This Is a Dr. Cid Appreciation Post
Feb. 10th, 2019 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingAccording to the official chonk chart, I believe Balthier's Hot Dad falls somewhere between "he chonk" and "a heckin' chonker." As I was studying the character design for this very serious scientific purpose, I also noticed that the bright white thigh-high boots he wears over his skintight black leather pants go all the way up to his crotch.
Final Fantasy XII is a treasure on this earth, and it is largely unappreciated by fandom because we all secretly feel guilty that we do not deserve it.
What I really appreciate about Cid, however, is that his entry in the Clan Primer reads as follows: "Friend to Vayne. Though their ages are different, they share many of the same ideals and beliefs." Like, there's a lot going on with Cid, but apparently one of the most important things about him is that he and the game's primary (kind of?) antagonist are good buddies. Almost every time we see Vayne in the second half of the game, Cid is either in the room with him or just entering the room, and he seems to be there for no purpose other than to hang out.* After the party fights Cid in the Draklor Laboratory, he flies away on some sort of vertically aligned magic motorcycle, and it's my personal headcanon that he built a small fleet of these things so that he could go visit Vayne whenever he wanted.
* I think the purpose of associating Vayne with Cid is to demonstrate that Vayne can see Venat, thus providing the only real foreshadowing for the final boss fight, in which Venat's evil influence causes Vayne to take off his shirt (and his pants!!) and float around a little for the player's enjoyment. But really, Cid isn't involved in any of the political plots or character development arcs; he's just there because he and Vayne genuinely enjoy each other's company.
By the way, one of the things I've always appreciated about Transistor is the strong implication that the Camerata are a group of friends who are working together not because they have something to gain from their partnership but because they just really like each other. As the player, your job is to fight them, so you don't really see the inner workings of this friendship, but the game doesn't exactly try to hide the warmth and closeness of the relationships between the bad guys.
To me, that's the best possible Team Villain justification for trying to take over the world: We were all out drinking the other night and it seemed like a good idea, so we made it happen and here we are.
Final Fantasy XII is a treasure on this earth, and it is largely unappreciated by fandom because we all secretly feel guilty that we do not deserve it.
What I really appreciate about Cid, however, is that his entry in the Clan Primer reads as follows: "Friend to Vayne. Though their ages are different, they share many of the same ideals and beliefs." Like, there's a lot going on with Cid, but apparently one of the most important things about him is that he and the game's primary (kind of?) antagonist are good buddies. Almost every time we see Vayne in the second half of the game, Cid is either in the room with him or just entering the room, and he seems to be there for no purpose other than to hang out.* After the party fights Cid in the Draklor Laboratory, he flies away on some sort of vertically aligned magic motorcycle, and it's my personal headcanon that he built a small fleet of these things so that he could go visit Vayne whenever he wanted.
* I think the purpose of associating Vayne with Cid is to demonstrate that Vayne can see Venat, thus providing the only real foreshadowing for the final boss fight, in which Venat's evil influence causes Vayne to take off his shirt (and his pants!!) and float around a little for the player's enjoyment. But really, Cid isn't involved in any of the political plots or character development arcs; he's just there because he and Vayne genuinely enjoy each other's company.
By the way, one of the things I've always appreciated about Transistor is the strong implication that the Camerata are a group of friends who are working together not because they have something to gain from their partnership but because they just really like each other. As the player, your job is to fight them, so you don't really see the inner workings of this friendship, but the game doesn't exactly try to hide the warmth and closeness of the relationships between the bad guys.
To me, that's the best possible Team Villain justification for trying to take over the world: We were all out drinking the other night and it seemed like a good idea, so we made it happen and here we are.
