Ehecatl

... With a mountain of foreshadowing across several games that would all be invalidated and prove utterly meaningless unless true. From a writing and scene directing perspective, if he's not her father, then every single goddamn scene suggesting it in Dizzy and Sol's story paths in GGXX would be completely wasted as they serve no other function than to foreshadow him as her father. Honestly, it's so likely that it's laughable to even hang on to the idea that it might not be true. I mean, I suppose it MIGHT. Just like it might be true that Sol gets all his power from his hair. But come on now... It's like all those people that aren't convinced two characters that are clearly a couple are together unless they see them kiss on screen. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I don't need the story to tell me gravity exists to assume it true when I see "well they aren't flying off into space so..."

I dropped this series. Not even my love of all things Blazblue can keep me watching this utter trash. First, this episode is filler. I can't believe they did it but they actually made a filler episode that they have no TIME to make whatsoever within something that is supposed to tell the whole tale of Blazblue up until now in 12 episodes.... And the filler broke my suspension of disbelief. Completely. Utterly. I honestly don't understand the Japanese anime style of "humor" where they cut right into the middle of important plot to break in with a stupid intermission that lacks any subtlety and screams for attention like "HEY HEY LOOK AT US. WE'RE BEING FUNNY! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LAUGH HERE!" The joke endings of Blazblue are dumb but at least they're not canon. They don't actually HAPPEN in the story and are just silly asides deliberately poking fun at itself and can be avoided. They're not considered to have actually occurred. But this? I'm really supposed to believe that Rachel would take time out of her busy schedule to listen to Tao (wut...) and teleport everyone to a hot-spring where they get stripped to skimpy bikinis and goof off? And that's supposed to actually happen in the story? Well-- goodbye suspension of disbelief! How I knew thee! Contrary to popular belief, this is not a matter of style. It's bad story-telling. You don't interrupt your plot to shove in some wacky routine where everyone suddenly just acts out of character and the world just stops turning so you can add your forced humor-- and then pick up back to where you were, expecting your audience to believe that actually happened. It destroys immersion, destroys your setting, destroys your characters. And it's not even funny or original! Real humor requires thoughtful set up and execution! It's usually subtle and doesn't require breaking its setting to accomplish. On top of that, this "moment" wasted so much time in a plot that has so little to explain itself in. We couldn't use that time to delve deeper into character backstory noooo... SURPRISE-- fan service! Not to mention, why the hell are Ragna, Noel, Rachel, and Tao together anyway? Part of what drove the drama on Continuum Shift was because they were each alone with o much happening and were trying to find each other but got caught up in their own many problems and didn't often get chances to meet. Only Rachel knew where everyone was in the first place anyway. Ragna spends most of the game looking for Terumi and Noel. Noel spends it running for her life and down confused memories until Terumi his hold on her and makes all her worst nightmares a reality. Rachel spends it playing a balancing act between trying to deal with Takamagahara, free Hakumen, stop Terumi, help Ragna, make sure Noel is protected, deal with Jin, deal with all the other cast, keep from getting killed by Relius, and she inevitably gets captured by Phantom. She's constantly on the move as is everyone. Where is the time to faff about in a hotspring when reality is coming apart at the seams and so much is happening barely a week after the events of Calamity Trigger??? Nah... not buying it. This series has lost me completely with it's nonsense. Never have I seen a series with so much potential as a quality animation get let down so very VERY hard. It's an absolute mess that cannot be fixed.

It's got nothing to do with that. Her desire to kill Ragna and join with him comes from the fact that she has the other half of a Blazblue. Lambda had no Blazblue, so she wasn't going to be all 'I love you! I want to stab you!' like v-13. Think of the azure grimoire as yukianesa. Ragna also is tempted to destroy everything because of his Blazblue. It's just he's got a lot of will-power, a reason to hope for more than just death, and has been trained. Nu not so much. Her first waking moments are of torture and pain by scientist and some confused warm memories of Ragna. So when she wakes up with a grimoire attached to her that is telling her to kill everything and using her feelings toward Ragna to encourage joining with his Blazblue, her reaction is understandable. She's never known what is to have a stable mind to begin with so of course she's insane.

I honestly chalk it up to being the 3rd game in what was supposed to be a trilogy but turned into a four game series. Mori had wanted to wrap up the story in three games but he had so many plot threads laid out and also had to explain it all plus the phase shift books and all related/ relevant characters and events in-game for those who'd never read those either. So essentially, Chrono Phantasma is 'padding' until the fourth and final game. I didn't expect most characters would develop a whole heck of a lot really as a result. But I would suppose it was necessary to build up to a finale and get all the other loose threads wrapped up. My theory anyway.

Insanely tempting. I'll record a few lines and see if I've the aptitude but I don't think I quite have the voice for it. Could give it a whirl though.

You know, I'm sure there are some fine people here on Dustloop that'd be more than willing to lend their voice to a character or two if you need them to. I mean, your voice was alright for Terumi but even I had to do a double take when I heard you doing Tsubaki's voice. Have you considered contacting Miss Vee? From what I remember, she actually voiced Noel on one of your skits and put it up on youtube. It was the best thing ever. I'm sure she'd be down with what you're planning. :D

I'm just waiting for Ragna to end up doing the same when Hakumen gives his speech... Or maybe he'll just go out to lunch.

To be fair, Rachel and Jubei have been for the longest time the only ones who believed in him. She predicts these things but in the end doesn't stop him from completing these tasks and always gives him the chance to prove her wrong. Actually, she's always telling him he can't expressly JUST to make him prove her wrong and gets super disappointed when he really does fail. She says he can't defeat Terumi, but after testing him as she's wont to do, she lets him go because she trusts him to beat the odds. And remember she stacked all her hopes on him throughout Calamity Trigger just waiting for him to succeed, which meant waiting thousands of years, multiple iterations of time loops, and got her more than a little discouraged and frustrated but he did in the end. When confronting Takamagahara, she told them she didn't believe they would ever understand his value. Truthfully, everyone but her saw him as a joke in Continuum Shift. So it actually surprises me to hear her thinking he can't pull himself back from this. I wonder when the translations come over if it's merely a misunderstanding of context.

Finally got an opportunity to hear Kokonoe's full theme. Epic....

And while we're at it, did we ever figure out the significance behind Rachel being a vampire?

Pardon my bluntness but I don't care what she said. Zedar stated Hazama killed her family. He didn't say Hazama killed those she 'thought' was her family. I am asking for clarification from them to explain what they meant. I don't need to be told that Noel is a clone, what she feels about Ragna, or any of that other obvious nonsense. Nor do I need to be given the random speculation of what people are interpreting from what a poster is trying to say when that poster can bloody well tell us what they meant themselves.

That exchange is going to be badass when the game comes out here in the states.

I am not entirely certain that is because of her love for him. In fact, I'd wager there's more to it than that.

Again you're inferring based on a translation. And even so you know very well what she states and what she actually feels don't usually coincide. She's also known to withhold information and appear cold at a glance. She tends to save her more insecure or emotional moments for when in company she trusts Try not to jump to conclusions especially with Rachel. Things are never so simple.

Who said she's stating it casually? That's you inferring based upon limited data. Keep in mind this is the same woman who cried when Ragna died in his bad ending in CS. Even if she is just stating fact, often what she displays and what she feels are two very different things.