Ogiga99

Ragna's arm isn't part Nu. After the Black Beast was defeated, Kazuma/Terumi stole its heart (Nu) and used it to create "something" so the Azure Grimoire is just the Black Beast's body. In order to return to its previous form, the Black Beast would still need a heart, which CS suggests Ragna can do on his own without Nu. In fact the fact that his arm was the Black Beast's makes this work rather well, his arm becomes the body while the rest of him can act as the heart. There are other ways to create a Black Beast (Arakune consuming Nox, smelting a Nox and letting it go berserk and absorb enough souls, Original Grimoire going berserk) but the only kind that involved the Azure Grimoire is the Murakumo fusion. Granted it's possible for their to be other kinds of artificial humans besides Prime Fields (Touya being a manifestation of the Original Grimoire, however Sechs was made and Hazama/Kazuma being vessels meant for Terumi, with Hazama's body being an Azure Grimoire) and if Relius, who has made multiple kinds, played a part in it we can't decisively say Murakumo, especially now that we know Saya was originally human but modified to be doll-like by Relius. However, that still leaves the issue of how CS Bad Ending Ragna could become a Black Beast if it doesn't have a heart. January 2200 is only from being in the Embryo because time "reset" to Ragna arriving in Kagutsuchi. CP took place in I believe February (might be March, can't remember exactly). In general CP was a lot longer of a game in terms of duration, both CT and CS were one day each but CP was several (off the top of my head I remember at least four different days not counting people traveling to Ikaruga). Time seems pretty weird in CF and it's possible the plot will be less of a "waiting game" since everyone is at each other's throats instead of it being Team Kagura vs. Team Izanami but I would hazard a guess that each Act is one day. As of Act 3 Terumi does have a vessel though so who knows how that affects everything. While Kokonoe physically rewired her brain to not care about Terumi, we've also seen that several characters (Ragna, Noel and Hakumen) have figured out Terumi's game and are no longer falling for his trolling. This lets them fight him without giving into rage, which at the very least weakens him even if not to the same level as Kokonoe. Even then, the hate probably isn't enough to stop Time Killer once his Self-Observation runs out.

I don't think an Azure Grimoire can fuse with the Kusanagi. You're forgetting that the Black Beast is the failed result of the attempt to smelt a Kusanagi. It works kind of like a Fusion failure in the Persona games. It's supposed to be Azure Grimoire + Murakumo Unit = Kusanagi but when it goes wrong the result is Azure Grimoire + Murakumo Unit = Black Beast. The reason Noel was able to smelted into the Kusanagi was because she could fill both roles on her own. She's a Murakumo Unit and being the Eye of the Azure means she already has access to the True Azure without a Grimoire. She wouldn't need to fuse with the Azure Grimoire because she's already got something better. Basically, I don't think True Azure + Murakumo + Azure Grimoire (lesser Azure power) would yield anything new or significant. Also regarding, Ragna and Hazama's Grimoires, you're forgetting that Ragna's surpassed Hazara's in the CS True Ending. While Hazara's was initially superior to the prototype, which was why he could shut down Ragna's, absorbing the Idea Engine made Ragna's strong enough to overcome this and let him access the True Azure like Mu can. This does however raise an interesting question. Assuming Ragna is a Murakumo Unit (heavily implied since he could turn into a Black Beast on his own in his CS Bad Ending) and assuming Ragna's Idea Engine Azure Grimoire is considered "complete" since it can access the True Azure, would it be possible for him to become a Kusanagi as well if he controlled the smelting process? Him turning into a Black Beast on his own is caused by him losing control of the Grimoire, resulting in a failure. If he is like Noel, fulfilling both conditions on his own, perhaps he could become another Kusanagi, which would presumably also stop the Azure Grimoire's corruption of him since he would no longer be able to turn into a Black Beast. Just a cool thought I had. You are right about the fusion. Nu says it explicitly during her exposition dumb inside Take-Mikazuchi in CP's True Ending. You're getting confused about Ars Magus. Are Magus does use seithr, basically it's manipulating seithr with science to reproduce the effects of Magic. Grimoires are a form of Ars Magus. Causality Weapons are different from Ars Magus since they can be made in many ways. While the Nox Nyctores are treated as being like Ars Magus, they were created with Magic (Kokonoe using Infinite Gravity in That Which Is Inherited). There are also Artificial Causality Weapons that use pure science. However, the reason the Nox generally don't need seithr is because of their cores. Their cores are created by compressing seithr to the limit and smelting it with souls. Basically, at least this is how I understand it, the core is a solidified ball of seithr with a whole bunch of souls in it. The core provides the Nox with its own power source, so it doesn't need to use seithr from the surrounding area. However, Take-Mikazuchi is an exception to this rule. It can only fire once every four years because it's so powerful even its core can't supply enough seithr for it (although this may be because it only has half of its core). When Izanami brings it to earth in CP's True Ending she says it can continuously fire because the world is overflowing with enough seithr to power it and after that is stopped by Kusnhinada's Lynchpin, Izanami just powers it herself through unknown means. Regarding Celica's seithr suppression, it's hard to say exactly what things are affected by it because she stays away from fights for most of CP. All we see is that she can shut down the Azure Grimoire and doesn't affect Nox (Jin could use Yukianesa fine when he curb-stomped Ragna inside the headquarters). Most of the people who fight around her in CP don't use seithr (Azrael, Bang, Carl, Litchi, Relius, Izanami etc.) so everything's a bit unclear. It's a moot point now anyway since there is no seithr in CF buts the Embryo lets the Entitled use Ars Magus regardless. Funnily enough, alongside Celica, Tao has become Hazara's hard counter since his cat allergies are now canon. Celica already weakens him with her presence so she already basically has that covered (not sure why this happens when separated from Hazama since, as far as we know, he doesn't have his own Azure Grimoire and his spirit isn't made of seithr). I don't think even Celica could actually love him since even she realizes he is irredeemable. However, we already have an answer to the question about this. While hate makes him stronger, the opposite of that isn't love, indifference is. He is powered by the emotions directed him but he becomes incredibly weak when his opponent doesn't feel anything towards him. In her CPEX Arcade Ending, Kokonoe is able to curb stomp Terumi by sealing away her emotions and making herself not care about him. Terumi is a huge narcissist and wants to be the center of attention, so, fittingly, ignoring him is his greatest weakness figuratively (he kicks Rachel in rage when she says Ragna is way more interesting than him in her CS Bad Ending) and literally (he needs hatred to maintain his existence in the world). I don't think loving him would do anything more than not caring about him does, and would probably be less effective overall (if you love someone it can easily lead to the strongest of hate, which Terumi would exploit). Regardless, the only thing that is necessary at the moment is to deprive him of a vessel for a week. He can only keep up his Self-Observation for that long and needs a vessel to physically root him to the world. Without one he is already doomed. So they can just destroy his vessels and run out the clock or keep hitting him with attacks that can harm his soul and deprive him of hate power to the point where he can no longer maintain his Self-Observation.

It's mentioned in Phase Shift 3 Chapter 1 (might be in other places as well but that's the only one I know of that's translated). The two wars were also explained here, when Nine explains to the other Six Heroes what Take-Mikazuchi is. Here are some tidbits with a few things missing in between. Nine: "Long time ago... during the era that's called as the beginning, humanity was in a war with something. And so, I've found the records regarding it. The opponent seems a nuisance since common weapons couldn't hurt it. Then, although the scale is smaller than the previous one... Although the scale is smaller than the war in the beginning, there was a same kind of war between humanity and something several hundred years ago. It resembles our current battle with the Black Beast." Trinity: "That war existed? ...But I've never heard anything about it until now, even within the Mage's Guild." Nine: "Yes. It wasn't something that's written in your everyday history of Mage's Guild. I found the description inside the books which are stored in the Cathedral." Trinity: "Then, it must be something that's hidden from the world." NIne: "That seems to be the case. But in addition to the book's description, I found the legacy of the war. I've found the weapon that had been used to fight that something in Ishana. Your village has the same kind of weapon, doesn't it?" Jubei: "Hihi'irokane..." Description: "The ancient weapon itself originated from the age of beginning and had been handed down within Jubei's family." Nine: "The one I found in Ishana was more recently made. According to the few remains of record, its name is..." Hakumen: "...The Sealed Weapon Izayoi." There are probably more mentions of it that I can't remember and I'm sure Zedar90 could fill in the gaps. The Izayoi Kuon uses is the Sealed Spear: Izayoi. It is a Legacy Weapon that is different from the Sealed Weapon Izayoi of BlazBlue. Kuon's Izayoi works a bit differently, the spear is able to seal the magic of the target, rendering them a normal human and trappng them in a barrier. Like all Legacy Weapons (supposedly, we don't know what Murakumo's is) Izayoi has a cost, in this case blindness. Unlike Tsubaki's Izayoi which drains light from the wielder over time, Kuon's Izayoi blinded her after a single use (which only happened in her route). We don't know where the Legacy Weapons come from but unlike the Sealed Weapon Izayoi, the XBlaze one seems to have been fairly well known in the Magic Guild so they can't be the same.

1337 H@x0r: Sorry I can't quote you're response from the last page. I’m sorry you feel that I’m being conceited. I am far from the most knowledgeable person about BlazBlue, there are several people on this website with more information than me (VermillionBird and Zedar90 in particular) and I have no access to Japanese-only material that is not provided by one of our awesome translators so all the information I have is available if you look for it. Conceiving theories based on your information is fine but it is possible to conceive a theory that contradicts information you weren’t aware of and learning of it will change your perspective. I’ve been wrong plenty of times before and had my ideas debunked. 1- Yeah, Amane’s ending only mentions putting someone else inside the Master Unit, nothing about Rachel. The only mentions of new bodies I can think of in Act 3 are Jin creating a body for Trinity and Terumi getting that strange cube to use as a new vessel. 3- All of this is a major assumption. We have no idea what happens after BE2 or what happened in the main timeline after Clavis killed Naoto so you have no confirmation for any of this. 4- What do mean by Sankishin Units have “repeatedly“ shown to produce new beings? The only example of that is Amaterasu creating Izanami. We have no idea exactly what the connection between the OPFD and Noel is except that her soul is inside Noel right now so we can’t say how she was created. And both of those examples have been limited to one Sankishin Unit. The three Units all have complete different abilities and properties, so only Amaterasu has shown creation and only Susanoo has shown that it can be inhabited by spirits but those don’t apply to all of them, otherwise all of them would be capable of insanely powerful Phenomenon Intervention. You’re forgetting that Naoto existed in the main BlazBlue timeline. He therefore can’t be simply a different parallel version of Ragna if they both exist in the same world. Also, Raquel almost certainly existed in the main timeline since the split between normal events and BE events is the appearance of Hazama at the end of Act 3. We don’t know what happened to her, but they can’t be the same soul if they both existed in one world. Also, what Raquel is doing to Rachel seems more like how Trinity takes control of Luna and Sena’s body than the same type of existence erasing Naoto is doing to Ragna. I think it’s safe to say that Saya Terumi never acted as a vessel for Izanami. We know this because Izanami did not recognize Naoto in Act 2. There is only one Izanami, who is the manifestation of the one Amaterasu's Drive so she couldn't experienced the events of Bloodedge Experience. You're mixing up events regarding the Azure Shrine Maiden. She did not take part in an original Dark War, all that happened is that she immediately lured the Black Beast back into the Boundary as soon as it emerged. Their was no fight. What you are thinking of are the two hidden wars (one hundreds of years ago and one in the Age of Origin) against a "something" that existed outside of the Logic (implied to be mini-Black Beasts). Sealed Weapon Izayoi and Hihiirokane were created in each war respectively to fight against it. The Sankishin have never been confirmed to have been made by human hands and all information points to them having been their since the very beginning of the world itself, before humanity first created Causality Weapons in the Age of Origin (the furthest point back in the timeline we know of and way before the Azure Shrine Maiden). It's actually incredibly unclear whether or not Nine made Take-Mikazuchi or found it since her wording is vague. The only thing she specifically mentions finding is Izayoi, which led to her learning about Causality Weapons and the war in the Age of Origin, but her words about "reviving it" are said in a way that could mean either finding and reviving Take-Mikazuchi itself or reviving the concept of Causality Weapons by creating Take-Mikazuchi. Hero19: In response to your idea about Ragna and Naoto, that situation is unlikely because we know Naoto is one of the Entitled who is not going to claim the Azure (like Rachel, Tao and Bang). Raquel told him not to do it in Act 2 so it's pretty clear that the Azure will not be able to save his world (in fact creating a new world is probably what is the cause of his "possibility" being erased). He has to restore the world to its pre-Embryo state to return to his world. Actually what Jin asks is whether the Hazama in Hakumen's timeline was just Yuuki Terumi and if so who is Hazama. We know for a fact that Yuuki Terumi existed in Hakumen's timeline because we explicitly see him (Hakumen comes from the world of the Wheel of Fortune Drama CD and Terumi is in it). Furthermore, we know Terumi existed before the beginning of the first time loop since he was involved in the experiment with Relius and Shuichiro that unleashed the Black Beast in the first place. The question is more about if Hazama existed as well as Terumi, not the other way around. It still doesn't make sense and I'm pretty sure the line was just meant to foreshadow that Hazama and Terumi were two different people. Then these "lots of people" clearly never actually played XBlaze and have no idea what they're talking about. Terumi is not not not not not not not not not not NOT Freaks! Freaks is super dead. His soul was contained in his Crystal, which Touya and Es destroyed and Kiri took control of his body again. Since Kiri is actually nice this means that the body will not become evil. The reason Ripper's soul survived the first time was because he died through normal means and the Magic Guild revived him. However, the unique situation of his revival means that his very soul was destroyed and cannot become anyone else. Not to mention that Freaks doesn't even exist in the main timeline! If by some impossible bullshit Freaks's spirit survived and became Terumi, he would be trapped in the XBlaze world which is cut off from the Boundary by the World of the Tsukuyomi, meaning he couldn't even get to the main world. I fully admit to having no idea who Terumi he is but I can say with 100% accuracy that he is NOT someone from XBlaze, and almost certainly not a version of any character we've actually seen up to this point. Sorry for the rant but I will continue to beat the "Terumi is *insert XBlaze character here*) theories into the ground until they are permanently buried and forgotten like they deserve to be.

You've got to remember that for 80% of CP Tsubaki was under Izanami's Mind Eater so she really wasn't herself. She literally couldn't ask the important questions and her view was as black and white as you can get (the Imperator's orders are absolute). After she was freed she spent her limited screen time realizing how badly she messed up by trying to kill her friends and vowing never to do it again, saying that even if the NOL isn't perfect she couldn't condone a violent coup d'etat and possible war to achieve that and having her completely understandable hatred of Ragna. None of this was focused on JIn and most of the crazy wasn't her fault. I highly doubt it. We don't know exactly when BE takes place but it is somewhere between 2070 and 2090 while Ragna was born/created around 2180. I highly doubt that a random death from around 100 years ago could have any direct involvement in Ragna's existence. At the moment, the biggest connection we have is the mysterious guy with white hair, red eyes and a black arm that appeared to Naoto in the Spinner fight. We have no idea who or what he is but if anything connects the two's existences, it's him, not a direct thing with the two being the same person/having the same soul that doesn't make sense logistically.

Holy crap a lot has happened since I've been here. That means I've got a lot to say. Sorry in advance. I'm glad we got that Naoto translation because now things make a lot more sense. I'm glad Naoto just says Hakumen is similar to that "Ally of Justice" as opposed to saying he looked like a girl named Justice. That lessens the whole Guilty Gear similarities/crossover that I feared. That sounds about right to me, but I have my own thoughts to add to the mix. Personally I think it's the Embryo that is erasing the "possibility" of the world. The way "possibility" seems to work is that every possible circumstances that can occur based on someone's actions all exist and are all linked via the Boundary (hence why people can jump between "possibilities" like Naoto in CF or Makoto in Slight Hope). Phenomenon Intervention, even by Amaterasu, isn't straight up making a reality you want, it's just picking which reality you want from the list of "possibilities" (this is why Amaterasu couldn't just erase Terumi and Relius or stop Takamagahara from using Take-Mikazuchi to destroy Kagutsuchi, there is no possibility where that happens). The Embryo, however, is different. If an Entitled gets the Azure and creates their world, they are literally making a wish that changes the very foundation of the universe and create a world that exists regardless of whether or not it could result from any existing "possibility." Thus this new world becomes the base from which it's own infinite "possibilities" spring forth. This also means that since the previous world was completely overwritten, all of it's various "possibilities" disappear, even from the Boundary that connects everything, since they can no longer exist. Even if this is not exactly how it works, I think it's pretty clear that Bloodedge Experience doesn't take place "after" BlazBlue (which really doesn't work from any sort of chronological view since even if it was created by the current events, it would still have "always" existed), it just requires the continuation of the current world in order to exist in the first place. I would also add that this supports my theory that no one will create a new world with the Embryo or rewrite the world by becoming the Master Unit aside from restoring the souls in the Embryo. This idea is furthered by Raquel telling Naoto not to touch the Azure, since him using it would destroy his world for good. That's impossible. For one we don't know if Clavis actually used the Tsukuyomi Unit or even if he ever had it in the first place (we don't know how or when Rachel acquired it so it could have been after his death). We also have an explicit origin for Raquel. She is the Embryo that was left behind after Clavis defeated the Soul Eater user, which morphed into a physical form on its own, meaning Clavis didn't play a direct role in her creation and her soul comes from the countless souls inside the Embryo. We also know that Clavis does not have his own Drive because he is an Illusionary Creature, similar to Izanami being a Drive-Existence. Here's how Raquel explains it in BE (thanks to Zedar90 for the translation). Naoto: Then, are you and your father drive users? Having gotten yours souls closer to the azure. Raquel: My father is a little special. He is an extremely special existence… He is special within the special, the exception within the exceptions. I don’t know who, but a long time in the past only one person touched a portion of the azure. That someone used the power of azure and gave birth to my father. Naoto: That… sounds unreasonable incredible, you know? Raquel: It is unreasonable incredible. His very foundation is on a whole other level from other living beings. An “Illusion of the Azure” born by the azure form humans desires, malice and fear. … existence like father is being called Illusionary Creatures. Raquel denies that he is a Drive user meaning Rachel or Raquel couldn't be his Drive since he doesn't have one. Also, assuming this were the case how could Rachel still be alive after Clavis's death? Wouldn't a Drive manifestation of the soul disappear once the soul that created it returns to the Abyss of the Azure? Not to mention Rachel and Raquel have a number of different properties that suggest different origins. Raquel gained knowledge by connecting to the Boundary while Rachel did so by going into a coma for half a century. Raquel has a life force value of 80,000 whereas Rachel has no number at all. Raquel was born a teenage while Rachel was born as a child and had to physically grow. Raquel can sense the Azure while Rachel doesn't have any known connection to the Azure. When Rachel bit Ragna in the first timeline, he didn't turn into a full vampire after a year and go berserk trying to drink blood and Rachel couldn't use her own life force to keep him alive or heal him like with Naoto. They have an important connection for sure but with so many differences in their very natures I doubt they have the same origin. 1- How does Rachel's ending hint at her getting a new body? All Jubei says is that they will pick up "that." Then again, Izanami calls Rachel a "human who was an Observer before" in the Act 3 preview so who knows. 3- Not sure where you're getting this from, especially with the possibility that BE and XBlaze are in the same timeline. Plenty of events happened without Naoto's involvement (Clavis defeating the Soul Eater user and creating Raquel, Saya Terumi gaining Soul Eater etc.) so I don't see how he makes the universe "successful." This is different from the main timeline where there can be a hero or "lynchpin" character because the timeline is limited to only events over 100 years that Ragna influences in both the beginning and in the present, whereas BE is from a complete timeline of human history with nothing to make him the most important person in it. Even without Naoto a lot of events probably wouldn't have changed. Raquel could have defeated the first Apostle on her own if Naoto hadn't made her drop her guard, Relius could have captured Saya Terumi and Kiiro is probably strong enough to have defeated Spinner. Naoto hasn't saved the world and the events he's involved in are relatively low scale, so he's hardly comparable to the Naruto example. It's too simple to say "if X did't exist than Y wouldn't happen and the story would end with Z) since there are an infinite number of possible outcomes. If anyone were the "lynchpin" I would argue it were Raquel since she is an Embryo that comes from the Boundary and thus can determine the existence of her world to an extent (which is why she can maintain Naoto's existence and send him to the main timeline despite his world disappearing. 4- The Power of Order is very different from a Drive. While both do require having a strong soul (unless we're talking about the Spinner Superior method of getting Drive which involves getting too close to the Azure), only Drives actually draw on the power of the Azure. The Power of Order is a natural force created by the world to keep balance and what the power source for the Power of Order even is, besides willpower, is unknown. Heck in Phase Shift we see that the Power of Order can manifest as crystals, so the power doesn't even require a soul. Furthermore, both Celica and the crystals have the power to suppress seithr, which runs counter to using the power of the Azure. What do you mean by "characters in XBlaze already began to show traits similar to Izanami despite the entity itself not displaying awareness yet?" If you mean her nature, there are no characters who are what could be considered a Drive-Existence like her. If you're referring to Sechs and the idea that he was working for her, I've already explained how the similarities are superficial and that Lost: Memories decisively disproved the theory by revealing who Sechs was talking to, explicitly saying that Sechs came up with the plan on his own and him wanting a world of perfect order without the concept of life or death. I'm impressed you made it this long. I only made it to CP's true ending when it was revealed that the Ragna who became Bloodedge was actually from the present as opposed to being one from the CT-era that fell into the Cauldron. Specifically it was trying to figure out why he still had his sword and jacket on return despite leaving them with Celica that nearly broke me before I heard the probable "he took the sword and jacket that belonged to the CT Ragna inside the Black Beast" theory. I'm not sure about that. The Hazama in BE is described as looking to be around Naoto's age and the current Hazama definitely looks older than 16 so I have a hard time believing he could have travelled back in time and look so young. Naoto even says "he seemed like he was a little more mature then before" so it seems weird for Hazama to regress if he does travel to BE in the future. There's also the question of what he would be doing there since he is already aware that Naoto recognizes him and thus knows that going to Naoto's possibility would mean directly causing the events that lead to the failure of his plans in the present, so why would he abandon everything he has built up to go to a possibility not even being focused on by the Master Unit and is a complete unknown. This is hardly the first time a character in BE seems to overlap with someone from the main timeline so we don't know for sure what the relationship between them is or why he is the cause of the difference between Relius and Naoto's version of the events. THANK YOU! I can't stand that so many people completely ignore her character development or the circumstances behind her actions and just reduce her to a Jin obsessed yandere who hates Ragna for no reason. It's a shame people can't let go of their first impressions and realize that many of the characters have changed like Jin no longer having his psychotic vaguely homoerotic fixation on Ragna or Rachel actually having a hidden super-nice side since the very beginning that is showing more and more. On a completely different note, I've been wondering if there is any significance behind the "constants" throughout the series. What I mean by "constants" is elements that are present in BlazBlue, Bloodedge Experience and XBlaze despite them being alternate timelines. Of course there are the obvious ones like the Azure, the Boundary, Cauldrons, Phenomenon Intervention, seithr and magic/sorcery that are staples of the universe but what about the more specific elements? The one's I've noticed are the Amanohokosaka Clan, Drives, Soul Eater, the Black Beast, some form of Prime Field as well as a Murakumo to accompany it, the Magic Guild (and presumably the Ten Sages, not positive if they're mentioned in BE) and the Embryo. It's possible this is just world building and red herrings but the fact that they are in all three as opposed to one of the spin-offs referencing the main story (Kusanagi, Izayoi and Blood Cain for XBlaze, Saya Terumi's name, and the Immortal Breakers for BE) has me suspect that some of those elements might be essential in how all the worlds intersect. Of course if BE and XBlaze are the same timeline (as hinted by the appearance of Mei, TOi and the Mitsurugi Agency) the number of constants would increase dramatically. This is probably stupid and I don't really have a theory to go with it but the idea just stuck out to me.

That's good to know. In general a lot more important stuff seems to have happened in CF's Arcade Mode than the other games so I'll probably play them all for myself before Story Mode. All 96 that we know of. 96! Oh boy. On a different note, this pretty much confirms that Es will be available from the start and we won't have to play Story Mode to unlock her like Kagura in CP. It would be impossible to play her Arcade Mode before Story Mode like Mori suggests otherwise.

Es is a different case. Kokonoe was a character who has been around since CT. There wasn't necessarily going to be anything groundbreaking. But here we have Es coming in from out of nowhere as this wild card where we have no idea why she's here or what she's going to do. The impact of her presence is much bigger. I'm not sure what makes you think Es is a super popular character since XBlaze isn't that huge of a thing. Besides it's now like the console version only offers a new character. You can play it from home, play online with friends, practice all you want without other people needing a turn (if these supposed millions are using the thousands of machines then there is too much demand and you don't get to play as much), not have to pay each time you play (which can easily add up to be more than the $60 game if you want to do it enough and you get a giant freaking story mode. Why are you making this out to be an evil corporation thing when it's as simple as one more incentive to buy the actual game which is overall a superior experience (and which you wouldn't even be able to play in the first place if it didn't exist).

That would be cool but there are two problems. One, Astral Heats are non-canon, with the exception of Naoto's (it seems to be the same move he used to save Raquel from Spinner Superior) and possibly Terumi's (he transforms into Dark Susano'o in the maybe-canon CPEX opening). Amane could have solved so many problems with that move (restore presumably good Kazuma, bring back Trinity, bring Valkenhayn back to the full power he had at his youth) and there is no way Pakumen or wind-up toy Tager are real. I'm also skeptical about Tager jumping all the way to the atmosphere or Kokonoe dropping a giant meteor that seems as strong as Take-Mikazuchi. Two, even if he could use it, who's to say chibi Azrael isn't just as ungodly powerful? You gotta admit human Tager must have been an insane badass to have been able to wound Azrael to the point the scar still hurts him, using only normal weapons or Ars Magus. I'm assuming you aren't counting being sealed by Kokonoe twice as losses right? I'd rather avoid any chance of misinformation and ruin the surprise of discovering it for myself. I was able to spoiler dodge and keep my hype contained for EIGHT MONTHS while waiting for Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep to get localized so even CP's wait was manageable in comparison (although my friend importing a copy so I could play it without touching spoilers might helped). Reading a summary and going "WHAT" when Es first cameoed in Act 2 just does not have nearly as much hype as shouting in glee when Bang saves the world with Kushinada's Lynchpin in full animated glory (and he "Beat A Nail With Your Hammer" no less). I think the fact that it's the "Crystal Sealing" Blade is probably what's important, because the Murakumo was able to easily damage or destroy a Union's Crystal, not the current lock theme. The Murakumo in XBlaze not having the the keyhole when it seems so important is a big reason I doubt they're the same. Es has those keyholes on her cufflinks as well so the symbol is more likely connected to her guarding the gate to the realm of the gods than the sword herself. I'm also confused as to why the Murakumo would change form at all, especially since Es has already mastered its XBlaze version. If it's not related to the Kusanagi like I theorize it's likely something much more powerful granted to her by the Azure so she could acts as the gate keeper. Yeah, she might have the most death flags of all since she's already at the point where she can barely fight and is on the brink of death and was trying to sacrifice herself to stall Terumi in Act 3. Keeping her in the "I don't know" section is probably just be wishful thinking on my part. The only other hanging issue is that we need an explanation for her appearing in Bloodedge Experience before she dies. Also it's totally not related to me being a rabid RagnaXRachel shipper who doesn't want to have Ragna's life suck even more than it already does by losing her. On a completely different note, is anyone else annoyed that there has been little to no instances of Naoto commenting on other character's life force due to his Hunter's Eye? Knowing how close certain characters are to death or how unnatural some are based on their values (does Rachel have no value like in BE, what would Amane, Izanami or Azrael look like etc.) would provide some very interesting insight into things.

Lol, yeah I probably do put too much thought into this, and this post will be no different, but that's not gonna change since I need to enjoy it while it lasts. Once the console version is released I am gone until I play the english version. There is a little more to scrapping the idea of Tsubaki being a lesbian than just Mori not being able to write yuri. Tsubaki was supposed to be in love with Noel but he realized he couldn't make that work with her role in the plot (most likely the part about her going cray-cray in CS) so he made her Jinsexual instead. Makoto was actually created to fill the yuri gap left by this. More being unable to write yuri actually shines through more here since Makoto is bi (kissed Mai but is heavily implied to have had a one-night with Kagura) and has every fetish under the sun (shotas, being unable to tell if Platinum is a trap, giant robots etc.) as opposed to a full-on lesbian. His inability to handle yuri, not necessarily offensively but coming off as merely fanservicey, is shown in the other two lesbian characters, Shiori and Elise. They both just have attraction to one girl who doesn't reciprocate and loudly proclaim their love at every opportunity (which is similar to how Mori described what Tsubaki would have been like) so I'm glad we didn't get this for Tsubaki. He still has his limiter. If anything can kill him there are two possibilities I can think of at the moment. One is Time Killer, which kills all the time the target has left before their death, even seemingly immortal characters. Even if he has immortality of the "never ages" variety (he does believe he can continue to fight the Black Beast for all eternity) he would still be considered to have a time where he ceases to exist if it is possible for him to be destroyed or "end" in any way and he doesn't have an out like Terumi (Self-Observation to keep acknowledging his existence) or Izanami (has no time since she's "death"). The other possibility is Zero-Type Izayoi's Immortal Breaker, which implants the concept of death into the target's mind, forcing them to acknowledge their own demise as true. Again, he doesn't seem to have a loophole for this like Jin (Power of Order hax lets him reject the concept of death through sheer force of will) or Izanami (as "death" she permanently has the concept of death in her mind so it can't kill her). Other than that who knows. Not even the Black Beast seems surefire since he intends to be locked in a permanent battle with it till the end of time (and Azrael is already so ridiculous that him being able to punch a being outside of the Logic would hardly be a surprise). On the topic of who’s going to die, there are two things to consider. The first is who is already dying. At the moment a LOT of characters have something or other that is slowly killing them. Ragna has the twofer of being corrupted by the Azure Grimoire and having his existence overwritten by Naoto, Rachel is becoming weaker to the point of killing herself by intervening, Litchi is corrupting herself by accessing the power of the Boundary, Arakune is either going to disappear or become a Black Beast, Hakumen’s fading, Platinum’s souls are unstable and going to disappear, Terumi has little time due to relying on Self-Observation (although he might have solved this with that cube) and Celica’s temporary soul is deteriorating. Many characters have death flags but these are the most blatant. Now I’m sure some of these can be averted (sorry Luna haters but I can’t see Platinum not being saved) but if I have to guess we’re gonna lose some of them. Personally, the people I see as most likely to go down are the characters who are “ghosts of the past.” A big point has been made about how they shouldn’t interfere and the future of the world should be left to the people currently living there. To me that puts Hakumen, Celica, Nine, Trinity at the top of the list (more iffy on Valkenhayn and Jubei since they’ve been around this whole time). Again, I cannot accept that there will be a true reset besides restoring the people of the Embryo because that goes against the theme Ragna and Rachel seem to be pushing, to accept what has already happened and instead work for a better future. This quote from his Act 3 ending illustrates this best. Any kind of reset to change what has happened in the past, and especially to the Dark War characters, would not be right. Like Hakumen and Valkenhayn have said, this means accepting that there time has passed. This means Celica has to stay dead because she died in the Church, Hakumen should be able to pass his role as Hero onto Jin and Nine needs to realize she can’t blame god for a personal tragedy that really couldn’t be stopped (Celica needed to die for Ragna to gain the Azure Grimoire and eventually go back in time to set the events of the Dark War as Bloodedge which gave Celica a long life without being Lynchpin fuel in the first place). Other characters I see dying are villains. In order for a conclusion of any kind evil plans need to be stopped and villains need to die. Izanami is definitely not making it out alive since Ragna MUST settle the issue with Saya, however it goes and the likely changing of Amaterasu could mean the destruction of her Drive. I also suspect Terumi is finally going down for really reals. Even though Chrono Phantasma played up his rivalry with Hakumen more, Ragna needs to be the one to stop Terumi, not for revenge but to actually protect and save people like he wants to (a reset won’t get rid of him). If this is the end of Ragna’s story I can actually see many of the plotlines closing to allow for at least a temporary peace (the other reason I can’t see a reset is because that might lead to a happily ever after even though this isn’t the end of the series). As for Relius I think he will die, but it will be because of Carl and not before he has succeeded in making Carl surpass him. Act 3 has shown that Carl has started down a villainous path and is becoming Relius Jr. Relius has encouraged this and I could see him sort of passing the torch to Carl. Personally I think there will be some kind of timeskip after Central Fiction, I would say at least 10 years, to allow for new characters and have some of the characters change with age while other characters retire if they are truly going to have a happy ending. This would fit with what I said about Carl, with an older version of him becoming more of a villain than even Relius. Another pet idea from this theory is that one of if not the main character will be Jin and Tsubaki’s kid (we all know it’s going to happen, Jin is Tsubakisexual and Tsubaki is Jinsexual). I guess for simplicity I’ll put all the characters into categories of whether or not, from my perspective, they’ll die. Almost certainly will die: Arakune (Black Beast), Terumi (needs to die for Ragna’s closure), Izanami (resolve Saya and Amaterasu conflicts) Probably will die: Hakumen (ghost of the past that needs to move on), Relius (villain to be defeated and ties into Carl’s future), Celica (ghost of the past that needs to move on and doesn’t belong) and Nine (ghost of the past that needs to move on). Probably won’t die: Tager (probably has to properly reunite with Bullet and might even return to being human), Nu (Ragna needs to save her like he promised), Lambda (no need to repeat that plot point), Bullet (probably has to properly reunite with Tager), Kokonoe (if the world is restored to pre-Embryo it’s going to need a lot of her science power to recover) and Hibiki (provided he can chill the hell out, Kagura will fall apart without him as a secretary). Almost certainly will live: Jin (too important to continuing story and possible new protagonist), Noel (promised happy ending), Tao (killing her off would make the ending way too dark), Bang (JUSTICE WILL NEVER DIE), Carl (either he saves Ada or he completes his turn to the dark side), Tsubaki (part of Noel’s happy ending and obviously gotta get that Jin booty J), Makoto (part of Noel’s happy ending), Platinum (probably by Luna and Sena becoming two people), Amane (we need at least one Onlooker to keep doing the job), Kagura (just to say screw you to the vision of him getting executed), Naoto (this is only the starting point of his story) and Es (Mori don’t you dare ruin her happy ending). Haven’t got a clue: Ragna (could become new god and continue to act as a protector like he wants, could get a happy ending reuniting and reconciling with Jin and Saya, could have to die since he is the enemy of the world, too many options), Rachel (has a particularly bad case of dying and is looking to sacrifice herself for Ragna’s sake, personally I hope Ragna can stop her from doing this and whatever happens to him she will be there with him), Litchi (is dying but not enough to be beyond saving, personally want Bang to save her and for her to move on from Roy), Hazama (him being his own villain is too much of a wild card at the moment so I could see him continuing on independently), Valkenhayn (technically a relic from a bygone era but I see no reason for him to die) and Azrael (he’s really hard to get a read on). That's my view on this.

From what I understand, the Power of Order is born as the World's Antibody as a direct response to a certain threat. It is meant to be the balancing factor. In this case, Jin and Hakumen's Power was created specifically to oppose the Black Beast. It's not a matter of the world objectively thinking about what could be a threat, it is a response to an existing threat. Ragna's Azure Grimoire is different from Hazama's since it literally is the Black Beast's corpse. The Power of Order that was created to fight the Black Beast is focused on Ragna because he literally is the very source of evil and destruction it was meant to counter. Izanami and co. might be threats in the sense that they are evil and have plans to destroy the world but the World isn't thinking of it from that perspective. Ragna is the Dark One, he already has the power of the Black Beast and it is always corrupting him further, leading to its return. Izanami, Terumi, Relius and Nine might be trying to create the Embryo and reset the world, but only the Black Beast literally has the power to wipe out everyone on earth, which is the strongest threat.

Woah! Hold on a moment, that was just a theory. Aside from her being the guardian of the gate to the realm of the gods, her wanting to guide Ragna to said gate per the will of the Azure, her having blue eyes again that suggest some kind of connection to the Azure and her wielding a giant sword that looks different than the Crystal Sealing Blade: Murakumo, we know pretty much nothing about Es's role in Central Fiction. I want to nip this in the bud before I'm the source of widespread misinformation.

Presumably if she recreates the entire world she could revive the real Celica from her timeline. She is pissed that Kokonoe tried to use Celica by making her a Chrono Phantasma so I doubt that piece is necessary to her plan. Zedar's summary says "Then Roy tells Litchi that she should go back to being human, and he will continue to research.And if she remembers this, he tells her to destroy his vessel." Him telling her to go back to being a human and only act if she remembers suggests that he intentionally wanted her to forget him. Either way, what's important is that at the moment she lost her memories. My issue was that you said the theory was "disproved." As you said, we don't know everything so while you are right about exactly we saw, that doesn't explain why Noel could open the door in the first place. I was saying it's possible the OPFD's soul being inside her is why she could be a key and thus is the reason she had to split. Back to Es for a bit, I have a bit of a theory on her powers. We've assumed that this is Es between CE and LM because of the Azure Eyes, which she got from the Embryo and lost when she became a human). However, what if this is red herring and she has the blue eyes for a different reason. We know Es is guarding the gate in accordance with "the will of the Azure" so that could mean the Azure gave her its power so she could fulfill this role. All of her attacks we've seen so far are made from blue light, something that almost always corresponds to the power of the Azure. Es has access to the True Azure more so than any other character besides possibly Ragna or Mu which is the source of all her new powers. It would also explain what makes such a, according to Amane, "scary gatekeeper." She would be one of, if not the most powerful characters in the series with access to the full power of the Azure s opposed to being incredibly weak and unable to act like she was between CE and LM after creating the World of the Tsukuyomi. This would also give reason for Es to know Nine and Celica and if her sword is indeed the Murakumo, would solve the plot hole of Touya having it when she had the Embryo.

Can we stop the Noel/Celica hate train that has been starting to rear its ugly head before it's too late? We know people single them out as being too important despite how often the major players fluctuate (Rachel went into the background during CS, Terumi didn't do much in CP, Tsubaki suddenly has become a major power thanks to Izayoi and Amane is now top of the "understands everything" food chain) but you don't need to dwell on it just because someone suggests they might do something integral to the plot. Now there is a lot of stuff I want to respond to so bear with me. Regarding the future of the world, I highly doubt we'll get any kind of world reset, like MaximusMurkimus suggested. What we've seen so far seems to indicate that Ragna, Rachel and Amane's idea is the right choice, not to reset or a create a new world of any kind and simply let the current world continue on being decided by the "possibility" of humanity, with the only remotely godlike action taken being to restore the souls of humanity that became the Embryo. Remember, "LEAVE NO REGRET BEHIND" so don't try to run away from your mistakes and any world you create like this would deny the events that led you to this point, and thus reject who you truly are. Any kind of reset, such as Ragna creating a world without seithr (impossible because all things in the world are literally made of seithr), Noel making herself not exist (which wouldn't change much as seen in Wheel of Fortune) or Celica making a world of happiness (she has too positive a view of everyone to keep all the darkness in everyone, even if the mix of good and bad is what makes people truly human), would be trying to erase what happened and not a true happy ending. The implication is that any world created from the desires of the Entitled, no matter how benevolent it may seem, is inherently selfish since they are choosing their own happiness and world view and imposing it on others. Ragna continuing to live in the Church with Jin and Saya or making the Ikaruga Civil War never happen would mean Noel, Lambda and Nu never exist, any current timeline character's world would still need to be based on the events of the Dark War, so the decimation of half the population and the tragedy of the Six Heroes would still happen. The situation is the same as with Es in Lost: Memories. She kept trying to reset the events so that "nothing happened" but Freaks would still show up and kill all her loved ones. She needed to become an "x factor" to change the events for a better future that leads into the unknown, not try and change events that have already happened by preventing anything bad. Ragna needs to change the ending of the Story of the World that ends without the Girl being saved and leads to Doomsday so the story can continue, not make the story never happen in the first place (the beginning is already set in stone). In response to BlazGearRegalia's questions: 1) We have no idea. It's the biggest unanswered question in Arcade Mode (at least out of the questions we could reasonably expect to be explained). There is no event in the story that implies they are separate and, unlike Noel/Mu or Hazama/Terumi, there is no plausible reason for a split. Act 3 certainly seems to treat them as the same person (Tsubaki's ends with her fighting Jin while Izayoi's begins with her fighting him and the dialogue makes it likely to be a direct continuation with Tsubaki transforming to better fight Jin) but Acts 1 and 2 make it confusing due to the memory shenanigans, with Tsubaki forgetting and Izayoi remembering, and them both facing Nine and Izanami for the first time. Based on everything I know my best guess is that, if they are the same person, her timeline goes Izayoi Act 1 -> Tsubaki Act 1 -> Tsubaki Act 2 -> Izayoi Act 2 -> Tsubaki Act 3 -> Izayoi Act 3. I've said this before but my reasoning is that Jin's line when fighting Tsubaki in Act 1 (that even the Izayoi couldn't protect her from the Embryo) could mean that he first fought her as Izayoi, but the Zero-Type couldn't protect her forever (or she could' t maintain the form indefinitely) and thus lost her memories. It would also explain why Nine has to introduce herself as Nine of the Six Heroes to Izayoi, who only knew her as Phantom, while Tsubaki knew Nine's name as well as her being Phantom (and Nine says it could be "memories from Izayoi," possibly meaning memories from her time as Izayoi, not just the weapon itself). Tsubaki would then go through Act 2, regain her memories, and then return to being Izayoi. At least that's the only way I can make sense of it. 2) Yes, Trinity has her own body. Even without Muchorin, Trinity is still an incredibly skilled mage and alchemist and could hold her own before wielding it. She can use reinforcement magic on her body like Drei to increase her physical strength and is even better than Nine when it comes to barrier magic. Elise has proven to us that proper use of barriers can be incredibly powerful offensive weapons (such as using them to focus a magic blast into a super-powered laser) so she has plenty of options. 3) Hard to say at this point. Jubei and Celica will do their damnedest to stop them and now that Es is confirmed to be involved, Nine is sure to have some second thoughts. There are so many plot points involving the two of them at this point that we can't really tell what will be their greatest focus and what actions they will take. 4) Yes she is. I don't think anything in the world can stop her from doing this (even Roy himself telling her to stop in her Act 3 ending since he willingly chose Arakune as a vessel). At the moment it seems he erased her memories of him a la her CS bad ending but I doubt that will stick. Arakune's pretty much screwed anyway since he's already started transforming into a Black Beast. Your Celica hate is blinding you to what actually happened. Ragna was questioning himself even before Celica broke through his shell. He feels like crap after he realizes that his obsession with killing Terumi causes him to hurt Noel by trying to drag her off to find Kushinada's Lynchpin and after Rachel tells the Story of the World (which was obviously meant for him despite her pretending he wasn't there) he wonders if he is the same as the Hero, only able to use his power to destroy. He wants to be better but he doesn't know how and doesn't know what he is fighting for besides revenge. There's also him seeing how much better Kagura is at dealing with these problems and getting his ass-kicked by Jin to help him realize what he's doing doesn't work. All Celica really does is propose a simple idea of what he could fight for (to protect her) which is the key to him figuring that he needs to use his power to protect and save others. Not just her, but everyone he cares about, including Nu. All she does is give him a hint to find out the answer on his own and is one of the people (alongside Rachel, Noel and Tao) who can bring out Ragna's good side, which has been buried there all along, it just doesn't appear very often. Tsubaki's development is different because you're forgetting all the manipulation and brainwashing that she needed to overcome to realize she was making a mistake. She needed a reminder of what was important to her, not to discover what she should cherish and protect. As Volt said, Act 3 makes it clear there is more to what is going on with Noel's development than just her being meek and running away. Mu-12 still has all of CP Noel's memories but has the added baggage of being rejected by everyone so Noel is still there, just in a different form. Whatever is going on with Noel is tied into the OPFD and opens up a lot of possibilities that we can't judge with our current limited knowledge. Not necessarily. We don't know exactly what she saw inside Berserk Ragna. All we are sure of is that she purged the Godslayer power so she wouldn't be able to act as a key to open the gate to the "realm of the gods" but we can't be sure why she can do that. Noel having the OPFD's soul is definitely important and the timing makes sense with the Master Unit's sudden vacancy. I'm guessing this is in response to my question I just asked VermillionBird on his blog. What I mean is that every Arcade mode up until this point has had some kind of plot point to explain why every character's run is canon without causing contradictions. CT had the 100 year timeloop, CS had Takamagahara observing the various possibilities of the Continuum Shift, CP had the retcon war between Amaterasu and Izanami with both of them using Phenomenon Intervention to undo each other's moves that they didn't like, Act 1 had everyone existing in their own "cluster" inside the Embryo with most of them fighting fake versions of characters based on their views and Act 2 had all the worlds starting to intersect but every time an Entitled tried to create their desired world with the Azure Noel would veto it and reset events to the beginning of the Act. Act 3 doesn't seem to have anything like this. There is no Phenomenon Intervention and everyone is in the one version of the Embryo. This is problematic because many endings contradict each other, namely in who collects which Nox. It's possible that there is something undoing events to explain all this but at the very least it is the only time we haven't got an explanation in the Arcade run itself. Would Celica even work in the Master Unit? Amaterasu still needs the power of the Azure so I doubt Celica would be capable of Observing the world if she is negating that very power source. Besides the Boundary is infinite. Even she can't do anything about it entering the world through the Gates because the Master Unit stays deep in the center of the Boundary behind the gate to the "realm of the gods." I'm also skeptical that even plugging her into the Master Unit would keep Celica from disappearing. Celica has a temporary soul, a clone of her soul from the Dark War, so it's not technically a real soul. Unlike say Ragna who is just dying, her soul itself is disappearing so even inside Amaterasu it should eventually fade. In Act 2 Amane says he extended her time a little by fighting her, which allowed him to Observe her. Since almost nothing can Observe the Master Unit, she wouldn't even be able to rely on that.

I just find it strange that it has been a full year since the opening of CPEX revealed the song but it's not out yet. Especially since, if I remember correctly, we got the full version of Blue Sanction before CP was released. That reminds me. She mentions BLUE Desire in the last post on her blog. Not sure if this was before or after the announcement of her hoatus but can anyone tell me what she's saying about it? http://s.ameblo.jp/faylan/entry-12110643323.html

Damn that's a good synopsis. Although there are a couple of things I would like to add. While Ragna and Tao are the most notable cases of suddenly being the sane ones, they are not the only ones. Bang and Makoto are just as focused on what is right and understand what to do as they've always been, Naoto is still the straight shone hero and would be in the same boat if anyone would actually tell him what the hell is going on and Rachel is Team Ragna all the way. Bloodedge Experience doesn't necessarily take place after BlazBlue chronologically. All we know is that the events of the current world are the, for lack of a better term, "origin" of Naoto's world. Hakumen also says that he can sense the Black Beast from Naoto when he appears in Naoto's Act 3 run. There seems to be some events that happened in between the end of CP and Act 1. After Ragna spit out Noel there was enough time for Tsubaki's conversation with Rachel in the ending (when Rachel told Tsubaki to kill her if Ragna dies) and for Lambda's Arcade run from Extend. Act 1 starts in media res and apparently Amane is the only one who knows what actually happened to bring all the characters into the Embryo in the first place.

That's not how Chrono Phantasma's work. Whatever connection they may or may not have it is not something like that because they are similar existences, not time-displaced clones, and they do not exist outside of fate. Central Fiction is just the end of Ragna's story. The world needs to still exist for their to be sequels. Always glad to help when it comes to XBlaze. While I don't remember absolutely everything, I really enjoyed the games and wish more people would actually play it. Correcting the sheer amount of misinformation was what convinced me to join in dustloop in the first place and I might be a bit too obsessed since I wrote about 90% of the XBlaze Tvtropes page (shameless plug) but I'm glad to share the knowledge. The Azure would still be considered God of XBlaze since XBlaze is part of the same universe, being connected to the Boundary with the same origin. It's only that Es created the World of the Tsukuyomi to seal it off from the Boundary that it became something separate. Theoretically anyone can use the power of the Azure if they have a strong enough soul, that's what a Drive does (pull a piece of the Azure to the soul to manifest the soul's power), it's just that most souls are too weak to maintain their sense of self. Ragna has the Azure Grimoire which already lets him access the True Azure so he should have a leg up on it. The world can't have a clean reset since someone needs to build a new world after its destruction. That's what the Embryo process is doing. We see Terumi and Relius attempt to do this in CP's true end, absorbing all the souls of humanity together and then using that power to shape the world anew. What I think the world needs is what Ragna is doing, to have everyone stop trying to play god and return things to how they were, letting humanity's possibility decide the future.

Just because the gate is "meant" for Ragna doesn't mean he is the only one who can open it. Terumi wants Noel and Mu to fuse back together so that they can open the gate, but that doesn't mean they should do it (to the point that Noel purged the Godslayer power just to prevent herself from being able to act as the key). We've known the Azure has a will for a while now. The Azure Shrine Maiden was said to be able to communicate with the Azure (this is what led to her accidentally opening the Wadatsumi Gate and releasing the Black Beast) so clearly it has to have its own will for them to chitchat.The Azure is the origin of everything, the basis from which the world was created. It seems to be the collection of all the souls of humanity, possibly with its will being something like a collective unconsciousness. All souls originate from the Azure and inevitably return to the Abyss of the Azure. In a way the Azure is more of a god then Amaterasu since it existed before the world itself and is the source of power used for Phenomenon Intervention or shaping the world with the Embryo in the first place. Obviously something like this would be WAY too much for a normal person to handle (most can barely handle the regular seithr in the Boundary) so the turning to sludge isn't just corruption, it's the Azure automatically pulling souls back to where they belong. Litchi's temptation is shown as her being drawn into the Azure, Arakune's (the most corrupted person) soul is said to already sleep in the Abyss of the Azure with him only really being able to exist because of Kokonoe's Observation, and Spinner gained a Drive by getting too close to the Boundary, which lets him use its power but risks him being sucked in. The Azure isn't malicious or even unable to communicate. Its interaction with humanity and souls returning to it is the most natural part of the foundation of the BlazBlue world. The problem is idiots getting too close to it and driving themselves insane or killing themselves.

I'm almost certain the gate isn't actually inside him. Noel just saw a vision of the gate when she was swallowed by the berserk Ragna. Es is guarding that gate and I have hard time believing she has been sitting inside of Ragna this entire time.

In Amane's ending, Rachel says the Master Unit is "empty." We don't even know if the OPFD's body is actually inside the Master Unit or it was just her soul (like how only Hakumen's soul is inside the Susano'o Unit. I meant "vacant" in the sense that there is currently nothing inside the Master Unit that can take any action. Whether her body is there or not, there is no soul inside of it that can Observe the world if it's sent back to the Boundary.

None of that is confirmed. All we know is that right now Noel is the Original Prime Field Device. The Original Prime Field was inside the Master Unit but it is now vacant. This suggests that the Noel/Mu split is the result of the Noel we've known throughout this series (the 12th Prime Field who contains a fragment of Saya's soul) becoming Mu and the soul of the OPFD is inhabiting Noel. It is impossible for Noel to have always had the soul of the OPFD. Noel being the OPFD is the reason the Master Unit is vacant. Rachel says that if the Master Unit is sent back through the Nemesis Horizon without anyone inside it then the world will disappear without Amaterasu's Observation. For the world to have even existed up until this point the OPFD must have been in the Master Unit while it was inside the Boundary before CP's true ending. Also Noel wasn't guarding the gate and it's not necessarily inside Ragna. All we know is that she saw the gate while inside of him (heh). She is the only one who can open the gate but doesn't want to and split into Noel and Mu in order to keep the gate from being opened, but she didn't guard it like Es is.

Remember, Izanami is possessing Saya's body. Izanami herself is Amaterasu's Drive but she is still using Saya's body as a vessel. We learned in her Act 3 mode that Saya has the ability to infinitely amplify seithr and was modified by Relius. She's still there.

My guess is the version we see in XBlaze is it's complete form since that version had been living inside the Boundary for god knows how long and would certainly be impossibly powerful. Perhaps "matures" would be a better world than "evolves" since the XBlaze and powered up Phase Shift versions look very similar, suggesting that this form (which looks the most stable and solid) is as far as it goes.

Looks like Zedar answered my question about her Arcade mode. I know that we have no idea about this Black Beast's origins. The fact that it appear in what I assume to be Es's stage and her story centering on Ragna suggests that it's not related to him. However that raises questions. It's not that CT was so long ago, it's that the current design seems to have gone back to the CT design (mainly the parallelogram eyes) that interests me. I guess the best answer for now all the differences is that the Black Beast changes appearance as it sort of "evolves." In its very early stages the Black Beast has parallelogram eyes as seen in CT and That Which is Inherited (which show the Black Beast immediately after its creation). After it completes its smelting the eyes become circular (my guess is this is what it looked like when it first emerged in 2099). Finally, the sleeker design with many eyes is its "true form" at full power (the Black Beast in XBlaze was a true God of Calamity that has lived in the Boundary for who knows how long and the image from Phase Shift is from Phase Shift 2, post-Bloodedge stalling, and according to Terumi it had become bigger since it first appeared). The design differences in the Black Beast are a lot more drastic than the minor changes in character artwork (like the metal plates on Ragna's jacket) so I would like to believe this is intentional.

I thought Faylan was on indefinite hiatus due to an autoimmune disease. Is she better (that was fast) or has she recorded this song almost a year before the console release, and if that's the case then where the hell is the full version of BLUE Desire? I certainly hope she's doing better and will indeed get back into things because that damn song has eluded me for a full year now. It's not as bad as the issue with Be Oneself taking a year and a half to listen to because it was exclusive to Japanese iTunes with no CD release but the wait still sucks, especially now that we got hope of it not being permanently lost.