Furusato - The Place I Call Home *SPOILERS*

[Kuro]

Another day, another FF9 topic that came to mind. Vivi_Stalker, you're the one who gave me inspiration on this one. :) Thank you.

Throughout the game, there's a whole resounding theme of "home," the place I'll return to someday. In Japanese, the term was called furasato, the homeland, the place where you came from. While we've discussed how all of the characters, in some way or another, try to discover their sense of "self" in the game...

How did you think the sense of "home," the sense of belonging, was reflected throughout the game?

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Zidane again is the one very obvious choice in pointing out the theme of belonging. When he was talking to Garland in Pandemonium, Zidane suddenly lost his sense of home. Everything he'd been accustomed to, everything that he'd associated with home... it all seemed to be lost.

"If only I had a place to call home..."

There was the story he told Dagger, in the Black Mage Village. All his life, Zidane knew who his friends were, and he believed he had a family. He thought he had a home, but some dark memory was puzzling him, and that was because he never knew where he came from, where he was born, or who his parents were.

Dagger also had a bit of self-discovery in Madain Sari, when she discovered her birthplace as a summoner. Part of her journey was discovering her heritage as a summoner. She knew that for some reason, who she was, as Princess Garnet, felt incomplete.

All this leads to another thought: Is that why I'm so different?

That thought never bothered Zidane (either that or he just didn't let on much...), but it bothered Dagger. Going through the game, I think that's one way I saw Dagger change the most.

So what did home mean to each of these characters? I think one line from Zidane summed it up quite well. "I'm aware of all the laughter, all the tears I've shared with the people I grew up with on Gaia.... my home is with them!" Ultimately, I think that was the journey each of us read in the game. The journey of coming home, the journey of finding out where you belong.

"I didn't have a choice. I had to come home to you."

There's always a place where we can feel we can look around, and say, "this is it, this is my home." Maybe it takes a lifetime to find it... but maybe that's what makes life worth the journey.

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Any thoughts on this? :)

[Vivi_Stalker]

Wow...Thanks Kuro, that post I made took a couple hours, and quite a few tears. ^_^


I think, in my own way....That the meaning of life is to find your niche. A place where you feel comfortable, at peace. Home.

Home just isn't a place to hang your hat. Home is actually not even a place at all. It's a state of mind. When you're truely at home, it need not even be forever. Through life, we will visit home many times.

Ultimately, in our lives, we will be home. The place where we need to be, in our lives, on earth, and in our own heart. Then we will have truely lived.

[Zidane's True Love]

Enough questions to start an FF9 101 class in my college!

First, let us analyze the definition of home. It is a place you can go to to rest, put your feet up. Economical terms would consider a home as the source of all consumption. However, there are many definitions beyond all those catagories. To summerize, a home is a source of belonging.

Now you're asking how a sense of home is reflected throughout the game. If you think about it deeply, the situation has been stressed dozens of times! To begin, we state the most obvious definitions. Garnet's home is Alexandria. Zidane's home is Lindblum. Vivi's (future) home is Black Mage Village.

Next, we're going a little more philosophical terms. We now state that a home is a place of origin. Garnet finds that her home is Madain Sari. Zidane's home is Bran Bal. Vivi's home is Quan's Dwelling (though if you put it in case terms, Vivi has no place of birth. He's mist).

If you were to put in large scales, planet-wise for instance, home is Gaia. The people of Bran Bal, Garland, and hell even the monsters there, consider Terra to be their home. A place where they can live their lives if they didn't have to go anywhere. Terra, Gaia, etc.

And finally, the home theme is the place of belonging. Where you belong is your home. I know what you might be thinking. Incorrect. Zidane's home is not Garnet. Zidane's home is Alexandria (the castle to be more precisely). Garnet is the one he wants to BE with, and he wants to be with her in this home, this place where he truely feels he belongs.

[Dagger aka Garnet]

I think it kinda showed that..it doesnt matter where you might of come from or who you were suppose to be...Your the one that chooses to be who you are and no one can change that..I think its kinda showed that "home" is where you feel good at and where you feel comfortable and where you love to be. So like home for Zidane..Would be with Garnet ^_^ And at the end.. When she asked "How did you survive..?" and He said "I didnt have a choice..I had to live. I wanted to come home to you..." He knew his home,the place where he belonged, was with her ^_^...Thats what I think..

[Princess_Garny]

Those are all good points. Home is what you call where you live, where you stay at night, where you realx.

Home dosn't necessarily mean where you cam from. For example Zidane is from Terra but he only had vague memories of been there, can you really call that home?

I think home is where you fell at peace, happy or even where you feel you belong. It's like what a black mage said to Vivi, Dosn't traveling around with your friends make you feel truely alive? I think that makes sense I always feel at "home" with my friends or family.

There is the saying "Home is where the heart is." There isn't a better explanation about home than that.