Cait Sith (Final Fantasy VII)

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Cait Sith
Cait Sith artwork by Tetsuya Nomura
Game series	Final Fantasy series and Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
First game	Final Fantasy VII
Designed by	Tetsuya Nomura
Voice actor(s) (English)	Greg Ellis
Voice actor(s) (Japanese)	Hideo Ishikawa
In-Universe Information
Weapon	Megaphone
Race	Android

Cait Sith (ケット・シー, Ketto Shī^?) is a playable character in the Squaresoft role playing game Final Fantasy VII. He was voiced by Hideo Ishikawa for the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Greg Ellis in the English version of the CGI film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.

During Final Fantasy VII, Cait Sith is a cat that sits on top of a giant stuffed moogle, to which he gives orders by using a megaphone. In subsequent publications, he's usually been seen on his own two feet. As a somewhat cartoonish character, he quite noticeably stands out from the game's overall dark theme. His name is derived from Celtic folklore, meaning "Fairy Cat." Several models of Cait Sith exist.^[1]

Contents 1 Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII 2 Final Fantasy VII 3 Final Fantasy VII Advent Children 4 Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII 5 Trivia 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII

Cait Sith appears in Episode 20 of Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII to assist the Turks, while Reeve Tuesti (Cait Sith's controller) plays an overall small role in the game as architect of Midgar and director of Shinra's Housing and Urban Development Department.

[edit] Final Fantasy VII

Cait Sith initially joins the party in the Gold Saucer, a place that is something of a combined casino/amusement park. He joins after offering to use his abilities as a fortune teller to predict Cloud Strife's future. The prediction is a rather grim one, as he tells Cloud that he will find what he seeks but will also lose something dear, foreshadowing the ultimate fate of Aerith Gainsborough. He joins the party, arguing that he can't leave without knowing how this "rare fortune" will turn out.^[2] Cait Sith has a rather eccentric and strange personality, and few of the other characters know what to make of him.

Later in the game, it is revealed that "Cait Sith" is actually an animatronic robot that is being controlled by remote by Reeve Tuesti, who is himself a reluctant member of the despotic Shinra's board of directors, where he serves as the head of the Department of Urban Development. Reeve's intent was to use Cait Sith to infiltrate AVALANCHE and sabotage their resistance efforts on behalf of his employers.

When the team returns to the Gold Saucer to retrieve the Keystone required to gain entry to the Temple of the Ancients, Cait Sith's role as a spy becomes apparent, as he betrays the party by stealing the Keystone and handing it over to the Turks. However, Reeve has a change of heart,^[3] deciding that he wants to stay with the team and betray Shinra. Untrusting, Cloud refuses, but instead of getting kicked out of the team, he coerces them into letting him remain with them, revealing that Barret Wallace's adopted daughter, Marlene, is in his custody. Feeling that they have no choice, AVALANCHE agrees to allow Cait Sith to remain with them.^[4]

Later, in the Temple of the Ancients, it's revealed that in order to unlock its secret (the Black Materia), a mechanism inside the temple had to be activated. However, it's also discovered that activating it would cause the very structure to collapse upon itself, crushing anyone who attempted to retrieve the Black Materia.^[5] Cait Sith was willing to sacrifice himself, as he was just a stuffed toy and the most expendable member of the team.^[6] Cait Sith no.1's death is presented in a very dramatic fashion despite the fact that he was just a robot. Before he "dies," Aerith asks him to work his fortune-telling skills one more time to predict how compatible she and Cloud Strife were as a romantic couple. He comes to the conclusion that they are a perfect match.^[7]

He then leaves to solve the puzzle of the Ancients that unlocks the Black Materia. He successfully unlocks the materia and is destroyed as the temple implodes. Moments later, however, another version of Cait Sith awkwardly arrives on the scene, hence completely negating any tragedy or sense of loss in the process.

After the events of Final Fantasy VII, Reeve set up a new group called "the World Regenesis Organization" (WRO), their mission being to undo the damage Shinra had inflicted on the Planet. Both he and Cait Sith make reappearances in the sequels Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.

[edit] Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

Cait Sith plays a small supporting role in Advent Children, but it's clear that his controller has kept in touch with the rest of the group. Cait Sith makes a brief appearance in the latter half of the film, fighting along with AVALANCHE when Edge is overrun by Shadow Creepers and attacked by Bahamut SIN. Square-Enix has explained that the toysaurus moogle was cut due to the extra amount of work that would have been required to animate it. The creators notably point out that they already disliked animating both Cait Sith and Red XIII due to the level of detail required for their fur.^[8] Although the script in Final Fantasy VII didn't attempt to localize any of the character's accents or speech patterns, Advent Children does, and Cait Sith was given a Scottish accent, to both match his quirky kansai-ben dialect in the Japanese version, as well as his relation to Celtic mythology. Reeve does not physically appear in Advent Children, but he has a brief speaking role, having left a message in Cloud's voice mail. Like most of the other characters, the English dub of Reeve's voice uses a standard American English accent.

[edit] Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Cait Sith plays quite a large role in the follow-up to Advent Children, though his controller plays an even larger role as one of the game's main characters. Cait Sith is the only character other than Vincent Valentine to be playable in the game, while Reeve leads the WRO in its conflict with the Deep Ground SOLDIERs (the villains of the game) and its struggles to rebuild the world in the wake of what has gone before. While Cait Sith retains the Scottish accent of Advent Children, his use of language does not include any Scottish slang or speech patterns, unlike the film. A reference to his small part in the plot is made by Yuffie in after a small skirmish with Deep Ground. Noticeably, Reeve never mentions Cait Sith by name and constantly refers to him with phrases such as "you-know-who."

[edit] Trivia

• An enemy monster in Final Fantasy IV and is named "Cait Sith," though it does not resemble the Cait Sith design used elsewhere in the series.
• In "Final Fantasy V", Metamorph, on a rare occasion, transforms into Cait Sith.
• Known as "Stray" in the original English release of Final Fantasy VI (but changed back to "Cait Sith" in the GBA release), Cait Sith's current design initially appeared as an Esper in that title.
• Cait Sith, appearing as a stuffed-animal, is a weapon used by Lulu in Final Fantasy X.
• Cait Sith, appearing as a Mascot costume, is a Dressphere used by Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2.
• In Final Fantasy VII, within the honeybee inn in Wall Market, Cait Sith can be seen some time before his actual arrival through looking through the keyhole of one of the rooms, the robotic moogle is bouncing Cait Sith up and down in a spa.
• In the video game Kingdom Hearts II, there is a gummiship called Cait Sith. It looks like Cait Sith from Final Fantasy VII.
• Dirge of Cerberus provides several details on how Cait Sith operates and what methods Reeve uses to control him. In one scene, Cait Sith is seen mimicking Reeve's own motions, indicating that Reeve uses a form of motion-sensing control. However, in another scene, Cait Sith is seen moving on his own, alongside Reeve. This implies that Cait Sith has his own AI and Reeve himself doesn't need to control him manually. It is evident that Cait Sith is operable with varying levels of autonomy and that Reeve is not required to operate him manually. It is also evident that each subsequent Cait Sith retains at least some memory data from the previous incarnations, as a replacement Cait Sith ("Number Seven") is able to play back data recorded by "Number Six."
• In Kingdom Hearts II, a cat that bears striking resemblance Cait Sith appears at the beginning of the game.
• In Dirge of Cerberus, at least two pop culture references are used in relation to Cait Sith. The stage where the player takes control of Cait Sith, entitled "Solid Cait" as a direct reference to Solid Snake, the main protagonist in the Metal Gear video games. The concept of the stage (Cait Sith trying to make it through the area undetected by the guards) also refers to the Metal Gear games, which have similar gameplay concepts. Another pop culture reference is when Cait Sith reappears on the Shera and says, "Number 5 is alive." This is a direct quotation from the 1986 sci-fi film Short Circuit.
• In Game Informer magazine, Cait Sith was called one of the "most useless characters in the game".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Cait Sith on Final Fantasy Wiki at Wikicities
• Cait Sith character profile at the official Square Enix Final Fantasy VII site

v • d • e Final Fantasy VII and Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

Advent Children • Before Crisis • Crisis Core • Dirge of Cerberus • Last Order • Lost Episode Cloud • Aerith • Tifa • Barret • Red XIII • Cid • Yuffie • Cait Sith • Vincent • Sephiroth • Jenova • Rufus • Turks Characters • Locations • Terminology • Timeline Materia • Midgar • Shinra • One-Winged Angel • Soundtrack • Reunion Tracks • Piano Collections • Advent Children Soundtrack • Dirge of Cerberus Soundtrack • Before Crisis & Last Order Soundtrack