Cerotech Omega

I was wondering if anything would come through. But that does beg one question: just what is the purpose of this fight? Did Relius lure the lost Izayoi and Makoto into conflict, or is Relius tailing Makoto and Izayoi happened upon her by chance? You double-posted. I know it's probably a mistake on the system's behalf, but still, you might wanna do something about that. As for a repeat of THAT ending, I doubt it: in Relius' Act I, he let Makoto run off, then faced her in a rematch before she got rerouted to Izanami in her Act II. It may be that, after her Act II, he's trying to see if her power of order is innate or if she's strong enough to emulate it herself; it's not on Jin's level, to be fair, but that begs the question of where her soul's own power ends and the power of order begins.

You're doing God's work, zedar. But still, ix-nay on the Biki-hay. That guy needs his head cleaned out. On that note, I don't fault you for losing track of Makoto's Act III -- you've had a lot on your plate just getting this done.

Not in a million years. Noel was adopted into House Vermillion.

No, I think at least one of those is from Act I. Hazama does not appear at all in Makoto's Act II.

Don't you mean "second"? Wasn't Noel there with Ragna when Izanami caused him to lose control of his grimoire? She wasn't sick then.

Huh. You know, as I read all of these, I think I'm starting to see the greater picture... there's no denying what's been said may have some inkling towards the truth, but rather than just play it all at face value, we should try to look deeper. Not that some of you aren't already trying, and to those of you who are, you have my respect. But this is the truth that I have found... 1] Nine herself is hooked on Izanami's bait 2] Izanami's promise of wish fulfillment is false. Let's take a look at some of the folks Izanami has proposed to and how they react. Skewers Izanami without hesitation. Izanami points him towards Amaterasu if he wants her to disappear. Izanami offers the Azure to Jin, but he casually destroys the fragment; his logic being that he wanted to obtain the Azure merely to destroy it. This makes it easy for Izanami to point him at Amaterasu, Izanami offers the Azure, and shows a vision of what Kaka Village could be. Tao points out that while Kaka Village could be better, if she used the Azure for this purpose, it wouldn't be Kaka Village anymore, and rejects the offering. Personal note: her character degeneration had disappointed me significantly, but this does offer a glimmer of hope. Izanami lets Nirvana and Nu eject from Arakune before pointing him at Noel (read: Amaterasu). Izanami offers the Azure; he gets a glimpse of Carl getting Ada, only to see her being integrated into Nirvana anyway. Izanami uses this as fuel to point Carl towards Amaterasu. / Rejects the Azure, both intending to use Noel or Amaterasu for their own designs. Izanami shows them with Jubei for a moment, but that is dashed, with Izanami pointing at Amaterasu as the cause of their disappointment. While she manages to piece things together (this includes that her captain is Tager), Izanami points towards Amaterasu as the cause for the repetition of her tragedy. Hibiki: Izanami points him at Noel, since she states she's the reason the NOL will turn on Kagura. More than likely, she's pointing Hibiki at Amaterasu. EDIT: Kinda forgot to include the conclusion, but you notice how they're all pointing at a single target. Compound this with the fact that she left Terumi and Relius to their fates in Chronophantasma when they stopped being useful to her; who's to say she won't betray any of them in their moment of triumph? 3] Notice how I'm missing someone in the above? Still, damn shame what happens to ...

Master of Chaos has a point. The only reason none of the conflict and tragedies would happen is because everyone would be dead. Part of the whole reason folks were trying to stop Doomsday is to save the people who weren't already killed by it, and there's the question of how Relius would contain Izanami anyway. Besides, there's still the question of what "perfect doll" entails. Yes, Relius may be tired of Amaterasu's interference like everyone else, but one has to wonder how bad things would be if he wasn't part of the problem to begin with (keep in mind he was helping Terumi and Shuichiro destroy Amaterasu in the first place). I get that much of what he does is to satiate his scientific curiosity, but it's the methods that folks object to. And you know the worst part? If I had no choice but to support a villain in this series, I'd pick him in a heartbeat because the other options, beyond exception, suck even worse.

I wouldn't be so quick as to pull in a completely fresh cast, folks. There are still a large number of loose ends that need to be tied up, and lord knows how many CF will leave behind by the end. I'd like to see the cast resolve whatever problems they can first. Just going to a fresh cast without some form of resolution is just bad writing, and if the cast is too fresh, it might as well not be BlazBlue, right? Naoto? Mori has one game to sell me that he can pick up where Ragna left off where someone else wouldn't be capable. If he hijacks Ragna early, all bets are off; I'd like to see Ragna resolve his own crap, or at least make a wholehearted attempt, before the end, thank you very much. Terumi? He and Hazama had three games in which to develop as a character, and all we've gotten is that (a) he masturbates to making others suffer, (b) practically everything he accomplishes is for his own benefit, (c) he gets frustrated, if not homicidally angry, when people interfere with his work, and (d) he is incapable of adjusting to an ever-changing world. He's a sociopath to the core, and thus incapable of development, something a protagonist (even a villainous one) must possess in order to be worthwhile. A story just about him messing with others? In my opinion, that'd be a waste of everyone's time. Linhua? That joke was born around the time Rachel was observing her first iteration of the timeloop, and it was old even then. Even a timeskip would do nothing to correct it. On the subject, correcting said issues should take priority over any timeskip, unless it is clear nothing of note can be done without one. Spinoffspring or disciples should be kept out of the equation until such time comes. With the duds eliminated, let's continue. I'd be okay with Rachel, but one has to wonder how seriously she'd take to the stage in that case. It'd be a learning experience, for sure. Tsubaki'd be a more viable candidate, too, given how she has the potential to move beyond her foolish, black-and-white vision of the world, with Chronophantasma a good start and Centralfiction being a nice way to continue. Even then, the New Library would need some compassionate folks to lead the charge, and Kagura and Jin won't be able to do it themselves. Seeing that would be a treat. The same could be said for Jin, seeing how his life would carry on without Ragna; if the power of order defines his existence as "destroy Ragna", wouldn't the worth of his existence be defined by how he continues afterward? Makoto, on the other hand? Sign me up. Even after everything that she's been through in-story, she still has lots of potential to develop, and we still know next to squat about her pre-Academy backstory, which could hold some significant secrets on how she became who she is, both during Heart to Heart and in the present day, as well as anchors to the present story's final resolution.

Thank you, VermillionBird, for cleaning up that lunacy. I'll deal with another piece. It's pretty much an inevitability that the conflict will start back up soon after Izanami is deposed; we just can't guess HOW soon. Also, even if the Duodecim knew that Tenjo was the old Imperator and can accept Homura as the rightful successor, the Committee just don't care, and likely would go about business as usual unless they are coerced into accepting a truce ("The fact that they're trying to take me out of the picture by force could mean that they intend to fight the Library for real."). Something needs to be done to bring both groups to amicable terms or we WILL see a conflict after Izanami is deposed as the highest power of the world. Got any ideas how that can be accomplished, guys?

I wasn't exactly surprised, given how Taro was assigned to Jin, who's been attending the Academy since at least a year before the girls. Some things are lost in translation, though. And Suzaku, thanks for the screenshot anyway. Gaia knows we need all the info we can get, and the Wiki doesn't include Library information besides the page names (links go to character entries instead). I just hope I covered all my bases with that wall of text.

Bullet's vendetta has jack-shit to do with Ragna, and it got elaborated upon in The Rat. He just happened upon her by chance, and only interfered with her when Azrael decided to kill her. Nothing more, nothing less. Litchi and Arakune have very little to do with Ragna, and they got elaborated upon in Collision. Ragna just happened upon them by chance, and made no effort to interfere with them hence until Arakune tried to eat Noel in Chronophantasma; the only reason he didn't act further was because Kagura acted first. The Ikaruga Civil War has jack-shit to do with Ragna, and fleshing it out was the entire point of Bang's backstory, part of Jin's backstory, a sizable part of That Which is Inherited, and the entire point of the side stories in Chronophantasma Extend. Wheel of Fortune had the barest of connections to Ragna, mostly revolving around First Lieutenant Tsubaki Yayoi of the 4th Thaumaturgist Division, Ministerial Secretary to Jin Kisaragi. Ragna was only involved at the end, and only made Tsubaki his business because of Nu-13. Even then, he did little to directly interact with her, even when she shielded Jin from Nu's hatred. The parallel instance Slight Hope had next to nothing to do with Ragna, either. The Military Academy backstory had jack-shit to do with Ragna until Remix Heart became a thing, and even then he was only involved in a fraction of it. The lion's share of events unfolded with zero input from him whatsoever. That's five and a half plot threads, four of which have significant connections to the BlazBlue story at large. One of those helps characterize a character strongly linked to Ragna, and another is critical. BlazBlue is a story about the Azure, its champions, and its corrupters, not The Trials, Tribulations, and Endless Suffering of Ragna the Bloodedge. And if the BlazBlue story continues past Ragna's death, Makoto has very strong connections to just about every viable candidate to his replacement (Jin, Noel and Tsubaki are the frontrunners, of course). Your argument is invalid. He may just be a sempai to her kohai, a point of which had not been fleshed out in Remix Heart. Still, fascinating. I share your sentiments of wanting to burrow into this particular rabbit hole. I wonder where I can see this Library without the game, seeing as I only have Nintendo consoles, PS One notwithstanding.

I wouldn't be 100% certain about Makoto's role ending just like that. People seem to lose track of a few things about her, and if Mori has demonstrated something in CPX, it's that he can go back and bring events to light that help expand presumed-forgotten characters (Litchi and Roy, anyone?). Let's see what we know and don't know so far. Aside from her Academy friends and whoever else she met thus far, who was Makoto most "in it" for? Let's jog your memory: "Meh. I should quit bitching. A job's a job. Can't help out the family just sitting on my tail." Just because Makoto's been more focused on her friends' well-being doesn't mean that her family's been out of her mind, and with Doomsday having gone down, trying to figure out just what happened to them is going to take some manner of priority in her mind. The only reason she wouldn't think about them is if she knows deep down that they're dead, which isn't something that's very likely unless it's explicitly spelled out to her. "Impressive. Surprisingly so! Suddenly, Colonel Clover's interest in you seems much less... 'random and untoward', shall we say?" The only reason I can see Relius not focusing on Makoto in any significant capacity during CP is if acquiring the Lynchpin was achievable in the short term: if he could pull that off, then even Makoto's soul would be beneath his concern, but since that option was denied him, he'd likely plan for the longer term with intent to incorporate her somehow. With him being broken and hooked on Carl and Litchi's leash at the end, I'd like to believe he's on the level, but with everything he did in the past, there's a part of me that just knows better. He'd be all for dealing with Izanami, however; the question left is what happens to everyone else when he does. Arcade commentary took a turn for the canon when Lambda pointed out in her CPX commentary that she was starting to remember her "CS alternate path" after facing off against Makoto. So what else was said about her that didn't have to do with the villains, her friends or her appearance? "Target has a strong resistance to seithr... Surrounding seithr eroding at a rate of 0.2%." "To think there are souls in this world as pure as yours. I suggest you cherish that rare commodity, for the sake of us all..." "Fascinating technique. I am sure you will be able to save your friend. I shall watch you from the shadows." Bang may be somewhat questionable, but we have two of the Six Heroes interested in her potential, and not only does she actually have a noted seithr degeneration rate, but it is also noted as being lower than normal, something even nihilistic Mu-12 stated in CS ("Target's resistance to seithr exceeds established parameters. Executing research protocols..."). On top of that, her soul was pulled into the Boundary and returned completely intact; Rachel can vouch for that, and Makoto remembering that particular event during Chronophantasma Chapter 9 confirms that Slight Hope is canon (for those who forget, she mentions it just before Tsubaki shows up). There's also unwritten potential given what Makoto has managed to accomplish in Arcade Mode before Takamagahara wrote it out: she nearly pretzelled Terumi's entire plot singlehandedly (for a second time at that) had it not been for his sudden appearance earlier than normal in CS Arcade, and it was enough to make him focus on killing her instead of Jin in the latter's CS story (he changed gears to killing Jin when it was clear he wasn't going to bullshit his way out of this one); and she managed to make Mind Eater lapse in CP Arcade, something not even Jin could accomplish (Tsubaki could only think one line worth of genuine thought in Jin's CP Arcade, whereas she has a speaking line in Makoto's), and that possibility was real enough that Hades: Izanami explicitly intervened just to deny a repeat ("Makoto Nanaya, was it? My desire, which I wish for all things in the universe: death." is not something Tsubaki would say in a million years). What do you think she's capable of doing, now that Takamagahara is permanently offline? Lastly, there's her backstory. While Noel and Tsubaki warrant that we know what she did during her Academy years, everything before that is something we know almost jack shit about. What we do know is that it was far from pretty (if her bad ending has her breaking down in record time just from reliving it, it simply cannot be casual racism, and if Amane's Astral is any indication, something happened to make her life take a turn for the "Grade-F Fertilizer" shit), and that she hadn't fully recovered before attending the Academy (she was much nastier for the lion's share of Heart to Heart). There's also Kagura's implied relationship: while the obvious train of thought is a date or a one-night stand, he could be bringing it up to see if she had overcome the whole thing, but since he was introduced piss-drunk with a floozy running out the door, there was no conceivable way anyone could initially expect deeper meaning from that statement. Also keep in mind that she likes Kagura, but hates his lechery, and the discussion implies that they are at least familiar with each other. Finally, if the translations for the CF teaser are correct, Makoto is no stranger to fighting dirty. I doubt that'd be something of concern at the Military Academy, but that only leaves the question of just what could conceivably warrant such familiarity with pragmatic combat. That is WAY too much foreshadowing and sidethreading for a mere side character, let alone one made from the dregs of writing another character as a lesbian. Mori may have originally designed Makoto like that, but she ballooned out from there into a more significant player than most realize. If there's anything my observations of Makoto's story have taught me, as well as Mori's statements in general, it's that the truth is almost never what's shown at face value. Dollars to brain cells suggest Mori has plans to make her a major player before the BlazBlue era comes to a close (just because Ragna's story is coming to an end doesn't mean for sure that the era will), unless he is a complete hack or has it in for her (she's one of the most popular girls in BlazBlue, if not Arc System Works as a whole, so the latter seems unlikely).

Should probably do something about that. Of course, since we know what the characters say to Hibiki, I wonder what the reverse is like, if it's even there. By the by, does anyone know where the ENG Library notes for the characters are? For research, of course.

You do remember that Mu = Noel now, right? Check that quote.

Fascinating. Who'd have thought they would have set up dialogue for him? Maybe next time around, if ever. Still, I wonder what Hakumen meant when he said that Hibiki "lacks the power to create change". How does one define that? Kinda funny that Noel, Litchi and Makoto all agree that Kagura needs to put it back in his pants.