Final Fantasy VI/Fridge

• Fridge Horror: One of the pieces of Magicite Terra can equip, learn spells from and summon is her father's. And magicite are the remains of a dead Esper. Terra can equip her father's corpse.
  • The empire spent a lot of time trying to harness magical power for humans. Eventually, it's revealed that they did this by experimenting on captured Espers — but Espers only pass along their magic when they die and turn into Magicite. The Empire did not know this until the events of the game. The last raid on their home was performed when Terra was just a baby. That means that for almost twenty years, those Espers were imprisoned and experimented upon, knowing that any time one of them died they were just one test away from ensuring a death sentence for all of the rest of them...
• Fridge Logic: How can you equip Sprint Shoes and Marvel Shoes at the same time?
  • One on each foot?

• This troper never understood the point of Gogo in Final Fantasy VI. Of course, he was an very useful character and was this troper's trump-card of choice, but the character always seemed bland. Heck, UMARO had more backstory and foreshadowing then Gogo. Years later, this troper plays through the GBA remake of Final Fantasy V and realizes that Gogo is not only a funny cameo of a boss in Final Fantasy V, but his entire skill-set changing gimmick is a throw-back to how Mimics worked in V, just like Gogo, they could change their entire skill-set, even throwing out the Item command. Suddenly, the most personality-lacking character became a hilareous cameo. It only got better when the remake of VI came along and revealed that Gogo was mimicking the main characters all along; they were saving the world, so he would save the world too. All in the name of the "true path of mimicry". Hilarious - User:Enlong
  • It can also be thought of as a deconstruction of your Designated Hero. He doesn't need a good reason to save the world. He does it because that's his style. Everyone has at least a little bit of a reason as to why they don't want the Big Bad to kick the world's ass, but Gogo is just like, "Cool. Lemme try that."
    • Also, Gogo draws a disturbing parallel to Kefka. One's a clown, one's a mime, and both of them don't take their roles too seriously. But where Kefka is having fun destroying the world, the other's having fun saving it. -Sweet Madness
    • Speaking of which, Kefka himself. It seems out of place to have a villain with such unexplained motives in a game that had more focus on its characters than any before it. But that's exactly the point - Kefka doesn't have a reason or motive aside from doing what he wants to do. When he calls the heroes out on their cliche "self-help booklet" speech, it's because he can't comprehend that the heroes have something that drives them, even though they don't enjoy fighting at all. "Hopes. Dreams. Where do they come from? And where do they take you? These things... I will destroy!" He genuinely doesn't know, and it pisses him off. -Socran
    • Interesting that one of the main themes in FF VI is friendship, and Kefka is essentially a man with no friends, and thus no connection to the world. A connection to the world is meaningful in the game via a connection with people. Terra spends her time worrying that she can't feel love and so isn't a person, but her friends and her connection to the town she adopts renders that point moot. Kefka is the villain of the game about friendship because he is ultimately alone.-Karmathestrange
    • I just realized Celes's scene in the Opera, where she throws the flowers from the top of the castle singing about despair for the future with her love Draco gone, parallels the scene later on after Kefka breaks the world, if Cid dies, when she climbs to the top of a cliff and throws herself off it for pretty much the same reasons. — Zephid
• Something struck me as odd about Celes, her "Runic" ability is useless in-universe; humanity lost the ability to do magic after the war of the magi and now only specifically altered imperial soldiers can use magic. What is the point of a power that only weakens your allies? Then it hit me; why would a woman with obvious mental issues be made a general? She was a throwaway asset groomed for EXACTLY ONE BATTLE. If she hadn't turned traitor she would doubtlessly have lead imperial forces into the Esper world. Think about it: what is more frightening to an Esper; fighting enemies who, while using weapons you've never seen, are perfectly vulnerable to magic, or an enemy commander who can nullify your magic with a snap of her fingers? Really makes you realize how evil the empire is if they would control a person for her entire life to gain an advantage in one battle
  • Furthermore; she may have also been intended as a means of drawing enemy fire away form Kefka and the Emperor.
    • Hell, I'm inclined to believe she was groomed to be a failsafe against Kefka and/or Terra. Think about it, two characters who know powerful magic...if they turned on the Emperor, he's not in good shape. Having someone to protect him from that magic, though...
• In Final Fantasy VI, when you find Mog in the World of Ruin, he's just staring at a spot in the wall of the (now empty) moogle's den. If you search that spot, you find the Moogle's charm... in the SNES version. In the retranslated GBA version, the name given is "Molulu's Charm". Molulu was one of the Ten Moogles who fight to protect Terra way back in the Mines fight. Specifically, Molulu fought right next to Mog during the battle. And supplementary materials reveal that Molulu was Mog's girlfriend, and gave him the charm as a present. Mog is very likely the only Moogle spared from the apocalypse. He probably spent the entire year just forlornly staring at that charm, because it's all that's left of Molulu, of his entire people. And... when Kefka asks the party what they could possibly have that gives them the strength to keep living... Mog's only answer is "New pals, Kupo!". Because all his old friends are... Oh Mog! * sob* — User:Enlong
• Two things about Final Fantasy VI just occurred to me today. The first comes during the section where you, as Celes, have to give fish to Cid while he is sick. For some reason, whenever you walk in, he's out of bed, and just walking back into bed as Celes approaches. Only now does it occur to me that while Celes was out, he was down in the basement working on the raft for her to use to find dry land! That's why you can't find the raft before he gets better/dies, he hasn't built it yet!
  • Then there's the whole thing about the Slave Crown the Empire put on Terra. If they were raising her as a Tyke Bomb, why would they need to use the crown to shut down her individuality? The answer comes in the World of Ruin. Espers are not naturally emotional creatures. Most of the Espers seen are eerily calm, even when the Empire invades or when they're sacrificing themselves. Emotions are alien to them, and to their powers. When Terra becomes an orphan mom and begins to learn about emotions like love, the emotional turmoil causes her powers to wane to the point that she can't fight at all. The Empire must have realized that emotions drain Terra's powers, and used the Slave Crown to keep their weapon in top form at all times by shutting down her emotions. -Enlong
    • That doesn't explain why there is only ONE Slave Crown in the entire game. For something so useful, you'd think the Empire, with all of its wealth and resources, would be able to make AT LEAST a few more of those damn things wouldn't they? Maybe it would be a better investment than producing powered armor which can be beaten with bare hands and simple bladed weapons.
      • But it does. The Empire didn't NEED the Slave Crown before it got it's hands on Terra. Prior to that, they could rely on more conventional control techniques like propaganda or outright brainwashing to control their soldiers. But Terra's Half-Esper nature made those techniques ineffective. So naturally, they came up with a new method. Why is there only ONE Slave Crown in the entire game? Because it's the First one.
      • Actually the functions of the slave crown pretty much ensure why it isn't widely used by the emperor. While you would want to have a loyal soldier the thing is if you're fighting a war you certainly don't want a soldier who can't think for themselves. One of the functions of the slave crown is the prevention of free thought, which is why Terra was sent with Biggs and Wedge to order her what to do. Also when one is funding a war one needs soldiers and in order to get more soldiers from their country they need people to procreate but you can't force them to have sex, cause that will get you no where, especially because the slave crowns can be removed, then you'd have a bunch of unloyal soldiers on your hands who may want revenge on you for controlling them. In this case just rearing the people so that they're loyal to you is far more effective than mass use of the slave crowns. You'd have several Terras on your hand who want revenge on you.
      • There's a lot about Terra's backstory that isn't really fleshed out. She looks identical to her adult self in the scene where the slave crown is put on, and Kefka's dialogue in that scene implies that the slave crown is a new development. How did they keep control of her for all the years in between her infancy and the day they put on the slave crown?
      • I always assumed the crown was because Terra refused to use her powers to kill people.
• Everyone remember Gau's kooky father? The guy who is always looking for repairmen? Wonder why he's so obsessed with them. When I recently watched the scene where the party introduces Gau to him, I realized he said that he routinely has nightmares about the "demon child". What he did to his son still haunts him. And it's clearly driven him mad and ruined his life. He's obsessed with fixing and repairing things because he's desperate for someone to fix and repair the mistake he made all those years ago, when he left his son to die. — deeman 45
  • And after You take Gau to see him, the father says everything's fixed. You did good. Or Alternate Character Interpretation - He was always crazy, therefore never mentally fit to be a father to begin with.
• OK, so, in Final Fantasy VI, Espers have to die in order to produce Magicite. You fid the Bahamut magicite in the mouth of the Deathgaze enemy. So, Deathgaze must've killed Bahamut. How? Well, Deathgaze's attack pattern is to open every encounter with Level 5 Death, killing everything whose level is a multiple of five. Looking through the Final Fantasy Wiki, I found that in Final Fantasy III, Bahamut's first appearance in the series as a boss (rather than an NPC), his level is precisely 50. That's a multiple of 5! Probably a huge coincidence, but I'm calling it brilliance. User:Enlong
  • On a similar note, you find the esper Odin petrified. In Final Fantasy V, you have to fight him and and win in under one minute to gain his summon magic. On both rereleases, he is not immune to being petrified.
• Celes' Tear Jerker moment mirrors almost exactly the movements she goes through during the opera scene. The part where she throws the flowers from the balcony takes on a whole new meaning once you compare it to her throwing herself from the high cliff.
• The characters' special abilities:
  • Locke's Steal is proof that you can't upgrade things.
    • Or, if you equip him with a Relic, it turns into Capture... attack and steal. Yeah, it'll only get worse.
  • Edgar's rich, so his weapons (well, five of them) can be bought in stores.
  • Sabin's Blitz is supposed to be like a fighting game.
  • Shadow uses Throw because, being a ninja, he has to be able to attack before someone else can attack him. Also because he's too much of a coward to take care of his own daughter.
  • Celes attempts suicide, and Runic consists of doing something that would appear to hurt herself.
  • Cyan requires waiting. Cyan is also the slowest character in the game.
  • A wild man would have to be very intelligent and have a very good memory to avoid things like poisons, so Gau's attack requires a perfect memory.
  • Setzer's a gambler. Nuff said. Since gambling throws away money, Coin Toss consists of, well, throwing away money.
  • Terra's Morph: Wouldn't a mystical spirit be naked? Also, Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu??
  • Mog's moves are because he's "lost in the music". And X at a rave.
  • Strago's ability is more magic because he's an old man.
    • He's also a man which faced so many monsters in life that he knows how they attack.
  • Relm's Sketch is a parody of poor doujinshi drawn by tweens.
  • Gogo is, as mentioned, a mirror of Kefka. No wonder he has the best techniques.
  • Umaro, like Gau (for being wild) and Mog (because Mog controls him), is uncontrollable.
• Setzer's scars seem random at first until you consider that he's a--a gambler and general high-risk guy, and b--an airship pilot. Between bar fights and crashes, it's no wonder! Although that one straight down the eye seems nasty.
• Did Kefka really want to destroy the world merely For the Evulz? Looking at his Hannibal Lecture before the final battle from a certain perspective, it seems his main issue was that everything that is created will eventually be destroyed, and is therefore meaningless. That would mean he saw destruction as the only permanent, all-encompassing force in the universe and, following his logic, the only thing that had any meaning. His words about creating a monument to non-existence seem to confirm that.
• Most of the entries on this page are Fridge Brilliance, so here's some Fridge Horror to go with that: In the second half of the game, Strago is found at the Cult of Kefka, worshiping Kefka. An NPC at the base of the tower informs you that all the worshipers have sold their souls to Kefka. In the GBA version, the relic found at the top of the tower is the Soul of Thamasa. Thamasa is Strago's hometown. He sold his soul to Kefka, and that's why you have to climb the tower-to get it back!
• This troper just realized that the three characters you take with you for the full "Gau meeting his father scene" are three characters who you select from during the escape to Narshe at the beginning of the game: Locke, Edgar, and Sabin.