History Characters / FinalFantasyVI

* SuplexFinisher: An early-game Blitz, though it was retranslated to "Meteor Smash" for the [=GBA=] release. It does a ton of damage, though most bosses are immune to it, with the notable exception of the Phantom Train. The gameplay balance ROM hack [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIBraveNewWorld Brave New World]] removes Suplex immunity, letting Sabin suplex any enemy in the game, including the final bosses and [[{{Superboss}} Kaiser Dragon]].

* WorldsStrongestMan: He easily takes World’s Strongest Man title. While other members of cast such as Terra and Celes are arguably more “magically powerful” than him, Sabin with just his KiManipulation and pure BareFistedMonk physical strength is able to beat the piss out of the likes of Typhon (who is able to flip the Planet upside down with its power), Gilgamesh, Shinryu and in-story clobbered BigBad Kefka so hard in Doma the MonsterClown literally flees from his onslaught. Of course even when Kefka has become a literal PhysicalGod, he still isn’t safe from Sabin’s fists. On a comparatively mundane but memorable level, Sabin unlike rest of the cast can suplex a GhostTrain so hard he destroys it.

* MagicKnight: She and Celes are the only party members to learn magic naturally, her equipment selection is broad and includes swords and heavy armor, the best equipment types in the game, and her stats are all-around high, making her tough ''and'' able to sling spells. Some spinoffs and whatnot actually tend to ''forget'' this aspect, as she's rarely shown wearing armor and sometimes a far greater emphasis is placed on her being a spellcaster.

* TurnsRed: In the boss fight with him, after he takes enough damage, Umaro buffs himself with a Green Cherry (an item that, for the player, cures Silence). [[GameplayAndStorySegregation This effect doesn't happen for him as a player character, sadly.]]

* TokenGoodTeammate: Of the EvilEmpire, he's the only one with a sense of morals.

* GuileHero: Tends to fight more with finesse than brute strength. He had to pull off an MGS in order to escape South Figaro while it was occupied.

* MakingASplash: His initial Lore, Aqua Breath/Aqua Rake, and later Tsunami/Cleansweep, attack enemies with water. The former manifests as an explosion of bubbles, and the latter calls in a tidal wave.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Though Strago is often exasperated with her devil-may-care behavior, Relm is always there when the old man needs a kick to get going in the right direction.

* TheBeastmaster: One relic changes "Sketch" to "Control", letting her directly take command of enemies.

* DespairEventHorizon: After Celes wakes up from a year long coma to realize that the world really was destroyed, she's stranded on a deserted island with Cid, and everyone she knew is probably dead. Then, if you don't manage to save him, Cid's death completely shatters what small shred of hope was left in her, which leads to her attempted suicide.

* PowerGlows: Some {{Fanon}} holds that this is actually the explanation for the BarbieDollAnatomy -- the glow is so bright, it obscures her clothes (thus, she's still clothed and wouldn't be showing ''that'' anatomy). Amano's artwork has it as a case of FurBikini.

* TenMinuteRetirement: All characters experience this to some degree in the World of Ruin, but Terra's is the most prominent.

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: See below.

* MeaningfulName[=/=]PunnyName[=/=]GratuitousGerman:
** Locke '''Cole''' comes from a town called '''Kohl'''ingen, which is roughly equivalent to a town name like "Coalton". His first name may be taken either as a bad {{Pun}} (what is it any self-respecting thief ought to be able to get past?) or a reference to the English philosopher John Locke, who espoused "government by consent of the governed" and the theory of Tabula Rasa -- Locke is embroiled in a struggle against the EvilEmpire and is particularly protective of the amnesiac Terra, due to his backstory. John Locke also wrote extensively about the concept of private property, which adds an ironic twist to the name.

->'''Sabin:''' Oh, for...! Thou art getting to be quite a pain in the-- Great, now I'm even starting to talk like you!

* SuplexFinisher: An early-game Blitz, though it was retranslated to "Meteor Smash" for the [=GBA=] release. It does a ton of damage, though most bosses are immune to it, with the [[MemeticMutation notable exception]] of the Phantom Train. The gameplay balance ROM hack [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIBraveNewWorld Brave New World]] removes Suplex immunity, letting Sabin suplex any enemy in the game, including the final bosses and [[{{Superboss}} Kaiser Dragon]].

* WinkDing: After she got on Setzer's Airship, she flashes one to the player, since it's AllAccordingToPlan.

* TheDrifter: In the World of Balance, sans the Floating Continent, Shadow can leave the party at set points in the story, or after he's earned enough money to earn his hiring fee.

* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: His dialect in localized editions. It was originally YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe in the original SNES translation [[{{Woolseyism}} due to Ted Woolsey being in charge of translation at the time]], but made much more accurate in the ''Advance'' retranslation and every other retranslation onward.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** Due to the [[CharacterNameLimits character limit]]. Even with the ''Advance'' version's larger character limit, his Woolsey-localized name is still kept.
** Incidentally, Kaien (海燕 in kanji) is a real male name that was used during the [[JidaiGeki age of samurai]] (meaning "sea swallow", which ''also'' puns on this character's LimitBreak being the "Tsubame Gaeshi", or Swallow Reversal technique), and is meant to be a kind of antique, old-timey name. While the Japanese ''Final Fantasy VI'' and its reference material consistently renders his name as Cayenne (カイエン in katakana), ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: Stormblood'' includes an NPC named Kaien (カイエン) in direct reference. This has led to some suspicion that, despite the consistency otherwise, the ''VI'' character was intended to be "Kaien" the entire time and the transliteration of the name from katakana somehow got confused with the pepper.

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: He speaks like this in the original SNES version, [[{{Woolseyism}} since Ted Woosley was in charge of translating the dialogue at that time]], but it was then retranslated into ''actual'' FloweryElizabethanEnglish in the GBA version and every other version since then.

* {{Nerf}}: Later ports of the game took away his ability to wear the Merit Award, which is needed for one of the GameBreaker setups involving him.

* OffingTheOffspring: His father, driven mad by grief of losing his wife, threw his own son to the Veldt.

* KarmaHoudini: Setzer's introduction involves a plot by him to [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty kidnap]] and [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe forcibly marry]] opera singer Maria. No one ever calls him on his behavior and he's never punished for it; he just decides Celes is a better prize then Maria, and then he loses his coin toss to her and decides to go with it.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Due to the [[CharacterNameLimits character limit]], the last letter of his Japanese name "Stragus" had to go. Early [[FanTranslation Fan Translations]] had it as "Stragos".

* BadassAdorable: A moogle that can be equipped to be a dragoon.

* PintsizedPowerhouse: He's under five feet but a very useful party member.

* SeriesMascot: Mog regularly pops up to give you tutorials on gameplay and at one point is the character you control to pick which of three scenarios to play through, and in North America he got to be on the game's boxart and in its television commercials. His prominence died down later though, as the rest of the game's cast got more recognition and re-releases of it give no particular prominence to Mog in marketing.

** NotTheIntendedUse: If he uses a sleeping or confused party member as a projectile, they snap back to normal! Best of all, those characters get priority when Umaro moves to toss someone.

* PowerCopying: A variant in that Gogo typically steals the abilities of the other heroes, rather than Gogo's enemies. Anything the other Returners can do, Gogo can do too... just not as well because of Gogo's terrible stats. Gogo also specifically imitates what the other ''active'' party members can do -- if equipping magic from the menu, Gogo can only cast a spell learned by someone else currently in the party. Gogo also has the special ability Mimic, which allows them to repeat the last action one of your party members did, even if the corresponding command isn't set.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Biggs is called Vicks in the Super Nintendo version (as well as Virtual Console and Classic Edition). Contrary to popular belief, this is not due to a mistake by Woolsey, but a simple transliteration error in the original Japanese (as Biggs would be ビッグス and not ビックス). Regardless, every other English re-release changes his name to Biggs to keep the intended reference, but every Japanese re-release keeps the spelling the same despite changing it in other Square games; for example, when the names were reused for minor characters in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the Japanese text corrected it to ビッグス over ビックス but the English text still kept it as Vicks until the DS port.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Officially Banon, but some translations give him "Bannon" instead. It's also been translated as "Vernon" and, even less impressively, "Banan" by some fan translators.

* BadassLongcoat: Wears an awesome green military coat.

* GuestStarPartyMember: The brief scene in Thamasa where he's the only party member is the one and only time he's playable. The awesomeness of this scene led to the UrbanLegendOfZelda in the Trivia tab.

* KilledOffForReal: Despite some UrbanLegendOfZelda rumors, Leo is killed by Kefka in Thamasa, and there's no way to bring him back to life.

* CoolAirship: It might not have a casino on it, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. Cid did note the Blackjack would be a lot faster without the casino weighing it down. [[FridgeBrilliance No wonder the Falcon could always beat it in a race.]]

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Daril, Daryl, Darril, Darryl?

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Is it Siegfried or Ziegfried? In the Super NES version this is a plot point: the weak goofball you effortlessly spank on the Phantom Train is Ziegfried (or sometimes Sigfried), who is impersonating Siegfried, the legendary swordsman who hands you your ass on a platter at the Coliseum. Later releases removed the distinction and they're both "Siegfried".

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: In a sense. He realized just how dangerous Kefka was and tried to stop him from ending the world, and got killed for his efforts. Probably more a case of PragmaticVillainy as described above.

* UnfortunateCharacterDesign: His sprite gives him the appearance of being a dog-headed biped; eventually, even Squaresoft acknowledged the similarity in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' with a Shi Tzu puppy familiar named "Gestahl".

* DualBoss: The final time Ultros is fought before the Floating Continent, he brings Typhon along for the battle.

* TookALevelInBadass: In the third battle with him, after a period of time he'll gain powerful elemental spells and will become much stronger, and can even pull off a TotalPartyKill if you aren't careful.

* FireIceLightning: With Ifrit and Shiva. The dynamic become a plot point when you fight the other two in the Magitek Research Facility. After beating them, they recognized Ramuh's power and decided to help the party, revealing the three of them to be siblings in the process.

* AnIcePerson: Naturally, given he's frozen solid, his attacks are primarily ice-based when the party goes to break him out.

[[folder:Maduin/Madeen]]
See above under "[=NPCs=]"
[[/folder]]

* NotCompletelyUseless: His limited skillset makes him a surprisingly good choice for the Coliseum, where all characters become uncontrollable and can use any of their abilities at random. As Umaro can't use items or learn any magic, he'll always use the same handful of attacking abilities, ensuring he doesn't do anything stupid like cast a spell the enemy is immune to or use a valuable item. He's completely also unaffected by the Fanatics' Tower's restrictions on attacking.

* NotCompletelyUseless: His uncontrollable nature makes him a surprisingly good choice for the Coliseum, and he's completely unaffected by the Fanatics' Tower's restrictions on attacking.

* AntiVillain: Of the "villain in name only" variety. The only reason Leo's an enemy of the Returners is because he works for the Empire. Even then, Leo attempts to minimize casualties on both sides, is AFatherToHisMen, and has a sense of honor and morality. As Sabin notes, "he could be my friend if he weren't my enemy." The few times he works with the party, he's also very polite and courteous, even giving Terra some genuine words of encouragement. When he pulls a HeelFaceTurn against Kefka, it's not much of a shock; Leo didn't have very far to turn.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Well, before the fall of Doma, at any rate - Cyan was one of the kingdom's top military officials, and he was one of the king's retainers. Given his high base strength, he's probably in the running for one of the strongest individuals in the world before magic's return.

* MilitaryMage: General Leo also acts primarily as an officer, leading the siege of Doma Castle but never taking the field himself that we can see. He's [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking more than capable]], however, having a unique multi-target magical Shock attack not equaled by the party until the endgame. Unfortunately, the only time we see him use it is when he's fighting Kefka after the latter gets a massive NextTierPowerup, and Leo comes down with a fatal case of TheWorfEffect.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The Goddess was give more clothing in the American SNES version, as well as every post-2000 re-release in all regions (though not as much as US SNES ver.). The names of the other two may have also been subjected to some, but it's debatable - see "Spell My Name With An S", below.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: With a possible side of [[{{Bowdlerize}} Bowdlerizing]]. While "Goddess" (''megami'', めがみ) has never really been in contention, an entire ''generation'' of fans and translators have struggled to come up with good translations for the other two, who are ''majin'' (魔神) for the blue muscly one and ''kishin'' (鬼神) for the red snake one. Neither term ''really'' has an absolute equivalent in English, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrathful_deities ''kishin'' in particular describes a conceptual entity]] that barely even exists in most western mythology - "War God" is sort of similar, but still not quite right. They're called "Fiend" and "Demon" in the Advance and iOS versions, though a lot of people note "Demon" is still not a very good translation for ''kishin''; the SNES version called them "Doom" and "Poltergeist", probably to avoid religious references (though it's been noted that "poltergeist" is actually not an awful analogy to the "ki" part of ''kishin''... it just isn't divine enough to cover the ''shin'').

* DeathDealer: Setzer can obtain a set of cards called "Trump Cards", which have a small chance of landing a OneHitKill. Not to mention his gambling motif and the fact that his Desperation Move is literally a volley of magical playing cards.

* KidWithTheRemoteControl: The Fake Moustache relic allows her to control monsters.

** While Sketch is mostly useless, a relic can change it into Control, which is an incredibly useful ability that trivializes a lot of usually difficult encounters.

* RunningGag: Her threats to Strago about "painting his picture."

* PowerCopying: A variant in that Gogo typically steals the abilities of the other heroes, rather than Gogo's enemies. Anything the other Returners can do, Gogo can do too... just not as well because of Gogo's terrible stats. Gogo also specifically imitates what the other ''active'' party members can do -- if equipping magic from the menu, Gogo can only cast a spell learned by someone else currently in the party.

A former general of the Empire, Celes is a [[MagicKnight Magitek Knight]] who received her magic infusion as a child, granting her the power to use magic; fortunately by then, the process had been perfected and she didn't lose her mind as Kefka did. Locke meets Celes during his infiltration of the imperial-occupied South Figaro, arrested and imprisoned as a traitor when she became disillusioned with the Empire and spoke against them. Locke frees her and Celes accompanies him and joins the Returners. However, her past as an Imperial causes some of her new allies to question her loyalties, which is not helped by her [[IceQueen frosty and proud demeanor]]. Over the course of the game her relationship with Locke turns from friendship to LoveInterest, causing her to gradually [[DefrostingIceQueen defrosts]] and become a more openly empathic person.\\\

* BonusBoss: Bet a Megalixir in the Coliseum to face him in a proper fight. He's moderately strong on his own, but the DuelBoss nature of the Coliseum combined with the fact you can't control your character bumps him up to end-game difficulty, usually requiring a OneHitKill build to beat him before he does the same.

* BonusBoss: Technically, all of them are optional encounters.

* BonusBoss: A superboss in the game's original release, with end-game HP, loves to spam powerful magic, and drops a very powerful Magicite shard.

* TotalPartyKill: He opens every encounter with Level 5 Death, potentially wiping your group out before their first turn if they're at all at a level multiple of 5.

* ArmCannon: If you look closely at this left hand, you can see he has a gun mounted on his arm. It's represented by his armor-piercing ability Hyperdrive.

The finest officer of the Empire, Leo is respected on all sides as an honorable commander in spite of the atrocities the Empire commits. However, his moral character puts him at odds with Kefka on principle; Kefka cannot ''stand'' him just because he's a good person. When Leo recognises, that Kefka's atrocities went too far, he tries to stop him and is murdered for his effort.

The finest officer of the Empire, Leo is respected on all sides as an honorable commander in spite of the atrocities the Empire commits. However, his moral character puts him at odds with Kefka on principle; Kefka cannot ''stand'' him just because he's a good person. When Leo recognies Kefka's attrocities go too far, he tries to stop him and is murdered for his effort.

* NeutralNoLonger: Shadow's first appearances show him mostly unconcerned with the conflict between the Empire and the Returners, only showing up [[OnlyInItForTheMoney for a paycheck]]. However, [[IWasJustPassingThrough despite his claims to the contrary]], he starts warming to the party's aims, and eventually Kefka and Geshtal's grand plan nearly kills Shadow, which results in him siding with the party (though, as noted under IWorkAlone, that doesn't mean he works ''with'' them immediately).