Answers About the Archons

[Fenral]

How'd I do? Did I figure it out?

That's about what I suspected, actually, but I hadn't found anything in-game to cement it. Nice work. I try to catch everyone's small talk, but there's no way to go back and read through it again, so I assumed they just hadn't dropped that line yet.

My above points on G'raha still stand, unfortunately. He was sent from Val strictly to "observe" the expedition and abide by the decisions made by Cid and Ramnbroes: you'll note he's the one character in that story who very specifically avoids making any input in favor of one direction or another ("save it" or "destroy it")... only to hijack the entire operation at the last minute and remove both the tower and himself from the present flow of time. I understand the story is supposed to be about him discovering that he, too, can take an active role in history, but the afterlife metaphor in the execution still makes me rather uncomfortable.

With as little as we got from him directly, we can only speculate on his precise motivations, but the extra info I got from the Japanese script suggested he simply thought that it was the only way he could be of any use to anyone ever, which from most perspectives is actually quite tragic. Fortunately, the point of Desch as a character in FF3 was that everyone has more than one role to play, but suffice to say I'll be kicking Cid in the head until the tower opens again.

[Allyrion]

That's about what I suspected, actually, but I hadn't found anything in-game to cement it. Nice work. I try to catch everyone's small talk, but there's no way to go back and read through it again, so I assumed they just hadn't dropped that line yet.

My above points on G'raha still stand, unfortunately. He was sent from Val strictly to "observe" the expedition and abide by the decisions made by Cid and Ramnbroes: you'll note he's the one character in that story who very specifically avoids making any input in favor of one direction or another ("save it" or "destroy it")... only to hijack the entire operation at the last minute and remove both the tower and himself from the present flow of time.

With as little as we got from him directly, we can only speculate on his precise motivations, but the extra info I got from the Japanese script suggested he simply thought that it was the only way he could be of any use to anyone ever, which from most perspectives is actually quite tragic. Suffice to say I'll be kicking Cid in the head for most of the expansion.

I don't see how it's tragic that he was able to fulfill discover and fulfill his family line's destiny, that was passed down in riddles for many generations.
These kind of sacrifices are meant to be bitter-sweet but he tapped into a wish passed down from not only from his heritage but the Allagan civilization as a whole.
Few could dream of touching something so great and grand, or having nearly as much meaning to their lives.

From what I could gather, he grew up knowing he had a greater destiny.
It wasn't until he found the truth about the Allagans and the Cyrstal Tower that he became fully realized.

[Fenral]

Few could dream of touching something so great and grand, or having nearly as much meaning to their lives.

I actually just updated my post, but what got me about that logic is the entirely unspoken notion that he somehow would have been lesser as a person for not taking the absolute furthest irretrievable extreme upon uncovering the truth. Naturally, aside from a brief tinge of regret, the entire scene is written so that that idea of what would happen if he chose not to sacrifice himself simply isn't allowed to come into play, but it's a rather thin patch of ice they were standing on, and I think they knew that. If and when the tower does come back into play, somehow, he will need to be either a completely unrealistic heroic figure, or we can expect to be crying a lot. I'm also aware that I hold a minority opinion on this, so we don't need to derail this thread any further.