As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- Missing jobs:
- The asterisks for six jobs in particular have been completely dissolved. For the Salve-Maker (replaced by the Patissier), this is justified in the sheer knowledge of medicine — or, rather, the knowledge of how to make virulent poisons — enshrined within it. Considering the kind of psycho Qada turned out to be, the Duchy was not going to let that happen again if they can help it.
- A similar reason can apply to the Spell Fencer job given that while the Hawkeye inherited its mechanics, the Spell Fencer can apply status elements more than the Hawkeye, which focused on heavy assault. And the Spell Fencer is much more powerful in the player's hands than under Khint back in Bravely Default and is potentially very game-breaking given the right combo. With such potential, the duchy isn't going to have it land on the wrong hands. The official manga anthology that fills the gaps between the games implies that Khint is on the run — they can't obtain his Asterisk because he's in hiding, and no longer aligned to the Duchy.
- In the previous game, the max level for a job is 14, while in this game, the max level is 10 (that is, until you can obtain the extension through the Yokai asterisk's Awakening ability to raise the max job level to 11), so some of the abilities in the older asterisks that were usable back in Bravely Default are unavailable to be used any longer. Hence, likely why Tiz and Edea can't use the abilities they got from the previous game. Even if they could use the asterisk, neither of them could use the older abilities with the new ones being implemented to the current asterisks. Meaning, they are bound to the asterisks' rules. The duchy and Yulyana may have had a hand in having the mastery of jobs lowered in order for the peace agreements to work.
- The change in the theme song for the new asterisk bearers made more sense if you listen closely. "He of the name" has a heroic sounding theme, while "Battle of Ordeals" sounded darker. Fitting that the asterisk bearers in the previous game are actually Good All Along, hence the heroic-like sound in "He of the name". The new asterisk bearers are instead villains who had a tragic and dark past (sans Aimee and Angelo, whose past is yet to be revealed). Despite so, they shared the fact that they are truly Well Intentioned Extremists once their past comes to light. And it is connected to Eternia's former and now fallen Crystal Orthodoxy.
- The Duchy's job masters, even if you ignore the Token Evil Teammates (which the empire's job masters don't have), display a varying amount of jerkassery and sociopathy even after their Heel Face Turns. Meanwhile, the empire's job masters are all True Companions in a sense, making them Foils to the Duchy’s.
- A late game fridge. Yew's recovery from the Kaiser's attack is said to be something of a miracle, akin to how Tiz survives in the first game. Yet Yew stayed alive at the end of Bravely Second. Why? In a case of Gameplay and Story Integration, you use Bravely Second to bring the party back to the start of the game through New Game Plus to defeat the Kaiser, which inverts the Hopeless Boss Fight to a winnable match, which not only put a wrench in the Kaiser's plans, this very action also prevented Yew from dying again. Hence, by using Bravely Second for New Game +, you saved Yew's life.
- The final boss Providence is the god of the Celestial Realm. As Providence starts making blatantly clear, you — the player — are also a Celestial, and it is sick of you interfering with its plans. This begs the question: why is this guy in charge? The first game establishes that the Celestial Realm is the real world. As the player — the one living in the real world — you should hold all the power. Right? No. There is one other thing which exists in the real world and has considerable say over what happens in the game, and that's the game itself. That is the true nature of Providence: the game's programming given a hostile personality. The player can exert their control by turning off the game, but in order to truly win, they have to keep fighting. Providence demonstrates how woefully easy a game could make itself impossible to win, because if you do continue to fight even after Providence threatens you directly to stop, it will attempt to delete your saves.
- Those three pink stars on the title screen, among the rest of the Milky Way, are the Summer Triangle: Deneb, Altair, and Vega.
- Sapp and Piddler's complete disappearance in Chapter 5. It makes sense when you account the Gameplay and Story Integration. Only the asterisk bearers are the enemies that stand in the protagonist's way. But not Sapp and Piddler. Sapp and Piddler may be strong, but Denys's defeat meant that the empire’s soldiers realized that they're not enough to hold the party back for the empire's benefit anymore; the asterisk bearers are the only ones that could. Empire or not, their status as soldiers are low compared to the asterisk bearers who had been trusted by Denys in regards to his plans.
- Moments in the main story where you can't find Agnès in the pendant while pressing start will make sense later when you find out that the Glanz empire has her make the crystals go berserk again and knowing the capabilities of the guardian asterisk for the first four chapters. That was when Revenant took control of her.
- Why does the Bishop asterisk have Nikolai's "good" colors unlike Janne with the fencer asterisk? Nikolai had been in the orthodoxy longer than Janne had, so the asterisk when obtained by the party imprints the costume to be how the previous owner first started out.
- Anne's two battle themes, with the second being a much more discordant-sounding remix of the classier-sounding first. The difference in themes make sense for their mental state, as the first time you fight Anne, she's already won. There's no reason for her to be anything but calm and composed. The second time, though, is after the New Game + reset, where the party has been scuppering her plans one after another. She's on the verge of losing, and while she's still keeping one step ahead of the party, she's only managing it just barely. The stress is very clearly getting to her, as shown in her shoutier speech pattern and more discordant second battle theme.
- The initial form of the final boss Providence as a black-feathered bird makes a lot of sense if you read it as a twisted reference to the story of Tanabata, which inspired the story of Vega and Altair. In the story, the two lovers, represented by the stars Vega and Altair, are separated from one another by an enormous river in the heavens. Once a year, a flock of magpies form a bridge for the lovers with their wings, allowing them to briefly reunite. However, in Bravely Second's take on the tale, things take a turn for the dark, because Providence has taken the form of the magpie, and is the one keeping the lovers apart to begin with. Another reference to Tanabata can be found with the Adventurer, Deneb. According to the legend, the spot where the bridge of magpies would form to allow the lovers to reunite is marked by the star Deneb. Fittingly enough, Deneb allows Vega and Altair to reunite, by aiding the party along the way.
- One of the final moments in the ending cutscene has Magnolia tell Yew her real name, as in accordance to the rules of her home, telling someone your real name means you want to marry them. However, she whispers her name to Yew, despite talking to him in a desolate graveyard where it's very unlikely someone who go. This is because she knows that you, the player, would be watching. So she whispers her name to Yew so that you won't be able to hear her real name.
- Due to the way Revenant's possession works, an Exorcist can instantly kill him by using Undo HP to set his HP to 0 after he returns to his own body. At first, this seems like an obvious loophole that was overlooked by the developers. But when you think about it, what better way is there to handle a possessor than with exorcism?
- Edea's Shipper on Deck behavior toward Yew and Magnolia suddenly takes on added meaning after the sidequest which reveals the depth of her sadness at being separated from her own Love Interest. She wants to support Yew/Magnolia and Agnes/Tiz's relationships and see them happy together with the people they love, because she knows it's painful to be separated from someone you care deeply about (and maybe with a touch of finding vicarious happiness through them).
Fridge Horror
- Every Ba'al the party fights has some sort of background image resembling a real-world location. These same images appear in Via Celestio in order from Vega's first memory of Altair to the last, which is at the wedding chapel. As Altair explains, the Ba'als are creatures born from Vega's memory, twisted into weapons of destruction by Providence. But there is one last image, and it provides a backdrop to the battle with Diamante; this image is of a pony-tailed woman kneeling and reaching for an object shooting off into the sky. This memory corresponds to the deception that sent Altair into space without Vega, who was promptly killed. The anguish of being left behind by her beloved as she was murdered left plenty of fuel for Providence to shape, which is why the damned thing refuses to die. Additionally, Diamante's name, resting form, and physical composition during the battle, all refer to Diamond. The Ba'al was most likely formed directly from Vega's memory of the wedding ring Altair gave her shortly before they were separated. It is no wonder that the memory of an item that so strongly represents both their love and the tragedy of their separation would form the most powerful Ba'al to exist.
- During the final battle with Providence, its eye is constantly moving around, looking at every member of the party. Including YOU.
