Who Runs the World?: Final Fantasy XVI Part 5

This is the final part of the Final Fantasy XVI series on Phenomena Gaming. We’ve discussed climate, underclasses, and expectations in previous posts. Something which has frightened me lately is seeing how a few people want to rebuild the world in their own image for their own benefit. I’ve been thinking about how best to represent this phenomenon through video games and I’ve been stumped for a bit. I think I have found a solution because of Final Fantasy XVI.

For previous entries in the series see:

Part 1: https://www.phenomenagaming.com/blog/expectations-adaptations-and-joy-final-fantasy-xvi-part-1

Part 2: https://www.phenomenagaming.com/blog/trauma-and-character-growth-final-fantasy-xvi-part-2

Part 3: https://www.phenomenagaming.com/blog/extraction-and-destruction-final-fantasy-xvi-part-3

Part 4: https://www.phenomenagaming.com/blog/the-creation-of-underclasses-final-fantasy-xvi-part-4

Heavy spoilers for Final Fantasy XVI follow!

The Big Bad: Ultima

This is Ultima. He is obsessed with Clive awakening to the fullness of his power and he wants to use the blight and his own power to restart the world. Clive is key to his plan because he is able to absorb the power of all of the aeons and gain the raise ability to recreate his species. Ultima’s species was the creator of Valisthea but is unsatisfied with how the world has turned out since its species almost became extinct because of blighting their own habitat.

Because of this history, Ultima feels justified manipulating the world’s affairs in order to make its dreams happen. The big picture, through Ultima’s magic ability and its ability to persuade the ruler of Waloed, Ultima manipulated peoples’ free will and caused untold suffering and death for millions of people by supporting the development of crystals and the furthering of the blight. Ultima knew that its species’ way of life caused the blight and yet still attempted to destroy another species in order to in essence do the same thing again.

Ultima’s Desperation and Tactics

Ultima will do anything to get to its vision. This is Ultima’s response to Clive when Clive interferes with Ultima and Emperor Olivier trying to take Bahamut. Ultima wants to destroy all of Clive’s relationships because it believes that those ties are preventing Clive from being willing to destroy the world and rebuild it for Ultima.

Ultima is right in some regard. Ties of consciousness and relationships make life more enjoyable in the best of circumstances and tie us to particular places, events, and times. Clive has lost Cid who was a dear mentor to him and that experience led Clive to take the place of Cid, even bearing his name for much of the second half of the game. Trauma can lead people to desperation and rage but it is not a deterministic result. Clive’s endurance to continued suffering is one which inspires his leadership rather than sending him into a blind rage.

As a note, Akashic describes when people are turned mindless and attack people. It is shown in dungeons with blue clouds and people’s skin turns blue. Below is a picture of Clive’s team of support turning Akashic by being exposed to too much aether. High level mind control and brainwashing are common tactics by people who want to impose their vision on others and create a way to feed their ego. Ultima is a prime example of someone who thinks its existence is so good that everyone should serve it.

Resilience and Overcoming Tyranny

Clive responds harshly to Barnabas, who is Ultima’s servant, to his request to receive Ultima’s salvation. The blighted background shows how effective Ultima’s salvation is. Bad for everyone except a few Ultima. Cid’s plan to destroy the mothercrystals and to disrupt the dominants was to prevent this reality from happening. Barnabas’s territory is all blighted. No one knew about the blight because Barnabas’s continent was so difficult to access. Clive came from a land where the blight had started but there was still land and civilization. People were able to start responding before it was too far gone. In Barnabas’s land they were too late. Overcoming tyranny is not always possible because powerful people have so many ways of hiding their actions and pretending their actions are for the good of everyone. How do we respond before it is too late?

For Clive, it took years of being in traumatic conditions to find a window and the right people to respond to trauma. Responding to trauma is being aware of how systems are operating, who they are benefiting, and where there are weaknesses in the system. Cid figured out the mothercrystals were the key to the blight but Clive’s persistence is what led to the true problem in the world, which is Ultima wanting to revive itself and its willingness to destroy humanity and the world in order to do so.

Conclusion

We are in a frightening age. Final Fantasy XVI is a great story about the numerous issues we face in our world through a mirror of fantasy. We are in an age of strongmen who promise us answers to all of our problems if we just follow them. In an age where elders are afraid of the world changing from what they built and young people are anxious and scared seeing a world being decimated, Final Fantasy XVI is a great story for how to wait for the right window and plan, be resilient in executing, and taking accountability and ownership for the choices people have made. My hope for my readers, though things look bleak in our world, absorb what is really happening, build your own values, and look for the small windows to make things better. It will not be an easy path but the option to disengage and be taken away by the flow is far worse. I will be a point of resistance because I do not want our world to become blighted or be someone’s plaything. And I’m excited to join this journey with all of you to build something better.