Tarot Deck

[Aryn007]

For Death I'm going to use a more traditional figure. Hades is so emotional is seems likely to discriminate and...earthy, when you get down to it, where I would like Death to come off as quieter, powerful and without judgment.

[Aryn007]

Temperance!

Ok, for Temperance, I have chosen Namine as the bridge between Roxas and Sora, two halves of a whole.

If Justice is about balance of the mind, Temperance is about balance of the heart and connecting the conscious with the subconscious as represented with the pouring of water (emotions) from the gold cup to the silver. Emotions must not remain stagnant but must be forever flowing freely. She stands partially on land, where our thoughts are firmly rooted, and partially in the water, where our unconscious feelings trickle. The rainbow wings symbolize a connection to the divine and Iris, the rainbow winged messenger of the gods. The rainbow is the bridge between heaven and earth.

She is a kind, friendly spirit, pure (represented by the white garb) and helpful, loved by those in the spiritual world and earthly world. Though she does initially break apart Sora…she primarily, in the second game, offers new hope in resolving opposites.

Being Kairi’s Nobody, I chose to place her in a mirroring position of her card, facing the opposite direction with her cups of water. Kairi is the water bearer, also with two flowing streams, offering hope…woo!

Temperance means moderation and lack of extremes. It is as cardinal virtue and the pouring from one cup to another may depict the mixing of water with wine, to dilute the alcohol. It may also be associated with the Christian communion ceremony in which water is mixed with the wine, which symbolizes the blood of Christ. “The Fool needs to learn Temperance how to mix, in their due proportions, the opposites of success and failure, growth and decay, joy and sorrow.” A nice way for me to remember this card is to remember that Justice may be Tempered by mercy.

[sulcal]

Stand back, this is going to be a long one...

In some sense I can agree with Seifer as being with the Chariot. KH Seifer, maybe not so much-- he's lost a lot of what he had. The Chariot represents not only chaos, but also sheer force of will, or so I've always interpreted. He always also an individual who did what he intended to do-; once a choice has been made, will power can emerge and assert itself.

Sephiroth also works well for the Chariot, as he has a rather (canonically stated) unbreakable will, though his decisions have left him with a rather terrible outcome in most of his life. He is a war machine, to quite plainly put it. Though it's just a thought.

Death, I think I have a suggestion for. I personally think that, while Axel is a good fit for the Tower and has far too much energy, he also fits for Death. The suggestion behind that is that Nobodies don't exactly "die". They "fade" and finally stop being an anomaly. Death represents change, and forging forward through that change. His "death" in the game was actually quite symbolic, as is the card. We reap what we sow, we abandon what no longer has reason to exist. A page is turned, a line is drawn and we move on to other things. It's a radical change, and Axel went through it far more than Cloud (Cloud honestly does fit the Tower more so than Axel), and it was sudden, dramatic. It came out for the better in a lot of ways.

However, if Cloud is in the suit for the Tower, then, inevitably, Tifa must go with it. The Tower represents deliverance and clarification (liberation, even) just as much as it represents inevitable upheaval and the sudden calling into question of everything. Cloud will always question, and Tifa will always seek to have him delivered and liberated from all the chaos and self-destruction. The Tower doesn't, as I have understood it, for reference here, mean literal destruction. It means chaos within the self, self-destruction, and the disorder of internal balance. >>; That might just be me. I felt Tifa would also fit well with the Tower to compliment Cloud, as they both have many self-destructing habits and inner chaos.

The Sun is Yuffie (or maybe even Ariel despite being a mermaid), obviously. It represents Clarification, pure and sincere sentiments, shared feelings, and a joy in living. But it also represents false happiness. Yuffie doesn't strike many as falsely happy. She's not, not by any means. Simply because there is a negative to the positive doesn't mean that she doesn't fit the bill. Her job in the Worlds is to fight for the side of light and illuminate the truth, simply because she shines that brightly, internally. The Sun encourages not only living like a carefree child, but also the blinding reality of this. That strong of a light blinds to those not ready to see it. It probably doesn't make sense, but it's the thought that counts, right?

The Hanged Man I always thought of as Ansem the Wise. The Hanged Man tells us that there isn't anymore time, that it's too late to act. It's indeed the hour of reckoning and one must now suffer or assume the consequences of previous action for good or bad. In this case? The worlds went into darkness, many lost their homes, lives were torn apart, and Hollow Bastion and the Organization were born through his faults, his action. This card also represents being able to forge forward and wait long enough to rectify the situation, to do something to make it right, as well. Something Ansem the Wise also did. The Hanged Man is a world in reverse. Re-establishment is necessary and inevitable, sometimes even fatal.

That's about all I've got, so far, though... I'm still puzzling out Strength. And was, perhaps, thinking Riku for the Wheel of Fortune... Yen Sid also strikes me as The Hermit. And the High Priest to compliment the High Priestess alludes me for the time being.

[Aryn007]

I'll definitely keep this stuff in mind. Description added.