10 Fan Theories That Make Your Favourite Video Games Super Depressing
7. Squall Dies In Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII is slightly notorious for its plot twists. Most infamously, the one that all the characters were actually raised in the same orphanage.
However, one theory states that there's actually a good reason this.
About halfway through the game, main character Squall is impaled with an ice shard and plummets from a platform. In the next scene though, he wakes up in a hospital, completely uninjured.
The "Squall's Dead" theory hypothesises that Squall's injuries were actually fatal, and the rest of the game is just his dying dream. It explains why it's at this point that a lot of plot twists suddenly seem to come out of nowhere - like the orphanage twist, or the reveal that main villain Edea is actually being controlled by an ancient witch called Ultimecia.
These huge leaps of logic are meant to showcase that Squall's mind is trying to connect everything together, like giving everyone he knows the same backstory, to give himself a sense of resolution before he dies.
It also gives a frighteningly plausible explanation for the game's ending; a strange sequence in which we see through Squall's eyes as everything begins to blur and fade away.
It's the last thing he imagines as he succumbs to his wounds, he fades out of consciousness.