#tbf final chapter

[atamascolily]

delighted that "oops the nasty unwanted parts of myself took on a life of their own as a twisted mirror version of me and now they've come back to destroy me for the lulz" appears to be a major theme of TWO Urobuchi films currently scheduled to be released in 2025 hahahaha

[shaobingsubs]

Thunderbolt Fantasy: The Final Chapter official trailer, presented by Shaobing Subs.

Available with English subtitles here.

[mementoboni]

Thunderbolt Fantasy 東離劍遊紀 最終章 首映會 (2025/02/14 Taipei)

Movie premiere / Stage greeting:

鳥海浩輔 (Toriumi Kōsuke)

西川貴教 (Nishikawa Takanori)

釘宮理惠 (Kugimiya Rie)

虛淵玄 (Urobuchi Gen)

[atamascolily]

Pleased to report that Lin "If you come for the king, you better not miss" Xue Ya did not, in fact, miss this time.

Also the twist in that fight means that in retrospect he did the entire thing backwards and in high heels, so mad respect.

[atamascolily]

While we're waiting for the Thunderbolt Fantasy final (sob) movie to come out, here are some of my predictions/wishes/hopes for what's going to happen:

-the demon gods are banished/sent back to their original realm. Once they are gone, there's no more need for the Shen Hui Mo Xie, so those will also go (probably also back to their original world, where they'll just be ordinary swords). I would love it if the Index became sentient and chose this fate, though!!

-Shang might use the scrying mirror he picked up from Xing Hai for one or both of these things OR he might save it for some secret timey-wimey thing bringing his own life full circle (although I really hope that isn't what actually happens). One way or another, he's gonna use it, though.

-with no more swords to guard, the Hu Yin Shi dedicate their lives to healing the world/Wasteland of Spirits, where their new fortress happens to conveniently be located. Unless the Lotus MacGuffin sword heals everything first???

-Bo Yang Hou dies. Sorry, old man, you represent the old ways, and also someone has to die in this movie for pathos, and I'd rather it be you than Juan Can Yun.

-Juan Can Yun and Dan Fei survive and have a million babies and rebuild the Dan clan; Urobuchi had BETTER not kill either of them off or I'll be so pissed.

-I would love it if the new Dan clan fighting style ends up as some combination of sword and spear techniques!!! Let Juan Can Yun use a spear again 2K25!!

-I think Lin's plan to target the Demon King will not provide him with the catharsis he seeks because it's not clear to me that the Demon King has the emotional capacity for the kind of reaction Lin craves. (He's like Locust in this way.) So regardless of how much disruption Lin causes, I think he'll be ultimately unsatisfied with the results.

-because of a dearth of "villains" in peacetime, Lin will give it (mostly) up and travel the world with Shang instead. One or both of them might ostensibly have a task to do, but I would love it if these two just wandered the jianghu and lived their best lives. Bonus if there is some dialogue that is suspiciously similar to wedding vows (technically, Lin already proposed with the whole "wrecking havoc on the world" line back at the beginning of S4, so all that's left is for Shang to take him up on it).

if this movie doesn't end with the two of them walking off into the sunset while "Darkest" plays, I'll be shocked. and the immediately go back to writing fanfics where this totally happened.

-Yan Xi becomes the ruler of a reunited Wan Yu because he's the only one left. Shu Liang Bi's headache gets deeper. Hopefully he gets a raise.

-Partway through S4, I thought Yan Xi and Chao Feng might get married for state reasons, but having embraced her obsession to become a Dark Magical Girl, Chao Feng is probably doomed. Lang is probably going to kill her, which is only going to make him spiral more. She might also have a Gollum-like role, where she accidentally does something good or useful while attempting to fulfill her own self-interest.

-hopefully Lie Mo Xian is human for good, but he might turn back into a pipa again when not in the demon realm, who knows

-character poems for Azi, Locust, Chao Feng, and Shang (redux), I think, although given that it's only 90 minutes, who even knows

-Azi vs. Lang fight. Hopefully Lang won't use the seals, but let's face it, he hasn't been making very good decisions lately, so he probably will. Killing Azi will bring him no joy, only more angst. and once he becomes a demon god, he'll start attacking the human realm.

(Bonus points if Azi's last words are "subarashii")

-Lang's demon god form will also be incredibly hot and different from his Azi-like "Awakened" form we saw briefly in S4.

-there's a picture on the official website of a giant 4-eyed demon god with an entire city/castle on its head peering out of a hole in the ground, so yeah, that's happening at some point

-please please please let Tian Ming's song be what brings Lang back from his Demon God rampage of revenge please please please. Also Shang and Lie Mo Xian, but LET TIAN MING DO SOMETHING

-also Lang and Tian Ming are probably an endgame ship

-I still don't know exactly what Locust has planned (probably becoming fate itself or something equally grandiose) or what his and the Demon King's fates will ultimately be (probably both dead) not to mention what Lin has planned for both of them and whether or not it will work…. but hopefully it'll be awesome.

-I would love a Lin vs. Demon King fight, or to see the Demon King fight at all.

-WHAT about those secret weapons Bo Yang Hou shipped across the Wasteland of Spirits???? PLEASE BE ANOTHER CANNON OR SOMETHING (but let's face it, it's probably more swords).

-anyway, the major conflicts as I see it are each of the heroes fighting their narrative foils/shadow selves (literally and figuratively): Lang vs. Azi; Lin vs. Demon King; and Shang vs. Locust.

-there's also a snippet in one of the S4 BTS videos with a clip of the Xi You army and a palanquin with the chancellor beside it, so presumably Chao Feng is going to try and get the Dong Li humans to surrender and/or double-cross them. Hopefully the Xi You forces will ultimately side with humanity instead of accepting the demons as allies.

Anyway, I'm really only scratching the surface here, and am probably missing a lot, but this is at least a good start.

[atamascolily]

Incredibly crack theory for the Thunderbolt Fantasy Final Chapter film based on a single shot from the trailer:

Okay. So you know this clip of Dark Magical Girl Chao Feng? Look at the background. It's snowing. Where is she?? Where else have we seen snow before???

Well.... in that final dream sequence at the end of the final episode of S4, Lang is covered with snow.

Look. We know this girl is obsessed, that she's cast aside everything for her quest to find this guy, and that she's going to the Demon Realm and presumably has some cool new powers to go with her new look. What if she somehow manages to get inside Lang's dreamscape?

What if she's the one who wakes him up from his frozen coma?

Lang Wu Yao and Chao Feng have to confront each other at least once--both their arcs demand it. Having fully embraced evil, I think Chao Feng likely won't survive the movie, and the only question is how she dies. I think Lang could very easily end up killing her, although it wouldn't fix him, it would only make him worse.

It's also possible that Chao Feng could bring about her own downfall herself, and have some kind of Gollum-like effect beyond her own intentions. But I don't know where and how else they could meet because as soon as Lang actually wakes up for real, he's probably gunning for Azibelpher. And the snow certainly doesn't match with his fire theme at all!

Like I said, total and utter crack, and yet I can't get it out of my head, because I don't know where else she could possibly go that would be both plot-relevant in a 90 minute film and involve snow somehow. Unless her powers involve snow now, but this shot seems more cool and reflective than I'd expect for a battle scene.

And given that Chao Feng's desire is to find Lang wherever he is and go to his side, it wouldn't surprise me if she got abilities that allowed her to do just that.

[atamascolily]

Final Chapter Trailer Observations

I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS MOVIE, Y'ALL!

Shang looks like he's so done here, lol.

Lang woke up! And he's a demon again! (His self-image keeps changing from moment to moment depending on his mental state.) Based on the background, I think he's still in his dreamscape and is confronting whoever woke him up--see my earlier speculation about Chao Feng.

Azi doing some heretical arts. His profile on the movie website shows him with some kind of weapon that attaches to his gloves. This is probably from the scene where Lang confronts him and they fight.

This looks like Juan Can Yun picking up his spear again, to which all I can say is HECK YEAH BABY LET THE LANCER FIGHT (plz don't kill him, Urobuchi).

Since Urobuchi killed off all of the other named demon characters, it's just faceless mooks and han jiao pouring out of the abyss into the human realm.

How do they keep the han jiao from friendly fire, anyway? Do they always aim for the weakest or something?

Dan Fei slumped in grief. JUAN CAN YUN HAD BETTER NOT DIE IN THS, OKAY? (My money is on Bo Yang Hou not surviving, though....)

Lin fighting in the Demon Court. This looks like his own sword Yan Yue and not the Ling Long Jian, but it's hard to be sure from the angle. I hope this is Lin fighting the Demon King because that would rock.

This is the floor of the Demon Court, on fire. I think the red wooden thing is a piece of ornate frame or decoration from the walls? Everything is on fire - presumably Lang, but who knows, maybe the Demon King will have fire powers to contrast with Lin's ice theme.

Also, those casings on the floor... please be another gun please be another gun please be another gun--

Alternate theory: the wooden frame is one of the wheels from the cart that Bo Yan Hou's part of Hu Yin Shi were carting across the Wasteland of Spirits. I'm not sure how they would have gotten that thing this far, but one way or another, we will see that cart and its contents again, and it's gonna be awesome.

SIR. SIR. SIR.

Lin: my city now

Well, I guess we know what the Demon King's throne looks like! God, what a power move. I love this asshole so much.

We all knew that Shang was going to end up wielding the Lotus Macguffin sword, right? The one with the power of 30 Shen Hui Mo Xie (i.e., just about all of the swords in the Index) combined? The deus ex machina that his bestie Bai Lian made especially for him? Yeah. That's what I thought.

Anyway, it seems like Shang et al.'s expedition to rescue Lang from the demon realm will not go as planned. Lin probably stays behind to deal with the Demon King while Shang returns to the human realm to confront... demon god Lang as the final boss? Locust? the entire demon army? All of the above? The only thing for certain is that THE LAND IS CLOAKED IN DEEPEST BLUE!

(It's not visible in this frame, but Shang is bleeding from the mouth, so this is not the first exchange of blows, lol.)

[atamascolily]

Final Chapter Movie Trailer #2 Analysis

ROCK!!

We open with Azibelpher gloating over Lang Wu Yao cooking in the incubator.

Eldritch demon god sighted, this is not a drill. And is that a city he's wearing for a hat? I do believe it is! (Probably the Demon Court.)

Question: is this the Cthulhu-like horror we saw sleeping in S4, now grown to monstrous size; Lang Wu Yao "reborn" as a giant demon god; or something new? My guess is that it's new, for reasons I lay out below, but TBD.

(Xing Hai was the same size as her original puppet in her augmented form, but that was "incomplete", so who even knows what Lang is going to look like if/when he emerges from the cocoon...Is it gonna be his Awakened form we saw briefly in S4 or something new, or both?)

The Demon King gloats as the new Xian Zhen fortress starts collapsing. He does the exact same gestures as Lin Xue Ya, but with more glitter eyeshadow.

Xi You soldiers line up in front of Xian Zhen fortress facing outward as if to defend. Locust blathers something vague and portentous about scales. It's clear from later in the trailer that the Xi You soldiers are fighting for humanity, not against, so the framing suggests Locust is forgoing his original alliance. curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal

In the Demon Court, Chao Feng releases 3 glowing balls which transform into ghost versions of Wan Jun Po, Xie Ying Luo, and Yi Piao Miao. Are they facsimiles of the originals or their actual souls? Either way, the fact that Chao Feng is magically outsourcing her fighting to her daddy's deceased subordinates is hilarious.

Mu Tian Ming's spidey-senses are tingling, telling her shit's about to go down.

I wondered how the demons were going to climb up the cliff, and it turns out the answer is "wake up the demon god beneath the ground and ride it like an elevator up to the top, then open the gate and attack".

This also answers the question of how Shang et. al are going to return from the Demon Realm--they're going to just leap out, the same way the demons did.

Also this means that Lin Xue Ya is probably going to snag control over the demon god/city at some point, based on that one shot in the previous trailer of him lounging on a throne. I wonder if the Demon King tied it to his control, and Lin can access it because they were originally same person? Or is Lin clever enough to hijack it on his own even without that?

All of humanity--Xi You, Dong Li, and Hu Yin Shin--have united to defend against the demon hordes.

The battle outside is intercut with Shang using the thunder axe to fight some demon mooks in the Demon Court. Probably trying to fight his way to Lang.

Also in the Demon Court, Azibelpher uses demonic magic to summon swords to pummel Lie Mo Xian with.

Shang with the lotus macguffin sword, about to kick ass.

In the Demon Court, Lin Xue Ya descends gracefully from the heavens to confront his double while being his usual self.

YES, GIVE IT TO ME, YES, YES, YESSSSSS!!!

Okay, so based on these two trailers, I now have a pretty good idea of how the plot is going to play out, at least in broad strokes:

Chao Feng storms the castle in search of Lang, I think she's going to try and wake him up/enter his dream, uses the ghost Swarm to keep people from following/stopping her.

Shang, Lin, and Lie Mo Xian storm the castle in search of Lang, but they get separated for whatever reasons and end up fighting different opponents.

The Demon king wakes the demon god so his castle can storm the human realm and a united humanity fights an army of mooks.

Locust appears to double-cross the demon king but this may be that he plans to double-cross humanity after the demons are dealt with/seize the Sorcerous Sword Index and/or the Shen Hui Mo Xie in the chaos. (He might also find out from Chao Feng about living weapon Lang Wu Yao and change his mind about the alliance.)

Shang arrives on the scene in time to use the lotus macguffin sword to counter whatever Locust has planned and/or Demon God Lang... meanwhile Lin is getting control of the demons/demon gods via his connections to the demon king, so he can stop them, and these two plot threads will intersect at the climax.

Not pictured: Lang waking up and fighting Azibelpher, potentially transforming into a demon god during or afterwards.

No matter what, I can't wait to see it all play out!!