#ffxii judges

[vhyrelle]

FFXII relationship chart I made for my fan book "Hatred". This is not canon, just based on the story I write for fun.

[lesserknownwaifus]

Judge Drace from Final Fantasy XII

[tarnishedxknight]

{out of dalmasca} Can we just please talk about Judge Drace's set of armor in FFXII for a second? Because... um...

She... she has a skirt. Made of metal. Why have I never fully noticed this before or given it the proper attention it was due?

It looks to me to be in the shape and style of like a Victorian bustle (worn under the skirt of a dress to give shape) or an overskirt (worn over a skirt for fashion purposes or sometimes for added warmth. In this case, of course, it's just part of the armor, but even so...

They're literally hinged metal plates designed to look like frills or ruffles. She even has matching spaulders? Also made to look frilly? That's... so cool?

Nothing says, "I am a force to be reckoned with who can easily kill you and also I'm going be a fucking lady while I do it," like wearing skirt armor. She's not at all shying away from the fact that she's often the only major female Judge Magister in a room full of enormous, posturing male egos. She's handling her shit and looking good while she does it.

I love this because it smashes that horrible "strong woman" trope in writing whereby, in order to be or seem strong among men, women must become more masculine. Or conversely, that by being strong women, they are somehow less feminine. As if, in order to achieve one, you must give up the other. Nope, Drace is here to say that's total crap, heh. She's such a badass and I love her. I really wish they hadn't killed her in the game. Would've loved to have seen more of her. T_T

[vhyrel]

My FFXII fan book "Hatred" arrived [2023, 114 pages, including illustrations]. It is side story of my main FFXII story Sandsea Erover [2017 - present]. I am very happy.

[terendelev]

“Less than a shadow. Less than a man. Sentenced to death and yet you live. Why?”

[moondvncer]

I still can't believe they flexed the fact that Balthier was a judge and we didn't get a single flashback about him wearing one of those cunty armors

[4th-make-quail]

distant, small and blurry, but no less horrible >:3c

[mostfuckableffvillain]

Round 2

Cloud of Darkness: You'll never need a nightlight. Because it won't work.

Gabranth: Still some family drama to work through there

[halmarut]

the use of honorific and titles are important in japanese language, especially in ivalice where there’s many sorts of alliances and nobles. higher ranking, lower ranking, or even equals. in here i have compiled what the upper-ranking archadians call each other. 

in here we can see the judge magisters refer to vayne as 殿 / dono, meaning “lord vayne”.

with the exception of judge ghis, who refers to vayne as his name directly without honorifics. this is considered rude, considering the context of ghis’ dialogue, yes this is very ambitious of him.

judge bergan is also an exception, he starts with “lord vayne / vayne-dono”. when gramis is assassinated he calls vayne 阁下 which is “his excellency vayne / vayne-kakka”. he is the only judge magister to say so. this is considered high respect, and in context of the scene, bergan readily accepts vayne as the new emperor.

NOTE: that  阁下 / kakka is not a japanese kanji. that is chinese hanzi. meaning “your mightiness” “one that is directly under the line of succession”, like ... next in line to rule. however this translates to jp as “your excellency” only. but now we know the connotation.

judge drace refers to larsa as 様 / sama. in english this means the same as “lord larsa”, but sama implies closeness and yet respect. this makes sense considering drace is larsa’s mentor and guardian. they are very close, yet she still respects him as a lord. this is different from doctor cid and vayne as seen in here; 

doctor cid calls vayne あんた / anta. and vayne’s name directly. no titles, full casual. this is not considered rude because as written in ultimania, they are comrades/friends who see each other as equals, not higher or lower despite one of them being much older. (okay, maybe a little ‘you, young man’ in context of anta).

and next we have house solidor. phew, they are...quite something.

gramis refers to his sons by name. he is the dad.

larsa calls his father  父上 / chichi-ue (lord father). high level of respect and acknowledges gramis as his father, larsa calls his brother 兄上 / ani-ue (lord brother). larsa is very familial unlike vayne,

vayne calls his father  陛下 / heika / gramis heika (your excellency. and in rabanastre, lord gramis). japanese imperial style, the most formal style of nobility in japan. which can be considered odd, he is speaking to his own father in context, why such formality? even larsa calls gramis “father”ーーーthis is because vayne dislikes gramis, he refers to him in a distant, cold way. not familial at all. he never called him a father.

vayne calls larsa by name. familiarity.

and last we have the senate;

the senate refers to vayne and larsa as  殿/ dono (lord vayne, lord larsa). the same honorific as what the judgimagi call their masters. i think this is the common honorific for vayne and larsa, common archadians would refer to them with this 殿 / dono, too.

[chantalvonrosen]

WIP

[vhyrelle]

This arrived today. I didn't expect the Judge Magister busts to be so big. They are quite heavy too and extremely detailed.

[b101-doctor]

and yet it wanes iii

[yourhonor4u]

One more ordinary day in FF12 office AU

[cielsosinfel]

I'm well past this part of the game but I'm still spinning this exchange over in my mind. The voice acting certainly didn't make it sound any less horny.

I looked up the Japanese dialogue, wondering how direct a translation this was (Alexander O. Smith gets very creative with his localizations, so it wouldn't be a shock if it was all on him), and it actually turned out to be directly translated?? Though there's a word pun in Japanese that precedes the talk of bridles and whips.

ギース：貴殿とは馬が合うようですな。 オンドール：それはけっこうですが、手綱をつけられるつもりはございませんな。 ギース：ならば鞭をお望みか？

(Ghis: It seems you and [Vayne] are well-suited to one another. Ondore: That's all well and good, but I have no intention of being bridled. Ghis: In that case, do you desire the whip?) 馬が合う is an idiom that means "to get along well with (someone); to be well-suited/matched (to one another)" but literally means "to be [as a rider] a good match with one's horse". It's horny all the way down in in this DILF politicking trainwreck. I do like that the English seems more directly insulting, while the Japanese might be going a more subtle route (though I'm not fluent, so I'm unsure how it sounds to a fluent speaker.)

Anyway I'm still trodding through this game and feeling more and more nostalgic as I go... I've reached Mt Bur-Omisace after a lot of grinding in the Lhusu Mines. I've been rambling on and on about this game on my Twitter priv lmao I should do it more public where I can actually discuss this with other fans.

All I can say is: I love Ashe's character arc where she is struggling to rein in her anger and her grief to do what she needs to do as a revolutionary leader, as a political leader, as the last surviving of an ancient dynasty, as a symbol of hope and peace and prosperity, as someone trying to carry on the legacies of her father and husband and ancestors. That moment where Vaan opens up to her about his own grief regarding his brother got me really bad!! They're such good foils of one another IMO.

Also, I'm enjoying replaying this as an adult and being able to catch a bunch of the allegorical/symbolic narrative elements. Like the whole nethicite being an allegory for nuclear weapons/the atom bomb, and how the story ends up having major anti-nuke themes? I did not catch that as an 11 year old!!

ALSO ALSO I love Balthier, and I love Fran, and I love their relationship, and i wish we got to see more of them being highly attuned to the other's emotional state, how intuitively they read each other, I wanna know more about their past and how they've grown around one another!! I want more of Fran's family drama in Eruyt Village!! Ugh the very brief scene in Golmore Jungle where Balthier can tell Fran's upset about having to return to the village, and then she turns it back on him with the ~your eyes betray your heart~ line and he gets huffy... They're good, I love them.

[tarnishedxknight]

{out of dalmasca} In addition to buying the upgraded Gabranth figure, I also recently purchased the set of Judge Magister busts that came with the collector's edition PS4 that included the Zodiac Age digital remaster of FFXII. Got them super cheap on eBay, so if anyone else wants a set, definitely check out secondhand markets for good deals. Gabranth and Drace are my favorites, so they're in the front, Zargabaath is okay, so he can be in the front too. Barely pictured at the back left is Ghis, and way behind Gabranth is Bergan... because nobody wants to see him. XD

[disillusionedjudge]

Truthfully, Gylfie is rather lonely.

She would never admit it, of course - she's too proud to admit such a thing. But... the friends she had grown up with, she lost when she joined the military. Her schedule was strict and rigorous, and she lost touch and they drifted apart. As she clawed her way up, there were few who would even consider her an equal, let alone a friend. She had to fight to prove herself - fight to get even a fraction of respect the men she fought alongside earned with little effort. She became fierce and ruthless, and began to keep distance between herself and those around her to keep control. To keep one step ahead of everyone else. No matter how she presented herself, she knew she would be judged and ridiculed, so she stopped caring about what others thought of her. Of how she appeared to be.

She had yearned for her father's affections and pride, and it took her nearly losing her life to realize she would never even earn a moment's attention from him. She had befriended Ffamran, and his disappearance felt like a personal slight. Even though she still holds a level of respect and gratitude for him after he took her mother and sister out of Archades, and now understands his reasoning for leaving, she feels she has changed too much to try and rekindle that friendship. She still loves her mother and sister, but since they left, she has made little effort to keep in touch. She feels they would be disappointed and disgusted with her for everything she has done, and fails to see that they still love her. She grew close with Drace and Gabranth, yet... even with them, she held them at a distance, even if unintentionally, to protect herself from further hurt. And still, their deaths broke a part of her.

Her loneliness is suffocating, but... it's a burden she has no choice but to bear if she wants to see Archadia thrive. If she wants to keep her vow to keep Larsa safe.