Why Does Everyone Hate Rinoa?

[Squall of SeeD]

Rinoa is tied with Rikku of X and X-2 as being my favorite Final Fantasy character, yet I'll explain why a lot of folks find her annoying:

1) Having to rescue her several times. She places herself in situations in which she either endangered a mission being conducted by trained professionals, or stood in place while the floor broke under her and the trained professionals in the vicinity moved away.

In her defense, she did these things out of the goodness of her heart as she wanted to help others and be of use. As far as it goes, during the assassination attempt in Deling City, the mission could have still been carried out just fine if Irvine hadn't hesitated. Everyone was where they were supposed to be at the right time, but Irvine not taking the shot as the gates fell and trapped Edea was why the mission failed. For that matter, why would anyone have wanted the mission to succeed? Edea raised these kids and was being possessed. If she had been killed, her soul would have just been doomed to eternal suffering for her having not passed on the Sorceress Power before her death, and the Embodiment would have just left her body and gone into another poor woman that Ultimecia would have possessed.

As for the battle between the Gardens, most folks would have wanted a say in whether or not they died. I know I would have rather been on the battlefield wielding a weapon and having a say in my fate instead of hiding in a dormitory.


2) She gets herself possessed due to tagging along in Galbadia Garden, thus causing two more "rescue Rinoa" scenarios to take place later. People conveniently forget that all of the "rescue Rinoa" scenarios after the first one had direct effects on everything playing out as it did, meaning her needing to be rescued actually saved the world.

Cases in point:

When Squall had to rescue her during the conflict between the Gardens, in doing so, he landed nearby an entrance to Galbadia Garden and was able to enter and end the conflict by defeating Edea.

With Rinoa being possessed, Squall took her to Esthar where the Lunatic Pandora happened to be raised, putting SeeD in a position to do something about it.

When Squall dove into space to catch Rinoa, this event allowed the couple to secure the Ragnarok, which they would later use to blast their way into Lunatic Pandora (something that couldn't have been achieved otherwise), rescue Ellone, defeat Adel, and enact the plan that allowed them to defeat Ultimecia.

As for freeing her from the Sorceress Memorial goes, that was more or less everyone else's idea, as she was content to remain there. And, as before, her being rescued allowed everything to turn out is it did.


3) "She's so pushy/She's all over Squall/She's so clingy."

Many folks hold these things against her, even while they praise Aerith who did the same things with Cloud in VII. There's really not much to say in her defense here. You either like that personality trait or you don't. I personally do.


4) "She ruined Squall! He was such a badass! She turned him into a lovesick, bleeding heart wimp!"

People tend to cite her "ruination" of Squall as one of the big reasons for hating her, failing to keep in mind that if she hadn't taught him the value of loving others, he would have faded from existance when Time Compression took effect, as it was love and friendship that allowed Squall and the others to travel to the future without vanishing.

And that's assuming that they would have ever been in that situation in the first place, as Squall may not have gone to all the trouble of taking her to Esthar to begin with had he not fallen in love with her.

For that matter, I imagine Squall's happier being... happy, than he was being not.

(Note: This information compiled after spending one year as a member of Gaia Online.)


So, in summary, people hate Rinoa for usually ridiculus reasons. The only sensible one is that her personality just clashes with their own.


-Edit-

I dislike Rinoa simply because of her personality. She seems very selfish to me, and because of that, I dislike her. I usually had her on my team, though, because her limit breaks with Angelo were some of the most useful in the game.

Ah, I forgot to mention this reason. I never understood this one, myself. She did all the things she did because she wasn't selfish. She didn't have to fight for Timber's liberation obviously, and she willingly chose to let herself be confined by Esthar forever so as to keep the world safe.

Could you explain, Abom?