Jack Garland

"All I care about is seeing Chaos dead. I need to. It's not a hope or a dream. It's like a hunger. A thirst."

Jack Garland, known simply as Garland in the original Final Fantasy and other related media, is a major antagonist from the Final Fantasy series and the main protagonist from Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. In his debut, Garland would act as both the first and final boss, making him the overarching antagonist of the game. The character would go on to make later appearances in the franchise, most notably the Dissidia Final Fantasy series, yet would remain a fairly reserved presence within it. This would forever change, however, with the reveal and later release of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. The game features the newly christened Jack Garland as its protagonist. In what can almost be considered a parody of typical JRPG protagonist, Jack is an arrogant and brash man who is single-minded in his goal to keep fighting until he can defeat Chaos, to the point where he even interrupts boss monologues to get to battles quicker. His constant claim to need to "kill Chaos" in the game's reveal trailer at E3 2021 became the subject of many memes, particular on 4chan's /v/ board. After the game's release, many came around to Jack's character and praised both his backstory and personality.

Due to Jack Garland's popularity from memes, the original incarnation of Garland would appear on the bracket during King of /v/ 2021, showing surprisingly decent results. Jack Garland himself would finally make his debut to much fanfare during King of /v/ 2022. His campaign would go on to become one of the most prominent in the tournament, leading him all the way to the finals to beat Jack Frost and become the fourth character to be crowned king.

Backstory
In the original incarnation of the character in Final Fantasy I, Garland was a once-respected knight who went rouge and kidnapped Princess Sarah, leading to the Warriors of Light having to rescue Sarah and fight him as the first boss in the game and by extension the series. While Garland is mostly absent for the rest of the game, at the end it is revealed that he had managed to survive by the Four Fiends sending him to the past and creating a time loop. He then reveals himself to be a vessel for Chaos and acts as the game's final boss.

King of /v/
At E3 2021, Square Enix revealed the official teaser trailer for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. This trailer, and particularly protagonist Jack Garland, would end up becoming the subject of numerous memes and jokes online. As a result, both Garland and Chaos as they appear in Final Fantasy I qualified with surprisingly high seeds in King of /v/ 2021. While Chaos whiffed in the first round, Garland made it all the way to the third round before being defeated in a landslide by Kazuma Kiryu, who ended up in 3rd place that year,.

Jack Garland was arguably the most hyped character going into King of /v/ 2022. Despite this incarnation debuting in March of that year, he seeded as high as #5 in qualifiers. His campaign would go on to become one of the most prominent in the tournament, particularly after his defeat of the ever-popular Doom Guy. A recurring gag began where Jack would acquire some form of gear from each competitor he defeated. The hosts NightShiftAnon and BallsAnon would respond in turn by using each updated image in the polls per round.

Jack would manage to enter the Elite Eight in his first proper run and easily knock out in the quarterfinals. He then went on to sweep against AM, by an amount which NightShiftAnon claimed was as high as over 75% before AM's campaigning push later into the round. He went against Jack Frost (SMT) from Shin Megami Tensei in a final Jack-Off and won to become the fourth King of /v/.

As a result of his win, all incarnations of Garland from the Final Fantasy series are banned from participating in future iterations of King of /v/. Jack Garland is, by far, both the newest and quickest character to win a /v/ character tournament to date, with his starring game coming out less than a year prior to the tournament. On the converse, if counting his initial incarnation, Garland is actually the oldest winner of King of /v/ by a long-shot (predating Dante by nearly 14 years) and the second-oldest winner of a /v/ tournament overall aside from Samus Aran.