DDFF Meme: Day 21: Best Original Character

[railenthe]

 

Somehow, I get the feeling that I’m going to catch flak for my answer to this question. In the context of this question, there are some unexpected candidates for this award.

Thanks to the way their original games worked, the Warrior of Light and Onion Knight are actually candidates for this one—and even Chaos, when you think about it. And while I’m a huge an of both of them (and even Chaos is growing on me as a character), I have to admit that they don’t come close to the one who won this one for me.

I must admit it.

I…am a Cosmos Fan.

BE WARNED THAT SPOILERS (000) FOLLOW THIS POINT!

 

______

This is the part where I got some ‘splainin’ to do, as Ricky says in I Love Lucy. I’m willing to bet that on one would have expected this answer. I mean, there are so many reasons why someone else would have been a shoo-in—the adorable Onion Kid, or even the Amazingly, Frighteningly, almost Sickeningly Lawful-Good Warrior of Light (I DEFY YOU TO DISPUTE THIS FACT) would have been a more obvious choice. But instead my vote goes to Cosmos.

I suppose I’ll begin at the start. Shoot me if somewhere in the middle I seem to turn into Genesis.

In the beginning of the war, she, along with Chaos, summons warriors to do her bidding in the war. Cosmos and Chaos are equals in this—the playing field is totally level. Both gods imbue their warriors with the potential for even more power by conferring their own benedictions on their warriors. For Cosmos, this will manifest with her warriors in the form of a crystal, should they be successful.

This is where the equals part seems to split off.

While Chaos holds himself distant from his warriors, Cosmos is pretty intimately involved with her warriors from the start. She involves herself with them even though she cannot directly take part in the conflict—this is a role imposed by the originators of the conflict itself, and VERY IMPORTANT; we’ll come back to that later. Chronologically, you see her first take involvement in the conflict when Prishe comes back to Sanctuary with the Warrior of Light in tow. Even after she realizes just the deal is with him, she brings him over to their side (resulting in an “I am at your service” dialogue that still makes me d’aww).

After this, you see many things that make it obvious that Cosmos is having a difficult time being uninvolved. Though she seems like this spineless thing, when one remembers that the gods themeselves aren’t supposed to really get involved directly (and also that it’s kind of her power holding the world together in the first place at this point).

At the outset of the events of 012, Cosmos’s benediction on her warriors sets things in motion. It all begins when they are sent off—not long after this, things start to unravel. Kain’s odd behavior, fueled by the knowledge that Golbe imparts, and the misfortunately-placed members of Team Chaos serve as triune catalysts for her change of stance. As the Band Of Merry Misfits known as Team Canon Fodder realize that something really weird is going on, even the concept of harmony, that blessing of the goddess, begins to take root. It starts when Vaan finds Terra, and encourages her to pick her own path. Terra then fights her way past manikins that somehow realizes her change of allegiance, and eventually reaches Cosmos’s throne, where the Warrior of Light ALMOST strikes her down.

But Cosmos interrupts him. Quite sternly, actually. He seems a little bit put off. She explains that she can see the truth of Terra’s presence there, and places her blessing on the girl.

[Cosmos outstretches her hand toward Terra]

WoL: "Cosmos... You realize this girl is a warrior of Chaos?"

[Cosmos puts her hand back down]

Cosmos: "Yes. But even so, she is also a warrior who longs to bring an end to this long war. I do not wish that dream to be extinguished."

[WoL sighs]

Cosmos: "Rest child, until you are well."

[Cosmos stretches her hand out once again and energy emanates from it briefly. Similar looking energy begins emanating from Terra's body]

Cosmos: "When you awaken, you can choose a new path... of your own, free will."

And Cosmos dips her toe into the waters of divine favor, breaking the hold of Chaos on Terra.

It happens again fairly soon, a while after Cloud realizes that there is something seriously wrong with where he’s been placed in this fight and (in what I can only assume is a suicidal fit) takes on Chaos alone. This time, divine intervention comes in a more traditional way—prayer. As Cloud lays fading out, he reaches out to Cosmos.

…of course, she answers.

Cosmos: "The voice of...a warrior?"

[She is silent for a few seconds]

Cosmos: "An end to this conflict, and a life spared? This is your heart's desire? If your will remains unchanged, I shall bring you here when the battle draws to a close. Cloud. My chosen."

*record needle scratches*

Call me crazy, but that smacks of involvement! She just poached Cloud right out from underneath Chaos! At this point, it’s starting to look like Divine Impartiality™ was merely a suggestion. The woman’s going from a mere living symbol to an actual driving force of hope for her team. So far, she’s personally saved a supplicant, and answered the prayer of a foe—and then basically converted him.

At this point, she’s gone from just sort of just BEING THERE to what I expect from a goddess of such magnificent, statuesque beauty.

She’s also gotten personally involved….which is dangerous.

It isn’t until the truth of the conflict is learned, however, that she does the one thing that stands out:

She rises from her throne, and takes direct action. She breaks the fundamental rule of the conflict and uses her power against the hordes of manikins—without lifting a single pearly finger, she joins in the fight. The force of her power wipes out the horde, provides enough strength to the Warrior of Light so that he can survive the purification—

But, not without a price.

It destabilizes the worlds. Yes, worlds, plural.

It’s enough to split the time-space continuum so that we have that Feat Of Strength known as Scenario 000 to deal with. Because she was not stopped by the one force that could have—Cid of the Lufaine allowed this to happen, in a way—it begins a timesplit where Cosmos wins. Every time. Until Chaos’s mind breaks, that is…

Not to mention the small fact that this was a sacrifice that killed her. And because of this, she is purified along with the party members that the Warrior of Light and Kain helped to subdue.

…and the cycle begins again.

Because she is a goddess, however, she has a surprising amount of memory remaining after that purification. Enough for her to know how to properly involve herself in this conflict.

…Thus begins the plan of the crystals.

The crystals: shards of the goddess. She divides her power among her warriors using these crystals.

The truth of this comes out only after she lets herself be annihilated by Chaos himself as her warriors watch helplessly.

Or so they think.

The reason that they don’t fade away? The crystals. Because of this daring gambit—Cosmos isn’t actually gone.

An indirect, shifty, all-around truly devious sort of Thanatos Gambit.

And it works like a charm.

Comments

Okay this question scares me

[alkonost-storm.livejournal.com]

After reading this epic entry I am officially intimidated by Day 21 now *srs nod*

*slides over some chocolate*

[railenthe.livejournal.com]

For once I don't think I overthought this.

It just so happens that I was always a fan of Cosmos it doesn't hurt things that—well, look at her—though that is by far not the motivation here

It was just this sequence that took her from being a very pretty representation of something ideal to thinking that "This…this is the goddess, radiant and merciful."

AND SHE IS I MEAN LOOK WHAT SHE DOES FOR CLOUD WHO SHE HASN'T EVEN MET OR EVEN KNOWS SHE CAN TRUST! What lovelier model of perfect benediction do we need?!

*swoon*
I need a pretty Cosmos!icon...

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

First off: *round of applause*

This just makes me want to put even more effort into Day 14 part 3!

I have to admit I am NOT a Cosmos fan. I have a lot of respect for her in 013 but not in 012 due to how poor the execution was. Her having the balls to sacrifice her life for the crystal gambit I have admiration for. Her constantly checking up on her warriors and giving them advice when they're down, kudos to her. And doing all this whilst keeping the world relatively stable? The woman deserves respect for that.

But in 012 it's the fact that she has so little involvement with the war that puts me off. She's at full strength and yet she's just sittin' there on her bench. Okay she's keeping the world together but she did that in 013 whilst weakened and still found the time to give WoL, Firion, OK, Cecil and Zidane pep-talks. I suppose you could defend her with the fact that she subconciously learnt from her error of not being involved in 012 and thus put all that effort into looking after her little flock in 013 but I can't help being annoyed by it.

That and I never feel as though she is a deity that is equal to Chaos; whilst the crystals are proof that she does possess it, we never see her come across as confident in her abilities or superior to her warriors. That's actually my biggest problem with Cosmos: she comes across as so wishy-washy and disgustingly good in her behaviour that it's very hard to take her achievements into account. I find it incredibly difficult to support someone who fails to command respect over her followers. If she acted like the goddess she's supposed to be then I'd be joining you in praise for her.

However with all that being said you've proven a solid defence for her and my disdain for her is almost gone. Well done.

This message brought to you from the Concordia Temple of Cosmos, Lady of Harmony and healer of souls

[railenthe.livejournal.com]

That's me. I'm an apologist. I was the only one I know who doesn't hate her outright for quite a while.

BILINGUAL BONUS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF REDUNDANCY DEPARTMENT!

Thank you. I myself had the same gripe for a long time—then came 000 and the reports. There's actually an explanation for it and it made me hate Cid of the Lufaine for a VERY LONG TIME but it's SOOOOOOOOO spoiler-riffic. I'll put on my Super Geek glasses (as opposed to my normal geek glasses) if you give the all-clear, but—let's just say when you find out what the hell's going on, it's a bit of a punch to the gut.

All clear from Desert Palace, home of the overtheatrical noble Genome that is Kuja

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

Hey, I spoiled Kuja and the entirety of FFIX for you, go ahead! :D

An envoy from Cornelia approaches, bearing intelligence documents!

[railenthe.livejournal.com]

(…I dunno, I wanted to say something pithy in the subject line. XD))

Chaos would gain strength with every battle. But Cosmos's warriors could never grow - they lose their powers at purification. The difference in strength became evident, I believe, during the 13th conflict... Cosmos's warriors perished, and even Cosmos herself was purified...

With the exception of memories regained during fighting, no one on the side of harmony remembers a damned thing. In some cases this may be a blessing: imagine Cloud's BSOD if he realizes that Tifa didn't make it out of the Rift during 012.
But that is neither here nor there.

Everyone was purified in that cycle, even Cosmos. Her memory, as far as I can tell, was fragmented just as much as the others, even though by virtue of being A #$% DIVINITY she definitely remembers more than the others.

Thus, I posit that the first thing she remembers at 012 is beginning is something that was said during A Shard of the Cycle, in Cycle ???.

Gabranth: There is no future for the bystander, as there is naught he can defend.

As more of her memory comes back to her as this cycle progresses, she begins to see the truth of this statement, and that, along with all of the things she's had to deal with during 012—watching Kain and the Warrior of Light fight to preserve their chances at their own expense, encountering Terra, the prayers of Cloud—pushes her to the point where sitting idly by is no longer acceptable.

I further posit that in 013, she first remembers that moment—and that's how she gets the idea for her Thanatos Gambit: Basically she'd split her power into her warriors' crystals and then basically render herself locked in stasis until the conflict is ended.

Later, a bit before everyone returns with their crystals, she remembers the exchange between Shantotto and Gabranth, further solidifying her resolve to go through with this plan.

We know how the rest goes: Team Cosmos comes back, going "WE WON =D"

Then Chaos shows up to complete the gambit—destroying Cosmos's already weakened physical body.

Little does he know that her spirit lives on inside of her warriors and the crystals.

In a way, the temporary waif-goddess was a perfect screen for her plan. No one would have suspected a thing.

[jiangryudo.livejournal.com]

I totally fangirl Cosmos too! Out of the two deities I think she's the more involved and more fleshed out in terms of character. Although the Reports really have helped me to sympathise with Chaos, they're not enough. I do understand where he is coming from, his suffering and torment but I still didn't get to know him enough to actually like him! (Though... I do kind of like Feral Chaos... and I have this crack idea that Cosmos adopts him as her puppy in some A/U world ... ah.. crack scenes...)

Anyway, yes, I agree with your points. Cosmos does seem to care for her flock and she does involve herself - at first in the most limited sense as she adheres to the 'rules' of their little 'game' (life changing earth shattering conflict to anyone else...) by offering advice and using her powers to enlist those that want to be enlisted. Gradually, however, that adherence to the rules is morphed (and I like that, too. That she was able to take charge!)

The end of 012 was pretty impressive, it was wonderful to see her stand up and take charge. She defended the warriors that she had developed a strong bond with. All along she's made it clear, in snippets, that she longs to end the conflict - I assume at first as per Cid / her own wishes and to soothe Chaos, but once her Warrior's are summoned I believe her desire is to save them, too. Perhaps in the end that desire to protect the Warriors who risk their lives, memories and bodies for her, becomes the driving force that causes her rebellion against the 'divine onlookers'.... /ramble...

[railenthe.livejournal.com]

Your ramblings are pretty much dead on actually.

Only reason I haven't spoiled the entirety of 000 yet (in which we get a lot of the explanation, and in which I lost my OUTRIGHT HATE for Chaos) is because I kinda want to see everyone else go "…Oh hells" the same way I did. XD

[jiangryudo.livejournal.com]

:3 D'aww thanks, it's nice to be on the same page but then it's also nice to see different opinions too (provided they don't suck / are along the lines of: Dissidia!Terra is an example of what a Female Main Character should be... U:< that sort of opinion would cause me to go fffff--acepalm...)

:3 Yes I agree, 000 is really quite interesting and I'm glad S-E made it. Clears up a few of the issues and gives some life to the characters that are otherwise unknowns.

(Oh, BTW, I made some Cosmos icons they're in my journal if you did want one!)

[railenthe.livejournal.com]

Yee~! *zoom*

As I said on Day 13, she kinda got derailed. Luckily for S-E's heads they fixed it.

[jiangryudo.livejournal.com]

Yes, lucky for them indeed! An angry mob of passionate fans is what they should be avoiding like Geostigma!

:3