Revision as of 01:46, 2 October 2012

Squall Leonhart
Lions are cats you know
Age	17
Species	Human
Sex	Male
Height	5'9" / 177 cm
Weight	70 kg
Background
Series	Final Fantasy VIII
Combat Styles	Gunblade Wielder
Hometown	Winhill / Balamb Garden
Group	SeeD
Occupation/Job	SeeD Agent
Force:	Forces of Restoration
Quote
"...Whatever."
Recent Events
Probably playing cards somewhere.

History

Born to Raine and Laguna Loire in the village of Winhill, Squall's mother passed away shortly after his birth.

Ouch. And that's not the worst part, either.

Squall's father, Laguna Loire, had run off well before he knew that Raine Loire was pregnant in a move that we may affectionately call hitting it and quitting it, to go on an adventure with his good ol' ex-military pals Kiros and Ward and accidentally depose a super-futuristic wizard despot and become President of the Most Glorious Advanced Future City of Eshtar.

Meanwhile, Squall got sent to an orphanage half a continent away, in the Centra continent - perhaps, in hindsight, not a particularly idyllic location for an orphanage, as it is a Lunar Cry-blown area of blasted wasteland and monsters. This said orphanage is Edea's orphanage, a sorceress; Edea was a loving and caring matron for the children that grew up at that orphanage... until at some point, Edea is possessed by the dying future sorceress Ultimecia and effectively turns Evil. Plus points for future Squall robbing his child self of -another- parental figure in his life. Time travel plots (although the question of how this integrates to the broken-cycle thanks to the merging of worlds is... interesting, but let's not dwell on that before our minds explode from paradoxes).

Incidentally, his half-sister Ellone also leaves him without anyone telling why - because she can send people's consciousness back in time and is in constant danger of being targeted by people who would wish to exploit her, as well, leaving about a one-for-one record of "being left by everyone he ever considers close before his sixth birthday".

Case in point: Is it really a wonder that Squall Leonhart grew up to be the lovable youth that we all know?

Already off to a dazzling start, Squall is admitted at the ripe age of six to a much more welcoming orphanage where he will grow up to the right and proper responsible member of society-- no, scratch that, Squall is admitted into Balamb Garden to fight monsters and train in physical combat, synthesized paramagic and quasi-hallucinatory summoned Espers that have fantastically persistent rumors that they'll give you Alzheimer's, or well near it. At some point, he chooses to train with the gunblade, possibly for as mundane a reason as it's a difficult, archaic weapon and thus the classes would be most quiet and free of bullies that would plague him for the rest of his life.

He meets Seifer on the first day of Gunblade class, and an eternal rivalry is sparked. Mostly by Seifer.

In the proper current timeline, our young hero is 17 years old, and effectively has a reputation as the "lone wolf" amongst the one or two girls that pass him weird love-notes in his locker and... as the student everyone else thinks is a pain in the ass to deal with. The kind of person who plays tennis doubles on his own. Not that this bothers Squall one bit, who just so happens to be perfectly enjoying his alone-time quite well and refining his academic and combative pursuits... save for all of the colors of Balamb who, by measure of fate or a possibly common sentiment that bothering Squall is actually kind of funny, won't leave him alone.

Squall eventually graduates Balamb Garden and joins the elite ranks of SeeD along with his teammates Zell, Selphie; it wasn't long before they were sent off on their first mission, eventually picking up ex-instructor Quistis, free-rangin' cowboy Irvine from neighboring Galbadia Garden and suspect Timber Rebel Rinoa Heartilly, their client. Their mission: Assassinate the ambassador of the biggest republic in the world.

Eager to accomplish his mission of, admittedly, international scandal, Squall and co. travel to Deling City to enact their plans... which, for a multitude of reasons both valid and 'Let's not tell Squall that happened', botches quite fabulously, and ends with our hero with some gigantic ice shards lodged quite deep in him as he passes out and spawns a handful of alternative theories about how the rest of his adventures are just him having a pre-death vision. But, don't worry, Squall is in fact not dead! No, he wakes up in a political prison that buries itself in the desert to prevent escape, and before they can even devise a clever scheme to escape, the Heartless swarm in and swallow their world into the darkness.

-Now-, Squall might wish he were dead instead.

But, no -- he awakens in an unspecified place and time, possibly Traverse Town -- and after regaining his bearings, and gathering his wits about him, he eventually makes it back to report to Balamb Garden to sort out just what kind of world he's been thrust into....

Personality

Squall is effectively a non-person to the casual observer -- introverted, cold, and quiet, he pushes away even those that could otherwise be considered acquaintances or even friends, preferring to be alone and quiet. However, he is dead-set and focused in his mission objectives, calm-minded with a strong sense of responsibility, and is a stickler to accomplishing his duties, ironic qualities that often get picked up in Garden's upper managerial as "would make a good leader"... and, perhaps, does -- from a sheer functional perspective. Not so much the day-to-day team cohesion perspective, however. Squall himself, however, quite heavily resents assuming leadership, disliking it when others look to him for guidance and advice.

This all stems to his rather sordid childhood, of course. Left by his mother, his father, his half-sister, and his adoptive mother, Squall effectively hardens himself into being an (unreasonably) self-reliant person, with a six-year old's model of what a "tough" adult should act like; this somewhat unbalancedly carries over to become the mold that he keeps on adopting into his current years. The irrational fear of losing loved ones in turn brings him to believe it may be better to just live alone - as friends and family are inevitably lost, and in the end, he will be alone.

In his formative adventures as a SeeD, he comes to crossroads with a multitude of personalities - ones that rely on him, ones that chide him on his lack of empathy for others, others that come to view him as a rival or even obstacle... these can, perhaps, be considered the very first real-world experiences he's had outside of the relatively sanitised environment of the Garden. And with the worlds converged into one, and Balamb Garden in more need of diplomacy and forging of bonds more than ever, is his social reluctance only going to get in the way... or is this lion going to adopt?

It is hard to tell. Within his tough, seemingly uncaring demeanor is a soft, wounded heart that perhaps does long for comfort and acquaintanceship -- but can he overcome his past trauma and his own fears to actually achieve what he yearns for in the end?

What is FF8 all about

^ it's pretty much that

Logs

Cutscenes