[Coldsaturn]

- "this implies that the "civilians" and "knights" weren't human."
Yeah that's a weird sentence.

- "If we are to save Philos, we cannot do it in this era." whyyyyyy."
Most likely, your own theory: Xavier is trying to stop Philos from being born this way or entirely. Which involves going back in time on Earth and doing something about what will bring the birth of Philos in the future.

- "What about her? Have you given up?"
MC I swear to fucking god

- "i will not call myself dumb"
You're stronger than I am. This is why I don't self-insert lol

- "aaaaaand....what happens when the planet needs a midnight snack?"
She's stupid enough to keep on sending knights and whoever wants to fight the wanderers in the forest, which will automatically mean food for the planet /shrugs
What I find extremely funny is Xavier leaving everyone with the possible intention of deleting everyone's existence through time travel's paradox. "get fucked guys, bye!" and off he goes.

- "Only one person has given me a little star." I am unsure what Xavier meant.
I am this close to losing it. Xavier looks at her with a thousand-yard stare and thinks "Yes, I need to get out of here."

- ...
LOL

- "this doesn't explain how or why "she" has suddenly appeared as if in answer to the royal family's very prayers."
Exactly. We know she also automatically spawned in the Abysswalker timeline. This question will be answered (at least partly) going forward with the main story and world underneath.

- "as if the only version of her that he wants to interact with is the one already gone."
I love that angst, hit me with that angle whenever you want, but know that it is unpopular in the fandom. In general, mentioning that the LI might be more bonded to a past version of MC is not received well (that kind of "the other woman" trope is instead poured entirely in non-MC fics). Even when the current version of MC we're looking at is dumber than a rock.

- "no mention of whether this is Traceback I or II, although I have to kind of assume its the first mission, because he makes no mention at all of it being the second."
IMO two options:
Traceback I and II are two different time trips, happening at two different times. When Xavier appears again in Starfall forest, he had already assembled the Backtrackers. That might have been where Traceback I happened, he had to make sure what he needed to do was feasible. Then Jer joins him, Xav crowns MC, and he leaves with Traceback II. Only Traceback II ends up when it shouldn't.
Other option is that Traceback I and II are simply two ships traveling at the same time because the crew is too big for one ship. But in the main story we're never made to think there are two spaceships.

- "is the leader of EVER a corrupted version of Xavier?!"
That is a WILD take but I'd love it tbh.

[ChicletPrime]

Last Chapter

• okay, wrapping it up! didn't get a chance to do this last night and today my game is all up in its own grill with Fallen Crown, so lets just pretend i got through this quicker than i actually did.
  
• ... i am not sure. this bit - is this flashback to when Xavier saved the MC from the Forest when she went charging in after his illusion? 
  
• "A familiar person sits next to me. It were as if he never left." 
  
• wow, this looks like the exact same shot as from the very beginning of the game, when I went to a No-Hunt zone chasing something I can't remember now, the segment where Xavier was petting a Wanderer at one point.
  
• yeah, i don't believe he's real either. look at him. he an elf prince in moonlight, i would be rubbing my knuckles in my eye too.
  
• /stares off into the fanfic distance. 
  
• I reach out to touch faith and its really him, he came back.
  
• aww, he mostly apologizes for leaving without a word. yeah, i think i will hit you a few more time so i feel better.
  
• "Can you stand?" I lurch to my ungainly feet. "Steady. I can carry you if you can't walk. And even if you could, I wouldn't mind carrying you."
  
• gawd, Xavier is beautiful. he looks like a puff of wind would blow his petals everywhere but this guy is made of gleaming silver steel.
  
• oh my gosh, he IS carrying me piggyback!  yay!  at least I get Something at the end of this myth.
  
• the flowers are glowing softly in the dark. he makes me fireflies to accompany them.
  
• "Those aren't fireflies, you made them for me. You can't lie to me."
  
• yeah sweetheart. yeah, he can. admittedly by omission for the most part but for a man that tells the truth when he opens his mouth, he is frighteningly good at saying nothing you want to hear.
  
• "Do you remember Uluru, Xavier?"  "Of course I do. Our little planet." "Do you think Uluru will turn into a shooting star?" "Unlikely, its a very young planet."
  
• yeah, we're skipping over how planets and stars actually form which is just fine with me. this is a mythical place where stuff just appears fully fledged, including me somehow. maybe i dreamed it into reality because Xavier wanted a place where he didn't have to fight anymore. 
  
• aww. Xavier says softly that its flowers should be blooming now.
  
• this is a lovely scene, as Xavier carries the girlfriend through the "fireflies" and you can see the stars against the horizon at night as they travel. THIS is what should be happening in more of the story scenes, this kind of placement and setting.
  
• I say that the Wanderers are a serious threat, that sooner or later they will make it to Uluru too and it will become another Philos.
  
• "I'm tired, Xavier. What if I can't brandish my sword one day? What then?"
  
• /makes slobbering, chomping sounds, then burps.
  
• "You rest. I'll be by your side. Always. If you have nowhere to go, nowhere to rest your weary self... you can stay with me."
  
• "You always lie."
  
• aaaaand we're back in the throne room, flashback over. 
  
• He always has. He's always lied, again and again and again. He said hope would follow when when spring arrived. He said he'd take me to the new planet he discovered. He said he didn't want to be King but also refused to let me stand by another's side. He said he'd return when I miss him. He said when I become Queen of Philos, he'd be my knight. The song he made up is now a reality. Yet as thousands cheer my name, he abandons me.
  
• I retreat from the balcony to the darkness of the throne room.
  
• At that moment, a spaceship soars across the sky like a shooting star, disappearing into the night. My footsteps echo in this empty room. No one will be by my side. My star has left me. And this time... he will not return home.
  

I think its safe to say that I was whelmed with this myth. There were some good moments in it, mostly to do with Xavier and even Jeremiah, but I could not connect with the girlfriend at all, and the writing was vague and inconsistent. There was a little too much flashing forward and flashing back and it didn't have solid connections to string those displacements together cohesively. The writing was overall quite weak. 

We're gonna chalk this one up as  1) useful for the Cliff Notes but 2) emotionally very flat. Thank Yoshua they got better with the storyline(s) over time is all I can say. After the agony that was Lucid Dream, it was kind of a whiplash to wade through the sticky marsh on this one.

[Coldsaturn]

Yeah I totally get your point and I agree. Good thing is that the writing has only gotten better, and the new Xav's myth is Good and Well Made!
There will be other times when you'll have to face the downside of retracing your steps back to when the writing was very good for an otome mobile game, but not as good as you're used to as someone who started playing a year and a half later. There's always light at the end of the (deepspace) tunnel, at least!

[ChicletPrime]

it's okay, i can always lick Sylus if i need to destress over suboptimal story choices.

and honestly, writing something that just has Xavier MAKE that choice that he one he wants is the one already gone and this new one just hurts too much to even consider has some decent bones it. its like... you can't go back. i've tried it in real life, its never the same and while maybe it could still be good even if its different, the fact of the matter IS that it's different and if you're back because you're still hung up on the first go 'round, the second is likely to eat you alive.

tonight or tomorrow i will watch the full Fallen Crown video you linked in the other thread and then we will converse with Knowledge™ behind us!

[Coldsaturn]

The angst <3 I love it so much.
And yes to everything. The only emergency exit is if the reincarnated MC is very different from both her Academy version and her High School version. Very similar (if not the same) face, but personality wise she's so off that it feels like another person (which would open another can of worms). But if she's anywhere close to "familiar" then he's screwed. And it's also so bad because he wouldn't even be trying to recreate memories that already exist with her: back in high school he only had the time to fall in love before it was all over, so what was left behind was all the expectations, fantasies about the future, etc. Those are so idealistic that you'll never properly match them. Not with your actual first love. So it's a lose-lose situation where it will never be just right.

[ChicletPrime]

yeah, maybe Xavier has to learn that each time he encounters her, she won't be exactly the same - she'll be shaped by different forces and will have different goals and maybe those goals don't always align with his. so maybe in Shooting Stars he hasn't learned that yet and when she turns up a second time, 1) its a system shock, and 2) he handles it badly.