Vincent Valentine
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Vincent Valentine (ヴィンセント・ヴァレンタイン, Vinsento Varentain) |
| Occupation: | NEET,[1] Turk (formerly) |
| Relationships: | Cloud Strife (friend); Barret Wallace (friend); Aerith Gainsborough (friend); Red XIII (friend); Tifa Lockhart (friend); Yuffie Kisaragi (friend); Cid Highwind (friend); Cait Sith (friend); Sephiroth (enemy); Hojo (enemy); Lucretia Crescent (love interest); The Turks (former coworkers); Veld (friend and former partner) |
| Fandom: | Final Fantasy VII |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Vincent Valentine (ヴィンセント・ヴァレンタイン, Vinsento Varentain) is a playable character in Square's 1997 video game Final Fantasy VII. He also appears in various titles in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII—notably as the protagonist of the 2006 third-person shooter Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and its mobile phone tie-in Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode.
Canon
Final Fantasy VII (1997)
"A mystical man, stern and upright while at the same time dark and mysterious. His past connection with Shinra is what made him join Cloud and the others. He may seem frail at first glance, but hidden inside his body lurks a fearsome power."[1]
Dirge of Cerberus (2006)
Fandom
Reception and Popularity
Vincent was an optional party member in the original 1997 game; many players have experienced the entire game without encountering him, and many fans feel that his particular storyline is somewhat half-baked compared to those of the mandatory party members, whose arcs are more integrated with the overall plot. Despite these limitations, Vincent is a breakout character who has enjoyed great popularity.
In a 2006 Eurogamer article, writer Rob Fahey recognized Vincent as a fan favorite, commenting that he is one of the most common Final Fantasy characters to be featured in fan fiction and fan art.[2]
In a 2012 poll of the official Final Fantasy forums, Vincent was voted the tenth most popular male character in the entire Final Fantasy franchise.[3] A reader's poll published by IGN in December 2014 for their top ultimate RPG party choices placed Vincent at #19 under "The Reserves" section.[4] In a 2020 NHK poll, Vincent was voted the 22nd most popular character in the entire Final Fantasy franchise, out of 200 major and minor characters.[5][6]
Fans often affectionately mock Vincent's unique footwear and "emo" qualities.
Notable Fanon and Tropes
Vincent's immortality is often explored in fan works. He may be portrayed outliving a love interest, or avoiding such an outcome by refusing to become close with others. Some fans speculate that Vincent lost his immortality and eternal youth after Chaos left him in Dirge of Cerberus, finally allowing him to grow old and die alongside his loved ones.
Regarding Vincent, one of the most popular fan theories posits that he—not Hojo—is the biological father of Sephiroth, who is the son of Lucrecia Crescent, Vincent's "lost" love.[7][8] In certain circles, this fanon has practically been regarded as canon fact. This theory may be especially popular among Sephiroth fans with the reasoning that Vincent is widely considered to be much more attractive and "cool" compared to Hojo. Since the 1997 release of the original game, further installments and official materials have repeatedly affirmed the relationship between Hojo and Sephiroth, and fans have used information from Dirge of Cerberus to determine that Vincent was on a mission away from Lucrecia during the time period of Sephiroth's conception, leaving the theory jossed.[1]
Shipping
In fan works, Vincent's two most popular love interests have been Cid Highwind (Valenwind or CidVin) and Yuffie Kisaragi (Yuffentine). Some fans have perceived a decline in Valenwind's popularity since the early days of the fandom.[9] However, as of December 2020, Cid Highwind/Vincent is one of the top ten FFVII ships on Archive of Our Own by volume of tagged works, outnumbering works tagged Vincent Valentine/Yuffie Kisaragi.
Other fans enjoy seeing Vincent paired up with Cloud, Sephiroth, Reno (or other Turks), or Lucretia.
Another thing worth noting is that Vincent's Limit Break allows him to transform into various creatures, one of which is known as the Galian Beast. Due to it being physically similar to Red XIII, dedicated fans could even justify a Vincent/Red XIII ship here.
In a sample of 181 FFVII stories published or updated on FanFiction.Net (FFN) between 13 October 2013 and 30 October 2019, Vincent was most often listed in the site's pairing filter with Yuffie (50%), followed by Tifa (19%), Cid (6%), Lucrecia (4%), Sephiroth (4%), Reno (4%), Cloud (3%), Aerith (2%), Reeve Tuesti (2%), Veld (2%), and Kadaj (1%).[10]
Notable Pairings
- Vincent Valentine/Cid Highwind (Valenwind, CidVin)
- Vincent Valentine/Yuffie Kisaragi (Yuffentine, VxY)
- Vincent Valentine/Tifa Lockhart (VinTi, VxT)
- Vincent Valentine/Lucrecia Crescent
- Vincent Valentine/Sephiroth
- Vincent Valentine/Veld
Fan Works
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fan Fiction
- "Bullets" by Servant of SHEVAL
- "First Impressions" by white lotus
Fan Art
- Color Vincent by Patara [1]
- Valentine by Carmen [2]
- chaos by rad-i-cal
- ;) by genesishateblog
- Vincent by 白
Fan Animation
Meta
Fan Links
Archives and Communities
- FanFiction.Net (FFN): FFVII stories and crossovers featuring Vincent V.
- DeviantArt: vincent-valentineFC
- Archive of Our Own (AO3): Vincent Valentine tag
- Pixiv: #ヴィンセント・ヴァレンタイン
Fan Sites and Tributes
- Abanadoned Hope, Archived version
- House on Haunted Hill, Archived version by Snow Rayjah
Resources
- Wikipedia
- SQUARE SOFT Character Profiles "Vincent"
- The Lifestream: FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania—Vincent Valentine Character Profile p.68-71
References
- ^ a b c SQUARE SOFT Character Profiles "Vincent". Archived 1998.
- ^ Fahey, Rob (November 16, 2006). "Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Review". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved August 15, 2009.
- ^ Van Duine, Erren. "Japan ranks their favorite male characters from the Final Fantasy series", Archived version published to Nova Crystallis on 17 December 2012.
- ^ "THE ULTIMATE RPG PARTY REVEALED". IGN. December 17, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ^ FF Ranking, Archived version, NHK, Q1 2020. (Accessed October 2020.)
- ^ TheMomAbides. I translated the NHK Final Fantasy poll character rankings., posted to r/FinalFantasy in Q1 2020. (Accessed October 2020.)
- ^ GoesOff_On_Tangent. FF7: Vincent Valentine is Sephiroth's father posted to r/FanTheories on 15 Jun 2013. (Accessed Feb 2021.)
- ^ ekala, jukeboxhound, et al. anyone care to give me a history lesson on how ff7 fandom was like back in the day? posted to Tumblr on 8 December 2016. (Accessed September 2020.)
- ^ lilly-white. anyone care to give me a history lesson on how ff7 fandom was like back in the day? posted to Tumblr on 7 Dec 2016.
- ^ phantomstatistician. Vincent's FanFiction Shipping Chart 2023*-Present, posted to Tumblr on 30 Oct 2019. (Accessed Feb 2021.)