The Mythology of Final Fantasy

by JD Davis 

Ever since Final Fantasy VI, I've noticed Square has moved out of their field of using myth as formal reference, into a field where they create their own myth. In Final Fantasy VIII, the mythic symbols are very apparent, and I would like to try, for your enjoyment to interpret these symbols correctly.

I chose to do VIII first because, believe it or not it's not as deep or involved as VII. VII is very deep and symbolic and I really want to delve into everything in VII.

Now, as you'll notice when you finish reading the whole article that I've written here, I did a lot of examination of Squall. This is because he relates the most to everyone, not to mention he goes through the hero's journey which the other characters do as well. Now, the other characters go through the journey as well, it's basically the same thing, so I'm only going to explain it through one character.

Squall Leonheart
Squall is what most of us are. Squall is part of a discipline rigid system that prescribes to society's opinions and "thou shalts". He is also the representation of all of us, spiritually. As Nietzsche puts it, at first, he is the camel who gets on his knees and asks to be weighed down. Weighed down in the sense, that he receives all of the laws or "thou shalts" from Society to turn him into a civilized human, from just an animal. Squall says it himself, he worries too much about what people think of him, and what he should do, what society tells him to do. When the camel is loaded down, he runs off into the wilderness alone, in search of himself. Squall does this when he takes Rinoa from Garden and goes across the inter-continental bridge.1 As the camel begins to find himself in the wilderness he becomes a Lion. This is where Squall starts to become a Lion. When he is speaking to Rinoa he comes to the realization of what he was and what he had been. In Nietzsche's parable, the task of the Lion is to slay the Dragon. The Dragon is society, the Dragon has a law inscribed on each one of his scales, thou shalt do this, thou shalt do that. It's all the things you are "supposed" to do, all the proper things. Squall slays the Social Dragon when he takes Rinoa. He knows that everyone will be upset with him, and that it may not be the best course of action, but dammit, he loves her and this is what HE thinks is right. Later in the game, Squall transcends even being a Lion, he becomes the final stage, the "wheel rolling out of it's own center." That is to say, that Squall is no long compelled by fear, desire, or his "duty" to society to listen to what it has to say. This is expressed beautifully when Squall confesses that he will be Rinoa's Knight. That he would stand by her side and fight for her even if the whole world was against her. He is expressing his love, an emotion that comes from that center. He does not desire Rinoa (but he does love her), he does not fear what society has to say, he knows that his duty is to Rinoa, not to society.

Now, a lot of people say that Squall transforms too quickly to be realistic, but I think they are missing something. Squall's change isn't necessarily one that has to do with personality. It's a transformation of consciousness. He is thinking in one way, one where he listens to what everyone has to say, and their judgement of him, and his fear of that. Then he finds himself doing something for someone else, and not caring what others think -click- his consciousness is changed, it happens that quickly. It maybe a little difficult to understand, so I'll use a "paradigm shift" as an example. A paradigm shift and a transformation of consciousness aren't the same thing, but they are very close. To show you the power of a paradigm shift (and thus show the power of a transformation of consciousness) I'll quote a personal experience by Stephen R. Covey.2 "I remember a mini-paradigm shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly- some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene. Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed. The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing. It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?" The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, "Oh you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either. Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently." As Covey later says of the experience, "Everything changed in an instant."

- Wow - that's pretty powerful isn't it? He saw differently, he thought differently, he felt differently, he behaved differently. Isn't that a change of personality? Squall transforms his consciousness and gives himself up to something other than his self, and as Joseph Campbell tells us, that is part of being a hero.

Rinoa Heartilly
Rinoa is what we would like to be. She is free, she is affirming her life. She isn't off looking for the "meaning" of life, she is experiencing it. She is fighting against the hard, programmatic system. In this case, it is another country gripping her country, and she wants it to be free. Rinoa's spiritual development however, is opposite of Squall. Towards the end of the game she has fear about what she is (a sorceress), and she is also afraid of what the world(society) will think of her and what they will do to her. Now this is the beautiful thing about Squall and Rinoa's relationship, they come together! Squall is steadily rising to become the wheel turning out of it's own center, and Rinoa is on the downwards path. Where she was a wheel, she is becoming a Lion. Now here is the wonderful part, Squall goes up, Rinoa is coming down, they meet about the same place in their spiritual (human) development, and together they bring each other up to the wheel. Don't misunderstand me though, Rinoa is a hero as well. She was willing to be sealed away, willing to also give her self to something other and larger than herself. Rinoa is the same as Aeris was. They were both affirmers of life, living out of their own centers. They were the vehicles of Life.

Quistis Trepe
Quistis is the mother/temptress figure. She is fierce, and a fighter, and she is also a protector. Biologically she is very close to Squall's age. In the beginning she thinks she has feelings for Squall, but she later realizes it's distorted feelings of friendship. Quistis isn't ready psychologically for the adventure and quest that has been thrown upon her in life, as such she gets a demon. A demon in the form of insecurity and self doubt. Here is another soul that is not acting from her center. First, she listens to what the SeeD leaders have to say about her (society's thou shalts). Second she wants to get closer to Squall, and she knows she will have to be a student again to be with him. In this case she is acting out of desire. She eventually learns to stop acting from desire, but near the end of the game I still get the sad sense that she determines her worth by what society says.

Seifer Almasy
Seifer is a blatant metaphor for the Christian religion. The root of his name is Seif, which in Arabic means "Sword of religion." And what sword does Seifer wield? The Cross Sword. Now it's all fine and good to say that, but does Seifer actually represent Christianity? Yes, but to say this, you have to look at who Seifer is related to. He is related to Edea, now not biologically, but in relationship to the story, you know. Seifer represents the confused person, looking for guidance. He is torn between Edea the human, the mother, God in his pure form, being transcendent, and Edea the Sorceress, or "the man who wears the mask of God." He has to choose, is he going to give himself up to life, or follow a program and subdue himself, and follow all the "laws" and "thou shalts." We see Seifer push life away and accept this program that Edea the Sorceress has laid out for him. He's not acting from his center, he has gone over to the "dark side." He has given himself to another, but not because he acted from his center, but out of fear, this is different than Squall. As such, we see the consequences from living a life chosen by an outside influence. Seifer is constantly manipulated as a puppet always doing others work, he thinks the things that he is doing is what he wants to be doing, but they are really someone else's ideas. The more he follows the man who wears the mask of God the less he follows God himself, and ultimately he brings his own defeat. We should feel compassion for Seifer, he is the man that lies in his bed, after living an entire life and realizes that he never did a single thing in his life that he wanted to.

Edea-Ultimicia
Edea the human represents the ever-protecting mother as well as God, with her Garden of Eden orphanage and it's lighthouse as the glowing signal to the guidance of salvation. She has all the children, which she looks after and protects fiercely. Now, I say Edea the human, because Edea the Sorceress stands for something different. To understand this we have to look at Ultimicia. Ultimicia represents man, just think of her intentions! She wants to bring all of time together (compression) so that she can rule it, but at the same time, she could be the only thing that lives. Think of man, does he not want to rule the world? Therefore, he thinks that by some how subduing and controlling nature he can rule the world. The only problem with that, is that life is spontaneous. To control nature is to kill it, so if you control nature to rule the world eventually man is the only thing that can survive. Of course even then man will eventually die, since man is part of the web of life, and whatever he does to others he does to himself. Edea the Sorceress represents man controlling "God," or "the man who wears the Mask of God." Edea the Sorceress is the mask Ultimicia wears to convey her own thoughts, actions, and ideals. Just as many a man has worn the mask of God in attempt to mask his own face so that he could convey his own thoughts, actions, and ideas however distorted or wrong they may be.

And you thought only the Matrix could be deep?:)

Reference, Footnotes:
1. I know, technically he is not alone. But he is reflecting on his own thoughts and speaking to himself, and that's the crux of the matter.

2. Quoted from Stephen R. Covey The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People pgs. 30-31