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[blazbluetheories]

S-senpai just noticed me!! 

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I already gave this petition several promos on my RP blog, but not here. So I wanted to rectify that. 

I don’t know about you guys, but Patrick Seitz and the rest of the dub team have definitely influenced how I see this series. I don’t think I could handle the finale being without the voice actors that shaped my experience and drew in my interest. 

If you have even the slightest interest in the dub, or just want to see the voice actors have a job working on this series one last time, please sign. Every signature sends a message to Aksys: That this is what we want. 

Please, signal boost this if you can! Let it spread across the fandom, if possible. :) 

[blazbluetheories]

Might as well do my part to keep the discussion going. 

I don’t know much about the outside canon because little of it is fully translated. I know a good amount about Ragna (thanks abyss! :D You’re a pal!) but that’s about it. Obvious bias is obvious. 

Anyway, with that in mind, my thoughts on Blazblue as a story are mixed. I obviously love the characters, Ragna especially. I have some that cause me some very obvious gripes (*glares at Noel and Kagura*) but for the most part, I like their energy, how they bounce off of one another, and the intrigue that they bring to the table. 

The plots themselves are... alright. The thing about fighting game story is that it’s very, very very hard to do well. The core story has to be simple with a deep and complex lore to make everything in the inevitably diverse cast make perfect sense. For the most part, Blazblue does a decent job of this, but I don’t like that Mori seems to answer some questions with more questions even as the series ends (or worse still, answering them completely with a bULLSHIT RETCON that happens so much i can’t even i mean jin can just decide FUCK DEATH I DO WHAT I WANT?! Really, Mori?! Oh and don’t even get me started on Noel--) *ahem*

It’s the lore that I both love and have issues with. Namely because there is usually three versions of everything (Which mind eater curse are we talking about at any given moment? No clue. Tsubaki is under one, Phantom and Kazuma were under another, and Hazama can use a third one.), there’s not a clear answer for what distinguishes some things (Magic v. Sorcery is only distinguished by “one is fancier and harder”, mana v seithr aren’t well distinguished, the aforementioned THREE DIFFERENT MIND EATER CURSES WHERE TWO ARE DISTINGUISHED PURELY BY WHO CAN BREAK THEM), etc. It’s not clarified and consistent, which makes making theories, understanding the world, and sometimes even getting a character’s actions incredibly difficult. Not helping is that sometimes what piece of lore was given to us incorrectly will be obvious (seriously if you didn’t know Ragna’s Azure was gonna be real by CF I dunno what to tell you....), but others will be a case of pure WTF (See: the entire plot of CF in the early days. God were we confused.)

I think if someone just came in with an editor, smacked mori’s hands a few times, and generally got the whole thing written down into a nice, consistent whole, it’d probably help everything. But the troubles with the lore make Blazblue often impenetrable to outsiders. No joke, I once explained everyone’s importance from CT-CSEX and their basic plotlines to a friend who actually played blazblue, because it was that hard to follow. I’m sure Ben knows just as well as I that someone who can clean up and explain lore is essential to actually getting into the series, otherwise you’re going to be completely lost, and that’s a terrible thing for a story. 

>>; If anyone’s ever wondered why I am obsessed with doing a fan rewrite of the story once CF completes, now you know. I just wanna get everything sorted out for my own piece of mind. It’s hard to write for a series when you can’t fully understand the lore. It’s hard to read characters when you don’t know the background info that drives their actions. It’s hard to get into a story when you’re missing crucial information. So part of me just wants to... streamline that. For everyone’s sake. 

That said, I love Blazblue. It’s just incredibly frustrating to me for that reason. And also because Mori sometimes forgets how to do this whole “writing” thing he’s assigned to do. Too busy with his tissues and Noel dakimakura I assume. XD Okay, kidding. But seriously, some of his directorial decisions make me want to hit him with a brick. I guess we’ll wait and see where the future of the series is headed. 

As far as BlazBlue goes, I've never actually heard your thoughts in summation of the story so far. Best moments? Worst moments? Interesting aspects? I kinda feel like I missed out on a lot for not focusing on the side stories, but again, I'm no BB Lore Guru, so I'd like your take on it all.

Well, obviously, I love the story tons.

Best moment? In BE1 When Raquel and Naoto went to an adult store to find clues on Kana’s whereabouts and Raquel looked at these dildos and was, like “What are these?”, and the store attendant said they were too big for her and she should look for something smaller. Naoto’s just cursing Clavis for not educating her on the birds and the bees the entire time.

Worst moment? Every lewd Remix Heart panel. Made it an absolute bloody nightmare to read when I was in school. Tied with Kana being forced to do sex acts for Tadayuki in BE.

(I get the irony between the best and worst moments, but the first is plain funny and the latter is just explicit)

Interesting aspects? For me, it’s how everything connects. How everything is all linked but it’s just not apparent at first. Like Durarara!!, or Heroes (which I personally find excellent).

I love the story. I love everything about BlazBlue (except the lewd stuff). I mean, I wouldn’t have gotten so heavy into the story if my “obsession” wasn’t there.

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I guess we won’t know for sure until the game comes out, but that could definitely be an explanation. 

Ragna’s origins though... oh god is THAT one hell of a mess. >>; This is why I don’t really give anything too definite on my RP blog because we just got nothing to go on for him. All we know is that:

-He and all of his siblings are extraordinarily powerful, associated with gods to some extent (Jin associated with Susano-o, Saya associated in some ways with Amaterasu as well as Hades Izanami, and Ragna’s association with the moon and sort of affiliation with Rachel, who takes influence from Kaguya-Hime, etc.), and regularly break the rules of reality.

-Ragna is, at the least, a prime field device (one is required to create the black beast, along with some of the Azure, and he can become the black beast without Nu.)

-He is one of three cast members most closely associated with the Azure at the moment (the others being Noel and Es) 

-He was confined in a lab during his childhood, along with his siblings, and was likely experimented on by Relius. Relius, however, didn’t seem to expect much out of Jin or Ragna, and doesn’t really even recognize them (and they don’t in turn). So for all we know they could have been failures where Saya was the success. If only Relius would actually TALK ABOUT IT-- *ahem* 

Unfortunately there’s no concrete way to really tie all of this together yet. CF promises to be the conclusion to Ragna’s story (although I kind of hope it isn’t), so we’ll probably figure it out... whenever that game is released. Or Mori could blueball the fandom again. ...Knowing Mori I’m gonna go with the second one. 

More CF Theories

Hello! Wow, it seems you guys really seemed to agree with or find interest in the Rachel theory! Since it seems like things are going p well, I figure I might as well throw out a few of my other predictions for the game, based on that trailer. Most of them are based purely on cinematography, but much like an anime opening, the visuals/words/editing of a trailer often foreshadow events that are planned to happen in the story. So I figure that it at least has some weight, even if it’s basically speculation.

Terumi and Ragna are going to fight… but this time, they’ll be equally matched. The reason I say this is because in the clip we see of Ragna and Terumi fighting, their attacks are the same size, and the two mirror each other. This would imply that their powers are roughly equal now. Knowing that Ragna’s Azure is supposedly real (so says Relius) this may be the reason why.

Nine is going to betray Celica. Well, sort of. She’s definitely going to do something that Celica considers upsetting/horrible. Near the end of the trailer, you can hear her saying something in a quite maniacal (while I don’t know what it says exactly, the word “to end” and the word for “dream” do come up. Which probably means whatever she said has to do with her desire to end the world.) In the clip, Nine seems to attack someone ahead of her, Celica gasps in fear, and Ragna comes in to shield her from a fire attack. Nine being the only person that uses fire aside from Bullet, and, well, basic continuity editing would indicate that she was the one who fired the attack at her sister. Combining this altogether seems to imply that Nine will go against Celica’s wishes at the least, and possibly betray her. It’s also likely that Ragna will have to intervene, and that there will be a big Nine v. Ragna battle (although admittedly, that much was kind of obvious.)

That’s all I got. I might have more when I see a translation~. But I hope you find this interesting! 

[blazbluetheories]

I had a thought and it’s probably stupid but why not. 

1. Ragna’s Azure is real.

2. Ragna’s Azure is literally the remnants of his decapitated body.

3. Ergo, Ragna’s Azure is literally Ragna. And it’s real Azure.

4. Ragna=Azure?

[blazbluetheories]

#blazblue #hmm... yeah i was thinking that too now that you mentioned it #how did ragna's azure become real though?

Good question! The answer is I have no clue. T_T 

Unfortunately, I only know that it is real. The CF arcade mode doesn’t give a lot of information, and it doesn’t give a lot of exposition, so the how and why aren’t explained too clearly. All I can tell you is that Ragna encounters Relius in the embryo, and Relius says something along the lines of “Hmm... I was almost certain it was an imitation, but... if “this” is the real Azure, then... I see.” and then adds “You really are the Man of Azure... if he’s the real one, then it’s worth seeing this through to the end...” 

And then nobody mentions it ever again. :(

Azrael seems to imply the scope of his power may very well be godly though, but this might just be a case of two sentences being put together in a way that gives different meaning then intended. At any rate, the two have a conversation post-fight where Azrael says that Ragna is the “correct” one, and that it’s too early to fight him, but when he’s ready, he’s hoping to use his full power against the man. Which is... some pretty high expectations. He then brings up his contract with the reward of fighting the gods when Ragna asks what the hell he’s saying. While it’s not outright stated, one might be able to infer that he’s saying Ragna is at a godly level/actually a god. *Shrugs* It might not be that though. We can only wait and see. 

Theeeen 3rd act doesn’t tell us much either. He does mention that he thinks “[he] knows” the girl in the amaterasu unit... or rather that she knows him. 

Those might mean that Ragna actually always had some form of great power because he was far, far more than he seemed. Of course, Relius also said that he was almost certain it was an imitation. And Relius is usually p straightforward about things that are interesting to him, so it could mean that he always had some doubts about that, and that it might very well have always been real. Which brings up more interesting questions, considering his connections to Ragna’s past before living in the church.

Hope any of this helps! It’s late and I’m rambling but I tried my best to explain all the info that I have so far. 

More CF Theories

Hello! Wow, it seems you guys really seemed to agree with or find interest in the Rachel theory! Since it seems like things are going p well, I figure I might as well throw out a few of my other predictions for the game, based on that trailer. Most of them are based purely on cinematography, but much like an anime opening, the visuals/words/editing of a trailer often foreshadow events that are planned to happen in the story. So I figure that it at least has some weight, even if it’s basically speculation.

Terumi and Ragna are going to fight… but this time, they’ll be equally matched. The reason I say this is because in the clip we see of Ragna and Terumi fighting, their attacks are the same size, and the two mirror each other. This would imply that their powers are roughly equal now. Knowing that Ragna’s Azure is supposedly real (so says Relius) this may be the reason why.

Nine is going to betray Celica. Well, sort of. She’s definitely going to do something that Celica considers upsetting/horrible. Near the end of the trailer, you can hear her saying something in a quite maniacal (while I don’t know what it says exactly, the word “to end” and the word for “dream” do come up. Which probably means whatever she said has to do with her desire to end the world.) In the clip, Nine seems to attack someone ahead of her, Celica gasps in fear, and Ragna comes in to shield her from a fire attack. Nine being the only person that uses fire aside from Bullet, and, well, basic continuity editing would indicate that she was the one who fired the attack at her sister. Combining this altogether seems to imply that Nine will go against Celica’s wishes at the least, and possibly betray her. It’s also likely that Ragna will have to intervene, and that there will be a big Nine v. Ragna battle (although admittedly, that much was kind of obvious.)

That’s all I got. I might have more when I see a translation~. But I hope you find this interesting! 

[blazbluetheories]

More CF Theories

Hello! Wow, it seems you guys really seemed to agree with or find interest in the Rachel theory! Since it seems like things are going p well, I figure I might as well throw out a few of my other predictions for the game, based on that trailer. Most of them are based purely on cinematography, but much like an anime opening, the visuals/words/editing of a trailer often foreshadow events that are planned to happen in the story. So I figure that it at least has some weight, even if it’s basically speculation.

Terumi and Ragna are going to fight... but this time, they’ll be equally matched. The reason I say this is because in the clip we see of Ragna and Terumi fighting, their attacks are the same size, and the two mirror each other. This would imply that their powers are roughly equal now. Knowing that Ragna’s Azure is supposedly real (so says Relius) this may be the reason why.

Nine is going to betray Celica. Well, sort of. She’s definitely going to do something that Celica considers upsetting/horrible. Near the end of the trailer, you can hear her saying something in a quite maniacal (while I don’t know what it says exactly, the word “to end” and the word for “dream” do come up. Which probably means whatever she said has to do with her desire to end the world.) In the clip, Nine seems to attack someone ahead of her, Celica gasps in fear, and Ragna comes in to shield her from a fire attack. Nine being the only person that uses fire aside from Bullet, and, well, basic continuity editing would indicate that she was the one who fired the attack at her sister. Combining this altogether seems to imply that Nine will go against Celica’s wishes at the least, and possibly betray her. It’s also likely that Ragna will have to intervene, and that there will be a big Nine v. Ragna battle (although admittedly, that much was kind of obvious.)

That’s all I got. I might have more when I see a translation~. But I hope you find this interesting! 

[blazbluetheories]

Theory: Rachel will die in Central Fiction

A bit tenuous, but I figure I should post something now that I have something for once! 

There’s a shot of Rachel falling into a white void and slowly closing her eyes. As she falls, a pool of red rose petals begins to fill the screen. 

Since red rose petals are often used as a symbol for blood, and she’s looking like she’s falling asleep, there’s a possibility that it could be implying that she is going to be fatally injured (falling unconscious+bleeding). 

She’s been progressively weakening during the course of the story, and since Rachel is tightly tied to Ragna’s story, her death would be a logical way to end her arc, and to give emotional tension to the story as things reach their peak. 

Yeah, like I said, a bit tenuous, but worth discussion! 

[blazbluetheories]

I've never read the Bloodedge Experience before, but I do know that Naoto Kurogane was the main protagonist of such. I'm curious about a couple things, since Naoto is in Central Fiction. Like, if he's a playable character in CF, then wouldn't Raquel make some sort of appearance at all? Second, Raquel's father is Clavis Alucard, right? Wouldn't that make her and Rachel sisters? So...what happened? Not a theory, but I was hoping that you had read it and could clear things up for me...

Sadly, I don’t have much information about that. I know that Raquel has at least made an appearance visually when Naoto met Rachel, but she hasn’t really showed up in the flesh yet. As for the rest, you should direct it to @abyss-of-the-azure. They’re the resident lore guy. Although you should know that the Bloodedge Experience novels haven’t really been given a full translation, so most info comes from translations and may not be accurate to any future official translations that might happen. 

[blazbluetheories]

I love myself too damned much to make responses to some of this stuff before a 9 hour workday. But I will say this:

Please do not dismiss theories stated on here that have not been fully elaborated on. 

Especially if you know nothing about the theory that you’re dismissing. 

[blazbluetheories]

Holy shit, there’s 81 of you already? Well... thank you! :D I’ll try and be more active for you guys. But not tomorrow because... I have a 9 hour work day. Sorry. I mean I might be on, but no promises. For all I know after all that work I might just crash until Monday. 

I will probably be making my most recent theory known very soon. ...And I literally JUST thought of another one, so... hopefully I should have some new content for you. In the meantime, feel free to submit! I know I’m a bit harsh with some submissions, but I genuinely love that you’re all participating. I’m just... a really harsh critic by nature. Don’t take it personal. 

Anyway, going to bed. See you all later! 

[blazbluetheories]

I won’t go into great detail here, but I think Saya is some form of human avatar of the girl in the Master Unit, so I think she’d probably be an entitled. Or at least be able to force herself back into existence. 

Just at theory though. 

Is Izanami one of the Entitled? Presumably she would have to be if she wanted to create her world but her role seems different so I'm not sure.

She’s a Drive, so I guess she can’t be an Entitled? It’s more plausible that Saya is an Entitled but who knows at this point?

[blazbluetheories]

This isn't really a theory, I'm just glad someone else is skeeved out by Kagura too. I want to like him so bad, but he's such a creep--it's really genuinely uncomfortable sometimes. Hibiki is too good for him. : ( (also thank you for managing this blog. It's nice. :^))

I know right?! He genuinely unsettles me. I hope Arcsys realizes that while female fans can mostly handle fanservice (otherwise we wouldn’t be here) actual creepers are a no-no. They do know they have a female fanbase, right? I mean that’s what all the yaoi jokes about Ragna/Jin are for... female fanservice. I don’t think they realize this could hurt their female demographic....

And no problem! Sometimes it’s difficult, but thank you. :D I appreciate nice comments like these. 

[blazbluetheories]

Oh, oh, I read your response to that "Who will main Blazblue once Ragna's arc is over" thing. Would you be okay with Noel taking Center Stage? Jin? Mayhaps a prequel series revolving around the Six Heroes. (That one's doubtful)

I... honestly don’t know. Ragna is my absolute favorite character in the entire series and I don’t think anyone could really fill those shoes. I don’t really feel anyone is so central to the story, so complex and likeable all at once. ...Depending on your interpretation, Jin and Noel may be some of those things, but in all honesty, I don’t like Noel much. I feel like she’s a character that Mori often mishandled from a personality standpoint, and, this is by no means the voice actresses fault, but Noel is often directed as screeching and whining and otherwise just being kind of unappealing to listen to. I kind of have to take breaks whenever she’s on screen. (Not as many as when RACHEL shows up, but sometimes I just gotta stop the game for a minute or two.) And Jin... I think he’s a far better character as a foil or rival than as a protagonist. Jin, when he becomes a protagonist, kind of bores me. He and Hakumen both, really. They just have this generic strong warrior thing to them that I really can’t stand. 

I think if Carl became the central character the fandom would throw a fit. He’s too... divisive. I personally like his story, but I feel that if you’re overexposed to him, he could potentially be annoying. 

I think I’d actually like someone like Litchi or Kokonoe, if anyone at all. Or maybe Celica if she was suitably developed. No, I’m not suggesting them because they’re women. Litchi I suggest because she is a genuinely good character with a lot of pathos, and is pretty likeable. Kokonoe I pick because I think her story is interesting, and seeing her grow into what she is would be honestly quite fun! But I don’t think that would be the focus of future games. As for Celica, I pick her purely because she would mean Ragna would show up again  She’s innocent, sweet, and surprisingly important to the plot. 

But honestly, I don’t think anyone will replace Ragna. I think a lot of BB fans actually feel the same way. “No Ragna No Care” is a slogan I’ve heard a few times before. So I’m quite disappointed his story will be coming to an end. 

Also I really don’t want Naoto or Touya Kagari to replace him. Neither interest me all that much.  

If you wanna know who I suspect will become the new protagonist, I think it’s pretty damned blatant that Mori is setting Kagura up as a new hero. Which if that happens, I might just quit the series. His perversion makes me incredibly uncomfortable and I don’t think he has enough flaws or a compelling enough storyline to make him interesting. 

[blazbluetheories]

Ooookay, I’m calm now. Forgive me for the brief loss of my temper. I try to maintain at least a certain degree of professionalism with this blog, but I have my berserk buttons as any person does. And my #1 berserk button is trying to give meaningful input on something and being completely disregarded. 

[blazbluetheories]

Nah. I still think Ragna-Saya IS Saya Terumi. Remember that Izanami used Saya as her vessel and that sometime Saya's strong feeling can goes against Izanami. Naoto realizes Izanami similarity to Saya Terumi..but Izanami IS devoid of emotion, literal-minded despite her goal to bring death and to Naoto that's where he thinks she is not his sister, because Saya WANTED to kills him for his eye.

Believe what you like, but canon is... canon. If you’re submitting this as a crack theory, fine, but... like, here we demand a certain standard of evidence and consistency with canon for non-crack theories. I only am willing to accept loopholes like this if they have some form of evidence, as, while speculation is fun, a theory and speculation are not the same. 

Maybe I’m being a little unclear on this? I don’t know. Either way, I get a lot of messages like this, and it can sometimes be very vexing. 

Also to make it very, perfectly clear: Izanami, the person posessing Saya’s body, is actually someone else’s Drive, speculated to be Amaterasu. Saya Terumi lived in an entirely different time period to every other Saya incarnation out there, and doesn’t seem to show any immediate connection to the others aside from name and frailness. Saya turning into Saya Terumi seems to either be a coincidence or a gag, and the Saya Ragna knows is, at the moment, most likely connected to Amaterasu in some way shape or form. Nothing is definite, but that’s what we’ve compiled of the current canon from Japanese translations. I’m more than happy to accept speculation on this topic, but I’d like it to be like... an actual discussion? I absolutely hate when you try and share ideas and argue with someone and they just go “Nah.” Even if you completely disagree, at least consider what the other party is trying to argue... *sigh* But that’s entirely common these days, so I should probably learn to have a thicker skin about it.... 

I’ll stop rambling now. 

[blazbluetheories]

Relius turned Ada and Ignis into dolls because they died.

What if Ada died without Carl knowing? Relius was so full of grief over losing his daughter that he tried to save her by putting her in Nirvana, but he failed and gave up, letting Carl finish it. The same thing later happened to Ignis. At this point, Relius was willing to do anything to save his wife, even sacrificing the lives of others just to so. And using what he had learned from Nirvana, he succeeded in saving her, but as a lifeless doll. Relius’ soul was so full of despair at losing both of them, he didn’t care anymore if they were really dead or alive. So he began to see people as nothing but souls. The whole thing would also alienate him from Carl, who would eventually hunt him down and demand answers.

This one’s a nice theory I thought up, since I wanted to try and give Relius a tragic reason for his actions against his own family, rather than just LOLSCIENCE.

(Mod Commentary: We don’t really know the circumstances behind either, so there’s no way of knowing. It’s said that he thinks all people are souls because of his strange way of seeing people (namely, he only sees souls), which does make some sense to me. Actually, it reminds me a lot of Saya no Uta, which... if you don’t know what that is, you probably shouldn’t look it up without looking into the content some. It’s not pretty. But anyway, the main character sees everything as gore, everything smells disgusting, and food tastes rotten. So he starts distancing from and hating humanity, and basically becomes a hermit. It’s quite possible that basically being forced to see people as objects kind of drove him a little batshit. 

But this is also possible. I don’t know if it’s probable, but I would say it would make Relius more interesting if he had some sort of attachment or sentiment for... anything. Considering warped attachment/corrupted love is a recurring theme in Blazblue (Nu, Jin, Litchi and Roy, etc.) it would fit in well with the series too. So while I’m a bit too cynical to fully believe it, I do like this theory a lot. And may potentially steal it for a canon rewrite, provided you would be okay with that.)