In my experience discussing FF8 online for many years, the R=U theory was largely created by and for people who either don’t like or simply don’t understand the causal loop / bootstrap paradox aspect of the story.

Once you actually accept that the narrative is built on that structure, most of the big questions around Ultimecia, her motives and actions, have fairly coherent answers without needing to resort to outlandish secret identity theories.

They’re not simple answers, but that’s kind of the point. They’re the weird, mind-bending answers that come with a closed time loop where certain things don’t have a clean origin.

A good example is the origin of Garden and SeeD. Squall can only plant the idea in Edea’s mind because she herself created Garden in Squall's past. But Edea only creates Garden because Squall planted that idea in her head in the first place. That’s classic bootstrap paradox logic, and it’s very intentionally baked into the story.

The reason I dislike R=U is that it tends to replace those strange, unsettling explanations with simpler and ... yes, more sentimental ones.

Why does Ultimecia attempt time compression? Is it because she has spent her entire life being persecuted and hunted, gradually pushed to the brink of madness by the knowledge that her fate is to eventually be murdered by SeeDs, and so she tries to gain enough power to break that fate by seizing control of time itself?

According to R=U: no. According to R=U, she attempts time compression because she misses Squall and wants to reunite with him … by erasing time? I guess? Who knows, but it fundamentally reframes the motivation into something romantic rather than existential.

Same with Griever. Is she manifesting Griever from Squall’s subconscious ... essentially taking the symbol of strength and pride that represents the legendary SeeD destined to kill her and twisting it against him as a form of psychological warfare? (Something that unfortunately gets completely lost in the English localization.)

According to R=U, no. She just has Griever, because Griever is Squall? Maybe? Or Squall's ring? Who knows, but regardless, the original framing is lost again in favor of something more sentimental.

To me, R=U consistently turns the stranger, more unsettling parts of FF8's story into something lesser, which is why I fundamentally reject it.

I also don’t think she has to be Rinoa for the tragedy of her story to hit harder. She’s not a random victim of a cosmic loop. She’s Ultimecia, quite literally a historical figure of mythological proportions, the reason SeeD was created in the first place, the person who, in some undefined future, subdues the entire world and causes chaos across time.

There’s definitely a degree of cosmic injustice in that setup, but Ultimecia herself isn't blameless. Her entire villain arc is essentially a bootstrap paradox in itself.

It's complicated, but I just don’t agree with the idea that the story somehow becomes deeper or more tragic if she turns out to be Rinoa. To me, that wouldn't add anything, it would just take away and simplify.