Cid Pollendina

Cid Pollendina is a playable character in Final Fantasy IV and its sequel, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. He is a master engineer who designs the airships that make up the Red Wings in Baron. He is an old acquaintance of Cecil Harvey and is adventurous and fun-loving despite being over fifty years old.

Appearance and Personality
Cid is a large man with a brown beard, and wears a blue outfit with red gloves and boots, a tool belt holding his trademark weapon, and an aviator's helmet and goggles. In the DS release of Final Fantasy IV, Cid's mouth is exaggeratedly larger than the other characters'. In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Cid's beard has turned white from age, and his outfit no longer has sleeves and his boots and gloves are blue, but otherwise his appearance is identical. His artwork depicts him wearing a brown coat wrapped loosely over his shoulders, but this is not present in-game.

Cid is a loud and proud man, boasting of his prowess with machines frequently and having the skill to back it up. Few he meets are not impressed by his skills, especially with airships. Cid often doesn't make a strong first impression, reacting with offense when Tellah, Edge and Fusoya give him orders or question his technical skills. However, Cid is a good man with a firm belief of right and wrong, and particularly cares for Cecil and Rosa. He works hard to the point of collapsing from exhaustion at times, and is known to be late coming home from work. In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years his age has not stopped him from being an active engineer and pilot.

Final Fantasy IV
Cid is first seen in Baron after Cecil is discharged from his post as captain of the Red Wings. He heard the bad news, and apologizes to Cecil, but has to rush home before his daughter scolds him. He is next seen sleeping in his bed in the town of Baron. At this time, Cid is working on a new prototype airship, the Enterprise, but notices the king is not acting like his normal self and is performing many evil deeds. Cid hides the Enterprise and refuses to show it to the king, and is imprisoned for treason.

Cecil, Tellah, Yang Fang Leiden, Palom, and Porom free Cid by defeating the king, who turns out to be Cagnazzo, the Archfiend of Water. After Cagnazzo is defeated, Cid is free and runs to meet Cecil, and joins his party after he learns Rosa has been kidnapped. He agrees to show Cecil and his friends the Enterprise. However, Cagnazzo had one last trick up his sleeve and when Cecil tries to escape, the walls begin to cave in. Palom and Porom save Cecil's party by petrifying themselves. Tellah tries to heal them, but to no avail and Cid takes them to the Enterprise.

The party cannot escape on the Enterprise without an encounter with the Red Wings. Kain Highwind issues an ultimatum where Cecil would either get Kain the Crystal of Earth in Troia or Rosa would die. Cecil has no choice but to go to Troia where he reclaims the Crystal of Earth from the Dark Elf, but upon handing over the Crystal to Golbez in the Tower of Zot he would refuse to give Rosa up. Tellah fights Golbez and manages to break his control over Kain, before dying. Kain takes the party to where Rosa is held captive. Cecil saves Rosa, and shares a kiss with her. Cid makes fun of them, but Yang scolds him for this.

Golbez now possessed all four Crystals of the overworld, but still needed the Dark Crystals, hidden in the Underworld to open "the way to The Moon". Cid tells the party that the Enterprise was back in Baron due to a remote control feature and the party heads for the town of Agart and open the way to the Underworld. The party enters the Underworld via the Enterprise, but are too late.

The Red Wings had already begun battling with the dwarves' tanks and the Enterprise is damaged. Cecil's party has to seek help from the dwarves in their castle where they meet King Giott, the ruler of the dwarves. He asks the party for help,, but Cid has to take a leave of absence in order to repair the Enterprise and wrap its body in Mystic Silver, which could be used to help the Enterprise withstand the intense heat. Cis tells his crew to put a hook on the Enterprise should Cecil ever return to Baron. That way, the Hovercraft could be carried to new locations.

Cid makes his return just in time to save Cecil's party from falling into the lava. He introduces himself to Rydia, a Summoner from Mist, and has her call him "uncle". The Enterprise is wrapped in the Mystic Silver that allows it to fly over the lava. However, the Red Wings have been modified as well, and they have the Enterprise in a dogfight around the Underworld. Cid orders Cecil to take the wheel and exit the Underground, while he closes the hole with a bomb, and jumps off the airship to save the others and is assumed dead.

Cid miraculously survives and the dwarves take care of him. When Cecil returns in his new airship, the Falcon, Cid decides to wrap its body in Mystic Silver as well so it can fly over the lava. When Cid meets Edge, they have a shouting match that Rydia has to break up. Cid makes Edge work on remodeling the airship, but becomes fatigued and has to rest again. Later, Cid attaches a drill to the head of the Falcon to open the hole to go back to the Overworld.

Cid becomes fatigued by the work, but he is healthier than he was before. He eventually recovers fully, and builds a new fleet of airships which he leads in an attack on the Giant of Babil. Cecil's party boards his airship in order to enter the Giant. After the Giant is destroyed, Cid prays for Cecil in the Tower of Wishes in Mysidia. In the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable versions of the game, he can rejoin the party at this point.

In the ending, Cid is the best man at Cecil and Rosa's wedding.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
Cid is one of the guests present at Damcyan's reconstruction ceremony, having raced there in his airship. When one of the castle guards informs Edward of trouble on Mt. Hobs, Cecil, Rosa and Yang leave to investigate, which leads them across the continent to Fabul just in time for the birth of Yang's daughter.

Flying in on the Falcon, Cid meets with the group and tells them he has received word that monsters are pouring out of the Sealed Cave in the Underworld. Together with Cecil, Palom, and Porom, they explore the cave only to find what appears to Rydia within its depths. After taking her back to the Falcon to recuperate, they notice that the Tower of Babil has begun to glow ominously. While the rest of the group makes their way inside, Cecil orders Cid to stay behind and look after the ship.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years


Although now an old man seventeen years after the events of Final Fantasy IV, Cid refused to retire as airship engineer, and took Luca as an apprentice. Cid first joins Cecil and Rosa to fend off the invaders led by the Mysterious Maiden. The group battles their way to the castle's ramparts, when Cecil, sure that Baron will fall, orders Cid to take Rosa and retreat, which they reluctantly agree to.

They are next seen by Ceodore Harvey and Edward, who accompany them to face the Maiden and Cecil as well as Kain, who defeats his dark doppelganger and becomes the Holy Dragoon. After Cecil is knocked out of his possession from the Maiden by Odin, they join with others to defeat the Maiden as well as the Creator. Cid is last seen in the Dwarf Castle, where he and his grandson Mid approach Giott and Luca, trying to figure out how to power an airship with the crystals' magic.

In Battle
Cid is a physical fighter, and equips bows, arrows, daggers, hammers, axes, shields, helmets, armor, gloves, and tunics. With the exception of the DS release of Final Fantasy IV, Cid's hammers are two-handed weapons and thus he cannot equip shields while wielding one. His magic stats are the worst in the game, gaining no MP in any version of Final Fantasy IV. Though he gains MP in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, his MP growth is low.

Final Fantasy IV
Cid's ability is Analyze, also known as Peep and Scan, which functions identically to the White Magic spell Libra, displaying an enemy's HP, MP, level, and weaknesses. In the DS release, Analyze scans all enemies when used. Cid has an additional ability in the DS release called Upgrade, which allows him to use an attack item to add its elemental property to his normal attacks; for example, using a Bomb Fragment will make Cid's attack Fire-elemental.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
Cid's returns with the Analyze ability and it functions the same way it did in Final Fantasy IV. He joins the party at level 34, and comes equipped with a Dawrven Axe, Grand Helm, Power Sash, and Mythril Glove.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Cid's abilities are Analyze, which works identically to his DS ability, and Risk Strike, which is an attack that has a chance to do heavy damage or nothing at all. Cid has high HP, Strength and Stamina, and at Level 99 his Strength and Stamina are among the best of any character. His Speed is low, and he has little MP.

Musical Themes
Cid's theme is called "Hey, Cid!" This song was also used as Cid's theme in Chocobo Racing.

Other appearances
Cid appears in a wind-elemental card in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

Etymology
Cid's last name is based on a nickname given to from. Geppetto's nickname (polendina, or corn meal mush) comes from the yellow wig he wears. Cid's surname is especially befitting of him in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, as he helps Luca repair Calcabrina|Calca and Brina]] and teaches them the Final Calcabrina Band.

Trivia

 * Cid is either the third or fourth oldest human playable character in any Final Fantasy, behind Strago Magus of Final Fantasy VI and Fang and Vanille of Final Fantasy XIII. In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Cid Pollendina is 71 years old, the same age as Strago in Final Fantasy VI's World of Ruin.
 * He is the first playable Cid in the main series.
 * There is an unused command found within the game's data, but it's only named in the original Japanese version, Airship (ひくうてい). The command itself is configured to target all enemies, but the command crashes the game when used. Given the name and positioning in the command list, it was intended for Cid.