Final Fantasy IX/Fridge

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• Not sure if I should move it up, but seeing as how it has nothing to do with Necron, I'll keep it down here. One time, I was talking to a guy who was critical of the old Final Fantasys and seemed to especially have it in for Final Fantasy IX. I remember one of his complaints about the game was the Trance system, specifically the fact that Zidane's was pink when everyone else has a more metallic color. Now, I disagree with the latter statement (Freya seems purple-ish and Vivi and Quina seemed to fall through a negative filter in photoshop), but I'll pretend it's valid, since he refused to believe me on that statement. Anyway, I turned on my my PSP, noticing that I had left it on the picture of Kuja's EX mode, noticing yet another aversion to his rule, seeing as it was red. Red like Terra... then bam! Zidane's also from Terra, so in theory, he'd trance red, but he's sympathetic with Gaia, so it lightens up to the "Metallic" spectrum he spoke of, thus, a hot pink trance.
• I was one of those people who were very confused by the sudden Giant Space Flea From Nowhere final boss of Final Fantasy IX. Sometime later, I realized that that guy represents some sort of inherent evil nature of mankind and that the Crystal World was supposed to signify that the final battles take place on some sort of plane above reality (the crystal signifying the origin of the universe or something). That realization put my whole image of the plot in a different perspective and I saw that it was actually a quite brilliantly made story about a war between different people who are, in the end, only humans as well. --Fawriel
  • Oddly enough, it struck me as the developers realizing that anything would make a better final boss than Kuja. --Lord TNK
  • When I played it, I saw it as an Homage to Final Fantasy IV's last boss, who turned out to be the physical incarnation of the main villain's hatred: the power of the crystal turned Kuja's despair into what was essentially an Anthropomorphic Personification of despair that sought to unmake the universe. There's lots of Epileptic Trees about what Necron really is: as the game leaves it vague, the player can decide for himself what its significance is. -Ronfar
    • What's funny is that it took me until much later in life to decide that I thought the last battle was an homage to the Cloud of Darkness from Final Fantasy III: the embodiement of blind destruction of EVERYTHING theme, and even their boss themes seem similar to me. Now I wonder if maybe it was meant to be a combination of the two bosses. -Jedi3459
  • This troper has always wondered why people are so confused by Necron. Perhaps the biggest theme in the game's story is the value and meaning of life. The characters are frequently faced with questions involving the meaning of their lives. Necron's ultimate goal is the destruction of life, claiming it is nothingness which all life desires. Necron is ultimately the antithesis of the game's central message. -Lizard Bite
  • Heh... and after I thought about Necron's significance (not to mention all the underworld "wailing and gnashing of teeth" going on just before the fight), I kept coming back to the overarching theme of the entire game... that all beings strive to live. Even Kuja wanted more than anything else to have a soul, some true semblance of life. Once Kuja was defeated and dealt his final blow to the party, there was only one thing that Zidane and Co. could do, and that was fight death itself. -Delcan
  • Hate to throw around another "fundamental theme", but Final Fantasy IX is essentially a massive homage to all of the earlier Final Fantasys. What do the final bosses of Final Fantasy I through Final Fantasy VI have in common? They all come from twists minutes before you battle them, they all want to destroy everything, and they're all visually One-Winged Angels.
  • Is the final sequence that hard to understand? First, Kuja declares that he's going to use the power of both worlds' pent-up energy in the Iifa Tree to destroy everything that's ever existed. Then, the party follows him down through the layers of time and creation that have resulted in Gaia, backwards... through their own memories, to the memories of the planet itself, back through its primordial ocean to its seismic planetary formation... then further back before Gaia was formed, into empty space and then straight to the supernatural "Crystal" that apparently created the world.
    • And Kuja is waiting for them, waiting to destroy that Crystal and thereby tip the balance of the universe towards destruction and wipe out all of existence. And then... he does. And they literally find themselves at the end of the world, in this compressed moment of nothingness, fighting off the primeval force of destruction that has existed and undone the world for as long as the Crystal has existed and fueled it. They win, presumably restoring the Crystal, and the universe is kept in balance between creation and destruction, for now. See? Not that hard at all.
  • As another point: the void they talk of, it's a nothingness with great power that people with a desire for power seek. They then seek to destroy existence. This may be a property of the void. Official sources say it was Kuja. Necron "Monster created by fear of death A being awoken by the fear, despair, and hatred of Kuja, who discovered, with the fulfillment of his ambition near, that he had little time left to live. It rejects the cycle of life through the crystal and attempts to return every world, including Terra and Gaia, to nothing. The final enemy to confront Zidane’s team." We also know it has something to do with the soul divider, since it exploded after Necron died.
  • I have always thought Necron was someone Kuja was trying to summon, but since Kuja was not alive anymore when the summon was complete, Necron simply did what was natural to him. -dbz77
  • The game's status as a grand homage of the series so far may also explain why Necron has a similar name and design to one of the last bosses in Final Fantasy V, Necrophobia.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Necron only exists to give Kuja time to pull his Heel Face Turn! It wouldn't make sense if Kuja just randomly decided to save the group while he was in the middle of fighting them. Necrons appearence gives him to to have a My God, What Have I Done? moment!
• On an unrelated note, same game, I just realized, what's the first thing you do in the original Final Fantasy? Rescue Princess Sarah. And what's the first thing you do in Final Fantasy IX? Kidnap Princess Garnet whose real name is 'Sarah'. -Mr Death
• The Burmecian doors: you know, the ones with the keys-that-are-bells. I always thought that they were silly, pointless, and utterly nonsensical (aesthetically-pleasingly silly, yes, but still). Then it occurred to me: when seeking entrance at certain doors, what do we do in Real Life? Why... we ring the doorbell. -Teg
  • • Another level of brilliance evident when you think about it: Cleyra was formed by pacifist Burmecians. To both of them, music is an important part of their society. What better key, then, then something musical? -themagicdance
• 'Trance' may seem like an odd name for what's basically a Super Mode, but what's one way to call it when it happens? Trance form. Trance-form. Transform. Geddit? -Aaron Hong
• Speaking of Trance, the ultimate attacks Zidane uses in his Trance form are called "Solution 9" and "Grand Lethal", and both of them basically just unleash massive, brutal amounts of pure energy on his foes, incurring phenomenal damage. Doesn't make much sense for a playful, friendly thief character, does it? The latent Angel of Death, originally destined to wipe out all life on Gaia, on the other hand...
  • Gets twice as creepy when you think about the implications of those names. Especially Solution 9, which sounds like some kind of genocidal strategy... and probably originally was.
    • Which would be confusing because it only targets single enemies...
• It seems a little bizarre when the guy playing the character of "Marcus" in I Want To Be Your Canary turns out to be actually named Marcus. Until you stop and think: what does Baku love? The theater. What does Baku do? Adopt kids off the street for his troupe/gang. And who probably got to name those kids...?
  • It seems right up his alley to later cast the kids in their "own" roles. Guy's got a bizarre sense of humor (yessir, there's nothing like naming your gawky ward "Romeo" and then casting him in a production of the classic romance...).
• Having Marcus, the resident Tattooed Crook and pirate-themed individual as the romantic male lead in 'I Want to Be Your Canary' seems like a case of What the Hell, Casting Agency? at first... until you factor in Zidane's constant mentions of "improvising" at the time. Which would be a far more relevant skill in their mercenary jobs, under its better known name of Xanatos Speed Chess. Speaking of which, once you figure out the Tantalus member roles, you get Baku=Drew Carey (bespectacled Big Guys), Blank=Wayne Brady (Ensemble Darkhorse), Zidane=Chip Esten (Estrogen Brigade Bait), Marcus=Ryan Stiles (Large Ham), Cinna=Colin Mochrie (Butt Monkey), even Benero and Zenero=Brad Sherwood (heavy-lifters and The Big Guy) and Ruby=Greg Proops (resident perfectionist).
• Having Freya wearing what looks a godawful lot like a raincoat when you realize Burmecia is known in-universe as 'the Realm of Eternal Rain'. Doesn't explain Fratley's lederhosen though...
• It seems almost contrived that any plot-centric action in Lindblum tends to take place in the Theater district...
• The Pluto Knights being derided as a joke in-universe, if you compare it to Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet in our universe.
  • Except that that didn't happen until well after Final Fantasy IX was released.
  • Thats really more Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • There also are nine Knights of Pluto in the game. Arc Number status aside, at the time Pluto was considered the ninth planet.
• Getting the Gold Chocobo to fly involves launching it from any forest. Why, you ask? Well, a little-known trait of freerange chickens involves leaping from branch to branch in order to climb trees and reach normally impossible heights for chickens: maybe Choco needs the treetops for a convenient launchpad.
  • It also serves, once again, as a Mythology Gag to the pre-Final Fantasy VII Black Chocobos, which could fly but only land in forests.
• Early in the game, Steiner points out that the Mist causes irregularities in the body and mind. Later, we meet the warrior like Burmecians who live in a valley surrounded by Mist. The Cleyrans, on the other hand, who are their pacifistic cousins, live in a tree with little or no Mist in the area.
  • Mist and rain. Rainfall goes through the Mist and enters their water supply like acid rain... in a different sense of the word.
• Once you learn the truth about Eiko's friend Mog, it begins to make sense why Eiko is the only human that can understand her: she says earlier that Summoners can speak to Eidolons through their horns.
• Fridge Horror time: You know how the Mist is a product of souls of the dead? Well, after Terra blew up, guess why Gaia is covered in nothing but mist?
• This is kind of... odd. When you are asked to give Garnet an alias (this troper chose Valefor, after the dear departed summon she beat at the end of Final Fantasy X, but whatever), you can actually just stick with Garnet. Everyone will agree it's a great alias! Fridge logic, right? Well, turns out later on that Garnet's not her real name anyway. Zidane, you are a smart monkey for somehow knowing that ahead of time!
• Fridge Brilliance here: Why do South Gate and North Gate exist when you're piloting an airship, why not just fly over the mountains instead of through the gates? Because the airships run on Mist and are known to not be able to fly on other continents without Mist. Flying too high would invite the same problem, which is why the gates exist.
• Another Fridge Brilliance coming up. Noticed how Garnet's Summon Magic at the game's start have extremely high MP costs, but once she loses her abilities and starts to relearn them one by one, the MP cost afterwards is a lot lower? Garnet stated in the beginning of the game that she is terrified of her powers and is too scared to use them (explaining her high MP cost). Once Garnet accepts her responsibilities with her summoning powers and wants to use them to help out, her boost in confidence lets her use her powers freely and explains why the MP cost was reduced!
  • Similarly, the Trance powers in the game is based on the character's emotions. Damage taken over time builds the emotional state of the character to fight harder and survive, breaking their limit and emotionally heavy events can push characters into an instant Trance. When Garnet goes mute after seeing her mother die and Alexandria get destroyed by Garland, she is filled with so much sorrow that not only she can't concentrate in battle, but her negative emotions prevent her from using her Trance abilities, which explains why she loses her Trance gauge.
• Fridge Logic: At one point, Garland tells Zidane that Kuja has a tail, but hides it. How?! Does he shove it you-know-where?
• Fridge Horror:
  • Upon first viewing the ending, many players do not realize that Vivi is the only character who could be delivering the final monologue, and is heavily implied to have expired some time after the final battle. Needless to say, it's quite a punch in the gut.
  • When Blank and Zidane first mug the Pluto Knights for their outfits, both are still recognizable and two naked Pluto Knights appear later... but when Zidane mugs the Lindblum guard, he (by way of reusing the 3D model) has somehow replicated the guard's eyes and nose peeking out of the helmet, while the real guard is never seen again... Actually, if the player goes into the room where Zidane steals the guard's outfit, check the closet in the room, and you'll find out Zidane actually stuffed him into a closet while he whimpers to be let out. Zidane promptly tells him to quiet, and he will let him out later.