Character Spotlight: Vivi

[Wolf Kanno]

Vivi is probably one of my favorite characters in the series and I really loved his story and what he brought to IX. My only problem with Vivi is that I never felt he got a proper resolution to his problems. He sorta just accepts what's happening off screen after getting caught up with the Black Mages returning to Kuja and then he's sorta cast into the background until the writers decided to screw his story over a second time (SPOILER)by killing him off screen.

I guess I felt he needed to have an actual epiphany and the one I'm guessing the game tried to give me didn't give me a satisfactory answer. I kinda feel the writers tried to cover up his story towards the end cause it was getting too deep and they were afraid they may lose their audience.I wasn't looking for Vivi to come to some answer cause their really is no answer to his problems but at the same time I never felt like Vivi reached some ill defined purpose to believe in that he can use to help find an answer. He just sorta was left off in total confusion about what to with his situation.

[Shiny]

Vivi was the first FF character I liked. Who couldn't love that lovely black mass of nothingness? Well, apparently Old Manus.

[scrumpleberry]

Actually, I'm on Manus's side. As far as I'm concerned, he is one of the most overrated Final Fantasy characters ever. "Vivi's journey through the game to finding out his origins and coming to terms with his mortality" is very poorly written. I feel like he doesn't get anywhere. His adventure with his mortality and trying to fit in is predictable and dull. Most of his sequences and dialogue are dull and excruciatingly drawn out. He doesn't add anything to the overarching message of the game. As a character, I think he's an ill-fitting and hastily written device who really doesn't fit in the narrative, and trying to double it up with making him a ~CUTE AND SHY AND INNOCENT LITTLE BOYYYY LEARNING ABOUT HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE WORLD just multiplied his irritating factor. The incredibly low sense of self-worth they injected him with to try and make his personal battle seem even more tragic and struggly just made it feel like trying to find any development with the character was like waaaading through tarrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Seriously, I get that his life is tough and situation is tragic and that what he's trying to come to terms with is like, woah, totally deep man - but I couldn't empathise with him because he was not anything new, he did not bring any interesting or fresh concepts to the board, which as the PHILOSOPHY AND HUMAN NATURE CHARACTER it was his job to do. Poorly, sloppily executed.

However he will always be on my team with Steiner for kicking ass He is so invaluble in battle.

[charliepanayi]

*Wrongness meter is going haywire!*

So which character(s) in games or otherwise do execute this idea well then? I'm getting the impression that however Vivi had turned out you wouldn't have been satisfied.

And 'ill fitting'? 'hastily written'? Sorry I don't see that at all, Vivi and his character arc is an intrinsic part of the game, it clearly hasn't been dropped in there as an afterthought.

There are some aspects of FF that I love but I understand why others don't (Quina in FFIX, pretty much anything to do with FFVIII) - but Vivi, I don't understand how anyone could actively dislike the character.

[Old Manus]

never shirks what he has to do but always stands up and fights.

Unfortunately not. The first Prison Cage fight? The whole thing in Dali?

[Quindiana Jones]

Those examples being the situations that he learned from to become the little kid that never shirks what he has to do but always stands up and fights. Well done for finding the bits from the first few hours of the game, though. It wouldn't be called character development if the character was the same at the beginning of the game as he was at the end.

[Old Manus]

Yeah he stops being so annoying after the first disc.

[bigguy]

I love Vivi; he's probably my 2nd favorite character in the entire series. You'd think I'd grow out of it, but every time he falls flat on his face I laugh a little bit.

That being said, I do think that they did a poor job of wrapping up his story. My main interest in the game was to find out what's going on with Vivi's story, and what happens to all the black mages in the end, but they didn't really cover it much at the end of the game.

[Rantz]

I think Wolf Kanno kinda hit the nail on the head regarding my main problem with Vivi. He's not my favourite character in the game, but he's nonetheless lovable and a more than worthy inclusion in the cast as his inquisitive nature sets focus on issues otherwise usually left alone.

[Roogle]

I liked Vivi more than most of the cast. I think that a lot of people might feel the same way, so that when you think of Final Fantasy IX, you'll think of Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi since most of the other characters are more bland like Amarant and Quina. Vivi had a pretty intense background story that encompassed the whole game — whether it was well-written or not — and followed through to the ending.

[Goldenboko]

I once read a somewhat over reaching statement, that Vivi is named after the FInal Fantasy series, that's probably wrong, but even that makes more sense than the 66 thing.

I also read that "Vivi" means "Life" - if that's true it's probably the most likeley.

Actually, to be precise, "vivi" means "I lived", which is pretty fitting, actually.

Oh Latin