Bahamut (Final Fantasy)

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Bahamut is a summoned creature in Square-Enix's Final Fantasy series of RPGs. The name Bahamut originates from an aquatic creature in Arabian mythology[1], but Bahamut as he appears in Final Fantasy owes as much to the portrayal found in Dungeons & Dragons, which also bears similarities to Falak, an omnipotent dragon in Islamic theology. In the Final Fantasy series, Bahamut usually takes form as a huge dragon. He is present in almost every Final Fantasy game, and at times is even considered a sub character.

Bahamut (pronounced [bɛ.hɛ.'muːt]) first appeared in Final Fantasy I. In it, the player could complete a side-quest wherein Bahamut would upgrade the player characters' classes (The quest is technically completely optional, but it is difficult to complete the game otherwise). Again, he is frequently portrayed as the King of the Dragons, though in later installments this role has morphed somewhat into a "king of the summoned creatures." In several of the Final Fantasy entries, Bahamut will only grant his alliance after determining a player's worth in battle (e.g: Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VIII) and after gaining this alliance, he is one of the most powerful summoned allies available. Bahamut also played a significant role in the storyline of several games, most notably Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 and in the film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. The only Final Fantasy titles he has not appeared in are Final Fantasy II, and Final Fantasy XII, where his name is used for a massive battle fortress. He makes an appearance in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars during a battle with a brainwashed MagiKoopa (in a more red, cartoonish version of himself, and under the name "Bahamutt"). Magikoopa will summon him to hide behind. He also appears in one of the battle challenges in Bowser's Keep.

He is known for his devastating battle technique called Mega Flare, where he exhales a powerful magical blast at all his opponents. In Final Fantasy VII, Bahamut is also accompanied by two more powerful versions: Neo Bahamut (Giga Flare), and Bahamut ZERO (Tera Flare). The attacks are named for the SI prefixes for ten to the powers six, nine, and twelve; the third is commonly misread as "Terra Flare" or "Tetra Flare". In Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, the character Kadaj summons Bahamut SIN to cause havoc in the city of Edge on the outskirts of Midgar. Also worth noting are that the suffixes and prefix for the variations of Bahamut in Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children are taken from the names of old Japanese fighter planes: KAI Bahamut ("Neo Bahamut"), Bahamut REISHIKI ("Bahamut Zero"), and Bahamut SHIN ("Bahamut TREMOR")^{[citation needed]}.

In Final Fantasy XI, Bahamut is not a summon. Instead, Bahamut is introduced in the expansion Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia as the Wyrmking, a terrestrial avatar that fights along his Wyrms, namely Tiamat, Vrtra, Jormungand, and Ouryu.

In Final Fantasy XII, Bahamut is the name of a sky fortress that serves as the game's final dungeon. It's primary weapons system is similar to Bahamut's Mega Flare, in that it causes an extremely massive explosion.

In Final Fantasy Unlimited, the GunDragon is modeled after Bahamut, labeled as the ultimate summon of Kaze's MaGun. Though we saw it as the "Chaos-tainted" red-black creature emerging from the Pillar of Darkness, the GunDragon made its official appearance at the TV series finale in its true white coloring.

Due in large part to the successes of Dungeons & Dragons and the Final Fantasy series, the name Bahamut has become synonymous with dragons in general, even being incorporated into two games: Bahamut Bahant Senki and Bahamut Lagoon.

[edit] Trivia

• The energy ball that Bahamut SIN uses in Advent Children looks similar in color and shape to the comet in the Final Fantasy VII logo, including (when paused correctly) the tail of it.
• With the aid of a cheat device (such as GameShark), one can add Bahamut's name to the in-game Summon list in the Disney/Square-Enix game Kingdom Hearts. However, if one selects his name on the list, the game will freeze. Because of this, it is believed by many that Bahamut was supposed to be a summonable character in Kingdom Hearts, but this idea was dropped, leaving Bahamut's name in the game's programming.
• In Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (an updated version of Kingdom Hearts released exclusively in Japan), a new Gummi Ship blueprint is named after Bahamut.
• A reference to Bahamut is seen in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Sora is able to use a sleight called "Mega Flare" (by stocking a Mushu summon card and 2 Fire magic cards), the name of Bahamut's signature attack. Also, "The Undying" uses attacks named after the three Bahamut summons within Final Fantasy VII. These are Mega-Flare, Giga-Flare Sword and Tetra Flare.