Chapter 13: Disk 2.8 - Iifa Tree

[The group arrives at the Iifa Tree...well, near it, as it ominously looms in the distance. The words "Iifa, the Ancient Tree of Life" appear on the screen. Mist is floating everywhere, since ie emanates from the tree]

Dagger "There's Mist here...!"

Zidane "So this place really must be the source of the Mist."

And nobody else had put this together, or at least suspected it? The moogles living in Madain Sari had to have visited the Iifa Tree at least a few times right? (You can even find a moogle or two here) The moogles never wrote letters back to the Mist Continent, where the Mist is obviously so prevalent, and told others like Cid about the Iifa Tree?

Heck, what about the Summoners? They used to live on the Mist Continent in Alexandria five hundred years ago, then they moved to the Outer Continent where, according to the Ultimania, "the pulse of the planet runs its most focused" (It's FFVII Lifestream and consciousness of the planet stuff, which is all very interesting but IX never properly focuses and emphasizes on all this enough, even with the Black Mages and when Terra is thrown in) and have seen the Iifa Tree and been up close to it, in all that time, none of them put this together and some of them went back to the Mist Continent to tell everyone all this, since the Mist is clearly a hazard and they would want to get rid of it?

[Vivi walks onscreen and falls down]

Eiko "You okay?"

Vivi "...I-I'm fine."

[Zidane walks forward and is hit back by a magical barrier]

Zidane "Whoa!" "What was that?"

Eiko "That was the seal." "It shouldn't hurt you, but are you alright?"

Zidane "Yeah, it didn't hurt."

[He puts his hand forward, and the barrier appears again]

Zidane "Hmm..." [Choose between "Poke again", "Body slam", or "Ask Eiko". You have to choose "Ask Eiko" eventually] "Did you say they used the power of an eidolon to seal this place?" [Eiko nods] "Amazing. How do you break it?"

That is not what she said last chapter in Madain Sari. She said it was sealed WITH an Eidolon (that was apparently "failed to summon"), not BY an Eidolon, or was something lost in translation?

Edit: A commenter pointed out something that I haven't considered, how does Eiko know how to break a seal she didn't create herself, and why would Eiko's grandfather teach her - a five year-old at most at the time - a spell that breaks the seal of something they intentionally sealed away?

Eiko "I'm going to ask the eidolon to come back." "The summoner's horn allows us to communicate with eidolons and wild animals." "I'll break the seal now." "Watch!"

Pay attention to the Summoner's horn thing, because it will tie in later to Garnet and what I have to say about that.

Also Eiko says that summoners can communicate with wild animals but we never see Eiko doing this (and no, Mog doesn't count because Moogles are not wild animals and can talk, and Mog is actually an Eidolon in disguise, though I don't see how he can't speak normally, seeing as how other Eidolons like Ramuh could talk normally), also why would you need a horn to communicate with Eidolons when they can speak normally, judging by Ramuh who could talk to Zidane, Dagger and Vivi perfectly fine. (two of which weren't summoners and one didn't even have her horn)

Does the horn just allow the summoners to hear the Eidolons whenever when they have gained the power to summon them?

[Eiko walks up to the seal and does many arm movements to correspond with her communication]

"Boom boomb boom!" "Boom boomb boom!" "By the light of our spirits!" "I call upon thee!" "Answer my call!" "Wherever your soul may be!"

[The barrier vanishes] [Received Ruby!]

That's it? You just get Carbuncle? No test or battle to prove themselves, like with FFIII, IV, V and VIII? This is what I was referring to with what I said in chapter 10 in Pinnacle Rocks about the Eidolons and how you receive them after Ramuh.

Eiko "Finished! We can go inside now."

Zidane "Thanks!"

Vivi "Was that the spell to break the seal?"

Eiko "Nope." "All I do is focus my thoughts into my horn."

Vivi "Then why were you...?"

Eiko "That was just for show!" "The spell is actually much longer, but the eidolon asked me to hurry it up."

Hah hah, I guess Eidolons can get annoyed.

But seriously, I already explained last chapter how non-sensical this whole "sealed with an Eidolon" thing was. In reality this whole barrier being here is just to serve as a plot roadblock so you wouldn't get into the Iifa Tree before visiting Madain Sari with Eiko for the first time.

This was a thing with older games, especially JRPGs, where they would have these roadblocks or literal barriers placed in certain areas so you couldn't access them too early without doing certain story events first, and the writers would make up cheap in-universe reasons to try and "justify" them being there, but they really don't need to, newer games like the VII Remake just make it so that when you try going to an area you aren't supposed to go to yet, Cloud would just say that he's not supposed to go this way or he has to visit some other place first and then automatically turn back, it would be better that IX and other games did this much simpler way of roadblocks instead of making up literal ones and having arbitrary and contrived story-excuses for them like this barrier over the Iifa Tree or the Dwarves blocking the way to the Mountain Path and having to do a random marriage ceremony to get through.

Dagger (I didn't hear anything...)

Not even a whisper? Yes, Garnet's horn was removed, but shouldn't at least a little of the communication power have remained?

Zidane "Alright. Let's go!"

[The group runs to the Iifa Tree, reaching it, and then entering it. Eventually, the group comes to a room with a circular platform in the ground]

Zidane "What's this...?" "Looks old. I wonder who built it?"

Eiko "This way! Hey, are you alright?"

Vivi "A-Aren't you guys scared of heights...?"

Eiko "Gosh, you look so helpless." "Why don't you stay here and let us handle the rest?"

Vivi "No, I'm going with you guys!" "I have to."

Eiko "Then don't leave my side, okay?"

That's sounding oddly intimate with Vivi, Eiko. I thought Zidane was the one you were going after. Skipping ahead.

[Screen changes to show the descending platform, surrounded by a sort of neon-green mist]

Zidane "Whoa..." "It sure freaked me out at first, but there's no wind or anything..." "I guess that glowing powder is stopping the wind somehow." "You okay, Dagger?"

Or maybe there is no wind because you are inside a tree and going underground where wind can't get in, Zidane.

Dagger "Yes..." "I wonder where we're going."

Zidane "Yeah...me too."

Eiko "Maybe Mog can tell us something!" [Mog exits her dress] "What do you feel, here inside the Iifa Tree?"

Mog "Kupo..." "...Kupo? KUPO! POPO!"

Eiko "Really?"

Mog "Kupo!"

Eiko "Alright... Thanks!"

Mog "Kupopo!"

Zidane "Well? What's the word?"

Eiko "Um, Mog senses a lot of life beneath us." "Moogles are faeries, so they sense life everywhere, but Mog says there's a whole lot here!"

Really? But we never see any of the actual moogles say or do this, Mog is, again, not a real moogle, but an Eidolon in disguise, but I guess Eidolons can do the same since they are nature guardians, actually, here is more info from the FF Wiki on the Eidolons:

"According to the Final Fantasy IX Ultimania, eidolons are born from Gaia's crystal, converted from the accumulation of memories within, to serve as powerful guardians for the crystal.

Eidolons are powerful creatures born of the planet's crystal to be its protectors. The flow of souls in Final Fantasy IX is similar to the concept of lifestream in Final Fantasy VII, and when the souls of the deceased return to the Crystal in the planet's core, they bring with them the memories and experiences of the life that was lived allowing the Crystal to grow and the planet will develop.

The secret inscriptions on the Eidolon Wall in Madain Sari imply that eidolons are born out of the legends and mythologies numerous peoples have told since the beginning. The conjoined memories of said legends enter the Crystal as part of the peoples' heritage, and manifest into magical creatures, whom the Crystal creates as its protectors. As shown on the Eidolon Wall, an eidolon's appearance depends on the time period it appears in: the legends on the eidolon Shiva tell of it as a tiny pixie, whereas the Shiva Garnet can summon is a grown woman."

(This is, of course, mostly only found in supplementary material rather than in the game as it should have been, and even the stuff that is in the game, like the Eidolon Wall messages, are easily missable and are pretty tedious to unlock. Crucial plot elements like that should have been part of the main story and not reduced to being side-quest fodder, especially with how it could have built up and foreshadowed the Crystal more. Also, how did these legends even start in the first place? I think they could have added a bit more and made it so that the Eidolons were people originally who did notable things that started these legends and when those people passed away and their souls returned to the Crystal, the Crystal turned them into Eidolons, etc.)

Also if the Eidolons really can sense life everywhere, they had to have sensed that something was off about the Iifa Tree, heck, they had to have known what the Iifa Tree was really doing, considering they are supposed to be the guardians of the Crystal and the Iifa Tree had it's roots around the Crystal, blocking the souls from returning to it, they should have told the summoners and any others about it but none of this happened, this is one of the game's many plot holes.

Dagger "I wonder if agents of Kuja are down there..."

Zidane "But what's the connection between Kuja and the Mist?"

Eiko "!?" "Incoming!"

[Battle vs. 3 Zombies]

Eiko "There are so many strange monsters here in the Iifa Tree!"

Dagger "Could the Mist be causing it?"

Zidane "Beats me... The Evil Forest and Gargan Roo had unique monsters, too."

Eiko "But if the Mist comes from this tree, how come it only appears on Zidane's continent?"

Zidane "I guess there has to be something that channels the Mist."

It will be revealed later that the Iifa Tree itself is what makes the Mist, expelling it through it's roots, the roots which go around the entire planet, you can even see bits of the roots popping out of the ground on all the continents on the World Map, but the thing is, is that the roots are also shown popping out of the ground on the cliffs and mountain tops of the Mist Continent, now it is said that the Mist couldn't reach up into the higher plains of the Mist Continent, but the roots discharging the Mist do go up into these areas, why can't the roots in these areas expel Mist into the cliff tops of the Mist Continent?

Dagger "Yes, but the question is, why?"

Vivi "..."

Dagger "Zidane..."

Zidane "Hmm? What's the matter?" "...Vivi?" "What's wrong, Vivi? You've been lost in thought for a while."

Vivi "Oh, Zidane... I've been thinking about the Mist." "Do you remember the...factory we saw in Dali?"

Dagger "Yes, the factory where black mages were being made?"

Eiko "Huh? Black mages?"

Dagger "They look a lot like Vivi."

Zidane "Dagger!"

Dagger "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to..."

Why would saying what they look like be a sensitive thing? We literally just met a bunch of Black Mages in the Black Mage Village. Vivi himself is a Black Mage, he and the rest of you knew that for quite a while.

Vivi "It's okay. I'm not upset anymore about being made and everything."

Zidane "Vivi..."

Vivi "Anyway, that factory had a lot of Mist inside, right?"

Zidane "Oh, yeah... There was a huge machine filled with Mist."

Dagger "That's right. And there were those strange eggs we saw."

Vivi "There's gotta be a connection between the Mist, Kuja, and... the black mages."

Uh, because he is a weapons supplier and designed the Black Mages and made the machines that make them by sucking up the Mist? You knew this since Cid told you back in Lindblum before going to the Outer Continent, why are you acting like this is new information?

Yes there is a deeper connection with the Mist, but that's not the point here where they are acting like what Vivi just said was some "newfound revelation".

Skipping ahead.

[The platform ends its journey. Everyone gets off]

Eiko "Come with me!" "Are you gonna make a helpless little girl like me go all by herself!?"

Zidane "Wait! There might be some monsters lurking there!"

Dagger "Say, Zidane..." "Mog said he sensed life down here. Do you sense anything?"

Zidane "Yeah, but you sense it, too, don't you?" "We don't even need Mog to tell us that there's life down here."

Dagger "You're right. I can tell there's something down here."

Uh, how do you "sense" this exactly? Magic? Zidane being an "Angel of Death" super weapon?

Skipping to the Soul Cage appearing.

[The creature rises back up again, towering over the four characters]

"So, it wasn't Kuja."

Okay this is something that I want to bring up that I forgot at the beginning of the chapter but, as the Soul Cage here says, it knows Kuja and has seen him before, but how did Kuja get into the Iifa Tree when there was a barrier around it before, that was placed on it by Carbuncle and Eiko only just now removed it? It is never specified when the barrier was put on the Iifa Tree, and the moogles in Madain Sari said they saw Kuja fly to the tree on a silver dragon recently, so how did he get through the barrier? Does being an "Angel of Death" super weapon make him strong enough to slip through the barrier? Even so, he had to have sensed that the barrier was made by an Eidolon and would have wanted to acquire it, and since he wasn't a summoner, he would have used the vague extraction magic to get it.

Vivi "Huh, what's going on? I can hear a voice inside my head!"

Wait, so the Soul Cage is using telepathy?

Zidane "You just said Kuja! Where is he!?"

"I do not know."

Dagger "What are you doing here!?"

Zidane "Are you the one who makes the Mist!?"

"It is not produced. Mist is a by-product of the refining process. It is discharged through the roots."

"By-product"? It's literally the souls of the inhabitants of Gaia that have been prevented from returning to Gaia's crystal, captured within the roots of the Iifa Tree and then expelled by the roots above ground as "Mist", the Ultimania clearly states this, as does the FF Wikia: "Mist is distributed through the Iifa Tree's roots and is, in fact, the Gaian souls being refused to return to the crystal and expelled to flow back into Gaia's atmosphere instead. These stagnant and tormented souls are reborn as monsters."

This is what I have been building up to for the last few chapters regarding the Black Mages and Vivi's conundrum being pretentious, The Black Mages are made from the Mist, which is actually the souls of deceased Gaia inhabitants, this means that the Black Mages are actually dead people resurrected (if only for a short while) into artificial doll bodies, which would actually all be very interesting stuff, but unfortunately the game doesn't really take advantage of this and instead cheaply opts to rip-off "Blade Runner", which doesn't even fit. With Blade Runner it had androids that gained sentience, but here with IX, the Black Mages are literal "Ghosts inside the shells", which makes all their ramblings about death pretentious and melodramatic when they are technically already dead, they just couldn't return to the crystal and be properly reincarnated.

Sure, Vivi and the other mages don't really know all this at this point, but they should have at least had some recollections or vague memories of when they were human (or any other anthropomorphic creatures like the rat people) which would continue grow and they would remember more who they were originally which would have been especially interesting with Vivi. Yet we get nonsense like how they "don't know what jokes or humans are". This was all really wasted potential.

Also how are the souls reborn as "monsters" exactly? Is this like the fiends from FFX, or do they possess flora and fauna and they mutate, like with the Evil Forest? The Evil Forest could have actually provided great foreshadowing for what the Mist really is by having the souls try to speak through the plant monsters.

Vivi "Discharged?"

Dagger "So it's sent to other continents through the roots, right?"

You aren't going to ask about what the Soul Cage meant by "refining process"? You should be very curious about that.

Zidane "But why!? Why would you do that!?"

"I contaminate the other continents with Mist to stimulate the fighting instinct." "This, in turn, leads to war among the leaders of nations, and then to the fall of civilization." "Kuja merely put the by-product to a different use."

This goes back to what Steiner said in chapter 2 about the Mist "causing abnormalities in the mind", but I have a question, how the heck do souls "stimulate fighting instinct"? Also the whole thing isn't really consistent considering that the party has regularly traveled through the Mist multiple times with no mental abnormalities or other issues, sure you can make the argument that Vivi isn't affected because he is a Mist soul in a doll body, and Zidane is immune because of what he actually is, but what are Garnet's, Freya's, Steiner's and Quina's excuses? Quina and Quale even live in the marsh within the Mist, heck, Bermecia and Gizamaluke's Grotto are also within the Mist yet nobody there seems to be really violent and psychotic.

Also the Soul Cage hasn't been expelling Mist at the cliff tops of the Mist Continent as I said before.

Vivi "A different use!? What is Kuja trying to do!?"

Again, you aren't going to ask why it is doing this?

"I cannot lie."

That's a huge plot convenience, why would Garland design this thing to not be able to lie to intruders? Garland could program it to only be truthful with him and lie to anyone else so they don't find anything out, but stupidly, no. Actually, why would Garland have this thing be able to talk at all, and have it show itself and make itself vulnerable to be destroyed?

"Kuja used the waste product to make weapons. Weapons...like yourself."

How does the Soul Cage know this, did Kuja tell it? Why would he do this?

Vivi "!?"

Eiko "He's really ticking me off! Can I kill him?"

Zidane "Wait, Eiko! What kind of weapons did Kuja make?"

"Kuja called them black mages, dark spawn of the Mist."

Again, why would Kuja tell the Soul Cage any of this?

Zidane "!"

Dagger "So the factory in Dali was really..."

"Really" what? You knew what the factory was for quite a while, is this another mistranslation, or just a dumbly written line?

"Defeat me, and no more Mist will flow." "And then no more weapons like this puppet here will be made." "Answer me, puppet. Do you deny your very birth?"

First off, why would you say this? You "can't lie" (which is very stupid) but you can certainly remain silent or not say this since it will clearly make them attack you. Secondly, what do you care about what's going on with Vivi? Also Vivi wasn't "born" as he is a spirit that was placed into an artificial body which you should know. Actually, why don't you recognize ZIDANE!? The lost "Angel of Death" that Garland made and should have told you about?

Zidane "Why, you-"

Vivi "..." "No more!"

Dagger "Vivi?"

Vivi "I won't let you make any more instruments of murder!"

Uh, but the Soul Cage wasn't doing that, that was all Kuja, the Soul Cage was just expelling the Mist.

Eiko "Way to go, Vivi! I know it must be hard for you. We can knock off this rat now, right?"

Zidane "Alright! Let's bust him up! Who knows, it might even lure Kuja here!"

…Seriously, you aren't going to ask it anymore important questions and find out the truth? The thing literally can't lie and you aren't even going to ask why it's doing this or what the purpose of all this is?

You're idiots.

"I have seen the end of my thousand-year life, and it is not now." 'You cannot stop me." "It is futile even to try."

Yeah, real big boast there, except for the fact that you can be one-shotted by using a Phoenix Down on you. Real great design there, Garland. Also, again, you should know what Zidane actually is and what he is capable of.

[Boss Battle vs. Soulcage. And the end of the battle, he collapses and dies. After the battle, the four characters are looking around, as the ground begins to shake]

Zidane "Uh oh! Let's get outta here!"

[Everyone runs off screen]

[FMV. The Mist around the Iifa Tree stops exiting, exposing its roots. The sky, once cloudy, clears up, over Evil Forest. The Mist vanishes from nearbye Alexandria. A final shot is shown of the Iifa Tree, Mistless]

How does that work? Defeating the Soul Cage only stopped the Mist from being expelled, but the Souls that were already expelled should still be lingering around for a while as Mist, or are the Iifa Tree roots just automatically sucking them back up for no real reason?

[Scene resumes with the four characters gathered where they first broke the eidolon seal]

Eiko "Wow, the air's so clear! The Iifa Tree looks so pretty now." "Will this clear up your Mist Continent?"

Zidane "I think so." "Now, let's see if Kuja shows up." "...Vivi?"

Vivi "Zidane... Did I do the right thing?" "It said that black mages are made from the Mist, right?"

You knew that the Mages were made from the Mist since Dali, why are you acting like what the Soul Cage said was new info?

"When I thought about how other black mages were being made for war..." "I didn't want that to happen, no matter what." "Now, there'll be no more new black mages." "I think they'll all hate me."

Eiko "No way!" "Listen to me." "You should never lie to yourself." "After all, your brothers wouldn't want you to do that."

Vivi "Do you really think so? Do you think...they'll understand?"

Eiko "Of course! They're your brothers. It'll be alright." "Huh? What is it, Mog?" [A moogle walks onto the screen] "Moco!?"

Moco "Eiko!"

Eiko "What the matter? Why did you come all this way?" "No way!" "Okay, I'll be right back!"

Moco "Alright, I'll go on ahead and tell the others."

[Moco flies off the screen]

Eiko "You guys are going to wait here for Kuja, right? I gotta go back to the village!"

Zidane "Wait, Eiko! What's up?"

Eiko "Someone stole something precious from the village!"

Dagger "Zidane!"

[Zidane looks at Vivi, who nods. Zidane turns to Eiko]

Zidane "We'll go with you, Eiko!"

Eiko "Thanks, but what about Kuja!?"

Zidane "Madain Sari isn't that far." "He can wait."

Why doesn't Kuja just come to Madain Sari? Aince that is where one of the Alexander jewel pieces is that he wants to get.

[You leave the Iifa Tree, and return to Madain Sari]

End of Chapter 13