Final Fantasy VIII/Fridge

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Fridge Brilliance

• Some people concluded that in Final Fantasy VIII, there's a Bad Future where Ultimecia has wiped out SeeD and rules the world, and this is guaranteed by a Stable Time Loop. However, look closer; the dead SeeDs are within line of sight of Ultimecia's castle. Ultimecia's castle is devoid of soldiers or real security measures. Hell, some parts of the castle appear to have been hit by artillery fire. And Ultimecia is desperately trying to engage Time Compression. Heck, the first thing she does when she takes over Galbadia in the past is to attempt to destroy Garden and thus wipe out the SeeDs before they even really exist. Looking at this evidence, there is an alternate conclusion as to the "bad" future: SeeD was winning the war and Ultimecia's use of the Junction Machine Ellone was a Skynet-esque desperation tactic to stave off defeat - in which case, the happy ending is reinforced, not ruined.
  • This is further confounded by the fact that she actually points towards this in the opening monologue of the final battle: that SeeD were "swarming like locusts across generations." On its own, this little statement implies that SeeD hasn't quit pestering her for quite some time ("across generations") and she never truly got over that particular obstacle. She does seem to view SeeD as a persistent nuisance in her little speech, but the abovementioned attempts prove that SeeD is a serious threat to her at the very least.
• A lot of people complained that Ultimecia's appearance was something of an Ass Pull and that she never got any real development. However she was in control of Edea for over the course of the first two disk, the speech she gave when President Deling introduced her, that was Ultimecia speaking, the clothes that Edea wore when under Ultimecia's control are a stark contrast to the simple black dress she is seen wearing in the flashbacks and at the end of the game. Even the speech patterns that Edea used (if not the accent) were similar to Ultimecia's during her "The Reason You Suck" Speech before the final battle. - User:GX Next
• Tiny, tiny bit of probably unintentional brilliance from the ballroom scene: imagine that you're at the graduation ball of a military academy and you see an otherwise good-looking young man leaning against a wall by himself, looking some flavor of unhappy, with a fresh scar across his face. What conclusion do you draw? Rinoa's first line to Squall, "You're the best-looking guy here," is a gesture to reassure him that he's not disfigured, and her pestering him to dance with her is an effort to cheer him up from what looks like it must have been a pretty rough day.
  • I will now take that to be Canon Character Development on Rinoa's part. Makin' me cry, damnit.
  • Rinoa actually irritated me in the scene, because I know I'd be confused and annoyed if some random girl came up to me, tried fake hypnotism, and then forcibly dragged me onto the dance floor... but now I'm looking at it completely differently. Hats off to you, good sir/madam. I was pretty indifferent to Rinoa before, but you've just made me like her. Looks like I'll be replaying the game with that in mind.
  • That's perfect. You should write fanfic!
  • Then the waitress that handed him a drink probably had the same idea. Isn't the usual practice to take your own drink and stuff from passing waiters rather than the opposite?
    • Pretty sure it's a waiter's job to give partygoers a chance to get a drink if they want one, which includes stopping to offer one if there's an opportunity to do so.
• There are two scenes early in the game: the opening FMV has Seifer hitting Squall with some sort of fireball spell and then slicing him in the face, and the battle against Edea ends with him getting Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by a magically-generated shard of ice about the size of a 2x4. Both Seifer and Edea later become Guest Star Party Members. If you use their Limit Breaks, Seifer shoots a fireball at his target then slices it up, and Edea fires an icicle spear at hers. In the cutscenes, they're using their Desperation Attack because Squall was kicking their ass. Nice aversion of Gameplay and Story Segregation.
  • Along the same lines, observe that immediately before Seifer pulls the abovementioned move in the opening FMV, he is on the losing end of the duel because Squall is hammering him with fast, repeated blows from his gunblade... just as he does in his own Limit Break.
• Squall is an infamous source of irritation due to his cold, overly professional nature both on and off the job, even if they acknowledge the fact that the emotional baggage didn't help. But consider the fact that he was never adopted out of an orphanage which doubled as a military academy, and it suddenly makes sense that he is the perfect soldier--because he doesn't know any other way to act.
• Final Fantasy VIII could actually be seen as an interesting deconstruction of the concept of Child Soldiers. Instead of the romanticized notion of the raised-from-youth warriors being ideal and deadly and unmatched in combat, we see how such children would realistically act. Seifer's youthful arrogance nearly compromised an entire operation when he leads his team off-mission. Squall's lack of socialization with others leads him to be an introverted head case. Quistis' youth leads her to act unprofessionally multiple times. Zell's youth and the hormones associated with them make him into a hothead who blabs the name of his organization on national television. Irvine's youth, inexperience, and uncertainty result in the botched assassination. Sure, in combat they're quite competent, but letting them operate on their own results in as much failure and confusion and poor decisionmaking as it does success. There's this underlying theme that training these children and sending them into combat at such a relatively young age is a really, really bad idea for both their operational effectiveness and mental health, and the game makes it subtle instead of Anvilicious, which is quite clever.
• Extremely minor case (don't know where to put this in). You know, when I checked the names of the main player characters (both first and last), I saw this minor difference. Here's their names for reference: Squall Leonhart, Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, Rinoa Heartilly, Irvine Kinneas. Check the last one. His first name's first letter is not only in the first half of the alphabet (A-M), but it's also a vowel. Don't any of you think this is a subtle hint of his (initial) 'outcast' status (and his ranged fighting style)?
• About the Train Job in disc 1. I was wondering how the heck the uncoupled cars could somehow catch up and recouple if there's no locomotive on their end. Sure, the FMV shows the Timber Owls train deliberately slowing down to couple to the cars at the back before picking up speed to connect to the front, but that didn't explain the cars recoupling after the Timber owls train made off with the President's car. Then it occurred to me... the dummy President car probably has its own mechanism timed to put the brakes on some time after the Forest Owls train disengages, slowing the front half in order to recouple.
  • The President's agitated behavior over the security also clues us in that it's a decoy, who hasn't quite acclimatised to his role, while a real dictator would be paranoid to the level that no amount of security is enough.
• Squall's dialog with Rinoa after freeing her from Esthar: "Even if you become the world's enemy, I will be your knight." Was anyone else reminded of Seifer's schtick throughout the entire game that he is the Sorceress' Knight? Squall and Seifer are more alike than either of them care to admit, and had things gone differently, Squall could have been in exactly the same position.
  • The parallels between Squall and Seifer are pretty obvious and certainly intentional. It's more of a contrast than a direct similarity, though, since their approaches are very different - Seifer aspires to knighthood for its own sake (his "romantic dream") so Ultimecia is able to use his aspirations to manipulate him. Squall, meanwhile, has no such aspirations and assumes the role purely for love of and in order to protect Rinoa without caring about the imagery or trappings of the role.
• After getting the Ragnarok and rotating party members for some time, you'll notice that Quistis is actually third choice for Ragnarok pilot after Selphie and Zell. Selphie's methods are arguable, but if you went for the Deepsea Research Facility sidequest though, you'll see Zell's qualifications for yourself.
• Why did Headmaster Cid use Guardian Forces that can make people forget their early childhood? So when Squall and rest of the gang fight Sorceress Edea they won't remember the woman that took care of them in the Orphanage and they can fight at their fullest.

Fridge Horror

• A small one, but... what did happen to that student who went to the Tomb of the Unknown King and never returned? Sure, two girls run out in a panic, but it's specifically mentioned that only one student went to the Tomb, and that the student was male. And then you find an abandoned sword/gunblade on the floor. Nowhere in the tomb do you find a body, or anything to indicate what might have happened to the student -- which could be considered a good thing, or not. He might have escaped the Tomb, perhaps dropping his weapon in a panic on the way out, but considering what's waiting for him outside, it's unlikely he would have survived the long trip back unarmed and alone. And for that matter, if the student hadn't been heard from since leaving the city, how did Caraway know for certain that there would be anything to find at all...?
  • Fridge Brilliance or WMG; there never was a student entering the tomb and it's all just a ploy so not anyone can enter Caraway's mansion (i.e. if someone is supossedly sent there from Garden, thay can just ring up Martine and ask the ID of the student who didn't return from the Tomb, Martine recognizes it as a secret password and passes it on; otherwise it was just to see if Squall and co. were strong enough to face Edea, since Caraway knew that was the mission, and maybe give them a pretty little GF, too).
  • There was an actual student; while exploring the tomb, you can find a message he carved into a wall saying basically "I've decided I'm not cut out for SeeD, so I'm quitting, and if you're lost, here are the directions for how to get back to the entrance."
  • Also, you talk to his ghost straight after defeating and obtaining the Brothers.
    • Wasn't that the unknown king? It was his tomb...
  • Maybe Caraway was the student. SeeD is a special forces organization, so when Caraway realizes he's not cut out for SeeD, he quits and joins the Army, eventually working his way up to General.
  • Caraway was a general before Squall was even born. Garden didn't get started until Squall was about five years old.
• There is a Zombie draw point in Trabia Garden's graveyard. I repeat, zombie magic is flowing through the place where Garden students are buried.
• Why did Headmaster Cid use Guardian Forces that can make people forget their early childhood? So he will have loyal Child Soldier that only remember growing up under his care.
  • This doesn't seem to be precisely the case, given that Cid specifically encourages the SeeD trainees to think for themselves, saying he doesn't want them to be like automatons, and completely abdicates authority to Squall as soon as Garden makes the shift from military academy to active fighting force. It's more probable that he did it, at least in part, to make sure that Squall and his team would be able to fight against Edea without being conflicted by their memories of her as their childhood Matron. Which is still pretty creepy.