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As a "Greatest Hits" of the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy IX has plenty of these.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.


  • Vivi's complete and total humbling of Black Waltz no. 3 during the airship chase scene.
    • Not to mention that, throughout all this chaos, Garnet is piloting the clunky cargo ship through the South Gate as it closes. For a naive princess with a serious lack of world experience, she does a really outstanding job at it, too. Especially so when you realize she's never even driven before now.
    • Zidane has a moment there for pulling Vivi to safety by his collar while the airship is jostling all over the place.
  • The Festival of the Hunt is one for Freya; unless the player really knows what they're doing, Freya will most likely show you up and win the competition, thus displaying her undeniable badassery shortly after you meet her. In fact, it's more desirable if you let her win, because it gets you a terrific piece of equipment that gives her three very useful abilities when she joins you.
  • Garnet gets a big one shortly after the aforementioned festival. After hearing about Queen Brahne's sketchy business with the black mages, Dagger wants to go investigate and stop her mother from executing her plan. Everybody else basically tells her to Stay in the Kitchen, so what does the pretty princess do? Drugs the whole party during the banquet and drags Steiner along to sneak off without them! She even gets Steiner to cooperate by having her hide in a bag when the two break through the South Gate; she ensures that the bag will not be searched by filling it with gyshal pickles, which are infamous for their horrible smell. And that is when any player who assumed she'd be a passive Neutral Female was promptly silenced.
  • Alexander easily repelling (and ostensibly destroying) the Eidolon of the Dragon King Bahamut, complete with Bahamut's "OH CRAP!" moment when he realises he's on the business end of a Holy Judgement.
  • Steiner and Beatrix. Alexandria under attack by Mistodons. "Protecting My Devotion". Commence ass-kicking.
  • The Big Damn Heroes moment when Zidane comes literally flying to Garnet's rescue from atop a crumbling castle tower.
  • The entire party snapping Zidane out of a rare Heroic BSoD while fending off enemies, with "You're Not Alone" as background music. Possibly the greatest crowning moment is that Zidane even survives this BSOD as Zidane's mind and soul were literally ripped to pieces by Garland, his sheer willpower and a few sharp but emphatically caring words from his party are the only reason he managed to piece it back together.
  • The Big Damn Heroes moment by Garnet is made even more awesome by realizing that with it the developers managed to sneak in a Shout-Out to Rydia saving Cecil in Final Fantasy IV.
  • Before Zidane has his soul sucked out by Garland, he's about ready to destroy all of Terra and says just as much. The Crowning Moment in this scene is his Badass Boast to his creator:
    Zidane: I AM the new Angel of Death! YOURS!!!
  • The party is swarmed by hundreds upon hundreds of Nova Dragons at the portal between Gaia and Terra, a battle they couldn't possibly have won...until the entire armed forces of the world arrived to hold off the Dragons. It wasn't so much a moment of awesome for a single character as it was for the entire secondary cast of the game.
    • This is also considering that all the major nations on the Mist Continent (the only continent on the planet to support thriving cities) save for Treno were devastated in the previous disks by invasion or attacks by the Eidolons. Somehow, Lindblum and Alexandria managed to get their shit together fast enough to come to the aid of the heroes.
    • Let's not forget to mention how "Assault of the Silver Dragons" rules by simply being the background music. It shows the Invincible racing towards the portal while a group of dragons fly straight towards you, and out of nowhere the Red Rose rises from the clouds to protect you. There's something satisfying about seeing that dragon crash straight into the ship and bounce harmlessly off it.
  • Garland trumping Kuja's plan to seize Alexander, destroying Alexandria in the process. Seriously, everything about this scene is awesome- the music, the visuals, the dialogue, Kuja's Oh, Crap! reaction, everything. But even more astounding is the fact this is Garland's first scene!
    • The conclusion to his second meeting with Zidane. It looks as though it's building up to a one-on-one boss battle, with the villain toying with the hero for a few minutes until he's finally defeated. But no: he just rips Zidane's soul out.
    • Giving Kuja a Villainous Breakdown, minutes after being kicked off a cliff.
    • Revealing just how much plot-related stuff he was responsible for during the party's trip through the final dungeon. The fact that he shows up to help Zidane at all is pretty awesome, too; Garland might be dead, his grand plan may be lost and the Terrans he'd hoped to resurrect have been destroyed along with Terra, but Garland sure as hell isn't just going to pass on when the universe is in danger!
  • Kuja's destruction of Terra.
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but Zidane hits his all-time highest level of badassery for one beautiful moment during his mad rush to outrun the impending Iifa implosion and save Kuja. One minute he's running hell for leather away from the oncoming killer vines...and then he manages to leap onto one and effortlessly surfs it most of the way down. While smiling. True, he biffs the landing, but for that fleeting instant, Chuck Norris had nothing on Zidane Tribal.
  • Garnet finally getting her voice back, cutting her hair, and turning to Zidane with a determined smile that shows both him and the player that she's ready to fight again. Helps that it's followed by the most uplifting music ever as you take the Hilda Garde 3 to the skies for the first time.
  • Ozma kills itself. Also a Funny Moment.
  • Zidane gets two of the same fashion both at the beginning and midway through the game in getting Steiner and Beatrix to come to their senses by telling them to state their sworn duty.
  • Sir Fratley's first proper (i.e., non-flashback) appearance in Disc 2 at Cleyra. Zidane's rounded up a few refugees and has brought them safely to the building at the top, when more Black Mages teleport in and surround them. There's no way that Zidane will be able to save all the innocents, and just as the Black Mages get ready to kill, Sir Fratley appears at the top of the steeple, dishes out a Heroic speech, and proceeds to One-Hit Kill the Black Mages like a Hero of Justice.
    • Zidane himself is incredibly heroic during the Cleyra attack. He doesn't hesitate to protect a place he's only been in for a few hours at most, and even says so to the townsfolk he's rescuing; the place is beautiful, the people are so kind, he's going to protect it no matter what. Zidane even has the potential to save townspeople that would otherwise die without his help.
  • Garnet deserves major props on Disk 1 for keeping her head when she's accidentally on stage. The second Baku improvises that she is Princess Cornelia, she instantly gets what he's going for and jumps into the scene. And it turns out she's a pretty good actress - she mentions having studied drama - and has one hell of a memory if she knows exactly what line of dialogue to go to. Her spontaneous performance is so good she moves her own mother to tears.
    • Certain lines between her and Zidane in this part suggest that she's actually enjoying herself rather than being terrified she'll be caught.
  • Garnet's Eidolon summons in general are awesome. When one enters the fray, you know they're going to tear crap up, and seeing Garnet/Dagger grow into her role as a summoner and knowing that she's the one calling these absolute beasts into the battlefield makes for an awesome heroine. She may look like a fainting damsel in distress, but rest assured, Dagger is anything but one.
  • In the opening cutscene, Garnet/Dagger's mom manages to travel across the sea to a different continent in a small sailboat. She dies, but Dagger survives.
  • Ever wonder why Beatrix takes Steiner so seriously despite his bumbling nature? He's the only person to ever defeat her in combat when they were both first joining the Alexandrian knights, and she's used that defeat as fuel to hone herself ever since. He insists that it was a fluke, but regardless, those two clashing is the reason that she's missing an eye.

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