Blog Post 4: "The Allfather of the Norse Gods"

Yes, what you're thinking is right. It's Odin! He's pretty awesome due to the fact that he has a six-legged horse and can defeat you in an instant even though its just a 50% chance. Anyways, its obvious for you by now that Odin is like the Ares of Norse mythology. Why? Come on, a six-legged horse and a huge spear, that's pretty much overkill. I did a little bit of research in FF8 some time ago and I figured, I should research about Odin since it caught my attention. I was gonna do research on Bahamut but I don't think he's a part of FF8, sorry. I could make a special blog about Bahamut though, if I feel like it. Now, the Norse mythology came from 5 countries in Europe called the Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Norway. In the game, though, he doesn't wield the Gungnir and has Zantetsuken instead. Odin's name can be translated as "Master of ecstasy" in Scandinavian. Sleipnir isn't always in every Final Fantasy game Odin is in and is sometimes a separate boss. One thing I really is that she is Lightning's Eidolon, which I find awesome because Lightning is awesome. In FFXIII, using Odin would cause the user to experience anger which is in par with his Nordic name. Odin's appearaces have been changing and evolving from a knight of darkness to a knight with a white cape and turns into a steed for its master to ride.

Odin's original portrait. Drawn by Yoshitaka Amano

According to Micha F. Linderman's article, it says Odin is not just a god of war and death, but also a god of poetry and wisdom. He has the Gungnir, which never misses is target and is accompanied by his wolves, Freki and Geri. Resides in Valhalla, where slain warriors are taken, and is slain by the wolf Fenrir in Ragnarok, the day of the final battle. Lastly, Wednesday was based on him (Wōđanaz). Odin has many sons, the most famous of whom is Thor, the thunder god. (Famous because of the Avengers movie? Maybe.) There was an anime show about these Norse gods with Loki as its main character but that's another story. Some say that the Roman historian Tacitus refers to Odin whenever he mentions Mercury.

"Odin, the Reaver... Only once he has known defeat, and that only when lightning struck his fearsome blade" 

     Eidolon Library (FFIII)

Yep, that pretty much sums up that he plays a huge role in Norse mythology and he's a really hard to obtain summon so have patience and don't be lazy. I kinda see what they did with the "Lightning struck his fearsome blade" part. Lightning, anyone?

Odin using Zantetsuken in Final Fantasy VII

I've realized that there's more to the whole mythology of Final Fantasy than what I thought. I've actually praise Nomura for being able to connect these summons to his own world. Maybe that's why he made Claire Farron's alias "Lightning". In my opinion, Odin is just one of the many  great summons (and Guardian Forces) and I feel even more compelled to research and learn what's up with them. Until then, see ya guys!