When you're playing the game do you ever wish that Squall didn't fall for Rinoa?

[MJN SEIFER]

Their my favorite FF couple and two of my favorite FF characters, so no.

[ChickenHeart]

Coulden't agree more, Selphie was a much better choice for a love interest cause she had her home(town) destroyed and her friends die. Rinoha (w.e its name is) "Waaaa i'm a saucearus, i'm so strong, -zap" annoying bitch needed rescueing none stop, did lil selphie? Nope!

[Jiro]

I wanted to see him shag elvoret.

When my rep limit is renewed, I'm back for this post.

I would've liked him to be with Quistis better, she's more of a motherly and caring figure. Squall is smurfed up and needs the help, Rinoa was too needy. However Squall x Quistis is touched on during the game, so I would've liked to at least see more of this triangle.

Although if it spawned something akin to the Cloud-Tifa-Aeris crap, oh man no.

[BG-57]

The Squall-Rinoa paring didn't bother me in of itself: I thought they were a cute couple whose personalities complemented each other. It the way the game no-so-subtly informs us that this is their romantic destiny that bothers me.

That being said, I liked Quistis, but she drops out of any romantic pursuits once Rinoa comes along. Squall with Selphie would have been interesting, but goes totally unexplored.

I do think this was a step up from FFX, where the affection meter with the three female leads makes no difference at all who Tidus winds up with.

[arcanedude34]

I kinda wish they bothered to make any of the PCs likeable. D:

[Jessweeee♪]

I'm cool with it. If it had to be someone else, I'd put him with Selphie though

I like Selphie that was the main reason why I was kind to her in the game.

In fact I like Selphie a hell of a lot more than I like Rinoa but that's just me. I know I'm in the minority here.

This is the FFVIII section. You are definitely not in the minority xD

[MJN SEIFER]

Sadly not. (It's still your opinion, and I respect that) - if anyones in the minority it's me, because I really liked Rinoa's character, I just found her likeable and cool.

[Levian]

It annoyed me more that he kept ignoring her for almost three full discs before it happened.

[Aerith's Knight]

It annoyed me more that he kept ignoring her for almost three full discs before it happened.

This.

And he could have at least done Quistis in the first part of the game. Spoony sums up my thoughts on that in the first parts of his review.

[MJN SEIFER]

It annoyed me more that he kept ignoring her for almost three full discs before it happened.

Except he didn't.

There is a reason Squall's thoughts appear throughout the game - it is our chance to related to him, so we understand how he feels on the situation.

I have another reply on another thread here that might explain things better, although I am eventually going to type up a full article on it, but this will do for now - hang on while I get it.

Ok, here it is - bare in mind it is in context with the original thread.

Well, the key differences are that I liked the characters, and you seemingly didn't - so you may not take what I say seriously, but please, hear me out.

Firstly, I didn't find Rinoa annoying - she's one of my favorite characters in FF. I also noticed the chemistry in the relationship between her and Squall early on in the game, even when they are having their (deliberately) childish fights, which is a given sign in fiction (and real life in some cases). And yes, Squall was "silent", but that was because of his background - he'd been let down so many times in life he had given up expecting anything was going to get better.

It may seam like I'm starving for attention here, but I am just trying to help you understand my point - I actually went through a "Squall" like phase when I was younger (before I played FFVIII) - my life wasn't anywhere near as bad as Squall's, but a lot of things where happening, friends where leaving I was just not very good at making friends - I identified with Squall because of this, I have said this before, but he is my favorite FF character.

Squall is "silent", but we know from his thoughts that he does want to be more open, deep down there are many scenes that without these insights that would make Squall seam a much more uncaring person than he actually is.

Squall doesn't just "suddenly" fall in love with Rinoa - it happens gradually, like most Medias with a storyline FFVIII doesn't have a set timeline, so we don't know how much time has past between their first meeting, and time he acts more caring. Further more, he didn't begin to love her when he was in a coma either - it had been developing through out the game. There is definitely passion during the dance scene, He seams generally concerned for her safety when the Igniouns(sp?) have her cornered, just before the battle starts (even though, to me, they really don't look like they are make that much of an attempt to attack her - infact they look somewhat playful ) After the battle Squall is initially shocked by Rinoa's reaction - he says it's because he assumed she was "used to battles", but I think it's because he isn't used to people displaying emotion in front of him. No one, not even Quistis (who is revealed to have had a crush of sorts on Squall in the past) has shown this much in front of him. His demeanor then changes, he reassures Rinoa, that everything is ok and basically tells her to "stay close to [him]" There is a touching moment in the battle coming up where Rinoa states that she's alright if Squall is by her side - After that battle Squall is almost killed, and Rinoa reacts more directly and personally than anyone else (admittedly the only other people present are Irvine, Seifer and Edea, and none of them are going to react!) If you look at Squall during that scene - he seams to be more focused on Rinoa that anyone, or anything happening in that scene.


In disc two - there are some optional scenes of them together. Squall is still learning how to act around people, but the two of them seem to have neutral understanding of how each other are now, Rinoa makes comments on how Squall is "expected" to act a certain way. When there is a ceremony for Squall becoming the leader there is a very romantic scene between him and Rinoa - we see how close they are now becoming, and once again Squall's thoughts are there to help us understand that Squall has the potential to change and Rinoa is helping him do just that. She seams to be pushing him to talk about something, just to see if he will open up, he of course doesn't, but his thoughts show us, that he is simply scared that if he does then it will all be for nothing - nobody stays around Squall. He's not the kind of person to be loved, but why would he care so much about some one, he supposedly doesn't care about.

I also think the infamous orphanage scene (which, I absolutely loved, but I have a whole article in writing as to why) was semi instrumental in getting Squall to open up more, he has time to think about this even in game time, he had lost so much more than he ever realized, and now sees that every one (sans Rinoa) went through a similar time as him when he was younger, I think he felt a bit more assured then. I also think it gave him more strength to open up with Rinoa.

Then the coma does take place - I didn't find his actions a change in character, I saw it coming. I really thought that Squall was falling in love with Rinoa as far back as disc 1 although I think that might have been more "I find her interesting" type of love, at first, but as time went by (remember we don't know the exact timeline) they got closer, and his love for her developed, he just needed to accept that he felt something for her, and get over his fears of losing someone again. You basically have to read between the lines sometimes - this is a shortened version on why I found Squall and Rinoa such a compelling couple, I may right a full article on it one day (it will take a while, so don't expect it to be instant - I do so many projects at once).

Thanks for reading this, I'm sorry if it was long, but it needed to be.

[Jessweeee♪]

Personally, I didn't find her annoying. I found her to be a seventeen year old girl.

My only problem with the Rinoa thing is that if they were going to make it a love story, they could have played up the love triangle with Seifer a little more xD

It's like. "Oh okay forget that Seifer guy I like Squall now 'cause he saved me from monsters "

[Rantz]

I agree with ♪ on all accounts!

[The Fat Bioware Nerd]

You know I once read a very well written fan-fictional story where Rinoa is actually Squall's long lost illegitimate half-sister because that stupid bitch Julia Heartilly met up with Laguna Loire again and slept with him even though she was married to General Caraway.

It was such an unique twist that I could actually imagine that crap taking place in the game itself. And it was so suspenseful I kept wondering when the hell somebody was gonna tell Squall that he was banging his own half-sister.

But sadly I forgot the title of that story because it was taking the author way too long to get to the big reveal part of the fic where Squall discovers his incestuous relationship. And quite frankly I lost interest after a while.

But then again the premise was pretty cool and I can imagine a plot twist like that taking place in the finished game product. And maybe it should been a part of the actual game because then FFVIII would've been about family instead of a silly "opposites attract" love story brought on by "Destiny"

[ChickenHeart]

Another thing that ticks me off about rinoa, is shes a fun character i'll give her that, but she needs rescueing so much :(. I don't mind rescueing her once...but after that :@. i also think she should of had magic bangles instead of a shurikun type weapon, a mix between bangle/gloves, would have made me like her as much as tifa :/

[MJN SEIFER]

Another thing that ticks me off about rinoa, is shes a fun character i'll give her that, but she needs rescueing so much . I don't mind rescueing her once...but after that :@. i also think she should of had magic bangles instead of a shurikun type weapon, a mix between bangle/gloves, would have made me like her as much as tifa :/

But the thing you need to remember about FFVIII (and the majority of FFs, but VIII was the one that did it best in my opinion) is that the team was just that ateam and each one of them needed saving at some point - Zell needs saving, Rinoa needs saving, anyone who's at the Missile Base needs saving, Hell, even SQUALL needed saving - and he's the main character! You see what I'm saying? You shouldn't single out Rinoa, becuase it is just a way to humanize the characters, by putting them in situations where they can't go alone, and need help from their friends, because we all do at some point.

Rinoa needed saving thrice, admitidly more so than most characters, but those occasions are so far from each other, it's ok - the closest one to her is Squall, who needed saving twice, and one of those times it was Rinoa who saves him.