FF8 Conundrum

I just realized something about FF8 that really bothered me…

Disc 3, Laguna’s Plan. If they actually KNEW Ultimecia was using the Ellone Junction Machine in the future, then why not just destroy the one in the past?

:booster: Time Travel sucks anyhow, nobody ever puts it to good use.

:noway: Well cept in Chrono Trigger.

Because FFVIII’s main plot is just an excuse for the SquallXEverything soap opera. And no Hades, I don’t give a heck about how brilliant you think it is.

Because like every FF game it had plot-holes you could throw a camel through?

Because Junction Machine Ellone hadn’t been built yet. It was still just an idea of Odine’s that he hadn’t perfected yet. Thus the solution would be to kill Dr Odine before he made it.

Or because you cannot alter the future after you’ve seen it, no-matter how hard you try. Because if you did, then it never would have happened for you to see it, so you wouldn’t have stopped it, so it still would’ve happened, so you would’ve seen it, so you would’ve stopped it…

TIME PARADOX!

(And interestingly enough, I’ve yet to play MGS3.)

One explanation that you could use, is the idea that if they did destroy the machine (or stop Odine from inventing it) then it would just create a new future, ‘parallel’ to the one that already existed. So Ultimercia would still be able do what she was trying, from her version of the future.

And if anyone cares, this is the same explanation used in the cell saga of DBZ. On the whole time travel thing. But I think it applies here too.

I think that’s roughly how they explain the events of Chrono Cross, too.

FFVIII shares plot-points with DBZ? Ewwww.

Yep, Angelus Errare.

In Back to the Future Part 2, too. Which is probably where all of these things got the original idea from.

See, some games have plots you have to think about to understand. And who wants to do that?

Or it merely becomes an option of a future, and not THE future.

In which case, it leads to the two futures thing, like somebody else brought up. See? There are no plotholes… nope… nosiree.

Well, at least there IS an explanation for what’s going on.

There is always an explanation.

Even if it sometimes is, “A wizard did it.”

Ah, but if the other future hinges upon an event that no longer occurs in the same manner, does the other future continue to exist?

Of course, it’s all moot anyway. By defeating Ultimecia without understanding exactly how she rose to power, the SeeDs completed the time loop again. The only way to truly stop her would be to find a way to prevent her from initiating Time Kompression in the first place, thus preventing her from going to the past to pass on her powers to Edea.

Yeah, it makes my head hurt too.

Man, I should play FF8 a few dozen more times. Then maybe I could find this elusive drama.

I was going to reply to this but my common sense kicked in just in time. So instead I’m going to ask something that’s been bugging me for a while: Why is Ifrit on that picture on your sig? Shouldn’t you use Hades instead?

I was going to reply to this but my common sense kicked in just in time.
Yeah, whew. That was a close one. You almost said something stupid :stuck_out_tongue:

So instead I’m going to ask something that’s been bugging me for a while: Why is Ifrit on that picture on your sig? Shouldn’t you use Hades instead?
Nah. You just haven’t been here long enough to know about how cool Ifrit is. That picture is actually years old.