Re assassination attemt: More importantly why did they feel the need to drop massive gates, totally giving away the fact that shenanigans were afoot and giving Edea time to put up the shields.
You mean this?
http://youtu.be/Zuc62lLk6kQ?t=13m46sThat was part of the show, it was a planned thing, don't forget that SeeD was being helped by Rinoa's father who knows everything about the parade and probably had a hand in it's design for strategic purposes.
As far as NORG goes.. It's an inoffensive plot thread, is it the fact that he is a big yellow fat thing that annoys people lol?
He comes from the Shumi Village, a village full of those beings and they are established as having sentience and intelligence. It's just a different species I don't see anythng wrong with it.
Less that he exists at all and more 'why is he trying to call the shots/pull the plug on Cid's operation now/living in Garden's basement?'. At best, you could say that he was woefully inept at that whole 'usurper' thing he was trying to pull, but its more likely that the writers just wanted to toss in a divided factions/questionable allegiances sort of thing like the whole SHIELD versus HYDRA thing going on in the Marvel Movie-verse right now but didn't bother putting in any effort beyond "Are you with Cid or NORG?" (especially since after you take out NORG that's the last you ever hear from his supporters, and outside of the masked dudes, everybody was still there and carrying on like nothing ever happened).
Additional plot threads of questionable quality: The Prison Break sequence, the White SeeDs, Rujinn and Fuyinn jacking Balmb (not the Garden, the Town where Zell grew up in).
"After the assassination attempt the sorceress is furious. She orders Balamb Garden and Trabia Garden destroyed while she takes Galbadia Garden for herself. NORG is furious at Martine for revealing Balamb Garden's part in the plan. He decides to do all he can in order to calm the sorceress's wrath and intends to hand over those involved in the assassination to show the Garden's sincerity. Cid refuses to do so, and as a result, an all-out war breaks out between those who side with NORG, and those who side with the Headmaster.
NORGs cocoon
NORG's cocoon after being defeated.
After losing the battle, NORG summons Squall and his party to his chambers and explains his fear of the sorceress and his plan to hand them over to her in order to save "his" Garden. When Squall refuses to obey NORG and outright declares the Garden doesn't belong to him, NORG goes mad and, driven by obsession and selfishness, attacks the SeeDs. Defeated and despairing, NORG closes himself away in a cocoon-like form.
NORG isn't seen again after his defeat, but if the player visits NORG's chamber again, they can meet a couple of Shumi who intend to retrieve the cocoon and apologize for NORG's behavior. "
Basically he was afraid of the sorceress.
Why are those of questionable quality? If it's something to the same extent as NORG, it's probably beccause you already forgot a lot about the game. FF8 has a very cool kind of story structure in that a lot of the twists are foreshadowed way before they happen and if you don't make the connections after the twists happen you are not going to even understand the plot(many people still have no clue why Irvine failed to shoot Edea.. simply because when the orphanage twist happened they didn't think back to disc 1 to connect the dots), for example the fact that Irvine doesn't shoot Edea is an allusion to his memories of the orphanage. "Edea's" speech is an allusion to Ultimecia being in control and an establishment of her motivations:
"...Lowlifes. ...Shameless filthy wretches. How you celebrate
my ascension with such joy. Hailing the very one you have
condemned for generations. Have you no shame? What happened to
the evil, ruthless sorceress from your fantasies? The
cold-blooded tyrant that slaughtered countless men and destroyed
many nations? Where is she now? She stands before your very eyes
to become your new ruler"
it's kinda like the thing where Tifa lies about Cloud's memories being right when he falsely recalls them in Kalm. Her confusiion will only make sense later after you learn about the truth. FF8 story is basically a collection of that kind of storytelling, very subtle.
Oh wanna bring up why the crowd cheers as Edea openly threatens them. I got answers.