The Galbadian Military

[Ayen]

I like them. Despite the incompetent grunts that seem to make up most of their army and that they're mostly played for laughs, I like them. Their uniforms are cool, Biggs and Wedge are hilarious, I like their ground vehicles and jet packs (whatever those things the green troops flew on) and bikes and if I had to choose I'd probably attend Galbadian Garden (even though I like Balamb uniforms better) to become a member of the military. Maybe it's just me, but I think it'd be better than a mercenary who gets sent across the world for potentially any side in questionable contracts conditions. Not much better, mind you, eeh... you get what I mean.

Though it sounds like Galbadian could benefit from a worker union or something with how much their salary gets cut. They can't be making good money out there.

Discuss the Galbadian military!

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I'm just going to leave this here.

[Ayen]

Aww! I missed that Easter egg

[Jiro]

Would've loved to see more variety in the Galbadian military than just like, red and blue guys, but I definitely find them compelling as a sort of sympathetic antagonistic group.

[Ayen]

Would've loved to see more variety in the Galbadian military than just like, red and blue guys, but I definitely find them compelling as a sort of sympathetic antagonistic group.

I know what you mean. The part near the end of disc two with the green soldiers was a breath of fresh air.

[Jiro]

Am I wrong or was there purple guys at one point too? I don't know, it just always felt like we were fighting a faceless army and that frustrates me. Give me enemies that are compelling. Biggs and Wedge were great because they had personalities but the fact that they looked the same as every other smurfer just ruined it for me. Look how many great Shinra Execs there were; it's not like Square weren't capable of creating villains with substance.

Of course then Sephiroth shows up and it's all wasted but w/e

[Mo-Nercy]

Their helmets were pretty cool.

But there wasn't much variety to their attacks. Other than basic magic, the blue and green guys I think only had one sword attack and the red guys had some hadouken gun move and a shoulder charge. I would've liked to see some more elite soldiers show up later on in the game, sorta like the Turks.

[Ayen]

Yeah, there was definitely more they could have done with them, but that seems to be a reoccurring problem with VIII. A lot of interesting concepts that aren't expanded on and I don't think there were any purple soldiers unless I missed them or they appear in a later part than where I am on disc 3.

[Jiro]

Maybe it's just the sort of purpley uniform they have in FMVs I'm thinking of. I dunno. But yeah FFVIII should've been better

[Sephex]

If...if they were balding...

They would be the Galbaldian army.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I do think the uniformity was intentional, or at least I can see how it plays into the grand scheme of things. Galbadia is a military dictatorship, and it's soldiers are just going to have more uniformity to them than the special forces or departments of the Shinra corporation such as the Turks. They become more faceless and less interesting to the players though considering even the soldiers given personality and dialogue look like everyone else.

One thing I do find interesting about Galbadian soldiers is how incompetent (or even possibly uncaring) they are. I feel like the soldiers themselves get duped pretty easily and often come off as idiotic. This is just interesting just considering Galbadia's wiki claims that the Ultimania does say Galbadian soldiers are strong and highly trained (this is how even basic soldiers can use para-magic I guess). They get a lot of recruits from the Galbadia Garden if I remember right, and what we see there seems pretty strict and more focused than what we have at Balamb.

I do wonder if part of the incompetency comes from the army turning out to be kind of a bad fate to find yourself in. For one, a person could have their pay docked for practically any reason at all, creating a sense of insecurity. But people probably can't simply up and leave the army either (and it only happens at the end of the game because Galbadia has crumbled under the rule of Seifer and Ultimecia). Part of it might also come from the fact that a lot of power was simply thrust on Galbadia during the Sorceress war, and there wasn't really anyone to stand up to them afterwards since they had that power. Let's say they were very highly trained during that war because they had to be, but afterwards the world was in a state where no one really could stand up to Galbadia. Look at Timber, a city full of rebels but none of them really know what they are doing (for instance, why have a bunch of small rebel factions rather than coming together as a town to overthrow Galbadian rule?). They have no threat to worry about after the Sorceress War, so they probably grow cocky and lazy.

Of course, the world of FFVIII is full of incompetency really. Balamb is run by a coward and a lire really, I already discussed Timber, Galbadian soldiers are not only incompetent, but the president Vinzer Deling pretty quickly started working with a sorceress like Edea (I'd assume for an easy one way ticket to hold onto world domination) when it was pretty obvious it would probably backfire on him.

Ok, I'm going to stop talking now. Galbadia interests me quite a bit, though.

[Mo-Nercy]

They are also more sensible looking than those crazy Estharian soldiers.

[Ayen]

They are also more sensible looking than those crazy Estharian soldiers.

I didn't even think they were human the first time I saw them. I thought they were either some kind of alien or just another monster.

[Jiro]

Yeah Esthar need to invest in better uniforms.

[Skyblade]

Yes, but after the reveal of Esthar's leadership, and the brilliant plans of said leader... Is anyone really surprised at anything that comes out of that country? Just be glad we got the Ragnarok (notice, constructed before the President came to power).