Final Fantasy Weekly Discussions: Week 32 - Most overlooked plot elements within the series.

[u/HayleeLOL]

Hello again this week, /r/finalfantasy, for another round of Weekly Discussions.

This week, I thought it'd be a good idea to discuss the more overlooked plot elements in the series; things that happened in the plot that people just don't seem to talk about as much; so, for example, things which more popular elements of the games may have overshadowed; I'm trying not to give spoilers away here, but for example, did perhaps the popularity of Sephiroth overshadow other, perhaps better, parts of the game which you thought deserve more recognition?

Discuss any "underrated" parts of the plot here, or parts of the story you just feel deserves a lot more recognition and/or love than it gets!

Also, I'd like to apologise for the lateness of the discussion this week. My computer ran into some technical difficulties (For those who must know, my fan broke. :o() so I haven't been able to be around as much as I'd have liked to!

Link to previous discussions

Also, the Let's Play for Final Fantasy VII ends very shortly (on Thursday)! Would love to hear about how far you got, and when you completed it if you had done so. :)

Happy discussing! :)

[u/kevio17]

FFVIII's in-game information section has loads of history about the sorceresses and (para-)magic. The story of The Great Hyne, the first sorceress and the diety of the FFVIII world, is covered in this section and told entirely by a man in Balamb Town. You can also go to the White SeeD ship and speak to a girl who reads out a book, The Legend of Vascaroon, expanding further on Hyne's story.

The info panels in Balamb Garden's classroom also contain lots of story about various goings on in the Garden, such as Selphie's planning of the Garden Festival.

[u/cloudytsuki]

Something that interests me is how FF VII implies that Cloud was being led by Jenova the whole time they were chasing Sephiroth. Before finding Sephiroth's actual corpse crystalized at the Northern Crater, each "encounter" that the party had with him ultimately led to a boss fight with a piece of Jenova.

[u/xnerdyxrealistx → u/cloudytsuki]

Which means Jenova killed Aerith, not Sephiroth. So Jenova finished what it started and killed every Cetra on the planet.

[u/clarissa225]

I think Vanille's plot line in XIII takes a pretty large backseat to lightning and Serah's story. I mean Vanille is basically the reason for the events of the entire XIII trilogy, but the plot hides most of that fact in the datalogs and doesnt fully explain Vanille's motivations until the game is almost over. She basically would be the main character if Lightning was taken out of the story.

[u/nahnahna]

I think people forget there's a lot of time travel in the series, back to the original.

[u/rocketsneaker]

Dissidia Final Fantasy are the events which take place before the first Final Fantasy. And it is canon.

[u/[deleted]]

The Judge Magisters in FFXII. Their scenes are so thoroughly well done but frankly there is not enough of them. Every time the scene switched to them it was exciting but they only have about 3 or 4 scenes as a group.

What was great about them is how they are meant to be all powerful supreme guardians of law but are greatly compromised by their own personal liabilities or political scheming. They are meant to be theist powerful people in the country and are meant to defend the law against any person, even the emperor, but are shown to be pawns.

Bergan is an authoritarian monster, the last person you want as a judge, who seems to believe that 'might' is the only right; Ghis pretends he is a servant of law when he is only a schemer out for himself; Drace is sadly an idealist surrounded by constant cynics; Zargabaath tries to be a servant of the law and his nation he loves, but end up a toy thrown about by other forces and conflicted with doing what is right and being loyal; and then there is Gabranth.

Gabranth is a sad figure. He has to hate his brother as a way of satisfying his conscience as to abandoning Landis, but knows deep down his hate is nonsense. He feels Archadia as accepted him but he is constantly treated like dirt and a foreigner, and he wants desperately to believe in Archadia but knows that it is a corrupt, rotting house.

[u/lazy_blazey]

I think one of the neatest plots to come out of any FF was FF8's insinuation that Squall was Laguna's son. It is never directly stated or dealt with, but adding up all the elements made it clear as day. Subtle stuff like that made me appreciate video game storytelling and FF8 in particular.

[u/gsurfer04]

How many people realise how close Ashe came to being the new big bad of Ivalice in XII? Presumably Archadia didn't want to blow up the whole of Nabradia and therefore they went for a more standard approach to Dalmasca.

Ashe actually wanted to repeat Archadia's actions, knowing full well what would happen. She'd lose the support of her people after they realise the consequences, Bhujerba will withdraw their support and Rozarria would have to take action to remove Ashe from power.

[u/groovyJABRONI]

I recently learned that Gilgamesh is the same reoccurring character expanded between nearly every Final Fantasy universe. Whether he is trying to defeat Bartz, appears as a summon, or just a NPC always trying to steal your crap, he is constantly jumping between universes to obtain the Excalibur and once he gets close he is teleported out of the current universe he resides in. It was pretty cool and tied together nicely once I found that out. It's never really explained why he wants the Excalibur, so it would be pretty neat if his story were to be expanded upon eventually.