Friendship

by Lady Lunar Phoenix

For all you who are crazy, this will make perfect sense for you. Sane types, forget it. No sense whatsoever here. And if you thought you weren't crazy, but this makes sense to you, then maybe you need to re-evaluate your sanity.

The base of Final Fantasy the series!

I figured out what Final Fantasy is about. And it's not about beating the bad guy, no matter how wussy that person may be, and it's not about religion. It's about friendship. That's it. That is the main reason for the whole series. It shows, in a way, how friendships, true friendships, are. What they are about and what they should mean to us. It's too easy, and happens far too often, to hear about friends cheating, or someone's best friend is now dating the lover, or someone talking bad about a friend. For all the trappings of CGI, grand music, or wonderful effects, the main emphasis of Final Fantasy is friendship. The respect and trust of friendship that should be stronger than money, power, or lust. Though, sadly, it's not that good in this country.

Final Fantasy Four: Cecil is a Dark Knight from a kingdom that for some unknown reason (at the beginning of the game at least) has begun to steal the Crystals from other kingdoms. Before Mt. Ordeals, Cecil has ransacked a town for a Crystal and has burned down a village, killing off most of the population on his own without knowing why he was doing it, or even that he was about to do it. And then he witnesses the attack of a Kingdom and has to see the after-effects of a near mass murder. He starts to watch over the sole survivor of the attack at Mist, and has to travel with the prince of another country that just lost his bride to be and parents in an attack.

So what does this have to do with friendship?

People blame each other for things that never happened. People, who have been at war with another country, group, or whatever, judge the person, not for who they are, but for their group association. They don't look to see if the person is a good person just that the person has a different point of view, and they take that as the sole validation of their feelings. Skin color, religion, homeland, and sexual preference: all these factors whereby people make their first judgement of a person. Friendship has a base in respect, and where is respect in face value?

Rydia starts off hating Cecil. She even attacks him and Kain with Titan to get them away from her. But, after Cecil protects her from the other Baron soldiers, she starts to accept that he isn't really a bad person. Edward doesn't hold Cecil responsible for the ransacking of his home either, and Yang accepts that Cecil wasn't to blame for the attack on his home. By the time you reach the end of the game you have four people alongside you, willing to fight a powerful evil being.

Point: Friends stick together no matter what. They don't just say 'I'm too busy,' or 'I can't help you,' or stick a bible under your nose and tell you to read a few verses. And even if there is nothing they can do, the knowledge that if something comes up that they can help and will help is a very reassuring feeling.

Final Fantasy Six (never played 5): You start out the game as a brainwashed chick that just wasted a whole town. Instead of Avis tossing the girl out as a murderer, he takes her in and removes the slave crown. He helps her out in trying to escape and, after a fall, Terra spends the rest of the time in the cave out cold. This whole game is about friendship. Just look at all the members that you get in your group: The general of the enemy, a thief (Treasure hunter, or he'll rip your lungs out), an albino koala with a dilly bop and some dance moves, a wild boy, a gambler, a 'Kill his own mother for a nickel' assassin, an old man and his smart mouth granddaughter, a Knight who's whole kingdom and family has been killed, a young flirt of a king and his martial arts twin, and a mimic that got out of its box. If you save Shadow at the floating island and get him back along with everyone else in the group before you take on Kefka, then you have one LONG list of people who have found reasons to live, even in a world that had been ravaged by Kefka. But, break it down, and it comes down to being friends.

So what does gathering all these people, when a solid half of them could get the job done at taking on Kefka, have to do with friendship?

How many people that you have called 'friends' do you keep in contact with? How many of them have moved, and you said you would call or visit but never do? It's one thing to live only a few minutes walk or drive from a person or make a cheap phone call, but it's another thing to take a road trip to see each other. It's a game version of 'going to the ends of the earth' for somebody. How many friends do you know who would go to that extreme for you? Or you for them?

Point: Use the cheat, and get Celes at level 99 before the World of Ruin, and you only then need three people to go up against Kefka, just out of the power alone. The second part of the game isn't about saving the world from Kefka; it's about being friends. When Celes knows that Locke is alive, she decides to go look for him. And as she goes, she finds the others. You can just blow them off as not important, but then do you blow off your real-life friends just as easily? By the time you take on Kefka, with all the members in the group that you have from Terra and Locke to Gogo and Umaro, you're looking at all the friends that your character has made. And you can see the change that can come about just having friends. Each character has found a new strength that they wouldn't have found if there hadn't been someone there for them, to help see them through.

Final Fantasy Seven: Friends don't let friends drive drunk... Which is how I drive in that game sadly. I kept smacking my own group and I was SOBER!....

Point: If you're going to fight a god, you might wanna bring your friends. Not because you hate them, but because you want someone who's going to back you up. Even when you go mental and have a fight to the finish with a dead guy.

Final Fantasy Eight: OK, side note, this is based off of how I played it so, Squall was NEVER in character. I played him nice. Nice, as in I showed Selphie around, I agreed to help her with the festival, and everything else. The only redeeming factor of Irvine: You know it would suck to be separated from all your friends for a long time, and when you get to see each other again they've not only forgotten you, but each other. But the best display of friendship is not from Squall and group. Seifer spends most of the game as the enemy, the one you have to fight. Yet who stands by him? Unlike most of the past games where the enemies, no matter the rank, are all alone on the battlefield, Seifer has Fuijin and Raijin. The two stick by his side when he betrays the Garden, they stick by him even when they know that what he is doing is wrong.

The friendship theme should be clear here. You've heard the ads that say 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk.' A real friend doesn't let someone do something stupid. There are different cases where someone is going to do something that they know could hurt or kill them or get them in trouble, and they ask you, as their 'friend,' not to talk. Or they insist that they are fine, and then get hurt, or hurt someone else. But a real friend knows when to blow the whistle on something that has them worried. Friends sometimes can't make a hard decision with a clear head or they just give up. And, though it may hurt or may even destroy the friendship, a true friend won't let someone do something that could kill them, or worse.

Point: Play Squall nice and the game is about 10 times easier... Oh wait that's a truth not a point. Ok, Point: Fuijin and Raijin follow Seifer all over the place, saying that it's what friends do. Perhaps they thought they could rope him in before Seifer did something major on the stupid factor list. But when they realized they couldn't stop him, they backed down and let someone else try. To paraphrasing Fuijin after Seifer's change, "We want the old Seifer back. And it's sad that we have to rely on Squall." And believe me, when the chick who's sole vocabulary up to this point has been one word screamed out, it's a shock to see a WHOLE speech come out of her mouth. And in the end they are still friends, as they can forgive Seifer for what he has done.

Final Fantasy Nine: Zidane is a walking, 'everybody's friend' type. He doesn't do things for his own desires ('cept the women). Time and time again, throughout the game he's helping people. Even the Rat couple that had six walking, talking, playing daughters BEFORE the game ended (wasn't she just pregnant?) Here's someone who's putting himself in danger at the drop of a hat for his friends. He didn't know Vivi, but took in the kid. He didn't know the people that he helped more often than not. But he was the first to lend a hand, not because he wanted anything in return, but because he believed it to be the right thing to do. And how many complete strangers are there that just help because they can? Without a bible and a church to offer you to go to or expecting money. Those folks are rare.

So many people now prey upon kind people, asking and stealing, destroying trust and faith in strangers. But when you can find someone who goes above and beyond, they can be either the best of friends or unexpected help in a time of need.

Point: Look at the point when Zidane pushes everyone away because of what he was supposed to do. Even though they don't understand, they stick by him, and when he pushes them, they push right back. Even when they find out about his past and his 'true' purpose, they just shrug it off since they knew deep down inside he was still the Zidane that was their friend.

In... Ok too late to be in short...
Look at what the games each say.
Friendship overpowers Hate.
The love and friendship between people can cross any barrier and destroy hate.