rionaleonhart | Yes, I've Genuinely Been Waiting For This Age To Make This Entry.

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Yes, I've Genuinely Been Waiting For This Age To Make This Entry.

I turned twenty-two a few weeks ago, and so it seems an appropriate time to post about something that's been troubling me: the ages of female characters in the Final Fantasy series. And videogames in general, and media in general, really, but I'm using the Final Fantasy series in particular to illustrate this problem.

About a year ago,

rimon made an entry asking about the sorts of female characters people wanted to see in videogames. Considering this made me realise that, whilst I could easily name a few significant male videogame characters over thirty, thinking of female characters in the same age range was considerably more tricky.

Curious, I looked up all the humanoid main-party characters in the main-series games from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy XII, disregarding characters such as Fran, who is more than fifty years old but looks much younger on account of not being human.

The ages of the male characters ranged from five to seventy.

The ages of the female characters ranged from five to twenty-two.

I love the Final Fantasy series, but this is ridiculous. Beatrix from IX is twenty-eight (and awesome!) and Edea from VIII must be over thirty, but both of these are temporary party members, playable only very briefly. Permanently playable male characters over the age of twenty-two, meanwhile, include Edward, Edge, Yang, Cid (IV), Tellah, Galuf, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Setzer, Cyan, Strago, Vincent, Cid (VII), Barret, Amarant, Steiner, Wakka, Auron and Basch. That's at least one playable male character older than the oldest female characters in the entire series (Aeris and Lulu*) in every one of these games bar VIII.

And that bothers me. Why do the women always have to be young and pretty? I do love most of the ladies of Final Fantasy, and I don't think for a moment that they're there solely to be attractive; they're characters, with strengths and flaws and insecurities and roles in the plot. But they're limited in age and appearance, and there's no reason for them not to be as physically varied as the men.

I'm not saying that videogames have to stop having young, pretty women in their casts, but would it be too much trouble to include the occasional female character who deviates from that template? Really, now. I don't want to feel that I'm going to be past saving the world from a giant flying whale in a mere twelve months.

* I always thought Lulu was around thirty. I was astonished to realise she was only twenty-two. I mentally age both Lulu and the eighteen-year-old Quistis up eight years when I'm playing their games.

Lulu doesn't look twenty-two, so why make her twenty-two? There's no reason for her not to be thirty. Wakka doesn't look twenty-three, either, so he could have been aged up as well had their romance been a concern.

And, of course, in Final Fantasy X-2 Lulu is twenty-four and, ta-da, no longer a playable character. TWENTY-TWO IS THE ABSOLUTE CUTOFF FOR LADIES TO HAVE ADVENTURES. HERE, HAVE AN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD INSTEAD. I do like Paine very much, but the way in which Lulu is sidelined does seem a bit odd.

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What do you mean, exactly, about how they're portrayed? Can I get some details?

Female characters are often portrayed as magic-using supporters. Main romantic female characters are often your primary White Mages. Take for example, Rosa from FF4, Garnet from FF9, and Yuna from FFX. Aerith of FF7 and Maria from FF2 also bear these development patterns. While they may have offensive abilities (Summoning, for instance), their healing powers render them as your primary support characters. FFX's females are two mages and a thief--heavy combat was all given to males. The hallmarks of Celes, Terra, and Relm in FF6 were that they were magic users. I never played far into FF3 and FF5, but my impression was that female characters are more inclined to the magical Jobs (with the exception of Faris from FF5--who notably crossdresses to create the illusion of strength and power).

Female characters are also often a minority. Only FF5, FF8, FF9 (arguably, since Quinoa is an "it"), FF12, and FF13 have equal numbers of female characters. The all-female cast of FFX-2 were reduced to cheesecake from my understanding, and FF1 and FF3 were originally without female characters at all. All the playable males who permanently died did so in battle or through heroic sacrifices (Josef (FF2), Minwu (FF2), Tellah (FF4), and Galuf (FF5)). However, when the first female playable character dies? Aerith (FF7) is stabbed through the back while praying! No battle, no intentional heroic sacrifice.

Only FF6 and FF13 have female characters share equally in the storyline (and notably, they're both ensemble pieces, rather than truly give a female character the lead--even Ashe, who is arguably the main character of FF12, was not the POV character--instead, Vaan is). A number of female characters achieve little development outside of their male romantic partners, such as Celes of FF6, Rosa of FF4, and Rinoa of FF8. Female characters are often reduced to damsels-in-distress without much chance to redeem themselves by returning the favor. Rosa from FF4 and Rinoa from FF8 seem to be the ones most in need of their boyfriends to rescue them. And as this post suggests, the female characters are all designed to be alluring to male players, given their beauty and scanty outfits.

One of the games that disturbs me the most with its portrayal of women is FF8. Now, I haven't finished a replay of the game in 10 years, so maybe I'm wrong, but until Squall shows up, Rinoa is shown as a silly leader of the Timber Owls and in need of Squall's (a man's) direction. Also, when Squall dismisses Quistis romantically, her importance in the story wanes. Setting aside this, the real villains as I recall? All women with special magical powers that only women can have--powers that render them insane and weak to another's control. Nice message!

These problems are not dealbreakers for me, nor are they exclusive to FF (most media sidelines female characters). I am also not saying that this necessarily makes any of these ladies unlikeable (FF produces a wide variety of loveable female characters, and I adore a great number of the characters I named). On the bright side, FF sometimes does things right. FF4's Rydia has a lot of independence and strength of will. FF7's Tifa often suffers from being too supportive of Cloud, but is still strong--and is notably the first female martial artist (outside of the arbitrary Job system). FF8's Selphie demonstrates she is a leader in FF8, when the party splits up. FF9's Freya kicked a lot of ass. FF12's Ashe and Fran and even Penelo displayed independence and strength. FF13 has fantastic female characters. Lightning is my most favorite character ever. Fang's portrayal is also amazing--finally, a woman got to be the crazy fight-happy badass. Even Vanille was given strength not usually given to characters of her archetype. In fact, what I loved about the game was that your most powerful magic-using support character? Hope, a male! FF13 is not a perfect game, but its portrayal of women was impressive.

I fully admit that these are my opinions and interpretations of the games I've played--there's no obligation to agree with me. And I'd also like to stress that even when the portrayals of the women are problematic, these characters often have many outstanding traits that make them loveable.

First of all:

Your most powerful magic-using support character? Hope, a male!

Oh dear Lord, I think you're reading my mind. I LOVE this. It even goes beyond that, though; he is the only party member to fit the traditional heroine archetype. Vulnerable, needs the protection of the hero (Lightning - and, in fact, Vanille earlier on), serves as the gentle and emotional one who draws the hero out of their shell? He's totally the Aerith to Lightning's Cloud. And the storyline never emasculates him for needing Lightning's protection, or having such a close relationship with his mother, either.

And the other great thing about XIII is that - well, a lot of discussions like this (including your argument) end up implying that traditionally feminine things, from being a support class to being soft-spoken, are inherently weak, and the game trampled all over that. As you mentioned, Vanille is very much the quintessential girly-girl, and she's also one of the biggest movers and shakers in the game. Not just girl power, but girliness power, alongside the traditional (and also very important, don't get me wrong) girl-power archetypes of Fang and Lightning.

While I'm ranting about the three of them, you complained about all the female-fronted games being ensemble pieces. Although this is a very valid argument, the ensemble format of FFXIII basically just split the lead between three awesome ladies.

As to the other games, I'm really not too qualified to talk about them. I do know enough to say that you're right about them being primarily magic users, and your description of FFVIII fits my limited knowledge to a T and does sound amazingly creepy. As to FFVII, when you say Tifa suffers from being too supportive of Cloud - I'm not as familiar with canon as I should be, but you're exactly right: she suffers . It's almost a deconstruction of the silently supportive heroine role, isn't it? Because there really are people who try to do that, and I thought Advent Children , especially, showed how much pain that caused her. I could be wrong, but it seemed to me to be really showing how roles like that actually work, and in doing so made her a totally three-dimensional person. I could be wrong here, or twisting it because I adore her, but that's certainly how I see it.

I do agree that we need at least more nonconventionally attractive women, which might even be happening - have you noticed that in the promotional materials available for FFVersusXIII, Stella has been shown wearing a) a calf-length dress with very modest cleavage, and b)

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First of all:

 Your most powerful magic-using support character? Hope, a male! 

Oh dear Lord, I think you're reading my mind. I LOVE this. It even goes beyond that, though; he is the only party member to fit the traditional heroine archetype. Vulnerable, needs the protection of the hero (Lightning - and, in fact, Vanille earlier on), serves as the gentle and emotional one who draws the hero out of their shell? He's totally the Aerith to Lightning's Cloud. And the storyline never emasculates him for needing Lightning's protection, or having such a close relationship with his mother, either.

And the other great thing about XIII is that - well, a lot of discussions like this (including your argument) end up implying that traditionally feminine things, from being a support class to being soft-spoken, are inherently weak, and the game trampled all over that. As you mentioned, Vanille is very much the quintessential girly-girl, and she's also one of the biggest movers and shakers in the game. Not just girl power, but girliness power, alongside the traditional (and also very important, don't get me wrong) girl-power archetypes of Fang and Lightning.

While I'm ranting about the three of them, you complained about all the female-fronted games being ensemble pieces. Although this is a very valid argument, the ensemble format of FFXIII basically just split the lead between three awesome ladies.

As to the other games, I'm really not too qualified to talk about them. I do know enough to say that you're right about them being primarily magic users, and your description of FFVIII fits my limited knowledge to a T and does sound amazingly creepy. As to FFVII, when you say Tifa suffers from being too supportive of Cloud - I'm not as familiar with canon as I should be, but you're exactly right: she suffers . It's almost a deconstruction of the silently supportive heroine role, isn't it? Because there really are people who try to do that, and I thought Advent Children , especially, showed how much pain that caused her. I could be wrong, but it seemed to me to be really showing how roles like that actually work, and in doing so made her a totally three-dimensional person. I could be wrong here, or twisting it because I adore her, but that's certainly how I see it.

I do agree that we need at least more nonconventionally attractive women, which might even be happening - have you noticed that in the promotional materials available for FFVersusXIII, Stella has been shown wearing a) a calf-length dress with very modest cleavage, and b) <a href="http://www.finalfantasyxiii.net/images/characters/stella-nox-fleuret.jpg" an outfit that would turn no heads if worn on the street? </a> And that her face is less model-pretty than it is really expressive? And the B-cups?

Basically, I think you're really right, but I also think that things are improving, a lot. I'm interested in knowing whether you agree.

Actually, I love that FF13 displayed so much fluidity in its archetypes. I found it itneresting that as you pointed out, Hope displayed feminine archetypes, but Snow's development as a character is almost wholly centered around his female romantic partner! It's like they took the applecart of gender roles and upset the hell out of it. :D

And I agree that even my argument falls prey to pointing out that the stereotypically feminine things are "weak." I totally accept that mistake on my part and apologize for it. What I meant to point out was that FF traditionally associates femininity with passive abilities, caring professions, and depending on males for strength, which is my main complaint.

I can agree that Tifa's suffering might be a deconstruction, but I get the feeling it was unintentional. She is shown as being eternally patient with Cloud and his emotional problems, the quintessential supporter. I adore Tifa (one of my favorites), but I really would have loved it if she Dolphin Kicked his emo ass through a wall once in a while.

Hmm, I see what you mean about Stella. I'm not going to draw any conclusions on her until I play the game. I am concerned that she seems to be the only female character thus revealed. XD

Actually, I do agree that the portrayal of females has improved over the years. I expanded this post, acknowledged your comment on my mistake of suggesting feminine traits equal weakness, and added things that the character limit prevented me from doing so. If you're interested in reading it, it's here (http://imadra-blue.livejournal.com/469553.html).

As to Snow's character development: again, right with you. And something in the other post - although, yes, Nora died, she was still a really key part of the story.

As to the feminine=weak assumption, I knew that wasn't what you meant, but some things carried the connotation.

As to Tifa, I thought the whole "A memory, or us?" conversation in Advent Children was an understated, but distinct, loss of her patience. Yes, she's saying she wants to help him, but she's also telling him to cut the crap. Yes, it is to dolphin-kicking his ass as a haiku is to the Odyssey , but both are valid.

I know we can't draw conclusions on Stella yet, but the incoming data look good. And honestly, they've fed us the names of exactly two characters, and one of them is that of the protagonist. I'm betting more girls will show up, especially as I understand there's a bit of a tradition of having three girls to the party, and it seems they're going to some effort to stick to that.

As to the other post, that's an interesting and disturbing detail about the Sorceresses/Witches. As to Lucrecia being a submissive follower in DoC, I haven't played the game, but isn't that presented as a really bad thing?

I agree Nora was far more key than previous mothers portrayed in the series, but the lack of name for her in introduction and death scenes was notable, since Hope was not itnroduced as "boy" but by his name. And I personally enjoyed the significance of her name.

Oh, I agree the connotation can be found in my argument. Unfortunately, it's very common, since it is the assumption most make about femininity.

Hmm, you have a point about Tifa's statement. I think I need to review both the OGC and AC with this in mind (oh, the horror, to play FF7 again ;)). Though I will always be sympathetic to Yuffie's utter lack of subtlety when she shows up with pointed signs and phone calls both Cloud and Vincent incessantly and constantly tries to crack their shells. That's my girl!

You do have a point about there being more girls, especially since it seems FF Vs. 13 will be a party system! It's just that all we've seen in trailers is one female--that alone tells me something about S-E's marketing department, at least. I do like that Nomura promises Stella will have an unusual role and be unlike other S-E females. This could go badly or it could go really well, but it shows he's aware of something in previous installments. One thing I love about S-E is that they seem to be waking up (unlike the Western companies who keep complaining that they don't use more females because it's more time-consuming and costly--that makes me want to punch them in their face SO HARD).

I added an ETA to the post as I had an interesting conversation with someone who saw the Sorceresses much different than I and believes they're not so negative a presentation of women. I still maintain there's problems, but their views seems quite valid, as well.

And yes, Lucrecia being a follower is presented as a bad thing, but it yet again underscores a notion that being only a poor woman, no wonder she caved to the stress around her. Then again, I'm still resentful of Lucrecia's presentation in DoC. They turned her into Aerith-in-a-labcoat and robbed the character of all self-determination and taking responsibility for her actions. We're supposed to feel sorry for her, I suppose, but I didn't--instead I was angry she never had the strength to stand up to anyone directly. I would have felt sorry for her if she intentionally made mistakes and then felt bad for them (indeed, that would have made her very identifiable to me). Instead, she looks like an overly emotional woman who caved to Hojo and then to her guilt and lacked the strength to face her own mistakes--leaving Vincent, a male, to clean up her mess. At least in the OGC, her locking herself up in crystal seemed like her punishing herself for something she did rather than something others pushed her into. DoC makes her look like all she did her whole life was capitulate. It bugged me big time.

I think it could be argued that Hope was introduced by name because he was a party member and Nora was not, although you have a point to.

As to Tifa and Yuffie, hey - takes all sorts to make a world. Or a good game.

Party system? What have I missed? And although you again have a very good point about the marketing, her screentime is also double that of everyone besides Noctis combined.

And I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with DoC to add anything to that (and I'm probably going to take your word for it since by most accounts it was not the world's best game.) Drat, I was hoping for another cool deconstruction.

I honestly didn't even notice the Nora introduction until

owlmoose pointed out the trends with mothers rarely receiving names or import. I think FF13 took strides to reverse this. I can largely overlook the introduction.

True, true. Both Tifa and Yuffie (and also Aerith) have differing personalities and methods. I guess I just grow frustrated with the way Cloud treats Tifa a lot. Then again, I'm an aggressive girl. I do not hesitate to raise my voice when people I love upset me. XD

I had heard that there would be a party system in FF Versus 13, but it seems I'm either getting confused or just plain wrong. Nothing has been revealed about a party system yet, just some speculation. So I take it back. We'll have to see how it work, if at all. Since the KH developers work on FF Vs 13, I wonder if it will be like the KH party system, where you control your primary character only.

DoC has some interesting ideas, but the execution is one of the worst that FF has produced. And I truly despise shooting games, so we all know it didn't win points with me for that. XD I did like it for its Yuffie moments, though. She's as spunky as ever. ♥

Edited 2010-08-07 06:55 (UTC)

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Yes, I've Genuinely Been Waiting For This Age To Make This Entry.

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Well, since you asked, here's tl;dr with lots of game spoilers...

Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.

Re: Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.

Re: Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.

Re: Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.

Re: Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.

Re: Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.