FFXIII: the "Rec Me Fic" edition

[first_seventhe]

So I said in a comment that I actually expect FFXIII to become a decent writing fandom for me because of the holes and confusion in said story. That's pretty true: I write more for fandoms that didn't necessarily feel complete or sensical to me (FFIV, what with the LUNAR WHALE and all; FFVIII's plot holes and weirdly focused storytelling) than I do

Comments

[auronlu]

Some more scattered and disorganized observations:

Lightning and Hope: "she was basically like, okay, sure, kill Snow, that's cool and here's my knife!"

That's a VERY interesting take. My reading was: Lightning is so wrapped up in her stuff she hasn't glommed onto the fact that HOPE WANTS TO KILL SNOW until she gives him the knife. She gives the knife for Hope to learn to protect himself (since she won't JUST protect him; she's NOT his babysitter; once she starts to care about him she wants him to learn to defend himself, because real Utenas don't rescue damsels but teach damsels to rescue themselves).

Which reminds me, I think there's some nods to Utena in Lightning's appearance.

So I thought Light didn't realize Hope planned to kill Snow until she gave him the knife, at which point she thinks, "Uh Oh" but wont' say it. There's a lot of exploding of tropes in FFXIII; that's one of its redeeming features. It can't even follow the normal "here is your lightsaber, young padwan" storyline without doing a darker, twisted version of it.

You're right, it's startling that Light doesn't try to talk Hope out of it. (Much. There's the "your signal is breaking up" communicator call, but that's later) Here, she just looks concerned and says nothing. After all, she's focusing her anger on destroying Eden. I think Hope's plan to destroy Snow pulls her up short -- she sees her own anger in Hope -- and it's part of why she abandons the mission to kill Eden. (Except, in the end, she does. Checkov's Gun, first act.)

I love the gender dynamics. We have the usual Master and Apprentice, but the master is a woman warrior. And yes, Hope is the white mage and the somewhat helpeless one who needs a lot of rescuing. (Snow carrying Hope on his back like Squall carrying Rinoa.)

Sazh (who rocks): I could've sworn I read a buddyfic with Sazh and Lightning, and now I can't FIND it. They've got a bit of the Auron & Lulu chaperone thing going on, as you say, only Lightning's the grumbly one. Great insight. Buddyfic with them would be great.

I wish there had been more time in this game to explore Fang/Vanille. They seem like an odd couple (which is realistic), but I'm not quite clear what Fang sees in Vanille. I see glimmers of it, but Vanille is such an aggravating, weak-on-the-surface (although not entirely so, underneath) character that it's a bit hard to grasp. That photo in their Oerba living room helps me see what they must've been: two complementary souls who just clicked. (I just tried to find a screencap and found three Vanille Cosplayers glomping Fang. Snerk.)

Also, yes, the whole plot arc with Sazh protecting Vanille and treating her as a kid to look after, taking her to Nautilus as a substitute since he can't take his SON, and then BETRAYAL? Fantastic. Great stuff.

Sissy and I have talked to death the utter FAIL of not using Jihl as she should have been used. (Make HER Menrva, dammit!) Heartbreaking, since both of us are in love with her VA (FFXLulu makes such a lovely villain.)

This game is so tragically not-quite-right. I gather the design team was going crazy with design -- dealing with a new system, creating graphics and battle systems and 3D locations and SO MUCH MORE TO DO to create the parts of the game that they didn't really figure out the plot and central thematics until far too late. (Although FF's classic themes, hope/despair, friendship/betrayal, family-of-choice, choices came through). And then they ran out of room on the XBox version's disk and had to drop bits on the cutting room floor.

I actually found the later parts of the story more comprehensible, even the crack endgame (it was no weirder than FFX's boss battle ON A GIANT SWORD, INSIDE A SPACE WHALE WITH A CITY AND OCEAN INSIDE IT.) I just felt the first part of FFXIII dragged soooo long before the story's legs started getting traction. On the other hand, the bits with Light/Hope and Sazh/Vanille and Light/Fang are some great character development bits, so hm. (Too bad we don't see more Fang/Snow, except that would probably just be more of Snow being a derp and Fang mocking him...wait. I have an idea for a ficbit there.)