Basic Profile

Name: Squall Leonhart

Height: 5'8

Date of Birth: August 23

Blood Type: AB

Weapon: Gunblade

Limit Break: Renzokuken

Manual Profile:

"The taciturn and reluctant hero."

"A cadet in SeeD, the special combat unit of the Balamb Garden Military Academy. His aloof and anti-social behavior makes him appear selfish and lacking a sense of team unity. Squall dislikes having others involved in his affairs and is best described as a lone wolf."

About:

Squall is the lead character of Final Fantasy VIII. He is seventeen years old, and trains with a gunblade, a combination of a revolver and a sword, at Balamb Garden, an elite military school that trains youths to become mercenaries. He prefers to keep to himself, and does not like to get close to other people.

He follows the orders of his superiors to the letter, and dislikes being in charge and having to be responsible for other people. However, certain events in the game force him to take a stand and defend himself, not only for his own sake, but for the sakes of the people he grows to care about, as well as the entire world.

Biography

Introduction

Loner. Pessimist. Deep thinker. Those are the words that might cross your mind about Squall in the first few scenes of the game. He’s definitely not a people person. He doesn’t have any friends, and doesn’t seem to want any. He doesn’t talk much, and when he does it’s usually to reply to an order, or to discourage someone from getting to close to him. His actions may annoy people at first, but as the game progresses we discover his reasons for being so cold-hearted and solitary.

Notes

I apologize in advance for this profile not being totally centered on Squall. I guess I needed to talk about other characters in order to fully explain some of the events in the game. Also, there are *lots* of spoilers, corny writing, and run-on sentences ^_^;.

Past

Squall was raised – along with Quistis, Seifer, Irvine, Selphie, and Zell – in a little stone orphanage on the coast of Centra. They were taken care of by their ‘Matron’, a kind, compassionate woman named Edea Kramer, and her husband Cid. One day, a dying sorceress named Ultimecia came to them from the future, wanting to pass on her powers before she passed on. Afraid of what might happen if one of the children received her powers, Edea accepted them.

Edea realized that if another sorceress possessed her there would be no telling to how much destruction she would cause, so she and Cid oversaw the construction of the Balamb, Galbadia, and Trabia Gardens and the creation of SeeD, a mercenary force trained to defeat any and all sorceresses - including Edea herself – should they ever need to do so.

But there was still one more threat. Ellone, the oldest of al the children and known as ‘Sis’ to them, had a unique psychological ability- to send people’s present minds into the minds of people she knew in the past. If Ultimecia or any other sorceress ever got through Edea and possessed Ellone, it would be the end of their world and the beginning of a world of nothingness…where no one except Ultimecia could survive.

None of the children knew about this and they loved Ellone dearly, especially Squall, who would cling to her like a security blanket. They were inseparable- Ellone would act as the big sister, and Squall was the young child who depended on her to hold his hand and guide him through everything.

Despite this, Edea knew she had to protect Ellone, so she whisked her away one morning to a boat filled with White SeeDs, people selected to protect Ellone. Squall was heartbroken after the separation, as Ellone was the only person he felt he could turn to for comfort and guidance. He promised to himself – and Ellone – that he could take care of himself, and if he did, Ellone would come back.

She never did, and everyone was sent to different Gardens to live different lives. Years later, they reunited again (though only one person knew it), all to defeat the sorceress who had raised them all.

Growing Up

With Ellone gone from his life, Squall had lost everyone dear to him. He felt so lonely and miserable that he never wanted to feel the same emotions again…even if it meant never becoming close to anyone and experiencing the happiness of friendship. With that in mind, he grew up with no friends and kept his emotions to himself, becoming colder and more isolated every day. He was considered a ‘gifted’ student at Balamb Garden because of his attentiveness to following orders and gunblading skills (I’m sure he was a good student too ^_^). He put all his time and effort onto Garden, and with the extensive use of Guardian Forces he lost all his memories of the orphanage. He did remember, however, that very early on in his life he had lost someone dear to him, and he never wanted to feel that pain again.

Rivalry

Even as Squall grew up, he remained constant rivals with Seifer Almasy, the head of the Disciplinary Committee of Balamb Garden and the orphanage bully. Seifer would provoke Squall to duel with him with insults and taunts, but since they were almost equally gifted in battle – and they both used gunblades – their duels would be long and heated, usually getting interrupted by Quistis or one of the other instructors, or one (or both) of them getting hurt *snicker*. Even though they used the same weapon, Seifer and Squall had very different personalities, and often the extreme differences would clash and they’d fight over little things. At the climax of a duel one night, Seifer gives Squall a long scar across his face, and Squall gives him one right back. This sets off a chain of events that will change their world as they know it.

Present and Future

When you first get a chance to control Squall, he’s a student of Instructor Quistis Trepe – one of the children from the orphanage. He’s aspiring to become a SeeD, and only has to take two more field exams to become one. If you play the game right, he manages to become one, and meets a mysterious (though cheerful) girl named Rinoa at the inauguration ball. They share an exhilarating dance, and Squall is fascinated with Rinoa’s bright outlook on life later on in the game, which flies in the face of all his beliefs. He is eventually reunited with all the children from the orphanage and slowly realizes (with their help) that it’s virtually impossible to get through everything by yourself, especially when he is made the commander of Balamb Garden. Rinoa plays a huge role in the story, by breaking Squall’s barriers and making him realize that he needs to love and depend on others in order to survive. He realizes that there are people who really care about him – he just needs to come out of his shell and learn to care about them back.