Hi all,
I’ll preface this by saying that there are spoilers ahead. If you haven’t did the music event in v4.6, you have been warned.
I thought something was really off with the lyrics in the song written by Dvorak in the Itto event in v4.6. The lyrics alone don’t seem to make sense, but it somehow includes a lot of animals, and somehow they match up with the list of animals mentioned in the list of treatments by the Puppy Union, left behind by Heizou. And there’s also the fact that Miko mentioned that the lyrics talked about a war, even though on the surface, there is clearly no such mention, at least directly so.
Turns out I wasn’t the only one who noticed it, at least in the Japanese sphere, cause I couldn’t find any discussions about this in English. The link I shared is someone putting all the information together to infer the whole story behind the lyrics. I’ll be basing this post on that link, and give almost all credits to them for putting that information together. I’m just bringing this info to the English-speaking community (feel free to share this on say HoYoLab).
First off, let’s look at the list of animals helped by the Puppy Union.
...Pets admitted for care today...
Weasel Thief No. 11: Dalang, 6 y/o.
...Pets admitted for care today...
Weasel Thief No. 12: Chouji, 8 y/o.
...Pets admitted for care today...
Unagi No. 8: Cocquerel, 35 y/o.
...Pets admitted for care today...
General Crab No. 3: Koharu, 25 y/o.
...Pets admitted for care today...
Bake-Danuki No. 5: Kusumi, 60 y/o.
..Pets admitted for care today...
Unagi No. 9: Dvorak, 40 y/o.
This list should immediately tick something off in everyone’s head; Dvorak’s name is right there. Some of you might remember a Chouji in one of the World Quest chain in Inazuma, the boy who wanted to take some of that tainted marrow material for sale who’s stuck in Yashiori Island, who later decided to go find their mother. It should be clear that the Puppy Union wasn’t rescuing animals, but people. Dvorak probably noticed this; he was saved by the very “Union” after all. And the chances of that being true is quite high; Dvorak himself said that he was in Inazuma during the Civil War.
More importantly, there seems to be a pattern to how people are codenamed. It seems like
- Weasel Theives are meant for “young people”
- Unagi is either “foreigner”, “Fontainian”, or “middle-aged” people
- Bake-danuki is for the “elderly”
General Crab is an odd one, but there is a Koharu right in the Yashiro Commission. Interestingly, in Japanese, the name noted in the list is simply Haru. If the goal is to hide the name sufficiently so that anyone who finds this list can’t trace it to the Yashiro Commission, then it makes sense. In any case, General Crab thus has several possibilities that aren’t necessarily close in meaning: young women, or someone related to the Bakufu.
Now, by near the end of the event, Kokomi made it clear that the Puppy Union was intentionally secretive, even if that’s not their goal. It should be safe to assume that the people that were helped were told not to mention that they were helped publicly, lest it becomes something that gets ahold of the Bakufu’s attention, which would unravel the cooperation between the Yashiro Commission and Sangonomiya.
…
Now for the lyrics.
Raven, took an arrow to the heart
And the bake-danuki, shapeshifted into dark
I, Weasel Thief, hereby bequeath all my Mora:
Two hundred goes to my pa Three hundred to dear mama
Poor little General Crab, Only a shell remains
Unagi goodbye
Now rest in peace, please don't cry
'Cause we'll get reborn as a beetle next time
Onikabuto, raise your horns
Here's to a world beyond the storm
Of rosy skies
Let’s go through by sections. It should be noted that the nuances of the lyrics do differ quite a bit between languages, which I’ll cover below.
Raven, took an arrow to the heart
We haven’t seen a “raven” in the list, but it’s safe to assume that it’s a person. In the Japanese lyrics, instead of “the heart”, the raven took an arrow to their “wing”. It’s thus best to read this as “someone was wounded”.
And the bake-danuki, shapeshifted into dark
The English lyric here is really vague, but we know it has something to do with and old person. In the Japanese lyric, it goes “the bake-danuki who turned into a torch has already disappeared”. This can either mean that the old person was seen out cold, or dead.
I, Weasel Thief, hereby bequeath all my Mora:
Two hundred goes to my pa Three hundred to dear mama
We’ll do these two lines together cause they’re related. A young person “bequeaths” their wealth to their parents. This sounds like a child has passed away before their parents.
Poor little General Crab, Only a shell remains
The English lyric here is quite depressing — possibly hinting at more death. In the Japanese lyric, the “General Crab” lost both their legs.
Unagi goodbye
Now rest in peace, please don't cry
These two lines are presented quite differently in Japanese. In English, it seems like Dvorak saw either another Fontainian or foreigner die in front of them. In the Japanese lyric, Dvorak seems to have seen another Fontainian/foreigner suffering while unconscious, sleeping in a dilapidated house.
Onikabuto, raise your horns
Here's to a world beyond the storm
Of rosy skies
No reincarnation in the English lyrics, which is kind of disappointing (like, why did the title have reincarnation in it then?). Storm here being conflict and war. In Japanese, the “storm” is instead “tainted world”. The “raise your horns” here is likely a call to action. In Japanese, it’s literally translated as “with your horns, we shall make bloom”. In both cases, they probably imply the wish to flip the world upside down, just like how an onikabuto beetle would in a fight. This means that in both the languages, it seems to convey a wish to strive for a world without conflict and war.
The rock genre is usually associated with a spirit of rebelliousness, usually towards a society that isn’t working in someone’s favour, be it that the person wants something good or bad. In Dvorak’s case, at least according to the lyrics, he seems to be seeking peace. Also, Dvorak continued to host the event despite not being able to secure the funding he wished for. This entire event is quite possibly his attempt at presenting his thanks to the people who saved him in the Puppy Union.
On another note, several people have most probably realized Dvorak’s intentions. We already know Kokomi is probably aware of it, and so does Miko. One that’s quite a bit less obvious is Thoma, and it’s quite easily missed unless you revisit his voice lines; he suggested to the Traveller that the story of the heroic dog is a story weaved by Dvorak to convey a message. Given how close he is to the Kamisato siblings, it shouldn’t be surprising if he knew of the Puppy Union.
And there we go, that is what some people think is the hidden message behind the whole event. It seems like HoYoverse is trying to add more background info to the Civil War in Inazuma here, possibly suggesting that we might get more such stories down the line?
Another thing I’d like to note after seeing an English playthrough of the event. The Raiden Shogun’s lines in English are… somewhat shallow, and makes it look like all she knows is to swing a sword around. In Japanese, her answer to Miko’s question is much more nuanced. “Then I (alone) shall face it head on,” is her answer in Japanese, which was then followed by Miko’s “the attendees of today’s event will surely be your ally”. The Japanese text better reflects the Shogun’s personality, who is always ready to bear all burdens alone and to the best of her abilities.
Like I mentioned, just because you dislike something, doesn’t mean it’s actually unfavourable, or that other people shouldn’t see it, and that holds true a lot of the times, unless you’ve sort of geared yourself such that what you dislike is also something unfavourable. But even so, you can’t assume that other people would be or do the same.
And yeah, they’re functionally the same, but the intent is different. The point here is that votes have intentions behind it, and what we’re telling you is that it shouldn’t be a self-centric intent.
For your last question, I actually don’t really have a good answer for you. I’ve seen many people react in similarly clueless ways in order to rile others up. I’ve also seen too many who can’t look at things pass their own lenses, can’t properly put themselves in someone else’s shoes (despite claiming they do, but what actually happens is that they’ve set up a convenient strawman of the person and put themselves in that instead), and can’t think for the sake of others, and how this shows through how they use social platforms. So I guess I’m being wary.