Squall Leonhart - FF8

"Right and wrong are not what separate us and our enemies. It's our different standpoints, our perspectives that separate us." —Squall Leonhart

Squall Leonhart is the main protagonist from Final Fantasy VIII. The etymology of his name, Leonhart, means "Heart of the lion", descriptive in that while he is cold and aloof, he is also a born hero. His weapon, the gunblade, is one of the most famous weapons of the Final Fantasy series.

Story
It is implied that Squall was born to Raine Loire in the village of Winhill, but she died shortly after his birth. His father, Laguna Loire, never knew that Raine was pregnant, as he was in Esthar saving his adopted daughter Ellone from the clutches of Sorceress Adel, a malevolent sorceress. After Raine passed away, both Squall and Ellone, who was sent back to Winhill by Laguna, were sent to an orphanage on the Centra continent.

This orphanage, run by Edea Kramer, was where Squall grew up, and despite the presence of other kids his age, Ellone was his closest friend, nicknaming her "Big Sis" although it is unknown whether he knew about their sibling bond. Due to Ellone's unique power to send a person's consciousness back in time, she was eventually sent away from the orphanage to be under the protection of a group of older orphans called the White SeeDs. No one told Squall why "Sis" left, and he assumed that she abandoned him. Due to the emotional pain of this assumption he developed a defensive mechanism that caused him to be an emotionally detached, highly cynical and introverted boy who wished to go through life without any emotional links or dependencies. This is the source of his lack of social skills.

Between age 5-10, Squall was admitted into Balamb Garden to train as a SeeD. He chose to train with the gunblade, which is a difficult weapon to master and takes years of training. This wasn't a factor as Squall kept to himself and trained whenever he could. He quickly became Seifer's rival, who is a mirror image of Squall in many ways.

Seven years later Squall has became known as a "lone wolf" to his peers. His superiors, such as his teacher, Quistis Trepe, regard him as difficult to deal with but greatly respect his natural talents. The rivalry between him and Seifer has grown to become common knowledge amongst the Balamb students. Also, due to his use of GFs Shiva and Quezacotl, his memory has weakened, remembering only the feelings of abandonment he felt when Ellone left. As the games starts Squall is near the end of his education and, after an eventful field exam, graduates along with Selphie, Zell and Nida.

It is during the inauguration ball that Squall meets Rinoa, when she forces him to dance with her. It is learned later that she would be his first employer, working as part of a hired group with Selphie and Zell to assist in the Forest Owls; freedom fighters devoted to freeing Timber from Galbadia's control.

His first mission with the Forest Owls ended in failure, when, in an attempt to kidnap the Galbadian President Vinzer Deling as he visited Timber, they instead captured a body double posing as the President. Having issues with the level of "professionalism" in the Forest Owls, Squall asked to see the terms of employment that the SeeD group were under. They were under the Owls' employment until "Timber gains it's independence". Far from satisfied the group nonetheless follows with the Forest Owls' plans to intercept the President's Timber based broadcast; the first world-wide broadcast for 17 years. Just short of invading the studio however Rinoa lets slip her views of the way SeeD live and Squall remarks about her groups' competence in turn. After the two exchange words Rinoa leaves.

A few minutes after the President begins broadcasting however Seifer, with Quistis in hot pursuit, takes the President hostage over the air. Under Quistis's request, Squall, Zell and Selphie rush to the studio to find Seifer backing away with the President into another room. However, at this point, the Sorceress appears, and convinces Seifer to come away with her. Seifer is announced executed.

With the Forest Owl's base destroyed, Squall and the others lie low for a while, contemplating Seifer's fate leads Squall and Rinoa into another argument over their views on life before they are given word that it was clear to leave town. On their way to Galbadia Garden the two argue again, this time about Squall's cold attitude towards his team mates. The group makes it to the Garden and receives new orders. They are to assassinate the Sorceress during her inauguration ceremony as the ambassador of Galbadia. A new SeeD member, Irvine Kinneas, is assigned to help them acheive this. With Squall as their leader the group takes a train to Deling City to meet with their contact, General Caraway, and run directly in the middle of a father-daughter feud between Caraway and Rinoa.

Later that night all hell breaks loose, as the ceremony begins Sorceress Edea kills the President and claims Galbadia as her own. Discovering Seifer alive and standing next to the Sorceress as her Knight, Squall takes his position with Irvine as the rest of the SeeD takes theirs. As leader of the assassination team, if the sniper should fail to hit his target, he must fight the Sorceress himself. Irvine seems to choke, however, but after some talking to Squall, he fires at the Sorceress. She is now aware of what is going on, and uses a magic field to stop the bullet from hitting her. Squall then goes down to the parade grounds, and fights his way through Seifer, and eventually reaches Edea. After the battle, Edea casts an ice spell, which hits Squall through the chest, rendering him unconscious.

Imprisoned and tortured by Seifer in the D-District Prison, Squall, with the help of his team-mates, escapes and immediately races to Balamb Garden to warn of the impending missile attack from the Galbadian forces as retaliation on the attempt on Sorceress Edea's life.

However, as he arrives, the Garden is in the midst of chaos, a mysterious faction with allegiance to NORG, Balamb Garden's funder, has staged the revolt against Headmaster Cid. While helping those he could Squall searched for the Headmaster to warn him of the missiles, finally finding him bunkered in his office, the Headmaster instructs Squall of the Garden's past status as a mobile bunker of Centra make. Upon the activation of the ancient system, the Garden transforms into a mobile fortress and narrowly avoids destruction by moving away from the location the missile's were programmed to target. Cleaning up loose ends due to the rebellion of the Master faction the Garden, now seaborne, is met by the White SeeD ship and are requested to hand Ellone (who was hiding in the Garden) over into their protection.

When the Garden crashes into Fisherman's Horizon, Squall and his group are ordered to act as ambassadors and enact a formal apology. Mayor Dobe, the leader of the pacifist city, tells them to leave immediately, as their presence can only cause destruction. Galbadian soldiers eventually invade the town, and Dobe heads off to discuss peacefully with the soldiers. However, the soldiers do not listen, and he is eventually rescued by Squall. Grudgingly, he accepts their apology, and orders the city's technicians to restore Balamb Garden to full functionality.

As his first command, Squall liberates Balamb from Galbadian occupation after defeating Fujin and Raijin. The next order is then to head to Trabia Garden, Selphie's original Garden. He offered the Trabia students Balamb Garden's support and, while waiting for Selphie return and due to a segment in Rinoa's conversation, remembers his past in the orphanage alongside his team, excluding Rinoa. Decisions were made and the Garden next embarks to the old orphanage, but is intercepted by similarly mobile Galbadia Garden. The Battle of the Gardens ensues, ending in Sorceress Edea's defeat and Rinoa becoming comatose.

Intensely concerned over Rinoa's state Squall nonetheless carries on with the mission, this time the search for Ellone by the behest of Edea Kramer who was now free from the tyrannical grip of an evil sorceress from the future named Ultimecia. Learning from the White SeeD that Ellone was now in Esthar, Squall opted to go alone, carrying Rinoa on his back, but his friends followed him and together they entered Esthar and from there to the Esthar spacestation. It was then discovered that Ultimecia had taken control of Rinoa and used her to free Sorceress Adel from her space-bound tomb. The station is evacuated as the Lunar Cry begins, but Squall instead goes after a re-awakened and free Rinoa as she is left in space. Coming across an abandoned spaceship called Ragnarok the couple use it to return to the planet. Here Squall, declares his intentions to protect the new Sorceress Rinoa and defends her from Esthar, and declares himself her Knight. They return to Esthar by request of Laguna to stop Ultimecia once and for all.

Using the Ragnarok they invade the Lunatic Pandora and fight through Seifer and Adel. Using Ellone's time powers, they were able to start a Time Compression, and enter Ultimecia Castle in the future, where Ultimecia awaited. Upon Ultimecia's demise, Squall was taken back in time to the orphanage where he not only witnessed his own self as a boy, but he implanted to Edea the ideas of SeeD and Garden before he fell back into compressed time where he nearly died but for Rinoa, and his team who believed in his existence enough to bring him back to his time and live. During the party at Balamb Garden to celebrate over SeeD's victory over Ultimecia, Squall smiled at Rinoa for the first time and kissed her at the balcony.

Weapons
Squall's own model gunblade is unique in it's appearance, featuring a stenciled image of the Guardian Force Griever on both sides of the blade as well as possessing a chained pendant of Griever's head attached to the base of the handle. The gunblade's casing itself seems also to be custom, featuring an enlarged image of Squall's Griever pendant on the lid.

There are seven gunblade types/models available for Squall to use throughout the game, they are: The Revolver, The Shear Trigger, The Cutting Trigger, The Flame Saber, The Twin Lance, The Punishment and The Lion Heart.

Limit Breaks
Renzokuken
In Final Fantasy VIII, the player performs Squall's Limit Breaks by hitting the R1 trigger button at the correct time, indicated by a bar on the bottom of the screen. The different levels of the limit breaks depend on what gunblade he is carrying and appear as finishing moves after his normal limit break, Renzokuken. The finishing move is then chosen randomly.

Limits

• Level 1: Rough Divide - Obtain Revolver or higher.
• Level 2: Fated Circle - Obtain Shear Trigger or higher.
• Level 3: Blasting Zone - Obtain Flame Saber or higher.
• Level 4: Lion Heart - Obtain Lion Heart.

Trivia

• A reference to Squall in Final Fantasy IX is discovered at the end when Zidane utters "No cloud, no squall shall hinder us." While he performs on stage in disguise before revealing his identity to Garnet. This is also a reference to the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife.
• It has been said that Paine of Final Fantasy X-2 is based upon Squall's look and personality.
• Squall's Student ID is No. 41269.
• "Maybe I'm a Lion"'s title may be inspired by the English Hard Rock band Deep Purple's "Maybe I'm a Leo".
• A cosplaying pianist known as “Piano Squall" cosplays as Squall during his charity concerts.