Cloud of Darkness



The Cloud of Darkness (暗闇の雲 Kurayami no Kumo lit. The Dark Cloud) is the primary antagonist and final boss of Final Fantasy III. She appears to be a green, semi-naked, humanoid female with a heart-shaped red marking on her forehead, but only the top of her torso is shown. Although she is the final boss, she does not appear in the game until the very end. The Cloud of Darkness refers to herself in the plural form; using "We" instead of "I". Dissidia Final Fantasy explains this as her two tentacles having minds of their own, and the Cloud of Darkness speaks for all three of them.

In the NES game, the snake-like tentacles nearby the Cloud of Darkness were simply for decoration. In the DS game, however, the tentacles' numbers were reduced to two and were given attacks. The one to the right of the Cloud of Darkness had abilities such as Haste and Esuna, while the one to the left used Lightning whenever possible.

Cloud of Darkness has also appeared in the fighting game, Dissidia Final Fantasy, as the villain opposing Onion Knight.

Story
After Xande's death the Cloud of Darkness appears, due to the imbalance caused by him, and reveals her intention of returning the world to a state of nothingness. A battle ensues in which the Cloud of Darkness kills the Warriors of Light without difficulty, seemingly ending any resistance to her plan.

However, the Warriors of Light are revived by their former allies and return to the World of Darkness to confront her. There, it is revealed (in the DS remake of the game) by one of the Warriors of Dark that Xande was being used by the Cloud of Darkness the entire time, and that Cloud of Darkness was the one responsible for the earthquake that almost drew the floating continent to the surface world.

At first the Cloud of Darkness is still too powerful for the Warriors of Light, but the Warriors of the Dark sacrifice themselves to weaken her, thus making her vulnerable. The Cloud of Darkness unleashes her full power onto the Warriors of Light, but in the end, she is defeated and her plan to extinguish all life is unfulfilled.

Personality
The Cloud of Darkness' personalty is not really explored in Final Fantasy III, as she is more of a monster, like Zeromus rather than a character. Though in Dissidia Final Fantasy she is given more depth. Very cruel and belittling towards others, the Cloud of Darkness has no care for human life, though is fascinated by living things' attempt to live in spite of knowing they would eventually die. In league with Kefka and Exdeath, the Cloud of Darkness also desires to destroy everything.

Battle
The Cloud of Darkness is fought twice in Final Fantasy III. The first time she is invincible and cannot be normally damaged. After a few turns, she will use Particle Beam and defeat the party. The second time, she is the Final Boss of the game, and while she still uses particle beam, it is weaker in order to make it possible to beat her.

Music
The original battle theme for the Cloud of Darkness was called "Saigo no shitou" ("Final Battle to the Death"). The track is split into three parts, each successive part faster than the last. The OST also includes an arrangement by The Black Mages. The Black Mages included a rearrangement of the theme in their third studio album. The theme was retitled "Kurayaminokumo" ("The Cloud of Darkness"). The song also appears, albeit in a slightly different version, in the Fantasia stage of Chocobo Racing, where Bahamut is the opponent.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Chaos has summoned a combined force of Final Fantasy's ultimate villains in an attempt to gain control of a number of Crystals, resulting in total control of the Final Fantasy worlds. Cloud of Darkness is one of these villains a stands as the villain representing Final Fantasy III, opposing Onion Knight.

Among the villains, the Cloud of Darkness plays a small role in the storyline. Along with Kefka, Kuja, and Exdeath, she desires to plunge the world into the Void and destroy everything. Under Kefka's instruction, she kidnaps Terra to use as a tool for their plan, and confronts the Onion Knight with his childish fears and bravado. After Terra is rescued and the Onion Knight claims his Crystal, the Cloud of Darkness takes a minor role in the game.

Trivia

 * The Totema, Famfrit, from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and the Esper, Famfrit, in Final Fantasy XII are loosely based on the Cloud of Darkness.
 * Of the first ten Final Fantasy games, Cloud of Darkness and Ultimecia are the only females to be main antagonists. Though this is debatable, as it has been stated that the Cloud of Darkness has no real gender. Despite this, some characters refer to it as a her in Dissidia.
 * A spoof of the final battle of Final Fantasy III appears in the credits roll for DynamiTracer, a Japan-exclusive Squaresoft game for the Super Famicom SatellaView addon. In this spoof, four characters from the game act as the Warriors of Light while a fifth character is "dressed" as Cloud of Darkness.