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iSteiner

 
steiner

Steiner looks upon Vivi with an unquestionable amount of respect. To Steiner, Vivi is a master of the magical artes, and thus someone to be both feared and reverred.

When Vivi first displays his uncanny abilities on the stage of the Tantalus play in Alexandria, Steiner is taken aback. The last thing he expected to see was some kid casting powerful spells right in front of his face. From that point on, Steiner looks beyond Vivi's small stature and humble demeanor, treating him as a respected and valuable virtuoso, even going so far as to refer to him as "Master Vivi".

Only making their interactions more comical is the strange displacement of status between the two. Steiner is Head of the Queen's Guards of Pluto — a hefty title if there ever was one — while Vivi is but a lowly, lost little child burdened with an inferiority complex. On the social ladder, Vivi falls quite short of Steiner. Anyone looking at the two would tilt his or her head in confusion and wonder how the little pointy-hat child comandeered the respect of the burly soldier.

the wizard & warrior dynamic

None-too-subtly hidden beneath Steiner's gratious amounts of regard for Vivi is a fear of the black mage that links back to the classical dynamic relationship between warriors and wizards. Steiner is a modern representation of the traditional soldier: tough, stubborn, and with an inclination to sword-wielding and head-butting over tact and deep thought. Vivi is a wizard, an expert of non-physical powers a soldier couldn't begin to understand. The mystery that surrounds a mage's powers only increases the fear the soldier has of them. Vivi, a black mage, represents both power and mystery; Steiner, a visceral fighter, must fear and respect the powers Vivi has that he doesn't understand and can't easily fight against.

quote Steiner § You fool. That black mage has unimaginable powers... quote

Outside of Vivi's earshot, Steiner doesn't hold back in admitting how he truly feels about the black mage. He wants to avoid Vivi. He knows that in a battle between a mage and a soldier, the mage would be the more likely of the two to win. Though the mage is defensively weak, the power the mage posesses will always overtake the soldier. The dynamic is unbalanced.

the wizardly warrior

Classically, the wizard and the warrior have either been pitted against each other, or the wizard has fallen into the role of the wise instructor. The Weird Sisters of Shakespeare's Macbeth were villians who spoiled Macbeth's hold of kingly power. Merlin tutored a young Arthur and advised him while he was grown. But Final Fantasy IX offers something a little different: the combined strengths of both wizard and warrior as one.

Vivi and Steiner have the unique ability to merge their powers: Vivi can infuse Steiner's sword with magic to create a much more powerful weapon than each seperately. This is the ultimate bonding between wizards and warriors, who thought themselves so different that they could never work together on the same level. Representing a sure alliance, the Magic Sword abilities bring together the two opposing classes in a mutually beneficial way.

Steiner image 5

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