Rinoa: Brush With Fate

It just recently became apparent to me that I was leaving something very important out about Rinoa.. ^^ And that I hadn't really told about the later role she plays in the game or anything. So here you go.. More about Rinoa's important role in Disc 3. Note that this is THE biggest bad boy of all spoilers, and that if you read it before at least gaining the Ragnarok you're gonna have a lot to be spoiled on :P You probably wouldn't understand it either... I couldn't find any better ways to explain it than this.. >_< Very long.. Ehhhhhhh ^^

Squall and Co. are at Galbadia Garden fighting Edea.. Otherwise known as "Matron" from their childhood.. When suddenly she turns back into her normal self as if awakening from a long sleep. We later find out that this is because she had passed her Sorceress powers on to someone else, which would be a good thing.. Except for the fact that the person on the recieving end is Rinoa!! Because of this Rinoa goes into a coma, and is possessed by Sorceress Ultimecia from the future in the same fashion as Edea was (keep in mind though that they don't figure out all of this until later).

Squall finds himself talking (and not just talking, opening up about himself) to the unconscious body of Rinoa Heartilly in Balamb Garden's infirmary. Unable to concentrate on situations at hand and confused over his past, himself, and his growing affection for her, he picks her up and begins the long walk to Esthar. Squall figures that if he can find Ellone there, and she can send him back to the past, maybe he can find out what happened to Rinoa to make her go into her coma [they don't know yet that Edea had passed on her powers].

To find Ellone, Squall does absolutely anything and everything.. And finds himself being blasted off to Esthar's Lunar Base. But unfortunately before anything else can be done, Ultimecia decides to rear her ugly head by using Rinoa's body to set the awful events of world destruction in motion.. By releasing the seal on the tomb of Sorceress Adel, the older, evil ruler of Esthar, Ultimecia hopes to revive Adel for her evil plans :P

This leaves Rinoa out in space, in a spacesuit running out of oxygen, without any hope of being rescued. Not only that, but they picked the worst possible time to travel to Lunar Base as the Lunar Cry is about to begin - the falling and gathering of all of the monsters from the moon, down to Lunatic Pandora on Earth (Ultimecia planned it :P and used Seifer to activate the event; so that Adel could be carried back to Earth by the monsters..)

So with Rinoa out in space, Squall has to evacuate the base in an escape pod with Ellone, where she finally sends his conscious mind back to the past so he can find out what caused Rinoa to go into a coma. After fitting the pieces of the puzzle together, Squall knows what he has to do - save Rinoa.

He manages to find Rinoa, still alive, and through a stroke of luck the abandoned spaceship Ragnarok (which was used many years before by Esthar's president to carry Adel up the the moon). So Rinoa and Squall are saved through fate and love. ^_~ Although this leaves Rinoa to make an important decision.. To stay out in the real world, with people, and with Squall; or to be sealed like Adel because she's a threat to the safety of the world. Rinoa makes what she thinks if the right decision: to be sealed and blasted off to the moon, because she doesn't want to hurt anyone. (Very courageous, isn't it? And people wonder why I like Rinoa so much..^^) Esthar representatives come to take Rinoa away, and Squall says goodbye..

But at the Sorceress Monument in Esthar, right before Rinoa is to be sealed forever, Zell and Quistis hold off the guards as Squall runs in, cuts a cable, and is reunited with the girl he loves.

Rinoa: "Squall, don't!! I'm a sorceress!"
Squall: "I don't care."

That pretty much covers her biggest role in the game ^_~ In fact, that's practically all of Disc 3! She plays a part in the plot later, but this is personally what I think to be her most interesting role, so.. That's what I wanted to talk about.

But what does Rinoa feel about being passed on these powers? Mostly scared. Scared of what people were going to think, scared people wouldn't want to be around her.. Keep in mind that Rinoa is a complete people person - and the thought of such a large amount of people rejecting her was probably enough to make her go crazy. Along with the fact that she thought she was going to have to be sealed away forever - from people, from life, and from Squall. Scared of the future - "I don't want the future.. I just want the present to stand still.. So I can stay here with you." And even when things work out for the best, she's still afraid of being possessed by Ultimecia again.. And what if she ended up fighting Squall, and Zell, and everyone else? "If I fall under Ultimecia's control again... SeeD will come kill me, right? And the leader of SeeD is you, Squall. Squall's sword will pierce my heart... I guess it's ok if it's you, Squall. Nobody else." But Squall tells her not to talk like that.. and that Ultimecia is the only sorceress he's after.

Return: Rinoa