Phenomenon Intervention, also called Phenomena Intervention and Observation, is one of the many strange, ill-defined abilities in Blazblue. According to one of its users, Rachel Alucard, Phenomenon Intervention is an ability that allows one to overwrite reality with events from different timelines. What this entails is dependent upon its user’s wishes, meaning this power could be used for just about anything.
In terms of specific abilities, the website VS Battles Wiki has a page dedicated to listing off the various ways in which Phenomenon Intervention is used. To give the authors credit, they provide a decent explanation for how PI works, a good outline for how different PIs are classified, and even list off the various drawbacks of Observation.
However, that doesn’t mean the page is without its flaws. Like the rest of VS Battles’ Blazblue pages, they only use screenshots to support their claims. This might not seem like a problem until you realize that these screenshots are often taken out of context. And when you look at the context behind them, you’ll find they’re either just one-off lines or deliberate misinterpretations to make something seem stronger.
That’s what this document is for. I’ll be looking through their page on Phenomenon Intervention and either debunking their arguments, explaining the few that are legit, and whether or not they’re combat applicable.
But before we get into that, it should be noted that one of the beings capable of Phenomenon Intervention, the Embryo, actually refers to two entities. The one from Blazblue is a pocket dimension capable of Observing itself, while the one from XBlaze refers to Hinata Himezuru, a girl with the power to induce Phenomenon Intervention. For the sake of not confusing you, I’ll specify which is which if necessary.
Existence Erasure:
VSBW’s claim: One of the main mechanics of the Phenomena Intervention is to erase a phenomenon and replacing it with a new, meaning a user can automatically erase phenomenons the moment he/she acquired the ability. By not observing a person, they can also erase a being from existence due to being not recognized.
This specifically refers to how Observers make sure one reality doesn’t happen over another. It isn’t really something you can apply to combat.
Subjective Reality:
VSBW’s claim: Phenomena Intervention is able to change the world around the user depending on what they "see" and "observe".
This power is legit since it’s supported by how PI is described.
Time Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Clavis, with one of the weakest abilities to observe a phenomenon, was able to interfere with the time itself. This includes stopping it entirely, as seen when he was talking with Naoto. Takamagahara also used Phenomena Intervention to manipulate space and time.
It’s legit, but only applicable to the high tier and god tier Observers like Clavis, Rachel, Takamagahara, and Amaterasu.
BFR:
VSBW’s claim: An average user like Nine was able to send the majority of characters to another hierarchical city in Central Fiction, though with the help of Requiem. Kokonoe managed to send Hakumen to somewhere else with it as well. And one of the other aspects of Phenomena Intervention is to send targets to other locations.
The example they cite for Kokonoe is just her teleporting Hakumen to Sector Seven’s lab. The other screenshot that talks about “moving from one location to another” is just describing how Observers can shift the possibilities by picking a different timeline.
Statistics Amplification:
VSBW’s claim: Relius explains that a weapon with stronger observation, can alter how strong and effective the weapon can become.
This one’s legit, but it’s only usable by Nox Nyctores.
Absorption:
VSBW’s claim: The Embryo, which is stated numerous times that it's main source of power is phenomena intervention, is capable of absorbing the entire multiverse within itself.
This ability only applies to Blazblue’s Embryo, and it only absorbed the outside world, not the multiverse.
Causality Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Kokonoe, who is said to be weak when it comes to phenomena intervention, was able to create causal pathways to salvage Hakumen from the Boundary.
This is just a one off line that’s never brought up after this point and there’s nothing that suggests it’s all that powerful.
Non-Physical Interaction:
VSBW’s claim: Phenomena Intervention makes nonexistent beings exist, as seen when Amane observed Ragna that was already erased by Amaterasu, and when Noel was able to observe Terumi. Observation at its most basic level can manipulate things that exist and not exist, so it can manipulate nonexistent beings by default.
This is based on how Observation works on certain characters. It’s not something that can be applied to any intangible being.
There’s also an issue with their example involving Ragna and Amane. First, nothing suggests that Ragna was erased by Amaterasu. Amane states that Ragna’s information wasn’t stored by Takamagahara, but that doesn’t equate to being erased at the time. All this means is he wouldn’t exist when the world was recreated.
The second problem is that Amane never actually Observes Ragna. He offers to do it, but Ragna turns him down.
Resurrection/Regeneration and Immortality:
VSBW’s claim: Self-observation allows users like Terumi to appear back to existence after Hakumen erased him with his time killer, which is far superior to the Cauldron's Existence Erasure hax of erasing someone from the past, present and future.Observers can't die by conventional means.
The argument about Terumi regenerating from the Time Killer’s existence erasure is covered in the main document.
Conceptual Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: With self-observation, user can separate parts of themselves as seen with Noel observing herself to separate Mu from her body. This is seen when Amaterasu manipulated the concept of "world" coming from an already erased universe.
It’s never really confirmed in story or arcade mode how Noel managed to split Mu from her. All we know is that the two were split apart after Noel saw the Gate to the Azure, with the split also separating their memories. Even if this was done through Observation, it would be an ability specific to Noel since no other Observer shows this power themselves.
The example with the Embryo is also flawed. In the context of the conversation, Trinity is just explaining that the information of the previous universe was absorbed into the Embryo. The statements about the concept of the world just refers to how the original universe has no information left in it, which means Amaterasu is trapped where the universe once was.
Quantum Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: With Phenomena Intervention, a user like Kokonoe is able to manipulate quantum superposition, and phenomena intervention is similar to Schrodinger's cat experiment.
Kokonoe was only able to do this by using nodes that rely on Armagus and hooking Tager up with a weapon designed to make Hakumen corporeal. It’s unlikely she could do this as effectively on her own.
Power Nullification:
VSBW’s claim: Amane was able to suppress the Black Beast by observing Ragna.
This is just Amane offering to slow down Ragna’s transformation into the Black Beast, which is specific to Ragna. There’s also a problem with their description. They say that Amane slowed down Ragna’s transformation, but that would require Amane to Observe Ragna, which he never does.
Pocket Reality Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Rachel was stated to be able to create a pocket dimension with her phenomena intervention.
Rachel does indeed make a pocket dimension. However, she doesn’t do anything with it aside from teleporting Ragna in to test Mu’s power.
Paralysis Inducement:
VSBW’s claim: Nine was able to paralyze Ragna for a period of time while using phenomena intervention.
The screenshot VS Battles uses is from a scene after Ragna gets teleported away during his fight with Nine. Actually looking at the scene in question shows that the reason Ragna couldn’t move was because his injuries from Nine’s magic had begun setting in.
I’ve seen a counterargument to this that claims Ragna was moving just fine after the fight and only became paralyzed after Nine PI’d him. However, this argument ignores that magic-based injuries are established as having a delayed reaction on Ragna. You can see this after his fight with Nu-13 in Chronophantasma, where the timeline gets reset through Phenomenon Intervention, only for the Azure Grimoire to give Ragna his wounds back after some time passes.
Probability Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Phenomena Intervention's main mechanics is to manipulate possibilities to interfere with phenomena.
This power is legit since PI involves manipulating different timelines to get a desired result.
Memory Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Stated by Es that phenomena intervention can easily erase memories used by Takamagahara System to erase people's memories.
Es’ statement about modifying memories is referring to the power of XBlaze’s Embryo. There are instances in Blazblue where memories are manipulated, but most of it only happens as a side effect of timeline resets. And even then, its potency is based on the Observer in question. In the case of god tiers like Takamagahara, very few people could remember the events it reset save for Observers like Rachel. However, when normal Observers reset the timeline, there were times where people like Ragna would still remember some events that happened prior to the reset.
The only time this power’s been used without a timeline reset was when Blazblue’s Embryo absorbed the Chosen and altered their memories.
Empathic Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: By Amaterasu's observation, nobody in the world neither hate nor fear Terumi anymore and was able to erase every single hate in the world to Terumi in Central Fiction.
This was caused by Jin using the Power of Order to alter people’s perception of Susano’o and taking control of the Susano’o Unit himself. Amaterasu succeeding Susano’o was just the result of that since Terumi was no longer inside the Unit to resist her.
Law Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Nobody was able to create her own rules within her own pocket dimension like someone needs to solve a riddle to enter the deeper floor.
This is just VS Battles trying to squeeze as much mileage as they can out of a quiz minigame. It isn’t even an actual power. It’s just Nobody explaining the rules for her minigame.
Reality Warping:
VSBW’s claim: Phenomena Intervention can make anything a reality, and has been stated more than once to being able to reshape reality.
This is legit for the reasons listed in Subjective Reality.
Information Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Embryo can manipulate information down to personal level with its phenomena intervention.
Legit, but it’s only done by Blazblue’s Embryo, which wouldn’t scale to anyone.
Data Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: With powerful enough phenomena intervention, the user can rewrite even data, as seen when Amaterasu rewrote Kokonoe's backup data.
Legit, but it’s only shown from Amaterasu, who’s one of the god tier Observers.
Sealing:
The example that’s given would only apply to Blazblue’s Embryo, which no one scales to.
Fate Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Killing anyone outside of phenomena intervention is killing outside of fate itself. Amaterasu manipulated destiny of the Dark War, creating coincidences that are too good to actually come true normally, such as Nine inventing Ars Magus with less than a year in the heat of the war. Phenomena Intervention is also stated to manipulate Fate.
In Hazama’s case, his statements about fate are vague and don’t really give off vibes of manipulating fate. Hinata’s statement about fate manipulation could be considered legit. However, she needed the power of the Embryo in order to use Phenomenon Intervention in the first place.
Mind Manipulation:
This is legit since the T-system required Hinata’s Embryo in order to accomplish its purpose of controlling others’ thoughts. However, this shouldn’t scale to other Observers since this power is only used by the T-system.
Precognition:
VSBW’s claim: T-System should be used to precog the events of entire humanity using phenomena intervention when it has Hinata.
The T-system’s precognition isn’t tied to Phenomenon Intervention. That’s just what it was built to do. It only uses PI after calculating events so it can get rid of any unwanted thoughts.
Possession:
VSBW’s claim: Raquel was able to possess Rachel with it.
This one is legit, but it’s only temporary and Rachel was able to resist it. Raquel also never uses this possession for any combat purposes. She just used it to talk to Naoto and explain how he could save their world.
Spatial Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: Amaterasu was able to warp space according to Chosen's perspective. With large-scale intervention, phenomena intervention is able to affect the space-time as a whole.
Legit, but only god tiers like Amaterasu and Takamagahara show this ability.
Duplication:
VSBW’s claim: Hinata was able to create completely new Toya using her own memories.
Hinata needed the power of the Embryo to duplicate Touya, meaning this shouldn’t be applicable to regular Observers.
Creation:
VSBW’s claim: With this phenomenon intervention, the user can create timelines with ease as seen with Es.
The only evidence used for this power is a screenshot of Konoe saying that Es has the power to actualize her feelings. This in and of itself doesn’t provide evidence toward their claims, nor is this power what their screenshot refers to. In the context of this scene, Konoe is referring to the power of the XBlaze, a one-time power boost that enhances Es’ strength based on her emotions, which she later uses during her fight with Freaks.
The claim that Es could create a new timeline is also wrong. What actually happened was Es used the Embryo’s power to reset the timeline hundreds of times and prevent the deaths of Touya and her friends. This is similar to how Hinata, the Embryo’s previous wielder, used it to repeatedly reset the timeline.
Information Analysis:
VSBW’s claim: Raquel was able to scan every piece of information within the Boundary, every moment in every event in every possibility.
It’s hard to tell the veracity of this statement since an exact source isn’t cited. However, going by the thread this quote comes from, it sounds fine as an ability, though it isn’t combat applicable.
Illusion Creation and Power Mimicry:
VSBW’s claim: Amaterasu was able to create illusions that have every single ability of the people it copies.
Only high tier Observers like Relius, Nine, and Amaterasu show the ability to create illusions.
Telepathy:
VSBW’s claim: Raquel was able to telepathically talk with Izanami and Naoto by directly observing Embryo.
This is legit since Raquel sends a telepathic message to Naoto and Izanami during his Act 2 arcade mode. However, it’s only used once and isn’t combat applicable.
Body Puppetry:
VSBW’s claim: Raquel was able to stop Naoto's hand from touching the Azure. Raquel was able to forcefully keep Naoto's body in the universe.
Nothing in the scene that’s cited suggests Raquel forced Naoto to stop moving. Izanami’s shock at Raquel’s Intervention was from the telepathic message.
Soul Manipulation:
VSBW’s claim: By observing Arakune, Kokonoe was able to give Roy's soul free spot in the Boundary by manipulating him indirectly. She was also able to get Celica's soul with it too.
Roy himself states that Kokonoe’s Observation indirectly allowed his soul to remain in the Boundary. That much is true. However, the claim that Kokonoe copied Celica’s soul with Phenomenon Intervention is completely unfounded. Kokonoe never utters the words Phenomenon Intervention, Observation, or anything similar when discussing how she copied Celica. All she says is that she found Celica’s soul and duplicated it.
Time Travel:
VSBW’s claim: Noel and Rachel were able to send Ragna back in time, and thus, logically can do it to themselves by self-observation
While Noel and Rachel were able to send Ragna back in time with PI, they had to be near a Cauldron in order to do it. This means that while this power is legit, it’s also extremely situational since it requires multiple Observers and an external device.
