Final Fantasy XIII - Part 029 - Chapter 13 - Orphan & Ending

Barthandelus is waiting for us, and creating illusions again.

Going into the first of the three final bosses with Shrouds up speeds up the process considerably. You can debuff Barthandelus and go all out to stagger him.
Renew saves a lot of healing time too. Swap to a paradigm with at least one Sentinel when you the message for Ultima to reduce damage. Highwind finish? Check.

Beating Barthandelus causes Orphan to be born.
Although in its first form it isn't really an Orphan, and as such you have to defeat Barthandelus and the image of Lindzei, the Goddess that created Cocoon Fal'Cie. Orphan is the childlike Fal'Cie in the centre.

Merciless Judgement is the main worry of Orphan's first form, and Dies Irae followed by Merciless Judgement can kill you quick.
Merciless Judgement won't kill you if you're at full health and not debuffed, and with one Sentinel it will do around half damage, the problem is the debuffs it can inflict, and the fact you're not going to be at full health very often.
If you find yourself with too many debuffs use Summon to refresh the characters as I did (eventually).
This boss falls to Poison just as I'm probably about to be wiped by Merciless Judgement.

Orphan completely wipes the party after the fight turning everyone but Fang and Vanille into Cie'th.
After torturing the pair Fang turns into Ragnarok and attacks Orphan, but that isn't enough.
After Orphan tortures Fang by harming and healing her repeatedly Vanille commits to not running away and the party attack Orphan out of nowhere. Chances are they probably weren't turned into Cie'th.
This destroys the image of Lindzei and Barthandelus in the process revealing Orphan's true form, by essentially making him an orphan.

After Lightning's speech about hope and fate, and how Orphan has been waiting for death since before it was even born, it's time to deliver death to it.

This is hard to lose. You can't damage it pre-stagger but once staggered it should be over in one cycle. Debuff it first whilst buffing and then focus on staggering it, and go all out.
Fog/Pain can happen, but as Orphan doesn't deal a great deal of damage swapping to two MEDs Esunas them away quickly.
Once staggered you should slaughter it. I stayed with Com/Rav/Rav to build up the gauge and increase the damage potential and swapped to Com/Com/Com last second.
Highwind ended it too.

Cocoon begins to fall in the ending but Fang and Vanille both transform into the completed form of Ragnarok and crystalise a pillar and parts of Cocoon leading the whole party to become crystalised too.
Sazh, Snow, Lightning, Hope all return to normal whilst Fang and Vanille remain crystalised, together.
More importantly, Serah and Dazh return to life as well.

Although I did like 13-2 (not as much as the original), after this ending it doesn't need to exist.
I do plan to play 13-2 at some point, although how soon I'm not entirely sure. I have half of 6 recorded, and I should finish that really.

There's another 10 parts of post game to come within the next week for this anyway.