Odin's design evolution |
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- čas přidán 17. 05. 2024
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- Hry
So who else learned the correct way to pronounce Sleipnir today? ✋
Well that's the very Danish pronunciation, SLAIP-nia /'slaip.nia/. In ON and Icelandish, it's SLAYP-nir /'sleip.nir/ and /'sleip.nɪɾ/ respectively
You've also almost learned how to pronounce Odin's spear, Gungnir.
@@percivalyracanth1528 TIL more Sleipnir pronunciations!
@@percivalyracanth1528 not sleip"nia", but sleip"ner", though.
Sounds Danish. We don't say that in Norway.
Odin's a neat god. He's a general and a warrior, a sorcerer and a trickster, a king of the gods who collects fallen warriors like pokemon. He's a god of war and wisdom, death and healing, poetry and gallows, royalty and runes.
That's a blend of archetypes you don't see much in typical fantasy...which I guess is true of all major gods to some extent or another (Zeus is a god of oath-keeping, for instance), but it's more front-and-center with Odin. He's a king of the gods, he's a tricksy rogue, and it's hard to get through many Odin myths without both of those roles coming up.
One thing I wish they'd played up more in the Marvel movies was that trickster aspect. I mean, the guy sacrificed himself TO himself so he could get to learn the secret of runes, a womanly magic in the Norse mythos, if I recall right. People talk about Loki breaking gender norms, and, yeah, they totally do, but they were far from the only one.
@@morgansinclair6318 Loki's the one who did it most often and most severely. (Loki gave birth, after all.) IIRC, he's also the only one to catch flak for it in the available sources.
@@timothymclean Oh, certainly, but it is definitely something that could definitely be explored in modern depictions more.
@@morgansinclair6318 Depicting Loki as a gender nonconforming character is still the exception to the rule, despite the fact that he has given birth. Let's not ask Hollywood to run while it's learning to walk.
@@timothymclean though gods do I wish it would.
Something I like about Odin in 14 is that he's the sword, not the knight. The knight is a conjured egi that takes the form of the person that killed it last. It's a really cool touch.
Not quite, rather the Sword straight up possesses and controls the person who ‘slayed’ Odin, tempering them to the blades will. It’s a constant problem the Twelveswood have where Odin gets sealed away after his defeat, but gets unsealed by someone, even if the tempered person is killed.
It’s why in the Odin Fate, FFXIV equivalent to world bosses, takes the name and body of the person who landed the killing blow the last time he appears, that person is under Odins thrall.
This. I thought that was cool touch as well. And adds to the Primal's mystique.
Lalafell Odins are awlways the funniest to see. They're so tiny.
16’s Odin is probably the most impressive iteration at least, and characters in the game have the appropriate response when seeing him.
“Oh, fuck.”
And FFVII Rebirth even calls him "God of Death", that's how you know not to f&¢k with that guy. 😆
"Weird, cunning, lethal, sorcerous death god" is such an apt and badass description of the jerk, hell yeah
I like how Odin can be described as both “the weird, cunning, lethal, sorcerous death god” and “the jerk” and they both have equal footing in describing him.
mythological odin is genuinely closer to the series depiction of Ramuh
I've sometimes wondered if Ramuh and Odin got mislabeled. Perhaps Odin was supposed to be something like king Arthur, and Ramuh should have been Odin. It'd make more sense
Ramuh always felt like a fusion between Odin and Zeus. In Final Fantasy Brave (I think), Ramuh has even a tattoo over his eye, like a referrence to og mythology Odin.
To be fair, that's kind of common for iconic Final Fanasy creatures with names taken from mythology. FF Bahamut is a dragon instead of a whale, FF Shiva is an ice elemental woman with only two arms, wheras the mythological Shiva is a great many things and those are none of them.
Bahamut is taken from D&D, not mythology, as with many Final Fantasy 1 monsters
@@blazesalamancer8767 Bahamut is arab legend monster
@@bobolecoco3321 but he's not a dragon in that, he's a fish. But he is a dragon in dnd. considering how much ff1 actually took from dnd (like they deadass had beholders whose designs had to be changed to avoid copyright) so saying they cribbed bahamut from dnd isn't wrong.
I mean if final fantasy 1 cared for the original mythology tiamat would the water fiend not the wind fiend and wouldn't have 5 heads because the latter is also a dnd addition.
Shiva is actually totally unrelated to the hinduist god. Her name's just the japanese spelling of the english word "shiver", explaining her ice element
Leviathan is also a giant snake-like wyrm dragon thing instead of a whale.
Personally I don't mind the six legs on Sleipnir as Odin's two legs somewhat creates the illusion of eight if you squint. This also has a subtle implication that Sleipnir and Odin are two inseperable halves, and neither is whole without the other.
What I love most about Odin, and many of the summons throughout the FF games, is their storied reputation within the FF zeitgeist itself. A reputation that bas been cultivated throughout each game over the decades. When you see Odin in an FF game, no matter where or in what form, you KNOW he's going to be a badass.
Odin's As One. Odin has two Abilities!
“Odin’s Unnerve means that player characters cannot use items!”
In final fantasy 13 he becomes the horse
Yeah, was surprised that wasn’t mentioned, or even shown…
In Lightning Returns he turns into a chocobo because.
@@NibelungJ ...Because the FFXIII trilogy ran out of weird decisions to make 😂
I gotta say with the amount of not following the mythology behind a lot of summons with names from irl lore its pretty inconsistent to be upset just about Odin lol
Well Odin is part of his culture.
Something I find interesting about the XIV incarnation is that the primal Odin *isn't* the big guy on a horse, the primal is the *sword.* Anyone who slays Odin and takes the sword inevitably becomes the next Odin. This is reflected in gameplay, too: whoever lands the final blow on the Odin FATE boss will have their name and player model used for Odin the next time Odin spawns.
This needs to climb up the comment chain and be seen
As a fella Scandinavian, I agree that he should have a dam spear!
I think any kind of spear would be good.
He does? Gungnir is his non lethal option.
In FF3 3D, it's also a spear you can steal from him.
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 Checking the wiki: He only uses Gungir in two games and Gunge Lance in one, and outside FF3 he only uses it against enemies immune to his normal instant death broadsword. As TB Skyen put it, he uses that weapon only begrudgingly.
On an unrelated note: The FF wiki has a "Names in other languages" section. In French he's called Odin, which means "Odin"; in German he's called Odin, which means "Odin". Thanks for the explanation, wiki.
@@timothymcleanthey might not have updated it yet but FFVII Rebirth’s Odin has abilities that use both Zantetsuken and Gungnir pretty often, I believe he swaps between the two in his boss fight as well.
While it would be more interesting to use more of the actual god Odin as inspiration, the final fantasy Odin has been conceptualised as a more arturian "King of Knights" from basically the beginning. He bares more of a resemblance to his namesake than Shiva, but it still might be easier to think of him as a knight with Odin's name than an actual adaptation of the god.
Odin wasn't designed to be Odin. In FFIII when summons were being introduced the devs had a lot of monster designs Amano had made for them, they liked the dark knight-on-horseback one and decided to use it for the summon system - which took a lot of work and reshaped the whole design of the game - when they decided on a name for the design one of the staff members more familiar with English decided to call it "Odin" because... he liked the name.
That's the story of Odin's design.
A sword knight. On a Horse. In a world where most Horses are monsters and people ride Chocobos. Dude’s riding a Man-Killer.
I could be wrong but something about XIV's version of Odin is that Odin IS the sword, Zantetsuken. Anyone who slays and picks up the sword becomes Odin.
Remember, there is only one creature Odin fears. The Tonberries.
Bro, everyone is afraid of Tonberries
except the gullwings. They're weak as shit in X-2
And Seifer.
@@SethJV to be fair. Odin attempted to square up on Seifer. Odin doesn’t even show up to the tonberries.
@@scrapkingkeita3825 weirdly enough that is true. And I’ll never understand why. And then we have XV where they become Sith Lords.
Hearing you talk about these summons and their design evolution really makes me want to hear you talk about Shin Megami Tensei
I love Odin’s design in SMT, both new and old.
Would really love a series on Smt designs
SMTs portrayal of mythological figures consistently goes hard af
Honestly I've never been a fan of Kaneko's designs for the Norse gods. And then Doi came around and made Odin a fucking sentai character and I love it. Doi Odin is so good
@@giorgioguolo7196not happening, Skyen's said before in the podcast that he doesn't really like SMT
Eh, I think doi's Odin is kinda cringe. The old red rune-ghost design goes incomparably hard, though
The black armored knight might be taking inspiration from the myths of Odin as the leader of the Wild Hunt, an army of ghostly hunters. Odin's iconic attack is an instant-kill slash, an attack that brings death, much like how the Wild Hunt will (sometimes unwillingly) kill the living and claim their souls.
Something that's really cool to note is that in XIV, Odin is not the knight, but the sword. In the game, Odin appears in a FATE in the wilderness. Being a multiplayer game, many, many people can fight him at once. Whoever gets the last hit on Odin, the next time the boss spawns, he uses THEIR model as a base to put the armor on, implying the player that killed Odin took up the sword and became him.
I see your point, but isn't this kinda the big issue with all the summons?
Yeah. Final Fantasy summons are all fairly surface-level with their mythology references. Shiva’s not a multi-armed man, Ifrit doesn’t particularly look like a djinn and I believe Bahamut is supposed to be a fish, not a dragon.
Granted, this is hardly an issue exclusive to FF. A LOT of fantasy media likes to pay surface-level homages to mythology that rarely goes beyond slapping a recognizable name on a thing.
@goldlight1322 It seems to me Skyen's primary critique isn't that it isn't faithful to the origins, but that the way in which it has diverged is by contrast less interesting?
Yes, but this time it was his own culture, he is allowed to give the design guff for this summon
@@goldlight1322Admittedly, the elemental associations are usually correct too, or the general importance of Bahamut for example (blame Arneson and Gygax for him and Tiamat being dragons with no ocean connection).
Though by this point the FF summons pretty much have their own established mythos entirely separate from real-world counterparts. Still, a little more lean-in here or there *could* do nice things for some of the designs.
I'm just saying give FF Odin birds he can throw at you.
@Never_heart of course, just Its been the thing I've been waiting to hear at least mention of. Like I totally can get why he only goes into it on this 1 example, but it feels like it's also worth mentioning with the other summons.
I mostly agree with you, but if we’re comparing them to the Gods they were named after then we should also hold Shiva to the same standard, who (as far as I’m aware, I’m largely uneducated) greatly deviates from the Hindu god Shiva.
You could argue Quetzalcoatl deviates aswell, but I think it largely keeps within the identity of “reptile with feathers”.
I’ve just kind of accepted that sometimes Final Fantasy will adopt the name of something, but not try to make a one to one adaptation.
Just to be clear I think it’s okay to have the opinion that the summons should reflect who they’re named after, I just think that should also extend to all summons and not just Odin.
Bahamut, Leviathan, Cú Chulainn, etc.
Something that happens with OG FF's names are that they use then without the figure behind in mind. The more clear example is Gilgamesh, that doesn't have sny resemblance to the epic and instead is Benkei with other name.
I prefer the Shin Megami Tensei version of Odin, especially the most recent design where he almost looks like a Super Sentai character with some sort of ocular implant over his missing eye, and Muninn looks almost robotic.
Has TBSkyen ever done a look at SMT demon/Persona designs? Kaneko, Doi, and the other artists at Atlus tend to make very interesting, unique designs. Just look at the generic version of an angel.
I like to believe its just Odin treating the final fantasy universe as his "combat vacation" destination.
Like, he spends most of his regular time being a wanderer and scholar, and when he gets called into FF, he puts on his best suit of armor and grabs a horse least likely to trip itself in battle.
His song, "The Riddle", in FFXVI properly references his mythology though which is funny. "The twain on ten feet run (8 Sleipnir legs + 2 Odin), three eyes and one (2 Sleipnir eyes + 1 Odin) trained upon victory!"
A funny discussion too is why he chooses the Japanese-named blade "Zantetsuken" as his weapon.
I want to see him as a man with two bird heads instead of a human one.
An instance of FF13 summon being the best version of the character.
Bloody looved the 2 sided pole ax. Not a spear, but closer than a sword
Odin: Why am I a two-eyed sword black knight?
Sleipnir: Why do I look like a normal horse?
SMT: I got you, fams.
He looks ultra badass in 16. Really liked the boss fight against Barnabas but I really wish there was an eikon fight section like with Titan and Bahamut.
Totally agree!!
Eikon fight sections were really lame tbh. Like yeah, they looked cool, but the gameplay and difficulty were nonexistent
They fixed that issue with Leviathan, by God they definitely fixed it. 😭😭@@Alejojandro
@@hayabusahime Leviathan is actually challenging, if only all the other eikon fights were like that...
Odin usually being out of the way and offering a decent challenge was very cool. Very often an honorable character, though a bit quirky at times.
How could you forget that time when he said "It's Odin time!" and Zantetsuken'd all over the place? But seriously, I like how he has a completely different attack in the form of Gungnir if the enemy is immune to instant death.
I remember watching FFUnion’s video on Odin and how they did keep a consistency with Odin’s two design where if he has a shield or not, the horse will have the same number of legs in that title. I thought that was a fun fact.
But yeah, I do have my own complaint with Odin and it does extend a bit to Bahamut as far as FF16 goes (not a big complaint, but more of a nitpick). I get that they wanted to have an eikon for every element (while Fire gets two for obvious reasons), but Final Fantast already had a light and dark element summon in both Alexander and (by lesser extents) Diablos and/or Anima. Not I don’t mind Bahamut being the light element rep, but Odin as the dark Rep (while making sense) didn’t sit as well with me.
For the life of me, I always felt like Bahamut and Odin were purposefully meant to be non-elemental or not affiliated with any element; hence why when they are summoned, they are seen as more powerful since they aren’t reliant on landing weaknesses (and Odin just one-shotting). But we could say that still works in FF16 since there are no weaknesses attached to the combat. If Clive wants to throw fire at a bomb, he can do that and not casually heal the thing.
In the end, Odin’s design can be interesting, but we do run into a slight problem with how (unlike other summons), Odin is a well known God or Deity (or at least in comparison to the fair sum of summons we’ve looked at). When you ask people “Who is Odin?” More people will affiliate the name with a seemingly older, one-eyed man with a spear than they would the knight figure on a multi-legged horse that can one shot any who stand against him. Not that this is a bad thing, but that is the unfortunate stumble in in otherwise decent summon.
You know what another strange part of this is? They were made by the FFXIV team, the same people who made Bahamut technically associated with Darkness thanks to the Seventh Umbral Calamity infusing him with Darkness from one of the Shards. They seemed to reference XIV a lot even in the music, so I kinda assumed that Bahamut would’ve been Dark before the game came out.
(Not that I’m complaining, his Light stuff looks cool as fuck-)
Something tells me people from, say, India would disagree with that last paragraph.
FF XV :" He is a birb and has Fate Stay Night unlimited bladeworks move, take it of leave it"
I'm fine with the summons not being one-to-one with their name inspirations because FF is supposed to be taking place in fantasy worlds, not real life Earth. I like the idea that they are funhouse mirror versions of our mythologies and world, slightly different but similar enough to see the connections.
So, I like FF's Odin
Yeah, Gungnir got the “sword is cooler” treatment. The 80s and 90s infected media with ultra cool and powerful swords that people overlooked that spears were objectively better. Now everyone needs a cool looking sword.
To be fair, that attitude is hardly unique to the 21st century. Excalibur and Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi aren't Cold War inventions.
Odin's always been one of my fav summons, up there with Phoenix, Carbuncle, and Shiva. I think there was something about his kinda puke-green and grey coloration that just really made him feel super death-ly, which always fit well with his zantetsuken attack. He's also usually a tier above the other summons, so he tends to get story significance more often than a lot of the summons.
He may be a bit divorced from his mythological inspiration, but he's not the only one. Shiva seems farther removed, I think.
Counterpoint tge concept of his sword being so sharp it can cut the emptyness between spaces and the moments between seconds is cool enough to make up for all of that
Honestly I like Odin's desin in 16. The King of the country and his power is shown off well. Splitting oceans and slashing whole buildings in 2. Really telling everyone why he is king.
Really sad that these seems to often ignore 13
I'd rather have slander at this point lmao
I honestly gotta agree with some of the other comments here and say that the FF analysis is great but this one in particular just made me realize that a series going over the Shin Megami Tensai games would be sick as hell and I would be so so so happy if you did it.
I have to grant it to FF13 for giving me both mecha horse Odin and making his warrior form cool as hell.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the way TB says "Odin"?
It’s very Danish and I love it
Odin has long been my favourite summon. He is just too cool and the way you get him is always through some strange secret
A few things to say about this short. First of all, HELL YEAH Cyans theme, love the music. And secondly I do love the decision in 16 to make Sleipnir into a pretty twink man that Odin created.
As someone who actually tries to respect the Norse pantheon? Regrettably my favorite incarnation of Odin is the single most abstracted one away from his mythology: Final Fantasy XIII. Specifically Lightning Returns, where he becomes The fucking Chocobo
Something about Odin being forcibly turned into a white chocobo just SHRIEKS of the side of Morse mythology where Thor pretended to be Freya by wearing a dress, and two of the gods (Loki and Heimdall?) fought in the form of seals for some reason, and Thor gets heckled by a boatman, and Loki gets trapped in a jar for a solid few weeks
I love Odin in IV.
It's the First FF I Played and so it stuck, how the King of Baron, after being slain and replaced by Cagnazzo, became the spirit of the Noble Odin. It also links him on FFIII Odin which is found in the Castle Catacombs.
As an American English speaker, thank you for teaching me how to properly pronounce Slepiner xD
14's Odin is VERY cool. He's a primal of the Hyur, and under his helmet, his face takes form of the last player to kill him when his FATE comes around
That last art on Odin goes way too hard
Aaaah, but you didn't mention that 14's Odin is actually the sword, and it possesses whoever wields it and that the player that last hits the public event Odin becomes him the next time he spawns.
Honestly, we need an Odin where has 8 legs that are sprawled out like a spider. Make Odin ride a spider-horse!
I remember when I was younger being told that one way to interpret things in mythology like a horse with 8 legs wasn’t that it actually had that many legs but it was another way of describing how it out-classes a normal horse in terms of speed. This could apply to creatures with extra arms, eyes, etc. Still think it’s more visually interesting to go with the eldritch horror version of things
I mean, id argue that even shivas designs are a downgrade. Are they good designs? Yes! Could they be something so much more if they had included actual lore/scripture accurate details? Absolutely. Honestly, its a CRIME that they didnt make each design from each different game based on a different one of hus COUNTLESS forms! There is honestly so much wasted potential, and to me, shiva in ff is only special because they decided to make her a woman (im hindu, so thats not a very common thing to see.) Anyway, thanks for reading my yapping ♡
Ps- shiva is sometimes known to take the form of a pillar of light with no top or bottom (no ends). HOW COOL IS THAT. THERES JUST SO MUCH TO HIM AND I JUST RAAHH
Bahamut, Leviathan, Cú Chulainn, etc.
I like Odin in the context of summons compared to grand or silly monsters he's a generic guy on a horse, who is most known for immediately going for the kill. No gimmicks, he's simply just the one who stands at the peak of weapon combat.
In the context of fantasy designs and the mythology itself, he's a bit weaker, it's a bit boring.
(Memorable boss in Final Fantasy Explorers though, that wins some points.)
I would love to see Cody rating Shin Magami Tensei designs
His name’s Cody?
I WAS WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO ODIN!
Odin is technically riding his nephew...pretty funny ngl
fun thing with ff14 Odin. You get various different Odins since the last person who slew Odin becomes the next Odin. So sometimes you get a big Odin, and sometimes a very small Odin.
That’s really cool and kinda funny lol
I love Ixion's FF10 design. Badass unicorn. Can we talk about Valefore ? I want a take on Valefore.
Just to play devil's advocate (despite agreeing with the summary) Woden is the Brythonic equivalent of Odin, which shares it's mythological sphere with Arthurian legend.
At least he’s not using a generic straight sword
Meanwhile, Shiva.
FFXIV's Odin is probably my favorite; if not for his design, then for his lore. As a Primal Beast, he doesn't exist as a figure of worship, but as a terrifying myth of the Twelveswood; Gridania's very own Sleepy Hollow story of a haunted knight that beheads its victims in a single swing. And the coolest part about this is that Odin is not the man in the armor astride the horse; Odin is the _sword_ , Zantetsuken (inexplicably Doman or Hingan-named). If Odin is ever defeated, the next person to pick up the sword just _becomes_ Odin and he lives to ride again. This is actually taken _literaly_ in the in-game FATE battle against Odin; when next he appears, he is unmasked and takes on the appearance of the player who previously delivered the killing blow!
Huh. SLYP-nuh. Alright then.
it is a bummer that they never used Odins more destinct features of like his 1 eye & 2 ravens.
& his horse Sleipnir has 6 legs, why not do the full 8? Tho yes horses are hard to animate.
(bonus fact, Loki is Sleipnirs mother ! yeah mythology gets wierd)
Oh yeah he had sex with horse
It’s really funny for when a friend of mine has been playing through GOW Ragnarok, FF16 and FF7 Rebirth in that order on stream and she can’t escape Nordic mythology references and especially Odin.
I got so used to Odin in Black Armor, I was really surprised when I saw White Odin in FFVIIR
I feel like God Of War Ragnarok was really good pr for Odin, and really throws the generic final fantasy designs into sharp relief.
Pretty sure he wasn't a fan of them either.
@@lucky4d725 If I recall right he didn't like kratos being jammed into it, and noticed a lot of the missed opportunities sharply. But the cinematic direction, voice acting and especially art direction were stellar.
Skyen's pronunciation of Odin suddenly made me realize why sometimes a chlture would call him "Woden"
Your videos teach me the pronunciations of Odin and Sleipnir. Also Freya in your God of War video.
He's been a chocobo too!
Hey, in FF7 Rebirth he has one eye, Sleipnir has 8 legs and he uses his spear just as much as his sword, so hey, they went more accurate for that game only
Speak to me like your saying Oodìn forever.
Wait his horse is supposed to have 8 legs thats badass give me my monster horse right now Square Enix
The horse is also suppose to be his nephew, in other words, Loki's child. Loki being the mother of Sleipnir, naturally.
A change i personally love in FFXIV is that the last person who did the killing blow against Odin BECOMES the next Odin.
That is so sick!
I would throw out there that I think your criticisms of Odin in particular (pretty generic and mostly the figure/creature they're named after in name only) apply to most if not all of the FF summons in this vein (e.g. Ifrit, Shiva), and I think you've touched on it in most detail in this analysis compared to the others due to the personally relevant nature of Odin's lore. Not a criticism at all, just something I noticed. Loving this series!
Honestly im down for accurate biology Odin and horse 🐎 + keep the black colour scheme ❤
Let's not forget that in FF worlds horses are a weird and wild thing, usually untamed beasts with fire or supernatural powers like Firemane or Nitemare. This makes it so in universe he is not so generic as for us. He is riding a demon beast. He would be generic in-lore if he rode on a chocobo, for example. Still, yeah, would like to see him be slightly more Odin-like. Keep Sleipnir, make him one eyed and weilding a spear and theme his armor or helm on trees and crows, or hanged men.
I think what VII and XIII trilogy did well w Odin is that they leaned more into his position as a Death God. In XIII-2 we see his association w Valhalla, his master takes on a Valkirie look after becoming Etro's knight and in VII he is associated w the Nibel region, where it is believed has a close association w the Land of the Dead. Rebirth does a great job taking it a step further by saying how he leads the deceased to where they belong and is a protector of the land of the departed. I also appreciate he uses his Gungnir more in conjuction w Executioner's Sword in recent entries as well, though I know he does use it in IV as well
Fun fact for XIV’s Odin. The super boss will take the model of the person who dealt the final blow. So in the rare occasion when you see Odin walking about before the fate emerges, you’ll see them unmasked with that characters face. Also their size changes depending on the race as well. Lalafells Odin are hilarious. Odin the primal is the sword, and essentially it possesses the victor.
He's more of a 'Leader of the Wild Hunt', an epithet that Odin, King Arthur, some Fairy King (I forgot who), etc, shared. Odin FF is an iteration of all of these Wild Hunt figures in our myth
At first i am a bit iffy that he has horns on his helmet, the stereotype of horned viking helmets which is just wrong, but thrn i thought....maybe its a reference to the Wild Hunt which he is said to be the leader of in some tale?
The last brightly colored Odin I remember is in 13, which also makes a combination of the spear and sword and kinda also makes you Sleipnr's rider😊
I wish gandalf-looking Odin was used more
interesting note in FFXIV Odin is not actually the person on the horse, Odin is actually the sword, Zantetsuken, who takes control of the last person to vanquish it's previous incarnation
Slepnir has 8 legs in FF7Rebirth!
Odin is a strange figure with many abilities and connotations. Leader, spy, trickster, magic, healer, death… complex and multifaceted. I can’t help but think that the people behind Final Fantasy either didn’t get it or didn’t care, because in FF his lore is often that of a powerful warrior struck down by a bolt of lightning, or the summon equivalent of a wandering swordsman. To my knowledge the closest Odin ever gets to leadership in FF is in 4 where he stays with the spirit of an old king, and in an optional battle tests the party’s mettle.
You could also look at how Odin is portrayed in SMT, where his initial incarnation is a purple skinned man with a spear and cloak, with my personal favorite being a hunched figure in a cloak whose inside is laden with Norse runes that looks more like a hunched crone or a crotchety old sorcerer than a leader. And then in SMT 4 they made him a super sentai/power rangers character. Which is… not very Odin.
Fun fact, FF16's Odin Lyrics allude to his one eyed origin
Koji Fox/Soken are a blessing
In ff7 rebirth odin uses both sword and spear and only instant-kills you if you get hit too much by his attacks
idk, if following the mythos would make him more interesting per-say..I feel like you would know what to expect out of him, in this form, at least when I first faced him I didn't exactly because when i hear Odin I expected the original sorta look but nope, got this. it was unique to me at least.
Odin in Type-0 is my favorite
I feel like the next big FF entry, whether a main title or spinoff, should portray Odin more like either a six legged centaur, or more like a nuckelavee with aspects of ravens as a reference to his namesake
Praying for Alexander to come up next.
I have to say story wise they do something interesting with him in final fantasy 6. Yes, he is still a summon you can unlock, but the story behind it is really nice.
No spoilers, check it out.
How cool is ff13 odin though? With every summon becoming a vehicle of sorts Odin being the guy attacking as the summon then shifting into a horse is really cool
Due to ff13 was my first final fantasy games. I like design of Odin on it.
I practically grew up with the black knight Odin, so I may be a *bit* biased here, but I think that imagining of him has to be my favorite. From the design in FFEX to XIV, I've gotta say: I think he shaped a good portion of my tastes in characters, design wise.
I feel like the decision to portray him in black is "he has an instant death attack, therefore black." Rather than anything to do with the lore origins.
In FFXIV he is a world boss that appears with a specific weather effect in the area that adds to an eerie sense. What's unique with him is Odin will take on the face of the last player who dealt the killing blow the last time he was killed.