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apocalypseprodromus · 5 years ago

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Barriers Between (Chapter 5)

Warning: Angst, Yandere and Long. Do you even need a warning anymore?

The sun rose above the horizon as the warriors began the long trek to Chaos’ domain. There wasn’t much tension or hesitation in the group as the majority of the trip was spent gaining momentum for the battle ahead.

Some warriors took to conversating during the trip, while others preferred to keep focused on the surrounding area. Squall was one such person, helping keep the distracted Trinitas from getting blindsided. It also helped to have a reason to stay close to her for however long they had left with each other...

“So what are you gonna do when you get back to your own world, Trin?” Tidus asked in his usual upbeat manner. This question made her anxious. The conversation about returning home finally made its way to her and she still didn’t have a good answer.

“I don’t even know if I can go back. The Astrals are probably going to prevent me from doing so. Let’s say hypothetically that they let me go back, there’s nothing for me back in Eos. Most likely the rest of the people I knew heard about the Cathedral going up in a verdant green blaze, so I don’t know how welcome I’d be with the rest of my acquaintances. I have no more family and most likely... no future there. Besides, I don’t want to go back either. I always feel like... I don’t belong.” Trinitas trailed off looking out to the desert.

Squall grimaced at the tanned blond who decided not to pry any further after that surprisingly pessimistic revelation. Cloud sighed going over to Tidus to explain what he did wrong. Before Tidus could apologize for asking, the brunette girl had already sped up ahead of the group to avoid further questions.

Squall followed, easily keeping pace with her. He placed a hand on her shoulder to halt her. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.” He murmured softly to the obviously upset Trinitas. “Yeah. Maybe... do you think Cosmos will let me go back with you to your world?” She glanced at Squall for a brief moment. He hadn’t considered that idea before, but it was worth a shot.

“I don’t know if she will. You can try asking her.” He suggested, looking back to the blond deity in front of the group as they caught up to the two. Trinitas decided to try her luck.

“Cosmos? Is it possible to be sent to someone else’s world after this is all over?” Cosmos seemed almost stunned at the audacious request. “It could disrupt the balance of the worlds. I simply couldn’t do that.” Trinitas’ eyes were beginning to darken as she scowled at Cosmos. “That’s all you high-and-mighty types ever say! So you can go ahead and steal people from their worlds for your own selfish purposes. But we're always fated to be apart by the end of this!” She screamed accusatorily, causing everyone to seize up in alarm. Her irises turned a virulent viridian, pupils receded to minuscule dots.

The Warrior of Light stood between the enraged female and the goddess, fearing for the latter’s safety. “That’s enough, you’ve heard her answer now leave her be-” “NO, DON’T YOU DARE DEFEND HER PISS POOR EXCUSES! JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS DOESN’T MEAN IT ALWAYS SHOULD BE!” The party saw her eyes glow a bright green before a cascade of cold air chilled the desert. Trinitas continued from there.

“Just because something hasn’t been done that way before doesn’t mean it shouldn’t or can’t be that way. It’s not a physical limitation of universal law. It’s not like lightspeed or the event horizon of a black hole. We are not tethered to our worlds; our presence here justifies that. Fate is not a ‘set in stone’ construct, it's made by our doings. If you were told we were doomed to fail this war time and time again, would you just accept it? I am so tired of hearing about fate from beings that just lay down and take it. Meanwhile, mortals are constantly fighting back, turning the tides and striving to alter it despite how disadvantageous, hopeless and frivolous it seems in the broader scope of an unfair existence! And you could be so much more if you didn’t make these self-imposed limitations. Why are you so scared of going against fate but not of nonexistence? It can’t be worse than what’s happened before.”

Trinitas turned back around walking ahead of the party leading the way to Chaos’ land. Her optics died down to a dull celadon.

Squall didn’t make any motion to stop her throughout the duration of her proclamation. As she passed him, she stopped and offered a sad smile. “Let’s just get this over with.” She grasped his hand and mournfully continued forward.

Cosmos was speechless. She didn’t know how to respond to that, or if she even should. It gave her something to think about.

Lava pits dotted the ground. Luckily for the group, Trinitas’ spell from earlier kept the warriors cool while traversing the unforgiving terrain.

Vaan and Tidus looked out into the lava in curiosity, catching sight of a treasure chest under an alcove hovering above a river of lava.

The two did a gil flip to choose their next course of action. Heads.

And now another flip to see which one would be retrieving the treasure. Tails. Tidus it was then.

He cursed his luck as he went off the loosely defined road behind his comrades’ backs. Tidus hung on the landbridge above the resting spot of the chest before many concerned voices called out in admonition. “THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” Trinitas yelled as Tidus smiled back confidently. “Just watch!”

Tidus dropped down to the ledge beneath and barely caught the edge. But unfortunately, the ledge wasn’t incredibly sturdy and began to give way before he could pull himself up.

“TIDUS!” Yuna cried out before trying to summon Valefor.

Springing into action, Trinitas dropped to skim above the lava catching Tidus on her shoulders and the chest by its handle. She quickly teleported back to the spot the group was waiting in.

The blond was dropped haphazardly on the ground while Trinitas set the chest down gingerly. He attempted to crawl to the chest but was stopped by Trinitas blocking his path.

“Hey, what gives? I’m the one who got the treasure!”

“No, I did. While you were plummeting to your death I might add! There’s a ramp that goes down to the platform. You didn’t have to almost die!” She reprimanded.

“We almost lost you to lava, damn it! Be careful next time!”

Tidus stared alarmed at Trinitas’ concern. “Didn’t know you cared that much.”

She considered those words carefully. “Yeah, neither did I...”

Trinitas seemed to get lost in thought for a moment before snapping back to reality as Tidus had moved to open the chest but got burned by the hot metal. She rolled her eyes and shot the lock off with her gattling saw revealing a Cockatrice Tail Feather.

“She saved your ass for a feather from an overgrown chicken that turns people to stone...” Squall deadpanned as he peered into the chest from over her shoulder.

“It looks kinda neat.” Vaan went to observe the object now in Trinitas’ hand.

Tidus threw himself back onto the ground sulking over the lackluster reward for his bravery. “Aw damn it! I thought for sure that it would be gil. Oh well.”

Bartz went to sit next to Tidus as he looked at the feather. “Might be good luck to keep it.”

“It’s not exactly light, ya know. It is made of stone after all.” Trinitas let the feather drop from her hand like a lead weight to demonstrate her point. “I mean it’s no Kingatrice Tail Feather but maybe the moogles will trade us something for it. Cockatrice Feathers do have their medicinal uses if you can unpetrify them.”

“How do you know that?” Bartz asked.

“I used to be in charge of my groups' treasure stockpile. Deciding what got sold, what we needed to keep or look for next.” The guys nodded in understanding. No matter where you’re from, someone always has to keep track of the items.

“Although it was only because I had the best memory, nothing better to do and actually used the stuff. Noctis was too careless, Prompto was too scatterbrained and squeamish, Ignis was too busy, and Gladiolus was too hot-headed when we argued, and we argued a lot. So much so that I think he sold things just to piss me off. Don’t get me wrong, he was great at finding treasure, but not at leaving it alone.”

Trinitas looked to the ground in exasperation at a certain unrelated detail. “I never did get that second Sturdy Helixhorn.”

Squall shook his head in confusion. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“The Prodromus family were made the royal artisans of Lucis at the start of the Caelum Dynasty’s reign 2,000 years ago. It’s a Lucian tradition of the current Prodromus hierarch of the time to make an object in remembrance of significant events in Lucian history. And seeing how I’m the last one, I was going to make an amulet out of Sturdy Helixhorn and a Platinum Ingot I picked up from the top of a Duscaen stone arch to mark the Siege of Insomnia. I doubt I’d even find one outside of Eos. Those things weren’t exactly easy to get the first time around... You had to break them off a Duplicorn or a Leukorn just right.”

Trinitas sighed before coming to a depressing conclusion.

“What does it matter? I’m probably not welcome back in my world anyway.”

The guys looked between themselves briefly. “We’ll help you!” Vaan exclaimed cheerfully. “I mean sure, we may not be crafters per se but we’ll help you find something even greater than a Helixhorn.”

Squall looked to Vaan in surprise. We never agreed to that. But before he could revoke Vaan’s statement, his eyes caught a glimpse of Trinitas’s slow-growing smile and his heart uncomfortably fluttered with a more agreeable disposition.

“You’d really do that for me?” Her celadon eyes held a spark of hope, causing a strong internal quiver that completely overtook his desire to speak out against the idea. What is wrong with me?

Squall thought about mentioning how much time that would probably take, how they had the upcoming battle with Chaos, how they’d have to part soon after...

But he didn’t want to. He wanted to waste time with her and get further off track, even if it was time spent with these other people he didn’t want around her.

He agrees without another hesitation. “Anything for you, Trin.” He reassured watching her beam with joy.

Squall caved in and the worst part was he knew it, accepting the task for the sake of her happiness seemed too common these days. At this point, he was hyper-aware of his inexplicable tendency to favor her, no matter what the case may be. Whatever was making him like this felt terribly inconvenient to his rationale. Anything she asks, suggests or even hints at is considered, agreed upon or carried out swiftly.

The other side effects included his berserk rage at those who would hurt her (despite the fact she’s an immortal that doesn’t feel pain in the same capacity as a normal person and he knows this), his underlying jealousness of others getting close to her (even though she spends every day with him and only him) and lastly, the near insanity he endures when she’s not with him.

This in and of itself was reason enough for him to stay by her side. His vision becomes hazy, distorted and dull. Many voices cry out her name as desperation to see her again eats away at his still conscious mind. He wonders what’ll happen when it’s time to finally part. Is he going to be okay? Was this sickness going to go away on its own or would it become apart of him?

While pondering these morbid questions, Squall aimlessly followed Trinitas’ lead back to the group that took the time to wait for them.

Traveling headlong down the path, the team searched every treasure chest along the way not finding much past gil and the occasional rare weapon.

Meanwhile, Bartz took to studying Squall’s behavior involving Trinitas. His natural intuition and the previous unease he had when he encountered him last triggered something of a curiosity in the adventurous man. It was no real secret that Squall had taken strongly to the unusual girl and was something of an undisclosed observation made by the rest of the Cosmos warriors. But for as sweet as the relationship seemed to be, all of Squall’s abnormal actions were concerning...

Most didn’t want to bring it up for fear of starting a conflict by addressing it directly, but there was absolutely no way they could ignore it either. Most took to monitoring him from afar and whether Squall knew this or not remained anyone’s guess. If he did notice he was being watched, he sure didn’t let on. Trinitas herself was unaware of her companion’s bizarre obsession with her, assuming his protectiveness stemmed from a natural desire to remain with the only person he felt connected to.

It didn’t take long for Bartz to notice the way Squall’s eyes sluggishly glanced around dazed and unfocused, lost in thought. The sharp, alert, icy glare he was used to was replaced with dim, half-lidded dark grey-blues that hid a near-lifeless quality in them.

It was unsettling that someone could come alive in the proximity of another person but just as easily decay the next moment. He may have had her by his side but whatever Squall was thinking about might as well have placed him millions of miles away.

Trinitas looked back to the other warriors following Cosmos. They trailed behind the treasure hunters who were busy scouting ahead for rare substances.

The brunette surveyed her surroundings before spotting a distant chest and running full speed, snapping the once-dazed boy out of his trace as he attempted to keep pace with her. “Maybe some warning before you take off like that.” Squall scolded the excited female.

“Didn’t know you were following me!” She cheerfully shouted behind her while advancing towards the chest in the distance.

The rest of them chatted amongst themselves, remarking on Squall’s strange choice to keep close to her when they were once certain he wanted to be alone.

“Sometimes it takes a person much different than yourself to change your priorities,” Cosmos added as she witnessed the pair taking a black orb out of the chest. “Perhaps Squall realized how much he appreciates Trinitas’ company. Or maybe... he realized he didn’t truly want to be alone in the first place but found no better alternative to the problem. Someone finally won his heart and now he dreads the moment he has to let go.”

“Does it really have to be that way? They work together well enough. What if-” Vaan tried reasoning with Cosmos only to be cut off by her.

“Squall’s world is caught in the middle of an ongoing loop of stable events. Everything is already set to happen in a specific manner. Trinitas was a last-minute addition to a prophecy she actively attempted to dismantle. The ones who gave her the abilities she has cannot kill her and so they did the only thing they could do... displace her. Exile her long enough to follow through with the prophecy until the point of no return has been reached. Unfortunately for them, Trinitas will be returning to her native universe after this conflict has been won.”

The warriors responded with rising concern, “So, what Trinitas said was right then, is that it? They’re just... fated to be apart because it was planned that way?” Lightning scoffed in disdain. She never did take to the idea of fate.

“What a waste of a good dynamic...” Tidus sighed walking around with his hands behind his head.

Vaan’s pout turned more serious as he thought about the two. “So what if things are supposed to go a certain way? What if the future they have together is better than what fate has to offer? You shouldn’t tear them apart solely based on ‘it’s what fate wants’. And what if the gods back home don’t take her back, huh? What'll happen to her then?” he chided disapprovingly.

“I have no control over what happens to her after that.” The deity admitted obstinately.

Laguna squinted his eyes in suspicion, “So at the moment, you do... Is that correct? If so, what do you gain keeping the two apart? It’s not like it affects you and this world after we leave, right?” He grinned, hoping his journalist skills would work on her.

Cosmos thought carefully about how she was going to answer that. “It isn’t about keeping the two apart for reasons of my own. Trinitas is capable of destroying the stable time loop that has been set, effectively rewriting Squall’s predestined path and the fate of his world entirely. Although... I’m afraid by letting them get attached, it might’ve already begun.”

They looked around at each other in worry. No one liked where this was going.

“How so...?” Tifa asked warily, sure that she and every other person present knew the answer.

Cosmos breathed in deep, preparing her explanation. “You’re all aware by now that Squall has a favorable disposition towards Trinitas, but it goes even deeper than that. It borders on complete addiction with its own set of mental, emotional and physical symptoms that can’t so easily be ignored.” Cosmos motioned to the brunette as he talked with Trinitas about her plans for the orb.

They noticed how his eyes were more attentive now than they had been minutes before. How vibrant and bright blue they became.

The moment she turned away the dreariness in them returned. The change was so quick, it was no wonder Trinitas never caught on. You’d have to know what to look for.

Hours passed and the group found more materials to work with. Adamantite ore, a trapezohedron, and a crystal shard.

After assessing the hardness of the orb was sufficient enough for her plans, Trinitas got to work on refining the adamantite with the heat of a nearby lava flow. The metal would be used to form spikes that would lace around and chain the dark matter sphere. An enchanted moving handle that would move freely about the chain would probably be added later, depending on how inconvenient it would be to swing with just the chain.

Her plan now was to make an artifact weapon for herself instead and save the platinum ingot for another project.

While the ore was heating up she transmuted the trapezohedron, cockatrice feather, and crystal shard into the dark matter to further increase the magic inside it and add the chance to petrify the opponent on contact.

“How is it you know so much about smithing?” Terra watched in awe of the esoteric techniques Trinitas used in crafting the ball of darkness into one reminiscent of her crystal heart’s own monochromatic color scheme.

Trinitas shrugged, checking the adamantite. “It’s more about knowing what you want from an object. Changing its shape and structure while trying to gather details about its potential.” She telekinetically skimmed the impurities that rose to the top of the liquid metal.

“I’m just making this thing as I go. Sure, I have an idea of what I want to make of it, but I need to see the number of obstacles I have to go through to make it a reality. I guess that’s kinda like life for ya. Shaping the world blindly as you go...”

Once the metal was malleable enough she moved it in strands around the dark matter. Webs of adamantite showed the brilliance of the center while she shaped her family’s insignia on one side. The spikes held holes with razor-sharp edges that threatened to slice pieces off if those barbs were ever to implant themselves into something. Links of adamantite chained together to form a makeshift handle to swing with. In order to cool the newly formed finish, Trinitas brought out her ice-based weapon Liquid Nitrogun to finish the job.

After a quick spray with the gunblade, it was time to test its durability and functionality and for that, she needed a target...

But she could think of no target better than Chaos himself.

Throughout the day they faced the many familiar adversaries Chaos had gathered, and although they all were felled on the field of battle Trinitas never moved to raise her newest weapon against them despite how tempted she had gotten at some points.

A long trek through the Land of Discord finally brought them to their last hurdle...

The group made it to the Edge of Madness as dusk slowly crept overhead. The sun now a dying ember of orange setting below the horizon. Finality had set the tone no one was willing or wanted to address.

“Are we all set?” Lightning assessed the condition of her own equipment as she asked.

Many of the warriors looked to each other in agreement before sparing a look at the two brunettes they were the most concerned about.

Squall caught their gazes soon followed by Trinitas.

She didn’t know why but she felt they all had the same thing on their minds, she just wasn’t sure what.

“I’m... I’m fine. Let’s just focus on getting all of you back home.” Trinitas smiled glumly.

Squall didn’t want to show his worry. So he opted to calmly shut his eyes instead, leaving his expression neutral... unreadable. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

They walked through the gateway to Chaos’ domain fearlessly, but there was no fooling the rest of Cosmos’ warriors...

Trinitas and Squall were terrified of what the future held.

On the other side was a long staircase leading up to a circular platform holding Chaos’ throne. The deity sat patiently upon it, not looking displeased in the slightest as the warriors confronted him.

“You’ve defeated my chosen warriors and now you’ve come for me...” Chaos rose from his throne, “Tell me, what exactly do you think you’re going to accomplish by killing me?”

Half of the warriors paused at those quizzical words, others held their stance.

“What is even the point of fighting to end what can’t be ended? A vicious cycle. Even if you manage to win, what makes you think this conflict won’t restart itself?” he argued his point, possibly to goad them onward.

Trinitas sneered with distaste. “Is that resignation I hear? From great Chaos himself? What’s wrong with these entities? Why is it that whenever you or Cosmos open your mouths it’s always something about ‘the futility of fighting your fate’ or something like that?” she taunted.

Chaos’ eyes squinted at the small woman’s mocking tone. “Why do you choose to fight the unwinnable odds, abomination?”

Trinitas scowled, “Why not? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can’t get anywhere if you don’t at least try something different. Even if everything resets, we’ll be ready to try a new approach. I’m not going to use excuses to give up what we’re fighting for.”

Trinitas’ determined glare became fiercer when she began materializing the spiked sphere of adamantite, hovering it over herself.

Chaos grinned at the intimidating weapon. “Good answer.”

The God of Discord charged at the dauntless female.

Before Chaos could reach her, Cosmos takes her place as the victim of the first attack, shoving Trinitas away from his path and off of the circular platform where she began to float to keep herself from sliding down the steep edge. The moment Cosmos touched her, various pieces of information Cosmos knew flooded her mind. The blonde goddess was incinerated by the monstrous god shortly after. Cosmos’ body begins to dissipate in crystalline particles and the rest of the power and knowledge she had are absorbed by Trinitas’ crystal heart.

A frenzied revolt immediately ensued with Trinitas left to regain her barrings off to the side.

Why did that happen? Trinitas got up and felt a surge of energy overriding her. That doesn’t matter. End this... Trinitas swore she heard an implacable voice in the back of her head, but it was right.

She strode onto the arena with murderous intent.

This ends here.

The battle between Chaos and Cosmos’ warriors raged throughout the night. Many fighters got taken out of it periodically, resting themselves as others fought the tireless deity.

Trinitas herself never took the time to, constantly engaging the god with barrages of ceaseless spikes embedding themselves in the god’s outer layers of flesh. And although Chaos mostly resisted the petrification enchantment, it didn’t stop the areas around his stab wounds from chipping off bit by bit.

It didn’t matter how long it would take, Trinitas was wearing him down slowly and continually, buying her teammates enough time to recuperate.

Squall lasted long into the fight, but as the adrenaline in him started to decline, so did his fighting performance, making movements like lifting his gunblade a harsher task.

Seeing the way Trinitas still moved with such vigor in her attacks made him want to stay in the battle, much to the dismay of those who knew how close he was to exhaustion.

This made Tifa finally put her foot down and attempt to get Squall out of there before he got hurt.

“Just give it a break already! You need to rest!” She restrained his arms with her own, dragging Squall away.

Or at least she tried to. Squall wasn’t having any of it, thrashing wildly in her grasp in an attempt to return to the fight. “I’M NOT DONE YET!”

“YES, YOU ARE! LET OTHERS HANDLE THIS!” Tifa yelled trying to quell Squall’s erratic reluctance.

A second later he saw something that cut through his concentration like Odin’s broadsword. Trinitas was tossed violently by Chaos into his throne shattering the ornate stone object completely.

Others from across the arena saw Squall’s eyes get darker and wider before he broke out of Tifa’s hold and charged Chaos while he had Trinitas cornered.

Trinitas was about to get back up relatively unscathed but noticed the familiar light of Squall’s Blasting Zone and quickly moved aside to avoid the crossfire.

He followed it up with unyielding slashes against Chaos’ back trying to carve into the skin as deeply as his blade could go, his face manic and furious. Chaos tried in vain to dislodge the gunblade from his back as Squall spammed Mystic Flurry around the writhing god in an effort to discomfort him even further. Squall forcefully pulled his weapon out before firing a Lightning Shot to draw Chaos closer before hitting him with a Rough Divide.

Trinitas watched the entire display with morbid fascination. She’s never seen Squall so hellbent on outright killing something before. It was almost like watching someone else.

Squall didn’t stop and didn’t want to.

The God of Discord finally fell, broken and defeated at the gunblade wielder’s feet. Before Squall could continue assaulting him, Chaos’ voice caught his attention.

“Here ends... the war of the gods. Destiny’s hand cannot be stayed. Begone mortals.”

The warriors started to disappear one after the other... appearing in a lush vibrant field.

“So this is it? The end of a very long road?” Vaan asked the other warriors.

“It never really ends. And neither will our stories.” Bartz replied cheerfully.

“No matter how or why we’ll always be connected, that I’m assured. I’ll find some way for us to be together again, I promise.” She said to everyone before looking to Squall, walking up to him in what he can only assume will be the last moment he gets to spend with her.

“I’ll find a way to be with you, so just wait... wait for me.” Trinitas’ eyes were certain, bringing a sense of tranquility to the brunette who thought this parting would’ve been... sadder.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way. Just try not to keep me waiting too long.” He whispered to her before sharing one final kiss goodbye.

As they held each other, their forms started to fade from the field.

Squall’s vision became black and a stinging pain marred his senses. It was like reliving his sparring session with Seifer. His scar feels more recent and he’s laying in a bed of some kind. This feels awfully familiar...

He wasn’t aware his eyes were closed to begin with, opening them to find himself in the exact same infirmary bed he woke up in at the beginning of this convoluted mess!

“He’s up, Doc!” An eerily recognizable voice called out from the side of his bed.

Turning his head he’s met with bright celadon eyes.

“Trin...?” He asks quietly as not to grab Dr. Kadowaki’s attention.

She merely winks, “Wasn’t too long of a wait, was it?” Squall can’t help but smile at her. This was her alright.

He may have had a few questions about how she got there by his bedside, much less his world but these didn’t seem important enough to ask at the moment. He was just happy she was there.

Dr. Kadowaki walked up to him.

Just like last time...

“How are you feeling?” she questioned him.

Squall rolled his eyes. “I’ll live.” He sarcastically drolled, getting up from the bed.

“Why don’t you take i-”

“It easy in training? Deja vu. I think I remember being told that before.” Squall noted the patience of the doctor running thinner with every smartass remark he made. But it just made Trinitas’ smile grow wider.

“Well, maybe there’s a reason for that. Honestly, why don’t you just ignore Seifer?”

“Ignoring a problem doesn’t get rid of it.” Squall didn’t miss a beat, telling Kadowaki the things he wished he’d said before.

“Neither does charging it head-on.”

“It’s not my fault Seifer plays dirty.” Somehow he didn’t feel as detached from the accident as he did before, only getting more upset just thinking about him. He really wasn’t looking forward to Trinitas meeting Seifer.

“While that might be, you still accepted his challenge.” Kadowaki reminded him.

“Can we go now?” Squall’s teeth almost ground together as he asked.

Kadowaki turned to look at Trinitas who visibly squirmed wide-eyed at the newfound attention.

“And who is this Squall? I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.” The doctor gave him a knowing look.

Before Trinitas could retort, Squall interjected. “Yeah, whatever, can we just go now?”

“Not until I call up your instructor to come pick you up. Now let’s see... your instructor is Quistis, right? I’ll let her know you have... company.” She wiggled her eyebrows jokingly.

Squall sighed, not wanting to go through all the bullshit this day has in store for him. As he finishes this thought he hears Kadowaki’s giggling while talking with Quistis. “This day is going to kick. my. ass...” He whispered to no one in particular before Trinitas lays next to him.

Their eyes meeting in a playful greeting causing him to smile slightly. He pecks her lips briefly before sitting up, not wanting to be caught in an otherwise compromising situation. Trinitas follows his lead, sitting on the stool beside the bed like she was earlier.

Neither of them notices a slightly older woman staring at them from afar with a curious look etched on her face.

#Squall Leonhart #Final Fantasy #Dissidia #Final Fantasy VIII #ff8 #oc x canon #Original Character #fanfic #End of the Dissidia arc #finally on to the good shit #yandere

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moquall · 2 years ago

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In Arc 3 Chapter 9, Luna was summoned to the world of Dissidia (World B) but her power as Oracle and her memories was taken by Ultimecia. She couldn't remember Noct and even her own self, including her name. Noct was desperate to save her and together with other warriors including Ardyn who hesitate to help until Rydia scolded him, Luna managed to return to her own self.

This scene confirmed the original ending of FFXV is canon in dissidia since Luna said to Ignis, Gladio and Prompto they met and married in afterlife. If you expect her skillsets in dffoo are based from Dawn of Future when she got similar power like Ardyn, you're wrong.

I'm glad to see Luna got more screentime, interacting with Noct and others here and some future episodes will show you she is indeed a great character.

Instead of "We are married, after all", tbh i like Noct's lines in Japanese version more, 『.......もう奥さんなんだしさ』 which can be translated as "You're my wife...."

#dissidia #dissidia opera omnia #opera omnia #dffoo #lunafreya nox fleuret #noctis lucis caelum #noctluna #lunoct #ffxv #final fantasy xv #though Noct's lines calling Luna ''his wife'' also give a bitter feeling because of the scandal of his seiyuu 😑

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h-worksrambles · 2 years ago

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I wanna talk about Cloud and Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts

Oh boy. Final Fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts. Now this is a controversial topic. While originally pitched as a Disney and Final Fantasy crossover, Kingdom Hearts is relatively sparing in its utilisation of the cast of FF. They’ve never had a dedicated world and they tend to serve as AU cameos to help populate the games’ original locales, such as Tidus, Selphie and Wakka being kids on the Destiny Island, or Squall, Aerith, Yuffie and Cid being in Traverse Town (having come from Radiant Garden). And when they do show up, their characterisation tends to be a point of contention. Some people want more of these guys in the series and are annoyed that their relevance has dwindled still further with time. Others dislike their KH iterations, finding them too out of character. And some of the most controversial have been the cast of Final Fantasy VII. Being the most popular entry in the series, VII has several representatives in Kingdom Hearts, and just as with the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (which Nomura also had a pretty big hand in), their portrayals are pretty divisive. So I thought it might be interesting to try doing a little fix it fic of how the FF7 cast could have been handled in terms of their role and backstories in this continuity. My thought process has been to try and retain the core essentials of their character, and to find a reasonably close KH equivalent to their original lore without making it too complicated. They only have so much time after all and there’s a LOT going on in KH as there is. Also, I want to think about organic and fitting interactions they could have with the series’ original characters. With that said, I’ll be looking specifically at the archetypal JRPG protag and villain themselves: Cloud Strife + Sephiroth

Cloud first shows up in Kingdom Hearts 1 hired by Hades to take down Sora and Hercules, but ultimately sees the error of his ways and befriends Sora. In KH, he’s a swordsman wandering from world to world hunting for his nemesis, Sephiroth. We only get snippets of their history, but from what we can gleam, this version of Cloud succumbed to darkness in the past. He was saved from turning fully in some way by Tifa Lockhart, but this ended up creating Sephiroth, a being of pure darkness who torments Cloud, trying to push him back into corruption as the devil figure of his conscience. He can only be eliminated by Cloud himself.

The biggest issue with Cloud’s characterisation is really the same one that dogs a lot of the Compilation. Specifically, that a lot of Cloud’s quirks and insecurities are airbrushed away to make him stoic and ‘cool’. My stance on this is that, (and this goes for Dissidia to an extent too), KH and the Compilation treat Advent Children Cloud as the default. Thing is, Cloud is very different from his usual self in that movie, since he’s riddled with trauma and depression from the events of the OG game. Now Advent Children doesn’t handle this character arc super well, but there is at least a reason why Cloud is the way he is there. And yet, that version of Cloud is treated in wider media as how Cloud should act all the time. It’s almost like if you took the extreme version of Batman from something like the Dark Knight Returns, and made that your default Batman in a movie with no additional context. But no director would ever do THAT right?

Oh wait…

Normally, Cloud is a huge, socially awkward dork acting cool and hyper-masculine to hide his own insecurities. And there’s a lot of potential pairing him up with someone as earnest as Sora, who is so goofy and unapolgeticaly himself. If you wanna see what that dynamic would look like, just look at Cloud and Wedge in VII Remake. So as for Cloud’s character, sure he can be cool at first, but that facade can break after the fight with Hades and Cerberus. Let him be awkward, let him be snarky, let him and Sora have a proper dynamic. Sora indulges Cloud’s cool guy persona because he knows that, deep down, Cloud is a huge softy. Look, I’ll be real the cheat answer is just make him like he is in Remake. However, I am keeping his Vincent Valentine esque redesign because it is AWESOME.

He can still hunt for Sephiroth, he can still work briefly with Hades. But his overall character writing will hopefully be much more in line with the original game, which should help to give him better chemistry with Sora and even Hercules. Multiple times KH has made FF7 characters strive to become heroes at Olympus the same way they wanted to join SOLDIER in the OG (we see this with Zack in Birth By Sleep especially). You could do a lot by making Hercules an ideal of the kind of hero Cloud wants to be, in contrast to his former fallen idol, who himself was once a legendary hero...

And with that, let’s get to Sephiroth. Admittedly his actual demeanor is not too far off the mark and his boss fights are absolutely legendary. I’ve touched on what little we know of KH Sephiroth’s backstory already and I really don’t care for it. I think it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of Cloud and Sephiroth’s dynamic for one simple reason.

Sephiroth should not give a damn about Cloud.

In FF7, Sephiroth barely interacts with the party, and when he does, it’s usually Jenova taking his form. This is because Sephiroth is too concerned with his lofty goals of destroying the Planet with Meteor, and thus taking control of the Lifestream, to pay attention to the ragtag group following him. Because power wise, they’re practically ants to him. Why shoud he care if they’re following him? There’s a sequence in the beginning of the game where you have to take a huge detour to avoid a monster callled the Midgar Zolom. It’s far to powerful to defeat at your current level, you can only avoid it. About 15 in game minutes later, you see another one of these things impaled on a tree by Sephiroth.

It’s such a brilliant way to communicate that Sephiroth is on a whole other power level compared to Cloud and co. He is not just the man Cloud hates, but also the embodiment of everything he once wanted to be. He is an almost godlike mountain for Cloud to climb, symbolic of Cloud’s own self doubts. The only time he gives Cloud the time of day is when he can use him as a puppet for personal gain. Unravelling his false memories, realising he was strong enough to beat Sephiroth once, and can do it again, is a huge part of Cloud’s arc, piecing together his fractured identity, accepting himself for who he is and overcoming his insecurities. There’s a reason the final fight of the game is a scripted one hit kill against Sephiroth. Cloud has finally learned to believe in himself, and can overcome the man who once personified his fear and self-hatred, the man who underestimated Cloud to his cost. Cloud proves to be both the better warrior and the better man.

But in Kingdom Hearts, as in Dissidia and even Remake, Sephiroth is constantly popping up to taunt, torment and manipulate Cloud. He doesn’t seem to have a life outside of bullying the guy. Cloud should be the one pursuing Sephiroth, not the other way around. Which is why I don’t think the whole ‘Sephiroth is Cloud’s darkness’ thing really works. Sephiroth is more than an aspect of Cloud. As I said, he should feel like a demigod on a whole other level. Sephiroth’s goals should be far beyond Cloud himself. He should think of Cloud as no more than a flea, unworthy of his time.

The games seem to want to push Sephiroth as a symbol of Cloud’s old shame and past. Something he wants to escape but can’t, with Tifa trying to help him move on from it. Again, kind of like what Advent Children was trying to do. But without any details on any of these characters’ shared history, it just reduces their conversations to empty, pretentious refrains of “darkness, darkness, light, light, darkness” without any substantial character work behind it. It’s honestly just a worse written version of Riku and Ansem’s dynamic. Their portrayal is not just a disservice to their FF7 incarnations, it’s emblematic of all the worst excesses of Kingdom Hearts’ writing and none of the strengths.

So, here’s my take for a rewrite of Cloud and Sephiroth’s backstory. Cloud and Sephiroth were originally from the same world. However, eventually Sephiroth learned of legends of chosen warriors who travelled from world to world as protectors. It’s not said outright, but we’ll imply that what Sephiroth read about, was the existence of Keyblade wielders. Believing himself to be one of these chosen ones, Sephiroth opened the door to the heart of his world, causing it to be swallowed up by the Heartless. Cloud, only a child then, was one of several to escape, being flung to Radiant Garden (as would Aerith and Tifa but I may save them for another time). This allows for something that better parallels their FF7 backstory, with the destruction of their world mirroring the Nibelheim Incident, and Sephiroth’s goal of becoming a Keyblade wielder mirroring his delusions of grandeur as Jenova’s ‘chosen one’. But all in a way that isn’t too dark or complicated for KH. Hence, Cloud sets out across the worlds to take revenge on Sephiroth, and is willing to learn how to use darkness if that’ll get him what he wants.

This also makes for an easy way to get Sephiroth to fight Sora, one KH2 already hints at. Sephiroth takes an interest to Sora because he covets the Keyblade which is why he challenges Sora to fights. He doesn’t have to be a major villain. He can still be an optional superboss. But now his dynamic with Cloud and narrative role is much more true to the original. It also gives Cloud another interesting parallel with Sora. Sora and Cloud were both torn away from their original homes and want to recover what they’ve lost. But Cloud does so through revenge and is willing to rely on darkness to do it. This can allow KH1!Sora to grapple with whether using the darkness would be an easy shortcut to getting his friends back (which is exactly what Riku struggles with in KH1). I believe Disney worlds are at their best when they can meaningfully impact the heroes’ development. And I think that should apply to the FF characters too. Both should be more than filler episodes. This can also continue when we introduce Tifa in KH2. Now Cloud has reunited with another survivor of his world, he can begin to question whether his relationships with the people around him matter more than vengeance against Sephiroth. And that’s a lesson Sora, who values his friends above all else, can help to drill into him. Wait...have I basically made Cloud into Guts? Uhhhh...

If we’d actually gotten that long awaited Sephiroth superboss in KH3, we might even have been able to bring this to a conclusion. And there’s lots of different ways we could take it. Maybe Sora and Cloud could have taken on an ascended Safer Sephiroth, as Sephiroth’s quest for power ends not with a Keyblade, but a twisted angelic monstrous form. And so Cloud overcomes his self-doubts by defeating Sephiroth with the help of his friends. Or maybe Cloud chooses not to kill Sephiroth. He decides he isn’t worth it and chooses to put his friends over revenge, leaving Sephiroth to blindly wander the worlds, never getting the Keyblade he seeks because, ironically, he drowned himself in darkness in a way the Keyblade could never accept. Maybe Cloud could meet Riku in Radiant Garden after he comes back from the Dark Realm. Riku knows what it’s like to rely on darkness as a shortcut to power, and can relate to Cloud’s enmity with Sephiroth by comparing it to being haunted by Ansem. We could have fleshed out his dynamics with Tifa and Aerith or even Zack (assuming he’s not dead in this canon that is, BBS is a little unclear there). There’s lots of different ways you could go with it.

I love Kingdom Hearts. I love Final Fantasy VII. But I don’t think Cloud and Sephiroth’s showings in KH, cool boss fights notwithstanding, are a proper showcase of what makes these characters so great. I understand that this is a different canon, and these are alternate universe versions of these two. But I think they could be implemented in a way that is more true to why they were so compelling in the original, while still being thematically fitting for Kingdom Hearts. I’m not a writer, and I don’t pretend to be better than professionals just because I’m playing script doctor. But I hope I succeeded in doing these characters justice, even a little.

I hope you guys liked this. If you did, let me know and maybe I’ll evaluate/rewrite other Final Fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts. Maybe I’ll even talk about ones who aren’t here already that I would like to see. Until next time, take care!

#cloud strife #sephiroth #final fantasy vii #kingdom hearts #character discusion #i rant about (not) obscure characters who i think could have been better maybe perhaps?#cw gore

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kugisakiis · 3 years ago

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Zenos can't be dead. He represents ffxiv villains in Dissidia which means he has a bigger role to play. (Just like Y'shtola who is the face of ffxiv) That part could have easily been for Emet-Selch based on popularity and his reach across the arc alone. SE chose Zenos despite him not having a part since SB. I wouldn't even say post SB, since that was elidibus. It wouldn't make sense to elevate him to a KEY character and then not use him except to be like "Let's battle bestie!"

Idk I feel like EW set him up for a redemption in 7.0, he took Alisaie's words to heart and helped save the day. If they wanted to kill him, he could have been an earlier boss without the introduction of development. Or he could have gotten his fight in Eorzea, not Ultima Thule and not had that development. And with Garlemald destroyed and him having viator as his name (meaning traveller) he could do something with that. He also never answered if he was fulfilled at the end of his life. He never finished his thoughts. That is a huge revelation to leave undone.

I'd Zenos my favorite? No. But he actually has potential now that the empire is destroyed. What does he seek? What does he want outside of our friendship?

#ew spoilers #final fantasy xiv #zenos viator galvus #zenos yae galvus #ffxiv spoilers

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toggle1-mrfipp · 2 years ago

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For anyone who visits the Dissidia Opera Omnia subreddit, I am the guy who made all those character polls, as well as the on-going Burst Theme discussion posts.

When I initially made the character polls I was only doing them for games that I had either played or experienced for myself, which would have been all the number titles up to XIV, and later played XV and Tactics so I could add them to those polls when their turns came up. I had not done polls for other games represented in OO (Type-0, Crystal Chronicles, World of Final Fantasy, Stranger of Paradise) because I didn’t know them well enough to make polls for character that might make good choices to add to OO down the line.

However, upon deciding to make the Burst Theme posts, I decided to know those games better, as a way for making up not making polls for them (a task that has since been taken up by another on the subreddit). I managed to play Type-0, but watched the cutscenes for the rest on YouTube since I knew I may not have time to play them to completion, or in CC’s case, just didn’t have the required consoles.

Basically, the reason for this post is just me going on a rant or sorts about what I experienced when going through these games, so expect spoilers.

Type-0

I started Dissidia around the time it came to global, around the time Setzer came out, so when I heard about how how people are forgotten when they die, it peaked my interest, but it wasn’t until recently did I actually play it. I rather liked most of it, I found it interesting to see a FF game be a dedicated war story, and I really enjoyed the cutscenes that were the narrator talking about the different battles and what directions they took the way, it was always interesting.

It was also fun play, each character felt unique, and regardless of who I was playing as, though Ace, Deuce, Sice and Queen were my favorites. That being said, with fourteen characters in a story more focused on plot than character, they mostly felt underdeveloped by the large; Ace, for example, despite being used as the face for this game, could be replaced with Seven or King, and I don’t think it would matter. Machina and Rem are the only one who really have a story arc, but it’s not much.

To further with the criticisms, this game is terrible in handing out its story. There is just so much background lore that is important to the story that is easily missable because its in a conversation who can miss because you don’t have enough free time, it’s buried in a character’s entry in the in-game encyclopedia, or in a cutscene you can’t see until either post-game or NG+. The final chapter is hilariously terrible because the moment you step back onto school grounds, you are assaulted in an info dump how the world is now suddenly ending and monster and killing everyone. Up until this point the story had just been about war, but now it suddenly it throws all this world-ending horror at you at once, and expects you to role with it. Now that I think about it, despite how important it is, I don’t think the game every actually explains what Agito actually is, at least in an initial playthrough.

When I finished Type-0, I went back and watched the Lost Chapter and MSQ cutscenes associated with it, and I ended up having a much better appreciation for these characters and stories, which I feel OO does a better job at exploring on an individual basis than their home game. Their story chapter about Ace trying to rebuild Akademia, with him talking to the Machina manikin that is an obvious stand in of Izana, and all of Class Zero coming to terms with the end of the game, and Machina dealing with his guilt, felt like a fantastic post-game story line for these characters. Out of all the storylines about characters dealing with their deaths, or the deaths of people they know coming back to life, or how they live now that they have gotten back all the memories of the respective game back, I think Type-0 has done the best job with that.

Also, fuck Arecia. Machina gets a lot of well-deserved hate, but Arecia is a piece of shit. You do this 600 million times, and only now decided to end it? I honestly don’t believe that in the literal hundreds of millions times you have repeated these cycles that this one cycle in particular had something in it that didn’t happen at least a couple thousand times before. it just makes her seem entirely arbitrary.

Despite the contempt people of the OO subreddit has had for the introduction of Type-0 characters being added, I would like more in the forms of Tiz, Lean Joker, Cid Aulstyne and Arecia for the sake of more story.

Crystal Chronicles

I watched this on YouTube, so maybe I missed something, but I really liked how lowkey this story was. It was a very much a story about the journey and not the destination, though it did make jump to fighting a meteor and memory-eating being a bit jarring, but that’s on me for how I chose to experience this game’s story. While the player character is a blank slate, I really liked Ciaran’s scenes in OO more, specifically with talks with Ace in the Type-0 story chapter.

Also, the music for this game is great, I really like the celtic/folk style they have going on, which is an appropriate thing to say because I watched this because I plan on making a Burst Theme post for CC later.

CC: Ring of Fates/Echoes of Time

I really don’t have much to say about these individual games for the most part, but I have gained a greater appreciation for Yuri, Chelinka and Sherlotta, their own personal stories and the struggles they went though. That being said, I think they both had incredibly strong endings.

CC: Crystal Bearers

This was kind of a pain to watch because all the cutscene movies I tried to watch were hit by copyright notices and had to be edited to cut certain scenes out. What was weird is that the scenes that had to be removed with almost every scene that involved Jegran using his crystallization powers. That being said, I did manage to watch everything, and in the end I very much enjoyed the story I watched.

Out of all the CC characters we can still get, I think Belle and Althea are ones I would want added for the sake of post-game material.

World of Final Fantasy

I regret every writing this game off because of the chibi art style and not liking Lann in Opera Omnia because I really don’t care for characters who are so stupid that it becomes a wonder they even remember how to breathe. Once I actually watched the scenes, those previous opinions began to change; WoFF’s srty styles was honestly more fun than I had assumed it would be, and Lann was genuinely much better in his home game than in OO, which I pin on the writing doing a better job of bouncing him off other characters like Reynn and Tama, and WoFF’s more motive cutscene direction.

Also, HOLY HONK, that game’s story is great, it really caught me off guard with how much I became invested in it. I was honestly caught off guard in how it dealt with it’s “endings”. That Bad Ending really caught me off guard. When I finish the current list of games I have, I will go and play this myself.

We really need Tama and Hauyn in Opera Omnia.

Also, the soundtrack is so chill, I love it.

Stranger of Paradise

I have not actually played or watched Stranger of Paradise, between all the memes, the plentiful second hand information due to being a recent release, and watching Shenpai’s supercut, I feel I have a good grasp on this game’s story, though I do intend to play it myself eventually.

Ending

Well, that’s about it, like I said this was just a sort of mini rant about these games I went through for the sake of making a series of posts on reddit, I fully intend to make a post for each game series represented in OO (All numbered titles, Tactics, Type-0, Crystal Chronicles, World of Final Fantasy and Stranger of Paradise) so that will give me twenty posts in total. If you are paying attention to these posts, the FFVII Burst Theme post will be up tomorrow.

Also, I am currently replaying my old copy of Tactics Advance, and trying to find Tactics Advance on YouTube to add them to the Tactics post, but they are a bit low priority at the moment. If I can finish them before I make that one, which is a fair amount of weeks away, I will add them. If I can’t, then I simply won’t.

#final fantasy #type-0 #ff type 0 #crystal chronicles #ffcc #ring of fates #echoes of time #crystal bearers #world of final fantasy #stranger of paradise #opera omnia #dissidia

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theoriginalseekerofdarkness · 3 years ago

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Final Fantasy series

who i will protect at all costs:

We protect Gilgamesh, Golbez, Ultimecia, Yuna, Fran and Noctis in that exact order.

who deserves better:

Honestly... Gilgamesh deserves better. Poor guy gets tossed into the rift, sacrifices himself to save his friends and now just wanders every world just so he can be reunited with his friends for one last grand battle

who was killed off too early:

I could say Aerith but I actually feel Leo and Galuf's deaths were just as sad and they could have been really nice to know more off as well

who i used to hate but now i love:

Not so much love but I do like Sephiroth enough these days

who i used to love but now i hate:

Cloud. Mostly because after so many years Steve Burton's voice absolutely grates on me

who needs to be killed off asap:

If there's one character that deserved death it was probably Gladio during his little episode with not letting Noctis grieve properly. Dick move guy. Also Barthandelus but he's never coming back.

who is unfairly hated:

Can't really say who is globally hated. The only one who is so hated is probably Barhtendelus and he deserves death

who is unfairly loved:

Cloud. Sorry, I just don't like him.

who needs to sort out their priorities:

Cloud. There is a time for moping BUT IT IS NOT ALL THE FUCKING DAMN TIME!

who needs a hug:

I really wanna hug Gilgamesh, Golbez, Ultimecia and maybe a few heroes like Yuna, Noctis, Tifa and such

who needs to get out of their current relationship:

Tifa. You can do SO much better. You deserve SO much better.

who the writers love:

Nomura clearly has this love for Cloud and Sephiroth so much I am convinced Xehanort is their love child

who needs a better storyline:

Golbez in Dissidia NT... cause he had none.

who has an amazing redemption arc:

Golbez. Honestly, the guy really has probably the only worthwhile arc in After Years and I loved all the stuff they did with him in the Dissidia series until they forgot he existed.

who is hot af:

A lot but Fran, Tifa, Ultimecia and Squall are usually my go to.

who belongs in jail:

Lightning. Don't ask me why, she just does.

who needs to be revived from the dead:

Barthandelus. So we can kill him again.

Serious answer, Noctis does. Poor guy deserves a proper happy ending after all the shit he endures

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fauxpromises · 4 years ago

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Random musings about Talking Heads & Kuja

Been getting back to writing again and felt like it would be kind of fun to write down my thoughts on the artist and album that inspired some of my thematic ideas for my fic. Though realistically this is more of a general character analysis re Kuja than anything specific to my writing, lol.

Analysis below the cut!

Part of why I was inspired to write is, well, Kuja is one of my favorite characters in fiction and I feel that a lot of his most important themes and characterization go almost completely unexamined. Specifically, I notice fandom tends to focus on his characterization prior to his big change in trajectory. That trajectory results in his constructed persona being pretty much completely destroyed, and in the wake of that, I see his post-arc persona being much more muted and lacking in a solid foundation of identity. No longer the excessively theatrical, outgoing identity that he created in order to convince himself that he was unique and important (neither of which his origin would lead him to actually believe).

And that’s exactly why I relate Talking Heads, and more specifically Remain in Light to him as a character. It’s an album with the central theme of identity conflict, at times in a very abstract way, that I feel fits him as a character so entirely well. The actual style of music has either a chaotic, rapid “racing thoughts” tempo to it, or a subdued sound that nonetheless has feeling of looming dread to it. Sometimes they feel rather casual, but in a superficial way. But the theme is pretty consistent across the track list. Even the title “Remain in Light” and the album cover is meant to convey that something is being obscured and is attempting to come into visibility.

The narrative voice as performed by David Byrne is also extremely fitting. He’s good at conveying a personality that is eccentric and at times seemingly detached from the human experience. He makes quirky, coy observations and tends to muse on the state of humanity or others in ways that almost seem as if he excludes himself from that lot. You could call it somewhat dissociative, while still portraying a lucid train of thought; there’s often a difference in the degree of intelligence the narrator shows in his observations, and his ability to understand the emotions that they yield.

Of the songs on Remain in Light, I believe the ones that most relate to the identity disturbance theme are “Once in a Lifetime”, “Seen and Not Seen”, and the big one for me, “Crosseyed & Painless”. I give a shoutout to “The Great Curve” because it kind of informed the romance dynamic, which, while not supposed to be foremost to the character study, represent something Kuja as a character has almost no interaction with in his canon context (outside of Dissidia anyway) - a tangible connection with another person. That track really complements the theme of delusion that the album insinuates, as it’s a sort of fanciful love song describing an idealized, lofty portayal of a woman. It’s abstract and nonspecific, barely a love song in the conventional sense, but I like the idea that someone who is themself conflicted or deluded about their own identity would struggle to see others as they really are.

Anyway, “Once in a Lifetime” is probably one of the best known TH songs. It’s an almost comedic take on an existential crisis, the narrator reflecting on his uncertainty of the nature of reality to the point of questioning the basic objects he interacts with in his day-to-day (like his wife and his car). “Seen and Not Seen” is a much more obscure track that is an extended metaphor. The narration describes a man who is able to change his physical appearance at will, trying to make it match that of idealized others (like celebrities) or changing it to better suit his perception of himself. It’s a representation of how people shape their personalities and identities, and how they can err in doing so.

But really, I’d say “Crosseyed & Painless” is the song that really, to me, is Kuja’s character arc in a nutshell. I really love the live version from Stop Making Sense specifically for the extended and stylized intro. It starts with a really calm and casual instrumental and guitar line, which gradually (and disconcertingly) transitions into a really fast tempo and guitar which reminds me way too much of “Dark Messenger”. It’s pretty clearly a musical depiction of a descent into insanity as something rather incremental, but ultimately landing with force. It’s definitely something that has to be heard to be understood.

Lyrically, the narrator describes a feeling of identity confusion. Due to an unspecified cause, he feels like he is caught between an assumed identity and a true identity, pretty well explained in the first verse (Lost my shape, trying to act casual). It’s a cause of great distress as evidenced by the third line, “I might end up in the hospital”. And beyond that, the phrase “I feel like an accident” indicates something has occurred that is inevitable.

After the narrator explains his own predicament, to me it seems he turned his skepticism to the reality of everything else rather than admit that the delusion and conflict is within himself. It’s rather clever. He speaks at length about facts, as in the second verse: (I'm ready to leave, I push the fact in front of me/Facts lost, facts are never what they seem to be). Facts are something unavoidable and true by definition, but he focuses his attention on both lamenting their immovability and still trying to rationalize that he can alter them. There’s also talk of doubt, which I expect is related to the aforementioned conflict with facts - despite the denial of them, doubt always voices itself. The chorus in its various versions reaffirm this with the statement “the feeling returns whenever we close our eyes”.

The prominent refrain, however, is the “I’m still waiting” repetition. An annotation on the song on Genius.com sums up the meaning behind it very well:

“What I love about this refrain is that it seems to reconfirm a desire for facts or some kind of master signifier that will give order and meaning to the world, despite the song’s overall critique of facts. The repetition of “still waiting” ties in nicely with the line in the bridge that “Facts cut a hole in us.” This reminds me of what Jacques Lacan calls objet petit a – the object-cause of desire that our desires forever circle around without obtaining.”

If you care to give any of these songs a listen, I’d recommend the album version for all but “Crosseyed & Painless” which has a significantly better version in my opinion on the live album. There used to be an incredibly amazing downmix of the whole album on Youtube but it has since vanished, very unfortunately.

#kuja #talking heads #wow those tags sure are on opposite ends #my fic

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henpendrips · 5 years ago

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Top Ten #8 - Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)

If you had told me, when this came out, that I'd eventually despise both Disney and Squeeenix, I wouldn't have believed you. Hell, even now I'm not exactly sure what the fuck happened.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is a great example of what a sequel SHOULD be: bigger and better than its predecessor, without bloat or repeat. Granted, at this point the series' story had already started going down the road to Up-Own-Ass Boulevard, but if my tween ass could follow it, without having played the previous two games and just reading shit up on boards and forums in 2005, it must've been doing something right.

There's only one other game that falls into the 'Free-Float' genre for me, and that's Dissidia. The blending of input command menus à la TBRPGs might've seemed jarring at first, but at the end of the day it's virtually the same as any other spectacle fighter: button combos to get results. It's just fun to go around button mashing and wooshing over enemies without being grounded or constrained, and I'm definitely glad that subsequent entries in the series better utilized the environment within this system. Good job, DDD, you get a half-cookie.

Worlds featured in KH2 are varied, they're interesting to explore, if a tad too linear for my liking; but there's also several reasons to revisit and explore them. The overall cameos from both Disney and Final Fantasy characters are interesting, and had yet to feel entirely too... separate, shall we say, from the story and interconnectivity of this universe. Auron as your companion in Hercules' world is a highlight that works so well.

Story is... well, it's Kingdom Hearts. It hadn't gone too off-the-rails yet, there were stakes and finality to story arcs, and the writing and directing had some goddamn cohesion at this point. The less said about it, the better. Suffice it to say, that this is NOT a series that you can just 'jump into', not anymore.

The only other game in this series that even comes close to have taken the title would be Birth by Sleep. It's definitely where things began their descent into madness, but I didn't know what the future would hold, so it was just a stocking stuffer back then, something to fill the gaps, had a good cast of characters, and fun gameplay. KH2 only wins by virtue of, again, being a good sequel, and feeling much more complete in its experience. And it's sad that I know I won't like Kingdom Hearts 3 more than 2, even if it has some considerable improvements here and there, mechanics-wise.

Here's to Kingdom Hearts 2. Sorry about your parentage, it's not your fault.

#kingdom hearts 2 #sora #donald duck #goofy #top ten #fanart #illustration #videogames #print

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haruyukihana · 4 years ago

Photo

Squall: We bet to see how many candidates will drop out until the end of the Recruiting Course

Cloud: The winner get to sign-up to Captain Sephiroth Special Training Session

Lightning: And the loser?

Cloud: …

Squall: Get to “babysit” the newcomer for the first week.

Lightning: Is that why Cloud was so grumpy on my first week?

Oh well, I came up with this silly self indulgent StarFox AU, I mean, I played StarFox 64 a lot when I was a kid, it was kind of our family game. At the time I was never able to beat my father and brother’s score (the best score I got was third place), but I was the first and only one to get the Setor Z medal years later on 3DS remastered (because non of them played StarFox anymore lol). Anyways, I have a lot of fond memories of this game and after seeing all the newest render arts of the StarFox crew I got inspired to draw a Strifehart in StarFox uniform! And now I end up with a whole AU in my head with characters from Dissidia and Kingdom Hearts. (I’m no writer, why to a do this to myself? T^T)

I customized the uniform design to get as close as possible to their FF attire style, without losing the elements of StarFox uniform. Squall colors were the hardest to choose while I knew from the very beginning I wanted Cloud’s colors to resemble his uniform from Crisis Core (I may explain this choice later).

Now some AU Head Canon time! (My English is not that good and my Final Fantasy and StarFox knowledge are limited too, so please have patient with me xD)

[Arc 01] In this AU, SeeD is a Galactic Mercenary Organization based in Corneria. They work in small groups through the Lylat System. Aircrafts are boarded with 5~6 members (3~4 Arwing pilots, 1 captain and 1 engineer).

Sephiroth is one of the youngest captains among SeeD, he command Shinra Airship, but he still like to go on field mission as a Arwing Pilot.

Squall and Cloud applied in the same year, at 15 yo. With both been assigned to the same Aircraft (The StarFox), they started working under the supervision of Barret Wallace a Senior Arwing Pilot, together with Laguna Loire as their captain and the engineer Cid Highwind.

The following year, when Barret was promoted to Captain and reassigned to start a crew on AVALANCHE Aircraft, StarFox chose Lightning Farron as the new pilot from the approved candidates list of that year. After growing some concerns about the safety this new StarFox team, Laguna requested to recruit a fourth pilot to help on missions, and that’s where we are.

I’ve think about 3 Arcs for this AU, but gosh, I so bad at writting things >_<

#strifehart #squall leonhart #Cloud Strife #lightning farron #final fantasy #final fantasy dissidia #StarFox AU #Self indulgent AU #my art

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superthatguy62 · 4 years ago

Text

FFIII Fun Facts of the Whenever: Light Novel Edition

So, Final Fantasy I II III Memory of Heroes finally came out in English, giving us a chance to look at the various differences between the game and the novel. I’m gonna talk about the differences, both good and... shaky.

First, some general notes:

- Memory of Heroes was initially a Light Novel and thus the formatting is a bit weird. It’s less one continuous story so much as a series of vignettes. This also gives the stories a more “compressed” or “rushed” feeling.

- Characterwise, the stories are generally stacked in favor Setro and Zauver’s counterparts. This is most apparent in I and III, if only because Leon is absent for most of II. III isn’t as bad as I in this regard, but do note that Luneth and Ingus “take the wheel” more compared to Arc and Refia in this version. Their interactions with Alus and Desch respectively are still pretty accurate though.

- As those two points imply, the novel isn’t just a port of the game’s script: Things are changed, sometimes cut down, sometimes expanded upon, in a few cases the novels give their own morsels of lore. Overall, I wouldn’t say these replace the games so much as compliment or supplement them.

- Sorry Dissidia fans, but the FFI adaptation does nothing to reference Dissidia and even fact, might even conflict with it, regarding Cid of the Lufaine. So I doubt Setro = WoL.

With all of that out of the way, let’s get into the III-specific differences:

- Characterizationwise, the boys are much different: Luneth’s more insensitive are toned down, meaning he comes off as nicer. I feel like Arc’s timidness also got toned down. Ingus is the most clear and drastic change though: While still generally aloof, he’s more prone to sarcasm than his straight-laced counterpart and he generally has more of a “vitriolic best buds” vibe with Luneth (to put it into perspective, Ingus is not above calling Luneth an idiot in this version). Note that they kinda did have a more vitriolic friendship in the unused text, but not to this extent. Refia... is actually about the same, just lacking most of her animosity towards Luneth (though Ingus seems to have inherited some of it).

- As far as NPCs, most seem the same although Unei seems a bit less “comical” then she is in the game prior. Sara is the most changed though as she’s a lot less sensitive than she is in the games (rather than running up to her room, she runs to the heroes as they’re leaving and basically tells Ingus to not die or he’ll be in trouble).

- Also, as you might expect, None of the unused text is referenced here.

- Also Luneth has a habit of being the tank of the party: It happens in both the Salamander and Xande fights..

- Jobswise, Luneth retains Warrior and takes up Knight in the second half, Arc remains a Black Mage until the Crystal Tower where he takes up the Summoner instead of a Magus and Refia remains a White Mage until the Crystal Tower where she becomes a Devout. Ingus is most versatile, usually changing his job to whatever is helpful at that point (Scholar, Dark Knight), but he has a preference for the Thief job, which he swaps for Ninja towards the end. Both Ingus’ Thief and Arc’s Summoner are questioned, the former saying it was the first form that came to mind (and later saying that he grew accustomed when Luneth teases him) and the latter saying it felt more right than Magus. Ingus’ personality and the fact he leans towards using the Thief (and later Ninja) both strongly imply that he (and by extension, the rest of the party) is incarnation of his FFI equivalent.

- In terms of places skipped, Tozus and related areas, Goldor’s entire storyline, the Temple of Time, the Labyrinth of the Ancients and pretty much all of the optional locations (Including Eureka) do not exist in this version. The story skips pretty much the entire opening, picking up at the Djinn’s defeat (and thus, the crystal’s blessing). Tokkul and The Cave of Shadows are alluded to in passing. The Nepto Shrine is skipped, but the story heavily implies that that is because Desch already took care of it during his travels. This also means that the Enterprise is his (he was also, apparently, offered a chance to join the vikings, but he turned them down) until he throws himself into the tower furnace. The World of Darkness is technically also skipped, although only the bosses are actually cut.

-- Because the Four Old Men don’t exist in this version, the Five Wyrms are cut down to four.

- There’s a few added scenes, mostly domestic/downtime ones: While the Mythril Ram is made, Luneth and Arc spend the night at Ur and say goodbye to Toppapa and Nina (Nina stays strong for their sake, but cries after they leave. The narration notes that Luneth is feeling similarly). The party also spends some time in Canaan both before and after meeting Desch, with Luneth meeting with Salina to break the news of Desch’s “death” and encourage her to smile again.

- Refia’s return to the party after helping her father is different: When she initially fails to show up the next day, the boys assume that she slept in and, along with her father no doubt being hesitant, decide to leave without her. Then, after Luneth almost crashes the airship, it turns out she hid in a crate. Needless to say, she’s unamused at how easily the boys were going to ditch her.

- A more minor note, but the game left it ambiguous as to whether or not Ingus was actually adopted or if he has no “formal” parents (unlike Luneth and Arc with Topapa and Nina or Refia with Takka) with the king being the closest to a father figure. This version does note that Ingus was raised by one of the soldiers specifically, but its only mentioned twice (once in his bio, once in Cid’s story, technically three times if counting Ingus mentioning he was raised in the barracks) so we don’t have much info regardless.

- Arc specifically is grabbed by Bahamut. Luneth tries grabbing onto Arc, Ingus grabs onto Luneth and Refia grabs onto Ingus

- As the party flees from Bahamut on Dragon’s Peak (which is actually referred to by its obscure, but correct name of Mount Jenora), Arc claims that he heard Bahamut speak to him, saying to call him when his assistance is needed.

- The Warriors’ already confusing and complex past is made even more confusing and complex by Cid claiming that there were no babies on board the airship when it crashed, suggesting that they simply manifested during the crash. The novel also draws attention to the fact that Luneth remembers the airship crash.

- Aria’s death is slightly changed: Rather than Kraken shooting her with a blow dart, Kraken impales her with one of his tentacles.

- Violence in general leaves a bit less to the imagination in “Memory of Heroes”. My favorite one is the aftermath of the Medusa battle: Ingus had previously gotten bitten by Medusa, which inflicts Gradual Petrification on his arm. Ingus tells Refia to prepare a Cure spell, shatters his arm, and allows the cure magic to regrow it from the stump.

- The Cave of Tides doesn’t collapse, allowing the warriors to return Aria’s corpse to her guardian. When time starts moving again, her guardian dies holding her corpse, rather than surviving. As a result, the newly unpetrified residents of Armur are the ones to help the unconscious warriors in this version.

- While Arc doesn’t take the lead in terms of defending Alus from the bar patrons, he does encourage him (and is even the one who tries to lead the party in confronting the king at that very moment. Luneth has to convince him to at least eat).

- Going back to the “nicer interpretation of Luneth” mentioned earlier, the scene where the party talks about Arc and Alus is still in, but Luneth’s answer is totally different: He mentions that Arc always used to hide in his shadow and implies that he was timid even before he started getting bullied (though that didn’t help) and that he tried hiding it at first. Luneth even notes that Arc used to cry himself to sleep if he was alone at night, and had a mantra in the form of “I can’t give up; I have to change”. By contrast, in the game, Luneth makes a backhanded insult regarding Arc’s height and. in the unused text, notes that Arc tended to act out a lot (which is why he’s the least concerned when Arc leaves the party out of frustration - check out my write-up for more).

- A nice little touch is that Alus specifically notes that his father put him into the guest room: The games imply, but never outright say it. Additionally, unlike the famicom version (where the kids, barring Alus, seemingly share a bed) or the remake (where Arc and Alus are alone while the rest of the party is in a separate room), the book specifically notes that the guest room has 8 beds.

- King Gorn exiled his son of his own will; namely to prevent the possibility of Gigameth forcing him to shiv his son while he’s sleeping. Like Gorn almost ends up doing when he comes back. Additionally, Gigameth implies that, with Gorn dead, he intends to brainwash Alus much like he did to Alus’ father.

- Due to the nature of the book’s format, most of the fight scenes end up short (though, to varying degrees). Garuda is one of the most striking examples due to how much of a 180* his fight ends up being compared to the game: Luneth brags that the party can turn into Dragoons, they tackle him onto the terrace, jump and promptly spear him into the ground, with Arc getting the killing blow.

- Doga’s Manor was apparently gifted to him by Noah, as it used to be Noah’s Manor. Now we truly know why Xande was jealous.

- When the party meets Doga, he explains Xande’s deal, but confesses that he doesn’t know exactly why Xande is doing what he is, whether it be to regain his immortality, take the world with him, prove something to Noah by holding the world’s fate in his hands or even doing it to spite Doga and Unei. While the original games was ambiguous from what I can tell, the remake settled on Xande doing it while trying to regain his immortality.

- Unei talks about each Warriors’ virtues on the way to the Invincible - Luneth leaps before he looks, at least one of the other boys is kept alert by anxiety, the third tries to think things through and Refia watches over all of them like a mother. Refia doesn’t like that last part and seems disgusted by the notion of her practically being their mother.

- The novel implies that the living quarters on the other three airships were uncomfortable bunks. By contrast, the Invincible has rows of large beds.

- Ingus and Luneth come to blows when the time comes to kill Doga and Unei (to create the Syrcus Tower key: Eureka doesn’t exist in this version); Ingus is willing to do the job, but Luneth tears into him for being so ready. Ingus counters by pointing out that there were several people who were ready to risk their lives and Doga and Unei are the same. Ingus then points out that Luneth is carrying on like a child, calling him weak-willed and unwilling to dirty his hands. Arc also expresses a desire to not kill Doga and Unei and Refia agrees. It takes Doga’s apology to finally convince the remaining three. Luneth even offers to let Arc and Refia sit out, but they agree to stay.

- Doga and Unei’s beast forms are explained as them unleashing their magic in its fullest form. Doga even notes that they won’t be able to contain it once it’s let loose.

- The Syrcus Key’s creation is explained as the magic from the defeated Doga and Unei turning into a shower of light that coats the Fang of Earth (the other fangs don’t really factor in in this version). The Syrcus Key, despite having illustrations showing it to be an actual key, is described as a fang shaped piece of ore.

- The moogles’ fate is discussed. Doga essentially allowed them to do whatever they wish after he dies. The moogle that speaks to the party says it depends; Some of them will stay in the manor while the rest will go to see the world. Refia, who was taken by how cute the moogles are earlier, notes that its another reason to save the world.

- Since the Labyrinth of the Ancients doesn’t exist in this version, the Earth Crystal is just kinda chilling in the Crystal Tower. The Crystal Tower is also primarily a spiraling staircase. Between that and the hoard of monsters, the party gets tired out by the time they actually reach the top floor.

- “Doga... Unei... How long will they continue to interfere? Were their gifts not enough? Must they deny me what is rightfully mine?!” - Xande.

- As I mentioned in my prior post, the end game’s biggest change is that the Warriors of Darkness fight against the Cloud of Darkness alongside their Light counterparts, rather than rushing/weakening it for the Warriors of Light to finish off. Their fate after the battle is left ambiguous. Also, Arc finally summons Bahamut.

And that’s the gist of the most significant changes I noticed. Overall, it’s a pretty mixed bag in terms of faithfulness. It does some interesting things though that makes for good theory/headcanon fuel.

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