Rydia and Feminism

Spoiler Warning: All of Final Fantasy IV Content Warning: Mention of sexual assault in "Feminism and Final Fantasy (Part Two)"

I played through Final Fantasy IV after one of my friends wrote fanfiction of it and really came to appreciate Rydia’s character on a deeper level. She definitely is my favorite character from the game hands down but I don’t think her characterization and role within FFIV is appreciated enough.

As many FFIV fans would say, Rydia is one of the best written characters in the game next to Cecil, the main character, and fan votes still show her prominence in the community despite being from a game that’s around 30 years old. Seeing as IGN’s most popular character from each Final Fantasy game has Rydia listed as the most popular character in FFIV and the NHK “All Final Fantasy Big Vote” listed Rydia as still in the top 40, Rydia is very clearly still a fan favorite within the game, with one of those fans being me. 

There has been a lot of discourse surrounding Rydia’s role within the story, yet I feel as though “Feminism and Final Fantasy (Part Two)” succinctly encapsulates the best and worst parts of Rydia’s character. Linked is a text version of the original article, excluding the pornographic images. Though Rydia’s downsides are indeed glaring as noted by the article, many of her heroic traits aren’t highlighted enough. For one, Rydia has far more agency than one may initially suspect; not only is Rydia the only character to actively seek out the party rather than be stumbled up, she also is the only character like Cecil to change their class part way through the story. Akin to Cecil, Rydia also is part of a greater narrative involving forces beyond her control, namely Leviathan, Asura, and Bahamut, making her on par and often greater than Cecil. As best surmised by Kathryn in her feminism article, Rydia’s place in the story is “not an object but rather a subject,” which rings true for her characterization. As a character, Rydia’s importance cannot be understated, she’s given the same agency, strength, and importance as Cecil is given, a major bonus compared to other female characters that are used more as plot devices rather than characters.

It should also be mentioned that Rydia is more than just a well written character, she’s a very well written woman as well. Within the same game, Rosa is given the treatment of being a damsel in distress and more or less relegated to only being a supportive character with relatively little character development. While Kathryn has a negative perception of Rosa as mostly useless in combat and only a love interest in the story, others such as Hayley Garden in her article “Pushing Boundaries with Female Characters” will note that Rosa still has depth as a character even if the writing tropes used to develop her are outdated. Though the two articles may differ on opinions, they both generally agree Rydia is progressively written while Rosa is at least somewhat outdated. These both come from fans of the game and these sentiments are held by a fair number of the fanbase.

In the much broader context of women in Final Fantasy, Rydia and Rosa are the two most important because they were essentially the first women in Final Fantasy. Prior to FFIV, characters had suggested names and little development, but FFIV changed this formula by giving hard characterization and traits; it was no longer a faceless playable character but now a character that had a name, ambitions, and personality. Rydia and Rosa didn’t just push the boundaries for what women in Final Fantasy IV were, they set the bar for it as being the first playable female characters.

Context in mind, Rydia’s characterization can only be lauded for being progressive when compared to Rosa’s at least somewhat outdated writing. Fans far preferred a character like Rydia over Rosa and still do, seeing as Rosa ranks around 150th most popular while Rydia is top 40. Rydia as a whole is not without flaw; she’s overtly sexualized as pointed out by Kathryn which is an unfortunate trend within Final Fantasy’s female designs. Later entries in Final Fantasy would see even better women such as Aerith and Tifa who are both well written and well designed clocking consistently make top ten lists. Though Rydia is nowhere near the level of Aerith or Tifa, in part because of the gameplay and story limitations related to retro consoles and their memory, Rydia was the first step in a long legacy of Final Fantasy’s cast of female characters.

Of course, I myself am quite biased towards Rydia seeing as she is my favorite character, but her importance in Final Fantasy IV and the franchise itself shouldn’t go unnoticed. Her characterization and importance are matched only by Cecil in her respective game, but setting the trend of having progressive female characters within Final Fantasy is something that deserves greater attention and appreciation. 

Works Cited

Final Fantasy Polls

Pushing Boundaries with Female Characters