Happy anniversary, Final Fantasy! The beloved Square-Enix franchise celebrated its 13th birthday last year. From the four Warriors of Light to the four road tripping bros of Final Fantasy XV, this series has had an incredible three decade run spanning more than two dozen games in a wide variety of genres including racers, fighting games, and even physical card games based on some of the series’ side quests. The Final Fantasy series includes some of the most beloved games, relatable characters, and reviled villains in video game history.

But with so much history, there are bound to be some valleys to match the series’ incredible peaks. Whether through its frustrating mechanics or goofy graphics, the Final Fantasy series has delivered as much fun in incredibly meme-worthy content as it has in its thousands of hours of engrossing gameplay. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying over playing yet another interminable game of blitzball! To celebrate Final Fantasy’s long history, we’ve collected 25 of the dankest memes we could find to choco-blow your mind. There’s plenty to enjoy here from almost every installment (and sequel, and spin-off).

25 TIME SENSITIVE

Final Fantasy VII throws you right into the thick of things, opening with a bombing mission on Reactor No. 1. Cloud and Barret stage a daring mission to shut down a mako reactor, culminating in a deadly battle against the massive Guard Scorpion. Who doesn’t remember playing through this mission for the first time, few potions, low levels, getting pumped up when the Guard Scorpion finally faded to red … only to be met with a ten minute time limit while Cloud and Barret are still taking a victory lap?

In the grand tradition of Final Fantasy timed missions, you can’t pause or quit. The timer keeps chugging along no matter what you do. Run into a random battle? Timer’s still going. You win? Timer’s still going. Why are Cloud and Barret wasting time looking so pleased with themselves when a bomb’s about to go off? This meme brings back a lot of extremely frustrating memories.

24 COMPASSION … HOW DOES IT WORK?

Squall is the most notoriously dour Final Fantasy protagonist of all time from one of the most controversial games in the series, Final Fantasy VIII. A man of few words, his favorite -- "whatever" -- has earned him a top spot in the Final Fantasy meme hall of fame. This succinct meme encapsulates all of Squall’s worst traits in one image. The dialogue here is photoshopped, but you believed it for a split second, didn’t you?

Squall is notoriously callous and sour, even to the woman he eventually comes to love so much he rescues her from the cold depths of space. He’s not a nice guy or a great role model, but he does come around in the end, proving himself to be a capable leader who redeems himself from some of his surlier moments. In the end this meme is still good for a chuckle even if the dialogue isn’t entirely accurate.

23 I FEEL THE NEED … THE NEED FOR GREENS

It’s really a shame Chocobo Racer didn’t take off. Chocobos are an iconic Final Fantasy staple, vital to side quests and more importantly, to overworld fast travel. Since the notoriously tricky chocobo training minigames of Final Fantasy X, actually getting a chocobo to cooperate has become a vital part of the franchise. Chocobo riding skill is almost more important than chocobo breeding in the games these days. Sun sigil sidequest, anyone?

As graphics improve, chocobos have gone from cute blobs of pixels to ostrich-esque speed demons in their own right. Now that we can get some high quality birds, maybe it’s time to consider a gritty reboot of the Chocobo Racer series that combines the stats manipulation of Final Fantasy VII’s breeding game with the frustration of Final Fantasy X’s racing games. Couldn’t hurt to see if Vin Diesel is free for some voice acting!

22 WOO WOO WOOF

Get a load of that dog! Get a load of it. Who doesn’t love to pet a good pupper? In Final Fantasy XV, you can do exactly that, as Prompto helpfully demonstrates in this fun text post meme. Final Fantasy XV is a little light on the dogs until your cool bros road trip turns into a cool bros time travel adventure, but eventually you’re given the ability to call Umbra and relive your past adventures. Or you can just call Umbra and ask for some paw whenever it strikes your fancy.

That’s right: Final Fantasy XV features the ability to summon a supernaturally powerful dog and shake his little dog foot whenever you like. Feeling frustrated after losing a tough battle? Give Umbra some paw. Not since Final Fantasy VIII has a dog been so loyal and eager to help out your party (Red XIII would probably prefer not to be compared to a house pet), but Final Fantasy XV revolutionizes the series by going one step further and giving you an incredibly cute emote to enjoy. Get a load of that dog indeed, Prompto.

21 MALBOROS, MAN

If you can take down a Malboro with ease, you’re ready to take down anything a Final Fantasy game can throw at you. Known for their devastatingly “Bad Breath,” Malboros are nasty tentacle-covered beasts that spit nasty fumes that can inflict anywhere from half a dozen to thirteen status effects depending on the game. One wrong move and suddenly your whole crew is asleep, petrified, or scrambling to defeat the Malboro before the Doom clock ticks down to zero.

Unfortunately, the same skill that makes a Malboro so deadly is often available to learn as a blue magic skill that could instantly make a blue mage like Quistis or Kihmari substantially more powerful or even just more efficient to level grind with. Facing down against the big nasty beast featured in this high res image was often a fight you could avoid until late in the game, but the ability to inflict a dozen nasty debuffs in one shot is tough to resist.

20 THE PHILOSORAPTOR’S DILEMMA

This philosoraptor poses the real question: if it’s a Final Fantasy, why are there so many of them? The series is almost two dozen titles deep now, when you count five different sequels and the likes of Tactics, but the name persists. There was a time you could argue each game was the own individual “final” fantasy of that particular universe, but now we’ve got Crisis Core, Final Fantasy X-II, and the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy to dispute that.

Even series director Hironobu Sakaguchi and famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu don’t seem to agree on the reason. Sakaguchi has long said the name comes from his thought that it would be his last game before returning to college, while Uematsu claims it was because the team thought it would be the last game Square completed before the company went bankrupt. No matter the reason, we’re glad both of them were wrong. Here’s to another 30 years!

19 MCDONALD’S! MCDONALD’S!

We’re lovin’ it. For those who have managed to miss this particular meme so far, the idea is to take your favorite media and work out who would be the responsible parent and pass on spending money on fast food when you have fresh groceries, who would be hollering for a Happy Meal from the backseat, and who would commit the ultimate cruelty of driving into the drive thru just to order themselves a single beverage before taking off.

We might put Vincent Valentine between the “orders one cup of black coffee” and “we have food at home” axes, or potentially swap Reeve and Elena. Sure, Elena is eager to prove herself to the rough and tumble men of the Turks, but she’s still fairly young. There must still be some part of her that’s itching to get some delicious food of questionable quality on the company dime. All in all, though, this meme does an excellent job.

18 BEFORE IT WAS COOL

Final Fantasy has a complicated US release history in its early years, marked by a few confusing names and renames and rereleases of the early few games in the series. The most notable among these is Final Fantasy IV, initially released in the United States as Final Fantasy III to maintain consistency with the only two other Final Fantasy titles that had been released in the US previously.

Playing or even just acknowledging the games in the "correct" order based on the Japanese release date has always been a point of pride for many hard core Final Fantasy fans. This take on the hipster cat meme offers a fun twist, suggesting the original Final Fantasy III release of FFIV means they beat it "before it was cool." There are some die hard fans who would undoubtedly beg to differ, but this meme is still a fun way to undercut the conversations that surrounded the early games in the series back in the days before the "real" versions started getting ported to the PlayStation.

17 A LOVE FOR THE AGES

Final Fantasy IX has one of the strongest supporting casts of any game in the series, but none is as delightful or as underrated as the enigmatic Quina Quen. One of the genderless, ravenous Qu, Quina joins your party as the game’s Blue Mage and quickly endears themselves with an endless appetite for tasty frogs and monsters that can teach them devastating Blue Magic spells.

Late in the game, in order to pass through the town of Conde Petie, Zidane and Dagger are forced to "get married." You have the option to suggest Vivi and Quina tie the knot too, and though the optional cutscene is short, it’s genuinely cute. Quina seems sincerely happy, and honestly, when given the choice between a controlling, sparkly vampire and a nosy werewolf who can’t mind his own business, who wouldn’t want to marry a sweet, sincere young Black Mage instead?

16 TEXTS FROM LUMINA

Lumina, the mysterious trickster who helps and hinders Lightning in equal measure in Final Fantasy XIII-3, is known as much for her mischievous nature as she is for her suspicious resemblance to the Farron sisters. She spends most of Lightning Returns sowing seeds of distrust and Chaos through Nova Chrysalis -- kind of like pulling on the pigtails of someone you want to make pay attention to you, but with monsters and the impending end of the world.

This "texts from last night" mash-up meme perfectly captures Lumina’s troublemaker nature. Surprisingly, "stealing dogs" is pretty tame behavior in the grand scheme of Lumina’s actions in Lightning Returns, including attempting to get Lightning to kill one of her dear friends when they transform into a monstrous Cie’th. Lumina’s got a good heart buried under it all, though. She’d probably give those pets back in the end!

15 YOU CAN DANCE IF YOU WANT TO

The Manderville Dance is a cute grooving emote in Final Fantasy XIV, and has no place in a boss battle unless you’re positive your party can burn through it with minimal effort! This meme is a little dated since cleric stance has shuffled the magic coil, but who can forget the frustration of being in the heat of battle at full health and looking over to see your healer doing a joyful little wiggle.

There are plenty of reasons for a healer not to switch to DPS right away, of course. More enemies have spawned and the party is about to get swamped. A big attack is just a turn or two away and you’ve got to be ready to heal at a moment’s notice. The Manderville Dance isn’t exactly a short emote, though. Think twice about firing it up in a fight!

14 WHOSE FANTASY IS IT ANYWAY

Five hundred points for this meme! Drew Carey’s got one thing right: if you’re playing a Final Fantasy game, you’re going to see some pretty incredible hairstyles. From the famous -- Cloud Strife -- to the truly outrageous -- Seymour from Final Fantasy X -- Square Enix’s most famous franchise is as famous for its high-flying locks as it is its incredible games.

Gravity-defying haircuts have been a hallmark of the series since the beginning, but the games’ improving graphics haven’t made the haircuts any more down to earth. Selphie Tilmitt’s aggressive side flips are one of the more egregious examples from the "modern" era of Final Fantasy games, but Noctis’ cowlicks are looking suspiciously upright there too. As silly as some of these haircuts are, though, you can’t deny they’re part of any Final Fantasy’s visual charm.

13 MOTHER I’M WORTH IT

Speaking of glamorous hair, here’s one of the most famous hairstyles in the history of the Final Fantasy franchise. There are few characters in the franchise who deserve to be a poster model for L’Oreal haircare as much as Sephiroth does. Sephiroth is known as much for his long, luscious locks as he is for the destruction of Nibelheim, and certainly such high maintenance hair demands some high quality hair products. At the very least he’d need some L’Oreal damage-erasing balm to repair the heat damage from the Nibelheim fires.

He certainly would be a controversial spokesperson. Sure, he’s a murderer devoted to worshiping an equally sinister space alien, but maybe he could get some credit for at least appreciating proper grooming? Would Jenova be a helicopter mom on the commercial sets? In the end, given the destruction Sephiroth wreaked across Gaia in Jenova’s name, L’Oreal probably dodged a bullet by not being able to sign him.

12 FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Final Fantasy X is full of reasons to grind. AP grinding, sphere grinding, blue magic grinding, and perhaps most importantly, grinding for gil. Who didn’t spend hours powering through enemies and selling off every spare item you could to have enough money to enter into into negotiations with Yojimbo? Getting this summon on your side was a tricky process of negotiations and counter negotiations, where a single wrong answer or misplaced gil could ruin things entirely.

Tidus probably had a tough time justifying the almost two hundred thousand gil it takes to get to even recruit Yojimbo in the first place, much less the amount of gil you had to keep on hand to make good use of him as a summon. Still, the pleased as punch look on his face in this meme is the same face we'd be making if we had a dog as cool as Daigoro on our side.

11 LADIES’ MAN

Final Fantasy XII doesn’t get enough credit, thanks in large part to its unusual battle system, but it does have some of the most charismatic characters in the franchise. Case in point, the handsome pirate Balthier, whose cocky, flirtatious exterior hides a fiercely loyal warrior. Balthier blends the roguishness of Han Solo with the glam rock attitude of David Bowie, and this meme perfectly captures his devil may care charm.

This is a cheesy pick-up line for sure, but Balthier is exactly the kind of man who would give it a shot and one of the few people who could actually pull it off. Though romance isn’t as much of a feature in Final Fantasy XII as other games in the series, Balthier still has plenty of playful playboy moments -- this meme wouldn’t be out of place at all in The Zodiac Age HD remake. And Balthier is even more handsome than ever in it!

10 LET’S BLITZ

Minigames and side quests are a common occurrence in any Final Fantasy game, but there is perhaps no minigame more infuriating in the entire franchise than being required to play blitzball to progress the game in Final Fantasy X. You can at least level grind to defeat a boss, or even to save up enough gil to get rare aeons like Yojimbo, but putting together a solid team for blitzball involves traversing the world to recruit players you may not just stumble across in regular gameplay.

Blitzball is a huge part of Spira’s culture, to the point where a casual cheering gesture from its past becomes a gesture of prayer in its future. It’s easy to see why it would be so important to Tidus and Wakka to play in the big tournament in Luca. From a player perspective, though, blitzball is an infuriating and unreasonably tricky distraction. We’d rather go back to dodging those lightning bolts on the Thunder Plains.

9 GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME

The junction system is one of the most game-breaking and, as a result, mot maligned magic systems in Final Fantasy history. Anyone with a little patience can level grind and magic refine their way to insanely high stat boosts early on in the game, thanks to Final Fantasy VIII’s version of summons, Guardian Forces. But as this riff on a South Park-inspired meme says, bad GF management can make for rough play late in the game.

If you’re not paying close attention to what abilities your GF are learning, you can get to the end of the game without some of the most useful skills, including the ability to make yourself wildly overpowered with the likes of Card Mod, magic refine skills, and junctions like Vit-J that boost your HP. Made it all the way to Time Compression without any magic refine and junction abilities? You’re gonna have a bad time.

8 BUSHIDO AND CHILL OUT, PLEASE

Lulu had the goth girl style on lock in Final Fantasy X, it was the brooding Auron who wound up being the dramatic one in the party. As Tidus’ stern mentor, Auron spends much of the game trying to keep him focused on his real mission -- defeating Sin. Though he does occasionally show a softer side, Auron never quite lets go of his troubled past or tough exterior.

“Die and be free of pain” is pretty hardcore, but we’re sure you immediately had a friend come to mind with this one. Granted, Auron does have good reason to have such a grim outlook on life. As one of the few people on Spira privy to the truths of Sin, Yevon, and Tidus’ eventual fate, Auron carries an emotional burden almost as heavy as Yuna’s. Tag your serious friends in this one, but make sure you ask how they’re doing, too!

7 THE ODDS ARE STACKED

From Setzer to Selphie, Slots have been a Limit Break staple in Final Fantasy for decades. Most slots results are harmless at best, but as this meme demonstrates, when a slot goes bad, it can be devastating. Selphie’s Slots ability is probably the most helpful, delivering a spell and the number of times it will be cast, but Cait Sith’s Slots delivered all the danger of Selzer’s debuff slot options with the added anxiety of Final Fantasy VII’s inconsistent save points.

A good spin might get you the healing Mog Dance, but the worst spin might get you Death Joker, an instant KO to your party that -- if you’ve been away from the world map and without a save point for a while -- could lose you a devastating amount of game progress by forcing you to reload from your last save. Ouch!

6 FIRST, LET ME TAKE A SELPHIE

Final Fantasy VIII was the first game to introduce the internet as commonplace in the Final Fantasy franchise, and train-loving, festival-planning Selphie Tilmitt was the series’ first true social media pioneer. Even her name was a harbinger of social media changes to come! Selphie uses the Garden Network for her personal and scholarly pursuits, setting up a site to coordinate the Garden Festival and launching her own Laguna Liore fanpage.

We know that if Square-Enix ever developed a Final Fantasy VIII reboot, selfies for Selphie would have to be the first big addition. Adding a few more social media side quests might be fun too. A livestream of the battle against X-ATM092 Black Widow robot would go viral in a hot second. Don’t forget to monetize it, Selphie!