So, R=U. Rinoa and Ultimecia being the same person. It's perhaps the theory about FF VIII that had the most traction back when it was popular. And it's not hard to understand why; it characterizes Ultimecia, the big bad who is basically bad for the sake of being bad, plus, doesn't everyone who fanboyishly loves the story only to hear it trashed on by loads of people on the internet just love the idea of being vindicated, as you can tell yourself that all those IDIOTS will NEVER GRASP the TRUE HIDDEN DEPTH of it?

Well the idea has essentially fallen into obscurity especially after Kitase-san straight up denied the validity of the theory but even so I'd like to take another look at it. And not from the literal perspective, of Ultimecia and Rinoa being the same person, but more of them being parallels. Ultimecia is not literally Rinoa's future; Ultimecia is what Rinoa's future could have been if she didn't have Squall.

Near the end of Disc 3, Squall and Rinoa share a moment in the flower garden of the orphanage, where Rinoa questions the danger of letting herself walk freely and imagines a future where she ends up becoming the enemy of the world with Squall having to strike her down. Squall interrupts her and promises that he won't let that happen, and tells her to just stay close to him, while inwardly monologuing about how he'll be her knight no matter what, even if the whole world was to turn against them. This is what Rinoa needs and will prevent her from turning out like Ultimecia. Someone to stand by her side and support her, viewing her as a person and loving her for who she is, rather than just fearing her as a superpowerful witch.

Contrast this with Squall's own parallel for Ultimecia: Seifer. Such a bastardization of what Squall is to Rinoa, not being her ally at all as much as being her henchman. Seifer implies his romantic dream is to become a sorceress' knight, and seeing what Squall ends up being for Rinoa, it's not hard to see what he seeks; yet he couldn't have failed at it harder if he tried. Instead of being a knight, he's just a lapdog, and nothing exemplifies how pathetic he became more than his final moments in the story proper, where he so cannot admit to himself how much he failed at everything he wanted to become - even when his closest friends beg him to stop - that he doubles down on the idea that he's been doing things right the whole time and that doing what Ultimecia wants him to do is him being true to himself as the sorceress' knight.

Squall's relationship with Rinoa is far different. He'd never do in her name what Seifer does in Ultimecia's. If Rinoa had turned evil the first thing he'd done is snap her out of it. That's what he, as her knight, is supposed to be *doing*. Not to indulge in her evil, and not to lock her away. But to believe in her and help her and not give up on her even when everyone else would. Griever only serves to emphasize the difference further during the final battle, where while for Squall and Rinoa it's a symbol of their bond together, for Ultimecia it's just another weapon to use against her enemies.

The game gives us very little characterization on Ultimecia overall, but she does also have another contrasting figure in the story: Adel. Adel is arguably the most truly evil sorceress in the story, her role more akin to an uncaring narcissistic tyrant than a tragic figure. Adel is content being the ruler of Esthar. But Ultimecia doesn't want to rule an empire - her goal is *time compression*, the denial of all existence. And while it could be seen as an even more megalomaniac goal, to not be satisfied until even existence itself bends to her will, it feels far more desperate and self-destructive in nature when contrasted to Adel. Her plan is to create a world where there's nothing anyone can do, think or feel. Which feels far more like running away from a reality that has no place for her. Or, to put it in the words of another far better story: "A world where not a single person who might hurt [her] existed."

Ultimecia is the sorceress who had no one, and became a complete monster. Her place in Squall's story is to remind him, and us, that even Rinoa could very much turn out this way, and it's Squall who is there to prevent it. That's the essence of R=U in the end. It's not about them being literally the same person. It's about them being narrative parallels. I'm sure this is far from a novel take on the game, and of course the "monstrously powerful being who needs human connections to not lose themselves" is a very common trope in Japanese media in general. Still, I hope you enjoyed this little breakdown and maybe reflected on the first feelings you had when you read about R=U. Did you feel like there was something about the story it seemed to grasp better than anything else, even though it feels like such a ridiculous idea? Well maybe now you can understand better why it evokes feelings like that.

So in the end, is R=U? Well... no, but also yes. It's not a theory to be taken literally at face value. But it does get closer to the underlying themes of Final Fantasy VIII than outright denial of it.