Onion Knight (Dissidia)

The Onion Knight is one of the heroes fighting for the side of Cosmos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. He makes up for his size with speed and is a master of sword arts and magic. As the youngest warrior, the Onion Knight's lack of battle experience makes him put on a brave and confident front, when in reality, he is rather scared and unsure of his abilities. The villains he encounters, including his nemesis, the Cloud of Darkness, serve to test his courage and power.

Crystal and Attire
The Onion Knight's outfit is taken from aspects of all incarnations of the Final Fantasy III hero. The color scheme in his default appearance is based on his original NES appearance, while the helmet is based on the PlayStation Portable version. The body armor is closer to Yoshitaka Amano artwork of the Unnamed Warrior for the NES release of the game. His two swords are also based on this artwork. Tetsuya Nomura has noted that, similar to Garland, he had difficulty designing the Onion Knight as he only had in-game sprites to draw from. His initial designs were "too cartoony" compared to the other heroes, and he was redesigned to match the cover image of Final Fantasy III. Shortly after, the promotional images Yoshitaka Amano had been designing were finished, and Nomura reverted back to a more "cartoony" design to match Amano's work.

The Onion Knight's first alternate outfit is called "Luneth", based on the main protagonist in the PSP and DS remake of Final Fantasy III. His armor is bright blue, his eyes are purple, and his hair is silver. His hair is also differently styled to match Luneth's. The Sage's red colorings become blue, and the Ninja outfit is almost entirely black.

The Onion Knight's second alternate outfit "Slasher" is based on artwork of the Unnamed Warrior prevalent in much of Final Fantasy III's art. He removes his helmet to reveal spiky white hair, and his armor is primarily black with red and gold highlights. In this outfit his Sage and Ninja forms are green.

The Onion Knight's downloadable fourth outfit; "Ingus" is based on another protagonist of the PSP remake, Ingus. His armor is red-pink with puffed out dark pants, a smaller helmet and cape, and brown boots. His Ninja and Sage forms are also based on Ingus' respective forms - the Ninja wears a different cowl that shows his hair and a dark red and black uniform, while the Sage wears a white and blue robe with an elaborate miter and a long white cape.

Together, the Onion Knight's outfits represent the colors of the Onion Kids in the NES release of Final Fantasy III - two of them were red while the others were blue and green.

The Onion Knight's Crystal is a direct reference to the elemental Crystals from Final Fantasy III, being green and the same shape as the ones seen in the game.

The Onion Knight's manikin version, Counterfeit Youth, is green.

Twelfth cycle
In cycles prior, the Onion Knight was smothered by Vaan, who believed he was too young to fight in his own battles, and took it upon himself to look after him like a big brother. Though he tried to avoid Vaan and found himself annoyed, the Onion Knight eventually started to get used to it, even telling Squall that he was beginning to slowly accept Vaan as an older brother.

During the 12th cycle, the Onion Knight was, like most of the other Warriors of Cosmos, incapacitated by Kain to keep him safe in preparation for the next cycle of conflict.

Thirteenth cycle
Coming to, the Onion Knight saves Terra from manikins and decides to travel with her while finding their Crystals, until Terra is able to fight on her own. During their adventures, Terra starts to sense a strong aura and the Knight convinces her to check it out despite her warnings. They end up encountering Exdeath, and the Knight talks his way out of fighting him, because he fears losing against a powerful enemy. Exdeath, noticing this, calls him a coward, and then leaves while providing cryptic information on how to obtain the Crystals.

When the Knight and Terra get closer to the aura, Terra starts to lose control and attacks the Knight, forcing him to defend himself. Terra is then taken by the Cloud of Darkness, who tells the young warrior he was responsible for Terra's fall. Cosmos appears to the Knight, and tells him the only way for him to obtain his Crystal is to defeat the Cloud of Darkness. The young warrior laments that he does not have a heart to do so, but Cosmos questions him of his state of courage and vanishes. Golbez appears and tells the Knight of Terra's possession under the Cloud of Darkness, and to think about if he could continue to make judgments in his own head.

The Onion Knight eventually finds Terra, who faints while fighting against the possession the Cloud of Darkness has instilled in her. At first, the Knight offers to do whatever she wants in order to prevent Terra from getting attacked any further, but then decides against this when the Cloud of Darkness tries to possess him. That is when the Knight realizes his inner courage and uses it to protect Terra, even if it means fighting a powerful monster. The Onion Knight and the Cloud of Darkness fight, and she is defeated. Golbez appears once again and gives him a Crystal, praising him of his determination and bravery. After Golbez leaves, the Knight decides to rest with Terra to look after her.

The Onion Knight continues to protect Terra, who has lost some of her memory while passed out during the Knight's fight with the Cloud of Darkness. He also kept the information about their earlier fight from her, feeling it was in her best interests for her to not know. Unfortunately, Kefka ambushes the pair and tries to sway Terra into rejoining him, also revealing the fight between them in the process. The Knight interferes, however, and he teleports Kefka and himself away to the World of Darkness, where Kefka expresses irritation at Onion Knight interfering, as well as insulting the "imitation hero" after the knight questions Kefka regarding his obsession with Terra. Afterwards, Golbez then arrives and reminds Onion Knight that he was supposed to protect Terra. The Knight later shows up when Terra and Cloud Strife are surrounded by Kefka and the Cloud of Darkness. Both the Knight and Cloud Strife distract the Cloud of Darkness, while Terra has her final showdown with Kefka and obtains her Crystal.

After the Warriors gather, Cosmos sends them to the Land of Discord as they witness Chaos incinerate Cosmos. Soon afterward, the heroes begin to disappear, and are transported to a place of absolute darkness, where not even a single speck of light can be seen. However, the last remaining strength of Cosmos' spirit within the Crystals saves them from permanent erosion, and gives the warriors another chance to strike back.

However, Onion Knight began to show signs of fear, questioning if they themselves were manikins. He is reassured by Zidane, who rattles his cage a bit by calling him Terra's little brother. Later, the boy pondered while the Warrior is calm when Cosmos is no more, with Cecil explaining that the Warrior is restraining himself to protect the others and Cosmos's desire. This inspires the Onion Knight to not only reaffirm his vow to protect Terra, but protect the others and himself as well.

After defeating the Cloud of Darkness, the Onion Knight joins the other heroes to face off against Chaos. With Chaos beaten, the worlds are restored, and the heroes are transported to World A, where one by one, they disappear back to their home worlds - including the Onion Knight, who returns to the Floating Continent. He thanks everybody before he leaves.

Official Quests
Though he does not have a central role in any of them, the Onion Knight has minor appearances in several official quests. In "Firion's Quest 012: A Small Flower" during the 12th cycle, Firion battles a mind-controlled Terra to save the Onion Knight from her. "Squall's Quest 012: The Shadow I Know I Saw" elaborates on Squall and the Onion Knight's dislike for Laguna and Vaan, the two agreeing that they have the common problem of talking too much. In "Cecil's Quest 013: Even I Don't Remember It" during the 13th cycle, the Onion Knight travels with Cecil, Tidus, Cloud and Terra after the five retrieve their Crystals, and witnesses Cecil battle Kuja while Tidus and Cloud go to help Firion confront the Emperor.

Battle
The Onion Knight is a Mystic Fencer, attacking opponents with swift combos that hit multiple times, and he is equally well-versed with magic and physical attacks. Unique to the Onion Knight is the ability to chain all of his Bravery attacks into either another Bravery attack or an HP attack, adding to his versatility. He is also the fastest character in the game in normal circumstances, surpassing even Tidus and Zidane, and this coupled with his small stature, he is also one of the most evasive characters in the game. However, his attacks do not do much damage, and he has only four basic Bravery attacks, making him fairly predictable in terms of fighting style. Whilst he is small and thus very evasive, he is arguably the easiest character to punish due to the considerable cooldown on each of his attacks, which vastly reduces the safety of his approach.

The Onion Knight does not learn his Bravery to HP attacks directly like other characters. Other characters learn a Bravery to HP attack when mastering the corresponding Bravery attack. Instead, Onion Knight learns a Bravery to Bravery attack, and once he masters it he learns the Bravery to HP attack corresponding to the base attack. Due to this his base Bravery attacks require less AP to master than other characters.

Boss
Onion Knight is fought in the Distant Glory and Inward Chaos storylines.

EX Mode


The Onion Knight's EX Mode is Job Change, where he changes into either the Sage or Ninja, the two strongest job classes from the NES release of Final Fantasy III. While in EX Mode he gains the abilities "Sage's Wisdom" and "Dual Wield." Sage's Wisdom is his ability when a Sage, increasing the damage done by his magic attacks and causing them to fire more projectiles. Dual Wield is the ability of his Ninja form, increasing the damage done by his physical attacks and causing them to deal more hits. The Onion Knight automatically shifts between jobs when attacking so the relevant bonus is always active.

The Onion Knight is the only character who has two EX Bursts, depending on which type of HP attack he uses to begin the Burst. If activated from a magic attack, his Sage form will use Spellbook; if activated from a physical attack, his Ninja form will use Ninjutsu. In both, a command menu will appear and the player must select the appropriate command within a time limit. For Spellbook, the player must select Holy from the "Magic" command; for Ninjutsu, the player must select Shuriken from the "Throw" command.

If the player chooses the correct options, the Onion Knight will perform the selected ability, and then follow them up with Meteor or Back Attack respectively. Failing to choose the correct option will have the Onion Knight immediately use Meteor or Back Attack without using Holy or Shuriken. The commands in both "Magic" and "Throw" are randomized every time the EX Burst is used. Spellbook is slightly stronger than Ninjutsu, but not noticeably so and overall both EX Bursts will do approximately the same damage.

Equipment
Onion Knight can equip Swords, Daggers, Rods, Staves, Thrown Weapons, Parrying Weapons, Bangles, Gauntlets, Hats, Hairpins, Clothing, and Light Armor. In Dissidia 012, the Onion Knight can also equip Headbands and Chestplates.

Allusions

 * While Onion Knight returns to his home world in Dissidia's ending, he looks up at the sky and watches a flock of birds flying above him. This is a reference to the ending of the original release of Final Fantasy III and to the opening sequence of the game's remake.
 * The Onion Sword is a reference to the Onion Equipment from Final Fantasy III. The Tyrfing and the King's Sword are also equipment that first appeared on the game's Famicon release.
 * While executing Back Attack in his EX Burst, Onion Knight assumes the pose of the unnamed warrior in artwork for Final Fantasy III. This is also a reference to Final Fantasy III being the first game to include back attacks when facing enemies.
 * Onion Knight's EX Burst is a homage to the traditional battles of the first Final Fantasies. The enemy will appear on the left side of the screen, while the Onion Knight appears on the right side. He takes a step forward as a command menu appears, at which point the player must input a command. While he is engaged on the right and posed like the NES sprite, his opponent, on the left, will be placed to bear resemblance to an encountered enemy and their stances from their originating game, i.e. Cloud of Darkness positioned to look like her NES sprite and Onion Knight in his battle stance.
 * Although it is not executable or relevant to the EX Burst, the player can open up the Item menu during Onion Knight's EX Burst. Doing so will display various items that appeared on Final Fantasy III. The Magic and Throw command likewise display spells and items besides Holy and Shuriken that also appeared in the game.
 * In the French version of Dissidia, the magic menu that appears displays many spells that were not in Final Fantasy III.
 * The Onion Knight's abilities as shown in Dissidia are those that correspond to the remake of Final Fantasy III, where the Onion Knight job was one of the most powerful and versatile jobs in the game. In contrast, the job was the default class for the entire party in the game's original release and, consequently, not as powerful.
 * When the Onion Knight uses a Bravery attack using his sword, he rapidly swings it multiple times, a reference to the animation for attacking in Final Fantasy III.
 * When the Onion Knight faces Yuna, he questions why she lacks a horn due to the fact that summoners from Final Fantasy III wear horns on their heads.
 * Outside the Edge of Discord Gateway in the epilogue of Light to All, assuming one of them is not the player's active character, the Onion Knight will appear on the world map with the Warrior of Light and Bartz, and say, "We're warriors of light, blessed by the crystals", alluding to the original title of Warriors of Light that the three of them share in their original games.
 * When Onion Knight faces Ultimecia, he asks her what the point of stopping time is. This may be a reference to Xande, whose ultimate plan was to stop time to avoid death.

Trivia

 * The Onion Knight is called by his title by the Cloud of Darkness and Vaan, though the latter only calls him "Onion".
 * Onion Knight has the lowest base Attack in the game, with 107 Attack at Level 100.
 * The Onion Knight and Prishe are the only characters who learn chainable Bravery attacks.
 * Also, Onion Knight and Prishe are the only two warriors to receive a notification when executing a Bravery attack.
 * With a total of thirteen character models - three each, Onion Knight, Ninja, and Sage, for each of his four outfits as well as one for his manikin form - Onion Knight has the most character models of any Dissidia character.
 * Onion Knight shares his Japanese voice actor with the Concordian King from Final Fantasy Type-0.
 * Onion Knight shares his English voice actor with Joshua from The World Ends With You, another video game also published by Square Enix.
 * Aero is listed as a black magic spell under the Magic command during the EX Burst, but in Final Fantasy III where the Onion Knight originates from, it was classified as a white magic spell.
 * The Onion Knight finds his crystal first in Dissidia Final Fantasy, but in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy he finds it second.

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