I would like to break my lurking silence here just to say that Omi casually just dropped the sickest band/song name and then moved on like it's nothing is insane. "Ventablack Symphony" is so metal, I want it to actually be a thing now.
Love the Black Waltz...s of course. Black Mage is already a strong design for this series and FF9 managed to iterate on it so wonderfully with the Waltz and Vivi.
And Who can forget, our favorite non-human character design has entered the scene. Freya is one of the most interesting character design work out of FF as a whole, in my opinion. But I can't geek out about it here as that would be spoiler at this point. For now, all I can say is that her design wonderfully makes sense.
Ironically, I think her coat is such an iconic part of her character that combine with how it basically cover near-all of her, means that I think she would be almost unrecognizable without it.
I think there's also the fact that Steiner is so thoroughly unaware of the fact that he himself has done anything wrong that any punishment of him would be completely ineffectual. If Dagger did try to impose some consequences odds are he'd just take it to the chin and consider it the prerogative of royalty to occasionally demonstrate their authority over their lessers.
It's like when your dog piddles on the floor and you have to punish him, and he just looks at you with his big dumb dog eyes, clearly having no idea why you're doing this
Steiner: [He turns around to Zidane] "You idiot! The cargo ship was wrecked, we lost all the cargo, and South Gate was destroyed! I can't believe I played a part in this debacle!"
ZIDANE
Just one epithet I muttered as inside
I gagged and shuddered,
When with manly flirt and flutter
In there flew a stately raven.
Sleek and ravenous as any foe,
Not the least obeisance made he,
Not a minute's gesture towards me,
Of recognition or politeness,
But perched above my chamber door.
This fowl and salivating visage,
Insinuating with its knowledge,
Perched above my chamber door,
Silent sat and staring,
Nothing more.
VIVI
Askance, askew,
The self's sad fancy smiles at you I swear,
At this savage viscous countenance it wears.
Though you show here shorn and shaven,
And I admit myself forlorn and craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven,
Wandering from the opiate shores,
Tell me what thy lordly name is!
That you are not nightmare sewage,
Some dire powder drink or inhalation,
Framed from flames of downtown lores!
SHADOW
Quoth the raven-
[Lights out; screaming; sound of thunder.]
Steiner using anachronistic language like "background check" that doesn't fit the fantasy vibe is amusing because it really helps across that while his in-setting status is "knight," his narrative role is "cop." He sees himself entirely as a man of duty, a protector of the royal family, an enforcer of the law, opposed to thieves and scoundrels, whose duty it is to uphold the social order, whether that's by providing unasked for help to a teenage shopkeeper or threatening a man with execution for his crimes. Even his idea of repaying Zidane's help is to ask the queen for leniency by commuting his sentence to life in prison.
Back on the airship, the pilot doll just stares blankly at Zidane while Steiner stammers in utter disbelief at the audacity of this bitch. He genuinely acts outraged, like it didn't even occur to him that Zidane could do that. That's Steiner's fundamental character flaw: He is completely trapped in a world of expectations, of the way things ought to be. Crime isn't just wrong, it's not supposed to happen. Zidane has been put on a ship to Alexandria Castle so now what he should be doing is sit calmly and await his punishment. He's not allowed to hijack the ship!
It's only Steiner who is genuinely enough of a dumbass to completely fail to notice that fact and genuinely tell Vivi why even worry, obviously this is nothing at all, which Zidane then bounces off to tell Vivi about individuality and whatever. But this wouldn't work without Steiner being enough of a good-hearted idiot who respects Vivi to obviously say that the extremely real and obvious mystery hanging over them doesn't actually exist.
Zidane: "You're an airman, right? Seems like a lot of girls are joining the crew these days." Female Crew Member: "Oh, hello…" Zidane: "So what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the airship docks or something?" FCM: "...I passed the flight test for the new model. I was really looking forward to flying N°1, but it's gone now… Who knows when they'll finish N°2, with the regent's current condition…" Zidane: "Don't worry. You'll get your chance someday, and you'll be the first pilot ever to fly the new model." [He scratches his hair.] "By the way, what's your name?" FCM: "Thank you! I feel much better now." Zidane: "Good. I'm Zidane and you're…" FCM: "My name is Erin." Zidane: "Hey, that's a really nice name. Erin, I'm gonna go get something to eat now. Do you wanna-" Erin: "I have to get back now. Goodbye."
[She runs off-screen. Zidane stares and slumps in defeat.]
THEY CALL HIM 003. 0 MAIDENS. 0 SUCCESSFUL STEALS. 3 BLACK WALTZES ON HIS ASS.
Absolutely incredible. This is the pose of total defeat. This man has been once again utterly destroyed. This is what you get for trying to flirt with an airman girl while Dagger is waiting for you in the goddamned elevator one screen over.
Anyway. We steal a bunch of stuff from a large bedroom where we also find a moogle and save, and we're on.
Recalling back to the other main character horndogs in the FF series so far, we had Edge from FF4, Edgar from FF6, and Irvine from FF8. Edge was just either Horny, Angry or trying too hard to look cool. Plus, he came in halfway through the plot, so he doesn't quite get a lot of development beyond "teenager trying to look cool", "trying to hit on Rydia" and "trying to avenge parents".
Edgar gets more development, but his Casanova Wannabe performance comes off as a little skeevy today, which makes things awkward. Irvine has a similar problem with his Casanova wannabe attitude, but it's reduced by him being a bit of a whiner and that he's mostly focused on Selphie, and that he doesn't push his come-ons too hard
Zidane is absolutely a teenaged shounen character, horniness included. The fact that he's shown being able to put aside his hormones when the going gets rough, and when others need his help, however, scores him a lot of sympathy points. It also helps that almost every girl he runs into shoots him down in flames, so whatever issues one would have with this are mitigated. Everyone just dismisses him as a horny kid and promptly shut him down.
What an incredible way to introduce our next party member, goddamn. Zidane's dipshit energy is just… Off the charts. Did he actually forget her name and cycle through multiple attempts until he could remember it, or was it really just a joke? I have no idea.
Honestly? Wouldn't be out of character either way. He's a troll to Steiner, and can be quite a clown (remember the repeated "Kidnap Queen Brahne" joke at the start?).
THE RULER OF LINDBLUM. WAS SLUMMING IT AT THE PUB. AND CHEATED ON HIS WIFE WITH A RANDOM GIRL. SO HIS WIFE TURNED HIM INTO A BUG AND STOLE THE LATEST AIRSHIP.
HE MADE UP THE WHOLE STORY ABOUT THE MYSTERIOUS NIGHTTIME ASSAILLANT.
Immaculate. I was already cooking up a new theory about the hidden bad guy and he shot me the fuck down.
I'll say. I've only read rumors (and spoilers, which I will not post, since I genuinely want to see the whole story properly) and heard some negative views on the game, so that turned me off. Now, knowing about this so far, the only reason I wouldn't have gotten this game is the lack of a Playstation (I was a PC man through and through).
Really, a progressively crazier and crazier as the game goes on N°3 could have made a decent "rival" character for Vivi, I bet. Pretty sure he didn't survive exploding in an airlock though.
Which is a shame that he (supposedly) cacks it at the end of this part. But he just oozes "confident, cruel villain" to contrast Vivi's "insecure smol cinnamon roll". Plus, the wing motif offsets Vivi's clumsiness with how graceful #3 flies.
In the numbered games this is the fourth Cid in a row who is broadly helpful and on your side, but also kinda a fucking shithead.
And it's always a different way! We had Medical War Crimes Cid, we had Misogyny asshole Cid, we had Child Soldier training-and-then-fleeing-for-them-to-clean-up-his-mess Cid, and now we have 'Cheated on his wife while slumming' Cid.
I will say the plot and pacing has been exquisite. We've had about 2 dungeons (Evil Forest and Underground Factory are kinda only half a dungeon each I feel), two towns, and a fucking lot of character work. It's pretty tightly plotted.
Oh my god. Asshole Three Stooges with the Black Waltzes is an absolutely delightful image. You just know 2 bullies 1 up until 3 says some shit to 2, at which point the weaker pair instantly turn on their big brother complete with cartoon sound effects when they pull each others' wings or hit each other hard enough to flatten one's hat.
The nerd part of me demands I point this out - Steiner's kneeling animation has him going down specifically on his left knee. In Medieval Europe, it was traditional to genuflect before God by kneeling on the right knee, using the left knee instead for worldly affairs such as honoring monarchs.
You know, just in case you weren't already convinced Steiner is Catholic.
Steiner sees himself as more Knight than Cop. The Knights of Pluto just have this "rent-a-cop" feel, where they're just there for a paycheck and something to do, like their Uncle Lou has an in with the local sheriff or shop owner or something. Steiner, though takes the "Knight" part seriously, which is why he's trying to be Sir Gawain and is instead coming off as an extra from Monty Python's Quest For the Holy Grail. The kneeling part is just part of the Medieval European knight aesthetic, but given how closely Catholicism was tied to medieval feudalism, it still fits.
We can examine the engine before we go, though, and Zidane has an interesting comment to make: The engine is very old, and Lindblum is the only place that sells Mist engine. Alexandria must have purchased this engine years ago, and if they're still using it, it's because they don't have anything better. Zidane notes that Alexandria "is not technologically advanced," which is a really interesting detail considering how prominent the place appears to be in the continent's politics and the plot of the story. And the factory under Dali is much more advanced than anything Alexandria is supposed to have access to. Strange things are afoot.
I do wonder what the comparative tech levels are for each country in the setting, especially since we can only guess based on what we've seen, rather than a full explanation in an encyclopedia (in-game or Ultimania or whatever).
My initial thought on seeing the Mist factory under Dali was not that it was "too advanced" for Alexandria, but simply that it looked too expensive to set up in a remote village, meaning its presence was a sign of classified state secret stuff. After all, my assumption was given the setting had Mist as an ever-present hazard, it stands to reason nations would try turning it into a resource. Lindblum would use it to power their airships, and now Alexandria is using it to hatch Black Mages. The technology might be new, but it would be iterative from previous examples, rather than completely out of line from the local tech level.
More speculation might be had on how apparently all airships of the current day are Lindblum-made, at least for its propulsion systems. This means the anti-air defenses Alexandria Castle has, with the harpoons and bomb cannons, are specifically designed to bring down airships, and thus airships from Lindblum or its allies.
Then again, airships are ubiquitous enough in the setting that the one the party are currently on is just "a cargo ship". We can also see the occasional airship fly past while on the world map, and there are lots of infrastructure everywhere to service airships.
There's a lot to think about, and I'm always worried some of it is speculation beyond the intent of the writers, who might have done whatever they did simply because it's cool.
There is exactly one boss I remember from playing FF9 as a kid, and it's this guy. This guy who gets the full CGI cutscene introduction. In which he is introduced doing the Gargoyle Crouch on at the helm of an airship with his wings folded and then dramatically stands up while spreading said wings before we get a close-up shot of his face with evil red eyes narrowing as lightning crackles around him.
This is Black Waltz N°3 and I wanna be him when I grow up.
A long time ago, I had played FFVII and FFVIII on PC, and then FFX on Playstation 2. So I was very interested in FFIX, which I had missed in my fan desire to follow the Final Fantasy series.
Since I was aware of how Final Fantasy now relied on FMV cutscenes to tell its stories, I looked up FFIX cutscenes on video sites. This was the time before Youtube, so I think it was on some other now-defunct video site; Google Videos or something.
The Black Waltz 3 cutscenes were the only ones people were uploading. I don't think I saw any other cutscenes of the game (except perhaps the opening, which I did not recall at all) until I finally got the game for myself (and a PS1 memory card) for the backwards-compatible PS2.
Mostly the cutscene everyone was posting was the one where Vivi fired back at Black Waltz 3. Without context, it was still hype enough to excite me, with the apparent underdog kid Black Mage casting Fire at the evil-looking but still cool fallen angel Black Mage, and winning.
Something I've been wondering all this time: how does anyone in this setting know what "black mage" means? And how did the appearance of the Black Mages seen in this game and the Final Fantasy franchise in general (pointy hat, hidden face, glowing eyes) become associated with "black mage" in FFIX's setting?
There have been some amount of discussion in FFXIV about the moral culpability of the Ascians, who are the villains of the setting. Famously, one of them says something along the lines of "I do not consider you truly alive, thus I am not guilty of murder if I kill you". The later expansions (Shadowbringers and Endwalker) explain that Ascians consider themselves so superior to "regular" people that when they commit genocide and large-scale destruction for their goals, it's akin to simply clearing out an anthill from their perfectly manicured garden.
This line from Black Waltz 3 reminds me of my usual counter to that argument: whether or not the villain is truly so superior, or whether or not they believe themselves justified in mass murder, they don't have to be such utter arses about it.
At first, this line confused the hell out of me. It felt like a reference going over my head. Interestingly, the same is true of Steiner, who says "?" and does a 'thinking' pose, so this is supposed to be somewhat obscure even in-character (though Steiner is established as kind of a dumbass, so that might not mean much). If they were called "Symphonies" and there were nine of them, I could see it as a reference to Beethoven, but there are innumerable numbers of waltzes. The Waltz is also meant for two dancers, so that can't be it either. I think the reference Zidane is making here is that the waltz is a dance in triple time, or triple meter, a dance which is primarily divided into three beats.
I admit I never realized how much this might have confused anyone who wasn't familiar with musical theory. To me, this made perfect sense, because of course waltzes are associated with the number three: "ONE two three ONE two three".
But without that real-life knowledge and context, Zidane's line is a complete non-sequitur.
Dagger holds firm at the wheel. They manage to pull into the airlock before the gates close - but it's not over. The gates are also closing on the other end. They have to run the entire distance to the next gate, or risk being trapped inside the airlock - with the Black Waltz.
As mentioned, I played FFIX on the PS2, and due to the nature of having to hunt down a copy of the game one generation after it was released (as well as the associated memory card), I got it fairly late. Which meant I had also played the Ace Combat games before playing FFIX, and this sequence was basically Ace Combat's famous and frequent tunnel runs, complete with "player character is pursued by an enemy ace, and the player character escapes the tunnel just in time while the enemy ace crashes against the closed doors".
I know FFIX came first before the really impressive tunnel runs (AC1-3 were earlier, but the tunnel runs were fairly basic), but I can believe they're all based on common ancestry in prior media. I'd say Star Wars with the Trench Run in ANH and the Death Star Superstructure in RotJ, but I know the Trench Run was itself based off The Dam Busters.
I'm a little curious if Steiner attacked Cid the Oglop because he saw a huge oglop and assumed it was a real threat to Dagger's safety, or if he assumed Dagger would be afraid of oglops, while players would (if we saw the ATE) know Dagger just finds them mildly interesting.
The oglop-ness of Cid was definitely a factor, with Steiner screaming "OGLOP!!!" as he punches.
The regent of Lindblum orchestrated the kidnapping of the princess of Alexandria. This is an obvious casus belli. If Queen Brahne catches so much as a whiff of Dagger's location, it'll be war. That was an extremely bold move on Cid's part. So… What could have justified it?
The relationship between Alexandria and Lindblum as nations sounds deeply complicated and messy, and thus astoundingly realistic. Cid and the royal family of Alexandria are tied together by blood, yet Alexandria and Lindblum distrust each other enough that any suspicious action might well be cause for war, yet yet Alexandria and Lindblum still trade and interact with each other as per usual, with Lindblum goods circulating in Alexandria without comment (eg airship components, the Tantalus crew).
And as you say, Princess Garnet of Alexandria being "kidnapped" by Regent Cid of Lindblum would be considered casus belli, but now that Dagger is in Lindblum and talking to Cid, any moves either of them might make would reveal that connection inevitably, since Dagger needs Cid's support, and Cid needs Dagger's authority in Alexandria. The only way I can think of to prevent Queen Brahne from eagerly declaring war is to present a sort of fait accompli after it's all over: yes, Princess Garnet was "kidnapped" by Lindblum, but it was all in a good cause, and everyone would hopefully be happy with the end result to ignore the instigating kidnap scheme.
Of course, we later see Dagger and Cid decide to just go back to Alexandria, which means either they go as a diplomatic delegation and then Queen Brahne seizes them and declares war, or they go in force with a full military escort and Queen Brahne assumes it's an invasion and declares war.
(Translation post later, when I have time to play through after Lunar New Year festivities.)
By the way, if Zorn and Thorn's theme sounds familiar to anyone, that's because it was The Jimquisition's background music in the early days. This being when you could actually get away with having that much copyrighted music in your videos
I know FFIX came first before the really impressive tunnel runs (AC1-3 were earlier, but the tunnel runs were fairly basic), but I can believe they're all based on common ancestry in prior media. I'd say Star Wars with the Trench Run in ANH and the Death Star Superstructure in RotJ, but I know the Trench Run was itself based off The Dam Busters.
THE RULER OF LINDBLUM. WAS SLUMMING IT AT THE PUB. AND CHEATED ON HIS WIFE WITH A RANDOM GIRL. SO HIS WIFE TURNED HIM INTO A BUG AND STOLE THE LATEST AIRSHIP.
The relationship between Alexandria and Lindblum as nations sounds deeply complicated and messy, and thus astoundingly realistic. Cid and the royal family of Alexandria are tied together by blood, yet Alexandria and Lindblum distrust each other enough that any suspicious action might well be cause for war, yet yet Alexandria and Lindblum still trade and interact with each other as per usual, with Lindblum goods circulating in Alexandria without comment (eg airship components, the Tantalus crew).
And as you say, Princess Garnet of Alexandria being "kidnapped" by Regent Cid of Lindblum would be considered casus belli, but now that Dagger is in Lindblum and talking to Cid, any moves either of them might make would reveal that connection inevitably, since Dagger needs Cid's support, and Cid needs Dagger's authority in Alexandria. The only way I can think of to prevent Queen Brahne from eagerly declaring war is to present a sort of fait accompli after it's all over: yes, Princess Garnet was "kidnapped" by Lindblum, but it was all in a good cause, and everyone would hopefully be happy with the end result to ignore the instigating kidnap scheme.
Of course, we later see Dagger and Cid decide to just go back to Alexandria, which means either they go as a diplomatic delegation and then Queen Brahne seizes them and declares war, or they go in force with a full military escort and Queen Brahne assumes it's an invasion and declares war.
(Translation post later, when I have time to play through after Lunar New Year festivities.)
Alternatively they could present it as Lindblum rescuing Garnet after her kidnapping. This would require Steiner to play along successfully, rendering the effort doomed, but they could try.
I'm a little curious if Steiner attacked Cid the Oglop because he saw a huge oglop and assumed it was a real threat to Dagger's safety, or if he assumed Dagger would be afraid of oglops, while players would (if we saw the ATE) know Dagger just finds them mildly interesting.
Steiner using anachronistic language like "background check" that doesn't fit the fantasy vibe is amusing because it really helps across that while his in-setting status is "knight," his narrative role is "cop." He sees himself entirely as a man of duty, a protector of the royal family, an enforcer of the law, opposed to thieves and scoundrels, whose duty it is to uphold the social order, whether that's by providing unasked for help to a teenage shopkeeper or threatening a man with execution for his crimes. Even his idea of repaying Zidane's help is to ask the queen for leniency by commuting his sentence to life in prison.
"Background check" is a little anachronistic, but I admit it does match what Steiner is saying, while also not being as anachronistic in Japanese. The phrase is 素性を調べ "sujou wo shirabe", where 素性 is "identity", "provenance", or indeed "background", and 調べ is "to examine" or "to inspect". So "background check" is a perfectly valid translation for "look into their identities", but as you mentioned, it sounds odd in this fantasy setting.
And yeah, it does sound like Steiner's idea of "knight" matches closely with "police", because he's assuming he should personally investigate (or at least personally oversee the investigation) of the crew's identities. Which fits with police detectives, but I'm not sure it fits with knightly codes.
Low-key comedy here: Steiner is going "ki, ki, ki" as he stammers the first syllable of "kisama". So of course Zidane says Steiner is emitting 奇声 "kisei", which works as a pun both in its direct meaning of "strange noises", as well as a pun of "'ki' noises".
Very minor thing about the translation: this screenshot isn't of the line quoted, but I paired them together because Black Waltz 3 occasionally refers to the "black mage soldiers", but at different parts of his dialogue between the Japanese and English scripts. For example, the quoted English translation didn't have "black mage soldiers" in Japanese (although it did have "lowly", 下等 "katou"), while the screenshot I took here (BW3 saying "many more are being produced") does have it.
Anyway, I was mostly looking for "black mage soldiers" in the Japanese script, and this is it: 黒魔道士兵 "kuro-madoushi hei". Which leads back to my earlier comment about how anyone else knows about "black mages" in the setting. These BLM dolls are clearly a secret project, since Dagger and Steiner did not know about them. So are BLM in general considered secret, or are these mass-produced soldiers the secret part? Is there a meaningful difference in the setting between a given person who casts magic of the "black magic" school, and someone dressed with the Vivi-esque pointy hat and hidden face?
The Japanese script for "I exist only to kill" is rather less intimidating: "The reason for my existence is to always win".
It does have the usual signifier for "broken automaton" by having Black Waltz 3 use random katakana where hiragana should be used. We've seen it in earlier games, often trAnsLatEd liKe thIs. Weirdly enough the katakana inserts are always in the same place within that mad mantra, even when Black Waltz 3 was repeating it after hijacking Zorn and Thorn's airship.
This is probably why the French translation sticks closer to the original Japanese lines, but misspelled words: the misspellings are the equivalent to the broken katakana.
I don't know if it's mentioned in the English script, but in Japanese Zidane names this gate: the main/front entrance (正面玄関 "shoumen genkan"), called 天竜の門 "tenryuu no mon", which translates to "Sky Dragon's Gate" or "Heavenly Dragon's Gate" or some equivalent.
I ask because later, when Dagger reveals her royal pendant, there is a lot of commentary about how it resembles the "Falcon's Claw" of Lindblum. Except in Japanese, the name of the "Falcon's Claw" is 天竜の爪 "tenryuu no tsume", ie "Sky Dragon's Claw".
A falcon and a dragon are very different animals. I have no idea why the change.
The guards approach to check out this unscheduled arrival, commenting on how fucking old this ship they flew in is. Dagger immediately introduces herself as Princess Garnet til Alexandros, here to request an audience with… Regent Cid.
The guards immediately call for a Minister Artania, while Zidane and Steiner yell at each other about the other one obviously being the reason everyone is suspicious of them.
With the caveat that titles and court positions from one tradition may not translate well into other traditions, a couple of notes.
Regent Cid's title in Japanese is 大公 "taikou". While this literally means "large/grand official", most of the time in these fantasy settings based vaguely on faux Europe, it becomes "Grand Duke" or "Archduke". Back in Final Fantasy Tactics, Grand Duke Barrington had this title. Thus, we don't actually know if Cid is a regent for anyone.
If it matters, Googling "regent" in Japanese gives me 摂政 "sesshou", which is a word I've never seen before, so I don't know if it's accurate.
Minister Artania's name in Japanese is オルベルタ, which I might transliterate as "Olberta", despite knowing it's no more or less accurate than "Oruberuta". I suspect this is another case where the translator wished dearly to ask the Japanese writers "what does this meeeeaaaan".
His title is 文臣 "bunshin", which is "civil official", as in a government official for civil non-military departments. "Minister" probably works as well, especially since the regular translation for "(government) minister" is 大臣 "daijin", which again is just "grand/large attendant". In other words, Artania is a minister for some sort of civil affairs.
FCM: "...I passed the flight test for the new model. I was really looking forward to flying N°1, but it's gone now… Who knows when they'll finish N°2, with the regent's current condition…"
To be precise, she qualified to be the test pilot for the new airship. The rest of her dialogue is as translated, except for the end: Erin isn't brushing Zidane off after getting tired of his flirting. Erin is fired up motivated to do her best in training, due to Zidane's inadvertent pep talk.
More Japanese punnery: as mentioned, "Oglop" in Japanese is "buri insect". So Cid the Oglop makes "buri" sounds, which the English translation changed to "gwok".
Cid's first greeting to Dagger is "it's been a while"/"long time no see": 久しぶり "hisashiburi". Which, of course, has "buri" at the end, so it turned into the "buri" cry of the oglop.
It looks like the English translation decided to just insert random "gwok" into Cid's speech, which is pretty much what the "buri" verbal tic does in Japanese. I suspect for the more modern English translation trends, this would turn into a zillion insect puns instead.
Turns out, Zidane can't stand fancy food, and much prefer the cheap, hearty food of a lower class tavern. Thus he has decided to abscond from the proceedings (how must Dagger feel!) to instead head out to a place he knows in town - today's special, it says, is "Soup du Silence." Now I'm actually curious what that dish might look like!
Zidane says 安っちい "yasucchi", which is a slang-y way of saying 安い "yasui", ie "cheap". Which does have the same connotation as "low-class", despite technically just meaning "low in price".
Interestingly Zidane in Japanese guesses 静 "Shizuka" here. (Or "Sei", for another possible reading.) Which implies there's a culture in this setting where kanji names exist.
Also later Zidane guesses "Ratchel", which is a very clever translation of ネズ美: a pun on ネズミ "nezumi", ie "rat" or "mouse", with the 美 "-mi" ending, which means "beauty" and is a common kanji used for girls' names. Again, implying kanji use in names in this setting.
Generally, Freya talks like an old person, using "-ja"/"-noja" sentence endings, which is the stereotypical "elderly" way of saying "-da" and "-no da". She also uses "-ja nou", which is the "-da na" ending, but turned into "-ja" with an extended sing-song "no~". While usually assigned to old people in anime (particularly the easygoing, half-deaf, possibly senile characters), when a fairly young person uses this speech pattern, the character type tends to be the intensely traditional sort, who lives in temples and doesn't know how to use newfangled cellphones and savours natto beans while disdaining cappucinos.
Or it could just be another random verbal quirk assigned to Freya without much thought, just to make her slightly more memorable.
A question about this scene, in English she starts off as excessively hostile and confrontational to Zidane, in a manner that is unusual for her, but clearly showing she's pulling his leg a bit. Even after they make nice she calls him a lazy bum. It's got great 'old drinking buddies' vibes.
Is this the same tone in the Japanese script? Freya does get very formal language at times, but she really blends in as a low class tough at the start.
A question about this scene, in English she starts off as excessively hostile and confrontational to Zidane, in a manner that is unusual for her, but clearly showing she's pulling his leg a bit. Even after they make nice she calls him a lazy bum. It's got great 'old drinking buddies' vibes.
Is this the same tone in the Japanese script? Freya does get very formal language at times, but she really blends in as a low class tough at the start.
The first few lines are more or less as in the English script, although without the species name-calling: Freya goes "hey, that tail over there, you're disturbing the other customers", Zidane goes "you have a tail too", and Freya goes "don't compare the quality of my tail with yours".
So she does sound aggressive enough that if we didn't immediately see that they know each other and she's pulling Zidane's leg, it would sound like a prelude to a brawl.
I suppose Freya going "You nasty little-" is a bit strong in English. In Japanese she's being more exasperated "you're so rude/unpleasant".
Freya calling Zidane a "lazy bum" for not participating in the Festival Of The Hunt is, in Japanese, calling him a "boring man". Which I strongly suspect is even more of an insult for Zidane in particular.
Oh my god that's hysterical. Fuck, we'd have to lose "Rat-face...after I finish my drink I'm going to kick your butt" for it though, wouldn't we. Damn.
For character space concerns and/or concerns for western audiences, probably. "South Gate" and "Falcon's Claw" are punchier to an American kid's ear and easier to remember, although Sky Dragon Gate is certainly the cooler name. We're still in 2000 and although translations are getting better there's still an overriding habit of westernizing things. At this point in time we're less than two years removed from-
Zidane's Trance is similar to Terra's, being a transformation that turns him pink, more feral-looking, and increases his power.
Notably, this isn't just a color scheme. Zidane's clothing appears to have changed. His shirt and trousers have been replaced by fur, and his gloves are gone, with the cuffs replaced by tufts of fur around his wrist. It's an appearance that emphasizes the monkey-like parts of his design, like he's tapping into some latent heritage that's normally limited to his tail.
Steiner's Trance transforms his armor. It becomes shinier, more elaborate, more knightly, with extra-large pauldrons, multiple overlapping plates, elaborate embossing, and his face becomes fully encased by his helmet, giving him an ominous masked look. Even the feather in his hat becomes blue and larger.
It looks like the idealized Steiner, the Captain of the Pluto Knights, in shining armor and with a severe helmed face showing no emotion. Rather than Rusty, the bumbling dumbass with a good heart underneath it. Fascinating.
In Trance, Vivi is no longer wearing the slightly shabby clothes he normally wears, his hat isn't patched up and bent. Instead he wears embroidered clothes, and they fit him - his normal clothing is kind of oversized for him (his very large trousers are probably part of the reason he keeps tripping), but these are perfectly suited for his shape. They're a light purple embroidered with gold, and while he does not have wings like the Black Waltzes do… There is a wing pattern on the front of his robe. And he has the tallest, pointiest hat you ever did see. This looks like a court mage, like someone in a position of honor, someone who has clothes made for him, rather than hand-me-downs.
I actually like the Trance system. I am fully aware of its flaws (not least of which is a lack of choice to not go into Trance immediately), but I honestly enjoy an empowered state more then a super attack. You get to do cool things like Vivi entering into a rage state because fuck that winged asshat!
So, appearance change, as noted, Vivi and Steiner seem to transform into a sort of idealized version of themselves, the Courtly Wizard and the Shining Knight. Is this how they want to see themselves? How they think they can be? How they think they should be? Hard to say with so little information.
Of course the standout is Zidane, who apparently took some internet advice and returned to monke. Is that his idealized state? It seems odd considering the other two go for what seems the pinnacle of their crafts, but Zidane goes for a primal state.
Perhaps seeing other characters' Trance state will shed some light? Let's wait and see.
As Cid awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect. Fortunately, he was the regent of a prosperous country, so his life didn't change much. The loss of his prototype airship to his wife actually hurt more.
By weird coincidence I was bouncing back and forth between this thread and Earth Bet: House of the Sun, and I legitimately got confused as to which thread I was looking at.
In other words, if I had a nickel for every thread I'm following that features people turning into insects, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice.
I apologize for needing to make an off-topic request.
If someone wants to post a picture of an insect that strongly resembles a roach, beyond cartoony proportions, could you please put it under a spoiler block?
Huh back during the initial escape scene I was wondering why the castle had a ton of grappling hook cannons and the Bomb launcher ready to go at a moments notice. My first thought was simply rule of cool but now I can see some actual strategy and in universe logic. Since one of their main enemies uses a massive airship fleet grapnels like that would force them to keep at a minimum distance lest they risk getting stuck in place and forced to the ground for boarding, simply have suicide bomber monsters launched aboard, or blasted repeatedly by magic (from the new army of black mage constructs).
Honestly, the most remarkable thing about Cid being an insect is that it's remarkable. Given the broad definition of humanity FFIX uses, it absolutely wouldn't be out of place for there to just be an oglop regent. Related to Garnet or not.
I kinda wonder now if there are actual insect people in the setting.
Also, Cid sure rules over a sealed forstress-kingdom besieged by an insidious force that gives rise to monsters...
EDIT: And the plot is about creation of soulless automatons with shadow faces and glowing eyes.
I apologize for needing to make an off-topic request.
If someone wants to post a picture of an insect that strongly resembles a roach, beyond cartoony proportions, could you please put it under a spoiler block?
Still, they're pretty good; keep it up! 
