Squall Leonhart

Squall 'Leon' Leonhart is a character from all the Kingdom Hearts games.

Development and appearance
As part of a theme desired by Kitase to give the game a foreign atmosphere ("foreign" being in relation to Japan), the objective with the character designs was to give them largely European appearances. The first character Nomura designed specifically for use in Final Fantasy VIII was Squall, initially giving him longer hair and a more feminine appearance. However, Yoshinori Kitase felt that this design did not work, and asked Nomura to shorten his hair and make him look more masculine, which lead to the final design of Squall seen in-game. When designing Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy VII's lead protagonist, Nomura gave him distinctly spiky, bright blonde hair, so as to emphasize his role as that game's main character. With Squall, Nomura wanted to try another unique angle to establish Squall's role, giving him the now trademark gunblade scar across his brow and the bridge of his nose. There was not yet a complete history conceived for the character, so Nomura left the explanation for Squall's scar to Nojima. Squall's design was completed by a fur ruff along the collar of his jacket, included by Nomura for the purpose of challenging the game's FMV designers, being but one example of the demands he has consistently extended to the programmers of the Final Fantasy titles as technology has advanced.[2]

Squall's gunblade, as seen in the game's opening creditsAlso as part of Squall's design, Nomura wanted to include silver accessories, which took the form of his ring, necklace and weapon. Squall calls the lion "Griever" and it seems to be symbolic of his angst and takes on significance as the plot of the game progresses. Squall's weapon is a gunblade, a sword using components of a revolver to send vibrations through the blade when triggered.[3] This weapon was intended to offer a new way for players to control weapons in battle, and Nomura feels that the weapon bears an odd appearance.[2] Squall's model is simply called the 'Revolver,' though he can upgrade the weapon at junk stores. Squall and his rival, Seifer Almasy, are the only gunblade specialists who appear in the game, although Laguna Loire uses one very briefly.

Squall's physical appearance consists of medium-length brown hair and cold grey eyes. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has stated that actor River Phoenix was the influence for Squall; both share the same birthday and physical appearance. A small scar runs diagonally across the bridge of Squall's nose, which he receives at the beginning of the game in a training duel against his rival Seifer.

In Final Fantasy VIII
In Final Fantasy VIII, Squall is known as a "lone wolf" by his peers because he never explains his feelings.[1] [4] Even compared to the originally indifferent Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII, he comes off as cold to his allies. [5] His superiors, such as his teacher, Quistis Trepe, regard him as difficult to deal with but greatly respect his natural talents.[6][7]. He is also known to be stoic in some situations.[8] His attitude is also used for comic relief. In the cutscene where he first meets Rinoa, she coerces him into dancing with her at the SeeD graduation ball.[9] He awkwardly bumps into other partygoers while staring constantly at his feet with a look of confusion. Rinoa, however, perseveres in partnering him, and Squall eventually reveals that he's quite capable of dancing, as it is a mandatory aspect of his training.[10]

Squall is unwillingly dragged into the role of the hero when Cid, headmaster of Balamb Garden, appoints him as leader of the academy mid game.[11] He is often thrown into a leadership role, as is evident in the Timber and Galbadia missions. During a late battle against Galbadia Garden, Squall demonstrates some leadership difficulties, which are tied to his lingering isolationism.[12][13] Likewise, other characters have to make efforts to pull him out of his isolation, and Rinoa has to expend a lot of energy to pursue a romance with him. It takes considerable time for him to accept the others' offered friendship and fall in love with Rinoa and care for her.[14] As time progresses, he grows more comfortable with the leadership role, especially when it comes time to defeat Ultimecia, the main antagonist.[15]

Throughout the game, he has a distinct rivalry with Seifer Almasy. The opening sequence depicts the duel in which Squall obtained his characteristic facial scar (and subsequently gave an almost identical one to Seifer, Squall's starts above his right eye and goes to his left cheek, while Seifer's goes from left to right, going in the opposite direction.) and scenes in which Squall and Seifer are supposed to be cooperating are characterized by squabbles between the two cadets.[16] Later, Seifer allies himself with the Sorceress, requiring Squall to battle him several times. Nevertheless, despite their conflict, Squall still feels an underlying comraderie for Seifer, and mourns him in his own way when he believes Seifer to have been executed after an attempted kidnapping of Galbadian President Vinzer Deling.[17]

According to flashbacks in the game, Squall grew up in an orphanage, along with many of the other main characters such as Zell, Seifer, Selphie, Irvine and Quistis. Though he remembers little of this past, it causes him to develop into an emotionally detached, highly cynical and introverted boy (his original goal is to go through life without any emotional links or dependencies).[18] However, Squall gradually warms as the game progresses, and it is later revealed that his deliberate detachment from his companions is a defensive mechanism to protect himself from emotional pain, like he experienced when his older sister figure at the orphanage, one of the sole emotional supports in his early life, was forcibly separated from him.[19][20]

Upon defeating Ultimecia, as his comrades are pulled back from time compression into their own respective places in the timeline, Squall takes a detour back to the orphanage, where he encounters a younger Edea. Since she does not want to involve any of the children, Edea ends up absorbing the dying Ultimecia's powers as part of the cycle of sorceresses (a sorceress must pass on her powers to a successor before she is allowed to die peacefully), and wonders aloud about endings and beginnings (dialogue mirroring words to Squall years later, on Disc 3).[21] Squall plants the ideas for Garden and SeeD in her mind, creating an in-game loop in which he must become the leader of Balamb Garden so that he can make it to this point again.[22]

There are strong indications in the game that Laguna Loire is Squall's father. During flashbacks involving Ellone, in which the characters dream they are people from the past, Squall consistently takes on the role of Laguna, despite the fact that any of the other characters in Squall's party may take on the role of Kiros or Ward. If Squall travels to Winhill after Garden is activated, he will encounter inexplicable visions of Raine throughout the town. Ellone also mentions that Raine died—apparently in childbirth—and that she had a baby boy. When Squall is captured, all the Moomba keep reffering to Squall as Laguna (it is later indicated that the Moomba recognize people by their blood; suggesting a tie between Squall and Laguna which can easily be debunked as "Laguna" is the only thing the Moombas can say). Toward the end of the game, aboard the Ragnarok, Kiros and Ward make commentary as to Squall's resemblance to his mother and his dissimilarity to his father.[23] Laguna also intends to tell something to Squall, but he opts not to due to the circumstances. As of his current surname, the game never reveals how he received the name "Leonhart", although it is possibly Raine's maiden name. The triple triad minigame is also holds some evidence supporting Laguna being Squall's father. Triple triad is a card game you can play against various people you meet ingame. Each card has on it's face either a monster or a unique character. For the major unique characters, the person who has their card is usually someone fairly close to them. Zell's card for example is held by his mother and Rinoa's card is held by her father. Laguna is the person who has Squall's card.

In Kingdom Hearts
Squall appears as a non-playable character in Kingdom Hearts, although he looks older and similar to Laguna Loire. He no longer wears his fur coat and wears a short leather jacket with red wings on the back, resembling the ones in Rinoa's back, but he still wears his Griever necklace. He assumes the name Leon because he was unable to protect those he cares about from the Heartless when the Radiant Garden was consumed in darkness. "Leon" is voiced by David Boreanaz in the English language version of the game and Hideo Ishikawa in the Japanese version.

There is also a Keyblade in the game, called "Lionheart." It has a keychain resembling Griever, a reference to Squall (received after defeating Leon and Cloud in the Hades Cup Tornament at the Colisuem). Leon also held the Earthshine Gem which contained Simba, he gave it to Sora. His role in Kingdom Hearts is to help guide Sora, on his battle with the Heartless, alongside various other Final Fantasy characters. While his appearance and age change (in Kingdom Hearts, he is 25, whereas in Final Fantasy VIII, he is 17), his personality remains the same. A memory-based version of Leon appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

In Kingdom Hearts II
He returns in Kingdom Hearts II and was voiced by Doug Erholtz for the English version. Here, Leon is seen to be slightly more cheerful than he is seen in the original Kingdom Hearts — which could depict his personality after Final Fantasy VIII. He actually fights alongside Sora in one of the fights near the beginning of the game. Sleeping Lion, a Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts II, is another reference to Squall. Leon seems to be the leader of the "Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee," which is composed of the returning Final Fantasy cameos from the first Kingdom Hearts and Merlin. He also, along with many other characters, including Tifa and Cloud, help Sora fight the Heartless on the Ravine Trail in the Hollow Bastion(Later named, the Radiant Garden). Leon also plays the largest role for any Final Fantasy character in Kingdom Hearts II storywise, the only Final Fantasy character that has relations to King Mickey, and works very close to Sora and company. Leon is also the only Final Fantasy character in the game to come face to face with the Organization and fight the Nobodies. Leon still wears his Kingdom Hearts outfit, only receiving a fur ruff along the collar of his jacket, similar to his jacket in Final Fantasy VIII. He seems to be a good friend to both Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough.

Other appearances

 * Squall is an unlockable character in Chocobo Racing and Itadaki Street Special. In addition, a 2D sprite of Squall occasionally makes an appearance on the loading screen of the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VI.