fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2547 ]

[ SECRET POST #2547 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2547 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm revisiting Final Fantasy IX. I just played through a section that I had either missed or forgotten all those years ago.

Eiko is six years old. Six. Years. Old. She is actively pursuing Zidane, and Garnet is jealous over it.

What the ever-loving fuck, Japan.

I mean, Zidane is not interested in the slightest, which is good. But the fact that the writers a) saw fit to have a girl of that age behave in such a way and b) had a character of appropriate age express jealousy over the affections of a child disturbs me greatly. It's like, way to normalize a pathology.

I loved the game when I was younger but now I kind of want to stop playing it.

I actually didn't think the way Eiko was behaving was all that abnormal. A few years ago my boyfriend and I were visiting some of his relatives/friends-of-family and they had a little girl about Eiko's age. It was pretty blatantly obvious that she had a crush on him, and kept sitting next to him and trying to snuggle with him and things. (I thought it was kind of adorable/hilarious.)

I'll give you that Garnet being jealous is kinda weird, but Eiko's behavior read as completely normal to me - especially given how attention-starved she is, and that the only real template she has for understanding how to interact with people who aren't family or moogles are those romance plays she reads.

AYRT

Those are good points, and since I'm kind of far removed from any small child interactions, they're ones I hadn't considered. Because of how it's portrayed, though, it still makes me feel really weird.

Same deal in Sailor Moon, it weirded me the fuck out that Chibiusa was hitting on Mamoru so much, and even more that Usagi legit felt threatened by it. Add the extra incest skeeviness and it just...put me off that whole arc so much.

I also don't think Eiko's behavior (as I remember it) was abnormal - kids develop "crushes" all the time. They aren't sexual, but they are still emotional attachments.

Garnet being jealous is weird, yeah. But in my last relationship I was jealous of the dog, getting what sometimes felt like more attention than me. People are weird sometimes.

That being said, Japan is not great when it comes to pedophilia and depictions in the media. I guess that problem is everywhere, but sometimes "cute culture" goes bad, at least that's what it felt like in the years I lived there. (so many horrors when you walk into a porn shop, or any store in Akihabara. ugh..)

I think it's fairly normal for kids to "crush" on adults. My sister who currently works in a kindergarten has had several love proclamations from the kids.

As for the jealously part, jealousy is in not really rational. In this case, the jealousy might stem more from lack of attention than jealousy over viewing Eiko as competition over Zidane's affections. I am fairly certain for example that my step-mother was, in the beginning, a bit jealous about how both my sister and I have a really close relationship with our father and hugs him a lot and stuff like that. Which is not rational as the relationships are of completely different nature, but it still meant that my father's attention wasn't always focused on her.

However, it's been ages since I've played FFIX so it could come across very differently from how I imagine it. (I'm also extremely tired so I hope this makes sense OTL)

To be fair, it's basically a given in JRPGs that the main female character will get jealous of anyone else who shows the slightest potential romantic interest in the hero, regardless of age, gender, or species.

Pedophilia isn't a two way street, though. A child having a crush on an adult isn't pedophilia; it's actually pretty normal, and completely innocent.

I can't remember Garnet being jealous of Eiko, tho. I guess I interpreted it as she thought the little girl was being silly?

...you really don't know many young kids do you? They declare that they're totally in love with people years or decades older than them all the time. Sometimes with adorable smudgy paintings and bouquets (like me) <3

To be fair, I think what the OP is trying to say is that since Garnet is reacting with actual jealousy, the text is painting Eiko's crush as an actual threat, which is sort of a troubling take on what should be an absolutely innocent thing.

Either that or it's painting Garnet as a shrieking harpy, which is really no better.

I gotta say I don't really think so. I've seen people jealous of their significant other's closeness with a child IRL -- so when it's in just a game...well, just because something takes place in the context of a romantic relationship, doesn't necessarily mean there's anything sexual about it. Though yeah, it's kind of...silly? Immature?

you sound like a person who has never been around children

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[ SECRET POST #2547 ]

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