Protagonist (Final Fantasy XVI)

The Shield (default name: Clive/Sophie Rosfield) is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI and a character in Final Fantasy Q and Final Fantasy XVIII.
CANONICALLY THIS CHARACTER DOES NOT EXIST. IT WAS MADE UP AS A THEORY BUT NEVER HAPPENED. IN FINAL FANTASY XVI, CLIVE ROSFIELD IS SILENT BUT IS ALWAYS MALE AND CANNOT BE CUSTOMIZED. THERE'S NO FEMALE OPTION IN XVI.
They're the Archduke of Rosaria's elder child and Joshua's sibling.
Despite being the firstborn, Clive/Sophie didn't inherit the power of the Fire Eikon, Phoenix, from their father; the role of its Dominant passed on to the younger Joshua instead. To find a purpose for themselves, Clive/Sophie became the First Shield of Rosaria, tasked with protecting Joshua and blessed by the Phoenix, allowing Clive/Sophie to use part of its flames. Tragic events involving the dark Eikon, Ifrit, lead to them embarking on a quest for revenge. At the beginning of the story, Clive/Sophie is 15 years old.
The player can choose their gender and give them a name. The opposite gender (with the default name) becomes Ifrit's Dominant. Rosfield and Ifrit's Dominant are half-siblings from their mother's side: Rosfield is a bastard from an extramarital relationship with the Archduke, while their sibling was born from the same mother, but the Archduke left them there out of fear for Ifrit's power.
They appear in Super Smash Bros- Furia Indomita, but their gender is fixed as male and their name is fixed as Clive. Sophie's design is an alternate costume for Clive, though the character is always named Clive and Sophie has no role in the plot.
Clive/Sophie doesn't appear in Final Fantasy- Twin Fires, a TV show reboot of Final Fantasy XVI told from Joshua's point of view. That movie tells the story of what would have happened if the player didn't exist to choose a side, and Joshua, Jill and the Ifrit Dominant were free to war against each other without the player's intervention. Ifrit's Dominant is named "Sadafumi Homura" in said TV show, although his design is distinct enough from the male Shield that it counts as an original character (he looks distinctly Asian, while the male Shield has clearly Western features).
== Personality ==
In Final Fantasy XVI, they are a silent protagonist, whose personality depends on the player's decisions and actions. Despite that, they show some subtle hints of personality, such as seeming to be concerned for their brother Joshua and displaying visible hatred towards Ifrit (attacking it as soon as they see it). Their dialogue options when talking to Joshua or Jill mostly express their deep care for them and will to protect them at all costs, while those aimed at Ifrit tend to be threatening. A lot of those options give them the opportunity to mention Joshua. Pre-timeskip, they are seen by Joshua and their adoptive sister Jill as a strong warrior and a caring and compassionate older brother, and their dialogue options directed at them are limited to showing that kind of personality. 
It's rumored by fans that the female Shield is a closeted transgender man due to the "always male" portrayal of the character in Super Smash Bros- Furia Indomita. 
As Ifrit's Dominant, the opposite gender counterpart of the main character is shy and feels weak, due to them growing up as lowborn and being forcibly taken away from home by conspirators against the Archduke. They however show utter contempt for the noble class's exploitation of peasants and use of legal violence against them, and seeks to change the system so that there are "no greedy landowners and no poor peasants to exploit".
In Final Fantasy XVIII, where an amnesiac Ifrit Dominant (canon name Hiroshi/Hiromi) replaces them as protagonist, they're not silent. They're an authoritarian admiral and attack utterly mercilessly, even going as far as to use young Hironobu Sakaguchi as a hostage to stop the Avatar. However, they only want to return to their world and undo the time crash they had caused by siding with Bahamut. 
In Super Smash Bros- Furia Indomita, Clive Rosfield is non-silent. He acts as a caring and compassionate leader and a father figure to his team, often worrying about his teammates' well being before his own. Against enemies, however, he has no qualms in attacking and doesn't hesitate even when killing.
== Gameplay ==
As the player avatar in a more Western-style RPG, they don't have an iconic weapon, instead they can use all weapons they can find. For the first time in a Final Fantasy game, weapons have durability and can break. FFXVI has no non-optional party members aside from them and the "Alignment hero" of the path they follow, and most of the party members are, in fact, guests controlled by the computer while the player can only control the protagonist.
They have the power to copy Eikon and use them for a class-switching system: Titan is a slow defense-focused tank, Garuda is a fast attacker and a glass cannon, Shiva is a magic-focused style, Phoenix is half-physical attacker and half-healer.
In Super Smash Bros- Furia Indomita, their special moves are based on Eikon: Shiva is the neutral (freezes enemies when hit), Garuda is the side (makes him home in on the enemy), Phoenix is the up (heals damage percentage if it hits an enemy) and Titan is the down (if Clive is hit during the charge, he'll counter with double the damage received) 
== Profile ==
In Final Fantasy XVI they start their journey pursuing revenge against the Ifrit Dominant.
After the timeskip, they can choose their side between Joshua, Jill or the Ifrit Dominant, or choose to unseal Bahamut and cause a time crash to create a new universe where the war hasn't happened and all endings happened at the same time.
The canon ending is the Bahamut Ending, after which the Shield is sent to the Chaos Void, where the events of Final Fantasy Q take place. They had rejected the power of Bahamut and fight against him, then they're sent to the USA and enlist in the army to look for the Ifrit Dominant (who is in Japan, now amnesiac). Bahamut's conscience has been eroded after the fight and the Eikon of Spacetime has become technically a part of the Shield. 
In FFXVIII, the Shield is now an admiral in the US Army attacking Hitachi, Japan, and has asserted their full control over Bahamut, however they refuse to nuke the city until the protagonist regains their memory and agrees to return to Valisthea with them. They often refer to the protagonist as "They who Are Not a Nazi", and by the name "Clive/Sophie" because they are the only person to know that the protagonist isn't actually Japanese (since Rosfield doesn't know what a Nazi is, they refer to all Japanese people as "Nazis"), and are trying to help them recover their memories. As the protagonist refuses to return, Admiral Rosfield decides to ultimately nuke the city to kill every last person the Dominant cares for. The Ifrit Dominant refuses and sacrifices themselves, killing both. This incident gives Hironobu Sakaguchi the inspiration to create the Final Fantasy series.
==Gallery==
FFXVI Clive Rosfield website art.png
FFXVI Clive and Joshua Illustration.png|A male Shield with their younger brother, Joshua.
FFXVI Teaser Art.png|The male Shield surrounded by Phoenix and Ifrit, possibly making their choice on who to side with.
== Trivia ==
The female name Sophie is a non-canon tentative name. No name has been revealed by Square Enix for the female Shield, because the canon Shield is a male named Clive, while the female is canonically Ifrit's Dominant. 
They're the only protagonist in the Final Fantasy series to have a canon appearance and name in spinoffs and staying silent. The Warrior of Light and the Onion Knight are made non-silent in Dissidia, while avatars like the one in FFXI and FFXIV are replaced with important NPCs Shantotto and Prishe and Y'Shtola. Though the female Shield, named Sophie, is canonically non-silent due to she being Ifrit's Dominant in canon. 
Square Enix haven't yet revealed the female Shield's design, but they could do it in 2021 with FFXVI's second trailer. 
In Final Fantasy XVIII, they call the Japanese "Waloedi" instead of "Nazi" and refer to the birds Americans call "Nazihorses" with the Japanese name Chocobo. 
Super Smash Bros- Furia Indomita is the only game where the Shield has a fixed name, speaks dialogue outside of player choices and cannot be made female (except for an alternate costume which doesn't appear at all in the story). Though in XVI, they have first-person narration. 
Since the Shield could be both male and female in all the Final Fantasy games they appeared, but is always retconned as a man in SSB: FI (though the FeMC appears as an alternate costume), it's rumored by fans that the female Shield from Final Fantasy XVI (Sophie) is actually a closeted transgender man, though no dialogue options exist in-game to come out as trans. Square Enix, however, never said anything about whether or not the female Shield is a trans or if she was simply retconned away. It's possible the female Shield is, in fact, a non-binary, which would explain why the player cannot come out as trans and why she is in Japan in FFXVIII, despite America in WW2 not allowing women to be admirals and go to war against the Japanese. This is further proved by the fact that, if the player controls a male avatar in FFXVIII, Admiral Rosfield says "I may look like one, but I'm not a girl!", while, if the avatar is female, he instead says: "I may come from far away, but I'm not a Nazi!". 
No image of the female Shield exists yet. THIS IS BECAUSE THE SHIELD HAS BEEN CONFIRMED NOT TO BE FEMALE. 
The male Shield is voiced by Keisuke Ueda in Japanese and by Bret Iwan in English, while the female Shield is voiced by Marina Inoue in Japanese. Her English voice actress is not known. 
THIS CHARACTER CANNOT EXIST: Clive from the actual FFXVI is a silent protagonist but is gender-locked and has no alignment choices nor party members depending on the alignment, nor can the player rename him. It's not possible to make him a woman nor does he choose between siding with Joshua, Jill or with Ifrit's Dominant, since he himself is Ifrit's Dominant. 
Category:Characters
Category:Final Fantasy Characters
Category:Final Fantasy (series)
Category:Characters whose gender changes depending on player choices
Category:Characters that are named by the player
Category:Genderfluid Characters
Category:Silent Characters
Category:Non-fanon
Category:Non-fanon characters
Category:Non-binary Characters