Chapter 18: Disk - 3.3 - Alexander

[At the statue in Alexandria Square, where Zorn and Thorn were earlier]

"Peace is but a shadow of death, Deliberate to forget its painful past..." "Though we hope for promising years After shedding a thousand tears, Yesterday's sorrow constantly nears." "And while the moon still shines blue, By dawn, it will turn to scarlet hue."

"Peace death", yes. Could you please stop with your nonsense already, Kuja?

[Kuja steps out from behind the statue]

Kuja "What an auspicious day for Alexandria. Garnet's ascension to the throne has brought hope and peace to this kingdom." "The people are overjoyed; they believe a wonderful future is ahead of them." "...But the celebration isn't over yet." "It's time to really light things up!" "Your former master is here, Bahamut. Play a requiem for her and all of Alexandria!"

[FMV. Bahamut desecends from the sky and fires three fire blasts, hitting the town and destroying buildings. Dagger looks on in horror. Bahamut flies in all his glory, spreading his wings and howling.]

What's weird about the scene with Garnet is that she is suddenly back in her orange jumpsuit despite last being seen in her formal white gown. Why did she suddenly change clothes?

[Screen changes to people running through Alexandria; the roofs of buildings are on fire]

"This way! Hurry!"

"I don't wanna die!"

[In the castle, Beatrix runs up to Dagger]

Beatrix "Your Highness!"

Dagger "That's Bahamut, isn't it...?" "Beatrix, please gather our soldiers."

Beatrix "Yes, Your Highness!" "Our soldiers have already assembled and await your orders."

[Screen changes to Steiner, near the entrance of the castle, where the Pluto Knights are gathered]

Steiner "HURRY UP, YOU FOOLS!" "This is an emergency!" "Get your act together before the princess arrives!" "Line up!"

[The Pluto Knights all line up. Steiner stands in the middle. Beatrix and Dagger approach them from the floor above]

Beatrix "Your Highness, as you can see, we are ready to act at any time." "Please give your orders."

This moment is also mind blowing.

Bahamut arrives, begins to attack the town. Beatrix comes to Garnet and says that she has gathered the soldiers. And then he points to the eight Pluto Knight fools who cannot even tie their shoelaces, and says - "as you can see, we are ready."

As you can see, we are ready to dry our diapers at any time! Where is your army of girls, Beatrix?!

[Choose between the duties required - Gather information, Protect the townspeople, Contact Lindblum to request reinforcements, and Begin preparations to fire the cannons - and the Pluto Knights to handle each one - Weimar & Haagen, Breireicht & Laudo, Blutzen & Kohel, and Dojebon & Mullenkedheim. They all depart: Dagger is at the base of the stairs, with Steiner and Beatrix]

Beatrix "It's okay, Your Highness. You'll do better next time."

I think the one who needs to do better is you Beatrix, as I've said above (of course she only says this if you picked the incorrect choices, which I guess the player who typed this script did.

[Received Ether!]

Steiner "Beatrix, let's go!"

[They salute her and run off]

Dagger "...Everyone's gone." "I don't know what to do..."

Really? They are just leaving Garnet completely unguarded with no one in the castle?

[She looks up at a portrait of her mother] "Mother...I need your help."

What about Zidane? You were upset before about how you were being forced to be distant from each other, and now you've gone back to whining about your psycho mom.

[Blue light is charged to her; she falls unconscious]

[Screen changes to inside Alexandria; a Mistodon chases children. Steiner and Beatrix run on screen]

Where did Kuja get these Mistodon from? He said that he could make them with magic from the Mist, but the Mist is gone and only lingering in caves and forests, none of which are anywhere near Alexandria (and no, the petrified Evil Forest far below the cliff doesn't count)

Steiner "This is it, Beatrix."

Beatrix "I will give my all for Alexandria!"

Enough of the chauvinism and patriotism, you committed war crimes, Beatrix.

Skipping ahead.

[Mistodon jumps from the top of the house to the two of them. Battle vs. Mistodon. They defeat it and head for the next screen. A Mistodon walks on]

Steiner "You wish to fight us!? You despicable beast!"

Hey it's not the Mistodon's fault for it's instincts, but keep making pointless dialogue Steiner. Also considering that the Mist monsters are actually tormented souls this just makes Steiner look like a dick, yeah Steiner doesn't know that, but still, especially with how the whole thing never gets properly illuminated upon.

Skipping ahead, it's just more Mistodon fights and generic dialogue from Steiner and Beatrix.

Beatrix "This is futile! Let us return to the castle!"

Steiner "No! I cannot face the princess until we destroy all these beasts. On my honor, I vow to protect the princess, the citizens of Alexandria, and..." "Beatrix! I...I shall protect you!"

Beatrix "Steiner..." [A mistodon walks on screen]

Again these two have had very little chemistry and were more complaining about each other in the first chapter, I also forgot to mention last time that supplementary materials also revealed that Steiner was the one responsible for Beatrix loosing her eye due to a duel they had.

Quote from the FFWiki: "When he was 23, he dueled with Alexandria's best swordsman, Beatrix, and won due to sheer luck. As a reward, his request to become a Knight of Pluto was granted, and he goes on to become their captain.

Steiner and his Knights of Pluto feud with General Beatrix and her female soldiers, and seeing her group being promoted over his own frustrates Steiner.

Beatrix and Steiner do not initially get along as she disregards him and he envies her position."

Yet a random love letter mix up from Eiko suddenly makes them fall for each other.

Skipping ahead.

[Screen changes to Dagger, who awakens in the castle]

Dagger "...?" "I hear music..." "Where is it coming from...?" "Is it coming from upstairs...?"

[Dagger follows the music upstairs]

When Garnet runs upstairs, the statues she passes cross their swords, it's not really clear; and when Zidane gets here half an hour later, he calmly walls theough and nothing prevents him from passing. Just unexplained nonsense, as usual.

[FMV. A part of the castle lifts up to cover a portion of the castle, revealing a stairway]

How is this happening when Garnet doesn't even have all the pieces of the Alexander Gem? Eiko isn't at the castle yet with the rest of the pieces, and Alexander's exact connection with the castle isn't properly explained.

[Dagger goes up the stairs, eventually arriving...somewhere...]

Dagger "What is this place...?" "I can still hear the music. Where is it coming from...?" "...What am I doing here...?" "Mother..." "Zidane..." "No... I can't depend on them anymore!" "As the queen of Alexandria, I must protect my kingdom."

I really hate this line, it makes it sound like Garnet never really loved Zidane and all that drama of her wanting to see him last chapter was just because she only saw Zidane as support rather than the one she loved and wanted to be with, making it all pointless and ruining the love story some more. Over-dependence wasn't even Garnet's issue before, it was the EXACT OPPOSITE with her drugging and abandoning Zidane before and running all the way back home alone (Steiner didn't count) and causing the chain reaction of all the devastation we have been seeing. This will all be rendered even more pointless next chapter anyways with Garnet's mute wangst.

Why haven't you been summoning Eidolons to help anyways, Garnet? You've got Ramuh, Leviathan and most of your original Eidolons back (Shiva, Ifrit and Atomos) can't you just use them to push back Bahamut and deal with the Mist monsters? Just more dumb gameplay/story segregation.

[Screen changes to Zidane and company on the Hilda Garde 2]

Freya "This ship is rocking pretty bad."

Regent Cid "It can't be helped." "I designed this ship as an oglop, after all. So, I have no gwok idea what could happen."

Again with this "Cid being an oglop interferes with production" bullshit. Couldn't they have just reused the blueprints from the first Hilda Garde?

Zidane "Sounds like it might crash any minute."

Regent Cid "Perhaps..." "But I think we can at least make it to Alexandria."

Zidane "Oh, man... I guess we'd better cross our fingers."

Vivi "Zidane..." "...I'm starting to feel sick..."

Amarant "It's probably from the flight." "Go inside and get some rest." "Try to stay in the middle of the ship. You'll feel less movement."

Why do you suddenly care Amarant?

Regent Cid "Go on, Vivi."

Vivi "Okay... Thanks..." "Eiko?"

Eiko "What?"

Vivi "I saw something sparkle."

Eiko "Huh?" [Her jewels sparkle. The ship shakes] "Dagger...?"

Zidane "Dagger!? Eiko, what's going on?"

Eiko "I thought I just heard Dagger's voice."

[The ship shakes again]

Zidane "What? Geez, something's wrong with this ship..."

Eiko "This light..." "Maybe it's the holy judgement!"

Zidane "Holy judgement?"

[Eiko runs to the edge of the ship]

Zidane "Hey, what are you doing!?"

Eiko "The summoner is being called..." "Alexander's judgement has come!"

This shows that Eiko was aware of Alexander this whole time, which begs the question of why she didn't tell anyone this back in Madain Sari when Garnet was revealed to be from there or back in Alexandria when Garnet gave her the other pieces of the Alexander gem.

[Eiko falls off]

[FMV: the ship flies overhead, as Eiko falls to the castle, arriving at Dagger. Both their jewels shine bright light, as they see each other, Eiko still floating in the air. A bright light radiates from Alexandria Castle]

[Screen changes to Eiko with Dagger]

Dagger "Eiko! How-why are you here!?"

Eiko "I heard your voice on the airship."

Dagger "No wonder..." "I felt your presence, too, and all of a sudden, I was covered in light." [The jewels sparkle] "It's happening again!"

Eiko "Dagger, this is the light of destiny."

Dagger "The light of destiny?"

Eiko "A summoner's light of destiny, brought on by the hidden powers of the 4 jewels." "This light appears when a holy eidolon calls for its summoner." "Come on, Dagger! As summoners, we have to fulfill our destiny!"

What "destiny"? This is never fully explained, especially since Alexander just gets blown up soon anyways.

More vague nonsense: Eiko begins to speak about the "prophecies of the summoner tribe". For a game that pays such attention to summoners, they don't tell us much about them. (The purely optional, non-storyline and tedious Eidolon Wall doesn't count, it just raises more questions) Not to mention that they pretty much drop out of the plot in the second half.

Dagger "But... I don't know what to do."

Eiko "It's okay. I'll show you." "First, we have to put our hands together."

[Dagger kneels, and they each put a hand together]

Dagger "Like this?"

Eiko "Uh-huh. Now, pray in your heart."

"O holy guardian, hear our prayers." "Darkness overshadows us once again." "O holy guardian, hear our prayers." "Deliver us out of darkness into light."

[Energy is charged to their hand]

[FMV. A large blue light radiates from Alexandria Castle. Behind it, two immense wings appear. Bahamut soars overhead, blasting at the wings, which does no damage. The wings part to reveal Alexander, who towers over the castle. The wings blast dozens of blue beams. Bahamut tries to dodge them all, but can't, and gets hit by them repeatedly, exploding in a tremendous, well, explosion]

What's interesting about this whole thing is that the twin red and blue moons are eclipsed while this is going on making a purple colour, but this is never explained, the red moon is actual Terra's moon, here is the wiki explaining it:

"The Twin moons are the two moons orbiting the planet of Gaia in Final Fantasy IX. The original Gaian moon is blue, while the other, originating from Terra, is red.

The moons are not mentioned much in Final Fantasy IX, but the player can converse with people who talk about the moons in Daguerreo" (though you'd think crucial plot and lore elements like that would be part of the main story and not reduced to optional NPC talks)

"The planet of Terra attempted to fuse with Gaia to save its weakening crystal. The Fusion was a failure and the planets only partially merged with Terra shifting inside the planet of Gaia.

As a result of the failed Fusion, Terra's red moon moved on Gaia's orbit, giving the planet two moons. Each moon radiates the color of its planet's crystal, and as Gaia's crystal radiates blue light, and Terra's crystal radiates red light, the moons acquire their colors.

Explained in the Final Fantasy IX Ultimania, as the two moons orbit every sixteen days their positions switch, and the moons appear to overlap in a phenomenon similar to a solar eclipse. Only the Gaian moon's radiance is strong enough to be seen when it is directly behind Terra's moon. This is seen on the night Alexander is summoned. Because Terra's crystal is weak, the red moon doesn't glow as brightly, and when Gaia's moon covers Terra's, the red moon is left in shadow."

(The Twin moons thing, like Beatrix's plot, is clearly stealing from FFIV, and the cheap IV rehashing will become even more blatant once we get to Terra)

But what is the significance of the moons overlapping when Alexander is summoned? Does Alexander have a connection with Terra as well? Or did the staff just put that there to "make it look cool"? (Which just emphasizes one of the IX's main problems, it's all flash and no substance, designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator)

[Screen changes to Kuja in the town square]

Kuja "It's so beautiful... Alexander...the legendary eidolon..." "So, you wish to defend the castle with your brilliant wings...? How admirable..." "Your powers even transcend Bahamut's... Alexander, I've been waiting for you." "I've called a magic carriage for you. I'm sure you'll like it." "Invincible, come forth! You're mine, Alexander!"

Okay, as I've been building up since the end of Disk 2, I want to talk about Kuja's whole plan here, he had Bahamut attack Alexandria in order to provoke the summoning of Alexander, but in order for Alexander to be summoned, all four pieces of the Alexander gem must be reunited here at the castle, but as I've stated back in chapter 16, what if Garnet gave the Falcon Claw and Desert Star back to Cid and the rat people? (Cid was only not there before due to the contrived nonsense of "being an oglop interfered with the Hilda Garde construction) Then Kuja's whole plan would have been completely effed since not all of the jewel pieces would have been there to summon Alexander (Cid would have obviously come to help while the Falcon Claw was in his possession, but there was absolutely no guarantee that the Rat people would have come and helped with the Desert Star in their possession, especially after what Alexandria did to them)

Kuja's entire plan relies on a lot of contrived happenstance, also if Brahne hadn't had a convenient Caravel sized escape pod when Kuja had Bahamut blow up her ship, her body would have been lost at sea along with the Alexander jewel pieces that she had, his plan would have also been screwed over, and from what we can see with Alexander's summoning, it requires two summoners in order to summon him, and Brahne tried to have Garnet, one of the last two remaining summoners, executed, which would have also prevented Kuja from getting Alexander if Zidane hadn't coincidently saved her.

Why didn't Kuja just let Brahne collect all the jewel pieces, kidnap Eiko and Garnet and then forced Garnet and Eiko to summon Alexander in the castle and that is when he would backstab Brahne, instead of having this needlessly complicated and really loose set up? Heck, why make Brahne go crazy and start a war in the first place, when he could have just visited each part of the Mist Continent such as Lindblum and Cleyra under his "King" alias to get into Cid's and the Cleyra High Priest's good graces to find out where the Alexander jewel pieces were and then sneak in and steal them in secret, doing the same for the Madain Sari jewel and Eiko, and then going to the final piece in Alexandria to summon Alexander?

[FMV. A blue light appears above Alexander: the giant eyeball appears. Alexander uses his wings to cover himself and the castle. The eyeball simply hovers above him]

[Screen changes to inside the ship: An old man in a black suit is there]

"You have gone too far, Kuja." "I granted you the freedom to do as you wish in Gaia for one purpose alone." "Now that you have lost sight of your mission, I will no longer tolerate your actions."

Well gee, Garland, maybe you shouldn't have let Kuja still have control over the Invincible after he stole Zidane and dumped him on Gaia, because Kuja clearly showed that he was not to be trusted. You won't tolerate his actions now, but you were perfectly fine with his actions back then? How are you just now noticing this? How are you able to watch over him?

"You have not the slightest idea whom you are defying. I will show you soon enough." "You too, Zidane..."

Well Zidane doesn't remember any of this so it's more that he is oblivious rather than "defying you". Also this dialogue suggests that Garland has been aware of Zidane's status for a while, which begs the question of how he is able to see what is happening on Gaia and also why he hasn't taken back Zidane yet when he has had openings to do so.

[Screen returns to Kuja]

Kuja "!? What happened to the Invincible!?" "Enslave Alexander, as you have enslaved Bahamut!" "!" "Could it be...Garland!?" "Impossible! Why would he come to Gaia!?"

Well maybe it's because the Invincible is Garland's ship, Kuja. Also Kuja is acting like Garland has never come to Gaia before, how else would Garland have planted the Iifa Tree?

Also his name is Garland, as in named after the main antagonist of FFI, Garland, because REFERENCES.

Kuja "If it is indeed Garland, he must know my plan! But why has he assumed control of the Invincible...?" "!? No! He can't be..."

I didn't understand this either: how does Kuja manage the Invincible at all? Sphincter power? If the ship is controlled by Kuja, heck the heck did Garland spawn in it? How did Kuja miss this? If it can be controlled remotely, why is Garland in it personally?

[Screen changes to Regent Cid entering the castle]

Regent Cid "Phew... That was quite a trip..."

Amarant "You little bug. We could've been killed."

Freya "Amarant's right. It was a mistake to come here on that airship."

Why didn't you guys just go back through Gargan Roo then, wouldn't that have been safer and not to mention much faster?

Skipping ahead.

[Zidane and company make their way up to the top of the castle, where Dagger and Eiko are. They make their way to the stairs]

Vivi "Gee... What is this?"

Regent Cid "Gwok! So, this is the secret of Alexandria Castle..."

What is with Cid's dialogue here, is he implying that he suspected that the castle had a big secret?

Freya "Are Dagger and Eiko up there?"

Regent Cid "Maybe. Let's go see." [Zidane gets in the way] "GWOK! What are you doing!?"

Zidane "There's no point in all of us going. I'll take it from here."

Vivi "W-Why? I wanna go with you. I wanna help Dagger and Eiko, too."

Zidane "Kuja might destroy this castle at any minute.

What makes you think that? Bahamut has been defeated, sure there is the Invincible controlled by Garland which does actually destroy the castle, but Zidane doesn't know about that.

Zidane Get out of here while you can." "Go on, Vivi. Don't worry about me." "Someday, you'll probably do the same thing for someone who's really important to you." "Dagger is more important to me than anything else."

Another idiotic moment of pathos for the sake of: Garnet and Eiko are at the top, and Zidane explains to the others for half an hour why he will go on alone (that is, he repeats the phrase "I can feel with my ass that it is necessary" in different variations). And all the rest of the characters give him an empty crappy remark as a parting word, as if it would help him.

But in fact, all this nonsense with Eiko jumping and Zidane sending everyone away was just to insert two pretentious scenes into the game - with the two summoner girls and with Zidane saving his de-summoner-horned woman.

Also I'm pretty sure Eiko, who is also up their, should be really important to Vivi, Zidane, but scew that, I guess.

Skipping ahead.

[FMV. The Invincible fires a tremendous blast which envelops Alexander. Eiko looks up and sees it. Dagger looks up as well. Blasts of electricity charge everywhere around them. The castle begins to explode, as Dagger and Eiko are falling to the ground. Zidane jumps down and lands on a chunk of the castle which Dagger is falling down on. Together, along with Eiko, they hang onto a cord, just like when they first met back at the start of the game]

As I said above, this scene is pretentious, because next chapter this whole thing will be completely forgotten about.

[Screen changes to the base of the stairs, where Dagger, Zidane, and Eiko are]

Zidane "Dagger... I'm sorry..." "I don't know why I wasn't honest with you..."

And yet next chapter you still won't be honest with her.

Eiko "Zidane... We really made a big mess, didn't we?"

[Castle shakes]

Zidane "We'll talk later! Let's get out of here!"

Except that you won't talk later.

[FMV: The Invincible charges up and unleashes a full blast on Alexander. An ENORMOUS explosion erupts, destroying virtually all of Alexandria, which we see from above]

And that's the last we will see of Alexander. I'm not even kidding, all that build up towards Alexander since the freaking beginning, such as the opening FMV emphasis shots focusing on Alexandria Castle which the strongest Gaia Eidolon seems to be connected with, the pieces of the Alexander jewel, especially Garnet's pendant which the FMVs also had some shots of (the pendant is even on the game over screen!), and Alexander's whole role was to just to have one cool scene and then get easily devastated and blown up by the Invincible and drops out of the rest of the story, never appearing again with few mentions, the rest of the game might as well be considered a completely different story (which will definitely feel like it when Terra is thrusted in), and the whole thing will be rendered even more pointless once we get to the "Kuja goes Trance" part.

Also keep in mind of the story-breaker power that is the Invincible because it causes some of the biggest plot holes in the game, which I will explain once we get to Garland and his reveals.

[Screen changes to Garland in the ship]

Garland "More souls have returned..." "In microscopic proportions, the process still continues after thousands of years." "Eventually, these circulating souls will no longer belong to Gaia." "They must never be circulated back..."

Okay, first off, why is Garland saying things to himself that he already knows about? I guess the writers just lazily wrote him monologuing exposition to himself. Secondly, "no longer belong to Gaia"? Is that implying that they will go to Terra? That is not what the Iifa Tree is doing, it's expelling the Gaia souls from the Gaia Crystal altogether and replacing them with the Terra Souls, it this another bad translation?

Garland "Kuja did well. If only he had lasted longer..."

Uh, weren't you going to replace him with Zidane because Zidane was better than Kuja? Why do you suddenly care?

Garland "I never imagined he would choose to end his remaining days on Gaia..."

But he didn't, he was trying to get Alexander to use against you. Unless what Garland means by this dialogue is that he thinks Kuja was killed by that explosion just now, but why? Zidane was in the castle where the point blank of that energy blast that caused that explosion hit, and he, along with Garnet and Eiko (and I'm pretty sure the other party members that were still in the castle at that point) got out of that completely unscathed… with no real explanation, and you seem to be completely aware of that from your next line, so what makes you Kuja didn't make it out, especially when he was just on the outskirts of Alexandria?

Garland "Perhaps, this was his fate, set in ages past." "I, too, cannot escape my fate; someday, I must face your counterpart..."

Enough with the pretentious words Garland. Why can't you just take back Zidane now? From what we see of the Invincible later, there seems to be a tractor beam on it, so I can't see why Garland can't just use it to get Zidane when he has a clear opening to do so when Zidane is unconscious and everyone is in disarray.

End of Chapter 18.

On to the next chapter which is the start of another of one of the dreaded things about IX, Dagger going mute.