We didn't say her motivation was weak, neither narratively nor in terms of quality. We said the shift in her motivation from prior to encountering her future self (i.e. "generally watch out for Sophitia") to after encountering her future self (i.e. "watch out for Sophitia, especially if a certain series of events begins playing out") is subtle.
In particular, it's subtle in contrast to Zasalamel's shift from a self-centered goal of ending his own existence to a species-centered goal of helping humanity achieve its potential.
Well whatever the nomenclature, the fact is that Cassandra is now armed with a (apparently quite detailed?) account of what transpires from that point on, and every motivation to avoid that outcome. I suppose you can argue that Dante's closed causality loops is still, in the strict technical sense, a possibility and this warning can be interpreted as something that was always a part of her story: in other words, Cassandra was always so hyper motivated to protect her sister and intercede on her behalf because she knew what was coming: after-all, the soul chronicle epiprologue does make clear that the showdown with her own future self is the first time she picks up a sword to fight.
But frankly, I just don't buy it: it just doesn't match with the Soulcalibur mythos and thematic priorities of "forging your own path." The idea of people trapped in a fate that cannot be altered, even when people are armed with the kind of foresight that comes with time travel, is a big artistic stand to take, and requires a more subtle story to do right. In other words, I don't think the writers of this series have either the inclination or the wherewithal to try it. This isn't the context where such a story would arise, as a media matter, and the palette of this game is particularly ill-suited to it since, much as the thematics of the series are kind of basic and uninspired, the one thing you can say about them is that they are consistent on one point: personal drive and willpower are the be-all and end-all of human existence. I don't see a developer who has spent years and years and years carving a repetitive story out of vague "can-do" platitudes suddenly reversing course and telling using an extended narrative over several games to create the idea of a timeline that repeats itself perfectly and offers no recourse or possibility of change to characters, even once friggin' time travel comes into the picture.
And that's BEFORE we even look at what the story is expressly telling us in this game already, as with that quote at the end of Cassandra's story. Dante has checked her reasonably analysis at the door as a consequence of her desire to see the uber lore of this game continue and have all the various what-if scenarios rolled into one "cannon" narrative. Personally I think the value in such a story would be more an exercise in OCD than good story-telling, but regardless, I don't think the "close retelling" is going to last into the next game; In fact, I think it's unravelling fast in this game's continuing support content by direct intention of the devs. I do think we will see previous plot beats from SCIII through SCV repeat in future games, but I can't imagine that the story we are being presented with now represents anything other than clear indication that the story is headed in disparate new directions.
Despite Rusted's decision to highlight the name of "Unbreakable Soul" in red, I think what he was really intending our attention be called to from that passage is "carve a new future."
Just so: though I don't think the use of those terms was by any means accidental, but in fact very much on the nose.
I mean, other than the unfortunate fact that the future goes on to allow for "Tekken" to happen ... which I suppose is as bleak as it gets ...
Hahaha, yeah, the people of that fictional universe really do have a lot to complain about. Hyper violence is one thing,
I feel like it’s a shame that Unbreakable Soul is potentially so relevant, while the exposure level of that is so incredibly low. Delivering story elements through a mobile phone gacha game is beyond silly, and canceling it before the indicator that it would be relevant is even doubly more so. Broken Destiny, however, was always touted as a non-canon silly adventure, so I don’t know why that would get a push either.
Well, that's essentially the same as saying they never should have made a mobile game period, because that's pretty much the way these things always play out in that market. Those games used to be made for only a select, limited number of operating systems--having just ahandful of mostly consistent platforms like iOS and Android to develop on is a relatively new development--mostly for Japanese mobile platforms and services. They very often got lost in this fashion, even if they were substantially more popular than Soulcalibur. Fans just recently, after a decade of concerted, organized effort, managed to piece back together Before Crisis, the mobile game entry int he Compilations of Final Fantasy VII sub-franchise--and the story that game was connected to is arguably the single most popular game narrative of all time (certainly up there on the list if nothing else). But of coruse Namco was going to tap that lucrative market that looked like an unending stream of microtransaction gold about six years back. And of course it was happy to lose the the thing mostly to the ether as soon as it stopped being profitable. There's just not much surprising about any of that.
As for BD being a "silly, non-cannon adventure", how is that any different from the vast majority of the plots of every Soulcal game prior to SCV? They're all pretty ridiculous and include plot elements that are hard to take seriously if we put them under a microscope. As for the game being "touted" as somehow more non-cannon than other games, the touting, insofar as I can tell, amounts to fan interpretation (which I've only seen on this forum) that one line early in the game establishes that we are to be giving substantially less credence to this story than the others. I would say that one line (referencing "extended myths" or something to that effect) leaves at least some room for interpretation. Given the difficulties (some would say folly) of trying to decide what is truly cannon in a story like SC's pre-SCV narrative, I would say that it's at least possible that some elements of BD could, in time, be rolled into the new pastiche story. Which could have some consequence as I think it massages some of the same plot points as Unbreakable Soul, vis-a-vis Cassandra.
Even if this wasn't the plan, such a hamfisted event is definitely within the realm of possibility for a SoulCalibur story, and I'd think you'd agree. There is always a way.
Well, let's put it this way: had they decided to make another game in the series and didn't want to do the soft reboot, would they have found a way to just bring the swords back in some oh-so-convenient way that completely erodes any sense of meaning or resolution to the plot of the previous game, same as they did for every other previous game in the series? Yeah, of course. The plot of this series, like all fighters, serves the overriding need to come up with excuses, no matter how clumsy or non-self-consistent, to put the combatants in front of none-another. But that's not what they ultimately decided to do here. I don't know how much of their approach in VI was a desire to preserve the resolution and integrity of the "conclusion" of the story in V (probably very little).
I don't even think the "let's distance ourselves from SCV" motive was as prominent a driver as many people in the western fanbase seem to assume it was. I suspect rather that it had more to do with the fact that they had painted themselves into a corner where they could not, without extremely convoluted cannon, recreate many of the popular characters that they would need to lean on to try to revitalize the franchise, and so a reboot was almost their only option. But I do think SCV was nevertheless conceived of and presented as an actual resolution to the saga (no matter how unrelastic as a practical matter that the story would end there). SCVI's re-tell the story but then let it diverge tactic is clearly PS's attempt to have their cake and eat it too, in that respect.
Well that was just me having a dark mood moment while I was posting, to keep the darkness and tragedy angle consistent. Another possibility, though, is that Cassandra could act as a surrogate mother, that would be another way to ensure that Pyrrha is not cursed. Whether or not Sophitia and Rothion would be okay with that, however, would be another story. It's not like Cassandra is the type to settle down with a boyfriend, let alone a husband/kids.
I don't see how Cassandra being a surrogate mother would really guaruntee much of a change in outcome. Sophitia is still cursed by the fragment and her children are still going to be subject to that curse and the various implications no matter who raises them.
Algol, though, I just expect him to rise as before and be confronted, with more personalized story details this time, with there only being one true canon..
Well, at the end of the day, Algol created Soul Edge and despite the corrupting influence it has on literally everyone else, he has been shown to be able to easily bend it to his will--there's a kind of Sauron/the One Ring aspect to their story in this regard. I know he faced the usual fate of new main villains in fighting games of being demoted to just another fighter in SCV, but I feel that in a story that tries to homogenize all the previous lore together, he would have some major role to play.
Maybe, and such a line was also in Zasalamel's dialogue. Though I still do reserve the right to believe they're just cheekily identifying this game's reboot status.
I mean, they are. And then they expressly say--as explicitly as they can in the words of the narrative itself, almost in fourth-wall breaking fashion,
"But she has the ability to change all of this--ooooooh, isn't it interesting where this is likely to go??" The fact that they cheekily integrated it with reference to the other games and Cassandra's specific role within them is just more evidence of them telegraphing what they are doing, not an alternative explanation.
I will believe there will be a radical change when the time comes, but for now, they haven't yet given me enough to believe in the "new timeline" at all. I'm not saying there hasn't been messages sent back in time or a literal time traveler, because there have, but they haven't yet shown their timeline model.
That's because you've got your rose-coloured lore nerd glasses on and are not seeing the forest for the trees. Yes, you can throw up one pedantic "Well there's nothing absolutely violated within the narratives that proves this can't be a closed temporal loop, yadda yadda yadda, see exhibits A, B, and C..." But at the end of the day, the internal dynamics of the plot are just one side of the story here, and you have to turn a blind eye to the context of which this story is marketed and sold, and to the own thematic hints the devs themselves are firing at you with their own narration in order to believe this is all going to play out exactly the same all over again.
