Part 50: Part Fifty: How to Get Ahead in SeeD

Part Fifty: How to Get Ahead in SeeD


Running back to Garden, Squall's spidey-senses start tingling and he stops.



Selphie probably feels personally responsible for what happened to Trabia. Must be tough.

: I thought I should let you know, since you're...kind of everyone's leader.

Hey man, I didn't vote for Squall.

: I think you should go talk to her. I know you're a klutz when it comes to these things, so I'll back you.

Oh thank god, Irvine's going to help. Just who I'd want to talk to me if I felt bad.

: ...Where is she?

Look at that line and think about what it means for Squall. Back in Timber, he would have blown her off.

: She's hanging out at the stage by the quad.


Well, let's go comfort Selphie.


Let's also take a gander at this background again. I think it's very pretty.



: I didn't expect all this heavy machinery.

There's no machinery really visible here, so it seems like he's just talking about FH.

: How else are they going to repair it? With hammers and nails?
: Hey, hey, hey, this isn't my department.
: Then what is?


Irvine, the last time we trusted you with "guns and women" we ended up in prison. Squall almost died.


But Squall's the bigger man, and he won't point that out.


There's not really that much going on inside the Garden right now.



By the way, if you return to his office at any time during this sequence, Cid just says this. This includes when Galbadia is actively attacking FH.


Like I said, not much going on.



Diamond's got some new dialogue for us, though.


Whoa, when I said that there wasn't much going on, I obviously didn't know about the magazine shipment.


You see, FH is known for its spectacular selection of magazines, so in a way we're actually fortunate to have violently crashed into their town.


There aren't many SeeDs we've met who haven't been named, but this guy is one of them.


Oh, and speaking of magazines, we got one from the Master Fisherman.


This is a hint for a sidequest we'll get to eventually.


I came to the cafeteria to see if there was a scene with this lady's kid.


Instead, she just reminded me of the importance of dieting. Thanks, lady.


DIRECTOR'S CUT LP SHIT RIGHT HERE I was actually informed by Burger Flipper that you can run around the counter and talk to the kid here. Look at this line! The lore implications are insane!


His mum also gets a different line after you talk to him? Man, sometimes I don't even know.


There are also still no more hot dogs. We may never get a hot dog.



Over in back, these guys are starting to get nihilistic.

Sankey in the Back There: Seriously... I feel like I'm losing my mind.
Guy on the Right Who's Always Complaining: ...Come to think of it, what do we do besides complain here?
Back to Sankey: Hmmm... You're right. What else do we do?
Left: Just goes to show you how worthless we are...


Hey, you guys aren't that bad.


I mean, at least you didn't get missiles launched at the place.




Well, that's everything new to see, so let's get over to the quad.


Wow, the stage is fucked.


Yeah, like I said, fucked.

: Yeah, it's been crazy, with the Garden moving and crashing into FH. A lot's happened.
: Y'know, I really wanted to see a band perform on this stage. I even had my eyes set on a few people, too.

This probably puts a damper on the whole Garden Festival thing, huh?



Of course we're going to cheer up our friend.


Bam! Cheered up!

: ...Squall...being sensitive? That's weird. You're the last person I expected to cheer me up. I must really look depressed.

Well actually, Irvine told us.


Naturally, he takes what she says a little too seriously.

: (It's just that there are too many things that can't be helped.)

Squall is very fatalistic.

: (So why bother talking about everything.)




It's a classic Squall play to miss what she's really saying there. Selphie knows that Squall cares, and the player knows, but Squall can't quite put it together. The irony being, of course, that despite only saying a third of what he's thinking, Squall assumes that everyone else is always saying everything.


She appreciates it, though.


Hopefully Irvine can do something a little more helpful.

: ...Alrighty.


Historically, good news.



As Squall leaves, Irvine starts hatching a plan.

: Fun? What fun?
: (I'm so brilliant.)



Remember that Irvine asked about having the technicians take care of some stuff earlier - this has been his plan all along.

: Hmm... Do you think they'll do it?
: Don't worry. I'll back you. I'm sure they'll do it.

Well, the stage is sort of part of Garden anyway, and those guys did say they loved to fix things.

: Hey, that means...!
: Yup, you can have 'your band' perform on the stage.


At least Selphie doesn't lose everything here.

: Whoo-hoo! Alright! Let's get this show on the road!





And now it's over to the bridge.

Headmaster Cid: I see...... I also head a report from Selphie just a moment ago. She said the diary is open for everyone to see. Maybe you should have a look.

You know, I was worried for a second that Cid wasn't keeping up with people's blogs. What a load off my mind.

: Oh, and one more thing... It appeared that the Galbadians were searching for Ellone. That seemed to be their main objective in FH.

Ellone was hanging around the Garden before those White SeeD guys picked her up. Seems like they knew she'd be in danger.


Uh, the Galbadian guy said they were on Edea's orders, dude.


Look at Cid here - he probably doesn't know what to do about his wife suddenly being in charge of his biggest enemy.


Ellone's ability seems like the kind of thing people would want to get their hands on.



: And regardless of whether they found her or not they had orders to burn the city down.

This probably also isn't fun for Cid to hear. That's fucked up.



: (...That's right.)
Headmaster Cid: Most likely, the sorceress will not stop this onslaught until Ellone is found. She will continue to hunt her, and burn everything in her path.

Brutal.




Sounds like we're going on the offensive.


What are these two gossiping about?



Headmaster Cid: The Garden is being repaired right now. We'll leave FH immediately after it's finished. We're going on a journey.


Like I said, on the offensive.

Headmaster Cid: The administration of Garden will be run by myself and the staff, as usual.


Who here is qualified to fight a sorceress?


Squall is the one best-suited to this task. After all, he's the only person associated with the Garden who's gone toe-to-toe with a sorceress before.


He's not exactly thrilled at the announcement, though.



If you want some objections, just turn around.


People make a lot of stink about this decision, so I want to talk about it for a second. First of all, like I said, Squall is the only SeeD who's fought a sorceress before, so it's not that unreasonable to pick him to lead a second attack on her. Second, it's still Squall's mission on paper to kill the sorceress - there's no point changing horses mid-race on that, and now he has the rest of Garden to back him up. Cid's not making Squall Headmaster or anything, he's just saying that Squall is going to keep on doing his mission (the mission SeeD was created for) and that everyone else is backup.


It's actually not really that big of a change, but it's posed as a huge shift.



That said, this is the wrong way for Cid to explain it.



And Squall is pissed.


It's not the difficulty of the mission that really bothers him.

: (What? As long as I'm a SeeD member? What if I quit?)

It's the lack of choice associated with it.

: (Quit... Then what? What do I have left?)

Squall gets by on a lot of passivity. He's given something to do, he does it.


Unfortunately, that sort of just stopped working.


But he'll give it a try.


This is another important part of Squall. He doesn't just feel like others always let him down, he thinks that everybody always fails everybody else, and he's scared of it.


He doesn't want to save the world or be a hero, he just wants to go back to not having other people's lives in his hands. Squall is aware that he is still a child.