Just a quick blurb on a few of my favorites.

[annwyd]

Final Fantasy VIII
The Entire Damn Cast: I don't have the energy right now to write up specific defenses, but the cast of FFVIII is my favorite in all FF, and yet I see them getting bashed--individually or as a whole--all the time. Yes, Rinoa can be self-absorbed and needs to be rescued a lot. Yes, Squall is full of angst and very withdrawn. Yes,

Comments

[slayerofgod]

Amen to the FFVIII thing. While they're not my favorite FF cast(X has that honor), I'm still rather fond of them, especially Squall.

[autophanous]

Re: Rukia & Aizen.

WORD WORD WORD.

I'm glad you got to these two; I was planning to do them myself, but couldn't get my thoughts together.

Aizen is one of my favorite villains ever. I adore that contrast between 100% evil and looks like the guy next door. The man's brilliant and powerful, and most importantly, he's totally screwing with the main characters. Don't get me wrong - I love the good guys to pieces, but fighting someone like Aizen takes the drama to a whole new level.

As for Rukia - HELLO! MAJOR TRAUMA HERE! Not to mention that she's wearing a collar that suppresses her spiritual power. You can't really blame her for not wanting to do much at this point in time. I want to see her kick ass as much as the next person, but for now, I'm content to watch the psychological drama. It's pretty damn interesting in its own right.

[annwyd]

Aizen is fast approaching one of my favorite villains ever, too. Contrasts and duality are what gets me into a character, and his are fascinating. Not to mention how completely he messed with everyone else's minds--that just takes balls. ;)

[avianthropy]

I don't know anything about FFVIII, but I agree with you on Sasuke, Rukia, and Aizen. Sasuke and Rukia are characters I've been especially annoyed with the bashing/criticizing of lately. I have issues with Sasuke because of some of the things he chose to do, but I mostly just feel sorry for him. And I don't understand bashing him just because "he's angsty." Yeah, he is angsty. But he has a good reason for it. What happened to him isn't something you can just have a good cry about and then move on with your life. It's psychologically damaging. I really don't think he can help being angsty, any more than Naruto can help the fact that he has the Kyuubi in him... it happened because of outside forces, and just because it's mental instead of physical doesn't mean it's able to be cured any more easily.

I love Rukia. She's an interesting and strong character, and I've only found her more interesting since she returned to Soul Society for her execution. I'm actually extremely glad she's acting the way she is right now, instead of being some

[annwyd]

Oh, I totally understand 'hating' the villain. Hell, that's how I feel about Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist. But it's the love-to-hate kind, and that's the sort of hate a villain should inspire. :)

[ex_akai_sen]

...But I LOVE Rukia!

Of all the Bleach females, I was expecting Orihime to get bashed, honestly.

[annwyd]

She probably does, and it's really sad, because while Orihime is not of a character type that I usually care for much, I do really like her. But Bleach isn't the wankiest of fandoms (at least compared to my other fandoms), so maybe there's not too much Orihime-bashing.

I love Rukia too. She's one of my favorite female characters in my anime/manga fandoms. :)

[crystalcattail]

I thought everybody in FFVIII's cast was likeable :) They had endearing traits to counteract their flaws, which were realistic ones. I often see them bashed as a group because of the orphanage plot twist, even though it's not their fault.

[annwyd]

Yeah, I love the depth they got, and the general likability of all of them--even including their flaws. So it's just kind of disappointing to me that so many of them are so frequently bashed.