also slightly unrelated but I think he likes living there. he genuinely enjoys living in belobog because if he didn't, he'd find a way to leave

so anyways what we can deduct from this sequence is that:

- this entire quest is most likely a memory, not a dream. black swan deals with memories and it could be possible that she had some slight changes done to it and passed it off as a dream. maybe. and this would mean that it's a real event, that happened before the jarilo-VI story

- consequently, before that sampo and sparkle were on friendly enough terms that he was willing to help her put on a show for black swan in exchange for his mask (of course, he's always willing to do something to get something in return)

so I did say I have a theory

sparkle is the reason for That One sampo eidolon, "the deeper the love the stronger the hate"

she's the only character so far that we are SURE he dislikes, and that's something knowing he doesn't admit that stuff so openly. source: listen to his lines about other characters, he always masks any kind of negative emotion about other people yet tells giovanni that if it were for him, he'd never see her again (still said in a polite way)

so the "hate" he feels, that he still masks by smiling even though his eyes are devoid of any light, as of right now can only be towards sparkle

I believe she betrayed him somehow and maybe doesn't fully realize that

she's childish, really mean, DEFINITELY cannot "read the room" in any way and I doubt she cares about other people's feelings enough, so if sampo who by nature almost does everything to hide how he truly feels about people ever felt betrayed by her, there'd be miscommunication and possibly confusion on her side and feelings of hate towards her on his side

in the main quest, before sparkle reveals herself, she mentions hearing about his deeds on jarilo-VI but doesn't seem to hold a grudge against him. she probably dislikes him as well but perhaps not as much as he does, which also leads me to think she wouldn't understand if she did anything wrong

them not talking anymore would explain why sparkle's rendition of sampo feels off and kind of out of character

this is a theory I had actually already saw circularing on here, around the time sampo and giovanni's conversation in the memory bubble got leaked. but if I'm correct it's not as discussed

sad cause it's very interesting and you know what this also means?

penacony might not be the last we see of sampo

he has so much going on behind him and this just adds to it. he doesn't speak much about his past himself, he is clearly hiding so so many things and hoyoverse wouldn't keep leaving these little crumbs of information behind if it wasn't for a greater purpose

I feel like I say this every time I talk about him and maybe I'm slowly going insane but I'm also very happy cause I want to see what my beautiful man will do in the future

thanks for reading this far if you did and sorry if this is really messy

I just wanted to let some thoughts out!

#i think i said everything i wanted to say yes!#feel free to add to this #star rail #hsr sampo #sampo koski #honkai star rail #hsr spoilers #hsr #hsr theory #hsr sparkle

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thesaart · 3 months

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WHO? WHAT? WHY? SAMPO KOSKI

This is a summary/theories/rambles made by me, someone who has way too much brain rot for this character right now, hope you enjoy.

(fyi this is increadibly long)

First Black Swans companion quest, Im very much basing this entire thing on the theory that her quest plays before Belobogs main story.

First the quest plays while Sampo is no longer a mask fool in addition it's also implied that he was on Penacony for at least a while. Not only did he have a VIP pass for the Pepeshi club but the Pepeshi people also trust him. Which leads me to think that he properly got that pass at least somewhat legitimately.

Granted we know this from the interaction between Sparkle, Firefly and the Trailblazer but I still think that this is also applicable in the situation within Black Swans quest.

(also very importantly Black Swans quest is told via a Memory Bubble so knowing exactly when it happened is already nebulous at best)

If the companion quest happened after the main events of Jarilo VI. Then what happened to Sampo, that in the span of, if we’re generous, a few months leads him to leave the mask fools? Sampo seems to have very strict rules/lines/boundaries for himself so to assume that something happened in the span of a few months which leads him to lay down his mask and go to Penacony but then a new catastrophe befalls Belobog and he immediately goes back to the fools, just feels a bit flimsy to me.

Him also calling himself an old timer with the fools is important. Basically this man has seen some shit so him going back, surprising even Sparkle makes me think that he was out of the Mask fools for a while.

Also quick side note, that out of all places Giovanni could have chosen to host his event, he went with Belobog. The place he knew he could meet Sampo at. Or he at least knew that if he went there the chance of meeting him was quite high. Potentially because he could have seen the end broadcast of Sampos after the main story of Belobog or because Sampo told Sparkle at the end of Black Swans quest to “tell Giovanni I said hi”. I just find it interesting that the writers put that line here.

Anyway, the Next bit is my personal understanding/theory of Sampos timeline.

Sampo was a member of the fools for a very long time, something happened that went so against his boundaries that he left the fools. He either then immediately went to Penaconey or traveled around for a bit before going there, possibly wanting to settle down.

Sparkle arrives in Penacony for her own reasons. Finds out that Black Swans here too and wants to fuck with her a bit. So she enlists the help of her “friend” Sampo.

They make a deal that he helps her and she then gives his mask back to him. (important side note the deal with the masks isn't just that they are a sign that you follow the elation but it's literally your entry ticket to the fools and the tavern.)

The reason why she has the mask or at least knows where it is properly is because Sampo was the one who gave it to her. He initially doesn't tell her exactly why he wants the mask back. that's properly the reason why she mockingly asks if it's about Jarilo VI.

(I acknowledge that Sparkle referencing Jarilo VI makes more sense if Black Swans quest happened after Belobog but hear me out. Sampo clearly has not just knowledge of Belebog but also a huge interest and care for the planet. Maybe the other fools knew of this interest of his. Also I'm gonna talk about his knowledge of Jarilo VI and Belebog later.)

Back to the timeline, Sparkle and Sampo agree on the deal and Black Swans quest starts. Afterwards, Sampo goes to the tavern and gets his mask back. Now he is an active member again, ergo he could potentially get extra help from the fools (for example the potential care package you can find in Lynx’s companion quest that has Sampos name on it.) He arrives on the planet, if he goes first to the overworld or the underworld is anyone's guess.

But anyway, he meets Natasha and helps her and in extension Wildfire. Then he continues like Sparkle inspired him to.

Too late to take the stage? no matter, it's a wonder what you can accomplish if you're just a side character.

The Nameless arrive on Jarilo VI a few years later

(if im not wrong around two years later)

And the main quest starts.

After that he meets Giovanni at the Aetherium wars event. They have a chat and Giovanni tells him that Sparkle is on Penacony, to which Sampo replies that he doesn't want to see her.

Why? I'm not 100% sure. Sampo is an opportunist, him meeting Sparkle helped them both but they still fundamentally disagree on a few things especially their idea of Elation.

This is my reading of his potential timeline for now. (also another side note hes definitely keeping taps on the Nameless. Simply because of the bomb you can find on the Xianzhou.)

Sampo is strange and his knowledge confuses the hell out of me

He knows a lot about Belobog but the interesting/confusing part is that as an outsider he seems to know things that most if not all locals don't know about.

For example the tunnels that he uses to travel freely between the over and underworld. Just how the hell does he know about those?

Svarog, a Robot built around 700 years ago, didn't know about them, that or he forgot they exist which seems unlikely.

If Svarog knew about them he would have sealed them off, but he didn't.

We can assume that the tunnels are not just incredibly well hidden but also safe, because Sampo carried four unconscious people through them to the underworld.

Potentially those tunnels could have been here before the war and miraculously survived both the Antimatter Legion and the Eternal Freeze. This could explain why neither Svarog knew about them, being there before his time, and for the people of Belobog being also way before there's.

We as the Players never get to see the tunnels but we can assume that they are potentially located in the layers between the over and underworld.

Then Sampo has the knowledge to repair ancient artifacts from a planet that was isolated and forgotten for multiple hundreds of years. Granted there are people especially from the underworld but also from the overworld that know how to repair them but those include Serval, a gifted mechanic who also was an Architect at one point, so someone who was constantly surrounded by those artifacts and had still surviving documents of how to work with them. Clara, also a gifted prodigy of a mechanic whose dad is Svarog, who could absolutely help her if she has questions about some of those artifacts.

Sampo is an outsider though so how did he learn how to work with or just straight up repair ancient technology?

If we now go away from his connection to Jarilo VI for a second there's just a lot of other stuff that are really interesting/confusing about him.

We can guess that Sampo is actually quite knowledgeable especially when it comes to making things. He made his smoke bombs meaning that he not only has the technical understanding of making the inner workings of a bomb but also knows how to make knockout gas that also doesn't seem to affect him.

Same with his knives. I have my theory that either he made them himself or someone made them for him. The blades are just too tailor made for his fighting style to simply be a thing he stole from somewhere.

The next few points I'm gonna get into were absolutely pointed out many times before by others but still I want to mention them too.

Also this is already incredible long so fuck it.

First, the foot prints, him not leaving any in the snow is already strange. Granted you could argue that he uses the wind ability that his path grands him to erase them the moment his feet touch the snow but it's not just snow, in Penaconey there are fountains that you can walk over and Sampo is the only one the does not create any splashes, only little ripples on the water's surface.

Second, Brughel Poisson, first I love that his entire character story is about a heist/scam he plans and acts out while playing a different character. It's a wonderful and creative way of showing us a bit more about him and it characterizes him very well.

But also I have my doubts this was just him simply putting on an incredibly good disguise and showing off how good he is at crossdressing. One scene that always stuck out to me in the character story was how incredibly sure and confident Sampo was that the guard would not see through Poisson. Even showing off her hair as in saying, look at this, this is obviously my real hair, no wig at all.

I have my theory that he could have shape shifted similar to what Sparkle does with the only difference that he did it not in a dream but in reality.

Him having extra magical abilities would not surprise me, as I said before the smoke of his bombs do not seem to have any effect on him. He is potentially able to teleport or he's just incredibly fast. If he carried Bronya, the Trailblazer, Dan Heng and March 7th all at once to Natasha then he also is a bit stronger then what I think a normal human would be able to do. And the incredibly low temperatures outside of Belobog don't seem to affect him that hard or at all.

Last point

Out of all the playable paths they could have given him they went with Nihility, the most similar path to Elation simply because Aha and XI agree on one thing and that is that the world and all its life is meaningless.

It would be fascinating if Sampo first was on the path of Elation and then later switched to Nhility or that he always was on the path of Nihility because of something he went through in his backstory and then found kinship with the fools.

There's so much potential for his story and his character and I really hope the writers of HSR have a plan for where they want to take him.

If you read all of this thank you so much

#honkai star rail #honkai star rail sampo #hsr sampo #sampo koski #honkai sampo #theory #hsr theory #honkai star rail theory #ramblings #brainrot #sampo brainrot

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