FF9 Is Not What It Seems

FF6 is an opera, FF9 is a stage play.

Minor characters in FF9 who are playing roles: The theater troupe Prince Puck Queen Brahne Gilgamesh Ramuh Doctor Tot Cid Basically everyone in Dali village Of the playable team, arguably the only character who isn't playing a role is Quina.

Remember Lani, Amarant's partner assassin, who tried to seize Garnet for the Jewel? It is revealed that she ended up staying with the Moogles in Madain Sari, and ended up loving them and re-evaluating her life.

FF9 was the first Final Fantasy I played. Strange one to start with, but I was hooked to the franchise from that day forward.

I think it's very interesting that Vivi, the character who is arguably the least 'alive' and has the shortest life, ends up full of so much life by the end.

The algorithm works! Never enough FFIX love in the world!

Ahhh the unusual battles near the end of the game while "you are not alone" plays and a disheartened Zidanes companions pop up to stand by him... a tear is literally rolling down my cheek. I love this game; great analysis - thanks a bunch!

A pity you had no comments on the battle gameplay of ff9, which is massively spectacular on it's own, the camera work on every single battle is very clearly meant to give a very cinematic feel to the actions, with abilities having all these dramatic close ups and what not. Also the friendly monsters exist in the game, which are just a simulacra of the regular battle gameplay on their own way.

As someone with a lifelong special interest in FF9, this is the most original analysis I've seen of it in a long time. Wonderful job. Also, Quina (my favorite character) refuses to pretend or perform, unlike literally everybody else in the cast. They're literally part of an agender race and they don't conform to humanoid gender identity. They refuse to lose their love for food, and in fact, their character arc - if anything - is being able to show that love even more (Quan's Dwelling scene), and being able to share their heart with their friends more (You're Not Alone scene + their frequent kind words to Vivi, even including the silly "I... so happy..." which I think was kind of genuine in a silly childish way). I love Quina so much.

Kuja's entire character arc is based around this collapse of playwright and actor. From the beginning he knew he was just a puppet acting to Garland's script, but he aspired to surpass Garland and write his own script. He failed when Garland destroyed Alexander, but he wasn't dissuaded. He thought of a new plan, and a new script, and this time it works and he defeats Garland. But then Garland reveals the truth to him. His part is already over, because Kuja was designed to only live long enough for Garland's true angel of death, Zidane, to be ready. Kuja is about to die. Therefore, for Kuja to escape Garland's script only one choice remains. He must destroy everything. He must destory Terra and Gaia, so that the souls of Terra can't take over Gaia and Garland's plan is ruined. Also, if you think about it, Necron is Kuja's Deus Ex Machina. Kuja is losing, with the last of his energy he uses a suicide attack. But it fails to kill the party. Then Necron descends to fulfill Kuja's play, to resolve the problem Kuja could not solve: finishing off the party. Defeating Necron puts an end to Kuja's script and condemns Kuja, who thought he was a script writer, to being just another actor. Kuja's final act, as he lies dying among the roots of the Iifa Tree, is to send Zidane and the party to safety. But Zidane refuses to leave him alone, and enters the Iifa tree. There Kuja tells Zidane that after he lost everything, he finally realized what it meant to live. While he never expounds on this, it's possible that once his script is ruined, he was finally able to see the world as it is and not as some play where he's writing the script. That he wasn't just directing actors on a stage. They were people, and many of them died.

I think this is wonderfully well argued! I hadn't really thought about how much everyone is 'playing a role'. Even Eiko is pretending to be grown-up and mature. One more point: the final scene. It is clear that the monologue being given throughout the vignettes is Vivi, however we never see him, only his children. It becomes clear that Vivi has ceased to function, and we are hearing his 'truth' at long last. To your point, he has 'faked it until he made it' and death was the end of the whole charade, he was no longer faking it, he was his true autonomous self - so much so he delivers the epilogue of the story. He caps out the importance of life, of living, of choices - much like a Shakespearean play, he closes out the production by reaffirming the themes from the entire piece. Very well done!

Great work. I gotta say, I really appreciate how you correctly used "subconsciously" at 8:03 instead of saying "unconsciously," which is an extremely common error.

Baudrillard must be very proud

It was because of these details that I fell in love with video games. But the industry got lost along the way and today companies are no longer able to create games with the quality of the Playstation 1 era.

I don't often find videos that analyze FF9 compared to the others in the series, so they're always welcome for me. Great one.

The song "you're not alone" suddenly took a whole new meaning after this video.

coming to watch this after finishing FFXIV

100/10. Liked and subscribed. The conceptual connections you have so meticulously unearthed here have been an inexplicable charm that repeatedly drew me back to FFIX for decades. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Wonderful video! There's always so much thought behind video games. I'm making one myself and the sheer amount of thought put into every aspect of a game is astounding. Not to mention the jrpg gold era of the OG Playstation.

after playing dark souls 2, that ending line really hit hard. theres a description that says something like, is death nature holding a mirror up to humanity, and you really gave an answer to the purpose in life in reflection. to live your life and forge an identity