---
Where She Lived (Ch. 12)
-I haven’t played the main XV game in a bit, so I’m a little forgetful. To catch up: we’re in Tenebrae, still separated from Prompto after the weird train incident. Fenestala Manor is in flames here, and I have to meet with a retainer of House Fleuret.
-Biggs, Wedge, and Aranea have cut ties with the Empire. Too daemonic.
-The retainer remembers Noctis from when he was a kid. She’s delighted to hear that Luna successfully got the Ring of the Lucii away from the Empire.
“Lord Ravus too will be overjoyed to hear this news!” Uhhh. What? I know Ravus’ backstory got a bit more complicated in the movie, but is he suddenly not on Team Baddies?
-Flashback to Luna talking to Ravus. This looks to be just before her death.
LUNA: “Already my flesh has begun to fail me.” Again: uhhh what? Was she dying even before the Leviathan encounter, or is this sometime after?
And in this flashback, she’s asking Ravus to deliver the ring to Noctis. Why does she trust Ravus here? I get that they’re siblings, but I really thought he was committed to the Empire.
RAVUS: “To deliver the ring and inspire the king is your calling. You mustn’t fail.”
[Non-rhetorical question: Did I flagrantly miss some major Ravus character arc? If not, that’s cool and I’ll wait to see it revealed later, but I just want to make sure I’m not having a huge brain fart and forgetting a moment when Ravus turned on the Empire that I’m supposed to remember.]
-I guess we’re going to the Empire’s capitol to meet with Ravus, our apparently bestest bud? He’ll give me Regis’ glaive.
-Aranea says the Crystal poses a threat to daemons. I can buy that.
-Another flashback to Luna with Gentiana. She clearly loved Noctis, though this was never in doubt; I just wished we saw more of her in-game.
-Ready to head out, towards Gralea. Aranea will stay behind tending to the civilians.
---
Into the Arctic Crevasse (Ch. 12)
-We’re approaching Shiva’s body, through the Ghorovas Rift.
-A news article on the train elaborates on Ravus’ situation. Ravus lead the imperial forces against Leviathan and he got his ass kicked. The Empire sentenced him to death for his failure. No hint yet of whether he escaped or is in prison.
Waves of magitek troopers also suddenly went haywire, attacking citizens.
---
Breath of the Glacian (Ch. 12)
-The train comes to a freezing halt.
HOLY SHIT THAT’S AWESOME! We see Shiva’s GIANT HEAD nearby.
-No encounter with her though, as she’s dead. Instead it’s just a few daemons and a boss called a Deathclaw that goes down quickly.
-Back aboard the train, things go dreamy again as Noctis thinks he sees Ardyn. Is this really Prompto?
-This game does snowstorms really well. They look painful.
ARDYN: “I’m worried about your friends! They’ve fallen and they can’t get up.” Nary a “dude” to be heard. This is actually Ardyn, or at least a projection of Ardyn. I assume it’s an illusion, both because of the logistics and because Ardyn is totally unaffected by the blistering cold.
-Gladio and Ignis are freezing and unconscious.
-Suddenly, Gentiana appears. Ardyn starts taunting her – “Ah, the face you wore the day…” – and then Gentiana goes up to Best Messenger in my book by FREEZING HIM WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING TO SHUT HIS ASS UP LOLOL
-!!! GENTIANA IS SHIVA??? [Later edit/non-rhetorical question: are we meant to assume she took on the form of a messenger in her weakened post-death phase?]
…why is her outfit the literal worst and most fan servicey thing ever? I get that scantily-clad Shiva is A Thing in FF, but come on. This is ridiculous.
[Spoilers through Shadowbringers’ 3.25 raid content. Beware! rot13.com:
Zl snibevgr fuvin qrfvta va nyy bs svany snagnfl vf jura elar shfrf jvgu gur cevzny va rqra'f rvtugu gevny. ubyl fuvg gung svvvvvtug! Trggvat puvyyf (ab cha vagraqrq) whfg guvaxvat bs gur svtug jvgu vgf zhfvp naq fgbel.
uggcf://v.vzthe.pbz/H0CxYe0.cat]
I like her wing design at least.
-She starts laying out a creation tale. Humanity was made in the image of the gods. The Pyreburner (Ifrit) admired them and gave them his flame. Ifrit and Shiva fell in love.
But those of Solheim spurned their gods, and Ifrit sought to burn them. The art as she describes this is fantastic!
Ifrit attacked. The gods pled for peace, but Ifrit didn’t stop. He destroyed their civilization. The Six slept out of weariness from all that had happened.
-Shiva is telling Noctis this so that he can “see it to its conclusion.” This is it? What’s the conclusion? I was expecting something about the gods fighting the darkness. Or is the hubris of going against the gods what is meant by ‘the darkness?’ …No, that seems unlikely.
-When the Six slept, “the Pyreburner is sought by a man who draws him away from the Light.” Ardyn?
[Later edit: Not only do we not really know about the “darkness,” but I’m not sure what “the Light” is. I’ll assume until I see otherwise that it’s just some general abstract force for creation and good.]
Shiva sensed the danger. She awoke and went to help him but the Empire took her down.
AHHH! So when Ardyn was taunting her about the face she wore “on that day,” he was talking about her face when the Empire killed her.
-The Empire is now merging with “the darkness” that will swallow the Six and their star.
Okay. So the Darkness is separate from Ifrit, but Ifrit is somehow being used as a tool.
SHIVA: “Deliver this world from darkness – and grant my love release.”
I wonder if Ifrit is being mind-controller. I don’t think so – seems more like he’s just being persuaded to go with Team Baddies, and perhaps tricked.
[Later edit: something that feels interesting and unique to FFXV here is how Ifrit seems to be a main player. He’s usually a low-tier, intro-type summon without much plot relevance.]
-We flash to Ravus and Luna in Tenebrae. Ravus warning her to not throw her life away, Luna extolling faith in the Chosen. She’s dreaming of a future life with Noctis that probably won’t happen.
-I’m a bit confused by when and what this is. My best guess is that this is in a cosmic waystation of sorts, a place where Luna’s soul resided briefly after she died and before she departed.
-In any case, something about Luna’s spirit and love inspired Shiva, and Shiva grants her blessing to Noctis.
-Noctis again mourns for Luna, and her mourning draws Luna’s spirit briefly. I’m torn between finding this visually beautiful (with spectral blue flower petals falling beside them) and agreeing with criticism that this is fairly unearned, given just how little of Luna we got before her death.
-New armiger: Trident of the Oracle. “It makes allies of the wielder’s holograms.” No clue what this means.
-Back to reality. Noctis shatters the frozen Ardyn illusion and wakes up the thawing party members.
-They mosey along… and Ardyn’s form reappears.
“I remembered I’m immortal. Such is my blessing and my curse.”
I admit I feel annoyed with each new power we see from Ardyn, but at this point I accept he just has a bunch of superpowers for reasons to be explained later due to ties with Ifrit and the darkness.
-Ardyn claims Prompto is in Gralea. I assume this is a lie, since Prompto is unlikely to have snowmobiled his way there directly, but it’s not impossible.
-End of chapter 12.
---
Next time: starting chapter 13!
