Ending / Alternate Ending

[Trodorne]

at the end of the game for those who played the game all the way through. what do you think happened to all the characters at the end in your own opinion. for those who did not like the ending, how would you end the game. would you still have magic in the world, would you let it dissipate.

I want to hear what everyone says on what they would like to see. sort of what would you like to see happen to them after this big adventure.

[classicgamer]

Locke and Celes get married

Tina/Terra and Edgar get married

Sabin becomes a teacher of future pupils in Blitz

[T.G. Oskar]

Locke and Celes get married

This one is obvious. However...

Tina/Terra and Edgar get married

I'll demand immediate retraction of this statement or you shall be aware of my resolve, my crime, my fate, and finally, my despair...

And then I'll unleash a brutal Ley Buster on you. Edgar can...have Relm if he wants to. But leave my dear alone, will ya?

Sabin becomes a teacher of future pupils in Blitz

Also agreeing on this one.

As for the rest: I'm of the impression that, unless Blue Magic ceases to exist, Relm should replace her "Grandpa" on that art. Perhaps keeping a bit of her Pictomancy, making her truly unique and refreshing in that sense.

Gau returns to the Veldt, quite probably becoming a legend in his own regard, given that he saved the world and quite probably learned the ultimate Rage. Then again, that depends on how much (if any) remains of Magic in monsters (quite probably none, but he can still deal with his physical Rages as that's a behavioral pattern rather than a magical ability).

Another obvious point: Cyan reconstructs Doma and becomes its new ruler, albeit perennially celibate in order to honor the memory of his former wife and son.

Shadow disappears, never to be seen again. Perhaps he'll appear again as Clyde.

Setzer travels the world in memory of Darryl. Maybe he also wins the hand of Maria!

Mog becomes the last and proudest of his kind, unless a female Moogle managed to survive; in that case, he'd be king of the Moogles. And Umaro, obviously, will become his bodyguard.

As for Gogo...well, he'll probably travel to another world. I mean, that's what he did between FFV and FFVI, no? (Obviously he's a cameo appearance, but it's not like it can't somehow happen...)

On a sad note, given that Strago's quest was his one last battle, he'll probably perish not soon after the battle is over. He'll be resting in peace, however, knowing that the world will probably be safer. Hence, why I believe that if the world still had Blue Magic, or at least a lingering amount of Magic remaining (impossible as per the story, but hey, this isn't exactly official canon), Relm would be a fine successor.

As for Magic...it's a hard one. Kefka is intrinsically linked to Magic, and the resurgence of Magic would mean his return, so it's sort of better that Magic never returns (that way, Terra's freedom is well-earned, though I'd miss her half-Esper form and her uniqueness). All I say is, if Square-Enix decides to work the revival of Magic in the world of FFVI, it has to make excellent sense; it would only be fair.

[loaf]

I like all of what Oskar said. Plus Terra and Edgar were never the fine match. Edgar is a single man.

To add to your Gau part....instead of learning the Ultimate Rage? Gau would create the ultimate Rage from the journey he just went through.

[Trodorne]

I find that there was a way to save magic. in the end when kefka was weakened and or defeated. say someone like Celes who has the ability of Runic to absorb magic would be able to master her ability and take the magical link. thus her being the new and or temporary vessel for magic itself.

In time with the power that Celes has in her control she could rebuild or remake new guardians of magic and restore the balance once again.

[mineteaser]

I would have found it a much more emotional and arguably better ending if magic was no more in the world and Terra had died because of it.

I always thought Final Fantasy VI had a much more open ending than IV and probably deserved that sequel that IV got. Not to say it wasn't good, as I love IV, but I thing VI needed it more.

Otherwise, I agree with Oscar on how the other characters go on with their lives. Of course Gogo is the same one from V. =P I hope we see him in a future installment.

[Zargabaath]

I find that there was a way to save magic. in the end when kefka was weakened and or defeated. say someone like Celes who has the ability of Runic to absorb magic would be able to master her ability and take the magical link. thus her being the new and or temporary vessel for magic itself.

Are you saying that Celes would somehow master "runic" and be able to the magical link or by absorbing the "magical link" she would master "runic"?

It is a pretty interesting theory as to how magic could have survived in Final Fantasy VI. One problem I foresee off the bat is if she could have used Runic during the ending; magicite was breaking apart, Kefka's Tower was crashing down, and Terra was in an inner conflict with her Esper side to survive. Using Runic comparable to Celes' would be a cheap way to save magic; her Runic absorbed magic fast. Kefka did use some form of Runic, we may say, as he absorbed the magic of the Warring Triad overtime. With the essence of magic being the "absorbee" it would make sense that it would take more time to fully absorb (as it did when Kekfa absorbed magic) and with Kefka dissipating faster than the needed time to absorb the essence Celes would not be able to do it. Finally isn't there some magic that Runic can't absorb meaning that it does have its limits thus, if Celes had somehow mastered Runic at the end it would definitely have been a cheap move.



Final Fantasy VI really changed things up with the series by how open and non-linear the game was and it would have been interesing if there were more endings, like in FFV, based not only on what happened in the Final battle, but with choices made during the World of Ruin. With the latter that would mean that there would have to be some events that have to happen that would present the player with a choice that could alter the ending. This however would not have been possible, most likely, on the SNES. Magic being lost does present a problem with making a sequel for this universe, since a staple of FF is that magic is somehow involved - usually by the villain whom is well-versed at magic as well. They could take a strictly scientific approach: technology vs nature (and with Terra's green hair she would be leading the environmentalist group and she would be known as Mother Terra).

[Jenova]

I find that there was a way to save magic. in the end when kefka was weakened and or defeated. say someone like Celes who has the ability of Runic to absorb magic would be able to master her ability and take the magical link. thus her being the new and or temporary vessel for magic itself.

In time with the power that Celes has in her control she could rebuild or remake new guardians of magic and restore the balance once again.

now thats a WHOLE different game, Final fantsay 6-2 lol haha ^^

[Trodorne]

so if edgar got married, would his wedding song be, the marriage of figaro? *social lol*

Okay than lets look at it like this. the statues and eventually kefka controlled magic which made magic in nature in that world uniformed and controlled by magical creatures only, only in their death when they became magicite, that they could teach the holder magical spells.
so now the statues and kefka are destroyed, the espers are gone because they were a product of the imagination of goddesses. so the uniformed version of magic is now gone. blue magic still exists even though that is not taught by espers, it is learned by mimicing monster based attacks much like gau in a primitive sense. so now magic is chaotic, has to be learned by people who have a natural magical attunement to it.

so any spell learned would be through efforts of trial and error in attempts to control a spell that is now chaotic in nature. and then the teachings would be put on scrolls or what ever they would use. for those who play dungeons and dragons think of a wizard.

[T.G. Oskar]

so if edgar got married, would his wedding song be, the marriage of figaro? *social lol*

Okay than lets look at it like this. the statues and eventually kefka controlled magic which made magic in nature in that world uniformed and controlled by magical creatures only, only in their death when they became magicite, that they could teach the holder magical spells.
so now the statues and kefka are destroyed, the espers are gone because they were a product of the imagination of goddesses. so the uniformed version of magic is now gone. blue magic still exists even though that is not taught by espers, it is learned by mimicing monster based attacks much like gau in a primitive sense. so now magic is chaotic, has to be learned by people who have a natural magical attunement to it.

so any spell learned would be through efforts of trial and error in attempts to control a spell that is now chaotic in nature. and then the teachings would be put on scrolls or what ever they would use. for those who play dungeons and dragons think of a wizard.

Actually, the method of wizards to learn spells is rarely chaotic. Quite the contrary; they're pretty disciplined, having to rest 8 hours to prepare their minds, then spend 1 hour doing their "calisthenics" before preparing each spell. There's a nice tidbit of fluff that says how a Wizard prepares his spells, akin to a scribe preparing parchment to write a scroll.

What you could argue is that the death of the Statues/Warring Triad == the death of Mystra. As in: with the death of the Statues, the easiest and most controlled form of magic dissipated into nothingness. Spellcasters lost their acquired ability to use magic, through the acquisition of power through Magicite. Equally, those who were infused magic may have lost that potential to use Magic (i.e. Celes, any surviving and sane Magitek Knight, Magitek-infused monsters). However, there's the slight chance that people simply forgot how to use Magic, and in the wake of a world without the Statues/Warring Triad, the world will experiment a renaissance of magic through means of the old ways. Problem is that no one is aware of what happened before the War of the Magi, only that Espers were created during that time as "beasts of War" and that ancient Mageknights learned their powers through them, until the Warring Triad decided to seal off their powers and drive Magic off a destroyed world, heralding the advances of technology and an Industrial Revolution.

Magic post-Statues/Warring Triad has to be explained carefully, since it has to fit the fluff, and the fluff is pointing towards "Espers == Magic; hence no Espers == no Magic". Very few was explained about the existence of Blue Magic, or Gau's unusual ability to manifest raw magic through his Rages. It also questions the power of magic-infused items (from the lowly Break Blade and Flametongue to the high-tier Atma/Ultima Weapon, Illumina/Lightbringer, the Minerva Breastplate and the Force Armor/Shield), and whether they could retain their magical power or that would be defused as well (going through current Forgotten Realms lore post-Spellplague, most magic items lost their power but artifacts retained their potential; arguing that high-end items are artifacts, they could essentially retain their potential and quite probably their capacity to teach magic, although the latter is a byproduct of Esper power infusion).

This is a good reason of why Squeenix should make a prequel over a sequel, since explaining magic pre-War of the Magi would probably explain the future. That would be lovely, something a la Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria where you play the prequel but something alters the past which causes something in the future. But mostly, the idea of playing a prequel which leads eventually to the sequel in the same game (explaining what produced the War of the Magi and whether magic pre-War may still exist, then going to the future and finding out those artifacts still exist and that they may herald the reawakening of Magic).

As for Celes retaining the bulk of Magic in herself...call me biased, but I believe Terra is more fit to that. Being a natural-born hybrid of magic and human, any event that catapults the return of Magic into the world of FFVI will be a reawakening of her powers. That, or perhaps there are two Terras: her now-free human side and her tortured Esper side. But that's mostly presumption; until Squeenix explains the War of the Magi, few things will make sense in a sequel.

[Trodorne]

crap i was just beaten on information on dungeons and dragons.

The way i see magic is how i apply the basic principle of physics in play. Energy can not be created nor destroyed only transferred ...blah blah blah. but you get the point. so if anything who can not say that the goddess or triad were nothing more than conduits into magic itself. much like you said about the death of mystra.

I call you biased, only cause i can. i dislike Celes as a character. but the power of Runic is very fascinating for me. the potential of what it can do. such as embedding a fire spell in her blade and doing it so long the blade could become permenantly enchanted. transferring the essence of a spell into either, Mp, and attack or into stored knowledge. and thats what i get of her power she transfers the spell into something else.

[Angel of Iniquity]

What would be cool if Kefka would have turned into a statue, and allowing magic to exist.
Then they can make a reason for his return and have a part 2 hahaha

[T.G. Oskar]

crap i was just beaten on information on dungeons and dragons.

The way i see magic is how i apply the basic principle of physics in play. Energy can not be created nor destroyed only transferred ...blah blah blah. but you get the point. so if anything who can not say that the goddess or triad were nothing more than conduits into magic itself. much like you said about the death of mystra.

It's ironic when a power that essentially breaks the laws of physics is still reined by the laws of thermodynamics. To say that Magic is basically something that exists within the First Law of Thermodynamics and that it bends the laws of gravity, density, combustion, cinematics and others, is kind of an oxymoron.

Furthermore, in Final Fantasy VI, Magic (and by extension Magitek) is perceived as a quantifiable, non-renewable (so to speak) resource. The best way to see this is that, since Magic breaks altogether with the Laws of Thermodynamics, it essentially can be destroyed and created, and it violates the Laws because the other laws are dependant on the First Law. Because of this, Kefka absorbed virtually all Magic (as a quantifiable resource) into himself, while the surviving Returners and remaining Espers held a tiny bit of the rest. With the disappearance of Kefka, and the destruction of the Warring Triad/Statues, the finite resource of Magic ceases to exist; hence, the Espers essentially perish, Terra's Esper side perishes but she survives as she clings to her human side, and so on.

Now, assuming that Magic still has to be ruled by the Laws of Thermodynamics and that what you do with it is bending the other rules rather than breaking them (say, you bend the rules of gravity but there is a counterpart that allows you to do so, such as Hawking radiation after the creation of a minuscule and evidently perishable singularity, or that you manipulate the flow of oxygen or the electromagnetic current so that you can send flames or lightning towards a path), Magic couldn't be effectively destroyed, nor created; Kefka could alter the world as he wished, but only upon the boundaries that Magic allowed (which imply the impossibility of violation of the Laws of Thermodynamics, or at least that it respects the First Law and by extension the Zeroth Law while bending the Second and Third). Even then, a question remains: if Kefka effectively bound the existence of the path to the manipulation of Magic to himself by absorbing the power of the Statues (and hence, its knowledge), then how will Magic exist afterwards? The closest parallel that might explain that reasonably would be akin to (Abeir-)Toril after the Spellplague; Mystra is gone, but the old ways of manipulating magic have resurged, while ancient artifacts such as Mythals and High Elven Magic still exist because they were outside the existence of the Weave.

Now, there are two clear paths towards this, and while one makes more sense, the other is slightly more possible. The one that makes sense is the reawakening of the old path having Terra as a catalyst, because of her unique existence as a half-magical entity; with the loss of her Esper side, that means such a feat is impossible unless the Espers exist independently (and thus, Terra would become an avatar for her old Esper self, unless the two sides somehow exist independently). The other, which is possible but highly unlikely, is that somehow Celes manages to learn a supreme technique of Runic to absorb ALL magic and thus become akin to a Magic Goddess. Even then, she cannot provide anyone with power since that would involve going outside the potential of her Runic ability (absorbing magic, akin to a Rod of Absorption) to enter the realm of plot device. Even then, there wouldn't be a particular path to Magic if she managed to do so, since the only net result would be superpowering her existing knowledge of Magic; if Terra, who was a Half-Esper, got stripped of her magical heritage, what do you think may have happened to Celes whose power was merely infused?

Now, I can understand that Celes, if Magic and the Espers managed somehow to exist outside from the sphere of influence of the Statues/Warring Triad, may mutate into a sort of half-Esper entity. Not perfectly explainable, but still a reasonable conclusion. The point is explaining clearly what is the deal with the loss of the Statues and the power of Magic; is it quantifiable and thus breaks the Laws of Thermodynamics, or does it respect the former and thus there is more than one path to Magic, which may be rediscovered in a near-future?

I call you biased, only cause i can. i dislike Celes as a character. but the power of Runic is very fascinating for me. the potential of what it can do. such as embedding a fire spell in her blade and doing it so long the blade could become permenantly enchanted. transferring the essence of a spell into either, Mp, and attack or into stored knowledge. and thats what i get of her power she transfers the spell into something else.

Well...I can call you biased towards Runic, as well. Not because I can, but because while I provided a good reason why and a good counter-reason why not, you on the other hand seem to blend Runic with Spellblade. Think of Runic as a Rod of Absorption; Celes may use it as a battery for her own spells, assuming that she casts spells as a Sorcerer (spontaneously). You might be mixing Rod of Absorption with Spellfire, and Spellfire is pretty broken if you might recall. In a way, Celes uses a mechanic that behaves like Spellfire in how much magic you can absorb but works like a Rod of Absorption on how you can deliver it; it doesn't absorb like a rod-user, but it also doesn't use the magical power as a Spellfire wielder (i.e. using raw magic damage or self-healing).

For all you may know, Gau of all people might be the new herald of Magic, if only because a shadow of Kefka may appear in the Veldt and thus he may learn its Rage

I almost forgot...

What would be cool if Kefka would have turned into a statue, and allowing magic to exist.
Then they can make a reason for his return and have a part 2 hahaha

I'd prefer a prequel explaining the War of the Magi than a half-hearted sequel, thank you very much. It would be interesting to know the very event that caused the cataclysm which took a bit less than 1000 years to recover. It would also explain how Espers are created and the purpose of the Statues, which may very well be the key for a sequel.

[Trodorne]

okay so if we went for situation much like the spell plague. there are only two items that you could learn magic from. Paladin Shield and Lightbringer. and the only spells they teach is Ultima and Flare.....why is it they have to be the most powerful spells.

[T.G. Oskar]

okay so if we went for situation much like the spell plague. there are only two items that you could learn magic from. Paladin Shield and Lightbringer. and the only spells they teach is Ultima and Flare.....why is it they have to be the most powerful spells.

Umm...if I recall correctly, there were more weapons that taught magic spells. Rods, of course, teach the 1st degree (-A magic) of the element (thus, a Flame Rod taught Fire, Ice Rod taught Ice/Blizzard, etc.) The Break Blade teach the Break spell. And I believe the weapons from Tzen or Albrook also taught spells. These would be the equivalent of, say, Flametongue (a unique magical weapon which is basically a +1 flaming longsword), with the unique caveat of teaching spells as well as providing the effect.

In any case, Paladin Shield and Illumina/Lightbringer are artifacts, not mere magic items. Having just one of them on your disposal is basically the equivalent of, say, finding the staff of the magi or the frickin hand/eye of Vecna; stuff that isn't meant to be handled by mortal hands. Obviously they'll teach the strongest spells; don't you think?

Oh, and Lightbringer, IIRC, teaches Holy. Then again, I think the Lightbringer teaches no spells; Ragnarok, on the other hand, teaches Flare or casts Flare when attacking with it.

One more thing: the weapons taught spells because they essentially worked the same way as learning it from an Esper. Don't expect that they may remain granting that ability; for all you know, they may be much like just another artifact, not teaching any spells because at the moment they were constructed, the Espers existed. But then again, if they don't...MAYBE you might get a chance to learn that spell, but you'd require years of training. Or do something like Banon did...one of the few things about the Magic of FFVI that wasn't really explained.