Thanks to Scott Baird of ScreentRants.com for the inspiration!

5. SEIFER KILLING ODIN

The version of Odin that appears in Final Fantasy VIII is unusual for a lot of reasons. He lives in a castle in the middle of nowhere and seemingly waits for new challengers to attempt to battle him. Once he is defeated, he will then show up randomly at the start of battles to use his Zantetsuken attack to instantly defeat the enemy.

The most unusual aspect of Odin is that he can be killed, even though he is a magical spirit. When the party battles Seifer for the final time, Odin will show up and attack with Zantetsuken. Seifer will then use the Zantetsuken Reverse and counter Odin’s attack, which kills him instantly.

The game never explains how Seifer gained the ability to counter the most powerful attack used by the player and permanently kill a Guardian Force. This entire sequence made no sense and comes off as an ass-pull of the highest order.

Final Fantasy VIII was the Final Fantasy that proved nothing was standard in the series. Here, a villain killed a literal god by gunblade. Even more so is the introduction of another summon, who previously wasn’t. Interestingly enough, Gilgamesh was to get Odin’s sword. Since he has it in other Final Fantasy game as well, killing summons is canon.

The only other villain to actually kill summons is Garland from Final Fantasy, implied through an Ultimania guide. So then how did Seifer get so powerful? Our characters have a twenty-minute countdown to defeat him?

Seifer must have done a ton of grinding when we weren’t looking.

Does this mean that Gilgamesh is stronger than Odin, in that he’s able to defeat Seifer in one blow? This is something I can’t see a potential remake addressing, but I can’t bear to part with this awesome scene.