#this is his postcanon training arc

[live-from-flaturn]

you don't need the context

[getvalentined]

I'm thinking about First SOLDIER.

I still think I'm right about the battle royale being a Synaptic Net Dive (particularly since the event in Ever Crisis where we literally faced down the system that was used to train that first round of would-be SOLDIERs in the battle royale), but the iteration of First SOLDIER in Ever Crisis isn't. Not exactly, anyway. It seems like it's whatever the energetic equivalent of the SND would be for Sephiroth, whatever you would call the way that he (and Lucrecia) can pull memories out of people's heads and put them on display, run through them and relive the experience tangibly, beat for beat—only in Ever Crisis, it's Sephiroth doing it to himself.

Sephiroth gave up his memories in Meteorfall, using his only surviving Clone as an anchor to keep his consciousness from being burned away forever—this is why the Remnants don't actually know him, because they're made from what the Lifestream remembered of him, not from his own concept of himself. He doesn't have a concept of himself anymore, he needs someone or something else to pull him back together.

Jenova "remembers," such as she can, because they were temporarily fused into one being prior to Meteorfall. This is why Kadaj's assimilation of the last piece of Jenova at the climax of Advent Children opened the way for Sephiroth to come back up out of the Lifestream, albeit in an obviously incomplete state.

Cloud also remembers, and he's special: as the only surviving Sephiroth Clone, as the man who struck him down both in Nibelheim and in the Northern Crater, as someone who actually met him prior to everything falling apart, Cloud's memories contain both the most accessible and the most complete version of Sephiroth that can currently be found.

But it's still someone else's memory, because Sephiroth doesn't remember himself.

The Sephiroth at the Edge of Creation at the end of Remake comes from some point well beyond the end of the series, postcanon by some incomprehensible degree. And he's...different. That Sephiroth uses his old personal pronoun, that Sephiroth is almost soft with Cloud—and that's the same Sephiroth as we see at the end of the opening arc of First SOLDIER, because the corresponding cutscene appears to take place just before Cloud arrives at the end of Remake.

That Sephiroth is out there at the Edge of Creation thinking about his childhood, thinking about Rhadore, thinking about Wutai, thinking about who he is and what he's done.

And he remembers. Somehow, in spite of everything, that Sephiroth remembers. He knows what happened to him, what he went through, what he did. He knows himself. And Sephiroth is not some horrifying amalgam of a extraterrestrial pathogen and the incandescent rage of a man created only to be used, he's not an incomplete echo of a memory of a hero long dead; and the Sephiroth at the Edge of Creation knows where he came from, how he got here, and everything that happened along the way.

And he's playing it back to himself.

What's he looking for? What's he hoping to see? Why did he start there, on his first field mission, where he learned the only thing he really had to prove was that he's capable of compassion? Where he learned that it's not black and white, and that death can also be mercy?

Why did he move forward to the night that he ran himself ragged saving lives in an attempt to never have to show that kind of mercy again?

That Sephiroth remembers, and he's choosing to remember this.

And I think...that might make him a Sephiroth that can be saved.

[y01te-moved]

igneous and/or corona for character ask ?

i am doing both bc Fuck Yeah but ofc under the cut bc of that bc this is kind of Very needlessly long even w/me omitting a section for both of them.,

Igneous:-favorite thing about them: this is. Difficult bc i do actually like a majority of the things about him but ig to keep it simple i will just say his design is good albeit tacky (tho thats why its good tbh..) also the fact that hes a knight is umm.😳

-least favorite thing about them: genuinely dislike if not hate how they wrote him for pretty much all of the nuuma arc cause they had no business suddenly reducing him to just making an unnecessary amt of failed attempts at romance when that was only just barely a part of his character beforehand, but more specifically any of the scenes hes in in ep 36 just downright fucking suck and Thats On That, (sadly)

-favorite line: i do not have a specific line for this but anyways near the start of like, i think its ep 24 or somewhere in that area, after he and hunter finished a round against each other and then like right after that he goes to the side and starts talking to magma abt how they both think hunter has been coming along very well lately in his training and are generally proud of him? that was a very good scene……

-brOTP: this also has an honorable mention for being the otp response but im not rlly as personally invested in it but anyways. igneous/slate dynamic good which is kind of the obvious response but. what else am i supposed to say its just straight up canon ajgsdjahdkj.

-OTP: im sure this goes w/out saying considering who we r talking to but anyways him and magma r boyfriends thats the rules

-nOTP: in an ideal world i wouldn’t have to say anything here bc people would just be normal and not come up with anything weird but ill take this moment to say if you’ve ever thought pairing him w/hunter would be a good idea i can and i will strangle you. like it should be really obvious why thats awful And Yet thats a concept ive had the misfortune of seeing multiple times.

-random headcanon: he usually would not bc he takes training very seriously BUT he Could hold side conversations and the likes while still being perfectly capable in a fight and every now and then does so w/someone else there just to flex on hunter. also hes the like 1 person that would have a genuinely hard time grasping concepts that are specific to the outer world/surface. hunter would try to tell everyone what a car is and he’d have an immediate crisis

-unpopular opinion: honestly this is just a repeat of the notp response, thats the only thing ive seen from ppl that i just. do not like at all because. yea…

-favorite picture of them: technically i have 2 but one of them is already my icon as of rn n i dont need to b redundant so!

Corona:-favorite thing about them: this is very generic perhapse but i will say that i think with the handful of alt outfits she gets throughout the eps for various reasons are always so good i appreciate them so much… we stan a fashion icon

-least favorite thing about them: do not appreciate the running gag about her cooking bc its like “haha lol look at this beautiful girl she seems so perfect but oh she can’t cook well!!” like for starters even if it wasnt cooking i just think she deserves to be able to feel passionate about something without it falling apart n having it b smth she can still be made to feel bad about and also it is just not very respectful to women in general and again she deserves better than that.

-favorite line: edited the parts of this line together Very quickly so it looks a little odd BUT

this specific part still rlly hits different especially with the specific word choices…. thank u ms corona spider riders for saying trans rights..

-brOTP: i think she also has a v good dynamic w/magma actually even if its not like super obvious and all that but they r just genuinely supportive of each other and that is very epic.. incredible display of mlm/wlw solidarity

-OTP: honestly kind of have mixed feelings on sexuality hcs for her which would kind of make or break this but i will say i do think she has a much better dynamic w/hunter in general and thus also on a romantic note so that is something..

-nOTP: cant say i have any bc i havent rlly seen any that strike me as just downright bad thankfully.

-random headcanon: postcanon her and aqune are no longer two queens pitted against each other and would probably hang out p often generally speaking which is where, on top of well, yknow, trying to catch up on the like many years they many years they were separated, aqune would help her pick up better cooking skills and she would help aqune in experimenting more w/fashion on occasion. or generally just those sort of things bc those examples r not the most inch resting but ive already made the answer to this ask wayy too long i think so the point remains.. kjfdlkf

-unpopular opinion: its not rlly debated anyways n i think they do handle it fairly well for the most part but if i had to say one thing i do kinda wish they had given slightly more focus on her and dealing with what her past was and slightly less focus on making her a love interest cause like.. one of those things is kind of a lot more important to the core concepts of the show/plot and it is not the romance.

-favorite picture of them: