Luminos564

Except they don't have either option now. Celica (the original one) is gone and it's doubtful Kokonoe can keep on bringing in more clones (Chronophantasmas) of her just to keep it in check. Even the current one is living on very borrowed time. I don't know who made the barrier though, but if fiction has taught me anything it's that barriers/walls/seals/etc. never remain up forever. Y'know, mortality and flaws applied to anything we make and all that junk. Whether or not the likes of Jin and Haku-men wish to admit it, sealing away the Azure Grimoire is not a permanent solution and ergo, killing Ragna doesn't eliminate the threat entirely (only momentarily). We can only assume the arm works with him because so far he has always been the one and only recipient. But no evidence suggests he is the only one that is compatible with it. Plus you know the likes of Terumi and Relius are a nasty bunch. Who's to say they cannot reconfigure the thing for their purpose? Kokonoe certainly seems to be able to tinker with it after it absorbed the IDEA engine, so what's stopping either of them? But, I think I've dwelled on this long enough. Honestly, with all the reveals happening it's getting to be a bit exhausting trying to keep up. So I'll leave this be for now. If you got more to add though, that's still very much appreciated.

That's dependant on the arcade, which for can all be simultaneously canon and not-canon all at once. For the purposes, let's assume that hypothetically Ragna is aware of him. If not by name, then at least by feel since I imagine if my existence was being overwritten by someone else, I'd probably have a gut feeling that something is happening. Except you forgot one teeny-tiny detail: the Azure Grimoire is more or less welded to him and even if his own intentions are good, the Azure Grimoire is still a constant threat to him and the rest of the world around him. It is still spreading and slowly (or perhaps quicker now) corroding him into something else. And it's not like you can just lop it off either since Haku-men would have already done so. It makes no difference if he continues to fight or not, that arm of his will continue to function and cause problems. To stop Ragna from dying, one needs to figure out a way to stop it permanently. One solution we've already seen: just have Celica stick to him like glue. Though this is flawed since: a: it renders the arm and one of his eyes useless b: Celica herself does not have that much time left either My solution is flawed as well since it would overwrite Ragna with Naoto and from a narrative perspective, that's sure to piss off Ragna's fans. Plus, there's that whole business of Haku-men sensing the "Dark One" within Naoto's arm so there's that potential detail unless he's mistaken and simply sensing something that is "like" the Dark One. I suppose if Amane does want to make Ragna into a god for BB's world, then he could effectively be rendered immortal enough to control and nullify the corrosion. Of course, we have no real proof that he's Amane's pick for godhood beyond their brief meetings and Amane's growing interest in him. One thing I do not comprehend though is how Jin/Haku-men and possibly Tsubaki figure that killing Ragna eliminates the threat of the Azure Grimoire? We know that Haku-men decapitated him back at the conclusion of the Dark War and the body still retained enough power to graft itself onto present-Ragna and start the cycle over again. What's to stop someone like Hazama or Terumi from grabbing the appendage, sticking it on a random street urchin and watch them go wild?

More like "pals before meat buns" but same deal really . Still heartwarming nonetheless. So here's a bit of a thought: when Amane offered to be Ragna's Observer, he stated it would be to slow down (but not stop) his corrosion into the Black Beast. Ragna refuses, of course and states he won't end up becoming one. I mean, would you trust an effeminate man that makes drills out of cloth? Still, something strikes me about Ragna's reassurance. He of all people ought to know just how dangerous it is for him to posses the Azure Grimoire. If his memories are as restored as they should be, then he should also be aware that he nearly blew it against Azrael. And yet, he refuses the extra security. Why? You could interpret this as Ragna's own pride or ego since he's not one to follow instructions, but I think this is bigger than that this time. I hypothesize that he knows he isn't going to turn into a Black Beast because someone will prevent it. Now the natural answer would likely be Jin and/or Izayoi going all Clockwork Orange on him. But I doubt Ragna's plan involves him being beaten like a sandbag until he spills his inner contents. So here's my idea: he's planning to let Naoto's existence override his own. Naoto after all does not run the risk of turning into one and it allows for a more "peaceful" resolution to Ragna's story. Naoto also seemed to be searching for Ragna too in a similar vein to how Mu-12 is searching for Noel in Act III. Of course, that would cause problems if Amane's plan turns out to be that he wants Ragna to replace Amaterasu as BB's god but that is a big "IF".

Oh boy, one more vague plot macguffin pulled out of Mori's hat. I dunno what it is with Japanese developers but they sure do love being cryptic and tease the the audience with it. Probably just do drive up sales on release date because there's always someone out there that cannot rest until they find out what is in the special sauce at McDonalds "that Replica". So let me address something less hair-pulling. I think Arakune is becoming a genuine Black Beast. Much of the time when he's encountered by the eggheads of this story, many comment/ask what it is that he could have consumed. So if he had eaten one of the Prime Fields and him being a miniature version of the Black Beast itself (considering what Hazama calls him in CS), it stands to reason that he could become the real deal...provided he has the right ingredients. Granted, he does not possess the Azure himself (since he's not an Entitled), but that doesn't mean he cannot eat and absorb someone that IS one. And we all know when an Azure and a Murakumo merge that they tend to create deadly results. The question remains however: who would want him to become one and more importantly, for what reason? Nine seemed intent on making Ragna into one back in Act I but seems to have changed her modus operandi in between then and now but she was never aware of Arakune before I think. It could have been Relius, that dastardly class act, but that still doesn't explain why they'd want one around.

There's a fanmade song to the tune of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air opening for a game very dear to my wretched coal mine of a heart, known as Drakengard. It seems oddly appropriate with how these bombshells are going off so, have a listen (it won't be the whole thing): "I put my hand through my chest and when it came out, I beheld a sphere with all my anger and doubt. If anything I could say this act was insane, so I yelled "DRAKENGARD!" and turned off my brain". Basically I'm saying: don't rack your brain-power to try and figure out what sort of narcotic Mori is on this week. Or any waking moment for that matter. But if you'd like to know what the dealio is, here's the major points I got out of it: 1. The Master Unit is currently vacant. Whoever it was that resided within it has ditched it to go clubbin' somewhere in the BB world. 2. Noel is most likely housing the soul of the person that escaped since Izanami wants to put Noel back inside the Master unit. 3. Since the Master Unit is empty, Amane figures it might as well be returned to sender and replaced with a newer model. Hope that helps.

Perhaps around the time Noel was devoured by berserk Ragna and then rejected her powers as the God Slayer? If Noel and Mu-12 are currently separate, yet the latter has a physical form, it's possible then that either of them could be housing whoever it is that escaped from the Master Unit. That's the only time I can think of that would make sense since, if the Master Unit was empty up until now, then this issue ought to have been brought up much sooner.

And there it is, the reason why Act III is called the "Replacement Blue". Why the Embryo was designed to make Ragna into a "god" and why he cannot be an Entitled. As well as why Amane had his eyes on him (offering to be his Observer to boot) and that Gate exists within him. I'm starting to think the pieces to this puzzle are slowly aligning. Of course, this is mere speculation on my part and there is still the issue of him dying but I do think it fits. If the BB world was created out of Amaterasu's memories, but cannot move forward because she either doesn't know a way for it or want it to, then rather than destroying her it'd be better to replace her with someone who always "keep moving onward". One who isn't shackled by wanting his desire granted and refuses to let others push their wish onto the world and Amaterasu.

To make long story short: self preservation. Trinity doesn't get to disappear by tagging along inside Jin's Yukianesa and from the sound of things, Jin benefits as it fixed his wounds. And according to Platinum's arcade run, after Jin stops Luna and Sena from disintegrating (too bad, I had hoped at least Luna could kick the bucket) they use the Muchorin to create a whole new body for Trinity to inhabit. Furthermore...Jin...Nine...both of you go jump off a plane and land anus first on the spire of the Empire State Building. Even if killing Noel needs to be done for...reasons, the description of the summaries paints them as just plain cruel. Look I'm all for having asshole villains, but Jin at least was improving in CP. At least it's good to see Noel not breaking down so easily.

Meet Tager: the gentle cyborg giant. I dunno why, but something about this image is adorable. Oh well, moving on... I'm sorry, this might be my extremely limited Japanese going but is that Terumi saying something about a "Love Core" in that Katakana writing? And to AZRAEL of all people ? Meet Ragna the Bloodedge, a badass mofo of a wanted criminal and a mountain of death-flags to his name and Taokaka, a spry young kitten with claws so sharp and a bottomless pit she calls a stomach. They fight crime...err, otherworldly horrors and trolls. Coming to a theatre near you. A round of applause for Tsubaki guys. She's come a long way from CS and all that time spent being flopped around like a puppet. She's even standing up to Jin. Welp guys, HUG.EXE went into overdrive. We're so fuckin' dead. But seriously, looks like Ragna isn't the only one that can start forming a Black Beast on his own. That image invokes Ragna's bad ending in CS. Nu's even got the glowing eye and darkness consuming her too. Perhaps this is the result of her collecting some Nox weapons? Or is it that, since Ragna was forced into going berserk last time it...triggered something within her that time and it is now coming to fruition?

Most likely. But hey, it's something to look forward to. Why do I get the feeling this plan of his involves Ragna's cooperation though? Or perhaps the two of them are already in cahoots and making plans to make sure these nimrods don't have a Battle Royale within the next 24 hours. I'm also impressed that Tsubaki is willing to go as far as to protect Noel. Guess CP really stuck with her since in CS she was all too willing to shed her blood if need be. Now if only she could, I dunno, NOT want Ragna dead a million times over, then everything would be just swell. But fat chance of that happening.

To be fair, this is the first time Ragna delegated the job of dealing with Hazama to her and it isn't as bad a thing as you might think it is. Recall that most of the time, Ragna doesn't want to work with people or trust them to do anything, usually taking on everything himself. It shows a level of maturity on his part and it demonstrates that he has trust in Taokaka and her abilities. Notice that Taokaka is the only one he gave this job to and nobody else. The fact Hazama is allergic to cats simply works in their favor. That said, I do agree just how much of a pal Taokaka is. She may use him for free food but in all honesty, I find it heartwarming. Yeah it's a bit silly on her part to constantly badger him for meals but recall that out of all the people that passed her by, it was only he that ended up feeding her back in CT. She's willing to take on opponent's as dangerous as Hazama and Mu-12 simply because her "Good Guy" is in trouble and always has his back. Talk about dedication.

Ah that makes sense. Scarier still is how she is seemingly doing this by instinct and not by will. That's pretty damn powerful. Any news on Nine or perhaps Amane's arcade runs? I figure those 2 ought to be the most informative for Act III. Unless of course, Mori is pulling a fast one on us and he made something like Taokaka's the most plot relevant . Speaking of which, what IS the little ditzy-kitten up to? Probably looking for meat-buns in the nearest dimensional crack.

Well, Haku-men's secret is out of the bag potentially. The look on Tsubaki's face should he confirm her query is going to be just plain precious. I mean, what'd you act like if you found out that your historical idol and the object of your sexual desire were one and the same? I find it odd that Haku-men cannot kill Noel at this point in time though and needs the Izayoi for it. I mean, I know she attained immortality of sorts back in CS but I was under the impression it was due to her still possessing the God-Slayer powers or her Life Link being in effect. And I am not sure she has access to either of them right now. Side note: that's a bad Haku-men. VERY BAD . Seigi wielders shouldn't go around trying to cut up cute girls.

Aw geez, poor Bang. If it's not Ragna that the universe at large takes a collective dump on, it's Bang. It makes their "bro-bonding" in CP all the more tragic as not only did they forget about one another (unless Ragna remembers him in Act III) but now Bang is getting his hopes crushed. And for what? For not actively wanting to kill an otherwise innocent girl (reality bending powers notwithstanding). Mu-12 has it bad too. Poor gal. First story fight and it turns out to be Makoto. Even if she is just a manifestation of Noel's powers, Mu-12 is still Noel deep down. That image of Haku-men vs. Izayoi though, wonder what happened? Guess we'll need either of their arcade summaries to find out.

Someone needs to get fired for picking names for these things. Sheol is literally the land of the dead in the Hebrew Bible. A place of complete darkness (attributed here as a complete lack of color) as well as stillness and all the dead go there, regardless of their ethical choices in life. Those that reside in there are refered to as rephaim ("shades"), described as without personality, strength or shape. Now what does that sound like to you? 'Cuz my immediate guess was Arakune. But if the cauldrons and by extension the Azure Grimoire leads to a place like that (hence the moniker), then yeah Noel was absolutely right in that the gate shouldn't be opened. You'd literally be opening the gates of, well, Hell and last I checked, that's usually a very, very, definitely, supremely bad idea.

Noel was inside Ragna. There's a lewd joke in there somewhere but I just don't see it . Speaking of that, Noel/Mu-12 ended up seeing a "gate" which is probably the same one we keep seeing crop up here and there. Now, if my memory serves correctly, Mu-12 had a line or two about a gate as well so we can't attribute this to Mori pulling it out of thin air. Matter of fact, during the CT introduction (prior to the site getting blasted to dust particles) weren't the scientists trying to open up a gate as well? "Gate of Sheol" I believe it was called. And incidentally, that was the experiment Noel/Mu-12 was involved with. By the way, for those wondering why Noel is alive despite being swallowed by Black Beast Ragna, recall that there's a number of people that had the same experience and lived to tell the tale. Relius was eaten by one and he was transported forward in time. Both Celica and CP Ragna were inside of it and beat Nu-13. Likewise, Prime Fields seem to suffer no ill effects while within one since they're necessary to make it in the first place so it's a fair assumption that Noel would have the same benefit.

Looks like Bururaji to me friend. Still good though. Please put this up for CF console Gag Reel ASW.

Not gonna lie Axiomatic, I got a good chuckle out of that one. Why is it in this series that whenever someone grabs another person it looks like they're about to/already have let a really nasty one rip? At first I thought it was just Ragna, but Naoto had it in his Act I and now Nine. He's featured in some (like Platinum's in CF). And mentioned in others, usually when Kokonoe is in the vicinity. But my question was more in regards to on Jubei's part, not on other characters. Still, I can understand the technical reasons why. It's just really odd considering he's supposedly a prominent force and he's simply been MIA constantly.

Speaking of Jubei, did he crawl under a couch and die or what? World's gone down the shitter, his wife turned into an omnicidal maniac, his sister-in-law is reading directions wrong, his pupil is turning into the very monster from his aged memory and even his other pupil(s) are slowly disintegrating. You'd think he'd stop by somewhere and try to asses the situation. Even if he's offhandedly mentioned by another character. But nope. It's like he up and vanished.

Well, we can only call Nine's reasoning/logic as "silly" because we simply don't know what she does. Remember, CF still hasn't answered just what she learned within the Boundary (or elsewhere) about the BB world. Remember, this is the same thing Roy peered into and created Arakune. The very corruptive thing that is slowly turning Litchi into the same. Nine's reaction is extreme to us because in the context of what we've seen of her and the rest of the narrative and it does not really match to what we knew up to now. Like I said, whatever it is that she knows, it's big enough to make her think that this is the only solution. As for rushing in for closure, that's kind of to be expected. Mori spent too much time teasing and alluding to shit that is only now coming to light in CF, the last game for Ragna's tale. Unfortunately, Mori neglected the rest of the characters and there's so many threads going, that I doubt he has time in CF alone to tie them all together. Mori's sense of pacing and presentation is...somewhat haphazard. He's got great ideas sure, but putting them to paper and translating them to a video game medium sounds like it was a bit out of his league.

Intent, yes. But Kokonoe was ultimately unable to go through with it because Ragna wanted to tap that prove that all life is precious. However, I do agree that the fact Kokonoe would try to go that far is in and of itself unsettling. Like mother like daughter I guess. 2 extremes pushing for their solution and damn anyone getting caught in the crossfire. But we'll have to see where all this goes.

It's true that perhaps Celica can put on a decent fight against Nine, but beating her isn't the same as changing her viewpoint. I'm with MaskedFreak on this. If all it took to stop Nine's plans was to beat her down, it would have been done so already. Whatever it is that's driving her forward to do what she is doing is enough to wish death to both her lover and child. Which at the end of the day is a very scary thought...

Wait, Terumi claims Nine wanted to make another Take-Mikazuchi? One powerful enough to blow up the world? Nine needs to take a chill pill and pronto. For someone who claims that she wants the world to "not repeat the same tale", she doing the exact same thing. Every time Ragna and Nu-13 merged before, Takamagahara used it to blow up the loop and then repeat back to 100 years later. I do not see how her using it to blow up everything and then reshape it for another result is any different. Then again, she seems to have gone galloping crazy as of late so I guess it's up to Celica to deal with her (perhaps with Kokonoe's help).

That's actually a pretty funny way to look at it. Of the 3 (Azrael, Bullet and Amane), only Azrael got any sort of relevance to the plot in vanilla CP (CPEX added Bullet's expansion). In CF, he's actually the wild card (emphasis on wild) so he's mostly doing as he pleases. Kicking the fabric of time and space around like a baws. Making pacts with Death Goddesses, like a baws. Making plans to beat down the rest of the godly pantheon...like a baws. The guy's in his element and having a blast. Remember, the man is a walking engine of doom and there's scarce amount of people that can actually stop him. He doesn't need much more characterization beyond this to function for the narrative at large. Amane though is only now becoming more relevant but at least it's in a meaningful way. We knew he was going to be special, though I am honestly surprised his encounter with Ragna in CP ended up being more pivotal than initially thought. Now a part of me wants a gag reel where Ragna DOES join his troupe and becomes a complete bishonen that it unnerves even JIN.

One of these days, I'd like to see a prim and proper scholar (of physics and theoretical science preferably) sit his/her ass down and read all the lore behind Blazblue, Bloodedge Experience, XBlaze and even Remix Heart. I'd imagine we'd find them a week later behind a dumpster on 34th street constantly mumbling the phrase "the cake was the Azure" over and over. But on a more serious note, if Blazblue is the starting point of Bloodedge Experience, then why is Clavis a decrepit old man in Blazblue's time (Phase Shift) but a much younger one in Bloodedge Experience? Same with Relius and Valkenhayn.