Leonhart4 12:32 am
I like to think all the stuff with Rinoa and Adel opened his eyes to what a monster he had become, how he was able to throw a girl he claimed to care about into the arms of a demonic sorceress
You can see him run off right after he does that, if I'm not mistaken. Either way, once the battle with Adel is over, Seifer's long gone
Jeff Zero 12:33 am
Yeah, I believe you're correct
He's a very impressionable youth, and I think there's something profound to be said for the sorceress' indoctrination methodology on top of that
Leonhart4 12:34 am
I like to make a correlation to Seifer at the end of Disc 2, when he gets so offended that Squall would call him a monster and tries to justify his actions
Jeff Zero 12:34 am
Oh man
Leonhart4 12:34 am
And then he realizes Squall was right all along
Jeff Zero 12:34 am
Benezia totally could have been Sorceress Benezia in FFVIII
but anyway
Jeff Zero 12:34 am
Yeah, it's pretty nifty
I recall something similar
Leonhart4 12:34 am
Yeah, I noticed the connection with the indoctrination thing
I remember someone writing a fanfic about Seifer getting put on trial for war crimes, and the indoctrination thing was one of the big defenses they made on his behalf
It was a well written fanfic, actually
Leonhart4 12:37 am
The dynamic between Squall and Zell is really understated in FFVIII, but I think it's pretty impressive. Squall is basically everything Zell wants to be but isn't, and Squall basically has everything Zell wants, but Squall himself doesn't want it
Zell wants to be the hero, wants to be the leader, wants to be the calm, cool, collected general
Jeff Zero 12:39 am
Yeah, but it's just not him
Jeff Zero 12:39 am
He's warm, twitchy
It's a good dynamic
VIII is filled with good dynamics, it's one of its core strengths
Leonhart4 12:40 am
Whenever people talk about how Squall never shows any concern or care for his teammates before Disc 3, I always think of that scene in the D-District Prison where Squall runs off on his own to save Zell
Of course, he has to hit Zell on the head with the butt of the gunblade to get him to stop showing his appreciation, but still
Leonhart4 12:42 am
People badmouth FFVIII's cast for being static characters who don't experience much development, but I think they work really well together. They have good chemistry, and I think they grow as a unit, even though they may not grow individually
You can see at the end of Disc 1 that they don't really work that well together
But you get to the end of Disc 2, and you see a big difference
And even more so at the end of Disc 3
Jeff Zero 12:43 am
Yeah, that's an interesting way of putting it
It's a different kind of development, and very much in-line with the setting
This group of young mercenaries, world-traveling extraordinaries
It's going to be a logical thing to see a focus on their working together
It's a different form of storytelling approach, one that is almost as old and just as valid
I don't care for it quite as much as seeing characters individually grow more, but I like it
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