Codependency: The Story of Squall and Seifer

The dynamic between Squall and Seifer is interesting because on the surface they're total opposites and enemies. Squall is the taciturn hard worker who is well-respected despite being a loner; Seifer is the loud-mouthed and irresponsible slacker who screws up time after time despite his potential. And those two are always fighting. So far so good. Squall and Seifer, the Good Guy and the Bad Guy, hate each other, right?

However, this is where things get interesting. Throughout the game, Squall shows very little emotional reaction to anyone. The big exception to Squall's apathy is Seifer. According to Quistis Squall became the way he is, outwardly cold and emotionless, after Ellone left. Despite this, it seems he never passed up a fight from Seifer.

The old admonishment "It takes two to start a fight" has never held so true. While Seifer was no doubt the instigator, there would have been no fighting if Squall didn't want it. Squall fought back, not to defend himself, but out of his own emotional needs--in flashback scenes, it's obvious he felt helpless and alone after his beloved Sis' departure. His battles with Seifer were his way of bolstering his inner strength and independence, his way of coping with the loss of the sister figure who had supported him emotionally.

Seifer also needed these fights because, according to Quistis, he was a chronic attention junkie. If he couldn't get positive attention, like affection and respect, he would settle for negative attention, dislike, rebuke, fear, because it was better than nothing.

He seems to have been pretty much entrenched in this pattern by the time he started picking fights with Squall. He could get Matron to take notice of him by constantly acting up, he could taunt and torment the other children into giving him the attention he craved--but that must not have worked with post-Ellone Squall, who would simply ignore verbal taunts. Physical blows, however, got a rise out of him. Therefore, violence was the method Seifer used on Squall.

At Garden, their constant need to prove themselves against each other must have served them well. It is not known why they both chose the gunblade, a demanding and difficult weapon that was hardly in use by that time. It's likely that gunblade training started with a pool of would-be gunblade users, and their numbers dwindled because the weapon was so difficult to master.

Only Squall and Seifer persevered and finally became gunblade experts--but how? They must have had talent to begin with, of course, and the will to put in the work. Seifer must have seen The Sorceress' Knight, the movie Laguna starred in, because his stance is identical to the one Laguna adopted in the film. So obviously that was a motivation for him. Squall, however, didn't have even that. So why stick to gunblade training when there were plenty of other weapons, weapons that people actually used? My theory is that the rivalry kept both of them going. Even if one of them wanted to drop out of training, there was no way he would quit before the other did, and vice versa.

Then there was also the fact that using the same type of weapon allowed them to keep their private vendetta/therapy/whatever going under the legitimate guise of training. Whether this was a motivation for them or not, the fact remains that it made it easier for the two young men's bizarre interdependence to continue.

I think it's safe to say that before Rinoa came along and got Squall to open up somewhat, Seifer was the only person he showed any kind of genuine emotional reaction to. While it would be simple to say that this reaction was entirely negative, composed only of anger and hostility, the simple explanation doesn't seem entirely true. During the Dollet mission, for instance, could it be that Seifer drew Squall into a... a... conversation?! *runs screaming in fright*

Squall: I stand by the captain's decision.
Seifer: ...Captain's decision? You want to wreak some havoc too, don't you?
Squall: It's a good opportunity to test out my training. Thanks to you, I feel like I can take on anyone. Even if they do fight dirty, like you.
Seifer: You'll thank me when the time comes.

and

Seifer: This must be your first real battle. You scared?
Squall: ...I don't know. I try not to think about it.

These two instances are probably the closest Squall got to actually talking to another person (as opposed to brushing someone off, giving information, or asking for information) before he met Rinoa. He actually reveals something about himself here. It's inevitable, in some ways. In years of sparring with someone, watching and anticipating his every move, trying to read each other's minds, somewhere along the line you get to know him better than anyone else does, parts of him that no one else knows. Spending more time with him than with people who like you better, having more parts of your lives overlap, touching each other's psyches deeper than friends ever have... And somewhere along the line, that seemingly solid line between enmity and acceptance begins to blur.

Squall has his first major emotional outburst when he hears the news of Seifer's execution. Like Quistis and Zell, he was not exactly fond of Seifer. The guy was too mean, too disturbed to be really likeable. Yet Squall's bond with Seifer went deeper than emotion. Compare it to losing a part of your body, like a hand. Most people aren't exactly overwhelmed with love for their hand, most of the time. It is simply there, a part of you. But losing it is hard, because it can alter your self-image in a fundamental way. The loss you feel is obviously for yourself, not for your hand. Still, it is so much a part of you that it feels like it's still there sometimes--beyond grief or pain or love, the brain simply does not process the fact that the hand isn't there anymore.

Well, that was the closest parallel I could come up with. While the magnitude of feeling may be quite different, the type of reaction is basically similar. Squall might not have loved or even liked Seifer, but Seifer was a part of him whether he liked it or not. They had spent most of their lives together, more than any other member of the orphanage gang. They had pushed each other beyond their limits, and improved far beyond what they could have achieved on their own. Whether Squall and Seifer considered each other friends or not, their past together would not simply disappear. Like family they might not always like each other, but unlike friendship the bond could never be dissolved.

When Squall faced Seifer on Galbadia Garden, he said Seifer was just like one of the monsters to him, which was obviously not true. Seifer could never be just another monster that Squall could indifferently kill, and vice versa. For better and for worse the two are bound together, by time and place and circumstance and ability and need, but never by choice. They say friends are the family you choose. So what do you call the family you didn't choose, but is not really family?

There are terms analogous this kind of relationship, opposing yet inseparable. Yin and yang. Light and darkness. Night and day. Life and death. Good and evil. Love and hate. To know one is to know the other, for one to exist the other must as well. These are words that lose meaning without their antithesis. Maybe there are people like that, too. Enemies, rivals, friends, and brothers. All and none of the above. So they have always been, and will be. Always there, never quite defined. Nor definable.