My point on the stat cap was to note that the balancing of Magus is completely different before and after lv80, his weakness being caused by his stats hitting the cap. Had they adjusted his multipliers to bring his Lv99 damage in line with what he was doing at lv80, then for the lower levels he would be overpowered. If the cap didn't exist then the stats would continue to increase in the same ratio.

Re: Zeal Conversation
What I got out of his statements at the beginning of the fight was:
- He doesn't consider Zeal to be a mother to him
- He has utter contempt for her, and sees her as trash
What more would you expect him to think about her? That would be what I would expect him to be thinking. Having him explain to her how she made him feel would be extremely out of character.

The only question I really have is if he would be much higher than Lucca or not, because while his magic stat is higher than hers, she still has a pretty beast Magic development to begin with. Hers is the second highest in the game.
W/o tabs and hitting the magic cap Dark Matter and Flare do near identical damage, and Magus's Fire 2 will do ~140% of the damage of Lucca's.
Also note that Flare has a very low multiplier compared to Luminaire, to keep the spell balanced against Lucca's high magic stat much like Magus & Dark Matter.

May I ask why? I'm only curious. Squall is a so-so character to me, so I don't really think much of him either way.
First disclaimer is that in line with my general displeasure with FFVIII I haven't played it through since it first came out like 10 years ago, so any finer plot details I may be a little off.
At the start of the game he has many thoughts along the line of 'good and evil are only a matter of perspective', and a generally very logical and balanced world view (imo). However, after Rinoa comes on to the scene all of a sudden he just seems to get so stupid. That scene where the two gardens are fighting and he abandons his post of commanding the whole show to go save a girl. When that happened I just wanted to quit the game because I didn't want to be an accessory to it. Combine that with the jumping out to space with no hope of return and a myriad of other crap I don't remember and you have a character I really don't like in the least. Now, having an impulsive love-struck character isn't exactly a new idea, and I usually don't like them for that matter. But what makes Squall so unbearable to me is that in the start of the game he was a character I liked and identified with, and in the end he was a character I disliked strongly.
Of course this isn't happening in a complete vacuum. It is a common character cliche that the tough, quiet logical one becomes the love struck idiot. It seems like at this point it's just a generally accepted fact. I am what would typically be classified as a 'tough, quiet logical one', and the prevailing attitude that I will just 'meet the right person' or 'grow out of it' is something I am sick and tired of. And when I see a character that is this attitude personified, well I tend to have a very violent reaction. (As you can see for me this is something that has a lot of baggage.)

I am a very logical person, so I know that if I treat people like I would like to it would end in a way that I would definitely not enjoy. When I see a character like Magus who can talk down to everyone, not bother acknowledge the existence of those he doesn't approve of, and general not give a dam about anyone else, I can at least enjoy living a little bit vicariously through them, which is one of the reasons I like such characters.

My latest rage-rant is about Arumat from Star Ocean 4. I'm ready to pounce the second I see a topic about him made.
I'm getting SO4 soon, I'll be sure to make a thread propping him up as soon as I know who he is