Chapter 14: Disk 2.9 - Return to Madain Sari

Skipping ahead.

[They follow her to a room underneath the kitchen area]

Zidane "What's going on, Eiko?"

Eiko "It's... It's..." "The precious stone that has been passed down in this village for generations is gone!" "My grandparents said..." "They said that we should take care of it because it's a symbol of the summoners' heritage."

Well actually it's one of the pieces of the Alexander Jewel, which Eiko herself is aware about as she reveals later in Disk 3 before Alexander is summoned.

Now, you can make the argument that Eiko is just withholding that particular info because she doesn't want it to get out to someone that would abuse Alexander's powers, but after it is revealed that Garnet herself is from Madain Sari you'd think that Eiko would give out that important info then, especially when she sees Garnet's pendant which is another piece of the Alexander jewel, or at the very least when they got back to Alexandria and Garnet gives Eiko the other jewel pieces. (Will be addressing that when we get there)

Also in this scene, the jewel was apparently just in a chest on a table out in the open, if this jewel was so important, why would they just leave it in a chest on a table, that is pretty conspicuous. It would be better to either hid it in a cupboard or drawer, or just have it be worn as a necklace or earring (it is supposed to be the smallest of the jewel fragments) so that Eiko can have it with her at all times?

Zidane "Well...how about crying for a change? It'll help."

Eiko "I'm not gonna cry! I'm a grown-up now, and crying won't help one bit!"

Zidane "Alright. How about we start looking for clues?"

Dagger "I'll help, too."

[They look around in the room for clues]

Hiccup.

Eiko "Is it..."

Hiccup.

Eiko "Is it my fault?"

Hiccup.

Eiko "Is it 'cause I broke my promise and opened the Iifa Tree's seal?"

Hiccup.

Eiko "Everyone...everyone was watching over the stone."

Do you mean the Moogles? If that was true, how did they not see who the thief was?

Zidane "Eiko?" "It just happened that way! It wasn't your fault."

Hiccup.

Zidane "Besides, we're the ones who made you open the seal!" "You understand, right? The real villain is the thief who stole it." "So, let's just look for some clues and get that stone back, okay?"

Hiccup.

And what's with all these "hiccups"?

Eiko "Okay!" "I wasn't going to cry, you know. After all, I'm a grown-up!"

Zidane "We know, Eiko. But if you feel like crying, just cry."

Eiko "I'm gonna go pray to my grandparents! I'll be right back."

Thank you for another pointless and dragged out scene, writers.

[Eiko leaves. Zidane scratches his head, then turns to Dagger]

Zidane "If you need to, you can cry, too, Dagger." "My shoulder's always available."

Isn't that what she already did in the FMV of Atomos devastating Lindblum?

Dagger "Yeah, thanks." "What about you, Zidane?" "What do you do when you need to cry?"

Zidane "Oh, I get real clingy when I'm sad!"

[Zidane goes into a battle stance, Dagger cowers slightly, then puts her hands on her hips]

Dagger "Cut it out!"

Zidane [Stops his battle stance] "Hey, I was serious."

And here's another cheap and forced flirting scene.

Can we have an actual love story, game, like you've been trying (and failing) to hype up, instead of this annoying bickering, please?

Zidane & Dagger "!"

Dagger "I heard a scream. It sounded like Eiko!"

Zidane "Dammit! The thief was still here!"

Well, yeah, isn't that the whole reason you were "looking around for clues"? If the thief had already left Madain Sari otherwise, looking around would have been pointless with the only lead being the eyewitness statements of the moogles (which they never asked to begin with for some dumb reason)

[Vivi runs into the room]

Vivi "Zidane, I saw her! It's that girl from Fossil Roo! She took Eiko..." "They went to the Eidolon Wall!"

Why is Lani only attacking again now? When there were plenty of moments in-between Fossil Roo and Madain Sari where she could have snuck in and took Garnet's pendant, especially when they were resting, not all together or were busy fighting a monster like Hill Gigas. (Hilgigars)

Zidane "Let's go!"

[They approach a moogle at the entrance to the Eidolon Wall. Several other moogles are flying around, nervous and worried]

Morrison "Look what happened to Eiko... The ancestors will be displeased." "Tell us if there's anything we can do for you, kupo!"

Why don't the moogles just gang up on Lani and throw objects at her to make her drop Eiko, or at least serve as a distraction for the others?

Skipping ahead.

Zidane "Hmm..." [Choose between "Where's Mog?", "Heal us", or "Hold on a sec". Have to choose the first choice sooner or later] "Was Mog captured too?"

Morrison "Nope, Mog is right here behind me."

"Kupo..."

Zidane "Mog, I need your help to save Eiko."

Mog "Ku-Kupo..."

Zidane "I got an idea. It's alright. You won't be in any danger."

Mog "Ku...po..."

Morrison "It's no use. Mog has always been a coward."

Why? Mog is actually an Eidolon in disguise so I don't see why he is so easily intimidated.

Zidane "Yeah... Well, we gotta do something." "Hmm..." [Choose between "Go save her", "Heal us", or "Hold on a sec". You have to choose "Go save her" eventually] "Alright, let's go!"

[Screen changes to inside the Eidolon Wall. Dagger, Vivi, and Zidane approach Lani, holding onto Eiko in the same way as before, except Eiko's not moving]

Lani "Well, so there's my good sir knight."

Why is Lani suddenly calling Zidane "sir knight"? This would make more sense with Steiner.

Zidane "What have you done to Eiko!?"

Lani "She was too rambunctious, so I put her to sleep with a sleeping weed."

Zidane "Sleeping weed, eh? Then she's probably sleeping well."

Okay if Lani had sleeping weed this whole time, why didn't she try to use this back in Fossil Roo on the party and take the pendant, or at any point between there and until just now when she had openings?

Dagger "If it's my pendant you're after, then leave the others out of it!"

Lani "No can do. This is way too convenient to pass up!" "Hand over your pendant, and I'll hand over the girl, capice?"

What about that whole "order to assassinate Vivi and Zidane"? This just proves that that bit of dialogue from the Queen was pointless and over-emphasized.

Lani "What happened to the pendant that you always have on!?"

Zidane "I have it."

Why does Zidane suddenly have the pendant? Did we miss a scene? What is the point of that anyways?

Lani "Oh, you really are a good knight. Now, cough it up already!"

Zidane "First, tell me something. Was it you who stole the village stone?"

Lani "Queen Brahne is after the royal pendant." "I found another jewel just like it in this village!" "I'm glad I came all this way looking for it!" "Now, hand it over!"

Okay but how the heck did you find the room with the jewel in it? It couldn't have been through spying because Eiko never mentioned the jewel before going to the Iifa Tree, and it couldn't have been due to you wanting to search around Madain Sari because your only focus was to get Garnet's pendant and should have been still stalking them when they were going to the Iifa Tree.

Zidane (If only Eiko was conscious...)

Thank you for pointing out the obvious Zidane.

Skipping ahead.

[Someone jumps down from above the wall, knocking down Lani, who drops Eiko. Eiko lands in Zidane's arms. The "Someone" in question was the red-haired man who was in Brahne's castle with Lani earlier on in Disc 2]

Lani "Aaa!"

Zidane "I dunno who you are, but thanks!"

Red-haired Man "..."

Eiko Yawns.

Zidane "Yo! Can you stand?"

Eiko "Huh? What's going on?" "!" [Eiko jumps out of Zidane's arms] "Where's that old hag?"

Oh so the sleeping weed has already worn off? Kind of weird how it happened so quickly, when before, back in Disk 1 Lindblum it took longer for the party to wake up after Dagger stupidly and selfishly drugged them and abandoned them.

Lani "Oh, that's it! Who are you calling a hag!?"

Eiko "You!"

Zidane "So, the tables turn! Now, hand over the jewel you stole!"

Lani "What are you tryin' to do, Red!?" "I thought you're supposed to be the number one bandit!"

[They turn and face "Red"]

Dagger "I've seen him before...!" "He's the one with wanted posters all over Treno!"

Zidane should also be remembering him, considering the whole reason Amarant having a bounty on his head in the first place (Zidane stealing from the King Mansion in Treno) happened pretty recently and Zidane remembers it well, he was even telling Garnet about it back in Dali in chapter 3! (And as I said before I will be addressing how dumb Amarant's story is when we get to that)

Red-headed Man "I'm not here to help. I just want it to be fair."

Lani "What are you talking about?"

Red-headed Man "Leave the jewel and get out of here."

Lani "What!? We're partners on this job!"

Red-headed Man "I don't work with hostage-taking scumbags."

But you are perfectly fine with getting hired by a psychotic, warmongering, genocide-attempting Queen, some of whose orders to you where to kill Vivi, a child (probably), and even her own daughter. Nice priorities there, Amarant.

Red-headed Man Now, get lost." "Or...would you rather fight me?"

Lani "Mark my words! I'll collect the bounty on YOU someday!"

You won't.

[Lani jumps to a column, the top of the Eidolon Wall, and off screen. The Red-headed Man jumps to where she was standing before leaving]

And that's the last we will see of Lani, in storyline significance anyways. She shows up in Madain Sari later in the game as just an optional NPC you can talk to, with nothing else really to do with her, and briefly in the ending where she gets back with Amarant for some reason. Pretty disappointing as well.

Red-headed Man "Now, fight me!"

Zidane "Just a second here. What's going on?"

Red-headed Man "I told you. I'm not here to help. I just want to level the playing field."

Why weren't you in Fossil Roo then when Lani was just fighting them and not using any underhanded tactics, or any of the points between Fossil Roo and right now, like I've been complaining with Lani?

Zidane "Fair enough. Let's do it."

Dagger "Zidane!"

Zidane "It's okay." "I was just looking for more ways to impress you!"

Well I think you definitely shouldn't be impressed with the stupid things Dagger did, Zidane.

[Zidane runs to the Red-headed Man, who jumps. Battle begins against him. At the end of it, he's defeated, but, still very much alive]

Red-headed man "I...lost?" "Go on. Finish me!"

Zidane "Can you stand?"

Red-headed man "..."

Zidane "Give back what you stole."

Red-headed man "..." [He hands the jewel to Zidane]

Zidane "Eiko, I got it back!"

Red-headed Man "Now, finish me!"

Zidane "You wanna die that bad? I just spared your life."

Red-headed Man "So you want to banish me, then?"

Zidane "You can go if ya want. I won't follow you."

Red-headed Man "Aha! Trying to trick me, eh?"

Zidane "Trick you?"

Red-headed Man "I tried to kill you! Why are you letting me go?"

Zidane "The fight's over, and we're both still alive. Good enough, right?" "We got back what was stolen from us, after all."

Red-headed Man "Listen to you. I lost to some spineless thief."

Zidane "The sly eagle doesn't kill at whim."

Stop trying to make Zidane sound "deep" with him saying these random poetry words, writers.

Red-headed Man "..." [He jumps on to a column, then a wall, then off screen, just like Lani did]

[Zidane walks over to Eiko, and hands her the jewel]

Zidane "Keep that in a safe place."

Eiko "I will! Thanks, Zidane!" "Well!? You're not going to leave me alone after what just happened, are you!?"

Vivi "Huh?"

Eiko "I'm going!"

[Eiko runs off. Vivi follows her]

Tells not to be left alone, then proceeds to suddenly run off by herself.

Dagger "..."

Zidane "Shall we?"

[Dagger nods. Zidane and her run to the room underneath the kitchen, where Eiko and Vivi already are]

Vivi "She's been quiet the whole time."

Eiko "Zidane, let me ask you something." "My grandfather told me not to leave the village until my sixteenth birthday..." "But I want to go with you guys! I really do!" "Do you think it's okay if I leave the village?" [Choose between "Yes" or "No". Might as well choose "Yes" and be nice]

Except that you've technically already have left the village to go to Conde Petie, several times.

Zidane "I'll agree if that's what you want." "Eiko, come with us. Forget what your grandpa said."

Great advice Zidane, telling her to forget any important information that her deceased grandfather might have told her.

Eiko "..."

Zidane "It doesn't matter what I say. You've already made up your mind."

Eiko "..."

Zidane "Don't you have something to say to her, Vivi?"

Vivi "Huh?"

Eiko "..."

Vivi "Remember what you taught me at the Iifa Tree?" "You said I shouldn't ever lie to myself." "I'll try to be more honest with my own feelings... You should, too, Eiko..."

Eiko "Hmmm..." "I forgot my own advice, Vivi! Thanks!" "I'll wear the jewel as an earring. It'll be okay then, right, Zidane?"

As I said earlier, why didn't you just wear the jewel as an earring to begin with?

[She puts it on her ear: Received Memory Earring!]

Dagger "Eiko?" "I think Mog wants to talk to you."

[Mog enters]

Mog "Ku-Kupo."

Eiko "..."

Mog "Kuuupoh!"

Eiko "What? You think I'm mad at you?" "I'm furious! You went off without me again! You promised me you wouldn't!" "What would you do if you went off and got into trouble!?"

Yeah, I don't get why Mog can't just turn into his true form and help Eiko. (Okay apparently there is a "reason" but it's a really stupid reason that I will be addressing when it gets there)

Mog "Kupo..."

Eiko "Oh well. Thank goodness we're both alright."

Vivi "You're always nice to Mog, aren't you, Eiko?"

Eiko "Well, yeah. We're best friends, after all!" "We were born on the same day, and we have always been together!" "This is our friendship ribbon! Mog gave it to me!" "Mog, do you have the ribbon I gave you?"

Actually, regarding Eiko's statement about Mog being born along with her, eidolons are supposed to be born out of the legends and mythologies that numerous peoples have told, 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, and there is this message on the Eidolon Wall from Eiko's parents:

"Eiko, You are a treasure born to a dying village. We are dying, and there is little we can do for you. We shall return to the stars with one wish in mind. If legends are not born of eidolons, and eidolons but born out of legends, let us leave this place with one wish: If we can give birth to a legend, it shall create an eidolon that is friend and protector of humans."

Now this message is referring to Madeen/Mog, but this message was clearly written AFTER Eiko, and thus, Mog was already born, before they even made a legend about Madeen. Also aren't all Eidolons supposed to be friends and protecters of humans (also, not going to include all creatures in that message, like the rat people?), considering they are nature guardians and what-not.

Mog "Kupo!" [Shows off red ribbon on arm]

Eiko "This is the one I gave to Mog!" [Dagger walks out of the room and off screen] "It's too big for her now, but once we're both sophisticated ladies, we'll wear them together!"

Uh, but Mog is the exact same size as all the other moogles, who are adults, she isn't going to be getting any bigger.

Mog "Kupo!"

Eiko "Maybe then, Zidane, you'll dance with me?" "Zidane?"

Zidane "I didn't know Mog was a girl..."

Yeah, Mog isn't exactly a female name, especially since in other FF games that have a Moogle character named Mog, they are all male.

[Screen fades to black. Resumes outside the room]

Zidane "I wonder where Dagger went...?"

[Zidane runs to where Vivi was philosophizing the first time in Madain Sari]

Zidane "I can hear a song..." "Dagger...?" "From down there?" "Dagger, you there?"

[Zidane runs off screen, which fades to black. Fades back in inside a boat, which Dagger is sitting in]

Dagger "Zidane..."

Zidane "It's okay. Keeping singing. 'Cause it's our song, right?"

Oh now you are suddenly calling it "our song" (which pretty much confirms that Melodies of Life is a love song, the lyrics clearly showing it, which I will also be commenting on, but's that's for the credits) when you haven't even tried singing it, Zidane, not to mention that, ironically, the last time you heard the women you love singing it, it was just before she blew you off in Disk 1 Lindblum.

Zidane "I'm surprised you found this place." "You got the talent to be a bandit!

How, because she found a dock?

Zidane How 'bout you and me team up? We'll call ourselves 'The Betrothed.'"

Dagger "My talent's up to snuff, but that name isn't."

Zidane "Hehehe. You're really something these days."

Dagger "If I am, I must've gotten it from you."

Zidane "Naw... It's all because you made the effort to learn."

Okay the dialogue is overhyping things again and trying to pretend like "development" has happened.

Dagger "No, it's because you stuck with me." "Without you, I couldn't have made it to Lindblum, much less seen a whole new continent."

Yeah well, that whole "getting to Lindblum" thing was rendered completely pointless the moment you decided to poison Zidane and abandoned him and the others to run back home like an idiot. Yes, I know this is the bajillion-ith time I've brought it up, but I'm bringing it up here particularly because it's really irritating how the game likes to repeatedly mention and pretend like the whole kidnapping and getting to Lindblum at the beginning of the game actually mattered in the end, it didn't, it was rendered moot when Dagger decided to be selfish and stupid. (And this won't be the last time the game brings it up)

Dagger "Everything I tried to do on my own was a total failure. I couldn't stop my mother..."

Oh so now you decide to admit your hyper-independence and have a slice of humble pie? Yeah, too little, too late, you've already made the start of the game pointless and caused a chain reaction of tons of devastation from the stolen Eidolons, and this certainly doesn't make up for Zidane and the others not calling you out on you out on all of it.

Although, the "everything" statement is false, you did well when you planned your escape from the castle at the beginning of the game, jumping off of the tower and swinging on a flag rope onto the Prima Vista, improvising in the play and fooling the Queen, steering an airship through the closing South Gate with Zidane's encouragement while being chased by a rampaging Black Waltz. It wasn't until the end of the Disk 1 Lindblum segment that everything went wrong and you rendered all of the above useless.

Dagger "At times I almost lost hope..." "You helped me so much... Not just you, either."

Where was it implied you "almost lost hope"? I never saw that impliction.

Zidane "Yeah... Vivi and Eiko helped out at the Iifa Tree. Quina was real helpful when we left the continent."

Not really, aside from helping you find Fossil Roo, Quina didn't do anything really significant, heck, he left your party as soon as Eiko came into the picture since the Mountain Path, because of party headcount limit plot contrivances, and won't be back in for the rest of Disk 2.

Zidane "Freya, Steiner... and even Beatrix, who I thought was our enemy."

Beatrix was, the writers just asspulled her suddenly being conflicted, she was blatantly portrayed as a heartless monster until it was convenient to the plot to redeem her. But I've already addressed all of Beatrix's bad writing in previous chapters.

Dagger "I haven't forgotten... I want to believe everyone is alright, but sometimes I just can't." [Zidane jumps into the boat] "I hope I can live up to the hopes of everyone who has helped me."

Zidane "You don't have to feel so responsible, Dagger."

Uh, yeah you should have said this way earlier Zidane, to make Dagger stop having her whiny internal monologues and to stop her from doing anything really stupid.

Dagger "But I do!"

Zidane "Nobody wants you to feel that way." "They didn't do it all for you, either. Each was following his own path."

Dagger "His own...path?" "Well, what about you?"

Shouldn't there be a "or her" in those lines, considering there are females in the group they are talking about, also stop using a cheesy word like "path" Zidane, especially since some of whom you are referring to were forced through things.

Zidane "Huh?"

Dagger "Why did you come with me?"

Zidane "Hey, that's Ipsen's line."

Dagger "Ipsen? Who's that?"

Zidane "Ipsen is a character from a play, but he's a real-life adventurer. I think the play is based on his adventures." "It kind of goes like this..."

Which serves no real significant part of the story and lore, it's just an excuse to have a later area named after him. (Ipsen's Castle)

(Screen fades to black, with all the following lines of dialogue in white)

"Ipsen and his good friend Colin worked at a tavern in Treno."

"One Day, Ipsen got a letter. The letter was so wet from rain that most of the writing was illegible."

"The only part he could read said "Come back home." Nowdays, we have airships and stuff, but back then, it was really hard to travel."

"He didn't know why he had to go back, but he got some time off, gathered his things, and set out on his journey home."

"He walked a thousand leagues through the Mist. Sometimes he was attacked by vicious monsters, but he made it, because his friend Colin was by his side."

"And then, after much time on the road..."

"He had to ask Colin something."

""Why did you come with me?""

[Screen fades back in, Dagger & Zidane in the boat]

Dagger "And? What was Colin's answer?"

Zidane "Only because I wanted to go with you."

Okay this is apparently supposed to be an intimate and romantic scene, but did Zidane have to use a reference to a platonic play? (Unless Colin wasn't really just a "good friend") Why do we even need to make up another play? Just use "I want to be your Canary", that is the one that is supposed to actually represent Zidane and Garnet, and as I said before, it should have been foreshadowing for the events of the game.

Also Zidane, you could have said this a lot earlier, in Disk 1 Lindblum when you saw Garnet singing or in Dali. You know, actually focusing on the love story that is hyped up so much, instead of all this bickering and misunderstanding bullshit and Garnet abandoning you.

[Boat starts to drift out to sea]

Dagger "Zidane..." "I..." "..."

Zidane "Dagger?"

Dagger "Can't you... Can't you hear the song?"

Zidane "Huh!?" "Yeah... It's that song!"

Dagger "How come... Who's singing it!?" "!" "The sunset makes the Eidolon Wall look like it's on fire!" "I've seen this somewhere before..."

Zidane "What? Where?"

The game never really explains where the song was coming from.

[FMV. Dagger is looking up at the Eidolon Wall. She sees flashbacks to when Madain Sari was on fire. A giant eyeball was in the air, above the town. Fire and tornados were everywhere. She then remembers the boat at sea which we saw in the opening movie, and leaving Madain Sari behind as it was being destroyed, the large eyeball constantly over the town]

[Screen returns to where they were previously. Dagger passes out]

Zidane "Dagger!" "Dagger!? Wake up!"

[Screen changes to the Dining Room, where Dagger, Eiko, Mog, and Zidane are gathered]

Zidane "Where's Vivi?"

Eiko "He's sleeping. I don't wanna wake him up."

[Zidane nods, then looks at Dagger]

Zidane "Well?"

Dagger "I have no memory of my early childhood." "I never really thought about it." "Besides, nobody ever told me." "I was raised in Alexandria... but only from the age of six or so."

That's awfully inconvenient, having amnesia, I mean, okay you can make the argument that Garnet's horn being removed is what caused it, but it's never really explained and just feels cheap, and "no memory" isn't accurate, she has had dreams about as we saw at the beginning of the game, not to mention she remembers the "Melodies of Life" song.

This also goes back to what I've said back in chapter seven in Dr. Tot's flashback of a young Garnet thinking the castle "is the whole world", or in chapter three where she said "the only places she has been to have been in books" she should subconsciously know that isn't true, none of this seemed to have triggered anything in her memories.

Cloud's amnesia made sense since it was the result of Mako poisoning, Hojo's experiments and Jenova Cells.

Zidane "Six!? So where were you till then?"

Dagger "Until then... Until I turned six..." "I must have been here, in Madain Sari."

[Screen fades to black, then resumes outside the dining room]

Dagger "I still can't remember everything. Some things are like they're shrouded by fog." "But I do remember one thing..." "About ten years ago. An unbelievably huge hurriance hit this village. That's as far as I remember." "That day, I...I was with my true mother on a little boat, far from the village." "There's a cove behind Eiko's house, right? That boat I was on was just like the one there." "It all came back to me when I heard that song on the boat."

Just then? It didn't come back to you all those times you heard yourself singing the song or at least slowly bring it back?

Zidane "That song is from Madain Sari... So that's why nobody else knows it."

How was that song even made? It's supposed to be the main theme love song of the game and repeatedly plays in different remixes throughout the game, but it never even explains the lore behind it. Was it made recently? Was it made when the summoners were living in Alexandria in the past? (Which would mean some people in Alexandria should know it)

[Screen fades to black, and resumes inside the Eidolon Wall room]

Eiko "How did you get to Alexandria?" "How come you got to be a princess?" "How come you don't have a summoner's horn?"

Yeah, how DID they get to Alexandria by sailing on that boat?

If you look at the geography of the world, Madain Sari is at the northern part of the Outer Continent, between the Iifa Tree and Mognet Central, if they sailed straight north from Madain Sari to the Mist Continent, they would have wound up in Lindblum harbour at the south side of the continent. To get to Alexandria harbour, they would have had to have either sailed east or west around the Outer Continent and did a lot of turning to get to the Alexandria harbour which is at the north-east end of the Mist Continent or sailed north from Madain Sari and took a sharp turn east around the Mist Continent to get to Alexandria, both of which are very unlikely and non-sensical. Heck, why didn't they just sail to Mognet Central or evacuate to Conde Petie for refuge? Both of those were much closer. Look at the map for yourself.

This whole thing is completely unnecessary and should have been rewritten, but I will be explaining that fully when we get back to Alexandria and Tot has his flashback of when Garnet and her mother showed up at the harbour.

Dagger "I don't know." "But maybe Doctor Tot can tell me." "About the lady who protected me from the storm as the boat lurched about in the waves..." "My biological mother, who died on that boat."

How the heck did Garnet's mother die from that? Especially when Garnet, who was just a child at the time, was perfectly okay?

Also we never see Tot telling Garnet about her mother.

Zidane (The woman she thought was her mother became someone else, and her true mother was already dead...) (Dagger has lost two mothers...)

Thank you for pointing out the obvious Zidane.

[Screen fades to black; resumes with the characters standing right beside one of the immense Eidolon Walls, as Dagger looks up at it]

Dagger "I used to pray every day here, at the Eidolon Wall."

Eiko "You, too?"

Dagger "You pray here, too, Eiko?" [Eiko nods] "I'm so happy I remembered."

Eiko "Dagger!" "Welcome home!"

Dagger "So glad to be back."

Wow, how "convincing" dialogue.

Eiko "Ahaha."

Dagger "What?"

Eiko "I just realized I'm not alone anymore!"

Again, you weren't alone to begin with, you had the moogles and also the Dwarves that you could have hung around with.

Eiko "Yep, I made up my mind!" "Zidane, Dagger, I'm going with you!" "I'll be breaking my promise to my grandpa, but I wanna go!" "Besides, grandpa always told me to be honest with myself!"

Well your grandfather might not have had the best advice, especially since he and the remaining summoners never got help from the dwarves.

Dagger "I don't know what the future holds..." "But I want to finish what I came here for."

Zidane "So do I!" "Let's all go together!"

Finish what? Kuja? Or are you referring to something else?

[Eiko and Dagger nod]

Eiko "Come on, Dagger, let's go pray together!"

Dagger "Alright!"

[Screen fades to black, resumes at the entrance of Madain Sari. It's daytime again, and the party gets ready to leave]

Dagger (I still don't know what I should do...) (By the time we defeat Kuja and return to Alexandria...)

I guess we aren't going to address all of the really intimate and romantic things Zidane just said to you on the boat? That's how most of the game goes when it comes to "focusing" on the love story, have random supposedly intimate scenes with Zidane and Garnet, only for them to be interrupted and quickly forgotten about, there was the scene in Lindblum with Zidane seeing Garnet sing only for Garnet to drug and abandon him afterwards, and now here where the boat scene has been swept under the rug.

Eiko "Grandpa, I'll be back soon!"

You won't, getting to that in a second.

Vivi "Oh, you're coming with us!?"

Eiko "Hey! Why the long face!?"

Vivi "Oh, nothing... My face is always like this."

What made Eiko assume Vivi's thoughts if she can't read him by his face?

Eiko "Mog's coming, too!" "Mog!"

[Mog flies up to the characters. All the other town's moogles appear from hiding spots, like usual, shouting "Kupo!"]

Morrison "Lady Eiko!" "Now, don't forget that you'll always have a home in Madain Sari." "Don't let our memory become a burden. You must always be light-hearted and free." "Thoughts of the Eidolon Wall will always lift your heart."

The problem is that Madain Sari ceases to have story significance after this point, and you never return again, not counting the purely optional stuff that is here if you do revisit, Garnet doesn't even think about it much after this point, despite all the build up about it starting from the very first scene of the game with her dream of it, the summoner tribe pretty much drops right out of the story here. (and Alexander soon as well!) Which really sucks because the summoners are the equivalent of the Cetra from FFVII.

In FFVII the ancient Cetra were one of the main driving forces of the story, constantly referenced, not loosing significance and never dropping out of the story, unlike the summoners in IX.

[Eiko nods, and turns. Mog goes into her dress. The moogles on the right side of the screen fly to the left, as the Red-headed Man walks on screen]

Zidane "What now? You want some more, eh?"

Red-headed Man "The victor lives, the defeated die, you know the rules." "Your actions yesterday were incomprehensible to me." "Tell me! Why didn't you kill me!?"

What "rules"? Who made these so-called rules?

Zidane "Well, that's a tough question..." "Are you really that unhappy that I let you live?"

Red-headed Man "I'd rather die as a warrior than live as a beggar."

Zidane "Then come with me."

Dagger "Zidane!"

Vivi "What!?"

Red-headed Man "What are you after?"

Zidane "Follow me and maybe you'll understand." "Besides, you're pretty good in a fight." "We could use someone like you. We're hunting a man down."

Red-headed Man (Hmph. His only constant is his unpredictability...)

Here we go again with that nonsense, Zidane's schtick which is repeatedly emphasized by almost all dialogues with Amarant, is "do different garbage without thinking about anything, and everything will work out perfectly fine for you."

Zidane "Huh? You say somethin'?

Red-headed Man "Very well. I'll find out what makes you so strong."

And that is pretty much Amarant's entire sucky and clichéd arc, at least Quina has the excuse that S/He is a gag comic relief character.

Zidane "What's your name?"

Red-headed Man "Call me what you will."

Zidane "Hmm... Lani called you 'Red,' right?"

[Name the character "Amarant"]

Red-headed Man "Some call me the Flaming Amarant."

In the original Japanese his name is actually Salamander.

Zidane "Fine. We'll call you Amarant." "The more the merrier. Let's decide our marching order."

[Out of the five characters, decide your team of four. Zidane must be one of the four]

Oh now we finally get to switch party members? In other games like VII, VIII or X you could do this much earlier (you also could only have three party members in battle), like in VII right after the prologue when you leave Midgar.

Here in IX it's not until close to the end of Disk 2 that you can do this (and having dumb and contrived reasons to keep you from having more than four player characters at a time before then, like Dagger abandoning the others in Lindblum), it's also completely superfluous and pointless as you only have one extra character to switch around with (Quina isn't here for some reason, he pretty much drops out as a PC for the rest of Disk 2 after you meet Eiko and isn't even playable again until quite a bit into Disk 3) and there are no more bosses to fight before the disk ends and we just have to do a quick backtrack to the Iifa Tree and fighting some monster mooks. (where you just automatically go back to only having four party members again anyways)

So really it's not until late into Disk 3, more than halfway through and really late into the game, that you get to actually switch and manage your party.

Zidane "Alright. We'll do fine." "Just follow me!" "Next stop, the Iifa Tree!"

[The group exits Madain Sari, and heads back to the Iifa Tree]

End of chapter 14