When I started making websites, the very first one was a Zell shrine. It wasn’t titled Blitzartig, nor was it in English, but since it was my “starting point” in the web world I was very affectionate to it. This is the reason why I decided to bring it back from the dust, clearly, as years spanned between its first and second opening, many things changed and very few of the original material was kept. Still, even if years went by, I still enjoy Final Fantasy VIII and Zell is one of my two favourites characters from the game. Plus there are no longer many Zell shrines online as before so I said…why not?
Why
Explaining why I like Zell is not easy, sometimes even I cannot fully understand the reason why as Zell is quite the opposite of the type of characters I normally like. Probably there are many individual aspects I like, which, combined together, make me like the whole.
The comic relief he provides throughout the game is much needed to bright up an otherwise dark and sad atmosphere. So…Zell’s main intent and effect is to make other people laugh. Yet he can also be serious when the situation calls for it, think about District-D prison. He is also very dedicated to his job as student and member of SeeD, he takes what he does very seriously and always sticks to his ideals.
Zell always makes himself available for giving a hand to those who need it, so he is a both a great friend and peer. Thanks to his bubbly and optimistic behaviour he easily gets along well with other people (well…save two *cough* Seifer and Irvine *cough*). But even when he gets angry, he doesn’t hold grudge for too long and he generally cools off quite quickly.
Throughout the game, his character doesn’t undergo any major transformation, nor he has to. Zell covers all the different status of the personality spectrum: happy, nervous, sad, angry, scared…. He does have solid principles, but that doesn’t stop his from screaming or yelling from time to time, something which gives Zell a realistic touch. Overall I like his spontaneity, his desire to share with everybody what he feels and to transmit his happiness and joy de vivre.
Name
blitz·ar·tig (sehr schnell)
- Adjektiv lightning;
- Adverb like lightning; [disappear] in a flash;
There are two reasons behind the choice of blitzartig as name of my Zell shrine. The first is a “linguistic” reason: both Zell’s name and surname are used in German-speaking countries and I thought it was nice to pick a name with the same roots and origin of Zell’s first and family names. The second reason is that I always related concepts like speed or objects like light, thunders to Zell and his personality so, again, I wanted a word which could describe him and I find that blitzartig is perfect for this.
Layout
- Name: Zell in Multicolour
- Brushes: myrasis, Paul W, sanami276, Yumei-K @ freshmakers
- Textures: none
- Shapes: dots, lines, crosses, arrows, rectangles
- Fonts: Arial, Arial Bold, Impact
- Picture source: original scan from Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, vector made by me
Albeit I did experiment with Adobe Illustrator, the pentool and vectors last summer (incidentally using the same sketch of Zell employed in this layout) I never really used this type of image in a layout before. I wanted to use many bright colours because they fit Zell’s equally bright personality. After trying many different palettes I stuck with a combination of primary hues (blue, red, yellow) and two types of green. All these colours are, in a way or another, related to Zell: red and blue are in his everyday outfit, yellow for his blond hair and green is obviously for S. Patrick’s Day :P