Lunar Base
-When the L. Pandora settles at Tears’ End, it draws the monsters from the moon like a magnet. Why is Galbadia doing this? I would’ve understood if Ultimecia were still possessing Edea and wanted to bring a monster army that she could somehow get under her control, but Edea’s been away from Galbadia for a while.
Maybe Seifer really is possessed by Ultimecia and took Edea’s place as leader.
Or wait wait wait! What if that’s the case, and the Esthar president wasn’t really inspecting Adel’s prison but rather was breaking it because somehow Adel pushed past the seals to mind-whammy him?
Now I’m getting tied in knots.
-Rinoa suited up in astronaut gear and headed towards Adel’s prison.
-lol. Now Squall is an astronaut too. (Yet another sentence I didn’t expect to type.)
PANICKY GENTLEMAN ASTRONAUT: “Why is everything happening all at once? It’s like somebody planned this!”
That’s what I’m having trouble wrapping my head around. This all seems super well-coordinated. I can’t imagine that Adel is doing her thing and Ultimecia is doing her thing and they’re totally independent.
-Controls here in this airlock thing are pretty wonky. Squall can’t get out, so head floats back to the ship.
-Two aides evacuate the president, getting him to an escape pod. He asks Squall to watch out for Ellone.
-Squall heads to the control room where he sees Rinoa out the window floating towards Adel’s prison.
-AAAAHH!!! This has developed into some of the creepiest space moments this side of Alien and Event Horizon. That demon voice starts moaning out “fiiiiIIITHOS!” and the other words as she floats.
-DFJKLSFDS HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT BEFORE?
There’s a woman etched into the face of Adel’s prison. She’s huge and not of human proportions, so I’m assuming it’s decorative rather than the frozen Adel herself.
-two seconds later I find I’m wrong as Adel wakes up.
-THAT FUCKING SMILE THAT SPREADS ACROSS ON HER FACE JEEEEESUS THE GOOSEBUMPS ARE REAL
-The prison gets sucked into the stream of monsters and Rinoa bounces back towards the lunar base.
-The base evacuates as Squall begs Ellone to send him to help Rinoa with her power. She isn’t sure if it’s possible. What does he even want? He wants to go back to the past before this happened?
---
Earth
-(I don’t know that I’ve heard a name for the planet in game, so just gonna call it Earth.
-Cinematic time. The red monster swarm beam breaks into the planet’s atmosphere and causes a pool on the ground.
-The Pandora illuminates from within.
-I’m not sure what’s happening – it’s a bit abstract and hard to follow. A star falls down. Adel maybe? Golden light converges on it, forming a dome as it descends.
[Later edit: as I think about this, it seems likely that this is Adel settling inside the Pandora.]
---
Evacuation
-The base’s inhabitants arrive at an escape pod.
-…this is like self-parody at this point. Piet tells me the tanks have 20 minutes air supply with five minutes reserve. Yup. A timer. A fucking timer. [Later edit: as of the end of this session, it was a fake-out. No 20 minute + 5 minute timer that I found.]
-Ellone relents, and agrees to try sending Squall to Rinoa’s past.
-They barely escape before the lunar base explodes, crashing into the monster stream.
---
The Past
-A desert. Rinoa and Irvine in a van, driving away from Deling City. Rinoa wants to go back for Squall. It takes me a second to remember when this is, but it hits me that this is when they left the prison and Rinoa led them back.
-hahahhaah she shoves Irvine back into the van to get them to return to the prison.
Get… back… IN!
-Scene change. Now it’s Rinoa asking Zell to get Squall’s ring for her.
Zell realizing the meaning behind Rinoa’s request.
-This is lovely. The game has been Squall’s perspective until now (and I suppose it still is). These are the moments with Rinoa when Squall was off doing his own thing.
-These are too far back though. In the present, Squall asks Ellone to try a nearer time.
-Ok, welcome to creepyville. We’re now in the moments just after defeating Ultimecia in Edea’s body when Rinoa floated over towards Seifer and kissed him.
-YIKES WAS THAT THERE THE FIRST TIME? We see an image of a sorceress – Ultimecia maybe? – flicker in and out of existence over Rinoa’s body.
-It wasn’t a kiss. It was words. Squall realized it was Ultimecia. I thought it was a kiss transferring possession of Ultimecia, but it was instructions from Ultimecia to Seifer.
Ultimecia stayed in Rinoa’s body the whole time.
ULTIMECIA!RINOA: “Find the legendary L. Pandora said to be hidden beneath the ocean. Only then shall the sorceress provide you with dreams again.”
SEIFER: “As you wish, Ultimecia.” That’s a twist! I thought that Seifer was acting in good faith, that he was expressing overwhelming devotion to the Matron out of twisted love. Now I think he was straight-up mind-whammied.
-The apparition of Ultimecia appears again. Rinoa’s voice breaks through briefly. Ultimecia recognizes Squall’s intrusion and ejects him.
Ultimecia looks fucking awesome. I wonder if she’s still in Rinoa. My guess is no. I think it’s more likely that when Ult!Rinoa woke Adel, she transferred herself to Adel’s body rather than stay as Rinoa floating through space.
---
Present – Escape Pod
-Ellone is exhausted. Squall looks to her for help, for an answer of what he should do.
-It’s invigorating for me to see. I know that they’re in dire straits, but the silver lining here is the rekindled connection between brother and sister, Squall embodying a kind of person he thought long gone.
-Ellone believes that Squall’s voice may be too far, but his heart can connect with Rinoa. I’ve felt shades of FFIV before this and this now cements it. A connection in space between those far apart.
---
Near Past? - Space
-Rinoa. Floating through space. Very small against the void. 15 seconds (???) left on her life support.
-Life support ticks down to zero.
-She knows she’s about to die. This is bleak as fuck.
-With her dying breaths she calls out for Squall in her head. Squall responds. Is it too late?
-This is SO NERVEWRACKING. I think she’ll live, but this is FF and it could go either way.
-Squall’s voice comes through to her as she gasps that last oxygen in her spacesuit. Asking her to hold on.
-SHE’S STILL FLOATING. For any West Wing fans, this has the same type of relentless intensity as the intro to "Friragrra Crbcyr."
-The lack of music here is brilliant.
-She’s slipping in and out of consciousness now. The two Grievance rings float up in front of her eyes, bringing her back slightly.
How is she still breathing?
-LOL – she right now asks that very question. Maybe she’s doing some kind of mind meld with Squall and he’s sharing his oxygen with her.
-A thing – a disc? – floats in front of her. She picks up, and her oxygen goes to full. This pretty little ditty starts up.
-He floats up and out of the escape pod to help rinoa.
-ah christ it’s one of these terribly explained mini-games. I have to “catch” Rinoa and I don’t know what’s going on.
-oh good, Rinoa died.
-After Rinoa died and I get to try again, it now gives me instructions. Really? It would’ve destroyed immersion to gives instructions to your terrible mini-game the first go-round? Ugh.
-I sort of got it the first time, that I have to move the screen to keep floating Rinoa in my view, but what confused me was that when I moved the screen Rinoa moved with it. This made me think that I was controlling Rinoa rather than Squall. But nope! Just not very well-drawn sense of perspective I guess.
-Anyway, mini-rant over. It’s a very minor complaint because the sweetness and charm of this scene as Rinoa slowly, gradually, inevitably floats towards Squall has me happy-crying.
”People don’t appreciate the substance of things. Objects in space. People miss out on what’s solid.”
-Only problem is that now they’re floating low on oxygen, with the Lunar Cry raging behind them.
SQUALL: “What now? Die in space?”
-They find what looks to be an Esthar rocket ship floating nearby. Is that the escape pod? Looks almost like a fighter jet and I thought the pod was more of a small sphere.
“Achievement unlocked: Ragnarok.” Huh? In past FFs I know Ragnarok has been an ultimate sword, but here it may be the airship.
-Yup! They open it up, head inside, and we’re now in the Ragnarok. Save point.
---
Next time: Ragnarok!
