Is this terrible? Am I evil for this? [MAJOR, FREAKING MAJOR SPOILERS]

[feioncastor]

Seriously, if you have not played through FFT in its entirity, stay out of this thread, because it will ruin the most interesting plot twists and story elements for you

Having said that...

Is St. Ajora the equivalent of Jesus Christ? It seems so because he is the Messiah of the Glabdos religion. And the various "Zodiac Braves" seem to be equivalent to Catholic Saints in their importance and roles in the church. But the Braves are actually evil spirits, I believe. The only instance of non-evil is with it restoring Malak to life, and other than that, everyone who uses them seems to be consumed by their evil. So is FFT a game where your ultimate goal is to defeat Jesus and dispell the rumors about his religion and followers?

Also, (off the main subject) correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't "Lucavi" refer to the beasts you encounter, like Velius, Hashmalum, Queklain and so forth? If so, then, what are "Lucavi"? Are they legendary creatures that are sealed away and finally set free by taking over a human body and then disfiguring it to look like them? And if so, then why is Wiegraf able to return to his human form after transforming into Velius? When Wiegraf turns into Velius, is any part of the human Wiegraf still concious? Or is he completely consumed by the creature?

[Despotus]

It's not an evil thought, Feion. Don't feel that you're inherently evil for thinking that. There are a lot of clear parallelisms between the Glabados Church and Christianity, and between St. Ajora and Jesus Christ. And you don't have to believe that just because the truth was hidden in Ivalice, that the same goes for what we know about Jesus. And as for the Zodiac stones and whether or not they are 'Evil', and why they reacted differently for Malak, and Reis and Worker 8 if I remember correctly, I think that it's closer to say that the stones react to the inherent goodness or evil within the person who holds the stone. Bad men became possessed by Lucavi (and yes I think Lucavi are demons) and good folk were either resurrected or released from a curse.

About the other topic you mentioned, it makes no sense to me why the human forms of Draclau, Elmdor, Dycedarg, Vormav, Elidibs all dissipated leaving behind only the Z. Stones, while Wiegraf's body remained. The only thing I can think of is they needed Alma's comment to Izlude, the one where she says she saw Wiegraf dead and knew her brother had killed him, to make sense.

[BG-57]

:eek: We don't need to use spoiler tags if a spoiler warning is in the title of the thread.:eek:

The Glabados church is clearly modeled on the medieval Catholic church. They have a Pope (Funeral), several Bishops (including Draclau), and are a powerful, weathy force in the life of Ivalice, with power almost equal to that of the squabbling noblemen.

Also similar is the church's desire to surpress any form of heresy, which explains the character of Zalmo. Simon is a closet heretic when he discovers the Germonik Scriptures and learns of the true life of St. Ajora that got glossed over by the church's official history.

Most likely the villified Father Fara was the true hero in the Zodiac Brave story. But the church that formed around the martyred Ajora had a vested interest in painting Fara as the villain. It's also significant that there were 12 'official' Zodiac Braves, like the disciples.

Having said that, I doubt that the game's creators were being anti-Christian. Christianity is often heavily used in anime and video games to give an exotic, otherworldly quality to the story. Similar to the way most Westerners consider Shintoism exotic. Just look at the tons of religious symbollism in Xenogears.

I think once a Lucavi posseses a possesor of a stone, they inhabit the body and it becomes a shell, even if they retain a human form part of the time. Like Pod People or the Strangers in Dark City. Lucavi are all about deception, so it would make sense that they keep a low profile most of the time. No doubt they kept their human forms the first time around as the original Zodiac Braves when they were recruiting human followers.