Ultimecia is the main antagonist in Final Fantasy 8. A powerful sorceress, her ultimate goal is to compress all time and space, in essence making herself one with existence as a whole to become "a living god." She knows some of the most powerful magic witnessed, able to manipulate others to make them bend to her will, and to manifest and give life to subconscious thoughts and inanimate objects.
Ultimecia is the first identifiably primary female antagonist in the series; although the Cloud of Darkness has a distinctly female appearance, and is referred to as such in spin-off appearances, it is in fact genderless.
Ultimecia's castle dominates the landscape in the era where she lives. It is implied she is the sole ruler of her world, although besides fallen White SeeD no other inhabitants of her world are introduced, their fate unknown. Ultimecia is aware of her destined encounter with the "Legendary SeeD" and desires to bring about time compression to absorb all time, space and existence, becoming "a living god".
With the Junction Machine Ellone Ultimecia sends her consciousness back in time to take possession of Edea Kramer, a sorceress living on the White SeeD Ship. Ultimecia's plan is to send her mind far enough back in time to cast the time compression spell, but the Junction Machine has a limit; to get even further back in time, she needs to find a girl called Ellone with a natural gift to send people's consciousnesses through time, upon whose powers the junction machine was originally built. Ultimecia uses Edea as a host to infiltrate the government of Galbadia, and is appointed ambassador of Galbadia by President Vinzer Deling.
President Deling announces her appointment in the first worldwide televised broadcast in 17 years. The broadcast is interrupted when Deling is taken hostage on-air by Seifer Almasy, a renegade SeeD cadet. Ultimecia (within Edea's body) surfaces from a teleportation spell and offers to save him from his "predicament". When Squall's SeeD party approaches her, they are paralyzed by her magic and Seifer allows Ultimecia to teleport him away to Galbadia.
Although Seifer is announced executed, Ultimecia turns him into her sorceress' knight and makes him her personal guardian. Nonetheless, Deling continues to publicize his new ambassador and plans a parade in Deling City to honor her appointment. Unbeknown to Ultimecia, General Caraway of Galbadia and the SeeD mercenaries from Balamb Garden formulate a plan to assassinate her at the parade to prevent her from usurping power across the world.
General Caraway's daughter, Rinoa Heartilly, attempts to trick Ultimecia into taking a bangle created by Dr. Odine to seal away her sorceress power. Ultimecia seemingly recognizes the bangle, telekinetically disables Rinoa and takes control of her body, leading her to the balcony of the Presidential Palace. Ultimecia ascends the podium to give her acceptance speech to the people of Galbadia with Rinoa in tow, but it is a speech of hatred.
According to the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania guide, Ultimecia casts a fascination spell that drives the crowd into a frenzy of reverence.[2]Ultimecia impales President Deling through his chest with her hand in front of the city and throws his corpse aside. Shr declares herself the ruler of Galbadia, assuring the beginning of a "new reign of terror", and brings two Iguion statues on the side of the Arch of Triumph to life and orders them to devour Rinoa as a sacrifice. Leaving Rinoa to her fate, Ultimecia boards her float that glides out into the street parade.
As Ultimecia passes underneath the Arch of Triumph the gates trap her inside. The sniper working with the SeeDs, Irvine Kinneas, takes a shot at her from atop the clock tower, but she blocks the bullet with a protection spell. Ultimecia is confronted by Squall, Irvine, and Rinoa (who had been rescued from the Iguions), and is disgusted upon discovering Squall is a SeeD. Ultimecia uses Edea's Ice Strike Limit Breakto stab him through the shoulder.
Instead of killing Squall and his friends Ultimecia has them imprisoned in D-District Prison and orders Seifer to extract information from them via torture, namely, the reason SeeD persecute sorceresses. The interrogation yields no results as the SeeD themselves have not been informed of their organization's true goal. As Galbadia's new dictator, she declares Garden to be her enemy, and orders missiles to be launched at both Balamb and Trabia Gardens. Balamb Garden avoids the missile attacks thanks to Squall and the others (who had escaped from prison) making the Garden mobile, but Trabia Garden is annihilated.
Ultimecia takes control of the remaining Galbadia Garden and sets out to find Ellone. Galbadia occupies the towns of Balamb and Fishermans Horizon at her order to search every house, but comes up unsuccessful. Ultimecia attacks Balamb Garden directly, but the Battle of the Gardensends with Squall leading his allies into Galbadia Garden where she is confronted in the Garden Auditorium.
Ultimecia orders Seifer to dispatch the SeeDs, and when he fails, she is forced to do battle. The encounter ends with Ultimecia being bested inside Edea's body and Edea inadvertently relinquishing her powers to Rinoa, transferring Ultimecia from within Edea to Rinoa's body. Ultimecia uses Rinoa to revive Seifer, orders him to salvage the Estharian weapon of mass destruction, Lunatic Pandora, from beneath the ocean, and Rinoa falls into a coma; whether Ultimecia forces this upon Rinoa, or if she collapses due to the strain of having received Edea's sorceress power, is unknown.
Edea, no longer a sorceress, divulges to the SeeD Ultimecia is a sorceress from the future who wants to destroy the world with time compression. Searching for a means to awaken Rinoa, Squall takes her to the Lunar Base—the Estharian space station—to see Ellone, hoping she could cure Rinoa with her powers over time. Ellone had come to the space station to meet with the president of Esthar, but Ultimecia appears to be unaware of her presence and uses Rinoa to unlock Sorceress Adel's tomb, kept in space orbiting the planet overseen by the president of Esthar himself. With a more powerful sorceress in reach, Ultimecia abandons Rinoa in space to die.
Meanwhile, Seifer and the G-Army have taken control of the Lunatic Pandora and triggered the Lunar Cry, which brings monsters down to the planet from the moon. Adel's unlocked tomb comes down with the monsters. Seifer captures Ellone, who had escaped the Lunar Base on an escape pod, and brings her to the Lunatic Pandora for Ultimecia's use.
Squall and his comrades have saved the now recovered Rinoa from space and figured out Ultimecia's goal. They concoct a plan to halt Ultimecia's scheme with the Esthar scientist Dr. Odine, who explains Ultimecia exists many generations in the future and the only way to reach her is via time travel. Their plan is to defeat Adel, leaving Rinoa the only sorceress in the present era whom Ultimecia could control. After she would take over Rinoa, Ellone would send both of their consciousnesses into the past, allowing Ultimecia to initiate time compression. Ellone would then send both of their minds back to their original bodies. To survive the time compression Squall and his friends would have to keep their bonds strong and wade through the compressing timelines and reach Ultimecia's era.
Ultimecia possesses Adel[2] as she awakes from the frozen state she had been kept in the tomb, and orders Seifer to capture Rinoa. Ultimecia junctions Rinoa to Adel's body, but after engaging Squall and his friends in battle, Adel is defeated and passes on her powers to Rinoa. Ultimecia possesses Rinoa, allowing Ellone to send both of their minds to the past, where Ultimecia casts time compression only to have it temporarily halted when Ellone sends their consciousnesses back to their respective eras. Squall uses the partial time compression to enter Ultimecia's future.
Squall and his allies enter Ultimecia Castle, and after getting past the various traps and puzzles, confront Ultimecia in the Master Room. The SeeD battle Ultimecia who reaches into Squall's mind to find a power he values most. Using this information she summons Griever, the strongest Guardian Force in Squall's mind. In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII, Ultimecia unveils the party's fears of memory loss, but claims it is not what they should fear, but the power of Griever, and orders the GF to unleash its ultimate attack, Shockwave Pulsar.[3] After Griever's defeat, Ultimecia junctions herself to him, amplifying her power.
After Griever's body is destroyed, Ultimecia transforms and begins absorbing time, space and existence into her new body. She speaks of the futility of fighting against time and her final speech is distinctly different from how she spoke before.
Despite her extensive powers, Ultimecia is unable to overcome her fate as the links that bind Squall and his friends protect them from time compression, and she falls in a massive explosion as time begins to decompress. As Ultimecia cannot die until she passes on her sorceress power, she ends up in Edea's House of the past where she passes on her power to the Edea Kramer of that time. In doing so, Ultimecia ultimately perpetuates her predestined defeat, while fading away in a cloud of purple smoke.
And she is reprised by Tasia Valenza in the English dub and Atsuko Tanaka in the Japanese dub.