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    Fridge Brilliance 

  • If you watch Garland's attacks, he isn't swinging his sword back and forth like most other characters. With Round Edge and Lance Charge especially, his attacks have him swing his sword once and let it move on its own with the momentum it builds up. Considering how ungodly huge it is, consider the massive strength that would be required to wield it like a proper sword — swinging it this way is probably the only way he can do it without breaking something!
    • It also explains how he can have such slow movement, then suddenly move at lightning speed when attacking — when he's just walking around, he has to drag the sword behind him, but when he starts swinging it, he's not only free of that weight, but the momentum is going to probably speed him up.
  • Why is Cloud, a non-mage character, the only character able to use the three levels of a spell of the same element (Fire, Fira, and Firaga)? In FFVII's world, a mastered Fire Materia would have allowed him to use all three versions of the spell. Likewise, in Dissidia 012, Tifa has all three levels of the Blizzard spell.
  • Why does Yuna remember Tidus and her pilgrimage when she's forgotten almost everything else? Recall her speech during the ending of Final Fantasy X:
    "The people and friends that we have lost... or the dreams that have faded... never forget them."
    • Of course, the nature of the conflict has warriors regain more memories of their homelands as they battle on, and the Emperor refers to her as a 'veteran', so she's obviously been around a few cycles, too.
  • In Dissidia 012, Squall's gameplay makes him one of the best (if not the best) suited ones for relying on the Assist Feature, which makes for quite a contrast with his "I Work Alone" attitude... until you remember that his character arc in Final Fantasy VIII saw him move from believing that being alone makes life easier for him to learning that it's okay to rely on others.
    • Further brilliance: If Squall is the one being an Assist, he is better suited to do a bunch of Bravery attacks on his own than to do combos with the main character. So, essentially, you are hiring him to do his own thing. Once a SeeD, always a SeeD.
  • Gabranth's attacks are more violent versions of his identical twin Basch's Quickenings, and his voice actor changed from Michael Rogers in Final Fantasy XII to Keith Ferguson, Basch's voice actor, who struggles to replicate Gabranth's British accent, & the end result is the character sounds like Basch trying to sound like his brother. At the end of Final Fantasy XII, Basch assumes Gabranth's identity, so it's not out of the realm of believability that "Gabranth" in this game is really Basch under his brother's identity.
    • And then Gabranth suddenly starts sounding like Basch because Keith has decided to scrap the British accent. Curious, is it not?
      • Considering that Gabranth isn't actually native to the Empire, it's also entirely possible that Gabranth's accent was affected to better fit in to begin with, anyway.
  • In a storyline scene with Gilgamesh, he encounters Squall, Vaan, and Zidane. They all encounter him in their own games. Zidane remarks how Gilgamesh would look familiar if he had more arms, like he did in IX.
  • Many a player has remarked on how badly Feral Chaos' summon backfires on him in boss fights. Weird, isn't it? Why would the designers do that? ...Well, because in the game storyline, Feral's summon, the character Shinryu, really does hate him by the time Feral is fought as a boss!
  • Why is Cecil, of all people, the Shipper on Deck in 012? Two very good reasons — first, if you assume he was taken from a post-The After Years world, he's been happily married for almost 20 years, so it makes sense he'd be the one of the group with the best relationship advice. And second, it's a callback to the medieval interpretation of love and romance, back when they didn't necessarily mean sexual attraction, but were instead used to express loyalty and friendship, even between two people of the same gender (it would be completely in-line for a knight to say he loved his king in order to convey fealty). Cecil is the typical Knight in Shining Armor and comes from a heavily medieval-influenced game where he was raised in precisely such an environment.
  • A minor one, but this troper noticed that during replays of when Exdeath tells the Warriors of Cosmos that the crystals were Cosmos's strength, and gathering them are why she fell, Tidus was always the one who realized it first. Perhaps he remembers being an unwitting part of someone's sacrifice in a roundabout way?
  • Why is Terra's status as a Magic Knight downplayed in Dissidia, with her being more mage than fighter? After all, she has a sword, but only ever uses it in chase sequences. 3 reasons:
    1) To differentiate her from the other characters, who all fight and use magic to some extent.
    2) She is, unlike the other characters in game, an inherently magical being, being half esper.
    3) FFVI is largely considered to the point in the series when magic was at its most useful, so it makes sense that a character from that game would emphasize magic more than anyone.
    • This would be more accurately a WMG, but once I thought that maybe metals in FFVI's universe are of relatively bad quality (hence why in that world whenever magic appears, everybody jumps on the bandwagon), and that's why Terra doesn't use her sword. Her Apocalypse might be a wonderful weapon in her own world, but here it is no match to even the Onion Knight's starting sword.
    • The 2015 installment ends up providing a very interesting answer: She uses her sword as a conduit for her magic. rather than just for swordfighting.
  • Vaan helps Terra, and when she's confused why when they're on opposing sides, he explains that it doesn't matter which side they're on, people are people. It's Final Fantasy XIIs'' Grey-and-Gray Morality all over again!
  • Kefka being played up as a Manipulative Bastard in 012 — he pits his enemies against each other and manipulates other people to fight in order to get what he wants rather than confronting them himself. Give him nicer hair and make him more articulate, and he's a stand-in for Vayne! And hey, where does Vaan fight Kefka in his story — Sky Fortress Bahamut!
  • Why are all the areas not destroyed in the "shattering of worlds" the places where you fight the final boss of their games? Because Chaos, as has been noted, is a surprisingly Benevolent Boss and wants his minions to be comfortable, so he makes sure to preserve the places where each is most relaxed — where they wait for the heroes.
    • Pandemonium is full of tight corridors and difficult to maneuver in. So of course The Emperor, who relies on leading people into traps, is right at home.
    • Also, the Omega variant of Dream's End has the Stage Bravery constantly rise as the fighters connect with attacks, encouraging a no-holds barred slugfest between combatants. Just the way someone like Jecht would like it.
  • I can't believe I didn't notice this before, but the chain skills are a Shout-Out to chess. Straight chains are rooks, cross chains are bishops, jump chains are knights, round chains are kings, and multichains are queens.
  • Laguna's EX Mode, "look, the faeries are here!", is a reference to Mental Time Travel sequences in Final Fantasy VIII in which Ellone sent Squall's consciousness back in time to ride along in Laguna's mind and observe past events. Whenever this happened, Laguna received the benefit of Squall's Guardian Force junction and SeeD training; unaware of the true cause, he and his friends attributed it to faeries. So what's going on in Laguna's EX Mode? Like the rest of the 13th cycle's heroes, Squall spends most of 012 "sleeping" after being defeated by Kain — from which state he once again lends his strength to Laguna.
  • The entry under Harsher in Hindsight is actually a case of Shown Their Work, as Tidus pretty much acted as an ungrateful little bastard towards Jecht, demonizing his father and ignoring any positive interpretations of his actions in X. It's heavily implied during a conversation with Yuna that this is how Tidus holds onto Jecht's memory. So, take that, subtract the rest of his memories, and it's a perfect characterization in Duodecism!
  • The writers of Duodecim really seem to be pushing the Emperor to act as a Seymour stand-in whenever the X cast is concerned. With this in mind, I had a moment of brilliance regarding Tidus's Taking the Bullet moment and the events immediately following. Recall this exchange in Macalania woods: (Paraphrased)
    Seymour: Protect the summoner even at the cost of one's life. The Code of the Guardians. How admirable.
    Yuna: I trust my guardians with my life, but they are also my friends. I will not stand by and watch them be hurt. I will fight you too.
  • It's a small thing, but. The reason summon monsters don't appear in the world of the first Final Fantasy? Duodecim explains this away by saying in a footnote that prior to the game's events, Chaos sealed all the summons away in the rift. And when you think about it, explains why the all the summons found in World B are in the form of Summonstones. They were most likely turned into summonstones by Chaos, and remained trapped that way until found by the heroes.
    • Which would mean that all the summons found in Dissidia were originally from the world of the original Final Fantasy.
  • A minor one, in his battle quote to Yuna, Vaan calls summons "Eidolons", even though he should know them as "Espers". Why? He forgot what they were called and likely picked the term up from one of the characters who would call summons that.
    • Furthermore, of the six new heroes that Vaan hangs out with, aside from Yuna there's Tifa (VII didn't call its summons a specific term), Laguna (who, if he was from the flashbacks of VIII, doesn't know what Guardian Forces are), and Kain and Lightning, who both hail from games that call their summons Eidolons. Thus, if Vaan picked up the term from someone else, it makes perfect sense he'd pick up "Eidolon" rather than any of the other terms because that would be the one he's been exposed to the most in conversation.
    • Additionally, XII as of this writing is the only mainline Final Fantasy game that doesn't use any of the standard summons; instead, most of the Espers are the Lucavi from Final Fantasy Tactics with a couple of Canon Foreigners based on past game antagonists (and Shemhazai, who is completely original to XII). Vaan might legitimately consider "Espers" and "Eidolons" to be separate concepts.
  • Gilgamesh's EX burst is this when you choose the excalipoor. At first he slashes the opponent, doing 1 brave point in damage with each hit. However, when he throws it over his shoulder at the enemy, it does it's HP damage normally, the same way it would when thrown in Final Fantasy V.
  • The Duodecim Warriors page notes that (A) Kain is The Lancer to Lightning, obligatory "bonus points for the spear" joke included, and (B) that his Javelin Throw by the name of Gungnir is a dual mythology gag to his final inverse So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear armament, and "...an attack used by [...] Odin where he throws his spear at opponents immune to Zantetsuken. Now look at this: Lightning's intention of slaughtering everything until she gets her crystal is promptly hijacked by the manikins, so Kain goes out of his way to start backstabbing and set up cycle 013. Lightning carries XIII's Zantetsuken blades. In other words, Multiverse!Odin is using Gungnir because Zantetsuken is ineffective!
  • Lightning's offensive Paradigm roles accurately parallel how they work in her original game. Commando is the role with her most powerful bravery attacks and even gives her a bonus to her attack stat, just like how in the original game where Commandos were given a passive attack boost to themselves and, to a smaller extent, to the party. The Ravager role attacks are weaker, but they generate more EX Force and also help fill the Assist Gauge. Most of the attacks initiate chase sequences as well, which allows her to fill her EX Gauge faster. In XIII, Ravager attacks are meant to build the stagger meter on opponents to deal extra damage.
    • Furthermore, in FF13, each character had 3 roles that they were particularly good at. The three Paradigm roles Lightning uses in Dissidia (Commando, Ravager, and Medic) are the ones she specializes in in her original game.
  • Why are there more heroes than villains in the long run? Each villain needed at least three heroes to take down in their respective games. The balancing is there to prevent the heroes from being outclassed.

    Fridge Horror 

  • Feral Chaos' teeth are red. And not, like "red because it's just the way they are"; red as in "white and stained red". One can only guess what he did after cornering his victims. Although this could be an incentive for unlocking his (so far only) Alt outfit.
  • The game establishes that the first Dissidia game was the thirteenth cycle of Chaos and Cosmos's conflict, while 012 shows the events of the twelfth cycle. In 012, we not only see the characters from the original game, but we also meet new characters: Lightning, Vaan, Prishe, Yuna, Laguna, Tifa, and Kain. This is also the game which introduces the idea that if you are killed by a Manikin, then you're gone for good, which might have been the fate of Lightning, Kain, Yuna, Laguna, Tifa, and Vaan (jury is out on what happened to Prishe). So the fridge horror comes in here: in the eleven cycles that we don't see, how many other beloved Final Fantasy characters might have met the same fate as the 012 gang?. And keep in mind, the first game opens by telling you the Cosmos's side has been getting its can kicked for a while.
    • This troper is convinced that the characters doing the tutorials were killed off in previous cycles.
  • During his travels, the Warrior of Light encounters Sephiroth. He engages Sephiroth and fights him. After the Warrior of Light wins the duel, Sephiroth asks him why he fights, and the Warrior replies that it is for the Crystals and for the war to end. However, Sephiroth says that the Warrior fights for the thrill of it, just as he does. The irony is, he's not far off. After going over the Reports, you'll realize that the Warrior and Sephiroth have very similar backgrounds. Being created artificially by individuals who did not initially care about them. Created to be nothing but a living tool or weapon. One could say that they are opposite sides of the same coin (possibly more so than the (Cloud/Sephiroth dynamic). Though Sephiroth was wrong about one thing; they are alike, and yet totally different. While Sephiroth does enjoy fighting, to the Warrior, fighting is simply something he does, without malice or delight. Unlike Sephiroth, the Warrior of Light never mocks his opponents nor rejoices in their suffering. To him, war and fighting are not a game, but rather a duty. In the end, the Warrior could have very easily ended up like Sephiroth, and Sephiroth could have become a great hero like the Warrior. So in the end, it was thanks to the intervention of another party (Prishe in the case of the Warrior) that led the two down such different paths.
    • In fact, Sephiroth was a great hero prior to the intervention of another party - Crisis Core shows that Sephiroth was only spurred into looking into the truth of his origins following a conversation with Genesis, which is what ultimately sets him on the path to becoming the villain he's best known as. And as the game showed, the two did have a similar personality.

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