Hilda is crown princess of the Kingdom of Fynn. She takes the reins of the rebellion after her father, the king, is struck down. Her extraordinary leadership abilities belies her young age, and inspire the faith of her people.

Final Fantasy II 20th Anniversary instruction manual

Hilda is a non-player character from Final Fantasy II. She is the daughter of the King of Fynn and the leader of the Wild Rose Rebellion, to which the main characters belong.

Profile

Appearance

Hilda has fair skin, blue eyes, and wears her long, blonde hair in two braids. She wears a long light blue and white dress with small blue triangles patterned throughout and a high slit on the side, a pair of blue sashes tied around her waist, and a blue cape attached to the dress with a brooch. She wears an ornate blue headdress or cap with long blue and white horns on either side of her head, along with two pairs of smaller gold spikes closer to the top and a pair of blue sandals with bronze anklets.

Personality

Hilda is described as a strong-willed young woman with great leadership skills, despite her youth. She cares deeply about the lives of her subjects.

Story

Hilda found the wounded Firion, Maria, and Guy after the Palamecian Empire attacked their hometown of Fynn and killed their parents, taking them to the rebel base in Altair to be healed with the help of her assistant, Minwu.

The party soon discovers that she is the leader of the Wild Rose Rebellion. Firion asks to join the resistance, but Hilda refuses, believing that the party is too young. However, she is sympathetic to their plight and allows them to stay, teaching them the password of the rebellion, the "Wild Rose".

Firion, Maria, and Guy leave Altair and travel to Fynn, where they discover Hilda's fiancé, Prince Scott of Kashuan, who has been taken care of and hidden in the basement of the pub after the conquer of Fynn by the Empire. He gives them his ring to give to Hilda after telling them that Borghen betrayed Fynn and that Hilda is the love of his life before perishing.

Upon returning to Altair, Firion and his friends show Scott's ring to Hilda, who allows them to join the rebellion and has them keep the ring. She asks them to join her assistant, the White Wizard Minwu, and seek the source of the Empire's Mythril, which gives its weapons a great advantage. They retrieve Mythril from the Semitt Falls, allowing the rebellion to create Mythril weapons and armor. After they return to the base, Hilda asks them to sabotage the construction of the Dreadnought at Bafsk, since the Dark Knight who supervised the construction was called back to Palamecia due to the attack on the Empire's Mythril supply and replaced by Fynn's traitor, Borghen.

However, the rebellion was tricked into believing that the Dreadnought's construction was slowed down by Borghen's presence, which was only a guise. The moment Firion and his friends reach the Dreadnought's construction area, the Dark Knight reveals the Dreadnought has already been completed. The ship then takes flight and attacks most of the towns allied with the resistance. Back at the headquarters, Hilda asks the party to search for the Sunfire at Kashuan, which could destroy the Dreadnought from the inside. To enter Kashuan, Hilda suggests that they contact Josef of Salamand, who may know the location of the Goddess's Bell. Later, when the party returns with the Goddess's Bell, she learns of Josef's death and tells the party to head to Kashuan to retrieve the Sunfire.

As Firion and his friends, allied with prince Gordon of Kashuan, Scott's brother, obtain the Sunfire, Hilda and Cid are captured by the Dreadnought while trying to meet up with Firion's party at Kashuan Keep on Cid's airship. Firion leads an effort to rescue her, but is unaware that she has been replaced in her cell by a disguised lamia queen, who is taken back to Altair instead of her.

After Firion and his friends complete their mission in Deist, the group returns to Altair and hear from other rebel soldiers that Hilda has been acting strange since her return from the Dreadnought, unaware of the lamia queen actually replacing her. Within Hilda's quarters, the lamia queen attempts to seduce Firion, but the pirate Leila sees through the disguise and intervenes. After discovering the truth and killing the lamia, Firion learns that from Gordon that the real princess is being held at the Emperor's gladiatorial arena. The heroes enter and defeat the Behemoth, but the Emperor has them arrested. They break out of their cell and rescue Hilda.

Hilda and Gordon organize the Liberation of Fynn after Hilda's rescue, which Firion's party participates in. After reclaiming her throne and becoming queen, she asks the party to look for Minwu, who has gone to search for the Ultima Tome. When the party acquires the Ultima Tome, the Emperor's new weapon, the Cyclone, has already destroyed most of the towns allied with Fynn and is now near the kingdom's capital. Hilda suggests that they use the mirror room in Fynn Castle to summon a Dragoon's Wyvern. After the defeat of the Emperor of Palamecia, Hilda holds a celebration before finding out that the Dark Knight, who is revealed to be Maria's missing brother, Leon, has crowned himself emperor.

After the Emperor's revival, Hilda invites Leon to join their ranks when Firion, Maria, and Guy bring him back with them. After the final defeat of the Emperor at Pandaemonium, Leon abandons the kingdom and Hilda congratulates the party for their victory over and plans to rebuild Fynn.

Hilda plays a vital role in the defeat of the deceased Emperor's light-half. She, alongside Elina, Kain, Nelly, and Gordon, appears before the deceased warriors and warns them that the Light Emperor is just as evil as the Emperor that the surviving Wild Rose Rebels are fighting (his dark-half).

Other appearances

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

Hilda initially made a cameo appearance in the animation for Scott's Super Soul Break, Ring of Love, before becoming playable.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game

Hilda appears with her official Yoshitaka Amano artwork and her Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls artwork. Her cards are water-elemental.

Trading card.

Trading card.

Hilda [19-117H] From Nightmares series card.

Hilda [19-117H] From Nightmares series card (alt).

Final Fantasy Portal App

Hilda appears as a Triple Triad card.

Behind the scenes

In the first draft of Final Fantasy II, a character by the name of Hilda was present, being a knight who hated monsterkind due to monsters taking her mother away.^[2]

In proceeding drafts of the story, a character by the name of Cynthia served the same role as the character that would appear in the final product, being the princess of Fynn. She was originally designed to have grudge against Gordon for running away and letting her love, Prince Lysander, perish at the hands of the Empire. Using Joan of Arc as an inspiration, Cynthia was made to be a strong-willed character who would lead the rebel forces, but hid her sorrows for her lost love within. The character was eventually renamed to Hilda as the development process progressed.^[3]

Hilda also appears in the Japanese novelization of the game, Final Fantasy II Muma no Meikyū, serving a similar role to the original game. However, the major difference is Hilda's rescue from Emperor Mateus occurs during the finale of the novel's story. The novel also expands on her captivity under Mateus, with the latter proceeding to lust after her and try to seduce her.

Allusions

Hildagarde Fabool from Final Fantasy IX is a possible reference to Hilda as Lady Hilda is also nobility, ruling Lindblum with her husband, Cid Fabool IX. Additionally, both Hildas have been held hostage by their game's main antagonist, Hilda by the Emperor in the Gladiatorial Arena and Lady Hilda by Kuja in Mount Gulug.

In Final Fantasy XII, a Resistance airship is named after her.

Etymology

[view · edit · purge]Hilda is the shortened form of any Germanic name that begins or ends with hild, or "battle".

Citations