Morie

February 28, 2021

Morie is, simply put, a moron—a self-righteous commander who hasn’t earned it and uses people to get what he wants.  He commands a sandship in the Kakkara desert that’s guarding the Fire Palace from the Empire.  It’s also Randi’s only escape from being stranded in the searing heat of the desert with no water in sight.

MORIE: What’s going on?

GUARD: Sir!  I’ve located a suspicious group, commander! 

MORIE: Well, hold on.  It’s possible they were just lost in the desert.

RANDI: We thought we were going to die.

MORIE: Hm, then since we’ve saved you, you’re going to work hard.  For you, the engine room; for “chibi”, the mess; and as for the woman, I suppose she can massage my shoulders…and such.

In the engine room, we learn more about the ship’s command structure:

The ship’s captain is the Republican knight Admiral Meria, but his grandson Commander Morie is in command.  The admiral acts as a yes-man for his grandson.  If you catch a glare from the commander, you’ll get abandoned in the desert!

Later on, we see that Morie wasn’t joking about his plans for Purim:

MORIE: Hey!  Massage my shoulders!

PURIM: Absolutely not!  Tttthpbt! (sound of tongue stuck out)

MORIE: Saucy little brat!

PURIM: What’s that?  You wanna go?

MERIA: Enough!  Morie!  One worthy of being called a knight does not raise a hand to a woman!

MORIE: Eh, gramps. But, she was saucy!

PURIM: Pfft!

MERIA: How pathetic.  Hey, girl! Get out of here!

PURIM: Tttthpbt!

(Randi and Popoie walk in)

PURIM: Oh my!  You guys, did you hear?  How awful!

MORIE: Hey, you little…!  You’re deserting, is that it?  This is bad, gramps!

MERIA: O-oh!  It’s a desertion!  Grab ’em!

Suddenly, everything begins to shake:

RANDI: Wh-what!?

GUARDS: It’s the enemy! The Empire is attacking!

MORIE: Waah, I don’t wanna die!  Let’s give up!

MERIA: You IDIOT!  You, are you even a knight?  All hands, deploy for battle! 

GUARDS: Don’t wanna!  Run away, run away!  We’ve had enough of Morie!

Morie isn’t seen again until the end credits, though Sergo briefly speaks about him:

Morie has had a change of heart, and is starting over from a swabbie! (i.e., is going to start from the lowest rank and work his way back up)

Localization Notes

• More French: Morie’s name localizes as “Moliere.” This is especially appropriate here, given that Tasnica is a Republic.
• Ted Woolsey changed the meaning of the line where the NPC tells Randi that he’ll be abandoned in the desert if he gets on Morie’s bad side:
  
  Morie would just as soon dump [Meria] in the desert.
  
  This is either incorrect or intentionally changed for this version.
  
• In Japanese, when Purim refuses to give Morie a backrub, he shouts, “きさま！なまいきな！” This is a downright wicked thing to say, coming from a man to a woman he’s forcing to massage his shoulders (and later his such). You could make a solid argument for, “Damn you, bitch!”
  
• The soldiers tell Meria that they’re sick of Morie in Japanese, but the opposite in Woolsey’s script, where they say, “we’re with Morie!”
  
• Even more translation fun—the line about Morie having a change of heart is different on the SNES:
  
  And Meria’s had a complete change of heart!
  
  This mentions Meria instead of Morie, and its meaning is unclear. Perhaps Woolsey was simplifying things and implying that Meria had a change of heart about Morie, who’s being rehabilitated, or confirming that Meria had succeeded in regaining his honor.