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Gilgamesh: Enough expository banter!
This talk page is used for discussing improvements to the page "Exdeath". It is not the place for general discussion or sharing stories about the topic of this article.
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Why is the title of the article "Ex-Death", when the character when the character the article is about is called "Exdeath"? --Hecko X 15:38, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

It's been spelled with and without the dash. Crazyswordsman 15:39, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
No, what I mean is, wouldn't it be more sensical if the title and the name used in the article matched, since it can be spelled both ways? Otherwise, it just raises an eyebrow. --Hecko X 15:43, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Exodus?[]

... The Japanese name has always been Exdeath, and has been romanized like that according to such materials. Exodus is not a more accurate translation, and I'm pretty sure that it's not the same in Japanese.

Yes. Exodus.[]

Present proof. It was originally romanized like that given the fan-made Final Fantasy V translation and has been so localized because english-speaking fans of the series are used to, and know him, as 'Exdeath'. It's very obvious by the original concept of the character that his name is Exodus. Pronounce (ekusudesu) for me, using japanese dialect. It comes out sounding exactly like "Exodus".

Until Dissidia (which Yoshitaka Amano didn't do character design for), there was no Latin alphabet representation of the romanized name of the villain, which happens sometimes in Japanese RPGs. He's listed in Dissidia as "Exdeath", however, which again... is very likely only because that's what we know him as from playing the fan translation.

It's very obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes and a brain that "Exodus" was the original intention.

They've done it before. Edward is still Edward (not Gilbert) in every incarnation of Final Fantasy IV, because that's what we know him as.

Not quite as obvious as it would seem. It was labeled (in English) as Exdeath in the various artbooks his Amano art was featured in. These are Japanese artbooks with no reason to cater, care, or even know about how things are translated over here, and the artbooks came out long before any official english version of FFV existed.
Furthermore, Exdeath is not identical to Exodus in Japan. When converted to their accepted kana forms, Exdeath is "e ku su de su". This is not the same as exodus, which is "e ku so da su" in kana. The word exodus is an actual katakana word in Japan, so it's not a matter of opinion. On top of that, the actual Japanese term for the Biblical Book of Exodus is "shutsu ejiputo ki" or, literally, "Exit Egypt Story"
The only time the name has been translated as Exodus was in FFXII and FFTA, which may have been translation errors, since in the Japanese versions of the two games, his name is still "e ku su de su". Espritduo 22:32, November 21, 2010 (UTC)
If that is your only proof, then...
1. Who wrote the artbooks? Who created the english labels in the artbooks? I've seen numerous artbooks in the past with English labels which had translation errors. There were different artbooks for Final Fantasy IV That had Kain Highwind labeled as "Cain", "Cane", etc. That's not evidence. Normally those artbooks are given 'translated' labels by someone not really involved in the character design.
2. Present your proof that exodus is commonly "e ku so da su". You present it as if it is the gospel truth, whereas anyone who has any experience whatsoever with Japanese to English translation knows that inconsistencies in Japanese transliteration, specifically when it comes to the phonetic spelling of words using katakana, are extremely common.
3. FFXII and FFTA have translation errors. Guess what. So does EVERY Final Fantasy game that has been localized in English.
I don't absolutely believe that the character's name was originally intended to be Exodus. I believe it's a possiblity; another possible and accepted translation of his original name.——Preceding unsigned comment was added by 50.104.44.229 (talkcontribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~.

Enemy page[]

Has any one ever considered making an enemy page for this guy? Or make it a part of his character page? 69.9.211.143 05:55, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

T4HoL-Kuore

No need to make a page, just go here. 69.9.211.143 17:02, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

...That leads back to his character page. Here's the battle page that lists Exdeath's stats when you fight him. Click here for article. Sidriley 02:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Enuo[]

Exdeath was NOT Enuo. It seems to be a common misconception in the fandom. Fire 2 21:36, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

T4HoL-Kuore
BlueHighwind TA

Enuo was "defeated" by the warriors who used the 12 weapons; this is the only known fact. The stuff about Enuo being sealed is just a theory. I can't find any mention of it in the game's script [1]. The FFCompendium also says nothing about Enuo being related to Exdeath. Fire 2 22:31, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Fire 2 is right, ExDeath was not Enuo, and he was not sealed within the tree. Play the game and read the script, it never says that. That bit in the article stating that is wrong.66.76.60.163 01:46, 28 August 2009 (UTC)Makoeyes
It was in the original SNES booklet, I believe, as a supplement to the original story. ScatheMote 02:15, 28 August 2009 (UTC)
Direct from the game script:
"A certain tree in that forest had been used to seal evil spirits for years... Five hundred years ago, the concentration of evil turned it into a dark creature with a life of its own. That creature is Exdeath."
However, in the direct game script as I can find so far, nothing says Enuo became Exdeath. But I have heard it elsewhere than here, I'll keep looking. Drake Clawfang 02:36, 28 August 2009 (UTC)
The SNES booklet? Which one? I've never heard of such a thing. And can it be trusted? Game manuals aren't exactly the most reliable source of information. It's pretty dubious given the fact the game says nothing of such an important plot point, and then in the re-release of FFV they let you face Enuo in the void he was consumed by. How could he be sealed in a tree if they say Enuo was consumed by the Void he created?66.76.60.163 22:24, 30 August 2009 (UTC)Makoeyes
Seriously, until the source of this unconfirmed and contradictory fact is found, this claim is dubious. The game says in black and white that Enuo was consumed by the Void, not sealed in a tree. There's no argument there.74.192.123.186 21:38, 31 August 2009 (UTC)Makoeyes
I am no stranger to discovering new info in obscure, untranslated, but official plot books, but if the best you got is 'some SNES book' and you don't even have a name or anything, than yeah, that's pretty weak.--Doop. 21:44, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Tree of Life motif[]

Did anyone notice that on this Image:FF5 ExdeathTree.gif, the positions of the ten characters correspond to a Kabbalistic Tree of Life (see Wikipedia entry)? Seems like Dissidia is not the first time the developers use that motif. Fire 2 23:16, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Wow Nice Research Wow. Facky 23:19, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
It Gets Better The numbers are know as the SEPHIROTH Facky 01:17, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Nihilism[]

Exdeath is the definition of a nihilist and should be put into the article. I don't know how to link outside articles but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism--BigCubby 17:56, November 2, 2009 (UTC)

The very first paragraph of the wikipedia article suggest that Kefka, Exdeath, CoD and to some extent Sephiroth are nihilists. The attitude is common enough to warrant a mention on one of our articles, but certainly not just Exdeath's. Faethinte audio 18:02, November 2, 2009 (UTC)

"True" form?![]

Where is it stated this new form someone posted is what he looks like inside the armor, and not just a secondary, alternate character design?

I agree. I am still under complete conviction that there is nothing in the interior of his armor. Are there any links to where this image was found and any proof the this is what he looks like without his armor? Lord~Exdeath

It is an alternate Amano version of Exdeath. The image can be found in The Sky, a compilation of all of Amano's works from FFI-FFX. It's not necessarily what he really looks like under the armor, so much as a different interpretation of him by Amano that never was used for the game. There's plenty of images like this for many other characters in the artbook as well. Espritduo 21:42, November 21, 2010 (UTC)

Turtle???[]

What is it with the 'TURTLE!!!' quote in Dissidia? I've never gotten to Exdeath in 5 to find out, perhaps someone could note it in a Trivia post with the reasoning behind it?

Btw, link of the offender: [2]

In FFV Exdeath fights Ghido, who is a sage who is a turtle. I forget the storyline reason for why Ghido is a turtle though, that is he actually at turtle or was he transformed by a spell/curse.Keltainentoukokuu 22:07, November 21, 2010 (UTC)Keltainentoukokuu

Exodus, again[]

It's much easier for me to believe the localisers of FFTA went with Exodus accidentally while not seeing the intended meaning, or perhaps even intentionally ("Exdeath" is a little silly, the kind of name a Japanese person deciding to use English would come up with), and then XII went with that.

The vowels are all wrong for "Exodus". There may be a possibility that "Exodus" may have been considered in the naming process, but it's barely evident in his current name. What relevance is "Exodus" meant to have to the character anyway? We can make sense of "ex-death", and his Japanese name is a perfect match for that...

I don't have any copies of the NTT FFV guides, but Esprit above says they use "Exdeath" in art books. And the cards for Final Fantasy Art Museum, which don't seem to take into account the localisation much at all (e.g. "Butz") uses "Exdeath". JBed (talk) 21:09, January 11, 2019 (UTC)

Okay, in the Perfect Conquest (完全攻略編) guide published February 26, 1993, Exdeath's bio says:

エクスデス
もとはムーアの大森林の1本の木。
そこに世界中の邪悪が凝り固まり人の
形になった。『無』の力を手に入れよう
としたが、30年前に暁の4戦士に封印
される。なおExdeathとは『死を超
える者』の意味である。

Transcriber, Scan 1, Scan 2, Scan 3, Scan 4

"Exdeath" cannot be put down to a mistake because they give "Exdeath" and explain specifically what it means.

"Exodus" unlikely to have any relevance. JBed (talk) 13:18, January 13, 2019 (UTC)

Unless that guide was written by the original character designer, it’s not relevant to this argument. Guides make crap up all the time.

The most official of companion books of the time (published under "Square Brand") that's not only giving a romanised name but also explaining its meaning is as good as you're gonna get. Especially in tandem with them continually using nothing but Exdeath in all Japanese media from pre-English localisations until still today in Dissidia, and the fact that Exdeath actually would transliterate into エクスデス.
Although I'm sure you already had your mind made up about the relevance of any evidence when you decided "Exodus" was a better name. JBed (talk) 10:12, January 14, 2019 (UTC)
From experience, the team that puts out marketing material is completely different than the team (or person) that actually does character design. I would be convinced the true origin of his etymology if it were actually explained that way in an interview by Yoshitaka Amano.
However, I concede that you are most likely correct, until further evidence is presented, that the character name is most likely "Exdeath".

You bring up a secondary point: Exdeath is silly. While it is an accurate translation, it is a TERRIBLE localization. I think that "Exodus" was an intentional, much better localization on the part of the FFTA translation team.

I believe that if FFV were relocalized, from the ground up, today? His name would be Exodus, or something completely different; such as Exodia.
Either way, Exodus has been a localization of the character's name, and it should be reflected as such in the wiki's etymology.

174.28.236.13 00:06, January 16, 2019 (UTC)

IMO, Exdeath is the good translation. Exodus would be a horrible translation/localization, since it's a mistranslation. The FFTA and XII translator probably think that "the Japanese are so dumb, they can't even spell Exodus, so I'm gonna fix it for them!" or "Exdeath sounds corny, so I'm gonna change it to Exodus, a name from Bible that has nothing to do with this character". Monterossa (talk) 00:28, January 16, 2019 (UTC)

Random note from the future: "Exdeath" is the actual name. There's no translation involved; you don't "translate" katakana, especially not for names or fictional terms. I'm surprised this was ever a debate, as there's not really another great way of transliterating エクスデス as a name, and the various contemporary guides all use "Exdeath" anyway.

Well, actually, I'm not really that surprised. It sounds "silly" or like a "terrible localization" to an English speaker who insists on having something "familiar", like a Biblical word. Such people should continue to squirm, as the world is a better place for having the occasional "strange" injections of words and terms.

It's a shame Square is unwilling to apply the same policy to poor old Zax. His name is always going to be "Zax", no matter how much hindsight the creators claim they wish to apply. This is especially important because similar names like "Alex" are typically pronounced in Japanese as something like "Alec" (and this often trips up translators). Oh well, at least we got Aerith back. 72.11.37.193 19:16, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Exodes[]

When we say he's called "Exodes" in Legend of the Crystals, is that from like retail subs, or is it just a textual interpretation of what a character says in the dub? (I haven't seen it). JBed (talk) 11:37, January 12, 2019 (UTC)

Oh, just seen it. It's on the text-scroll at the start of Ep3. JBed (talk) 12:00, January 12, 2019 (UTC)
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