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thatpinguino

Just posted the first entry in my look at the 33 dreams of Lost Odyssey's Thousand Years of Dreams here http://www.giantbomb.com/f...

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Kuja: The Most Human Final Fantasy Villain

This essay is an examination of Kuja, the main villain of Final Fantasy IX, in it I outline the aspects of this character that I think make him both a compelling character and, in my opinion, the best villain in the numbered Final Fantasy games. I tried not to structure it as a simple argument about why I like him (because I personally found him quite annoying for much of a 40 hour game). Instead, I have analyzed some of the actions he takes in the game as well as some of the character turns that make him the most well developed and human villain in the series.

Kuja: The Most Human Final Fantasy Villain

The Final Fantasy series is not known for its subtlety. Games in the series often pit a group of plucky teenagers against the forces of pure evil and tell a story about how the power of friendship/trust/love will always conquer over the forces of madness/greed/nihilism. It is rare that the protagonists in this series break from this simple characterization, and even rarer for the antagonists to break from their evil mold. Yet, Kuja, the primary antagonist of Final Fantasy IX, manages to do just that. Kuja is definitely more than a bit unhinged, and he does cause a lot of suffering over the course of the game; however, every one of his actions is an attempt to exceed the limitations placed on him by Garland, his creator. Every one of his actions is driven by his need to be unique, to be an individual when all other members of his race are homogeneous. In a race full of empty vessels he seems to want more; he wants to leave his mark on the world. Thus, he becomes more than a symbol of evil or a one dimensional stereotype, like so many other Final Fantasy villains are; instead he grows to be the best developed and three dimensional of all of the main line Final Fantasy villains.

Kuja
Kuja

Kuja’s character development begins with his visual design. Kuja is a member of the Genome race and as such he was likely born with the same short, straight, blond hair and tail that every other member of his race shares. However, the Kuja that the player sees throughout the game has no tail and has long flowing white hair with a flipped, almost feather-like section of hair in the front. Kuja does not resemble the other members of his race in the slightest. Rather, he appears to be the polar opposite of the emotionless and nondescript Genomes that the player encounters on Terra. Kuja’s clothing further separates him from every other character in the game. His elaborate and flamboyant outfit differentiates him from every other being on Gaia and Terra. Kuja’s unique and eccentric visual design helps to establish his fierce individuality as well as his narcissism, the two main characteristics that define him for much of the game.

Throughout the first three discs of Final Fantasy IX Kuja seems to be an ordinary Final Fantasy villain, even the character design that I just outlined seem wrote by series standards. It is only when the player reaches Terra at the end of disc three and enters the dungeon of Pandemonium that Kuja is revealed to be more than a stereotypical villain. Upon entering Pandemonium the player is provided with some dialog between Garland, the mastermind behind much of the strife in Final Fantasy IX, and Zidane, the game’s main character. Garland and Zidane’s discussion reveals much of Kuja and Zidane’s backstory and as a result it provides the player with an entirely different perspective on Kuja. Garland and Zidane say,

You can view Zidane and Garland's conversation here

Garland

"I constructed the Genomes to be vessels for the souls of the people of Terra when they awaken."
"But 24 years ago, I gave life to a Genome that was very much like you."
"His will was too strong to make him into a proper vessel, and I even considered discarding him."
"But then I thought that I should put his strength to use."
"I sent that Genome as my servant, to disrupt the cycle of souls on Gaia."

Zidane

"Yeah, so tell me who he is already!"

Garland

"Do you not yet know? You and he are so much alike."

Zidane

"Alike? I've never met anyone like me..."

Garland

"You judge only by appearances. I mean someone with a soul similar to yours."
"The one I sent to Gaia might also be called your brother..."
"And his name is Kuja."

Zidane

"Kuja!? He's a Genome!? Impossible! He doesn't even have a tail..."

Garland

"He is only hiding it. He denies his own identity."
"He rejects the meaning of his existence and tries to assert his own individuality."
"Don't you see the resemblance?"

Zidane

"Shut up! I'm not like him at all!"

Garland

"He said the same thing when speaking about the other Genomes: 'I'm not like these guys.'"

In this conversation Kuja’s entire character is reworked. Until this point Kuja was a sadistic narcissist who killed for no apparent reason. At best one could only ascribe the most boilerplate of motivations to him: perhaps he wanted power or world domination like Sephiroth or Ultimecia, or perhaps he was simply insane the entire time like Kefka. However, Garland does not describe him as a mad man or a murderer; he does not even describe him as a mastermind. Kuja is instead framed as a rebellious adolescent; he is much more gifted than the people around him and he wants to be more than a puppet or a tool. Kuja “rejects the meaning of his existence and tries to assert his own individuality;” he refuses to allow his life to be limited by Garland or anyone else. Kuja may act callously and selfishly, but his true goal was to defeat Garland and exceed the limitations placed on him. He wants the right to determine his own future, a right that all humans want, and a right that had been denied to him since birth.

The earlier exchange between Zidane and Garland does a lot to humanize Kuja and ground his otherwise wholly inhuman actions; however, it is his transformation at the end of disc three and his actions in disc four that transform him from a humanized villain into a tragic hero. At the end of Pandemonium the player must face a series of boss fights culminating in what is ostensibly a final confrontation with Kuja; but, of course, this battle does not end as most battles do. After the player whittles Kuja’s life down to zero, Kuja enters a trance, which is Final Fantasy IX’s version of a limit break, and wipes out the party with a single powerful spell. At this moment Kuja believes that he has finally gained the power to break free from Garland, overtake Zidane, and rule over Terra and Gaia; he believes that a lifetime of ambition and planning will be fulfilled. Yet, at this moment of triumph Kuja is cut down. Garland and Kuja have the following conversation,

You can view the scene here

Garland

"What will you do with such...power?"

Kuja

"Master Garland... You, of all people, should accept defeat gracefully."
[He kicks Garland in the stomach]

Garland

"Gragh!"

Kuja

"How sad... Any last words?"

Garland

"Your power is...meaningless."

Kuja

"..."
[Kuja kicks Garland off the platform]

Garland

"GRAAAHHHHHH!!!"

Kuja

[Turns around to face Zidane & company]
"Now, it's your turn... Should I kill you quickly to show my appreciation for all you've done?"
"Or should I kill you slowly and painfully to show you my love..."
"Oh, I've got a great idea! How's this? I'll make you pillars for my castle!"
"You'll all decorate my castle as a symbol of my eternal kingdom... How do you like that?"

Zidane

"No... Never!"

Garland

"You could never build an eternal kingdom..."

Kuja

"That voice... Garland!?"
"Did you leave something behind?"

Garland

"Do you think a defect like you could last forever...?"

Kuja

"...What? What do you mean!?"

Garland

"I built you to last only until the worthy Genome, Zidane, grew."
"It was too dangerous to let you last any longer than that."

Kuja

"What are you saying...?"

Garland

"There's a limit on your life... You'll be dead soon..."
"Even as I die, you'll have died without ever leaving your mark on the world..."

Kuja

"..."
"H-Ha ha ha... What an interesting lie. You're telling me that my life will end soon?"
"Ha ha ha... Nice try, Garland, but I won't fall for your silly tricks... Garland?"
"..."
"Garland!? Answer me!"

Garland

"You were created to destroy. You are a mortal..."

Kuja

"A mortal...?"
"...I'm finished?"
"I don't believe you! Why would I believe such a silly story!"
"You're telling me that I'll die soon, now that I'm more powerful than anyone?"
"I'm gonna...die!?"
"Lose my soul...?"
"Ha... HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"What comedy! Zidane, isn't it hilarious!? I'll die just like the black mages I so despise!"
"I single-handedly brought chaos unto Gaia, but in the end, I'm nothing but a worthless doll!"

Vivi [who's off screen]

"Kuja..."
"...Kuja?"

Kuja

"...I won't let it happen."
"I won't... I won't let this world exist without me!"
Trance Kuja
Trance Kuja

Kuja is informed that he, in fact, is not like the other genomes, unlike them he is mortal. All of his plans to defy his limitations prove to be limited by the one barrier that he cannot overcome: death. And yet it is important to note that he defied every other limitation presented to him: he defeated Garland, he grew more powerful than Zidane, and he had the ability to rule Gaia and Terra. Kuja is informed that despite twenty four years of playing his hand perfectly, he will still lose the game because he was never told all of the rules. Kuja reacts to this information the only way he knows how, defiantly. He decides to use his new found power to take the world with him.

Kuja’s attempt to destroy the world is fundamentally different from all of the Final Fantasy antagonists that came before him; he does not operate from a position of strength. All of the other villains attempt to either take over the world or destroy it with the plan of ruling or gaining some sort of absolute power; Kuja fits this mold until the end of disc three, however from that point on Kuja is no longer an egomaniac attempting to take over the world, he is a dying man desperate to continue living.

There is a bit of inconsistency with what exactly Kuja is trying to do at the end of the game and so I will present both potential readings. The first reading is that Kuja is so enraged by the prospect of the world existing without him that he elects to destroy all of existence, rather than die alone. This is the reading that one could take if one listened purely to what Kuja himself says to the heroes. Before the final battle with him he says,

"Hmph. You honestly think you can beat me?"
"Even if you do, Gaia's already doomed. Its assimilation by Terra has begun, and the Iifa Tree will incite a cataclysmic destruction of Gaia."
"It's all over for you and your friends."
"See. I win, either way."

He clearly states that his intended goal is to destroy Gaia as he has destroyed Terra. He also makes no mention of any ulterior motives for his actions. He seems to be attempting to destroy everything simply out of spite for the world for exiting without him. This reading would make Kuja another in the Final Fantasy series’ long line of ego-maniacal world-enders. However there remains another reading of his final desperate acts at the end of the game.

The second potential reading of Kuja’s actions is introduced by Necron, the final boss of the game; this odd grim reaper figure appears after Kuja destroys the crystal of life and he states that “Kuja was a victim of his own fear. He concluded he could only save himself by destroying the origin of all things - the crystal.” In this account of Kuja’s actions he is more of a tragic figure rather than a mere selfish nihilist, rather than simply taking all existence with him into nothing Kuja is taking the one option he has left if he is to survive. Deluded as he may have been, Kuja’s intent is not to drag the world with him; it is to take the only option he has to avoid death. He goes much further than any ordinary person would, but the fear of death that he displays and the extent to which he will go to avoid it is wholly human. He thought it was in his power to save his own life so he acted, to hell with the cost. The game is not clear which of these readings is correct; however, I feel the second reading is more consistent with Kuja’s actions during the game’s epilogue as well as the overall tone of the ending of the game as a whole.

You can view part of the game's epilogue here

In the game’s epilogue Kuja is actually offered a bit of redemption in his final moments; it is Kuja’s magic that saves the party after their battle with Necron. After the game’s final battle, as the party escapes from the Iifa Tree, Zidane actually elects to go back for Kuja. Zidane provides his reason for doing this when he says,

"Because..."
"Because I might've done the same thing if I were in his shoes."
"I probably would've fought against you guys and wreaked havoc in Gaia like he did..."
"I know it sounds crazy..."
"...but I know, deep down inside, I have to do this."
Zidane's Quote on the Game's Title Screen
Zidane's Quote on the Game's Title Screen

In this statement the altruistic and selfless main character, who serves as a moral compass for much of the game, the character whose quote on the game’s title screen is “you don’t need a reason to help people,” admits that if put in Kuja’s situation he may have acted in the exact same manner. He does not completely validate what Kuja did; however, he does put the idea into the player’s mind that even the most selfless of people can become a monster if put through what Kuja endured. He was created for the sole purpose of creating chaos. His creator attempted to replace him shortly after his birth because he was deemed defective. His creator made him mortal when all of his brothers and sisters were immortal. Kuja was made to watch as the man who made him took every step possible to limit his growth and potential. It is no wonder that he became the self-centered and callous individual he became. All these things having been said, the developers did not have to include any moment of redemption for Kuja, almost every other Final Fantasy lacks this moment (though Final Fantasy IV does contain some form of redemption for Golbez, that game explains away his evil acts by saying he was under mind control the whole time; thus, none of his evil actions were in fact his own). Had the developers intended for him to be a simple mad man, they could have just allowed him to die in Memoria. Instead they made him a tragic hero by giving him redemption. He was misguided and his actions were brutal, but he is as much a testament to the force of human will as he is a warning of its dangers. This sentiment is communicated to the player directly through a monolog by Mikoto during the game’s epilogue.

Mikoto has a fairly unique perspective on Kuja as she is likely the Genome that Garland created to replace Kuja and Zidane. Mikoto provides the last perspective on Kuja that the player receives when she says,

"Kuja... What you did was wrong..."
"But you gave us all one thing... Hope..."
"We were all created for the wrong reason, but you alone defied our fate."
"We do not want to forget this. We want your memory to live on forever..."
"...to remind us that we were not created for the wrong reason - that our life has meaning."

To her and her people Kuja is a symbol of hope, a symbol of how far the will to be something, to be different, to live, to make your mark on the world, can carry a person. This is the last image of Kuja that the player is provided with. Kuja is not a villain; he is a reminder to his people “that [their] life has meaning.”

Kuja is a far more complex character than he appears at first glance and although much of his dialog and actions throughout the game mark him as a stereotypical villain, he proves to be much more. In the last disc Kuja metamorphoses into a sympathetic, but ultimately tragic symbol of the power of human will and the drive to self-determination. His actions are ultimately damnable, but throughout the entire end of the game his humanity is laid bare and the player is allowed to see just how much depth and range he has.

All quotes were found on http://www.ffwa.org/ff9/script.php

67 Comments

67 Comments

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thatpinguino

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Edited By thatpinguino  Staff

@EnduranceFun: Oh I know that, I just mean that Garnet is supposed to look exactly like the Queen's biological daughter that passed away. So since the Queen looks nothing like her I wonder what the king looked like.

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Dan_CiTi

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Edited By Dan_CiTi

ANGEEEAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

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TheHT

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That was a great write-up, dude. Wasn't a huge fan of his character design, but it was pretty fucking awesome when he went all Trance Kuja. And it helps that "The Dark Messenger" is completely badass.

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phrali

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i hated the ending of this game. I was all wtf who is this necron guy where did this come from wtf is happening. It ruined the game for me

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geirr

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Kuja was certainly one of the cutest villains.

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Dagbiker

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Vivi is the best FF char ever.

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Pixel_Kaiser

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This is really, really well put together. Nicely done.

Gosh, FFIX is such a good game.

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RenegadeSaint

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You certainly put a lot of work into this, but I'm more interested in why you felt compelled to write about this topic.

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thatpinguino

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@RenegadeSaint: Firstly, because I have played Final Fantasy IX many times over the course of my life and it is one of the games about which I feel the most comfortable writing. I prefer to write about games which I know inside and out, that makes for the most compelling arguments. Secondly, I wrote about Kuja because I think that he is widely regarded as a terrible villain. Thus, my opinion is a little contrary to popular opinion and hopefully more interesting for it. I also wanted to put forward this reading that I found in the game, but that seems to be missed by a lot of players. Thirdly, I originally was going to write an essay comparing Vivi and Kuja, since they both end up being short-lived artificial life forms who die at the end of the game. This connection seemed to be full of potential and I still plan on writing on it some day; however, since I am not writing these essays for a class, and thus did not have to have a thesis that passes the english class "so what test" (one of my teachers always told me that a good english thesis should always be able to answer the question "so what?" As in if the essay is making a point it should be one that the audience can read and feel that they have taken away a new perspective on a topic they may have otherwise never seen.) Instead, since I was writing this for a game site I thought that the implications that this oft disregarded villain was actually the most well constructed in the entire Final Fantasy series was enough of a "so what" to hold up an essay. Fourthly, I thought that writing an essay on who I feel is the best constructed villain in the series would spur some discussion on who other users favorite Final Fantasy villains are.

Sorry if that was a long answer, but I have a bunch of reasons for writing this specific essay. I hope you liked it.

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EthanML

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@thatpinguino: Hold up - multiplayer? Wa?

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thatpinguino

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@EthanML: Yep, in the menu under settings you can set the game to two player mode. This allows you to assign characters to either player one or player two. That way player one can control half of the party in combat and player two can control the other half. When I player with my girlfriend I controlled Amarant and Freya and she controlled Zidane and Garnet. Player one is in full control outside of combat though.

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xatmos

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Edited By xatmos

Kuja is just Roy Batty x Vegeta. Personally I think Seifer (VIII) and Delita (T) are way more interesting than Kuja as "complicated" villains. Side note, I totally thought Kuja was a girl for at least 1/3 of the game.

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thatpinguino

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@xatmos: I didn't count delita because he is in a Final Fantasy spin-off game. Seifer is an interesting villain, except really feel like he has little to no motivation to do half of the evil things he does. During disc one and two it makes some sense that he follows Edea, but once Edea falls at the end of disc two it really makes little sense that he still follows Ultimecia. He does not seem like a deliberately evil individual and thus it is really odd that he values his "romantic dream" despite all of the pain and suffering he causes. If he is under some kind of magical control then fine, but that makes him a pretty weak villain as everything he says is just a product of mind control. If he isn't under mind control his actions make little sense.

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thatpinguino

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After finishing FFVIII again I think I can reitterate that none of the villains in that game hold a candle to Kuja in terms of depth or believably. Seifer is motivated by a "romantic dream" that the player is never privy to and the sorts of nefarious shit he gets up to makes no sense. How does an 18 year old become the leader of a national military? How does an 18 year old raise a scuttled ship and pilot it across Esthar with no problems when Esthar is a country capable of space travel and mass cloaking? He acts improbably and provides little in the way of explanation.

Ultimecia is even less developed as a villain that Seifer. She is some boogey-woman from the future who has the power to possess people from the past, all in the service of her ultimate goal of time compression. Why does she want to achieve time compression? We never find out. She has about 10 lines in the entire game and none of them explain her motivations. Ultimecia is ultimately little more than a plot device with a name that provides Squall and friends with a credible enemy and a threat to conquer. Her dungeon was one of the coolest locations in the entire FF series though, so that's something.

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GoliathAssassin84

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First of all, HUGE props on your Kuja writeup. Seriously, this sounded like something that would have belonged in the textbook to my Philosophy and Human Ethics class in college. (If it were: A-old enough to be considered "classic literature" or B-culturally mainstream enough to be of "world renown." But then, it was released in many countries, so with enough players over a number of decades, some of these games just might achieve that status someday.) The professionalism with which you wrote really made this worth a read for anyone who has played the game, played other FF titles and might play this one, or simply fun-loving people in want of a story that rises above many adventuring cliches. While it uses those for sure, Final Fantasy IX also lends a surprisingly human dimension to almost every notable character in the game.

Take Lani or Quale, for example: both ornery bit-characters that could have served a baseline plot function in one or two acts before fading into obscurity without a second thought. Instead, the game's content and side-stories in the later discs offers charming vignettes into the humility and humanity at the core of both of these characters. Let's not forget Beatrix either! There is a song I found online somewhere made by a girl who did a vocal arrangement for "Roses of May" that I wish could have been in some sort of remake. In fact, the main reason FFIX is one of my favorite in the series is because most every character of great importance makes a substantial character shift at some point in the game. If we know that the world of the game appears more real when WE experience takeaway lessons from it, then how much MORE real is the setting when the characters themselves takeaway more wisdom than they seemed to expect.

There are some comments you made that I feel compelled to reply to:

"Yep, in the menu under settings you can set the game to two player mode. When I player with my girlfriend I controlled Amarant and Freya and she controlled Zidane and Garnet."

My wife played Garnet and Zidane too, lol! (Though she called them "Jessica" and "Mandark," of all names...) She also controlled Steiner (Mikey) and Vivi (Tobi) as more of "my" characters became available. So help me God, I might always remember those character names... I had to play Freya as "Fudgey" and Amarant as "Ackmen." Luckily she did not consider Quina or Eiko valuable enough, so they got to keep their real names. But that is what I would advise to anyone reading this who might want to share FFIX with a loved-one someday. LET them rename as many characters as they want, and LET (or force) them to be player 1. This is lets them own the game and will help them remember far more than they ever would otherwise. My wife rarely plays video games, and this interface made it very easy for her, where other titles (FFVII) have left her confused and bored and ultimately flustered by my "helping." I, too, wish they would put this "couch co-op" option back into more games in the franchise. It's like sharing an infinite movie that doesn't have to end until player 1 wants it to. (Very good date night option for poor people!) Then again, FFIX might have something magically warm that wives respond to better than FFVII... I've always thought that X and XII would be awesome with 2-player mode.

"As for the end of the game I think that the memoria section of the game might be the most important part of the sakaguchi love fest in FFIX. Memoria is sort of the ultimate call back to earlier ff games... I think that Memoria might be the segment of ffIX that needs the most examination specifically because of how out of place it is with every other part of the game."

"...Garnet is supposed to look exactly like the Queen's biological daughter that passed away. So since the Queen looks nothing like her I wonder what the king looked like."

I soooooo wish that i could work for SquareEnix and create FFIX-2 so that I could oblige you more on those game details. There's something eerily blueish about the hue of both Brahne and Amarant's skin (as well as an uneven enlargement of various body features) that I feel a common back-story involving Kuja's earlier meddling might explain. Ever notice that some of Amarant's early artwork portrays a much more "normal-looking" man in camo pants? And there's one feature in Memoria (specifically the "unfathomable clock room") that serves as a tempting doorway into a more "Chrono Trigger-esque" look at the world of FFIX. Eh? Ehhh?

Thanks again for the awesome Kuja article. Maybe he'll have a chance for even greater redemption if there's ever a time-jumping sequel...

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thatpinguino

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@goliathassassin84: I'm glad you liked my essay. I spent a lot of time on it (though based on the quotes you pulled, not enough time copy-editing) and it is cool to hear that someone else knows about that game's co-op mode. FF IX really does an outstanding job of fleshing out its characters and its world and I feel like some of the subtler stuff in that game has been forgotten over time. I really like the turns that Lani's character took over the course of the game. I really find it remarkable that the designers at square had enough attention to detail to revamp her entire character during an optional return visit to Madin Sari. I half expected her to join the main party considering how much time they gave her to develop.

If you are looking for more essays on FFIX and the series in general, I have written a few more and I recently finished an essay on amnesia in FF VIII and IX.

Thanks for all the feedback sir or madam!

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i agree with everything in this post! also you brought more enlightening to kuja although i had him understood to the T mainly. but your proposal of him defying death is a much better look on what he did to defy everything he was made to do.

i also wrote an article on not only kuja but zidane and they're connection with each other - the two sides of the same coin effect (article here:https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/8mx8u8/ff9_is_my_favorite_game_because_i_relate_with_the/). for me, you cannot talk about kuka without his brother. as zidane admitted, he would have done the same if he was in his older sibling's shoes. and in a way, he WAS becoming his brother, when he had his small breakdown ("I... I am...an... empty...vessel..."

"I don't know... who I am...") and even viciously lashed at his friends ("Shut up! Just shut up, you stupid brat!") and tried to make his individuality strictly his own ("I can take care of myself.").

what made kuja is half because of garland and half unluckiness. poor guy grew up having no friends and no-one to relate to. his is an extremely relatable character and i was so glad he regretted what he did in the end when he saw the light, his little brother.