<–IV The Emperor VI The Lovers–>
This is my current Final Fantasy Friday post where I’ll be discussing which characters I think exemplify each card of the Major Arcana. If this is your first time here, please head over to my Final Fantasy Tarot page for explanation. Now onto the next card!
Seymour from Final Fantasy X was my original pick for this card, but I wavered quite a bit before my choice as there’s an alternate who’s just as good that I’ll discuss below.
The Hierophant is also known as The High Priest or even The Pope. Seymour is essentially a high priest as a maester of Yevon. He is (according the linked wiki) “the Minister of Temple Affairs, which maintains the temples’ rituals and teachings and oversees the summoners. This position allows one the authority to handle records of the sealed histories.” He’s also a half human, half Guado hybrid, the latter race being responsible for Spira”s afterlife. The Hierophant serves as the builder of the bridge between deity and humanity, thus a true “pontiff.”
Even though Seymour is obviously an antagonist, like many a Final Fantasy villain he has a tragic backstory involving his mother (god they really love that paradigm), nor does this status dismiss the fact that he was essentially a high priest of the faith. Given our knowledge of corruption in religious institutions (which FFX wholly seeks to point out), the villainous aspect of his nature do not detract from him representing this card.
Alternates: Sephiroth (VII)
I very nearly picked my favorite fallen angel for a variety of reasons. He, too, is a bridge between humanity and “deity” as a human-alien hybrid of sorts. I wouldn’t say he’s half and half as both of his parents are human (though his father’s “humanity” is highly debatable for moral reasons…), but since he was infused with Jenova’s cells while in utero, that aspect of his makeup must be taken into account. He also became its “messenger” in a way and then pretty much merged with it, a motif we see repeated in X with a summoner’s guardian becoming the new Sin.
Sephiroth would also be a counterpart to Aeris as The High Priestess, and the two pillars The Hierophant sits between was almost a tipping point especially when you consider they’re related to the Tree of Life, which is made up of the Holy Sephiroth.
Also, like the Hierophant, he loves holding up his right hand.
But Sephiroth is meant for another card. Now I’ve given you a clue. Use it wisely.
Seifer (VIII), Golbez (IV) – Both due to the “bridge between humanity and deity” description. Seifer is obviously fully human, but his stint as the Sorceress’s Knight was considered. Golbez is *spoiler* half-human, half-Lunarian and was under the thrall of Zemus for the majority of the game, a being seething deep in the Lunar core, so we have that hybrid doing a “higher” being’s work paradigm going on with him. *end spoiler.*
Nobody technically won this time; however, Mr. Panda did guess Sephiroth, and I was super close to picking him and would have if he wasn’t planned for a later card.
Next week is VI The Lovers, which will be the most solid if initially dichotomous canon ship, and one of my favorite ones at that! Happy guessing 🙂
<–IV The Emperor VI The Lovers–>
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I had trouble going with the villains on this one, but I guess if you reverse the card that works perfectly! Or if a round deck (is your deck round? 🙂 ) tilted to the left.
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It really was the “bridge between earth and deity” that got me for this one, because Final Fantasy really likes that with their villains, and their antagonists are usually sympathetic and multifaceted. I’m a big believer that religion is merely one of mankind’s many tools utilized in order to understand the universe/god by whatever name you’d like to call it, and sadly, it can be misused/corrupted.
I was going to do an “Inverse” section, but that would be a whole other set of characters and research!
If I were going to pick a hero character for the Hierophant, the only one I could think of would be Cecil from FFIV since he’s a half-human, half-Lunarian hybrid, too, or oh! even better Zidane, but neither one of them really fulfill the other qualities and Seymour (and Seph) have that whole connection with deity (whether for good or ill, real or false) down. There are definitely some female characters that fit the bill like Yuna (already used Aeris), but I knew the Hierophant would have to be male. Hm, it’s quite interesting that the only men I thought of were of the villainous kind. Maybe says something to the corrupt masculine hehe :p Hm…now I’m thinking about this more, because any male FF character associated with religion/religious symbolism leans towards the villainous (Kefka, Sephiroth, Seifer, Seymour, Jecht)…and in a lot of their cases the “deity” they’re connected to is female :O There may be another essay on the horizon…
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Maester freaking Seymour… I really hated that guy! His boss fights were so hard on the young gamer I use to be. FFX was the first Final Fantasy game I beat. Such an awesome game that had me in tears during the credits,
For the Lovers, I’m going to say Snow and Serah from FFXIII or Squall and Rinoa from FFVIII. I also know I’m going to be wrong, lol. I’ve mentioned it before, but there are still a lot of FF games I haven’t had the opportunity to play yet.
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His smarmy, stuck up voice pissed me off SO much. There’s something about it that made me want to kick him lol. He was a tough boss though especially for a younger gamer! I played X when I was in my early twenties; my first finished Final Fantasy (wow…so alliteration such Fs) was VI. I’ve never finished VII myself though I’ve seen the end many times of course, then VIII, IX, and X. I played IV at some point in that interim and finished the original then the PSP version. I want to play the DS one at some point.
I’m so happy that Sephiroth has an awesome voice actor in Advent, and the one in Crisis Core isn’t bad. He’s a baritone as it should be. I have a feeling Kuja from IX would have a stupid, too high voice, too ugh.
Squall and Rinoa are a definite canon ship that could represent the lovers!
Final Fantasy is extremely time consuming (I think I’ve been working on my FFIV replay for over a year!) so don’t beat yourself up for not having the opportunity re: time to play!
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Oh that voice… *clenches fists* I was in my early teens when I played it. It was the first game I put 60+ hours into.
At this rate, FF XV will be in the discount bins before I’m ready to get it.
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Like I understand why they did that, but I still wanted to kick him. He would’ve been a much better character if they’d given him more of a baritone. It’s still better than Tidus’s laugh. I don’t want to hate on FFX though. The story is absolutely stellar and the message in it about not blinding following (literal) faith is so important, but I critique FFVII, too, and I feel that if you love something, you can’t ignore its foibles.
FFXV makes me cranky, but I’m trying to hold off on my judgments and not give into what I’ve heard. I do love that Sean Bean and Lena Headey of Game of Thrones fame are voicing the king and queen respectively in the movie, though this clearly tells me the king is going to die.
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Goodness… I really need to start guessing at these! I had the thought of Seymour after reading the description of the Hierophant, but I wasn’t sure because I’m super green at anything tarot.
*takes a deep breath* I will guess Rosa and Cecil from FFIV.
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I have notes from two years ago when I started thinking about this, but as I read through the descriptions, I’m definitely reconsidering! I had Seymour from that time though, but realized that Sephiroth was a clear contender, too. I have him considered for a few others so I had to figure out where all the puzzle pieces might fall 🙂
Cecil is arguably my favorite main character! It’s a toss up between him a Celes. Hm, lots of “C” names for main characters. Well…maybe just three (Cecil, Cloud, Celes), and there’s certainly a celestial element to them, too (no pun intended with “celestial” either lol).
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I really, really loved FFIV. I played it through twice just this past year! There were so many twists and turns in the game’s plot that kept me on my toes. Cecil’s character was an interesting one, but the whole cast of characters in FFIV made it for me. I especially loved Rydia, but who doesn’t?!
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It’s like the culmination of the first three Final Fantasies in story! You really don’t get much of a plot or character development in those, though you do get a lot of foundation for later motifs. IV just did an great job with the best friend betrayal, meta-manipulation, doing what’s ordered vs. doing what’s right, so many things. Cecil is another of my white haired pretty boy crushes lol, and he’s actually a totally good guy, so I don’t have to defend him! I wish there were more fanfictions about IV; there’s such a dearth of them. It’s is a highly underrated game.
I loved the whole faerie world aspect to her plot. It was so nicely woven in, and even though it was used to age her up, I didn’t seem like a cheap ploy. There are also some amazing IV cosplays. So while I still think it’s underrated, it’s still well loved by those who do.
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Ahh Seymour is a great choice. I so thought you would have gone Sephiroth, but it makes sense if you saved him for another card. I should probably just guess Sephiroth every week until I get it right, haha. Though since next week is Lovers, I can’t choose Sephiroth with good conscience. Instead, I’ll go with Squall and Rinoa from FFVIII even though… I don’t like their love story. Shhh… Keep up the great work on these!
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Nooooo, not even me with my OTP preferences can go with that :p
It’s most certainly a canon pairing, and we are on the same page about Rinoa and Squall. She…I don’t know. She seems more like a plot device than a character. Selphie had much more spunk and Quistis seemed much, much older than her 18 years (I have to remind myself they’re ALL teenagers). Rinoa had so little personality, but they are most definitely a canon ship and in the tarot pool.
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