Lurker > Lopen

Writers don't want them to assume that is the intent as it's happening

They want you to go back and see these details later and be like "oh that's neat"

Celes finding Locke's bandana and it has more weight if they eventually fall in love
Does not mean
Celes was going to kill herself and seeing the bandana of the man she loved helped her through it

You're projecting it to mean more in the events of the story as presented because you're putting the cart before the horse.

LeonhartFour posted...

Whether they intended for Locke and Celes to become a romance by the end, they definitely were teasing the audience into the possibility of one.

I mean I agree with that.

I just don't think that makes it a love story.

This might just be a semantics thing for some of you-- I think it's a bad love story but a good "teasing the possibility of love" story.

I don't think the implication is they're falling in love as the game goes but I do think they are laying groundwork for them to later in a story that isn't told. To me those are very different things in terms of what you should be doing. FF6 succeeds at the latter, fails at the former.

I don't know if that means Celes was interested as much as she was trying to figure out why Locke was being so protective

I'll concede the ending credits as leaning towards it but nothing else. Everything during the game is just you projecting imo

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Shatterstar

Leonhart4 posted...

I demand a Mjrn writeup with no vowels

Ruined my joke, dammt

I do quite like Celes even though she isn't one of my favorites and rarely gets any saves from me.

Enough people responded that unless I really get shouted at I'll keep doing these (and the 5 I missed) but Terra will probably be one of the lengthier ones cause I have a lot to say about her.

Anyway

I think this was fun even though we hardly talked about Terra at all. Hopefully @UltimaterializerX and others understand my loathing for Terra a bit better now.

Let me know if you all want (even just a little) SMFFFC rankings/writeups as we go. I'll do it!

It's "bad" to play as 5/10 (all 4/10s are conditional, so not fair really) but you shouldn't be losing games over it. 5/10 is completely fine.

I don't see a problem

Just play a 4 drop and have a 5/10 next turn? It's not optimal but that's not bad either. Feels more like you're overthinking the card.

You play Mysterio and you get a 3/10. Just use it in a standard deck with Mysterio and play it as a 5/10 or a 3/10. No need for gimmicks.

I think it's definitely hinted at.

I just disagree that the game is telling or failing at telling a love story.

The game is telling a story about two people getting through emotional damage-- if they get together? Great! If they don't, that's also possible.

Like if you were to tell me LockexCeles is a canon ship I'd hard disagree even if it's the logical outcome if either one ever has a relationship again.

Cable
Firestar
Sunspot

Leonhart4 posted...

So if Celes had found Gau's loincloth, it would have had the same effect

If it's distinctively Gau's yeah I think that'd light her fire.

Never got a "I'm gonna go find Locke" vibe it's entirely "I'm getting the band back together" vibe.

Kefka's castle post-game scenes are the only hint you get of it

I agree with that

But that's not really the game telling the story. That's the ending hinting at the potential.

Leonhart4 posted...

Celes finding Locke's bandana literally gives her the will to live instead of giving up and dying

It's not presented romantically imo.

More like a "the others are possibly alive it's not just me and Cid I should do something" and Locke is the character she is most closely linked with-- it's no different than an alternate universe where Sabin finds Edgar's coin or whatever.

Like you can spin it romantically but I there's never any direct interaction between the two that gives that vibe. Roba blames poor writing-- I give the writing the benefit of a doubt and say that's intentional and it's not explicit.

That being said

Do I think the intention is that it COULD become a romance to the point where it's a sensible ship? Absolutely.

But that's not the story told in Final Fantasy VI, much like Terra discovering love and having a massive character overhaul is not. It's you writing the story vs what is actually told. Much like the people saying Setzer was going to rape Celes or whatever (I think that was you too!)

Robazoid posted...

I mean it definitely isn't a good romance, but if you don't think it was meant to be a romance then lol

Locke was protecting Celes out of guilt or whatever because he didn't want to let another girl he was with (not romantically, but he released her from chains so he takes some responsibility for helping her be safe) be a victim.

Locke always loved Rachel. His final arc is literally trying to raise Rachel from the dead-- something he wouldnt do if Celes was a consideration. His only romantic indication towards Celes is when he uses her as a Rachel proxy.
Celes never showed any romantic interest whatsoever towards Locke.

It's not a romance. It's a weird character dynamic that could be construed as romance but I get more of a Doctor Who x Companion vibe out of it.

Also btw I disagree Locke/Celes is meant to be romantic at all.

We actually have no indication she would or would not have cared about the kids because she basically had no personality to speak of.

I mean maybe the ensemble cast is to blame for the lack of visible progression of her love (the development we're shown is her asking about love and then cut ahead to children calling her mama) for the children but yeah.

I liked her in 1-5. The diet Maya comparisons have some merit but I thought she was fine.

I liked her more in Apollo Justice. One of the bright spots of that trudgery. AAI she was forgettable.

8.5/10.

Gogo makes a conscious effort to join these random people who show up in the belly of the sand worm. That's worth something.

Also has an in character reason to do nothing-- being a devout practitioner of the arts of mimicry he cannot act until he finds people to imitate.

For these two reasons I give him more of a pass. (Also not being super powerful dude with any beef with Kefka/the empire)

(You see what I did with that formatting there.

If people are starved for content I can do writeups for every elimination. Just to show how thankful I am for getting rid of that Terra fiend.)

95. Terra Branford (Lopen Stats - 0.1/10 - #100)

"What is love, I am boring?" - Terra Branford (paraphrased)

So here's this character. She has a good look. I like her human look and esper look both. Her backstory is... well, it's good lore at least. I find the Maduin and whatsherface flashback really tiresome but I like the general lore.

So you know, you're like "ok so she looks good and her story lore contribution is neat why is she 0.1/10"

Well let me tell you.

Terra starts off as a typical amnesiac and then like, ok, Locke helps her out. They take her to the returner base. Here's what happens.

"yo we are out to get this evil empire you wanna join?"
"I don't know"

So things happen, she flips out and becomes a pink rage monster and flies away cause clown guy enslaved her and Tritoch (now known as Vaglilanqrhtta) gives her PTSD or something when he glows at her. She flies to Ramuh, sleeps. Comes back. No input on anything. Kinda just goes along with what Edgar and Locke are driving forward. There's some stuff with General Leo.

"What is love?" - yeah, that's it. I guess this could be ok, but I certainly am not feeling anything from her-- if there was a sense of despair or whatever, I can't say they conveyed it well.

The world is then torn asunder. What does she, all powerful flying pink rage monster do? Go duck and cover with some kids and hope things fix themselves. And then they don't and a giant pig man beats her down until Celes and Sabin save the day. (Of course, you need to go there twice to get her to do anything because why would she actually put effort into making a difference easier to mope)

Ok you all know the plot of FFVI-- why am I going into this. It's because understanding how little she actually does is important for expressing my disdain for the character.

She's a bland dry meat. Her entire personality is being meek, moping, and indecisive while allowing big strong men Edgar Locke and Celes make all her decisions for her. Terra is what we should all strive not to be. She just hopes things will fix themselves while she squanders her potential.

I would be extremely disappointed about this on a normal character. On a character who is easily the most powerful character in the cast? It's completely infuriating. Is it the ensemble cast to blame? I don't think so, most of the cast seems to take some initiative about stuff-- they have their moments, they seize the day when it comes time to. I think the only character in the game who does less on their own initiative is Umaro. And unsurprisingly I have said swapping Umaro's role with Terra's improves the game. Snow yeti musing about love and MOG commanding a pink rage monster half-esper to do his bidding? Yes. Give me that game.

UltimaterializerX posted...

No, but I know how to. Its easier to have it done during the 3-5k mile maintenance along with everything else.

Yeah. This.

You find a good mechanic and you're not paying that much more than the cost of the oil anyway. It's just convenient to have a professional look at it and catch other stuff during maintenance and dispose of the oil.

Never got why you'd want to change it yourself unless you really liked fiddling with cars

Also

@UltimaterializerX

You seemed confused about the seething yesterday.

Terra is my least favorite character in the field and I could go into detail on the why if you want because I won't turn down an opportunity to rant about what an annoying character she is (it especially bugs me because I SHOULD like her she checks a lot of good boxes)

Cyclops
Mister Sinister
Mystique

Fran is kinda not good but she's so weak it's nothing worth celebrating about. It's not spicy. She's also like, only a little bad, so I don't really care if she does well.

Good elim though, no complaints.

It's OK I'm fine. I'll just hide the topic if I find myself clicking it by accident too often.

I just think the tag worked fine for achieving its objective, better than their compromise, and it's only because Fandom is run by idiots that this even happened so I'm venting.

At least the topic is back. That's a good thing.

It's annoying that the only thing this achieved is removing the tag I was hiding to ignore the topics.

It's like the opposite of what they wanted to do. They're subjecting me (someone who generally does not want to engage in political discussion which is presumably what the rule was designed to "protect") to MORE political discussion than before the stupid ass ultimatum.

I guess I can just click the topic every time and click hide but yeah. Super dumb.

Omega Red
Jubilee
Psylocke

Algus
Apollo

Aladdin (the live musical unless you haven't seen then the movie is fine)

I got a bunch of people poking fun at "at least that Crisis Core guy didn't get in"

Reap what you sow. This is my contest win time for my victory lap

Lotta Hart - 3
She's like Oldbag in that she's more annoying each time she appears. The difference is she doesn't start as good but more importantly her decline in quality isn't as steep either.

Yogi - 7
Not sure I'm super into his character or anything but his story is good and memorable which is more than a lot of AA characters can say.

Polly - 7
Cross examining a parrot is an iconic silly moment.

I usually just rush storm if I draw her, often go Angela -> Storm onto Angela lane and then depending on whether they fight it your turn 4 ignores it or doesn't (War Machine or Jeff can pull it back later)

One thing I've found tends to help the deck a lot is not necessarily rushing to play Angela. Like if you draw Kitty + Angela going

T1 Kitty
T2 Kitty
T3 Angela + Kitty

Is better than Angela on T2 by a bit. Since Electro and Hope means you'll often be able to have a T6 where Kitty + a 6 drop is played every bit helps her

I did consider putting Elsa in but wasn't sure who take out and the deck doesn't reliably fill lanes

But yeah it does have a learning curve for sure

Aladdin

I was double ninjaed

Truly this must also be kompression's fault

MartinFF7 posted...

Wait am I missing something, how is Ultimecia getting the rub for this outcome, lol. Though that also reminds me, I forgot to reply in last topic:

I said Genesis will exact revenge on all the newcomers. 25 graves for 25 newcomers

FFD said "ow my kompression"

I said Genesis will accept a substitute for Ultimecia in support of the U = R theory.

I then clarified I meant teRRa bRanfoRd

Lo and behold Terra lies fallen. Dead. But a mere days later (exact number of days? Unknown due to kompression)

Truly only the power of a real hero combined with kompression could cause such a miracle.

Thus Ultimecia must win.

Firestar
Shatterstar
Sunfire

Seriously

Terra hard boot makes me happier than any reasonably likely victor could

Call it spiteful but you know when your guys all get wrecked in the jobber rounds this is what we root for

Omega Red
Jubilee
Psylocke

Oh man

Who cares who wins now

What a great contest

Let's get Ultimecia the crown. Her reward for leading Terra to the slaughter

Yes!!

Behold Genesis's power, the named surrogate of Ultimecia has been destroyed as foretold

This world needed a new hero and it got it-- and he didn't even get into the contest

Algus
Apollo

Dels posted...

if the machine said "contains commons only" then everything about the 'scam' goes away, right?

Not at all. It's less scammy but half the reason people are outraged is "think about the children!!" and they aren't going to fully grasp how much of a ripoff that is.

Ultimately if you don't buy the water thing you can think of it as those little toy vending machines, or the claw games, or whatever else. It's all scammy it's just a matter of degrees and if you've got a dispensing machine in a public space you're getting gouged at some level.

The vending machine upcharge argument is a good one honestly

I can buy a case of 32 aquafina waters for a bit over $5. So that's less than $0.20 per water.

If I buy that same bottle of Aquafina from a hotel lobby vending machine at a hotel I often stay at for work it's $2. And I'm sure there are even more expensive vending machines out there.

That is arguably more scammy than a card vending machine and completely legal.

You know I actually have trouble thinking of emotional losses. I think I just kinda intentionally forget them because it's usually football and some crap with penalties.

Giants Patriots in 2008 was super emotional but that was a legendary play from Eli Manning for the WIN.

Also Cubs World Series 2016, but also a win. Helps that Cubs always lost before the world series even when they did well enough to get to the playoffs.

I remember being annoyed with the Panthers vs the Broncos in 2016 almost feeling it was rigged to make a feel good final chapter for Peyton Manning, and disappointed the Cubs didn't go back to back in 2017, but again, they lost before the finals so.

But yeah ny main teams being the Giants (clutch) and the Cubs (usually squahsed before the emotional games) does help. Giants did lose one Super Bowl in my lifetime but I didn't follow Football much that season.

Wow

7/10 games not good enough to finish

Still finished all but 2 games

I think with your criteria I would have beaten like 1/3 the FF games

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