PUZZLE #40: 4X Game: XX/XY

PUZZLE #40

4X Game: XX/XY

Yep, it's another "4X Game" puzzle, except that this time, one of the X's has been changed to a Y! Read the directions to see how that changes things!

Below, there are 3 "X"'s and one "Y"; the "X"'s each contain four 5-letter answers, and the "Y" has three. Each answer is entered at an angle (save for one of the words in the "Y"), following one of the arrows as it does so, and the last three letters of one answer will be the first three letters of another, albeit in reverse order. In the example above (I know all the answers are three letters instead of five, but hopefully you'll still get the idea), the words in the "X" are MAP, PAT, TAR, and RAM, and the words in the "Y" are ROT, TON and NOR. However, to make things even harder, none of the clues are numbered or in order, so you'll have to figure out which word goes in which angle, but don't worry, as each "tip" of each "X" or "Y" (the outermost letters) will contain the same letters as the "tips" of its neighboring "X" or "Y". Going back to the example above, the rightmost "tips" in the "X" contain the letters "R" and "T", so the leftmost "tips" in the "Y" has the same exact letters, in the same exact placement.

Once you're done, unscramble the letters in the "tips" that have no neighbors (the yellow squares) to get one of three 3-letter words; this week's FINAL ANSWER is the only one of those three that starts with a vowel.

X #1

* "It's _____!" (Memorable quote from Admiral Ackbar): 2 wds.

* Mattress that stop-motion sheep don't want you to sleep on
* Fathers a foal
* Arc de Triomphe's locale

X #2
* "_____ Blue" (Song from Hoodwinked!): 2 wds.
* Kia Optima, e.g.
* A dodecagon has twelve of them
* Unsafe at Any Speed author Ralph

X #3

* Teen Titans member born in Azarath
* Party like no tomorrow
* Reading Rainbow host _____ Burton
* "Not in a bajillion years!"

Y #4

* "Day" that this puzzle was initially posted on?
* _____ No. 1 (fighting game that originally came with a demo of Final Fantasy VII)
* Baymax from Disney's Big Hero 6, for example

Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com (though I'm more likely to check the second one) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!