rufus shinra is a sneaky bastard. three viewings later, i finally caught on that he flat-out lied to cloud’s face about not finding anything in the northern cave. what was his arse mucking about there in the first place? whatever his motive, it most likely stems from selfish goals. and, for a guy who got blowed up bad in a serious explosion, he’s looking way too flawless. he doesn’t even really need that wheelchair! totally posing. and i like that.
cloud has more reason to pull the introverted loner act than squall. compared to the crap cloud had to endure, squall just seems like a whiny nancy boy. wah wah wah, i lost my sister. wah wah wah, i’m now an orphan. wah wah wah, seifer pushed me around. somebody smack the boy already.
sephiroth plays the bigbad better than ultimecia. much of that has to do with the insane amount of backstory that went into his character development. it doesn’t get better than setting up the anti-hero with a “it wasn’t his fault he was born screwed up!” past. then, stick in a personal history between the bigbad and the hero, have the bigbad do a terribly evil murder thing, and BAM, you’ve got yourself a story with a villain that’ll suck you in for 60+ hours because the buildup was just that damn good. with ultimecia, you don’t even know about her until, what, disc 3? when you finally meet her for the final showdown, she’s got nothing going for her…not even good dialogue (spelling your c’s with k’s has been killed to death by xanga-ers everywhere). edea was a better bigbad than ultimecia. better looking too with all that purple eyeshadow and a neckline cut to here.
even knowing all the great heroic things that tifa’s done (for city, planet, orphans, boyfriend), i still don’t like her. something about her just turns me off. in contrast, i know exactly why i find rinoa annoying. not the least of which is her “lookit me! i’m so rebellious yet feminine!” pose. why didn’t they bother developing quistis more?
blah blah, cloud’s bike and swords in the movie are extra sparkly cool. but i’m still all for gunblades as standard hero equipment issue.