A character sheet for Final Fantasy VI, originally released for the SNES in North America as Final Fantasy III.
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Everyone
Adaptation Dye Job: Most notably Terra, from Amano-artwork blonde to in-game green (and back to blonde everywhere else - Dissidia still gives green in an alternate costume). Other characters had their hair turned into warm grey color (amusingly, Relm's portrait shows her original blonde hair color).
Character Development: This is basically "Character Development: The Game". About the only main characters who don't get some sort of development are Edgar and Sabin (even then, theirs has already happened as part of their backstory). Terra learns to love others; Locke gets over his loved one's death; Celes learns to love Locke; Cyan gets over his Survivor Guilt, and so on.
(they only execute when the Attack command is used, and Gau and Umaro don't have one)
has one super-strong attack they may perform randomly while in critical health.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Kefka believes that life is meaningless because everything you create will eventually be destroyed and eventually you will die. Terra then states that the sum of one's life isn't what important; it's the day-to-day concerns, the personal triumphs, the celebration of life and love, and being able to experience the joy that every day of your life can bring.
Terra and Celes have access to the best equipment in the game. When placed in the back row, both of them become nigh-unkillable.
Gau and Mog have access to the Snow Muffler/Snow Scarf, which bar-none has the highest defense stats in the game. Their helmet and shield can be subpar and they'll still get the max defense stat allowed, at which point most normal attacks do only a single point of damage.
Even without the Snow Muffler, Gau's Magic Pot Rage is this - has a chance to cast Curaga on itself every turn, healing a lot of HP, and is immune to all status ailments and elemental attacks.
Note: while this game has Loads and Loads of Characters in its Ensemble Cast, Terra is considered to be the central protagonist. They're listed in (roughly) the order you get to acquire them.note Note that the in-game character selection screen order is different. Terra, Locke, Cyan, Shadow, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Strago, Relm, Setzer, Gau, Gogo, Umaro. It reflects the characters' order in the game data.
Ace Pilot: Terra has access to more attacks in the Magitek Armor in addition of standard three elemental beams and one healing move. In the Game Boy Advance version her class name is Magitek Elite.
Break the Cutie: Ever since she was a newborn, she had to suffer under enslavement to the Gestahlian Empire. First, she was pretty much raised in a loveless environment. Then, Kefka basically places a mind control device on her against her will, causing her to be forced to fry several Imperial troops alive under his command (50 soldiers, to be precise).
Catch a Falling Star: In the ending, when escaping Kefka's Tower, Terra's magical powers cease to exist, making her fall. The rest of the party uses the Cool Airship to catch her.
Cute Monster Girl: In contrast to her Dissidia designs, her Esper form is pointedly not this — it terrifies people and is emphasized to be feral and monstrous, with Terra unable to fully control herself in her transformed state.
Determinator: As soon as she recovers from whatever emotional trauma she was experiencing (amnesia and the power leak caused by emotional confusion), she becomes like this.
Doomed Hometown: She was born in the alternate realm of the Espers, so it's more like Doomed Homeworld.
Dub Name Change: From Tina to Terra, so it would still sound "exotic" to Western players.
Fantastic Nuke: Storywise, Terra can be considered as one. Gameplay-wise, she is the only one who can learn the Ultima spell simply by leveling up. Of course, by the time she learns it, the entire party will probably know how to do it from using the Ragnarok magicite or the Paladin Shield/Hero's Shield.
Fantastic Racism: Terra's "mixed" lineage, her feelings about it, the historical treatment of espers, and the reaction to her existence all have shades of this.
Flashback Nightmare: When she falls down the cave and is knocked out, she undergoes a terrifying flashback revealing that she was placed under mind control via the Slave Crown by Kefka, forced against her will to burn fifty Imperial Troopers alive, and being present for Emperor Gestahl's war speech.
The Heroine: According to Word Of God, the game wasn't meant to have a main character, as the entire cast was given time to shine. Despite this, Terra is considered the central protagonist. The plot revolves around her for the first half of the game. If you skip recruiting her in the World of Ruin, she still rushes to the final dungeon to take part in the ending sequence. She's effectively become the face of the game due to Dissidia.
Last of Her Kind: Kind of. After killing off Kefka, all of the Espers and magic disappeared from the world due to Kefka's death. The only reason Terra survived this was because she held onto something in the non-magic realm, thus technically making her the last Esper alive, due to being part Esper.
Magic Knight: She and Celes are the only party members to learn magic naturally, her equipment draw includes swords and heavy armor, the best equipment types in the game, and her stats are all-around high.
Mama Bear: Threaten her, enslave her, or try to kill her and she'll shrug it off. But if you have the bright idea to threaten her adopted children and attack her True Companions, well... Ihopeyoulikefire.
Meaningful Name: Her English name is Latin for "Earth." Also, her Japanese name, Tina, was picked for more reasons than simply because it was an exotic name in Japan than in the West: Tina is the shortened version of Christiana, which is the feminine form of "Christian", and is also the name of an early saint who was tormented by her pagan father. Similar to that early saint, Terra was tormented by the Empire when they took her as a child.
Power Glows: Some Fanon holds that this is actually the explanation for the Barbie Doll Anatomy — 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 Fur Bikini.
The Power of Love: In the World of Ruin, Terra stumbles upon a village of orphans whose parents were killed by Kefka and his Light of Judgment. She starts looking after them, the children take to calling her "Mama", and these new feelings confuse Terra. She eventually realizes that it was love all along and that the future of these children is worth fighting for (she finally understood what General Leo meant about love). It's this, and her love for her true companions, that saves her from going *poof* like the rest of the Espers and the world's magic at the end.
Put on a Bus: After the battle in Narshe and her transformation into an Esper, Terra flies away as her powers go out of control. When her friends find her in Zozo, they discover that she still needs some time to get her head together. The Bus Came Back when the other Returners revisit Zozo after rescuing the Espers from Vector. Terra's regained her memories and made peace with who she is, and she rejoins the party.
Reluctant Warrior: Isn't much up to fighting in the World of Ruin during her Character Development. Wasn't all that keen on the idea in the World of Balance, either.
Rule of Symbolism: For the first half of the game, she's seen as The Messiah, the one hope to end the war on the Empire and create peace between humans and Espers; her parents are a mortal woman who conceived her due to G-Rated Sex with an Esper, and she helps fight Kefka knowing it might cost her her life. And if you want to, you could stretch her transformation and subsequent incapacitation at Zozo into a parallel of the crucifixion and resurrection — when she rejoins the party after such, she has significantly stronger powers and more control over them.
Super Mode: Morph/Trance: It doubles her magical and physical damage, doubles her heals, and halves all the magic damage she takes (unless they are barrier-piercing spells). This ability is called the Boss Killer with good reason.
The first is after you clear the Magitek Research Facility and she rejoins your party. She has her Super Mode under control now, and she's also a few levels stronger than when she left.
Later, when she returns in the World of Ruin, not only is she more confident in who she is, but her Morph lasts twice as long.
What Is This Thing You Call Love?: A big issue for Terra. Espers are not naturally emotional creatures, y'see, which leads to her powers being sapped to pretty much nothing while she struggles with learning how to love in the second half of the game.
That, as well as the fact that her brief enslavement to the slave crown also rendered her temporarily incapable of feeling emotions after breaking free of it.
Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: In this case, he'll rip your lungs out if you keep calling him a thief (Ted Woolsey translation only).
Dressing as the Enemy: During his escape from South Figaro, Locke does this by stealing his enemy's clothes... during combat.
Dude, She's Like, A CORPSE!: His fixation on Rachel. Seems more emotional rather than sexual, but still not right. Thankfully, the creepiness is lessened, somewhat, by the fact that he's looking for magic that can restore her to life.
Failure Knight: Played straight with Rachel. He couldn't save her from her accident and he wasn't in Kohlingen when The Empire attacked and killed her. Averted in the ending, when Locke saves Celes.
Kleptomaniac Hero: He isn't fooling anybody with his Treasure Hunter speech.
The Lancer: To Terra. He accompanies her during two fair stretches of the game, and when she's Put on a Bus, Locke effectively takes over as the leader of the group until she comes back, one segment during that time revealing his backstory at last.
Lightning Bruiser: In sharp contrast to the Fragile Speedster nature of most Thieves in the series, Locke's official job is "Adventurer". The difference is he gets greater access to heavy equipment and the top-tier swords for excellent offense and defense, and he keeps the expected high speed.
Love Hurts: Locke can't forgive himself for what happened to Rachel until after the Phoenix revives her and she convinces him otherwise.
Meaningful Name/Punny Name/Gratuitous German: Locke Cole comes from a town called Kohlingen, 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 Evil Empire and is particularly protective of the amnesiac Terra, due to his backstory.
Mugged for Disguise: When Locke is trapped in South Figaro after the Empire takes over, he can steal the clothes from merchants and imperial soldiers to disguise himself as one of them. Somehow, this works flawlessly.
My Greatest Second Chance: As the party escapes Kefka's Tower, Celes drops the bandanna she found on Solitary Island and, as she runs back for it, the floor begins to collapse. Celes begins to hang onto an edge as Locke rushes to save her.
"The young king of Figaro Castle, ally to the Empire, and a master designer of machinery..."
Anchors Away: His Air Anchor tool, which may insta-kill an enemy.
Annoying Arrows: Averted; the auto-crossbow is a very good tool.
As Many X as There Are Y: When Kefka inquires about Terra, Edgar responds, "There are more girls in here than grains of sand out there; I can't possibly keep track of them all!" His castle is in the middle of a desert.
Blade on a Stick: With the Dragoon equipment, spears and pikes become his most powerful weapons later in the game.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: OK, he's incredibly weird, he'll hit on any female of age, and his icon depicts him with a goofy grin, but he created several advanced machines (including a castle that can submerge into the ground and emerge hundreds of miles away) and is a very good ruler.
Chainsaw Good: Edgar can use a chainsaw that sometimes kills the enemy in one hit or deal massive damage.
The Chains of Commanding: After their father's death, Edgar and Sabin were to co-rule. Both wanted out, but at the same time didn't want to plunge the kingdom into chaos their absence would cause. So they settled it with the coin toss. Edgar, being the protective brother he is, rigged the toss with a double-headed coin so it landed in Sabin's favor.
Disc One Nuke: Edgar is easily the strongest member of your team when you get him, thanks to his Auto Crossbow ability which attacks all enemies for more damage than normal attacks will do, so no cost to MP or anything, However, once you get to Zozo and learn magic, its power wanes in comparison to the HP of enemies. Though it should be noted that the only one deal high magical damage at that time is Celes and since you will obtain the Chainsaw(which can deal massive damage that rival spells) from Zozo at that point as well.
Dirty Old Man: Kind of. He's not actually old, but he has some banter with Relm Arrowny (depending on the translation) to this effect. Relm is ten years old and probably young enough to be his daughter.
It's worth noting that his actual dialogue is extremely cynical, as it's delivered just after a huge Player Punch. He more or less is saying that he hopes Relm isn't dead by the time she's of marriageable age, which is a distinct possibility:
"Here's hoping you're still around in eight years, kid."
The Dutiful Son: Edgar willingly stayed behind to rule over Figaro when Sabin became so desperate to strike out on his own. Edgar eventually settled the matter with a rigged coin toss that allowed Sabin to leave with a clear conscience.
Guile Hero: All of his greatest moments involve outwitting someone rather than defeating them through strength. His own twin doesn't always know what he's up to.
Insists On Paying: If you have him at the head of your party while in Figaro Castle, the shopkeepers there will refuse to take any payment. Edgar insists ("Look, don't you have a family to feed?"), and the player gets a nice discount as a compromise.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Appears to be his MO for keeping the empire from getting suspicious about his activities.
Paper-Thin Disguise: As Bandit Chief Gerad, who looks identical to Edgar but with a Palette Swap — How the hell didn't the thieves recognize him? Celes even lampshades this, noting that Edgar was the one who threw most of them in jail in the first place.
Significant Anagram: "Gerad" in the English version; his alias is "Geoff" in the Japanese version.
Small Name, Big Ego: A possible subversion. He's known as a flirt to his subjects (and the children want to marry him), but his banter to Terra and Celes is not reciprocated. If one pays attention, though, he only attempts it once as a kind of greeting and treats them normally from then on.
Something Only They Would Say: When in his "Gerad" disguise, he tries to get rid of Celes while saying "My Lady". Celes responds that only Edgar would address her that way, and after a moment of silence, he declares that "My Lady" is a fairly common way of addressing someone. In the GBA translation, he refers to Celes as a "beautiful lady", saying that it's common courtesy to be polite to ladies.
Static Character: Edgar doesn't change personality-wise as the game goes on. He doesn't need to, seeing as his development was completed before the game began.
Status Buff Dispel: Edgar's Debilitator tool adds an elemental weakness to an enemy. Being completely random, you could easily end up with a fire-spitting dragon that's suddenly weak to fire, and you could reuse it until an enemy was weak to every element.
This Is a Drill: Edgar's toolset includes one massive power drill, complete with safety helmet.
With This Herring: The King of Figaro has joined the party! That means lots of resources, right? Wrong. At least the shops give you a discount.
Somewhat justified in that he spends most of the game on the run, or with his kingdom in shambles.
Also justified in that the shops in his castle are more than willing to give him free stuff. He simply insists on paying, as they have families to feed, too.
Sabin/Macías "Mash" Rene Figaro
マッシュ・レネ・フィガロ Masshu Rene Figaro
"Edgar's twin brother, who traded the throne for his own freedom..."
Action Commands: His Blitz/Deathblow attacks require controller inputs, but you can't use them until you've actually learned them in-game.
The Bear: Sabin refers to himself as a bear during the cutscene on Mt. Kolts. Considering what being a Bear refers to in the real world, this is Hilarious in Hindsight, even if intentional. Depending on the artist, Sabin certainly has more of the body type for it, with Amano tending towards the hairier with Badass Beard and CG art tending towards the smoother and beardless. None of this necessarily means Sabin is actually gay (it's still entirely possible he's not), but that he's a "bear" with a fittingly bearish body type. This, along with the fact that he's one of the only adult male main cast (along with Strago) who is never shown expressing any kind of interest in women, has brought him more Fan Yay by far than any other male character in the game.
Big Little Brother: Played straight. He's the younger of the twins, and is suppose to be a tad taller than Edgar. He's also built like a padded bank vault due to years of training, whereas Edgar has a standard build.
Charles Atlas Superpower: The dude can suplex a train, and manages to hold up a collapsing burning building for several minutes during a sequence later in the game. The former's a bug. The latter is canon and is vital to the story.
I Got Bigger: We're told that as a kid, Sabin was very small and had a weak constitution. After years of training, we see that's no longer the case.
Informed Deformity: After a flashback to Edgar and Sabin as children, the person telling the story comments that at that time Sabin was small — even smaller than Edgar. However, the flashback used the same sprites as the rest of the game, when Sabin is a very large bodybuilder.
Lightning Bruiser: At higher levels, you can make him so powerful as to render his Blitzes useless. He's the strongest and one of the fastest characters in the game.
At a high level, with two high-end weapons and the Genji Glove and Master's Scroll, he becomes a borderline Game Breaker that can take down Kefka in a few turns.
Load-Bearing Hero: Two examples: When he holds up the collapsing house so that Celes can save the child trapped inside, and during the ending, when he saves his brother from some collapsing junk.
Shirtless Scene: Occasionally, in official artwork and CGI animation. He'd be a Walking Shirtless Scene except for the fact that he does often wear a shirt (and his game sprites are always sporting one).
Some Dexterity Required: Sabin's Blitz techniques, while freed from many variables in Fighting Games, still require pulling off Street Fighter-esque input commands. However, the game is much more lenient, and not only can commands be given one button press at a time, but the more difficult ones (even the 360-motion Bum Rush/Phantom Rush) can be performed with easy and simplified button presses.
The Atoner: Joins the Returners partially out of a desire to atone for her crimes as a member of the Imperial army. Her most specific described war atrocity was the burning of Maranda.
Audience Surrogate: Celes assumes this role for the second half of the game, though it gradually gives way as she is rejoined with more of her friends. In the ending, she becomes the viewpoint character again for the most part, and expresses the most concern over Terra's disappearance. She, Edgar, and Setzer are the only characters you must have to finish the game.
Bungled Suicide: If you don't save Cid in the World of Ruin.
Celebrity Resemblance: Celes resembles the opera singer Maria. Because of this, she becomes a drop-in replacement for the original singer, as part of a plan to obtain an airship. Setzer noticed the difference only after bringing her aboard.
The Chick: As far as the storyline goes, not necessarily gameplay... in both the positive and negative aspects. She's the "heart" that pulls the group back together in the World of Ruin. She also spends much of her spotlight in the game pining over Locke. She also doesn't act very much like someone who was once one of the Empire's top three generals, although one of the others didn't turn out to be very stable either.
Concert Climax: She is a Replacement Singer for the opera and the target of Ultros' 4-ton anvil.
Convenient Coma: Celes was in a coma during the first year in the World of Ruin.
Dark Reprise: The Aria that Celes sings during the opera is repeated in her character theme/leitmotif... the night before Terra, Locke, Shadow, Celes, and Leo depart to Thamasa from the Albrook port, when Locke is trying to apologize to Celes for thinking that she was a traitor during the confrontation with Kefka in the Magitek Lab. It plays again when she attempts suicide by jumping off the cliff after Cid dies.
Defector from Decadence: Committed treason when she realized that Kefka planned on poisoning Doma's water supply.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Joins the party with a very cold attitude, and then Locke gradually defrosts her. After the halfway point of the game, Celes becomes much more friendly towards the rest of the party and is altogether more optimistic and hopeful, to the point where she eventually becomes their unifying force.
Despair Event Horizon: 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, the last event that completely destroys any lingering sense of hope is Cid's death, which leads to her attempted suicide.
Driven to Suicide: She survives it, though, and it can be avoided entirely.
Early-Bird Cameo: She appears in the background of one of Terra's flashbacks long before she appears in the main game.
Emergency Impersonation: Celes has to impersonate Maria so you can find a way onto Setzer's airship.
Foil: To Terra. They have nearly identical equipment save for one armor piece and their exclusive weapons in the GBA version, and their stats are very similar. Their contrasts include outfits, abilities (Runic with Ice and defensive status spells vs Trance with Fire and offensive status spells), and personalities, Terra being innocent, naive, and idealistic while Celes is proud, snarky, and sometimes downright cynical. As she takes over as the viewpoint character in the World of Ruin, some fans consider her a deuteragonist. It's also a rumor that Terra's hair was changed to green in-game to contrast Celes.
Heel Face Turn: Before the game begins, Celes burns Maranda to the ground; she's the reason that everyone is rebuilding the town when you visit. After Locke rescues her in Figaro, Celes joins the Returners.
Lonely at the Top: Her character description in the GBA retranslation screams this when it says, "None have ever truly known the woman beneath the general's guise..."
Love Hurts: If you let Cid die, Celes tries to kill herself. Before she throws herself off a cliff, she thinks about how everyone is gone; she specifically mentions Locke.
Magic Knight: Aside from a very small handful of exclusive items, Celes's equipment and stats are mirror images of Terra's.
Memento MacGuffin: Finding Locke's bandana tied around a seagull is what gives her the hope to get off of the solitary island and start searching for her friends after her failed attempted suicide, if Cid dies. It appears again in the ending.
The Mole: Subverted: Although Kefka implies that she was a double agent to the Returners, she actually did defect to the Returners, proving her loyalty by teleporting Kefka away before he could attack.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Celes may have had the noble intention of trying to prove her loyalty to the Returners even when Gestahl and Kefka told her to kill them to redeem herself for her betraying the Empire, but stabbing Kefka was a very bad move, as that was what ended up giving him the opportunity to backstab Gestahl, and misalign the Warring Triad to destroy the world. Either that, or she should have decapitated him.
No Pronunciation Guide: One of the most famous examples from the SNES era. The closest pronunciation to the original Japanese would be "sel-EES", but stressing the first syllable ("CELL-iss") is also common within the fandom. As for her last name, it's pronounced similar to "share".
The Power of Love: If Cid dies, Celes will see a pigeon on the beach with a blue bandanna wrapped around its wound. Celes recognizes it as Locke's bandanna and knows that he must be alive. Knowing that Locke is out there somewhere is enough motivation for Celes to leave Solitary Island and find her friends.
Tykebomb: The Empire infused Celes with magic at a young age, much like was done to Kefka, except it didn't cause mental instability in Celes since by that time the process had been refined. Kids have better mental rebound as well.
Useless Useful Ability: Runic absorbs magic cast by enemies and party members alike, and by the time the enemies you face use magic enough to warrant its use, you're relying on magic heavily too. However, stick Celes in a party of characters who don't need magic to deal heavy damage, add in say, Mog or Strago so they can use healing attacks with their special skills, and Runic will render a lot of enemies impotent.
Visible Silence: Her attitude towards Locke after the events in the Magitek Labs.
Blood Knight: When you defeat him in the Colosseum, your party asks him what he's doing there, and he explains that fighting is the only thing he knows how to do. He eventually agrees to join the Returners, mostly so he can put his skills up to the ultimate challenge. The reason for this isn't revealed until much later, and then only to the player.
Counter Attack: Interceptor will occasionally block and counter attacks from enemies.
Dark and Troubled Past: He was formerly a train robber, but he ended up chickening out of giving Baram a mercy kill, and it is hinted that his assassin/mercenary role was his way of running from his guilt for failing to do so.
Dark Is Not Evil: He wears all black, and is hinted to kill for money, but overall, he's not half-bad.
Death Seeker: It's the only way for him to atone for the spoiler mentioned in Mercy Kill below.
Disappeared Dad: When the details of Shadow's five dreams and Relm's one dream are combined, it becomes certain that he is Relm's missing father.
Driven to Suicide: It's implied in the ending that he deliberately stayed behind when Kefka's Tower was collapsing on top of him as a means to atone for failing to grant his partner-in-crime his mercy kill.
The Drifter: 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.
Flashback Nightmare: Shadow is haunted by his inability to put his friend, Baram, out of his misery.
Game-Breaking Bug: "Interceptor" is considered a permanent status effect for Shadow, and unfortunately, this makes it vulnerable to the infamous Rippler glitch. If an enemy snatches up Shadow's status and is then killed, kiss his beloved pooch good-bye outside of story sequences.
Guest Star Party Member: He'll join your party at a few points throughout the first half of the game, but will decide to leave either through random chance after an enemy encounter or at designated points in the plot. (He signs up permanently later on though.)
I Cannot Self-Terminate: Was asked by his friend, Baram, to kill him, since he couldn't do it himself because of his mortal wounds. Clyde, as Shadow was known then, couldn't do it and ran away.
Interface Spoiler: The Memento Ring, which is described as using the love of Relm's mother to protect from One-Hit Kill attacks, can only be equipped by Relm... and Shadow.
Ironic Echo: More evident in the GBA translation, in which Edgar claims that Shadow would kill his best friend for the right price. As mentioned above, however, he couldn't.
I Work Alone: After the Fire incident in Thamasa, Shadow tells the rest of the party that he will look for the espers by his own way.
Lost Forever: In conjunction with the previous trope.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Not outright stated (at least until possibly a 1995 interview with Squaresoft), but his dreams heavily imply that he is Relm's father.
Mercy Kill: Shadow, back when he was Clyde the train robber, chickened out of mercy killing a wounded comrade. He never forgives himself for it.
Morality Pet: Shadow's devotion to his dog Interceptor is one of the chief things that humanizes him.
Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Clyde. Shadow was originally the name for him and his partner as a group. By taking the name Shadow, he's making sure he doesn't forget his past.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Implied by several of his flashbacks and his overall personality.
Shoo the Dog: He stays behind in the collapsing tower at the end, but doesn't want to drag Interceptor into it.
The Stoic: Shadow hardly says anything during the game and very rarely, if ever, shows any emotion.
Shadow: "There are people in this world who have chosen to kill their own emotions. Remember that."
Temporary Scrappy: He's an obligatory party member on the Floating Continent, which features the most powerful monsters in the game up to that point. However, he's never been a part of the party since Zozo, so he hasn't had time to learn magic. Unless you go out of your way to teach him some before going to Thamasa during the very short sequence he joins up prior, he's going to have no magic, and if you didn't know he was going to reappear, you probably don't have equipment for him to wear either.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: While his Throw command is (probably) supposed to be used with just shuriken and scrolls, he can throw any weapon, including daggers, swords, spears, dice, brass knuckles, and magic staffs.
"Faithful retainer to his family's liege, with the courage and strength of a hundred men..."
Awesome, but Impractical: Cyan's Bushido abilites may seem impressive, but it takes so long for the gauge to fill up that it isn't really worth it; by the time the Sword Tech gauge fills up, your other three characters will likely have been standing around for a good 3-4 seconds when they could have been told to do something else.
Covert Pervert: If you look in Cyan's secret box at Mt. Zozo when Cyan isn't in the party, you can find several books, among them Machinery for Dunces, A Pictorial Guide to Machines, Everything about Machines, Machines for the Mechinically Disinclined, and Bushido in the Bedroom.
Crutch Character: Borderline Example - his later Sword Techs/Bushido requires very long waiting, leaving the party at enemy's mercy. This can be avoided by making Cyan go last, and by the time other party members finished their attacks, Cyan is ready to kick ass, and since VI is the starting point in a series when attacks have noticeably longer animations... You still have to delay your whole team in order to make him go last, though, and you'll still usually be slowing your team down if you go after the high-level Bushidos. That said, if you put him in the same party as Gau, Mog, or Umaro, they can still attack while Cyan is charging. In addition, Cyan's level 1 Bushido attack, which can be activated as soon as you select it, is quite powerful, capable of piercing defense, and can get you through a lot of early battles on its own.
Cultured Warrior: He's very skilled at making hand-crafted silk flowers, and he's also a talented poet.
Dead Person Impersonation: Writes letters and sends flowers to the girlfriend of the dead soldier he met in Mobliz to make her happy.
Doomed Hometown: He's one of the few survivors after Kefka poisons Doma's water supply.
Failure Knight: He is one of only two known survivors of Doma Castle. Even his wife and child die when Kefka poisons the river (the other on-screen survivor is an unnamed soldier who together with Cyan is searching the castle for more survivors. He is never seen or mentioned again after Cyan discovers his dead family and goes berserk).
Flowery Elizabethan English: His dialect in localized editions. It was originally rather incorrect in the original SNES translation, but made much more correct in the Advance translation.
It's All My Fault: He blames himself for not stopping Kefka from poisoning the river, even though there's no way he could have known the bastard was going to do it. Wrexsoul and the Dream Stooges cheerfully exploit his guilt.
Japanese Honorifics: He speaks using lingo reserved for samurai, including heavy use of "de gozaru", in the original script.
Lantern Jaw of Justice: Not as exaggerated as other examples of this trope, but there it is.
Mighty Glacier: Cyan is one of the slowest characters in the game. His Bushido is one of the slowest attacks in the game. Cyan can take a lot of damage. His Bushido can do a lot of damage.
No Pronunciation Guide: Many pronounce it See-anne or Sai-anne, but it's pronounced Kai-en.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The death of his wife and son, not to mention his entire kingdom, sends him into one, as he charges toward the Imperial camp.
Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Cyan's dialogue, originally written in what is sometimes called the "samurai dialect" of Japanese, extensively uses "thee" and "thou" even where grammatically inappropriate. Other characters make fun of him for it. This was fixed in the retranslation, and his early modern English is much more grammatically correct.
Gau
ガウ Gau
"Draped in monster hides, eyes shining with intelligence, a youth surviving against all odds..."
Badass Adorable: Being able to survive in a fierce wilderness and kick the ass of monsters bigger than you since you were barely old enough to walk should qualify anyone as this.
The Berserker: When Rage is initiated, although unlike the Berserker status in the series, he has a 50-50 chance of either physically attacking, or using the special move related to the specific "Rage" he's using.
Death by Childbirth: The reason his father went mad and abandoned him on the Veldt.
Disc One Nuke: Several of Gau's Rages use abilities for free that are ordinarily not available until later. For example, using Rhinox/Destroyer allows you to use Reraise, for no MP cost, in the World of Balance.
Does Not Like Shoes: To tell the truth, he doesn't like civilized clothing in general, as he finds it cumbersome and uncomfortable. Hence why his best "armor" is the Snow Scarf.
Fairy Battle: This is how Sabin and Cyan recruit him.
Innocent Fanservice Boy: Some Amano concept art showed him naked (but not showing parts). This would have been entirely logical for a Wild Child in Real Life. The in-game graphics and the more well-known art show Gau wearing his more familiar animal skin clothes.
Lethal Joke Character: He's completely uncontrollable and all of the Rages he actually starts with suck, which makes many players dislike him. If you train and equip him correctly, though, he can be extremely effective.
Lightning Bruiser: Perhaps to make up for his uncontrollable nature and inability to equip weapons, Gau has all-around great stats.
Verbal Tic Name: Gau is actually a Japanese onomatopoeia for roaring.
“Well Done Son” Guy: Zigzagged. The Crazy Old Man doesn't have a son, but says that Gau is good enough to make whoever his father is proud. When he recalls that crazy reoccurring nightmare of abandoning a demon-child on the Vedlt, Sabin wants to deck him. Gau stops him and says that he's happy his father is still alive.
Wild Child: Deconstructed, as the game actually looks into the rather terrible circumstances that would produce one.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: This can be very much averted by you, the player, if you use certain methods to rig the Slots in your favor, or at least cancel out the times they're rigged against you.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: His face is covered in scars from many gamble seasons went wrong.
Heroic Albino: There's still some debate over whether his character is actually albino, or just has really, really light blond hair.
Heroic BSOD: In World of Ruin, he seemed like had lost hope after 'losing his wings'. Only after Celes gave him an ear of "World of Cardboard" Speech did he finally unearth the Falcon.
Improbable Piloting Skills: This man caught a falling person with the bow of his airship. A zeppelin-shaped airship.
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Setzer's Slot command can pull this off in two ways. One is to get 7-7-Bar on the machine, which kills the entire party. The other is getting three bars to trigger a random Esper summon. If the game randomly decides to summon Crusader when your party is still weak, you'll be wiped out.
Summon Magic: Two of his Slots results. Three bars brings up a random Esper, while three silver dragons will always summon Bahamut.
Take My Hand: Does this to Terra when the Apocalypse ripped the Blackjack into two before both of them falling, making this gesture somewhat pointless and to Celes in the massive ending scene if you didn't re-recruit Locke in the game's second half.
Strago/Stragus Magus
ストラゴス・マゴス Sutoragosu Magosu
"An elderly gentleman, pure of heart, and learned in the ways of monsters..."
Can't Catch Up: By the time you recruit him, the World of Balance is almost done, and you get him for an hour or two before you move on to the Floating Continent. As a result, you'll have a hard time teaching him even the most basic spells, and in the World of Ruin, he'll be lagging behind everyone else still learning them while they've moved on to the World of Ruin Espers and their end-game magic.
Elite Tweak: Having problems learning some Lores? Use other's characters' abilities to make the process easier; Gau and Relm can use many Lores, and even Setzer can use one if you're very lucky with (or rigged) his Slots.
Face Heel Turn: He joins the Cult of Kefka in despair, believing Relm was killed in the World of Ruin. He snaps out of it once he sees she's alive.
Glass Cannon: If you equip him right, he can do a lot of damage, but as you might expect he can't take a whole lot of punishment.
Heroic BSOD / Despair Event Horizon: It is strongly implied that the reason he joined the Cult of Kefka was because he felt he had nothing left due to believing that Relm had died. Thankfully, when Relm reveals her survival, he quits the cult.
Mega Manning: As a Blue Mage, he learns Lore skills by watching someone else use them. As mentioned in Elite Tweak, this includes player characters, meaning that he can Mega Man someone else's Mega Manning.
Witch Species: Strago is a descendant of the Mage Warriors from the War of the Magi and as such can use magic naturally.
Relm Arrowny
リルム・アローニィ Rirumu Arōnī
"In her pictures she captures everything: forests, water, light, the very essence of life..."
Art Attacker: Relm has the Sketch ability which lets her use the target monster's special abilities.
Art Imitates Life: Her Sketch ability — she will draw the copy of the enemy to attack other enemies. She also frequently threatens to do the same to Strago if she doesn't get her way.
Little MissBadass Adorable: She's a cute little girl who can paint a portrait of you that kicks your ass.
Flashback Nightmare: If Shadow dies on the Floating Continent, you will not find Shadow in the Cave on the Veldt, but instead Relm, who will have a dream of her own that ties in to Shadow's five Flashback Nightmare scenes, finally firmly establishing Clyde as her Disappeared Dad. But without Save Scumming (just before choosing whether to let Shadow live or die on the Floating Continent), Shadow's fifth dream and Relm's dream cannot both be viewed within the same playthrough of the game.
Glass Cannon: Like her grandfather, Relm is a powerful magic-user. However, whereas Strago was so old he had a hard time taking blows, Relm is so young she has a hard time taking blows.
Lethal Joke Character: Relm doesn't have very good Strength or weapon options, and Sketch is mostly useless. But she has the highest base Magic stat in the party (even though she doesn't initially know any spells), and her equipment spread also provides her with a lot of magic-boosting options. So with a bit of training and Esper use, she can become very useful.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Shadow can equip Relm's memento of her late mother... and she actually gets along with Interceptor... It was confirmed in a 1995 interview with Squaresoft, as well as in the GBA remake for Final Fantasy VI.
Parental Abandonment: Relm's mother is said to be dead in the inventory description of her Orphan's Plot Trinket; her father, on the other hand, is never directly mentioned. Indirectly, there's a million and one hints that he's Shadow. The developers confirmed this in an interview. There was going to be a scene between Strago and Shadow confirming his relationship to Relm, but it was dropped.
The Pen Is Mightier: Statistically not, but what she draws with it is possibly mightier depending on the subject.
Useless Useful Spell: The Sketch algorithm falls into this for two reasons: First, it has the monster's stats, rather than Relm's. Secondly, any elemental or status attack will be likely nullified or even absorbed (there is one exception).
There's one very specific instance in which Sketch is useful. If used on the Wirey Dragons, tough, hard hitting monsters with good defense and no weaknesses to exploit, it casts Cyclonic and burns 90% of their health.
Blade on a Stick: Mog primarily uses pikes, but his other Moogle companions use claws, swords, boomerangs, chakrams, etc.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Mog is your guide during an early part of the game where the main characters are separated into three groups, and he explains that you must pick a group in order to progress the story.
Chekhov's Moogle: He's one of the Moogles who help Locke protect an unconscious Terra from the Imperial soldiers trying to capture her near the beginning of the game.
Cute Bruiser: With proper Esper stat training and the right equipment, Mog can slaughter enemies.
Flat Character: Has only a few lines of dialogue in the whole game, none of which indicate much of a personality, is the only non-secret party memeber without a World of Ruin sidequest, and to top it all off, he doesn't even have a unique sprite, looking just like every other Moogle in the game.
Friend or Idol Decision: Between Mog and Lone Wolf. Choose Mog and you get yourself an Optional Party Member. Choose Lone Wolf and you will get a Gold Hairpin which halves MP cost.
Geo Effects: How he learns his dances. Also used in said dances.
Killer Rabbit: In the World of Balance, Mog's Dances are wicked strong. In the World of Ruin, Mog makes for a great Dragoon Knight.
Lost Forever: The Water Harmony Dance can only be learned in the World of Balance via the Serpent Trench or the Lete River in the original game. The GBA version adds one last chance to get it if you acquire him in the World of Ruin and take him into the optional boss battle with Leviathan, but if you don't, it's Lost Forever for good.
Optional Party Member: Aside from a brief appearance at the beginning of the game, Mog won't join your party during the main storyline of the World of Balance; you have to go slightly out of your way and complete a side quest in order to recruit him. (See Friend or Idol Decision, above.)
Carry a Big Stick: Umaro's favorite weapon is a huge club carved from behemoth bone.
Cursed with Awesome: Sometimes Umaro's uncontrollable nature is a blessing in disguise. He completely ignores the restrictions on attacking in the Fanatics' Tower, he can still attack while Cyan is charging his Bushidos, and he'll never do anything stupid in the Coliseum.
Dumb Muscle: Umaro's muscles are as thick and hard as the mountain stone. So is his head.
Fastball Special: When Umaro has the Rage Ring equipped. Guess who plays the role of the fastball... Sometimes he'll even throw himself.*
Yeah, you could rationalize it as him charging the enemy, but where's the fun in that?
Hulkspeak: He only has a couple lines of dialogue, but he speaks worse than Gau!
An Ice Person: If Umaro has the Blizzard Orb equipped, he will sometimes attack the enemies with an ice storm.
Lightning Bruiser: He's one of the physically strongest characters in the entire series, and he's surprisingly fast to boot.
Not Completely Useless: 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.
Younger than He Looks: Word Of God is that Umaro is four years old. Though it was actually four years since Mog had him start counting, so this is likely not accurate.
Gogo
ゴゴ Gogo
"Shrouded in odd clothing, ...is this a man...? ...a woman...? ...or should we ask...?"
Irony: He and fellow secret character Umaro are polar opposites — Gogo can do everything but not well, while Umaro does one thing and does it very well.
Master of None: Gogo can learn just about every skill that's normally accessible to your characters. Unfortunately, Gogo'll never do any of them as good as the originals.
Mega Manning: 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.
Powers as Programs: Gogo can equip almost any other character's special ability (except Terra's Trance and Shadow's Throw if he died)), and does need to equip appropriately to use some of them, though. This includes equipping appropriate relics to use altered abilities, like Mug or Gil Rain.
Supporting Leader: He's the leader of the Returners and thus the driving force in the war on the Empire, but aside from the trip with him to Narshe, he's working in the background while the player pursues various leads on how to gain an edge in the struggle.
We Cannot Go On Without You: If Banon falls in battle, it's a Game Over. Very irritating for many players who probably shouted "Why can't I use a Phoenix Down on him!?"
What Happened to the Mouse?: Vanishes from the game once you reach the World of Ruin and is never mentioned again. Though if you think about where he was last seen (in Vector), he may likely be dead.Word Of God states you're supposed to use your imagination.
General Leo Cristophe
レオ・クリストフ Reo Kurisutofu
An elite soldier in the Vector Imperial Army.
Badass Normal: He refuses a magic infusion and thus has no magical powers at all. In the five minutes you control him, he proves that he doesn't need them, he's still far stronger than your normal party members.
Nice to the Waiter: How do we know from his first appearance that General Leo is an Anti-Villain? He tells an Imperial he's not going to attack Doma again because it'll cause too many casualties on both sides, and doesn't want his men throwing their lives away. That, and he actually speaks to Kefka like a person, as opposed to the heroes and other Imperials who speak about him like the Monster Clown he really is.
A spectre encountered aboard the Phantom Train; for some reason, he wants to come with the party, but bows out before they get to the front of the train.
Ambiguous Gender: The Super NES release referred to the Ghost as an "it", but the Advance remake uses male terminology.
Taking You with Me: But it also kills the Ghost and removes him from the party.
Loophole Abuse: Since you can only use the Ghost during a time when you don't fight any bosses, they didn't bother giving the bosses in the main game resistance to Possess, so even enemies immune to instant death will perish.
Biggs and Wedge
Two soldiers sent with Terra to attack Narshe, they're promptly destroyed when Valigarmanda stirs.
Plotline Death: If Celes doesn't feed him fast-swimming fish, or just takes too long to feed him at all. Dissidia: Final Fantasy actually implies that his death is canon.
Promotion to Parent: On Solitary Island, Celes says that Cid is her "granddad" and she his granddaughter.
Unfazed Everyman: Arvis is the Returner to go to in Narshe, and tags along with Banon when the Returners travel to Vector for peace negotiations with the Empire. Arvis is resourceful, but he isn't a combatant.
What Happened to the Mouse?: This trope applies to Arvis in exactly the same way it applies to Banon. See Banon's entry.
Duncan Harcourt
ダンカン・ハーコート Dankan Hākōto
A martial arts master living near Figaro, he's Sabin and Vargas's mentor.
Badass Armfold: Takes it to an art form, striking this pose almost every other animation.
Faking the Dead: Though it's unknown why he never appears in person until the World of Ruin, or how he survived his encounter with Vargas when everyone (including Vargas) thought he didn't.
Guide Dang It: In the World of Ruin, not only is his home in a completely different location relative to the rest of the world, but it's not even marked on the map, appearing as a formation of trees.
Bonus Boss: Bet a Megalixir in the Coliseum to face him in a proper fight. He's moderately strong on his own, but the Duel Boss nature of the Coliseum combined with the fact you can't control your character bumps him up to end-game difficulty, usually requiring a One-Hit Kill build to beat him before he does the same.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Who is this guy? What does he want? Is he a friend or an enemy? How does he know Ultros? It doesn't help that apparently there's an impostor Siegfried running around, so each time you encounter him, who knows if it's the real thing or not.
What Happened to the Mouse?: In the World of Ruin, you find him trailing Gerad and the thieves into Figaro Castle. Once you get through the cave, though, he vanishes, and it's never revealed what he was doing there.
Zero-Effort Boss: The fight against him on the Phantom Train is a complete joke. If you're using the Black Belt accessory, he will probably die during his (really weak) initial attack flurry; even if he doesn't, he'll die in one hit to nearly anything. But it's later indicated that the one on the Phantom Train is an impostor.
Maduin and Madeline
マディン と マドリーヌ Madin to Madorīnu
Terra's parents, Maduin was the guardian of the gateway to the Esper World. Somehow Madeline found her way there, and the two fell in love and had a child to see if their two races could truly co-exist.
Dub Name Change/Meaningful Name: In fitting with Terra being The Messiah, in the Super NES translation Madeline was called "Madonna", as in the virgin mother. Suddenly the G-Rated Sex takes on a new meaning, doesn't it?
The main antagonist of the game who arguably steals the show, to the point that he's the only character in the game who has his own Wikipedia page.
0% Approval Rating: All of the Imperial soldiers (or at least the ones in General Leo's camp near Doma) often complained about Kefka, with at least one soldier threatening to quit the military if Kefka was ever allowed to become general in Leo's stead. And for good reason: He had fifty of their finest soldiers burned to a crisp via a mind-controlled Terra, and when poisoning Doma, he is also fully aware that any Imperial captives being held at Doma would die of the poison and does it anyways, stating that it's their fault they got captured in the first place.
A God Am I: Notably the first (though hardly the last) Final Fantasy villain to seek out godhood, and one of the few to achieve it when he absorbs the power of the Warring Triad.
Mad God: He seems a bit less insane than before when you confront him at the end of the game, but he's still way off the deep end.
Apocalypse How: Causes Class 1, and it is hinted that a year later that it's gotten up to Class 4 and is on the verge of Class 5, with animals dying out and humans struggling to survive. Then the party ticks him off and he decides to go for Class X, if not a Class Z, going by his statement of "I'm going to destroy everything! I'll create my own Empire of Death/I'll create a monument to non-existence!"
Kefka: "Life... dreams... hope... Where'd they come from? And where are they headed? These things... I am going to destroy!" (hysterical insane laughter)
Alternatively:
Kefka: "Life... dreams... hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go...? Such meaningless things... I'll destroy them all!" (hysterical insane laughter)
There's also his line when charging Goner/Forsaken:
The Bad Guy Wins: He actually manages to destroy the world and become a god, and he reigned over the ashes of the planet for a year with his new power. The second half of the game is After the End as the Returners attempt to set things right.
Blond Guys Are Evil: Sort of. Several of the main characters/NPCs have blonde hair (at least in the Amano artwork), just as Kefka does.
Bright Is Not Good: Kefka wears an outfit with many vivid colors and different patterns on it.
Dragon-in-Chief: Even before he overthrows Gestahl, Kefka's the one who actually confronts the party most of the time, while Gestahl is more of a distant Evil Overlord.
Dragon with an Agenda: Gestahl wanted to rule the world. Kefka had a different idea.
The Starscream: Careful reading of Kefka's lines during the game reveals that he has a major problem with being a servant, and by the time of Thamasa, he's not even hiding that he's taking power for himself instead of Gestahl.
Starter Villain: Serves this role before becoming a Dragon Ascendant. Kefka is the face of the Empire for the first quarter of the game or so, and the battle with him at Narshe is effectively the climax of that portion of the game. Afterwards, Terra transforms, the party heads to Zozo, and attentions turn to the Empire and the Espers. Kefka is still prominent, but he doesn't take center stage again until the Floating Continent.
Dramatic Irony: Kefka spends a full year causing destruction, but life continued and people still carried on hope for the future. In the end, while Kefka snaps at the party that their lives are meaningless and worthless, his life is the one that has truly become devoid of meaning and worth, because he cast off such things trying to deprive others of them.
Drunk on the Dark Side: If you're not quite sure how strong Kefka is at any given point of the game, don't worry, he'll be happy to show you. Most prominent at Thamasa, where he deals a Curb-Stomp Battle to at least a dozen Espers, demonstrating he can not only kill them en masse with no trouble, but that he's immune to their powers.
Epic Flail: In his earlier boss fights, he has a Morningstar equipped.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Even with their homes burned, mutated monsters roaming the world, friends and loved ones dead, and the world a charred husk, the people of the world, including the party, find the strength to keep living and look for hope for the future. Kefka is at first confused by this, then goes to enraged because it doesn't make sense to him.
Like Terra, Kefka was used as an Imperial experiment and has no friends or family and no real joy in his life. While Terra learned to control her powers and found love, Kefka's powers came at the cost of his sanity and he turned to destruction to give his life meaning.
Like Celes, Kefka is an Imperial general with great magical power. While Celes has held onto her humanity and principles, Kefka's madness stripped away his, if he had any to begin with.
Evil Laugh: Kefka's "Uwee-hee-hee!" — the only vocalized character sound in the entire game, opera sequence and Terra meeting Tritoch/Valigarmanda aside.
Expy: Of The Joker. The English localizers of Dissidia apparently noticed this, seeing how they had Dave Wittenberg voice the character in a very similar manner to Mark Hamill's characterization of The Joker.
Faux Affably Evil: He's a laughing, joking Monster Clown most of the time...at least until he decides to become a stone cold psychopath.
Follow the Leader: Mimicking Mateus' methods of poisoning a kingdom aside, he himself started a trend of villains who desired to become gods in the series.
For the Evulz: A good 90% or so of Kefka's actions throughout the game can only be explained as such.
From Bad to Worse: No matter how bad things are, he will always try to make it worse. Just take his destruction of the world — it wasn't enough for Kefka to murder countless innocents, rip apart the continents, and unleash mutated monsters on the people, he had to spend his time afterwards blasting the ashes of civilization when he got bored.
From Nobody to Nightmare: He starts the game as a court jester lackey of Gestahl, and by the end of the game, rules the world as a god.
Genius Bruiser: Kefka's very strong in magic, and is probably tall given his height in Dissidia, yet he is also a pretty good manipulator as well as implied to be technologically skilled (piloting and maintaining Magitek armors, single-handedly manning two cranes in Vector to prevent the Returners' airship from escaping, and presumably inventing Terra's slave crown).
Genocide Backfire: Poisoning of Doma, which resulted in very angry Cyan. In his case, it wasn't really out of fear or hatred of the Domians as much as feeling it is a good kick to do something like that.
Gone Horribly Wrong: The Empire wanted to create a new breed of super-powered Magic Knights, but with the process not yet perfected, it drove Kefka insane.
Gone Horribly Right: Ultimately, they did succeed in making Kefka a super-powered magic-user capable of destroying their enemies. He just decided to move on to everything else too.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: Has four angelic wings and two demonic wings. However, they seem to be inconsistent on this — in his Anthology render, Kefka has six angelic wings, while in Dissidia, he has two demonic wings, and his four angelic wings are treated more like they're fused together so he has just two large wings instead.
Ignored Epiphany: When the party explains to Kefka that no matter what he does life will go on and people will always find reasons to keep living, he lowers his head, turns around slowly... then spins back around and delivers his famous Shut Up, Kirk! comeback.
The Jester: Kefka's overall appearance is similar to that of a Tyrolean Jester, and similar to the trope, it also led to him not being suspected of being as much of a threat until it was far too late.
Just Between You and Me: Kefka, while maniacally reveling about the power he gained in the Magitek Research Facility, is overheard by the Returners, where he also expresses his intent to revive the Warring Triad. It's subverted because despite being overheard by the heroes, he still succeeds in his plan anyways.
Kick the Dog: To everyone else, such as his poisoning of Doma, his murder of General Leo (and his also casting an illusion of Gestahl "admitting" to Leo that he tricked him into having him collect more Espers and magicite for no reason outside of adding insult to injury), his attempted torchings of Figaro and Thamasa, his having Terra burn fifty soldiers under his employ alive, and finally his destruction of the world and his frequently using the light of judgment on the world.
Knight of Cerebus: To the entire series. The villains of the first five games didn't have very deep characterizations or motivations beyond being Evil Overlords who wanted to take over or destroy the world. Kefka had the same goal of world destruction/domination, but he was clearly having fun causing death and chaos along the way just because he could. And when it came time to execute his plan, he succeeded, making VI one of the few Final Fantasy games where The Bad Guy Wins, and the game picks up After the End in the dead husk of the world that Kefka reigns over, and the party tries to set things right.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Variation. It's strongly implied that he was holding back his power significantly when confronted at the Imperial Camp by Sabin and Shadow, and was running away because he didn't want any distractions from dumping poison into Doma.
Large Ham: He clearly enjoys himself and provides hilarious lines along the way. "Ahem! There's SAND in my boots!"
Laughably Evil: He does horrific, violent, inhumane things, but he just has so much fun through it all it's hard to watch his antics and not be amused.
Leitmotif: Kefka's eponymous theme starts out light and bouncy with string and wind instruments, then descends into a loud flurry of drumbeats and cymbol clashes. Which is a good indication of how Kefka himself goes as the game progresses. It's sampled twice in "Dancing Mad", the final boss theme.
Light Is Not Good: Kefka has a weapon called the Light of Judgment that he uses to destroy towns that oppose him, and in the final battle, he turns into an angelic-looking creature. Also provides the trope image. Heck, even before becoming the God of Magic, he basically resembled a very colorful clown, was blond and blue/green eyed, and wore white makeup, and was also heavily implied to have pyromaniacal tendencies (eg, forcing Terra to torch his own soldiers alive, attempting to burn Figaro Castle, having his troops burn Thamasa, was implied to have caused a lot of fires when misaligning the Warring Triad, not to mention the whole Light of Judgment thing).
His God of Magic form also mixes this with Dark Is Evil, as he possesses a pair of bat wings as well as looking more fierce and demonic overall in his god form.
Load-Bearing Boss: Defeating Kefka not only causes his tower to collapse, but seems to herald the rebirth of the planet's ecosystem and the cessation of magic's existence.
Kefka: Hee-hee! Nothing beats the music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison! Uwee-hee-hee! (dumps poison in Doma's water supply)
Madness Mantra: "I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate you!"
Mad Scientist: Probably, seeing how it was heavily implied that he was the one who invented Terra's Slave Crown.
Meaningful Name: Aside from his first name bearing similarity to Franz Kafka, Kefka's last name, Palazzo, is Italian in origin that means palace, mansion, and/or castle, and also sounds very similar to Basque pailazo, Catalan pallasso, Greek paliatsos, Italian pagliaccio, Portuguese palhaço, Spanish payaso, and Turkish palyaço, which all translate to "clown," and his appearance pretty much makes it clear that the similar names are very fitting.
Mind Over Matter: He was seen levitating two of the Returners with Telekinesis when they confront him at the top of his tower nearing the end of the game. It's unknown how he got them, although it's heavily implied to be when he absorbed the Warring Triad shortly after he moved them out of balance at the end of Act 1.
Minor Injury Overreaction: After Celes stabs Kefka, he starts screaming about blood as well as either shouting insults while lying down at Celes or screaming the aforementioned Madness Mantra, depending on the translation. However, in his case, it may just be more showcasing of his insanity.
Monster Clown: His in-game overworld sprite doesn't look like one (aside from probably the red splotches below the eyes), but he acts like it. In the Amano artwork and the cutscenes added in the PlayStation version, he does look like one. Also, his Fan Nicknameis "The Psycho Clown".
Noblewoman's Laugh: His laugh sound effect, at least in the SNES version, sounds like this.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He, and by extension The Empire, did not know that the best and most efficient way to grow in magical power was to use the remains of dead espers, the magicite, until the heroes acquired some from two espers they had drained through their own inefficient methods. This could explain his leap in power from when fought at Narshe to him single handedly slaughtering the espers in Thamasa.
Nietzsche Wannabe: While he really starts being this only after destroying the world, you still gotta admit that when taking everything else that Kefka was into consideration, this REALLY wasn't something that boded well for the World of Balance... OR the World of Ruin for that matter.
Kefka Palazzo: Why do people insist on creating things that will inevitably be destroyed? Why do people cling to life knowing that they must someday die? Knowing that none of it will have meant anything once they do?
Orcus on His Throne: To his credit, though, he probably doesn't even need to move from his chamber to destroy the party, but where's the fun in that? It's also implied ("I've prepared some suitable entertainment for you!"/"I've been practising my greeting!") that he was waiting for the party to fight their way to him so he could fight them again, and created the monsters in his tower in preparation for their arrival.
Pietŕ Plagiarism: The third tier of the final battle... And when you see Kefka in place of Jesus on the pietŕ, you simply have to face the facts: The world is fucked, and if you want a savior, you'll have to be the savior yourself.
Poison Is Evil: Poisons Doma and uses the Poison and Bio spells in battle.
Psychopathic Manchild: In the Japanese version, Kefka uses the first-person pronoun "bokuchin", which is primarily used by young boys, when joking around or trying to act sweet.
Psycho Prototype: Kefka seems to cover a lot of insanity tropes, doesn't he? He was the first Magitek Knight ever produced, but the experimental process, due to it not being perfected yet, snapped his mind.
Super Prototype: Likewise, Kefka was depicted as being far stronger magic-wise compared to the other Magitek Knight, Celes Chere: For one thing, he has Blizzara, Poison, Drain, and all three of the 1st level Fire, Ice, Lightning spells at Level 18. Celes, at the same level, only has Blizzard, Antidote, Imp, Cure, and Scan. Take note that she was created after Kefka was.
Put Them All Out of My Misery: There's no doubt that Kefka tries to make everyone's lives as empty and meaningless as he thinks they are. However, in keeping with Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds nudges described further down, his declaration of intent to destroy the very emotions of hope and love comes off as him deciding that if he can't feel those emotions, then no one else will.
Pyromaniac: He seems to love setting things on fire, seeing how most of his atrocities involve fire somehow.
Razor Wings: His God form is fond of the physical attack Havoc Wing, his AI script allowing him the potential to use it every single turn, and later in the battle using it twice in a row.
Sanity Slippage: Kefka slides down the hill of sanity rather nicely throughout the game. At the beginning, he seems to be just doing his job, but, well, he tumbles down the slope quickly. One moment of mention is on the Floating Continent where despite all the power he's gained, Celes manages to trick him and actually stab him with a sword and draw his own blood. The moment he completely loses it is just before the last battle, after the heroes have given their self-help book speech.
Shut Up, Kirk!: His famous rebuttal at the end of the game.
Slasher Smile: He's a sprite with No Mouth much of the time, but you just know he's sporting one of these. Dissidia tells us that he definitely is.
Unless you think the segment comes across as dismal and ominous, in which case it might bring your mind to the global despair, desolation and destruction Kefka has caused.
Spell My Name with an S: Lampshaded in the newer translation, which has one guard in Figaro Castle mention a fringe cult that spells his name with "C"s and not "K"s.
Stripperiffic: In his final form, he wears what appears to be a single length of purple cloth wrapped around his loins.
Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: With more emphasis on Temper Tantrum. When the party tells him that all his destruction and chaos has failed to wipe out life and people are rebuilding and still have hope, Kefka snaps and goes on a berserk rampage, deciding that he simply hasn't gone far enough yet.
Team Rocket Wins: Kefka is a laughable threat until he gets some major magical upgrades from the Espers and becomes a killing machine in Thamasa.
Took a Level in Badass: It's jarring to see him go from running away from a lone Sabin (granted, Shadow could be there as well) through an entire camp full of his army and having to run away with his tail between his legs from the collective party, to kicking the party's collective asses twice, then killing the best soldier in the Empire, without using any magic, and a small army of Espers on his own that were able to thrash the Capital City of the Empire. And that's just the start of the madness.
It was strongly implied, however, that he was holding back his overall power when Sabin was fighting him, most likely because he wanted to poison Doma as soon as possible and didn't want any distractions from that goal.
Villain Exit Stage Left: Early in the story, he either runs away, is left in the dust, or is blown away.
Villainous Breakdown: The entire game follows Kefka slowly but surely sliding even deeper into complete madness than he already is. He's actually kinda normal, if still evil and cackling, when you first meet him in Figaro. But by the end of the game...
Villainous Harlequin: If not for Terra's flashback, this would have been the first impression of him.
Villains Never Lie: After the party reaches the part of the Magitek Factory where Espers are being held in captivity, Kefka enters and declares that Celes was a mole. Locke believes him, forcing Celes to perform a non-lethal variant of a Heroic Sacrifice to save Locke.
We Have Reserves: This is Kefka's general approach to warfare. He broke the siege of Doma Castle by poisoning the water supply, killing everyone inside — including women, children, and even some Imperial soldiers that were being kept as prisoners of war.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When you first sneak into Vector, if you can get all the way up to the Cafe where all the Imperial soldiers are hanging out, one man will tell you what he knows of Kefka's backstory. Oddly, just hearing the broad outline and filling in the rest with your imagination is almost scarier than knowing the details.
In addition, it's only at the end of the game that Kefka's nihilism and contempt for life become apparent, possibly because becoming the God of Magic and spending a year burning the burnt husk of a dead world gave him time to reflect on things.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Perhaps one of the darkest interpretations of all, evidence in the original game and Dissidia suggests it isn't so much Kefka not seeing the value of love and hope as it is he actually can't understand them anymore, his mind is just too far gone, and destruction is all he has to bring meaning to his life with everything else stripped away from him.
The Ultimania guide to FFVI suggests that Kefka was once one of the Empire's top generals. After the Magitek infusion damaged his mind, he was forced to step down and reappointed as Gestahl's personal lackey, then made to oversee the perfected Magitek Knights; Terra and Celes. What really drove him over the brink was watching Leo take up his former position and outdo him in every aspect.
When the Returners give their collective World Of Cardboard speech at the end of the game, Kefka looks down and turns away for a moment, seeming distinctly sad. Unfortunately, that's when he really goes off the deep end.
Emperor Gestahl/Ghastra
ガストラ Gasutora
Leader of the Empire with grand ambitions and a batshit-insane Dragon.
Bodyguard Betrayal: Gestahl appears with Kefka thoroughly on his side on the Floating Continent. And then Kefka must show them the meaning of power...
Big Bad: In the World of Balance, though Kefka is established as the Dragon-in-Chief in that portion.
Disc One Final Boss: One of the first bosses to invoke this trope, but the technology of the time (cartridge) made it less opaque. Still, when the player is confronting Gestahl, one can't help but think the game is a little short.
Disney Villain Death: Kind of, he was zapped by the Warring Triad at Kefka's command, and is later kicked off the edge of the Floating Continent by Kefka.
Even Evil Has Standards: He desired to rule the world, but when Kefka decided to demand that the Warring Triad expose their true power, he attempts to stop Kefka, feeling that it was going too far. In addition, when Kefka murders General Leo, he claims that he'll simply report that he disposed of a traitor as an excuse for murdering him, implying that Gestahl would not have approved of Kefka killing General Leo, even though he manipulated the latter, unless there was good reason.
Godzilla Threshold: Eventually tries to use Meltdown on Kefka. Keep in mind Meltdown is one of the most powerful spells in the game and hits the enemy and caster parties for heavy damage. Gestahl was clearly desperate.
Go Karting with Bowser/No, Returners, I Expect You to Dine: After the Espers razed Vector, Gestahl seemingly has a change of heart (or at least realizes that after the Esper attack he has no chance against the Returners), asks for the ceasefire, invites the party to the dinner party, blames everything on Kefka, asks the party to find the espers and negotiate with them to prevent another War of the Magi. The party doesn't fall for it, but they play along since they really need to convince the Espers not to destroy everything. And they leave behind lots of people to uncover the plans.
Karmic Death: It's very fitting that Emperor Gestahl dies at the hands of Kefka after he was responsible for having Kefka infused with magical powers, and had him Promoted To Scape Goat when things started going wrong. Add additional karmic points for the fact that Kefka kills him using the power of the Warring Triad, the very things he has pursued all of this time.
Military Brat: According to the Final Fantasy VI timeline, Gestahl was from a well-off military family. It's also strongly implied that his father was heavily involved in a large coup that resulted in Vector becoming an Empire.
A Nazi by Any Other Name: Let's see... He's an amazingly charismatic dictator attempting to conquer the world, his troops are obliquely compared to Nazi stormtroopers in a reference to a scene from Star Wars, his troops use the "Nazi arm-raise salute", he keeps Espers in a Magitek Research Facility
concentration camp
, and... oh, he wanted to create a "master race" by breeding Celes and Kefka. His characterization is also quite similar to Mussolini and his Facism movement, especially when taking into account the fact that he was essentially trying to resurrect an old empire of Magic.
Pragmatic Villainy: In the SNES version, at least, Emperor Gestahl tries to stop Kefka from doing something that will cause The End of the World as We Know It, because he wants to rule the world, not blow it up. Kefka kills him. In the GBA version, his final words were "The world will now experience true fear..." before being kicked off by Kefka, implying that it was closer to Even Evil Has Standards.
Redemption Equals Death: 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 Pragmatic Villainy as described above.
Three ancient gods that effectively created magic as it is now known, they created the Espers in the crossfire of their feuding but turned themselves to stone when they realized the struggle was destroying the world. They are named Demon, Fiend, and Goddess.
Barrier Gods: Their alignment keeps their own powers in check. Move them out of alignment and the imbalance of power drastically reshapes the known world.
Bowdlerise: Fiend and Demon were renamed to Doom and Poltergeist/Poltrgeist in the SNES and PS Version, and Goddess was give more clothing in the SNES version.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Demon is red, Fiend is primarily blue with gold wings, and Goddess wears blue and bears a gold crest. Dissidia assigns them colors in a roundabout way — the three circles that appear during Kefka's EX Burst are in the same formation as the Triad, and Demon's is red, Fiend's is yellow, and Goddess's is blue.
God Is Evil: Though their backstory reveals they realized the havoc they were causing and stopped, by the time you find them in Kefka's Tower, they're fighting for this side for whatever reason.
Heck, thanks to Kefka absorbing most of their energies, they barely even qualify as gods by that point.
Infinity+1 Sword: Demon drops the Radiant Lance, Fiend drops the Mutsunokami, and Goddess drops the Excalibur. In the original Super NES release, the former two were the strongest weapons of their kind. Excalibur was outclassed by the Ultima Weapon, Ragnarok, and Illumina, but getting the latter two meant passing up the Ragnarok Magicite that taught Ultima.
Lost Forever: Hope those of you aiming for 100% Completion brought Strago to fight Fiend, because he's the only enemy in the entire game who knows the Force Field Lore.
Averted in the Advance port, where you can fight Fiend again... if you feel like dragging Strago through the Soul Shrine.
My God, What Have I Done?: This is the reason why they sealed themselves as statues in the first place.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Concept art reveals they were named Sophia (Goddess), Zurvan (Demon), and Sephiroth (Fiend), but the names are never given in-game.
Signature Move: Tyrfing for Demon, Fiendish Rage and Force Field for Fiend, and Overcast for Goddess. Quasar is not exclusive to Goddess, but it is likely she'll be the first enemy you see using it, since of the only other two with it, one is a normal enemy you're likely to kill before it uses it, and the other is the GBA-exclusive Gilgamesh.
Snake People: Demon's concept art depicts what ended up being his sprite as the torso of a snake body.
Shout Out: The rest of the series contains subtle references to them, such as three statues in Kuja's palace resembling them, and Yunalesca resembling Goddess in her second form.
Stripperiffic: Goddess. She actually got censored in the SNES version.
Eight ancient and powerful dragons sealed in the earth, they were unleashed when Kefka moved the Warring Triad out of alignment. They reappear in the Advance bonus dungeon Dragons' Den with their boss, Kaiser Dragon.
Actually Four Mooks: The reborn Ice Dragon appears as a group of four, but their sprites overlay on top of each other so you can't pick out a specific one to target.
Anti-Magic: The reborn Gold Dragon in Dragons' Den absorbs all magic.
Berserk Button: For some reason, the reborn Skull Dragon has a special hatred of Terra, and will unleash his strongest attack every fourth turn if you happen to have her in your party.
The Berserker: The reborn Earth Dragon eventually enters an Unstoppable Rage and starts attacking you four times every turn.
Bonus Boss: Technically, all of them are optional encounters.
Boss Rush: In the Soul Shrine in the Advance release, their eight reborn incarnations plus Kaiser Dragon are the final opponents.
Bragging Rights Reward: Congratulations, you defeated Kaiser Dragon and won the Diabolos Magicite! Pretty pointless now since all that's left is the Soul Shrine — the spells Diabolos teaches are pretty useless since odds are everyone knows Ultima, and his level up bonus, in terms of pure Min-Maxing, just means party members get a half-dozen or so extra stat points.
Cast From Life Span: The reborn Red Dragon will eventually expire once it puts all its energy into blasting you with the most powerful attacks it can, including Ultima. It's entirely invulnerable until it does, so the party can only endure its onslaught.
Color-Coded Characters: Aside from the black and grey Storm Dragon and green Skull Dragon, the Eight Dragons are colored pretty much just as you'd guess given their elemental typings as listed below. And even with those two the coloring fits.
Dangerously Genre Savvy: They know how players are likely to play and have AI scripts to take advantage of it.
Earth Dragon's earth elemental attacks can be avoided by casting Float. He has an attack to neutralize Float. Meanwhile, he himself is floating and the reborn dragon absorbs earth, so his earth attacks that hit enemies and allies alike don't hurt him.
Blue Dragon's AI script has it scan for party members with status buffs, then it inflicts itself with status ailments and uses Rippler to swap its status ailments and buffs with yours.
The reborn Red Dragon will use Ultima to deal a Total Party Kill, then a final Flare in case you cast ReRaise on anyone.
The Holy Dragon starts off Genre Blind and becomes this in the rematch. The original uses only Holy, and the player is encouraged to use Reflect Rings in the dungeon where you fight it, thus all its attacks will be Reflected and it can't harm you. The reborn Holy Dragon uses Heavenly Wrath (a powerful physical attack), Heartless Angel, and Saintly Beam — namely, it pointedly uses attacks that cannot be Reflected.
Wrong Genre Savvy: The Gold Dragon may absorb all magic, but its weakness is water, and it turns out Flood is one of the few spells that can't be absorbed, not to mention Strago's water-elemental Lores.
Dem Bones: The name "Skull Dragon" should be a clue.
Dummied Out: Kaiser Dragon is actually a reimagining of "CzarDragon", a Bonus Boss found in the coding of the original Super NES release but never implemented in the game. Various text in the Super NES release also alludes that a rematch with the Eight Dragons was also planned and would have used the gimmicks of their reborn selves.
All Your Powers Combined: Kaiser Dragon. He actually has several patterns of attacks he cycles through — a Non-Elemental one, one each for the other eight elements listed, and then his final stage where he uses attacks of various elements.
Infinity+1 Sword: They all guard powerful weapons in the original game, though usually not the strongest of their types. Their reborn incarnations, however, do drop the strongest weapons.
No Cure for Evil: Averted hard with the reborn Holy Dragon, it has Auto-Regen and a 66% chance to counter any attack by casting Curaga on itself.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Holy Dragon is originally the weakest of the Eight Dragons. The reborn Holy Dragon is one of the strongest, and in particular has learned Heartless Angel as a counter-attack. Factor in that it uses Saintly Beam, which cannot be Reflected or absorbed by Runic, and the fact that there is exactly one equipment piece to absorb or nullify Holy attacks, and you're looking at a Total Party Kill if you aren't careful.
Our Dragons Are Different: Red and Holy Dragon are the only ones to be a Palette Swap of another one of the Eight Dragons; the other six use their own sprites among the group, and thus their appearances vary wildly.
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Gold, Earth, and Ice Dragon are palette swaps of dinosaur-type enemies.
Power Up Letdown: The reborn Blue Dragon is pretty much the same as the original, just higher stats. Its "gimmick" is just that it inflicts more status ailments on itself when using Rippler as described above, but it still only does that if you use your own status buffs.
If you brought along Celes to fight Red Dragon, she can use Runic to absorb all of its spells.
Signature Move: They all get one in the Dragons' Den, aside from Earth Dragon and Storm Dragon, who had theirs originally.
Red Dragon: Red Fang and Eraser
Blue Dragon: Blue Fang
Ice Dragon: Freeze
Holy Dragon: Heavenly Wrath
Earth Dragon: Honed Tusk
Storm Dragon: Leaf Swirl and Wing Saber
Skull Dragon: Apparition and Fear
Gold Dragon: Mighty Claw
Kaiser Dragon: Last Breath
Took a Level in Badass: Their reborn incarnations in Dragons' Den are far higher tiers than the originals. The Holy Dragon is particularly notable — the original is entirely incompetent and a party with Reflect Rings is invincible, but the reborn version is one of the most powerful of them.
Ultros/Orthros
オルトロス Orutorosu
A recurring octopus boss with a fondness for bad jokes. Sometimes seen with his dumb monster partner, a wind beast named Chupon/Typhon. For more info on his appearances in spin-offs, see the Recurring Character sheet.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Where does Ultros come from? Why does he hate the party so much to pursue them around the world attacking them? Why did he even attack them in the first place? Mysteries that will likely never be solved.
Harmless Villain: His battles in VI were never all that difficult to begin with, and he was never as formidable as his more rarely-seen friend Typhon. In the World of Ruin, Ultros is forced to work indefinitely as a receptionist to pay off his crippling debts. You can see him and speak to him as often as you please, but his role as a villain has ended.
Jerkass: Ultros is this in spades. While he is the game's Plucky Comic Relief, he's also downright mean. He attacks your party several times throughout the game for no reason other than just because. In the battle against him in Crescent Mountain, he mouths off to Relm, a little girl who just wanted to paint his picture. This causes the party to stop fighting and berate Ultros for making a little girl cry! He eventually caves in. Of course, Relm had ulterior motives for painting his picture, but Ultros didn't know that and still reacted badly to it.
Took a Level in Badass: 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 Total Party Kill if you aren't careful.
Bonus Boss: Arguably a superboss in the game's original release, he's got end-game HP, loves to spam powerful magic, and drops a very powerful Magicite shard.
Get Back Here Boss: Flees after a few rounds of battle, but can't regenerate his HP after combat, so you can wear him down after repeated encounters. It's hard to track down a monster that could be anywhere in the world when you have no way to tell where he may be. You're going to be spending a lot of time flying around looking for him.
Noodle Incident: Even Dissidia remarks that how Bahamut's Magicite piece ended up in his mouth is something no one knows.
One-Hit Kill: Opens with Level 5 Death, and loves to spam the normal Death spell.
Total Party Kill: 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.
Vargas Harcourt
バルガス・ハーコート Barugasu Hākōto
Rival of Sabin, that trained with the same master, his father Duncan.
“Well Done Son” Guy: His antagonism towards Sabin is based on the fact that his father Duncan chose Sabin to be his successor instead of him, even though Sabin claims otherwise.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He appears very early on, and is never seen nor heard from again afterward. Even immediately after the battle, it's unknown if he died or if he just ran away. His unique "death" animation makes it all the more ambiguous. They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character? Looks like we'll never know...
Espers
Ramuh
An Esper living in the human realm, he calls Terra to him when her powers awaken.
Ascended Extra: Before this game, summons (excluding Bahamut and Odin) didn't get a lot of character exploration. Ramuh was no exception. This time, aside from Valigarmanda/Tritoch and Maduin, Ramuh could be considered the most plot-important Esper in the game.
Heroic Sacrifice: Turns himself into Magicite to grant the party his power to help save the other Espers.
Heroic Sacrifice: Casts a binding spell to sweep the Empire out of the Esper realm, but he's so old it's implied he lost his life.
Senseless Sacrifice: But by the time he does it, the Empire has already captured enough Espers to begin their campaign and keep it going for 20 years.
Valigarmanda/Tritoch
The frozen Esper excavated in Narshe that kickstarts the plot of the game.
Aborted Arc: Once the Returners try to wake it up, they forget about it for the rest of the game. Justified seeing as how trying to do that turned out to be a really bad idea the first time.
And I Must Scream: It still has some sense of awareness when inside the ice, able to defend itself with magic in the World of Ruin. Possibly subverted in that, once he finally wakes up, he's confused about whether or not the War of the Magi is still happening.
Don't forget how he initially tries to bond with Terra in the World of Balance. The first time it fails (presumably due to the interference of her Magitek armor, as the suit explodes when he contacts her) and the second time he releases Terra's Esper side.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: Teaches Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga, and uses a tri-elemental attack when called into battle.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: While the Returners fail to wake Tritoch up the first time they try it and subsequently leave it alone for the rest of the game...unless you, as the player, make them go back and try again.
Interface Spoiler: In the story, it's only ever referred to as "the frozen Esper", except that right at the start of the game, when your party enters the battle screen to play out a cutscene, you can see its name displayed in the enemy listing.
Kill It with Fire: Or rather, free him with fire by melting him out of his icy prison. Either that or chip him out of there with barrier-piercing attacks like the Phantom Rush, Locke's Valiant Knife or some of Cyan's Bushido techniques.
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