Crystal Tower: idle speculation on the future

[LystAP]

snip

You know, isn't Noah usually a 'male' name? :P

G'raha isn't necessarily throwing away his future; he's merely extending it into the future. As a living key to the tower, if he were to continue living in the present; there are a variety of groups all the more willing to exploit him. While NOAH may be silent, you still Nero roaming around with the knowledge, in addition to the other scholars associated with the group. He'll essentially have to stay hidden for the rest of his life.

Although I doubt Nero is still the same after the quest line; while he would argue otherwise, both Uriel and Doga seem to disagree with Nero's self-declared 'selfishness'. What struck me was during the end run, when Nero declared that he would not only surpass Cid, but also the Allagans themselves. This is pretty substantial character development of a relatively important former antagonist, and it seems a waste to have been relegated to a side-quest, away from the main storyline.

[Fenral]

it seems a waste to have been relegated to a side-quest, away from the main storyline.

We agree on that, at least. While the CT story did bring Nero "back" and reform him a bit, because of the completely isolated context and the role he plays in this story, he can never actually influence the main storyline ever again, at least not according to the rules currently on the table.

My main issue with how G'raha was handled comes from a (possibly accidental) secondary character allusion I noticed in the interim between 2.3 and 2.5, as well as a few tertiary chracter allusions I noticed after. The primary allusion is, of course, Desch, an amnesiac guest party member who, upon reaching the top of the Tower of Owen, regains the memories he had lost and, in the urgency of the moment, throws himself into the tower's reactor to stop it from destroying the Floating Continent. The "amnesia" in G'raha's case, however, is a little different.

The secondary is where things get sticky for me, because the way G'raha's backstory is set up he much more closely resembles Zidane, from FF9. (They also have a ton of superficial visual similarities). Zidane also has a lost memory, of "where he came from," and with that memory as his only clue he goes out in search of his "home." I'd end up spoiling most of FF9 to go deeper into how that plays out, but I can spoil that his adoptive father beats the living crap out him for thinking that some vague memory was more important than the home he already had. In the same way, I wanted to punch G'raha for suddenly defining himself solely on a genetic, not even technically his own, memory, as if that was all he ever was. There's a huge logical leap in there that wasn't required for Desch, because Desch was actually retrieving his identity, but is required for G'raha.

As for the tertiary? Aya Brea, from Parasite Eve, and Yuna, from Final Fantasy X. For both, just note the eyes. Aya's internal struggle with maintaining her own idenity in spite of awakening as a genetic superhuman is, of course, the core conflict of Parasite Eve, and G'raha's "get a load of my glowing eyes" closeup is, perhaps unintentionally, a direct callback. Yuna, well, two-tone eyes, destined to sacrifice herself for the good of all mankind? A bit of a stretch, I guess, since while G'raha is sacrificing his current self, he isn't technically dead, but my feelings towards both characters are the same. In that I'd smash the ancients for either.

And no, I didn't say he was "throwing away" his future, merely denying himself the right to participate in the creation of that future. Seeing him reduced to the "you're so wonderful Mister Warrior of Light" role after everything we went through together wasn't, for me, the satisfying character resolution that I know it was intended to be.

"Oh, but he does have a future! It's the one you create!"

Yeah, I get it, but it's a tragically passive exit for a character who introduced himself by completing your quest objectives for you. Even though they apparently thought sealing a teenage catboy inside a giant phallic symbol was a perfect way to represent the bright future of all mankind (which is, I guess, impressive in it's own way) I can't help but feel like he deserved more as a character in the playable time-frame of ARR.

Which wraps right around into that Eureka tease they ended on, and the ongoing discussion of would they really end it there? No point in lighting the Ahriman signal to ask for spoilers (though I'm sure his eye is watching, and probably judging me), but they did manage to leave us with a surprising amount to chew on.


(Ammendment: there's also one GIANT FFXIII character reference I forgot to include in the above. Let's just say it felt like he was finishing his Focus and setting me on mine.)

[Kaiser-Ace]

You know, isn't Noah usually a 'male' name? :P

Um, actually. The Spirit of The Scholar Noah IS male. He even went on to say how he was enjoying "This new body" as if he was rather humored by the fact that he was a Man's spirit in a Woman's body.

So yea, Ghost Noah is a Dude in a woman's body. Talk about an accidental Gender Bender. At least he seems to respect the fact that he's "Borrowing" her body and is avoiding putting it at risk.

[Fenral]

I was using "she" to refer to the possessed Koh Rabntah, since the journal entries refer to her as a "she." But I'll go ahead and change it if that will help the discussion.

[LystAP]

So yea, Ghost Noah is a Dude in a woman's body. Talk about an accidental Gender Bender.

A potential means for comedy, if the storyline is extended. I wonder where Koh's consciousness is. I would wonder is Noah overriding her body, or is he only a 'soulmate' that occasionally has dominance. Is he remotely controlling her from the orb, or was the orb a means of imprinting his own consciousness into Koh's mind?

One alternative is for the story to take place implicitly in the background for those that haven't chosen to do the Crystal Tower quest line, if they choose to go to Eureka. They don't need to re-open the tower; it could be stated that the tower was powering the wards keeping Eureka in place and when it went back to sleep, it didn't take Eureka with it this time. Then again, G'raha probably wouldn't play a role again, if we go that route. As for Nero, again it could be implied that the storyline took place without the player, only with Nero having a more active role in the background with other adventurers.

They could have a storyline for those that have done the Crystal Tower, and another for those who have not. Kind of what they did with the legacy and new players when they moved from 1.0 to 2.0 ARR.

[Fenral]

I described a scenario like that in one of my earlier walls of text, but let's take a look at how you see it:

They don't need to re-open the tower; it could be stated that the tower was powering the wards keeping Eureka in place and when it went back to sleep, it didn't take Eureka with it this time.

That particular scenario would, of course, require the CT quest to be completed, as the tower has technically been "awake" for the five years since its return to the surface.

Reread what you posted, and yes, they could have two different variants, but I can't imagine one that wouldn't cause issues when the questline is done in parallel with the CT storyline. Unless they put it somewhere else entirely but call it Eureka just for the hell of it, in which case, "what did Nero's scanner pick up?" is left as an unresolved question.

Putting aside discussions on how they decide to pull this off in continuity, I think if the "opportunity" Nero is pursuing is related to his declaration that he will be the one to surpass Allag, if you consider the current seal on the tower to be a "test" to see if Allag has been surpassed, it could be him opening the tower to start the Eureka storyline. There's a weird sort of one-sided rivalry he feels towards G'raha at the end of the WoD scenes that I'd like to see expanded on in some form.