Ugh, I hate it when I can't find old data, especially if it's been rattling around inside my head for years!
I'm trying to find the "source" of that Japanese Blood > Zessen connection, but it's not in any of my immediate notes from GGXtra, though I could have sworn that was the source.
It wasn't in Ed Chang's old FAQ either. I may have to go retrieve some data from Japanese website sources just to be sure.
It might be mentioned in other sources, though more obscure.
GG Codex says Daisuke never explained what all it could do yet.
On the topic of speculation that Miss Axl Low has opened up(though she obviously missed your Canon vs Speculation post you made where even you caution people not take everything you say as absolute), how many of your own speculations based within factual accounts of the story from the games to side-material like the manga, Drama CDs, novels and the numerous guides have occurred?
Obviously for discussion purposes and to maintain the facts as accurate as possible I try to avoid doing this, and the “Disclaimer” I posted in context was meant for the express purpose of pointing out that even Guilty Gear’s Lore itself is inconsistent from game to game.
For example, in the original GG Bible which was released in 1998, the Timeline in the book states that Kliff Undersn was attacked by a Gear at the age of 6 in the year 2099. This information has been retained for many years through out Guilty Gear’s tenure up until Guilty Gear Xrd was released.
The Library Mode within Xrd includes a timeline which states that the date Kliff Undersn was saved from Frederick by a Gear that attacked him was NOT in fact 2099 but instead the year was 2103. This is the first time that data in particular was changed… so do we consider it a retcon or do we consider it an inconsistency?
If it were a true retcon, more information would back up this data and support it within GGXrd’s timeline, but instead it’s a short blurb of info that’s inconsistent with the rest (in fact, throughout much of GGXrd’s timeline, I point out inconsistencies so that people can make a judgement for themselves).
There’s more to GGXrd that is also inconsistent. If one studies carefully, even the “Date/Time Events” that take place in Story Mode are inconsistent as well.
For example in Chapter 04 (Kaleidoscope) Part A of GGXrd’s story mode, an event takes place that serves as a retelling of events from a previous event that took place on October 29th, 2187. Flashback or not, the date listed of the Flashback says it’s the 28th. How can something that happened on the 29th (in the past) have actually taken place a day previous? Here, let me list both dates and the order they appear and context:
October 29th, 2187 Illyria Castle – War Room (Chapter 02: Struggle / Part A)October 28th, 2187 Illyria Castle – Royal Fleet One (Chapter 04: Kaleidoscope / Part A)
Ky Kiske is listening to a recording of events Leo gave him (the date he listens to them is the 28th) that supposedly took place “a day before” (the date those events took place is the 29th?), but how can he obtain a recording of an event that took place the NEXT day???? Oops. There’s an inconsistency in the dates. Either that or it’s Axl Low’s fault for time travelling and messing with the timeline (just kidding, it’s not).
Oh but there’s more:
Chapter 08: Hope (Part B) there’s an event with the GNN News reporter where he states the date is November 1st and that it’s Midnight… but guess what… the time stamp says different! November 4th, 2187.
1. How can he state it’s November 1st unless it just “Turned” November 1st at the stroke of Midnight. If they said it was the 1st of November in passing it would be November 2nd at the stroke of Midnight as that’s how our clock system is based (unless Japan broke the rules years ago???)2. How can the time stamp say it’s the 4th when the reporter just SAID it’s the 1st?
And given the sequence of events, the Cradle was attacked on November 2nd (again according to those crazy Time stamps), so they couldn’t POSSIBLY have a showdown with Justice on the 1st of November. This is like a chicken and egg question… Justice or the Cradle? Which came first???
I had a friend of mine look at the time stamps in the Japanese version, and lo and behold I discovered they are different as well! It may take some time, but I hope to obtain all GGXrd’s timestamps from the Japanese version of Story Mode, just to get some semblance of an idea of what changed and what went wrong with localization! But even then, you can’t guarantee there won’t be inconsistencies even in the Japanese version! It takes a discerning eye to find these things!
You can’t really blame Aksys for this, nor can you blame ARCSys entirely… as there was probably a miscommunication someplace, as with the winquote data that had plenty of typos and things that say one thing while the character says another. Oh and because of that, you can’t really rely on Battle Winquotes either! Winquotes and In-battle quotes being the main evidence our friend Miss Axl Low used to cite in argument for speculation! I’d hardly take Instant Kill quotes seriously because, really now… do you think anyone in the GG Universe (take Elphelt for example) would have a Canonical chance in hell of Instant Killing Sol Badguy? THE PROTAGONIST?
Instant Kills and their ‘what-if humor’ aside, in regard to Winquotes, you’re better off translating the game yourself from stem to stern just to get an idea of what characters are really saying in Japanese, because guess what… the localized voices are just giving a rough estimate of what they’re really saying! That’s just how translation works!
I don’t mind people speculating on their own… and as always there’s lots of speculation to be had. If the data was perfectly consistent there’d be much less room to speculate at all. But because of these inconsistencies and things that changed from iteration to iteration (not to mention all the typos found on the OFFICIAL WEBSITES over the years…), one has to be careful with what new information they are given.
If it jives up well with the rest of the information, great… but if it clashes, you have to make your own judgement. Is that “judgement” considered Headcanon or Speculation? I suppose it could be… but working with evidence for and against a thing is more accurate than any simple glossed over guess would be. So what I’m really saying is this: look at the evidence and understand it in full and THEN judge for yourselves!
If you want your pairings and ships (or whatever other theories you’ve construed) to be supported, give strong “consistent” evidence to support them, avoid generalizations and blanket statements, and don’t trust in-battle events or alternate endings with “what if?” conclusions (since Fighting games are, let’s face it… SILLY), and if you make it as far as Slayer x Sharon or Ky x Dizzy level of canonical… then good for you.
Let me just reiterate… IT’S OKAY TO SPECULATE. I’m not saying you can’t… I’m just saying I TRY NOT TO. Or if I do, it’s with strong evidence to indicate things, at least as much as I possibly can.
And hey, there’s tons of inconsistencies besides these that I haven’t discussed here… so keep reading and keep judging for yourself what the truth is… keep pursuing it!
And to the person who wrote this question, thanks again for dedicating yourself to reading my entries in pursuit of the truth! Though I may not always be consistent either… I try to do my best, given the facts (or misinformation) as it is presented.
