#ajentamuu

[salikawoods]

51 & 67?

answered! but ty x

[oathshaker]

Our icons match (´∇ﾉ｀*)ノ

OMG that’s true! And I love it (/^▽^)/ ♥

[ventuss]

The real otp: sydni x hope

awe maN THANK YOU ❤️ I’m honestly speechless, I love him so much and aaah ;w;

[sorarikuarchive]

Bond of flame for the keyblade thing !!

ok :DD added to the list! thank you <3

[lunamanar]

I'm sorry if you've been asked this before, you probably have, but I was wondering what your opinion is on the "Rinoa is Ultimecia" theory.

Oh man. Someone finally asked this. 

Okay, so, I will try to keep this succinct and not ramble. The truth is that my feelings on R=U are much stronger than my opinion of it. It’s one of the few things that to this day I have the capacity to be a massive dick about, because on a visceral level? I’d rather eat soap. I don’t like the theory, I don’t like the idea, it goes against everything I personally feel about Rinoa’s character, most of the justifications for it completely remove her agency do to it, and basically I think someone made it up–just like the Squall is Dead theory–simply because they found enough room to insert it. It’s injecting tragedy where there wasn’t any, which is something I really dislike, as a trope. 

And yes yes yes I know before anyone jumps on me about it, I know you personally are not “injecting drama,” you’re exploring an idea that engaging to you and that’s absolutely okay. That’s fine, it’s good. I will wave flags for you all day to continue doing so and I would never jump uninvited into a discussion about this theory just to pooh-pooh it. Please just don’t ask me to read your story, or argue with me that this is something that was intended by the creators. Even if it was–and I don’t think that’s true–that’s kind of irrelevant to me. If it’s what was intended, they did a bad job of insinuating it.

Anyway. Emotions aside, let’s go through the evidence presented for R=U, shall we?

1. Griever

This is the first thing that gets brought up in most of these discussions. How the fuck did Ultimecia know about Griever? Well…good question, honestly. The English translation gives absolutely no explanation, as far as I can tell. I’ve seen a lot of people saying she Drew Griever from Squall’s head, although if Griever was a physical GF of that sort, it begs the question of why Squall never used it. There is also nothing visible in the game that shows her doing this. But if she didn’t, then she somehow knows that Griever is the most powerful GF in Squall’s imagination, and somehow manifests him a different way. 

The theory here, though, is that there’s no way she could have known about something that was buried so deeply in Squall’s psyche, or how to bring it forth, and the only person he ever visibly told about Griever was Rinoa. The thought process is that somewhere in the course of their relationship, Rinoa gets a more in-depth idea of what Griever is, and either creates her own version to use as Ultimecia or transforms Squall into Griever, himself (it’s pointed out that Griever has a white mane, like Squall’s jacket). Poor Squall, going from too many belts to a purple-red-and-white getup? Dear oh dear. 

The fact Ultimecia has a “Griever” outfit in Dissidia is also sometimes noted. It would appear Griever is especially important to her character, even outside the original game’s canon, and if she didn’t have a preexisting relationship of some kind with Squall, why would that be?

2. Self-fulfilling Prophecies

As I mentioned in a recent post, when Rinoa is brought to Edea’s house after her rescue from sorceress memorial, she muses aloud about what the future might bring for her, and rather out of the blue paints a rather grim scenario for her own demise: 

The context of this line is “if Ultimecia possesses me again,” but the mental image remains: Squall will be the one to kill her if she becomes a threat. This seemingly portentous musing goes completely unaddressed for the rest of the game, or seemingly so; the theory here is that, in fact, it was addressed, but subtly–that at some point in the future, Rinoa becomes Ultimecia, thus bringing about her own prophecy. 

3. Adel

This is another “how could Ultimecia have known about _____” piece of evidence. Let’s just assume for the moment that Ultimecia has never read a bit of world history in her life, or that particular bit of history was unavailable to her. How did she know about Adel and where to find her, how to get to her? 

Taking over Rinoa’s body and knocking her out, only to conveniently have her shot into orbit right around exactly where Adel is located, certainly does seem a bit much for coincidence. It speaks of a certain level of foreknowledge on Ultimecia’s part, to be sure. The theory here is that she knew full well that Edea would be defeated, and Squall would bring Rinoa to Esthar Space Station. In Ultimecia’s mind: “Squall will bring me to Adel.” (There’s a bit of engaging tragedy in this, in the sense that Squall is working only for the Rinoa he knows, but her future self would be convinced he’s doing it for her.)

4. The Orphanage

There’s a lot to be curious about in regards to Ultimecia’s choice of the Cape of Good Hope as real estate for her castle. Why there, of all places? The theory here is that it’s the location of Squall’s promise to Rinoa, as well as the place where she found him at the end of the game, and therefore is very important to a post-game Rinoa-turned-Ultimecia. Especially given that Ultimecia is quite noticeably alone; unless you assume Squall=Griever, she’s clearly lost her knight. As such, the choice in location would be as much a place of mourning as anything; or perhaps, of refusing to let go. 

(I do want to bring up one thing, though, because this kills me:

It looks almost as if there was something else built on top of the orphanage before Ultimecia went and blasted it all. And a lot of the colors are reminiscent, to me, of Garden design. This isn’t pertinent to the theory, but it is…interesting, if nothing else.)

Anyway, moving on…

5. Color Theory

“Ultimecia looks like an adult Rinoa with the colors altered/inverted.” This bit of speculation is courtesy the local photoshop geeks. I will say I think this one is…reaching, in my estimation, but I included it because you see this same exact image everywhere the theory pops up. The “hey look! If I superimpose their faces (and readjust them a bit) they’re the same!” excitement is visually compelling. But, I would like to make a…small point…

…And that is, Ultimecia looks positively dashing with glasses. 

I did the above in 10 minutes with a touchpad and an online image editor. I can do the same with Ellone and Selphie. The fact is, all the female models in FFVIII all have the same basic face shapes, slightly stretched and poked to look different. If I spent some time, I could make a much better superimposition and really convincing case for Quistis=Ultimecia, too: she wanted Squall, but didn’t get him, and her bitterness extends to possessing Rinoa and using her, then throwing her away into space like so much garbage; her hair looks like Ultimecia’s; she knows quite a bit about Squall, and may know of Griever; she was there for all the pertinent events of the game; the orphanage was her home, where it all started; she likes the color red and wears outfits that show her navel; if Rinoa died and it so happened Quistis could receive her powers, and did, as a top-ranking SeeD and card-carrying badass, she would be in the perfect position to fight and kill them all; finally, she’s got a refined taste, so a Baroque castle feels absolutely in-character for her; and she’s an angsty and unfulfilled perfectionist who I can totally believe that, pushed to the edge with the added stress of sorceress powers, would finally get tired of the world’s bullshit and go Book of Revelations on everything and everyone. 

There, someone write me that fanfic. I’d read it in two seconds.

6. The Succession

Back to more plausible evidence. Also mentioned in an earlier post is the time-loop problem–if Ultimecia had the powers of multiple sorceresses throughout time, then gave them all to Edea, and they all came back to her…again, she would effectively receive an infinite helping of Hyne’s power and should just be unstoppable. 

This is partially solved by the R=U theory via the idea that Rinoa never got any additional powers, she just transferred what she had back to Edea, then received them again in her past, ad infinitum. The theory is still a bit broken, however, as it does not take into account the sorceress powers Edea already had from someone else in her past. So the infinite stacking problem still exists.

7. Hyne’s a Jerk

This is my least favorite piece of evidence, although there’s nothing wrong with it, per se. Basically this is in answer to all the “but that’s totally out of character for Rinoa!” detractors–that sure, becoming an angry, homicidal megalomaniac with a god complex might not be something Rinoa would normally become, but Hyne makes her crazy so it happens anyway. 

Hyne’s madness is certainly a terrifying prospect for Rinoa, and I’ll entertain ideas about how it might fuck with her all day long. The one thing I don’t like, though, is when it’s used to completely arrest her agency as a character to make her do things she wouldn’t otherwise do. The Dark Rinoa theories I enjoy have her making her own choices–perhaps under Hyne’s influence, but still her own–and writing her own downfall (or not) without having to turn her into Ultimecia to do it. So this theory works, sure, in the same way that “it’s all a fever-dream” works for Squall Is Dead–it’s easy, there’s no way to falsify it, and generally fits into the game’s story without having to change anything (beyond explaining how she lives so long…also Hyne’s doing, I assume). 

8. Time Will Not Wait

Finally, Rinoa’s fear of the future and, perhaps most importantly, her statement that she wants time to stand still, goes together fairly well with Ultimecia’s desire to control time and bring it, essentially, to a stop, so she can live forever in any moment she chooses. We get some idea that the passage of time has burned her, for as she’s dying, she mutters about memories and childhood and time waiting for no one. According to the theory, this is a lamentation of all Rinoa’s fears coming true: that she could not hold on to the things that mattered to her, that she lost them, and was never able to recover from that. It hurt her so much, she lost her mind trying to get those things back. 

This is probably the most compelling argument, in my view, for the theory as a whole. It’s the only thing that points to a known aspect of Rinoa’s personality that might hint at a motive for her eventual change of heart. Everything else, as far as I can tell, is symbolic rather than substantive–and in some cases, pure headcanon insertion. 

Ultimately I view R=U as a fan theory that holds little canonical water, but has the potential to be a really interesting story, if done right. My problem with it is that in most cases, the presentation of it either robs her of her ability to make her own choices, or assumes she makes choices that I personally just don’t think she would make (for instance, Squall dies, therefore suddenly life isn’t worth living and everything must die with him…you can’t sell me on that, sorry). But I’m no authority, and you’re free to have your own opinions! 

Basically, I don’t hate the theory, and I don’t think it’s stupid, I just don’t really like it, and I don’t like people who try to convince me (or anyone else) that it’s gospel. Likewise, I wouldn’t approve of anyone attacking someone for liking it. There’s no reason it has to be wrong, it’s just not my cup of tea. 

EDIT: I also want to point out that the game itself is full of holes that do not and cannot make sense without copious amounts of headcanon insertion. So please keep that in mind when considering R=U…don’t be a dick to people who ascribe to it. It’s just another way of explaining things the game doesn’t expound on, and it’s every bit as valid as most fan theories out there.

[oathshaker]

Say 6 random facts about yourself and then pass this on to 10 of your favourite followers. :)

–I sleep too much.

–I have lots of books to read, but I’m really slow at reading them. Until I arrive at the interesting part.

--It happens the same with anime ;v;

--Final Fantasy Type-0 became one of my favourite FF.

--I hate grasshoppers so much.

--I used to draw a lot, but suddenly I stopped doing it and I lost practice.

[skyward-hearts]

❤️

You’re really faithful and you make great edits and your love for Prompto is real!

Send me a Heart!

[ventuss]

Happy birthday :3

thank you! :D