It kind of makes me sad when I see people who think Kuja really was betraying Zidane and company in Dissidia 012. Theyโre missing the whole point of the scene and how far Kuja came since the end of FF9. There are quite a few things within the scene that show the truth.
Kuja tries to tell Zidane to โtake his companions and go.โ If he wanted them there to get hurt, he would have said nothing to warn them and let the scene play out once Kefka arrived with The Emperor and Ultimecia.
When he sees itโs hopeless to extract them from this situation without a fight, he further warns them, โReady your weapons if you donโt want to die.โ
He goes along with Kefka trying to make him say he was leading Zidane into a trap because he knows he still has some hope of helping Zidane and the rest if Kefkaโs crew believes heโs on their side. Admitting heโs not wonโt do anyone any good and then theyโd just try to kill him as well as the others. This leads into the next point.
Kuja shows no prior desire to fight Zidane in 012 and could have let the manikins take over. He chooses instead to insist on taking on Zidane, Squall, and Bartz himself, and more than one scene clearly shows us why. Even aside from Kefka screaming the reason after the fact (โYou LET THEM GET AWAY!!!1111"), we see why he did it all the way back in his scene with Cloud. I discussed this in a role-play application I did for Kuja where I was describing his personality in the Dissidia era: โOne point Kuja makes in their conversation is that if Cloud doesnโt fight her [Tifa], someone else will, and can Cloud live with the outcome of that? This reflects Kujaโs own behavior later, when he could have stood back and let the manikins fight Zidane, Squall, and Bartz, but chooses instead to fight them himself so that he can throw the fight and let them win and escape. Although he didnโt want to fight Zidane, he knew that if he did, he could control the outcome of the battle, whereas he couldnโt if he just allowed someone else to step in and do it.โ The scene with Cloud is vital to understanding Kujaโs behavior later, and itโs meant to be.
Both bad and good characters see that Kuja is good. Kefka knows this; itโs part of why heโs been plotting against him from the beginning of the game. A good one who sees it is Terra. Her special battle line to Kuja is, โAre you hiding your true feelings?โ She saw him when he freed her from Kefkaโs mind-control, and although he acted very arrogant about it and claimed it was to show his power, she didnโt believe him. If there was any doubt it was just Terra being naive, Dissidia NT made it clear she was right. And Cloud also has an intriguing special battle line for Kuja: โYou can still proceed, even with doubts.โ He knows Kuja is trying.
I have no doubt that the creators want players to take away that Kuja is a good person. Still flawed, but trying to do the right things, and for the right reasonsโno matter what nonsense he may say to the contrary or how bad the scene looks around him. And it will never not be exciting to me that he was given an actual redemption arc instead of just cutting it off with the tragedy of FF9's ending.
(On a lighter note, Iโm thoroughly disappointed that so many characters make references to Kuja having something to do with music โฆ but we never get to hear him sing! A tragedy.
Well, at least we get to hear him recite his favorite poemโฆ.)
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