Final Fantasy IX / Tropes Q to Z

Final Fantasy IX tropes
Tropes A to H | Tropes I to P | Tropes Q to Z

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Q & R

• Quad Damage: Steiner's Trance doesn't give him a new ability like every other character gets, but triples his attack power.
• The Queen Will Be Watching: The game starts out with members of Tantalus putting on a theatrical performance production for Queen Brahne (and everyone else who has the ticket for it).
• Quicksand Sucks: There's sand whirlpools on the path leading up to Cleyra. If you end up in one, you whirl towards the center, sinking in. Mashing X repeatedly allows you to jump out; failing to do so will land you in a fight with a sand scorpion. The scorpions are presumably causing the whirlpools in order to trap prey.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: Court jesters Zorn and Thorn, who later turned out to be less "quirky" and more freaky. Also the Black Waltzes, a trio of elite Black Mages.
• Quote-to-Quote Combat: The end of Disc 2 gives us the following exchange:
  Amarant: "'He who hesitates is lost.' You should remember that."
  Zidane: "Yeah? Well, I prefer 'my way or the highway.'"
• Racing Minigame: There's a race against Hippaul on Disc 3, when you revisit Alexandria as Vivi. It's another one where you mash Square and Circle to run. It's completely unnecessary, though participating in it will trigger an extra Mognet letter (describing an "amazing sprinter"), and if you win 80 times or more, the letter will name Vivi as the "amazing sprinter" (otherwise it will say the sprinter's name is Hippaul).
• Rain of Lances: Freya's Jump when used in Trance.
• Random Drop: A variation on one of these: Eiko's Fairy Flute can stolen from Hilgigars on Disc 2, a full disc before it becomes available in a Mogshop. Not hard—equip Bandit and spend a few turns trying to steal it, right? Wrong. It is quite possibly the hardest item to steal in the entire game, and Hilgigars isn't an easy boss either. Most walkthroughs advise just giving up on the Fairy Flute and buying it later. Not necessarily a random drop, but the difficulty and time required in getting the item definitely qualifies.
• Randomized Damage Attack: Quina's normal attack does random damage which is either pathetic or higher than any other physical attacker. This makes him/her a capable (if unreliable) Fighter-type character, but his/her specialty is Blue Magic anyway.
• Rat Men: The Burmecian and Cleyran races, to which your dragoon Freya belongs, are anthropomorphic rats. They avoid the stereotypes normally associated with this trope, instead being portrayed as a peaceful and civilized race.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Garnet "Dagger" Til Alexandros XVII. She has light skin and black hair, and is stated to be a refined and beautiful princess.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Zidane actually gets a couple of these when in Terra.
• Rebellious Princess: Garnet is a borderline member — she has a much calmer, shyer personality than most, but she's still a Rebellious Princess. And there's also rebellious prince Puck of Burmecia.
• Recurring Boss: Beatrix is of the second variety.
• Recurring Riff: It's perhaps the most extensive use of this, for example:
  • Variations of Melodies of Life show up in at least nine places: it occurs briefly in "Memories Erased in the Storm", it's the main theme of "Stolen Eyes", it's part of the overworld music "Crossing Those Hills", Garnet sings it as "Song of Memories", it's the main theme of "At the South Gate Border", it's "Garnet's Theme", it's woven into "Daughter of Madain Sari"^note a variation of "Eiko's Theme" that plays during a scene with Eiko in Alexandria Palace and is on the Original Soundtrack PLUS album, it shows up in the ending in "Towards That Gate", and you have the full version in the end credits "Melodies of Life" (which eventually changes into the "Final Fantasy" music).
    • Not to mention a pipe organ version that plays while Steiner is hiding Garnet in a bag, a high speed version that plays during the beginning scenes and the remix used for the FFIX Coca-Cola ads. The game also has the Burmecia theme appear in at least three different versions, both sad and dramatic versions of Beatrix's theme, and instances of music from other games in the series.
    • One scene had Melodies of Life played over Eiko's (melody-lacking) theme. As Melodies of Life is properly Garnet's theme, and the scene in question involved both Eiko and Garnet, this makes a certain amount of sense.
  • The 'World' Theme that plays during the video sequence in the title screen "The Place I'll Return to Someday" eventually appears in the game itself in "Oeilvert", "A Transient Past", "Ipsen's Heritage", "The Four Medallions", and "Terra".
  • The 'Action' Theme that plays during the fake sword fight "Vamo' alla Flamenco" early in the game, reappears in "Limited Time", "Rose of May", "Black Mages' Theme", "Protecting My Devotion", "Terra", "You're Not Alone!", and "Passing Sorrow".
• Recurring Traveller: Stiltzkin the travelling Moogle. He even turns up in the alternate dimension Terra!
• Redemption Demotion: Slight example with Worthy Opponent Beatrix, who proves to be more than a match for your party as you battle her time and time again. When she realizes the ruler she has sworn fealty to has gone mad, she joins your party, and proves to be every bit as powerful as she was when you fought her. (Sadly, she doesn't stay long.) However, her MP seems to take a nosedive upon joining you, meaning that she can't use her frighteningly powerful sword skills as often as she could when she was against you. And said sword skills have been downgraded from "Total Party Kill" to "slightly better than Steiner's" when used against monsters instead of your party. On the other hand, you learn that she did not use all of her spells against you, such as Full-Life or (thankfully) Holy.
• The Red Mage:
  • Several of the PCs combined several of the classical FF jobs. Freya Crescent, although outwardly a Dragoon, also had MP-based spell-like abilities, something that other games' Dragoons rarely had. She could heal friends and hurt enemies with these abilities , but not as effectively as the actual Black or White mages, could wear heavy armor, and didn't fight quite as well as the Knight. She wears a red coat reminiscent of a Red Mage's cloak—and even a hat.
  • Some have also considered Kuja a Red Mage for his ability to use both the highest level black and white magic spells, along with a few of his own exclusive ones.
  • The class is also namechecked with a random, otherwise anonymous NPC you can talk to who is identified only as "Red Mage."
  • Garnet counts as well; for the first two Discs, she functions almost solely as a White Mage (her Summons are unavailable for plot-related reasons), but once she starts re-learning her Summon Magic, she veers more into this: her White Magic, while always useful, isn't as extensive or complete as Eiko's, and her Summons—which consist mainly of elemental attacks—are also useful, but don't have the same range as Vivi's Black Magic, leaving her as a useful middle-ground between the two characters.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Zidane and Kuja, which sort of makes sense when you consider they're brothers. It is later subverted: Zidane becomes a lot more responsible and thoughtful, while Kuja becomes an Omnicidal Maniac. Even the planets Gaia and Terra are color-coded according to this convention.
• Redshirt Army: The Cleyran and Burmecian troops.
• Relationship Reset Button: Freya and Fratley. Freya's love, Sir Fratley, is wounded in battle and forgets who she is. Although she does eventually meet up with him again, he still doesn't know her.
• Remixed Level: Two dungeons late in the game are based on Mount Gulg from Final Fantasy and Pandaemonium from Final Fantasy II, even featuring remixes of their background music.
• Renamed the Same: There's a scene in which Garnet changes her name to an alias, which she takes from Zidane's dagger, but then a naming screen pops up prompting the player to enter whatever they'd like if "Dagger" doesn't sound good enough. You're free to rename her "Garnet", which will render the whole scene rather pointless.
• Required Party Member:
  • The game does this constantly until Disc 3. It also does the inverse, having characters just randomly walk away so that you can't add them to the party.
  • Occurs during the attack on the four shrines where Zidane is forced to take Quina with him since everyone else was already partnered up. This means the upcoming boss fight will force you to drag Quina along and if you haven't been leveling them up and teaching them new blue magic skills, the fight will be much more difficult.
• Rerouted from Heaven: The Evil Plan of Garland is to reroute the souls of the entire population of Gaia through an artificial tree which will "cleanse" them (purge them of identity) and then reroute them to his planet, Terra, so that the long-dead Terrans that created him will be reborn.
• Rescue Arc: Two examples, and both victims happen to be the party healers!
  • First, Garnet during Disc 2. After returning to Alexandria willingly to settle matters with her mother, she is promptly captured and has her Eidolons ripped out by Kuja, Zorn and Thorn. After the destruction of Cleyra, Zidane and co. overhear Brahne's decision to execute Garnet when she returns to Alexandria, and the next 30 minutes turn into a castle siege to find her before it's too late.
  • Secondly, after the exhausting Oeilvert/Desert Palace Scenario, Eiko is kidnapped by Kuja, who wants her for the same reasons as Garnet above. A race to another continent, through a Dungeon Town, a trip into a volcano and a Climax Boss later, she turns out to be just fine.
• Rescue Romance: Zidane stole Garnet from the castle, and One Thing Led to Another.
  • It should also be noted that the romance between them only really begins to show through after Zidane (and Co.) save Garnet from the Alexandria Dungeon during Disc 2.
• The Reveal:
  • Garnet is not Brahne's daughter but one of last of the summoner's tribe, found by the late King of Alexandria.
  • Kuja is Zidane's brother; they were both artificially created to sow discord in Gaia so Garland could control the 'flow of souls' (the cycle of rebirth), allowing their home planet of Terra to absorb the other one.
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: After the angstfests of VI, VII and VIII, IX brought back some much-needed humor. It's still a dark game (its main themes are genocide and mortality), but it's significantly cuter and sillier than the previous installments.
• Reverse Grip: In the Final Fantasy series, dual wielded daggers are very commonly seen in the hands of thief and ninja characters and classes. Zidane Tribal was possibly the first one, though the dual wielding part was purely visual.
• Revisiting the Roots: VI was a steampunk world that coined the term Magitek, VII and VIII shifted to a modern-esque setting with electricity spaceships and cities. IX then brought things back to a medieval setting of castles, airships, and villages. As well, while VII and VIII had a three-character party system where they were as unique in battle (or not) as the player customized them to be, IX went back to the style of four party members with pre-set skills as earlier games had done.
• Revive Kills Zombie:
  • Restorative spells and items deal damage to the undead, including one boss, Soulcage. The standard cure reversal works, and Life and Full Life both kill undead monsters instantly, while Phoenix Down causes HP to One to zombies, allowing even Vivi, Garnet or Eiko, whose weapons are the weakest, to finish them off. Oddly enough, though, zombification doesn't wear off upon death, making the game hate you during the Iifa Tree level, where your characters keep getting zombified. You can't revive a zombified party member unless you first remove the zombie status with an item — and Remedy (the cure-all for status effects) doesn't cure zombification or viral infection.
  • A variation exists where a Soft Potion (or Spell) can be used to kill Stone class monsters (like Epitaph or Stroper) (though you don't gain XP using this method). They become too soft to live.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: In the end, Zidane goes to save Kuja. When he asks why he's doing this, Zidane asks him whether he'd do the same if he was dying. To the guy who just killed him and his friends and forced them to fight their way out of the afterlife. Kuja is naturally silent, and Zidane, realizing his mistake, says "Never mind."
• Rhymes on a Dime: Zorn and Thorn often do this.
• Riddle for the Ages: How did Zidane end up escaping the Iifa Tree alive after staying by Kuja's death bed at the end of the game?
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: This is what prompts Kuja to change course from gathering Summon Magic to harnessing the game's Limit Break system instead. In the process of attempting to extract Eiko's Eidolons, Mog (her best friend, a Moogle) comes to the rescue by revealing her true identity as the Eidolon Madeen, which Kuja interprets as the Moogle having gone into a Trance. He then decides that attaining a Trance of his own will give him the power he needs to take revenge on Garland, and, to say the least, it does.
• Rings of Death: Amarant's standard Throw-weapons. Most Ninja characters in the Final Fantasy series throw shuriken at their opponents, but Amarant Coral is an exception. Instead of throwing stars, he can throw chakrams at his enemies.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • Princess Garnet, who, in a twist on the usual application, turns out to not be royalty by blood, but rather an adopted Last of Her Kind. Aside from the obligatory adventuring, Garnet makes reference to the political and economical aspects of ruling a country, especially after she becomes the Queen.
  • Queen Brahne is no slouch either; she is personally present at every siege and attack, and is the one to use Garnet's summon magic to put an end to each and every one.
  • Regent Cid also accompanies the party from the start of Disc 3, at one point saving them from Kuja in Desert Palace, and even before that was the world's best engineer, only man able to build airships that don't run on Mist.
• Rule of Seven: The attack "Lucky 7s".
• Rule of Symbolism: Necron serves more of a symbolic meaning than an actual in-story role. Necron is one of the biggest cases of Giant Space Flea from Nowhere in the industry, let alone the franchise, but fans of the game justify his appearance with this. The main theme of the game is that everyone and everything wants to live, and even the Big Bad Kuja is only trying to kill everyone because his own life has been robbed from him by his father, Garland. Necron is the Anthropomorphic Personification of death, and shows up in the end to give the heroes a chance to literally defeat Death itself.

S

• Sad Battle Music: Beatrix's fight theme.
• Samaritan Syndrome: The Character Development of Garnet hinges around this. She wants to be a royal princess (and later queen) who actually does something for her people, but starts blaming herself every time a tragedy strikes her home country, a neighboring country, or anything in the world goes wrong. Her Heroic Self-Deprecation eventually leads to her going temporarily mute with grief after Alexandria is destroyed, her mother dies, and her entire kingdom is left in ruins. Garnet finally starts snapping out of it when the other heroes tell her that no one is blaming her for the tragedy.
• Sand Is Water: The sand that flows through and down Cleyra acts very much like water. There are even floodgates for it. There are also sand whirlpools here and in one of the later deserts, which will pull you under if you step into them.
• Sand Worm: Land Worms,they're the only monster that attacks you in the Kiera Desert
• Save Point: Moogles (serving as save points: they allow you to save, use a tent to restore party, do a certain sidequest, and occasionally buy items, including weapons) and later colorful orbs in Memoria (a more traditional variety, with the added ability of teleporting you back out).
• Save the Princess: Zig-Zagged at the start; your task is to kidnap Princess Garnet, but when you confront her, she actually requests the kidnapping - making it clear this is more of a rescue mission. Later dialogue with Regent Cid reveals that he had commissioned the kidnapping as a cover for the rescue, as taking Garnet away openly would cause quite a political stink.
  • Much later, Queen Brahne orders Garnet's execution, and Zidane and the rest of the party must storm the castle to find her before it's too late.
• Save the Villain: For those who believe Queen Brahne is the game's villain at that point, Garnet makes this trope her mission at the end of Disc 2. Happens again during the ending... except there, it's not so much "save," as it is "don't let him die alone."
• "Save the World" Climax: The game starts with a performance troupe putting on a play as a distraction while they kidnap the princess from her domineering mother of a queen. One thing leads to another and soon a weapons merchant is threatening the destruction of not one, but TWO different worlds. And then the personification of Death shows up to determine whether the universe itself is worthy of existence.
• Save Token: The game somewhat qualifies at one point. Moogles located at specific locations save the game for you, thus serving as save points. But you are given a special Moogle's Flute item to call for them, if you need your game saved in the Overworld. You get it with no effort just before you go to world map for the first time, never lose it and it costs you nothing to use (except Moguo's patience), but as a matter of fact it's still a kind of a Save Token.
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: The Terrans are stated to be a group of people that have been absorbing the souls of the planet to merge it with their own planet's souls, which would cause the Terran's planet and the victim planet to merge and fuse together. This was done to preserve the lives of the Terran people since their planet's crystal (its source of life and souls) was too weak to sustain itself. In other words, they wipe out all forms of life on one planet so that their own planet can survive. The people of Terra are willing to essentially commit genocide on the people of Gaia so that their own world can live longer. Mikoto implies that this isn't even the first time the Terrans have done it. This drives the entire plot for the game as Zidane discovers that he and the big bad, Kuja, hail from that planet and were created to destroy all life on Gaia so Terra can advance and flourish.
• Scenery-Based Societal Barometer: Lindblum's overall stability is represented by the forge at the synthesist's shop: when first visited in disc one, the city is at the height of its power and the forge is burning hot enough to melt solid steel; in disc two, after Lindblum is ruined by Queen Brahne and occupied by Alexandran troops, the fire is burning so low that it almost appears to be weeping; in disc three, when reconstruction efforts are well underway, the forge is rekindled and slowly returning to its former strength.
• Scenery Porn: The game's breathtaking intro. Also many of the locations, such as the party's first visit to Lindblum and Terra.
  • The game had a lot of fun with the scenery: Alexandria's crystal-obelisked palace; the Steampunk industrial metropolis of Lindblum; the eldritch branches of the Iifa Tree; Kuja's desert palace in all its stained-glass glory, the most extraordinary are Terra (alien landscape with otherworldly blue sky dotted with mushrooms like skyscrapers) and Memoria (tangle of different environments and architecture manifested from the collective memory of the entire planet).
• Scenery Gorn: Any location that ends up being laid to waste. The party enter a town that has been conquered by the Black Mage army, and we get to see ruined buildings, bodies in the streets and an old woman crying that she will never see her grandchildren because she was blinded by a fireball.
• Schmuck Bait:
  • The game has several friendly monsters that ask you for an item, which they will reward you for with tons of AP. Their battle theme is also different to show that they're friendly. However, there's a monster called the Gimme Cat that tries to trick you by demanding a Diamond and if you give it one, it runs off with it and you leave with nothing. But since the Gimme Cat uses the normal battle theme, that should tell you "do not listen to this monster". Be careful should you choose to fight it, however, because it attacks with the powerful Comet spell.
  • If you call Moguo once and don't save, he'll angrily say "Don't call me if you don't need me, kupo!" All this does is tip off players that you can tick him off more and more by doing it repeatedly.
  • When exploring Gizamaluke's Grotto, you'll encounter some Moogles who warn you not to travel up the ladder they're standing next to. But since said Moogles just let you save, it's irresistible for players to do it anyway...and get horribly annihilated by high-level dragons.
  • Freya's Six Dragons, erm, dragon ultimately counts as one. So you have this ability whose help text is an extremely vague See For Yourself. When you select it, it defaults to selecting everyone in your party. Now, given that Reis' Wind and White Draw are healing abilities, you would naturally think that this would be beneficial to your party in some way. So you cast it. For your troubles, random members in your party would have their HP and MP randomly cut down to one. Yeah, you just screwed the battle up. While it does have some legitimate uses (e.g. to bring the party health down so that "desperation attacks" like Quina's Limit Glove hit stronger), all things considered, it is kind of pointless, and pretty much skews the battle in favor of your enemies if you're not prepared for it.
• Schmuck Banquet: A variation when the party celebrates the Festival of the Hunt by eating the feast already laid out for them. Technically there was nothing wrong with the food but Princess Garnet just managed to slip sleeping weed into everyone else's dishes so she could sneak off.
• Schrödinger's Question: A funny example occurs when Zidane, in attempt to be serious, calls Dagger by her real name. If you name her Garnet from the get go, it comes out as "Garnet. No... Princess Garnet."
• Science Fantasy: The game is mostly fantasy, but includes quite a lot of Steampunk technology and a Sufficiently Advanced Magitek alien race to which both the protagonist and the Big Bad belong.
• Scienceville:
  • The city of Lindblum is world-famous for its technological innovations and awe-inspiring airship fleet, having flourished under the reign of Regent Cid; consequently, the city's Industrial District is a hub of activity for engineers and inventors eager to produce the next big development in airship design. Most of them actually live here, too. The entire district is destroyed when Queen Brahne attacks Lindblum, forcing the surviving engineers to move to the Business District in order to help with the reconstruction efforts later in the game. On the upside, many of them end up being hired by Regent Cid to help create the Hilda Garde III when he finally regains his inventive tendencies.
  • Daguerro is an ancient Great Big Library of Everything hidden away on an island south of the Forgotten Continent; because of its vast archives and strange water-powered machines, it's attracted a huge number of scholars, engineers, artisans and other seekers of knowledge... and because there's no towns in the vicinity, Daguerro has also become a permanent residence for several of the researchers studying the place.
• Scolded for Not Buying: If you summon the moogle on the World Map then send him away without saving, he will say "Don't call me if you don't need me, Kupo!" as he leaves. Do this multiple times, in a row, and he'll start giving more angry/sinister responses.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Some of your more intelligent enemies (and one subterranean serpent) will choose to flee the battle before they're killed off. This gets played for laughs initially.
• Scripted Battle: Beatrix and Kuja defeat your party instantly with a powerful attack once you drop their HP to zero or after a certain amount of time has passed and it is completely unavoidable. On top of this, they are still standing, despite everything you threw at them. The only exception is the final battle against Kuja at the end of disc 3 since his lifespan is nearly at its end and he does collapse later on after the Final Boss. This is to emphasize just how powerful these characters are, no matter how much Level Grinding the player had done previously.
  • Similarly, the fight against the Masked Man in the very beginning advances the plot whether you win the battle or not since the fight was just a surprise training for the party.
• Secret Project Refugee Family: The Black Mage Village.
• Secret Shop: It's actually a synthesis shop, and it's hidden behind a rock, in the last level, and requires you to fight the owner. Plus, you'll need the ingredients for whatever you want him to make... a few of which are unique. Interestingly, the game's Notice This mechanic is absent for this one and only instance. Even if one were to find the little corridor he hides in, they might assume there's nothing there as an exclamation point would have popped up if there was.
• Seeks Another's Resurrection: The villain Garland was created, and strives solely for, the resurrection of the Terran people.
• Selective Memory: Tetra Master, a card game with vague rules which are not particularly explained to the player. Justified in that nobody you talk to knows the rules either, and you can only pick up the rules from people's suppositions about them. These people are otherwise avid players, but they only know about half a rule each... Fortunately, none of the rules matter much. The outcome of each game is more or less random, and the few rewards with an actual use you can get out of it are easily gotten elsewhere...including one of the very few cards you can get outside of the treasure hunt sidequest that actually has a use beyond using it in the card game itself.
  • A full explanation of the rules was eventually provided...in the manual for Final Fantasy XI.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: The game steps up the Low-Level Run to the unique Level 1 Challenge thanks to the fact that a large majority of all of the mandatory fights in the game give 0 experience, thus requiring players to skip and avoid all possible optional experience in battle (and having to 'sacrifice' a character, so to speak, for the mandatory fights that do give experience), resulting in a Level 1 team against the final boss.
  • There's another challenge unique to this game. Obtaining one secret weapon requires reaching the final dungeon in 12 hours from the start of the game. Therefore, a "perfect" game requires completing a speedrun and picking up all the game's missable items and sidequests along the way, of which there are a lot.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Kuja, a man with an effeminate appearance who wears a thong and a midriff-baring top.
• Sequence Breaking: In one of the first towns, it is possible to view certain cutscenes out of sequence merely by going to part of the town in the wrong order. This will cause Zidane to already know about things he shouldn't, only to be clueless later.
  • It's easy to exploit a bug in disc three by getting a gold Chocobo early, then skipping nearly to the end of the disc while skipping a few Scrappy Levels and messing your plot up. This results in the resident White Magician Girl staying in a state where she randomly fails to use her commands for the rest of the game unless you hack it back to how it should be at that point.
• Servant Race: Black Mages were created for no other reasons than to be servants and shock troops, and don't live long beyond that purpose. The same turns out to be true of genomes, the race that Kuja and Zidane belong to, although they are significantly longer-lived and more powerful.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: After Hilda restores her husband Cid to his (rather dashing) human form, he apologizes profusely for having been a cheating no-good and takes her in his arms. Cue Fade to Black and the "nighttime" musical sting.
• Sham Wedding: When the party arrives at Conde Petie, the residents tell them that the destination they need to travel to continue their journey is a sacred area that only newlyweds are allowed to venture to. Garnet immediately drags Zidane to the altar and the two undergo a wedding right on the spot. Zidane doesn't realize her plan and thinks it's real, but as soon as the priest declares them unified in marriage, Zidane finds himself kissing the space where Garnet used to be, who has already moved on ahead.
• Shaped Like Itself: There is a weapon called "Mythril Dagger". Its description reads "Thief's dagger made of mythril."
• Shapeshifting Sound: Characters who enter Trance do so with a massive flash of light and a high-pitched metallic whistling sound; when the light fades, they'll have transformed into their shiny new superhuman forms. Same goes for when they revert to normal.
• Sheathe Your Sword: Ozma, a Superboss that can be defeated this way, by letting your characters counter attack, since inputting actions causes it to have an immediate turn.
• Sherlock Scan: Eiko thinks she's a master at this, and it does work out (on Dr. Tot), but fails on Quina (who she deduced to be KUJA.)

• Shoo Out the Clowns: Quina suffers from this - when the plot starts getting serious, s/he usually sits in the back and doesn't say much or even contribute to conversations, whereas everyone else at least has something to say. Even if you recruit him/her in Disc 1, s/he doesn't say much. (Partly justified in that case since Quina is actually an optional party member in disc one)
• Shop Fodder: The "tropical" equipment of the Aloha T-Shirts, Pearl Armlets, Sandals and Straw Hats are pretty much useless. They have no stat bonuses and don't teach any abilities. They do sell for a lot of money, so their only real use is to get a lot of quick cash. This is especially helpful in Disk 4 when the most expensive equipment becomes available.
• Short-Lived Organism: The Black Mages are artificially created to be automaton soldiers for the Empire, but some of the Black Mages spontaneously become sentient with human intelligence. The self-aware Black Mages form a community to live out their lives in peace, and find that they have a life span of only about one year.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• The Show Must Go On: In the opening sequence, when the main character's Thieves' Guild disguise themselves as an acting troupe performing the most popular play in the world as a guise to kidnap Princess Garnet. When Zidane, Garnet, and Captain of the Guard Steiner find themselves on stage in the midst of the production, Hilarity Ensues as they take the plot Off the Rails entirely in their bid to escape. And the Queen still loves it!
• Shown Their Work: When it comes to the culinary, Quina knows his/her shit.
• Show Within a Show: The setting for the start of the game revolves around the theater troupe Tantalus performing a play called I Want to be Your Canary (Queen Brahme's favourite) for the birthday of Garnet, princess of Alexandria. In actuality, the performance is merely a front, for Regent Cid of Lindblum's order to 'kidnap' Garnet (who, ironically, wanted to run away, anyway).
• Shrinking Violet: Male example: Vivi.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Garland tells Zidane to destroy Gaia, since he's an Artificial Human created for exactly that purpose. Zidane refuses, obviously, but when Garland tries to push he delivers an amazingly snappy and spoilertastic comeback:

  Garland: Regrettable. I thought your soul would be a perfect choice for the new Angel of Death.

  Zidane: I am the new Angel of Death. Yours!!!

• Shut Up, Kirk!: Garland brings up a rebuttal when confronted by Zidane and three other party members at the end of disc three; after listening to them explain how they're better than him and how they know more than him (sometimes using arguments which don't apply to him in any way, shape or form) Garland challenges them to actually demonstrate their superiority.

  Lecture me again when you are on the verge of death!

• Sidequest: The game averts this with two of the mini-games, as they are required to play in order to advance the story.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: The game centralizes this with Vivi. After learning that he's going to die at an early age, Vivi doesn't let it get him down. He still chooses to keep going, because he has friends who need him and care about him.
• Simultaneous Arcs: The series of Lighter and Softer events surrounding Garnet, Steiner and Marcus run in parallel to Zidane, Vivi and Freya's increasingly grim journey to Burmecia and then Cleyra during late Disc One/early Disc 2. They finally converge when Garnet and Steiner return to Alexandria willingly... but are taken prisoner anyway, Cleyra is destroyed by Brahne, and Zidane and co. use a teleport device to return to Alexandria and rescue Garnet. This has the interesting effect of making the Bag of Sharing transcend not only space, but time too, as any items you collect as one party are still present in the other party's inventory, even if you pick up their story at an earlier point in time.
• Single-Minded Twins: Zorn and Thorn. They habitually repeat what the other says (i.e. "what the other says they habitually repeat"), and their boss reveals they aren't even really two beings just before they merge into a single two-headed Eldritch Abomination body for their final boss fight.
• Single-Stroke Battle: The Odin summon and Steiner's Iai Strike.
• Sinister Geometry: Ozma.
• Sissy Villain: GOOD GOD, KUJA. So much so he's the page image on Viewer Gender Confusion! Exaggerated in Dissidia, where his main form of offense is slapping people in the face with giant balls.
• Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke:
  • Ark, whose attack animation shows it creating a crater that appears to be at least a mile in diameter, deals damage approximately equal to Zidane's Ultima Weapon blade.
    • Nearly every summon in that game is a city-destroying weapon in cut-scenes but not in combat. This is either subverted or reaches its peak when cutscene Bahamut only gives a bloody scratch to Kuja.
  • The second-to-last boss ends the battle with an Ultima spell... the same spell you barely survived the last time it was used.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • All of the characters' classes are highly integrated into the plot. Vivi's ability to shoot stuff with fireballs with black magic becomes very important, the hidden Summons inside Garnet are a MacGuffin unto themselves, and Freya, a dragoon, is able to leap to the tops of roofs effortlessly in cutscenes as easily as she can leap into the sky to use her "Jump" ability. Sometimes even their personality traits become gameplay mechanics; Zidane, the Chivalrous Pervert, has a "Protect Girls" skill that lets him jump in front of a female party member to protect her.
  • In at least two battles (one of which is mentioned below) the boss is coded to only target specific party members: Your three aside from Garnet in the fight with Black Waltz 2 (to the point where he'll cast AOE spells that in every other circumstance would hit all your party members only on those three), and Garnet specifically in a battle with the bounty hunter Lani. The former is tasked with returning Garnet to her mother, and if he succeeds in killing all of your party members aside from her, he'll cast a spell to put her to sleep and the game will end.
  • In a similar instance to the above, the rematch against Black Waltz Number 3 has similar stakes; they are tasked with returning Garnet to Brahne, and if they succeed in killing the rest of the party, instead of attacking, it will start hitting itself due to a combination of its mission (the only foe left is the one they're supposed to bring back alive) and some rather severe malfunctioning, by virtue of having their ass handed to them earlier. It's possible to win the fight by just letting your other members get killed, then wail on it with Garnet until it kills itself. This also doubles as a convenient anti-frustration feature, since there's a lengthy several minute cutscene between the last save point and this boss fight which you'd have to watch every time you lost this fight, if it were possible.
  • Falls into Developer's Foresight with Quina - Recruiting them is not required until Disc two, but some scenes do play if you go to the marsh and find him/her. Naturally, since the plot dictates that only Freya, Vivi, and Zidane make it to Castle Alexandria, an extra scene depicting Quina getting left behind will play, and s/he will in fact respond to Zidane in the Marsh explaining how s/he escaped Cleyra.
  • When Garnet loses her voice in the plot, during gameplay her ability to cast spells is impaired: every couple of turns she will fail with a notification that she "Can't concentrate." She gets better, though.
  • Most characters will skip their post-battle victory poses during plot circumstances that concern them in some negative way, including Garnet losing her voice described above.
  • Garnet can't summon her Eidolons on the first two discs and the in-story reason is that she is afraid of them. As a result, the MP costs for her Summons are incredibly high. When she has gotten over her fear of them by Disc 3, the MP costs are considerably lower. ^note The player can get her to summon them before they are extracted, but only through a max MP cheat or absurd leveling
  • The biggest example of this is probably the Trance State. After witnessing Mog transform into Madeen using Trance, Kuja deduces that Trance is the key to unlocking a Super Mode for himself. He's right, and he does... by having you defeat him in battle. It also ties directly into Zidane's Dyne abilities, all of which are a miniaturized Earth-Shattering Kaboom. Quite an unusual skill-set for a Thief-type character... when he finds out that he was intended to be Kuja's successor and Garland's tool for annihilating Gaia, this suddenly makes much more sense.
• Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: The game hands super powers of mass destruction and Heroic BSODs to both genders equally (if you take Kuja into the consideration, if not then the girls win on the superpowerful magic side of things). With several competent females in positions of power, and an amazon army for Alexandria.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Firmly on the Idealism side. The main character starts as a cheery fellow, and one Heroic BSoD notwithstanding he stays that way (and he even gets out of the Heroic BSoD through The Power of Friendship played completely straight).
• Slipping a Mickey: Princess Garnet spiked a banquet with sleeping potion in order to knock Zidane, Vivi, Freya and Cid unconscious so they wouldn't try to stop her and Steiner from traveling alone.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Lost Continent.
• Slouch of Villainy: Hades fights this way.
• Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: The Earth Shrine is booby-trapped this way, forcing Zidane and Quina to jump past the traps in order to get to the inner sanctum:
  Quina: Aiya! We almost flat like pancake!
• Smooch of Victory: Averted when Zidane rescues Princess Garnet from the crumbling castle. She hugs him very warmly, but never actually kisses him.
• Smug Snake: Kuja is a genuine threat—but not only is he obscenely arrogant and cruel, he's ultimately unable to overcome his fear of death. Essentially, he has the mind and air of a wicked genius, but the temperament and personality of a frightened, spoiled child. This mainly shows up in the latter half of the game. It's exaggerated in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: Steiner's consumed something that he initially found disgusting on two occasions — they both paid off. Quina's animations are also in a constant state of the 'Sniff Sniff' half of this trope.
• So Last Season: While inside of Ipsen's Castle, the lower a weapon's attack power, the more damage it does.
• Solemn Ending Theme: "Melodies of Life".
• Solitary Sorceress: There's one as well, though this one is different from all the others in that she's much younger. Eiko, roughly six years old, plays this role. She's encountered in Madain Sari, and is the last summoner (aside from Garnet), living alone except with the moogles, which can be counted as her Familiar. She helps the group get into the Iifa Tree and is one of the few examples on this page who abandons solitude and joins the party.
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: The game did this every ten minutes. At least you get the gear back when the party members return, but that's small comfort when the fancy new super gear you blew all your cash on wanders off before you can use it. However, the Bag of Sharing effect means that even when two of your party members decide to split off from the main group, they can use items in the shared inventory and even buy items for the other party members (who are now halfway across the continent) to equip later.
  • The Guest Star Party Members are an exception, however. You can remove Beatrix's armor when she fights alongside Steiner in Disc 3 (although there's no real reason, considering that you'll be able to buy it soon enough anyway), but when Marcus leaves the party after you escape from the Alexandria dungeon in Disc 2, his equipment is gone for good. This is particularly bad if he's got a Mythril Sword equipped, since you need that blade to be able to synthesize some of the very best armor in the game.
    • The Mythril Sword loss is only a problem if the player doesn't think to visit Esto Gaza before going to the Desert Palace.
  • However, you can give Beatrix one of the summoning items and cause it to be Permanently Missable.
• Someone's Touching My Butt: Zidane reaches for a rung in a ladder the group is rushing up. Garnet is up ahead, and when he grasps something that isn't a rung...
  Zidane: Ooh, soft.
• Something about a Rose: Beatrix is surrounded by rose imagery and her leitmotif is called "Rose of May". This probably symbolises her status as a Lady of War: Beautiful, but with sharp thorns.
• Something Else Also Rises: Zidane and Garnet, the leads, actually get married in order to get past a roadblock. When Zidane tries to move in on Garnet for the traditional kiss, his tail is, for a brief second, actually standing up straight.
• Song of Courage: Several songs, such as Those Whom I Must Protect and You Are Not Alone.
• Songs in the Key of Lock: A dungeon has bells as Interchangeable Antimatter Keys.
• Sorry I'm Late: A few times in one sequence near the end of the game.
• Soul-Powered Engine: The Big Bad blocked the Well of Souls that takes the dead to the afterlife, leading to the backed-up souls piling up in the form of dense, magically potent Mist. Not knowing the source, people naturally began using this Mist as fuel for magitechnology and airships.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Black Waltz 3 kills a group of black mages while Vivi looks on in horror; a soft, sad piano theme plays in the background. Yeah, it's a Tear Jerker.
• Source Music: Early on, Zidane can hear Garnet singing and looks for her. As he searches, the BGM is Garnet's voice. Subverted in that she's accompanied by a harp in the BGM, but seems to be singing a cappella once Zidane reaches her.
• Sour Supporter: Amarant joins Zidane's party after being defeated by him, but he is absolutely puzzled as to why Zidane wastes so much energy sticking with his friends when Amarant believes the strong works alone and how people could get things done if they just did it themselves instead of relying on others. At one point, he ditches the party after beating Zidane in a race to see who could reach a specific room in a castle first, but after falling into a trap, Zidane runs back to save him, causing Amarant to rethink his logic after seeing Zidane had gone out of his way to save him just because he needed help.
• Speech Bubbles: Every character has them throughout the game, even with the scrolling text in them.
• Speed Run Reward: Getting to a certain area in the final dungeon in less than 12 hours will net you an Infinity +1 Sword.
• Spell Blade: Vivi could do this for Steiner when they were in the same party.
• Sphere of Power: Superboss Ozma appears as a giant floating ball of swirling colours. It is also extremely powerful, possessing many high-level spells.
  • Dark Matter is also this, appearing as a black crystal ball and used to summon Odin.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: The game uses 2D backgrounds except for the world map, which is fully 3D. It also has a few cases of FMV backgrounds, mainly in the form of the character running into a scene and it turning from bitmap to FMV.
• Squishy Wizard: Heavily averted, magicians actually have some of the best defense in the game.
• Standard Royal Court: We get a fairly good look at the Alexandrian Royal Court. Includes: a bombastic tyrannical queen who is the first and second disc villain; her captain of the guard (Playable character) and the guards themselves (comic relief NPCs); the general of the army (Guest character / Sixth Ranger); a naive, sheltered princess who has no idea what's going on (Playable character); a duo of twin jesters who are in fact something between spymasters and court wizards (recurring villains); and a mysterious favourite / phlebotinum supplier (Big Bad).
  • Strangely missing, however, is Alexandria's king, who passed before the game's events. As a result, we never learn what role the king plays in this predominantly female society/government.
• The Starscream: Kuja's original ultimate goal is to destroy Garland with an eidolon and enslave both Gaia and Terra, turning both worlds into his own eternal kingdom. This later changes when Garland reveals that Kuja's lifespan is ultimately limited, which provokes a massive Freak Out on Kuja's part, and he decides to go from conquering the world to destroying it.
• Starter Equipment: The game plays this largely straight, but also includes one exception to the rule. As with most of the FF games, your starting weapons are the weakest in the game and you're encouraged to keep buying the next tier. There's even a "synthesis" mechanism, where you can combine certain pieces of old equipment to make new, more powerful pieces. But then, about two-thirds into the game, you travel to Ipsen's Castle, a topsy-turvy dungeon where everything is upside-down—including your weapons' attack values. In this dungeon, the higher the attack power, the weaker your attacks. You can find every character's second-weakest weapon in chests throughout the dungeon, but the only way to have the most powerful weapons for that dungeon is to bring along your starting equipment, which you probably sold or synthesized hours ago.
• Starter Villain: The Three Black Waltzes.
• Status Buff: Regen is a Game-Breaker because it heals in real time instead of at the end of every turn, meaning you can just fire off a long summon spell and be 100% fighting fit once the animation finishes.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The location with the tolling bell in Memoria is called "Familiar Memory."
  • The Cleyran sandstorm ritual turns out to be a Riverdance — would that make them river rats?
  • Probably unintentional, but one of Zidane's weapons is named Sargatanas, which could be read as saru katana (Japanese for 'monkey' and 'sword').
  • The Knights of Pluto consisting of nine members.
• Steampunk: Airships and other heavy machinery are mostly run by the Mist, a strange natural resource with magical properties that is later discovered to be derived from the souls of the dead. Halfway through the game, the heroes slay the monster who was capturing these souls and as a consequence, all long-distance travel halts due to the Mist vanishing. Thankfully, Regent Cid has been developing the steam engine, which eventually results in the creation of a steam-powered airship which the heroes can use to their advantage.
• The Stinger: Entering a code while "The End" shows on screen allows you to play a game of blackjack.
• Stop Poking Me!:
  • If you call the moogle, Moguo, who acts as your save point on the world map without saving enough times, he gets angry and threatens you, first by stating that he's "sharpening his knife, kupo..." before ultimately his dialogue devolves into "STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT, KUPOOOOOH!!" In the Steam version, there's an achievement for this, "One Nag Too Many." The description reads "Cause Moguo to have a tantrum."
  • Answering the question that Baku gives you in the beginning (whether to kidnap the ugly queen or the princess) wrong (as in, "we'll kidnap the queen") 64 times will lead to Ruby storming into the room to tell you to stop messing around already and answer the question right.
• Storming the Castle: You fly your airship into Memoria, going head to head with an army of dragons, when The Cavalry arrives in the form of an airship fleet that shows up and blasts most of the dragons to pieces.
• Story to Gameplay Ratio: Arguably another turning point, with so much emphasis placed on story that gameplay aspects were adjusted to keep parity with other titles. Experience came unusually easy, with 10k+ exp per battle being common by Disc 3 while exp tables were comparable with earlier entries. AP also comes relatively easy, with Level Grinding in general being less tedious. Disc 3 is unusually linear and lacks any optional dungeons, and the final dungeon is a storybook hallway rather than the typical sprawling labyrinth — design choices clearly to accommodate a focused and FMV-packed main story.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Variation. When the party first meets Eiko, she flees but they find her hanging on a root. The first thing she screams out is that she "tastes awful", and Zidane assumes that Quina was also thinking of eating her — and he's right.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: Thorn uses inverted sentences, like Yoda (and usually says the same thing Zorn says, except Zorn doesn't invert them.)
• Strategy Guide: The official guide was amazingly sparse. It was very general and less than 100 pages. Why was it so empty? Well, it had several codes that would reveal "secret information" if you joined Squaresoft's website and entered them. Yes, they made an awkward competitor to GameFAQs. GameSpy readers listed it among the dumbest moments of the gaming industry, noting this only made Square avoid this for Final Fantasy X.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: At the end of the third Disc Kuja goads the party into attacking him specifically because he needs to harness their aggression and put himself in a state of physical desperation so he can Trance with the accumulated energy of all the souls stolen from the Invincible, gaining god-like power
• Stripperiffic: Kuja, a male example. Just like all Terran males that aren't Zidane. Oddly enough, the females actually dress fairly modestly in this game, except for Beatrix's Amazon Brigade and Garnet's Trance costume.
• Stuck Items: You cannot have your weapon slot be empty, though you may change weapons around and run around "naked" except for your dagger/staff/racket/spear whatever.
• Stupid Good: Similarly, the Cleyrans that lived in a big tree in the desert for hundreds of years without any fighting, thus they forgot how to defend themselves. When Brahne's forces invade to kill everyone in the tree in order to get a MacGuffin, the Clyerans try to reason with the soldiers as the soldiers are attacking! Unfortunately, unlike the above example, this gets them killed very quickly.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Hell, the trope might as well be called "Stupid Sexy Kuja" for the number of fans whose reactions run in that direction. (If they accepted that he was male at all, anyway.)
• Stylistic Suck: Though we don't see all of it, the play "I Want To Be Your Canary" seems to be an overdramatic mishmash of several of Shakespeare's plays (it's even been penned by a "Lord Avon" and has characters named Cordelia, Leo, and Marcus). Oddly enough, there are flashes of quite good dialogue and some interesting story; it's just the onscreen acting that's melodramatic.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Kuja. See above. He's a true example of the "temper tantrum" part of the trope and probably the best example from a Final Fantasy game. Upon discovering he's a mortal and is an Artificial Human who's due to expire any day now because he was only a temporary pawn, he decides if he doesn't get to live, why should anyone else? He's so selfish and arrogant he doesn't think it's fair that life will continue after he's dead.
• Suicidal Pacifism: The citizens living in the tree display this when Queen Brahne's forces attack them; they refuse to fight simply because they forgot how to fight after living in peace for so long. The citizens try to reason with the soldiers, but most people know how well that turns out.
  • It didn't help that they had an almost unbreakable natural defence protecting them until the moment they were attacked, giving them little reason to believe they would even be targeted.
• Suicide Attack: The Zombies at the Iifa tree can MELT all over you.
  • And of course, the series' resident Action Bomb returns, complete with a plot relevant appearance at the start of the game, when Queen Brahne sends one after the Tantalus ship to use its signature Suicide Attack to bring them down.
• Summon Magic: As in VIII, it's a major plot point, albeit a completely different one. This game has summon magic as an Inherent Gift of a tribe of people. In this game, abilities are taught by items, and Eidolons are taught by certain gems. Storywise, they are used as weapons of mass destruction by the villains. The effects of one Eidolon even looks like a nuclear explosion.
• Superboss: There aren't a lot, but as is typical for a Final Fantasy, the ones that are there are extremely challenging. These include the Tantarian, a demon hidden in the pages of a book in Alexandria Castle's library, Master Quale (for catching 99 frogs), Hades (hidden behind some scenery in the final dungeon), and Ozma (a mysterious entity with the highest stats in the game and unique ATB scripting).
• Super-Empowering: Just before the Final Boss, after the party is wiped out by Kuja's self-destructive tantrum, you get to choose which party members to take into the Final Battle with Necron. The remaining ones will then surrender their life energies to resuscitate the chosen ones, in reference to a similar scene from Final Fantasy IV.
• Super Mode: Every character's Trance mode.
  • What's interesting about Final Fantasy IX's case is that the big Bad's One Winged Angel form is a Super Mode; after giving up on wielding the game's Summon Magic, he actually seeks out and harnesses the game's own Limit Break system to empower himself!
• Superpower Lottery: The main character gets this. He's spent sixteen years becoming a master thief and then founds out that he is actually the Angel of Death for his adopted world, complete with Badass powers. Unfortunately, presumably due to his lack of training in use of these powers he can only use them in Trance
• Super Prototype: Vivi, like all Black Mages is an animated doll. However, as the prototype model, his power is greater than that of his "brothers", and his lifespan is much longer, as well. Also in a far darker sense, Kuja is a Prototype of the real Angel of Death Zidane, though it is arguable who is more powerful/competent
• Super-Soldier:
  • Zidane and Kuja are this, but not because they were built to be different or stronger than the other Genomes, but simply because they have souls.
  • A slightly less traditional form of the Super Soldier would be the black mages.
• Supporting Leader: Cid and Beatrix play this role on Disc 4, leading the airship fleet in the Battle of the Iifa Tree against the thousands of Silver Dragons.
• Support Party Member: Garnet before she got her summons. Afterwards, Eiko plays this role, with Freya and Amarant getting a few minor (albeit very useful) support abilities to use in between their primary offensive abilities.
• Suspiciously Cracked Wall: In the chocobo minigame there are cracks in the mountains that can be dug for treasure. You can't see the chocobo break them because of the graphical limitiations.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • When asked about Vivi's grandfather Quan, Quale replies "I not know that bigot!" And then, when Vivi questions why Quale looks so similar to Quan, Quale lets slip that they are from the same tribe... and still continues to deny any knowledge of him.
  • Quina accidentally brings this on him/herself during the "Quina Can't Communicate" ATE. Overhearing talk of a food thief (and having been previously accused of being said thief), s/he says "I-I not the thief". Of course this leads the people to doubt his/her sincerity.
  • Marcus is out to steal a Supersoft, necessary to revive his friend Blank, and Garnet agrees to help. Steiner reluctantly gets dragged into this in order to protect Garnet. When Doctor Tot (the character who owns the Supersoft) finds the three in his basement, Steiner insists that there's a perfectly good reason for it, and that they're not there to steal it or do anything else illegal.
  • An even better example is this exchange:
  Steiner: Have you seen a young girl around?
  Four-Armed Man: What? I haven't seen any beautiful girl with long black hair...
  Steiner: What did you say?!
  Four-Armed Man: N-Nothing! And I certainly didn't take any money from her!
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: First there was a healing spring before the first boss battle in the Evil Forest. Later, right before the first Black Waltz, there's a split path. On the left is a Moogle, which can save and heal you, and on the right is the cutscene for the boss. The problem is this: you need Vivi to free the Moogle from the block of Ice it's trapped in, but if you went right and then went back, Zidane's alone and Vivi can't help him. It doesn't help that the boss has to be fought with just Zidane, so if you went right first, Good Luck!

T

• Tagline: "The crystal comes back."
• Taken for Granite: Early on Blank is turned into stone to protect the heroes from the Evil Forest. He is eventually cured much later in the game. The series' classic Petrify status condition also returns.
  • Also inverted as mentioned in the above Revive Kills Zombie entry. Stone enemies will die if they are hit with a Soft, reverting them from the 'granite' form that they need to live.
• Take That!: The upbeat, optimistic, and very much non-angsty Zidane, male lead, delivers an affectionate barb to his predecessors. "No cloud, no squall shall hinder us!".
• Take Your Time: Although not a very notable example, there is a scene where the main party has to chase Beatrix who is, long story short, an enemy. She leaves the room and you have to go after her... but, not only can you take as long as you want talking to everybody, you can actually talk to the Moogle in the room to spend the night in a Tent. And when you leave the room, you'll still catch up with her right in front of the building. It's like a video game version of The Tortoise and the Hare.
• Taking the Bullet: Zidane has the Protect Girls ability, which, as the name implies, is a variant of Cover that only protects female characters.
• Taking You with Me: When you win the battle against Kuja he casts Ultima to kill off your party, but that leaves him drained off and almost dead — something he probably knows. He didn't succeed, but hey, it's the thought that counts.
  • Kuja's ultimate motivation is that, having discovered that his lifespan is limited and he's going to die soon, he decides to take two whole worlds with him and erase all of existence if he can last long enough.
• Talented Princess, Regular Guy: Princess Garnet Til Alexandros IX, a white mage princess and summoner, traveling with Zidane, a regular teenage thief. ... He turns out to be an alien. She trained to be able to escape her castle, and is determined to fix things diplomatically on her own, but for the most part Garnet just makes things worse by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Zidane ends up cleaning after her messes every time. Garnet has talents, she just really sucks at using them.
• Talking in Your Sleep: If you examine the Moogle's Flute key item (allows you to summon a save moogle on the world map) in the menu, you get a quotation from a character just like any other key item. In this case, the quotation is from lead thief of Tantalus, Baku, and reads "Hey, let me touch that red...bonbon-lookin' thing on your head... Zzz..." =Baku sleeptalking=
• Talking Is a Free Action: Zidane's plot-centric trance during the first miniboss in Evil Forest.
  • Averted in one hair-pulling instance. In order to get the Infinity +1 Sword you have to make it to a certain area near the end of the game before someone else does. If they reach it first, all you find is a note about the sword. The time limit for reaching it? 12 hours. Seems normal, right? Except that it's 12 hours of play time, the area is near the END of the game, and the timer starts from the moment you hit New Game, including every single conversation, battle, and yes, cutscene you've ever seen. You have to pull a Speed Run to get the sword. This can be mitigated by the fact that FMVs are skipped if you open the console's disc cover, but this is impossible if playing a digital version of the game, such as the one available for download on the PS3. The only saving grace is that you can pause at pretty much any time except when an FMV is running and, unlike some Final Fantasy titles, pausing the game will stop the clock.
• Talk to Everyone: In the final dungeon, you can talk to thin air in certain spots to reveal "spirits" to play Tetra Master with.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Zidane, the Handsome Lech who's constantly been hitting on the uninterested Princess Garnet/Dagger, ends up being the target of Eiko's affections as she constantly tries to woo him. Zidane is off-put by her advances, given that she's only six years old, and even remarks that he now knows how uncomfortable Garnet feels about his own constant attempts.
• A Taste of Power: Strangely, this is used a quarter way to halfway through the game when a certain character joins the party as a Guest-Star Party Member. All of her sword skills and white magic are extremely powerful and you can learn every single one of them for your main party, but you won't get the gear that teaches such abilities until at least at the end of disc 2 and later. The character's abilities are there as a crutch to help Freya and Steiner level up since they had been falling behind due to the plot taking them out of the player's control.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Should you choose to recruit Quina on the first disc, you can do so by giving Quina its favorite food: frog.
• Team Chef: Quina Quen is an apprentice chef who at one point helps Eiko prepare a feast for the team.
• Team Spirit: This is a bit of a theme of the game. Zidane says that he and Garnet are more than Just Friends, they're a team, and later he and Amarant have a discussion about what being part of a team means. One of the game's Active Time Events is even called "Team."
• Tears of Joy: Garnet in the ending, upon being reunited with Zidane, who she believed to be dead for a year. Combined with Anger Born of Worry and The Glomp too.

• Technology Porn: We have Ark.
• Tech Points: AP is used to learn skills and abilities. This game deployed perhaps the most complicated twist of any of them. Each character has various passive skills that can only be equipped permanently once mastered via TP accrual. Of course, once learned, they still have to be equipped, using a third set of points that provides a Cap on the number of skills you can use at one time.
• Teleport Spam: Black Waltz No. 2 when it approaches the party.
• Temple of Doom: Ipsen's Castle fits. It's never directly referred to as a "temple", but it serves similar purposes and has traps galore.
• Tempting Fate: A fairly spectacular example in Cleyra, a Hidden Elf Village protected by a magical sandstorm: "No enemy would dare attack us when we strengthen the storm!" "I think strengthening the storm would be good for me." "Strengthening the storm is the best thing you can do right now!" They fail to strengthen the storm. Even worse, the attempt causes the enchantment to break, resulting in there being no storm to protect them.
• Terminally Dependent Society: The Iifa Tree and the Mist are a mild example, because the heroes find an alternative energy source.
• Terms of Endangerment: Kuja refers to Garnet as "my canary".
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Female Moogles are pinkish and wear pink halter tops. Except for Eiko's personal Moogle.
• Thanatos Gambit: Kuja, who decides to destroy all of reality purely out of frustration after he finds out he was created with an expiration date.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change: Since this game is a throwback to the first six games (where the characters had a Super-Deformed style in-game, the typical fantasy setting influence was stronger, and crystals were crucial to the plot), the logo shows a crystal in golden colors.
• Theme Naming:
  • The Queen in Treno goes by Stella, but there's also a Bishop (who owns the synthesis shop and the tower Dr Tot lives in), a Knight (who owns the weapons shop and the creatures in the basement), and a King (who's really the main villain, Kuja).
  • The first and last women in Zidane's life are named Ruby and Garnet.
• There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: According to Quina, there are only two things in this world: Things you can eat, and things you no can eat.
• They Call Him "Sword": "Dagger" is Princess Garnet's alias, though it's Zidane's weapon rather than her own.
• This Is Gonna Suck: The game has one of the best non-vocal moments ever. Just two (glowing) eyes conveys Black Waltz's realisation that lightning magic+wooden airship=loss of control+mid-air explosion. get a single shot of his eyes just as he works this out.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Vivi's Doomsday spell, the ultimate black magic that causes shadow damage to all enemies and all allies at once, making it very likely to cause a Total Party Kill. There's equipment that can nullify or absorb shadow damage, but they quickly get outclassed by better gear later on and there's no random encounter or boss encounter where shadow damage even happens. On top of this, you can cause just as much damage to enemies with Flare or abusing the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors and spending less MP to boot. The Superboss, Ozma, has Doomsday in its arsenal and it will cast it while disregarding its own safety. Remember the equipment that could protect you from shadow damage? They're quite useful here.
  • Though one has to be mindful of its Artificial Brilliance... Ozma will know if your entire party absorbs the Shadow element and, if so, will simply refuse to use the Doomsday spell. Best to have at least one character simply nullify the element, rather than absorbing it.

• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Not just swords, but also staves, rackets, flutes, and forks! Freya also throws her spear during her Jump attack.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Steiner, Knight In, er, Cheap and Rusty Armor, The Big Guy (and also The Lancer) spends a good portion of the game as the Butt-Monkey to Zidane as well as a Chew Toy... BUT! He also manages to hook up with his long-time rival Beatrix in the end (it turned out that she had a crush on him, and then it might actually be mutual). Still feel sorry for the guy?
• Time Abyss: Garland is at the very least 5000 years old, having started the process of assimilating the player's world of Gaia with his world of Terra long ago, through a ridiculously complex procedure too nonsensical to fully explain here, but it's never stated how long he lived before that, or even how long it took him to set up the many things that exist on Gaia that he's used for his work. Ancient structures he built on Gaia can be explored as dungeons filled with Lost Technology. He's watched the growth of all the major civilizations on the planet. For example, he built the massive Iifa Tree and is responsible for the natural phenomenon called "Mist". Given that Mist is the substance upon which the Terminally Dependent Society thrives, it's pretty clear that Garland has been around and working for a very long time.
• Timed Mission:
  • Chocobo's Hot & Cold.
  • Plot-related examples are the return to Alexandria from Cleyra, and Cid's role in the Desert Palace.
• Tim Taylor Technology: One guy you can talk to asks you if the engine for an airship should go in the front or the back. If you reply that it should go in the front, he throws a fit and says that it should go in the back, because "putting it in the front provides more stability, but less power!" This is lampshaded by another guy standing next to him, who sagely points out that most airship engineers are weird, and wonders why that is.
• Title In: This was the first installment to show the name of areas when you first enter.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Steiner and Beatrix both have to deal with this when they turn against Queen Brahne after they realize her lust for power has driven her mad. Steiner in particular is extremely conflicted about this. It takes Steiner much longer to realize the truth compared to Beatrix and it isn't until Steiner actually witnesses Brahne's lackeys, Zorn and Thorn, rip Garnet's Summon Magic out of her soul and learning that Brahne wanted Garnet dead and had her soldiers attack Beatrix (someone he had feelings for) for her betrayal that Steiner finally decides to go against the Queen and fight to protect the people he cares about.
• Token Human: Possibly the case. Zidane is a genome, Vivi is a Black Mage, an artificial life form, Garnet is a Summoner, Freya is a Burmecian, Quina is a Qu, and Eiko is a Summoner. Amarant is never said to be non-human, but he has blue skin and rather strange hair, and there are plenty of unnamed but clearly non-human races around in world in the form of NPCs. It's possible that Steiner is the only outright human in the group.
• Token Mini-Moe: Eiko (back to form: she's 6)
• Token Nonhuman: Nearly^note or over, for strict enough definitions of "human" half the party, making them not really "token" at all.
  • The only one that is clearly human is Steiner. The other include a tailed Genome (Zidane), human-like summoners^note Born with horns in their heads, though Garnet's was surgically removed (Garnet & Eiko), a Black Mage^note Which, in this setting, are basically living dolls (Vivi), a Burmecian (Freya), a Qu (Quina) and a blue-skinned man who might be human (Amarant).
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Little Miss Badass eidolon summoner Eiko and Lady of War Freya. Garnet plays with the two types. She's an elegant princess and white mage, but is also an eidolon summoner and shows tomboy traits when trying to blend in as a commoner. At one point, a villager sees her picking up an oglop bug and tells her that girls are usually afraid of them, so she pretends to freak out over it.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Presumably the book that contains Tantarian.
• Tomato Surprise: Zidane is actually Garland's "Angel of Death" originally sent to destroy Gaia.
• Too Awesome to Use:
  • The Dark Matter item. Unstoppable 9,999 damage for zero MP cost, and there are only three in the game (two of which are stolen and dropped from Superboss Ozma respectively). Smart players, on the other hand, will keep it around just long enough so their summoners can learn Odin off it, and then use it on a boss.
  • The game also has several examples of Too Awesome to Synthesize with certain jewels, of which there are only 2-4 of in the entire game:
  • The accessories obtained from the Moonstone and Ruby are not worth synthesizing since they can be bought from the Auction House. The Emerald and Diamond fare better, since they lead to otherwise rare and limited accessories that teach the valuable Auto-Haste and Auto-Life skills respectively, but it's hard to justify giving them up permanently if one can find them through other means.
  • Superboss Hades also has two examples of these in his Synthesis shop. The Pumice teaches the ultimate summon Ark to Garnet, except that it requires giving up the only two Pumice Pieces not obtained from Ozma, which are better off used to beat Ozma in the first place since they absorb Shadow damage while the Pumice does nothing else, and Ozma always drops the Pumice anyway. He also sells the Protect Ring, the best defensive accessory in the game, except its synthesis requires the aforementioned Dark Matter and the similarly rare Rebirth Ring (the aforementioned Auto-Life accessory), which there are only two of in the entire game, not counting the ones forged from Diamond^note Or the one stolen from Kuja, which can't be kept permanently anyway.. There are more Protect than Rebirth Rings found through sidequests, and they can be grinded for through Chocobo Hot & Cold.
• Took a Level in Badass: When Eiko's personal Moogle becomes the whole-planets-squeezing Madeen.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Adelbert Steiner starts out as the most reluctant member of the party, only going along to protect Princess Garnet. He has a big grudge against Zidane for "kidnapping" her (it's complicated) and for being a no-good scoundrel, but he eventually realizes that Zidane is actually a good person.
• Too Long; Didn't Dub: Guest-Star Party Member Beatrix's special skill menu named "Seiken" ("Holy Sword"), despite her being a knight from pseudo-medieval Europe.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Non-antagonist example: This is approximately what happens when the player tries to use Quina's Eat/Cook ability on a not-yet-properly-beaten enemy^note To "Eat", the enemy has to be at 1/4 or less of its Max HP but not completely dead; for "Cook" (the Trance version of Eat), it has to be at 1/2 or less. So here we have the animation of Quina eagerly waltzing his/her way forward brandishing a fork in his/her attempt to "eat" the enemy, only to claim "I no can eat until it weaker!" a few seconds later.
  • Some enemies such as bosses and humanoids can't be eaten at all; trying this gives a slightly different message: "I no can eat!" after trying, regardless of the target's HP level.
• Total Party Kill:
  • It's possible to do this to yourself. Doomsday casts Shadow damage on everything on the field, both your party and the enemies, and being the most powerful spell in your arsenal, it's more than capable of wiping out your entire party along with the enemies. There are two ways around this: you can either merge the attack with Steiner's sword to focus it on a single enemy, or you can equip gear that will negate or absorb darkness spells to each of your party members.
  • And then there is Ozma. If you're unlucky enough, Ozma may cast Meteor at the beginning of the battle, and it will kill your entire party before your first turn.
  • Similarly, climbing up the vines within Gizamaluke's Grotto leads you to a part of the world map that contain monsters that are at least 50 levels above your party's levels and you won't actually see them on a regular basis until Disc 3 or 4. You face off against dragons that can cast Thundaga on your party and wipe them out in one shot or cause the Venom status that immobilizes the victim and has their HP and MP slowly drain. The other kind of monster in the area are large birds that can cast Firaga and Stop on your party. You're given a fair warning by a Moogle in the previous area to not climb up, so continuing anyway puts the blame on you.
• Tournament Arc: There are two Breather Episodes disguised as these.
  • First, the Festival of the Hunt in Lindblum, where monsters are let loose on the streets; whoever kills the most wins. A fun competition in between the tense action leaving Dali and the onset of Cerebus Syndrome after leaving Lindblum for Burmecia, and an opportunity to receive a prize of your choice (win as Zidane for money, let Freya win for a useful Accessory, or go out of your way to get Vivi to win for a Tetra Master card).
  • The second is at the beginning of Disc 3; after the emotionally draining events of Disc 2's climax, your whole party (sans Steiner and Garnet - who have to deal with Alexandria in the wake of Brahne's death) takes a vacation in Treno, with Zidane partaking in a card-game tournament against players from all over the continent. Once again, winning nets you a useful accessory: the Rebirth Ring.
• Town Girls: The game gives us the Burmecian dragon knight Freya (butch), Princess Classic Garnet (femme) and Bratty Half-Pint Eiko (neither).
• Town with a Dark Secret: The village of Dali, which has a Black Mage factory underground.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Moogles are kupo for Kupo Nuts.
  • All Qu love frogs.
  • Steiner acquires quite a taste for gysahl pickles.
• Tranquil Fury: The BSOD undertaken by the main antagonist by setting fire to an entire planet is done with just the hint of a serene smile on his face... although it may be more properly described as Dissonant Serenity.
• Transforming Mecha: Ark when summoned.
• Trap Door: These start to appear in Ipsen's Castle.
• Traveling Landmass: The "Chocobo's Air Garden" will hover over one of six random locations on the world map. Once you've been there, it's current location can be found on the player's map, but before that it's identifiable by the circular shadow on the ground beneath it (hard to spot if it's over water). Getting there the first time requires the player to dig up all 6 pieces of the map to the island (which is really just a series of clues to the locations it might be found) by playing the Chocobo Treasure Hunt Mini-game and leveling up the Chocobo's abilities so that it is able to fly AND the use of a Dead Pepper every time the player wants to return to the Garden.
  • The Air Garden gets you access to the last couple of Chocobo treasure maps, the optional super-tough side boss Ozma (but not the ability to HIT it with attacks, that's a whole other side quest), and the most difficult but most rewarding area to play the treasure hunt minigame (helpful if one is trying to pick up some of the semi-unique rewards).
• Tree Trunk Tour: The path to Cleyra combines this with Shifting Sand Land.
• Trippy Finale Syndrome: The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is a collective mishmash of ancestral memories, taking the party to locations from the entire world's history (made stranger given that the Save Points, which have all been Moogles up to this point, are now replaced by lifeless technicolor orbs that record memories), and ending with the origin of the universe. And for some reason, after you win, there's a play.
  • Book Ends. The game starts with a play.
• Triumphant Reprise: Beatrix's gloomy theme is revisited as a much more uplifting, spirited theme later on during a fight in a certain plot-important town.
  • It's actually remixed once before that as well, into a sadder, more introspective version, when the player sees that she's actually torn for having to follow the queen's evil plans.
• True Companions:
  • There's a similarly strong message about the importance of true companions and how what you do and who you love is more important than where you come from. This is most strongly illustrated during the You Are Not Alone Alone sequence, when Zidane's tendency to help people for no real reason other than it's the right thing to do pays off in spades. Broken in mind and spirit, he's in the middle of a Heroic BSoD when his friends risk life and limb to save him, because he'd have done it for them. It's absolutely beautiful.
  • At the end of the game once the party realizes they can't convince Zidane to not go back to the Iifa Tree and be at Kuja's dying side, Freya and Steiner state that they will go with him and face the danger alongside him. Zidane simply rejects their help, as he wants to do it alone and doesn't want anyone else to get hurt.
• True Love's Kiss: Hilda gives one to Cid when she releases him from her spell.
• 24-Hour Armor: Steiner, much to the amusement of the main character.
  • Contrast with Beatrix, his fellow military officer and rival, who wears no armour whatsoever.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: Fenrir's default attack has this effect.
• Two-Keyed Lock: The Four Shrines must be activated simultaneously, but the only impact this has on gameplay is forcing you to fight a boss with just two characters; you don't control the rest.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: The party members split up halfway through Disc 1 to comply with the game's Arbitrary Headcount Limit, and the story shifts back and forth between them until they reunite halfway through Disc 2.

U

• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Princess Garnet turned out not to be the daughter of the gigantically obese, blue, ogreish Queen Brahne, seemingly averting this, but then you remember that Garnet was picked for Brahne's adopted daughter because she looked nearly identical to the Queen's recently deceased baby and then your mind starts boggling again.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: The game had one, in the form of Hades, situated in the Final Dungeon, and he's actually a GOD, and you have to beat him up. And he is also hidden somewhat offscreen nicely, so you could easily skip him without a guide if you're not rummaging every single corner.
• Uncommon Time: "Run!" which plays whenever the party must escape a place within a time limit. It has three bars of 5/4 + two of 6/8 for the main melody, and uses 4/4 + 7/8 in the mid parts. The frequency of the time changes combined with the overall speed of the song is positively frantic - the player knows he's got to get out now.
  • "Ambush Attack" is mostly in 9/4, though it has a section in 8/4. This section ends with a measure in 10/4 just to make sure you're paying attention.
  • The final battle theme is mostly in 4/4, but there are some extra beats thrown in here and there, so there are some measures in metre signatures like 5/4.
• Underground Level: Fossil Roo, Gargan Roo, and Mt. Gulug.
• Underground Monkey: This game averts this wonderfully, as each enemy is unique and there aren't any Palette Swap foes, with the exception of the vepal, who appears in blue and red, the ten Fairy Battles, and the Crystal versions of the Four Fiends.
• Underrated and Overleveled: Eiko. Her heritage as a member of the summoner tribe of Madain Sari explains her power to use eidolons. The fact that she's capable of powerful healing magic and has a level comparable to the rest of your characters, who by this point have fought their way through some of the strongest foes an entire continent could offer, when she's only six years old, is another matter entirely.
• Undying Loyalty: Steiner is portrayed as loyal to the royal family of Alexandria, there in which lies his personal conflict when he's forced to choose between loyalty to Queen Brahne and his sworn duty to protect Princess Garnet.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • You play as Cid in a Red Light Green Light type minigame at one point.
  • The game had a number of minigames, including a footrace, a frog-catching game, a treasure hunting game, and a game where the player has to make a frog sneak up to steal a key without being noticed by a monster. Fortunately, most of these games are entirely optional, merely giving the player additional treasures and bonuses that make the player characters stronger but otherwise aren't needed to beat the game.
  • There is one short portion that requires you to play a card game, but you only have to win a few battles. However, you miss out on a nifty item if you don't win all the card battles. Besides that, the only reason to play the game is to... get all the cards.
  • It also features Chocobo Hot and Cold where you use a chocobo to dig around in a forest (and a few other areas) to get items. You also find treasure maps that guide you to treasures spread around the world that you can dig up with your chocobo. This is entirely optional, but you get some of the best weapons and armor in the game from it, sometimes much sooner than you should.
• The Unfought:
  • Queen Brahne is never fought, and is instead killed by Kuja.
  • The game also subverts this trope with the Four Fiends. At first, when the characters split into four groups to take them on, only one (Lich) is actually fought by the player, the other battles taking place offscreen. However, in the final dungeon they're revived and all four are indeed faced in battle.
• Unholy Nuke: The spell "Doomsday", which damages everyone on the battlefield with the Shadow element, and is the most potent Black Magic spell. To use it effectively, you have to shield your party from that element.
• Unknown Rival: Eiko calls herself Garnet's rival to Garnet's face at one point. Garnet's reaction is basically "Huh?"
• Uncanny Valley: The stone faces in Oeilvert. Creepily detailed and seemingly static faces that suddenly glow and talk to the party about the history of Terra. Your party members will even express how freaked out they are by the faces.
• Unstoppable Mailman: The game has you being the Unstoppable Mailman for the Moogles, who are save points. While you rarely have to go out of your way to deliver their letters, you have to wonder just for what reason the Moogles are hanging around in deadly dungeons.
• Unusual Halo: The infamous Final Boss, Necron, sports three halos: one affixed to his head like a crown, and two progressively larger ones revolving around it like a nucleus; for good measure, the latter two continuously phase through his neck and torso. All three appear to have been carved from the same stone-like substance as the rest of him.
• Updated Re-release: The game saw an updated re-release on Steam and Android/iOS in 2016. While the core game itself remained untouched (including whatever bugs and glitches the original game had), several enhancements were added; all character models got higher resolution textures, new higher resolution sprites are used for Tetra Master cards, CGI cutscenes can be skipped, achievements were added, a turbo speed mode, no encounters mode, and several game boosters (cheats) were added, such as max damage, max level, max HP/MP and always Trance, etc.
• Upgrade Artifact: All the equipment in the game. A slow acting version, with gemstones and special weapons that contained special abilities that they "taught" to the character. Characters had to wear the item though enough battles to fully learn the ability. Afterward, they could throw away the mentor-item like so much used tissue paper.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Zidane also seems to suit this trope. Although he admits freely to constantly having the ladies on his mind, and is an incorrigible flirt, his advances never seem to move past appreciative banter and the occasional suggestion of a date, usually rebuffed with a modicum of shyness/dismissiveness/pleased giggling. In fact, his overtures are so cheerfully obvious that they somehow manage to circle back around and become bizarrely charming. The fun for Zidane seems to be in the game of pursuit, not the 'catch'...and when he does find the girl of his dreams, it only takes a few weeks for his focus to narrow drastically.
• Urban Segregation:
  • Lindblum where there are different districts, some of which are blatantly poorer than others. There's no tension because of this though as Lindblum is a giant sprawling industrial city with jobs for everyone.
  • Treno, reverses the usual trend as a city divided into the rich section by the low-ground (along the water) and the poor, crime-ridden section built up the hill.
• Urine Trouble: Zidane and Vivi share a male bonding moment when they both pee off the edge of a cliff in one scene.

V

• Vain Sorceress: Kuja is another male character along the lines of this (though his gender isn't necessarily obvious at first glance.) He's quite vain about his appearance and while he doesn't specifically pursue eternal youth, this is because he mistakenly believes he's already immortal; upon learning that he isn't, he has a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum because he can't bear the thought of the world existing without him.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Regent Cid was transformed into an insect-like creature called an oglop, and while he can still speak English, he still makes a "gwok" sound every few words or so. Then he tries to get cured, and turns into a frog, and the gwok is replaced with a ribbit. When he finally returns to being human, he's so used to the verbal tics that he still gwoks and ribbits on occasion.
  • Of course, there's the moogles too, kupo. (Except for Eiko's personal moogle, the only one with Pokémon Speak. At first, anyway. Stiltzkin is also an exception to this, as he says "kupo" little to never.)
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Memoria.
• Victory Pose:
  • Gameplay and Story Integration adds an interesting layer, as characters will refuse to perform their victory poses after a battle if they're feeling depressed or worried due to their current role in the plot. Vivi, Garnet, and Amarant are the most prominent examples.
  • Amarant won't do his for ages. Not until he starts to accept the others.
• Videogame Caring Potential: During the invasion of Cleyra, you can hurt the Alexandrian soldiers enough to make them flee, rather than killing them. After all, they didn't start the war either...
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: One of the Knights of Pluto wants to quit the Alexandrian army to become a writer, and asks Steiner if he can leave the Knights. Steiner can either say that he'll eventually let the knight leave, but first he has to find Princess Garnet, or he can be a Jerkass and yell at the knight, telling him he can't leave before basically telling him to get off his lazy behind and find the princess. Either way, the poor knight runs off in tears.
• Video Game Geography: If you fly off the east/west side of the map, you show up on the west/east side of the map. Good and logical for a spherical world, yes? However, if you were to fly past the north/south border, you would end up at the south/north border... thus leading us to realize that the world, in fact, behaves as toroid.
• Video Game Stealing: The main character and all of his friends seen at the beginning of the game are thieves, and even the game's tutorial battle subverts the usual "Attack, get hit, attack" pattern by adding a tantalizing 'Steal' button to all of the characters' action menus. Taken to ridiculous extremes for boss characters. Most bosses can have up to four items to be stolen and the more rare items are harder to steal. If you plan to get powerful equipment early or are aiming for 100% Completion, be prepared to spend a long time trying to steal everything from enemies.
  • Zidane actually gets stronger the more you steal this way, too. Every successful steal powers up the damage done by a certain cheap ability, "Thievery". Zidane can become capable of dishing out far more magic damage then the dedicated Black Mage, and while Zidane can't cast Osmose to fuel his casting of the move, the extremely cheap cost of this ability will still allow him to spam it in boss battles, making him as good a Black Mage as Vivi while still having higher health, good damage, and of course, the awesome steal ability.
• Villain Ball: Subverted with General Beatrix. She wrecks your party in a boss fight and leaves you for dead without finishing the job. You meet her later, a bit stronger then you were before, and she still stomps you effortlessly. The party fights her three times over the course of the game, and they never win.
• Villainous Breakdown: Black Waltz 3 and Kuja.
  • Kuja spends a good portion of the final part of the game hopelessly insane with rage upon discovering he's mortal and will eventually die, and was just a temporary tool of The Man Behind the Man (and that the protagonist Zidane is essentially a far more advanced model of what he was supposed to be.) Kuja ends up blowing up one world and very nearly blows up another in quick succession.
• Villainous Harlequin: Zorn and Thorn.
• Villain's Dying Grace: Kuja refuses to let Zidane go down with him during the latter's attempts to save him. He teleports the heroes away and to a safe location once they've defeated Necron, the Avatar of Death.
• Villain Song: There's the song Grand Cross. While not being sung by Necron himself and not having lyrics at all, this is still a music that contains lot of people screaming in panic and agony, which kinda goes along with Necron, being the embodiment of humans' fear, helplessness, and suffering when faced with death.
• Villains Out Shopping: Literally, after Lindblum is invaded by Alexandria — pay attention to what the female soldiers say.
• Violence is the Only Option: Done again where the queen attacks Clerya and the residents try to reason with the enemy, only to be killed. Zidane and some residents from Burmecia are fed up that the peace keepers can't fight and vow to slaughter every soldier that gets in the way.
• Visible Silence: After the destruction of Alexandria, Garnet becomes mute out of shock and some of her attacks fail because she's unable to concentrate. She only breaks her silence after visiting the grave of her mother. She's given a few thought bubbles during this point, but much of the game's dialogue features ellipses in her scenes to get the point across.
  • The returning 'Silence' status once again features this as the HUD icon.
• The Voiceless: Garnet after her Heroic BSoD.
• Vortex Barrier: The town of Cleyra is protected from the outside world by a powerful sandstorm. Unfortunately an attempt to strengthen the storm accidentally turns it off, leaving the place vulnerable to an attack by Queen Brahne.

W

• Wacky Wayside Tribe: The dwarves. They live on Chokepoint Geography, provide a lead to the Black Mage village, and conduct weddings for your characters. And that's it.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • The Plant Brain uses blinding attacks on your mostly melee-oriented party and does some pretty bad damage. Luckily, there's a free health and MP restoring spring in the room before it.
  • Black Waltz 1, the next boss after Plant Brain. He begins by summoning an ally... and you have to fight the pair of them alone. Hopefully you're close to Trance by that point, but if you use it too early (instead of as a finisher) you'll need to contend with a low health boss — and that only means trouble.
  • Master Gizamaluke. He has high stats for that point in the game, and powerful spells that will put quite a number on your party. Recruiting Quina can make the battle easier, but it's still a harder boss than most previous enemies encountered before him.
  • Beatrix. Aside from the fact that she will end the battle once her HP bar is depleted, shrug off your attempt at fighting her and leave your whole party at death's door, she is a force to be reckoned with, as she is able to cast Holy on your party, and her "Shock" sword art is extremely powerful... so powerful that it will kill anyone hit by it (until your fight with her, no other bosses could one-hit kill someone). It is then important to revive your characters often and deal damage in the meantime if you wish to win, making her a formidable foe.
• Walking Disaster Area: Summed up well by The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Clichés (such an example that it named this trope after him). Surprisingly, it all happens for plot reasons (at least in theory) and none of the characters in the game (Zidane included) seem to notice the pattern.
  Zidane's Curse (or, Dirty Pair Rule): An unlucky condition in which every major city in the game will coincidentally wind up being destroyed just after the hero arrives.
• Walk into Mordor: An inversion: neither Terra nor Memoria are accessible by foot.
• Wall Glower: All the characters gather round a table for a meeting... except The Stoic Amarant, who leans against the wall with his arms folded.
• War Arc: From halfway through Disc One until the end of Disc Two is a long one, showing Brahne's bid for power - even going as far as stealing her daughter's powers to do it. She actually makes good progress on her goal of owning the entire Mist Continent - too bad Kuja turns Bahamut back on her.
• War Is Hell: To prevent Princess Garnet from experiencing this is exactly why Steiner doesn't want her to get involved with investigating whether Queen Brahne was responsible for an attack on Burmecia.
  Steiner: War is a terrible thing! You must never experience it like I have.
• Watching Troy Burn: Actually, you get to watch pretty much every city you come to burn. Several of these where summons are used as weapons of mass destruction. You are generally treated to the complete destruction, or at the very least decimation, of every single town or settlement, and in one case an entire planet, that you visit. Garnet's first hometown, the Village of the Summoners, gets Death from Above from Garland before the game starts. Freya's hometown of Burmecia is a charred ruin by the time you arrive, and Cleyra and its population get hit with Odin, whose attack sequence plays out like an atom bomb. Lindblum is treated to a dual attack by Brahne's black mages and the summoned Atmos. In a serious Player Punch, Alexandria is ravaged by Bahamut, becomes a battleground between it and Alexander, before being carpet-bombed by Garland- leaving poor Garnet mute. Finally, Terra is treated to multiple Ultimas via Kuja.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Ark's second attack and the eye of the Invincible.
• Weaponized Landmark: Alexandrian Castle.

• Weapon of X-Slaying: The game allows characters to equip various "killer" abilities (e.g. Demon Killer, Bird Killer) that cause whatever weapon they have to deal bonus damage. Strangely enough, the aforementioned 'Bird Killer' isn't specifically for birds... it's for any airborne enemy. The description says "flying enemies", but even the Superboss Ozma, a giant sphere with no defining features, is weak to "Bird Killer".
• Weapon Twirling: Zidane does this for his victory animation when he's equipped with the double-edged 'thief swords'. Freya does this when getting into her 'Ready' animation after an attack is chosen.
• We Are as Mayflies: Sadly subverted, where Black Mages seem to have much shorter lifespans than regular humans.
  • Played straight in the case Garland, however, though it's not clear to what extent his lifespan mirrors that of regular Terrans, or if he's simply an ageless automaton (given that he was 'created' by them). See Time Abyss.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: The game has this trope in the beginning of disc 1. Vivi, and then Garnet are captured by a plant monster and the monster gradually sucks up their HP. Vivi can cast Fire on the monster on his own while Garnet is helpless. Should either character have their HP be reduced to 0, Game Over.
• We'll See About That: This is Zidane's response when the Earth Guardian tells him that it's futile for the split group to try conquering all four of the elemental shrines at once.
• Western Zodiac: The game features a Zodiac-themed sidequest, which involves collecting Stellazzio coins for the amusement of Queen Stella. Collect all twelve and the engravings on them form a love story about who captured the heart of Virgo; suggest the existence of a 13th coin (Ophiuchus) and you'll be tasked with following the clues on each coin (a series of directions) to conclude the story. They point to the location of one of the previous coins, where the Ophiuchus is found with the final engraving.
  "Their future was uncertain, but Scorpio and Virgo kissed in the light of dusk. That moment meant everything."
• Wham Episode: The entire portion spanning Gizamaluke's Grotto to the end of the current disc. This marks the first time the effects of the war are shown in detail, with the Burmecians being slaughtered by the Black Mage assault. The final scene in the disc is also the first glimpse you get of the true antagonist, and it ends with the party nearly getting killed by Beatrix. It really shows you exactly what kind of game you're going to be in for, despite everything beforehand. To compare, before all of this, the game has an overall light-hearted tone (especially given the art style), with a definite nostalgic overlay. Aside from the occasional glimpse here and there, it appears to be fairly standard fantasy JRPG fare. Then it takes a sharp left to Darker and Edgier.
• Wham Line: Two, both from Garland:
  • "Twelve years ago, I lost one of my most prized Genomes. I created him and sent him to Gaia to disrupt the cycle of souls there. You are that Genome."
  • "I constructed the Genomes to be vessels for the souls of Terra when they awaken. But 24 years ago, I gave life to a Genome that was very much like you. His will was too strong to make him into a proper vessel, and I even considered discarding him. But then I thought that I should put his strength to use. I sent that Genome as my servant, to disrupt the cycle of souls on Gaia. The one I sent to Gaia might also be called your brother...and his name is Kuja."
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • About the time Cleyra gets demolished, pretty much the entire sidestory involving Freya, Fratley, and their entire species gets dropped (apart from a couple who show up in Lindblum during Disc 3 if you saved them earlier in the game and an ATE showing the reconstruction of Burmecia, which Freya states that she'll help with after defeating Kuja). Bonus points for them being a literal rodent race.
  • Also happens halfway through the game when you lose half of your party (Freya included). They rejoin you without ever mentioning what they'd been up to.
  • Also, a very well hidden quest reveals Garnet's childhood name, to the amazement of the cast. And then it's never mentioned again.
  • Dr. Tot just kind of vanishes from the story after Cid turns into a Frog. You can find him at his house in Treno, but he never appears in the plot again. He doesn't even show up during the ending.
• What Is Evil?: Along with mortality, one of the main themes of the story.
  • Is Queen Brahne "evil" or simply misguided?
  • Are Zidane and Tantalus "evil" simply for being thieves, or are they heroic rebels?
  • Is Beatrix "evil" for helping Brahne commit the worst of her atrocities, or is she just a loyal subject attempting to serve her queen in the only way she knows how?
  • Is Kuja evil? He considers himself a Card-Carrying Villain, and delights in mischief, deceit, and death, as well as possessing an It's All About Me attitude that borders on sociopathy. However, he is so polite that a long-time captive actually vouches for him, he has a very understandable Freudian Excuse, he winds up switching his views right before his death, and in the end, Mikoto acknowledges that while what he did was far from right, it still demonstrated that the Genomes could be more than their intended purpose.
  • Is Garland evil? Not only is he responsible for Kuja's Freudian Excuse, he also gave Kuja the job of bringing war to Gaia in the first place, comitted genocide on the summoners for posing a threat to his plans, countered Kuja's attempt at claiming Alexander by carpet-bombing Alexandria (killing hundreds, if not thousands of people in the process), and his ultimate plan involves the assimilation of Gaia and the death of its people. However, this is all in the cause of allowing the Terrans to be reborn; literally everything Garland does is to accomplish this goal - to the point that Zidane notices that he doesn't seem to have any other goal or aspirations in life. (In fact, Garland explicitly states that this was the reason why he was created.) Finally, following his defeat, he helps Zidane stop Kuja from destroying the Crystal, ultimately saving Gaia in the process.
• What Is This Feeling?: Two of the sentient Black Mages experience this with a Chocobo egg that they find and incubate within the village. When a healthy young Chocobo eventually hatches from the egg, its dedicated caretakers are of course excited about the new arrival. Unfortunately, they can't quite understand why liquid should be coming from their eyes — unaware that they are experiencing overwhelming joy for the first time. The black mages in general also have trouble properly processing their feelings about things such as death, having originally been designed as automatons and only just recently gaining sentience.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Deconstructed with the Black Mages. Ironically, Black Waltz No. 3 holds this attitude towards them. When Vivi and Steiner angrily confront him for callously slaughtering a group of Black Mages trying to protect Vivi, he brushes it off, claiming many more will be produced anyway.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: When looking for Garnet, Zidane asks a moogle if he had seen a "cute" girl. The moogle says he hadn't, but did see an "ugly" girl pass by not too long ago. A short time later, it was revealed to be Garnet after all.
  • The game has both fuzzy doll-like black mages, and the rat-like Burmecians and Cleyrans plus a plethora of bit player species whom you don't interact with much.
• What the Hell, Player?:
  • The game has fun with this one when Zidane is going over the plan to kidnap Queen Brahne Princess Garnet with the other thieves. Their boss will ask you to confirm their target, and if you pick the wrong reply, he gets cross and asks the question again. Choose the wrong answer enough times (64!), and Ruby will actually come into the room and tell Zidane to quit being stupid and answer the question.
  • Calling the save moogle and canceling repeatedly will also cause him to give increasingly annoyed messages, eventually causing him to tell you that "I'm sharpening my knife, kupo" before he finally starts yelling "STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT! KUPOOOOH!" at you.
• When It Rains, It Pours: It's always raining heavily in and around Burmecia. Initially this seems to be for dramatic effect, but you'll find it's still raining like crazy there long after the plot has forgotten it.
• When Trees Attack: Soulcage (evil zombie tree) and Stroper.
  • The living avatar of the Iifa Tree, Soulcage, is a particularly nasty boss, too. Those who try to attempt the logically obvious "Kill It with Fire" will be unpleasantly surprised.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The game shows some animations of the principle players and their fates some time after the game as Queen Garnet recalls Zidane's sacrifice. Later, Garnet attends a play given by the Tantalus players, one of whom removes his hood at the climax of the drama revealing himself to be Zidane.
  • The ending scene shows other characters in its epilogue:Steiner and Beatrix are now Alexandrian nobles, Eiko is adopted by Cid and Hilda, Amarant returns to his adventuring days along with Lani, Quina keeps being a Chef, Freya and Fratley fall in love all over again, and Vivi dies, but not before leaving a load of clones around.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Kuja, who is ten times prettier than Sephiroth. He's referred to several times in-game as a "narcissist", which is a rather mild description for someone who dresses like this◊. Oh, and not letting reality exist without him. He even has a matching silver dragon.
• White Mage: The game had Garnet dress as a White Mage, and this was her primary use for the first part of the game. Once she gets her summons back, however, she's more of a Red Mage. Eiko Carol is introduced immediately after as the party's white magic specialist.
• White Magician Girl: Garnet uses magical "rackets" as well as staves. She fit this trope to a T until she starts getting her summons back, at which point she shifts to a more offensive-oriented character. Interestingly, this change is also marked by her cutting her long hair.
  • Despite her superior White Magic, Eiko is absolutely not a White Magician Girl. She's aggressive, tomboyish, and her flirting is as cheesy and annoying as Zidane's^note In fact, it convinced Zidane to go easier on Garnet in the future.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Steiner is terrified by oglops, which are squishy but otherwise harmless insects. So is Blank, though not to the same degree (he says he "can't stand them", but is able to put up with them for the sake of the plan to kidnap the princess). Though when Blank's armour breaks and the oglops are released, both Steiner and Blank begin running around in a panic. Garnet later fakes a fear of oglops in order to make her "ordinary girl" act more convincing.
  • As part of its many Call Backs to earlier Final Fantasy games, Vivi Orunitia, just like Bartz, has a fear of heights stemming from falling from a great height when he was young (specifically falling out of the cargo ship.)
• Wicked Cultured: Kuja, as evidenced by his ridiculously luxurious desert mansion decorated with pristine statuary and wall-to-wall stained-glass windows. He's also got extensive knowledge of theater, particularly Lord Avon's "I Want To Be Your Canary".
• William Fakespeare: 'I Want to Be Your Canary' is an obvious parallel to Romeo and Juliet. The play is credited to a Lord Avon, as in Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. Also, one of the minor characters in the game is named Puck. Additionally, in the original Japanese, the king, played by Baku, was named King Lear.
• Winged Humanoid: The Black Waltzes that the Queen sends after Garnet have navy blue-feathered wings, matching their cloaks. The child Eiko wears a pair of tiny, decorative wings on her back, which are actually a hindrance due to the villains' fondness for catching her by them. Then, in possibly the strangest occurrence of the trope, the gigantic living castle, Alexander, grows shining white wings that it uses to defend Alexandria from Bahamut's attack; quite horrifically, Garland's fatal attack on Alexander causes the wings to rot.)
• "With Our Swords" Scene: A variation. Much of the story is about the characters' finding their purpose or reason for fighting. At the end of the game, a Hopeless Boss Fight sees your entire party defeated just as the True Final Boss reveals itself. Whichever four party members are inactive share their reason for fighting or the meaning they have found in their journey together, each reviving one of the active party members for the boss fight that immediately follows.
• Wolverine Claws: Amarant uses them.
• Woman Scorned: Lady Hilda. When she discovered that her husband, Regent Cid, had cheated on her, she used magic to turn him into an oglop (a type of bug) and he was left that way for quite a while because she ended up getting kidnapped. After she was finally found, she turned him back into human, but not before threatening to turn him into a hedgehog pie (a type of monster) if he ever cheated again.
• Wonder Twin Powers: Zorn and Thorn, twin jesters that give each other meteor and flare powers during one mini-boss sequence. The trick is to hit the jester who just received the power before he can use it. Though it turns out they're actually one creature with two bodies.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Kuja wasn't that bad.... all he did was destroy an entire planet and horribly manipulate everyone.... OK, maybe he was that bad, but you still have to feel sorry for him in the end.
• The Worf Barrage: There's Kuja's unforgettable fight with Bahamut. Kuja gets a Fantastic Nuke to the face. It barely draws blood.
• World of Chaos: "Memoria", a mindscape created above the Iifa tree where Zidane and his party face off against Kuja in the final disc; it's a jumble of scenes and buildings gathered from the collective memory of the entire planet, where it's possible to walk through a giant, city-destroying eyeball into the ruins of a town it just attacked, walk up a staircase leading into space, pass through a waterfall and find yourself swimming through an ancient coral reef, or climb a ladder that overlooks the birth of the planet itself. Thankfully, Garland's around to explain what's happening.
• World Tree: The Iifa Tree, whose roots spread worldwide and can be seen protruding in all the continents; grown by the Big Bad specifically to siphon souls away from the planet Gaia, it also pumps a noxious gas known as the Mist across the continents its roots have infested, gradually driving those who breathe it to violence and war. It also houses the gateway to the Very Definitely Final Dungeon on Disc 4.
• World-Wrecking Wave: The Mist. When the Iifa tree is destroyed, the mist covering the continents is removed, then when the party returns from Terra, it has returned. Though this is an example of the World-Wrecking Wave having been active before the start of the story.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: "To Brother Gil - Bro, I found the sword, like you told me. But there were two. One of 'em had a lame name, Something II. It was a dingy, old thing with flashy decorations, something you'd probably like. So I went with Excalipur. I'll be back after I find the Tin Armor." - note from Enkido found when the player obtains the Excalibur II, the best weapon.
• Would Hit a Girl: Since Alexandria is a primary antagonist in the first couple of disks, their all-female army shows up a lot. The protagonists have no qualms about defending themselves against the women, or attacking Beatrix either.
• Would Hurt a Child: Played with. The party has two children in it, meaning most enemies attack them too. For a looser definition of child, Garnet is only sixteen during the game.
  • Vivi and Eiko. The former is a child physically and mentally, but since he's a black mage "doll", adult workers in Dali promptly kidnap him and stuff him inside a box. In the latter case, Alexandrian jesters kidnap her and perform a ritual to steal her spells. Due to an RPG format, both are defaultly subjected to physical and magic attacks, especially those from Kuja's minions.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Parodied. Zidane as the Chivalrous Pervert has a support ability called 'Protect Girls', in which he will take the damage for the female characters in your party, and in Dissidia Final Fantasy says when up against Terra 'A girl? This'll be tricky...', though this doesn't affect his gameplay. He also once picks fighting a man over fighting a woman in the storyline. In his own game he has no compunctions about fighting and killing the Alexandrian soldiers when they're invading Cleyra or trying to stop him from rescuing Garnet.
  • As proven with General Beatrix and Lani, he will fight women without a problem, and in some cases flirt with them too.
• Wretched Hive: Treno's slums.

X, Y, & Z

• Xanatos Speed Chess: Kuja had no less than two of these. First, it's revealed that his entire plan revolved around stealing Alexander, the most powerful of all Eidolons (summon monsters). This fails when his boss shows up and blows it to hell. Panicked, his next plan involves using the protagonists to fetch a powerful stone for him and extracting other, lesser summon spirits from a little girl. This fails when her Moogle guardian goes Trance and proceeds to kick ass. Kuja then changes his plans AGAIN in order to gain his own Trance power. Kuja finally achieves this and proceeds to kill his former boss. It's too bad that he learns that he's going to die soon anyway, prompting the mother of all Villainous Breakdowns.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: A running theme that runs throughout the entire game is that for the most part, the heroes ultimately fail in all their goals. They fail to save Burmecia and Cleyra, they constantly lose to Beatrix, Lindblum is nearly destroyed, the entire trip to the Outer Continent was for naught when Queen Branhe dies and Kuja gains control of Bahamut, Alexandria is almost completely devastated with the summon Alexander being destroyed (after it's summoning stone being hyped up for two disks) and the rest of Disk 3 involves either Kuja always being one step ahead of the group or pulling out a last-minute save to utterly trounce them. Even the final battle against him ends up as a Mutual Kill as he tries to take you all down with him. Ultimately, the ONLY thing the group succeeds in accomplishing, is defeating Necron in the end. A villain that had no build-up, no explanation, no plot relevance and ultimately no real connection to any events prior, making it come off as a pity victory for the party more than anything.
• Years Too Early: Soulcage pulls something like this when you fight it, claiming that it has foreseen its death.
• You All Look Familiar:
  • Justified in the case of Black Mages and the Genomes; they are manufactured.
  • Burmecians and Cleyrans all seem to be in uniforms of some kind — but human civilians have no such excuse (or Morrid really has two other triplets in Lindblum).
• You Are Already Dead: There's a status effect known as Heat, which can be inflicted through Quina's Blue Magic attack "Mustard Bomb." How this works is that the afflicted will automatically KO if they take any action due to the intense heat surrounding them. If a character has already chosen their next move when they get inflicted with this status, they are pretty much doomed.
• You Are Not Alone: The Trope Namer is the scene where Zidane's True Companions talk him out of a Heroic BSoD.
• You Are Number 6:
  • All of the Black Mages. Subverted: except for Vivi, they are all known by their numbers (Mr. 234, Black Mage No. 12, etc.), but this actually serves to humanize them as they begin developing their own personalities. They deliberately seem to adopt the numbers as their names, even going so far as to introduce themselves this way to strangers.
  • Interestingly, Vivi's name could be represented as the roman numerals "VI VI", which would translate as "6 6", qualifying him for this trope as well.
  • Played for laughs with the actor Lowell's fanclub.
• You Are Too Late:
  • Zorn and Thorn to Zidane when he busts into the Alexandria dungeon to save Garnet, even if you beat the 30-minute deadline.
  • You are too late to prevent Brahne's attack on Lindblum.
• You Can Talk?: Regent Cid is transformed into an oglop and later a frog. By the time the party starts traveling with him on the ship Blue Narciss, the notoriously frog-hungry Quina Quen is the only member of the party who hasn't met him before then.
  Quina: F-Frog... Is talking... Maybe I eat it...?
  Zidane: Hey, Quina loves frogs, so you'd better watch out.
  Cid: I'm not worried. I had more enemies as an oglop. <ribbit>
• You Can't Go Home Again: This happens to a lot of the characters due to the massive property damage over the course of the game, but special mention to the Terrans (including Zidane), whose home planet gets blown up, and the summoners Eiko and Garnet, whose village was nuked in the backstory.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Zidane always arrives just after the villain has finished destroying the town. If he's lucky, he arrives a few minutes beforehand, and then the town is destroyed.
• You Did Everything You Could: Part of what helps Garnet get over her Heroic BSoD is Zidane and company assuring her that she's not to blame for the long stretch of tragedies that have befallen the world. One Important Haircut later, she seems to agree.
• You Dirty Rat!: The Burmecians are anthropomorphic rodents. The word 'Rat' appears to be a derogatory term for them, but they are mostly on the side of good.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Zidane says this almost word-for-word when the Armodullahan appears out of nowhere in an enclosed space. To his credit, he does start running before saying the line.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: At the end of Disc 2, Brahne decides to kill Kuja since he has nothing more to give her. Unfortunately for Brahne, Kuja was expecting this and considers Brahne to no longer be useful to him as well. Kuja kills her with ease.
• You No Take Candle: The Qu, large gluttonous humanoids indigenous to swamplands around the globe.
• Your Days Are Numbered: It is heavily implied that the Black Mage golems have a set expiration date. As does Kuja.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Master Quen discovered that if you imagine it hard enough, you can eat all the food in the world. But, because he didn't eat real food after that, he ended up dead (and apparently in Qu nirvana).
• You Shall Not Pass!: Freya, Steiner, and Beatrix pull one of these when covering Garnet's escape from Alexandria. Though it's initially unclear whether or not they survived, the party soon learns that they lived.
• You Would Do the Same for Me: When Zidane goes back to save Kuja, he asks Kuja "Wouldn't you do the same for me if you knew I was dying?"
• Zerg Rush: After killing Plant Brain, the army of Plant Spiders begin zerging the heroes as the last attempt to capture them when the entire Evil Forest is turning into stone.

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