Would like to discuss Final Fantasy IX plot with somebody incredibly knowledgeable about the game

[Username]

Why did Vivi have such a problem with the other black mage bitches?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Username, if you have something valuable to contribute, do so. If you're just in this thread to troll and/or be a drunk putz, do so elsewhere. And I don't mean elsewhere on the site.

 

[TantalusZT]

Hey Ariadne, I sent another message on GameFaqs because I stumbled upon a new quote that puts a twist on things. Let me know how you feel when you get the chance.

 

[Username]

Username, if you have something valuable to contribute, do so. If you're just in this thread to troll and/or be a drunk putz, do so elsewhere. And I don't mean elsewhere on the site.

It was a genuine question ffs.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Hey Ariadne, I sent another message on GameFaqs because I stumbled upon a new quote that puts a twist on things. Let me know how you feel when you get the chance.

Dude, I am so sorry I missed this until now.

For anyone still curious about what's been discussed, Tantalus asked me this question in a private message on GameFAQs:

Hey I thought I was on the right track with my ideas here, but I was reading over this quote by Garland and now I'm confused again. Take a look

Garland talking to Zidane in Memoria:

"That is a picture of Gaia being assimilated by Terra. Five thousand years ago, Terra, alrady an old planet, sought to assimilate Gaia. Terra needed to merge with a younger planet to survive. However, there was already life on Gaia. And so, the story began... Life on Terra was coming to an end... We had no choice but to proceed with the fusion, which tragically destroyed Terra's native civilisations. Terra was too old to assimilate everything. Thus, I created the Iifa Tree to regulate the flow of souls back to Terra"

Say what, regulate the flow of souls back to Terra? 0_o?? I thought the Gaian souls were discarded as mist and Terra's souls were going into Gaia's cycle? What does all this mean here? I feel this game contradicts itself sometimes

Given that I made you wait so long, I decided to make sure I gave you a valuable response, so I checked the Japanese form of those lines you gave me there. Here they are:

そしてそのガイアを取り込もうとしているテラだ。今から５千年の昔、すでに老いた星であったテラは、新しい命の星を見つけ、その星を取り込もうとした・・・しかしその対象となったガイアには、すでに生命があった。それが全ての始まりだったのだ・・・

テラの命は燃え尽きようとしていた・・・ためらう余裕はなかった。そして強引な融合によってガイアの文明は崩壊した。しかし老いたテラにはすべてを取り込む力は残っていなかった。私はイーファの樹を創り出し、ゆっくりと魂の流れを変えていくことにした・・・

The last line is really the critical one, but I figured I'd be thorough and post the Japanese form of all the lines you'd quoted.

You'll notice that the "regulate the flow of souls back to Terra" comment isn't there in the original text. Garland just says that he intended for the Iifa Tree to slowly change the flow of souls.

Hope that clears things up now. =)