Heartwarming / Honkai: Star Rail

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The sweetest child you'll ever meet on a frozen world.

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Main Quests

• When the Doomsday Beast launches a desperation attack at March, the Trailblazer, who had met her no more than an hour or two before, immediately jumps in to take the hit for her. Talk about fast friends.
• Crosses with Tear Jerker. Right before she dies, Cocolia briefly shines a warm smile at Bronya, implying she took control of herself one last time.
• When Dan Heng starts to panic after realizing Blade's presence on the Xianzhou Luofu will endanger his friends due to his past connections with the man, Himeko calms him down and assures him to not let his past burden him, and says if he has an important duty to fulfill, he should do so now before he regrets not taking action later. After encouraging Dan Heng to help out his friends, Himeko asks if Dan Heng will return and continue traveling with them, to which he responds with a silent nod, promising he will come back safely.
  • To players who are scared that Dan Heng would end up breaking Himeko's promise to return back to the Express by either dying or choosing to stay on the Luofu (the latter point especially after his transformation into his past identity as the Imbibitor Lunae), their fears are put to rest, as speaking to Dan Heng in "Obsequies Performed, A Long Road Ahead" (which is the final mission of the Luofu story arc) has him planning to return to the Express to update Himeko on the situation, only staying on the Luofu for a short while in his Companion Mission to settle some errands, but will stick with the Trailblazer and friends all the way through to the end.
• Dan Heng's reunion with the rest of the Astral Express crew. After the initial shock of his appearance wears off, the crew welcomes him back to the family and insists on him joining the group vote- even though no matter what his decision is, the crew would have continued their mission anyway.
  • Later on, March and Welt express their relief at seeing him come to join them. March even goes as far as to quiet down for a minute and put aside her annoyance at having to fight so often to express herself to Dan Heng.
• Before Jing Yuan and the Astral Express crew enter the former palace of the Vidyadharas to fight Phantylia, Jing Yuan tells Fu Xuan and the Cloud Knights to stay behind. Immediately, several Cloud Knights protest and beg to come along with their beloved General, a request that Jing Yuan denies for their own safety.
• Although she had been the main antagonist of the "Jolted Awake from a Winter Dream" Mission and nearly succeeded in deceiving Bronya, Topaz does stay true to her word of allowing Belobog the chance to recover on its own terms even if that comes at the cost of demotion within the IPC.
• During the "A Foxian Tale of the Haunted" Continuance Mission, some of the heliobi encountered aren't actively malicious and have some heartwarming moments.
  • Arkeri is found hiding inside March's camera. They tell March and the Trailblazer that they have no intention of possessing a human, they just want to explore the universe. After being taken on a tour of Scalegorge Waterscape, the Trailblazer can choose to let Arkeri free to roam the universe forever. Upon informing Huohuo, she respects the decision and promises not to tell the rest of the Ten-Lords Commission because the Trailblazer captured another heliobus that can be sealed away.
  • Ruoxi is a heliobus who encountered a Foxian named Wenyuan and took on the form of his dead wife. When the Trailblazer exposes Ruoxi as a heliobus, Wenyuan admits that he already knew, and both Ruoxi and Wenyuan want to stay together even though they both know that Ruoxi is draining Wenyuan's lifeforce just by being near him. The couple asks the Trailblazer to let them go to enjoy their final moments together. The Trailblazer can comply with their request.
• As the Pet the Dog section in Aventurine's entry states, he bribes random persons with gems in exchange for information about "Death" in Penacony. Some or all of them are people you've encountered and conversed about their stories through sidequests or simple dialogues like Larose (a singer and follower of Beauty) and Uma (a newscaster involved with an in-game event). From these people's perspective, a rich stranger suddenly walks to them and hands them gems and words of wisdom, then walks off to who knows where. It's not unlike Dr. Ratio giving him a piece of advice for him to read when the time arises. Two of his encounters happen to be persons who are rather unlucky:
  • One of them is someone named Bocchi, a sodaholic who wonders if Aventurine just gives gems out of pity, but reasons that it doesn't matter, because Soul Glad is enough. Aventurine, in a rare moment of unabashed concern, voices out a suggestion to quit drinking.
  • The other is Barrle, a man who mistakes Aventurine for another person who'd ask about his more famous parents who overshadow him. At first, Aventurine's just confused about the sudden accusation and proceeds to asks about "Death". Barrle merely assumes that he's warning him about danger even in dreams and compares him to his protective father and says there's irony that he's still under fatherly protection. Briefly but no less genuinely warmly, Aventurine imparts some words of encouragement to be optimistic, that "gold will always shine one day" before leaving. While Aventurine did all this as part of his act to lure Sparkle out, he doesn't really have anything large to gain from giving a bit more than just gemstones to a couple of troubled souls, especially being under a time limit.
• Despite the hallucinations of Aventurine being mostly a source of pain as his other self keeps throwing his own demons at his face while his younger self reminds him of what he had lost, at the end they reveal themselves as being manifestations of Aventurine's "future" and "past" selves and their purpose was to allow him to make peace with himself before he stages his "grandest death", letting Aventurine play his last gamble without regrets. He treats his "past" self with gentleness, especially when you consider the implications that Aventurine never saw what he looked like as a child.
• It's for a brief moment, but the instant that Aventurine unleashes his Gate of Babylon like attack on the Astral Express Crew and Acheron, both Himeko and Welt immediately rush to protect March 7th and the Trailblazer from the incoming fire without hesitation.
• At the end of "Cat Among Pigeons", Acheron, who had previously been fighting Aventurine to the point she was forced to use her Emanator powers, has one honest conversation with him within a dreamscape created by her Nihility powers, giving him some encouraging to let go of his nihilistic view of life and instead keep on living. She then tells him to check his pockets, prompting Aventurine to read the "medical advice" from Dr. Ratio — which turns out to be a short note asking him to stay alive and wishing him good luck. Ultimately, Aventurine agrees to give life another shot after his last conversation with his past self, stating that he will be reunited with his family at some point in the future, but not just yet.

Companion Quests

• Lynx's Companion Quest has her finding a data drive left behind by Pela's mother, Penya, who died during childbirth. This gives Pela access to the numerous letters Penya posthumously left behind for her. As a result, Pela, who always felt guilty over being partially responsible for her mother's death, gets some much-needed closure and vindication that her mother always loved her.
  • And afterward, the whole experience convinces Lynx, who has always been rather estranged from Gepard and Serval due to her feelings of inadequacy compared to them, to work up the courage to open up to them again and the questline ends with a happy family reunion between the three siblings.
• In Dan Heng's Companion Mission (as Imbibitor Lunae):
  • He goes to Scalegorge Waterscape to meet with Bailu. By the end of the mission, the healer lady has grown on Dan Heng, and the normally stoic Express guard lets himself have a heartfelt moment with her as they look over the ruins. Bailu even names Dan Heng as "the teacher she's been waiting for", and Dan Heng's smile can be heard loud and clear in his words.
  • When Dan Heng and the Trailblazer bump into Jing Yuan while on their way to meet Bailu, the General tells them that while the affairs of the Vidyadharas do not require his attention as the General, he expresses that as a friend, he's still concerned for their safety. Later, when Dan Heng, Trailblazer, and Bailu are ambushed by assassins trying to kill the healer lady, Jing Yuan comes as their reinforcement despite him still recuperating from his injuries.

Side Quests

• In the side quest "To: The Faint Star", you learn that Rocky’s mentor Bernard purposefully sabotaged the transmission from a woman named Lesley whom he confessed to. He did this because a starquake caused a temporal difference where time will slowly become more and more unbalanced to the point where a month for Lesley will be decades for Rocky. Not wanting his student to have to wait decades for Lesley's reply who might never come back, with their age difference increasing more and more as time goes by, he intercepts the transmission where Lesley accepts Rocky’s confession and changes it so it seems like she rejected him. Now, the Trailblazer has the option to tell Rocky the harsh truth or tell him the false story that the woman he loves rejected him. If you tell him the truth, Rocky appears to laugh it off and says he obviously won’t wait for Lesley to come back… because he’s going to go after her. He’s going to cross that canyon of space-time and nothing, not even the Trailblazer noting how dangerous the journey could be, will stop him from reaching the woman he loves as soon as possible.
• Crossing over with Tear Jerker, the sidequest "Requiem Mass" involves the Trailblazer investigating strange reports of Wubbaboo behavior in the Herta Space Station. For some reason, the Wubbaboos seem to be stealing the belongings of Eikura Shuu, a low-level researcher of little renown who was assigned to Wubbaboo research but was ultimately killed in the Antimatter Legion's invasion of the space station. Along the way, you can discover his diary, and the contents of it are very self-deprecating, with Shuu describing himself as a miserable failure, stuck with an unimportant research topic, and feeling ashamed that the high hopes his friends and family on his home planet had placed in him were for nothing. Finally, you discover what the Wubbaboos were trying to do; they had built a memorial to him, and they wanted to return his belongings to it to pay respects to his memory. It may have seemed to him that nobody cared about him, but the Wubbaboos definitely did.
• Also crossing with Tear Jerker- every time you finished a Daily Quest focusing on Fragmentum ghosts? That's you helping them move on in the afterlife.
• In Starskiff Haven on the Xianzhou Luofu, while the main focus of the side quest "Fired" is about the Trailblazer and Tantan tracking down a speeding Starskiff driver who committed a hit-and-run felony on Mei, the B-plot of the quest that focuses on Mei herself is one of the most heartwarming moments in the game. Mei is a housekeeper who works for a film actress named Luhui, and from the Trailblazer's interactions with her, it's obvious that Mei has some cognitive disability that makes getting points across to her difficult. Luhui is painted as a Jerkass who plans to fire Mei from her job and terminate her contract simply because she can't stand Mei's lack of comprehension, leading to back-to-back texts where the Trailblazer tries to convince Luhui to change her mind because Mei has no family to go back to otherwise. This culminates in Luhui firing Mei regardless, which results in Mei accepting her fate and giving a comprehensive list of tasks she wrote to Luhui so she can take care of herself. Luhui reads the list, making her realize that Mei sees her as more of a family member she's been taking care of than an employer, and in addition, making Luhui realize that she had been mistreating her and taking advantage of her without giving back something in return. With Luhui's change of heart, she finally decides to keep Mei as her housekeeper and renew her contract, bringing the quest to a happy ending.
• The "Operation Mole" multi-part daily quest has the Moles help deliver supplies to folks in the Underworld because they noticed that Wildfire either didn't have the time or hands to deliver. The Trailblazer helps the children deliver the supplies and when the Trailblazer runs into Oleg, he tells them that he and Natasha both noticed that the children were being helpful and caring, so Natasha may have put the idea in Hook's head for the Moles to help out where they can.
• While "Envision a Rose Forthcoming" is overall a major Tear Jerker, if you stand your ground and refuse to let go of Cocona's hand when she tries to jump, even when the game repeatedly tries to trick you into a But Thou Must! situation, you eventually succeed in saving her and encouraging her to not give up on her dreams of becoming a singer. In this good ending, Cocona sings in the Clockie Statue plaza, attracting many awestruck passerbys that cheer her on. When you talk to her again in front of the fashion shop and set her mood to Happy, she'll happily sing her song.

Events

• The Everwinter City Museum on its whole is one for Belobog, as after finally being freed from the eternal winter that plagued the planet, the citizens can catalogue their own history and prepare for the beginning of better things to come. It's also one for the Astral Express Crew because they too are recorded and cherished within the museum for the help they gave to Belobog.
• At the end of the Aetherium Wars event, when the elite player, Hook, is defeated, she starts crying. However, they're actually Tears of Joy since she's actually so thrilled that the Trailblazer and March came back that she knocks the Trailblazer over as she jumps on them.
  • The whole reason for the event turns out to be one big bundle of heartwarming: Giovanni arranged this huge tournament in Belobog simply so a little girl could play with her friend again.
• During the Foxian Tales of the Haunted event, one heliobi-hunting quest leads you and the Ghost-Hunting Squad to Aurum Alley, where a man is enjoying the company of a Helliobi disguised as his dead wife. Turns out, the guy knows what's up and knows he only has a short while longer. If you grant his and Ruozi's request for them to spend their last moments together, Ruozi will text you after Cirrus is defeated and request to be sealed into the Evil-Binding Matrix once she has sent her lover off in traditional Foxian custom. She'll also comment on how this is the first time she's truly felt what loves it.
• Another moment in the Foxian Tales of the Haunted event has a Helliobi accidentally possess someone who almost immediately becomes Mara-struck. After subduing the possessed person, the helliobi disguises themselves as the person before the madness took over to fulfill the woman's last wish. For creatures that supposedly don't quite understand humans and had no need to do such things, it's certainly a sweet gesture.
• Huohuo and Mr. Tail reuniting. Tail, who nearly suffered a Loss of Identity due to his near-Heroic Sacrifice against Cirrus, ended up being found and captured by Hanya, but told her not to tell Huohuo where he was. When Huohuo gets possessed by a hostile heliobus, however, Tail agrees to bind himself to her again to save her. Huohuo can't stop herself from crying Tears of Joy at seeing Tail again.
• When the Trailblazer makes several new lifeforms using Ruan Mei's tech that resemble their friends, they show images of them to said friends. All of them are happy to see such adorable creatures, even Blade.

Other

• Svarog may seem cold and impersonal, but it's obvious how much he cares about Clara. Ask him about his relationship with Clara and his only response is that she's family. And if you look at her voice lines and character stories, he plays with her, does her hair, and goes out of his way to make sure she has human friends. Clara's mechanic is just Svarog doing his best to protect her. Truly a shining example to fathers everywhere.
  • The "Dance! Dance! Dance!" light cone shows him spinning Hook around at her request, much to Clara's nervousness and Hook getting dizzy afterward.
• Clara calls the Trailblazer "Big (Brother)/(Sister)" as they spend more time with her.
• Despite her complicated feelings about Cocolia's actions, the "Memories of the Past" light cone states that Bronya still keeps a photo of her mother on her desk, and the artwork clearly shows that Cocolia loved her daughter. The Dreampeek Call on Penacony also indicates that Bronya still keeps mementos from her mother.
• The Landau siblings, despite being far apart due to their lifestyles and occupations, are all incredibly close-knit, with plenty of subtle details that tie them together.
  • Gepard grows flowers, but he admits he isn't that great and isn't always home to care for them. Serval knows his work keeps him away from home, so she asks Pela to help.
  • The cactus plant in Serval's workshop, named the "snowman's palm", was raised by Lynx and given to her as a present. Humorously, Gepard comments on how Serval's workshop is messier than his own room.
  • Gepard's shield is actually a guitar case, crafted by Serval.
  • Sometimes while at work, Gepard hums Serval's song without realizing it, claiming his colleagues got him doing it too. They also have similar humming idle animations.
  • The "Landau's Choice" light cone shows a young protective Serval putting herself in between Gepard and their parents as the children are being disciplined. The incident happened because a young Gepard was caught conversing with Underworld people, and Serval stood up for him.
  • Despite being the estranged sister, Serval is still referred to as such. In Japanese, Gepard refers to her as "older sister", only referring to her by name when she's pressed the Cocolia and Bronya issue too far.
  • Among Lynx's belongings are a thermos and climbing pick from Serval and a snowboard from Gepard (although he tried to keep it a secret). The thermos is carried on her being, the pick is her weapon, while the snowboard is seen during her Ultimate animation when she digs through her bag. She also has a picture of her siblings in her tent in her Warp art. Her phone case even has her and her siblings in chibi cat form.
  • There's an achievement you unlock when you win a battle with the Landaus in the same team: "In the Name of Landau".
  • If Lynx and Serval are on a team, Lynx has a voice line indicating that she's actually excited to fight alongside her sister.
• The "This is Me!" light cone and lore depicts Himeko helping March decide on a look by brushing her hair and helping her pick out clothes.
• It's implied that Yanqing and Jing Yuan have a similar parent-child relationship, with Jing Yuan taking on Yanqing as something that might be a bit more than just his student.
  • Yanqing's character stories talk about how he has no memory or knowledge of his lineage and his memories consist of following the General around. In addition, Jing Yuan provides him with clothes, food, and enough money that Yanqing can afford to buy multiple swords each month. The "Sleep Like The Dead" light cone even features Jing Yuan carrying a sleeping Yanqing.
  • On Day Seven of the Penacony Food Fest event, Jing Yuan and Yanqing are gifted Dreamlight Mixed Sweets by the Trailblazer. According to Yanqing's reply, Jing Yuan kept reminding him to brush his teeth after eating the candy.
  • The board encounter with Jing Yuan in the Cosmodyssey minigame has him wanting to set Yanqing up with the granddaughter of the general of the Yaoqing, because he thinks it would be nice if Yanqing had friends his age.
• According to Bailu's character lore, Jing Yuan will regularly show up at her clinic for a check-up only for it to turn into more of a social call because he brings her treats and starts chatting with her. While she diagnoses him as bored and needing to get out more, she does enjoy his company.
• One of Kafka's messages is surprisingly quite wholesome, where if the Trailblazer admits that they actually miss her, Kafka is genuinely touched and states that as long as they remain with the Astral Express, she won't be worried.
• The animated short for Dan Heng:Imbibitor Lunae has Dan Heng fighting against Dan Feng in his mindscape. Dan Heng was blamed, sentenced, and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and just being at the Luofu already slammed him with reminders of being shackled by someone he is not. But, it ends with him getting back his resolve after an inner conflict to be his own person as he remembers his friends who gave him not only food and a place to stay, but also a role in their found dynamics and memories together- not as Dan Feng, but as Dan Heng, member of the Nameless, archivist, and guard of the Express Crew. He even does his signature poker-faced peace sign one sees in a few promotional materials when March 7th interrupts his train of thought by asking him for a picture. In that picture, the sky is a bright sunset and the statue of his previous incarnation is off-frame, perhaps as a way to show the viewers that he has cut through the chains of Dan Feng and is blazing his own path while still inheriting some parts of his watery previous incarnation with less burden in his heart despite his background. In the fight, Dan Heng in Imbibitor Lunae form didn't strike at Dan Feng, but rather, demonstrated his willpower to move on with his Imbibitor Lunae transformation and perform the same attack just meters away from his opponent before transforming back to his more human appearance.
• If Serval and Bronya are put on a team, Serval has a voice line telling Bronya that her mother would have been proud of her.
• The Ten-Lords Commission Criminal Directory readable shows that Imbibitor Lunae has been struck from the list of criminals, indicating that Jing Yuan did in fact keep his word that Dan Heng is free and that Dan Feng is no more.
• As a visitor to the Astral Express, Jing Yuan's first concern is to check in on how Dan Heng is faring, especially after the events of the Luofu storylines.
• If Bailu and Dan Heng (or his Imbibitor Lunae model) are added to the same team, she has a voice line that excitedly asks him to teach her more High Elder magic, like a little sister asking her big brother.
• One of Seele's voicelines indicate that while she's exasperated by Hook's antics on occasion, she does think that the little girl has a bright future ahead of her. If the two are put on a team, Seele is concerned but reminds Hook to stay close.
• One of Yanqing's visitor voice lines has him attempting to talk to Dan Heng in an effort to befriend him, but he tells the Trailblazer that he's concerned if he offended Dan Heng due to how disinterested the latter is in talking. The Trailblazer can choose to tell him that Dan Heng is simply very reserved, which bolsters Yanqing's resolve to befriend Dan Heng by engaging in more conversation with him.
• An official illustration for Lunar New Year 2023 shows Jing Yuan and Bailu joining the Astral Express crew for a festive meal.
• An official illustration celebrating 10 million pre-registrations have an off-screen March 7th and Dan Heng giving Clara gifts. Dan Heng's hand just happens to have a bandage on it, implying he may have made Clara's gift. Natasha can be seen playing with one of the children in her care while Svarog watches.
• During the animated short "Harmony Greets the New Year", Guinaifen and Sushang are performing a lion and dragon dance when Guinaifen slips on a high platform and falls. Just as Sushang loses her grip on Guinaifen's arm, Jing Yuan is about to act when Dan Heng uses his own water powers to create a platform for Guinaifen and bring her to safety.
  • Dan Heng being on the Luofu for the festival in the first place deserves mention. Although he had spoken as though he wanted to distance himself from Luofu due to the past, he took time out to visit his homeland for a festival. Additionally, a child offers him a berrypheasant skewer once the disaster is averted, cementing that he does have a place to return to once the Express's journey reaches its end.
• It's small, but the Trailblazer's line when joining a party with Dan Heng in his Imbibitor Lunae form hammers in that regardless of his appearance and his past, he's still the same Dan Heng they know.

  Trailblazer: Like always, Dan Heng. Let's make this quick.

• For as rude and distant as Herta tends to be, she acts very differently and noticeably more friendly with Ruan Mei and Screwllum, even occasionally referring to the latter as "Screwy".
• Penacony has face boards that the Trailblazer can invite their friends to pose behind for a photo. Among the people they can invite, it's notable that Kafka, Blade, and Silver Wolf are options. While it's unfortunate that they're unable to accept the Trailblazer's invitation, it's somewhat touching to think that the Trailblazer actually regards the Stellaron Hunters as friends despite being on opposing sides at the moment.
  • Even further, Kafka actually apologizes personally to the Trailblazer for not being able to accept their photo invitation and ends her apology by genuinely telling them to have as much fun as possible.
• The Trailblazer can likewise invite Dan Heng, Himeko, Welt, and March to all take a photo together at a Clock Studios Theme Park photo board. The internal dialogue specifically says it'd be rude to leave out March when inviting her after already getting the other three there, Himeko humors their request to pose for the shortest cutout that normally children would stand behind by sitting on a chair, and the Trailblazer has special dialogue for getting all four to pose by commenting how lovely this was since it's rare for them to be together like this. To cap it all off, the hidden achievement for getting all of them together for this picture is called "Family Portrait".