Seifer-Just a plot advancing device?

[Kain_Highwind]

Heh. I'm sorry I brought the whole "1, 2, 3" thing into this. Because everyone seems to be basing their comments on that structure. Here goes.

My mistake, Licence. All I remember was the battle on the float, the one in Galbadia Garden, and the one in the Lunatic Pandora. Of course, I haven't played through in awhile, so I'm probably wrong.

Just out of wondering, I noticed your username is Kain from FFIV, so do you like Seifer seeing as he has a lot of similarities to Kain?

Now that you bring it up, I'm noticing for the first time that they're not just similar, Seifer's patterned almost identically after Kain (except Kain doesn't have a temper shorter than a two-year-old with a growth defect). They're both the "other guy who doesn't get any" in some kind of love triangle, they're both rivals of the main characters of their respective games, and they both betray the party at some point. I don't know, Kain was definitely my favorite character from FF4, but Seifer wasn't my fave in FF8, Squall was (go figure). But I guess I like them both because they're both much, much deeper than meets the eye. They have so many reasons for their actions: rivalry, love, a desire to prove themselves, a desire for strength, and so on. They're as human as human can be. They don't always make the right decisions. Hell, they rarely make the right decisions. But they do what they feel they must. And they work hard for that. They are much more complicated and difficult for the player to understand than your usual Final Fantasy hero (Cecil, Squall, Tidus, etc.), and that's probably why I like them both.

2. Character development Squall begins to notice there is more at stake than just proving to Seifer that he's better than him.

3. No. His previous motivations still do apply. His motivation from the beginning of the game is to become a Sorceress' Knight (see the Dollet scene, "One day I'll tell you about my romantic dream!"). He becomes a Knight and does Ultimecia's bidding, that's what a Knight does. How is this losing his previous motivations? Besides, in the final fight with Seifer, when his clothes are all tattered and his stance broken down, it's really very parallel to Seifer's mental state at that time also, broken down and tattered.

I know this is getting long, but bear with me. While it is true that Squall realizes there is more at stake, I find it difficult to believe that a rivalry as intense as the opening fmv suggests just fades into nonexistence and that Squall just ceases to care about the guy who gave him that fairly noticeable scar on his forehead. And the guy who originally had the love of his life. As for Seifer's motivations, I like to believe that he originally joins Edea (Ulti) for much more complex reasons. Yes, he wants to become the sorceress' knight, but I also think that his feelings toward Squall, Rinoa, Balamb Garden, and SeeD very much apply. I like to think that the most major part of his change is revenge. That he is almost completely driven by frustration, anger, envy, and the desire to prove himself to Rinoa, and that he wants to pay all of the previously mentioned people/organizations (except Rinoa) back for his humiliation. This, however, is another matter of opinion.

Once again, haven't played in awhile; don't recall the tattered clothes thing. I also didn't have Rinoa in my party when I faced Seifer, so I don't really know about that conversation. And I'm going to stay out of the whole Squall/Rinoa thing right now, since it wasn't originally my intent to go too deeply into that and I'll clearly make a lot of enemies if I do. All I'll say is that I think f f freak was kidding about the 10 minutes thing, it was more like about 10 in-game hours (Uh-oh, there's that sarcasm again! Shame on me)

Sorry about the ridiculously long response that most of you (if not all) won't read. And sorry if I sound patronizing or anything, I don't mean to.