Squall was punctured through the chest, which means that, most likely, the spike collapsed a lung. However, even in this world (without magic, extra-advanced tech, GF's, etc) one can survive that, even if just by the skin of their teeth. With the assistance of magic and FF8 world tech, Squall's survival is assured through nearly anything as long as he can get medical attention soon enough. Also, we must all remember that THIS IS A GAME. The authors of any game are not going to kill off their main character unless s/he is already dead when the actual story starts. It's just not a reasonable thing to do, plus it would seriously tick off the players. Even if the main character DOES happen to die, it wouldn't be until towards the very end of the game, like FF7. Writing the story for a game is almost exactly like writing a book or the script for a movie or show: without your main characters, your story is nothing. Also about the "Squall's dead, this is all a dream theory", no one's mind can envision any part of the world it creates without a way to view it, i.e. a T.V. or other distance viewing device, or the person actually being in that part of the created world. You try dreaming about a place you've never been and meeting or creating people you've never met or known the type and see how well that works out for you. I'll admit, the human mind is capable of many wondrous things, but that is not one of them. I'll admit that I was never able to play the game all the way through (because I borrowed it from someone else lol) so I don't know the full story, but I do have sufficient analysis skills to know that this "Squall's dead theory" is unfounded, unnecessary, and, while an interesting prospect, untrue. ~Kolris K.~