Post by Sorzo on Jun 2, 2017 15:34:53 GMT -8
While I love the Sunrider series, its increasing emphasis on abstract, nonlinear concepts such as time travel and alternate dimensions has left me struggling to wrap my head around a number of plot points. These conundrums are made all the more vexing by how closely they’re tied to my favorite character in the series, Sola.
Near the end of the Sola route in Academy, Academy Kayto enters a white, ethereal plane, where he converses with an individual that we’re led to believe is the original Sola from the main Sunrider timeline. This “Vision” Sola has a clear understanding of who and what Academy Sola is, mentioning that “she has struggled against all our attempts to retrieve her.” This almost certainly indicates that Vision Sola was working with Claude, who was using her abilities to try to pull Academy Sola back “home” in order to fix damage to the Academy timeline caused by the addition of a Sola shadow.
I’m having a hard time reconciling this aspect of Vision Sola with what we know of Main Sola. At the end of Liberation Day, Main Sola describes experiencing a “vision” (one that sounds similar to what Academy Kayto experienced) in which she spoke to Claude. From it, she is able to deduce the nature of Claude’s reality-warping powers, but her wording indicates that she lacks confirmation of such. Even her realization that she travelled 2000 years through time is noted to be only a deduction. This suggests that Main Sola, though far more aware of the various manipulations of time and space than most characters, lacks the level of knowledge and involvement in such matters that Vision Sola demonstrates. If she only suspects Claude’s power as a result of a single vision, how could Main Sola have deliberately worked with her to recover Academy Sola?
Assuming that Vision Sola and Main Sola are in fact the same person, the only sequence that seems to make sense is as follows:
• [MAIN TIMELINE] In the final battle of the Ryuvian Civil War, Crow Harbor activates a time device meant to send his flagship back to the start of the battle, presumably in order to escape the Final Tear. Instead, it malfunctions, sending both the ship and Sola 2000 years into the future. This has the side effect of scattering various copies of Sola throughout alternate dimensions.
• [ACADEMY TIMELINE (SOLA ROUTE)] A young copy of Sola arrives in the Academy timeline on Cera, where she is found and raised by Ryuvian shrine caretakers.
• [ACADEMY] Sola begins experiencing disconnections, which worsen over time.
• [MAIN] Claude travels to the time and place where Sola was deposited and places her in stasis. Several months later, she leads the Sunrider to her. Sola joins the Sunrider crew.
• [MAIN] At some point, Claude forces Sola to experience a vision, where she explains to Sola that she needs her help to stabilize the multiverse by extracting various shadows of Sola from alternate dimensions. Claude then somehow uses Sola to track down the various shadows and begins trying to remove them.
• [ACADEMY] Sola forms some sort of brief psychic connection with Main Sola, giving the two great understanding of one another. Academy Sola feels the joylessness and hardships that her counterpart has endured, while Main Sola experiences her counterpart’s romantic feelings for Kayto.
• [ACADEMY] Kayto converses with Main Sola, who explains to him the nature of Academy Sola. Main Sola’s knowledge is derived from both what Claude told her and her psychic exchange with Academy Sola.
• [ACADEMY] Chigara’s invention destroys Crow’s time device, stabilizing Sola and preventing future disconnections. This also stabilizes other Sola shadows, thus allowing the ones in other Academy timelines (where Kayto romanced someone else) to still survive.
• [ACADEMY] Claude, impressed by Kayto’s determination and realizing that the threat of disconnections has ended, decides to let Academy Sola remain with him.
• [MAIN] Sola’s vision of Claude and the above events ends. Though the nature of the vision means she isn’t completely certain, Sola correctly assumes that what she saw actually happened, deducing Claude’s nature and the fact that she herself was sent forward in time.
• [MAIN] At some point (presumably shortly after the Liberation Day Massacre), Crow Harbor’s dreadnaught arrives from its temporal displacement. As a result of Academy Chigara’s actions, its time device is destroyed.
Does that more or less sound right? I’ve only done a single full playthrough of each of the games so far, so odds are I’m missing something.
Also, was it ever explained how the shrine water temporarily stopped Academy Sola’s disconnections?
Thanks.
Near the end of the Sola route in Academy, Academy Kayto enters a white, ethereal plane, where he converses with an individual that we’re led to believe is the original Sola from the main Sunrider timeline. This “Vision” Sola has a clear understanding of who and what Academy Sola is, mentioning that “she has struggled against all our attempts to retrieve her.” This almost certainly indicates that Vision Sola was working with Claude, who was using her abilities to try to pull Academy Sola back “home” in order to fix damage to the Academy timeline caused by the addition of a Sola shadow.
I’m having a hard time reconciling this aspect of Vision Sola with what we know of Main Sola. At the end of Liberation Day, Main Sola describes experiencing a “vision” (one that sounds similar to what Academy Kayto experienced) in which she spoke to Claude. From it, she is able to deduce the nature of Claude’s reality-warping powers, but her wording indicates that she lacks confirmation of such. Even her realization that she travelled 2000 years through time is noted to be only a deduction. This suggests that Main Sola, though far more aware of the various manipulations of time and space than most characters, lacks the level of knowledge and involvement in such matters that Vision Sola demonstrates. If she only suspects Claude’s power as a result of a single vision, how could Main Sola have deliberately worked with her to recover Academy Sola?
Assuming that Vision Sola and Main Sola are in fact the same person, the only sequence that seems to make sense is as follows:
• [MAIN TIMELINE] In the final battle of the Ryuvian Civil War, Crow Harbor activates a time device meant to send his flagship back to the start of the battle, presumably in order to escape the Final Tear. Instead, it malfunctions, sending both the ship and Sola 2000 years into the future. This has the side effect of scattering various copies of Sola throughout alternate dimensions.
• [ACADEMY TIMELINE (SOLA ROUTE)] A young copy of Sola arrives in the Academy timeline on Cera, where she is found and raised by Ryuvian shrine caretakers.
• [ACADEMY] Sola begins experiencing disconnections, which worsen over time.
• [MAIN] Claude travels to the time and place where Sola was deposited and places her in stasis. Several months later, she leads the Sunrider to her. Sola joins the Sunrider crew.
• [MAIN] At some point, Claude forces Sola to experience a vision, where she explains to Sola that she needs her help to stabilize the multiverse by extracting various shadows of Sola from alternate dimensions. Claude then somehow uses Sola to track down the various shadows and begins trying to remove them.
• [ACADEMY] Sola forms some sort of brief psychic connection with Main Sola, giving the two great understanding of one another. Academy Sola feels the joylessness and hardships that her counterpart has endured, while Main Sola experiences her counterpart’s romantic feelings for Kayto.
• [ACADEMY] Kayto converses with Main Sola, who explains to him the nature of Academy Sola. Main Sola’s knowledge is derived from both what Claude told her and her psychic exchange with Academy Sola.
• [ACADEMY] Chigara’s invention destroys Crow’s time device, stabilizing Sola and preventing future disconnections. This also stabilizes other Sola shadows, thus allowing the ones in other Academy timelines (where Kayto romanced someone else) to still survive.
• [ACADEMY] Claude, impressed by Kayto’s determination and realizing that the threat of disconnections has ended, decides to let Academy Sola remain with him.
• [MAIN] Sola’s vision of Claude and the above events ends. Though the nature of the vision means she isn’t completely certain, Sola correctly assumes that what she saw actually happened, deducing Claude’s nature and the fact that she herself was sent forward in time.
• [MAIN] At some point (presumably shortly after the Liberation Day Massacre), Crow Harbor’s dreadnaught arrives from its temporal displacement. As a result of Academy Chigara’s actions, its time device is destroyed.
Does that more or less sound right? I’ve only done a single full playthrough of each of the games so far, so odds are I’m missing something.
Also, was it ever explained how the shrine water temporarily stopped Academy Sola’s disconnections?
Thanks.
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