#first i have to beat hojo though

[flowerwiththemachinegun]

Regional Music?

Slight Vincent x Ancient!Reader with no established relationship, just interest on Vince’s part. It’s just a headcanon, not an actual fic here but I enjoyed writing it. No smut here. Literally. For once.

This was an idea I had been sitting on for quite some time but not something I was going to turn into a big thing. But the regional music has me in a chokehold and wouldn’t it be cool if one could hear the planet in a far different manner? Maybe an Ancient who hears/feels negative and positive shifts in an area through the music thrumming faintly in the back of their head? The volume and sensation of the beat under your feet increases in battle or any disruptions within the region around you. This of course means you have a limited range and the regional music never overlaps. It can be helped to guide you in the right direction, or on occasion into some of the most grueling battles that would’ve been better off being avoided. Heightened emotions can also have an effect. Reader has a fighting style similar to Tifa’s. Materia use won’t be traditional for you either. Let’s take from the FF8 draw and junction system and tweak it a bit (simplify the shit out of it) and Yes I’m going to be lazy about when reader joins the party because my creativity isn’t sparking for backstory. 

****

Vincent had been quite a bit intrigued by you since the moment you joined the party. At first he was skeptical, as most were. Upon hearing your need to seek out Hojo and wipe him from existence, Vincent’s mind changed. He still hadn’t disclosed the full history between himself and the madman, what he learned from you seemed just as bad. There was no way to put on a scale had it the worst from Hojo, anyone that came in contact with him suffered a similar fate. Your capabilities were proven to be of no use to Shinra. Once rendered useless, you were cast into the shadows, only being taken care of enough to keep you alive as one of Hojo’s playthings. The years spent in his lab was a period filled with torture.

You seemed to be more of a loner than himself, another thing that gravitated him to you. Often scouting regions on your own, disappearing without a word only to come back with materials or bruised and bloody. In time he became the sole person to take care of you in the case you came back injured. Vincent easily was your go to for this, the fussing others would do over you was off putting and at times annoying. Getting hurt came with the territory, shouldn’t be a big deal. Only once Vincent made the mistake of chiding you for going out on your own to get into who knows what, immediately silencing himself as he was met with a glare. You were too injury prone for his liking. Knowing you were too hard headed to listen to anyone's advice, Vincent began going on these outings with you, training you along the way to reduce your chances of getting hurt. You were a great fighter, but you fought with so much energy you were a threat to yourself.

Speaking of fighting. The way you moved was like a dance to Vincent. Graceful yet powerful, pure raw energy exuding from you that was so contagious it boosted Vincent in battle. To say he loved the way you had no problem getting in the face of your opponent was an understatement. At times he felt as though he lived for it, you moved to your own beat at all times. Mesmerizing in his eyes with the way your intensity and style would change every now and then. Notably when they reached different areas of Gaia. 

Eventually Vincent felt inclined to ask why your fighting style is never consistent for very long. He knew you were an Ancient from what you told him of your past, but he hadn’t considered that one would be in tune with the planet in a vastly different way. Not in the form of music. He almost thought you were teetering on delusional had it not made perfect sense when he thought about your mannerisms on the field. Your uncanny sense of forewarning saved them many times.

“Even the towns have songs. They go along with the history, flora, fauna, and current residents of the town. The songs are created from energy held within the lands from things that have happened over time.” Vincent could hear you talk about this for the rest of his life, or well, the rest of your life. Everything about you was different, even the way you used materia. Instead drawing the power from it, the magic channeled through your hand to the rest of your body. It also happened by accident, holding any materia caused it to fuse with you, like you were a blackhole for magic. You never know exactly where it gets stored, just that you’re able to summon it as needed. The amount of power drawn from various materia increases the level of damage or healing you’re capable of. While you can use magic at any given time, the less materia you’ve stripped, the less effective your magic would be. Drawing was a necessity for you in order to keep up any worthwhile capabilities. This doesn't translate onto Summon materia.

Vincent wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a horrifying warning, but the presence of Sephiroth evoked a nerve racking tune. One of the most complex you’ve heard thus far, the only sound that riddled you with fear. “That is not human, whatever he is supposed to be, is one that should not exist.” Being in the presence of the robed men sent, what you had dubbed the, One Winged Angel, spiraling in your mind. It was blaring, menacing, it was a warning that nothing other than pure destruction was imminent. No person came with a song, the exception being Sephiroth. What kind of energy could one possess to have such an imposing theme, one that would make the strongest of people coward. It riddled you with anxiety, more or less shaking you to the core. There was something else to it, pain. The pain was evident as the music boomed in your head. Always loud, intense, making you want nothing more than to shut out the entire world until you were the only one left. Remember, you can get a feel of Sephiroth’s history through his song, the longer you hear it, the more you understand him. He’s hurt by this world, leading Sephiroth the being the shell of himself he once was, becoming the tormentor to the world for treating him so cruelly. 

You were an enigma alright, somehow getting Vincent to understand the wonders of the planet through music he wasn’t capable of hearing himself. How was he to keep himself from falling in love with you?

[rosy-crow]

not enough people are reveling in the horrors that is sephiroth having SEVERE CPTSD!!

HGGFJFHF YEAH

Also, on a few lists, “hyper-vigilance” was a symptom…which….bruh

I watched a documentary about kids with CPTSD and also one on attachment disorders in infants after maternal neglect a while ago, and basically, when they put well-adjusted kids in a room with each other and some adults, it was all smiles, trust, camaraderie, play, fun, etc.. Those babies were bright and looking at the adults all the time! They bonded really easily.

But the kids with either the attachment disorder or the CPTSD just sat there looking on high alert. They didn’t sleep or rest, they didn’t trust the adults. They looked anxious and they were babies :(

The kids with the maternal neglect issues were known to look around the room and at the doors like they were waiting for someone. Waiting for someone to come back. It made me cry at the time, dude.

Anyway, Sephiroth first reminded me of the kids with the attachment disorders when I was going through OG and he seemed like he was looking for…something. When he found Jenova, I was like…”OH! WAIT IS THIS MOTHER THING DELIBERATE…”

And when I got to Lucrecia, as soon as she said “I never even got to hold him,” it all clicked. That explained a LOT 💀

I could not find hardly any analysis videos or forums on him (outside of tumblr) that even bothered to mention it. It’s hopefully gonna change with FS!

But what’s also becoming more blatant aside from the attachment disorder is the CPTSD, I agree. He showed up in episode 1 already a mess around the adults, not sure how to interact after isolation, really apologetic when he messed up and he wilted whenever Glenn yelled. Then we had that whole speech he gave when they confronted him about his ruthlessness and he basically gave away that he was trained to be afraid as a warrior. Deathly fearful, paranoid and reactive on the battlefield even with children and elderly because he believed he’d surely die if he hesitated or showed any compassion.

That basically means they beat fear into his head for a long time and put him in situations where he perfected the “kill or be killed” mindset.

(I’m so happy he does THIS with the Wutai troops as an adult though. HE LEARNED TO HESITATE AND OFFER HIS ENEMIES A CHANCE BEFORE JUST GOING FOR THE KILL SJDHDH)

But as for his younger self, what kid would be trained like that (especially by fucking Hojo) and not develop all of the exact traits Sephiroth has in these stories, honestly…I can’t even imagine.

He has the other symptoms of CPTSD too. He feels disconnected and different, he has serious issues with engaging or starting relationships, he dehumanizes himself, he speaks like the world is hopeless and HIS life is worthless outside of his missions, and he is apparently gonna say to Angeal something about them not being able to understand each other because of how they were raised….which fits with the “feeling like nobody can understand you” symptom.

Ugh. This seems to be a big part of what he has and it’s at its worst right now in episode 2 because now it’s not just the isolated war machine childhood + the Hojo horrors fucking him up, but we got everything that happened in Rhadore too.

I mean yeah, no WONDER this kid is closed off and falling into the Alissa/Jenova/Masamune trap or whatever. I bet he’s gonna have a mini Nibelheim or some kind of breakdown, and my hopes are in Angeal’s intervention. If anyone can get through to Sephiroth, it’s him.

[altocat]

Uhhh so that was traumatizing.

Anyway you guys want more details to add to this pain? It’s time for those Japanese translation tidbits!

I might delve into a few other interesting scenes later but obviously right now we need to talk about THAT scene.

First off:

Hojo says to endure the suffering and that “You’re not at your limit yet” which was well-translated. Very interesting stuff about Seph’s “hidden power” waking up. Hojo’s laugh is also very creepy as usual.

Seph says, “I’m sorry. I was suddenly in a lot of pain, but I’m alright now” in the Japanese.

“Uncomfortable” is a very delicate translation. The real word was closer to “suffering.”

Glenn says to not be so “strong” or “tough” all the time. To take it easy, etc..

Now here is the most interesting bit:

Seph replies with the statement that he has never heard such a thing, and that “HE” always said the opposite. However, that “he” is a Japanese character that basically translates to “doctor” or “professor.”

Seph essentially said, “I’ve never heard such a thing. The professor always told me to do the opposite.”

Obviously it directly references his flashback, but also reveals how much Hojo beat it into his head. It’s why Seph is such a “hard-ass” as Glenn puts it. They are also doubling down on Seph’s close tie to Hojo as one of the professor’s soldiers.

A few observations besides this:

I like how in context, it seems like they were setting Seph’s episode to occur right after Glenn mentioned that the library looked like the Shinra building. It feels as though the battlefield may be Seph’s escape from his horrific home-base and as soon as he was in a place that looked like it, his memories came back.

However, it could also be the library in general/the foreshadowing, Jenova being nearby, maybe hints that Seph had been partially raised there, etc..

Finally, I find it sad and sweet that this is now the second time we have seen Glenn encourage Seph to stop trying to be so strong all the time and just lower his guard/drive to prove himself. He is the opposite of Hojo for Seph and the poor kid needs that, my god.

As always, thanks so much for your awesome translations!

Hhhhh really puts into perspective the fact that Hojo has drilled nothing but pain and toxic thinking into Sephiroth's mind. Absolutely incredible.

I really hope the next chapter is next week. This is juicy stuff.

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Cloud: I don't know what brain activity looks like for a fetus. But I should start to feel it before they are born.

Tifa: I'm looking it up... Twenty five weeks. About after twenty five weeks. You think you'll be able to feel Jenova go after it?

Cloud: I'm absolutely terrified Sephiroth and Jenova will come for our child.

Tifa: You'll be able to feel it? You're sure?

Cloud: I'm sure. We flow together like branches of the same tree or tributaries of the same river. I'll feel it as a growing trickle if it's there and I'll feel it first. There's definitely something to be said about proximity to our psychic connection.

Tifa: Okay. Whew. Okay. I'm freaking out a little. I know it's not healthy and bad for the baby but I can't stop and I'm freaking out a little. And… that's sort of why. Why I can't stop freaking out. Because I know it's bad for them.

Cloud: I've got you Tifa. Breathe. *Embraces her*

Tifa: I really don't want Jenova to touch my baby. I didn't think this through. Let me go. I need some air.

Cloud: *releases her*

Tifa: Yeah. I'm just... I'm so scared. I saw Sephiroth take you in the Northern Crater. I don't want that for them. My baby. Ever. Would it be like that?

Cloud: It would probably be worse. Less like a puppet. More thorough.

Tifa: Cloud?!

Cloud: I won't lie! It could be very bad. I turned out this way because my upbringing and Hojo's program mixed with what Jenova was doing to me. Our baby won't have that extra twist. It will just be Sephiroth. It could be absolutely terrible. We have to hope that being off by a quarter is enough to reduce her influence to nonexistence. But I'll feel it if they are a part of us. I'll feel it first because I'm closest genetically and through space.

Tifa: You will? How sure are you? *clutching herself below the ribs like that would keep the baby growing there safe from Jenova*

Cloud: Tifa, you need to relax. Right now. I'll feel it. Jenova won't even know to be looking for it and it will start small. I know to be looking for a growing trickle. She doesn't. And as soon as I feel something I'm moving.

Tifa: I might lose you too... I can't get any air.

Cloud: Breath Tifa. With me. Seven seconds out, three seconds in. With me. *inhaled through my nose and out through my mouth nice and slow. Tifa mimicked him. She breathed deeply in then exhaled hard out* That's it. There's nothing we can do but wait.

Tifa: You'll tell me? You won't just take off?

Cloud: I'll tell you. But time will be of the essence. I'll notice first. But my Mother will notice second and fast . I won't have much time to act if it comes down to it. I'll wake one day and say 'huh, there's a fourth branch to this river I'm on.' And she will notice just after that. An infant won't stand a chance. A fetus even less. I'll have to destroy my-Jenova then. And if I fail my child will be doomed in all probability. I have to shoot my shot though. I'll be on the clock as soon as I feel it. You should still be breathing, Tifa.

Tifa: This is what you've been so scared of. Not just being a good father. But all this.

Cloud: Yes. If it is possible for her to do something, then my Mother will. She won't just 'do nothing' if my child is on the table. It will be a feeding frenzy. If I'm a demigod, my child might have that too. Some magic. Jenova won't let the chance slip through her fingers if she can help it.

Tifa: But nothing could happen, right? It could be fine.

Cloud: It could.

Tifa: But you don't think so.

Cloud: I'm not lucky. I'm not allowed to have nice things. Well, except in regards to you. So who knows where our kids will land on that. I really don't know. We just have to see.

Tifa: Can you really do it? Can you really beat her?

Cloud: I have no choice now. Do I? God, you ask so much from me.

Tifa: Asshole. Can we operate under the assumption that the baby will be fine? I think it will be more healthy for me that way.

Cloud: Sure. Fine.

Tifa: Thank you, Cloud. For looking after us.

Cloud: Anything.

If you like this excerpt try my fanfic Motion Sickness

[rottenpumpkin13]

To: Genesis

Congratulations on winning the “Be the President of Shinra for a Day” raffle! Please keep all events and activities within reason. We don’t need another accident like last years.

From: Shinra upper management

• Genesis starts off what will be a day of unreasonable requests with a very jarring one. He requests Sephiroth to take on the role of his personal assistant for the day.

• Upon hearing about this, Sephiroth sits in his office, refusing to budge from his desk.

Sephiroth: You cannot make me.

Tseng: Sephiroth please.

Sephiroth: I refuse.

Tseng: He's technically the president.

Sephiroth: I didn't vote for him.

• After enough groveling and begging, Sephiroth complies, but only under the agreement that he's free to punch Genesis in the face if he ever goes too far.

• Genesis doesn't need to know this.

• Meanwhile Genesis has completely redecorated the president's office to fit his tastes. There's rococo-styled furniture at every corner, Loveless posters on the walls, countless books on each shelf, and a marble bust of himself.

• He sits in a ridiculous golden swivel chair. He leans back with his crossed legs on his desk, holding the phone with one hand while he gets a manicure on the other.

• The first thing he asks of Sephiroth is to fetch him coffee.

• Sephiroth's initial response is to refuse....but then he gets an idea and runs off to go get Genesis his "coffee"

*Genesis takes a sip of the coffee*

Genesis: Ugh. This tastes like dirty sock sweat.

Sephiroth: Courtesy of Zack's socks, yes.

Genesis: YOU SON OF A—*tackles Sephiroth*

• Lunch rolls around and Genesis insists that Sephiroth spoon-feed him.

Genesis, smugly: Are you having fun?

Sephiroth: No. Open wide.

• Genesis opens his mouth and Sephiroth shoves the fork down his throat.

• His next order of business is to attend a board meeting. Sephiroth accompanies him. Genesis is all smug as he sits at the head of the table. He makes Sephiroth fan him even though the AC is blasting in the room. The directors are all shocked.

Hojo: This is unsightly! Sephiroth is the most powerful weapon this company has, and you're making him wait on you hand and foot!?

Sephiroth: Oh, does this annoy you?

Hojo: YES!

• Sephiroth drops down to his knees and starts polishing Genesis' boots with his hair. Hojo starts convulsing and has to be taken out of the room and rushed to the medical wing.

• Genesis hosts a sparring tournament amongst the SOLDIERs to entertain himself. He gathers all of the operatives up and calls attention to himself.

Genesis: Whoever can beat me will be the victor!

• Sephiroth has enough and punches Genesis in the face, knocking him out instantly.

• Everyone stares at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth: What? He told us to beat him.

Sephiroth:

Sephiroth: I win.

[rocketbirdie]

i absolutely love your zakkura aus so I wanted to share mine with you ^^

so instead of joining the infantry, after Cloud fails to get into SOLDIER, the Turks decide to recruit him instead of just shoving him into the infantry, and so he hardly gets involved with the Nibelheim incident at all, (he obviously finds out and gets super shaken up that his hometown got blown up but that's all he learns of it at first, he wasn't sent there to do Secret Turk Stuff at all because Shinra thought seeing what had happened to his hometown might make him angry at them) and the few times he meets Zack are in passing. Zack manages to survive running away after Hojo experiments all on him, and joins AVALANCHE in Cloud's place. the story progresses as it does in canon until just before the battle with Rufus after his old man gets turned into a kebab by Jenova-Sephiroth, in which Cloud is first encountered trying to prevent Zack from fighting Rufus on the roof, and feels oddly familiar to Zack (who saw him when he was trying to join Soldier) and the fact that his weapon of choice is a standard issue Buster sword like Zack's is uncanny to him. With the Turk-Cloud not being all Makoed up Zack beats him quite handily and escapes on the motorbike, and each time Zack encounters Cloud doing Turk Stuff (and Tifa gets this feeling too) he gets more and more sure that he's seen this dude before, and they can tell Cloud is genuinely nice deep down and isn't nearly as amoral as the other Turks (what he's heard of the Nibelheim incident continues to fuck with his head. He was really shaken up when he heard about it and can't get it out of his head.) and Zack and Tifa being, well, Zack and Tifa, want to find out who he is and possibly save him/ convince him to defect to their side. Cloud notices this, and he really considers what Zack says, and, y'know, gets a little attached to him, only fighting halfheartedly when he needs to and sometimes just leaving rather than engaging in confrontation with them.

I don't have particular details thought out for the ending. I'm toying with the idea of Shinra discovering his "thought crime" because he's genuinely pondering what AVALANCHE has told him, and deciding to execute him, and then Zack saves him and discovers who he is and the two get together proper, or possibly he continues to work with Shinra until he is injured after Shinra's building gets hit by Diamond Weapon's attack after the poor thing got hit by the Sister Ray and Zack and Tifa end up saving him from the rubble and then he either runs away as not to face his feelings or joins them then. I'm also lightly toying with the idea of him wearing a sort of mask over either his whole face (not his distinctive hair though) or over just his eyes before The Big Reveal (in both potential endings) and him also possibly losing his arm and needing a robot arm after it gets crushed in the rubble (in the second possible ending.) But I'm not sure of a lot of things in this Turk!Cloud AU- it's fairly new...

Anyway, my apologies for such a long ask, but I absolutely love your AUs and this thing has been bouncing around like a Chocobo on crack in my head since I formulated it and I felt like you might like it!

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

[freelanceexorcist]

Cut for FFVII Remake/Rebirth and Sliding Doors spoilers and length.

So the FFVIIR Ultimania pretty much confirms that we’re dealing with the multiverse. I’m loving it, too, because I love the multiverse in fiction.

There are two types of multiverse in fiction that I’m familiar with. The first is the most common one, I find. In this one, the other universe or several other universes have always existed alongside the “prime” universe. This is the multiverse that’s seen on Fringe and in the Marvelverse, among other places. Travel between universes isn't often possible unless a machine or special ability is used.

There’s also a version that doesn’t appear quite as often at least in my experience, and that’s one where a new universe is created by a point of divergence. This could be a spawned universe in which an event has the opposite outcome (character dies in the prime universe, creating one where they lived; character makes choice #1 which spawns a universe where they make choice #2 instead). There’s a hypothesis in the real world about something like this called the quantum multiverse, but I’m nowhere near being a theoretical physicist so I’ll stop talking about that now.

When this plot device is in play, the terms "alternate universe" and "alternate timeline" are sometimes used interchangeably. In the latter, the point of divergence is someone going back in time and changing something and a new timeline is spawned where things progress differently and can lead to a different outcome, which is a good way in fiction to avoid temporal paradoxes. Even though the multiple timelines exist in a single universe, I can see how they can become universes unto themselves, so the interchangeability makes sense.

One example of this second type is the movie Sliding Doors, at least to my eye. Helen misses the train then gets mugged and goes home to her cheating boyfriend none the wiser and her life goes on as usual. This is the point of divergence, because it creates a universe where she catches the train, gets home in time to catch her boyfriend in bed with his side piece and begins a whole new life as a result. From what I remember from the movie (it's been a minute since I've seen it), both Helens have some sort of low-level awareness of each other.

It’s made pretty clear in Rebirth that we’re dealing with this second type. Zack dying in the prime universe is the point of divergence that creates a universe where he lives. Him choosing to confront Hojo about a cure for Cloud is the point of divergence that spawns a universe in which he chooses to go to Biggs instead. Cloud and Aerith not becoming the official couple in the prime universe is the point of divergence that spawns the universe where they do. Cloud not getting to the altar in the Forgotten Capital in time to stop Sephiroth is the point of divergence that spawns a universe in which he does get there in time and disarms him, and we see both things happening at once. There’s also the implication that Sephiroth slashing Tifa but not killing her is the point of divergence that spawns a universe where he slashes and does kill her.

That’s what we’ve seen so far. We’ve also seen things that make me wonder about how they’re telling the story. There’s a poster of Yorkie!Stamp in what we assume is the prime universe, where we’ve seen that Stamp is a beagle. Cloud and Aerith’s antics as a couple appear to take place in the same universe where he’s still in a mako coma. Sephiroth somehow has time to both unite the multiverse in the prime one while pursuing the Black Materia and engage in political intrigue and beat the war drum for Wutai by impersonating Glenn and trolling the holy hell out of Rufus.

What if they’re showing the story progressing across multiple universes and doing it so seamlessly that we don’t know whose story is being told in which one? Right now we have Cloud as the protagonist in the Beagleverse and Zack as the deuteragonist in the Yorkieverse, or so we think. What if we’re seeing multiple stories playing out across multiple universes with multiple versions the main characters? That’s a pretty bold storytelling choice if that’s what they’re up to. So far it seems we’re dealing with about 5 or 6 universes. Wow. If so, maybe this story should have been called Everything, Everywhere, All At Once if the movie hadn’t gotten to that title first.

And Sephiroth seems to be the Big Bad in all of them, because the points of divergence all occurred after the Nibelheim incident.

But speaking of those points of divergence…

If there were those that occurred after the Nibelheim incident, there would be ones that occurred before it as well, wouldn’t there? There are strong hints that one of these points was Sephiroth succumbing to Jenova after torching Nibelheim and carving up Tifa, which could have created a universe where he didn’t succumb (hence the retention of the Ore pronoun in Japanese). This is assuming, of course, that this version of Sephiroth is not one of Cloud’s hallucinations. I have more to say about this part, but that’s another manifesto for another day.

It follows that there would also be universes where the point of divergence was the Nibelheim incident. Could this have spawned a universe where he doesn’t torch the town? You would think so. What other outcomes could there be? Would he pack up and go back to Midgar to force the truth out of Hojo? Would he resolve to destroy Shinra instead?

Would he maybe follow through on his desertion plans, head to Wutai and make plans with Old Man Shinra to resume the war while taking on the appearance of his now-deceased childhood brother figure who just happened to foment a coup in Wutai and become a pretty prominent figure in its interim government? Hm…would he, now? Is this how he preserves the life of the planet? By duping the old man and later Rufus into buying into the destruction of Shinra without even realizing it?

The scenes between Glenniroth and Rufus could possibly take place in a universe where that last scenario could have played out without the destruction of Nibelheim in the mix.

Going back to the idea that we’re viewing multiple universes all at once. We see the main party infiltrating the ranks, and Captain Cloud is leading his troops through the parade in the prime universe. All in pursuit of saving the world from Big Bad Scary Evil Man Sephiroth.

In another universe, Sephiroth-As-Glenn is meeting with Rufus, presenting his war plan and giving him shit about being an idle trust fund baby. In this universe, Cloud is marching in the parade as a regular old trooper, Nibelheim still stands and Tifa is probably contemplating getting the hell out of Dodge because my god, that place sounds like where tradwives go to die.

See where I’m going with this? I hope so because I’m not sure I do.

Anyway, it seems that at least two versions of Sephiroth are able to access a space in between the universes and pull others into it as well (Edge of Creation). How he does this is not made clear, and we know little to nothing about the version Cloud meets there at the end of Remake and the Rebirth Ultimania doesn't seem to add more to that story.

There’s also the possibility that Jenova’s plan to unite the multiverse is already underway and what we’re seeing with the way the story is told is all of the universes bleeding together. That would probably be easier to pull off than my last suggestion, but I hope the last one is the case because I want to see how well they can pull it off.

The lack of clarification in the Ultimania about the different versions of Sephiroth or why things seem to be happening that shouldn’t be happening is-I hope-avoidance of spoilers in order to set up some big reveals in Part 3 and not them just losing the plot big time and writing by the seats of their pants. Making a big deal out of a character then just abandoning said character and their storyline is an amateur hour move expected from novice fanfic writers still growing into their craft, not professionals with 30+ years of experience. I'm going to put my faith in Kitase and his team and say that they just don't want to ruin any surprises.

That’s all I’ve got for now. And I acknowledge that I’m inconsistent with my speculation. If you’ve been following along, you know that I change my mind more than the day changes to night. That’s the beauty of this story: the more you think about it, the more you rub your chin and think “hm, maybe THIS happened instead of THAT.” And then an Ultimania here and a dozen interviews there comes along and says “NOPE. It’s that third or fourth other thing we just came up with.”

Anyway, thank you for indulging me if you chose to stick around for the whole thing. Take care and enjoy the rest of your day or night!

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #2

I saw some disheartening news today:

I was truly hoping that no one would have to be taken from us this time. Of course, I understand that sometimes our hopes don't pan out, and that, ultimately, that sort of thing has to be okay; we can't get our way all the time - it's not how living works. Still… I'm sure you're aware that Cloud and his friends are a very good group of people who, like you, are caught up in the machinations between an evil corporation and a cosmic horror. It's terrible when innocents get caught up in the crossfire between things that have nothing to do with them. Sadly, our worlds aren't all that different in that regard: these sorts of things happen all the time, anywhere you go....

I don't imagine, though, that it's going to be Aerith who gets sacrificed this time. I'm terrified to think that somehow, some way, instead, it will be you. I feel somewhat sick to my stomach at the thought of how terribly possible this feels, and I'm not really sure what to do with all this anxiety that's welling up in the pit of my stomach.

You saved my life. Your existence offered me someone whose circumstances looked similar to mine when I was growing up. My world is filled with a lot of people who are very much like you - people who grew up in abusive environments, groomed as tools to be used instead of treated like people to be loved, cared for, and understood. People who are valued not for who they are, but for what they look like or what they can do. People who, tired of how much pressure they're under, tired of how few seem to care, and tired of being exploited, lash out, only to be called "monsters" and "bad people" for it.

Stories like yours influence what society thinks is the appropriate way to treat people like us. As it is now, all too often, people like us get pushed out towards the margins of society as unwelcomed things to be excluded or even eliminated. People look at the bad things that others do as evidence that their blood should be spilled, rather than looking at and correcting all the factors that caused them to get to the point of doing bad things in the first place, and this is very sad.

I was very sad that at the end of the original storyline, instead of trying to help you to return to the light, they decided to beat you, bleed you, and break you. And people called that "justice". They didn't try to do anything about the suffering that drove your choices. They didn't offer you even a shred of empathy or concern. And this sort of "justice" happens to all kinds of people in my world, all the time, especially to those of us who are, for whatever reason, considered "non-standard".

I am very frightened of this terrible version of "justice" that most people, both in your world and in mine, seem to subscribe to. There is no mercy to it. It does not heal. All it does is call for those who fall down to suffer. I'm terrified that this version of "justice" is imminently about to happen to you, and it breaks my heart to think of all the people who will be cheering as it happens.

I just wish that nobody had to get hurt.

At the same time, though, I'm very aware that you've survived things worse than death. You were raised by the staff at Shinra, after all. Tortured as a boy by Hojo. Groomed into the role of child soldier, told that you had to function at maximum capacity all the time, at all costs, and deprived of the basic human comforts that should come with everyday living. Even after being thrown into the reactor core at Nibelheim, and even after Cloud and his wonderful friends stopped you at the Northern Crater, you still tenaciously kept your head held high and bravely moved forward, towards a world in which no one else should have to be made to suffer in the same ways that you, Angeal, and Genesis were forced to endure. I know you'll get through this somehow, but I wish you didn't have to try to. I'll leave you with this nice picture that a person named Kate made:

I don't know what else to put, and I think I'm running out of space, anyway. So I'll just say this: I love you. I'm scared for you. I wish wholesome things would happen to you. Please stay safe… Your friend, Lumine

[foxingpeculiar]

FF7 R&R:

(Some Rebirth spoilers up through Chapter 2)

Okay. I poked about a bit in the Grasslands today. Immediately I like how they're scaling this part. Like they have it as story beats that Cloud and the others flee Kalm to a farm, who's owner directs them to hide in the swamp, but they can't cross it because of the Midgarsormr (not, I notice, Midgar Zolom--always wondered about that localization). As opposed to the swamp just... being a thing in the way on the map. We're following the plot beat for beat, just rendering it in more detail. I dunno. It still feels right.

I'm still getting used to it as an action/JRPG, but it's an interesting hybrid. Because of the action elements, I have to remind myself that it's a JRPG approach to combat. It's not about trying to no-hit encounters, it's about numbers as much as it is movement. You have to take damage to use certain skills. Which means you have to expend resources on negating that damage. Which means you have to plan excursions in a certain way. But once you get used to all the systems (and oh, there are systems), party management seems pretty streamlined, and each character has different strengths and approaches that work, so it's fun switching around. I still haven't quite figured out synergies and stuff yet, but I'm getting the hang of it, learning how to approach different enemies and what skills work in what situations and such.

Met some people. Chadley's back, naturally. Did not realize he was a cyborg "created" by Hojo, but okay. Sounds like something Hojo would do. Chocobo Bill is surprisingly horny in this one. Billy's kind of a little mindfucker, but he's got personality. Chloe is new, but seems alright. Am curious about the connection to Chocobo Sam--got the Aerith quest about it, but have not followed through yet. Did run into Beck's gang though, and he ran off with... something. I'm not clear what, but apparently now I have to go find that.

There's some fun worldbuilding going on. The sort of drops about The Republic of Junon and some prior war with Shinra. I haven't picked up a lot of details yet, but it does kind of convey the sense of Shinra as a cancerous growth--first it attacked the area around it (was it part of Junon at some point?) and now it's fighting Wutai, violently spreading across the world. There was also some kind of hint that something went down in Kalm 10 years ago... interested to find out more about that.

Aerith and Tifa teaming up on Cloud about chocobos was... interesting. The dynamic between these three is really hard to pin down, which I suppose is the point. But like... they're horse girls, but it's Final Fantasy, so it's chocobos instead of horses. And it kinda killed me a little.

So tomorrow I guess I'm gonna fuck around on more of the Grasslands and see what else I find. At least try and clear the whole map (see what's there, even if there's stuff I can't do yet, which I understand there might be).

[agnol117]

having finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and sat on it for a day, i have some thoughts. major spoilers for basically the whole game under the cut.

first and foremost, i think my biggest objection is that the game's just too damn long. note that the issue here isn't long games in general -- it's that Rebirth does the same thing Remake did, taking sections that were incredibly short in the original and turning them into drawn out, narratively empty sequences that last an hour or two. Remake did this with the sewers, the Train Graveyard, and Hojo's labs. Rebirth does this with the Mythril Mines, Mount Corel, Mt. Nibel, and the Shinra Manor (i'd also include the section with Dyne at Corel Prison -- it's not a dungeon, per se, but it's also not nearly that long in the orignal game). all of them are much lengthier than they need to be, and the Shinra Manor in particular felt like it was lengthened so that we had a chance to have Cait Sith as party leader. it adds nothing to the overall narrative, and frankly wasn't particularly fun, so i cannot fathom why it was determined to be necessary to include.

you'll note that i'm not objecting to every new thing. i liked going to see Jessie's parents in Remake, and the new climbing up to the plate sequence. i liked the Gongaga sequence in Rebirth. the new bits aren't all bad.

my second complaint is the ending. mostly, the way the ending is beat for beat basically identical to Remake's. a thing we thought we knew from the original maybe didn't happen (Zack's death in Remake, Aerith's in Rebirth). we're told that the future isn't set in stone and can be changed. we set off once again in pursuit of Sephiroth. it's all the same plot beats, and it's disappointing. it's muddled further by the way the game rather abruptly ends after this sequence -- Cloud fights alongside Zack, a man he thought was dead, as well as Aerith, and seems to just not mention this to anyone? no one talks about Aerith's maybe death? i get that, presumably, it's meant to be a cliffhanger, but it doesn't feel like one, it just feels like they realized they needed to end the game and cut it off.

i realize that there's a certain level of unfairness to this critique. Rebirth is, and was from the start marketed as, the middle entry of a trilogy. judging it without a third part isn't fair, and i am trying to account for that. but given that -- again -- it's beat for beat the same ending as Remake, i'm somewhat skeptical of their ability to pull things together in the third part. especially since they've got a lot of ground to cover in part three, and i wouldn't be particularly shocked if in a year or two we get a "surprise" announcement that there's actually four parts. i hope i'm wrong about that, but it wouldn't shock me.

despite all the negativity there, there was a lot i enjoyed. Queen's Blood was a blast, though i was generally fatigued by the end and didn't finish that sidequest. the game looks fantastic, and plays fantastic, too. every character plays differently, and while i had my favorites, they were all fun to play as. I enjoyed almost everything up to the last six or so hours, and even that wasn't all bad (the biggest complaints there are the abruptness of it and the fact that you can't choose your own party set ups for the final boss). i genuinely did enjoy the game, and i will absolutely be getting part three day one. i'm just hoping it all actually comes together in the end.

[sacredflorist]

He knows he absolutely should not be here. This is above his clearance level; after all, being in charge of making Shinra look good and acting as liaison between the company and the rest of the world has nothing to do with their experiments. But sometimes, his connections in other departments slip him bits of information that urge him to do a bit of snooping around.

Even if it is at risk of death -- or worse, when it comes to the science department.

Ignoring the surveillance cameras overseeing every area of the laboratories, Elwin carries onward, determined to see his mission through. To his relief, no one has come to arrest him yet; in fact, he knows full well that security knows he's snooping around. But in typical fashion, no one stops him -- maybe because they believe he isn't a threat, or maybe because they're compiling evidence against him to use all at once. Or maybe, just maybe, his connections really are just that good at pulling strings in his favor.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter why he isn't being shot on sight or apprehended to become a guinea pig for Hojo. He'll not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Within his palm are four colorfully wrapped candies. The fact that Ifalna and little Aerith are being kept here to be poked and prodded and tormented with experiment after experiment disgusts him more than words can express. Really, all of Shinra's actions revolt him -- but this one hits closer to home, likely because of his lost family. (Joshua would be around Aerith's age now, wouldn't he? Perhaps in another life, Clive, Joshua, and Aerith could have been friends.)

And so, mindful of where he steps and being as quiet as he can be, the man seeks out the mother and child, or at the very least one or the other. His offering to them is meager and does nothing to alleviate their suffering... but it's a start, a chance to get to know them -- and see what he can do for them from there.

Unprompted Ask | Always Accepting | @phoenix-flamed

Aerith knows nothing of the world outside of Shinra building, of course. She has to rely on the many stories Ifalna is telling her about her ancestors, but also about the world around them. Her people are close to the nature, to the Planet itself. She wonders if, someday, she will see the world outside of these walls. Her room is fine. When she's here, she feels free, somehow, even if the little girl has no notion of freedom. The only thing she can do is dream about the day she'll leave this place, without even knowing if it'll ever come.

She worries about her mother more than about herself, though. Hojo hasn't experimented much on the girl yet; he's focusing on the mother. Aerith doesn't know what she's doing, but she can hear her mother scream sometimes, and she often looks exhausted. Even when she smiles at her, the half-Cetra can tell something is wrong. She just doesn't know entirely what it is. She's too young to understand, and Ifalna always does her best to comfort her.

When she first hears someone approaching, Aerith can feel her heart start beating loudly inside her chest again. There's not a lot of people who visit them, of course, and most of the time, it's Hojo himself. She sees other people sometimes, too, and she even wants to talk to them sometimes because Aerith is not a shy child, but it never works much. People are working here, even if she doesn't know what they're doing at all.

When she sees Elwin, though, Aerith can't help but smile. She can tell he's not bad, so she quickly approaches, keeping that radiant smile on her features. She raises a curious eyebrow at the sight of the candies. "For... For us ?" she asks, not sure of what it means. This man is so kind. It's obvious that there are nice people working for Shinra, but Hojo is not one of them. "Thank you very much. Mom is sleeping, but I'll give some of them to her later." She pauses for a short moment, hesitating slightly. "... I wish there were more people like you who visit us. I'm sure it'd make Mom happy, too."

[giuilily]

"But I'm not gonna complain if it gives us the possibility of getting her back in Part 3 lol" <- agree haha I was totally ready to accept her death (tbh i did not even consider that she wouldn't die this time until people were speculating about it before rebirth's release loll) but I am happy that we may get her back and also intrigued to see how they try to tie all of this together...

I think my overall feelings on Rebirth in general will depend a lot on how game 3 ends up going. Remake I feel can stand on its own a bit better since it is so contained. But truly why did we literally fight destiny at the end of Remake if things are just going to end up the same lol what was the point of all this! It also feels quite a downer to be like well you actually cannot change fate sorry lmao nice try though.

Something that concerns me with the defying fate/destiny thing is 1. Biggs dies anyway despite being saved 2. Zack ends up facing a firing squad no matter what (when he goes looking for hojo or when he goes after Biggs, although ofc in that case he chooses to throw himself into the void instead which i suppose could be seen as a change lol) so it's like... their fate is repeating itself in these different worlds, can it be changed? (I'm still confused as to the big rainbow flash on the Biggs path when Zack chooses to go to Hojo, does that mean theres a universe where Biggs goes to the reactor and Zack doesn't follow him so Biggs.. lives in that one?)

"I'm gonna hold the devs to that since no one asked them to add in new themes to an almost 30 yo game lol." <- lmfao for real. One of my biggest concerns about this whole thing was that they were going to waaay over complicate it (looking at you kingdom hearts) and I am reserving full judgement until things are complete but I def have not had my worries assuaged yet lol

Oh yes! I forgot we saw a chihuahua/spitz plush during the date. So the terrier-verse is still around but im pretty sure Zack is no longer alive in it lol unless he got sent back there again since it is the most relevant other universe. I wonder if Aerith and Cloud will ever wake up there... (maybe Saved Aerith will wake up there? if that did not create a New stamp-verse).

I agree with you on Rebirth. I did enjoy it gameplay-wise (except the moogles they can go to hell lol) and the battle system should definitely become a staple in future numbered FFs, but narrative-wise, because it's the middle part of game, there were a lot of new set-ups along with the OG story beats that we're still waiting for the pay offs in part 3, and I think they need to make it good, otherwise, if they did all of that in Rebirth and it's just gonna be the same as OG, then they just dangled Aerith's fate for suspense and marketing and nothing else. That would be pretty disrespecftul for both the character and the fans tbh.

Hmmm... I think Biggs's situation is kinda tricky in both Pug and Terrier verse because he sorta put himself in a situation where he's tempting fate. I'm kind of leaning on him dying in Terrier too since he's already at the Mako reactor already, but maybe Zack not being there to distract him puts him less at risk of getting caught by Shinra?

Biggs' death and Zack getting pulled in situations that mirror his OG death kinda reminded me of Final Destination, but I hope Nojima wasn't watching those movies while writing the Re Trilogy lol.

I think as long as they keep on putting themselves in those situations, serving their OG purpose in the narrative and facing exactly what got them killed the first time, they're basically tempting fate to finish its job. Idk how this will all play out or how they can avoid it if they need to take action.

And I'm sure Aerith will wake up in Terrier, but I'm worried about Sephiroth hunting her down in every world she's in. Cloud might find himself waking up there as well after he falls into a coma in the main world, and probably will have dreams of the place like in Rebirth, but I'm unsure if they'll wake up at the same time or not. Ngl, I would LOVE it if we form a party with him, Aerith and Zack. The potential awkward conversations would be SO funny lol.

Honestly the new worlds are so fascinating to me because the writers aren't constrained to OG in those parts. I know they'll all eventually merge, but I can't wait to see how they'll handle them and how the game will conclude!

[icharchivist]

I apologize for busting in your askbox Icha, but I saw you and an anon discussing the FF7 remake and I am so so curious as to know what did they change/leave out? I have heard it wasn't as good a remake as most were hoping for, and am just curious what changed. 👀 (If you don't have the time or energy though then no worries! 💖)

All the best for you, always, Icha! 💕

you're all good no worries <3333

And ahh yeah the big question huh!

The thing is that the remake isn't actually a remake and they lied about it being one, so that's kind of the big of the issue in a sense?

The major difference is completely related to Sephiroth (king of causing problems on purpose).

The remake is actually a sequel set in a timeloop only Sephiroth, and it's implied, Aerith too, are aware is happening, seemingly provoked by Sephiroth himself, as the Sephiroth we see during the game is from the Future.

More details under the cut and it will mention a few major plot beats spoilers from the 1997 game the remake hasn't really touched on yet (but since you mentioned reading Sephiroth's wiki page it should be okay?)

(also more salt 😭)

(and i got long ✌️)

The remake was set to be cut in multiple parts, the first part covering the Midgar portion of the game which takes about like, 6 hours to complete max? before you leave to the open world that is the rest of the game. The first part wanted to extend on Midgar, so those first 6 hours of content were extended and padded in, for better or for worse.

Problem is? Sephiroth doesn't appear at all in this portion of the game. In the Original game, Sephiroth is built in very slowly, first by hearing him being name dropped a lot, then learning he caused a massacre in the Shinra HQ, and then, once you leave Midgar, Cloud will actually tell you about who Sephiroth used to be and why now they have to find him. Still after that, in the OG, you spend a very long time following a trail of murders committed by Sephiroth before ultimately meeting him in Junon, which is about 10 hours into the game. And, notable, Sephiroth doesn't care about nor notice Cloud until their run in in Junon, where Sephiroth even first is startled in meeting him bc he doesn't put together right away who Cloud is.

But the first part of the remake only covers the Midgar part of the game, the first 6 hours. And they didn't want to do this part without Sephiroth.

So they came up with another plot instead:

the remake is set in a timeloop of the story happening over and over again, except that Sephiroth From The Future cheated his way into coming here at the beginning of the game and starting to haunt Cloud on purpose.

Basically, anything you see about Sephiroth in the remake pt1 isn't in the OG. His dynamic with Cloud also is straight up pulled from post-game canon's dynamic, so no longer the slow build up to how Sephiroth actually took some time to start obsessing over Cloud and ruining his life.

Sephiroth spends all of his moments in the remake making sure to taunt Cloud about the history about to repeat itself. He taunts him about how he's going to kill Aerith before Cloud even knows who Aerith is. He taunts Cloud also by throwing back words Zack once told him, he appears at random specifically to spite Cloud, it's an overall mess.

His involvement in the plot also creates a whole new type of enemies which are called the Specters. They're sort of ghostly figures who, we learn, are actually "keeper of the canon", trying desperately to make sure the timeline happens exactly as it happened in the original game. (for example, there's a scene where Hojo takes a look at Cloud and, suddenly puts together that he has met him before and almost says it aloud. The specters appear and take Hojo away so he doesn't finish his sentence because in the Original game, Hojo doesn't realize who Cloud is until way into the 3rd act, and Cloud can't know why Hojo knows him. It's actually important for Cloud's storyarc that Hojo doesn't spill the deeds until that point.)

Aerith is originally the only one being haunted by the Specters and it's implied she is seeing visions of her death. Cloud is also seeing vision of her death once he gets in contact with the specters.

The game ends after a battle with Sephiroth (again, he's not supposed to be here) which also ends up destroying the Specters, with the implication that from now on, the characters have the free will to not follow the path of canon. Aerith herself, again, who's hinted to know she's going to die, makes a speech about how the future isn't set in stone and they have to move forward.

The remake also ends on an alternative timeline playing at the exact same time, as the Specters have been destroyed into every timeline ever, where the Specters aren't there to make sure Zack dies shortly before the plot of the remake starts. So we get to see an alternative timeline where Zack has lived, but, since his death is the cataclysm in Cloud getting out of coma, Cloud is still in coma.

We're still unsure where it's going to go.

The major problems I have with the remake is basically this whole thing. There's stuff the remake do differently as it adds on to the game (like adding a full sidequest to flesh out Jessie, which isn't in the OG). Some of those however, imo, are not really good, but at least it's just mostly an interpretation choice.

One thing that bugged me with the remake for instance is that, as you're probably aware, ff7 follows a group of eco-terrorist, Avalanche, who try to take down an immoral company, Shinra, that is abusing and killing the earth. In the OG, the act of terrorism actually do cause a lot of damage and death, and it's actually left ambiguous in the game if those are actually on Avalanche's hands, or if Shinra is actually framing them by overblowing the damage they caused.

In the remake, it's pretty much confirmed it's all propaganda and Avalanche has been doing things cleanly and it's only another violent branch of Avalanche we aren't related to that causes crimes.

It removes a nuance and it will also therefore makes Barret and Reeves's confrontation later in the game a bit more hollow, because the whole thematic of "are you willing to accept the collateral damage of the extreme action you're forced to take" is lessened by the approach of Avalanche not having done anything actually harmful. the OG has more nuances over it, ultimately siding with Avalanche and Barret, but genuinely addressing that there's still a responsibility they have for all of this.

At the same time they also paint Rufus Shinra in a better light than the OG did, trying to make it look like he's actually trying to do some good, which i'm dubious about.

But, at least, on that point, it's expanding on the original game and adding context, whenever this context is good or not.

In the same level but that i don't mind, it also explores Tifa being conflicted about being a terrorist more.

Some additions that makes sense but end up being a little bugging on the long term are related to Cloud's mental health in general (or, more likely, complete lack of.)

I need to mention more about Cloud first but basically:

Cloud has something Seriously Wrong going on with him and you don't know what it is most of the OG because he always tells you with perfect confidence that things are fine. He has hallucinations, he has mental breakdowns, something is haunting him. He's supposed to be an Ex-Soldier, but no one who should know Soldiers seem to recognize him or know who he is. He recalls the Nibelheim incident in details to Tifa at some point and Tifa is unnerved without telling us exactly what's up. Aerith mentions she sees her ex in Cloud a lot.

(anything else i'm going to mention forward aren't covered in the remake yet, so the exact handling of it all is left for debate, but i think it's relevant to how some things are handled in the remake pt1)

If you bring Tifa and Aerith to Zack's house in the OG Zack's parents will ask Cloud if he knows about Zack, and Cloud will say he knows nothing about him, which will really unnerve both of the girls who are going to start saying cryptic things to Cloud that he doesn't manage to interpret, mainly Aerith trying to press Cloud into if he's SURE he doesn't know Zack (which is when she mentions it's her ex.)

in the OG, it all built up as Sephiroth starts to mind control Cloud as a puppet, nearly have him kill Aerith during one of those puppet moment (before killing her the moment Cloud manages to break away from the mind control), and then make him see a vision of the Nibelheim incident that doesn't show Cloud at all, instead all the moments Cloud remembers doing seems to be done by Zack. Cloud finds it stupid, thinks Sephiroth is lying, and asks Tifa to back him up, which is met with Tifa's silence as she herself has a breakdown, because the vision Sephiroth is showing them is what Tifa actually remembers. Cloud was never there during Nibelheim and she's been doubting her own sanity the whole time because Cloud's recollection of the event is too precise, so it must mean SHE remembers it wrong right?

But when Sephiroth forces them to see the reality, it breaks the two of them, and then he breaks Cloud further by telling him that all of this is only because Cloud himself doesn't exist, but instead is a failed Clone of Sephiroth, who was always meant to be him, and that it's why Cloud has memories only Sephiroth would know about, and that he belongs to and with Sephiroth. This is why no member of Shinra they ran into seems to remember Cloud at all. He never existed. This is the last straw in breaking Cloud's spirit completely, and he becomes Sephiroth's little plaything, that ends up helping Sephiroth triggering the apocalypse.

But Tifa is Cloud's childhood friend. she doesn't remember him being there during the Nibelheim incident, but they were still friend before that. At this point of the game we switch MC and play as Tifa as she tries to understand what's wrong with Cloud because clearly Sephiroth is lying, yet he DOES have a control over Cloud and he's right about Nibelheim so, what is going on?

and bc of some magic i won't enter into details to, we get to learn the truth: Cloud is actually Cloud, not a clone. He was there during Nibelheim, but not as a soldier, but one of the infantry working under Zack, who also was a friend and a mentor to him. He was so ashamed of coming back home without making it to Soldier he hid his face the whole time. So the whole thing is his recollection of Nibelheim. after Sephiroth tried to kill them and Cloud managed to get rid of him for a time, Tifa, Zack and Cloud were all mortally wounded, and while Tifa was taken away safely by a friend, Zack and Cloud were recovered by Shinra's scientist (Hojo), who did experiments on them by infusing them with Sephiroth's DNA. It didn't take in on Zack, but it ruined Cloud's mentally and brought him into a catatonic state. Zack manages to get them to escape a few years later and spend the rest of his life trying desperately to protect Cloud, so much so that he will die trying to protect him. This is when Cloud manages to wake up, and the last trauma of having Zack dying for him and giving him his sword, mixed to the experiments and everything, messed with Cloud's mind. He got amnesia out of it and started to take elements of Zack's life as his own, imitating him, confusing memories of Zack as himself doing those things, stuff like that.

(side note, considering the fandom we know each other for: geez amnesia guy who is in this situation because he handled very badly the death of a loved one up on a hill in the last attempt of said loved one to save him? never heard that one before.)

It's only at this point of the game everything starts to make sense - the rest of the time, we're really served to "Cloud doesn't seem to exist", so when Sephiroth says Cloud is just his clone, we believe it the same way Cloud believes in it. It's a masterful manipulation moment in video game history imo because it really puts us in Cloud's shoes and have us believe Sephiroth as well because we've only ever had Cloud's POV on things, so we react the same way when Sephiroth starts to play with Cloud's mind.

*takes deep breath*

all of that to say that therefore the fact the remake actually hammers in a lot that a lot of people at Shinra recognizes Cloud actually totally undermine this reveal completely. When it's Hojo, it still can work because whenever Cloud is a clone or not, Hojo would have been involved. But some infantry men mentions recognizing Cloud because they used to work together. so like. already ruining one of THe major twist of the game don't we? (they literally mention that Kunsel (players of the prequel would know this guy as Zack's best friend back in the days) has been looking for Cloud. while the impact of that only really land if you know who Kunsel is, it still means Cloud's existence is known and has values inside of Shinra.)

but we ruin it even more by showing the alternative timeline where Zack survives.

Cloud still has mental breakdowns in the remake and i think its swell, but a few of them are far less subtle than the OG were, not to mention it's now also linked to flashforward to what is *supposed* to happen, to the fact Cloud feels like he's going to kill Aerith one day.

I genuinely don't think the "maybe he was a clone all along" fake reveal would work on the player at all with the way the remake is handling it. The moment they showed the Zack survives timeline, it was done and buried.

With the content of the remake itself, while Sephiroth acts in character, i do genuinely hate that we go straight to post-canon Sephiroth while he has one of the most interesting build up as a villain, especially with how slowly he started to pay attention to Cloud and his group before deciding he's going to make his life his unending nightmare.

The "Keeper of the canon" antagonists that have to be defeated so the characters can write their own fate has been bugging me for a while now, not being sure where the game is going. Like i mentioned lately, i don't think ff7 is a story that works when you make it about fate. Aerith especially is put in a really delicate situation because, as i was saying in a recent ask, her death is the catalyst of the core thesis of the game. And with the Zack's alt timeline showing that Cloud doesn't wake up if Zack lives, it means the remake can go one of two ways here: either it won't kill Aerith, for free will, and it will undo everything the plot is building itself around, or it will make her death unavoidable, punishing us by making sure we know Aerith is meant to be doomed and nothing else.

I've been on the fence about the ending of the remake for the past few years, not liking the way it was a "stealth sequel", not liking the way they decided to make Sephiroth the evil villain without showing us his nuances the way the OG did by bringing his most evil version directly from the start into the game. I had some grievance here and there but yeah.

But i've been trying to stay cautiously opened to it all.

The discussions those past few days have been because of the trailer of pt2 of the remake, Rebirth, teased to come out soon.

i'm linking the post here, but the long story short is that the trailer is doubling down on the whole "is fate going to be rewritten", but also on the absolute lack of subtility or care for the actual mystery that was raised by the OG.

Mainly, the Rebirth trailer has Tifa discuss with Aerith that she doesn't remember Cloud was here during the Nibelheim incident. The one thing that is supposed to be a major twist, completely done with. The shock the player has when Tifa doesn't back up Cloud when confronted to Sephiroth's recollection of Nibelheim? Misplaced, removed from its punch, hammering again in that there's something So Wrong with Cloud.

Worse: in the trailer Sephiroth taunts Cloud by telling him that Jenova (his alien mother) has the ability to change appearance and imitate people. And that Cloud saw Sephiroth "kill" Tifa. So "how can he be sure Tifa is the real her?"

So Tifa showing her doubt about the Nibelheim event is set up to have you doubt her.

And as i mentioned in the post, it makes sense for Post-canon Sephiroth to change his strategy in how to attack Cloud's psyche and manipulate him because at this point he knows Cloud relies on his friends to hold on to his sanity, so now he wants to remove the way he relies on them.

But i find it vulgar and uninteresting compared to the actual gaslighting going on in the OG. Also with how i feel like if Sephiroth starts to pull the OG's gaslighting at Cloud, it would be so weird after he already tried to pin him against Tifa, because he would sound like a tryhard who's changing his strategy lmao. idk his gaslighting worked on Cloud because Cloud trusted Tifa so fully. By having him doubt Tifa it changes the dynamic. And why would Sephiroth insists "no no actually remember i killed Tifa so you can't trust this Tifa" if his endgoal is "actually you're not real and you only have my memories xoxo" yaknow?

*TAKES A DEEP BREATH*

So that's my major issue with the remake, and ik it involves a lot of "oh this new thing they set up is going to ruin future things" so it can still be left for debate just how much this is actually a bad thing and how much i'm just building problems in my head, but yeah the issue really comes from the pitch itself that it's *not* a remake like they said it would be, but a sequel in a timeloop, and it has to be considered as such. And personally i'm genuinely not a fan of the concept.

on another just general notes elements that were changed/added in the remake that don't really matter on a major "plot is changed" level:

-There's whole new dungeons for sections that takes 5 minutes in game, which can go from "this is the most hollow and boring thing i've ever seen" (anything happening on the way to Reactor 5 once they leave the train), to "hey that's pretty good for character exploration actually" (the train graveyard being just a place you walk through, to exploring Aerith's fears and having her bond with Tifa)

-Fleshing out the slums era of the game. you don't spend a lot of time in Sector 7 or 6 in the OG but the game makes sure you see just how full of life those places are. It gets really long with some quests that aren't totally worth it, but sector 7 especially helps fleshing it out and it's really nice.

-Wall Market also gets a way longer quest which personally does bore me to death, but at least it did completely overhaul a huge part of the OG that didn't age well at all with the Honey Bee Inn, so that's nice.

-I mentioned a whole sidequest related to Jessie especially that's really nice, that have you spend more time with Biggs and Wedge in particular. I got a crush on Biggs and Jessie out of that while i never cared about them like this in the 15 years i've been invested in this game so i think it means something.

-The DLC is a full Yuffie centric campaign that is a completely new addition to even bring up in the game, but isn't specifically out of place. Nothing implies Yuffie would have gone through that in the OG, and i think it kinda pushes her on a more "mature" storyline than when we meet her, but considering Yuffie was an optional character who had her plotline cutdown in the OG to start with, i think it's fair enough.

This DLC also has Yuffie forced to face people from Deep Ground, which is a secret program we only learn about in the sequel video game called Dirge of Cerberus, which focus on Vincent and has Yuffie as a supporting character this whole time. With Yuffie being involved in this storyline later, i do think it's interesting to give her reasons to be involved with it in the remake to start with.

also DoC is a bad game (and honestly i wonder if they'll even remake it too bc of that lmao) but Deep Ground is a FASCINATING concept and i've been eating up every single way the rest of the saga has included Deep Ground into its plot, so i really do like that there's not only mentions of it in the remake but also a tangible proof of its existence. Maybe now we'll know what happened to Genesis! @ Remake tell us what happened to Genesis or so help me, we're like 5 people to be obsessed with him come ON.

and one thing i might be a bit iffy about:

-In the Original Game, you get to pick a lot of Cloud's dialogues, at least up until the point Cloud learns about his past, in which case you suddenly don't have control over him anymore. Fans have theorized for decades that as a result, you are the person influencing which is Cloud's persona we're putting forward. Are we playing up the way he's inspired by Zack by picking the flirty options? are we playing up this cold idea of a Soldier he has probably inspired by Sephiroth by the colder options? so on and so forth.

This ends up also playing on the fact there are different possible romance path option (including one with Barret) in the OG, which are reliant on those options.

Most of those dialogues have been revamped completely in the remake so that Cloud's characterization is completely reliant on the game's narrative, not on the player. You don't get to pick most of Cloud's dialogues. The romance paths also are revamped so you have completely different triggers to them instead. the options that would have Cloud unlock a date with Barret also have been completely removed from the remake, and instead we have a whole new romance path with Cloud being able to get a kiss from Jessie depending on how he does on one of the quest. how come a game from 1997 was more bi-friendly than a game from 2020 i swear.

For this later it's not something i have *particularly* strong feelings about in comparison to the main issue i have with the game, i don't care about the romance in ff7 to start with, but i'm a bit sad we lose the whole "the player is choosing Cloud's persona until the point Cloud remembers who he actually is" aspect the OG had.

SO THIS SHOULD COVER IT ALL.

So, the game has a lot of difference with the OG, and on the details it's not bad at all.

Unfortunately the major driving plotpoint of the remake is something that makes it a sequel rather than a remake and i find it Bad.

... sorry for the very very long answer but i'm really passionate about the OG, so i can't help but pick those stuff up 😭

Hope it gives you some insight into it!!

Take care!

[altocat]

”A Monster’s Threads” QnA please!!! (I know I’m late lol sorryyy)

Were there any films, songs, or other fics that particularly inspired you when developing the story?

If you added more chapters, where would they go and what would they cover?

Did you plan out the whole story or did you come up with it as you went?

Who was the easiest character to write? Who was the hardest?

Did you ever get emotional or cry when writing certain scenes?

Did you pull any punches with the heavier content? Where? When?

What was your fav scene to write in the whole fic?

How did your perspective grow/shift on certain characters after writing them?

If you could choose one scene to be fully illustrated, which one would it be?

Hhhhh yesss thank you! AMT is my first fic, though I was not nearly in the know as I am now. So let's see...

In terms of inspirations, it's weird. I remember reading a pretty accurate novelization of the Nibelheim Incident and feeling inspired to write my own version. There've also been plenty of Seph backstory fics out there as well and while I initially took inspiration from a few, I very quickly branched out from there. Novel inspirations included Gregory Maguire's Wicked, though only in design and not in practice or flow. I also listened to a LOT of Glass Animals for the Sephgen chapters.

My biggest regret is not having more Gast-Seph chapters. I'm still beating myself up over it. I maybe would have liked to have fleshed out a few more chapters with Seph in Wutai, and possibly integrating his scenes from Before Crisis as well, especially his encounter with Elfe. Her asking him why he fights I feel is an often overlooked but pivotal character moment for him. I also probably would have rewritten a lot of the Aerith chapters as well, with more of a focus on Ifalna.

AMT was originally going to be "snippets", hence the shortage of Gast chapters. It was going to jump through huge chunks of time with a focus on important canon moments. By chapter 7ish I started to get more ambitious.

Easiest character to write is Hojo. Or Jenova. Not that Jenova is an actual "character", but writing more animalistic horror characters is a lot easier than characters who go through an arc. Hojo is easy because he's a dick, and already knows the whole score. He knows exactly what he wants and what he expects. Less guessing work.

In terms of emotion, there were a few instances. Seph, Gen, and Angeal sharing pasta together. Angeal's farewell. And especially the ending. I'd been waiting for the ending for a long, long time.

There was lots of stuff that was eventually cut or shortened. Sephiroth was originally going to wear a shock collar most of his childhood. Angeal's body was going to take a bad tumble off the gurney and/or coffin while Seph and Zack had an argument over it. Hojo was going to be a lot creepier with some...unsettling implications. It was all too much. So I didn't go there.

Favorite scene was the penultimate confrontation between Sephiroth and Zack in Nibelheim. I just wanted to write Seph going apeshit insane. I was practically losing my mind during the buildup. It was the easiest chapter to write because I was blazing through on pure malicious glee.

I put some Sephzack in there, or at least hints of it. Probably wouldn't have leaned into that as much since I'm more staunchly into Sephgen. I know a lot more about certain points of lore now than I did at the time of writing it, though I did a lot of research. There's some things that are kind of screwy timeline-wise. I think I now view certain characters with a bit more sympathy now. Genesis, for example, while I liked him at the time of writing it, occasionally comes off as a genuine asshole. I might have softened him up a bit, though I did try to be really fair to him in the fic. At least, I hope I did.

HHHH illustrations. The waterfall scene was illustrated thanks to a lovely commission by @manalovebot. And that was one of the big ones for me. So if I really had to think about it...perhaps the end of part 2 with Seph on the roof. Or Lucrecia seeing baby Seph at the beginning of part 3. Or maybe even Sephiroth fighting Zack in Nibelheim. I'm really not kidding when I say that if I had any artistic abilities, I'd have every chapter illustrated.

[ablackwing]

aloofleader replied to your post: –

are you doing what i did?? you beat omega and now think you can beat ruby and emerald?? STOP RN. IT’S A TRICK.

I HAVEN’T BEATEN ULTIMA YET BUT I THINK I’LL BE ABLE TO BEAT HIM. AAAAAAAA.

[freelanceexorcist]

OK, one last Remake bit of speculation before Rebirth drops.

Cut for spoilers and length (Remake, Game of Thrones and Split).

TW: discussion of mental illness and child abuse.  

This one is only half serious, I think. I just REALLY can’t accept that Sephiroth went from a great guy to 100% Chaotic Evil in Remake/Rebirth. The original game’s version? Sure. I could totally buy that he was a ticking time bomb.

But the good guy buildup Ore Sephiroth is getting just doesn’t happen with designated villains. It doesn’t align with a complete change in personality.

Even on Game of Thrones, the golden girl with the dragons had hints that dark things were in her future (oh, she was plenty cruel, murderous and power-hungry all along, she just did it to bad people who had it coming until she ran out of bad people. There was plenty her more level-headed advisers had to talk her out of. There were screaming hints all along that her story would end that way.). Sephiroth? Not so much. It’s as though they’re going in the opposite direction with him and beating us over the head with what a mensch he was.

Anyway.

So I’ve been thinking. And you’re probably going to think this is really stupid, because it is. This is me reaching.

Both Ore and Watashi have dissociative identity disorder (DID) with vastly different outcomes.

For those who don’t know, DID-or multiple personality disorder-is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct and enduring personality states in a single person. This ranges from the ego state to alters, which is two ways of saying “alter ego.” The former is distinct behaviors and personality traits that possess boundaries while the patient retains their sense of self. In the latter, each state has its own autobiographical memory, autonomy and sense of self. Think of movies like Split and Identity for the last one.

There are two schools of thought on what causes this disorder, and one of them is the trauma model, which deals with severe early childhood abuse or other traumas. Ever Crisis tells us that Sephiroth is a survivor of child abuse both physical (“endure the pain, Sephiroth”) and psychological (being isolated from others, generally having to interact with Hojo, who gloats about how much better it is to destroy a subject psychologically). There’s also the trauma from witnessing war, either as a civilian or a child soldier.

I think you can see by now where this is going, and I’m no shrink, so I’ll get to what I came here to talk about.

My proposal is that there are at least four separate personalities rattling around in Sephiroth’s head besides the mind he was born with.

The Core is Sephiroth. We already know him.

Then there’s The Mother. She is who he didn’t have as a child so she emerged to protect him. She is kind and helpful to others and fierce when it comes to protecting her child. She may emerge when Sephiroth sees someone who had a similar background to his, either an abused child or an adult survivor.

Next up is The Boy. He’s about fifteen years old, the age Sephiroth was when he first went to war. The Boy doesn’t come out much. The other alters keep close tabs on him to protect him. He only sees daylight at times in Sephiroth’s life when he is completely calm, in control and around people he trusts.

Then there’s The Smart One. This is the one who steps in when Sephiroth is stressed and nervous in front of others. He emerged after Sephiroth met Glenn, Matt and Lucia and is the result of Sephiroth seeing how normal people interacted with each other and him. The Smart One combines Lucia’s sass, Glenn’s smart mouth and Matt’s wisdom. He’s the one who explains things to people and handles the social aspect of Sephiroth’s life. He’s the one who’s there to help Sephiroth get through those tedious Shinra parties and media events. He’s the one who claps back when Genesis’ claws get too sharp. He’s the one who explains the concepts that Sephiroth has trouble with. He has gotten good at matching Sephiroth’s core personality even though he’s the type to verbally shoot first and ask questions later. Wouldn’t want Sephiroth getting in trouble or anyone suspecting that something is off about him, after all.

Finally, there’s The Conqueror. This is the one to be afraid of. This is the rage. The bloodlust. The cruelty. The god complex. This is the one that the others work hardest to keep down. He is the one who believes himself to be Sephiroth’s greatest protector, and if he thinks you’re going to hurt him, he’ll make you wish you died as a child if he can fight his way out of where the others keep him.

Sephiroth’s mental defenses were down at the end of his time at the library, and that made it easy for The Conqueror to get past the others and emerge. He was the one boiling with barely-contained rage that spilled over as he read the passage about Jenova’s discovery. Those shaky breaths were the others trying to drag him back in, but they failed and Nibelheim suffered for it.

Watashi Sephiroth is the integration of The Conqueror and The Core and the utter destruction of the other three. Even mother. He found his true mother, and she’s real. He’s helping her. They’re working together to burn away the old world and create a new, perfect one. He's "cured."

Ore, on the other hand, was the result of the alters getting the reins back on The Conqueror and stuffing him back in the box. The lock isn’t as strong as it used to be, so the alters have to work a little harder to keep him under wraps. The Smart One doesn’t hold back anymore and is quick with a caustic comment when he thinks someone is getting to close to Sephiroth. The Mother fiercely protects The Boy and Sephiroth. The latter can’t come out anymore because it is so unsafe out there now.

Maybe trust Ore Sephiroth to have the party’s back, because he has all his ducks in a row now and he has “people” to help him.

My pet crack theory these days is that Sephiroth is essentially the Kevin Wendell Crumb of the FFVII-verse, but without taking on the actual physical traits (Jade’s needing insulin, Orwell and Dennis needing glasses, The Beast’s superhuman strength, etc.). Fight me all you want, but I’m sticking with this until proven otherwise and when/if it does get Jossed, I may dust off my godawful writing skills and get started on an AU fic with this as the plot. Because seriously, Sephiroth’s Heel Face Turn in the trilogy’s story is as inexplicable and makes as much sense as Genesis’ redemption arc with the way that character was written.*

Look, I get it. He’s the Designated Villain. He killed some people’s favorite character and is super mean to their other favorite character and for that he’s irredeemable forever and ever amen. It’s hard to hate a villain that may have some sympathetic traits. It’s not as much fun to gleefully destroy a Final Boss when you come to the realization that this is the final moments of a life that was fucked before it even began. Just let everyone else look for nuance and maybe hope his story might turn out a little differently this time around. There’s Hojo if you want an irredeemable monster, he just wouldn’t look as good in black leather. And I doubt we’ll be seeing any backstory to explain that he is the way he is because he didn’t get enough hugs growing up.

*And what I mean by that is that the potential for a sensible redemption was possible with Genesis just as it is with Sephiroth, but the writing was whiffed so badly it actually makes me a little mad that Genesis was handled with such kid gloves and given a pass in any other media he’s appeared in. Fight me on this if you want, but I blame G*ckt’s involvement.

Anyway, another long one on the books. As always, if you’ve made it this far or read it at all, thank you.