Seifer Almasy

Seifer Almasy is both a playable character and an antagonist in Squaresoft's role-playing game Final Fantasy VIII. He has short blond hair, blue-green eyes, and a scar across his forehead mirroring Squall Leonhart's. Aside from the game's protagonist, Squall Leonhart, Seifer is the only other student at Balamb Garden to wield a gunblade, his particular model being known as the Hyperion. He and Squall have an intense rivalry, although both respect each other's abilities. Seifer and Squall are virtually mirror images of each other. Aside from bearing mirror scars, their personalities are very much opposites. Squall is a strict follower of orders, duty, and rules in order to complete his missions. Seifer on the other hand disregards orders and takes a reckless approach in order to reach his goals. Each of them bears an unprecendented skill with the gunblade and in battle, they are very much equally matched like brothers, while Seifer holds slightly better in power and speed. In the end, it is his inability to control his emotions that gives Squall the upperhand, this being the root of most of Seifer's problems throughout the game. Both of them being the mirror image of the other is also suggested numerically through Triple Triad: The numbers on Squall's card are positioned to form the mirror image of the numbers on Seifer's.

Although Seifer is a gifted warrior, he has a stubborn, arrogant, reckless and unpredictable nature, and although he has taken the SeeD exam multiple times, he has failed on every attempt. At the beginning of the game, he once again fails the SeeD field exam after he refuses to follow orders.

Seifer is the head of Balamb Garden's Discipline Committee ironically, considering his disobedient ways. The other committee members are Fujin and Raijin, who are named after a Japanese wind god and thunder god, respectively. Fujin is a woman who appears to be albino and wears an eyepatch. In the Western language localizations, she almost always speaks in terse one- or two-word sentences expressed in all caps - for example: "DECISION. HELP SEIFER?", "RAGE!" In the original Japanese version, her dialougue is written in kanji throughout most of the game. Raijin is a large dark skinned man who ends most of his sentences with the phrase, "ya know?" In the Japanese version, his sentences end in "ne?"

Both Fujin and Raijin are extremely loyal to Seifer, and consider themselves a "posse." Other members of Balamb Garden consider them a "gang" more interested in excercising their "disciplinary" powers than actually keeping students in line.

Background and character development
Seifer enrolled in Balamb Garden at a very young age (while the exact age is unknown, it was most likely as young as five or six). Seifer had previously been living at an orphanage on the southern continent of Centra along with many other player characters.

Although the characters have lost most of their memories, subsequent flashbacks reveal that many present-day attitudes were caused by their time together in the orphanage. For example, his rivalry with Squall and tendency to bully Zell Dincht all started when they were children.

Seifer also has what he terms a "romantic dream" that of serving as a knight to a sorceress (this concept appears to derive from the medieval tradition of a knight protecting a lady). As early as childhood, he wore a symbol that resembles the emblem of the Knights Templar, and he continues to wear it into adulthood; which seems to justify or signify his 'romantic' dream of becoming a Sorceress' Knight.

Squall and Seifer's rivalry is intensifies when it is revealed that he was Rinoa Heartilly's first boyfriend (the game centers on the relationship between Rinoa and Squall). In order to impress Rinoa, he attacks Galbadian president Vinzer Deling and is almost executed before being recruited by Sorceress Edea (though his loyalities were to Ultimecia). But when Edea was freed, Ultimecia used Rinoa to order Seifer to bring the Lunatic Pandora from the sea as part of her part to freed Sorceress Adel as her new vessel. However, after being continually defeated by Squall in battle, and with the help of his friends Fujin and Raijin, Seifer eventually comes back to his senses. It's mentioned in the game that The Sorceress (Ultimecia) has the ablity to brainwash people's minds. Why Seifer might have been the most controlable over anyone else she could have taken control of is never explained, and has become a subject of many a fanfiction. Some have suggested that because Edea, or "matron" was essentially Seifer's mother when Seifer was a child, she was easily able to manipulate Seifer's emotions. Even more speculative is the idea that Ultimecia specifically chose to possess Edea in order to manipulate Seifer.

Throughout Final Fantasy VIII, he is portrayed simply as an arrogant, overbearing bully, with a lust for power. In the last FMV, however, we see a small smile almost of pride towards Balamb Garden. With the evil essence removed from his heart, the game ending suggests that Seifer might return to Balamb Garden and become the SeeD he is destined to be. This sudden and ambiguous change in character is the subject of many fanfictions.

Cameo appearance
Seifer makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts II, accompanied by Fujin, Raijin and Vivi Ornitier. Fujin and Raijin are called "Fuu" and "Rai" respectively in the game. Like some of the Final Fantasy characters already present in the Kingdom Hearts series, the trio appear a bit younger. He is the leader of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee and appears to be a rival of Roxas, the infamous "Blond Haired Kid", always bad-mouthing him and picking fights with the boy's friends.

Seifer Almasy