Quote Originally Posted by Floortank View Post
Yu Yevon and Ultimecia aren't surprise bosses. Yu Yevon in particular is thoroughly discussed throughout the whole story, with more layers of lies peeled off as you get closer to the truth, and the ending of the game. While Ultimecia doesn't show up until the very end, she is pointed out as the villain very early in the game and her actions are repeatedly central to the plot's focus.
Except he isn't. They talk about Yevon a lot, and how sin was formed. But the only times Yu Yevon is actually mentioned is a vague reference by Yunalesca to "her father" and at the end of the game, when you meet Mika on the high bridge, where literally out of nowhere you have the dialogue option "to defeat yu yevon!" a character who's name you have literally not heard of up to that point. I played through X recently in the lead up to end walker and I talked to most NPCs I could find and there genuinely weren't many, if any at all, direct references to yu yevon in the game.

Ultimecia, meanwhile, is only relevant to the plot because the game tells you she was after she shows up because she has time powers. That isn't being a mastermind behind everything. That's bad writing. If she hadn't existed at all and the game's main antagonist had been Adel or Edea the entire time not much would have changed.