Nethicite and Atomic Power

[the AJman]

Today I was watching a show on T.V about the crew of the Enola Gay retelling the experiences during the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After watching the show I started playing a little bit of XII and as I was playing I was thinking about the show I found a lot of similarities between Nethicite from XII and the atomic bomb. First when we actually see the true power of Nethicite being used for the first time it was a massive explosion that wiped out an entire imperial fleet demonstrating very clearly that these were very destructive weapons. Theirs also the case with Nabudis where not only did the initiative explosion destroy the kingdom, but the tremedous amount of energy that lingered on afterwards mutated whatever life was left there, very similar to radiation after the atomic bombs went off. Of course the actual mutation were quite different from eachother, Nethicite change the local wild life and survivors into monsters, and the atomic bombs caused people to develop cancer, birth defects, and other equally bad things. Nethicite was also looked at as the weapon that would win the war for either the empire or Dalmasca and change the world, a very similar role that the atomic bomb played in the real world, and like the atomic bomb it was a weapon that was looked at as extremely dangerous and had the capablity of destroy entire civilizations.

I'm just curious if anyone else pickup on these similarities, and I wonder if any of it was intended or just a coincedence. I just thought this would be an interesting topic.

[Wolf Kanno]

I did pick up on it cause the Tactics team loves reusing real history for their storylines. Of course the subject of the atomic bomb in WWII is a very popular topic in Japanese culture. In many stories, characters deal with forces or weapons that mimic the atomic weapon. MGS, Front Mission 3, and several anime's concern themselves with atomic weapons or artifacts that share heavy parallels with the atomic bomb. Its interesting to note that when thinking of Nethicite in this context, that FFXII can be seen also as having a strong anti-nuclear weapon message behind it.

Course, XII to me at least, has many strong messages that parallel to our modern times. Its less a fantastical story as much as a parable of the modern state of affairs in the world itself. Thus the game's plot serves as a message to teach people while entertaining them.

[the AJman]

I'm not at all surprised by the fact that Japan has many games, movie, cartoons, and what not that has atomic weapons or something like it in their stories. Its the only culture on earth to actually experience first hand the horrors of these weapons so its natural that it would be in the public concieness even today.

Thats one thing I like about XII and tactics, their game world is make believe, but its presented in a believable way. Its not so fantastic that its completely detached from the real world, at least thats my opinion.

[Vivisteiner]

Yeah, I definitely saw that comparison. There were slight differences between them conceptually, but both weapons encompass that same general theme.