It's not even Finals Week yet, and I have a final every day this week except Monday. On top of THOSE finals, I have to finish two 800 word lecture reviews that I procrastinate on, prepare for finals and juries next week, prepare a radio show for this weekend, prepare for practically-sight-reading with the orchestra this weekend, entertain my parents when they visit me this weekend, band concert this weekend, band concert I just finished, attend the last club meetings of the quarter, and on top of that all I figured out the next four years of my life last night, and it looks like I'll be in college for a total of 5.6 years. And beside all of this, I bought Final Fantasy XIII. It's fantastic. But I have no time to play it because of all of this stuff going on! BLAARGH! This is madness!
...Madness...?
THIS.
IS.
COLLEGE.
--Jon
p.s., on a side-note, I'm in the Wind Symphony next quarter, we're playing an awesome epic piece, and the composer will be in residence! Huzzah! AND. Bianco will have the biggest Mahler hammer ever. :D
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Musically Disadvantaged
Be warned; this is going to be rather stream-of-conscious-esque.
I didn't grow up in a wealthy family. We were the epitome of "lower middle class." My dad jumped from job to job with his worker's union, and my mom worked at a local grocery store. We lived comfortably, but I didn't have a lot of the fancy gadgets that others had. On top of it all, we kind of lived in the middle of nowhere, in a small town with small schools, and hence not a totally prestigious music program (although, I have to say, Mr. Fosket has done wonders with what we did have). The nearest decently-sized city was a good hour away from where we lived. Two-hour round trip. We had a small house; a drum-set would have been out of the question in that place, as there would be nowhere to put it, let alone play it without driving my parents insane. My family wasn't a musical family. My sister, seven grades above me, went through the public music program that started at grade 6. She was the first in our family to play any instrument. We never had private lessons; we couldn't afford it, and there weren't many teachers in our area in the first place. I've seen pictures of now-amazing musicians when they were kids. Some of them, even as toddlers, had a mini drumset they played, or a toy keyboard. They had lessons starting at age 5. I didn't have any of that stuff. I didn't play music, aside from my tinkering on elementary school instruments, until 6th grade.
I remember one time in elementary school, there was some sort of culture assembly where some classical musicians came and played for us and talked to us about music. It totally enthralled me. I wanted to do what they did so badly (although at this point I was also totally enthralled by the motivational yoyoist that talked to us, too). In our music classes, I totally hated singing and dancing... but boy, when we took out this little tinker-toy mallet instruments and toy drums... I was in heaven. In fifth grade, I took a little evaluation to figure out what instrument I should play. I was a master of rhythm with those drumsticks. In sixth grade, I would be a percussionist.
And that happened. But my middle school band teacher wasn't the finest. He wasn't meant for the job he had. And something tells me he didn't give a rat's ass about what was going on way back in the percussion section in the back of the room. I took drums seriously. Very few others in that classroom did. I didn't have any professional lessons. Once or twice the local drum instructor came in and taught us "a thing or two." He wasn't meant for his job either. But he was what the area had. I essentially had to teach myself everything. One big thing did happen in middle school though (or, rather, didn't happen); I never actually really learned to read music. Sure I got the same basic instruction as everyone at the beginning. But as soon as he could, he threw me on timpani. There went my reading skills; right down the tube. To this day, I still have a very hard time reading music. I feel like if I had gotten some more decent training early on in my music career, I wouldn't be so disadvantaged now.
Fast-forward to high school. Bottom of the barrel. I barely knew how to play my instrument. A lot of others didn't, either. But by now those were the ones that were in this class because they knew it was an easy A, not because they wanted their lives enriched by music, or because they wanted to become better musicians, or even better drummers... they just wanted to hit shit and get an A for it. I could read music better than a lot of people there... but that wasn't saying much. To those who wanted to learn and needed to learn, Mr. Fosket taught. And I took in everything I could. But Mr. Fosket wasn't a percussionist, so he couldn't teach private lessons in them. At this point I didn't know what I wanted to do with music, and by this point I had started to play guitar, so that was more of a focus for me; percussion was just what I did with school. I had a solid sense of rhythm, but I never really got the chance to truly show what I was made of. I got a pretty good part in most ensemble pieces, including one of four "lead" parts in a piece that got us 2nd in the state solo/ensemble competition... but any mallet parts I ever had were essentially memorized. Rhythms were fantastic. Anything melodic or harmonic... I could not sight-read. Sophomore year I tried playing a mallet duet... and failed. Badly. Any musical dreams I had at that point were crushed. I figured I might as well do math. I was pretty good at that. While this wasn't really a turning point at all, my self-esteem hadn't really improved much.
Fast-forward to my senior year of high school. I'm more more self-motivated and independent than ever before. I've been on the sidelines in the band for three years, and I'm ready to prove what I'm capable of. I dug through Mr. Fosket's catalogs of percussion solos and found a short and pretty cool and easy one for the regional solo/ensemble competition. I practiced hard during band (and once or twice after school, as well as reading it to myself at home) for a couple of weeks. I won the spot to State, but much to my dismay, I'd need a new (and harder) piece of I really wanted to compete. Mr. Fosket, not always being one for personal motivational speaches, gave me subtle but effective encouragement. As did my mother. I went through some online samples of multi-percussion solos, and one in particular really caught my ear... but it sounded impossibly difficult. How could anyone possibly play that?! Absolutely insane. I'll find something easier. ...But I slowly got to thinking "...No, I can do this. If I put my mind to it, and work really, really hard, I can do it." So I got the score, and slowly picked away at it. I dug through the back of the band room, through piles of old equipment, looking for the right instruments that I would need for the solo, assembling it almost every day and practicing it after school when I didn't work. I played it on my lap for hours at home. I worked very, very hard, and with that piece, I got a $2000 scholarship and 2nd in the state. I finally had something for which to be truly proud of myself.
Fast-forward to college. Bottom of the barrel yet again. I realize that my musical skills are pretty lackluster. I'm worlds behind other entering freshmen. Sure, when it comes down to theory and weird rhythms and subtle things like that, sometimes I've got the edge. But essentially, when playing anything... bottom of the barrel. But I'm working hard on improving. I'm finally getting private lessons, and for one quarter I even got them from a fellow student, since I was so desperate for help, and this was truly what I wanted to do. It took me a year to muster up the courage and skills to actually audition for the band program... and from what it sounds like, I definitely needed that extra year. I almost gave up on music. But now, here I am. I'm finally a bit secure, now that I'm here in the band program.
But now I'm reading a book for my first music education class. It describes five kinds of musicians that become music teachers, and the professor, Stambaugh, added an extra one in class. We're supposed to pick one of these stories with which we most fit into. After listening to all of them, I realized that I didn't fit into any of them, because every single one of them received private lessons at a young age, came from a musical family, lived in a big city with a completely astounding music program, came into college as one of the best in their freshman class... all things that I never had. It's times like these that I realize that, yes, I was musically disadvantaged. But that didn't stop me in middle school. Or early high school. Or my senior year of high school. Or last year. And it won't stop me now.
--Jon
I didn't grow up in a wealthy family. We were the epitome of "lower middle class." My dad jumped from job to job with his worker's union, and my mom worked at a local grocery store. We lived comfortably, but I didn't have a lot of the fancy gadgets that others had. On top of it all, we kind of lived in the middle of nowhere, in a small town with small schools, and hence not a totally prestigious music program (although, I have to say, Mr. Fosket has done wonders with what we did have). The nearest decently-sized city was a good hour away from where we lived. Two-hour round trip. We had a small house; a drum-set would have been out of the question in that place, as there would be nowhere to put it, let alone play it without driving my parents insane. My family wasn't a musical family. My sister, seven grades above me, went through the public music program that started at grade 6. She was the first in our family to play any instrument. We never had private lessons; we couldn't afford it, and there weren't many teachers in our area in the first place. I've seen pictures of now-amazing musicians when they were kids. Some of them, even as toddlers, had a mini drumset they played, or a toy keyboard. They had lessons starting at age 5. I didn't have any of that stuff. I didn't play music, aside from my tinkering on elementary school instruments, until 6th grade.
I remember one time in elementary school, there was some sort of culture assembly where some classical musicians came and played for us and talked to us about music. It totally enthralled me. I wanted to do what they did so badly (although at this point I was also totally enthralled by the motivational yoyoist that talked to us, too). In our music classes, I totally hated singing and dancing... but boy, when we took out this little tinker-toy mallet instruments and toy drums... I was in heaven. In fifth grade, I took a little evaluation to figure out what instrument I should play. I was a master of rhythm with those drumsticks. In sixth grade, I would be a percussionist.
And that happened. But my middle school band teacher wasn't the finest. He wasn't meant for the job he had. And something tells me he didn't give a rat's ass about what was going on way back in the percussion section in the back of the room. I took drums seriously. Very few others in that classroom did. I didn't have any professional lessons. Once or twice the local drum instructor came in and taught us "a thing or two." He wasn't meant for his job either. But he was what the area had. I essentially had to teach myself everything. One big thing did happen in middle school though (or, rather, didn't happen); I never actually really learned to read music. Sure I got the same basic instruction as everyone at the beginning. But as soon as he could, he threw me on timpani. There went my reading skills; right down the tube. To this day, I still have a very hard time reading music. I feel like if I had gotten some more decent training early on in my music career, I wouldn't be so disadvantaged now.
Fast-forward to high school. Bottom of the barrel. I barely knew how to play my instrument. A lot of others didn't, either. But by now those were the ones that were in this class because they knew it was an easy A, not because they wanted their lives enriched by music, or because they wanted to become better musicians, or even better drummers... they just wanted to hit shit and get an A for it. I could read music better than a lot of people there... but that wasn't saying much. To those who wanted to learn and needed to learn, Mr. Fosket taught. And I took in everything I could. But Mr. Fosket wasn't a percussionist, so he couldn't teach private lessons in them. At this point I didn't know what I wanted to do with music, and by this point I had started to play guitar, so that was more of a focus for me; percussion was just what I did with school. I had a solid sense of rhythm, but I never really got the chance to truly show what I was made of. I got a pretty good part in most ensemble pieces, including one of four "lead" parts in a piece that got us 2nd in the state solo/ensemble competition... but any mallet parts I ever had were essentially memorized. Rhythms were fantastic. Anything melodic or harmonic... I could not sight-read. Sophomore year I tried playing a mallet duet... and failed. Badly. Any musical dreams I had at that point were crushed. I figured I might as well do math. I was pretty good at that. While this wasn't really a turning point at all, my self-esteem hadn't really improved much.
Fast-forward to my senior year of high school. I'm more more self-motivated and independent than ever before. I've been on the sidelines in the band for three years, and I'm ready to prove what I'm capable of. I dug through Mr. Fosket's catalogs of percussion solos and found a short and pretty cool and easy one for the regional solo/ensemble competition. I practiced hard during band (and once or twice after school, as well as reading it to myself at home) for a couple of weeks. I won the spot to State, but much to my dismay, I'd need a new (and harder) piece of I really wanted to compete. Mr. Fosket, not always being one for personal motivational speaches, gave me subtle but effective encouragement. As did my mother. I went through some online samples of multi-percussion solos, and one in particular really caught my ear... but it sounded impossibly difficult. How could anyone possibly play that?! Absolutely insane. I'll find something easier. ...But I slowly got to thinking "...No, I can do this. If I put my mind to it, and work really, really hard, I can do it." So I got the score, and slowly picked away at it. I dug through the back of the band room, through piles of old equipment, looking for the right instruments that I would need for the solo, assembling it almost every day and practicing it after school when I didn't work. I played it on my lap for hours at home. I worked very, very hard, and with that piece, I got a $2000 scholarship and 2nd in the state. I finally had something for which to be truly proud of myself.
Fast-forward to college. Bottom of the barrel yet again. I realize that my musical skills are pretty lackluster. I'm worlds behind other entering freshmen. Sure, when it comes down to theory and weird rhythms and subtle things like that, sometimes I've got the edge. But essentially, when playing anything... bottom of the barrel. But I'm working hard on improving. I'm finally getting private lessons, and for one quarter I even got them from a fellow student, since I was so desperate for help, and this was truly what I wanted to do. It took me a year to muster up the courage and skills to actually audition for the band program... and from what it sounds like, I definitely needed that extra year. I almost gave up on music. But now, here I am. I'm finally a bit secure, now that I'm here in the band program.
But now I'm reading a book for my first music education class. It describes five kinds of musicians that become music teachers, and the professor, Stambaugh, added an extra one in class. We're supposed to pick one of these stories with which we most fit into. After listening to all of them, I realized that I didn't fit into any of them, because every single one of them received private lessons at a young age, came from a musical family, lived in a big city with a completely astounding music program, came into college as one of the best in their freshman class... all things that I never had. It's times like these that I realize that, yes, I was musically disadvantaged. But that didn't stop me in middle school. Or early high school. Or my senior year of high school. Or last year. And it won't stop me now.
--Jon
Sunday, May 31, 2009
BRAAAAZIIIIIIILLLL!!!!
Two more weeks at school left. One more actual week. I get a five day weekend next week. :D Kind of. I'll probably be packing and studying and practicing and such still. The finals shouldn't be terribly difficult. Uhh... nothing too exciting to report, just thought I'd post a blog because I haven't in awhile. I feel like I'm missing something, like there's something terribly exciting to report... my dad came up and took a bunch of my stuff home for me so I don't have as much to take back when I'm all done at the end of finals week. Watched Brazil last night with Elie. Weird. Fuckin'. Movie. But I liked it a lot! Directed and co-written by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, who I discovered also directed 12 Monkeys. That surprised me. That's another good movie, although it's far less buffoon-ish. Both movies are very dark, but Brazil had a much more comic quality to it. 12 Monkeys was just all dark, with a couple of comedic moments. I'm going to miss Elie very much when I go home. : (
Uhhh... that's all I have to say... about that...
WAIT. Breaking news. I have decided, after taking a look at Final Fantasy XIII, that when the Playstation 3's price drops again, probably to $300, I am going to buy one. Most likely it will be a used one, hopefully for around $200. Then I can play Metal Gear Solid 4 and various other games as well! But seriously looking at screenshots and videos and reading previews about FF13... it just looks amazing. Period. The female lead looks like she could totally kick the Jesus out of everyone/thing. And it's all futuristic! And dystopian! And it looks quite epic. This is the game I am going to be addicted to next Spring. Someone is going to have to save me from it. Elie, I'm looking at you...
--Jon
p.s., JUST LOOK AT HER. She's totally about to open up an enormous can of whoop-ass with that weird sword thing.
Uhhh... that's all I have to say... about that...
WAIT. Breaking news. I have decided, after taking a look at Final Fantasy XIII, that when the Playstation 3's price drops again, probably to $300, I am going to buy one. Most likely it will be a used one, hopefully for around $200. Then I can play Metal Gear Solid 4 and various other games as well! But seriously looking at screenshots and videos and reading previews about FF13... it just looks amazing. Period. The female lead looks like she could totally kick the Jesus out of everyone/thing. And it's all futuristic! And dystopian! And it looks quite epic. This is the game I am going to be addicted to next Spring. Someone is going to have to save me from it. Elie, I'm looking at you...
--Jon
p.s., JUST LOOK AT HER. She's totally about to open up an enormous can of whoop-ass with that weird sword thing.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Music Program Audition, or "AAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"
Next Thursday, May 21st, I will be auditioning for WWU's music program. And I am terrified. Playing Bach's A minor violin concerto arranged for mallets, a timpani piece called "Ballad for the Dance," and... some snare etude. Probably going to ask Rob Tucker tomorrow. The Bach thing is pretty much ready; I've been playing it for a few months now. The timpani piece is not ready, but I know it relatively well. Just need to polish it up. Snare won't be terribly difficult to learn something on, I don't think. As long as it doesn't have a bunch of crazy accents. I'll pick something that will accent (pun intended) my strengths while not accenting my weaknesses. Too much. And then I have to know all the scales and rudiments and all that good stuff, of course. I'm not sure how in-depth Bianco will go with the audition; I think I'll get in, though. Everyone seems to think getting into the program is really easy, and I know music theory better than most music-program-beginners do, I think.
I hope band isn't so boring Fall quarter. Speaking of Fall quarter, I need to figure out my schedule. I'll do that now...
--Jon
I hope band isn't so boring Fall quarter. Speaking of Fall quarter, I need to figure out my schedule. I'll do that now...
--Jon
Monday, May 11, 2009
Video Games and Stuff, or The Longest Post Yet, or A Total Summary of Final Fantasy VIII
I've been playing way, way too much Final Fantasy VIII. Therefore, I've decided that I'm going to stop playing video games until Summer. But before I do so, I'd like to a. show what a nerd I am, b. give me a place to work off of when I return to the game when school ends, c. show that the game is actually very rich in terms of literary quality (i.e., character development, plot development/complexity, etc.), d. procrastinate on my homework, and e. just get this all out of my system. I intend to do this by... *dun dun dun* ...summarizing the events of the game thus far. I'm almost at the end!
~*~
The game starts off with the primary protagonist (initially named "Squall," which is pretty lame, so you can change it to whatever you want) recovering from a "training" fight with Seifer, a fellow classmate at Balamb Garden which is essentially a military training academy for mercenaries called SeeDs (ha, get it, seeds, garden...). Squall is rather introverted and cares pretty much only for his own well-being, preferring not to rely on others, but he's also among the best in his class. Seifer is pretty much a delinquent trouble-maker. Unfortunately, they have to recover from their injuries quickly for their final exam; a field exam which is essentially a first mission for the potential mercenaries. While recovering, a girl Squall does not recognize visits Squall briefly, and then walks away.
So Squall, much to his dismay, ends up in a group with Seifer, the squad leader, and Zell, another classmate who is overly enthusiastic, talkative, excitable, and impulsive, often responding strongly to Seifer's teasing and warranting a "Zell, calm down" from Squall. This is Seifer's third or so time doing this field exam. So they go to Dollet across the sea, which has been invaded by the Galbadian army nearby; they're not sure why. Squall's squad secures the town center and then they wait for a long time. Eventually Seifer gets bored and they decide to follow some soldiers into the nearby mountains, where they discover the soldiers turning on the radio broadcast tower which has been offline for 17 years. They stop the soldiers just before a messenger, Selphie, from another squad delivers the order to retreat, and they narrowly escape to the beach from a giant robot spider thing, just in time to make it back to Garden.
Seifer is disciplined for disobeying orders, but Squall, Zell, and Selphie graduate and are made SeeDs. They attend a formal banquet that night, and Squall is convinced by a mysterious girl (not the same one that visited him in the infirmary at the beginning of the story) to dance. Then his instructor, Quistis, not much older than him and able to read Squall and his "...Whatever"'s more easily than most, tells him his first mission is coming up, and that she's been fired as an instructor and is going to be a regular SeeD.
Headmaster Cid of the Garden gives Squall [now the squad leader], Zell, and Selphie the orders to head to Timber and assist the resistance movement against Galbadia there. On the train on the way, they all suddenly fall asleep and have the same dream; Galbadian soldiers named Laguna, Ward, and Kiros flee from pursuit (from who we aren't told) to their hometown of Deling City, the capital of the Galbadian Empire. There, Laguna finally speaks to the love [at first sight *cue eye rolls*] of his life, a hotel pub piano player named Julia, but they are forced to leave due to new orders after a long conversation; Laguna promises to return.
Squall and co. wake up and are puzzled when they realize they had the same dream, but have no time to think about it, because they arrive at Timber. They meet up with the resistance force, which includes the mysterious girl Squall danced with, Rinoa (who can also be renamed). This resistance force seeks to liberate Timber from Galbadian occupation. The SeeDs assist the resistance group in a kidnap/interrogation/assassination attempt of the President of Galbadia, who is making a visit to Timber, but the person they kidnap is a decoy. They then discover that the President is coming to make a broadcast to the world, which is why the Dollet communications tower was turned on. After Squall gives Rinoa a lecture about how unprofessional their group is, they all make their way to the TV station and watch the beginning of the broadcast on a huge screen nearby. The president announces an appointment of a worldwide "ambassador," Sorceress Edea, just before Seifer busts in and take the President hostage, with Quistis at his tail attempting to stop him. The group runs to the station and watch as the Sorceress shows up and convinces Seifer to come with her. The president runs away, and Edea and Seifer disappear.
Squall, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and Rinoa decide it's best to leave town, so, as per Garden procedure, they head to the nearest Garden; Galbadia Garden, which trains soldiers for the Galbadian military. Before getting there, they suddenly fall asleep again and dream about Laguna, Ward, and Kiros again. They are patrolling a curious area in Centra, the deserted ruins of an ancient civilization, being excavated by Esthar, a huge technologically advanced nation to the east led by a sorceress, which Galbadia are at war at in this dream world. They are chased through the excavation site by Esthar soldiers, and are eventually badly injured; Ward loses his voice, and they are forced to jump into the ocean to escape. At this point, Squall and co. wake up from the dream, are confused, but continue on.
At Galbadia Garden, it is revealed that Seifer was tried and executed, Rinoa and Seifer had some sort of summer fling (which is why he busted out of Balamb Garden and busted into the station; to help Rinoa), and Squall doesn't want to fade away as a mere memory in people's minds like Seifer has, and he kinda freaks out. Afterwards, the group receives new orders, as a collaboration between the two Gardens; to head to Deling City and assassinate the sorceress, Edea. A sniper, Irvine, is provided to them to assist them. And to shamelessly hit on the females in the group.
They meet up with Galbadian General Caraway, revealed to be Rinoa's father, who locks her in her room to keep her safe, out of trouble, and uninvolved (they don't get along very well, and her mother died in a car accident when she was a little girl), and the rest of them discuss the assassination plan. Caraway explains that this sorceress doesn't intend to be an ambassador, but to strike fear into the hearts of the people of the world and conquer it. To make a long story short, Rinoa breaks out, is almost killed by the sorceress, and meets up with Squall and Irvine. She clings onto Squall, saying that she was "So... so scared..." right after being told that she wasn't mature enough to participate in this serious combat. As Edea is being introduced by the President, she publicly executes him, and the parade commences as normal otherwise. Quistis, Selphie, and Zell are accidentally locked in Caraway's house, but they break out and manage to set a trap for sorceress Edea, who somehow has Seifer at her side, alive and well, as her "Sorceress' Knight." Irvine, after a bout of self-doubt (ha, rhyme), takes a shot at the sorceress, but the shot is deflected. Squall takes on Seifer head-on, defeats him, and then takes on the sorceress with the help of Rinoa and Irvine. They lose the battle and are taken prisoner.
CUE CHANGE TO DISC 2!
Squall dreams of Laguna again, this time recovering from his injuries at Centra in the town of Winhill and serving as a town hunter, keeping monsters out of the city limits, and protecting Ellone, a girl whose parents were killed by Esthar soldiers looking for an heir to the sorceress' powers (they resorted to kidnapping kids) (a sorceress must give up her powers to someone else when she dies) and adopted by Raine, who looked after Laguna in his recovery. Laguna meets Kiros for the first time in years and hears that Ward is working unhappily as a janitor in a prison. He also hears that Julia, his former love, became a famous singer like she dreamed and wrote a song about a love that went off to war and never came back, so she married a Galbadian General named Carraway and had a daughter. Raine and Laguna obviously have kind of a thing going on.
Squall wakes up in a prison, and is interrogated/tortured by Seifer, who questions him on the "true" mission and meaning of SeeD. Meanwhile, Zell wakes up in a different cell, with Selphie and Quistis. He dreamt that Ward was working unhappily in a Galbadian prison, and quickly realizes that it's the very prison they are trapped in. They break out and attempt to find Squall, who they realize is on the top floor. Irvine and Rinoa show up and assist them in breaking out of the prison. Irvine apparently was given orders by General Carraway to get Rinoa out; the prison cooperated, but he left with Rinoa, who convinced him to turn around and help Squall, Zell, Selphie, and Quistis get out, too. Irvine and Rinoa tell the crew that, in retaliation for the assassination attempt (and probably to assert its dominance in general), Galbadia intends to fire long-range missiles at Balamb Garden and Trabia Garden, where Selphie transferred from. The missile base is nearby, so just as they watch from a distance the first missiles being fired at Trabia, they agree to split up, half going to the missile base to stop the missiles, and half going to Balamb Garden to warn them.
At the missile base, Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine disguise themselves as Galbadian soldiers. They are unable to stop the missiles from being fired, but after shutting down the power, setting the self-destruct mechanism for the base, and disabling a huge tank-like monstrosity of a machine that attempts to take them out as they escape, they are trapped inside with self-destruction imminent...
Meanwhile, Balamb Garden is in the midst of a chaotic internal power struggle between the factions of the mysterious Garden Master and the Headmaster. After the released monsters from the training center are killed, Squall, Zell, and Quistis report to the Headmaster on the possibility of incoming missiles. Headmaster Cid reveals that the Garden was built around an ancient Centra bomb shelter, which may still be functional. The group makes its way to the lowest level of the Garden and activates some strange device, which causes the Garden to take off from its stationary spot, narrowly avoiding being hit by the Galbadian missiles, and move along the continent and in the ocean.
[edit: the next paragraph is one I forgot the first time around, but it's important]
Once they start drifting around, a white ship approaches the Garden and requests an audience. Squall meets with them, and they say that they have come to take "Ellone" with them, because they do not believe the Garden to be safe anymore. They identify themselves as SeeDs; however, they distinguish themselves as "Edea's SeeDs." Squall is confused, but goes to find this girl Ellone, and finds her in the library; the same girl who visited him in the infirmary at the beginning of the game, and the same girl that Laguna was looking after in the dream world [although much older now]. She seems to know Squall well, and is saddened that Squall doesn't remember her. She explains to him that she, using a special power that only she has, is responsible for sending him and his companions to the dream world. Squall demands to know what it's all about, and she tells him that he is witnessing the past; 20-16 years ago, about; she wants to see if it is possible to change the past. Squall wants it all to stop, for her to not rely on him to help her, but she calls him her "only hope," and leaves rather prematurely aboard the white SeeD ship.
After some drifting trying to figure out the controls, Squall and co. is called by the Garden Master, a blobby-ish giant yellow guy, who reveals that Headmaster Cid is married to Edea, and, in a craze, accuses him of attempting to take power away from the Garden Master. However, after a fight, the Garden Master agrees to calm down and GTFO, along with his little cronies. After more drifting and wondering what happened to Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine, Headmaster Cid reveals that SeeD and Garden were made to fight Sorceresses when they show up and threaten the state of the world. He is indeed married to Sorceress Edea, but it's pretty complicated or something, apparently. I guess she didn't use to be such a big ol' jerk. In any case, they accidently crash into this hippie city in the middle of the ocean, Fisherman's Horizon (or FH), and they disembark. The very handy people of FH, connected to both Galbadia and Esthar continents by a trans-ocean railroad, agree to repair Balamb Garden if the Garden agrees to leave as soon as repairs are finished (they're not fond of military-affiliated organizations and such, because they're not fond of conflict). But then, a small Galbadian force arrives! Dun dun dun...
TO BE CONTINUED. GOOD GOD THIS IS TAKING A LOT LONGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD.
~*~
[EDIT: 6:56 PM]
~*~
So, where were we... Balamb Garden at FH, Galbadian forces arrive, right. So, Galbadian forces arrive, and the mayor of FH, being the hippie he is, decides to try to negotiate. The Galbadians demand to know where Ellone is, and of course the mayor has no idea who they're talking about. When they beat up the poor mayor and threaten to burn the city to the ground, Squall, Zell, and Quistis intervene and take on the Galbadians. Suddenly, a huge tank-like monstrosity of a machine emerges and begins attacking the group, then falls back into the water. From the water emerges... Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine! Squall tries to hide excitement and finally seeing his friends/comrades again. He and Rinoa have a short conversation regarding him actually showing his emotions for once, and seeming so happy for a change.
As the repairs finish, Cid appoints Squall as commander of the Garden; Squall is reluctant to take on such responsibilities, since he's not fond of having so many people be reliant on him, but he eventually accepts. In celebration, Selphie, Zell, Quistis, and Irvine put on a concert for Squall (also a scheme on Irvine's part to cheer up Selphie, who is down after the attack on Trabia, and to get Rinoa and Squall closer), while Rinoa dresses up all fancy-like and talks to him about how she and the rest of the group want him to show how he's feeling more often instead of standing there and thinking to himself.
The repairs are finished, so Balamb Garden leaves FH. They decide to check out Trabia Garden and the damage there. Selphie runs into the place, which is in total shambles. Fortunately, there are many survivors. After surveying the place, Squall, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, Rinoa, and Zell all meet on an abandoned and ruined basketball court outside the Garden. Rinoa was deeply affected by both the peacefulness of Fisherman's Horizon and the total destruction of Trabia Garden, and asks if there's some way they can continue on without fighting. Squall asks her how she can say that when she and her resistance group were the only ones that took action against Galbadia. Irvine explains that Edea must be stopped for all this madness to end, and violence is the only answer to that.
Irvine then drops a bombshell of sorts; although he seems to be the only one that remembers, he, Squall, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, Seifer, and Ellone all grew up together in an orphanage. He didn't bring it up until now because no one else seemed to remember and they were on an official mission. Slowly, starting with Selphie, the others start to remember. Squall and Seifer's rivalry stemmed from their fighting in the orphanage. Why don't they remember? Apparently, their most vital resource in battle, the Guardian Forces (GFs) that provide them with para-magic and other means of strength have side-effects of memory loss. Irvine remembers because Balamb Garden is the only Garden that uses GFs. Selphie only started using them when she transferred, so she remembered before the others. Apparently, Ellone disappeared from the orphanage when Squall was little, and this deeply affected him, for he had begun to know her as "Sis" and was very attached to her. They then remember who ran the orphanage; Sorceress Edea, who they knew back then as Matron, a kind and benevolent woman. They were confused as to how she could become such a terrifying being, but knew that they had to fight her, and Irvine wanted to make clear that if they killed Edea, they would be killing Matron, and this is a future they had to face. They decided to try to find the orphanage, if they could remember where it was.
As sort of a sidenote, at the Garden, on the way to the orphanage, Zell asks Squall if he can borrow his sweet ring. When Squall reluctantly agrees, Zell says something like "Rinoa will be so happy!" and Squall is slightly confused. Zell, without Squall knowing, gives it to Rinoa to hold onto on a chain around her neck, and Zell is going to, at some point, make a copy of it for her; Rinoa just thinks the ring is really, really cool. Who wouldn't, it has a sweet lion on it!
As they come across the ruins of what they think may be the old orphanage, Galbadia Garden, which has been taken over by the Galbadian Army, headed by Edea and Seifer, approaches them. Squall realizes that a battle is inevitable, and so prepares for the attack and defense. A huge and epic battle takes place; Rinoa almost falls from the Garden in the attack, but Squall saves her. After saving her, he realizes she has his ring, but he has her continue holding onto it. In the chaos of the battle taking place outside the Gardens, Squall, Rinoa, and Irvine sneak into the Garden and find Seifer and Edea, who identifies Squall as the "legendary SeeD destined to face me." The group does battle; Seifer is defeated, and Edea casts the "pathetic" excuse for a knight aside. She is defeated and a rather strange event occurs; everyone is enveloped in a giant aura, and Rinoa approaches the fallen Seifer in a zombie-like manner, says something to him, and then falls unconscious as Seifer escapes yet again. Edea awakens as Zell, Quistis, and Selphie arrive, and is totally different in character; she tells the group that she is very proud of how they've done and how they've grown up. Needless to say, they're confused as all hell.
CUE CHANGE TO DISC 3!
Rinoa is still comatose, and no one can figure out why, and Squall is deeply saddened, just wanting to hear her voice and see her be her exuberant self again. Squall and co. decide to visit Edea at the old orphanage, which is actually Cid and Edea's house. Cid hid out here during the battle, for fear of losing his wife or losing the Garden. Edea explains that she was being possessed by a sorceress from the future named Ultimecia. Ultimecia intends to resurrect Sorceress Adel, who reigned over the Esthar Empire 17 years ago before the country went into seclusion and ended the Sorceress War with Galbadia. Ultimecia also seeks out Ellone for reasons unknown, probably something to do with her special power. Edea doesn't know why Rinoa is in a coma. She explains that she and Cid made SeeD in case she or any other sorceress ever became a threat again; the white SeeD ship was made to protect Ellone from Edea, and was essentially an extension of the orphanage. Squall leaves and visits the unconscious Rinoa and falls asleep at her side.
Squall dreams of Laguna, Kiros, and Ward again; this time they are starring in a cheesy b-movie to make some money so that they can continue on their journey to find Ellone. After the set is ruined by an attack by wild beasts, Laguna and co. make a run for it, coming across an enormous, monolith-like UFO which captures them.
Squall wakes up and realizes that maybe Ellone can use her power to send him into the past and stop whatever happened to Rinoa. He seeks out the white SeeD ship, but once he finds it, they inform him that Ellone left with an Esthar ship when a Galbadian fleet attacked. At this point, Squall is very withdrawn and, caring only about Rinoa, docks Balamb Garden at Fisherman Horizon, and because the trains are down, walks all the way along the track to the Esthar continent, carrying the still comatose Rinoa on his back. Along the way, he stops and talks to unconscious girl, "revealing" to her that he misses her a hell of a lot and was only rude and such on the outside because he is insecure and hides the fact that he cares about what people think of him.
When he gets to the Esthar continent, Zell, Quistis, Selphie, Irvine, and Edea are waiting for him; they want to accompany him to Esthar to help Rinoa, and Edea wants to see if there is a way to seal her sorceress powers for the sake of the world, in case Ultimecia attempts to possess her again. They walk across a dry salt lake looking for the country of Esthar, which is supposed to be huge and stand out like a sore thumb in its futuristic technologicalness. They then realize that at the edge of the dry salt lake is an enormous screen that hides Esthar and makes it look as though there is just more dry lake. They are received by machines which take them to the capitol, and on the way they are drawn into the dream world once again.
Laguna, Ward, and Kiros have been captured by Esthar (keep in mind this is 17 years ago) and are being forced to work in a laboratory. They manage to beat up their guards and sneak out, befriending a couple of members of an anti-Adel movement out to overthrow the Sorceress in power; they think Laguna, in his optimism and scheming, is fit to be the leader of the movement. Laguna then proceeds to find Ellone.
At this point, Squall and his compadres wake up and are taken by floating car through the utopia-like futuristic city to the Presidential Palace by a Presidential aide, who isn't surprised to see them. Edea requests to have her powers taken away, and Dr. Odine, a genius and the head scientist of Esthar who invented the use of Guardian Forces and various other awesome stuff (probably the floating cars), says that will be easy. Odine agrees to let Squall see Ellone, who is on the Lunar Base is space, if he will let the doctor examine Rinoa; Squall reluctantly agrees.
Rinoa is taken by Dr. Odine and then to the Lunar Gate, where Squall and co. soon arrive. Edea must stay on the planet, and Zell wants to stay with her, so Squall takes Quistis with him into space, and they are launched up to the space station. Soon after the launch, Zell, Edea, Irvine, and Selphie look outside and see the same giant UFO thing that captured Laguna and co. in the dream world. They go back to Dr. Odine, who identifies it as Lunatic Pandora, apparently excavated by the Galbadians after it was sunk in the ocean by Esthar. Zell is impatient and Odine doesn't have a chance to explain much else, but the 3 mile tall, 1.5 mile wide flying box is flying toward Tear's Point.
In space, Rinoa is kept in stasis in the medical bay, and Squall and Quistis observe the President of Esthar personally investigating the seal on Sorceress Adel's "tomb," where she and her powers were indefinitely sealed at the end of the Sorceress War 17 years ago. The scientists onboard the station then explain that the monsters on the planet's surface come from the moon, a hellish world inhabited by monsters. Once every few hundred years or so, the "Lunar Cry" occurs, during which monsters fall to the earth in a giant tear drop of sorts when the moon becomes saturated with monsters. These monsters then breed with and mutate the animals on the planet; the current monsters on the planet are results of these mutations for the most part; only the strongest are straight from the moon. Around a hundred years ago, the Centra civilization was demolished by the Lunar Cry. Adel's imprisonment, which requires a lot of magical/radio/etc. energy and a perfect balance of gravity between the moon and the Earth, is the cause of the past 17 years of radio interference/silence on the planet.
Squall is then taken to Ellone, who explains that she no longer believes the past can be changed, but seeing Laguna's past made her deeply appreciate it; because Laguna came after Ellone, he was not able to be there for Raine in Winhill when she died in childbirth with his child. Ellone was sent home shortly before this happened, and was sent to the orphanage afterwards.
Without notice, an alarm sounds; Elie suddenly awakens and, in a trance-like, zombie-ish state, heads towards the control room of the space station, while the scientists onboard are merely repelled from her like puppets when they try to stop her. She unseals the first seal of Adel's tomb, and then heads out into space (yes, with a spacesuit) to release the second and final seal, which would release Adel. Meanwhile, the Lunar Cry is about to happen on the moon; the Lunatic Pandora, when aligned with Tear's Point on Earth, artificially causes this to happen. Because the space station and tomb are between the moon and the planet, both will be engulfed by it. Rinoa releases the second seal, and then is flung off into space. Squall, Quistis, Ellone, the President of Esthar, and the crew all evacuate aboard escape pods as the station and Adel are swept away in a tide of monsters amid the Lunar Cry. Squall convinces Ellone to send him to Rinoa's past so he can know what happened to her.
Ellone first accidentally sends him too far, and Squall sees Rinoa convincing Irvine, who she says is being totally ridiculous, to go back and rescue Squall and everyone else from the prison. He sees a couple of other scenes where she is talking about Squall, and finally sees the moment they defeated Edea and she first went into the strange, trance-like state. He sees the form of a strange sorceress controlling Rinoa and talking to Seifer through her. She identifies herself as Ultimecia and commands him to find Lunatic Pandora and take it to Tear's Point, saying that his rewards will be immense and all that good stuff.
Ellone is sorry that she can't help him change the past, and Squall is ridiculously upset. Ellone decides to send him to Rinoa's "past that's closest to the present" (i.e., pretty much the present). Squall sees Rinoa floating in space near the moon, no longer possessed by Ultimecia, just about giving up, silently saying goodbye to everything she knew and loved, knowing that there's no way she can make it, with her life support running out. Squall calls out to her from his dream-state, and she calls out to him, hopelessly. In what she thinks is her moment of death, she sees Squall's ring on the chain, remembers an emergency oxygen supply (>_<), and lives on a little longer... Squall wakes up and decides to put on a space suit and go and find her on a suicide mission. Somehow, miraculously, he sees her, and uses the little mini-jetpack to get to her. They grasp each other through the space suits and float aimlessly for a little while, not sure of what the hell they're going to do now that they're both stuck in space. But they're happy to finally be together, perhaps one last time, even if it means they die together. ...But sure enough, after a couple of minutes, they come across a mysterious red spaceship. They make it aboard and take off their space suits, ready to figure out how to pilot the ship home. Unfortunately, some alien monstrosities have devoured the crew and turned the ship into a mini-colony, so Squall and Rinoa are forced to exterminate the terrifying things before getting to the pilot's seat. There, Rinoa embraces Squall, happy to be alive. When they do finally get there, Esthar contacts them via radio, identifying the spaceship as "Ragnarok," and tells Squall they will guide the ship to Esthar. Much lovey-dovey romantic dialogue happens, although no undying love is admitted; then Esthar calls again and tells Squall to keep "the sorceress" Rinoa there. Rinoa admits that Edea, no longer a sorceress, unknowingly passed on her sorceress powers to Rinoa when she was defeated in Galbadia Garden. This was the first moment Ultimecia possessed Rinoa. Rinoa is scared shitless and doesn't want to go back to Esthar (she'll be sealed away like Adel was), but knows she has to do it. When they land on Earth, Rinoa is taken by Esthar voluntarily, and Squall lets her go after one last ever-so-romantic embrace. When Squall meets up with Selphie, Quistis, Zell, and Irvine, they are super-upset with him and make him go get Rinoa back. He realizes that he risked his life and went on that insane suicide mission to get her back in the first place because he wanted to be with her, and now he was just going to give her up. So they break into the place and get her out, and head back to Esthar's Presidential Palace after they are called there by a man named Kiros. Quistis reveals that Ellone was not present in the escape pod when they woke up after it crashed on Earth, and assumes she was kidnapped by Galbadians and is now aboard the Lunatic Pandora. Esthar is in chaos with the raining moon monsters. When they get to the palace, they are surprised to see the identity of the president: Laguna from the dream world! He became President after, as the leader of the anti-Adel movement during the Sorceress War, he helped take down the Sorceress and imprison her, and Kiros and Ward became his aids. He sent Ellone to an orphanage after she was rescued so that she would be safe. Odine then explains that Ultimecia intends to use Ellone to "compress time," making the past, present, and future all one. From here she will absorb the powers of all sorceresses and, essentially, become a God-like entity. The only way to stop her is to allow the time compression to take place and then to fight her in the future. Dr. Odine thinks up some ridiculously complex way to accomplish this without everything going horribly wrong, and I can't quite remember it, because it's kind of insane. First of all, they need to get to Lunatic Pandora and kill Adel before she fully awakens, and defeat Seifer, who has become a proud, spiteful shadow of his former self, once and for all. Before they embark on this dangerous quest, the gang meets at the orphange one last time; the place of love, memories, friendship, and fondness that they'll all have to focus on in order to make it out of the time compression alive. Rinoa and Squall talk more, and Rinoa tells of a dream she had where she was going to go out somewhere with Squall, and got all dressed up, but then couldn't remember where they were supposed to meet; she searched all over the world but couldn't find him. Then, Squall decides that the flower field near the orphanage will be where they meet should they ever lose each other again. Rinoa is afraid that Squall will, as a SeeD, have to kill her if she is possessed by evil again, but Squall refuses to accept this, saying that he'll be her knight forever, and find a way to release her from evil no matter what. The group, Squall, Rinoa, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and Irvine, make their way toward Lunatic Pandora, WHERE THEIR DESINTY AWAITS THEM... ~*~ SUMMARY ENDS HERE; IF YOU WANTED TO SKIP IT YOU CAN START READING AGAIN NOW.
That's where I am. If you read that, imagine how long it took to play it! There are a bunch of allusions in the game, too! For example, "Ragnarok" is the Viking apocalypse where the gods and fallen soldiers take on the forces of evil. The Guardian Forces in the game are pretty much all named after gods and deities and other-worldly beings and such from various cultures' myths (Norse, Celtic, Judaic, etc.). The idea that monsters come from the moon is somewhat symbolic and obvious even in Western culture (werewolves and such). A sort of creation story of the game's story tells of a being Hyne that came to Earth and created the first sorceresses; this is somewhat similar to Eve and the story of original sin in the GARDEN of Eden in the Old Testament.
Radio show tonight. Tutoring tomorrow. New Faces coming to Bellingham this weekend, I just remembered. Yesss.
--Jon
~*~
The game starts off with the primary protagonist (initially named "Squall," which is pretty lame, so you can change it to whatever you want) recovering from a "training" fight with Seifer, a fellow classmate at Balamb Garden which is essentially a military training academy for mercenaries called SeeDs (ha, get it, seeds, garden...). Squall is rather introverted and cares pretty much only for his own well-being, preferring not to rely on others, but he's also among the best in his class. Seifer is pretty much a delinquent trouble-maker. Unfortunately, they have to recover from their injuries quickly for their final exam; a field exam which is essentially a first mission for the potential mercenaries. While recovering, a girl Squall does not recognize visits Squall briefly, and then walks away.
So Squall, much to his dismay, ends up in a group with Seifer, the squad leader, and Zell, another classmate who is overly enthusiastic, talkative, excitable, and impulsive, often responding strongly to Seifer's teasing and warranting a "Zell, calm down" from Squall. This is Seifer's third or so time doing this field exam. So they go to Dollet across the sea, which has been invaded by the Galbadian army nearby; they're not sure why. Squall's squad secures the town center and then they wait for a long time. Eventually Seifer gets bored and they decide to follow some soldiers into the nearby mountains, where they discover the soldiers turning on the radio broadcast tower which has been offline for 17 years. They stop the soldiers just before a messenger, Selphie, from another squad delivers the order to retreat, and they narrowly escape to the beach from a giant robot spider thing, just in time to make it back to Garden.
Seifer is disciplined for disobeying orders, but Squall, Zell, and Selphie graduate and are made SeeDs. They attend a formal banquet that night, and Squall is convinced by a mysterious girl (not the same one that visited him in the infirmary at the beginning of the story) to dance. Then his instructor, Quistis, not much older than him and able to read Squall and his "...Whatever"'s more easily than most, tells him his first mission is coming up, and that she's been fired as an instructor and is going to be a regular SeeD.
Headmaster Cid of the Garden gives Squall [now the squad leader], Zell, and Selphie the orders to head to Timber and assist the resistance movement against Galbadia there. On the train on the way, they all suddenly fall asleep and have the same dream; Galbadian soldiers named Laguna, Ward, and Kiros flee from pursuit (from who we aren't told) to their hometown of Deling City, the capital of the Galbadian Empire. There, Laguna finally speaks to the love [at first sight *cue eye rolls*] of his life, a hotel pub piano player named Julia, but they are forced to leave due to new orders after a long conversation; Laguna promises to return.
Squall and co. wake up and are puzzled when they realize they had the same dream, but have no time to think about it, because they arrive at Timber. They meet up with the resistance force, which includes the mysterious girl Squall danced with, Rinoa (who can also be renamed). This resistance force seeks to liberate Timber from Galbadian occupation. The SeeDs assist the resistance group in a kidnap/interrogation/assassination attempt of the President of Galbadia, who is making a visit to Timber, but the person they kidnap is a decoy. They then discover that the President is coming to make a broadcast to the world, which is why the Dollet communications tower was turned on. After Squall gives Rinoa a lecture about how unprofessional their group is, they all make their way to the TV station and watch the beginning of the broadcast on a huge screen nearby. The president announces an appointment of a worldwide "ambassador," Sorceress Edea, just before Seifer busts in and take the President hostage, with Quistis at his tail attempting to stop him. The group runs to the station and watch as the Sorceress shows up and convinces Seifer to come with her. The president runs away, and Edea and Seifer disappear.
Squall, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and Rinoa decide it's best to leave town, so, as per Garden procedure, they head to the nearest Garden; Galbadia Garden, which trains soldiers for the Galbadian military. Before getting there, they suddenly fall asleep again and dream about Laguna, Ward, and Kiros again. They are patrolling a curious area in Centra, the deserted ruins of an ancient civilization, being excavated by Esthar, a huge technologically advanced nation to the east led by a sorceress, which Galbadia are at war at in this dream world. They are chased through the excavation site by Esthar soldiers, and are eventually badly injured; Ward loses his voice, and they are forced to jump into the ocean to escape. At this point, Squall and co. wake up from the dream, are confused, but continue on.
At Galbadia Garden, it is revealed that Seifer was tried and executed, Rinoa and Seifer had some sort of summer fling (which is why he busted out of Balamb Garden and busted into the station; to help Rinoa), and Squall doesn't want to fade away as a mere memory in people's minds like Seifer has, and he kinda freaks out. Afterwards, the group receives new orders, as a collaboration between the two Gardens; to head to Deling City and assassinate the sorceress, Edea. A sniper, Irvine, is provided to them to assist them. And to shamelessly hit on the females in the group.
They meet up with Galbadian General Caraway, revealed to be Rinoa's father, who locks her in her room to keep her safe, out of trouble, and uninvolved (they don't get along very well, and her mother died in a car accident when she was a little girl), and the rest of them discuss the assassination plan. Caraway explains that this sorceress doesn't intend to be an ambassador, but to strike fear into the hearts of the people of the world and conquer it. To make a long story short, Rinoa breaks out, is almost killed by the sorceress, and meets up with Squall and Irvine. She clings onto Squall, saying that she was "So... so scared..." right after being told that she wasn't mature enough to participate in this serious combat. As Edea is being introduced by the President, she publicly executes him, and the parade commences as normal otherwise. Quistis, Selphie, and Zell are accidentally locked in Caraway's house, but they break out and manage to set a trap for sorceress Edea, who somehow has Seifer at her side, alive and well, as her "Sorceress' Knight." Irvine, after a bout of self-doubt (ha, rhyme), takes a shot at the sorceress, but the shot is deflected. Squall takes on Seifer head-on, defeats him, and then takes on the sorceress with the help of Rinoa and Irvine. They lose the battle and are taken prisoner.
CUE CHANGE TO DISC 2!
Squall dreams of Laguna again, this time recovering from his injuries at Centra in the town of Winhill and serving as a town hunter, keeping monsters out of the city limits, and protecting Ellone, a girl whose parents were killed by Esthar soldiers looking for an heir to the sorceress' powers (they resorted to kidnapping kids) (a sorceress must give up her powers to someone else when she dies) and adopted by Raine, who looked after Laguna in his recovery. Laguna meets Kiros for the first time in years and hears that Ward is working unhappily as a janitor in a prison. He also hears that Julia, his former love, became a famous singer like she dreamed and wrote a song about a love that went off to war and never came back, so she married a Galbadian General named Carraway and had a daughter. Raine and Laguna obviously have kind of a thing going on.
Squall wakes up in a prison, and is interrogated/tortured by Seifer, who questions him on the "true" mission and meaning of SeeD. Meanwhile, Zell wakes up in a different cell, with Selphie and Quistis. He dreamt that Ward was working unhappily in a Galbadian prison, and quickly realizes that it's the very prison they are trapped in. They break out and attempt to find Squall, who they realize is on the top floor. Irvine and Rinoa show up and assist them in breaking out of the prison. Irvine apparently was given orders by General Carraway to get Rinoa out; the prison cooperated, but he left with Rinoa, who convinced him to turn around and help Squall, Zell, Selphie, and Quistis get out, too. Irvine and Rinoa tell the crew that, in retaliation for the assassination attempt (and probably to assert its dominance in general), Galbadia intends to fire long-range missiles at Balamb Garden and Trabia Garden, where Selphie transferred from. The missile base is nearby, so just as they watch from a distance the first missiles being fired at Trabia, they agree to split up, half going to the missile base to stop the missiles, and half going to Balamb Garden to warn them.
At the missile base, Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine disguise themselves as Galbadian soldiers. They are unable to stop the missiles from being fired, but after shutting down the power, setting the self-destruct mechanism for the base, and disabling a huge tank-like monstrosity of a machine that attempts to take them out as they escape, they are trapped inside with self-destruction imminent...
Meanwhile, Balamb Garden is in the midst of a chaotic internal power struggle between the factions of the mysterious Garden Master and the Headmaster. After the released monsters from the training center are killed, Squall, Zell, and Quistis report to the Headmaster on the possibility of incoming missiles. Headmaster Cid reveals that the Garden was built around an ancient Centra bomb shelter, which may still be functional. The group makes its way to the lowest level of the Garden and activates some strange device, which causes the Garden to take off from its stationary spot, narrowly avoiding being hit by the Galbadian missiles, and move along the continent and in the ocean.
[edit: the next paragraph is one I forgot the first time around, but it's important]
Once they start drifting around, a white ship approaches the Garden and requests an audience. Squall meets with them, and they say that they have come to take "Ellone" with them, because they do not believe the Garden to be safe anymore. They identify themselves as SeeDs; however, they distinguish themselves as "Edea's SeeDs." Squall is confused, but goes to find this girl Ellone, and finds her in the library; the same girl who visited him in the infirmary at the beginning of the game, and the same girl that Laguna was looking after in the dream world [although much older now]. She seems to know Squall well, and is saddened that Squall doesn't remember her. She explains to him that she, using a special power that only she has, is responsible for sending him and his companions to the dream world. Squall demands to know what it's all about, and she tells him that he is witnessing the past; 20-16 years ago, about; she wants to see if it is possible to change the past. Squall wants it all to stop, for her to not rely on him to help her, but she calls him her "only hope," and leaves rather prematurely aboard the white SeeD ship.
After some drifting trying to figure out the controls, Squall and co. is called by the Garden Master, a blobby-ish giant yellow guy, who reveals that Headmaster Cid is married to Edea, and, in a craze, accuses him of attempting to take power away from the Garden Master. However, after a fight, the Garden Master agrees to calm down and GTFO, along with his little cronies. After more drifting and wondering what happened to Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine, Headmaster Cid reveals that SeeD and Garden were made to fight Sorceresses when they show up and threaten the state of the world. He is indeed married to Sorceress Edea, but it's pretty complicated or something, apparently. I guess she didn't use to be such a big ol' jerk. In any case, they accidently crash into this hippie city in the middle of the ocean, Fisherman's Horizon (or FH), and they disembark. The very handy people of FH, connected to both Galbadia and Esthar continents by a trans-ocean railroad, agree to repair Balamb Garden if the Garden agrees to leave as soon as repairs are finished (they're not fond of military-affiliated organizations and such, because they're not fond of conflict). But then, a small Galbadian force arrives! Dun dun dun...
TO BE CONTINUED. GOOD GOD THIS IS TAKING A LOT LONGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD.
~*~
[EDIT: 6:56 PM]
~*~
So, where were we... Balamb Garden at FH, Galbadian forces arrive, right. So, Galbadian forces arrive, and the mayor of FH, being the hippie he is, decides to try to negotiate. The Galbadians demand to know where Ellone is, and of course the mayor has no idea who they're talking about. When they beat up the poor mayor and threaten to burn the city to the ground, Squall, Zell, and Quistis intervene and take on the Galbadians. Suddenly, a huge tank-like monstrosity of a machine emerges and begins attacking the group, then falls back into the water. From the water emerges... Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine! Squall tries to hide excitement and finally seeing his friends/comrades again. He and Rinoa have a short conversation regarding him actually showing his emotions for once, and seeming so happy for a change.
As the repairs finish, Cid appoints Squall as commander of the Garden; Squall is reluctant to take on such responsibilities, since he's not fond of having so many people be reliant on him, but he eventually accepts. In celebration, Selphie, Zell, Quistis, and Irvine put on a concert for Squall (also a scheme on Irvine's part to cheer up Selphie, who is down after the attack on Trabia, and to get Rinoa and Squall closer), while Rinoa dresses up all fancy-like and talks to him about how she and the rest of the group want him to show how he's feeling more often instead of standing there and thinking to himself.
The repairs are finished, so Balamb Garden leaves FH. They decide to check out Trabia Garden and the damage there. Selphie runs into the place, which is in total shambles. Fortunately, there are many survivors. After surveying the place, Squall, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, Rinoa, and Zell all meet on an abandoned and ruined basketball court outside the Garden. Rinoa was deeply affected by both the peacefulness of Fisherman's Horizon and the total destruction of Trabia Garden, and asks if there's some way they can continue on without fighting. Squall asks her how she can say that when she and her resistance group were the only ones that took action against Galbadia. Irvine explains that Edea must be stopped for all this madness to end, and violence is the only answer to that.
Irvine then drops a bombshell of sorts; although he seems to be the only one that remembers, he, Squall, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, Seifer, and Ellone all grew up together in an orphanage. He didn't bring it up until now because no one else seemed to remember and they were on an official mission. Slowly, starting with Selphie, the others start to remember. Squall and Seifer's rivalry stemmed from their fighting in the orphanage. Why don't they remember? Apparently, their most vital resource in battle, the Guardian Forces (GFs) that provide them with para-magic and other means of strength have side-effects of memory loss. Irvine remembers because Balamb Garden is the only Garden that uses GFs. Selphie only started using them when she transferred, so she remembered before the others. Apparently, Ellone disappeared from the orphanage when Squall was little, and this deeply affected him, for he had begun to know her as "Sis" and was very attached to her. They then remember who ran the orphanage; Sorceress Edea, who they knew back then as Matron, a kind and benevolent woman. They were confused as to how she could become such a terrifying being, but knew that they had to fight her, and Irvine wanted to make clear that if they killed Edea, they would be killing Matron, and this is a future they had to face. They decided to try to find the orphanage, if they could remember where it was.
As sort of a sidenote, at the Garden, on the way to the orphanage, Zell asks Squall if he can borrow his sweet ring. When Squall reluctantly agrees, Zell says something like "Rinoa will be so happy!" and Squall is slightly confused. Zell, without Squall knowing, gives it to Rinoa to hold onto on a chain around her neck, and Zell is going to, at some point, make a copy of it for her; Rinoa just thinks the ring is really, really cool. Who wouldn't, it has a sweet lion on it!
As they come across the ruins of what they think may be the old orphanage, Galbadia Garden, which has been taken over by the Galbadian Army, headed by Edea and Seifer, approaches them. Squall realizes that a battle is inevitable, and so prepares for the attack and defense. A huge and epic battle takes place; Rinoa almost falls from the Garden in the attack, but Squall saves her. After saving her, he realizes she has his ring, but he has her continue holding onto it. In the chaos of the battle taking place outside the Gardens, Squall, Rinoa, and Irvine sneak into the Garden and find Seifer and Edea, who identifies Squall as the "legendary SeeD destined to face me." The group does battle; Seifer is defeated, and Edea casts the "pathetic" excuse for a knight aside. She is defeated and a rather strange event occurs; everyone is enveloped in a giant aura, and Rinoa approaches the fallen Seifer in a zombie-like manner, says something to him, and then falls unconscious as Seifer escapes yet again. Edea awakens as Zell, Quistis, and Selphie arrive, and is totally different in character; she tells the group that she is very proud of how they've done and how they've grown up. Needless to say, they're confused as all hell.
CUE CHANGE TO DISC 3!
Rinoa is still comatose, and no one can figure out why, and Squall is deeply saddened, just wanting to hear her voice and see her be her exuberant self again. Squall and co. decide to visit Edea at the old orphanage, which is actually Cid and Edea's house. Cid hid out here during the battle, for fear of losing his wife or losing the Garden. Edea explains that she was being possessed by a sorceress from the future named Ultimecia. Ultimecia intends to resurrect Sorceress Adel, who reigned over the Esthar Empire 17 years ago before the country went into seclusion and ended the Sorceress War with Galbadia. Ultimecia also seeks out Ellone for reasons unknown, probably something to do with her special power. Edea doesn't know why Rinoa is in a coma. She explains that she and Cid made SeeD in case she or any other sorceress ever became a threat again; the white SeeD ship was made to protect Ellone from Edea, and was essentially an extension of the orphanage. Squall leaves and visits the unconscious Rinoa and falls asleep at her side.
Squall dreams of Laguna, Kiros, and Ward again; this time they are starring in a cheesy b-movie to make some money so that they can continue on their journey to find Ellone. After the set is ruined by an attack by wild beasts, Laguna and co. make a run for it, coming across an enormous, monolith-like UFO which captures them.
Squall wakes up and realizes that maybe Ellone can use her power to send him into the past and stop whatever happened to Rinoa. He seeks out the white SeeD ship, but once he finds it, they inform him that Ellone left with an Esthar ship when a Galbadian fleet attacked. At this point, Squall is very withdrawn and, caring only about Rinoa, docks Balamb Garden at Fisherman Horizon, and because the trains are down, walks all the way along the track to the Esthar continent, carrying the still comatose Rinoa on his back. Along the way, he stops and talks to unconscious girl, "revealing" to her that he misses her a hell of a lot and was only rude and such on the outside because he is insecure and hides the fact that he cares about what people think of him.
When he gets to the Esthar continent, Zell, Quistis, Selphie, Irvine, and Edea are waiting for him; they want to accompany him to Esthar to help Rinoa, and Edea wants to see if there is a way to seal her sorceress powers for the sake of the world, in case Ultimecia attempts to possess her again. They walk across a dry salt lake looking for the country of Esthar, which is supposed to be huge and stand out like a sore thumb in its futuristic technologicalness. They then realize that at the edge of the dry salt lake is an enormous screen that hides Esthar and makes it look as though there is just more dry lake. They are received by machines which take them to the capitol, and on the way they are drawn into the dream world once again.
Laguna, Ward, and Kiros have been captured by Esthar (keep in mind this is 17 years ago) and are being forced to work in a laboratory. They manage to beat up their guards and sneak out, befriending a couple of members of an anti-Adel movement out to overthrow the Sorceress in power; they think Laguna, in his optimism and scheming, is fit to be the leader of the movement. Laguna then proceeds to find Ellone.
At this point, Squall and his compadres wake up and are taken by floating car through the utopia-like futuristic city to the Presidential Palace by a Presidential aide, who isn't surprised to see them. Edea requests to have her powers taken away, and Dr. Odine, a genius and the head scientist of Esthar who invented the use of Guardian Forces and various other awesome stuff (probably the floating cars), says that will be easy. Odine agrees to let Squall see Ellone, who is on the Lunar Base is space, if he will let the doctor examine Rinoa; Squall reluctantly agrees.
Rinoa is taken by Dr. Odine and then to the Lunar Gate, where Squall and co. soon arrive. Edea must stay on the planet, and Zell wants to stay with her, so Squall takes Quistis with him into space, and they are launched up to the space station. Soon after the launch, Zell, Edea, Irvine, and Selphie look outside and see the same giant UFO thing that captured Laguna and co. in the dream world. They go back to Dr. Odine, who identifies it as Lunatic Pandora, apparently excavated by the Galbadians after it was sunk in the ocean by Esthar. Zell is impatient and Odine doesn't have a chance to explain much else, but the 3 mile tall, 1.5 mile wide flying box is flying toward Tear's Point.
In space, Rinoa is kept in stasis in the medical bay, and Squall and Quistis observe the President of Esthar personally investigating the seal on Sorceress Adel's "tomb," where she and her powers were indefinitely sealed at the end of the Sorceress War 17 years ago. The scientists onboard the station then explain that the monsters on the planet's surface come from the moon, a hellish world inhabited by monsters. Once every few hundred years or so, the "Lunar Cry" occurs, during which monsters fall to the earth in a giant tear drop of sorts when the moon becomes saturated with monsters. These monsters then breed with and mutate the animals on the planet; the current monsters on the planet are results of these mutations for the most part; only the strongest are straight from the moon. Around a hundred years ago, the Centra civilization was demolished by the Lunar Cry. Adel's imprisonment, which requires a lot of magical/radio/etc. energy and a perfect balance of gravity between the moon and the Earth, is the cause of the past 17 years of radio interference/silence on the planet.
Squall is then taken to Ellone, who explains that she no longer believes the past can be changed, but seeing Laguna's past made her deeply appreciate it; because Laguna came after Ellone, he was not able to be there for Raine in Winhill when she died in childbirth with his child. Ellone was sent home shortly before this happened, and was sent to the orphanage afterwards.
Without notice, an alarm sounds; Elie suddenly awakens and, in a trance-like, zombie-ish state, heads towards the control room of the space station, while the scientists onboard are merely repelled from her like puppets when they try to stop her. She unseals the first seal of Adel's tomb, and then heads out into space (yes, with a spacesuit) to release the second and final seal, which would release Adel. Meanwhile, the Lunar Cry is about to happen on the moon; the Lunatic Pandora, when aligned with Tear's Point on Earth, artificially causes this to happen. Because the space station and tomb are between the moon and the planet, both will be engulfed by it. Rinoa releases the second seal, and then is flung off into space. Squall, Quistis, Ellone, the President of Esthar, and the crew all evacuate aboard escape pods as the station and Adel are swept away in a tide of monsters amid the Lunar Cry. Squall convinces Ellone to send him to Rinoa's past so he can know what happened to her.
Ellone first accidentally sends him too far, and Squall sees Rinoa convincing Irvine, who she says is being totally ridiculous, to go back and rescue Squall and everyone else from the prison. He sees a couple of other scenes where she is talking about Squall, and finally sees the moment they defeated Edea and she first went into the strange, trance-like state. He sees the form of a strange sorceress controlling Rinoa and talking to Seifer through her. She identifies herself as Ultimecia and commands him to find Lunatic Pandora and take it to Tear's Point, saying that his rewards will be immense and all that good stuff.
Ellone is sorry that she can't help him change the past, and Squall is ridiculously upset. Ellone decides to send him to Rinoa's "past that's closest to the present" (i.e., pretty much the present). Squall sees Rinoa floating in space near the moon, no longer possessed by Ultimecia, just about giving up, silently saying goodbye to everything she knew and loved, knowing that there's no way she can make it, with her life support running out. Squall calls out to her from his dream-state, and she calls out to him, hopelessly. In what she thinks is her moment of death, she sees Squall's ring on the chain, remembers an emergency oxygen supply (>_<), and lives on a little longer... Squall wakes up and decides to put on a space suit and go and find her on a suicide mission. Somehow, miraculously, he sees her, and uses the little mini-jetpack to get to her. They grasp each other through the space suits and float aimlessly for a little while, not sure of what the hell they're going to do now that they're both stuck in space. But they're happy to finally be together, perhaps one last time, even if it means they die together. ...But sure enough, after a couple of minutes, they come across a mysterious red spaceship. They make it aboard and take off their space suits, ready to figure out how to pilot the ship home. Unfortunately, some alien monstrosities have devoured the crew and turned the ship into a mini-colony, so Squall and Rinoa are forced to exterminate the terrifying things before getting to the pilot's seat. There, Rinoa embraces Squall, happy to be alive. When they do finally get there, Esthar contacts them via radio, identifying the spaceship as "Ragnarok," and tells Squall they will guide the ship to Esthar. Much lovey-dovey romantic dialogue happens, although no undying love is admitted; then Esthar calls again and tells Squall to keep "the sorceress" Rinoa there. Rinoa admits that Edea, no longer a sorceress, unknowingly passed on her sorceress powers to Rinoa when she was defeated in Galbadia Garden. This was the first moment Ultimecia possessed Rinoa. Rinoa is scared shitless and doesn't want to go back to Esthar (she'll be sealed away like Adel was), but knows she has to do it. When they land on Earth, Rinoa is taken by Esthar voluntarily, and Squall lets her go after one last ever-so-romantic embrace. When Squall meets up with Selphie, Quistis, Zell, and Irvine, they are super-upset with him and make him go get Rinoa back. He realizes that he risked his life and went on that insane suicide mission to get her back in the first place because he wanted to be with her, and now he was just going to give her up. So they break into the place and get her out, and head back to Esthar's Presidential Palace after they are called there by a man named Kiros. Quistis reveals that Ellone was not present in the escape pod when they woke up after it crashed on Earth, and assumes she was kidnapped by Galbadians and is now aboard the Lunatic Pandora. Esthar is in chaos with the raining moon monsters. When they get to the palace, they are surprised to see the identity of the president: Laguna from the dream world! He became President after, as the leader of the anti-Adel movement during the Sorceress War, he helped take down the Sorceress and imprison her, and Kiros and Ward became his aids. He sent Ellone to an orphanage after she was rescued so that she would be safe. Odine then explains that Ultimecia intends to use Ellone to "compress time," making the past, present, and future all one. From here she will absorb the powers of all sorceresses and, essentially, become a God-like entity. The only way to stop her is to allow the time compression to take place and then to fight her in the future. Dr. Odine thinks up some ridiculously complex way to accomplish this without everything going horribly wrong, and I can't quite remember it, because it's kind of insane. First of all, they need to get to Lunatic Pandora and kill Adel before she fully awakens, and defeat Seifer, who has become a proud, spiteful shadow of his former self, once and for all. Before they embark on this dangerous quest, the gang meets at the orphange one last time; the place of love, memories, friendship, and fondness that they'll all have to focus on in order to make it out of the time compression alive. Rinoa and Squall talk more, and Rinoa tells of a dream she had where she was going to go out somewhere with Squall, and got all dressed up, but then couldn't remember where they were supposed to meet; she searched all over the world but couldn't find him. Then, Squall decides that the flower field near the orphanage will be where they meet should they ever lose each other again. Rinoa is afraid that Squall will, as a SeeD, have to kill her if she is possessed by evil again, but Squall refuses to accept this, saying that he'll be her knight forever, and find a way to release her from evil no matter what. The group, Squall, Rinoa, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and Irvine, make their way toward Lunatic Pandora, WHERE THEIR DESINTY AWAITS THEM... ~*~ SUMMARY ENDS HERE; IF YOU WANTED TO SKIP IT YOU CAN START READING AGAIN NOW.
That's where I am. If you read that, imagine how long it took to play it! There are a bunch of allusions in the game, too! For example, "Ragnarok" is the Viking apocalypse where the gods and fallen soldiers take on the forces of evil. The Guardian Forces in the game are pretty much all named after gods and deities and other-worldly beings and such from various cultures' myths (Norse, Celtic, Judaic, etc.). The idea that monsters come from the moon is somewhat symbolic and obvious even in Western culture (werewolves and such). A sort of creation story of the game's story tells of a being Hyne that came to Earth and created the first sorceresses; this is somewhat similar to Eve and the story of original sin in the GARDEN of Eden in the Old Testament.
Radio show tonight. Tutoring tomorrow. New Faces coming to Bellingham this weekend, I just remembered. Yesss.
--Jon
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