**NOTES & CORRECTIONS** - Today I learned that I've been reading "Herodotus" as "Heterodotus" for well over a decade and never questioned it. Dyslexia is a bitch sometimes. XD - A lore buddy of mine (House) pointed out this morning that, in Hebrew, the realm of the dead is called the Sheol, and one of the possible etymological roots for Sheol is "Hollow." Which... is probably why Hollow Zero is called LIMBO. Realm of the dead... Hollow...
I remember seeing Sheol in the depictions of the Hebrew Cosmography, which I looked up because of you because it illustrates the firmament over a flat earth (I still think Teyvat is flat)
@@haamta same! But I hope your squirrel analogy end there. And you store them not because of anticipation of a long winter of no new videos.... If that happen I would go "nuts".
The Hollows make the world of ZZZ one of my favorite post-apocalyptic settings in media, because it's incredibly real. You have these timeless voids popping up everywhere, but instead of the world devolving into lawless chaos like in so many other stories, civilization just carries on. People fight the Hollows, people profit off them, but most people just ignore the problem. I can genuinely imagine myself living in this world, for better or worse. "Shit, a companion Hollow swallowed up I-45. That's an extra hour on my commute."
I feel incredibly concerned for zzz’s future plot knowing that multiple sun gods are being swallowed up by pitch black labyrinth orbs and our main characters are on track to lose control of four rogue AIs, subsequently crashing the chariot (pillar system) that is humanity’s only solid defense against the Hollows before they die
"Now, there is a variation where Zeus is the Cretan Bull (...)"- I don't know which I find more amusing, this information in itself or the fact that I'm not surprised by it.
I don’t think the Dark Wall necessarily surrounds the Eridu region completely. Ballet Twins Road has a river with freighter ships moving through, implying sea trade is possible and that there are still other bastions of civilization out there somehow. And Billy was originally from a band of wasteland drifters foreign even to the Outer Ring.
I mean I think it depends on the size of the reigeon we're talking about. I have a feeling that the livable reigon is quite large and encompasses multiple cities (hence the "outer ring" we hear about, and thus sea trade would be feasable
SO happy you covered Nineveh! As an Assyrian, I can’t tell you how excited I was to see that in the game. I love that my culture is part of Hoyo lore 🥰
@@tacemiko3849 I’m in awe of how detailed the lores in each of Hoyo’s games are. For now I can only dream about writing something like that. Just how knowledgeable and creative you have to be?…
props to you for making a connection to inter-knot and the legend of an animal demi-human without making the glaringly obvious knotting joke you are our light in this dying world
HELL YEAH MORE LOOOOOOOOORE. I think Hollow Zero is gonna be a large part of the main story, especially since the premonition the chosen proxy got happened there, just right before Hollow Zero started expanding
In addition to this whole thing with labyrinths and the minotaur, you can also remember how that monster was called at the end of the Belobog story. And this was a “Sacrifice” similar to those sacrifices who were sent into the Minotaur’s labyrinth to feed them to him.
I have a theory that the Mysterious Ballet Ethereals inside the Ballet twins building might be Sacrifices too. It's pretty obvious they're the Titular Ballet twins who went missing but they just look strange, maybe it's cause they like the Sacrifice trapped inside the Monument have Masks that hide their Core but as a whole those ethereals are strange
The Greek myth inspiration was already pretty obvious with "Helios," "Sons of Kalydon," "Phaethon" etc., but I feel like a total idiot for somehow missing *the actual Labyrinth,* maybe the most obvious and important piece of the Greek myth puzzle here lol. Great analysis, I don't vibe with the game much sadly but I hope to see more ZZZ lore.
I think your wrong on that last idea the Proxy Sibs are Ariadne. Considering that they were taught at the Helios academy, Wouldn't that, In a sense, Make them the children of Helios? But if they're Pasiphae, Then who are their children? Well, In the ongoing "Golden Bangboo" event, It's shown that Bangboo consider their owners, Their "Parents". So, A Bangboo, That's owned by Wise/Belle, Who acts as a guide for those within a labyrinth? Ariadne isn't the Proxy sibs, It's Eous. This doesn't really prove anything, Nor is it (As far as I know) really important. But after seeing him in the Golden Bangboo event, I want that smol boi to be given the credit he deserves.
From your description the Shiyu Pillars remind me of Teyvats Leylines and how they interact with the stars. We know all of hoyos games are connected, so im very excited to see how ZZZ relates to the other games in the future, especially with the Kiana and Elysia expys in the lore teaser.
actually i think the devs said zzz is the only one of their games not connected to the honkai-imaginary tree universe BUT i could be wrong, take that with a grain of salt
I was watching your video about chapter 1 and.... I can't stop thinking about that strange phrase: *"In the end- It's all come down to this... Rewind "* And I don't have the knowledge to answer the following question: *Rewind* the WHAT? I feel that there is something related to that particular word but, I can't think what. ...Wait. During that cinematic it's Wise (Unless I'm mistaken) who says this to his sister, did Professor Archie leave somekind of “last resort”? If so, are the siblings ever going to find out? Or they still hiding things? If is the 2nd case, is caused by fairy. Basically because the other sibling (the one you don't play), suspect about her all the time. Anyways, have a nice weekend. I like your content.
1:25 just a heads up,but I think we get a tape thing from the Sim uni mode of this game which has the voice of younger version of joyous where he's happy being a college professor .
This is slightly off topic but fuckkk I love ZZZ lore's so much rn (my current hyperfixation fr) Storywise, this game hasn't done the most amazing story telling considering this game just started but hollows as a concept has such amazing story telling potential. Spoiler for Rina's story: The story of granny leisha is incredibly tragic and is WAY too good for a side story. It really showcases how terrifying hollows really are from the perspective of the everyday people instead of our agents. It also uses the HDD as a story telling medium so well. It really puts you in her shoes and it's so damn interesting, and this story is prove there's more to tell about the ZZZ universe and how powerful the hollows can be as a story telling device
I would LOVE for you ti talk about the Hollow Expansion on the moon and probably other planets!!! Either as theories or just speculation/educated guesses.
PLEASE keep doing videos on Zzz lore, pretty pretty please!!! This game is soooooo good lorewise, my mind is full of connections and assumptions, and your videos always clear it all for me, you're amazing!! ❤️
I love your Genshin videos so much, they are my favorite things to watch on youtube! And now your ZZZ videos are getting me even more excited for the game. I am too dumb to figure any of this lore stuff out so I am thankful I get to watch videos like yours, thank you! 😄
6:52 So I was thinking about this recently and I think that the Dark Wall is quite literally a single wall rather than walls that are surrounding the Eridu (i.e both New and Old) areas. I say this mainly because if they did surround New Eridu and the other areas, we would've been able to see said "Dark Wall" from the vicinity of New Eridu. Okay, but what if the Dark Wall is far, but not too far where we still can't see it? Then, we need to know how exactly tall this "wall" is. Because if the Dark Wall isn't exactly tall enough, not only would it not be viewable from every single angle of Eridu areas, but then it isn't that much of a threat. However, as we've seen in the Lore trailer, the Dark Wall is clearly shown to be very tall, taller than all of the buildings shown in the scene with it. And if it can be pushed back 37km (which btw is also 22.9907 miles or roughly 23 miles), then it can still be considered a threat, yet one that is still manageable. And considering how tall the Dark Wall was shown in comparison to Vike, Dan, and the Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe leader, that means that at the very least it should be the size or at the very least half the size of Hollow Zero. And that means that if it was surrounding or even encircling the Eridu areas as well as the outer areas, than we would've seen it because it would be, as I said, extremely large. However, we don't. Which means that the Dark Wall must only be appearing on one side of the Eridu areas and it might even be in the direction of that outer area that Perlman escaped with the airship. My point is that I don't think that the Dark Wall is around New Eridu or any of the other Eridu areas, but rather near one of the areas. So, rather than encompassing the Eridu areas, it's on one singular side. After all, if the Dark Wall was around the Eridu areas and unless this is some sort of Great Wall of China situation, then you wouldn't call it a Dark Wall, but Dark Walls.
It’s actually fitting that you linked all those Greek Myths to ZZZ, because at the start of chapter 2, Ben blatantly references the punishment of Sisyphus. Don’t know what else to add there, I just thought it was fitting and it does add a lot of wight to the Hollows as Labyrinth idea.
-11:53 Kylie refers to the Papago Hollow as the "Divine Maze" during the introduction to the endless tower in 1.3 so yep it seems like that one checks as well
Just like genshin i love zzz lore.. these types of connection to the real world makes me want for more and keeps me hype on these games.. and thanks ashikai for researching all of this info.. explaining and connecting things clearly i appreciate it.
Here's a fun little addendum to your theory. Though it clashes a bit with Fairy being one of the horses. Reins aren't just what connects the rider to the horse, they're also the means of controlling the horse. At the beginning of the story, the twins lost control of the HDD when the hacker locked them out, and they had to sacrifice their interknot account to get control back. In other words, "Phaethon" is already dead as a result of losing control of the horses. Even better, in doing so, Phaethon fell from a great height in their death! Down from the heights of being a famous "Legendary Proxy" all the way down to being an unknown "Rookie Proxy".
1:30 Spoiler for the Infinite Abyss commission At the end of the 99 levels, you can find a tombstone that has inscriptions that date back "several centuries". It somewhat implies that the hollows have existed for centuries
I also felt the same way especially when Hollow Zero is where Professor Arche vanished into and we also see Hollow Zero swallowing up the MCs. I also feel like these story updates aren't coming out soon enough. Miyabi not being able to even scratch Nineveh despite being a Void Hunter does not give me hope lol. ALSO, REACH ACCOUNT LEVEL 45 SOON, ASH! YOU GET TO FIGHT NINEVEH SOONER THAN YOU THINK!
Great video, as always! While I also did initially thought Eous was named after Helios' sister Eos, I'm now leaning towards it being named after one of Helios' horses, Eous (whose name seems to be more consistently spelled with the "u" vs the goddess Eos). As for the name of the other three horses, according to Ovid, they were Pyrois, Aethon, and Phlegon, so I wonder if other bangboos will show up with those names. I feel that makes more sense in the metaphor, since you could interpret Phaeton is "driving" Eous (considering they take control of it) inside the hollow.
After seen constant betrayal and framing other throughout this season 1, i get the feel this White Institute isn't the og creator of everything, but instead Helios Academy. I wonder that the reason why Helios got attacked and getting framed.
This video got me thinking that if ashikai theory about the shiyu pilar being the chariot is correct. Then wasn't that mean the moments we collect all 4 AI, we will lost the shiyu pillar? So the vision that we saw while first time connecting to fairy at the start about hollow zero explode is when we collect all 4 AI? If that the case then what was the plan that the 4 AI have when they said that they will build the new eridu? Are they trying to tamper with the shiyu pillar similer to how the abyss order do to ley line in Genshin? Great... I was about to sleep and now I have more questions than answer😅
ily, keep cooking lore. Edit for a note: It occurs to me that Eous being Eos may correlate on the origins for Bangbos. Eos is also dawn personified in that it heralds Helios, the sun, coming. If Sunbringer invented Bangboos, she has part of this representation both because she eradicated that one sky hollow, thus probably allowing the sun to be seen, and because iirc the invented Bangboos, which as far as we know are the only way to use the H.D.D system. Perhaps they were developped together, as the vol. 3 for New Eridu Settlers Guide mentions that Bangboo were created to help with evacuation in Hollow disasters and receive evacuation data from a public network. Arche being the one that discovered the characteristics of Hollow seems to track well with the fact he may have developed the way to sync with them, allowing better recollection of data since he wouldn't directly to walk into the hollows to see them. Sadly this sort of contradicts a bit of Arche walking into Zero
I’m sure you get this a lot but, this is such a well put together video. I can feel the size of my cranium expand as I listen to your words. Can’t wait for more!!
hot damn, this video is structured nicely, I usually don't mind ramblings when it comes to lore vids and speculations but damn, made me wish more were paced this way, definitely gunna stick around for the Zenless content, keep it up!
And here I was thinking that the term “Inter-Knot” was a cheeky harmless play on the word “Internet”. You know… like us scrolling the Inter-Knot posts for information and commissions. Sigh, nothing worse than realizing your mind is simple and unsuited to making big lore connections 😅
Really liked both this and the recap video. Zenless stories are shorter than the ones from Star Rail and Genshin, I wanted to follow them for once but I still missed some stuff here and there. I like putting your videos in the background as podcast while I am drawing, it's very chill and relaxing, hope to hear you talk about ZZZ in the future too
Finally, a person who knows how to pronounce "Shiyu Pillars". I really like the chariot Shiyu theory, it seems much more fitting than the HDD. Also, a small prediction: we will be getting new Hollow Zero regions fairly regularly - one for each major boss (so presumably one per story chapter), and then similar to Nineveh, some sort of a special region with a special boss once in a while alongside important story developments related to Hollow Zero, which likely won't happen until 2.0. The first major missions related to Hollow Zero will likely end with some major story and discovery around 1.3-1.5 (or maybe 2.0) in the form of a whole chapter or an interlude, afterwards unlocking the Section 6 characters' Missions and consequently Trust. Note: I place Section 6 no earlier than 1.3-1.5 because I expect the whole Perlman and Outer Ring situation to end before that, and 1.2 will likely be the Sons of Calydon patch, then we can only guess whether they release something brand new after that and before Section 6.
I have some gripes with the in-game pacing of the story, but I love the game so much that I'd really like to enjoy it as part of the experience. Your vids really help close that gap!
The second you started putting the parallels to greek mythology my brain started to getting cooked.. i was definitely mind blown until the end of the credits.. good job on the video! 🤯
GURL, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR MONTHS FOR "BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FONTAINE". I LITERALLY SKIPPED SOME QUESTS BECAUSE I WAS DEPENDANT ON YOU TO EXPLAIN. PLEASEEE 😭😭😭
I really think the memory that the Mc got when download fairy is going come true either the 4AI betray them somehow to create “new eridue” the story really if the Mc died and gets power somehow or that’s How our master or the professor comes to save us
My burning question is that why a video store? That has to mean something especially that they chose CRTs as the main navigation interface of the game.
i am so glad you like zzz i was scared that you wouldn't vibe with it like hsr but i've always loved your vids back when you started genshin content i just grew tired of genshins grindyness and im glad that there is more and more content from you that doesnt make me wanna get back into genshin
Thanks! You have a verybeautiful voice color. I understood like 20% ofthe text due my lack of knowledge of english but, here I go for a second listening. Thanks!
I can't tell if I love or hate the prospect of the main characters being destined to be responsible for the collapse of the Sheyu system that's literally keeping everyone even remotely safe from the Hollows, likely leading to a massive change in the status quo Story-wise I love the idea of something that big shaking things up, but we know that there will always need to be ways farm the many many resources for characters, plus the Sheyu system is used to explain the existence of quite a few challenges that they wouldn't be able to get rid of. So either the ominous story of Phaethon will have some way of avoiding having much impact (maybe time travel/seeing the future will be involved? Still suspicious of that vision when we connect with Fairy) or they'll try to make it seem like the status quo has been shaken only to keep as much as possible the same, which will severely undermine the weight of what they're trying to tell us is happening
**NOTES & CORRECTIONS**
- Today I learned that I've been reading "Herodotus" as "Heterodotus" for well over a decade and never questioned it. Dyslexia is a bitch sometimes. XD
- A lore buddy of mine (House) pointed out this morning that, in Hebrew, the realm of the dead is called the Sheol, and one of the possible etymological roots for Sheol is "Hollow."
Which... is probably why Hollow Zero is called LIMBO. Realm of the dead... Hollow...
Sheol? I heard that name in the Blazblue series before, but I didn't think it was named after the realm of the dead.
Pretty clever right? ;>
My GOAT Ashikai!!!!!🐐🐐🐐🐐
I remember seeing Sheol in the depictions of the Hebrew Cosmography, which I looked up because of you because it illustrates the firmament over a flat earth (I still think Teyvat is flat)
Still waiting for your next ZZZ video before 1.1 drops u wu
Now we wait to see how Ashikai manages to connect all of this back to King Deshret
XDD
🤣 we luv her for it tho, one day itll all make sense
LMAO, honestly I’d loooove to see that!! I’m a huuuuge Sumeru desert lover, I’ll take anything about the desert
i LOLd so loud xD
They both represent the sun so we already have some sort of connection here 🤣
i love storing up ashikai's videos like a little lore-obsessed squirrel and then binging them when im free
real
Me too
@@haamta same! But I hope your squirrel analogy end there.
And you store them not because of anticipation of a long winter of no new videos.... If that happen I would go "nuts".
@@SupportPikminXOXO hehe, I see what you did there xD
I think we can interpret their winter as their free time tho, so we're good
@@fardareismai4495 True true... even if i am sad there is no content :> i cant be selfish. she needs that much deserve down time.
*Ashikai drops a video about ZZZ*
Me: *Drops Anby's burger, gets a bucket of popcorn*
No, not the burgir 😢
ain't no way bro just dropped Anby's burger.. ain't no way..
you could've atleast give the burger to Anby instead
The Hollows make the world of ZZZ one of my favorite post-apocalyptic settings in media, because it's incredibly real. You have these timeless voids popping up everywhere, but instead of the world devolving into lawless chaos like in so many other stories, civilization just carries on. People fight the Hollows, people profit off them, but most people just ignore the problem. I can genuinely imagine myself living in this world, for better or worse. "Shit, a companion Hollow swallowed up I-45. That's an extra hour on my commute."
I feel incredibly concerned for zzz’s future plot knowing that multiple sun gods are being swallowed up by pitch black labyrinth orbs and our main characters are on track to lose control of four rogue AIs, subsequently crashing the chariot (pillar system) that is humanity’s only solid defense against the Hollows before they die
"Now, there is a variation where Zeus is the Cretan Bull (...)"- I don't know which I find more amusing, this information in itself or the fact that I'm not surprised by it.
An animal in ancient Greece has sex with a woman? It was probably Zeus.
I don’t think the Dark Wall necessarily surrounds the Eridu region completely.
Ballet Twins Road has a river with freighter ships moving through, implying sea trade is possible and that there are still other bastions of civilization out there somehow.
And Billy was originally from a band of wasteland drifters foreign even to the Outer Ring.
I mean I think it depends on the size of the reigeon we're talking about. I have a feeling that the livable reigon is quite large and encompasses multiple cities (hence the "outer ring" we hear about, and thus sea trade would be feasable
it would be neat to see other cities like New Eridu that have managed to survive the hollow disaster
SO happy you covered Nineveh! As an Assyrian, I can’t tell you how excited I was to see that in the game. I love that my culture is part of Hoyo lore 🥰
It is _criminal_ how many people ignore the cool pre-Islamic mythology of the Middle East, it's so COOL!
Wow this game's lore is actually so deep and interesting, its actually impressive how Hoyo makes such deep and thoughtful lore in their games
@@tacemiko3849 I’m in awe of how detailed the lores in each of Hoyo’s games are.
For now I can only dream about writing something like that. Just how knowledgeable and creative you have to be?…
@@auroraskytime so true
MMMM GLUCKGLUCKGLUCK HAWKTUA
props to you for making a connection to inter-knot and the legend of an animal demi-human without making the glaringly obvious knotting joke you are our light in this dying world
HELL YEAH MORE LOOOOOOOOORE. I think Hollow Zero is gonna be a large part of the main story, especially since the premonition the chosen proxy got happened there, just right before Hollow Zero started expanding
In addition to this whole thing with labyrinths and the minotaur, you can also remember how that monster was called at the end of the Belobog story.
And this was a “Sacrifice” similar to those sacrifices who were sent into the Minotaur’s labyrinth to feed them to him.
I have a theory that the Mysterious Ballet Ethereals inside the Ballet twins building might be Sacrifices too. It's pretty obvious they're the Titular Ballet twins who went missing but they just look strange, maybe it's cause they like the Sacrifice trapped inside the Monument have Masks that hide their Core but as a whole those ethereals are strange
The Greek myth inspiration was already pretty obvious with "Helios," "Sons of Kalydon," "Phaethon" etc., but I feel like a total idiot for somehow missing *the actual Labyrinth,* maybe the most obvious and important piece of the Greek myth puzzle here lol. Great analysis, I don't vibe with the game much sadly but I hope to see more ZZZ lore.
I think your wrong on that last idea the Proxy Sibs are Ariadne. Considering that they were taught at the Helios academy, Wouldn't that, In a sense, Make them the children of Helios?
But if they're Pasiphae, Then who are their children? Well, In the ongoing "Golden Bangboo" event, It's shown that Bangboo consider their owners, Their "Parents".
So, A Bangboo, That's owned by Wise/Belle, Who acts as a guide for those within a labyrinth?
Ariadne isn't the Proxy sibs, It's Eous.
This doesn't really prove anything, Nor is it (As far as I know) really important. But after seeing him in the Golden Bangboo event, I want that smol boi to be given the credit he deserves.
From your description the Shiyu Pillars remind me of Teyvats Leylines and how they interact with the stars.
We know all of hoyos games are connected, so im very excited to see how ZZZ relates to the other games in the future, especially with the Kiana and Elysia expys in the lore teaser.
actually i think the devs said zzz is the only one of their games not connected to the honkai-imaginary tree universe BUT i could be wrong, take that with a grain of salt
Lore going hard. I love it. Thank you Ashikai for another fun video!
You're an actual legend. You help me and my circle of hoyo friends enjoy the lore and game so much more. Thanks for all your hard work!
Thank you for more ZZZ content
I was watching your video about chapter 1 and.... I can't stop thinking about that strange phrase: *"In the end- It's all come down to this... Rewind "*
And I don't have the knowledge to answer the following question: *Rewind* the WHAT?
I feel that there is something related to that particular word but, I can't think what.
...Wait. During that cinematic it's Wise (Unless I'm mistaken) who says this to his sister, did Professor Archie leave somekind of “last resort”?
If so, are the siblings ever going to find out? Or they still hiding things?
If is the 2nd case, is caused by fairy. Basically because the other sibling (the one you don't play), suspect about her all the time.
Anyways, have a nice weekend. I like your content.
1:25 just a heads up,but I think we get a tape thing from the Sim uni mode of this game which has the voice of younger version of joyous where he's happy being a college professor .
This is slightly off topic but fuckkk I love ZZZ lore's so much rn (my current hyperfixation fr)
Storywise, this game hasn't done the most amazing story telling considering this game just started but hollows as a concept has such amazing story telling potential.
Spoiler for Rina's story:
The story of granny leisha is incredibly tragic and is WAY too good for a side story. It really showcases how terrifying hollows really are from the perspective of the everyday people instead of our agents. It also uses the HDD as a story telling medium so well. It really puts you in her shoes and it's so damn interesting, and this story is prove there's more to tell about the ZZZ universe and how powerful the hollows can be as a story telling device
Fun fun fun. ZZZ theories will be fun
The Lore Archon goes to ZZZ and we love it!
You blew my mind with the meaning of inter knot
I don't know if there is a connection but in the lore teaser one of the void hunters is called Lady Sunbringer and she was the creator of Bangboo
I would LOVE for you ti talk about the Hollow Expansion on the moon and probably other planets!!!
Either as theories or just speculation/educated guesses.
After watching the ZZZ Lore Teaser a few times I've been dying to see content like this. Excellent stuff! Looking forward to more :D
this must be the earliest i been to an ashikai video
PLEASE keep doing videos on Zzz lore, pretty pretty please!!!
This game is soooooo good lorewise, my mind is full of connections and assumptions, and your videos always clear it all for me, you're amazing!! ❤️
I love your Genshin videos so much, they are my favorite things to watch on youtube! And now your ZZZ videos are getting me even more excited for the game. I am too dumb to figure any of this lore stuff out so I am thankful I get to watch videos like yours, thank you! 😄
Loving the ZZZ lore videos, the devs cooked with ZZZ and ty for making sense of it all
I'm on the edge of my seat, my hands over my mouth, eyes wide. You really cooked and made it not only digestible, but delicious
6:52 So I was thinking about this recently and I think that the Dark Wall is quite literally a single wall rather than walls that are surrounding the Eridu (i.e both New and Old) areas. I say this mainly because if they did surround New Eridu and the other areas, we would've been able to see said "Dark Wall" from the vicinity of New Eridu. Okay, but what if the Dark Wall is far, but not too far where we still can't see it? Then, we need to know how exactly tall this "wall" is. Because if the Dark Wall isn't exactly tall enough, not only would it not be viewable from every single angle of Eridu areas, but then it isn't that much of a threat. However, as we've seen in the Lore trailer, the Dark Wall is clearly shown to be very tall, taller than all of the buildings shown in the scene with it. And if it can be pushed back 37km (which btw is also 22.9907 miles or roughly 23 miles), then it can still be considered a threat, yet one that is still manageable. And considering how tall the Dark Wall was shown in comparison to Vike, Dan, and the Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe leader, that means that at the very least it should be the size or at the very least half the size of Hollow Zero. And that means that if it was surrounding or even encircling the Eridu areas as well as the outer areas, than we would've seen it because it would be, as I said, extremely large. However, we don't. Which means that the Dark Wall must only be appearing on one side of the Eridu areas and it might even be in the direction of that outer area that Perlman escaped with the airship. My point is that I don't think that the Dark Wall is around New Eridu or any of the other Eridu areas, but rather near one of the areas. So, rather than encompassing the Eridu areas, it's on one singular side. After all, if the Dark Wall was around the Eridu areas and unless this is some sort of Great Wall of China situation, then you wouldn't call it a Dark Wall, but Dark Walls.
It’s actually fitting that you linked all those Greek Myths to ZZZ, because at the start of chapter 2, Ben blatantly references the punishment of Sisyphus. Don’t know what else to add there, I just thought it was fitting and it does add a lot of wight to the Hollows as Labyrinth idea.
*pats myself on the back coz I rock*
This is the best lore video I've seen on RUclips so far.
I'm so glad you made zenless theory because I find it very interesting despite how the story was told like a slice-of-life anime
-11:53 Kylie refers to the Papago Hollow as the "Divine Maze" during the introduction to the endless tower in 1.3 so yep it seems like that one checks as well
Just like genshin i love zzz lore.. these types of connection to the real world makes me want for more and keeps me hype on these games.. and thanks ashikai for researching all of this info.. explaining and connecting things clearly i appreciate it.
What an amazing breakdown and theory craft video, amazing!
Thank you for the reminder to get a spot of tea
Here's a fun little addendum to your theory. Though it clashes a bit with Fairy being one of the horses.
Reins aren't just what connects the rider to the horse, they're also the means of controlling the horse. At the beginning of the story, the twins lost control of the HDD when the hacker locked them out, and they had to sacrifice their interknot account to get control back.
In other words, "Phaethon" is already dead as a result of losing control of the horses.
Even better, in doing so, Phaethon fell from a great height in their death! Down from the heights of being a famous "Legendary Proxy" all the way down to being an unknown "Rookie Proxy".
Man this is really well done! Keep up the good work
1:30 Spoiler for the Infinite Abyss commission
At the end of the 99 levels, you can find a tombstone that has inscriptions that date back "several centuries". It somewhat implies that the hollows have existed for centuries
I also felt the same way especially when Hollow Zero is where Professor Arche vanished into and we also see Hollow Zero swallowing up the MCs.
I also feel like these story updates aren't coming out soon enough. Miyabi not being able to even scratch Nineveh despite being a Void Hunter does not give me hope lol.
ALSO, REACH ACCOUNT LEVEL 45 SOON, ASH! YOU GET TO FIGHT NINEVEH SOONER THAN YOU THINK!
Great video, as always! While I also did initially thought Eous was named after Helios' sister Eos, I'm now leaning towards it being named after one of Helios' horses, Eous (whose name seems to be more consistently spelled with the "u" vs the goddess Eos). As for the name of the other three horses, according to Ovid, they were Pyrois, Aethon, and Phlegon, so I wonder if other bangboos will show up with those names. I feel that makes more sense in the metaphor, since you could interpret Phaeton is "driving" Eous (considering they take control of it) inside the hollow.
After seen constant betrayal and framing other throughout this season 1, i get the feel this White Institute isn't the og creator of everything, but instead Helios Academy. I wonder that the reason why Helios got attacked and getting framed.
Amazing work figuring out the origins for the Hollow names!
This video got me thinking that if ashikai theory about the shiyu pilar being the chariot is correct. Then wasn't that mean the moments we collect all 4 AI, we will lost the shiyu pillar? So the vision that we saw while first time connecting to fairy at the start about hollow zero explode is when we collect all 4 AI?
If that the case then what was the plan that the 4 AI have when they said that they will build the new eridu? Are they trying to tamper with the shiyu pillar similer to how the abyss order do to ley line in Genshin?
Great... I was about to sleep and now I have more questions than answer😅
ily, keep cooking lore. Edit for a note: It occurs to me that Eous being Eos may correlate on the origins for Bangbos. Eos is also dawn personified in that it heralds Helios, the sun, coming. If Sunbringer invented Bangboos, she has part of this representation both because she eradicated that one sky hollow, thus probably allowing the sun to be seen, and because iirc the invented Bangboos, which as far as we know are the only way to use the H.D.D system. Perhaps they were developped together, as the vol. 3 for New Eridu Settlers Guide mentions that Bangboo were created to help with evacuation in Hollow disasters and receive evacuation data from a public network.
Arche being the one that discovered the characteristics of Hollow seems to track well with the fact he may have developed the way to sync with them, allowing better recollection of data since he wouldn't directly to walk into the hollows to see them. Sadly this sort of contradicts a bit of Arche walking into Zero
I fully started to play that game because of you and couldn't be happier, love your videos
I’m sure you get this a lot but, this is such a well put together video.
I can feel the size of my cranium expand as I listen to your words. Can’t wait for more!!
hot damn, this video is structured nicely, I usually don't mind ramblings when it comes to lore vids and speculations but damn, made me wish more were paced this way, definitely gunna stick around for the Zenless content, keep it up!
There seems to be a lot more going on with ZZZ's world than meets the eye, really interesting to learn about the possible inspirations!
And here I was thinking that the term “Inter-Knot” was a cheeky harmless play on the word “Internet”. You know… like us scrolling the Inter-Knot posts for information and commissions. Sigh, nothing worse than realizing your mind is simple and unsuited to making big lore connections 😅
Your videos on ZZZ have been constantly great
Really liked both this and the recap video. Zenless stories are shorter than the ones from Star Rail and Genshin, I wanted to follow them for once but I still missed some stuff here and there. I like putting your videos in the background as podcast while I am drawing, it's very chill and relaxing, hope to hear you talk about ZZZ in the future too
Finally, a person who knows how to pronounce "Shiyu Pillars". I really like the chariot Shiyu theory, it seems much more fitting than the HDD.
Also, a small prediction: we will be getting new Hollow Zero regions fairly regularly - one for each major boss (so presumably one per story chapter), and then similar to Nineveh, some sort of a special region with a special boss once in a while alongside important story developments related to Hollow Zero, which likely won't happen until 2.0. The first major missions related to Hollow Zero will likely end with some major story and discovery around 1.3-1.5 (or maybe 2.0) in the form of a whole chapter or an interlude, afterwards unlocking the Section 6 characters' Missions and consequently Trust.
Note: I place Section 6 no earlier than 1.3-1.5 because I expect the whole Perlman and Outer Ring situation to end before that, and 1.2 will likely be the Sons of Calydon patch, then we can only guess whether they release something brand new after that and before Section 6.
THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE OH MY GODDDD u totally hit the nail on the head with 99% of this
I have some gripes with the in-game pacing of the story, but I love the game so much that I'd really like to enjoy it as part of the experience. Your vids really help close that gap!
What a nice kickoff to ZZZ theories. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Love these lore vids, especially the out of game/real life information tie in. Can't wait for more, from you and the game haha
This is great, and I’ve been looking for some good lore breakdowns! Love this!
WAKE UP Y'ALL!!!! HER GRACE GAVE US A VIDEO!!!!!! ❤❤❤❤
The lore is deeper than I expected omg
Ashikai's work is a treasure to the Hoyoverse communities. This made me even more interested in ZZZ"s lore.
The second you started putting the parallels to greek mythology my brain started to getting cooked.. i was definitely mind blown until the end of the credits.. good job on the video! 🤯
GURL, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR MONTHS FOR "BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FONTAINE". I LITERALLY SKIPPED SOME QUESTS BECAUSE I WAS DEPENDANT ON YOU TO EXPLAIN. PLEASEEE 😭😭😭
New eridu are the imaginary tree and hollow are the sea of quanta hahahha
Your videos are literally the "tv news in the morning" of my breakfast
The MatPat of Hoyo games
9:29 as a consummate House of Leaves fangirl, my preoccupation with ZZZ all of a sudden makes perfect sense lmao
Well this was a pleasant surprise right as I finish chapter 3, loving the zzz content
That would explain the TV play through, it displays us travelling through the Shiyu network with fairy
babe wake up new ashikai video just dropped!
Ashikai videos are the best can’t wait for more
You coving zzz lore? Awesome glad I can get a good run down. Also your theory slap so in excited for that.
I really think the memory that the Mc got when download fairy is going come true either the 4AI betray them somehow to create “new eridue” the story really if the Mc died and gets power somehow or that’s How our master or the professor comes to save us
Wasn't it mentioned in the lore teaser Hoshimi the voidhunter has successors? So therefore it might be possible that Miyabi is simply related?
this is great thanks, it brings slightly more meaning to all those pulls I do
"there's also a version where Zeus is the bull... but we're gonna ignore that one"
based *instant subscribe*
My burning question is that why a video store? That has to mean something especially that they chose CRTs as the main navigation interface of the game.
i am so glad you like zzz i was scared that you wouldn't vibe with it like hsr but i've always loved your vids back when you started genshin content i just grew tired of genshins grindyness and im glad that there is more and more content from you that doesnt make me wanna get back into genshin
good video keep them coming~
but helios's sister is Eos but our Bangboo Eous share the name with one of Helios's horses
3:55 “ I’m not repeating it”
Me: Deviously rewinds video😈
Great video! Very cohesive explanation and theory. 😊
Best video notification I got this morning. ✨✨✨✨
13:38 if you look at the frame of the background behind that professor here, the smoke looks like a horse
Thanks!
You have a verybeautiful voice color. I understood like 20% ofthe text due my lack of knowledge of english but, here I go for a second listening.
Thanks!
That was very interesting. Thanks for the breakdown!
Smartest Theory crafter in all of gaming prove me wrong.
A withering? Here? Impossible!
so... our twins are doomed from the start... makes that vision from fairy make alot more sence. DREAMY.
Holy crap this is amazing. Instant subscribe
I can't tell if I love or hate the prospect of the main characters being destined to be responsible for the collapse of the Sheyu system that's literally keeping everyone even remotely safe from the Hollows, likely leading to a massive change in the status quo
Story-wise I love the idea of something that big shaking things up, but we know that there will always need to be ways farm the many many resources for characters, plus the Sheyu system is used to explain the existence of quite a few challenges that they wouldn't be able to get rid of. So either the ominous story of Phaethon will have some way of avoiding having much impact (maybe time travel/seeing the future will be involved? Still suspicious of that vision when we connect with Fairy) or they'll try to make it seem like the status quo has been shaken only to keep as much as possible the same, which will severely undermine the weight of what they're trying to tell us is happening
You really cooked with this one❤️🔥
I feel like my brain expanded listening to all this lore.
8:11 OH MY GOD IT'S THE LEY LINE DISORDER ALL OVER AGAIN
Need more plsss
Zzz lore is soo interesting
this game's really surprising me everyday