You could argue Squall’s childhood is responsible for his antisocial nature and desire to be the hero.Īlong those same lines is the even more fascinating idea that Squall has pulled a Billy Pilgrim and has become unstuck from time. He was raised in an orphanage and saw his sister dragged away because of her ability to send someone’s consciousness through time. Squall was a good young man, but he was also a tragic character. There’s a surprising amount of merit to that idea. For instance, it’s been suggested that the rest of the game is essentially Squall’s trip through some variation of purgatory. More interesting possibilities abound, though. There’s a kind of internal logic that supports that idea, but it feels a bit cheap to add “It Was All a Dream” to this theory’s list of tropes. The question is: “If Squall actually is dead, then what is the rest of the game?” The most popular theory is that the rest of the game is just Squall’s dream. Nearly everything that happens before and after that sequence feels like separate stories strangely unified by the implications of Squall’s death. It’s not uncommon for a story (especially a JRPG) to begin relatively normal and get stranger as things go along, but what separates Final Fantasy VIII is how cleanly the attack on Squall splits the game’s story in two. This is the heart of the “Squall is Dead” theory. There comes a point in the story when you get the feeling that the writers placed bets to see who could bind the strangest scenarios with the flimsiest of plot threads. The game’s plot gradually introduces elements like evil alien financiers who live in the basement of the mercenary school they fund, playable flashbacks to events that occurred 17 years earlier, a random detour that sees members of your party form a band, and a trip to outer space that precedes a journey into an alternate timeline. After returning from a successful mission, Squall graduates, meets Rinoa Heartilly (his love interest) at a dance, and is soon sent to assassinate Edea.Īfter Squall is injured by Edea, though, Final Fantasy VIII’s story becomes about as logical as a David Lynch fever dream.
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You play as an orphan boy named Squall who is trying to become a full member of the mercenary group SeeD.
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Up until the parade scene, Final Fantasy VIII features a pretty normal story by series standards. Instead, Squall and his ever-growing group of companions continue their journey to defeat Edea and eventually the sorceress Ultimecia, who is actually responsible for many of their world’s conflicts. Still, some fans believe Squall died during the now-infamous fall sequence and the rest of the game is some kind of…well, that’s a matter open to interpretation.Įven if you believe that Squall could have been revived via various magical methods, it’s hard to deny that the idea that Squall died on that float becomes significantly more intriguing when you look at how relatively normal the events before his “death” are and how downright weird things get after that. He says, “My wound…? No wound…? How…?” but no other reference to the injury is made for the rest of the game. But in the next scene, Squall wakes up in a prison cell and is miraculously fine. The ice shard hits him in the upper chest (some say it actually hits him right below the shoulder) and he falls off the float, tumbling down a great distance. During the conflict, Edea shoots a giant magical ice shard at Squall. Toward’s the end of Final Fantasy VIII‘s first disc, protagonist Squall confronts the evil sorceress Edea atop a parade float. Yet, more important than whether Final Fantasy VIII protagonist Squall is dead or not is how that theory helped keep the game alive enough though it took over 20 years for Square Enix release even a simple remaster of the experience.
Why? Because you might get dragged into a fandom hellscape where enthusiasts eternally torment you like a third-grader berating a second-grader for believing in Santa Claus, enthusiastically destroying a largely harmless illusion. Do yourself a favor and never mention the “Squall is Dead” theory to a Final Fantasy VIII fan.
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