Something I think many should see

Pretty much hit the nail on the hammer. Either time travel is trival, contradicting or too complicated. I've never ran into a story that time travel was actually done really well.

 

I've always enjoyed time travel in stories, but it's a trope that I admittedly can't think about too closely because it tends to break the story or just make no sense. It also tends to turn the characters into morons. There's pretty much no problem that couldn't be solved by traveling back in time a little, but that'd be boring and the conflict would be over too quickly, so the writers either nerf the characters or make them forget that they can actually time travel *coughHeroescough*.

 

I can overlook when the time travel is messed up or breaks its own rules if the story is otherwise good. The problem with the Terminator sequels post T2 (and I've seen all the films except Salvation) is that the stories just aren't very good. And I don't even mind the sequels that much, and actually kinda liked Genisys when I saw it in the theater. But when you compare the writing on those films to the writing on the first two, there is no comparison.

I agree that time travel can be annoying when it is used as a last minute fix when the writer has written themselves into a corner and isn't smart enough to come up with a better solution. I also think it can sometimes be depressing. In a time travel story like FFVIII with a stable time loop, the struggle the characters face seem a little futile at the end when you realize they didn't really fix anything.

 

VIII's story is honestly riddled with plot holes but I can't help but love it. I assume you don't care about spoilers for a 20 year old game.

The main villain is a sorceress from a very distant future who learns of a prophecy that she will be defeated by a "legendary SeeD" (in-game mercenaries created to fight sorceresses, in this case, referring to Squall). To avoid this, and to punish a world that has hated and persecuted sorceresses like her since before her birth, she sends her consciousness back in time to the game's present (and later goes further to the game's past) in an attempt to compress time/space and become a god. She creates a stable time loop that includes the worst of her villainy and, rather like Skynet/John Connor, her meddling in the past sets in motion the means to defeat her and the environment that will create her. Even though the heroes technically defeat her, at some time in their future, she will be born and it will all start again. So the ending is sort of depressing and futile, even though the day is saved for now.

Writing about it makes me want to play it again. Maybe once this semester is over and done with.

No, and I had always wanted to. I might have to pick it up one of these days.

 

Ha, most people seem to hate the game play, but yes, I think it's a great game.

I will have to try Chrono Cross some day!

 

Yeah, in my experience VIII is one of the least liked in the series. That's a topic for another thread, though. ^_^

 

I suppose you could argue that the events we play in the game are the first go around in the loop (that Edea came up with Garden/SeeD in a different way and hadn't inherited Ultimecia's powers) and that time compression and Squall and Ultimecia ending up briefly in the past created a new/alternate timeline wherein Squall gave Edea the idea for SeeD, Edea inherited Ultimecia's powers, and a new future could evolve from that past moment, a "new game +" in which Ultimecia never mucked around in the present. I never saw the game as anything but a stable time loop, though. But I suppose for the heroes, as far as they know it is a happy ending, because Ultimecia is from such a far future that they are all likely long dead before she gains power and screws everything up in her present.

 

I had this exact thought and I kind of love this idea. I find the hopelessness of it all really appealing (don't know what that says about me, lol). I think this is part of what I love about the game, and time travel in general- it opens up a lot of theories and possibilities, bad writing or no.

 

I started replaying and am being reminded how much I truly love this game. I have so many more thoughts on the time wonkiness of the story, but I'm wanting to play through to the end and remind myself exactly how it all went down before I ramble on about it anymore. 'Course, I'm not sure if I'll ever get there with the hours I'm spending playing cards instead of advancing the story.

*coughASongofIceandFirecough* I definitely get the appeal of following along with shitty people. Those kinds of awful or at least morally gray characters are my favorites. I don't generally do much with manga, but I may have to check that out if I come across it one day.

I agree. I think it's something that really needs to be plotted out; you can't just throw it in there when you get written into a corner and hope it all makes sense.