Final Fantasy VI/Headscratchers

• Terra is 18 when Kefka places the Slave Crown on her head. She is abducted in swadling clothes by Gestahl, and the next time we see her, she's 18. What did the Empire do with her in the interim? They couldn't have kept her in a test tube for 16 years. Also, why don't we ever get even a hint of explanation out of Terra about what the heck she was doing growing up in the Empire?
  • I dunno about what she was up to for 16 years, but at the beginning of the game, after the Slave Crown is taken off, Terra says she can't remember anything about before it was put on her head, and the NPC who took it off her says the long-term memory loss is a side effect of the Crown. So she doesn't explain it because she doesn't remember any of it.
  • Then why does she say "I remember it all" when you get back to Zozo?
    • I think "memory loss" might be in this case "memory block", not "memory erase".
• Where did Kefka get all that power?
  • When Kefka launches his attack on Thamasa, did anyone else wonder how the crap he got so powerful? Last time we saw him (other than when he was in the slammer) was at the Sealed Gate, where both the heroes and the Espers beat him like a red-headed stepchild. Then all of a sudden, he shows up out of nowhere, slaughters Leo, destroys three INVINCIBLE Guardians, then obliterates a dozen or so Espers, all without breaking a sweat. Seriously, how the hell did he go from gimp to God-like?
    • If I recall correctly, he appears to 'absorb' the guardians he brings with him just prior to fighting the Espers in Thamasa, so I assume he got a lot of power from them as they are never depicted fighting him but simply being absorbed. Also, I do not believe he is a gimp in the least sense. In all the battles where you are 'overpowering' him (such as when you are trying to stop him from poisoning Doma or approaching the sealed gate) Kefka doesn't seem intent on actually fighting, and just occasionally thwaks with his mace (which would be his weakest form of attack considering that he is Court Magician and specializes in magic) at you while running away. When you fight him again in Narshe he is noticably more powerful and actually posed a pretty good challenge for my party that consisted of a magical esper girl, and ex general, a martial artist, and a knight. That sounds pretty tough to me and that's actually earlier in the game. I assume he levels and gains experience much in the same way the party does, as well as having access to all manner of 1337 imperial equipment and magical augmentation at his disposal. Also keep in mind that in your first actual battle with him, in Narshe, he already has higher level spells like Drain, Poison, and Bolt2 at his disposal, long before you even have the ability to learn magic. (Barring Terra and Celes who develop a few spells innately.)
    • He didn't destroy any Guardians, he brought them with him to seal off the town and keep Leo from escaping until he was done. As to why he left the rest of the party alive is another question.
    • Narrative causality basically. That, and if I recall he was some kind of twisted genetic freak, so it's possible that the increasing level of humiliation he suffered somehow triggered some kind of mental biofeedback that gave him an upgrade. After all, why should the party be the only ones capable of leveling up in game?
    • Chronology error: he killed Leo at Thamasa (with Imperial Magitek assistance, note), nicked a whole crap-ton of Magicite from the Esper peace delegation, and THEN summoned the Floating Continent and assumed the Warring Triad's powers. Thus, the Magicite haul from Thamasa is probably what let him level up.
    • Nicked it? He harvested it from the bodies of his fallen foes. Any one of those espers could've (and did!) whup Kefka or Gestahl, and yet Kefka curb stomped an army of the things then without even fighting!
    • He used the Vanish/Doom cheat.
      • X-Zone, look at his fight against the Ifrit Palette Swap. Also, what with his new knowledge of Magicite, he probably snagged a whole bunch of magic by using whatever Espers the Empire had left. That would also explain how he was able to impersonate Ghestal. One of the Espers must have been a master of illusions.
      • Easy: At that point, Kefka is still Gestahl's Dragon. The Emperor probably had him augmented at the Magitek labs, before setting him loose on Thamasa.
      • Even easier: The Espers that burst out of the Sealed Gate surprised him with their assault, and probably weren't even the same ones that hid away near Thamasa. By the time of his comeback, he was ready for them.
      • He seems to use always the same magical attack at that point. He might have been using some sort of Esper killing item... As for me, I'm saying he found Nethecite from now on.
        • Also, the Espers don't even really beat him. He just falls to the ground (And so does the party) before being sort of swept away. Not much of a defeat on his part. Plus not all espers are really powerful. A lot of them look like faeries, and since there are espers for all sorts of spells I suspect there are some espers for some pretty lames ones, like a magikarp that teaches 'conjure water' and shit.
        • Additionally, during your party's infiltration of the Magitek Research Facility, Kefka mentions he has been absorbing magic from Espers and becoming all-powerful. While he already had undergone magitek infusion as part of his backstory, this seems to imply he has been continuously repeating the process to further increase his powers over time. This would explain the leaps in power from the events at the Imperial Camp to the Narshe invasion, as well as those in Thamasa later on.
  • Two options. 1) Kefka did some leveling up and learned some stronger magic or 2) Kefka's been screwing with you the whole game as part of the set up to obtain more espers. Remember, the Empire knew Terra's origin from the begining so they probably figured that once she escaped them she'd try to get help fro the other side. The Empire's goals were all about the espers early on.
  • He says outright: "First, let's neutralize your abilities!" Kefka essentially crippled the Espers right from the get-go in Thamasa, and what attacks they could launch were easily blocked or absorbed. Finally, it's worth remembering that most of the Espers don't in fact seem to be very capable fighters. The Empire didn't have any magic whatsoever when they invaded the Espers' home, and yet they were able to subdue the Espers and drag them back to Vector without very much difficulty. Instead of fighting back with their magic, the Espers' solution is to use a magical wind to blow the Imperial troops away, something that didn't bring back their companions who'd already been kidnapped.
  • Kefka was already powerful from the beginning. He is just playing with you.
    • He wasn't. The party had already encountered and trounced him a few times before. A childish, petty maniac like Kefka wouldn't "play" with people who have just beaten him, he would have slaughtered them on the spot if he really had the power. You know, like he did with Gestahl immediately after attaining the Triad's might.

• Was Cid's survival a last-minute addition? Even if you save him, Celes still winds up with the "lucky charm" bandana she got from the pigeon that (somehow) nursed her back to health. Besides, unlike the entire rest of the cast, Cid has no scenes or lines for the rest of the game once you leave the island. Returning and talking to him just gives the tired old "feelin' fine" line.
  • It had an emotional punch for the player, especially once you find out that you could have saved him. If he dies, you think that it's just the game fucking with you so that Celes can be all emo on a clifftop. When you find out that he could have lived, you go, "Oh, shit, it was me," and it creates a sort of emotional resonance with your character (that, admittedly, would have been a better thing if you'd have known during the game).
  • I don't think Cid ought to have survived at all. If he had, why would Celes have left the island? She could have just stayed there with her granddad, or traveled around with him, or something. But Cid's death throws into sharp relief how truly alone Celes is and gives her the impetus to leave. Without him, there's nothing left for her on that island and her best shot at being happy and making a life for herself and, well, finding her nakama again is to GTFO as soon as possible.
    • Agreed, but making Celes' failure to save him playable makes for a much more effective Player Punch. The existence of a Guide Dang It happy ending is the price you pay for that.
      • Why would she stay on the island with just Cid for the rest of her life when she has evidence the other people she loved are still alive? The entire reason they stayed there was because they believed the rest of the world to be destroyed and everyone else dead. It's not as dramatic without the suicide attempt and survival, but it's still the same motivation. And for goodness sake, she could probably find a more hospitable place than a deserted island for her and Cid to live - presumably this is why he was building a raft.
      • They should make an alternate ending to the game where if Cid lives, Celes just lives with him for the rest of her days. No second half of the game, just THE END.
        • I always save him just because I'm a huge sucker for Video Game Caring Potential (and because with the SNES translation Celes's suicide really felt narmy to me - it was much improved in later translations,) but yes, they should have made his survival have an impact in and of itself. I wish it had been possible to pick him up on the Falcon and have him interact with the party in some fashion.
      • Okay, so Cid has been living on this tiny island where the wildlife is half-dead and fish is all there is to eat. All that's kept him going is keeping Celes alive and finding a way off the island. Understandable. Now, why the hell does he not ride the raft with Celes? It's a good thing he becomes plot-useless afterward, or else we'd notice that he's living the rest of his life just as alone and helpless as Celes would have if he had died.
  • Well it seems better and would make more sense if we just let Cid die. The art justifies the means.

• So, what was the answer Ultima Buster was searching?
  • Battle, perhaps?
    • So basically he's saying that he was waiting for eternity for battlers that weren't wimps to show up?
      • Well, Kefka summoned him away from an eternity in... wherever he was (note that he mentioned that he was "never once called forth") for the sole purpose of fighting for him. My guess is that he embraced this mission as his reason for being and became a Blood Knight. But that's just me.
  • 42.
  • Why only the Imperial Palace has toilets.
  • Who was phone.
  • Gogo's identity.
  • Who put the bop in the bop-shoo-bop.
  • "Knock Knock." "Who's there?" "Ultima Buster." Ultima Buster whoFLARE STAR

• How is it that Gau's one single "treasure" (apparently an old-fashioned diving mask) was enough to keep three characters alive underwater?
  • When they all compress inside the party leader, they use his lungs. Duh.
    • Just like how the party can leap across the cars in the Phantom Train because one of them has the ability to.
    • Just like in real life.
• The four new espers in the GBA remake. The moral implications of fighting three of the four and personally reducing them to Magicite bugs me. Sure Gilgamesh chooses to join, but Gigantaur and Leviathan are just battles. Battles where you end up killing an esper.
  • Yeah, but Leviathan (and maybe Gigantaur too, I can't remeber) attacked you first. Plus, Diablos is already magicite when you find him.
    • And Gilgamesh is probably fine, since he's already survived using self-destruct/exploder.
      • Fuck em they'll die when magic disappears from the world anyways. My stats justify the means.

• Zozo is a city that was made by the poor people of Jidoor. So, how did they all make massive skyscrapers? And why is it that everybody in Zozo is untrustworthy at best, and murderers at worst? Aren't they just supposed to be poor people?
  • I always assumed it was, for the people of the FFVI world, what Australia was to Britain during the colonial days. Yet instead of developing into a functional society, they went the other way and turned murder and thieving into an industry.
    • The mental image of a hard-pressed husband heading off to his 9-5 job at the burglary factory is marvelous.
  • Yeah, it has signs and building interiors that point towards it maybe once having been going towards a real city. Of course, they do still have bigger buildings than anywhere that isn't (possibly) Vector...
  • Don't forget that crime is linked lower classes of society and poverty. In real life, the people who are most likely to stab, rob, mug, steal, and murder you are more likely to be poor than rich.
  • Was it ever mentioned how the split happened? Maybe it was a reverse-Australia. As in, all the hard-working, rich folk abandoned the city of Zozo and made their own town, Jidoor, leaving the skyscrapers and such to the delinquents.

• Whatever happened to Vargas?
  • I was always under the impression that Sabin killed him.
  • He was eaten by his pets. You just can't trust bears.
    • Because bears are an endless cycle of shit.

• Why is Terra's esper heritage used as the excuse for her confusion with love? It seems more like it stems from the fact that she was a brainwashed slave for most of her life, but for some reason people keep saying that it's because espers don't feel love. In spite of the fact that we saw an esper fall in love. That esper's ability to love is the reason Terra exists in the first place.
  • She was probably really confused.
    • That still doesn't explain why people outside the game seem so insistant that her esper heritage is the reason.
      • Fan translations revealed that the Espers in Terra's Flashback were pretty creepily deadpan about everything, even when the Empire invaded, there were almost no exclamation points to be seen. (and remember, Maduin's love was something new and strange) This is compounded by the discovery of the important detail that Terra wasn't saying that she didn't want to fight, but that she quite literally couldn't. Somehow, the emotional turmoil and confusion of the strange new emotion of "love" was sapping her (Esper born) powers. Then, think back to Terra's question to Celes (the only other magic user at the time) before the battle at the snowfield: "Can you love?". The fans saw those three points and a connection was made
        • But did the espers really not feel emotion? Or did they simply keep their emotions in check to prevent them from losing control of their powers like Terra did?
  • There's also Odin and his unnamed Queen, who (apparently) loved each other so much they transcended the Human/Esper barrier and remained in love even after being turned to stone. Also, weren't Ifrit and Shiva pretty damn pissed off at the Empire? There were also a few Espers inside their hidden lands who were afraid of humans. Deadpan delivery in a fan translation doesn't necessarily mean "emotionless" or even "uncaring."
    • I was just explaining the rationale the fans had. Now then; frankly, no I don't get the impression that Ifrit and Shiva were ticked, nor did I get that feeling from the other captive espers. They fight you, yeah, but all of their dialogue is... well, it seems calm, almost matter-of-fact. Perhaps it's because they're close to death anyway that they speak about their own deaths so calmly, or because they don't have the energy for emotional outbursts, but I don't know. Honestly, I personally think it's more that because Esper/Human is such a strange combination; Terra's human feelings of love mess with her Esper half when she still doesn't understand what the feelings are. Once she gets it sorted out, her powers come back; much like how she learned to Morph after understanding what she is.
    • The espers that poured out of their world after Terra opened the gate seemed pretty pissed.
    • No, they only went overboard beause they never knew thier own strength outside of their world, they intended to free thier friends because it was what they should have done but they caused far more trouble than they intended.
  • In this Troper's opinion, Leo pegged things exactly right: Terra's just young. Even in Dissidia, Terra looks and acts young for her age, at least by human standards. Given how long-lived Espers are, it's not implausible that Terra would be both longer-lived and somewhat slower to mature than pureblooded humans. She sees people her age and younger going hormone-crazed, knows just enough about her unique biology to suspect that it plays a role in why she isn't, but doesn't know enough to know when or if she'll reach that stage (which, to be fair, is not really her fault; nobody knows much about half-Espers). In other words, the whole plotline could have been called "Are you there, Triad? It's me, Terra."

• How do the people of Strago and Relm's village learn magic? They don't seem to have magicite and neither of the playable inhabitants get it from leveling up.
  • They're descendents of the magi; people who recieved some magical power during the War of the Magi, but not enough to be turned into espers.
    • And the playable guys do have natural magic. Strago's a Blue Mage, and Relm's a Pictomancer (it's a weak magic, but it's still magic) who can mature into a Controller.
• When going inside Zozo, you can find enemies called Slam Dancers, who know basic elemental magic. That doesn't make any sense. The only humans in the story context who can use real magic are people who have connections with the Empire, the Espers and their Magicite, or the citizens of Thamasa (And although Ramah lives in Zozo, I'm pretty sure he has nothing to do with anybody living there). To make this stranger, the Slam Dancer enemies are probably just prostitutes, considering their name, appearance, and the "crime and villainy" theme of Zozo.
  • Well, uh... they're lying! Yeah, that's it. Like everyone else in Zozo, they're lying about using magic, and they're just waving their arms around and flashing lights at the party. The heroes, like the gullible saps they are, are convinced it's all real and get hurt somehow.
  • Easy. Ramuh, Kirin, Cait Sith, Siren, and eventually Terra had all flown to Zozo, and all of them in the throes of power overload caused by exposure to the world outside the Sealed Gate. My guess? The espers were hemorrhaging magic, and those slam dancers got enough of it to learn a spell or three.
  • You can buy several Magicite stones from Jidoor... and Zozo is supposed to be where the lower class of Jidoor was "exiled." Being thieves, it wouldn't surprise me that someone stole some Magicite from whoever it is that collects "odd stones," and that the exposure allowed some magic to seep into the people of Zozo.
  • Easy: they can do magic because they're not actually humans, they're just monsters that look like humans. So they're lying about being humans.
• How did Kefka set fire on Figaro castle? It's made of metal and stone and is in the middle of a desert. Sure, he's already capable of magic at that point, but Edgar and Locke react to Terra's use of magic just minutes later like they've never seen anything like it before.
  • Could be incendiary bombs (such as oil and fuel) that happened to crash into walls and turrets. Could be shorthand for "the Empire is trying to destroy the castle!" and the limitations of the medium made the graphics designers go with that. Could also be that, since the architecture is meant to be as iconic as the super-deformed characters, we're really meant to "see" Figaro Castle as a huge, sprawling fortress... and the random fires on its walls represent places where the Imperials set its interior rooms ablaze and the flames are already peeking out of the masonry or the "implied" windows. Does everyone really believe that masonry sets on fire, Sabin can suplex a train and the world of Final Fantasy is populated by midgets?
    • Or alternatively, it could be the result of the several Magitek armor that Kefka brought with him blasting the castle's walls to hell and back.

• If only those with magicite and the people of Thamasa can use magic, how can monsters use magic in the game?
  • Same way the Thamasans and Espers can- innate ability to tap into the Goddesses' power. Presumably, their ability, like the Thamasans', is simply not strong enough to leave crystalized magic behind like the Espers do, but they do have ability.
  • No. My theory is that the their used to be trillions of Espers, but the monsters killed most of them. Now they carry around Magicite and use magic just like you do. They attack the party in order to gain AP and learn new spells.
    • Well there is that "Magicite Shard" item. Perhaps magicite is extremely rare, even rarer if the gem is whole, but there is still enough around the world for monsters and other things to learn weak magic by exposure?
  • Another theory that I like, especially for the monsters in Imperial lands, is that the Magitek program was tested on wild creatures, and some of the creatures escaped after their testing and are menacing the countryside.
  • Sorry for the possible squick factor here, but aren't a lot of the Espers monstrous in form? It's also possible that some of the Espers crossbred, but not with humans, since they weren't human themselves. Or they did have human lovers, but their children had monstrous forms. Either way, the monsters could be descendants of the Espers in much the same way as the Thamasans were descendants of mages.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation, possibly? It's not as though they bother to go into much detail as to why there are monsters running around in the first place.

• What happened to that other survivor of the Doma massacre? You know, the one who was on the balcony with Cyan when people started dropping dead, and set out to find survivors? How come we never hear from him again?
  • Either the soldiers got to him, or, overcome by despair, he drank the water.
  • He became Gogo. Duh?

• There's a change between the SNES and GBA versions of the game that bugs me. It's this line, from Setzer, while you're attempting to recruit him on the Blackjack and just before Celes makes her coin toss.
  
  (SNES) Setzer: Phew. The Empire's made me a rich man.
  (GBA) Setzer: Hmmm... Business has been awfully slow lately, thanks to the Empire...
  
  Did someone change the meaning outright for one of the translations? Or is there some other explanation?
  • Woolsey screwed up. Setzer was supposed to be complaining about the Empire. You'll notice that the words of Locke and Celes (and whoever else you brought) are very similar, but not identical, in meaning in both versions. You'll also notice that (in the SNES version) Setzer turns his back on the Empire that made him rich shockingly fast. The GBA version is the more correct translation here.
    • Makes sense. Anyone here know what the original line was, and why this might've happened? (Woolsey's team might have done a lot of censoring and the like, but at least usually the meaning was right. Something like this makes me wonder if the original line was particularly difficult to translate or something.)
      • Exactly that, if this is any indication. Look for Lina Darkstar's fourth post on that page.
• Even if Celes was under anesthetic / too young to remember at the time her Esper was infused, she was still foster-parented by the man who invented the process. It still seems disingenuous (to me) for her to innocently say that she's only heard "rumors" about what esper infusion does to the esper. Even if it was classified, she is one of the highest-ranking officials in the Empire and she had a direct source for the information if she ever had the slightest bit of curiosity. Maybe she did never find out, but it can't be said that it's because she couldn't find out.
  • Classic double standard in play, I'd wager. I wouldn't put it past Gestahl to make it look like Celes was a big authority figure just to scare people and not really give her any clearance.
  • As a kid Celes had a bad experence with something relating to the infusion process, maybe she wasn't the only one to have recived it. Therefore when she is older and has the clearences never looks for the information because she is afaid of stiring up bad memories.
• Allow me to open the fridge of horror for a sec and ask something that's REALLY been bugging me... Okay, so in FFVI there is an afterlife, right? Right. We all remember that train that went there, we saw Cyan's wife and son board the train, (and still be able to interact with the player characters in Cyan's dream world at Dohma castle,) it doesn't get much more canonical than that. Now, everything that dies (and doesn't stay in the world as an undead) apparently goes to the afterlife, right? This probably goes for magic and magical beings, too, right? (Who knows, maybe that's even why magic vanished when it's source died; it died and cannot traverse the boundraries of the living/dead dimensions... Well, it's a theory, anyway.) So, here's what's been bugging me: What happened to Kefka after he died? Logically, if magic went with him when he died, he should be just as powerful in the afterlife as he was in the world of the living, right? ... Yeah, now just sit there and enjoy the fridge horror.
  • The magic he siphoned from the Triad was earthly. When he died, his soul didn't have that power anymore. Alternately, Espers don't die and go on to the Phantom Train --they're reduced to Magicite, which then crumbled and caused all Espers to outright disappear from the world. If Kefka wasn't entirely made of magic, then it stands to reason his human soul would've passed on like any other; if he was, then he was obliterated with the rest of the Espers and the Goddesses themselves.
    • That'd be all good and well if it weren't for the fact that almost everything you just said is pure speculation, and the stuff that wasn't shouldn't really have any impact on Kefka since he wasn't just an Esper, but the Physical God of magic.
      • Except that we KNOW that Espers are reduced to Magicite upon death, and that the destruction of the world's source of magic caused Magicite to crumble and Espers to vanish. Kefka himself crumbled when killed. There's no evidence in either direction that would point towards him losing OR keeping his magic in the afterlife.
  • The PS 1 rerelease has an interesting bit added to the ending in CGI. Basically, it's Kefka on the Phantom Train, being chased by Shadow. Presumably, if he still had all that magical power, he wouldn't be worried about the ninja assassin coming to kick his teeth in.
    • I took it upon myself to check the CG ending on YouTube, and, unfortunately for you and your theory, the fridge is still wide open due to a couple of unfortunate details that you appear to have overlooked. The main one being that the CG ending in FFVI is a recap montage of earlier events in the game, (like Terra invading Narshe, Locke rescuing Celes down in the basement in South Figaro and Setzer dealing out some destruction to some imperial fliers,) meaning that the sequence you're referring to is from when Shadow, Sabin and Cyan were on board the Phantom Train.
    • Fair enough. I've only beaten the game's SNES version, so I haven't actually seen that CG. I just recalled reading that the ending had Kefka on the Phantom Train being chased by Shadow, so whoever I heard it from must've been mistaken.
    • Actually, in the GBA version, Maduin's magicite speaks with Terra in the ending, and tells her "We must part now. We Espers will disappear from this world. You may fade as well." Now, this could just be my mistaking his statement, but the way Maduin speaks, there's some manner of afterlife for the Espers as well. Could just be his way of saying that he's going to cease to exist, but the use of "part" and "from THIS world" leads me to feel they're not just going to stop being altogether.
  • You're assuming the Phantom Train survived the destruction of the world. Remember, the Phantom Forest didn't.
• Why are Imperial Generals inside the Magitek Research Facility just plain old human beings, when the lower ranked Sergeants and their guard dogs get to be Magitek cyborgs?
  • Because 'Authority Equals Asskicking' does not apply here. And Magitek infusion can lead to insanity and death, the Generals know better.
• How can Terra not vanish with the other Espers at the end of the game? I mean, come on, she's half Esper... that's a whole half of her biology vanishing.
  • That was the whole POINT of the ending. Everyone was worried Terra would vanish too, but again, Espers and their properties are magical in nature. It's not that she's genetically half-Esper, but that her inborn magic, inherited from Maduin, allows her to change into an Esper. But physiologically, her human side seems to be as human as everything but her green hair would allow. When magic around the world went poof, Terra's human side continued to exist because she chose to remain as a human. Her Esper side, OTOH, DID disappear, as did all her other magical abilities she had access to while in human form.
    Espers disappeared because of their strong innate connection to magic, not for any biological reason. Although Terra inherited an innate connection to magic from her father, she apparently inherited enough human biology from her mother to survive without that connection. Her genetics and biology didn't change with the ending, though without magic she probably can't morph into her Esper form anymore.
  • But the real answer is: In the original ending, she did die, but it was too much of a downer for the test audiences, so they changed it. Also, Esper doesn't look like a cute monster girl to me. Least, here's the official concept art I found: [1] [2]
    • "Original ending"? --sources, if you may. What test audiences? Terra's entire character arc wouldn't make sense if she had been "originally" intended to die all along.
• Terra also looks too human for a half-esper; even if her dad was a humanoid esper, she should at least have a more bestial appearance as a human.
  • See above. Espers are magical, they don't need to adhere to how biology works. Human Terra could look as human as she wants, and Esper Terra can look as however the magic in her decrees she should look like. There's no biological reason for why magic should make her non-Esper form more bestial.
• Why do espers look so vastly different from one other?
  • Once again, magic. :) Every creature that was hit by the Triad's magic (as well as any subsequent generations that might have spawned in the intervening 1000 years) became a creature made up of magic. Even their bodies are composed of magic, to the point they don't even leave a corpse but a crystal. And magic will do whatever it will to a living creature, from giving life to a steam-powered robot (Golem,) to making a sword with the power to transmute creatures into items (Ragnarok,) to giving a bird the ability to carry four people on its back at a time (Quetzali,) to combining three eternally-battling warriors into a single entity (Crusader.) Even the Goddesses of the Triad themselves look nothing like each other.
• Intro sequence. Narshe geography. Mah brain hurtz. Or, more specifically; Terra, Wedge and Vicks Biggs somehow travel from the mountain at the north of Narshe to the south entrance without actually passing through the actual bloody city like you would have to. And as for Locke's path through the mines both before (that is getting to Arvis' home) getting to Terra and after (Taking her through the dead-end room that is the Moogles' den) well, I... Uh... Can't... *POP*
  • As for the intro sequence, the developers simply reused the map as if to show the Magitek squad approaching Narshe from a distant cliff. You're not meant to think that it's the same cliff that lies at the north end of Narshe. Also, new entries go at the bottom of the page, not the top.
• Why do we still call it "Magitek"? Even in the revised script for the GBA version. You'd think we'd have switched to calling it "Magitech" by now.
  • Becuz puar lituracy iz kewl!
  • It's not a real word, they can spell it however they want to.
  • After Magitek, comes the TekWar.
• Am I the only one who was bothered by the fact that the Emperor did not see the possibility of Kefka stabbing him in the back? Why did the Emperor not see it? Is he a Smug Snake? Too Dumb to Live? Held the Villain Ball or Idiot Ball for too long? I mean, seriously, any guy with eyes should have seen that Kefka was too dangerous alive and should be have been killed off long ago!
  • New entries go at the bottom. Anyway, he had no reason to believe Kefka would betray him. He's dangerous, yes, but also obedient; however successful he was in his missions, Kefka always did everything that was commanded of him. Gestahl didn't see him as any more dangerous than a wild dog on a leash --HIS leash. And the instant he declares that "You Have Outlived Your Usefulness," he tries to kill Kefka with extremely high-level spells of his own. The only reason he failed was that Kefka had entered the Triad's balance and was momentarily immune to magic. THEN Kefka retaliated, mostly out of childish revenge, but he never set out to overthrow the Emperor or take over the world himself. That's the point of the character: he never had any plans, he was too mad for them. He only did whatever seemed fun at the time, up to and including taking on godlike power and frying the guy who had tried to kill him moments before.
• How in the world does Edgar still recognize Sabin? They've been separated for ten years, and I doubt he looks the same! (Sprite can't depict this, really.) And since he's past his teenage years, his voice must have gotten a little deeper.
  • They're brothers, for a start. And having changed in 10 years doesn't mean that every recognizable feature that he has is completely gone and replaced. I've run into people I haven't seen in longer than that and recognized them before.
  • Not just brothers, twins. While nutrition and lifestyle (court life vs ascetic training) would certainly make their appearances differ due to muscle mass, fat, and wrinkles, their facial structures would remain the same as each other's. Sabin's face would just look a little more weatherbeaten, maybe a deeper tan (or not, since Edgar lives in the desert and all.)
• So is Terra's official hair color Green, or Blonde? I've been wondering that for a long time.
  • Her Amano artwork has it as blonde. In-game, it's green. I'd say that the official color, therefore, is blonde. Just like how Cecil's hair should be officially blonde, and not lavender.
    • That's a shame. I actually prefer her with the Green hair. It's somewhat unique, since only one other character in the entire game series has that color while there are plenty of blondes, and even more Brunettes.
  • My theory is that normally her hair is blonde, but when after she first transformed into her Esper form, she had green hair, and kept that color until the end of the game.
  • Her hair was blonde in the FM Vs for the Anthology version. It's more than likely just a way to distinguish her from Celes in-game.
    • I could've sworn they couldn't pull off the proper blond in-game, so they made do with green.
  • I tend to ignore Amano's artwork because it ends up looking ridiculous. Like official artwork of Bartz from FFV makes him look like more of a girl than Faris. So personally, I pretend it doesn't exist, and Terra has green hair.
• Why are Albrook and Vector so poor and dilapidated? They're both the most important cities in the Empire, and the Empire itself is no joke; It almost took over the entire planet, but the apocalypse destroyed it. Yet Albrook still trashed after being the Empire's main port, and in Vector, there are abandoned construction projects and shabby houses all over the place, but no nobles or politicians, outside of Emperor Gestahl.
  • We do not see the entirety of Vector. The PC's simply never visit the neighborhoods where the nobles and politicians live.
  • It was probably the result of the soldiers being there, even in Real Life soldiers aren't exactly known for being clean.
• I love how Cyan is the only one who doesn't drink the poisoned water. Assuming the poison set in within a few hours, how does such a fearless warrior like Cyan survive without drinking his local water?
  • Just because Kefka polluted the river doesn't mean all the water in Doma is automatically poisoned. They probably have barrels of non-poisoned river water where Cyan could have gotten a drink.
  • Sake
• A little silly, I know, but is anyone else bothered that your party can trash the gods of magic with their spells, then Kefka, but somehow Kefka is still the one with all the magic power? I thought it was a little silly that the magic faded with Kefka instead of your party (esp. Terra) somehow being the new source.
  • Magic isn't You Kill It, You Bought It. Kefka became the new "source" of magic after he drained the Warring Triad's power to a point that he had more of it than they did, effectively making him the new focus, but he didn't kill them to accomplish this. The party themselves were surprised to find out he had done this when they killed the last Goddess and magic spectacularly failed to go away. Thus, Kefka must have used some method of extraction, assimilation, or transference to become the nexus of magic in the world. Maybe he did it on purpose, or maybe he chanced upon it when he was crushed by the Statues, but magic didn't leap into him on its own. Even Magicite requires some conscious assimilation of whatever magic lies in there after the Esper dies. The party, OTOH, didn't do anything of the sort, they just beat him up.
• Might be more Fridge Logic than a Headscratcher, but Kefka shows that he's able to neutralize the Espers' powers in Thamasa. Not only that, but by the end of the game, he becomes the source of all magic - magic exists because he's around even after destroying the Triad, so presumably everyone else in the game is drawing their magical power from him in some fashion. So my question is: why doesn't he use the first ability against the heroes at any point? Even if it is just a Silencega spell (or perhaps some sort of magic-absorbing barrier), it seems like it would be extremely handy to use against a group of magic-using heroes. And even if that wouldn't work, shouldn't he be technically be able to restrict the casting of magic by other people than himself? Sure, his tower and all of his minions would die, but he's probably not too concerned about them anyways, and he would also be able to humiliate and utterly destroy the magic-using heroes that are pretty much the only hope left for the world. And even if we concede that it's a non-controllable aspect of his existence, he drained the magic from the Triad, who are individually a lot more powerful than any of the heroes (hell, even their dried-up shells are still extremely powerful, so imagine them at their full strength). So why oh why doesn't he just drain the magic from the heroes too? Yeah, there's no getting around Gameplay and Story Segregation or the Villain Ball, but it still seems like the heroes, even with an armory of game-breakingly powerful weapons and spells shouldn't have even stood a chance against him.
• I think I should preface this by saying that I had no sympathy for Celes at all, so "because of emotional impact" isn't (to me) a good explanation for how the Hell did Locke's bandanna make it into her hands on the cliffside? First of all, he's still wearing it when you find him again, even in the Anthology remake FMV's. Secondly, he spends most of his time underground, in caves, which don't tend to have a whole lot of birds in them, much less any seagulls who don't go that far out to sea except to die. And really, what makes her think that a scrap of Locke's clothing suggests he'd be alive, and not that his corpse had washed up somewhere, or even that it doubtlessly belonged to him in the first place? Even if she was just using it as an excuse to not kill herself and convince herself Locke may have survived...what prevented her from just deciding to go and find other people on her own?
  • It wasn't just "a scrap." Small as it may be, the pixel art clearly shows that the bandanna is tied around the pigeon's wing. She recognized it specifically as Locke's bandanna, and it's not far-fetched that it really is a unique item that can be thus recognized (he can probably get another one, or even a more ordinary one, after the fact.) Seeing it tied to the pigeon's wing also tells her that he took the time to care for an injured bird, so even if she doesn't know if he's safe now, she knows she survived the Ruin, and had at least one moment of peace to spare. When we see him next he's in the depths of the Phoenix Cave, but surely he didn't spend an entire year in there --even if he did nothing but explore caves, he would've surfaced at some point to move from one cave to another. And if Locke survived at least the catastrophe, then the notion that she and Cid were the only survivors (which convinced her to take the flying leap) is false, and by extension, there might be someone else (which convinces her to leave.) Now, the thing about the bird flying out so far into the sea? That's a good point that can only be answered with "Rule of Drama."