Final Fantasy IV/WMG

X-ingway is an Eidolon.
He's able to go anywhere, with no indication of how he does it. He is seemingly immune to attack by regular monsters. He talks to Whyt, an Eidolon, and Fat Chocobo, who might be one. Finally, he gives you Augment abilities that are related to Eidolons (????'s Love, related to Whyt; and Safe Travel, an ability normally the province of Chocobos, one of which is an early Eidolon for Rydia). To finish the quest for above, you must fight him, just like Bahamut. Essentially, he is a bridge between the summon realm and the world of Final Fantasy 4. That's why he can't be summoned.
 * He has the No Encounters Augment, that's how he goes everywhere. Notice the last time you see him is when he gives the no encounters to you.
 * ...Although you can run into him again in the locations he could have given it to you in after you get it, sometimes even inside dungeons. And he still stays safe without the augment.

The Rabbit Hummingways replaced the Gnome Hummingways through Time Travel
Observe Exhibit #1 and Exhibit #2. The Rabbit Hummingways were a species of Time Traveling Cuckoos. They replaced the "Turbaned Gnome" Hummingways; and nobody "remembers" the original.
 * Exhibit #3: The so-called Rabbit "Namingway" cannot name people. This was only an ability that the Turban Gnomes had.

Everybody is an orphan/ Only orphans can save the world
Come on: Name the characters in this game, who have parents on screen! And now, count, how many of this parents actually SURVIVE the game. Not many left, hm?


 * Palom and Porom's parents are never shown. It seems, like they were raised by the Elder. Probably Death by Childbirth (giving birth to twins is not a piece of cake) combined with their father probably leaving them behind
 * Edge's parents are killed, revived and commit suicide.
 * Edward's parents are killed.
 * Cecil was an Orphan from the start.
 * Kain's father did apparently die some time before the game's start, his mom is never mentioned.
 * Rydia's mom was indirectly killed by Kain and Cecil, her father probably died some time before that.

Therefor, I declare Final Fantasy IV as the orphaniest-game ever made.


 * I'd call into question also whether you're an "orphan" if your parents die when you're in your 20s, as is the case with both Edward and Edge. I can't be arsed to look it up now, but I've a feeling it only really counts as being an "orphan" if you were dependent on the parent(s) up to then.
 * You may not technically be an orphan by legal definition if your parents die when you're in your 20's, but you can still feel like an orphan. Especially if you have no other family or don't get along with the rest of your family. So maybe it's more important that they feel like they have no other family in the world.
 * Remember that Rosa's mom didn't die, and her father is either alive and works somewhere, or dead.

Turning yourself into a monster made of evil actually makes you weaker.
Think about it. Back as Zemus, the villain effortlessly shrugged off some of the most powerful moves in the game, being killed by an attack that does 99,999 damage. As evil, he was a tornado, a hairball, and a bug, each time being vulnerable to things like Meteor or Firaga.
 * This troper didn't even have Meteor learned before fighting Zeromus.
 * However, this can be justified by the fact that  couldn't even kill Zeromus when both of them used Meteor again. Cecil had to use a Crystal to weaken Zeromus.

The Darkness used by the Dark Knight is not evil
But rather, the use of the equipment and the dark power makes one more susceptible to Zemus's control. Note that, as a Dark Knight, Cecil's MP, Spirit, and Magic Defense are all abysmal. His Spirit stat will never increase past 1. Note also that all of those stats shoot up when he accepts the light given to him by Klu Ya. The Darkness isn't a corruptive force that leads to inevitable evil; it and the tainted equipment (which, might I add, is the only equipment available to Dark Knights and is only available to Dark Knights) combined drop a persons mental defenses to almost nothing, allowing Zemus to take control far more easily. This also gives a possible explanation as to why Cecil is so comfortable with using the Darkness again in Dissidia Final Fantasy; his time as a paladin has bolstered his mind a lot, so he can safely wield the Darkness again.
 * The Village of Dark Knights in Final Fantasy III was pretty good.
 * And in the backstory, the world was threatened by the Flood of Light and the four Dark Warriors had to defeat it in order to save the world.
 * I'm not sure if this is a WMG or me just not remembering from having played in a long time, but I was thinking that the DS version kind of implied that Cecil was ordered to take up the armor of the Dark Knight by the King, presumably after he'd been replaced by Caignazzo, in order to make him more manipulable mentally. Does this mean the armor was made of IdiotBallium?

Leviathan sank the ship specifically to grab Rydia
Rydia appears to be the last summoner, and we've seen a demonstrated link between summoners and the summoned. Leviathan was afraid that, or foresaw that, she was too young to survive the fighting she'd have to endure, and 'ate' her specifically so she could get her Plot-Relevant Age-Up. Stranding Cecil so close to Mysidia as to get Paladin'd was either part of the plan or a happy bonus, and the other casualties were...well, he's the king of the Fey, so he doesn't have to be nice about this sort of thing.

Relatedly, he wants Rydia to rejoin the human world more in The After Years so that she can have children, and prolong the summoner bloodline.
 * This was disputed?

Cecil and Rosa were adopted by Firion and Maria, just as Cain was.
With all the hints that Cain from II is the same guy here grown up, this makes sense.
 * Then, what happened to Fynn? There's no sign of the Wild Rose in the entire game. Besides, would people forget the threat of the Emperor in the span of less than a lifetime? That brings out some Nightmare Fuel this way. It's almost like those memories were erased from existence by Zemus.
 * Fynn is Troia, Baron is Palamecia, Mysidia is Mysidia and Eidolons & Elemental Lords reshaped the land after Emperor Mateus brought Hell on Earth, but before Zemus-Golbez's campaign. Emperor Mateus is Lunarian, who decided to, at first, accelerate the development of humans (by conquering other nations and creating a new civilization) to bring Lunarians to the planet faster, and later, after dividing his soul in two halves, kill all humans (as the Dark Emperor) and take over the whole celestial chain (as the Light Emperor). Lunarian origins explain why he didn't just die like a normal human being, transforming into new entity(s) instead (like Zemus->Zeromus; Kluya->The redeeming spirit). After his death the world was in a big mess and Eidolons together with Elemental Lords had to reshape the land and seas. However, under Zemus' corruption, the Elemental Lords also brought new monsters into the reshapen world.

Emperor Mateus was brainwashed by Zemus.
He was Zemus' first attempt at getting someone to gather the crystals. Unfortunately, he didn't count on Mateus' thirst for power. Then he heard about KluYa's sons, and decided to try and brainwash one of them, figuring they'd be easier to control being half-Lunarian.

Cid is the same person in both II and IV.
Continuing the chain of II and IV connections... this one is a bit more wild mass guessery. As Cid died in II, he couldn't be the same Cid in IV... but then you consider the fact that Cid /should/ have died in IV on more then one occasion... So perhaps he found a way to cheat death and escape the afterlife? Then he really /did/ die when he fell... and just reentered his broken body again.
 * Cid is a cyborg?