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

[first_seventhe]

Can we take a minute and talk about HOW ACTUALLY FUCKING HARD THIS GAME COULD BE??? And I don't even mean like challenging -- I love when a game actually challenges me and makes me use a strategy more significant than "Bum Rush the shit out of it" -- I just mean like, you make ONE mistake in choosing a paradigm, or take ONE SECOND too long to heal your party leader, or - or whatever, the game was at points unfairly hard, I thought.

ANYWAY.

1) That fic sounds awesome, and even if it's unfinished, I'm gonna take a breeze through it

2) OH GOSH he had that "instant chain" ability, I think? That's what I used him for, anyway, because Blitz hits like 1 million times so even if the chance is a low % if you Blitzed enough you would probably hit the "random instant chain", and then instant stagger, and instant dead turtle. I abused Vanille's Death skill on those because I had 'accidentally' over-levelled my Crystarium and got their ultimate skills at a pretty early level, but Sazh's thing was pretty bad ass also. I don't know why everyone

[first_seventhe]

BARTHANDELUS!!! I am prejudiced forever, because the first time I fought him I seriously played for like six hours trying to beat the fucker (don't laugh) and dying, absolutely horribly, until I scoured the Internet and found a different strategy than the one I was using and beat him in one try with the new setup. BARTHANDELUS IS AN ASSHOLE. but I do love how personalized his battles were, with people screaming his name. XD

[sissyhiyah]

Oh my god, I think I love you. All of this. Especially Sazh. And Fang. I have millions of thoughts and want to jabber about them, but I'm heading to bed right now and I can't. But oh god, I'm coming back to this.

I'm also jonesing for Sazh/Jihl fic.

Because I'm a sick person.

And I think it would be fun in a horrible way, kind of like that Quistis/NORG fic on ffnet.

[first_seventhe]

Can we create an AU world in which JIhl survives, maybe severely injured, and is taken to Pulse when everyone evacuates, and she finds Sazh and Dajh to apologize to them, except she's shit at apologies and Sazh is plumb out of forgiveness, so they kind of stumble around each other until hot sex happens????

[auronlu]

Omg so many good points in this post and things I want to reply to, because the best thing ib ffxiii besides the shiny graphics was the trust/betrayal/love troika and the character dynamics

[first_seventhe]

And what you have said about both Light and Fang is YES YES YES.

[auronlu]

I don't think I'm explaining why I tolerate Snow and even came to like him: he's like Charlie Brown to Lightning's Lucy, except instead of just grabbing the football from him, she punches him out, scores the damn touchdown and saves the game. Also, she had to, because he was aiming for the wrong goal because he's pathetically, comicly adept at being wrong. "I'm the hero," is what he says, but the game itself snarks at him every time, whether it's with a punchout from the true badasses or with it being so blatantly obvious that no, Snow, you're not. You're a doofus. Lightning is the hero. Or Hope. You're just a clown. Snow is wrong for so much of the game that I never really got the sense that of his idea being vindicated; he just learned he wasn't the hero (by the end, I get the impression that even he knows it, and he's saying "I'm the hero, after all" to make fun of himself or just to psyche himself up. Which is what a lot of his actions are

[first_seventhe]

I KIND OF LOVE EVERYTHING YOUVE WRITTEN HERE.

I am also on an iPad so hello horrible autocorrections ahoy

ANYWAY. I think this is partially why Snow doesn't necessarily interest me on his own, but in terms of a ship, I'm way more sold. It's the opposite of how I usually come into fandoms -- I'm usually all about a small handful of characters and my pairing likes grow over time -- so it's kind of new for me, to have a couple ships I really want that don't contain characters I like on their own.

I also think its more interesting to see Snow as this big dumb idiot, because - like I said - in the end he ends up being partially right, because they all managed to change their fates with little more than determination and will, like he said they could all along. (and I realize this is one part Final Fantasy - FFX, anyone? - and two parts horrible writing, but still.) So even though he isnt the hero and isn't even the leader, his constant chorus of we can do it ends up being a little bit justified in the end.

[auronlu]

Snow on his own or without adult supervision = TRAIN CRASH.

Even with adult supervision, but then he's kind of entertaining as a punching bag. Except yes, you want to punch him. But that's the POINT. And nearly everyone, EVEN A 14 YEAR OLD EMO KID, punches him. (While Vanille doesn't punch Snow, she encourages Hope to find and punch him, which is also kind of funny).

So yeah. Snow by himself is unbearable. Snow in relation to others? Much more interesting.

And.... "STEELGUARD!"

*PUNCH*

[lassarina]

I have, more than once, described Snow as "a particularly stupid golden retriever puppy" - he runs around tripping on his own two feet and smacking his head into the wall and is really really incompetent, but vaguely adorable in his incompetence. I would never want to take him home. But he's pretty great because he's so bad at what he's trying to do.

He definitely is analogous to Don Quixote, I think! And YES Seifer comparisons.

[auronlu]

Some more scattered and disorganized observations