Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church.
She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life...
"When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest."
-Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"
This year, we are looking at characters from my favorite Final Fantasy games, from the people in the games to the things they summon. Today, we are looking at some of things they summon, because today is brought to us by the letter I.
Final Fantasy X gave us a whole new meaning to what the summoners could call on and how. Two of the coolest aeons in this game were Ifrit and Ixion.
Ifrit's just a cool dude, even though his power is fire. He's had many incarnations throughout the Final Fantasy franchise, first appearing in Final Fantasy III. Not gonna lie, he was pretty ugly, always made up to look like some evil sprite thing until Crisis Core gave him more definition and depth. Final Fantasy X is my favorite look for him, more of a hell hound than a demon.
The aeon designs in FFX are just beautiful, which brings me to Ixion.
Wouldn't want to get impaled by that horn, no sir! The lightning summon got changed around a lot in the franchise. It was often Ramuh (coming later), and in VIII it was Quetzacotl. I found the unicorn to be an interesting choice, but I also loved using it.
Tomorrow, you finally get to hear all about that Jenova thing I keep mentioning.
For the A-to-Z Challenge this year, I am highlighting characters from my favorite gaming franchise, Final Fantasy. For B, I bring you one of my favorite summons: Bahamut.
(As seen in Final Fantasy VIII)
Summons in Final Fantasy are creatures you can call on to help you fight when the going gets tough. Bahamut is first seen in Final Fantasy III and is used in every other game after. He's most frequently depicted as a large, black dragon whose attack is called Mega Flare, a concentrated laser beam that causes a huge explosion.
He looks the coolest in Final Fantasy X
(Look at those wings!):
And the scariest in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
(Look at how huge he is!):
The Final Fantasy devs are very good at adapting their summons, and of them all, I think they've done one of the best jobs with Bahamut. You'll also see another mention of Bahamut a little later in the challenge, as he plays a big part in Final Fantasy X, so stick around!
Honorable Mention for B:
Barrett from Final Fantasy VII. A foul-mouthed, hot-tempered eco-terrorist taking care of his best friend's daughter? Talk about complex!
2nd Honorable Mention:
Balthier. Final Fantasy XII should have been about him. Point blank. He's one of the only good things about that game. Sexy pirate with smooth accent and a love for bunnies (I'll explain later lol).
Monday, I will be talking about good ol' Cloud from FFVII.
Welcome to the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge of 2016!!
This year, I decided to highlight characters from my favorite game franchise, Final Fantasy, so this year, my blog title is tagged with the A-to-Z abbreviation for gaming (GA). I also plan to see what the other gaming bloggers are on about. I can't wait!
So today's letter is A, and at first, I only had one character, and then, I forgot a summon, and then, I remembered someone else, so we have a three for three here.
But ladies first! Here is Final Fantasy's sweetheart: Aeris Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII.
If you follow my normal blog, you've seen me discuss Aeris's heart-wrenching story already. For everyone else, Aeris was the last living Ancient. The majority of her race was killed or mutated into monsters by a shape-shifting alien that scientists mistook to be an Ancient, and they used it to create super humans and by accident, a bunch of monsters. Smart people, right? (More on that thing later in the alphabet.)
We meet Aeris as a flower girl in the slums and fall immediately head over heels for her sweet spirit and can do attitude. She's basically the most powerful character in the game that we never get to really use. She is brutally murdered early on and still manages to save the world in the end with a prayer and a white materia she thought did nothing.
Arcade Sushi ranked Aeris's death as the 3rd most shocking death in video game history in 2013, and indeed it was.
The mysterious Auron is walking around Final Fantasy X with a great big blob of water following him and destroying things as it goes when we first see him, so we don't know what to expect. A guardian from the real world of Spira (this gets explained a couple of times during this challenge), Auron is actually a good guy and brings together our main character Tidus (coming later) with the rest of the cast to save the world.
He is an awesome swordsman, and spoiler alert: HE'S DEAD!! Killed by the evil summoner Yunalesca when he realizes something is amiss (more info on that later), he holds on so he can help bring her and her psycho father Yu Yevon down.
The aeon Anima in FFX is possibly the scariest aeon you can summon in any Final Fantasy game (and this reveal still gives me chills)! You only see the top half until Anima does her (yes, Anima is a woman!) overdrive attack, and then, you see this thing!
AHHHHH!!!!
Speaking of crazy summons, stick around for Bahamut tomorrow! (I promise most of these posts won't be this long!)
