Futureloop
Author's Foreword
By Devi Dee
Futureloop
Author's Foreword
By Devi Dee
I should probably warn you all that - of all the characters in Final Fantasy (not just VIII, but the whole damn series) - Seifer has got to be my most detested (except for that Evil Hell-Bitch Rinoa, but she’s more of a plot device than actual character). I really, really hate the guy with a passion. Unfortunately, he has this tendency to grow on you. Sort of like mould (oh, and there’s that fact that he reminds me of one of my own characters; Sam). Hence this attempt to get into his snide-ass little head. I’d been tossing up a Squall X Zell pairing for a while, but quite frankly, I just can’t get it to fit together; not without veering dramatically from how I see the characters (that’s not to say it doesn’t work at all; I quite like SXZ stuff, but I personally couldn’t write it). Squall is an asshole. Seifer is also an asshole. Hooray! Instant couple. Oh, and there’s also that whole thing about how, really, when you think about it, they’re basically the same guy with different hair, but more on that later...
Because I like to rabbit on and on and justify various things, I’m going to do so now. If you don’t want to read this, skip to the actual story and don’t complain to me. But for those of you who do care about my justifications for various things in this story are, read on. I think we’ll do the characters first...
Seifer gets the first paragraph rights because, even though he sucks beyond all meaning of the word, he is kind of the (shudder) protagonist of this story. This whole exercise has essentially come out of the fact that both Amy (aka. Koorime to you rabble) and Steph think the sun shines out of this boy’s ass. So do a lot of you other people (what, might I ask, is wrong with you?) and I, for one, do not. I was extremely cut to discover that he didn’t die at the end of the game. Nuts. That being said, this is my attempt to Get Even with him (though not in a bad way; for that see my mini-comic EtA? in the Garden: part 1, Elle’s Revenge for lots of wacky, super-deformed gunblade-through-the-head action). I’m here to see if I can actually turn Seifer into someone I like without totally fucking over his persona. I can’t, so I totally fucked over his persona; hence this is post-game. Woo me. Seifer’s probably most defining characteristic, to me at least, is the way he speaks. He has ba-aa-aa-ad English. He talks exactly like that stupid kid on the third grade who liked to pick on everybody. You know, that one. However, Seifer is not a stupid character; he hides an especially dangerous kind of intelligence behind a façade of thuggery. It’s the same brand of intelligence Squall shows, only he tend to mull a hell of a lot more. Seifer is more reactionary. Both are very dangerous things. Because the "Seifish" way of speaking I tend to associate with the character is irritating to write and even worse to read, I’ve omitted it for most of the story except for a few young-Squall dream/flashback sequences. Assume Seifer talks like this most of the time, though he tends to use better English when he gets stressed out, is vulnerable or has to actually make any kind of tough decision. That damn façade thing again... Oh yeah; I don’t find Seifer the slightest bit attractive. I mean, I know he is, but he doesn’t Do Anything For Me, if you’ll excuse the expression. Just be warned.
As the first-person narrator-type for most of the story, I should probably mention Squall next. Let me get this out straight: Squall Leonhart is not a nice guy. Go back and play the first two discs of the game again; especially note the conversation he has in Deling City with Irvine about good and evil. He gradually gets domesticated - by the beginning of the third disc he’s pretty damn tame - but there’s still that nasty after-taste. This boy has problems, and they’re far deeper than that adorable abandonment complex and a propensity to wear too many belts. Here we Squall chafing under his new domesticity, which is essentially how the story starts. I also see Squall as the kind of character who attracts events just by being around. He may not like it or realise it, but he’s very manipulative and has a sort of almost hypnotic sway over the other characters; especially, here at least, Seifer. He’s also amoral and slightly misogynistic; a true antihero. One of the main problems I have with most fanfic personifications of Squall is that he gets too chatty. Squall is verbose, but only to himself; he’s a long interior monologue kinda guy, which makes him perfect for first-person narration. Hence one of Squall’s main "themes" is silence; he talks in long, drawn-out silences, which only a few people can read. And it freaks him out to no end when they can. Thus he actually doesn’t have all that many lines of dialogue; usually it’s other characters filling in the blanks for him. This is a friendship thing, too; since it’s only his very close friends (Zell, Seifer and, to a lesser extent, Quistis) who can fill in his blanks for him. They’re used to him; they try to understand instead of change him to fit their own model of what he should be. I think this was very missing from the game, so I’ve indulged myself here. Forgive me.
It was also hard for me to get Squall’s relationship with Seifer exactly right; most things I’ve read tend to have it as either extremely abusive or overly lovey-dovey, as if somehow Squall was transplanted with Rinoa’s personality. (Aarrggghhh! The horror!) I don’t think either of these is quite right, so I’ve taken a slightly different tack. Squall and Seifer understand each other (qv. The scene in the Ragnarok in "and the One Who Doesn’t"). The main problem I think Squall would have in any kind of relationship with Rinoa is her constant trying to "get him out of his shell". Squall doesn’t have a shell to get out of; he’s not anti-social because he’s insecure, he’s anti-social because he doesn’t like people all that much (sort of like yours truly (cough cough)). Seifer would give him a kind of comfort zone around this; he accepts Squall for how he is without trying to make him more "socially acceptable". Why ruin a perfectly good antihero? It’s just a waste. Seifer doesn’t make Squall feel happy so much as satisfied. It’s love; but just not giggly, cutesy-poo romantic love. They don’t tell each other how they feel because they don’t have to.
As probably the next-most important (and possibly most universally hated) character, Rinoa shits me even more than Seifer. Despite the temptation to be unerringly cruel to her, I’ve actually tried to plug in a few personality traits to a girl who is, essentially, a plot-device. As I see it, Rinoa isn’t as stupid as people assume. She’s the first one to guess at the full connection between the two antiheroes of the story, but she buries it because it has uncomfortable implications. Rinoa has a narrow world view, and one which - like Seifer’s - is very black and white. Or possibly fluffy-pink and icky-brown. She tries her hardest to ignore anything she doesn’t like; such as the fact that Squall is deeply disturbed and not particularly responsive to her attempts to change him. She can’t understand how Squall can possibly be happy with the way that he is, and misses the point that while he might not be happy with it, it’s who he is - take away that and he’s just pretending. Rinoa might be irritating, but she’s also kind of tragic. To me, anyway.
Next on the list is Zell, who I may get blasted for writing in as too insightful but stay with me on this one for a sec. Zell is sort of like the wise-trickster, culture-hero type. The comic relief who actually knows a lot more about what’s going on than he pretends to. It’s implied - though not stated - that he filled a void for Squall which was left when Seifer went- erm... on a brief holiday to La La Land. Except without the fighting and sexual tension thing going on, turning Zell into Squall’s first real best friend. Despite early attempts to change him via Rinoization, Zell has since come to understand Squall very well indeed. Through this, it has given him an insight into Seifer as well, who is cut from a very similar cloth; to use obtuse and annoying metaphors. Like Seifer, Zell accepts Squall for his Squallishness and, in doing so, gets a few insightful lines which couldn’t really come out of anyone else.
I feel a little guilty about what I’ve done to Quistis here; I think I’ve made her needlessly irritating. Oops. She possessed some of the insight Zell has, but without the wisdom behind it. Zell knows, and he leaves well enough alone. Quistis also knows a bit, but constantly tries to change it. Naughty girl. Oh well, she doesn’t have bad intent.
Finally, Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Selphie and Irvine haven’t really come into the story yet, so I’m not sure what I want to do with them. Irvine I think is cute and like immensely, so I think I’ll give him the role of the Really Nice If Slightly Oblivious Guy (sort of the same role Yukito has in Card Captor Sakura); because as the most blatant extrovert of the game, I think it fits him. He may also get some action with Zell... but maybe not; depends if I’m in the mood for something slightly realistic, or an all-out Brite-fest (that’s Brite as in Poppy Z). Selphie I’m not sure of... Laguna and the rest of the Esthar mob get attacked by Plot later on so might only be peripheral characters... I dunno.
I know you’re probably sick of my ranting by now, but I’ll just add one more thing. I’ve tried to stick to established cannon wherever possible (thanks be to Amy-chan for checking my facts), but I have changed a fanon thing and made Squall and Seifer two years apart in age instead of one. This is actually possible (I think) because their birthdays are, like, six months apart or something, with Squall’s occurring first in the year. It comes up important in the plot later, anyway. The other thing is I’ve mercilessly stolen Wark from someone because I think he’s sickeningly cute. To whomever it was - I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten who, my bad again - gomen a thousand times! Please don’t sue me.
Enough babble finally! Let’s get on with the damn story already.