Rinoa Heartilly

Player
Name: Emily
Age: 26
Personal Journal: annakratos
Contact: annakratos
Other In-Game Characters: Hopefully Fighter!

Character
Name: Rinoa Heartilly
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Canon: FFVIII
Canon Point: Right after time compression when the party is trying to find their way back to their time and to each other (literally right before the final cutscene sequence)

History: wiki

Personality:
Growing up in a wealthy and influential family, Rinoa might be just a tad bit spoiled and used to getting her way. Once her mind is made up, it doesn’t matter what anyone may say to dissuade her. When approached with the task of eliminating the Sorceress Edea, Rinoa has her own plan to give her a bracelet that will supposedly suppress her powers. After having her plan shutdown, RInoa decides to take things into her own hands and goes through with it anyway. It goes about as well as one might expect. A tactician, Rinoa is not.

With a nickname like Princess, it isn’t hard to guess what kind of lifestyle she’s used to, or how naive she can be about the world. This is something that continually bites her in the ass. She’s not prepared for the hardships life brings and at one point can’t bring herself to fight if she’s by herself. She considers herself pretty useless compared to the rest of her friends, who have trained and been exposed to those kinds of things before. This ties into the loneliness that she hides for the most part. Despite not having many friends growing up or even good familial relations, she’s a very compassionate woman, always trying to do what’s right even if she doesn’t want to, like when she agrees to be cryogenically frozen for eternity to protect the world from her and her new powers.

Rinoa’s warm nature allows her to bond with just about anyone she meets, from the jerk Seifer to the antisocial Squall, though the latter could be just because she sees through his whole gruff act. She genuinely cares about people and will do what she can to cheer others up when they’re down. Beyond that, she’s self-sacrificing to a fault. Combining that with her impulsive nature, it can cause some real problems, as evidenced by the whole bracelet mishap. Were she to be on a rocket that was in danger of exploding, you can bet that Rinoa would be the one to run to the cockpit and make sure everyone got out safely at the risk of her own life.

As the daughter of a general, one might expect her to have a soldier’s disciple. That’s where they’d be wrong. Rinoa hates her father and everything he stands for, going so far as to create a resistance group against him and all of Galbadia, fighting for the independence of Timber (the task of which she hired SeeD for). She has the take-charge attitude a leader needs, but can fall short on the execution side as her plans don’t usually go well. This could be clouded by her very nature. Like her name suggests, she acts entirely from the heart and wears hers on her sleeve, basing her decisions entirely on it, though throughout the game she begins to think things through a little more, realizing that her actions do have consequences, but no matter what she has a hard time understanding how Squall (and in turn, SeeD) is happy to just blindly follow orders. She and he act as each other’s foils and help the other mature throughout the story.

Despite this, Rinoa has some of the worst luck a person can have. She is The Damsel In Distress of all damsels in distress, constantly needing rescuing by her friends. Sometimes it’s her own actions that cause this, but others it’s just plain terrible luck, like when the part of the airship you’re on suddenly breaks off and you’re stuck hanging the side for dear life. These types of things do eat away at her and can cause those insecurities to creep back out, but so long as she has someone with her, she can bounce back up. She’s very much reliant on others supporting her, and her friends know it.
Speaking of, despite being the only one of the main party to not have grown up in an orphanage together, they’re very welcoming of her, eventually considering her one of them even though she isn’t. Her teasing nature helps her fit right in with the others. While in the beginning they just see her as the spoiled, hot-headed princess, they later recognize the warmer, friendlier side of her that was just waiting to come out and see that she can get through to Squall like none of the rest of them can. Only Squall, though, knows how lonely she truly is, since just as he opens up to her, she opens up to him. She never really had many friends growing up besides her dog, lost her mom early on, and clashes so intensely with her dad that she dropped his last name. She’s left behind sometimes because she’s not SeeD, and believed that her being a sorceress would impact her relationship with her friends. She was very wrong and the loneliness has waned, but parts of it still remain when she sees them all reminiscing over their time at the orphanage together.

When it comes to pressure, honestly, she doesn’t handle it well. She tries to be strong and stand on her own, but she can’t, and needs someone to turn to, which in turn makes her feel weak and a little bit like a hypocrite after all but telling Squall it’s okay to rely on others. Confrontation-wise she’s bold, brazen, and won’t back down. From the moment we meet her (dragging Squall to the dance floor) to the very end (when she manages to bring Squall back from the timeless space he was trapped in), Rinoa has remained headstrong and stubborn, refusing to accept defeat. She’ll try to find a solution to a problem and will act on it if others won’t, or even if they tell her not to (think back to the bracelet). While initially she was more brash, she gradually becomes more open to discussion prior to action. No matter what, though, she won’t give up and will keep looking to a brighter tomorrow.


Samples:
Sample 1 (Rinoa at the TDM)
Sample 2 (Wings meme)

Vaikuntha
Moogle Name: Anette
Moogle Gender: Female

First Job: Summoner
Second Job: Puppet Master