Fate brought them together...
Final Fantasy VIII: Fate Deceived is a fanfic that follows events exactly 1 year after the main game finishes. The story starts off in Esthar where an unknown calamity strikes the SeeD contigent that is currently stationed there. This 'phantom' menace (as it were) begins to slowly spread through the rest of the world, systematically hunting down SeeD and tarnishing their good name in the process. With this newly awakened enemy being able to counter just about everything Squall and his fellow SeeDs can do, what hope is there for victory?Like her previous fanfic, this story is very adult-oriented. It has a few graphic lemon scenes (although not as many or to the degree of her Zelda's Honor fanfic) but the content is rated mature primarily for the gratuitous violence present in each encounter with the enemy. Thankfully it is peppered throughout the action sequences and only accentuates the brutality of the situations Squall and co. must survive from. It seems the overall theme of this fanfic is more in line with current commentary on how our political and journalistic age has degenerated over the years; addressing topics such as public informational integrity, the dangers of technology with concerns of safekeeping personal information and the overall lack of privacy in a world gone digital.
This is Dark Flame Wolf's second fanfic ever written and is still currently in progress and not yet finished. You can view the unfolding story at fanfiction.net
and archiveofourown.org.
Tropes that apply to this fanfic:
- Action Girl: All three primary female protagonists are capable of defending themselves and fighting alongside their male SeeD counterparts. Selphie, Quistis and Rinoa each get chances in the spotlight to show off how badass they are.
- Even some of the original characters like Malita and Frejya have Action Girl like qualities.
- Ascended Extra: Fellow SeeD graduate Xu was originally a secondary character who ultimately wasn't any of the main protagonists and by Disc 2 fell off the map. She is given a much larger role to play in the story.
- To a lesser extent, the library girl barely mentioned in Final Fantasy VIII that Zell took a fancy to is actually given a name, Malita, and is the focus of a single chapter.
- Berserk Button: Don't even think about kidnapping or harming Rinoa. Squall will never forgive you.
- Big Bad: This title currently rests with Malthius, the leader of the five-man team of SeeD killers that originated in Esthar.
- Break the Cutie: Malita is only present in the first chapter but by the end, she has grown on you so much that it is sad that she dies before the chapter ends. Her death is extremely shocking and very brutal.
- Continuity Creep: Averted slightly, although it isn't as prevalent as was in her first Fan Fic, the story does a great job explaining events that occurred in the game as they are necessary to know. You are never given more information about past events unless needed to understand the current situation.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Anytime Squall and co. encounter the five SeeD killers, they usually come away limping from the ordeal. They do manage to get some licks in however but it ultimately doesn't seem to make a difference.
- Dark Fic: Although Final Fantasy VIII was meant for an older audience anyway, this story takes it to a whole deeper level with the level of maturity in relationships between the teenage protagonists, sexual tension and actions as well as the over the top violence and sequences.
- Femme Fatale: Loramel is the designated female of the SeeD killer group. To complete her overall villainous package, she is also a cannibal who likes to literally eat her victims.
- Five-Man Band: The cast of SeeD killers can be nicely divided up thusly:
- Big Bad: Malthius, the counterpart to Squall with his weapon of choice, the gunblade.
- The Dragon: Although hard to tell, it seems Fefnir is the one Malthius trusts most. Has a nice set of dual wielding guns/rifles/cannons for arms as a counterpart to Irvine.
- The Evil Genius: Theros with his crazy personality and the ability to concoct noxious nerve toxins to completely take over another person's body like a puppet land him in this category. His use of nun chucks makes him a foil for Selphie.
- The Brute: Renard with his silver-arm that can literally plow through another person's body firmly cement him as this type and the rival to Zell. Fight first, think later with him.
- Dark Chick: Loramel is the lone female of the group and is the only person applicable for this title. The fact she loves to eat people makes her even more dark as a character. Her usage of the whip make her the opposite of Quistis.
- Mind Rape: A variant, with Theros' nerve toxin, Squall and co. are literally at the mercy of his maniacal whims. They cannot control their own bodies and can even be forced to kill each other.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Plenty of instances during long fight sequences involving multiple characters in multiple locations. Each chapter can only focus so much on one battle before having to switch to another before merging the two a few pages later. Sometimes the rest of the battle is alluded to via bits of dialogue between characters or plot exposition.
- One fine example is Zell's encounter with Renard and Loramel in chapter 4. His entire battle with them is never described or shown but rather mentioned in a single off-hand comment by Zell about what transpired off page.
- Original Character: There are a select few characters that have recently joined the SeeD ranks that were not present in the game. Each one has been fleshed out with their own unique weapon speciality and unique personalities to help compliment the existing crew of six primary protagonists.
- Power Nullifier: All five of the SeeD killers have the ability to drain para-magic from any SeeD as well as destroy any Guardian Force they bring to bear.
- Ship Tease: There have been a few hints toward a Squall/Quistis relationship as well as a Zell/Xu relationship. Only time will tell if either one pans out. (Irvine/Selphie don't count since we all knew of that one because of their relationship from the game)
- The Stoic: The villain, Fefnir, is rather untalkative and prefers to let his actions be his means of communication. He will talk however when he's agitated or upset.
- Wham Episode: It is highly likely there will be quite a few more to come in this fanfic but the major one thus far is in Chapter 8 where we lose Irvine Kinneas. He gets shot point blank in the head by Fefnir in front of everyone.
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Wimpification: One reviewer claimed that the villains were overpowered and completely decimating the heroes, what made it worse in the reviewer's eyes was that it belittled the skills the heroes had and the fact they were original character villains didn't help; they said they'd promptly stop reading the fanfic. Darkflamewolf's reply [condensed]:- "I had to make the new villains a force to contend with...There are reasons [why] they are OP right now and those will [be revealed]. Will Squall and co. find out how to beat them...[and do they] have weaknesses? Of course, but if I don't present villains that test our heroes, then what's the point of introducing anyone new? Squall and co. would [kill them easily] and the story would end and there would be no Fate Deceived."
- Would Hurt a Child: The villains don't seem to care who they harm in the fulfillment of their objective.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: It seems no matter how prepared or equipped our heroes are, the villains seem to always be one step ahead. Time will tell where the turning point will be in the Fan Fic.
