More thoughts about FFXVI's themes, particularly about will, life, death, Clive's character arc, and the ending. Warning: long ramble. Spoilers under the cut.
There's been a lot of debate about whether Clive dies at the end. Team Clive's Alive tend to point to his character arc and his repeated promises to live as proof that he lives, because he doesn't break his promises. Much as I'd love to buy this argument, because I really really want Clive to live, I think it does ignore the fact that this is, at the end of the day, a Japanese game, and there are certain subtle differences in how they treat themes such as will, and life and death.
(Disclaimer: what follows is entirely my own interpretation.)
It's true that Clive starts the game without the will to live, as seen by his single-minded pursuit of revenge. He mentions several times at the beginning that this is the only thing that keeps him going.
Later, when he discovers that he killed Joshua, he has a suicidal meltdown, because not only did he promise to kill Joshua's killer, he's also lost his one reason for living. Cid and Gav try to convince him that there's someone else out there who might be responsible for Joshua's death, but he thinks he knows the truth, and that removes the one thing that's been driving him onward. Without revenge, he doesn't know what else he can live for. As a slave for almost half his life at this point, he is unused to freedom and the concept of living on his own terms, for his own self. And yet, as he tearfully confesses to Jill on that moonlit night, he doesn't understand why he's still alive.
I think that the game goes to great lengths to point out that aside from that one dark moment in his life, he never entirely loses the will to live, because from that point onward he's driven by his desire to help others. When he was standing on the bridge at Kingsfall, he was very seriously contemplating throwing himself into the river and ending it all. But, and I think this was the turning point - he realised that Torgal needs him, and immediately after he heard Gav shout for help. As he's holding on to Gav at the edge of the cliff, there's this critical moment of self-doubt where he's afraid that he'll fail Gav the same way he failed Joshua. But he succeeds in saving Gav, and from that point onward he's found a new reason for living. In a very real sense, by saving Gav, he saved himself. And he probably sees Gav therefore as having saved him, and from that point on he's noticeably a lot warmer towards Gav.
But still, he's not completely free from fate. Throughout most of the game, he seems to see himself not as a free agent, but almost an extension of the men he felt were his superiors - Cid, and his father. In Cid's case, he's literally just picking up where Cid left off. There are plenty of other clues littered throughout the game that he felt less than his own master - his repeated declaration that he will "do (his) duty" as a Shield of Rosaria; his response to Mid wondering whether he was mad for risking his life for her, a girl he hardly knew, was simply: "I just want to help." In his singlemindedness, Clive has replaced revenge with the desire to help, to shield others, possibly at the cost of his life. And everyone around him knew that. It's why Jill and Joshua spend much of their time with him pleading with him to save himself. He's still a slave to fate.
I've seen some analyses of the game comparing Joshua and Clive to messianic figures, which has some truth to it, but in the end I think the games leans more into Buddhist/Shinto values in that it emphasises the value of life, rather than sacrifice. If a person wills themselves strongly to live on, then they will never truly die, because they live on in the hearts of those who are alive. However, those who wish to die are already gone even if their body lives on.
And I think that is crucial in understanding FFXVI. After Joshua's death at the hands of Ultima, Clive finally understands that he need not cling to anyone or anything in order to live. And more than that: that he's not alone. Joshua's speech, about how Clive chose to listen where Ultima turned away, is pivotal for Clive to understand this. Those who follow him wanted his help, but not because he had to: because he chose to. And this active choice to help, to live on his own terms, is what finally frees him from his own shackles. He is no more or less than those he chose to help, or those who chose to help him. Even as he takes on Ultima alone, he is never alone: alive or dead, everyone is together in this fight, in that all of their actions and efforts had come to this. And so he takes on the fight with the will to live.
So, at the end, when he realises that his body is beginning to fail, it no longer matters. It doesn't matter whether he actually lives or dies at this point, because his will has already settled on living. He wants to live. He chooses to live. As he lies on the beach gazing at the moon, he's fulfilled his promise to Jill. He's come back. He will always be with her. And, for the first time, he is whole.
I really feel that the story of FFXVI needs to be told in book form. Much as it made for incredible action and exquisitely beautiful eye-candy, a lot of the game's subtlety would benefit from exploration in prose. I wish I could novelise it, but as you can see from this meandering post, I'm afraid my writing skills are not quite up to scratch. Not that I wouldn't be above giving it a go, but I really wish someone would write an official novelisation. I would read the hell out of that.
