People get pissed at each other for the pettiest reasons. Today's reason is: getting upset with someone because they do not share your character preference. By that I mean, I dislike Aeris, and I dislike Rinoa. I really do. Nothing you say is going to make me like these characters. You could write a senior thesis on it, and I would read it, and I would say 'So? They bugged me. I don't like them.' But that doesn't mean you need to hate me for it (not that anyone does, this is an example). There's absolutely no reason to fight over something as lame and petty as a fictional character, or anything else of that nature, like the game itself, or a band, or whatever. I love Fou-lu, I love Okage, I love Ace of Base. If I met and befriended someone and then found out they hated Fou-lu, hated Okage, hated Ace of Base, I WOULD NOT CARE, as long as they didn't launch into reasons why I should hate them, or worse, why I am a bad person for liking them so.

I have a friend, an excellent friend, who hates fantasy. She hates Star Wars. She is incredibly religious, creationist, even. Do I care? No. Do I love her still? Yes. Because she is one of the nicest, most reliable and understanding people in the universe and I have known her forever. The fact that we don't share these preferences means nothing. Yet she has received death glares from eavesdroppers when proclaiming her hate of fantasy and Star Wars, glares that I would only give to a person who has just killed my entire family and all my cats. I don't understand why people do this. IT DOES NOT MATTER.

I severely disliked most of FF8. It is my least favorite of the Final Fantasies I have played (and I admittedly have not played several and do not intend to play 11). But if you think it's the greatest, then GOOD. More power to you. It doesn't mean I don't like you, and I sure hope it doesn't mean you're not going to like me, because honestly that is just fucking stupid. I have seen terrible flame wars over this kind of thing, actually, even over whether FF8 sucked or not (my opinion: overall, it did. You don't think so, okay. It's just a difference of opinion), and back when 7 came out, there were battles over the goodness of Sephiroth or the goodness of Cloud, and ESPECIALLY over Aeris. Ali-fluff, I know, is an Aeris fan. I do not like Aeris. I did not shed tears for her death. But I have never fought with Ali-fluff over Aeris and I never will, because that she is an Aeris fan is fine and dandy with me.

But the rage people would express amazed me. The rage people still express amazes me. Seriously. Who the fuck cares? Hating someone because they hate a character, a game, a band, a TV show, a movie or whatever that you love is completely idiotic. The only reason I would be upset with someone that was against something I liked would be if he or she proclaimed that people that liked this thing were the equivalent of Neo-Nazi's or something to that effect. Otherwise, I don't care, and I don't understand why so many people do.