Spira vs. World of Ruin

Nikkolas

Nikkolas

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These two seem to be the top candidaes for "Absolute Worst Place to Live in Final Fantasy". One is ruled by an insane demigod who might kill you any second. The other is ruled by a corrupt theocracy that is helping perpetuate the giant monster that could kill you at any second.

Both worlds are low on hope. FFX had a bit more hope than VI but consequently FFX suffered far worse than FFVI simply because the people in Spira were in a state of despair and fear for an entire millennium.
 
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I'd say WoR had it worse off, because at least Spira had a glimmer of hope with the Summoners. Plus the 9 years Sin wasn't attacking were decent, one would think. And the corrupt theocracy of which you speak seems benevolent to the outside world, so it's not like they were overtly oppressing the people.

WoR, on the other hand, had nothing going for it. The world had already susploded, and Kefka was running things. The only source of entertainment was the Colosseum, and boy was that depressing. Monsters were wickedly strong in places, DoomGaze had been released, along with the 8 Ancient Dragons.....

WoR was much worse off, in my opinion.
 
I'm going to second that World of Ruin would be worse. In Spira, Sin is a random thing, a force of nature, sort of, like a hurricane. Kefka was actively out to get people and make them miserable. Plus, yeah, Spira had the hope of a Calm for a few years, at least.
 
Yeah, I agree with WoR being the worst off...


WoR was
left almost entirely barren
... The landscape was literally
ruined
.... The death toll for the
transformation sequence
, and the
following year
, if you take the small island
Celes was on
as a case study (and perhaps look also at the
town of Mobliz with all the orphaned children
), must have been massive.. In their millions... Many deaths by the
event itself, many more by suicide... Some by starvation as barely anything could grow
...

People were in fear for their lives, not just because of this, but because
Kefka had become a god with the power to smite, not just individual people who opposed him, but whole towns right from the top of his tower.
Kefka was like a magnifying glass to a colony of ants...


Spira on the other hand was relative paradise most of the time... Things grew, the landscape was fantastic... People were capable of being happy. Despite the fear of a
giant flying whale blowing them to smithereens now and then
life seemed pretty good to many people in Spira, so long as Sin wasn't going for them. Blitzball tournaments thrived every now and then, and people enjoyed to play and watch them.



A lot of them also had faith in something, the hope placed on
the Summoners
, and so they could get on with their daily lives. Yeah sure they'd probably have in the back of their minds the possibility that
Sin might come from the waters and tear them apart
, but they knew that a
calm would be on its way
when the summoners set off on their pilgrimages. They didn't have to worry so much about the issues themselves.

It is, like stated by WanderingAesthetic, comparable to nature. I believe the whole concept of Sin, and at least the scene at Kilika is referencing the effects of the Monsoon season on countries like Bangladesh and India. Yes it is depressing and people hate it when it happens to them, but until that point, and in a period of calm, they get on with things. The Hindu-looking design of the world could probably support this.



Back in the WoR... I'm pretty sure that the situation was hopeless for most people. The world had essentially ended and even the main party members were doubting whether they could gather together and succeed against Kefka, let alone having the world behind them believing in them also.
 
You do realize that out of Sin's thousand year existence, only about five people defeated it. if a Calm lasts 10 years then a grand total of 50 out of a thousand were peaceful. Needless to say most people probably weren't too optimistic about a Calm coming in their lifetime. The only reason so many people were cheery about it in FFX was because of Yuna's father's reputation.

And people couldn't just go on with their lives if Sin wasn't around. Why do you think Blitzball and Luca were so popular? As Yuna explained that was pretty much the only thing that people could get togehter and be happy about. Otherwise, if too large a group gathers and a city is built too big, Sin comes and wrecks it.

So you have to live in constant fear of modernization or expansion. There's also the chance even if Sin doesn't come around a monster will kill you anyway. And since only Summoners can give you peace odds are upon death you might become a fiend too.

It's a very bleak world where any hope of change is denied by the threat of the unstoppable killing machine and your only hope for a safe existence is if a miracle happen and a Summoner kills it...for a while.
 
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I'd not realised / forgotten that only 5 calms had ever existed.

Still though, yes people were fearful for Sin, but there was still an essence of hope in Spira. Though most summoners failed, they still cheered them on and wished them well, and if we were to judge this question on the Spira we see (as in Yuna's era Spira) then people put on a brave face and were excited for what Yuna might achieve.

In the WoR however everything was dim... Spira at least had the appearance of a world of paradise... WoR was left a planet ruined, and I doubt many people had hope at all. They didn't have any summoners to put their faith on, or any hope for a calm.. To them they were reduced to the mere playthings of Kefka, and many of them had the mindset that they could do nothing to change that, even for a short while.
 
I would have to say WoR. I WOULD NOT want to live in any world that is under the control of that mad clown's. The fact that his "Light Of Salvation" could call down judgement upon me at any time would be really bad. At least Spira has the Ten Years of calm, which is adequate, at least, and Sin can be avoided to an extent.
 
Both worlds are equally grim, but I still think the slums of Midgar would be one of the worst places to live ever...

Mod Edit: Could you elaborate on why, please? :)
 
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Toukimadoushi said:
Both worlds are equally grim, but I still think the slums of Midgar would be one of the worst places to live ever...
Click to expand...

What a short post... That, and to talk about Midgar, which isn't even mentioned in this thread?

Nevertheless, I disagree with you on this point. Even the slums of Midgar were better off than the World of Ruin, in the sense that there is not much threats around that thoroughly endangers you. Perhaps, there may be monsters from time to time, but those are more easily evaded than in the World of Ruin...

Imagine a beam of light obliterating you. I'd prefer facing a monster than something that virtually strikes when you're least expecting it.

This applies to Spira as well. The years of Calm does allow for some moment of peace, and to a certain extent, Sin may be avoided, though travel would no doubt be scary business. It's certainly better off than the World of Ruin.
 
I assumed it would be pretty self-explanatory...after all, the people of Sector 7 were just going about there daily lives one day when all of a sudden their ceiling fell down, because their neighbouring malevolent corporation decided they wanted to kill 5 or 6 people (AVALANCHE). I wouldn't like to live under the yoke of an evil conglomerate who have no problem with randomly destroying huge sections of the city without a moment's notice.
As for the question of the post, I'd have to go with WoR, as it's a rather barren and harsh place. Spira's at least a bit prettier and infused with a grain of hope (the Summoners). There wasn't much hope in the World of Ruin. When deliberating between the two I just suddenly thought of Midgar.. I figured it was a valid point. Sorry if it wasn't.
 
WOR by far. In Spira, after thousands of years, the threat of Sin would just be a common every day thing. And if you were killed, you would go to the far plane which was a beautiful place. And if your relatives were killed, you could visit them in the far plane. Spira was beautiful.

WOR on the other hand was a very grim place and depressing. Much of the world population was killed in hours. Nothing was growing (see the two people that were waiting for the seeds to grow) And people were probably dieing every day of starvation. Plus you had Kefka would could blow us your entire city at a moments notice. There was absolutely no hope in this world. Cid even told Celes that many people took the "leap of faith" pretty much meaning that they commited suicide.

Also, we don't really know what happened to the people that died in VI. They get on a ghost train... then what?
 
WoR - even the vegetation didnt want to live on that planet, and Kefka killed people for fun - like the world was his first person shooter or something...
 
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