Random Acts of Fandom: Glass Fleet etc.

[joiedecombat]

I am working idly on that Final Fantasy VIII fanfic idea I had way back when, involving Squall beginning to turn into Ultimecia as a Take That to everyone who thinks that Ultimecia was clearly intended, in canon, to be the future Rinoa. I find myself unable to resist the inclusion of a scene in which Seifer, hearing Squall's friends discussing a similar theory, declares, "That's the most retarded thing I ever heard."

I am also prodding dubiously at Glass Fleet, an anime series by the same studio that brought us The Count of Monte Cristo IN SPACE, Seven Samurai WITH MECHA, and Romeo and Juliet ON A FLOATING CITY WITH CROSSDRESSING AND MAGIC TREES. This one appears to be the French Revolution IN SPACE, kind of, except space has breathable atmosphere and tornados, and is bright green, and the spaceships use hand-loaded cannons. With actual cannonballs.

All the spaceship stuff is done in plasticky CG which I'm not keen on, but the main characters are interesting enough that I've put the series into my Netflix queue. I have only seen five episodes and have no idea yet what's going on, but, summed up: forces led by the vaguely skeevy Vetti Sforza overthrew the forces of some other pseudo-French aristocrats and took over the poorly-defined space empire in which the story takes place. Since this is the French Revolution IN SPACE, what this mostly means is that life is pretty good for the current aristocracy and crap for everyone else, inspiring some of the common folk to form the People's Army under the inspirational leadership of Michel Volban, a young aristocrat who nevertheless Really Cares About The People. Michel has two loyal retainers whose primary responsibilities appear to be to make sure Michel has a cup of hot tea from a civilized china tea service whenever it's needed. They also act as Michel's bodyguards occasionally, but they're not nearly as good at that as they are at making tea, which results in all three of them having to be rescued by a quirky band of space pirates in a snazzy glass spaceship under the command of "Cleo of the Wind," the last survivor of the original royal family.

Cleo wants to reinstate the monarchy and reclaim the throne. Michel wants Justice For The Common Folk. Vetti mostly appears to want Michel chained to a bed. Guess which one of the three of them is secretly a woman. Go on, guess. Hint: it's the one who hasn't gone running about shirtless for several scenes by the end of the fifth episode.

So, yeah. Glass Fleet: pretty much on crack. But reasonably fun crack, and I like Michel and Cleo pretty well so far. So we will see.

Have also been reading a metric nassload of manga courtesy of Jack, particularly Bleach, d.Gray-man, xxxHolic, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, but also stuff like Bizenghast (creepy-cool Victorian Gothic ghost story), Azumanga Daioh (high school girls are CRAZY), Claymore, and Penguin Revolution (the entertainment business is WEIRD; also, recursive cross-dressing!). Most of it's pretty good.

Comments

[bentarc.livejournal.com]

As someone who thinks that Ultimecia was Rinoa with an IF attached (and you should know what I mean by that), I uh... yeah. :/

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

Ah, well. As an AU, I acknowledge that it's got potential and could be interesting to explore, although it's not personally my cuppa. And I'm not violently allergic to your take on it like I am to the standard version of the theory, because the standard version of the theory is that Ultimecia is who game-Rinoa will become and that this is totally canon and intended by the game designers. The 'if' makes it a lot more palatable.

I just don't see any way for it to be canon, because of the way the various time travel shenanigans in the game are handled, and because Square has stated that sorceresses don't have extended lifespans. (Also it sort of goes against the main theme of the game. So, uh.)

In any case, my apologies. *scuff*

[bentarc.livejournal.com]

I just kind of gloss over that, because the plot really disintegrates in the last leg of the game.

Ultimecia is a worst-case scenario, though. And it's just as easy to say she's not Rinoa and just some random bitch from the future--there's nothing really "deep" about her to start with, and truth be told I thought Adel was scarier.

She's not a sorceress, she's a MAN!

[joiedecombat.livejournal.com]

Adel is freakish, yes.

I can get behind your idea to a point, because it at least doesn't break the whole theme of the game like the standard theory does. The primary source of my frustration is the people who will argue, at extreme length, that Rinoa is destined to become Ultimecia after Squall's death, world without end, amen. Usually basing their arguments on the assumption that sorceresses are functionally immortal (false, per Square and the fact that Squall and company personally kill two of them), and on the assumption that because Squall's ring and Ultimecia's Guardian Force have the same name, clearly Rinoamecia created the GF from the ring (scan text implies Squall named the ring after the GF). And those are the plausible arguments; it gets more and more crackbrained from there.

Personally I think Squall's particular damage makes him a lot more likely to snap and become Ultimecia than Rinoa is - because Squall is the one more likely to freak out about the simple fact of time passing - which is mostly where this fic of mine comes from, because it amuses me to try to make it work. But I was not actually calling your interpretation retarded.

So, ahem, yeah. It's a pet peeve of mine.