bennetfan7

FFIX is an overrated game with a lot of problems but you're phrasing it wrong.

ZombiePie, can I just say could you please stop overreacting every time a woman shows love?

Being in love with with someone of the opposite sex is NOT sexist or misogyny, and I hate how you're demonizing Zidane, Zidane is nice guy (my problems with him are that he is generic and clichè, not to mention inconsistent, and that he is supposed to be one of the most powerful characters yet he gets pushed around like a wimp and, to quote one reviewer: "The game's supposed protagonist run around observing events but really doing nothing to change them while the plot becomes increasingly obtuse and contorted."), Garnet is an obnoxious, wangsty, and implausibly naive character that makes selfish and stupid moves such as abandoning Zidane and her friends, and rendering the whole beginning of the game completely pointless, and is really inconsistent, the rest can be summed up in this quote:

"All right, I'll explain why I hate Garnet and don't get why people like her and hate Rinoa.

Rinoa:

1) Starts out immature 2) Gets called out on it 3) After making a giant fuck up, learns from it and shapes up 4) Mostly risks her own life, though others have to fix her mess - something she remains aware of thereafter 5) Has the crappiest luck in the universe, but does not directly serve as the cause of any future problems.

Garnet:

1) Runs away from home because she's afraid her mother is trying to kill her and take over the world 2) Risks the lives of many, many people and causes numerous deaths along her flight from the castle (yes, I count all those Black Mages on the ship as deaths) 3) Upon arrival in Lindblum suddenly proclaims that she refuses to believe her mother is evil and trying to take over the world, despite proof of her unprovoked attack on Burmecia, the slaughter of Black Mages, and the attempts to kill the kidnappers 4) Runs all the way home because apparently she wanted to just talk to her mom 5) Through her stupidity, she gets captured and tortured. Millions of people die from the results of her entirely preventable course of action.

That is why I hate Garnet."

The whole Zidane/Garnet thing is one of the weakest in the series, it could have been one of the best and one of my favourites but it gets ruined by all the horrible and clichè writing.

Here a link to my review that sums things up: https://jmariofan7.deviantart.com/art/FFIX-review-598982715

"I fully expect the villain stacking to get to you, I have my own issues with it, but at the same time I don't think a game needs to reveal itself as fast as possible. As long as there is enough screen time to flesh out the character I don't think an early introduction is necessary, I think Kuja works, his introduction at the end of disc one is already showing the player there's something more sinister behind it all. There are also characters that don't work... Part of my fondness of Eiko is actually regarding that, her character isn't anything special, but for a character that is introduced late, I think they made it work with some pretty clever trick."

The whole thing with Kuja was an incredibly obvious conclusion that the cast should realized WAY earlier, this quote sums it up:

"Moving on, they expect us to buy that she only ran away from home and traveled accross the entire continent to Lindblum JUST to talk to Cid about vague details (that he already knew about, and Garnet could have told him through a letter and Mognet), and nothing else, that's a really weak reason.

What should have been the reason was that Garnet was trying to figure out who that "strange man" prowling the castle was (Kuja), it was incredibly obvious that Kuja was the source of the problem, and that the characters should have been focusing on him straight from the get go, instead of wasting time with the whole pointless Brahne and Burmecia thing (don't fight the symptoms, fight the disease).

If a "suspicious person" (which is an understatement for Kuja, just look at his fashion sense) shows up at your home, starts meeting with your mom, and said mom starts acting crazy, it should be REEEALLLLY obvious that the person responsible is said suspicious stranger and you should find out who he is, where he operates and go after HIM.

Yet in the game Garnet dosen't even remotely come to this obvious conclusion up until after running home like a complete idiot, getting captured, and in her room suddenly proclaimed "*gasp* the incredibly suspicious person whom my mother meets with after which my mother suddenly started acting crazy was the REASON for said mother going crazy, I am TOTALLY SURPRISED by this not-at-all obvious answer that I'm just realizing now and should have seen from the very beginning".

I'm just going to say this is one of the biggest face palm moments in the entire game, it's just another cheap rehash of the "man behind the man" plotline from the previous games, twice with FFIV's King of Baron (fiend of water in disguise) and Golbez (manipulated by Zemus), FFV with multiple people (controlled by Exdeath), FFVIII with Edea (controlled by Ultimecia), those were all less obvious and more vague from the start.

Also I'm just going to put out another massive face palm moment in the entire game involved with this, Cid being aware of the enemy being after the Eidolons, I'm not even kidding here is the line directly from the game: "Brahne was after the <gwok> eidolons. That much, I knew."

*Sigh* So let me get this straight Cid Fabool, you knew that the queen was after the Eidolons yet before all the events that transpired you never bothered to share this INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT information with the cast, ESPECIALLY to the daughter of said queen who has said Eidolons WITHIN HER (that you should be well aware of) so that they would be more cautious?"

Anyways, regarding Eiko, this other quote sums it up: " "I used Eiko because despite being younger than Garnet, she was a far better written and more believable character than her. Garnet, I wanted to strangle the writers for creating such a horribly idiotic person and centering more than half the game around her. Eiko, I found everything she did matched what a real person of her age and maturity would do - and she still didn't manage to get anyone hurt or killed."

"Boy, are you playing the wrong series! I'm not sure there are any Final Fantasies that don't have a villain who's evil for the sake of evil and/or insanity. Some are more stylish cartoon villains than others. Some might be sliiightly more nuanced/better justified if you happen to talk to the NPCs who give some of their backstory. There might be a second villain who has a more realistic motive."

Except that Brahne is by far the most ridiculous example of this, she makes previous cartoonish and one dimensional antagonists look subtle and realistic in comparison, and Garnet's constant wangsting and momma's girl-ing just made it worse, and her whole "motive" is that she is just "greedy", cause we all know that's what real life dictators and tyrants are like right? Why do people think this game is "realistic" again? This quote from Socksmakepeoplesexy's review sums it up best: "Final Fantasy has had cartoonish villains before, but Brahne takes it to a whole new level. Watching her for too long can make you physically ill".

There is this fanfic called "The Thief and his Princess" which has Beatrix as the Queen and Garnet's mother instead (not to mention having a much better love story and actually develop Amarant), and honestly cements my view that the actual game should have done this.