Gau

Gau is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. He is a due to his growing up on the Veldt.

Character and Appearance
Gau is a young teenager, with wild, celery green hair in sprite and blond in artwork that's kept in a mullet. He walks with a bad posture - occasionally on all fours - and wears animal skins he has made himself, after years of living in the wild.He scratches his enemies with his long and strong fingernails.

Being raised in the wild his whole life, Gau is primitive and speaks in broken English and often refers to himself in the third person, and in some situations calls out "gau!" even if the player doesn't name him this. Thus, "gau" is just one of many grunts Gau utters, and is not his actual given name, though it's how he's referred to by the party members ("Gau" pronounced more like "Goh" in Chinese, which means "Dog," and in Japanese it is the given sound dogs make equivalent to English "Woof"). Gau has a keen interest in shiny objects, hoarding them in a cave on the Veldt, and is afraid of heights. He's one of the few party members with no character story tied to the central plot, and doesn't appear to have any true reason to join the party.

Story
Gau was born in a house north of the Veldt to a crazy old man. During Gau's birth, his mother died and his father went mad. He believed Gau was a demon and threw him out on the Veldt. Later, he believed it was all a dream and no longer remembers Gau or his wife.

One day, Sabin Rene Figaro and Cyan Garamonde wash ashore onto the Veldt. Gau saves them and runs away. The next time he encounters them, he demands food. When Sabin and Cyan throw him Dried Meat, Gau starts following them around. He immediately takes a liking to, and grows close to, Cyan (and the feeling is mutual) and begins to make fun of his archaic speech, calling him "Mr. Thou." Gau agrees to show them his treasure, a diving helmet. During the search for the diving helmet, Gau also pulls a prank on Sabin which results in Sabin dropping his pouch (which contained 500 gil) off a cliff inside the cave system. The diving helmet is used to travel through the Serpent Trench to Nikeah, where they take a ferry to South Figaro and eventually make their way to Narshe, where Cyan and Gau willingly join the Returners.

Gau stays with the party and helps them fight against the Gestahlian Empire, but during the Apocalypse gets separated from the others. One year later, Gau has returned to the Veldt. He rejoins the party, but only if a group of three approach him. Sabin takes him to see his father, but Gau must first get a makeover. Sabin takes him to Jidoor and dresses him up, with the armor salesman making rude comments that humourously anger Terra and Celes, and eventually, when Locke makes Gau wear a bandana just like his, Edgar comments it would be hard to expect some class out of Locke, which infuriates him enough to beat up Edgar in the armor shop. (To see the full edition of the armor shop scene, the player must have both Locke and Edgar in the party, while Terra and Celes must be waiting in the Falcon.) When Gau meets his father, his father doesn't recognize him, and even mentions having had a "dream" of throwing away a supposed demon child into Veldt, but compliments Gau's "parents" for raising such a nice young man. Sabin becomes infuriated and threatens to beat up Gau's father, but Gau is just happy to find out his father is still alive.

In the ending, Gau finds several shortcuts out of Kefka's Tower.

Battle
Gau's stats are all around high, but this can be attributed to the variety of attacks and abilities he uses via his Rages. He can equip lightweight vests and hats, universal shields, and a few helmets. However, he cannot equip any weapons without using the Merit Award, except for the universal Impartisan.

Gau's ability is Rage, which lets him mimic monsters' attack patterns. Gau enters an uncontrollable state where all he will do is attack and use a special skill or spell used by the enemy whose Rage he is using. While Gau is using a Rage, he is temporarily 'equipped' with a predesignated attack graphic that simulates the weapon or physical attack of the mimicked enemy. On the Veldt, Gau also has the ability Leap, which lets him learn new Rage techniques.

"Wind God Gau"
In the SNES release, a popular setup involving Gau is to equip him with the Merit Award, the Offering, and a Tempest, which randomly casts Wind Slash on hit, and then use the Stray Cat Rage. The result is Gau attacking four times, randomly using Wind Slash which would have a high boost in power by the effects of the Stray Cat's "Catscratch" attack. This combo proved so powerful that in all releases after the SNES version, Gau is prohibited from equipping the Merit Award. Gogo would later follow suit in the Advance release, having lower stats than Gau, but able to use the same combination.

Development Information
The developers acknowledge that Gau doesn't have much to do with the game's plot. He is just something of an extra character. Originally, the reunion with his father was supposed to take place in the World of Balance and was shorter. Sabin and Cyan were both involved with the reunion, so it was probably meant to occur during Sabin's split scenario after the Lethe River event.

Musical Themes
Gau has an eponymous theme, which is heard in the ending sequence. It was selected and re-arranged for both the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale albums.

Etymology
"Gau" is presumably a misspelling of "Gao", the Japanese onomatopoeia for a growling noise.