Chapter 25: Disk 3.10 - Terra & Bran Bal
[FMV: The airship approaches the Shimmering Island; a whirlpool in the air is created. The Hilda Garde 3 enters this Whirlpool, as bright beams of yellow energy are being sucked in all around them. Everyone floats up from the deck of the airship, and begins to get pulled in.]
And, of course, they are magically lifted right from the deck of the ship and carried down. Not the ship, not the crew, only the player characters. How convenient.
[First Dagger, then Eiko, followed by Steiner, Vivi, and Zidane. We see them following some sort of teleportation path, as streaks of blue and orange light, along with dragon-like howls, pass from all around them. Suddenly, they appear to be underwater, with trees above them. They float up from the water, as magnificent blue light fills the screen]
I guess they didn't have the budget to have FMV renders of the other characters in this scene.
[The screen, white, fades back in on a path. Zidane, standing alone, looks around. Everything is strange, alien; A deep blue landscape, surrounded by high-ranging trees all around]
Zidane "Could this be...Terra?" "What's this light? Could it be..." "!?"
[The screen flashes white. A man appears down the path]
Old Man "So you finally came." "The time has come at last... The one who folds time is here."
What does that even mean? Here we go again with the juggling of words.
Zidane "Who the heck are you!?"
Old Man "Ask my name, will you? Then let us ask..." "What is your name?"
Zidane "Me!? My name is-"
Old Man "What is your name?"
Zidane "Hey, what's your problem!? I'm trying to tell you my name."
Old Man "So you believe a given name has meaning..." "Boy, you have been bewitched by the light of the blue moon."
Uh, didn't you call Zidane by his name earlier on the Invincible in Alexandria? Why are you being pretentious all of a sudden, and why did you interrupt Zidane?
Zidane "What do you know? You must be from Terra."
No duh, Zidane, seeing as how you met him only when we just got here.
Old Man "You know nothing, and that is all." "Come and see for yourself... See what Terra is, and what you are..."
Why don't you just take Zidane here and now while everyone isn't together yet?
Skipping ahead.
[The Mysterious Girl walks on screen, up the final set of stairs]
Mysterious Girl "Welcome home."
Zidane "!?"
Mysterious Girl "This is where you belong." "The place to which you shall offer yourself..." "...is here." [She walks up the stairs. At the top of the stairs is a glowing blue light. The words "Bran Bal" appear on the screen]
Zidane "Hold on a second! What the heck are you talking about!?" [The ground begins to shake] "Wh-What the-"
[FMV. An airship flies over the edge. Dagger and Zidane look up at it above them. It's the Invincible, a.k.a. The ship with the eyeball that destroyed Madain Sari and Alexandria, and was at the Iifa Tree. Dagger falls unconscious]
Really? Again with falling unconscious, didn't this already happen back in Madain Sari when Zidane and Garnet were on the boat and Garnet remembered that night? No need to repeat that.
Zidane "Dagger! Wake up!" "Dagger!" "Dammit! What the heck is going on!?"
[The mysterious girl, at the top of the stairs, looks at him, turns around, and walks off screen. The screen fades to black]
"You are completely oblivious." "Just like a newborn child." "You don't know why you were given life, or for what purpose you exist..." "You simply shout to emphasize your life...your own existence." "You are completely oblivious."
Stop it with the pretentious pseudo-philosophy already, did Neon Genesis Evangelion take over? Mikoto might as well be considered an expy of Rei.
[Screen resumes at the top of the stairs; Zidane runs to the new screen]
Zidane "We gotta find a place for her to rest!"
[Steiner runs on screen]
Steiner "Zidane! Leave the princess to me. You must go reconnoiter at once!"
Zidane "Yeah, you're right. There's gotta be some place around here..." "Watch over her, Steiner! I'll be right back!"
Or just carry her in your arms, Zidane, you had no problem doing that before in Alexandria.
[Zidane goes left, to a new screen]
Zidane "!?" [In front of him, several people are walking around; they all have tails, just like him] "Wh-What's going on?" "Everyone has a tail... and their hair is just like mine!"
[Zidane explores Bran Bal for a bit, then approaches someone]
Zidane "Hey, is there a place around here to get some rest?"
"Why do you rest?"
Zidane "'Why?' Don't you guys go to sleep at night? Not that I'm sleepy right now, but..."
"By night, do you mean the condition in which light recedes?"
Zidane "Look, I don't have time for an interview! Where can I find an inn!?"
"There is the entrance."
Zidane "Right there, huh? Gotcha."
Considering that the Genomes are actually soulless husks that are waiting to get a soul, shouldn't they not be able to talk at all or even move? It would make more sense for them to be kept in pods until the crystal puts souls into them.
[Zidane enters the Inn]
Zidane "This looks like a good place for Dagger to get some rest." "But...what's up with everyone here? They're all so...stiff." "I dunno why... but I have a bad feeling about this place." "Well, first things first. I gotta bring Dagger back here!"
[Zidane walks off screen. Screen changes to outside the inn; Eiko is trying to talk to some of the villagers of Bran Bal]
Eiko "'Scuse me..." "Do you have any medicine...?"
Eiko "Hello... Is there a place I can buy some medicine around here?"
Eiko "Hello!? I'm asking if you have any medicine!" "Ngaaa! How come this place is full of weirdos?" "Everyone has a tail like Zidane..." "Aww, if I could only find some Pimo-pimo herbs, I could make some wake-up powder for her..."
You do realize that this is a different world and probably wouldn't have the same kind of plants, right Eiko? (Also "Pimo-pimo herbs" were never mentioned before and aren't even an item you can get and put into your inventory) Though considering that you can even find moogles here in Terra (and have never even heard of Mognet) that raises a bunch of questions, are moogles originally from Terra and started being reborn on Gaia from the slow fusion of the red and blue crystals? Could the same be said about some flora and fauna?
Eiko "But is this my lucky day? No!" "Huh!?" [Eiko runs up to a girl] "Found ya! You're that girl, right? It's your fault Dagger collapsed, you know..."
No, it was the Invincible showing up that did that.
Eiko "Oh, never mind. Say! Don't you have any medicine at all?"
Girl "She will soon awaken."
Eiko "How do you know?"
Girl "Where is your man?"
You didn't really answer Eiko's question. Also, what made Mikoto phrase Zidane like this?
Eiko "M-My man? MY man!?" "Are you talking about Zidane!? Even I never called him that!" "But too bad for you! He and Dagger are super hot for each other!"
Then why did you get in the way by taking Garnet with you to a shrine last chapter instead of letting her go with Zidane?
Also, Eiko clearly hasn't been paying much attention to how the love story has played out. (especially on disk one and two) Zidane and Garnet are about as hot for each other as Noctis and Lunafreya were from FFXV.
Skipping ahead.
Freya "What made you lose consciousness so suddenly?"
Dagger "I remembered."
Zidane "Remembered what?"
Dagger "It wasn't a storm that destroyed Madain Sari." "It was...it was the eye on that airship that destroyed Madain Sari." "You remember, don't you? The eye was also there when Alexandria was leveled."
Well I think technically you aren't really "remembering" so much as you are just realizing, because there was no way you knew that what devastated Madain Sari was actually an airship, unless you saw the Invincible in full view back then, which doesn't really make sense since every time we saw it show up, at the Iifa Tree and Alexandria, it seemed to be able hide itself within clouds. (whether those clouds were natural or artificial is unclear)
Freya "Yes, there was a large eye in the sky above from which light emanated."
Zidane "Now that you mention it... It was there when Bahamut went wild at the Iifa Tree."
And you are all just now bringing it up? I think something like that would have warranted more discussion after you saw it at the end of disk two.
Dagger "Yes... It was there in the sky. It must be the same airship."
Steiner "WHAT!? Then that must be the ship that slew Her Majesty..."
Technically it was Bahamut that did that, whom Kuja took over by using the Invincible on him. (and it still makes no sense that Kuja had any control over the airship)
Zidane "Rusty!"
Steiner "Oh... I-I'm sorry, Princess!"
Dagger "Don't worry about it. I've already come to terms with that." "That ship took everything from me..." "It took away my parents, my homeland, Alexandria...everything."
Freya "How terrible..."
The game tries to make a big deal about this revelation, especially with that whole FMV earlier of the Invincible, but after this scene, the whole thing is completely forgotten (aside from a completely optional and easily missable brief bit of dialogue from Garnet if you speak to her while on the Invincible in disk four) and not as emphasized as it was building up to be.
[Eiko runs in]
Eiko "Dagger! Are you alright?"
Dagger "Yes, I'm fine..."
Eiko "No, you're not! You're still pale! You gotta rest!" "Hmm? How come everyone looks so pale? What's wrong?"
Freya "No need to be concerned. A strange place such as this is cause enough for exhaustion."
Eiko "Oh..." "Hey! Where are you going, Zidane? Oh, that's right!" "That weird girl! The girl that led us here said something strange again!" "She said she was waiting for you in some underground laboratory! What a pervert!" [Zidane walks out of the Inn] "Zidane?"
[Zidane goes to the underground laboratory. Sure enough, the girl is there]
Girl "..."
[Zidane turns around and sees two tubes against the back wall, filled with water, also containing two humans]
Zidane "Oh, so that's what's going on... Geez, I should've guessed..." "So, this is what you wanted to show me?"
Girl "Yes. I am glad you understand."
Zidane "I don't understand! Sorry, but I'm not like that." "I mean all these guys with tails, who look just like me... They're a bunch of zombies."
Girl "They are my peers. We are Genomes. We live in this village."
Zidane "Genomes? Is that what they're called?"
Girl "Not just them, but you and me, too." "It is the name of the seed given to all of us. Its name is Genome."
Isn't that kind of redundant? Can't you just be called Terrians, because that's what you are, bodily reconstructions of the people on Terra that haven't gotten souls from the crystal due to the state that it is in.
Zidane "Talk about a let-down. Who would've guessed that the home I've yearned for would be a dump like this." "No wonder I never found it. It's not even on Gaia!"
Wow, real great read there, Zidane. Can't you at least try to be more dramatic and monumental about this?
Girl "Why are you not happy? You have returned to the place of your birth."
Zidane "Happy? You guys can process that emotion?" "Look at 'em! Look at all their blank faces!"
Girl "What can we do? After all, we are made that way." "And we are built to watch over each other and work together as soulless Genomes."
You could have made this dialogue clearer and simply stated that none of them had gotten a soul from the crystal due to current circumstances.
Zidane "What's it all for!? Get to the point already!" "How come I grew up on Gaia if I was born here!?" "I'm alive! I have a soul! Why is everyone here so..."
Girl "Because you are...special."
Zidane "What!?"
Girl "We are mere vessels. You have been given a greater purpose."
Later it will be revealed that Mikoto is special too (which goes nowhere) so her including herself with the other soulless genomes in this dialogue here is weird.
Girl "The will of Garland is absolute..."
Zidane "Garland? Who's that?"
The antagonist of FFI, oh sorry, Garland and Sarah are ff1 characters, did you know? DID YOU KNOW?!
[She walks up the stairs. He follows her. She's on the floor above the underground laboratory; several Genome surround a large glowing crystal]
Girl "Garland watches over this planet. His mission is to restore the people of Terra."
Zidane "R-Restore the people of Terra? You mean people besides these guys here?"
The Genomes ARE the Terrians, reconstructions of them anyways.
Girl "They are merely vessels. So am I, and so are you."
Well actually no, because you and Zidane already have Terra souls, at least try and be consistent, game.
Girl "But the true people of Terra have been asleep for ages, waiting for their time to come."
Just say the souls have been stuck and the crystal is in bad shape, stop causing confusion with this poorly worded dialogue.
Girl "When the time is right, the light of this planet will change from blue to red, and Gaia will become Terra."
Zidane "Wait a sec! So the people of Terra are out to take over Gaia!?"
Girl "What else can there be? Terra has always absorbed new planets to survive."
Except that, according to the Ultimania, those planets all didn't have crystals and thus life on them, Gaia was just a desperate risky attempt, and regardless, I would have preferred it if the writers just removed that whole "fusing with previous other planets" bit, making Gaia the only one, and adding more depth to it, heck, it doesn't even explain what caused Terra to be in the state that it is in, going back to what I said at Oeilvert and the cheap world building and lore in general.
Girl "And when the time comes, the souls of the people of Terra will occupy the Genomes. Such is the restoration of the people of Terra."
RETURN, not "occupy", are the writers even paying attention to their own set up of the crystals and lifestream?
Zidane "Why do they have to be so tedious!?" "Why don't they just wipe us out with magic like they did Alexandria!?"
Wow, way to demonize the entirety of the populace of Terra, Zidane. (and it's only going to get worse from here)
Girl "Once, Garland tried to use a more forceful method, but failed."
The prehistory is presented in some stupid fragments, from which it is impossible to compose a coherent picture. When? What method? Why didn't it work? I guess she is referring to the failed fusion of Gaia and Terra several millennia ago that caused Terra to be shifted to inside of Gaia.
Zidane "Then he should just quit and leave Gaia alone!"
Girl "Because of his failure, he was forced to wait a long time." "...To wait until Gaia's civilizations gained tremendous power: The power to use eidolons."
What? Why? I thought Garland saw the Eidolons as a threat?
Zidane "So that's why you attacked the summoner's village and destroyed Alexandria."
Uh no, that doesn't explain anything Zidane, what Mikoto just said implied the opposite of that, was something lost in translation?
Girl "Planets have a cycle of souls. Souls are born from the planet, and then return to it." "Garland planned to gain control of that very cycle..." "...and you were supposed to help him achieve that."
As I've stated several times, this is the lifestream like with FFVII, and is all based on the "Gaia Hypothesis" which I believe, look it up. Gaia and Terra are consciousnesses. But for some reason the Crystals aren't being mentioned here despite being the keystones of the whole thing. (Will be getting to that at Memoria)
Zidane "What!?"
Girl "Garland is waiting for you. Come..."
[She walks off screen]
Zidane "What do you think you're doing!? I don't care about all this Terra and Gaia stuff!"
Spoken like a generic RPG protagonist with no curiosity who never thinks and sees the bigger picture.
[The screen fades to black, and resumes in the inn, where the same people as before are gathered]
Eiko "Zidane isn't back yet." "And with Dagger not feeling well... I wonder where he is."
All Garnet did was faint from seeing an airship, Eiko, stop exaggerating.
Dagger "Eiko..."
Eiko "No, Dagger! You can't get up yet!"
Dagger "It's alright. Listen, I want to ask you a favor."
Eiko "Oh? Just tell me, and I'll get right on it!"
Dagger "I want you to go find Zidane."
Why can't you do it yourself? Seeing an airship and reminiscing shouldn't make you feel ill and unable to walk.
Eiko "Huh? Oh, sure. Okay." "Oh, I get it! You're getting jealous!"
Dagger "No, I'm not... I just have a feeling something terrible is going to happen."
Hey being jealous would actually give you more of a personality.
Eiko "Alright! I'll go get him. So you just stay here and rest!"
- Place to Call Home
And here we go with the (thankfully) last of the ATEs in the game.
[Quina walks into the room with the large crystal, that several Genomes are standing around, watching]
Quina "Aiya! What big stone!" "Why you all watch stone?" "Is stone edible? Or is for barbeque?" "No answer..." "I think I lick it." "You no answer, so you no mind, right?" [Quina licks it] "Hmmm... Is very salty." "Oh? Who that?"
Actually, what is the purpose of that stone anyways? It's never explained.
[Quina runs to the other side of the screen; Zidane is standing there, still]
Quina "What you doing here, Zidane?"
Zidane "Huh? Oh... Hi, Quina."
Quina "You stand here say nothing, then you just like other dummy-dummies. No can tell difference!" "They say someone always has double somewhere. There so many of you here!" "The world strange place, no?"
Thanks for the "insight", Quina.
Zidane "Yeah, I guess..."
Quina "Zidane, what matter? You no seem yourself."
Zidane "Hmm? Oh, it's nothing. I'm always myself." "Besides, it's not just me. You look just like your master, too."
Quina "Of course! Master Quale is Qu Clan! We same!"
Zidane "Yeah? I guess everybody looks the same to someone from another race."
That's racist.
[Quina turns around to look at the crystal & Genomes]
Quina "Hmm... Maybe you right."
[Zidane walks off screen]
Quina "What he say? Same...race?"
The only point of this ATE was to point out the obvious and say things we already know about.
[Eiko runs out of the inn]
- Where the Heart Is
[Vivi is speaking to a Genome. Behind the Genome is a deep lake of blue light]
Vivi "Excuse me..."
Vivi "So, umm... What do you guys do here?"
Vivi "Hmm... Oh, yeah... This blue light sure is pretty, isn't it?"
[Zidane walks on screen and stops behind Vivi]
Vivi "You like it, too, right? You're all looking at the blue light."
"The light is unpleasant to us..."
Vivi "Oh...really..." (Huh? It's that girl...) [The girl walks off screen] "Hmm?" [Vivi turns around] "Hey, Zidane... What are you up to?"
Zidane "What do you mean? What are you doing, Vivi?"
Vivi "I'm trying to talk with the natives. This boy here seems to be my age and everything..."
Well Vivi, you don't even know your own age considering you don't know when your soul was placed into that artificial mage body, at most you are around a year old.
Zidane "You're wasting your time. They won't give you a decent answer."
Vivi "Oh... But I think I can get through to them."
Zidane "Huh. I'm surprised you feel that way."
Vivi "I don't know why, but... I...I feel like we're similar."
Zidane "Similar? What do you mean? I know they're similar to me, but..."
Vivi "No, no... Not like that. They're a lot like the black mages we saw on the cargo ship, and in Cleyra..." "Of course, we don't look alike at all. But I can see one thing. Their minds aren't hollow." "I think that their minds are just out to lunch for a little while..."
Except that they aren't, the Black Mages are Gaia souls placed into artificial doll bodies, while the Genomes are genetically recreated bodies of the people on Terra that haven't gotten a soul from the crystal yet. But the game will ignore it's own rules on that.
Skipping ahead.
- Came into this World
[The girl and Zidane are at the entrance of Bran Bal, with the glowing green light]
Girl "This way..."
[She walks into the light. Zidane stands in front of it]
"Hey, Zidane!"
[Amarant walks on screen]
Zidane "What do you want?"
Amarant "What? That's no way to say hello." "What the hell is this place?" "I thought we'd find some mean mothers down here, but they're all a bunch of wimps."
Zidane "No challenge, huh?"
Amarant "Yeah, I guess not."
Zidane "Hey, Amarant... Can I ask you something?"
Amarant "No."
Zidane "Do you... have any parents or family?"
Amarant "What a stupid question."
Why?
Zidane "Sorry. I was just curious."
Amarant "I don't remember any loving parents. My first memory is of the face of a guy I had to fight." "I only found meaning in life through combat."
Yeah, yeah, you had the typical edgelord background. We already saw how weak your backstory was before.
Zidane "Funny how you put that in past tense. All due to my wonderful influence."
Amarant "Pshhh. What do you want me to do? Thank you?"
Zidane "Please! You're gonna make me sick!"
Amarant "How about you?"
Zidane "What? You mean my parents?" "...I don't have parents."
Well technically Garland is pretty much your father.
[Eiko runs to the next screen]
- The Truth
[Zidane is walking along a path of Terra. The girl is standing on the path in front of him]
Zidane "Hey! Where're you taking me?"
Girl "I told you. You are going to see Garland."
Zidane "Yeah, of course. But this way is a dead end."
Girl "There is a way." "See? You may find him through the portal." "He awaits where the souls sleep. The floating castle, where souls bide their time until their restoration... Pandemonium."
"A castle where souls wait in the wings, called the RESORT OF ALL DEMONS."
I can't tell if the writers were trying to be ironic, or just reusing the name of the final dungeon in FFII (even reusing the theme for that level, but slowed down, granted the music for that is one of the better tracks in IX) to make another cheap reference.
Also shouldn't the Terra souls actually be sleeping within the red crystal itself instead of Pandemonium?
Girl "Will you not say farewell to your friends?"
Zidane "I don't care what I am... I was born here, wasn't I?" "If so, then I am an enemy of the people of Gaia."
Girl "You learn quickly."
Zidane "Make no mistake. I won't join your side."
Dude, enough of this "us or them" mentality.
Zidane "I just... If we are actually relatives, then..." "Then I want to take care of this little family matter myself."
[Zidane steps into the portal, teleporting away]
And that's it for the ATEs, as stated before, the idea with them is great, the problem is that the local characters suck, and the scenes with their participation are extremely empty. Thankfully they can at least be ignored and skipped.
[Eiko runs to where Zidane teleported away. The girl is still standing there]
Eiko "Now, you listen to me! Where did you take Zidane?"
Girl "He went on his own to see Garland."
Eiko "Garland!? Oooo, THAT's a sinister name!"
This just went full idiot.
Eiko "But Zidane wouldn't just leave us hanging!"
Girl "He went... Yes, he went to find out the reason for his existence."
Eiko "Lair! That's a terrible lie!"
Girl "'I am an enemy of the people of Gaia,' he said as he walked through the gate to Pandemonium."
Really "great" choice of words there, Zidane.
Eiko "!" "We-We gotta tell the others!"
[Eiko runs off screen]
Girl "Heaven grant the wandering souls eternal respose..."
And again, indistinct, irrelevant pretentious shit for the sake of a red word. Heaven. Gosh darn it, simply unbearable.
End of Chapter 25.
