#moombas

Yes! I love, love love love Moombas. I headcanon that they do, actually, come from “ascended” Shumi (I base this on the fact we never see any Moomba kittens). I like the fact they can recognize someone by smelling or tasting their blood, and headcanon they have a sort of natural DNA recognition sense as part of their olfactory sense. 

They seem to be overly eager to please, and so are frequently abused as servants or slaves by Galbadia and, under Adel, Esthar. Laguna liberated them all when he became president, so he’s kind of their collective hero--that’s the other thing. Moombas are all telepathically linked. Moombas in D-district are aware of the condition of Moombas in Esthar or Trabia. 

I headcanon that the Moombas in D-district are eventually all released, and wind up...congregating, at Balamb Garden. Since they all seem quite eager to help, they are put to work doing various tasks--as paid employees. Maybe not paid that much, but they don’t seem to know what to do with the money they’re given, anyway, haha. And the longer they stay, the more evident it is that they’re more intelligent than they’re often given credit for. 

As stated in a previous answer, Zell befriends the Moomba that he was kind to in D-district, and names him Yeetha. Yeetha ends up pretty much following Zell everywhere, his little sidekick, haha. Zell even manages to teach Yeetha a decent level of proficiency in martial arts that take advantage of those giant paws. 

Are they sapient? Are they sentient? Are they animals? Do they keep their mental faculties after the Shumi people go through this change?

I lean toward Laguna fell off a cliff,through a Shumi skylight, and into someone’s house while waving hisgun around and yelling incorrect idioms.

…Joking aside. I tend to think thatthe conversation the Elder had with Sculptor is the accurate history, simply because it’s said in confidence, without the presenceof Squall’s entourage.

That being said, I don’t think it wouldbe fair to say the Shumi lied toSquall. If I’m reading the situation right, there’s a lot more to itthan that.

TheShumi are many things, but (with obvious exceptions) they are not hostile. Nor are theyparticularly secretive, since we know they trade and get along with the folks at Fisherman’s Horizon. Yet they are shown to tell some “tall” talesmultiple times during their interactions with Our Heroes. So, why? 

Well, beyond the simple hilarity of fooling the Gullible HumanChildren because they can (I do think there was abit of that, to be fair), each of their stories seemed to serve a concretepurpose.

InLaguna’s case, they—and Sculptor in particular–seem to have beeninspired by his capacity to move others. Hehad the openness and patience to both teach and learn about peoplewho were unlike him (even though he’s a terrible communicator), whileat the same time, his conviction to find Ellone was non-negotiable. He impressedthem with both passion and compassion, and his ability to inspirepositive growth in others.

But ifwe take for granted that Laguna did “barge in,” waving his gunaround—a violent act, regardless of the reason—that kind ofdistracts from, maybe even sabotages the arguably more importantvalue of what Laguna was like outside of that one situation. I don’t think they would have wanted to try and sort through the messiness of that interaction when discussing Laguna. 

Falling off a cliffwould be an easy, believable introduction to conjure in its place, because that had happened to him at one point in time…and because Laguna stayedlong enough to run his mouth about everything, likely including Raine andEllone and Winhill. He had a history of falling off cliffs, so what’sone more?

Hotswapping that pesky threatened-at-gunpoint detail with a benign, trueevent from Laguna’s past effectively sanitizes history and allowed theShumi to focus on what Laguna meant tothem, what the takeaway was, rather than dithering about an accuraterecitation of events. The Elder spends a lot of time talking aboutLaguna and his efforts to teach the Moombas to speak, a feat ofpatience on Laguna’s part in a feckless attempt to “help” someonehe erroneously saw as disabled. Rather than be insulted (which they had everyright to be), the Shumi found that impulse towards lifting people upto be both intriguing and admirable. Though they rightfully stressed that their culture considers words to be an unnecessary convenience, they go out of their way to frame the story of Laguna’s colonizing behavior as the product of someone who tries to help simply for the sakeof it. 

The“empty hands” story was also shown, once Squall & Co. leave,to have been nonsense. The “trinket” (or was it a souvenir, Ican’t remember) they offered was nothing less than a rare andpotentially life-saving item. Yet they downplayed its value; notbecause they actually believed a Phoenix Pinion was worthless, butbecause they do not assign heroics to the basic good of helpingsomeone stay alive.So, similarly, the empty-hands story was an illustration: it is oftenthe most “useless” things that mean the most to us, and to laythat part of oneself bare is to be vulnerable. It is a great honorfor someone to decide to share a part of themselves with you, if it’ssomething they would normally conceal.

If youchoose “explain it to them” after exiting the Elder’s home, it’spretty clear that this is the message Squall took away from the wholeinteraction. I think that was intended, and shows a lot of growth on his part. It’s a shame the entire sequence is optional. 

So forthe Shumi, what they told Squall is thetruth. Even if the details were malleable, the intention was to convey a particular message. Stories are more useful to them than documentation. Substance and Meaning over Veracity. 

In this case,I think it worked pretty well. On the other hand, when that philosophy goes bad, you get someone like Norg, convinced that conspiracies are everywhere and everyone he interacts with is lying to him (and has probably done a good bit of lying, himself). 

ooo shit.

1. overwatch2. dishonored 23. stardew valley4. gta v

top 10: