#ff7 gaia

[umbralstars]

On this episode of "Things in Rebirth than make me insane" Mt. Nibel is genuinely gorgeous. Like full stop one of the best examples of how alien Gaia is and how the Lifestream shapes the environment. I took some photos to yap about :)

So first of all we can see how thick the mako within the mountain is. Nearly every cave has a haze of green and embers of the Lifestream hanging in the air. Materia grows freely in the pools of mako within the caves (we can see crystals jutted from the rock walls and between the roots of trees), and the Lifestream here is so potent that trees and plants can grow underground with barely any sunlight. Sinkholes and cavern entrances are also carved by the mako, yet the trees continue to live and thrive despite growing in awkward positions.

We can even spot how Mt. Nibel was formed in the first place!

Here, and in the background of the first image, we can see exactly why the Nibel Mountains have the strange shapes they do. Mako crystals here have started to turn into the dull grey stone of the mountain with age, and erosion would change the shape of the rock over time. Mt Nibel was forged by the lifestream itself; grown from the very pools within its cave systems or the landscape was changed by an upswell of the Lifestream (similar to how Cosmo Canyon was described being created in the World Intel). There are plants in Nibel that are either partial crystallized or seem to be bioluminecent because of how rich the Lifestream is here.

I really do wonder what Nibel would look like if it wasn't suffering from the environmental degradation of its reactor and all the mako research. Or what other areas of the region we don't see may look like.

There's another cool detail you can hear in the sound design when the music quiets before the mako spring cutscene.

The mako in this cave is so thick that you can hear what almost sounds like a "song" or what is probably meant to be voices we can't decipher. I really don't think it's wind ambience because the other caves don't seem to have sound design like this. Mt Nibel is probably is so associated with death and the afterlife because within these caves you can hear the voices of the Lifestream even without being a Cetra. No wonder people of this region associate the mountain as being a way into the underworld. In many ways, it truly is.

[capdesuro]

Airfare: 1,000 gil

- Yes. ✨1,000 gil lost.

[accala]

The fact that Sephiroth was still accepted by the Planet’s lifestream but the Gi tribe weren’t sounds so unfair. From my understanding of the Gi Tribe’s origins, they migrated to the Planet because their planet and Gaia collided, therefore their planet ended up dying. The Planet didn’t deny them death because they made the Black Materia, the Planet denied them because they didn’t come from the Lifestream.

The Gi Tribe’s sin is not being one of the Planet’s children. And that is a price they paid for eternity. Sure, they made the Black Materia but that was only after being denied literal death and afterlife. Maybe there’s more to it on their lore and it turns out they’re actually horrible beings. But all these not-so-black-and-white stories of the Cetra and the Planet leads me to believe that the Gi tribe’s pain felt justified. Ok but seriously though Gaia, you invite the Planet-killing SOLDIER with a god-complex into your lifestream but not the Gi Tribe? I mean they both tried killing the planet. So might as well deny BOTH of them (Note: Sephiroth may have an alien parasite’s cells in him but he does have a human father and mother; the reason he dissipated into the Lifestream. I just kinda expected him to be spit out by the Lifestream because at that point in Advent Children, he’d be considered as a virus of sorts).

[tifa-simp]

I like how Rebirth shows Tifa's popularity exceeds way outside Midgard. She has fans everywhere and they all admire her for different things.

[mooglemedal]

"The Lifestream... It is the very essence of our star.." ♥ FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH SUMMER GAME FEST 2023 TRAILER (x)

[little-black-dress-zack-fair]

Gaia: I would die for you Aerith.

Aerith: What?

Gaia: *quietly slides away*

[lycannia]

I'm only like 10k away from reaching my goal of writing 50k words in November ;-; sooooo cloooooose! I'm taking off work after today though, so hopefully I can dedicate some time towards it this week to wrap it up.

It took me over a year to write that much for my other fic, Change Through Chains, so I'm really proud of myself! My writing thoughts do not flow very well, I can't just slap out words and then make them sound good later. I like them to sound good as I'm going a long lol. So I feel like I write a lot less or a lot slower just because I'm usually editing at the same time. I haven't written 'freely' like this since I was a teen doing Gaia online roleplays 24/7 💀

[dangoulains-devotion]

on this late night i am thinking incredibly hard about how, when faced with a choice between preventing a new friend from harm + clearing up a misunderstanding and choosing the path that would potentially find him a cure for his catatonic friend, zack recalled marlene's words of saying that aerith liked cloud, and of course she did, because he (zack) wasn't there. hadn't been there for a long time

and after recalling these words and grasping at the ribbon tied around his hand, zack ultimately decides that by taking the right-hand path he can, with some luck, fulfill two of his own desires - 1) potentially seeing his friend cloud healed and healthily awake again, and 2) making sure that aerith will be able to be happy when she wakes if he succeeds the first part. he has not and will not let go of his adoration and love for her, but if cloud is seemingly what makes her happy in this bizarre world he's found himself in, he'll choose that option in a heartbeat, because her happiness means the world to him even if it means accepting that he's not the focus of it anymore. he just loves her so much . oh i'm in pain. zack fair the man that you are

[umbralstars]

[Stands on a box with microphone] So does anyone wanna talk about religion in FF7? Cause there's a lot going on. We have canonical polytheism, monotheism (maybe), animism, atheism, and pantheism and it's so diverse and interesting and cool.

Also, one thing to know about me is that I stan Heathen Cloud, thank you.

[doctorbeans]

my hot take on a “zack lives” scenario is that he takes the easiest path and goes from nibelheim to cosmo canyon. literally the closest civilization populated by anti-shinra refugees, specialized in the study of planetology, the lifestream, and by extension, fucking MAKO.

the people would also sympathize would cloud and zack since their local best boy and guardian was abducted by shinra in a very similar way to them.

even if in this scenario zack wants to get to aerith in midgar, he could do so after resting in a safe place and having cloud looked over by experienced healers.

[r-h-e-t]

Reeve Tuesti.

Funny cat man. Staunch proponent of improving living standards for people of all backgrounds and economic status. Enthusiast of city planning and publicly funded infrastructure. Expert in robotics, architecture, and civil engineering.

At the end of Final Fantasy VII, he finds himself free of the corrupt warmongering of the Shinra dictatorship, free to follow his heart and conscience, free to enact changes that will help the people of Midgar and restore the injured planet the best ways he knows how.

. . .

Four years later:

(On the Way to a Smile - "Episode: Denzel")

It was Reeve, former Shinra bigwig, now the leader of the WRO . . . folk whispered that the stench of death clung to him. . . . . . . . "You should know first of all that our organization isn't like it used to be. The days of welcoming anyone who was willing to join are long gone. If you want to help in the reconstruction, talk to your local district officer. The WRO is a military institution now."

reeve i swear to GOD

[accala]

Do you guys think that the Gi Tribe’s planet was the sister planet of Gaia? Like Earth and Theia? It just struck me how similar the Gi Planet’s death is to Theia’s with how the Earth subsumed and crashed into it. So maybe the Gi Planet’s name is Theia. I mean the FF7 universe already has a similar solar system, with a key difference of Gaia replacing the Earth.

Or maybe its name could be Terra, the Roman equivalent to Gaia 👀

[tsengratio]

[ID: a stylized drawing of cloud strife, a character from final fantasy 7. he is standing in the lifestream, which is visualized as a green ribbon-like strand coiling around him, surrounded by yellow stars. he is clutching his hand over his heart. the artist has omitted any facial features except his eyelashes. /end ID]

[rydiathesummoner]

Hoooooly cirrhosis, lady

[little-black-dress-zack-fair]

Kadaj: You're not my dad!

Sephiroth: Bitch, I literally made you

Gaia:

[stephanythedramaqueen]

I know that the “multiverse” in ff7 is now a thing, but I genuinely believe it’s just a fidget of Cloud’s mako degraded imaginations. Zack and Aerith being alive, seeing Sephiroth everywhere, him saving Aerith from death, it’s all not real. Down to Cloud’s schizophrenia of seeing Aerith’s ghost post-Forbidden City is just his mind losing all sense of reality. We see the actual reality through Tifa and Barret and the rest of AVALANCHE: Aerith rlly died. The broken sky is not there. All of Sephiroth’s appearance that wasn’t in the lifestream ehem aren’t him but the guys in robes (though Sephiroth does manipulate them) Knowing what we know about what will happen to Cloud, it doesn’t feel so far off.

I know we get to play as Zack and have a lot of pov through him but still I say this with utmost belief: it ain’t real. They’re all still dead.