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ser_pounce_alotseventhe playing FFIV has made me want to replay it, too; however, due to my youngest sister losing my game, I no longer own a copy of the new DS remake, but I did bring with me overseas my copy of the Advance version, which is definitely my favorite version because of the extra things they added at the end (which we will GUSH ABOUT IN DETAIL later). I also had a game already saved in the Tower of Babel, first time through.(In a somewhat unrelated note, at the time of this write-up I am ready to face Zemus with a little more leveling up in the preceding dungeon, and I am only 15 hours into the game. WAS THIS GAME ALWAYS SO FAST OR AM I MAKING RECORD TIME?!)
Without further ado, let's begin with the META META META!
Lookit those fancy-ass graphics...
1.1, or Holy Whack Unlyrical Twincast, Andre!
My love for Palom and Porom really isn't a secret at all. That aside, they really are two of the most fascinating characters in a game where, in the original version, they accompany the party for about all of 20% of the total gameplay depending on play speed. In fact, you lose them permanently in the original right after you reach the point where ONE party member's levels finally begin mattering in the long run (Cecil, post-Paladin), because before that point, all of them either a) leave for good, b) change class and/or age and restart, or c) auto-level to match you after being brainwashed/kidnapped/unconscious/whatever else these characters manage to get themselves into.
And let's not even talk about the fact that these two 5-year-olds do a number of things that are HOLY BALLS in their own right - for instance, in a game where you are routinely given characters you are supposed to sympathize with doing REALLY SHITTY THINGS, they sacrifice themselves for the good of A DUDE THEY WERE ASSIGNED TO SPY ON expecting that they would not make it out again. (See: overwhelming fountain of emo tears) They also rival your experienced, adult mages in terms of power, spell capacity, and magic points. Again, guys, they are 5-years-old.
But the real thing about Palom and Porom is WHAT IS THIS TWIN MAGIC?! Nowhere else in the entirety of this game, save for the very, very end where Golbez inexplicably gets Meteor (????) and can cast DOUBLE METEOR with FuSoYa do any of your party members join together to cast spells - and even Double Meteor is simply two people casting the same spell at the same time. Palom and Porom are the only people in the OGC world who have the power to put together White and Black magic - and WE ARE GIVEN ABSOLUTELY NO BACKSTORY ON WHY OR HOW THIS IS POSSIBLE.
Apparently, they were sent to Mysidia by their parents - though why or how or whatever else, that's all we know (Final Fantasy IV Settei Shiryou Hen). A fan translation of this section says: "Astounded by their youngsters, their parents decided to have them study under the Elder" (Source here).
Palom and Porom's twin magic is Pyroflare, Comet, and, if equipped with TwinStars in the Advance or DS version, Twin Meteor (FF4 Wiki). There are some VERY INTERESTING POINTS to note here: a) the first two original spells are not White OR Black magic, but rather entirely new spells that no one else can cast, and b) the addition of Twin Meteor makes Porom the only purely White Mage to be able to cast the spell. Again, these kids are 5-years-old. I teach 5-year-olds on a regular basis and sometimes I feel like they are roughly the size and adorableness of puppies. So, really, how do they do this? What allows them to literally create new magic out of A COMBINATION OF TWO DISTINCT DISCIPLINES that no one else can do/understand? I DON'T KNOW BUT IT MAKES ME WANT TO WRITE 100K OF FIC.
Instead of being all BLAH BLAH MT. ORDEALS METEOR, Tellah should have bowed down to Cecil for bringing him the most skilled and unique mages in the entire world. (The FFIV Wiki also mentions that Palom learns his Black Magic spells at a faster rate than Rydia, a fact attributed to her focus on Summoning.)
Even Sages, who know both magic types, can't combine the two together - FuSoYa and Tellah both have mastery over White and Black magic, but they lack the unique abilities presented with Twincast. Obviously, there is something going on here that the game itself never stopped to explain, but it's an obvious talent that makes Palom and Porom so fascinating.
(It's also worth noting that comparing raw stats, Palom and Porom are your strongest White and Black mages in both games [OGC and TAY] - beat in a few specific areas by Rosa, Rydia, and Leonora but largely coming out as the best playable magic-users in the FFIV world.)
1.2, or Dear christ, why is your ultimate weapon a sword?!
FFIV is a highly classed battle system; characters fall in lines and levels and classes that dictate the weapons they can use and the armor they can wear. The majority of mage characters can only equip two types of weapons: rods and staves, while a few others have a slightly larger possible weapon range. Rosa, for example, is an archer (though Rydia and Porom are also able to equip bows), and Rydia favors the whip (which no other characters can use). Rydia and Palom, however, are the only two mage characters who are able to equip daggers. (Porom can equip one dagger in the Complete Collection only.) Edward can use daggers, bows and harps depending on which version is played, though he is not a mage-character, and probably should be exempt from the comparison (FFIV Wiki).
In the Game Boy Advance version, due to the ability to use lost party members for the end of the game, they had to augment it a bit with some extra weapons and armor for these newly usable characters. Thus, the addition of Mt. Ordeals' secret chamber was added, with some monsters and floors to battle through before coming to the "ultimate" weapons for the newly usable five characters:
WAIT, WHAT. WHY IS THAT A SWORD.
Palom's ultimate weapon is Triton's Dagger, or why the shit are we giving a 5-year-old a bladed weapon. Not a rod, not a staff, not anything that is a traditional mage weapon range, but a dagger. Even your playable mages with both magics can't use small swords as weapons, and those dudes are old. (Palom, I'm sure, is thrilled.) It's an interesting thing!!
Meanwhile, Porom:
Now, here's where things get a little weird. According to the FFIV Wiki, this should be called "Seraphim's Staff", and very clearly on my DS screen it's called "Seraphim's Mace". A mace is quite different than a staff. TO BE HELPFUL, HERE IS A SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON OF THE TWO.
HAHAHAHAHA. So apparently, Porom's "ultimate weapon" is a large club-like object with something painful on the end!! (Probably for hitting her brother with.) It's fun to note that they are both given more destructive, pain-inflicting weapons as their "final" weapons for if you use them when hitting up Zemus' crib.
1.3, or JESUS CHRIST, INANIMATE OBJECTS ARE TALKING TO ME, GET IN THE CAR
Either I just never noticed this on previous play-throughs, or... I just never noticed this on previous play-throughs, but when you get to the Lunar Palace on the moon and need to go deeper (hehe), you can talk to the crystals floating ominously around the center warp portal.
WAIT A HOT SECOND. I don't recall any of the crystals talking to me during the rest of the game. Are these really the CRYSTALS speaking, or have they somehow linked with sleeping Lunarians? If the crystals could do this during the other parts, why didn't they whisper helpful solutions to getting out of crappy situations to Cecil and co.? Alternately, if they are linked with Lunarians using their power, why the hell did the Lunarians send them to Earth in the first place?!
And speaking of crystals, we have four crystals of the Upper World - with elemental attributes - but the crystals underground are just called "Dark Crystals"? Do they not have elemental attributes? Are they DARK versions of their Upper World counterparts, like a yin and yang balance? If so, why don't they also have names? Why don't they effect the areas around them like the Upper World crystals do? Why would you create 4 elemental crystals and 4 vague "dark" ones? And where the hell were the other 2 dark crystals if the Dwarves had one, and another was locked up in the sealed cavern? WHY DO I HAVE SUCH A HEADACHE RIGHT NOW?!
It would be really cool to think about mages' magic being linked to the crystals, and one would think that Black magic would be with the "Dark" ones, but because Black magic is so heavily elemental in nature, they more closely align with the Upper World crystals, which would put White magic with the Dark ones, and that's just kind of a cool idea. Like, yeah White magic is for healing, but it's basically augmented by the crystals of darkness and death due to its potency. WHOA, MINDFUCK.
1.4, or please shut up now
Okay, I'll shut up now. LISTEN I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS. Mostly I just love Palom and Porom, and everything they are/do.
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Date: 2013-04-10 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 12:32 pm (UTC)THE MOTHERFUCKING GAME DID
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Date: 2013-04-10 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-10 12:39 pm (UTC)1.1: so in terms of Twincast, somehow what this made me think of first was the way Cecil is a Dark Knight and Rosa is a White Mage. Obviously they have no joint skills, but I had always thought it obvious that Cecil became a Dark Knight partially because he knew he'd always have Rosa with him to be his light side. It's another case of duality in the game -- which becomes even more explicit with Palom and Porom because they're actual twins; they're literally each other's other half.
I also for no reason want to point out that Comet in FFV is actually Time Magic...? I'm pretty sure? I definitely don't know why, but it makes me wonder whether the linking of P&Ps White/Black magic lets them reach into other kinds of magic that normal mages can't. (Like Time Compression. *shoots self*)
1.3 your goddamn headcanon. Of course healing and White Magic is tied to the Dark Crystals. I've always thought there was something creepy and uncanny about mages being able to heal up bloodwounds just using a spell. Isn't that unnatural? More unnatural than calling forth some wind?
This goes in line with the "dark is not evil" thing too - having just played FFIII I am immediately reminded of that - dark isn't evil; evil is evil.
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Date: 2013-04-10 12:44 pm (UTC)aaaaaaah yes, yes! super unnatural, you shouldn't be able to do that, so isn't it weird that you can, and therefore isn't that kind of against the world order? it's such a weird thing, though, that we never see anything else about the dark crystals but then again, white magic doesn't have easily distinguishable elemental divisions,either, so...
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Date: 2013-04-10 08:29 pm (UTC)I actually really want to do something with this. I think Rosa and Porom could have some lovely meta conversations about this kind of thing...
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Date: 2013-04-10 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-11 01:42 am (UTC)OH MY EFFING GOODNESS, KATIE.
I AM TOTALLY WRITING ABOUT 1.3 IN MY CURRENT FREAKING PROJECT AND IT IS EXPLODING MY BRAIN IN UNCOMFORTABLE WAYS (seriously...ch28, lol). Just got to the moon....(yes, i'm still continuing that mother flipping epic!fic from Rydia's pov) and......THE FREAKING CRYSTALS. WHY DO THEY TALK. WHY DO THEY ONLY TALK ON THE MOON. WTF PLOT HOLES, SE???!!!
I have...just...ugh...and Holy? HOLY? How does that...what madness is that...what category of white explosiveness is that...
p.s. you need to come back to this fandom ;) Just sayin'
Mostly because Palom and Porom are sorely under represented ;)
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Date: 2013-04-11 11:53 am (UTC)well, technically, i never left - i still routinely write random fic (see: final fantasy kiss battle!) and i'm doing the final fantasy exchange again this year. i'm just not CONSISTENTLY producing things for it. ;)