#they also took cissnei. who had great potential as a character

[rocketbirdie]

Aha, I see where you're coming from now. Seeing it from Zack's perspective helps sell the feeling of gently crushed hopes and deep resignation. You're right, if Crisis Core was longer, maybe it would have allowed for more time to let that emotion sink in.

The OG, Crisis Core, and Rebirth all set out with different goals in mind. That much I respect. Your screenshots got me all nostalgic— especially the ones up on the cliff. It makes me wish there had been more to do in Crisis Core's Gongaga than run from plot point to plot point.

(Honestly I believe a huge amount of Crisis Core's awkwardness is the result of its choice of medium. There's too much that had to be cut or truncated in order to make it fit on the PSP. Reunion got my hopes up that they might expand on the story, but instead, all we got was a direct port. To call it wasted potential would be an understatement.)

Anyway! I really appreciate your response, as well as the comments from many other people. Reading the replies has helped me find more words to describe my thoughts. A better way to summarize all of this would be:

I would have preferred for the modern incarnation of Gongaga to be more culturally distinct from other locations. As someone in the reblogs put it succinctly, the people of Gongaga may as well be the people of Junon, or Kalm, or Costa. For being major locations in completely different parts of the world, their lifestyles are all so similar that no one place stands out.

It's frustrating because Rebirth's Gongaga is so watered down that even the parts that are culturally distinct feel shoehorned in, rather than being a natural part of the worldbuilding. The mushrooms are obviously just there because of gameplay reasons. Kujata is there because they needed to have a summon that the player could work towards, and Kujata would have been the least out of place— not because Kujata is important to the people of Gongaga.

Rebirth invokes nostalgia for Crisis Core with Cissnei and the soundtrack and scenery. Which is nice and all, but that's all it is. Just nostalgia, and nothing truly substantial. And sure we get plenty of emotional punch at the reactor and its related scenes, but that has nothing to do with Gongaga itself. Those moments could have played out the exact same anywhere else in the game.

Gongaga doesn't need to be a village of sadness. But it should ideally be a believable village, with its own identity that extends beyond the protagonist's perspective, and not just a plot pitstop with the same generic npcs and collectables as everywhere else.

Weird thing that bothered me about Rebirth and I want to hear other people's thoughts.

Um... Why did they gentrify Gongaga? I can't be the only one who feels cheated by the chummy suburban development vibe in Rebirth.

OG Gongaga is an isolated village deep in a jungle. It's possible to completely miss the first chance to visit, because it's practically unheard of. All the young folks fled to the big city. A reactor blew up and killed most of the inhabitants, leaving the town in a state of decay. The houses are falling apart, the people are desperate, it's derelict and miserable.

An understated theme in the OG is how life is difficult without modern technology. Avalanche sets out to destroy these reactors without considering the consequences for their own futures, thinking "well it won't be easy but i'm sure it'll be fine." Gongaga is the story's way of showing you just how fine everything is going to be— despite being in a lush rainforest, long since violently cut off from Shinra's influence, these people still suffer immensely.

I wanted to see it in hd so bad honestly. The splintered rotting wood, the furskin rugs, the dirty brick walls. The unspoken yet unignorable trauma. The mournful purple twilight that quietly hangs over the whole village. I wanted to see the survivors' spiteful determination to make things work without mako.

Instead we got a squeaky clean Crisis Core rendition of Gongaga, with its down-to-earth upbeat stardew valley soundtrack and generic hard workin' country folk. The houses are like... twice the size i expected them to be. Neat and tidy, no holes in the roofs, no dishevelled interiors. No sign of struggle. Everybody is content at worst.

The reactor may as well have never exploded. Nobody talks about it. We hear some bullshit about Shinra trying to "make amends" or compensate people for the damages, and that's about it. Apparently everybody's just fine with this, because all of the original version's resentment and grief is gone.

Don't even get me started on the barker stationed at the town entrance. "Come experience nature's bounty!" Man... why are we treating it like a goddamn hippy tourist attraction. OG Gongaga would have had someone knock this kid's teeth out.

Idk I'm just sad. The melancholy is what made Gongaga so memorable despite its bump-in-the-road identity. I wish we could have gotten that instead of one big callback to CC.

[disdaidal]

Zack ❤️‍🔥

Awh 🖤 Zack Fair my beloved

How I feel about this character: He's a badass warrior that could kill you in a heartbeat, but he could also be your best friend. I love him to bits. I would die for him. He deserved so much better. I don't care what his (few) haters say about him, he was genuinely a good boy. Heart of gold, stubborn to the core. All he wanted was to do his best, have his hard work and efforts mean something in this fucked up world, only to get nothing but shit in the end. Kicked to the curb and forgotten by those who he helped, protected, saved even.

On the other hand, he was meant to be a tragic character. He lived, fought and died, so that the people he loved and cared about could live and carry on. He carved his own path, worked hard for his goals and refused to give in, no matter how hard things got for him. Even when he chose to go down, he did it on his terms—fighting for what he believed in and protecting and taking care of those who mattered to him. He took care of Cloud, kept him alive for months, then took a bullet for him (well, several actually) so that Cloud could live and carry on.

And I was supposed to not just... feel anything for this guy? Not cry for him in the end? Not a chance. So yeah, I do have strong feelings for him and I love him so much, it almost hurts. He's so dumb and reckless at times like holy shit, but he's still precious and I want to protect him *cries*.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Oh boy 🙊🙈 here goes:

Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Sephiroth, Cissnei, Tseng, Biggs, Yuffie (older). He is so shippable honestly. :D It's his sunshine personality.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

I really liked the few scenes we got between Angeal and Zack in CCR. I thought Angeal was so great with Zack, mentoring him, keeping him in line and in check when Zack got too reckless or excited, and humbling him down when he got too cocky. I really wish Angeal hadn't abandoned and betrayed Zack because honestly, things could've ended so much better in a way. Without Angeal's support and guidance, I think Zack was more or less lost as a person. Perhaps they both could've lived longer and kept having a meaningful relationship with each other, apart from the mentor-mentee kind of thing. It would've been nice.

I also really liked Zack's and Elmyra's relationship in Rebirth. She was so hard on him at first, for a very good reason too, but he soon became part of her family and she even thanked him for helping her. His moments with Marlene were also so freaking cute, he's so good with kids and I almost wanted to cry again because honestly, I think he would've made such a great big brother, or a dad even. The potential.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

I haven't dabbled too much into the FF7 fandom aside from playing the games, watching Advent Children the movie and then making gifs, reading/writing fanfiction because honestly... I've seen quite enough of the general/shipping side of this fandom already and I think I lost a few braincells there. And so I don't really know if I have any 'real' unpopular opinions about Zack's character, really.

But if we're getting into the more shippy side of the things here, fanfictions with certain characters especially, he's often portrayed as the caretaker in a relationship whose own injuries and traumas are often brushed aside, even completely ignored in favor of other character's traumas and injuries. This has become somewhat a personal pet peeve of mine because Zack also went through a lot and suffered a lot (more than most, actually) and I just wish I could see it more you know? He's strong for sure, but he can also be fragile and weak at times. There's nothing wrong with that.

Also... hmhmhm and if we're getting to the actual smutty side of things, I would honestly... not mind seeing him as sub or bottom every once in a while. Both in his m/m and f/m relationships. Just sayin'.

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: I wanted him to live, obviously. But if not live, at least die happy. He was so positive and optimistic in life, wanted to believe in the goodness of people, and had such high hopes and dreams. I wanted him to see Aerith once more, spend time with Cloud when he was conscious and they'd both be free from the clutches of ShinRa, at least for a while. But yeah, well I guess not then.