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-I teleport back up to Cocoon.
-The Megrim Thresher enemies here are annoying af. Constantly knock me up in the air.
-The fal’Cie angels transport us to fight some shaggy bandersnatches.
One resists physical, the other resists magic. Debuffs help take them down.
-This whole thing is pretty disheartening. All these Cie’th we’re killing were once human.
SAZH: “Having all this empathy puts humans at a big disadvantage.”
LIGHTNING: “Maybe. But it’s also what makes us dangerous.”
True – it gives us motivation to take strong action we wouldn’t otherwise take.
-Fang’s especially nervous. She knows time is running short for Vanille.
Vanille feels okay with this. They’ll just make Cocoon their home and COME ON THEY’RE A COUPLE.
-My crystarium has been soft-capped for a while. Filled out the primary three roles for each character, and now I’m spending a metric ton of CP for minor increases in a fourth role.
-White and purple angels appear before us to help us continue. There’s also some other fal’Cie in the middle. Eden? Probably not.
-The purple angel ports us to another mini-boss room against an Attacus-style Cie’th. This one is Wladislaus. Polish inspiration, maybe.
-I don’t know where these fights are taking place. A room made to look like a cathedral.
-The next area is a bit of a boss rush. I have to fight combos involving the Jabberwock/Bandersnatch and Wladislaus.
Btw, these guys give ridiculous CP! This seems like it could be a prime farming spot if ever I wanted to do that. 32k per Wladislaus kill.
-Next boss fight is the Tiamat Eliminator, an ice mech.
Its second phase has a nasty habit of stripping my buffs.
-A new warp opens up to a sterile-looking area, “The Narthex.”
-There are couches here. Windows, too, showing that we’re high above the clouds now.
-I’ve mentioned Supernatural comparisons. This feels like the office space the angels used.
-We go into the next room. There’s an empty throne. This feels VERY final bossy. Is this gonna be another Barthandelus fight? I kind of doubt it.
-Little lights float around the room, like in Oerba. I still think they’re souls.
BARTHANDELUS: “Life’s spark shines on once freed from its fleshly shroud.” Yup, souls.
-Serah and Dajh are here, crystallized still.
-Barthandelus’ owl flies into the room. He appears and sits in the room.
-WTF BARTHANDELUS JUST SHATTERED THE DAJH AND SERAH
-Oh. They were illusions lol.
HOPE: “They don’t work wonders. They play tricks.” BURRRRRRRN
-So now that we’re here, is he going to try to make us kill Orphan? Where even is Orphan?
-He seems both bored and annoyed that we won’t kill Orphan, that we’re “prolonging Cocoon’s suffering.”
-Boss fight. Barthandelus, in his same form as before.
[Later edit and non-rhetorical question: Did his prior versions also have the owl wings he has here?]
-His attacks hit harder, and he’s added Ultima into his spell mix. Aside from near death at Thanatosian Laughter, it’s pretty straight-forward. Unless this was just phase one.
BARTHANDELUS: “Release! At last, release!” He slips into some primordial pool thing.
-So… we did it? No way. Not buying it.
-Barthandelus’ bird flies into the pool and a new Being emerges. (That’s literally their name. “Being.”)
-It has multiple giant heads.
BEING: “Slaughter and salvation. Two irreconcilable Focuses we bore.”
WAIT, IS THIS THE GODDESS AND THAT SERPENT BEING WE HEARD ABOUT IN THE ANALECTS? The gods of Pulse and Cocoon?
I feel at least a bit sorry for them. They had Focuses too. Despite being fal’Cie, they were like l’Cie to the Maker.
“We are the Abandoned One, born but now to die. Our name is Orphan. By our hand, the world shall know redemption.”
…shit. We have to kill Orphan anyway. This seems bad. Can we run?
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL BOSS! Visually, it’s complex but has a uniting vision. Feels coherent. (Unlike, say, the Creator in FFIV:TAY or Neo-Exdeath. They were complex but overly busy, masses of monsters.)
We can see three distinct beings. A woman’s head with an arm stroking a child’s face, and someone I assume is Barthandelus.
-With its opening attack, they rises from their its platform to reveal a bottom that’s basically a big sword. Brings us all down to one HP.
The three heads form the hilt.
-At one point, it summons orbs of dark and light. Not sure what they’re doing.
-They keep stripping my buffs, so constantly swapping paradigms between Diversity, Tri-Disaster, Relentless Assault, Ruthless, and Convalescence, depending on the moment.
I love how even though my time on Gran Pulse likely “overleveled” me, the fight still requires a fair bit of strategy.
-Got it! At least, this phase.
-The being rises up. Spewing out energy. Dying? If so, that’s what it wanted.
ORPHAN: “Have you ever paused to consider our reason for making l’Cie of men? We fal’Cie are crafted for a single purpose, and granted finite power to that end. With men, it is not so.”
We’re not limited by anyone else. (I mean, biology limits us, and our own neuroses and stuff, but I get it.)
“Through you, we obtained freedom from our bondage. And now, your Focus alone remains.”
I honestly don’t know how we end this without killing Orphan, and Cocoon, and fulfilling our Focus.
-Orphan puts some painful-looking red circle around Vanille. OH GOD I FORGOT ABOUT RAGNAROK. Is she going to become Ragnarok?
“Submit, l’Cie! Become Ragnarok!”
-Vanille writhes in pain of transformation, until Fang steps into volunteer.
ORPHAN: “Ragnarok. The will to guide a world unto oblivion. Can you bear the sin of our salvation?”
FANG: “You heard me.”
-She winds up to strike at Vanille (I guess cause Ragnarok’s job starts with destroying those around you? idk), and the others stop her.
-Fang rises with her spear. Energy engulfs her.
OH SHIT WE’RE ALL CIE’TH NOW EXCEPT FANG AND VANILLE
-All these Cie’th start beating the crap out of her in a circle.
FANG: “I guess I deserve it, after what I did.” NOOOO! What did you do? I thought she didn’t actually become Ragnarok before, or did she? I’m confused. [Non-rhetorical question: what am I missing?]
Is this beating going to turn her into Ragnarok?
-The Cie’th collapse on top of her as Vanille wails, “give her back!”
Fang arises, her brand flaring bright.
ORPHAN: “From shattered shards, a new crystal legend shall arise!”
FANG LOOKS SO COOL AS A NASCENT RAGNAROK
[Later edit: she looks a bit like a fiery version of Terra’s esper form from FFVI.]
-She’s still trying to restrain herself.
ORPHAN: “Despair. Despair and save us all. Lo! The day of wrath is come.”
-A series of sepia-toned memories flash across the screen. Sazh’s near suicide. Snow giving himself up to Rosch. Lightning beating on Snow.
These are Vanille’s memory. She’s recontextualizing these not as anger, but as things worth fighting for. This is to counteract Orphan’s urging to Fang to be again driven by anger.
-And Fang is human yet again.
ORPHAN: “Again. How many times must you fail?”
-The Goddess side of Orphan breathes live into Fang. They raise her up with energy shakles.
-Orphan asks again Fang retake Ragnarok’s form to deliver them.
-JESUS this is hard to watch. One half of Orphan keeps blasting Fang while the Goddess heals her.
-And Vanille has to watch this torture. Which is torture for her now too.
-Vanille walks up to them. Fang wants her to run, and that’s a big no from Vanille.
-uhhhh what? Orphan explodes in fire.
-Woohoo! We’re all un-Cie’thed, though I don’t know how. I guess we shot Orphan some more?
-Maybe those Cie’th we saw were just another fal’Cie illusion. The party remembers being transported somewhere cold and dark and despairing. Then they glimpsed a happier future. “Even Serah. Even Light.”
A new Focus perhaps, and maybe one of our own making.
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Next time: the end of Final Fantasy XIII.
