I can't talk to my friends about Final Fantasy VIII for a single reason: they played Kingdom Hearts first.
The very first time I passively mentioned Squall, my other friend who is almost as much of a Final Fantasy nerd as me, got INTO the series through Kingdom Hearts. I've tried and tried to get her to call him Squall, but she CONTINUALLY calls him LEON! Me, the only FF Leon I know is Leon from FFII. PLEASE tell me I'm not alone in thinking that this is FF BLASPHEMY!