You know, I think this is the furthest I've been in this game since I beat it the first time back in middle school.
Disc 3 opens with the funeral party returning to the castle by rowboat to make plans for Garnet's impending coronation, while Zidane gets shitfaced in a bar with his Tantalus buddies trying to snap him out of it. They eventually give up and go to check out the Best Little Whorehouse in Alexandria, which Ruby opened in a back alley basement after we ditched her here at the start of the game, inviting Zidane to come along whenever he feels like it. Blank bumps into Vivi in the street, though, and tells him about how he and Marcus had to carry Steiner, Freya, and Beatrix off after they went Heroic Red Ring of Death against those fluffy pink bunny-dog that posed no actual threat to them, then hurries off before Cinna gets all the prime ladies, leaving us in control of Vivi.
Vivi doesn't have any better luck getting a response out of Zidane than the Tantalus gang did, so with no clear goal ahead of us at the moment, we take some time to explore Alexandria again. The people of Alexandria as just as carefree now looking forward to the coronation as they were at the start of the game, getting ready for the play. The shops are open now or have expanded inventory, including Hi Potions at the item store, thank goodness. The jump rope minigame has been replaced with racing an overweight hippo kid in exchange for his playing cards (note that this transaction is being entirely enacted with his mother). All in all, not much has changed in Alexandria, despite the havoc Brahne wrecked on the rest of the continent. The war their queen started has completely passed them over, which should be sending red flags up for anyone with a bit of dramatic sense.
After wandering around town, Vivi meets up with Blank and Marcus, who want Vivi to catch the burlesque performance with them, so we switch to Garnet before the game can violate its ESRB rating. It's time for the coronation, so Doctor Tot gives Garnet a set of gemstones containing most of the eidolons Brahne had sucked out of her, and then he and Steiner leave to let Beatrix help the princess get dressed, which given what she has her troops wear for combat gear, may not be significantly more appropriate than Tot or Steiner doing it. Garnet wants to see Zidane before the coronation, but both Steiner and now Beatrix are shooting her down.
Eiko, on the other hand, sees this as her opportunity to win Zidane's heart with Garnet out of the picture, and recruits Doctor Tot to help her write a love letter. Seeing her horn, Tot is suddenly reminded of the day he found an unknown boat washed up on the shore carrying a dead woman and a little girl, both of whom had horns.
...I completely forgot to mention that earlier, didn't I? Yes, Summoners have a Cute Little Horn in the center of their forehead which is what allows them to communicate with eidolons. Garnet doesn't have one, which is why she wasn't able to hear Carbuncle when Eiko unsealed the Iifa Tree (though it doesn't explain how she was able to ask Leviathan for help...). Back to the story, though, the little girl was a dead ringer for the recently deceased Princess Garnet, save for her horn. The king ordered the horn removed, and he and Brahne adopted the girl as the new Princess Garnet, which returns us to the question ofhow on Gaia something that looks like Brahne produced an offspring that looks like Garnet, even if only when she was six. No need to pry further into that mystery, though; it's letter writing time.
Back to Garnet, she's finished getting ready, but stops to tell Beatrix that she isn't Brahne's real daughter. Beatrix kneels to tell her that Tot already told her and Steiner, and her loyalty to Garnet remains absolute. Maybe the bisexuality jokes are just starting to warp my view, but I can't help but read a little bit of UST into the scene. The music isn't helping to dispel the notion, either.
Eiko literally runs into Baku on her way to deliver her letter to Zidane, having paused only long enough after completing it to introduce herself to Tot. The collision sends her flying over the banister, where she gets stuck dangling in midair, and drops her letter. Since Baku can't reach to get her down, she asks him to deliver it instead. He, in turn, runs into Steiner outside, and an argument naturally ensues. Steiner is kicking Baku off the castle grounds, to which Baku says he should show some gratitude, as it was one of his team that saved the whole kingdom. Steiner acknowledges Zidane's role, but he still isn't about to let a bunch of notorious thieves run around the castle. Baku drops the letter again before boarding the boat back to town, and Steiner leaves in a huff, just missing Beatrix, who finds the letter and reasonably assumes that Steiner dropped it. And then just as reasonably assumes it was meant for her. Man, for a letter with absolutely no specifics to indicate who the writer or intended recipient are, Eiko and Tot spent an awfully long time on that thing.
Back to Zidane, who has finally snapped out of his stupor just in time for Tantalus to come back, minus Vivi, who's probably still sitting in corner somewhere with his head in his hands trying to come to philosophical terms with sex on top of the existential quandaries he was already dealing with, or else the Tantalus guys are here because all the dancers are fawning over the little pimp. The ladies do tend to think he's sweet, after all. Even Baku is here, and shoots Zidane down when he tries to rejoin the gang to run away from his feelings. Vivi does eventually show up and promptly asks Zidane to go with him to see Garnet, to which Baku says that Zidane should be more like Vivi.
On our way to the castle we interrupt a fight between Freya and Amarant before it can get started. Freya is ticked as hell because it's taken this long for the game to get around to her again, while even NPCs like Beatrix are getting character development all over the place since we got back to Alexandria. She's also concerned about Kuja, reasoning out that if he was the one who orchestrated stealing Garnet's eidolons and then killed Brahne, he's likely to come after Garnet again. Zidane had worked that out, too, but he's questioning his ability to protect Garnet. Comparing this to what he said back at Madain Sari, it looks like he actually is becoming more like Vivi—just not the parts anyone, including Vivi, would like him to.
He still agrees to see Garnet, and we take the boat over in time to find Steiner kicking Eiko out of the castle. He's about to do the same to the rest of us until Vivi intervenes, and Steiner relents. We're granted a brief audience with the soon-to-be queen, where neither Zidane nor Garnet can spit it out, so instead she and Eiko trade a pair of their jewels with each other as a sign of friendship, and then she leaves. Zidane breaks down as soon as she's gone, and one cut later we find Eiko going through her own breakdown as she realizes that Zidane is entirely in love with Garnet.
Her misery is interrupted by the arrival of Blank and Marcus, the former of which apparently got his hands on Eiko's love letter after Beatrix had it, and has shown up at the appointed place to meet his secret admirer. They hear someone coming, so they go to hide, dropping the letter again in the process, where it is found by Steiner, who naturally assumes it was left there for him, and is still standing there musing about it when Beatrix shows up to answer the letter's invitation herself. The two draw closer, closer, and closer, while Eiko and the Tantalus guys both creep in for a better view, only for the entire scene to be ruined by Baku wandering in sneezing loudly. Apparently he's allergic to plot contrivances. It is rather cute to see Beatrix crouching behind Steiner like a couple schoolkids, though. But just think: if Steiner hadn't shown up, Blank-Beatrix could have been. We could call it eyepatch shipping.
The rest of the group, sans Zidane, has found their way back to the tavern, where first Eiko enters in a huff, followed by Doctor Tot, who wants to talk to her about Madain Sari. Eiko asks if she can see his home, and is only encouraged when he tells her its in another town. Zidane comes in at this point, saying he wants to go to Treno, too, for a card game tournament. Soon everyone has decided to go, and next thing we know we're in Gargan Roo, which is still full of mist. An ATE shows that the jester twins, Zorn and Thorn, are still alive, and then we're in Treno, without even having to murder any giant worms this time.
The group splits up to pursue their own interests, except for Vivi, who promptly gets abducted by Eiko, and then abandoned when he can't follow her irritated rambling about her romantic frustrations. He bumps into an acquaintance, a man who got him passage on an airship to go to Alexandria before the beginning of the game, who recommends Vivi visit his home near Treno while he's here.
