#argath

[pixelpulp]

My second cover for Retronauts' "book club" series on Final Fantasy Tactics, wherein I return to talk about that rollercoaster of an opening act for *checks timestamps* three more hours. You can listen to it here!

Part 1 artwork and episode here

[umbrasdoodles]

I still have some Final Fantasy Tactics doodles in me. Here is an Argath redraw I couldn't get out of my head. 

[picayunetown]

watching my partner play through Final Fantasy Tactics for, I think, the seventh time (over the past... nearly thirty years, yikes) and thinking, once again, that the perfect mod for this game would be one that did nothing but change every instance of the name 'Argath' or 'Algus' to 'Asshole'

[betterdiscothandead]

Yo Ramza my guy imma need you to reach over and smack Final Fantasy Draco Malfoy here in the mouth.

[tifa-lockhartss]

They really chose a great voice for Argath I really hate his guts

[apbdelarium]

This is For Tietra Asshole *Hey Hand Reveal* plus it’s a Fake Airsoft gun not a Real Firearm! lol

[lonescion-archive]

Argath steps back from the screen, more towards the shadows of the strange place he is in. 

“Ah. I finally got this thrice-damned mirror to work! ...At least... I’d imagine it’s a mirror. Though it may very well be magical... it seems to ‘remember’ my words in some capacity. This should be int--” He is interrupted by words appearing at the top of the screen. “Read... this?” The blonde rolls his eyes. “Ugh. Very well-- ahem. I am open for asks and requests, should you find reason to pester me here... What do you mean I read it wrong?!”  ((OOC: WE ARE OPEN, BABY! Hope you all enjoy this little rp/ask blog and the story that may well be implemented soon! ))

[endeavorsreward]

So long as we’re on the subject of Aerith...

“Such is the nature of fate, Ramza! That commoner and his sister ought never have been here at all! Had they been mongering flowers on some street corner, she would yet live.“

“Few stop these days, and even fewer buy.”

“Seems to me as you’d earn a lot more selling that tinder-box o’ yours than them flowers!”

This whole sequence is pretty vicious in retrospect. What better sign of Algus/Argath’s class privilege?

Aerith is only saved here because of Cloud’s appearance, a supernatural, near-divine impossibility. Her fate, like no doubt so many in Sal Ghidos, was to suffer outrageous misfortune. And Algus/Argath considers this a viable alternative for Delita and Tietra, their appointed station, suggests it would be “safer” for them if they only minded their place.

Ivalice, like our own world, is not safe for the poor and oppressed. Those who suggest “nobility” in maintaining a status quo and fulfilling a class role always speak in terms of maintaining a superiority--and nearly always a fragile one, at that, for Algus/Argath’s hold on his station is very fragile indeed.

“Honest work would see them die old in bed, yet they choose instead this early grave. Why persist in such folly?”

Ramza, of course, is no different at the story’s onset. Chapter one is quite blatant about checking his privilege. No matter how many terrible men profess their love for Final Fantasy Tactics, the game (even with its flaws) was always about the sort of things that would get it tagged “SJW” in today’s gaming climate.