FINAL
FANTASY
TACTICS
The Extensive Analysis
St. Ajora Glabados
Who is St. Ajora...?
The Glabados tradition names him the Son of God. In reality, Ajora seems to have been a woman. Dare we suggest, God's daughter?
As the (Z)odiac (B)rave (S)tory reveals, the insurrectionist politician Ajora Glabados is not associated with God at all; but rather, is merely the mindless human body of a fallen feminine angel, the Altima. Altima is the "Bloody Angel", the leader of a group of transdimensional renegades collectively called "Lucavi". Lucavi's intentions are not precisely crystalized by the ZBS, although a remark by Lucavi Velius from within Wiegraf suggests that the Lucavi receive great pleasure from tormenting conscious beings. But Altima, in contrast to her fellows, seems totally unconcerned with spreading fear and destruction for the mere sake thereof.
Altima wants power, and she wants it for a reason. The ZBS does not suggest directly why Altima is in need of power, but universal emotion dynamics allow a general derival of her intentions. Her encounter with Ramza at the Graveyard of Airships illustrates feelings of intense fear that Ramza will try to kill her even as his previous incarnation did. These feelings of fear may be psychologically matched by an outreach for absolute control. Certainly, Altima is very concerned for power exercise and related concepts.
"Prepare yourselves... powerless ones!"
Altima is so driven by her desire for control that she risks all--even her spirit--to avoid defeat and damnation. To accept defeat, to lose her body is to once again be consigned to the shadowy spectre of listless wandering without touch, without sight, with only the slightest hopes of escape. Her skin is consumed by battle, but she will not say die.
But she is at length annihilated. Her last words as all control she has ever had collapse from her... as her consciousness fades into eternal dark...
"More.. Power..."
Ramza Beoulve
Ramza, the true hero. Ramza is faced with tragedy and deceit, but his mind cannot stray from purity. He is the being St. Ajora claimed to be. Centuries before, Altima tried to overrun the human world for forgotten reasons. But Ramza, for reasons perhaps correlated with the true Creator God, collected (made?) the twelve Zodiac stones and resolved to banish her. He was totally successful, and Altima was believed to be banished forever from Ivalice.
But twelve centuries prior to the setting of Final Fantasy Tactics, Altima did indeed return. It was at that time that Altima infiltrated Ivalice and began to absorb the consciousness of the unborn child Ajora Glabados. The Holy Yudora Empire at length identified Ajora, whom had by then been fully assimilated by Altima, as the destabilizing, pathologically lying but gifted politician that he was and executed him at Golgorand for his activities. Altima's compatriots sought to revive the Ajora body in the time of Ramza's second incarnation, and they were successful. But Ramza's truth of heart and spirit carried him even to the side of Altima once more, and there he destroyed the Ajora body and with it the mind of Altima.
Ramza's Personal Transformation
The evolution path of Ramza Beoulve's character is marked by a series of several climaxes in the Final Fantasy Tactics storyline. The plot's multi-climatic model is a distinctive feature of Tactics, a nod against the cannon of modern literature. But it is necessary, because the themes key to Tactic's plot lie in the inner conflicts of the main character. Ramza's defining moments are marked by the aptly-titled musical piece "ANTIPYRETIC", a score rife with echoes of heroism, sadness, struggle, and personal redemption. This four-pronged theme cycles through the Tactics storyline throughout each of the four chapters.
The first of Ramza's conflicts is evident at the start of the story, when he finds himself forced to choose between the ethical code of his father and his duties as a feudal vassal. The escalating political feud between Death Corp. and the nobility itself climaxes with the crises of Teta's death and Algus' betrayal, and Ramza is set into emotional disarray when the feudal loyalties to his family and the nobility and the ethical codes of his father are demonstrated as incongruent. Ramza refuses to draw a distinction between his role as a human and his role as a member of the nobility, but is consequentially unable to meet the ethical legacy of his father.
In Chapter 2 we witness Ramza overcome this conflict. Pressured by Gafgarion to take responsibility for his own life and his own actions, Ramza disavows responsibility for Teta's death. He repreives himself by declaring himself seperate from the nobility, and takes a further conceptual step by realizing the Ivalice nobility not as a unit but rather as a group of individuals out for their own whims. By discarding his belief in nobility and social unity, he is allowed to view individuals in Ivalice as capable of evil in and of themselves. Ultimately this outlook allows Ramza to identify the hand of a single person, Delita, as the puppetmaster of Ivalice, but it is of greatest importance to Ramza emotionally, because by formally disconnecting feudal duty from ethics he is free to reclaim his identity as an ethical person.
Ramza is faced with Delita at the end of Chapter III. Delita reveals that he is the force behind the Lion War, and unabashedly admits to using Ramza as the war's ignition. Ramza is forced to examine the code of his father once again, but this time he is compelled to critique the code and his reliance on it. Later Ramza learns of his father's death by his eldest brother, Dycedarg, and is faced with an integral flaw in his father's code - the ethically strong are always prey to calculating minds. Ramza must choose whether to continue to risk being used at the expense of his values, or to fend for himself. The telling choice is illustrated in his determined, unrestrained selfishness at the game's final chapter. Ramza Beoulve overcomes his inner struggles forever - by refusing to hold anything inside.