The Shrine

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>My friend is playing FF8, and as I watched him play I'm reminded how much the game's moronic character suck (Big Meanie! (Go talk to a wall)), but I'm also reminded that the game has one of the best unorthodox hero, Laguna Loire. If Squall and his crew is your generic 'young teenager that saves the world', then Laguna and his crew are the adults. Sure, Laguna is goofy, but he has charm and leadership, unlike Squall whom the game claims can draw people around him with his inspiring speeches like (...whatever). I think the scene in Winhill sum up his charm the best when Kiros say, "Life is boring without you, my man."

I can actually believe, according to the instruction manual, Laguna is a man for who 'the pen is mightier than the sword' (or something like that). I really liked the way he overcame Esthar. The plan was a little goofy, and seems a little bit crazy, but it works, and above all it didn't resort to force. In fact, that was about the only time I see in a game where you don't have the typical:

1. XYZ warns about evil ABC too powerful for the entire world put together, and only plan EFG can stop ABC.
2. The good guys messes up. ABC is revived/becomes God/blows up the world/whatever.
3. The good guys procede to trash ABC anyway.

Not to mention Laguna comes with some of the best music composed for the FF series. The Man with the Machine Gun, and Winhill theme. And let's not forget Desperado. :)

I'd like to see more charming heroes like Laguna, and less social rejects like Squall in RPGs.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Oh yeah, there might be spoilers, if you haven't played FF8 (there are people who haven't played FF8 yet?)</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I agree 100%, Cloud is still worse than Squal though =P</div>

<div style='font: 9pt arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>Oh, definately. Laguna kicked a lot of ass.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Sorry, had to say it.

Laguna happens to be my favorite character in FF8 as well. I would have much rather played as him and his group for the entire game. The plot of the game probably woulda been better. Or at least better than, "Oh we all grew up together....we just forgot. And this evil sorceress that we've been fighting all along is our surrogate mother..."

But I guess part of his charm came from how different he was from Squall. Kinda like an ugly girl and a normal girl standing next to each other. All of sudden the normal one is pretty.

Squall and Cloud were all right. As far as I can remember they were the only introverted FF characters. I guess it was there chance to try something new. I'd have to say Cloud is a bit cooler in my opinion, probably just because he had more justification of being messed up, being a real reject.

Oh, and Squall isn't a social reject. He's a born leader(so they say), and gets all the girls...riiiggght.

<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">The title was from an SNL skit of Celebrity Jeopardy....</span></div>

<div style='font: 10pt Verdana, Tahoma, Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Woah, you're selling penis mightiers?</div>

<div style='font: 9pt arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>"Buck Futter!"</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Verdana, Tahoma, Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>"I don't know what you're talking about."</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Oh, I think you do...I think you do indeed.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt arial, Modern; text-align: justify; '>I've tried to play FF VIII twice, and I just can't bring myself to play beyond the second disc.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>The guys around Cloud at least realize he's a bit out of whack, and Cloud actually knows that doing weird stuff like beating up Aeris for no reason is bad in most people's eyes and tries to explain it. Meanwhile, people around Squall are masochists and are continued to draw to him by his incredible charm, such as:

Quistis: Squall, I've been bothered by this problem...
Squall: Go talk to a wall.

You can't choose to say anything nice to Rinoa for the longest time, not that she doesn't deserve it.

Or against Galbadia

Squall: Um, I'm Squall, the cool guy with the Gunblade. I know we're getting worked, but, um, you got to fight them, for me and for you too. Bye.
Everyone: YEAHHHHHHH! Squall is the man!

I swear having Zell talk about the hotdogs could've produced a better effect.

Hell, if Squall just say "Take off every SeeD! For Great Justice!" would've been better. :)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Modern; text-align: left; '>That's why I liked FFIX so much. No depressing main character. Zidane actually has a nice outlook on life.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Verdana, Arial, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 0% 0% 1%; '>Dude, are you really selling penis mightiers, man?</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Yes somebody agrees with me here! Whoooooo! :)</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I think Square's plan was to make annoying heroes like Squall so they can skimp out on the next main character development and still seem like a huge improvement over the last game.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Papyrus, Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Perhaps, but he was still a retard like 90% of the characters in the game =P</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I like the FF9 characters a lot better than any FF game since FFIII</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS", Modern; text-align: left; '>I like how Zidane kept trying to pick up all the women. That was funny.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Papyrus, Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Your opinion doesn't count!</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS", Modern; text-align: left; '>He was just agreeing with me. But he happened to post before I could so i just replied. And since my opinion counts.....=8^)</div>

<div style='font: 14pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I liked Squall.., what I didn't like was the way they made him and the other characters interact, it never made much sense. Squall as a character worked imo(he didn't want to deal with anything, seems to be burdened with expectations placed upon him).</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>That's the part that didn't make any sense. He might've been a fine Gunblade user, maybe even the best out there, but he has no idea how to organize a bunch of people together, and yet made him in charge of the Garden.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>Indeed. The only person I liked from that game was... um... Vivi and maybe Makoto</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Papyrus, Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Ha! You wish. I think we're all aware that mine is the only opinion here that matters.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt Modern; text-align: left; '>I agree about that, but then again none of the characters in FF8 were really "perfectly suited" for leadership, other than Cid.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Papyrus, Modern; text-align: left; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Makoto was only in the game for five minutes =P</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>"No, I'm not selling penis mightiers."</div>

<div style='font: 9pt arial, Modern; text-align: left; '>"Well you're sitting on a gold mine, Trebek!"</div>

<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>She's female, and um... not 6 years old too. :)</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", Modern; text-align: left; '>Do you know what I want? Less gods in Final Fantasy. I swear, if I have to fight another god as a final boss, I'm going to scream!</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", Modern; text-align: left; '>Cockpit.</div>