#light spheres

I was curious about what triggered the characters to regain their Shadows in Disc 3. Separated into general statements about Shadows and character specific Heart Lights.

General

“A Light Shines in (Character’s) heart.”

Quoted, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village, text displayed when Party members find their reasons to regain their Shadows.

“The light of your heart cast a Shadow.”

Quoted, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, text displayed when Party members reach full Tension fighting their Shadow.

“Our magic lies in our hearts! Our hearts are creating the magic for us…”

Quote from Shu, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

“It’s the power of our hearts.”

Quote from Shu, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

“Well, you see, we felt that we couldn’t let Nene get away with everything. While we were separated, we went to other villages. In all these places, Nene did terrible things to the people. We had to stop him. We had to save everybody! We wanted strength. And all that made me feel so… eeeaaggaahh!” - Shu...

“We couldn’t hold our anger back. And then, everyone’s magic returned.”- Kluke...

“I heard from King Jibral that the Ancients referred to magic as ‘the light that lies within oneself.’” -Zola

Quote from Cutscene , Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Glass Spires.

Important Dialogue from when Party Members actually regain their Shadows, Kluke, Jiro, Marumaro and Shu.

Shu

Shu confronts Sahlia as she attempts suicide. She tells him that when people say don’t give up that it is nothing but words and he’s just like everyone else.

“I don’t care if you want to throw it all away. I could never give up like that. But hey, that’s just me, I guess… I’ll never give up. I’m not gonna sit around here, waiting to be eaten by some tree! I won’t!” 

“It sucks to give up and die. It’s easy to say: ‘Don’t give up.’ But unless you turn those words into strength, you won’t get strong. You can’t even live.  But now, after all we’ve been through, I know what it takes to say: ‘I won’t give up!’”

Quote from Shu, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Devour Village.

Jiro

Jiro finds a family of three separated from each other and desperate to be reunited.

“Families do what they can to save each other. My parents were the same way. When I was dragged underground by a Land Shark, my parents kept digging until their hands were bloody. This isn’t just my battle. But I have to be strong to make things happen!”

Quote from Jiro, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Kluke

A Light Shines in Kluke’s heart while talking with a Young Girl Waiting in Noluta Village. The girl is waiting for her parents to return; they left for Devour Village and the Freezing stops anyone from leaving their homes in Noluta Village, so the girl is still waiting.

“I can’t watch the same sadness as mine spread in the world. I have to fix things, not just for myself, but for people like this child as well!” 

Quote from Kluke, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Marumaro

Marumao finds the village children trapped and miserable in the ice.

“If we don’t do anything about Nene, Maro’s brothers and sisters will end up the same way! Gonna get him. No matter what it takes, we’re gonna get him. So, Maro’s gotta get Shadow back. Maro’s true Shadow!”

Quote from Marumaro, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Kluke, Jiro and Marumaro

“It’s the same thing! Nene goes from village to village, doing whatever he can to stir up fear, and then he enjoys it as people get more and more afraid!” - Jiro

“It’s awful! Nene’s so mean!” - Marumaro

“I can’t take this anymore. There’s no way this can go on. I won’t let this happen!” - Kluke declares and her Shadow starts appearing.

Jiro is looking at Kluke and his Shadow starts to appear.

“Everyone! We’re going to help you!” Kluke promises, haloed in blue light.

“I need to get my power back!” Jiro says as blue light started to gather around him.

“Magic! Come back to us!” Marumaro calls as he gains a blue-light outline, lifting his face to the sky, his Shadow beginning to appear.

Quoted from Cutscene, Blue Dragon, Disc 3, Noluta Village.

Conclusions

It seems regaining your Shadow requires you to find your resolve, to feel it and fight for it.

I think the resolves that they express reaffirm or build upon the reasons that led to Nene giving them their Light Spheres in the first place. Marumaro’s desire to save and protect his family and village. Jiro’s desire to support his friends and protect the people he loves. Kluke’s desire to keep those she cares about safe and avenge her parents’ deaths. Shu’s stubborn determination to try even in the face of death and refusal to believe that he will not succeed if he doesn’t just try harder.

And also ways that they have grown. Shu is learning that he can’t solve everything by fling himself at something to fight, that sometimes you have to retreat and reposition yourself before trying again. Kluke turning her grief from something that distances her from others and is focused on her pain, from vengeance into an empathy that reaches out and connects her with others, that drives her to save them. Jiro that if he wants to plan battles and work alongside his friends he can’t just rely on their power, he needs his own power too. Marumaro learning that you can’t just treat the symptoms you have to seek out the root cause, that which harms other people will likely harm your own too.

“When a soul in the Land of Twilight manages to free itself from feelings such as passion and violence and wants to develop in Love, it receives attunement to that part of Twilight Land where more light is present. Also, nature is already a little less gray here. The further they develop the lighter it becomes. Even their spiritual garb then begins to emit some light. At some point they realize that they have overcome the darkness for good.”

“In the light spheres (spiritual attunement/afterlife), man has a spiritual body, which looks like the earthly body with all the senses and body parts, but much younger and more beautiful and radiant. Feeling determines everything and is life, love, light and happiness. Also communication goes from feeling to feeling. There are in the spheres also no more diseases and abnormalities.”

“In the future, society will ensure the happiness and wellbeing of everyone and be in direct contact (direct voice instrument) with the inhabitants of the hereafter.”

“Light came around them. The good things they did and established on earth for mankind built an other world in the spirit, which became the spheres of light.”

“Once advanced that far, man continued to serve and in doing so the spheres changed, as did his own spiritual level. After the first, the second sphere came into being and in these spheres trees and flowers grew and bloomed; and according as man advanced, the spheres and everything living in and around him became more beautiful. The inner light man had acquired radiated on others, the spiritual dwellings radiated the inner light of man and temples and buildings arose.”

-Well then, all these beings lived all over the world and they began a higher life and their world started to change. This is the moment when the spheres of light were born and man became the creator of light.

-Light came around them. The good things they did and established on earth for mankind built an other world in the spirit, which became the spheres of light.

-Once advanced that far, man continued to serve and in doing so the spheres changed, as did his own spiritual level. After the first, the second sphere came into being and in these spheres trees and flowers grew and bloomed; and according as man advanced, the spheres and everything living in and around him became more beautiful. The inner light man had acquired radiated on others, the spiritual dwellings radiated the inner light of man and temples and buildings arose.

By the time that your party arrives at the Drill Machine, they know Nene is named Nene, but how do they find this out?

I can’t remember hearing Nene’s name while on the Flying Fortress; Nene doesn’t introduce himself and Szabo just calls him sir. This could just be me missing someone using Nene’s name or a translation thing, but, what if it’s not?

What if Nene really was never named.

I’m making the assumption that the names floating over people’s heads are just normal game convention for player convenience, not an in-universe phenomenon. (It seems like a pretty safe assumption given the sheer prevalence of names-floating-over-characters across all types of video games.) Plus there are instances of characters introducing themselves, which presumably, they wouldn’t if everyone could see your name floating above you.

Theoretically the party does have the Creature Compendium when they fight Nene; so they could have learnt his name from using the Creature Compendium on him, but that would assume that it works the same in-universe as it does for the Player, and that they used it in their very short battle, which seems unlikely.

This leaves another change that happened between them being on the Flying Fortress and discovering the Drill Machine; they swallowed the Light Spheres and gained their Shadows.

So what if they learnt Nene’s name from the Light Spheres?

Honestly? I think that even if they had, they might not have noticed. Just assumed that they heard/learnt his name amidst the mess of other information discovered and the whole ‘we almost died so many times’ thing.

But, it could lend itself to horror...

After they swallowed the Light Spheres they know things, instinctively, unconsciously, that they hadn’t known before. They contain wisps of Nene’s knowledge, small fragments. Do they ever realize? If so how?

Maybe it’s something like: they instinctively know what Magical Medicine is, and how to be use it. But then afterwards, coming off the battle high, they remember using it, reaching for it on instinct and knowing exactly what it is used for and how to apply it, and then they realize...that they have never learnt this. Not like they’d learnt what Mega Medicine is, or how to use an Antidote, or about any of the other Items they use.

And so they wonder how they Knew what Magical Medicine is. How they hadn’t noticed straightaway that they’d just KNOWN. Because this is information they had no way of knowing, no-one has had Magic for thousands of years, and somethings the Ancients left behind are simply complete mysteries.

And this Knowing is uncanny and unnatural (worst of all it feels natural, is almost unnoticeable) and they wonder: what other things can they Know like this? (Have they Known things before and not noticed?) And most pressingly, how do they Know? Where did this knowledge come from?