Galbadia takes live broadcasts VERY seriously

You know that whole situation in Dollet early on in the game which ultimately spirals down to wanting to fix a communications tower so they could air a live broadcast all around the world? Makes me wonder if they even asked beforehand or if they just decided to steamroll it. I can imagine the conversation they would have had, actually.

Galbadia Soldiers: We need to come through here and fix your communications tower.
Dollet Soldiers: Why? The thing has been busted for years.
Galbadia Soldiers: Because the President wants to make a live announcement!
Dollet Soldiers: A taped announcement is just as good as a live one.
Galbadia Soldiers: We said the President wants to make a live announcement...
Dollet Soldiers: Smurf the President!
Galbadia Soldiers: No, SMURF YOU! *open fires*
Dollet Soliders: *fires back* Ack! Our guns aren't working. Quick, bring us teenagers with attitude!

Discuss

Note: This shouldn't have to be said, but I feel it probably does, this is for fun and not to be taken as a serious critique of the game.

The whole live broadcast thing is kind of weird. And are everyone's tv sets just automatically set to pick up that live signal regardless of what they are already watching/if the tv is off? I guess the live broadcast did provide them the ability to use any rebel action to stop the broadcast against them as an excuse to show Edea and Galbadia's power like they did with Balamb.

But what about that dog that's hanging out in the square at Dollet before you go to the tower? That dog is kind of suspicious. I'm pretty sure it howled at one point when you were going to the tower maybe? Was it signalling to the Galbadian army that the SeeD were on the move? Dog = Ultimecia

Everybody knows that when the President has a speech all other programming gets interrupted.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Everybody knows that when the President has a speech all other programming gets interrupted.

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This is true.

They clearly just bust on in there and commandeered the communications tower. If I was in charge, I would force the whole of the world to watch re-runs of Red Dwarf.

I get that having a live broadcast is impressive and Deling wanted to showboat a little more but smurfing hell invading a country for that opportunity seems a little rich. I doubt they asked, given that Dollet was forced to maintain the comm. tower as part of the withdrawal agreement.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

You know that whole situation in Dollet early on in the game which ultimately spirals down to wanting to fix a communications tower so they could air a live broadcast all around the world? Makes me wonder if they even asked beforehand or if they just decided to steamroll it. I can imagine the conversation they would have had, actually.

Galbadia Soldiers: We need to come through here and fix your communications tower.
Dollet Soldiers: Why? The thing has been busted for years.
Galbadia Soldiers: Because the President wants to make a live announcement!
Dollet Soldiers: A taped announcement is just as good as a live one.
Galbadia Soldiers: We said the President wants to make a live announcement...
Dollet Soldiers: Smurf the President!
Galbadia Soldiers: No, SMURF YOU! *open fires*
Dollet Soliders: *fires back* Ack! Our guns aren't working. Quick, bring us teenagers with attitude!

Discuss

Note: This shouldn't have to be said, but I feel it probably does, this is for fun and not to be taken as a serious critique of the game.

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I lol'd irl at the "teenagers with attitude" part.

Truly, that aspect of FFVIII raises quite a few questions. Invading a neighbouring city-state to secure access to a single transmitter tower seems pretty extreme. Especially since Galbadia's invasion force includes a giant, autonomous killer robot spider. If they've got that kind of technology, surely a jury-rigged transmitter wouldn't be too much of a challenge, rather than sacrificing a bunch of dudes to take over Dollet's radio tower?

Then there's the SeeD response. The Duke asks for reinforcements; Cid replies that he'll get *some* of his best people on it, but he'll mainly be sending a bunch of 15 to 17 year olds who haven't fought any real people in battle before. Just, y'know, as a practical exam. And the Duke of Dollet was somehow OK with this, or simply didn't have a choice.

Then there's the issue of the SeeD exam itself. Cid tells his students, "Good news! It's time for your final exam. You're going to fight a bunch of soldiers in another country. If you follow orders and kill many men, you'll pass. If you screw up, you'll fail the test and also probably die. Why are we going to fight the Galbadian army and kill scores of people on foreign soil? Why, for money of course. Dollet's paying well for this service. That's all the justification you need, now go forth and slay!"

Remember, you can become a SeeD from age 15. Quistis was that age when she graduated. Which means there was likely a time when 15-year-old Quistis was ordered to flog strangers to death with a steel chain whip for no reason except that her superiors told her to.

The ethics and morality of Seed are deeply smurfed up when you think about it. Does Dr Kadowaki have extensive PTSD training? Does the Garden brig have the facilities to house and rehabilitate scores of teenage psychopaths? We may never know.

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Originally Posted by Big D

Remember, you can become a SeeD from age 15. Quistis was that age when she graduated. Which means there was likely a time when 15-year-old Quistis was ordered to flog strangers to death with a steel chain whip for no reason except that her superiors told her to.

The ethics and morality of Seed are deeply smurfed up when you think about it. Does Dr Kadowaki have extensive PTSD training? Does the Garden brig have the facilities to house and rehabilitate scores of teenage psychopaths? We may never know.

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Fortunately all of this psychic trauma is forgotten since Balamb Garden's SEEDs all use GFs.

Maybe that's why the GFs are used at Balamb Garden, and why Headmaster Robin Williams has decided to wave away the suspicions of GFs causing memory loss. It's his way to treat and avoid PTSD stuff. or something.

I could be remembering wrong, but I feel like Balamb is the only Garden that really uses (and forces the use of) GFs. Was it also the only place that held the SeeD exams, or could Galbadia do that too? I know Selphie transferred from Trabia because they didn't do SeeD exams there.

What is even the point of Trabia Garden now that I think about it? Is it mostly a normal school that just has a track you could follow to become a SeeD? That's the feel I get for it. Galbadia Garden just seems more like a military academy since many of the students graduate there and join the Galbadian Military. It makes sense in the context of Deling and the Galbadian nation. Balamb is the most shady of the group considering they are just creating teenage mercenaries with no real overall purpose. I mean, it started as sort of an ideological thing of taking these kids (mostly orphans it feels like) that exist in this war-torn world to help prepare for and prevent another sorceress from starting a war, but that purpose seems kind of forgotten by this game until Edea pops up. And now I'm just rambling. I should just go to bed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ercy/139yc.jpg

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Originally Posted by Big D

Which means there was likely a time when 15-year-old Quistis was ordered to flog strangers to death with a steel chain whip for no reason except that her superiors told her to.

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Yeah. A whip.

http://www.geocities.ws/pandora_vale...mv2_04quis.jpg

anyway yall are forgetting that whole Adel junction blocking prison in space thing, sure you could jury rig any old transmitter together, good luck getting it working, Dollet was just too lazy to dismantle their useless trout and paid the price for having the only remaining high-powered transmitter left in the world

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Originally Posted by WildRaubtier

anyway yall are forgetting that whole Adel junction blocking prison in space thing, sure you could jury rig any old transmitter together, good luck getting it working, Dollet was just too lazy to dismantle their useless trout and paid the price for having the only remaining high-powered transmitter left in the world

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Actually, if Dollet's comm tower was so easy to fix that Biggs and Wedge could do it, why hadn't Dollet just kept the thing running in the first place? It probably would've come in handy for those 17 years (or however long it was) that Adel was in space.

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Originally Posted by Big D

Then there's the SeeD response. The Duke asks for reinforcements; Cid replies that he'll get *some* of his best people on it, but he'll mainly be sending a bunch of 15 to 17 year olds who haven't fought any real people in battle before.

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One should be weary when Cid says he's sending his best people.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

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Originally Posted by Big D

Then there's the SeeD response. The Duke asks for reinforcements; Cid replies that he'll get *some* of his best people on it, but he'll mainly be sending a bunch of 15 to 17 year olds who haven't fought any real people in battle before.

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One should be weary when Cid says he's sending his best people.

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Yeah, I think Cid was telling the truth there.

We never see more than, what, five SeeDs at a time? How many SeeDs are there, anyway? They were apparently the instructors for the test, so maybe one per boat?

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

We never see more than, what, five SeeDs at a time? How many SeeDs are there, anyway? They were apparently the instructors for the test, so maybe one per boat?

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Cid mentions that 9 SeeD members will accompany the 12 candidates, so 4 instructors, 4 'normal' SeeDs and Xu?

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

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Originally Posted by Big D

Then there's the SeeD response. The Duke asks for reinforcements; Cid replies that he'll get *some* of his best people on it, but he'll mainly be sending a bunch of 15 to 17 year olds who haven't fought any real people in battle before.

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One should be weary when Cid says he's sending his best people.

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Yeah, I think Cid was telling the truth there.

We never see more than, what, five SeeDs at a time? How many SeeDs are there, anyway? They were apparently the instructors for the test, so maybe one per boat?

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Yeah, I know. I was making a joke.

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Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy

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Originally Posted by WildRaubtier

anyway yall are forgetting that whole Adel junction blocking prison in space thing, sure you could jury rig any old transmitter together, good luck getting it working, Dollet was just too lazy to dismantle their useless trout and paid the price for having the only remaining high-powered transmitter left in the world

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Actually, if Dollet's comm tower was so easy to fix that Biggs and Wedge could do it, why hadn't Dollet just kept the thing running in the first place? It probably would've come in handy for those 17 years (or however long it was) that Adel was in space.

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yall are forgetting that whole Adel junction blocking prison in space thing

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to refresh: the equipment used to imprison adel after the esthar revolution was so powerful it jammed the airwaves across the entire planet. the tower was completely useless (apparently, deling's broadcast notwithstanding) the entire time

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Originally Posted by WildRaubtier

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Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WildRaubtier

anyway yall are forgetting that whole Adel junction blocking prison in space thing, sure you could jury rig any old transmitter together, good luck getting it working, Dollet was just too lazy to dismantle their useless trout and paid the price for having the only remaining high-powered transmitter left in the world

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Actually, if Dollet's comm tower was so easy to fix that Biggs and Wedge could do it, why hadn't Dollet just kept the thing running in the first place? It probably would've come in handy for those 17 years (or however long it was) that Adel was in space.

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yall are forgetting that whole Adel junction blocking prison in space thing

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to refresh: the equipment used to imprison adel after the esthar revolution was so powerful it jammed the airwaves across the entire planet. the tower was completely useless (apparently, deling's broadcast notwithstanding) the entire time

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And yet apparently it just took Biggs and Wedge tinkering with the tower for ten minutes to pierce the interference.

Those guys should've been engineers instead of soldiers. They would have made a fortune.

I'm guessing that Edea was instrumental in assisting with the broadcast actually being possible. Also, that kind of thing seems like something Deling is willing to pump too much money into for a one-off.

In all likelihood they are part of the Galbadian's engineer corps. I forget what they're doing in the Lunatic Pandora but I'd say even money they're trying to get trout there to work, too.

(ignore their prison appearance that's probably just a punishment assignment or something)

As for the tower, it was probably always able to pierce the interference. However, that would probably be a costly thing to run, and, in the meantime, everyone else is marching forward into the world of cable broadcasting.

The only real inconsitency is how Galbadian engineers managed to get a major piece of equipment like that to run in only a few hours when 17 years of exposure to sea air would likely have wreaked some major havoc on the electronics.

but yeah its definitely some scheming by ultimecia to ruin trout via adel

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Originally Posted by Jiro

I'm guessing that Edea was instrumental in assisting with the broadcast actually being possible. Also, that kind of thing seems like something Deling is willing to pump too much money into for a one-off.

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It's good to know our tax gils are going to worthy causes.

Thanks Deling.

It seems pointless to us but here we are communicating thousands of miles apart from each other in real time. I mean, I know it's a message board but if we all sat here hitting F5 then it would be real time.

Can you imagine the gravity of seeing a live broadcast for the first time? Maybe not, but we have evidence of that; look at what people were like when they saw TV for the first time. Look at how they reacted to trout like the moon landing.

On the other hand, people knew about the moon landing because it was broadcast everywhere ahead of time, and everyone already had the equipment.

If the purpose of the broadcast was to reach people without cable, how does that work? No one without cable would have a TV or radio on regularly enough to know your transmission is coming ahead of time, because every time they turn it on, they get static.