azurite: (Bunninated!)
[personal profile] azurite
I'm not sure just why I decided to buy Final Fantasy VIII from Amazon.com just a few days before my birthday. Why THAT game, out of all the bazillions of other items at Amazon? I have no clue. I'm not sure what prompted my thinking of it, but now that I've got it and have been playing it (I've had it for about 10 days, and am already on Disc Three; I just got Rinoa back from the Sorceress Memorial), I'm addicted. I already know what's going to happen (of course), mainly because the story got so good that I looked up stuff on the Wikia, started to read fanfiction (Squinoa all the way!) and watched a few AMVs + the ending sequence.

But still, some elements confuse me. I'm not sure if they'll get explained away by the time I finish playing the game, because even the Wikia doesn't have a perfect explanation. For example, the whole Sorceress Power thing.

Okay, so Edea got her Sorceress Power from another sorceress (her grandmother?) at age 5, when that Sorceress died. Then, at some as-yet-unspecified date, she got Ultimecia's powers. At whatever point she got Ultimecia's powers, her personality began to corrupt, and Ultimecia essentially possessed her. Of course, Edea remembers all that happened, rather than Ultimecia's possession destroying Edea's personality altogether, or shunting it to a place that doesn't allow her to "see" the outside world.

Then, when Edea battles Squall, Rinoa, and (insert party member here, I had Zell), she accidentally transfers SOME of her powers over to Rinoa. I'm not sure whether it was accidental or not, but it seems not, because Ultimecia figured that these people had come close to defeating her TWICE, were probably the ones "destined" to defeat her, and thus she had to find a way to circumvent that-- by "becoming" one of the very people destined to destroy her. She did that by abandoning Edea and going into Rinoa, instead.

Thus:

Unnamed Sorceress
+ Ultimecia
-----------------------------
Edea Kramer
- Ultimecia
-----------------------------
Rinoa (in a coma), Edea with her Unnamed Sorceress powers
+ Ultimecia (Adel)
-----------------------------
Rinoa
- Ultimecia (Adel)
-----------------------------
Rinoa with somebody's Sorceress Power, but who the heck knows WHOSE, plus, havoc wreaked upon the world because Adel has been unsealed and is back, and apparently Ultimecia's "with her."

What an odd equation. See, Edea still had her grandmother's (?) Sorceress Powers left in her after Ultimecia went to Rinoa. That's why she was still able to use magic freely (like her Ice Strike Limit Break and Blizzard Palm attack), why her appearance remained largely unchanged (though I wonder if her "veins" disappeared? It's theorized that Ultimecia possessing someone corrupts not just their personality, but also their outward appearance, or that might be true of any "evil" Sorceress), and why Rinoa went into a coma. Well, I doubt Ultimecia HAD to have Rinoa go into a coma, but it could be because Ultimecia was weakened from the battle, Rinoa didn't expect the transfer and thus was mentally shocked by it, or she fought against it and, during that fight, her body essentially "shut down" to outward appearances.

Anyway, later on, Rinoa frees Adel, the former Estharian Sorceress, from her prison in space, and Ultimecia apparently abandons her, the way she abandoned Edea. So now Ultimecia is in Adel.

I read something about Ultimecia wanting to JUNCTION Rinoa to Adel-- but why? I thought Ultimecia, as a Sorceress from the future, had the powers of ALL the Sorceresses that came before her, which would theoretically include AT LEAST Edea and Adel, if not Rinoa herself as well. Why does she need to bother with all the body-hopping? Does she not exist in a physical form, or can that physical form not travel (yet)? Also, if Ultimecia abandoned Adel, why did Rinoa willingly give herself up to Esthar because they found out she was a Sorceress (likely from the tests they did on her back in Esthar proper, in Dr. Odine's lab)? I mean, theoretically wouldn't they realize, "Oh, Ultimecia left her, she's not a Sorceress anymore?" I mean, at that point, Edea hadn't given Rinoa HER powers, so why would Rinoa BE a Sorceress-- she technically didn't have any Sorceress power, did she? If she did, wouldn't she have been somehow "obligated" to pass her powers onto (the nearest) someone, even in space? (And if we subscribe to the theory that Sorceresses don't always have to be female, wouldn't that have been Squall!?)

Plus, are Sorceress Powers (which are supposed to be immortal and non-sentient) passed down in "theme" from person to person? I've read that Edea's powers are ice-based (see her Ice Strike Limit Break and Blizzard Palm physical attack, mentioned earlier, plus her great compatibility with Shiva), but were her grandmother's as well? Or is the "theme" something individual? I wonder because, if there is any sort of cumulative effect, Ultimecia having all these powers would make sense, but she would still have something "special" to her-- the Time-Space Magic, the same way Edea might have access to other magics, but she simply has a preference or affinity for Ice-based ones, and Rinoa has pure, primal magic.

Another thing-- if the Sorceress Power itself is immortal but non-sentient, what is it that "makes" a Sorceress evil? Can the Sorceress Power itself be corrupted, thus making ANY given Sorceress a threat, or is it the underlying personality of the user? Edea wouldn't have gone all whacko if it hadn't been for Ultimecia, but people still put a stigma on being a Sorceress because of nut-jobs like Adel, who took whole countries to war over her abilities. It's not clear whether Edea intentionally lived so far away from humanity from when she was young because she was a Sorceress. And, at the point of the game I'm at, it's not clear that, if it really was her grandmother that passed her powers onto her, what happened to Edea's MOTHER. If genetic inheritance played a role in it, that would change the playing field A LOT. After all, why is it that none of the other Sorceresses simply had daughters to pass their powers onto? Why is it they had to hunt girls down (Adel for Ellone), or pass their powers (willingly or otherwise) onto nearby candidates (Ultimecia/Edea to Rinoa)? I like the fic idea of Rinoa wanting children but doubting she could have them, because she's a Sorceress. The inability to have children (in exchange for all this awesome power) seems pretty interesting, and assuming only women continued to be Sorceresses (Hyne was really the only male, but he doesn't count, because he was the god that started it all), would be a pretty big motivator for them to seek out "qualified candidates" to take on the power-- and perhaps in doing so, leave a remnant of their "personality" within that power, alive-- that's how it seemed to have worked for Ultimecia, anyway.

Then there's the whole time paradox. Like I said, I've been spoiled already, but hey, spoilers can sometimes be wrong, or subjective. Supposedly Edea got Ultimecia's powers from Ultimecia who DIED back at the orphanage on the Centra coast. This happened when Squall and Co. go to beat her IN THE FUTURE and then she falls back through Time Compression into that particular point in time and is stuck giving her powers to Edea, who is the nearest Sorceress candidate (and technically, already a Sorceress). So, Sorceress Powers can be combined, and apparently divided, too, since Edea was still a sorceress even after Ultimecia left her, and Rinoa was too, even after both Ultimecia and Adel were defeated. So the future Ultimecia dies, gives her powers to past!Edea, who passes them on to Rinoa, who goes on to help defeat Ultimecia in the future, who goes back into the past and dies... and so on. Is anyone EVER rid of Ultimecia? She's only going to exist in the future, right? If not, then there is no past!

So, besides [livejournal.com profile] obabscribbler who here has seen Monty Oum's "Dead Fantasy"? It's a FANTASTIC fan-made video of Yuna and Rikku from FFX-2, Tifa from FFVII: Advent Children, Rinoa from FFVIII (can you tell I already love her to bits?), and Kairi from Kingdom Hearts II taking on a number of girls from the Dead or Alive series (though one girl from Ninja Gaiden makes an appearance). It's an awesome, awesome fighting vid-- actually, there's two parts now, with more coming soon...



So anyway, I've watched this, oh, maybe five or six times now, and a few days ago, I get hit with a FIC INSPIRATION. I went hunting for FFVIII fic anyway, to bide the time when I'm not playing the game (though I have much better things to be doing with my time, FFVIII is so nice and shiny and distracting), but to be honest, there wasn't much that sounded good. I read a few (really long) really good stories, but they were WIPs, so that was that. I'm just waiting for more... oneshots are nice, too, but it'd be fabulous to find a really long fic that's COMPLETED! And good. I must have me some "good," which translates to "like the game." In other words, drama! Action! And for me almost most-importantly ROMANCE! Because heck, probably why I like the FFs that I do is because of the romance. FFVIII I'm liking more because it's promised to end HAPPILY, unlike some other FFs I know. FFX was a disappointment for me in that respect, even though I loved the other elements (3D! My god, I could NOT play FFVII because of how hideous the polygonal characters looked. Give me sprites or at least humanoid renderings-- not... whatever those creepy things in FFVII were! Redo the game, dammit!), the ending just made me cry. Hence, I loved FFX-2, because it gave Yuna a chance to shine, to find herself (even if she didn't end up with Tidus) and Tidus DID come back (which just made it super-special awesome). FFIX I liked (still haven't beaten it, though), but I couldn't get over how childish everyone looked. I know that was the point, but I couldn't reconcile their supposed true ages with how they looked. It didn't feel like a "love story" in that game to me because of how young everyone looked. It was like "playtime" but gone wrong-- kids saving the world and whatnot.

So anyway, the fic idea. The first question was, how would I get all the girls together? Second, why would they fight on each others' sides, no questions asked? Third, why fight AGAINST the DoA girls, no questions asked?

And because I'm playing FFVIII now, of course Rinoa's idea came to me first. If, by game's end, she's a Sorceress, but basically a Sorceress-in-Training, because unlike Edea, who grew up with her powers, Adel and Ultimecia, who went crazy WITH power, Rinoa is a reluctant Sorceress, someone who was even willing to be sealed and give up the chance to be powerful, to probably do whatever the heck she wanted (liberate Timber single-handedly?), and who couldn't stand the thought of everyone hating her because she was a Sorceress.

This would be a girl who wouldn't exactly toss her powers around freely, but she does so in "Dead Fantasy," because how else would she save the day when she shows up?
Of them all, I would say that she's definitely the most powerful-- after all, Yuna theoretically only has her own (human) power during the Eternal Calm. The power of the Fayth is gone, but it kinda-sorta comes back at the end of FFX-2. Plus, she's got all her awesome dresspheres (though in Dead Fantasy, she's strictly a gunner). Tifa's the powerhouse of the group-- in hand-to-hand combat, I think she'd win, while Kairi and Rikku are more the speedy type.

So, the story would go, post-game for pretty much everyone-- post FFX-2, post FFVIII, post FFVII (and we're going with the idea that the world of FFVII and FFX are different worlds, even though there's a ton of evidence to support that they're actually the same, thus putting Tifa generations into Yuna's future), post Kingdom Hearts 2.

Problem is, I haven't played FFVII or Kingdom Hearts 2. All I know about them is what I've read from Wikis and the like, or, in the case of FFVII, seen in Advent Children (which is not a lot. Okay, I know Aerith and Sephiroth dies, Zack's been dead and Cloud had his memories, and uh... yeah).

Each chapter would be dedicated to one of the girls each, having "visions" of at least one of the other girls, their experiences, emotions, and trials (e.g. Rinoa would see flashes of Yuna's pilgrimage, her battle with Sin, the loss of Tidus and Auron, her journey two years later, her defeat of Vegnagun and the subsequent breaking up of the Gullwings....), plus bits and pieces of "the battle to come." Perhaps one or two of them might even know why they have to defeat the DoA girls, so there's a reason why they join the side they do, and fight the DoA girls without question.

So already, that's five chapters. Because Monty Oum hasn't done the subsequent Dead Fantasies for the four girls who have separate battles with individual DoA girls, I'd be winging it from this point forward, though I do know who fights who. What I'd do is have those individual battles be on the FF girls' homeworlds-- Yuna and Rikku in Spira, Rinoa in Galbadia, and Tifa in Midgar (or thereabouts). Kairi's the only one who doesn't have an opponent, and there'd be a reason for that, too.

And the subsequent defeats (Monty clearly prefers the FF girls; frankly, so do I, and it doesn't take a genius to guess why), the FF girls meet again, in a manner of speaking: one last time, too, because if they were to ever meet again, it could mean the DoA girls could return to wreak havoc, or other people/creatures/forces could come through and do the same thing.

Thus, the story ends, and each of the girls have had one more "last mission" where they have been forced to grow ENTIRELY on their own (the exception is really for Yuna and Rikku, because it seems like those two are practically inseparable).

Of course I left out a lot of the good elements of the idea, mainly because if I end up doing it, I still want some things to be a surprise, but the problem of course is, HAVING the idea in the first place --being plot bunnied and having "other obligations" like WDKY. Argh!

I need a Rinoa icon. :P

Date: 2008-04-30 11:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sekiria21.livejournal.com
Mer, I admire you for seeing what is probably the BEST fan-made CGI video thus far (both of them).

If you haven't already seen it, go see Monty Oum's earlier work in the form of "Haloid", which was basically brought down into "Samus vs. Master Chief", but with a major twist at the end of it.

Date: 2008-05-01 02:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janimelee.livejournal.com
Plot bunnies are bad. They multiply just like real ones.

Dead Fantasy II premiered at AnimeBoston (wanted to go, but Easter Weekend and I work in a grocery store... never going to see it); I found it on youtube and couldn't believe it.

And I read that he had a job offer from Midway.

Date: 2008-05-01 03:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gintoki-sama.livejournal.com
WOW! I really like that fan vid ^^ lol I feel like watching it again ♥ I want to play it

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