Impressive Words

Written contributions and observations.  

These are a few personal observations that didn't quite fit anywhere else. One section is about the moon and stars motif while the other is about Rinoa's skills – and lack of. It was written a year or so after the game's release.


Celestial

Like the name of Rinoa's feathery weapon, shooting stars are a recurring symbol in the game's story. It's because of shooting stars that Rinoa and Squall happen to meet at the Garden dance party.

Later in the game, Rinoa tells Squall that she had a dream where she and Squall promised to see shooting stars together. The dream became a nightmare where she couldn't find him. Squall says that it's because they didn't promise to meet yet, so they make the promise as seen in the introduction FMV. Near the end of the game, the nightmare seems to have become a reality and their promise is what saves them.

Finally, at the very end of the game Rinoa is looking at the night sky. She spots a shooting star and points it out to Squall the same way she did when they first met. This time they are no longer strangers and Squall is able to act on his feelings.

Perhaps a wish of Rinoa's came true during the ending. Making a wish on a shooting star is an old adage that's more recently associated with Disney's animated movies. Coincidentally, Wish Star is also the name of one of her limit breaks and Tetsuya Nomura himself was a huge Disney fan in his youth.

Another recurring symbol for Rinoa is the Moon. The moon is a powerful symbol associated with Witches and is the home of monsters in FF8. The moon appears larger than normal in the game due to a decision Yoshinori Kitase made. His idea was to add a touch of fantasy to the realistic sized world. In our world, the moon can actually look that large due to an optical illusion.

Corporeal

Despite not being a Garden student, Rinoa knows how to do ballroom dancing. Although it could be for eye candy's sake that the scene was fully choreographed, she's later revealed to have been raised in an upper-class background.

The golden ballroom scene was heavily influenced by Disney's Beauty and the Beast. This scene, like many others between Squall and Rinoa, is meant to be reminiscent of fairy tales about love with 'happily ever after' endings such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. It is also why some characters call Rinoa a princess and Squall her prince. As well, Rinoa acts just like Belle from Beauty and the Beast when she arrives at Balamb Garden's Library. She's astounded and excited by the amount of books.

Rinoa is light on her feet and has a body for dancing, but she's not that great with her hands. Although her weapon requires use of her hands, a crossbow takes very little training and skill to use properly. Rinoa probably learnt how to use the weapon within a month after she joined the resistance.

It's revealed early in the game that Rinoa is unable to make a decent looking model train for the Forest Owls' mission. One must be very patient to become a good model builder, a trait Rinoa lacks. What she can do is make really loud finger whistles, like when she calls for Angelo.

"Oh, shut up! I made it look like that on PURPOSE. It represents my hatred towards Deling. ... That's so mean! I worked really hard on mine!"
          –Rinoa at the Forest Owl Base

For a game where everyone uses cars, you may notice that Rinoa never drives. In Deling she always takes the bus and knows the routes inside and out. It's possible that she rode a bike since she has the shorts for it. Outside of Deling she has the option of taking trains. But when needing to be escorted by car, someone else must drive her. She probably never learnt how to drive because her mother died in a car accident.

Since her mother was a singer, Rinoa was definitely educated in music. The FH Concert scene can have two different pieces of music playing, one of them was a jazzy and slow version of her mother's song, Eyes On Me. Rinoa loves the song and was able to notice how 'badly' everyone played it. Squall's behavior also made her easily irritated by everything being less than perfect that night.

Cute

A cute rough drawing of Rinoa by Tetsuya Nomura

Tetsuya Nomura wanted Rinoa to act cute and other than using funny words, she does a lot of universally cute things during the game. This is most evident during the dance. When she and Squall bump into another couple, she sticks her tongue out while making a face. She later leaves him with a wink and an apologetic hand sign. By paying close attention, you'll notice that she does lot of cutesy actions. Selphie also has some, like adjusting her boots.