Content warning: This article discusses subject matter pertaining to mental health including anxiety, depression, and self-harm.

At the almost-exact midpoint of Final Fantasy 6, the classic 1994 RPG from Squaresoft, the power-hungry Gestahl Empire has raised the Floating Continent, where it intends to use a powerful magical field to consolidate its power and rule the world. At this point, what had been a familiar "evil empire versus scrappy rebellion" story takes a turn, as one of the Empire's lieutenants, Kefka, overthrows his emperor and intentionally throws the magical field out of balance, ushering in worldwide darkness and destruction. There is no master plan at play here. Kefka is pure nihilistic glee, destruction for the sake of destruction. When he emerges as the game's primary antagonist, it's no longer an evil empire but sheer wanton devastation you're fighting against. At this point in the game, death and destruction wins.

Today, we know how that feels. Death won here in our world too, at least for a while.