What does Cecil see in Rosa?

[arcanedude34]

First five sentences are a lie.

Rest of the first paragraph ignores that she comforted Cecil all through his time as a Dark Knight, a stable reminder of love and light, especially the kind he has hidden deep inside him, in a time of blood-stained sins. It forgets she went after him across the desert by herself rather than, like some weepy, weak women would do, waiting back home sobbing over the assumed tragic loss of her love. It fails to recognize the role she had in Rydia getting over her fear of fire so they could reach Fabul, and how her very existence and arrival in the crystal room in Fabul at the perfect moment (if you consider the entire set of events, she likely heard how dire it was and rushed to help him from that) kept Kain and Golbez from killing everyone in the party that day.

Your second paragraph misconstrues my entire point. The SPECIFIC white mage stereotype embodied in Rosa BEGAN with Rosa. Characters similar to her with various mixes of traits and personality quirks have existed in fiction prior to this game, but she is the first female lead in the series to offer this exact mix. As a result, she is the template upon which all later characters in her role are based. Yes, Aeris too. But while we're on this thread, they say there's no such thing as a new story, only a new way of telling it. If Rosa is as unoriginal as you claim, so is any character you've ever liked.

Third paragraph is a cover.

I already know any attempt to get you to look deeper into Rosa is doomed to fail, much as I wish I could naively believe otherwise. You busted right out the gate with how much you think Rosa sucks, and I know psychology. The more you repeat something, the more strongly you hold on to it, the truer it is. You aren't coming into this with an open mind. You're coming into it certain that Rosa is a terrible character, and you'll be seeking every way you can to prove that remains the case. This is not an accusation that you knowingly don't want to see more to her, it's me telling you that when you've already made up your mind on an issue, you go through confirmation bias, even subconsciously. And with this character, it's easy to twist everything from a strength into a weakness. I saw one person do it superbly to the point where she sounded more villainous than Golbez.

I don't see how "I'm sick of..." is a statement of knowing it's viewpoint, but that seems like a non-issue to me beyond that it shows you already made up your mind about her, which blinds you to the possibility that you might not have a full picture of who Rosa is and what she's like. "Truth" is subjective in most cases, sure, but you can't strive to the closest thing you can get to an objective perspective if you already "know" with this much certainty that you're right.

First sentence fails to give any reason, instead hinging on your beliefs, so will be disregarded. There is nothing more to Rosa than her "love her friends, hate the bad guy" "personality" which is extremely thin no matter which way you slice it.

I admit Rosa did help Cecil through his times of hardness as a DK, and was probably the only one who could have done it. That doesn't give any reason why anyone should like her more. By that logic, everyone should love Palom and Porom because they helped Cecil gain the trust of Mysidia to travel back to Baron and they were the only ones who could have done it.

After that though, she becomes much less important. Rydia probably would have overcome her fears even if Rosa had not been there. It probably would have been better for everyone had Rosa not gone after Cecil in the desert, as her stupidity ended up forcing Cecil and friends to abandon their quest to protect the world from Baron for quite some time while they trecked through three dungeons and two boss battles, just to heal her(imagine if some soldier's wife ran out in the middle of a battlefield in Iraq because she missed him, then got shot, and they had to postpone the war so she could get proper medical treatment.). There's no reason why Golbez wouldn't have killed the rest of the party after kidnapping Rosa, if that's what he wanted to do. Rosa in actuality only gave Golbez time to think that it would be better to leave Cecil and co. alive to get the rest of the crystals for him.

Your "she is the first of the stereotype to have healing magic" argument is just stupid.The reason I brought that up was because you said people hated Rosa for being a stereotype. You argued that she wasn't, but was rather a starter of the stereotype. I argued that she was the first of her kind in an FF game, but was still a stereotype, which is a valid reason for disliking a character. You then proceeded to argue that if it hadn't been done in an FF game specifically, then it was somehow new and fresh and not a stereotype. Fact is, she's a stereotype. No stereotype is instantly bad, but what if (get ready to wrap your mind around this) there were certain stereotypes... that not everybody liked!! I for one know more than most people that there are no new ideas out there, but that's not to say all ideas are good ideas.

Advice: don't ever get into suicide hotline as a career. I can see you now. "Well, you're already saying you're gonna kill yourself, so nothing I say or do will change your mind. Thanks for calling Suicide Hotline!" One thing that's become blatantly obvious is that you yourself have a vehemently closed mind, and refuse to take any criticism towards Rosa. Heaven forbid you acknowledge that there are people who don't like her. All my arguments are stating how I dislike her, not why everyone else should dislike her.

I also love who you have to convince yourself that anyone who disagrees with you is, instead of holding a valid opinion, just tricking themselves. Suddenly if I'm not in love with a character who's as deep as the shallow end of a thimble, I'm blinding myself to the truth. Nice.

I can't help but compare you to FFVII fanboys who would kill someone and their dog for making fun of Cloud, or (dare I say it?) a religious folk.