A to Z Challenge: The S's of Final Fantasy

Happy Friday! We are still powering through the A to Z Challenge. If you're still with me, I'm talking about my favorite characters from Final Fantasy. There are a lot of games, so that means a lot of characters!

Which boded a problem for me when I got to S, because there are so many of them to choose from! Here are my favorites.

As seen in FFX

Ladies first, and that means Shiva! Shiva is another veteran summon in the franchise. FFIX dubbed her the Ice Princess. In FFX, the creators were like, "Bump that. She's QUEEEEN." And this design is pure slayage. When you first summon her, it's just so cool. Unlike other games, X makes her a very powerful aeon (the later you acquire them, the stronger they are from the beginning), and I love it. Women rule. (The cosplays are awful, though.)

FFVIII gave us the archetype bully villain, Seifer. When we first see him, he slices open the main character Squall's face. After he fails his SEED exam for taking his squad into restricted territory, he joins up with the future sorceress Ultimecia in possession of the present sorceress Edea's body to champion for her. Her mission is to kill all SEED and compress time so only she can live in the world (villain logic), and for some reason Seifer is down with that. Maybe because he's horrible. They're both defeated in the end by the guy below.

This is Squall Leonhart, the ultimate emo scar-having, gunblade-wielding anti-hero. He wants to be left alone, but everyone looks up to him. He just has abandonment issues. His father (see Laguna from a couple weeks ago) didn't know he existed for most of his life because his mother died in childbirth while Laguna was away trying to rescue a girl who would actually become Squall's best friend in the orphanage until she is kidnapped (more on that later in U), leaving him all alone. So he got used to it, and then had to get un-used to it. At least he gets the girl (Rinoa from yesterday's post).

And last but definitely not least, the man I've spoken about I think 5 times before I even got to M:

Sephiroth

Believing he was an Ancient, Sephiroth learned about the calamity that befell them, blamed humans, and embarked on a mission to kill them all. In actuality, Sephiroth is the human son of a crazed scientist (see Hojo) who injected him with Jenova cells (see Jenova) when his wife was pregnant. Sephiroth is extremely strong and powerful enough to end up controlling Jenova's cells himself. He calls a meteor to fall towards the earth so that the planet can send all its Lifestream goodness to the crater where he is, so he can absorb it to become a god and ride the dead planet to the next planet and start the cycle his "mother" Jenova started. The whole story is mind-blowing, and I wish I had time to totally geek out about it, but I'm sure I've passed the suggested word limit already. In the end, Cloud (see Cloud) beats the hell out of him.

Also, if you have 6 minutes, I need you to go ahead and listen to his theme song. It's epic.

A quick Honorable Mention for S:

Mentioned in E because of his twin brother, FFVI's Sabin is a monk who is looking to avenge his mentor when we meet him. He's got fists of fury and is most likely the prototype for FFVIII's Zell (who will get a quick honorable mention in Z).

Tomorrow is T, which is for Tidus from Final Fantasy X!