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[dancingspiral]

Squall Isn't Emo! (And Other FF8 Characterization Issues)

Squaresoft created a game that presented so many often overlooked opportunities with Final Fantasy VIII. Major plot holes that beg to be filled aside, we have characters with just enough definition to be unique and more than enough room to be expanded on that are often lumped into horrifying

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Squall and Rinoa

[malu_chan]

Hi, this is my first post. I've watched this community for a LOONG time and finally decided to join and post. On to the topic at hand, I do understand that most of FF8 characters' conduct and characteristics are defined by their childhood traumas and age. Nevertheless, I've had problems with Rinoa and Squall (not as a couple). I was a teenager when I first played the game. Back then I didn't like Squall's emo-ish personality and absolutely HATED Rinoa's guts. I thought Squall was selfish and actually mean to the people who tried time and time again to make him feel better. My initial bad response to Rinoa, I think, was guttural. As a girl gamer I found her characterization bordering on insulting. To me she wasn't bubbly, she was bordering neurotic. Selphie was bubbly, Rinoa was plain weird. The thing that threw me off was the way she moved, it was a little... bizarre. She moved like a puppet or a clown. Most of the time when she was talking to Squall, she was trying to use humor to cheer him up, but somehow it looked like she was making fun of him for sulking.

I realize now I was too harsh with Squall and Rinoa. I recently played the game again and Squall didn't get on my nerves. He was still emo, but it was clearly a front and while he wasn't nice to other most of the game, I could appreciate his predicament more. As an adult now I realize just how horrible his situation was. When I played the game again I realized just how unfair it was to put him in a leadership position in a military setting. A teenager shouldn't have to make life-or-death decisions, specially where other people will be affected. It was UNFAIR of Cid (and later on, Medea) to put Squall in charge of Balamb Garden. Breeding children up as soldiers is deplorable. They could have recruited them for active duty when they were older. With the amount of stress Squall was under, I'm surprised he didn't go completely crazy and crashed the Garden against a mountain.

Now, on to Rinoa... I still don't like her much. But my reasons for not liking her changed. Rinoa was basically having a temper tantrum against her father when she joined the Timber revolution. I think this is reprehensible, on so many ways... These people where fighting for independence and here she is meddling just because she has daddy issues. This is too selfish for words. They could die while she's playing revel army.

I'll give it to her that she sobered up when she saw how serious Seeds were and what fighting was really like. She started caring for a cause and actually made a conscious decision to risk her life to fight against Medea. She matured a lot throughout the game. I think Squaresoft was trying to make her cute, but it still needed some work. Dagger from FF9 was cute and less annoying (except when her emotional problems made her almost unplayable during some portions of the game). I think they got it right with Yuna.

All in all the only consistent problem with FF8 is the gaping plot holes that were patched up rather badly. What are the probabilities that all those orphans managed to find each other again without memories of each other (except Irvine) and fight against their matron, of all people? Almost all of the important people they meet on their journey are connected in one way or the other with Squall or Laguna's past. It's a small world after all...