ExDeath's Flesh Castle...

[Dionysos]

Let's discuss one of the most metal moments in Final Fantasy history, but also a casually overlooked one.

When the party enters ExDeath's Castle it has the appearance of a regular castle: light-grey stone walls, sandstone floors, stone pillars, and torches providing light in its corridors and dungeons...

But the party soon discovers that this castle is an illusion, and Kelger (the werewolf member of the Warriors of Dawn) gives up his life to end the illusion and reveal the true appearance of ExDeath's castle....

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A somewhat scarier venue!

Yep! Instead it is a hellish construction made from the flesh and corpses of ExDeath's victims and enemies! And ExDeath has his smoke machine turned on so that his demented disco is never-ending... The torches have been replaced with furnaces within the bodies of these corpses... What's worse is that many of the torsos which make up the walls are still breathing, and there are the still-beating hearts dotted about the place.

This is a very macabre nightmare which easily outdoes Paris' catacombs... We're not just dealing with skeletons now, but fleshy corpses, or possibly flayed corpses!

So are these 'corpses' still alive and sentient? Or is ExDeath casting a spell on them to give them the verisimilitude of life for his own twisted amusement?

It can't be to scare people off, since ExDeath had hidden this form of his castle from people under the illusion of it being a 'normal castle'... It's almost as if ExDeath was hiding the literal skeletons in his closet because he knew that would just be too much. Or perhaps ExDeath wanted to keep such things for himself to enjoy. His castle is his work of art!

Also, who are the corpses? They don't look human, but instead look like demons or devils themselves... So had they tried to overthrow ExDeath or had fought ExDeath for supremacy in the ranks of demons?

Do we know anything about them? What do you think about them?

Any thoughts?

 

[Miko]

Maybe the entire castle is one giant fleshy demon castle made up of little demons. If Siphonophorae can do it then maybe Corpse Castle can too! I think the bigger concern is the stench! Can that be masked as well? Did they just accept that dungeons just smell of... uh... flesh? Burning flesh at that?

Are the floors slippery then? It would have to be moist enough in there to keep the flesh alive. What's keeping them alive? Do the pillars have to be watered from time to time? Who is on cleanup duty? I've obviously raised more questions, and I have none of the answers



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[Final Fantasy Forums]

I say, this castle of flesh is positively frightful!

By Jove! What could possibly have possessed Square Enix to include grotesque imagery like this in a video game? Nay, the perplexing matter is that they got away with it!

Golly gosh! Surely such a structure could never stand! If one of the supporting walls or columns ‘died’ then it would put excess pressure on its panting neighbours, eventually leading to their deaths. Like a palatial plague! Eventually floors, maybe even whole turrets would give way and no illusion could possibly patch up such a structural collapse.

Forgive my floccinaucinihilipilification of this idea. If I were otherwise aligned I’d say this was very much a capital idea. The game itself is jolly good and evil gets a beastly walloping in the end!