Jihl Nabaat



Lieutenant Colonel Jihl Nabaat [dʒɪl nəbɑːt] (ジル・ナバート, Jiru Nabāto) is an extremely minor antagonist in Final Fantasy XIII. She is an officer in the Cocoon army, the commander of PSICOM, and is an enemy of Lightning and her allies.

Jihl was designed by Nao Ikeda, who also designed the members of NORA. Her Japanese voice actor, Mie Sonozaki, also voiced Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca from Final Fantasy XII, while Paula Tiso, her English voice actor, voiced Lulu from Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2.

Datalog
Jihl Nabaat is a talented PSICOM officer who graduated at the head of her class.

''As the supervisor in charge of Dajh's testing, she grew close to his father, Sazh. However, her kindness was simply a ruse to gain access to the boy's l'Cie ability to sense Pulse entities.''

''She captures Sazh and Vanille in Nautilus, using them as bait in her scheme to draw the other Pulse l'Cie out of hiding. Jihl's plans backfire when her carefully laid ambush is unable to contain the l'Cie, and Barthandelus disposes of her as he would any other tool.''

Profile
Jihl is 166 cm tall and 176 cm tall with heels, according to the Ultimania guide. She wears glasses and blond hair reaching all the way down to her knees, and wields a baton which she uses in a fencing fashion.

Jihl has both political and personal motivations for opposing Lightning's group. She graduated first in her class and quickly advanced in the ranks of the military to the position she holds as lieutenant colonel. She is in charge of daily policy and takes strategic command of the PSICOM soldiers. Jihl is described as intelligent, yet cruel and heartless, and she sees the l'Cie as subhumans. Yaag Rosch is her right-hand man. Jihl is voiced by Mie Sonozaki in the Japanese version and by Paula Tiso in the English version.

Story
Jihl is first seen at the end of Sazh's flashback of the fireworks festival in Bodhum. She smiles innocently as she watches Sazh and his son Dajh enjoying themselves, giving the player the initial impression that she must be a nice woman. Sometime later, at the Sunleth Waterscape, Sazh explains to Vanille how he lost track of his son at Euride Gorge. Through the fal'Cie Kujata, Dajh was turned into a l'Cie in order to protect it from Vanille and Fang, when they try to attack it in an effort to remember their focus. Vanille and Fang are remorseful for the boy's transformation, but can only flee before Jihl and her squadron investigate the commotion and discover Dajh unconscious. Jihl merely smiles coyly as her soldiers explain to a distraught Sazh that his son will need to be quarantined. Sazh leaves angrily, planning to go to Gran Pulse and figure out how to complete his son's Focus for him. Jihl, meanwhile, puts her own plans into action.

Arriving at Nautilus, Jihl's true colors are revealed when she captures the wandering Sazh and Vanille, telling the two that having them arrested was apparently Dajh's Focus all along. She plays with Sazh's emotions by revealing how his crystallized son became a l'Cie through Vanille's actions. Vanille runs off crying as Jihl's soldiers take aim at her, but Jihl tells them to stand down. She then lets Sazh go, assuming Sazh will kill Vanille. But Sazh can not bring himself to kill Vanille or commit suicide. Immediately after, Jihl's group captures him and Vanille, with Jihl once again toying with Sazh's emotions by telling him that the Sanctum will build a memorial in Eden and use Dajh as a monument to "the boy who saved Cocoon". After Sazh objects to it, Jihl heartlessly asks him whether or not Dajh should be remembered as the son of a hated Pulse l'Cie or rather a monument to sacrifice. After he cries out and attempts to break his restraints, she renders Sazh unconscious and watches as Vanille is taken to the Palamecia via airship with him in a coffin.

When Lightning's group breaks into the Palamecia with Cid's help and regroup with Vanille and Sazh, Jihl becomes vexed with how she is losing control of the situation, and seems to lose control of herself at one point, smashing her glasses into the floor. Once the l'Cie arrive, with Sazh wanting to settle things with her, Jihl stands between them and Galenth Dysley and tells him to escape. However, Dysley, who reveals his true nature as the fal'Cie, Barthandelus, fatally strikes her down with his magic along with the other Palamecia crew members so he could talk to the l'Cie personally.