Stranger of Paradise: DiFFereNT Future ending spectulation
The short of it: Stranger of Paradise is a Dissidia sequel, but not for the reasons you think (or maybe you do).
As a disclaimer, all of my current knowledge comes from cutscenes and missives uploaded to the internet. I am currently turning into the 6th fiend out of rage and despair as I try to go about farming Dragon Treasures in the first DLC. While the aforementioned are readily viewable, the mission descriptions/recaps for the last two missions are not available to me. Maybe they have info that blows this whole theory wide open, maybe they have nothing of note. If they have something worth mentioning, I'll update this.
Also, if you're reading this theory about Post-Game DLCs, then you probably know the base story of Stranger of Paradise.
So anyway: Recap Time!
PART !: A Twin-Tailed Ending
The third DLC for Stranger of Paradise focuses on Jack's former boss Nil, whose attempts to get revenge on those wily Strangers via sending a Lufenian Death Machine (a WarMech, even) has failed. Nil staged an uprising, plunging Lufenia Central into chaos in order to obtain two crystals: A Dimensional Crystal Matrix (like the one Jack hijacked at the end of the game, but with the power to warp space-time i.e. connect to the Rift and summon or erase beings from other worlds) and another crystal, used to generate manikins: Living crystal that morphs into the shape of people, as previously seen in... Dissidia Final Fantasy.
Huh.
This causes distress for a Moogle that is watching her descent. This Moogle has been acting behind the scenes, such as sending the Dragonking Bahamut to Jack's world and convincing a Tonberry to change its name to Cid. Nil's plans, however, force it to take a more active role. It goes to Chaos & Friends, asking for their help before taking them to Lufenia for the final battle.
But then, things get complicated.
At some point, the Moogle's slinking around got noticed by the Emperor of Palamecia, who is not from Jack's world. In fact, this Emperor didn't even come from his own world: He is from a land of conflict, where two gods wage war against each other through their champions. The Emperor, learning of the powers Lufenia holds, decides to live up to his name and immediately begins scheming for a way to take that power and use it to conquer everything. He escapes before Jack can fully stop him. Then Jack confronts Nil and, through a wacky final battle involving Omega and manikins of Omega, kills her.
Two outcomes occur.
In the first, Nil drops the manikin crystal (presumably, the dimensional matrix is also there too), with Jack saying that they don't need 'Lufenian junk'. The Moogle makes one last bid to get Jack to take the crystal, pointing out that he and his friends would have lived on in legend in the future that awaited them; But now, they head toward a future of their own making: One where no one learns of their struggle or where they'll only exist in legend. But for Jack and his friends, if it means that the people of Cornelia will have power over their own fate, then the sacrifice will be worth it. The Moogle sends them back.
In the second, the Emperor of Palamecia, waiting for both sides to tire out, shows up right after Nil dies and attempts to take both crystals. Jack has one last battle before defeating the Emperor, narrowly preventing him from escaping. During the fight, Jack absorbs the Lufenian Crystals, giving him power over Manikins (theoretically giving him the power to create such life) and the Dimensional Matrix (Allowing him to create portals, as he does to send the now powerless Emperor... elsewhere). The Moogle tells Jack that he must now become the God of Discord, taking his place opposite of the soon-to-arrive God of Harmony: The Warrior of Light. Together, they shall become the pillars of a new world.
PART 2: Dissidia NT (and Opera Omnia too, I guess)
Dissidia Final Fantasy for the arcade (not to be confused with Dissidia Final Fantasy for the PSP) is the sequel/soft-reboot to the original Dissidia duology. While originally lacking in plot, the game eventually received an update titled "Battle of the Gods" which introduced two new gods in order to replace the other two who died at the end of the previous game: Materia and Spiritus.
Guess what they're the gods of!
God Struggle (Valiant Strike, according to supposed unused files for the PS4 version) was a faction-based versus mode: You pick a side and fight battles for that side. Any story content was seemingly provided in the opening cutscene and is in Japanese, so...
Dissidia Arcade eventually got a "port" known as Dissidia NT for PS4 and later PC. This iteration boasted a more complete story mode (albeit not as meaty as PSP games) that acted as more of a proper introduction to the new gods: At the end of the previous game, Chaos' death marked an imbalance that resulted in World B being destined to sink into the Void. However, World B has somehow survived its destruction and is now a world that persists on battle energy; without such energy, it will once again fall into the Void. The world is ruled over by Materia and Spiritus, who are manifestations of Cosmos and Chaos' wills or consciousnesses or what have you(1). Complicating matters is that Materia and Spiritus don't have much knowledge of each other and they, moreso Materia, wish to see the other routed. Not helping further are the shiny wyrms that keep showing up and draining the world of its energy, with each god suspecting the other. In the end, it was Shinryu; Who previously had a nice gig going where he had an endless font of power (more on that later) and decided to try something similar but more direct on the World of Conflict. The gods are forced to play nice and, together, everyone drives back Shinryu. The Champions then leave, but leave behind copies of themselves for the Gods to use to wage war on each other with so that the world can be sustained.
Meanwhile Opera Omnia... has some inconsistencies. The biggest is the implication that all of the characters are, in fact, the same characters from their respective games rather than clones/manikins/what have you like the ending of NT suggested. It is also a much more complicated game and I am admittedly not the guy to ask about it (Katkeyboardmastah has an impressive writeup of the cosmology of FF1, DFF and Stranger of Paradise, including a section about the inconsistencies between OO and NT. Definitely give it a look.), but the key aspect is that most references to the other games that OO makes are to the original Dissidia and its prequel. To my knowledge, NT is not directly referenced, meaning that it may be an alternate continuity or something weird in terms of how they interact plotwise.
That said, Opera Omnia must be mentioned due to a plot point that began cropping up towards the end of Act 2: The possibility of the Warrior of Light and Garland becoming the new gods of Harmony and Discord respectively. The game gets very close to cashing in that plotline several times, but it never truly occurs (though in Act 4, they do fill-in for Materia and Spiritus, who turn themselves to crystal to support the world from collapsing. They return in the final chapter). The closest they come to fulfilling the Moogle's words is in Act 3, before Materia and Spiritus are written out, although they were losing favor with the world itself by that point. Even then, WoL and Garland were not actively looking over the world.
To further justify my emphasis on NT over Opera Omnia, Nomura pointed out in an interview that the title "DIFFERENT FUTURE" contained the letters "DFF" and "NT".
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(1): Interestingly, Bahamut in SoP explains that his soul drifted through the "space between dimensions" (implicitly, the Interdimensional Rift) until he was summoned. The could explain how Cosmos and Chaos' wills survived and turned into Materia and Spiritus. Spiritus himself claims he was born of "dimensional fragments".
Part 3: Chains of the Past
In Stranger of Paradise, most of the references to Dissidia are thematic or kept ambiguous. The 'collaborator' who gives the Lufenians their Dimensional Matrixes asks that the energy from resetting the world is funneled back to them. This is pretty much Shinryu's M.O. in Dissidia: While the pact made with Cid, Cosmos, Chaos and Garland was ostensibly to power up Chaos enough for them to return to their world, Shinryu had a side hustle where he siphoned memories and power from the warriors through the process of "purification". Another is the focus on Lufenians and memories, as the reports in Dissidia demonstrated the Lufenians' rituals to transfer memories between bodies and turned it into a major plot point. A third is that Lufenia was at war: The reports in Dissidia make mention of "the state"/"homeland" who was at war with "the neighboring state", which had summons and Omega, hence the creation of Chaos; Neon's story in the Ancients' Tower and one of the Lufenian Logs shows that Lufenia was once at war with Cornelia.
Different Future throws all caution to wind. The Emperor is the obvious case, but the Moogle also tells the group of the events of Dissidia NT. Interestingly, the Moogle claims that there was indeed a man named Garland... but that Garland was not Jack.
And speaking of...
Part 3.5: The Moogle's Plan
The "One Spirit's Missives" reveal that the Moogle is actually a spirit born from Cosmos' will. Said will longs for a stable future, and so the moogle sets off to ensure that it comes to pass. However, the world of conflict needs gods of both Harmony and Discord in order to sustain itself. The missives explain the plot that the Moogle has been enacting in order to turn Jack Garland and the Warrior of Light into the two new gods of conflict who will lead the world into the future it seeks to return to. The first major half of the plan lies in Bahamut, a dragon that was once worshipped as a god. Just as Shinryu elevated Cosmos, Chaos and Cid to godhood, Bahamut does similar for Jack and the Warriors of Light through his boons. The second half relies upon the powers that Lufenia holds - and that Jack takes them for himself. And as World B subsists through battle energy, Jack and the Warrior of Light's battles will sustain the world, making them the two pillars.
Part 4: An Undocumented Conflict
Until we get a sequel or a new Dissidia game, we will not have a clear answer as to what the Moogle is referring to in the ending. However, looking at the Moogle's missives, we learn a few things:
We learn that it is time traveling or at the very least knows the future and is working to ensure that the future it came from (Dissidia NT) is to happen
We learn that Jack's dimension is key to the World B's future/continued existence. So much so, that it has to intervene when Nil tries to erase it.
We learn that it was formed from Cosmos' will.
Based on one of the missives mentioning "two departed gods", it is likely post-Dissidia + 012 at least. Either that or Materia and Spiritus "depart" at some point in the future.
Relatedly, it seeks new gods of conflict to ensure its future and chose to guide Jack Garland and his Warrior of Light towards becoming them.
Jack's fate suggests that he would live on, if not physically than his name going down in history, whereas in the other timeline, Jack and his allies go down as monsters, with no one knowing of their struggle.
From these, there are roughly three points this can refer to:
Theory A. Post-NT: Something happens to Materia and Spiritus and Mog shanghais Jack and his WoL into being the new gods.
Theory B. Opera Omnia - The DLC ties in to the events of Opera Omnia
Theory C. The DLC ties is an interquel between 012 and NT.
I believe that it is theory C. Why?
Theory A: Not impossible. If SE wanted to reboot Dissidia again, they could invent a reason for Materia and Spiritus to vanish. However, the Moogle specifically speaks of a future. This isn't a hard point against it, but it is something to consider.
Theory B: At this point, Opera Omnia has concluded its story and none of the scenarios truly match what is described by the missives.
At the end of act II, Materia and Spiritus lose control of the world and the Warrior of Light and Garland do battle in the old world until the Warrior of Light is summoned back by the rest of the party (Garland wanting to reshape it into a world of conflict, WoL trying to keep Garland). However, Materia's Act 2 interlude states that it was the crystal's wish (long story: In OO there is a crystal that governs wishes and acts independently of the gods; In fact, it was the crystal, sensing the warriors' pleas for rest that demanded that the gods create the World of Respite) that governed the world rather than the gods.
At the end of Act II, the Warrior of Light and Garland almost go through with it due to Materia and Spiritus being too weakened to pull the world back from the brink. However, as Materia and Spiritus need only exist to keep the world stable, they have Enna Kros turn them into crystal statues, sealed away but preventing the world from collapsing. However, Enna also clues the party in that they could be saved, leading into Act IV.
Opera Omnia ended service during Act IV. Is it possible that, had the game went on, WoL and Garland would fully become the new gods? Perhaps. But by the end of the game, Materia and Spiritus regain their status as gods.
Theory C: And now for the titular speculation.
At the end of Dissidia Final Fantasy, Chaos dies and the world becomes unstable. While Cosmos is revealed to have revived, she alone cannot sustain it. Thus, World B fades from existence...
...Until Cosmos and Chaos' wills, which persisted nonetheless reform into Materia and Spiritus.
At the beginning of NT's story, the narration says:
"The strife ended, the world was to fade from existence. And yet... An arcane power acted upon it, bestowing these remains with purpose once more."
Not much focus is given to explaining World B's continued existence, which is probably just as well since the original had little explanation too.
The moogle's missives imply that its world is in its twilight.
The worlds are ever changing and the old gives way to the new. As one world waxes my own wanes becoming a mere shadow of its former self. There is a future for me, but first I must ensure that it comes to pass.
Which makes it unlikely that it happens after NT, where the world is saved and the gods can build it back up through their battles.
As for why it chose Jack's world instead of OG FF1? I'm not entirely sure. However, WoL and Garland usually act as right-hand men of the gods during the conflicts. Perhaps it could not chose the originals for whatever reason, so it picked a world that was on a similar path and began influencing things further.
What happened to them and how Materia and Spiritus inherited the world is also a mystery, although Jack is a man who hates gods and masterminded a complicated scheme to free Cornelia from Lufenia's control. I'm just saying if there's anybody who could probably find a way to escape godhood as soon as he could, Jack would probably be that person.
Last but not least, as pointed out earlier, it is very likely that this DLC is meant to tie in with Dissidia NT in some fashion, given the title. However, in-game this largely amounts to the Emperor using his moves from that game and the moogle mentioning its events. But considering how the missives seem to point to that period between Dissidia and NT where the world was destined to be destroyed...
(I'll admit, I thought I had stronger evidence for this, but a combination of some of my points being less helpful than I thought and losing track of the plot meant that I had to throw some of it out).
I will admit the possibility of a Theory D, that World B is the end result of the Stranger of Paradise timeline, but the way the missives speak implies that is not the case. The Moogle speaks as if it were acting in place of Cosmos and Chaos (or Materia and Spiritus, maybe). It even calls the SoP world a "godless world", which is why it had to send Bahamut there.
Conclusion: [Insert Fancy Latin Title Here]
Stranger of Paradise's ending certainly seems like the set up to a future Dissidia game, but will we see a true resolution? Maybe we will and it will be an intequel. Maybe we will and it will be a sequel. Maybe it'll completely ignore Stranger of Paradise. It may even confirm that Jack and Dissidia Garland are indeed the same guy beyond both of them being "Garland", although I am begging SE not to do this and will beg even harder after the time of this writing, whenever I get around to rewriting said begging to be more correct/expanded upon.
If nothing else: It's an interesting premise for a fanfic: a bunch of warriors summoned to fight for a Warrior who has no idea of the true nature of his mission and Chaos, who does not even want to be a god.
"You either die a villain or live long enough to forcibly become a deity." - Jack Garland (not really)
"Bullshit" - Jack Garland (really)
