In which I rant about unloved characters in obscure fandoms

[ultranos]

So, in a fit of boredom the last few nights, for some reason, I found myself scrounging around the 'net for old-school Final Fantasy fic. Specifically, FFV and FF:Tactics, and moreso of the latter. The problem is that I have no idea where any new sort of archive for FF fic is, or if it even exists, now that RPGamer.com stopped accepting fanfic in 2007 and the GIA shut down (and now I've dated myself. Win.)

I trawled through ff.net's Tactics section (yes, I was that desperate). And it was sort of fruitless. I found some old fic (2005 or earlier) that I remember liking, but that was less than a handful. My frustration was growing.


See, I was looking for Tactics fic on a specific character, or hell, her entire family. I'm not entirely sure why, but I somehow seem to have resparked my love for the character Meliadoul Tingel (or Tingille, in the PSP retranslation). (Seriously. Despite the fact that she's the last character you get and that you get her AFTER Orlandu, and that many people think she's useless because of this, I always had her on the front line. She was the final third in my Unholy Trinity of Tanks. They steamrolled the final boss.)

Beyond the fact that, gameplay-wise, she can make enemy soldiers weep in terror because she can systematically destroy every weapon and piece of equipment they have, I really, really love her backstory and what glimpses of her character we DO see in the game. (She shows up late.)

This is a woman who comes from a family of knights. She's a Divine Knight herself, which is the top rank of an order of knights known as Shrine Knights. She's a top-ranked paladin, okay? And she's the ONLY female Divine Knight you see in-game. Her father, Vormov, is also a Divine Knight, and her younger brother Izlude is a Shrine Knight. So, you've got a very faith-based, dedicated family right there. Only, you see, Vormov, at some point pre-game, got possessed by a demon. And this demon is trying to resurrect the Ultimate Demon, who actually posed as the saint the ENTIRE RELIGION is based off of. Possessed!Vormov turned abusive to his kids, taking out his rage on them. But he must have been strict but good father, because they honestly believed they'd fucked up and deserved it. And when, in-game, Izlude screws up Vormov's plan for world domination resurrecting the Antichrist, the demon kills him.

And then they place the blame on you, the main character, Ramza, who's been branded a heratic at this point. So Meliadoul comes gunning after you, because she thinks you fucking killed her little brother. And, even though you're innocent, the truth sounds pretty bizarre:

(paraphrased)
Meliadoul: Ramza, you heratic, you killed by brother! Prepare to die!
Ramza: It wasn't me! Your father is actually possessed by a demon who wants to resurrect the dead saint whom our entire religion is based off of, because that saint is actually the King of Demons! And your father killed your brother! And everyone's trying to kill me because I know the truth!
Meliadoul: ...you know, if you're going to lie about it, could you PLEASE come up with something better?

Anyway, after seeing someone else transform into a demon, she believes you and joins your party. This is a woman who's faith was so strong, it led her to dedicate her life to the service of the Church, and she willingly joins with a heretic. She has just had everything she ever knew, the rock her life was built upon, everything she was supposed to be able to count on, crumble underneath her. And these demons have utterly destroyed her family. Her father can't be saved. Her brother is dead. Dear god, most people would be crying in a corner at this point. And she freaking joins you because it's the right thing to do.

Why is there not gobs and gobs of fic about this character?! WHY?! Other fandoms would be KILLING for this kind of angst-tastic backstory! (\cynical{It's because she's female, isn't it?}) Damn, I can barely find fic about poor, doomed Izlude either! I got desperate and did a Google search and combed through 41 pages and only found a Meliadoul/Agrias fic (which I didn't realize was femmeslash until the last bit. It was good, but I might be biased because the second bit had blacksmith!Meiladoul. I have this unholy fondness for blacksmith characters. That's another story entirely).

*facepalm* I haven't played the game in 8 years, and I was really sort of hoping someone else had written fic. But I fear my chances of that are limited, especially because I think Yuletide dropped Final Fantasy, despite the fact that each game is a separate fandom. But FF7 is a giant behemoth, and it's a bit much to expect the uninitiated to tell that Cloud and all his assorted issues are just FF7 (except, Square made him a secret character in the original version of Tactics. DAMMIT) and it's bazillion sequels.


And now I'm wondering if I really want to write Tactics fic. Because Meliadoul and the rest of the Tingel family need some love. And seriously? So do characters from every other FF that came before 7.

Maybe I need to go pop FFIV into my DS and start playing. Or pop Tactics into the PS2, and replay it in all it's broken English glory. Old-school games need love too, you know.

EDIT: Because I can't type and spelled her name wrong 3 times. *facepalm*

Comments

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

She IS! I mean, this is a person who loses EVERYTHING. And instead of going insane or clinging to lies because that's all she has left or just flat-out breaking down, she accepts it, accepts the truth, and chooses to do the right thing. Even though there's a very good chance she'll be labeled a heretic (and thus, have an execution order on her head).

I'd write fic. If I could find a plot.

I figure I'm going to end up with an icon of her sprite sooner or later. :)