In the real world, on Station 13(China forum).
Due to the different time flow between the anime world and the Stars world, even though Tendo had just left the City of Steam, the second season of Prequel of the Stars: Glimmer had already ended three months ago in the real world.
Following the end of Season 2, the passion of the dimension fans did not subside. Instead, it erupted like fireworks, setting the forums ablaze.
The homepage of the Stars anime forum was dominated by two trending posts:
One was [Power Rankings: Who is Number One Below Tendo?]
The other was [CP Rankings: Are You Shipping the Right Couple Today?]
The former had a blazing 'hot' tag and a 'New Posts 99+' indicator next to its title, while the latter was marked with a red warning: 'Admin has muted 100 users.' They were two battlefields with wildly different styles.
The Power Rankings was a fierce arena of hard data comparison, while the CP Rankings was a massive emotional battleground.
The Power Rankings was divided into three sections: 'Solar,' 'Lunar,' and 'Starlight.' This list was created by a veteran Stars fan based on all the characters who had appeared in the show.
The 'Solar Rank' included the Catastrophe-level powerhouses who could destroy the world with a flick of their hand.
The 'Lunar Rank' featured the core combatants of the various factions.
The 'Starlight Rank,' however, was a special 'Growth Record Thread' exclusively for the Children of the Stars, listing only those who had appeared and had a name.
The sheer volume of discussion in the 'Power Rankings' thread—a full ninety percent of its heat—came from the 'Starlight Rank.' Not only did it gather the most popular characters in all of Stars, but the rankings themselves were highly debatable.
Current Starlight Rank (Debatable)
NO.1 Tendo Simei—[Argument: Consensus among fans and official sources. Undisputed.]NO.2 Chen Xing—[Argument: Brutally defeated the main protagonist group and single-handedly resisted three Branch Captain-level opponents.]NO.3 Jing Liuli—[Argument: Tendo personally certified her as 'super-talented, just doesn't like to train.']NO.4 Caroline—[Argument: Officially confirmed in Season 1 as 'intentionally hiding her power.']
Objectively, the current ranking was fairly logical and neutral. However, this was from a neutral standpoint. From the perspective of each character's fans, the list was clearly rife with 'personal bias.'
A glance at the comment sections below these rankings revealed the 'bloody storms' that had transpired. Every time the page refreshed, a new flame war thread popped up. Emojis and frame-by-frame analysis GIFs flew faster than the anime's live comments.
Caroline's fan club, the Lolin Knights, were the first to launch their offensive.
"Look at the Deep Blue City Arc in Season 1! Tendo himself admitted Caroline was 'just trying not to be too high-profile' and deliberately concealed her strength!"
"It's been years now. With her intelligence and talent, she must have left everyone else miles behind! Why is she only ranked fourth?"
This was immediately followed by hundreds of '+1's and cool, cat-eared Caroline emojis.
However, the usually peace-loving Liuli fan club took issue with this statement.
"No, stop the boasting! Liuli-chan's talent score is maxed out, okay?"
"Tendo said she 'just hasn't trained seriously.' If she got serious, she definitely couldn't beat Tendo, but being the best under him is absolutely no problem!"
"Didn't you see her skillfully using the Illusory Dream Pillow, a high-level Star Artifact, at the end of Season 1? Why is her current self only ranked third? Move Chen Xing down!"
Attached was the famous screenshot of Jing Liuli pouting while hugging her prized pillow. The comment section was instantly flooded with 'cute.'
Seeing that Caroline and Jing Liuli's fans were trying to stage a coup, Chen Xing's fans immediately chose to fight back head-on!
In terms of CP popularity, the 'Tendo-Xing' ship was indeed being crushed by the 'Tendo-Caroline' ship. But in terms of power and combat record?
Sorry, girls, you need more practice!
A link to a video titled [Combat Record Speaks! Chen Xing's Season 2 Highlight Reel] was massively upvoted and pinned by Chen Xing's fans to the top of the power discussion thread.
The video showed Chen Xing forcing Chen Kong and Vivian back with a single sword strike, followed by the cool shot of her facing the combined attack of three Branch Captains with nothing more than her clothes fluttering.
The comments were uniformly: 'Sister Chen Xing is so cool,' and 'This is the true number one below Tendo.'
With clear combat records in hand, Chen Xing's fans were brimming with confidence.
"In Season 2, Xingxing first crushed the protagonist group, then withstood a siege by Captain-level opponents. Which of these fights wasn't earned by Xingxing with real combat?"
"Do certain characters' 'hidden strength' have screenshots? GIFs? Proof?"
Faced with the '6-0' combat record presented by Chen Xing's fans, Caroline's fans could only desperately throw out Stars's lore.
"Look closely, the production team's setting states that Meow Meow is the Stars's intelligence ceiling! Her training speed grows exponentially!"
At the same time, Liuli's fans, unwilling to tolerate the arrogance of the Chen Xing group, threw out their own evidence.
"Don't you understand that Talent > Effort? Liuli-chan can effortlessly beat most people with casual training!"
They were getting angry; someone was getting angry!
Faced with the frenzied counterattacks from Caroline's and Liuli's fans, Chen Xing's fans remained silent, merely throwing out [Combat Record Screenshots].
However, just as the three fan bases were locked in fierce arguments, a post with a pink title quietly climbed the forum's hot search: [#Chen XingAndTendoStandingSideBySideIsTooGood#].
Clicking into it revealed nothing but screenshots of the two fighting back-to-back in Season 2 and the almost 'lovestruck' gaze of a certain red-eyed woman.
Some sharp-eyed bystanders realized that Chen Xing's fans weren't playing fair! They were furiously leading the charge in both the Power and CP threads, while elsewhere, they were relentlessly promoting the 'Tendo-Xing' CP to bystanders, completely ignoring what happened in Season 1.
The logic was, don't ask; if you do, the prequel isn't the main story. Season 2 is the true Stars story, therefore Chen Xing is the 'Official Ship.'
A set of sophistical inequalities instantly confused passersby who hadn't watched Season 1. Many truly began to believe that Chen Xing was Tendo's official CP.
As the saying goes, like idol, like fan.
In Season 2, Chen Xing nearly stole a massive 'victory' by quietly 'infiltrating the home base.' Now, her fans have perfectly inherited their idol's mantle. On the surface, they were arguing with the 'Tendo-Caroline' group on the Power Rankings, but in reality, they were covering up their efforts to secretly undermine the 'Tendo-Caroline' ship and gain more bystander support.
They had perfectly executed the strategy of 'openly repairing the plank road while secretly crossing the old ford.'
However, a portion of Caroline's fans quickly caught on. Power levels were meaningless; the position of the 'Official Ship' was what truly mattered!
But just as they were about to switch to the new battlefield to explain the events of Stars Season 1 to the bystanders, the entire forum suddenly seemed to have hit a switch.
A bright red pinned announcement popped up, dominating the entire homepage with a 'BLAZING' tag.
["Innate Strength 2," Tendo's Exclusive Special Episode Set to Air! Premiering This Saturday at 8 PM!]
Seeing this post, the arguing fans instantly suffered collective amnesia.
Caroline's fans' 'hidden strength' proof post stalled on the edit page.
Liuli's fans' 'talent theory' thread suddenly went off-topic halfway through.
Chen Xing's fans' 'combat record' screenshots hadn't even been sent before the comment section was swallowed by the new message.
"!!! A Tendo special episode? Is this the power-up patch I think it is?"
"The Season 1 special episode led directly to Tendo's perfect Star Source awakening. Is this one going to give his Star Core a second awakening?"
"Production Team: Power level imbalance? Nonsense. We'll just make Tendo stronger (physically)!"
The smoke of war on the Station 13(China forum)(China forum) forum suddenly shifted. Everyone held their devices, staring at the countdown. Even the previously muted CP fans quietly unmuted and began commenting.
"Watch the special episode first! We'll argue about who's number one under Tendo after!"
In this atmosphere, the posts in the forum were no longer mutually hostile but filled with amicable comments like 'squatting for 8 PM' and 'pulling up a stool.'
Three days later, on Saturday, in the real world's Station 13(China forum).
The Tendo exclusive special episode titled "Innate Strength 2" officially began airing!
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