app: melodiesoflife

[wellnow]

Character (Original Universe)
Name: Kuja
Age: 24
Gender: Genderfluid? Uses he/him.
Canon: Final Fantasy IX
Canon Point: Endgame
History: Wikia.

Personality:

Kuja, while eloquent and sophisticated in most things, is almost entirely a sham. He plays a charade with everyone, becoming someone he isn't. This way, he can keep hold of the situation and keep it under his thumb. It’s also because of how childlike he can be. When he was created, he was fully grown into his twenty-some year old body, with no emotional development. This makes showcasing his emotions difficult when they're not on an extreme spectrum, such as high levels of anger or happiness. Being subtle doesn't suit Kuja. All the world's a stage, and Kuja has to have top billing. Otherwise, he'll probably destroy a planet or two. That's how his personality works, at least from the outside. Again, Kuja fakes a lot of his personality. When he came to Gaia with all of his plans, he knew that he would have to use nobility to get him what he wanted.

He acts pompous and entitled because he perceives those things as the best and to be the best he has to look the part. He wears fancy clothing and jewelry, puts on an air of importance he doesn't actually have, and uses the art of manipulation to handle the rest. This way, he's able to coerce Queen Brahne into using her wealth and power in his favor along with other important Gaian nobles. In Treno, he uses his beauty and his status in high society to party. With a little luck and tons of natural confidence, Kuja pulls off his "noble" farce. Kuja loves to play the part, even if he doesn't truly belong. Though created as a literal weapon of mass destruction, Kuja ignores his destiny in favor of being beautiful and delicate and loved by others. Being needed is something Kuja requires, no matter what type of attention it is. This naive behavior is toxic, but he revels in it.

The narcissism isn't a facade. While Kuja does have this fake, pompous personality, he uses it to achieve new heights. Everything Kuja gains is for himself, because he feels as though life is against him. His creator abandoned him for a new "superior" brother (the game's main character, Zidane,) and thus Kuja began to fight for himself. He feels neglected, a reject in Garland's eyes. He's only suited for one thing, and if Zidane is intended to be superior well... he'll show them! He goes to great lengths to find the things that will hurt both Zidane and Garland, and what they're afraid of. Garland is afraid of the eidolons and their power, so Kuja learns how to summon and control them. Using Queen Brahne, he gains one of the most powerful summons in the game and uses it to burn Alexandria to the ground simply because she insulted him.

His entitled rage doesn't end there, either. He murders her and takes out his aggression on her daughter afterward. He's not someone who lets go of a grudge. Everything he does to lead up to the destruction of Terra and his forced Trance is to get back at Garland for "abandoning" him sixteen-some odd years prior to the game's start. Kuja believes he deserves the world and if it doesn't meet his standard he'll destroy it too. His ego is about as big as a planet while also being self conflicted too. He does all of these things for such a selfish purpose it's not hard to see how hurt (justified or not) he is beneath it.

Everyone wants Kuja to be a fake person, even Kuja himself. He knows what different people expect of him, be it the fancy aristocrat he poses as in Gaia or the destructive killing machine Garland purposed him to be. It's unclear if Kuja really knows what he should be (or what he wants to be, for that matter.) He's gone so far to hide his own self that maybe what was there to begin with is lost. It's pretty obvious, with how he hides what he truly is. As a Genome, Kuja has a long prehensile "monkey" tail, but he conceals it. Garland explains to Zidane that Kuja wishes to run from what he really is, that being a Genome sent to destroy Gaia. The idea that he hides this part of him is very telling of how he might feel about himself. By the end of the game, Kuja gives up on his plans to take over the world and instead destroy it because he finds out he's not immortal and that he will one day die. Because of this, he decides that no one else should live either and tries to kill everyone along with himself. This shows how alone he feels as well, as if he thinks no one else could ever want him to live the life he has and instead only thinking about how he has "no time left".

Even though Zidane says over and over that this isn't what he should do, and in the end comes back for Kuja when he faces certain immediate death due to his actions to save him, Kuja rejects it. He only focuses on the negative things about himself, how he can't Trance naturally and that he's "only" built for destruction. Because of this, it leads to a lot of depression. Though we don't see it after endgame (as it's extremely vague if he dies or Zidane rescues him,) playing him from this canon point would pose a lot of "what if" scenarios. Though it's headcanon, I think it would take a while for Kuja to pull himself back out of this depressive mindset. While no longer at a critical, suicidal level, he would need to restructure his confidence to suit his needs yet again. He won't see any reason for anyone to care about him, because despite how self absorbed he seems to be he really doubts he could find the same friendships that he saw in Zidane and his companions.

Kuja is obsessed with things. Like a child, Kuja finds himself wanting to possess just about anything that catches his eye. If it’s shiny, he wants it; if it’s powerful, he wants it. His emotions are so slanted toward what he wants and what he refuses to let go of that he can come off with an almost naive selfishness in this light. He takes these emotions to new heights when his feelings get out of control and he literally destroys an entire planet simply because he finds out he can’t have something. Of course, he finds out he can’t have eternal life, but the way he throws himself into a fit of unavoidably cataclysmic rage is best described as a tantrum. He yells and kills indiscriminately. Compared to his carefully calculated “fancy” facade he’s created for himself prior to this in the game, seeing him force himself into Trance and blowing up Terra is intense. Beyond that, his possessiveness can be felt over others as well as his own self and things he sees as wealth. When faced with the idea of dying while others live, his first impulse is to destroy everything, because: “Why should the world exist without me? That wouldn’t be fair.”

Kuja’s misunderstanding of simple, basic human feelings is displayed here clearly. Garland didn’t design him with empathy in mind. Whether or not he learned and grew from his experiences with Zidane are left up to interpretation, but it’s clear that Kuja was not developed enough to handle the complex emotions that Zidane's existence threw at him. Like others in Final Fantasy IX, Kuja is also struggling to find the meaning of his own life beyond the purpose Garland carved out for him. A simple, innocent way to explain his obsessions would be to equate it like this; Kuja's obsessions over things like fashion and beauty are shallow. He likes those things because he likes them, or because they give him an advantage in status. His obsessions over things like plays, where he memorizes every single line and crafts his entire life story around being the tragic hero and training his speech into long purple prose over and over and over until he lives and breathes those things is much more intense. He needs those things to feel in control of his life.

Control is another key issue in Kuja’s personality. Kuja expects to have control in every situation, and plans accordingly for it. He’s cunning enough to think up elaborate schemes and plots, always proclaiming himself the victor before he’s even started. When Zidane and his party come to Kuja’s Desert Palace to confront him, he already has sandpits waiting to trap them. When Zidane goes on his fool’s errand at the threat of his friends being hurt, Kuja already has a plan to manipulate Zidane to his will even if the other party members manage to escape their cells before he can return. He feeds off of Zidane’s will to help people, because it’s just another form of control he can assert over him. When he was presented with Zidane as a baby, when Garlan created him, Kuja had no idea how to handle him.

He also couldn't cope with the idea that something else would be superior over him, and not having control of the situation caused him to cast Zidane down into Gaia as a baby instead of taking care of him or raising him or whatever Garland had planned to have Kuja do. Another example of his childish need for control is that he doesn't kill Zidane, he lets him live so that he can grow and Kuja can prove he’s superior to him after all. Killing him could be so much easier, but the control of the situation is what is important to Kuja. He's so bossy, there's no real word for it besides that. He shoves his feelings and opinions into things without caring about other people and expects everything to be done for him once he's dictated it. Even if Kuja was loved and cared for and pampered, he would still crave this control.

When Zidane shows he cares, even if it's only to tell Kuja to stop this, to not die, I believe Kuja begins to change for the better a tiny bit. Something in his heart grows and he uses the last of his magic to save them from Necron before he pulls them into the void. I feel like this shows that Kuja is growing, finally, seeing people expressing an emotional bond in front of him. At the end of the game, Kuja admits that he's found meaning after so long. "Then, I finally realized what it means to live... I guess I was too late." In his last moments (or what he assumes will be his last moments,) Kuja is given another purpose.

He gives Zidane and his friends a chance to live, when everything before that was simply for Kuja himself and his selfishness. He transports them out of the fight, and when Zidane comes back for him he's almost offended than Zidane is there trying to ruin his "moment". If he dies a martyr, he probably thinks that he can be a hero for using the last of his magic to save them. It's selfish still, because everything about Kuja is melodramatic and selfish, but the growth he shows in his last moments is what's important. If he got a second chance to live, perhaps things could be different.

Mognet Sample:

(Written in the most pretentious, looping cursive imaginable;)

To my dearest little brother,

It's entirely regrettable that you've also found your way here. To imagine that you had to be torn away from your little companions so suddenly must be terrible! Perhaps they are back at home mourning you, as if you died, when you've simply found yourself on another "adventure". They do so seem the emotional types, don't they? Perhaps someone shall write a play in your honor. Of course, you mustn't let that sort of thing go to your head. When you manage to return, I suppose they'll be completely angry you've deceived them. That will be fun, certainly. If only I could bear witness to it!

Won't you be devastated when your precious little canary rejects you for abandoning her in such a time of need? Who will you find your comfort in then? These are things you must take into consideration, Zidane. I'm only looking out for your as your loving, elder brother. (Here, the Moogle has drawn a small ♥.) If I don't, who will?

It's only because I love you so much that I remind you of these anxieties. Remember that.

Sincerely yours,

Kuja

(The sarcastic tone is sort of lost on the poor Moogle.)

Crystallis
Moogle Name: Eris
Moogle Gender: Female.
First Job: Summoner
Second Job: Red Mage
Limit Break: TRANCE. Kuja's is artificial, though, and it would be incredibly difficult for it to work properly outside of his own game.
Trance cures status ailments and pushes the user into an elevated state of strength and power, making the chance for critical hits and extra attacks. This lasts a short while, in most cases.