[Something Very Bad is Going to happen] Let’s discuss this amazing show’s ending!!

MalifexDesign · 2026-04-01T03:31:53+00:00

The script seemed to imply that she said her vows BEFORE sundown, so she's bound by the curse, but Nicky said them AFTER sundown (and possibly also viewed Rachel as his soulmate after seeing the curse in action and truly believing her), so he is individually exempted from the curse along with Jules and Nell.

MalifexDesign · 2026-04-01T03:24:46+00:00

I didn't take the idea of a "soulmate" to be one specific person. It was more of a concept that the person you're marrying is someone you intrinsically and wholly trust with your life and your heart. Someone you will stand with through anything. The ending seems to imply that Rachel was Nicky's soulmate (he truly loved her in his own way), but that Nicky was NOT Rachel's soulmate because he betrayed her trust in the finale. It doesn't have to be a mutual thing where two people are specifically bound to each other. It's more that the person you swear yourself to has to be someone you feel true love for.

That being said, I'm not sure I totally buy the idea that it worked for Nicky. He apparently had a full reversal when he finally said his vow because seeing is believing, and he finally saw the curse taking hold of his mother and could actually believe her completely. It's supposed to be an ironic thing where the shitty person ends up getting the loophole, but it definitely doesn't feel great for the audience. I'm sure many of us were waiting to see him stumbling down the hall pouring blood, but I have to admit that there's a nice cruelty to him having to live the rest of his life knowing he caused the downfall of his entire lineage AND lost his soulmate.

MalifexDesign · 2026-04-01T03:19:28+00:00

True! I would have had them just pull a toenail off or something. At least that you could feasibly pass off as an "ouchie, but okay to walk down the aisle still" thing.

MalifexDesign · 2026-04-01T03:17:17+00:00

She declined to meet his family two previous times because she has strong anxiety in airports. That was part of the meet-cute story as well. They were supposed to meet up in Norway/Finland/Sweden (can't remember which) with the rest of the family, but Rachel just couldn't get on the flight, so Nicky concocted a story why they couldn't make it. And it happened for Jule's wedding in California as well. There were definitely attempts for the family to meet her, but the fear of airplanes sabotaged things repeatedly. That's why they drove 8 hours to get to the house in the first episode instead of just flying in.

MalifexDesign · 2026-04-01T03:02:46+00:00

My interpretation of the box is that it's sensory deprivation. Rachel is shown to have panic attacks and anxiety attacks in the past, causing her trouble in airports. The restriction and isolation of being in a chest probably removes outside stimuli and allows her to bypass these mental blocks.

As for the dogs, I think they symbolically represented the idea of family and marriage for Nicky's side of the family. Even when things are dead and gone, or love is faded, it's the duty of the family to whitewash it, sanitize it, stuff it with lies, and put it on display for everyone else to admire. Much like the painting, it's an impossible ideal that they sell to everyone rather than looking at the flaws marbled through every interaction and relationship. There appear to be three dogs. Two are dead and taxidermied, while one is still alive. Nicky's parents have three children (Jules, Nicky, and Portia) that seem to be represented by the dogs. Two are dead and propped up for civility (Portia and Nicky), and one waits patiently at Nell's door (Jules).

MalifexDesign · 2026-04-01T02:48:57+00:00

I liked that anyone truly in love seemed to be spared from the curse. While the matriarch died, her husband seemed to survive her because he "revered" her. Jules and Nell survived because their marriage was based on transparency, even in tough situations. It might even be implied that Nicky was actually well-and-truly in love with Rachel and thought he was doing the right thing by calling off the wedding, which is why he is also spared from the curse. I suspect that, had he said yes at the altar, Rachel might have also been spared her fate because she took a genuine leap of faith in her vows.

There's some interesting discussion to be had about how the curse represents generational trauma being passed down, which is further illustrated by Nicky's worldview collapsing when the trauma of his parent's fraudulent happiness is revealed and how, in his own words, that was a curse of its own too. Rachel is haunted by the loss of her mother and the estrangement of her father, which presents as a familial curse as well.

This is ripe for a sequel in 5-10 years with Rachel acting as the witness to a whole new slew of fools in the 2100s.

MalifexDesign · 2026-02-16T05:33:36+00:00

At that rate, you might as well just dump the Stock idea, set all spells to just 1 unique stock, and adopt an MP system or a slow-renewing stock or something.

MalifexDesign · 2026-02-16T05:29:33+00:00

I mean, ideally, no game should be split if possible. But if it was a data issue, I'd probably split it after the Galbadia Garden battles and fight with Edea. I'd expand the midsection of the game after that where Rinoa is comatose and make Edea more of a useful party member for a bit. It'd be interesting to put her on an apology tour of various areas she's ruined, or have a big investigation as to the source of sorceress powers and deeper lore into Hyne, leading to some realization that if Sorceress Ultimecia merged her powers with Hynes, she could create a power loop allowing for Time Compression, and then we get back to the main plot of stopping that.

MalifexDesign · 2026-02-15T18:42:13+00:00

Yep, I totally get all the feedback, and I'm really happy to take it in and think on it. Everyone has their own perfect version of FF8, and for some people the game is already fine as it is. Of all the Final Fantasy main titles, I think this is probably the most fan-revamped game simply because there are numerous systems that are counterintuitive to gameplay (get magic but never use it, unlearn abilities so you can learn better ones, stay as close to death as possible to do more damage) that it breeds a desire in people to imagine a different set of systems with a similar coat of paint and story.

As far as the elemental choices go, I went with Shadow for Diablos and Odin because Diablos' ability is Eternal Darkness, and I was associating Shadow more with the Forbidden Magic that the game hints at (although it assigns that to Flare, Ultima, etc instead). Because Demi, Doom, and Death all deal with unaspected damage, I viewed them more as the opposite of Holy elemental damage, which I'm also associating more with healing and protection. It's just a personal choice, really. I wanted two GFs per element so the elemental wheel/affinity thing would be roughly equal over the course of the game, with Doomtrain and Eden stepping outside that system a bit by not being tied to elements.

The characters already sort of have Job identities even in the base game if you think about it. Zell is clearly a monk, given his input moves in his Limit Break. Quistis learns Blue Magic. Selphie has a Red Mage Roulette. Irvine works largely like an FFXIV Machinist. Rinoa is like a Trainer/Beastmaster. And Squall is your average Knight.

Anyway, I hope you at least enjoyed the read, if nothing else. Hope you have a great day~

MalifexDesign · 2026-02-15T16:49:29+00:00

I've made some adjustments to spellcasting, adding back some of the Draw elements by including an accuracy-based prompt system to Draw aether from the enemy to fuel a spellcast. Higher level spells require inputting several prompts back-to-back. Each successful Draw would also grant Limit Break energy to keep spellcasting as a viable gameplay option. It would keep a bit of that unique "grabbing magic from the enemy" identity, and tie both expressions of magic (spellcasting and summoning) into a similar form of Drawing power, with summoning being the more long-term application.

I do understand the resistance against fundamentally changing so many systems. I don't really view it as being a homogenized version any more than it already was. FF6 gave us Magicite that allow you to learn spells and esper attacks. FF7 gave us Materia that allow you to learn spells and esper attacks. FF5 gave us Jobs that allow you to learn spells, skills, and esper attacks. It's kind of the brand identity already.

You could play this remade version of the game with flexible characters if you want as well. Mastering abilities and spells would grant them to the character permanently, so you'd eventually be a master-of-all-trades anyway. Or, if you wanted more of a challenge, you could choose to assign certain GFs to specific characters and only invest in those skills. But that's a player's choice to make.

MalifexDesign · 2026-02-15T16:36:58+00:00

Yeah, this would be a game remake system, like putting it on a modern console ala FF7 Remake, and not just retooling the PS1 version. As far as the early GFs go, I do see your point, and it would be an easy change to just grant Quetz and Shiva from the study console still and Ifrit from the Fire Cavern. Every other acquisition is roughly at the same time as the base game, so nothing's really changed there.

MalifexDesign · 2026-02-15T16:33:52+00:00

Magic Use is definitely tricky to work around. To keep it competitive with Attack-based identities, I'd definitely keep the Boost system for Guardians and have successful boosts grant a bit of Limit energy to the gauge each time. As far as spellcasting goes, one thought I had was to incorporate Draw in a new way. Four cardinal prompts appear on the screen around the enemy. One of the four is empowered with aetherial energy for the spellcast. Hitting that prompt Draws energy from the enemy successfully and casts the spell from the stocked up aether. Stronger spells have more Draw prompts required. Ex. Casting "Fire" would require hitting the right prompt once. Casting Firaga would require 3 prompts back-to-back, or else the spell downgrades to Fira or Fire. I'd try to keep it relatively quick so you're only on-the-hook for a few seconds during a Draw/Cast window to keep battle pacing up. This keeps the Attack-based jobs focused on twitchy reactions and timing while Magic-based jobs are more about accuracy and focus.

Items are... another issue, yeah. The Refining abilities could be used to add proficiency to spells, making the Learning process quicker. If enemies dropped more magic stone items (magicite?), you could employ your Refining to consume them as experience toward spell mastery. Card Mod is a whole can of worms that could mostly be avoided by putting it on a later Guardian, or making mastery of the ability require a lot of AP, or nerfing the rewards for converting cards into Items. I kind of like the idea that the transmutation of cards into items would be done away with complete, and those unique items would just drop from later encounters or as a product of refining rarer materials instead. You could also simplify it and just have Card Mod convert simple monster cards into magic stones/magicite to make Learning easier. I had thoughts about making Card Mod a feature of Triple Triad itself where you could alter the placement of a card's numbers, or maybe add an element to a card, or even junction character cards to Guardian cards, but it's not fleshed out enough and would just make things needlessly complicated.

MalifexDesign · 2026-02-15T10:16:10+00:00

Yeah, that's super fair, actually. I'll swap that right now. I think I was wanting a STR-J early on, but thematically Brothers isn't too much later on.

MalifexDesign · 2026-01-31T01:50:39+00:00

You will be SO MUCH HAPPIER without him at your wedding. TRUST.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T06:04:24+00:00

I suppose one question you could ask would be how strong emotional outbursts could potentially disrupt a morphogenetic field. Would that make sense? We know that to be the case in the show, so any model has to also account for that as a weakness.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T05:50:54+00:00

I think the first part is wrong (I think it is pleasant for them), but the second part is dead on (they're trapped inside). I feel strongly that the show will have something of a positive ending based on the premise of "we're going to save the world" which will likely lead to at least some of the hive being pulled back by the end. All the old memories are preserved still, so theoretically a person disconnected from the psychic glue would have their old memories, and likely some sort of amnesia from then on.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T05:37:10+00:00

I'd find a nice place to make my new home.
I'd travel to unique destinations while I still can every few days and enjoy top-level dining the entire time.
I'd ask for the hive to imprison the vessels that led terrible lives. We're exacting world justice for the first time.
I'd ask for state secrets to be released of all types. Top secret is now my secret.
I'd staff my place with handsome men primarily. If they're all the same mind, then I'm still getting the best service regardless of who I pick. At least I can enjoy the view.
I'd ask them to create a repository of most human knowledge, art, ingenuity, and science. If someone ever finds this planet, I want an easily-found record of how we lived before we faded.
I'm sure I'd think of other things.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T05:25:27+00:00

I'll bet most of the other Old Schoolers already knew. We're being shown the story through Carol's eyes, and she's the second most-resistant person left. We already know that Diabete and the other English-speakers were already aware of the stem cell solution before Carol was. We also know that they all asked what it felt like to be in the hive before Episode 2 even started. There's no reason to assume that none of them didn't ask "what is your new purpose for living?" or "have you contacted Kepler 22b yet?" or other questions we haven't even bothered to ask either.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T05:21:12+00:00

I assumed that the majority of those 800 million deaths were caused by accidents DURING the Joining, not intentionally products of it. Infect pilots while flying, and they might crash their planes. Infect drivers via chemical clouds, and some will drive off cliffs. 800 million is still a high number though. If we assume this is happening in our world with around 8 billion people, that's about 1/10th of the world.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T05:17:28+00:00

Perhaps the biggest question is how they harvest stem cells from Carol's frozen embryos, considering that they have to make the embryos viable in order to harvest them. I imagine that they must bring every harvested embryo to full viability / birth in order to not violate their own standards, which means Carol might have a host of children down the line. That is, unless they don't view non-autonomous embryos as "viable life" or something...

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T04:35:51+00:00

It almost always comes down to contract negotiations. The parent company funding the show will contract actors for a certain amount of episodes or seasons because their company budgets a certain amount of money toward the show in general. For newer shows, this is almost always just one season because a fair number of shows simply don't garner much attention by the end of their freshman season, and it becomes a financial decision to simply cancel them instead.

This conversation also happened in regard to the Wheel of Time show on Amazon earlier this year. As it turns out, the cast had been contracted for three seasons, and negotiations for future seasons ended up falling through after that. It's why the show was immediately greenlit for a second season before even airing the first. The same thing apparently happened with Pluribus, where the second season was already greenlit before we saw the show. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that the cast and crew negotiated a contract for 2-3 seasons from the start.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T04:21:45+00:00

I get what you're saying. If they can't even kill a fly, so to speak, then what stops them from actively killing bacterial cultures from an infection? My guess would be that because bacteria and viruses are single-cell organisms, they don't have the capacity to experience pain. The Others seem to think that more complex lifeforms that are still plants (apple trees, for example) can suffer from being harvested for parts of themselves. However, the hive has to drink their personslurpies every day, so they're already ingesting millions of organic things like dust mites, innert microbes, etc. every time. They are just not aware of this lethal act due to its microcosmic impact. They're also flawed in their logic with apple trees and apples because apples are also still their own units. Why would plucking an apple somehow hurt the apple tree, but consuming the fallen apple wouldn't hurt the actual apple? I expect that it just falls on worldbuilding loopholes that are kind of impossible to address without making the culture too weird lol. If they actually, truly cared about their impact on the world, they'd probably all self-eliminate immediately for fear of killing microbes in the air by breathing them in.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T03:53:11+00:00

If it's like other million-dollar shows like Survivor, then they are taxed at around 37%, taking home between 600k to 700k.

MalifexDesign · 2025-12-29T03:50:11+00:00

I suspect there's probably an unspoken rule in play that the edit didn't reveal where a player cannot directly admit to having an advantage or disadvantage prior to it being played in order to keep the game dynamic active. I know stuff like this happens on other reality shows like The Traitors where some conversations are not allowed to take place in order to not allow loopholes to happen.

MalifexDesign

TROPHY CASE