That does seem a little strange about Banon now that I think about it. I never really liked that guy anyways so I guess I just didn't care.

I think Out of the 3 times I played through it, I saved Cid twice. The only reason I can think to do it is because I wanted to do _EVERYTHING_ perfect in one go-through of the game. It is pretty lame that nothing comes of it if you save him though (aside from Celes presumably being more happy).

I always felt Gau's rage system was screwy and kind of lame. It's the main reason I almost never used him and he became one of my weakest characters. Once I really went for getting all the Rages and he obtained some good ones he became useful, but it's a lot of work for little reward. Always pissed me off when he would hop on some mega enemy and the payoff is just a regular "attack" that does weak damage.