Chapter 12: Disk 2.6 & 2.7 - Mountain Path and Madain Sari

[The group returns to Conde Petie]

Zidane "So the Sanctuary is on the other side of that valley..."

Vivi "But the exit leading there from the upper floor is guarded by a dwarf who won't let us through."

Quina "Twin dwarfies block way out from shop on right side. No can get through."

Thank you for repeating what Vivi just said Quina, is that the only reason you are here?

Zidane "Hmm... Well, let's just try and go as far as we can."

[Zidane and company head for the two dwarves blocking the way by the shop]

Zidane "Say, I wanna get through here."

Richard Watchman "Never! Only those who've received the ceremony kin pass!"

What about the Summoner Tribe (and the moogles) that lived beyond this point? Yes the Summoners were mostly wiped out a decade ago, but the summoners had to have visited the Dwarves many times since they were in close proximity to each other. Actually the Dwarves make no mentions of Madain Sari or the Summoners at all, apparently not knowing that they even exist.

Zidane "What the heck is that ceremony?"

Matthew Watchman "Speak tae His Holiness!"

Zidane "And where is 'His Holiness'?"

Richard Watchman "Ah dinnae ken where he is!"

[Zidane goes in search for His Holiness, and finds him]

Zidane "Hey, mister... Are you the holy guy?"

David Heavenguard "Aye. Ah'm Father David."

Zidane "What are you doing, hanging around this hallway?"

David Heavenguard "Well...a priest has much tae worry aboot, ye see?"

Zidane "Yeah...whatever. Look, we wanna get past this village."

David Heavenguard "Hmph! Tradition states that only those who undergo the ceremony kin approach the Sanctuary."

Does that apply to non-Dwarves though? Especially given the Summoners, whom the Dwarves should be aware about.

Zidane "So, what the heck is that ceremony about, anyway?"

[Dagger walks into the room]

David Heavenguard "Well, after a man an' a woman are blessed in holy union, they leave oan holy pilgramage tae the Sanctuary."

Zidane "So...basically it's a wedding... and a honeymoon, right?"

David Heavenguard "Ah dinnae ken yir words, lad, but methinks ye understan'."

Why would the Dwarves have a honeymoon location on a mountain path filled with dangerous monsters? What exactly is the Dwarf lore here?

This is really just a contrived roadblock so you wouldn't go to the Mountain Path too early before visiting the BM village. (Where as later games would just tell the player themselves that they couldn't go a certain way yet and restrict the controller from going that way, like in the VII Remake)

Dagger "So we can go to the Sanctuary if we undergo that ceremony, right?"

Zidane "Oh, hey, Dagger! So yeah, that's the deal." "Whaddya think? We can go if we get hitched. But there's no way we'd actually-"

Dagger "Let's do it."

Zidane "What!?"

David Heavenguard "Sae ye wantae be joined, eh? The ceremony's only fer dwarves, see..."

Then why can't the party just be allowed to go through the Mountain Path since they clearly aren't Dwarves?

David Heavenguard "...But we have sae few young folk nooadays. We're doon tae ninety-nine couples." "Ah was worryin' aboot that very thin'..." "But what's the hairm? Now we can have oor hundredth ceremony!"

Zidane "..." "Uhh... Dagger? Wh-What's going on?"

[Scene changes to a boat lifted above ground by wooden poles. Dagger and Zidane are standing in the boat. In front of them, in a watchtower of sorts, is David Heavenguard, as he performs the ceremony]

David Heavenguard "Speerits o' the moontain, Speerits o' the wood..."

Zidane (Uh... Now, how did I get into this?)

David Heavenguard "Watch ower this man an' woman as they begin their journey..."

Zidane (We gotta do this ceremony to get past this village...) (And only a guy and girl can have the ceremony...)

Vivi's and Quina's wedding after this proves that last statement to be false.

[Flashesback to before the ceremony happened]

Zidane "Now, hold on a sec, Dagger!" "Don't you get it? This is marriage, m-a-r-r-i-a-g-e!"

Dagger "No kidding... But we have to do it to go on, right?"

Zidane "Yeah, but... But that's not reason enough!"

Dagger "Oh, come on."

Here's a word about Garnet's apathy. This stupid wedding is inappropriate and forced (two dwarfs are in the way, you can't get through, you have to get married. You can't just push by them or jump over them? Shouldn't the traditions not apply to non-dwarves and David Heavenguard can just let them through?), and it doesn't carry any consequences at all. Garnet unexpectedly agrees, and then it's hand waved. And why is this all a thing? For a slapstick kiss joke?

[Returns to present scene]

Zidane (What is she thinking?) (She's supposed to get angry and say no way!)

David Heavenguard "...In sickness an' in health..."

Zidane (Of course we're just trying to get past this village...)

David Heavenguard "...Have the strength to cairry ye through the trials..."

Zidane (Could it be that she... likes me?)

Uh, wasn't that your whole reason for going after her in the Evil Forest? Because you wanted to stay by her side and you loved her? (You even say "because I wanted to go with you" a few chapters later) Why are you trying to act surprised now?

David Heavenguard "...An' the wisdom tae follow the path..."

Zidane (Gotta admit, I was pretty deep that night in the black mage village. Maybe that's when she fell for me? I'm such a stud!)

Maybe you should have told Garnet your feelings after escaping the Evil Forest. This just makes the "romantic" FMV in Disk 1 Lindblum where Zidane is watching Garnet sing with birds flying around her even more pointless.

David Heavenguard "May the blessin's o' heaven be upon this man an' woman!"

Zidane "Dagger! Now we're man and wife!" "Time for the kiss..."

[He tries to jump on her, but she walks away. He lands flat on his face]

Zidane "Playing hard to get, eh?"

Here we go with more annoying slapstick and "will they, won't they" bullshit, instead of actually trying to develop the love story and being wholesome.

[Screen changes to the group of four character]

Shamis Gatekeeper "Happy fit! Now ye need annoonce yer joinin' tae the twins at the other gate!"

Zidane "What!? You mean there's more?"

Shamis Gatekeeper "We have tae follow tradition, lad!"

Zidane "Ah, well... Time for us newlyweds to make the rounds, Dagger."

Dagger "Remember, we're only married while we're here."

Hey this whole thing was your idea, Dagger, but sure, keep just using Zidane's feelings and having no actual personality. Skipping ahead to where Eiko shows up.

[A little girl runs onto the screen]

"Mog, hurry!"

[She runs away, and the moogle follows her, followed by two dwarves]

"Kupo!"

"Stop, thief!"

"Stop, thief!"

Dagger "Wh-What's going on?"

Zidane "I dunno. Let's go take a look."

[Dagger and Zidane run to a new screen, and meet up with the two dwarves]

Richard Watchman "They got away..."

Matthew Watchman "Feuch! An' we cannae go any farther..."

Zidane "Does anyone live out here?"

Richard Watchman "O' course no! It's forbidden!"

Really? The Dwarves and Summoners never saw each other even once in the centuries the summoners have been living here? This is really contrived. Also WHY is it forbidden, what made you decide this? This is just another example of IX's bad world building. Skipping ahead.

[Everyone heads to a new screen. The small girl/thief is hanging from a twig]

Zidane "Hey..."

[The words "Mountain Path" appear on the screen. We see that her moogle is flying right in front of her]

"Kupopo!"

Little Girl "Hurry, Mog! Before we get caught!"

"Kupo!"

Little Girl "What's wrong, Mog?"

"K-Kupo!"

[The moogle flies away. The characters all approach the Little Girl]

Considering that Mog is actually the Eidolon, Madeen, in disguise (will be addressing that rabbit hole when the reveal comes) why would he flee? He shouldn't be afraid of them.

Little Girl "W-Wait! Don't leave me here!" "Sigh... Stuck on a branch..." "Betrayed by my own trusted moogle... Is this how I meet my end?" "Mog... I'm gonna haunt you if I die here!" "Oh, am I hallucinating? That person has no horn." "He has a tail, though."

What about the others, do you even notice them? I think Vivi and Quina should be standing out way more than Zidane and Garnet.

"Huh!?" "AHHH! Help!" "Don't eat me! I won't taste good!" "It's true! I taste awful!"

Zidane "You heard her, Quina."

Quina "I see. Too bad." "But moogle that ran away a very strange color." "I go find and eat it."

Hah hah, Quina wants to eat children and cute critters, how "likeable".

Little Girl "No, don't!"

[Quina jumps to another part of the path, resulting in a loud thud. The little girl falls, shouts "Ahhh!" and lands in Zidane's arms]

Zidane "Gotcha...!"

Little Girl "..." "Th-Thanks..."

Dagger "Are you okay?"

Little Girl "Yeah..."

Dagger "You're not hurt?"

Little Girl "I told you I'm okay! I'm not a child, like that kid in blue!"

Vivi "But... You don't look any older than me."

Little Girl "Are you kidding!? And I do have a name, you know!"

[Name the character "Eiko"]

Here is Eiko, who is a more believable isolated girl unlike Dagger, and has way more of a personality than her. The story with her late grandfather is also interesting, but we never even see him in a flashback and are fully explained about him.

Eiko "The name's Eiko! Shouldn't you introduce yourself before addressing a lady?"

Vivi "You introduced yourself first..."

Eiko "You got a problem!?"

Vivi "..."

Dagger "I'm Dagger, and this is Vivi."

Why is Garnet still going by "Dagger"? At this point they've left the Mist Continent and have no notability here so she really doesn't need to hide her identity anymore.

Eiko "Yeah? What about you?"

Zidane "Me? I'm Zidane."

Eiko "Zidane. Alright."

Zidane "So, Miss Eiko, why did you steal from the village?"

Eiko "I was hungry..."

But when we go to Madain Sari after this, there seems to be a bunch of food there, considering a bunch of moogles live there and Eiko makes you dinner, did you not bring a bag of food with you when you left Madain Sari? Actually, now that you mention it, what were you doing all the way out here in Conde Petie, why did the Moogles let a six year old go out by herself into terrain with vicious creatures hanging around with only one Moogle to look after her? (Yes, Mog is actually a Eidolon in disguise, but I'm pretty sure the other moogles did not know that) It's never explained why Eiko came to Conde Petie, and apparently repeatedly too, as the Dwarfs said that Eiko has stolen food more than once (also the Dwarves really couldn't catch a little girl all those times?), which makes no sense, you'd think she'd stop after the first time or just bring food with her afterwards, or just try living with the dwarves, also why was she in Conde Petie when the party first got her but then waited the next day (or even days going by realistic travel time) when the party came back from visiting the BM village to steal something?

Zidane "Ha ha ha... You sound just like Quina." "Hey, did s/he really go chasing after that moogle?"

Except that Quina is just a glutton, but way to make fun of a little girl you just met who might be potentially in poverty.

Eiko "Oh no... S/he's gonna eat Mog!"

Dagger "I don't think Quina would eat a moogle."

S/He just said before that he would.

Dagger "Do you live nearby, Eiko?"

Eiko "Yeah, beyond this path, I'm sure Mog went home..."

Dagger "Why don't we take her home?"

Zidane "Yes, yes... Anything for my lovely wife."

Eiko "You two are married!?"

Zidane "Yup. We're newlyweds."

Dagger "No, no. We're just friends."

Zidane "Well, I guess that's better than nothing..."

No, and the game is going to keep doing this annoying friend-zoned BS for quite a while.

Eiko "I wanna be your friend, too!"

Zidane "Alright, then, let's go to our new friend's house."

[The group journeys on a few screens, and eventually get to one where, in the far distance, a tremendously-huge tree, not unlike the one of Cleyra, looms in the background]

Zidane "What's that...?"

[FMV focuses in on the true. Starting at its base and looking upward. Birds fly around it, as Mist circles it as well]

Zidane "Is that the Sanctuary?"

[Zidane heads for the next screen. The ground rumbles twice]

Zidane "What the...!?"

[It rumbles a third time. Boss Battle vs. Hilgigars. Naturally, they soundly defeat him]

Eiko "That big monster just shows up from time to time." "I usually just run away."

Why do you keep coming this way then? Also can't the Eidolon you can summon (Titan and Fenrir) just scare it off?

Zidane "But you're a pretty good fighter, Eiko."

Well technically, her Eidolons do all the fighting.

Eiko "Tee-hee. Thanks."

Dagger "Hey, how come you can summon eidolons, Eiko?"

Eiko "I thought you could, too, Dagger."

Dagger "Well..."

Zidane "Not usually... Hey, have you always been able to do that?"

What do you mean not usually? She has one right now, Ramuh.

Eiko "Of course. My grandpa and everyone else did it all the time."

Dagger "What do you mean?"

[The group is at an intersection between a left and right path. Vivi is looking down the left path]

Eiko "Hey, that's not the way to my house! That's the way to the Iifa Tree!" [She runs to the right path] "This way to my place!"

Vivi "I was only looking at the mountains..."

Zidane "The Iifa Tree? I thought it was called Sanctuary."

Eiko "Huh?" "Oh, that's what the dwarves call it. Everyone else calls it the Iifa Tree."

Wouldn't the summoners have told the Dwarves about this then as they should have sensibly met each other instead of never seeing each other for no real reason?

Dagger "The Iifa Tree...?"

Eiko "Let's go!"

[The group enters Eiko's hometown. It's a completely destroyed village, and appears to have been that way for a long time]

Eiko
"Zidane!"
"This is my home: Madain Sari!"

Zidane
"You live here...? (It's a pile of rubble.)"
"Dagger?"

Dagger
"What happened here...? This place is in ruins."

[On the screen, the words "Madain Sari", followed by "Village of the Lost Summoners" appears on the screen. A bunch of moogles step out from behind stone structures, all saying "Kupo!"

Okay a bunch of moogles live here in Madain Sari, and Mognet Central is also on the Outer Continent, and you can also find moogles on the Forgotten and Lost continents and they are all in contact with each other and have a postal network… HOW IS THE REST OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE OF THE MIST CONTINENT "UNKNOWN AND UNEXPLORED"? Wouldn't the moogles have told other people on the Mist Continent about the outside world a long time ago by now?

Skipping some dialogue.

Mog
"Kupo!"

[Mog shrinks and dissapears inside her dress]

Zidane
"Did that moogle go inside your dress?"

Eiko
"Yup! Mog always stays with me."

[Mog leaves her dress, says "Kupo!", and goes back in]

This is apparently foreshadowing that Mog isn't what he seems, but realistically this should be raising a lot of questions and suspicions, not just from the party, but also from the other moogles who should know that actual moogles shouldn't be able to do this.

Eiko
"Zidane, come sit over here!"

Zidane
"H-Hey!"

Eiko
"Tell me more about yourself!"
"Tell me!"

Zidane
"Sure. I wanna know more about you, too, Eiko."

[Zidane sits down]

Eiko
"Really!?"

[Eiko sits down]

Zidane
"For instance, the eidolon..."

Eiko
"Where are you from? How old are you? What do you do? Where are you going?"

Zidane
"No, what I wanna know is..."

Eiko
"What kind of foods do you like? What kind of eidolons do you like? What type of moogles do you like? What type of girls do you like?"

Okay Eiko you are a little too young to be having feelings for Zidane, I know that boys and girls can have crushes and attractions at a young age, but six is really pushing it.

[Screen fades to black, then fades back in on the same screen]

Eiko
"I've never met anyone like you before..."

Okay now that is a straight up lie, considering you've met your grandfather before, and possibly your parents.

Zidane
"Dagger?"
"What's wrong? You look dazed."

Dagger
"Oh, it's nothing."

Zidane
"Do you have a fever?"

Dagger
"Ahhh!"

Zidane
"You're fine. Hey, are you jealous?"

Dagger
"Why would I be jealous?"

First off, why would you be jealous of a frigging six year old? Secondly, now is when you start being attached to Zidane, after you've been constantly and irritatingly giving him the cold shoulder (and abandoning him) for the past nearly two disks, when that same six year old starts chasing after him?

Though I guess it would make sense for Dagger to be jealous of Eiko since she has way more personality than Dagger, it's pretty ironic that a six year old is having more chemistry with Zidane than the actual appropriate Garnet.

Eiko
"Are you and Dagger really just friends?"
"Seems like... you guys are...something more."

Did you completely forget Zidane's disappointed response back at the Mountain Path when Dagger claimed "they were just friends", Eiko?

Zidane
"Well..."
"Yeah, we're more than friends."

Eiko
"So? What are you guys?"

Zidane
"We're a team."

Stop being pretentious Zidane, you were disappointed back on the Mountain Path when Dagger tried to friend-zone you, and you been trying to be her lover since the Evil Forest, you literally called your meeting FATE.

Eiko
"A team...?"

Zidane
"Yeah."
"Vivi's also a part of the team. Hey... Where did he go?"

Oh great, now Zidane is friend-zoning too and trying to downplay his love for Dagger.

[Mog goes out of her dress]

Eiko
"Is it sort of like me and the moogles?"

Zidane
"Something like that."

Dude, stop with the "friendship speech" nonsense and just admit your feelings for Garnet already. Seriously, this is all just annoying teasing.

[A moogle runs onto the screen]

Mocha
"All clean! Kupo!"

Eiko
"Thanks, Mocha! I'll be right there!"
[Mog goes into her dress]
"I'm gonna start cooking! You have to come eat at my place later, okay?"

See? They have food here, why does Eiko feel the need to repeatedly steal food from the Dwarves?

[Eiko and Mocha run off screen]

Zidane
"There's still stuff I want to ask her. Let's accept her invitation."

Dagger
"Okay..."

[Eiko runs back in]

Eiko
"I'll call you when the food's ready. Don't go too far!"
[She runs off screen]

Time for some more ATEs! Let's see which ones actually matter and which ones are just stupid and hollow filler.

- Vivi's Feelings

[Vivi is standing in a remote corner of Madain Sari, his arms on a rope railing, as you can hear the waves crashing below. A moogle flies overhead and off screen]

Vivi
"Mr. 288 told me that I understand what it means to live and to die..."
"But it's only because I thought stopping was different from dying..."
"I don't think I really understand what it means to live and to die."
"Where do we come from...? Do we go back there when we die...?"
"If that's what it means to live... I wonder where I came from...?"
"Where will I end up when I die...?"
"Why am I shaking...?"
"What is it that I'm feeling...?"

Now this ATE does seem to matter as it's about the conundrum with Vivi and the other Black Mages and stopping, but as I said last chapter that all amounts to melodrama later considering what the Mist actually is when we get to the Iifa Tree. Also when you die your soul goes back to the crystal to be reincarnated but as I said all the way back in chapter 1 you don't even hear about the crystal until the last 1% of the game where it is thrown in at the last minute and isn't even emphasized with what Vivi says here.

[Scene changes back to Zidane]

Zidane
"Geez, what a dump."
"It must've been like this for at least ten years."
"What can Eiko possibly feed us?"

How the heck can you tell just how long this place has been in this state? Are you a geographic expert now?

- Eiko's Feelings

[Eiko is in her kitchen, situated beside a waterfall. The moogles approach her and speak to her]

Eiko
"Thanks for cleaning! You guys did a great job!"
"A clean house worthy of hosting my hero, Zidane!"
"But here's where the real challenge begins!"
"I don't think Zidane and Dagger are dating, yet."
"Dagger has been slow to catch on to Zidane's moves."

Eiko would be great at criticizing Zidane and Garnet's love story.

Eiko
"That means there's still plenty of time for me to get between them!"
"I'm gonna cook lots of yummy good and show Zidane what a good homemaker I am!"

Again, Eiko, you are only six, you should be at least having more of a cute toy ship with Vivi, which is what a lot of the fanfic writers actually do.

Mocha
"Kupo! It might work if you cooked good food."

Momatose
"But Eiko screws up a lot when she cooks."
"We don't have much food in stock right now..."

But the fact that you do have food means that you do grow it here. Skipping to the ending of the ATE, most of this is just cooking talk filler and you choosing what ingredients to use (and it's only impact being how the party reacts to Eiko's dinner which is just a few lines of dialogue and no item rewards)

Eiko
"Let's start!"
[The two other moogles fly away, as one remains, floating above her. Eiko looks up at the sky]
"Grandpa..."
"I don't wanna be alone anymore."
"Help me do this right…

But you aren't alone, you live with a bunch of Moogles, and what about the Dwarves? You can make company with them too, in fact, some dwarves should be living here in Madain Sari, just like there should have been some summoners living in Conde Petie. (If the world building was better)

Eiko's "I don't wanna be alone anymore" line, which is also on her character poster, is completely false and pretentious, and goes back to what I said in chapter 7 about Steiner, his motivational poster and the character posters in general, Sakaguchi has stated: "The game is based on eight characters, each with their own background story and personal traumas. Based on the questionnaires from our gameplay testers, most people thought the characters are unique and the storyline is very deep."

They seriously considered this plot to be "deep" and these characters to be "dramatic"?

The stuff about Eiko's grandfather is interesting, but we never fully learn about him, or even see him onscreen in a flashblack, he's only ever mentioned.

- Dagger's Feelings

[Dagger is walking near the entrance of Madain Sari]

Here we go with more Dagger moping, seriously why isn't Zidane and Garnet staying by each others sides and having an actual love story like the game was hyping it up to be?

Dagger
"A village of summoners..."
"I read about them in a book once... A tribe that possesses the power to call forth eidolons..."
"Eidolons..."
"Knowing that I had eidolons inside me didn't bring me any joy."

Again, Dagger's dialogue here suggests that she always knew she had Eidolons within her, which makes me wonder why she never put together that she was from the summoner tribe sooner, or Tot didn't tell her sooner considering he knew this.

"Mother imprisoned me... used the eidolons she stole from me as tools of war."

Which you basically gave to her in gift wrappings by arbitrarily running all the way back home like an idiot.

"I thought I would kill my eidolons if Kuja was going to use them for war..."

I'm sorry, what? Where was this ever stated before? Your Eidolons were already extracted by the time you heard about Kuja, how does this line make sense? Also can Eidolons even be killed? Aren't they technically already spirits? Where they originally people that the Crystal/Planet turned into powerful guardian spirits?

Also you do realize that Ramuh is within you and no doubt listening to you as you say this Dagger, and I don't think he would like the "kill the Eidolons" part.

"But now that they're gone... I feel like I've lost a piece of myself..."

Uh, again, what about Ramuh? Did you forget about him? (This won't be last time she forget about that, as this will come into play later when I talk about the ending part for Disk 2)

"Why am I thinking all this now...?"
"It must be the locations. This place feels so familiar to me somehow..."

Shouldn't the books you've read about Eidolons and the summoner tribe have triggered a lot of Deja Vu as well?

[Zidane talks to a moogle blocking the entrance to a room with no ceilings: just walls]

Moco
"This is a restricted area!"

Why would the Eidolon Wall be "restricted"? It's just a bunch of drawings of the Eidolons and notes left by the summoners.

Zidane
"Restricted? What's that, then?"

Moco
"Kupo!?"

[Quina is walking on top of the walls, above them]

Quina
"Zidane, this place only rocks and sand."
"I eat star sand once, but sand here not food."

"Star Sand"? What the heck is that?

[Quina jumps down, landing behind Zidane]
"Water look clean."
[Quina jumps down to the river beside them]

Moco
"Squee...!"

Zidane
"Hey, don't take it so hard. S/he's a special case."

[Zidane heads to the screen where Vivi was philosophizing previously]

Zidane
"...Vivi?"
[He runs beside Vivi]
"What's up? Is something wrong?"

Vivi
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking..."

Zidane
"...Well, try not to think too much. Get some rest."

Not even going to ask what he was thinking about? What do you even mean "don't think too much"?

Vivi
"Okay. Thanks, Zidane."

[Zidane tries to enter Eiko's Kitchen, but a moogle gets in the way]

Morrison
"Kupo. Please wait."
"Thank you for waiting. Lady Eiko says the food will be ready soon."
"I'll take you to the Eidolon Wall in the meantime."
"Please follow me."

Oh now we can suddenly go to the Eidolon Wall?

[Zidane follows the moogle off-screen]

- Eiko's Kitchen

[Back in Eiko's Kitchen with her moogle helper]

Eiko
"How many people do I need to cook for?"
"There's me and Zidane."
"There's that quiet boy, Vivi..."
"I guess I should cook for Dagger, too."
"And all you guys: Mog, Moco, Mocha, Chimomo, Momatose, and Morrison!"
"Will you put water on for all the people I listed? I'll get the ingredients."

Again, you seem to have enough food to feed all the moogles, why did you need to steal from Conde Petie? Skipping the rest of the ATE, just more choice cooking.

[Screen changes to Zidane , who heads to the Eidolon Wall entrance]

Morrison
"That moogle is called Moco."
"Moco was very proud of his role as the Eidolon Wall guard."
"Eiko's decision to show the Eidolon Wall to outsiders upset him."
"But we moogles love Eiko. He'll understand, in time."

Why does Moco care so much about others seeing the Eidolon Wall? Did he personally know the Summoners or something? This is never elaborated.

Zidane
"Why does the wall need protection?"

Morrison
"The Eidolon Wall has been protected by Eiko's summoner tribe for generations."

Okay but what does that have to do with Moco who is a moogle? Did moogles always live here in Madain Sari with the Summoners? Unlikely, because they would have been mostly wiped out by the Invincible like the Summoners were.

Zidane
"...Summoner tribe?"
"I'm gonna get Dagger. She can use summon magic."

The fact that Eiko was a summoner didn't clue you into all this earlier?

Morrison
"Is that true?"

[Zidane runs to Dagger, who's still standing near the entrance of Madain Sari]

Zidane
"Hey, Dagger."
"Come with me. I'll show you something big! Summon-magic stuff."

You two should have went together from the start, for someone who couldn't get her out of his head during the Evil Forest segment, you really aren't even trying to stay by her side, Zidane.

Dagger
"Summon magic?"

Zidane
"Yeah, it's called the Eidolon Wall!"

[Dagger returns to the Eidolon Wall's entrance with Zidane]

Morrison
"Please come in."
"The Eidolon Wall is this way."

[They enter into the room. In the middle of the room is a place where incense is burnt: the room is circular, just one wall: the eidolon wall. There are several columns standing upright as well]

Morrison
"The Eidolon Wall is a collection of paintings. The summoner tribe painted all the eidolons they found during their research."

Found? How did they find them exactly?

Dagger
"These eidolons all exist?"

Morrison
"Kupo."
"This is a holy place for the summoner tribe."
[Dagger leaves Zidane's side and begins to wander around, gazing at the walls]
"Lady Eiko comes here everday to pray and burn incense for her ancestors."

Dagger
"What's this one...?"
"There's Atomos."
"That's Bahamut."

Okay these pictures are ancient, meaning that Atomos and Bahamut are ancient, but how did Dagger originally have them? How does Summoning Eidolons work? Do Eidolons go inside the summoner when they complete a test and go out of them when they are summoned, or do summoners just get the ability to summon them and when they are summoned the Eidolons are teleported from where they usually dwell (like Ramuh from Pinnacle Rocks) to the summoner's location?

[Dagger falls to her knees]

Zidane
"What's wrong, Dagger?"

Dagger
"I..."

Zidane
"You'll get it back."

Dagger

"I want to look at the murals some more."

Zidane
"...Okay."

[Zidane exits the Eidolon Wall area]

Again, not going even going to stay by her side, Zidane? So much for devotion.

- Eiko's Kitchen 2

Great, more cooking padding.

[Eiko and a moogle are in the kitchen; Quina is on the set of steps speaking to them]

Quina
"You use good bait."

Eiko
"Pale... White hair... Strange clothes..."
"Zidane told me about you! You're Kuja!"

Wait, does Quina even have hair? Also you met Quina before on the Mountain Path, with you clearly hearing the party calling Quina by his/her name. The writers aren't even paying attention to their previous scenes.

Quina
"Zidane looks for man named Kuja."
"I called Quina."

Eiko
"...Oh! You chased Mog on the Conde Petie Mountain Path!" "I'm Eiko!"
"(Mog, don't ever come out while s/he's around.)"

How could you forget about that? Even for a six year old, I don't see how you could easily forget about the walking marshmallow with a big lolling tongue.

Mog
"(Kupo!)"

Quina
"Smell good."

[Quina jumps over Eiko and approaches the stove]

Eiko
"Don't eat anything!"

Quina
"The heat too low."

Eiko
"You can cook!?"

Quina
"Is my destiny to pursue way of gourmand!"

And that is pretty much just Quina's entire character and story.

What did Sakaguchi say again? "The game is based on eight characters, each with their own background story and personal traumas."

Quina does not match any of that.

Skipping the rest of the ATE and ahead.

[The next scene shows Dagger, Zidane, Eiko, Vivi, and Mog sitting and eating]

Eiko
"How is it?"

Zidane
"The stew tastes good!"
"The fish tastes good! Can I have some more?"
"Hey, Eiko, where are all the other summoners?"
"Are they hiding underground or something?"

Eiko
"Underground? Yeah."
"They're all underground, sleeping the eternal sleep."

Zidane
"What...?"

Eiko
"I'm the last survivor of my tribe."
"I've been living with moogles ever since my grandpa died last year."

And we will never actually see a flashback of Eiko's grandfather.

Dagger
"I'm sorry..."

Eiko
"Oh, don't worry about me. I'm really happy here."

"Kupo!"

"Kupo!"

Eiko
"Ten years ago, which is four years before I was born..."
"A natural disaster struck the village. Even the survivors suffered a great deal."

How so? This is isn't really fully explained, couldn't they have had help from the Dwarves? Actually, they expect us to buy that every single summoner was in Madain Sari at that time when it was devastated? If the world building made more sense, there should have been some summoners living in Conde Peite during that point.

"But my mom and dad fell in love and had a family."
"Not that I remember what they look like, because they died when I was very young."

How did Eiko's parents die? Again, This is never explained, and pretty inconvenient. It would have made more sense to either just change the date of when the Invincible attacked Madain Sari, or alter Eiko's age a bit to ten years so that she was an infant when the Invincible attacked and her parents died from that and only Eiko's grandfather survived.

Skipping ahead.

[Eiko leaves the room. Zidane picks up the pot and heads out of the room]

Eiko
"So, it wasn't just Dagger... Zidane is really slow, too!"
"Those two are going nowhere fast."
"Well, this is good news for me!"

Again, Eiko is doing a good job at pointing out how much the love story sucks.

[Zidane walks in]

Zidane
"Is there something on my face?"

Eiko
[Shakes her head]
"Thanks, Zidane. Could you leave it there?"
[Zidane puts down the pot]
"Hey, Eiko, do you know anything about the Iifa Tree?"

Eiko
"What about the Iifa Tree?"

Zidane
"We want to go there."

Eiko
"It's sealed with an eidolon. You can't get in."

Zidane
"Sealed? Did you seal it, Eiko?"

Eiko
"Well..."
(So he's sharp about certain things.)
"It all happened before I was born, but they sealed an eidolon that we failed to summon in the Iifa Tree."
"It's our custom to seal a failed eidolon where we summon it."

How can you "fail" to summon an Eidolon? Also, that's a lousy custom, sealing what is basically a nature guardian just because you couldn't "summon it properly"? (whatever that is supposed to mean) I don't think it or other Eidolons would appreciate that. What was the summoner tribe even trying to do, summoning an Eidolon at the Iifa Tree? This is never elaborated.

This is just like with the dwarves blocking the Mountain Path and having to get married to pass them, this was only written as an arbitrary roadblock so you couldn't get into the Iifa Tree too early before going to Madain Sari.

Skipping ahead.

Zidane
"Vivi..."
"You better get some sleep before we leave tomorrow."

Vivi
"I tried to stop worrying about things, but I just can't."
"I know you told me not to think too much, but..."

Zidane
"That's because we're different, Vivi."
"You don't have to do everything my way, you know?"

Well your way sucks Zidane, seriously your whole schtick is just "do different garbage without thinking about anything, and everything will go perfectly for you."

Vivi
"I want to stop... I don't wanna feel like this anymore."
"What if I keep feeling like this?"

Zidane
"Vivi..."
"Well... In the end, it boils down to two simple choices."
"Either you do or you don't."
"You'd think with all the problems in this world, there'd be more answers."
"It's not fair..."
"...but that's the way things are."
"The choice is yours."

Yeah "great pep talk", Zidane, do you even know why Vivi is feeling like this? I don't think Vivi told you all about the whole stopping thing or heard it from the other Black Mages at the cemetery. Stop trying to pretend that you are so "deep".

Vivi
"Zidane..."

Zidane
"I just wanna protect the people I'm with."
"Doesn't matter whether I can or not. It's what I believe in."

What about Garnet? You love her, not going to emphasize that? Also you have done a poor job of that, since Dagger abandoned you and caused the chain reaction of tons of devastation from the extracted Eidolons, this is why Zidane sucks, especially in contrast to Cloud and Squall, Zidane doesn't have events to recount. Just several failed attempts at helping people, a poor love story with Garnet and one big "deep" scene where he learns his stupid backstory and gets sad.

[Meanwhile, Eiko is eavesdropping on the conversation from the kitchen. The screen moves to the left, so we don't see Vivi and Zidane, only see their logs of dialogue]

Eiko
"I knew it! I was right!"
"Zidane is the man for me!"
"He's right. You either do, or you don't."
"My choice is clear! I wanna go with Zidane!"

Zidane
"You wanna know a trick to get your mind off things?"

Eiko
"Okay."

Zidane
"This is an age-old ritual between male friends!"

Eiko
"Uh-huh."

Zidane
"Come over here, Vivi. Let's go together."
"Doesn't it feel nice to let yourself go under the stars?"

Eiko

Tinkle.

Tinkle tinkle

[Eiko stands up, shakes her head, and runs out of the kitchen]

Tinkle tinkle tinkle tinkle.

Tinkle tinkle.

Okay so Vivi and Zidane are peeing together… Here is a question, how can a Black Mage pee? Black Mages are supposed to be golems, in fact do they even have private parts? We see Vivi eating, but why and how? Do Black Mages need to eat, and how can they even eat when they don't have mouths? Why would Kuja even make them that way? It seems like the writers never thought through any of this and just wanted to throw in a funny scene regardless of how little sense it made.

[Screen changes to the entrance of Madain Sari, where Zidane, Vivi, and Dagger are gathered]

Dagger
"Zidane, I want to come back here."
"When I first saw the Eidolon Wall, I was scared..."

Why? I thought you were past that when we met Ramuh?

Dagger
"But when I went inside and saw the murals, they calmed me."
"I want to see more."

Zidane
"Sure. We'll come back after we check out the Iifa Tree."

Dagger
"Thank you..."

Zidane
"We gotta come back and get Quina, anyway. We can't just leave him here."

Why isn't Quina coming with you? More numbers is a good thing, but of course the game has to make lame excuses because of the party limit and how it seems to be against manually switching party members until too late into the game by Disk 3 (there is a brief moment where you can also do this near the end of Disk 2, but it's so pointless and superfluous, will be explaining this when we get to that point)

Dagger
"Are you coming back here for Eiko?"

[We see Eiko, on top of a destroyed wall, eavesdropping]

Zidane
"Eiko is only six years old. She acts tough, but I think she's lonely."

You do realize Vivi is a child and around the same age, right? (going by spiritually/mentally, where physically he is apparently only a few months or a year old)

Vivi
"I haven't seen her today..."

Zidane
"You're right."

"Kupo!"

"Kupo!"

[A ton of moogles reappear from their hiding spots, and Eiko jumps down]

"Kupo!"

"Kupo!"

"Eiko!"

Eiko
"Tee hee."
"You can't break the seal of the Iifa Tree without calling an eidolon."

Zidane
"You're coming with us?"

Eiko
"Don't you want me to?"

Zidane
"Of course I want you to come along!"

Then why were you implying that you were going to the Iifa Tree without her, especially when she is apparently the only one who can remove the barrier over the tree?

Eiko
"That's what I thought. Okay, I'll join your team for a while!"
"Vivi, Dagger, let's have fun!"
"The Iifa Tree is beyond the Conde Petie Mountain Path!"
"Let's go!"

[Eiko runs off screen]

Dagger
"Why are you so nice to everyone, Zidane?"

Why are you so whiny, Dagger?

Zidane
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

Dagger
"Forget I asked..."

[Dagger walks off screen]

Vivi
"I think she was mad..."

Zidane
"You think so, too?"

Great, Dagger is being an obnoxious tsundere again, getting mad over a little girl whose parents and grandparents are dead and is stuck in a ruined village, isn't she just charming, wholesome and likeable? *Sarcasm*

You have the galls to be jealous and pouty with Zidane when you drugged and abandoned him, dragged him into a dwarf marriage ceremony and used his feelings and rejected his kiss, then you get mad when a six year old girl gives a lot of attention to him, it's amazing how Zidane won't call you out on any of this.

[A moogle flies behind Zidane, and lands. Zidane turns around]

Morrison
"Please look after Lady Eiko. Come see us if there is any trouble."

Zidane
"Sure thing!"
"Vivi, have you figured out a solution to your problem?"

Vivi
"Not really."
"But I'm moving on."

Zidane
"Good!"

You don't even know what the problem is, Zidane you pretentious dolt.

[The party exits Madain Sari, and head for the Iifa Tree]

End of chapter 12