Final Fantasy IV DS, Part Four
Jun. 14th, 2015 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI finally sat down and beat the game. No major accomplishments to report, just victory.
So I have some thoughts about Golbez.
According to the Final Fantasy Wiki, which is referencing the FFIV 20th Anniversary Ultimania, Golbez is thirty during the events of the original game. I think this makes sense. If tiny precious Theodor were sentient enough to be casting magic and wandering around on his own when Cecil was born, he must have been at least nine or ten years old. This means that Golbez had about twenty years to get shit done.
And oh man, did Golbez ever get shit done. I haven't played more than a few hours of The After Years, so I don't know if we get any new information there, but what we know about Golbez from the original game is that he recruited the Four Elemental Fiends, set up base in (and possibly built?) the Tower of Zot, learned Meteor, figured out how to become invincible, and orchestrated a plan that was 100% successful regardless of anything Cecil and his friends did or didn't do. Also, let us never forget that he had a pet dragon.
Granted, he was being controlled by Zemus/Zeromus; but, if what Kain says about the experience of being mind-controlled also holds true for Golbez, then he was fully sentient and knew what he was doing. He is therefore not a badass because of demonic possession, but a badass because he was just a badass. And that's really intriguing to me – what was driving him forward? Sure, he was an angry little kid, but hatred alone doesn't cut it, especially over such a long period of time. He must have felt some sense of purpose, right?
There are a few parallels between the stories of FFIV and FFVII, one of the most interesting being that being that the Lunarians, like the Cetra, are haunted by an unimaginable cosmic evil that they somehow picked during their journeys through space – Jenova in the case of FFVII, and Zeromus in the case of FFIV. Zeromus' objective, like Jenova's, is to destroy every planet it comes into contact with, and that's obviously bad.
That being said, I'm not entirely certain that what Zemus was trying to achieve could necessarily be characterized as evil. What Zemus wants is what Kluya wants, which is for the Lunarians to wake up and live among the people of Earth. Kluya, who isn't being controlled by Zeromus, lives on Earth and starts teaching people about magic and technology, both of which later lead to terrible bloodshed. Meanwhile, what Zemus is essentially trying to do is to use the Earth crystals to create a pathway between Earth and the artificial moon (a pathway that Golbez and FuSoYa are able to use even without access to the Lunar Whale). It's strange to me that the actions of Kluya and Cecil are justified and forgiven, while the actions of Zemus and Globez are cast as evil by association with Zeromus.
What I'm therefore interested in is a re-telling of what happens before and during FFIV from the perspective of Golbez, who obviously wouldn't assume that everything he does over the course of twenty years is evil. I'm also intrigued by the idea that Kain might even be on board with Golbez's ideology but only returns to fight with Cecil because of an overdeveloped sense of chivalric loyalty, which causes him to experience guilt over his obvious attachment to Golbez.
It's going to be a long night on AO3.
So I have some thoughts about Golbez.
According to the Final Fantasy Wiki, which is referencing the FFIV 20th Anniversary Ultimania, Golbez is thirty during the events of the original game. I think this makes sense. If tiny precious Theodor were sentient enough to be casting magic and wandering around on his own when Cecil was born, he must have been at least nine or ten years old. This means that Golbez had about twenty years to get shit done.
And oh man, did Golbez ever get shit done. I haven't played more than a few hours of The After Years, so I don't know if we get any new information there, but what we know about Golbez from the original game is that he recruited the Four Elemental Fiends, set up base in (and possibly built?) the Tower of Zot, learned Meteor, figured out how to become invincible, and orchestrated a plan that was 100% successful regardless of anything Cecil and his friends did or didn't do. Also, let us never forget that he had a pet dragon.
Granted, he was being controlled by Zemus/Zeromus; but, if what Kain says about the experience of being mind-controlled also holds true for Golbez, then he was fully sentient and knew what he was doing. He is therefore not a badass because of demonic possession, but a badass because he was just a badass. And that's really intriguing to me – what was driving him forward? Sure, he was an angry little kid, but hatred alone doesn't cut it, especially over such a long period of time. He must have felt some sense of purpose, right?
There are a few parallels between the stories of FFIV and FFVII, one of the most interesting being that being that the Lunarians, like the Cetra, are haunted by an unimaginable cosmic evil that they somehow picked during their journeys through space – Jenova in the case of FFVII, and Zeromus in the case of FFIV. Zeromus' objective, like Jenova's, is to destroy every planet it comes into contact with, and that's obviously bad.
That being said, I'm not entirely certain that what Zemus was trying to achieve could necessarily be characterized as evil. What Zemus wants is what Kluya wants, which is for the Lunarians to wake up and live among the people of Earth. Kluya, who isn't being controlled by Zeromus, lives on Earth and starts teaching people about magic and technology, both of which later lead to terrible bloodshed. Meanwhile, what Zemus is essentially trying to do is to use the Earth crystals to create a pathway between Earth and the artificial moon (a pathway that Golbez and FuSoYa are able to use even without access to the Lunar Whale). It's strange to me that the actions of Kluya and Cecil are justified and forgiven, while the actions of Zemus and Globez are cast as evil by association with Zeromus.
What I'm therefore interested in is a re-telling of what happens before and during FFIV from the perspective of Golbez, who obviously wouldn't assume that everything he does over the course of twenty years is evil. I'm also intrigued by the idea that Kain might even be on board with Golbez's ideology but only returns to fight with Cecil because of an overdeveloped sense of chivalric loyalty, which causes him to experience guilt over his obvious attachment to Golbez.
It's going to be a long night on AO3.
