#J.Bowie

[superthatguy62]

FFIII Facts of the Whenever: Plenty of Protags edition

Most Final Fantasies are story-heavy enough that they generally have a standard cast. Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy III are not story-heavy. and while Squeenix seems hellbent on turning FFI into the RPG equivalent of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (where there is no canon, only suggestions), they kinda already did it with III. So let’s look at each version’s protagonists and compare and contrast.

MC 1: The Onion Knights

These four kids are the OG Light Warriors. They fell down a hole while playing and were blessed by the crystal to become the Warriors of Light. In spite of primarily being known as the Onion Knights/Kids, they don’t stay in the class for long before getting jobs and ditching their starting class (though, if they reach the early 90s levels, they can get massive stat boosts if they go back).

The Onion Knights are in an odd place. They aren’t mute slates like their FFI counterparts, but they also don’t have personalities like even the FFII protags. They didn’t even have names as, according to the JP FFwiki, the names used in screenshots of the game varied. Even so, their job went on to become a recurring job in the series, so they have that much going for them.

MC 2: The Manga Heroes

Final Fantasy 3 got a manga adaptation years ago and was the first time the four Light Warriors got set identities. Details about these four are scarce because the manga is JP only and data seems to be scarce even there. Based on JPFFwiki, here there are from top to bottom:

Muuchi: A 15 year old. Described as having a “Bright and Tough” personality. Uses the Fighter job (and even seems based on it), but also apparently gains summon magic?

Doug: A 14 year old. The youngest of the group and also, seemingly, the comic relief/trickster. Doesn’t use magic and fights with a knife (Thief Job)? Also has the best name.

Melfi: A 16 year old. The White Mage of the group. Apparently was the daughter of a landlord who died in the earthquake and by the end basically (has the potential to?) surpasses Unei.

J. Bowie: 17 Years old and thus the oldest.  The Black Mage of the group. Calm and cool. Becomes Doga’s successor at the end.

Outside of the manga, these four have never (to my knowledge) appeared in any other FF media. In some circles, people do use Muuchi’s name for Dissidia’s Onion Knight though. That said, one must wonder if it’s coincidence that the DS heroes follow a similar team structure (though with different jobs).

MC 3: The Remake Heroes

When Final Fantasy III managed to get a remake for the Nintendo DS, a lot of things got overhauled in the process. This included giving the Light Warriors clear identities before cutting out 90% of the scenes featuring these new identities. I’ve already talked a lot about these guys so I’ll just give very quick synopsis and basically say what their jobs are.

Luneth: Unknown age. Based loosely on the original Famicom warriors, including being the only one to keep the full backstory, and very loosely designwise on the Aonuma Artwork Warrior. Consistently a Warrior in all of his appearances, but gained/used the Evoker class in a scrapped Castle Hein sequence.

Arc: 14 years old. Based very loosely on an NPC in Kazus. The only one aside from Luneth to keep the “adopted by Toppapa” part of the backstory. Usually a Black Mage, but was suggested to be a Scholar by Refia in a scrapped Castle Hein sequence and was interested in becoming a summoner in a scrapped Replito sequence.

Refia: 15 years old. The only one of the four to not be based on an existing Famicom character. Usually a White Mage, though she did have a minor subplot with a bard in a series of scrapped Duster sequences. Also, the only one as of this writing to be voiced (World of Final Fantasy)

Ingus: Unknown age. Based on a Knight in Castle Sasune. Usually a Red Mage, but is heavily implicated by both Doga and his own memories to be descended from a Dark Blade wielder (Ninja/Dark Knight) in scrapped sequences for the Cave of Time and Falgabard. As a bonus fun fact, he’s the only one to shift names during development, almost being called “Freyr”, though “Ingus” is technically the same/similar name due to the way runes work or something.

These four are generally the canon main characters in terms of FFIII itself, to the point where even Famicom screenshots/videos post-remake use their names. However they’ve made scarce appearances outside of material related directly to their game.

MC 4: Onion Knight MK2

For Dissidia Final Fantasy, the representative for III was an unnamed Onion Knight. In general, he is an amalgamation of designs, based on the sprite and Aonuma artwork and taking cues from the remake for the helmet. In spite of being based on the original 4 Onion Knights, he’s considered very different, to the point where he has a different name than the job usually does ( 玉葱剣士 is the job, オニオンナイト  is the character). In essence, he is basically the III equivalent of I’s Warrior of Light by being the physical embodiment of the Famicom version of III. This is most likely for nostalgia purposes as he is based on the three strongest jobs of the Famicom version (Ninja, Sage and Onion Knight) whereas if they went with one of the DS characters, their EX Bursts would be based on the classes listed above (which aren’t exclusive to III). In spite of being somewhat divorced from the Famicom Knights, he does act as the general III representative and even heavily influenced Record Keeper’s portrayal of the Onion Knight.

Onion Knight has never been given a concrete identity. Whilst people speculate/claim that he’s Luneth or Ingus, there are various factors that disprove it; Onion Knight’s personality is, at best, an amalgam of the DS characters and at worst totally unique. He doesn’t act a whole lot like Luneth and his “Luneth” skin in Japan is actually called “Luneth-style” which is pretty damning. Meanwhile, some may argue that it’s Ingus, but Onion Knight still has the OG kids/Luneth’s backstory and is implied to be rather young whereas Ingus is implied to be the oldest member of the quartet. Finally, while some people might peg him as Muuchi as it’s claimed that the manga character names are the closest to official names, bear in mind that people barely know anything about the manga and of what there IS on it according to JPFFWiki is... pretty different to say the least (Saronia is sunken for one).

TL;DR: He’s Onion Knight and not (as far as we know) much else.

MC 4: Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Game (And Friends)

This guy is the guy used in the early Famicom FFIII promotional material. As the title suggests, he does not appear in the actual game (though his party, seen on the bottom, has it even worse as that image is the only one in which they appear). It’s theorized that his appearance loosely (here meaning “they took note of his general hair-color/style”) inspired Luneth’s. At the very least, Onion Knight can dress up as him so maybe it is him (which, admittedly, just adds to the FFI!WOL comparisons...).

Now, this sort of thing isn’t that out there. As earlier mentioned FFI also has a ton of protagonists (Compare the actual game to Dissidia to the manga to Mobius to the Light Novel to whatever new and exciting ways Square decides to complicate it). But III’s case is still a rather interesting case, especially since the odds of any of these protags meeting each other is slim to none. The DS characters’ only interaction with Dissidia’s Onion Knight is through Record Keeper and that was mainly using recycled dialogue. Will that ever change in the future? Who knows.... but most likely not. For the manga characters/Famicom characters/Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Game, most certainly not.

#Long Post #Final Fantasy III #Final Fantasy 3 #FF3 #FFIII #Rambles & Rants #Onion Knights #Onion Kids #Muuchi #Doug #Melfi #J.Bowie #Luneth #Arc #Refia #Ingus #Onion Knight #Nameless Warrior #Slasher #Protagonists #Protagonist #No canon #Only Suggestions

[superthatguy62]

A look at the FFIII Manga: Cid, Sara and Djinn

Cid Haze and Princess Sara Altney are the two earliest allies the Warriors of Light have in the game (and coincidentally, the two characters who are part of series-wide naming conventions). They’re not in the party for long, but they aid the warriors in their own ways. Cid in particular helps turn the party’s boat into an airship near the end of the Floating Continent arc and was given a bit more story prominence in the remake via playing an important part in the orphans’ backstory.

So, how are they in the manga?

Cid is first encountered in Volume 1, when the light warriors head over to Not-Kazus, which is a ghost town that has nothing but dead bodies and an odd old lady. The old lady unsurprisingly turns out to be evil and attacks the heroes by summoning monsters (after baiting Melfi with ghostly images of what seem to be her parents) except not really because she has a talisman that can banish them. After Bowie kills one of them with the talisman, the monster releases Cid's essence. This apparently snaps the old woman (who I can only assume is Ms. Cid) out of her evil influence and, with encouragement from Melfi, she flies up and joins with him. This restores Cid back to his corporal form, but the old lady dies shortly after. After that, he tells the warriors of Castle Sasune's plight: the place is under the control of the Djinn, with Princess Sara trapped in her tower. The heroes decide to go there to save her.

The group travels to Castle Sasune where they're attacked by monsters. As they fight them, the Djinn himself arrives and holy moly.

This is not the Djinn from the games, who  had a few fire spells, but went down easily to some Antarctic Winds. This Djinn is gigantic and boasts all kinds of weird and creepy powers, including blowing up Sara’s tower just by looking at it and plucking monsterous ticks (?!) from his nosehairs.

A fight breaks out between the Warriors and the Djinn. Djinni gets rid of Doug, Melfi and J.Bowie by throwing them into magical spheres (Bowie in particularly getting wrecked by it), but Melfi uses her weird nude spirit powers to get them out, although Bowie is in bad enough shape that Melfi has to tap into her white magic to fix him. Meanwhile Muuchi is left to fight against the Djinn and by the end of it, he's left barely standing, though he does manage to toss his sword into the Djinn's eye and cut through one of his legs.

Initially, at the beginning of the fight, the Djinn blew up the tower Sara was in, but during all the commotion later, it turns out that Cid managed to get her out in time. With Muuchi and Doug heavily injured and Bowie outright knocked out, Sara grabs a sword and prepares to fight the Djinn herself. However, Muuchi and Doug aren't quite ready to give in yet.

Then J. Bowie wakes up... and starts strangling the princess. It would seem that Bowie's been brainwashed by the Djinn.

Except not really. He did that to get the Djinn to lower his guard, as well as use Sara's pendent (?) to use a spell to that reseals he Djinn. 

Overall, Cid gets a bit more action and an expanded role. He's also the one companion to appear in all three volumes: Adventuring with the heroes up until Hein's Castle and making a cameo in the final volume. It's not quite as important to the central story as the remake, but overall Cid's more involved here than the original. The Djinn got a big upgrade in the manga. He's the first serious boss in the game (and one you have to fight without jobs in the remake), but here he's able to cause massive devastation to Sasune and overall is far more menacing here. And him being giant is a weirdly meta reference to the usual "boss is normal-sized on the map, but is giant in the actual fight" schtict that FF loves to do,

Unfortunately, Sara is a downgrade. In the game, Sara's already on her way to try to seal the Djinn in spite of being nervous about it and in the remake, she can even aid in battle. But in the manga, she's held captive by the Djinn and even when she does escape, her contribution to the fight is indirect. Granted, I may have missed something during the fight, because these fight scenes are hard to follow and doubly so when it's all in Japanese, but as is, it doesn't look good for her.

Next Time: Alus Restor. This will be interesting as it will begin the look into the third volume of the manga, also known as "the point where the story goes off the rails", in regard to character portrayals.

#Final Fantasy III #FFIII #FF3 #Cid Haze #Sara Altney #Legend of the Eternal Wind #manga #Adaptation #This manga is weird #long post #Final Fantasy #Square-Enix #Djinn