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!

A to Z Challenge: Writing Colors - Saffron

Welcome back to the A to Z Challenge!

This year, I have been providing different colors for descriptive purposes in writing using the website Color-ize to look at an alphabetical list of colors that we can use instead of using the same basic colors we know off the top of our heads. One color can come in so many shades; why not take a look at them?

Today's color is brought to us by The Gap:

Saffron.

I'm mad about saffron, too, because when I Googled it, it's a predominantly red plant. How deceptive! I also think of good ol' Saffron from Firefly, Christina Hendricks, but anyway. Another shade of gold here. Saffron is a very warm color, especially in its spice-state. It also kind of sounds like a seductive color (even before I saw Firefly).

Are you mad about saffron?

S is for Sabrina

So I actually have two sisters, but the other likes to think she's my mother, so I often ignore her. lol

But, she's actually the topic of the first book I ever wrote: My Sister and Me. At least, I think that was the title. The book is upstairs in a box somewhere. In the 1st grade, we were all given a blank book to write whatever we wanted, and that was the year I wanted to be like my big sister. I was a terrible illustrator, but I drew, too. The book made no sense and went from exposition to story 3/4 of the way through, but I've been writing ever since. :)

She's a really funny person, and extremely talkative (she gets that from my mom). I love her.