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DDFF Meme: Day 8: Favourite Dissidia storyline
I’ve got a tie here, actually. But I’m going on the one that’s been curled up in my mind sleeping for the last few days, because of its implications in the (presumed) canon.
WARNING! If you haven’t been doing the reports, then this first one contains major spoilers! Avoid this cut if you have NOT completed Prishe and Shantotto’s reports! …of course, if you haven’t done that and still want to spoil yourself rotten, feel free—it’s a free blogosphere, right?
The
Maiden Bringer of Light, Prishe’s storyline, is a new favorite of mine. I can
tell you that I’ve personally redone the arc several times, a few times just to
see Siegfried WoL make the WTF face—you see it all of once, and it is golden.
Those of you who haven’t cleared that report, I recommend it just on the virtue
of seeing that face. I want an icon with that face. I would write fic for the
person who gave me that icon.
…wait, I’m off topic.
ANYWAY.
Right after sending Gabby Gabranth on his way through serious pwnage,
Prishe returns to the Sanctuary—and gets chewed out for letting that armored
lout past the defenses. She manages to get away with some literal fast talking
and dashes off—but promises to bring the Doc a souvenir when she gets back from
‘patrol.’
While bored at the Chaos Shrine, she notices something strange…looks over.
I swear, the expression on her face there is like she’s 12…
Then
she pulls hyperactive Parkour-free-running to get to this thing she sees, which
is shiny shiny shiny extremely shiny…
Prishe: *screeching halt* Hey! Hey, you awake? You got a name? Where'd you come from? *hyper arm waving and jumping around*
WoL (Well to be fair he
doesn’t have an allegiance yet): *dazed, zero-awareness!eyes* I…
While
our foul-mouthed Elvaan muses over the fact that this unknown solider
unknown warrior seems to have no allegiance to speak of—a fact that is odd,
since he is not a moogle—our favorite Tin Can, Garland shows up.
…I’ll interrupt here to mention a few of those things that are involved in the huge red highlighted bit above. At this point, Mr. Feather-hair is a blank slate. He knows nothing about what’s going on—he’s barely got a will of his own, even. He’s up for the taking for either side to grab, depending on who gets to him first. This seems to be minor continuity screw—or it would if the worlds of FFI and FFIII were connected. That whole theme of balance between the light and the dark. Garland clearly wants him (hahahah, feel free, shippers!) for his side. Prishe…well, she was here first, so…
Prishe: Garland?! Damn, and here I was, hopin’ for somebody interestin.’ What are you mumblin’ about?
Garland proceeds to order her to turn over our tousle-haired comrade. She ain’t having it though.
Prishe: You think you can just waltz in here and steal my prize?
…I squeal-giggled here. Kinda possessive here, ain’t we? I don’t think I’ve ever started shipping any pairing so fast.
Anyway, she kicks that Tin Can into Next Watersday and brings the lad to Cosmos…
Shantotto: "Oho, returned to us so soon? Hmm? And who's the young man looking ready to swoon?
Prishe: So, Cosmos! You can use your powers to bring this guy over to our side, right?
Cosmos: This man? For our side? Where did you find this warrior?
Prishe: Picked him up on the way is about the best way to explain it. The thing is, though, it looks like Chaos is after him as well. After all, it's not like we'd do anything to hurt him, but those chaos creeps are a different story.
Cosmos: But, Prishe...
with Shantotto’s help in making a case, the newcomer is blessed and becomes the Warrior of Light we all know so well—complete with that ever-devoted tone of voice he uses to address Cosmos, further complicating the ships that crowd the Dissidia waters. …And Shantotto…just gets creepy here. Awesome creepy, but creepy!
Shantotto: [sotto voce] And one who appears here without being called? The perfect test subject to keep me enthralled!
(Brief interruption? I’m kinda curious as to what would have happened here. If she’d managed to do this, would we have a Warrior of Dark running around, by chance? Or perhap just a Warrior of Nucking Futs?)
[Cosmos is quiet and stares at WoL for a long moment]
Shantotto: He seems a touch soft in the head, but we can always use another strong arm. Go ahead, Cosmos, where's the harm?
The next time we see Prishe and her souvenir, they’re in the Empyreal Paradox, and she’s talking to him about memories and other stuff. It’s kinda one-sided, since the Warrior thinks there’s nothing besides fighting. A little bit understandably, since he’s still kind of a blank slate. He doesn’t know anything but fighting at this point, and so he thinks that it gives him his purpose. Prishe disabuses him of that notion right away. I love that bit. In fact, I’ll airlift it and drop it in right here.
Prishe: "So, hey, you don't remember anything at all, huh?"
WoL: "Nothing. However, it does not concern me. If I but fight, then my existence is given meaning."
Prishe: "What the hell are you talkin' about? Fighting isn't what defines you as a person."
WoL: "Then what? I lack anything to show for my life until this point. Without a past, am I still a person?"
(D’aww, the stoic finally gets his angst…)
[Prishe walks right up to him]
Prishe: "Course you are. You wake up everyday, don't ya? You think someone without memories is no person at all? We all forget stuff we've learned sometimes. The memories you have? They're not proof of anything."
[She takes a few steps about as she lectures him]
Prishe: "Okay. So your past is gone and that's a fact. But now, you're startin' to feel the first pangs of fear."
[WoL is quiet, but looks contemplative]
Prishe: "That feeling? There's the proof that you're alive. You. Me. The Doc. It's the same for everyone. We feel fear, but it's when we
overcome that fear that we get stronger. And that getting stronger day by day, that's what proves we're still alive and kickin'. The struggles we go through-- it's our experiences that teach us strength. If you have that, you don't need memories. You just need to rely on that inner strength and live your life. Oh, one other thing. I should warn you… In this place? I wouldn't go relyin' on memories to guide you. But still, having no memories can be tough! You don't know who you are or…oh."
Prishe: THAT’S RIGHT!
WoL: ?! *the WTF face*
Prishe: We still don’t have a name for you yet!
Then follows an FMV that is absolutely frackin’ ADORABLE that ends with
Prishe: I know exactly what we’ll call you!
*_*_*
I love this one so much because partly of Prishe—who I think is hilarious and awesome, in her way—and because of the fact that the Warrior of Light gets himself a little bit of a background. Much like in the main storyline of 012, we get to see a different side of him besides the overzealously, amazingly, almost disgustingly Lawful Good alignment. It’s here (chronologically in plotline, if not in gameplay) that we get to see that much like everyone else, he’s human and has his own doubts about things—in this case, whether or not he’s even real.
Though in canon, we don’t see her again—enormous timeskips WHOO!—I believe that she stuck around him until the purfications removed her from the cycle—and from his memories. They could have been a sort of two-man band, with him as the tank and her as the off-tank (no one runs heals in Dissidia, have you noticed? Well except technically for Lightning and Aerith, but that’s BRV heals, so…). I believe it was during this time where he got his fervent attitude towards always being there for his comrades, as well as his unwavering faith.
…wow, I’ve rambled on for almost 1.5k words. I’m such a geek. And this is avoiding hitting my head!canon tangents…
Like my new hat---der icon?
Someone has been a very dedicated little scholar. Well done.
Actually I have not got to that report yet (even though I have a great fondness for Prishe I just haven't been that attentive to 012. I really need to check out all the reports now that I've cleared 013) but I've already come across enough spoilers, FAQs and plot analysis's of it to know what it contained.
I'm not exactly a fan of WoL (he's too much of a straight man for me) but there are a few aspects about him that I really find intriguing. It's not to say I dislike him but the fact that he is limited in personality puts me off as an audience member. As someone who wants to be a storyteller I have nothing but praise for his characterisation: it's consistent and well thought out with regards to his origins and role. He is someone who has no life before Dissidia and is given an identity by those who find him. As a result he latches onto this hero's mantle until that is his entire personality, refusing to let any other characteristics develop (such as accepting a name from Bartz) in case they end up defying the past he believes he might have.
The fact that he has no life out of Dissidia almost makes his heading to Corneria a mixed blessing: as long as he was in Dissidia he had some form of stability in regards to the cycles, Cosmos and the constant fights with Garland. One almost wonders if he can develop further than that blank slate until Prishe's storyline confirms that he is capable of being an ordinary person, it just depends on what enviroment and upbringing he's exposed to (the FFIX allusions to Dissidia are mind boggling) and perhaps now that Dissidia is gone he has a chance to be his own person. The question is will he be able to move past the hero identity? Character wise he has a lot of potential. But what I've seen so far I just haven't felt an affinity for. I admit he's a brave, noble and incredibly sympathetic guy...but he's just too stoic for me.
LEMME START BY SAYING
Actually, the scheduling of that event according to the report is #???. It's actually his first cycle of the war by that point, but there's no way to tell how long either Prishe or Shantotto have been there. Numbers be damned, the fact that Garland recognizes him pokes holes in the timeline we've been given—and I will stick to this theory until it's been officially Jossed. *has spent entirely too much time trying to check the timeline* Garland has been through it before, as his shocked reaction to seeing WoL shows—he knows just who/what he is.
He gets quite a bit more development in the reports, that's for certain—the main issue with him is the fact that, when you think about it, Dissidia!WoL is a composite for the party in FFI—all of whom were AFGNCAAPs and Heroic Mimes…or this is what one thinks until the end of 013 when he walks to Castle Cornelia in the distance—
((Actually, Fridge Logic just hit me with a vegetable crisper, here. Once you get far enough in FFI to have run into Lukahn and his merry band of sages, at least one of them mentions that at least one among your party
will shortly perishhas been through this before. Now granted this is wild guessing, but considering that the re-release of FFI roughly coincides with the development/release schedule of the FIRST Dissidia, it raises boggling possibilities.))He's got loads of potential, yes—actually it's been making me resort to Wild Speculation lately: the amount of attention he's gotten in this game makes me wonder if yet another reboot of the first game is in order, with this time everyone—including Mr. Stiffhorns, here—will be given at least bits and pieces of backstory, like in FFIII.
EVERYONE fell into the spring of moogle! (I tell a lie, I only have Kuja, WoL, Firion and Kain)
One can only imagine that maybe the next Dissidia will be following WoL in FFI or some continuation of it since Nomura claimed they weren't ending the Dissidia title but rather, no longer continuing with the current set-up. It's fair to speculate that this might be what they have in mind for the next installment. (Though I'm mainly in it for Zidane and Kuja... but depending on which characters they announce I might pick it up... I can't say at this point)
Like I said before he's a perfect case of S-E taking the blank slate from FFI and running with it. Though sadly I don't know enough about FFI to know what they did wrong. I mean I could tell you the FFIX plotholes they left in Dissidia (most of them were fixed by 012 but one or two sprung up with it; mainly Genome telepathy...) but any other FF I don't feel confident enough in my knowledge to make a solid argument. But I think they did do a good job working with a character who couldn't have a personality and yet still made him more than just a one-dimensional character.
…does Mog!Kain have a tiny lance? …and that sounded less wrong in my head…
I'd definitely pick it up. Don't noise this about, but my main incentive when I found about about the original was playable!Sephiroth. I've sense found accompanying amusements…XD Frankly, I wanna see how big this thing can get.
That and the fact that it would be amusing to see what Kuja would do with the bottled fairy in FFIThe fact that the world of Dissidia is represented by what I can only think of as the "Bad Ending Version" of FFI's world map—everything's wreched lends a bit of credence to this speculating. Add this tidbit to the fact that our surviving members of Team Cosmos took a bit of her with them after it was all said and done—notice that everyone keeps their crystals at the end of it—and, well, yeah. As Cloud said to Tidus, "The story continues."
See for yourself!
Well S-E is always good at giving us a lot of hidden answers and subtle hints all the whilst keeping just enough at bay for the theorists.
I was fairly shallow when I picked up the original: something FFIX related!? WHERE DO I SIGN!? Yeah... I'd probably play it even if nothing from FFIX appeared but still, I'm always hoping for a little more Genome love from S-E. Or FFIX love in general. (I mean FFIX has only been released on the PS and the PSP, nothing more. No remakes, no sequels, no prequels, no OVAs...until Dissidia the best it got was that Vivi cameo in KHII) Playable!villains was another incentive. And of course BIG MOTHERF***ING BRAWL BETWEEN 10 FF HEROES AND 10 FF VILLAINS!
Ahem...
It would be interesting to see if the next Dissidia follows the crystals themselves in some degree. I'm not sure about every Cosmos warrior's pull point, so far the only one I can without a doubt gaurentee is Zidane being from almost the end of FFIX in that he's saved Kuja from the Iifa Tree but hasn't made it back to Garnet yet. (There's a 1-2 year gap between him leaving the party to try rescuing Kuja and going back to Alexandria and confirming that he survived. Since Dissidia labels him as 16 (he was 16 and a half by the time he went after Kuja) we can assume he is anywhere between 16 and six months to 16 and 364 days old when summoned) so maybe Zidane has yet another adventure on Gaia involving Dissidia in some way, which prevents him returning to Garnet so soon. Tidus could also be from the end of his game, hovering between FFX canon and FFX2 canon and still stuck in the farplane. Squall could still be wandering through time. Cloud could...be having another scizophrenic episode inbetween FFVII and Advent Children? There's a lot of thinking to be had.
GENERAL BISHI MELEE GO!
Now, whether this is a summoning or merely an image, I cannot tell. But there are lots of smiles, and serene faces and if you can believe it Mr. Blank Slate is smiling.
WHAT?!Fridge logic hits me again—no one ever mentions where your party got their crystals in FFI.
WoL's got his crystal from Cosmos in the ending of 013. Therefore timeline-speaking (barely even a word, but I had to take painkillers for a knee flare-up, so coherence is amazing by itself right now), he's been plucked from just before FFI starts. (He's heard of Garland at this point because everybody has. Considering his record it's hard to not to have heard of him.)
Judging from his drive, Firion's been plucked right from in the middle of things, but BEFORE Mateus gets offed by your party the first time.
I don't have any theories for anyone else yet. I am slightly afraid of the fact that I've seriously given this THAT much thought.
This is pure Terra bait
Hmm... Well Onion Knight I really have no clue with due to how he's yet another blank slate and he isn't from the DS version but rather the original. Cecil again I can't provide much info on due to how he's a relative n00b but at least we know he has been to the moon and back at least once by the way he acknowledges Golbez as his brother in 013.
Bartz still doesn't remember enough but he knows about Galuf and Exdeath so I'd say he's about midway to the end to hazard a guess. Terra seems to behave like her World of Ruin pre Humbaba state: she's found her humanity but is too scared to use her powers. And everyone else we've taken a stab at.
As for the villains again the only one I can definetly confirm is Kuja and he comes from the same pull point as Zidane (you never see him at the very end since the game never confirms if he died or not but Dissidia seems to suggest he at least made it past the Iifa Tree) but everyone else I have little to no clue.
Re: This is pure Terra bait
This is so cute.... *saves*
He's like a giant plushie!
Re: This is pure Terra bait
(And Kujerra wants me to do one involving Terra with a Kuja Moogle but I REFUSE!!!)
Re: This is pure Terra bait
DERP
no subject
Although I understand where Toffee is coming from, and initially I didn't know what to make of him, I've grown in fondness for WoL until it became outright Fangirlishness! I think my perceptions of him have been greatly helped by 012 and also the fan-community content which has formed him and given him quirks and style beyond what one game can achieve alone!
XD Loving the conversation between you two too, and the Moogle-love! <3333 :3