<–XIV Temperance XVI The Tower–>
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!
I realize this is the third week in a row I’ve used someone (or something) from Final Fantasy VII, but I won’t apologize for that. I will promise that next week will not be from that game…at least not the main answer.
The Devil is a being who only has the power you give him, and Jenova is a parasitic, alien, eldritch abomination horror the Cetra sealed away and humans unearthed to utilize for their own greedy purposes. They used it to make more powerful soldiers/weapons, spreading its cells, virus, and influence into both those willing, unwilling and even unable to consent (pretty difficult to say yea or nay when you’re in utero). People augmented with its cells could hear its “voice,” a literal devil whispering in your ear, binding you to its cause like the two people chained in the Marjor Arcana.
I’ve said a great deal about Jenova here, here, and here, so I won’t bother repeating. It is the most terrifying enemy in the Final Fantasy repertoire. An entity that that can invade your very thoughts and emotions to influence you until you don’t know where you end and it begins. The indoctrination of the Reapers from Mass Effect puts me into the same mind, and the planet devouring brethren moons from Dead Space inspire a similar horror.
The Devil is supposed to be the utter antithesis of God, and Jenova is symbolically the “mother” of the antichrist in Sephiroth. Now he also oscillates in the role of Lucifer/Satan, as well, but Jenova is the Bigger Bad of FFVII, because without Jenova, there is no Sephiroth, no conflict, and therefore no story.
Alternates: Zemus/Zeromus (IV), Kefka (VI), Ultimecia (VIII), Necron (IX)
Zemus or rather Zeromus was a really close second. He or it only had power through peoples’ jealous/envy and other bad/exploitable traits.
The Kefka Devil connection isn’t out there, but as implied above, the devil usually works through an agent, and FFVI was very straightforward and uncomplicated with who its big bad was.
The futuristic sorceress Ultimecia of FFVIII was a consideration or even Adel, the sorceress from the past since they both used agents in the present (and past) to accomplish their goals. I’m going to really have to sit down and figure out FFVIII’s wibley, wobbly, timey wimey shenanigans when I get to its replay.
A lot of my reasoning pushed me towards IX’s Necron, but Necron really pissed me off lol. While all of the above (save Kefka) could be considered a diabolus ex nihilo, Necron also serves as a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere. There was absolutely no precedence for it in the story. It was just the eternal nothingness you had to fight because Kuja wasn’t that powerful of a final boss, and it lent more credence to *spoiler* his redemption (by death) at the end. *end spoiler*
LightningEllen wins again with her guess of Jenova!
Next week’s card is The Tower, and not only is it definitely not from FFVII, it’s also a place rather than a person. The Final Fantasy series is riddled with ominous towers. You just need to guess which tower I picked as the paragon of the Major Arcana card!
<–XIV Temperance XVI The Tower–>
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
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Interesting read as always! Nice nod to Mass Effect, as well 🙂
Unfortunately I have no guess this time. I’ve embarrassed myself enough trying to talk about Final Fantasy like I know what I’m saying (haha?).
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No embarrassment! I don’t judge; guess away 🙂
I love Mass Effect. I’m very interested in the new Andromeda.
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Yes I’m looking forward to the next chapter in Mass Effect’s life. I’m trying to not get completely swept away by hype because I want to go into the experience without unattainable expectations, but I’m anticipating it being a good game! The Mass Effect posts are coming, I just know it…. 🙂
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BioWare is a fantastic company so I think you can let a little enthusiasm through hehe. I’m to the point where I expect disappointment from Squeenix because they’ve had more misses than hits (in my opinion) so I was quite delighted that World of Final Fantasy is such a treat.
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Oh no! Well I’m glad World of Final Fantasy was good, at least. I’m sorry that you expect to be disappointed by Square Enix (squeenix… I love it)!
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Haha, I forget when I started calling it that! I think I saw it somewhere online and I loved it. I’m pretty sure Square Enix hates that elision. It just seems like their story telling has gone downhill in the latest ones, and it’s my same complaint with many movies nowadays. Since we now have the technology to make better visuals, a lot of creators now thing that makes up for story telling instead of using it to enhance it. I find games like IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and even X to be much stronger in narrative and theme, though many of my friends are lauding XV. I’m bummed that Squeenix is moving away from turn based for more actiony. That was a major draw for me to the series, since my main reason for playing is the story, and I do love the strategy of turn based.
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Definitely. Devs certainly seem to think graphics can compensate for a lot! And I just posted this somewhere else but games need to remember what made them good and unique in the first place. It’s like a Zelda game without puzzles… or Final Fantasy without turn-based strategy! 🙂
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I couldn’t agree with this more! I’m watching an LP of the original Legend of Zelda right now actually, and it’s awesome and amazing to see how Zelda, while growing and evolving to fit with modern times, still never forgot its roots. I’ve never actually seen the entire original game, so this is quite a treat 🙂
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Considering my love of Zelda, I’ve never actually been able to completely finish the older games due to lack of skill (or stupidity, one of the other haha), but I’ve loved that they have stayed true to their identities over the past 30 years!
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You and me both in terms of lack of skill! I’ve only ever finished Link to the Past, which was my favorite until Ocarina of Time and then Majora’s Mask, which had a darkness that reminded me of FFVII. The LPer doing the original is very skilled and a fellow blogger Hungrygoriya! I’m probably going to finish watching it tonight. I’ve told her this before, but her voice is very soothing and perfect for LPs. So much of being able to watch those depends on the person’s voice and just general attitude/mien.
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I didn’t want to jinx it, but I was pretty confident I guessed that one right. 🙂 There are some haunting Tower areas in FFXIII and FFXIII-2, just saying. My incorrect guess is the Dollet communications tower at the beginning of FFVIII. That’s the only other Final Fantasy tower I can think of at the moment…
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The elnoyle (I think that’s what it is) killed me quite a few times up there! I also didn’t know you could draw Siren from it for the longest time. I will say the AMV where the tower opens up is pretty damn awesome.
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Agreed! I need to play FFVIII again at some point. I made it to the 2nd last boss before I gave up years ago. I forget most of the story now too.
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I definitely plan to replay it soon. There’s this really interesting theory about what might’ve happened that I want to consider when I do my replay. It would fix a lot of the supposed plot holes that people complain about. I’ve beaten it once, but it has my favorite card game of all of them. I LOVE Triple Triad.
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I think I’ve learned more about ff characters from this kind of posts than from anything else O_O
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I’m glad I can be informative!
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