Garnet Til Alexandros XVII

Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, alias Dagger and birth name Sarah, is the deuteragonist of Final Fantasy IX, and the heir of Alexandria. Garnet notices a change in her mother, Queen Brahne, and tries to escape Alexandria Castle.

Trying to hide her identity as a princess while traveling with Zidane, Garnet takes the alias Dagger, inspired by Zidane's weapon. Initially polite and soft-spoken, Garnet becomes wiser and matures as she travels with Zidane, eventually resolving to use her powers as a summoner to protect her kingdom.

Appearance and Personality
Garnet has long, dark brown hair in a low ponytail with a blue clip. After she cuts her hair it becomes chin-length. She has brown eyes and fair skin. Garnet's casual attire is a white bell-sleeved blouse under a skin-tight, sleeveless orange jumpsuit with corset lacing in the front and back and large white buckles on the thighs. She wears a pair of red leather gloves and red ankle boots. She also wears a black choker and a large crystal suspended from a long silver pendant.

When escaping from Alexandria Castle, Garnet wears a short white cloak identical to the iconic White Mage robe, with a large hood, red triangles along the hood and waist, and red cuffs. Her formal attire is a long white strapless gown decorated with green vine-like leaves from chest to waist. She also wears a gold hair ornament, detached sleeves, a silver crown embedded with green jewels, and a green jeweled necklace. When Garnet enters Trance, her hair turns blonde, her skin turns pink with white glyph-like symbols along her legs, and her outfit transforms into a white unitard with a low neckline and light green sleeves and boots.

Garnet's personality changes over the course of the game, and she grows to become more mature and assertive. At the beginning Garnet is self-deprecating and blames herself for events beyond her control, and relies on others as she seeks help from many people, including Doctor Tot, Steiner, Beatrix, Regent Cid and Zidane. She states she wants the power to summon eidolons so she can better defend her kingdom and her companions.

Through Zidane's influence, Garnet learns to act in a more commonplace way, and endeavors to "blend in." She changes her speech patterns from overly formal to more casual and as Zidane teaches her more about the outside world, Garnet falls in love with him. Garnet can be naive, perhaps due to her sheltered life within Alexandria; for example, she is shocked at some of the more unwholesome sights at Treno. Despite her sheltered upbringing, Garnet is quick-thinking and finds ways to outwit others to pursue her goals.

Story
Garnet was as Sarah in Madain Sari, where she was part of a summoner tribe. Like all summoners, she had a horn on her forehead. Garnet and her mother, Jane, escaped Madain Sari by boat when the Invincible attacked the town. The boat was destroyed, and her mother was killed.

Garnet washed ashore in Alexandria where she was discovered by the king. She looked almost identical to Princess Garnet, who had died not long before from illness, with the exception of the horn. The king ordered the horn removed and that she become a "replacement" princess. Garnet was thus raised as the Princess of Alexandria, and always thought Queen Brahne was her mother.

After the king's death Queen Brahne changed. Garnet is worried about her mother and wants to seek aid from her "uncle Cid," the regent of Lindblum, but knows her mother would not let her leave the castle alone. Her chance comes on her 16th birthday when the Tantalus Theater Troupe comes to Alexandria to perform I Want to Be Your Canary.

Unbeknown to her, Cid has asked Tantalus to kidnap her. She goes along with the plan and joins with Tantalus as they escape Alexandria. In the middle of the escape, Steiner, the captain of the Knights of Pluto, and the black mage Vivi, are taken along with her. The Tantalus Theater Ship is damaged by a Bomb and they crashland into the Evil Forest. Steiner works with the Tantalus kidnappers to save Garnet from the monsters within the forest.

After escaping the Evil Forest, Garnet struggles to hide her identity as the Princess of Alexandria. As a precautionary measure before entering the village of Dali, she adopts the alias of "Dagger", taking the name from Zidane's weapon. Upon entering the village, Zidane tutors her in "common speak", a task Garnet has difficulty with, often addressing the townspeople in an overly formal manner. Zidane and Garnet stumble upon a secret underground factory in Dali while looking for Vivi. They discover Alexandria is manufacturing black mages, which greatly concerns Garnet. The group hijacks the cargo ship delivering black mages to Alexandria, and while Zidane and the others battle Black Waltz 3, whom Queen Brahne had sent out to retrieve Garnet's royal pendant, really a valuable summoning gem, Garnet takes the reins of the ship and steers it through the South Gate to Lindblum region.

Upon arriving in Lindblum, Garnet is eager to meet with her uncle, Regent Cid Fabool IX, insisting they speak about Queen Brahne's new ambitions. Zidane hears Garnet singing ""Melodies of Life" from atop Lindblum Castle but when Zidane asks her where she learned the song, Garnet cannot remember.

Cid refuses to take major action against Alexandria, and he and Zidane tell Garnet to remain in Lindblum for her safety. Garnet resolves to visit her mother and poisons the food of everyone except for herself and Steiner with sleeping weed. Steiner resolves to Garnet back to Alexandria and they leave for the South Gate. Along the way, Steiner hides her in a burlap sack to avoid detection, and Garnet uses the nauseous odor of Gysahl Pickles to discourage others from opening the bag.

The two reach Alexandria safely, but Garnet is betrayed by Queen Brahne, who orders the jesters Zorn and Thorn to extract eidolons from her. The summons Odin, Atomos and Bahamut are later used by the Queen and Kuja as weapons to steal parts of Alexander's summoning gem from the nations of the world.

After being rescued by Zidane the party escapes Alexandria. Garnet has internal conflicts about her mother's trustworthiness and the eidolons within herself. When the party's Gargant crashes at Pinnacle Rocks, Garnet meets the eidolon Ramuh. She casts aside her fear of the eidolons, and Ramuh becomes the first eidolon she is likely to summon. The party decides to hunt down Kuja, who is behind Brahne's manufacturing of black mages in Dali, and leave for the Outer Continent.

Garnet's roots in the summoning arts are explored when the party ventures to Madain Sari. They meet Eiko Carol, the last survivor of the summoners' village, and Garnet discovers her true past and birthrights. Garnet finds Eiko also knows the tune to "Melodies of Life", so it may be said the song has its origins in the summoning village.

At the Iifa Tree, Queen Brahne's attempts at dispatching Kuja, whom she longer deems useful to her, with Bahamut. Her attempt backfires and Kuja leaves her for dead on the beach. Garnet attempts to comfort her adoptive mother. Brahne dies on the shores of the Outer Continent, but not before she apologizes for her deeds and asks Garnet for forgiveness. Garnet becomes the new Queen of Alexandria.

The festivities surrounding her coronation are short-lived; Kuja returns to Alexandria with Bahamut, who attacks the city. Garnet joins with Eiko to summon the eidolon Alexander, the protector of Alexandria, by bringing all the parts of its summoning gem together. Alexander defeats Bahamut, but Garland uses the Invincible to obliterate Alexander and much of Alexandria; the resulting shock renders Garnet mute, as she is guilt-ridden for failing to protect her kingdom.

Now even more determined to hint Kuja down the party follows him to his home at Desert Palace, but in the end Kuja kidnaps Eiko and escapes. Afterwards Zidane finds Garnet in Alexandria, mourning at the grave of her adoptive mother. Garnet breaks her silence by telling Zidane she will fight for her country. She takes Zidane's dagger, and cuts off her ponytail, perhaps seeing this as a way of moving on with her life. Garnet resolves to carry on to pursue to Kuja with the others, and seek to follow him to the alien planet of Terra where Kuja is said to hail from. To open the path to Terra the party must activate four shrines and Garnet and Eiko venture together to the shrine of water, where Eiko hints that she knows Garnet has feelings for Zidane. After finding their way to Terra Zidane becomes distraught over discovering his role as the pawn for the ruler of Terra, Garland. Although all of his friends try to snap him out of it, it is Garnet who helps him come to his senses, and together they decide to stop Garland and Kuja's evil plans.

Later, the party may return to the ruins of Madain Sari to read the message on the Eidolon Wall and discover Garnet's true name.

After Kuja and the embodiment of death Kuja's hatred of the world summons, Necron, are defeated, Zidane apparently sacrifices himself to return to Kuja's body in the collapsing Iifa Tree. Garnet returns to Alexandria alone to rule, but cannot forget Zidane.

Sometime later, Tantalus comes to Alexandria to perform I Want to be Your Canary in honor of the queen. The actor supposed to be Marcus throws off his cloak at the play's climax, revealing himself to be Zidane. Garnet runs out of the castle into the crowd, losing her necklace in the process. Garnet throws her crown aside, and leaps into Zidane's arms in tears. Garnet and Zidane embrace in front of the applauding crowd, and she asks Zidane how he survived. Zidane responds by saying he sang 'her' song, but is corrected by Garnet saying that it's "their song".

In Battle
Dagger is primarily a Summoner with a secondary job as a White Mage. She acts as the party's healer for the beginning portion of the game before Eiko joins the party. She is placed in the back row by default. As a mage-type character, her physical capabilities are poor. She is first called "Garnet" in battle, but after changing her name she is called "Dagger" for the remainder of the game.

Stat-wise, she's only second to Vivi regarding Magic and MP, while being stronger physically and having more HP. Garnet has one of the best speed of all characters, coming just after Zidane and Amarant.

Equipment


Dagger uses rods and magical rackets as weapons. Rackets are long-range weapons allowing her to attack from the back row with normal damage, although due to her poor physical stats Dagger's physical attack is weak. She can equip jewels to learn new eidolons, and equips mage-type armor.

Abilities
Dagger can summon eidolons and use White Magic. Compared to Eiko, Dagger has a wider array of eidolons, but in return, Eiko has more White Magic spells. Dagger's eidolon pool is more powerful, since she can summon both Bahamut and Ark. Dagger can summon all eidolons up to Bahamut since the beginning the game, but the spells require so much MP that her level would need to be substantially higher than it is likely to be so early in the game. Later, when Dagger re-acquires the eidolons she lost, the MP cost for summoning them is lower. While Dagger is in Trance, her Summon command becomes 'Eidolon' and the summoned eidolon reappears randomly after being called, as well as acting as a counter attack. As long as Dagger has some Trance bar remaining, the counter attack can last until the end of the battle, as it won't use MP. When Dagger uses her Eidolon command during Trance, there is a higher chance of getting a full summoning animation which will inflict more damage. The random summons thereafter, however, always have the short summon animation and thus are weaker. Dagger loses the ability to Trance during the time she is going through emotional turmoil, but recovers after she cuts her hair.

Her passive abilities enhance her capabilities as a mage and a healer. They include MP raising abilities; Healer, that lets her heal with her physical attacks; Chemist that doubles the potency of healing items; Reflect-Null that lets her spells pierce the Reflect status; Concentrate that boosts the power of spells; Half MP; and Boost, that guarantees the longer summoning of an eidolon, which is always more powerful than the short summon. Her unique ability is Odin's Sword that assures that when Odin is summoned and the enemies are immune to Zantetsuken's instant death, they still take damage.

Musical Themes
"Garnet's Theme" first plays during her and Doctor Tot's flashback to her younger days. A variant of the theme notably plays when she cuts her hair. Additionally, the theme is interwoven into the main melody of "Melodies of Life", the theme of her romance with Zidane.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy


Garnet appears in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy as a purchasable character in the iOS release.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Garnet makes a cameo in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals, explaining equipment alongside Steiner.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Garnet appears in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game depicted on three cards: on the first one she dons her White Mage disguise while the other depicts her in her official render. Both card are part of "Aqua" set. There is also another Shine-elemental card that depicts her Yoshitaka Amano artwork.

Trivia

 * Garnet is the only character, besides Zidane, who is controlled on the world map during a portion of the game.
 * Garnet's name was mistyped as "Princess Garnet Til Alexanderos 17th" on the now defunct PlayOnline section of the North American Squaresoft website.
 * When the party leaves the Ice Cavern, player has the opportunity to change Garnet's name and by default it's "Dagger". It is possible to rename her back to "Garnet" as the game doesn't check for it.
 * In a cutscene of Dissidia Final Fantasy, Zidane briefly references Garnet when he talks with Firion, guessing the latter's purpose being to rescue his princess, after Firion says "The Wild Rose."
 * As one of the many references to earlier games in the series present in Final Fantasy IX, Garnet's real name "Sarah" is a reference to Princess Sarah.
 * In the FMV where Eiko jumps from the Hilda Garde II to join Garnet and summon Alexander, Garnet's eyes are miscolored blue.