Squall Leonhart: Difference between revisions
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{{nihongo|'''Squall Leonhart'''|スコール・レオンハート|Sukōru Reonhāto}} is the |
{{nihongo|'''Squall Leonhart'''|スコール・レオンハート|Sukōru Reonhāto}} is the primary protagonist of [[Square Co., Ltd.|Squaresoft's]] (now [[Square Enix]]) [[computer role-playing game|role-playing game]] ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]''. He was designed by [[Tetsuya Nomura]] with heavy influences coming from game director [[Yoshinori Kitase]]. As the lead character of ''Final Fantasy VIII'', most of the game is seen from Squall's perspective. Squall's [[Limit Break]] (special move) is Renzokuken, which is a series of four to eight slashes preceding one of four finishing moves. |
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In the game, Squall is a 17 year old student at [[Garden (Final Fantasy VIII)#Balamb Garden|Balamb Garden]], a prestigious military academy for elite mercenaries known as "SeeDs."<ref name="guidecite2">{{cite book | year=1999 | editor=Square Electronic Arts | title=Final Fantasy VIII North American instruction manual | pages=28, 33-35 | publisher=Square Electronic Arts | language=English | id=SLUS-00892GH}}</ref> As the game's story progresses, Squall becomes friends with [[Quistis Trepe]], [[Zell Dincht]], [[Selphie Tilmitt]] and [[Irvine Kinneas]], and falls in love with [[Rinoa Heartilly]]. These relationships — combined with developments in the game's plot — gradually turn him from a loner to an open and caring person.<ref name="guidecite2" /> |
In the game, Squall is a 17 year old student at [[Garden (Final Fantasy VIII)#Balamb Garden|Balamb Garden]], a prestigious military academy for elite mercenaries known as "SeeDs."<ref name="guidecite2">{{cite book | year=1999 | editor=Square Electronic Arts | title=Final Fantasy VIII North American instruction manual | pages=28, 33-35 | publisher=Square Electronic Arts | language=English | id=SLUS-00892GH}}</ref> As the game's story progresses, Squall becomes friends with [[Quistis Trepe]], [[Zell Dincht]], [[Selphie Tilmitt]] and [[Irvine Kinneas]], and falls in love with [[Rinoa Heartilly]]. These relationships — combined with developments in the game's plot — gradually turn him from a loner to an open and caring person.<ref name="guidecite2" /> |
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Revision as of 02:02, 2 February 2007
| Squall Leonhart | |
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| 'Final Fantasy series character | |
| File:Ff8-squall.jpg Squall Leonhart | |
| First game | Final Fantasy VIII |
Squall Leonhart (スコール・レオンハート, Sukōru Reonhāto) is the primary protagonist of Squaresoft's (now Square Enix) role-playing game Final Fantasy VIII. He was designed by Tetsuya Nomura with heavy influences coming from game director Yoshinori Kitase. As the lead character of Final Fantasy VIII, most of the game is seen from Squall's perspective. Squall's Limit Break (special move) is Renzokuken, which is a series of four to eight slashes preceding one of four finishing moves.
In the game, Squall is a 17 year old student at Balamb Garden, a prestigious military academy for elite mercenaries known as "SeeDs."[1] As the game's story progresses, Squall becomes friends with Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt and Irvine Kinneas, and falls in love with Rinoa Heartilly. These relationships — combined with developments in the game's plot — gradually turn him from a loner to an open and caring person.[1]
Squall has appeared in several other games, such as the Kingdom Hearts series, where he appears under the name "Leon", Chocobo Racing and Itadaki Street Special. His weapon, the gunblade, also appears in other works.
Development and appearance
As part of a theme desired by Kitase to give the game a foreign atmosphere ("foreign" being in relation to Japan), the objective with the character designs was to give them largely European appearances. The first character Nomura designed specifically for use in Final Fantasy VIII was Squall, initially giving him longer hair and a more feminine appearance. However, Yoshinori Kitase felt that this design did not work, and asked Nomura to shorten his hair and make him look more masculine, which lead to the final design of Squall seen in-game. When designing Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy VII's lead protagonist, Nomura gave him distinctly spiky, bright blonde hair, so as to emphasize his role as that game's main character. With Squall, Nomura wanted to try another unique angle to establish Squall's role, giving him the now trademark gunblade scar across his brow and the bridge of his nose. There was not yet a complete history conceived for the character, so Nomura left the explanation for Squall's scar to Nojima. Squall's design was completed by a fur ruff along the collar of his jacket, included by Nomura for the purpose of challenging the game's FMV designers, being but one example of the demands he has consistently extended to the programmers of the Final Fantasy titles as technology has advanced.[2]
Also as part of Squall's design, Nomura wanted to include silver accessories, which took the form of his ring, necklace and weapon. Squall calls the lion "Griever" and it seems to be symbolic of his angst and takes on significance as the plot of the game progresses. Squall's weapon is a gunblade, a sword using components of a revolver to send vibrations through the blade when triggered.[3] This weapon was intended to offer a new way for players to control weapons in battle, and Nomura feels that the weapon bears an odd appearance.[2] Squall's model is simply called the 'Revolver,' though he can upgrade the weapon at junk stores. Squall and his rival, Seifer Almasy, are the only gunblade specialists who appear in the game, although Laguna Loire uses one very briefly.
Squall's physical appearance consists of medium-length brown hair and cold grey eyes. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has stated that actor River Phoenix was the influence for Squall; both share the same birthday and physical appearance. A small scar runs diagonally across the bridge of Squall's nose, which he receives at the beginning of the game in a training duel against his rival Seifer. His last name was possibly taken from that of the Final Fantasy II character, Maria's brother Leon, or Leonhart, and Leon is the name that Squall adopts in Kingdom Hearts.
Final Fantasy VIII
In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is known as a "lone wolf" by his peers because he never explains his feelings.[1] [4] Even compared to the originally indifferent Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII, he comes off as cold to his allies. [5] His superiors, such as his teacher, Quistis Trepe, regard him as difficult to deal with but greatly respect his natural talents.[6][7]. He is also known to be stoic in some situations.[8] His taciturn attitude is also used for comic relief. In the cutscene where he first meets Rinoa, she coerces him into dancing with her at the SeeD graduation ball.[9] He awkwardly bumps into other partygoers while staring constantly at his feet with a look of confusion. Rinoa, however, perseveres in partnering him, and Squall eventually reveals that he's quite capable of dancing, as it is a mandatory aspect of his training.[10]
Squall is unwillingly dragged into the role of the hero when Cid, headmaster of Balamb Garden, appoints him as leader of the academy midway through the game.[11] He is often thrown into a leadership role, as is evident in the Timber and Galbadia missions. During a late battle against Galbadia Garden, Squall demonstrates some leadership difficulties, which are tied to his lingering isolationism. [12] [13] Likewise, other characters have to make efforts to pull him out of his isolation, and Rinoa has to expend a lot of energy to pursue a romance with him. It takes considerable time for him to accept the others' offered friendship and fall in love with Rinoa and care for her.[14] As time progresses, he grows more comfortable with the leadership role, especially when it comes time to defeat Ultimecia, the antagonist.[15]
Throughout the game, he has a distinct rivalry with Seifer Almasy. The opening sequence depicts the duel in which Squall obtained his characteristic facial scar (and subsequently gave an almost identical one to Seifer, Squall's starts above his right eye and goes to his left cheek; Seifer's goes from left to right) and scenes in which Squall and Seifer are supposed to be cooperating are characterized by squabbles between the two cadets. [16] Later, Seifer seemily allies himself with the Sorceress, requiring Squall to battle him several times. Nevertheless, despite their conflict, Squall still feels an underlying comraderie for Seifer, and mourns him in his own way when he believes Seifer to have been executed after an attempted kidnapping of Galbadian President Vinzer Deling. [17]
According to flashbacks in the game, Squall grew up in an orphanage, along with many of the other main characters such as Zell, Seifer, Selphie, Irvine and Quistis. Though he remembers little of this past, it causes him to develop into an emotionally detached, highly cynical and introverted boy (his original goal is to go through life without any emotional links or dependencies). [18] However, Squall gradually warms as the game progresses, and it is later revealed that his deliberate detachment from his companions is a defensive mechanism to protect himself from emotional pain, like he experienced when his older sister figure at the orphanage, one of the sole emotional supports in his early life, was forcibly separated from him. [19] [20]
Upon defeating Ultimecia, as his comrades are pulled back from time compression into their own respective places in the timeline, Squall takes a detour back to the orphanage, where he encounters a younger Edea. Since she does not want to involve any of the children, Edea ends up absorbing the dying Ultimecia's powers as part of the cycle of sorceresses (a sorceress must pass on her powers to a successor before she is allowed to die peacefully), and wonders aloud about endings and beginnings (dialogue mirroring words to Squall years later, on Disc 3). [21] Squall plants the ideas for Garden and SeeD in her mind, creating an in-game loop in which he must become the leader of Balamb Garden so that he can make it to this point again. [22]
There are strong indications in the game that Laguna Loire is Squall's father. During flashbacks involving Ellone, in which the characters dream they are people from the past, Squall consistently takes on the role of Laguna, despite the fact that any of the other characters in Squall's party may take on the role of Kiros or Ward. If Squall travels to Winhill after Garden is activated, he will encounter inexplicable visions of Raine throughout the town. Ellone also mentions that Raine died—apparently in childbirth—and that she had a baby boy. When Squall is captured, all the Moomba keep referring to Squall as Laguna (it is later indicated that the Moomba recognize people by their blood; suggesting a tie between Squall and Laguna). Toward the end of the game, aboard the Ragnarok, Kiros and Ward make commentary as to Squall's resemblance to his mother and his dissimilarity to his father.[23] Laguna also intends to tell something to Squall, but he opts not to due to the circumstances. As of his current surname, the game never reveals how he received the name "Leonhart", although it is possibly Raine's maiden name. Lastly, in the Triple Triad minigame, Laguna holds Squall's card.
Kingdom Hearts series
Squall appears as a non-playable character in Kingdom Hearts, although he appears older and perhaps more similar to Laguna Loire. He no longer wears his fur coat and wears a short leather jacket with red wings on the back, resembling the decorations on Rinoa's dress, but he still wears his Griever necklace. He assumes the name Leon because he was unable to protect those he cares about from the Heartless when his home world, Hollow Bastion was consumed in darkness. "Leon" is voiced by David Boreanaz in the English language version of the game and Hideo Ishikawa in the Japanese version. Leon held the Earthshine Gem which contained Simba; he gave it to Sora (a homage to his affinity towards lions in FF8). His role in Kingdom Hearts is to help guide Sora, on his battle with the Heartless, alongside various other Final Fantasy characters. While his appearance and age change (in Kingdom Hearts, he is 25[24], whereas in Final Fantasy VIII, he is 17[1]), his personality remains the same.[25] A memory-based version of Leon appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
He returns in Kingdom Hearts II and was voiced by Doug Erholtz for the English version. Here, Leon is seen to be slightly more cheerful than he is seen in the original Kingdom Hearts, which could reflect his personality after the events of Final Fantasy VIII. He fights alongside Sora twice in the game. Unlike the other Final Fantasy characters, Squall only features a slight update to his wardrobe. Leon still wears his Kingdom Hearts outfit, only receiving a fur ruff along the collar of his jacket, similar to his jacket in Final Fantasy VIII.
Leon appears to be the leader of the "Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee," which is composed of the returning Final Fantasy cameos from the first Kingdom Hearts and Merlin. He also helps (along with Yuffie, Tifa, and Cloud) Sora fight the Heartless on the Ravine Trail in the Hollow Bastion. Leon also plays the largest role for any Final Fantasy character in Kingdom Hearts II storywise, being the only Final Fantasy character who has relations with King Mickey, and works very close to Sora and company. Leon also appears to be the only Final Fantasy character to be aware of the existence of the Organization and fights the Nobodies.
Other appearances
Squall is a secret character in Chocobo Racing and Itadaki Street Special. In addition, a 2D sprite of Squall occasionally makes an appearance on the loading screen of the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VI.
Squall's gunblade, the Lionheart, appears as a Paladin weapon in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It also appears as a high-level sword for Tidus in Final Fantasy X and a Keyblade weapon for Sora in Kingdom Hearts. The gunblade also makes an appearance in Parasite Eve II as a weapon that the gorilla like Number 9 uses. It also becomes available for use after completing the game meeting certain requirements. In Final Fantasy XII, Gilgamesh carries Squall's gunblade as one of his weapons, yet Griever is not printed on the blade; likewise, it also appears (Griever ring and all) as a gun weapon known as the 'Ras Algethi' in the same game. There is a different version of the gunblade used in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, used by Yazoo and rarely used by Loz. In Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, Weiss uses his own incarnation of the gunblade but wields two of them, both of which are identical to each other, and assume a shape similar to that of Sephiroth's trademark masamune sword.
References
- ^ a b c d Square Electronic Arts, ed. (1999). Final Fantasy VIII North American instruction manual. Square Electronic Arts. pp. 28, 33–35. SLUS-00892GH.
- ^ a b Khosla, Sheila (2003). "Tetsuya Nomura 20s". FLAREgamer. Retrieved 13 April.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); External link in|work=|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Studio BentStuff, ed. (1999). Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania (in Japanese). DigiCube/Square-Enix. p. 43. ISBN 4-925075-49-7.
- ^ Rinoa: That's it! Just let out anything! Anything... We want you to talk to us a little more. That's all. Y'know, if there's anything you want to tell us, or anything we can do, don't hesitate to let us know. I know it's not easy, but I wish you would trust us and rely on us a little more. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Rinoa: Don't you ever worry about or even think about the well-being of your comrades!? / Squall: (I don't believe in relying on others.) / Rinoa: Don't you understand!? / Squall:(...Whatever.) (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Quistis: I guess I was right. You and Seifer are in a class of your own. You both have amazing strength and potential. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Quistis: Aren't there times when you want to share feelings with someone? / Squall: Everyone has to take care of themselves? I don't want to carry anyone's burden. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Quistis: You know, the boys often choke on this test when I come with them. I guess my charm makes them nervous. / Squall:(...Whatever.) (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Rinoa: You're the best guy here. Dance with me? Let me guess... You'll only dance with someone you like. Ok then... Look into my eyes... You're-going-to-like-me... You're-going-to-like-me... Did it work? / Squall: ...I can't dance. / Rinoa: You'll be fine. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Squall: Approach your target inconspicuously at a dance party... There may be missions requiring this sort of subterfuge. It's expected of SeeD to learn various skills. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Headmaster Cid: Squall, we're under your command from now on. This is your fate. It is your destiny to lead the way in defeating the sorceress. / Squall: Don't talk about this like it's been decided since by birth! (I don't mind fighting the sorceress. It's unavoidable as long as I'm a SeeD member.) (What? AS long as I'm a SeeD member?) (What if I quit?) (Quit... Then what? What do I have left?) (Don't even want to think about it. Just stop thinking...) (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Squall: (I've had it up to here with this leader thing... Alright, alright... I'll choose.) (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Headmaster Cid: Squall, I understand how you feel. But you are in a position of leadership. The other students at Garden have a right to know about the outcome of the battle and what's to come. Take whatever information you can get here, back to Garden. Remember, it wasn't just Rinoa. Everyone fought. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Squall: Pandora whatever and Sorceress Adel are out of my hands. I don't know where to look for Sis. The only thing I know is Rinoa. The only thing I want to do for sure right now is for Rinoa. We're going to get Rinoa back! (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Squall: I don't know what's going on. But since we're still here, I think we still have some time to finish our job. / Quistis: What are we going to do, Squall? / Squall: We'll divide into two parties. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Seifer: Yeah, yeah... (to Squall: Well then, Squall. Go see what's going on outside. / Squall: ......Ok. / Seifer: Good. Because it's MY order. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Squall: (I liked him... wasn't really a bad guy... He was one of us...) (Seifer... You've just become just a memory.) (Will they... Will they talk about me this way if I die, too?) (Squall was this and that. Using past tense, saying whatever they want?) (So this is what death is all about...) (...Not for me.) (I won't have it!!!) (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Squall: (I don't believe in relying on others.) (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Young Squall: ...Sis... I'm...all alone. But I'm doing my best... I'll be ok without you, Sis. I'll be able to take care of myself. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Squall: (I wonder what everyone's doing...?) (They're probably laughing at me. Or maybe they're angry...?) What do you think? To tell you the truth... I worry too much about what others think of me. I hate that side of me... That's why I didn't want anyone to get to know me. I wanted to hide that side of myself. I hate it. Squall is an unfriendly, introverted guy. It made it easy for me when people perceived me that way. That's a secret between you and me. Got that? (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Edea: It's ok. There's no need to fight. That sorceress is just looking for someone to pass her power on to. In order to die in peace, a sorceress must free of all her powers. I know... for I am one, too. I shall take over that sorceress' powers. I do not want one of the children to become one. (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Edea: SeeD? Garden? / Squall: Both Garden and SeeD were your ideas. Garden trains SeeDs. SeeDs are trained to defeat the sorceress. / Edea: What are you saying? You're... that boy from the future? (Final Fantasy VIII)
- ^ Kiros: You look a lot like your mother. Ward: ..... Kiros: Ward says its a good thing you don't look like your father.
- ^ ""Kingdom Hearts (at Square-Enix.com)". 2002. Retrieved August 3.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ ""Kingdom Hearts (at Square-Enix.com)". 2002. Retrieved August 3.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help)