LogFAQs > #976530211

Mobilezoid posted...

As someone who often browses AITA to kill time at work, this made me lol

I mean, it WOULD be something posted there, and Serah WOULD be the AH, yes? I've written satirical AITAs many a time and actually considered making one about FFXIII here, sans the l'Cie thing.

I always liked the Hope/Lightning dynamic. She mostly seemed like an impatient hardass early on, but she's also a big sister who can protect and guide. Hope initially seems useless and whiny, but he can be a lot more capable than he seems. Once their emotions have settled a bit, they do a good job in bringing those aspects of each other out.

I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying Hope at this point. Note how I'm not calling him "Hopeless" anymore - because the annoying aspect of him getting himself into things and immediately making excuses has dissipated. Light's U-turn into that big sister archetype is much welcome, and the dynamic between the two of them evolved quickly to really push each other to be the best they can be. It's good that they're paired up.

Anyway I cleared Chapter 6 last night. There's really not much of anything here - the only thing of relevance is Sazh's backstory. Yes, it's good that we got this, but it felt like it was shoehorned into a fluff chapter that offered virtually nothing for Vanille. She did suggest that they head the other direction to ditch the PSICOM goons, since trying to help Hope and Light out will only result in all of them being in trouble. PSICOM won't expect a thing. But really, this was all Sazh here, and while it's great, I wish there had been more forward story to go along with his backstory.

So on Day 5, Sazh's little boy, Dajh, wandered off wanting to check out a Fallacy, which ended up being a Sanctum one. The kid, who's like 3 y/o, got branded. This is unheard of - Sanctum Fallacies never really brand people because they want to stay out of politics or something rather. A PSICOM officer, Colonel Jihi Nabaat, comes to requisition the boy, only allowing Sazh to see him on Day 12 during the fireworks. Sazh has no clue what his son's Focus is, nor does Sanctum, just that he's become Force-sensitive, so he can detect beings from Pulse - this would include his father now, making them enemies. Since Dajh's mother is dead - which is why Sazh wasn't like his old self (I had to read this in the Datalog, and you'd think that would be important enough to show in a scene, such as Sazh talking to Colonel Nabaat about that) - Sazh takes responsibility to help the boy complete his Focus, whatever is may be, and that's why he sent himself to Purgeville.

What he doesn't know is that Vanille was there that day, right when Dajh got branded. I was pretty mystified as to what she was doing at that Fallacy, but she doesn't have it in her to tell Sazh. That and we need to keep the mystery going. There's some dialogue here that makes me think Vanille might be from Pulse, what with her asking what Sazh thinks of the propaganda. He's old enough to know to question shit that has no evidence, after all. Sazh thinks for Sazh, and thus is smart. Vanille, as evidenced here and earlier by talking to the chocobo (who's yet unnamed since Sazh was buying it for Dajh when he wandered off), is mature far beyond her years. It makes me wonder if she was already a l'Cie when this whole thing started.

Really, that's all the meat this chapter had. There was a lame gimmick of having to keep switching rain off and on to control what enemies spawned since you can't feasibly take on some of these tough things at this point, something that would've worked better had it been like a puzzle. This is just a dumb gimmick instead of it taking a simple layout and making it so you needed to trigger "on" orbs and "off" orbs in the right order to avoid the wrong battles. Or force your way through if you're overpowered. One of these things destroyed me quickly, even with buffs and debuffs.

The boss fight here, two things which look like the product if some sort of bearded monkey fucked a Blastoise, is also tough, and I need to switch Vanille's accessory from a Magician's Mark to a W-Bangle, which is enough to overcome their attacks and win me the fight on my third try (the second I tried attacking the other one first, but that made no difference). It's pretty boring still aside from Vanille's fearful "Come and get it!" (perfectly acted) and the rather interesting music, but that's about it.

The honest question I have is why people are so against others for being a Pulse l'Cie. Like... they got branded, not by choice. What's the reason for this xenophobia? Did a Pulse l'Cie EVER commit any kind of terrorism during their lifetime? It's quite obvious that they're condemning xenophobia and other forms of bigotry here - don't judge a book by its cover, and don't condemn someone for things that they can't control. More people need to understand this.

Next time, Sazh and Vanille head to Nautilus, City of Dreams; Light and Hope head to Palumpolum, Hope's hometown; and Fang and Snow finally get to do shit together. About time we get some forward story with them instead of the stagnant loop they've been in for several chapters.