Did anyone else notice?

[Ayumi Hamasaki]

When I first played FF8, I had no clue that precious Quisty was supposed to be the same age as Squall and the others. Since I was little, I wasn't really disturbed by it, but now I think I would have been. While it's true, that Quistis is the same age, until this game came out I never really heard about teachers haveing "realtions" with their students. Is there a connection, I don't know? But I find it interesting that nobody ever mentions it.

 

[Dionysos]

I'm not sure about the question here. Are you asking if Quistis being the same age as / or even younger than her students, and many of them having the hots for her, has contributed to giving teenagers urges about their teachers?

Or are you asking if we didn't think of it as odd while playing the game, that Quistis was the same age, and only think it is odd now?

If the former, no I don't believe Quistis has a role in students finding teachers attractive. I think if anything it is sort of playing on what already exists... Young boys / young men seeing attractive young women teaching them and becoming attracted to them is pretty normal. It's also normal vice versa as well. So Quistis, you could argue, is a play on every schoolboys main fantasy... Her being the same age as her students just makes it even more exciting to the player as well in that, yes she is dominant and strict and a teacher, but she is also just as young as you are and therefore her beauty will last longer.

If the latter... I always thought it was odd, but the students in the classroom if you speak to them all comment on it as being bizzare as well. Quistis was an exceptional person and rose to being a teacher at such an early age.. The students were obsessed with her and found her really attractive, but also very strict and were also quite scared. So I was aware at the time that this wasn't normal, that she was too young really to be a teacher.

Then again, though I knew her age, I still seemed to imagine her as being quite a bit older... Then again I hold all of the characters in my mind as being older than they are in the game... I just really can't imagine 17-18 year olds doing all the things we see in the game, when I myself am 20 and haven't even done half of what they have.

 

[Exire]

Well granted, teachers having relations with students is disturbing in its own right. However, Quintis was the same age as everyone else, and in the real world it's uncommon to have a teacher even 10 years older than the students. Usually they're in their late 30's if its high school, or significantly older. And yet Quintis is the same level of high schoolers but is an official teacher. The game never explicitly said it, but with her becoming a SeeD younger than most, then becoming an instructor even quicker, I assumed she was a genius. And through that, I assume that geniuses don't think about things like that.

Although Quintis did, even if she was confused about what she had felt with Squall in the first place. I liked her a lot since she was the same age as the rest of them but extremely mature. It's actually kind of mind boggling she's the same age/about as old as Selphie. I just think it showed she was extremely intelligent in her job, but with relationships and her own emotions, she was probably about as emotionally mature as Squall.

Maybe I've gotten slightly off topic. I guess I just don't see it that way. As disturbing as it might be for Quintis to feel something for a student, nearly all of the students were in love with her. Just chat it up with the two guys in the cafeteria in the beginning of the game, or her little groupies. So if one was to see it wrong one way, then you'd have to find it wrong in the other as well. I mostly see little issue with it just because she's the same age as the others, probably a genius, and its incredibly unlikely to find a high school teacher only a year older than the actual students themselves.

EDIT: Don't sweat it Argor. I'm sure when the time is right, you'll have it in you to kill witches for the sake of mankind.

 

[Cecily]

I didn't think much of Quistis revealing her "feelings" to Squall when I first played the game (because I really liked Quistis and I was in middle school), but now, yes, I do think it's really awkward. Whenever I play through that part of the game now I cringe through the whole Training Center scene.

But she admitted later at the orphanage that what she felt for Squall probably wasn't really love, so it turned out to be just an awkward sidestep.

I have to disagree with Exire slightly... I think student affections for a teacher aren't necessarily wrong, but teacher affections for a student are almost always wrong. I think of the male students crushes on her as relatively harmless because, outside of physical force, there's nothing they can do to make her return their affections. They have no "power" over her. But for a teacher to pull a student aside and admit she might have romantic feelings, technically that's an abuse of power. Every student may not have reacted like Squall - another student could have thought he was obligated to reciprocate because the teacher has "power" over him in the classroom.

The same goes for a male teacher and a female student. A girl having a crush on her teacher can't really do anything, but a teacher telling a student he's in love with her creates an atmosphere in which the girl may not be able to reject him, especially if school officials don't take her side. (Plus, depending on their ages, it's probably illegal.)

(I've thought too much about this.)

 

[Ayumi Hamasaki]

No, I know that she is the same age as them now, but I didn't at first. I thought she was older, I mean she is their teacher.

Still, either way, I find it slightly disturbing. A teacher should really know better. I still love Quistis to death.

I'll also mean that I find it funny that none of those people who are against vidoe games have tried to connect this.

 

[Fusionist]

I thought it was kind of kewl that a teacher could be so friggin' hawt

I admit I just assumed Quistis was older than them but still looked young and purty...until you hear who woeful speech to Squall after the ball. How she became a SeeD at 15, got her interlocutor's license at 17 "a year ago".

I was more surprised that there would be such a young teacher then in the first place, in that respect. Although she kind of failed in that aspect since her license got revoked, so...

 

[Donald Trump]

I don't see any problem with it. I assume that it would be normal for a teacher to get a crush on a student, which is what Quistis has, she doesn't act upon it. Which is where it becomes a problem, as teachers are in a position of power, which doesn't exist in FF8. Quistis never actually loves or finds Squall attractive, she thought that she might love him, but they never had any kind of relationship, physical or emotional. And there are the Quistis groupies as well who are in love with her, who she ignores.

 

[superagent]

I don't know, teachers simply teach something. it's no different from a husband and wife - or bf gf learning from eachother. Simply this one is institutional. if they're around the same age then I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[Ayumi Hamasaki]

I think that people are getting the wrong idea from what I said. I didn't and don't have a problem with it, I just thought it was kinda funny, that's all. Quistis is one of my favorite characters in FFs ever.

 

[Exire]

I think that people are getting the wrong idea from what I said. I didn't and don't have a problem with it, I just thought it was kinda funny, that's all. Quistis is one of my favorite characters in FFs ever.

Honestly, I think just mentioning the thought sparks discussion amongst itself. I find nothing wrong with the discussion, I think its pretty interesting, apart from a teacher molesting a student of course. More sick than interesting at that point. XD

I just find the social acceptance, or lack thereof to be interesting. Especially since Quintis is basically the same age as the rest of the team, just that she was smart enough to become a Seed early, and to be a very young instructor, the same age as her students. Personally, if I had a teacher the same age as me, I would find no 'power' there, which might have been part of why she was fired as an instructor in the game. So I would look at her as more of a tutor, where if there was an intimate relationship, there would be no problem. What I DO find funny, is that in a slight change of title or age that suddenly everything is okay. But if they are a teacher or instructor, then string up the sicko's. Oh, but they're just a tutor, nothing wrong there.

 

[HighwindPilot]

Whatever the case, FF8 didn't "predict" any such trend. Teacher-student relations have gone on long before the creation of this game, and long before modern day society, I'm sure.

 

[Ayumi Hamasaki]

I just find the social acceptance, or lack thereof to be interesting. Especially since Quintis is basically the same age as the rest of the team, just that she was smart enough to become a Seed early, and to be a very young instructor, the same age as her students. Personally, if I had a teacher the same age as me, I would find no 'power' there, which might have been part of why she was fired as an instructor in the game. So I would look at her as more of a tutor, where if there was an intimate relationship, there would be no problem. What I DO find funny, is that in a slight change of title or age that suddenly everything is okay. But if they are a teacher or instructor, then string up the sicko's. Oh, but they're just a tutor, nothing wrong there.

I don't know. It seems to be that it would be wrong for any instructor, no matter the age, to have a relationship with a student. It would be against the rules, yet but it would also be an abuse of power. Now, crushes are another thing.

When people are close in age, they are going to have crushes on each other. This what I accept Quistis and Squall as being, a crush. Because she didn't act on her feelings or use her power in a destructive way, such as to drive him away from Rinoa, I think it's excusable.

As to it to predicted them, I meant that I, and most I think, hadn't really hard about it until after this game came out. Of course, since it was nine or ten years ago, it's possible that I just didn't hear about it.

 

[Cecily]

What I DO find funny, is that in a slight change of title or age that suddenly everything is okay.

Oddly... that's exactly how I see it, only because of the power aspect. If two consenting adults get into a relationship, even if one is 54 and the other is 24, that's their business. But if the 54-year-old is a boss or a professor, I just can't help thinking there's the possibility of abuse of power. Even if there is none, I still can't help suspecting it.