I like the cartoony style and inexplicable animal people. I think the best argument in favor of it is that Squall would find the whole thing incredibly lame.
So there it is. Alexandria isn't just ruled by a queen, it's a matriarchy, where men are prejudiced against - and Steiner's men are living down to their stereotype. Steiner is envious of Beatrix because she is higher ranked and more respected than he is; his status is low because he's a man; his order of "Pluto Knights" are few in numbers and low quality recruits because male soldiers are generally dismissed and looked down on, so nobody would want to become one. All these female soldiers in the improbable uniforms are part of a separate chain of command from Steiner and, while they're helpful enough to answer his questions when talked to, they don't answer to him. There's one female soldier who reacts to Steiner greeting her by saying it's "an honor" to meet the Captain of the Pluto Knights, but she also immediately mentions that she's a new recruit.
That's… Interesting. I'm not sure what to make of this. The combination of "Alexandria is a matriarchy" with "the Queen is a hideous blob" and "the female soldier uniform is a leotard with boob plate" is… Hm. We'll see what the game does with it, I suppose.
Fantasy matriarchy
can be done well (see
Digger), but far too often it falls into one of the following categories:
- The matriarchy is blatantly evil and/or incompetent. At best, it's a misguided attempt to make men sympathize with the plight of women by showing how bad it would be if oppression happened to them, and, well, there was a lot of discourse about why it's a bad idea. At worst, it's plain old sexism. "Look at them broads trying to govern like they have brains for it" kinda thing.
- Women are wise elves attuned to the mysteries of nature and guiding their society with gentle hand with no desire for warfare inherent in men. Second wave feminism by way of goddess worship, etc. It's... better than outright misogyny, but still smells of gender essentialism and can hide a lot of nasty ideas underneath the positive veneer.
- Barely disguised author fetish. Probably the most respectable option of the three, but tends to overlap a lot with the above two.
Given the apparent tone of FFIX, probably the best thing it can do is to not make matriarchy a big thing. Like, it's a quirk of Alexandria completely unrelated to the plot and motivations of villains or heroes, just a few jokes at Steiner's expense before moving on.
Zidane: "Whew… Well, it looks like you've finally made up your mind."
Zidane: (Wow. We really had to improvise. But hey, we got her!)
Hooded Girl: "Do you… Do you work on this theater ship?"
Zidane: (Aww… So she figured it out, huh?)
Hooded Girl: "As you have no doubt suspected… the truth is that… I am actually…"
[She lifts her head, the hood lifting up slightly to reveal her face.]
Hooded Girl: "Princess Garnet Til Alexandros, heir to the throne of Alexandria.
Garnet: "I have a favor I wish to ask of you… I wish to be kidnapped… right away."
Wait, is that how people arrived at the excuse that Maria wanted to be kidnapped by Setzer back in FFVI? Or was the theory around before, and FFIX references it as a part of its riffing on previous FF titles?
Either way, bold move to have you play literally Setzer but sympathetic. Let's see if it pays out.
