Mog (Final Fantasy VI)

Mog is a playable character in Final Fantasy VI. A Moogle and a Dancer/Geomancer, he also acts as one of the tutorial presenters in the game, the other being Kappa the Imp. He lives deep in the mines of Narshe.

Mog is fondly remembered as the first Moogle playable character in the series.

Development Information
A prerelease version of the game had a different way for Mog to join the party in the World of Ruins. There was supposed to be an extra area near Narshe called "the Moogle Hole", which had 20 Moogles running around very quickly. The player could (re-)recruit Mog if they could find him among all the other Moogles. The developers eventually felt this mini-game of sorts was too annoying and so Mog is considerably easier to find in the final version of the game (he just stands alone in the Moogle cave in the Narshe mines).

Character and Appearance
Mog is a moogle, about the age of twelve. He has the traditional Moogle look: white skin (though his portrait sprite shows it as a cream color), cat-like ears, and little wings.

Mog is shown to be more intelligent than the other Moogles, and acts as their leader. He's the only seen Moogle who can speak the human language, while the rest just say "Kupo" or variations of it. He's also a bit bossy, seen bossing Umaro to join the party.

Story
Mog is first found in the battle to save Terra Branford from the Narshe Guards. He leads a party of Moogles to help Locke Cole defend Terra, and succeeds. Mog then appears as the character which players use to select the Scenarios in the three Scenario section of the game.

It is not until after Terra rejoins the party that Mog is available as a permanent character. If the player chooses to do the sidequest involving Lone Wolf the Pickpocket, he or she will follow him to the area where Valigarmanda is. Lone Wolf is holding Mog hostage, and eventually Mog breaks free, throwing the both of them to the edge of the cliff. The player must choose between rescuing Lone Wolf and rescuing Mog. If Lone Wolf is rescued, the party obtains a Gold Hairpin. If Mog is rescued, Mog reveals his ability to speak English, and joins the party.

One year after the apocalypse, Mog returned to his cave in the Narshe mines. When the party finds him, he automatically rejoins and tells them to find Umaro, who he claims would be helpless without him. After the party finds and beats Umaro in battle, Mog bosses him around and orders him to join the party.

Mog has very little relevance to Final Fantasy VI's overall plot, seeing as he has no connection to the Espers, the Empire or the Returners. If the player recruits him, he tells the player that Ramuh came to Mog in a dream and told him to join the cause against the Empire, and in the GBA version he also claims that it was a series of dreams with Ramuh through which he learned how to speak the human language.

In the ending, Mog and Edgar escape together, when the floor collapses and Mog is left hanging over a pit. Edgar uses a crane to pull him to safety, but Mog is irritated when Edgar grabs him by his pom-pom to do so.

Equipment and Stats
Mog is a Dancer/Geomancer, and thus his magic stats tend to be high, while his physical stats are low. Despite this, though, his base physical defense is one of the highest in the game. His equipment draw is also very strange. For weapons, he can only equip spears and daggers. He is one of only two characters who can wield spears, along with Edgar, and giving him the Dragoon Boots is a good choice -- jump attacks with spears are more powerful than those with other weapons. He can use all universal shields as well as the Gold Shield. He can equip all Gold equipment. He can even use the Snow Muffler, the most powerful piece of defensive gear in the game, something only Gau and Umaro can do in addition. He even has his own special Relic, the Moogle Charm.

In Final Fantasy VI Advance, Mog gains the Gungnir spear.

Abilities
Mog's special ability is Dance. When Mog uses this, he uses one of four random attacks based on the terrain of his Dance. The player loses control of Mog until either he is KO'd or the battle ends. There is a 50% chance Mog will fail unless he is on the home terrain of the Dance. Mog learns new dances by fighting battles in different areas.

Musical Themes
Mog's theme is named for himself, and is the theme played in the Moogle Cave. This theme is recurring throughout the series as the general Moogle theme, and is mixed into the Ending.

Appearances in Other Games

 * Mog makes an appearance in Secret of Evermore.
 * There is also a moogle named Mog in Kingdom Hearts II. He appears as a shopkeeper in Disney Castle.
 * There is a playable moogle named Mog with a very similar personality in Chocobo Racing.

Trivia

 * In Dissidia Final Fantasy, when Mogstache (the player's Mognet correspondent) is asked about Mog, he says that a moogle fighter is something special, but he "still would have picked the Gold Hairpin-hands down!"
 * In Final Fantasy VI players can find an object behind Mog when they recruit him in the World of Ruin. It is a Moogle Charm which is able to reduce all enemy encounters to zero. The item, however, is not visible so players have to press confirm on the space of the wall right behind Mog to get it.