I never said she'd under any circumstances be driven to suicide, but it's plainly obvious that she no longer wants to be alive from the materials we've been shown. This is a dramatic shift in her character that makes no sense whatsoever. The Terra of FFVI, particularly after she undergoes her character development (and none of the other characters in Dissidia contradict their character development as far as I'm aware), would want to live so she could kick the ass of whomever was responsible for putting her under their control in the first place, regardless of what she'd been put through or what she remembered.
Now, to me, that bolded part is what doesn't really sound like Terra. That's far more assertive and aggressive than she was in the original game until after defeating Humbaba.
Aaron said:
In any case your speculation that something must be different this time is just that: speculation. Nothing we've been shown indicates that there is anything different in the circumstances beyond the way she reacts, and thus her completely different reaction has yet to be justified.
Oh, come on, everything about the characters' circumstances are different in Dissidia to what they were in their original games -- and there's no denying that circumstances play a role in shaping people. Let's see what those circumstances are before declaring that this could never, ever happen without it being retarded if it did.
As much as I harp on SE's stupidity, even I'm willing to wait for the complete context before thinking a story choice is utter fail.
Aaron said:
It's shoddy writing and the fact that Square Enix is presenting it to us as promotional materials for the game without feeling as though they have any obligation to justify it does not bode well for the finished product.
And as I stated, the fact that Square Enix feels no need to explain such a blatant change in characterisation does not bode well for the game.
Wouldn't they use the game itself to explain how she gets to this point? I mean, really, we want them to tell the whole the story in a trailer?
Aaron said:
Where did I say she ever held resentment towards anyone? But it's obvious she wants to defeat Kefka after her epiphany in the World of Ruin because he is making other people suffer. There is absolutely no reason her reaction to events in this game should be any different.
If she feels -- and maybe even is -- that she's more a liability than a help, that's a good reason.
If she's been through this before as you've claimed then she might have at least a little faith that her friends would be able to find a solution, since they did so every other time this happened. Unless she's amnesiac again, which would be a case of so many contrived coincidences that it breaks suspension of disbelief.
It is an established part of Dissidia's plot, though, that many characters have amnesia. It's not any more contrived for her to have amnesia again under these circumstances than it is for Cloud.
I wasn't particularly referring to a span of time, I was referring to a span of games. Between Dissidia and Duodecim is a pretty rapid change for a character like Terra to turn suicidal since these games usually don't cover a span of years, and a span of years is pretty much the only way a believable, non-contrived series of events could be constructed to turn a character like Terra into a nervous wreck who wants to die.
As Duodecim is a prequel to Dissidia, it's not as though she went from Terra as we saw her in the first game to this character we're seeing now. It was the reverse.
For that matter, given that we don't know what all came before Duodecim, who knows how long she's been forced to kill people. She may have been forced to do this for numerous cycles of the war.
We also don't know how much of this she may remember.
Aaron said:
As stated several times, the series of events Square Enix has come up with is just about as contrived as could be imagined, and not terribly believable either. Also, you made several assumptions you didn't mention you were making.
No, we're just pretty damn sure that it's incredibly unlikely that a character like Terra would want to commit suicide under any believable set of circumstances. As stated, the circumstances which befall her aren't terribly believable.
We're worried about what's believable in a game about anthropomorphic deities who embody abstract concepts born of the human mind pulling warriors from multiple worlds to use as pieces in a game of Risk?
Priorities, man.
To build on what Dacon said (and his post kind of implies this but I might as well make it explicit), I didn't consider this before, but Terra being an amnesiac in Duodecim doesn't even make sense. She's reacting to the fact that her actions are hurting her friends. If she's amnesiac she wouldn't know these people are her friends.
Presumably, at the point where she asks to be killed, Vaan is her friend, even if she doesn't know any of the others to be. She's also presumably capable of distinguishing between good guys and bad guys.
So we're still making assumptions then?
I don't see Terra herself having it in her to just give up like that, mind control or not. Why beg for death when you can ask your friends to free you from slavery so you can make up for whatever actions you were forced to take by fighting against those people?[/
She was quite content to fly off to Zozo/give up in the original game. Of course, for all we know, asking for death in Duodecim is her way of fighting back against the villains and may be an example of her acting strong.
How about we wait and see before declaring this to be an epic defilement?
Also:
I don't see Terra herself having it in her to just give up like that, mind control or not. Why beg for death when you can ask your friends to free you from slavery so you can make up for whatever actions you were forced to take by fighting against those people?[/
Terra only refuses to leave because she feels responsible for those kids and wants to look after them, and she felt like she lost the strength to fight, and didn't want to be a burden on her friends. It's not until she realises she loves those kids and wants to protect them that she finds the will to fight and leaves to protect the world for them.
...
Still can't find a reason Terra might feel the need to be killed?
But yeah, we don't have any reason to assume she lost her memory. At least not of who she is.
No reason other than that half of the cast does at one point or another.
I think the point is they multiplied any vulnerability Terra may have shown to the nth degree. Hell, they gave her the weakest sounding, ultra feminine and childlike voice.
Yeah, that they did. I'm not disagreeing with anyone, by the way, who thinks Terra could have been portrayed more strongly.
I don't like the angle they chose for her in the Dissidia series either. Doesn't mean it can't be plausible within the right circumstances.
