Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ew. Rinoa. talk2hand

Ah, yeah, she is definitely important. Whether you like her or not, you can't really deny that she did seriously change Squall. I don't know if Squall would have actively decided to not save the world given a choice, but... well, it is a distinct possibility. xd

In a way, it's the annoyingness and clingyness tenacity that makes a lot of people hate her that actually lets her break through Squall's shell... She won't leave him alone whether he wants her to or not.

If it weren't for Rinoa, Squall probably would stay in the space station when it got hit by the moon's zit... xd In fact, he may have even never cared about anyone at all ever again if it weren't for her. Eventually, he would have thought life is a waste of time and killed himself because, "Whatever... life is boring anyway." (I really believe that's something Squall would have said)

Oh, wow, tough question. Well, we don't know an awful lot about Rinoa as a kid, so I'm not really sure how she's have acted toward Squall back then... If she was an orphan, I'd assume General Caraway just randomly died (and to be there mostly at the same time as the other kids, Julia would have had to have had died earlier than she really did, too). That in itself would change a bunch of stuff, not the least of which would be the assassination attempt on Edea... but I digress. Rinoa. Maybe she would have tried to get close to Squall just as she does in the game, and if she managed to get close to him, which would have been considerably easier back then I think, maybe Squall wouldn't have gotten quite so emo. There are so so many variables, though, there's a good chance she wouldn't be able to do anything for him. In any case, she almost certainly would have gotten adopted, I'd think, so who knows where she would have ended up, but probably not the Forest Owls.

By the way, anyone else ever wonder why someone would literally go halfway across the world to see an orphanage? I doubt there were only six orphaned kids in the whole world at that point.

I'd say the story would have been different.

Don't forget, even though she later figures out that it was a 'sisterly' type of love, Quistis at first believes she loves Squall romantically, but gives up when Rinoa comes into the picture. If it wasn't that way, Squall might have eventually fallen for her. Also, theres nothing that said Quistis or Selphie wouldn't have been chosen to become a sorceress if Rinoa wasn't there.

Even if he hadn't fallen in love, he would have at least gone to the future to save the world for his 'sis'.