Such a double edged sword is profanity. On the one hand, you can use it to make a character seem more vulgar, less refined. On the other hand, many use it as a shortcut to try and instantly identify with the youth of today. When Quentin Tarrantino made every other word in Pulp Fiction unairable, he did it to shock you. Take that at face value, but those are basically the only reasons for using profanity. On the one hand, you could say it's unnecesarry to use because you can tell a story and give a full sense of character without using it. On the other hand, you can say that it IS necesarry to have it in order to make a character believable. Both and neither are true. Unfortunately, in video games, it's used pretty much entirely for the cool factor. Could we made Cid have seemed rough and gritty without having him swear? Yes. Easily. Would people have identified with that? It's hard to say, but probably not nearly as much.

However, this issue leads to a separate yet relevant issue. In the Japanese language, profanity is sort of.... how to put this...... non-existant? There are certainly impolite ways of saying things, but this only makes you seem like you have no class. There are offensive things you can say to someone, but it's the spirit of what you said that makes it offensive. For example, "I'm going to go f*** your mom" is pretty much on equal footing with "your mother is unfaithful to your father". There are also explatives, but there's are not really considered so horribly offensive. The word "kuso" for example, literally translates as s***. At least, that's what my dictionary says. However, the word is never censored. That's because it's considered about as rude as saying "drat". Now, because of this, any time a translator puts profanity in an English translation of something Japanese, he or she is doing it because litteral translations rarely make sense or carry the same meaning. Either that or they're just doing it to be cool. Because of THIS, most Final Fantasy characters aren't going to be very potty mouthed anyway. You know, since Final Fantasy is made in Japan and all.

What do *I* think though? I think if a FF character ever drops the F bomb, I'm going to really lose my faith in the series. I like surly characters, but I don't think they need to curse. We can stay with the basics like "oh damn" and maybe even toss in "away from me, you wench!" once in a while. It's fantasy. In fantasy, you're in another world. A world where scrawny white boys can weild swords bigger than they are, where clowns can destroy the world, and moogles can exist. I think I can handle having characters that don't swear.

P.S. Only reason I censored myself was 'cause this isn't the art/writing forum. I DO believe in free speech.