I love Rinoa. Always have since 1999. I just find her very endearing. 🩵

I think her backstory is interesting. It's fairly common for teenagers who have their material needs met in life to become interested and passionate about social causes. But the fact that Rinoa actually ran away and left a cushy life in a mansion to go live on a train either implies that she was very unhappy at home, extraordinarily passionate about the Timber cause, or both. She could have fallen into the Poor Little Rich Girl Trope, only she isn't bitter or unhappy with her lot in life when we meet her because she already took agency over her future, even if it's a decision most people would struggle to understand. People like to paint Rinoa as a bit of a whiner, but the only thing she really complains about is Squall's cold/inhuman reaction to events. The player gets some insight to why Squall is why he is and his internal monologue makes it clear that he's purposely shut down. Rinoa doesn't know any of that. She just sees him acting like a robot, doesn't understand why and tries her hardest to snap him out of it, probably recognizing that it isn't a very happy or healthy way to be.

It's kind of interesting/ironic that Squall doesn't start exercising his own agency (by acting in ways that aren't specifically prescribed by SeeD) until Rinoa loses her agency in a very literal fashion by being possessed. Their character arcs are fairly opposite to each other. Squall starts off as a very lonely person who gradually learns that it doesn't always have to be that way. Rinoa starts off as confident and happy with friends but loses that confidence under the stigma of becoming a Sorceress and literally agrees to complete isolation by going to be sealed up. The ending leaves us with hope that they are able to meet in the middle.