{"id":53771,"date":"2022-02-04T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=53771"},"modified":"2022-02-04T13:43:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T18:43:46","slug":"ff12-sightseeing-tour-part-4-resisting-a-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=53771","title":{"rendered":"FF12 Sightseeing Tour Part 4: Resisting a Rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this week’s entry <\/a>Rocketmaaaaa-an!<\/i> talks about the scene where Basch meets with Ondore, the Marquis,Based on my time with Mike Tyson Adventures<\/a>, I’m convinced you’re all wrong and “Marquis” is actually pronounced “Marcuth”.<\/span> the narrator guy, or whatever the game is calling him at any given moment.<\/p>\n

Ondore meets with Basch, but then he says something ominous about needing to “keep up appearances”.\u00a0 Basch draws his sword, some imperials charge in, and we cut to the next scene.<\/p>\n

We’ve been belaboring how little sense things make in the story right now, and I worry that this argument is going to wear out its welcome long before we get to the end. So let’s give that a rest and talk about the odd cinematography.<\/p>\n

This is a scene between Ondore and Basch. But then we cut to this view and the two focal characters are standing behind everyone else and Basch has his back to the camera. Why is Fran standing center stage? She doesn't even have any dialog!<\/div>
This is a scene between Ondore and Basch. But then we cut to this view and the two focal characters are standing behind everyone else and Basch has his back to the camera. Why is Fran standing center stage? She doesn't even have any dialog!<\/div><\/p>\n

Back in 2007 I claimed<\/a> that Basch ran out of the room after drawing his sword. But no, said the fans, I just wasn’t paying attention. On a second viewing, I can see that he’s still there. He’s just standing behind<\/b> Balthier.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is really strange. Basch is the focal point of this scene. They’re having this meeting because of him, and the guards are here to arrest him. He should be standing center stage in this final shot. Ideally you’d have the resistance on the left, the empire on the right, Basch in the middle, and Ondore – who plays both sides – should be just slightly to the right of Basch and a little further from the audience. Instead Ondore isn’t in the shot and Basch is behind a character that really doesn’t have anything to do in this scene.<\/p>\n

I know the above “ideal” composition sounds horribly contrived when I describe it in print, but [good] movies do this sort of thing all the time<\/b>. It usually doesn’t come across as “contrived”. Instead of feeling artificial and staged, it feels like the camera just happened to land in the perfect spot to make the situation nice and clear for us.<\/p>\n

In fact, Final Fantasy X has a pretty good example of This Exact Thing:<\/p>\n

Note the framing of this shot. Everyone on the left supports the pilgrimage. Everyone on the right is against it. Auron - who is secretly here to destroy the pilgrimage - is standing far off. Yuna, who is the one to choose between these two viewpoints, is positioned right in the center.<\/div>
Note the framing of this shot. Everyone on the left supports the pilgrimage. Everyone on the right is against it. Auron - who is secretly here to destroy the pilgrimage - is standing far off. Yuna, who is the one to choose between these two viewpoints, is positioned right in the center.<\/div><\/p>\n

Square is usually really good<\/a> at this sort of thing, but this scene between Ondore and Basch has the blocking<\/a> and framing of a student film.<\/p>\n

It’s confusing because we don’t understand why<\/b> Basch is drawing his weapon. If he’s going to use it on the guards, then why doesn’t he? It’s not like stormtroopers are an insurmountable force in this game. Is he planning to stab Ondore? No, that doesn’t make any sense. Is he showing off the sword that Dalan gave him? No, his pose is wrong for playing show-and-tell. Is he… is he going to stab Vaan just to see what sounds the little wretch makes?<\/p>\n

Because I’d be down for that.<\/p>\n

After watching this scene multiple times, I’ve finally decided that Basch draws his sword as a means of committing a crime, so that Ondore can call the guards and have the group arrested, for the express purpose of having them rescue the princess.<\/p>\n

The problem is that this makes no sense.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In multiple ways<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Is This Confusing on Purpose?<\/h3>\n

I know I said that I wanted to take a break from these sorts of complaints. Look, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m trying. Talking about this scene means, you know, describing what happens in it<\/strong>. If I do so without comment, then you’re just going to be confused and assume I’ve described it wrong or left out important details.<\/p>\n

Basch draws his sword in response to Ondore saying he needs to “keep up appearances”. Which, on first viewing, makes it sound like Ondore had to turn you in order to protect himself and his position. Which makes this feel like a betrayal. But then after the escape, Basch talks about this in terms of this being part of a\u00a0 premeditated plan to rescue the princess. So the setup appears to be deliberately confusing, with the dialog misleading the player as to the cause and intent of this arrest.<\/p>\n

Ignoring that, Basch doesn’t need to draw a sword on the Marquis to get arrested. All he needs to do is be Basch Fon Ronsenburg, which he’s already doing. He’s a super-famous imperial fugitive. This is like the Unabomber pulling a gun on the mayor so the police will arrest him. This step is not required, because the Empire has issued you a free “Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200<\/i>” card with no expiration date. Just walk up to the nearest suit of armor and introduce yourself.<\/p>\n

But not only does Basch seem to think he needs to commit a crime to get arrested, Balthier seems to be on the same nonsensical wavelength. He shouts “Wait!”, apparently realizing that Basch is about to pull steel and get them all thrown in the pokey.<\/p>\n

The plan seems to be:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Basch pulls out a weapon to get himself arrested.<\/b> (Incidentally, holding a sword is a terrible idea. It just increases the odds that the guards will resort to “stab first, ask questions later”. At least DROP IT when the guards enter, both to make this safer and to help the audience understand what the heck you’re trying to accomplish.)<\/li>\n
  2. Everyone else also gets arrested, for some reason.<\/b> I mean, the Empire has reasons to lock them all up, but none of them have anything to do with Basch waving a sword around. If they suddenly recognize us as the famous fugitives from Dalmasca, then why didn’t they recognize us while we were dicking around in town in front of the guards? And why don’t they recognize us when we come back later and stand in this same goddamn room? Damn it, game. Are we famous criminals or not?<\/i><\/li>\n
  3. We somehow know that the entire party will be taken to the same flying supermax prison ship<\/b>. We know ahead of time that the Imperials aren’t just going to stick Basch in another birdcage over a chasm like they did last time. We also seem to be pretty confident they’re not going to just stab him. I hear brutal occupying military forces do that sort of thing now and again.<\/li>\n
  4. Not only that, but we know that the entire party will be taken to the same place where Ashe is being held<\/b>.<\/li>\n
  5. Next, we improvise<\/b>. With no plan, no backup, and no special knowledge, we’ll break out of our bonds, overpower the waves of stormtroopers, rescue the princess, commandeer a vessel, and escape.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    All three men – Ondore, Basch, and Balthier\u00a0 – seem to\u00a0 arrive at this same ludicrous conclusion, without needing to say anything about it or make any plans. It’s not like the cat dude rolls out a map and says, “Okay, here’s how this prison break is going to work. Here are the keys you need to get out of your bonds. We’ve bribed some guards to leave you with your weapons and we have an escape ship fueled up with the engine running if you can somehow reach the launch bay.”<\/p>\n

    No. Ondore just assumes that Basch will be able to bust out of prison, even though the last two years proved that prison breaks are not his strong suit. As it stands, he was only freed by happenstance and monkeyshines on the part of Vaan.<\/p>\n

    WhatEVER, Man<\/h3>\n

    Now, ridiculous and improbable prison breaks are a staple of the series<\/a>. The problem is that the writer has shifted away from a world that runs on pure sentiment and anime harem comedy logic and is instead filled with House of Cards<\/i> style backstabbing, politicking, and intrigue. Fine. That’s cool! I’m totally here for it.<\/p>\n

    But they want to keep the cartoonish tropes where six people can bust out of a flying prison because they’re the heroes, and Ondore seems to be aware of this and can even make plans based on it. And of course, we already did an implausible escape from a cartoon prison earlier in the story.<\/p>\n

    I just flat-out do not believe in this world. It’s too silly to take seriously and it takes itself too seriously for me to turn my brain off and enjoy it emotionally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In this week’s entry Rocketmaaaaa-an! talks about the scene where Basch meets with Ondore, the Marquis,Based on my time with Mike Tyson Adventures, I’m convinced you’re all wrong and “Marquis” is actually pronounced “Marcuth”. the narrator guy, or whatever the game is calling him at any given moment. Ondore meets with Basch, but then he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retrospectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53771"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53785,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53771\/revisions\/53785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}