#ff4echoesinff9

Just before they begin to express doubts about the orders that are given to them, there is a very similar part, where Cecil and Beatrix are ordered to steal a pacifist people's cristal. Cecil steals Mysidia's Water Crystal in the Tower of Prayers and Beatrix steals Cleyra's " desert star" in the cathedral of Cleyra, a magical stone set in a harp used for ceremonies.

They are not really concious about the fact that taking the cristal from a city can condemn its existence. The player knows the crystals are important for the world to stay balanced, but Cecil and Beatrix don't really know about this. They know the power of the crystals are important for their kingdom, but they are troubled by the fact that they had to plunder a city (in Cleyra case, Beatrix regrets actually that her Queen destroyed the city, just as Cecil will be later horrified that his king wanted to exterminate the summoner village).

Actually, it is possible that stealing the crystal from mysidians wizards can compromise the future of their city, since crystals are the source of magic in ff4, and for sure, the city of Cleyra is dependant on the magic stone to create the tempest around the giant tree on which it is built, tempest that both protects the pacifist inhabitants (they are all priests and priestesses of the moon, stars and flowers, etc ...) and brings water supplies up thanks to windmills !

Is it a coincidence that the stealing of the magic stone has something to do is each case with water, a vital element for life ? Anyway, to steal these magical stones, Beatrix and Cecil turn their swords against innocents, and I would even say priests, which reinforces for the viewer the impression that they are committing sacrilege.

I really like Eiko in FF9. Some people find her annoying, and it's true that, just as Quina, she's used to write some very easy humor. Queena is about food jokes, and Eiko is about sassy little girl jokes. But if you're open to this kind of humor, she's just fine. I don't laugh to tears at those jokes, but it makes me smile. I like Eiko's over-the-top design, with cat-ear-like ribbon + purple hair + unicorn horn + cupid wings + little fairy flute as a weapon + little hopping victory dance + living with moogles. I like her funny crush on Zidane, her story with Mog, her bond with Garnet.

But I also like a lot that the game scenario brought back this silly idea of adding kids that are actually sometimes more competent than adults in the heroes team that was also a thing in FF4. First, Eiko is like Rydia, the last surviving caller knowing the traditions of her people, she's small and harmless child who can summon gods to make the earth shake if you threaten her !

She doesn't cry ! Crying is for babies !

She's like Polom, lecturing and picking on the little black mage (poor Vivi ... hu, it's deserved in Palom's case ...).

She boasts about her talents, just like Palom, when she opens a magic barrier to grant access to a sacred place (Mount Ordeals/ Iifia Tree). Fun thing, Rydia too is needed to open the gate of Mount Hobs, and this is Luca's necklace that is needed to open the sealed cave. Children seem to be the key to be allowed to go in forbidden sacred places …

And the hero entrusts his girlfriend to her, when Garnet looses her voice. That makes me think of this moment in FF4 when Cecil asks Rydia to take care of Rosa for the battle in Fabul, that's some goofy moment … Why ? She's a little girl ! True, Rydia and Eiko are very good wizards. But, is it a way to give a small task to a very energetic little girl to make her focus on something in a stressful time ? Is it because Rosa and Garnet are very emotional character who tend to be a bit reckless and need someone with good common sense to watch over them ? Maybe a bit of everything, but the child looking over the adult is a funny reversal of values. It goes a little further with Eiko who has to take care of big old Steiner, thought.

I really like the fact that the theme of the seven-years-old little girl being so important in the team is reused and expanded in FF9. In the end, Rydia and Eiko find parents to have maybe something looking like a regular childhood … Even if in Rydia's case, it's about living with Eons. And they become somehow both princesses ! Happy ending !

I think it's cool that in FFIX, the scenario let you save Blank who sacrificed himself in the Evil Forest and was petrified so the team could go on. In FFIV, you just have to wait for the Elder of Mysidia to go in Baron and break the spell Palom and Porom cast on themselves to prevent Cagnazzo to crush the team between these two walls ... But it seems it was a big frustration among players who wasted lots of items on the twins because of the possibility to use an item on them. Bye-bye, golden needles, remedies and elixirs ...

In FFIX, Garnet insists on participating to the quest to find a supersoft (in japanese and in the french version, it's a platinum needle). I think it would have been a better fix to make Blank's rescue a side quest in my opinion, but it's some cool character developpement for Garnet, Steiner and Markus, so it's fine.

Cecil and Beatrix have both a terrific reputation at first. They are reputed warriors and scare children. But there are differences ...

Beatrix is famous in the whole Mist Continent as a great warrior. Before attacking Beatrix, Freya tells Zidane that this paladin is the "killer-of-a-thousand-knights" (reference to Blade of the Immortal), a cold-blooded warrior, "intimidating enough to quieten a crying child" (thanks Vagrant Chocobo for the translation). Beatrix also intimidates her enemies with punchlines like "I once killed a hundred knights single-handedly... to me, you two are nothing more than insects." Cecil ... is rather a local terror. With his demon helmet, he scares a good half of the citizens of his own city. Actually, it's mostly children, tax evaders and political opponents, because of his armor, but certainly mostly because he's known to be the King's strong arm.

When I first wanted to find echoes of FF4 in FF9, I totally neglected the Beatrix and Cecil parallel. And at first sight, they are totally different : he's an insecure young man, a promising but beginner dark knight captain, and she's an already accomplished paladin, a firm leader of her army of Amazons. He's dressed in black, destined to wear gold, white and blue, she will stay in white and red.

The thing is that plotwise there are very similar episodes in the two games : their countries, Baron and Alexandria are the warring nations gathering the crystals, they attack the pacifist Cleyra/Mysidia, there's the bombing of Lindblum/Damcyan, the defense of young summoner Garnet/Rydia, there's the siding with former enemies Freyja/Elder of Mysidia, and the assault on the worldly threat Giant of Babil / the Iifia Tree …

Thought they are different, Cecil and Beatrix play the same typical role of the righteous and faithful warrior who discovers very late that he serves evil. They have some similar reactions to the events. They even have a physical or rather graphic design resemblance : they are visually impaired.

On some versions of the FF4 menu portraits, Cecil's helmet has barely eyes, making the meaning of his name visible ( Cecil, from latin "caecus", blind). As for Beatrix, she has a blindfold to cover her missing eye. Is it a coincidence that this is the right eye that is missing, so that she can't see what is "right" and wrong at first ?

It is really convinient for the plot that they are "blind", and it makes the discovery of their mistakes and their change of sides all the more awaited and spectacular. However, if you can put this blindness down to naivety and a bit of cowardice for Cecil, you can't stop there when you look at the story of Beatrix who seems to be anything but a coward: she only has to discover her mistakes to admit them immediately without looking for excuses, and when it is necessary to take up arms to defend what is right, she has no hesitation.

In reality, in both cases, we have a complicated situation : the corrupt sovereign they serve was once quite just. I will play devil's advocate and ask the question: can you abandon someone you are devoted to, a person who has always acted well for years at the first misstep ? Furthermore, Cecil and Beatrix are swordsman and swordwoman, high-ranking officers in the army. Serving without asking justifications is their duty, and it is not their role to criticize royal decisions. When you ask the npcs in the castle, everyone is lost and there is no evidence accessible to Beatrix that the people of Burmecia did not seek to attack Alexandria first, nor to Cecil that nobody in Mysidia was plotting to use the water crystal against Baron. It is rather the role of the advisors to worry about the sovereign's bad decisions, which is a problem when the advisors are in reality a three-headed snake in disguise and two evil jesters (multiple heads for even more duplicity!):

If they can no longer obey the sovereign, the code of honor would command Cecil and Beatrix no less than to resign from their positions … something which is not obvious when one holds oneself in charge of an army. The real difference between Cecil and Beatrix seems that the first is very surrounded by friends who encourage him to regain his rank and hold on, hoping that the king of Baron will not go too far in his war whims : Cecil thinks they depend on him being a dark knight just as he depends on them … while Beatrix seems desperately isolated in the middle of her Amazons whose boasting seems to inconvenience her more than anything else : her life is her role in the army, she feels she has no choice but to exists for it or "disappear" like her rival Steiner.