Blown away simulator by www.speedrun.com/user/pingval : http://pingval.g1.xrea.com/psff8/blownaway-simulator/

Which spell gets blown away in the final fight is not random and can be manipulated quite easily. You can use this simulator to see how exactly you can arrange your spells to keep specific spells safe from being blown away. At the bottom of the page there is an explanation on how to do so in a general case of N spells, A amount of unimportant dummies and B amount of not-dummies.

To have an explanation on this site as well, and for a specific case of an Any% Speedrun, the arrangement should be something like this:

1. Leave first page empty (slots 1-4)
2. Place unimportant spells like Zombie, Flare, Bio etc. on the 2nd page and onwards (slots 5+). These are dummies.
3. Place important spells like Triple, Curaga, Stop/Haste, Demi on the last page (slots 29+). This is the easiest way to rearrange the spells but they can also just be last on your list.

Because of the party manipulation, the rearrangement can be very specific (e.g. if you manipulate for Irvine, Squall, Zell you can only rearrange their spells and not care about the rest). Different characters will have different important spells, but in general you want the spells listed in 3) rearranged to the last page.

Reason for the spells:

• Triple: You need these in Str-J for Irvine (and 2nd strongest character) to deal enough damage to kill Ultimecia.

Depending on your route, the 2nd strongest character may be fine without Str-J spells. For example, Squall with Str+60% from Zell Card will still be able to deal >100 damage to Ultimecia with the trigger. In fact, any character except Quistis (assuming normal levels) has enough strength to deal over 100 damage without spells in Str-J if they have Str+60% equipped.

• Curaga: You want to have Irvine in critical HP to get 8 shots fired for the last phase of Ultimecia. Aura alone does not guarantee that.

For your secondary characters Curaga is not very important. Because Irvine has Initiative, having spells blown away before phase 2 is very improbable. In phase 2 (Griever) you can get Flared after having Curaga destroyed, but it would be extremely unlucky. Up to you whether you risk it or take the longer menu in Esthar, if your menuing is good enough the longer menu might not be a problem.

• Stop: Can be Haste if you kill Cerberus. This is your Spd-J spell for Irvine. If you get this blown away, the last phase can become problematic and you might have to resort to back-up strategies to survive. Almost certainly a time loss if these are destroyed.

• Demi: For Zell-less these are very important on your 3rd character as they are their Str-J. Cannot deal >100 damage without them to last phase thus might result in needing back-up strategies.

For non-English versions, these hold another very important role for your 2 strongest characters. They are junctioned to their Mag-J in order to not fail the Hero items. Read more about this here: http://www.speedrun.com/ff8/thread/rhg5f

• Break: Depending on your junctions, you might have Breaks in Mag-J for your 3rd character serving the same purpose as Demis above.