Paine

Paine is a playable character who first appears in Final Fantasy X-2. She is one of the three playable characters, and is the most reserved of the girls. Her past is a mystery for most of the game, and it is up to the player to find out what happened to her two years ago.

Appearance and Personality
Paine's manner of dress is different from that of other residents of the world of Spira, and the cultural distinction implied by her clothing and appearance are never explained. The only known citizen of Spira who looks or dresses anything like her is Lulu, but no other relation is known between the two.

Paine has red eyes, making her look similar to Lulu. With short, silver hair, Paine is most commonly seen wearing her black leather ensemble complete with high-heeled boots, elbow-length gloves and a folded top. She wears a silver pendant threaded with a barbed wire chain. Paine's swords have a skull-like motif at the base of her blade. This motif also appears on the belt buckle of her warrior ensemble, as well as the swords hovering over her head in her special dressphere, Full Throttle. In a bonus cutscene where the girls spend some time in a hot spring in Mt. Gagazet, Paine wears a black and white bandeau bikini swimsuit with additional wrist, ankle and neck bands.

Paine's swords are unique in her Warrior, Dark Knight, and Samurai dresspheres, while in her White Mage and Black Mage dresspheres she wields the Malleable Staff and Enchanted Rod respectively. In the Gunner dressphere, she wields Yuna's Tiny Bee pistols and wields a purple variant of Rikku's dagger blades while in the Thief dressphere. Her deck theme for the Lady Luck dressphere is diamonds and her Mascot dressphere is a Tonberry. All of her footwear is high-heeled.

Paine's personality resembles Auron's in the way she reveals information only when she needs to. Not much is known about Paine except that she is cynical, rather quiet, and generally keeps to herself. Paine is tough and loves a good fight, but she is also sensible enough to smell trouble a mile away. If she feels her fellow Gullwings are getting too enthusiastic, she uses sarcastic cracks to jolt them to their senses, and despite Rikku's constant prying, she refuses to divulge any information about herself, except that she has always wanted to fly on an airship and hunt for spheres containing records of Spira's past.

In spite of her dry wit and demeanor, Paine values her friendship with Yuna and Rikku, but only after spending three months travelling Spira by herself, that she is able to express these feelings towards them. Her physical mannerisms are somewhat boyish, perhaps a side effect from her past adventures with Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai.

Final Fantasy X-2
Not much is known about Paine's childhood. She grew up during the time of Sin's reign upon the land of Spira in Final Fantasy X. During this time, she came to join the Crimson Squad, an elite group of soldiers set up by Yevon. Around the time of Operation Mi'ihen, Paine was working in a group as a recorder for three men named Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal. However, when most of the other members of the Crimson Squad were killed in the Den of Woe, the group survived but were put up for execution soon after, since nobody was supposed to have survived.

After Operation Mi'ihen, Paine got separated from Gippal, Nooj, and Baralai and frantically searched for them, while passing by Yuna while she was sending the dead. Running away, the four stayed together for a while, with Paine still recording their travels, while learning how to speak fluent Al Bhed from Gippal. When they decided to go their separate ways, however, Nooj betrayed them by shooting each of them in the back. Some Al Bhed come across the fallen Paine, Baralai, and Gippal, and take them away to tend to their wounds, thus separating them.

Two years later, Paine joins the Gullwings in the hopes of uncovering the truth of what happened on that day in the Den of Woe. Whenever any of the other Gullwings ask Paine of her reason for joining them, she would only say that it was for the chance to fly on their airship, the Celsius. Shortly after Paine joins the Gullwings, Yuna also joins the group. During one mission, Paine and Rikku are infiltrating a concert in Luca to capture an "impostor Yuna" who had stolen the real Yuna's Garment Grid to impersonate her. It turns out that the thieves were none other then the LeBlanc Syndicate - their rival sphere hunters.

With the mission completed, the Gullwings return to the Celsius and continue their business of sphere hunting until they steal an "awesome sphere" from Kilika that records a mysterious machina. Upon returning the sphere, they discover that the LeBlanc Syndicate has boarded the Celsius and stolen the half-sphere from the Zanarkand Ruins, forcing them to infiltrate Chateau LeBlanc in Guadosalam to steal it back. To do so, they have to track LeBlanc Syndicate groups around Spira and steal their uniforms.

During their tracking, they come across the Machine Faction and specifically Gippal who acts as though he knows Paine. Paine, however, acts as if they had never met before and introduces herself politely as such. Finally obtaining enough uniforms, the Gullwings return to Guadosalam and infiltrate the LeBlanc Headquarters. During this mission, they find one of Paine's Crimson Spheres that details the events leading up to, during, and after the incident with the Crimson Squad. Nonetheless, Paine remains silent about its significance, even while they watch it.

Learning that the location of the mysterious machina is underneath Bevelle, the Gullwings, with the LeBlanc Syndicate along for the ride, infiltrate the base and fight their way to an empty room where the sphere had originally shown the machina to be. Instead the group fights the leader of New Yevon, Baralai, and the Dark Aeon Bahamut. Returning from the escapade, the Gullwings are soon caught fighting fiends and Dark Aeons in the Besaid, Kilika, and Djose temples, at the end of which Youth League and Machine Faction leaders Nooj and Gippal give Yuna two more Crimson Spheres telling her to give them to Paine.

Only when pressed later on the Celsius does she finally reveal a little of her past with Nooj, Gippal, Baralai, and the Crimson Squad, telling the girls all about how the four of them dreamed about having an airship, traveling all over Spira. Later, she assists with finding Tobli in order to set up Yuna's concert in the Thunder Plains, once again receiving a Crimson Sphere, this time from LeBlanc herself.

With the final Crimson Sphere obtained, Paine, along with Rikku and Yuna, return to the Den of Woe and discover the truth of what happened two years ago involving her team and the hatred of Shuyin. Emerging from the Den with renewed purpose, Paine is determined to free her friends of Shuyin's influence. Realizing that when he shot them, Nooj was possessed by Shuyin and that, during their meeting under Bevelle, Shuyin moved on to possess Baralai, she asks the Gullwings to help her in facing Baralai and defeating Shuyin once and for all.

Finally, the Gullwings enter the Farplane and defeat Shuyin and the giant machina Vegnagun before it is released upon Spira. Paine is seen in the Perfect Ending watching Yuna and Tidus reunite with each other and laughs happily with Rikku.

International + Last Mission
Three months after the events of Final Fantasy X-2, the now separated members of the Gullwings have gone their own ways; with Yuna living with Tidus in Besaid, Rikku working mission after mission, and Paine wandering Spira by herself. However, each receive a letter that calls them back together to explore the Yadonoki Tower.

As the trio explore the ruins they converse with each other over what they had been doing since they had separated and why they had not stayed in contact. The conversations escalate as Rikku expresses her jealousy towards Yuna; who had reached her goal in life and had settled down. The angry bickering between the pair causes Paine to raise her voice against them.

Eventually, Paine reveals the sender of the letters was herself; citing it was her wish to not lose the friendship that they once shared, having learned from both her previous friendship with Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai and from her own lonely travels. The trio eventually travel to the top of the tower, where they find a broken machina and not much else, however due to their conversations they realize that the machina was a bit like their group; broken, separated. As they vow to be more than just strangers who had met by chance, becoming friends once again, the machina begins to work, and their adventures continue.

Battle
Before and during battle Paine can change her job class by changing dresspheres. She can use any of the common dresspheres. Her Special Dressphere is the Full Throttle. Her Mascot Dressphere is the Tonberry.

Den of Woe
Upon entering the Den of Woe the Gullwings encounter fragments of Paine's memories, brought to life by the pyreflies, and are soon attacked by Shuyin himself. Revealing that it was he who had turned the Crimson Squad against each other Shuyin proceeds to do the same with the Gullwings; first turning Rikku, and then Paine soon after.

Creation and Development
Paine was a newly introduced character, having not appeared previously in Final Fantasy X. As Kazushige Nojima puts it, she is kind of like a female Squall. "With the two (Rikku and Yuna) being a lot more talkative, there had to be someone with a calm, cool demeanor who could put a halt to their excessive chattiness. If it were Lulu in that role, she would have completely shut them down, and the story wouldn't have advanced at all. But in Paine's case, she's someone who can remain neutral, keep the others focused, and help the story carry on together with these two girls".

Also, in regard to the dresspheres, and the warrior classes in particular, only Paine gets to carry a unique sword. "This is her own weapon", says Alternate Costume Designer Tetsu Tsukamoto, "It doesn't belong to anyone else". An interesting note is that the symbol on all three of Paine's warrior-class swords are similar. It is only fitting, since Paine does not have a connection to the previous game, and since this is also her default class.

From a design standpoint, Paine's Dark Knight is Tsukamoto's favorite. "I handled a lot of monster designs prior to working on the costumes for Final Fantasy X-2," he says. "It feels like the scales of the monsters apply to this design. That's why I like it a lot." He also reveals that each of the girls' head pieces reflect their personalities, with the sharp edges of Paine's head piece to reflect her prickly outlook.


 * Songstress: The reason why Paine's costume is so different from the others is because the team could not decide whether she should be Rock 'n' Roll or Top 40, so Tsukamoto split the difference.
 * Thief: Tsukamoto designed Paine and Yuna, so they would have as much sex appeal as Tetsuya Nomura's original design for Rikku's default character. Similar to her standard Warrior clothing, Paine wears high heeled boots as a Thief as well.
 * Trainer: Paine was originally supposed to carry a snake, but a programmer put the idea away because he said the animation would be too difficult to pull off.

Musical Themes
Paine's theme is called simply "Paine's Theme." Vocal versions of her theme also exist, called "Misty Eyed" and "Nemuru Omoi..." ("Dormant Feelings..."). Despite her Punk Metal-like outfit both of her themes are more reminiscent of the Blues. Both vocal versions of the themes are sung by as Paine. A piano arranged version of "Paine's Theme" is also found on the Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collection album.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Paine appears in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game and is represented by two cards: both of which are of the Aqua element.

Kingdom Hearts II


Paine appears in Kingdom Hearts II as a chibi fairy version of herself alongside similar versions of Yuna and Rikku. Calling themselves "treasure fanatics", the three Gullwings are mercenaries spying on Leon for Maleficent, though after being left behind by Maleficent and some trickery from Donald involving promised treasure, they join with Leon and help defend Radiant Garden against the army of Heartless.

Later the Gullwings discover Donald's lie, but feel sympathetic to Sora's cause. Instead of taking his items they give him the Keychain "Gullwing".

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special
Paine is a playable character in the special edition of the Monopoly-like video game available only in Japan alongside Yuna and Rikku.

Etymology
Paine's name is an English surname, of Norman derivation, meaning "someone who lived outside of a city; appropriate considering her status as a new character in a videogame sequel. The English pronouciation (versus the more phonetic "pine" in Japanese) has the added connotation of her aggressive look.

Trivia

 * As demonstrated by her ability to play blitzball, Paine can hold her breath for at least five minutes.
 * When applicable, Paine's versions of Dresspheres often incorporate more boyish designs than Yuna's or Rikku's. For example, her Psychic outfit is based on a typical Japanese schoolboy uniform.
 * Many of Paine's battle quotes make reference to real-world pop culture; such as the quote "Ice, ice baby", the title of a song by Vanilla Ice, and "You. It's what's for dinner", a play on an ad campaign for beef. She can also occasionally be heard saying "Knowing is half the battle", a reference to the G.I. Joe cartoon's Public Service Announcements.
 * Lulu and Paine not only bear similar garments that are unique to only them in all of Spira, they are also the only characters to possess red irises.
 * Due to her relations with Gippal, Paine is fluent in the Al Bhed language.
 * According to an interview, 's favorite Paine line is, "All I want to do is hurt you".
 * Paine is the first playable character shown during the opening FMV scene.
 * When Yuna and Rikku take on certain dresspheres, they gain weaponry identical to ones used by their old teammates, usually Auron's and Tidus's swords. Paine generally dons unique weapons, alluding to the fact that she had no prior connection to the cast of Final Fantasy X. The exception comes in with White Mage and Black Mage dresspheres where she uses two of Yuna's rods.
 * Paine's Japanese voice actor, Megumi Toyoguchi, also voiced Elena in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Gun (Female) in Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-, and from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
 * It is unknown if Paine could fight before Final Fantasy X-2, as she is never seen doing so in the Crimson Records. Also, due to the fact that she cannot be seen by the player in the records, her appearance before joining the Gullwings is unknown.

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