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This was something that always intrigued me about Vector and kind of made me wish we could have learned more about it and what they were doing there with the Espers. This child that Cid gave a simple healing spell to, do you think it was simply because Cid was trying to commercialize the power and spread it to the masses or perhaps the Gestalh wanted magic to given to the children for the very real possibility of making them into soldiers in the future like they did with Celes?
Why not both?
Actually from a tyranical despot PoV giving out magic that empowers individuals is a really, really bad idea.
Hence why he probably just got that cure spell. Useful, but not a weapon. I'd say the latter is more likely though. For all we know some kids start military training at a fairly young age and are infused with magic to help them become more proficient as they get older.
It seems like a ploy to get people excited about the new power of Magic which the Empire was using, a way of manipulating the populace into thinking that everything is ok. Sort of a political show, like the old royals who would throw out coins as they rode through the marketplace.
Then again, Gestalh did want Kefka and Celes to hook up and build magical progeny for his new empire, perhaps Gestahl's goal was to create something like the Magic Kingdom of Zeal, so it would make sense he would give magic to his people for that purpose though as mentioned, he may have only given offensive magic to those he thought he could control.