Celes was the first female video game character I fell in love with- she's beautiful,
strong, noble, a female general, and a magic user. She's one of my first fictional
"obsessions," since I first played
FFVI over 8 years ago.
Physically, Celes is beautiful. You don't see much of her in
Final Fantasy
VI except in sprite form, in some art by Amano, and in the menu screen, but
I always found her to be gorgeous. Well, not as a sprite obviously, but in
Amano's art. The FMVs in the PSX release of
FFVI give her a definite
image, but I honestly don't like the FMV version of Celes much. She's pretty,
but to me, she looks very lifeless. I love finding fanart and doujinshi of
her, and I think out of many of the characters, she has the most varied
outfits (in dojin).
In terms of her abilities, I love magic users, and Celes obviously fits that
requirement. Element wise, I do prefer fire over ice, but in Celes' case, I
make an exception. Her Runic power isn't terribly useful for me after a
certain point in the game, but nevertheless, she's a good character to play.
Getting down to her personality.
I actually never thought she was unstable and had serious emotional issues, not
until I read other people's opinions of her. Maybe it's that I generally tend
to idealize my favorite characters, but I also don't usually attribute "emotional
instability" or "psychological dependence" to characters who are in love with
other characters. Even now, I can't really say that I think Celes has issues
simply because she loves Locke. Certainly she has problems- she, Terra, Locke,
Setzer, Cyan, and other characters spend the entire game attempting to come to
terms with them.
Celes may not be the most stable character in the game, but in my opinion, the
more interesting characters tend to have conflicts. I do love her for the
emotional problems she has to work through, even if many of them are not
explicitly stated in the game. I also think her early personality- cool and
aloof- is kick-arse, although I like how she becomes a warmer person by the end
of the game.
I see Celes' psyche being disturbed most of all by the betrayal of the empire,
what in all probability she considered her "family." This is more me reading
into the game, but regardless, the betrayal offers endless possibilities- if
anything, this would be the central event that "shatters" her, or causes her
to reconsider her life and her future. Celes has to reassess everything she
knows, and to do so, she offers herself to the side that has reason to hate
her, her former enemies, the Returners.
Celes is aloof at first, somewhat cold, which I tend to like in characters.
To me, it indicates strength and self-reliance. Of course, it also can
indicate an unwillingness to trust people, of being a loner. This is another
problem of hers that she has to come to terms with; she eventually does, too.
Obviously, her focus centers mostly on Locke, but beyond that is simply love
and admiration. Yes, Celes does suffer from a "Locke this, Locke that" echo.
But she is not totally reliant on him for her self-worth.
Then Celes begins to change throughout the game. She opens up more to other
characters, she stops becoming the 'ice princess' and more of a concerned
friend. In essence, she comes to terms with her difficulties and changes
herself to deal with them. Throughout the game, she demonstrates this inner
strength that I like; she has parts where she stumbles, but so do the rest
of the characters, and then she gets back up.
Even if her dependence on Locke is a bit overboard, I don't have a problem
with it. She's not psychotic obsessive, and the "save me" complex isn't as
strong as other
FF females, like Rinoa, Rosa, Garnet, or early Terra.
She relies a lot on Locke, but ultimately, he is not the one who makes her
who she is, does not give her her worth, and one of Celes' changes is to
learn to rely on other people- both friends and lovers.
