What if Rosa had loved Kain instead?

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

How do you think the world and story of FFIV would have changed?

I've been wondering about this. Poor Kain has to hide his feelings. Cecil is a good man, but it would be nice to speculate on how this could have turned out differently.

49442

[maybee]

Cecil would of been a little annoyed at first going all that way to save and rescue her, but after a while, he would calm down and take a breather and respect Rosa's choice to love Kain.

At their wedding, Cecil would turn up and give them their blessings and while feeling upset, he'll be happy for Rosa and his friend Kain, and just be glad that they're happy with one another.

Cecil would be a slightly lonely single King, but then he'll quickly become a good Uncle to Ceodore now Kain's son instead and guess would be named Richard because of the FF 2 Richard Highwind.

Ceodore now Richard would grow up to become a Dragooner knight like his Father, and everything is calm between the three till Dark Kain comes back in FF 4 After Years.

Cecil argues with Rosa that she married a dangerous man which leads into a emotional fight, however after Kain heals himself again, Cecil apologizes, Kain forgives quickly because Cecil quickly forgave him back in the original game, and Cecil becomes Richard's teacher so he can one day be the first Dragooner to become the Commander of the Red Wings

Cecil also heads into his Royal Chambers and writes out all his feelings about Rosa, rips them up, and stands outside the Castle and lets them go, as they fly into the wind. Symbolizing his letting go of his feelings for Rosa, and moving on.

While Cecil is a more forgiving person, I do think that he also secretly still has a dark/ bitter side, and needs just as time to move on as Kain did, just that Cecil is able to be more less selfish than Kain, and less personal than Kain as well, and is more saved- face than Kain as well.

/ end of head-canon.

[Psychotic]

I don't think Kain would've been so easy to control or manipulate, and maybe he and Cecil would have switched roles initially. It would've been interesting to see if Cecil could've come back from the darkness.

[Evastio]

Cecil probably would've become a bit jealous of Kain, but I doubt he would've been controlled by Golbez since Cecil's regret towards killing innocent Mysidians and his resolve to atone for his past misdeeds shined through a lot more than his love for Rosa in the regular FFIV. So basically, Cecil's desire for redemption (even in the "Rosa loves Kain" version of FFIV) would've overpowered his jealousy of Kain if Golbez did try to take control of him. Plus, even in their childhood (in the DS' versions flashbacks), it showed that Kain was always a much darker and harsher person than Cecil even in their childhood, so I doubt Cecil would've had the heart to desire getting rid of Kain to have Rosa for himself.

[fire_of_avalon]

No way, Rosa is like, the main thing that keeps Cecil being a good man. All that becoming a Paladin stuff wouldn't have happened if he wasn't looking for a way to defeat Golbez and save Rosa.

If Rosa had shown affection to Kain and chased him into the village Mist, Cecil would've been overcome by jealousy and totally joined Golbez's quest for power and darkness. They would've amassed crystals way way faster and probably beaten the crap out of mopface. Eventually they would meet up with Zemus and realize what crapfaces they've been and Kain & co. would come save the day, probably with Cecil in the party somehow.

Also, Kain NEVER would've told Rosa to get off the big whale. Not ever.

[Jiro]

Yeah, Cecil has Rosa as his moral compass for a reason. I agree with foa.

[Sephex]

I think Kain's problem is that he jumps to conclusions too much. He tends to wing things a bit while leaving huge decisions up in the air, really. I don't think a theoretical relationship between him and Rosa would have taken off too well in the long run. He doesn't seem to be the type for have the spearit for something deeply committed, despite how much he pines for her in the game.

[Evastio]

No way, Rosa is like, the main thing that keeps Cecil being a good man. All that becoming a Paladin stuff wouldn't have happened if he wasn't looking for a way to defeat Golbez and save Rosa.


Yeah, Cecil has Rosa as his moral compass for a reason. I agree with foa.

(starts posting again on EoFF only because I saw this)

Uh, what are you talking about? Cecil completely regretted stealing the Water Crystal from the Mysidians even before meeting up with Rosa after the raid. He also completely regretted killing the Summoners in Mist Village and even protected Rydia without Rosa telling him to or thinking "Rosa will think I'm a monster if I don't try to atone for this." When Cecil told Kain in Mist that he was going to go against the King's orders, Rosa didn't even occur to him at all until after they planned to gather the might of other countries against Baron, showing that Cecil has really strong morals even without Rosa. All Cecil thought about and talked about after the burning of Mist was all the innocent villagers and summoners dying because of his actions and commands from the king, and Rosa was one of the last things to come to his mind.

Even in the DS version's flashbacks (the script can be found here, search for "Flashback at Baron") (http://home.eyesonff.com/final-fantasy-iv/153616-what-if-rosa-had-loved-kain-instead.html), before either Cecil or Kain met Rosa for the first time as kids, it's really evident that Cecil is a much more moral and nicer person than Kain, seeing how Cecil tried to make friends with Kain and Kain just reciprocated by bullying Cecil until Rosa stepped in. Cecil even took the blame for starting the fight in front of Rosa, even though he knew it would probably make Rosa like him less than Kain. Kain even showed jealousy toward Cecil even before meeting Rosa, with the way he said "Don't think you can be friends with me, just because the king treats you like you're special." So it's not like Kain's jealousy problems resulted only because of Rosa.

Cecil is a much kinder and noble person than Kain, so I doubt Cecil would've succumbed to that jealousy to the extended Kain did, if at all.