Eiko Carol

Eiko Carol, known as Little Girl for the short period before a name is selected, is a playable character in Final Fantasy IX. She hails from Madain Sari on the Outer Continent. Being from Madain Sari, she has a horn in her forehead and is able to summon eidolons.

Appearance and Personality
Eiko has deep green eyes and a small heart-shaped face. She has a small summoner's horn on her forehead, and blue hair slightly above her shoulders with a ribbon tied into a large bow on top. She wears a red turtleneck and pink bodysuit from the waist down underneath loose yellow pants that gather at the ankles. She has a yellow plate over her chest connected to a belt around her waist as part of the ornament wings that she wears on her back. Eiko also wears deep purple socks and white ankle boots.

In Trance, Eiko's horn lengthens and gains a sky-blue coloring. Her hair turns light green as her sleeves do. Her hair bow, chest plate, pants, and boots become white, while her turtleneck and bodysuit change to soft purple. Eiko's ornament wings also grow in size.

Eiko's personality is described as spunky and snobbish; however, she is also desperately lonely, having lived alone in Madain Sari with only Moogles as her friends for most of her life. She develops a crush on Zidane Tribal over the course of the journey and even goes as far as to write a love letter to him, but she snaps out of it after a while, seeing that Zidane is in love with Princess Garnet.

Story


The village of Madain Sari was once a thriving town populated by summoners. However, the Invincible destroyed the town in order for Garland and Kuja to remove the possible threat of Gaia's eidolons.

As a result, most of the community died out. Eiko's parents and several brothers and sisters were some of the survivors; however, they are almost never mentioned, and it is known that Eiko was raised by her grandfather. However, he eventually died, and Eiko was left to live in Madain Sari with the company of moogles. One of them, Mog, always traveled with her wherever she went, and the two even traded friendship ribbons. She and Mog would frequently steal food from the Dwarves' town of Conde Petie.

It was during one of these raids that she got caught and met Zidane, along with Vivi, Garnet, and Quina. Eiko offered to take Zidane and his friends back to Madain Sari, where she cooked them a meal in order to impress Zidane. However, she could sense that Zidane was in love with Garnet, and tried her very best to steal his heart.

She then revealed she had to accompany Zidane and his friends to the Iifa Tree, which was sealed with the eidolon Carbuncle, because of the fact that summoners have a tradition of sealing eidolons they fail to summon where they first summon them. She broke the seal and Eiko, Zidane, and the others went through the Iifa Tree and fought the SoulCage, whose defeat cleared up the Mist Continent of mist.

Eiko took Zidane back to Madain Sari when a moogle told her that the village's precious stone had been stolen. The thief turned out to be Lani, the bounty hunter working for Queen Brahne of Alexandria in order to steal back Garnet's pendant. Lani held Eiko prisoner, however, she was betrayed by her accomplice Amarant Coral and was forced to flee.

After Zidane and Amarant dueled, Eiko told Zidane, Garnet, and Vivi about the importance of the precious stone and how her grandfather told her to keep it safe and to never leave Madain Sari until she was sixteen. However, she decided to go with Zidane anyway, taking the stone with her and wearing it as an earring.

The party returned to the Iifa Tree, where they met Kuja. Kuja became involved in a battle with Brahne, and Eiko helped Garnet find another eidolon, Leviathan, the eidolon that had been sealed at the tree, so Garnet could summon it to help her mother. However, Garnet was unable to save her and, in the wake of the queen's death, was crowned the queen herself.

One week later, the party was back in Alexandria for Garnet's coronation. Having never been to a city as large as Alexandria, Eiko began to tour Alexandria Castle on her own where she met Doctor Tot. She asked him to help her write a love letter for Zidane, and he did so. However, on the way out, she tripped over a banister and got her wing ornament stuck onto a chandelier. She met Baku, and, unable to free herself, asked him to deliver the letter.

However, Baku lost it and it fell into numerous hands, including those of Beatrix, Marcus, Blank, and Steiner. It was Steiner who rescued Eiko and took her down from the chandelier, and escorted her out of the castle due to her not being of royal heritage. The party eventually visited Garnet, who was now the queen of Alexandria. After the audience, Eiko was heartbroken when Zidane did not show up at the docks, even though the real reason was that Zidane never saw the letter.

The next day, Zidane decided to travel to Treno to participate in a Tetra Master tournament. Eiko came as well, and spent some time telling Doctor Tot about Madain Sari. There, Mog told her that Alexandria was in danger and she summoned Zidane to return there. They took Cid Fabool IX's Hilda Garde II, which was very poorly designed due to Cid's mind just not being the same as an Oglop. While on the ship, Eiko felt a sensation from the top of Alexandria Castle, and flew to the roof to meet Garnet. They held out the four jewels and were able to summon Alexander who defeated Bahamut and formed a protective ring around Alexandria.

However, Kuja summoned the Invincible to take control of Alexander. Garland was furious at Kuja, and took over the Invincible and used it to destroy Alexander and the Alexandrian castle. Zidane arrived just in time to rescue Garnet and Eiko, though the latter was visibly annoyed that Zidane went to Garnet first, not to mention she was embracing him all through her rescue.

In Lindblum, Eiko was the first to discover that Garnet lost her voice due to Alexandria's obliteration. She stayed with Steiner to take care of Garnet while Zidane and the others looked for a way to transform Cid back into a human. They failed, turning Cid into a frog, and Eiko, Garnet, Steiner, Cid, and Quina joined Zidane, Vivi, Freya, and Amarant in search of Kuja. They found him in his Desert Palace on the Outer Continent, and he trapped all the party members except Cid in prisons and threatened to kill them if Zidane did not bring him the Gulug Stone from Oeilvert.

Zidane agreed to do this, but Kuja would not keep his promise. Cid had to save the others, and Eiko led the escape team to Kuja's room for revenge (unless the player chose to take Eiko with Zidane to Oeilvert, in which case another party member becomes the leader). They met up with Zidane outside, and Zidane found out Kuja had tricked him. The party entered his room, but Eiko was trapped outside. Zorn and Thorn subsequently abducted her.

Zidane and his friends set out in search of Eiko. They followed the Hilda Garde I to Esto Gaza on the Lost Continent, where they entered Mount Gulug and traveled to the base, where they discovered Zorn and Thorn extracting eidolons from Eiko. However, Mog interfered, and eventually revealed herself and transformed into the eidolon Madeen, saving Eiko.

The jesters then attacked and Eiko had to fight them, using Madeen to annihilate the twins. The rest of the party arrived to confront Kuja, but he left and the jester twins' corpses transformed into Meltigemini the party had to fight. After the fight, Eiko received Mog's old ribbon as a farewell gift. She then rejoined Zidane for the rest of the journey.

Eiko does not play a significant role in the story again until the party splits up to simultaneously attack the four elemental shrines protecting the entrance to Terra. She insisted on teaming up with Garnet and used the opportunity to ask her if she is in love with Zidane, with rather awkward results.

In Terra, Eiko wandered around exploring until Zidane went missing and the party teamed up to find him. Eiko and Vivi were at Zidane's side when he woke up, but in an emotionally depressive rage he called them both "stupid brats" and locked them in the room. At the end of the game when Zidane chose to stay back and save Kuja, Eiko, showing concern for Zidane's safety, confessed her love for him. In the ending, Eiko was adopted by Cid and Hilda, therefore becoming Lindblum's new princess. She was visibly overjoyed at being a part of a family, going out of the way to calling her adoptive parents "Mother" and "Father".

Equipment and Stats

 * List of Eiko's Flutes.
 * List of Garnet and Eiko's Rackets.

Eiko has the lowest physical stats in the game. However, her initial stats will be exactly the same as Marcus's when he leaves the party. This means that if the player bothers to level up Marcus early on in the game, Eiko can potentially get the highest HP and MP of any character in the game. Her equipment draw consists of female specifics, mage robes, Summoner's Flutes, and Rackets.

Abilities

 * List of White Magic.
 * List of Eiko's Eidolons.
 * List of Eiko's Abilities.

Eiko is a White Mage, with a sub job as a Summoner, and can summon four eidolons: Fenrir, Phoenix, Carbuncle, and Madeen. Equipping various Add-ons allows her eidolons' abilities to change. Being the designated White Mage, her stock of White Magic is much larger than Garnet's. She can use unique spells not previously seen in the series, like Jewel, which extracts an Ore from an enemy, and Might, which increases attack power. She is the only main character who can use the powerful Holy spell (a temporary playable character, Beatrix can also use the spell), although she lacks the Scan and Berserk spells found in Garnet's arsenal.

Eiko is the first of the party to learn Auto-Regen. Her unique ability is Guardian Mog. Eiko's Trance ability is Double White. Acting in the same manner as Vivi's Double Black, it allows Eiko to cast two spells in succession.

Musical Themes
"Eiko's Theme" is named for herself, and is a variation of "Melodies of Life" based entirely on chord progressions (with no discernible melody) and set in the 6/8 time signature. A remix of the theme includes the song "Girl of Madain Sari", which plays while she wanders around Alexandria Castle at the beginning of disc 3, thinking of writing a love letter to Zidane.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Eiko appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game.

Itadaki Street series
In Itadaki Street Special, Eiko is one of the two Final Fantasy IX characters along with Vivi. In Itadaki Street Portable, she appears alongside Zidane.

Lord of Vermillion Re:2
Eiko appears as a character in the sequel to Lord of Vermillion. She has the ability "W-White Magic", a reference to her Double White Trance.

Etymology
"Eiko" is a common Japanese female name meaning "prosperous child". Hironobu Sakaguchi's wife's name is Eiko.

"Carol" designates a type of song or dance, and originates from the Ancient Greek word choraules ("one who accompanies a chorus on the flute").

Trivia

 * After Eiko is adopted by Cid and Hilda, she and Garnet share the common trait of being adoptive daughters of the ruling family of their nations.
 * If Zidane is not in the party then Eiko assumes the role of party leader, most notably if she is not chosen to go to Oeilvert, she will be the one to lead the party in the Desert Palace. If Zidane is not in the party chosen to fight Necron then Eiko will give the speech before the battle.
 * Eiko's jewel is called the Memory Earring.
 * Eiko will inherit the stats of guest character, Marcus, when she finally joins the group.
 * Eiko is the youngest of the series' "perky young girl" archetype of characters, with Krile, Relm, Yuffie, Selphie, Rikku, Penelo, and Vanille also included.
 * When Eiko is equipped with a flute, her "spellcasting" sound effect is slightly different than the other characters'. This, along with the fact that she appears to play the flute as her spellcasting animation, indicates that she uses music to control her magic.
 * While most of characters presented on the cover of Final Fantasy Tribute ~Thanks~ album are the popular ones, Eiko is one of the less popular: this is due that Square Enix asked fans only in Japan for their favorite Final Fantasy characters were she seems to be a popular one and along with Zidane, Eiko represents Final Fantasy IX characters.