Undermining the Heroine: The Perpetuation of Romance and Male Authority in Final Fantasy.
Before we begin: I fully admit to a bias of liking, or wanting to like, female characters. Also, spoilers for FF 9, 10, 10-2, and 12.
That said, Final Fantasy has its share of ambitious female characters. What we must remember then, first that any ambition that is not romantic in nature is typically seen by our society as unfeminine, and that the Final Fantasy games are created by a male group of designers for a male audience, so that the female characters are part of the fantasy elment of the game instead of relatable characters. So in games, where the female is in power, or is the dominant force for change, her hopes and aspirations must be tempered, or else she risks either threatening the audience or becoming unfeminine, and therefore unappealing. Therefore, what we see in the Final Fantasy 9, 10, and 12 canons are the ways in which strong, or potentially strong, heroines are subverted into something that appeals to male players.
Final Fantasy 9
I have always believed that the kingdom of Alexandria in Final Fantasy 9 is matriarchal. The monarchy seems to matrilineal, or else Garnet would have been made queen when her father dies, instead of Brahne remaining queen. And then of course, we see the military. The Knights of Pluto are the only male force, and they are more of a local guard compared to the all-female forces of the army led by Beatrix. So both the political and military spheres in Alexandra are female dominant. Yet, both Brahne and Garnet are defined through men.
Brahne is ugly and aggressive, and her character is ultimately defined by men. That she is fat and ugly allows us to neither take her seriously as a villain or a sympathetic character. As Garnet says, Brahne's personality is a result of the death of her father and Kuja's manipulations. So, even a woman who is not designed to be appealing, cannot have innate aggression, something we will see many times. And, as for Garnet herself. We are supposed to see her as a contrast from her mother. Brahne is ugly. Garnet is beautiful. Brahne is aggressive. Garnet is submissive. Her acts of defiance either turn into submission (as in the opening scene, where she asks Zidane to kidnap her after she has led him on a long chase), or lead from submission (as in the scene where she puts sleeping potion into everyone's food, so she can go back to Alexandria). Later in the game, the character of Garnet is further distanced from Brahne-they are not biological mother and daughter. Even in as products of a female-dominant empire, the women, and Garnet in particular, are turned into male-defined, male-dominated characters.
To look at Garnet's individual situation, the game dismisses almost everything that is not related to her developing romance between her and Zidane. Over the course of the game, she must: find a way to stop her mother and Kuja's insanity from destroying everything, cope with the sudden death of her mother and the loss of her kingdom, come to terms with her past, and finally, rule over and restore her kingdom, even though she must be grieving for Zidane as well. To me, this shows an incredible amount of personal strength that gets ignored for an “I Want to be Your Canary” scene and Zidane's romantic vision of her as a princess to be rescued. She becomes a bastion of femininity in a society that could otherwise be threatening to men.
Final Fantasy 10/10-2
Spira has its share of strong women or women in dominant positions, Yuna included. By the end, of FFX-2, she is pretty much guaranteed an almost mythical status for the next 1000 years at least. Yet, she retains many passive 'feminine' traits so as to remain non-threatening. She is humble and soft-spoken. She prefers bargaining to force. She does nothing for her own sake; all that personal strength of hers goes towards helping others, even at the cost of her own life. And even her inner resolve and acts of defiance are defined or influenced by men.
Yuna becomes a summoner to emulate her father and seeks to embody his ideal. Throughout the game, we see that she chooses to make her journey almost parallel to her father's, taking on one of his former guardians and the son of his other one. Her ultimate choice to defy Yunalesca and fight the tradition of Spira stems from what her father would have chosen. But let's not discount the role young Tidus plays in influencing Yuna's defiance of Yunalesca. He is the outsider; he sees and refuses to accept what is fundamentally flawed about Spira. He infects Yuna with the idea and the hope that things really can change, who gives her a reason to defy authority. So Yuna, in FFX, with her immense inner strength and determination, has her goals and ideals defined by the men in her life, even though she is a hero in her own right.
And then...the much maligned FFX-2. We see Yuna coming into her own. Over the course of the Calm, we see a woman who needs to be doing something. At the end of FFX international, the Another Story, Yuna is bored. She's saved the world, and now she asks herself, “Is this it?” When Rikku brings her the sphere of “Tidus,” Yuna realizes that she can do more, that she does not just have to settle down. While we can argue that she goes off only to search for Tidus, I believe that given another similarly compelling sphere that indicated a possible story, or even just the thought that other people needed her help, Yuna would have set off on her adventure.
FFX-2 is huge on the idea of choice. As the player, we control Yuna and Spira's destiny, to the point where we can even let Vegnagun destroy Spira. We choose whether Yuna responds to Tidus's call, and her ultimate choice to see him again or let him go. The game maintains the illusion that she searches for him, that finding him her ultimate driving force, but in the end, the journey is something Yuna undergoes for herself. She has the innate desire to help people, and to preserve that which she worked so hard in the first game to keep.
And yet, even this is subverted. Who pays attention to a woman striking out on a journey to discover herself when there's a distant romantic interest and booty shorts? Who cares that she's chosen to stop all this sacrificing, when there's corny music? The glitzy surface of FFX-2 does not easily allow us to see Yuna's character development. And we can all dismiss the game as just fanservice.
Final Fantasy 12
I haven't finished the game yet, although I have done everything but the final dungeon. Ashe is an irregularity for FF heroines in that romance does not obviously dominate or define her role. She has an interest in restoring Dalmasca and taking revenge on the people who harmed her. It's her single mindedness in pursuing this vision that has, in many people's mind, personified her as a 'bitch' or 'unlikable'. Yet, this is what I love about her. I get an impression in the FF10 and FF9 worlds, that Yuna and Garnet have to be loved within the context of that world, but Ashe herself, can be a subject of a wide variety of emotional reactions.
Yet...even Ashe is portrayed as being driven by romance. Before the death of her father and husband and her false death, we see no indication that Ashe is in anyway unfeminine. She is a happy, healthy, young woman who is perfectly content with her life as it is. Only after she's been traumatized and loses everything, does Ashe become abrasive and aggressive. Furthermore, her ambition to restore and regain her kingdom takes second fiddle to her compulsion to follow Rasler's ghost.
In addition, even Ashe's genuine authority is undermined by her connection to Rasler. When choosing between doing what will give her the most power, and what the game presents as the 'right' thing, it's not presented as a straightforward choice like we might see from a male character in her position. No, it's presented as a choice between being able to restore her kingdom and destroy her enemies or doing what the real Rasler would have wanted. So even Ashe's genuine authority is undermined by her romantic interest.
Conclusion:
From these three cases, and I'm sure we can see this in other installments, the main heroines do not exist only as a romantic interest to their leading male. They have their own ambitions, their own problems, and their own strengths and weaknesses, some of which aren't 'feminine' at all. The focus on romance then, can explain away their non-feminine traits, because their romantic feelings influenced them. So too, can many of the deeper aspects of their characters be ignored for the sake of their romantic relationship or dismissed as being part of the romantic interaction.
That said, Final Fantasy has its share of ambitious female characters. What we must remember then, first that any ambition that is not romantic in nature is typically seen by our society as unfeminine, and that the Final Fantasy games are created by a male group of designers for a male audience, so that the female characters are part of the fantasy elment of the game instead of relatable characters. So in games, where the female is in power, or is the dominant force for change, her hopes and aspirations must be tempered, or else she risks either threatening the audience or becoming unfeminine, and therefore unappealing. Therefore, what we see in the Final Fantasy 9, 10, and 12 canons are the ways in which strong, or potentially strong, heroines are subverted into something that appeals to male players.
Final Fantasy 9
I have always believed that the kingdom of Alexandria in Final Fantasy 9 is matriarchal. The monarchy seems to matrilineal, or else Garnet would have been made queen when her father dies, instead of Brahne remaining queen. And then of course, we see the military. The Knights of Pluto are the only male force, and they are more of a local guard compared to the all-female forces of the army led by Beatrix. So both the political and military spheres in Alexandra are female dominant. Yet, both Brahne and Garnet are defined through men.
Brahne is ugly and aggressive, and her character is ultimately defined by men. That she is fat and ugly allows us to neither take her seriously as a villain or a sympathetic character. As Garnet says, Brahne's personality is a result of the death of her father and Kuja's manipulations. So, even a woman who is not designed to be appealing, cannot have innate aggression, something we will see many times. And, as for Garnet herself. We are supposed to see her as a contrast from her mother. Brahne is ugly. Garnet is beautiful. Brahne is aggressive. Garnet is submissive. Her acts of defiance either turn into submission (as in the opening scene, where she asks Zidane to kidnap her after she has led him on a long chase), or lead from submission (as in the scene where she puts sleeping potion into everyone's food, so she can go back to Alexandria). Later in the game, the character of Garnet is further distanced from Brahne-they are not biological mother and daughter. Even in as products of a female-dominant empire, the women, and Garnet in particular, are turned into male-defined, male-dominated characters.
To look at Garnet's individual situation, the game dismisses almost everything that is not related to her developing romance between her and Zidane. Over the course of the game, she must: find a way to stop her mother and Kuja's insanity from destroying everything, cope with the sudden death of her mother and the loss of her kingdom, come to terms with her past, and finally, rule over and restore her kingdom, even though she must be grieving for Zidane as well. To me, this shows an incredible amount of personal strength that gets ignored for an “I Want to be Your Canary” scene and Zidane's romantic vision of her as a princess to be rescued. She becomes a bastion of femininity in a society that could otherwise be threatening to men.
Final Fantasy 10/10-2
Spira has its share of strong women or women in dominant positions, Yuna included. By the end, of FFX-2, she is pretty much guaranteed an almost mythical status for the next 1000 years at least. Yet, she retains many passive 'feminine' traits so as to remain non-threatening. She is humble and soft-spoken. She prefers bargaining to force. She does nothing for her own sake; all that personal strength of hers goes towards helping others, even at the cost of her own life. And even her inner resolve and acts of defiance are defined or influenced by men.
Yuna becomes a summoner to emulate her father and seeks to embody his ideal. Throughout the game, we see that she chooses to make her journey almost parallel to her father's, taking on one of his former guardians and the son of his other one. Her ultimate choice to defy Yunalesca and fight the tradition of Spira stems from what her father would have chosen. But let's not discount the role young Tidus plays in influencing Yuna's defiance of Yunalesca. He is the outsider; he sees and refuses to accept what is fundamentally flawed about Spira. He infects Yuna with the idea and the hope that things really can change, who gives her a reason to defy authority. So Yuna, in FFX, with her immense inner strength and determination, has her goals and ideals defined by the men in her life, even though she is a hero in her own right.
And then...the much maligned FFX-2. We see Yuna coming into her own. Over the course of the Calm, we see a woman who needs to be doing something. At the end of FFX international, the Another Story, Yuna is bored. She's saved the world, and now she asks herself, “Is this it?” When Rikku brings her the sphere of “Tidus,” Yuna realizes that she can do more, that she does not just have to settle down. While we can argue that she goes off only to search for Tidus, I believe that given another similarly compelling sphere that indicated a possible story, or even just the thought that other people needed her help, Yuna would have set off on her adventure.
FFX-2 is huge on the idea of choice. As the player, we control Yuna and Spira's destiny, to the point where we can even let Vegnagun destroy Spira. We choose whether Yuna responds to Tidus's call, and her ultimate choice to see him again or let him go. The game maintains the illusion that she searches for him, that finding him her ultimate driving force, but in the end, the journey is something Yuna undergoes for herself. She has the innate desire to help people, and to preserve that which she worked so hard in the first game to keep.
And yet, even this is subverted. Who pays attention to a woman striking out on a journey to discover herself when there's a distant romantic interest and booty shorts? Who cares that she's chosen to stop all this sacrificing, when there's corny music? The glitzy surface of FFX-2 does not easily allow us to see Yuna's character development. And we can all dismiss the game as just fanservice.
Final Fantasy 12
I haven't finished the game yet, although I have done everything but the final dungeon. Ashe is an irregularity for FF heroines in that romance does not obviously dominate or define her role. She has an interest in restoring Dalmasca and taking revenge on the people who harmed her. It's her single mindedness in pursuing this vision that has, in many people's mind, personified her as a 'bitch' or 'unlikable'. Yet, this is what I love about her. I get an impression in the FF10 and FF9 worlds, that Yuna and Garnet have to be loved within the context of that world, but Ashe herself, can be a subject of a wide variety of emotional reactions.
Yet...even Ashe is portrayed as being driven by romance. Before the death of her father and husband and her false death, we see no indication that Ashe is in anyway unfeminine. She is a happy, healthy, young woman who is perfectly content with her life as it is. Only after she's been traumatized and loses everything, does Ashe become abrasive and aggressive. Furthermore, her ambition to restore and regain her kingdom takes second fiddle to her compulsion to follow Rasler's ghost.
In addition, even Ashe's genuine authority is undermined by her connection to Rasler. When choosing between doing what will give her the most power, and what the game presents as the 'right' thing, it's not presented as a straightforward choice like we might see from a male character in her position. No, it's presented as a choice between being able to restore her kingdom and destroy her enemies or doing what the real Rasler would have wanted. So even Ashe's genuine authority is undermined by her romantic interest.
Conclusion:
From these three cases, and I'm sure we can see this in other installments, the main heroines do not exist only as a romantic interest to their leading male. They have their own ambitions, their own problems, and their own strengths and weaknesses, some of which aren't 'feminine' at all. The focus on romance then, can explain away their non-feminine traits, because their romantic feelings influenced them. So too, can many of the deeper aspects of their characters be ignored for the sake of their romantic relationship or dismissed as being part of the romantic interaction.