A MONTAGE OF THOUGHTS ABOUT SEVERAL GAMES

No. Not at all. Squall as a protagonist is easy to identify with, and I found him quite likable. People seem to like calling him "emo" because its cool to call jRPGs "emo" without understanding what that word actually means. In fact, what DOES it mean?

Seriously, I am looking at this in depth and I cannot think of even a single instance of Squall being "emo." And there were many instances where doing this would have been acceptable! There is not even one scene in the entire game where he spends even a single line lamenting his fate or feeling sorry for himself.

What exactly makes him "emo?" Because he has thoughts?

There is one scene which he reflects on frequently where he is a young boy standing in the rain because the only family he ever knew of has just been taken away from him. If this happened to you, you'd probably take it pretty hard. But what does he do? Does he cry? Does he whine? No. He says "don't worry about me, I'll be okay." He accepts this fate with grim stoicism.

This continues onto other aspects of his life. He frequently completely disregards his own feelings in order to accomplish his objectives and missions. He is not" emo," he is stoic. Stoic is pretty much the opposite of "emo."

I posit to all of you that Squall Leonheart is, in fact, the least emo jRPG protagonist in history.

he's emo b/c he has too many belts and hes drawen by testuya noruma dont you no anything solitaire ??

Seriousness: I'm inclined to say that FF12 was interesting in that your PoV wasn't the protagonist. And, in honesty, why not keep Vaan around as another sword arm, at least? By the time things really get underway it's clear that he's going to stick around for the long haul, and he likely has the licenses/spells to be as decent a fighter as anyone else in the group.

well i personally wouldn't call any of them emo, they all have pretty crazy problems to deal with.
but to be honest id only call scene people who moan openly about little problems to be emo.
in fact even then, id just call them annoying.

post=121443
but to be honest id only call scene people who moan openly about little problems to be emo.
in fact even then, id just call them annoying.

Words to live by.

post=121436
No. Not at all. Squall is a very likable protagonist who is easy to identify with. People seem to like calling him "emo" because its cool to call jRPGs "emo" without understanding what that word actually means. In fact, what DOES it mean?

Squall is completely and totally unlikable, and I couldn't identify with him at all. I can understand how he was written as an attractive, capable figure with leadership potential, but is Squall someone most people would really like in real life, or rather more specifically, in a real, contemporary Western setting? If Squall were a real person I'd mistake him for someone with Aspergers at worst and antisocial at best.

I do give him credit because most of the people he had to work with throughout the game (the party members) were either irresponsible or hilariously childish.

I'm not saying that he's a badly written character, but I wouldn't call him likable by most objective standards, and I don't identify with him at all (which is subjective, I know, because I myself am nothing like Squall). I do have to say that the reasonings behind his personality seem...weak. He's an insufferable jerk that doesn't let anyone in, and shuns interaction and teamwork (especially given his profession, which is as team oriented as it can get) because Ellone had to leave him as a little kid? Sad, yes, but come on, Squall, I mean, that was ten years ago, get over it.

If nothing else, don't let that ONE event be the single biggest reason why your personality is the way it is. His entire outlook is shaped off that one event as a kid? Weak. There are real life people with childhood scenarios that are more haunting and traumatic than his, and those people are pretty much fine. He does DEVELOP past it, so it's not all bad. But damn, he spent what, 15 years a jerk because of one sad event? Christ.

Mary4D
Squall and Cloud are dull. Next topic.

Came here to post this

Does &%#"! tell you something mah boi?
Oh, wait, Cloud didn't say that >.> Sorry!

How to Play FF12:

1) Don't use summons
2) Get those Quickening squares on that grid, they'll give you a shit ton of MP
3) Don't use Quickenings
4) While you're at it, don't use Techniques either (Charge is alright though, put it on a gambit when your MP is low)

I forget what you should use early on so I'll let somebody else say so