THIS WARNING WARNS YOU THAT: this post is full of spoilers. Rather than tag every single one, I advise you avoid this thread if you've yet to play most of the series.
Let's take a look at the survivability of being the mother of a hero in the main Final Fantasy series, shall we? By main I of course mean numbered.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. T
Final Fantasy I: Blank slate heroes. Their mothers are never mentioned.
Final Fantasy II: Explicitly stated to be orphans.
Final Fantasy III: Also explicitly stated to be orphans.
Final Fantasy IV: Cecil and Kain are adopted orphans whose adoptive mother is either already dead or she never existed; Rydia's mother's corpse is one of the first things you see when you meet Rydia herself; Yang's immediate family is never mentioned but his age suggests his parents are dead, if not of anything tragic then most likely old age; Tellah's like seventy-something anyway; Palom and Porom, if memory serves, are explicitly stated to be orphans; Edward's parents are dead; Cid's old enough for us to deduce he does not have living parents; Edge is forced to mercy kill his own mother; we have no idea what's going on with FuSoYa. The only character whose mother is seen alive in the game and never presented as having died is Rosa's mother, a minor NPC in a house in Baron. Odds are she bites it, or has bitten it, by The After Years, but I ain't played it. To that end, Rosa's probably crapping bricks after seeing Ceodore become such a hero.
Mother survival count: 1. Remember I'm only counting main entries in the series here; After Years is a spin-off.
Final Fantasy V: All explicitly stated or shown to be orphans. Krile is raised by her grandfather; Bartz, Lenna and Faris' mothers are all dead.
Final Fantasy VI: Terra's mother dies in a flashback; Locke's parents are never seen; Edgar and Sabin would have to be orphans if they're the new monarchs; Cyan's wife, mother to his son, dies; Gau's mother died in childbirth; Shadow's mother is never seen; Banon's extremely old himself; Celes' family is never mentioned but it's strongly implied she lost them a long time ago; Mog's the last surviving Moogle in the world of ruin; Relm's being raised by her grandfather 'cause she got nobody else; Strago is seventy; Umaro is the only one of his race ever seen in the game; Gogo is sort of a gimmick character whose appearance might not even be canon; Setzer himself is really getting on a bit and his family is never seen.
Final Fantasy VII: Cloud's mother died in Nibelheim; if Barret's mother were still alive, she clearly died when Corel was torched as she's never mentioned; Tifa's mother's death is mentioned outright in a flashback; Aeris' real mother dies on screen in a flashback; Red XIII's mother's death is treated as being quite heroic; Yuffie's mother is never, ever seen; Cait Sith is a damn robot; Vincent's mother can't possibly have lived this long considering how long he was sealed away and how old he was already; Cid jokes about being old (despite being younger than Barret) and his mother is never mentioned.
Final Fantasy VIII: All explicitly stated to be orphans. Except Rinoa, whose mother is indeed dead.
Final Fantasy IX: Zidane's a lab experiment; Vivi's parentage is a complete mystery but it's heavily implied he has no biological parents; Garnet's mother dies, then her adpotive mother dies too; Steiner's parents are never mentioned; Freya's family are never really mentioned as far as I can remember; Quina... well nobody has a clue; Eiko is an orphan living on her own in a deserted village; Amarant doesn't seem to wanna talk about it.
Final Fantasy X: Tidus remembers his mother dying of the loss of will to live; Lulu and Wakka lost their parents to Sin; Auron never mentions it; Yuna's is presumed dead; Rikku's is dead; if Kimahri's mother was alive before, Seymour slaughtered her on the way up Gagazet.
Final Fantasy XII: Vaan and Penelo are orphans; Fran is a total mystery; Balthier's mother isn't mentioned; Basch probably has nothing left; Ashe is effectively orphaned at the start of the game, with no sign of a queen, who of course would be her mother.
Final Fantasy XIII: I haven't played it enough (and have no intention) but I think we can all agree that Hope's mother is full of crap at this point.
I guess somebody may wanna set me straight on XIII, but so far it seems we have one surviving mother out of the cast of twelve main games; fourteen if you count MMOs where the player characters have all but no backstory. Unless you count yourself. In which case...
Final Fantasy XI/Final Fantasy XIV: You... bastard. You've doomed your mother to a pretty tragic death, you know.
Discuss.
