im-a-tumor answered your question: (Single word? idk? Fluff? Angst? Smut? wtf ever…
prompt: wonder. taken any way you want it.
I went for the first time she’s teaching him how to cast curative magic :3
♥
My completely realistic interpretation of their last night aboard the Falcon before storming the tower, that is not even a little, tiny bit influenced by 18 years or rampant single-minded shippyness:
I still don’t know how I feel about these two. Any celesxlocke shippers care to share their opinions on this ship?
Way too busy with homework right now to expand beyond Yes This Is a Very Good Ship, would you like to take it from here, kat? :D (she’ll tell ya good)
oi vey. No pressure of anything, Kash, I appreciate that ;)
Okay, this is VERY seat of the pants, and not really proof-read - my appologies.
I could talk for days about these two concussed ducks.
I’m just going to go ahead and apologize again now for anything that I’m taking from knowing the Japanese script that isn’t exactly translated right into the GBA or SNES, because it’s the one I know best these days. (don’t get me started on ‘nakama’ later in the game, you’ll never shut me up)
In the hope of avoiding spoilers, I’ll break things down up to and just through the Opera?
At the start of the game, we have two people who are both damaged in rather different ways.
——-
On the one hand, Locke:
——-
We’re shown from the start that he’s twitchy about amnesia when he saves Terra, and he mentions that the Empire took someone away from him when you’re meeting up with the Returners for the first time. Connecting the dots, we can see that clearly he’s got some baggage and that he’s using that for a lot of his motivation; to help the Returners and to keep Terra safe because she is a legitimate damsel in distress at the start of the game. It’s not too difficult to see this is a trend by the time he meets and assists Celes in escaping from South Figaro - he insists twice that he’ll protect her even when she tries to dissuade him because she’s injured and will be too much trouble to keep entirely safe without risking himself.
(Potential misogynistic vs chivalrous implications aside, making sure a woman in trouble doesn’t stay in trouble is kind of a Big Freaking Deal to him.)
When Celes outright asks him in South Figaro why he said he would protect her, he starts to admit that she reminds him of someone, then brushes the question off mid-answer and just says ‘he feels like it.’ It’s painfully obvious that he was on the edge of admitting something, then suaves-out a bit and gives her an answer that isn’t quite so heavy.
(It’s debatable whether or not he avoids telling Celes because they’ve just met or because she herself is his target for protection. Both seem plausible)
Once they’re in Narshe, he clearly trusts her enough that he’s willing to present her information to the Elder, informing the entire room about the upcoming Imperial attack. They ask how he knows and he catches himself just a hair too late in identifying her as a General - Cyan flips his lid and Locke steps in, swearing that she’s on their side and reiterating that he’s protecting her and that’s that, thankyouverymuch. “When I make a promise to a woman, I don’t back down from it”
-Edgar tells us the viewer here that this is Locke reacting to Bad Shit in the Past (tm)
Shit hits the fan and Terra goes pink - Locke tries to help her, and later in bound and determined to find her and make sure she’s safe.
And there’s his protecting thing. It’s kind of a BFD. They’re not very subtle about that. We soon find out why.
In Kohlingen, we finally get our answer for why Locke seems inordinately hung up on keeping women safe - even ones that can pretty much fend for themselves.
——-
Rachel.
She was the love of his life, and it’s heavily implied that she had agreed to marry him. Already a treasure hunter in his youth, he takes her into the mountains with him on an adventure to get what will presumably become her engagement ring. But it ends poorly. She’s gravely injured saving him from a collapsing bridge, and ends up losing her memory. (Ding! Amnesia anxiety understood!) Her family blames him and essentially runs poor Locke out of town, and in deference to their wishes to keep her happy, since she doesn’t know better, he stays away.
When he returns a year later, he discovers that the Empire had attacked and she had died, but remembered him at the very end and was calling out for him but to no avail. She asked that someone tell Locke she loves him, if he ever returned.
What he also discovers is a bit darker (and is grossly misunderstood by a large segment of the English-speaking fandom, from what I’ve seen): The creepy old man on the edge of town had preserved her using his creepy medicine.
Again. Locke was not there during the attack that killed her.
Ergo.
Creepy man did this to her ON HIS OWN. FIRST.
THEN Locke returned.
So, traumatized, broken, and probably desperate beyond belief by the time he finds all of this out, Locke distrustfully lets him keep her corpse in stasis, and they discuss that she could return if there were some way to call back her soul. All wrapped up into a nice little narrative bow that implies to us the gamer than they clearly WILL BE at some point some resolution to this.
By being gone at the behest of her family, for Rachel’s sake, Locke failed to be by her side and keep her safe in the attack – he failed to protect her (Ding Ding! Protection fixation understood!)
——-
By saving every other woman that he can from harm, he’s trying to make up for the guilt and shame he feels from the failure that wrenched out his heart. Is this healthy? Not even a little. (I told you he was damaged!) He’s carrying around boatloads of self-hate over this that he needs to get rid of before he can move on and function like a normal person.
Much like Cloud in Advent Children, really.
In fact, it’s pretty much exactly the same.
Anyway.
In this fashion, Terra and Celes are almost symbols to him more than anything, the goal of a person to keep safe rather than individuals that he’s relating to. The more time he spends with each, the more we see him focus his lens a bit. With Terra, the spoke and connected at the Returner’s Hideout. With Celes, we’re not quite there yet.
But we’re about to be.
We hear of a rumor in Jidoor that there’s a treasure in Vector that can revive souls; once we’ve found Terra, Locke insists that he’s going with Celes to Vector. It’s predominantly to protect Celes, as the rumor is not touched on here – it’s just part of a long chain of hints toward the eventual culmination of the Rachel arc.
——-
On the other hand, Celes:
——-
Less damaged of the two at this point, to be sure, but she will get wumped on eventually.
Oh yes.
The biggest thing about Celes at the start of the game is that she’s the consummate soldier. Imperial and upstanding and serious and her introduction states that no one knows the woman beneath the General’s face.
She’s cold as ice and SO imperious. She speaks incredibly curtly and distantly and formally.
But she thinks that poisoning people is shit and when she speaks out against what Kefka’s doing, they plan to execute her.
She refuses to let Locke help her, because she’s too injured, it would be too much effort for him. She’s very prideful.
In Narshe, she and Cyan get into an amazingly snooty fight; only their hyper-formal language is keeping them from killing each other. Edgar tries to hit on her and says that he’s a much better choice than slumming around with Locke – very teasingly, as is his way – and she pretty much shoots him down cold. Terra throws her for a bit of a loop – she asks if people like them can love (a part of her OWN character arc) and Celes thinks she’s mocking her. All of them get a massive cold shoulder from her. Locke’s pretty much the only person she’s not dismissing outright, and that could very well be just because he saved her against her own fatalistic insistence that it would be too dangerous for him.
She doesn’t need anyone.
She’s the perfect imperial.
She’s helping them because the Empire needs to be taken down.
But she starts to crack over time.
And she asks Locke why he keeps hanging around. Quite a few times, given the amount of dialogue in this game.
Leading up to the Opera House, we see her starting to piece together Locke’s issues at the same time we the audience are.
——-
Jidoor and The Opera House:
——-
All in all, this stretch is pretty pivotal for them as characters and for their interpersonal relationship, regardless of whether or not you ship them.
When we discover that Celes looks like Maria, Locke and Celes together plan that they could use Setzer’s airship to get over to Imperial Continent from the sky, and try to set up a meeting.
When they meet the Chief/Impressario, Celes speaks in the feminine for the first time (Japanese) in the game, more casually, which is kind of a big marker that she’s becoming accustomed to NOT just being The General. We’re finally seeing Celes the woman, Celes the person.
Turns out it’s not just us though. ;)
As Locke starts spinning his plan, he never mentions Celes until the very end, but watching her sprite, you can tell that she’s figuring out his idea more quickly than the Chief does, she’s clearly accustomed to how he thinks.
She’s not sure she can do something as frivolous as sing in a role, but Locke has faith in her. He also makes an aside when she’s locked herself in the dressing room about how impressed he is by her.
And then. And then he sees her in the dress.
His sprite actually turns cherry red, which I think is the cutest thing in the world, as he asks if she’s always been this beautiful. What’s notable is that the original phrasing is more like he’s confirming something that’s always been true, rather than asking a question, and it’s said almost like he means it to only be in his head, but he slipped and said it out loud. (Gooo Japanese!)
When asked why he saved her, Locke tells her that he lost the girl he loved by not doing a thing, and he wants to keep that from ever happening again. He’s admitting the protecting for atonement, which is actually a pretty important thing to make note of.
(He dodges whether or not she’s a substitute when she asks him flat out, which is the kind of thing that makes us groan, but also adds some conflict to try and keep things interesting, I suppose.)
So, WHY this scene is important:
It’s essentially a turning point for them, when they really start to shift from two people working together to two people who are comrades/teammates/getting closer. We see the two of them functioning as a team fairly seamlessly, Celes is acting more casual for the first time, and Locke is for the first time seeing Celes the person, rather than Celes the-figure-who-is-a-woman-that-he-can-protect-for-his-own-guilt. Celes does something that isn’t militant, and just might actually be enjoying it. Locke sees Celes for herself, and um wow yeah she’s pretty and he might just be realizing that he’s starting to like her just a bit.
And then the game culminates all these lovely moments and realizations by slapping a giant love aria on top of it, that Locke continues to watch from offstage, and Locke steps in to take Celes’ hand when the two leads have been taken out by Ultros.
Once they’ve slipped aboard Setzer’s ship, Celes is speaking DRASTICALLY differently. Her formality has been dialed down quite a bit, and she’s all around speaking more naturally and feminine – far less stilted and removed. Locke tells her she was wonderful, and she jibes him like he’s teasing her. It’s like night and day, really. She’s not as relaxed as him (J!Locke’s a pretty cool cat, all told, most of the time), perhaps, but she’s markedly different, and they’re both more comfortable with one another.
Setzer tries to take her as his woman (Not wife, woman. He literally says “onna.”) and while Locke gets defensive about HIS attitude toward Celes, he also lets her do her own thing once he makes sure she’s okay with what she’s suggesting. He’s supporting her decision, though he clearly doesn’t want Setzer anywhere near her… but at the end of the day, he’s trusting her to know what she’s doing.
do you ever see somebody say something about a character and you just want to stick your upper half through the computer, grab their face and whisper,
“no
you
completely
missed
the point
of that character”
and then slowly slide back into the computer while staring at them
I saw the phrase “man-bun” and was rolling my eyes over hairstyles not being gender specific and BAM suddenly I had Locke in a half-tail because akjgaldfjghadfh I love them?
Happy belated birthday, Katy!!
Awhile ago, you mentioned wanting to see Celes and Locke in zoot suits. So, I pulled out Illustrator for a clean, minimalistic Wicked-inspired pic! They’re so gangster here. （＾ｖ＾）
(sorry this is late alkdjfsa)
akldghajkfgbasdjkfgadjkfgag
/SCREAMING
OH MY GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWD
kajkfgaksjljksfgalksdjghakldfjghalkghalkghag
ERIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN
I CANNOT
I JUST
AIGHADFKLGHA
THANK YOU
THE BLACK AND THE WHITE AND THE CONTRAST AND I JUST LOVE IT
SO MUCH LOVE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY DARLING MOLLYBOO! ♥
OTP soulsisters for liiiiiiiiife~
Day reblog~ Happy Birthday, hon~!!
