Seifer....a-hole or no?

**Hero without a Name** · 09-22-2011, 04:06 AM

Once again we are here in the ff8 forum and most of the forums I post are posting my personal opinion as well as the opinion of my fellow tffers

I am hear to ask about the man, the mystery, the legend himself, Seifer. Those who have not played the game before, everything I type may be a spoiler to you so *SPOILER ALERT*. You see Seifer in the opening credits, with a sweet battle I might add and giving squall his scar. He's what you call the renegade student. He's good with a sword, but he doesn't like to follow orders or he's not that good about it.

I'm not going to type everything he does, but there is a past love between him and a character once again *spoiler alert* but I won't say who. He then basically fights Squall every chance he can. But the bottom question is, is Seifer an actual a-hole or not?

This may surprise some of you, but I personally don't think he is. I think he's brash, arrogant, pig headed and a douche sometimes, but the man fights for what he thinks is right. He wants to be a shining knight hence why he did what he did. He may of been mis-guided, but I feel that despite it all, he actually had a heart, it was just hard to see it. But that's just MOI. What do you guys think? A-hole or not?

**Dodie16** · 09-22-2011, 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by Hero without a Name

He's what you call the renegade student. He's good with a sword, but he doesn't like to follow orders or he's not that good about it.

...basically fights Squall every chance he can.

...I think he's brash, arrogant, pig headed and a douche sometimes

Heh... In my books, that pretty much labels a person an asshole...so...

But, he was a good foil for Squall, and it was interesting seeing him delve deeper and deeper into his obsession during the game. Hell, even his clothes become more ratty each time you face off against him (it's syyyymbooooooliiiic~)

**CrazedMonkey** · 01-13-2012, 01:36 PM

Admittedly, I always felt that he came off as kind of an a-hole even before joining up with Ultimecia. Never really liked the guy.

**Squall** · 01-14-2012, 07:37 AM

Power and greed got to him. He became a pawn of Ultimecia and yes, was an a-hole, no doubt.

**Cyanist** · 03-28-2012, 02:23 AM

He was pretty nasty, do doubt, and I think he would have turned out to be an A-hole if he hadn't run afoul of Ultimecia. I think after living through that experience he changed his tune. (or at least I'd like to think so...)

**Sheechiibii** · 05-02-2012, 01:05 PM

I don't think he's a bad guy at heart. I think he makes some really stupid decisions for what he believes is right and what he thinks will make him happy. I think that Ultimecia does use him and in the begining at least seems to hypnotise him to some extent. He wanted more exciting things than what his life was and believed that to be found in the legends of a sorceress knight, when he had a chance to make that a reality he didn't question what Ultimecia told him, he believed her words and trusted her probably more so because he wanted it to be true rather than because that's what sounded right. I think he's foolish and immature but the things he does he does because he thinks he's doing what's right; he believes Ultimecia is the good one and everyone else is victimising her and hurting her and that it's his job as her knight to protect her...I don't think that makes him bad, just naive.

Xx..xX

**Rowan** · 05-02-2012, 04:01 PM

He was obviously an outcast with emotional problems. He would find it hard to connect with others, his lack of friends and the general negativity he recieved from people is evidence of this. He is not bad, just perhaps confused. Hes not that old , remember. Hes trying to find his place in the world, a world in which he thought he knew but instead failed in the final exam in becoming what he always wanted to be. So he sought an opportunity with the sorceress for power as with power, comes respect. Driven by the madness of wanting to know what seed was, he was determined to defeat Squall.

**X-Meteo** · 06-22-2012, 04:25 AM

He's actually my favourite character in the game; if I didn't like him as a char boss so much it would really annoy me that you don't get to use him as a permanent PC.

The reason I like him so much (apart from his all round coolness) is that I think of all the characters, he is the most interesting exploration of what happens when young teenagers are thrust into roles of such enormous responsibility, danger and violence as SeeDs are.

Seifer is under gigantic pressure for his whole life, is privileged with prodigious ability but is never given the freedom to fully explore it and so he finds an escape route through service to Ultimecia, and even though he grows to understand that he has only really forced himself into another trap, he convinces himself in the way only a teenager can that he is doing the right thing; it grows to a point where his pride and shame at what he has done drive him to continue on his dark path rather than apologise and try to atone for his actions.

He, like most of the other characters in the game, is barely more than a child and as such he has a youthful and naive way of dealing with the world-shattering events that surround him. I think he's one of the most feasible and convincingly written characters FF has ever had.

That said, he is still an a**hole

**Pete** · 06-22-2012, 07:52 AM

I don't think he was a bad guy or even really an asshole. We all get wrapped up in squabbles and rivalries. Sometimes we do stupid and selfish things as a means to an end. Seifer was ruled by jealousy. He may have been a better leader and soldier than Squall, but his arrogance and inability to follow orders cost him his dream.

I think he ultimately just wanted to be there for someone and have a real human connection. He wanted to be someones knight and to have someone need him, like Squall for Rinoa.

I also think he's the product of being thrust into the middle of this gigantic conflict. You have immaturity issues and a hero complex, with someone with too much power. you can kind of see, at the end of the game, when all was said and done, he wasn't really a douche. He was just happy chilling with his friends, who by the way, had his back

**belakkaleb88** · 07-13-2012, 06:03 AM

A hole? Nah just a little immature at times. But he did go after his dream and wouldnt let anything stop him, gotta respect that.

**Benihime2059** · 07-19-2012, 06:32 PM

I never liked him my fav character of any ff is squall anyway

**thefreethinker31** · 11-12-2012, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by X-Meteo

He's actually my favourite character in the game; if I didn't like him as a char boss so much it would really annoy me that you don't get to use him as a permanent PC.

The reason I like him so much (apart from his all round coolness) is that I think of all the characters, he is the most interesting exploration of what happens when young teenagers are thrust into roles of such enormous responsibility, danger and violence as SeeDs are.

Seifer is under gigantic pressure for his whole life, is privileged with prodigious ability but is never given the freedom to fully explore it and so he finds an escape route through service to Ultimecia, and even though he grows to understand that he has only really forced himself into another trap, he convinces himself in the way only a teenager can that he is doing the right thing; it grows to a point where his pride and shame at what he has done drive him to continue on his dark path rather than apologise and try to atone for his actions.

He, like most of the other characters in the game, is barely more than a child and as such he has a youthful and naive way of dealing with the world-shattering events that surround him. I think he's one of the most feasible and convincingly written characters FF has ever had.

That said, he is still an a**hole

couldn't agree more to what you said

**Clint** · 03-26-2013, 07:03 PM

Seifer isn't really an asshole, but he is a douche bag. He picked a fight with Squall, and when he got pissed off, he didn't kill Squall, which was nice of him, but he still cut up Squall's face. That's a pretty douchy thing to do, and that was even before he became a sorceress' knight. It's explained in the game that he was brainwashed into doing the bidding of Sorceress Ultimecia, whom was the bitch that was possessing Edea. While brainwashed, his acts portray him as a complete asshole, though he is not controlling his own actions. The true asshole is the psychotic bitch in the weird huge castle, pulling Seifer's strings.

Raijin and Fujin even eventually side with Squall over Seifer, which is further proof that Seifer's actions while acting as Ultimecia's Knight are completely out of character for him. He was acting like a psychopath. Although he doesn't play well with others, he's far from a bad person, and he's most certainly not psychotic. A little unstable maybe, but so was Squall. If he were in control of himself throughout the game, more than likely, he would have assisted Squall instead of opposed him.