Skyward Sword Chapter 7: He's a Maniac, MANIAC on the Floor...

...And he's dancing like he's never danced before Um...yeah. The music in the Lanayru Mining Facility made me think of that song for some reason. I guess. Yeah. Well, uh, let's move on. I don't want to offer the same tired excuses for not posting that I've been offering for the last couple of months, but...same tired excuses for not posting. Or something. Let's just move on to the mining facility, then!















I didn't get a picture of the "Lanayru Mining Facility" card, unfortunately. But here we are. Like I said before, the music in this place is so hyper that it just made me want to get things done! Like pulling down both of the levers on the other side of the lava pools in this picture. Woo!
















Here's the main room of the dungeon, most of which I can't access at the moment. Fun times!















And here's one of the secondary rooms. Look at all that...razor wire, or whatever that is, in front of the conveyor belt. That stuff is fun. But yeah. For this room, I had to make my way up to a switch in one corner of the room, which opened a gate blocking a Time Stone. Then I had to use the Beetle to hit the Time Stone and...voila!














Everything is magically time-shifted to when it was functional! And the music even changes, to boot. It was just as hyper as before, but cool-sounding at the same time. Good stuff.

So eventually I made my way to a room containing what looked like a bunch of...puffer fish. Flying through the air. Land shark puffer fish? Weird. Well, anyway...















I guess you can't really see either of the puffer fish in this picture. Well, they tended to stay un-puffed when far away, but once they get close they puff up and out come a whole bunch of nasty spikes. So I had to avoid them until I could make my way to that ladder you can see in the picture, which led to a treasure chest containing...THIS!















I missed the title card for this too. It's the...Gust Bellows? Uh...okay....well...I can't really say the awesome Zelda item I'd always been missing was...a glorified vacuum permanently set to 'blow,' but whatever, I'll take what I can get.














The Gust Bellows's claim to fame? It can blow away dust piles. You can also use it to blow puffer fish into walls (which makes them explode) but that's beside the point. You can use the Gust Bellows to blow away dust piles. Think about that for a second. YOU USE THE GUST BELLOWS TO BLOW AWAY DUST PILES. Clearly, this is the Zelda game we've all been waiting for, because nothing says "Zelda" like...cleaning. Glorified cleaning.

Well, anyway. In the above picture, I had to blow a dust pile off of a Time Stone so I could shift yet another room back in time. Woo! Well, at least this dungeon will be nice and clean when I'm done with it.

I also feel like there's a Ghostbusters joke in here somewhere, but danged if I can't figure out what it is.














And here's a before picture of the room with the dust-covered Time Stone. So I gave the stone a whack, and woo!














Everything's so Day-Glo and pretty when I hit the Time Stones! Although I can't help but wonder just how much sand it took to fill up all this place's bottomless pits. And why the place has bottomless pits in it in the first place. Wait...this place isn't in an old salt mine, is it? How deep does it go? Would I find an abandoned testing facility down there if I went far enough?

Well, okay, anyway. I made my way across the room and found a treasure chest! I don't remember what was in it, though.














And here's another room that, incredibly, I did have to clean.














I had to use the Gust Bellows to blow all the sand off the floor so I could find a key in a chest, or something in a chest. I've already forgotten what it was. Did I mention there were a lot of those 'rows of spikes that shoot up from the floor whenever you get too close to them, making the room a maze' things? Yeah, fun stuff. Here's the Gust Bellows in action!














This is not surprisingly mundane. But it's still Zelda, so we soldier on.














Here I am on the other end of the dungeon's main room. That dust-covered thing next to me is a mine cart with a Time Stone in it. When I activated the Time Stone, it only time-shifted an area around the cart, and since the cart started moving, the time-shifted area moved with the cart. Ingenious stuff.














Here I am following the cart as it makes its way, slowly, to its destination.

Here's yet another room where I had to hit a Time Stone...














...and it got all pretty and the conveyor belts started working again.














That picture is blurry. My apologies. Here's another blurry picture of the Boss Key chest (accessible after defeating two annoying enemies).














So I got the Boss Key (a Golden Circuit, this time) and made my way to the Boss Door (via a really annoying Moving Mine Cart with Time Stone gimmick again), where Fi, as usual, talked about things I could plainly see for myself.














No, really? I thought I could just walk up to it and push it open. Really, Fi? You're really still doing this? Ugh...

Well, whatever. I fit the Golden Circuit into the keyhole and unlocked the door.















On the other side...I found a room full of sand.














But that's not all!














This guy was fun. Okay, not really. He killed me (and nearly caused me to ragequit when it started me back at the beginning of the dungeon and I thought I'd have to do the entire dungeon over again because I hadn't saved the whole time I'd been playing). That jerk! But once I got the hang of things, it wasn't too bad. I had to swing my sword at weird angles to hit the eyes in Moldarach's claws until they got chopped off, then stab his central eye until he gave up and started crawling around underneath the sand and trying to stab me with his tail barb. I had to use the Gust Bellows to blow the sand off of him to uncover him so I could stab him in the eye some more. And then he died!














Yay, Heart Container!

And then all the leftover sand drained out from underneath me.














I was a little bewildered at first, because I was wondering if I was going to have to fight something else, but nope! Then the door to outside showed up.














So, let's see what's on the other side of the door. Do I finally get to find out what's going on?














Another mine cart. Well, that's not what I expected to find. Welp, guess I'll activate that Time Stone on the ceiling and see what happens.














Ooh, pretty. And there's two rows of giant robots saluting me. I can't help but wonder what the purpose of this place was back when the mining facility was operational. Unless the people in charge wanted the stuff being mined to feel important as it was being shipped out, I guess.

And when I got outside...guess who I saw!














ZOMG!














Am I going to get to talk to them this time? And what's that thing behind them?















Aww, she's all happy to see me. But before we can have our tearful reunion (again) we're interrupted (predictably).














EXPLOSION!















Aww, man, it's that guy again...














...and he's PISSED.

Fortunately, Impa is prepared.














But, as always, there's no time to actually talk about what's happening.















Being a good little girl, Zelda was quick to oblige, but not before throwing me the harp she apparently didn't need anymore.














Uh, okay. I'll just take your word for it, then.














Heh heh. Link is like, "OMG, a harp!" but the dialogue was like "No time to admire it now!" because right about that time, Ghirahim broke through Impa's shield.














SNAP.

I did get to make a smarmy remark about being on time, though.














Well, good. I'm glad you approve. Now run away like a little girl.














Link looks pissed for some reason. Hmm. Maybe because Zelda is getting away yet again, and we still have no idea what is going on. Well, looks like it's time for Ghirahim's next monologue.














Well, thanks, I guess.














Well, that's ominous. I'll have to make sure to avoid you in the future.

And then the prissy little nancy boy ran off to go do his own thing. You'd think he'd just kill me already. But I'm not complaining about being allowed to live, I guess.














Well, that's unfortunate. I wonder what I'll have to dowse for instead.

And that brings me to my stopping point for today. Well, okay, I admit I went back to the sky and checked for new quests on Skyloft. The reward for my trouble? I got to use the Gust Bellows to clean some woman's house, because being someone's cleaning lady is what I've always wanted to do. Here's a clue, Nintendo: my name is not Consuela! Sigh.

Well, anyway. I've been instructed to go back to the Sealed Grounds, so I suppose that's where I'll be starting next time. Until then, heroes!