You see Io for the first time in the show, who questions if Ash is in Arks, and asks if the horns are bothering him. They’re born with horns you know…but he didn’t. (Hopefully if these are natural-borns they are snub horns...at that time ) Even though she tells him Duman is one of the 4 races of Oracle, he’s super shocked. So, this implies that some time-messing or memory problems were created within him…or regarding the Duman. (As in, they were ‘installed in history’ and everyone else doesn’t remember what it was like when they didn’t exist…except Ash) Remember, Io here is probably 17 or older or so, and nobody ever said Duman age oddly, so you have to take her at face value or so…no way nobody NEVER ran into a single one of these horn-headed folks for 17 years and then magically never noticed. And they’re not rare either. This bit here is meant to kind of help illustrate that.

Ash begins demanding to know all about Dumans from Io.
She’s understandably baffled, why start nagging a stranger with questions like this? Duman was Created to specialize in offense only. However, Io is also wierd because who just comes up to people asking them if your horns are bothering them.

Different:
This was ACTUALLY important so why wasn’t it in the game? When they put Deuman in there, they should have had Xion pop out and say all this stuff.
She tells him that “Some fabric appeared out of a spatial distortion and a fusion of blood was staining it—blood of dragonkin and darkers”.  Using them, they made us. How long have they been around? 100 years! She says he’s testing her…but he walks away. Xion says the event exceeded her calculations. A scrap of fabric, which was the ribbon that little Quna tied onto baby Hadred’s horn, drifted into the past and ‘gave birth’ to Deumans.
This actually DOES work because Hadred was created in the evil lair lab by mixing up dragonkin and darker to try to get a super soldier out of it. His ribbon, bloodied in a battle, fell into Xion’s time shifting shenanigans…but when did she ever need to go back 100 years for something? Ash asks her why he’s the only one who doesn’t know. She explains very reasonably, that because he’s been tinkering with timelines (at her behest) that chose a time axis changed by the past. So, because Ash is the one tinkering, he only remembers the original stuff from before she messed with it.

A passle of kooks:
So, some scientist finds a dirty, stinky ribbon with nasty blood in it, decides to experiment on the blood extracted from the ribbon and eventually they work up humans with dragonkin/darker traits and it's dumen. Wow. Xion probably meddled a little more than she's saying here, because that thing woul've ended up in the bin for certain. And why are the Deuman so normal looking? Tiny horns and a few skin marks? Big deal.

Matoi arrives and can see Xion too. Ash is shocked, but Xion says it’s not a problem for her to be aware, she’s nothing like Luther. You 2 have many questions but when the time is right the answers will come. Can you put your faith in her again? Believe in her? Matoi doesn’t get it, but she will. Maybe because her voice sounds nostalgic. Xion vanishes, and Matoi calls her warm and mysterious. *Remember, it's Xion who dumped Matoi at the tree via more time manipulation to ensure she didn't die & that Ash finds her. So, she's been in contact with Xion before the nostalgia is natural. And probably so is the affinity.

In the hanger bay, Affin catches up with Ash as they head for Wopal, the ocean planet. Echo is in the background. Once there, Afin goes into the water, which is too salty and gets a seaweed on his head. He offers to listen to Ash, as he’ll lend an ear, as clearly Ash is troubled by something..
Ash asks about Deumans…and confesses he didn’t know about them until today. Afin relates a story where he got lost on the ship—but kept walking until he saw something familiar. He reminds him to keep going forward and he’ll get un-lost eventually.  Ash feels this story is kooky (and it is) but it is because Afin didn’t understand what he meant and his confession--Afin is essentially brushing it off here as a 'whoopsie' and not recognizing that Ash is trying to tell him that his memory isn't what it ought to be because of the Xion events..
Echo arrives, in a new outfit looking like a hunter with a sword. Ash asks if she had more affinity for FO, (She does, this is her trying to replace Zeno and 'make up for' letting him die--And remember, Zeno was doing the SAME thing! He's supposed to be RA but went with HU because "RA fights from too far away & he couldn't save Melfonseana".) but a darker Lanz Vareda (A large black bird-like thing with long lizard type tail & pointed ‘anubis’ looking face/beak. It has small feet where a normal bird would) appears to throw dark energy balls down on the beach.
She runs off, after saying that she has to push herself until Zeno is found again. Ash will stand up to the Lanz Vareda, which is, of course, somehow probably twice the size of a normal one from the game. It launches energy balls at him, which he can block with the sword, but it does the swoop attack and will 100% hit him. Theodore blasts it as it’s about to strike him down, with a fire ball. (Out of character, Theodore uses ice) Theodore tells Ash to not get in his way, and stumbles forward, mumbling about Ulc and how he has to kill every last darker, and then she will be found. She was injured though, wasn’t she?

Ash is baffled at him, he’s kind of ‘zombie like’ and appears confused. More birds come down, and he stabs all of the stradah. (A stradah looks like a chunky crow with a large head. The head-top has a crown of thorns type effect and the top of the head is the weak point) Theodore says he needs to become stronger. Strong enough to kill every single darker.  
However, they are being watched from a high cliff top/rocky outcropping by Luther who has decided to appear. From his rock top, he calls down, asking if Ash is here at the behest of Xion once again. Ash is aggravated seeing him, but Luther assures him that his business is with young man Theodore. Theo doesn’t want to hear this though, he sees Luther as another person to get in his way, until Luther explains he’ll be happy to help him get more power, to eradicate everything he wants to kill. Ash says don’t do it, but Theo walks off to listen to more of Luther’s words. Luther says real friends would respect this type of resolve, disappears, and portals out with Theodore.
This part was almost exactly the same as the game. The manipulative “friends would encourage you to be better” line, and all. It’s really well done.

Sara appears, and accuses Ash of forgetting her. But then, she has to remind herself that ‘he didn’t do that yet’. So, this is here to show that Xion is already scooting Sara around in time as well.

Echo & Afin wonder if it is safe to come out, as various researchers shelter behind them near a big rock, hiding from the Lanz Vareda. Afin will go see. Sara and Ash appear in the Amduscia-sky-land hide out of the dragonkin. Sara says it’s time to meet a person, who looks like a super pretentious kid who never gets off of his high horse. She takes the orders because it benefits both of us, so come on lets go. Plus, she does owe him one. They walk through the floating cubes and patterned blocks. Xiao is sitting up high on one, and accuses her of saying all the things she just said, that he has overheard.

Instead of fretting (of being rude) she says yes of course, she was sure to say everything loudly enough that he’d be sure to overhear. He claims her personality is really something else. They were ALWAYS like this in the game, smarting back and forth at each other every chance. In the game, like most things, it took you longer to meet him, and there was much more banter between the two of them. Xiao can use telepathy to talk directly into her mind as well. She says she owes it to her ‘role model’ that she is like this. He floats down and introduces himself. His sweater is fizzy like it is in the game.

He explains to Ash that this area is unobservable by Luther. He wanted to see the person that Xion adores. Ash wonders how he knows Xion. He’s like Xion’s little brother, but he must also avoid Luther. Luther’s sole goal is to understand Xion. Ash wonders at that, (Because it is seemingly harmless) so Xiao explains that every action of his is ultimately done for that purpose. Even leading Theodore away. At the moment he’s controlling Arks like a puppet. But there’s still some order, because he doesn’t understand Xion all the way. Xion talks confusingly and cryptically to throw Luther off his game.
Why is the area unobservable by Luther? What repels him here? It's never explained anywhere game or otherwise.
His "puppeteering of the arks" is ripe for explanation but it doesn't happen here (there is still a chance later=fine)
Xiao does a bad job of explaining why Luther's goal is NOT harmless. You'd still come away thinking he was just some research obseessed guy after this Xiao conversation. Something to the tune of "He'll kill anyone including Xion in a dissection if it meant better understanding, he's an awful murderer who wants to know and control all her info, thus everyone else too" would be more fitting for him to say, so why doesn't he?

Ash feels that Xion’s becoming clearer recently though, so Xiao says it’s because Luther is understanding her more. We must act to bring Arks back to proper form to stop him. However, he recognizes it’s hard for Ash to trust him as a stranger, so he’ll prove it. Xiao will show you proof that we can change how this ends. He sends out a yellow glow to begin the change.

When Ash opens his eyes he’s on Naberius. This surprises Maria but not Sara. Sara tells Maria that it’s just like Xiao said, he sent someone right here, right now. Maria calls it "the coincidence that isn’t". Sara cautions the confused Ash to not say anything that future Sara would know. Didn’t you come here to change history? Ash doesn’t know about it. (Xiao isn’t the smartest, one sentence could’ve fixed it here but he didn’t say it) Maria is worried because Sara’s bossing her (a council member should be bossed by no one), and not explaining anything either.
However a huge explosion happens that blows everyone away with a giant wind and flames. It’s Gettemelder, facing off against Zeno, he leaps up to smash a punch on Zeno, but hits Maria’s axe instead. This gives Ash the chance to hit his other arm with the sword. He blocks it, and neither of their hits do anything to him. As is typical. What they're having to do is illustrate that nothing gets the guy as a parallel to the game where you were having boss battles to drain off all his HP & then he's fine at the end. This is a perfectly normal/fine way to do it.

He seems surprised that now ‘the one from before’ (Ash) and Maria are here. Maria says 40 years ago was when we last faced off—in the war that nearly brought the ARKS to its knees. She laments it, but he is happy because it was the greatest experience for him, fighting on with everything he had. Maria counters that comrades died at that time, don’t defile it by calling it wonderful. Alma, Casra Regius and I couldn’t defeat you but now after 40 years it's a rematch to mow him down. She tells Zeno to stay out of it because he’ll be in the way. (Remember, he is injured here but he’s not out of the fight)
The others step up as Elder gathers power into the pink stone in his chest. Matoi tries to wire lance him, but Ash’s sword makes his dark speckle power come out of him, stealing it away, and turning one hand blue. He rages because where is his power, his body? (He was likely going to turn into the Elder-Demon form and couldn’t) He turns to the pillar, and Maria summons Labrys the Umbral and charges him. She brings it down, but he arm blocks, (His big-sleeves coat must be some kind of invincible because while it’s drawn like a trench coat the sleeves are always shown in the anime to be blocking and repelling all attacks) though it shatters the whole ground under him. Labrys the Umbral (it’s a spear) attacks by bending gravity and she tells him to bend in shame, to rot with his ambition as he is pushed further and further down into the ground by the building power. But, as Gettemelder is about to be defeated, Persona appears and interferes, knocking Maria away.

Everyone agrees to escape now, because Elder uses the break to re-appear himself half way up the red pillar (of evil) to access it’s power. Persona looks on for only a moment before portaling himself out in a dark orb. Nobody here can fly nor levitate, no one has a chance to get up that high and knock him down, so to cut and run is fine.

Everyone appears back on a camp ship & Ash lowers Zeno to the floor. He apologizes for needing rescued. Maria says it’s a miracle that he fought it and lived. They do the “Zeno boy VS don’t call me Zeno boy” thing from the game. Zeno laments the fight despite Maria’s comment, saying “So much for being brave to Casra to lead it off.” Maria had not known that Casra was there (He always was) and concludes that now Luther knows some of what happened. Zeno is mad he can’t protect anyone. Maria says that’s right, for a HU who does what he pleases. But she’ll train him. It won’t attract Luther attention if she does it. Zeno asks Ash to keep it a secret from Echo, because it’ll spoil the plan if she knows. Plus, a good wake up call for her, he’ll be back for sure, so take care of her till then. They all vanish in golden light that is no doubt Xiao's doing.

Xiao asks do you believe?
Ash is boggled (rightly so) and asks what did he do? Xiao explains that he changed the future/past and now Zeno has been saved. But, Ash can’t ask why he was allowed to do this because even a tiny bit of information can have great influence. He’s fine with it, because even if you’re lost, keep moving forward and you’ll figure it out eventually. So, he agrees to help put ARKS right.

Back on the beach Afin is looking for Ash, who teleports in, frightening him. Afin says he seems relieved, to which he says he did listen to him about going forward, but caused Echo trouble and should apologize to her. Afin runs after Ash to go do this.

Different:
There's a TON more back n' forth with Zeno vs Maria in the game, but it all boils down to about the same thing which is that he needed to up his fighting abilitiy but also realize his RA calling instead of stamping it down for HU. Hopefully they get into the 2nd part of that when he re-appears because it is a valuble lesson for anyone.

Never Explained:
The different "Falzes" have different "personalities???" all by themselves which is a little unclear here. Remember, 40 years ago It WASNT Gettemelder, it was plain old "Elder" (So, the elderdemon? what form, if not a person-posessed?) But Elder here actually is a great match for Gettemhart's personality of 'fighting is cool'. This may have been to imply/help that Gettemhart was so easy to trick into doing what it wanted. But what do the Falzes look like without their 'people'? Apprentice as a giant bug, Luther as the 6 wing angel, double as...wthever the noodletwins are? Is that really THEM or is it the person they're absorbing?

Don't ask about time:
This makes sense for Xiao to do/say and Xion too because they know how tricky Luther is, and that literally anyone could innocuously reveal something by accident or be tricked into it by him. Ash is good here because either he just trusts him, or he realizes that this motivation is logical.

In all, quite a good episode that does the game justice & actually gives more cannon information like that Xion shoved Hadred's ribbon back in time 100 years after his death at his final Vs. Quna fight so that the ARKS would create Dumen to help fight Falz and the PD.

Episode 12 Past And Future

Episode 12 The Past And Future

Luther is in his mystery room with the big blue patterned ‘portal’ thing and he’s monologing again. He claims to know what Xion is up to but will ‘let her’ because Oracle & Arks are already in the palm of his hand and to stop her now would supposedly make it ‘too boring’. He leans on the portal with his eyes closed, saying the gift of long life lets him see how it all plays out…but he’s impressed with her pawn (Ash)

She does hear him, from the other side of the portal and vanishes.
Does he just always be chatting to her, hoping she’s paying attention? He’s supposed to be somewhat off his rocker so, certainly possible. Also remember in the game "Luther's Boredom" was a big influence in his ever present meddling, he would do things and then claim it was for his entertainment because 'he was immortal' or whatever.

Ash is doing a workout of pull-ups as he flashes back to saving Zeno and thinks about the previous fights. They have given him a little digital workout monitor machine strapped to his chin ups bar that minds heart-beat etc. It's a fun detail that makes sense to add. He gets a call from Sara who accuses him of being ‘naked’ as she covers her eyes, although he just had his shirt off and there is an obvious workout bar in the background. He figures she’d eventually call with more orders to go into the past, but she says no, it’s too dangerous, Xiao wants us to do our best with what we have in the moment. She explains this to him as he suits up into his shirt and the usual jacket/casual wear he has had before.  He likes the sound of creating the future.

She wants an escort on Wopal. Luther’s watching your movements, but Xiao wrecked it for him with hacking--so Luther will not observe if you leave to go do the escort now. It’s safe to go there, so see you soon. He leaves his mystery crystal on his bed and goes where she says, which is to the camp ship which portals to Wopal. Once at the beach, she finds him but asks what he’s needed for if they can do all of that hacking, campship-arranging and Luther-prevention. She asks instead for him to follow her, so he does into a rocky grotto area ‘sea cavern’.

As they go, Sara explains lately we’ve been discovering labs all over on Wopal but Luther destroys them before ARKS gets there. This time, we’ll get there first. He’s surprised at a pretty waterfall, glowing fountain and big room with the rainbow type lights and orbs on racks set in the stone of the walls. Orbs with fish creatures in them bubble and swirl. There’s a dead mermaid in one! Sara explains he toys with life, like the Void Apparatus.

Void Apparatus:
Ash nods knowingly about this annnnnnnnnd we still don’t get any explanation. Presumably you shove 2 creatures in there that are compatible and a single better one comes out. They were going to try to push in Quna and Hadred. This could use more explanation.

Different:
Getting to actually DRAW an area, this is doing better than the game to illustrate “Some kind of Lab”, because remember there was never really…….anything even ‘indoors’ or lab-like at all in the game. Sure they glued some globes to stuff in story mode but it was like he was supposed to be doing research in a gazebo in the park using a big decorative rock for a desk or something and it didn’t make much sense. Here, you’ve got shelves of things, actual ITEMS in the globes, both living and dead, and it’s convincingly hidden…ish.

Mermaids!
That’s new. It’s absolutely a human (dead/a skeleton mummy thing) with a fish tail that rotted because its globe was broken. It was adult sized too so he wasn't spawning a baby mermaid. The question it raises is did he hack some poor sap in half and glue a fish to the lowers, or was the whole thing made in its complete form? Also did he make a reverse-mermaid too if he did cut a human in half to make this one.

They move on to another room that has globes on the ceiling and pillars that don’t hold up anything. Water is always about a foot or so of the floor, so wherever they go, they are always wading. Sara gets to a console that looks like a broken off pillar but makes a hologram screen pop out when she gets close. The console works, so she calls Xiao to start the transfer. Xiao calls Ash, with a way to oppose Luther, if it’s anywhere they’ll find it here. Ash asks just what is Luther anyway?
So, he explains the fight against Elder 40 years ago left ARKS in shambles, Luther helped the organization, but imposed a condition, "obedience from the 3 who defeated Elder Falz at the time". Regius, Casra & Klaris Klaes must obey all of his orders. Once ARKS was back though, he became the one in power, not even Viceroy Regius could oppose him. But, it’s all his set up to get at Xion.

As in the games it is here, Luther's power is very nebulous and ill-defined.
What if the 3 heroes said NO? What would he actually be able to do to ARKS if he witheld his...what? How would he attack them in a meaningful way and still get to grab Xion's power too? This never gets explained why they're so beholden to him nor his undefined 'how he saved ARKS' and 'how his job keeps everything working despite everyone knowing he's turbo-evil and will also murder everyone eventually'. IS it a stalemate? This should have been cleared up.

Back in Luthers loser-cave or whatever it is, he sits on the ground leaning on the portal reminiscing at Xion who he believes can hear him about how the Photoners yearned for her power but couldn’t even get it when they copied her and failed. But, he knows there’s a way to understand her. Soon, we’ll finally become one, he says as he seems satisfied.

Ash then asks but why is he so after Xion all the time?
She has the knowledge of the universe’s past, present, and future. She’s supposed to be omniscient. (She isn't) Is that even possible? Ash wonders. Xiao says she’s not a person, which surprises Ash. He explains that her real form is the core of the mothership. (That planet looking/death star combined with a flower and a cone that dwarfs all the other ships as it goes with the fleet) If he gets to her though, all of her functions would cease (and its implied it’d kill everybody on the ARKS ships too because she’s kind of what’s supporting everything) and no one could fight back against DF.

All life would be annihilated by the darkness. That’s why she sought help through you, assures Xiao. Sara finds the data Luther had stored in the pillar-computer, but it’s a big chunk of data with the records of the planet itself. Ash sees a symbol on a door and says ‘that mark is’....But the room begins to flood a little. Luther arrives with Theodore, who has one red eye and one green eye and the Duman horn now. Ash tells Sara that Theodore is supposed to be a newman/and that he knew him. Sara says people can't just change their own race.

Sara is shocked. Luther has Theodore create a huge explosion in the middle of the room which breaks everything in the area. Luther is happy, and compliments him on his talents. Theodore offers to hit it again, but he says no because he’s left something behind to find—and finding scraps keeps ARKS dancing in the palm of his hand. They then leave in his glowy light portal thing that he can do at will.

Why does Luther NEED Theodore to do these explosions? Can he not cast techs? They never explain this in the game, either.

Ash breaks them out from under a rock, and Sara has gotten the data just in time before the explosion went off. A cave in will soon occur so they run away dodging boulders. Sara thanks him for saving her. Xiao calls glad that they’re ok. Ash frets about Theodore because he couldn’t stop Luther taking him. Ash asks Xiao if it’s possible to stop Luther vs Theodore, but the past can’t always be changed. He can’t interfere but he also can’t explain so please believe him until then. Ash walks off sadly, Sara says it makes him seem cruel…and Xiao agrees that it actually is, but there’s nothing he can do about it.

Instead, she asks him about the data. He says it leads him to believe that Luther was trying to replicate Xion on Wopal. This shocks her. But he scrapped the experiment. Sara takes it to mean he doesn’t need a fake any more, and this means we’re running out of time.

What was the symbol on the door? (It wasn't in the game)

Xion appears in Ash’s room while he’s trying to sleep.
She says sorry anguish is forced upon him, and she’s sorry. He asks "don’t you know everything that happens in the future? If you do, then why choose me?" She tells him that knowing all is not being all powerful. She’s thought of returning to the initial encounter (Does she mean meeting the Photoners?) to make none of it happen at all…would be the ideal choice. Ash wonders at this. Flashing back, he thinks about the Elder fight and how Gettemhart got tricked etc. He concludes let’s just go to where before Elder got out the first time and stop it there.

Xion closes her eyes at this, so he concludes it’s inevitable, but what about the staff? (Clarissa staff) Why not use that/not find it/why make him find it? She says the only thing that anyone can do is choose one out of the infinite possibilities in each moment. He’s mad now, demanding why him only? She says it’s because only he can use ‘our power’ to cross the time stream. Through her orders she can change the future, but some of them have gone amiss.

She entrusts the newest choice to him, what time, what place, who do you wish to save?
He thinks back (So you see all the people he's watched die since the beginning of the show)…and chooses Ulku / Ulc, so she star trek hand waves him in golden light out of his room and he vanishes into the city…to watch himself leave the tank from the mission in the earlier episode. He chases it, staying unseen,  as Ulc drives. The tank is flipped by a darker attack explosion and she rolls out of the open hatch on the top, losing her hat. She looks at a screen, sad to have bad luck to get the tank blown up on the first mission.

A Lanz Vareda circles overhead but she can’t call for help in her arm communicator. (Luther is blocking it) She picks up a big rifle, and looks for it. However, it’s perched atop the tank now, so she blasts it, peppering it with bullets but of course it is bulletproof now too. It tries to attack anyway, knocking her down and a few shots hit the tank. Once she’s fallen, it leaps up to air-charge in and stab/murder her however these things are supposed to work, but Ash is able to grab her out of the way and get the gun. He shoots the weak-point orange striped dot/dome that all darkers have, and it screeches while the ‘blood’ pours out of it.

Ulc is shocked and cries to see him, she can still stand and he helps her up. Now, she’s unhurt. The tank begins to spark and explodes but again he can push her out of the way. She needs to get back to her mission, she says, but a support partner arrives. It’s Xiao borrowing the body (He explains with his own voice coming out of it, remember most support PA’s are usually small female doll looking things). He says we need to get out of here right away, so they climb a building. He explains that Ulc should have been killed there…so she wants to report in that she’s alive. He blocks her, saying everyone needs to believe she’s dead because Luther wanted her to die.

Ulc is……….
Made to be a bit dumb here? In the game you never knew how she died, just THAT she did in the darker attack vs the tank where she was. Here, they have her stupidly get out of it exposing herself to monsters. Just get back in! The tanks aren’t frail, no monster is going to open the hatch and bust in there. Also, 3 shots from a standard/non-special gun shouldn’t be able to make the tank explode into a fireball, either. What kind of shoddy technology are they using?
Different: The game NOT explaining it / showing it let you make up something reasonable like “The entire tank was engulfed in a huge explosion thanks to darkers and Ulc was trapped inside and died” and not “well she got out and started moseying around trying to make a phone call and then a giant bird pecked her and she died”.  And "1 bullet hit her armored transport and it died too. Whoop.”

He furthers it with, Luther meddled with her application so she’d get into ARKS despite not having photon aptitude. Then, he made sure she was sent to the front lines so she’d be killed. But why her, she asks? Ash says it’s to get at Theodore. They then see from their vantage-poin in the tall building they climbed the Zeno / Echo / Theo group come upon Ulc’s burning tank and Theodore freaks out. Ulc is shocked that somehow Ash is now in 2 places at once. Ash wants Ulc to tell Theo she’s alive right away, but Xiao says no…until Luther believes he possesses Theodore, he won’t stop going after Ulc’s life.

There’s nothing we can do to stop Theo from falling to Luther now…we have to take this victory.
Ash tells her that at least she’s all right now, it’s one good thing. Xiao wonders about this because thousands of people were killed on the Themis, some only for Luther’s gain. Ash is very upset demanding you don’t think he knows this?!
(Ash feels Xiao has accused him of letting others die in favor of just 1 person=Ulc to live, and is angry)
Xiao insists Ash doesn’t really know this fact/consider it, because he was asked to choose who to save. He chose her, so he didn’t choose everyone else who has now died.
Ash counters with that he’ll keep coming back until he saves everyone. Xiao says he can’t. There’s only so many that actually CAN be saved. Ash wants to know if they’ve tried…and Xiao confesses they have. Thousands of times, but the effects on the future from changing the past--even we (Xiao & Xion) can’t predict-- and in most cases it makes it worse. Calmed down now a little, Ash asks if Xion really did it thousands of times and…no, it was HE who did it—Ash and his many possibilities working together with Xion. Just because you can go back, doesn’t mean you can save everyone…but we have to do what we can.

So then why beat up on Ash for choosing Ulc here?
If Xiao LITERALLY KNOWS that choosing anyone else OTHER than Ulc/trying to choose everyone else results in worse things happening, why bash Ash now and start a fight?

The simplest explanation that SHOULD be given here is that the time trickery is expressly always used to FOOL LUTHER into thinking he is winning. Ulc can’t reveal NOW that she is ok, it has to be later when it will cripple his plans. It’s like hiding that Zeno is alive too, it has to be hidden from even Echo so that Luther believes it. Everything is coordinated to trick him, and that’s a really easy plan to believe in.

Ulc interrupts them, saying she’s no idea of what they are banging on about but, she understands they’re both really upset that they can’t save everyone, right? And then, what’s Xiao’s deal, what kind of attitude is that (she refers to that saving her was some how not good enough) when he saved her? She demands. He talks like it’s better that she died…he has to defend himself with "that’s not what he meant."

Her plan is to "beat up Luther and restore everything to normal/make it like new again". (Easier said than done)
Xiao says if he’s defeated, all his functions he does for Oracle will cease and everything will be thrown into chaos. Ulc, with her bright attitude believes that everyone can handle it, though it’s rough at first, if everyone helps. She’ll do her best too, and together everyone will be able to make things like new again. This surprises Xiao and he laughs. What’s so funny? He thinks that people are amazing because she’s come up with the idea on her own, right here and now.

Ash begins to glow with the golden light of Xion moving someone in time. Ulc is shocked, Xiao says his time here is nearly up. Xiao tells Ash he’ll take care of Ulc. Ash says he’ll tell Theodore that Ulc is alive once he gets back to the present. Xiao doesn’t tell him no, just to act on what he feels. Ulc hurriedly thanks him for saving her as he fades into the light.

Now, he smiles as he flies through it toward the future that he desires.

Different:
Did the game ever  SAY that Luther was actually…had a JOB with Arks? Like that he was doing…whatever necessary functions somewhere? What was he supposed to be doing anyway? For certain he was controlling the 3 heroes by telling them what to do/who to assign where (Ex. Make Ulc go into danger until she dies) and generally lurking all the time but what function could he have possibly had? What would everyone have lost that would ‘throw them into chaos’ if he suddenly wasn’t there?

End Notes
This episode parallels the game pretty darn well. The Wopal w/Sara investigation, saving Ulc, and getting a little more explanation is all nicely condensed into an episode. There’s no big battle here but it doesn’t feel boring. (In the game Bosses were usually unleashed before a final event, like Biol Meduna Boss in the grotto or something) There is a real ton of plot packed into this one, whoever is doing the plotting is clearly capable of being really good at it.

“Came up with it on her own” This is Xiao seeing that Ulc really IS the right choice for Arks leader as he’s seen her say stuff like that in the future but never knew where she got it. Now, he sees where she did (the rooftop) and laughs because she’s the right choice. It wasn't super pointed out-clear in the episode but that's what this exchange was.

Missed?
They didn’t touch on Sara as an experiment yet, will it?
What about the shell-head aliens Cabracan & co.? Will they be left out?
The shell-gang was of dubious importance in the game, but a LOT of stuff seemed that way too, and then ended up not being so. They, and others were supposedly Luther’s experiments on animals to make them smarter and there were all kinds of hints dropped about an elder shellder that knew more –but then everybody just kind of left and the plot never continued because they shoe-horned in “Earth” and just left dangling plot points all over every single planet.

It’s the same with the Dragonkin,
The whole Void/Dumen thing
And also even at Harkotan,
Plus Lilipa and Lilipans/who was mining there and why (The Lilipans weren't mining),
Who put up all the opalescent-lined stone acitecture all over Wopal as well? What are the huge fountains blasting water into the atmosphere? Luther didn't put those up/they're clearly ancient.
What are the ruins on Naberius those disks/etc aren’t from 40 years ago ARKS. 

The games just set up all the pins then totally abandoned them with the stupid Earth/Isekai shoe-horn, and then deviated into Dungeons and Dragons castle-mania orcs and skeletons in wacky-town. Why set up all this stuff and then do nothing with it?
The Anime, of course, can’t be made ‘into the future’ so leaving out the shell-aliens may or may not come back to bite it, along with other things. If they’re never touched upon again/then they were trivial/stupid a waste of time to have in the game. But if they ARE revisited and can add plot to something, then leaving them out of the show would be a fault. Same with the other stuff that seems trivial enough to skip over…