The Exposition Dragon

Edgar is a sex pest and that's just something that the game throws out there. It's not presented as his character flaw. It's not part of his damage that he eventually heals from. He just. Likes to harass all the women in his staff and that's just a thing.

They go hard about it too. Talking to people in Figaro Castle reveals that Edgar will hit on any women, young or old. The maids are clearly uncomfortable with his advances. A little girl has been promised that Edgar will marry her when she grows up. It's so fucking weird.

And it's all just background details about the character; It's never plot relevant. It's just. There. Edgar sexually harasses his staff and hits on little girls, he is explicitly an "Age is just a number, baby" bro, and we are meant to like this man and root for him.

The game also pushes the Celes/Locke ship pretty hard. It's one of the few canon ships in the game but. Like. It's also made explicit that Locke's interest in both Terra and Celes comes from his personal damage.

Locke's girlfriend Rachel got injured trying to protect him. Later, she died and he wasn't there to help her. This has haunted him and given him a complex about women in peril; Any time he sees a damsel in distress, Locke takes it upon himself to become their savior. He's a career rescuer of women because helping them makes him feel better about not being able to save Rachel.

Then he gets super invested in them right up until the next damsel in distress comes along, at which point he swaps. We see him do this when he pivots from "I will be your champion and your savior and I will protect you with my life, Terra," to "I will be your champion and your savior and I will protect you with my life, Celes," as if reading from a script. Edgar even warns Celes that this is a regular habit of Locke's.

But the plot doesn't really engage with that, and still expects us to root for Celes to slowly fall in love with Locke, a man who explicitly sees her as a replacement goldfish for Rachel.

Celes scoffs to Edgar like "What, you think I'm just going to fall over myself swooning for a guy just because he helped me out of a jam? I am a GENERAL, good sir." And then she does precisely that anyways.

The ending of Locke's personal story is Rachel's ghost giving him permission to fall in love with Celes. That's his final outcome: He's able to let her go because he's got a hot new chick to hook up with.

Like.

I don't.

I don't think that's correct, game. I don't think "New girlfriend" is the correct prescription for the illness you've diagnosed in Locke. I don't know why you expected us to find Locke and Celes's dynamic to be romantic when you spell out all of the reasons why it shouldn't be.

This is one of the worst instances of characters getting mindlessly beaten with the romance stick regardless of how much sense it makes for the characters or plot in early RPG gaming.

I don't know.

To add another example, Setzer's introduction as the dashing gambler out to kidnap an opera star and force her to marry him is at least as creepy as anything King Edgar gets up to. Couple that with his own dead-girlfriend issues that we learn about later and it starts to feel like Setzer was aiming for the same fix that the game gave Locke.

Part of the issue is that Locke and Celes don't get to spend a lot of time together. Locke saves Celes from the guards and then Edgar warns Celes that this doesn't mean Locke has feelings for her, and she shouldn't fall in love with him.

She insists that she's not going to just start crushing because he rescued her, but the game never really provides an alternative explanation for why she does end up falling hard for Locke. After the battle, Celes and Locke are both optional party members and so don't actually have any shared scenes until the Opera House, which makes them mandatory.

The closest thing they have to romantic development is that they can both be in the party when you find Kohlingen, and if Locke's there, you can learn about his past with Rachel.

And by the time the Opera House rolls around, Celes/Locke is clearly played as a confirmed ship with the pair having feelings for each other. So. I guess she really is that giggly schoolgirl who just starts swooning over a savior.

The Opera House is the first and last time that Celes and Locke actually get to be cute and shippy together. After that, Kefka tricks Locke into thinking Celes betrayed the team at the Magitek Research Facility and the two end up separated.

They reunite on the mission to Thamasa after the Empire feigns surrender, but spend the whole mission giving each other the cold shoulder. Celes doesn't actually come back until the Floating Continent rises, the very final stage of World of Balance. Which is another optional party sequence, so no real Celes/Locke development there.

Then, in World of Ruin, Celes is now so in love with Locke (for, and I cannot state this enough, some reason that is never elaborated on) that he becomes her guiding light. The sight of his bandana on a seagull gives her hope for the world and inspires her to set out and find him.

She does not. Her time as player protagonist reunites her with Edgar, Sabin, Setzer, and briefly Terra. And it ends with the Falcon rising, at which point she retreats back into Optional Party Member status. The game opens up so that any objective can be pursued in any order and with any character.

Nonetheless, it should be said that she moved heaven and earth to find Locke.

While Locke forgot about her and instead moved heaven and earth to find Rachel, the one woman he actually loves.

Finding Locke is a late-game objective requiring at least eight party members to have been recruited, which leads into the outcome for Locke's personal arc.

Locke uses the Phoenix Magicite to briefly resurrect Rachel, and it's Rachel, not Celes, that pushes Locke to get over Rachel. Rachel tells him "I love you, I don't blame you, I remembered you in my final moments and our love made me happy. But I have to die now, and you should give your feelings to your true love Celes!"

Then she dies again and Locke, feeling complete, goes upstairs to where Celes is just waiting around look a good backup girlfriend. They hook up and live happily ever after, the end.

So it's kinda both. Celes seemingly falls head-over-heels in love with Locke right after South Figaro despite her conversation with Edgar, and remains hopelessly devoted to him throughout the rest of the game while Locke waffles back and forth.

There is a lot of emphasis on Celes's feelings but not a lot of real exploration of them. Just that she has feelings and they are what drives her to find hope in a hopeless world. She kickstarts the effort to defeat Kefka because she loves Locke so, so much.

Meanwhile, what feelings Locke has for Celes are never really dwelt on in any capacity after the Opera House, save for the Will They/Won't They cold shoulder exchange he has with Celes during the Thamasa mission.

Rachel just tells him, "Ac-tu-ally you're in love with Celes, go be with her," and then he does, and that's that for his side of the romance.

So there's kind of a weird dichotomy there where Celes puts in so much effort to getting Locke even though there's no clear indication of why he matters so much to her so quickly. Then, against all odds, she actually gets her prize at the end of it all.

This is part of the reason why the Opera House is widely recognized as FFVI's best sequence. When they lock in mandatory characters, that's when they actually get to do some real character writing with them.

That's not entirely the case, mind. Like. It is buckwild that finding out about Edgar using a double-headed coin to cheat at the coin toss and let Sabin go free is entirely skippable if you take the wrong characters to the Opera House for Locke and Celes's third and fourth.

If you don't bring Edgar to the Opera House, then Celes can't use his coin for her wager with Setzer. She just conveniently happens to have a rigged coin on her person instead. And if you don't bring Sabin with you, then he isn't there to make the connection and realize that Edgar cheated.

This critical detail of their character history can be missed if you happened to bring Cyan or Gau instead.

But for the most part, the game doesn't do that. For these create-a-party sequences, there's usually one or two character-specific lines and then the rest is neutral dialogue that's delivered with no name attached by whoever happens to be the head of the party.

Which isn't great for building deep character relationships.

If they ever did consider remaking the game (unlikely; I believe they've actually said that to remake FFVI like the VII remakes would take twenty years and 4-5 games to pull off) then this is something I'd like to see them work on.

Edgar is a sex pest and that's just something that the game throws out there. It's not presented as his character flaw. It's not part of his damage that he eventually heals from. He just. Likes to harass all the women in his staff and that's just a thing.

They go hard about it too. Talking to people in Figaro Castle reveals that Edgar will hit on any women, young or old. The maids are clearly uncomfortable with his advances. A little girl has been promised that Edgar will marry her when she grows up. It's so fucking weird.

And it's all just background details about the character; It's never plot relevant. It's just. There. Edgar sexually harasses his staff and hits on little girls, he is explicitly an "Age is just a number, baby" bro, and we are meant to like this man and root for him.

The game also pushes the Celes/Locke ship pretty hard. It's one of the few canon ships in the game but. Like. It's also made explicit that Locke's interest in both Terra and Celes comes from his personal damage.

Locke's girlfriend Rachel got injured trying to protect him. Later, she died and he wasn't there to help her. This has haunted him and given him a complex about women in peril; Any time he sees a damsel in distress, Locke takes it upon himself to become their savior. He's a career rescuer of women because helping them makes him feel better about not being able to save Rachel.

Then he gets super invested in them right up until the next damsel in distress comes along, at which point he swaps. We see him do this when he pivots from "I will be your champion and your savior and I will protect you with my life, Terra," to "I will be your champion and your savior and I will protect you with my life, Celes," as if reading from a script. Edgar even warns Celes that this is a regular habit of Locke's.

But the plot doesn't really engage with that, and still expects us to root for Celes to slowly fall in love with Locke, a man who explicitly sees her as a replacement goldfish for Rachel.

Celes scoffs to Edgar like "What, you think I'm just going to fall over myself swooning for a guy just because he helped me out of a jam? I am a GENERAL, good sir." And then she does precisely that anyways.

The ending of Locke's personal story is Rachel's ghost giving him permission to fall in love with Celes. That's his final outcome: He's able to let her go because he's got a hot new chick to hook up with.

Like.

I don't.

I don't think that's correct, game. I don't think "New girlfriend" is the correct prescription for the illness you've diagnosed in Locke. I don't know why you expected us to find Locke and Celes's dynamic to be romantic when you spell out all of the reasons why it shouldn't be.

This is one of the worst instances of characters getting mindlessly beaten with the romance stick regardless of how much sense it makes for the characters or plot in early RPG gaming.

I don't know.

To add another example, Setzer's introduction as the dashing gambler out to kidnap an opera star and force her to marry him is at least as creepy as anything King Edgar gets up to. Couple that with his own dead-girlfriend issues that we learn about later and it starts to feel like Setzer was aiming for the same fix that the game gave Locke.

Part of the issue is that Locke and Celes don't get to spend a lot of time together. Locke saves Celes from the guards and then Edgar warns Celes that this doesn't mean Locke has feelings for her, and she shouldn't fall in love with him.

She insists that she's not going to just start crushing because he rescued her, but the game never really provides an alternative explanation for why she does end up falling hard for Locke. After the battle, Celes and Locke are both optional party members and so don't actually have any shared scenes until the Opera House, which makes them mandatory.

The closest thing they have to romantic development is that they can both be in the party when you find Kohlingen, and if Locke's there, you can learn about his past with Rachel.

And by the time the Opera House rolls around, Celes/Locke is clearly played as a confirmed ship with the pair having feelings for each other. So. I guess she really is that giggly schoolgirl who just starts swooning over a savior.

The Opera House is the first and last time that Celes and Locke actually get to be cute and shippy together. After that, Kefka tricks Locke into thinking Celes betrayed the team at the Magitek Research Facility and the two end up separated.

They reunite on the mission to Thamasa after the Empire feigns surrender, but spend the whole mission giving each other the cold shoulder. Celes doesn't actually come back until the Floating Continent rises, the very final stage of World of Balance. Which is another optional party sequence, so no real Celes/Locke development there.

Then, in World of Ruin, Celes is now so in love with Locke (for, and I cannot state this enough, some reason that is never elaborated on) that he becomes her guiding light. The sight of his bandana on a seagull gives her hope for the world and inspires her to set out and find him.

She does not. Her time as player protagonist reunites her with Edgar, Sabin, Setzer, and briefly Terra. And it ends with the Falcon rising, at which point she retreats back into Optional Party Member status. The game opens up so that any objective can be pursued in any order and with any character.

Nonetheless, it should be said that she moved heaven and earth to find Locke.

While Locke forgot about her and instead moved heaven and earth to find Rachel, the one woman he actually loves.

Finding Locke is a late-game objective requiring at least eight party members to have been recruited, which leads into the outcome for Locke's personal arc.

Locke uses the Phoenix Magicite to briefly resurrect Rachel, and it's Rachel, not Celes, that pushes Locke to get over Rachel. Rachel tells him "I love you, I don't blame you, I remembered you in my final moments and our love made me happy. But I have to die now, and you should give your feelings to your true love Celes!"

Then she dies again and Locke, feeling complete, goes upstairs to where Celes is just waiting around look a good backup girlfriend. They hook up and live happily ever after, the end.

So it's kinda both. Celes seemingly falls head-over-heels in love with Locke right after South Figaro despite her conversation with Edgar, and remains hopelessly devoted to him throughout the rest of the game while Locke waffles back and forth.

There is a lot of emphasis on Celes's feelings but not a lot of real exploration of them. Just that she has feelings and they are what drives her to find hope in a hopeless world. She kickstarts the effort to defeat Kefka because she loves Locke so, so much.

Meanwhile, what feelings Locke has for Celes are never really dwelt on in any capacity after the Opera House, save for the Will They/Won't They cold shoulder exchange he has with Celes during the Thamasa mission.

Rachel just tells him, "Ac-tu-ally you're in love with Celes, go be with her," and then he does, and that's that for his side of the romance.

So there's kind of a weird dichotomy there where Celes puts in so much effort to getting Locke even though there's no clear indication of why he matters so much to her so quickly. Then, against all odds, she actually gets her prize at the end of it all.

Edgar is a sex pest and that's just something that the game throws out there. It's not presented as his character flaw. It's not part of his damage that he eventually heals from. He just. Likes to harass all the women in his staff and that's just a thing.

They go hard about it too. Talking to people in Figaro Castle reveals that Edgar will hit on any women, young or old. The maids are clearly uncomfortable with his advances. A little girl has been promised that Edgar will marry her when she grows up. It's so fucking weird.

And it's all just background details about the character; It's never plot relevant. It's just. There. Edgar sexually harasses his staff and hits on little girls, he is explicitly an "Age is just a number, baby" bro, and we are meant to like this man and root for him.

The game also pushes the Celes/Locke ship pretty hard. It's one of the few canon ships in the game but. Like. It's also made explicit that Locke's interest in both Terra and Celes comes from his personal damage.

Locke's girlfriend Rachel got injured trying to protect him. Later, she died and he wasn't there to help her. This has haunted him and given him a complex about women in peril; Any time he sees a damsel in distress, Locke takes it upon himself to become their savior. He's a career rescuer of women because helping them makes him feel better about not being able to save Rachel.

Then he gets super invested in them right up until the next damsel in distress comes along, at which point he swaps. We see him do this when he pivots from "I will be your champion and your savior and I will protect you with my life, Terra," to "I will be your champion and your savior and I will protect you with my life, Celes," as if reading from a script. Edgar even warns Celes that this is a regular habit of Locke's.

But the plot doesn't really engage with that, and still expects us to root for Celes to slowly fall in love with Locke, a man who explicitly sees her as a replacement goldfish for Rachel.

Celes scoffs to Edgar like "What, you think I'm just going to fall over myself swooning for a guy just because he helped me out of a jam? I am a GENERAL, good sir." And then she does precisely that anyways.

The ending of Locke's personal story is Rachel's ghost giving him permission to fall in love with Celes. That's his final outcome: He's able to let her go because he's got a hot new chick to hook up with.

Like.

I don't.

I don't think that's correct, game. I don't think "New girlfriend" is the correct prescription for the illness you've diagnosed in Locke. I don't know why you expected us to find Locke and Celes's dynamic to be romantic when you spell out all of the reasons why it shouldn't be.

This is one of the worst instances of characters getting mindlessly beaten with the romance stick regardless of how much sense it makes for the characters or plot in early RPG gaming.

I don't know.

To add another example, Setzer's introduction as the dashing gambler out to kidnap an opera star and force her to marry him is at least as creepy as anything King Edgar gets up to. Couple that with his own dead-girlfriend issues that we learn about later and it starts to feel like Setzer was aiming for the same fix that the game gave Locke.

Here is a quick and handy guide to what your vote means to the Democratic leadership.

-> Don't vote = Sorry, only voters' opinions matter. You have self-selected as someone the party doesn't have to listen to. Good day.

-> Vote third party = See above. Third party candidates generally take in about 1% of the electorate so anyone seriously voting for them is not a voice the party considers worth listening to.

-> Protest Vote for a Republican = The Democratic Party is not conservative enough. This is probably trans people's fault; That seems to be the popular scapegoat. They need to move right and abandon minority causes if they want to remain competitive as a party for the foreseeable future.

-> Vote for a Moderate Democrat = Business as usual. Stay on course.

-> Vote for a Leftist Democrat = The voters are hungry for socialism and now my job's on the line. I need to start talking like Zohran Mamdani if I'm going to stay competitive. Maybe I should care about healhcare? Or police reform? Whatever keeps the socialist guillotine from coming for me next.

Remember: Even a Progressive who loses the primary can still scare a Moderate into scurrying leftward if they perform well enough.

In a primary, you're voting for the one that you like the most.

In a general election, you're voting against the one you like the least.

It's also worth remember that in national scale elections, voting Third Party is pointless because of the simple Math of it. A lot of times, Third Parties do not run in enough areas for them to be mathematically capable of running the government. They lose before a single vote is cast.

However, in local level elections a third party candidate is more feasible prospect, and could in theory drive Democrats in a progessive direction via the same methods as voting for a progressive in a primary. (Though to do that, you'll still need to be voting from progressive dems in a the Dem primary.)

That's okay, though. I'm sure he is too. Maybe he can try to kill Superman over it.

Lex got really pissed that Superboy would dare do that to his friend, especially when he was trying to do something nice for Superboy, so he destroyed all his research on a Kryptonite cure and dedicated his life to destroying Superboy.