He wants to be the champion, the hero; he wants to be the one who defends what the rest of the world hates and wants to destroy.
Ahhh, this is really insightful and a way of looking at his Knighthood that I really hadn't considered.
The SeeD thing is interesting too, because with Squall and Seifer in particular it feels like they're going to become SeeDs because that's where they've been put. I'm not sure they've really considered alternatives at all.
Garden still exists to train the future SeeDs, who are going to throw their lives away at the gates of Ultimecia's castle in order to prepare the way for Squall and his friends.
This is a really cool way of putting this.
And it's interesting how unsympathetic Seifer is in most of the game, while at the same time the game pretty explicitly tells you that SeeDs are meant to obey orders without question and that Seifer can't do that. I know that to a certain extent it sets up Squall's conflict later between his duty to SeeD and his feelings for Rinoa, but it's always felt to me like Seifer's a better examination of that conflict, only he's the villain and we really don't get to see any kind of resolution for him.
That's actually a great guess for why she's having him torture Squall, since that bit has never made much sense to me. (If she was asking, 'How does SeeD get to the future to kill Ultimecia?' that would be a little more understandable.)
The fact that she's able to make him hesitate before throwing her to Adel, even for a moment, is very telling of what he feels and thinks about her, despite the fact that things didn't work out.
Totally. I feel pretty positive that for a second there, he might have put a stop to everything, if Squall hadn't shown up to oppose him.
I don't like the Ultimecia-brainwished-him theory either, for one because he clearly was a dick even before the TV station incident, and because if you write off the part of the game where he's working for the Sorceress, you have basically no characterization to go off for writing fic, so why bother? And like you said, it just makes sense for him to choose to go with her. She's giving him a chance at something bigger and better -- and even if Garden did give him the chance to be a hero, he's clearly not very well-iked or respected there.
Rinoa wants to be able to stand beside him and fight, but you can't protect someone who's going out and fighting beside you, because they're putting themselves in danger.
I totally never thought of it like that! Very cool.
Thanks for posting this, there's some great food for thought here, and Seifer's been on my mind 'cause I'm replaying the game. I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on GFs and Blue Magic!
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Ahhh, this is really insightful and a way of looking at his Knighthood that I really hadn't considered.
The SeeD thing is interesting too, because with Squall and Seifer in particular it feels like they're going to become SeeDs because that's where they've been put. I'm not sure they've really considered alternatives at all.
Garden still exists to train the future SeeDs, who are going to throw their lives away at the gates of Ultimecia's castle in order to prepare the way for Squall and his friends.
This is a really cool way of putting this.
And it's interesting how unsympathetic Seifer is in most of the game, while at the same time the game pretty explicitly tells you that SeeDs are meant to obey orders without question and that Seifer can't do that. I know that to a certain extent it sets up Squall's conflict later between his duty to SeeD and his feelings for Rinoa, but it's always felt to me like Seifer's a better examination of that conflict, only he's the villain and we really don't get to see any kind of resolution for him.
That's actually a great guess for why she's having him torture Squall, since that bit has never made much sense to me. (If she was asking, 'How does SeeD get to the future to kill Ultimecia?' that would be a little more understandable.)
The fact that she's able to make him hesitate before throwing her to Adel, even for a moment, is very telling of what he feels and thinks about her, despite the fact that things didn't work out.
Totally. I feel pretty positive that for a second there, he might have put a stop to everything, if Squall hadn't shown up to oppose him.
I don't like the Ultimecia-brainwished-him theory either, for one because he clearly was a dick even before the TV station incident, and because if you write off the part of the game where he's working for the Sorceress, you have basically no characterization to go off for writing fic, so why bother? And like you said, it just makes sense for him to choose to go with her. She's giving him a chance at something bigger and better -- and even if Garden did give him the chance to be a hero, he's clearly not very well-iked or respected there.
Rinoa wants to be able to stand beside him and fight, but you can't protect someone who's going out and fighting beside you, because they're putting themselves in danger.
I totally never thought of it like that! Very cool.
Thanks for posting this, there's some great food for thought here, and Seifer's been on my mind 'cause I'm replaying the game. I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on GFs and Blue Magic!