Rinoa Heartilly
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| Rinoa Heartilly | |
|---|---|
 Rinoa Heartilly as painted by Tetsuya Nomura |
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| Game series | Final Fantasy series |
| First game | Final Fantasy VIII |
| Character designer(s) | Tetsuya Nomura |
| In-Universe Information | |
| Weapon | Blaster Edge |
| Limit Break | Combine, Angel Wing |
| Age | 17 |
Rinoa Heartilly (リノア・ハーティリー Rinoa Hātirī?) is the main female protagonist from Squaresoft's (now Square Enix) Final Fantasy VIII. Born Rinoa Caraway, she has taken her mother's maiden name as her surname. She is the seventeen year old daughter of General Caraway, a high-ranking officer in the Galbadian army, and late Julia Heartilly, a famous singer and former love interest of Laguna Loire.
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[edit] Development
When designing Rinoa, Nomura emphasized that he tried to avoid letting the possibilities presented by the recent advancements in FMV technology become the entire focus, believing that these innovations might tempt developers to make their female characters "too beautiful" and focus more on physical appearance than personality. With this concern in mind, Nomura set out with the intention to avoid making Rinoa gorgeous, and to simply make her "cute" instead. To further emphasise this, he wrote a list of vocabulary traits and physical habits for Rinoa's character that he felt conveyed this idea of "cute, not gorgeous," and sent them to Nojima along with the character's design.[1]
[edit] Final Fantasy VIII
In the game, Rinoa is a member of the Forest Owls, a small resistance faction seeking to liberate the small nation of Timber from Galbadian occupation. Rinoa first meets Squall Leonhart, the male protagonist of the game, at a ball at Balamb Garden. During the dance, she manages to charm the usually stoic and unfriendly Squall into dancing with her. Her purpose for visiting the Garden is revealed when the Forest Owls hire Squall, Zell Dincht, and Selphie Tilmitt as mercenaries. She stays with them as they are forced to flee Timber, and ends up traveling along with them for the remainder of the game.
Outspoken, spirited, emotional and compassionate, Rinoa is in many ways the polar opposite of the cold and unsociable Squall; in fact, in the previous summer she was romantically involved with his long-standing rival Seifer Almasy. Together she and Squall go through many things, including Squall flying into space to rescue her from the sorceress' memorial and surviving time compression together. Although their personalities do clash at first, Squall and Rinoa gradually fall in love, and their relationship is a major focus of the game's storyline.
Rinoa's weapon of a choice is the Blaster Edge, a bladed ring mounted to her wrist that acts much like a boomerang. She is assisted by her faithful dog, Angelo, during battle. Due to events later in the game, she also acquires a secondary limit break called Angel Wing, in which she becomes uncontrollable for the remainder of the battle, acting on her own by casting spells with greatly increased power.
Rinoa has a questionable family life. Her mother died when she was 5 from an automobile accident. After that her father cut himself off emotionally. She has taken to calling her father 'Caraway' (his last name) instead of 'Dad', and she changed her last name from 'Caraway' to Heartilly, her mother's maiden name. Rinoa's mother was named Julia Heartilly, who was a love interest of Laguna Loire.
[edit] Other appearances
Rinoa, along with Squall, is featured in the electronic board game, Itadaki Street Special.
Although Rinoa didn't physically appear in the Kingdom Hearts series (so far), it is worth noting that she may exist. During the ending credits of Kingdom Hearts II, Squall is seen with an envelope. When he opens it, something bearing resemblance to Rinoa's signature wings insignia (the ones seen on the back of her sweater coat in Final Fantasy VIII) magically fly out. However, they are shaped more like the wings found on the back of Squall's jacket in the Kingdom Hearts series.
Though not a genuine "appearance," Rinoa is paid an homage of sorts in Square-Enix's Star Ocean 3: Til the End of Time. One of Maria Traydor's extra costumes very closely resembles Rinoa's style of clothing and Maria's hair changes color to black.
[edit] Controversy
Rinoa is a relatively controversial character among Final Fantasy fans. Opinion of her has tended to polarize into that which views her as an example of the stereotypical princess of slang terminology (she is referenced in the game as such on more than one occasion), and that which accepts Rinoa's character flaws as part of a more realistic and interesting whole, citing the game's portrayal of her growing relationship with Squall whom, it is contended, required someone as intense as Rinoa to develop his own personality.
Certain criticism comes along racial lines, and has risen as the Final Fantasy series has continued to drive towards photorealistic graphical imagery, particularly in its FMV sequences, in contrast to the more anime-style look of characters in earlier titles. Accusations come from those who contend that the increase in graphical quality make Rinoa's features, and those of subsequent heroines in the series, appear more-obviously Asian when compared to those of Squall, her love interest, which they consider Caucasian. However, Final Fantasy VIII character designer Tetsuya Nomura has stated in interviews that it was always his intention to model Rinoa Heartilly as a young, ideal-driven European girl.
[edit] References
- ^ Shella (2003). Tetsuya Nomura 20s. FLAREgamer. Retrieved on 13 April 2006.
