monk-of-figaro

[monk-of-figaro]

Cyan & Sabin

[monk-of-figaro]

Old art.

Quick rundown of my stuff. Webcomics I do: Quest Corporeal: http://questcorporeal.thecomicseries.com/ Running, Standing Still: http://runningstandingstill.thecomicseries.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morganesrichard/ Pet Portraits: https://www.petportraitsbymrichard.com/ Society 6: https://society6.com/morganerichard I'm also a contributor to ROM Magazine! (I did the cover for issue 5, to boot) https://oneradtee.com/products/read-only-magazine-print-copy

[monk-of-figaro]

River Raft Rumble

“Ah! Come on, let go!” Sabin complained, as he kicked Ulrtos’ arm again.

“Muscle-heads? Hate 'em!” Ultros yelled as he smacked Sabin with one of his arms, sending him stumbling back. “See how you like it!”

“You started it!”

“I did not! You kicked me first!”

“You grabbed our raft!” Sabin yelled as he moved to get right in Ultros’ much larger face.

“I have no idea what you are referring to,” Ultros said, still holding the raft in place.

Remnants of an Ancient War: Chapter 14 : Shifting Tides

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Amano's Sabin Rene Figaro

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Distinguished, like old paintings 🧐👌🏼

[monk-of-figaro]

FFVI characters by spoonybards

[monk-of-figaro]

*spoken in the tone of voice of someone that likes final fantasy* Hey what's up

[monk-of-figaro]

FF6 Characters' Astrological Data

In order to give myself a better idea of the FF6 characters and their personalities I often use astrology and other pseudosciences (psychology, numerology, Chinese astrology and human design. Asian media also determines personalities based on blood types, but I haven't found thorough descriptions of those, so I don't use them).

For my first fic I looked into what I initially considered a crack-pairing and found their underlying compatibility to be quite lovely. Then one day @monk-of-figaro 👀 planted in my head the idea of LeoXSabin. They certainly have harmonious traits, but it never occurred to me that there could be anything romantic between them (only because they never fuck in canon. In canon no one fucks anyway and we shouldn't settle for that!! 😤).

I’ve been looking at character’s birthcharts for a while (mostly the twins’ because their archetypal traits are fleshed out better than the rest), but I got curious about the rare ships that I’ve failed to acknowledge, so I checked some synastries (love compatility between two astrological birthcharts). It was fun 😁 Leo and Sabin (or Edgar, since twins share birthcharts) in particular set that shit on fire 🔥👀

So here's the birth data I use, in case anyone's interested:

How I pull astro data out of my ass

The world of FF6 is no place on Earth, therefore the astrology of Earth does not apply. But I don’t care 🙃 The way I go about it, I don’t use birth times (so we miss the houses and rising signs), the birth place is always where FF6 was developed (Tokyo), the birth year is always the year when FF6 was released minus the age of the character (1994 – X), and with the specific birth years, one can determine the Chinese zodiac sign and life path number. I won’t include human design data because I’m lazy 😌

Individual character data

Cyan Birth: Jan 3, 1944 Western sun sign: Capricorn Chinese zodiac sign: Water Goat Life path 4

Setzer Birth: Feb 8, 1967 Western sun sign: Aquarius Chinese zodiac sign: Fire Horse Life path 6

Celes Birth: March 10, 1976 Western sun sign: Pisces Chinese zodiac sign: Fire Dragon Life path 9

Gau Birth: April 5, 1981 Western sun sign: Aries Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Rooster Life path 1

Shadow Birth: April 10, 1962* Western sun sign: Aries Chinese zodiac sign: Water Tiger Life path 5

*The month and day are given by the fandom. Some websites mentioned conflicting official info regarding his age (one source says late 20s, other says late 30s), so I checked the Chinese signs for April 10 between the years 1955 and 1967 to see what more I can pull outta my ass which Chinese zodiac sign could fit Shadow. Looking at the descriptions of the different signs in that range, I cherry-picked Water Tiger for him, making his birth year 1962 (age 32). I like it 😌

Gogo Birth: May 5* Western sun sign: Taurus

*I ain’t taking guesses with this one. The month and day given by the fandom make numerological sense to me (month 5, day 5. Five in numerology means change). I expected their sign to be the changeable Gemini (air element, mutable modality); instead, their sign is as fixated as it gets (Taurus is earth element, fixed modality). The way I see them, fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) have mastery of their element, so changeable mastery begins to sound more like Gogo. Works for me 🙂

Mog Birth: May 11, 1983 Western sun sign: Taurus Chinese zodiac sign: Water Pig Life path 1

Cid Birth: May 27, 1948 Western sun sign: Gemini Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Rat Life path 9

Strago Birth: June 13, 1924 Western sun sign: Gemini Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Rat Life path 8

General Leo Birth: July 8, 1964 Western sun sign: Cancer Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Dragon Life path 8

Edgar, Sabin Birth: August 16, 1967 Western sun sign: Leo Chinese zodiac sign: Fire Goat Life path 2

Relm Birth: Sep 9, 1984 Western sun sign: Virgo Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Rat Life path 4

Umaro Birth: Sep 9, 1990 Western sun sign: Virgo Chinese zodiac sign: Metal Horse Life path 1

Terra Birth: Oct 18, 1976 Western sun sign: Libra Chinese zodiac sign: Fire Dragon Life path 6

Gestahl Birth: October 26, 1944 Western sun sign: Scorpio Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Monkey Life path 9

Kefka Birth: Nov 19, 1959 Western sun sign: Scorpio Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Pig Life path 9

Locke Birth: Nov 24, 1969 Western sun sign: Sagittarius Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Rooster Life path 6

[monk-of-figaro]

I'm replaying Rebirth and thinking about how cool would it be if Cloud was Terra. AND I LOVE REBIRTH, IT'S MY FAVORITE ONE AND I'M SO HAPPY THAT IT EXISTS, I just mean that it would be cool if FFVI got that treatment as well

[monk-of-figaro]

I don’t think I mentioned this on Tumblr yet, but I’m making a little fan comic. It’s 16 pages and I have 4 1/2 pages done. Here’s a preview; can you guess what it will be about?? 🤔🧐😗

[monk-of-figaro]

What culture or region is Figaro?

In trying to define the culture of the nation of Figaro, I’ve decided to bring up the clues I got and try to put them together into something cohesive enough to resemble a culture/region of our world. The FF6 devs took inspiration from our world but doesn’t seem like they tried to make definitive references to the real world, other than some version of Imperial Japan (Doma) that didn’t ally with Nazi Germany (Vector).

As thorough as Soraya Saga was with her characters’ backstories, Figaro as a nation is not easy to pin down, but she did leave some clues, so I took that shit and ran with it 😌

The Figaro name

I’ve seen the fandom making the twins to be Italian. I don’t know if it’s solely because of the opera by Rossini (composed by an Italian based on a play by a French about a character from Spain).

I may have overlooked the Italian stereotypes that others found, but Japan gives its own spin to stereotypes, and their Italian stereotype is different. Based on the dynamic the countries had in times of war, the Japanese tend to stereotype Italians as Americans stereotype the French (it ain’t flattering). Go check Hetalia for the flawless, irrefutable wisdom on that 🧐

Searching the name “Figaro”, the Internet threw up a few hypothetical origins:

According to venere, “Figaro” emerges from the Latin “ficus” meaning “fig tree”.

According to houseofnames, it’s Spanish for “fig tree” (no, it ain’t 🤨) and it was first found in Galicia, Spain.

The most widely spread theories say it’s of literary origin:

According to babynamesbase, Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni based his Harlequin character, from The Servant of Two Masters, on a real-life barber named Figaro (I didn’t find any other sources supporting this idea, plus the origin here would not be literary, but it says the play is believed to have made the name popular, even though the name is not in the play 🤨).

According to behindthename, French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais named the hero of his trilogy “Figaro” based on the French phrase “fils Caron” meaning “son of Caron”. Later the word “figaro” would acquire the meaning “barber” based on the character's profession (The character is The Barber of Seville, so I infer that the name was supposed to be Spanish).

In order of relevance of these questionable theories, the name “Figaro” could be Spanish, French or Italian. The word means “barber” in all three modern languages.

Blond, blue-eyed desert dwellers

In Soraya Saga’s doujin, The Marriage of Figaro (homonym to Caron’s second play of the Figaro trilogy), she included side-characters with French, Italian, Anglo and Germanic names. The naming conventions are all over the place, as in the rest of FF6 🥲

I saw a couple of pages of the doujin that a generous soul shared on twitter, but they’re no longer available. I remember seeing the twins in European-looking gowns and hanging out in a European-looking palace.

The nation of Figaro originates in the desert (South Figaro is created later) and may be comparable to desert regions in our world that were heavily influenced by their European neighbors. The Sahara, as Figaro, is the largest hot desert in the world; plus it received influence from the Italian, French and Spanish. Works for me 😌

Some fanarts make Figaro castle resemble the architecture and aesthetics of Morocco and Algeria, so I looked to see if I could shoehorn in find a connection. The next easy thing I wanted to find was blond hair and blue eyes. These features are easy to find in Spain, France and Italy (not the majority, but fairly common), but I thought they’d be difficult to find in the Sahara, especially because blond hair and blue eyes are recessive.

Searching for that specific look led me to the Berbers (derogatory term) or Amazigh(singular) / Imazighen(plural), as they identify themselves. They are indigenous of North Africa since before the Sahara became known by that name (before arabization). Many Imazighen are white and blond and have blue eyes, and they are not late settlers as I first thought; their origin is ancient and still unresolved, but they are believed to be proto-Celts. Anyway, this checks out 👌🏼

Today, they mostly concentrate in Morocco and Algeria. The history of this region is a beyond deep rabbit hole that was not preserved in written form 🥲 They’ve been besieged, subdued, and culturally obliterated. Currently they still fight to affirm their culture despite –or adjacent to– the ongoing arabization and the hijacking of their traditions by national governments.

Figaro architecture

Given that Figaro has technological advancement deeply rooted in its culture, I wanted to check if the Imazighen pioneered technology at some point.

They had periods of growth, expansion and dominance; particularly flourishing in medieval Spain. The Spanish called them “Moors”, again using the term very loosely to refer to all peoples of Northwest Africa, so I went to check on that. Here the history gets very muddy with kingdoms, alliances, intermarriages and subjugation. The generalizations of the Moors couldn’t be more subjective depicting them as whites, browns, blacks, Muslim, Christian, Pagan, warriors, or pacifists; depending on who’s giving the account (the article in Spanish is way more complicated 😩). Many of the conquerors known as “Moors” were arabized Imazighen (blond, blue-eyed Muslims from Northwest Africa), but as time and influences passed, the term was applied to pretty much anyone and everyone who invaded Spain.

There are a bunch of notable Moors with different intellectual achievements, but I’m particularly drawn to their architecture.

The kingdom of Figaro is most notable for its moving castle, so I searched for some castles 🤩 All very beautiful, magnificent and ingeniously designed. But check out the Alcázar of Segovia 👀

Tower where the Figaro twins decided their fate with a coin toss of John II of Castile.

Throne room where the twins reminisced of the night when their father died.

Royal Chamber where the High Priestess reminisces about Sabin.

In the official website they have Edgar’s autocrossbow the crossbow of Charles V.

Figaro culture

Soraya Saga specified traditions and cultural aspects of Figaro that I don’t expect to find in any particular region of our world. But the Amazigh culture has a few aspects that I find fitting for the Figaro twins.

The Amazigh ethnic flag represents the culture. The colors blue, green and yellow represent the sea, the mountains, and the desert, respectively; and the red symbol means freedom.

Blue and yellow are sacred colors in Figaro, representing water and sand. I can’t overlook the coincidence of mountain and freedom being such sacred things to Sabin, and by extension, to Edgar… And the colors of the Figaro guards 👀

Lastly, I had to go back to meaning of the name.

I take for granted that Saga took inspiration from The Barber of Seville, so the name means clever, cunning and resourceful; very Edgar 😌By coincidence I found that it also means “fig tree” and it just so happens that Buddha meditated under one of those until achieving enlightenment; very Sabin ☺️🙏🏼

To summarize, I hc Figaro desert to be the Sahara, the Figaro brothers to be Imazighen, ancient Figaroan language to be Tamazight, and South Figaro could very well be Spain 🙃

[monk-of-figaro]

More training is required

[monk-of-figaro]

On Twins Day I spam about the Figaro twins 😌

Today Internet says:

February 5 is a twins day in Japan. The twins are Futago in Japanese. In Japanese 2 is Futatsu, 5 is Go so Futago twins.

That’s all I need 😌

For storytelling purposes, twins represent duality. I particularly love that the Figaro bros don’t follow the tropes of petty brothers fighting over the throne or two exact copies with no individuality (they follow other tropes, but not those 😁). They’re the proverbial two sides of the same coin.

The coin metaphor is one of many polarities represented in FFVI. As expected from any epic tale, it has many symbolic opposites: fire/ice, control/surrender, grandiosity/modesty, expression/repression, etc. It’s all over, but my self-indulgent ass fixates exclusively on the Figaro twins because reasons 😌

I like to think of duality in terms of Yin and Yang. Opposite extremes of a spectrum that complement each other and do not inherently indicate moral stance. Polar opposites are distilled representations of what was meant to be one and the same thing.

In my experience, one can only know something after having experienced it’s full spectrum. Staying in the middle or on one side while refusing the other, is half-knowing; or to paraphrase Roberto Benigni, you must have laughter and tears in life, otherwise you’re half-living.

I see the Figaro twins representing polarities that, in my opinion, were meant to be reconciled: the journey of one is the other’s opposite journey. Edgar started where Sabin ends, and vice-versa.

Prodigy/Underdog

From childhood Edgar was energetic, self-assured and naturally attuned to diplomacy; the feedback he got was that he’s right on track. Sabin was weak, shy, naive and transparent; the feedback he got was that he’s not enough. Then the rite of passage they did at age 14 set them on the path to become the adults we know. Edgar was comfortable with getting his way, but after pushing Sabin to meet his standards, Sabin got extremely sick.

Edgar didn’t like his own behavior, and I think this is when he started getting negative feedback for his natural impulses, causing him to start pulling back because he’s too much.

Sabin didn’t like how he performed, which led him to push himself harder to stop relying on his brother. He still had a long way to go, but at this age he decided to become more.

Thinker/Doer

At age 16 Edgar gets scolded by an older girl for how he treats women, which motivated him to learn the art of chivalry. This was another bit of negative feedback for following his natural impulses, and he seems to be able to get away with anything, but that’s not the kind of man he wants to be. There are also a couple of scenes where he says too much. If he relaxes and acts and speaks freely, he can hurt people. He doesn’t have analysis-paralysis, but he’d rather think about things for as long as he can afford, and watch things unfold before taking action.

At age 17 the boys’ father was poisoned to death, which motivated Sabin to pursue martial arts more seriously. Sabin’s natural impulses make him say what is and to do what’s needed, and even if he cannot pin down what to do in a situation, he doesn’t want to sit and watch injustice unfold. He might make mistakes, and then he’ll correct along the way, the only thing he’ll lament is not doing something.

We also see Sabin settling down a bit after he learns that Cyan just lost his wife and son. Before that, he had been teasing the poor man the whole time 😩 But he doesn’t beat himself up for taking the wrong type of action, he adjusts and moves on, knowing that he’ll do better next time 😌

Hypersexual/Celibate

Edgar is a horny one, but the skirt-chasing has a purpose; as does Sabin’s celibacy. Edgar has earned such bad reputation that the girls in his own castle won’t take him seriously, maybe to the point of turning himself into an incel… Or is it voluntary? He seems to overthink many things, but the flirting is not one of them. He thought things through, took action, saw the consequences and corrected nothing (I guess he can still get foreign ass 🤷🏻‍♀️).

Sabin turned celibate as part of his training, to gain better control of his impulses (if he ever had those impulses). Ironically, his training also turned him into a walking thirst trap. He could get all the ass he wanted, if he wanted.

Lively/Sickly

This is how they were as children. Later as an adult, Sabin is off-the-charts. This boy went to work and turned the weakness into a freaking superpower. From being borderline disabled, he worked his ass off to become the guy who suplexes a train like it’s nobody’s business, and he can even heal other party members with his blitzes. Way to turn the table! 💪🏼😤

Edgar always was and still is pretty sturdy, but there’s a big portion of the fandom putting him in vulnerable situations. Many of us compensate his lack of a character arc by breaking him in some way: illness, exhaustion, depression. He’s not going through any of those in the main story, but given his great resilience, he could inadvertently abuse his own capacity. Sabin was born weak so he learned to build up his strength and push his limits very slowly and patiently. Edgar was never limited in any way, but he’s getting close to that age when the body passes the bill 🥲

Of course, there are many other qualities that are easy to notice, like Stoic/Emotional, Repressed/Expressive, Deceptive/Sincere, etc. What I find fascinating is how their distinct journeys come full circle, always bringing them to a place of unity.

Here are also some references that I found interesting because I see Figaro everywhere 🙃

Divine Twins. Recently I found out about this myth, and this bit made me smile in Figaroan:

The two brothers are generally depicted as healers and helpers, traveling in miraculous vehicles to save shipwrecked mortals. They are often differentiated: one is represented as a physically strong and aggressive warrior, while the other is seen as a healer who rather gives attention to domestic duties, agrarian pursuits, or romantic adventures.

King/Monk. Reading about the Buddah, there was a prophecy after he was born, saying that he’d become either a great king or a holy man. We know how that turned out, but what stuck with me is that the capacity to fulfill either role was always within him. I look at the Figaro twins and I support every individual decision they’ve made, but I can still see them swapping places and becoming just as good. It’d be a painful journey, but they’re perfectly equipped for it.

Artisan/Warrior. I also found an interesting bit in The Book of Five Rings, where Miyamoto Musashi talks about four occupations: warrior, farmer, artisan and merchant. He draws parallels between Warrior and Artisan: the mentoring required in order to acquire the knowledge and skills, the need for constant practice striving for precision, the vital role of leadership in both roles.

The Figaro twins are different in superficial ways, but they share the same values and the same core capacities; they’ve just chosen different ways of obtaining results ☺️

Head❤️Hands. The famous phrase from the movie Metropolis makes me think of Edgar as the head and Sabin as the hands.

These boys have one shared heart. Edgar hides it away while Sabin lays it bare, but is one and the same ❤️

[monk-of-figaro]

Final Fantasy 6, in CVS Sprite form!

The entire cast of FF6. Hope you enjoy!

Please Reblog and Follow for more sprites!

[monk-of-figaro]

I always know I can count on @wsancho to elevate whatever point I'm flimsily trying to make. ❤️

And this is excellent insight:

...the reason behind [Sabin] having no filter is that he expresses everything that Edgar represses. So a way to know what’s going on with Edgar is to look at Sabin.

I'm always amazed at the layers these twins have to their relationship. It's like an onion the size of Nebraska.

Sabin's Last Thoughts

I'm sorry, I have to share my heartbreak. This is heartbreaking. Don't read further if your heart is at risk of breaking. Consult your doctor before attempting to suffer through heartbreak.

To preamble an unnecessarily excessive amount, a few years ago kwhazit did an AMAZING, step-by-step, detail-filled, context-providing, wonderfully thorough translation of FF6. Like, the entire game: dialog, attack/item/spell names, monster data… more information than you'd find even in an official strategy guide. Should they ever read this, I hope they know how much I appreciate all of the work they put into it, and it's quickly become one of my primary reference sources when looking up something about the game.

Since they included translations of everything, they also included translations of events that may not usually be seen in the game, such as when you fail at a critical event.

FOR A HEARTBREAKING EXAMPLE, it's possible for Sabin to die in the World of Ruin if Celes does not rescue the child from the collapsing house in Tzen quickly enough.

The incredible @wsancho wrote an excellent post on this particular event and how the "failure" option was softened from the original concept (again, consult your doctor before reading their post about twin death).

In the final version of the game, failing to rescue the child in time results in a "fade to black" Game Over screen. Nothing is shown, only implied (thank god).

What I didn't know until recently, [no] thanks to kwhazit, was that Sabin has last lines before the house collapses on him.

The two translations definitely have different emotional weight to them. To me, Woolsey's translation's conveys Sabin meeting his demise with confidence (dare I even say optimism?) that Edgar will continue fighting to rebuild the broken world.

Meanwhile, the original Japanese text (through kwhazit's translation) feels more layered to me, like he is pushing himself to the very last moment, is angry at himself for not being stronger, and is feeling regret that he won't be able to help Edgar anymore.

So, not only does Sabin die, but his final thoughts are always about Edgar. 😭💔

Outside of the game, I think this would be true for Sabin in any scenario, even if he lives to be 94 years old and dies peacefully in his sleep.

And although I love the idea that Edgar's final thoughts would be about Sabin, I'm actually not sure they would be. Again, as wsancho points out in one of her amazing braindump posts, Edgar tends to focus on the welfare of his kingdom above all else. Because of this, I think that his final thoughts could be about Figaro and its future. Perhaps it depends on how well he thinks the kingdom would do without him.

None of this matters, of course, because as far as I'm concerned, both brothers live forever and ever and never die or suffer and are always happy and thriving END OF STORY.

[monk-of-figaro]

Sabin's Last Thoughts

I'm sorry, I have to share my heartbreak. This is heartbreaking. Don't read further if your heart is at risk of breaking. Consult your doctor before attempting to suffer through heartbreak.

To preamble an unnecessarily excessive amount, a few years ago kwhazit did an AMAZING, step-by-step, detail-filled, context-providing, wonderfully thorough translation of FF6. Like, the entire game: dialog, attack/item/spell names, monster data… more information than you'd find even in an official strategy guide. Should they ever read this, I hope they know how much I appreciate all of the work they put into it, and it's quickly become one of my primary reference sources when looking up something about the game.

Since they included translations of everything, they also included translations of events that may not usually be seen in the game, such as when you fail at a critical event.

FOR A HEARTBREAKING EXAMPLE, it's possible for Sabin to die in the World of Ruin if Celes does not rescue the child from the collapsing house in Tzen quickly enough.

The incredible @wsancho wrote an excellent post on this particular event and how the "failure" option was softened from the original concept (again, consult your doctor before reading their post about twin death).

In the final version of the game, failing to rescue the child in time results in a "fade to black" Game Over screen. Nothing is shown, only implied (thank god).

What I didn't know until recently, [no] thanks to kwhazit, was that Sabin has last lines before the house collapses on him.

The two translations definitely have different emotional weight to them. To me, Woolsey's translation's conveys Sabin meeting his demise with confidence (dare I even say optimism?) that Edgar will continue fighting to rebuild the broken world.

Meanwhile, the original Japanese text (through kwhazit's translation) feels more layered to me, like he is pushing himself to the very last moment, is angry at himself for not being stronger, and is feeling regret that he won't be able to help Edgar anymore.

So, not only does Sabin die, but his final thoughts are always about Edgar. 😭💔

Outside of the game, I think this would be true for Sabin in any scenario, even if he lives to be 94 years old and dies peacefully in his sleep.

And although I love the idea that Edgar's final thoughts would be about Sabin, I'm actually not sure they would be. Again, as wsancho points out in one of her amazing braindump posts, Edgar tends to focus on the welfare of his kingdom above all else. Because of this, I think that his final thoughts could be about Figaro and its future. Perhaps it depends on how well he thinks the kingdom would do without him.

None of this matters, of course, because as far as I'm concerned, both brothers live forever and ever and never die or suffer and are always happy and thriving END OF STORY.

[monk-of-figaro]

This is for @thedapperdarkrai !

We did an FF6 art trade. She asked for Sabin, and I asked for Relm!

Hell yeah, FF6!