Thoughts upon completion (spoilers)

[Sasquatch]

WHAT THE F*** JUST HAPPENED?!

Really. That was my first thought. Now, maybe I'm a little slow, maybe I wasn't following it too well, whateverthe situation may have been ... but I didn't really get it. This is what I got:

Our Focus was to destroy Orphan, thus destroying Cocoon and summoning The Maker to "reset" the world. So if we don't destroy Orphan, we become C'ieth and the Focus is passed to somebody else to destroy Orphan. But if we do destroy Orphan, Cocoon goes to crap.

So ... Orphan wants us to destroy it. For some reason, the biggest fal'cie within reach is suicidal -- hell, ain't like he's gonna stick around to watch the world reset if he has to be destroyed to the resetting to start, right?

So we destroy Orphan. Well, we hurt it, apparently, and then Fang goes friggin' psycho. Why did she try to hurt Vanille? Why did she want to become Ragnarok? Better question yet, what the hell did she become? If that was Ragnarok, why was it such a wuss? Why was Fang's brand different from Vanille's in the first place? (It was faded and didn't grow arrows, so it didn't look like she could become a C'ieth, she was just in it to protect Vanille and keep her from becoming a C'ieth ... but how could Fang use magic, then?)

So Fang, as whatever beast she turned into, couldn't take down Orphan. But when the team gets back together, they make short work of it (really, Orphan's second phase was pretty damn easy). So they destroyed Orphan. That means they completed their Focus, and they will turn to crystal, right? Wait ... nope, apparently they "beat" that Focus, through some way never yet explained, and it's no longer their Focus to beat Orphan. So why did they do it anyway? And what exactly IS their Focus, now? To save Cocoon, by doing the exact same thing they would have done to destroy it?

Orphan's destroyed, I guess it looks like Cocoon is about to be destroyed. Well, that means our job is done, right? Or does it? What the hell was our job, anyway? Anyway, apparently, somehow, Fang and Vanille turn themselves into crystal together, along with a crapload of other things -- enough to hold Cocoon up do it doesn't crash into Gran Pulse.

So, why are the rest of us not crystal by now? And look, off in the distance -- Serah and Dahj are back! Wait, how in the hell did that happen?

Really. I'm a little confused right now.

[loaf]

Data Logs.

[Sasquatch]

Yeah, no. For one thing, I can't follow them. For another, even after end-game, there are no datalogs on what happened at end-game, so there's nothing explaining all of the questions I asked in the OP.

Which is why I asked here -- so I could get another take on it, instead of being told "Data Logs".

[loaf]

They did make a Sequel...

[Zargabaath]

You've just experienced what many other gamers went through when they first finished FFXIII - Congratulations.

Fang tried to hurt Vanille because she did not want her to suffer as well. At that time, Fang had lost some hope. Which also explains why she became Ragnarok. She gave in to Orphan's desires to kill the latter.

Fang's brand is explained in parts throughout the story. Hers has stopped because of the failed attempt to destroy Cocoon 500 years ago. According to the Analects (historical/mythology datalogs) it explains that the goddess pitied the two souls who were sent to destroy Cocoon, took away Ragnarok's power, and turn them to crystal. While Fang had no fear of becoming a C'ieth unless her brand returned to normal she was still a L'Cie.

It is explained more so in the XIII-2 that through will-power they are able to overcome the focus. Which to me seems a bit silly that no one before-hand had done so which would make that knowledge known. Not only were they going to save Cocoon by doing the exact same thing to destroy it, they went into the battle without a plan afterwards to deal with Cocoon's fall. Genius, I say!

I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about the Super Ragnarok. And how that was never hinted at all in the game. That is one DeM. The second DeM was how the party along with Serah and Dajh got de-crystalized. Though there is a clue that ever so subtlety hints at how it happens. But it is not enough to explain. More like hypothesize. However that was rectified in FFXIII-2. Yet, once the game was completed there was no thought at the time for a second game. Therefore it leaves the ending of FFXIII as a culmination of bad writing.


I did not want to go into too much detail in case you decide to play FFXIII-2.

[Sasquatch]

Awesome, thanks. I just wasn't sure if it tied up all the loose ends, or if it was going to be like FFVII and need another game (or three or four, and a movie) to explain all the plot holes.

Now that I've finished it, I'm just farming and finishing all the C'ieth Stone missions. There's not much I didn't like about this one (mainly that it was so linear for 90% of the game, and how there wasn't much difference between each character's abilities), but quite a bit that I did like. How much os the sequel recommended?

[Andromeda]

All of the pieces are there to explain what happened in FFXIII, they just don't jump out and tell you. They just sort of leave them there and pray the audience is observant enough and willing enough to sort through everything to figure it out. The FF wikia actually does a really good job of explaining pretty much everything in the game that was poorly explained by piece all of the bits of information together.

Etro's Gate and the Goddess Etro is the answer to pretty much everything that can't be explained for why things happened. The light that you see when Cocoon blacks out, that is Etro's Gate and the Goddess Etro intervening. The reason everyone got out of their crystal sleep was because Etro used her powers to do so.

The double Ragnarok with Fang and Vanille, that was just them managing to do something through force of will. I don't believe they actually change their focus or even defied their focus in the end. They did actually want their focus was, which is why they were turned to crystal. They succeeded in destroying Orphan and Cocoon.

Cocoon and all of the Cocoon fal'Cie were created by Lindzei. Lindzei was given the task to protect the god that created Lindzei. Lindzei was give a second task of also waking their god up once Pulse completed his task. Once Lindzei finished with the creation of Cocoon fal'Cie Lindzei went to sleep. Pulse did the same the thing on Grand Pulse and then went to sleep as well. Pulse was given the task of looking for the Unseen Realm where the mother of the god that created them departed to after her defeat at her son's hands. The son, Bhunivelze after creating Lindzei, Pulse and Etro, went into a crystal sleep not to be awoken until his mother was found. Etro looked like the son's mother, Mywnn or Mudinn, and he was fearful of that and gave her no purpose. Etro depressed with not have a purpose eventually killed herself and her blood gave birth to the humans that live on Pulse. After Cocoon was created the fal'Cie in Cocoon lured humans up to Cocoon as part of their long term plan. Both fal'Cie sides were pretty much working together to use humans as their device to wake up the son, "The Maker". When Etro passed on she fell into the Unseen Realm and found the mother, almost falling out of existence as she was being consumed by chaos. The mother gave Etro a task, to keep the balance in the universe. If the balance was destroyed, then chaos would leak into the world/universe and that would be the end of everything as they know it. Etro then granted a piece of chaos to each human in an effort to balance the universe. The heart of chaos in humans in part made them unique creations and is said to also be the reason for the reason they can use magic. After Etro did this she carried on the task of holding back chaos to keep the balance.

And don't worry nearly none of this was actually possible to be learned from FFXIII or even FFXIII-2. Some of this is revealed to the characters in FFXIII-2, but this information was actually released by Square a few months after the US release of FFXIII explaining the mythology of the FFXIII universe. Funny how it pretty much answers a few more questions in both games, but the average player won't know any of this.

[Zargabaath]

Etro's Gate and the Goddess Etro is the answer to pretty much everything that can't be explained for why things happened. The light that you see when Cocoon blacks out, that is Etro's Gate and the Goddess Etro intervening. The reason everyone got out of their crystal sleep was because Etro used her powers to do so.

Knowing that was Etro's Gate and the goddess intervening would be nigh impossible to know just from the game. It is just a light in the sky perhaps just seen as a part of the process of Cocoon falling.

The double Ragnarok with Fang and Vanille, that was just them managing to do something through force of will. I don't believe they actually change their focus or even defied their focus in the end. They did actually want their focus was, which is why they were turned to crystal. They succeeded in destroying Orphan and Cocoon.

Perhaps through sheer force of will, yet ever convenient and not giving proper foreshadow. I still find it poor writing. Isn't it said in FFXIII-2 that they did change their focus. That Serah did in the beginning of FFXIII and the party at the end of the game. I don't know if a character said it or if it was a fragment. It doesn't help that they re-use images from the focus in the ending that can cause confusion.

And don't worry nearly none of this was actually possible to be learned from FFXIII or even FFXIII-2. Some of this is revealed to the characters in FFXIII-2, but this information was actually released by Square a few months after the US release of FFXIII explaining the mythology of the FFXIII universe. Funny how it pretty much answers a few more questions in both games, but the average player won't know any of this.

I'm just a hop, skip, and a jump from beating XIII-2 yet it is sad that the mythology was narrowly used. I am wanting to know what Pulse and Lindzei are doing. If Mwynn was the enemy of Bhunivelze and Etro inherited the powers of Mwynn then Etro should be the enemy of Bhunivelze too. Therefore Pulse and Lindzei should be fighting against her. I just hope they are used in what is to come for this saga. I'm not sure it states that Lindzei and Pulse went to sleep just left.

[Andromeda]

Oh by no means am what I am saying is me trying to validate the game's story. I've just move past the flaw of the story a long time ago. I've gone on to just trying to learn everything about it so I can actually understand what they were presenting in the game.

I think I remember them saying that they changed their focus, but considering what happens at the end of FFXIII I'm less inclined to believe that they actually managed to change their focus. Because after Orphan died, the party was already starting to turn into crystal, you can see their arms changing in the cutscene while they are floating. So that would mean that their focus was completed at the death of Orphan, thus "destroying" Cocoon. Which was their focus.

The only reason that Mywnn is considered the enemy is because after Bhunivelze defeated her and she departed to the Unseen Realm. He saw that the universe had an end to it. He foresaw its eventual collapse. But he believes that Mywnn cursed the universe on her defeat. He believes completely destroying Mywnn will end the curse and save the universe from the end he saw. However, the reality of the matter is that what he saw was chaos destroying the universe and not Mywnn's action. In fact, defeating Etro would be a bad thing since the chaos would be released and what Bhunivelze foresaw would happen. Not that Pulse or Lindzei or even Bhunivelze know that. But I'm not sure that Etro inherited anything from Mywnn apart from the task of maintaining balance. Bhunivelze isn't really a good god anyway, since he only defeated his mother because he wanted to be charge, if I remember right. Mywnn and Etro are probably the only actual good gods in the universe as they are actually preventing the destruction of the universe as they understand it.

I believe that the mythology video said that Pulse and Lindzei went to sleep. It could have been that they left, either way none of the gods are awake/present currently. The only one that seems to have any interaction with the universe is Etro and she's in the Unseen Realm.

[loaf]

Also Versus XIII, that game focuses more on Etro I believe.

[Andromeda]

That would because it is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis. All of the games under it have the same mythology. So Etro will be present. According to the dialogue from one of the cutscenes they showed. Only those that are near death are able to see Etro's Gate or whatever it was that they were talking about. Which implies that our main character is a dead man walking. ><

[Katpuss]

XIII is a complex story, which does take time to understand. I thought it was awesome!