User blog:Emeraldblade95/Pure Good Reproposal: Celes Chere



A little over a week ago, I made a proposal about Celes Chere from Final Fantasy VI. The results were inconclusive, so I decided to wait awhile before making a new one, which is what you guys and gals are reading now. I hope this time, an actual conclusion will be made this time.

What is the Work?
Final Fantasy VI, also known as Final Fantasy III in its initial release in North America, is the sixth installment of the iconic role-playing series of the aforementioned name. Unlike previous titles, the sixth game breaks away from the medieval atmosphere to a more industrial/victorian era one.

The game tells the story about a group of heroes called the Returners who are opposed to a corrupt Emperor Gestahl; the emperor desires power, but his court jester (later army general) Kefka Palazzo desires to destroy the universe, and becomes the main villain in the game as a result.

Who is She? What has She Done?
Celes Chere is one of the main characters in the game. She was imprisoned by the emperor after she spoke up against his policies, and was deemed a traitor and awaiting execution as a result. She escapes thanks to the help of one member of the returners named Locke Cole, whom she develops romantic feelings for in-game not long afterwards. She begins to question her morality until she and the returners confront the emperor and Kefka during the middle of the game, where the emperor paralyzes all but Celes, he offers Celes to join him and Kefka in exchange for both shared power and clearing her of her crimes in his empire; realizing that both of them are truly evil, she defiantly refuses and attacks Kefka to stop him from moving the statues of the triad (which in turn would give him god-like powers), this fails and Kefka knocks out Celes and the rest of the Returners as well as kills the emperor.

During the second half of the game, Celes wakes up from a coma after being saved by the Emperor's Scientist Cid Del Norte Marquez, who defected against Kefka after learning his true intentions. The scientist reveals that Kefka had obtained near-godlike powers and was in the process of destroying all life in the universe, and before leaving him, Celes tries to care for him back to health (his fate is determinate on whether Celes feeds him enough food or not).

Celes later regroups with the Returners and confronts Kefka, who expresses to her how meaningless life is. Celes denounces his claim, expressing her love for Locke and her friendship with the other Returners as a reason for having a meaning in life. She battles the the Statue of the Gods before confronting Kefka himself in his god form, where she and the other Returners defeat Kefka, causing the world to revert back to normal and the evil jester to cease to exist for his heinous crime.

Corrupting Factors
During the first half of the game, Celes questions her moral alignment on whether to side with the Returners or the Emperor. Despite an uneasy beginning, Celes comes to realize that siding with the Emperor was wrong and that the Returners are in fact the true good guys, and chooses to ultimately betray the Emperor to prevent him and Kefka from obtaining god-like powers and ruling the world with and unstoppable iron fist.

Celes has been shown to be suicidal if Cid dies, but fails to do the action when she learns that Locke and the Returners are alive after failing to stop Kefka during the Part One finale.

Celes does attack and attempt to kill Kefka, but I argue that this was justified as not only self-defense, but to also prevent the destruction of the Universe.

Admirable Standards
Although not the overall main protagonist of the game, one can argue that Celes does stand out by the fact that the game explores her character very in-depth compared to other major characters such as Terra Branford and Locke.

An excellent example of a tragic heroine, Celes struggles to cope with the loss of Cid (if he dies) and the possibility that the world may end. She does however overcome both major obstacles, as she learns the true meaning of friendship and the reason to live the life she has.

Celes hates the emperor, but strongly despises Kefka for his nihilistic views and the fact that he shows no remorse in killing many innocent bystanders (which as a result has been labelled as a Pure Evil villain on Villain's Wiki). Upon learning that he plans to destroy all life in the Universe, Celes becomes determined that he must be stopped, and risks her life to prevent him from succeeding.

Finally, Celes cares deeply about her friends in-game, especially Locke. Although initially showing reluctance to help the Returners, she later renounces this view and begins to help them willingly after Kefka begins withering away all life in the Universe.

Final Verdict
As I said in the previous proposal, the Final Fantasy series is to an extent rather dark, so the presence of showing difficulty to determine if Celes is Pure Good or not will not surprise me, but hopefully this proposal will be able to convince you all otherwise.