Total Eclipse - Novel Discussion

[DoomRavager]

If we're going to read too much into the April Fools images we may as well consider that one with the BETA Katamari as a foreshadowing of gattai.

[sasahar17]

Originally Posted by Chibiloli

She seems more likely to use Aniki.

Originally Posted by Alastor Mobius Toth

It doesn't roll out as smoothly.

I'll have to agree with Chibiloli here. 'Onii-chan' may sound cuter and smoother, however Yui has ther 'Tsun-Tsun' phase. Aniki sounds harder, hits faster and is a sounds more suited to siblings with a love-hate relationship.

In that case 'Aniki' might suit Yui better... at least until she flips over and goes 'Dere-Dere' Jelly legs for her big brother Yuuya.

EDIT - I can't believe I just advocated using one big brother term over another. My IRL Sister would skin me alive if she knew about this.

Originally Posted by DoomRavager

If we're going to read too much into the April Fools images we may as well consider that one with the BETA Katamari as a foreshadowing of gattai.

Actually, could this be how that Laser Fort Monstrosity came to be? The BETA saw that the humans were pulling some blue fire, soul of my dead girlfriend Newtype/Shounen-powerup and decided to counter with Gattai?

...nah.

[Angrypokstick]

h

Originally Posted by sasahar17

I'll have to agree with Chibiloli here. 'Onii-chan' may sound cuter and smoother, however Yui has ther 'Tsun-Tsun' phase. Aniki sounds harder, hits faster and is a sounds more suited to siblings with a love-hate relationship.

In that case 'Aniki' might suit Yui better... at least until she flips over and goes 'Dere-Dere' Jelly legs for her big brother Yuuya.

EDIT - I can't believe I just advocated using one big brother term over another. My IRL Sister would skin me alive if she knew about this.


Actually, could this be how that Laser Fort Monstrosity came to be? The BETA saw that the humans were pulling some blue fire, soul of my dead girlfriend Newtype/Shounen-powerup and decided to counter with Gattai?

...nah.

Well I might as well tell you what I know of the game.

Spoiler for open at your own risk my jap friends spoiled me:

vn plays ther terrorist arc different from the anime and follows the ln. So Yui gets shot in the chest by a sniper. Yuuya arrives at the hospital to be told that Yui is dead. Yuuya gets devastated and becomes obsessed with finishing the xfj project to honour Yui . And during this period of time he ends up spending a lot of time virtually everyday with cryska and the 2 develops a relationship. Eventually Yuuya finds out that Yui is alive but faked her death so they can investigate her shooter. Yui tells everyone that the bullet impacted her father's pocket watch and didn't penetrate deep enough to kill her but still hospitalized her for all this time. Later on the old Boeing guy recognized the watch and told Yui about the time he worked with Yui s dad and uncle. From this story Yui and the old Boeing guy realized that Yui and Yuuya are half siblings. Thus shit started rolling down hills for Yui as she goes through phases or shock disbelief denial, acceptance and guilt- if it were t for her mothers family her father would have stayed in America and or have brought Yuuya and his mother to Japan. Yuuya should have became the successor to the takamura name and Yui thinks she cost him his childhood. She ends up confessing all of this to Stella. Then thing go back to normal until Yui and the Xfj team convinces Boeing to disclose secret design blueprint of the yf 23 to improve the shurani so it can deafeat a su 47 or f22 in any situation. Later on cryska losses her powers and sandek orders her to be disposed off . Inia managed to tell yeifei this before being detained herself. The entire xfj team also gets arrested at this point for using the yf23 data illegally. Yuuya is freed because he is an authorized us test pilot of the f22. Later he finds out about cryska's execution and is approached by the CIA. They were the ones who released Yuuya and are willing to help Yuuya steal the yf23 hybrid to go and rescue the scarlet twins and create a distraction for the infinities who have conduct more sabotage operations on the soviets.in exchange yuuya's friends will be freed , the scarlet twins will be given us citizenship and Yuuya will be promoted. Yuuya agrees but the CIA will deny all knowledge of this if he is compromised during his escape and the rest of Argo and the un can not find out either. Yuuya grabs cryska but fails to get Inia because sandek is an uber skilled pilot and almost kills Yuuya but Yuuya pulls a victory in deafeat and overpowers sandek sparing his life because of cryska. Sandek tells Yuuya that cryska s generation can not survive without being submerge in LCL fluid periodically and that they should enjoy their final days.
Cryska and Yuuya confess and sealing their love together on the run From the Russians . Argos also receives a kill or capture order out on Yuuya s head from the un. Yuuya ends up fighting Argos but Russian elite spec op in su47 arrive and Argos decide to fight them instead, Yuuya encounters a red su47 piloted by another esper and Inia. Yuuya gets his ass kicked until cryska explain fully how prafka works and they exploit it weakness and establishes a connection with Inia and disabling the berkut. They grab Inia but not before cryska put a bullet into the other esper s head saying something about goodbye and sorry to another version of her self. Soon Yui arrives to challenge Yuuya in single sword combat. They reach a draw and Yui tells him to leave and she will hold the Russians busy she also gives him her katana as a keepsake , but really it's because the sword is traditionally given to the head of the takamura household, Yuuya did not realize the implication behind this. Before Yuuya disappears in the distance Yui says how like his father Yuuya really is running off with another woman before wishing Yuuya cryska and Inia to find peace and happiness. This is the last time Yuuya meets with Yui in this vn. Days later cryska succumbs to her lack of LCL exposure and pass away in yuuya's arms. She told her will to Inia and told Yuuya how she never regretted falling in love with him and how she wished for the 3 of them to live a normal life in the next life. Since Yuuya couldn't save cryska he have no intention of giving Inia over to the CIA so he left for Russia where he and Inia made a tomb for cryska and found out that latrova and half of her battalion survived because cryska never killed her. Latrova and a Russian general helped Yuuya defect to the Russia army and put him in latrova's battalion his shiranui 2/ yf 23 hybrid gets some su47/su37 parts to repair its damage and the cockpit becomes a 2 seater for him and inia.Then fast forward to op ouka and we find that the alt3 su47 squadron is raping h26 with their prafka mode until lol troll triple laser fort shows up and stops the entire Russian advance flat. It was pretty much invincible and it took the sacrifice of several s-11 equiped battalions and 5 waves of orbital divers for latrova and yuuya's battalion to get close to the monstrosity and even then they were losing . Latrova decides to s-11 herself and tells that Yuuya was a son to her. Then all the surving alt3 47s started glowing blue flames and soon so is every one else and the we have the zeta gundam new type moment with ghost cryska and Yuuya. Sandark got away is on some ship somewhere and he sees the ghost-powered Shiranui and declares that he was totally right about Yuuya being the best catalyst. It's then shown that every member of Argos is back in their native countries armed forces and is each fighting in a different hive and how the beta monstrosity is now targeting the Susanoo and its escorts. Last scene is Yuuya smiling and charging at the beta monstrosity before it can fire on the Susanoo . And credit roll and the epilogue just mention how the sacrifices of several hundred thousand soldiers ensured victory for mankind on that day. Gay ending I know.....

[Alastor Mobius Toth]

Now that I am not distracted by writing a bunch of WTO legalese, and my shiny new 3DS, I analyzed all available info, and....made a small rant. Enjoy.

Spoiler for AMT-kun drops the tsun:

Alright, I actually took it upon myself to write all of this out. In Word, even.

This will be a...subjective rant, if you will. Feel free to read. Comment, or not. It’s not really important.

I’ll be the first to admit (and I never denied it), that I am biased towards TE. I have been for the last three years. It’s why I meticulously hunted down TSFiA, and why I religiously (average: 20 times a day) checked in with Muv-Luv wiki.

I like Total Eclipse. It’s not great, but it’s “solid”. It’s a fun thing to...watch...read, *follow*. It was like a buffet bar that had everything I liked: Nice character designs. Utterly cool mecha designs. It had a bit of love drama. Test pilots being test pilots. Political backstabbing. My Polish neighbour in character cast. Doctor Who villain. It had the SNAFU that all BETA combat ends in. It had the Human combat in it. It had the comedy/H-potential beach episode.
It was like that average TV action TV show from the 80s, that was too fun to pass up.

Right now, what I feel, despite initial gloating in the beginning, and claims of “N-no, I’m really not bothered”, I am in fact, bothered. I am bothered as fuck.

It just looks that after the last volume, age simply did not had any coherent idea on how to finish TE. This “VN”-only material is, frankly, a bunch of twists thrown in with little else behind them than being twists. It’s like someone tried *too* hard.

So, YuuyaxYui are siblings. Meh. No, really, when I first connected the dots, I really, really didn’t want this to be true. But even then, I figured that it might still work. Give some meaningful drama, the debate about what’s more important – family, or being happy, shit like that. Oh, but who am I kidding? It turned into convenient Relationship Killing Device (RKD), that axes any plot development these two had. And everything finishes on...Yui making Yuuya the next head of the family? I dunno?

Cryska’s death moment is cool with me. It’s suitably tragic in that at the very last moment Cryska becomes a real individual, and becomes happy. The tragedy of course, is that it happens only as these are her final moments. The beauty of young woman with entire world before her, just fading away...Except that circumstances leading to this are, just...ugh. Cryska is the 00-Unit now? Again with FUCKING, ANNOYING, GOD-AWFUL BITCH Sumika thing. Cryska didn’t have to be Sumika allegory age. She really didn’t have to. So why? You didn’t even bother putting any reason behind why she’s suddenly dying. You had so many things that could work. Cancer from all these awful things that get flung around the battlefield. Shoddy genetic engineering. Her being poisoned by Allegiance. But nooooo, it’s something, something ESPers have to take pretty salt baths! Sestina ESPers are better!

Latorova should have stayed dead. I admit, I am biased, because I simply do not like her, but even then, her earlier sacrifice was meaningful, dramatic and snell. Everyone got something they wanted. Age got drama, I got her out of my face, Zhar gets its hero medals. Now...she’s brough back, with excuse that IniaxCryska didn’t kill them all. That’s it!? THAT’S THE BEST YOU CAN DO!? What happened to Idars being fucking Terminators? I’ll respectfully skip the point about how all the grand she does is to blow herself up. *Again*

YF-23 bullshit, I do not touch.

Su-47s, I assume Ace Combat rule about not asking questions where all this hardware comes from, is in effect.

I-I am okay now. I had to get this off my chest.

You know, for me, TE ended when it did – with Yui getting shot on her way to the hangar. All of this – this loco psychedelic bull, is her hallucination as she’s loosing blood, while Argos are trying to get a medic for her. It’s a purgatory.

In a way, I’m glad I willed myself into writing Comet in the first place.
Because now, it’s time to fix this sh**

[Micropod]

As far as I'm reading it

Spoiler for shooting aftermath:

Yui being Yuuya's sister wasn't the relationship killer, it was Yui vanishing and Yuuya falling into Cryska's arms instead. Like Haruka's coma and Takayuki being with Mitsuki as a result, except that Yuuya had the building of the Most Powerful Shiranui of All Time to put all his rage and sadness into.

And

Spoiler for corporate drama:

Yui and Heinemann thinking they could get away with not just borrowing technologies from Northrock's old ATF contender (packed with tech that should be classed as banned for export) but actually cloning pretty much the entire physical design is pretty lolwut.

[Gundamx]

Originally Posted by Micropod

And

Spoiler for corporate drama:

Yui and Heinemann thinking they could get away with not just borrowing technologies from Northrock's old ATF contender (packed with tech that should be classed as banned for export) but actually cloning pretty much the entire physical design is pretty lolwut.

Spoiler for spoiler:

indeed, lolwut, I'll understand it if they done that to be stronger than beta but no they want it to be stronger than other machine...
it show you how even though most of humanity near extinct they still fight against each other for supremacy...
(USA, UN and other power done that too in muv-luv > which make takeru really angry )

[sasahar17]

Originally Posted by Alastor Mobius Toth

Now that I am not distracted by writing a bunch of WTO legalese, and my shiny new 3DS, I analyzed all available info, and....made a small rant. Enjoy.

Spoiler for AMT-kun drops the tsun:

Analysis

Right now I'm more shocked than anything else, but IMHO the revelations alone I don't think are enough to judge the work. Until I have actually played it, I have no idea if it was good or bad. On paper it seems like a trainwreck, but for all I know it's actually one of the rare good Michael Bay movies (hence the trainwreck on paper, but one hell of a spectacle in it's execution). In other words: horrible plot with holes everywhere, but it's just executed so aweomely I don't give a damn.

Still, you do raise plenty of valid points. Latrova surviving, explanation or no explanation, seems like a cop out from a Walt Disney cartoon.

As for the sinking of both my ships, well there's always fanfiction to sort it all out. I'm actually brainstorming ideas regarding the new spin on Yui's realtionship to Yuuya right now: in my view you can either work around it or use it to you advantage (which I feel would be a better challenge). Since this is not the fanfiction thread I'll refrain from saying more on this.

Originally Posted by Gundamx

Spoiler for spoiler:

indeed, lolwut, I'll understand it if they done that to be stronger than beta but no they want it to be stronger than other machine...
it show you how even though most of humanity near extinct they still fight against each other for supremacy...
(USA, UN and other power done that too in muv-luv > which make takeru really angry )

Seriously, stealing a TSF design? Have you no respect for IP, Yui Takamura? Sure the BETA are at the gates but even you have to be aware that coporate espionage is the greatest of all sins, right up there with Copyright Piracy, Patent Infringement, blatantly copied Indistrial Designs and Deceptively Similar Trade Marks! Shame on you!

Capatalism Ho!

[MitchelJohn]

Originally Posted by sasahar17

Seriously, stealing a TSF design? Have you no respect for IP, Yui Takamura? Sure the BETA are at the gates but even you have to be aware that coporate espionage is the greatest of all sins, right up there with Copyright Piracy, Patent Infringement, blatantly copied Indistrial Designs and Deceptively Similar Trade Marks! Shame on you!

Capatalism Ho!

Don't worry, Yuuya-oniisan will take care of any enemies that dares to to defy Yui-chan

[Alastor Mobius Toth]

I would really, really want to give this benefit of the doubt.
But frankly, I won't.

I have heard the opinions, looked through the facts, and actually seen at least some CGs. No, just no. This is horrible, falls flat on its face, blahblahblah.

If Schwarzemarken or TDA finish in the same way, Muv-Luv will be pretty much finished. At least for me.
It *pains* because TE was originally quite an enjoyable romp, and the way the left it gave it quite a lot of development potential. Instead, all of that went to waste. That's the most frustrating part.

Also, lolcorporate drama makes so little sense that it's painful. At least, we have the CIA. Because in America, IP is serious ****** business.

*sigh*
Well, at least, I'll get an extra satisfaction from writing Comet now. I'm sort-of glad I didn't wait for this to come out to work out my plotline, so I screw this forttrainwreck with impunity.

[Micropod]

So after painstaking step by step spoiler dump correction and verification with anonymous person in the internets who played the game, this is what could probably said to be the spoiler list iteration with the least errors so far.

Spoiler for Totally Crisp:

Yui gets shot, she survives because of her SUPER CARBON WATCH (that is a limited item for the Type-74 sword project people) but decides to fake her death (so she can investigate who tried to kill her in secret?)

Yuuya is told she is dead and this is kind of a bummer to him, but he decides to honor her memory by using his test pilot expertise to make the Shiranui the MOST POWERFUL MECHA EVER. (because they jobbed to the Terminator which was inferior to the Berkut? And if they can't make something better than that, some Japanese America-hating retards will try and make a deal with the USSR to use Soviet TSFs instead of American, though later DIA guy says that would never have really flown)

Around this time he spends more time with Cryska, relationship points up. And Cryska's esper power starts to inexplicably weaken for some reason.

Yui comes back after a while. Yuuya reaction is like "oh you're alive? that's pretty cool I guess", he's giving more thought to how he's going to make THE MOST POWERFUL SHIRANUI EVER that can fight berkuts and raptors.

Around this time is when Yui has a talk with Heinemann about his history with her father and Yuuya's mom, because of the watch. Heinemann knew Yui's father and uncle and Yuuya's mom through the Akebono Program, it is established that Yui's dad is also Yuuya's dad, but that Yuuya's mom up and vanished when she got pregnant because she could be used as leverage against Yui's dad. Though Yui's dad never knew she was pregnant and she never told him. Thus Yui and Yuuya are half-siblings. Heinemann knew who Yuuya's parents were, he personally requested Yuuya as XFJ test pilot because of this.

Also Heinemann was in love with Yuuya's mom and considers the machines he designs to be his and her children, and wants their children to populate the world, and is succeeding because many of the TSFs in the world now are descended from his designs. He was behind the leaking of the Tomcat designs to the Soviet Union which was part of this.

His excuse is that "I made all this shit in the first place you dicks, I can do what I like with it". He's kind of eccentric like that.

Yui mopes a bit and talks to Stella about her feelings. She makes the nikujaga for Yuuya saying HERE'S THE NIKUJAGA RECIPE I GOT FROM MY FATHER IT IS EXACTLY LIKE THE RECIPE YOUR MOTHER INVENTED IT USES PEPPER WHICH IS UNUSUAL FOR JAPANESE ISN'T THAT INTERESTING HUH NUDGE NUDGE HINT

HERE YUUYA THIS IS THE TAKAMURA FAMILY SWORD THAT IS TO BE PASSED TO THE ELDEST SON OF THE TAKAMURA FAMILY. I WANT YOU TO HAVE IT. HINT HINT.

He goes "oh that's cool I like pepper on my potatoes, thanks for the cool sword" and has no clue.

Anyway when Yuuya presents his plan for the POWERFUL SHIRANUI with more SPEEED and vanes Heinemann says "Ha ha we can do better than that, by using this ten year old American machine that I designed." and whips out the Shiranui Second Phase 3 that does what Yuuya wanted to do but better, by incorporating the design of the old YF-23 from ATSF. They weren't originally going to build where the Americans could see them from across the base, but they REALLY need to fight those Russkies.

And then after they build it obviously people notice, and the CIA doesn't take kindly to Heinemann handing state secrets to the Japanese, and chuck the entire XFJ team in gaol under investigation for espionage. When he's questioned about it his excuse is that it just LOOKS like a Black Widow but it isn't a Black Widow and you're stupid faggots for assuming that they're the same thing just because they look the same, it doesn't have active stealth or the refueling system (though it actually did). He submitted fake blueprints that looked perfectly innocent and unoffending and then just bullshitted them in the face. Apparently only Unit 1 (Yuuya's unit) has the top secret banned for export shit, Unit 2 (the blue one) doesn't.

Yuuya is let out of the lockup allegedly because he's loyal American F-22 test pilot and is cleared for that info anyway or something, the brigadier general who sent him to Alaska who is a friend of his grandfather who actually cares for Yuuya pulled some strings to get him out. Meanwhile Cryska's power weakens so much that the Soviets decide she's useless, and decide to just kill her by not giving her her esper meds and see how long she lasts like that.

But Yuuya gets wind of it from Inia, plus the Defense Intelligence Agency (because Central Intelligence wasn't enough) come to him and offer him a deal, he will steal the Shiranui Second Phase Three, break into the Soviet base and kidnap the Scarlet Twins and facilitate their defection to Freedomland under cover of being a deserter, in exchange they can get the XFJ people out of incarceration and Yuuya can come home to Eagletopia and get his shiny promotion (he wasn't actually sent to Alaska as a punishment, it was more like an internship and he would be promoted on his return, Leon volunteered for XFJ but was turned down), and he is hero who save girls from evil communists who experiment on humans. He is to avoid combat as much as possible, they'll just sort of half-assedly go after him under the pretext that he is a deserter. The Soviets will just wake up and find Kriska and Inia missing because the DIA hack their cameras and Inia helps him dodge guards.

However scientist dude changed the password on her cell so they had to have him to open it and knock him out, but he woke up and sounded the alarm while they were busy talking to Kriska because Yuuya is best spy. They get separated from Inia and attacked by Sandek in the Scarlet Twins' Terminator. Yuuya beats Sandek in the Su-37 who says "well have fun with Cryska's last few days of life because she didn't get her immersion tank treatments", she needs those every now and again to not die. Now that Yuuya has outright fought the Soviets the Americans and UN people really have to chase him for going rogue instead of what they were going to do earlier and sorta half-ass it.

They dick around Alaska waiting for a chance to go back and get Inia. Russians chase them, then Argos chases them, then Argos fights the Russians that chased them, but they fight a crazy killer Inia in a berkut with an esper pod who is sent to kill them.

Cryska removes her ESP limiter and contacts Inia, which resonates with the esper clone in the pod who gets Cryska's memories through the prafka link, who stops Inia. They extract Inia and Cryska shoots the pod esper with an apology for killing her other self.

And then Yui shows up to have a sword duel with Yuuya as the snow falls around them, she's using the other Shiranui Second Phase 3 because her Takemikaduti is still broke from the terrorist attack. They charge at each other with swords, fade to black and there's a sword in the ground, Yuuya is gone, and Yui talks about this is how the men of the Takamura family are like, huh, making his choice to be with the woman he loves. Be happy, Cryska.

(Incidentally thanks to Yuuya stealing the Shiranui Second Phase 3 Unit 1, the CIA can't pick it apart to prove that Heinemann was bullshitting them. CIA guy wants to take Unit 2 and pick that apart, but DIA guy tells him he'd just embarrass himself because obviously Heinemann wouldn't have put the offending stuff in there and left it for them to examine).

Then Cryska dies in Yuuya's arms of newtype cancer a few days later. Elements involved are
-her love for him could just be because of Inia's influence
-because Inia is a psycho who thinks the trauma Yuuya's shitty childhood is a real turn-on second only to Yui's past traumas
-but Yuuya says that doesn't matter what matters is she loves him, he loves her too
-she tells Inia her will or something?
-she does not regret loving Yuuya
-she wants the three of them to be able to live normally together in the next life

Instead of meeting up with the DIA like he was supposed to to hand Inia to them, Yuuya decides he wants to bury Cryska in the homeland that she loved (plus maybe the DIA guys might use Inia for experimentation or something) and runs off to Kamchatka.

So at Kamchatka he meets up with Latrova who is actually not dead, along with probably most of Zhar after they were attacked by what Yuuya assumes must have been the esper in the pod (Martika) because the Scarlet Twins were somewhere else at the time. She's currently underground in the care of bald russian officer base commander dude, he joins them because now the Russians, Americans and Japanese are all after him because he fucked them all over.

He buries Cryska and marks her grave with a rock, promises to move her to her real homeland (the Alternative 3 research facility) some day when they take back Europe. When Inia hums the snow maiden song at her grave Latrowa identifies the song and explains the fairy tale.

Then we get a timeskip to Operation Ouka. I suppose Yuuya was just counting trees or something during this time (speculah joke).

Yuuya and Latrova with Zhar were supposed to be heading to Japan for reasons unknown but Yuuya and Latrova decided to link up with the Soviet force in charge of the diversionary attack on Evensk Hive.

Squadron of esper pod-controlled Berkuts led by a white Berkut with a dude and a pod which totally rape Hive 26 because the lasers can't fucking hit them and wipe out all the lasers. And then a nine laser fort BETA appears that doesn't give a shit about friendly fire and starts vaporizing everything. The first fully charged shot alone vaporized a few hundred orbital divers flying at it at supersonic (twenty times the speed of sound) speed as well as a few dozen armoured space destroyers. The second shot took vaporized the entire second division of the Soviet pacific fleet and damaged or destroyed 40% of all the TSFs participating in the operation.

The esper squadron goes out of control because of Inia being around while the prafka is jacked to maximum, the dude gets chucked to the BETA to get eaten and the Berkuts just sorta chill around the battlefield not getting hit by the laser fort because prafka is like the Zero System and lets them see a little into the future somehow.

Laser Fort keeps raping everything and its vacuum-generating superlaser is making huge storm clouds jamming communications so they can't tell UN high command about the slight snafu, though they can still receive. Somebody wonders if a G-bomb would work and someone else says it probably won't because it could probably overload G-bomb Rutherford fields with pure firepower causing the bombs to go off prematurely.

Bunch of Russians blow themselves up with S-11s to clear the way to the Laser Fort, some Zhar kids attack it and get vaporized. Latrova decides she has to S-11 the Laser Fort, calling Yuuya her son from a foreign land.

Yuuya starts yelling about how he wants to protect everything and shit while we have a montage of Argos and Yifei with their own countries in their own favorite TSFs fighting across the world, then snow maiden singing starts and Cryska's ghost appears because of the prafka, Yuuya, Inia, her memories and the esper clone pods doing some SCIENCE stuff to cause Zeta Gundam. Yui seems to hear the song (it's just a "!?" when the song starts)

The clone Berkuts all turn blue flames and become Funnels for the Shiranui Second. Latrowa and Natasha and Inia are clearly seeing the blue flame (they stare at it, their faces lit up), Sandek who's chilling on his boat with the other espers and Russians sees the whole thing from far away (ring of light makes it look like a total eclipse GET IT GET ITTTTT) sees it and is all YEAH HE WAS THE BEST CATALYST AFTER ALL with his smug look.

The Laser Fort starts trying to snipe at A-01. Inia says Kriska is with them (he's not HEARING things, and the blue flames are the prafka, but the ghost itself miiiiiiight be him seeing things). Yuuya and Inia in Shiranui with ring of flaming Berkuts charge the Laser Fort.

The end.

Epilogue - 2002 - hundreds of thousands of people died but we humanity won so there.

Oh right and Yui (and Yuuya's) father died at Yokohama hive. G bomb.

[grevierr]

Nice writeup, matches what I got so far.

Anyone else thinking of Yukikaze anime ending for the last part?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...cE_xGdc#t=401s

Spoiler for Operation Zero - Best Operation:

The fact that Their dad died in Operation Zero tickles me, since That Other Indecisive Dick also died then...

[wavehawk]

Back to TE, some spoiler-based questions/theories:

Spoiler:

- Cryska might be an earlier type of ESPer that requires the immersion tank, since Inia obviously has no problems. and that problem never turned up when Kasumi was concerned.
- So that last fight between Yui and Yuuya---that's it? Yui's gone for the rest of the game?
- Was Yuuya still using the YF-23-Shiranui at the end?
- Also, where'd the Infinites go off to?

[grevierr]

Originally Posted by wavehawk

Back to TE, some spoiler-based questions/theories:

Spoiler:

- Cryska might be an earlier type of ESPer that requires the immersion tank, since Inia obviously has no problems. and that problem never turned up when Kasumi was concerned.
- So that last fight between Yui and Yuuya---that's it? Yui's gone for the rest of the game?
- Was Yuuya still using the YF-23-Shiranui at the end?
- Also, where'd the Infinites go off to?

Spoiler for TE ans:

- Cryska might be an earlier type of ESPer that requires the immersion tank, since Inia obviously has no problems. and that problem never turned up when Kasumi was concerned.

Yes, it seems that projecting Espers require the use of LCL to purify their bodies. Sumika was in the same situation... I can only think that Inia and Kasumi are ok because they are read only esper types.

- So that last fight between Yui and Yuuya---that's it? Yui's gone for the rest of the game?

Apparently. Still in the previous releases of the PVs, we know she does take part in Operation Ouka, and does some thing to make her life difficult.
(Yui ver A
Our mission is to assault objective 20. This is not to achieve the dreams of our nation, it is merely a feint. Our true objective is the original hive. Humanity shall stake everything upon this battle.

唯依Ｂ
諸君、生き残れ。最後まで生き残り使命を果たせ！
斯衛は常に先陣切り、常に殿を務む！全機、着剣！
Yui ver B
Everyone, Live! Live on to carry out our duty!
We of the Honor Guards shall stand fast as the rearguard. All units, draw your blades!
唯依Ｃ
誤るな、諸君。我々は英雄になるのではない、国賊となり果てにゆくのだ。

時が我々の挺身を照らすその日まで、この汚名に耐え抜こう。
Yui ver C
Do not be mistaken. Heroes we are not. We merely suffer in silence the shame of being called traitors to our homeland. Until the day our names are cleared through our deeds, we shall suffer this disgrace.)

- Was Yuuya still using the YF-23-Shiranui at the end?

Yes, he still uses XFJ-23 at the end.

- Also, where'd the Infinites go off to?

Screwing around. They would be part of the DIA forces. And would have fought in Operation Ouka presumably.

[wavehawk]

Originally Posted by grevierr

Spoiler for TE ans:

- So that last fight between Yui and Yuuya---that's it? Yui's gone for the rest of the game?

Apparently. Still in the previous releases of the PVs, we know she does take part in Operation Ouka, and does some thing to make her life difficult.
(Yui ver A
Our mission is to assault objective 20. This is not to achieve the dreams of our nation, it is merely a feint. Our true objective is the original hive. Humanity shall stake everything upon this battle.

唯依Ｂ
諸君、生き残れ。最後まで生き残り使命を果たせ！
斯衛は常に先陣切り、常に殿を務む！全機、着剣！
Yui ver B
Everyone, Live! Live on to carry out our duty!
We of the Honor Guards shall stand fast as the rearguard. All units, draw your blades!
唯依Ｃ
誤るな、諸君。我々は英雄になるのではない、国賊となり果てにゆくのだ。

時が我々の挺身を照らすその日まで、この汚名に耐え抜こう。
Yui ver C
Do not be mistaken. Heroes we are not. We merely suffer in silence the shame of being called traitors to our homeland. Until the day our names are cleared through our deeds, we shall suffer this disgrace.)

Spoiler for TE ans:

- But the PVs also had bits from Cryska, so I dunno how much of it is canon. Makes me wonder, though, what happened.

- Good news for Yui fanboys -- she's available
- Bad news for Yui fanboys -- she's probably more broken now than before

[grevierr]

Originally Posted by wavehawk

Spoiler for TE ans:

- But the PVs also had bits from Cryska, so I dunno how much of it is canon. Makes me wonder, though, what happened.

- Good news for Yui fanboys -- she's available
- Bad news for Yui fanboys -- she's probably more broken now than before

That's the thing, there never was any mention about Operation Ouka in Cryska's one. That's why everyone was certain she was going to die then. The writers just moved the timetable up by 2 months...

クリスカA
私には何もない、失えるものなど、始めから幻想でしかなかったのだ。
お前は違う。お前は捨てではいけない。
お前には……最後まで生きて欲しい……
Cryska ver A
I never had anything to begin with, other than my dreams there is nothing else that can be taken from me. But you are different, You must never give in.I hope……… you will live till the end……

クリスカＢ
諦めるな、貴様が諦めたら、私は戦えない。
貴様が居たから、貴様と共に、私は最後まで戦える。
だから、貴様だけは諦めるな……
Cryska ver B
Don’t give up, if even you were to give up now, I would no longer be able to fight.Only with you here with me, am I able to fight till the end.That’s

Its good to be able to comfort a broken Yui... also, if Yuuya survives, it might be the time for a little "Dark Secret = I'm Really Your Half Sister", if you get my meaning... The love part of the game isn't over, not matter what is said about TE...

[wavehawk]

Originally Posted by grevierr

Its good to be able to comfort a broken Yui...

- You SURE about that? Those are some pretty big shoes to fill...

[grevierr]

I wear size 12... my problem is finding shoes big enough...

But like I said, don't count Yuuya x Yui out yet... not till we have the scene with Inia + one other Esper at the beach.

[wavehawk]

I MEANT that trying to replace Yuuya in Yui's life would be a tall order. In fanfiction terms, he'd have to be a Jerkass Gary Stu at best...at worst, a Jerkass Gary Stu with delusions of saving the human race, an alcohol problem, and a talent for building uberpowered TSFs in a cave with a box of scraps...

...characters. Not us, I meant characters in-story.

[grevierr]

I know. I was trying to indirectly say I'm man enough to try. It's not being a jerkass if you really care.

The best stories are made when you can put yourselves in the characters shoes... and love is a story old to time...

[Alastor Mobius Toth]

The joys of fanfiction is that you can freely retcon character relations.

I mean, Japan has a very long tradition of adopting heirs, *pretty* sure that one of the execs (or future execs.) of one of their big, family-owned companies (probably Honda), is actually adopted...Hint hint.

Also, you can always descend into the darker corners and join those "pick-a-waifu" games. They're pretty fun.

In fact, TE girls did really well this year. I grabbed Yui, Cryska and Inia, my friend nabbed Stella and somebody yoined Cui.
No love for Tarisa though. Makes you want to hug the poor girl. No-one cares about her. Even in-story.