Stereotypes that FFVII broke.

Daenerys

Daenerys

The Last Dragon
Veteran
Joined
Nov 26, 2006
Messages
11,178
Age
33
Location
Suburban hell.
Gil
1
Ok after reading some posts in the Barret thread i made its made me realise that a lot of stereotypes are presented - but then Broken in FFVII.

Ill go through the list of main characters :

Cloud - shown as being the Stereotypical hero - strong silent and confident in himself - when he's nothing of that.

Barret - see barret thread

Tifa - in all honesty Tifa is shown as being the loud outspoken slutty girl - yet she isnt at all - shes quiet conservative and very kind.

Aeris - shown as being perfectly innocent and weak - the damsal in distress - When she isnt considering that shes the one that saves the world

Red XII - hes a dog you expect him to be cute and fluffy - he isnt XD

Cait sith - Ditto for red XD

I cant think of any of the others at the moment - as Cid Yuffie and Vincent fall into there stereotypes perfectly. feel free to debate against my beliefs or form your own :)
 
Your Right Man...

Cid Is In.. Like.. Every Final Fantasy Man.. lol.. If Not Most..

Yuffie.. I Guess She Fills In For A FF7 Ninja/Thief

Vincent Is A Vampire... Yup... Haha..
 
I guess one for Cid would be that men scream at their wives/partners. But then when you find out the story, he had a 'good' reason.
 
:lol: I'd never really thought of it like that, but you raise some good points though. At first you do expect Nanaki to be a cute little dog (after you free him from the cage thing) but, well, he isn't xD
Cid's a great stereotype. Always shouting and swearing, and I think it was the Tiny Bronco that had a picture of a half-naked woman on it? But deep down he does have feelings. He's your classic guy :)
 
In all reality I don't think Final Fantasy VII broke that many stereotypes that weren't already broken in Final Fantasy 6. As I said before, Aeris and Cloud owe alot to Terra, just as Sephiroth owes alot to Kefka for breaking traditional character archetypes. It is simply that most people who play Final Fantasy played FF7 first, which was still a big step above its contemporaries in the character department.
 
Dario has a point; VI did actually break many of the stereotypes first. But I think VII still managed to break a few, even while riding on VI's shoulders.

VII is set up, initially, as a typical Link-type adventure story (with a modern twist): kill the bad guys, protect the pretty girl, save the world. However, in the end, the hero can't save the pretty girl; rather she saves the hero (and, by default, the whole planet). This is pretty ground-breaking, especially for its time.
 
Good points. Now that i think about it, this is the first and only Final Fantasy to have a black player character, even if people do think he's a little stereotyped, plus one of the few RPGs where one of the heroes dies permantely [I don't count the characters in II, III, IV, and V who join your party for one dungeon then die with no developement]. Unfortunately I wouldn't say it broke these steretypes because most rpgs (including final fantasies) went back to lilly-white, unkillable parties. Then again we have to give credit for the bad stereotpes FFVII started, mainly that almost every rpg (including final fantasies) after FFVII started to have spikey-haired, brooding, and anti-social protagonists (*squall*) and various villians with bleached hair (Skies of Arcadia, Kingdom Hearts, Baten Kaitos, Xenosaga, among others).
 
Last edited:
Cloud - Broke the typical main character stereotype of being perfect. He's pretty messed up inside.

Tifa - Looks can be decieving with this girl. She looks spunky, like she would have Yuffie's attitude, but she's one of the more grown up memebers of the party

Aeris - Heroine. Damsel in distress, but winds up saving all of them instead of them saving her.

Barret - First African American male in an RPG.

Red XIII - Seems like he would be some stupid beast who cant talk, but actually is smarter then anyone else.

Cid - Cid is the only one who fits the mechanic, cursing, manly stereotype.

Yuffie - Being a theif, you would think she would be calm and sneaky and quiet. She is none of that. Except sneaky.

Vincent - Fits his character and stereotype perfectly.

So, all in all Cid and Vincent were the only two characters who didnt really break a stereotype.
 
Cait Sith- He shows up and you expect him to be some goofy pointless character used only for comic relief. But he ends up really being a spy and betrays your party. Later sacrifices himself for everyone, comes back and then spys for your party on Shinra.

 Yuffie- Comes in as the hyper girl and you don't expect much from her. But she also betrays your party be stealing all your materia which pretty much pisses everyone off. Also you expect her to be the type girl that would love riding on an airship like any hyper anime. But she gets airsick and hates it.
 
Last edited:
FVII was unique in many ways with the things it broke, adding to its impression as the first 3d Final Fantasy game. It's a shame as people have said in the barret thread that after this game broke those stereo types, they came back in the later games.
 
Aeris Gainsborough said:
Ok after reading some posts in the Barret thread i made its made me realise that a lot of stereotypes are presented - but then Broken in FFVII.

Ill go through the list of main characters :

Cloud - shown as being the Stereotypical hero - strong silent and confident in himself - when he's nothing of that.

Barret - see barret thread

Tifa - in all honesty Tifa is shown as being the loud outspoken slutty girl - yet she isnt at all - shes quiet conservative and very kind.

Aeris - shown as being perfectly innocent and weak - the damsal in distress - When she isnt considering that shes the one that saves the world

Red XII - hes a dog you expect him to be cute and fluffy - he isnt XD

Cait sith - Ditto for red XD

I cant think of any of the others at the moment - as Cid Yuffie and Vincent fall into there stereotypes perfectly. feel free to debate against my beliefs or form your own :)
Click to expand...

All of those seem to fall into neat li'l stereotypes; it just depends on the scope and scale that makes 'em fit. Cloud's the laconic, indifferent sword-wielder who fights for himself and gradually comes around to a greater cause; Tifa's, a childhood friend, likes said character but isn't making impressions on him in that way, no matter how hard she tries; Barret falls in with the cookie-cutter perception of the 'angry black man,' which although black main characters are few and far between, doesn't break any mold whatsoever; Aeris, female healer who constantly needs to be rescued from harm's way but contains a greater ability. E-T-C.

So, just about everyone pulls a one-eighty and is magically "outside the box," as per usual. They might've given a slight twist to the trite archetype, but in actuality propagated it further.
 
Cid's a straight out redneck...but common...rednecks are funny in videogames too. lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top