Quistis Trepe

Quistis Trepe is a playable character in Final Fantasy VIII. She is a child prodigy and Blue Mage Instructor No. 14 at Balamb Garden. Her fans are known to be referred as "Trepies" after her in-game fan club.

Appearance and Personality
Quistis wears an orange zipped vest that extends to just above her hips, which also features a low fold-over collar rimmed with gold. Over her arms she has dark brown arm warmers with brown gloves. Quistis also dons a long orange skirt with a silver waistband and black pants, a brown belt and black shoes. She wears her blonde hair tied up at the back, held with a silver comb accessory, and has two long fringes of hair framing either side of her face. As an instructor in Balamb Garden she wears her SeeD uniform and a pair of silver rimmed glasses. Quistis is known as a child prodigy around Balamb Garden. At the age of 15, she became a SeeD, and now at 18, she is the youngest instructor in the Garden and she even has her own fan club. However, because she is so young, she is less strict than the other instructors, which causes problems with some of her students not taking her as seriously as they should. Quistis is of a friendly disposition and always tries to maintain her calm. Due to her quiet assertiveness, stoic nature and restraint, few people take the trouble to view her as the young woman she still is and so, forced to mull over her thoughts and worries alone, and kept at a distance from her pupils by her rank, Quistis tends to brood a lot.

It becomes apparent that she would love to develop a more personal relationship with the people around her, particularly with Squall. Yet, she is hesitant to make a bold move and maintains her usual role instead. As a result, she becomes moody and even depressed from time to time. As Quistis herself explains later on in the game (once she has regained her childhood memories), she was adopted, but things did not work out too well with her new family for unknown reasons, so she came to Balamb Garden at the age of 10, became a SeeD at 15, and got her instructor license at 17. Taking that under consideration, it is hardly surprising that she regards the Garden as her home. She is fiercely protective of the Garden and all that SeeD stands for. Quistis is also known to be a mentally gifted young woman, and unbeknownst to the main characters, she is the best Triple Triad player in Balamb Garden. Despite her cool and composed exterior, Quistis is actually quite emotional, though she does not show this side to her peers often. She thinks of herself as being a "big sister" for the group, and she takes it upon herself to look after everyone, which explains why she feels she should not let the others know how she really feels.

Story
Quistis was an orphan at the end of the Sorceress War, growing up in Edea's Orphanage with Zell, Selphie, Irvine, Seifer, Squall and Ellone, and admired Edea Kramer, their "matron". She was nicknamed "Quisty" by her friends and was considered the "bossy" one of the bunch. When Ellone left, she attempted to take her place in being Squall's "big sister", always being there to break him and Seifer up when they fought.

Eventually she was adopted but, due to unknown circumstances that resulted in her adoption "not working out", she was entered into Balamb Garden at the age of 10 and, at the age of 15, she became one of the youngest students to become a SeeD and went on to become an instructor, receiving her license at age 17. When she had entered the Garden she first noticed Seifer and Squall, as the two were always fighting. Even when she became an instructor she could not stop thinking about Squall, confusing her childhood feelings as a "big sister" for love. She hid her feelings though, even more so when she became his instructor. During her time as a student Quistis became close friends with Xu, another Garden student, and together they climbed the ranks of Balamb Garden's Card Club with Quistis eventually becoming the card master "King"; the highest ranked and skilled member in the club, at age 14.

Three years later Quistis had become something of an idol to some of the students, so much that they had even created a fan club around her. Naming themselves "Trepies", they respect and idolize everything she does and are also slightly protective of her. Quistis herself takes their actions in stride and ignores them for the most part, concentrating only on her job as instructor of her class. Two students she keeps specific attention on are Squall and Seifer, the former due to her hidden feelings, the latter due to his misconduct.

When the two injure each other in a training match Quistis is called to personally retrieve Squall, who had been admitted to the infirmary. Due to the mishap she is aware Squall is behind in his prerequisite tests for his field exam and goes out of her way to assist him in passing. During the field exam Quistis aids him again by fending off the X-ATM092 with a mounted machine gun. Despite these admirable actions, during the inauguration ball, she receives a letter of dismissal. Informed that she has failed as an instructor and her Instructor License is revoked as of midnight, she attempts to confide her feelings to Squall, but only receives a cold demeanor in return.

Acting now as a SeeD, Quistis is called to track and contain Seifer when he breaks out of the disciplinary room. Following him to Timber, she calls for assistance from Squall's team, who are also in Timber, as Seifer holds the Galbadian President Vinzer Deling hostage in the TV Station. When Seifer disappears, presumed captured, Quistis stays with Squall's team, lying low for a while before they are given word it is clear to leave town. When Zone hands out the train tickets for their route out of town he hands his ticket to Quistis. She vows she would repay him one day, and Rinoa offers a tidbit that Zone likes naughty magazines. In Timber forest, Quistis experiences the "dreams" of Laguna with the others.

Arriving at Galbadia Garden, Quistis offers her help in talking to Headmaster Martine and reveals she knows him because she used to attend to classes there. Later she, along with the rest of Squall's group and a Galbadian student Irvine Kinneas, are selected to participate in a mission to assassinate the Galbadian Ambassador Sorceress Edea. With Squall as the group's leader, they take a train to Deling City to meet with their contact, General Caraway. Caraway tells the SeeDs of his plan to assassinate the sorceress using two teams; one to trap her under the gateway and the other to snipe her from afar.

Squall elects Quistis to be the leader of the gateway team. When the briefing finishes Quistis is momentarily diverted by Rinoa, who has another plan to stop the sorceress, but Quistis berates her; thinking that Rinoa's plan was only contrived to oppose her father. As the ceremony begins Quistis begins to feel guilty over what she said to Rinoa. Heading back, with her group in tow, to apologize, she instead gets locked inside the Caraway Mansion. After discovering a secret door to the sewers they manage to make it back to their position in time to trap the sorceress.

The assassination fails and both teams are captured and imprisoned in D-District Prison. Quistis, Zell, Rinoa and Selphie are imprisoned together, while Squall is imprisoned separately without their knowledge. Using Zell's knowledge of the prison layout and martial arts skills they recover their weapons and escape, finding Squall and Irvine in the process. In retaliation for the attack on Sorceress Edea, Galbadia targets Balamb and Trabia Gardens for missile attack. Splitting into two groups, Squall's group and Selphie's group, the escapees manage to save Balamb Garden from destruction and finally reunite in Fishermans Horizon.

Overseeing the care of the students with Dr. Kadowaki, Quistis serves, along with Xu, as Squall's assistant while on board the mobile Balamb Garden and, as his first command as the new "Commander," Squall liberates Balamb from Galbadian occupation. The group next heads to Trabia Garden, Selphie's home Garden. Squall offers the Trabia students Balamb Garden's support and, while waiting for Selphie to return and due to a segment in Rinoa's conversation, the SeeDs remember their past together in the orphanage.

It is during this that Quistis realizes her feelings for Squall were not that of love but of "sisterly caring" and voices her revelations out loud. Decisions are made and the Garden 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. After Edea's defeat, it is discovered that throughout their journey the sorceress they had been fighting against was not their matron Edea, but in fact an evil sorceress from the future called Ultimecia. The sorceress Ultimecia had been using Edea's body and name as her own as a means to reach her goal of Time Compression. With these new discoveries, Squall carries on with the mission, and begins the search for Ellone in order to find a way to revive Rinoa from her coma.

Learning from the White SeeD that Ellone is in Esthar, Squall opts to go alone, carrying Rinoa on his back, but Quistis and her friends follow him, and together they enter Esthar and from there the Esthar space station. It is discovered Ultimecia had possessed Rinoa and forced her into a coma on purpose so that she could successfully free Sorceress Adel from her space-bound tomb. The station is evacuated as the Lunar Cry begins, but Squall goes after the 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. Squall, with his friends' urgings, declares his intentions to protect Rinoa and defends her from Esthar, and declares himself her Knight. They return to Esthar by Laguna's request to stop Ultimecia once and for all. Using the Ragnarok they invade the Lunatic Pandora and fight through Seifer and Ultimecia (now in the body of Adel). Using Ellone's powers, they are able to start the Time Compression, and enter Ultimecia Castle in the future, where Ultimecia awaits. Upon Ultimecia's demise the group is momentarily trapped in a time warp, but due to their belief and reliance on each other, they manage to return to their time safely. Quistis is later seen on Balamb Garden celebrating their victory with her friends.

In Battle
Quistis uses whips in battle. Through upgrades via junk shops, she can come to wield other variant models. It is thought that, when not in use, she wraps and stores the whip in a pouch behind her back.

Weapons
Quistis wields the whip as her default weapon. Depending on the particular whip she uses, Quistis' weapons can increase her attack power and hit accuracy as well as how much damage she does with her Limit Break.

There are four whip models available for Quistis to use throughout the game:
 * Chain Whip – Initial model. Described in Weapons Monthly, March Issue.
 * Slaying Tail – Described in Weapons Monthly, May Issue.
 * Red Scorpion – Described in Weapons Monthly, June Issue.
 * Save the Queen – Described in Weapons Monthly, August Issue.

Limit Break
The blue magic system in Final Fantasy VIII is similar to those of the other installments. The difference is that it can only be used as Quistis's Limit Break. Blue Magic involves learning enemy abilities, some of which are very powerful. Quistis learns Blue Magic by using special items obtained in various ways (winning a battle, finishing a subquest, modifying from cards etc). Once an item is used on Quistis, she will learn that ability permanently.

CC group member King
As the King of Balamb Garden's Card Club, Quistis is the final challenger to face in the CC Group side event. To get her to challenge Squall, the player must first defeat CC Heart (Xu) and head to the infirmary and talk with Dr. Kadowaki. After she mentions the King, the player must return to Squall's room and take a nap. When he wakes up Quistis will be standing in Squall's room, decked in her SeeD uniform, ready to challenge him. (It might take many tries, but the player can just sleep over and over until she appears. It doesn't matter if Squall has other people in his party at this time.)

Quistis has the Gilgamesh Card. After being defeated in Squall's dorm room, she can be challenged whenever on the Garden bridge. On disc 4 Quistis, along with the other CC members, can be challenged onboard Ragnarok. In order to play Quistis the player must have her in the party and head to the Airlock, and then talk to her in that screen.

Creation and Development
When designing the characters, Nomura had wanted at least one female character to wear a skirt. Quistis was originally supposed to fill this part, but Nomura decided a long skirt worn over pants would look better. The skirt-wearing role was eventually passed to Selphie. In an interview, Nomura has mentioned he was surprised upon hearing Quistis was cast as Squall's teacher.

Musical Themes
Quistis's theme is considered to be the song "Tell Me", a song on the original soundtrack. The song first plays when Quistis and Squall are talking in the secret meeting place in Balamb Garden's Training Center, and she is lamenting the loss of her instructor position to him.

Pocket Station Memorycard Icons
An icon sprite of Quistis appears in the Pocket Station memorycard file manager.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Quistis appears in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game, represented by one cards of the Aqua element.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable
Quistis appears in this edition of the Monopoly-like video game available only in Japan for the PSP. Although not a playable character, she assists the player in learning the game through the tutorial mode, giving helpful advice as the player's instructor.

Etymology
Quistis's name in Rōmaji is Kisutisu Turīpu. So far, the true origin of her first name and its meaning are completely unknown. As for her last name, it is possible that it is a misromanization of the English word "Tulip."

Trivia

 * Quistis is not featured in the Final Fantasy VIII Demo. In the evacuation of Dollet FMV, a Dollet soldier is seen manning the gun turret that Quistis will later use in the actual game to fight off the X-ATM092.
 * Quistis' menu portrait is the only one facing to the right; every other main character and temporary character's portrait is facing to the left.
 * Quistis makes a small cameo in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals. Along with Irvine, she explains the game's accessory system.
 * Quistis is the oldest out of the "orphanage gang," beating Seifer by mere months.
 * In the original game's release, Quistis's height was listed as 168 cm (5'6"), however, the game's Ultimania, the latest edition of which was released seven years after the game's release, revised the height to 172cm (5'8").
 * In the manga Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana, the reward given to Toto is a signed portrait of Quistis Trepe. (page 29, Chapter 1)(page 24, Chapter 2)
 * After Balamb Garden becomes mobile, when the party members are not assigned as player characters they can be seen wandering the Garden on their own. Quistis stands in the Garden's control room, which is also where she can be challenged to Triple Triad if the player has completed the Card Club sidequest and discovered her identity as Master King.
 * The Ragnarok is always piloted by Selphie whenever she isn't in the player party. If Selphie is unavailable, the Ragnarok is piloted by Zell, and if both are in the player party, Quistis takes the reins.