Red Labyrinth

when naria is injured and hitomi bandages the wound, parallels drawn between both hitomi + folken and naria + van.

van uses his psychic powers to divine folken's whereabouts on the vione, and folken is looking! at! him! they're psychically linked! (further confirmed in the next episode when folken beams into both van's and hitomi's minds)

obvs, the frequent use of "why can't you understand?" — this is repeated throughout the series up til the end where hitomi is trying to convince van to stop fighting. misunderstanding/fear/conflict...

folken is so desperate almost to the point of tears when he asks the same question to van when van storms the vione this episode, and readily accepts death by van's hand

of course eriya, who kissed folken and felt no love in him for anyone but van, is the one to yell at van about how much folken loves him.

van is surprised even though every time he encounters folken, van is himself deeply deeply sad and confused, because he, too, loves his brother

folken saving naria and eriya when they were children by using his wings is a parallel to van saving hitomi when she's falling. everyone in this story is the protagonist of their own story. no one's lives are more or less significant.

Ep 22 notes

[13:30] Van says he’ll make Folken pay for his crimes “with this royal sword,” he looks at Folken, there’s a shot of the dragon illustration of ancient Fanelian art, and then it’s on Van. BECAUSE FOLKEN IS A DRAGON AND VAN IS STUCK IN THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE AND SO VAN THINKS HE MUST SLAY THE DRAGON (FOLKEN… HIMSELF?!) IF HE WANTS TO BE WORTHY OF BEING KING OF FANELIA!!!

Van and Folken HAD TO BE the ones to end this cycle of violence by being born half-Draconian. The King of Fanelia has to slay a dragon to become king— but the brothers can’t slay themselves, they can’t be both dragons and dragon killers. (“it’s wrong”!!!) and so Varie had to do it! Had to have them and know their fates!!

it's dragons blood/varie's blood in the green energist

Naria’s ghost telling Hitomi basically “maybe you can change Folken 😸” when Folken is talking to her is when he realizes “YOU ARE PSYCHIC LIKE ME!!!!!!” Because he sees Naria in Hitomi’s mind!!!

the above is a parallel too, to Folken basically wanting Hitomi to do the same— “maybe Hitomi can change Van if I can’t”

meaning: Naria sees Folken in Hitomi, and Hitomi in Folken. Hitomi sees Naria in Folken. And Folken sees all that shit too when he realizes Hitomi Understands his feelings/himself (bc she thinks he’s a good person) which is what he wants Van to understand ;;

Yuriful Week - Day 1: sunset

I am not sure how many days I will achieve, but let's get some women in here!!

source

1995-1

This issue features Celes! (p208-211)

This issue's cover illustration is Celes with the Rune Blade, Kenpo Gi, and Merit Badge singing an opera(?)

The clear blue sky and abundance of the earth vanished with the rest of the world. That person is gone. I decided to throw away my past and all of my memories But when I did... his voice reached me. "You can't throw away your hope. You can still make all your dreams and desires come true." That's right. I'm marking the end of this dark and cold journey. I'm going to walk a new road now. Until I can see you again (from the cover)

<<Background>>

The development team gives background on Celes

From the very start there were plans to have an Imperial Magitek Knight get close to the party by pretending to be an ally. Using magic takes a lot of mental energy, which rendered her mentally unstable. She'd fall into crying fits or hysterics or the like... Because of that, she had a strong desire for someone she could rely on. That's when she heard kind words from Locke. It was going to be that Celes, who was waiting for her chance to betray everyone, realized she'd lost her heart to Locke, and was now anxious about it.

-- Why does the story in the World of Ruin start with Celes? Development: All 12 party members are the protagonists, so it seemed appropriate. We started with Terra, and her part in the story was becoming too overpowering. Another reason was because we wanted to give Terra a different story in the World of Ruin.

I don't know what was in the 3-8 issues since the page didn't have entries for them.

1994-9

The "FF Coliseum" from the previous issue begins! This second entry features Terra, and Emperor Hironobu Sakaguchi spills all her secrets (p186-189)

Each cover of this section contains an illustration by Rinko Yano. Also, there's a neat section where readers contribute postcards with illustrations of their favorite characters' private fashions, and selected ones are illustrated by Rinko Yano in the next issue. This issue's illustration shows Terra equipped with the Oath Veil, White Dress, and Greatsword, making her look like she's in a wedding dress.

The previous issue also began a series of FF6 4-panel comics by Masayo Irie. It shows Edgar equipped with the Royal Crown, Genji Armor, Silver Spectacles, and Angel Wings as his Private Fashion.

The fate of myself, the fate of the world, the value of life, and the understanding of joy, sorrow, and anger... Never knowing a father's warmth or a mother's affection is a different sort of curse from being afflicted with the power of magic... There are friends who will protect me. People who I must protect. To my dear friends who helped me to understand these things... Thank you. A long and suffocating breath that was trapped in my heart is now being released. Terra Branford grows from a girl into a woman (from the cover)

<<Background>>

-- Tell us what the impetus was for creating Terra Sakaguchi: We were going to have a half-human, half-esper character from the start. There was a time where she was a slightly older male character.

-- What sort of role does she have in the story? Sakaguchi: She's an extremely passive character in the first half of the game. I wanted to show her maturing as the story progressed. She's at the mercy of the expectations of the people around her, but before long she realizes her own destiny... She's a character who embodies the themes of self-awareness and coming to understand one's self.

-- What are some changes that were made during development that didn't make it to release? Sakaguchi: We originally had plans for Terra to disappear along with the espers when magic disappeared from the world. But then we didn't think it was good for her to have just attained self-awareness as a human and then disappear, so it turned into her just losing her magic and remaining in this world. That's the Terra we have now.

-- What equipment and accessories do you recommend? Sakaguchi: Since Terra can use both swords and magic, you want to think about balance. If you want to use her as a fighter, then give her something like the Genji Glove or Muscle Belt. To make the best use of her magic, then probably Gold Hairpin or Soul of Thamasa. You might not know, but she learns Ultima on her own at level 99.