Hey I am all for this
Also I'll find a time to get back into armor on stream. Sadly it broke while I was trying to put it on and I need to make some basic repairs. But fear not, the armor will be back!
Just switching your buddy in general should fix this issue, it doesn't have to be in battle. You can swap back to your original buddy after you've switched him out once.
A lot of these infinite load issues can be fixed by swapping out your buddy and swapping him back. Try loading up your latest save, swapping buddies back and forth and then fight the final boss. Hopefully that'll fix it.
The Earl of Winnipeg doesn't even have that line, are you sure that's exactly what he's saying? It'll help me track down the problem if I know the line he's using.