This relationship is truly heartbreaking, and only made harder by the fact that Zack’s ghost haunts Aerith in the shape of Cloud. On the day Zack met his untimely fate, there was only one thing on his mind: getting back to Midgar to find Aerith. Zack was the first man who asked her on a date, the first she led to that iconic park in the slums, the first whose eyes caught her own, and the first she opened up her heart to, culminating in her writing letter after letter for years while Zack was trapped in Nibelheim. Long before Cloud crashed through the ceiling of the sector 5 church, Zack made his dramatic crash landing into Aerith’s life and stole her heart with his boyish charm. However, I am a firm believer that no one is better suited for Aerith than her first love, Zack Fair. I know the game had a rough localisation/translation but the lore and world-building is still there, you just have to dig deep enough.There’s a lot of debate over which of Final Fantasy VII’s leading ladies belongs with moody broody protagonist Cloud Strife, with fair points on either side. Ultimecia could have been a decent person, but because of the stigma the world never gave her a chance. Rinoa is the first and only one we are shown as being a "good" sorceress. Ultimecia knows eventually SeeD will come after her so she comes up with Time Compression.Īll sorceresses more or less have the same backstory. As time goes on, SeeD is created to kill sorceresses because of the stigma of "sorceresses are bad because of the terrible things some of them did in the past".
The world fears the new sorceress (Adel was a tyrannical leader, Edea was possessed, Ultimecia was never given a choice). A previous sorceress transfers her powers to the woman. A woman is born with innate sorceress abilities.
Yes, she doesn't get her own backstory, but throughout the game we see history repeating itself. She's not motivated by power, she's motivated by fear. Her only way to survive is to compress time so she may become "immortal" and deny everyone else's existence. Ultimecia is trapped by her inevitable destiny and fears SeeD. In the present, Squall is selected to lead SeeD against Ultimecia and in the end travels to the future to stop her. Matron and Cid devise the plan for SeeD to defeat Ultimecia. Squall and a dying Ultimecia go back to the past to meet Matron. too much to go into here, but everything weaves together, Ultimecia is part of an amazing tapestry. The base level - go read the Ultimania translations and direct translations of FF8. at one point Esthar refer to Rinoa as "descendant of Hyne") A semi mythical history that explains the stigma of Sorceresses (e.g. on the white seed ship, info log) you can read the story about Hyne. Third layer - if you go into the game's backstory (e.g. What does Ultimecia do to stop this? Time compression - Use Junction Machine Ellone to return to Ellone's time (key reason why we see the events of FF8 - Ellone is alive, and no one has invented Junction Machine Ellone yet, Odine is working on it), use her power to go back further and achieve time compression. ("SeeD's, swarming like Locusts through time") We know Edea then created SeeD to kill Ultimecia, and we can extrapolate from this that Ultimecia, way in the future, knows she is destined to be slain by a legendary SeeD. Second layer - Once you've completed the game you should be able to see that Edea knew a legendary SeeD would kill Ultimecia as she saw the defeated sorceress and Squall with her own eyes.
Her goal is to find Ellone to complete her goal of time compression, where she will reign as a God. The top layer - All you really need to know is that Ultimecia is a sorceress from the future who is present from Disc 1, meddling in the events of FF8 by junctioning herself to sorceresses. Like all the best FFs you can enjoy the story at a superficial level and grasp the gist of it, or you can dive down into the depths of the story and satisfy your fantasy nerd side too. Firstly, kick your "Rinoa = Ultimecia" fan theory to the curb along with "Squall is dead", it sucks compared to the real deal.įF8 is a layered story.