As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- The game exemplifies the five elements of Japanese philosophy (Godai) perfectly. Not only are the four elements of Air/Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth present, the Void could also be considered one, as all four crystals kept the Void in check. This is also consistent with the Arc Number present in the game, as with the Void considered an element, there are five elements.
- Ghido's unexpected Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference when fighting Exdeath in the GBA version becomes a bit more clever when you remember that at the beginning of the scene, Exdeath was a splinter.
- On a somewhat related note, Exdeath's castle being made out of flesh and bone also makes perfect sense for an evil tree, considering the reverse is generally the case.
- Thanks to Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Exdeath's name in the PSX version "X-Death" can be interpreted as "χ-Death" or "Kai-Death". According to Xehanort in that game, it is a most ancient letter (normally pronounced as "chi") but the meaning is the same. Death... A letter that spells endings. Even with that in regard, his name here can be "Death-Death". Either that or Exdeath was going for Deathy "Deaths of Death".
- Galuf continuing to fight at 0 HP may bring to mind the idea of fight-or-flight response, i.e. one's own body reacting to drastic stressors by removing its self-restrictions on using muscle power, suppressing sensations of pain, etc., at the expense of possibly damaging itself fatally as a result, hence why those functions only occur under extreme-stress situations. Like, you know, saving his friends and granddaughter from the Big Bad.
- Exdeath eventually subverting the crystal seal follows considering his origin. Exdeath is the amalgamation of countless evils sealed into a holy tree that turned evil and sentient as a result. Exdeath was BORN from subverting seals.
- The titular warrior from The Epic of Gilgamesh was a crass warrior-king known for his lack of tact and respect for gods, ultimately being humbled by his own mortality, and in the end found a sort of immortality in his adventures being passed down in stories and fables. Exdeath's general, Gilgamesh, fights a constant uphill battle to fulfill his orders while still goofing off and adding to his collection of weapons, but is ultimately cast into the rift by his master for his failures. It is here, however, he meditates on his life, and decides to sacrifice himself to defeat another of Exdeath's minions, a sorcerer named Necrophobe, and allow the party to get through... But even that has hardly been the end to his travels, as Dissidia and Final Fantasy XII have shown. In the end, much like his namesake, Gilgamesh found seeming immortality by conquering the fear of death in favor of letting his actions live on in the minds of those he earns the deepest respect of.
- In the Pixel Remaster version, Neo Exdeath is seen sticking out of a dark globe. At first, it's just Square Enix compensating for NED's lack of a rear appendage while porting a game that originally came in a 4:3 aspect ratio to widescreen-capable systems; but within the context of his nature as someone who merges with the Void, this makes sense. And when the battle ends with his final defeat, Bartz and co. are still sucked by the encroaching black globe that is the Void.
- In Final Fantasy V Advance's Bonus Dungeon, one of the chambers leads to the game's second most powerful Bonus Boss, Omega MK II, an improved version of Omega, the robotic monstrosity who was the second-most powerful boss in the original. Prior to the room with the boss himself, you go through a room reminiscent of one of the rooms in the Sealed Pyramid, with a bunch of mechs crawling all over a small room. Except instead of the "Mecha Head" enemy, they are perfect replicas of Omega itself. Now, think about what this means. Someone, somewhere took Omega, a mechanical beast too powerful for the 12 Sealed Weapons, a monster capable of incinerating heroes with massive lasers, ruining the best parties in a turn, and temporarily erasing people from existence, and mass-produced it. And improved upon its design. Who is this person? Are they still working on these things? And why?
- It is believed by some people that Omega is self-replicant and self-improving.
- THAT'S EVEN WORSE!
- And in Final Fantasy XII, it's canonical. Bartz and friends are so goddamned lucky they don't live in Ivalice.
- It doesn't matter where they live anymore. Omega has started traveling the Rift like Shinryu and Gilgamesh, and can appear anywhere, anytime.
- It gets even worse, thanks to Final Fantasy XIV. Omega has become a machine so powerful and monstrous that it can hold entire dimensions within its databases. Each database, being one of the many "-scapes" for the player to go through, ending with boss fights against a particular game's bosses, notably Chaos, Exdeath, and Kefka. Thank whatever benevolent deities that Hydaelyn has that Omega has been destroyed.
- It is believed by some people that Omega is self-replicant and self-improving.
- Ghido calls Krile psychically and this gives her a migraine so bad she collapses and has to stay in bed, which is where the party finds her after coming back from Drakenvale. Then they try to visit Ghido, but Exdeath stops that. Then they wind up in a naval attack/submarine infiltration of a Barrier Tower, and then they finally get to take the submarine to Ghido's newly-underwater home. Now, if you take the time to fly all the way to Bal Castle during this time, Krile is still in bed and mumbling about Ghido. In story time, all of these adventures have to take a while. That means Krile has been suffering from a migraine so hideous she literally can't stand up for days. Poor kid.
- Exdeath. He's a tree. Seems harmless enough. Except that he's a tree that was used to seal countless monsters and demons. The souls of these demons became so smashed together and compact that they fused into one blasphemous warlock that was so powerful, the four greatest warriors in the world couldn't even kill him and had to settle for sealing him somewhere else.
- As more than one reviewer has pointed out, Castle Exdeath's true form makes sense. Humans make homes and even parts of castles out of wood — why wouldn't the embodiment of evil manifested as a living tree make his home out of people?
- Mirage Village is a village that is trapped between dimensions. No time passes inside, and the village itself is hidden in a lush forest with no sprite on the overworld that indicates its existence, but when you step on its tile on the overworld, you don't simply enter it — the game's Fight Woosh plays beforehand. But, if you go to the place through the Rift, you will see every single being that lives inside are frozen; not by ice but by time. And from some NPC, it can be indicated that their frozen selves are their original form and they are aware of the phenomena. The village is one big habitat of the And I Must Scream! And the creepy "Book of Sealings" music that plays in the background of what otherwise looked like a perfectly normal town....
- Omega and Shinryu, both of which are implied to be the strongest beings in the franchise.
- Shinryu is an immensely powerful dragon that traverses the various worlds, either searching for Omega or pulling a Dissidia on whatever place he ends up in.
- Omega was created by a civilization from another world specifically to destroy Shinryu. Only problem; it was so powerful and dangerous that it was banished to the Rift after causing mass destruction on the world it originated in.
- For added nightmares, these things travel the entire Final Fantasy multiverse in search of each other. Should they ever come in contact...
