#736 Love’s Serene Embrace, If there is any reason...

Clyde was, yes.

Which makes this odd. Still not sure what's going on. Odd, for example, that only one of them would be in Nexus, while the rest of their world seems to be un-interefed-with. Odd that he'd be in his old getup again. Just odd.

Maybe he's incognito as Clyde in Nexus. He is an assassin after all.

Maybe he found a Warp Zone at the last minute before dying, and has retired?

I don't think that a character can be truly said to die in a game unless it actually shows their death scene. So while the game's ending implied that Shadow was intending to die, it didn't say he had or show the actual death, and thus he stayed alive.

I...don't think that squatting in a corner of a monolithic tower as it crumbles is really a survivable scenario.

That line is only in the GBA version. He's much less clear in the SNES version. I guess that makes him like a... Schrodinger's ninja... or something.

If that's all there is to the situation, then no, it's not. Strictly in terms of game canon, Shadow dying there is the most credible end for him.
EDIT: directed at englong's statement. ^_^o You just had to... *sigh* ninja me, didn't you, Tonberry?

But we don't actually see the body. So, for the purposes of in-comic events, he very well might have survived. For all we know, there might have been something else going on in that little corner of Kefka's Tower. Given Clyde's presence in Nexus? I'd almost say it's a given.

As others have said, Shadow has a lot of potential association with Sorrow. Every other character's arc (where present) ends with them either getting past it or learning to live despite it.* Shadow, on the other hand, suffers nightmares about his past, never really speaks of it, and goes to die alone at the end. That last point really stands out. When a video game character died in those days, it was almost always either because someone did him/her in, or he/she performed a heroic sacrifice. Outright suicide is incredibly unusual; aside from Celes and a couple of others, I can't think of any examples.

* Someone mentioned Mog earlier, and... Yeah, the guy seemed unusually chill about the whole 'appears to be the last moogle in the world' thing. Sort of like if Cyan were to shrug off the death of his nation and family, only worse** and without really getting any attention from the game. So, for three plausible explanations: 1) the moogles were really fine, and just moved elsewhere, with Mog waiting where the party might know where to find him or paying a visit to the old home; 2) all (perhaps just most) other moogles are dead, and Mog put up a brave face; 3) all (perhaps just most) other moogles are dead, and Mog's managed to get past it enough off-screen. 2) or 3) seem most likely.
** In most ways. Cyan's sworn duty was to protect his kingdom, so being unable to do so might give the loss an extra edge: it's bad enough to be the victim of a horrible atrocity, much less to be such a victim and feel responsible for allowing it.

This post has been edited by Gaius on Nov 4 2011, 05:43 PM

Remember, Occam's razor doesn't cut warm butter in Videoland. It doesn't matter if we think of a scenario as survivable or not in a video game. Cid jumping out of an airship and triggering a huge bomb is not survivable by any criteria we might choose to apply, but he survived. Yang blowing up the controls of the Tower of Babil (they spell that so many ways depending on the game, anyway...) and getting flung halfway across the game world is not survivable by any criteria we might choose to apply, but he survived.

The only time we can assume that a character dies in a video game is if we see the death scene where the character actually expires. Otherwise, it's a big question mark.

One possibility is that Alex saved Shadow from the FC and the Veldt Cave, but then never picked him up at the Coliseum, knowing what would happen in the ending if he did.

Alex is a ridiculous completionist, with Sailor Moon one notable exception.

I would be surprised if he didn't pick up Shadow and max him out.

I'd suspect it has something more to do with that he probably played FF3 a lot more than any proper translation FF6 ROM (though he probably did that, too). It's a lot more ambiguous what happens to Shadow at the end, there.

This post has been edited by Cyrus on Nov 4 2011, 09:14 PM

There was that one time with Gau.

There was that one time with Gau.

wait, when did he appear? And would his previous appearance have anything to do with the fact that he now needs a Rename Card here?

There was that one time with Gau.

wait, when did he appear? And would his previous appearance have anything to do with the fact that he now needs a Rename Card here?

The answers to your questions are:
1) Over nine years ago (May 16, 2002), and
2) Yes.

Glad to see the laps of time after Kefka's demise is only one year. Alas, we won't be able to see him.

shit, no wonder I couldn't remember that. Don't think I've seen some of those comics from the Baron castle arc since I went through the archives so many years ago.

See, there's something interesting there.

You know that all the moogles seem to be dead. You also know how, when you recruit Mog, he's kind of staring at the wall where you find the Moogle Charm?

Well, here's some food for thought: In the GBA translation, that thing is called Molulu's Charm. Molulu is the name of one of the Moogles who helps Locke defend Terra. Now, if the Final Fantasy Wiki isn't lying to me, apparently Molulu is Mog's girlfriend.

Think about that. When you find him, Mog is shut up alone, standing in the corner of a now empty cave, staring at a charm his girlfriend gave him. The implications are so very sad.

Yeah. As I said way back, any one of the FFVI characters would be devastating weapons for or against sovereign. Not a single one of them got through the game without massive psychological scars, and many of them worked through their trauma to become stronger.

They haven't mentioned Relm by name, here, so I can still hope my theory of how Alex played the game was correct. Either that or she already got a rename card.

I think Gogo probably made it through without any psychological scars.

Depends on your interpretation of the mimic, really. Either a stranded extra-dimensional extra, a woman who lost everything in an airship crash, or just a colorful mime who's so outgoing that camping in the stomach of a colossal worm counts as satisfactory living conditions.

Which reminds me: you know how Gogo's introduction says nobody can tell what its gender is? How does that work since it talks right during its introduction? My theory has always been that it uses whatever voice it heard last:

Sabin: What do you want for breakfast, Gogo?
Gogo (using Sabin's voice): Whatever everyone else is having.

This post has been edited by Calemyr on Nov 5 2011, 06:44 PM