It occured to me that the story of the game technically can't exist. We know that it is Squall's destiny to defeat Ultimecia. We also see that it is possible to travel to the past, so that means the past is repeating itself (Edea receiving her powers at the end, Squall telling her about SeeD).

Now, wouldn't that mean that time compression was occuring constantly, just in a different time period? And wouldn't that affect the ability for anything to occur during the period of the game? Time compression affects all the different time periods, so even in the periods where Ultimecia is defeated it would have influence.

If that made any sense, anyone have any ideas?

No it wouldn't. Actually as far as I can tell, Matron recieves Ultimecia's powers in addition to the powers she had previously. Even though Ultimecia died in the future, she still needed to bestow her powers onto some other person so that she could rest for all eternity. I guess she traveled back in time so that she could find someone to give her powers to. And on another note, if we think too hard about plotholes and the like the game really gets fucked up.

Sorry for reviving this thread, but it's not THAT old, and I have something important to contribute. You see, this is called the "Back to the Future Effect."

In the context of the movie, if Marty had prevented his existence, then how would he ever have come back in time to prevent his existence? He wouldn't, because he never existed, and so he would exist and go back in time and prevent his existence even though...

You see what I'm saying? Time travel just doesn't make any sense. I believe the term is temporal paradox. Really, you just have to acknowledge that the story is just fiction and can't really happen, but it makes a nice story anyway.

Time travel. Since my first day in the job as a Starfleet Captain I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these God-forsaken paradoxes. The future is the past, the past is the future, it all gives me a headache.

Janeway - Star Trek: Voyager

Time travel. Since my first day in the job as a Starfleet Captain I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these God-forsaken paradoxes. The future is the past, the past is the future, it all gives me a headache.

Janeway - Star Trek: Voyager

I like the quote.

For this game-
Remember, Edea got her Sorceress power at age 5
Squall got lost in the Time Compression on his way back
Ultimecia had that Junction machine