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The next step in the journey is to figure out how to fix everything. The [[World Tree]] is gone, but there is a seed available, if it can somehow be convinced to germinate. Lloyd learns that the two worlds, Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, were deliberately separated thousands of years ago [[After the End]] of a massive war, and the [[World Tree]] seed ''prevented'' from germinating in order to limit prosperity and the inevitable descent into [[Magitek]]-fueled destruction. The man who did this? Yggdrasil. ''Mithos'' Yggdrasil, the legendary half-elf hero who stopped the Great War. This is the game's major [[Wham! Line]], on par to the moment when Tidus discovers his true nature as a dream of the Fayth.
Anyway, Mithos stopped the war all those years ago, but not before losing his beloved sister Martel to it. With his two traveling companions, Kratos Aurion the human and Yuan the elf (and Martel's fiancé), he managed to save her soul inside the seed of the [[World Tree]], and founded the Desians as a breeding organization to create the perfect [[Soul Jar]] for her. He also made a summoner's pact with the spirit Origin and gained control of [[Tales
But we were speaking of Yggdrasil. Mithos actually ''joins the party'' for a while as an NPC (which [[Genre Blindness|the characters don't notice]]) and using a different voice actress (okay, maybe that excuses it), and comes off as sympathetic and understandable. Lloyd and his party are keenly aware of the fact that Mithos is a [[Fallen Hero]], trying (in his own weird and twisted way) to make the world a better place. And, like Lloyd, he is driven by the fate of someone he loves. This is why (in this editor's opinion) the casting of the voice actor was a wonderful bit of [[Actor Allusion]]: Yggdrasil is played by [[James Arnold Taylor]], none other than Tidus himself. In this way, the character of Yggdrasil can be seen as a [[Deconstruction]] of not only the rather selfish [[Idiot Hero]] who tries to change the world, but of Tidus and Lloyd as well, who both fit that mold. (To be fair, they do a ''much'' better job at it than Yggdrasil does. Their plan: Step one, [[Dulcinea Effect|fall in love]]; Step two, ''[[Character Development]]''; [[Step Three: Profit]]. Mithos' [[Tragic Flaw]] is that he skipped the second.) Yggdrasil is a classic [[Shadow Archetype]], acknowledged by Lloyd himself in-game, and having Tidus play Yggdrasil just adds to the resonance.
Anyway, there's subplots dealing with [[Character Development]]. Genis and Raine have been passing as elves, but they're secretly half-elves who were exiled to Sylvarant by their [[Missing Mom]], a Telle'athan who hoped they'd manage to avoid the [[Fantastic Racism]] there. Part of reuniting the two worlds involves making summon pacts with every Summon Spirit in both worlds, and that gets into Sheena's [[Dark And Tragic Past]]: when she was young, she tried to form a pact with Volt, and ''failed'', causing another [[Doomed Hometown]] and the death of her parents. No pressure, kid. Zelos doesn't get a whole lot of development (or rather, a lot of it is optional), which is a shame, because he's hiding a lot under his careless playboy facade. One of the branching plot options is that he can choose to betray the group while everyone's trying to rescue Colette, which either turns into a [[Batman Gambit]] by a [[Fake Defector]] or a [[Plotline Death]] on his part, at which point Kratos, who has an almost-identical moveset to him, rejoins the party. ([[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World|The sequel]] indicates that the former option is the canon one.) And Presea and Regal's histories are intertwined: he used to be engaged to her sister... until she ''also'' got Exsphere-monster'ed. In her few lucid moments, she [[Mercy Kill|begged him to kill her]]; he did, which [[The Atoner|he cannot forgive himself for]]. This is why he walks around in shackles all the time, and only fights with his feet. And as to Colette... Well, actually she kind of gets shoved to the side a little. She ''is'' a [[Stepford Smiler]] and it is totally in-character for her to hide her problems in the face of everybody else's, but that doesn't do ''us'' any good.
In the end, Colette is almost a [[MacGuffin Girl]], and her main contribution to the plot, post-catatonia, is to be captured every now and then. This does prove crucial, because not only is this Zelos's semi-betrayal, but at this time Mithos actually does manage to resurrect Martel into Colette's body. Martel looks at him and says, "Umm, Mithos, bro, you're missing the point. What you've done is ''really'' not what I meant. I'm leaving again now, bye." ...Okay, she says it a little more nicely than that, but the end result is the same: a [[Villainous BSOD]] and Mithos' decision to simply take the Kharlan Seed and fly away through space, leaving the entwined Sylvarant/Tethe'alla collective to die of mana starvation. Well, obviously we can't allow ''that'' to happen. Cue the [[Final Dungeon]].
...And then the Eternal Sword vanishes. The heroes conclude that they are pretty much screwed, until Lloyd gets angel wings and he and Colette fly up to the seed. Then the Eternal Sword comes back, the seed is germinated, and we meet Martel. Tabatha, the [[Artificial Human]] created to house Martel is filled with the souls, including Martel's. She speaks to the party and tells you that the tree needs love and a name. Then Lloyd pulls a [[His Name Is--]], but with the ending, not death. If you're curious, the tree in the distant future shown in [[
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[[Category:Recap]]
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