Trabia Garden

Single best sentence in the written records I keep of my dreams: Dreamt that Boris Johnson kneed me in the stomach. How do I not remember this?


I don't own a PSP, so I haven't played either of the Dissidia Final Fantasy fighting games. However, because I am very interested by the prospect of characters from different Final Fantasy games interacting, I've been watching some of the pre-battle quotes on YouTube.

Whilst I love most of Yuna's lines - encouraging the heroes, showing her resolve when facing villains - I have a few issues with the portrayal and perceptions of Squall.

Squall to Cloud: Another lost soul, like me...

Awful. No. Squall doesn't romanticise his isolation; he just sees it as necessary. (The portrayal of Cloud is a different issue, best addressed by someone more familiar with the character than I; I never felt I could entirely get to grips with the cast of VII, largely because of the poor translation.)

Squall to Squall: There can only be one Squall.

I don't like this one because, in my eyes, Squall keeps a fair amount of self-loathing under his skin. 'There can only be one Squall' implies arrogance, whereas I think Squall feels on some level that it would be better if there were no Squalls.

In Duodecim, Squall's quote when fighting himself is, 'If you are me, then you understand,' which I prefer. Squall has always been fighting himself; when there are physically two of him, of course they're going to fight.

Kuja to Squall: I'll crush your confidence.

Squall is not a confident person. He is sure of his own ability in battle; he is a seething mass of insecurity in basically everything else. I don't like this line because Kuja strikes me as fairly perceptive, capable of picking out and needling at the things that really bother someone; I think he'd be able to see through Squall's front, and having him fall for the front implies to me that the scriptwriters have also fallen for it. Speaking of which:

Squall to Cloud of Darkness: I have no fear.

Utterly, utterly, utterly untrue. This line's sort of excusable, though, because Squall does like to tell himself that he's not afraid.

Tidus to Squall: What's on your mind? Spill it!

I do like this one, mostly because it makes me think of how hilarious it would be if Squall and Tidus spent any real amount of time together. They would not get along at all, although it wouldn't be for lack of trying on Tidus' part.

Yuna to Squall: Don't you want to be with the others?
Squall to Yuna: Can't you fight alone?

And these are perfect; don't change a thing. Squall and Yuna have always been opposites on this point: Squall views relying on others as a sign of weakness, whereas Yuna believes that her friends are the source of her strength. What would happen if, in some strange collision of the VIII and X worlds, Garden assigned Squall to be Yuna's guardian?

Squall to Vaan: ...you're hard to deal with.

ALSO PERFECT. Poor Vaan.

Kefka to Kefka: Ooh, who's that handsome devil?

This quote has nothing to do with Squall, obviously, but I am including it because it is the best.

Also brilliant: Vaan asks Ultimecia how old she is. VAAN. And I never finished Final Fantasy V, but Bartz has some great quotes: 'Would it kill you to smile sometimes?' (when fighting Squall), and 'Light, give me strength! ...or whatever.'

I suppose part of my issue with Squall in Dissidia might just be that I don't really like Doug Erholtz as his voice actor, but I suppose that was inevitable; because I'm English, I tend to imagine that non-voiced characters from worlds other than ours are speaking with some form of English accent, and of course they'll almost always be voiced by Americans if they later appear in voiced works. Ah, well.

Rinoa can imagine Squall taking someone to fight monsters in the training centre on the first date! Hee! He would. And he explains that you need to be quick if you want hotdogs absolutely seriously!

Also, I said 'no, just showing her around' when Dr Kadowaki asked whether Rinoa was my girlfriend, because it was true and I thought it unlikely for Squall to say otherwise, but then I became curious and looked up a script (other discs: one, three, four) to find out what would have happened had I said 'yes'. I am now regretting not having said it, because the exchange would apparently have been as follows:

Dr Kadowaki: Hi there, Squall! Oh, my... it's not everyday I see you walk around with a girl! Is she your girlfriend?
Squall: Yes.
Rinoa: Are you serious?! Squall?! I'm gonna take it seriously.
Squall: I'm serious.
Rinoa: Woo. I'm speechless.
Squall: I'm seriously joking.

Heeee!

(Does anyone know what replaces the 'showing Rinoa around the Garden' pre-NORG sequence if one has sent Rinoa to the Missile Base?)

The script also taught me that, if you choose to send someone else up the dangerous-looking ladder on the MD level of Garden, Squall will think about the people he's with and then decide to go up himself instead. Bless you, Squall. I mean, yes, it's terribly railroading, but it is also adorable.

Squall is still my favourite protagonist of the main-series Final Fantasy games, without a doubt. He has plenty of problems, obviously, but I identify so much with him and I love hearing his thoughts. I love living inside his mind during the game. I love poor, confused, socially-inept, overly-serious, unable-to-let-himself-rely-on-others, afraid-of-being-relied-upon-in-case-he-fails Squall.

Ooh, here is a poll I have never made before! (If you're not familiar with the Final Fantasy games but would like to answer the second question, just skip the first.)


[Poll #1452748]


The protagonist of Final Fantasy VI is debateable, but I've always thought of it as Terra, so Terra it is. And I'm leaving out Final Fantasy XI largely because the protagonist is presumably You, The Player, which isn't terribly helpful when one is interested in finding out her flist's Final Fantasy character preferences.

Regarding the second question: I don't insist on it myself, but both my housemate and th_esaurus do, so I'm interested in finding out whether it's a particularly common habit.