This is absolutely an ominous room.
...Guys.
Are we really walking into the final battle with a Paper Mario short-sightedness joke?
The Evil Count Bleck, playing for the first time in a while as Bleck himself takes the field.
Tippi making absolutely sure she uses the correct name for him.
Heard it all before, you monocled madman.
Tippi, who knows him as Blumiere, is probably the best character to sit in this position. We don't know and, with these stakes, we ought not care, but this is just personal enough to Tippi that she's willing to ask.
...As ludicrous as this sounds, if all worlds are completely erased, down to the afterlife... who's to contradict him? If there are no other worlds to observe you, who's to say you existed after the fact?
At this point, the fact that Tippi is Timpani, she fully understands her role in the Timpani/Blumiere affair, and that she's prepared to rake Blumiere over the coals for being Bleck become apparent. The player, if they had their head screwed on, should already long know this, but technically this is supposed to be a bit of a wham moment.
...No, Blumiere. You can't really say that. Timpani deserves to hear that thought said aloud. And while Count Bleck might not be the voice to say it, it is the voice she's had to listen to all game.
Blumiere has given up. Whether Count Bleck is telling him to or Blumiere is just that far gone, appealing to his better nature is a lost cause.
Timpani comes to terms with that.
We're now talking to Bleck himself.
And he's more than ready to meet us in turn.
Bleck certainly has the theatrics necessary to really sell the whole "final boss" vibes. He may be by-the-book, but he does his one job well.
Such a shame he never should've taken that task.
Nastasia never gets a boss fight. Technically speaking, her "boss fight" is the legions of Bleck minions that get thrown at us over the game and through Castle Bleck- especially those Mega Muths- but if you were expecting her hypno powers to come into gameplay, you will be disappointed. There's something else that would've given Nastasia an edge, although I'm not sure that would help. If you want a Nastasia fight, I might throw in a suggestion for Antasma.
Even if she stuck around, I think she'd do more to help Timpani than Bleck anyway.
Rather fittingly, Count Bleck's boss theme is titled "Closing Battle". It's also another one of my favourite boss fight songs in the game- Bleck's theme really works well for it.
...When did he change the field to this?
That's Count Bleck... This dark figure wants to destroy the universe. He was once Blumiere, a man that I loved... Max HP is 150, Attack is 8. He will use all the powers the Chaos Heart grants him. But you can beat him if you give it your all... And beat him you must... For the sake of all worlds... And to save the Blumiere I loved...
Count Bleck is a relatively uncomplicated attacker, although the fact he's one of the only bosses to have an actual arena to speak of helps him get acclaim. He will zip around the field to stand on one of these squares as decided by his own whims, before throwing various attacks. Usually, he'll throw miniature Voids at you that swallow you whole for 8 damage, but he can also cast magic spells that give you the Speed or Slow Flower effects.
Good luck keeping track of where these things are, and how not to jump into them going for the bonk.
...And even if you can figure out how to land a hit, the Chaos Heart shields him from harm. So much for being weaker than the Mega Muths.
Tippi will repeat this, in case you missed it. Seemed pretty obvious. This happened to Mario the first time, back in Bowser's Castle, and we haven't done anything to change this circumstance.
A little bit further into the fight, Bleck will teleport to a static position and shake his head.
He is very disappointed that the promise of a grand battle was not ultimately matched by an actual battle, because he cheated and maintained invincibility.
We should have had a better plan than this.
Bleck presses on with his plan to wipe out the multiverse.
We tried and failed to stop him already, what are we going to do now?
Fortunately, someone has an objection to that.
Bowser takes offense to the idea that Mario is stopped by someone who hasn't tried as many times as he has. Bowser's tried for years, why should Bleck succeed on the first go?
His arrival, and that of our second wind, is accompanied by this song, an extended version of the Heart Pillar theme that more than lives up to the moment.
...Throw a point to Nastasia doing the crushing, whoever was up to these shenanigans reported their defeats to Bleck. Or Bleck was keeping tabs on his minions to see why they stop sending reports back.
Peach and Luigi step up with their own rallying cries. Luigi kinda sells his own short because he realises that there is nothing he can do that is more impressive than what Peach did to Mimi.
So then, would you care to explain your miraculous survivals in this dramatic moment?
Bowser fell through the floor. Luckily, the ceiling got caught on the rest of the floor.
Bowser: "Yeah, for you."
Another weird thing about this scene is that they kinda forget these two went down with O'Chunks and Mimi, so they don't bring up where they went. Remember that, when Peach fell down, she was holding onto Mimi.
Hahaha they don't even try to provide a reasonable explanation for how Dimentio let him out of his trap. If you are not the least bit suspicious of some sort of funny business, you have forgotten who Dimentio is.
He may not necessarily think anyone but him is necessary, but he is happy to say that an army of "Bowser + 3 hangers on" is more than enough to take on the Count regardless of who those hangers on happen to be. The fact that one of them's Mario, and Peach and Luigi aren't slouches in this game, is just icing on the cake.
Count Bleck's version of the prophecy predicts his victory, so when things go the way the book says, he feels a bit more confident in his success.
Although this wasn't part of the plan!
(The ascription of that second line to Peach seems to be in error- with the way that line is phrased, I expect it's supposed to be Count Bleck saying it.)
Right. Those things. Those things we spent all game collecting to presumably use in the final fight. It turns out they're actually used to help us overpower the Chaos Heart. You might remember this as the sole reason the Pure Hearts were even MADE in the first place.
Thank you, Luvbi!
...Weirdly, the music cuts out now.
We rock.
Forgive me for not being entirely impressed our plan did the thing we made it to do. They've only talked about how the Ancients made that plan up entirely to prevent this exact thing often enough. This seems less like genuine awe and more Tippi kinda just... being her general "amazed at everything" self.
Did you see Mario flip into 3D just now?
Bleck calls for the final battle to continue. Theoretically, this means the Chaos Heart can continue if we stop existing to power the Pure Hearts to stop it.
The battle merely continues as it started, but now we can play as other characters and also "do damage". That second thing is the important part.
You may resume Closing Battle now.
Of course, I'll be playing as Peach. Gliding around seems like a helpful thing to have. Super Jump would also be nice, but hey, we're here for girl power.
Although we can be a little slow as a result.
This Void is so big that it has its own gravitational pull, superceding the one on the ground and pulling you in like a Kirby villain. Like in Kirby, running as hard as you can is all you need to get out of dodge.
And of course, Bleck can just move into you at high speed to deal damage.
You can't deny a good ol' "slow them down and then throw an attack at them" strategy.
Although I have somehow landed a hit on you anyway.
Peach's cute little curtsey she does on a Stylish hit never stops fitting the situation, especially in this one.
...I'm not sure what my intention here was, but now it's about that cool transition frame for Bleck.
The directions you go escaping this Void can get hilarious.
...OK, I know it's your attack, but you should totally be getting hit by that too.
Motion blur.
Thanks to Dashell, we can pull ourselves out of this vacuum depsite being Slow.
Although we are having one hell of a time keeping up with this slow pace. Ironically.
Got him in the end. That was an 11 bonk fight at 14 Atk for me. At this level, there's a surprisingly smooth curve of "every Atk level up shaves only one bonk off"- not bad considering the scale of chaos you can get. Of course, all hell breaks loose with Bowser + Carrie allowing you to halve those.
The music switches in to Champion of Destruction, which, while the correct motif, doesn't exactly fit the mood of the ensuing scene.
The Chaos Heart falls to the ground, and Blumiere- not Count Bleck- appears beside it, defeated.
Blumiere is satisfied, to Nastasia's surprise.
All Blumiere wanted was an end to it all. And he figures, well... this is as good an end as any, even if the world gets to live on afterwards.
Timpani steps forward and asks to know why Blumiere even needs to be taken out.
It takes a lot of time to get to the point Blumiere was at. Presumably, this was the time he picked up Chunks, Mimi and Nastasia, since they know the general picture about Timpani but are surprised she still exists. No doubt they kept these doubts to themselves.
This sort of omnicidal maniac is one of the easiest ways to write it, but the fact that Count Bleck is likely to be your first one owing to his existence in the Mario brand- and also the fact he's a relatively sympathetic one since his hands have very little blood directly on them- makes it very easy for your first reaction to the situation to stick and stick hard. I expect this is the big reason Blumiere is so beloved- they backload the reveal so heavily that anybody with more than a childlike sense of wonder and "only seeing what is directly spelled out" as a reader saw the foreshadowing spelling it out three chapters ago.
No one, perhaps... save the man in white himself.
Blumiere can die happy knowing that Bleck's work was in vain, but he must still die.
He is the reason the Void is growing, and only without him can it be stopped.
...Perhaps Timpani was better off without her memories.
And if that wasn't bad enough, it seems our situation has gone from bad to worse.
The music, of course, cuts out, but the ominous throbbing noise of the Chaos Heart makes all the ambience you could ever want.
Somebody has decided now is the perfect time to hand in their resignation.
"Hey, guys, didn't you hear him? He was asking to be killed. He gave explicit instructions!"
Strangely, Dimentio's villain reveal is not accompanied by Charming Magician. I guess they wanted to keep the Chaos Heart's ominous noises in focus.
Luigi's suspiciously empty story, of course, was a clue that Dimentio had quietly snuck out of the pages of this story to perform dastardly deeds from the safety of the backstage.
He ultimately wanted to be the controller of the Chaos Heart, but with Bleck occupying that seat, his hands were tied.
And look who's done the dirty work of doing something about that.
...The Purity Heart only works once? Well, clearly the Ancients had a lot of faith in the idea that it would only need to work once. No wonder the Dark Prognosticus predicted the Chaos Heart's victory.
...OK, I understand you're not willing to humour Timpani's idiotic questions either, but that is not at all what you were saying. But yeah, that whole "omnicidal maniac" thing? Dimentio's that now.
And hey, remember how we left Luigi unattended with Dimentio?
The guy with mind control sprouts on him?
Move over, Grodus, because I think Dimentio's some stiff competition on crafty villainous plans. I think Grodus has the edge on craftiness, since Dimentio has the more powerful resources. I certainly prefer Grodus's evil plan.
This is when the music kicks in: This starts the playing of the final boss theme, The Ultimate Show. Like Bowser's Inside Story's Into The Final alongside it, this is a beloved final boss theme that deserves its reputation, although it is going to be largely out of place to talk about it now. They're mostly using the slow opening as ambience to punctuate the dramatic moment for now. I will say that I'm told in combines the leitmotifs of Charming Magician and Green Thunder, fittingly for its use case.
Again, Luigi woke up cold after being alone with Dimentio. Frankly, there was no other outcome that could possibly happen in a PEGI 3+ game.
Dimentio is happy to confirm that is when and how he did it.
And that is the story of how Luigi doesn't even get to fight the final boss on account of being part of it.
So much for being Luigi's big break.
I dunno, I usually tend to prefer the ones where nobody is sacrificed on the altar of one man's ambition. You may be a powerful magician, but are you as fun to listen to as Steven Bridges? Come back once you can claim that!
The Chaos Heart goes and creates a void for Luigi to be sucked into.
Creating a gigantic Luigi/Dimentio hybrid... thing. I've been told that this default pose for this monstrosity resembles the standing sprite for Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. 1, and... I buy it. It will very quickly stop looking like that, but you don't make a nightmare monstrosity like this without that sort of mayhem.
Also, the platforms in the back have been turned into moving Dimentio platforms. They're not harmful, but they won't stop moving.
Luigi got brainwashed into being the final boss and even Mr. L doesn't get to have any say in this.
Peach being the final boss of TTYD was built up throughout the TEC arc and had actual (if largely unexplored) emotional ramifications for Mario. This one line is the most impact that the final boss of SPM being Luigi has of comparing.
And the fact there's a ? in that punctuation is perhaps more a question of "why him?" than "you monster".
Dimentio doesn't really specify why Luigi. This is all he has to say on the topic. My belief that Luigi is the ideal host because he was the first to physically touch the Chaos Heart (when he jumped on it during the wedding) is completely unsupported and unreferenced by the text. It would be cool if that was the case, but even if it were, that still more or less means Dimentio is completely wiping Luigi's agency to insert his own and bypass that particular lock on the Chaos Heart's power.
And even then, it's not like Count Bleck needed Luigi to do damage. He still destroyed the Sammer Kingdom even without Luigi's help. OK, Luigi was still Mr. L at the time, but he was actively AWOL at the exact moment.
Dimentio's going to soup up the monstrosity even further, but first...
There's one last thing he needs to do as Dimentio, and that hasn't been done yet.
He needs to formally get rid of his old employers, mostly so they're no longer in the room anymore. This also catches Timpani, but I've caught a shot before her Dimentio box has appeared.
The fact Dimentio hadn't done this sooner is because even he forgot it was a necessary step. He'd do something more permanent, but he was on a roll, he'd like to finish up. So he throws these three in Dimension D and decides he'll figure out something more permanent when he's not quite so busy.
Dimentio enters the monstrosity, and it flashes white.
Now this monstrosity is Dimentio- or to use its official name, Super Dimentio. He never actually winds up leaving it- whether he can is a question to ask of a more successful creation.
Dimentio proclaims that he will, in fact, carry out Count Bleck's stated ambition. Whether or not it works depends, but he can't test that theory until we're no longer bothering him.
Thus starts the boss fight against Dimentio, and once again, here we are without Tippi. Will wonders never cease? The fact that he's so tall makes it hard to damage him, especially since all the moving platforms must be clambered up precisely.
Super Dimentio's attacks include shooting lasters at you and Super Jumping, attempting to land on you. I think this smaller reticle is for the former, even if it looks like he's done the latter.
Oh yeah, by the way, this entire time he's been on-and-off glowing with the old "Charge" visual effect from TTYD. This denotes his own invincibility, and rather fittingly, also his ensuring power surge.
With us futilely unable to do any damage with our attacks, he is going to go ahead and summon that Void now.
Dimentio's flowery similes don't sound so unthreatening now, huh?
At least he's sorta carrying on Luigi's spirit. But still. Luigi would be ashamed to be letting down his big bro.
He wasn't kidding: We're going to show off some of these worlds coming to collapse.
The destruction of all worlds is accompanied by another of the unnamed but no less well-composed songs. Honestly, the composer has done a lot of good work to hold up the mood of the story.
Because Nolrem sure isn't doing his part.
...And there goes Flopside. Even the place that was supposed to be safe from evil met its end.
As does Yold Town.
And the Land of Cragnons, too. These places were likely chosen for having people in them- we really don't have too many of those.
And now we cut to a dimension not quite in as much immediate peril: Timpani and Blumiere's place. Nastasia is still sleeping off what was intended to be a lethal blow.
This scene in Dimension D has the theme Promise, which starts off bleak, but slowly crescendos into a more optimistic mix the further the scene goes and the situation gets better.
Also they are being kept in another dimension where they have little to do. Usually, people who exist in Dimension D are busy fighting for Dimentio's amusement or furtherance of his goals.
Also, note how Blumiere is on his feet. We are 256 times more powerful in here.
...I don't think that ever came up. The specific promise provided is "if there is a place where we can be happy, we will find it"- it gets repeated later, but I'm not sure where it was supposed to turn up before.
This current situation doesn't read like Blumiere breaking his promise- it reads like the world really not wanting these two to be happy.
Honestly, this is the natural end I'd assume at this point. The guy got so desperate he literally tried to destroy everything. Timpani's optimism may just come from having been divorced from the situation for so long thanks to her amnesia- Timpani herself was on board with ending the idea back when Blumiere's father was a character.
It's a little hard to praise your respective persistence when one of you was functionally dead until a kindly old man turned you into something else that was capable of continuing to live while the other one did everything in his power and more to kill himself, including a death of personality. The fact that you are both still here is a miracle, not a testament to your respective braveries.
With that said, however, there are people who have a more tangible claim to the title of being wronged by Blumiere's bad promises.
If Bowser and Peach survived, Chunks and Mimi did too. Unlike Dimentio, they were loyal to the Count to the end, and now the time has come for Count Bleck to die and Blumiere to return, these two will be happy to support whoever's wearing the monocle now.
"More importantly, where's the door?"
Honestly, I'd approve if this was the actual answer.
Because honestly, the answer... kinda forgets where the hell this place is. This is Dimentio's personal dimension for anything he needs to do. The fact Blumiere was sent here is a result of Dimentio's betrayal. For Nastasia to have foreseen it to the point of warning Chunks and Mimi suggests she knew Dimentio was going to betray Bleck.
My personal preference in answer is that Dimentio sent Chunks and Mimi to Dimension D after they lost to Bowser and Peach, respectively- explains why they disappeared from Bowser and Peach's version of events, and also means they can't do anything productive like get the Count to do things counter to his goals.
...I don't think she ever actually gets up during the plot. She is still alive, but Chunks kinda talks about the possibility that Dimentio did actually kill her with that blast- a blast intended to kill Blumiere, remember.
At any rate, O'Chunks is more than ready to finish what Nastasia started and Timpani is trying her hardest to finish- getting the Count to kick Dimentio out of his villain seat.
Mimi's also pitching in, too. Ultimately, while these two did serve Count Bleck at his darkest (and I'm questioning Mimi's morality with the whole "slave" thing, she is also running on the maturity of a teenage girl), they do ultimately follow the man who helped them in their times of need, and right now, the time has come for them to repay that debt in full.
So yeah, you remember how the Purity Heart is formed, not just through romantic love, but all forms- familial, platonic, loyalty, and et cetera? Mario, Peach and Bowser may not share the strongest bonds of such relationships- especially without Luigi and Paper Mario not being the greatest brother anyway- but the Count, Timpani, Chunks and Mimi do share enough of those bonds to shine brightly. All the Purity Heart did the first time anyway was get Bleck off his dark path and back into Blumiere's shoes anyway. You'd think it'd go away forever just for that?
(Somewhat ironically, Blumiere's face has resumed glowing red. I always assumed blue meant Blumiere and red meant Bleck, but it seems something's gone awry and that is no longer the case.)
...Perhaps the more pertinent question is why you lot have them in the first place. Perhaps Tippi regathered them after beating Bleck. Presumably because she was trying to use them to help Blumiere. I'll accept that answer.
It's nice, that the fact the love between the Count, Chunks and Mimi was shown to be enough to power the Purity Heart. In so many stories where "love" is the thing that wins, romantic love is always shown as the strongest force. It's always good to recognise when the alternatives are shown. These guys may be a rather messed up found family, but they are still family all the same.
And once again, entering and leaving Dimension D is apparently possible. So much for this being Dimentio's wastebasket for people he's not dealing with. Apparently, Blumiere and Timpani not having gone back to Dimentio was a question of willingness, not capacity.
Anyway, back to Super Dimentio and the Heroes, Super Dimentio has not yet won, although even he's starting to get bored by that fact.
Fortunately, things just got a little more interesting.
Since this is our cue for a second wind, Ultimate Show is back for a nice proper thrashing.
Dimentio seemed to believe the Purity Heart was good for only one shot. Same as most of us. But fortunately, love finds a way.
And the Purity Heart can do what it was designed to do- defeat the villain using the Chaos Heart.
And right now... that's you, Dimentio.
There's also a free heal before the real final boss, Paper Mario tradition. There's no explanation, but no real need. It's nice to have that safety net.
And also Timpani is back, ready to use her power to... tell us his stats. People made fun of Navi for this setup back in 1998 and Ocarina of Time, forgetting that Navi was also the justification for the lock-on mechanic (which is genuinely not available in the Ganondorf fight but is in the Ganon fight). There is no reason to use Tippi's powers to make the fight easier.
But hey, thanks for getting those Pure Hearts back. Makes our job so much easier.
That’s Super Dimentio, a freakish blend of Dimentio, the Chaos Heart, and Luigi... That monstrous body has immense power... Max HP is 200. Attack is 6. Concentrate attacks to the head. You’ll have to climb those platforms to reach the head to attack. This is truly the final battle... Winning is the only option...
Super Dimentio is a boss in two parts: His head has 0 Defence, and he can send it anywhere he pleases on that extendable neck. His body is a little tougher to move around and easier to land on, but if you jump on it (considered anywhere on that rufflet), your Attacks must make their way past 4 Defence. Imagine, a boss with an actual Defence stat! These different stats apply no matter what you're using- so even Cudge must make it past the defence, but hit the face and things get much easier.
That's a ground sweeping attack, wow. Also, it looks like those small projectiles aren't actually Super Dimentio's after all- it seems the laughing platforms in the background have some objections to our plans.
That is a targeting reticle. Fortunately, however, Peach's parasol can handle Luigi's Super Jump on the way down. Doesn't Dimentio know Luigi's Super Jump hurts on the way up?
...Well, didn't somebody have fun fighting Super Dimentio, huh? Already the guy's gone down- 15 bonks are all we need from Peach, and unlike Bleck, Super Dimentio's larger size makes him easier to hit multiple times in a single attempt. There's a reason Mario bosses usually have "mercy invincibility" after being hit.
With Super Dimentio exploded, the fight is now over, and we reset to a stable state with which to converse.
The answer was... do what you did the first two times. Be small, teleport a lot, make the top of your head a dangerous place to be, clone yourself, and in general play to Mario's weaknesses as a combatant. Mario's been beating giant monsters for decades.
Dimentio is taken aback that something the Dark Prognosticus predicted didn't happen. An artifact of doom that foretold the deaths of all who read it...
And in the end, it couldn't predict the deaths of everybody.
If enough people pool their minds together and come up with a solution, even the most dismal of predictions can be overturned. And when everyone is affected by a problem, everyone has a stake in the solution.
All those poor warlords who lost their empires as foretold in the Prognosticus just had a lot more people happy to see the back of them.
This is probably my favourite Tippi line in the game. Pointing out how the world is living on, despite Dimentio's best efforts to change reality to his liking. The events of this game were terrifying to live through, but live on as a footnote.
Dimentio's last breath is accompanied by an altered version of Ultimate Show that makes it more of an alarm theme than an uplifting boss theme. It doesn't kick in in earnest until he actually does his last-ditch effort, but those ominous thud-thud-thud noises sound while the head is talking.
Such an utter bastard until the final gasp.
Fortunately, his death explosions are accompanied by him spitting Luigi out unharmed.
No time for heartwarming reunions, though!
The Chaos Heart is doing things! And when we're talking about the Chaos Heart, that can only be a bad thing.
Team Bleck- minus Nastasia, it looks- slip out of Dimension D to come participate in this final moment too.
...
OK, seriously, we bonked two evil geniuses. What kind of heroes are we supposed to be if we didn't even do the thing we were prophecised to do?
...Uh, wait, hold on a second.
OK, on one hand, this is bullshit. What the actual fuck?
On the other hand... Wasn't the Chaos Heart controlled by Luigi? He's still alive, it's his existence that's presumably powering the thing! Unfortunately, however, Luigi has not read the instruction manual for the Chaos Heart, and there isn't really enough time to figure out how to get him to stop the end of the world. So much for him being a hero.
Glad Bowser hates Blumiere's theory as much as I do.
Fortunately, Blumiere has a "non-giving-up" plan to save the day.
Everyone piles in to the door, although only two of us will be needed to actually complete the plan.
A new dimension is being drawn. Or, well... an old one.
One that Count Bleck has created before.
It's the venue at which Count Bleck hosted the wedding that created the Chaos Heart in the first place. This was not a location we could visit, and it is likely that it doesn't really exist except for the purposes of Count Bleck marrying Bowser and Peach to cause this mess in the first place. Or for Blumiere fixing the problem.
The theme for this stretch is Bounding Through Time, the conclusion of the Memory theme to include the Pure Hearts' tune to truly bring this story to its natural conclusion.
A crucial component of his plan, and the wrong answer here will ruin it.
Fortunately, however, Timpani is not so easily swayed.
This is something Blumiere and Timpani need to do together.
O'Chunks, with the two brain cells Dimentio left him, pieces together exactly what Blumiere has in mind.
Remember what I said about O'Chunks and Mimi's found familial loyalty being enough for the Pure Hearts being a refreshing diversion from romance always being the solution? Yeah, that was only part of the answer. The ultimate expression of love to fully counteract the Chaos Heart is, of course, a romantic bond.
...I am really starting to wonder if Blumiere is qualified to make any of the statements he is making about the nature of the Purity Heart. He's of the Tribe of Darkness, he's likely familiar with the wording of the Dark Prognosticus, and he's had plenty of time to read the prophecy while carrying it out. But the stuff about the Purity Heart in particular was a creation of the Tribe of the Ancients, and Blumiere has had much less time to read from the Light Prognosticus.
The story Blumiere tells is that of a heroic sacrifice, and as much as Chunks and Mimi have put their faith and loyalty behind him all the way... perhaps this is the version of the story they had to hear.
That in the end, they followed Blumiere to a noble end doing the right thing. For them.
Sad that Timpani must suffer the same burden, but...
For each other, they are willing to throw all else aside.
...I really don't want to speak ill of this moment, but... yeah. This is a romantic arc they have written.
Admittedly, when the world is collapsing around you, there's a lot to be left unsaid.
And so off Blumiere and Timpani fly, to stand at the altar.
"How does one apologise for attempted omnicide?"
A question that needed asking, but a question there is no other answer to.
Blumiere's destruction was caused entirely by his love for Timpani. Truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a lonesome man.
Even before he turned into Bleck, Blumiere hasn't exactly been the greatest person for Timpani to be around if Timpani's goal was a calm, stable life.
...Perhaps it was a good thing this was mostly backloaded.
And it all started from a Florence Nightingale effect.
To begin with, the Chaos Heart was formed when two members of an eternal rivalry were torn from their home dimension and forced together, with one of the participants being brainwashed into giving her vows.
It is rather a nice bookend that the Purity Heart, in turn, is formed when two people who were forced apart in their home dimension fought through amnesia and despair to come back together in the final hours. There really was no other way to end this than romantically- or, to be more precise, with Blumiere and Timpani specifically. It's hard to imagine the bonds tying Mario & Peach, Mario & Luigi, or Bleck & Nastasia to be strong enough to match this one in sheer tenacity.
With that said, though, does anyone else feel a little redundant here?
"Don't tell me I had to sit through all that for nothing?"
It's a little hard to communicate from text, but the wedding bells for Blumiere and Timpani's long-awaited union are ringing.
Also, pointing out that the wedding is between a smartly-dressed count and a butterfly does take the wind out of the sails, but at least using the names Peach knows them by doesn't do it as much.
Don't worry, O'Chunks. Your count is doing the right thing.
The wedding bells sound as the Void disappears from everywhere- although I'm sure these Koopa Strikers have no idea why.
All the worlds that got destroyed are redrawn, as well.
Including Sammer Kingdom! Whatever the Void did wasn't quite as permanent as it seemed- or at least it was reversible. I doubt we could've restored Sammer any other way, but with all worlds starting to disappear, we needed something like this to have as happy an ending as the Mario brand demands.
This is where Blumiere's promise is repeated. I feel like we should've seen this earlier.
No more fitting way for the story of Blumiere and Timpani to be completed but the same way it was told. Although I doubt we, Mario and Co., were privy to this. I think the knowledge that Blumiere and Timpani survived and ran away to a place entirely their own is just for the player.
Luigi! How nice for him to be the one to wake us up.
We're dumped back on Flipside Tower. Somewhat surprisingly, since we entered Castle Bleck from Flopside- and in fact, using the Return Pipe in Castle Bleck returns us to Flopside Tower.
The triumphant theme of success here in Flipside, Proof of Existence, is more of a nice triumphant moment to end on. Not that it needed to be anything more.
Everyone's all here!
Even Nastasia! At last, she's shrugged off that whole "zapped by Dimentio" problem.
That is quite the reaction, Chunks.
Even Nastasia wasn't entirely expecting that one.
If you were wondering why the Void was still here, it's just so we can see it reduce to nothing in front of our eyes.
Oh, hello, Merlon. Glad to hear you've got a role in the ending sequence.
You're quite welcome. Can we go home now?
Merlon looks around, and notices that Timpani stayed behind to assure that outcome.
Don't worry. She did the right thing.
...Although it does suck a little more for her.
And this is where Peach admits that, from their perspective, Timpani and Blumiere have disappeared for good.
...Wait, Merlon, you knew about the whole "Purity Heart had a sacrifice clause" the whole time?
...Maybe Timpani was keeping quiet because she knew too. I wonder what the plan was for us before Timpani realised she and Blumiere would be the ones to set things to rights. What, were they just hoping Mario and Peach would happily go along with this? One could argue that the best way to undo the Chaos Heart was for one of those improperly married to find the soulmate they were supposed to have, after all...
Somewhere we'll never find them. That may be for the best. There's nothing but misery to be gained from finding them, for both them and us.
And the unflappable Nastasia finally breaks.
Her eternal loyalty to the Count is now no longer in her grasp. And she didn't even get the chance to say goodbye.
O'Chunks gives her a hearty pat on the back. Thankfully, just a verbal one.
Well, the world that Bleck promised you all.
Thinks about Mimi Perhaps that isn't the best thing to build, but you know, as long as you keep her in check...
It feels good, to know that these three were all friends between each other. I wonder if any of them, in turn, thought of Dimentio as a friend. Back when he appeared to be on their side.
When Nastasia returns to normal, she even keeps her very formal mannerisms.
A world where Blumiere and Timpani need never be created again.
...Ambitious, but you know, as long as they could run away the first time.
Merlon says this, and it feels pretty profound... but man if I can't pick the sentence apart. I guess it's just supposed to be Merlon saying, in his own verbose way... "sadness is a fact of life, and there is always a better day just around the corner.
Even without this kind of project, I always felt like this line completely took the wind out of whatever he was just trying to say.
Gladly.
Bowser has finally found something that he's satisfied with: the banquet table.
Everyone wanders off- Bowser and Team Bleck first, and then the brothers.
Peach pauses to check in on why Merlon isn't so quick to follow.
It was her choice to make. And I think she made it long before Blumiere peresented it to her.
Peach tells him to set aside his own compunctions and accept that.
And downstairs they go.
...So guys, about that whole "sending us home" thing...
The Dark Prognosticus ended with the prophecy of total destruction. There's nothing left for it to predict. The book is now nothing more than a mildly interesting book of history that gets it wrong in the final pages. May it find a new home as Nolrem's doorstop.
Wherever it is, it is theirs and theirs alone.
Decalburg, 2012, I believe.
And with that, we roll credits. No parade this time, and nothing but sepia screenshots to look at.
Nothing but this shot of what one can only assume to be Blumiere and Timpani. Although that is the most nondescript-looking background. I wish anyone luck figuring out where they went out of that.
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