Awesome FAQ on Ultimecia and the Time Loop

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beneficii
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05 Jan 2014, 2:27 pm

From FF8. Here's an excerpt:

Quote:
You must try to stand, for a little while, in Ultimecia’s position. Think back
upon the relatively genocidal-free, younger years of your life, when you were
nevertheless still perceived as genocidal. Think back to your unstable
maturation, when you began to have a firmer grasp on history; when you were
still disparaged and abused for committing war-crimes that you hadn’t yet
committed; and feel, if you can, the sensation of fiery injustice flowing
through your enraged veins. You have grown bitter – bitter enough to adopt the
mantle of the tyrant “Ultimecia” out of spite, to adopt it because it has been
given to you so ungraciously by the public – bitter enough to finally organize
your own retaliation. Now the time has come to administer your vengeance. But
no matter how many SeeD members you slay, no matter how much more powerful you
become, and no matter how many accusatory fingers you “chop off,” whether
figuratively or literally, of accusatory hands, one finger is still pointing at
you. It will always be pointing at you. It was the finger that initially
accused you, the long-reaching talon of history, and it is still jabbing itself
with unyielding conviction in your direction. You cannot get rid of it. It
will always convict you. And yet, you say this to yourself, all of history is
wrong – it must be wrong – for you aren’t a tyrant, or you weren’t a tyrant,
until history transformed you into one. But history cannot be accurate. It
cannot be unalterable. Because, if it is accurate, and if unalterable, this
means that it has always accused you justifiably – even when you were an
innocent, and history singled you viciously out, no matter how vicious it was,
it was true, and correct in having made the accusation. You deserved your
persecution, you deserved to be attacked and discriminated against, if history
was actually accurate – but it cannot be accurate. You say this again and
again to yourself. It cannot be accurate because you are not really guilty,
and to prove that you were never guilty you will go back in time, you will
seize the past by the throat, and you will twist it, fittingly, to your own
ends. If you can twist it that way, if you succeed, then this will prove
beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were never Ultimecia – even if you are now
Ultimecia. You didn’t begin that way, and you didn’t deserve to develop into
that personality, because history’s testimony was never a reliable thing.
History was capable of fabrications. History –is– capable of them. And you
have had enough of “history.”


http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197343-final ... faqs/34215

Basically, false accusations become true and damning. Yikes! 8O


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beneficii
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07 Jan 2014, 5:02 pm

How about a fanfic using these ideas? Here we go, a sort of excerpt from one I've been thinking of:

In Balamb, on the sidewalk across from a 3-way intersection, World Garden Organization Detective Bon Leonhart is on the scene of a bizarre incident. 3 male SeeDs were lying on the ground, dead of apparent old age, but all SeeDs were required to retire at the age of 50. Investigators were able to identify the SeeDs, one who was 19 years old and two others who were 21 years old. The Old spell must have been cast on them to cause them to age quickly, but who, what, why? thought Detective Leonhart. Was it the witch that was battled and defeated, 3 kilometres away? Leonhart decides he must go to the site of the battle with the witch, in a house out in the country.

Leonhart arrives at the witch's house and steps inside. Only investigators were present and the witch's body was still on the ground. The investigators informed Leonhart that the witch was dead and Leonhart himself went to confirm that fact. There was an understanding among the investigators that because she had died, her witch embodiment must have passed on to a girl or another woman, in accordance with the succession of witches. So we now have another witch on our hands, Leonhart spoke softly to himself, but who? Leonhart learned from the investigators that one male SeeD was found unconscious and is currently in the hospital, still in a coma. Leonhart realized he would need to make use of the Junction Machine Ellone later to gain greater access into what went on. Nevertheless, a clearer picture was emerging: The new witch must have fled and been chased by the SeeDs; when she was cornered she cast the Old spell to cause them to die of old age. Something about this was very troubling to Leonhart, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Leonhart was aware that this operation against the witch was carried out in accordance with Operation Witches' Den; as part of the Operation, one witch had already been captured, sealed, and launched into orbit. The objective of the Operation was to prevent the emergence of Ultimecia, the hated witch from both the past and the future who cast the existence ending Time Compression, at the end point of the succession of witches, by sealing all living witches. Except that here, the SeeDs killed the witch, causing the witch embodiment to be passed down to a girl or another woman. These SeeDs failed terribly in their mission and the world may yet have to pay the price.

Leonhart returned to headquarters. At the top of the entrance was written the motto, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." He went to the Junction Machine Ellone and looked in the memories of the dead SeeDs, but was not able to find much out. He saw a girl present at the confrontation of 2 SeeDs with the witch, but did not get a good look at her. Nevertheless, with the girl being the only female present at the time's witch, it is clear that this girl is the new witch. He sees her flee after the battle, and she puts on pretty good speed considering her small size, causing the SeeD purusing her (as the other SeeD was unconscious) to lose ground; it was almost as if she caused the space between them to expand. We see that the SeeD called for support and 2 more SeeDs emerged from different directions and cornered the girl, whereupon she cast her Old spell resulting in their deaths.

Leonhart considers the disturbing nature of the early spells used by this new witch, seeing that they were Time and Space Magic. Through all research, only one witch was known to specialize in Time and Space Magic, which specialty permitted the casting of Time Compression, and that witch was Ultimecia.


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07 Jan 2014, 8:16 pm

Another passage:

Ka-ren had always found civics class to be the most interesting. As her tall, lanky teacher walked into the room, she was excited about the topic of witches to be discussed. Dr. Adams turned on the overhead projected, showing the image of a capsule floating in space, with the caption, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Ka-ren felt very disturbed by that phrasing.

Dr. Adams began his lecture, "This is the first victory in SeeD's, nay the Gardens', nay the world's war against the witches!" Ka-ren began to feel afraid, her heart beat harder and faster, and it felt as if anger was moving through her veins. "It is estimated that 2 witches in this world remain to be sealed like this one. Operation Witches' Den! Our preemptive strike against the witch Ultimecia, of the past and the future!"

One student raised his hand and was called on; he said, "Sensei, how is it that Ultimecia is of the past and the future? How do we know she is even coming?"

"Good question, Bondi! Ultimecia was a witch with a specialty in Time and Space Magic. She was from a future time--though who knows, as she may currently exist on earth right now!--" Ka-ren felt a wave of energy fall over her at that statement--"and launched a reign of terror upon the populace, dressed in hideous costumes and performing the most despicable acts, before casting Time Compression, as part of her specialty, which has the effect of compressing all moments of time into a singular moment. This brought her to the attention to some of the first-ever SeeDs in the past who then defeated her. SeeD and Garden have since been devoted to preventing the emergence of Ultimecia in the future."

"I don't understand. Why don't we just kill all the witches?"

"This goes back to one of the major points of the witch embodiment, the succession of witches. A witch, even if she suffers a mortal wound, cannot die until her embodiment passes on to a female who is capable of holding that embodiment. Because of that, it is preferable to seal all of them, to prevent that succession."

Ka-ren's friend Adeline, seeing Ka-ren's state of distress, raises her hand and is called on; she says, "I don't understand. What is the need to do all this? As I understand, most witches throughout history have done good with their magic. They never committed any crimes, so why should they be imprisoned?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, foolish girl. It is to prevent the rise of Ultimecia that we embark on this grand project. Too tired are we of powerful tyrants ruling countries with an iron first, eliminating nations! We must do this! We must prevent Ultimecia's rise!"

"Have you thought that oppressing the witches might lead them to retaliate?"

"They have already oppressed us, so there is no need to worry about the oppression of the poor witches!" Dr. Adams's tone became derisive. At this point, Adeline knew she needed to stop the questioning.

Ka-ren was watching this conversation and anger was flowing through her veins. So we must seal the witch Ifalna away, huh? For all the children that she has fed, the lives that she has saved, the caring she has shown for me. Her innocence is to be completely disregarded for the sake of a vendetta against a single witch who may not have even been born yet!

Ka-ren was silent for the rest of the lesson, a subject she normally enjoyed, as Adeline looked on her with concern.


_________________
"You have a responsibility to consider all sides of a problem and a responsibility to make a judgment and a responsibility to care for all involved." --Ian Danskin