CG Midlander

[Catapult]

And I still don't really get why Derplander Echoes when he picks up the leve, when that's something none of us have ever done (which is why I thought that maybe it was something we did do each time, unwittingly).

/echo paranoia

I can think of only two instances in the entire game when the echo is triggered by means other than the presence of the person off whom you are hijacking history. These are the opening sequences in Flowers for All and Sundered Skies. A starshower was simultaneously involved.

It may have been whoever or whatever gave us the echo had decided (sentient?) that "you need to see this". While the Derplander's party was already woken by the echo, perhaps Fate saw fit to intervene in a simmilar way?

Or maybe the CG animation was locked down before the rules of the echo were finalized...