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. It appears to be a semi-naked, humanoid female with a heart-shaped red marking on its forehead, accompanied by setient tentacles. Although it is the final boss, it does not appear in the game until the very end. The Cloud of Darkness refers to itself in the plural form; using "We" instead of "I". Dissidia Final Fantasy explains this as its two tentacles having minds of their own, and the humanoid body speaks for all three of them.

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

Story
The Cloud of Darkness finally reveals itself after the death of Xande, due to the imbalance caused by him, and reveals its intention of returning the world to a state of nothingness. A battle ensues in which the Cloud of Darkness defeats the Warriors of Light without difficulty, seemingly ending any resistance to its plan.

However, the Warriors of Light are revived by their former allies and return to the World of Darkness to confront it. There, it is revealed (in the game's DS remake) by one of the Warriors of Darkness 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 it, thus making it vulnerable. The Cloud of Darkness unleashes its full power onto the Warriors of Light, but in the end, it is defeated and its plan to extinguish all life is unfulfilled.

Personality
The Cloud of Darkness' personalty is not really explored in Final Fantasy III, as it is more of a monster, like Zeromus in Final Fantasy IV, rather than a character, though in Dissidia Final Fantasy it is given more depth. 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, Kuja and Exdeath, the Cloud of Darkness also desires to destroy everything. However, it is also implied to think that the manikins are abominations, and for that reason aided Laguna in sealing the rift that they came from.

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

Music
The original battle theme for the Cloud of Darkness is called "Saigo no shitou" ("Final Battle to the Death"). The track is split into three parts, each successive part faster than the last. 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 attempting to gain 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, it desires to plunge the world into the Void and destroy everything. Under Kefka's instruction, it 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.

Its alternate form colors its cape blue, while its EX Mode is colored a mixture of light green and dark green with a dull red for the legs.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
The Cloud of Darkness reappears as a Warrior of Chaos in the prequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy alongside all the other characters from the original. Its second form has its EX Mode colored altered so as to resemble its orange appearance from the original Final Fantasy III.

Its new alternate costume colors its body coverings white, blue and lavender, and removes the tentacles' faces.

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. Four characters from the cast substitute for the Warriors of Light while another parodies the Cloud of Darkness.

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