#Zacks Rank

[petnews2day]

Analyzing Q1 Earnings Beat or Miss for CAT & Four Industrial Stocks

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/news/pet-news/cat-news/analyzing-q1-earnings-beat-or-miss-for-cat-four-industrial-stocks/?utm_source=TR&utm_medium=Tumblr+%230&utm_campaign=social

Analyzing Q1 Earnings Beat or Miss for CAT & Four Industrial Stocks

Per the Federal Reserve’s report, industrial production rebounded 0.4% each in February and March 2024, following a 0.8% dip in January. However, the overall performance for the first quarter of 2024 showed a decline at an annual rate of 1.8%. In March 2024, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index was 50.3% — the first […]

See full article at https://petnews2day.com/news/pet-news/cat-news/analyzing-q1-earnings-beat-or-miss-for-cat-four-industrial-stocks/?utm_source=TR&utm_medium=Tumblr+%230&utm_campaign=social #CatsNews #AveryDennison, #BallCorporation, #Caterpillar, #DoverCorporation, #Inc, #WWGrainger, #ZacksRank

[altocat]

If SOLDIER had ranks. Who all in soldier would be what? General? Commander? Private, Sargent, etc.

Sephiroth

Genesis

Angeal

Zack

Roche

Kunsel

Sephiroth would be a General, of course. I think popular fanon often puts that label on him anyway.

Angeal and Genesis are both Commanders. Zack eventually achieves this status as well after they are gone, though there's not as many soldiers for him to command.

Kunsel is a Corporal. Roche keeps slacking off to hang out on his motorbike and doesn't achieve the rank of Sargent until Rebirth.

[punster-2319]

With the DCEU (2013-2023) being over now, what were your Top 5 favorite movies from that lineup (if you have any)?

1. The Suicide Squad (2021)

2. Shazam! (2019)

3. Birds of Prey (2020)

4. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

5. Wonder Woman (2017)

[enbycupcake]

ranking live action frankie's fits

#1

[ID: two screencaps of frankie stein showing off their outfit. they are wearing a black leather-esque jacket with a safety pin heart on the left side, with a blue chain hanging right below that attaches to the jacket's side pocket. frankie has a yellow lightening bolt earring and a metal chain necklace with what appears to be a supersized safety pin instead of a necklace's traditional pendant. they are wearing a black shirt, and their pants are half black on the right leg with white and black pin stripes on the left leg. end ID]

the fit they were in for most of their screentime, i believe. and it's a fucking BANGER. the jacket? the pants? with the gloves? slay, frankie

#2

[ID: screencaps of frankie wearing knee high silver boots, a yellow lightning bolt earring, a black school vest with blue trim, a white button up, and a pleated skirt that is half yellow/black plaid and half black with one yellow striped accent. their belt has a chain that splits into three, and they are wearing their safety pin heart on their vest. end ID]

the half and half skirt? beautiful. the heart safety pins? the BOOTS? what a great first outfit to introduce us to them

#3

[ID: screencaps of frankie wearing a blue lightening bolt earring, a yellow plaid shirt under a white sweater vest with black line detail. their jeans have a hole under their right knee and above their left knee. above and below both holes, grommets have been placed with decorative thread placed between them. they are wearing two belts on their waist. frankie's shoes are platforms with blue and neon lime green/highlighter yellow. their bag is either leather or faux leather with studs. end ID]

fucking work, babe! i love belts and i love plaid

#4

[ID: screencaps of frankie wearing their pajamas which consist of a boxy fit yellow hoodie with wide armholes and black pants with numerous chunky zippers all along the legs. end ID]

i fucking want these jammies. the hoodie looks so damn comfy, and the pants are chic. i want that many zippers just to look cool

#5

[ID: screencaps of frankie wearing a sweater vest with white and pink trim, a white button up with a black studded collar, a skirt with three different types of plaid – blue, green, and yellow – distressed leggings, and two belts with dangling chains on the waist. they have a large pink electric bolt earring. end ID]

a similar outfit to fit #2, but i like the skirt less. i love the pop of pink and the collar on the button up is *chef's kiss* really, if it weren't for the skirt this would be look #2

#6

[ID: screencaps of frankie wearing a striped white and black shirt. the shirt is not one continuous cut of fabric; its stripes do not line up along the front of the bodice. frankie is wearing a black pleated skirt; on the pleats are grommets with blue laces threaded through them in an "x" pattern and tied at the bottom. under the skirt is the same pair of jeans from out #3. end ID]

the skirt is cute. love the reuse of the jeans; pieces of clothes are meant to mix and match! but the overall look just isn't as visually interesting to me. it does look very comfortable, tho. i'd wear it.

#7

[ID: the monster high: the movie poster for frankie stein. in it, they are wearing a white button up under a plain black dress. the only details on the dress are the belt sleeves and the matching belt frankie has placed on their waist. a neon green chain hangs from the belt. frankie is also wearing distressed leggings and black platform boots. end ID]

unless i just missed it somehow, i only saw this fit in the actual movie in a bust shot. so. on account of not seeing the full fit in the movie it gets last place even tho i like the dress

[hiddentrails7]

I rank a couple random FFVII characters on how easy their hair would be to put into a ponytail/braid (bc holy shit I'm bored) on a scale of 1/5 part 2

Rufus: 1/5

The hair on the back of his head might be too short. That, and I feel like he's very picky about who touches him. He will resist and he has big dog to maul me for him if he doesn't feel like blowing my brains out.

Reeve: 5/5

It's very cute he thinks he has a choice. I'm going to pamper this wet rag of a man. He deserves it. Tiny braid, perhaps.

Cissnei: 5/5

YES MA'AM. Ask and you shall receive. I feel like she's never had her hair done up done for her before. She deserves it.

Zack- 4/5

I'd love to. He absolutely deserves it.

But goddamn he would NOT stay still and we all know it.

Yuffie- 3/5

She's Zack, but worse. Will not stay still. Has shorter hair. Will ask me if I'm done .5 seconds in. I love her but Yuffie please.

[chishnfips87]

Batman Movie Tier List

This is all my opinion, don't take this list to heart.

Tier template: https://tiermaker.com/create/batman-films-as-of-2023-15103072

[worldend]

can i be honest. i dont care for cloud and aerith as a couple. not that i dislike whatever they have going on i like the scenes of them together and i can see why ppl like it (i often think about her 'dont fall in love with me no matter what' line from remake a lot) but idk.... tifa/aerith is just so much more appealing to me and tifa/cloud is such an interesting dynamic to me and theyre like all i think about when it comes to ff7 in general. i can have a favorite ship just this once okay.

[choices-binglebonkus]

I am bored and cannot sleep, so I have decided just now to make a ranking list from worst to best of all the main characters of The Freshman’s new outfits in The Sophomore. This only includes the outfits they give themselves, not the makeovers we buy.

8. James Ashton.

James’s new outfit did not suit him in the slightest. Nothing about this looks good. Not the jacket, not the T-shirt. None of it. They did James so dirty.

7. Kaitlyn Liao.

The outfit is okay. The jewelry is kinda meh and the top looks like it doesn’t fit properly, but it’s fine. My biggest issue is with Kaitlyn’s hair. The way it’s drawn makes it look really greasy.

6. Tyler Alan.

The T-shirt is wrinkly and just doesn’t look very good. Not much to say about this one.

5. Zack Zilberg.

I love Zack to pieces. He’s one of my favorite characters in the entire app. But good fucking god, this shirt is not a good look. I was relieved when he went back to his regular outfit.

4. Becca Davenport.

Becca’s outfit suits her pretty well. It’s nothing to write home about, but it fits her personality and looks good. However, I’m personally not a fan of her bangs.

3. Zig Ortega.

Zig’s new outfit also suits him, and as a bonus, he kept his already flattering hairstyle. The only complaint I have is about his shirt. I get that they were doing a gradient, but the way it’s drawn and colored makes it look dirty.

2. Abbie Bishop.

Abbie’s dress (shirt???) looks cute as hell. It probably would have ranked #1 if we had gotten a larger view of it in game.

1. Chris Powell.

Chris’s outfit in The Sophomore, in my opinion, is a vast improvement to his original look. I could not STAND his shirt or his hair in The Freshman because I thought he looked like a huge dork. But his outfit in The Sophomore complements his character and personality while also flattering how he looks. The hair is a major improvement especially.

[iamfitzwilliamdarcy]

overall enjoyed rebel moon despite the background evil inquisitor aesthetic lol

[booty-uprooter]

it's kinda shitty how everyone stopped using sign to talk to bojji after learning he can read lips. like yeah sure he can understand them just fine but he still appreciates when ppl make an effort to communicate with him in his language

[queerdiscowing]

I can't believe that i was like "is Niles flirting with me lmao 👀 (<- completely joking just trying to make everything gay)" and then it turns out he's literally the only male character you can marry like

[firebirdmaximus]

My DC Extended Universe Rankings (From Best to Worst) as of 18/08/2023 having just seen Blue Beetle

1. Tie between Man of Steel and Shazam 2. Aquaman 3. Zack Snyder’s Justice League 4. Tie between Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Wonder Woman 5. The Flash 6. Justice League 7. Tie between Blue Beetle and Shazam: Fury of the Gods 8. Black Adam 9. The Suicide Squad 10.  Wonder Woman 1984 11.  Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn

12. Suicide Squad

[anakinh]

i should be allowed to hunt moogles for sport

[jackinalex]

No zalex?! I'm shocked but loving the variety!

I’m fine with zalex, but it’s not my favorite. I do think Torri likes zalex, though. I’d argue that it’s the second best Alex ship.

[lightningmcqueenstan]

official squintern ranking:

wendell and finn (adore them both cannot choose)

arastoo (haven’t seen him in a hot second where is he)

vincent (iconic fr may he rest in peace 💔)

clark (not technically a squintern anymore but whatever)

fischer (i’m indifferent to him tbh but he’s funny sometimes)

daisy (she’s so annoying i wish she would fuck off forever)

[salmalin]

My sincerest apologies and warmest welcome to my rant about FF7: Crisis Core. Or, as I like to call it,

Propaganda: The Video Game

I say this with the utmost affection. Crisis Core ranks really high up there in my favorite Final Fantasy 7 installments. I played it when it first came out, borrowing it from a friend to play on a borrowed PSP. And, the more I learn about the game and the more I replay it, the more everything lines up.

This game is not about Zack Fair.

This game is about how Capitalistic Propaganda can sink into every aspect of life to the point where it is entirely indistinguishable from reality. And it’s very overt about it. So…

Here we go.

My treatise on Propaganda’s starring role in Crisis Core.

Part One: The Timeline

Something that a lot of people gloss over due to decades of Child Heroes in media—Japanese Shonen and Shoujo series in particular—is how young these protagonists are. We’ll hand-wave a lot of stuff in non-live-action series with just a little bit of suspension of disbelief. And that’s honestly just accepted these days. But here’s the thing about those hand-waves.

Final Fantasy 7 doesn’t do that.

Now, FF7 hand-waves a lot of stuff. For example, how far you can travel in a day by foot, the distance a man weighing approximately 165lbs can jump after being genetically fused with what might as well be a cocaine demon (Jenova), and how much hairspray one can reasonably carry on a cross-country journey while on the run from the feds.

Age is not one of them.

Exhibit A: Yuffie Kisaragi.

Do I really need to say more? She acts her age. So does Zack. And Aerith, even. Most of the characters in the original lineup were over twenty for a good reason. We see several kids in the series, and they all act their age, too—both the OG and the remake. Age is not a thing that FF7 really grapples with. It’s something they take relatively seriously.

Now, to the point.

Zack is 16 when Crisis Core starts…

… and he was 13 when he ran away from home without his parents’ knowledge to join the military.

Which accepted him.

At 13.

Without a parental permission slip.

Think about that for a second.

… Or for the next several parts of this breakdown.

Part Two: The Main Character

As I mentioned in the introduction, Zack is not the main character of the events of Crisis Core. Instead, he is the focal point of the second person POV. This is not the first time Square has done this. It was done most notably with FF9, FF10, and FF12. (I’m not going to go on an Akira Kurosawa rant right now, but please check out his film “The Hidden Fortress”. FF12 and Star Wars episodes 4-6 borrow heavily from this film.) The purpose and position of this character is such that they might best witness the effects the other characters make on the world as their stories unfold, usually in the role of a love interest. For Akira Kurosawa, it may have been told this way because these people are most effected by the decisions being made.

“Well, then, Sal,” you may be asking, “who would you say is the main character? Would that be Aerith, since she’s the love interest, like in the other games?”

No, actually.

It’s the antagonist.

And by that, I mean Genesis.

Hear me out. I used to hate Genesis, for I was once young, full of judgement for flamboyancy (thanks, internalized homophobia), and was led by the narrative to believe he was mean to his friends. Then I met my Lovely beta who loved him, so I wrote a fic for her as a gift. So for that I kinda just… read stuff. Because that’s the thing about Propaganda—you gotta read stuff to navigate it. I read the in-game emails. I re-watched all the scenes I could get my hands on with him. I read his wiki and tried to track down more information about him. Then I watched the scenes in Japanese and gained a better understanding of not just Genesis, but Sephiroth’s character. And I realized that Genesis was put on this road from the start. In fact, a big part of the fact that he’s seen the way he is in Canon—only at his most hostile and lowest points—is because the story is told through Zack’s point of view.

So before we get into the breakdown, here’s the hard facts about Genesis.

1. He was a test tube baby who may or may not technically be Angeal’s fraternal twin brother, which we are not going to unpack right now.

2. He was adopted by a relatively rich family.

3. He was a child genius (which requires not only resources, but drive to achieve), and at a tender young age of like… ten or something? He decided to mess around and literally invented pasteurization. Which is incredible, and really speaks to his knowledge of the world and ability to grasp complex concepts even at a young age. But, again, this is not the time or place to unpack that.

4. He was best friends with Angeal, who might as well have been the sweetest, kindest boy to ever walk the Planet. (I’m biased. I love him.)

5. As a teenager, he became fixated on Sephiroth, who had gained national acclaim as a SOLDIER despite them being the same age. (Please see part 1 and think about that for a second.) He then goes to join SOLDIER and brings Angeal with him. And Angeal brings his step-father’s puritanical “hard work is honorable” mindset with him. (On that note, Angeal and his father’s arc really are a wonderfully scathing letter to companies that overwork their employees and how toxic/unhealthy that line of thinking is. But. Again. We are not unpacking that right now.)

6. At one point he became consumed with LOVELESS, a series of poems with heavy prose and symbolism thicker than syrup. It got to the point where he was so well known for it that there was an entire fanclub dedicated to both him and analyzing the text.

7. While he was in SOLDIER, he repeatedly had his achievements publicly accredited… to Sephiroth.

Over and over and over again.

Everyone did, really. They mention it in the beginning of the game. Sephiroth even got public credit for Zack’s raid on the castle when he wasn’t even there. How much of his legacy is real? How much of it is made up? How much of it was faked? We don’t know. No one knows. But he keeps getting credit, anyways. And when Genesis confronts him about it, Sephiroth doesn’t care. In the Japanese version of their fight scene, you could even say he indirectly implies that he wants Genesis to take his place as the “hero”. In the English, Sephiroth’s line is, “Come and try.” But in the Japanese the line is closer to, “Wouldn’t that be nice?” Which, depending on how you take his tone, can mean wildly different things—from mocking, to earnest, or even admiration—which is especially to tell because he might be annoyed with Genesis at the moment.

Fun Fact: In Ever Crisis, Sephiroth explicitly says they are making up his achievements in the press to target boys his age for recruitment. (Thus why they accepted Zack at age 13.)

My theory on this line is that he is being cynical; that Genesis doesn't understand just how harrowing and even humiliating his experience has been. This only enforces my theory that the "come and try" translation in the English not only does a disservice to a line as wonderfully heavy as, "Wouldn't that be nice?", but fundamentally misunderstands Sephiroth as a character.

8. Genesis then took the fight to Shin-Ra. Inspiring a good chunk of their staff to leave the company, he then staged multiple attacks on facilities, staff, and the main building—which also spilled out into the city of Midgar. He murdered his parents, buried them, killed everyone in town, and… Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. A lot of innocent people died simply because they were vaguely associated with Shin-Ra. These are the actions of a villain. What’s more, this is clearly a sign that he has been acclimatized to death and violence by Shin-Ra to the point where he doesn’t even consider taking hostages.

Except.

Except the entire town was a Shin-Ra town.

Banora, canonically, was a Shin-Ra built town, which means everyone there was basically an employee of the company. No one was safe. Everyone was a threat. And that…

That was how he was raised. And he finally knew the truth—that every moment of his life was touched, controlled by Shin-Ra, all the way down to his very conception. He has never known freedom. He has never known his own identity. And now that very cage was killing him, slowly and painfully, and turning him into something that couldn’t even be recognized as human. He was watching himself rot in the mirror, and it was all because of Shin-Ra’s greed. And as he searched for salvation, he sunk into LOVELESS as he always had, hinging his entire life on Minerva’s Gift because he knew he was dying and that was all he had.

9. And then he died…

10. … but then it turned out LOVELESS was actually kind of a blueprint, and he did meet the Goddess, and he did get reborn without his degradation so he was rewarded for his journey in the end.

So why wasn’t Genesis the main character of the game?

Simple.

His actions challenge the status quo without being about the status quo. It’s a story about revenge. It’s a story about retribution. It’s a story about answering mass violence with mass violence and ultimately being rewarded by it. And while, yes, the series is an action-based violence simulator, the violence in the original FF7 was a guided, tactical effort. (For all that the characters aren’t the brightest bulbs in the sun lamps.) But the biggest, most obvious shift in the narrative happened when they realized their role as terrorists—bringing mass violence to the company via bombing and open aggression—was just resulting in increasing levels of retaliation against uninvolved people. They might as well have been a child beating the ankles of a giant. The goals and themes of the game fundamentally change when they realize that answering mass-scale societal violence with mass-scale physical violence was not only unsustainable, but also wasn’t going to solve their problem.

FF7 is about change and learning when violence—and what kind of violence—is appropriate in the face of different threats.

Genesis’ arc undermines all of that, and making him the main character would contradict the very heart of the OG game.

So, instead, we are positioned as Zack, connected to him through a mutual friend. From there we see all the damage and horror this vengeance brings to those living under the status quo.

But also, that plotline’s a major downer in a lot of ways, so they needed to lighten things up a bit to keep audience involved. And that’s why Zack is, well…

Part Three: Zack is a Himbo

Please, for the love of all that is holy, keep in mind that everything I say here is with the utmost affection.

Zack is dumb as a rock.

He is a charismatic, enthusiastic sixteen year old jock who ran away from home at thirteen years old to join the military. Which, please know, why I say “military” I mean “private security guard force with a standard-issue Death Baton and a license to kill”. The first scene in the game is him being excited that he gets to murder a bunch of people in a simulation, which he is immediately scolded for by his mentor. He is a glorified, souped up private security guard who is canonically only in it for the glory at first. He wants to be a “hero”, but doesn’t seem to fundamentally know what that means. And, over the course of the story, the definition of that clearly changes for him.

Which tracks, because the story takes place over a period of time with high stress.

Occasionally I see people saying they wish that Zack had more complexity to him, and honestly? The game. Would be. SO. BAD.

Full Disclosure: I am not the biggest fan of Zack specifically because he lacks a lot of nuance. I wish he was a bit more complex, too. But I also know that would break the game. What’s worse, if he was still on Shin-Ra’s side because he understood Shin-Ra’s mission… Well… That would make him a villain, or a cog at best. That’s not main character material. It would make the ending more messed up, though.

Anywho, Zack was thirteen when he left home. He had no formal education. He didn’t tell anyone what he was doing. He even joined without a permission slip from his parents. This means that Shin-Ra was accepting thirteen, possibly fourteen year olds into the military. (Some people will say this tracks because you can get a job at fourteen in many parts of Japan. But, and this is important, you aren’t allowed to be a security guard until you’re quite a bit older, and you need a specific license for it, much like in the US.) Clearly they didn’t teach this boy critical thinking skills. Not because he’s a himbo, but because having their Super-Powered Private Security Force With A License To Kill think independently would explicitly go against their interests. (EX: Genesis.)

Shin-Ra needs SOLDIERs to follow orders or the company would no longer be able to function. Seconds and Thirds aren’t even allowed to reject missions. (One could argue that sending certain someone on back-to-back missions would be a good way for them to eliminate undesirables within the ranks by sending them to their deaths, which… would make an incredible fic idea, actually.) We already know that First, Second, and Third Class rank assignments do not actually reflect the power of the SOLDIER. This is canon. I would instead argue that those who make the rank of First Class aren’t necessarily the most powerful, but are instead the most visible in the media, thus the easiest to market, and/or the easiest to manipulate and control. (For a great example of this, see The Umbrella Academy.)

The point is, Zack may have been elevated to his position as a first specifically because he is malleable and single-minded. Even after all he saw with Genesis, he stuck by the company to the very end, with the exception of the time Sephiroth was literally guiding him to fail a mission. Zack allowed himself to take Shin-Ra’s side every time, taking down their enemies and following their orders, preserving his “honor as SOLDIER” as he had been taught. The only thing that made him stop…

… was literally getting put in a jar.

It was when he was no longer a SOLDIER.

Part Four: Honor

There is no such thing as SOLDIER Honor.

I repeat: There is no such thing as SOLDIER Honor.

It is a fictional thing that is borne of an ideology based around hard work. It only has power because it is believed in. It is an intangible social construct similar to the law, mathematical order of operations, and gender roles. So why are Angeal and Zack obsessed with it?

Pretty simple.

Angeal’s step-father followed it.

Now, we know three things about Angeal’s step-father.

1. He was chill with the fact that Gillian was already pregnant when they started dating.

2. He was a very good father.

3. He worked himself to death trying to pay off the sword he bought Angeal.

This, of course, says a lot about Angeal considering he rarely uses the sword. He essentially sees that sword as the symbol of his step-father’s life. Everything he uses it for, he sees as more important than his step-father’s life. That thing is usually Zack.

Zack, who is the child who joined the military based on stories of heroes.

Zack, who rises against Angeal in the name of his own step-father’s ideology and tries to talk him down, even at the very end. But Zack fails because he fundamentally doesn’t understand what’s going on, partially because “Soldier Honor” is just one more aspect of this narrative he was given. It is a narrative that Angeal has had to step away from, even though he doesn’t want to leave the memory of his step-father behind. He was a good man. He was a good, hardworking man.

And that is why he died.

Corporations will use you up until there is nothing left, then honor your memory/sacrifice. Shin-Ra was doing the exact same thing the company his step-father worked for did; using up SOLDIERs until they outlived their usefulness. And Angeal was horrified to realize that his “SOLDIER Honor” wasn’t honor at all.

It was willingly submitting to control.

But, unlike Angeal, over time, this meaning changed for Zack. Partially because he didn't understand it fully in the first place. It became about acting with integrity. It became about helping people. It became about not lying down and watching the abuse Shin-Ra handed out in exchange for literal money; for maintaining the status quo.

At the very end, Zack understood what it meant to be a hero.

Part Five: The Conclusion

To sum up, Zack believed in and idolized the propaganda spread by Shin-Ra at such a young age, and was so convinced by it, that he ran away from home at thirteen to join the military.

He was their target demographic, so they happily took him into their ranks. What’s more, people think this is normal enough that we see no one opposing this, because the only people who oppose Shin-Ra are “extremists” or “violent terrorists”.

Zack then became their loyal puppy, groomed to fill his role as super-powered attack dog to sick on anyone they deemed appropriate, and he filled the role. He believed he was doing good. He didn’t think they were invading another country, because that’s not what he was told.

He went after Genesis, because that’s what he was told, and he wouldn’t let Genesis’ actions shake his faith in the company.

Then he went after Angeal, hoping to get answers, only to become more confused. Angeal taught him about SOLDIER honor. He taught him about a higher calling. He was the one who made Zack truly loyal to the company. This challenged everything Zack knew.

He went with Sephiroth, planning a small rebellion of their own (a white lie on paperwork) to get answers, only to find things he wasn’t ready for and couldn’t fully understand.

Zack is shaken by each of these events. Horribly. At times, we even watch him grieve. But time and time again, he doesn’t leave the company. He sees the damage they do first hand, and he doesn’t leave the company. The company isn’t the problem, to him. He reads their emails, does their dirty work, and “maintains his SOLDIER honor”.

Zack swallows what they give him right up until what they give him is torture.

Zack swallows what they give him until he becomes their victim.

Every step of the way, Zack is fed a story of how the world is. He was raised on it. He lived it. He became part of it. He was paid peanuts to enforce the status quo Shin-Ra installed in the world by force, and he was proud of it because it was, to him, something to be proud of.

Zack believes the propaganda whole-sale, and we get to watch, from the point of view of an outsider, as it slowly destroys his life before killing him.

Propaganda has the power to make suffering normal. Propaganda has the power to make murder righteous. Propaganda has the power to take a thirteen year old boy out of his home so they can give him a sword, and when they point him in the direction of their enemies he charges of his own volition, because they made him believe in their cause. And he believes in their cause because he believes that it makes life better for everyone.

But that’s not what’s actually happening.

That’s just what he was told.

Crisis Core is about propaganda, and the depths to which it can affect our lives. It changes our belief systems. It changes our perceptions of reality. And when it’s torn down around our eyes, it can make us go insane. It can make us violent and unreasonable as we realize just how much violence is being forced upon us—violence other people just plain do not see. It's just a a piece of paper. It's just a law. It's just a job.

It's just a war.

Final Fantasy 7 was about Fascism.

Crisis Core is about the propaganda that built it. It is told from the point of view of a boy, then a man, steeped in it. He watches until the people suffering around him—Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal—are twisted into villains by the truths and lies around them. Genesis and Angeal are tortured by truths, Sephiroth is transformed by lies, and Zack is subsequently hunted down to conceal them.

Crisis Core is Propaganda: The Video Game.