History FinalFantasyIX / TropesIToP

* ParentalAbandonment: Zidane not only has no parents, but is phenotypically unique on Gaia (and in that game's verse, that's really saying something) and doesn't know anything about his origins. Garnet's an orphan who's been raised by Queen Brahne, who also dies part-way into the game. Vivi also is unique and unaware of his origins. Eiko is an orphan who lives alone in the ruins of her hometown... I think what we can take away from this is that Final Fantasy loves this trope.

** [[WorthyOpponent Beatrix]], to whose BoobsOfSteel the camera also devotes plenty of affectionate attention.

* PeekABangs: Freya. The low resolution of the character models make it difficult to tell, but the CG cutscenes and her character artwork shows that her hair does cover her right eye.

* MusicalSpoiler: The intro to the "FairyBattle" theme is meant to sound just like the intro for a standard battle, probably to avoid the MusicalSpoiler -- but the instruments are different enough that if you're paying even a bit of attention, you can tell the difference.

* NoPronunciationGuide:
** Zidane's name comes from the French 'jitan', so it should be pronounced 'zid-an'. Essentially the same way as footballer Zinedine Zidane. Judging from the fandubs on [=YouTube=], a good portion of fans assumed it was 'zi-dayne'.
** Eiko usually gets 'ee-koh' or 'eye-koh' - sometimes even 'ei-ee-ko' (as in Aisha) - when it's 'ay-koh'.
** To a lesser extent, Garnet's name sometimes gets wrongly pronounced by putting emphasis on the second syllable (gar-''net'').
** Let's not forget Oeilvert. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/jny50/how_the_fuck_do_you_pronounce_oeilvert/ Discussed here]].

* PowerupFullColorChange: The Trance ability. Zidane's skin (or fur, [[DontExplainTheJoke since he looks like a monkey]]) changes to pink. Vivi's clothes change to white. Steiner's armor gets green details. Freya's clothes change to purple. Quina's skin color changes to black. Eiko gets white clothes and yellow hair. Scarlet Head Amarant becomes [[IncrediblyLamePun Purple Head Amarant]]. Garnet gets pink skin and yellow hair and clothes. [[BigBad Kuja]]'s purple robes and silver hair both [[TurnsRed turn red]]. Unlike the other examples, [[OneWingedAngel this is not a good thing]].

* TheMedic: Garnet, being TheChick, MysteriousWaif, and meekly-RebelliousPrincess, although she becomes more of a RedMage once she starts using her eidolons. Eiko Carol, a BrattyHalfPint with even more White Magic, takes over as the primary Medic.

* IAteWhat: During the feast after the Hunting festival in Lindblum [[spoiler:everyone, save for Garnet and Steiner suddenly collapse after taking a few bites]]. Garnet hasn't been eating at all, and Steiner, who has, and now noticed that [[spoiler:everyone had collapsed]], dramatically falls on his knees and gasps that the food was poisoned and he is dying for his princess... that untill Garnet says [[spoiler:there shouldn't have been any in ''his'' plate]]. Upon hearing it, he utters that now that she mentioned it, he suddenly feels much better and stands up again. [[spoiler:The alleged "poison" is revealed to be a sleeping herb]].
%%** Then there's everyone's reaction to the fact that Eiko put an oglop in the stew. %%What reaction?

* IdleAnimation: Zidane does some stretching exercises, Garnet fluffs her hair out, and Steiner in particular ''almost dozes off.'' He's a soldier, they can sleep anywhere.

* PeopleJars: The Genome, some of whom are seen in jars. They also have UncannyValley tendencies, but (since [[{{Squick}} it's already canon that Zidane is male]]) they aren't clones, since they have sex.

* MorphicResonance: Both of Regent Cid's BalefulPolymorph-induced forms - an oglop and a frog - retain his characteristic crescent-shaped moustache.

** Garnet wears a skin-tight orange latex outfit showing off her butt, and her Trance outfit swaps in a different outfit to add AbsoluteCleavage to the mix. Bonus points for her nice rear being lampshaded when [[ChivalrousPervert Zidane]] accidentally gropes her while climbing up a ladder. "Ooo, soft!"

* NiceHat:
** As always, the Black Mage's pointy hats are awesome, but Freya's and Sir Fratley's hats are also nice. Freya's red hat is a mix between the Red Mage pimp hat and the Dragoon helmet. It's so awesome that we never get to know what she looks like under it.
** Steiner's conquistador-like helmet.

** Notice who Zidane's barely clinging to as the airship makes it through the gate? [[FridgeBrilliance That's right,]] Mr. NiceHat Vivi himself.

* NonActionBigBad: Queen Brahne from the first half.
* NonHumanUndead: A zombie whale.

* NonstandardGameOver: There are two instant-lose conditions at the start of the Evil Forest section. Garnet and then Vivi get abducted by a monster, and you have to kill it to free them. During each fight, the monster sucks up Garnet and Vivi's HP, and if their HP hits zero, they die and the game ends. Also, in the fight against Black Waltz #2, it will not attack Garnet. However, if all the other party members are KO'd, it will cast Sleep on Garnet and spirit her away, ending the game.
* NoobCave: Two: Evil Forest and Ice Cavern, with the latter has [[DualBoss Dual]] [[WakeUpCallBoss Boss]].

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There's only 8 party members but there's 5 guest characters. A few of the main cast have their own sub-cast. Zidane has the Tantalus band, Steiner has his 9 Pluto Knights, Garnet has her own family/staff at Alexandria and Lindblum, Eiko has her family of moogles. All have names and there's many different personalties. There's more reoccurring characters than your regular JRPG.

* IAteWhat:
** During the feast after the Hunting festival in Lindblum [[spoiler:everyone, save for Garnet and Steiner suddenly collapse after taking a few bites]]. Garnet hasn't been eating at all, and Steiner, who has, and now noticed that [[spoiler:everyone had collapsed]], dramatically falls on his knees and gasps that the food was poisoned and he is dying for his princess... that untill Garnet says [[spoiler:there shouldn't have been any in ''his'' plate]]. Upon hearing it, he utters that now that she mentioned it, he suddenly feels much better and stands up again. [[spoiler:The alleged "poison" is revealed to be a sleeping herb]].
** Then there's everyone's reaction to the fact that Eiko put an oglop in the stew.

* MiniDressOfPower: Lani the BountyHunter.

* InterspeciesRomance: Zidane and Garnet. [[spoiler:{{G|attacaBabies}}enome and [[WitchSpecies Summoner]], respectively. Garnet and Eiko were Summoners, apparently a different species from normal people, since they were born with horns. Also, Zidane's not entirely human either -- obvious from the start since he has a ''tail'', but this turns out to be more than a cosmetic quirk.]] And then there was the Vivi/Quina marriage, which involved a techno-magical construct and an ambiguously gendered giant frog thing.

* NonMammalianHair: Regent Cid keeps his [[BadassMustache mustache]] when transformed into an [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090424203645/finalfantasy/images/a/ad/Cid_Oglop.png oglop]] and a [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090814160306/finalfantasy/images/b/bc/Cid_frog_ff9.png frog]].

** Additionally, there is a boss called Kraken, who is, unsurprisingly, water-themed, and has a knack for [[StandardStatusEffects blinding]] your team with ink.

* MarathonBoss: The optional Marathon Boss was Ozma because the Ozma challenge was a GuideDangIt, ThatOneBoss BonusBoss LuckBasedMission, in which you would spend more time healing, reviving and waiting to counter its attacks than actually dealing much damage. With a mere 65000 HP, Ozma can be taken down with less than nine hits, but that's before he casts [[StandardStatusEffects Curse]], followed by [[TotalPartyKill Meteor]].

* NotSoDifferent: Vivi compares his fellow black mages first to the toys he sees little kids playing with, and later to the Genomes. Like the toys, the black mages and the Genomes are both created to be the puppets of others, without any will of their own.

* IdentityAmnesia: Sir Fratley.

* IGotYouCovered: During the enormous [[spoiler:airship versus dragons battle at the end of the game]]. As the party approaches the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon final dungeon]] on the Invincible airship, a legion of dragons comes to meet them to stop them from landing. Unfortunately, the ornate piece of junk actually has no useful weapons. But wait! Straight from out of the clouds comes ''every airship in existence'' armed to the teeth, who clear a path so that the heroes can put an end to the BigBad once and for all.

** Eiko being just six years old is incredibly hard to believe given that she's been essentially raising herself, with help from a group of moogles, ever since she was four or five years old. She's also incredibly well read, well spoken, and is able to cook and provide for herself. Despite being raised in isolation from the rest of the world, Eiko adapts to it incredibly quickly. What's more is that in the game's hierarchy Eiko is ''second''. That's right - she outranks both the captain of the Alexandrian guard, and the experienced dragon hunter.
** Zidane is just sixteen years old, and yet acts as if he's in his early to mid twenties, and apparently has years of thievery under his belt. However Zidane was raised by Baku, who isn't exactly child friendly, meaning that he would have had to mature quickly. Additionally he was raised amongst a group of thieves, so Zidane would have been most likely stealing from a very early age. [[spoiler:Genomes may also mature at different rates to humans, though Zidane was designed to 'age normally' so he could experience the emotions that came with it, so he's able to learn to enter Trance, and he certainly ''looks'' around sixteen years old.]]
** Freya is twenty one, though acts far older than that. It's also revealed that she's been a Dragoon Knight for 'several years' and that she has been searching for her love, Sir Fratley, for five of those years. Though given the time period, it wouldn't be all that unusual for a fifteen or sixteen year old to become a knight, and it's possible that Burmecians mature more quickly than humans do.

** Notice who Zidane's barely clinging to as the airship makes it through the gate? [[FridgeBrilliance That's right,]] Mr NiceHat Vivi himself.