Final Fantasy V Best Jobs For Each Character

matpat uploads video. final fantasy fan becomesdefensive. matpat uses disclaimer. final fantasy fan pauses the video to read it. final fantasyfan uses rage comment. matpat puts up flame shield. rage comment has no effect. matpatuses evidence. doubt is terminated. hello internet. welcome to game theory, theshow that, to put it bluntly, takes your favorite childhood video games and kicks them in thegroin. and the crotch in our crosshairs today is none other than...well you can read thetitle, it's final fantasy. now, i don't think it's news to anyone to say that the finalfantasy games use a lot of religious references, but i doubt many gamers have actually takenthe time to analyze the patterns and symbolism of the way the games use those references.so i went back to revisit zanarkand, the white

mages, squall, and all the rest, and let metell you, the patterns that started to develop were quite shocking. final fantasy games arenot only against organized religion, they often take a stand against the idea of godhimself, to the point of advocating deicide, or god killing. don't believe me? watch asthe pattern unfolds. let's start with my favorite in the series,ten. if there's one thing that stands out while playing final fantasy x, it's that awkwardlaughing scene. hahahaha! that scene always makes me roflcopter. if there are two thingsthat stand out while playing final fantasy x, it's that awkward laughing scene, and theextreme distrust the game has towards organized religion. long and complicated story short,a large part of the game's plot revolves around

the church of yevon, a religion named afterand honoring a corrupt ruler who asked innocent civilians to kill themselves in order to givehim more power. he then used their sacrifice to take the form of sin, a giant whale monsterthat destroys attacks heavily populated areas to prevent them from advancing in technology.the rest of the world, scared of the wrath of sin, agreed to create a religion basedaround yevon that swore to reject industrialization, believing that this would keep sin away.so, let's unpack that symbolism for a minute. the people of final fantasy x are worshippingyevon, a corrupt ruler who killed civilians, became the physical embodiment of sin (reallysubtle there), and then started destroying cities so that people would worship him. andthis religion based on lies actually holds

back the technological progress of the world!i think that sends a pretty clear message. and all that happens before the game evenstarts. while you're actually playing, you repeatedly see leaders of the church of yevonkilling each other to rise through the ranks. oh, and let's not forget that the game's recurringantagonist is basically the pope, minus the funny hat but with an awesome set of hair.and as one final nail in this cross of corruption, his goal is to end the cycle of death causedby sin by becoming sin and killing everyone. the last time i saw logic that backwards,i was talking to the star child at the end of mass effect 3. needless to say, ffx mightnot have the most favorable opinion of organized religion.but maybe final fantasy x is just a one-off

thing, right? i mean, what long-standing videogame franchise hasn't had a storyline exploring the corruption of organized religion? well,mario and sonic at the cross-burning crusade aside, religious corruption is also the centraltheme of final fantasy tactics, where the glabados church has been using ancient legendto fuel a war between two factions competing for the throne. this war is meant to distracteveryone from the church's main goal of resurrecting their savior st. ajora. ajora was a prophetthat predicted the coming of paradise, a move that angered the church of fara, the dominantreligion at the time. the pharist priests then had ajora declared a heretic and executedat the golgollada gallows. before we move on, can i just point out the christ imageryhere? jesus predicted the coming of heaven,

was declared a heretic by the pharisees, andwas crucified at calvary, also known as golgotha. coincidence? i think not. in the end, yourteam kills the resurrected saint, your character goes down in history as a heretic of the church,and anyone who tries to get the truth about the entire situation revealed gets burnedat the stake in order to keep the truth hidden. need i say more?but it's not just organized religion that's come under fire in these games. it's the ideaof god himself. take a look at the final battle from final fantasy vi. at this point in thegame, the main villain kefka has destroyed the world as we knew it, reducing it to awasteland of ruin. he is now the source of all magic in the world and lives atop a hightower where he casually kills survivors with

his light of judgment. then comes the finalbattle, an epic four-part masterpiece loaded with religious imagery. the battle itselfactually follows the journey depicted in dante's inferno, starting in hell with a devil-likecreature, then ascending to purgatory, where, according to christian teaching, souls arekept while they atone for their worldly sins, finally rising to heaven or paradise wherekefka descends from the heavens, appearing in the form of an angel. notice, though, thatkefka hasn't just become like a god. he has become the embodiment of god, specificallythe christian god. for proof, check out the third round of the fight where the party fightsagainst "lady" and "rest," two figures clearly inspired by michaelangelo's pieta, which depictsjesus being held by his mother mary immediately

after his crucifixion. this connection ismade even more clear in the japanese version, where "lady" is actually named "maria." eventhe music backs this up as it is a take on bach's toccata and fugue in d minor, one ofthe most famous organ pieces in music, and in church history. kefka has incorporatedboth souls waiting to be purified as well as jesus and the virgin mary into his being,and it is your job, as the player, to kill him.and lest you think final fantasy is only against christian religious structures and beliefs,let's go all the way back to the gameboy, and final fantasy legend, a game few peoplehave heard about and fewer have beaten due to its extreme difficulty. as the player,you must climb to the top of the tower of

paradise, only to be confronted with ashura,a deity appearing in both hinduism and buddhism. remember the game asura's wrath? there yougo! in buddhism, the asuras are low-ranking demigods overly attached to emotions likepride and wrath. they are usually depicted as having multiple faces with four to sixarms. well will you look at that! at the top of the tower, he offers your party controlof one of the worlds you passed through on your journey. you refuse and kill him. inan epic twist years before aerith met the wrong end of sephiroth's sword, you fall througha trap door and must climb the tower again, this time to confront the true villain andmastermind, the creator of everything, who devised the demon-filled tower of paradiseas a game to test humanity. as a reward for

winning the game, your characters will begranted one wish. instead, the characters are angry at being manipulated and kill him,only to return back down to earth, with the world's god dead.and this is only surface level stuff. there is so much more to explore, from sephiroth'sreligious connections, in fact, the wealth of norse beliefs throughout final fantasyvii, the symbolism of using magic and pagan summon monsters to slay god-like villains,the actual connections between ffx and the christian/gnostic debate. the list goes on,and i'd be happy to cover them in future episodes if you let me know you want to see those thingscovered, but for now i want to get to the question of why. why would so many of thesegames have you actively fighting against church

conspiracies and god-figures? well, luckily,i've called in our resident culture expert to give us the lowdown. what say you gaijingoomba? no. you're not imaging things. there's definitelysome truth behind this theory. now, by all means, i don't want anyone thinking that japanjust hates religion. they don't. first of all, to make a very long story short, in 1857shogun hideyoshi outlawed christianity. after all, how can you serve the emperor if youput god first? two and a half centuries later, christianity was a massive minority in japan.but also keep in mind that christianity fundamentally says that humans are sinful by nature. theholy spirit is essential to go beyond that sinful nature. most eastern religions, likebuddhism on the other hand, focus on bettering

one's self so you can transcend your own humanevils and enter into nirvana. so, not only did christianity not work on a political levelin japan, its very nature defied centuries of religious belief. the other thing to keepin mind is that while the japanese claim to be of one religion or another, they oftenpractice a mixture. for example, many japanese are born shinto, meaning they go to shintoshrines to be blessed at young ages. when they marry, they have christian weddings inchurches complete with preachers. and when they die, they go through buddhist rites withtheir remains staying at buddhist temples and being over annually by monks and families.so in a very real way, japan is not against organized religion, they just interpret andpractice religion differently than the west.

thus, it can make sense to make organizedreligion the "bad guys" because absolute focus in one religion isn't common there. back toyou, buddy! gg gg, gg.so there you have it loyal theorists. with the help of our phallic-shaped friend, wenow know the how, and more importantly the why, of final fantasy being antireligious.and, while many anti-gaming advocates may point to this saying it leads to the corruptionof gamers, we know the truth. through ff's plots, we learn just a little bit more aboutnew cultures. we're educated simply by playing some of our favorite games, and who doesn'tlike to learn and have fun at the same time? and that, loyal theorists, is why this showexists.

but hey, that's just a theory. a game theory.thanks for watching.