Motive

The idea of working on a tribute to Selphie first occurred to me in early 2008, as I was playing Final Fantasy VIII for the second time. Before my first serious attempt at the game back in 2003, Selphie was a character that I was predisposed to hate due to her reputation among fans, which depicted her as a dumb, hysterical klutz: certainly not my type. Still, she managed to grow on me, and this, my friends, is not something I can say about many characters I start off disliking. The way she won me over quickly turned her into a personal favorite, and this opinion was nothing but confirmed the second time around.

Over the course of the years, I have started many character shrines, and it always bothered me how my perfectionism would not allow me to set myself free from formal writing, thus restraining me in many ways. Because of this, a great part of the personal pleasure and fun I could be getting from building a website was practically out of question. When I first began considering making a Selphie shrine, I decided that this time it would be different; from its early conception, Rapture was thought out to be a place I could fully express myself at, while still delivering both information and opinion in correct, intelligible ways. This turned out to be much easier to do than I had thought thanks to Selphie's personality traits: I was inspired to mirror her spunky, carefree spirit in my writing, and so I was able to make things sound a little less uptight, and even joke around a bit. To me, Rapture represents freedom.

It is also worth mentioning that, initially, although I was determined to build a Final Fantasy VIII tribute, I wasn't sure which character I should go for. For all the reasons mentioned above, Selphie was always a strong first option, but I also considered Laguna (my second favorite, and an equally unique character) and Irvine (who is outrageously underestimated in the fan community). I eventually decided that, while Laguna is worshipped enough as it is, good shrines to Selphie are an absolute rarity, and so the choice was obvious. As for Irvine, I haven't forgotten about him, and may end up dedicating something to him someday as well.

Contrary to the majority of people out there, I find Selphie to be an extremely inspiring character. Her positive outlook on life and the impressive way she breaks away from so many female RPG character stereotypes, such as the damsel in distress complex, is wonderfully refreshing. She is a lively, proud soul who can stand on her own two feet and has the innate ability to bring herself and others back up, and I'm not sure how anyone can find this less admirable than Quistis's maturity or Rinoa's "heart on sleeve" approach. No matter how selfless, Selphie is her own woman. She is in love with life. Sadly, in an era of drama and extravagant emo-ness, mental stability and joy are not adequately valued anymore, getting labeled as stupidity instead. Hopefully, this shrine will help change this view a little.