SPOILERS The chocobo chick and Chocolina... What do you think of it?

[Dionysos]

SPOILER ALERT. WARRRK! Warning! SPOILER ALERT.




I think that is warning enough...

This relates to the FFXIII franchise as a whole.

I was wondering if anybody fill me in about the chocobo chick and Chocolina... I know they are, apparently, the same character, but how did it happen?

How did this:

Turn into this:

Chocolina's feathers are the wrong colour. It makes no sense!



But seriously, how did the cute little baby chocobo which Sazh bought for his son suddenly transform into an excitable scantily clad human female?
Was it a magic spell? Was she even a real chocobo in the first place? I've either forgotten the reason or I never knew in the first place.


I find it hard to not think of them as separate characters. I quite like them both individually, but I have hard time imagining that the little chocobo chick living in Sazh’s afro is actually “Chocobocoliiinaaaa!”


Has this interfered with your memories of the chocobo chick in FFXIII? Or do you, as a survival tactic, also separate them in your mind?


Discuss!

 

[Linnaete]

Because Motomu Toriyama is a horn dog and liked the design of Chocolina (originally just a waitress at Serendipity) so much that she was upgraded to a time travelling store clerk. How they went from that to making her be literally Sazh's Chocobo chick however is beyond me. Perhaps they thought having a random time travelling store clerk would be a tad odd so elected to crudely throw in any haphazard explanation to integrate her into the world a bit more. The explanation appears to be that the Goddess Etro did it to supposedly "help" our protagonists out.

Because when you're a goddess with all matters of random, convenient magical powers but your very existence is quickly fading away forever, how else will you make a difference to help the heroes? Provide them with a spiffing ultimate weapon? Do something rudimentary to make the whole time hopping mission for Noel and Serah a bit less irritating? No, you naturally take a random literal chick and turn her into a hot, sexy chick just to peddle her wares across time and space. Of course that's what you would do.

And like 99% of FFXIII-2's "plot", it's stupid. As much as I'm oddly more fond of FFXIII-2 than its predecessor, it's moments like this that are characteristic of a horny hack like Motomu Toriyama that really cements the realisation that somewhere between late 2009 and mid-2013 was Square Enix and the Final Fantasy franchise at their absolute nadir. Chocolina on her own isn't too bad. She's relatively inoffensive and not as irritating as I deemed her to be, but this twist ruins both of them because it is utter pish.

 

[ZaXo Ken'Ichi]

Lol, likewise, I'm completely indifferent to it. I'm sure if I thought about it for just a few minutes that I'd remember dozens of equally nonsensical and ridiculous choices with minor characters in the other games (Zorn and Thorn come to mind, as does Cait Sith). I'm sure it just comes down to a strange cultural difference in sense of humor, and isn't in any way intended to be taken that seriously. I don't necessarily 'get it', but it also doesn't bother me. I like both characters independent of this fact, and my reaction to being reminded of it will always be "Oh. Alright. Moving on.".

 

[LovingOfLightning]

Surprisingly I enjoy all interactions with Chocolina.
I've learned it's better for personal sanity to just enjoy the lights and sounds as thinking too hard about the plot and motivations only bring misery!

 

[Dionysos]

Spotted this on our Discord and was reminded of this thread...

A few years wiser, but it would seem that plenty of people still don't know about this! This plot twist continues to confound people.

It'll forever be one of those things in the franchise, I think.

 

[LovingOfLightning]

Shows how far the average non FFF managed to get through the game!

 

[Ilyena]

I found this on FF Wiki: Chocolina is a time-traveling merchant who can be found all over the world. There are reports of this mysterious trader appearing in almost every age in history. Some rumors say that she is a certain creature that took on human form...

Apparently there's no really good explanation besides, "this guy liked her design."

 

[blakstang98]

Apparently there's no really good explanation besides, "this guy liked her design."

I think this might really be the best explanation.

Is there really some piece of information out there that says these 2 are the same entities? I don't see the connection. The chick is a baby chocobo and Chocolina is a merchant dressed like a chocobo. That's it.

Saying she expands across most all time periods, is basically just the vehicle to have it make sense that she's a merchant that always appears, no matter what year you're in. That makes sense, and I get that. It's not elaborate on whether it's the same lady, or just different ladies that play the same role and look the same, just like Yeul. And obviously, there are chicks, so long as there are chocobo's. (Which came first?) But there's no rational reason to say they're the same. I'm willing to bet you can even find a screenshot of Chocolina and a chick in the same frame, probably in Nautilus.

Personally, to get back to the original question, I went through with a completely indifferent attitude about this connection. I guess mainly because this is the first time I'm hearing of it. But it never crossed my mind, and if I played it again, it wouldn't cross it then either. It's not relevant.

 

[Dionysos]

Is there really some piece of information out there that says these 2 are the same entities? I don't see the connection. The chick is a baby chocobo and Chocolina is a merchant dressed like a chocobo. That's it.

It is stated outright in FFXIII-2.

I looked it up as I couldn’t remember exactly where and when, and I’ve hunted down the particular scenes. I must say that it is even sillier than I remember it!

Here:

And the later reveal at…

(Same video but timestamped to play from the relevant point)

But all of the stuff about her being a dimensional time traveller appears to be true too. She is the chocobo chick's future, but has also existed in the past.