Females of Final Fantasy

StrAnthony

StrAnthony

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Wow. Just got done playing Final Fantasy XIII and am in love. A buddy of mine just wrote this article about the females of the Final Fantasy franchise and how they have paved the way for strong female videogame heroines. Feel free to check it out. Here's the link:

http://www.strengthgamer.com/Women_in_Videogames.html

Also, what do you guys/gals think of Lightning, Vanille and Fang? They are by FAR my favorite Final Fantasy female characters. Just picked up a life-size cardboard cutout from a Game Crazy I live by of Lightning. Sweet!
 
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Lightening and Fang are definitely two of the strongest female characters since Tifa..and I'd argue that they even beat her on that front. I'm really glad that they finally had a female lead (you can't really count X-2 as doing that in the same way since Yuna had already been introduced in the first game)...I'm not sure about anyone else but when it was first announced ..and even up until now I've heard a lot of guys say that they weren't interested cause it had 'a chick as the main character' or that it would be lame because of that...I think the game was fantastic and that it was about time!!

FF had always (well at least from VII on...haven't really played many before that) about the whole girl power thing..they don't usually make it an issue....and while there have been some weak female characters...there have also been some very weak male characters as well. I also think it's great that as far as the team goes it's even for men and woman...you have 3 and 3...that also goes to show how they're really progressing in the whole girl power front..
 
Lightning I don't really like. She reminds me far too much of Cloud - ever since that comparison was made, I just can't see her any other way. She's a female version of Cloud. Yet ANOTHER dour, depressing, thoroughly boring serious soldier type who doesn't know what a sense of humour is in a long line of them.

Fang I like, surprisingly. Her accent initially put me off - its so exaggerated its a bit hard to take her seriously - but she has an awesome personality, and I like how she keeps Lightning and Snow in line.

Vanille I'm still trying to decide on. I don't like her voice, but her character...eh, its not as annoying as others. She's definetely not on Selphie's level of awesomeness, but she's had her moments of ridiculous optimism that have made me shake my head in disbelief whilst I try hard not to laugh.

Selphie and Ashe are still my favourite female characters, though. Selphie because of her personality, and because she's made me laugh far more than any other FF character has thus far (asides from Gilgamesh and Kefka, anyway) and Ashe because, in my opinion, she is still the female protagonist with the strongest will.
 
Lightning + Fang > Tifa

This game is 100% refreshing. Strong, independant, skilled and all round awesome female cast (give or take a few specifics). And even better? None of the main three need to be randomly paired up with a male character.
 
I'm really glad that they finally had a female lead
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Terra was the lead of VI. She was the first FF female lead ;)

I do like the females of FFXIII. It's nice to see a tough chick with pink hair. I haven't finished the game yet so I can't comment further. Lightning is tougher than Tifa. Tifa got her self captured in the begining when she tried to go after Cornero and she spent the majority of the second half of the game obsessed with Cloud and whined quite a few times and let's face it, she was made to be eye candy for male players. Dont' get me wrong, she is tough, but she does fall into many of the female character cliches. But then all the VII females do. (They all got captured at one point and had to be rescued, all were dressed sexy, and all had a love interest. It can be argued for Yuffie because you can get a date with Yuffie in the golden saucer and she does kiss Cloud.)

Haven't seen much of Fang yet, I just got to disk two.

I haven't read the article yet, but I think there are some other girls that are often forgotten. Refia from III was a blacksmith, a trade usually not associated with females and she was never captured once, rare for a female in an early game. I'd put Rydia and Porom up there too. Porom was a powerful mage and
sacrificed herself to save the party, yeah she was freed from stone later but she still did with the knowledge that she would be that way forever
Rydia was much stronger after she spent time in the land of the summons and returned as an adult. Faris from V is often forgotten about, but she was a pretty tough chick. Terra, starts out helpless but grows through the game and becomes a strong character at the end. Celes was the general of an empire but felt that what she was doing was wrong and left. Do we want to count Edea? She had a unique role in the game. Skip to IX and everyone forgets Freya! She's tough without relying on sex appeal... unless you really like rats. There is also Beatrix, you only get to use her briefly, but she was extremely badass and was based off of Celes from VI.

Then you got the "hyper" or "happy" girls. They tend to have strong physical attacks, usually do not have a love interest, and usually remain optomistic in most situations. but you will either love them or they will annoy you immensly. (I personally love them)


by the way, anyone else notice the three female character theme in every game?
 
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I like the games with all the characters they have. Despite the fact I dislike some, it wouldn't have been the same without them and I think everyone can agree with that.

As a highlighter on my favourite character, I absolutely loved this quote.

It was one of the first time's that a girl was portrayed in a game as “one of the boys”, and in Tifa's case she was the strongest of them all.
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Great article!
 
I haven't played XIII yet so I can't really comment on them yet, but I've always thought Rydia and Freya were really great characters--they're very tough, brave, and level-headed, and never act too proud of themselves. Rydia can kick butt with her summons even as a child, and I was really impressed that she stayed in the Land of Summoned Monsters for so long and felt such a sense of responsibility towards it, rather than trying to leave as soon as possible and live a 'normal' life in the outside world. And though Freya's main personal concern was being with Sir Fratley, she gave up following him for a long time in order to help Zidane and the others save the world, a quest which could very well have taken her life and prevented her from ever seeing him again. The responsibility, sense of duty etc. that they both upheld was really admirable IMO.

I liked Tifa too, by the way--I'm not forgetting her :) I've heard a lot of people say she was kind of obsessively in love with Cloud and stuff, but honestly I didn't really get that out of it :hmmm:--I'm sure she cared for him and everything, but I think throughout the game she was really just trying to help a friend keep himself together so that they could take care of what they needed to do. I saw her as a very strong person.
 
Vanille at first annoyed me, but I quickly warmed up to her, and now find her antics more cute than annoying. shes the kind of character you just want to hug.

As for Lightning, shes a cool character and everything, but I'm really glad she isn't real, cus shes kind of a bitch.

Fang is strong, collected and general awesome all around. Plus she has an aussie accent. Whats not to like? and we can't forget the fact that her eidolen is bahamutt*lurves dragons*
 
As for Lightning, shes a cool character and everything, but I'm really glad she isn't real, cus shes kind of a bitch.
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I keep hearing that and I think that, sure, she can be little harsh and she definitely had a very serious nature....but if it had been a male character saying the same things and doing the same things no one would be complaining at all. I'm just saying that it goes to show how much gender can change the perception of a character...
 
The article doesn't work for me.

Anyway, I thought Garnet from FFIX was a very fine and strong female lead.
 
I just tried to click the link, but it wouldn't open.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the females of FFXIII yet, but they sure have potential at the part I'm at in the story.
 
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