[forever yours]

The second part.----------------------------
1) Witches and Immortality
----------------------------

The theory works off of the assumption that Witches have immortality as its
core concept. Often-cited evidence of this is that Edea's facial features are
far younger than should be the case for a woman married to a 40 year old man
(as her husband, Cid Kramer, happens to be). Another bit of evidence offered
in this regard is that Ultimecia needed to go further into the past to cast
Time Compression than the generation the game takes place in. When she finally
is sent far enough back, it is into Adel's younger self that she is sent. The
assumption here is that Ultimecia must have needed to go much further back in
time, and that Adel, consequently, has lived longer than a normal lifespan.

As for Adel, considering how little we know of the mechanics of Time
Compression, it's hardly a safe forest to venture into when looking for
support for this notion. We don't know the limits of Junction Machine Ellone's
power to send Ultimecia into the past. It may have been one year shorter than
where she needed to be or 100 years too short.


-------------------------------
2) Witches and Dying in Peace
-------------------------------

Near the ending of the game, just before Ultimecia's death, Edea makes this
very important statement: "In order to die in peace, a sorceress must be free
of all her powers." What, then, does she mean? Does she mean that dying
without first giving up one's powers would mean a bad afterlife existance for
a Witch? Or does she mean that a Witch must simply be free of her powers to
die?

This could, perhaps, be taken to mean "Remaining alive, but not properly,
forever caught in the dying moment until the Witch is free of her powers." If
this is so, then it may well be that Witches are immortal after all, if they
can't even die until they are free of their powers. In fact, the Japanese line
that Edea speaks here is simply "A Witch cannot die while still holding on to
the Witches' power." It may be that in the case of Witches who do die, they're
either giving up their powers so as to be free of the pain of death, or their
body is simply forcing them to surrender their powers.

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3) Witches and Hyne
----------------------

Hyne is said to have been the progenitor of the Witch Embodiment powers. The
story of Hyne also goes that he created Homo Sapiens, then took a nap while
they worked. When he awoke, he found that they had multiplied beyond his
capacity to control them. In order for them to have multiplied so, it must be
that his nap lasted a few hundred to several thousand years. This must mean
that Hyne is immortal. Considering that the Witch Embodiment originates from
him, it may well be that the Witches inherited increased longevity, or full
immortality.

----------------------------
4) Witches and Appearances
----------------------------

While it may be argued that Ultimecia's gray hair -- something that normally
wouldn't happen except in the case of aging -- is indicative of her lacking
immortality, it should be kept in mind that when possessing Edea, Ultimecia
changed the length of her host body's hair from several feet to a few inches
in seconds. For that matter, through their use of Black Magicks, many Witches
display physical abnormalities, whether they be the veins on Edea's face and
her elongated fingers, Adel's muscular appearance and discoloured skin, or the
larger-than-normal bodies of the eleven Witches encountered by SeeD as they
made their way to the future.

Another point often brought up to contest this aspect of the theory is that
Adel seeking a successor suggests that Witches do have a limited lifespan, but
it should be remembered that Adel was at war with the world, and her own
subjects hated her. It may simply be that she feared being assassinated
without having a chosen successor already selected. She wouldn't want to
endure the pain of her death constantly until having found one.


Sorceress

The legend goes that the Great Hyne created people. The sorceresses were given
a fragment of Hyne's own power. It's hard to determine how many sorceresses
exist today, for many keep their powers concealed. However, it is believed
that they avoid spreading their power too thin.


-----------------------
5) Witches and Wings
-----------------------

In the opening FMV, Rinoa is shown at one point emerging from a group of white
feathers, the same colour as the feathers on her wings. She's later shown
emerging from a group of black feathers, the same colour as the feathers of
Ultimecia's wings. Ultimecia is the only Witch aside from Rinoa to be shown
to have wings. This may be an indication of who Rinoa will become, her soul
tainted and dark after the loss of her Knight. She is then no longer an
"Angel," but a "Fallen Angel" instead, this represented through her black
wings.

*Response*:

Wings and feathers are a motif of the main Witches in the game.
Edea's dress has black feathers around the collar, Adel has two spiky
wing-like protrusions extending from her back, Rinoa has her white feathery
wings, and Ultimecia has her black, somewhat spiny, feathered wings. With this
in mind, all that's represented here is a connection between Witches, not a
connection between Rinoa and Ultimecia alone. The connection between Rinoa and
Ultimecia is that their wings are black and white, representing good and evil,
opposing representations of these concepts, and opposite representations of
the use of the Witch Embodiment.

-----------------------------------------------
6) Ultimecia's Words During The Final Battle
-----------------------------------------------

During the final battle with Ultimecia, her words may illustrate that she
believes that the things one cares about will slip away from them inevitably,
as Squall and Rinoa's other friends would have were she immortal:

"Reflect on your..."
"Childhood..."
"Your sensation..."
"Your words..."
"Your emotions..."
"Time..."
"It will not wait..."
"No matter..."
"...how hard you hold on."
"It escapes you..."


This may have been an attempt on Rinoa's part to reach out to Squall.

*Response*:

Considering that Ultimecia makes no **other** attempt to "reach
out to Squall" during the game, merely trying to kill him each time she
encounters him instead, it's hardly plausible that she's suddenly doing that
at this point. For that matter, It's not even clear what Ultimecia's really
talking about here. She may be talking about time itself. It may be a round
about way of her telling them that their defeat is inevitable. Personally, I
think it most likely another reference to everything having been fated, even
from Squall and the others' childhoods. Whatever it is, there's nothing to
suggest it to have anything to do with Squall or to suggest that this is
Rinoa talking.


-----------------------
7) Time Compression
-----------------------

Recall that onboard the Ragnarok, Rinoa expressed a desire for time to stand
still so that she could remain with Squall:

Rinoa
"I don't want the future. I want the present to stand still. I just want to
stay here with you..."


Now, recall that Ultimecia intended to use Time Compression, a Spell that
would cause all time to exist in a single instance. While this is not
necessarily the same thing as "making time stand still," Rinoa's words on the
Rangarok **do** express a desire to control time. It may well be that Rinoa
wanted to meet Squall again and be with him in a moment of peace forever.
Having gone insane, however, she may well have forgotten her desire to use
Time Compression to meet Squall, and then decided to use the Spell for other
purposes. Insane people do insane things, as has been said before.

*Response*:

As with so much of this theory, this requires unsubstantiated
assumptions. Aside from the obvious fact that Ultimecia could have met Squall
again -- if that's what she so desired -- by simply using Junction Machine
Ellone and going to the past, there's also the even more obvious fact that
Ultimecia's goals as expressed by the game and hinted at by the Final
Fantasy VIII Ultimania Guide had nothing to do with Squall. Ultimecia's goal
was to avoid her fated death at Squall's hands, and to then become one with
all that existed in the universe, though with mastery over it, essentially
becoming God in the process.