[SPOILERS] Stormblood Ending

[saber_alter]

Nero joined the Ironworks. He did a dramatic glasses removal. Hells yes. Nero is the man I love to hate.

that cheesy intro had me rolling.


I wonder how long it will take someone to find gosetsu.

I hope the black wolf is alive. i want to believe.

[Nikolas]

The FF6 fishing reference at the end was nice to see. That's how I interpreted it anyway.

[Lambdafish]

The FF6 fishing reference at the end was nice to see. That's how I interpreted it anyway.

If you are referring to Celes on the island in FF6, I got nothing of the sort. Being stranded on a desert island is a very common trope across all forms of media, and this is just another example of that. To be even remotely like FF6 there would have to be an air of desperation and hopelessness, and what we got instead was comedy.

[Kallera]

If you are referring to Celes on the island in FF6, I got nothing of the sort. Being stranded on a desert island is a very common trope across all forms of media, and this is just another example of that. To be even remotely like FF6 there would have to be an air of desperation and hopelessness, and what we got instead was comedy.

Shot in the chest several times.
Have a castle fall on you.
Get swept out to sea to a deserted island with ...two.... palm trees.
Just take off your coat, samurai man!

Reeks of Nanamo. The problem with these "deaths" and similar ones like it is that it cuts out the stakes from under it. When you just know someone has the plot armor, or is the mascot, you know they are not dying, even if they take a sword in the gut.

[Falar]

I loved Gosetsu but bringing him back (and that evil bitch) is a bit of a head scratcher. It takes away his sacrifice, a defining trait of his character

[Mysteltain]

Nero joined the Ironworks. He did a dramatic glasses removal. Hells yes. Nero is the man I love to hate.

I found it hilarious how Cid, Biggs, and Wedge were this mixture of shocked and exasperated, but Jessie was thrilled to see Nero. Did they not tell her, y'know, anything that happened since ARR? But, then again, she is the one who hired him, sooo...

[Lambdafish]

Shot in the chest several times.
Have a castle fall on you.
Get swept out to sea to a deserted island with ...two.... palm trees.
Just take off your coat, samurai man!

Reeks of Nanamo. The problem with these "deaths" and similar ones like it is that it cuts out the stakes from under it. When you just know someone has the plot armor, or is the mascot, you know they are not dying, even if they take a sword in the gut.

I'm actually ok with Gosetsu being alive, he's a tough cookie, though the WAY he was alive I didn't care too much for, he should at least be injured, and be seen being nursed back to health. Yotsuyu though, she should be very dead.

[PArcher]

Shot in the chest several times.
Have a castle fall on you.
Get swept out to sea to a deserted island with ...two.... palm trees.
Just take off your coat, samurai man!

Reeks of Nanamo. The problem with these "deaths" and similar ones like it is that it cuts out the stakes from under it. When you just know someone has the plot armor, or is the mascot, you know they are not dying, even if they take a sword in the gut.

Honestly, thinking back at the post-Doman Castle scene, our Kojin friend says something along the lines of "I'll go search for him, if any of you try you'll drown"


And you're standing right there...


Something is fishy here...

[Chione]

I'm actually ok with Gosetsu being alive... Yotsuyu though, she should be very dead.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. While I smiled at Gosetsu's reveal, seeing Yotsuyu alive actually soured a lot of the ending for me. As the only one with actual genocide in her repertoire, she was arguably the worst of the two psychopaths faced. But she survives because...? Because she triggered an echo and spent fifteen minutes on top of that telling us her sad backstory and that's supposed to make us feel bad? Because she played her lady card and cried? Gimme a break.

I'm really, really not looking forward to the future content where we have to be friends with her or rehabilitate her or whatever it'll end up being, as typical Square fare and that's what bothers me the most, I think.

Honestly, I'd rather have kept Zenos out of the pair if for no other reason than his voice was delicious. But, if another reason is required and a tragic backstory is what's given Yotsuyu a shot at redemption, then I'd wager he had one to equal hers. Varis' father-of-the-year reaction to his death and Elidibus' comments are evidence of that. He was clearly just as damaged as she was, and it's my itty bitty opinion he'd have made the more interesting survivor.

Alas...

[Theodric]

Yotsuyu surviving doesn't bother me in the slightest. Yes, she did terrible things - but she did them due to being treated terribly by the Doman people who were far from innocent themselves. It's a sharp contrast to Hien's self righteous belief that liberating Doma is completely justified and his people are perfect and flawless. He even seemed unnerved by her revelation. She's essentially a survivor of abuse, thus serves the role of a tragic antagonist very well.

As for a 'redemption' arc, that remains to be seen. If someone like Yotsuyu can be redeemed, though, then that actually works in favour of a more interesting story moving forward. We've already seen the protagonists drown numerous Imperial troops to win a key battle so anyone who believes that things are as simple as 'good guys' and 'bad guys' needs to pay more attention to the story. Drowning is, after all, one of the most horrific ways for somebody to die and far from honourable. Imagine the self righteous anger from the leaders of the Eorzean Alliance if it were their troops who were the ones drowning?

In short, there's likely more to Yotsuyu's tale and the game stands to be much more interesting if the approach to characters isn't 'kill them off if they're not nice or do something horrible'. I mean, think about all the horrific stuff that Kuja and Beatrix did back in FFIX and then look at how their stories ended up playing out.