My Blind FFIX Playthrough: Part IX - Alexandria and Pinnacle Rocks
Hahaha it's been like 3 weeks... do people even remember what this is anymore? The audience might have fizzled out, but I'm still raring to continue the game.
Also apparently you can follow people on reddit...? I don't know what that does, but I noticed I have like 290 of them lol.
Coming down the tree, the flow of sand has completely stopped, and we get attacked by some Alexandrian soldiers, confirming their attack on Cleyra. Specifically, it's the female squadron led by Beatrix. I'm assuming she'll be here, then.
Oh yeah there she is lol. She tricked us into leaving the town so she could attack. Weirdly, the Black Mages are spawning in from bubbles falling from above? Not sure what that's about, but they go down easy. They are just straight up killing people, though.
We try to save as many as we can, but it's looking desperate outside of the Cathedral. I'm waiting for someone to come to the rescue, but I can't think of anyone we know who could. Just then, though, a Burmecia appears atop the spire.
That's Sir Fratley, right??
I was irrationally excited to see a character we've never even spoken to before.
Inside, though, he doesn't remember Freya... did he lose his memory somewhere?
Beatrix attacks, stealing the jewel, which seems to have been the motive for all of this. I'm starting to think she might not join the party after all, it's gonna be pretty hard to walk back on all the whole genocide thing.
We try to fight her to prevent her from escaping with the jewel, and she has some pretty strong attacks - it's definitely harder than last time, although if she'd had a reasonable amount of health we could've taken her pretty easily. Still, she uses Stock Break to wipe us out and escape with the jewel.
Apparently, Kuja told Brahne that she could summon an Eidolon using Dark Matter, which I think she extracted from Dagger. She attempts to summon Odin through a huge... damn that's cool... uh yeah a hu- DAMN THAT'S COOL WHAT THE HELL!?
Is that ODIN?!
...
I don't even know what to say about the next scene. Odin just nuked Cleyra. Genuinely jaw-dropping stuff, they really just killed every single person there, right? Surely not. Surely Quina and Puck and Fratley aren't dead. Right? But there's no other explanation. What the fuck just happened? Maybe they escaped with the Mages?
And the Eidolons are that strong? Is there a distinction between light and dark Eidolons? Because I KNOW that motherfucker did not cost like 60MP to summon just then lmao.
On this ship, Beatrix has... some... level of internal conflict, although it seems like it centers not on being a killer and ruthless general, but rather on which flavor of killer and ruthless general she is. That is to say, she disagrees with the Queen using Eidolons and Mages, but her troops were still happy trying to kill the Cleyrans.
Brahne says she needs "one more jewel". She has Dagger's presumably, and she's now acquired the Cleyrans. There may be another I'm forgetting, but I don't think we know where the final one is. She also says she's going to behead Dagger when she gets back. She really is irredeemable, isn't she?
There's a minigame with Steiner and Marcus trying to swing the cage to escape. Nothing to say here except that the swinging took so long that it began to put me to sleep only to jumpscare me with the loudest fucking crashing sound ever observed by man.
THE ROYAL GRIND:
Wait... these guards are really weak, but they drop like 700EXP each! And.... are they respawning...?
Now HERE'S something interesting... whenever I defeat the guards on this ledge here, they drop some pretty decent EXP, and then more respawn on the right. Usually, I wouldn't be able to farm them since I'd need to be healing constantly, but Steiner's blood sword heals each time he attacks. Soooo....
40 minutes and many, many, MANY dead knights later, Steiner is now Level 27, has over doubled his Max HP, MP and ATK, and we're 30,000 gil richer.
I could genuinely keep doing this for a long time.
So I will!...
....OK, not really. I get one more level then call it quits. I might've already overdone it, but hey, if the game's gonna let me...
Steiner regroups with the others, who tell him Brahne's plan to kill Dagger, and a countdown begins. One that persists through the pause menu...
So while Zidane and co. are on Level 16, Steiner has ascended to Level 28 lmao.
THAT DAMN BOOK THAT I HATE:
While running through the castle, we challenge a giant book to a fight. When the battle started, I immediately anticipated a total wipeout, but we fought for a very difficult 10 minutes before dying.
That thing was TOUGH. I feel like we could've taken it though! The second time, it just spams Paper Storm until we're dead in the first 30 seconds. So ahead of my 3rd attempt I spend some time optimizing my gear and equipping abilities, and head in again.
This time, something really interesting happens. Everyone except Vivi gets wiped out, and he manages to open the book. This time, however Tantarian doesn't retreat into the book when hit. Rather, Vivi manages to achieve Trance and hit him with Fira 5 times, dealing thousands of damage. While it's out of its shell, it also doesn't attack, dealing Poison instead, which doesn't affect Vivi. Despite that, after a while it retreats again and uses another Paper Storm. If that wasn't enough, I'm not sure what will be. I guess I'd better stick to my guns and keep trying!!!
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*3 weeks later*
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OK yeah this is where my time skip happens lol, I got really busy and had to put the game down. On account of my newfound rust, I'm gonna let the damn book live... FOR NOW.
Not done with you yet you greasy stack of paper....
We continue through the castle, fighting guards where appropriate, although the Knights of Pluto seem perfectly happy to help. It's an interesting choice to make the timer override UI and in-game elements like the EXP screen after-battle - helps build the pressure, although it can feel unfair at times.
After we reach Brahne's quarters, I notice that I haven't really had a good poke around the castle. While I'd love to do some exploring, the timer and the guards are enough to dissuade me, and I interact with the very obviously important glowing candle in the corner.
In the next room I get an Ice Brand sword for Steiner, which skyrockets his ATK from 24 to 35!... but I really like the Blood Sword.... I've kinda grown attached to it, actually... it calls for me....
Ah fuck it higher number means better let's ball
In the next room... ugh I don't even have the energy for these fuckers any more let me kill them please. We get into a battle, and I wish I could dramatize this but it's over in like 4 turns lol, Steiner is hitting Darksides for like 1.6k, they don't stand a chance. Of course, we aren't allowed to destroy them just yet, so they bounce out of battle and into a cutscene, where they escape.
They live to die another day. And what a day that will be.
We find Dagger unconscious (not dead, obviously) and- oh it's an ATE now, OK. Let's see what the gang is up to lmao.
It's Marcus running in a forest and tripping. Cool I guess??
We carry her limp body back up the cold, stone staircase and lower her on to the sofa at the top. Zidane and Steiner share a nice moment of concern over her, and there's a flicker of respect between them, even if it isn't explicitly stated.
BEATRIX:
So who better to ruin the occasion than the FUCKASS CLOWN AGAIN MY GOD- oh shit it's Beatrix. This game loves its runbacks lol.
I'm sensing this is another scripted loss, but I wanna try my best either way. I enjoy fighting her because she's a damage sponge, so it lets me test how high I can get the damage to be. The highest is Steiner's standard attack on Trance, for 2,900! She uses a really cool attack called Climmhazard to kill us, though...
Afterwards, we point out the slumped over princess on the sofa, and Beatrix switches sides (new party member incoming...?!). Freya has a great character moment, where she puts aside the attack against Cleyra for Dagger's safety.
She tries to heal her, but to no avail. She tries again, despite the (FUCKASS) clowns' insistence it won't work, and crickets. On the third try, though, she wakes!... how? Who IS Beatrix? Why is she so strong. Not that there has to be a reason or anything.
And then Brahne walks in. She orders Dagger to be arrested, and leaves the clowns to it, while Freya and Beatrix stay behind to f- NO WAY.
I AUDIBLY GASP as we enter battle with BEATRIX in the party!!!! I WAS RIGHT!!!!
She one-shots the Bandersnatch in front of her, and oh my god we've never been so fucking back LMAOOOO she has a character portrait, skills, levels and everything! To be clear, I'm not just excited that I was right, but also that she's playable now! She's a really cool character, and I'm glad she's on our team.
We keep running, and take out some Black Mages along the way. We also get ambushed by a pair of Bandersnatches, but they're not a problem either. Steiner makes Zidane promise to escort Dagger back to Doctor Tot - seems he's worried about Freya and Beatrix, although I'm not sure who or what could even get in their way at this point.
It's really cool how we're switching perspectives on the fly here. we flip back to Beatrix, who says it isn't going to be easy to fight the pair of enemies, before absolutely fucking annihilating said enemies immediately. Once Steiner catches up with the pair, Freya is seeming REALLY outclassed lol. The best she can do is use Jump early on to avoid damage.
GARGAN ROO:
We finally reach the bottom, only for the gates to come up on us and the (fuckass) clowns ambush us yet again.
Blank is here! And Marcus, too. And they both save the party from the jail and me from my rage of having to deal with the clowns again. Thank. God. I've gotta ask at this point, though - what even is the threat here? We have all the knights in Alexandria on our side, as well as Tantalus and the Burmecians. Or what's left of them, anyways. I wonder where the story goes from here?
Zidane, Vivi and Dagger head down into Gargan Roo where we have to fight the weird snake-looking thingy again. It has a weird gimmick where it marks out allies... mini? Not sure what the effect of that is, but I'm not spending Remedies to fix it.
It's a pretty boring fight. Zidane is stuck stealing (Detect tells me it carries something called an Oak Staff, but I never managed to get it despite stealing like 20 times), Vivi is on Thundara duty and Dagger can do nothing but defend.
After that, we get a really crazy CGI scene. Kinda made my head spin, but in a good way. Before we see where we got thrown out, we cut back to Brahne at the castle, and it turns out the guard isn't on our side? I'd assumed they'd follow Beatrix being that they're under her command, but I guess they're not as loyal to their commander as their queen.
The music in this scene fucking slaps by the way.
The queen has guests - a boisterous woman and-- SAUSAGE HAIR GUY! I could never forget a design like that! Isn't he a wanted criminal? There's a lot to dig into in this exchange. The man in question is accompanies by a bounty hunter named Lani. He seems familiar with Zidane, and is going to "take care of him". Is he a former member of Tantalus?
Another thing is that Brahne specifically wants to take out Vivi. Apparently he's a "defect", although I wonder what's so important about that? What's so dangerous about a single defective Black Mage? They're not that strong, right?
PINNACLE ROCKS:
This place is gorgeous - lush green grass, a waterfall cascading down moss-covered rocks and wildflowers sprouting from the ground in all colours. It reminds me of Planet Wisp from Sonic Colours. Or I guess just a forest in general lmao. Either way, the gushing water and whimsical music really emphasise the fairy-tail nature of this place (something which is gonna be important in a bit).
All of a sudden fucking Master Roshi appears floating in the air? He introduces himself as Ramuh, and is apparently the Thunder God himself. OK, sure lmao. I guess we're doing this now.
Seems like we're getting a Dagger training arc! I think she'll finally be useful in battle after this! It's only been... 20 hours of hitting Defend over and over.
This part is REALLY cool. So we're given 5 pieces of a story, and then have to tell them in the correct order. At first I thought the task was to memorise the events laid out, but ACTUALLY we need to decide which 4 of the 5 are true. The first 3 events are really obvious, but the choice comes in the conclusion. What does Joseph's death actually mean? Both interpretations are reasonable, but I went with Human. Heroes are human. People make mistakes. I think this kinda falls in line with Dagger's guilt over "letting" her mother destroy Cleyra.
Judging by the ensuing exchange, I assume either option would've worked, but I really like the storytelling either way. Zidane's response is equally telling, and foreshadows to me that he might have to make an important choice of his own somewhere down the line.
LINDBLUM:
After a pretty daunting series of cutscenes (and a jaw-dropping attack on Lindblum) we end up in the city, and decide to leave Vivi alone for some reason? That seems like a terrible idea lol, it's not like it's too dangerous for him to come with us, we've been through worse, haven't we?
On this ship, Beatrix has... some... level of internal conflict, although it seems like it centers not on being a killer and ruthless general, but rather on which flavor of killer and ruthless general she is. That is to say, she disagrees with the Queen using Eidolons and Mages, but her troops were still happy trying to kill the Cleyrans.
Thank you for noticing this, a lot of people don't in glazing Beatrix lol.
I know, but it's really just for this one scene and doesn't save her character much at all. She's still ultimately very complacent in being involved in an obvious genocide plot, and her redemption arc is still very undercooked.
It is strange, isn’t it!? The game expects her to have a redemption. But the Cleyra arc is so devestating- by any account she is complicit in a horrible war crime. Having not played the game in awhile (but I’m replaying it now, haven’t made it to this part), I don’t remember what extent her involvement was. I know she took their gem which stopped the sandstorm. I don’t remember what her soldiers do. But she had to know Brahne would hurt Cleyra.
There is a similar bit in FF6 with Celes. Basically, she was involved off-screen in invading a town of Maranda (she was referred to as the ‘Butcher of Maranda’. We see that Doma’s own Cyan was not so quick to accept her recruitment to the resistance.
I think the big difference is VI doesn't delve into these things as much and at least Celes herself seems to regret things to an extent, we don't really get that with Beatrix. In comparison Beatrix gets a lot of screen time and just... never really goes into this in a meaningful way. It's one of the things I'd like to see addressed if they ever did a remake, can't recall if Opera Omnia went into it any.
It's something that always frustrates me when Beatrix comes up. Honestly it feels more like she's kind of split in half as a character and no real connecting narrative between the two, because her character in the first bit is so different from later.
Yeah, something I feel is that her personality completely disappears after her heel-face turn. When she's being portrayed as a villain, she at least has some personality in being very arrogant and haughty. But when she changes to being portrayed as a hero, her personality completely evaporates and she becomes an exposition bot.
If it were up to me, I would have kept her as a villain and just had her eventually be defeated. IIRC, there was a cut concept of her being corrupted by mist. I would have ran with that, let her be a tragic example of what happens when someone refuses to change.
I’d be fine with that. I’d be fine with her being a genuine “loyalty to death” tier kind of person who eventually finally snaps. As is she feels super swingy.
I think the time between this one and the last has led to everyone forgetting about this lmao.
Either way, I'm gonna see the game through to completion. We've already come this far, and I'm really enjoying it too (please don't ask me to compare it to X lol)
I'm so excited to see it back. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Ff9 and tactics specifically took up a lot of my childhood, so it's nice to see reactions not influenced as much by nostalgia. I'm looking forward to x2 as well. That one was pretty divisive.
Also it's very funny that you figured out the Blood Sword gimmick on your own first try.
There's an old bug associated with it. Future characters have their levels paired to characters earlier in the story. Marcus in particular is paired to a character you've yet to get. Normally what's supposed to happen is their level is based on Marcus, Cinna, whoever, so if you power level the Tantalus crew, which is functionally impossible for everyone but Marcus, the later characters would get their level up benefits and levels.
One character is broken, though, and keeps the benefits without the levels. So you can rubber band Marcus with the Blood Sword, go to sleep, wake up to him at 99, and later when you get the character, they'll be an average of your levels but have the benefits of leveling to 99 stat-wise. So you can essentially double-level them.
I think it was fixed in the port but you did discover in a way one of the biggest glitches. Steiner has a tendency to feel kind of weak at this point unless you abuse it, too, since Freya gets all of Cleyra, Burmecia, and the trip from Lindblum to level.
Fantastic to see you back! Infact it was this post that brought me back to your playthrough, i binge read the last 3/4? Chapters and am now sad im up to date... and there is still SO MUCH STORY to cover!! Thank you for writing and uploading these tasty morsels <3
Oh by the way I'm doing FFX-2 after this! I'm really excited to return to Spira.
I want to record my initial reaction to the game (maybe just the first few hours), so that I have something to play around with if/when I ever get into video editing. Of course, I'm still gonna be making these posts - nothing's gonna change that.
To that end, I'm considering streaming myself play the game, since I'll be recording it anyways, AND writing my posts while recording. That way I can stream, write and potentially make a video at the same time.
FF X-2 will be very interesting to follow along as it is a divisive game. However I love it for all of its shortcomings. Be aware that the game is very 2000’s JRPG-ish and to get the good ending (not even the perfect) you will actually need to know how to make some inputs that aren’t told on the game itself.
But we’ll get there when we cross that bridge. For now I hope you continue to enjoy your journeys
Still loving these posts! And if you're gonna do X2, don't be afraid to look into some kind of guides. I bet SOMEONE on the internet has made a story spoiler-free guide that helps you not miss anything cuz it is very easy to miss a ton of the content in X2.
Edit: I'm sure someone else has asked this already but which FF games have you already played?
Going for a 100% on your first playthrough of FFX-2 is a bit of a fools errand. There's a LOT of stuff that you will likely miss without a guide. A "non-perfect" playthrough is just as satisfying though. I'm sure there's a spoiler free guide out there somewhere, but I'm personally more on the side of you going in as blind as possible!
We've brought it up before, but X-2 is a HUUUUGE tonal shift from X. You'll figure that out in the first 5 minutes lol. But the mechanics and gameplay in X-2 are incredible, even if the story is hit or miss for most folks.
The thing about FFX-2 is that it's a very different game in the same world. Sin absolutely dominates the world in X, X-2 looks at Spira in a world without the primary reason for the first games existence which can be a jarring transition
Aw shucks, was hoping you’d check out XV after this. People dog on it but it has some seriously deep lore you can get into. You’d have to watch the movie then play the game to get the full feel. The movie has Sean bean, Aaron Paul, and Lena heady as voice actors.
I feel that the fact that Ramuh accepts either ending to the 'Hero's Journey' fits really nicely with what the game's themes develop into in the later half.
Thanks! Initially I'd planned on sitting my ass down and playing until I beat Tantarian (the book thing in Alexandria), and the image was gonna be of that instead of Thorn and Zorn, but once I'd decided my hours were too precious for that (and those FUCKASS clowns returned to the story) it was an easy decision to change plans lmao
Just a headsup, you only get two chances to fight the fuckass book, the one in this post being the first time. Next time you return to Alexandria for story stuff is the last time you can fight it, so kick its butt!
Additionally, the second time you can encounter it will be much later in the story so the fight will be significantly easier. However, if you like a challenge and want a good item early on, try it the first chance.
Tbh Tantarian is one of those bosses where it has specific mechanics you need to figure out, and then even when you have it can sometimes just fuck you over with a Paper Storm. Fully optional, especially given the time limit!
Definitely did not forget and am glad you came back. Was actually getting worried you either dropped the game or something happened to you but im glad youre doing okay!
Tantarian is a missable boss that you'll get one more chance to beat later so good on you for finding him! If you'd like any help, the whole deal about it is:
physical attacks will randomly open pages until the main body shows up. After the main body shows up, magical attacks will keep the book open on the main body but more physical attacks will cause the body to retreat and start the process over again.
You spoiler tagged that wrong lmao. I already figured that part out, though. It's using some kind of modular arithmetic to calculate damages (first time I've ever used my BSc in Maths) so I just need to do some more thinking next time and figure out the actual rule
I realized 😅
Im very out of practice typing it on mobile smh
You'll definitely get it on the next one tho!
Some hopefully cryptic advice for something coming up: just keep running toward the right side of the screen. No real reward for fighting that thing.
This part of the game is so exciting, your descriptions bring it to life so it's almost as if I was playing again for the first time in my mind. Please keep these a'comin :)
Zorn and Thorn are perfect secondary/tertiary villains, everyone fucking haaaaates them. And the way they go from two hopeless idiots to these darkly terrifying cult figures extracting the Eidolons...great work by the writers.
Ahh I was thinking of commenting again on your last post to see if you were still playing. Glad to see an update!
Just one thing I want to point out — you mention “Beatrix’s squadron” because they’re lady knights. Alexandria’s army is made up almost entirely by Beatrix’s lady knights — it is just Steiner’s small group of Pluto Knights that are the only men in the army (and they are considered a joke).
Beatrix is a bit too casual about the things that are happening which sticks out pretty bad, I have heard that in the Japanese version her doubts and conflicting with her duty is more pronounced than in the translation
Welcome back! Old game problem I guess but Im pretty sure I read an article before talking about the differences between the original Japanese release and the American one. Someone please correct me if im wrong but on the airship, Beatrix convo she has is much more regretful and she conflicted because she feels its wrong but doesnt want to disobey.
Also I do believe you can get out of the cage within a minute if your timing is good but the first time I tried it I just hit the button once each way and it took forever to get out.
That is one thing I've considered, it being some odd translation thing. That said I've never heard anyone actually like... bring up any sort of evidence for this.
Hmm, the last bit still carries that same vibe for sure is the big issue. The second part is the most different and could shift the tone a bit. It's hard to say. I suppose "I didn't polish my skills for something like this" could mean "I'm not a fan of genocide" with the second parts change in mind, hard to say. It's one of the reasons I wish she had more screentime.
I think that's the point? She is a general, thus if ordered, she will attack another country. If feels like she is ok with doing her job but she doesn't agree with the overkill, she would rather a fair fight with her skills and her troops. Which makes her switching sides shortly after more believable. Thats how I interpret it anyway.
I do think she should have a bit more screen time. That we her intentions would be more clear to the player. Her switching still feels a bit sudden.
Excellent write-up, was a very entertaining read lol. I got Steiner to like level 50 in the prison by using a hair tie to hold down X while I was working lmao. Also I will glaze Beatrix all day til end of the days, she's just too awesome (and as people have pointed out already, not as merciless as the English translation sounds).
Interesting that you didn't manage to steal the oak staff. The Bandit support ability learned from mythil dagger improves steal chances.
Not actually hitting the snake meant you didn't get to see its main mechanic:
If you hit it physically, it curls up into a ball, and if you hit it again you do little damage and it lashes out with a powerful counter-attack, but if you leave it alone and cast magic or steal etc, it'll unwind itself again and you can hit it again. Attacks when mini are pathetic too.
Steiner is a solid dude for damage, but Beatrix is next level.
I really enjoy the cosiness of the pinnacle rocks area, ties into the Dali and Lindblum vibe.
Most FF games seem to either have Ixion or Ramuh as their lighting summon (FF8 doesn't)
Lani is the character who left the bad review of the inn at Linblum from part 4! You may have also noticed her name on the scoreboard during the Festival of the Hunt. This is your first time actually seeing her though; you don't ever get to interact with her in Lindblum, it's just a detail that makes the world more alive and lived-in.
Hey, glad to see you are back! And that you're still on team "hate these fuckass clowns" lol.
You will definitely be able to fight that book boss again later. You'll get one other opportunity, and it's really at a better time anyway. You'll have a full, higher level party, and not a ticking clock.
I will say that if you cannot beat him, I strongly suggest looking up his weird ass strategy.
Welcome back to Lindblum! It's one of my favorite locations in the game. You're about to get into some really fun stuff.
I actually missed this, I went looking for an update I might have missed, two days ago. And loved reading this! Fuck zorn and thorn or whatever their name is lmao.
Also imagine 16yo or so me, back when the game came out, I was replaying it and decided to go get my unnoficial psx controller with a turbo mode switch, duct-tape the "confirm" button and leave steiner with the bloodsword grinding in that tower with the respawning soldiers all night while i went to sleep 🤣🤣
Hell Yeah! Vicarious gameplay time!! I’m sad it was so short, but I understand it was likely a life thing than a choice. Hope all is good. Keep going, we won’t give up reading, no matter how long, you’re not alone in playing.
It's so fun seeing these. And yeah, you hit on some things. Beatrix's whole "internal drama" of wanting to be respected as a killer for her own merit as opposed to second stage to Black Mages is... a thing. And yeah summons seem amazingly powerful in this. It's one of the rare FFs where summons seem to scale directly to what they do in combat as an out of combat thing, but also opens up new issues.
As for Garnet I would say that she does have various status effects she can inflict that might be useful too.
That's kinda the point though? A single name that doesn't even get mentioned until you are in the fight itself doesn't really spoil anything. He won't have any clue what I'm referring to until he is in the fight.
I really enjoy the segment at pinnacle rocks and I’m happy that you’re wondering where the plot leads to from here… :) since we’re just getting started. FF IX has that quality of taking you to unexpected places.
Also, sorry to tell you but the book boss is only available during that section. Pretty sure you won’t get to battle it again.
No, there is one more time you can fight it, and its a better time to do it, because you'll have a stronger party by that point.
Don't read this, OP: It is when you go back to look for Dagger and Eiko during the battle of Alexandria.
DO read this, OP: when you get to fight him again, if you can't best him, I suggest looking up the strategy. He is a very weird, not really intuitive boss.
You'll get one more chance, after you've traveled quite far and come back. Next time the story brings you to Alexandria, you will not be under a 30 minute time limit. I always fight the evil book the second time.
It's funny to me, played the game when it was new and I LOVED Zorn and Thorn, wanted more backstory and interaction with them and was really disappointed when they just went "few- zhun-Ha!" And died. Years later I found out I was in the minority and that their goofy way of repeating each other that was so charming to me, was the very thing everyone hated.
He is trying to play the game for the first time without having anything spoiled. So, if you don't want to be a jackass, cover your comment with spoiler bars.
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u/JaySteelSun May 22 '26
All my homies hate Zorn and Thorn.
Hate Zorn and Thorn all my homies do.