I wanted to write up why I love this sequence and why I think it's brilliant. This is inspired by a comment in the chat during MelonyPepon's playthrough, which I don't recommend watching because her chat was unruly throughout the whole game and ruined it for her, especially this part.
Let's pretend we are playing FF6 for the first time and we don't know what's going to happen. And obviously, spoiler warning if you've never played FF6 before and would like to experience it for yourself.
I took the screenshots from LP Archive.
First, let's go back a little. Perhaps most people are not surprised when Kefka kills Gestahl since he went beyond a silly comic-relief villain ages ago. Even the timed escape where the island is crumbling under our feet is nothing surprising for a video game. We're just escaping to our ship where we can regroup and decide how we're going to take down Kefka.
But then this happens:
The ship breaks apart and everyone falls. The world is on fire. There are land shifts, explosions, chaos. Then we get this line:
It's nothing new for a villain to get god-like powers before the end of the game, but this is unheard of. Some people might be wondering if they messed up, if they need to reload their save and try again. Surely this is a Bad End. The music has gone quiet and it fades in to a discoloured ocean. Slowly, we're shown a small brown island.
They really take their time with the slow reveal; it's great. It shows the beach, the little cabin, and finally inside the cabin. We see Celes sleeping in bed. After a moment, Cid enters. He seems rather relaxed for someone who just experienced the end of the world, almost normal. Celes stirs and he checks on her, but then goes back to his desk.
Celes wakes up and Cid is surprised and delighted that she's ok. She asks how long she's been out and he tells her: a year. ONE YEAR! Not a week or two weeks, a whole year has passed since Kefka destroyed everything. She asks where her friends are and Cid says he doesn't know but it's possible they're dead and Cid and Celes are the only two people left alive. There were others here, but they each lost hope and threw themselves off the cliffs in despair (or if you're playing the SNES translation, they jumped off the cliffs to perk themselves up!)
I think at this point both the player and Celes are reeling from the bombshell that everything is different now. Celes seems to be taking everything quite well; she doesn't cry or complain. But Celes is former general of the Gestahlian army; she's not one to lose focus. From the player's perspective, we know this is a video game and the game isn't going to end with Celes and Cid living forever on the island, so we're not worried either. Both Celes and The Player know:
Cope, don't panic
Explore and learn our surroundings
Find out what to do
Execute a plan
The player isn't given any instructions, other than to get a fish for Cid. If you do this, Cid eats it, but nothing really happens. You can get him another fish, but that doesn't move the plot forward either. We can leave the cabin area to the world map and confirm that the world sucks now. The overworld music is DIRE (it's perfect) and there's nowhere else to go. You can fight battles, but most of the monsters waste away and die before you can even attack. The only place you can go is the cabin, and only things you can do are visit Cid or catch a fish.
This is where the "I don't know what to do" sets in. I've watched playthroughs of people playing blind and they start to panic a little. They're worried. They're confused. They don't know where to go: there's nowhere. They don't know what to do: there's nothing else they can do. Nothing is happening. This is all there is.
We don't get to hear Celes' inner monologue but I'm sure she's feeling the same. She's coping by focusing on her task, but she starts to realize that she doesn't know what to do, that this island is tiny and there's nothing on it, that her activities are repetitive and possibly pointless, that this is her life now, there is nothing else.
Then, for most people playing for the first time, Cid dies. Cid was Celes' only family and her only friend, the only one left, and the only thing keeping her from breaking down, and he's gone too. She finally collapses under the weight of everything. Everyone is gone. She's alone and she has nothing left.
I really think this is a powerful moment for Celes but also for the player of the game. You are at rock bottom. But when Celes finds Locke's bandana and realizes that he's alive, that everyone might be alive, there's hope, there's something we can do, it's a great feeling. We're starting from nothing, but we're going to pull through and we're going to win.
In conclusion, I think this part of the game is brilliant. It's paced perfectly and the confusion of not knowing what you're supposed to do to advance the plot is by design. You're supposed to feel the pressure of not not knowing where to go or what to do, and when your one and only task is gone, you have nothing. This sets you up to start from scratch and gather everyone and finally take back your world. (It's nice that they made it possible to save Cid, but I think it's more profound if he dies ESPECIALLY if you're playing blind for the first time.)
So I could have been cheeky and just reposted Spite chewing on the candle, but I'm not. ;)
Here's my actual piece for "Touch."
I like to headcanon that Spite likes physical contact, filtered through Lucanis's body (I've got a different opinion about how physical touch between him and Rook in "Inner Demons" would feel to him), and so things like head scritches would something he indulges in.
Inspired by that gif of a hand emoji patting Lucanis on the head, with his idle animations in the menu screen appearing to react.
And bonus!
Spite Week is hosted by @dread-red-queen. (And somehow I forget to include this info on the non-chibi posts before they start getting reblogged around.)
i used to work at a used bookstore and there was an insect anatomy book for sale that was over $8000 im not even kidding. and i just found it at my school library. its mine for the month.
didn't realize how far the brainrot actually went until someone in conversation today casually used the word 'menace' and i was like. that's a star wars word. that's not a real person word. do they want to talk about darth maul now or
