#* fujin ╯study. ┊ ( the tale will never be drawn from her own lips. )

[cindrelle]

below i will be listing and explaining the crimes that seifer is indeed responsible for during the events of final fantasy viii, as well as providing a tiny bit of info on fujin’s involvement. it’s more minor, but it is there. of course, what is and what is not a war crime has varied by nation and over time --- therefore, i will simply be consulting what can and has been considered a war crime rather than what definitively is since we are not given much of a definition of what the world of final fantasy viii is supposed to embody in that regard. it’s also important to note that more often than not, the winning side of the conflict does not traditionally charge its own combatants, unlawful or otherwise. that said, balamb garden can be considered the victor here so seifer’s punishment was decided upon by them ( later, i point out a crime against galbadia; balamb garden takes this into consideration ).

disclaimer: i did my best in researching this and did all i could to process the information, but i’m known for getting the wrong impression at times, so if anyone knows more than me and can debunk any of this ... honestly, just let me know and i’ll see if any of what is wrong can be amended <3 i don’t like putting wrong information out there. also, i may have forgotten some crimes.

SEIFER ALMASY

list of crimes

taking of hostage(s): seifer takes president deling hostage, and it is broadcast publicly. according to the 1998 icc statute, that is considered to be a war crime in an international or non - international armed conflict. given that timber is the site of insurgence and is currently being occupied by galbadia, it has thus been rendered a place of armed conflict. seifer, by taking the president hostage, has also turned himself into an unlawful combatant. he is not a contracted cadet or seed in this situation; hence, he is an individual ( that belongs to an armed group ) that is not rightfully getting himself involved.

i must note that seifer is supposedly detained and executed during the plot of final fantasy viii. this sentence is, of course, never carried out since seifer leaves with edea.

given that galbadia is doling out capital punishment on an unlawful combatant, we can assume that the same may apply for all. mercenaries ( namely, members of private military companies; it has been debated extensively whether or not they are considered mercenaries. for simplicity’s sake, they will be here. ) are considered unlawful combatants, so this erases any and all confusion of whether or not such groups can or will be executed. this is, of course, despite the fact that the punishment is never actually carried out. what is important is that it was ruled to begin with since it sets a precedent: unlawful combatants ( what private military contractors are at times considered ) are not exempt from wartime rules and regulations, regardless of real world examples.

capital punishment does include traditional war crimes and crimes against humanity, which are categorized as class-b and class-c war crimes respectively.

balamb garden is a paramilitary organization, therefore it has no official ties to the country of balamb ( though it operates on their soil ). even if it did, balamb is peaceful and autonomous and can be considered neutral. because of this, i’m considering balamb garden a “ neutral state ” of sorts.

crime of aggression: under ultimecia’s command, seifer leads an attack on balamb garden. though this is something he is doing under her orders, it is still very much considered to be his fault, however, this was taken into account when seifer was ultimately tried and lessened his sentence.

torture: as per orders, seifer tortures squall, who is a currently active private military contractor who does not rigidly fall into that military category and is somewhat regarded as a civilian, which would be a crime should that be testified about and evidence can be provided. technically, squall was acting in a support / defensive role to galbadia garden and, thus, hasn’t really lost that civilian status. i will admit that this is a bit weak due to all the controversy surrounding the topic. we also don’t definitively know how such things work in the universe of final fantasy viii.

FUJIN

occupation of balamb town: the occupation of balamb town can be considered a crime of aggression. the people are not permitted to leave, effectively taken hostage, and are denied food and other necessities ( “ [i]ntentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies ” is a war crime ). any incoming shipments are redirected to galbadian forces. not to mention, balamb is largely autonomous --- the only tie balamb town has to garden is that some family members are held there, i.e. zell’s family, etc. the town isn’t even mobilized for an attack. should any civilians be killed, that would be another war crime. the attack and occupation itself is outside of legitimate military necessity ( weakening the military capacity of the other involved party ). additionally, no quarter will be given unless ellone is found / handed over.

taking hostages: mentioned above.

superior orders: everything fujin did was under the sorceress’ or seifer’s orders, therefore that would be a possible defense. but this does not change the fact that the crime was committed. note that contrary to seifer, fujin has accepted the idea of unquestioningly following orders.

extra

i have not decided on what will happen to fujin, however, it has been decided, as anyone who’s been around knows, that seifer is under arrest at balamb garden and will be in their service for a long time. she may be met with a similar fate, although with way more autonomy.

sources

violating ethics: unlawful combatants, national security and health professionals

practice relating to rule 96. hostage - taking

unlawful combatants

the crime of aggression defined

military necessity

war crime

are pmcs excempt from the geneva conventions

[cindrelle]

TO WHICH CIRCLE OF HELL DO YOU BELONG ?

PURGATORY. you have escaped damnation and made it to purgatory, a place where the dew of repentance washes off the stain of sin and girds the spirit with humility. through contrition, confession, and satisfaction by works of righteousness, you must make your way up the mountain. as the sins are cleansed from your soul, you will be illuminated by the sun of divine grace, and you will join other souls, smiling and happy, upon the summit of this mountain. before long you will know the joys of paradise as you ascend to the ethereal realm of heaven.

tagged: no one. i made it ;) tagging: anyone who wants to ! tag me <3

[cindrelle]

fujin habitually eats anything that she can with her hands. sushi ? hands. pancakes ? hands. of course, there are things that you can’t eat with your hands. it’s just that there are things people normally wouldn’t eat in that way that she does.

[cindrelle]

mmm another thing. it’s a bit of a sensitive topic so i’ve tagged it accordingly. 

fujin has a hard time expressing emotions. even if she wants to, she keeps a lid on things because she believes them to be inconvenient. of course, if she were asked ... well, she would talk about her feelings. however, she’s so hard to read and doesn’t tend to communicate these things, so it often goes unnoticed. really, the worst thing she can do to herself is think. the things she’s gone through ( loss of her parents, loss of her eye & a near death experience as a child, bullying bc of her strange nature & bc she has only one eye ) have had a large impact on her. even though she had raijin and seifer, it didn’t help too much at first. they were all just kids.

thus, she has harmed herself and she has made a singular attempt on her own life, all around the age of thirteen ( may change based on how the timeline turns out with others ). she was discovered by her roommate before anything could really become of it and was placed under supervision for the better part of a year. 

the disciplinary committee was formed shortly after and once appointed to it, she threw herself into that work completely. i think this is why she latched onto seifer so much --- he seemed so unafraid of everything and didn’t seem to hesitate to be himself. all qualities that fujin wished that she had. he had a good affect on her --- until he didn’t. 

she misses that most about him and truly wants to be his friend again, but she knows that ... maybe it isn’t the best idea. still, fujin opened up a bit more around her friends ( she’s especially close to raijin & he’s a large part of why she’s recovered, too ! ) and felt very protective over the both of them. they’re the only people that seemed to understand her, after all. post game, she tries to do this a bit more and tries to live for herself because she doesn’t want to rely on them anymore. though, fujin is fujin, i don’t think she’ll change too drastically.

[cindrelle]

fujin is very religious and holds a belief in higher powers, however, she’s also very inclined to follow the letter of the law. sometimes, these two conflict, but others, they contribute to her moral uprightness. there are some nice lessons to be found in scripture among all the ... other shit >.> ( i was raised roman catholic, so i’m mostly referring to that ... whole thing ).

[cindrelle]

fujin not letting seifer get away with SHIT post game is very important to me

[cindrelle]

so fujin is an interesting case. she’s described as being so loyal to her friends as to ignore their respective problematic behaviors. this is most apparent when she points out a breaking of the rules and lets seifer let loose in his own way. i don’t think that she personally agrees with the way that he goes about enforcing the rules at all. so ... why doesn’t she speak up ? especially toward the end of the game ... why doesn’t she speak up ? 

i think she’s so scared of saying the wrong thing and losing a friend that means a lot to her, even if that should not be reciprocated, that she just lets seifer do his thing. i can’t assign it all to blind loyalty, though that is a large part of it. she’s holding onto the idea of seifer and is mostly blind, or purposefully ignorant, to the reality. this is no longer the seifer she knew who ... he’s not bad, he’s just misguided and an asshole. that she can deal with. but who he’s become now ? she prefers that guy who’s unafraid to be himself and do whatever he wants to a puppet on a string. or, as she heavily implies, a dog who’s eating out of ultimecia’s hand for any scrap of recognition and semblance of a fulfillment of his dream.

"POSSE... we are. we always will be. because we're a posse, we want to help you. whatever it takes to fulfill your dream, we're willing to do. but ... you're being manipulated, seifer. you've lost yourself and your dream. you're just eating out of someone's hand. we want the old you back ! since we can't get through to you, all we have now to rely on is squall ! It's sad ... sad that we only have squall to rely on ... seifer ! are you still gonna keep goin' ?"

the seifer she describes in her late game dialogue is someone whose dream was so inspiring that it made fujin and raijin want to go along with it. they cared so much for him and his dream that they’d do anything in order to help him achieve it. he’s someone that will remain true to himself and what he wants even when national powers would argue differently ( see: raijin saying that seifer putting up with a trial / letting himself be executed is “ just so not seifer ” ). when he takes a turn for the worse ... when fujin finally puts together that this is the point of no return, she speaks up. people are flawed. she should’ve said something sooner, but she didn’t. you can have friends that would die for you, that would do anything to help you, and they can still be too scared to speak up out of fear. human beings aren’t robots and even the most logic driven people are prone to some “ flaws in the system ”, so to speak. fear makes people abandon logic for the sake of self - preservation or preserving what is important to them. in this case, it’s this friendship ( that may not be exactly what it seems ). 

we see this in how fujin and raijin openly declare that it isn’t about the sorceress, it’s about supporting seifer who truly has no one on his side. they’re not “ sell - outs ” who abandon a friend just because he’s made a few mistakes ( i don’t think fujin even knew that the missile attack was his doing / didn’t believe it ). the galbadian military is only following him out of orders. so, as always, they wanted to be there for him. of course, it becomes too much and loyalty for a friend and reluctance to bring the truth to light out of fear of ruining that friendship can’t be sustained any longer. 

this is a very real thing that people experience. i experience it. so i know that there’s a possibility that fujin has experienced it, too. i just think that it’s a perfectly normal human behavior, even if it’s not the best one. you don’t have to take my word for it or agree, though. in fact, it can be argued that because they’re raised in a military school, they’re conditioned against these behaviors. don’t give into fear. anything for the completion of the mission. then again, remaining faithful to a perceived mission ( support seifer ) would only prompt further silence. however, if they’re running around with seifer as a friend, i don’t know how adherent they’d be to ideas of the abandonment of one’s own inherent nature for the sake of being the perfect soldier. but that’s just me.

tldr; fujin is not a robot and very well may have experienced fear and that’s why she didn’t at first say anything to the friend, in her eyes, that had always been a large part of her life.

[cindrelle]

tbh i like that fuu is religious but open - minded to others so long as they’re good people. she doesn’t like people who use religion as an excuse for poor actions. also she’s very curious about others’ beliefs and has accumulated things over the years like tarot cards and other means of divination. 

[cindrelle]

another reason the shrike is the perfect animal to represent fujin is because it’s tiny and mighty and i headcanon that she’s, like, 5′2″

[cindrelle]

when fujin gets anxious or is shut down, she closes herself off and doesn’t talk to anyone. completely avoids people. and i mean when it’s really bad. it puts her in a bad spot and sends her into this cycle of self - loathing, refuting the reasoning for that self - loathing, then going back to that self - loathing.

[cindrelle]

What are Fuu's pet peeves? Is she a morning or a night person? How does she make a difficult decision? How would she want other people to view her?

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MUSES : always accepting !

fuu hates situations where someone forces her to speak in more than one sentence or can’t catch her meaning from what little she says. she dislikes small talk. she can’t stand messes or loud eating / talking with food in one’s mouth either. also, people being too loud in general when it is uncalled for. oh, and grammar. words are important --- especially to one who says so little.

fujin is a night person ! though she hates solitude, night is also the time when she can get her thoughts out on paper as she’s not preoccupied with her job. but i wouldn’t say she isn’t a morning person because she’s always raring to go right at 0600 every morning.

she makes difficult decisions by consulting rules / laws / etc. if it can’t be decided that way, she’ll consult her morals. but if either should come in conflict with each other, she’ll consult other means of decision - making i.e her cards.

fujin doesn’t want people to see her as something fragile and broken. she wants to be accepted as someone capable of looking after herself and someone who is strong enough to be relied on. the fact that seifer, at least, seems to value her skills enough to have her as his second - in - command is important to her. she wants people to see her as someone worth listening to and taking the time to understand her.

[cindrelle]

How did Fujin and Raijin meet? Or - are they related? Is she less or more aggressive towards him than others?

they met shortly after fujin arrived at b garden --- i run under the assumption that fujin was just minding her own business and this rowdy af little rai came up to her and started bugging her into speaking, so she threw her lunch at him :/// and this happened every day until he just silently kept her company. ofc this will change if anyone ever picks up rai and we interact ! 

by default, fujin’s less aggressive towards him, but she’s definitely a bit more firm. he was essentially her first friend, so he means a great deal to her and she wants to keep him safe and happy.

[cindrelle]

fujin was orphaned at the age of 7. the attack that claimed her parents also is responsible for the loss of her eye and, once being a chatterbox, the trauma has rendered her someone of few words, someone who speaks about something only if it is necessary.