Golden Sun/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• Upon replaying Golden Sun and playing around with the But Thou Must! trope in the beginning, the game pulls a Nonstandard Game Over if Isaac refuses to take on the quest of saving the world. The screen goes to sepia and the game intones "And so the world drifted towards its fated destruction." Bit of a downer there. But wait, there's a problem with this whole thing...if Isaac refused the call and stayed in his little village...with the Mars Star, which the villains were unable to wrest away from him before Mt. Aleph's eruption forced them to escape...why would the world be headed towards destruction, when the villains were trying to light the lighthouses and thus would have needed the Mars Star? Right then and there I realized the designers had always had the entire plot of both games -- the first game and The Lost Age -- figured out, including the part where lighting the lighthouses and restoring Alchemy to the world would actually save it from destroying itself, and this was a case of extremely subtle Foreshadowing that barely anyone would have picked up on. Freakin' brilliant! --Wild Knight
  • The Wise One doing... something to the Mars Star even before that is another great example of that kind of foreshadowing, the kind that doesn't pay off 'til the end of the next game.
    • Actually, both "games" were already finished by the time the first one came out, because they were supposed to be one game. Like with Sonic 3, they had to be split into two due to memory limitations.
    • In addition to that, they were also split because the developers, in all their ingenuity, wanted to explore the idea of playing one half of the game with the heroes, and then playing with the opposing party in the next game. On top of that, it becomes doubly brilliant when you realise that in doing so, the games basically Deconstructed the traditional concept of Black and White Morality, which is so often prevalent in fantasy fiction - not only were Saturos and Menardi trying to save their hometown and by extension, the world, but discussions between Isaac and Felix's groups after Jupiter Lighthouse reveal that the very reason they invaded Sol Sanctum in the first place - setting off the trap which released the boulder - was because the village elders of Vale refused to believe them when they tried to explain the danger Weyard was in! As a result, they partially brought the boulder-day disaster upon themselves due to their stubbornness and mistrust, albeit indirectly. It's quite extraordinary how the game makes such a subtle element of Grey and Gray Morality, which serves to anchor it to reality just a little bit more than most fantasy-based stories. And considering the plot of the first Golden Sun was already praised for its complexity before these revelations were made in The Lost Age, it's no wonder so many people deeply appreciate this game's storyline as much as its gameplay (complaints about lack of highly-developed characterisation aside). It's certainly a major reason that I have for following the series so devoutly - Caellach Tiger Eye
• Also from Golden Sun, the Kimbombo Mountains region have a few water puddles at important locations--characters can use the Frost psynergy to freeze these into pillars of ice in order to solve puzzles. For the purpose of the Stealth-Based Mission the first time the player comes through, these puddles don't have a point--they party doesn't have a Frost user at the time. On the way back with Piers (who can use Frost) in the party, exactly one of these puddles is useful (to get a djinn), but the others don't matter because all of the guards are gone. For the one pillar that the player can make, well, it leads to the djinn, a shortcut back, and...a route back down to the puddle. I didn't even notice the uselessness the first time through the game, but it annoyed me the second time because while there may be times in the game when using a particular psy power is pointless or even detrimental to solving a puzzle, it's always part of a puzzle where using that power in the right way is part of the solution. It was right when leaving the zone on the way back that I realized why the puddles were there: the level designers did need to make a way through that relied on Piers since he was supposed to have snuck by ahead of the player's party! Since he lacks the Move and Whirlwind psynergies that the party needed for its route, there'd have to be another way--one that used only Mercury powers. It also explains the pointless route back the useful puddle--though the party would have easy access to the puddle coming back from Kibombo, Piers wouldn't unless there were some vines to climb down the the puddle so that he could freeze it from his side. That just made me forgive the level designers for all of the corridors to nowhere in the Great Gabomba statue level that the player has to complete between his two trips through the mountains. -- Ironeye
  • Likewise, in Dark Dawn, there's a Water-Adept-Only route through the Konpa Ruins... because Kraden was heading that way with two Water Adept companions (Rief doesn't have Frost when he joins the party, but it's possible that Nowell does). (ETA: Kraden does mention in the cutscene there that Nowell got them into the cave system.) -- User:Yuihime
• Golden Sun still. There used to be a very old, very big world map in my living room that I'd kill time staring at in detail every time I was forced to wait for something. At the age of eleven or something, I discovered a river in Russia labeled Kolyma. Kolima is a town in the game. Then a city called Bilibino - Bilibin is another town in the game. Once I played the second game, I found Arafura Sea - the town called Alhafra would be arafura in the original katakana - and Izumo, and I must have missed a lot of others. I noticed that the continent of Angara kind of looks like Eurasia, and the locations of Kolima and Bilibin fit that assumption... but Gondwana was a place in India, and the continent of Gondowan looks like South America and is south of Angara. I shrugged and stopped thinking about it. Then, completely coincidentally, I found out that "Gondwana" is also the name of one of the supercontinents from way back and just look where South America used to be. The world of Golden Sun is ours in the past ! ... and also flat. So, about that problem they have in Prox, in The Lost Age... is it really that the Falls are eroding the edges of the world, or is it the land that's moving out towards the falls ? -- Azalee
  • Camelot wasn't done with the Fantasy Counterpart Cultures in the original two. In Dark Dawn, the eastern part of Angara (the series's equivalent of Eurasia) is called Ei-Jei, which sounds vaguely like "Asia" and is the game's equivalent to Asia, and the country of Sana, which resembles China, is south of the Endless Wall, which seems to be the game's equivalent of the Great Wall of China. Likewise, in the same game, Nihan is one letter away from Nihon, the Japanese name for Japan, and is the game's equivalent of Japan. (It's even vaguely shaped like Japan; Yamata City is on the island corresponding to Kyushu.) --Gaston Rabbit
    • Yamato also was a name for Japan at some point in history, I believe (though I can't be bothered to do the research right now).
    • Yamatai is named after Yamataikoku, home of the legendary priestess/queen Himiko. Yeah, Camelot fails subtlety forever. --User:Yuihime
• Golden Sun: So I was wondering about how Felix, Felix's parents, and Kyle could all have survived getting a damn boulder dropped on them, exactly. A good answer didn't hit me until after I'd watched the scene in Kolima for a second time: Remember how apparently Adepts have a defence mechanism built in in the form of those Psynergy shields that kept them from being affected by Tret's glamour? If all Adepts have that, then there's no reason it couldn't have saved Felix et al. from a boulder. -- zerfetzte
  • Incidentally, this could also account for Alex surviving the end of The Lost Age. --User:Yuihime
• So I was playing Dark Dawn and hit the Konpa Ruins. I noticed the water puddles off to the side and thought, "Aha! I'm going to recruit my Mercury Adept soon!" Then I noticed the full grown vines off in the inaccessible area. The ones that grow after you drop a Venus-aligned Growth Psynergy. Reaching the interior of the cave, I understood that the water had been frozen to allow, Kraden, Nowell, and Rief to reach the tunnel under the ruin. "But wait," I thought to myself, "How did they grow the vines?" Then I realized that my shipping dreams might not be dead; and that Mia might have actually hooked up with Isaac! Then I realized that it was far more likely that one of the Adepts who used the passage after completing the Psynergy Training Course grew the vine, since they don't ungrow on area transition. BUT STILL! -- Watashiwa
  • Alternately, Nowell could have smuggled a Venus Djinni with her, set it to make herself a Seer, and used Growth that way. Class screws are like that. (Mercury Adepts as Seers can learn Growth - I checked!) -- Cerotech Omega
• In Dark Dawn's stinger, we see a massive Psynergy Vortex over Goma Plateau. It just hit me that this is the Mourning Moon; Isaac's notes said it was due for a reappearance sometime in the near future. Way to bring back that foreshadowing long after we'd forgotten all about it, Camelot! --Roses Spindle
• It had bugged me that the beastmen went into a frenzy around the full moon and get into fights all the time and stuff. One of the beastmen mentions this, and that Volechek starting having public executions on the full moon to "take the edge off," and then the fights stopped. Mostly it bugged me because the people of Garoh didn't have this problem, and they were basically beastmen precursors. But then I remembered that they only transformed under the full moon before the Lighthouses were lit, and I assume that now they are in permantent beastform. So basically, for beastmen, it's always the full moon with all this Alchemy energy everywhere, hence why they're always in a beastly form. But when you double that energy when an actual full moon shows up, it brings out even more of the beastliness on top of that.
  • Good Fridge Brilliance, but who posted it?
• Ivan's theme, "A Little Friendship", plays in the scene where you meet Hama and she teaches Reveal to Ivan, along with a little about Jupiter Adepts. The cutscene's focused on Ivan, so it's only natural that his Leitmotif plays, right? Except that it also foreshadows that Hama's his sister. -- User:Yuihime
• Two regarding the revelation of Darkness and Light Psynergy at the end of Dark Dawn, by Yuihime.
  • Isaac in the Tanglewood Forest scenes, telling Garet to clear a path with Fireball, explains that the forest is full of twisted "negative energies" that can be dispelled with "light and warmth". During the Grave Eclipse, Kraden makes similar observations about that, using almost the exact same words. They're talking about Darkness Psynergy, they just don't realize it yet. Karis even says in the Tanglewood scene to "remember this, we don't know when it will come up again".
  • The Cloak Psynergy in the first game involves using dark shadows to hide your party. Yes, they were Foreshadowing Darkness Psynergy as early as the first game.
    • It's also the only Psynergy move in any of the games to have no element marker. In the menu, there's just an empty space where it the colored dot would have been, because they hadn't introduced the concept in-story yet.
• Alex is a Smug Snake and The Evil Genius. In other words, he's a smart-aleck. Yes, it took me this long. -- User:Yuihime
  • Speaking of, Alex received most of the Golden Sun's energy. What kind of adept is he, again? Mercury, which also happens to be the closest planet to the sun. -- User:Iridium 077

Fridge Horror

• Golden Sun has a few moments of outright Nightmare Fuel -- coming across the dead and dying at Sulhalla Gate and Venus Lighthouse in Game 1, the impending decay of the world in The Lost Age... You know what else The Lost Age had? Treasure Island, the resources of which are being used by the people of Champa to restore their economy so they don't have to depend on piracy any more. Only, Felix & Co. can find and loot the place, and are even encouraged to do so by the presence of a Bonus Boss and summon tablet there. Congratulations, you just indirectly robbed Champa. Even better, this gets a Call Back in Dark Dawn, when thirty years later the Champa are still poor and still being driven to piracy to support their people.
  • Champa gets another moment in Dark Dawn... after Briggs, in his final moments, tells his son that he should go protect his mother during the Grave Eclipse. When you get there? Champa's being burned for light to keep the monsters away, a handful of people have evacuated to a refugee camp out of the Eclipse, there are rotting corpses everywhere, and Eoleo's mother is nowhere to be found. Think about it.
  • Speaking of the rotting corpses in Dark Dawn? Sveta can use Spirit Sense to read their minds. There's a side quest where this is used to send the spirits of an old couple to the afterlife... implying that everyone else whose Spirit can be Sensed is trapped in this world and unable to move on. Sveta can also Spirit Sense graves where people have been buried for centuries, some of whom were around during the first use of the Eclipse Tower.
  • Another Dark Dawn one. After you acquire the Ice Queen gem in Harapa Ruins, you find that a solid stone gate rises at night to block all entry to the city from intruders. This sounds like a good idea at first, but this also means that people cannot leave the city while it is under darkness. Once the Grave Eclipse occurs, no thought is given to the residents of Harapa, who are now trapped in an impregnable city filled with the shadow creatures of the Eclipse.
    • You can visit Harapa during the Eclipse, by landing your ship on the beach to the west of the city. The gate on that side is controllable, and the city is lit by water-powered Magitek, so the people inside are perfectly safe... except for one of the little kids Tyrell and Rief showed off their Psynergy to, who wandered outside the city and was brutally killed by the monsters, to his taunting friend's remorse.