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hrodvitnon · 10 months ago

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Ozymandias, The King of Kings Headcanons (plus a Shamhat idea)

(Ok, last Ozzy-related post from me for a while- what with a new GxK trailer on the horizon and a FF7 Rebirth demo to eat up all my time (ive played it like 6 times… pure brainrot), I figure it’s probably time to move to colder pastures and even colder kaiju… Anyways- big headcanon Ozymandias post because he could always use more love)

General

Ozymandias is the oldest and largest of his clutch of eggs. Despite this- he didn’t really have much of a connection to his other brothers and sisters quite like his connection to his youngest brother.

Ozzy grew up in the shadow of Dagon- which had pros and cons.

Pros: No one would dare fuck with him or his brothers.

Cons: No one would dare even come near him or his brothers. Also Dagon- was not a very attentive father; he kinda just didn’t really care and better things to do. His mother was marginally better.

Ozzy and Goji’s mother showed a strong parental bias to the older and larger females of their clutch. Obviously, Goji would have to bear the brunt of this, being the smallest male, but Ozzy definitely didn’t get nearly as much attention as his sisters.

Fortunately, Ozzy didn’t grow up alone. When he was about 4 years old, he met a little orphaned Titan of snow-white scales and light blue eyes named Shimo.

(I know there was an older ask about Xenilla replacing Shimo in Abraxas- but I think it would be cool to have a very old and ancient Titan like Shimo that may have even been very close with Ozzy in the past, way before he met anyone like Tiamat or Mothra.)

(Also to quickly mention it because I’ve already described Shimo as female in a past ask- I’m calling her female here just because every leak is pointing towards that being the case. If they turn out to be male, I will happily eat my words (but only after I fantasize about what his dick looks like, of course). But even if she does turn out male, I will still stand by everything I have written here (even, and especially, the mate ones. Gay monsters are cool, dammit).)

Ozzy and Shimo were each other’s playmates and companions for their respective youths. Even Dagon grew to see his son playing with Shimo once or twice. Goji knew her as well- mostly from whenever Ozzy asked her to help him restrain his brother. She even froze him once or twice on Ozzy’s command.

Ozzy was Tiamat’s first mate; but I headcanon that Shimo was actually Ozzy’s first. Shimo was not nearly as much of a sex-freak that Tia was, but she was still able to keep pace with Ozzy and his nutso libido.

Not only were they best friends and mates in the later part of their relationship; they were steadfast comrades who’s very names were feared by the Gojirans’ enemies.

Ozymandias and Shimo were utterly unstoppable in every battle they fought by each other’s side. They would defeat legions of apes, devastate the MUTO population, and establish Gojiran dominance in both the Hollow Earth and the Surface.

They were so powerful together that Gigan had to wait centuries to put his plan of abducting Ozymandias into motion- as if he attacked while Shimo was still around, he was sure he’d be killed.

They were steadfast comrades, a mated pair, and best friends since they were hatchlings; so when Shimo vanished one day- Ozymandias had no real answer as to why. He has asked her to investigate a Hollow Earth portal- and she never returned. He scoured every inch of the Hollow Earth for her- and yet could find nothing. Of course- she was attacked, chained, and made into a war-mount by Skar- but Ozymandias would never know that or even see her again until he returned to Earth 2 million years later as Xenilla (or in an alternate scenario I’ll discuss later). In some timelines- he may have even died as Xenilla before ever getting to properly see her again…

Although Ozzy had Shimo and his brother for company… He was still pretty lonely. Being Dagon’s son forced him to inherit much of his father’s reputation of being a grumpy old asshole who picked fights for the fun of it. Not to mention, having a younger brother who did exactly that only worsened this problem. Ozzy was, however, nothing like his father in that respect.

Ozzy didn’t like fighting very much. Despite being 500 feet tall, having an extremely destructive purple atomic breath, and being the strongest of his clutch- he preferred diplomacy in any situation he could employ it. Unfortunately- the war with the Kongs was too far along for that to be possible, and there was no negotiating with the MUTOs. He preferred to talk, was very social and cordial, and had a very kind heart. He actually had more in common with Mothra than Goji (perhaps that’s one of the reasons that Goji eventually fell for Mothra).

He was, however, starved for company. Everyone knew him as the brilliant and untouchable champion of the lizards, and that he was capable of insane feats of strength and violence. Anytime anyone would see him, they would either turn tail and get the fuck out of dodge or be very frightened of him. He didn’t blame them for thinking like this, but he really hated his reputation- and somewhat resented his family for contributing to it.

Tiamat met him when she heard rumors of an god-like ‘King of Kings’ from her kin and other Titans. Curiosity spiked in her lust-addled young adult mind, and she sought him out. It was one of the only times someone had come up to Ozzy of their own accord- and he was rather shocked when the serpent rolled up and essentially said “wanna fuck the daylights out of me?”

Their relationship started as a physical one, but quickly grew emotional when Ozzy started to spend more time with her. Meeting and mating with Tiamat was exactly what Ozzy needed to shave off that reputation he hated so much.

Quick sidebit to talk about his title. He was named 'King of Kings’ by his kin, as the first King in a millennia to actually make progress in the war with the Kongs. The Kongs refused to use this title to refer to him, as it carried the assumption that he was King of anything- and to consider a lizard in a kingly manner was heresy to the Kongs. They dubbed him another name: Ultima.

The longer he stayed with Tiamat, the more his reputation came apart. Tiamat introduced him to her friends, which he became friends with in turn, and word of mouth began to spread that Ozzy really wasn’t that bad. He finally started getting around more, spending much of this part of his life traveling the globe and meeting as many of his Titan subjects as possible.

As many asks have established- he and Tia fucked. A lot. So damn much that it became a joke among their friends, and eventually their subjects, to call their cave system 'The Heat’. When he and Tia ran out of things to try in the bedroom with each other (in record fucking time, may I add?), they just started inviting others in to join them.

The logical conclusion of this was them hosting an event every year in the Spring where they opened up their cave for any heat-afflicted females or rut-sick males to have their respective problems solved. If there was one problem that Ozzy was not going to let his subjects deal with, it was a lack of intimacy or loneliness. He knew how that felt, and he didn’t want anyone else to deal with it on his watch.

As many who knew him would say- he had a way of making you feel like the most important person in the world. And unlike many other charismatic figures, he was actually genuine about it. He helped Tiamat see that a true intimate relationship was someone was more than sex, introduced Mothra to his younger brother, and generally was a very well loved king.

But all reigns need to end somewhere, and his would end so abruptly that it shocked the entire planet when word got around. He vanished one day. Tiamat simply heard a distressed roar echo across the waves- and when she rushed to her mate’s defense, he was gone. No bones, no remains, nothing. Panicked- she went straight to Mothra and Goji about this. Even then- Mothra could never find him. He was simply gone.

Of course, they wouldn’t discover the truth until millions of years later. Gigan lured him to an isolated island with the mimicked calls of a distressed kaiju. He rushed over to help, only to be jumped by at least 20 Infested Kaiju with highly potent tranquilizer weapons. He was knocked out, handed over to Gigan, and infested with the Cordyceps.

The fungus didn’t have total control, not at first. But it did have his mind, which it started to beat into submission with its indoctrination methods. It took the better half of twenty years for it to fully seize control of Ozzy’s body. Even then, Ozzy maintained a grip on his soul within the mind. He was still himself, and unlike millions of others, that was the one thing Xenilla could never take from him.

But it didn’t make things easy for Ozzy to hold onto his sense of self, not by a long shot. It actually probably made things worse for him- to remember who he was and what had been stolen from him. This was between the horrific bouts of torture, physical and mental, that Xenilla would utilize on him.

Xenilla loved killing, and it especially liked Ozzy’s reactions when he would use his body to torment, toy with, and kill his victims. Children especially would hurt Ozzy in such a deep way when Xenilla split their skulls open and let the parasites crawl into their brain-matter.

As soon as Xenilla discovered that Ozzy’s body could experience rut, it immediately became his favorite method of torment to use on him. Using drugs crafted by Gigan to artificially extend his periods of rut to be year-round made Ozzy desperately beg for any sort of relief, lest he go nuts from his screaming instincts.

Another one of Xenilla’s favorite methods of torture: sometimes Ozzy would drift off into sleep and begin to dream of home, of what he left behind. Any time this would happen- Xenilla would jolt him awake with a cold sensation against his spine once he had gotten about a minute into the dream. He would do this any time to break his concentration whenever he even began to think about Earth. Soon, he naturally forgot his brother and mates’ faces…

One day, the begging, choked sobs, the anger- it all vanished. Xenilla suspects that he simply pushed Ozzy too far and he just dissociated- because he stopped sensing a presence. He was still there, just, asleep. No matter what Xenilla did, he could not wake him up. It angered Xenilla to no end. Playing with Ozzy like this was one of his favorite things in life. It angered and actually depressed him so much that even his conquests became boring.

That was, until, 1 million years later… when he stumbles upon a tiny backwater world mostly made of water… Xenilla descends from the heavens, roars in challenge to the worlds’ greatest warriors, and up rolls Godzilla. It was his roar, the response to Xenilla’s challenge, that stirred Ozzy for the first time in a million years. As soon as he realized what was happening, where Xenilla was, and who was standing before him… He felt the most fear he had ever felt in his entire life. His awakening stirred Xenilla, too- and the feeling of having Ozzy screaming at him and pleading with every fiber of his being not to hurt Goji did something to him- it was the best feeling he had ever felt.

Of course- after a display like that- Xenilla was in no way going to leave Earth in peace, no… He was going to draw this out as much as possible- toy with Godzilla and the other Titans for as long as he could until they were as broken as Ozzy. He knew that this would likely be his last ride with Ozzy, his last chance to inflict torture upon him before he shuts down completely. He wanted to savor every last second of it. He could’ve destroyed Earth and the Titans in a heartbeat, but decided that Ozzy’s pain was more important to him than any divine instructions from the Hivemind or Gigan.

However, this was the only real mistake that Xenilla would make. Whether the Titans destroy him completely, killing Ozzy in the process, or actually manage to save Ozymandias- it was Xenilla’s inability to put aside his hunger for suffering that led to his death.

Abraxas - King of Kings Ending

(considering he traditionally dies in Genocide and Coexistence (at least the more widely accepted versions of them) I’m referring to the ending in which he survives as 'King of Kings’. This is just for simplicity’s sake, it doesn’t really need to be a third route, I’m just doing this for this post so I don’t have to deal with a bunch of confusing vocabulary. King of Kings is the ending to Xenilla’s story where Ozymandias is saved, that’s what I’m defining this section as: The Post-Xenilla Ozzy.)

The process to remove the parasite is an extremely complex series of surgeries done after Godzilla and crew beats Xenilla in combat- knocking him out and shipping him off to Apex to be sedated and the fungus painstakingly purged from his body.

He isn’t allowed to wake up for 2 months and 3 weeks. When he finally does, the first thing he sees are the magenta eyes of his brother leaning over his giant surgery table under Apex’s Hong Kong facility.

The day of his awakening is… emotional, to say the very least. Every Titan allowed to see him cries- a lot. Even the ones that didn’t really know him super well. The only one of Goji’s close allies that is not allowed to see him is Kong, for fear that Ozzy might react poorly to the presence of an ape.

In the order of which they were allowed to see Ozzy:

Godzilla is a fucking mess from the moment his brother opens his eyes to a literal week after, despite describing that week as 'the brightest time of my life’.

Shimo, while typically a calm and serious kaiju, couldn’t hold back her well of half-frozen tears from seeing her best friend again- refusing to stop apologizing for being taken by Skar even after being assured that it was never her fault and that no one could seriously blame her for it.

For what seems like the first time in her life, Tiamat is content simply to be with another person- no explicit activities involved. Simply being allowed to wrap lovingly around Ozzy and rest her head on his chest was enough.

Vivienne walked into his surgery room feeling- conflicted. Shockingly, none of it was about Ozzy. It was about Gigan, and about her final fight with him, what she saw onboard the Mothership. Getting to see all that, see Ghidorah’s legacy, see such stark reminders of the monster that ripped her life from her- it opened old wounds she thought were healed. She wanted to tell someone about it, speak to Mothra or maybe even Goji about it- but she would feel selfish doing that, making everything about her when they needed to focus on bringing Ozzy back. When she walked into the surgery room, saw Shimo, Godzilla, and Tiamat all with tears in their eyes and surrounding the titanic creature, when Goji introduced Abraxas as one of his best friends through stutters and choking sobs, when Ozymandias looked towards her and introduced himself with such a happy and joyful disposition despite what he had just been through- even memories of Ghidorah faded away for that moment. She’d talk to Mothra later, right now was the time to be happy.

Of course, the first thing Mothra had to do was comfort her King as he had been non-stop tearing up for about 30 minutes at this point. After he is somewhat stabilized from his rampant joyous sobbing and laughter, she climbs up on Ozzy’s bed, and just looks into his eyes, observing the beating life in them. To see them devoid of all color and whitened when he was possessed was the most terrifying thing about Xenilla to her, and it was something she had not been able to unsee in the months of their conflict with him. Now, she just tries her best to take in his rampant smile and lively purple eyes to replace Xenilla’s lifeless ones.

Dagon and Barb enter next. Ozzy’s confused at first as to who the machine is when Goji calls him Dagon. After a brief explanation, Dagon states how he’s happy to see Ozzy again and that if he could cry at that moment, he would. Ozzy gets up, walks over to him, and touches his arm;

“Can you feel this?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Then Ozzy just full-body hugs him- despite how cold the metal is.

“I missed you, dad.”

Barb, Rodan, Behemoth, and all the other Titans and that wanted to meet him introduce themselves. When they all first walk in, Ozzy’s overwhelmed at first.

“These people- they’re all here for me?”

“They all helped save you, so yeah- they want to see if you’re doing ok, and also meet the famous 'King of Kings while they’re at it.”

Of course, Ozzy’s floored that all these Titans showed for him. Through quick handshakes, he promises each one that he’ll seek them out later to introduce himself properly.

Then, they allow all the humans to meet him. They let all of the Monarch and Apex staff that helped to save him say hi. Ozzy’s mind is actually malfunctioning at this point due to so many people actually wanting to talk with and meet him.

“These are just the ones that helped! These aren’t even the civilians that can’t wait to see the King of Kings in all his glory.” Rodan tells him.

“There are more of them?!?! How many more wish to meet me??”

“Jeez- uh, rough estimate? Most of the world.” Abraxas chimes in.

“They’re- not scared of me?”

“Maybe once, but humans fear that which they can’t understand. Now? The Titans have saved us all hundreds of times. You’re all Gods to us, Guardians, defenders. Now? People look to towering monsters with hope. Now? They’ll love you.” Maia tells him.

It’s enough to get the tear ducts welling up again.

When Goji finally takes him to meet Kong a little later, the first thing he has to say to the ape is an apology. He apologizes for what happened to the remaining apes, their banishment, and Kong’s orphaning. He says that it’s something he’d never have let happen if he was still around, and how he hopes that Kong could forgive him for his hand in destroying his people. It’s- honestly overwhelming to Kong that any kaiju would offer sympathy for the results of the war. Even the one he’d expect that from most, Mothra, never offered words like that. Suffice to say, Ozzy immediately goes on Kong’s list of 'people I actively respect’.

When Ozzy finally leaves the depths of Apex’s facility fully recovered, he actually recoils at the warmth of the sun and breeze of the wind. He stops moving for a second and Goji turns to find him stuck and looking up at the sun.

“Brother? Are you alright?”

“Yes. Please, go ahead. I’m- going to be here for a while.”

Goji leaves him for a second as Ozzy closes his eyes, breathes in, and exhales the fresh air. He returns to his brother later with fresh tears in his eyes.

“I had forgotten- how warm the Sun was…”

Shamhat

(ok- this parts gonna be a little out there, I know. It’s an extremely unlikely thing to happen and I’m not expecting it to- this is just kind of a What If that may even spark some additional ideas on how to introduce additional kaiju into Shamhat. I don’t think this contradicts anything said in Shamhat, I can’t remember Ozzy ever being mentioned in that story. This is kind of a workaround to introduce him into that timeline without having to have a war against Xenilla- although it does totally cut out that part of his character… Again, you can totally disregard this section; there’s probably lots of ways to bring Ozzy into that story that aren’t this one, this one just conveniently includes another kaiju who could also be a problematic addition to include; and also deals with some undefined lore parts of that timeline that I’ve actually been curious about whilst reading. Additionally, there are a few other headcanons here that just involve what Ozzy would do if he were in Shamhat.)

First off: the namesake of the story. We know that Mothra and Godzilla inspired the legend of Enkidu and Shamhat with their week-long time at an oasis, but there is still a major part of that myth this is undefined in this timeline- Gilgamesh. Who inspired that part of the Epic? Well, I actually think that Ozymandias is probably the best candidate here. But for him to actually establish a city and rule it like he would have Uruk, he needs to not be abducted back when humans were still evolving into Homo Sapiens (at least that’s when I picture him being abducted). So- he just doesn’t. Whether Gigan fails to kidnap him or he just never finds Earth at all, a very major change in the Shamhat timeline is that Ozzy stays on Earth and is never actually abducted. But- that doesn’t mean he can’t still vanish… and he still does, albeit for only around 2000 years this time, until the modern day. Why? Because he caught the whiff of a scent he hadn’t smelled for millions of years; Shimo. As soon as he catches the lightest whiff of his best friend from a nearby Hollow Earth Portal… he’s gone. Instantly, he rushes into the Hollow Earth with reckless abandon, portal shutting behind him, and vanishes from the surface world. Despite having his brother and mate on the surface, he knows he needs to do this- and he hopes they will understand if he doesn’t show his face for a little while. However, what he finds in the Hollow Earth is something he realizes he’ll need a little longer than 'a little while’ to handle- a fully rebuilt Kong Empire, right under his nose, and one with a scarred king at the helm, and Shimo as his personal pet. At this realization- the fury of Ozymandias knows no bounds- and he swears an oath, right there, that he is not to return home unless it is with Shimo by his side and the apes consigned to his nuclear flames. A little while turns into 2000 years of a one-man war with the Skar King- one that Ozymandias wins. Breaking Shimo’s chains, reunited for the first time in 2 million years, the two return to a fully changed surface world.

The two emerge from a Hollow Earth Portal on Skull Island, shrink down, and pretty quickly encounter a human-shifted Kong along with Andrews and Jia. Suffice to say, everyone is freaked out for their own reasons. Andrews (to her infinite credit) manages to defuse a potentially very violent encounter between the kaiju, and gets Ozzy to talk about who he is and where he’s come from. At this point- Godzilla’s sensed the insanely potent scent that Ozymandias exudes, and rushes to find Tiamat so they can investigate. Thus, the Infant Island gang takes a brief field trip to Skull Island. By this point, Ozzy’s gotten to talk to Kong a little and is relieved that there’s an ape around that doesn’t want his head on a mantle. He’s happy to introduce himself and Shimo to the Monarch folk and tries to establish a diplomatic relationship with both Kong and Monarch (through ahem whatever means he deems appropriate…). Goji and crew arrive later, absolutely over the moon to find Ozzy alive- but simultaneously a little ticked off that he up and vanished one random day without telling anyone. After a brief explanation and an introduction of Shimo (who’s introduction and explanation make Tiamat more than a little jealous…), Ozzy reassures everyone that he doesn’t intend to vanish off the face of the Earth again any time soon.

As soon as he catches wind of the Great Infant Island Mating Press- he wants in. He needs a vacation after all that shit went down in the Hollow Earth for 2000 years. Shimo probably needs one more, having not fucked anything in 2 million years. Ozzy’s so into the idea, in fact, he invites Kong and Andrews and basically insists that they join them. They end up convinced, and return to Infant just in time for Mothra’s heat to rear it’s pheromone-laced head again.

Ozzy immediately gets nostalgic for his and Tiamat’s 'Housewarming Events’ they used to hold. This is a policy he fully intends to revisit now that he’s home. Randomly in the middle of the Season, he’ll vanish for like 3 days and come back with another Titan to join them. He’ll literally do tours of the planet on like a weekly basis, running around with his rut blazing and acting like a sex ice cream truck- into the territories of other Titans yelling “COME GET YOUR HOLES FILLED AT INFANT ISLAND!! :D” Recognizing the old King of King’s scent- everyone immediately knows what’s on and the venue changes from Tiamat’s sex cave into Mothra’s sex island. There’s at least 20 new Titans in like 3 weeks��

Despite all the new guests- Ozzy is still fucking insatiable. 2000 years of no sex really did something to him. Nobody can outpace him- even Tiamat gets left in the dust. Once, Goji goes out for an 8 hour patrol, and returns to find his brother on the couch of the main building, left arm around Rodan, right arm around Tiamat, Vivienne passed out on his lap, Mothra and her priestess out cold on the carpet, San slouched up against the couch with Maia in his grip, Shimo catnapping on the dining table, Kong out cold against the sliding glass door with Andrews in his grasp, and the Skullcrawlers all passed out in various dubious positions.

“Oh, hello brother! How was your patrol?”

“What the- HOW?!”

“How… am I doing? I’m great, how are you?”

(wowsers that post got big. I guess I just had a lot of stuff about this guy to get off my chest, sorry for blasting this novel into your inbox, lol. Here’s to the big horndog King of Kings, right? Feel free to drop your own hcs you haven’t mentioned before if you want. Also I wrote this in an external program and tumblr may have fucked over my formatting soooo- that’s probably not completely my fault if it’s bad.)

---

Good lord that’s a lot of Ozzy!

I like the inclusion of Shimo (huh, what few leaks I’ve seen says male, though I personally prefer Shimo female because the monster roster is all sausage) and that she was mates with Ozzy before Tiamat. Makes sense that Ozzy being so lonesome by reputation would translate to an insane sex drive, physical affection must be like a drug to him.

#submission

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thewrongexecution · 4 years ago

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thinkin’ ‘bout final fantasy

I go by Not The Author for exactly the reason that I ain’t no expert on any given work of fiction, but I do like to make connections what make me seem smart: an illusion, haphazardly crafted by incident accident and supplemented by precocious pretentiousness. All the same, here are some fun thoughts I had that you might also enjoy!

I do have a point, that I do get to. I feel like I should say that ahead of time, all things considered. Like, I can appreciate if you can’t appreciate a shaggy dog story? But there is a point to all this.

...Eventually.

Spoiler Warning:

Final Fantasies 1, 6, 7, 7R, 13 and 15

Content Warning:

Discussion of death

Cussin’

Length warning:

5621 words

13 sections

16 digressions

Let’s dig in.

- - - - -

Final Fantasy 1 was not my first Final Fantasy experience, but I think it was the first I ever played by myself? The remaster for the GBA, came bundled with FF2 on the same cart, which I played briefly but did not complete and do not remember, except that it had Cid.

FF1 doesn’t have a Cid, but I really loved the narrative anyway, straightforward as it was, because it was very specifically about spitting in the face of an uncaring god who would doom the world for a laugh. Take these chains that bind us to darkness and, though we be forgot to history, strangle with them that selfsame darkness to bring an end to its tyranny.

((it is a terrible curse, to love time travel. so many grand expectations, so few ever met. play ghost trick, chrono trigger, radiant historia, majora’s mask, outer wilds. have you any recs yourself, lemme know! I digress.

((I digress a lot, as I may have mentioned. they’ll be noted in parenthetical, like this.))

This is the foundation upon which Final Fantasy is built, and while any student of architecture could tell you of many and varied perfectly valid construction techniques, it resonates. Grappling with an immutable past to course-correct an uncaring future is, too, an apt description of personal growth; a theme as universal as being alive. And I, as an impressionable youth, ate that shit up.

((I assume I was young, at any rate. my love for time travel, be it era-spanning or moment-stretching, is, I suspect, not entirely coincidental to my terrible temporal memory.))

And that was the tale of the studio, too. Final Fantasy was so titled because, the story goes, the developers knew they would shutter if it didn’t make bank. Staring your imminent demise in the face, knowing your fate is doom, and giving it your all, all the same.

And then they made another twelve, plus two-and-a-half MMOs, and god knows how many mobile games and spin-offs, and now the Fantasy is that there could ever be a Final one. so say I: life parodies art.

((the half-an-MMO is FF14 1.0, which no longer exists and is a fascinating tale, a rally against bleak futures all its own. I’ll [link] Noclip’s three-part documentary covering the developer’s side of things, because that’s the one I’ve seen. there’s plenty other material to hunt down, though, if you wanna.))

- - - - -

Final Fantasy VII is a game about fate, too. Particularly Death, that most ultimate of fates. Tragic, to be sure; preventable, or at least delayable, in many cases; necessary, at times, for the growth of something new.

Unrelenting. Unstoppable. Inescapable.

Death, and the fights against it, take many forms. There are the fascist death squads that hunt down your ragtag band and any dissent against their cruel masters, but these will only truly stop by cutting off the hydra’s head and building an entirely new society; eight dudes and their dog, faced with a corporate private military, can survive but never win. There are such disasters as do slay that hydra, be they natural or man-made. There’s the space alien and the apocalypse it ushers. There’s literal illness and injury, physical or otherwise. There are the deaths of loved ones, friends and family, that lead to some subtler deaths within those that survive them. The deaths of relationships, by neglect or abandonment. The ideological deaths we inflict on ourselves, accepting ever-growing lesser evils in the name of some impossible ideal.

Every day, the person we were becomes the person we are, and soon, the person we are will give way to someone new, and this, too, is a sort of death. In this sense, we tally Cloud’s deaths at least five: failure to become a Soldier and rebirth in shame, the massacre of Nibelheim and rebirth in grief, arrival at Midgar and rebirth in delusion, his cratering at the Crater and rebirth in nihilism, and his death and rebirth in the Lifestream of Mideel.

((you could prolly hunt down another two if you wanna be cheeky, but I lack the knowledge, motive and patience. frankly, this whole thing is to create a leading line of logic and probably isn’t, uh. academically ethical? or whatever the term is. I’m not necessarily wrong, but I’m definitely scuttling nuance. oh well!))

Now, I say “rebirth,” because that’s how deaths of identity more-or-less work. There’s usually some new identity waiting in the wings to take over. And rebirth is itself a notable theme, inasmuch as it is one outcome of death. But death is oft more final than that, and what people do in its imminence and wake is key here, too. Wutai’s collapse into an insular tourist trap. Avalanche’s vengeful fervor, in general and post-plate drop. Bugenhagen trying to pass his knowledge on to Red. The whole party’s ongoing post-traumatic depressive episodes.

Ultimately, death is the inescapable fate of all things. It’s what we do, in light of that, that makes us who we are.

- - - - -

Final Fantasies 13 and 15 are the only modern Final Fantasies I’ve beaten, and I bring them up because both deal very prominently with fate and death, and as Square’s most recent mainline FF titles, Remake can’t exist without comparison to them. Here’s what I remember:

Final Fantasy 13 was a game I enjoyed. The stagger system mixed up my casual FF tradition of Get The Big Numbers by putting a prominent UI element onscreen that says You Can’t Get The Big Numbers Unless The Bar Is Full. Suddenly there’s a natural-but-enforced ebb and flow to combat built in, where you gotta juggle chip damage, survival, and crowd control while keeping resources enough to burst down a staggered foe, but maintain situational awareness to swap back into survival mode if you’re not gonna down your enemy, all in something close to real-time. Very obviously a direct precursor to the combat of Remake. I didn’t realize the depth of it, but it was still super fun.

People at the time didn’t like the linearity of the game and, I can see that in retrospect? I think it’s closer to, there weren’t breakpoints, there wasn’t variety. It was cutscenes, combat, and the stretches of land between them; the only real thing for the brain to get a workout on was the combat, and eating only one kinda food is gonna make that food taste bland.

((I didn’t mind, but I like idle games, and, also probably had depression around then. Take that how you will.))

The story, though, I loved. You got your uncaring gods forcing mortals to do their increasingly-impossible bidding, cursing them to agonized unlife if they take too long, and with blissful, beautiful death if they succeed. It sucks! And here you have a ragtag band of incidental idiots trying to rebel against a system that, actually, wants them to? Like that’s the plan? Have mortals kill god and summon the devil to destroy all life, because god, doesn’t.... like life anymore?

((The lore gets more than a little impenetrable, and I remember bouncing off it a couple times. The throughline of God Sucks And Makes Zombies was good though.))

The biblical parallels are obvious, and if they weren’t, the final boss’ design will clue you in, god that’s a good design. hang on I can add pictures and already tossed a spoiler warning, here, look at this:

(per the Final Fantasy Fandom Wiki [X])

That’s literally The Holy Trinity But A Sword The Size Of A Building. It’s perfect.

Anyway, I love this game, because the heroes win, which is what God wants, so in winning, they lose, as was fated to be, right? Fuck All That, say the lesbians from space australia, as they turn into satan and, as satan, stop God’s shitty metal moon from crashing into space australia and destroying all life.

((this awakened something in me, though, as is becoming a theme, I wasn’t aware of it at the time. actually hold up I’m gonna rewatch that sequence.

((yeah okay wow on review that was aggressively cheesy and had a whole bunch of weird emotional whiplash that just leaves a super-bad aftertaste. I don’t really like it as an experience, but big bazonga lesbian satan with arms for hair is still a look-and-a-half.))

The whole thing is not entirely unlike if meteor was also Midgar, and there’s more than a few points where I went, hang on, are they trying to evoke 7 here? “Lightning” is ex-military and bad at emotions, Sazh is a black dad w/ guns and emotional trauma and I love him, quirky pink healer girl who might be an alien is here, the game starts on a train and leads into a robot bug fight; obviously it’s not one-to-one but the connections are there for a brain like mine to make, and only more prominent for the fact that FF7 was the more satisfying game.

((I cannot speak to 13-2 or -3; 13-2 was fun up until the enemies were abruptly 30 levels higher than me, more or less a mandate by the game for me to do all the side content, which I was not on-board with. I skipped 13-3 entirely, especially when I learned the whole game is on a timer. did not and do not need that stress in my life.))

- - - - -

But okay, FF13 was “too linear” and wasn’t doing super great. Enter Final Fantasy Versus 13, by which I mean enter Final Fantasy 15 actually, we don’t need any more of this 13 crap. And once again, I enjoyed it! ...Right up until it was bad.

Final Fantasy 15 was not a finished game, and we know this for certain now, because all its DLC was to make it a finished game. At the time, though, there was uncomfortable and inconsistent story pacing, only one playable character, relatively sparse combat mechanics... but it was open-world, and hey, that’s what you wanted, right? open, non-linear environments? I picked it up because, Teleporting Swordsman With a Motorcycle Sword. I am of simple pleasures, and those are they.

Of the little I remember, one point that’s stuck with me is the sequence following the Leviathan fight. See, we’ve been talking about fate and destiny and how Final Fantasy likes to spite them. Here in 15, our main man Noctis doesn’t want the destiny he’s been burdened with, to Become The King and Save The World from the Coming Darkness, or whatever. He’d really rather be doing, anything else? like hanging out with his buddies or actually getting married or, I dunno, grieving the death of his father. Nope! You don’t get to do that. Go find the ghost armaments of your dead ancestors so you can ~saaave the wooorld!~ I would have been in college around then, so, eminently relatable.

Now, on this journey, you meet a guy called Ardyn. He’s the sort of character that was built as an attack on me personally: sleazy, charming, possessing airs of casual familiarity with people he’s never met, kinda helps you out in tight spots, and also, by the way, vizier to the empire that killed your dad and wants you and your friends dead too. But not in the “secret good guy” way, he just likes fucking with you! he’s perfect.

Right up until the Leviathan fight.

See, Lunafreya, your betrothed--

((I’m so mad about this stupid, stupid garbage. I love Lunafreya on principle, but the game doesn’t bother to give her screentime. you only ever hear about her incidentally, which can be cool if you then meet the character and get to compare/contrast what you’ve heard, but the initial release only has her show up for this one chapter, and your party doesn’t really get to interact with her that much.))

Your betrothed is here and she’s some symbol of the peoples’ hope, right? she’s got light magic or something, and can actually commune with the gods. the gods are on your side, but you can’t actually understand a word they say, but she can, and that’s sick as hell. anyway.

You lose the fight against Leviathan, because you’re a shitty emo teen who doesn’t know how to use your ghost swords, and she got beat up earlier when Levi got all pissy at being summoned. And then Ardyn shows up in his magitek dropship.

Now earlier, Ardyn had Luna as his captive, completely at his mercy, and right now, he who would be king of kings, destined to save the world from darkness, is clutching at rock in a hurricane, beaten, wounded and dying.

Of the two, which do you think he stabs to death?

if you thought, “the protagonist, which will allow him to win, and subvert Final Fantasy’s themes of defying fate by having the villain be the one to do it, forcing everyone else to scramble for some alternate solution and deal with the fallout,” congratulations! You win disappointment, because that idea’s cool as hell and they didn’t. fucking. Do it.

((Ardyn, before this, had given me major Kefka vibes, and thinking on it now, the world descending into darkness in the 15 we never had could have played with even deeper parallels to FF6... but I never played 6, and that FF15 doesn’t exist, so... I’ll leave that analysis to better scholars.))

now, with the benefit of hindsight, that was never going to happen. too long in development hell, game had to ship, had no time or budget for mid-game upheaval. but at the time? made me lose any interest I had in Ardyn, made me mad at the developers for passing up on fulfilling the themes their series had explored in past, made me almost stop playing the game. I’m still mad about it for crying out loud!

((thinking about it gets me tensed up, coiled, with that sort of full-body thrum that’s best conveyed with letters that jitter around. best I can do here is bold italics, but it doesn’t have the right energy. it’s a fleeting feeling, but when it’s here? god. given the men that wrote this scene I would fight all of them and win.

((inhale...

((exhale...

((and move on.))

We, the player, never really meet Luna, so there’s no real... impact, no substance to it. It’s sad, but impersonal. villain kills damsel to inflict manpain on hero. that’s it. we’ve seen this song and dance before.

But kill Noctis? The character the player’s been controlling all this time, who they know intimately? Now it’s personal. Now your party members’ grief is a mirror to your own. And now you get to play as Luna, maybe? give the game time to flesh her out, have her bond with your old companions over their shared grief, and maybe use her connections and public speaking skills to rally the people of the world, in a perhaps-vain attempt to resist the oncoming darkness, while simultaneously using that public-facingness to drive her to hide her own fear and hopelessness...? That’s a complex character ripe for drama and tragedy right there! And then her, at the head of a story about people coming together to solve a global calamity themselves, rather than await their appointed savior?

Even then, but especially now... You can see the appeal, right?

- - - - -

Lemme step back and zoom out for a moment, because there’s one more kind of Fate to discuss before I finalize my thesis. Yes, I promise, there is a point besides being mad at FF15, this is still ultimately about Remake. Bear with me a little longer.

See, Remake’s premise is that it’s not quite FF7, but that itself is predicated on Remake being essentially FF7. Certain things must be in the Remake series, or it will cease to be the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series. The developers have gone on record saying as much, that they’ll still cover the thrust of the original, and that makes a lot of sense from a development standpoint. Building on an existing framework saves loads of time, and lets them focus on details as they have in Remake.

((I think they've already set up an in-universe justification for this, too. The party may have defeated the Whispers at Midgar, but the Whispers are the will of the planet. The only way to truly defeat them would be to defeat the planet itself, which: kind of the goal of the villains!

((a bit ironic, because the villains are the Whispers’ means to keep manipulating events. Remake backends a very large portion of the plot, and I don’t think Rufus seeing the Whispers is a throwaway detail. The party chases Sephiroth by chasing Shinra in the original, so even if the party has shaken free of the direct influence of the Whispers, manipulating Shinra should in turn manipulate the party.

((on top of which, Rufus prizes power, and the power to change or control fate-- something both the party and Sephiroth have seized-- would be as enticing as anything.))

But this begs the question: How much of Final Fantasy 7 is necessary before it stops being Final Fantasy 7? Do you need all nine characters? The Weapons? Rideable chocobo? Breedable chocobo? What about locations? Can you drop the Gold Saucer? or Mount Condor? or Mideel? How many minigames am I holding up? These are necessary questions, but so is this:

“Would a one-to-one recreation of the original game have the same emotional impact as when it released, twenty-three years ago?”

- - - - -

Now, the phrase “emotional impact” is necessarily kind of nebulous and subjective, so lemme dig into that a little bit.

The first significant chunk of the original FF7 takes place entirely in Midgar, which is one huge city. Every screen is densely packed; movement is typically constrained to narrow corridors and industrial crawlspaces. The whole world is deeply claustrophobic and visually hostile, by design.

This is FF7 for the first few hours, before a motorcycle chase deposits you outside city limits, and then... you hit the world map, and everything changes. The world is rendered in three whole dimensions, now! (Then, a technological marvel in its own right.) There’s a sky! There’s a horizon! Grass, mountains, the ocean!

Boundless, terrifying freedom.

From a mechanical standpoint, there’s only one real destination, an A-to-B with random encounters before a small enclosure with an inn and shops, no real change from what you’ve already been doing. But the mood? Everything’s fresh and new, now. Everything’s an unknown.

So, how do we do that again, two-and-a-half decades on?

Let’s say, something like this: Remake 2 starts with Cloud and Sephiroth en route to Nibelheim. For new players, this provides immediate intrigue: why are these mortal enemies hanging out in a truck? how did they get here, where are they going? For veterans, it’s familiar: oh, we’re in the flashback sequence.

For both, it provides mechanical familiarity. We just finished last game hanging out in Midgar, a bunch of town squares with shops and cutscenes connected to hazardous corridors. Well, Nibelheim’s a town with shops and cutscenes, connected to a monster-filled anthill and capped with a reactor. We know this. We’ve done this. We can do this again.

And when the flashback ends, we’re in Kalm. Another town, maybe with sidequests this time; Midgar looming in the distant skybox as a reminder of how far we’ve come.

And then you leave Kalm, and the camera zooms out, and out, and out...

Remake is essentially 7, and you can’t have the impact of 7′s world map reveal if Remake isn’t functionally open-world too. Square has plenty of experience with open environments, however successful their more recent attempts have been; I’m confident that the have the ability, at least, to craft an expansive world that feels appropriate to FF7.

((I’d like to take a moment here to talk about FF14, which mixes both compact twisty dungeons and wide-open overworld zones, and is necessarily wildly successful to still be operating as an MMO... but though I have played it briefly, I don’t claim knowledge sufficient to go in-depth. The point is, Square not only can make a game like that, they have, and are, and apparently possess non-zero competency. I have worries, but I’m not worried, if that makes sense.))

So, can you recreate a given kind of emotional impact? Yeah!

Can scenes from the original Final Fantasy 7 be rendered into a new context, more-or-less as they were? Absolutely!

Would a one-to-one recreation of the original game have the same emotional impact as when it released, twenty-three years ago?

- - - - -

Aerith dies.

If you opened this post and didn’t know that, well. There were spoiler warnings up at the top, the game’s more than two decades old, and the spoiler itself is basically a piece of pop-culture, up there with space dad and wizard killer. There’re probably plenty of people who know next-to-nothing about Final Fantasy 7 except that Aerith dies.

Everyone knows because, at the time, it was so big a thing. This was a title that Square hyped to heaven and back to push JRPGs into mainstream western markets, and it worked. And this was before major death was so common and arbitrary as it is today; even now, Game of Thrones and its ilk are a relative rarity. The death of a protagonist or love interest wasn’t a new thing for games, or any media really, but usually you knew it was coming, or it served some purpose. Aerith’s death was sudden, arbitrary, you’re almost immediately thrown into a boss fight so you don’t even have time to process it right away, and it’s the first stone in an avalanche of other pointless arbitrary tragedy. It’s an obvious narrative setup for the endgame confrontation with Sephiroth; instead, Cloud has a breakdown, Meteor happens, and now there’s an entire Disk 2.

Fandom has always been fandom, even before the continuous immediacy of the modern internet, but... people wrote letters to Square, and got sad on message boards. There’s an entire subset of forum signatures, back when those were a thing, that you could sort as “people fucked up over Aerith dying.” And again, this was the world. Not just Japan, or Asia, but everyone.

((Or, everyone with the finances to have a PS2 and/or an internet connection. Gaming as a pastime remains way expensive, whether played or watched. But you know how it is.))

And that’s the problem with answering that question.

See, FF7 is a lot of things, but for better or worse, it is defined by Aerith’s death. It’s one of many factors, but you can’t... leave it out, right? or it wouldn’t be FF7 anymore.

Aerith dies in FF7, and everyone knows it.

- - - - -

But Remake has promised, repeatedly, that things will be different this time. Everyone is coming together to defy fate, and Cloud in particular is here to keep Aerith from dying. Bodyguard jokes aside, Cloud repeatedly has flashbacks (flashforwards?) to Aerith’s death and the events leading to it. When he meets her in the church, when they cross into Sector 6, twice in the final battle. Hell, the very first time they meet, Sephiroth taunts him about not being able to save her. Even from a metatextual standpoint, since everyone knows Aerith dies, that’s like, The Most Obvious Fate To Change.

If, after all that, Aerith still dies? It’s not just tragedy, at that point. That’s the developers, actively lying to the player about their intent in making this game series. That’s frustrating, and immersion-breaking, and when said death is likely to still have one or more entire sequels to come after? maybe not great for sales! I know I didn’t bother buying the complete edition of FF15; I couldn’t bring myself to care enough about a game that set up this cool possibility, and then just, failed to deliver on every count.

And, Remake is being made for two audiences. I’ve said “everybody knows Aerith dies,” but that’s not really true, is it? It’s been 23 years, after all. Remake could well be someone’s very first Final Fantasy experience. That’s why they’ve been telegraphing Aerith’s death so hard. Not everyone knows, but at least everyone can guess. Is it fair, then, to this new audience, with potentially no knowledge or understanding of the legacy of this flashy new action game, to foreshadow tragedy in the future, have everyone come together to say, We’re Going To Stop This, and then... not? Is that good writing? Is that satisfying? When this is a multi-game and potentially multi-console investment of time and money, is this, as a newcomer, a story you’d want to keep playing?

And then on top of that, it’s 2020.

I don’t mean that in the current-year-fallacy, “we’re better than this now” kind of way. Rather, the way I felt about Final Fantasy 15 is even more relevant now. People, in real life, are realizing that the powers-that-be are failing them, have failed them, have been failing them for far longer than twenty-three years. The people that already knew that are actually showing up for each other, to spite what felt and feels like inescapable fate and finding that, together, they might just be able to ruin God’s day.

Game development is, of course, its own whole beast, and projects in motion tend to stay in motion; deviating from a plan takes time and money that Square may be unwilling to spend. But, under current world circumstances: is making a game where the hero sets out to save one specific person from their fated death, and following that with a game where that one specific person dies anyway, aside from everything else, a good business decision?

- - - - -

So... Aerith, shouldn’t die, right...? But, FF7 requires Meteor, and so requires the Temple of the Ancients and the Black Materia. And, Meteor can only be stopped by Holy, so FF7 requires the Forgotten City.

FF7 is a tragedy. FF7 demands blood.

...Hey, actually, hold that thought. How come Cloud can remember Aerith dying in the first place? He’s not from the future, right? He’s got a connection to Sephiroth, who is from the future... and Sephiroth can manipulate his memories...? but, why would Sephiroth let him, or make him, remember that?

Hey, how come Zack is alive, but like, in the “narrative scope” sense? Wouldn’t his presence circumvent Cloud’s delusions about the Nibelheim incident?

Hey, how come Cloud had multiple big climactic Sephiroth confrontations at what’s essentially the end of the prologue, including one that mirrors the very end of the original FF7? Shouldn’t that still come at, like, you know. the end?

Hey, how come--

- - - - -

Remake has these... Callbacks? Refrains? Like my favorite, when Sephiroth throws a train-- you know, The Fate Metaphor-- at Cloud, who absolutely shreds the thing. Or, for a more direct example:

And it frequently uses these to show that people are changing, that things can change. You know, the whole Running Theme the game has going on.

Sephiroth gets a refrain, too.

At the start of the game (give or take a reactor), in his first real appearance, Sephiroth philosophizes at Cloud, makes sure Cloud hates him, and tells Cloud what he wants.

At the end of the game, in his last appearance, Sephiroth philosophizes at Cloud, tells Cloud what he wants, and makes sure Cloud hates him.

Structurally, these encounters more-or-less bookend the game; thematically, it doesn’t exactly indicate change. Barret may or may not have come around on Cloud, and his admission that Cloud is important to him after all is, itself, important. Cloud, on the other hand, was always going to defy Sephiroth. He stands resolute, now, ready to fight rather than flee, but apathy was never on the table.

Now, Sephiroth’s whole Thing is psychologically manipulating Cloud to get what he wants, and as part of that, what Sephiroth wants is usually not what he says he wants.

All throughout the original FF7, Sephiroth riled up Cloud so that Cloud would pursue and defy him, culminating first in the Black Materia incident, and then again in the Forgotten City. None of the Sephiroth clones could survive the trip through the Northern Crater, so Sephiroth had to lure Cloud, with the Black Materia, to him, and then also convince Cloud to give up the Black Materia of his own accord. Mind control, memory manipulation and illusions were involved, but if Sephiroth could maintain those indefinitely, he probably just. Would have done that instead. Way easier,

The point is, in Remake, in addition to all the intermittent retraumitization sprinkled throughout the game, Sephiroth goes out of his way twice to directly ask Cloud, “hey, you hate me, right?” And, as part of that question, he tells Cloud, “this is what I want.” And Cloud? He hates Sephiroth, and will do his damnedest to keep Sephiroth from getting what he wants.

So. What does Sephiroth... say he wants?

- - - - -

One last aside before we cap off: This post would not exist without the valiant efforts of one Maximilian_dood. His devotion to the series kept myself and many others engaged and excited and, frankly, hopeful, in the leadup to the release of Remake, and his correlations between the rest of the FF7 series and Remake were enlightening and entertaining.

and had he not the gall to identify defying fate as a device to make aerith’s death more tragic, I would never have been angry enough to write this.

((I know, I know. Gaming and streaming and lit analysis are all hard individually, and I don’t begrudge losing one for the other two. And it was a first playthrough! I might have seen these lines sooner than some, but collating all this info was certainly not instantaneous. And Square can be hack writers at times-- see again my rant on FF15-- so even then, I can’t discount the possibility.

((but, still.

((Really?))

So, while I would like to believe that I have, by now, made my thesis on Remake’s narrative direction abundantly clear, here it is spelled out anyway:

- - - - -

At the bottom of the Forgotten City, at the shrine on the pillar in the lake, Cloud will find Aerith, who believes her fate immutable.

Sephiroth will descend, and Cloud will sacrifice himself, that Aerith should live.

This is Sephiroth’s plan.

- - - - -

Hey, thanks for reading this far! With my conversational tone and rambling tendencies, I’d have preferred to make this an audio post or, god forbid, a video essay, but I got a keyboard, and that’ll have to do. Diction is important to me, as the capitalization, italics and use of punctuation may have clued you in on, so... maybe you’ll get a dramatic reading sometime in the future? but, don’t bet on it.

Feel free to riddle me with questions, or point out inconsistencies with this big ol’ thing! I’m not exactly an expert, and I’m sure I glossed over, heavily paraphrased, completely forgot, intentionally ignored and/or aggressively misrepresented some stuff, but I love learning and teaching esoteric bullshit about The Vijigams. On that note, anything that sounds like it should be sourced is sourced from “I heard about it on social media or in a stream or youtube video one time, but if I actually had to hunt it down this whole thing would never see the light of day, and it has already been like three months,” which isn’t to excuse my lack of due diligence, but I do, lack diligence, so, tough.

Oh! but the Remake screens all come from [here]. Don’t care much for that splash screen, but, I Get It, so, whatever.

There were some other things I wanted to touch on but couldn’t really find a spot for. FF7 Remake as a metaphor for its own development, for example. Or, some of The Possibilities, like how Cloud’s death could very literally haunt Aerith, or how Remake sets up a more fleshed-out Midgar revisit that Cloud’s death specifically would make infinitely sadder.

On that note, if it was not yet obvious, I love speculation, and if they do go this direction, it’ll probably be their justification to go completely... off the rails? Remake only has to be FF7 until it doesn’t, after all. If there’s some wilder implications youall see for like... I dunno, a Jenova more fully-regenerated from also having Cloud’s cells back, getting into proper Kaiju-on-Kaiju battles with the Weapons, or anything like that? Feed me your brain juice, etc.

And, once more, for the road: this is interpretation; subjective, opinionated, and very much in denial of any kind of author-ity. Nor is this a claim on how things should be, or an assertion that this would be good or bad. Everything ultimately rests on Square's narrative design team and, we’ve touched on them already.

((but, for your consideration: I’m smart, and right))

Here’s hoping, whatever happens, we get the game we deserve.

thanks for coming to my ted talk, have a great day

#In This Essay I Will but for real this time #but hell if that's stopped me before #ff7 remake #blatant speculation #ff7 remake spoilers #ff7 spoilers #ff13 spoilers #ff15 spoilers #I dip into spoiler territory on more but these ones get a deeper dive #also if any of y'all know how to get images screen-read-able please lemme know #the screenshots are to point out that the game itself does do these things #but I don't wanna content-lock anybody out of my bad garbage #also also if the wordcount didn't clue you in:#long post #posting this right now immediately listening

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