Initially I mentioned Xu, Rinoa, Edea, Quistis and Adel.

Women posses the pinnacle of all the areas in FF8 i.e. military, love, leadership and dictatorships. I loved FF8 for this reason it reinforced history to show that although women are in general less powerful than men, In some cases they are the MOST powerful figures in the world. Cleopatra, Elizabeth I and Queen Margarthe I of Denmark are examples of the woman’s ability to crush and win, to build lasting empires. These women make Hitler, Napoleon and even the great Cao Cao look weak.

My point.... FF7, 9 and 10 had unconventional male characters to stir up the mainstream (a baddie should be big and tough) BUT Square has desperately overdone this stereotype to death and I think you have to agree with me on this point...sure Sephiroth was semi original as far as FF goes but definitely not Japanese anime (Sephiroth type villains are the norm in Jap Anime). Where as FF8 gave the aspiring historians amongst us something to critically analyse, despotic rulers rather than apocalyptic madmen as in FF7 and FF9 AND FF10 let me guess FF 12 as well. LOL

I think saying that "most players are male and this is why they chose female villains" denies the brilliant depth that FF8 goes into. To the historian, the Female power figure has a much larger impact than the male villain.

I was hoping for some character analysis or perhaps some thing about women that I missed.... I cannot help it if some of my posts are occasionally non-sensical, but they contain insights which are very difficult to translate. I prefer to work as a device of inspiration so I try to put everything down (so people can comment on more topics in greater detail than I can) in a thread.

Next week Ill start a new tread but it deals with the GFs and how squalls attitude at the start shapes our opinions about them. In a normal RPG the "magical forces" are given a god like status see FF7, 9 and 10 for example. Yet FF8 reflects our own ignorance of the divine realm. When Squall tells Quistus that he forgot to junction....A moron could say that "this was just an excuse to show the player how to junction" whereas the aspiring academic would see it as a subconscious trigger...Analogous to someone forgetting their keys.
When we become familiar with things we become apathy sets in NOW when apathy sets in we forget. GFs are so every day in FF8 that they have been pushed into insignificance, and this is very relevant to me.

This is a very detailed literary theme "the idea of the familiar" FF8 used it brilliantly. Initially I dealt hard treatment to the other FF games, and although these other titles were very enjoyable as far as "high" literature goes they have problems cutting it. It is almost a shame that FF8 is a game because it will never attract the older academic audience it could have as a novel.