Guardian Forces: A Ludological and Literary Security Analysis of SquareSoft’s Final Fantasy VIII

Abstract

The term security derives from the Latin compound securitas, which denotes the “removal” (se-) of “care or concern” (cura). As such, security can be interpreted ambivalently, either as a state of being “carefree” or as a state of being “careless,”–as first presented in John Hamilton’s Security, Politics, Humanity, and the Philology of Care (2013). In Final Fantasy VIII (1998), the role of security is seen in both the internal struggle of needing to be self-sufficient (careless), as well as from an external conflict based on needing to protect and keeping the world secure. The implication being that when tied to responsibility, individuals individually become careless towards the other in the need to fulfill one’s own duty. This aspect of internal versus external couples with the previously stipulated security binary and positions the role of another in opposition to the role of self. Squall is constantly faced with events in which he must juxtapose the sanctity of his internal realm and self-governance against those imposed by external obligations. In attempting to negotiate these two spheres, Squall can later be evaluated, using security as a lens, to demonstrate that he is also situated in the larger paradigmatic struggle of deontological ethics, consequentialism, and modern care ethics. From here, it should be possible to not only explore how the video game Final Fantasy VIII handles the realm of security, both internal and external to Squall, but to ultimately show that the conclusion drawn by Sara Ruddick in Maternal Thinking (1995), positioning internal freedom as a source requisitioning an external other, is not only the case, but is the final conceit articulated by this literary epic.