Tyrannus DracoRex (character)

Tyrannus DracoRex
Kana	ティラヌス・ドラコレックス
Romaji	Tiranusu Dorakorekkusu
Origin	Final Fantasy (1987) - original form Final Fantasy XV (2016) - as Dracorex
Original Name	Bahamut
Alias	Bahamut Tyrannus The Great Betrayer The True Accursed The Draconian The Bladekeeper The God of War The Great Dragon King Scale Belly
Type	Godly Dragon
Role	Villain, formerly ally
Age	Unknown, at least 30,000 years
Gender	Male
Alignment	Evil, formerly neutral
Home World	"Final Fantasy" Universe
Weapon	DracoRex Calibur Gigaflare Sword Ultima Sword
Attribute	(False) Light Darkness
Status	Deceased
English Voice	David Lodge
Japanese Voice	Itaru Yamamoto (FFXV Universe) Hidekatsu Shibata (other possible appearances Ryuzaburo Otomo (other possible appearances)

Bahamut was was once a valuable ally to the Warriors of Light, but he was only fighting with them to acquire godhood so he can end the timeless struggle between light and darkness on his own terms. When he became an Astral, Bahamut was immediately corrupted into the Tyrannus DracoRex, and is retroactively the ultimate antagonist of the Final Fantasy series as a whole.

Profile

Appearance

Bahamut had taken on many forms throughout his existence, but the context of this page strongly accounts his physical appearance in Final Fantasy XV; a giant winged humanoid with a helmet styled like a dragon's head, a more grandiose semblance of Kain Highwind's appearance in Final Fantasy IV. His real face, however, is a perversion of Somnus Lucis Caelum and/or Noctis' face.

Personality

Even before his transformation into the God of War, Bahamut was an amoral, headstrong, arrogant, judgmental, power-hungry dragon who rationalizes his enjoyment of destroying lesser life-forms under his unflinching belief that sacrifice is, and always will be always necessary for victory, and kept his dark side very well hidden from the Warriors of Light(for over 30 years in real life). He sees himself as above the common conventions of good and evil and believes the ends justify the means, stubbornly dismissing any alternate, more mutually acceptable solutions to any problem. Bahamut also sees himself as the single absolute good of all existence (despite his depravity and appetite for slaughter and bloodshed (arguably) on par with or exceeding that of Kefka), that the fate of the entire universe depends strictly on his self preservation and self-interest, which is why he wanted the Warriors of Light, at some point, to become so overly dependent on his awesome power.

"He is now a malicious, sanctimonious, omnipotent warlord, wearing the face of a benevolent ruler, sowing much discord, bloodshed, destruction, sorrow, and death, all under the wretched lie that he is a wise God King making difficult decisions to save as many lives as realistically possible. But we know better now!" ~ Lightning

When he became the God of War by the events of Final Fantasy XV, Bahamut had finally lost all his moral light and became a truly evil, incredibly self righteous, and utterly cruel tyrant who would destroy an entire planet just to get rid of all the daemons he so despised; even though Bahamut ironically had some role in their creation, if not actually created them himself. As the DracoRex, he had devolved from a morally ambiguous extremist into an egocentric, uncaring, deceitful, hubristic, self-centered, bloodthirsty, greedy, sadistic, uncompromising, elitist sociopath, hypocrite, and a war criminal who enjoys toying with innocent life and has no problem with sacrificing or betraying anyone to meet his goals and indefinitely maintain his undeserved godhood. He is also not above utilizing the darkness, despite his hatred of it, or cursing explicitly in the Hexatheon language if aggravated enough.

The only time Bahamut showed any remorse, or at least feigned it, was when he claimed the humans of Eos would be nothing without the gods, after his true face was exposed in the final battle. Whether he was truly remorseful, or simply trying to better justify himself, Noctis ended his life with a heavy heart on behalf of those who refuse to let the Great Betrayer's crimes go unpunished, so humanity will have no more incentive to take up arms against the remaining gods for the sins of just one, and move on.

Background

Bahamut was created eons ago to protect the universe, but he was far more concerned with destroying evil to buy the fear and respect of mortals, and only protected them for pragmatic reasons. Some time after granting the original Warriors of Light additional power to defeat Chaos and the four fiends, Bahamut decided to destroy Palamecia to prevent the birth of Emperor Mateus and his consequential rise to power, or kill him and his royal family, depending on how prior to Final Fantasy II's events this attack happened. The summons Shiva, Ramuh, and Ifrit were against the idea, and stopped Bahamut before he could completely destroy the nation, though Bahamut still caused the deaths of thousands, banishing him for his attempted genocide, thus explaining the true in-universe reason for their absence in Final Fantasy II. Bahamut was also weakened as further punishment and made to answer the call of future Warriors of Light to learn humility, but secretly, he was furious at the rejection of his harsh ideology and methods of protecting the universe, and plotted to somehow become a god himself, so he can be free to satisfy his mass destructive urges without retaliation or even fear of admonishment from his contemporaries, without them ever facing his cruel wrath; to do whatever despicable things he wanted and still be respected as an unstoppable force of "good". As time passed, Bahamut became increasingly addicted to slaughter, desensitized to tragedy, and jealous of the Warriors of Light for their victories, believing them to have only succeeded in their goals because of his power.

At one point after becoming the ruler of Eos, Bahamut abused the Crystal's power to perpetuate a time-loop to continuously falsify his image and the Lucian Kings' history in the Cosmogony texts, and the make the planet suffer again and again at the hands of Ardyn Izunia, it's people never knowing who the bigger-scale true offender is. But after 14 such cycles, the loop was finally broken by yet unknown causes, allowing for Noctis to finally learn about Bahamut's true nature, during or after his fifteenth time in Crystal Sleep. Despite his dwindling power, the Great Betrayer tried to keep the truth from being exposed but ultimately fails, leading to his demise at the hands of Noctis and Ardyn, who finally takes responsibility for doing to Noctis what Somnus did to Ardyn 2000 years ago. This also marked the end of the other Astral Gods, who accepted their deaths with dignity and repentance as the Crystal follows just after cleansing the Starscourge. Even with the timeloop broken and Noctis and Lunafreya being saved, Bahamut's actions still had massive consequences, such as destroying the summons' image in the eyes of the public, even if the Lucian Kings had finally forgiven them for their sins against humanity. There are those who still firmly believe Bahamut did nothing wrong, despite the evidence of his crimes finally being apparent to the universe, and may even wish to carry on his bloodstained legacy themselves. But there are also those with the confidence to believe that even if Bahamut does somehow return, as he had times before, he will have already lost his godly power, conferring a better chance to defeat him again.

Eventually, the other Warriors of Light discovered Bahamut's treachery and were so distraught and disgusted by his hypocrisy and the consequences thereof, that they vowed never to let another summoned monster manipulate anybody to rise to Bahamut's height of power again.

Musical Themes

Tyrannus DracoRex's leitmotif of the same name is remixed from the final boss theme of Blue Dragon.

Another associated theme is a variant of "The Gate of The Hell" by JAM Project.

Quotes

Story

• "Gather strength, O Chosen. For the fate of this world falls to the King of Kings. His providence consecrated in the Light of the Sacred Stone."
• "So it is ordained - the revelation of Bahamut!"
• "The King shall be granted the power to banish the darkness, but the blood price must be paid." - deceiving Noctis into accepting his doom
• "And thou art an arrogant old man and a fool!" - admonishing Odin for rightfully doing the same to Bahamut.
• "Still the mortal fool would persist in his defiance. A wayward king seeks to turn god-gifted strength against the selfsame god. Abandon such folly. What can one frail creature hope to do against the divine?" - denigrating Noctis for challenging him.
• "Insolent fool. With the death of the Bladekeeper comes the loss of the Crystal. All of the Six shall fall. Why persist in this fatuity...?" After being struck by Ardyn and Somnus' 'Stoner Twilight'.
• "One foolish act trumped by another greater still. Such havoc serves only to harm those who wreak it. Without the guidance of the Light, mankind will fail, doomed ever to repeat the cycle of folly. - Lamenting humanity's foolishness, (hypocritically), without admitting to his own foolishness.

Battle

• "Thou hast no idea what a true monster is!"
• "Petulant child! I shall tolerate thine insolence no more!"
• "I grow ever tired of this insolence!"
• "By my good name, the final judgement shall be passed!"
• "Thou shalt hail my name or drown in darkness eternal!"
• "Thy morals maketh thou weak!"
• "Tis my way that is the way of the gods and the universe itself!"
• "Everything thou hast ever known, shalt suffer because of thy sacrilege!"
• "Dost thou wish to know thine end? 'Tis a nightmare that shall freeze thine body!"
• "Hear the screams of Hell freezing thy blood over!"
• "Thy journey must end!"
• "Let the power of the gods end this!!!"
• "This very planet, nay, the universe in its entirety, is nothing without Bahamut!"
• "For a time, I entertained the possibility of sparing your wretched little planet. But now, thou shalt bear witness, it's dismemberment!"

Etymology and Symbolism

Tyrannus is latin for "tyrant", and DracoRex means "dragon king" in latin. This title means "Tyrant Dragon King" in latin, an appropriate description of what Bahamut had become.

Since Satan is referred to as a dragon in some sources, especially the book of Revelation, Bahamut's painting Ifrit in a satanic light to the people of Eos, and then his own betrayal of humanity, ironically makes Bahamut the real "devil" of Final Fantasy, at least particularly in the context of Bahamut being literally dragon-like in appearance, a traitor to his kind, and so unbelievably malicious.

Trivia

• Bahamut's true characterization, as revealed through this page (and displayed in -The Dawn of the Future-), draws parallels to Teridax: both started out as powerful beings who did the right thing for the wrong reasons, but then became arrogant, turned on those they were sworn to protect, and seized control of a planet. He may have just surpassed even Kefka as the darkest, most evil villain in Final Fantasy history, the impact made stronger and all the more upsetting with his former status as such an iconic summoned creature considered.
• He was once arch-rivals with Shinryu, competing for what they personally referred to as "the Throne of the Gods". However close either got to this goal, they nonetheless became corrupt by their latent base desires for ultimate power.
• The Undying in Final Fantasy XII, being it's final boss, not only foreshadows Bahamut's antagonistic role and true colors, but the Dragon King also borrows some of the Undying's attacks.
• Bahamut's role as a malevolent deity is similar to the Elder God in the Legacy of Kain series(now owned by Square Enix through their acquisition of Crystal Dynamics, which perhaps even foreshadowed this.
• His attempted destruction of Palamecia, as mentioned above, gave Emperor Mateus the idea of conquering the world when he found out about it. This make Bahamut the real reason the Emperor became evil, whether or not the Stone of Iludia had anything to do with his corruption, as Bahamut seemingly refused to consider. He never even tried to destroy the stone himself, since his indifference/disrespect for lower life-forms, power-lust and appetite for destruction are the Dragon King's defining characteristics.
• According to a new rumor by GokaiWhite, Bahamut was the one who directed Jenova to Gaia and gave her the idea to control Sephiroth. He may have also created the Arbiters of Fate to be his eyes and ears in Gaia, and likely other worlds.
• His action of starting a time-loop just to make Noctis suffer and die over and over again for Bahamut's own amusement slightly echoes what Garland did to ensure his constant rebirth.
  • Instigating this endless spiral of death also makes him a far more blatantly evil analogue to Sin and the Church of Yevon from Final Fantasy X.
    • In fact, Gokai now believes that Bahamut had, at one point, wanted to become Sin through sticking with the plan to defeat him permanently, only to kill Yuna and her guardians upon letting Yu Yevon possess him. Of course, he'd have underestimated her, or have realized it wasn't the ideal plan to reach his ulterior ultimate goal.
• After his ultimate death, Bahamut's name became another word for "betrayer", solidifying his synonymy with treachery. Though his name is not censored out of the histories (this would make whoever does so no better than Bahamut), many still prefer to call him the Great Betrayer to emphasize his shameful legacy.

• Scryptorek's elaborate deception that Jikanmu was only "manipulating" the Toa Luminus into helping the Makuta's scheme, as well as the appearance of Kardahamut, was a foreshadowing to the revelation that Bahamut had been doing the same thing with the Warriors of Light up until ascending to godhood as shown in the FFXV Universe, which evokes the idea of trading one evil for another, if unintentionally.
• GokaiWhite describes DracoRex as exactly what Kratos, a former God of War, would have become if he remained as such, past God of War II and beyond. In fact, Bahamut now has much in common with Zeus and Ares in the God of War series, and may even be considered a culmination of all their and Kratos' worst traits.
• Gokai also said, "The DracoRex's character is a grander-scale allegory to the idea that Delita Heiral's ruling dynasty which he established by the end of Final Fantasy Tactics, if not Delita himself, will inevitably turn corrupt by his morally dubious ideology and become just like the purveyors of injustice Deltia had wished to expunge, in some form or another, reinforcing the idea that Ramza Beoulve is, especially morally speaking, the true hero that should be remembered by history".