Sacrifice and True Freedom

Allow me to muse about one of my pastimes as mentioned on February 7, 2009. I apologize to my readers who care little about video games. But before you navigate away, know that a particular video game is simply the means of the post—not the end. While this post is rooted in a video game, my goal is to make the message as universal as possible. If I fail to reach that lofty goal: my apologies dear reader for subjecting you to trite “fanboy-ism.”

The first particular game my brother and I collaborated on was a game called "Final Fantasy 6" for the Super Nintendo. I use the word “collaborate” because my brother had to help me play through the 40+ plus hours of the game. For a 10-year-old version of me, 40+ hours were difficult to get through. I remember getting lost in the complex maps and constantly calling on my brother to “help me get out of here!”

"Final Fantasy 6" is a game about wayward travelers who form a party to fight the evil doings of Kefka. The game has a simplistic overarching story, but the characters that comprise the protagonist party have wonderfully charming back-stories.

Two particular playable characters in particular were Sabin and Edgar Figaro. They are twin brothers.



Edgar is currently the king of Figaro, a desert kingdom resisting Kefka’s evil actions. His brother Sabin is a wanderer who left Figaro in search of his true freedom to explore martial arts.

In a particularly poignant character-development flashback, Sabin and Edgar’s father, the then current king of Figaro, is dying. Sabin and Edgar meet on roof of the castle to decide who will be the future king once their father dies. Neither brother truly wants to inherit the kingdom, so they leave their fate to a coin toss.

Edgar, knowing Sabin longs to be free, rigs the coin toss with a double-headed coin. Edgar says to Sabin, "If it's heads, you win. Tails, I win. The winner chooses whichever path he wants..." Sabin of course “wins” his true freedom while Edgar stays behind to rule Figaro. Both brothers wanted a life outside Figaro, but Edgar sacrificed his true freedom to stay behind and fulfill the family duty. Edgar gave up his dreams for the good of the kingdom but mostly for the good of his brother.


I had to have my brother explain the significance of this part to me. At 10 years old, I didn’t quite understand why inheriting the kingdom would be considered a “sacrifice.” It would be so awesome being a king! But my brother was there to explain the nuances of Sabin and Edgar’s relationship. With my brother's help, I remember thinking Sabin and Edgar the richest and most trenchant of all all the characters in Final Fantasy 6.

Since 1994, I have since measured the literary, poetic, and artistic world against the story of Sabin and Edgar. The two-headed coin is my archetype of sacrifice and true freedom.

I’m sure there are millions of other more-worthy examples of artistic sacrifice, but this is the artistic representation that first resonated within me. With my brother’s help, I didn’t simply read the words on the screen—I began to understand and empathize with both Edgar and Sabin. In their relationship, there is no hero and no villain. At the time, the two princes in the game were as tangible as the two Asians playing the game.

My brother is the Edgar of the family. He did the smart and responsible thing. He’s a doctor. I’m the Sabin of the family. I pursued my true freedom. I read poetry. But I guess we are not exactly like Sabin and Edgar: We both chose our separate paths independently from each other; we didn’t have a defining coin toss in the desert night. He didn’t give me my English-degree freedom like Edgar gave Sabin his martial-arts freedom.

Between my brother and me, our "coin toss" is more of an overall sacrifice of his childhood to make mine more enjoyable. He didn’t need to give me baseball cards in my cardboard mailbox hanging from my doorknob. He didn’t need to yell at the neighborhood bully for me. He didn't need to help me shave my head. And he didn’t need to interpret video games for me.

But what if "Final Fantasy 6" was my origin as a literature student? What if my love of literature is rooted in my fascination with Sabin and Edgar?

If that is the case, then my true-freedom path is dependent on my brother's sacrifice. My current livelihood in literature is based on his sacrifice of explaining the plot to me. My personal "coin toss moment," the moment that changed my path in life, was when my brother explained the video game coin toss moment. Maybe we are Sabin and Edgar after all.

I might not understand how to run a kingdom, but I understand a sacrifice when I see one.


The young king of Figaro Castle, / ally to the Empire, and a / master designer of machinery…
Edgar’s twin brother, who / traded the throne for his own / freedom…