Rinoa: Scars of the Past

Rinoa's mother is Julia Heartilly (a piano player well known in Deling City, for her playing at the Deling hotel), her father General Caraway of the Galbadian army (we never did get a first name for him ^^;) Julia was in love with a Galbadian soldier, Laguna Loire, at one time, and wrote the song "Eyes on Me" about him... But they were not meant to be, and Laguna left for war and never returned. At this point she met Caraway, who consoled her over her loss. All was well, they fell in love, and got married.

Unfortuneately, a few years after Rinoa was born, Julia died in a car accident. From this point until the action of the game begins, we have no idea what happens exactly to Rinoa and her father, but they start not getting along. To quote Zell: "So the father's a top military officer, and the daughter's a member of an anti-government faction!? That's bad.. really BAD!"

Rinoa alienates herself from Caraway in every way possible, from referring to him as "that man" to changing her last name but really.. They don't blatantly HATE each other - hate is a very strong word. And Caraway doesn't hate Rinoa. He just tries to do what he thinks is best for her, of course, but in the wrong kind of way. He treats Rinoa like a child, constantly watching over her as if she can't think for herself (maybe because he doesn't like the way she speaks her mind?). I think they don't get along because Rinoa doesn't like the way he makes decisions for her (like locking her in her room when she wants to help her mercenary friends :P), trying to take care of her, when she feels that she's perfectly capable of doing that herself. They don't understand each other at all, and it seems like it may be from lack of civilized communication. This is such a common problem between teenagers and parents.. The kids don't understand why their parents take control like this, and the parents don't see how their control is restricting their children.
And Caraway also never shows any kind of emotion or expresses his love for Rinoa (or at least not in a tangible, spoken way as Rinoa needs). Since Rinoa is so dependent on affection (and especially so with Caraway, since he's the only family she has) maybe she began resenting him in her childhood because he never supported her emotionally the way her mother had. She "hates" him because she thought he never loved her, and because she was constantly held back and didn't understand why. They don't get along because they don't understand each other. Caraway doesn't understand that Rinoa needs emotional support more so than his more practical way of showing affection; Rinoa doesn't understand that her father only treats her this way because he cares about her. Maybe Caraway never fully filled the position of mother figure that Rinoa so desired.

But that's just my speculation, I could be very wrong. ^^;; Maybe it's just as simple a reason as they're just fighting over the fact that Caraway is with the Galbadians, and Rinoa is with the Timber Forest Owls, making them enemies. It's never actually explained throughout the course of the game. :P But if you want my opinion, it seems to me that Rinoa would have joined the Owls partially out of wanting to help Timber.. And rationalized her decision to join them with that excuse. But deep down, it could certainly be because she wanted to spite her father by taking up the other side.

Anyway, it's my guess that at some point she ran away from home, maybe because of the difficulties with her father. (Again, I really could see her running away to prove to Caraway that she could take care of herself, or to spite him, or something..) SeveraI things point to this, beginning with the fact that Rinoa seems to live in Timber, even though her real house is in Deling. Also, a woman at the Timber hotel (if you happen to visit it at the right time and talk to her with Rinoa in the group) remarks to Rinoa at some point that she "can't stay at the hotel today" and says it in this.. way, that makes it sound like Rinoa had frequented the hotel a lot in the past? Rinoa calls her Miss DiMarco, but then the lady remarks something along the lines of "Oh, how long have you known me? Call me Francesca!" hinting that Rinoa knew her from the past somehow.. My guess is that Francesca knew Rinoa because she took Rinoa in after she ran away, or at least knew her from her many hotel visits. ^^;; ANYWAY, it was at this point, after running away, that Rinoa met and joined the Forest Owls (or maybe she ran away to join the Owls after hearing about them, or something), all of this occuring at some point before the summer when she was sixteen. (Because that's when she said she knew Seifer, and it's mentioned that they talked about the resistance.) But aside from that (most of which is my assumptions and speculations anyway) not much is known about Rinoa's past at all. All in all, I don't think Rinoa had a very happy childhood.. and I think the reason why she never speaks of it is probably because she wants to forget it. :(

And now we have the issue of Rinoa's last name. Instead of being known as Rinoa Caraway, she calls herself Rinoa Heartilly, taking on her mother's maiden name. Now that I think of it, there's lots of reasons she could've done this - but as far as I guessed, she did it because she wants to further isolate herself from Caraway. She does this for the same reason she calls him "that man," for the same reason she doesn't ever talk about her past. She wants to forget it, to pretend it never happened.
But again, this is just sort of a conclusion I automatically drew, so it might not be true. I suppose there are some more logical reasonings, due to the whole Forest Owls situation (since they're against the Galbadians, and Rinoa's father is a general.. X_x) and she could be going by Heartilly because she doesn't want them to know that she's Caraway's daughter.. but I dunno, I always thought there was some deeper psychological meaning to it than that. To isolate herself from her father and her past, and maybe to feel closer to her mother. Since we don't really know, I guess it's kind of a matter of opinion thing.

And as far as Rinoa's relationship with her mother went.. Again, she doesn't ever really talk about her much, but it can be assumed that she misses her very much from when she does. :( It's said to be her mother's ring she wears on her neclace, in remembrance.

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