Episode 4: The Starting Weapon

Luther is in his room of screens gloating that he knows whatever Xion’s current plan is. He talks to a voice that will ‘continue to watch’ what happened because someone discovered the grave marker.

Meanwhile, Afin still can’t find Ash or Matoi and is freezing out there. However, Ash steps out of nowhere carrying Matoi who is still knocked out because Maria hit her. Ash lies as soon as Matoi wakes up, that she simply fainted in the cold on top of the mountain. Because her mental state wasn’t the greatest anyway, she believes it and claims to not remember anything.

However, this dialogue causes him to have a flashback to his Maria conversation, which was that he accuses her of “The ARKS ignoring DF for 40 years and doing and saying nothing about it, but that she’ll just blurt it out right here”. She’s kind of ‘so what’ to it, but then he baits her (that’s pretty brave) with ‘but he could tell anyone & everyone’ so she wisely counters with ‘well what kind of a life as ARKS do you want to live?’ This is actually pretty wise because it calls upon his conscience on when or if to release the information and what it would do.

Ash says we have orders to return when Matoi feels better. Afin gets too cold because he has no winter gear, so Ash goes the opposite way when he thinks he sees something. He does, it’s invisible Quna on top of a rock, who claims to be ‘cloaking’. She ‘no comments'-off all his questions and asks him about rampaging dragons. He’s heard rumors that they eat ARKS but he never saw one. She then teleports away after telling him to forget everything.

She’s far less aggressive here than she is in the games. She never threatens to murder him, holds him at knife point, nor creeps up behind him specifically to hold him hostage.

Ash returns to the warmer area/normal forest to find Afin & Matoi waiting, and Afin asks if Ash feels any lighter & that he should talk to a doctor. Why? The camp ship returns to the main one.

Frankas' food is on display!
They go to Franka’s Café (This does not fit in the timeline with the game, HOWEVER it also does not matter because the café is not time relevant. It did not exist in the game at this point, because it, and ‘gathering/fishing’ was a feature added much later. But, since the café has no plot significance anywhere it doesn’t matter when or where it is) and have a look at the menu and the pastry rack. The animation for the food makes it look quite nice.

The waitress forgets Afin’s fish dish.
All of the foods they get ARE from the gathering/fishing recipes in the game. It’s literally the stuff you make, which is a really nice touch. Matoi claims to not want to eat. (It is presumed that she has no money and thus lies about not being hungry) A Quna concert comes on the TVs (because of course it does) and everyone is a fan (because of course they are) Ash has forgotten who she is, but feels she’s familiar. Afin says anyone not knowing her lives in a cave, because she’s the poster-girl for all ARKS. The Waitress returns, and hears them talking ARKS stuff so she says that she wants to become an ARKS too, and Afin seems to like her/think she is cute.

She confesses to having lots of passion but no photon aptitude…and do you know Theodore? He should’ve been in your class…

And now we know that this is Ulc.
Ulc in the game was an NPC who basically just stood around wistfully on the shops-deck, so she would have been too boring to include that way, so putting her in the café as a waitress makes sense as a way to make everyone meet each other.

No one there knows him, but he’s her childhood friend who joined ARKS all on his own, so be sure to tell him Ulc’s gonna catch up to him in no time! Matoi thinks she’s lively, and Ash accuses Afin of liking her. They argue about it for a while on the way to their rooms.  Xion speaks only to Ash in the hallway, on the way to the rooms, and gives him a vision of the Starting Weapon on the Frozen Ground. He sees her further back in the hall, and she says that his and Matoi relationship will continue. She vanishes. Everyone then gets an alert for the tundra, but Ash tells Matoi to stay in her room. (She looks disappointed and sad, but really she does literally nothing on the battlefield so it’s actually better to do this but he’s rude about it to a degree.)

The battle is going on with Dagacha and Dagash, as well as dagans. But a Gu Wonda shows up with its big shield. This guy though seems appropriately sized, as do the fish. Gu Wondas are big, and they don’t make it like triple size so it makes enough sense.
 Gettem & Melphonseana are watching from some tall butte structure, and she wonders about helping them, (other ARKS are there too, but more and more darkers spawn) but he says it’s better to let weaklings die sooner than later. However, something else will happen so he leaves, which makes her follow along without knowing what it is.

It is that he has spotted a new guy. It’s some newman dressed just like Klotho, even with the pretty much same colors & space cowboy hat with his twin mechs.
This guy is great at what he does, which is shooting away all the darkers. He’s spinning and blasting everywhere. His name is Takura, and it's clear they're making him own the battlefield. But why did his presence get Gettem to leave? Was he staying purely to watch people die, but now they won't because Takura is here, or is it to imply Gettem may have thought about helping, but now that Takura is here, he knows he won't? However, a force in a tall hat and the usual starter-robe is asking for help. It’s Theodore. He creates big fire and technic explosions if he gets frightened enough. However, this is wrong, because Theodore favors the ice set of technics & it’s actually kind of important that he does.

Takura feels that Theodore is some kind of prodigy that’s rare. In the game, you’d encounter Theodore a lot, and all he’d be doing is running away from things and complaining about getting yelled at by others for not doing the job he signed up for. He didn’t even fight for a long time…like at all if his dialogues were to be believed. This encounter is more like the ‘later on in time’ Theodore where Ulc had wheedled him into putting in more effort because she could not (use photons) So he makes sense…but not 100% of it with how the game was, but it oughtn’t to break anything.

A red crack appears in the…sky and the rampaging dragon jumps out. It does the ‘darker vac’ move from the game but the ‘chest cavity’ is already full so…why? This may just be an animation botch of some sort where they had the 'chest cavity glow' art for it, and nothing else--but it's likely to come back and bite on them later plot-wise. Remember: the darker-vac powers it up to do a huge attack, which then powers it back down again so it can repeat the cycle in the game.
Takura is amazed that it really exists, and stares at it while it eats up all the darkers that had been menacing them, and then………it eats him. He’s one bite and gone. Theodore looks dully on, and Ash sweats about it, but it leaps over them and vanishes into a portal after pausing to look at everyone for a bit. Theodore stares at the stain and guns left behind. Quna, has of course watched all of it and then vanished.

Theodore picks up a gun, and marvels at what little it takes to kill people out here, which Afin is greatly offended by. Theodore explains that he hates fighting and wars, and now there’s not even a body to be able to reconcile the demise of Takura. Ash surmises Ulc got him to do it, was excited to join ARKS…but Theodore isn’t happy, because what if she ends up like Takura…they think he should tell her in person, and goes toward his camp ship to do just that. Afin needs to shut up because Theodore is probably suffering 'shell shock' or whatever pstd that they can get in space, and really Afin should know about it because they watched their whole class die.

Matoi is in her room and Xion almost appears to her.

Now that everyone’s gone, Ash notices the cave in the vision that Xion had given him. In the cave, Afin doubts the entire situation, but Ash presses onward to find a floating aqua glowing crystal. It turns into the Clarissa Rod when he gets close. He remembers Xion’s words and takes it. But, Quna is once again watching. Luther says to let them go free. (So, Quna is in league with Luther because remember she’s a double agent all the time) Gettemhult  gets a mystery letter in his comm about ‘infinite power’. He jumps off his butte area to investigate.

They bring the rod to Matoi’s room to show her. Ash claims the rod is related to the two of them, which frightens Matoi a bit. When she goes to touch it, it floats and glows. She has bad memories, then collapses. (persona is there/fire/etc) A weapon seller in the shops area says its very old, and def. a weapon. Antiques are out of his league, but Jig on Themis 128 would know. (It’s Zeig / Zig the CAST who is black/red & runs the really rare items shop in the lobby)

ROGIO
Rogio is now confirmed to be written out of the story. His whole deal was about finding the pieces, doing Naberius research, and eventually being targeted for knowing too much. He’s eventually forced to hide in the Lilipa Mines with help from Fourier. Without pieces, and if they’re not using his ‘research’ for exposition, this is the point that confirms this character won’t ever appear in the anime.
What about Fourier though? She gets somewhat palsy with Lisa later on (both RA) and is a bit of a key to the Lilipans so leaving her out is harder than for him.

In a rusty area, someone’s throwing parts at two guys who wanted work.
He threatens to beat them up, and they scram, agitated that “now he’s old and retired he’s a crazy old man.” This is indeed Jig/Zeig. (His shop is labeled too--while nothing in the game was. This probably confirms his name IS in fact, Jig, not Zeig or Zig as it has been translated previously.) Ash & Afin go in, and he thinks it’s the return of the other two guys and starts to yell but…Ash changes his mind by pulling out the Clarissa Rod.

In the game, Zeig was indeed cranky at the start.
He was tired of everything and all weapons were boring to him. You had to keep bringing him rod pieces to advance the story so that he would figure out what it is. Zeig looks GREAT here. They got every single detail on him, the proportions are good, all his glows are good, he’s really excellently done and interesting to look at. They even have the lettering across his chest that’s quite busy with detail. He looks animated but it’s highly likely he’s some sort of CG construct because it’d be too hard for traditional animation to make him. This streamlining of him/meeting him & having him with the Clarissa Rod in-hand works just fine for the anime plot. It won’t ruin anything.

Zeig’s never seen anything like it. But, In order to learn the truth it must be repaired. He’ll do it.

Ulc is an Arks now!
She flags down Ash & Afin, because she's on the Themis too. Her training course is on the Themis. They CG her for getting into ARKS, and she asks about Theodore. Ash and Afin lie, and say Theo is fine. He is not fine. He witnessed an awful death and was staring off into space about it and being generally deadpan about everything.  She’ll do her best, because it brings peace to the universe. Everyone’s thought about it at least once…and even though she doesn’t have aptitude, she’ll make up for it with her passion and efforts because she will be the one to define her own future. This last bit really resonates with Ash.

Ash lays in his bed, thinking about what Ulc said about defining her own future, and Jig finally being excited about something again, as well as what Maria said about how he wants to live as ARKS. But an emergency blares about Falspawn on 128 Themis.

As we know, this is Luther’s attempt to rob Zieg’s shop, just as it happened in the game.

Whoever is doing the changes is generally really smart about it.
There’s a lot of stuff that’s good for a game but bad for a show. Eliminating it and changing things is especially difficult when time travel shenanigans are involved like they are here. Time travel is just about the worst thing you can write for, in terms of difficulty because plot holes open up way too easily and tons of problems that can ruin everything or make ‘nothing make sense’ are just too easy to do. They didn’t have an easy job having to pussyfoot around to not ruin characters or eliminate people by accident or create situations that could never have happened.

This picks up right where the last left off, with darkers stomping around the Themis. And now, the Dagans are even bigger than before! Maybe 15 or more feet tall and just as wide! They’re just getting them silly-huge at this point and it’s rather ridiculous. Ordinary citizens aren’t able to fight them off so they kill people by stomping. Ash, Afin & others on a camp ship fly to the Themis while wondering how this happened.

Casra, in his control room wonders too. Because 10 years ago, we didn’t have darker blocker technology so how’d they get in so easily? He also wonders why, and can’t figure it out…because he lacks the knowledge of Ash & Affin at this point.

Luther is in his chair gloating at Xion (who can’t hear him) that ‘everything happens for a reason’ and can she hear everyone crying out as they all die and are cut down randomly. Then, he decides that the reason everything happens is him.

Zig is in his shop and refuses to evacuate because he’s nearly done.

Ash & Afin battle the dagans while Lisa is very happy to shoot them from her roof top sniping spot. (Because nothing thought to spawn up high) Here you can get a good look at Lisa when she’s fairly still for a while, and to see that they did the right thing and she has the very obviously ball-jointed-to-the-pelvis thigh-tops. Nice move! They’re treating the androids very well and keeping them mechanical where other shows wouldn’t “Because ball joint leg tops aren’t pretty and all female must always be pretty at all times or else”. None of that here, very authentic to the game.

Suddenly though, several are defeated at once, and Huey drops in! This time, you do actually see him hopping down from the 20 story rooftop to startle Ash & Affin. Huey is a little more normal looking here than he is in the game. He’s a degree or two slimmer, and his eyes are more of a regular color. They DO have his personality working properly, as he is boasting, yelling out his encouragement, and all the usual Huey stuff. He yells at Claris for accidentally flinging a dagan at them from afar (though he does catch it 1-handed) and this one is somehow a more properly sized one so…..maybe Dagans in the show come in 3 or 4 sizes…? She says that ‘Clarissa’ says it’s a big deal, what’s going on, and to defeat as many darkers as possible. Remember: the rod she has isn’t the real one, and it does talk to her. However, it’s Xion, pretending to be the rod. So, this dialogue here is good with the game. However, why neither Ash nor Affin get surprised about her rod because it's a pallet swap on the one they just handed off to Jig is a mystery. Huey says she’s putting the cart before the horse, which startles her into thinking about things a bit, only to come to the conclusion that she doesn’t know what that means…and…Huey doesn’t either.

This is an actual good and funny / fun interaction with them. Huey is less psycho than the game, and Claris is less rage filled by far. They’re really making the characters more like-able here for whatever reason--normally one would think that would always be good, but there WERE reasons the characters shouldn't be likeable right away...

Out of all the insect style darkers, there is a single bird…and Gettemhart has a bead on it. He & Melphonsia are jumping rooftops after the single different darker type. Melphonseana says that the rescue op isn’t that way, but he tells her to shut up and keep going, and….they make her look surprised/dismayed. She shouldn’t be. Gettemhart is finally like the game here, he’s mean & she’s sad about it…but in the game she’s way more abused and wouldn’t be shocked—actually she wouldn’t have said anything to him so this is OOC for her twice.

Matoi tries to escape her ship to go down, but is stopped by a nurse who asks her instead to help with the wounded. It's clear the nurse sees that she'll run off somehow anyway, if she's not put to good use. She does, but an injured man dies anyway, as he claims he can hear Quna singing. She sees another person (that isn’t Ash) but she thinks it is, and gets upset.

Well I guess resta doesn’t exist here. Neither do any of the mates?
You can easily see plot-wise why Moon Atomizers would have to be written out of the whole deal, but why leave out techs? Mates even? It starts to lose a little sense of the game or even abilities without resta in there. Just explain it that resta works on minor stuff or something, or have everyone's not be 'that strong yet', or something. There's also nothing wrong with 'med bay fixes everyone', because it's not like that would take away "The Stakes" at this point because too much stuff is insta-kill anyway, you wouldn't have to worry about The Stakes.

Afin is relieved he’s ok, but he never saw Persona being there. From above, another person calls down, and this time Zeno & Ulc are by a tank on a bridge. Zeno asks for backup, and they agree. Inside the tank on the way, the 3 will talk.

Meanwhile in the medical area, Matoi hides behind a box. A nurse says to keep hydrated and sits with her. They drink juice boxes as Matoi frets that the person wasn’t Ash…but she felt relieved that it wasn’t him that died so of course she is guilty because what if they had a family? The nurse explains that the people know that fighting to protect could mean that they die, and so they fight anyway/know what they are in for. Matoi is thoughtful about ‘protecting everyone’. As she should be, that was her original role before she got memory loss.

In the tank, they talk about the bird Gettem was chasing. No one has seen an odd one like that, so of course Gettem will chase it. Afin feels he’s a meathead, but Zeno used to look up to him, aspired to be like him. He has a flashback where he’s in the correct outfit for the time / so is Gettem. He was the best with the fist weapon, and wild, but reliable and him+Melphonseana were a great team…up until 10 years ago.

Ash asks about the time, and Zeno is dismayed, but they arrive so let’s go rookies, he says.

Gettem yells at Melphonseana as having no say in what he does as they both go after the bird still.

Suddenly, the tank is rolled over!
Ulc climbs out, and loses her hat. She feels it’s bad luck getting knocked over on her first mission.

Zeig is almost done with the weapon.
But his shop is attacked.

Suddenly, all the darkers despawn around Ash and Affin. Everyone is surprised, even Casra in his control room. Ash has a bad feeling about it, but Afin thinks Zeig’s is around here, so let’s go see if he’s ok. Ash doesn’t want to touch the door, and so summons his sword before he does. Zieg has been cut in half at the waist. They hold up his torso as he says an ARKS has grabbed the weapon, but he doesn't know who it was. (Very likely to be Persona)

People are dead on the decks, as Zeig’s parts are carried away.
A transmission comes that all darkers are gone, so patrol the areas instead. They find Theodore, who pops out from behind rubble and scares them while looking for survivors. Theodore says it’s scary here, what if they come back? Ash feels it’s better luck looking as 3, so join us. Everything’s a wreck, but they see a fire on a tank/armor vehicle. Ash looks in and says don’t come, but there’s an ID card on the ground and it’s Ulc’s.

Theodore collapses as he figures out who it could be in the flames.
It is, in fact, her and she has died here just like in the game.

This is probably as close to the game as they can get it.
Jig's shop attack succeding was the trigger that stopped all the darkers. The Searching Darkers probably spawned on the ship, and led Persona to the shop. In the game, Jig isn't explicitly cut in half, he just laments the shop was destroyed and they got away with the weapon. So, this is more an elaboration on it than anything else. In the game, you only learn that Ulc dies, here, they see that she did / again it's fine and doesn't ruin anything.

Now here comes the first real big Time Travel Point.
It is, of course, to do something that makes Ulc NOT die here where she did.
Luther KNOWS he can corrupt Theodore into helping him if Ulc dies, so it is Luther who makes SURE she does here.
Xion though, knows for sure it's Ulc that can lead the ship, so she'll have to send Ash to do 'the thing' to make her live

Missing Stuff Rundown!
1. The "Search for Weapon Pieces" was pretty much the main goal in the game up to now:
But it took place on both Amduscia & Lillipa, which is were you had Fourier/Rogio Lilipa, and Aki/Light Amduscia.
2. Lilipa etc. isn't as important as Amduscia, because meeting the dragonkin *especially* of the skyland area IS important later to the main plot/not just the 'find the x' that they would require to eliminate for the show.
3. Meeting Idol Quna
This was in here to a degree, so you could see the 2 faces of her before she puts them together / your char realizes that she's masquerading as an idol. It can't be known if it's important to keep or lose this bit.

The game used a similar title for one of its chapters as well. The show is in the good habit of picking up right where the last episode left off, so Theodore is still devastated about Ulc / Ulku / Uruku whatever name they’re going to call her because again, no original Japanese letters to spell out her name so it’s more of ‘anybody’s guess’ what they were meaning to do. (Why do they keep naming people things they literally can't spell? Why do this? English names don't put that snap/tick sound in from some of the African languages and then butcher it up when there's no snap/tick letter and literally no one can say the snap tick....so what are they doing here? Over and over too, it's not like 1 character or something just name the people something you can say and also spell--it's not like ULK is some certain word like "LAMP" that they needed either, it's a made up exotic word name and could've been anything. /rant )
Ash asks Afin to go with Theodore back up to the ship, but he’s got something else he needs to do…because he knows that only he can see Xion standing atop a rubble pile. This is actually a bit of an interesting development you're probably meant to notice. That Ash has realized only HE can see her, and also, that he hasn't bothered to talk to anyone about it. They’ve got her ‘she’s made of water/blue goo’ with rubber ‘skin’ shell over it doing well here in the animation. Of course, once they’re gone, he climbs the rubble to her.

He doesn’t seem particularly happy to see her, and she is her usual vague-on-purpose self. She says she / we have a wish, for every ripple he makes sheds light on the hidden truth. You & Lost Memory Girl will descend to Naverius, the pillar of misfortune and the vessel will be offered as it should. She waves a hand at him, causing a flashback, and with that, vanishes.

Matoi who is in the impromptu medical area gets a call, she’s glad to see Ash is ok, but where’s Afin? He glosses the issue over telling her he told him to do something. She’s so relieved to see that he’s ok, and asks him to come visit her on the Themis in bay 35. He’s shocked she’s there (probably worried)

Meanwhile, Zeno & Echo are back in their civilian style clothes, when they wave Ash over. He says he’s here to see Matoi, & Echo is glad to see he’s checking up on her…a fact that she uses to nettle Zeno with about ‘showing how you care’. When Ash goes to leave though, they want to come too. This is very Echo-like from the game, she nettles him FAR less in the show and is generally much more pleasant, but this very light jab is at least an effort to bring in her characterization from the game.

Once again, everybody’s nicer.
Echo & Zeno were constantly going at it with arguments in the game! She’d nag and badger him to no end, he’d make fun of her and wind her up for no reason…they were like harpies pecking and bickering every time you saw them, until their character-arcs progressed passed all the snapping and fighting they did.
Is this an error, or, is the show just trying to generic-ize and normal-ize all characters? If so, why? Why do EITHER one? Sure, they don’t have to be as nasty, but having them progress a little bit is impossible if they’re just bland like they are here. The Zeno events are pretty damn significant too, he ends up on the Council! He goes against Elder! Echo learns lessons as well and they become more normal. But not here, they’re already fairly well adjusted. (Remember, Zeno had all that Angst and was trying to NOT be a Ranger EVER because of his fail/with Gettem/Incident 10 years ago, so he was angsting out everywhere with this sword and not doing as well because he was denying his own class-tendencies where he’d of been better)

Now it’s time to deviate A LOT from the game.
Because here, Matoi is “mostly fine” right away so she could be a character in the show, the show needs to shake up the events to accommodate that, but still have the main plot points of the game to take place. This is that NEW event to mesh the “Matoi is fine right away” with the “Gettemhart gets somewhat possessed” part.

Matoi explains how she’s helping out, and Zeno’s relieved to see she’s well…but a camera watches them in the ceiling, then the ship begins to shake, and suddenly Gettem jumps through a wall (that he has punched down), and punches out Zeno!
He’s got the red-eye problem and uppercuts Echo so hard she flies across the whole hall and does not get up again. Matoi doubts him with a look from behind Ash, so, Gettemhult says she’s ‘the key he needs’. Ash does a feeble, stupid attack with no weapons (ship has weapon dampers but it’s not mentioned now, and also does not explain why Gettem still has his fists out) and misses him, so Gettem slams him down and nearly unconscious. Though he can’t rise, he sees Gettemhart grab Matoi by her shirt front and lift her up to take her away…which causes a…non-flash-back / scene where instead of Gettemhart, it’s Persona’s Coat Edge Purple Sword lifting her because he’s succeeded in stabbing her to death.

This gives him the strength to get up and yell him down, and Gettemhart says if he can man up & beat him, he’ll do it. So he throws Matoi across the hall, and punches Ash down because his attacks are stupid and feeble. Matoi, not being very smart either, just kind of sits there and doesn’t run, even though she knows she’s the source of all the trouble for her friends. She's not smart enough to try and get away to draw Gettemhult off and save her friends.
 He then…wow, punches Matoi in the head so hard it knocks her out, and carries her away. Interesting that they’d go there, having him sock a sitting-down girl in the face, most shows won’t have a brawler do that—but it’s fine because no one is immune to punching and contrivance is always unbecoming.  Voices in the hall reveal that people are on the way to investigate, so he leaves through the hole he came in from.

Gloomy Melphonseana, waits in an area with no gravity. It’s likely supposed to be the edge of a ship/there’s debris around and still air. (It gets revealed in game that the ARKS have the ability to create invisible hexagon-panel force fields in space to trap air on things that wouldn’t normally have any, such as those flying platforms used vs Profound Darkness & later on vs the Photoners—so this actually does make sense where they are.)
She’s shocked he’s actually come back with what he was looking for (Matoi), and says as much but he shoves her away into a wall as he hauls Matoi off to the ship. She’s gloomy about this too, but shrugs it off. (It is something he could do, he has more mass, esp. with Matoi attached to him--remember no friction is here.)

Someone is doing green energy for Ash.
It’s one of the nurses who entered the hall. Is this meant to represent resta? A Mate? Other nurses are shown with a small device shining green light for Zeno & Echo. They insist that nobody else is in the hall, and Ash explains Gettem got away with her. Zeno says he’s off the deep end, can we track her? The communicator’s cut off. Zeno says to take a wild guess, but Echo wants to know why he’d take her. They argue over what’s his goal. Ash guesses Naverius…Zeno doubts it, but everyone will rally to go there right away because they trust Ash. They run off through the hole he left.

This has attracted Casra’s attention.
He’s watching his video feeds as usual, but spies unusual Gettemhart creeping around through hallways activity. He sees the real Clarissa the White in the hands of Melphonseana, (Where she waits for him) but his access to more information is denied. The gang floats along in time to see a camp ship leaving, and it warps out. Echo’s communication with HQ is cut off. Casra calls Ash instead, demanding to know why an unauthorized ship would leave now.

He tells Casra of the abduction, Zeno commands him to hurry and let them go after him. Casra requests everyone to take over for him in the control room…he’s stepping away. Ash on the ship wonders what Xion really meant. Echo wonders why she can’t track anything, call HQ, or what Casra’s up to. She suspects hacking, because all that stuff is ARKS controlled.

The ship heads through the portal to Naverius, and everyone is in the snowy area. Melphonseana follows as Gettemhart drags Matoi along by the arm. He commands her to hand over the staff, and he throws Matoi to the ground along with it. He tells her to take it up, and keep walking. Instead of murdering him with it, she stares at the glowing light instead, and it reveals a path ahead that’s not snowy. Casra sees it, and calls in AIS regiment for help.

The Ash gang sees the cloak removed as well, revealing the giant tree/tower pink thing.
Gettem sees it and is amazed…but Melphonseana wants him to stop because something terrible could happen, so he chokes her and throws her for speaking up against him. He’s got the red eyes problem again, and glares down Matoi for yelling at the throw. Melphonseana then begs for forgiveness and gets up again. They have a ways to go before the tree.

This is more like how they always were in the game, their interactions would always be like this one, not the previous ones. Gettem would abuse her / hit / throw / yell and insult and she'd apologize about it.

Casra breams down!
He lands by the Ash gang, startling them. He says if we don’t hurry, we’ll be too late. But, nobody knows what his real plan is.

Meanwhile, Gettemhart has reached the obelisk.
The White Clarissa glows before it, as Melphonseana concentrates and Matoi frets. Casra’s grang then arrives, demanding he stop. Casra wants to know if he knows what he’s doing…and he does…which is to free Dark Falz and use his own power to overcome it!

This is spelled out better here than it was in the game.
His issue is that he’s so power hungry and corrupt that he was super easy to trick into releasing it, by Luther, convincing him that he could rule the Dark Falz that comes out. Echo thinks its insane, Casra knows if it gets out, they’re lost.

Zeno wisely says to not let him provoke him, so they both go to attack and he throws Matoi at Ash hard enough to knock him down. He blocks Zenos’ sword with his fist weapon, and Casra attacks with a rain of ice and explosions, which worries Melphonseana. But, Gettemhart is able to knock Casra out after he creates a grants that’s too bright and is able to rush him from behind this. It breaks his famous glasses and leaves his face bloody.

He makes Melphonseana go back to the rod work.
Someone is cancelling all of Casras orders in the HQ, and it’s likely Luther. He won’t let anyone stand in his way now. This does show Casra’s workers in HQ being shocked by the cancellations, but it’s not known whether they could override them, as Casra is supposed to be at the top of command. Remember: he called in an AIS unit which would have been able to simply stomp Gettem to death in 1 hit--had it been allowed to arrive.

In front of the Obelisk, Someone calls Gettemhart weak, too attached.
This causes a flashback to a different girl dying, who looks somewhat like Melphonseana, but this one is dressed as a Hunter and has longer green hair and no hat. It’s a memory of a better time, as Gettemhart lacks the face scar, and they both seem happy for a split second before she dies of something/an explosion of some sort in a vague background.

He can’t find the voice, and denies the voice, then tells it that he could win everything right now.
Turning to Melphonseana, he asks her if she still remembers her promise to do anything for him, she does, she will, so he commands her to die, and…bare hand stabs her in the guts. She collapses and this activates the rod and the obelisk. Ultimate power will now be his, and he’s consumed by red flames and darkness. He yells her name as he crumples on the dais. Casra commands Ash to get everyone out of there, Zeno swears to stop him along side Casra.

Now, he has his Elder Coat outfit on, and the DF pink hair.
He is glad to see all of existence, which only exists for his conquest and to feel the air again. Now, he speaks with the DF Elder voice.

Zeno demands who it is, it’s DF Elder. Zeno tells everyone to get out of there, they do, and Casra & Zeno prepare to fight the Gettem-Elder thing. Luther, in his secret control room that was never revealed in the game is pleased, asking Xion if she hears the sounds of his footsteps approaching her.

The Naverius / explosion / DF mountain arms takes place, (From the game's cinematic) building the mountain entity in space that’s huge, directly from the game. It then flies off where everyone can see it, into a red area in space. Of course, Zeno can’t be contacted and Echo screams after him fruitlessly into her communicator.

This one, of course, was forced to deviate because of Matoi activity, but still works ok.
It doesn’t open any plot holes that won’t be done away with in the future because of time travel
We have NOT had a Zion-fueled time-incident for Ash yet, but it will have to, because he’s got to end up back down there with Zeno so he doesn’t end up dying / the whole “Let Echo think I am Dead” stint that Zeno has and how he reforms himself into a Gunblade Gunslash user & gets on the council.
It is important that:
Matoi didn't interfere Gettemhult's death
Echo MUST think Zeno is dead to help trick Luther
EVERYone must think Zeno is dead to trick Luther
Luther MUST think he succeded here when Gettemhult turns into Elder
So, these important game elements are responsibly left intact and everything is working as it should.

Everyone is Feeble:
Why is everyone so feeble? Yes, they CAN do “badguy defeats the goodguy” here because it’s not your character losing, it’s a scripted one which makes it ok. However, everyone like…forgot all their fighting ability as soon as Gettemhart got into the room. Even Casra? He didn’t even pull out the Aegis weapon. That’s kind of the only flakiness going on with this episode.

The Ignominious End of Gettemhart
Well, it was in the game too…but it just feels extra…stupid? Here? Quick?
The Melphonseana murder is more out of no-where when it shouldn’t have been because they “nicened up” their relationship so much so the murder felt somewhat left-field as a consequence. Since everything was so much nicer for so long (only in this ep/a little bit the last one was he getting abusive enough) the murder was nearly out of place.
But, without all the Gettemhart mini-plot stuff (that, rightfully they had to not include because the series can’t be infinitely long--although it does have a waste/recap-isode episode in its middle that it didn't need) his demise here just seems very anti-climactic and that he was super stupid/a total patsy when in reality he was less of one. If he'd had built up more, you would get to see how he was being actually fairly cleverly-led to his conclusions and how he genuinely believed the stuff he was being fed and also enough of his character exposed that it was a fitting thing for him to do.