I love your rant! Where are those people who dislike Noel so much? (On Tumblr, maybe?) I haven't come across that many people who dislike him (in fact... none?) but I can see how people would have preferred the old characters instead. But it's like you say, the storyline needed a new character to tell the story right. I'm not even sad Fang and Vanille has such small roles, because when they do appear, it's awesome. I choke up every time Serah refuses the fake Lightning and you hear Vanille's voice... aaaa it's so awesome.
I've seen a lot of Noel haters on Youtube, and yeah, a bit on tumblr, and I have a friend who seriously hates him.
Whenever Fang and Vanille appear, I get all teary-eyed. I get reminded of FFXIII's ending, how beautiful it was, and I just get so emotional.
What I'm really sad about is the lack of Sazh (can't buy DLCs). He's one of my favorite characters from the original game (along with Hope and Fang). It's like... why not just put everything in the disc. Why do I have to pay to see my favorite characters? I already paid for the damn game, with my miniscule allowance, in fact. I HAD TO STARVE MYSELF.
I've been pondering about that myself... I've been convinced it was just bad translation, because in New Bodhum 003 AF, he says "I was the last living human being", which I thought might have a Japanese counterpart that could be misinterpreted as "born", like maybe "alive" and "born" are the same word or something like that. I've seen other stuff that I believe are (very minor) translation fuckups (based on the very little I know about Japanese), however this would be a really big one, and I don't think they'd let it slip. So probably they mean Yuel isn't born, but reborn, so that's not the same thing. Or something?
I also thought it could've been bad translation, but considering the pretty good job they did with the rest of the lines (especially since they have all those datalog things), I got more convinced that it's actually a plot-hole or something. It's not actually that hugely relevant, since we can also interpret it to mean that Yeul isn't actually human. Then again...
I don't think she was "born" like regular people.
This makes me question the sense in her dying and being reborn. If she wasn't going to be born like normal people anyway, why not just make her immortal? What's the sense in her dying over and over again?
Oh Etro...
It does make more sense to mean he's the last human "left", which was shown by his story in the Dying World (cried during these parts, by the way, especially when he's walking around in the huge dark place all slowly and alone...). Still, I can't get the whole "last human to be born" thing out of my head. Really bothers me.
EDIT: NVM. THANKS, TRES. 
This is also something I've been wondering about... I don't like how they just abandoned her story like that. I know she was stressed out and such, but they could have played more on the 'turning into a traitor' thing, especially since they show so much of her in Bresha Ruins. I think the Alyssa thing is one of my biggest disappointments in the game. Thankfully there aren't many!
Yeah, I felt like turning the traitor thing was handled too quickly and out of nowhere. I mean, yeah, she was a bit of a bitch towards Noel and Serah the next time they met but that was all there was. In fact, it seemed natural for her to act that way because it's easy to be skeptical about the time traveling business. Then she apologized in 4XX Academia. Which was weird considering she was planning on helping Caius get rid of them. And it wasn't like Noel and Serah knew that she was a paradox (she hints them herself, but it was so offhanded anyone could've missed it).
They showed no other hints (that I know of in the main storyline) that she was working with Caius, besides that one creepy look she gave them as they entered the sabotaged gate. That was it. She could've been doing anything else than working with Caius whenever she disappears somewhere.
TL;DR: It just felt too rushed. Alyssa was also my biggest disappointment in the game. Also, she needs to get her hands off Hope. Seriously, woman, don't make me erase you from history. D<
She was erased from history, she was a paradox.
1. She died in 13 during the Purge.
2. Etro saved the party at the end and caused the paradoxes to happen.
3. Alyssa never dies due to being time messed up instead her friend dies in her place.
4. She has
nightmares about her dying.
5. She teams up with Caius and hands N/S a
rigged artifact.
6. After N/S fix the paradoxes she disappears and people can barely remember her.
I kind of knew 1-5 since I got that silly paradox ending with Snow, but number 6 is really where my question is at. What do I do to see this happen? Do I need to fix ALL the paradoxes, or just specific ones?
I don't look at guides much, they make my head spin with all the text.
Yes, me too
400AF is my most hated place ever. It's the only place I looked at a guide for so I can complete the map for it and open the optional gate and get all the necessary items, so that I won't have to go back to running around it if I missed something.
Now I just stand near the NPC that has the map quest whenever I visit the timeline.
I might need to use a guide for that Captain Cryptic minigame though. I never found him after he disappeared the second time.
That fight is a bitch. I did the same thing (SEN + Wound). There is probably another way, but meh
Yeah, had to retry it three times before I figured out my strategy. I'm still missing one Paradox Scope battle with him, but I forget which one it is.
Oh hello there, I can relate
ORLY?
CHOCOBO RACES!
Also, is time that stands still really time? Bc they never said Valhalla has no time, it's just outside the timeline, in an endless loop. I do wonder how they're gonna explain all of that in LR:XIII though... cue several more in game speeches about time! Oh boy.
