Edge Geraldine

Edge, real name Edward Geraldine, is a player character in Final Fantasy IV and its sequel, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Various sources offer conflicting information on Edge's name. The gallery in Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection lists Edge's artwork as "Edge (Edward) Geraldine", while other sources, including collector cards included with the game, give his name as Edward Geraldine with Edge as an alias or nickname.

He is the prince of Eblan and a skilled Ninja. He is brash and has an inflated ego, and frequently flirts with women. He is kind and has a strong sense of right and wrong, and defends his kingdom no matter the price.

Appearance and Personality
Edge is a young, lean man, with short, slightly spiked silver hair and has light-blue eyes in-game. In Final Fantasy IV, Edge wears grey-blue and black armor with a grey cowl covering his mouth and a large gray cape. In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years Edge retains the cowl but has darker blue clothing on his torso with golden armor on the shoulders and waist, and has a wavier hairstyle. His cape is exchanged for what appears to be Rubicante's Cloak of Flame, which is depicted in Edge's artwork, and can be obtained for him to wear as equipment in the game.

Edge is rude, hotheaded and stubborn, refusing to give up his pursuit of Rubicante and not backing down from the fight despite being outmatched. He is mean and obnoxious to the party at first, but comes to appreciate their help over time. He has an unrequited crush on Rydia and flirts with other females occasionally, remarking that Rydia and Rosa make "two babes in the party". He has a short temper and uses his rage as a source of power in his rematch with Rubicante, unlocking new Ninjutsu skills.

In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years Edge is more mature, displeased with the Eblan Four's insistence to train in peacetime and thinking life would be better without the arts of war Eblan prides itself on. In contrast to their relationship in the first game, it is Edge who calms a panicking Seneschal, worried about his health at his age if he continues, and he leaves the kingdom in the Seneschal's hands when he goes to investigate the Tower of Babil.

Final Fantasy IV
The kingdom of Eblan is evacuated to Cave of Eblan, and the King and Queen disappear, thought to have been murdered by Rubicante, the Archfiend of Fire. Seeking revenge, Edge seeks out Rubicante near the entrance to the Tower of Babil and battles him, but is overpowered.

When Rubicante leaves, expecting Edge to become stronger, the prince is met by Cecil, Kain, Rosa, and Rydia, who aim to enter the tower and recover the seven Crystals. They ask Edge to fight alongside them, but he refuses, claiming he will defeat Rubicante himself. Rydia bursts into tears, not wanting to see another person sacrifice his life, just like Tellah, Yang, and Cid. Not wanting to see a pretty girl cry, and after being healed by Rosa, Edge declares them all fast friends and joins the party.

With Edge's secret Ninjutsu, the party sneaks through a wall into the upper floors of the Tower of Babil. They find Eblan's King and Queen, Edge's parents, who are seemingly normal at first, but transform into grotesque chimeras. After having to fight them, they are momentarily brought back to their senses and bid farewell to their son before taking their own lives. Rubicante appears and explains that Dr. Lugae was responsible and that he himself had no part in this. When Rubicante tells Edge his emotions will be his weakness, Edge retaliates and unleashes new latent powers.

After Rubicante's defeat, the Seneschal and several guards arrive expecting to find the Archfiend. Edge informs them of the urgency to stop Golbez from collecting all eight Crystals, and that he must help save the world. After asking the Seneschal to look after the kingdom, the party arrives at the room with the seven Crystals, though they fall through a trapdoor and end up escaping by way of an abandoned Red Wings airship, which Edge names the Falcon.

Appearing in the Underworld, the party heads to the Dwarven Castle due to being unable to fly over lava. After receiving King Giott's orders to find the eighth Crystal in the Sealed Cave before Golbez can, the party visits a recovering Cid in the infirmary, who upgrades the Falcon to withstand lava. Edge is ordered to help out when he is busy talking to Rydia, and Cid can see Edge is infatuated with her.

After obtaining the Crystal and returning to the entrance, Kain falls under Golbez's mind control and runs away with the Crystal. Following Giott's advice regarding the Mysidian Legend, and after Cid upgrades the Falcon to drill a way back to the surface, Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, and Edge travel to Mysidia, where the Elder prays for help. The Lunar Whale arrives, and with it, the party travels to the Moon.

On the Moon, the party finds Fusoya in the Crystal Palace, a Lunarian who was awaiting their arrival. After explaining the origins of the conflict, in which Zemus was controlling Golbez to carry out his deeds on Earth, Fusoya joins the party to neutralize the barrier upon the newly awakened Giant of Babil. After defeating the Archfiends and disabling the CPU, Fusoya awakens Golbez's memories, and his relation to Cecil is revealed. Golbez and Fusoya leave to fight Zemus, while Kain helps the party escape the falling Giant. Although Edge blames Kain for the Giant's appearance, Kain makes amends with Cecil, and the three decide to fight Zemus as well. When Rosa and Rydia are ordered to stay behind, Edge tells Rydia, "This is work for grownups", offending her. Rosa and Rydia stay aboard the ship and are allowed to join the battle. The five travel through the Lunar Subterrane and end the conflict by defeating Zeromus.

With the world now at peace, Edge becomes King of Eblan and oversees its reconstruction, although the Seneschal has to order him to stop daydreaming about Rydia and focus on his duties. At Cecil and Rosa's wedding, Edge pretends to ignore Rydia when she arrives.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
Edge asks Gekkou and Zangetsu to guard the Eblan Castle during his absence as he heads out to the celebration in Damcyan, but they tell him it ended hours ago. Edge says he'll see that for himself and heads for the Cave of Eblan after seeing the tower glow mysteriously. He infiltrates the Tower of Babil and explores the upper area.

When Cecil and the twins are attacked by three Android Soldiers, they merge into the Deus Ex Machina. Edge saves them and they continue up the tower looking for the missing Rydia. At level B6 they find Rydia and Edge recognizes her as a fake. The imposter summons elemental Eidolons to attack the group, followed by Bahamut. The real Rydia arrives and returns Bahamut to his senses, forcing the imposter to fight the group herself. Defeated, the imposter fades and reports to an unseen entity the "Eidolon system" is complete.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Seventeen years later, Edge helps Rydia rebuild Mist. During the attacks by the Mysterious Girl, Edge and the Eblan Four infiltrate the Tower of Babil to confront the villainess, but are defeated. They jump out of the Tower and onto the Falcon, where they find Rydia, Luca, and the Man in Black, all of whom Edge recognizes.

Together they round up others to break the force field surrounding the Baron Castle. Edge visits Eblan Castle prior to this and finds it under attack by Ifrit, who is mind-controlled by the Mysterious Girl. He attempts to fight Ifrit but Rubicante intervenes. Edge and Rydia confront Rubicante, who teaches them the Inferno Band, which they use to fight Ifrit and free him from the Mysterious Girl. At Baron they defeat the Mysterious Girl, who is revealed to have a dozen copies of herself. They free Cecil from possession and on the True Moon the party faces various recreations of their former foes, who plead with the party to strike them down. This includes Rubicante, whom Edge makes peace with after facing him off by himself. If he wins, he gains Rubicante's cloak, the Fire Scarf. They stop the Creator who was responsible for the Maenads, the Mysterious Girls' true identity.

The Maenads come to their senses as the Creator attempts to chase the party, and destroy him with a Meteor spell. Before dying, they ask Rydia to look after a young Maenad, saying it is all that remains of them. Edge leaves Eblan for Mist, where Rydia is raising the Maenad and has named her Cuore. Leviathan and Asura also pay a visit and Asura reveals it was Edge who invited them.

Final Fantasy IV
Edge has high Speed and physical stats, but has low Defense. This is counteracted by his high physical evasion.

Abilities
Edge is a Ninja, allowing him to dual wield weapons. Edge's abilities include Throw, which allows him to throw weapons at his opponents for high damage, Steal, which allows him to steal items from his opponents, and Ninjutsu, which allows him to cast special Ninja spells. In the Advance and Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection releases, Edge gains the Hanzo Gloves for completing his Lunar Trial that upgrades Steal to Plunder. With Plunder, Edge will attack if he successfully steals. In all versions of the game save the 3D remake release, Edge takes some damage if he fails to steal an item. In the remake release Edge learns more Ninjutsu skills.

Equipment
Edge can equip katanas, boomerangs and claws, although he can no longer equip claws in the remake version. Edge's armor consists of most lightweight armor and hats and limited heavy armor.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
Edge retains his Ninjutsu, Throw, and Steal commands. They all function the same way they did in Final Fantasy IV. He joins the party at level 39, and he already knows all his six Ninjutsu spells already. He comes equipped with a Kotetsu, Ashura, Green Beret, Black Belt Gi, and Giant's Gloves.

Stats
Edge and the Eblan Four have a level cap of 40 in his chapter. Edge has all around decent stats with the exception of his low Spirit, and while he is primarily a physical attacker he can also be a somewhat effective Black Mage with Ninjutsu. Edge's greatest asset is his high Speed, and he is the second-fastest character in the game after Tsukinowa.

Abilities
Edge retains his Ninjutsu techniques, and learns a much larger variety of them than his apprentices do. He also has the Throw ability and Mug (Smash & Grab in the WiiWare version), which lets him attack enemies and attempt to steal from them.

Equipment
Edge's equipment has expanded in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. The most significant item is Rubicante's cloak, the Fire Scarf. It provides adequate Defense and can absorb all Fire-elemental attacks and when combined with a Protect Ring can give him absorption to Ice and Lightning additionally.

Musical Themes
It is uncertain if Edge has an official theme, but the song "Hello, Cid!" is often played in moments where Edge is the spotlight character. During Edge's Lunar Trial the city of Troia's theme, "Troian Beauty", is played, which could hint the song may be his theme, as during the other characters' Lunar Trials it is always their theme that is played. "Troian Beauty" might have been chosen to represent Edge due his flirtatious personality and that the most attractive women in the world of Final Fantasy IV come from Troia.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Edge appears in the Summons and Summonstones section of the in-game manual with Rydia, attempting to impress her with his intelligence.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
Edge appears as a playable character and one of the representatives of Final Fantasy IV. He uses his original Final Fantasy IV design.

Pictlogica Final Fantasy
Edge appears in Pictlogica Final Fantasy as a playable character. His initial weapon is the Mumeito.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Edge has three different cards. One features his artwork by Yoshitaka Amano and is a wind-element card.

Virtual World
Users in Square-Enix Members Virtual World community can make their character appear as Edge.

Lord of Vermilion II
Edge appears as a card and summonable creature in the sequel to Lord of Vermilion, along with Kain Highwind, Rydia, and Golbez, as part of a special cross promotion.

Etymology
The name "Edge" is a combination of the first two letters of his first and last names, Edward Geraldine.

Edge shares his first name with Edward, likely because they are both princes of their respective countries. (Edward's original name in Japanese is Gilbert, preventing any given name conflict.) "Edward" is a common English given name that means "rich" and "prosperous"; several kings and nobles have shared this name.

"Geraldine" is the feminine form of the given name "Gerald". It is of Old German origin, meaning "spear ruler" or "rule of the spear".

Trivia

 * The in Square's  series (directed by Takashi Tokita) features parodies of Final Fantasy IV characters, where some of the playable generals are named after them. Character names include Rydia, Kain and Edge.
 * Edge having the Steal command alludes to the Thief class upgrading to the Ninja class in the original Final Fantasy.
 * Edge is Takashi Tokita's favorite character in Final Fantasy IV.
 * Edge has a peculiar relationship with fire: his mortal enemy, Rubicante, is the fire elemental Archfiend; Edge Lunar Trial makes him fight Lunar Ifrit; during the events of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years he fights Ifrit again and after beating Rubicante for the last time gains the Fire Scarf; and his Ultimate Band ability is Ultimate Art: Advent of the Phoenix, the well-known mythological bird related to fire.