Ramza's Personal Transformation

by Anthony Caudill

The evolution path of Ramza Beoulve's character is marked by a series of several climaxes in the Final Fantasy Tactics storyline. The plot's multi-climatic model is a distinctive feature of Tactics, a nod against the cannon of modern literature. But it is necessary, because the key themes to Tactics' plot lie in the inner conflicts of the main character. Ramza's defining moments are marked by the aptly-titled musical piece "ANTIPYRETIC", a score rife with echoes of heroism, sadness, struggle, and personal redemption. This four-pronged theme cycles through the Tactics storyline throughout each of the four chapters.

The first of Ramza's conflicts is evident at the start of the story, when he finds himself forced to choose between the ethical code of his father and his duties as a feudal vassal. The escalating political feud between Death Corp. and the nobility itself climaxes with the crises of Teta's death and Algus' betrayal, and Ramza is set into emotional disarray when the feudal loyalties to his family and the nobility and the ethical codes of his father are demonstrated as incongruent. Ramza refuses to draw a distinction between his role as a human and his role as a member of the nobility, but is consequentially unable to meet the ethical legacy of his father.

In Chapter 2 we witness Ramza overcome this conflict. Pressured by Gafgarion to take responsibility for his own life and his own actions, Ramza disavows responsibility for Teta's death. He repreives himself by declaring himself seperate from the nobility, and takes a further conceptual step by realizing the Ivalice nobility not as a unit but rather as a group of individuals out for their own whims. By discarding his belief in nobility and social unity, he is allowed to view individuals in Ivalice as capable of evil in and of themselves. Ultimately this outlook allows Ramza to identify the hand of a single person, Delita, as the puppetmaster of Ivalice, but it is of greatest importance to Ramza emotionally, because by formally disconnecting feudal duty from ethics he is free to reclaim his identity as an ethical person.

Ramza is faced with Delita at the end of Chapter III. Delita reveals that he is the force behind the Lion War, and unabashedly admits to using Ramza as the war's ignition. Ramza is forced to examine the code of his father once again, but this time he is compelled to critique the code and his reliance on it. Later Ramza learns of his father's death by his eldest brother, Dycedarg, and is faced with an integral flaw in his father's code - the ethically strong are always prey to calculating minds. Ramza must choose whether to continue to risk being used at the expense of his values, or to fend for himself. The telling choice is illustrated in his determined, unrestrained selfishness at the game's final chapter. Ramza Beoulve overcomes his inner struggles forever - by refusing to hold anything inside.