Cidolfus Demen Bunansa



Cidolfus Demen Bunansa (シドルファス・デム・ブナンザ), or Dr. Cid as he is better known, is one of the main characters of Final Fantasy XII, and the first Cid to ever be an antagonist. A genius scientist under the employ of the Archadian Empire, he is the mastermind behind manufacted nethicite and the various technological devices it fuels that make the Empire the superpower it has become. However, Cid's inventions are mere experimentations made during the pursuit of a greater power source, and a greater end than mere world conquest.

Cid is voiced by Chikao Otsuka in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XII and John Lee in the English version.

Appearance and Personality
Cid is fifty-eight years old. He has silver hair, beard and mustache and wears silver, oval eyeglasses. He wears silver shoe-leggings with gold designs, and a deep red and purple coat, also with gold ornaments, and white elbow-length gloves. Dr Cid's weapons in battle are a pair of gold-colored guns with circular blue ornamentation, and he wields several larger weapons with the same color scheme in his cinematic attacks. In artwork of Cid as a younger man, he looks similar to Balthier.

Dr. Cid is a brilliant man and a well-learned researcher of ancient relics. According to Balthier, when Cid discovered nethicite, he devoted everything he had to furthering his knowledge of it and how to use its powers, creating airships, weapons, and becoming obsessed with achieving greater power with the stones. Cid's ultimate goal is to use the power of manufacted nethicite to defy the reign of the Occuria, giving mankind the freedom to choose its own path of development. To this end he forsakes all morals and distractions, and as a result is regarded as insane by many.

However, Cid is completely aware of what he is doing and the end results he wishes to achieve. At one point the party speculates Cid's plan was to simply grant the power of nethicite, deifacted or manufacted, to the nations of Ivalice and witness what happened when they clashed, as happened in Final Fantasy XII and the years prior to the game's beginning.

Despite their estrangement, Cid does still care for Balthier and alludes to have been wishing for Balthier to share in the power Cid was seeking, before he fled to become a sky pirate.

Early Life
Not much is known about Cid's life before the events of Final Fantasy XII. He fathered three sons, one named Ffamran mied Bunansa, but his other two sons and wife are never seen or mentioned in the game.

Six years prior to the start of Final Fantasy XII, Dr. Cid traveled to the Jagd Difohr on an expedition into the Mist-covered waste. It is not known whether it was a primarily exploration-driven mission, or whether he already had some idea of what he was looking for and what he would find there. Either way, he stumbled upon the Ancient City of Giruvegan, where he met the rogue Occuria Venat, and discovered the nature of the stone of the gods, nethicite. Venat took Cid as its pupil and taught him how to synthesize artificial nethicite, which came to be known as manufacted nethicite. Over the next six years Cid would develop vast leaps in technology using the nethicite, experimenting on his stones in Draklor Laboratory in Archades. He became obsessed with the stone and ranted about putting "the reigns of history back in the hands of man". Venat usually appeared only to Cid and was invisible to others, and the sight of Cid rambling seemingly to himself made others fear he was going mad. He promoted Ffamran to the rank of Judge, but Ffamran couldn't stand to watch his father's sanity deteriorate and fled Archades to become a sky pirate, taking the name Balthier.

As Archadia began its conquest of neighboring kingdoms, Cid found the Midlight Shard in the Kingdom of Nabradia. Recognizing it as deifacted nethicite, a shard of the Sun-Cryst, he ordered Judge Zecht to use the stone at Nabudis, eager to see its power. The resulting explosion sank Nabudis into a chasm, covered the ruins in Mist and drained the Midlight Shard of its power. The ruins came to be known as the Necrohol of Nabudis, a wasteland patrolled by monsters lurking in thick Mist.

Final Fantasy XII
With Vayne appointed new consul to Dalmasca, he and Cid conspire to find the other two shards cut from the Sun-Cryst by Raithwall, the Dawn Shard and Dusk Shard. Judge Gabranth reports Cid and Vayne's likely hand in the destruction of Nabudis to Emperor Gramis, but the two cannot take action as Judge Zecht has vanished and without his testimony the truth cannot be certain. Vaan finds the Dusk Shard hidden in the royal palace at Rabanastre, and turns it over to Judge Ghis in exchange for the party not being executed when they are captured. The Dusk Shard soon after finds its way to Cid's hands. After Raithwall's descendent Ashe retrieves the Sword of Kings, an ancient sword that can cut nethicite, from the Stilshrine of Miriam, the group heads to Archades to infiltrate Draklor and destroy the Dusk Shard - with the Dawn Shard having expelled its Mist destroying Ghis's fleet, the Dusk Shard is the last piece of deifacted nethicite that has not yet expended its power. In Draklor they meet Reddas, a sky pirate who has also infiltrated Draklor and is pursuing Cid. Cid battles the group, but before Reddas can finish him Venat appears and blocks his strike. Cid escapes, telling Ashe if she desires a piece of deifacted nethicite, to head to Giruvegan, where Cid himself plans to go.

The group heeds Cid's words and at Giruvegan Ashe meets the Occuria, who bequeath her the Treaty Blade as a sign they recognize her their choice as Dynast-King, and tell her to use it to cut new shards from the Sun-Cryst to combat the Empire. Cid is nowhere to be found and they realize he lied about coming to trick them into seeing the Occuria and receiving their direction to go to the Sun-Cryst.

At the Pharos at Ridorana where the Sun-Cryst shines, Reddas reveals himself as Judge Zecht, pursuing Cid to atone for his hand in the fall of Nabudis, and confronts Gabranth who has been sent by Vayne to determine if Ashe intends to wield the Sun-Cryst's power or not. Cid arrives and dismisses Gabranth, and Venat reintegrates the three shards of deifacted nethicite into the Sun-Cryst. The large quantities of Mist within the giant piece of nethicite spew and cover Ivalice, granting enough Mist to activate Cid's ultimate weapon, the Sky Fortress Bahamut, Vayne's massive command airship. Cid again battles the party, summoning the Esper Famfrit to his aid with a piece of nethicite, but he is defeated. Cid's body is consumed in Mist and begins to fade away, brushing off Balthier's pity and telling him to flee, in his last words muttering "fool of a pirate".

During the time in Pharos at Ridorana Cid alludes to his plan to use the power of nethicite to become a god-like being. In an earlier scene he had dismissed the Sun-Cryst and the shards cut from it as "Baubles best-suited for study, no more", preferring the power of manufacted nethicite. Thus Cid's ultimate goal may have been to betray and/or usurp Vayne and rule Ivalice himself, in addition to overthrowing the favored nations of the Occuria.

Battle


Cid is fought twice, first in Draklor Laboratory, then at the top of the Pharos at Ridorana. In the first battle he is assisted by Rooks. During the second battle he summons Famfrit and becomes invincible to damage until Famfrit is defeated.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Cid appears in the Japan-exclusive Final Fantasy Trading Card Game game published by Square Enix.

Etymology
Cid's first and last names are taken from characters from Final Fantasy Tactics, Cidolfus Orlandeau and the father-son pair Besrudio and Mustadio Bunansa.

Demen, Cid's middle name, is actually a name of a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, although there is probably no connection between the two. Instead, his name may refer to the word deme from the ancient Greek demos, which in its broad sense, is the designation of the free population of the ancient Greek city-states, who had full rights as citizens (differentiated from slaves, metics, Perioeci, and other categories of dependents and others who were not fully enfranchised).

This would be fitting, as Cid seeks to break mankind free from under Occuria's influence. His middle name may also be a reference to dementia, a type of mental illness associated with memory loss, loss of reasoning and problem solving skills, and other impaired mental functions. This may be a reference to Cid's apparent insanity under Venat's influence and his growing obsession with nethicite.

Trivia

 * Dr. Cid is the only character outside of the player party seen capable of summoning an Esper, and does so using a piece of nethicite rather than having the Esper's glyph bound to him. Cid is also the only character in the entire game to refer to an Esper by name during a dubbed cutscene.
 * Cid's Japanese voice actor, Chikao Ohtsuka, also provides the voice of Master Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts series. Chikao's son, Akio Ohtsuka, voices Gabranth in all his appearances, as well as Xehanort and Xehanort's Heartless in Kingdom Hearts.
 * Balthier quotes Cid's "favourite line" as "History is built by our hands". Cid never says this line in the game, despite it being written as a quote, favouring the line "the reigns of history back in the hands of man" instead.