Wild Onion (Final Fantasy XII)

Template:Sideicon Template:FFXII Enemy The Wild Onion is a plant/mandragora-type enemy from Final Fantasy XII. It can be found in the Paramina Rift. Wild Onions are docile until attacked and will not become aggressive when others of their kind are attacked around them, unlike some other Mandragoras.

Bestiary Entry

Page 1: Observations

Thought to be a variant of mandragora, for the vines that reach up from its collar, covering its face like a mask. Notes the famed naturalist, Merlose: 'It weareth its skin in layers, much like to the root of similar name, perhaps for the proffering of protection 'gainst the cold. Men say the great gaping orifice on its face was gouged by a shard of ice born of a midsummer blizzard. Though its former mouth was passing small, befitting naught but low whimp'ring, its prodigious new one screameth full loud and full much as the foul beast could want, thence earning it its name.

Page 2: Street-Corner Mutterings

There's plenty of work in the world. I don't know what it is you want to become, but take my advice: look at the tricks of many trades, and look well. If nothing else, the knowledge you gain will help you on your travels. And visit shops frequently: you'll find what you need sooner or later.
Nakhiro, Onion Knight

Gallery

Etymology

[view · edit · purge]The onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is used as a vegetable and is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium.

In a 2020 Famitsu interview with Koichi Ishii and Hiromichi Tanaka about Final Fantasy III, Tanaka stated that he created the term "Onion Knight" after seeing Ishii's character design for the job, likening the shape of its helmet's large, white plume to that of an onion.^[1]

Fans had previously speculated that "Onion Knight" refers to the Japanese metaphoric idiom "peeling away one layer at a time and crying all the way" (referring to poverty) or from the slang phrase "to know one's onions" (meaning to be very versatile).

Related enemies

↑ "『FF3』30周年で訊く、開発秘話ミニインタビュー。ジョブデザインや魔剣士、たまねぎ剣士の秘密も" by Famitsu (2020), translated into English in "The Origin of Final Fantasy’s Onion Knight (Translated Interview)" by Lost in Localization (2022)

[1] "『FF3』30周年で訊く、開発秘話ミニインタビュー。ジョブデザインや魔剣士、たまねぎ剣士の秘密も" by Famitsu (2020), translated into English in "The Origin of Final Fantasy’s Onion Knight (Translated Interview)" by Lost in Localization (2022)

[1]