Summary: We meet the espers. They’re reasonable! The espers meet General Leo. He’s reasonable! Everyone makes peace and owns up to the destruction they wrought, maturely attempting to atone for their actions and make a better world together.
And then there’s Kefka.
Esper Cave
-The statues are readable. They gives me more background on the Warring Triad.
-My earlier theory was right – the gods fought with each other. They feared each other’s power.
-Whoa! The mortals caught in the crossfire became espers. All espers were once human! (Or at least mortal. Maybe they were all tapirs.) At least, the original espers. And they were slaves to the Triad.
-The Triad in the end voluntarily turned to stone because they saw the pointless chaos and destruction they wrought. Their final act before doing so was to free the espers from their slavery.
Chance of the Triad being woken in FFVI: 1,000%.
-Relm has the best job name: “Pictomancer.”
-There’s a room with five different trap floors that lead to different places, and I can loop back to try each one! Yay for exploration.
-We come upon a fairy-like creature. An esper.
-More come along. Some dragon espers and wolf espers.
-Strago moves to escape with Relm, but we get pincered in. Uh oh.
-YURA: “Wait!” The espers want to talk.
-Yura seems to commune with Terra for a while, but they talk to the larger gathering.
-When Terra opened the gate, the espers lost control. They got overwhelmed by their power in much the same way Terra did.
-Yura says they all now feel tremendous remorse for killing so many innocent citizens in Vector in their vengeful assault.
-Strago thinks something in the esper world dampened their power. The Triad maybe? Though I’d have thought that the Triad’s presence would enhance their power, not dampen it. Hm.
-Yura apologizes. They’re receptive to peace with the Empire. Yay! Unless Gestahl is only doing this to make them let their guard down.
-Back to Thamasa?? NOOOOOO!!!
-This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I only got to explore one passage of the cave, one of those trap floors. I had no idea this path would automatically end the quest. I really detest when games pull this shit. There should be an option that says, “We’re going to head back to Thamasa! Are you ready to go?” Grr.
I really hope I can come back here after we’re done in Thamasa to explore the rest.
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Thamasa
-Leo meets the espers.
-Oh god. This is terrifying.
Leo and Yura are both being reasonable and apologetic. (I’m not wild about equivocating what the espers did with the systematic destruction the Empire caused, but I get that both regret their actions.) What horrific thing is going to happen to ruin this?
-LOCKE: “I think our work here is finally done. It looks like true peace is finally upon us.” FUCK YOU, LOCKE. NO IT’S NOT. EXDEATH’S GOING TO SUCK THIS WORLD INTO THE RIFT OR SOMETHING. IT’S TOO EARLY IN THE GAME FOR “TRUE PEACE.”
Relm ships Locke and Celes so hard.
Everything is cute and fun. How long will this last?
-Approximately ZERO SECONDS. Kefka’s laugh. That sound effect is always a herald of bad things. His musical theme breaks in. How’d he get out of jail anyway? Does he actually have a faction of people in the Empire who like him who are staging a coup against the idea of an Empire at peace?
-He has three magitek armored soldiers with him. AND HE ORDERED ONE OF THEM TO FIRE ON EVERYONE, INCLUDING LEO AND THE IMPERIAL SOLDIERS IN THE PEACE TALKS. WTFWTFWTF
-FUCK. I WAS RIGHT.
GESTAHL LET HIM OUT. HE WANTED US TO MAKE PEACE WITH THE ESPERS TO GET THEM TO LET THEIR GUARD DOWN. I guess my running theory is still on track, that Gestahl will drain the espers before going super saiyan.
Still not sure how exactly the Warring Triad factors into this. Three (well, really four) possibilities seem likeliest to me at the moment:
1)Gestahl will wake up the Triad and do something to get super power from them, whether from them directly or using them as a way to enslave all the espers to the Empire somehow.
2)Our party and the surviving espers will wake the Warring Triad who will overwhelm Gestahl, but present us a new threat to conquer in the esper world. I don’t think the Triad is necessarily bad, but more like an out-of-control force of nature.
3)The surviving espers see the Empire’s betrayal as a sign that no humans can be trusted. They wake the Warring Triad and embrace their prior role as the Triad’s slaves, seeing it as their only chance for survival. Our party must fight off the Empire and the Triad-driven espers.
4)Let’s be honest. The most likely option is something else I’m not seeing. I’ve sucked at predictions thus far, so not sure why I’d all of sudden turn a corner with FFVI.
-Kefka is here to turn all the espers to magicite. He casts some spell and zaps one immediately into magicite. How is that possible? How is he doing that when the Empire couldn’t create magicite in the factory? I guess I was wrong, and that magicite isn’t just the product of a willing sacrifice. Hm.
-Kefka wants to burn the town. No particular reason – he got the magicite he wanted, or at least some of it. He’s just being an asshole.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
I mean, I know that term is way too generous for him, but still.
-Leo is the only one left standing to fight back. He was clearly not in on this. I kind of doubt that the Imperial soldiers and citizens will be all that happy about Gestahl backing Kefka over Leo.
-AND WE GET TO PLAY AS LEO!! YES!
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Next time: kick his ass, Leo!
