Note: The picture for the banner one of the many designed by Yositako Amano. Since it’s used in numerous places on the internet (and offered quite often as wallpaper), I’m going to cross my fingers and assume it’s safe to use here.
This is the continuation of my surprisingly popular Final Fantasy Tarot weekly post with some additions. I promised to start an astrology series for the games, but in the weeks between my last Final Fantasy Tarot post and this, my ideas have expanded. I not only want to explore potential zodiac signs, but a few other traits as well. As I matched a character to a Major Arcana in the last project, here I’m going to match a Major Arcana to each individual character (if that doesn’t make sense right now, it will once you get to the posts).
Ideally, I’d like to do every Final Fantasy character from all the games I’ve played starting with Final Fantasy IV, since that’s the first game that had definitive characters with individual personalities, so this is will be another long term series, though I’m going to intersperse it with the questions you’ve seen before. It might be an every other week deal, or the time intervals might be greater. I haven’t quite decided yet.
The traits to be assigned, analyzed, and discussed are as follows:
- Tarot (Major Arcana)
- Zodiac/Astrological Sign
- Alignment
- Myers-Briggs Personality Type
- Diagnosis
Obviously, this is all my conjecture and neither canonical nor absolute. The astrology in particular is based on my personal assessment of the character, considering that many of them have established birthdays, which would concurrently denote their (Western) astrology. For example, Aeris’s birthday is February 7, 1985, which would make her an Aquarius; however, my estimation of her zodiac sign is quite different, and I’ll be basing my choice on personality rather than birth date. This may make some purists angry, but such determinations are merely my opinion and have no bearing on anything beyond personal speculation.
My BFF Kat is much better at astrology than I am, but she at least imparted her wisdom to me about Moon signs among other things. Briefly, the answer you give when asked, “What’s your sign?” is for the Sun, but there are signs for at least six other celestial bodies: the moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. I don’t have the skills to do all of them, but the moon sign is easy enough, especially when you have such deep characters like Final Fantasy boasts. It’s sort of the shadow self, the part that lies under the surface that effects your behavior in the subtext.
To give another example I’m a Taurus with a Libra moon, which is…difficult to say the least. Tauruses tend to be stubborn and bullheaded (look at the symbol for the sign). Once we’ve come to a conclusion, we’ll stick to it, but we’re also sensual (as in literally all about the senses); we’re generally sweet; we loooove delicious food and comfort; we’re obsessed with beauty (hooray for our sign being ruled by Venus); and we’re loyal to a fault. We’re slow to anger, but once you do, the horns come out, and you need to move heaven and earth (which is our element) to get back into our good graces. Libras tend to be more balanced. They’re also ruled by Venus (double beauty!); they like to weigh their options, and they can be flighty since their element is air..
You can see how this would clash with the stubbornness of the sun sign. I’m constantly at war with myself. The front part of me will be steadfast, but there’s always that little voice in the back of my head that wonders if I’m erroneously dismissing the other points of view, because I don’t want to miss something integral by refusing to give ground. It’s…nerve wracking when I 100% know that something or someone is wrong or has treated me poorly, because I always want to try to see it their way no matter how much I might despise that or them (I’m also super empathetic…).
Having just recently discovered my own Myers-Briggs personality type (INFJ representing!), I thought it would be a novel addition to my character assessment. I pick them letter by letter, determining whether the character is I (introverted) or E (extroverted), N (intuition) or S (sensing), F (feeling) or T (thinking), and P (perceiving) or J (judging). While there is some informed criticism of it, MBTI has personally helped me understand myself much better. Astrology has even harsher and rational criticism, but I can say the same thing about that. I always want to be open to newer and better information and change my opinion based on such, but for the purpose of this series, I think both assessments are more than acceptable.
The diagnosis idea came from one of the wisest bloggers I know, Athena of AmbiGaming who started a series of her own called Diagnosing Bad, where she discusses the potential mental issues of villains. This itself was inspired by Falcon Gaming Review’s Character Alignment Profile, which is easy enough for me to add, as well. I’m always so thankful for the brilliant bloggers I follow whose words inspire so many of my ideas. With this aspect, I’ll try to use my meager B. A. in Psychology to offer up some kind of diagnosis if applicable or at the very least an idea of what could be going on in the character’s head.
As always, everything is up for discussion and/or debate. There are no correct answers only valid arguments. I’m hoping you’ll enjoy this new project/series!
Cecil Harvey – Final Fantasy IV
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 