And, I liked what you said about Seifer being in a religious fervor, doing what Ultimecia demands. I feel like there's a point somewhere towards the end of disc three where he shifts away from fanaticism and into desperation -- he has that line about the Knight having retired, and about not being able to turn back. That he mentions not being able to turn back suggests that he's thought about it, and I always read it as he can't now, not because the Sorceress would kill him, but because his pride won't let him. Turning back would mean admitting that maybe he made the wrong choice and all that stuff he did was maybe awful instead of awesome and heroic.

It's really a shame that the game doesn't give us more on Ultimecia's motivations, because I think they really had the chance present her as sympathetic. If in the future, Sorceresses really are hunted down by SeeD, and the knowledge that she's destined to be destroyed by SeeD is what's driven her to desperately try to change the past and defeat Garden before they can do that, they really could have presented her as kind of a victim. Which would fit the game's little bit about how there's no good or evil, just opposing sides of a conflict, and would appeal a lot to Seifer's romantic and heroic dreams.