Fridge / Final Fantasy VIII

As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Fridge Brilliance

• Throughout the game, Squall sometimes forgets people he meets quickly. He forgets about "familiar looking guy" in Fisherman's Horizon and he even forgets Nida, who became a SeeD with him. This can be seen as a running joke in the game, or it could be alluding to how terribly the GF induced memory loss is affecting Squall.
• 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 compounded 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.
• 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.
• 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.
    • Also at the very end of the scene, note how Squall swings his gunblade to scar Seifer. It's the Rough Divide finisher.
• 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.
  • Let's not forget Selphie, whose uncontrolled enthusiasm, tendency to be easily distracted, and reckless overconfidence nearly get her (and her party) killed during the missile base infiltration. It easily leads to them being found out, and it's only quick thinking that lets them leave alive.
  • Take a moment to compare to the Onion Knights, Rydia, Krile, and Relm, and you'll realize that the franchise is deconstructing its previous use of the Kid Hero.
  • I'd like to argue though that Zell is the most emotionally stable, hotheadedness aside. The fact that he was the only one who was adopted and FOUND happiness in his adoption (Quistis was the only other orphan stated to be adopted but she left quickly), and thus, had the biggest semblance of a normal childhood. Not perfect, but still far better compared to the others, with only Irvine a bit of a far second. Also, unlike the others, even Quistis, he only joined Garden because of how much his idolized his war hero of a grandfather, not because he was unhappy with his life and/or didn't know any other way of living. Plus, while he's not the "perfect soldier" that Squall is, at least in demeanor, Zell balances it by being the second-most, if not outright most, competent of the party, skill-wise. Zell is shown to be adept at technology, and carries an encyclopedic knowledge of history and military tactics. It can be easily forgotten amidst the chaos but right before the Garden clash, when everyone thought Zell was still asleep, you immediately find that not only has he been awakened by the alert, he's already leading a squad of cadets to hold the quad. Regarding his blabbermouth, it was only one incident that ultimately proved to be inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and not only is he shown to be remorseful of his blunder, but has not made any significant blunders since. Compared to Seifer who is the REAL hotblooded mess of the orphans. Zell got over his carelessness, Seifer allowed his fantasies to control him.
• 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 use of a gun)?
• 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.
  • It's clearer looking at their respective Triple Triad cards. They're complete mirrors of each other.
• 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.
• Why does Ultimecia get very little development throughout the game? Because she's not the real villain. The real villain is time itself, and how it strips away the safety and security of childhood, how it drags people inexorably towards an uncertain future. Ultimecia's plan to freeze time is the ultimate rejection of the ravages of time, ensuring that nothing in the world will ever change again, ever. Makes you wonder if Squall had magic powers, would he have compressed time so he never left the orphanage?
  • Adding to this, Ultimecia is motivated by a desire to escape the Stable Time Loop she created and is trapped in (where she is persecuted for future crimes, and that persecution causes her to lash out and commit those crimes, leading to her persecution in the past etc.) Her solution? Break time itself and gain her free will back. The irony of this is that Time Compression itself is also part of the Stable Time Loop, and the reason SeeD are able to kill her. Ultimecia just can't catch a break - Time will always find a way to screw her over.
• Why does Squall repeatedly state to himself that "You can't depend on people" or other morose tidbits? Not because he believes in it (how he fell for Rinoa proves that) but because he's trying to convince himself it's true. It's a psychological defense mechanism, pure and simple.
• A little bit of Fridge Brilliance that is Breaking the Fourth Wall: In-game, use of GF is confirmed to cause memory loss. The way the game is set up (its mechanics) encourages you to use your GF only passively (junctions and abilities) but not actively (summoning). So either Square is trying to protect us from the long-term effects of GF-(ab)use or it is a cleverly hidden clue to how to beat an otherwise ridiculously hard game.
• The English version translates アルティミシア as Ultimecia, but it can also be romanized as Artemisia, as in Artemis, the moon goddess, unifying her thematically with things like Lunatic Pandora, or the Lunar Cry.
  • Many other localized versions (I can vouch for the Italian version, but I think it's the same for other, non-English European localizations, although not all of them) directly use the name "Artemisia", further bolstering the idea. In my opinion, "Ultimecia" is just a wrong romanization, just like "Katal" for "Katar" (and perhaps even "Laguna" instead of "Ragna").
• The very subtle hints dropped throughout the game that Squall is Laguna's son. For one thing, the characters selected for mind-travel tend to be random so long as Ellone knew them at the orphanage. Squall is always selected — which is a given since he's the hero — but he always mind-travels to Laguna. All of the other characters are paired with Kiros and Ward randomly, but Squall is the only one consistent with one person. Then there's the D-District Prison, where after Squall's torture the Moombas start randomly shouting for Laguna, mistaking Squall for Laguna. Later on in the game it's revealed that Laguna interacted with Moombas and tried to teach them to speak, and that Moombas identify humans by the taste of their blood. The fact that Squall's blood tastes like Laguna's indicates some familial relation. Then there's the incredibly telling dialogue Kiros, Ward, and Laguna give to Squall on the Ragnarok before the final battle.
• Laguna's history with Julia is seldom mentioned after the first flashback, and she appears to be the one that got away. She later goes on to marry Rinoa's father and obviously bear Rinoa as a child. Assuming the above entry is canon, then Julia and Laguna's feelings for each other are finally given a chance to be lived out by their children, Squall and Rinoa.
• Cid holding Seifer's Triple Triad card may seem strange at first, but if you buy into the theory that Cid served as Edea's Sorceress Knight due to being married to her, while she holds her own card, it comes together brilliantly! While most may think Cid holding Seifer's card is him holding the most troublesome Garden student's card as a position of his headmaster status, but it's actually because while Cid doesn't have a Triple Triad card, Seifer did, and Seifer serves as the closest thing to Cid in terms of Sorceress Knight status! Cid and Edea hold the Sorceress Knight and Sorceress cards. The same can be said for Caraway holding Rinoa's and Laguna holding Squall's! Because the most logical sources for the holder(s) of SK and Sorceress cards would be the people closest to them! Or in other words, Cid holds Seifer's card because they both are Edea's (and Ultimecia by extension) Knight.
  • Simpler than that: aside from the ones created during the Queen of Cards sidequest, all of the unique character cards are held by someone who is in some way connected to the person represented by the card. Ma Dincht has Zell's card, Rinoa's father has hers, Ellone has Laguna's, and Laguna has Squall's; it makes perfect sense for Cid to have Seifer's card given that, as one of the two caretakers of the orphanage and the founder and headmaster of Balamb Garden, he's the closest thing Seifer has to a father.
• Tying into the aforementioned point about how Garden and SeeD show why child soldiers are a really bad idea: notice how unprofessional Garden really is. They've got some serious organizational issues: Unruly and unprofessional squad-level leadership (Seifer, Quistis), an unclear command structure (see the short-lived Garden civil war), an inadequate system of punishment for insubordination/disobeying orders (Seifer being locked up in detention for abandoning his post), lack of respect for entire components of the command structure (everyone hates the Faculty), and so on. They don't really act like a professional military force should. SeeDs seem to rely entirely on their own individual capability to succeed at their missions because the Garden organization is wholly inadequate to handle it. And the reason why: Garden was founded by civilians who had no idea how to run a military force! Cid, Edea, and NORG were not military. Cid and Edea ran an orphanage, while NORG was a businessman. Cid and Edea built up Balamb Garden like it was a school and orphanage, and NORG introduced the mercenary aspect as a way to make money to fund the whole enterprise, but at no point did they try to structure Garden to be a proper military force because they didn't really know how to - or perhaps they didn't think it was necessary. And even more telling, Garden doesn't start acting anything like a real military force until after the previous leadership is removed (Edea being possessed, Cid removing himself from command, and NORG being forced into his cocoon) and new leadership is installed in the form of Squall, who has some leadership experience as a soldier. Once Squall is in command and Garden goes on a war footing (or as much as Garden can, considering its limited military capability beyond superpowered infantry), it still remains something of a middle/high school but it also becomes notably more professional.
  • It's mentioned by a student that many of her classmates dropped out after the Battle of the Gardens, causing the school to become quiet and lonely in their absence. However, it's also noted by another student that Balamb Garden as a whole is much more battle-ready than it was a short time ago. This implies that the students most suited to combat training and a military environment have chosen to stay behind, effectively transforming Balamb Garden into the military academy it was always supposed to be.
  • Contrast with Galbadia Garden, which was founded later than Balamb and is run by actual military personnel (in a dictatorial state in need of a strong army, at that): discipline is strictly enforced, the climate (as noted in-game) is much less friendly and more spartan, the structure itself is still ornate, but more practical and sober than Balamb, and its student body is vastly more military-oriented and competent, as seen in both the attack and defense during the War of the Gardens in Disc 2; all of it withoug being overpowered by GF junction. Insubordination only arises once outsiders (i.e.: Seifer and the Sorceress) take over, and it is limited to a handful of students who only step aside from battling and hand out keys to locked rooms.
• Tying in with the World War II overtones of the game, Winhill is a dead-ringer for the kind of quaint little mid-20th century Merrie Olde England towns ravaged by war such as Coventry. Coventry was famously toured after its devastation by Prime Minister Winston Churchhill.
• Squall's name. Yeah, the Final Fantasy protagonists have kind of a weather-themed name tradition going on, but it just dawned on me that his parents fit the bill. Theirs are specifically water themed names. Laguna is the translation of lagoon in some Romance languages, and Raine is literally rain.
• It's often cited as a weakness of the game that Ultimecia (and Seifer, to a lesser extent) has a dense, impenetrable motivation that she never explains. But it's actually a strength, thematically. Since villains are typically a Foil for the hero, she wouldn't undergo the same character arc the hero does, and would retain the vices he outgrows. Squall learns to open up and share his own inner world with his friends, but Ultimecia doesn't. Not until the very end, when she tries to explain about time to the party in the final battle. But it's too late, and her monologue ends on a tantalizingly unfinished sentence. All that she was, all that she thought and felt, is lost to time forever, leaving only outsiders to try and piece her motivation together — just like Squall's friends have been doing with him for the entire game.
• Quistis losing her instructor status. Most just accept it meaning Quistis is an incapable teacher, however, she is responsible for instructing the two most talented cadets, Squall and Seifer, and Seifer's continuous outbursts are Seifer's own responsibility, even Xu says as much. Furthermore, though she is told she lacks qualities as a leader, Quistis is shown in-game to be resourceful, knowledgeable and disciplined enough to carry out the role and is typically considered to be second-in-command to Squall, even performing this role when he becomes Garden Commander, and even when she does make mistakes, she solves them immediately thanks to being able to think on her feet (such as in Galbadia's sewers). Think: Cid knew the Orphanage gang since they were children. It is no coincidence that Squall, Zell and Selphie were put together on a team on their first SeeD mission. Cid wanted them together, otherwise he would've sent Nida along, or a more experienced SeeD member. It's likely no coincidence at all that Quistis just so happens to be freed from her responsibilities as an instructor at exactly the right moment the rest of the "Fated Children" graduate. The prophecy states that the Fated Children, led by the legendary SeeD (Squall) will defeat the Sorceress. Cid knew this and reinforced the Stable Time Loop by making Squall the squad leader (a position he hadn't had before), getting the team together and by making sure Quistis was free to join the rest of her orphanage gang. When Seifer breaks out and heads to Timber, Cid doesn't send just anyone to keep an eye on him, he sends Quistis. Cid couldn't have known that Seifer, himself one of the Orphanage Gang, would be manipulated into becoming the Sorceress' Knight. Afterwards, Cid orders the assassination on Edea, specifically requesting it be done via a Sharpshooter. It is likely he knew Irvine's whereabouts and specialty, and sent the team to meet with him. It is destiny that they all get together in this quest, but it is a fate that is ensured by the participation of one who is aware of the prophecy and makes sure it is fulfilled, Headmaster Cid Kramer, Sorceress Edea's husband and likely the closest thing the orphanage gang hads to a father figure.
  • It's most likely not coincidence that Quistis is removed from her instructor position the same day that Squall graduates into SeeD, given Cid's knowledge of the Stable Time Loop. Her lack of leadership ability is, however, borne out by her behavior once she joins the team in Timber. Despite being the senior SeeD present, she defers all decision-making responsibility to Squall, limiting herself to prompting him on regulation when it seems like he's hesitating. In the one instance where she's placed in charge of a group due to the team splitting up - the assassination mission - she badly flubs her role by not only leaving her position during the mission for personal reasons, but failing to ensure that Zell and Selphie remain in position as instructed in case she doesn't make it back in time, with the result that they nearly fail to complete their end of the mission. Tellingly, the other times the team splits up, Squall puts Selphie (the missile base) and then Zell (the trip to space) in charge of the second team.
  • Quistis also sometimes seems to defer to Xu - who appears to be a little older - even when they're both instructors. It might be that she's better at taking orders and has very few skills at thinking for herself.
    • Exactly. Quistis makes a good adjutant, but she lacks the qualities for leadership.
• Seifer's status as an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy and his insistence on getting the kill and the XP. Since He Knows About Timed Hits, we know that he has a certain knowledge of game mechanics, but anyone who knows FFVIII game strategy knows that leveling up recklessly doesn't really make you any more powerful. It makes you superficially stronger, but without the right array of level-up bonuses, Level Grinding will cripple the development of your abilities in the long term. So, back to Seifer. He's a gunblade user, amazingly strong and talented, and good enough that the majority of enemies will fall before him like chaff. Odin goes down like a punk (though that may be Cutscene Power to the Max), and Garden security (and even Quistis) can't keep him restrained. But his blind focus on levels and personal power means that he never develops to his full potential, and so while he was stronger than Squall when they were at the Academy, he's not a match for Squall if Squall has been leveling up intelligently and using the Junction system.
• They're called SeeDs because they grow in the Garden.
  • They also start there as children.
  • Lampshaded by Edea/Ultimecia herself: "A See D... Planted in a run-down garden."
• The first time Squall and Rinoa meet she asks him to ‘look into my eyes’ paraphrasing the song her mother wrote about his father ‘Eyes on Me’.
  • The song was also about a soldier who supposedly died in the war, and Rinoa is attending a military academy's graduation ball.
• When visiting Deling City to watch Julia play, Laguna sits the exact same way his son does during class.
• The Cliffhanger ending to Disc 1 is deliberately meant to shock and horrify you on a more subconscious level than the obvious. It ends with one of the most important characters getting impaled by the nominal Big Bad. The last time that happened would still have been fresh on everyone's mind and leave them even more worried than usual about Squall's fate.
• What seems like a gag at the beginning, Seifer says he thinks only bad students should be wished "good luck" which causes Quintis to say "Ok, good luck Seifer." pissing him off. It may seem like a gag, but Seifer failed the past 3 exams and he's going to fail the latest one. As sassy as Quintis was being, her saying that wasn't just to rile him up, she was reminding him that he already failed before and could very well do so again.
• Irvine's Limit Break is the only one that isn't magic-based. As in you need ammo bought in shops to power it. This makes perfect sense since he hasn't junctioned to a GF and hasn't lost his memories of growing up in the orphanage.
• When Ellone sends Squall's consciousness to Rinoa for the final time while they're in space, there's more going on than just Squall encouraging Rinoa not to give up. Rinoa, who's been possessed by Ultimecia and either lying comatose in the infirmary or floating alone in space, has no way to know that the Lunar Base spacesuits have an emergency backup air supply - as far as she knows, when her suit's life support runs out, that's it. *Squall* is the one who knows to activate the emergency oxygen in order to buy Rinoa time for him to rescue her, because he heard Piet mention it.
• If you don't bring Rinoa with you to the plot-specific events, she'll run in from nowhere every time she's needed for a scene instead of being a mandatory party member. Of course she does, the whole point of her character is that she's a tag-along playing revolution in the middle of a real war; everybody who hated her playing the game hated her worse because she won't be left behind.
• At first it seems as though the sorceress power should get stronger with every loop. Rinoa inherits the power of two sorceresses, that power eventually reaches Ultimecia in the future, who then gives it to Edea, who is one of the two sorceresses to empower Rinoa, etc. You'd think this would eventually make Ultimecia so powerful that she could just kill the See Ds herself. However, there is a Dummied Out entry in the information page describing the succession of sorceress power as "weakening with each transfer," which would explain why such a self-perpetuating loop doesn't seem to be the case (and luckily so!)
• Squall's Renzokuken has unique combos on specific bosses, and many possess a recurring element. It's subtle, but for many of these bosses, Squall often targets the enemy's limbs first. This is very similiar to how an apex predator like a lion (or lioness) would hunt its prey, carefully sizing up their target, remove their ability to flee and eliminate any unpredictable factors of a cornered animal before moving in for the kill. It's most noticable with Bahamut, in which Squall will maim his wings before using his snout like a diving board, but if you watch closely even against a boss like Adel, Adel's hands try to move to get Squall out of her face only for him to slap them aside, notice where the trigger explosions appear. Against Griever, Squall only does 5 hits, cutting each limb before ripping at the jugular. And where's the safest place to be against Ultima Weapon's BFS? Right under it so its weapon is too cumbersome to retaliate, and you can see Ultima Weapon flailing trying to swing it at him during Renzokuken too!
• Ultimecia's backstory (which is All There in the Manual) reveals that she was persecuted due to the actions of her future self, despite not having done anything in the "present." Throughout the story, Ultimecia uses her powers to possess others and cause people to become fanatically loyal to her. She's controlling and hurting others before they have a chance to control and hurt her again.

Fridge Horror

• 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 Soldiers 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.
    • The most logical conclusion is that he had them train with GFs because that's the only way to have enough power to fight a Sorceress and have a chance of winning. Sure, we can fight and win without them, but that's just game mechanics, not what's actually supposed to be happening.
• There was a scene for Irvine that hit a lot harder in retrospect when I realized something. When Irvine is nervous and preparing to assassinate the Sorceress Edea, he's probably hiding the real reason he's troubled. Later in the game, you find out that all of the principle characters were raised in the same orphanage, with Cid and Edea as caretakers, and everyone but Irvine forgot due to the influence GFs. So Irvine remembers the woman he's preparing to assassinate as a loving caretaker and mother figure. No wonder he's nervous.
  • That scene pretty much changes Irvine's entire character when you know about Edea being Matron. He knows he can't blow the secret and tell Squall the real reason he's nervous, and there's a very good chance that his excuse, that he always gets nervous and screws up, was a complete lie; if he couldn't perform under pressure, Galbadia would have sent some other sniper, and he wouldn't be able to hold his trigger finger still enough to let a butterfly land on it. There's nothing to indicate he ever screwed up any other time, before or after that event.
  • Not only that, but apart from Rinoa, he's all together with his old childhood friends... but it's clear none of them even vaguely remember him, which is something that should already hurt for someone. Combine that with the above about Edea and not only is he hollowed by that, but the fact that said friends are effectively ordering him to put a bullet to her head like it was nothing like broke him further. Worse, it was obviously pointless to tell them that reason at that moment as he'd be seen as crazy on top of being full of hot air about his skills. It's why it's likewise good foreshadowing that the first thing we ever see him do is to let a butterfly land on his pointed finger, which requires the precise steadiness expected of a gunner and sniper like him. Irvine's arc therefore represents the pain we all feel when our old friends and the people that we loved before have outright forgotten about us and you just end up feeling awful for the poor guy, having to create a facade of the aloof but womanizing marksman to hide such pain.
  • Not to mention that even when they finally remember about each other in Trabia, Squall still doesn't recall Irvine as being part of their group as kids!
• Selphie's unique Limit Break spell: Rapture. Selphie attaches magical wings to her opponent, which is flown off-battle, thus ending the confrontation... and then what? Does she send the enemies flying into space to die a horrible death? Or perhaps even worse, do the wings wear off after a short time and the unfortunate enemy plummets down to Earth to, again, die a horrible death? Perhaps even more jarring... does she control if the wings fade or not? With Selphie's established penchant for violence, one would think twice about angering a girl who can drop you from the height of Mount Everest with just a little incantation.
  • What if the monsters are sent (back) to the moon?
• The battle between Balamb Garden and the Galbadian military, and the fact that Garden houses cadets ranging from 5 years old up to 19. Squall gives the order for junior students to be protected by the seniors, and grown up, professional SeeDs are present, but they represent only a small part of the Garden's forces. Edea and her military tried to bomb the Garden knowing that children lived there, so the Galbadian soldiers wouldn't have spared any junior classmen they might have encountered on account of their age. How many children were cut down or gunned down in that battle by adults? How many were maimed? Even if there weren't many, most of the dead are likely teenagers from 15 to 19 years old, girls and boys, still a horrible thought. And, though many students are orphans, some do have families. It was somebody's job to write to or somehow notify their families that their beloved children had been horribly killed in battle. It's all like Hogwarts, until you realize these are child soldiers.
• The Balamb Garden Training Center - the one full of live monsters, including at least one T-Rex - is open to students at all hours, without supervision. The Infirmary closes at curfew. If a cadet ends up badly injured after hours due to getting out of their depth in the Training Center, for instance due to a run-in with the T-Rexaur, they are on their own until the Infirmary opens the next morning.
• Edea and Rinoa are completely conscious of what is going on while Ultimecia is possessing them. Meaning Edea was trapped helplessly looking out of her own eyes as a voice not her own gave a speech of war just after murdering the president, then started fighting her foster children - one of the lonelier of which she Impaled with Extreme Prejudice and then launched a set of missiles at their school, her school, with her husband active inside. And that is not even getting to the vamping involved with another one of her kids who seems head-over-heels in lust with her possessor and pledges to be her knight.
• Rinoa in space. Think about it. Rinoa was either aware the whole time of what Ultimecia was making her do, or else woke up alone in the middle of space with five minutes of oxygen left!
• The above point under Fridge Brilliance regarding the self-perpetuating nature of the loop. If the Dummied Out information entry is not to be taken as canon, then it's possible Ultimecia becomes more powerful with each loop. To put it mathematically, if a sorceress = 1, then Edea starts out at 1 -> adds Ultimecia's power to make 2 -> gives that 2 to Rinoa -> Rinoa takes Adel's power to make 3 -> that 3 eventually reaches Ultimecia -> Ultimecia gives that 3 to Edea to make 4 -> repeat forever. It's possible that it's not a Stable Time Loop at all, but rather a war of attrition that Ultimecia will eventually become strong enough to win.
• Sorceresses cannot die without passing on their powers. That means Rinoa wouldn't have died if Squall hadn't rescued her in space. She would have continued drifting forever, unable to help herself, unable to pass on her powers, and unable to die.