FINAL FANTASY VIII ANALYSIS ON ULTIMECIA AND TIME
Version 8.0
By: Sir Bahamut ------- Real name: Kristian J. Str�mmen
TheOnionKnight -- Real name: B. Burke
Squall_of_SeeD -- Real name: Glenn Morrow
Sections:
I. General FAQ Information
~ Purpose of the FAQ
~ About the Authors
~ Version History
~ Copyright Info
II. The Nature of Time and Time Compression in FF8.
~ Introduction
~ The Static Time Model
- The axioms
- General discussion
- Defending the axioms
~ The flow of time
~ The time-loop
~ Sorceress powers in the time-loop
~ Ellone's powers and the Junction Machine Ellone
~ Time Compression
- General discussion
- The "Hippie weirdness" problem
~ The final battle and ending FMV
~ The time compression sorceresses
~ The Ragnarok and the blocked off cities
~ Discussion on fate
~ What about the real world?
- Static vs dynamic
- The flow of time in the real world
~ How about alternate universes?
~ Dynamic Time - The alternative
III. Ultimecia.
~ Preface.
~ The Rinoa = Ultimecia theory
- The basis
- The hints (with responses):
* Witches and immortality
* Witches and dying in peace
* Witches and Hyne
* Witches and appearances
* Witches and Wings
* Ultimecias words during the final battle
* Time compression
* The location of Ultimecias castle
* The possible origin of Ultimecias name
* Ultimecia and Rinoa's faces
* Griever
* "Becoming warped"
* Rinoa and Ultimecia statuette
* Rinoa allowing Squall to kill her
- Various flaws
- Conclusion
- The final word
~ An Ultimecian Analysis - The Unjust Persecution
- How History is Written - the Galbadian War, the
Lunatic Pandora, and the Time War
- The Rise of Ultimecia
- "Destined to Face Me"
- With a Name like Ultimecia...
- To Compress, or Not to Compress (To Compress, Of
Course!)
- The End is the Beginning
- Questions and answers
IV. Additional Information
~ Ultimania Information
~ Miscellaneous In-Game Information
~ Tutorial Information
~ Squalls Terminal Information
~ Laguna and Squall?
~ "The Plot Twist"
IV. Credits.
=======================================
-Section I: General FAQ Information-
=======================================
~Purpose of the FAQ~
This FAQ will provide in-depth and varied explanations and insights into
two of the most frequently debated bits of the game: the nature of time
in FF8, and the mystery of Ultimecia.
These two topics, especially the latter, pop up so frequently on the forums
here (and everywhere else for that matter) that I and some others decided to
compile what we knew after having participated in discussions on both
subjects for several years. We do not claim to have all the answers or the
best theories or anything. We have merely been in discussions on these
matters for many years, and feel that we collectively have got a pretty good
idea on what's going on with certain aspects of the plot. We hope you
will agree that there's something worthwhile to be found within this FAQ!
You might have noticed that this site already has an FF8 Plot FAQ, addressing
some of the same issues as this FAQ does. However, these authors felt it
was quite lacking in the issues of time and Ultimecia, so we sought to try
and get the content of this FAQ put into the other Plot FAQ. Unfortunately,
this never worked out, so in the end, we were able to get our own FAQ posted.
We hope you enjoy it!
PS: For those of you who didn't take the hint from the title of the FAQ,
there WILL of course be massive SPOILERS on a regular basis!
The FAQ assumes you've completed the game and are familiar
with the plot, so don't read it if that's not the case with you.
------
About the Authors:
Everything in this FAQ was written by Sir Bahamut, unless directly specified
otherwise. However, we have all contributed into all of this FAQ, so despite
me (Sir Bahamut) having physically written most of it, it's more like a
compilation of all our discussions on the various subjects covered within.
What I'm trying to say is that the credit belongs equally to all three
authors!
Contacting Sir Bahamut: E-Mail: [email protected]
MSN Messenger: [email protected]
Contacting TheOnionKnight: [email protected]
Contacting SquallOfSeeD: [email protected]
Please contact Sir Bahamut for questions on the FAQ as a whole.
For questions/comments on the various theories inside, contact whoever
wrote the bit in question. If unsure who to send to, send it to Sir Bahamut.
E-MAIL POLICY:
Make subject "FF8 Plot FAQ" or something similar which makes it clear
that the mail has got something to do with FF8 and the topics in the FAQ.
No unnecessary attachments.
If you do give me information, include the name you wish to
be referred by in the credits section (or remain anonymous if you wish).
No non-constructive criticism please ("your theories suck" etc.).
Don't send the same message many times; we read all mails, but may
take some time responding if we are busy/away.
Remember, we may not be able to reply immediately, so have patience!
If however, it's been several weeks, make a topic on the FF8 Message
board at GameFAQs asking for whoever it is you can't reach (for instance,
you might make a topic titled "Attn: Sir Bahamut").
------
Version History:
1.0: First complete version (some time in 2004).
1.5: Updated the R=U section quite a bit, as well as
adding some stuff to the Time/Timeloops section.
3.0: Completely rewrote the entire section on Time after
new breakthroughs on practically all fields.
4.0: Big update in the R=U section, due to new info from
the Ultimania Guide. Also added the "Additional
Information" section, for various bits and pieces
not necessarily related to Time or Ultimecia.
Unless something new and big pops up(unlikely) this
will probably be the last major update.
5.0: 1. October 2005
Went through and corrected mistakes coming from the rushed 4.0
update. Added The Dark Legend's bit on "The Plot Twist".
Generally cleaned up the FAQ, adding a sentence here and there,
removing a line now and then. The FAQ seems to be as good as it
can get at this point. This will be the last 'cleaning up' I do of
this FAQ. Future updates will only come from new theories/info.
6.0: 27. June 2006
In light of the discovery that there existed some unfortunate flaws
in the explanation of Time Compression, I took the opportunity to
do a bit of cleaning up, clarifying some things and generally trying
to make the FAQ more accessible. Unfortunately, the mentioned flaws
have not been solved, and will not be solved by these authors. We are
all tired of the issue, and all have more important things to deal
with in the real world. Perhaps someone will solve the TC problem in
the future (if you have done so and are reading this, send us a
mail!), but it will not be one of us. The problem is explained in
the 'UPDATE (2006)' note under "The PLOT thickens".
7.0(Current Version): 6. July 2006
Typically enough, as soon as I think I've made the last update, I
instantly get several mails with new and interesting contributions,
this time primarily from one "Yuthura Ban". So had to add some stuff
to the "Additional Information" in the Time part, as well as a few
bits to the R=U part and the Unjust Persecution section.
8.0 (Current Version): __ August 2008
Almost exactly two years after the last update, this new, substantial
update is finally here, having been in the working for more than a
year. The new version includes a huge overhaul of the entire section
on time/time compression, including explanations for more events,
more detailed and thorough presentations, a better model for time
compression and most excitingly perhaps, a new explanation for
one of the big unsolved problems on time compression ("hippie
weirdness"). There have been slight additions and edits on the
Rinoa=Ultimecia theory section, including what is hopefully some
more enlightening closing words on what exactly its current status is.
Finally, the entire FAQ was very kindly and generously given a
thorough (and much needed) spell-check by one Douglas "Fox-Raweln"
Meneghetti! So the new version's got quite a lot to it which I hope the
reader will enjoy. It must be said though (although I may yet live to
retract this) that this is almost certainly the last major update this
FAQ will see. Considering that the time taken to complete these
updates has increased so dramatically lately and that myself (Sir
Bahamut) and TheOnionKnight, the only remaining authors now, are
likely to only get busier as time goes by, it just seems a bit
hopeless to think of another major update. In addition, the topics
discussed definitely are feeling quite exhausted to these authors.
That being said, we hope this new big update will be a nice way to
leave this FAQ for future readers, and that not too many flaws will
be discovered as time passes. If you find any, please do send a
mail to me (Sir Bahamut) at [email protected]
------
Copyright information.
This game is a copyright Square, but this FAQ is a copyright
Sir Bahamut/TheOnionKnight/Squall_Of_SeeD 2008
This is what you may do with this FAQ:
1. You may read it.
2. You may download it to your computer.
3. Send it to others as long as you don't charge them or change the FAQs
content, and don't present the author as anyone else but Sir Bahamut
TheOnionKnight and Squall_Of_SeeD.
This is what you may not do:
1. Sell this guide for profit (unless consented by the author).
2. Steal information without giving the authors all the credit and asking
the authors on beforehand.
Websites may post this guide if they follow these conditions:
1. The FAQ is not altered in any way.
2. The authors get full credit.
3. You send the author a Mail before posting it, telling me you are
going to post it, and include the Web sites address.
4. Do not post it without permission, and don't harass if denied.
=====================================
-Section II: The Nature of Time-
=====================================
NOTE: Before reading, please understand that all this is based ONLY on
what the game tells us, common sense and logic. Considering the
magic, monsters, frequent time travel, etc., it would be a mistake to
automatically assume that FF8 physics are identical to real world
physics. The authors can after all take some artistic liberations in
their own game! Since we furthermore cannot study the FF8 world as
real world physicists study our world, we are forced to make this a
purely theoretical debate based solely on what the game tells us.
Essentially, this means that you'll hear no mention of the theory of
general relativity, or quantum mechanics, or any such complex real-life
scientific theory when we try to explain things. Instead, we will be
starting from scratch, adopting the simplest views and explanations
possible, with the only requirement being that they are logically
coherent and explain what we see in the game.
---------------
INTRODUCTION
---------------
Several vital elements of FF8 involve time in a very explicit manner. Ellone
sends Squall and Co. back in time repeatedly to try and change the past;
Squall does the same after Rinoa is lost in space. Ultimecia is trying to
literally compress all of time and then absorb it to become a god (see the
Ultimecia section for more). More subtly, one of the major themes of the
game is that of fate, a concept closely interwoven with the nature of time.
These aspects of the game often inspire a significant amount of debate
among gamers, as the game itself doesn't make too much explicitly clear
about a lot of it. However, most disagreements boil down to different
fundamental assumptions about time. Rather, people will be operating with
slightly different models of time (e.g. models lifted directly from films like
"Back to the Future," which seems one quite popular model, or the model
we will present in this FAQ).
Most such models are purely intuitive: the assumptions underpinning them
are not made explicit or justified, and unsurprisingly so! Time is something
so intrinsically part of our lives that most people will feel that they
understand it even if modern science is more or less clueless, and so do
not properly establish a consistent, logical framework to use when
analysing FF8. This section of the FAQ aims to alleviate this situation by
constructing a model of time with all assumptions made explicit and
backed up by logic and in-game evidence. We will then use this model to
develop a theory of time compression, and thus try to explain everything in
the game which in some way is linked to the finer workings of time.
In the first section we will present the assumptions of the model, discuss
their general implications and explain where they come from. Then we will
discuss time compression and the rest of the time-related aspects of the
game. Finally, we will explain where the assumptions of our model came
from and why we use them.
It should be noted that there are essentially two basic different models
possible. The assumption that you can't change the past leads to one, and
the assumption that you can change it leads to the other. In this FAQ, for
reasons that will become clear, we have heavily favoured the former idea,
and it is this model which we will employ in this section and make a case
for. Squall_Of_SeeD, however, advocates a model in which the past can be
changed, and so his own outline of what such a model might look like and
its capacity to explain in-game events can be found near the end of this
section.
------------------
THE "STATIC TIME" MODEL
------------------
~The Axioms~
At the heart of the "static time" model we use in this section lie three main
statements, assumptions, or "axioms," if you will. These are as follows:
1) A "moment" is defined as a single point in time. Then time can be
thought of as an ordered, possibly continuous (i.e. infinitely divisible)
sequence of moments. Such a sequence defines a "line of time."
2) We define the "Universal Line of Time," abbreviated to ULOT, as being
the line of time containing every moment in the history of the FF8 universe.
Furthermore, the ULOT is of finite length (i.e. the FF8 universe doesn't last
forever). Hence the ULOT, in other words, is a line of all events from the
beginning of the FF8 universe to its end, viz
Beginning|----------------------------------------------------|End
3) The events (or moments) prior to any given reference point on any line of
time cannot be altered by any means. Put more simply, no one can
change the past.
~General discussion~
The first statement contains a lot that can be discussed. Note the intended
generality of the definition of "a line of time" as opposed to "THE line of
time." This is necessary because time-travel complicates things. If you
follow Squall in-game, his progress through time is continous in nature
(there are no weird jumps, as if you appear to have progressed from one
point in time to another, missing out on a lot in between, like a film missing
a section); from Squall's perspective it always looks like he's simply moving
forward in time. But when viewed on the ULOT, the thing most people
would think of as "THE line of time," he's actually jumping around all over
the place quite a bit, i.e. whenever he travels in time. This observation leads
to the necessity of defining the "Personal Line of Time," abbreviated to
PLOT. A PLOT is merely a line of time following the "life" of a single object,
be it a person or a particle. To be pedantic, one could say that every
fundamental particle has its own PLOT, and the PLOT of something like a
human being would simply be the sum of the PLOTs of all particles making
up that being. But the important idea is basically we can and will talk about
time as seen from different perspectives than the ULOT.
The idea of PLOTs implies that the ULOT is a somewhat inadequate way of
viewing things, and that instead we should consider what has been dubbed
the PLOT-sheet: that is, the ULOT is really a sheet made up of all the
PLOTs of all particles in existence. Although the PLOT-sheet is in theory a
better model than the simple ULOT, it turns out that in almost all cases it
is just as easy to think only in terms of the ULOT, which is what we shall
do throughout. However, it is helpful to keep in mind the idea of the PLOT
sheet, because it will occasionally be quite useful.
The fact that we call time "possibly continuous" is due to the fact we don't
know whether or not there's a fundamental unit of time or not. To draw
an analogy between the line of time and a number line, we don't know
whether timelines are equivalent to a line of integers or a line of real
numbers. If it's the former, then the single integer would correspond to the
smallest unit of time: it simply wouldn't be possible to experience time on a
shorter scale. If it is the latter, however, just as in the reals we can
always find a new number between two given ones, we could always divide a
time-interval into smaller sections; there'd simply be no lower limit as to
how short a time interval one could experience. Time would be infinitely
divisible. However, we have no way of answering this question based on
information from FF8, and in the end, it has no real impact on the questions
tackled in this section, so we'll leave it at that.
Now, the astute reader will have noticed something more relevant, namely
the circular nature of the 'definition' of time given. We define a moment as a
point in time, and then define time as a sequence of moments - very
circular indeed! This circularity is an inevitable result of the fact that we
don't really know what time is in a truly fundamental way. It may therefore
be more sensible to consider time as the very ordering of moments, rather
than the moments themselves, or perhaps somewhat equivalently, as a
measurement of the distance between two moments. Launching into a full-
scale investigation of the true nature of time would however not be prudent
in such a limited FAQ. The bottom line is that most people will have an
intuitive feel for the concept of the line of time outlined above despite its
circularity, and for the purpose of the FAQ, that will be sufficient.
Practically speaking the circularity was made in the direction of defining
time as a sequence of moments because it more clearly leads to one of the
perhaps most useful analogies of time: the film analogy. In it, one imagines
a moment in time as corresponding with a slide in a film. Any given line of
time could thus be considered as being a film consisting of (possibly
infinitely many) slides. The idea of time being ordered and continous would
then analogously be that there are no film slides missing which cause
the film to "jump," and that the events viewed in the film follow a linear
progression. Assumption 2, that the ULOT is finite, then means that the
total film of the FF8 universe has a beginning and an end.
This analogy is helpful when making precise the idea of stuff actually
happening in FF8. So consider, say, the event in which Squall dances with
Rinoa. This event would be a sequence of moments, and would thus be
represented as some small interval on the ULOT (of length 5 minutes, or
however long they danced for). The sequence of moments making up this
interval would then show the dance progressing moment by moment. In
one moment you'd have Squall and Rinoa frozen in one particular position,
and then in another position in a later moment. The film analogy quite
literally describes what's going on. All these moments seen together then
make up the event "Squall and Rinoa dance." In practice it is usually
uneccessary to revert to this level of detail when describing events, and
more straightforward language will be accurate enough. It is, however,
helpful now and then to keep in mind that this film analogy describes what's
really going on.
Ok, so now that we have a basic idea of a line of time and a useful analogy
with which to compare it, we can discuss the meaning of the third
assumption. The statement of the past not being alterable from "any
reference point" is a result of the fact that we see in the game that not just
the past, but crucially also the future exists on the same line as the
"present." We tend to consider the events we see in the game with Squall
as being the "present," but as is revealed, the future already exists
because Ultimecia is influencing Squall's era from it using the Junction
Machine Ellone. But if the past cannot be changed from Squall's point of
view, the same must certainly apply for Ultimecia; from her point of view,
changing the past would be impossible. But her past includes Squall's
future, hence Squall's future is in fact set in stone. The same argument can
easily be extended to demonstrate that in the world of FF8, if you "can't
change the past," time is set in stone in because all of time exists (not
just "present"). So in FF8, time is set in stone.
This is easier to understand from the fact that if the future and past exist on
the same line as the present, those very terms become meaningful only
relative to some given moment. There is no set, universal "present,"
"future" or "past." Rather, we have to talk about the future as seen from
Squall's perspective at some given time, or the past as seen from
Ultimecia's perspective at some given time. From the perspective of the
ULOT, no moment is more special than any other, and the only difference
between two moments is their temporal separation. So saying that the
"past" cannot be changed is in fact equivalent to saying that time itself
cannot be changed, i.e. the ULOT is set in stone. More formally, this
corollary to assumption 3 could be stated as follows:
"The FF8 universe is uniquely described by one single, unalterable ULOT".
What is critical to note here is that this applies even to time-travelling
events. Even if Ultimecia travels to her past to try and change things, every
influence she has was already set in stone. Consider, say, the event in
which Ultimecia gives her powers to Edea as seen in the ending. In no
sense is Ultimecia changing anything when she does this, because there
was never a time when Edea didn't receive powers from Ultimecia in this
way. The event is set in stone. The slide is fixed, and so when Ultimecia
went back into the past she was merely fulfilling her fate, so to speak.
Similarly, no other time-travelling ended up changing anything, because if
someone travels to the past, they always appeared in the past at that time,
there was never a time when they didn't appear in the past and there will
never be a time when they aren't in the past. Time is set in stone. This
explains the name of this model of time. Time is "static" because it literally
doesn't change.
In fact, although we deduced that the future exists by in-game observation,
we could also deduce this directly from the assumption that you can't
change the past. We start by making an initial assumption: the future does
not exist. Beyond the "present," nothing is certain, but a choice, once
made, cannot ever be unmade. But then we know that time-travelling is
quite possible. So let's assume that we decide to travel back in time. Let's
say we go back to the location of John Lennon's murder and disable the
murderer, effectively preventing John Lennon from dying (note that I have for
the sake of convenience used real world examples, while I should in fact be
using examples from the FF8 plot). As you can see, we have arrived at a
logical contradiction: we have changed the past even though changing the
past is not possible. Hence we can conclude that the initial assumption '
must necessarily have been false. But do things really improve if we start
by assuming that the future exists? Well, if we look at things from John
Lennon's perspective, the event in which you decide to travel back and save
him already exists just like his own present state. This effectively means
that your travelling to the past isn't in any way changing anything. Things
always happened like that; you would have attempted to stop the murderer,
but would not have succeeded, and Lennon would have been subsequently
shot. When you get the idea, many years later, that you will try and
change things, you would naturally be unaware of this, leading you to travel
to the past despite the fact that this would merely be fulfilling your
"destiny." Your presence in the past is immutable. You were always there
and were never not there. All the events on the ULOT are set in stone.
To make explicit one major difference between static time and its
counterpart, dynamic time, we may note that in static time, the entire
ULOT must have come into existence at once (in order for the future to
exist), while in dynamic time, the ULOT would be continously growing from
a single starting event, the future being created continously. This is
apparent because in dynamic time the future cannot exist, for the same
reason that it must exist for the past to be unalterable. In dynamic time you
can change the past, so the future doesn't exist. Time evolves dynamically,
hence the name.
~Defending the axioms~
1) As discussed before, this assumption is more just a way to allow us to
visualise things in a clear way. The definition has, as stated, heavy
elements of circularity in it, and so is hardly ideal. But it seems to be the
best we can do with our current understanding of time, while capturing the
intuitive ideas we already have.
So there's not much that can be done to defend this one in other words. If
you feel you can offer a significantly clearer definition please don't hesitate
to send us a mail.
2) The only actual assumption here is that the ULOT is of finite length. Its
basis lies in time compression, and results from the basic observation that
the compression is not an instantaneous process, but rather runs at some
finite "speed." But if the ULOT were infinite in length, it is reasonable that
it would take an infinite amount of time before the spell were completed.
Since this seems a rather daft situation for Ultimecia to put herself in, and
because the spell does appear to be nearly completed by the end of the
final battle, we may conclude that the ULOT is finite in length.
One might argue that the speed at which time is compressed accelerates,
the speed diverging to infinity. In such a scenario it may be possible that
even with an infinite ULOT, time compression may be completed in a finite
time interval. However, as this quickly becomes highly speculative and
complex, we have chosen to make the simplifying assumption that the
ULOT is simply finite in length, thus eliminating all such problems.
3) The third assumption is the real meat of static time, and what truly
defines it. It is also the assumption which is the most debatable, and as
such will be discussed in greater length.
The first argument for the assumption that you can't change the past is
simple enough: Ellone states it outright on the space station.
Ellone: "You can't change the past. I just realized that."
She says this after she has painfully tried through the whole game to
change it using Squall and Co., repeatedly sending them back into the
bodies of Laguna and Co. As if that wasn't a strong enough message from
Square, they even make Squall doubt it, and have him try and save Rinoa
by changing the past himself. Yet despite Squall's efforts, he is not able
change the fact that Rinoa gets lost in space, and a big point is made
about the fact that Squall only saves her by risking his own life by going
out after here in present time, so to speak. A fair point can be made that in
these events where Squall is in the past through Ellone's powers he
couldn't change the past because of the limitations imposed by her powers.
It is certainly possible to influence the past using her powers, as Ultimecia
shows by using Edea so effectively. But Ultimecia's use of Edea may have
crucially relied on Ultimecia's abilities as a sorceress, and while Laguna's
stories of being influenced by "fairies" causing him to be more powerful in
battle indicate some effect by Squall, he was perhaps not in a position to
change anything. However, this is speculative, and from a story-line
perspective it is clear what is being shown. They all show, culminating
poignantly in Squall's desperate attempts on the Ragnarok, that you can't
change the past.
This message is equally noticeable in Ultimecia's character and story,
although I will have to refer to the section called "An Unjust Persecution"
for a proper discussion of her story. But in essence, one can see her entire
mission to cast time compression and destroy SeeD as a result of her
desire to change the past, but as it turns out, her attempt to change her
past is what sets in motion the events of her tragic past anyway. There are,
furthermore, some quite specific elements of the ending which indicate that
the past cannot be changed. Edea refers to having received her powers
from Ultimecia, and indeed that is what we see happen. So it is clear from
that, at least, that some things do not change, and so it is not unreasonable
that Square wished to imply that nothing changed.
The inability to control one's life by altering time underpins the game also
in a more subtle way, in the guise of "fate." The concept of fate revolves
around the idea that you are not in control of your own life, that you are
destined to do certain things and so will do them whether you want to or
not. In static time, fate can thus be seen as a way of rephrasing that time
is set in stone, and so fate has a highly natural place in static time. This is
relevant because one of the main themes of the game is fate. Cid talks a lot
to Squall of his fate, while Squall tries to deny it, as does Ultimecia, yet
neither succeed, and so on. Indeed, the main musical theme of the game,
"Liberi Fatali" (which plays e.g. in the opening FMV) literally means
"Children of Fate" in reference to the main party.
Now, as fate is such a central concept in FF8, and such a point is made
about several people's inability to change the past using time-travelling and
such, we simply find it unlikely that Square actually intended the exact
opposite: that actually you can change the past, it's just that Ellone and
everyone else didn't manage. Of course this is quite possible (e.g. a
legitimate case can be made about Ellone's failure being a result of Squall
and Co's lack of attempts to deliberately alter Laguna and Co.'s natural
paths). It is even possible to explain why some things clearly don't change
(e.g. Edea getting Ultimecia's powers) while still allowing the past to be
alterable, as Squall_Of_SeeD demonstrates. However, these ideas tend to
result in a ULOT which actually asymptotically approaches a static ULOT
anyway (that is, time evolves in such a way that the time-loop in the game
discussed later gradually settles down to a unalterable loop, at which point
the model becomes indistinguishable from a static ULOT), and so dynamic
time becomes more a theory based on intuition. As we will see, there are
some highly unintuitive aspects of static time which lend credence to this
approach, but in the end, we (Sir Bahamut and TheOnionKnight) figured
that, after all, when the game goes to all that trouble of implying that you
can't change the past and that time is set in stone (i.e. fate), it just seems
more reasonable to follow that prompt rather than attempt to work around it.
Static time also appeals more than its counterpart, "dynamic time," where
the past can be changed, for aestethic reasons. Static time simply yields
a clearer, simpler and more elegant picture of time, and its explanations
are equally simple and elegant, as we shall soon see. If we assume the
past can be changed, a whole lot of trouble arises simply because it's
awfully hard to define a sensible manner in which events could be altered
anyway (something we discuss more in the next section). Static time
avoids all such problems and, as such, is seen by both myself (Sir
Bahamut) and TheOnionKnight as being the superior model. All further
discussion in this section will thus be assuming static time as the
foundation.
-------------------
THE FLOW OF TIME
-------------------
There is one aspect of time which is so entrenched in our lives, so
intuitively true that we rarely if ever question it or even think about it,
even in discussions on time-travel and the like. That aspect is what is
commonly dubbed the "flow" of time, and is the observation that we seem to be
inexorably and unceasingly moving from the past to the future. The very
fact that we observe motion indicates a passage of time, and that we are
flowing down the river of time, carried along by its steady flow, from the
past to the future, our own position at all points representing the "present."
Few if any would deny that this is what we feel to be true, and an essential
part of life. However, could our intuition be fooling us? Does the concept of
a flow of time make sense?
The answer, in fact, seems to be a resounding no! The reason for this can
be found by simply considering what time "flowing" could mean in a
physical sense. "Flow" implies that some sort of change is occurring, that
there is a change in time which results in "now" becoming "then," the
present becoming the past and the future becoming the present. There is a
direct implication of some form of motion, or at least change, in the very
concept of time flowing. Yet this is in reference to time itself. Time itself
would be undergoing change. But time by its very nature measures change;
change is actually nothing but a recognition of the passing of time. Nothing
changes without time having passed. So what possible sense could one
make of time itself changing? Time itself would have to experience a
passage through time, which appears patently absurd! One would seem to
have to appeal to the notion of a higher-dimensional time, one which
records the passing of time of the ULOT. But then this higher-dimensional
time would also require its own higher-dimensional time, creating a chain of
higher-dimensional time- dimensions seemingly extending to infinity.
The absurdity of this should readily be apparent. You might now suggest
that although time itself is not moving, we are moving through time, thus
accounting for the apparent flow. However, although more subtle, this does
not avoid the problem described above. If we are ourselves tracing through
prescribed events in time, then our presence at some event and
subsequent departure from it represents a change in time itself too. To
make an analogy, one could think of our motion through time as illuminating
the slides of a film, one by one, and the slide currently illuminated
represents "present." However, the act of a slide being illuminated to then
become dark again represents change of time itself, and thus becomes
absurd again.
It appears that in static time (and any model of time really), time is indeed
entirely static, like a frozen block of ice rather than a flowing river, and
flow of time is an illusion. Such an illusion would not be too hard to
explain. At any moment in time, our minds are in a state which have recorded
events prior to it, strongly suggesting that we have flown from the past in
order to arrive at that particular moment. So to our minds it would always
seem as if we have flown through time, even if that were not the case at all,
thus creating the apparent illusion.
Although this works quite nicely and makes static time look very nice
indeed, we can all recognise that this explanation is not satisfying. Our
intuitive feeling of "flow" is far too strong. Absurd or not, we all feel
ourselves moving through time in some sense, and any model which does
not incorporate this aspect will undoubtedly feel artificial. This fact, that
the flow of time is entirely illogical yet so powerfully intuitive, is perhaps
one of the biggest problems about time there is, also in the real world, where
there is no solution as of today. So what do we do about it? For the purposes
of this FAQ, we have decided that the problem is unsolvable. We will not try
to artificially impose a mechanism for the flow of time to work, as a
sensible mechanism is not known, but will not reject the flow of time, either.
Basically, some effort has been made to make the theories contained in
the FAQ not depend on notions implying any changes in time itself, except
in the most intuitively obvious ways. After all, it is probably impossible to
purge all references to the flow of time from this document, and attempting
to do so would just make things confusing.
One thing should be said though, and that is that in static time, if one is to
think of time flowing at all, one has to think of it as flowing forward from
every event at once, since the past and future all exist. This is why when
Squall travels to the past in the ending, time is still "flowing" forward for
his younger self.
-------------
THE TIME-LOOP
-------------
The idea of a time-loop arises naturally from the ending FMV. In it, Squall
and Ultimecia are transported back in time to the orphanage. There Squall
tells Edea about Garden and SeeD before Ultimecia gives Edea her powers.
The sorceress Edea told us gave her powers in the orphanage, thus starting
the whole game, we discover is Ultimecia herself. So Ultimecia's act of
travelling to the past is the very thing which starts the sequence of
events which results in Ultimecia rising to power and going to the past after
her defeat by Squall, and we have what can easily be dubbed a "loop" in
time.
Using the picture of the ULOT, we might think of it looking something along
these lines:
|-------------------|
| |
Past<------------------A-------------------B----------------->Future
Event A here is the event we see in the ending; where Squall and Ultimecia
arrive from the future and meet Edea.
Event B here is the event in which Ultimecia and Squall travel back through
time.
---
NOTE: This image of the loop is inherently flawed, because while the time
passed between A and B on the principal line (i.e. the bottom part) amounts to
several hundred years, the amount of time that Ultimecia and Squall use
getting to event A from event B (i.e. the top bit) is clearly NOT hundreds of
years, despite this image implying just that.
---
As any loop on the ULOT would have to have always been a part of it, we
might say that the ULOT contains bumps.
---
NOTE: Of course, if you think of things in terms of the PLOT-sheet, there
would be no such bumps, so again the "bumps" on the ULOT are just a
result of its slightly inaccurate representation of time.
---
Now, the presence of such loops is interesting because of the highly
curious internal logic of such a loop. To demonstrate the dazzling
conclusions we are forced to draw, we will refer to the following example:
Take the term "SeeD," the official name for the military force educated in
the Gardens. Garden and SeeD were founded by Edea and Cid. Now take
Squall. Squall knows of the term "SeeD" because he IS one; he was put
into the organization created by Edea and Cid, and knows about its
terminology, including the term "SeeD" because of them. Now consider the
ending section where Squall arrives at the Orphanage and meets a young
Squall and younger Edea. Before Ultimecia arrives, Squall talks to her
about "SeeD" and "Garden." Edea seems puzzled at this, as if she has
never heard of those things before in her life. Let's assume she hasn't (this
assumption is up for debate, but is a good example of the point being
made; the actual validity of the assumption is irrelevant). The big question --
and the big point -- is this:
Where did the idea of the term "SeeD" actually come from?
To fully demonstrate why this question is important, we'll label the event in
which Squall learns of "SeeD" through Edea founding it as event A. Then
we'll label the event in which Edea learns of "SeeD" through Squall telling
her as event B. That being done, let's make a cause-effect diagram showing
whose idea it really was:
A--->B--->A--->B--->A--->B--->A--->B--->A------>repeat ad infinitum.
The implications are thus that within a timeloop, the notion of cause and
effect as we know them are effectively destroyed, as evident in A leading to
B, leading to A again, as pictured above. Both event A and event B are the
causes of the term "SeeD," and both event A and event B are the effects of
the causes! If you really took in the idea of the loop on the ULOT
completely, this is an obvious conclusion: events A and B would be on the
loop in such a way that asking which came first, A or B, is as meaningless
as asking which point is the "starting point" of a circle. A more well known
analogy would be the question of the chicken or the egg.
This idea that the term "SeeD" doesn't have an origin is one common thing
that makes people lean to the "dynamic time theory." This is because in
the "dynamic time theory," it WOULD have an origin. To understand this,
remember what we concluded about the two theories previously. In the
"static time theory," the entire ULOT would have to have been "created" all
at once, while in the "dynamic time theory," time would have evolved from a
given starting point. Then bring in the idea of the loop we have just
introduced. We know that since Ultimecia travelled back in time, she must
have caused some sort of change. Now, in the "dynamic time theory" the
loop would keep happening over and over again (since time is always
evolving, even within the loop, so each time Ultimecia goes back to the
past she initiates a new round of the loop), but according to this, there must
have been a first loop, a first time in which Ultimecia travels back in time.
This first time, she must have been changing something. But what was she
changing?
All we know for certain is that this "original time," this "pre-loop" time would
have contained Squall, Rinoa, Cid, Edea etc. etc, even Ultimecia. This
"original time" must have contained events completely unlike the ones we
see in the game; in short, no events that are a result of Ultimecia using
Junction Machine Ellone to try and find Ellone, because in the original time,
Ultimecia would not yet be alive to do all this. (This will be expanded upon
in the section on dynamic time later).
This "original time" would however contain cause-effect diagrams completely
unspoilt by any timeloops, so the term "SeeD" would have had a
meaningful origin somewhere within the "original time." Of course, since it's
anyone�s guess what actually happened in the "original time," it is still
impossible to answer where "SeeD" really came from. The dynamic time
theory does, however, allow one to say that the question does in fact have
an answer -- it's just that we can't ever know that answer!
In static time, however, there is no original timeline and thus no correct
answer, and yet the theory remains internally consistent. The logic of
time-loops is strange for sure, but there's not actually any logical paradox
arising from them within static time. They are as fixed and immutable as
anything else.
Now, a common misconception of the time-loop is that it somehow "occurs"
indefinitely and as such the people in the loop are "stuck" in it. This is
however an absurd notion. In the ending FMV we are led to a point in time
where it is indicated that things will "start over" again, and so we start
thinking about the loop as starting all over again. But if we look at the
graphic visualisation of the loop above, we notice that all that is really
happening here is that we are literally letting our eyes trace out the loop
over and over, creating a essentially visual illusion that the loop occurs
more than once. If we return to the film- analogy, what we are doing is
equivalent to watching a section of the video, then rewinding and watching
the same section again. It is not that the events on the video are somehow
happening again, it is that we are watching them again. So from the
perspective of someone in the loop, the events happen once and only once,
and as such no one is "trapped" in the loop. The events of the loop happen
once, just like any other event on the ULOT. After Squall goes to the
orphanage and sees his younger self, he returns to his own time and lives
on happily ever after. The younger Squall we see will grow up to experience
the events we play in the game, and is in fact simply the same Squall. If we
follow his life, however, we are merely replaying the game, rewatching the
video. The loop occurs only once.
This visual illusion is actually closely connected with the notion of the flow
of time, as discussed before. We're imagining the flow as moving around in
a circle on the loop, so it appears as if it should be happening over and
over. Since this naive conception of flowing time doesn't work, however, the
imagery is flawed, explaining why the loop actually only happens once.
----------------
SORCERESS POWERS IN THE TIME-LOOP
----------------
One example of something in the time-loop discussed above is frequently
brought up for discussion, namely the way in which sorceress powers are
passed on via the loop. Ultimecia, upon dying, gives her powers to Edea,
who gives hers to Rinoa, and from her the powers eventually reach
Ultimecia again, who then goes and gives them to Edea. The impression
given is that the powers are building up each time the loop makes another
cycle. Each time Edea would be receiving more and more powers. Clearly,
however, this is a violation of static time, as the implication is that the
past is being changed. So how do we reconcile this problem?
Firstly, of course, it can be noted that the loop never goes through repeated
cycles. It only happens once (as discussed previously). In this sense it is
entirely impossible for powers to build up in static time, but this does not in
itself negate the problem, which is that the causal chain appears to imply a
contradiction. It is not too hard to see that the problem lies with the fact
that Edea was already a sorceress when she receives Ultimecia's powers,
so whatever amount of powers Ultimecia gives her, Edea always passes on
to Rinoa those powers AND an additional set of powers.
Currently, Squall_Of_SeeD's proposed solution seems to be the best,
which basically says that Ultimecia's defeat in the final battle causes her
to lose a lot of her powers: [This next bit quoted from his own treatise on
dynamic time which can be found later on]
"This idea is supported by the fact that she is back in her old body after
the battle -- despite having transcended it previously, when her spiritual
essence seemingly melded with the Witch Embodiment of the ages, her old body
hanging beneath this ascended form like an empty shell -- and with her
seemingly barely able to so much as stand, much less even attempt to
exact revenge on Squall before she dies. She was obviously weakened and
her focus seemed to be entirely on keeping herself alive long enough to
pass on her powers. Assuming this all to be true, a numerical diagram of
the transfer of power would look like this:
(Note: For the sake of simplicity, and unless otherwise prompted, assume a
Witch's full strength counts as 10, while that of Ultimecia's at the time of
her death counts as a mere 4.)
-Ultimecia's power added to Edea's.
10 + 4 = 14
-Adel's power added to Rinoa's.
14 + 10 = 24 (Rinoa's power, as well as Ultimecia's power before we fight
her)
-The power of the 11 Witches encountered in Time Compression added to
Rinoa's.
24 + 110 = 134
-Ultimecia gets the shit kicked out of her and loses much of her power; her
ascended form is destroyed, leaving her trapped in her former body, now
battered and broken with it standing upon the verge of death; she passes
her powers to Edea and then dies.
10 + 4 =14
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. The same quantity of power would be in play each
time."
This seems to be our best bet, although there are numerous ways one could
imagine the powers being spread thin over time. Ultimecia needed not have
received all the powers Rinoa had; they may have been spread out between
more sorceresses.
--------------------
ELLONE'S POWERS AND JUNCTION MACHINE ELLONE
--------------------
Ellone's powers are a bit of a mystery in the game. Where did they come
from? Unfortunately there's no answer for that to be found either in the game
or this FAQ. She appears to simply have been born with them.
Her powers are such that she can send the consciousnesses of people
into the mind of someone in the past, creating a link between present and
past. Ellone indicates that she cannot make the link unless she knows the
subjects, but since she is capable of sending Squall into Rinoa anyway,
the indication is that not knowing the subjects simply makes it a lot more
difficult. The Junction Machine Ellone presumably works in the exact same
way but without that sort of technical limitation (how would a machine
"know" anyone?) and was created based on Doc Odine's studies conducted
on Ellone under Adel's reign. They both, however, do seem to have a
limitation on how far back people can be sent.
Although not a regular type of time-travelling machine, it is made clear by
Ultimecia's possession of Edea, etc., that it can still be used to influence
the past by influencing the "host" bodies you enter into via the connection
of Ellone (be it through Ellone herself or the machine). Squall and Co.
make little impact on Laguna, the most noticeable influence being the
strength offered in battle, which Laguna and Co. attribute to "fairies."
One interesting aspect to contemplate in regards to the process of
possesion using Ellone's powers is the idea of overlapping possessions. If
Ultimecia's plans failed at some point, could she not have sent herself
further back in the past again and tried to reposses Edea and try again?
As this never happens, it would seem this is an impossibility. It seems
perhaps likely that the host's mind would be too crowded to allow this.
Perhaps Ellone's powers wouldn't allow it directly? Or perhaps Ultimecia
never attempted this because it might mean she would have to try and rid
the host's mind of her own previous influence; she'd have to mentally
overcome herself, which sounds like it might be an obvious stalemate,
impossibility, or too complex to even attempt.
Finally, it must be noted, since this is often brought up, that destroying
Ellone, the blueprints of the machine or anything else like that would NOT
have prevented Ultimecia from getting her hands on the Junction Machine
Ellone. Since time is set in stone in FF8, and Ultimecia already had the
machine in the future, Squall and Co. destroying the blueprints would not
have magically negated that undeniable truth, and would simply have been
part of the sequence of events which lead to the machine being created. It
is likely that Odine would know this, and in any case Squall and Co. were
determined to deal with Ultimecia head-on like they should, and never
contemplated such defensive, risky and ultimately meaningless ideas.
---------------
TIME COMPRESSION
---------------
~General Discussion~
"A complete mystery. Various states of past, present and future mixed
together".
That is the jist of what we are told directly in the game (this line coming
from the Tutorial->Information section). However, since merely calling it a
"mystery" is quite unacceptable to these authors, we will attempt to
explain what Time Compression (TC) really is all about, what a time
compressed world would look like, and how it is established and works.
A quick look in the dictionary reveals that "compression" essentially means
the act of pressing something to a more compact state. For instance, were
you to take a sheet of paper and crumple it together into a little ball, you
might say that you have compressed the sheet of paper. But what does it
mean to compress time itself? Well, using the handy picture of the ULOT,
we could say that TC would effectively push at it from both sides, thus
effectively crumpling it into a small ball. For the sake of simplicity and
elegance, these authors assume that TC would effectively compress the
entire ULOT into one single moment in time. To fully grasp this picture, we
turn to the very elegant analogy formulated by TheOnionKnight:
Imagine time as literally being a film made up of many slides (remember
that we had to ignore the question of whether time is infinitely divisible or
not) where each slide shows one moment in time. A "now" slide would then
contain a record of everything that happened in the FF8 universe at exactly
that moment in time. Watching this film would then be the same as
watching everything that happens from the beginning of the universe till its
end. Now imagine that you separate each individual slide from the film, and
stack them all on top of each other. Shining a light through this stack of
slides would be the same as creating an image of all the slides as one. Can
you imagine what such an image would look like? Every single event in the
entire ULOT all "happening" at the same time? It certainly makes us realise
why it is that no one (except Ultimecia) can exist in a time compressed
world!
---
NOTE: We know only Ultimecia can live in TC because both Rinoa and
Edea tell us. Here is for example Rinoa's statement:
"There was a sorceress inside me. Ultimecia, a sorceress from the future.
She's trying to achieve time compression. She's the only one who would be
able to exist in such a world. She, and no other."
---
Anyone else would exist only in the sense that each event of their life
continues to exist as fragments, but there would be no "flow" in time: you
wouldn't move towards the future from the past. Instead, you'd be in a sense
frozen in time, without actually realising it. This is the most commonly
accepted view of a fully compressed ULOT, and is the idea we will be
utilising in this FAQ.
Now that we've established what TC does, we can move on to another fact
we are told, namely that Ultimecia has to go to the past in order to cast the
spell. This piece of information raises some important questions: is the
spell limited in some way (and in that case, how?) or is it rather that
Ultimecia WANTS to cast it where she does for some reason? Assuming
the former as being correct, we are left with some strange facts. Firstly, the
issue of why she needs to be in one particular place of time to cast the
spell. It might make sense that she'd need to be in the direct center of the
ULOT, but since Ultimecia is always moving through time, how is she able
to coordinate things so that she casts it at the exact center? Does she
perhaps only need an approximate center? She goes into a young Adel
when she casts the spell, meaning she was about 50-60 years into the
past (from where you defeat Adel), which raises the question of why TC has
such a strict conception of what is close enough to the center. Clearly, the
idea that she needs to be in the center of time is too full of holes and
problems that cannot be answered to be considered viable. Perhaps she
needed to be in more than one place on the ULOT in order to activate the
spell. Again, though, this assumption raises the same amount of questions
as the previous suggestion. A final idea many use, is that she needs to be
in both the past, present and the future in order to cast it. However, this
idea singles out Squall's "present" as THE present from which past and
future is measured from. But since Ultimecia's present would by all
reasoning be her own era, and not Squall's, this idea is flawed.
Basically, what this last paragraph is supposed to show is that there is
simply no way of knowing what way the spell is limited. We are forced to
conclude, from lack of information, that the spell is simply limited in a way
we can never hope to know. Based on this, we furthermore assume that
Ultimecia only cast it one place in time: the time when Adel was a young
girl. But what if it isn't that the spell is limited in any way? What if
Ultimecia has some reason for wanting to cast it exactly where she does?
While such a reason would be very clarifying, the events in time where she
casts the spell are never shown to us in the game. They take place when Adel
is young, and we never see such a time. Because of this, we can't hope to
know what motive she could have had, so we have to unfortunately draw the
same conclusion as before: we cannot ever hope to know why Ultimecia
had to be at some specific point in time to cast TC. A sad conclusion for
sure, but the lack of information makes it an inevitable one.
---
NOTE: Although some of the arguments vary, this conclusion is the same
in both the static and the dynamic time theory.
---
But what actually happens when Ultimecia casts the spell? What happens
that lets Squall and Co. move to the future? Why do they get exactly where
they want to? How do they avoid being compressed? Why does the
Ragnarok along with the entire CC Club end up in Ultimecia's time as well?
All these questions, and other ones not mentioned, are basically different
ways of angling the big question:
How does TC work?
We have established what a fully compressed time would "look like," but
we haven't actually discussed the process of compression itself. Producing
a simple theory that can answer all the questions and avoid introducing
unanswerable questions will be the goal of this next part of the FAQ, and
as we shall see, it is trickier than it sounds. To establish what we are told,
here is what Odine tells us when explaining the plan to defeat Ultimecia,
followed by Laguna's speech:
Dr. Odine: "You vant to go outside!? You vant to fisticuffs!? Ok, we continue
ze story! Let's see... There is only one way to defeat Ultimecia. You must
kill her in ze future. There iz nothing we can do unless we go to ze future.
There is no way to jump to ze future under normal circumstances. But there
iz still a way! It iz because Sorceress Ultimecia plans to compress time.
Compressing time with magic... Vat good will it do for ze sorceress to
compress time? There may be many reasons, but it doesn't matter. Let's
just figure out vat Ultimecia iz up to.
In order for Ultimecia to exist in this time, she must take over ze body of
a sorceress from ze present. But ze machine must have a limit. Ultimecia
probably needs to go back further in time to achieve time compression. Only
Ellone can take her back further into ze past. Zat iz why she iz desperately
seeking her. We must take advantage of Ellone's power. There are 2
sorceresses in our time. Sorceress Rinoa and Sorceress Adel. Of ze two,
Adel has not awakened yet. Once regeneration is completed, neither
Laguna not I will be safe. Sorceress Adel is probably in ze process of
awakening inside of Lunatic Pandora. Ultimecia will want to possess Adel,
if Adel wakes up. Zat vill be a horrible event. Adel iz a horrible sorceress.
If Adel's consciousness wins over Ultimecia, Adel will first destroy this era.
So we must use Sorceress Rinoa to inherit Ultimecia's powers. Zat's all for
ze mission briefing. First, go to Lunatic Pandora. Ellone's probably being
held captive inside, so rescue her first. Then kill Sorceress Adel before
ze awakening process is completed. Now, we're left with Rinoa as ze only
sorceress of this era. Then wait for Ultimecia to possess Rinoa. When
Ultimecia arrives, it's Ellone's turn. Ellone will send Rinoa back to
ze past with Ultimecia. Ellone will have to send Rinoa and Ultimecia
inside another sorceress she knows in the past. Edea or Adel... Zat's up to
Ellone. Once Ultimecia iz in ze past, she'll use ze time compression
magic. We will see some influence here. I don't know vat kind of
influence, but once Ellone feels it, she'll cut Rinoa and Ultimecia off
from ze past. Rinoa will come back to this world. Ultimecia also goes
back to her own world. Vat would be left is ze time compressed world.
Past, present future will all get mixed together. You will keep moving
through ze time compression toward ze future. Once you're out of ze
time compression, zat will be Ultimecia's world. It's all up to you
after zat."
Later, Laguna says: "That's the spirit! Then, Ellone sends Rinoa and
[Ultimecia to the past]! Ellone [brings back Rinoa]! Then [head to the
future through compressed time]! Ultimecia lives far in the future where none
of us can technically exist. There's only one way to make yourself exist in
a world like that! As friends, don't forget one another! As friends,
believe in one another! Believe in your friends' existence! And they'll
also believe in yours. To be friends, to like one another, and to love
one another... You can't do these things alone. You need somebody. Right,
guys? What place reminds you of your friends? Imagine being in that
place with all your friends. Once time compression begins, think of
that place and try to get there! That's all! That place will welcome
you. You'll be able to get there no matter what period you're in! You
need love and friendship for this mission! And the courage to believe
it. It's all about love, friendship, and courage! I'm counting on you
guys!"
To sum up the most important points learned from these quotes:
1) Ultimecia casts TC in the past (as seen from the game's perspective).
2) We will see effects of TC as soon as she casts the spell.
3) The fact that time starts being compressed is what allows Squall and
Co. to get to the future.
4) TC is responsive to emotion, thoughts and willpower. Squall and Co. get
to the future by willing themselves there and concentrating their thoughts
on where they want to go, and avoid being compressed themselves
through love and friendship.
And then there is a fifth basic point:
5) TC is never fully completed.
This fifth point is never directly stated, but we know it to be true because as
mentioned, both Rinoa and Edea make it quite clear that ONLY Ultimecia
can exist in TC. Combining this with the fact that TC compresses all of time,
we can conclude that if TC was ever fully completed, we couldn't be playing
the game because Squall, or anyone/thing else for that matter, would not
be able to exist already from the beginning of disc 1. Since this is clearly
not the case, we can quite confidently say that TC was never fully
completed. From this simple fact, we can furthermore establish that TC is
a process which takes time. To be specific, we say that TC works at a
finite speed (saying it works infinitely fast means that the entire ULOT
should be compressed as soon as the spell is cast, which violates the fact
that TC was never completed). It is this fact which implies that the ULOT is
finite, as mentioned near the beginning. The reasoning is that if the ULOT
were infinitely long, Ultimecia would never be able to fully compress time
(because TC works at a finite speed), and this implication is enough to
convince these authors that the line of time is finite. If you are now
wondering exactly how fast TC evolves, it is unfortunately a question that is
impossible to answer. All we can say is that it must be pretty damn fast!
Now let's return to the point in time where Ultimecia casts the spell. If we
were to look at the ULOT from the outside, what would we see happen once
she casts the spell? Well, we previously thought that TC could be seen as
pressing the ULOT into a single point, so we might imagine that if we looked
at time from the outside, that's what we'd see happen: the ULOT literally
being squashed into a single point. Some further deliberation will reveal that
this won't work, however, at least not in static time.
You see, since this literal change on the ULOT would have lasted for a finite
amount of time before reverting back to its normal state, once it was over,
there would be no indication that it had ever happened to begin with! This is
acceptable in the dynamic time theory because time is always changing
anyway, but in the static time theory, this is unacceptable, because the
effects of TC are supposed to ALWAYS be a part of time. If this were not the
case, the events where Squall travels to the future, kills Ultimecia and
travels back (as well as the events where Ultimecia passes her powers to Edea)
would only exist for a finite amount of time, which makes absolutely no sense
at all if we are to think of all events as being set in stone. The only way to
have a theory of TC which makes sense within static time is to think of it as
being an event in time just like any other, rather than a process which acts
upon time in a more literal fashion. We owe our current such model of TC to
TheOnionKnight, who proposed that TC is a single moment in time which
gradually comes to contain more and more of the ULOT, thus compressing
more and more of time.
Using the film analogy, TC can be thought of as a single slide which
gradually contains more and more of the ULOT. If TC were ever completed,
the TC slide would contain the entire ULOT within itself. But it is not that the
TC event creates a separate ULOT; it doesn't form duplicates of all the
events on the ULOT.
To understand what Onion has proposed, think of one of those odd "picture
in a picture" pictures. For example, imagine you have a picture of a man
watching television, from such an angle that you can see what he is
watching. Then imagine that the image you see on the television screen is
the exact same picture as the "original" picture. In theory, this picture would
extend forever inside the picture, because each "layer" would have another
television in it. Onion's idea is that TC acts in the same way: the TC event
would be like the television of the above example. But remember, as I said
before, TC creates no duplicates! Instead, the ULOT we see inside the TC
event IS the ULOT which the TC event is situated on. What this means, is
that once the TC event contains more and more events, those same events
on the ULOT will essentially be compressed. In a fully compressed time, the
TC event would thus be seen to contain the entire ULOT, so the entire ULOT
would be compressed. The idea is then that Ultimecia could shape the
events within the TC event as she finds fitting, and in doing so shape the
ULOT which the TC event is on. To make a diagram of the TC event on the
ULOT:
<---------------A--TC-B-----C
A is the event in which Squall defeats Adel.
TC is, you guessed it, the TC event.
B is Squall's return from the future.
C is the Garden party in the ending.
Since TC is a process taking time, we can further, recalling the ideas of the
first part of this section on time, make a diagram describing the evolution
of TC as a line of time of its own:
A---B---C-----D
Note that each moment in this line of time is a 'picture-within-picture'
moment.
A is the TC moment when it's first cast. It would contain at most a single
moment of the ULOT (presumably itself).
B would be a TC moment containing more of the ULOT.
C would be a TC moment containing more of the ULOT than it did at B.
D is the TC moment when the spell is broken.
In other words, TC as an event is like any other event - a sequence of
moments - but in this case it is specifically a sequence of "picture-within-
picture" moments, each successive moment containing more of the ULOT.
If allowed to run to completion, it would culminate in a moment containing
the entire ULOT. Now, it is noteworthy that if TC were completed, the
ULOT would actually be a single point rather than a line, which brings us
back to the point that TC could never have been completed. If it were, the
ULOT would always have been in a state of full compression (since time is
static) and thus would always have been a single point. Instead, the
incompleted TC appears on the ULOT as just another event in time.
This model is rather paradoxical in nature, but it is the best model we have
been able to come up with. Since we view it as essential that TC be an
event in time, while retaining its function as compressing all of time, such
a 'picture-within-picture' idea is almost implied directly, and so that is what
we stick with. It is complex and hard to get your head around for sure, but
we hope we have made it possible to understand (if anything after a couple
of rereads and some time to reflect).
There turns out to be one more problem however...
~The "Hippie Weirdness" problem~
---
NOTE: This next section was written by TheOnionKnight
---
This little section of the FAQ is dedicated to discussing a particular,
specific phenomenon of TC. This phenomenon, dubbed "Hippie Weirdness,"
or HW for short, went untreated by analytical FFVIII debaters for years. The
more people continued to delve into the nature of static time as FFVIII's
time/space theories evolved, however, the more apparent it became that
HW was, in fact, an important issue in need of attention.
By merely existing in FFVIII, HW presents a particular problem for the
static time model outlined thus far throughout the FAQ. But before getting
to that, let's simply define what HW is:
HW is experienced twice in the course of FFVIII, and might best be
summed up as "temporal chaos." While HW occurs, the physical world
distorts, eras seem to merge into one another, colors fluctuate, etc. HW
first occurs directly after Adel is killed in the Lunatic Pandora: Squall and
Co. sink through the floor, which melts from beneath their feet, and are
propelled through a sky filled with molten bubbles of "memory" and flocks of
wayward geese. The second time HW occurs is directly after Ultimecia's
defeat: Squall and Co. are thrust into a white void replete with, as Quistis
mentions, "time warps." Squall afterwards continues to wander the corridors
of HW, finding himself on a desolate rock in outer space, and etc.
The hallucinogenic elements of these HW events is actually what led to the
coinage of the term "Hippie Weirdness" many years ago, a term that,
although comedic in its origin, has nevertheless stuck.
Now, to begin with, it bears mentioning that HW serves a primary, narrative
purpose in FFVIII. The first time it occurs might be considered the game's
penultimate climax; what better way, after all, to send Squall and Co. to the
future than by shooting them through a psychedelic barrage of chronological
madness? The second time HW occurs literally is the game's climax; and,
again, what better way to end the game than with a graphically- intense
bang? The game's designers, no doubt, had the spectacle of HW foremost
in mind, which is why it happens when it does - to give the story visual
"oomph."
When you aren't looking at the "oomph," though, HW becomes a rather
tangly problem for the static time model. As elementary as it may be, the
problem presented by HW can be condensed into a single question: why?
Why does HW occur where and, more importantly, when it does?
As has already been outlined, all events in a static timeline are predestined.
They already exist on the timeline, and no occurrence within the timeline
can change the timeline itself.
Taking this as a given, it makes sense to say that any effects of TC would
already be written into the timeline. Floors may melt, and memories may
bubble through the air. The static time model accommodates all of this,
however surreal it may be, as long as "all of this" operates in accordance
with predestination. When Squall and Co. defeat Ultimecia, therefore, and
her control over TC is lost, it follows that HW would naturally transpire. One
event, HW, is simply following another event, Ultimecia's defeat, in a logical
cause-and-effect relationship. When HW happens here, no problem arises.
When HW happens after Adel's defeat, however, a problem, "the" problem,
does indeed arise. Why? Because when HW happens in the Lunatic
Pandora, it does NOT immediately follow its own cause: Ultimecia's casting
of TC. She is not, after all, casting TC in the Lunatic Pandora. Ellone has
sent her consciousness back in time, to an unstated year in the past, and
it is there, in the past, that Ultimecia does cast TC. Why, as a result of this,
would HW occur decades later in the Lunatic Pandora? The chain of
cause-and-effect has been broken.
The only apparent way that such a thing could happen is if the dynamic
time theory is true, because dynamic time accommodates a malleable
timeline. With it, one can simply say that when Ultimecia casts TC in the
past, she effects and changes the entire timeline. In dynamic time, after all,
the moment during which Ultimecia cast TC did not necessarily always
exist on the line of time. It might have only come into existence when she
finally "did it," and HW afterwards would have impacted and altered the
entire timeline, Lunatic Pandora and Squall's present included.
In the static time model, however, the moment at which Ultimecia casts TC
would always exist. Therefore, the HW event caused by TC would also
always have to exist. Because the cause-and-effect chain is broken,
however, the single moment during which TC is experienced in the Lunatic
Pandora isn't actually any more connected to the triggering TC event than
any other random moment in time.
Have you figured out the implication of this yet?
The implication is that, in a static timeline, because the moment at Lunatic
Pandora is no more relevant than any other point in time, in order for HW to
occur at Lunatic Pandora, it would seemingly also have had to occur at
every other moment in time. In short, because cause-and-effect are
nonexistent in this scenario, no two points are bound by them, and for TC to
effect the timeline all the way up to Squall's present in Lunatic Pandora, it
would ALSO have had to effect every other moment in time in-between.
Every moment in the game should be a hallucinatory wonderland. But this
is obviously not the case. HW only happens in the Lunatic Pandora, and
when it happens there it is specifically caused by an "unrelated" event
decades prior to when it happens.
Static time does not allow for this - or does it?
In dynamic time, Ultimecia can influence the "future" by acting in the "past"
because nothing is set in stone. In static time, however, for Ultimecia's TC
spell to cause HW in the Lunatic Pandora, those two eras of time must be
somehow "joined together" in order to create a rational chain of
cause-and-effect.
Those two eras of time, however, cannot be joined together in static time.
How, then, can one be paired up with the other? Why should, how can, HW
happen years after TC is cast, as it does in the game?
The solution actually doesn't lie in the static time model at all, which does,
in fact, operate perfectly even under these apparently perplexing conditions.
Rather, understanding the problem of HW depends, not upon reexamining
the timelines or their models, but upon reexamining the mechanics of time
travel itself.
Many people probably have the same basic conception of what time travel
would be like. It would likely involve going bodily backwards or forwards in
time. That would mean leaving one era and entering another. Following that,
once out of one era, the time traveler would not be bound to it anymore -
naturally, you might even say. To use an example of Sir Bahamut's from a
previous version of this very FAQ, imagine that Squall and Rinoa have gone
on a picnic, but that Squall, halfway through his meal, decides to jump into
a time machine. He might go back into the past, stays there for twenty
years, and then jump back into the machine and reappear at the picnic. On
his PLOT, twenty years would have passed. For Rinoa, however, it would
seem like only seconds had gone by.
This conception of time travel might seem well and good, but in FFVIII,
people rarely hop back and forth between eras like that. That's because no
ordinary time machine is used by the characters in FFVIII: excluding TC,
they depend entirely upon either Ellone or the Junction Machine Ellone for
their time-traveling needs (and the JME, for all intents and purposes,
functions exactly like Ellone herself). Ellone cannot simply send people
back and forth willy-nilly across eras. She must maintain a direct,
"real-time" connection with them for the duration of their stay in another era.
No better example of this facet of her powers might be found than in the very
first instance Ellone sends Squall and Co. to Laguna's era. After just
boarding the train to Timber, Squall and Co. "fall asleep" and are transported
back in time, where they spend a few hours with/as Laguna. When they
"wake up" again in their own era, their train has already reached Timber
after having completed its international journey via the underwater tunnel. In
other words, just as many hours have passed in Squall's era as in Laguna's:
the two eras were "synchronized" by Ellone. To be more precise, Ellone's
powers have essentially resulted in the two eras literally overlapping on the
PLOT-sheet view of time. Although distinct eras disconnected by some finite
temporal distance on the ULOT, on the PLOT-sheet they will be seen as
overlapping each other for the duration that Ellone's connection lasts. So the
eras are lined up in a strict one-to-one correspondence for the duration of
Ellone's connection: this basically means that the length of the eras
overlapping each other corresponds to the amount of time Ellone is keeping
the connection going.
This synchronization/overlapping can be witnessed at many other points in
the game - whenever, in fact, Ellone uses her powers. When transported
mere minutes into the past while aboard the space station's escape pod,
Squall still falls asleep for the same amount of minutes in his present era as
he spends in the past. This unique method of time travel might be imagined
to be like a sort of telephone line, with Ellone acting as the "operator."
Squall is at one end, his present era, and has been connected to another
end, the past, with Ellone mediating the connection, but a connection must
always be maintained. Otherwise, the phone call would simply be cut off.
While this observation might seem tangential to the HW problem, the
nature of Ellone's power is in fact pivotal to understanding how Ultimecia
can cast TC in the "past" while HW alters the "present." Ultimecia herself is
using the JME, and, as such, is subjected to the same limitations that
Squall and Co. are when Ellone uses her powers on them. Instead of Ellone
acting as the "operator" for Ultimecia, the JME fills that role, but Ultimecia
still requires an "operator," and when she travels into a "past" era, that
means that the JME has synchronized her own "present" era with the "past"
one of her choosing. Although it is never observed in the game, what this
inherently must mean is that, in her own era, Ultimecia's body has "fallen
asleep" just like Squall's does. Somewhere in her castle, she is sitting
partially-unconscious throughout most of the game!
When two hours, therefore, pass for Ultimecia while she is possessing
someone in the "past," two hours also must pass for her physical body in
her own "present." This, of course, means that if Ultimecia "snaps out" of
possession after the two hour elapse, two hours of her own "present" time
would have elapsed in the same interval. So while Ultimecia (or Squall, or
anyone else) is not conscious in her own "present" while she is in the
"past," she is still connected to, and her physical body is still alive in, her
own "present," meaning that she functionally exists in two eras at once! Her
mind is merely paying more attention to one of the eras than the other.
If this isn't confusing enough already, Ultimecia kicks things up a notch in
the Lunatic Pandora when she coerces Ellone into sending her back into
another, THIRD era. For a few, brief moments, her body is sitting in her
castle in the "future," Rinoa's body, which she is possessing, is sitting in
the Lunatic Pandora in the "present," and Ultimecia's conscious mind is
located in Adel's body in the "past." It's like a three-way phone call: all of
the eras are synchronized, if only for a moment, and, if only for a moment,
Ultimecia exists across all three of them (that is, her PLOT is overlapping
all three eras in the manner described above). And this is the moment, of
course, when she casts TC.
The causes-and-effects, as you can tell, are back together, and the chain is
no longer broken. Although none of the separate eras have been brought
together on the timeline, they have all been "lined up," each sharing a
specified duration of minutes with one another. Normally this
synchronization wouldn't be noticeable at all, and would simply operate on
a technical level, producing no physical effects in any of the connected eras:
when Squall knocks over a vase in Winhill in the "past" as Laguna, for
example, there is no crashing sound in his "present." But Ultimecia does
more than knock over a vase: her TC spell, once cast, actually alters time
itself. It therefore follows that the TC spell would indeed effect the eras
which Ultimecia is synchronized with when she casts it, and HW is
consequently seen at the Lunatic Pandora because that is one of the select,
synchronized eras.
It would also stand to reason that HW occurs in Adel's "past" for a brief
moment, as well as in Ultimecia's "future," but what happens in these eras
is, alas, off-camera in the game.
Nevertheless, with each era bridged by Ellone and the JME's
direct-connection, events can be put down intact and predestined on a
static timeline, and the problem with HW is resolved.
---
NOTE: For the sake of...well, for the sake of those interested in how this
FAQ developed, it was previously believed that HW was explained by the
PLOTs of Ultimecia and Squall being adjacent on the PLOT sheet in such
a way that Ultimecia's casting of TC on her own PLOT coincided with Adel's
defeat on Squall's PLOT. From there the explanation for HW is as above;
since TC affects time itself they would also feel the influence. However,
this turned out to be rather flawed, and so now we have the above solution.
---
--------------
THE FINAL BATTLE AND THE ENDING FMV
--------------
Both the final battle and the ending FMV may appear to be very confusing
upon a first viewing but, in fact, can be explained quite nicely with an
understanding of one fundamental property of time compression: the fact
that it responds to thoughts and emotions. Thus, all the weirdness we see
in the final FMV with Squall can literally be seen as a window into Squall's
feelings and thoughts. Here is what I find to be the most straightforward
description and interpretation.
In the final battle, Ultimecia is in the process of compressing time, and in
her final stage, scanning her will reveal that she has transformed into a form
which will allow her to absorb time and space itself. Note that Squall and
Co. were avoiding being compressed and absorbed themselves through
willpower and their belief in eachother; they were all willing eachother to
stay around, and their friendships were strong enough for it to work. When
a party member is knocked out in battle then, and not revived for some time,
their mental bonds have been broken for too long and they get compressed
and absorbed. This explains what happens when party members are "lost in
time."
When Ultimecia is defeated, time compression (TC) stops, and the party is
left in the partially-compressed time-warp where you fight Ultimecia's final
form. Everyone but Squall, following Laguna's encouragement to stay
focused on each other, ends up together, and are able to focus their minds
together and get back to their own time again. Squall, however, is still
unable to let go of his "lone wolf" attitude and so ends up alone. When he
tries to get back to his own time, since he is not able to trust his friends,
he thinks of himself primarily and thus ends up with a younger version of
himself in the orphanage. There he meets Edea, and Ultimecia shows up
and gives Edea her powers.
Ultimecia appeared there for two reasons probably. Firstly, she was still
focusing intensely on Squall, evidenced by her statement "I can't dissapear
yet!", indicating that she still wants to fight. Secondly, she probably wanted
desperately to pass on her powers, at least on a subconscious level (see
the Rinoa=Ultimecia section for more discussion on this aspect of
sorceress powers). These two factors would easily have led her to Squall
via the properties of TC.
Moving on, Squall attempts to go back again, but fails once more and this
time ends up all alone. As he walks, he starts feeling more and more
helpless, lost and distressed, losing all hope of escaping. TC responds to
this and shifts so that Squall is on a tiny island from which there is literally
no escape. His thoughts then turn to Rinoa, but because he's so worn out
and distressed, the visions produced by TC are tainted, which is why Rinoa
appears all blurred. These visions begin to escalate as Squall starts
panicking, until he collapses from the strain.
Now Rinoa, using the power of love (corny but true) finds him, and although
she first thinks he is dead, she hugs him, causing him to wake up. Note it's
hard to say whether or not Squall died or not, but whatever the case, he
was brought back to a waking state by Rinoa, and together they get back
to their own time, Squall finally being able to trust in Rinoa.
Some people speculate that Squall died for good, but this is patently absurd
when taking into account the rest of the ending FMV. Firstly, there is the
fact that everyone in Garden is celebrating and are as happy as we've ever
seen them. If Squall had died, one would certainly expect there to be some
more grief shown at some point. He was, after all, the leader of SeeD at
that point! Secondly, this implies that Rinoa goes mad and starts having
illusions of Squall, which is pretty absurd considering what a happy
atmosphere Square decide to put in the ending. Furthermore, Selphie
points towards Rinoa and smiles, which she'd hardly be doing if Rinoa was
in fact completely insane. Of course, the fact that we don't see Squall in the
camera is because the battery went out before he came into view. It is
possible that Squall did die when he collapsed in the final FMV, but it is
overwhelmingly clear that then Rinoa brought him back to life anyway. So
although one can speculate freely on his exact condition after collapsing,
he certainly is alive after the flower field bursts open in all its splendour.
Other theories suggest that the final bit of the ending is all in Rinoa's head,
but this has, of course, not a shred of evidence to support it, so cannot be
treated seriously. Squall survives, and they all live happily ever after; at
least, this is what the game implies.
---------------
THE TIME COMPRESSION SORCERESSES
---------------
One aspect of "hippie weirdness" (see the section on time compression) is
the fact that when you travel to the future, you encounter several strange
looking sorceresses, most of which look identical to each other. So the
questions is, who/what are these sorceresses?
It was long assumed that they were in fact all the sorceresses who lived in
the era between Rinoa and Ultimecia, and that by killing them their powers
would travel through time compression and be absorbed by Ultimecia.
However, this is highly unlikely, because if the powers go to Ultimecia, they
cannot have gone to the next sorceress in line. In other words, there couldn't
have been an unbroken line of powers passed on from Rinoa to the next
sorceress all until someone passed them on to Rinoa. Rather, there'd have
to be 11 unique sorceresses around besides Rinoa. The tutorial states that
some sorceresses live in hiding, so although Odine calls Rinoa the only
sorceresses of her time, it's not impossible that there were others. A full 11
others seems a bit much though.
So perhaps their powers weren't passed directly to UItimecia via TC. Then
it might be the case that Squall and Co., focusing intensely on reaching a
sorceress in the future actually systematically stopped by every single
sorceresses before Ultimecia and killed her before moving on. This theory is
particularly attractive for some as it presents a conclusive proof against the
R=U theory (see later sections for more). The fact that the sorceresses look
mostly identical to each other is then suggested to be due to practical
reasons: Square simply didn't have the time/resources/interest to make
them all look like individuals. However, the scan info of the sorceresses
seems to suggest something rather different:
"Sorceress from beyond time who appeared due to Time
Compression. Uses magic, but it is not very powerful."
The phrase "beyond time" suggests that the sorceresses do not in fact
come from some specific time period, but that they only came into
existence through time compression and don't belong to any given time.
This leads naturally to the explanation we deem to be the most likely,
namely that the sorceresses were created by time compression as a
manifestation of the wills of Ultimecia and/or Squall and Co. Ultimecia would
be intensely focusing on maintaining time compression, protecting it from
outside influence, and her powerful will may easily have caused the
sorceresses to manifest as guardians of TC. On the other hand, Squall and
Co. were focusing on finding some sorceress they basically knew only by
name in an unknown time, so it is not surprising at all that they would
encounter these guardians. This explanation also means that the identical
appearances of the sorceresses isn't a problem at all, as they weren't
actually real people. The fact that the sorceresses all cackle maniacally,
fade in and out of battle, and that the final sorceress is a giant worm is also
explained by this, and in addition, the fact that you fight them in locations
important to Squall and Co. makes sense: these would be places central in
the memories of Squall and Co. and thus these places might be made
manifest by TC.
So in conclusion, the sorceresses are most likely creations of Ultimecia,
products of her powerful will manifesting itself through TC.
------------------
THE RAGNAROK AND THE BLOCKED OFF CITIES ON DISC 4
------------------
The fact that the Ragnarok ends up in the future is something which seems
quite random, but has in fact a quite nice explanation using our favourite
property of time compression. Xshu states when you enter the Ragnarok on
disc 4 that she and the CC Group really wanted to play cards with Squall,
so their desire to play cards meant that they followed Squall through time
compression, along with the Ragnarok they were on when time
compression was initiated.
Unfortunately, the reason why all the cities are blocked off does not have a
similarly nice explanation. It is certainly not an effect of time compression,
because then there would be no meaningful distinction between a town and
the rest of the world map, so if the compression blocks off towns it should
block off everything. The only reasonable explanation seems to be that
Ultimecia sealed them off herself to prevent disturbances while
compressing time.
Of course, the real reason is that Square needed to make space for the big
ending FMV, and since time compression was going on they figured they
could get away with randomly sealing off the cities without any form of
explanation, but from a storyline perspective, Ultimecia sealing them
appears to be our best bet.
----------------
DISCUSSION ON FATE
----------------
Fate is a central theme in FF8. The fate of characters is several times
referred to and discussed, as people like Squall first resist and then
embrace their apparent "fate," while people like Ultimecia appear to be
trying their utmost to change it. Indeed, the main characters are even
referred to indirectly as the "Liberi Fatali," meaning the children of fate!
But what is fate really? Here we discuss a couple of different interpretations
of the concept.
The most classical interpretation is that fate is the idea that events are
being manipulated and controlled by some higher force(s). As vague an idea
as this is, it is actually quite a tempting one considering certain events. For
instance, the fact that Squall and Rinoa happen to stumble upon the
Ragnarok in outer space right before their oxygen runs out is so extremely
improbable that it almost seems necessary to appeal to some higher force
to explain it. Similarly, the fact that a bunch of teenagers can defeat
probably the strongest sorceress since Hyne all by themselves, even after
she transforms and absorbs large amounts of time and space itself, seems
almost a bit too ludicrous and unlikely.
However, to the more scientific minded, this supernatural conception of fate
will sound a bit unsatisfactory. It is indeed possible to think of fate not as
something supernatural, but rather as merely a reflection of the fact that
time is set in stone in FF8. In static time all events are fixed, all paths
already laid out, and so everyone already has their fate written out in
advance. But this fate would not necessarily be supernatural, rather an
inevitable result of the laws of physics governing the FF8 universe. Still,
though, this leaves unanswered the question of the aforementioned
extremely unlikely events.
Of course, extremely unlikely events will, in a sufficiently old universe, have
occurred several times anyway simply by recourse to statistics, so it is not
too bad to just brush them off as statistical odditities. However, it is worth
noticing that the unlikely events in the game occur in such a way so as to
ensure the defeat of Ultimecia and the prevention of time compression.
Since time compression, if completed, would contradict the existence of a
static ULOT, this indicates another way of looking at things.
The anthropic principle states (in one form) that we observe what we do
because we exist. It arises as a consequence of the fact that our own
universe appears incredibly finely tuned for us to live in; if any fundamental
constant were altered just a little, life could never have arisen or maybe the
universe itself would have collapsed shortly after being created. The
anthropic principle then basically states that the universe appears to be so
finely tuned to life of our kind because we exist to observe its finely tuned
nature. Although this may sound like a meaningless tautology, it becomes
quite meaningful if you make the assumption that ours is not the only
universe. If you consider the idea that many universes come into existence
all the time, then the anthropic principle becomes more relevant. Its
interpretation would now be that the universe is so finely tuned to life
because of all the universes that have arisen, ours is the only one finely
tuned enough for life to arise and ponder why things are so finely tuned.
This principle can be applied in FF8 too when considering time
compression. In essence, the incredibly unlikely events occur as they do
because of all the FF8 universes that have arisen, it was only the one in
which those events occurred which prevented TC from being completed. Any
universe which had similar events but not those unlikely ones would (probably)
have resulted in TC being completed, and so these universes would have started
off fully compressed, thus making them impossible to experience anything
in. This basically means that we can easily and with good conscience brush
off the unlikeliness of certain events as just statistical oddities which were
bound to occur eventually anyway.
As you can hopefully appreciate from all this, fate in FF8 is a subtle thing
which we can't hope to be able to explain fully. Perhaps this brief discussion
will have given some food for thought at least.
----------------
WHAT ABOUT THE REAL WORLD?
----------------
~Static vs Dynamic~
Surprisingly (or not), real world physics indicates that time may be static.
You can use special relativity to show that the future and past exist as
much as the present, so the notions of past, present and future are made
redundant. For an observer, all of space-time would appear equal. So unless
some new theory were to overthrow Einstein's, it seems that time in the real
world is static as well.
Introducing time-travelling to the real world yields the same conclusions we
reach in the FF8 world: all time-travelling would have to be set in stone as
well. It should, however, be noted that time-travelling in the real world seems
rather unlikely, and is at best way, way beyond our current technology.
If you're sceptical to my claims here, I'd recommend you read the book
"The Fabric of The Cosmos" by Brian Greene, which explains what I
summarised here. It's a very good read, and actually discusses a concept
of time identical to static time. Here are some relevant quotes though which
show clearly the connection:
"So if you buy the notion that reality consists of things in your
freeze-frame mental image right now [...], then reality encompasses all of
the events in spacetime." (page 138)
"If you time-travelled back to December 31, 1965, then you were there, you
were always there, you will always be there, you were never not there.
[The hypothetical event considered] did not happen twice, [...] your
presence [there] will be an eternal and immutable feature of spacetime."
(page 453)
"If you time travel to the past, you can't change it any more than you can
change the value of pi." (page 454)
Interestingly enough, I read this book after the static time framework had
been completely deduced independently on the FF8 board here at
GameFAQs. As you can imagine, it was a very pleasant surprise to have
our ideas confirmed by such a top-notch scientist as Brian Greene, and it
made us confident that we weren't merely babbling nonsense in the Time
section of the FAQ! The book was also very helpful in inspiring the structure
of the last draft of the Time section, as well as giving some good hints at
how to easily explain certain concepts (indeed, I confess I stole a couple of
phrases from him!). I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in time
and space!
~The flow of time in the real world~
It turns out that the question of the flow of time is a big unanswered question
in physics today. Brian Greene in "The Fabric of the Cosmos," mentioned
above, dedicates an entire sub-section of the book to the question: "Does
time flow?" As mentioned above, the conclusions he reaches seem to be
nothing else but static time.
After deducing that all of (space)time exists all at once, like in static time,
he concludes that:
"Every moment 'is.' Under close scrutiny, the flowing river of time more
closely resembles a giant block of ice with every moment forever frozen in
place." (page 141)
However, he acknowledges the fact that this is extremely counterintuitive
and hard to grasp, and adds that "Time is a subtle subject and we are far
from understanding it fully. It is possible that some insightful person will one
day devise a new way of looking at time and reveal a bona fide physical
foundation for a time that flows" (page 141).
That's pretty much all I have to offer though. The flow of time is basically a
big unanswered question, and these authors have unsurprisingly not been
able to penetrate deeper into the mystery than anyone else, so we'll have
to leave it as an unanswered question.
---------------
HOW ABOUT ALTERNATE UNIVERSES?
---------------
It seems a popular approach based on modern real life ideas that alternate
universes may form an important part of time-travelling and thus FF8. The
visions Squall has in the ending are often cited as evidence of the existence
of alternate universes (i.e. one where Rinoa's helmet bursts in space).
However, it is the opinion of these authors that Squall's visions are too
vague and trippy to really be used to constitute evidence, and further, that
the idea of alternate universes simply makes things unnecessarily complex.
This FAQ has described a way to explain everything without the necessity
of appealing to more than one universe, and as alternate universes doesn't
bring anything particularly desirable to the table, it seems redundant to
consider it.
----------------
DYNAMIC TIME - THE ALTERNATIVE
----------------
-Explanation of the Dynamic Time Theory-
Written by: Squall of SeeD/Glenn Morrow
The purpose of this article is to explain the Dynamic Time Theory, a matter
which myself and Sir Bahamut don't fully agree on, while we do on most
other points concerning time in Final Fantasy VIII. While he holds to the Static
Time Theory (the theory stating that time is what it is, has always existed as
it is, and always will exist as it is, with changes in the past being an
impossibility), I hold to this view. As such, he and I felt that it would be
best if I were to offer my own explanation of this theory.
The very first principle one should have in mind concerning the Dynamic Time
Theory is that it would also involve a static timeline in a sense, which is to
say that it also "is what it is" and that is what it is supposed to be. This
theory calls for carrying the assumption that time is something that is always
evolving. When it moves forward, from one day to the next, one hour to the
next, or one second to the next, it is evolving. The same is true of what is
wrought by changes in the past. Time is not so much "overwritten" -- a common
misconception of this view of time -- as it is that it evolves into something
else. What happened before isn't erased from existence. It still happened.
Time has just picked up and moved on. For an example, I am now referencing
Marvel Comics' storylines concerning Cable, the son of the popular co-founding
X-Man named "Cyclops."
"Your future is my past..."
When Cable was an infant, the ages' old villain known as "Apocalypse" infected
him with a virus that was essentially living metal that grows and assimilates
other organic material into this same "techno organic" material of which it is
composed. This virus -- known as the "Techno Organic Virus" -- was ravaging
baby Cable's nervous system, much of the left half of his body being
assimilated into this organic metal, and it seemed assured that the infant
would die. However, a representative of the Askani Sisterhood that existed
thousands of years in the future (a future ruled by Apocalypse, in which the
ancient evil was opposed by this very Sisterhood) appeared to take Cable to
the future, where he could be saved. Cyclops was forced to let his child go to
the future in order to save his life. There, the infant was raised to become
the saviour of the people, destined to someday confront Apocalypse and topple
the tyrant forever.
While that day DID come and Apocalypse WAS killed, the New Canaanite Order
that ruled in his absence was also evil and things were not much better than
they were before. The Clan Chosen -- Cable's people -- lost their war to the
New Canaanites, and all that had been accomplished seemed to be for nothing.
It was decided that Cable should go back in time and attempt to prevent
Apocalypse from ever ascending to his nigh-omnipotent power at the end of the
second millennium A.D. After several years in the past, Cable -- with the help
of his father and the other X-Men -- was successful in preventing Apocalypse's
ascension, and a few months later, Cable achieved his final victory over
Apocalypse, sliding a psionic javelin through the spiritual essence of the
tyrant, discorporating him on a spiritual level. With Apocalypse's ascension
undone, the future that Cable had been raised in simply ceased to be. But not
entirely.
It still happened. He and others -- including his sister, who was revealed to
be the founder of the Askani Sisterhood in that era -- that had been there
still remembered it, and those who had merely heard about it still knew that
it had existed. Nothing changed in the present era as a result of preventing
the future from coming to pass, despite the fact that the present was a
product of that future. Time simply moved on. It evolved.
Even with the future undone, Cable's Personal Line of Time (PLOT) would still
look like this:
A-----B-----C-----D----->Future
A = His birth.
B = Him going to the future.
C = Him returning to the past several years after he had left, but as a grown
man.
D = Apocalypse's ascension being prevented.
With that in mind, before we examine the Universal Line of Time (ULOT), it
should be considered that the ULOT is a product of all the PLOTs within. The
ULOT is like a giant tapestry composed of all the PLOTs that constitute it,
each PLOT being akin to a thread in the tapestry. So long as a single PLOT
existed in a certain era or timeline, undone or not, that era or timeline is
part of the universe's own PLOT (the ULOT). Thus, in the situation being
discussed, the PLOT of the Marvel Universe would look like this:
(Note: For the sake of simplicity, this illustration DOES NOT take into
account any other alternate timelines, circumvented future eras, or anything
similar to them as regarding the Marvel Universe; there are simply far too
many of them to take into account without deviating from the purpose of this
article; they are not being disregarded; they are simply beyond the scope of
this article to detail here.)
A-----B-----C-----D----->Future
A = The birth of the universe.
B = Apocalypse's ascension.
C = Cable's return to the past.
D = Apocalypse's failure to achieve his god-like powers.
While the Static Timeline Theory as proposed by Sir Bahamut would call for the
concept of a timeline being a misnomer, as can be seen here, it's still fully
possible for time to be looked at as a line and as something in which PLOTs
remain intact despite changes in the past.
"If it leaks we can kill it..."
For a similar example, let us look to the Terminator film series. It is a saga
based on the premise that a computer system called "SkyNet" possesses
artificial intelligence to the extent that it decides to annihilate Homo
Sapiens and allow machines to rule the Earth. This begins on a day remembered
to history as "Judgment Day," the day on which SkyNet asserted its
individuality and commandeered the computer systems of American nuclear
missile silos, targeting them at Russia, knowing that Russia would
counter-attack with its own nuclear arsenal, effectively raining nuclear
destruction upon much of the world and removing two of SkyNet's greatest
potential opponents. Naturally, a war between the Homo Sapiens and the
machines ensues with a legendary leader among the Homo Sapiens rising up to
guide his people during the conflict.
In the first two Terminator films, SkyNet has sent back mechanized assassins
in an attempt to, first, kill Sarah Connor -- mother of the legendary Homo
Sapien commander -- before she will have her child, and later, to kill her
son, John, after his birth. In both cases, the plots are foiled by agents of
John's future self also sent back through time. The second incident actually
results in Judgment Day being averted and the future -- apparently -- undone.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, however, established that Judgment Day
could not be averted and that the future where a war with machines ensued
would have to take place, but when these events were set in motion changed
across the course of the series. August 29, 1997 was the date given for
Judgment Day in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This date was given first by Sarah
Connor and later by the T-800 sent to protect John. Sarah should know because
Reese would have told her back in 1984. The T-800 should know for obvious
reasons to those familiar with the film series.
That said, Terminator 3 takes place 10 years later, by which time 1997 has
obviously been and gone. In fact, Terminator 2 probably took place in 1997
seeing as how John Connor was 13 at the time and was conceived back in 1984.
In other words, Judgment Day fell approximately 10 years later than it was
supposed to in Terminator 3 (John is 23 during the third film). Despite this
being the case, the events that happened in the future era that was pushed
back 10 years still happened and the products of those events still occurred
in the past.
At this point, one may wonder what is relevant about all of this. The
relevance comes in establishing that what we see in Final Fantasy VIII is not
what it always was. The point is to establish that there was -- once upon a
time -- an "original" timeline in which none -- or very few -- of the things
that we see happen in Final Fantasy VIII happened, and that it was only
through tampering with time that those events we see in Final Fantasy VIII
came to pass in the first place. I will here offer an example of this concept,
and then use the Terminator series to illustrate the matter:
(Note: Any number of "re-writes" or evolutions may have played into the
evolution of the Final Fantasy VIII Universe before the timeloop came to be
established; for the purposes of simplicity, the minimal number required for
the timeloop to come into play will be represented here also, concerning
Terminator's ULOT, this is just one possible representation of how it may have
evolved.)
-- The Evolution of Final Fantasy VIII's Universal Line of Time --
-Original Timeline-
Squall is born. Squall dies without ever taking part in any of the key events
of Final Fantasy VIII because none of it has happened yet. Someone -- possibly
Ultimecia, or possibly Ellone herself -- screws with time in the future.
-Second Timeline-
Time has been screwed up, but evolves, and events happen to follow in such a
way that Squall is in the party which defeats Ultimecia. He arrives in the
past with her, where she gives Edea her powers and Squall gives her the ideas
of SeeD and Garden (which she will now be destined to create, whether she
originally came up with them or not).
-Third Timeline-
[The events of Final Fantasy VIII occur, with a timeloop established]
-- The Evolution of Terminator's Universal Line of Time --
Original Timeline-
Skynet rises to power on August 29, 1997 and takes over. Homo Sapiens resist
the machines and Reese is sent back in time at some point to try to prevent
the machines from ever rising to power in the first place.
-Second Timeline-
Reese is unsuccessful in stopping Judgement Day, which again occurs on August
29, 1997, but he meets Sarah Connor and they conceive a child, John, who will
become the hope of the future. Skynet later tries to prevent John from ever
becoming a problem and sends a T-800 back in time to kill his mother before
John can be born. John knows who his father is and selects him to go back and
save his mother.
-Third Timeline-
Reese successfully protects Sarah Connor, though he dies. Sarah gives birth to
John. Judgment Day falls again on August 29, 1997. John becomes the leader of
the Homo Sapien resistance.
-Fourth Timeline-
A T-800 is again sent back to kill Sarah, though it will fail as before.
Skynet then sends the T-1000 back in time to kill John when he is 13 years
old. John sends a T-800 back in time to protect his younger self. The T-1000
is destroyed and John Connor survives. The Judgment Day of August 29, 1997 is
averted, though it falls 10 years later. John becomes the leader of the people
once again, and will be assassinated later in life by a T-800. The T-800 is
then captured and reprogrammed. The TX is sent back in a bid to do away with
the younger John's lieutenants, though this time when he is 23 years old,
meaning that it will occur just before the new Judgment Day came to pass. In
other words, the previously established events of Terminator and Terminator
2: Judgement Day will not be changed in any manner. In response to the TX
being sent back, the reprogrammed T-800 that killed his future self will be
sent back.
-Fifth Timeline-
A T-800 is again sent back to kill Sarah, though it will fail under the same
circumstances as did the one in the first Terminator movie. Skynet then sends
the T-1000 back in time to kill John when he is 13 years old once more, and,
again, John sends a T-800 back in time to protect his younger self. The T-1000
is destroyed and John Connor survives yet again. The Judgment Day of August
29, 1997 is averted once more. All these events occur as those in Terminator
2: Judgment Day did.
10 years after Judgment Day was prevented, the TX arrives in the past to kill
John's lieutenants. For whatever reason, it fails to do this and is destroyed.
Time then progresses the same as it had before, with the TX again being sent
back in time to kill John's lieutenants.
-Sixth Timeline-
[Events of Terminator occur]
[Events of Terminator 2 occur]
[Events of Terminator 3 occur]
With Terminator, we don't have a timeloop established with the end of
Terminator 3, but we don't really need one either, because time is an
ever-evolving thing. Since it's not required that things occur in exactly the
same fashion every time except in the case of a timeloop, events can progress
much the same as they did before, though also different with the events of
Terminator and Terminator 2 now set-in-stone, even while John doesn't
necessarily get assassinated in this new timeline, and with the TX definitely
not going back in time to kill John's now no-longer-living lieutenants.
Does this mean that John will die in another way? Possibly. Possibly not.
Does this mean that the TX will never be sent back again? Possibly. Possibly
not. If not, then it may well be that this will be the final timeline, only
there won't be a loop here like there was with Final Fantasy VIII. If there's
no more time travel, then the timeline can progress naturally in this newest
incarnation with either the final victory of the Machines or the Homo Sapiens.
In either case, what we're dealing with is an ever-evolving timeline in which
John Connor may or may not have played any part whatsoever in its original
incarnation. The same is true of Squall in Final Fantasy VIII. The only
difference with Final Fantasy VIII is that somewhere along the way, things
happened in an absolutely perfect sequence so as to set up an eternal timeloop
that will never break. Time evolved until this timeloop was established, and
now time will continue to evolve naturally beyond the point of Adel's death.
"You say you want an evolution..."
For a real-world example of what I'm suggesting, let's examine the PLOT of
John Lennon and assume that someone were to go back in time to prevent his
death. First, we'll look at how the common misinterpretation of the Dynamic
Time Theory would look at his PLOT, and then we'll examine just what Lennon's
PLOT WOULD look like according to the Dynamic Time Theory in such a situation:
-- Analyzing John Lennon's PLOT According to the Common Misinterpretation of
the Dynamic Time Theory --
^--------------->|
| |
| |
| A---------B(C)[------->]Future
| |
| |
| A-----------C
| |
|<---------------|
A = John Lennon's birth.
B = Lennon being shot five times by Mark Chapman and then dying.
C = Lennon being shot in the shoulder, but being otherwise fine.
(C) = The moment of C being imposed over B.
[------->] = The rest of Lennon's life after time "starts up again."
As can be seen in this illustration, the misinterpretation of the Dynamic Time
Theory would call for the timeline in which Lennon died being negated and with
it having never happened. However, this is not the case at all. As with the
illustration regarding Cable's PLOT, the Dynamic Time Theory would actually
call for taking the "negated" timeline into account, with the diagram looking
like this:
A-------B-C------->Future
A = Lennon's birth.
B = Lennon's death.
C = Lennon being shot in the shoulder, but being otherwise fine.
As in Sir Bahamut's example in which Squall, during a picnic, goes to the past
with one second passing from the perspective of Rinoa's PLOT between him
leaving and him returning, from the perspective of Lennon's PLOT, he would be
getting shot in the shoulder immediately after he died. All the time that had
passed after the moment of his death would be the same as those twenty years
had been for Squall, going unrecognized by his own PLOT. Notice that the
diagrams for Lennon and Rinoa's plots in these two scenarios would be
constructed in exactly the same manner:
-- Lennon's PLOT --
A-------B-C------->Future
A = Lennon's birth.
B = Lennon's death.
C = Lennon being shot in the shoulder, but being otherwise fine.
-- Rinoa's PLOT --
A-------B-C------->Future
A = Rinoa's birth.
B = Squall leaving to go to the future.
C = Squall returning from the future.
I hope that so far I have successfully demonstrated the mechanics of the
Dynamic Time Theory in a manner that is easy to understand. I will now touch
upon those concepts within Final Fantasy VIII that could be construed as
contradicting the concept, while they actually do not.
"Silence! I can change my own destiny!"
-Fate-
The universe of Final Fantasy VIII -- and, consequently, its timeline(s) --
seems to be governed by the concept known as "fate" or "destiny," that concept
which suggests all things to be pre-ordained. This concept most certainly fits
with the Static view of time, and is often thought to be at odds with the
Dynamic Time Theory. However, this is not the case. What is meant to be still
is. What should happen happens. Changes to the past that cause time to evolve
could merely be looked upon as fate. There is not really any contradiction
present. It's simply a case of fate being far more obvious to recognize for
what it is in the case of a timeloop in which events will always play out the
same as the same people will make the same decisions every time.
Discrediting Ellone
-"You can't change the past"-
Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence supporting the view of a Static Time
Theory's validity is that Ellone tells Squall that "you can't change the
past," her own efforts to do so having failed. While this might seem to be
true, Ellone's unique situation has to be taken into account. It is her very
attempts to change the past as seen in the game that play small parts in
helping the future -- and, consequently, the past -- come to pass (Squall
being able to tell Laguna "You were a silly Galbadian soldier. I didn't like
your attitude at all," for instance). She's really only reinforcing it all.
Ellone lives within a timeloop and is not aware of it, and being the same
person everytime, she will always make the same decisions. This too could be
looked upon as fate...
To add to these things, there's also the fact to consider that those she was
sending people into the past (Squall and his friends) that had no intention to
exert their wills over Laguna's, Kiros', and Ward's, and would likely not have
done so even had they known that they could, unlike Ultimecia who freely and
openly exerted her willpower unto others.
The situation being what it is, I personally don't feel that Ellone is a
reliable source of information. While true that she could not change the past,
she just couldn't change HER past, and being the same person throughout
every revolution of the loop, she would try the same things every time.
"I will cease to exist as I am now. Only to be reborn as a 'God' to rule over
every soul."
-Ultimecia's powers-
In the event of the Dynamic Time Theory being valid, many would argue that we
should be seeing an increase in Edea, Rinoa, and Ultimecia's powers with each
turn of the timeloop, whereas the Static Time Theory would simply call for
Edea receiving the powers she receives from Ultimecia when she receives them
and in the quantity that she is destined to receive them. If this were the
case, then, of course, Edea would increase in power until Ultimecia was simply
capable of defeating Squall and the others, or until she herself was capable
of doing so, thus, resulting in the timeloop breaking. However, the concept of
the Dynamic Time Theory can still work with the timeloop in place without
calling for the Witch Embodiment to increase in potency with each turn of the
timeloop. Assuming that Ultimecia's power drops to a certain potency each time
Ultimecia is defeated by SeeD, much of her supreme power is undone and lost to
her. This idea is supported by the fact that she is back in her old body after
the battle -- despite having transcended it previously, when her spiritual
essence seemingly melded with the Witch Embodiment of the ages, her old body
hanging beneath this ascended form like an empty shell -- and with her
seemingly barely able to so much as stand, much less even attempt to exact
revenge on Squall before she dies. She was obviously weakened and her focus
seemed to be entirely on keeping herself alive long enough to pass on her
powers. Assuming this all to be true, a numerical diagram of the transfer of
power would look like this:
(Note: For the sake of simplicity, and unless otherwise prompted, assume a
Witch's full strength counts as 10, while that of Ultimecia's at the time of
her death counts as a mere 4.)
-Ultimecia's power added to Edea's.
10 + 4 = 14
-Adel's power added to Rinoa's.
14 + 10 = 24 (Rinoa's power, as well as Ultimecia's power before we fight her)
-The power of the 11 Witches encountered in Time Compression added to Rinoa's.
24 + 110 = 134
-Ultimecia gets the shit kicked out of her and loses much of her power; her
ascended form is destroyed, leaving her trapped in her former body, now
battered and broken with it standing upon the verge of death; she passes her
powers to Edea and then dies.
10 + 4 =14
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. The same quantity of power would be in play each time.
I hope that this article serves to positively compliment Sir Bahamut's
compilation of our thoughts on time in Final Fantasy VIII, and that it may
serve the Final Fantasy VIII fan community to a vast extent in their
understanding of the game's story. Hopefully, at the very least, it will
allow fans to experience a new appreciation for the game's epic storyline.
=====================================
-Section III: -Ultimecia-
=====================================
~~~~~~~~~~~~
PREFACE
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ultimecia, the main villain, is a woman shrouded in mystery. Her motives
are never revealed, her background never brought up, and all in all, we
don't know anything about her except that she appears to be pissed off at
SeeD and that she wants to compress time for power, demonstrated by her
scan info:
"A sorceress trying to change the world by compressing time and taking power
from all sorceresses."
Compressing time would, by uniting all of time into a single event, put all
of the sorceress powers from all of time into one point, which Ultimecia
would then absorb, demonstrated by the final Ultimecia's scan info:
"Ultimecia, transformed to absorb all time and space. Absorbing
all existence as we speak."
Absorbing all of time and space, as well as receiving all of the sorceress
powers throughout time, would essentially make Ultimecia God.
This quest for supreme power is generally accepted as at least one big
motivation behind her actions, but we are still left to wonder if Ultimecia
really has any other reasons for wanting to do what she does. And how did
she become evil in the first place? It seems unlikely that she was simply
born purely evil, intent to become God from day 1.
It is possible that Ultimecia's only real motive was power, but this next
part of the FAQ will present two theories which expand on Ultimecia's origins
and motivations. In the end, we hope that you will at least understand that
there may be more to Ultimecia than meets the eye.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) THE RINOA = ULTIMECIA THEORY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This highly controversial theory has become immensely (in)famous ever since
it was first conceived of. Whoever it was who first came up with the idea, we
don't know, because so many people ripped him/her off that it's become
impossible to tell by now.
The theory basically states that Ultimecia is in fact an older Rinoa.
In other words, after the game ended, a string of events was set into motion,
ultimately leading to Rinoa ending up "becoming" Ultimecia.
This simple idea has been the starting point of countless lengthy debates and
flamewars on many different forums, but is it really true?
Ultimately, we will show that the theory is highly implausible, and simply
not valid, or even practically possible as a theory. We will show that there
is absolutely no basis in assuming Square intended for Rinoa to be Ultimecia,
ultimately nailing the coffin by referring to the Ultimania Guide itself,
Square's official guidebook.
---------------------
THE BASIS
---------------------
The R=U theory is a proposition of what might happen to Rinoa after
a set of assumptions are made. To be precise, these assumptions are:
1) A sorceress has an extended lifespan, and will live much longer than a
normal human.
2) Rinoa wouldn't give away her powers to some other innocent girl, and would
instead want to keep them herself.
3) Rinoa's mental strength isn't all that good if she's all alone (i.e. without
Squall and Co).
You may notice that assumptions 2 and 3 are really subsets of a greater
assumption, or rather interpretation of the plot: Rinoa's psyche.
Obviously everyone will form an opinion of the main characters' psyches during
the game, and this theory is based on an interpretation of Rinoa which makes
assumptions 2 and 3 perfectly logical and plausible. Assumption 1 is brought
up later, but just accept it now for the sake of understanding the theory.
It is quite trivial to see that once the three (or as explained, two)
assumptions are drawn, we can deduce that Rinoa will outlive Squall and all
her friends. They will all die eventually, whether it be of age, illness or
in combat. Rinoa will witness her true love and Knight (Squall) die, as well
as her father and all her other friends. They will die and she will not (of
course you might argue that she could die in a car accident say, but it
requires less assumptions to say she lived than died so it is ultimately a
more reasonable statement).
I mentioned that Squall is Rinoa's knight. Just to remind you of what we know
about a sorceress's knight:
Edea tells us that a sorceress's Knight is supposed to help maintain the
sorceress's mental stability, keep her from buckling under to the pressure
of the people (remember that sorceresses are generally hated, and there is
even an organization made solely for killing them!). Adel, for instance, had
no Knight, and I don't think I have to remind you what kind of a sorceress
Adel was! An example of a good knight would be Edea's knight, Cid.
So we have a Rinoa, all alone in a world filled with people who generally
want her dead, fear her and hate her, knowing that SeeD still exists to
kill people like her. We have a Rinoa in this scenario, without a Knight.
Based on the aforementioned assumptions, we can now see that Rinoa could
very easily be Ultimecia, driven insane by the grief and pressure, probably
driven to severe paranoia. Eventually, she is so warped that there's hardly
any trace of the old Rinoa in her. Instead, she is now the evil Ultimecia,
trying to compress time and absorb all sorceress powers and eventually all
time and space itself.
NOTE: Some people think Ultimecia could be a sane Rinoa trying to get back
Squall, but this makes absolutely no sense at all seeing as Ultimecia
tries to kill Squall several times. If Rinoa really is Ultimecia, the
only reasonable option is that she is so twisted that she retains no
aspects of her old self (i.e. Rinoa and Ultimecia have to essentially be
different minds in the same body).
I should add that if Rinoa continued to use GFs after the game ended, her
insanity would doubtlessly be "amplified." GFs are very effective at removing
memories after all. Remember Squall. He had forgotten almost all his childhood
except the strongest memories of Ellone, and he'd only used GFs for 4-5
years. Of course, this added assumption cannot realistically be backed up by
anything over than personal opinions on what happens after the game, so it
it is not a strong point in itself, and we are really left with insanity
as the thing. The theory requires such a strong insanity over such a long
time that Rinoa could literally become a completely different person (if you
then wonder what the point of the theory is, since R and U are basically
different people anyway, you are not alone).
Now, you may ask yourself what "hints" supposedly back up this claim? And
are there not certain things in the game which seem to contradict this
theory? In this next section, all arguments used in favour of the theory
are discussed, and as we shall see, it does not contain much backing from
the game.
---------------------
THE HINTS
---------------------
NOTE: This next bit was written (almost) entirely by Squall_Of_SeeD, based
primarily on the framework created mainly by myself (Sir B), with hints
and such having been compiled from a multitude of sources over time.
Also note that sorceresses will be referred to as Witches in this next
bit, seeing as that is that they were called in the Japanese version.
----------------------------
Witches and Immortality
----------------------------
The theory works off of the assumption that Witches have immortality as its
core concept. Often-cited evidence of this is that Edea's facial features are
far younger than should be the case for a woman married to a 40 year old man
(as her husband, Cid Kramer, happens to be). Another bit of evidence offered
in this regard is that Ultimecia needed to go further into the past to cast
Time Compression than the generation the game takes place in. When she
finally is sent far enough back, it is into Adel's younger self that she is
sent. The assumption here is that Ultimecia must have needed to go much
further back in time, and that Adel, consequently, has lived longer than a
normal lifespan.
*Response*:
There's no reason to assume this to be the case, for starters.
Edea's face certainly looks more developed and mature than those of Ellone,
Selphie, Quistis, or Rinoa. She certainly has the appearance of a woman at
least in her thirties. For that matter, even if she didn't, there's little
reason to assume she wouldn't have married an older man.
As for Adel, considering how little we know of the mechanics of Time
Compression, it's hardly a safe forest to venture into when looking for
support for this notion. We don't know the limits of Junction Machine Ellone's
power to send Ultimecia into the past. It may have been one year shorter than
where she needed to be or 100 years too short.
-------------------------------
Witches and Dying in Peace
-------------------------------
Near the ending of the game, just before Ultimecia's death, Edea makes this
very important statement: "In order to die in peace, a sorceress must be free
of all her powers." What, then, does she mean? Does she mean that dying
without first giving up one's powers would mean a bad afterlife existence for
a Witch? Or does she mean that a Witch must simply be free of her powers to
die?
This could, perhaps, be taken to mean "Remaining alive, but not properly,
forever caught in the dying moment until the Witch is free of her powers." If
this is so, then it may well be that Witches are immortal after all, if they
can't even die until they are free of their powers. In fact, the Japanese line
that Edea speaks here is simply "A Witch cannot die while still holding on to
the Witches' power." It may be that in the case of Witches who do die, they're
either giving up their powers so as to be free of the pain of death, or their
body is simply forcing them to surrender their powers.
*Response*:
A strong point that may support the theory, but on its own doesn't
do so, if only because SeeD fights and defeats 13 Witches during the game, all
of whom die either immediately after being dealt a fatal blow or shortly
thereafter. If such a concept of remaining as long as was desired were
present, it seems more reasonable to assume that the story would have made a
point of demonstrating it. In fact, the story does the opposite, as the whole
idea of a "succession of witches," so important in the game, directly implies
that sorceresses cannot stick around for as long as they want.
---
NOTE (by Sir B): As mentioned in the Time section, the sorceresses you face
in time compression probably aren't real Witches, but nevertheless we never
see a sorceress hanging around for long with her powers after defeat, and due
to the ambiguity of the statement at the centre of this, it is simpler to
interpret it in a way which fits with what we see rather than what we don't
see.
---
----------------------
Witches and Hyne
----------------------
Hyne is said to have been the progenitor of the Witch Embodiment powers. The
story of Hyne also goes that he created Homo Sapiens, then took a nap while
they worked. When he awoke, he found that they had multiplied beyond his
capacity to control them. In order for them to have multiplied so, it must be
that his nap lasted a few hundred to several thousand years. This must mean
that Hyne is immortal. Considering that the Witch Embodiment originates from
him, it may well be that the Witches inherited increased longevity, or full
immortality.
*Response*:
This segment suffers from the usual problem that most points in
the theory do: A lack of support for the notion. Now, although you might
think that these three points for a Witch having extended lifespan are strong
together, this is simply not the case, as will be seen in the end of this
section.
----------------------------
Witches and Appearances
----------------------------
While it may be argued that Ultimecia's gray hair -- something that normally
wouldn't happen except in the case of aging -- is indicative of her lacking
immortality, it should be kept in mind that when possessing Edea, Ultimecia
changed the length of her host body's hair from several feet to a few inches
in seconds. For that matter, through their use of Black Magicks, many Witches
display physical abnormalities, whether they be the veins on Edea's face and
her elongated fingers, Adel's muscular appearance and discoloured skin, or the
larger-than-normal bodies of the eleven Witches encountered by SeeD as they
made their way to the future.
Another point often brought up to contest this aspect of the theory is that
Adel seeking a successor suggests that Witches do have a limited lifespan, but
it should be remembered that Adel was at war with the world, and her own
subjects hated her. It may simply be that she feared being assassinated
without having a chosen successor already selected. She wouldn't want to
endure the pain of her death constantly until having found one.
*Response*:
These are good points, which I cannot find fault with. On their
own, they don't prove -- or even suggest -- the immortality of Witches, but
coupled with a strong suggestion that the concept is plausible, they would
certainly support the notion.
It should also be kept in mind, though, that Witches have a natural instinct
to want to choose a successor that they feel is fitting for the power. As the
game's tutorial says, they avoid spreading their powers too thin:
Sorceress
The legend goes that the Great Hyne created people. The sorceresses were
given a fragment of Hyne's own power. It's hard to determine how many
sorceresses exist today, for many keep their powers concealed. However, it is
believed that they avoid spreading their power too thin.
-----------------------
Witches and Wings
-----------------------
In the opening FMV, Rinoa is shown at one point emerging from a group of white
feathers, the same colour as the feathers on her wings. She's later shown
emerging from a group of black feathers, the same colour as the feathers of
Ultimecia's wings. Ultimecia is the only Witch aside from Rinoa to be shown
to have wings. This may be an indication of who Rinoa will become, her soul
tainted and dark after the loss of her Knight. She is then no longer an
"Angel," but a "Fallen Angel" instead, this represented through her black
wings.
*Response*:
Wings and feathers are a motif of the main Witches in the game.
Edea's dress has black feathers around the collar, Adel has two spiky
wing-like protrusions extending from her back, Rinoa has her white feathery
wings, and Ultimecia has her black, somewhat spiny, feathered wings. With this
in mind, all that's represented here is a connection between Witches, not a
connection between Rinoa and Ultimecia alone. The connection between Rinoa
and Ultimecia is that their wings are black and white, representing good and
evil, opposing representations of these concepts, and opposite representations
of the use of the Witch Embodiment.
-----------------------------------------------
Ultimecia's Words During The Final Battle
-----------------------------------------------
During the final battle with Ultimecia, her words may illustrate that she
believes that the things one cares about will slip away from them inevitably,
as Squall and Rinoa's other friends would have were she immortal:
"Reflect on your..."
"Childhood..."
"Your sensation..."
"Your words..."
"Your emotions..."
"Time..."
"It will not wait..."
"No matter..."
"...how hard you hold on."
"It escapes you..."
This may have been an attempt on Rinoa's part to reach out to Squall.
*Response*:
Considering that Ultimecia makes no **other** attempt to "reach
out to Squall" during the game, merely trying to kill him each time she
encounters him instead, it's hardly plausible that she's suddenly doing that
at this point. For that matter, it's not even clear what Ultimecia's really
talking about here. She may be talking about time itself. It may be a
roundabout way of her telling them that their defeat is inevitable.
Personally, I think it most likely another reference to everything having been
fated, even from Squall and the others' childhoods. Whatever it is, there's
nothing to suggest it to have anything to do with Squall or to suggest that
this is Rinoa talking.
-----------------------
Time Compression
-----------------------
Recall that onboard the Ragnarok, Rinoa expressed a desire for time to stand
still so that she could remain with Squall:
Rinoa
"I don't want the future. I want the present to stand still. I just want to
stay here with you..."
Now, recall that Ultimecia intended to use Time Compression, a Spell that
would cause all time to exist in a single instance. While this is not
necessarily the same thing as "making time stand still," Rinoa's words on the
Ragnarok **do** express a desire to control time. It may well be that Rinoa
wanted to meet Squall again and be with him in a moment of peace forever.
Having gone insane, however, she may well have forgotten her desire to use
Time Compression to meet Squall, and then decided to use the Spell for other
purposes. Insane people do insane things, as has been said before.
*Response*:
As with so much of this theory, this requires unsubstantiated
assumptions. Aside from the obvious fact that Ultimecia could have met Squall
again -- if that's what she so desired -- by simply using Junction Machine
Ellone and going to the past, there's also the even more obvious fact that
Ultimecia's goals as expressed by the game and hinted at by the Final
Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guide had nothing to do with Squall. Ultimecia's goal
was to avoid her fated death at Squall's hands, and to then become one with
all that existed in the universe, though with mastery over it, essentially
becoming God in the process.
If you wish to know how we know this, read the section titled "An Ultimecian
Analysis - The Unjust Persecution" by TheOnionKnight, where Ultimecia's true
motives are discussed at length.
----------------------------------------
The Location of Ultimecia's Castle
----------------------------------------
This ties in with another aspect of the theory: Ultimecia's desire --
subconscious or otherwise -- to meet Squall. This concept is here illustrated
by her having her castle anchored near the Orphanage, which had the flower
field behind it where Rinoa and Squall had promised to meet. The castle would
have actually been facing the flower field. It's rather suspicious that her
castle should be there of all places.
*Response*:
The game offers a perfectly valid suggestion for Ultimecia's
Castle being where it was without there being any reason to believe that she
was waiting for Squall. Ultimecia hated SeeDs, and she had slaughtered the
remaining SeeDs of her era shortly before casting the Time Compression Spell,
made evident by their bodies being scattered across the beach behind Edea's
House:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/DeadSeeDs.jpg
They don't appear to have been dead for long, so it's not as though Ultimecia
built the castle, killed the SeeDs and then parked it there many years before
with the intention of it remaining there forever. Also, the castle
**floats**. Why build a floating castle to begin with if you're going to park
it in one spot?
The dead bodies of those SeeDs are a testament to Ultimecia's reason for
anchoring the castle there. It makes much more sense -- especially in light
of Ultimecia's hatred of the SeeDs and the obvious short amount of time that
those SeeDs had been dead -- to conclude that Ultimecia parked the castle
there and slaughtered the remaining SeeDs to settle a grudge before casting
Time Compression. Granted, it's possible that she located her castle there
from the start and that the SeeDs made an attempt to launch an assault against
her shortly before she cast Time Compression, but this isn't suggested by
the game nor as plausible.
The castle being located above where the SeeDs had been brought together and
raised for a time also allows for another point of emphasis on the Fated
Children concept (the game's opening song is "Liberi Fatali," which means
"Fated Children"), as did the Orphanage being Squall and the others' point of
focus when passing through the Time Compression wave in an attempt to arrive
in Ultimecia's era.
As was the case with the overall concept of Ultimecia seeking to use Time
Compression to meet Squall, this on its own doesn't serve as any evidence
toward supporting the concept that Rinoa is Ultimecia, and would only apply
if one had already accepted the concept and was using backwards reasoning.
---------------------------------------------
The Possible Origin Of Ultimecia's Name
---------------------------------------------
There was an ancient Grecian King by the name of "Mausolus," whose queen --
also his sister -- was named "Artemisia." When he died, his grieving sister
went somewhat insane and decided to erect the greatest tomb in history to
honour him. She would even mix some of his ashes in her drink every day.
Perhaps the most devoted wife history has known, Artemisia spent the last two
years of her life overseeing the construction of the monument to her beloved,
seeing to it that the most skilled artisans that she could find took part in
its construction, adorning it with statues of men and horses carved from
marble.
Also notable is that at some point after Mausolus' death, invaders attempted to
take his kingdom, but his queen used her cunning to organize the means by
which to defeat all her kingdom's foes, despite being greatly outnumbered.
The relevance of all this comes from the fact that "Ultimecia" could be one
possible Japanese transliteration of "Artemisia." "A" and "u" are used
interchangeably in Japanese, as are "l" and "r" (the Ultima Spell and name has
been mistranslated as "Atma" and "Altima" in the past, as a result). Further,
"e" and "i" are often substituted for one another when translating from
Japanese. Finally, the "c" in "Ultimecia" may have arisen from the "s" sound
in "Artemisia." Also worthy of consideration is that many statues adorn
Ultimecia's castle, and that the path leading down to the doors of
Ultimecia's Master Room is strikingly similar to the path leading to the
doors of the Mausoleum of Mausolus (his name and tomb having given rise to
the term "mausoleum"), both having statues along their sides, for instance:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/CastleandTomb.jpg
Also relevant is that Ultimecia fought and killed many attacking SeeDs, the
bodies of whom lay strewn across the beach behind Edea's house. This may
well parallel the historical Artemisia's defeat of the forces that outnumbered
her kingdom.
The relevance of all this in regard to Rinoa is that she may well have become
Artemisia, the grieving but devoted wife that sought to build a wonderful
monument to her fallen beloved while she went insane. Her castle, after all,
is beautiful on its own but is also filled with beautiful things.
Also recall that Mausolus and Artemisia were brother and sister. Rinoa and
Squall were as close to being brother and sister as would be possible without
that actually being the case (Squall's father, Laguna, and Rinoa's mother,
Julia, had feelings for one another at one time).
Finally, note that Ultimecia's name has been translated as "Artimecia" in some
translations, such as the German version of Final Fantasy VIII.
*Response*:
While all very interesting, it's also all one large unrelated
matter, though it's certainly easy to see why and how one would draw a
connection here. The faults in this matter lie first with the fact that
Ultimecia never displays a mental state that could really be labeled as insane.
She always knew full well what she was doing, why she was doing it, and to
what end she was doing it, as do we. Also notable is that the intended
translation of "Ultimecia" most certainly was "Ultimecia." The name is a play
on the concept of "all in one," or "altogether comprehensive," a concept that
can be seen employed with the name of the Ultima Spell, this Spell being the
combination of all Elements; it's also seen with the Ultimania Guides
published by Square-Enix, as the "Ultimania" in the title alludes to the
guides being completely comprehensive tomes on the games.
That said, with other information to support the notion of Rinoa being
Ultimecia, such as proof or hard evidence of Witches having immortality, this
would be an invaluable piece of evidence to work in the theory's favor.
However, as things stand, it falls short.
-----------------------------------
Ultimecia and Rinoa's Faces
-----------------------------------
During the game's ending FMV, Ultimecia's face flashes over Rinoa's three
times in a very striking manner, and she also bears quite a resemblance to
Rinoa. While Edea, Zell, and Seifer's faces also flash over Rinoa's during
that scene (Edea's doing so first and a total of five times even, whereas
Ultimecia's does so only three times), there's a somewhat greater emphasis on
those moments when Ultimecia's face does so, as the images of Ultimecia's
face are solid and the only images on-screen at the time, whereas Edea, Zell,
and Seifer's faces appear in something of a "hole" in the screen and share
screen time with other imagery. The faces of the other characters flash by in a
rather insignificant manner, whereas Ultimecia's three appearances in that FMV
are of her face being ever closer to the camera with each shot, until she is
staring toward the camera intensely in the midst of Rinoa's image also
looking toward the camera, the sequence culminating in Rinoa's helmet in space
bursting open.
While it may be viewed as an insignificant string of imagery, it may well have
represented Rinoa's "death" and "rebirth" as Ultimecia, the helmet shattering
symbolizing that she would cease to be who she was and become the Witch
that SeeD must fight.
As for differences in Rinoa and Ultimecia's bodies (their shoulder-width and
breast-sizes, for example) that may be cited as evidence that they don't look
alike, again, Ultimecia was able to change the length of Edea's hair within
seconds, and Adel and the other Witches encountered in Time Compression all
bear physical appearances that are quite different from the bodies of normal
women. The power granted by the Witch Embodiment can deform a Witch's
body over time as they use Black Magicks, and may even allow a Witch to
simply alter her appearance at will.
*Response*:
Certainly an interesting take on the ending FMV, and one that
could serve as compelling evidence if coupled with other strong support for
the theory. On its own, however, or even coupled with the matter of the name
"Artemisia," it's not enough to form a strong case. As things stand, it seems
to require already assuming that Rinoa is Ultimecia in order to conclude that
the scene was intended to infer something of that nature, but there's nothing
to dismiss it as a possible indication if there is otherwise strong support
for the notion.
As for a resemblance between Ultimecia and Rinoa, it should be noted that one
can compare with or impose the faces of Selphie, Ellone, and Edea over
Rinoa's, and all bear strong resemblances to her, as well. In a game in which
all characters are designed by the same person, and especially with it being a
character designer known for making his female characters look similar to one
another -- and also when the same actor did the facial modeling for more than
one of these characters -- there are almost certainly going to be resemblances
in their facial features. This is something which must be kept in mind as
their similarities are not necessarily indicative of there being an indication
of some connection between the characters, either as them being related to one
another, or as being the same person:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Rinoa2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SorceressEdea2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Selphie.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Ellone.jpg
---------------
Griever
---------------
Squall carries a ring with a lion engraved upon it, the ring's name being
"Griever." This is also the name of the GF that Ultimecia Summons during the
final battle of the game and which she Junctions herself to during the course
of the battle. During Final Fantasy VIII, Squall gives this ring to Rinoa.
Perhaps Griever was contained within the ring the same as Doomtrain was
contained within the Solomon Ring, or perhaps it was even a creature that
Rinoa herself created in honour of Squall.
*Response*:
There may have been a "real" Griever that existed in stories that
Squall had known about, but the only suggestion offered in-game is that it is
a creature that Squall conceived of in his own mind, as Scan tells us that in
Squall's mind, Griever is the strongest GF:
"Griever
In Squall's mind, the strongest GF. Through Ultimecia's power, continues
fighting without vanishing."
Further, Ultimecia's Witch Embodiment powers granted her the ability to reach
into other's minds and pull things out (as she often displays when completely
removing a character's stock of a certain type of Spell). In the case of
Griever, she simply manifested the thoughts she pulled from Squall's mind
regarding what he believed to be the most powerful being in existence. This
would be a great strategical move on Ultimecia's part. This is made even
more plausible when examining what the Japanese version has Ultimecia say:
Ultimecia: Your feelings, I shall summon the most powerful of things
[from them]! The more strongly you feel, that will be what shall torment
you. Fufu."
As you can see, Griever was clearly created there and then, and thus cannot
be used to form a link between Rinoa and Ultimecia.
-------------------------
"Becoming Warped"
-------------------------
The Japanese instruction booklet for Final Fantasy VIII actually states that
Rinoa will end up becoming warped:
"A beautiful and enigmatic woman, kind-hearted and driven to succeed.
A cheerful girl whose 'mood maker' liveliness and gentleness touches people
without discrimination. She's honest about her feelings and readily speaks
what she thinks. However, in time she ends up becoming warped..."
With this in mind, it's most certainly making reference to Rinoa becoming
Ultimecia.
*Response*:
Not necessarily. Japanese is a language built more off of context
than off of the direct meaning of words. As a result, English translations of
Japanese -- especially when they are direct translations -- often fail to
convey context. The term used in the instruction booklet at that point was
"amanojaku," the context for which implies that she will become something she
wouldn't have wanted to be, and something which she views as negative. So
another way of localizing that line would be "However, in time something bad
will happen to her and change her in a manner that she will view as negative."
Is there anything in the game which fits this description then? Well of
course: Rinoa becomes a sorceress! Quite against her will, she becomes a
sorceress, and is then used by Ultimecia. She fears her own powers and fears
a future in which she will turn evil, like Adel or Ultimecia.
The original meaning of the term "amanojaku" would, by the way, be something
along the lines of "Devil beneath temple guardian deities," which is a way of
saying "Something bad hidden under something good." This was the case when
Ultimecia possessed Rinoa.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Rinoa and Ultimecia statuette (this point added by Sir B)
--------------------------------------------------------------
http://pers0n99.tripod.com/extra/a_rinoadoll2.jpg
The link above shows a statuette of Rinoa linked with Ultimecia (the head),
with the wing motif being prevalent. This clearly demonstrates the link
between Rinoa and Ultimecia.
*Response*:
This turns out to be patently false. The statuette is of Rinoa and the GF
Siren, not Ultimecia, and so is entirely irrelevant.
(A big thank you to the several people who notified me that it was
Siren and not Ultimecia!)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rinoa allowing Squall to kill her (this point added by Sir B)
------------------------------------------------------------------
At one point in the game, Rinoa says the following:
Rinoa: "If I fall under Ultimecia's control again... SeeD will come kill
me, right? And the leader of SeeD is you, Squall... Squall's sword will
pierce my heart...... I guess it's ok if it's you, Squall. Nobody else.
Squall, if that ever happens..."
Ultimecia is killed by Squall, so if Rinoa were Ultimecia, this would be a
clear foreshadowing.
*Response*:
Exactly: IF Rinoa were Ultimecia, this would be foreshadowing. But this is
circular logic. If reading the line by itself without any notions of R=U
already in your head, it would be a very bold leap indeed to draw from it that
Rinoa must become Ultimecia. It is only when already assuming R=U that this
line stands out, but this sort of backwards reasoning is completely
unacceptable. Furthermore, note what Squall says directly afterwards:
Squall: "That's enough! I'll never do anything like that. The sorceress
I'm after is not you, Rinoa. My enemy is the sorceress from the future...
Ultimecia."
I'll never do anything like that.
The game is all about Squall and Rinoa's love growing to the point where it
conquers everything, so it would quite strange indeed if Squall ends up
killing her after all. Perhaps dramatic irony from Square, but this line doesn't
constitute a strong enough statement to be foreshadowing R=U.
-------------------------------
VARIOUS FLAWS
-------------------------------
Having addressed all the matters that are cited as evidence for the
theory, I would now like to address a few flaws in the concept itself.
Something worthy of noting is that Ultimecia attempted to kill Rinoa several
times. The first time was when she sent the Iguions to kill her. She later
tries again in Galbadia Garden if Rinoa is in the party. Even if she is not,
Ultimecia possesses Rinoa for a brief moment and uses her to pass a message
to Seifer, and then sends Rinoa into a coma. Later, she uses Rinoa to disable
the locks on Adel's tomb, so as to free the elder Witch. Immediately after, she
ditches Rinoa in space, leaving her to die.
If Rinoa were her past self, we can reasonably assume she would be aware of it
to some extent, even if insane, as she would be witnessing her own past and
the events that led up to driving her into insanity. Granted, if one is
operating with the assumption that Rinoa would have forgotten her past
completely due to the use of GFs across several centuries, that would present
reasonable grounds, perhaps, for her not being aware of the past, though that,
in itself, is part backwards reasoning (as it would require already believing
Ultimecia to be Rinoa) and part assumption of something not supported and
which could only be assumed if one had previously used backwards reasoning
(that Rinoa was Ultimecia and had forgotten the past due to GF usage) to start
with.
Also, I would like to stress the point that if losing Squall was the main
reason for Rinoa going insane and becoming Ultimecia, it stands to reason that
we would have seen some measure of recognition toward him on Ultimecia's part.
Instead, she displays no recognition or affection toward him, merely tries to
kill him, and tends to address SeeD as a whole. In fact, Ultimecia does not
do or say anything which indicates that she has any sort of relationship with
the main characters at all. Ultimecia behaves completely different from Rinoa,
to the point where they might as well be considered different people even if
you assume R=U. Considering that Square would certainly want to try and make
people understand their plot, it seems somewhat odd that they then failed to
make Ultimecia give us even the tiniest indication that she was once Rinoa.
NOTE (by Sir Bahamut): Furthermore, it must be noted that while the ending of
the game is full of joy and happiness and hope, R=U would entirely negate
this. Now, there is of course nothing wrong with such "poetic irony," but
Square doesn't have a reputation of making happy endings like the FF8 one
whilst really intending for everything to go to hell afterwards. The R=U
conclusion goes against everything that game has built up to; the climactic
kiss between Squall and Rinoa would be bitterly tragic instead of joyous. This
is not something Square are known for doing, and so one would expect a lot
more foreshadowing and hinting towards this in the ending. As it is, there's
nothing in the ending hinting at a dark future.
Having now addressed all those matters, I would like to offer the theory its
fair due and point out those often-cited points that are used to argue against
the theory, but which fail to actually contradict it. Afterward, I will offer
conclusive evidence on this matter that seals the case that Rinoa **cannot**
be Ultimecia.
-------------------------------------
1) Rinoa Dying In The Final Battle
-------------------------------------
*Possible Contradiction*:
Since Rinoa can die and be absorbed into time in the final battle with
Ultimecia, if she were Ultimecia's past self, that should erase Rinoa's
future. In other words, it should erase Ultimecia's own state of being in the
present.
*Why It Isn't A Contradiction*:
While Rinoa can die in the final battle with Ultimecia and be absorbed into
time and Ultimecia not vanish, with the normal flow of time already skewed by
Time Compression, Ultimecia was possibly outside the normal flow of time, and,
thus, protected. For that matter, she was likely already in possession of the
Witch Embodiment of all those Witches killed by Squall and the others when
they entered Time Compression, and perhaps by virtue of this and being the one
who cast Time Compression in the first place, she was granted immunity.
For that matter, to question this would require questioning why Squall,
Irvine, Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and Rinoa hadn't already faded out of
existence due to their own pasts being swallowed up by Time Compression
already by the time it reached them in the present.
Basically, with the state time and space were in during the final battle,
it is impossible to say anything conclusive about what should and should not
happen.
---------------------------------------------------------
2) Rinoa Leaving Her Proper Place In The Time Stream
---------------------------------------------------------
*Possible Contradiction*:
Rinoa left the time stream at the moment that Adel died. She and SeeD
traveled into the future. Ultimecia would have no longer had a past beyond
the point of Adel's death if she were Rinoa. When SeeD got to the future,
they would not have found Ultimecia there, for Rinoa would not have been able
to become her, being that she left the time stream before she ever became her.
Even with Rinoa returning to the exact second that she left the timeline,
until she returned to the past again, there shouldn't be an Ultimecia for her
to encounter in the future.
*Why It Isn't A Contradiction*:
Again, there was no longer a normal flow of time due to Time Compression. To
argue that Ultimecia should have vanished because her past self no longer
remained along a timeline that itself no longer existed even while the past
self continued to exist would be completely illogical, especially in light of
Squall and the others not vanishing, despite their own pasts having been
absorbed into time.
------------------------
CONCLUSION
------------------------
Many points used to argue in favor of the theory either already require having
accepted it as fact -- in which case the conclusion would be used as support
for the evidence that's supposed to support the conclusion, a logical fallacy
known as "circular reasoning" that absolutely is never valid in a debate -- or
require making some leaps in assumption that aren't definitively supported,
and, in at least one case (immortality), are defeated by the concept of
Occam's Razor ("All things being equal, the most simple explanation is the
best"). In fact, the matter of immortality is altogether **impossible**, as it
is outright shown not to be a possibility by the Witches section of the Final
Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guide, which states that Witches have a normal
lifespan:
(Translated by DarkAngel)
"SORCERESSES
Said to have existed from time immemorial to the present day, the sorceresses
are women who are said to have received their powers from the old god, Hyne.
There is, however, no hard evidence to support this claim. Extraordinarily
powerful, many sorceresses have harboured ambitions to rule over the world --
as a result, many people have come to equate the Sorceress with fear. However,
there are also many Sorceresses who have chosen to live a quiet life sheltered
away from civilized society; as such, the actual number of Sorceresses and the
amount of power shared between them remains unknown.
The potential to become a sorceress is determined by one's capacity to wield
such power -- their natural affinity for magic. This factor helps to determine
Sorceress candidates for when a Sorceress passes on all of her power into the
next Sorceress. The giving and receiving of power can be made between any two
individuals -- it not necessary for them to be related by blood. A Sorceress's
lifespan is the same as a normal human's, however they cannot die until they
have passed on their power to the next Sorceress."
---
NOTE: The Ultimania Guides for Final Fantasy games are guides made by
Square Enix themselves, with a ton of information directly from the creators.
So this translation tells us what the creators of the game have to say on the
matter, which is obviously to be considered as the truth. If you question this
information, you are questioning the people who invented the game in the first
place!
---
Since it is quite obvious that Ultimecia lives too far into the future for
any of the in-game characters to live to see her rise within a normal human
life (85 years or so), it is clear that Rinoa cannot become Ultimecia, even
if she is a Witch.
---
NOTE: The game states that Ultimecia lives "many generations" ahead of the
present era, and even the most feeble interpretation of "many" would
not allow Rinoa to become Ultimecia.
---
While the Ultimania states that Witches cannot die until they have passed on
their powers, in all cases where we see Witches fatally wounded, they either
die immediately or shortly thereafter, suggesting that they either choose to
die then and there so as to end their suffering, or that their bodies force
them to give up their powers. The latter notion is supported by the fact that
Ultimecia is still trying to defy her fate during the ending, even while her
body is forcing her to give up her powers.
We know this because she states "I...can't...disappear yet," which is
certainly not a statement of defiance regarding dying **with** her powers, as
she couldn't anyway. This was a statement made in defiance of dying at all,
which she would if she gave up her powers. Seeing as how she didn't want to
die, we can only conclude that Witches' bodies force them to give up their
powers when the time of their natural death has arrived, in which case Rinoa
couldn't have remained alive by simply choosing to hold onto her powers
despite having reached the end of her natural lifespan. Rinoa **will** die
before Ultimecia is born. Rinoa is **not** Ultimecia.
While one might still yet argue that Rinoa could have been placed in the same
kind of seal that Adel was, and that this chronologically preserved her far
into the future until she was released, such a notion is absolutely absurd.
It's not supported or suggested by the game to occur, and there's already a
perfectly valid, well-supported, and strongly-hinted suggestion concerning
Ultimecia's origin anyway, with said origin not being dependent on Rinoa in
any form whatsoever. To attempt referencing this possibility as rendering the
theory plausible is simply grasping at straws illogically due to being
unwilling to accept the theory as wrong, as it most certainly is. With the
creators of the game outright stating that Witches have normal lifespans, it's
hardly logical to go about looking for a way around that to support a notion
that's not otherwise suggested by the game's story.
The Final Word: In any event, the conclusion that is drawn by this document,
and is supported by the principle of Occam's Razor ("All things being equal,
the most simple explanation is the best"), is that Rinoa **is not** and
**cannot** be Ultimecia. The theory is altogether not plausible nor reasonably
possible.
-Acknowledgements-
I wish to acknowledge and offer my gratitude to Sir Bahamut, the original
author of the Time/Ultimecia FAQ on GameFAQs, and one of the most
knowledgeable people on the subject of Final Fantasy VIII and time in the
world. I've learned a great deal from you, sir, during our many debates and
brainstorms, and firmly believe that our acquaintanceship has been invaluable
to both your analyses of Final Fantasy VIII and mine, and that neither of us
would be where we are today in the knowledge of this game's story without one
another. Thanks for everything, bro.
I also wish to thank TheOnionKnight and Leuchest/The Dark Legend of
GameFAQs for their tons of input and theorizing that have in no small part
contributed to my musings and formation of this article. A special mention also
goes out to Katicflis of GameFAQs for her input and brainstorming which
undeniably contributed to the theorizing amongst myself, Sir Bahamut,
TheOnionKnight, and Leuchest/The Dark Legend in various ways. Another
special mention goes to PMog, also of GameFAQs, for pointing out certain
points in the Ultimania to look into have translated.
A **very** special thanks goes to DarkAngel, staff member at
AdventChildren.net, and owner of the Gunshot Romance website, for translating
articles from the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guide.
Most of all, I wish to thank my fianc�, Carys. I love you. You'll never know
how much you've done for me.
- Glenn "Squall of SeeD" Morrow
--------------------------------
THE FINAL WORD (added by Sir Bahamut)
--------------------------------
So where does all this leave the R=U theory really? Although the Ultimania
information puts an end to the debate for all intents and purposes, some will
be quick to point out that it doesn't constitute conclusive proof against the
possibility that Rinoa is Ultimecia. The reason is that one could imagine ways
for Rinoa to reach Ultimecia's era which don't require her to have an increased
lifespan. One suggestion is that she could be sealed in the Sorceress Memorial
or in a machine similar to the one Adel was held in, although as Skyblade from
eyesonff.com noted, the game never states that these devices will keep people
alive indefinitely. Another suggestion is that with all the time-travelling
and such, it's possible she jumped forward in time at some point, and one
could ostensibly dream up other ways for Rinoa to reach the far future of
Ultimecia.
Indeed, R=U is not disproven from a mathematical point of view. However, that
has never been, and can't ever be, the aim of such a debate. R=U is a debate
on literary interpretation, not a mathematical conjecture (despite the fact that
its popular title, "R=U," makes it sound like it), and as such any talk about
proving or disproving it are meaningless because it's simply not possible
to prove or disprove a literary interpretation! Instead, the focus lies on what
is plausible and not. As an example, one could speculate that Irvine is in
fact Ultimecia. This would be impossible to disprove entirely, but anyone
will recognise that this theory is too implausible to consider.
Although the tragic spin of the R=U theory might make the plot a lot more
interesting for several gamers who find Ultimecia a bit lacking in character
anyway, the theory simply is not plausible. It's not quite as bad as the
suggestion that Irvine = Ultimecia mind you, but the hints are simply not
strong enough. The claim that Rinoa is Ultimecia is very strong and if true
would be an incredibly important plot-point, perhaps even the most important
one. As such, it is necessary for the hints to be very strong indeed, but as
has been shown in the previous part, none of the hints are particularly
convincing by themselves, and even presented all together seem redundant
due to the Ultimania information, which does three damning things against
R=U. Firstly, it wrecks the main argument as to how R=U is even possible
to begin with. Secondly, it implies a different background to Ultimecia all
together. Thirdly, it never mentions anything indicating R=U. The arguments
just end up looking far too weak.
In light of all this, the final verdict of the theory is that despite not being
100% impossible, it simply is not plausible by any reasonable stretch of
the imagination, and as far as literary criticism goes, the theory is simply
not true.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that we have established that R really isn't U, we are back at square
one:
Who is Ultimecia? What does she want? Where did she come from? Why does
she want to compress time? In this next section, TheOnionKnight will present
his theory of Ultimecia, which is without exaggerating THE best and by far
most plausible theory on Ultimecia there is (as far as I'm concerned anyway!).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2) AN ULTIMECIAN ANALYSIS - THE UNJUST PERSECUTION (by TheOnionKnight)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this portion of the Time/Ultimecia Plot FAQ, one of Ultimecia's
potential motives will be explored. While some people believe that
Ultimecia is Rinoa, and others that she is simply insane, both of these
theories will be placed totally aside -- neither are about to be
discussed here. Instead, what follows is a totally different theory,
one founded not in raw speculation, but in the simple application of common
sense to the events of the game. Many people overlook the fact that most
if not all of Ultimecia's character development takes place through Edea
and during the first disc. Many people also overlook the impact which
the Time War, Galbadian War, and the Lunatic Pandora's resurrection would
have had on the world. These may seem two separate issues, but when
considered side by side, they provide a very sensible, and a very human,
motive for Ultimecia. By the end of this portion of the FAQ, I hope you
will have a better understanding of Ultimecia's character and her quest
to compress time, and you will certainly have a new theory, perhaps one
that you agree with, under your belt.
---------------
SUBSECTIONS
---------------
1. How History is Written - the Galbadian War, the Lunatic Pandora, and
the Time War
2. The Rise of Ultimecia
3. "Destined to Face Me"
4. With a Name like Ultimecia...
5. To Compress, or Not to Compress (To Compress, Of Course!)
6. The End is the Beginning~
7. Questions and answers
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. HOW HISTORY IS WRITTEN - THE GALBADIAN WAR, THE LUNATIC
PANDORA, AND THE TIME WAR
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To begin with, let me state that history itself, as recorded in books and
the populace's memory, is a pivotal factor in the following theory. As
such, I would like to begin by making it perfectly clear just how massive an
impact the events of FFVIII would have had on its world.
The game roughly picks up with a kidnapping attempt; the President of
Galbadia is slated for abduction and interrogation because he has appointed
a strange new person, Sorceress Edea, to a position in the Galbadian
government, and after attacking and seizing neighboring countries is on the
brink of launching an assault against the entire civilized world. Led by a
rebel force known as the Timber Owls, an amateur resistance group belonging
to a country already occupied by Galbadia, this kidnapping attempt fails,
and flushes the Owls into the open. One of their prime members is Rinoa
Heartily, the daughter of the famed and high-ranking General Caraway of the
Galbadian government.
Apart from one nation striking out against another's leader, this kidnapping
attempt also unveils a possible internal corruption of the Galbadian
government itself. The pot of war is already boiling, but situations become
more extreme when Sorceress Edea herself goes a step further than kidnapping:
she publicly executes the Galbadian President and claims dictatorship over
Galbadia, instantly launching the country into all-out worldwide war.
Galbadia is one of two major world powers, the other being Esthar. Having
feuded before, the two countries had taken up peaceful terms, and Esthar
contained itself by super-technology to an isolated region of the world. If
Esthar warring with Galbadia was the equivalent of Earth's World War I, then
Galbadia leading another attack not just on Esthar, but on every other country
on the planet, would surpass its Earthly equivalent, World War II. It would
be the largest military feud the planet had ever faced, and all of it would
have been instigated by a single force: Sorceress Edea.
The third largest world power in FFVIII is not a country, but an organization
called Garden. It is an elite mercenary force, and can easily tip scales and
reverse tides in war if its aid is summoned. It, too, is embroiled in this
worldwide conflict, and many of its bases are destroyed by the Galbadian Army.
In the end, it is a group of SeeDs, soldiers of Garden, led by Squall Leonheart,
who remove Sorceress Edea from power. Where all other countries have failed,
this one group of SeeDs succeeds, and removes a major threat to the planet,
slowing the war.
However, the war is not over: Edea's second-in-command, Seifer Almasy, takes
control of the remaining Galbadian forces. But far worse than simply
prolonging military battles, Seifer leads the Galbadians to the resting place
of the Lunatic Pandora, at the bottom of the ocean, and resurrects it.
The Lunatic Pandora is a device capable of calling monsters in a stream from
the moon. This "Lunar Cry" is devastating, and having occurred once before,
it demolished the entire Centra continent. Sunken by Esthar to stop it from
ever activating again, the Lunatic Pandora is once again up and running.
Seifer commands Galbadian forces to direct the Lunatic Pandora into Esthar,
where its mammoth structure cannot be halted, and position it right over Tears
Point, a nexus of power that will even further increase its pull from the
moon. Another Lunar Cry is poised to occur, and not only pollute the planet
with rampant lunar monsters, but to demolish an entire region of the Esthar
continent.
Then situation thickens even more: pulled from the moon by the Lunatic Pandora
is not just a torrent of monsters, but also the tomb of the Sorceress Adel!
Once a vicious dictator of Esthar, it was Adel who had led the previous war
against Galbadia, and who had been incapacitated and banished to an icy space
prison by her own countrymen. Her power is legendary, and her return marks
an almost hopeless fate for the future of the planet. Not only have the
majority of its countries been reduced to clamoring rubble by Galbadia, but
Garden has been dismantled, only its elite having survived the war, Esthar
is on the brink of utter destruction, Galbadia itself is wounded terrifically
from its own brash attacks on other nations, and an evil ruler from the past,
once thought banished, but now alive and well, has made her triumphant
return to the scene to (what else?) seize the entire world as her own. Not
only that, but once she returns, she is in position to take immediate control
over the remaining Galbadian forces and the Lunatic Pandora. In short, the
planet is screwed beyond measure, and there is no way to stop the unending
influx of destruction.
And then, it all stops. Within a day, Adel is killed, Galbadian forces
withdraw, Garden reclaims its title as the most elite military force on the
planet, the world's countries are set free to control themselves again, and
Esthar, though it has just been overrun by lunar monsters, is still left with
a functioning group of qualified and capable leaders. On the other side of
the coin, Galbadia is left with no leaders, a defeated army, and a confused
and helpless populace.
How did it all happen? What saved the day?
A group of SeeDs saved the day, the same group that had previously annexed
Sorceress Edea from power. Not only that, but this one group of SeeDs was
directed by Cid and Edea Kramer themselves, the highest ranking Garden
officials, by Dr. Odine, the greatest living scientist, and by Laguna, the
President of Esthar, as well as the higher-ranking Esthar government officials
and scientists. It was a group effort of elite proportions, a group effort
involving the most renowned, intelligent, and battle-savvy individuals alive,
as well as an effort involving the heads of two of the world's three largest
powers. And how was it accomplished? By acts of time travel.
Through statements made by Sorceress Edea and Sorceress Rinoa, and by
advanced studies by Dr. Odine that were capable due to a lifetime of culminating
research, the true enemy of the world was discovered: Sorceress Ultimecia,
a Sorceress from the far future who had used time travel to possess Sorceress
Edea. This time travel was possible because of a machine that Dr. Odine
himself invented, the Junction Machine Ellone, a machine utilizing imitated
powers that naturally belong to the mysterious woman, Ellone, long sought
after by Sorceress Adel and studied by Dr. Odine. In truth, Sorceress
Ultimecia had possessed Edea and through her sparked the worldwide war in an
attempt to a) possess and absorb Sorceress Adel's powers, and b) find the
real Ellone and travel back even further in time. She sought to do this in
order to cast a spell called Time Compression, which would compress time and
render her the only being capable of living in the new existence of her
creation.
How was she defeated? On Dr. Odine's advice, Squall's group of SeeDs
defeated Adel, forcing Ultimecia to possess Rinoa in Adel's place. Ellone
then used her powers of time travel to give Ultimecia exactly what she wanted:
she sent Ultimecia back further in time so that she could begin casting Time
Compression. Abusing the warped time and space around them, Squall's group
of SeeDs then traveled to Ultimecia's future and defeated her. When the spell
began to slow, and time began to decompress back to normal, Squall's group
also returned to their normal place in time. And with Ultimecia defeated,
the instigating factor of the war was demolished and the world set right
again.
What, you might ask yourself, was the point of such a plot synopsis? Why
bother summarizing the story? For a simple reason: to emphasize just how
massively the entire planet had been jeopardized. Combined, the Galbadian War
and the Lunatic Pandora's resurrection created distress in FFVIII's world that
our own Earth has not even dreamt of coming close to, even in hypothetical
situations of nuclear holocaust. The planet underwent the most tremendous war
it had ever experienced, and came out of that war miraculously.
My point: the Galbadian War, and the incident of the Lunatic Pandora, would
have been documented, documented, documented! They would have been
recorded in insane detail, studied intensely by generations upon generations
upon generations to come. They would have made our Earth's World Wars look'
like bouts of schoolyard fun. They would have been known about by nearly, if not
all living inhabitants for the rest of that planet's existence.
My next point: The Time War, and SeeD's assault on Ultimecia, would have
also been known of, and been perhaps more impacting and legendary, than the
rest of the incidents combined!
The world is in ruin, and suddenly, everything stops. Who has the answer to
why everything stops? The highest ranking officials of the remaining world
powers. The most celebrated scientists alive. The most credible sources
anyone could possibly imagine.
The world, especially Galbadia, left without any leaders and with a devastated
army and country, would not only be curious, would not only ask about, but
would demand an explanation. And it would be given to them, by Laguna the
humanist and president, Dr. Odine the brilliant and boasting scientist, and
by Garden, the heroes themselves. The truth behind the matter (time travel, a
Sorceress from the future named Ultimecia) might be scrutinized due to its
extreme oddness... might be scrutinized had it not the most credible sources
on the planet to back it up, as well as scientific evidence, inherent in the
developing Junction Machine Ellone and Ellone herself, to support its
validity. In a world of magic, where Sorceresses rule, Sorceress Ultimecia
would indeed become a household name for nearly throwing the planet into
unalterable chaos.
The Galbadian War, the Lunatic Pandora, and Sorceress Ultimecia would
undoubtedly go down in history for the destruction they caused. They would
be known the world over for centuries, if not millennia, to come. If we still
remember the skirmishes of Julius Caesar, the endangering of humanity and
existence itself by Ultimecia would surely be cemented in human memory for
ages.
In short, the events of FFVIII would most undoubtedly be recorded and
remembered.
----------------------------
2. THE RISE OF ULTIMECIA
----------------------------
All of this has led up to a simple extension of thought: if the world knew
about Ultimecia, and it certainly would have, and knew that she resided in
the future, then it would be perfectly reasonable, indeed, sensible and
expected, for the world to keep an eye open for Ultimecia's rise to power.
The history books in FFVIII's world are very unique in the sense that they
predict the future with 100% accuracy. Because the future intersected with
the past, certain future events would be known beyond doubt to occur, and
prime among these would be the existence of a certain Sorceress Ultimecia with
a few evil intentions.
Here is where a dose of common sense is required: if the world is aware that
an evil Sorceress named Ultimecia will rise to power, might not it be
understandable that the world would try to prevent this? Despite history
records stating Ultimecia will be defeated, people, with a mob mentality
especially, adore taking matters into their own hands. Might not the world be
spared a little trouble if Ultimecia can be defeated by future generations
before she has a chance to attempt Time Compression? Might it not help
matters if Ultimecia was watched for, waited for, and taken down when she
began to rise to power? After all, it certainly couldn't hurt.
---
NOTE BY SIR B: Another point brought up by Yuthura Ban was that if Rinoa truly
is the last sorceress of her time, and a sorceress must give up her powers
before dying, it would hardly be unreasonable to assume that the world leaders
would be keeping an eye out on where those powers went!
---
White SeeDs are known to have combated Ultimecia in the future. Their dead
bodies are strewn on the beach before her castle, and are heavily presumed
to have been killed by her. She was not a silent menace, casting Time
Compression from her castle, and hidden from the world. She was a public
one, well-known enough to be attacked head-on, in her own time, by SeeDs
alive at that time.
---
NOTE BY SIR B: Yet again, Yuthura Ban brings up the fact that the White SeeD's
who are supposed to be from hundreds of years into the future still wear the
same uniforms as in the era of the game. However, he also points out that this
is almost certainly due to Square cutting corners with graphics, as there is
nothing else at all indicating that they are not White SeeD of the far future.
---
This means that despite history records stating that Ultimecia was to be
defeated by a group of SeeDs led by Squall, the future residents of
Ultimecia's world still acted out against her. And after all, isn't that
exactly what's expected? Even if Ultimecia's defeat is recorded in history,
and is a surefire event destined to occur, if she is a power terrorizing the
world, the world's citizens at that time are more than likely to strike back
in their own present and by their own means. Human nature dictates
self-preservation, and as evidenced by this, as well as the dead SeeDs on
the beach outside of Ultimecia's castle, we can easily and logically assume
that Ultimecia was fought in her own time, and before she ever met with Squall
and Co.
Ultimecia was pursued by the residents of her future world.
----------------------------
3. "DESTINED TO FACE ME"
----------------------------
When Squall and Co. encounter Ultimecia inside of Galbadia Garden during her
quest to capture Ellone, she observes them with knowing, as if she has been
waiting for their arrival:
Edea: "So the time has come. You're the legendary SeeD destined to face me?"
Squall: "(What is she talking about?)"
Edea: "I must say that I am impressed. ...An impressive nuisance. Your life
ends here, SeeD. Worthless fools."
Ultimecia does not make many blunt statements, and does not usually let-on to
what she knows or why she is doing what she is doing. She is attempting to
compress time. For what purpose? She calls Squall a legendary SeeD, and says
that he was destined to face her. Why?
The answer is painfully obvious: because Ultimecia is from the future, and
Squall defeated her in the past, she is aware of her own impending defeat by
his hands!
Just like the rest of the future world, Ultimecia would surely know of the
wars that transpired in the past. She would know of the events that
threatened the life of the planet. She would know, like the SeeDs laying dead
on her beach, that she was a menace to the world in the past! She would know
that SeeD is what defeated her, and she would know the name of its leader!
She would know that Squall was "destined to face" her!
When looked at in hindsight, this revelation makes perfect sense. It accounts
for her calling Squall a legendary SeeD, when as of his own present he is
still nothing more than a common cadet. It utilizes the sensible idea that
Ultimecia would be aware of history's records. And it explains why SeeD
confronted her in her own time: because she was a threat written in history.
Said vice versa, SHE was the legendary Sorceress destined to face SeeD!
------------------------------------
4. WITH A NAME LIKE ULTIMECIA...
------------------------------------
This brings me to my biggest point: how Ultimecia was "created."
If it is written in history that a tyrannical Sorceress named Ultimecia is
to one day attempt conquering the planet, who in their right mind would name
their child Ultimecia? This is a trivial question, one that almost seems
comical, but in it lays a much deeper issue. The question arises: how
would someone like Ultimecia be allowed to be birthed, raised, and rise to
power if her presence is written into history? Why would she not be silenced
instantly and immediately?
The answer to this question can once again be found in mob mentality.
Sorceresses are already despised in Squall's present due largely to the evil
influence of Adel. They are, according to the Tutorial, forced to go into
hiding for fear of the public's reaction to their existence. For an easy
example of the mentality of the masses in regards to individuals of potential
threat, I point to a real life situation: the Witchcraft Trials of Salem,
Massachusetts.
Many people are aware of these famous colonial Trials, where anyone who might
have even possibly had the most remote inkling of chancing to be a seemingly
potential witch, was unjustly imprisoned and tried. Witches were sought after.
Witches were hunted. People accused other people of being witches. Witches
were created for the sake of being imprisoned. Salem embraced the horror of
its witchcraft situation, not because it was sadistic but because it was
terrified. Innocent individuals were hung for deeds they did not do, all
because they might have done them, maybe. Pandemonium swept the
surrounding area, and no one was safe from suspicion.
Apply this idea to FFVIII. It fits the game very neatly. In FFVIII's world,
however, people need not be suspected of being witches, because actual
Sorceresses exist, capable of wielding great magical power. Like they were
in Salem, these Sorceresses are hated by the masses. They are banished from
public life. The idea of their existence is loathed. And this, mind you, is
even before Ultimecia, a Sorceress, shows up to give them an even worse name.
After her entrance, Sorceress hatred would surely increase even more
unimaginably.
In the future, with the world on the lookout for the rise of an evil
Sorceress, it can be assumed quite effortlessly that the populace of the
planet was of the same mind as the populace of Salem in its witchcraft days.
Sorceresses might have even been "created," innocent people blamed for using
magic, simply due to nervous caution. The Sorceresses already in hiding would
be forced to hide further. Perhaps those in hiding would not even be able to
remain so. Perhaps every future Sorceress would be flushed into the open and
examined, scrutinized, possibly even abused and tormented, for potentially
being able to "turn into" Ultimecia.
This hypothetical situation is of a most basic nature, and merely assumes
the obvious: that people discriminate, and that the discriminated suffer.
Sorceresses, every one and all of them, would likely be discriminated
against for the crimes that Ultimecia committed in the past. They would be
hated for things that they did not even do. They might even be tortured. Who
knows how far their misery might go? And somewhere in the numbers of living
Sorceresses, the ones hated by the world, shunned by it, IS a little girl
destined by fate and history to grow into Ultimecia.
Why would a Sorceress want to wipe humanity from existence?
Why would a Sorceress want to compress time to be the only living person
left?
The question is more along these lines: which Sorceress WOULDN'T want to
destroy humanity if she was hated and abused by it for her entire life, and
for an unjust reason? Abused for acts committed in the past that she had no
control over?
I hope my message is beginning to grow clearer. In the future, Ultimecia
would be hated by the world before she did a single bad thing. In the future,
she would be hunted. This is not speculation, it is logic, dictated by the
fact that the world would remember her for acts recorded in history, and
would despise her before she was even born. Even as a little girl, Ultimecia
would never have any hope of living a normal life. Because she was written
as evil in history, she was destined to become evil in the people of the
world's eyes. And after being "unjustly imprisoned and tried," who wouldn't
want to strike back? Hated and hunted by SeeD throughout her life,
Ultimecia's returned hatred for them certainly makes much more sense under
these circumstances.
Edea: "...Lowlifes. ...Shameless filthy wretches. How you celebrate my
ascension with such joy. Hailing the very one whom you have condemned
for generations. Have you no shame? What happened to the evil, ruthless
sorceress from your fantasies? The cold-blooded tyrant that slaughtered
countless men and destroyed many nations? Where is she now? She
stands before your very eyes to become your new ruler. HAHAHAHAHA."
Here, Ultimecia fundamentally mocks the masses who have "condemned her for
generations," and even goes so far as to catalogue titles previously given
her: "evil, ruthless, cold-blooded, and tyrannical," presumably by the
citizens of her own future world who hated her for things she had done in the
past.
Because she is from the future, Ultimecia is aware of her own death and
aware of the world-wide witch hunt undergone to destroy her. It is totally
feasible that in her own time she was pursued because of acts she had not
yet committed, and as thus was an innocent turned evil by unavoidable events
that transpired in the past. She was hunted from birth and unable to change
what she had already done. As such, her persecution was truly unjust, and her
plot to compress time an act of revenge against the world and the SeeDs that
had doomed her before she was even alive.
Finally, to answer the question: who would name their child Ultimecia? The
answer to this involves some guesswork, but is simple enough to hypothesize.
Surely Ultimecia would not be given the name of a legendary evil Sorceress at
birth, but after being tormented and mobbed her entire life, and after being
driven to the brink by a persecuting public, she might have very well assumed
the name herself out of spite.
"You think that I�m Ultimecia? Then so be it, kurse you all, I AM Ultimecia!"
This is but one out of countless hypothetical situations that might be dreamed
up in regards to how Ultimecia obtained her name, but again, I feel it is one
of the least assuming. For Ultimecia to take up her name because it was forced
on her by those who loathe her would truly be the climaxing moment of her
"creation."
----------------------------------------------------------------
5. TO COMPRESS, OR NOT TO COMPRESS - TO COMPRESS, OF COURSE!
----------------------------------------------------------------
With the idea established that Ultimecia was driven into "becoming"
Ultimecia through the persecution of the masses, and that her actions were
ones of revenge against a world that didn't give her a chance, but hated her
before she had done anything wrong, one large question still remains:
Why Time Compression, of all things?
There are two possible reasons for Ultimecia to have chosen Time Compression
(TC) as her method of revenge. I plan to address both of them, though I
heavily favor one over the other, for reasons that I hope you will agree with
me on.
Reason One:
Reason One argues that, quite simply, if Ultimecia is aware of the events
that transpire in the past, and knows how her own defeat will take place, that
she would be, bluntly, a moron to then cast TC as an act of revenge, because
she would knowingly be setting her own death in motion.
This Reason argues that, instead, Ultimecia was totally oblivious to the
events of the past, and ignorant of her defeat, as well as the Galbadian War,
Time War, and the victory of SeeD. Because she was ignorant, she cast TC,
attempting to conquer time and the world, but had no idea that this casting
of TC would be her undoing.
This Reason fails to account for Ultimecia calling Squall a legendary SeeD
destined to face her, and also makes her out to be a dunce who's unaware of
the most important historical events of the past. However, it does explain,
very basically, how she could cast TC and expect it to work as a tool to
enact her vengeance without knowing of its fated consequence: her doom.
Reason Two:
Reason Two is much trickier for many people to grasp, because it requires
Ultimecia to knowingly, consciously embrace the very method of her
fated death, TC, in an attempt to emerge victorious. It seems hypocritical!
But, in fact, Reason Two supplies Ultimecia with a very fitting mental state,
and a very fitting reason for her to have done what she did.
Reason Two states that Ultimecia chose TC as a method of revenge for the
simple reason that she knew that it would lead to her demise. This does not,
however, mean that she intended it to lead to her demise! This merely means
that she DID know the history of the world, DID know why she was being
persecuted, and DID realize that she was being blamed for past events that
she could not have altered while she was being held accountable for them.
She also DID realize that, according to the history books, she was said to
have been defeated after casting TC.
But the thing of it is, for Ultimecia to believe in what history has written
is for Ultimecia to justify her own persecution at the hands of the masses.
If she concedes that history is flawless in its accounts, then she concedes
that the world had every right to punish her prematurely, because she really
WAS always evil. She concedes that her pursuit by the future SeeDs was moral,
right, and proper. She concedes that she deserved it.
In other words, for Ultimecia to believe what history says is for Ultimecia
to believe in the existence of fate -- fate, the very concept that branded her
a threat to the planet before she was born; fate, the reason for her misery.
For Ultimecia to believe what history says is for Ultimecia to not believe
she can change the past. But, like Ellone, she WANTS to change the past, and
wants to desperately! She cannot stand to believe that it is unalterable!
Like Ellone, and like Squall when he attempts to rescue Rinoa through Ellone's
powers in space, Ultimecia is rebelling against the idea that fate exists.
Ultimecia cannot simply accept that history is right. She cannot believe
that she will truly meet her end at the hands of SeeDs that live in the past.
And what is the most ultimate form of rebellion that she can take against
these historical statements? To cast TC, to go through with it as written
in history, and then to KILL the band of SeeDs and emerge victorious from a
situation that fate had named impossible for her to live through: this
would be the ultimate method of rebellion! This, more than anything, would
denounce fate, and denounce her persecution, the discriminatory hate of the
masses, as absolutely unjust and corrupt in every dimension! She would
knowingly embrace the events that history tells her will lead to her doom
simply to spit in history's face by emerging, she hopes, as the victor.
Apart from this, successfully casting TC would also put fate itself, quite
literally, in her hands. By becoming the ruler of all space and time, she
would assume control over both the events of the past and the people of the
world that caused her life's suffering. With such power over the nature of
existence, she would be able to crush her persecutors immeasurably.
Ultimecia: "Insolent fools! Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for
your meddling is death beyond death. I shall send you to a
dimension beyond your imagining. There, I will reign, and you will
be my slaves for eternity."
Completing TC would grant Ultimecia both the ability to punish those who have
hated her, hunted her, and would also prove fate an absolute myth, declaring
the past alterable and her persecution unjust.
That the past is not alterable is irrelevant. That Ultimecia will die
rebelling against it is the tragedy of her story. Just as Ellone finds out
that the past cannot be changed, so will Ultimecia, but it will be too late,
and on her deathbed. Because fate is an overarching theme of FFVIII, that
its villain would exist as an entity rebelling against it is totally fitting.
And that, because that villain could not accept fate under any circumstance,
she would die, is also equally fitting. Because Ultimecia is, after all, a
villain.
-------------------------------
6. THE END IS THE BEGINNING
-------------------------------
In the end, I have made only two assumptions to reach everything stated
above regarding the rise and development of Ultimecia:
- That important historical events would be remembered.
- That the populace of the future would discriminate against people history
states will threaten the world.
I have made only one other assumption, and this in regards to why Ultimecia
would choose to compress time:
- Because to compress time is the ultimate way to rebel against the historical
records that have condemned her.
All theories aside, Ultimecia did attempt compressing time. This is an
unarguable fact. Finding a reason for her to do so, and clarifying her
motive, is the purpose of this FAQ. In the end, I believe I have made the
smallest number of assumptions possible, all of these assumptions being
nothing more than common sense statements regarding human mentality, to bring
Ultimecia's motive to light. All one needs to do is read between the lines,
and sometimes, simply read the lines.
Edea: "Such a confused little boy. Are you going to step forward? Retreat?
You have to decide."
Seifer: "Stay back!"
Edea: "The boy in you is telling you to come. The adult in you is telling you
to back off. You can't make up your mind. You don't know the right
answer. You want help, don't you? You want to be saved from this
predicament."
Seifer: "Shut up!"
Edea: "Don't be ashamed to ask for help. Besides, you're only a little boy."
Seifer: "I'm not... Stop calling me a boy."
Edea: "You don't want to be a boy anymore?"
Seifer: "I am not a BOY!"
Edea: "Come with me to a place of no return. Bid farewell to your
childhood."
This is the first glimpse we are ever given of Ultimecia, and it revolves
around her questioning of Seifer. She asks him if he will remain a helpless
child, or step forward and claim his destiny. Applied to her own past of
being hunted because of acts she had not yet committed, this speech leans
just as much toward Ultimecia's own decisions as it does toward Seifer's.
She tells him that it is alright to ask for help, alright to abandon
childhood and innocence, and alright to embark into a "place of no return"
in order to secure his destiny. How extraordinarily similar to Ultimecia's
own decision to compress time for revenge. She herself crossed a point of
no return in an attempt to rebel against her persecution and crush those
responsible for it. It was in an attempt to break free of fate that she led
herself into its merciless grasp. She was born innocent and into a world
bent against her because of past events that she had no control over. Time
Compression was her chance to be "saved from this predicament," yet in the
end it was the very cause of the predicament she sought refuge from. Fate
is omnipotent, and human life - expendable.
As a very final note, Squall_Of_SeeD has this to add:
"This theory is supported by Selphie's epilogue to the story of Final Fantasy
VIII, as seen in her diary entry published as the last page of the Scenario
section of the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guide:
(Translated by DarkAngel)
"Finally, we arrived at Ultimecia's castle. Inside, there were a lot of traps
waiting for us! Our futures were hinged in the balance -- could we do this?
...you know, I just thought of something right now. What was Ultimecia
thinking? She was trying to survive in the only way she knew how, I think. Was
she trying to reach all the way out to the past to compress time, so that she
could try to erase the fate she knew was in store for her...? Thinking about
it that way, maybe what I'm writing is one-sided."
Here, Selphie realizes that Ultimecia was merely trying to avoid the fate that
was sealed for her by herself and SeeD long before she was even born. While
one might argue that these are simply Selphie's musings and not something to
be taken as canon, considering that the author of the Scenario section of the
Ultimania Guide (Benny Matsuyama) obviously wrote this in for a purpose, it
being the epilogue after all, and that Ultimania Guides are published by
Square-Enix themselves, they are official documents and such things as this
written into the narrative of a character's thoughts should be analyzed with
the consideration that it was put there because it is the truth (as nothing is
ever offered to contradict it).
In conclusion, Ultimecia's ultimate goal was to avoid her fate, but in the
process, to also become one with the universe through Time Compression and
the Witch Embodiment, and to then guide all things as she felt they should be."
----------------------------
7. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
----------------------------
This section will be dedicated to miscellaneous tidbits regarding Ultimecia's
situation, and how it might have effected certain specific events in the game.
Any questions submitted by e-mail will also be addressed in this section to
the best of the authors' abilities.
Q. Ultimecia stabs Squall in the chest in the end of disc 1, yet instead of
just killing him, she heals him and keeps him captive instead to interrogate
him about SeeD, despite the fact that she could have used any other of the
SeeDs for this purpose. Why?
A. She may not have realized who Squall was at this point in the game, as she
only clearly acknowledges that he is the SeeD destined to face her at the
end of disc 2. But she also may have really wanted to find out about SeeD,
since she holds such a personal vendetta against them. That's why she may
have kept the SeeDs alive to question them before dispatching them. We must
also remember, however, that she merely knocks them out: Seifer is the one
interrogating them, and he most probably picked to question/torture Squall
due to their rivalry. I have no doubt the other members would've been
questioned, too, and then probably killed, if not for the jail break.
Ultimecia did want to kill them, but she also wanted the information that
they had, and she thought she was in a position to question them without
them posing a threat. Add to that her not realizing they were THE SeeDs
fated to fight her yet, and she has a perfectly good reason for keeping them
alive just a little bit longer.
Q. In the space station, Rinoa (Ultimecia) is in a state where Squall is
completely at her mercy. If he just touches her, he is flung back against
the wall. Now, instead of taking advantage of this position of power to kill
Squall easily, Ultimecia rather ignores him so as to continue with her plan
to release Adel, as if Squall was merely an annoyance. Why?
A. Most likely, because she DOES regard him as merely an annoyance. At that
moment in the space station, he's playing second fiddle to Ultimecia's primary
goal: unsealing Adel. With Ultimecia's rebellious mental state, thinking she
doesn't have to worry about history's predictions because she'll overcome them
and prove fate wrong, she probably does just swat Squall away to deal with him
later. She thinks that she CAN deal with him later, and is more concerned
about completing TC at the moment than dealing with, in her own words, an
"impressive nuisance."
=======================================
-Section IV: Additional Information-
=======================================
This next section is just a collection of various other useful and
interesting information.
-----------------------
~Ultimania Information~
-----------------------
Here follows all the translated Ultimania information we have from the
Ultimania (the official guide made by Square), translated by DarkAngel of
Adventchildren.net, using the Ultimania guide purchased by Squall_Of_Seed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Scan.jpg
"Sorceresses
Said to have existed from time immemorial to the present day, the sorceresses
are women who are said to have received their powers from the old god, Hyne.
There is, however, no hard evidence to support this claim. Extraordinarily
powerful, many sorceresses have harboured ambitions to rule over the world --
as a result, many people have come to equate the Sorceress with fear. However,
there are also many Sorceresses who have chosen to live a quiet life sheltered
away from civilized society; as such, the actual number of Sorceresses and the
amount of power shared between them remains unknown.
The potential to become a sorceress is determined by one's capacity to wield
such power -- their natural affinity for magic. This factor helps to determine
Sorceress candidates for when a Sorceress passes on all of her power into the
next Sorceress. The giving and receiving of power can be made between any two
individuals -- it is not necessary for them to be related by blood. A
Sorceress' lifespan is the same as a normal human's, however they cannot die
until they have passed on their power to the next Sorceress."
"Magic
A special power that can only be used by Sorceresses. The magic that is used
by human beings is referred to as para-magic. Discovered by Doctor Odine
during the course of his Sorceress research, para-magic via junctioning GF is
used by Balamb Garden. While it is possible to use para-magic without prior
training, without equipping a GF one's power is limited physically, and cannot
develop beyond normal parameters. (#) However, in order to create forces
capable of fighting without having to rely on the power of the GFs during
combat, Galbadia Garden has instituted areas with special anti-magic force
fields similar to those used in the D-District Prison."
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Scan2.jpg
"GUNBLADE
Combining the sword with a standard shotgun's mechanisms, the Gunblade is a
unique weapon. If you pull the trigger while the bullet is "set," a strong
wave of power will travel down to the edge of the blade, raising the attack
power of the Gunblade. By pulling the trigger at the right time, one can
release a powerful attack; however, achieving competency in usage of the
Gunblade is very difficult and therefore requires a high degree of aptitude."
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Scan3.jpg
"Latest Diary Entry (Public)
Finally, we arrived at Ultimecia's castle. Inside, there were a lot of traps
waiting for us! Our futures were hinged in the balance -- could we do this?
...you know, I just thought of something right now. What was Ultimecia
thinking? She was trying to survive in the only way she knew how, I think. Was
she trying to reach all the way out to the past to compress time, so that she
could try to erase the fate she knew was in store for her...? Thinking about
it that way, maybe what I'm writing is one-sided.
Okay, moving on! If any of you want to ask me in person, I'll always be
around! Think of it as a treat from your local, friendly Garden Festival
Committee Director!
Oh, and I wanted to talk about Seifer too. I know a lot of people might still
be harbouring a grudge against him, but he's got nowhere to go, so I feel
sorry for him. He lost his sanity back then (Hmm...), so let's just leave him
alone, okay? Fujin and Raijin, too. Okay?
Aaah! I can't believe it's this time already! The party's going to start soon!
The video camera's not even done charging yet! I've got to change, too! Hurry!
Until next time!"
---------------------------
~Miscellaneous Information~
---------------------------
Here follows a compilation of various pieces of information found in the game
you might not have noticed. This list is courtesy of Leuchest/The Dark Legend.
-------------------------
* Sorceress Knight Movie
-------------------------
Balamb Garden Students:
"By the way...About the movie we want to go see..."
"Oh, I'll watch anything."
"I wanna see an action movie!"
"No way! We just saw one last week."
"I'm up for a comedy today."
"Or how 'bout that movie about the sorceress and the knight!?"
"Oh, you mean that remake?"
"I've never actually sat through the whole movie."
This is a reference to Laguna's movie. Whether his was the original or the
remake is unknown.
------------------------------------
* History Classes in Balamb Garden
------------------------------------
Balamb Garden Student:
"I have a question for ya! Esthar was the country that was governed by this
evil sorceress way back when, right?"
"So what happened to this sorceress? Did someone overthrow the sorceress? Did
we learn about this in class?"
"I think I cut class that day, so, like, I have no idea what this sorceress is
about."
No, the outcome of the Sorceress War is not known to the public. If you ask
General Caraway in the second disc, or read Selphie's diary, they too, have
no clue what happened after the war, as Esthar closed its borders.
----------------------------------------
* Communication throughout the World
----------------------------------------
Balamb Garden Student:
"Worldwide signal interference. It started without warning 17 years ago."
"That's why we communicate online, and use chocobos as messengers now."
"That's why there's no reason to get the tower up and running."
Communication online is done through HD cables, often destroyed by monsters.
---------------------
* Anarchist Monthly
---------------------
[Anarchist Monthly] First Issue!!!
"Galbadia's dictator, President Vinzer Deling Special! How does he stay on
power?"
"We reveal his darkest secrets!!!"
[Anarchist Monthly] 2nd Issue!
"President Deling became the president after the 2nd Sorceress War ended."
"To gain support quickly, he carried out the invasion of Timber."
"It was only a ploy to decorate an already corrupted man's immoral career..."
"Our land Timber was brutally destroyed."
"Here began Vinzer Deling's road to dictatorship..."
[Anarchist Monthly] 3rd Issue!
"To imprison anti-government sympathizers, the D-District Prison was built in
the desert south of Deling City."
"Millions were spent to built the facility. The threat of being sent to the
prison intensified Deling's unpopularity."
"The prison began imprisoning Galbadian anti-government sympathizers just as
they did in Timber."
"Moreover, the leaders of the resistance movements faced the threat of having
family members imprisoned as well."
"Around this time, Deling began surrounding himself only with loyalists, which
turned him into an even more fierce dictator."
[Anarchist Monthly] Final Issue!!!
"With the exception of Esthar, the Galbadian Military possesses the world's
only long range missiles."
"Although never used in combat, their existence has become a worldwide threat."
"It is said that the missiles have the ability to hit any target with
astounding accuracy even without using radio signals."
"Will the time come for the president to push the button!? When the time comes,
Ti..."
The articles tell us more about the D-District Prison and the Long Range
Missiles (naturally, even before you're aware of it). It's now confirmed that
the war fought between Esthar (under Adel's rule) and the world was known as
the second Sorceress War. It's unknown which was the first (it may have been
a reference to the legend of the battle against Hyne himself, but there's no
way to be sure).
--------------------------------
* Vinzer Deling's Dictatorship
--------------------------------
Member of Forest Owls:
"Did you see the clipping on the board in the conference room?"
"[Anarchist Monthly] used to write special reports about the president."
"I saw the guy who wrote for that magazine being taken away to prison."
"Being imprisoned for telling the truth...That's downright wrong!!!"
"It's not just the men who are sent to the prison."
"Deling sends women, children, the elderly...Anyone who stands against him."
"What was once a thriving resistance movement died down because of this."
This reveals us more about the D-District Prison. Contrary to what Rinoa says,
it's not just political activists that are imprisoned...
--------------------------
* Laguna Loire in Timber
--------------------------
Woman:
"Just don't scare me from behind."
"Once, I almost got hit by a train when someone tried to surprise me."
"But a very handsome young man quickly grabbed my hand and saved me..."
"If I remember correctly...his name was......Loire...I think..."
Yes, Laguna is, indeed, a very present man.
---------------------------------
* Adel's Messages in TV Station
---------------------------------
"I'm alive"
"Bring me back there"
"I'll never let you forget me"
If you examine the static on the big TV screen in Timber, before Seifer
attacks the President, you will see these sentences repeating constantly.
They are from Adel, and result from Adel's Seal causing interference in
radio waves on earth.
----------------------------
* Laguna's Inventions...
----------------------------
Soldier:
"The president asks for the weirdest things."
"This time, he wants a device that allows you to scratch anywhere on your
body."
"You know, so that you don't have to reach with your hands."
Just some minor details. Not relevant at all, but somehow interesting,
nevertheless.
----------------------------
* Adel's Sealing Mechanism
----------------------------
Crew Member:
"17 years ago, Esthar was a country ruled by the evil Adel and feared by
many."
"The perfect gravitational balance between the moon and the stars makes this
an ideal place to seal Adel and her powers."
Researcher:
"The sealing mechanism is made of a special material."
"It seals Adel's powers, and at the same time prevents any means of outside
contact."
"Radio waves, sound waves, telepathic waves, junctions, you name it."
"The signals from our wave jamming system are so powerful that it affects
radio waves down on the planet."
Explanation on Adel's Tomb: how it works and why it affects the radio waves
in the planet.
---------------------------
* Space Suit Information
---------------------------
Piet:
"The life-support system in that suit lasts 20 minutes."
"The reserve tank will give her an extra 5 at the most."
"It's unfortunate, but it can't be helped."
If you decide to clock the time, as soon as Rinoa uses her reserve tank, until
she enters the Ragnarok, the time should round between 5:30 and 6:00.
Nice detail :)
------------------------------------
* Radio Waves Functioning Properly
------------------------------------
Squall:
(...a radio signal.)
Zell:
"Whoa!"
"Sorry to interrupt, but it's an emergency."
"We got radio contact from Esthar's Presidential Palace."
"They have a plan to defeat Ultimecia. They want to hire SeeD to execute it."
The radio signals start working after the Lunar Gate incident (after Adel
being released).
----------------------
~Tutorial Information~
----------------------
Here follows a compilation of everything found under Tutorial-->Information,
in the game. This list is courtesy of Leuchest/The Dark Legend.
Location Name:
Balamb
A country on the world's smallest continent. Known for its temperate climate
and warm people. Balamb Garden adds a school-town feel to this country.
Fire Cavern
A cavern near Balamb Garden where a Fire element GF lives.
Dollet
A small country on the eastern coast of Galbadia continent (formerly Dollet).
Remnant of an ancient empire.
Timber
A city located south of Dollet in the forest area. It was an independent
country before neighbouring country Galbadia invaded 18 years ago. There are
numerous resistance groups fighting for independence to this day.
Timber TV Station
All forms of communication now use HD cables. No radio transmissions are
used. Timber TV Station keeps its radio systems, waiting for the day radio
transmission is restored.
Galbadia
Ruled under the military dictatorship of President Vinzer Deling, this country
continues to expand its territory. Countless invasions of other countries are
attempted, but most are deterred by SeeD. Deling City is its capital.
Tomb of the Unknown King
Located north of Deling City; the burial place of Dollet's last emperor. The
tomb remains nameless due to an ancient belief that calling a dead king by his
name brings bad luck. There are unconfirmed reports that a GF resides inside,
as well as other monsters.
Winhill
A small town outside of Galbadia. It is actually a small village. Sorceress
Adel of Esthar ordered attacks on this village several times.
D-District Prison
Located in the desert south of Deling City, all people deemed dangerous by the
government are sent to this facility. It has become a symbol of President
Deling's fascist policies.
Missile Base
Galbadia's long-range missile base. As the only country to own long range
missiles with the exception of Esthar, they pose a major security threat to
the world. It is believed that the missiles are armed with a target-lock
mechanism. The details are unknown.
Horizon Bridge
A railroad that connected the East and West continents. Completed about the
time the war broke out, it was only used a short time. Since then it has been
derelict.
Fisherman's Horizon
A station located in the center of Horizon Bridge. It's now a haven for
expatriates who refused to have their skills exploited by the government.
Trabia
A country on the northern continent. Due to the harsh climate, Moombas and the
Shumi tribe are the only occupants. Trabia Garden students and faculty also
reside here.
Esthar (1)
Founded by people who immigrated to a continent east of Centra around the same
time Dollet Empire was founded. The mild climate and temperament of the people
soon gave way to scientific advancement.
Esthar (2)
Started the Sorceress War and fought against the world under Adel's rule.
Their sorceress and their scientific powers posed a worldwide treat. After
abruptly declaring an end to the war, Esthar closed its borders and has kept
silent ever since. No details are known.
Esthar (3)
Governed by President Laguna and his aides. Due to their concern over Dr.
Odine's inventions having a negative effect on the state of world security,
they closed off their country for 17 years. It is very likely that President
Laguna will be criticized for keeping silent for so long.
Seaside Station
A station on the Esthar side of Horizon Bridge. It is currently abandoned.
Great Salt Lake
A lake on the Esthar continent. What used to be a beautiful lake is now a
barren field. It's speculated that Esthar's experiments led to the lake's
destruction.
Moon
A world of monsters. Many works of art and epics about the moon throughout
history are evidence of its mystical powers.
Deep Sea Research Center
A man-made mobile island for marine life research. Disappeared mysteriously
after much wandering. Since the facility members are still alive, it is
assumed to be concealed intentionally.
3015 Found a strong energy field
4141 Call this place Deep Sea Deposit
4242 Seal off Deep Sea Deposit
Deep Sea Deposit
Marine Research Island's last excavation site. Believed to be an ocean floor
ruin. There is a note saying: 4127 Travel by Underwater Tower.
Term:
Draw Points
By examining the Draw Points in the field and on the world map, you can draw
magic. The Draw Points on the World Map are completely hidden. Examine
odd-looking areas carefully.
Time Compression
A complete mystery. Various states of "present" are believed to become
compressed. Sorceress' power from many generations may cross over to give one
sorceress great strength. No one knows what effect this may have on regular
human beings.
Garden
Balamb Garden was founded 12 years ago, followed by Galbadia and Trabia
Gardens. Each Garden has an administrator, called Master, and a headmaster.
Balamb Garden's Headmaster Cid was founder of the Garden.
SeeD (1)
Balamb Garden's mercenary force. Students 15 and older can participate in the
written and field exams. They must pass both exams to become SeeD. SeeD
members are paid by the Garden according to their rank. In the Garden, their
status is no different from that of the other students.
SeeD (2)
SeeD conducts missions around the world. Most missions involve battle support
and undercover work. SeeD is in high demand by groups requiring a small force
of undercover specialists. Commissions made through such dispatches are an
important part of Balamb Garden's income.
SeeD (3)
SeeD battle operations are noted for their skillful use of para-magic. Balamb
Garden researches the use of GF in conjunction with para-magic. For this,
Balamb Garden SeeD members master the most powerful forms of para-magic.
SeeD Rank
Shows your skill level as a SeeD. Higher ranks command a higher salary.
SeeD Written Test
Exam to test your SeeD knowledge. After becoming a SeeD, you can take the
tests in the Tutorial. There are up to 30 levels, with 10 questions each. All
answers must be correct to go up a rank. However, you can only take tests up
to Squall's level.
The truth about the Garden
A haven for orphans founded by Sorceress Edea and Headmaster Cid. Named for
their wish to raise the seeds of the future in their garden.
Radio Interference (1)
A phenomenon beginning with Esthar's silence 17 years ago. Almost all radio
communication facilities were shut down because of noise across all
frequencies. However, short transmissions are still possible. Believed to have
some relation to the moon, but details are unknown.
Radio Interference (2)
Most countries now communicate through the use of HD cables running
underground. However, many of these cables are cut off by monsters or in
battle. Many countries are left without any means of communicating with each
other.
Lunar Cry
Refers to monsters falling from the moon. Completely destroyed the cities of
Centra. Occurs when monsters reach a saturation point on the moon. It's
believed that there are factors on the planet that cause this phenomenon.
This phenomenon has occurred many times in history and will reoccur in the
future.
Monsters
Creatures on the moon. Monsters fall to earth at regular intervals. This
phenomenon is called the Lunar Cry. The monsters bred on the planet since the
last Lunar Cry to make up those roaming the planet at this time. The Lunar Cry
phenomenon also transformed some animals into monsters.
Centra Civilization
A civilization in Centra 4000 years ago. These Centra people immigrated to
other continents and founded the Dollet Empire to the west and Esthar to the
east. Centra was destroyed 80 years ago by the Lunar Cry.
Odine Items
A device to restrain sorceresses' power. Dr. Odine, afraid of Sorceress Adel's
power, created it. It looks like beautiful jewelry.
Sorceress
The legend goes that the Great Hyne created people. The sorceresses were given
a fragment of Hyne's own power. It's hard to determine how many sorceresses
exist today, for many keep their powers concealed. However, it is believed
that they avoid spreading their power too thin.
Sorceress Power & Embodiment
Sorceress power has been passed throughout history by the process of
embodiment. Any person who has the capacity to embody the great sorceress
power is a candidate.
Crystal Pillar
A crystal that causes the Lunar Cry by producing a strong energy field between
the planet and the moon. It's believed to have originated in the moon. The
Crystal Pillar responds to a specific location on the planet, and sends a
strong directional signal. More research is required to analyse this process
in detail.
Lunatic Pandora
An enclosure for Crystal Pillar made by Esthar. 3 miles tall and 1.5 miles
wide, the enormous enclosure boasts a high-tech facility. It floats by causing
a reaction with the Crystal Pillar. A stone from the moon is sealed inside. It
was probably built to cause the Lunar Cry through artificial means.
Tears' Point
Lunar Cry's point of origin determined by Esthar scientists. A security box
restraining the power of the Crystal Pillar and ground energy field is set up.
It is sealed to prevent the Crystal Pillar from entering the area.
Adel's Tomb
A high-tech device intended for weakening and confining a sorceress' power.
Shot into the moon's orbit after going through a special sealing process. Used
to confine Sorceress Adel. It is the main cause of radio interference on the
planet.
Spaceship Ragnarok
Esthar's space shuttle. Based on an ancient Centra legend of the Dragon Ship.
Esthar's finest scientific technology was used to build it. Esthar's flagship,
until it was used to send Adel's Tomb into space.
MD Level
Balamb Garden's foundation. The original structure of Centra Shelter remains
almost entirely intact. Entry is strictly forbidden.
Centra Shelter
(Later became the Garden building.) Ancient Centra people spread around the
world after Centra was destroyed by the Lunar Cry. People used mobile Centra
Shelters to move around the world. Many ruined shelters are found around the
world.
Timber Maniacs
A magazine representing the people's voice. It was popular among aspiring
young journalists. Shut down after Galbadia deemed the publication dangerous.
Eyes On Me
Julia Heartilly's song. Julia married the Galbadian General Caraway after
releasing "Eyes On Me". Gave birth to a girl one year later. Julia died in a
car crash at age 28, right before her daughter turned 5.
Person:
Dr. Odine
Started as a monster researcher. Discovered Guardian Forces (GF). With the
cooperation of a sorceress, became the first sorceress researcher. Analysed
the sorceress' magic, and created a method enabling a regular human being to
use para-magic. Balamb Garden uses the principle of para-magic, combining it
with GF's power.
The Great Hyne
Creator of mankind, and believed to be the first sorceress. Calling a
sorceress the Great Hyne's descendant shows great respect.
White SeeD
Orphans formerly in the care of Sorceress Edea. They often travel on their
ship, and are veiled in secrecy.
Moomba
A mutation of some unknown animal. Details are unclear. Remembers people by
licking their blood.
Shumi Tribe
A small tribe living in the northern region. Basically gentle in temperament,
they maintain a relaxed lifestyle. Shumis have big, long arms that change as
they grow. The results vary depending on their environment.
Chocobo
They live in the 7 Chocobo forests around the World. Adults and children are
called Chocobos and Chicobos respectively. Chicobos are spotted often, whereas
Chocobos are rarely seen. Loved for their gentle nature, Chocobos respond
quickly to Chicobos in danger.
Mayor Dobe
The leader of Fisherman's Horizon. A strict pacifist. Before coming to FH,
used to be a scientist conducting energy research in Esthar.
------------------------------
~Squalls Terminal Information~
------------------------------
Here follows a compilation of what we learn from using Squalls Terminal
(computer) in the beginning of the game. This compilation is yet again
courtesy of Leuchest/The Dark Legend.
The Basics
[About Magic]
'Magic' used by ordinary people is actually 'para-magic'. In essence, it is a
technique which involves controlling energy. 'Para-magic' was developed by Dr.
Odine. He was the first scientist to research the nature of magic by studying
a sorceress. The skill can be gained through proper training. However, with
magic, it is difficult to achieve power levels that are comparable to
conventional weapons.
[GF (Guardian Force)]
A GF is an independent energy force. By combining it with para-magic, it is
possible to control tremendous energy. Memory loss is a possible side effect,
but this has not been proven as of yet.
[About Sorceresses and Magic]
A woman who has inherited the power of a sorceress. The origins of the
sorceress go back to ancient times during Hyne's reign. However, there is no
factual evidence.
About Garden
Facility Rules
[Classroom]
-Students should be in their seats and waiting for the instructors 5 minutes
before class.
-When class is over, proceed quietly to your next class.
-Food, weapons and magic are prohibited.
-Study panels are shared. Handle with care.
[Training Centre]
-Proceed with caution. There are real monsters in the training centre.
-It is open 24 hours. Entering the grounds for reasons other than training is
prohibited.
-Do not engage in battles beyond your abilities.
[Infirmary]
-Visit the infirmary if you have and health concerns or problems.
-No items may be taken from the infirmary without permission.
-Follow the doctor's instructions.
-Resident Physician: Doctor Kadowaki.
[Library]
-Open Hours
9:00 a.m.-lights out.
-Library Usage
All materials are open to the public. You may check out materials at the desk.
-Remain quiet at all times.
[Dormitory]
-Everybody is welcome to apply.
-SeeDs have priority for single rooms.
-Going out after-hours for reasons other than training is prohibited.
-Do not leave personal possessions in common areas.
[Cafeteria]
-Open Hours
9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
-Keep the area clean.
-If late-night meals are required, order them beforehand.
Student Rules
[Garden Precepts]
-Work hard
-Study hard
-Play hard
[Attire]
-In general, there is no dress code in Balamb Garden. However, dress
accordingly if instructed to do so by your superiors.
[Reward and Punishments]
-The headmaster presents official commendations to outstanding students.
-Students who engage in violent acts, sexual promiscuity, or who fall behind
in their curriculum, etc. may be expelled from Garden.
[Conduct]
-The skills acquired in the Garden must never be used for personal gain.
-Refrain from committing any acts that may damage the Garden's reputation.
-Take time to think things through before starting a relationship.
[Emergencies]
-Procedures in case of an emergency: If you are on 2F, use the emergency exit
next to the classroom. If you are on 1F, exit through the front gate. All
students must take care of junior classmen during emergencies.
-Do not use the lift during an emergency.
[Evening Outings]
-All students should be in their dorm rooms after-hours unless at the training
centre.
Admission & Graduation Info
[Admission]
-Applicants between ages 5-15 are admitted.
-All hard-working and confident youths are welcome.
-Ambitious overachievers are also welcome.
-Applicants are admitted only after passing a final interview.
[Graduation]
-Must be between 15-19 years of age.
-One must have all the required skills and knowledge taught through the Garden
courses.
-One must have the headmaster's approval to graduate.
-At age 20, regardless of graduation all students are released from the Garden.
[Opportunities for Alumni]
-The Garden supports a program that helps graduates enlist in armies all over
the world.
-Instructors and SeeDs are permitted to remain at the Garden. However,
SeeDship must be attained before the age of 20.
Garden Info
[About Balamb Garden]
-Balamb Garden Headmaster
Cid Kramer
-Balamb Garden Proprietor
Master NORG
-Balamb Garden was the first Garden built in accordance with Headmaster Cid's
ideals and dreams.
[About Trabia Garden]
-A Garden in the Trabia region. There is an exchange program between Trabia
and Balamb Garden.
[About Galbadia Garden]
-A Garden in the Galbadia Republic. It is the largest Garden of the three.
Galbadia Garden's master, Martine, who is also the headmaster, has setup a
program to recruit Balamb graduates into the Galbadian Army.
SeeD Info
[What is a SeeD?]
-Balamb Garden's mercenaries. Commanding GF, they have special fighting
abilities. They work hard in small teams and operate all over the world.
[Dispatching SeeDs]
-SeeDs are deployed all over the world. Their services are requested by
governments and even civilians. Their tasks range from providing military
support to protecting civilians.
[Qualifications for SeeD]
-Students can apply after the age of 15. Passing the written test and
completing an official mission are required to become a SeeD. SeeDs are paid
according to rank.
A Message from Garden
Garden Events
Spring Memorial Service
Entrance Ceremony
SeeD Exam (Written/Field)
Summer Garden Festival
Summer Vacation
Autumn Student-Sponsored Event
Winter Winter Vacations
Cafeteria Announcements
*The competition for the hot dogs and meals is really getting out of hand. We
are doing our best to provide everyone with enough food, so please be patient
and conduct yourselves in an orderly fashion. Thank you. As you well know,
magic and weapons are prohibited inside the cafeteria.
Disciplinary Committee Announcements
*Follow all disciplinary committee rules. This applies to junior classmen, too.
*Do not bring animals inside the Garden.
*Report seeing any unusual bugs in the Garden.
*Do not litter.
Library Committee Announcements
*The following materials are overdue. Please return them to the library
immediately.
**************
"Insect Guidebook (Colour Edition)"
Raijin
"Goodbye Pupurun"
Raijin
*The following requested materials have arrived.
**************
"Edible Flowers"
"Turbine Engines (Revised Edition)"
"We Meet Again, Pupurun"
"The Sorceress' Knight (Scenario Edition)"
--------------------
~Laguna and Squall?~
--------------------
Although this is fairly unrelated, here follows a list of the hints used to
deduce that Laguna is Squall's father. This list is courtesy of myself (Sir B)
although I can in no way take credit for these hints, seeing as they are as
old as the game itself.
1) Laguna = Lagoon. Raine = Rain. Squall = Brief windstorm, usually with snow
or rain.
All these names are connected: they all have to do with water. Although not a
strong point in itself, it fits nicely in with the rest of them.
2) Raine and Laguna had a child together. That child was sent to the orphanage.
The children in the orphanage at that time were, as we all know, Squall,
Seifer, Ellone, Quistis, Zell, Irvine and Selphie.
Ellone is the adoptive sister to that newborn child, and spends a significant
part of her life trying to get Laguna back to Raine and this child.
Coincidentally, who is the one person in the orphanage who Ellone is closely
attached to? Squall.
Also notice how none of the other children are paid attention to at all when
it comes to this plot question, and seeing as how it is a very relevant part
of the game, you'd think Square didn't just decide to drop it completely.
3) In the Ragnarok, Laguna tells Squall that "Ellone has told me everything"
and "We'll talk when this is all over."
Since Ellone had just stopped her quest to get Laguna to see his newborn
child, one would expect her to tell all about the child to Laguna, and it
seems rather farfetched that she refused to give him the true identity.
This would also have been basically the most important thing Ellone would tell
Laguna, so it seems plausible that he is going to talk to Squall on the same
issue.
4) Talk to Kiros and Ward in the Ragnarok, and Ward will say "Good thing you
don't look like your father" in a joking manner. Kiros says "You look more
like your mother."
Kiros and Ward know the parents, and know the father well enough to make fun
of him jokingly. Who fits into this description?
5) The tutorial tells us that Moombas recognize people by licking their blood.
In jail, a Moomba calls Squall "Laguna" many times. This means Squall's blood
was so similar to Laguna's that it fooled the Moomba.
That kind of scene isn't just put in there for randomness, nor to prove that
Moombas are mentally unstable.
6) Laguna has Squall's card.
All these combined show us that Laguna is, in fact, Squall's father.
------------------------------------------------------------
~The Plot Twist - or - They all grew up at the Orphanage!?~
------------------------------------------------------------
Here, Leuchest/The Dark Legend discusses what he calls "The Plot Twist."
As the title suggests, this is the twist where we learn that everyone, save
Rinoa, grew up in the same Orphanage: Edea's.
The Plot Twist
The plot twist in FF8 is frequently regarded as a bad plot twist. The real
problem of the plot twist, which involves Squall, Seifer, Zell, Quistis,
Selphie and Irvine, is the way it was presented. It was very sudden and
delivered in a crappy way, as the story started to progress quickly, and the
player was left speechless. When you analyse the plot twist, though, it's not
as bad and unbelievable as it might seem at first.
Opinions aside, the plot twist is very believable, although it was poorly
executed (by the elements of the plot, not the plot twist itself). If you're
willing to spend some time thinking, you'll realise that the plot twist makes
very much sense.
The creators of the concept and ideals of SeeDs and Garden were Edea and Cid.
They raised these 6 children and, later, each was adopted. Squall and Seifer
weren't so lucky. They joined Balamb just as it was constructed and founded,
at the tender age of 5. Selphie and Irvine, although little is known about
them, could have been raised in Trabia and Galbadia, respectively. It's
arguable whether they were or were not adopted, but IIRC, they never mention
their family. The only members left are Quistis and Zell. Quistis was adopted,
but left her home when she was 10. Joining Garden must have been her decision,
as she knew Squall and Seifer. Zell, on the other hand, was the only character
who was coincidentally put in the middle of the whole mess.
Furthermore, the team who was scheduled to be part of the Timber mission
consisted on Zell, Squall and Selphie. They were picked and put together by
Cid. Was it purely coincidental? I don't think so. Quistis and Seifer joined
them soon. Quistis, after the mission was over, told Squall they should head
to the nearest Garden. As they get to the Garden, they are informed their
mission is now to assassinate the sorceress. It's arguable whether Quistis was
or was not under the orders from Cid when she informed Squall of heading to the
nearest Garden, but somehow, it's too much coincidental to be so, because
remember, the only ones aware of the Squall's mission were Cid and the Garden
Faculty. The mission to assassinate the Sorceress was put together with
Martine and Cid. Guess who they picked as the sniper ... Irvine, also a child
of Cid's and Edea's orphanage.
When you think about it, although luck did play some role in putting the 5
together, Cid was the one who wanted these 5 characters to defeat Edea, as he
probably knew they would eventually find the truth. He is the one who puts
together the team who heads for Timber and he is the one who assembles the
team to assassinate the Sorceress, alongside Martine.
Why would Cid want that? It's easy. Edea knew that, in the future, Squall
would defeat Ultimecia and save the world. It's not unlikely she wanted Squall
and his friends, those who were in the orphanage with him, to face the
sorceress(es), and therefore, she asked Cid, for when they would graduate as
SeeDs, to fight them. Cid had all the resources to do so, as seen above by
the evidence and explanation shown.
Also, something many people fail to understand many times, is that Squall and
Co. weren't the only children at the orphanage, as later on, you'll learn the
White SeeD, too, had no home and were adopted by Edea. These 6 were chosen
because they were a group, a group that Edea, mostly likely realised would
defeat Ultimecia, as seen in the ending of the game. Hence, the main theme
surrounding them being "Children of Fate."
===================================
-Section IV: Credits-
===================================
* SideswipeZulu, admo, bleedingdigits, Druff, JD IXI, Big D, Xshu, lindblum
resident, Yuthura Ban, Skyblade, Douglas "Fox-Raweln" Meneghetti, Riku
Heartless, Katicflis, PMog and countless others from GameFAQs and
elsewhere who participated in all the arguments we had on these issues,
giving invaluable insight and arguments. This FAQ wouldn't be here without all
of you!
* Leuchest/The Dark Legend, for his compilations of in-game information, as
well as generally contributing greatly and consistently in discussions.
* A very special thanks goes to DarkAngel, staff member at
AdventChildren.net, and owner of the Gunshot Romance website, for translating
articles from the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guide.
* CJayC for creating such a great forum and FAQ site.
* Square, for making a game filled with such a lot of interesting material to
debate and discuss (even if you did cop out on a few issues).
* Finally, although perhaps unnecessary as I have already credited them as
co-authors, I have to give a great thank you to Squall_Of_SeeD and
TheOnionKnight. My discussions with you two in particular have been very
rewarding, not only when it comes to FF8, but even in maturing me as a
person and debater. Again, thank you!
Thank you for reading, we hope you enjoyed it.
Yours sincerely,
Kristian J. Str�mmen, aka Sir Bahamut,
B. Burke, aka TheOnionKnight,
Glenn Morrow, aka Squall_Of_SeeD
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