Kuja

Categories: Final Fantasy IX characters | Final Fantasy villains

Kuja is a video game character in the RPG Final Fantasy IX. He is the primary antagonist of the game, who is supporting Queen Brahne's conquest of the planet Gaia by supplying her with highly advanced magical weapons.

Kuja is an accomplished mage, adept at both black and white magic. With a great love of classical literature such as Lord Avon's "I Want To Be Your Canary", he carries himself with a great theatrical flair, often mimicking the behaviour of traditional stage villains. This does not detract from his debonair charm, which complements his supreme ego, massive self-interests, and overwhelming desire to be in control.

The Determined Soul

Kuja was a Genome created on the decaying planet Terra by the master of the planet, Garland. Unlike the other souless vessels of the Genome race, Kuja was the first version of an "Angel of Death" designed to aid Garland in his plan to have Terra assimilate a healthy planet- Gaia- to prolong its own lifespan.

Given a soul by Garland, Kuja was appalled by the empty members of the Genome race, and refused to believe that he was one of them. He also abhorred the fact that he was only built for one reason alone- his ego demanded that his life was worth more than that. His defiant nature was so intense that Garland considered discarding his failed prototype, but then decided to put Kuja to use after all. He granted Kuja the freedom he desired, but on one condition: that he disrupt the flow of souls on Gaia to speed up its assimilation by Terra.

Meanwhile, Garland finished the second version of his Angel project: a Genome named Zidane Tribal. Once matured to full power, Zidane would be more powerful than Kuja, rendering the previous version obsolete. Kuja could not stand the thought of this, and so he kidnapped Zidane and threw him down to Gaia, where he was found by Baku- the leader of the rogue group Tantalus.

From then, Kuja vowed to plunge Gaia into war, thus creating an irregular influx of souls just like Garland wished. Not only would this prove to Garland that Zidane was the superfluous one, but his hated rival would be there to witness Kuja's superiority first-hand, and likely be destroyed in the resulting catastrophe.

The Black Mages

Kuja's first objective was to create powerful magical weapons that he could use to initiate war on Gaia. By siphoning the Mist- a mysterious fog created from the stagnant souls of Gaia ejected by the Iifa Tree- he created the Black Mages: an army of soulless dolls who possessed incredibly destructive magical powers. Setting up an underground Black Mage production plant in Dali, he proceeded to find someone power-hungry enough to use his new weapons. He found that person in recently-widowed Queen Brahne, the queen of Alexandria.

He told her the history of the jewel she held, as well as it's three sister jewels, held by Alexandria's neighboring countries. When combined, they would form a Jewel that could be used to summon Alexander, the most powerful of all the eidolons. With that power, Brahne could rule all of Gaia, a prospect that was too good for the Queen to resist.

With the Queen under his control, Kuja watched her put his weapons to use from behind the scenes as he set his sights on his true goal: the power lying within Queen Brahne's adopted daughter, Garnet, aka Dagger.. Once he had that power, he would prove that he wasn't just better than Zidane, but Garland himself. For Kuja knew that once Gaia was assimilated, Garland would take back his soul, and was determined to overthrow him before that happened.

The Eidolons

That power would be the eidolons, creatures with so much power that Garland attacked and destroyed the summoner village of Madain Sari to prevent them from being used against him. Kuja knew that Garnet was really a summoner from that village, and had the power to summon eidolons lying dormant within her, waiting for the day that her magical powers had developed enough to awaken them. He convinced Brahne that these eidolons could benefit her in her conquest of the world, and she agreed to let him forcefully extract them from Garnet's body with the help of his subordinates, Zorn and Thorn.

With the eidolons, Brahne was unstoppable. Eventually she conquered the Mist Continent, and decided that she had no more use for Kuja. But Kuja was ready for her. When she summoned Bahamut, one of the most powerful eidolons, Kuja used his airship- the Invincible- to seize control of it, and command it to wipe out Brahne and the majority of the Alexandrian fleet.

Even with such a powerful eidolon under his command, Kuja was not satisfied. He wanted control of Alexander. By commanding Bahamut to attack the weakened city of Alexandria, Kuja was able to draw out the hidden temple in Alexandria Castle. Garnet and Eiko met at the top of the temple and together combined their summoning powers, along with the four jewel shards, to summon Alexander.

But Garland had caught onto Kuja's plan, and had taken the Invincible back. To prevent Alexander from being used against him, he used the Invincible to destroy it, and released Bahamut from Kuja's control. But Kuja managed to escape back to his secret base, closely pursued by Zidane and his party.

Once there, Zidane's party was captured by Kuja. Zidane was forced to retrieve the Gulug Stone, which would open the doorway to Mount Gulug, in exchange for his friends' lives. As soon as Zidane left, Kuja tried to kill his friends anyway by sending them plummeting down trapdoors to their deaths, but they were rescued by Regent Cid.

With a false vision of his captured friends, Kuja tricked Zidane into giving him the Stone. He also captured Eiko Carol, another summoner, and desperately attempted to extract an eidolon more powerful than Alexander from her body, even if it killed the girl. But something interfered with the process: Eiko's best friend Mog, who went into Trance to defend Eiko, revealing herself as an eidolon.

Kuja was shocked that even a weak Moogle could use Trance to reach such an obscene level of power. With the eidolons out of his reach, Kuja had just found the power he needed to topple Garland once and for all.

To Trance, and the End

Following Zidane's party back to Terra, Kuja hijacked the Invincible and proceeded to the fuel room: a place filled with wretched souls sucked up during the Invincible attacks and used to power the machine. Kuja had figured out that it was an eruption of intense anger that induced Trance, and nowhere was more filled with concentrated hatred than the Invincible. Fusing with all of the souls, Kuja now had the power. All he needed was someone to activate it.

Showing up after Zidane defeated Garland, Kuja engaged Zidane in battle. He was eventually overpowered by Zidane and his friends, but this was all part of his plan. This stress transformed him into a being of supreme power: Trance Kuja. With one spell, he completely wiped out Zidane's party, and gloated about his newfound power, pushing Garland to his death. He finally had the power to rule all of Gaia and Terra, and prove to everyone that his life was not insignificant.

But his victory was to be short-lived. Garland's spirit revealed that since Kuja had always been planned to be replaced by Zidane, there was a deliberate time limit put on Kuja's life. Eventually, regardless of how much power Kuja had, he would expire just like the Black Mages he created. This revelation pushed Kuja over the edge. He couldn't handle his imminent destruction. He couldn't handle the idea that he would die without ever leaving his mark on the world. He couldn't handle the idea that in the end, he held no more authority over his final fate than any other creature.

In his rage, Trance Kuja used his new powers to destroy Terra, reducing the landscape to rubble. Going back to Gaia, he accelerated the soul-dividing process of the Iifa Tree, starting a chain reaction that would lead to the complete assimilation of Gaia by Terra. He then used his new powers to create Memoria, a city of memories. Using Memoria, Kuja was able to travel to the Crystal World, a place that had existed before the formation of the known universe. The Crystal World was also home to the Original Crystal: the source of the universe and all life within it.

There, at the heart of the Crystal World, Kuja waited for Zidane, intending to defeat his rival once and for all. After that was done, he was going to smash the Original Crystal, and cause all existence to cease so that life could not continue after his death. The two Genomes fought viciously, and Trance Kuja could not withstand the power of Zidane's party. On the verge of defeat, he unleashed a desperate Ultima spell designed to destroy everything- himself, Zidane, and the Original Crystal.

The destruction of the Crystal had a different effect than what Kuja had predicted: it unleashed Necron ("Eternal Darkness"), a being whose only desire was the deletion of existence. From Kuja's actions, it had judged that all humanity desired destruction, and was there to grant their wish.

Having lost his Trance powers and pride to Zidane, and with his death imminent , Kuja finally realised that the purpose of life is to help, rather than destroy. With the last of his powers, he helped Zidane's party to fight Necron, and teleported them out of danger when the Iifa Tree violently began the assimilation of Gaia. However, Zidane could not bear to leave his "brother" alone to die, and went back inside the rapidly-mutating Iifa Tree. Kuja died inside the Iifa Tree, spending his last few moments expressing his regret to Zidane for not realizing the true purpose of life sooner.

Quotes

• "Never would I have imagined running into you in a place like this. It must be fate. But you cannot rest your wings yet... Fly home to your mother, my little canary. I, too, will welcome you home with open arms."

• "The weak lose their freedom to the strong. Such is the way of the strong. And it is the providence of nature that only the strong survive. That is why I needed strength."

• "Peace is but a shadow of death, desperate to forget its painful past... Though we hope for promising years. After shedding a thousand tears, yesterday's sorrow constantly nears. And while the moon still shines blue, by dawn, it will turn to scarlet hue."

• "Just you wait, Garland! And you too, Zidane! I'll exact sweet revenge upon you both for insulting me! I'll make the people of both Gaia and Terra know who rules over all of them!"

• "What comedy! Zidane, isn't it hilarious!? I'll die just like the black mages I so despise! I single-handedly brought chaos unto Gaia, but in the end, I'm nothing but a worthless doll! ... I won't let it happen. I won't... I won't let this world exist without me!

• "Why should the world exist without me? That wouldn't be fair. If I die, we all die!"

• "After you guys beat me, I had nothing left...nothing more to lose. Then, I finally realized what it means to live... I guess I was too late."

Trivia

• Kuja's appearance is somewhat gender-neutral, which has caused some players to assume initially that he is actually female.