Thanks to DiamondChocobos for the inspiration!

Gilgamesh begins his appearances in Final Fantasy V but goes around the series thanks to the interdimensional time rift. Have you ever thought about the story of Gilgamesh that weaves through the series? Of course, if he first appeared in final fantasy V, how would he be able to live a chronological life.

DiamondChocobros wrote a chronicle of Gilgamesh’s life, from childhood to now. The title of this posts is “The long and sad story of Gilgamesh”. But I can’t think of anything that’s so sad about this story.

The story starts in…

IX – he is a child, friends with Enkido. He has four arms and is secretly powerful. On a permanent treasure hunt for the most powerful weapons as suggested by the note by Excalibur II. Eventually, his power overflows and sucks both him and Enkido into the void.

They pop out in…

XI – he is a young adult and so is Enkido, who adopts the name Enkidu. He uses his power to conceal his extra arms and they work together for a while before moving on.

They jump back into the void and arrive in the war-torn land of…

Type-0 – together, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become powerful warriors for the nation of Lorica, and become l’cie of the Turtle crystal and the color green. Lorica is hit by a nuke from the nation of Militesi. This not only wipes out Lorica, but also kills Enkidu. Mad with grief, he loses control of his void traveling powers and becomes insane, trying to collect weapons as penance.

Eventually he appears as a semi-mad boss in…

XIV – He fights for weapons still and appears crazy. I mean, he painted a chicken green and called it Enkidu, saying it is because he hasn’t seen his friend for a long time.

Eventually he also arrives in…

XV: Episode Gladiolus – judging by the trailer, he has an arm missing. Whether this is due to his already established powers to hide extra arms is unknown.

Poor lost Gilgamesh, beaten so many times drifts back to the void and wanders aimlessly. Eventually, he gets noticed by…

V – Exdeath! He is grateful for not phasing endlessly anymore and has lost much of his memory. He adopts a green monster called Enkidu.

At some point after the first encounter he accidentally slips back into the void without Enkidu and winds up in…

VI – Kefka has destroyed the world and probably did something to the time-space continuum. when Excalipoor is wagered he appears in the Coliseum.

The heroes never do get it back, because…

V – he took it back to fight Bartz and co! Which explains why he didn’t know Exdeath killed Galuf. But who cares about that! Gilgamesh has been bamboozled! That was far from the strongest sword! Exdeath is fed up with his antics by now and banishes him back to the void. Later on, vengeance and a shaky moral compass makes him help Bartz and declare him a rival.

He drifts off again and winds up in…

IV: The After Years – where he is slightly confused but still talking about Bartz. He disappears before Kain and co can ask him what a Bartz is.

He runs off again to…

XIII-2: Probably due to Serah and Noel’s screwing with the space-time continuum. He fights them for fun before leaving.

He makes his way through the void to a familiar feeling that turns out to be…

012 Dissidia – Bartz! It’s Bartz! But he doesn’t remember anything about him! How rude. On the plus side, wherever he is, it appears to be a great place to fight and train. So he does.

Gilgamesh fights to his heart’s content and then moves on, happy with how things have turned out. He winds up in the land of…

XII – Ivalice! Back to his old weapon collecting ways, Gilgamesh forgets that attacking people isn’t socially acceptable. He also adopted a green wolf that he called Enkidu. He faces down the party and unleashes his full might and loses. But not before running off with a Wyrmhero blade. He remembers that killing people for no reason is bad after the events in Lemures and then marches onwards to the void.

While there, the death of a powerful being, an Odin, grabs his attention and he finds his way to…

VIII – where he sees a blonde haired dickhead about to cut down a group of people who look like they’re probably good. He correctly deduces that the mean looking dude killed Odin and avenges him. He then joins up with the good guys because a sorceress wants to do something called time compression which sounds like what Exdeath did which isn’t cool bro. He helps out and moves back onto his void travels.

We have yet to see where he will go next!

So how is Gilgamesh able to live a chronological life throughout the series?

If his first appearance was in Final Fantasy V as an adult. How did arrive in Final Fantasy IX as a young boy? Or is he a youth in Final Fantasy IX?

Perhaps somehow the Void changes the form and age of those caught within it. Since Void is timeless, Gilgamesh’s ages in reverse chronological order due to time paradoxes. Since Gilgamesh travels to another world with its own laws, gravity, evolution, his physical appearance changes.

It leads to another dimension and timeline.

But another alternative is that Gilgamesh traps himself in a closed time loop. While Gilgamesh’s first appearance is in Final Fantasy V, he appeared in Bartz’ world first. Then, he would inexplicably appear in another world. Yet, somehow, he appeared in Final Fantasy IX and lives his existence exactly in the chronological order DiamondChocobro theorizes.

Who came first, the Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy IX’s Gilgamesh? In this paradox, we don’t know what came first in the timeline.

Maybe both alternatives are true.