FF6 Rant Time
It's no secret I thought Final Fantasy VI was overrated. I didn't think it was bad, I just never thought it was super-great. Summer makes me bored, so I just played it for an hour or so, and have come up with the following rant about how one of the first key plot points makes very little sense:
It is remarked that magic will be the key for the Returners to win the war against the Empire. The game never explains what differentiates Terra's magic from that of Celes or Kefka; that is, it never really tries to show that her ability to use it naturally is somehow special or superior to being able to use it artificially (At least, not until she goes all half-Esper, anyway). From this, we could infer that Banon 'n Friends would get a similar amount of cream in their jeans if, say, Celes defected from the Empire and knocked on the Returners' door before Terra did.
However: The Empire is shown to have the ability to artificially create magic users. The resistance does not possess this capability. And so, if it was just the ability to use magic that'd decide the outcome of the war, the Empire would have far fewer limits on their supply of magic than any resistance force could ever muster, since the latter would be relying solely on defectors.
Let's play along for a second and pretend that Terra has markedly more control over the forces of magic than the artificial magic users (Without morphing, since it's not until she goes around burning cities that this power is revealed). At the point in the game when everyone is flipping out that Terra can use magic, the stuff she can use is, at best, slightly stronger than what anyone else can do. In fact, provided you don't overlevel like crazy, Edgar's Tools remain at least comparable, and usually much stronger than anything Terra or Celes would learn naturally prior to you getting the first Espers. So even if we assume that the game downplays Terra's abilities somewhat for the sake of balance, we still have to keep in mind that she had to have been able to be subdued by the Empire's forces (What do they say? Eight Magitek soldiers, I think?), which means they couldn't have downplayed it that much. Let's not even consider how the Fire Beam and Healing Force of the Magitek armor you start the game in are both stronger than Terra's starting spells.
Tools, therefore, are at least a mediocre but workable substitute for the strength of magic. The difference is, Terra's only one person who can use magic. Prior to the party meeting Ramuh, nobody could be taught magic; it was either an ability you had or you didn't. Tools could be mass-produced and soldiers could be trained in their use. If Terra's ability was a remarkable triumph of magic even at the beginning of the game, we'd have to assume that Fire and Cure are pretty much what people in the game world think magic is capable of.
By what possible logic, then, could Edgar be led to believe that a single magic user would be instrumental to toppling the Empire (based solely on her ability to use magic and not any of the knowledge about her character that would only come later to the group)?
If I was Locke, and I just saw Edgar lay flat a wave of wild animals with an automatic crossbow, and then Terra be hardly more effective with magic, my response wouldn't be "M-M-M-M-M-MAGIC?!", it'd be more like "This is what Banon is pinning all the hopes of the revolution on? Man, we're screwed."
It is remarked that magic will be the key for the Returners to win the war against the Empire. The game never explains what differentiates Terra's magic from that of Celes or Kefka; that is, it never really tries to show that her ability to use it naturally is somehow special or superior to being able to use it artificially (At least, not until she goes all half-Esper, anyway). From this, we could infer that Banon 'n Friends would get a similar amount of cream in their jeans if, say, Celes defected from the Empire and knocked on the Returners' door before Terra did.
However: The Empire is shown to have the ability to artificially create magic users. The resistance does not possess this capability. And so, if it was just the ability to use magic that'd decide the outcome of the war, the Empire would have far fewer limits on their supply of magic than any resistance force could ever muster, since the latter would be relying solely on defectors.
Let's play along for a second and pretend that Terra has markedly more control over the forces of magic than the artificial magic users (Without morphing, since it's not until she goes around burning cities that this power is revealed). At the point in the game when everyone is flipping out that Terra can use magic, the stuff she can use is, at best, slightly stronger than what anyone else can do. In fact, provided you don't overlevel like crazy, Edgar's Tools remain at least comparable, and usually much stronger than anything Terra or Celes would learn naturally prior to you getting the first Espers. So even if we assume that the game downplays Terra's abilities somewhat for the sake of balance, we still have to keep in mind that she had to have been able to be subdued by the Empire's forces (What do they say? Eight Magitek soldiers, I think?), which means they couldn't have downplayed it that much. Let's not even consider how the Fire Beam and Healing Force of the Magitek armor you start the game in are both stronger than Terra's starting spells.
Tools, therefore, are at least a mediocre but workable substitute for the strength of magic. The difference is, Terra's only one person who can use magic. Prior to the party meeting Ramuh, nobody could be taught magic; it was either an ability you had or you didn't. Tools could be mass-produced and soldiers could be trained in their use. If Terra's ability was a remarkable triumph of magic even at the beginning of the game, we'd have to assume that Fire and Cure are pretty much what people in the game world think magic is capable of.
By what possible logic, then, could Edgar be led to believe that a single magic user would be instrumental to toppling the Empire (based solely on her ability to use magic and not any of the knowledge about her character that would only come later to the group)?
If I was Locke, and I just saw Edgar lay flat a wave of wild animals with an automatic crossbow, and then Terra be hardly more effective with magic, my response wouldn't be "M-M-M-M-M-MAGIC?!", it'd be more like "This is what Banon is pinning all the hopes of the revolution on? Man, we're screwed."