Thanks to Inner_Evil for the inspiration!

To keep the text as unedited as possible, I left the post as a “wall of text”.

So I was just sitting here thinking about the original Final Fantasy. 4 “crystal warriors” appear from nowhere to hunt down the same 4 crystals they each represent in order to defeat the god Chaos. Sounds like nothing right? But what if it was Chaos that was holding all the worlds together all in one to prevent the dramatic rip in time-space that created the now over 15 different variations. When the crystal warriors killed Chaos, everything was split and this is shown most prominently in Final Fantasy 2. This is already nothing like the first yet it has clear indications it was in the same universe, perhaps the even same world. Now on the central ideal of most Final Fantasies it in sine way has you fighting against a god or godlike force, from the literal reincarnation of Chaos (ff2) to Yu-Yevon (ff10) to a lifestream infused sephiroth (ff7) to Yunalesca (ff8) to the undying (ff12) the list goes on. Now of all those people, each one is either a god, becomes a god, or has a gods power. Now here is the long shot, what if those were all reincarnated forms of Chaos trying to regain balance to the universes you’ve created and by defeating him each and every time you stop him from being able to fix the paradox loop that keeps destroying the world to build it anew and have it all happen once again. You, the player, are actually doing the opposite of what you’re led out to believe and just leading the world back into the same death that’s happened over 15 times already. MatPat if you see this I hope you give it some consideration and for you other theorists, I want to hear your input on this possible theory.’

I have to make several corrections. First, Chaos isn’t in Final Fantasy II, it’s actually Emperor Mateus in monster form. Neither is he a reincarnation of Chaos, though they look similar. Of course, that’s the point of this theory. Chaos is reincarnating throughout the games. Chaos, the physical manifestation of the Void, trying to find a way to regain his power through god status is interesting.

Second, Yunalesca isn’t in Final Fantasy VIII. She’s in Final Fantasy X, and Edea/Ultimecia is in Final Fantasy VIII. And Chaos is male, so would he reincarnate as a woman? He also threw the Four Fiends backward into time. Perhaps they were able to manipulate the rift? Perhaps Lilith became the Cloud of Darkness, for example.

It’s interesting to think that Chaos held the worlds together. Upon his defeat, the worlds ripped into the many different variations we play. It might actually explain why certain entities such as summons, monsters, Chocobos, Moogles, Cid, etc. But we, the player, is literally keeping Final Fantasy alive simply by playing and defeating the main villain of each title. Did you beat Ardyn? Then get ready for Final Fantasy XVI!

Anyways, what do you think?