Garnet Til Alexandros XVII

Devotion - "Someday I will be Queen, but I will always be myself."

Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII is the female lead of Final Fantasy IX. She is commonly known by her nickname Dagger. However, before she lived in Alexandria, she was known as Sarah.

Story
Garnet was born in Madain Sari, where she was part of a Summoner tribe. Like all Summoners, she had a horn in her forehead. However, she and her mother had to escape from Madain Sari when Garland attacked it. The boat was destroyed, and her mother was killed.

She washed ashore in Alexandria, where she was discovered by Doctor Tot. She looked almost identical to the real Princess Garnet, who had died not long before from illness, with the exception of her horn. The King ordered that her horn be removed and that she become a "replacement" princess. She was then raised as the Princess of Alexandria, and always thought that Queen Brahne was her mother. Pluto Knight, Adelbert Steiner is ordered to protect her.

When Queen Brahne began to change, the princess sought to escape Alexandria, only to find that the thief group Tantalus planned to kidnap her. She went along with this, though at first toying with Zidane as dressed as a White Mage. She eventually joined with Tantalus as they escaped from Alexandria, and aided Zidane in fighting Steiner. In the middle of the escape, Steiner was taken along with her. The Tantalus Theatre Ship was badly damaged by a Bomb and they fell into the Evil Forest. Steiner joined together with the Tantalus kidnappers to save her from the monsters inside the forest.

Garnet struggled hard to hide her identity as the Princess of Alexandria, and as a precautionary measure before entering the village of Dali, she adopts the alias of "Dagger", taking the title from Zidane's knife. Upon entering the village, Zidane began to tutor her in "common speak", a task Garnet had difficulty with, often addressing the townspeople in an overly formal manner.

Upon arriving at Lindblum, Garnet was eager to meet her uncle, Regent Cid Fabool IX, insisting that they speak about Queen Brahne's new ambitions. Lindblum is the first place that Garnet's memory of the song Melodies of Life is revealed. Zidane hears Garnet singin the melody from the top of Lindblum Castle. When Zidane asks her where she learned the song, Garnet cannot give a striaght answer.



Cid refused to take major action against the kingdom of Alexandria, and he and Zidane told Garnet to remain in Lindblum for her own safety. Unhappy with this, Garnet resolved to visit her mother herself, using a feast to commerate the Festival of the Hunt to her own means. Garnet poisons the food of everyone else at the table with Sleeping Weed, except for Steiner. She then dragged Steiner along with her and left for the South Gate. Along the way, Steiner was forced to hide her in a burlap sack in order to avoid detection, and Garnet uses the nauseous odor of Ghysal Pickles as an extra precaution.

Though the princess and her knight reached Alexandria safely, Garnet was betrayed by Queen Brahne, who ordered the jesters Zorn & Thorn to extract Eidolons from her. The summons Odin, Atomos, and Bahamut were later used by the Queen and Kuja as weapons.

After being rescued by Zidane, Garnet begins to have internal conflicts about the trustworthiness of her mother and the Eidolons within herself. When the party's Gargant crashes at Pinnacle Rocks, Garnet meets the Eidolon Ramuh. It is here that the princess casts aside her fear of the Eidolons, and Ramuh becomes the first Eidelon she is likely to summon (it should be noted that the Eidolons Garnet begins the game with can be summoned, but require so much MP that her level would need to be substantially higher than it is likely to be at that point in the game).

Garnet's roots in the summoning arts are further explored when the party ventures to Madain Sari on the Outer Continent. Eiko Carol shows them the destroyed village, and Garnet discovers her true past and birthrights. Though the two have a sort of rivalry over Zidane's affections, they eventually become friends and learn that they are the last two summoners of Madain Sari. Garnet also finds out that Eiko knows the tune to Melodies of Life, so it may be said that the song had its origins in the summoning village.

At the Iifa Tree, Queen Brahne's attempts at dispatching Kuja with Bahamut backfires on her, and the Genome leaves her for dead on the beach. Garnet rushes down and attempts for comforts her adopted mother, but her efforts are in vain. Brahne dies on the shores of the Outer Continent, but not before apologizing for her deeds and asking Garnet for forgiveness. Garnet then becomes the new Queen of Alexandria.



The festivities surrounding her coronation are short-lived; as Kuja returns to Alexandria with the Eidolon Bahamut, who begins to destroy the city. Garnet joins with Eiko to summon the Eidolon Alexander, who defeats Bahamut. However, Garland uses the Invincible to obliterate Alexander and much of Alexandria. The shock renders Garnet mute, and she is unable to speak for a large portion of the game, apparently guilt-ridden for failing to protect her kingdom. After returning from Kuja's palace, Zidane finds Garnet in Alexandria, mourning at the grave of her adopted mother. Here, Garnet breaks her silence by resolutely telling Zidane she will fight for her country. She once again takes Zidane's dagger, and uses it to cut off her ponytail, perhaps seeing this as a way of moving on with her life.

Later in the game, the party may return to the ruins of Madain Sari to discover Garnet's true name, which is Sarah.

After the defeat of Necron, Zidane apparently sacrifices himself to return to the body of Kuja. Garnet returns to Alexandria to rule, but she cannot forget Zidane's absence. A year later, on Garnet's 17th birthday, Tantalus once again comes to the streets of Alexandria, performing I Want to Be Your Canary in honor of the Queen. The character supposed to be Marcus throws off his cloak at the play's climax, revealing himself to be Zidane. The game ends with Garnet and Zidane embracing in front of the applauding Alexandrian crowd

Personality
Garnet's personality is explored through the course of the story in many ways.

Garnet appears to be quite self-deprecating and often blames herself for events beyond her control such as the destruction of Alexandria. Throughout the game Garnet does rely on others many times, as she seeks help from many people including, Doctor Tot, Steiner, Beatrix, Regent Cid and Zidane. She does state that she wants the power to summon Eidolons so she can better defend her kingdom and her companions, hence why she tries to obtain Ramuh at Pinnacle Rocks.

The princess does genuinely care about her kingdom, she is pleased to return to Alexandria in disk two and even loses her voice after Alexandria is attacked by the Invincible.

Through Zidane's influence, she learns to act in a more commonplace way and her endeavours to "blend" in, as can be seen in the village of Dali in the beginning of the game. As Zidane teaches her more about the outside world, Garnet eventually falls in love with him.

Garnet can be said to be a little naive at times, for example, she appears shocked at some of the more unwholesome sights at Treno, and perhaps this is an indication of a sheltered life within the castle.

Despite this type of upbringing, Garnet is quick-thinking and finds ways to outwit others in order to pursue her goals. She innocently enough asks Zidane for Sleeping Weed under the guise of helping with insomnia, and later uses it against him and others in order to escape from Lindblum Castle. Garnet also conceived the idea of surrounding herself with Gysashi Pickles during her and Steiner's trip through South Gate, manipulating the smell of the pickles in order to ward away border guards.

Equipment and Stats
Garnet's class is a combination of White Mage and Summoner. She uses rods and magical rackets as weapons.

Abilities
Garnet is able to summon Eidolons and use White Magic. Compared to Eiko, Garnet has a wider array of Eidolons to choose from but in return, Eiko has more White Magic spells. Garnet's Eidolon pool is also more powerful, since she can summon both Bahamut and Ark.

While in Trance, a summoned Eidolon reappears randomly after she casts it, as well as acting as a counter attack. As long as Dagger has some trance bar remaining, the counter attack can potentially last until the end of the battle. There is also a higher chance of a full-animated summon, which inflicts more damage.

Trivia

 * If using a "Max MP" cheat, e.g. through the use of a cheating device, or simply through excessive level gaining, Garnet will be able to summon Eidolons from the very beginning of the game. This is because the reason for her not being able to do so, if playing normally, isn't so much because she doesn't know how, it's because she simply doesn't have enough MP to do it.
 * In the second trailer of Dissidia -Final Fantasy-, Zidane briefly references Garnet when he talks with Firion, guessing the latter's purpose being to rescue his princess, but Firion instead saying "The Wild Rose".
 * Garnet is one of the few characters in the series to have her menu portrait and sprite undergo a permanent change upon cutting off her hair. She shares this distinction with Rydia in Final Fantasy IV, who was also a Summoner who had her village destroyed.

Garnet Till Alexandros