Card Spotlight: Cyan 4-007H and Dealing With Losses

Hot take alert: no matter what TCG you choose to play, you are going to lose games. That is not so hard to accept or admit, until you pack a bag and travel several hours to a large tournament. One character from Final Fantasy 6 can serve as a cautionary tale of how to navigate and handle losses.

Cyan Garamonde has one of the most gut-wrenching stories, in a large cast of characters with tragic origins. He serves his kingdom with pride, but his pious approach to life does not prepare him for the reality he faces.

Cyan is on record as a samurai, and his katana weapons and bushido skill serve as more evidence of this. I have always looked at him as an early-English knight, based on his speech patterns and perhaps my own biased perspective. He is the definition of chivalrous, both in his approach to others and his concept of honor.

Spoilers begin here for the story of Final Fantasy 6.

When Kefka Palazzo poisons Doma Keep, Cyan flies into a rage. Anyone would: his family, his king, and his entire kingdom was killed in a cowardly way. Once he has an immediate, unsatisfactory chance for revenge, he then joins Sabin (and sometimes Shadow) to destroy Kefka.

He is offered closure when they stumble upon the Phantom Train, transporting souls of the dead to the afterlife. Cyan’s family says goodbye, and Sabin leaves Cyan to silently reflect on the trauma he is still processing. This is a powerful scene, and there is a lot to unpack here that I will not attempt in this limited space.

Once in Kefka’s World of Ruin, when we next find Cyan, he is still poorly processing the trauma he was dealt at the hands of the Gestahlian Empire. We learn he has met a likely-widowed woman and he has taken it upon himself to send her notes under the name of her missing betrothed. Although his actions are wrong, and he knows it, he is still noble at heart and trying to preserve hope in a world that has none.

When Cyan is back in the gang, and the party revisits Doma, an internal battle is held with a monster embodying Cyan’s anger, doubt, fear, and depression. The symbolism of this event is hard to overstate, and the lesson about recovery and moving past loss ascends the media used to portray it.

Once Cyan defeats the literal demonization of his past, and finds closure, his skills increase as well.

Spoilers end here for the story of Final Fantasy 6.

Cyan’s card is an absolutely perfect example of how Final Fantasy TCG weaves flavor from the games into the cards. His presence powers up other Category 6 members by giving Brave (befitting of a chivalrous samurai-knight).

What I like most is his Bushido: Fang special ability. Cyan is powerful removal, if he can survive the game long enough and stay on the field. Keeping him in your party, he just gets better as turns continue.

I never thought a trading card game could demonstrate character development, but bravo.

Cyan’s story is one of the best in video game history. While it touches on heavy themes around loss, persistence, and survival, it also reminds us to move past our own smaller losses. The next time you go to a large tournament, prepare to lose as much as you prepare to win. You probably will lose some. Check most Top 8’s and you will see that almost everyone’s record includes at least one loss.

Sometimes that loss can put players on tilt. Don’t let it.