Who Ultimecia really is

[Future Esthar]

To discover that we have to look for clues in her Castle.
In the art Gallery we see a picture named XERAMPELINAE.
In the picture there is a woman dressed in red with short black hair and a crown.So we assume she is the queen.There is also a piano on the castle.
Ultimecia also wears red clothes,and also JULIA HEARTILY.
Julia has short black hair and play piano.
Ultimecia´s blonde hair may be a secondary efect of her being possessed (yes she is).
Remember Laguna´s phrase?-In order to love two people are required.
So in the castle there is this LOVE (VENUS) picture.And there were only two other picture´s of people in the gallery.The XERAMPELINAE and the VIGIL.The vigil is a symbolic picture of Laguna,Kyros and Ward.
So we have Julia loves Laguna.Laguna IS the knight that Ultimecia lost.
We only see Julia once in the game.The same goes to Ultimecia.

[TheAbominatrix]

Ultimecia is not possesed. She's a sorceress, and an evil one at that. She's not possesed.

I highly highly doubt Julia is Ultimecia, especially since Julia's fate is clearly explained in the game.

It just seems unlikely that such a minor character would be such a major villian without it being even hinted at in any normal way. If anything, she isnt Julia, she's Rinoa. There's a LOT more evidence to that effect than there is to her being Julia.

That's interesting stuff though.

[BackRoomKid]

Very interesting.....but, I think more evidence points to Rinoa....but cool look at things

[Ancient Goddess]

I doubt that Ultimecia is Julia, also. Julia was just a character that explained a few things about Laguna and Rinoa, in my opinion. I don't really see her as becoming an evil being. If Ultimecia was possessed, then why would they end the game after her defeat? Wouldn't the world of FFVIII be in danger again? Something about that seems kinda fishy to me...

But I can kinda see where you drew conclusions from her art gallery. I didn't really pay too much attention to the paintings other than finding the answer to the puzzle. I don't think that Square was trying to point out that Julia and Ultimecia had red clothing, though. I also don't remember seeing a piano in her castle...but I remember seeing an organ. I would think that there would be a little more evidence if Square intended to have Julia as Ultimecia...like warp the Eyes On Me song into her battle theme, or mention something about Laguna.

But this is an interesting concept, however.

[razor248725]

SPOILERS IN THE TEXT BELOW READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

i just think that Ultimecia is Ultimecia and rinoa is rinoa and julia is julia. no one (except Ultimecia) turns into Ultimecia because laguna said somthing like 'Ultimecia is a sorcoress from many generations in the future where none of us can technically exist'. Ok? do u understand now? rinoa and julia cant be Ultimecia because they would be dead by the time Ultimecia came to exist, its just impossible. sorry im just really sick of seeing these posts about the R=U theory. people say that Ultimecia doesnt appear till the end of the game and think to themselves 'who the hell is Ultimecia?', when infact shes been around since disk 1, while possesing edea and edea says to you she was possed by Ultimecia so your supposed to think 'oh Ultimecia has actually been around since disk 1'...what the heck does that have to do with julia being Ultimecia?? sorry i was rambling about nothing again...

[Rusty]

Good theory, but it's there is not enough in the game to support it in my opinion. Like The Abominatrix said, Julia's fate is clearly explained in the game.

[Sir Laguna...]

Ultimecia is Rinoa...

nuff' said...

[Iceglow]

your all wrong ultimecia is who she is Ultimecia and Julia is Julia :P Julia died in a car crash general caraway tells you that if you talk to him :P

Also if you went in to the future and then got killed by your future self then Ulti eould cease to exist. R = U and J = U are utter rubbish

[TragicFaustus]

Put basically, Ultimecia is a time paradox, desperately trying to alter fate. Technically, she does not exist. She is everything and nothing. The entire plot of Final Fantasy VIII is an unending circle, played out over time and space.

SeeD triumph over Ultimecia. Squall and Ultimecia go into the past, Edea receives Ultimecia’s powers. Squall gives Edea the idea of SeeD and Garden and travels back to HIS present reality. Edea is possessed by the Ultimecia of HER reality. Events of the game. SeeD triumph over Ultimecia. Rinse and repeat.

Why all this? What does Ultimecia wish to accomplish? Simply to survive - to do this, she has to destroy SeeD or more specifically the “fated children” (Squall etc…), the ones destined to kill her. Time Compression is the edge of the coin that lets Ultimecia manipulate the flow of destiny, in an attempt to change her fate. Anything is possible during this event.

“I am Ultimecia. Time shall compress. All existence denied!”

Each time she is defeated, Ultimecia goes into the past to give her powers to Edea, so that she can try again in that timeline, remember she dies in the past, not in her future hence she technically still exists there (If you built a time machine, went to the past and died while there. You would still exist in the present. The future is Ultimecia’s present). Depending on how you look at it, there is only one Ultimecia or an infinite number of her, transcending time – due to the nature of paradoxes both are theoretically correct.

Obviously SeeD have never failed to stop Time Compression, since if they did, reality as it is known would come to an end (past, present and future). Replaced with a world where only Ultimecia is able to exist.

As for who Ultimecia is, well… simply Ultimecia. Not Rinoa or Julia or anybody other than… Ultimecia. The main reason being what Fallen_Angel said.

You want a game that’s more complicated with this kind of time talk? Try Shadow of Memories/Shadow of Destiny. ^_^

[Rand Al'Tor]

Ah, the paradox rebuttal. True, if Rinoa is Ultimecia, and Ultimecia kills Rinoa, you get a temporal paradox (NOT the other way around, fi Rinoa kills Ultimecia things are dandy fine) But if that happens (as in, everyone gets wiped out), you get a game over.

Then again, if you assume Squall is Laguna's son, then the same goes for LAGUNA dying in the flash backs before he left Winhill. After all, if Laguna dies, he can never have fathered Squall. And nobody here denies that Laguna is Squall's dad right?

Ultimecia doesn't kill Rinoa, so the argument that that is a paradox is irrelevant, since it just doesn't happen, just as Laguna doesn't die, eventhough it can happen in the game. (simply, because a game wher eyou can't lose would be... odd)

[SeeDRankLou]

Ultimecia doesn't kill Rinoa, so the argument that that is a paradox is irrelevant, since it just doesn't happen, just as Laguna doesn't die, eventhough it can happen in the game. (simply, because a game wher eyou can't lose would be... odd)

Ultimecia doesn't kill Rinoa, but she tries to kill Rinoa. Right before the parade, she says something like "let us end this speech with a sacrifice," and she sicks some monsters on Rinoa. She tried to kill her. If Ultimecia was Rinoa, she would know what she once looked like, and she would also know that killings herself in the past would negate her existence in her present. Therefore, it makes absolutely no sense the Ultimecia would try to kill Rinoa unless she in fact is not Rinoa.

[Necronopticous]

Squall is sexy.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Ultimecia is a cyborg sorceress possessed by a computer virus born from the undying consciousness of Sephiroth.

[Future Esthar]

I am happy to see that people here are friendly to different opinions.
So i suppose you don´t mind if I try to argue a little more.
The game says that Julia dies.But after all it says that Seifer dies and later we discover that it was a lie from the Galbadia Republic.So Julia´s death could also be a lie.
Ultimecia cannot be Rinoa nor Quistis nor Selphie because if she kills them she dies.
The only possibilities left were Edea,Raine or Julia.
I am investigating if Julia could be Edea but i have no clue yet.
In Caraways mansion we can see a picture of a woman.
This woman seems to be already possessed.She holds a cup.I think you can see horns on her head with her hair in the background.Could this be Ultimecia? Or Edea?
The place looks like Edea´s house if we take out the mountain.There is a sun and maybe a sea in the background.
It seems to me that characters can exist in Ulti´s time.
My little brother has a farfetched theory on time compression .
He says it was an hologram created by the walls of the Pandora.It never happened.In fact the characters went to Ulti´s time but her castle was inside the Pandora.Ultimecia brings it to her time with SeeD inside.And the final desert/flower event was a dream enabled by Ellone.
However a machine imitated her power and caused the havoc in there.
But in the end Ellone wins over the machine due to Rinoa´s love.

[TheAbominatrix]

The Galbadians lie about Seifer's death deliberatly, to effect Squall and co. There's no reason for anyone to lie about Julia's death. Also, if Ulti was Julia and say; her death was lied about because she became a sorceress, then she wouldnt need to use Edea to do her dirty work. She could do it herself.
Ulti does NOT need to be anyone we already know. It COULD be any of the girls in the party, because when your party dies you get a game over. Screwed up, start again kinda deal. Obviously the game doesnt continue on if they die. And to note, they dont die in battle, they get KOed. If all your people are KOed, then they couldnt fight back and would be killed, hence the game over.
Ulti is NOT possesed. If she was, who is possesing her?
If the picture if in the Caraway mansion, it's probably Julia. I havent noticed anything like horns.