Rinoa & Squall: Two Sides of the Same Coin

They met and fell in love. A simple concept, really. :P But what makes Rinoa and Squall stand apart between most other fictional couples is how real the relationship really is and how they complete and contrast to each other perfectly. White and black, light and dark, they not only complete each other but their problems stem from the same place.

The perfect couple, the perfect combination: as the saying goes, opposites attract. Rinoa seems to have the power to enter into someone's life and completely change their outlook. She enters Squall's world and turns it upside down, reviving feelings in him he'd been trying to hide since he was a child. She falls in love and shortly after, he too falls in love with her after he realizes how important she is too him. Ahh, the lucky bastards. XP ;)

But what's interesting is that they not only complete and contrast each other perfectly, but in some cases they ARE each other. Take Rinoa, for example. She's open, loving, and constantly looking out for other people. But underneath all that, it seems that she herself is starved for affection. I see it as that she spends so much time looking out for others that she doesn't receive much caring herself. And her father, her parental figure, was never there for her the way she wanted him to be. So although she isn't lonely, she's still alone in some sense because she has no one to love her, or really no one to stand behind her. And that's exactly what Squall ends up being: her protector, caretaker, etc. Pillar of strength, if you will. :P

And wow, I just got completely off topic from the point I was trying to make. :P The point I'm trying to make is..

I can see Rinoa.. becoming Squall almost. They really are't so different once you get down to it; it's the same problem. If after so many years of being so loving and not recieving love in return, couldn't Rinoa become reclusive somewhat like Squall? Couldn't she get to the point where she wouldn't want to enter into a relationship because she wouldn't want to end up without love again? Well, probably never to that extreme because her personality and reasoning are different from Squall's. But after recieving Edea's powers, she does make the first decision to be blasted to the moon.. Perhaps because, along with being a threat to mankind, she would rather run than be feared and rejected and lose all hope of having people love, care, and understand.
And that's exactly what happened to Squall. He was "rejected" by Ellone, he loved her more than anything and then she suddenly disappeared out of his life. He lost his caring and understanding. He's afraid of that same rejection again. Rinoa's deathly afraid of rejection from people. Squall doesn't want to put his trust into people because he doesn't want to feel pain. Couldn't Rinoa get to the point where she wouldn't want to interact with others because they would never love her and nurture her the way she nurtured them? She does; the whole contained on the moon thing. She ran out of fear of rejection. And Squall hid out of fear of losing love and comfort. The situations are completely different, sure, but the problems are still the same. Ahh, the psychotic paradoxes that haunt my brain. XP

Ahh, but it's really all beside the point. We'll never know if Rinoa would have ever turned out like Squall. Because the two ended up together, they solved their own problems. Squall is Rinoa's knight in shining armor. Squall loves her, understands her, and most importantly stands behind her as no one else would. And she is the one who brought out that side of his personality in the first place with her loving nature. Rinoa was looking for Squall (a protector), and Squall was waiting for Rinoa (a nurturer). Oh man! It's just like the flower field! XD

Umm, I think that about wraps this section up. I was basically thinking out loud throughout that entire thing.. If it sounds a little out there it probably is. XD I need to revise this after I manage to catch my sanity. And I do need to note that yes, although I'm saying Rinoa's and Sqaull's conflicts all boil down to the same thing, I'm not saying their personalities are the same... No no. ^_^ Neither could ever become completely like the other. It's just some food for thought.

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