Final Fantasy VII: Main

Welcome to my Final Fantasy VII pages.

I should probably mention first off that I have never actually played any of the FF7 games. I've never been much into video games of any stripe. I am, however, very into the story of FF7 and all its offshoots, which led me to sit through a captured playthrough. And go find all the cutscenes so I could rewatch them. And read up on the system and stats. And track down multiple translations of the script. And...

Well, you get the idea.

At any rate, these pages will not touch on gameplay at all. What they deal with is the shape of the story, and how all the little hints of character and motive and pasts that we get might be fit together.

The only thing in the menu that isn't self explanatory is Heros and Humans, which is a fairly long meditation on the different kind of people in FF7 and what roles everyone plays.

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Links

In case you were looking for a different kind of page.

If you're still trying to figure out what the heck is going on, the Wikipedia entry will help.

If you want copies of the FMVs to examine, try Bluelaguna.net.

The Final Fantasy VII Citadel is probably the best all-around site, and has a lot of useful documentation, including translations of the Japanese script. If it's a transcription of the English script you want, try here.

Final Fantasy VII Online is a somewhat more stat-oriented site, if you need to know about monsters and whatnot.

Glen Morrow's Advent Children plot FAQ lives over here. While you have to be a little careful to distinguish speculative analysis from the text that gives rise to it, this is the case with all analytical efforts and Morrow does a fairly good job of reminding us to do it. It's one of the few genuinely analytical readings you'll find.

Some excellent translations of the side-stories can be found at The FFVII Collection, along with ongoing scripts of Before Crisis. Some other Before Crisis scripts can be found at Gunshot Romance.

Dirge of Cerberus script, as well as other info, can be found at Dirgeofcerberus.net.

Final Fantasy VII: Humans and Heros

Cetra

Ok. Having compared the English script with a fan translation of the Japanese, I think I have it.

The Cetra are, as all versions agree, an itinerant people. The translation, however, says that they move in, "unlock a world" and move on again, rather than "settle a world" as the English script would have it. (Let us leave aside, for the moment, mistranslation issues; the actual point here works equally well whether you read this line as "world" or "land".)

Put this together with what Sephiroth says about humans using the "gifts" of the Cetra without working for them or repaying them in the proper Cetra way.

What is the single greedy-human goal, throughout this game? Mako. Fertility for the land and energy for the cities. Which is to say, the Lifestream.

This seems to imply that what the Cetra do is wake places up--allow the life and total consciousness of the planet to manifest as the Lifestream.

Considering the awakening or consciousness-raising aspect of this, and the manner in which humans are castigated for laying aside this calling and this journey, I'm really seeing the Cetra as a sort of amalgam of the high points of Buddhist and Shinto philosophy. The basic animism of the living and aware planet is classic Shinto. The journey strikes me as equally classic Buddhist. Recall that the hallmarks of Cetra are to be aware of the planet's life and to be able to communicate reliably with it, yet never to stop, never to settle, never to become attached, and to trust that this journey will lead them to total peace and happiness in the end. Sounds like Nirvana to me.

Thus, it makes perfect sense that, when a group of Cetra abandoned the journey and the detachment demanded by it, they lost both their perception of the living planet and their ability to be one with it. Which, of course, is how the Nibelheim notes suggest humans came to be.

The Cetra being the midwives, if you will, of the Lifestream, and the Lifestream being the manifestation of both spiritual oneness and environmental equilibrium, the Cetra are strongly identified with harmony--stability, of the sort that homeostasis is. Over against this we have Jenova.

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Jenova

We are given two main aspects of Jenova. One is pure destructiveness. Jenova seeks to eradicate the Cetra and, once part of the Sephiroth-Jenova meld, seeks to destroy the planet and use the planet to destroy others so that Sephiroth can plunder the energy of the Lifestream(s). A more subtle aspect is transformation. Sephiroth tells Cloud that the nature of Jenova is transformation, and we see this played out in both the SOLDIERs, in Hojo's reactor experiments, and in the Jenova-bits that Sephiroth uses as carriers for his appearances.

The translation of Cloud's reflections upon regaining his memories tells us that the process of creating SOLDIERs and Copies is the same--Jenova cells plus Mako exposure. In the first, however, the will of the human is strong enough to suppress the random transformation that, in unsuccessful cases, produces monsters. Indeed, Sephiroth's will is strong enough to completely reverse the flow and transform Jenova-bits into his own likeness. In the case of the Copies, the will of the human is weak and psychic erasure results, leaving the humans to eventually (presumably) merge into a new Jenova upon reunion.

What all this suggests to me is that Jenova is the avatar of destabilization, in this world. This makes a nice opposing contrast with the Cetra's harmony, and is reflected in the opposition of the Black and White materia.

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Heros

The lever that determines which will triumph, though, is neither Cetra nor Jenova. It's the humans. Aerith, half human and half Cetra, and Cloud, a human who has assimilated the Jenova transformation and imposed his integrity of self on it, are the two halves that make up the hero in this story.

The same is true of the villain, of course. Sephiroth is very much altered, but he was born of two humans and his alterations are due to an exposure process very similar to the one Cloud seems to have undergone at Hojo's hands. It just happened to Sephiroth a lot earlier.

Thus, the conflict and resolution, here, are not between the Cetra and Jenova. They already had their fight, and it's over. The Cetra are dead and Jenova sealed. The conflict now may use the tools of Cetra (the Black and White materia) and of Jenova (her transformative cells) but it is waged by humans and, in the end, it is decided on their level.

It is not, you note, Holy that counters Meteor. It is, rather, the Lifestream itself. And the last image we see, as that battle is fully joined, is Aerith in the green-light and rising sparks of the Lifestream. This implies some involvement on her part, and I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that she was the one who instigated the Lifestream to rise; being half Cetra she could hear it and communicate, both, and, as we find out in later installments, also maintain her individual integrity within the Lifestream. Holy, like the Weapons, eradicates any threat to the planet, up to and possibly including humans themselves. The Lifestream, on the other hand, encompasses humans; all life, including humans, rises from and returns to the Lifestream. And, in the end, the Lifestream rises to protect Midgar, a concentration of no other life but humans.

This is actually why I rather think Aerith was the motivator for that salvation.

It's Sephiroth, who despite his wish to be a god hasn't gotten there yet, who calls Meteor and holds back Holy with the force of his will. It's Aerith who calls Holy and, perhaps, the Lifestream as well, by the force of her will. It's Cloud who must gather himself to defeat Sephiroth's will with the force of his own. Their limited, attached, human wills are what drive this whole story.

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Humans

That will not only reaches beyond the things of the Cetra, but also beyond Jenova. As Cloud tells Tifa, it's strength of will that determines whether a human given SOLDIER or Copy treatments will succumb to Jenova or maintain physical and mental integrity. Sephiroth is consistently, alarmingly, successful in overcoming Jenova's will and even bending her transformations to his own ends.

So is Cloud.

He cannot, at first, maintain mental integrity, hence the amnesia and identity blurring and imposition of Sephiroth's will. But he maintains physical integrity from the first. It's possible, of course, that Sephiroth was responsible for that, wanting an undercover puppet, as it were. But, given the strength of will Cloud displays as the game goes on, the simplest explanation is that Jenova never could overcome Cloud. And, once he got his mental ducks in a row, neither could Sephiroth. In fact, ironically enough, since Cloud eventually defeats Sephiroth, displaying equal and greater strength of body and will, Cloud may be considered the only truly successful "copy"--the only one who walks the same path of transformation that Sephiroth walked and a little bit further.

Indeed, it is suggested in Advent Children that it's Cloud's very attachment to the human lives and embeddedness in the world around him, his humanity and not his many-times-removed Cetra heritage or his Jenova exposure, that make him stronger than Sephiroth.

What I find most interesting is that, in the game, this is not sufficient for victory.

Cloud's journey and victory are very personal and do not actually have any direct affect on saving the world. That's made very clear to us as he and his friends watch helplessly as Meteor threatens to destroy Midgar and maybe the world, despite their individual victory. It's Aerith who takes the world-savior's part. She's the one who summons Holy and, I think, the Lifestream to deal with the world-destruction Sephiroth started in motion. It's necessary for Cloud to get Sephiroth and his will out of her way, but it's equally necessary for Aerith to take the macro-level steps to counter that will.

Despite the obvious fact that only Cloud has grown strong enough to fight Sephiroth directly, it is made subtly, blindingly clear that saving the world is a group effort. No one person is enough. And, as Sephiroth's defeat demonstrates, no person alone can hope to win. It's a classic collectivist moral, which is a darn good trick in a fighting RPG.

Final Fantasy VII: SOLDIERs

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.

Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth

I don't think he went insane the way people normally mean it.

From the little we can see he seems to have managed to deal with the rest of the world, or at least the rest of the Shinra army, pretty well. The banter over the mission, the chatting and questions about hometowns, that wasn't cold or distant. He's cold and distant with civilians, but much more at ease with the soldiers. Not just Zack, but Cloud as well, who was in full withdrawal-mode himself.

So I don't think he was suffering from isolation to the extent a lot of writers assume. He had a place to belong, even if it was a limited place.

What I don't think he had was any answers about his origins. He had to know there was something unusual about it, given how much more altered he is than the average SOLDIER. But the only thing he was told seems to be that his mother died giving birth and her name was Jenova.

So, as he says, he knows he's different. He's managed to find a niche, but has this constant mystery at the back of his mind about how he came to be. And then there's Nibelheim.

He gets one shock in the form of the monsters at the reactor. He thinks, then, that he might have found the answer, that he might be an experiment like them, kin to their monstrosity and victimization. So he goes looking for more information, at the associated research facility, the mansion.

There he finds a different answer, that he is Cetra. The victim, yes, but of treachery not of abuse.

What I think makes him snap is actually relief.

He has an answer, and it fits, and it gives him a purpose. If he's the inheritor of the Cetra, then his purpose is not merely to be the toy of Hojo and Shinra, but to be the avenger of his race. Finally, after thirty years of nagging uncertainty, he is certain. I can definitely see how that would catapult him into a sort of mania--euphoria at having an answer, a place, and rage at the wicked, treacherous humans.

Because I think that's the other part of it. Finally, he has a solid reason to be enraged with Hojo and the researchers who, given Hojo, probably treated him as a specimen; with Shinra and the President who treat him as a security blanket, treasured but still jerking him around; with, in fact, absolutely everyone who made him feel uncertain and different purely because they were not like him.

Those two consecutive shocks seem to have brought all of Sephiroth's uncertainties and instabilities roaring up from the back of his mind where he managed to stuff them while he was busy becoming a successful and respected SOLDIER. And he's given the perfect excuse to express them, to lash out, to spend his anger and stretch his abilities, not for anyone else but just for himself.

Really, it makes sense that he went berserk.

And then, of course, he wound up in the Lifestream and merged with Jenova and figured out what he really was, and ran with it. At that point, I suspect that Jenova's biological instincts came into play and nudged the agenda toward destruction, but the basic idea was still the same. To be what he was. To live out the destiny of his blood (or, in this case, genes). After a lifetime of not having known what he was, I wouldn't call his reaction insane precisely; there's a lot of logic in it.

Psychotic, but not insane.

Incidentally, the logic in question is a lot more logical if you understand the phenomenal importance Japanese culture places on blood. Your blood is your destiny. If you've ever watched anime and wondered what on earth all those adopted kids were angsting over so hard, this was it--if you don't know where your real blood comes from, you don't know who you are. Moreover, if you are not of your parents' blood, then, no matter how much you love each other, you are not theirs and you are not part of them. Read through this lens, Sephiroth's insecurity and freaking out make a lot more sense.

Final Fantasy VII: Shinentai

Also known as The Silverhaired Men.

From vol. 8 of Ah, Megami-sama!, translated by Stephen Lee.

Keiichi: "Shinentai"?

Belldandy: Umm...
When a person who died has some strong desire remaining

Belldandy: That desire might form an image and become a "Shinentai".

Keiichi: Eh?
Then she's a ghost?

Belldandy: No...
It's a little bit different

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Belldandy: Ghosts are phenomena resulting from thoughts projecting
their form onto one's mind...

but a "Shinentai" forms an image as a real body.

So they're basically leftover will-bits. The interesting thing about that is that it is equally plausible that they are manifesting spirit fragments, and that they are either part of the Copy project or even SOLDIERs who have been overshadowed. Sephiroth's will never manifests without a physical vehicle, in game, which could argue for the latter. But 'shinentai' suggests that this may have changed, that Sephiroth's will itself has manifested body. Multiple bodies, in fact.

And, at first sweep, I thought they have to have physical vehicles, because Sephiroth manifests whole without absorbing Loz and Yazoo. But, in point of fact, we don't actually know that for sure. We don't see Loz and Yazoo between when they are caught in an explosion and when Sephiroth is defeated and Kadaj himself is diffused.

... which, actually, rather argues that they are spirits without vehicle. Kadaj dissolves, bodliy, into green sparkles.

That also makes some sense of how they can, effectively, equip materia to their bodies.

In addition, when Kadaj reaches the church with 'mom', he looks at/into the case and bursts into tears. When he throws his head back and then down, we get a scene flicker of Loz in place of Kadaj. Loz, the one who cries over mother, and has just been blown up.

All of this points toward the shinentai being fragments of Sephiroth's will/spirit who manifest solid bodies but are still, in the end, psychic energy and can merge into one another or with similarly solidified metaphysical substance such as materia.

Incidentally, it really does help to have played/seen the game first, otherwise you have no clue that the kneeling-curled-up thing that Kadaj does in front of Rufus is Sephiroth's posture whenever he first materializes/manifests.