Ogiga99

BlazBlue is the ultimate melting pot of absolutely anything and everything anime. This means it will include every anime trope and stereotype. Gratuitous fanservice is a part of that. Besides for every ridiculously skimpy character (Litchi, Mu, Makoto, Bullet, Nine) there is a character that is dressed very conservatively (Rachel, Tsubaki, Izayoi, Celica, Es) or at least ones with more low-key and, for lack of a better term, "tasteful" fanservice (CP Noel, Nu, Lambda, Kokonoe, Izanami). Personally it's never bothered me. I see it the same way I see Kill La Kill, it's so intentionally over the top that it is meant to be parody. Although I'm not sure why you were worried about Es, she has always dressed conservatively. XBlaze in general has much more normal outfits (aside from Acht and Freaks) because it is from a time where everything was less batshit and fashion was much more in line with the real world. The only fanservice in XBlaze comes from pool scenes, bath scenes and "spirit nudity," not outfits. The only exception is when Es is Nobody and you could blame that on her meeting Watashi and crossing over into BlazBlue's weirdness. I doubt it. The Black Beast from XBlaze is still chilling in the Boundary. It has unknown origins and emerged from the Wadatsumi Gate, forcing the Azure Shrine Maiden to sacrifice herself to lure it back in. This Black Beast still exists because Touya's power comes from the Original Grimoire drawing on its power. While yes, Touya can turn into another Black Beast it's highly unlikely that would happen. At the end of Code: Embryo, even after falling into despair Touya was able talk to the Arbitrator, the heart of the Original Grimoire. Not only did it give him the hope to continue on as opposed to going berserk, it taught him how to fully control the Grimoire by using XBlaze. Unlike Ragna who is corrupted by his Azure Grimoire, Touya literally is the Original Grimoire and it doesn't seem interested in causing him to become a Black Beast. If he has completely mastered the Grimoire he won't let himself become the Black Beast. Furthermore, even if he started to turn, Es will still keep her promise to destroy him before he fully transforms so this being a new Beast or the XBlaze one (which is a God of Calamity outside of the Logic like Izanami mentioned) is far more likely. Unfortunately the Black Beast has never had a consistent design. The one that appears in CT bad ends has reddish glowing parallelogram-shaped eyes and actual teeth (Sorry I'm only posting links, not the actual images because I can't figure out how to make them full size, help please). http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/6/63/Iron_Tager_%28Calamity_Trigger%2C_Story_Mode_Illustration%2C_4%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20120310224444 Which is the same design as this image (anyone know where this one is from because I can't remember). http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/3/3b/BlackBeast4.png/revision/latest?cb=20110118094959 It also has similarities with this image, from I believe Noel's CS story, depicting the Black Beast from the Dark War except the eyes are round and the teeth aren't a different color. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/e/e9/Noel_Vermillion_%28Continuum_Shift%2C_Story_Mode_Illustration%2C_4%2C_Type_A%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20100803191717 However, when the actual Ragna/Nu fusion Black Beast is shown in Phase Shift it looks completely different, having several sets of eyes, a more elongated beak-shaped face, no distinct teeth and an overall sharper and more "solid" appearance. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/0/06/BB_PS2_179.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130326173909 Which actually looks more like the XBlaze design. http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/b/b6/XBlaze_Code_Embryo_%28Illustration%2C_62%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20130803225447 http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/2/22/Black_Beast_%28Concept_Artwork%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20160302093127 Also, the design seen when Ragna goes berserk in the CP true ending looks like a fusion between all of them, having the round eyes from Noel's CS, the separate teeth from the CT bad endings and the overall streamlined design of Phase Shift and XBlaze. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/c/c5/Chronophantasma_%28Chronophantasma%2C_Story_Mode_Illustration%2C_24%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20131102194150 Then there's the problem of the proto-Black Beast from That Which Is Inherited, which has CT's eyes but no teeth and none of the curves the CT design has (although this could just be because it is the least mature version we've seen). http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/c/c4/That_Which_Is_Inherited_%28Continuum_Shift_II%2C_Story_Mode_Illustration%2C_2%2C_Type_B%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20120417152107 Based on all of this, the new design seems to most resemble the design seen in Noel's CS story with the eyes from the CT bad endings. At this point I think it's impossible to actually tell what this means besides "holy shit that's the Black Beast!" You're missing the essence of the paradox, there is no beginning because Ragna and Nu came back before they even existed. Chronological time doesn't matter because the Boundary connects all of time and space. The Black Beast and Wheel of Fortune Jin emerged from the Cauldron on December 31, 2099, whereas the timeloop began on January 1, 2100, making both the Black Beast fought in the Dark War and the version of Jin to become Hakumen are constants and essentially fact. This isn't the only way paradox's exist. Ragna's Azure Grimoire has no origin because it is made from the Black Beast's remains. Ragna's right arm is actually his own decapitated corpse. The thing that threatens to transform him into a Black Beast has always been his own body. We know that it's always been like this because the Endless Waltz short story, which takes place in Phase 0 and is the only time Rachel drank his blood, describes the Black Beasts remains as being a headless corpse like it always is. The same situation applies to Blood-Scythe, his jacket, the character of Bloodedge and Mitsuyoshi changing his name to Jubei. In CP, Rachel sends Ragna back to Phase 0, "the beginning of everything," for the Time For Decision, which set the events of the Dark War in stone. The unsung hero Bloodedge has always been CP Ragna, Ragna only knows Jubei as Jubei because Mitsuyoshi changed his name in honor of the friend who called him Jubei and Ragna only receives his jacket and Blood-Scythe because CP Ragna gives it to Celica in Phase 0 (and for added confusion seems to have taken the sword and jacket from the CT Ragna that became the Black Beast while he was inside it back with him to explain why he still has them in CP's true end and CF). The essence of the chicken and the egg question is that there is no answer. While the true answer is probably "something else laid an egg and what hatched was a result of evolution that led to what we know as a chicken," that doesn't apply here when we have time travel and events that are unchangeable even by the Master Unit. The XBlaze timeline has been explicitly said to not lead into BlazBlue. The two timelines in Lost: Memories are the Es's timeline and Wabash's timeline. Since Watashi is Nine, her timeline is the canon BlazBlue one. The Wadatsumi Incident is the cause of the split between the two (it didn't happen in the main timeline) so the events that lead to the Dark War have no relation to it. The fact that Es changed her timeline without effecting Watashi's is proof they are not the same and they are kept separate by the World of the Tsukuyomi (which we know still exists since the World of the Tsukuyomi is also the Phantom Field, which is Nine's stage and confirms the barrier is still active. On a completely different note (man this post is way too long), what do you all think will happen with Es's arcade mode on the console version? She almost certainly will have one but will she have one for all of the Acts, only some of them, only Act 3, or will she be unique and have one after the others due to her later appearance?

Tsubaki really didn't get much first-hand experience to the contrary. Even when she first sees him with Kagura post-rescue, her first reaction is an angry "Ragna the Bloodedge" despite the circumstances. Helping them doesn't necessarily mean much since to her it could be that he simply doesn't want the complete end of the world, so it could have been a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation. And even then, immediately after that he betrayed what little trust she might have gained by nearly murdering Jin and Noel. I don't think Act 1 was a wasted opportunity for them since Tsubaki was one of the many characters to lose her memories. Any interaction with amnesiac Ragna wouldn't stick anyway. Besides it's hard to believe the guy saying "what are you talking about, I didn't do those crimes" would be showing her anything positive. Not gonna argue your theory again but XBlaze explicitly takes in 2050, 50 years before the Dark War, not 20. Bloodedge Experience takes place quite a bit later since Mei is much older (she is pretty much the only member of the Amanohokosaka clan in XBlaze but it is much bigger in BE, with even a prominent branch family). That's before even getting into the possibility that Yuki Himezuru is Haruka's mom Yuki Hayami. Yuki doesn't have a significant other or a child in XBlaze so it must be at least 16 years later for her to have a 16 year old daughter. How would you factor Mei creating a new organization at the end of Lost: Memories with the purpose of tracking down and destroying all the Gates so that no one can use them for evil ambitions like Unomaru did? That didn't happen in the BlazBlue timeline since only Touya (who only existed because of the Wadatsumi Incident) had the power to destroy a Cauldron. That and the World of the Tsukuyomi sealing off the XBlaze world from the rest of the Boundary entirely should change the outcome and prevent Amaterasu's involvement. I could see Touya getting involved, but the others seems to be too much to fit in. At this point throwing in Kuon would most likely also force Elise in and that seems like too much. Having both Es and Touya would parallel Naoto's situation with the two main characters being brought over and two having current characters know about them (Relius and Valkenhayn for Naoto and Nine and Celica for Es). Also, it would be hilarious to have the three protagonists running around and everyone going "great, what the hell is going on with all these Ragna-ish guys popping up?" Plus, we need Mori to stop beating around the bush and just admit that yes, Touya and Es finally got together. Also, Es's current situation does seem to have some parallels with Saber's role as a Counter Guardian.

That sword actually looks pretty familiar. Granted the color is different but the resemblance is uncanny. The Kusanagi did fall into the Boundary at the end of Code: Embryo so it's possible Es somehow got it. Then again I have no idea what she would do with just two of the eight blades since it was impossible to actually wield the damn thing until Sechs discovered gravity magic, so only some of the blades should be useless on their own. Another thing, according to the gematsu article, Mori says "you might get a bit of a different impression of Es compared to her in XBlaze." This most likely means that we are dealing with some insane convoluted version of this Es still being the Embryo or something like that (which again, if Es is playable what is the point of her meeting Nine and Celica in Lost: Memories if she won't remember it). Is it connected to Kusanagi's price of "Shared Existence" which lets her exist in all timelines simultaneously? Is it because Kusanagi makes her immune to Amaterasu's Intervention? Who knows. Of course I could be wrong and a different impression could be an actually happy Es but I doubt Mori is that kind. Now what I really want to know is where she got the new look from. Pre-LM Es hardly seemed to have anything like a fashion sense. EDIT: Does anyone know how to make the images bigger? Until then here are the links to full sized versions. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/d/d8/XBlaze_Code_Embryo_%28Illustration%2C_10%2C_Type_A%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20130803223046 http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/blazblue/images/e/e8/Sechs_%28Concept_Artwork%2C_16%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20160302094044

That's not entirely true. While yes, it has been retconned that Ragna no longer went into the NOL Branches mercilessly hunting down and slaughtering everyone there, and instead he only violently brushed aside anyone dumb enough to get in his way, that doesn't change that he had no discretion in his attacks and recklessly endangered others with his actions. Many lives were still lost by him destroying the Cauldrons with no thought for collateral damage. He didn't directly kill those guards, but by incapacitating them he still prevented them from having any chance to escape the destruction of the NOL headquarters, leading to their deaths.

It's not just vengeance. Rachel explicitly asks her this and she says it's more than that. It's also not just because she's in love, her views of justice and her feelings for Jin are two very separate things (and her biggest struggle so far has been what to do when the two come into conflict) and even then there is no reason for her to connect killing Ragna with pleasing Jin. Tsubaki sees Ragna as evil and not just ordinary evil, the source of evil in the world. It's not so much that she doesn't know Ragna, she flat out doesn't see him as a person. The fact that she is supposedly another user of the Power of Order makes so much sense because she has basically the same views as Hakumen. While yes, part of it is bias from her perspective (him showing up made Jin go crazy and caused him, Noel and Makoto to betray the NOL etc.) from the perspective of the balance of the world and such, she is technically right. Ragna is the enemy of humanity (and he has decided to embrace it by challenging all the Entitled in Act 3), which is why the Power of Order does what it does. Tsubaki's views are exactly the same, it's just that she is a bit more vocal and emphatic about her justice. I hate how everyone singles out Tsubaki to be the crazy one in everything she does, that she is obsessed with JIn to the point of doing anything for him and that she has completely baseless views on justice and morality, when in actuality everything crazy she did was because of Hazama's manipulation or Mind Eater. People act like she should be omniscient and know about Ragna being a good person and such. That isn't fair, she doesn't have the luxury that we do of seeing Ragna's perspective and what kind of person he is so of course she's going to suddenly going to stop seeing him as the villain. Ultimately Tsubaki is no more crazy than Bang or Hakumen, she is following her beliefs earnestly and they are perfectly well-founded.

It sounds to me like Izayoi's takes place immediately after Tsubaki's with the Jin fight being a continuation. That's the only way I can make sense of the fact that they seem to be the same person.

Have we seen the image of Nine with all the Nox Nyctores from the trailer yet? If it's from her Arcade ending then it must be an image about a hypothetical situation or is meant to be about her creating the Nox as opposed to her having collected them all because that doesn't happen in the summary. Also does the conversation between Rachel and Izanami not happen in Act 3? They don't fight each other in either of their Arcades so was that dialogue just for the trailer or is it foreshadowing for the console version?

This does raise a question about Naoto's red eyes though. His clearly have no relation to Soul Eater since he doesn't have that Drive. However, if you remember Hakumen said he sensed the Black Beast from him, which would explain why his eyes and hair change to the same colors Ragna's did when he got the Grimoire (he was originally a blonde). Heck, Touya's eyes turn red when he uses his XBlaze and his Original Grimoire is said to draw on the power of the Black Beast so that could easily be the link. Although that does open up the issue of Soul Eater, which in every case besides Saya Terumi is a power of the Black Beast (Ragna and Touya use their Grimoires and the proto-Black Beast in That Which Is Inherited used it to steal souls while it was being smelted). Does that mean the Drive that, for lack of a better word, possessed Saya is also connected to the Black Beast? Then again, I thought that Saya's eyes were always red, but she didn't get the Drive until she was 8, so they could be unrelated. Then this spirals out of control as to whether Izanami, and by extension Amaterasu, have a connection to the Black Beast. Or what about Rachel? All the vampires we've seen have different origins (Clavis is an Illusionary Creature like a manifested Drive, Raquel is an Embryo and we have no idea what Rachel actually is) so is she related as well? Or we could be looking way too far into this and aside from the significance about Ragna and Naoto having red eyes (and those two also are the only ones to come packaged with white hair) some people have red eyes just because with no deeper meaning. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it.

It's an interesting theory but there are a few flaws. One, the Gate the Azure Shrine Maiden opened is just the Wadatsumi Gate, a Cauldron, not this supposed gate to the world of the gods. Who knows how you open that. Two, it is beyond impossible for a human to just chill in the Boundary. They can survive trips through it but living in it just seems ridiculous. even if she was supposedly buddy-buddy with the Azure. Three, if she can chat with the Azure, the literal origin of everything, what on earth could have happened to make her go evil and want to dedtroy the world? I really think people make too big a deal out of her.The only reason she is mentioned is to explain the Mei's abilities and the Amanohokosaka's duties, as well as explain how people knew about the Black Beast before 2099 and even this is a very minor conversation. Her being Izanami is already debunked and that was the only chance they might have had if they wanted to use her. Her being the final boss would be WAY more outside context than Izanami (even before we learned she's Amaterasu's Drive) and has no connection whatsoever to aby of the present events (aside from being Naoto's distant ancestor). In general the speculation about XBlaze characters being uber-important characters in BlazBlue has proven beyond fruitless and should be buried because it is far fetched and so detached from the main story. The "Sechs is working for Izanami" theory was disproved in Lost: Memories and with the two more plausible theories being proven false, it feels like grasping at straws to keep trying to force her in. This stuff with the Azure Shrine Maiden is no where as impissible, shallow, wrong and completely braindead stupid as "Unomaru/Ripper/Kiri is Terumi" but I fear it could get that way. Because all the girls we've seen connected to the Amanohokosaka clan have purple hair. That's where Says Terumi gets it from. But since Saya Terumi and Izanami are confirmed not to be the same person, it's just a similarity by association. Since the Azure Shrine Maiden has the same Amanohokosaka look as Saya Terumi, and Izanami looks the same as her because red herring and it's just another skin deep similarity between BB and BE to confuse Naoto (everyone tries to make this one so much more important when there are like a dozen of these same situations), Izanami looks the same as the Azure Shrine Maiden. Her knowing about the Amanohokosaka clan is perfectly logical since the clan is pretty recognizable. The Magic Guild has had relations with it for a long time so people connected to it like Terumi or Relius would have plenty of knowledge. Also Tenjo is a part of the Amanohokosaka clan so she obviously would know about the person she dethroned. I'm pretty sure the only time Izanagi is ever mentioned is when Izanami is giving her big sky projector speech and naming Homira the new Imperator. All she says is that "humanity created the Izanagi." The fact that she said "the Izanagi" as opposed to just Izanagi suggests it is a thing, not a person. But honestly who knows at this point. Where does that speculation come from? Regardless of the specifics (why does it possess people if it could manifest on its own, why hasn't Izanami shown any signs of life draining powers) it's still false because we'l already know what she is, Amaterasu's Drive. She can't be both of those at the same time. we don't know how exactly Izanami works but there is no reason to assume she would be affect by putting someone back into the Master Unit because she operated fine on her own when it was manned. Besides Izanami isn't the one who needs them to fuse, that's Terumi. She wants Noel dead so Amaterasu can be destroyed. Even if it would effect her, Izanami said many times in Act 2 that even if she were somehow destroyed, Doomsday would still come. Basically she's convinced she's already won so it doesn't matter to her of she doesn't live to see it because she knows it's going to happen anyway.

How are those really inconsistencies or contradictions? Having two different versions exist alongside each other isn't a problem if it fits the narrative. I doubt Jin and Hakumen was in any way subject to the gameplay because that was present in the first game. Neither character necessarily had to even exist in the story and Mori could have just as easily gave Hakumen a different backstory from the get go if he so chose. Hazama and Terumi were never the same person to begin with so splitting them is fine and made them more unique. I will give you that the Noel/Mu split is confusing as hell but we don't have all the details yet so it's unfair to call plot hole at this time. The only one that actually has problems at the moment is the one you didn't mention, Tsubaki and Izayoi. It's hard to tell if they're the same person or not because they both had encounters with Nine and Izanami twice without the implication that of having met them before, so the only option besides two people is more complicated memory shenanigans than normal in Act 1 and 2. Regardless, splitting the characters, especially if it is woven into the plot, sounds better to me than just randomly having Jin and Devil Jin or Ryu and Evil Ryu exist at the same time. Honestly the only way gameplay really affect the story is that it keeps anyone from actually dying and that it was pretty much the basis for all the insane time travel/infinite possibilities/reality warping/alternate universes stuff. No one's allowed to stay dead so that they can be kept in the roster for the next game and need a canon Arcade mode if they're in the game (meaning story importance is as much a factor as keeping the roster). Considering this keeps characters people (like from both a story and character perspective) from being abandoned it seems like a win-win to me. Besides, is Celica coming to the future (even as a time-displaced clone) really that difficult or strange an element? Besides, "character winds up in the present because they fell into the Boundary that connects time and space" isn't that different different from what plenty of other games have done to justify bringing in characters (looking at you Order-Sol). Other than Lambda (who I honestly think did not need to come back since she's way too similar to Nu and was originally just a temporary Nu replacement anyway) the only character who has actually supposedly "died" in the main timeline is Terumi (Platinum and Hazama were an explicit case of never found the body) and everyone hated that because it was so anti-climactic and he was too important to the plot to die like that, so isn't "Self-Observation" (which was already established as something Terumi could do in Wheel of Fortune) in every way preferable? BlazBlue isn't why people ignore the plot in fighting games (they've been doing that long before 2008), it's exactly the opposite. Most fighting game stories never try in the first place, but BlazBlue cares a lot about it's story which is pretty damn unique. All the insane stuff is there because it's trying to make the story matter and is pretty much the very core of the series. In most fighting game every character has an individual story (often with a pretty throwaway plot or a disposable villain of the game) where they reach the end and are the one to win the tournament/save the world. Of course, come the next game only one character's story (the main character) is going to be canon and everyone else's doesn't matter. BlazBlue has all the various resets precisely so that it can say "yes, all of these things from the last game actually happened." Granted not every character remembers all the events, but considering most of stories and Arcades do contain elements that are part of the canon timeline even if not directly shown in the True Ending (Ragna meeting Tao in his alternate CT path, Bang's CT story ending with him fighting Hakumen, and all the events before the first fight and after the last fight in every character's CS story), or are remembered despite the reset (Rachel's super-shippy CT ending and Azrael's CP Arcade) it's a much better plan than just telling players to completely ignore 90% of the plot because it's not going to matter in the future and at least it has a singular narrative that is progressing towards an actual end.

The Master Unit is currently empty. There are no Phenomenon Interventions happening in Central Fiction, only the Absolute Entitled Noel vetoing the other Entitled desired worlds, which seems to be something different. The only thing the Master Unit itself has done is restore everyone's memories when it appears, which is a passive effect it could easily be doing automatically or is just a side effect of it's appearance. I can see that too lol. Although we have already gotten the line "it's only a flesh wound" in this series. Mei says it while fighting Freaks in XBlaze Lost: Memories. Rachel has always been a tsundere of the highest caliber and a giant softy underneath. She's shown this side of her several times before now, such as her CT story ending where she gently holds Ragna's cheek and makes him promise to never give up (a.k.a. the really shippy one) as well as when she saved Ragna's life in the original timeline by sucking his blood (while blushing no less) despite how much she hates doing so. She also has always been gentle and respectful of Valkenhayn and Noel as of Chrono Phantasma (flat out referring to her as one of her "peers"). However, it's only now that it has come to the forefront, probably because she is choosing to take action and therefore is not trying to emotionally distance herself from everything and everyone. Complete tangent but am I the only one who finds it really adorable that Ragna is showing that he cares about Rachel by worrying about her condition and telling her to stop taking actions that are killing her? Looks like Rachel isn't the only one who has started to open up to others. I still believe they could just put him in his armor from the Dark War and he'd be set. On a different note, have we seen the image of Nine with all the Nox Nyctores from the trailer yet? If it's from her Arcade ending then it must be an image about a hypothetical situation or is meant to be about her creating the Nox as opposed to her having collected them all because that doesn't happen in the summary. Also does the conversation between Rachel and Izanami not happen in Act 3? They don't fight each other in either of their Arcades so was that dialogue just for the trailer or is it foreshadowing for the console version?

Everything we've seen says that Amaterasu was pretty hands off in CT except for resetting the time loop (yes it was Amaterasu that performed the Intervention, Takamagahara is considered the cause as well because it made Take-Mikazuchi nuke Kagutsuchi which forced Amaterasu to reload her save). It's not as simple as her knowing to save Mu because there are way too many possibilities. For starters the events don't converge on Ragna and Nu falling into the Cauldron because that does not happen in every single timeline. In many character's stories and Arcade modes they reach Nu as opposed to Ragna and in one of his endings he flat out walks away. The only constant is Take-Mikazuchi destroying Kagutsuchi. It seems hard to believe that she would randomly pick Mu as if she could magically know that Noel would make the difference. Noel receiving the Eye of the Azure after saving Ragna makes it clear that Noel was chosen because of her actions in breaking the time loop, not the other way around with her being chosen to break the time loop. Either way Amaterasu couldn't have predicted the other person who broke the time loop, Rachel. Because Noel saved Ragna Rachel chose to step onto the stage and block Take-Mikazuchi's laser with Tsukuyomi. Even if Amaterasu tried to change every single possibility individually to create an outcome (which there is no proof of since it seems to run its own course) there is no possibility where Takamagahara decides not to use Take-Mikazuchi, making that essentially fact until something came along that changed the outcome of the event. Basically Noel's role in the breaking was essential but indirect. You're looking at this situation with the benefit of hindsight. Over the infinite possibilities of events 100 years in the making and at the very least 725 repetitions Amaterasu would have to be impossibly lucky to chose the action that leads to the end.

It seems to me that she is mainly there as a tool to further develop Tager's story (and Sector Seven's as a whole to a lesser degree). Basically, Tager's past and his connection to the Ikaruga Civil War (which still seems to be hiding some potentially important events) required a "key" in order to be brought to the forefront since Tager has no memories of it and Kokonoe had no intention of talking about it. Admittedly on its own this is probably too small a role to justify her character and it could be argued that Azrael could have served the same purpose due to his connection to Tager's past. Ultimately, like Tao (and I can potentially see Hibiki being like this too in the console version), Bullet is a character that focuses more on her relationship with others and how she influences those characters as opposed to someone who progresses the plot. Personally, I think it's okay to have a few characters like that who don't have to be main plot movers but instead fill out the world. By the way, am I the only who finds it funny that despite appearing to be the most ridiculously out of place and pointless character of the three initially revealed for Chrono Phantasma, Amane turned out to be by far the most important character introduced in that entire game and is now one of the higher, if not the highest, characters on the "knowing what the hell is actually going on in this series" scale? They're not necessarily trying to get rid of the threat of the Azure Grimoire, they're trying to get rid of the threat of the Black Beast. Even if they can't destroy it they are perfectly capable of sealing it away which will prevent it from becoming another Black Beast. The Black Beast's remains were pretty damn safe in Celica's church, being within range of the effect of Celica's seithr suppression and hidden behind a nigh-impenetrable barrier (which was only broken because Terumi waited for Saya to get too close to the barrier, destroyed her mind and gave her Yukianesa which would slowly erode the barrier from inside, and even then he still had to nearly kill himself by Observing himself). Additionally it might be possible that because of the Azure Grimoire's relationship to Ragna (namely it being his decapitated corpse) it wouldn't work for or attach to anyone else, making it powerless. It's also possible that it couldn't be destroyed in the form of the Black Beast's remains but for some reason when it is Ragna's right arm it is more susceptible to being destroyed. Also Hazama and Terumi don't even need to grab Ragna's arm. They have their own Azure Grimoires and Terumi is capable of making more of them. Actually the Noise Canceller in Ragna's left arm fully completed it's analysis of Celica (which was why Kokonoe tricked him into being around her all the time) which completely negated Celica's effect. What you're talking about with Minerva and Celica was Kokonoe removing Celica's limiter during the Take-Mikazuchi fight, which put her seithr suppression ability into overdrive. However, Kokonoe immediately put the limiter back on once Kushinada's Lynchpin was activated because removing the limiter rapidly decreased Celica's remaining time to the point where she would disappear without it in just 10 minutes. Heck even without her limiter Celica probably couldn't stop the Noise Canceller because it let Ragna use his Azure Grimoire even after Kushinada's Lynchpin eliminated all the seithr. Besides it's a moot point now since their is no seithr inside the Embryo and people can use Ars Magus without it if they are an Entitled so Celica's ability is now useless (the Noise Canceller is also most likely why Ragna can still use Ars Magus despite not being an Entitled). No. Ragna's Idea Engine is fused with the Azure Grimoire so there is way Lambda could take it back and the Embryo would have no reason to do so when Lambda returns. It's unclear how exactly Lambda got her own Murakumo and such (besides "the Embryo did it" when she regained a body) but that would also mean she got an Idea Engine of her own on revival (or perhaps Kokonoe made a new one for her, after all she made one for Tager as well). Also, while it's from gameplay and therefore not necessarily canon, Ragna's Overdrive is still Blood Kain Idea.

I have a question regarding Noel being the Master Unit's core/other self. Do we know when Noel came to possess the soul of the Original Prime Field Device? Like has Noel always been her "other self" or is this a recent development (between CP and CF)? The way I interpreted it is that at some point after the Master Unit emerged from the Nemesis Horizon (probably around the time Noel was swallowed by the berserk Ragna) the OPFD's soul jumped ship and took up residence in Noel's head, which prompted her to purge herself of the Godslayer powers. This would also explain how there could be two versions of Noel at the same time, Mu is the Noel we already know and Noel is the OPFD. Even if that's not the specific situation, it sounds to me like Noel hasn't literally been the OPFD since her creation because that would open a lot of plot holes. How could Mu as Kusanagi in CS work? She would be trying to find and destroy herself, which should be impossible thanks to her life link with Hazama at the time. How could the Master Unit take conscious action if its soul is in Noel and has no memories of being the OPFD? Noel didn't get the power of the Eye until the end of CT but the Master Unit was resetting the time loop the entire game due to specific events. Furthermore, why would the Master Unit need to get closer to the real world for its retcon war with Izanami and Takamagahara in CP if it was already in the real world and assuming the Master Unit itself was part of the Phenomenon Intervention, how would it perform these interventions at the same time as it vacant from the tool it uses in the first place? How would the timelines where Noel didn't exist (i.e. Wheel of Fortune and Slight Hope) fit into all of this? If the OPFD was already Noel then the situation in CT would more closely resemble Code: Embryo with Hinata unconsciously resetting the world around her, even if she died before the Embryo was fully smelted she would undo it with Phenomenon Intervention on instinct. However, for Noel's case she didn't exist at all in certain timelines meaning the OPFD would die with Noel in Ibukido and thus wouldn't be present to reset the world in 2199 after Take-Mikazuchi nuked Kagutsuchi. Why did Noel only become the Eye of the Azure at the end of CT if that is the key to her performing Phenomenon Intervention. Why did Noel shout at the Amaterasu Unit to not come any closer right before it emerged from the Nemesis Horizon in the CP True Ending. It sounds like she is shouting at someone which doesn't really fit with her being the OPFD and the Master Unit being empty. Lastly, Amane's ending has him suggest sending the Master Unit back through the Nemesis Horizon (note to Chaoschao222: Zedar posted a summary of Amane's ending on page 73 because the first one was incomplete, it might be a good idea to add that to the first post). Rachel says that the world might disappear without Amaterasu's Observation if it is returned to the world of the gods while vacant. Let me know if I'm missing something that proves me wrong but I think this is the current situation. It's not "Noel was the Original Prime Field all along" but rather "the current Noel in CF is the Original Prime Field because she used Noel/Mu's body as a vessel but Playable Noel separated her from the Godslayer powers as a result."

Valkenhayn's current role is focused on Rachel. For the first two acts it was him trying to stop her from killing herself by intervening and trying to get the Azure so he can create a world where she isn't dying. Rachel convinced him to assist her in her goals, regardless of what may happen to her so he is now devoted to helping Rachel. Valkenhayn's greatest flaw has always been that he puts his loyalty to Rachel above all else, consequences be damned. Because he refused to leave Rachel's side no matter what when she fell into a coma after the Dark War, he wasn't available when the Six Heroes needed him. If he had been willing to leave her for even a second then the NOL might not have been so easily able to take control of the Grimoires and Nox from the Six Heroes and he might have been able to save Trinity and Nine or help Jubei and Hakumen defeat Terumi without Hakumen sacrificing himself. Basically Valkenhayn will only take action where Rachel wants him to and all his personal motivations, even his history with Relius, come second to that.

How about the fact that Naoto explicitly says that Izanami is not Saya Terumi in his Act 2. He says they seem similar but ultimately concludes they are not the same. Her body reacting negatively could easily be because Saya mistakes Naoto for Ragna like the rest of the cast. We also have a confirmed origin of Izanami, she is Amaterasu's Drive, whereas Saya Terumi has a confirmed natural birth. We don't know that BE takes place after CF, just that CF is the "starting point" for Naoto's world. That means that Naoto's world won't exist if the current BlazBlue world is destroyed but that does not mean BE literally comes afterwards. Perhaps I should have been more specific, the theory in question is "Saya Terumi becomes Izanami," not just "Izanami and Saya Terumi have some kind of connection." It is technically possible that there is some kind of relationship between the two of them (despite the fact that almost every single character in BE aside from Relius, Valkenhayn and Clavis has a similar BlazBlue counterpart that are most likely not going to be the same people) but even then I see it as skin deep because the two characters have nothing in common besides appearance.

Considering she was stabbed by Sechs and nearly was consumed by the Boundary before Hinata reached out to her, I find it impossible to believe she could have held onto the Murakumo. If she didn't fall into the Boundary she wouldn't have inherited the Embryo and gained the Azure Eyes we also see in Act 2. Also, if she did have the Murakumo then Touya wouldn't be able to wield it against Sechs. Without it Sechs probably would have killed Touya before Es could send him back to the first time loop and he would have no way to destroy Sechs' Crystal. Based on the events we see, there are no ways she could keep the Murakumo and save the world at the same time. I also am skeptical that the situation with the Phantom Field could exist multiple times. I highly doubt that this Es is from an alternate possibility (a fourth timeline) because there would be no point. The situation with Naoto is very different. The story of Bloodedge Experience takes place in Naoto's possibility and this is the Naoto who is brought into Central Fiction. This Naoto is different from the one that existed in the past of the main BlazBlue world, but the one we follow in the game and the novels is the same, so the main timeline Naoto is the minor one who we only hear about. The situation for Es would be completely different, since that would mean the Es that is brought into Central Fiction wouldn't be the one we see in XBlaze, which is the one we have already learned so much about her. For Naoto there are two versions, main timeline Naoto and BE/CF Naoto, both of which have reason to be there. Having this be a different Es would make three versions, main timeline Es (who doesn't exist because the Wadatsumi Incident never happened), XBlaze Es and CF Es, which makes so sense from a narrative perspective. The XBlaze timeline itself would be entirely pointless if they bring in another Es. And again, what was the point of having Nine and Celica meet Es if the version that appears in CF doesn't know them? See above for why alternate timeline Es doesn't work (and would be way worse from a narrative perspective). The best possible solution is that something happened after Lost: Memories to explain everything that we just haven't seen yet. BlazBlue's plot is an insane mess of a puzzle but that doesn't change that some theories have been explicitly proven false or that a theory can be formed based on unfounded information and do not make any sense based on the things we do know. There are legitimate theories, nonsensical the theories (what if Luna and Sena are actually demons) and theories that are impossible based on unquestionable facts (Saya Terumi is Izanami). Those last two ignore the clues we do have and could thus be considered stupid. I apologize for the intensity but nothing in the BlazBlue fandom pisses me off more than people talking about and making theories involving XBlaze when they clearly haven't actually played the games and have no idea what they're talking about. In general your theories are well founded and extensively thought out, however your Es theories do not fit that and when presented with clear proof that you are mistaken about certain facts, you should accept that your theory is flawed. Don't just laugh off any criticism or debate of your theories because a discussion means we have the right to disagree and challenge them. This is going to be my last response to this theory because I don't want this debate to clutter the thread. Es was not the Eye of the Azure. The Eye of the Azure is a person who has the true power of the Azure and seems to be connected to the Master Unit. Es gains the Azure Eyes, which only let her perform Phenomenon Intervention, by inheriting the Embryo (which is only a crystallization of a piece of Azure, it can't access the whole thing) even before she contacts the Master Unit. There is no "why" for Es having the Azure Eyes that might be linked to Amaterasu, we explicitly see the exact circumstances that lead to her getting them. Furthermore, the Eye of the Azure seems to be connected to being a Boundary Interface Prime Field Device. Es was a Manifestation Boundary Interface Prime Field Device, which is a very different beast. Aside from that, before Es had the Embyo, it belonged to Hinata, who had the Azure Eyes despite being a normal human. I'm not sure what you're getting at by comparing the two. XBlaze is filled with expies and repeated terms from BlazBlue but that rarely means a direct connection (heck, by Lost: Memories Es has more in common with Rachel than with Mu). Also, Es has no connection to the Black Beast. We don't know for sure that Noel had the Eye of the Azure because the OPFD's soul was hitch hiking, it is only implied that the Master Unit chose Noel to be the Eye. It has never been confirmed when Noel started hosting Amaterasu and personally I think it didn't happen until CF. Amaterasu has been acting independently of Noel all the way through the end of CP and it's only after that where we learn the Unit is "empty" and suddenly everything is like "kill Noel." We don't even know all the details of the Noel/Mu split and evidence suggests either Noel or Mu is just the soul of the OFPD while the other is the Noel we've known throughout the series. Either way, both Noel and Mu still have the Eye of the Azure despite only one of them having the OFPD's soul so it's not that simple. You hake no idea what you're talking about with Es and Nobody. Nobody is explicitly the manifestation of the Embryo as a personality inside the memoryless Es. Heck despite having her memories purged, Nobody still does remember everything, she's just detached from Es' despair. When Watashi returns to the Phantom Field Nobody starts referring to herself as Es and says that "she" prepared herself to live without Touya. Why would the OFPD, who according to your theory joined Es after everything that happened, have the personal connection? Finally, Nobody did not split from Es. Es became Nobody by purging her memories, but Nobody and Es still had the same soul. When Es became human, that one soul returned with her, leaving only the Embryo body as an explicit empty shell that contained no soul, memory or personality and could only maintain the Phantom Field. Furthermore, Nobody was forced to use her "Phantom Memories" (the memories she had gained as her own self separate from Es) to power the Embryo's creation of the new body, meaning there is literally nothing that could remain of Nobody to be the OFPD (and even then Es later uses the seithr of those Phantom Memories to power her XBlaze and gains the memories back so Es and Nobody are essentially the same person now).

Why would Amaterasu try to manifest inside Es? Amaterasu manifesting seems to be directly connected to the events starting from the 100 year time loop that ultimately are leading to Doomsday, which Es has absolutely no connection to. Furthermore, Amaterasu seems to have a connection to Prime Fields but Es is turned into a normal human in Lost: Memories. Since I haven't heard it recently I completely forgot; "Sechs was controlled by Izanami" is a third impossible and stupid theory that people only spout when they've clearly never actually played the XBlaze games, thanks for reminding me. Any connection to Izanami even remotely hinted at in CE is proven to be a red herring in LM. The person Sechs was talking to via his Crystal is revealed to be a "mysterious doppelganger of himself" that existed within him for unknown reasons due to him being an artificial human. This doppelganger behaves nothing like Izanami (for one thing, he and Sechs truly consider each other friends) and isn't hostile or malicious in the slightest. Furthermore, it is explicitly shown in Sechs' Additional Scenario that Sechs himself is the one who comes up with his plan to flood the world with seithr and destroy the world, not whoever he is talking to. Sechs' motivation stems from his existential crisis of not being "real" and what exactly that says about the world. He came to his nihilist conclusions on his own. Furthermore, like with people assuming Unomaru is Terumi due to superficial reasons despite the two having completely different and incompatible motivations (Terumi believes that the true nature of the world is despair and thus wants to create a world that doesn't "lie" about this where everyone just kills each other, while Unomaru wants to SAVE the world by removing free will from humanity because he believes people's inner darkness with ultimately destroy the world), Sechs and Izanami might have similar methods (opening Gates and flooding the world with seithr and a plan centered around the Embryo), but their underlying desires and ultimate goals have nothing in common. Izanami believes that death is the natural state of the world, and wants to grant this death to everyone to create a silent world. On the other hand, Sechs believes that the entire world is chaotic and out of balance. He believes that the world's proper state can only be achieved by collecting all of the souls of humanity together (essentially making the world a giant ball of seithr and souls) to create a world of perfect order, a world without the concept of life or death. They are completely different. Even if by some impossible circumstances Izanami did manipulate Sechs, after that failed she would have no way to continue her plans since the World of the Tsukuyomi sealed the XBlaze world from the Boundary, leaving Izanami unable to enter it to interfere and making targeting the world ultimately pointless since it is a small partition of the world as a whole that is her target.

This also has quite a few problems. One, Es has the Crystal Sealing Blade: Murakumo in Naoto's Act 2. Es dropped the Murakumo before she fell into the Boundary and during her time as the Embryo Touya wielded it. As it stands it is impossible for to have had both the Murakumo and the Azure Eyes at the same time so the only logical conclusion is that this is Es after LM who somehow regained the power of the Embryo. Two, immediately after erasing herself from the XBlaze timeline Es used most of the Embryo's power to create the World of the Tsukuyomi to seal the Wadatsumi Gate and separate the XBlaze world from the rest of the Boundary. After this, she only had enough power to reset causality to "nothing happened" (as in she could only turn back time to before Freaks killed everybody but could not effect the outcome). She would be far too weak to effectively serve as such a "scary gatekeeper." Three, Nine's stage is the Phantom Field. The Phantom Field was created by Es purging her memories after falling into despair and scattering her memories in the form of crystallized Memory Fragments. This transformed the World of the Tsukuyomi into the Phantom Field and created Nobody as the manifestation of the Embryo inside Es' body. The Phantom Field can only exist as long as the Embryo remains inside it. Since the Phantom Field exists outside of time, in order for it to always exist, the Embryo must always be inside it and therefore Es must have already become Nobody. Especially when you consider that Nine knows about it because of her experience as Watashi and from the linear time inside the Phantom Field, she can only return to it after Nobody became an empty shell. Es cannot exist in both the Phantom Field and wherever she is as the gatekeeper at the same time. Four, Nobody had no idea that alternate timelines exist. She assumed that there was only one timeline until Watashi told her that the Wadatsumi Incident never happened in her world. Since Nobody does in fact remember that she is Es, if Es experienced Central Fiction due to being the gatekeeper before becoming Nobody, then logically she would either be aware of all those events and how changing Touya's could effect those or know that they are from a different world than the XBlaze one. Five, how can you reconcile Es being pre-Lost: Memories with her meeting Watashi and Imouto (Nine and Celica) in LM? If Es does become involved in CF, it is pretty much impossible that she will not encounter either of them. If Es had met the two of them, I find it hard to believe that she couldn't figure out that they are Watashi and Imouto when they look exactly the same. Also, Nine and Celica will definitely recognize Es so what is the point of including Es and all of that interpersonal drama if Es doesn't even know them? Having Es not remember them renders Watashi and Imouto's role in Lost: Memories completely and utterly pointless (and ruins the foreshadowing of Es regaining Nobody's memories of them and her and Watashi promising to meet each other again at the end of the game). Basically, I don't see how it could make sense unless it's post-LM. If we were gonna get an XBlaze 3 before Central Fiction gets a console release, it probably would have been announced by now. Granted we also desperately need a third Bloodedge Experience novel to explain all the Naoto crap so who knows what Mori is planning with bringing those two characters in.

What are you even talking about? Es grew into a full-fledged person in Code: Embryo, even before she gained the Azure Eyes. Es and Mu work completely differently. Es gains the Azure Eyes (not the Eye of the Azure) by inheriting the Embryo. Where on earth did you get that Es rejected being the host of Amaterasu? For the billionth time, Es NEVER was and NEVER could be inside the Master Unit. Aside from touching it once to gain knowledge (which she would have to get from someone already inside it). Everything she did had nothing to do with it Amaterasu. Es didn't get stuck in limbo for rejecting Amaterasu. She created a human body for herself that returned to the XBlaze timeline, leaving the Embryo in Nobody's empty shell to maintain the Phantom Field. Izanami didn't destroy the XBlaze world, since the XBlaze world is literally cut off from the Boundary, and thus the rest of BlazBlue by the World of the Tsukuyomi and Izanami doesn't exist in it. The BlazBlue world already existed alongside the XBlaze world since that is the world Watashi and Imouto come from. I'm sorry I'm being so rude about this, but Es being in any way directly affiliated with the Master Unit is one of only two theories that completely piss me off (the other being that Unomaru/Ripper/Kiri is Terumi) because they are EXPLICITLY PROVEN FALSE AND COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE. These theories are the result of people not actually playing XBlaze but trying to come up with theories about it anyway based on one tiny detail they read on the wiki or heard from somebody else while not putting even the slightest bit of thought into the context of those elements or whether they make any logical sense (and also never seeming to actually know that Lost: Memories exists and answers so many of these plot threads). I have no idea how Es became this "gatekeeper" but at the very least it has to be the result of some new ridiculous post-LM developments and is absolutely not because of a connection between Es and the Master Unit.

I've just got to check this. Kokonoe clearly says that Noel is directly linked to the Master Unit? Does she mean other self as in manifestation of the Girl inside it? I'm just trying to be as thorough as possible about the wording of all the Noel=Amaterasu stuff after the confusion in Act 2.

Sucks that the ending of Amane's got cut off. His was one of the ones I was looking forward to the most. Hopefully we can find the rest of it soon. I was thinking about the BE world being an alternate universe and it got me thinking. Is Naoto's world the XBlaze timeline? At first I dismissed this idea because Relius seems to have experienced the same events as Naoto until the end of the Spinner fight and the XBlaze timeline was different enough that the same events shouldn't happen in both (the Wadatsumi Incident never occured in the main timeline so the Magic Guild's leadership wasn't decimated, the Amanohokosaka Clan never became subservient to or affiliated with the Mitsurugi Agency and Es's brand of Prime Field were never created). However, perhaps the events were pretty similar regardless of those factors (the only one that truly seems impossible to happen would be Yuki recovering from Ripper murdering her parents without meeting Hinata, and that only matters if she actually is Yuki Hayami). If Naoto's timeline is the XBlaze one that could explain how BE acts as the bridge between XBlaze and BlazBlue proper, especially now that they are both alternate universes (and I sincerely hope Mori didn't separate this world into three independent timelines).

One problem. Terumi says the 0th Prime Field gained a soul when it was in the Boundary. If this Noel was once human, she would already have had a soul.

He explains this in Jin's Act 2. Because Noel is an Observer of the highest caliber, killing her won't stick since she can just "acknowledge" herself as still being alive (like what Terumi is doing but 1000 times better). The only way to kill her is the Zero-Type Izayoi's Immortal Breaker, which is designed to force the concept of death onto Observers. Also regarding Noel and "The Origin," didn't Nine call Ragna "The Origin" as well in her Act 2 story (while stomping his head)? Is that different wording than this or are they linked?

No. It clearly says Noel is in Mu form, which happens in CP. Furthermore, Noel couldn't have "seen something" way back then that would freak her out enough to purge the Godslayer powers to try and hide.