Final Fantasy VII: SOLDIERs

[branchandroot]

So, Zack and Cloud both sign up with Shinra at age 14.

If the SOLDIER process is derived from the prenatal treatments done on Sephiroth, then it's obvious that, of course, recruits for the program are preferred as young as possible. A developing body would be as close as they could come to the original parameters.

Theoretically, a developing body would give the most range for Jenova alterations and Mako boost to be really integrated, physically and mentally. Prenatal is ideal, but prepubescent isn't a bad second place.

Now, we see in BC that it's /possible/ to convert fully developed adults... or, at least, that the loss rate from it is something Shinra is willing to risk on draftees. Which, when I think about it, isn't a huge indication of expected success, but the whole point of 'pressing fighters as SOLDIER candidates was to produce some more SOLDIERS, so they must have expected /some/ to succeed. The choices the Turks make indicate that physical strength is a major factor in an adult conversion, that and a fighting mentality. Certainly Hojo's treatments of the Nibelheim villagers seems to indicate that normal adults really don't withstand the process very well, being physically debilitated and mentally overwhelmed.

When the Pres isn't desperate for more muscle, though, the selection process seems free to screen more thoroughly, witness Cloud's rejection. Given his berserker/aggressive tendencies and the ease with which he assimilates the treatments, physically, later, the screening seems to select pretty specifically for mental stability over physical compatibility. We see, however, with the Deep Ground SOLDIERs, that this is not the case across the board.

In short, the whole process seems to be actively experimental, still.

That said, if we take into account the conflicting imperatives of the old President's paranoia, Hojo's mono-focus on Sephiroth to the exclusion of other viable research paths, the thought that the standard screening was presumably developed by those who actually want a functional paramilitary force, and Heidegger and Scarlet who mostly want more toys to play with, the whole tangled mess actually makes a lot of sense.