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!
We finally come to the end after 22 wonderful weeks, though it feels odd to say that this is final, since Final Fantasy is never final. It goes on and on ad infinitum, repeating the same elements in different ways. Thus is The World card. While it does represent a pause in life, it also heralds the beginning of a new cycle with The Fool on another journey. Like the game series, tarot is cyclical, which is one of the reasons I believe they line up so well.
I chose the Gaia from Final Fantasy IX because IX itself represents the end of a era. It is the final (that isn’t) send off for the series on PlayStation. The pause that reiterates before moving onto the next, and it’s fitting that the next, X, takes place in a world called Spira, the spiral. IX also has the grand motif of the coming together of two different worlds, Terra to Gaia, earth to earth, into one. This is the same motif presented in IV with the Lunarians and the people of the Blue Planet and in VII with Aeris as half-human, half-Cetra, and darker with Sephiroth as part alien. The World is also said to represent the cosmic consciousness, which aligns well with VII’s spiritual flow of the Lifestream.
The four figures in the corners of The World card can represent either the Book of Revelations 4:7 where the throne of God is described (and I’m sure I could make a case for the Four Horsemen if I were so inclined to delve a bit) or the representatives of the natural world, the kingdom of beasts. There is also an astrological connection. The Lion is Leo, a fire sign; the Bull is Taurus (yasssss), an earth sign; the Man is Aquarius, an air sign; and the Eagle is Scorpio, a water sign (not sure where the Great Wiki is garnering that from, but okay). Of course these four hold the balance of the world and the universe, and we have Final Fantasy’s ubiquitous Crystal(s) for parallel. Though the four separate parts disappear after IV (or V, since I haven’t played that yet, I can’t speak to it), they still exist in some form in VI-VIII and return in IX spread out among Gaia’s kingdoms.
The World is both the end and the beginning, and Final Fantasy (ironically for its name) has no end, and as the first game is a time loop, a beginning is questionable as well. While I used FFIX’s picture for Gaia, it is highly probably that all of the games take place in the same world, and all Gaias are the same Gaia, and there may just be one story told and retold infinite times as each cycle ends and begins again.
Mr. Panda gets the final card with his Gaia guess!
Now it’s time to declare the winners of the game. Seven of you played at various points in time: Mr. Panda, The Otaku Judge, LightningEllen, Carrie482, Hungrygoriya, iplayedthegame, and Athene|AmbiGaming, and I thank you all for participating whether you guessed one or 21 times!
Just to reiterate the scoring system, a correct answer would net you 5 points. Guessing an alternate would give you 3, and picking a character from the same game as the right character earned you 1. So without further ado…
In 3rd Place with 13 points we have Hungrygoriya!
2nd Place goes to LightningEllen with 36 points!
And at 51 points the 1st Place ribbon goes to Mr. Panda!
I had so much more fun than I ever thought I would doing this for the past 22 weeks, and I hope you all did, too, whether you guessed or not. Quite a few people expressed that they learned a lot about Final Fantasy and Tarot during this series, and I’m glad I was able to introduce deeper aspects of one or both. I love Final Fantasy as you all know, and I’m obsessed with religious and esoteric symbolism, so this was a match made in heaven for me.
Thanks to everyone who participated either by guessing or just commenting to show your interest and support. The general consensus has been on me doing a Final Fantasy Astrology series next, so I’m going to start preliminary research on that. Until then, I’m not sure what (if anything) I’m going to do on Fridays. I have some brief articles and lists I could regale you with (I seriously doubt I’ll be able to write an FF essay a week alas) or I might use the time to work on bigger projects.
Once again thank you all, and please feel free to display your ribbons on your sites if you so choose 🙂 If you’d like to know more details and/or your score, just let me know in the comments!
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
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Yay! I got Gaia right! I love your explanation of the looping nature of Final Fantasy. It’s been like that since the beginning, and that’s what makes the series stand out to me, whether they’re all on Gaia or not. Also, thank YOU for an excellent series! I loved how you synthesized Final Fantasy and Tarot in a way that was meaningful and enjoyable. Your reasoning was well-thought out and well-backed up. I also had fun guessing! Congratulations to LightningEllen and Hungrygoriya for earning those ribbons! Thank you for the wonderful ribbon too! I will surely treasure it! I’ve saved the image already, so I will see if there’s some way to display it! Congrats again to you on a successful series!
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Thank you so much for playing along! The main fun of this was the interaction/conversations with everyone, and I definitely love the looping nature of Final Fantasy. I’ll have more to say on that later. I’m super happy I decided to do this as a serial instead of one huge post where points would’ve gotten lost in the shuffle, and the (I suppose it would be meta) game aspect would’ve been nonexistent. It just made so much sense to use IX’s Gaia as The World card, because IX ties them all together along with being one of the best (and THE best for many) games in the series. I’m glad you found my reasoning well thought out and backed up hehe. I was afraid I was reaching in a few of them even though I could definitely see it, I often worry about explaining it well enough so I don’t sound like a hack. Final Fantasy Friday Forever!
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Such a great series! I’ve enjoyed reading along, although I gave up guessing a long time ago 🙂
Congratulations to all the winners! I bow to your knowledge of Final Fantasy (and tarot)!!
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Lovely series, and I love the fact you ranked correct guesses at the end! I look forward to the next one!
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You, good sir, racked up 11 points if you were curious! I enjoyed doing this immensely, and since I like games (understatement of the year lol), I figured why not make a point system 🙂
Planning is in progress for the next FF Friday project.
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Awww I’m sad it’s over! I learned so much about tarot and also learned that I desperately need to play FFVI and FFVII to see so many awesome characters I haven’t yet experienced! I will save the ribbon and keep it forever. I never “place” in stuff, so it’s particularly exciting and wonderful that you’ve given me such a lovely gift!
Looking forward to whatever you’ve got up those long, interesting sleeves of yours!
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It was such a fun series for me, too! I’m happy I did it like this instead of one big post, which is what I initially planned. This worked out well for everyone, and I’m definitely planning more serial stuff for Final Fantasy Friday. I think I’m going to try to think up little things to do in the interim while I plan the astrology series so no worries!
Yasss! I’m so happy I created the ribbons then 🙂 I’m kind of a dork with scoring stuff. Really I think it’s just math and logic. I like to apply them, and this certainly presented the opportunity to do so .
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Sorry I’m late for my acceptance speech, but here I am to proudly accept this awesome ribbon award! Seriously though, I NEVER win anything, and I can’t believe I got so many points with my low Final Fantasy knowledge level… I will forever treasure the .jpg file I just saved on my computer 🙂
Congrats to Mr. Panda and hungrygoriya! This whole project was really fun, and I can’t wait to see what you do next.
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It honestly boiled down to who guessed the most! The more you guessed, the higher your chance of getting it right 🙂
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Whatever you did, it worked out in my favor so I highly approve of your scoring system 😀
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This whole series was a fun read! I think you did a good job on the cards and explaining them. I wish there was an actual Final Fantasy tarot deck. There is an Amano tarot but the minors are pips and I’d like one with characters from the games. Not sure if the deck was original art or chosen from his existing work.
The 4 symbols in the corners of the World card are also the symbols associated with the 4 writers of the books about Jesus’ life in the bible. Not sure what it’s called in English, but John, Matthew, Marcus and Lucas. I saw them in my religion class book and was really taken aback with seeing their symbols that I’m so used to in the World card.
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This means a lot coming from a wizard even more famous than Gandalf ♥ I read tarot for years and have loved Final Fantasy for a long time, so I was hoping I could wed them together adequately. I’ve seen the Amano tarot deck and share your wish for a legitimate Final Fantasy one. I linked to a tumblr with one artist’s rendition of one, but I didn’t quite agree with whom he used for the Major Arcana.
I did not know that! I’m fascinated with religion and mythology especially symbolism, so the more I learn, the more amazed I become. I remember one of the YouTubers I regularly watch said that the INRI on Christ’s cross could stand for quite a few things and one of them was “Igna Natura Renovatur Integra,” which (roughly) translates to “Nature will be renewed by fire,” which could be a portent of the apocalypse.
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