#barret is the protagonist

[chronicas]

I feel like Cloud 🤝 Sammy

Science experiments I love to draw in cool dynamic poses.

[gch1995]

Yeah, I just turned 28 last mont Quinn was always the best of the girls on Zoey 101. She had the best character arc, and the most personality. Though he was annoying at first, I definitely do think that Logan was the best of the guys. Sure, he had his flaws, and he could be a jerk. However, as the show went on, he had sweeter moments, too, and by the end of the series, it seems like he had grown up the most. He also was surprisingly cute with Quinn as a boyfriend towards the end.

Chase had his funny moments, but I think he could have been better if he had had more of a character outside of just his crush on Zoey. Zoey only ever seemed to want Chase as a boyfriend when he was hard to get. Coincidentally, she only seemed to want Chase romantically when she was putting him in a position to chase her (lol). As soon as she thought she was leaving PCA, she wanted to talk to Chase about it first so he would try to chase her and catch her before she ran. As soon as the truth finally came out that Chase loved Zoey, they started dating via Zoom and FaceTime after he had transferred, and Zoey quickly got frustrated and bored, so she ended things with him. As soon as high school ended, she decided to leave him to go her own way in the world after graduation when she got that job offer, and 14 years after their breakup when she has the opportunity to see him again, she’s posing with a fake boyfriend to try to push Chase to chase after her again.

Michael was definitely the guy who needed the most character development. Yeah, he had girlfriends, and no one was ever mean to him. It’s just he felt very much like the token black friend because we learned so little about him.

Yeah, I agree with you about why Zoey became such an unlikable character after season one. Even back then, she kind of was treading into Mary Sue territory, but at least she wasn’t a completely self-righteous and obnoxious hypocrite, who constantly got treated as special. Like, we saw her make the backpacks, and the key necklace. She wasn’t amazingly creative and talented, but we saw that she could be resourceful. That translated into her being a a hypocritical and manipulative bitch later on, but in the first season, it was a genuinely innocent and sweet side of her personality. She got annoyed with Logan for being a sexist jerk sometimes, but she was never cruel in her schemes for revenge either. She just rolled her eyes at him, and called him a jerk.

Do you think Logan likes Zoey in the new movie bc I get the feeling he doesn’t and if so he’s so real for that

I really don't think he does, despite whatever the movie will try to make us believe.

Logan loves Quinn more than anything, he seems devoted to her and would only want to make her happy. No boyfriend that love his girl so much would like a girl who is a terrible friend to her. There's no way Logan keeps liking her after all she is going to put Quinn through on the wedding. And yes, he would be so real for that bc Zoey fucking sucks, man and it's about time someone on that group realizes it.

Plus, Logan has all the reasons to dislike Zoey, she was way out of line with him a lot of times during the show. Obviously the narration would never put her as the antagonist and he always ended up forgiving her, or forgetting about it, or people would be on her side so he would just drop it. But I like to believe in the last 15 years he just has had enough and just pretended to like her for Quinn's sake.

I would love if the think that makes him go off is Zoey upsetting Quinn. Like, look at his face:

my man is done, bet he didn't even want her on the wedding but put up with it for Quinn.

I don't think there's a scene on the trailer where he looks happy to see Zoey, now that I think of it.

TL;DR: No man who loves his girl as much as Logan loves Quinn would like a friend like Zoey, no matter what the movie would have you believe.

[infizero-draws]

SMASH THE INTERESTS TOGETHER 💥💥💥

my reasoning for the roles if ur interested:

susie as barret: tank, Big, both are objectively the best character of their game reagrdless of who ur actual fav is (also i think susie would think the gun arm is sick)

kris as cloud: protagonist, has weird identity shit going on, also just general Mental Illness, forced to hurt their friends against their will at some points

noelle as tifa: childhood friend of protag, can tell weird shit is going on w said friend but doesnt rlly know how to help

ralsei as aerith: magical healer, knows shit they shouldnt, association with yellow flowers, long dress/robe thing

[tossawary]

At the beginning of "FF7 Remake", Barret asks how old Cloud is and Cloud can't(?) answer (he answers with his presumed SOLDIER rank at first), so Barret cracks a joke about how for all he knows, a SOLDIER's rank could be the same as their age. Presumably this is a reference to the company's known mad science practices / child soldiers. Barret compares Cloud to a toddler as more joking / needling.

And, you know, that seems well within the bounds of FF7. You could do an AU where protagonist Cloud is a Superboy-style OG!Cloud-Zack clone. Transferring / implanting memories seems like something that this world / company might have a materia for, with side effects that Cloud is obviously suffering (the flashbacks).

I don't know what the plot / larger point of this AU would be, but it would fun purely for the "Oh Goddess, fuck, we actually took a one-year-old on our 'eco-terrorism' mission" AVALANCHE reactions.

EDIT: I would also probably keep both OG!Cloud and Zack alive in this AU. They're hiding somewhere out in the countryside or something after successfully escaping Hojo's labs, but they lost the Buster sword at some point or it was shipped back to Midgar very early on as "proof" of Zack's death in Nibelheim. Clone!Cloud has it for some reason or another.

So, as the story continues, there are an increasing number of clues that the protagonist Cloud maybe isn't the same Cloud. Tifa: "Your face looks different as an adult. Guess you grew up, huh?" (It's the Zack influence in Clone!Cloud.) And there also seems to be a second party of mysterious heroes / rebels somewhere out there in the world also working against SHINRA. Clone!Cloud gets partially recognized by a few people for things he definitely didn't do.

And then the Clone!Cloud and Tifa party runs into the OG!Cloud and Zack party, and both parties go, "Oh... shit..."

[rocketbirdie]

TUMBLR USER ROCKETBIRDIE REBLOGGED MY POST IT IS A DAY OF JOY AND CELEBRATION jndbhjmnh thank you so SO much it really means a lot to me to have such a talented artist appreciate my work! out of curiosity can i ask your opinions about every ff7 party member? i'm always curious to know the fandom's opinion about them :)

OOOUUUAAAAAAA UR SO SWEET!!!!!!! <333 OK here goes nothin!!

CLOUD STRIFE: Most uncomfortably relatable protagonist of all time. Impressively apocalyptic autism. I need him crushed into a fine powder and baked into a disney princess themed birthday cake.

BARRET WALLACE: He deserves so much better. Just, in general. Why did they do that to his character in Advent Children (rhetorical question; we all know the answer.). Actually I think we should just get rid of all of SE's intellectual properties and just have Only Barret.

TIFA LOCKHART: Oh my god. If I had known about Tifa Lockhart as a highly impressionable 5 year old, I would have grown up to be cisgender. I'm gonna leave that one up to interpretation.

AERITH GAINSBOROUGH: Weird girl. Incomprehensible girl. Unnerving girl. Girl who makes you want to become a girl. Girl who I love dearly forever. Aerith is love, Aerith is life.

RED XIII: Lowkey the saddest character in the game. He's just a lonely child, he's already had everything taken from him, he's trying so hard to hold it together. Hang in there Nanaki :(

YUFFIE KISARAGI: I like how they handled her in FF7R, bridging the gap between two very different audience's impressions of her. Boy is she disruptive in some of Rebirth's scenes though. Super curious how part 3 and the Wutai war thing will go down.

CAIT SITH: Middle aged businessman's gambling-addicted fursona by proxy is hands down the funniest concept for a JRPG party member. I want to love him so bad, but I can't take him seriously for the life of me because every scene he shows up in suffers from severe mood whiplash.

VINCENT VALENTINE: I see the appeal. I'm admittedly less invested in the vampiric sexy snatched-waist, and more in the technologically-hamfisted out-of-touch grandpa aspect of his character.

CID HIGHWIND: This man is NOT 32 years old. His asshole-ishness and cartoonishly vulgar dialogue is very important to me and I hope they don't water him down too severely in part 3. ESRB please, please let him say Fuck just once. please

[chaifootsteps]

I’m kinda devastated by the “cockblocktavia” thing, she’s the only female character who really feels like a lead, the closest to a real girl, even if her only waking thought is her dad just like Loonas is boys in general and Millie’s is her husband. Octavia just felt, different, more real.

I’m also a huge fan of Barret Wilbert Weed so I was so excited for her to have more focus and sing with that incredible voice of hers. I thought lots of people would see Via shine and be on her side, creating an actual dilemma in the show that’s been well foreshadowed. But now it’s like Brandon completely overshadowed it, and sabotaged the emotional impact of her story arc and performance for the sake of his character and his musical debut (which is going to sound bad, I’m sorry, but it is) What a selfish prick. What the fuck is Via even getting “in the way” of?? Stolas actually loves her, not obsesses. They have an actual bond. What irritates me too is “stolitz” is nothing but a marketing tool. Only garbage shows have to rely on a dramatic gay ship for views and money, and even this show is better than that.

Also how pathetic is it that the so called protagonist only has a musical debut now in season 2, and even then he has to share it with another character who has sang three times to date. That is the craziest case of creators pet I’ve ever seen. Why isn’t Blitzøs daughter having a big emotional moment? Why can’t we see his family breakdown in real time? Everything is about stolas’ shitty family while Blitzøs is the one that’s actually interesting. And sad. Tight-knit families formed under harsh environments have strong touching bonds, nobles don’t give a rats ass about each other, but Viv hates the poor, so she would never understand that.

Agreed, agreed completely.

I hate that I actually had some hope that maybe, this show wasn't actually going in the direction the Octavia leaks made it seem, that they weren't actually going to villainize this sad, troubled girl in favor of her dad. But it looks like that's exactly what we're getting, and it's surreal and disgusting.

[demialwrites]

FF7 HCs: Cooking Skills

Reno: mostly seen making toast (or an entire sandwich if he's feeling fancy)

Rude: can cook most things given a recipe and even then, he can figure it out given enough time

Barret: can put the straw in a juicebox for Marlene but don't ask for anything else

Tseng: can make a great coffee but has no patience for actual cooking. Has to buy meals

Rufus: he's fine if the vending machine only requires pushing a single button

Tifa: only Rude can outdo her but only because she'll always make better drinks than him

Cid: lives off cowboy coffee. It's suspected that he can roast things on a spit

Vincent: doesn't need to or cannot eat/ Unknown/Refuses to answer

Cloud: cooks decently because Protagonist™. If he was a Sim, his main dish would be spaghetti

Elena: has a few childhood favourites she has mastered but can't make much else

Sephiroth: cannot cook. Hojo never let him. Once tried to roast something with fire materia. Ended badly

Zack: he should be able to cook but it never stuck when his parents tried to teach him. He was the one who encouraged Sephiroth to use the fire materia

[altocat]

There's one thing that bothers me about the First SOLDIER storyline in Ever Crisis. Why do not like Glenn, Matt, and Lucia? Is it because longtime veteran FF7 fans see them as unnecessary filler characters who were "shoehorned" into an OG FF7 character's backstory? I've seen furious FF7 fans hate them just because they had more Banners than Barret and Red XIII. I've also seen the trio criticized for their morally questionable actions too even though our main party in the OG literally starts out blowing up a reactor, causing the deaths of numerous innocent people. Cait Sith rightfully calls Barret out on his hypocrisy when the former worries about Marlene but dismisses the deaths of a lot of people as just "a few casualties." And then there is Zack, who was one of the SOLDIERs taking part in the Wutai War. He had no malicious intentions toward the Wutaians, but it still didn't change the fact he killed the people who were just defending their country. Morally gray characters are the bread and butter of FF7, so I don't understand what's wrong with having more morally gray characters.

The P0 trio has some clumsy aspects to them that take away points--they're only really remorseful AFTER they kill all the Rhadorans. Sephiroth is arguably more sympathetic in that he's still a child and also never enlisted with Shinra, not to mention he's been bred and conditioned into killing since he was born. But the P0 trio more or less goes along with it, reluctance or otherwise. So it makes them feel a bit more hypocritical afterwards. Matt and Lucia also regretfully don't have much to them as characters beyond a few little quirks. They both feel kind of useless in retrospect.

With ALL this said, I still do like the P0 trio. They added a lot to Sephiroth as a character and I've grown to genuinely like Glenn for what he is, even if the writing on him is a little messy. I think maaaaaybe they should have approached the issue with the Rhadorans slightly differently. Or at least made it look less one sided so that our protagonists don't come off as actual murderers. There are blurred lines in war sometimes, or at least there are malleable aspects to "kill or be killed" on the battlefield that allow for some level of sympathy or moral grayness. I don't think the story dwelled on it enough. They did with Sephiroth, but less so with the trio. I'd chalk that up to limitations with chapters more than anything else.

But like I said, I do like the trio and I'd be down for seeing more of them. I can see why people might not like them, whether that's for legit reasons or petty ones. Glenn at the very least is NOT a "filler" character since he's shown to have made a serious impact on Sephiroth's personality as an adult. And that counts for something.

As for veteran fans...well they're just going to complain either way lmao it's already a lost cause in that regard. The larger fanbase is known for doing that.

[salternateunreality2]

After a particularly nasty day at the labs, Sephiroth wakes up with fox ears and tail

How does it go?

Hehehehehe ❤️❤️❤️

Possessed by a fox spirit, he has sudden and uncontrollable urges to (a) eat udon, (b) share with chocobos, (c) be transformed by the power of friendship with plucky anime protagonists from a terrifying war machine to a cute and helpful hero a la Naruto, and (d) dig.

Cloud meets his hero because Sephiroth finds him, choco-naps him, and feeds him udon in a hole he digs out in the desert. Cloud just rolls with it, he's a hungry, growing boy.

Hojo steps in one of the smaller holes and breaks his leg. The bone completely snaps and he bleeds out because he insisted on retrieving Sephiroth alone, and Sephiroth is pointing his fuzzy ears only at Cloud to make sure he eats, and his tail is wagging so hard it starts up a dust storm that drowns out Hojo's screams.

AGZ and Lazard find them in the desert. They find Hojo's corpse first and Genesis "is surprised" and "accidentally firaga's it" 5 times. Angeal and Lazard are also surprised and may have stabbed and shot the corpse as well. Zack runs ahead, looking for his friends.

Lazard finds the three of them eating noodles happily, and the news that Hojo is dead snaps Sephiroth back to reality just enough to abandon the obsession with noodles (for the moment) and digging, but not enough to jolt him from becoming a hero with the power of friendship.

Noodles are shared by all (except Hojo) and eventually one special noodle digs its way into one special hole when SephZard finally get together later.

By that, of course I mean they both have spaghetti in their mouths and it goes like this:

Zack is Naruto, he has the shiniest moral compass after getting a stern talking to from Barret.

[greatwyrmgold]

Do as I say, not as I do, and don't get into arguments in a YouTube comment section. Even if the community is normally pretty chill.

So, a YouTuber I watch has been playing Final Fantasy 7, and just got to the point where Aerith gets Sephiroth'd. Someone in the comments argued that that scene might be done differently in the remake, since Aerith doesn't do anything in the plot. If you found some other way to introduce the White Materia, you could remove her.

I of course jumped in, pointing out that:

Aerith influences other characters in important ways (particularly Cloud and Tifa, the protagonist and arguable deuteragonist)

Arguing that a character is useless to the plot because you can remove them from the plot if you replace them with something that does the same thing is very silly.

After exchanging a few comments, I realized two things. First, the other guy does not seem to understand the second point. Second, said guy genuinely does not seem to think that any action Aerith takes that doesn't directly contribute to defeating the bad guy with a sword can matter.

To him, Aerith matters because she owns the White Materia and helps use Holy to stop Meteor from destroying the Planet. Nothing else matters.

Not her conversations with Cloud and the others. Not her refusal to put up with Cloud's tough loner persona. Not that time she convinced Cloud to wear a dress. Not her getting captured by Shinra, inspiring the rest of the party to rescue her (and the other experimental subject they found). Not her getting Marlene to safety, and making sure she'll be safe while Barret is out of Midgar. Not the lore about the Cetra she knows, or the discoveries made while following her, or even what she learns from talking with the Ancients or the Planet or whatever.

Apparently, Aerith matters because she owns a rock, and that's it.

What a #$%^ boring game Final Fantasy 7 would be if that were true.

[wits-writing]

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Quick Review)

Director: Adam Wingard, Screenplay: Terry Rossio, Simon Barret, and Jeremy Slater

Resurrecting this inactive blog and copy pasting this from over on my Letterboxd because I need to spread the word about this movie as much as possible!

No Spoilers, fwiw:

Well...

This fucking owns!

Easily the best stuff from Godzilla vs Kong was Kong journey to discover more about himself and his connections to the Monsterverse's delightfully bonkers lore around The Hollow Earth. Positioning him as a member of an honorable line of warriors.

The New Empire effectively triples down on that by making Kong this movie's actual protagonist over any of the human characters (who are pretty fun to watch and play their support roles in this plot damn well.) The giant ape's story playing out as a quest for purpose within his new home in the Hollow Earth. One he discovers once he comes across other apes like him living under the tyrannical fist of the Skar King. Kong's challenge becomes figuring out how to get his rival Titan, Godzilla, on his side for the inevitable showdown with this new threat.

It's a highly fantastical tale, made better by the fact that this movie trusts the audience to follow along with it as plays out wordlessly. Only having the human characters directly commentate on it after the important actions have played out.

And all of this would be enough to leave me satisfied, but this movie actually has a fair amount of surprises up its sleeve that none of the marketing gave away.

So I'll just say, if you've been enjoying the Monsterverse up to this point, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is more than worth your time!

[dasboligrafo]

7 Takes on The Double Life of Veronique

You know the thing where you like the same thing as a terrible person?

I guess even Lear-esque cringey edgelords like great movies and Keith McNally is not wrong about Sexy Beast and definitely definitely not wrong about the Double Life of Veronique, a movie I've now seen 3x, 2 of which ended in helpless tears (the only way I know if something is art).

This movie was a selection by McNally at a Roxy Cinema mini-festival in October 2023. As I told the crew who I invited (tricked?) to see the movie: now it's your turn to think about it for 15 years!

I love the moment after the movie when people are asking helplessly -- but what does the movie mean?!? And I really, really love the moment when people get angry at the end of the movie. These are real emotions! What's the last time a movie made you think anything other than "god, that was 45 minutes too long?" (The Double Life of Veronique is under 100 minutes! yessss)

[I didn't hear it cause I was, like, weeping, but my friend said at the end a guy behind us was angrily griping that the movie was too slow? Huh? Stuff is literally happening every moment of the movie? There is not a single wasted scene, line or frame? What even are these senses whose proofs we can so liberally ignore?]

Since it might be another 15 years until I see it again and I don't have the benefit of just having written a college thesis that was mostly about Lacan via Zizek, I thought I would type out a few thought exercises/interpretative frameworks that I think apply to this movie:

The contingent nature of the universe/the senselessness of existense -- probably the easiest to justify, especially in the context of Kieslowski's complete ouevre, in consideration of his personal history, based on the interviews he's given, etc...

What to do about emotional apocrypha — what do you do with and about feelings that seem to come from nowhere? Feelings are "real" and we know now (i.e. the science is now there to tell us, eg Lisa Feldman Barrets's fascinating work) they're not in any way subservient in value or usefulness to "reason"; like if anything the opposite, emotions are the "why" and reason is the very patched together and incomplete "how" behind what we are and what we do. Worth thinking about why it is Kieslowski's most compelling films have female protagonists given the historical association to the binary genders for emotion vs reason.

The duality and dichotomy of post-war East/West Europe -- I think this one is sorta obvious but not less resonant? There's a good article out there about how the film predicted a lot of the consequences of the EU. Elsewhere I've read that Polish critics pilloried Kieslowski for a traitor to his kind over this theme, which reminded me of the story about how Bach's works were sometimes not well received by the church patrons who got to hear a lot of it first because they thought it was too dour -- imagine you have the greatest musician who will ever live as your church musician and your biggest peeve is his music isn't fun enough for Sunday. In any event this is a major theme in Three Colors, and I'm sure there's no accident that this movie and the Trilogy are connected by the same fake composer (key work = "Song for the Unification of Europe"...)

Return to theory in film (Zizek) -- he wrote a whole book about it. I'm not sure I agree Kieslowski's films make the case for the return to Theory (ie I think you can interpret his movies without it.) But the fact that you can so unbelievably seamlessly integrate his films to a Lacanian framework gives me that feeling of the inevitability of Lacan.

Art Cinema's enduring interest in interrogating the limits of its medium -- which of course is also present in art literature for its own medium, and frequently not only present but foregrounded in theatre. The Puppetmaster is a clear analogue to the filmmaker (and of God, lmao...they can't help themselves), but also all the unbelievably uncomfortable sex scenes in this movie are a masterclass on the male gaze and how you constitute and undermine it...etc.

Space-time Travel (Zizek) -- right away, I'm going to say I don't think this one is all that interesting, but it's what Criterion chose to accompany the 15th year re-release of the movie. So...ok 🤷🏽‍♀️ I'd say that listening to physics podcasts has convinced me of the value of a literary education (those hermeneutical skills come in so handy), so I see the relevance of thinking of these two together, but I also feel like the fake math is the part of Lacan I always found a little too silly to stand.

The agony of art as vocation -- I'm sorta lazily splitting this out from #5 just because when I originally wrote this post I had 7 points and now I can only remember 6 of them, and I like the resonance of 7....There's a Badiou-esque invocation of the four types of truth procedures at work in this movie that could easily fill the pages of another unread senior thesis: science -- the zizek time travel thing, the way the movie is, actually, concerned with the explanation of what is happening and why, rather than just accepting as a premise that there can be doubles in the world; politics -- the scene where Weronika meets Veronique is at a political rally, the east/west thing mentioned above, etc; art and love, obviously.... But the key to the "plot" of Veronique's life is "Does she keep singing, even if it kills her?"

Random closing thoughts:

I'm still thinking about and cannot resolve the mystery of the subplot about Veronique testifying in her friend's divorce(?) trial. What does it mean?

One thing that always bothered me about Kieslowski is a feeling i have that his movies are slightly (high key???) exploitative of his actresses, which seems like shabby repayment for their taking considerable artistic risks. Maybe I'm just getting this feeling from applying Lacan and Zizek to his movies though (that's two dudes who definitely don't understand about women...). I'd like to think I'm wrong about this, his masterworks are all with women and "about" women. I don't think he doesn't get this, though, see again the Puppetmaster (surely one of the creepiest dudes to ever grace an art film and that's saying a lot).

[amidst-wonderland]

final fantasy: rebirth {a mess of emotions, not in chronological order}

this is more story-based, so heads-up spoilers below.

“question. does that make me a dumbass?”

not aerith asking about reno

chadley nearly outing cissnei and cloud getting real confrontational about it.

cloud is so much more conversational in this, i felt in remake he was bordering on joker level’s of player-character. he’s a lot more laidback, which is understandable since he didn’t really know anyone but tifa and midgar’s only like what a week long?

the game now feels like an ensemble piece rather an a cloud simulator.

cloud not realising he’s the one loner friend

americans aren’t the best swearers - put to much emphasis on the swear itself but cloud does it so well.

he’s a prickly, backchatting bitch in this game and i love every single second of it. he’s not mopey, stubborn and grumpy. he’s ‘i’m going to actively make myself your problem if you cross me, so don’t.’

barret immitating yuffie?! or, “oh, wow. tell us more.” it’s giving abridged.

yuffie’s little naruto run!

yuffie and cloud’s growing sibling dynamic is the cutest shit. like, he should be be pissed at her but immediately protected her from the captain.

all i hear is priscilla’s dad’s irish accent from abridged when ever someone says her name or, “mr dolphin, ye daft bastard.”

rufus shinra… the man that you are.

every rude and elena scene, just, yes. her with the ice-lolly, the corneo fight, rude’s pub club?! babysitting palmer. (also, they call it the clean-shaven club when rude literally has a beard).

i genuinely thought we were gonna at least get that iconic reno and rude scene outside of gongaga (and as a long-shot a reunion with cissnei - i stand by the fact tseng absolutely knows where she is.)

that final turks training facility was a bitch to find.

don’t get me wrong, yuffie, barret, tifa and red’s trials were sad but aerith’s absolutely wrecked me. like i’ve got a stuffy nose already and i literally couldn’t breathe with the tears.

same with dyne and barret, like what you mean you want me to fight palmer?! i’m sitting here ugly crying about two men who love their daughter and have been through hell and back.

i’d love to see cissnei and leslie get involved with the wutai turk team-up

as much as i love aerti’s ‘improved over og’ friendship. it’s not passing the bechdel test anytime soon.

fuck queen’s blood.

cloud saying “down boy” sir- THE WHIMPERING!

the kids locking yuffie in with the hooded men on the cruise.

nanaki walking in the cabin on two legs fucking kills me. i also caught barret admiring himself in the mirror.

the fact the name tag is, “???” when we can hear yuffie cheering on cloti.

did they kiss?!

so, we finally see loveless and it was everything i ever wanted. genesis, i’m sorry, you were right.

“death doesn’t suit a turk”

cloud jr is too cute and i love my chocobro protagonists

speaking of, i’m in two heads about ffxv. you can see a lot of the inspiration the team got from that game but i think they left out the one thing that made ffxv perfect, which was the constant chatter during traversal

cloud turning on tifa during the gongaga reactor mission is giving the ffxv: omen trailer

i need a tonberry robot for my desk

jessie’s poster! i really thought she’d be alive with biggs

cloud calling gus a prick is when it clicked for me, like cloud’s got bite

i need esther’s red boots

cid is played by j. michael tatum?! sebastian- france- kyouya-

elena stuck in the heat yelling at rude, omg this is the turk moments i love.

as someone who is scottish, i can’t believe i witnessed cait sith tell cissnei to “wheesht”.

not the biggest fan of cissnei’s new colour scheme. would’ve gone with browns, accented gold buckles and mustard yellow personally

wished they’d’ve put in an turk easter egg in her house.

cosmo canyon’s lantern scene is so pretty.

gold-fucking-saucer. woah

sitting at the water tower with aerith felt wrong, and i know that was intentional.

omfg vincent, why he kinda dressed like gyuvin in en garde?

jesus, roche.

still not keen on seph’s voice - mainly because i don’t like tyler and also zack is better but i’m still not keen

symbiote!peter to “OMG GUYSSS HAIIII” is like fucking whiplash. two minutes ago we were crying over harry, now hotels?!

i knew that’s what marlene saw! and now zack knows! i am not okay!

was low-key waiting on elena throwing the keystone to reno to catch for a grand intro but he kinda just appears, and i loved every second of it.

the way both tifa and aerith have had to stop cloud murdering a turk.

cloud with blood by his own hand on his face is such a chilling image. it’s like seeing someone like superman with it.

avalanche versus reno and rude’s fight was giving advent children, like specifically reno and rude’s fight with loz and kazoo. (which i rewatched recently. rude’s face when reno steps on his glasses is the funniest thing in that film, also i can’t unhear fred from scooby-doo when loz speaks even though i know it’s not frank welker - it’s the dude that plays corneo).

[professional-sephiroth-scrungler]

I finally finished rebirth! Here is my unsolicited review cause i don’t want to melt my brother’s ear drums with my rambling

First off, Rebirth is a wonderful game. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s still great. The graphics are stunning, the soundtrack is absolutely amazing, and all the issues i had with story flow and confusion in the OG are basically fixed.

Story: I’ve got so much to say but thats mostly theories so i’ll keep it brief. I love where they are taking things. They’ve done a wonderful job of blending the OG story with the new stuff and the new directions its going. We arent really gonna full know whats happening until its all wrapped up but I am here for it!

Gameplay: its a good improvement on what they did for the first part. I however, have slow reflexes with the bumper and trigger buttons so they milliseconds they give you to block for immunity is not great for me. Dodging around is really fun though

Side quests/world intel: the side quests and world intel are hit or miss for me. Most of the stuff that doesn’t enhance the story, give lore, or deepen character relationships feels like a chore sometimes. Getting all the lifesprings, phenomenons, summon alters, and intel fights is repetitive and annoying sometimes but its easy to fall into the groove of if you have something playing in the background for the dull bits and running around the world to get to another story/side story beat.

Characters: Wonderful, amazing, exceptionally characterized. The nuances of the cast have been fleshed out a lot and it’s great. Even with their limited screen time, Vincent and Cid have so much substance and i am extremely excited to see where the story takes them. No, i am not ignoring one character in particular, what do you mean? None of the characters have made me seethe and mald at all and make me want to stop playing because of how annoying they are! And im definitely not afraid of the wrath my opinion of the character will bring if i say who! … Fuck it.

Yuffie: Yuffie definitely has more character than in OG and has sure been fleshed out since Intergrade… In the sense they took the happy go lucky, hyper, materia obsessed kid and multiplied it by 1000. It doesn’t help that she is also inserted into situations she 100% does not belong in. What could have been bonding moments for Aerith, Tifa, Barret, or Nanaki, what would’ve fit well in those situations, have Yuffie instead. And it seems her story is not until part 3 so why is she here so much? During tense or sad moments, she says stuff that ruins the vibe or is just irritating. Many time, she would say something during the story, and right after i would think that the moment would’ve been 10 times better if she was not inserting herself into it. Sometimes it feels like the writers are partially writing her as the main character when in the OG, she was an optional side character. Its not to say its all bad, she can have some funny moments. Except those where near when she just joins the party and the more those “silly moments” happen, the more grating they become. I hope that whenever her story arc happens in part 3 or a dlc (god i hope not a dlc the game is already $70), she has some growth and mellows back at least a bit. But who knows, maybe this is just a personal thing and she is actually a fine character. If you like her, thats fine. In the end, her character just isn’t for me and i just dont understand. These were just things that annoyed me personally and if you are fine or like how much more Yuffie there is in the remake trilogy, thats perfectly ok. Anyways

Expectations vs Reality: my only real gripe with the advertising is around Sephiroth and him being called a “protagonist” and supposedly us learning more about him in some english translations ive seen of interviews. I don’t quite understand where the protagonist thing came from. He is still very much the penultimate antagonist. But i expected to at least be able to read some in the manor about his childhood and play as him in combat a bit more. Maybe some TFS promo material got mixed up in my brain. If not, the best i can come up with from where the protagonist thing came from is that Sephiroth believes he is the protagonist, that he is doing the right thing, that he is the hero saving the planet and all other worlds through his twisted vision. And i guess through that, we have learned a lot about his motivations now and how he currently sees things. Not the backstory stuff i was hoping fore, but still really cool to see and analyze.

Over all, i would say Rebirth is an 8.5/10 for me. Some stuff dragged, was fluffed out a bit much in parts and such but over all a great game!

Actually, no. Sephiroth didn’t fast ball a materia at us in the basement. Maybe that will happen in Part 3. But that loss makes it a 0/10. RIP baseballiroth

[glimpsesofeuterpe]

felt obligated to list muses and their (known so far) alternates out now, oh no

The Cornelius(es)

Protagonist Cornelius, Classic Cornelius, Happy Cornelius, Space Pirate Cornelius (Neil), Composer Cornelius, Inspector Cornelius, Vampire Cornelius, Angel Cornelius (Corabael), Demon Cornelius (Corey), Inspector Cornelius, Archivist Cornelius, Winter Prince Cornelius, Librarian Cornelius, Lonely Cornelia, Alpha Cornelia (Emily), Beta Cornelius, Gamma Cornelius, Vampire Cornelia (Nelle), Russian Cornelius (Корнелий/Kornelij), British Victorian Cornelius (Dr Gratton), Gem Cornelius (Tiger Eye), Wizard Cornelius, Enthusiast Cornelius, Robot Cornelius, Skeleton Cornelius

The Deimos(es)

Antagonist Deimos, Narrator Deimos, Shadowy Deimos (Phos), Human Deimos (Damien), Demon Deimos (Demien), Mermaid Deimos, Captain Deimos (Captain Deimey Moss), Gem Deimos (Green Jadeite or Emerald), Cat Deimos (Demyaw), Princess Deimos, Farmer Deimos (Dahlia), Redhead Deimos, Wizard Deimos, Alternian Deimos, Mettaton Deimos extra: Arianna and Artemius, Deim's younger siblings extra extra: XJ10 aka Jade (Neil's assistant) extra extra extra: Deinelius (confusion au)

The Frankys

Grumpy: Strayed Franky, Dad Franky, Wizard Franky, Werewolf Franky, Gem Franky (Enstatite), Angel Franky (Frankiel), Female Franky (Franziska) Dorky: The Dork Maddison, Warlock Maddison (Adam), Captain Maddison, Cyborg Maddison, Pilot Maddison, Mechanic Maddison, Magic Maddison, Rick Maddison (Frederick) extra: Marcus Mayfair (employee 517) aka a beta-something-past version of Maddison extra extra: Ludolf Meier (Franky's Uncle) extra extra extra: Adam Smithson, which is clerly related to Franky(s), nuff said

Amelies:

Classic Amelie, Cyberpunk Amelie, Angel Amelie (Amaliel), Parable Amelie (Amber), Male Amelie (Albus), Possessed Amelie (Ambrose), Sinner/Demon Amelie

Sophies:

Fairy Sophie, Employee Sophie (006)

+ Cornelius' ex co-workers: Maria Mironova and Jack Waller

Narrators:

Bionic Narrator (Magnus), Bossy/Demon Narrator (Bernael), Narrator.exe, Beta Narrator (Norbert), Caelumirian Narrator (Augustin), Snapey Narrator, Gem Narrator (Brown Diamond?), Narrator Royce, MONIKA

Curators:

The Observer, Beta Curator (Norene), Angel Curator (Barrattiel), Human Curator (Beatrice), Curator.exe, Curator GLaDOS

Stanleys:

Stanley Freeman, Stanley von Sales, Thomas Stanley Porter, Severine Stanley, Stella Fiedler, Pastel Stanley, Stanley.exe, Gem Stanley (Gray Pearl) Not Stanleys:

Protagonist Chell, Ashley Davies (The Player)

Mariellas:

Classic Mariella, Dream Mariella (aka Doll aka Princess aka Melissa Noxire), Pastel Mariella, Not Mariella (Simona Petrikov), Mariella.exe, Gem Mariella (Peanut Pearl)

Employee 432 aka Settings Person aka Timekeeper aka Ceaseless Watcher:

Eric Nowak

Adventure Line (humanized-ish):

Ghost Adventure Line (Flavian), Gem Adventure Line (Yellow Spinel)

The Employee Lounge (humanized):

Lacey Fidelis, Lesley Fidelis

Ricks:

Narrator Rick, Dandere Rick, Detective Rick, Ava Rickinsocks, Bossy Rick, Hacker Rick

Mortys:

Protagonist Morty, Yandere Morticia, Nerdy Morticia, Captain Morty, Cursed Morty, Shadow Morty, Wizard Morty

OTHERS: Homestuck linked: Kostya Trollen, Nick Surname Presentable Liberty linked: Paul Viaton, Lenore (Eleanor) Farrell, Benjamin Smiley, Charlotte Addams, Barret Videll, Salvadore Marchetti, Morayne Johnson DST linked: Triumphant Wilson and a Willow (iguess?)

Wannabe big guys aka friends from the other side aka yet another aliens (divinedamnedgambles):

Endymion, Nelumbo, Nebula (aka Red and Blue), Mother Nature, Goodness (Agnes), Darkness (The Temptress), Inquisitiveness (aka Yellow aka Employee333), Lorelei, Oneiros, Helianthus (aka Deim's Grandpa), The Troubadour, Aurora

Men In White:

Elyon and Karael, Vega, Gadreel, Raziel, Seraphim

[thefrostqueen]

Aerith, Death, and Sephiroth

Two Aeriths

Through various trailers, we have gathered that the Aerith in Zack’s timeline is in a coma, with Marlene ominously stating that when Aerith wakes up, a scary man (Sephiroth) will kill her. But more obviously, why is she asleep despite not looking injured? And why did she alone survive the tornado attack while Barret, Tifa, Jesse, and Wedge died? Zack is then seen sitting on the steps of the church, and Sephiroth makes a move to seemingly cut Zack down, while remarking “No, not you.” He is clearly looking for Aerith, but why is he bothering with another dimension’s Aerith in the first place?

And more interestingly, how does Marlene even know that will happen? Who told/showed her? From that scene in the new trailer alone, are we to believe that Sephiroth is attempting to kill Aerith in every dimension, or is there something deeper happening here? Why is Sephiroth so prominent in this section of the game in the first place, considering he wasn’t in the original?

A Driving Force

In December of 2020, Aerith’s MOCAP actress, Asuka Yoshikawa, made a post talking about how she had just finished a four-hour motion capture session with Sephiroth’s MOCAP actor. It was unclear whether this was the only session, or one of several. But based on this tweet, it seems Aerith and Sephiroth will have much more time directly interacting with each other in Rebirth than in Remake (and also in the original game)

https://x.com/asukayoshikawa/status/1342254416393428992?s=46&t=yqLOXI10UyvjbnqYzQDydg

A recent official interview by PlayStation with Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura supports and mostly confirms this. They discuss quote “reimagining” Aerith and Sephiroth as characters, citing their individual importance to the overall story. Kitase in particular acknowledges that Sephiroth was barely present in this section of the game in the original, but that in Rebirth, he is the quote “Driving force that pulls the story along.” They speak of him almost like they view him as the main protagonist.

Both legendary creatives emphasized one single thing however: further depth for both Aerith and Sephiroth. Nomura also stated that he believes players will respond differently to what happens regarding Aerith and Sephiroth’s fates, hinting at a potential divide of opinions from fans, as well as a very different outcome for the characters compared to the original.

No Longer Set in Stone

What excites me about all of this, is that there is so much more mystery surrounding Aerith’s death scene and Sephiroth’s role in the story at large, whereas it was fairly straightforward in the original. In the OG, Aerith was summoning Holy (the only force that can stop Meteor) when Sephiroth catches both her and Cloud by surprise and murders her. She dies and becomes more powerful, and through this Sephiroth is stopped.

In the Rebirth trailer however, Aerith is seen giving Cloud holy BEFORE the temple. As many have pointed out, Aerith giving Cloud holy means she has NO REASON to be at the temple. So why does she end up going there regardless? And Cloud doesn’t notice Sephiroth about to kill Aerith in the OG, but in the trailer we clearly see Cloud notice that Sephiroth is about to kill her, so he attempts to stop Sephiroth with the buster sword. But why would Sephiroth attempt to kill Aerith if she hasn’t summoned Holy yet?

Perhaps clarity lies in the fact that both Sephiroth and Aerith know how the events of the original FF7 play out. We are shown that Sephiroth’s intention is to change his fate by preventing his death, and doing so means killing Aerith. If this is the case however, then why did Sephiroth not immediately kill Aerith in Remake, despite knowing she summons holy to defeat him? Why wait?

There are honestly so many possibilities regarding both timelines and the fate of the two Aerith’s that it is maddening. One could live, the other could die. Or maybe they both die—perhaps Aerith’s death is an inevitable prime event in any timeline.

I will be on the edge of my seat when February 29th arrives!