I want to frontload this by saying that Luis Virgil, as one of the secondary Testaments, was SO CLOSE to being a good character. That brief-but-weighty introduction to his character in 1 as a druggy calling out the hypocrisies of Realian Legislation was memorable as hell, supplemented by his transformation and reveal as one of the four Testaments found throughout the series, not to mention Febronia (the metaphorical angel on his shoulder) being a well-handled character in her own right. However, because of his axing at the hands of KOS-MOS, that turn to Talmud was something of a narrative double-edged sword, yet not without an understandable enough setup... which is what I would be saying, if III's narrative dev hell didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
OK, let's address the Israeli Elephant in the room (yes, I am sprinkling in Jewish jokes that may get me labled as 'anti-semetic', why do you ask?): In 1, Virgil's death was by Gatling from KOS-MOS, correct? So why does III feel the need for these long and protracted scenes of Zombie Realians, while the 'future' Shion hands off a Self-destruct code to him, which leads to the 'death' of Virgil in the past? Even with our 1000iQ power scaling brains, can I not see a single way that Virgil was able to limp alongside Shion for the front of the Miltian Church, only to chuck her out, shut the doors, detonate that C4 faster than a Snake main on Venom, and bolt for the backdoor that was about 200 yards away, when the button press and detonation happened in basically the same second. And before you ask, the 'past' Virgil and 'Testament' Virgil are treated as two separate entities.
That right there should put this forward as a contender for the worst retcon a series has ever seen in my eyes, but OH NO, it gets WORSE. While the scene of the Testament Virgil roasting Shion is handled OK, and the aftermath has the since-axed off Febronia (yes, there was a past Febronia too, don't ask...) calling out the hypocrisy of roasting Realians as (at least partially) a coping mechanism is good for it's own reasons, the problem comes in the form of Virgil joining the now force-ghost-esque Febronia, seemingly turning his back on Wilhelm (that who gave him the ability to become a Testament in the first place). Yeah, as if the Testament page wasn't enough of a Discredited article, get this: what Wilhelm actually did was, and to paraphrase said page "present Virgil with Eternal time in the rendezvous point between him and Febronia".
Translation: Because of the way that the U.M.N is supposed to work (a concept that is as all-encompassing as it is vague) as a form of "subconscious" memory storage, any distinction between it and the 'time travel' that III's narrative seeks to deny ever happened (and fails to do so) has now been thrown out the window.
Couple all of the above with the CLEAR discrepancies with what the series had already submitted to public memory (cough KOS-MOS AAA Encephalon Dive cough), and the fact that this 'Shion Subconscious' time travel arc that already leads to one of the worst series of story events I think I've ever had the displeasure of playing through... yeah, you can tell I'm a trifle miffed.
I'll leave it at that. It's an hour past midnight on my end, and I have a script to crack on with.
The offending scenes are 192-200 (if you're using Helsonium as a frame of reference) if you're curious. Naturally, you'll have to play the series for context.
