#kujie

Like I was saying, his writing in Duodecim is AMAZING, like everytime I think about it it blows my socks off. It would be so easy if just the whole game he was the Kuja he was during the plot of FF9, shallow, flamboyant, and callous, but they decided to pick up with his arc from the ending! Which is what I like to see in a spinoff like this, not just a rehash of old stuff but a continuation, a reiteration. And doing that also shows great grasp of what his character's about. Dissidia pulls from every mainline Final Fantasy game and isn't shy of the fact that not every game has the most complex villain. I often see Kuja too considered to be just a fun purely evil villain instead of someone with more meat on his narrative bones, which is insulting to me. Kuja isn't motivated by some deep darkness in his soul or a craving for violence and suffering like some other villains, all his actions were motivated by one thing, which was wanting to prove to his creator that he could create his own purpose and worth. It just happens that because he's insane, his methods to this is mass-murder and regicide. He loved life, and Gaian culture, and having a purpose, which is why he has those two massive changes of heart by the end, and is left feeling empty. The life he loved is ending, he scarred the planet that he loved, and the entire narrative he built for himself was null, its just over for him.

And that's where Dissidia picks up, because it understands that Kuja is not a being of darkness nor much of a sadist, he's just a guy who loved theatrics but had that beaten out of him by existential dread and now doesn't want to live anymore. And the only thing that would've given him any reason to live after his defeat, his brother - who was with him till the end and likely the only person from his world who doesn't want to kill him anymore - HAD HIS FUCKING MEMORIES ERASED. So what does Kuja do? He follows Zidane around and tries to help him, because like, literally he's just that grateful to him. Like??? That part's really important to me, cause it would be really easy to assume Kuja was bitter during his defeat, given his actions and apparent shallowness. But this game is SMARTER than that, and it understands that Kuja wasn't angry anymore, he was just empty and still deeply nihilistic. But actually given an opportunity to try again, he sticks to Zidane. Despite there no longer being an external incentive, AND ACTUALLY DESPITE FORCES WORKING AGAINST HIM. Like Kuja was placed on the Chaos side, surrounded by a sea of fellow villains who could produce all the bravado and destruction he used to enjoy, but he was so genuinely disillusioned with that afterwards, he goes out of his way to do right. Despite threat of annihilation by his peers and heroes he was trying to help! LIKE THE GAME GETS THAT HE ISNT JUST EVIL????? IT GETS THAT HE ISN'T JUST A SHALLOW SADIST????? It's fucking heaven-sent.

OH MAN AND THEN HIS INTERACTIONS BEYOND JUST ZIDANE! That interaction he has with Cloud is one of my favorite things ever, it's just fucking rich with characterization for him. And then you have him freeing Terra from her spell because, can you believe it guys, he felt honest to god sympathy and compassion!! Insanity!! And then that leads to his relationship with Kefka which is immaculate! Everything about their relationship helps reiterate Kuja's helplessness as a character and villain, and just makes me fucking DESPISE Kefka. But in the fun intentional way. He's such an abusive, manipulative asshole to him, and it stings like hell to see Kuja once again end up as someone else's pawn BECAUSE HE WAS WILLING TO SPARE ANOTHER FROM THAT FATE. Like it's horrible for him, but it deepens his redemption.

Ok, and last thing is his VOICE!!!!! JD CULLUM!!! JD Cullum, I owe you my life, your Kuja is so delightful! It's just perfect. It has this androgynous softness to it, he switches between the theatrical and honest lines perfectly, and he sounds annoying!! That part is so important to me, if Kuja had a generic sexy villain man voice I'd be so disappointed, but like have you heard him in NT? I don't know why he sounds so happy in that game (I think Zidane has his memories in that one...) but you can hear his stupid little smile behind some of those passive-aggressive one-liners, it's the best! I have Dissidia Duodecim emulated on my PC just for Kuja's lines.

I remember something that really struck me when I first played those two's respective games was the way their beauty was treated. I had never taken a game with bishounen characters seriously before, so there was a slight culture shock at how much aesthetic weight was put on them, especially combined with the angel motif in both their characters. Two interesting details about angels (archangels or guardian angels specifically) this brought up in my mind was 1) that traditionally these angels are meant to appear as incredibly attractive people, and 2) that they're traditionally portrayed as androgynous men. Which hey, they nailed those both on the head with their "One-Winged Angel" and "Angel of Death".

But with angels, that humanity and human attractiveness is kind of just a guise for a creature, ancient, divine, and terrifyingly powerful - sort of far beyond the actual functions of a human skin. So their attractiveness is not because they're sexy or sexual, but because its an aesthetic representation of that divinity - a way to make that appalling level of power more palatable and, attractive.

And I find that really fun and interesting, a lot in a gender way because, once again, angels traditionally being seen as masculine, and that sort of "sexy for no reason even if its a de-sexualized non-human being" is only ever an excuse for flaunting a feminine form and not a masculine. And I tell you boys, I am on my hands and knees scraping at the dirt everyday for representations of male beauty.

Which is why for Sephiroth and Kuja this was so striking to me. The way their designed beauty incidentally or purposefully invokes the beauty of angels is just so cool. They are characters not at all presented as having any sexuality of their own, but that It-Factor they got encompasses their character and how they are popularly perceived. Like what would Sephiroth be without his imposing form, long silky hair, and cat-like eyes? Or Kuja without his doll-like face and, well, everything else about him? But that beauty is not FOR us or the characters - it's attractive, even captivating, but venomous. Those mako eyes only hold emptiness, to then be set ablaze by an otherworldly, alien hatred; Kuja's lips only purse in a sadistic, callous grin before twisting into the tortured scowl of a disgraced angel willing to destroy creation out of spite.

The thing that makes me know im not just projecting onto him like an insane person and that he really is intended to be deep is Dissidia Duodecim. His characterization in that as being depressed as hell because of the state of the limbo world hes in and the one person he ever cared about forgetting him and being taken advantage of and manipulated by Kefka - LIKE THE WRITERS GET IT!! They know he’s just a lonely mentally ill freak who cant communicate.

Also that one interaction he has with Cloud is the best Kuja writing I have ever experienced. Like:

I have a collage or him I love him so much <3:

Wanted to make sure everyone was aware of my folder of 200+ Kuja doodles.

My favorites under the cut (yes i blackwashed him lol)