Timber TV Station
The team arrives on scene.
QUISTIS: “We need to restrain him!” I honestly don’t know whether she’s talking about Seifer or Vinzer.
-Oh right, there’s some Rinoa-Seifer connection.
I take it back with the whole “Quistis gone rogue” theory. He must be doing this on his own because he thinks it’ll help her.
-Quistis confirms that Seifer broke out, “injuring many in the process.” Well. Damn. Not sure if he and Rinoa are family, exes, currently together, or if it’s some unrequited love. My guess is exes with Seifer possessing… no. I was going to say “exes with Seifer still feeling unrequited love,” but maybe it’s deeper. That sounds so CW when I say it.
-Zell. ZELL. STOP TALKING. Zell lets it slip that they’re all from the Garden in his anger at Seifer, and Vinzer now knows who’s in the room. Shit. Vinzer threatens the destruction of the Garden (are the cameras still rolling?).
-Seifer pulls his hostage out of the room. Quistis pursues.
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The Next Room
-The next room over, Seifer has his knife still on Vinzer’s throat. The screen is a weird bright purple color. I assume that this is a color-saturated TV we’re watching.
-AJKLFHAJKLHFADJKLHFAJKLHFALHAFKL
IT’S THE BIRD BEAK WOMAN FROM THE INTRO
[Later edit: I no longer think the purple haze is just a television monitor. I think it’s an aura of sorcery.]
-The music gets SUPER creepy, this tinkly noise. SHE’S the Sorceress. SHE’S Vinzer’s ambassador.
-Seifer. Dude. You’re fucked.
-Just watching screen for a bit. Getting legit goosebumps from this introduction and music.
-Quistis busts in, but the Sorceress summons some ball of light that stuns her in her tracks.
-oh my god, she is laying it on thick with this whole “You’re confused, you’re scared, and just a little boy” thing to Seifer.
The effect is chilling. She’s so much calmer than him right now, and in complete control of the situation. She’s reading him and his bluster so damn quickly and accurately.
-And it totally works. He rages out that he’s not a little boy, but she stays calm. Offering him help. Offering him a place with her, to leave his childhood behind. Maybe she’ll even toss some Turkish Delight into the mix. He drops the knife, and Vinzer runs off.
[Later edit: she does give off Narnian witch vibes, but perhaps it’s more like the Green Lady from The Silver Chair.
Fur unf guvf vzzbegny naq jbaqreshy fprar frg va ure haqretebhaq ynve gung'f nyjnlf fghpx jvgu zr. Fur hfrf n pbzovangvba bs zntvp naq zhfvp naq crefhnfvba gb pbaivapr gur urebrf gung gurer vf ab jbeyq nobir tebhaq, gung gurer vf bayl ure haqrejbeyq, gung gur yvsr gurl erzrzore sebz orsber gur nqiragher vf ohg n qernz.
(Gnatrag: V unq n ZNWBE pehfu ba ure jura V svefg ernq vg.)]
-The rest of Team Timber comes into the room, but she blasts them with this stunning magic. Seifer waves goodbye to them and walks off with the Sorceress into a portal to somewhere.
-The scariest part of all this? I don’t think she’s mind controlling him. I think she is just straight-up manipulating the fuck out of Seifer. He acted in desperation against Vinzer, has been essentially cast out from meaningful progress within the B-Garden, and is lost. She nailed it.
-It’s hard to describe how excited this makes me. She seems a major candidate for Big Bad, but even here I’m hesitant because of how burned I’ve been on guesses in the past.
Just hit me that the FF series has only rarely had a female Big Bad. It’s literally only been once. The Big Bad in FF3 was a hyper-forgettable “Cloud of Darkness” that was really just a force of nature without personality that took female form in the final fight.
FF1, 2, 4, The After Years, 5, 6, 7, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus all had male Big Bads. I am so down with her as the primary villain in 8, if the game goes that way. She’s WAY more likely than President Vinzer Deling at the moment.
AND THAT MUSIC HDJKLSHFDJKLSFDSAJKLFNAJKLFAN
-There are two past games this immediately reminds me of, one more than the other. The first is FFIV, with Golbez taking Kain on his side.
However, that was straight-up mind control. This more reminds me of FFII, where the Emperor took Leon onto his side, turned him into the Dark Knight, and we learn that it was not quite so involuntary as it seemed at first.
FFII Leon art by blackorb00 from deviantart.
Still WAY too early to tell what just happened. Could be persuasion, could be mind control, could be a long-con that Seifer’s running. (I would be shocked if it were the latter.) The Leon comparison is just what jumps out to me at this early stage.
-Hee. Rinoa comes into the aftermath of all that like “wtaf just happened.”
-The gang leaves the station. On the way down, Rinoa says that the Forest Owls’ base was found and completely destroyed. That sucks. At least the Owls themselves escaped.
-They have to leave Timber. Find somewhere safe.
And none of your sass, Squall!
-Save point. Whew. That was awesome.
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Next time: Escaping Timber.
