---
Sustained by Hate
-Hope lives in a fancy place! Modern-looking.
-Family photos lie around the home. Hope often looks sullen.
“A handful of academic texts and homemaker’s magazines occupy the otherwise sparse shelves, but none of Hope’s possessions are to be seen.”
-Something’s off. [Later edit: Or not. He could have just been a regular teen, a bit sullen, a bit withdrawn.]
-Fang pops on the tv. The reports describe the desperate fight against the l’Cie.
-The Sanctum is quarantining everyone we contacted.
---
Healing the Rifts
-Perspective switch to Lightning with a recuperating, shirtless, and jacked Snow.
-Aw! Hope gave back the survival knife to Lightning. Said he no longer needed it. I’m glad that’s over – it frees Hope to have a new arc.
-Lightning confesses that Serah’s situation overwhelmed here with guilt. “What could I have done?” She mistrusted her sister when Serah most needed her.
-Holy crap. She even stammers out an apology to Snow. YAY FOR MORE GROWTH!
-He basically accepts. (Jokingly says he’ll accept only if she shares her real name, but she declines.)
-Time for a full house meeting.
-Snow prostrates himself before Bartholomew, in apology for Nora. “Final Fantasy XIII: The Misplaced Blamening.”
-Snow relates Nora’s last wish, that he return Hope home. And y’know what? He did it. Good job.
[Non-rhetorical question: Is it just me or does Fang’s clothing remind anyone else of Rinoa’s Vanille has her mannerisms, Fang has her garb.]
-Where to now? Snow is fully on board the “Take down Sanctum” train.
-Bartholomew’s not so sure. If we do take down Sanctum, their fear of Pulse will only grow. “Can you imagine it? The rampant violence?”
It’s true. Part of what makes Cocoon’s world design so fascinating compared with some other nasty fictional nations is that the government’s oppressive elements come with massive public support. This isn’t a case where taking down Sanctum “frees” Cocoon’s people.
-Bartholomew has skin in the game too. He’s now a harborer of l’Cie.
-I’m glad that Hope and Bartholomew get along well.
-Uh oh. The lights cut out. It’s a full on Sanctum raid on the house. They even toss smoke-bombs inside to preface their assault.
I mean… we should’ve seen this coming. We didn’t exactly sneak our way to Chez Estheim.
-Hope ASKS for Snow’s help to protect his father! That would’ve been unimaginable a few sessions ago. Growth, growth, and more growth.
-Fighting now as Lightning, Fang, and Hope.
-I don’t like how the datalog editorializes. Another instance of its frustrating “tell, don’t show” style. Like this on Bartholomew: “Things are made even more difficult by Hope’s rebellious age and unreasoning resentment towards his dad.”
“Unreasoning?” Really? Would Hope describe it that way?
-Exploration rewards me regularly. Even here, I find treasure spheres that weren’t there before.
-We fight off some troops, but there’s still a billion of them outside the house, and we’re stuck in here.
-Snow’s getting ready to do something foolish. He takes his shirt off first… is he going to try “distracting” them?
-oh nm lol, he just holds his jacket up for them to shoot at as a decoy.
SNOW: “Don’t shoot! I’ll show you what a l’Cie looks like!”
I see what’s up. He’s trying to show them that he’s no different from them. I really don’t think this’ll work. After all, Cocoon doesn’t think Pulse l’Cie look like monsters. They think Pulse l’Cie blend in to infiltrate and corrupt.
-On the other hand, we saw how much the Palumpolum GC cares about its citizens. Maybe seeing that those same citizens can get branded through no fault of their own is enough.
-It gives them pause. But then Rosch steps to the forefreont.
ROSCH: “I understand your plight. However, the Pulse threat is not so easily dismissed. The very existence of you l’Cie puts every last one of us in danger. Do you really think your life is worth more than the lives of millions of Cocoon citizens?”
-It’s a bit weird for me that Cocoon is so gung ho against Pulse. It seems more likely that centuries lacking contact would soften the feelings or make them forget.
Or not. I suppose it could just as easily build up the myth of Pulse from a human enemy to a nightmare.
-Rosch is persuasive, and I get where he’s coming from.
-Snow fires back that if they want to kill l’Cie, they should just kill l’Cie. Not purge innocent citizens.
But again, I get where Rosch is coming from here. If you accept the premise that Pulse l’Cie can corrupt others, and that corruption could be fatal to others, and you don’t know how to tell whether someone’s been corrupted, then it makes sense to Purge the few to protect the many.
The only arguments that might hold weight are if we can somehow show that Pulse l’Cie are not the threat they’re believed.
---
Here Comes the Cavalry
-Before Rosch’s execution order can go through, smoke bombs drop from above. Raines?
-OH SHIT SOMEONE’S FIRING ON ALL ROSCH’S SOLDIERS
-WAIT, IT ~IS~ ONE OF HIS SOLDIERS???
-AND THEY FIRE ON ROSCH??? He sure looks dead or wounded. Prediction: one of the fal’Cie who supports him will brand Rosch to save him.
-Fang and Lightning are confused, but just want to take this opportunity to gtfo. They’ll tie up Bartholomew to at least try to make it look like he was forced to help. Maybe that’ll let him just get purged rather than executed.
-I love all these cutbacks to Fang, smiling and happy at Hope’s relationship with Bartholomew.
HOPE: “I hate to run out on you-“
BARTHOLOMEW: “This is not running away. You’ve made a choice. You’ll survive and do what needs to be done.”
I’m SO HAPPY that Bartholomew is a good guy. I was worried he’d be awful or dismissive or abusive.
-He urges Hope to do whatever he needs to do. Whether he completes his Focus or does something else, he’ll support Hope.
-Meanwhile, gunship from above lowers down to fight us. The Havoc Skytank.
-Jesus, how do we deal with this thing?
-AHA! I kept Libra-ing until I saw the note: “Can be attacked in multiple locations.”
-At the start I have to stay in super defensive paradigms because of its raw damage output. I get gradually more aggressive the more parts I destroy.
-Got Uraninite and Plautus’ Workshop. The former sounds like a weapon transformation item, the latter like a new shop.
-Shit. The ship goes down and a new one pops up.
-WTF something fired at it! Is that a Pulse ship?
-No, it’s Cavalry. Some guy named Rygdea.
I thought they might be an ally on the inside, but Cavalry is basically in open rebellion against the Sanctum.
-Snow stumbles towards the ship, and Hope gives a legit smile of relief when he turns out to be okay.
-Vanille’s voiceover come back, about how we always take home for granted. “Whoever stops to think that this time could be the last?”
YOU BETTER NOT KILL OFF BARTHOLOMEW. (I mean, he’s nice and all, but mostly I’d hate for what that’d do to Hope. He’s been through enough.)
---
Next time: I have no idea lol. This is one of those mid-chapter saves, so we could either go back to Sazh and Vanille or continue with the Cavalry.
