Garland is Kuja's creator, and could technically be called his father-- but in truth he styles himself as a distant and untouchable master to Kuja, his most unruly servant, and the product of a promising, yet flawed design process.
There is no hatred from Garland towards him. Only ruthless pragmatism; any and all cruelties born from the fact that Kuja is just an experimental tool to him, the Genome's strong sense of individuality an endless inconvenience.
What Kuja feels --or, hee, hee, FELT! he's fuckin' dead now!-- about him back, is all fire, to match the sheer volume of Garland's ice. Kuja hates his Master, down to his bones, but perhaps greater than that hate is a need to prove himself to the man. While he found the mission Garland gave him, to usher in the end of an entire world, an intolerable prospect-- he nonetheless made it, uh, pretty much his whole identity. He labored to prove he COULD end the world, but that he also had the much greater power to keep it as his cherished treasure forever and ever and rule with an iron fist, and no one would ever doubt HIS reign of terror was anything less than passionate, personal, and meaningful--
Ahem.
Basically, the entirety of Kuja's identity hinges on proving it doesn't MATTER his shitty dad doesn't (didn't!) care about him and never will, because he himself is sooooo cool and beautiful and amazing and hey what a great time to start talking about
ZIDANE TRIBAL
Zidane is his (not by blood, but in essence) little brother, and in every way was made to succeed and replace Kuja when he was, like, chronologically 8. We have very little canon info about how this time period played out, no matter how many headcanons I may have, but Kuja had enough access to him to kidnap him and drop him off on another planet where he couldn't be found, before promptly getting caught and b& from his homeworld.
Zidane is his failures. Zidane is the creeping dread he will one day be disposed. Zidane is the measuring stick for "how well am I doing" in life, and he was also once this weird tiny vulnerable thing sharing the same horrifying, emotionally hollowing origin he'd had, but slower and longer this time, and maybe that's why he turned him into a statue that's technically still alive in there to watch him rule the world forever in the seat of power in his castle* instead of obliterating him completely with a wave of his hand when he achieved Ultimate Power.
*this did not happen in reality but he will sure now remember it as having had happened.
So like. Lots of jealousy and envy. But where he has resolved to rid himself of Garland, Zidane also serves a critical purpose to him-- because his existence is a crucial piece, to appreciate just how great a height he's climbed, to be the formidable, untouchable lord he is today.
And maybe it's power, to decide the fate of something that is pathetic, and lowly, in the ways he hates in himself. Maybe he can't let go having that, because then he is all alone in it.
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Garland is Kuja's creator, and could technically be called his father-- but in truth he styles himself as a distant and untouchable master to Kuja, his most unruly servant, and the product of a promising, yet flawed design process.
There is no hatred from Garland towards him. Only ruthless pragmatism; any and all cruelties born from the fact that Kuja is just an experimental tool to him, the Genome's strong sense of individuality an endless inconvenience.
What Kuja feels --or, hee, hee, FELT! he's fuckin' dead now!-- about him back, is all fire, to match the sheer volume of Garland's ice. Kuja hates his Master, down to his bones, but perhaps greater than that hate is a need to prove himself to the man. While he found the mission Garland gave him, to usher in the end of an entire world, an intolerable prospect-- he nonetheless made it, uh, pretty much his whole identity. He labored to prove he COULD end the world, but that he also had the much greater power to keep it as his cherished treasure forever and ever and rule with an iron fist, and no one would ever doubt HIS reign of terror was anything less than passionate, personal, and meaningful--
Ahem.
Basically, the entirety of Kuja's identity hinges on proving it doesn't MATTER his shitty dad doesn't (didn't!) care about him and never will, because he himself is sooooo cool and beautiful and amazing and hey what a great time to start talking about
ZIDANE TRIBAL
Zidane is his (not by blood, but in essence) little brother, and in every way was made to succeed and replace Kuja when he was, like, chronologically 8. We have very little canon info about how this time period played out, no matter how many headcanons I may have, but Kuja had enough access to him to kidnap him and drop him off on another planet where he couldn't be found, before promptly getting caught and b& from his homeworld.
Zidane is his failures. Zidane is the creeping dread he will one day be disposed. Zidane is the measuring stick for "how well am I doing" in life, and he was also once this weird tiny vulnerable thing sharing the same horrifying, emotionally hollowing origin he'd had, but slower and longer this time, and maybe that's why he turned him into a statue that's technically still alive in there to watch him rule the world forever in the seat of power in his castle* instead of obliterating him completely with a wave of his hand when he achieved Ultimate Power.
*this did not happen in reality but he will sure now remember it as having had happened.
So like. Lots of jealousy and envy. But where he has resolved to rid himself of Garland, Zidane also serves a critical purpose to him-- because his existence is a crucial piece, to appreciate just how great a height he's climbed, to be the formidable, untouchable lord he is today.
And maybe it's power, to decide the fate of something that is pathetic, and lowly, in the ways he hates in himself. Maybe he can't let go having that, because then he is all alone in it.