Final Fantasy 16: Why Bahamut Went Full ‘Daenerys Targaryen’ On Us

Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Final Fantasy 16 and Game of Thrones

There are few Game of Thrones fans who champion the eighth season, and most detractors believe Daenerys Targaryen’s descent to genocidal villain was to blame for the show’s downfall. The Mother of Dragons earned her ‘Mad Queen’ title halfway through the show’s final stint and a similar departure happened to Final Fantasy 16’s Dion Lesage around halfway through its own story, giving both characters a lot to answer for.

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Not only do Dany and Dion share a whiplash turn, but they are also dominants of the sky. Dany’s strength was in her fair leadership and three dragons: Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion, and Dion aided the Holy Empire of Sanbreque in battle as the Dominant of the Eikon Bahamut. These characters had fire on their side, and tragically used this power to devastate King’s Landing and the Crystalline Dominion.

Back in 2019, fans were aghast as Dany proceeded to burn King’s Landing to ash by instructing Drogon to unleash Dracarys. After Missandei was killed, she burned the Iron Fleet and The Golden Company, but the queen didn’t stop there. Dany proceeded to burn the rest of the city, killing soldiers and civilians alike, and even though the chaos eventually killed Cersei and Jaime under the Red Keep, Tyrion and Jon were horrified by Dany’s actions, which led to her quiet execution.

In Dion’s case in Final Fantasy 16, Clive and Jill met Goetz in the Crystalline Dominion in order to attack Drake’s Tail—the fourth out of five Mothercrystals—and were alarmed to see the crown prince torching the island as Bahamut. Fiery missiles were launched by the Eikon, killing civilians indiscriminately, before attacking the heart of the Mothercrystal himself. This leads to an Eikon battle between Clive as Ifrit, Joshua as Phoenix, and Dion as Bahamut in a frenzied state, for reasons unknown at the time.

Their rage aligning, Dany and Dion were motivated by similar events that fueled their seemingly unjustified attacks on both locations. Preceding their onslaughts, both characters had lost everything dear to them, and they were consequently pushed to breaking point and overcome by rage.

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Even though Dany’s transformation into the Mad Queen seemed sudden, her notion to burn King’s Landing was voiced much earlier in the show, and extinguished by Tyrion’s council. The writers’ decision to have Dany submit to her original wish was actually a natural development and greatly emphasized her inability to escape the Targaryen’s reigning line of mad leaders—her destiny in a way—despite her best efforts to rule with mercy. As disastrous as the queen’s descent into madness was, it was also on brand with the overall bleak tone of the series—an atmosphere that influenced Final Fantasy 16’s narrative—and this shift was echoed in Dion’s rampage.

Dion didn’t have nearly as much to lose as Dany did, but what he did hold dear was brutally snatched from him nonetheless. He was concerned for some time that Clive and Joshua’s estranged mother, Anabella, had been carefully infiltrating Sanbreque and polluting his father Emperor Sylvester Lesage’s mind. Anabella orchestrated the Dhalmekian Republic’s withdrawal from the Crystalline Dominion—a decision she credited her and Sylvestre’s son Olivier for in order to persuade Sylvestre to make Olivier Emperor instead of Dion—and convinced Sylvestre to indulge in tyranny and take the Dominion for himself.

In protest, Dion staged a coup d’état with the dragoons and confronted his father in the throne room. It was revealed that Olivier was the main villain Ultima’s vessel, using Anabella and Sylvestre to do his bidding, and after rejecting Ultima’s request to conquer Valisthea for him, Dion threw a spear at the vessel which ended up impaling his own father as he jumped in front of the attack to save his other son. It’s not directly explained why Dion burned the Crystalline Dominion and its people, but knowing Dion’s prior heartache confirms his grief and loss of the empire to be the catalyst that made him prime as Bahamut and lose control, similar to what Clive and Joshua experienced at Phoenix Gate.

Both Dany and Dion’s actions demonstrate how the emotional weight of grief and perpetual loss can cause a person to react and use what power they have left to retaliate and make their fury known. Dany’s cold snap was harder to receive because it contradicted six to seven years of main character growth, but our time with Dion was short-lived, and his initial moral ambiguity softened his switch to a madman.

Of course, fans’ emotional investment in Dion, who was always a secondary character, can’t really compare to the love many had for Dany, so his descent didn’t have quite the same impact. It did, however, provide us with one of the best Eikon battles in the game.

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