Final Fantasy general

It would be nice to have some living, non-monstrous parents for the protag for once.

Then again, Sora's mother is still alive but all she gets is one line off-screen at the beginning of KH1.

I still think that Sora's mom is a Xehanort who has been playing the long con.

Mom's tend to be even less significant than fathers at times.

Especially in the days of Stay in the Kitchen, where they were just expected to stay at home and not know what was going on.

If anything the big bad being Sora's father is even more likely

"No Sora,I am your father"

"Noooooo"

How many F Fs actually required dead parents for the plot to work?

II, IV, X and XII off the top of my head.

Possibly VIII as well

IX too.

Edited by LordVatek on Nov 25th 2018 at 8:39:55 AM

Well does it count being Happily Adopted?

Rean in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is very happily adopted with a loving mother, father and younger sister. It doesn't come without some class/social issues with others and his real family causes some drama but still the parents are there and always helpful.

A Twist, what if the parents are the worst? Like Tales Of Graces F, the parents exist but the MC Son runs away and joins the knights.

Edited by Memers on Nov 25th 2018 at 6:00:21 AM

I would think that killing the parents is Mandatory if it is a direct factor in the motivation of certain characters or there death serves as some form of plot device.

Example

V: Bartz parents being dead before the story isn't a major contributing factor'Since you could easily just have it be Bartz is 18 and wants to see the world instead of his dying Father's request... Now granted Bartz' Dad needs to die in the story due to the Dawn Warriors souls being a main aspect of defeating Exdeath and the VOID

VIII: I think Killing Rayne is pretty much a simplification of the issue 'Lord knows VIII don't need to be more convoluted' Yeah you could have made it an attack separating Squall and Ellone from Rayne who would be stuck with Laguna in Esthar thinking her children are dead.

IV: Manadatory cause its part of Golbez's Fall, and Kain's inferiority complex

II: Not Mandatory for the Heroes but is a factor in Mateus' madness

The plot requires the protagonist to be an orphan:

III - at least in the DS remake, if Luneth and co. hadn't been orphans, Cid wouldn't take them to the floating continent (probably);

IV - If Cecil isn't an orphan, he isn't raised by the King of Baron and doesn't become a Dark Knight (maybe doesn't leave the moon at all);

V - Lenna and Faris being orphaned during the game is what brings them closer, and the death of the King of Tycoon is an important part of the plot since Exdeath used the king to bypass the security of the shrines. If Krile isn't an orphan she wouldn't be adopted by Galuf and either the party goes from 4 to 3 or he never dies in the first place. Bartz being an orphan drives him to travel the world and it's important to his personal story (although not to the plot at large);

VI - I would argue the plot requires Terra to be an orphan only because of the impact on the plot caused by the Esper genocide;

VIII - Squall and co. being orphans is the whole point of the game, and it's a very important part of the plot: If Raine doesn't die and Squall isn't orphaned, then Ellone doesn't have a reason to send all their friends to the "past" to try to stop Laguna from leaving, also, she wouldn't have met them.

IX - If Garnet isn't an orphan she wouldn't have been adopted by Queen Brahne and the story would have been quite different and Zidane doesn't even have parents >.>;

XV - Noctis has to be an orphan because of those damn rules of succession.

So I'd say most games need or benefit greatly from the protagonists being orphans.

But if Raine isn't dead then we don't get the best scene of the game!

Edited by Lorsty on Nov 25th 2018 at 8:08:31 AM

It's one of those cliches that are more or less accepted by both writers and audiences.

Squall being an orphan is one of the things that contributes to his interpersonal issues

Squall being an orphan i think is vital to his character arc

Its the contrivance of the Orphanage scene that makes EVERYBODY an orphan save Rinoa that takes it too far

Like Squall, Seifer, and Irvine sure... maybe Quistis 'Even though one of the points of the scene is to end Quistis' Romantic pursuit of Squall

But Zell and Selphie don't get nothing from the scene 'In Fact it screws with Zell's character since he puts alot of stock in his Family's lineage as Soldiers'

I know they try to justify this later with Ellone needs to know the person to send them back to a person she knows... Except that becomes really dodgy since Ellone didn't really know Kiros and Ward that well and I doubt she had anything resembling a bond with Adel.

Edited by FrozenWolf2 on Nov 25th 2018 at 11:39:38 AM

Adel wanted her power or smth and chased her across all the world, apparently that's enough of a bond

Adel wanted Ellone to be her Successor cause Despite having Awesome Pecs Adel was apparently up there in age.

This makes you realize how badly built of a world Final Fantasy VIII has.

XIII may or may not require it for the saving-the-world plot, but Claire and Serah’s parents being dead is vital for Lightning’s clusterfuck of personal issues and her relationship with at least Serah, Snow, and Hope.

LR shows what she was like as a kid and holy shit the difference is night and day.

Re: Games where being an Orphan is necessary.

VII: Cloud's mom having died (and her therefore missing from the reconstructed Nibelheim) plays a role in pointing out that Cloud's memory of the events is flawed.

Lumina was such fun

Isn't Cloud open that Him, Tifa and Her master are the only survivors?

Edited by FrozenWolf2 on Nov 26th 2018 at 11:08:12 AM

Was there any form of government in the world of FFVII? All I saw was Shinra.

Well, apparently Shinra got so powerful, it swallowed up local governments. The Midgar City government had been swallowed up, to the point that the mayor was relegated to a small office on a higher floor, but with no real authority. Not to mention Wutai...

The game never goes into it in detail, but Shinra does appear to basically be the major political power in the world. Shira does definitely "own" Midgar and Junon, and other towns don't feel as explicitly controlled by them, but still would do as they say on anything because Shinra owns their entire energy and electrical structure, so Shinra effectively has power over them as well. And Shinra straight up went to war with Wutai and won, so Shinra owns the only army we know of, and the people of Wutai act like they've been colonized by a foreign power.

Zidane has a parent. Said parent is just a robot old man or something.

Not-Fagin is basically Zidane's dad for all intents and purposes