Metamorphosis

The thing that I believe is most intriguing about Seifer is the way his character keeps evolving and changing throughout the game: he first starts out as the hot-headed and problematic student. He pays no attention to authority whatsoever, even though he ironically enough is the Head of the Disciplinary Committee, and seems to only live for thrills. At this point, Seifer is just the bully in the game and a big pain in the butt for his teachers and peers.

Then during the Field Exam, he lets a little unknown part of himself become public. The bully that everyone thought they had figured out is actually in fact really a dreamer on the inside, with dreams as high as the sky but attainable in Seifer's eyes. He even shows his noble side when he applauds for Squall and Zell, his rival and bullying victim, when they make SeeD while he doesn't. Seifer then sides with the sorceress, who appears as if she can help him attain his dream. Seifer turns against the protagonists of he game, and before we know it there's rumors of Seifer's execution. Everyone's reactions are different, but the most important is that of Squall's, the person I believe to know Seifer the best: he says that Seifer's just become a memory. And it's true in a way; the Seifer that Squall knew prior to his seduction by the sorceress has become a true mercenary, selling himself and his home for an obvious fall from grace.

The game progresses, and we really see what Squall means by his words. The next time that they meet Seifer, he's become a completely different person. He's even more twisted and evil than ever. He doesn't even realize the fact that he's evil and the changes he is experiencing: he says that he's become important in "the tale of the evil mercenary and the Sorceress' Knight." This in return just makes me feel for Seifer, as in this point of the game, he's officially what I deem the tragic hero. He is merely a puppet in the game of Ultimecia: the strings of manipulation, illusion, lies, and death all surround him. He is now a traitor and a lapdog, which is even more ironic since Seifer has a strong hate for all kinds of dogs. He follows the commands of an evil sorceress because he thinks of himself as the noble knight, even though he's always disrespected his teachers and figureheads.

These events so far only tell the story of Seifer's drastic change from a normal bully, who has some sense of humility and humble-ness instilled into him, to a person so distorted by his ideals that he's probably become the thing that he fears the most: the exact opposite of everyone's daily hero and knight. He's sided with the one thing that he was trained since his young teenage years to protect civilians from - the sorceress - because of the promise of the future that appealed to him.

His final change is viewed during the ending sequence of the game: after the defeat of Ultimecia, Seifer's disillusionment with sorcery and his Romantic Dream is broken. He is now at Fisherman's Horizon fishing the day away with his two best friends, Fujin and Raijin and looks completely and totally content with himself, unlike the brash part of him that we viewed during the beginning of the game. He is definitely more relaxed, as this is the first time we're ever able to view Seifer smiling for real, unlike the smirks that he always tends to give.

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