One other FFXIII thing

[owlmoose]

Posted separately from my reaction shot because it involves a spoiler. From the first hour or so of gameplay, which at the time of this writing is as far as I've gotten. (I welcome comments and discussion! But since I am avoiding spoilers generally, please avoid bringing up anything that we learn later than the timeframe I mention here. You will, in that way, earn my undying gratitude.)


I know I've discussed the "unnamed mothers" problem with justira at least, and probably others as well, but I can't remember if I've ever brought it up here before. In a nutshell, the issue is SE's tendency to bring in mother characters who are key to the plot, without getting names. FFX suffers from this particularly (Tidus, Yuna, and Seymour all have mothers of some significance who appear in the game, via flashback or as spirits, but are never named), but there are others as well.

So now we come to FFXIII, where a mother plays a key role in the development of two characters, Hope and Snow: she steps up to join the battle and protect her son. And what name is she given? "Mother."

Really, Squeenix? Really? You bring legions of writers onto a project, and not one could take five minutes to name a character who gets as much screen time as some of Snow's buddies and plays a far more pivotal role than most?

You're building up a lot of credit for me with Lightning, who at first blush seems to be a pretty kick-ass character; I really wish you hadn't squandered so much of it so soon.

Comments

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

I can agree with you on the problem of the introduction. Though it made sense, story-wise, since Snow didn't get her or her son's name, it still remains an out-of-universe problem that frequently presents itself in all media, as you said. I'm only in Ch. 6, and I'll try to avoid spoiling you, but when you find out exactly what her name was and how it is used by Hope, you may change your mind about it. I have a feeling her and her name will be even more important as the story goes on, but I could be wrong.

Unfortunately, she died all too soon, for the purposes of furthering the story. She was likeable, too. (Moms ARE tough, lol. XD) The problem of women being used as sacrificial lambs for the purpose of story development isn't changing in FF13, unfortunately.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I'm now a bit into Chapter 3, and I can definitely agree with that last statement. Keeping it vague for anyone else reading this, but... yeah.