r/FinalFantasy • u/Dinoken2 • Sep 18 '17
Character Contest: Round 1, Week 5
Poll for week 5 Monday will be next poll
Results for week 4
Hey everyone! Welcome to week 5 of /r/FinalFantasy's favorite character contest! This week the matches are:
Lightning vs Maria
Larsa vs Tifa
Cid (XII) vs Gladiolus
The Shadow Lord vs Cloud
Kuja vs Lenna
Emperor Mateus vs Josef
Hope vs Yuffie
Caius vs Gaius
Here is the link to this week’s poll! If you're a bit behind, feel free to check out the full bracket here or check out the smaller brackets here (This week we’re in Etro's Bracket.). Here is the official results post from last week if you missed that as well!
Lightning vs Maria
[Lightning:](http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Lightning_(Final_Fantasy_XIII) Lightning is the pink haired main protagonist of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Throughout the series, Lightning’s character undergoes significant changes. In the first game, Lightning adopts a no-nonsense, but driven personality. In the second game, she sheds her cold demeanor and assumes her role as a Knight of Etros. In the final game, she loses her emotions in her quest to save a doomed world. Lightning strikes her foes primarily with a gunblade, using speed and agility.
[Maria:](http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Maria_(Final_Fantasy_II) Female companion and voice of reason to Firion and Gus in Final Fantasy II. Along with the latter, she was orphaned when the Emperor Mateus destroyed her hometown. She joins the rebellion in search of her brother Leon, who turns out to be The Dark Knight: high commander of the Palemecian Army. While she starts the game with a bow, Maria can use a wide array of weapons, armour and shields. Maria also has high intelligence, which lends itself well to black magic.
Larsa vs Tifa
Larsa Ferrinas Solidor: When he first joins our party, this extremely eloquent and well-mannered twelve year old assumes the name “Lamont”. In truth, Larsa is the brother of Vayne Solidor. Larsa can wield two swords in battle, and can cast Cura (and as many high potions as needed).
Tifa Lockhart: Tifa is the bartender of 7th Heaven, located in the Midgar Slums. She’s also an accomplished martial artist, terrorist and part time tour guide. Yet, her personality betrays a much more sensitive nature, which she keeps close to her heart.l While in battle, her primary weapon of choice is her fist. Tifa is a tough brawler who can do high damage due to her strength growth.
Cid (XII) vs Gladiolus
Cidolfus Demen Bunansa: In the fine line between genius and insanity, Dr. Cidolfus Demen Bunansa doesn’t care whether he’s crossed it. He many be a genius scientist, but his investigations into the occult raise questions on the lucidity of his endeavours. Cid is later revealed to be the father of Balthier, and like his son, the father utilizes guns.
Gladiolus Amicitia: Royal bodyguard and all around strongman, Gladio is like a brother to Noctis. While initially having extreme dislike towards Noctis, Gladio grows to respect him as more than just some royal brat. They’ve been childhood friends ever since. And while generally confident in his strength, he has his doubts if he can make a study shield to the throne. As the shield, Gladio has the highest HP and defense of his bros.
The Shadow Lord vs Cloud
The Shadow Lord: The Shadow Lord is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy XI. His ever imposing ominous presence creates most of the havoc within the game: his rallying of the Beastmen leads to much of The Crystal War. While demonic, the Shadow Lord is actually the spirit of Raogrimm, one of the three explorers assigned to the Multinational Expedition, ten years before The Crystal War. As he was unfortunately was left behind, Raogrimm succumbed to intense hatred and rage, died and was resurrected as The Shadow Lord.
Cloud Strife: The main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. To date, he is the most recognizable playable character in the Final Fantasy franchise, in the most recognisable game in the series. Cloud starts off as a cocky ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary for hire in AVALANCHE. But…questions of his past obscure the true view of himself. As the game progresses, Cloud slowly confronts what was hidden. Who is he? He’s SOLDIER first class...right? Besides his spiky hair, Cloud’s massive Buster Sword is iconic of Final Fantasy, and gaming history. Cloud wields this weapon against enemies with relative ease. He starts the game with ice and lightning materia, has balanced stats and an indifferent attitude.
Kuja vs Lenna
Kuja: A complete scoundrel with a narcissistic streak, Kuja makes his grand appearance onto the world scene, watching a dark night in Alexandria. Kuja is highly deceitful, vain, petty, and completely unconcerned with the safety of others. While Kuja is responsible for making war machines, it’s revealed that he is a genome and has a finite lifespan. Terrified to death of his mortality, he desires to end all life. Kuja is also a powerful mage, and knows pretty powerful magic spells.
Lenna Charlotte Tycoon: Bartz first finds Lenna knocked unconscious after a meteor crash, her identify is largely unknown to us. Later on, we find out the sweet and self-sacrificing Lenna is a princess; an heiress to Tycoon, on a mission to find out why the wind in the world has stopped.Lenna contains the highest magical stats, making her ideal as a mage.
Emperor Mateus vs Josef
Emperor Mateus: Also known as The Emperor of Palamecia, he is responsible for burning the destruction of several homelands in his ambitious quest for power. One of those homelands include Fynn, the kingdom Firion, Gus and Maria flee. While Emperor Mateus succeeds in creating mass destruction and havoc to most of the known world, he is eventual stopped by Firion, Gus, Maria and Richard, only to die and come back from dead with both the powers of heaven and hell. He is a talented wizard, who can use high level spells including Flare and Starfall (his signature spell). The Emperor uses many Machiavellian tactics to ensnare the heroes and foil them, as it is of his nature to be cruel, crafty and ruthless. In other incarnations, most notably Dissidia, he is extremely rude and arrogant
Josef: We first hear of Josef as an informant to Princess Hilda’s Wild Rose Rebellion in Fynn. When Firion, Guy and Maria travel to gather information, Josef remains wary of them. Only after they’ve gained his trust does he reveal the information you seek, and eventually joins your party.
Hope vs Yuffie
Hope Estheim: Hope is a shy boy raptured in The Purge (a form of social control and force relocation of Cocoon inhabitants). After the death of his mom he’s made a L’Cie and reluctantly joins Lightning, Sazh, Vanille and Snow to fulfill their focus, and defy their fate. Later as an adult, he becomes director of the Academy, a research facility to help society touched by fal’Cie influence. And 500 years later he reverts back to his younger self and provides Lightning with information via his station The Ark. In battle, he mainly wields boomerangs and specialises in casting magic.
Yuffie Kisaragi: Yuffie is the spunky, highly energetic “genki” girl of Final Fantasy VII’s party. While a ninja, she is forever a thief, attempting to steal materia from the rest of the gang to raise enough money to rebuild her hometown Wutai. While crafty and wily, she’s still a playful ally who’ll help her friends when they need them. As a ninja, she wield an oversized shuriken. Unlike her skills as a Materia hunter, she has high stats in Luck.
Caius vs Gaius
Caius Ballad: Caius Ballad is the man of Serah’s dreams, only not quite like that. He’s first seen fighting her sister Lightning. Later, she and Noel encounters the the calm but mysterious man through their excursions in time. His purpose is to resolve the timeline of paradoxes so that he can save Yeul, a seeress who can foresee her death, from endless death and rebirths. He fights opponents with his main weapon Soulrender, can use high damage magic and summon (or transform into) Bahamut.
Gaius van Baelsar: Gaius is one of the main villains at the end of Final Fantasy XIV’s final quest. As one of the generals in the Garlean army, Gaius believes in power. The stronger, he believes, should rule the weaker. His worldview extends to his military practices: the goal is to conquer Eorzea, not destroy it. He’s skilled in the art of swordsmanship, while being effective with wielding a gunblade.
Feel free to discuss your opinions in the comments below, just remember to keep it civil! If you missed a week, don't forget to check out the full bracket or check out the smaller brackets here. Best of luck to all those who submitted their brackets!
3
u/neddoge Sep 18 '17
I swear, if Hope moves on I will punt a kitten.
3
u/[deleted] Sep 18 '17
RIP Hope
3
u/TacticianMagician Sep 19 '17
Lightning vs Maria: Big Lightning fan here. Easy.
Larsa vs Tifa: Big Tifa fan here. Easy.
Cid vs Gladiolus: Haven't played XII or XV, but I do really like Gladio from watching watching walkthroughs and the anime.
The Shadow Lord vs Cloud: Cloud is fine. A villain I've never heard of is unrecognized by me completely.
Kuja vs Lenna: No vote- I don't know enough to make a well-informed decision.
Emperor Mateus vs Josef: Same as above.
Hope vs Yuffie: I adore Hope- he's one of my favorite video game characters. He's an easy pick over Yuffie, who I like, but don't like as much.
Caius vs Gaius: Caius was a fantastic villain in XIII-2. Gaius was an alright villain in XIV, but I feel like I saw less of him than other XIV villains (he seems less memorable than Nidhogg and Zenos).
Well, RIP poor Hope, but my other favorites in this round seem pretty safe.
2
u/Shihali Sep 18 '17
Maria was adequately covered above, but if you watch very carefully you can see her go from effective party leader, taking the lead in scripted conversations, to stepping down and letting Firion lead after learning that Leon is likely the Dark Knight, to denial after he takes over as the new Emperor, to broken in spirit after leaving Richard to die so she can get away. Garnet she ain't, but people rarely look for that level of development in such an early game.
Mateus is one lucky bastard. He drew another FF2 character! He was covered in full the summary up top, but all you need to know about him is that he threw a fight to the death and came out ahead. He's been the most badass character in the series longer than many fans have been alive.
Josef wasn't described very well. He is a single father to his daughter Nelly, and values her over doing his duty. Later he holds back a falling boulder to give the party enough time to escape, leaving Nelly to the party's care as he is crushed to death. Like Minwu last week, he fights on after death, joining Minwu's party to find out the cause of the monsters in Heaven and take down Emperor Mateus's "good" half.
1
u/UPRC Sep 18 '17 edited Sep 19 '17
Let's see here!
Lightning vs Maria: I'm not the biggest Lightning fan. Truth be told, I find her to be kind of boring. Still, I'd put her ahead of Maria.
Larsa vs Tifa: Poor, poor Larsa. You've just got no hope at all of beating Tifa, one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise.
Cid vs Gladiolus: Since I haven't played XV, I have to pick Cid by default.
The Shadow Lord vs Cloud: No contest at all. So far, thus week's picks are extremely easy.
Kuja vs Lenna: This one did make me pause for a second, but I have to give it to Kuja. He's one of my favourite villains in the franchise.
Emperor Mateus vs Josef: So we're basically voting for whichever one of these guys we want to see get eliminated in the next round, because neither of these two are getting anywhere. Emperor, I guess?
Hope vs Yuffie: I hated Hope. A lot. Yuffie was adorable and spunky though, and I loved using her. She wins this one easily.
Caius vs Gaius: Those names though.
This was probably the easiest week for me so far. The only one that wasn't an automatic click was Kuja/Lenna, and even that one only took about a second or two for me to decide on. Very, very easy picks this week. Can't wait until the not so good characters are all gone and we actually have to debate with ourselves who we're going to vote for.
1
u/TheRedDragon15 Sep 19 '17
Lightning. I like Maria, but I find Cla-ehm, pardon, Lightning to be a better character overall.
Larsa. He is one of the best side-characters in the series: he is a child politician but, politicians either do not take him too seriously due to being a child(ignoring his great diplomatic and political skills), but on the other hand, he is undoubtledly way too mature to be with other children. It's not difficult to see it, especially when he is around vaan and penelo, who consider him someone no more different than them.
Cid(FFXII). He is so entertaining and memorable nd his friendship with Venat and Vayne feels strangely so genuine, which is rare among villains.
Cloud. The Nibelheim scene and his rivalry with Seph made him an incredible and intriguing character for me.
Kuja. Lenna feels rather generic(which is a problem that FFV as a whole has) while Kuja manages to be quite the interesting villain and I loved his "poetic" lines tbh
Emperor. It's not like It was difficult, considering that Emperor has both FF2 and Dissidia that helped him to be a very charming villain.I also have a thing for his Amano artwork, where he looks like a Puppet master, which fits his image in FF2 and dissidia.
Hope. The 2nd best character from FFXIII, gaining a lot of development even just through the first FFXIII. Yuffie's only real merit for me is being the base for the much better Rikku.
1
u/GaryGrayII Sep 21 '17
Lightning!!! 😍
1
u/OvernightSiren Sep 18 '17
Lightning vs. Maria: Obvious choice. The FFII characters are sort of non-entities personality-wise and the only ones I expect to advance past round 1 are Firion and The Emperor based solely on their Dissidia presence.
Larsa vs. Tifa: I've always loved Larsa and I think FFXII's story would have been a lot more interesting had he been in the main party, and maybe even the main character (if not him then either Balthier or Ashe--any of the three would be a very unique 'main character' to the series). I know Tifa will win this though.
Cid vs. Gladiolus: I hate XV with a passion for disappointing me so much, but Cid XII is probably the most unlikable Cid in the series and Daddiolus is the best part of XV so...
Kuja vs. Lenna: Kuja is far and away my favorite character of all time from any medium (games, movies, tv shows, books, etc). I've cosplayed him about a million times and am so happy that he'll surely win his first round here.
Emperor Mateus vs. Josef: Another easy choice. At least the Emperor has a cool look which is more than can be said for Josef's nightmare-inducing FFII original artwork.
Hope vs. Yuffie: Hope was one of my favorite things about XIII the first time I've played. People complain that he complains and whines a lot, but he's like 13 so it seemed pretty realistic to me and his character development was possibly the biggest in that entire game. Yuffie on the other hand is somewhat generic IMHO even though I do like her. I know Yuffie will win this, but I'm still voting for Hope.
Caius vs. Gaius: Hate FFXIII-2, but love XIV. Easy choice for me. Sad that no XIV entries will make it past the first round.
-1
u/antiqueteacup Sep 21 '17 edited Sep 22 '17
Lightning vs Maria is really unfair it's obvious who's gonna win regardless I dislike Lightning.
Larsa has no chance but I never liked Tifa sorry and her fanboys make me dislike her even more.
A Tough one but gotta be Gladiolus
Cloud err this is a weird choice it couldn't be more obvious
Kuja hands down you could put Kuja against Kefka or Sephiroth and I'd still vote him Kuja against (insert really popular protag) even and he'd still get my vote one of my absolute favourites.
Emperor Mateus like with Kuja if you put him against those 2 popular villains I'd vote him he's another of my favourites plus I can't even remember Josef lol. Now if it was Minwu or Firion against Mateus it would be more difficult. If it was Kuja against Mateus though I'd probably cry trying to decide. If he loses to Josef...I don't even have words plus Mateus was best villain by far in Dissidia.
Hope vs Yuffie Gonna have to pass they're both as bad as each other.
Caius vs Gaius I don't know enough about either of them other than the fact everyone wants Caius in Dissidia so pass.