Esthar – Towards the Presidential Palace
-The Torama enemies are awful. They’re always awful. I have nightmares of them using Blaster in FFIV and obliterating my party (though they were called Panthers then).
-Imps too. Always awful! My worst memories of them though aren’t from FFIV, but FFII. SO BRUTAL THERE. The monsters around Esthar are really upgraded since the Lunar Cry. (Which makes sense.)
-Without the using a half encounter or no encounter ability, the encounter rate is really out of control.
-Unlocked a “Maximum HP” achievement. Squall hit 9999.
-lol. Ran into a huge and intimidating demon wasp monster, but Odin whooped her before I could even see her name. Tons of experience!
-Got Kamikaze. It kills the user, but let’s see how much damage it does.
-The sky is tinged red and the music is forboding af.
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Presidential Palace
-are you telling me laguna is the president of esthar and kiros and ward are his high councilors
-ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT HAHAHA YESS!!!!
-Face to face at last! President Laguna Loire of Esthar.
-Question time. I ask about Raine, but he says it’s too painful to talk about.
-About Ellone. Esthar hunted for children in Winhill when she was two. Her parents tried to protect her and were killed. Another hunt happened later, and even though Laguna was there he couldn’t stop them from taking her.
After Laguna rescued her, he sent Ellone to the orphanage. She had to leave because of her power. Odine wanted to experiment on her and so she was sent on the White Ship for her protection. She was on the ship for 10 years – hella long time at sea!
-Ah shit. Galbadians found her escape pod. She’d in Ultimecia’s hands now.
-What about how he became president?
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Laguna Trio Flashback
-Yay, backstory flashback! We skip back to right after Team Laguna rescued Ellone.
-Odine was working on other stuff beyond Adel’s orders, including a magical sealing thing.
-oh, right! Laguna started working with the resistance more closely to stop Adel and shut down the L. Pandora. They dumped the crystal pillar in the ocean and prepared for a final battle vs. Adel.
Btw, I love how buff Adel is. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
She’s badass AF!
-They baited Adel into the containment room with a hologram Ellone and Laguna pushed her inside. Success! Then sent her ass into space, towed by three ships like the Ragnaros.
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Presidential Palace – Present
-Hee! The accidental president.
-Still crushed that he didn’t get to see Raine before she died.
-Onto the plan to take down Ultimecia. Let’s hear it. Odine steps in to explain.
-So when Ultimecia projects herself into the past, they think her body is vulnerable. Same as Ellone’s power when she projects herself into the past. Are we travelling to the future?
-Odine says that it’s his fault/credit that Ultimecia can do this. His study of Ellone allowed him to mechanize her power. It doesn’t work great now, but in the future it works perfectly and Ultimecia is using it.
(Is it just me, or is it a bit weird that they kept someone as abusive and amoral/immoral as Odine around this whole time? I get that he’s useful, but he’s a terrible person.)
-Yeah, so we gotta get to the future. How? Something about Ultimecia’s desired time compression. And why does she need Ellone if she has the Ellone device?
Ah. Odine answers that like two seconds later lol. The Junction Machine has a limit of how far it can send Ultimecia back. She may need to go back farther to achieve time compression, and Ellone is the key. Of course, this is all conjecture. [Later edit: lol, I was WAY off base with my short-lived Rinoa = Ultimecia theory.]
-Odine thinks Adel isn’t awake yet, just waking up inside the Pandora. I’m surprised by this. She looked pretty awake to me.
-If Adel wakes up, Ultimecia possesses her, and then Adel wins out over Ultimecia, she’ll use that power to destroy the present. So the plan is to have Rinoa inherit Ultimecia’s power instead of Adel.
Step 1: Rescue Ellone from the L. Pandora.
Step 2: Kill Adel before she’s fully awake.
Step 3: Since Rinoa’s the only active sorceress then, wait for Ultimecia to possess her.
Step 4: Ellone sends Ult!Rinoa back to the past insidie past!Edea or past!Adel.
Step 5: Ultimecia does her time compression thing.
Step 6: Ellone feels time compression starting and cuts off the past sending, placing Rinoa back in the present and Ultimecia back in the future.
Step 7: We move through the time-compressed world (which includes vulnerable future Ultimecia) and kill her.
Ok. This sounds like an AWFUL plan that can fail in 70,000 different ways, but the first thing that jumps out at me: didn’t someone before say that when time compression happens, everyone dies and Ultimecia is the only one left? Hm. Maybe I misunderstood, and maybe it’s a slower death. Not immediate.
LOLOL
LAGUNA: “So you were briefed on the mission? Yeah, I don’t really understand it either.”
It’s just ridiculous enough to work.
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The Ragnarok
-Everyone boards and Laguna begins his final briefing.
-Rinoa consents to her role in being possessed by Ultimecia. Brave woman, cause that sounds scary as hell. Possession creeps me out.
Laguna’s an enthusiastic and natural leader.
“To be friends, to like one another, to love one another… you can’t do these things alone. You need somebody. Right, guys? What place reminds you of your friends? Imagine being in that place with all your friends.”
When time compression begins, we’ll have to imagine that place to regroup.
SQUALL: “Love and friendship and all that sounds corny, but everyone seems up for it.”
Let’s go!
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Next time: the Pandora.
