765, Cradle to Grave

Now I need to get the purple marker out.

It's starting to look as if being Touched is like the default state of humans. What clued me in was Celes talking about it stealing her memories of Locke. Well, people's memories fade over time, both good and bad.

But to them, it probably seems more like being afflicted with something like, oh, Alzheimer's. Which may be truer than it sounds, especially since the curse of the Sovereign makes sure they see it in the worst possible way. Despair will do that to someone.

So I can't help but wonder, what would happen if someone told them to go and make new memories in order to buffer against the fading of old ones? I realize it's not that easy, since they're basically chronically depressed, but it really is that simple. If instead of focusing on the past, which is slowly fading from memory, they focused on the future, which can create new memories...the outlook one has matters more than the actual reality, I think.

Looks like Kefka isn't touched. I wonder if he carries the "touched immunity" that some characters seem to have, like Cecil and Megaman. If so, I wonder what exactly makes one immune to being touched?

I mean, the most obvious answer as to why Kefka isn't touched is because the Sovereign just makes him feel vindicated, etc., but maybe there's more.

So, is he about to X-Zone the two of them? Escape to some other world?

I think... I think I just owed Kefka one.

*shivers*

Couldn't ever hurt a child, whether in the real world or within the laws of anime/videogames.

I wonder if Kefka can't be touched because he's already so insane that it doesn't have any affect on him.

Too Spicy For Cthulhu indeed.

I see no proof that Kefka isn't Touched. Not all Touched act in the same way, let alone work towards the same end.

Well, his text is the only non-purple'd speech in the room.

The Sovereign told the Sinistral that they could not be touched because the Touched had their hearts torn asunder. My guess is that Kefka doesn't have a heart to rip asunder. He has no sorrow.

Hey! Kefka's immune to Vanish!!! (No, really, he is. In all battles against him, he cannot be Vanished.) So Touched powers even trump status immunities?

Well, at least now he's susceptible to Death.

BTW, Kefka's text IS purpled when he's casting Vanish. More fully than the text of Cyan and the Figaro bros. Not in the final two lines of the comic, though, of course.

This post has been edited by HeroicJay on Mar 22 2012, 05:45 PM

It's a bit confusing, but arcane spellcasting has always been purpled text in the comic, regardless of touched status.

And maybe he's just immune to player vanish, and not his own. Or can selectively "choose not to resist" like D&D will resist rolls. <.<

Ah, a fact I keep forgetting - even Porom used purple text when casting Cura.

That is really confusing, though.

This post has been edited by HeroicJay on Mar 22 2012, 06:01 PM

Odds are good the purple-colored incantations aren't coincidental. Just... not possible to know the cause, yet. Though have we seen any such incantations from before the Great Change? Might be a clue.

As for the comic... Well. That's not good at all.* Potentially less bad than the end of the world (at least immediately), but yee.

* Funny how this has been true of every comic for a while now.

EDIT: Also, I might pity Bob, should he and Celes cross paths. And wonder how accurate her words about him actually are.

This post has been edited by Gaius on Mar 22 2012, 06:43 PM

It's better than the world being destroyed. It's all been Pyrrhic victories and all. Kefka, though, is he being predictable according to her plan, or throwing things off?

If Kefka is acting according to her plan, it is not good at all, unless by saving kid-Rydia Kefka is allowing someone else to save her. It is the less permanent option whether he wants it to be or not.

But he could be screwing up the plan. I think the Sovereign mean for Celes to destroy part of her, but not before absorbing her essence. The mask itself is not important to destroy, but the power it holds.

In fact, if the Sovereign becomes whole with all the negative energy sucked out of her, she might not be as evil...

I was just waiting for this to come up in order to say that I was so surprised people guessed killing herself over killing the child after the last comic, but now I also want to add: "This can't be good"

In fairness, it wasn't clear exactly what had happened. We had no idea if Omega Runic just sucked up the sorrow/omega energy of the song to negate it, or actually drew in all the potency of the Shard. In that latter case, Celes might have been aware of it and decided suicide was the most reasonable option.

On which note, it's still possible Celes did absorb all the Shard's potency, and merely believes it still lies with the helpless child. It's really hard to say, given how Touched Mrs. Cole is now.

This post has been edited by Gaius on Mar 22 2012, 10:53 PM

Hmm...what does Celes mean when she says "I...all of us could have been spared this if that monster hadn't been so weak."? What monster? Kefka?

Bob.

Yeah Bob said that Videoland will suffer because of his weakness... when Kid Rydia first ran off.

The convention of making all incantations purple appears to have started in Act 2 when Eggplant Wizard eggplanted Samus. Eggplant Wizard explains that his ability to do so has something to do with his acknowledgment that his reality is not real. The second time it occurs is when Magus performs Dark Matter on Roy, mentioning its ability to send someone's soul to the "dark realms beyond the pale." And again with BLACK HOLE when he sends Roy to the Adam's Family World. And again, when the purple spell is used again, it is Magus using Astral projection which is meant to "cast open the door of Worlds". The next instance was with Marle where her spell "cast open the bridge of worlds." The next purple incantation was the attempted bind of "Milon", a summoning of the "Light of the Great Moon". The next instance is from the Sinistral who shoot their destructo wave at Alex by invoking fear and devastation to "tear aside the veil of sanity." Lisa pausing reality. Lucca summoning the phoenix. Golbez appeals to the "sealed magic of the ancient Lunarians" to perform Meteo.

On the other hand, it didn't occur when Zeromus Meteo'd Alex, when Eggplant Wizard used a SPELL to mind meld with Samus originally, when Chrono does his magic, Kain against the cat etc, or when Marle does any of her other magic. Frog's Frog Squash. Etc etc.

It would seem that the common theme amidst all PURPLE INCANTATION TEXT is that all acknowledge the existence of other worlds/realities, and how fragile those realities are... Also, in the Final Fantasy world, the magic incantations that are purple seem to find their power on the Lunarian Moon.