#i have like a turbofixation going on right now

[dracanboys]

all i ever do is ramble about ff7 on here. but i have another ramble that's just a cleaned up discord ramble <3 thanks ever crisis for fucking me up again

anybody else insane about the fact that shinra is continuously shown to prey on literal children or the otherwise less fortunate in general and makes them complicit in horrific acts of crime and colonization under guises of unity or abuse so horrific that it's inconceivable to imagine doing otherwise? anyone else insane about how shinra constantly pits the 'lesser men' against each other to avoid any sort of rebellion against them?

sephiroth, unable to see the kids fighting for their island as simple children because he is one too and does not see why that's so messed up. children are not innocent, untouchable beings - they are capable being hurt and hurting in return, of being a weapon just like he is. they are no different than any man. it's kill or be killed, in his own words. angeal, who grew up poor, constantly clinging to his ideals of honor because it's all he has, becoming a soldier (in his eyes, unaware of shinra's involvement with him) to make money to help repay his family - and given his actions towards others, likely to help people in his situation too. zack being a starry eyed wannabe hero, cloud being an ostracized small town country boy trying to prove himself, etc. etc. glenn, a full grown adult who desperately needs money for his family's survival, is the first person to go "this is wrong, i can't do this" only after participating in the slaughter of an entire people. anybody else want to SCREAM about how shinra takes these otherwise kindhearted people and sinks their claws in them so hard they are fully complicit+active in normalized horrific acts. does anybody else think about how barret and yuffie are actually extremely important characters within the narrative as survivors of the other side of shinra's - and by extension, those who work for them - horrific actions that are often downplayed/ignored/etc.

it just makes me so sad when people ignore What shinra is actually doing, boil down wutai to a big joke, woobify cloud or zack, and so on. i am not trying to say your innocent baby cloud strife a definitively bad man by saying he willingly joined a company that's committing atrocities, im saying it's an important part of his character (especially considering how he grows!) and serves the worldbuilding of ff7 of how deeply rooted shinra's ideals are within the world. in universe its insanely normalized to be nasty against anything that's against shinra. shinra's hold is so deep that even barret gets upset at the idea that he's aligned with wutai because of shinra's propaganda despite us knowing firsthand (through knowledge we'd only get as a player) wutai hasn't done jack shit to deserve that reputation because all its ever done was try to fight back. yuffie is like that for a reason. she's a child who has passively witnessed, and at least directly witnessed once (you know, the mission zack was on) violence towards her home and her people, and is trying to cope with it and take things into her own hands the only way a sixteen year old like her knows how. it's tragic! and many people ignore the 'fan favorites' active participation or complicity in, even though it serves their character and the narrative better.

to drive in the point, the downfall of shinra isn't even due to rebellion of those it has hurt through oppression/conquering. it was set in motion way before that due to a connected web of relationships relating to personal actions done to a small group of people. that's so fucked! not in a "bad writing" way, but just in a realistic-world fucked up way! its not "evil company gets whats coming to it from Rebellion by the Good Guys!" its "evil company gets fucked over because it fucked over some specific people on a personal level and that sets other things in motion." even with our main gang of 'heroes', OG makes a point of a lot of our casts motivations being more on a personal level and that Saving The World/Fucking Over Shinra just happens to be a side-consequence of that.

i love ff7 so much and i wish people would stop trying to sanitize or woobify the darker aspects of it when they serve such an important part of the narrative... anyway tldr