A to Z Challenge: Xu from Final Fantasy VIII

April is almost over! Can you believe it? That means the A to Z Challenge is coming to a close! What a month it has been sharing Final Fantasy characters and stories with you all!

X is inevitably hard for everyone, and you would THINK that with all of the games Final Fantasy has, they would have more than one character whose name starts with the letter, but I only found the one, and she's a non-playable side character. So, this is the shortest post!

Xu is a squad leader and instructor in Balamb Garden for SEED. She is a staple throughout the game, helping Squall and team, especially once we realize our school can float around! She is great at shutting up our characters when they bicker, too.

Tomorrow, I finally get to tell you about Yuna from FFX!

A to Z Challenge: Ultimecia from Final Fantasy VIII

We are at the last week of the A to Z Challenge! Can you believe it?? I can't.

I have been talking about Final Fantasy for 20 days now. I'm not tired yet. lol And today, I'm talking about something important to me that I can never tire of defending:

The Ultimecia is Rinoa Theory!

First off, as we are on U today, here is Final Fantasy VIII's Ultimecia, an evil sorceress from the future.

As seen in Final Fantasy Dissidia

A cosplayer's dream. Anyway, Ultimecia is killed by SEED in her time, and in order to stop that from happening, she creates a machine based on the powers of a little girl (well, I guess she would be a woman by Ultimecia's time) named Elle, who has the power to see the past through people she knows. She tries to kill the SEED in the past, aka the present time where the MC (Squall from a few days ago) resides, by possessing the sorceresses there. In typical "If I can't live, no one can" style, Ultimecia compresses time so that only she can live in the world.

Ultimately, Squall and his fellow SEED defeat her, and all is well. However, there is that theory I mentioned.

This illustration sums it all up in a nutshell, but let me clear some other things up. As I mentioned in the R's, Ultimecia possessed Rinoa in the game. This automatically made Rinoa a new sorceress. The theory is, simply put, that Rinoa IS Ultimecia, gone crazy somehow and trying to kill everyone, SEED being at the top of her list.

Visually, their faces are shaped the same. The black hair to white hair is a great juxtaposition, not so much to represent aging (something a naysayer pointed out: the sorceresses don't age), but most likely from stress or psychosis. Rinoa wears a long sleeveless blue trench with white angel wings on the back, and one of her limit breaks is Angel Wings, so she sprouts them for a second before using magic at random. Ultimecia has a long red trench and has black angel wings. More juxtaposition: Rinoa has a pet dog who helps her fight, and Ultimecia summons a lion-type beast. This beast is also first seen on SQUALL'S RING and is named the same! How would Ultimecia have gotten that?! Because Rinoa had his ring and was going to duplicate it for herself!

So, why would she be trying to kill SEED? Well, as you see above, Rinoa says in the game that she is okay with Squall killing her, no one else. Squall also has an internal monologue (one of many) towards Rinoa where he says that even if she goes full-on sorceress, he will be her champion and fight whoever comes against her.

SO, what seems to have happened in the future is there is a witch hunt, and other SEED kill Squall when he tries to protect Rinoa. She goes mad, becomes Ultimecia, and goes back in time to try to destroy SEED altogether. It makes sense to me and many others!

Alright, nerdgasm over. Tomorrow, I will talk about Vivi from FFIX.

A to Z Challenge: Quezacotl from Final Fantasy VIII

Happy Hump Day!

The A to Z Challenge is heading down the hill, and it's been fun. We still have some letters to go, however, and my letters are dedicated to the people and creatures of Final Fantasy. Today's letter Q brings me to none other than Final Fantasy VIII for the Guardian Force Quezacotl.

After seeing the old man Ramuh for 5 games straight, this beautiful bird was a shock (no pun intended), but look at the design. I usually paired Quezacotl up with Zell because of his electric (still, no pun intended) personality. Quezacotl also taught its user the Mug ability, which was easier to use with Zell because he fought with his hands.

I don't really have much to say about Quezacotl. lol

Honorable Mention for Q:

Final Fantasy VIII gave us Quistis, an 18-year-old instructor who was apparently bad at it, because she gets fired. She tries to protect our MC Squall and get him to emote and talk to his friends more, but nothing doing. She joins us on the quest to defeat the sorceress, and if you play, you must acquire her limit break The End. Instant death to your enemies (Unless it's the final boss, but even then, it makes the battle breeze on by)!

Tomorrow, R is for a plethora of characters because there are so many.

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!

A to Z Challenge: Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy VIII

Welcome back to the A to Z Challenge!

I am highlighting (approximately) 26 characters from my favorite games in the Final Fantasy franchise! Today, we are on G, so that means, we are visiting Final Fantasy VIII for the first time to look at:

Gilgamesh!

Gilgamesh is what they called a Half-GF (guardian force), and you don't see him until much later in the game. You obtain him by going to the Temple of Odin, beating Odin in under 20 minutes. Once you do that, you unfortunately don't get to summon Odin; he appears at the beginning of a battle to take out your foe with a one-hit kill (Zantetsuken) whenever he pleases! During one of the boss fights, however, he gets sliced and diced himself, and Gilgamesh takes up Odin's sword for the rest of the game. He comes whenever he pleases as well, sometimes even in the middle of a battle! Unlike Odin, he also has a bunch of arms and 4 swords, which add up to 4 attacks. Odin's Zantetsuken, Masamune and Excalibur, which deal heavy damage to all foes, and Excalipoor, which might as well do nothing. It's sort of a relief when he pops up, but you also don't know what you're going to get!

Tomorrow, we slip into the mind of the mad scientist Hojo from Final Fantasy VII.