Another write up, it's lucky I'm on a week off so I can get through as much of the game in advance for theses chapters as possible, I might be non-existent on TLS from next week for a while due to late nights in work starting so if I can complete more than necessary I can have the write ups done quicker.
What were your exam scores? How do you feel about your performance?
Conduct: 20
I had 9 minutes left, after escaping from the tower, so no wonder I didn't get many points for this
Judgement: 30
I beat Ifrit pretty quickly, I kinda forgot how judgement was calculated until I looked it up at the end otherwise I would have just let the timer run down further.
Attack: 30
I only really fought battles that came along the way, I didn't really go out of my way to fight them, if I'd run around more I probably would have gotten a higher score.
Spirit 70
I escaped only twice during the whole thing, once when I got into a fight with a soldier before I fought Spider Bot as I wanted to keep as much of the time I had fighting it and the second time was the compulsary battle against it.
Attitude 80
I moved towards the radio tower once by accident before Seifer gave the go ahead...whoops.
Bonus 100
Beat the spider Bot XD
Seed Rank 6
Yeah I guess I'm pretty happy with getting Rank 6, oh I got bumped up to rank 7 on the way to Balamb the next morning and then got another Rank after completeing the Timber mission so I'm currently rank 8, I might take some Seed exam questions soon just to go a bit higher considering it's one of the only ways to earn a lot of gil quite quickly early in the game.
Did you get the Battle Meter?
This is actually the first time I've ever grabbed it, it's been one of those things I've always forgotten to get, not this time though. Force just FYI it shows how many steps you've walked and battles you've had, won, and escaped. It's not really that big a deal to be honest.
Any trouble finding the "secret area" in the Training Center?
Nope, poor Quistis though, there she is pouring her feelings out and Squall basically tells her he doesn't give a shit, charming fellow that Squall, you can practically see him rolling his eyes at her.
Did you get the Magical Lamp? Did you use it?
Yes I used it and Diablos makes a very nice welcome addition to my GF group, I did really struggle to get Demis for this in the end I allowed one party member at a time to draw form him while the other two focused on healing from his Graviga attacks, blinded him of course to prevent the physical attacks but healed just to be on the safe side.
What rare cards have you gotten so far?
Just Ifrit after I beat him and Diablos.
Did you give the Card Queen the MiniMog card?
UUuuummmmmm no???
Did Laguna fall asleep while talking to Julia or just talk too much?
Laguna's actions are based on whether you picked up the Timber Maniac magazine, I gotta admit Laguna falling asleep because he's drank too much is pretty funny, but I do prefer the proper scene of him just talking too much, so I didn't pick up the magazine.
Did you perform the train mission flawlessly or have to do anything over?
Flawlessly, I hate making mistakes on stuff like this, so I'm a perfectionist, it would have been nice to have a full FMV cutscene with all the character on top of the train, I dunno just think it would have been nice instead of the in-game graphics.
Did you take the cheap way out for the Gerogero boss fight?
God no, I had 100 beserks and Zombies to get for Zell, Selphie and Squall, the battle took over an hour to complete because I had to keep drawing Esunas to get rid of the slow and silence statuses but hey worth it again because they boost your stats quite nicely if junctioned.
Did you visit Dollet again? What did you do there?
I did visit it, I didn't do much, I got the potion from the doggy and talked to people, didn't play cards though.
Did you get the Girl Next Door magazine?
Yup, Squall you bloody pervert!
What were your overall impressions of this chapter?
OK Laguna is awesome, there I said it, I love him as a character, Selphie's crush on him is adorable. He's a bit of a dreamer, you can tell he doesn't really want to be in the army anymore, his leg cramping with nerves is adorable, I dunno I just really wanna give laguna a hug, he's such an easy going guy, he's funny and you can tell him, Kiros and Ward are no where near as ruthless as some other G-Soldiers.
Rinoa (Takes a deep breath) I'm not her biggest fan and I think she's quite possibly the worst main FF heroines to be created:
I think the way she came into the story was actually quite cute and I really liked the dance with Squall she even made him laugh and there was this air of mystery about her....fastforward the next day and you've got this unprofessional leader of a resistance group (come on she's definitely the leader even though Zone says he is), with a half baked plan, Zell is right the group don't exactly have it together and you can see the cogs turning in the three SeeDs minds telling them the plan is doomed from the start. You do have to admire Rinoa's passion, spirit and drive for what she believes in but does she have to be so childish about it.
The background info on what happened to Zone and Watt' fathers really hits just how bad it is for the people of Timber, in fact the whole Timber wanting to achieve independence strikes a cord with me. It's not the situation where I live is like that now, but back some 40 years ago there was definitely a war here over independence and I understand why they're fighting so hard, maybe I'm just being a little over dramatic in that sense but it does feel like I can relate in some way.
Speaking of the Timber mission, you almost get the impression that Cid kind of duped them into going, there's this almost "we've been had" atmosphere when they read the contract that Cid negotiated with Rinoa.
Seifer and the sorceress is very interesting, you can tell at the start he's trying to resist her, but she definitely seems to have some sort of hold on him, I think she probably knows, he wants to be this almost heroic figure and he ends up believing she can give him that instead of just make-believe childhood dreams. There's also this underlying element that the sorceress already is more dangerous and something everyone should watch out for, she already appears to have manipulated Seifer into going with her, so you wonder what else is really going down with her.
Current GF layout, there's been a slight change, Squall now has Shiva and Diablos, Rinoa has Ifrit and Siren and Selphie still has Quezacotl, my next GF will be going to Selphie. Also in terms of my party at the moment I normally keep a party of Squall, Zell and Rinoa, but I've chosen Selphie this time until a little bit later, her attack may be weak but she's got good magic potential and her Draw rate seems to be pretty good.
Rinoa as much as I dislike her character she is quite useful in battle and I've just realised what what Force said there about Angelo and Rinoa's partnership being a call back to Shadow and Interceptor but then I've always liked Angelo in battle but at the same time I often wonder how normal it is to fire your dog from your weapon and launch it in the air at enemies
Done.
I know I'm behind but I'll try to catch up. And hey, this is further than I ever got on the playthrough of IX! 
And when I draw it I didn't even know what it was. After the fight I was surprised to get another GF. 
