FF Type-0 - Part 71: Pile of Zero [Unspoiled]

Summary: The end of my first Type-0 playthrough. Bleakness, sadness, and utter, utter, confusion.

---

Five Thoughts/Questions

1) I still dislike the Gilgamesh fight. It's such a departure from what I feel prepared for that it seems like a weird fit for a required ending boss.

2) I DO like the Cid/Rursan Arbiter fight! Difficulty is not important for me for a good final boss. The toughest final boss in the series for me (not counting my failed attempts to trust solo XI's Cloud of Darkness) was Ultimecia in FF8, and I did not enjoy it.

I don't mind this fight being unlosable (as I assume it is?). The poetry of it is more important. This is a bleak and powerful scene.

3) Speaking of BLEAK. HOLY SHIT. WE ALL FRIGGING DIED. I admire the HELL out of this. They set a tone with the game from the outset and stuck the landing. Bravo.

4) At least Machina and Rem didn't stay crystallized as long as Fang and Vanille. Not like I really understood that twist either. Speaking of which...

5) I DON'T UNDERSTAND THESE PLOT TWISTS. Like. So many of them confused the shit out of me. A small list of things that jump out at me:

-When did Milites make Machina the White Tiger l'Cie?

-Did Cid or Qator choose him? Usually the crystals do, but my understanding is the the Militesi Empire is the one making choices now.

-Was Aria killed in the Rursan apocalypse? (I assume so.)

-Was the final happy moment of Class Zero talking and imagining the future together while in the Type-0 classroom just a fantasy? It sure seemed like they died in Pandaemonium, but if it was a fantasy, it strikes me as weird that the classroom they were in would be destroyed.

-Who was Arecia? Was she Pulse?

-How long was Machina the White Tiger l'Cie?

-Why did both Machina and Rem get crystallized? Did they both have the focus to fight each other or something and thus fulfilled it? That can't be. It'd be too weird of a focus.

-How did Cid get to be the arbiter? He seems like an utter jackwagon, not someone worthy of being called Agito.

-It seems like Type-0 saved the world, what with Arecia saying that now death would be remembered.

BUT WHY??? What was the whole point of Rursus' rising such that us beating Cid proved the world should live? I just don't understand the whole Rursus plot or what their purpose was or what the spiral the world was in or anything.