Theory: The Elemental Fiends are Weapons.

[-Demos-]

Hello everyone.

I'm a big fan of the Final Fantasy games, a few months ago I replayed FF1 (PSP version), and just recently replayed the original FF7 (PC version), and I just noted something, in FF1 there is not much backstory to the antagonists, Chaos and the four elemental fiends, are just there to be a menace, not much is explained about their origins of motives, of course this was a product of the time, back them games could not spare much dialogue to built the lore.

So when I was replaying FF7 I was reminded of the concept of "Weapons" creatures created by the planet to defend itself from threats, now in FF1 we know that there was a very advanced civilization called the Lufenians that have created technology like the airships, the flying fortress, servant robots with artificial intelligence, the warp cube, now my theory is that when a race becomes too technologically advanced, their constant exploit of the resources of the planet, becomes a threat to the life of the planet itself, like for example how the exploitation of Mako in FF7 was putting the whole planet at risk.

So the four elemental fiends may have been "Weapons" created by the planet, as a way to stop the Lufenians technological progress by force, in the game the first target attacked by an elemental fiend was the "flying fortress" of the Lufenian, the place in the whole game with the most advanced technology, including robots and Warmechs.

Now it could be argued that the four fiends were having a negative effect on the planet, as the intro states that the wind has stopped, the seas raged and the land was decaying, but all those effects are only inconvenient for the humans, not for the planet itself, maybe it was the equivalent of a "fever", the planet deliberately making the conditions on its surface harsh in order to purge the humans from the ecosystem, so it could continue the cycle of the lifestream with more simpleminded and thus less dangerous animals.

The same point could be made about Chaos, he seemed less like a villain and more like the incarnation of a force of nature, even Garland does not seem to have a great villainous plan, and may just have been an unfortunate man that was taken as Chaos 's vessel just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (The ruins of the Chaos Shrine the moment the Time Warp opened).

So what do you think of this interpretation? please tell me in the comments, and thanks for taking time to read this post.

[DeadRinger1986]

I love this. I mean they're the earth's elements, can't get much more earthly than that... Also so much of any FF is about a relationship with nature. As for Chaos, I feel like very often in FF some major villain could be interpreted as a force of nature, so this kind of continued. There's often a Garland character too, someone who is corrupted but is "good deep down after all" (Golbez FF4, Gilgamesh in some of his appearances, can I even say Cait Sith?) It's fun pondering the common themes across the series

[Garland]

It's my understanding that the four fiends were Garland's contingency plan in case he was ever defeated. Weapons - yes, in a sense, but maybe not the planet's. They're Garland's Eye of Agamotto, his Time Stone. Before he begins, he sends them to an appropriate point in time to bring him back to start over should he fail. "Light Warriors, I've come to bargain."