Of the legends, the 1997 English one is most likely the least well known in North America. The guide book that the '97 English version of the legend appeared on was a companion to the Playstation re-release of the game in Japan in 1997. However I think it gives the best translation of the intended message.

 

***SPOILERS*** 

 

 

    The person in the legend is of course Cecil. It's pretty obvious from the line discussing darkness and light, who in the game hoists or carries both? Cecil, of course. He starts as a dark knight and changes into a white knight. I find that the first line from all the versions is a little strange. However after playing the game and reading the guide book version the intent materializes. Cecil was Klu-Ya's son...who was a Lunarian. Klu-Ya came to the Blue Planet on a spacecraft known as "The Legendary Ship of the Moon" which is also called the "Lunar Whale" or "The Big Whale". This spacecraft is hidden in the bay near Mysidia. This bay, from the air, appears to be the mouth on the head of a dragon, or at least the continent looks a little like a dragon. Fly over Mysidia and Mt. Ordeals in an airship in the game, or check the map section of this site to see for yourself. Thus Cecil was born from the mouth of a dragon, or more precisely born from the man who came from the bay shaped like the mouth of a dragon. The final lines I think are translated in the PS1 English version the best. While I like the use of the phrase "neverending light" instead of "eternal light" the meaning is clearest in the PS1 version. Cecil's "holy light" bathes the moon, where Zemus' evil resides. Cecil brings forth a new promise for the Blue Planet, "mother earth". Overall though, I do think that the '97 game guide version is more eloquent.

 

   In essence the legend tells us of Cecil's destiny to save the people of the Blue Planet and the Lunarian race from the evil of Zemus. One might assume that since Klu-Ya gave the legend to the Mysidians, he knew that one day someone would have to deal with the restless evil spirit of Zemus, and he expected this person to be someone descended from his bloodline, or perhaps another Lunarian or even himself if the time came. He knew of the problem so acutely that he told the Mysidian people to pray for this person's advent in times of darkness.

 

Really In Depth...Probably only good for FanFic writers or Uber Fans to continue...

 

   However this is all somewhat problematic to me. That is that the legend is almost too specifically meaning Cecil, or at the very least one of Klu-Ya's two sons because for the legend to work the would have to be born from a dragon's mouth...but I suppose that could be taken as simple theatrical fancy talk. Next, how long has the legend been around anyway? There is nothing in the official cannon that tells us exactly when Klu-Ya visited the Blue Planet, only that Cecil is 20 years old and there is reliable information making Golbez 32. We also know Cecil was orphaned at the age of two. Therefore Klu-Ya was at least present on the Blue Planet as recent as 18 years prior to the game's storyline and that we know he was on the Blue Planet sometime around 32 +9 months from the beginning of the game as well to have conceived Golbez. The "+9 Months" is assuming that Lunarians don't asexually reproduce (probably not since Bahamut's "assistant" says to Cecil "Oh you're a half..." If he's not some half-slagged off Klu-Ya Pod (!!) then he must be half-Lunarian and half Blue-Planetarian). I'm also assuming that the gestation period for women on the Blue Planet inseminated by a Lunarian is equivalent to a human mother carrying a human child (9 months) and that such a union must create a viable fetus. Since Cecil was orphaned at the age of two, Klu-Ya either died or was killed at most 20 years +9 months and at least 18 years before the beginning of the game's storyline. I'm giving that margin of 33 months because there is no information on who Cecil and Golbez's mother was (if they were the same person!) and when she died to have orphaned Cecil and Golbez. Meaning they weren't orphans until BOTH their parent's died, it's a two variable equation. Therefore Klu-Ya is at most 14 and at least 12 years old, but not really,  because obviously he wouldn't be getting his game on at the age of 0 so that's only the range of time in which he lived between Golbez's conception and Cecil's conception. He must have been something like at least 15 or 16 when he "made" Golbez, at least we hope he wasn't any younger. Given this he would have died at the age of 30 at most and 27 at least. Again this seems a little dumb because he BUILT A STARSHIP to carry him from the Lunarian's Moon to the Blue Planet. Unless he snapped his finger and it appeared that must have taken some time? How did he learn how to build the Starship? Unless an operator used his brain-jack to upload the skill set into his head Neo-style then he had to learn this skill. So let's say he started at 15 or 16 to learn Starship Engineering from the Lunarian libraries, and it took him...10 years to learn Starship building and create a working model. Then he's like 40 or 37 when he dies, ok that sounds plausable. Again I come back to HOW OLD IS THE LEGEND? Unless it's some ancient Mysidian mumbo-jumbo legend that some guy named Minh just made up, that he took and made real with his trial machine then I guess he's hundreds of years old? How long do Lunarians live anyway without their special "sleeping" on the moon? Is it possible Klu-Ya visited the Blue Planet in it's ancient past and slept in stasis on the moon between visits so his age is irrelevant since he essentially time traveled into the future? This is probably the best assumption without any cannonical facts in evidence.

    As for this darkness and light stuff, how would Klu-Ya have known that both his children would be hoisting, bearing, or carrying the "darkness"? Golbez could have been anywhere between 12 and 14 when he was orphaned, and of course Cecil either wasn't born yet or he was two. Making both children too young to be anything like a Dark Knight and Black Sorcerer when Klu-Ya dies. Now granted if Golbez had not been controlled by Zemus he might have become the Paladin and the legend would have held up since he was a "Dark" sorcerer. Or was he? What exactly was Golbez before he was controlled by Zemus? Was he already a black sorcerer? Or did he get his powers from Zemus? Maybe Zemus enhanced them? Was he just Uncle Golby the Chocobo farmer and then Zemus turned him into a black sorcerer? Who knows. If he was Farmer Golby then the legend would have failed if Zemus had arbitrarily chosen Cecil who would have become a dark knight. And being Farmer Golby who's to say he wouldn't have been shoveling Chocobo shit during the great Crystal War and never taken the trial? This tends to make the specific wording of the legend a bit TOO specific.

    What about the actual mechanics of becoming a Paladin? I suppose that leaving a "trial machine" on Mt. Ordeals (or whatever that was supposed to be up there) that would imbue somebody with "holy light" and saying "my son" to whomever that was, and assuming that person was someone with a dark past or connotation is a little much to accept unless Klu-Ya was actually the Amazing Kres-kin and saw his future. Even more importantly how do we know that some random idiot wouldn't go up Mt. Ordeals and become a Paladin? Can there be more than one Paladin? Is the "trial machine" smart? Does it scan a person for Lunarian blood before they're allowed to enter? I guess not because Palom, Porom, and Tellah get to enter too don't they? And then, why the hell aren't they tested!? In any case why couldn't Cletus the pig from Silveria become a Paladin? Or as I mentioned could there be multiple Paladi? Or did Klu-Ya count on every being on the Blue Planet to be too stupid to not fight themselves and die in the "trial"? Alright let's stretch it and say that somehow Klu-Ya imprinted his "being" or "soul" as it were into the "trial machine", then the thing would know if the testee was Klu-Ya's son or not. So if you went to take the trial and you weren't a son of Klu-Ya did the machine just kill you? Is that why there are so many undead spirits and skeletons on Mt. Ordeals? Are they the pissed off people that the trial machine just slaughtered? I'd be pissed off. To top it off IF Klu-Ya built whatever it was on Mt. Ordeals that imbues the light to a Paladin, when the hell did he build it? How long ago? How would he know what generation Zemus would manifest his evil tomfoolery? That begs another question...if he built it long ago and somehow his children would be the Paladin of legend has he been knocking up Blue Planet women over the centuries to ensure there would be a Son of Klu-Ya present to fulfill the legend he pulled out of his ear? Is this why in Final Fantasy IV Advance FuSoYa's lines mention that Cecil is one of Klu-Ya's children as though there were more somewhere?

 

   If Klu-Ya was the architect of all this...why didn't he and FuSoYa just go and kill Zemus in the first place? I mean why wait around for all this? Why not just disable the Bab-il Giant so that it wouldn't have been a problem?

 

I'm not crazy, I just made you think. In fact if you read all that and you are a fan-fic writer I bet I just filled your head with all kinds of creative ideas. Go have fun now.