Predictions and Conflict Over the Plot of Final Fantasy Dissidia 012 (Duodecim)

It’s not a soap opera until you bring amnesia into it

Cid certainly was talking about his wife when he spoke of the one he loved and could not replace. Against that, I offer no argument. That being said, he was not, however, speaking of her clone when he spoke of this “being of harmony.” He was simply lamenting that despite the amazing things he had been able to achieve before, he could not perform a miracle like bringing his wife back to him.

As we’ve covered above, Cid could not have created the clone of his wife in the first place given that he was imprisoned at the time of its creation, and — as we’ve also covered already — he did not create Cosmos, for she has existed since time immemorial as the embodiment of Harmony.

So, again, what is the true identity of this “being of harmony”?

Though even amongst fans who agree that this being was created from Chaos’s lost memories there is some measure of disagreement, I believe the answer to this riddle is none other than Garland. While, as some say, the Warrior of Light — who, like Chaos, has no memories of his past — seems like a good fit for a description as a “being of harmony,” given that Chaos himself could be characterized as a god of balance and one who suppressed disorder when performing his proper function and not being manipulated by Cid, we shouldn’t necessarily be equating light with harmony to begin with.

Treating that matter as neutral as far as both Garland and the Warrior of Light are concerned, let us look to whom the other evidence points.

First, we know already that Garland and Chaos have some inherent association given that Garland becomes Chaos in the original Final Fantasy. That gives Garland an inherent association with the ethereal discord that Chaos governs as well.

Furthermore, Garland seems to recognize Chaos’s lost memories for what they are when he speaks of his dream, expressing some mix of shock and recognition, admitting his role in manipulating Chaos, and revealing to Chaos the link between them. As someone apparently created from those very memories that Chaos had lost, and as one also aware of the connection that exists between the two of them, it’s to be expected that he would recognize Chaos’s culled memories when he mentioned regaining them.

For more compelling evidence, let us look at Chaos Report #4, which mentions the “knight driven by hatred” that Cid/the Great Will employed in his service to “stand at the right hand of discord” and carry out his wishes. Of course, this is Garland. He did a good bit of standing near Chaos’s throne during Dissidia, and admitted to the god that he had manipulated him per the Great Will’s wishes.

What’s important to look at in Cid’s description of the knight is that he characterized him as “driven by hatred.” Looking at Cosmos Report #6, this sounds similar to someone else — the child who had power over the ethereal discord: “His eyes were vacant, a hazy flash of hatred flickering deep within them.”

As well, Chaos Report #4 also explicitly mentions a relationship between the ethereal discord and the knight: “Discord had called to him…or perhaps it was he who called discord to himself.”

While I will concede that this interpretation of the origins of Cosmos, Chaos and Cid’s adopted son (Garland) leaves the Warrior of Light as the odd man out on getting an origin, I do think that it is the most cohesive, comprehensive conclusion available, and that we can expect to see it fleshed out further in Duodecim. As well, I think we can expect to see some backstory information for the Warrior of Light himself — perhaps some association between himself and Cosmos, similar to that between Garland and Chaos.

Another theory I’ve kicked around is that she may have created four such warriors from the elemental crystals of the first Final Fantasy’s world — seeing as how the first FF world is the core of Dissidia’s Katamari ball-like world, and that Chaos, Cosmos and Cid are apparently all native to that world.

We’re probably less likely to see things go in this direction, though I think it would be a nice fit. There are four Warriors of Light in the first Final Fantasy, each with a crystal shard that corresponds to the four elemental crystals, and the blue Warrior of Light seen in Dissidia apparently gained his shard for the Water Crystal from Cosmos in the final round of the war.

Furthermore, the crystals in the first Final Fantasy were related to regulating balance in that world, just as Chaos and Cosmos are vital to the balance of the omniverse — and that world seemingly is where Chaos and Cosmos reside.