BlazBlue / Fridge - TV Tropes

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Fridge Logic

How is it possible that Makoto wears shoes with short socks with her jacket on, but suddenly ends up wearing stockings going up to her thighs the moment she throws it off?
Jin is Hakumen. Hakumen is one of the Six Heroes. Hazama is an asshole. Hazama is Terumi. Terumi was one of the Six Heroes. Terumi betrayed the Six Heroes. Now, considering that Jin is Hakumen and knows that Terumi is an asshole who tried to kill him and destroy the world... He did absolutely NOTHING to stop Hazama before anything could be a problem at all!
When playing in Arcade Mode, if Relius Astral Finished his event battle opponents (Makoto, Tager, Carl or Hazama)... how did they all get out of Relius' lab after being sealed there along with him to have their post-battle banter?
- Honestly, this applies to most of the Astral Finishes, most of them pretty much either kill the opponent, or outright erase them from existence, yet the way the characters talk to the opponent afterwards suggests that they somehow managed to get revived like 10 seconds later.
So Hazama's evil plan succeeds basically every time loop he's shown in, and he's only running through the loops so he can know all the details so he can win. Except he already wins like 20 times throughout story and arcade modes. Shouldn't we have been treated to loop after loop of him losing, until he learned all the information needed to win?
Technically Terumi can actually physically touch things when he's in his ghost form. When he enters Takamgahara he claps and then there's a scene with him touching Jin.
Logic with a bit of Horror. Sure, Noel gets Ship Tease with a few characters throughout the story, but she's one of the few characters for whom we know her exact age (she turned 5 just before Calamity Trigger), so despite having a for the most part mature adult body, is all the attention she gets in story, in merchandise and the shipping community actually pedophilia due to get being way underage? The same could be said definitely for Nu and probably Lambda as well.
- Also, consider the times people may have shipped Noel with either Ragna or Jin - her biological brothers. This gets worse come Central Fiction, where Noel's merge with Izanami restores her memories as Saya, and she, Ragna and Jin begin to actively refer to each other as siblings. Of course, if you also ship Ragna/Jin, then your mileage may vary.
The bit with Rachel and Tsubaki with the Ōkami; how did she get it? And if she is in the Susanō'o Unit, how did she get that after Trinity threw it back into the Boundary? Unless this Tsubaki herself fell into the boundary (possibly in Jin's place) and acquired it there. Shapeshifting accounted for, seems a bit on the short side for a Susanō'o though. Answered in Alternative: Dark War; it's Izayoi providing the new look and weapon.

Fridge Brilliance

The Black Susanoo has three canine heads. Like Cerberus, guardian of HADES.
Ragna hates ghosts. And guess what the Big Bad of the story happens to be. A freaking green ghost!
Why doesn't Jin have new clothes in Chronophantasma? He doesn't wear new clothes because after singlehandedly winning a war and gaining the title of Hero of Ikaruga, he would have a pretty recognizable face, regardless of what he's wearing or where he's going. Making him easy to find. But, then there's the fact that he just doesn't care enough to change them.
Platinum the Trinity happens to hate snakes according to her official profile, and take a guess who happens to fight with snake-like beings...
- Trinity's soul resides inside the Nox Nyctores, Muchorin, which can spontaneously create things from thin air with the problematic side effect of causing amnesia. Obviously, the weapon connects her to Platinum the Trinity, and is one of the reasons she shares a body with Luna and Sena but how? Platinum the Trinity is an artificial body created by Arma Reboare: Muchorin, which the three souls now coexist inside.
Jubei's advice to Ragna? "Don't ever assume the power of the Azure is yours." Guess what happens to Terumi? Inventor of the Grimoire or not, Evil Is Not a Toy.
In the stage where you usually fight Unlimited Hazama in story mode, the stage's quote is "The devil is not as black as he is painted." Hinting that Terumi might not be the mastermind as previously thought.
Ever since the bosses from Calamity Trigger were unlocked in Arcade, Jin has been asking Hakumen who the hell he thinks he is, and Hakumen's response has been to level his sword at Jin. He pointing at you, Jin.
Bang is a NINJA. People aren't even supposed to be aware he exists.
Nu's theme music "Awakening The Chaos" has an opera in the background. She was created by Relius, who was listed to have "opera" as one of his interests. Her theme also possesses two elements, the amazingly heavy rock sections showing her hatred of existence, and an amazingly calm serene section which portrays her split personality which is in love with Ragna.
Late in CS' story mode, Terumi reveals that he's managed to correctly calculate every single possible outcome of the Continuum Shift. An impressive feat, to be sure, but knowing that, look back at all the different story mode paths. Notice how he always shows up at the most convenient moment every single time, without fail. Someone tries to grab Noel? He's there. Someone getting too close to his work? He shows up. Someone needs some persuading, he's there. Just however could he know when, exactly, to show up?
- Terumi had to survey the entire continuum shift to find the best possible solution to his plans - Arcade Mode can be considered an "experiment" to see what he could get away with if he left certain "players" to their own devices. Ragna and Noel are left ignored as they are exactly conducive of his plans (their Arcade endings fall in line with Story mode). Most of the rest of the cast are likewise given little weight, or have their own desires exploited for his and Relius' own designs. Rachel is given greater consideration, as she wastes no time telling Noel just what she is and what she can do; Noel denies it and has little reason to believe the mysterious girl in the poofy black dress, but to Terumi it's not worth chancing. As for Makoto, it's clear that if he and Relius let her do as she pleases, everything stands to turn to shit. Considering this is the same Makoto that effed everything up in Slight Hope, it's no wonder he skips to homicide...
There's another Stealth Pun in Hakumen's intro. He says "I am the white void. I am the cold steel. I am the just sword" which is "我は空、我は鋼、我は刃" (I am void, I am steel, I am blade) in Japanese. Blade(刃) is pronounced "Jin", which makes it sound like Hakumen is saying "I am void, I am steel, I am Jin".
Hakumen's Distortion Drives start with the phrase "Empty Sky Form". Jin was afraid of the moon as a child and hates it as an adult, thus his Distortions are named after the new moon.
Consider Hakumen's role and his desire to eliminate the Murakumo units. In other words he wishes to wipe out the gathering clouds and create an empty sky.
During his Story Mode on Continuum Shift, Hakumen says that the woman he loved died a long time ago, and he now raises his sword in her name. Check Hakumen's move list, and there's one move that has no translation unlike any other move - its name is Tsubaki.
The irony/symbolism of Jin's love intrest being Tsubaki: Izayoi is a Japanese word related to the Moon. Specifically, Izayoi means "16th Night", which, in reference to the lunar phase, is the time when the moon starts waning. And as Ragna mentioned, Jin is afraid at the moon falling.
In Continuum Shift Nu-13 is no longer kill crazy towards Ragna. Why? Well, it's simple: She no longer possesses her incomplete Grimoire, which drove her to try and absorb Ragna's grimoire and create the Black Beast, thus causing her to be far less insane around him.
Rachel never really acts like a vampire and would rather drink tea than suck blood. In fact, she always seems to have tea or ask for it in every appearance. She does this not just because she is being classy, but she is displacing her self-disdained vampiric urge of blood for tea.
Most people who have played BlazBlue and watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann know that Jin and Simon have the same Japanese voice actor. These roles couldn't be more different, but that's the point: they're literally polar opposites, Simon is a Hot-Blooded badass, and Jin spends a good portion of the series as a cold-hearted Jerkass!
In a "Teach Me, Miss Litchi!" segment, Taokaka reacts to being described as a different species from that of humans with this quote: "So I'm special!?" (@ 6:14). Tao was connecting the words species and special... "Species and special, as words, are close to each other in meaning and basic construction from Latin, nyasu~".
- Also on the subject of Tao, she's not, strictly speaking, stupid. She's a kitten. They say it throughout story mode and the omakes. Kittens, generally, are vastly different in demeanor from normal cats. As kittens, they're probably all like Tao.
Taokaka's nickname for Ragna, "Good Guy", suddenly becomes that much more hilarious when you realize that Guilty Gear's (another game by Arc System Works) protagonist was named Sol Badguy.
Continuum Shift would get depressing with the fact that someone as nice and good as Litchi pulled a Face–Heel Turn and seemed to be unresisting or happy with the fact that she works with an evil group. The battle against Rachel seemed depressing to see how committed she is into evil and even puts up an angry, hostile face. Litchi wasn't really using harsh words and telling Rachel to GTFO like a hated enemy, rather using excuses with "The place above further is dangerous" as in to show concern (until she piqued about Arakune). And strictly speaking, if Rachel did obey Litchi's words, she wouldn't get caught with Phantom's trap that lies ahead and had to wait until Ragna bailed her out. In short, even when she's with NOL, Litchi is probably trying to protect Rachel from harm... Much of the stress about "Litchi has been completely EVIL" afterwards have been removed after the revelation... or at least reduced even further.
Also in Continuum Shift, if one just skims around to the True End and just bothers with the necessary stories, then Litchi being that easy to sway to do a Face–Heel Turn due to Arakune may make her look like an idiot. Until you realize that in Litchi's story, she went into bigger turmoil into making that decision not very lightly. That very light "acceptance" happens in Hazama's story, in which told from Hazama's POV. And in Hazama's POV, very possibly that everyone else looks like a gullible dumbass for him to toy around, so Litchi looks like a complete dumbass in the eyes of Hazama only, while the player is given how things take from her POV thereby making her look more sympathetic than completely an idiot.
How many times have children's stories been revised over the ages? As kids, we witness events as they are told to us with a literal mind and form opinions based on what we view. As adults, sometimes we look back on those early opinions and try to see them in a different light, to understand how things happened and why, and it changes our view of the story overall. So what does this have to do with BlazBlue? Slight Hope created a lot of controversy within the fandom and sorely fractured Makoto's fanbase. Zealots on both sides act on what they see on the surface and shill or bash her accordingly, the latter going so far as to call her a Creator's Pet despite the fact we're still only two chapters in and she's been significantly active in a mere fragment of one. Everyone thinks of her birthdate of April 2nd as "the day after April Fools' Day", but in reality Mori slipped a very vital warning sign beneath our noses. The significance is clear: Makoto's birthday is International Children's Book Day.
- Expanding on this point, Makoto manages to have a rare combination of the Small Steps Hero and Save This Person, Save the World in that whilst she wants to save her friends above all else, said friends' roles in the Evil Plan means her involvement stands to sabotage all of it, as if her small steps are from a giant's perspective; whilst a ditzy character turning out to be very smart reeks of Informed Ability, the story manages to form a plausible explanation for both ends and legitimize the resulting paradox; her physical strength alone is on par with members of the cast who possess logic-bending weapons, or in some cases have explicitly sorcerous powers, yet said weapons and powers can handle specific situations that muscle and will alone cannot handle; she's been subjected to Diabolus ex Machina ^* and Deus ex Machina ^* almost in tandem for the narrative's sake; and she rests in the shadow of a number of plot lines at once. The way Makoto can cross the Boundary without consequence is like how a Legacy Character remains unchanged between versions of a story, her unfucking of her friends when Terumi tries to fuck them even harder pisses him off, some of her character elements cross over into gameplay, and while she's a part of the reason the story hasn't fallen completely into Too Bleak, Stopped Caring, her chain is yanked fiercely when not doing so would destroy the plot! If one likens the Imperator and Amaterasu's Time Crash war to two authors in an edit war over the same book, then Makoto is the character intrinsically tied to the plot's conclusion being reinterpreted to improve the mood and quality of the plot in general! No wonder her Guilty Gear pallette swap is Order-Sol - like her western counterpart, she's a Parody Fixer Sue done right!
How can Kokonoe understand what Arakune is saying? She is only seen talking to him with an ars that is stated to directly interact with a person's nervous system... and Arakune internally believes he's speaking complete sentences.
A nice bit of foreshadowing: Jin and Hakumen are the only two characters whose move names are left in Gratuitous Japanese.
Each characters fighting style fights perfectly with their characterization. Likewise, Chronophantasma movelist changes may indicate the direction of potential development. For example:
- Ragna, whose fighting style is to attack first and try to survive by using his soul draining powers whenever he is in danger as he leaves himself open all the time. In conversations, he is always aggressive and leaves himself open to ridicule (or verbal attacks). Also, whenever he gets in any real danger his first impulse is to use the Grimoire's powers.
- Jin, whose fighting style utilizing ice and attacks from a distance, also finds it hard not to use Yukianesa's attacks, as he is prone to using them when other characters pressing the same buttons would be doing normal attacks. Jin himself is a generally cold person and keeps everyone at a distance from his emotions which are being suppressed because of Yukianesa, also he is very prone to using his Nox Nyctores because it is influencing his actions and actually forcing him to use it even when Jin wouldn't want to.
  - When you notice the ice freezing Jin's enemies in CT or CS, you notice that the ice blocks have spikes all over. In CP, the ice is more refined like a crystal. It seems to signify that Jin has further mastered Yukianesa and steering his destiny on his own, other than graphic upgrade, really.
- Noel, whose general tactic (for amateurs, anyway) is to spam attacks thoughtlessly and hope to hit as many times as possible. She herself is rather ditzy person who doesn't think before she does something, and isn't in her current position because of skill but luck of the draw as Hazama says.
  - Noel's outfit in CP is revealing in different ways, especially trading some of the backlessness for sideboob; her Chain Quasar Overdrive accelerates her Drive attacks; and she has developed a "shotgun" technique as well. All of these indicate that her Fanservice Pack outfit is more of an Adrenaline Makeover, and she has become more confident in her appearance and abilities as a result.
- Rachel, who seldom ever attacks herself, always using her familiars or lightning to fight for her. She herself isn't allowed to interfere directly as such she must simply observe. The closest she is allowed to interact with the world is making other people do things for her.
  - Additionally, she's intentionally designed as a character who seems weak and underpowered at first, but becomes more effective once you spend time practicing with her. This represents how, beneath the cute goth princess exterior, she's one of the most powerful characters in the story. (Her theme song, which starts as a waltz and transitions into an Iron Maiden-esque guitar solo, drives this point home further.)
- Taokaka's hyperactive personality goes hand-in-hand with her Drive attacks which send her bouncing all over the screen.
- Litchi juggles between her two styles of using her staff and her bare hands, which is very similar on how she tried juggling between catering for each of her friends' needs and looking for Arakune. She also exemplifies Difficult, but Awesome, which also implies to how fans would take her after Continuum Shift: take things in face value and you'll just dismiss her as a self-serving, stupid, obsessed Horrible Judge of Character. Try to dig into her character even further, then you'll realize that she is a much more conflicted, tragic Anti-Villain and a candidate of the biggest Woobie of the cast. Her Astral consist of a 100-hit kicks ending with... kicking them off-screen. When compared to others (be it shattering people with ice, getting people eaten by a giant snake, or punching the enemy so hard they break away moons) Litchi's look very tame and survivable by the standards of World of Badass. This can speak on her kindness and how she'd try her best not to kill or overly and unnecessarily harm people when she doesn't have to.
  - Litchi has developed some new techniques and a new Distortion in Chronophantasma, and has retooled Great Wheel into an Overdrive. This may be a sign that her research is bearing fruit - in addition to learning new ways of utilizing the Boundary, she has also refined her own control over the abilities she already possesses.
- Arakune's fighting style revolves around confusing his opponents with difficult-to-read moves, which represents his degenerating mental state.
- Similarly, Makoto's fighting style seems to rely rushing headlong at the enemy, without much thought for strategy or defense, preferring to use her raw power and determination to win over opponents. Makoto herself is a Book Dumb ditz who charges into situations without thinking them through, preferring to do what she feels is the right thing over what is logically sound, like betraying the NOL. However, Comet Cannon is laid out as a mine, Corona Upper and Space Counter come out of nowhere, and Asteroid Vision can be followed in a variety of manners - all of these, meant to punish careless approach by opponents, surprising and confusing opponents, indicate that beneath the Book Dumb ditz lies a very crafty and unpredictable opponent capable of catching even Hazama off guard.
  - Galaxian Impact maximizes the power of her Drive attacks, both of her new Drive attacks are Asteroid Vision extensions, and Shooting Star was retooled to work both as an extension and as a standalone technique. This may be a sign that she is expanding her horizons and understanding the world at large - the expanded arsenal indicates she is becoming less predictable in her methods, and the automated synchronization from the Overdrive indicates she is starting to come to terms with herself; going Unlimited would mean she has accepted herself fully, the last thing that Terumi wants.
- Bang's fighting style is an array of Awesome, but Impractical looking moves that are surprisingly effective at second glance. Bang is a larger-than-life Hot-Blooded character with hidden potential to be something truly great. Also, his lack of magic or any augmenting powers and his Incorruptible Pure Pureness go hand-in-hand.
  - As with Litchi, the retooling of Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan and development of new tricks and a new Distortion means he is getting the hang of real combat and possibly understanding how to incorporate Rettenjou into his fighting arts.
- Carl fights in tandem with Nirvana. On one hand, Carl himself is pretty weak and generally needs Nirvana to do most of the big damage... but, on the other hand, Nirvana is useless without Carl to control her and give her openings to do big damage. This concept of mutual support extends into the main story - Carl's number one goal is to help Ada, and Ada is fiercely devoted to protecting Carl.
  - This is emphasized with the Synchro High Speed Overdrive and Ada's new attack, which indicates a strengthening bond between them.
  - Relius, however, is the exact opposite. He only brings Ignis out when he needs to, which illustrates that he sees her less as a teammate and more as a servant or a weapon. This also means bad news: Relius himself is a pretty powerful individual that he probably could beat you into submission without even calling Ignis, which to him sounds more like a bonus.
- Hakumen's fighting style is very defensive; he's too slow to be played aggressively, so instead he waits for his opponent to make a mistake or telegraph their moves and counters them with his Drive attack and his various sword pokes. Not only is this reactionary fighting style perfectly suited to his samurai motif, it also helps emphasize what a badass he is as the leader of the Six Heroes (i.e. he's so good, he can see your attacks coming a mile away.)
  - Additionally, the Magatama mechanic is a way of demonstrating that he's only using a fraction of his strength - full-power Hakumen would basically have Mugen active all the time.
  - His passive-aggressive fighting style also reflects his past as Jin Kisaragi. He can't charge in recklessly like he did when he ignored Tsubaki and went after Ragna, only for Nu to attack him and Tsubaki receive her Legacy Edge instead. Hakumen tries to remain as The Stoic (keyword is tries) because his emotional outburst after Tsubaki's Heroic Sacrifice made it impossible for him to use Healing Ars since it requires focus.
- Nu's fighting style displays her as the sword-dispensing proper Murakumo Unit with a hidden sadistic streak especially for Ragna. Lambda, meanwhile, only has an imitation of the Murakumo and thus is unable to show its full potential, so she has some original moves to compensate. Mu, however, has the upgraded Murakumo, dubbed "Kusanagi", which makes her capable of using the True Azure in her attacks and thus has more potential of destruction. Her attacks are also more calculated and tactical as opposed to Noel's more flashy attacks, showing great contrast between the two halves of the same person.
- Hazama's fighting style gives off Difficult, but Awesome vibes in the sense that behind the unassuming facade and unorthodox combat style is one of the more powerful entities in the series. His Serpent's Benediction moves keep the opponent guessing, and his Ouroboros can lead to many kind of air maneuvers that also keep the opponent guessing. In the story, nobody can guess what he would do next.
  - However, he only acquires a dash move and a Distortion, both of which chain from Serpent's Benediction. Both are used as follow-ups to an obvious defenseless stance to punish careless approach, akin to igniting a flame war from obvious troll bait. That is literally all he gets, as even his Overdrive is a power boost to go with the siphon ring he was infamous for in Continuum Shift. Like an overdone meme, he may be getting old...
- Tsubaki's Drive is her reading from a book to stock power that can power-up her specials - she takes the saying "knowledge is power" quite literally in this case, and appropriately she's diligent and book smart. Her special moves, meanwhile, are rather simplistic, i.e what you'd expect from easier-to-use characters such as a rushing move and a Shoryuken. This can be seen as her taking on the tried-and-true method of other fighters and then expanding on it, somewhat similarly to how she's inspired by the heroics of historical drama heroes. Particularly, how she can cancel some of her specials to another and a Super Mode that lets her use infinite Install stocks for a duration (and, in CP, an Overdrive that makes Install gauge fill automatically) sounds like what Hakumen can do, and she's his no. 1 fan.
  - As Izayoi, she instead copies Jin's (her other idol) attacks (like the directional quick slashes and the sword projectile) and combines it with Murakumo Unit's tactics (more refined Flash Step, launching big swords and uses sword-esque drones) due to Zero-Type Izayoi being the Murakumo prototype.
- Platinum's attacks are full of cute elements that are surprisingly strong (what with cute-looking heavy hammers, baseball bats and missiles), and she's quite an in-your-face fighter. This reflects her (mainly Luna's) personality: acting cute, but is quite loud and aggressive. Sena is more passive and can only try to downplay Luna's attitude (often to no avail) and he can only fight the same way as Luna to show this.
- Bullet is a rather aggressive person who prefers settling things quickly, and as such her Drive moves her towards her opponent to attack, which also powers her up if successfully done. The fiery effect also shows her hotheaded personality.
- Azrael is a man who's confident in his own power and as such he throws all his might into his attacks. His Drive's name (The Terror) and what it does (putting weakpoints that gives debilitating effects if hit with Drive) also fits with him being The Dreaded; a common reaction from both players and computer opponents is to dodge him until it fades... running away from the juggernaut in the process. One move of his, however - Scud Punishment - is more of a precise palm-strike attack that leaves the foe with 2 weakpoints at once, and, as shown in Tutorial Mode where he teaches about breaking guards with a stern and thorough tone, it shows that he's not as brutish as most of his other moves imply. In fact, it's subtly shown that he knows some of the big things happening behind the scenes - he just chooses to not care and goes to find more opponents to fight.
- Terumi is a Sadistic Hope Crusher: He has low-damage multi-hit attacks for the purpose of prolonging his enemy's suffering and stomps on them, not only to cause physical pain but also to disrespect and degrade them (a fact his Victory Poses underscore). He has one stomp Distortion, one rush Distortion to rob you of any reprieve from him you think you might get, one counter Distortion coupled with one reversal Distortion to remind you that your efforts are useless and his Screeches of the Condemned'' is an insanely damaging unblockable killer attack. Serpent's Cursed Sting, however, actually changes in nature depending on whether he's in Overdrive or not: if he's not, then it's just a move that greatly damages his opponent. IN Overdrive, however, it drains a crapload of Heat along with being even more damaging, effectively robbing his opponent of their hopes of winning, and it ends with him grinding his foot into his opponent's head while mocking them before he kicks them away, embodying everything despicable Terumi is.
- Kagura Mutsuki is a stance and charge character, with his move names are mostly themed on dragons (with his Drive, Overdrive, and "Stance Break" being the sole exceptions). It shows his laid-back personality and his overwhelming cleverness, power and ambition. Kagura is known to be stronger than Ragna the Bloodedge (without his Azure Grimoire). He is also able to subdue Noel Vermillion in her Mu-12 mode. Kagura is even able to resist against Phantom's Gravity Seed magic to some extent, which not even Rachel Alucard could resist against.
- Kokonoe's moves appropriately makes use of the many products of her scientific expertise. Many of them also serves tactical use, such as her Graviton pinning her foe in one place, her Flame Cage that can home in with Graviton, her Banishing Ray being an Anti-Air trap and also a teleport move that moves her right behind her opponent, fitting as she mostly serves as a tactician who moves/directs others for her plans. Her sole magic attack, meanwhile, is her Astral Heat, which is so powerful it creates a barren wasteland and used only as a last resort. This reflects her situation in CS extra story that which is inherited where, in the face of a proto-Black Beast threatening to grow big and eating all of her personnel, she's forced to use her mother's spell "Infinite Gravity" to subdue it, and it leaves her exhausted.
- Celica has Minerva performing most of the moves for her. This reflects much of what happens with her in the story where she's almost never alone, she has someone who'd fight for her, even before she gets Minerva. Her healing magic also reflects her caring personality.
- Hibiki's fighting style revolves around keeping the opponent guessing, running at high speeds and confusing the opponent with his Drive and special attacks before striking when they least expect it. Naturally, this ties in to his profession as an assassin, whose primary job is to lurk in the shadows before going in for the kill, but this can also apply to his personality because deep down, his true nature is that of a disturbed killer, something that he himself finds disturbing but later unconsciously goes with, thus keeping people (and by extension the audience) guessing in regards to his overall allegiance.
  - Of special mention goes to his Drive, which is named "Double Chase." Upon initiating his Drive, Hibiki will create a copy of himself to assist in attacking and confusing the opponent. He might be sending his clone forward or sending himself forward while leaving a clone in his place. Hibiki switching between himself and a clone is brilliant in that it ties in to the fact that Hibiki has two different personalities that he switches between: the kind, loyal, hardworking assistant to Kagura on the outside and the disturbed, psychotic, emotionless killer on the inside. The illusions his Drive gives off only serve to give a visual representation of the fact that there are two different Hibikis existing in the same individual.
- Nine makes use of her extended knowledge with several different kinds of magic with her unique system. Her preferred kind of magic, though, is fire, which reflects her fiery, impulsive personality.
- Aside from the obvious fact that death goddess Izanami's moves incorporate a lot of skeletal and ghostly imagery, she also has one move that surrounds her with a barrier, demonstrating the futility in trying to kill death, as well as a command throw that allows her to drain both the opponent's life and barrier gauge, serving as a reminder that, well, she is death. Everything that keeps the living alive progressively becomes her domain. She also has two distortions that allow her to stop time, tying in to how death is an absence of time to the living. Finally, there's the fact that she's a Dance Battler, but her dance style is specifically based off of Shiva's Tandava: the dance with which Shiva ends the universe. Incidentally, that is ultimately Izanami's goal.
- Susanoo has something of a odd fighting style as he starts with one special move and his other specials need to be unlocked by attacking and using his Drive. However if you look back in CF's Story Mode, after his fight with Es, Terumi is forced out of the Susanoo Unit, saying that he's not fully used to being back in the Susanoo Unit just yet. It shows in his fights as he starts off weak but gets stronger the more specials he unlocks, showing that he is gradually settling back into the Unit and rediscovering its power. This makes him a dangerous force to be reckoned with if he's allowed to have all of his specials unlocked and ready to be used.
- Mai attacks foes using her weapon, the Gallia Sphyra: Outseal, which also has the innate ability to automatically teach its wielder how to use it. Coincidentally, Mai is designed to be easy to pick up for beginners with her Variable Arts providing simple yet powerful combos and her Drive being easy to use in comparison to the rest of the cast. Mai's low learning curve makes it so that, much like with Mai using the Outseal, anyone can be an Instant Expert at using her.
- Jubei has some really strange character-specific issues, such as being more prone to hitstun during enemy combos, having two methods of battle and even having combos that work on specific characters. Jubei is a master swordsman who has taken many years to become so good that not only does he have the strength to fight with more than one strategy, but he also knows the strengths of his opponents and can outright counter their techniques due to his experience.
In hindsight, in CT, when Bang encounters Litchi in his story, trying to converse with Arakune, Bang claims that Litchi has been a Damsel in Distress. Cut to CS, while at first it just looks like Litchi is forced to pull a Face–Heel Turn, it became apparent that she's more closer to a deconstruction of Damsel in Distress, she has no one to help and save her and must face her turmoils alone. In other words, Bang is completely right about her in distress.
When Litchi is hit with Relius' Astral, rather than the other playable 'villains', like Hazama (just sitting down bored) or Tsubaki (being let to say her prayers inside a magic circle), Litchi is instead tied up and restrained, just like other would-be betrayers of NOL (Jin and Makoto). This would mean that Relius is also aware that even if she's on his side, Litchi has the highest chance to pull a High-Heel–Face Turn, and she's not exactly so blindly worshiping them on the promise of the cure that he could rest easy and think she'll just submit on the experiment if goaded with "We have the cure".
One would say that Litchi should've at least asked everyone else, even in Orient Town, for the cure instead of going over to NOL. However, there is a good reason why Litchi never asked any help from them or even tell her problems: as one scene in CT if she lost to Noel shows, the citizens of Orient Town are willing to throw their lives away to help her. If she told her her problems with the Boundary, more likely that the citizens of the town would gladly throw their lives away for her sake, by trying the Boundary with intentions of helping her... but instead are creating more creatures like Arakune and more problems. Of course, Litchi wouldn't want this fate to befell the town, even for her own sake, so she kept silent about her problems and puts them out of equations of 'those who can be asked for help'.
A minor one, if Carl and Relius battle each other, Relius will say "Watch and learn, my son." Unlimited Carl can use a variant of his dad's Vol Tedo move. As of CP, normal Carl can do this too.
During Slight Hope, Makoto was surveying the Ibukido ruins, cracking into its database, learning the layout of Kagutsuchi through Jin and Bang, plumbing the secrets of the Ikaruga Civil War through her discussion with Bang, and negotiating with Tager and Kokonoe. Also, when Bang informed her that a man in a half-mask (Relius) escorted Jin from Ronin-gai, she used her knowledge of Relius' involvement with Noel and an aside by Terumi to alter her plans enough to dodge the trap Relius was setting for her. Come to think of it, this is exactly the kind of work a member of the Intelligence Division should be conducting - meaning that Makoto broke Terumi's plans apart, however unknowingly, by doing her job. Beneath the bubbly, boisterous beastkin is a better spy than Hazama!
- To add on to this, at the end of CS Arcade when Hazama gives (obviously feigned) commendation to Makoto for finding the cache of Prime Field Devices in Ibukido, she tells him that "it was practically screaming for attention". Doesn't sound like much at first, but in the CP climax, Nu tells Ragna about the memories she copied from Noel regarding the experiment in Ibukido; how Terumi tried to forcibly merge with Noel only for the site to get obliterated by Take-Mikazuchi. To cover up the true nature of the Ikaruga Civil War, Terumi had to obstruct all access to the cauldron laboratory and discourage everyone from trying to approach it. However shoddy his workmanship is, he exploited Imperial decree to have the innermost ruins quarantined until the seithr built up to such a degree where anyone who tried to intrude would choke to death in moments, and the survivors irrevocably pulled into the Boundary with no way back. Five years later, all his "hard work" went to utter waste because Makoto was sent to the ruins. Let's run a checklist: Hazama can't be honest with Makoto ^note, he can't lie to her ^note, he can't dodge the subject around her ^note, he can't ignore her ^note, he can't focus entirely on her ^note, and as he found out, a straight-up fight with or without the Azure Grimoire is an exercise in attrition ^note. Not only that, as one Teach Me, Miss Litchi episode shows, beastkin like her and Taokaka are naturally highly resistant to seithr, and there's the matter of how Makoto went to the point in history to fuck his plans up^note, meaning that sending a beastkin with such expertise of espionage to Ibukido and expecting her to die is pretty much not his wisest move ever. So not only is Makoto an active threat to his plans on top of representing everything he wants abolished, but she just stated to him indirectly that she's a better spy than him, or at least that he sucks at his job; for a self-absorbed sociopath, this is an unforgivable insult. Between this and her ice-cold reaction to his whipping out the Azure Grimoire, if you're wondering what happened to his falsified affability in Calamity Trigger, well... now you know.
Every character released up to Extend has a Dislike in their Material Collection information that has a direct connection to their physical or mental profile.
- Ragna dislikes ghosts and the N.O.L. - both pertain to his vendetta against Terumi.
- Jin dislikes weaklings due to almost effortlessly slaughtering several individuals in the Ikaruga Civil War due to being hopped up on the power of order - the praise for his One-Man Army status is part of many things pushed on him, and he would rather earn his accolades.
- Noel dislikes bugs, especially ones with lots of legs - this is a common childhood phobia, fitting for someone whose mental age is in the single digits. Depending on the level of exposure, this may even ascend to Primal Fear.
- Rachel dislikes the boredom she has suffered from her role as an "observer", being forced to watch the world share a singular fate over several iterations of the same hundred years. She also has a disdain for bell peppers and tomato juice due to reminding her of another red fluid she swore off long ago.
- Taokaka's dislike of squigglies pertains to Arakune, the "Black Squiggly", who has made a name for himself by eating the Kaka kittens and is the primary threat to her village.
- Tager dislikes salt water due to its potential in impairing his operation by rusting components or shorting him out (he's a Cyborg whose main weapon is a magnetism-harnessing artificial causality weapon).
- Litchi dislikes indecision - while there may be something in her backstory of which we're unaware, she is currently in uncharted territory in dealing with Arakune's corruption with no idea how to proceed, but she's also aware that her own corruption will catch up to her and subsequently feels she has no time for inaction.
- Arakune dislikes ignorance, which stems from the professional neglect he, as Lotte/Roy Carmine, suffered under Kokonoe after the incident regarding the Black Beast in Sector Seven. Relius helping to foster his other insecurities didn't help. That he values knowledge also helps.
- Bang dislikes evil. Someone has to keep the Ikaruga refugees in Kagutsuchi motivated, and he is left with questions regarding why the NOL attacked his homeland unprovoked and effortlessly slaughtered his people. Wheel of Fortune!Bang, or at least Slight Hope!Bang, may have had the chance to learn about the cause of the war - he said that "it was a foolish quarrel in which neither side was innocent".
- Carl hates lies in all their forms. He was betrayed by his own father when he moved Ada's soul into Nirvana and left her restoration half-done. This also leaves him with massive trust issues, but this is ultimately rectified thanks to Litchi and Bang, whom he considers role models.
- Hakumen dislikes everything related to the Black Beast for the destruction it caused during the Dark War - this extends to his campaign against Ragna (who wields part of the Azure Grimoire), Nu (who wields the other part and who personally killed Tsubaki in his origin timeline) and Terumi (its "creator"), as well as his outrage against Kokonoe's nuke silo (due to the pointless destruction atomic weapons brought when used against the Beast).
- Nu hates everything except Ragna due to the fact that she has been bounced between the living world and the Boundary plenty of times, and she was programmed to "interact" with Ragna in a narrowly-defined manner. That, and some subtle hints of Saya's lingering consciousness inside her (as Nu's a clone of her) that longs for her big brother.
  - As Juusan her dislikes changed to Noel's Cooking, while her likes are settled to Lambda's bakes cookies. This showcases how her world has changed to include her sisters into her life since they are most likely the only people she ever interacted with.
- Tsubaki dislikes war - given what it did to her precious "Jinny", one can hardly blame her. CF also reveals her desire to be "a world where the Dark War didn't exist and everything's better".
- Hazama dislikes cats due to both his Jubei issues (attempts to kill the cat have gone poorly for him, necessitating Phantom's intervention on Hazama's behalf) and his physically ingrained allergy.
- Mu's dislike is "the world" - as a result of extensive mindrape and reformatting, she intends to vent all the trauma and hatred forced upon her by destroying the world. After events in Chronophantasma, she takes on Noel's characteristics, since Mu is Noel's original identity.
- Makoto's distaste for discrimination is her secondary Berserk Button due to nonstop exposure to racism in her pre-Academy years. Said racism extending to the few people she mutually cared for correlates to her primary Berserk Button of implying harm upon her friends.
- Valkenhayn dislikes "objects without character" - while currently unexplained, it is possible this may be a hint to his aimless life as a vigilante prior to meeting Clavis Alucard. It could also be a jab at Relius, who has a habit of seeing people (including his own wife) as objects.
- Platinum dislikes Ragna due to her childish mentality (clinging to Jubei like a child to their parent), but her hatred of snakes may be a lingering fragment of Trinity's personality, due to her guilt complex regarding Yuuki Terumi.
- Relius dislikes disorganized bookshelves - as a scientist, he prefers having his records readily accessible and in proper order. He likened the restoration of his memory after a jump through the Boundary displaced him eighty years in time to "organizing bookshelves in a library".
- Bullet dislikes miniskirts and prefers wearing pants. As she was practically raised as a mercenary with most of its member being male, it's implied that their habits rubbed off on her.
- Kagura dislikes "matters that are unclear" - it's shown in how, in the past, he had to deal with the Government Conspiracy that is the Ikaruga Civil War and how it ends badly for Ikaruga.
- Kokonoe hates "stereotypes". This perhaps comes from how beastkin like her tend to be seen as dumb and that it's implied she has to struggle to get as high a position in Sector Seven as she's on now, with her specifically becoming a scientist, i.e. the complete opposite of "dumb". In her CPEX story Collision she gives a line to Litchi when the two first meet: "surprised that I'm a beastkin?" which is likely influenced by said dislike of stereotypes.
- Terumi dislikes Rachel, due to her being his main opponent in the whole Cosmic Chess Game.
- Celica has "nothing" listed as her dislike because she's an All-Loving Hero who cares for people.
- Hibiki dislikes "sloppy people". This describes his bitter disposition when dealing with his master Kagura all the time.
- Izanami's dislike is Ragna the Bloodedge due to her vessel's lingering feelings towards him and her struggle to control her body. She's also implied to know what Ragna is, i.e. "the Central Fiction", and Amaterasu's manipulation - which screws the world up - revolves around him alone, which gives her a reason to hate Ragna.
- Naoto dislikes eye drops due to his Eye of the Hunter.
Taokaka's obsession with breasts seems like it's played just for Rule of Funny, but I realised that it seems to have a deeper meaning. Tao is very childlike, but she's clearly developed a very shapely body; this means she's probably in her teens at the very earliest. With teenage years comes feelings of attraction, something Tao's childlike mind would likely be unable to comprehend. She either cannot or will not accept these feelings of attraction, so her obsession for breasts developed as a countermeasure. The reason Litchi puts up with it is because, being the wise woman she is, she knows what is going on in Tao's head and simply wants her to be a functional member of society (if she can be called that in the first place).
- Tao is also practically a cat, and cats like kneading. That's just what she does with people's breasts.
Laura Bailey playing Platinum The Trinity counts when you realize Platinum embody the three character types she plays. She commonly plays young boys (Sena), spunky fiery girls (Luna), and mature and usually kind sister like roles (Trinity).
At first I questioned the name of Azrael's Drive. It creates weak points when you hit an opponent with his Drive to exploit for incredibly high damage. That seemed odd to me, until I noticed that intelligent players tended to keep their distance from me when I had one or more weak points applied. It gives the appearance of the character being afraid of Azrael after suffering the full force of one of his attacks.
In the game's story modes usually you get to see Ragna get his ass handed to him by whoever he's fighting, get a heroic second wind, and then return the ass kicking to them regardless of how the fight was actually going when you were in control. Which as anyone who's played as Ragna will tell you is EXACTLY how fights go when you play as him: you rush in, get beat to crap getting past their projectiles and defenses but when you finally do get close enough he can tear them a new one like you wouldn't believe.
Azrael is the Angel of Death in Christianity and Islam. Sure enough, in his Arcade Mode play, his final battle is with Ragna, the Grim Reaper - another Psychopomp.
- For more hilarity: in CF, he forms a contract with and serves Izanami, the "Goddess of Death".
A bit of a rough theory but.... Ragna is called the Reaper right? Which translates to Shinigami in Japanese okay, now the Azure is a place were all the timelines intersects and it is as Izanami and Relius described 'Mostly made out of souls', now the Azure Grimoire's original form was the cauldron which it's original purpose is to gather souls and Ragna is called the Shinigami and his style of attacking is that he 'takes the souls of his enemies', basically the Azure is the underworld and Ragna is the shinigami that brings people to the afterlife or the boundary in this case and that means Izanami is the death incarnate, our villain who wants to destroy everything is in line with her legend.
Yuuki Terumi's specter form only has a left eye. In the Bloodedge Experience manga, the successor to the Terumi clan has the "Hunter's Eye" in the right-hand socket. This strongly implies, if not confirms, that he is not related to the clan in any way, and his name is just another pseudonym to conceal his true identity.
In Mu-12's CS arcade story, rather than being hostile like he is to the Murakumo units, Hakumen questions her goals and is even disappointed to see how Noel ended up, seeing his slaying of her more as a Mercy Kill. Fridge Brilliance (and Tear Jerker) kicks in when you remember that in his timeline, Jin was a Cool Big Bro to Saya. He, unlike the current Jin, has no reason to hate Noel who out of the Murakumo units, looks like Saya the most.
Notice how Tager and Bullet's drives does similar but opposite things: Tager's used to drag foes towards him while Bullet's used to move herself towards her foes. Both, however, serves their similar general purpose of being grapplers, with Tager being the more defensive one and Bullet the more offensive one. This also shows their subtle connection to one another as (former) captain and subordinate.
Izanami's hobby is listed as "jigsaw puzzles". This seems odd, until you think of her goal: destroying the world and then make a new one. Just like how you break the puzzle pieces and then putting them together again. It also suits her being The Chessmaster.
Mai Natsume switches from using a sword and dagger combination in Remix Heart to a spear in Variable Heart which takes place a few years later. Such a change makes sense, since switching from a sword to a spear would allow Mai to compensate for her reduced reach and strength after her transformation to a woman. Women, such as the wives of samurai, often historically used weapons with greater reach in order to compensate for their shorter height and lower upper body strength when compared to men.
When Yuuki Terumi becomes Susanoo, he completely switches the snake motif for a wolf motif. It seems strange at first, until one remember something. As the one true Susanoo, the name Yuuki Terumi was just an alias to hide his true identity. Given that Susanoo in the mythology is known for killing a snake demon, OF COURSE he would use snakes as his symbol and motif during his false identity as Yuuki Terumi, as nobody would ever suspect that Susanoo would willingly associate himself with snakes. As such, once Terumi was done hiding his identity as Susanoo, he discards the snake motif as it has already served its purposes in his mind.
You know that verse in the middle of Black Onslaught?
"Chewing my own limbs, I'm the last to go."
- The brilliance occurs once you realize the Black Beast's only limbs are heads. And how the Black Beast apparently (partially) reverted back to Ragna shortly before Hakumen decapitated it.
In the ending of CF, Ragna erases all memories of his existence as he is the Central Fiction. Now think back to Nine's rant about how the Master Unit doesn't give a damn about people like her. It may sound like typical nihilist rant, but if you replace Master Unit with "author", Central Fiction with "Creator's Pet" suddenly everything makes sense. The story of BlazBlue is the deconstruction of The Protagonist trope!! Nine is actually ranting about how she and her sister Celica are nothing but supporting characters for the main plot, meaning that they are pretty much fodder in the eyes of the author. She went into the Boundary and found out that she is a supporting character that gets killed off and her family is that way because the author makes it that way for drama while Ragna realized that as long he exists, all the other characters just be in supporting roles and cannot move forward. Is it any wonder Nine is the way she is and why Ragna wants to erase himself from existence?
The reveals put the partnership between Terumi & Izanami in a new light. Terumi and Relius tortured Saya in order to try to break her soul. They sort of succeeded, with half staying in Saya and becoming Izanami and the other hitching a ride on Mu-12 and becoming Noel. Furthermore, Izanami is in part a facet of Master Unit Amaterasu. Terumi is Susanō'o, who exists to destroy what Amaterasu creates. Despite the similar goals, the two hate each other at the most fundamental level.
If you observe Izanami's trailer closely, you'll realize that Jin is the main target of her brutal combos and her terrifying Exceed Accel. While it could just be Izanami demonstrating her attacks, who's to say that it also isn't Saya giving Jin some divine retribution for his bullying when they were younger?
Likewise, in Nine's trailer, she successfully manages to use her Astral Heat on Terumi, perhaps as revenge for killing her previously.
The trend continues in Es's trailer where she fights Ragna, Naoto, Nine and Celica, all of whom share an important connection with her. She and Ragna are the "two Azures" and her mission is to guide him to the Azure Gate, both she and Naoto are from alternate "possibilities" separate from the main ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' timeline, and Nine and Celica are the older versions of Watashi and Imouto, who Es became close friends with when she was Nobody.
How did Hakumen survive what seemed to be a quite decisive death at the hands of Terumi? Simple! Kokonoe failed to pulled out of the Boundary properly to begin with leaving him at 20% of his full power! Meaning the other 80% of his soul that wasn't pulled out was still there when he came close enough to a cauldron to regain contact with it.
Who would've thought that the character select screens themselves would also contain some brilliant positioning? Not only are some characters fittingly mirroring one another (i.e. Tsubaki and Hakumen in Chronophantasma) but the mere shape of the screens is just plain fitting to each game.
- Calamity Trigger: A circle with a hollow center. The "Wheel of Fate."
- Continuum Shift: On console it follows the similar "Wheel of Fate" shape, with Mu being in the center. Download Makoto, Valkenhayn, and Platinum, and the screen looks more like the cocoon featured in Mu's stage. Extend puts Relius in the center too, but the shape still retains.
- Chronophantasma: Breaks away from the Wheel motif because the loop has long been broken at this point. This time around, the shape of the select screen resembles the crest of Amaterasu.
- Central Fiction: The select screen resembles a shield, or more likely, a door, specifically the door to the inside of the Master Unit.
Some of the nihilistic outbursts earlier in the series make a lot more sense once we know about the Central Fiction. Especially since Arakune - who is connected to the Boundary, Amaterasu's realm - and Terumi - Amaterasu's brother - are the characters who go off on one the most in this regard.
Mu-12's Arcade Mode in CF could be a series of illusions by Phantom to push her over the edge (again), but those characters' accusations could possibly be genuine. The world of the Embryo is fitted to Noel's will, and Noel wants to live a normal life - note in Noel's Act 1 arcade when she desperately denies that she's anything like Nu. Also, Noel and Mu separated to prevent getting any closer to the Forbidden Gate i.e. a very good reason. In a world like the Embryo, maybe it makes sense that Mu-12 is the symbol of 'Avoid. Danger. Do not go near this'.
A testament to Kokonoe being a greater inventor than Relius or Nine - Minerva is the only assistance doll that doesn't run out of energy with use.
Fridge Logic that became Fridge Brilliance: if each timeline has its own independent version of each character and the villains can move through timelines easily, why doesn't Terumi gather an infinite army of himself from each version of the world? Well, as revealed in CF, Terumi is the original Susanoo, which means he originates from the Boundary itself. There is only one version of him throughout every timeline because he isn't native to any of them. Same goes for Izanami - she is a part of the Origin, of which there is only one. This actually confirms that all of Hazama's appearances throughout CS are actually the same Hazama, not a localised version - studying the timelines and using the Boundary to time his entrances to exactly the right moment in each situation. There should be an infinite number of Relius in existence, although knowing him he probably wants to finish Observing his own world before moving on to cross-timeline analysis.
In his Arcade mode in Calamity Trigger, Tager complains that communications are down and preventing him from reaching Kokonoe. Given Act 1 of Central Fiction, this may well have been caused by Kagura, two games before his first official appearance.
Ragna's white hair and red eye are apparently from the shock of having the Azure Girmoire implanted. Nu-13 also has a Grimoire, and she has white hair and red eyes too. Otherwise she would look like Lambda and Mu.
In Calamity Trigger, Ragna would always lose to Nu-13 regardless of his actions while in later installments he can easily keep pace or even defeat Nu-13. If the “Story of the World” is to believed, this isn’t an indication that Ragna got stronger, since in Calamity Trigger he was fated to always lose to Nu in order to become the Black Beast. Even if Ragna won by some chance, the Boundary would either paralyze him or drain the Azure’s power so that he can’t fight back while Nu carries him to the Cauldron. Once Noel defies that destiny and creates a new possibility, Ragna’s fate was now his own to write, allowing him to take down the once unbeatable Nu thanks to his countless experiences in the loops fighting her.
Terumi's power draws upon the hatred of others. In universe, this means he's incredibly strong, given what a bastard he is. However, in real life he's one of the most popular characters in the franchise. In competitive play, he's often placed at low tier and considered one of the weaker members of the cast. Because he's not hated in the real world, he's weak in the real world.
Jin says in CP that he survived being stabbed with Izayoi because it kills by planting death into the victim's mind, which his power was able to resist. This actually makes a lot of sense that it works this way when you remember that Izayoi was made to kill Observers, who must always keep an awareness of their own existence (as Rachel told Litchi). If you imposed the image of death on that recognition of themselves, that would be an effective way to turn an Observer's unstable existence against them.
In Alternative: Dark War shows that despite how slim the chances are, Nu was able to recover from catatonic and broken state. This makes sense once you consider the fact that the world Ragna created at the end of Central Fiction is one in which everyone has a new possiblity for a brighter future instead of being stuck in the past. Naturally she is also included in this. In addition, as she no longer remembers him (at least for the most part; she's aware something important is missing but can't quite put it all together), she has had the chance to develop a personality of her own without her all-encompassing Yandere side overwhelming her thought processes, leading to her being much more well adjusted and sociable, if still a bit aloof (not unlike Ragna himself, ironically).

Fridge Horror

Speaking of Relius, his Astral Finish is easy to make sexual jokes about... Until you realize that it implies that the victim will soon suffer the same fate as Ada and Ignis. Jeez.
- Again, involving Relius, the majority of his actions have a single motivation besides evil's sake. When one thinks about the real world, no small number of humanity's greatest scientific achievements came about as the result of some of its greatest atrocities. When one thinks about the Mad Puppeteer in that light, it magnifies both the genius of his actions (rapid scientific advancement) as well as the inherent grotesquerie (the mass number of casualties involved cannot be overlooked).
- Another piece of prime disturbing-ness: Remember all the horrible, painful, degrading stuff Relius did to [Makoto in her bad ending? It's implied that he's going to turn her into a doll. If the process he used there is the same one he used to create Nirvana/Ada and Ignis, he used all those techniques on his own wife and child. And going on the above Fridge Horror, he'll do the same to anyone hit by his Astral.
Every fight starts with The Wheel of Fate is Turning, how many of billions of battles played by us are yet another time loop? Thousands? Millions?
- It gets better. Whenever you beat Arcade Mode in Continuum Shift Extend, Terumi taunts you for helping him observe a new possibility. Yeah, that's right, boys and girls: you just helped Yuuki Terumi complete his goals.
- Are you watching the anime already knowing all the plot events, just intrigued to see how it will look in a new form with perhaps a couple of small changes? Congratulations - you now know just how Rachel and Terumi feel.
How many people think that Litchi's Bad End was actually better than in True End where she pulls a Face–Heel Turn, no matter how forced? Well, assuming we take the universe to roll on after her bad end, it means Arakune only ate her memories of him... NOT her corruption. Which means, even if she stopped corrupting herself more, the current corruption were enough to degenerate her, at best she'd just be a vegetable, at worst, she'll still turn out to be the next Arakune, and all of Kokonoe's efforts would be for naught since she probably moved her ass to help way too late, because before she stepped in too late, Litchi would've made no effort to try to cure herself because she lost her drive for the cure in the first place. And if it's the latter, imagine who will be her first victims... the Kaka clan AND the Orient Town people. All that, and Litchi would've been bereft of her sane mind with zero chance to think of even redeeming herself. At least by being a sane Heel, she'd have chance to think of a future Heel Realization and once again turns Face again, rather than doomed with an Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms to death. There's a reason WHY the game designated it the BAD END for her, folks.
- This gets a lot more sense if you're familiar with Persona 3. Basically, Litchi killing Arakune would be akin of the Main Character killing Ryoji: the inevitable (either Litchi's corruption or The Fall) will just be delayed, not stopped, and those who could stop it had their memories erased and blissfully unaware that the doom is surely to come, even if it's delayed only a little. Both Arakune and Ryoji probably meant well, letting their friends die their inevitable deaths in happiness rather than in doubts, but for someone who prefers living, that'd be a nightmare or a downer on epic proportions, especially when Litchi knows there are people who'd be sad if she dies. If that event in Persona 3 is considered Downer Ending, then Litchi's Bad End is definitely one as well.
This is less Fridge Horror and more a delayed Harsher in Hindsight, but everyone's familiar with how bloody hilarious Makoto's gag reel turned out to be. However, mix in Makoto's bad ending, Heart to Heart, and a dash of Arakune's Arcade commentary, and the whole thing takes on a much darker light than previously anticipated. It's pretty damn clear from those three that Makoto's childhood sucked, and her family was literally the only sanctuary she had from a neighborhood, or possibly a whole Hierarchical City, that just plain hates her. Two possibilities arise as a result... the first is that they were already crazy (though not as batshit insane as the misroled cast turned out to be), and that only made things worse for Makoto's already strained optimism; the second is that they were merely eccentric, and went crazy as a way to cheer her up, only that wound up not working or, worse, backfiring. Kind of painful to think about the gag reel in that context - even though it's isolated from canon and can be safely accepted as a parody of family sitcoms, if taken as a representation of Makoto's family life, it makes humor of a situation that, in retrospect, isn't funny at all. Maybe not as depressing as Lambda's gag reel, but damn if it doesn't try.
- On the subject of Makoto and delayed Harsher In Hindsights, Kokonoe takes her away at the end of Teach Me More, Ms. Litchi! Ep 6 to try to fix her memory overload issues. She speaks at the end about tampering with Noel's memories, and it's safe to presume she's going to do it to Makoto first as a test run. Last time someone messed with Makoto's memories involved Relius Clover... Oh, and considering Lambda's CS story, Kokonoe's method of doing it is painful for the mind. If you feel like you need a gallon, know that you're not alone.
  - Come CF Makoto is now aware of all the possibilities of the Continuum Shift, so she has seen the CS Bad Ending, and is reaching for the Brain Bleach.
In the ending of Chronophantasma, Relius is defeated, extremely depressed and now under the leash of both Carl and Litchi. And they're also free from their 'villain' status and can resume being good people again. However, Litchi practically lost her only way to salvage her situation about her Boundary Corruption and Lotte's situation, the new world, since Relius is now a broken man unable to repeat his plan again. Furthermore, with Izanami's threat looming on the world, her time in the world gets even shorter and if Izanami is defeated, then she only can wait until the corruption engulf her completely, and in her quest to gain the salvation, she betrayed one of her best friends Bang Shishigami. All of the sudden, it looks like 'being free from Relius' manipulation' only sounds like a small comfort from the looming doom and depression that awaits Litchi, she's paying the price for her obsession. If Carl won't take his time to understand Litchi and comfort her, there's no telling when she will completely snap...
- Taking further consideration of this is the moment where her last battleground was crumbling. Litchi just stood there when Carl had to yank her out of the harm's way. What's to say that Litchi also fell into depression like Relius and thought that she's better off dying, what with all her chance to live a decent life of a normal human being completely destroyed.
Speaking of Izanami, how long has she been possessing Saya? The New Material Collection states that Saya's personalty changed and got sick. What if Izanami was possessing her, was planning on escaping using Jin and frame him for bullying Saya, when it was the other way around? Jin tried to tell Ragna the truth but he didn't believe him. Izanami gave him Yukianasa to save Saya but got his memories erased by Terumi, which means Jin's hatred towards Saya is actually just hating Izanami for controlling her.
- Jin was just an attention whore when they were younger, which is why he bullied Saya because she was the target of Ragna's affection. Relius was the one behind Izanami occupying Saya's body, so it probably happened after she was kidnapped and probably immediately, judging from the drastic physical change that happened to her since then. As for giving him Yukianesa, Izanami might've been able to influence her mind, but not fully control Saya prior to Terumi kidnapping her, which is why she was constantly sick and suddenly produced a giant katana out of nowhere to give to Jin.
So, according to Nu, Noel/Mu (Prime Field) was supposed to become one with Hazama (Artificial Human who has a Grimoire in his very body and thus a Black Beast) to help Sector Seven defeat the NOL. Sure, Noel was spared from that when the Takamagahara commands Take-Mikazuchi to fire on Ibukido and by becoming the Successor of the Azure. A part of Nu's crazy obsession with Ragna is implied to be caused by her desire (or rather, the Grimoire's) to become 'one', as in: Nu (the Murakumo Unit with an incomplete Azure Grimoire and thus, the 'heart') and Ragna (someone who might be just like her with an incomplete Grimoire and thus, the 'body'). So, what would've happened if Noel's tempering was complete but she didn't become the Successor of the Azure and have the complete Azure itself? Would she be obsessed with 'becoming one' with Hazama?
- That's not wrong, and even then Noel does exhibit some odd behavior around Hazama which Bolverk (and later her new hairpins) may have been suppressing. Take this quote if she downs him in Versus mode:
  "Oww... my head...!"
Relius' gag reel in Chronophantasma is pretty funny with a dash of Heartwarming... but there's a bit of horror that wasn't outright said; according to Relius, they exchanged existences with the people from the other reality, which means a Relius who is a happy family man and the family servant are, without warning transported to a reality where both are complete monsters, in which his wife and daughter were turned into robotic dolls by his own hand and his son, which we see is really close to him in his reality, has turned into a vigilante who utterly despises him.
In CF, it's already bad enough that the stage "Judgment Day" is a wasteland caused by Izanami and that it's implied that it takes place outside of the Embryo, but then you factor in the fact that she's a vessel of the Drive of the person inside the Master Unit. Factor those in, and they show that Noel Vermillion would be responsible for Izanami reducing the world to a wasteland. I Just Want to Be Normal taken to the extremes a la End of Evangelion indeed.
Carl's Act 3 arcade story has him face off against Relius, only this time, he just fights him to see how Ignis works. Afterwards, Carl simply states that she's well-made, much to Relius' approval. Uh, Carl? That's your MOTHER you're talking about here. It really does a good job of showing how Carl's mindset is starting to become more similar to Relius.
- Even more terrifying, unless he did it offscreen Ragna never absorbed Carl's dream with Soul Eater. Since the absorbed dreams became possibilities of the new world created in the epilogue and Carl's dream is to restore Ada, not only has Carl become like Relius but there is no possibility for him to change. Ada can't be restored, and so Carl won't stop searching for a way by whatever means necessary.
Consider the plight of Nu post epilogue: she's bedridden in the convent her sisters run after been physically mangled by Hakumen to the point of complete incapacitation, her right (Azure Grimoire) eye is bandaged over (so in all likelihood gone), and Ragna, her object of obsession and sole raison d'être, no longer exists and erased any trace of his existence from her mind. All adding up to possibly spending the rest of her maybe-immortal existence as a complete vegetable, or at very least someone who in her own mind has absolutely no reason for living. That's pretty much the worst that could happen to her, for better or worse.
- Amazingly, come Alternative: Dark War the exact opposite has happened; Nu has healed and for possibly the first time is completely sane. She is suffering from a profound case of I Hate Past Me and has given herself a new name, Juusan, to try and distance herself from her past misdeeds and make a fresh start.
In Hibiki's Act 1 arcade mode, it's revealed that Hibiki secretly desires to kill Kagura and become a truly emotionless killer and he becomes progressively more insane and homicidal in Act 3. That begs the question: has he made an attempt on Kagura's life before?
- Considering how Kagura has been shown to act when he's not serious, it's unlikely. If he truly wanted to, there would've been a massive amount of opportunities.
- Even if he hasn't, the new world created by Ragna was made so people have a chance to live out their dreams. If Hibiki's dream is to kill Kagura...
A meta-moment for fans of other Arc Sys games: the 100-year time loop spans 2100-2200. Within that timeframe is almost the entire Guilty Gear series. Everything that happens in those games, every battle they fight and every tragedy they encounter, is repeated with every single time loop. Of which there have been millions.

Fridge / BlazBlue

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Fridge pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed and all examples folderized. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.