Garnet/Dagger's real name and references to other games in the series within XIII

[LanguageSponge]

This thread sort of crosses over between two games in a messy kind of way, so any of the mods who can think of a better place for this, by all means please move it. I couldn't decide whether to put this in the IX subforum or the XIII one or somewhere entirely different, and have copied and pasted this three times now.

Regarding Garnet's first name, I've never seen anyone mention it on any Final Fantasy forum anywhere but obviously it's on the wiki, so I want to know whether it's something people here have bothered to do the work to find out for themselves as I did. And obviously you'd only bother once.

There's a sidequest at the beginning of Disk 4, at the end of which you find that Dagger's real first name is Sarah. Amongst all the older-sounding names of the rest of the main characters in IX, I've always thought that Sarah was a weird name to put in amongst them - even though you have to work a little to get it. And since I've been playing XIII as of last night, I was wondering whether Serah in XIII is a reference back to Princess Garnet in IX?

If so, are there any other points or little references to the other games within XIII? So far, I'm enjoying XIII as long as I don't link it with anything that came before it, and there don't seem to be many references so far to its predecessors, but maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, or simply haven't beaten enough of it yet.

LanguageSponge

 

[iSmiff]

It wouldn't surprised me as FF are known for having references to previous titles, large and small.

However, I had no idea that was her 'real' name. Is this explained during ff9? If so, I must have missed it or not paid attention.

 

[Dionysos]

Sarah is also the name of the princess who was kidnapped by Garland in FFI.

FFIX's Princess Garnet / Sarah is almost certainly a reference to this, amongst countless references to earlier games.

I had not considered linking Serah to Sarah before, but perhaps this is the case also. Perhaps they wanted to draw from similar associations. 'Sarah' characters tend to be kidnapped or entrapped somehow. Sarah in FFI was kidnapped by the fallen knight Garland. Garnet / Sarah in FFIX was kidnapped firstly by the Tantalus Troupe, but then at other times too. Serah in FFXIII

Spoiler

was crystalised

.

@iSmiff

Garnet's real name is given in the game, but it isn't something which is dwelt on for very long. It's a blink and you might miss it sort of thing. I'd forgotten her name until I read it again just now.

 

[LanguageSponge]

I don't think Garnet's first name is mentioned in the course of normal story dialogue. There's a side quest on disk four involving obviously Garnet herself, Lani and the Eidolon Wall in Maiden Sari. I don't remember the specifics but at the end of it you read a message on the Wall which gives her actual name.

So, can anyone see any other hidden references to previous games in XIII?

 

[iSmiff]

I don't think Garnet's first name is mentioned in the course of normal story dialogue. There's a side quest on disk four involving obviously Garnet herself, Lani and the Eidolon Wall in Maiden Sari. I don't remember the specifics but at the end of it you read a message on the Wall which gives her actual name.

So, can anyone see any other hidden references to previous games in XIII?

Aside from obvious references like the first boss of the game clearly being a tribute to 7's guard scorpion I can't think of much else as I didn't play XIII for long before I threw it in the trash.

The fal'cie all seem to reference different summons and aeons from different titles though; Eden, Anima etc