#ffvii is so important to me

[yubriamakesart]

so i was discussing Aerith last night

[dangoulains-devotion]

to catch a falling star

[emblazons]

"Go on."

Aerith Gainsborough & Cloud Strife Giving Aerith Her Flowers • Final Fantasy VII (Rebirth)

[rocketbirdie]

taking matters into my own hands and giving us the gongaga we deserved

[altocat]

Holy shit I've gotten like fifty new followers in the last 24 hours. I'm glad everyone is congregating to watch shit explode.

[prismaticpichu]

Zack and Sephiroth watch Kung Fu Panda 2 (Zack completely forgot about that one scene with Po’s mom). Sephiroth just assumes it’s going to be a silly kids movie. What’s the reaction

Sephiroth, sitting stagnant on the couch, has a hollow, almost ghostly look consuming his once steely eyes. It feels as if something has been gouged out of him—catching him off-guard, striking him where he’s weak. Like an all too raw piece of his soul has been ruthlessly pried from its fragile structure. The movie has been paused for several seconds now, Zack having noticed the way his friend has seemingly left his body. He sets the remote down and glances worriedly at his friend.

“Seph…? You okay, bud?”

Sephiroth doesn’t respond for several beats. He can only stare at the paused screen, silent, unable to tear his gaze away from the frozen frame before him. Unable to look away from the snapshot of roaring flames, of a village trapped in the famished talons of fire and smoke and burning wood.

Of a mother panda, running away, about to be mercilessly slaughtered by the command of a madman.

“How could… anyone… do this?”

Zack pauses for a moment, saddened by his friend’s saddened voice, and taken aback by how genuinely struck Seph was by Shen’s attack on the panda village. He considers joking, chuckling—perhaps saying something about the history of evil peacocks. But he doesn’t. It doesn’t feel right. Instead, he just scoots closer to his friend.

“I dunno, bud. When bad people, y’know, when they want something… they do bad things.”

There’s another beat, another reign of silence. And the next set of words slash Sephiroth’s throat as they leave it.

“He… the bird…” The syllables are jagged, taut. “He killed his…”

Sephiroth doesn’t need to finish the sentence for Zack to understand it. To understand everything. And like a tidal wave of acid, the realization of what he has inadvertently subjected his friend to comes toxically crashing down on him.

Zack’s gaze darts between the screen and Seph. “Oh my god… buddy… what is wrong with—Gaia, I’m so sorry….!”

He wraps his arm around his wounded friend, kicking himself a thousand times for his insensitivity and blindness. Out of all the movies they could have chosen….

Sephiroth dips his chin, resting it on Zack’s hair, a momentary relief from the horror portrayed on his screen. Never did he expect to be struck so viscerally by one of his friend’s favorite films. Never did he expect to be at a loss for words amid their playful banter and commentary. Never did he expect an innocuous, colorful, loving movie to be a mere veneer for something much darker.

“ I know…. I know this prolly hurts real bad…” Zack solaces, continuing to hug his pal. “I promised to never…. I’m sorry, Seph…. Gaia I’m sorry… We can stop now, if you want, maybe play a game inste—“

“….Wutai.”

Zack blinks, confused by the sudden shift.

“….Wutai?” he echoes puzzledly.

Sephiroth’s eyes strain, his muscles stiffening. “I… I’ve done this…” he admits bitterly, painfully, like the words scraped against his tongue in serrated, poisonous blades. “In Wutai… I’ve razed villages. Killed countless. I… I probably have slaughtered a child’s…” He struggles to finish that sentence, the brutal scene from the movie still raw in his mind.

“I… I am like Shen.”

Zack’s heart twists, a full jagged knot tethering in his chest as he digests Seph’s words—the pain, the guilt, the self-loathing… He shakes his head, pulling back slightly from the embrace.

“That’s not true,” he says firmly, kindly. “That’s not true, bud.”

Sephiroth opens his eyes, ready to protest. “I… I’ve razed…”

“it was a war, Seph… you know that. I know you do. ShinRa ordered for those villages to be burned. From what I can tell—and learned… you didn’t have a choice.”

Sephiroth closes his eyes again, riding too many turbulent memories and emotions to think of a proper response. Zack returns his head to Seph’s shoulder.

“You would never do what Shen did, bud…” Zack says quietly. “You would never kill out of hate. I know you wouldn’t.”

For a long swath of time, Sephiroth remains locked in the other’s arms, silent, listening to the unwavering sincerity of his best friend’s words. Letting them sink into him, letting them assuage him. Gauze him. Heal him. He sinks deeper into the embrace, clinging to Zack’s heartfelt hope in him. To his trust. To his beliefs.

And there he makes a vow to never prove Zack wrong.

KUNG FU PANDA 2 SAVES NIBELHEIM, Y’ALL!!!!

[haunted-xander]

A big part of why Zack's death hits so hard (for me at least) is that Zack is someone who cares so so so much for people and managed to get so many people to care about him in return. Angeal cared for him enough to the point he prefered to die by Zack's hands over anyone else, and entrusted him with a precious family heirloom. Even Sephiroth (prior to the Nibelheim incident) very clearly has somewhat of a soft spot for Zack, being one of the few people he's shown deliberately being nice to.

Even the turks care for him! Cissnei is obvious as she and Zack formed a pretty personal connection throughout crisis core, but even Tseng clearly enjoys his company and often plays along with his jokes and antics.

I'm not gonna dig deep into his relationships with Aerith and Cloud (that's for another post if I ever feel like it), but they are also so so so important to him.

And, personally, what makes this all even worse, is that Zack probably knew he'd die by Shinra's hands eventually. By this point, he already laments the situation he's in, being stuck working for a company he KNOWS is massively corrupt and doesn't care for anything but their own agenda, and being unable to do anything about it. Acting out and rebelling against them doesn't work (as proven by Genesis and Angeal) and he can't just leave and be done with it (Zack knows too much for Shinra to just let him go, and even if he COULD leave, it wouldn't change anything)

But, at the very least, his death wasn't meaningless. Zack managed to save one of the people he loved the most, and that person then went on to do what Zack couldn't. It's all because of Zack that Cloud is not only alive, but also has the strength necessary to move forward.

Zack, man.

[artskls]

let tifa rock guns. let her be a big buff mountain lady, u cowards

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: March 6

“A Promise To Keep" by Brandi Carlile

[singing-cicada]

Obsessed with the body language. Cloud is curled into a ball because he is hiding himself he is comforting himself he is protecting himself and Zack is loose limbed and wobbly; there's still fluid in his ears making his weakened steps unbalanced. But has his sword and like hell he won't use it.

And the truck bed. The truck bed they must've been in for hours now. You can tell because Cloud has slipped, his legs are sliding out from under him, a few more bumps or a turn to sharp and he's down. Zack wouldn't have placed him like that; he set him down, rested set Cloud head on his shoulder and used his arm as a cushion. He didn't notice Cloud slipping because he isn't looking he's staring into the past, daydreaming about the future and he doesn't notice Cloud sinking down because his head is still on his shoulder, so everything's fine.

And there's not really anything in the third photo. It's a dead body and a man who doesn't have enough in him for grief. He can hold his own head up now, at least. Even if Zack isn't there to hear him talk again, before he died, he saw Cloud hold up his own head and look around.

++A Beginning and an end told in three parts++

 aka: I’m fulfilling 10 year old me’s dream of wanting to draw this set of pictures because I thought this hidden cutscene was so damn cool and I’ve been holding off playing crisis core until I finished.

[icharchivist]

Honestly, yeah, Square had this earnestness to introducing the most outlandish ideas you'd ever heard. They were so serious about the stupidest things you'd ever heard (affectionate)

Like a 13 year old making their first OC and yes, it's edgy and OP, but that only shows how much they cared

I miss that earnestness, Icha. I miss it every day

Honestly, same.

Like yeah it's a bit funny but this is also like. truly earnest. They would go the extra mile to show darkness and evil and then they'll make you care about it.

It wasn't about realism and all, it was just the fun of those things existing, pushed to an extreme just because they could.

Honestly it just makes me found of it still now because like, i remember thinking characters from Crisis Core were cool as fuck. I've seen someone make fun of Genesis fashion recently and i was like man this was the coolest thing to me when i was 13. And also i was really into goth alt subculture so there was always a tad of hamminess that came with just it being.

I feel like this fear of being too ridiculous eventually just holds people back from enjoying the thing to its fullest? And there's definitely been this aspect of "self awareness" like "ahah yes we know it's silly! don't worry we made it more realistic tho" but i'm like.... I felt the emotions so much to the fullest when you allowed yourself to be silly tho....

the late 00s' media had this type of cheesy edginess that does kinda make me chuckle when i look back on it, but that at least yknow felt like they were having fun without constraining themselves to what people would think acceptable?

And it's also definitely the type of things that like, works even better one you've played a while and are so attached to everything they propose that you go "yknow what. sure. Show me how this is going to be emotional." and then it is!

Idk i'm like. Very tired of the recent-ish meta way of always trying to comment on the past art like "god wasn't it cringe? thankfully we're better now". Like where is the fun when you constantly hold back? have fun!!! just go over the top about it!!!

idk it was fun and definitely the thing people kept making fun off, and esp as FF is concerned i remember vividly how the late 00s were for the fanbase and how people actually were not receptive at all of the FFVII content that came out in the late 00s that just even poking fun at it now makes me a bit sad. like you guys have not seen the way i've seen it the way people were ruthless about those entries especially for this corniness. So now i see this corniness and i'm just like. At least they did something unique and had fun with the concept? it's fun. what's the problem really.

[astrxealis]

one day i will talk about how much ff7 and aerith and cloud and zack and etc mean so much to me

[ariseur]

ffvii jealousy headcanons 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

✧˖*°࿐ includes cloud strife, zack fair, sephiroth, reno, genesis rhapsodos, and angeal hewley

┊ ˚➶ notes ｡˚ 🎼

just a little something to satisfy you guys while i continue working on my requests!! already did a dmc one so might as well do a ffvii one too lol

┊ ˚➶ warnings ｡˚ 🎼

jealousy (obviously), some possessiveness, intended lowercase, like one bullet point about post-nibelheim sephiroth, just a couple of guys who love the reader??, lmk if i missed anything !! 🎀

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ 𝓒LOUD — 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

❥ cloud is the type of person who will swear up and down that he doesn’t get jealous, but truth be told, he does. however, he doesn’t recognize it as jealousy at first.

❥ although, he definitely tries to shove his feelings down once he realizes that he’s somewhat upset. cloud won’t upright and confess that he’s jealous or go up to you when he sees someone flirting with you.

❥ cloud’s pretty understanding if you needed space or if you were just talking with someone else, he’s not gonna immediately resort to his insecurity.

❥ but once it’s a reoccurring experience, or if they know what they’re doing— or worse, if they’re actively flirting with you or touching you, then he’ll definitely start to get a little jealous.

❥ instead of actively confronting you or getting up in the flirt’s face, he’ll only watch afar at first. he’ll observe the conversation, the light touches, checking to see if you look uncomfortable or not.

❥ when it begins to become too much though, cloud’ll come up to you, saying something along the lines of how he needs you or needs your help and that it’s so urgent that you have to come with him asap.

❥ if you even insinuate that he got jealous though, he’ll deny it to the moon and back and say that it never happened. he may act like he doesn’t care, but don’t let it fool you. cloud cares about you way too much to let you be slobbered over at a bar by a disrespectful dude.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈ ｡ﾟ

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ 𝓩ACK — 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

❥ i feel like zack’s semi into pda? as long as he’s not around the firsts or anybody important, especially angeal, then he just can’t wait to show you off. he can’t help it, poor boy loves you too much 😭 so because of the somewhat pda, i dont see a lot of people trying to flirt with you— especially knowing that your boyfriends a SOLDIER.

❥ i dont think he’d even notice at first, too busy talking to you to even notice that theres someone who has your attention also. i cant see anybody really trying to flirt with you though, zack’s like that one small dog who keeps yapping at your feet when you get to close to its owner.

❥ zack is very vocal!! if the person interrupts your conversation, he will blatantly call them out on it. he’d narrow his eyes at them and just say, “hello, i was talking to them??” because who interrupts people like that?? plain rude!!

❥ saw this in another post and i totally agree with it, zack’ll joke and joke with underlying messages behind these said ‘jokes’ and definitely has the mindset of, “what can they offer when you have me???” he just doesn’t see how they catch your attention or why they’re talking to you while hes sitting right there??

❥ will bend over backwards just for your attention, he will pout otherwise if he doesn’t get your full undivided attention after his attempts.

❥ will probably annoy the person after you’re gone by either passive-aggressively interrogating them or ranting about how in love he is with you. he’s like the cartoons where they hold their chin in their palm with heart eyes as they look up all dreamy with a giant thought bubble that’s just you. he can’t help it, he just loves you too much (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞!!1!1!

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈ ｡ﾟ

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ 𝓢EPHIROTH — 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

❥ for pre nibelheim (because i miss soft and not crazy sephiroth), i cant see him getting all that much jealous? i guess he’d get more so protective if he sees someone all up on you— but otherwise, he’s pretty laid back about it. he puts a lot of his faith in you entrusting that you won’t break it, so i cant see him going crazy over it.

❥ i think sephiroth’s mature enough to not cause a scene even if he was jealous, though. he wouldn’t be petty or actively try to keep you away from anybody pre nibelheim, although he finds it amusing how they try to flirt with you.

❥ he especially has to have trust in you considering he’s a first class!! unless you are also a SOLDIER or you’re associated with shinra, you guys will spend semi-large gaps of times apart. he doesn’t think you’d betray him like that though, he’s mature enough to have a conversation if he’s really worried.

❥ sephiroth has his moments of insecurity, but usually when he’s off duty— he’ll be with you. i’m just imagining sitting at a bar with sephiroth as he’s literally right beside you while this persons trying to slide up next to you lol. i also don’t think sephiroth gets jealous because he knows his worth and know he can be intimidating when he wants to be!! even just his teasing makes people quiver in their fuckin boots lmao. i doubt anybody would wanna mess with a first class SOLDIER who’s fit and over 5’11” / 180cm.

❥ after they either get intimidated or realize their advances aren’t working and that you’re happily in a relationship with sephiroth and leave, he’ll chuckle to himself as he thinks aloud about how silly it was to even attempt to get with you, knowing who you’re with. on the off chance that he’s feeling a little possessive or something, he’s not one for pda but he might just give you a kiss after they leave and a quick murmur of amusement due to their foolishness.

❥ now!! post-nibelheim!! you’re not even gonna be out of his sight enough to be hit on considering he’s kinda like.. a war criminal in a sense 😭. he’s much more possessive in his little silly criminally existentially crisis insane arc, never letting you leave alone or even go out in public that often. he’s much more obsessed with you after his break, so if he finds someone even making advances on you?? ooh, boy.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈ ｡ﾟ

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ 𝓡ENO — 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

❥ reno is one weird little dude, let me tell you that. every time i think of reno, i think of a cat. with a suit. suit cat.

❥ reno does get jealous a lot of the time, even if he is usually all up on you anyways. he still is a turk and also has to spend some time away from you, leading to overlapping thoughts of you while he’s away, maybe not even just possessive but also about if something happened to you. nothing could cure these thoughts better than a little phone sex, though.

❥ i’d like to think reno’s into pda as long as he’s not at work, poor rude having to witness wet kisses on your cheek with a lazy arm slung across your shoulder ever day. so i can’t really imagine anybody trying a bunch of stuff with you when usually— reno’s not too far behind.

❥ if reno happens to be not right next to you and he’s just doing his own thing and he happens to GLANCE AT YOU? AND HE SEES SOMEONE HITTING ON YOU?? instant slide next to you.

❥ he’s petty enough to start calling you all these pet names while he’s sitting next to you, wrapping his arm around you while he’s sizing the flirt up. he’ll look them up and down with a hard stare and maybe throw some passive aggressive comments every once in a while.

❥ he’ll probably make them uncomfortable (unless they wanna square up, because knowing reno, he might just charge if the person reciprocates his belligerent comments) so by the time they already leave, reno’s already whining against you as he asks what that was all about, acting all clueless afterwards. but you can tell just from the tone that laces his voice that he knows what he’s doing lol.

❥ he’s just a petty guy, maybe not so much possessive because i mean you can go out wherever you want wearing whatever you want (maybe after a small quickie at home if it’s something revealing), he can fend for you. he swears he’s your knight in shining armor no matter how much he teases you lmfao

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈ ｡ﾟ

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ 𝓐NGEAL — 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

❥ now here’s the real knight in shining armor™!!!! angeal is your savior if you’re ever in an uncomfortable situation, although he doesn’t really get jealous at all— he’s just very observant of you.

❥ angeal has a whole thing about how in a relationship you must have faith and he’s very comfortable with both you and himself. he’s happy in your relationship and he is secure with himself!! if zack ever sees you two together and he’s like “(」°ロ°) 」??”, bombarding him with questions as usual, then i can just see angeal giving zack a talk on how to treat women and the gentleman way of approach— although zack is very respectful, it’s just in angeals nature to lecture.

❥ he won’t think anything of it when someone you know sits with you, you guys usually know each others relatives and friends well enough to trust them. but he’s a little iffy when a random stranger starts chatting you up.

❥ angeal obviously trusts you!! again, unless you’re a SOLDIER (which he wouldn’t prefer only because he worries about your well being), then you guys will have to spend some time apart. he has a lot of faith in you and will always write you when he’s away, letting you know he’s always thinking of you while you’re apart.

❥ if anything, he’ll save you if he notices you’re uncomfortable or something along those lines. he’ll swiftly say he needs your for something and apologizes to the person out of courtesy that he interrupted your guys’ conversation, but oh it’s so urgent, we must retreat!! and i must hold you hand in hand while we run off and do totally boring SOLDIER duties!!

❥ omfg then he pulls you aside and asks if you’re okay and ugh i just want him so bad. like sephiroth, he’ll also explain how foolish it was to even hit on you when you’re clearly happily in a relationship with him. you two’ll walk along back to hq (?) or whatever while you talk about how odd the encounter was.

❥ so in conclusion !! angeal is a gentleman and doesn’t get jealous / protective unless he thinks you’re in trouble or you’re clearly uncomfortable. angeal hewley to the rescue!!!

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈ ｡ﾟ

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ 𝓖ENESIS — 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

❥ this dramatic bitch.

❥ genesis is so petty that he’ll probably consider the possibility that you’re flirting back? and then proceed to ignore you or leaving you off with some esoteric poetry while he tends to his duties. he is first class, after all.

❥ if he’s sitting right next to you though, and he hears that you’re not flirting with them. he’s petty enough like reno where he’ll suddenly be throwing out all these dramatic pet names and throw longing glances towards you, except he won’t even spare a glance towards the other person— simply only paying attention to you.

❥ id consider genesis a jealous person, but i do think that most of it strikes a protective instinct within him. he does understand that he’s also a first class SOLDIER meaning he’ll have to trust you, but he has way too much time on his hands to think. also like angeal where he’ll write you as much as he can— except he’ll send you mindless poems he writes or favored quotes of LOVELESS.

❥ in the case that you leave to go to the bathroom or any sort of occasion, genesis would probably scare the other person or make them feel uncomfortable as well. but when you return and they’re gone, he’ll act so clueless. all, “whatever do you mean, dearest?”

❥ another instance where i don’t think anybody would try anything with you. like angeal and sephiroth, genesis is a first class SOLDIER. everybody knows these dudes are the real shit (well, mainly only sephiroths talked about, but it applies to genesis and angeal too!!) so hes all smug parading you around as he side eyes every person who gawks at you. of course he knows you’re beautiful, but your beauty is too much for these fools to comprehend. so yes, he must glare at every single of them.

❥ and yes, also like his companions, he will jeer and whine about how silly it was to try that with you when you two are alone. i can even see genesis pulling a cloud and just whisking you away claiming you need to do something and then act like nothing happened afterwards. either that, or he’ll overdo it and claim to be your angel— no in between.

[scrawnytreedemon]

EXCELLENT observation! Hehe, thank you <3

“Go forth, son of mine.“

[noxtivagus]

thinking of. hermes n etheirys n there rlly is just sm to take in !!!!

[silvergreenseraphim]

The Relationship Between Glenn and Rufus

[Ultimania Screenshot Removed Until Square Enix Lifts Copyright Strikes]

Glenn, a messenger from Wutai, appears often before Rufus. Though their conversations suggest that the two were old acquaintances, the exact nature of their relationship remains a mystery. Here is a summary of their meaningful exchanges and the relationship between them and Wutai as depicted in related works.

In the small box, it has some information on Rufus and Team Glenn’s connections to Wutai.

In "FVII Before Crisis", four years ago, Rufus lent a hand to the Wutai-based Avalanche.

Glenn comes into contact with Sephiroth, who was dispatched to Wutai seven years ago, in the opening of "The First Soldier" arc of "FFVII Ever Crisis".

Matt and Lucia, who were Glenn's colleagues (introduced by Yuffie in CHAPTER 7 as the "three ex-soldiers"), appear as captains in flashback scenes of the original Avalanche soldiers.

A small text wall next to Glenn’s death scene says:

When Rufus heard Glenn's name in Junon, a vision of him shooting a man flashes through his mind.

Text wall beside the “Please contact Captain Matt” dialogue says:

It appears that Matt and Lucia were participating in the operation to attack the Shinra Building.

-

Examples of Important Conversations Between Glenn and Rufus

[Ultimania Screenshot Removed Until Square Enix Lifts Copyright Strikes]

Rufus: "You're alive?"

Glenn: "Most certainly dead.”

(This was a bit of dialogue in the game that was difficult to translate. If anyone has a correction for it, please let me know. It appears that Glenn says he is “Dead, of course” to Rufus’ statement).

Rufus is surprised at Glenn's survival, and Glenn responds with a laugh. It sounds like a joking response, but based on his later words and actions, it may not be a joke at all.

-

Rufus: "The Governor will not stand on such a poor set.”

Glenn: "I see! Growing up a young master/rich kid is so bothersome.”

Rufus said these words as if he knew Sufur’s personality well. Glenn calls Sufur a rich kid/brat, but in Junon, he also mocked Rufus, saying, “Fond of (drawing) visions as ever, young master/rich kid).”

(I once again have been trying to receive help on this specific line because the connection here is how Glenn calls both Sufur and Rufus “Botchan,” which is an interesting term for a rich young master or boy. More in this in another post).

Glenn & Sephiroth: "Our 'Promised Land' will be born." Good (for you), you’ve succeeded your father.”

In the commentary scene, Sephiroth's appearance and voice overlap with Glenn, implying that Glenn's actions up to that point were in line with Sephiroth's intentions.”

Glenn: “As good at shooting people in the back as ever.”

A line that suggests that Rufus once shot Glenn in the back. It is also revealed in this scene that the person who had been thought to be Glenn was one of those in the black cloaks.

-

My translations are rough at the moment because I am hurrying, but I trust that I was able to get the essential parts accurate.

This is not much new information but I would say it confirms some things.

-

1. Glenn is dead.

2. It was a black cloak in line with Sephiroth’s intentions. Based on the other instances where black cloaks interact with Cloud with Sephiroth’s intentions, it is safe to say that this was also Sephiroth. A part of his will perhaps.

3. There is nothing suggesting that this was Jenova, as some were saying.

4. Sephiroth heavily mocks Rufus at every chance he gets and appears to hate him passionately.

5. Glenn came in contact with Sephiroth 7 years after Sephiroth was dispatched to Wutai. This is the opening of the First Soldier.

6. Rufus and the Before Crisis plot of his involvement with Avalanche has been confirmed.

-