Last year I played it again and didn't finish it... maybe i was too busy with MGS, but during the game i realized I had only beaten 2 other FF's

I'm about to play the game again, possibly right now, as I wanted to play all of them before starting it again, so i could catch all of the references to the other games.

spoilers

Also I think the whole "stopped" thing that the mages talked about isn't them having a short-life span, but more-so of them discovering death. We don't know that the mages they talked about died naturally, they could've been killed. It symbolizes how none of us know when it is our time to die, it could happen within months of our birth or in 100 years.

Does Vivi really die??? I don't seem to remember that the first time I beat it. I guess I'll have to see.

What I find interesting going into it again is that X-Death from FFV also came from a tree...