#ffvi espers

[allisonmckenzieart]

Esper Terra

Prints available

[seepingfrommyskin]

FF6 ART BREAK IS OVER!!! So, here’s another ff6 doodle dump, including my semi-old first attempt of drawing Esper Tina, a scrapped Kefka doodle, GAU?!?! And then the last three are all doodles I did earlier today of modern au Celes and Tina concepts :)

[xbuster]

Honestly, I just wish summons were retroactively changed to being called “Phantasmals” in the English translations because it’s closer to the Japanese name while sounding less odd than eidolon

[sunsetzer]

"(Setzer) is a descendant of the Magi but doesn't know it"

!!!!! Thank you!! This is what I've been wanting people to say for ages! The fact that he has the *Mysidian* Rabbit is Incredibly odd in a setting where Mysidia doesn't exist...that we know of. And considering we know nothing about Setzer's past, it makes so much sense. In an Edgar/Setzer AU I have he had Thunder to match Terra and Celes having Blizzard and Fire and I'm just so glad someone Gets It

AH YES I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE

I love the idea of Setzer having thunder omg. Especially considering his slot abilities get stronger if you focus on increasing his magic, like that felt like a dead giveaway that it's a magical ability. He just has no idea! Might also explain why he's survived enough dangerous airship tests and gambling-related fights to have dozens of scars but no permanent injuries (that we know of), too. He's one of the most mysterious characters from ff6 and yet also one of the most beloved and I love that for him.

[sixrealmsbeneaththesea]

um, a sketch of terra's dad, maduin, that i spontaneously felt like drawing and coloring over.

i've been playing dissidia opera omnia which has a healthy heaping of terra...which made me think of maduin and how cool an esper dad he is... was. so i did it.

meanwhile, sephiroth is awkward as fuck in that, delightfully so. teaming him with seymour is a weird flex, though, but whatever...

i'm probably gonna avoid posting for a while after this. my head isn't on straight anymore ~

[lmmotoss]

Queen of Diamonds - Terra Branford

She eventually got everything she wanted…love, family, humanity

#tarot #cards #dailydraw #finalfantasy #ff6 #ffvi #collecting #esper #poker #playingcards

[tayasigerson]

FFVI Artober Day 10: Esper

Ramuh

[indigo-a-creeping]

I am replaying FFVI for the millionth time, but the first time in a while, and the opening bit? Chilling and depressing.

Everyone in town is hiding from the Empire's invading forces. Not just soldiers. Not even just Magitek soldiers. Three Magitek riders, including the Empire's secret weapon who uses ancient magical forces that nobody really understands. And they've given people magic before, but Terra was born with it. Is that common knowledge? Even if it's not, she's a terrifying force of nature.

Biggs and Wedge are responsible for her, and they're pretty confident that they have full control over her... but she could cast Fire on them any time she wanted to. No one is there to help them. But it'll be fine, right? Everyone told them it would be fine.

They beat a few guards, no match for their Magitek weapons, just mow them all down. The guards know it's hopeless, but they keep trying. Then they run into Ymir (Whelk), and they recognize that this isn't just some cave creature. It was raised and trained by the citizens. People have cared for it. Probably the same people who were just murdered in the streets. Does it know that the humans who fed it are dead? Did they treat it well? It doesn't matter, it's dead too now.

Then the esper itself - It was supposed to be a simple mission to retrieve it. It was supposed to be dead. And then this girl who's been completely docile all this time, who they've been assured is under complete control... walks up to the esper and starts... communing with it somehow. What's going on? Too late, Biggs and Wedge have been blasted into oblivion by what was supposed to be a dead rock.

Terra is there for this, and then she has to deal with the slave crown being removed, her whole world changing, people helping her, people hunting her, having no idea who she is or who to trust, being told to run, being chased, falling...

Then the flashback. The bit where Kefka places the crown on her head and checks that she's obedient is disturbing, but then she remembers being taken into battle against Imperial soldiers, and killing them. They were on the same side. Did they know they were being used as target practice for the Empire's new weapon? Was this a punishment for something, or were they chosen randomly?

Anyway, I love this game. :)

[cthulhubert]

Some more random translation from Japanese thoughts:

Read a few volumes of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, or in Japanese, Sousou no Frieren. I love looking up the meanings of words in other languages, seeing how they cut up the world in different ways than English. Japanese is especially interesting because it feels like all the kanji lead to a lot of words that are so specific they feel like jargon. "no Frieren" unambiguously glosses as "Frieren's"; but 葬送? "Attending a funeral procession; seeing off the deceased; burial of someone's remains; observing a burial."

Even if we had a word that meant close to the same thing, not sure a translator would've used it. Really upfronts the bittesweet and gloomy aspects of the series, compared to the title in English, huh?

A friend's playing the latest remaster of Final Fantasy VI, and we were talking about the differences between the Woolsey (SNES) and Slattery (GBA, Pixel) translations. While Woolsey made some great choices (especially in Chrono Trigger), he apparently also made quite a number of unambiguous errors, and Slattery kept most of Woolsey's more famous fun lines.

Here's Mato (professional Japanese localizer, been a fan of his blog for forever) on the differences: Legends of Localization.

But we talked about one change he thought was definitely worse:

Slattery has Kefta spamming every arbitrary negative word in English he can think of, but in the original text, Kefka is saying "Chikushou" over and over until he can only say "chiku" repeatedly; it's clear that he's having a meltdown. Not a time for verbosity.

Chikushou is one of the first ten Japanese curse words I learned, but the explanation of what it meant was so unclear I barely recalled it. "Damn it" is JDIC's first choice gloss, and it's probably a good one because it turns out the etymology is religious (ish: Buddhist), and just like how people say "damn" without actually intending to invoke the righteous wrath of God, a Japanese person just says it because they are annoyed. But it was originally an insult towards a person, saying they have been or deserve to be reborn into the Animal Domain, that is, they are lower than a real human, that they are brutish and ruled only by their desires. (This is right after you smack Kefka one, so you can see why he goes there.)

I ended up thinking about the choice of "esper" for the summoned creatures in VI. It's a great word, and I always thought it was very evocative of some kind of magical creature. Maybe just because I played Final Fantasy VI III at a formative age, or maybe because it sounds like vesper or whisper. It's actually from Extra Sensory Perception. Japanese loves its acronyms so "ESP-er" becomes "esper" becomes anybody with psychic powers. But despite that being common lingo, the magic creatures in FFVI were called 幻獣 ("genju", 'phantom beasts'), as they are in every iteration of the series (except VIII which uses GF).

While I was looking around on the final fantasy wiki, I noticed that the word translated as "magitek" is actually not that at all. It was actually "魔導", "mado". I've been chuuni, so I recognized "魔" ("ma", 'magic') off the bat, though not "導", It was interesting that it looks and sounds so similar to "道"; "do" is path or way, it's the kanji they use for the tao, and you might recognize it from "judo" and "kendo". 導 basically means conduct or guidance.

魔 on its own actually means something more like "evil spirit" than "magic", you add 法 (principles/law/system) to get "mahou", which is a very good match for "witchcraft". And 魔道 is in fact "the path of evil". The main reason I mention it is because like chikushou, it has a connection to Japanese Buddhism, which uses "mado" to refer to a netherworld where evil spirits dwell. 魔導 then is something like "leading (evil) spirits", which is a good fit for what magitek does in the game; though it's also generally used for sorcery and black magic.

[gameboyhamazing]

OOURRGGHHH my fucking GOD im not even a QUARTER INTO THIS THING

just started ff6 and I already know I’m not ready for what this game is about to do to me

[beardedmrbean]

http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/images/f/fc/Final_Fantasy_VII_-_PS1_-_Manual.pdf

I looked up the original manual for Final Fantasy VII to check something for my brother and I noticed that the characters have their blood types listed, except for Red XIII and Cait Sith who both have unknown blood type. That got me looking up dog and cat blood types.

https://indyvet.com/canine-blood-types-blood-donation-center/

https://icatcare.org/advice/blood-groups-and-blood-incompatibility/

Apparently dogs and cats have their own sets of blood types, I didn't know this.

Cait Sith is a robot and therefore does not have blood, so his should be listed as none.

I was gonna say that about Cait Sith, who I noticed is a Esper in FFVI Pixel Remaster which I don't remember them being in VI but that's because they were called "Stray" apparently. (I just looked)

I didn't know that about the blood types either, but it does kinda make sense, less ways to screw up if they have different classifications and all.

[xbuster]

There’s a mod series that makes terminology in all the FF Pixel Remasters consistent with each other and modern official terminology for items, spells, and whatnot and I think that’s great. But it also changes all summons so they’re called “Eidolons.” This is fine for FFIII and FFV, but FFVI is so defined by its summons being translated to “Espers” that I can’t use a mod like that. So I edited it so the mod reverts eidolons back to espers. :)

[sunsetzer]

Just unlocked the childhood memory of my mom personally yelling at my elementary school principal because my teachers and peers were harassing me for being neurodivergent, and I believe wholeheartedly that Terra would do that for her kids.

[azurefishnets]

Personal Demons

I thank you, as always, @arbuthnotblob, for you to have indulged me yet again with your prompts for my most beloved FFVI/GT AU for @fyeahghosttrick's Ghost Swap 2023. Four years we've been doing this (Really???!) and I still owe you my life every time!

AO3 Profile Fandom: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Words: 1139 Summary: PREVIOUSLY: Cabanela, Pigeon Man (Cidgeon in the AU), & Jowd have made their way overland to find the abandoned ruins of Mobliz, along with their old friend, the esper Sissel. Sissel has thrown himself into raising and caring for a litter of kittens; reluctantly the rest of the group agrees to leave him there and move on.

But, before they go, does Sissel need a little help getting food for the kids? Cabanela knows a few tricks of his own that can help.

Cabanela walked out of what had once been the Mobliz post office, looking for Sissel. The esper had made it clear already he wasn’t coming; Cabanela couldn’t blame him seeing who Sissel had become in order to protect the last fragile children of Mobliz. Kittens were small, vulnerable, too easy to overlook in world where monsters roamed free. It would have been nice, though, Cabanela conceded, if only to himself, to have had a little more time to talk with the esper before the world had come to this. They really had never gotten to know each other despite their short time travelling to Narshe over a year prior.

It wasn’t a way to convince Sissel to join them that Cabanela sought, not really. It was more a feeling, an odd kinship with a being utterly alone and unique in the way he experienced the world. And, hard as it was to admit, even to himself, Cabanela longed to explore, even for a short time, that kinship. Cidgeon was taciturn at the best of times. Jowd barely spoke, and that mostly to the Professor. Cabanela was ready to talk, to anyone, just to hear the sound of a conversation that wasn’t built on regrets, unwillingly broken promises, or the remembrance of mutual sacrifices made both willingly and under duress.

For now, there was an odd feeling in the air, like ozone or static electricity, just waiting to shock the unwary soul. Cabanela looked toward the river, and walked carefully down the muddy bank to the edge where Sissel sat in his feline form, ears swiveling to catch any unusual sounds. “Hey there, baby,” he said. “Miiind if I join you?”

“Sure,” Sissel said, and returned to his human form. “Did you need something?”

“I belieeeve that’s my line,” Cabanela said. “We’ll be headin’ out soon—thanks for the tip about the chocobo stables, we’ll be stoppin’ by for sure—but I wanted to make sure you had what you needed for the kids before we go.”

“Yeah.” Sissel pointed at the river. “As long as I’m careful, the fish here are decent and there’s lots.”

Cabanela grinned at him. “And you’re OK with gettin’ a little wet, baby?”

Sissel waved a dismissive hand. “I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to let them go hungry when I can catch food easy.”

“Sure, sure.” Cabanela peered out at the river. “Lots of fish out there at the moment, huuuh?”

“Mmm.” Sissel looked at the water. “I slow them down so they get bunched up. It’s easier to catch them that way.”

“Ah! How about I give you a haaand with that, and we can help you set them up to dry so you have a stockpile. Fish for daaays, baby! What do you say?”

“What’s your plan?” Sissel looked Cabanela up and down. “I ‘m pretty sure I remember you don’t care to get messy either.”

“No muss, no fuss!” Cabanela pointed at the river. “Little localized lightning, float ‘em on up to the bank. Easy-peasy.”

“Uh…” Sissel looked back and forth from him to the river. “I don’t know. That sounds…risky.”

“Whaaat’s the risk?” Cabanela said. “You need food for lots of hungry mouths in there.”

“I suppose. It’d be nice to have the help.” Sissel still sounded dubious. “But I don’t think we should be out here for long. Let’s make it a little quicker at least”

He cast a spell and Cabanela found the movements of his limbs sped up, arms and legs blurring into double their usual speed.

“That’s the way!” he said, grinning, and cast a weak lightning bolt at the surface of the river. Fish began to float to the surface, and together Cabanela and Sissel cast Float to bring them up to the shore. Just as the pile began to grow, a roar echoed through the air.

“Crap!” Sissel hissed and morphed back into a cat. “Get back! Phunbaba’s coming!”

“Eh?” Cabanela had just enough time to hear Sissel’s threatening yowl before the Esper leapt in a blur towards a large green creature that rose from the water. Sissel hissed and scratched, biting at the thing and leaping away.

“I can help!” Cabanela cried, and began to call the lightning.

“No!” Sissel yelled, and left off the attack to knock Cabanela out of the way of a spray of needles that shot from the thing’s back in reaction to the thunder magic gathering in the air. “He’s too strong for you! I can drive him away, just... stop helping.”

He turned back to the thing, the demon of the river, and hissed one more time, baring his fangs and tearing at it as he blurred in and out of the thing’s reach. Finally, it let out a kind of burbling grumble and jumped back into the river, kicking at the pile of fish as it went in a fit of petty malice.

Sissel stayed on the river bank, back in his human form in order to better catch his breath. “You see why I have to stay?” he said. “That demon takes everything I can throw at it and keeps coming back. I can’t beat it; I think it’s being powered by the guy in the tower somehow.”

Cabanela made a noise that sounded rather like an inelegant grunt but let it go. “Sorry, baby,” he said instead, ruefully looking over the mess that had been made of their operation. “Didn’t get nearly as many as I thought we would.”

“It’s plenty,” Sissel said. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate it. I just think you’d better go before you call it back. It always comes during storms… I don’t know why I thought magic would make it act any different. I should have known better.”

“Nothin’s the way it should be,” Cabanela agreed, and turned back to the fish. “���Guess I can’t use magic to get them away from the water, huh.”

“Nope.” Sissel bent down and grabbed an armful. “But it should only take a couple of loads.”

“You know what, baby, I’ll just go grab Jowd,” Cabanela said with even more alacrity than he would have had he been Hasted. “He’s got… bigger arms. For bigger armfuls. Of fish.”

Sissel gave him a jaded look. “Mhm. I’ll be here.”

Cabanela backed up the bank and fled, but not before Sissel called out to him one more time.

“Hey, Cabanela,” he said, and smiled. “You’re not a bad guy. Thanks.”

Cabanela blinked at him, oddly touched. How long had it been since someone had thanked him, sincerely, without seeing someone else? Too long, he decided. He needed to work even harder to make sure he was the only Cabanela people looked for.

He nodded at Sissel and sped away, wings on his feet and just a little lighter of heart too.