Ultimecia

^I suppose the simplest solution is usually the right one. In this case, it's just so bleh though. Ultimecia feels so removed from the rest of the story, which is made worse by the fact that she doesn't even really appear until the very end.

 

^Nah, I don't really see it like that. A good villain wouldn't want to dirty his or her hands, and would make the underlings do all the work. That I'm fine with.

What I take issue with is that there just isn't anything that ties Ultimecia in with the rest of the characters. Take a look at Yu Yevon, who is a similar behind-the-scenes sort of villain. Yu Yevon wasn't really mentioned in the beginning of X (besides the whole "Praise Yevon" bit, but I never really concerned myself with wondering where the religion got its name), but when his name is revealed, you can trace his involvement throughout the beginning, and you can see how he has made an impact on the characters and the world of Spira. But Ultimecia just appears out of nowhere, almost as an afterthought. It was almost like S-E decided to make Edea a good guy, then realized they needed a villain to take her place, and scraped together Ultimecia.

The only connection she has with any of the characters, except for the "I'm compressing all of time, and yeah, it'll affect you" business is that, somewhere along the line, she will inherit the powers that Rinoa currently possesses. And of course, she wants to take advantage of Ellone's random power. If Ellone had been born into an earlier or later time, Ultimecia would have had no need to bother Squall's present.

And besides, I still say her motivations are weak. Maybe if we'd gotten to spend some time in her world, or gotten to follow along Ultimecia's journey from girl to evil overlord, through flashbacks or something, she'd be a more intriguing character. As it is, I never hated her, the way you should hate all good villains and want to take them out. She was just there.

 

I thought Advent Children was disappointing, for a lot of reasons. If it were to be a movie that would turn out lackluster like that, I'd prefer VIII not to have one. And the same goes for a game sequel. If it were to be similar to X-2, then no.

But some sort of spinoff would be handy for clearing up some of this Ultimecia plothole-ness. A spinoff, set in Ultimecia's time, with more of the focus on her, if done well, could be a good thing. The character could use some more explanation and face time.