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SMNTY Classics: Fictional Women Around the World - Terra Branford · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie, and welcome to stuff I've never
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: told you production I heart you, and that's right. Today,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I am sadly alone. Samantha's got a lot of stuff
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: going on that came up kind of suddenly. We've got
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of travel coming up, so it's sort of hectic.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And I just got back from Dragon Con, which is
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a big convention. I've talked about it a million times,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I know, so I'm a little tired of my voice
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: sounds a little rough. But I had a great time.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I had a great time. In an upcoming happy hour,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be talking about some of my favorite
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: things that I saw there. But in the meantime, I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: wanted to bring back this classic fictional woman around the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: world I did for my birthday last year. I think
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: on a final Fantasy character named Tara, who was one
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: of my absolute favorite characters, and I saw someone dressed
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: as her at dragon Con. It was so cool. It
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: was a great costume. And then I think I saw
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: someone I wasn't entirely sure, but I think I saw
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: someone dressed as her. But like the pixelated version, Oh,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: it was amazing. There were so many creative costumes. It
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: was so exciting, and I just love it. I love
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: when other people clearly resonate with the character that you
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: resonated with. And that costume I think I talk about
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in here would be difficult to pull off. I always
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: wanted to do it, but it was the green hair
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that I really got stuck on. But yes, we hope
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: that all of you are well and please enjoy this
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: classic episode. Hey, this is the Any and Samantha and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: welcome to Stefan Never Told You production of iHeartRadio. And
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: today we are back with another sub sub sub sub
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: whatever segment of fictional women around the World. I haven't
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: found the alternate title like activists around the World, but
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I'm still thinking about it. I'm still thinking about it.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And you know what, I'm very happy today because we
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: are taking it back to one of my very faves,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: one of my very first favorite fictional characters, Tara Branford
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: of Final Fantasy three slash six. And yes, that is confusing.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I always when I was growing up, I always knew
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: it as three, so that's probably what I'm going to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: call it, but I understand that it's more traditionally known
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  Speaker 1: as six, so well, we're just gonna roll with him.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And once again, Samantha's going to be kind of supporting
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: me as I as I tried to explain this, but
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: always feel free to ask any questions. I have no
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: idea what this game is at all, Like I know
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the name, but that's the end. And there could be
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: a lot of questions because the Final Fantasy series is
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a bit daunting to explain, yes, and that's like the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: understatement of the century perhaps, And a part of that
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: is because it is a series that was created in
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Japan originally, and some things for sure got lost in translation,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: like the whole is it three years it six thing,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: or the fact that in the Japanese version of this game,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Tara's name is Tina, and apparently when they did test
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: in American markets everyone hated the name Tina. Kind of
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: similar thing with Aris slash Rath, like in the one
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I grew up with, the character's name was mistranslated to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Aris as opposed to Erith. And this is a character
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: from Final Fantasy seven who is another favorite of mine
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: that we will definitely come back to. But okay, basically,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: these games are generally role playing games that take place
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: in fantasy worlds, some more fantastical, some more technological slash futuristic,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: some a mixture of both. They are not connected storyline
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: wise unless you're looking at Final Fantasy ten and ten
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: two or thirteen and thirteen two something like that. But
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Final Fantasy III was one of my absolute favorites as
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: a kid. We had it on the Super Nintendo, which
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: meant we only have three safe slots. And even though
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: me and my siblings, I have two brothers, so there's
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: three of us. Seems like it should work. No, they
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: would erase my game all the time for their quote
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: special runs brothers. Also, this game does have a big
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Star Wars connect, like there's characters named Biggs and which
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: there's an Emperor, things like that, so I loved that. Also,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Tara is the first playable character in Final Fantasy three
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  Speaker 1: slash six and a necessary character for the first half
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: of the game. Some characters are optional, she is not,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and not only that, she is a required party member
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: for most of the game. When the game starts, she
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: is an eighteen year old magic user that has been
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: captured enslaved by the Gestralian Empire. Magic users are pretty
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  Speaker 1: rare in this universe, and her powers are an enigma.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: When you first start, you know her as question question Question,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Question of question Mark, a bunch of question marks, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: a later girl because they've stripped her of her name
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and her identity. As the game opens, she and some
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Imperial soldiers are in these like mechanized walkers hunting down
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: a mysterious esper, which are these powerful, magical mystical beings,
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  Speaker 1: And when they find the esper, a strange reaction takes
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: place between it and Tara, knocking back the soldiers and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: freeing Tara of the device he used to control her.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Once she is freed, she struggles with amnesia and experiencing
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: emotions to the point that she's afraid that she cannot
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: feel love. She is rescued by an anti imperial activist
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: who enlist a thief named Locke to get her to safety,
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  Speaker 1: and from this point Tara embarks on a journey across
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  Speaker 1: the continent which I would kind of describe this world
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  Speaker 1: as maybe a more fantasy and land based version of
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Star Wars. I know, I always compare everything to Star Wars.
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  Speaker 1: It's just a good reference for me. Or you've got
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: your evil Empire, even complete with evil emperor betrayed by
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: his apprentice, You've got your rebellion. You've got your magic,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: You're different worlds, your mysterious power crystals mostly extinct, magical race, rogue, smugglers, spies, traders, kings,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. Also, like with most games, you can
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: give characters other names if you want. And I used
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: to use the name King Edgar. I would name his
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: character after my brother because there was the whole scene
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: or Kefka, who is this villainous clown essentially Darth Vader.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I guess was cursing him out, and I loved it.
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  Speaker 1: So I would be like using my brother's name and
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: calling him like all these ansults. I would just laugh.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: And he didn't know that. Yeah, he didn't know that
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: until I told him recently, And it was a nice
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: you know, you used to erase my game. It was
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: not the same, but a little one up, a little
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: one up on him. Okay, So back to Tara. Tara
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: is confused and lost without her memories or her emotions,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: so she follows Lock to meet up with the returners,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: who are this is the Underground Resistance movement. As they arrive,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: they learned that the Emperor's second in command, an unhinged
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: gesture named Kefka, is about to launch an attack on
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: a city they just fled to claim the esper that
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: so affected Tara, so they rush back to try to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: step Keeka, and Tara suddenly transforms into an ethereal being,
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  Speaker 1: screams and flies away, and the scream is very haunting.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: By the way, it's one of the I think only
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: two sounds she makes in the game, because this was
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: early game, and you can look it up on her
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: like fandom page and you can play it. And it
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  Speaker 1: gave me goose bumps. It gave me goose bumps. Locke
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: and the crew pursue her and find her being healed
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  Speaker 1: and her memory restored by another Esper, who reveals that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: she is the hybrid daughter of an Esper warrior and
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: a human mother. Their hidden world was attacked and both
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the parents perished. The Emperor killed Tara's mother and kidnet Tara.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: He took her back to the Empire and experimented on
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  Speaker 1: her her to create the magic armory weaponry called magic
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  Speaker 1: Tech that allowed for their continued dominance of this world,
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  Speaker 1: and Tara herself was used as a living biological weapon
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: to control her. Kefka placed a crown of enslavement on
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: her and ordered her to kill fifty soldiers in magic
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  Speaker 1: tech armor. She completed the order in three minutes. With
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: her memories restored, she can now access her esper abilities
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and I guess by the way, when Espers die, they
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: turn into these crystals that the Empire has when using
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to power their technology. They call them Magicite. However, Tara
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: is hamstrung up by the memories of what the Empire
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  Speaker 1: made her do and being made into a weapon again,
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  Speaker 1: So she's a recurring theme throughout as she is constantly
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: questioning people's motivations. She's always wondering if they're just using
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  Speaker 1: her for her magic. She helps the Returners locate the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: hidden world of the Espers, but when least, they start
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: eventually attacking the Empire without thought, and this forces the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: hand of the Emperor and he makes a deal with
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  Speaker 1: the Returners and they partner to bring peace between the
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  Speaker 1: Espers and humanity. But alas, it was all a big
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: scheme by the Emperor and Gefka, and they betrayed the
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  Speaker 1: Alliance of course, killing their only aison generally oh I remember,
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  Speaker 1: and several Espers. In their betrayal, they attack the Esper
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  Speaker 1: world to get their hands on the source of their power.
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  Speaker 1: An arcane object the Emperor intends to use to grant
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: him god like abilities. However, another betrayal, Kefka, kills him,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: pushes the artifact out of alignment to destroy the world,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: and of course gives himself godlike powers. This brings us
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to Part two, now in the post apocalyptic world where
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Tara is optional and I find this interesting because an
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Empire spy named Celis, who's kind of like an endemy
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: of yours at some point but switch sides, is the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: one trying to round up party members in part two,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and I love Zelus. I want to come back and
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: do an episode on her as well. She's got a
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: whole opera scene that I love. Anyway. Sellas finds a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: weekend to Tara, no longer able to access her powers,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and is now the surrogate guardian for the children of
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  Speaker 1: a town Keka burned for he burned it down for
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: defying him. Celis aids Tara in fighting a fire demon,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and if Tara does not accompany you, it will attack
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: again until she rejoins the party. Tara is able to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: use her power, but cannot revert back into her human
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  Speaker 1: form until she realizes that the children who are initially
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: afraid of her esper appearance, are still able to love
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  Speaker 1: and hope even though the world is so dark at
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: this point, and that leads her to realize that so
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  Speaker 1: is she. She can still love and she can still
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  Speaker 1: hope after all of her fears around that, she entrusts
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  Speaker 1: the children to the oldest of the group, who promised
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: to watch over them until she returns. The group goes
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to fight Kefka, who has multiple chibes and monologues about
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: life not being worth living, and the group, including Tara,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: provide many excellent counterpoints. They defeat Kefka, but in doing
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: so banished magic and Espers from the world. Tara is
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: informed she will disappear too unless she has learned how
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: to love. She begins to vanish, but is pulled back
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: at the last minute, saved by the love for her
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: friends and the children. Life returns to their world as
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Tara goes back home the end. Despite this being an
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: ensemble game, she's the main protagonist. Some people will like
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to disagree, but she is on the cover. She's in
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the original logo, her theme is the main theme. She's
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: appeared in other games too, and I loved her costume.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I always wanted to do it at Dragon Con. So
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: she has like green hair, so I'd have to get
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the green wig or dan my hair. I goes and
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a pink jumpsuit. It's kind of hard to tell because
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: this was an early game, so the animation was a
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: little you know, clunky. They're little sprites. But I always
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: thought she looked so cool as an esper. She had
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: this like wild green hair. Usually she was naked, but
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the hair covered everything. Anyway, I digress. Tara wasn't supposed
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: to necessarily be the protagonist, but I think that she is.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: They wanted to showcase her arc from a somewhat passive
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: go with the flow character to actively choosing her destiny.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Hints why the second half starts without her, And there's
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: certainly a bigger conversation that we could have and have
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: had about the whole like giving up of being an
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: esper magical abilities to stay, which is a storyline we
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: see a lot with women, but like the whole world
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: got rid of all of their magic. Anyway, as a character,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Tara is fairly versatile in both magic and combat. She's
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: able to use things like swords and daggers. There is
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: a whole classification of things called female exclusive equipment that
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I want to return to someday and do a whole
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: episode on. So these are like items that only women
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: characters can use, So in this game, it's like hairbands,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: mystery veils, tiaras, the White dress, the Regal gown, the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Minerva bustier, and the Princess ring. So yeah, one day
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: there's also items women can't use, so that could be
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: a whole fun episode. Nonetheless, Terra was really powerful and
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: well balanced and I always wanted her in my party
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: and again she can transform into an esper with her
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: signature power trance or morph, which was pretty good. I
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: gotta say the character was originally conceived as a young man,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: but that idea evolved, and when this game came out
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties, a main woman character like that
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: just wasn't that common. And she is well loved. She
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: frequently pops up at the top of list and has
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: many essays written about her care and why it was important.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: People have argued she helped pave the way for many
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: video game heroines after her, and that she had a
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: complex and moving story that was rare and powerful. Also
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: kind of I guess worth noting Tara's never coupled with
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: anyone romantically, but it was definitely implied that Locke and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: King Edgar were interested. But yeah, this game was really
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: formative for me. I no joke, think about it all
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: the time. I use it when I write stories. It's
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: got a lot of really fun elements like a castle
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: that can bare itself, switching povs, a haunted trey, haunted
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: painting and opera, vicious octopus, a frightening clown fishing which
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: was surprisingly fun. Mostly, it was a really good story
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: with an awesome character like Tara and her path for
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: self discovery being at the helm of it. So I
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: was super excited to talk about her today and now
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I so desperately want to play it again, and I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: you know what, I just my I just might well
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: As always, listeners, if you have any suggestions for this segment,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: please let us know. You can email us at Stephanida
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You amid us on
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram at stuff
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: I've Never Told You. Thanks it's always to our super
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: producer Christina. Thank you Christina, and thanks to you for
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: listening Stuff I'll Never Told You. The projection of iHeartRadio.
• 15:21
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• 15:25
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