WTF! (SPOILER)

[Just Chill]

So...
I played this game dozens of times on PSX since 1999.
Yet, I don't know what it was, maybe the bittersweet love story between Squall and Rinoa, but I never realized WHAT was actually going on in the background.

Raine Loire, that woman that nursed Laguna back to health gave birth to a child, while Laguna was in Esthar.
Ellone was sent back and witnessed the birth, but Laguna still had to stay in Esthar helping the people to build up the City after Adel's "departure".
He got president...

So, he didn't know he had a son with Raine. She died shortly after giving birth to a son... named Squall.
Ellone and Squall therefore were brought to Edea's orphanage.
Which either explains why he was that much into "Sis", they knew each other before and he felt some sibling love for her.

So... Squall is the son of Laguna and Raine Loire?
Right when that thought occured to me, I just doulbe-checked it on the Wiki:
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Raine_Loire

Ha... I was blind for almost 2 decades.
I find it lovely how a story can advance even after years of investing time into it, when you just open up your eyes for some different aspects. :)

Guess everything has some sort of "invisible gorilla" inside.

[Pilda]

I was blind like that two decades too, lol.

[Just Chill]

Glad I am not the only one who had that "Fell like scales from my eyes" effect on that topic. :D


I just love that ending:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1869377946
FFX ending is not really a happy end, even though FFX-2 tries to fix that in a weird way. XD

FFVIII is just perfect regarding being a nice action adventure with a neat love story including a nice ending to it. :)
The bitter sweet part appears to be hidden in the background story. Poor Raine. :(
Well... At least Laguna still has a family. :)

[Just Chill]

Just in addition:

Now the sequence in the prison makes either sense to me. :D
When the Moombas lick Squall's wounds they suddenly start to call him "Laguna".

Moombas have the ability to recognize humans by their blood. So as Squall has similar blood as his father and Laguna was always kind to the Moombas during his "Esthar pison" time, they somewhat related with that kindness to his son Squall too.

I always use the "Just let me die" choice during the tortue as I think that's Squall's prefered choice. XD
I don't know if the Moombas set him free if he tries to trick the guard with a lie.

But in my case, another light got just turned on.
I really start to think that the story of FFVIII is way more deep than some naysayers would admit.

Sure, FFVII is the big deal for most FF fans, but aside of the tragedy faced in FF7 (Zack's death, even though that's Last Order and Crisis Core; Aerith's death), I still think that with all the background, the story of FFVIII is pretty solid.
Even though there might be some minor flaws in it...

[Xengre]

Just to be clear this isn't a canonically verified issue due to lack of concrete evidence but it is widely believed to be reliably inferred to as true.

FF8's story is deeper than the others for sure but I wouldn't look into it as having crazy depth. It is a good story but a lot of people fail to realize the situations characters like Squall and Tidus are dealing with that would mentally break most people which is one of the big complaints. I quite enjoy FF7, 8, and 9s stories.

[Vagrant]

Originally posted by Shirayuki Z:

It is easy to miss because there is no direct proof of it in game, only a suggestion,

Nope.

- Kiros and Ward more or less spoils it to you on the Ragnarok... They don't name names, but it's clear who the father is referencing to... Also, Laguna himself says "After this we need to talk..." Pretty much dead giveaway right here.

- Moombas and the Prison episode is another solid evidence. Moombas calling Squall "Laguna"... Info corner says Moombas remember people by licking their blood.

- Back then, I thought Laguna's profile picture looked a lot like Squall...

- Squall's coat has a "wreath of white feather", more or less referencing to Raine's wreaths of white flowers mentioned by one of the villagers in Winhill. A longshot, but still...

- Another longshot: Laguna was a deep over-thinker (Julia episode). Squall mocks him but he's actually the same but in a more edgy, depressed way.

[Sir_Sephy]

A big WTF for me Adel was actually possessed by Ultimecia and ruling Esther. You know the part where Ellone sent Rinoa and Ultimecia back in the past and then bring Rinoa back? Rinoa said Ultimecia chosen the young Adel. I didn't know about it until now.

[KaosReigns]

Originally posted by sir_sephy:

A big WTF for me Adel was actually possessed by Ultimecia and ruling Esther. You know the part where Ellone sent Rinoa and Ultimecia back in the past and then bring Rinoa back? Rinoa said Ultimecia chosen the young Adel. I didn't know about it until now.

Negative.

Adel was Adel until Rinoa went upto space. That was when Ultemecia took over Adel. Prior to that, she was in control of Edea. This can be blamed 100% on Squall.

Ellone's powers dont work that way. Neither do Ultemecia's. The reason she was able to take control of Edea when she did (again, thanks for that Squall), was because she was in the middle of compressing time.

There is a part in the game however that hints to Edea (who is Ultemecia) and Adel working together, but nothing about Ultemecia being in control of Adel during the Sorceress Wars.

It has been a bit since I played through this, so SOME of my information might be a bit inaccurate, so I will provide this video below, which will clearly explain the story to anyone that wants to know it without playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ9ciwcNnw8&t=1501s

[Vagrant]

Originally posted by KaosReigns:

Originally posted by sir_sephy:

A big WTF for me Adel was actually possessed by Ultimecia and ruling Esther. You know the part where Ellone sent Rinoa and Ultimecia back in the past and then bring Rinoa back? Rinoa said Ultimecia chosen the young Adel. I didn't know about it until now.

Negative.

I agree with Kaos, however... What if in that very brief moment when Ulti was junctioned into Adel, Ulti was able to brainwash Adel into becoming pure evil?

Everything before the "Sorceress War 17 years ago" never gets mentioned, probably because the world was at peace. But then Adel goes balistic, takes over Esthar and the rest is history.

However, Adel did not have knight, so it's more likely she went insane on her own. We have no more proof.