Thanks to FutureHistory101 for the inspiration!

This is another Final Fantasy VIII theory where someone dies during the course of the story. Only this time – it’s Rinoa!

FutureHistory101’s theory takes place in an alternate universe where Final Fantasy VIII takes place before Final Fantasy VII. In this theory, Rinoa becomes Jenova, the calamity from the skies:

I’m really late to this show, but I’m a Jenova’s Witness.

The truth is this: Rinoa died in space. The backup oxygen? The one in a million space catch? The deus ex machina spaceship? None of it happened. It was all too convenient. The rest of VIII is her fading consciousness imagining a reality where she and Squall could be together. Notice how their relationship immediately shifts upon recovering the Ragnarok.

But there was something else alive inside her. The Sorceress. This force had a will to survive, and as Rinoa floated through space, it changed her. Into JENOVA.

JENOVA had one powerful, over-riding drive. To return to the world it came from, to reunite with Squall. So world by world, it arrived, consumed, and used the remaining husk as a vessel for reaching the next world.

Final Fantasy is the story of JENOVA. In each game, you confront her as the force seeking the greatest chaos. Emperor Mateus. Exdeath. In Final Fantasy X, she mastered the ability to reform her body as the goliath Sin, an ability she would use to create multiple forms in many final boss fights. In Final Fantasy IX, she learned for each of her pieces to be its own, independent form as Xorn and Thorn. Finally, in Final Fantasy she learned to control the flow of time itself as Garland. Sephiroth would try to control her, but such attempts never last, as evidenced by Noah and Yu Yevon seeking to contain her.

Each time, she was defeated, but she would learn and become more powerful. Heroes would only serve to hinder her. Eventually, she would consume their worlds and move on to the next, finally arriving back home. But centuries had passed. Squall was long gone. Her only recourse was time compression…

TL;DR: FFVIII can actually be interesting if you give it some weird context

FutureHistory101 is right: FFVIII can actually be interesting if you give it some weird context.

Squall fails to capture Rinoa. Rinoa floats in space for thousands, if not millions, of years in space. There, her dead body crashes down to Gaia to wreck habit on the Cetras. Then she would be other villains, such as Zorn and Thorn in Final Fantasy IX. Yet I like the idea of her as Yunalesca in Final Fantasy X as well. Would the setting take place in Final Fantasy VIII’s world, or would it be a world farther away?