FFIX Post-Game and Name Discussion

[zidane]

Item the first: Now that I have something almost resembling an outline, I'm starting to wonder if I won't be shooting part of my premise in the foot re: the living status of minor characters.



So. I'm basing the conflict in my story in part due to Burmecia's status after the end of the game. Where Lindblum and Alexandria are shown to progress to/make full recoveries, our only shot of a post-crisis Burmecia is the one shown in the ending between Freya and Fratley, and there has been no change: Burmecia looks just as battered as it did on Disc 1, minus the bodies littering the streets. I'm figuring that Burmecia was a relatively poor country before the war and would only be worse afterward. Related to this, and finally getting to my point:

What the heck happened to the King of Burmecia? Can it be assumed that he died when Brahne summoned Odin? Or is it likely he survived, like Oracle Kildea and (optionally) Quina?


Item the second: Something which has always confounded me is just what to do with Garnet/Dagger's name. Should I always refer to her as "Garnet," unless she is being spoken to as someone who would address her as "Dagger?" Is there an established convention for how to deal with characters who have aliases?

Comments

[lassarina]

If we're talking post-game, the Queen has (in my mind) reclaimed her Garnet identity and would be thought of as such, though in moments of intimacy the playable party would likely call her Dagger (minus Steiner, and I imagine Beatrix never unbends that far.)

As far as the King of Burmecia, I suppose it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. We do know that Puck lived, so Burmecia has the option of being rebuilt. And I think Freya had decided to do that, had she not? It might also be that they were in a part of the city that wasn't as important to rebuild right away.

[zidane]

Well, her identity as "Garnet" really went un-claimed: she introduces herself as such to Artania, Cid, and Hilda (or well, Hilda is implied, I suppose, since she can't actually speak at that point), but she's "Dagger" to Eiko. She has no reason to hide her identity from Eiko (and in fact doesn't, as Eiko asks "how come you got to be a princess?"). The only identity she well and truly lost is "Sarah." So I assume she thinks of herself as "Dagger" as much as she does "Garnet." The question is, what is the least confusing way to refer to her outside of dialogue? When writing third person limited with Zidane, it feels more natural to call her "Dagger" because that's how he thinks of her, but I also plan on alternating chapters from her perspective and possibly have her go undercover all over again.

So if I wrote how I felt was "in character" my chapters would end up something like:

Ch 1. (Zidane)
Dagger liked pie. "A splendid idea," said Cid. "Garnet has always preferred pecan!"
Ch 2. (Garnet)
Garnet liked pie. "What do you think, Dagger?" asked Zidane.
Ch 3. (Zidane)
Dagger liked pie. "How generous of Queen Garnet to share her pie with me," Steiner sobbed, moved beyond reason.
Ch 4. (Garnet, undercover again)
Dagger liked pie. She snuck up on the thieves, who snickered "Hehe, we took Garnet's last slice!"

To a fan of the game, I would assume that this is a non-issue, but as a style thing it's bothering me :\

As for Burmecia, I'm thinking a war-torn country with a dead monarch would be more unstable than one with a king who survived.

[ryuosen.livejournal.com]

Well Garnet is the Queen now, so I suppose that most would call her "highness" now or something similar. And her friends would probably call her Garnet with Zidane (if he appears) bein cheeky and still calling her Dagger.

As for Burmecia, it's mentioned that Freya wanted to rebuild. Although we don't know when the scene between her and Frately takes place so you have quite room for your own ideas there. The King also survived, I think quite a few did even though the tree was split. As you can see when you visit the site if I remember correctly. But I might be an optimist.

[zidane]

... Can you re-enter the Cleyra site? I'll have to check that out.

[ryuosen.livejournal.com]

I think you could visit the stump, but I'm not 100% sure. However some survived and are scattered over the whole world. So rebuilding is definitely possible.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

I don't know about FFIX specifically, but the established convention for characters with multiple names is to use the name that the character identifies with (except for dialogue, of course). So if she thinks of herself as Garnet, she's Garnet, and if she thinks of herself as Dagger, she's Dagger, no matter what anyone else is calling her. The only exception might be Zidane's chapters, if you're dead set on third person limited, and from a stylistic standpoint it might be useful to indicate the switch more clearly. Don't you think?

[zidane]

the established convention for characters with multiple names is to use the name that the character identifies with (except for dialogue, of course)

Ah, that's great to know! I was searching for a style guide or something like that for information like this, but my google searches keep coming up with programming-related answers.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Glad I could help! For the record, that isn't from a style guide so I guess it could be wrong, but it is based off a variety of books, mostly Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness trilogy.

[stealth_noodle]

I never finished FFIX (got busy, couldn't remember what was going on when I tried to get back into it), but for characters with multiple names, it's all about the POV.

In your four examples above, I'd have her consistently "Garnet" in her POV chapters and consistently "Dagger" in Zidane's (aside from dialogue, of course, where her name depends on the speaker). If you think that she identifies as Dagger more than Garnet, she could just be "Dagger" in all the narration, which would probably be the most elegant solution.

[zidane]

Good enough for me. I was trying to think of something I'd read where a character has an established name and a nickname s/he is equally used to being called and for the life of me I could not come up with one.

I also really need to get around to reading Tamora Pierce.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Yep, you definitely do. She has yet to write anything that isn't flat-out amazing.

[pearlrose86.livejournal.com]

This is quite handy for me as well. I'm (attempting and poorly at that) to write some post-IX fic as well, and Dagger/Garnet's dual naming habits always throw me for a bit of a ...loop, as it were.