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ibiography

 

Like everyone else, Vivi's story extends before and beyond what's seen in Final Fantasy IX. Here I attempt to piece together a linear path of the little black mage's history based on what's presented in the game's plot.

At Kuja's instruction, a model prototype for a new, artificial weapon is created by manipulating the byproduct of the Iifa tree's refining process: Mist. Kuja calls this weapon a "black mage" due to the powerful, offensive magic the weapon is capable of producing. One of the first of these weapons produced is Vivi.

At some point, Kuja looses or discards Vivi. Vivi "awakens" at the foot of a mountainous cliff, not knowing who he is or where he's come from. An exiled member of the Qu clan, Quan, is living in a cave within the cliff face. Vivi sees something in the crevasse at his side, and almost falls in while looking at it. Quan saves him and, seeing that he's lost his memory, takes him in.

quote Vivi § Grandpa helped me...I haven't liked heights ever since. quote

Vivi grows up in Quan's Dwelling, developing his personality while loosing the puppet-esque identity. Quan, however, is old, and soon his age catches up with him. Vivi isn't able to do much when he stops eating, and eventually passes away. Alone and afraid, Vivi ventures out into the world.

Vivi finds his way to Alexandria, and purchases what he believes is a legitimate ticket to see Tantalus' play, "I Want to be Your Canary". There, his story begins...

Some time after Zidane leaves the group to go to a dying Kuja, Vivi is off on his own, possibly having returned to the Black Mage Village. Through some process — perhaps by finding the other surviving prototypes of his type, or even by creating others like himself — Vivi begets a family of black mages that look exactly like him. These black mages call themselves Vivi's sons.

quote Vivi § I always talked about you, Zidane. How you were a special person to us, because you taught us all how important life is. quote

Some debate exists about whether or not Vivi is alive at this point. No.288 had warned Vivi that the black mages had a set life cycle, but that the prototype before them — Vivi's prototype — had a longer life span. Vivi's sons are shown having just arrived in Alexandria for the first time, all alone. Vivi isn't with them.

This seems to insinuate Vivi has "stopped", like the other black mages from Black Mage Village before him. Further, you'd think Vivi would show up for a gathering of old friends and free passes to see Tantalus on stage. But an alternate take on this scene has Vivi waiting "back home", wherever that might be, and having sent his children in his stead to have their own adventure and see a Tantalus play — he'd already seen "I Want to be Your Canary", after all. And no one but Tantalus knew Zidane had returned.

Whether Vivi lives on or not is a mystery of Final Fantasy IX, but in either case, he's passed his legacy on to his children, who are sure to pass it on to the next generation of black mages, should they come into being.

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