I've been thinking about this whole thing and as I played FF8 again this occured to me. Ultimecias motive seems so shallow. I thought to myself her whole motive is to time compress the world? Then what? Destroy everything? But if she destroyed everything that would mean she would be destroyed in the insuing chaos as well.
Personally, I think their was something more to Ultimecias motive. But I can't quite put my finger on it. What do you guys all think her motive was?
Thread Recap (last 10 posts from newest to oldest)
Oct 08, 10 at 2:34am
gobi1972
Have anyone thought that the reasons for Ultimecia's motive (of time compression) could be influence of her powers and not the person?
When I fought Ultimecia and peel her one by one, it became clear to me that as each of her "layers" die, the one thing which remain was the "power" behind it which become stronger and stronger.
In the end, ya will fight a hideous creature which had Ultimecia dangling like a ragged doll, and it's mouth wide open. There was whitish light in it's mouth, similar to holy magic.
Then I remember the story about Hyne and how he left the "weak" part behind and certain human females were inherited it. Could it be that SQUARE used "Reunion theory" from FF7 (previous game) to model this boss as well?
Oct 04, 10 at 6:15pm
Anonymous Ultimecia
After the events of FFVIII people know that sorceress called Ultimecia will be born and will rise to power in the "distant future". Due to this SeeDs have a mindset of every sorceress after Edea and Rinoa having the chance to become Ultimecia and thus will attack and persecute them for generations regardless of whether or not they have done anything wrong. Eventually one of those sorceresses breaks down from the hatred she has endured and proclaims herself as Ultimecia. The fear and hatred toward Ultimecia created an Ultimecia of reality.
This Ultimecia was strong enough to defend herself against this unjust persecution and win against the SeeDs of her era becoming a "cold blooded tyrant" ruling over everyone. However this still wasn't enough as everyone including her knows that "Legendary SeeD" from the past are supposed to appear to kill her.
Obviously she isn't thrilled about the idea of getting killed so as a time/space specialized sorceress she comes up with the idea of Time Kompression in order to get around her fate. The point of time compression is to gather the power of Hyne (god who created FFVIII's world) which in turn is spread along sorceresses. Compressing time would allow Ultimecia to gather all that power regardless of where and when those other sorceresses are making her a goddess in control of everything in FFVIII's world and thus being able to defy her fate and avoid getting killed. Ironically successfully compressing time also allows Squall and co to appear out of nowhere to kill her which was the very thing she wanted to prevent.
There you go, this is what Ultimecia's motives and background are about. Everything in this is in the actual game or at least very heavily hinted towards to.
Dec 19, 09 at 10:19pm
nasmith
I don't mean to resurrect an old topic, but there are a few points that no one has mentioned that I think are pertinent. And I find it a little hilarious that people can think Edea is a much better villain than Ultimecia considering absolutely everything Edea does and says as an antagonist in the game is actually Ultimecia acting and speaking through her.
As far as Ultimecia's motivation goes, I think it's pretty clear if you think back to the speech she gives in Deling while controlling Edea's body. She says to the enthralled crowd, "How you celebrate my ascension with such joy. Hailing the very one whom you have condemned for generations. Have you no shame? What happened to the evil, ruthless sorceress from your fantasies? ... Where is she now? She stands before your very eyes." And then a few moments later, "I will let you live a fantasy beyond your imagination."
It's a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy, Sorceresses are extremely stigmatized in FF8 cultures (especially after what Adel does in the Second Sorceress War, and probably even more so after SeeD and Garden reveal themselves as an organization dedicated to fighting Sorceresses, which has already happened by Ultimecia's time). People have at best walked on egg shells around Ultimecia since she inherited her powers, always expecting her become this cold-blooded monster that not only has the power to destroy just about anyone who stands up to her, but also the will to do it. At worst, she probably suffered vitriolic rhetoric, extreme exclusion and stigmatization, and quite possibly physical violence for being something that she can't change; if she were attacked and defended herself, it would probably be taken as proof that she evil. It's not really any wonder she ends up crazy and views an existence where she is the only person alive as pretty awesome considering she probably hasn't had good or even neutral experiences with people for a good portion of her life. It's very likely that she has no one who believes in her, not a single person that isn't terrified of her (or at least the possibility of what she could become), and in this isolation has become crazy and irrational and intent on becoming the thing people were so afraid she would. If they expect her to bring the world down around their heads, she's not only going to do it, she's going to make it worse than they could ever possibly imagine.
Also, from that point of view it makes sense that she chose Seifer as her right hand man. His dream is to be a Sorceress' knight, basically the only person that stands by a Sorceress no matter what. The knight not only physically protects the Sorceress, but is also the strongest bond a Sorceress has to her own humanity and sanity because the knight is someone who isn't afraid of her and her powers as well as giving her an emotional connection (and thus keeping things in perspective) to someone else. So, even though Ultimecia is way too far gone by the time she picks Seifer to form that bond (and really, Seifer isn't exactly the most objective person ever, so if I were looking for someone to keep things in perspective for me I wouldn't want it to be him XD), he represents something she either consciously or unconsciously yearns for.
I do think Square dropped the ball with her characterization though because by the time you realize Edea is actually being controlled by Ultimecia you probably don't remember that speech. Ultimecia also isn't given much humanity and she rarely directly interacts with the protagonists (she almost always interacts through a proxy, like Seifer). The motivation exists, but the specifics of it are never revealed and it itself is hardly touched on so it's left to the player to piece it together.
It's kind of sad because Ultimecia had a lot of potential.
Maybe the power that were transfered into her, corrupted her. Too much power can create madness.
hmm, maybe but look at my character Duncan Idaho From Dune, to him on more than 10 ocasions the power to destroy a complete planet was given to him, and what he do save his adopted home Caladan (Im talking about the book not about the Game, by the way i havent played it but i know that it sucks changed the Names for the Mentats from Thufir Hawat the Assasin master to an a i dont know what, and PiteR De Vires to Hyat De Vires comon thats not Fair!), any way, returning to the point, the power only corrupts you if you lend that it corrupt you, i have thios Philosophy and it works:
The Knowledge=To POwer= To Corruption... But only if it lends you that it goes to your head, so i dont think that Ultimmecia is corrupted by her powers, au contraire monseñor, my opinion is that ultimecia went mad because she had too much power with herself, for example lets make a eview of the FF History starting by the 4, Goblez waas manipulated by Zeromus all the time, he was a Lunarian, and why? he enetered onto an a such Corrupt Form of Himself, too much power, that he couldnt control make him mad, X-Death, is a diferent History, he could control his own power, buthe was corrupted by them, Kefka, he was truly mad from the Very Beggining of the game, Sephiroth, manipulated all the time by an a Alien, and ended corrupting himself, other Example not from FF, is Dark Samus from Metroid, Once He Was the Metroid Prime, but he merged his own DNA, with the Samus, and Guess what? the New Life Form She the Dark Samus born Corrupted by the Metroid Prime, and she wanted to spread the Corruption over all the planets of the Universe, lets get out of Metroid, and put Ganadorf, Same Case Of Zeronimus, he went Corrupted by his own Power, myt point, is that ultimecia had so much power, that probably in the Future she was marginated like, well an a virus, or something so her sadness morphed onto Revenge once she gets the powers of an a Sorceress and Voila, an a super Villian, at the Coners BAck.
Jan 04, 08 at 5:49am
Unforgiven
Maybe the power that were transfered into her, corrupted her. Too much power can create madness.
Jan 04, 08 at 5:43am
Miss Razz
Well it's true that a goal and motive can be considered the same thing (or, really, they are two parts of one picture). You need a motive for a goal. Nobody strives for a goal for no reason.
I personally can't accept Ultimecia's madness as a motive for her actions. She'd still need an actual reason for wanting Time Compression and a reason for hating SeeDs (though we can assume that she hates Seeds because they are made to destroy sorceresses). And, let's face it, Ultimecia is nowhere near as mad as a villain like Kefka, yet he still had a motive for his actions. His motives and goals were a result of absolute madness.
Agreed, as they say absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think she was quite mad, and that was part of the driving force behind her actions. and obviously an underlying hatred of seed.
I Agree but only partially, i think that the goal and motive of Ultimecia are the Same, Time Compression, i mean if you watch the Movie Called the Secret you will understand, my point of View.
Jan 03, 08 at 8:25pm
Balambgirl
Agreed, as they say absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think she was quite mad, and that was part of the driving force behind her actions. and obviously an underlying hatred of seed.
Jan 03, 08 at 2:29am
Unforgiven
I think the major reason behind Ultimecia's actions is revenge..
I haven't played the game too much, but the story background is kinda shallow here, because we don't have essential details regarding Ultimecia..
The most 'logical' motive would be megalomania and/or perhaps greediness.
Jan 03, 08 at 1:17am
Ray_Masamune
There is a difference between a goal and a motive though.
Regardless of whether she wants to be the only sorceress, or to have the compressed power of every sorceress before her, shouldn't there be a motive for it?
And as for time compression, there's no explanation for it either, or why only she apparently could survive in a time compressed world.
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