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Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"

Thursday, April 14, 2016

A to Z Challenge: Laguna Loire from Final Fantasy VIII


This A to Z Challenge is dedicated to my obsession with Final Fantasy games.

I'm highlighting some memorable characters from my favorite games of the franchise, and today, we come to one who holds a special place in my heart for L.

Laguna Loire
As the main character Squall (more on him later down the alphabet) and his classmates/comrades are heading to one of their missions, they pass out and are suddenly not in their bodies, but in the past, in the bodies of Laguna and his war buddies Kiros and Ward. Laguna was a spazz of a soldier, but he had a big heart and wanted to be a journalist one day. After a major battle one day, Laguna slipped and fell off a cliff and washed ashore in a small town where he met who would soon become the love of his life and mother to a son he didn't learn about until 17 years later (Squall!).

He did get to dabble in journalism and wrote articles about his travels for Timber Maniacs, a magazine we collect during the game. Sadly, his wife died in childbirth while he was off rescuing her adopted daughter from a sorceress (heavy stuff). After defeating the sorceress in the city she controlled, the citizens made him president!

A very inspirational guy. I played FFVIII again recently, and he still made me smile, with his silly self.

Honorable Mention for L:

(Lulu, seen here with Yuna, from FFX)
Lulu is one of Yuna's guardians in Final Fantasy X (we'll get to Yuna way at the end). She is BAD. ASS! A black mage with a soft spot for Yuna beneath a hard shell and a skirt made of belts, Lulu's weapon of choice is animated dolls, like the moogle seen here. Also, boobies be poppin'. lol

Tomorrow, I'll tell you what a moogle is!

2 comments:

Lori said...

Intriguing. So much talent goes into developing these games. And who would imagine a weapon of choice as an animated doll?

Debra Renée Byrd said...

Right? I think they may have had a couple in the other games, but this is the only one where I used them, and not often because her magic was much more powerful if you leveled her up that way.