Awesome Women - Agrias Oaks, Lady Knight
This post is spoiler heavy for the game Final Fantasy Tactics, but really only for the first mission and some of the backstory.
I mentioned in my introductory post that Agrias was my favorite female character in anything ever (of either gender, really), and I'll wager that not a lot of you have heard of her. She's a paladin in service to the Ivalician Princess, sworn to serve as her bodyguard. She's the first playable character we meet, the first who can really tear your enemies to pieces, the first to be addressed by name, and the second character with dialog. Here she is, scaled-down-for-size:
Does that look like someone you want to fuck with? Ignore the weird thing going on with her upper body where she kind of looks like Justin Beiber. Everyone looks like that in Ivalice. It's standard for the art, and it's kind of grown on me. I like the below picture the best because it captures her Team Mom qualities as well. She's not just a mindless killing machine, she's a very sympathetic, kind, protective young woman, but God help you if you cross her or anyone she cares about, because she will tear you a new asshole.
I should probably explain what the hell is going on here, first of all. Final Fantasy Tactics was a tactical RPG released in 1997 ('98 in the States) as a spin-off from the wildly popular Final Fantasy series. In a departure from the norms one might expect from a JRPG, but not a tactical one, Tactics is all about maneuvering your troops intelligently to outflank and outsmart, instead of outgun, your enemies. It takes a great deal of inspiration from the real historical War of the Roses, in which House Lancaster, the Red Rose (in-game, Druksmald Goltana, the Black Lion), and House York, the White Rose (in-game, Bestrada Larg, the White Lion). I don't know much about the historical war, but the plot of the game plays itself out in a very Game of Thrones fashion with the two Lions jockeying for control of the throne (hence the in-game name of the war and the subtitle for the re-release, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions) while trying to fend off a number of other threats, both foreign and domestic. This is aggravated by civil unrest as the peasantry is, by and large, extremely pissed off at the nobility for skimping them on payment for their services in the preceding conflict, called the Fifty Years War, as well as the church vying for control of the country as well, and a different group entirely pulling the strings behind the scenes.
The best part? The world of Ivalice, the country in which the game takes place, is relatively gender-blind. You start out with six generic units, three of each gender. Two of each start as the basic melee class, the Squire, and one of each starts out as the basic magic class, the Chemist. Aside from women being slightly more magical and men being slightly more physical (and some other, more advanced metadata concerning Zodiac Signs), the combat really depends on what stats your units get rather than their gender. Plotwise? All bets are off. The Queen who starts the whole plot off is, well, female. So are two of your most valuable allies, Agrias and another lady named Meliadoul Tingel. So is the first boss you face. So (arguably) is the last boss you face. Two of the balls hardest bosses in the game? Female. The two most powerful and useful non-playable guest characters we see in battle? Female. The anti-villain's Dragon? Female.
Her initial attack, Stasis Sword. She starts out the game by using it to fend off a frontal assault waged by kidnappers. She tears through those poor sods like tissue paper, and continues to tear through your enemies during every battle she fights. Hell, you have to *snigger* "rescue" her in one of the missions, and I laugh because Agrias does not need your help. Well, she could certainly use a hand, since she's outnumbered about eight or nine to one if memory serves, but your four extra reinforcements have enough trouble handling three soldiers on one side of a nigh uncrossable river, leaving Agrias to mop up everyone else. Once you get her as a playable character, with the right equipment, she can have Auto-Haste, Auto-Regen, and Auto-Life, as well as a multi-hit skillset that kills most enemies in one move. What does that mean? That she heals 10% of her (very high) total HP every turn, she gets twice as many turns as the enemies, she'll automatically come back upon the extremely unlikely event that she falls in battle, and if the enemy is poorly positioned, she can win the match, outnumbered five to one, in a single turn.
You do not fuck with this woman. Fuck with her, and she will fuck with you.
I mentioned in my introductory post that Agrias was my favorite female character in anything ever (of either gender, really), and I'll wager that not a lot of you have heard of her. She's a paladin in service to the Ivalician Princess, sworn to serve as her bodyguard. She's the first playable character we meet, the first who can really tear your enemies to pieces, the first to be addressed by name, and the second character with dialog. Here she is, scaled-down-for-size:
Does that look like someone you want to fuck with? Ignore the weird thing going on with her upper body where she kind of looks like Justin Beiber. Everyone looks like that in Ivalice. It's standard for the art, and it's kind of grown on me. I like the below picture the best because it captures her Team Mom qualities as well. She's not just a mindless killing machine, she's a very sympathetic, kind, protective young woman, but God help you if you cross her or anyone she cares about, because she will tear you a new asshole.
I should probably explain what the hell is going on here, first of all. Final Fantasy Tactics was a tactical RPG released in 1997 ('98 in the States) as a spin-off from the wildly popular Final Fantasy series. In a departure from the norms one might expect from a JRPG, but not a tactical one, Tactics is all about maneuvering your troops intelligently to outflank and outsmart, instead of outgun, your enemies. It takes a great deal of inspiration from the real historical War of the Roses, in which House Lancaster, the Red Rose (in-game, Druksmald Goltana, the Black Lion), and House York, the White Rose (in-game, Bestrada Larg, the White Lion). I don't know much about the historical war, but the plot of the game plays itself out in a very Game of Thrones fashion with the two Lions jockeying for control of the throne (hence the in-game name of the war and the subtitle for the re-release, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions) while trying to fend off a number of other threats, both foreign and domestic. This is aggravated by civil unrest as the peasantry is, by and large, extremely pissed off at the nobility for skimping them on payment for their services in the preceding conflict, called the Fifty Years War, as well as the church vying for control of the country as well, and a different group entirely pulling the strings behind the scenes.
The best part? The world of Ivalice, the country in which the game takes place, is relatively gender-blind. You start out with six generic units, three of each gender. Two of each start as the basic melee class, the Squire, and one of each starts out as the basic magic class, the Chemist. Aside from women being slightly more magical and men being slightly more physical (and some other, more advanced metadata concerning Zodiac Signs), the combat really depends on what stats your units get rather than their gender. Plotwise? All bets are off. The Queen who starts the whole plot off is, well, female. So are two of your most valuable allies, Agrias and another lady named Meliadoul Tingel. So is the first boss you face. So (arguably) is the last boss you face. Two of the balls hardest bosses in the game? Female. The two most powerful and useful non-playable guest characters we see in battle? Female. The anti-villain's Dragon? Female.
Her initial attack, Stasis Sword. She starts out the game by using it to fend off a frontal assault waged by kidnappers. She tears through those poor sods like tissue paper, and continues to tear through your enemies during every battle she fights. Hell, you have to *snigger* "rescue" her in one of the missions, and I laugh because Agrias does not need your help. Well, she could certainly use a hand, since she's outnumbered about eight or nine to one if memory serves, but your four extra reinforcements have enough trouble handling three soldiers on one side of a nigh uncrossable river, leaving Agrias to mop up everyone else. Once you get her as a playable character, with the right equipment, she can have Auto-Haste, Auto-Regen, and Auto-Life, as well as a multi-hit skillset that kills most enemies in one move. What does that mean? That she heals 10% of her (very high) total HP every turn, she gets twice as many turns as the enemies, she'll automatically come back upon the extremely unlikely event that she falls in battle, and if the enemy is poorly positioned, she can win the match, outnumbered five to one, in a single turn.
You do not fuck with this woman. Fuck with her, and she will fuck with you.