Leading Women in Final Fantasy
I disagree more or less entirely with the esteemed moderator's assertion.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no real "leads" in FFI or III, and I do not know the plot of FFII well enough to speak to it.
In FFIV, it is true that Rosa's primary role seems to be Cecil's love interest, but Palom doesn't have a romantic role at all and Rydia is actually better defined by her resistance to Edge's advances than by her ultimate acceptance of them. And to say that there is no strong female character in a game that contains Yang's wife is somewhat absurd.
In FFV, to the best of my knowledge, none of the three main female characters fall in love with Butz or Galuf, but I admit that I have yet to finish the game -- it is possible that a romance develops in the late game.
In FFVI, Terra is almost undeniably the main character, and she has no romantic involvement with anyone for the duration of the game. Celes is the only female character that does, I think, and her relationship with Locke is decidedly second string, as plots go.
In FFVII, the romantic entanglement between Cloud and Aeris was fairly contrived, particularly if you spent the whole game playing nice with Tifa. At any rate, I strongly dispute the notion that her most important role in that game was to fall in love with Cloud, considering that she ultimately saves the planet. The relationship between Cloud and Tifa is _entirely_ optional.
In FFVIII, there are is a lot of romantic subplot, but I would argue that the reason for that is that FFVIII is more focused on the relationships between its characters than on the (terrible) plot. I will openly admit that the only thing Rinoa is good for is being Squall's romantic interest, and she's not even very good for that. FFVIII was just a terrible, terrible game in most respects, and I don't feel like it can be considered indicative of any trends in Final Fantasy.
In FFIX, Dagger is admittedly pretty passive. I'll concede on this one. There are certainly other, stronger female characters in the game, but it is true that Dagger serves little purpose other than being a driving but passive romantic plot element.
In FFX, there is definitely a lot of unnecessary snogging, but Yuna and Lulu both stand on their own as strong characters with their own goals and backstory. I don't think it is fair at all to say they are defined by Tidus and Wakka/Chappu, respectively.
We will not speak of the abomination that is FFX-2.
I haven't finished FFXII, and I'm not even far enough through it to say with confidence that Ashe never falls for one of the male characters, so I cannot include it in my assessment.
I would argue that there are _many_ Final Fantasy games with strong female leads who serve purposes above and beyond or even completely external to falling in love with the male lead -- FFVI, one of the most popular (if not the most popular) Final Fantasies being one of the most prominent examples.
J.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no real "leads" in FFI or III, and I do not know the plot of FFII well enough to speak to it.
In FFIV, it is true that Rosa's primary role seems to be Cecil's love interest, but Palom doesn't have a romantic role at all and Rydia is actually better defined by her resistance to Edge's advances than by her ultimate acceptance of them. And to say that there is no strong female character in a game that contains Yang's wife is somewhat absurd.
In FFV, to the best of my knowledge, none of the three main female characters fall in love with Butz or Galuf, but I admit that I have yet to finish the game -- it is possible that a romance develops in the late game.
In FFVI, Terra is almost undeniably the main character, and she has no romantic involvement with anyone for the duration of the game. Celes is the only female character that does, I think, and her relationship with Locke is decidedly second string, as plots go.
In FFVII, the romantic entanglement between Cloud and Aeris was fairly contrived, particularly if you spent the whole game playing nice with Tifa. At any rate, I strongly dispute the notion that her most important role in that game was to fall in love with Cloud, considering that she ultimately saves the planet. The relationship between Cloud and Tifa is _entirely_ optional.
In FFVIII, there are is a lot of romantic subplot, but I would argue that the reason for that is that FFVIII is more focused on the relationships between its characters than on the (terrible) plot. I will openly admit that the only thing Rinoa is good for is being Squall's romantic interest, and she's not even very good for that. FFVIII was just a terrible, terrible game in most respects, and I don't feel like it can be considered indicative of any trends in Final Fantasy.
In FFIX, Dagger is admittedly pretty passive. I'll concede on this one. There are certainly other, stronger female characters in the game, but it is true that Dagger serves little purpose other than being a driving but passive romantic plot element.
In FFX, there is definitely a lot of unnecessary snogging, but Yuna and Lulu both stand on their own as strong characters with their own goals and backstory. I don't think it is fair at all to say they are defined by Tidus and Wakka/Chappu, respectively.
We will not speak of the abomination that is FFX-2.
I haven't finished FFXII, and I'm not even far enough through it to say with confidence that Ashe never falls for one of the male characters, so I cannot include it in my assessment.
I would argue that there are _many_ Final Fantasy games with strong female leads who serve purposes above and beyond or even completely external to falling in love with the male lead -- FFVI, one of the most popular (if not the most popular) Final Fantasies being one of the most prominent examples.
J.