Line #21 Fridge/FinalFantasyIV


1	Fridge examples for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''.
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4	!! FridgeBrilliance
5	* Cecil has Yoshitaka Amano's trademark appearance...blue lips, pale skin, willowy appearance, frizzy white hair...although some of those traits might actually make sense in this setting rather than just AuthorAppeal for Amano. He's half lunarian - [=FuSoYa=] has pale skin too, and white hair but he is ''old''. Maybe Lunarians ''naturally'' have white hair and pale skin. His brother Golbez does too when you see him in After Years. However, how come Golbez has more of a tan than his brother? Actually...maybe Golbez took more after his mother in that aspect. Or maybe Cecil spent so much time in his armour he's pale...but then [[FridgeLogic wouldn't Golbez be just as pale, too?]]
6	* Golbez seems to recognize Cecil as his brother briefly at the Tower of Zot and walks away, giving our hero the DeusExMachina he needed to survive at the former's mercy, which begs the question why he didn't seem to notice earlier. Previously Cecil was covered from head to toe in the Dark Knight's armor, but the Paladin gear fully exposes his face, meaning Golbez simply didn't have any means of noticing legitimately.
7	* Rubicante is a BloodKnight. His sole desire seems to be to fight against a worthy opponent capable of challenging him, and even seems amused if he's defeated. He is the fiend of fire and like fire, wishes to test himself and burn stronger.
8	* Golbez seems to go down ''far'' too quickly in the Dwarven castle, right? Well, don't forget what happened to Rydia's mom; if a Summoner's creature dies while being summoned, it takes a toll out on the Summoner. What does Rydia do the moment she arrives? Oh yeah, she kills Golbez's summoned Shadow Dragon. No wonder he took its death so poorly!
9	** It's also entirely possible Golbez simply isn't that personally tough. The first time he's fought (in a cutscene), Tellah nearly takes him out with one Meteo. And you never fight him again after the Dwarven castle fight, which implies he's avoiding you because he knows he can no longer take you on in a straight fight.
10	* Fridge Brilliance crossed with {{Woolseyism}}, in the SNES, Golbez and Fusoya cast W. Meteo to kill Zemus. In later releases and subsequent uses of the "W" term, it's clearly Twin/Double Meteor. But then, how did the Super NES version translate the Holy spell? White. And in the three rounds before teaming up, Golbez bombards Zemus with Black Magic while Fusoya uses White Magic. So you could take this to mean that when they Twincast together, they were casting [[YinYangBomb White Meteo]], "Holy Meteor", which was why it is so much stronger and needed both of them to power it.
11	* Rosa's Teleport goes straight to Cecil's room. Considering how her mother speaks to Cecil, this was likely her main means of getting out of the house to go [[DoubleEntendre visit him.]]
12	* Despite it being a borderline meme on the number of times Kain betrays you (which is not actually as much as you might have heard) and the amount of cliche evil tropes (EvilSoundsDeep, dark armour, left-handed, constantly struggles with jealousy of the main character) he lacks any SpikesOfVillainy like Golbez. This becomes obvious when you consider that he's a [[InASingleBound Dragoon]]: spikes would weigh him down with air drag and weaken his jumps, so the only spike he uses is the one that'll end up in a enemy's head.
13	* It makes sense, at least in the non-3D versions of the game, why Golbez was just allowed to steal the crystal with that.. weird arm thing; this is right after a grueling battle where it took Rydia to bail everyone out, and only Cecil and Rydia are standing afterwards. They're in a bad state, and effectively exhausted and crippled from reacting to a near-dead Golbez getting one up on them again. Compare the remake, where they legitimately think Golbez is KilledOffForReal only for him to hastily get back up and steal the crystal rather than risk lingering any longer; both were acts of desperation, and the heroes weren't given much opportunity to react in either case with this theory.
14	* An example added by the SNES localisation: Why is Cecil supposed to sheathe his sword and let his EnemyWithout attack him? It's not to "punish" himself, but to prove to himself that he won't give in, either to anger or his inner darkness. It also symbolises how instead of being just a killer in a new outfit, his goal is to protect, to defend. If he attacks his reflection, he's just giving in to the same weakness that controlled him as a Dark Knight.
15	** It goes deeper than this, and this is something pointed out in ''Website/LegendsOfLocalization'''s analysis of the game's translation. There's an overarching theme that's revealed at the end of the fight:
16	---> '''SNES translation:''' Justice is not the only right in this world. Some day, you will see.
17	---> '''DS translation:''' Justice and retribution are but trifling things. There are victories of greater worth. Someday, you will know them.
18	:: : If "justice" were "the only right in this world" then the central driving characters of the plot (Cecil, Kain, and Golbez) rightfully deserve retribution -- almost certainly death -- for their sins. But the theme that begins here -- the "victory of greater worth" -- is ''mercy and forgiveness''. Cecil forgives Kain numerous times for his betrayals through the rest of the game. And in the end, Cecil forgives Golbez. But before Cecil can forgive others, he first has to forgive ''himself''.
19	* This could also count for FridgeHorror, but consider Golbez's stoic personality in ''The After Years''. The reason he's like that was because he was controlled by Zemus from the age of ten, which means he wasn't able to develop much of his own personality naturally.
20	* You don't fight the Archfiends in the original order you fought them during the BossRush in the Giant of Babil... but you ''do'' fight them in the same order as the Four Fiends in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' there.
21	* [[AllThereInTheManual The Japanese manual]] provides a scientific basis behind the game's spells: Fire is made by accelerating particles in the air until they ignite, Bliizard is made by doing the opposite, Toad and Pig rearrange the target's molecules, etc. It's even stated that use of Black Magic is tied to understanding of natural phenomena, which is why its power is tied to the Intelligence stat. It may seem weird that a setting in MedievalStasis somehow has this advanced knowledge of chemistry and physics, until you remember that the one who taught Earthlings magic was [=KluYa=]. A member of highly-advanced alien species would naturally have a vast scientific knowledge.
22	* Leviathan’s appearance may not be mere randomness. Think about it: Rydia is a Caller, and he takes her under his wing. He then deposits Cecil at the exact place necessary to facilitate his transformation, puts Yang at a place you’re certain to visit, and drops Edward in a place where he can save your bacon. He wasn’t throwing a roadblock - he was putting the pieces in place for your success, all because he gleaned it from Rydia!
23	* It’s implied that Namingway, much like [=KluYa=], also came from the moon. While he may not be a Lunarian, he probably has some powerful magic if he can affect a name change (itself a cumbersome process) instantly and retroactively.
24	* Rydia has an early, very short subplot of being afraid of fire due to what happened at the Summoner's Village. This subplot is very quickly "extinguished" with no effort at all and she's now able to use fire magic. This never comes up again in the narrative, but then much later in the game she meets Edge, the Eblan prince. Eblan and the prince are heavily thematically linked with fire, he has a "fiery" temper and Rydia takes an almost immediate dislike to him, then eventually "warms up" to him. Edge's magical development is also a foil: he only has fire magic when he first joins up, then shortly suddenly gains water and lightning magic. Whereas Rydia gained an element by overcoming her fear, Edge gained his elements by letting his anger run wild.
25	** Possibly coincidental, but Rydia's house at the Summoner village is one of the only fireplaces in the game that does not have a fire in it.
26	* Eblan's inn is one of the most expensive ones in the game (700 gil per night). They're staying in a cave so they probably don't get much customers, no wonder they need to raise the prices.
27	* In the 3D versions, if you check the characters' thoughts at the Lunar Subterrane you'll notice that they are dealing with their own feelings[[labelnote:context]]Cecil finding out that Golbez is his brother, Kain feeling guilty because of his betrayal, Rosa's conflicted feelings towards Kain, Rydia losing her mother, and Edge being terrified of what comes ahead[[/labelnote]], which will become rather harsh at one point. Zemus is trying to worm his way in their minds like he did to Golbez. Unfortunately for him, they all manage to get over their hatred.
28	* Even though the game both invokes and averts AnyoneCanDie for the most part, the party members that perform a HeroicSacrifice are revealed to be alive much later in the game. However, one of them, Tellah, is KilledOffForReal His action wasn't a HeroicSacrifice - it was a SenselessSacrifice (which still helped in the long run) performed because [[RevengeBeforeReason Tellah only wanted to kill Golbez as a way to avenge his daughter]], not for the means of saving everyone else.
29	* The Giant of Bab-il's rampage near the end of the game mirrors Cecil's destruction of Mist with the Bomb Ring near the start. The Giant even resembles a giant version of Cecil's Dark Knight armor. The difference between the two scenes, of course, is that Cecil has completely switched sides and grown more powerful in the interim; where before he was helpless to stop the destruction of Mist (and, in fact, causes it, albeit inadvertently), he now jumps straight into the Giant to stop its terror before it can go any further, symbolizing the conclusion of his CharacterDevelopment.
30	* Meteor is holy-elemental in this game because meteors come from the heavens.
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32	!! FridgeHorror
33	* The Prison Garb Cid and Rosa, after being taken hostage, come equipped with prevents Sleep status. Yikes for Cid, but worse when you realize that Rosa couldn't even pass out while in the guillotine. She had to see death hanging over her, her lover, and her friends for every instant until saved.
34	* If you take the timeline as it appears in the original Japanese of ''The After Years'', Cecil's desire to leave Rosa behind makes much more sense. It's already heavily hinted that the two have been sleeping together since before the game begins (and suggested that they do so after the attack on Mysidia). Combined with Ceodore's age in the sequel, the suggestion isn't that he wants her to StayInTheKitchen; he wants to protect his lover and his unborn child.
35	** He also most likely still feels guilty for what happened to Rydia - possibly also feeling some responsibility for her well-being - and would rather not lead her to an untimely death.
36	* Combined with Fridge TearJerker -- the boss at the end of Cecil's Lunar Trial is Lunar Odin, and his reward for facing the trial is received before the fight. The trial is a series of tests of character to see how virtuous and noble Cecil really is and thus if he's truly worthy of the Paladin's holy light. If you fail the trial completely, the reward at the end is a Dark Sword, Cecil's initial weapon at the start of the game as a Dark Knight. Think about this from Cecil's point of view -- you go through a series of character tests to prove you are a true Paladin, then at the end of the trial you open that chest and find staring back at you the same weapon you renounced as a tool of hatred and evil as the reward the trial-giver has judged appropriate based on your actions. He then transforms into the image of the king that made you train with that dark sword years ago and attacks you.
37	* Imagine what it was like for the people living in Baron Castle if they ever had to go through the throne room's antechamber--past the petrified bodies of two five-year-old children. I'm guessing it got pretty dusty in there until the Elder showed up to restore them.

Context Fridge / FinalFantasyIV