Squall Leonhart

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Player Information

Name: Theo
Age: 37
Contact details: Known
Other characters: Gladio, Duo and Sleepy Ash

Character Information

Name: Squall Leonhart
Canon: Final Fantasy 8
Canon Point: The end of Disk One, after his fight with the Sorceress Edea where she hit him with a large shard of ice and seemingly "dies" when he falls from the platform where they had been fighting.
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: OU
Age: 17

World Information: Here

Personal History: Here

Personality: Outwardly, Squall is a grumpy emo kid. But dig a little deeper and... he's still a grumpy emo kid... only he has layers.

"I'm more complex than you think."

And indeed he is. To most, Squall is seen as stand-offish, aloof, cold and distant. He pushes people away and those that do get close he keeps at arms-length. While he works hard to become a SeeD he hides from responsibility. He has no friends and as far as anyone knows, he's fine with that.

Dig a little deeper though, find what's under the surface, and you'll see a man who is afraid.

Squall doesn't remember his parents and was, in his mind, abandoned by the only family he does remember, his sister. He waited for her at the orphanage, day after day, wishing for her return, promising to be good and to be strong. But he was weak. He was just a child and had no power to change the outcome of his life. He had no power to bring his sister back to him.

He keeps people at a distance because people will hurt him, in the end. They ultimately leave and he will be alone. In Squall's mind, why would he do that to himself? Why open himself up to being hurt time and time again when closing himself off is so much easier? People can't hurt you if they don't get close enough to do so. They can't betray you. Can't fill your head with warm, caring lies and love only to tear it all away. Squall has some serious abandonment issues.

Along with that is a simmering temper just a little below that. It doesn't often show, but sudden bouts of anger and reckless behaviour is usually how it manifests. He can remain mostly calm through most things, choosing to internalise a lot, but he can only bottle up so much and may have small out bursts of frustration and irritation. Recklessness has him running into situations with seemingly little thought. Or he thinks about it and dismisses it anyway. Which is how he came to have the scar across his face. He knew fighting Seifer was a stupid idea. He knew the guy played dirty. And yet he still went out and did it. Squall does not want to seem like a coward. He wants to be seen as strong and capable, even to the point of acts of stupidity like that. (because it was dumb, even he can agree to that now)

Squall does not like to be put under pressure. He doesn't want responsibility. He doesn't want to be seen as a leader. He doesn't want people looking to him for guidance when he can barely guide himself.

Self-doubt and anxiety plague him, he worries endlessly about things that are, for the most part, out of his control. He never knows what to say and how to deal with people, even worse people with larger than life personalities.

Dig a little deeper still... and you'll find a boy who cares about what people think of him. And he hates that part of him. Which is why he cultivated the side that made people think he was unfriendly. He doesn't want people to get to know him, the real him, because he's afraid that when they do they'll dislike him. It's fine if people don't like him for the reasons he makes them see. But to see him, to look inside and see the REAL Squall and STILL hate him... that would be a hurt that he just couldn't bear.

Still... At his core, Squall is loyal and determined with a stubborn streak a mile wide. He will bully ahead despite the odds and his fate. He refuses to bow down to what destiny has set out for him, little realising that by doing that he is playing right into destinies hands.

"I feel like a helpless puppet being manipulated in some major scheme."

Sadly this is what he is, though at the point in canon he will be taken from, Squall will not know the full extent of this. From the day of his birth his path has been set out for him. As much as Squall struggles against his fate there is little he can do but accept it. It will take time, but he will eventually accept his role. He will come to accept his friends, something he has always wanted but was always afraid of, and he will learn to realise that he deserves to be loved.

Key themes: Self-isolation, doubt, trust issues and anxiety, abandonment and attachment issues... But determination, a drive to fight, self-sacrifice.

Main Motivation:

Skills: Squall is a gunblade expert, there are very few who study this old art of fighting. He is skilled in this melee form of combat, and should be a transferable skill to other swords of a similar type.

Item: A chain necklace with a pendant of Griever above a cross.

Sample: TDM

Notes: The point where I will be pulling Squall from is the end of disc one, after his fight with Edea. He will think that he would have (or should have) died after that fight. It was, in his mind, a suicide mission. He knew that Edea needed to be stopped and since Irvine had screwed up his part of the plan, it was down to him to finish it, at all costs.