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!
It was a bit of a toss up this week, as I’ve said for a few other weeks. I was so close to picking Seifer from FFVIII. He was even my original choice, but as I’ve said before your guesses actually cause me to look more closely at what character best fits the card, and in this case I had to give The Hanged Man to Kain for a variety of reasons.
The Hanged Man represents another point of view, and Kain is the suitor who could’ve been. While Final Fantasy IV presents the age old lovelorn best friend paradigm, it serves the particular purpose of subtext in the narrative for why Kain was able to fall under Golbez’s (and therefore Zemus’s) sway. Even prior to this manipulation, his jealousy towards Cecil and Rosa forces and skews his point of view, and as The Hanged Man is also known as The Traitor (possibly due to criminals being hung for punishment), this solidifies the dragoon’s position even more. His very name is telling, being a homophone of the biblical Cain who betrayed his brother Abel as Kain betrays his. FFIV has a multilayered “brother” paradigm, as well, but I’ll talk about that much more in my review of it.
Alternates: Sephiroth (FFVII), Jecht (FFX), Golbez (FFIV), Celes (FFVI), Seifer (FFVIII)
All of these characters can be seen as traitors, and with the exception of Celes, they all switch to a darker, madder side. Sephiroth and Jecht almost literally become monsters; Golbez could be considered more conflicted than a traitor (being of both the Red Moon and the Blue Planet…I could make a similar argument for Sephiroth); and Seifer is just a misguided and confused teenager. The latter threw his lot in with the sorceress in order to fulfill his “romantic dream,” but Kain was much more of a traitor than him since Seifer and Squall were rivals from the get go.
We have two winners this week! Both Mr. Panda and Hungrygoriya guessed Kain, making me reconsider him from alternate to legitimate. So congratulations to them both 🙂
The next card is called simply and starkly Death who often shows up with a pale horse.
Good luck!
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
Pingback: Final Fantasy Friday: Final Fantasy Tarot – XI Justice | The Shameful Narcissist Speaks
Awesome that we swayed you in that direction! I think Kain is an interesting character, both as a traitor and a party member. Good tie-in to the Bible too. Somehow I never really thought about Kain being Cain, but it makes so much sense. Seifer seems like he would have been good too, but I don’t remember him being as much of a traitor as much as he was just a jerk.
For the next one, I’ll have to go with the villain with Death in the name, ExDeath from Final Fantasy V. Hopefully, you’ve played that one too. He’s killed so many, and desires death himself. He’s a pretty underrated villain, especially during a certain scene midway through the game.
Great post as always! Keep it up!
LikeLike
I have actually NOT played FFV so it wouldn’t be fair to not offer you another guess! V is next on my list to play, and now I wish I had since ExDeath sounds like he’d be the perfect candidate for the Death card.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aw, in that case, Chaos from the original Final Fantasy? Haha, I have no clue so I’ll just have to keep guessing villains!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I said this on Hungrygoriya’s comment for a clue, but guessing villains is being on the right track!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay! I’m glad I managed to squeeze out another correct answer here. I also have no idea why I didn’t make the biblical connection there either. My mother would be horribly disappointed!
I think you said that you won’t reuse characters, but I think I popped in halfway through your series (which I am loving, by the way!) Have you used Kuja from FFIX yet? I think he would be a great choice for this because he literally wanted to kill an entire world of people and took on some “divine” form later in the game as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I actually just figured it out one day when I was taking down a note, and it was like “Holy revelation Batman!” That happens to me quite a lot though. I’ll figure out something seemingly obvious. I love religious symbolism, and Final Fantasy always nails it.
I did use him! He was VII The Chariot (had to check my chart to make sure) so feel free to guess again! I’ll try to make sure I give everyone the same clue when I answer their comments, but you are on the right track with villainy 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Okay well how about the King of Baron from FFIV? Does he not literally manifest as Odin, the Horse-Riding Bringer-of-Death? That’s the only other guess I can muster after a long week of pondering!
LikeLiked by 1 person
He certainly does! I believe he turns into the Odin summon in death.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Commentition Naughty November 2016 | I Read Encyclopedias for Fun
Goodness! I can’t believe I made that many comments 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Final Fantasy Friday: Final Fantasy Tarot – XIII Death | The Shameful Narcissist Speaks
I’m going to say Sephiroth. I swear I didn’t read the answer this week…. *whistles innocently* 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tee hee. I did give out that I’d be using him at some point in the list :p
LikeLiked by 1 person