FFVIII and the idea of male sorcerers.
Okay, so... A while back, @summonerluna and I were discussing the Succession in Final Fantasy VIII and I brought up the idea of a male potentially winding up with the powers.
As it stands, game canon (and her headcanon) is that this cannot and will not ever happen. When a bearer of the powers dies, the powers will simply transfer to the nearest female and take up residence - even if ‘nearest’ is miles away.
My AU headcanon allows for a male to receive the powers under a very strict set of circumstances (I’ll use Squall and Rinoa for my examples, ‘cause why not):
If Rinoa gets injured past the point of being able to heal herself, the powers will keep her alive and mend her to the point where she can resume taking care of herself. The powers will eventually need time to recharge themselves, but they are more than capable of keeping Rinoa alive for an extended period of time.
So if another devastating attack were to occur when Rinoa is still at death’s door (or worse) and the powers are unable to fully defend against further injury, they would be forced out of the destroyed Rinoa and in desperate need of a new host to reside in.
Let’s say Rinoa and Squall find themselves out in the middle of absolute nowhere. It’s just the two of them for 30 miles in every direction. Now, perhaps a space-based weapon - a satellite, an orbiting ship, whatever - fires a massive laser blast at Rinoa. Her body is vaporized and the powers are instantly reduced in potency.
This theory, mind you, allows the powers a certain level of cognizance - instinct, really - and they recognize the very basic drive of ‘fight’ or ‘flight’. They cannot fight, obviously, and flight is useless unless they are fleeing to a new host.
Squall, being Rinoa’s Knight would be a suitable vessel for the powers because he’s someone the powers inherently recognize as an extension of themselves, so they’d go to him.
That wasn’t quite as ‘straight to the point’ as I intended, but there you go.