Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy XIV)

Gilgamesh, also known as Greg or Yojimbo, is a character in Final Fantasy XIV, introduced in patch 2.2 in the Hildibrand Adventures questline. Like his original appearance in Final Fantasy V, Gilgamesh is a sword collector searching for the alleged "blade of legend."
==History==
===Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn===
Nashu Mhakaracca was investigating a rash of weapon thefts by a so-called duelist who challenged adventurers and took their weapons upon defeating them. Gilgamesh defeated yet another opponent, while lamenting his failure to locate the Sword of Legend.
Gilgamesh sought out "the demon bird" who stole the Bradamante halberd from him. In a rare instance of him actually finding the original weapon, Gilgamesh claimed he found the halberd after first entering the world, felling many challengers in duels with it. He also tamed a wild rooster to replace Enkidu out of loneliness. Hildibrand Manderville and Nashu met up with Gilgamesh and his chicken sidekick by chance while searching for the mysterious duelist, oblivious that Gilgamesh was the culprit until the former recognized the Bradamante replica as his. Taking back his spear as the authorities surrounded him, Gilgamesh fell back to the Griffin Crossing bridge in Ishgard where he made a wager with the Warrior of Light to win the spear off him on the condition that they relinquished their own weapons should they lose. During the battle, Gilgamesh realized the halberd he took from Hildibrand was yet another counterfeit and retreats further down the bridge to rethink his strategy. Upon defeat, Gilgamesh comically attempted to escape by jumping off the bridge while grasping Enkidu, only to fall for the effort.
Later on, Gilgamesh encountered Ultros who offered an alliance to take Hildibrand and the Warrior of Light out at Master Fygreis's Coliseum, but turned down the offer while warning him not to underestimate the Warrior's abilities. Later on, Gilgamesh interrupted the award ceremony to challenge the Warrior of Light to a rematch, only to be blown out of the arena by an ill-timed sneeze from Typhon caused by the Thief of Many Faces.
While he intended to get the jump on them, a beating from Julyan Manderville forced Gilgamesh to help Hildibrand and the Warrior of Light solve the case and apprehend Ellie Ryse: the culprit behind the thefts. Once the case reached its conclusion, he issued a rematch challenge with the Treaty Blade as the prize, one of the heirloom items stolen by Ellie. Reunited with whom he believed to be the true Enkidu, who was in fact a primal that Gilgamesh summoned earlier while waxing nostalgic over her, the pair fought the Warrior of Light together. Once the false Enkidu was slain, Gilgamesh assumed his eight-armed form and continued the battle, but was defeated once more. He relinquished his claim to the Treaty Blade while feigning turning over a new leaf, but secretly promised to cross blades with the Warrior of Light again.
===Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood===
Unbeknownst to the Warrior of Light, Gilgamesh acted in the guise of the samurai mercenary Yojimbo and served as the final boss of the Kugane Castle dungeon, having been hired by the insurgent Kageyama. Just before he could be defeated, Yojimbo discovered his employer was no longer able to pay his ludicrous hiring fee, and escaped via trap door, abandoning Kageyama.
Yojimbo served the wealthy merchant Akebono to safeguard his recently-acquired blade, the Soboro Sukehiro. Yojimbo was standing guard when Hildibrand and Nashu infiltrated a party the merchant was holding, disguised as geiko, and was distracted by Hildibrand along with most of the other party-goers. In the confusion, the Kugane Wolf Burglar sneaked into Akebono's manor and stole the prized sword. Enraged, Akebono demanded that Hildibrand chase the burglar to retrieve it. Yojimbo joined the Inspector and Nashu, the Warrior of Light, and the ronin Shigure to do so. Traveling with the group to Yanxia, Yojimbo and his dog Daigoro tracked down the Wolf Burglar. He sicced Daigoro on the burglar, only for the thief to distract Daigoro with a golden koban. Despite this setback, the Wolf Burglar was captured courtesy of Hildibrand's theatrics. Hildibrand and Shigure entrusted the Soboro Sukehiro to Yojimbo to bring back to Akebono. However, by the time the Inspector's group returned to Kugane, they were informed by Akebono that Yojimbo had never returned, noting that he had fired the mercenary after his prized sword was taken.
Yojimbo fled to the Ruby Sea to steal the Ame-no-Murakumo from the Red Kojin's Vault. Realizing that the entrance to their stronghold was underwater, he was discovered by Hildibrand's group, now including the newly-freed Wolf Burglar, having "bribed" Daigoro into leading them to him. Cornered, he explained that he was attempting to find a sword powerful enough to finally defeat the Warrior of Light. Reluctantly, after Hildibrand subdued Daigoro with a round of affectionate pets, Yojimbo relinquished the sword to him, who in his attempts to catch it, stepped on Daigoro's tail, angering the previously blissful dog. In the aftermath of Daigoro's rage, Yojimbo fled the scene as the Sekiseigumi arrive to arrest Shigure.
Yojimbo sent Hildibrand a poorly-written anonymous letter claiming that he had once again stolen the Soboro Sukehiro, and challenged the "something-something of Light," to retrieve it. Hildibrand, thinking that the phrase was "Gentleman of Light", rushed off to find the culprit, but was easily trounced before the Warrior of Light could even reach the meeting point. Once there, Yojimbo challenged the Warrior of Light to another fight, this time on the Kugane Ohashi. A short while into the fight, Yojimbo descended into a dark portal, ditching his samurai garments and revealing his true identity as Gilgamesh. Though he had managed to steal the Kojin sword, Gilgamesh was again defeated.
Gilgamesh explained he had come to the Far East following his previous defeats, but found himself starving. He had met Daigoro on the streets of Kugane, and the two formed a bond as starving outcasts within the city. Taking up the title of Yojimbo, he offered his services as a master swordsman to earn money.
Gilgamesh accompanied Hildibrand to rescue Shigure from execution, and once again when it was discovered that Godbert Manderville had been brainwashed by Akebono and a representative of the Hannish alchemy company, the Sahjattra Concern, later revealed to be named Jubraca, via the drug dewprism. With the group confronting the two villains, Akebono demanded that Godbert destroy everyone, his careless wording causing the goldsmith to take the dastardly duo out alongside everyone else. Gilgamesh was easily defeated by the drugged elder Manderville alongside the rest of the gang before Hildibrand broke through his father's haze.
After Godbert returned to his senses, Jubraca resisted arrest by throwing a dose of dewprism into Gilgamesh's mouth and fled to him, commanding the garish brute to take him to somewhere very, very far away. Gilgamesh opened up a portal to the "Interspectorial Rift", dragging Jubraca, the Inspector, Nashu, and the previously missing rooster Enkidu along with him. The group would wander the rift for an indeterminate amount of time until Gilgamesh eventually recovered his senses through unknown means, returning the others to the Source (though Hildibrand's soul was summoned by Elidibus to the First during their time in the Rift.) Instead of joining the gang, Nashu reported that Gilgamesh departed elsewhere in the Rift to "settle a score."
==Characteristics==
===Appearance===
Gilgamesh's appearance is a mix between his two appearances in Final Fantasy V. There is less emphasis on his kabuki theme, and instead he appears more brutish with sharp teeth, yellow eyes with black sclerae, and his horns moved to the sides of his head, more akin to an oni than a normally stout man. His pallid complexion and facial stripes have carried over. While he has eight arms like his form post-"morphing time", he wears the same red and gray clothing in A Realm Reborn. In Stormblood, his "morphing time" form gets a wardrobe upgrade, mimicking Yojimbo's fiery color scheme as well as his signature wooden ajirogasa hat, though slightly thinner around the waist than before. The released render of Gilgamesh shows him wielding seven weapons: an axe, mace, katana, baghnakhs, the Hauteclaire sword and Ridill scimitar from Final Fantasy XI, in addition to a replica of Nael van Darnus's gunhalberd Bradamante called the "Pradamante".
As shown in the Kugane Ohashi trial, Gilgamesh is able to flawlessly take on the figure of Yojimbo through opening a portal to the Rift.
===Personality===
Gilgamesh is a boisterous wandering duelist, a weapons collector and an honorable warrior with a thirst for battle, but also in many ways incompetent and goofy. His ego leads him to often becoming so swept up in his passion that he ends up in awkward moments where he forgets to read the room. In spite of being only slightly less foolish than Hildibrand, Gilgamesh remains as loquacious and melodramatic as ever, having a fondness for bad puns that suit his extensive vocabulary. Unlike his usual appearances, Gilgamesh makes attempts to be crafty and hide his thievery, shoddy or otherwise, and though his poor ability to go undiscovered is obvious to the Warrior of Light, Hildibrand remains oblivious. With the inclusion of him adopting several stray animals, a wild rooster he christened after the late Enkidu and Daigoro, Gilgamesh shows a glimpse of his subtler, sentimental side. Though a troublemaker and a trickster, he values the Inspector, Nashu, and the Warrior of Light as dear friends and the latter especially as his fated rival in Eorzea.
==Gameplay==
Gilgamesh is fought as a boss in the , , and trials.
Additionally, under the guise of Yojimbo, he is featured in a GATE at the Manderville Gold Saucer The Slice Is Right, where players are tasked with dodging his and Daigoro's efforts to remain on an elevated platform as he cuts down bamboo shoots and collects money from wealthy patrons.
Wind-up Gilgamesh is one of many minions the player can acquire. The minion's description heavily hints that it was built by Godbert Manderville.
==Musical themes==
"Battle on the Big Bridge" plays during the battle against Gilgamesh. It has similar beat to the original theme from Final Fantasy V with hard rock drums added. It was arranged by Masayoshi Soken.
In the second encounter with Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the original version of the theme from Final Fantasy V is used.
"Triumph", the standard Stormblood boss theme, plays during the battles when Gilgamesh is in his Yojimbo guise.
==Behind the scenes==
In the Closed Beta, Gilgamesh was the name of a World. Gilgamesh's name is also used in example sentences for the chat log filtering configuration.
Yojimbo's surprising reveal as Gilgamesh in patch 4.56 was foreshadowed in patch 4.1, with Gilgamesh and rooster Enkidu making an inexplicable cameo in a Hildibrand "Next time" scene.
In the Kugane Ohashi trial, Gilgamesh quotes and uses abilities from Susano and Ravana, two primals with similarly boisterous personalities.
Square Enix's Eorzea Cafe served a dish called "Escalope of Gilgamesh" whose description translates to: We find a bearer of many weapons in Gilgamesh. This is a dish featuring pork cutlet with demi-glace sauce, and a wide variety of ingredients including bamboo shoots and corn.
==Gallery==
FFXIV ARR - Gilgamesh.png|Concept art.
FFXIV Gilgamesh Surrenders.png|Gilgamesh pretends to surrender.
FFXIV Yojimbo.png|Gilgamesh as Yojimbo.
==Etymology==
==Citations==
Category:Characters in Final Fantasy XIV
Category:Gilgamesh