Thought This Would Be Fun To Share:

Beautiful

ITS DONE. Abbey by Mitski with Sephiroth

Things you can watch for in this video: Sephiroths hair and bangs getting bigger over the course of the vid.

I know this is a crazy theory but I thinkSephiroth Goal in the Re trilogy isn't to be a god but to finally Die.

In-game he uses the pronoun "Ore" more often than "Watashi", but it seems in both cases they are still aligned with his OG goal. However, what makes me think this is the Executioner symbolism with Cloud, every time Cloud strikes him down he never fights it. At one point he even gives him his Blessing. What also helps me think this is the whole new lore with the gi tribe and Sephiroth being there but not saying a word (all the while the gi are chanting their one true desire "freedom in death".

I would be game for seeing Sephiroth having a definitive end. So long as it's done tastefully, of course. It would actually be pretty cool if one of these versions of Sephiroth is a Seph from a universe in which he actually wins and just...wants to end himself at long last after figuring out godhood is lonely and meaningless. That said, I don't think they'd be that profound, especially if this supposedly leads into AC. Sephiroth will keep coming back again and again in new convoluted ways, never learning his lesson.

I've said it before--the best (and kindest) conclusion you could take Sephiroth's character is to put him out of his misery. Both to avenge the lives he's taken and also to end the existential grief and tragedy that began with his birth. Sephiroth has to accept the pull of the Lifestream and dissolve. And if not that, then just cease to exist entirely. It sounds harsh, but it's an end to everyone's pain, Sephiroth included.

This is why I love the tragedy that is Sephiroth.

"You are too weak to save anyone."

"Not even yourself."

Zack Fair, Violence, and Tragedy

Over the last month or two I’ve seen several posts about the nature of Zack Fair’s tragedy and his seeming heel-toe-turn and thought I’d chime in. 

Also like last time: this is only my interpretation of canon, there is no one true analysis to take as gospel. If you disagree/differ in opinion/even just want to talk please reblog or dm! I enjoy talking to other people about this sort of thing, fandom is all about discussion after all!

While I agree with the sentiment I’ve seen going around that Zack’s relationship to violence plays a role there are other nuances and factors at play here. I’d argue that it’s more accurate to say that Zack is becoming more aware of personal and professional culture outside of SOLDIER and outside of both ShinRa’s constraining grip and Angeal’s attempts at protection. Even then it takes great personal tragedy caused by the inherent contradictions of ShinRa’s reality for him to realize that he has functionally been on the wrong side.  

Sure he’s not callous like Cloud is in the beginning of original and Remake, but he certainly isn’t horrified at his actions just because there is violence. I’d argue the violence of his actions isn’t the main horror to him in isolation. I’d argue that even the death that results from violence isn’t what the core of the issue is either. 

Zack’s hinging point is more his loyalty and his pride. What he does for other people and what he believes in and of himself. Specifically these things in conjunction with his desire to be a good person. 

The language of Pride, the non-localized direct translation of the word hokori or 誇り(JP CC Script), is what’s going to be used here rather than Honor. 

誇り | Hokori - To take pride in; To boast of

Definition Sources: 1, 2, 3

Just keep in mind that I’ve written this from as neutral a point of view as possible on the matter of pride since the Western perception definitively does not apply. To be proud is not a crime and it is not foolish it simply is. 

Zack initially places his pride in SOLDIER- in what being a SOLDIER means to him. In how being a SOLDIER is his and that they are his people and thus he lets ShinRa policies define how he frames his morality. Thus ShinRa defines good in Zack Fair’s life. 

Zack wants to be a hero. He wants to help people. He is trusting and kind and respectful to people consistently outside of the conflict of the mass desertion. Zack genuinely wants to be a good person and help other people, good or otherwise. He is led to believe by ShinRa propaganda that the best way to help people or to be anything meaningful in this world is through them. This is a baited trap that he falls into, Zack is prime prey this trap was intended to catch. 

He is angry at Genesis and horrified by Angeal, especially at the beginning, not for cruelty or violence or even really death… He is angry at them for their betrayal. Sure he is violent and angry in the instance he thinks Angeal has murdered his own mother, as with Genesis and his parents, but that does not define his antagonism, his hatred, his regret, his sense of justice with them at all. 

 Zack does not raise his sword at Genesis for the people of Banora, he raises his sword for SOLDIER. 

Zack understandably feels, and has been, betrayed. 

He is hurt and angry and alone in a way he’s never been since he got into the SOLDIER program. He falls deeper into the illusions of ShinRa for that reason, angry and hurting and grieving the life he had with people in it who will never return. There is a deep sense of nostalgia throughout Crisis Core in the sense of the word’s initial meaning: the pain of missing home. Specifically the homes we find in people.

Even as he believes in ShinRa's twisted reality Zack wants to help. He wants to protect those he cares for. Zack wants to be good. Unfortunately in Zack Fair’s life the undisputed definition of good is now written by the ShinRa Electric Power Corporation alone.

Then he meets Aerith. 

Suddenly ShinRa’s version of right and wrong have opposition but the control that ShinRa has over his life, total and complete as it is, prevents that from sinking in. Zack is perceptive though, around Aerith he is her version of good and then he has to go back to what equates to his phase of reality. A sanctuary is not safe, not truly, when watchers are peering in through the back door ready to drag you out by your feet if you misstep. 

Zack wants to be a man Aerith or anyone won’t be scared of. He wants to do that not because he is suddenly horrified at his own violence but rather in consideration of others. Zack is highly empathetic after all once he can see someone else’s perspective. He wants to be what Aerith wants, even if he doesn’t really and truly understand it yet, because he cares about her and cares about her opinion. He cares about her comfort. Zack still puts most of his pride within SOLDIER though. That means that Aerith’s morals cannot sink through his skin to his center, not like Angeal’s had. She makes him think but she is not shaping his mind, he is left to do that himself.

 Zack spends a lot of time questioning Angeal and being upset at and about him off screen even more than on screen. We don’t get a front row seat for all of it. The big takeaway is that Zack doesn’t shed Angeal’s morals that he’s taken on himself. He can’t after all, not with ShinRa only just seeming tarnished. ShinRa would need to rust and crumble fully before he actually can let them go. Before he can be free in his own mind.

ShinRa chips and rusts in an instant under Sephiroth’s hand. The last holdout crumbled in the fight of two victims of ShinRa and someone who will become one soon. ShinRa is no longer the defined of good, not after what Zack sees is the response to the Nibelheim Incident.

ShinRa not being good, worse even ShinRa being bad breaks the entire morality system. The illusions crack and Zack is forced to examine himself, his actions, and his biases in ways Aerith made him want to but that he couldn’t afford to truly indulge in. Even more that he was scared of self introspection in a sense, of the paradigm of his reality shifting even further. 

He eventually truly reframes his actions and has to reckon with them (and himself) at the end of the game, chapter 9 and onwards. It is only then that he actually LOOKS and is fully horrified by what he sees of himself. That horror only progresses as he fights for both his and Cloud’s lives. That horror only builds as he realizes he’s exactly the person who his girlfriend SHOULD be terrified of despite his best attempts- that he’s everything she was talking about. He’s everything she was talking about even after trying to change the way he acts around her. 

To abuse the innate metaphors: Zack Fair goes to Nibelheim, a well trained attack dog, still seeing relatively little wrong with fulfilling ShinRa’s orders. Zack is only then on the cusp of figuring out that he does not want to be there, that he is the antagonist of the planet’s (and Aerith’s) story unwittingly. 

Zack Fair leaves Nibelheim beaten. He tries to go back to the safety of what was once his home prior to ShinRa only to be waylaid. 

Zack Fair leaves Banora free and irrevocably changed. 

He is free in the sense that the illusions he held himself too are crumbling even more with knowledge that his demons are men too. He is free through the knowledge that he is one of those demons. , that he has been shaped to be one, and that good intentions pave a terribly walkable path to hell. 

Zack leaves with the knowledge that he was the monster in the closet. The knowledge that his sword was not just the executioner’s blade but the enforcer’s. The sword kept clean in favor of bloody hands and higher risks is now drowning in pools of it. Zack leaves with the knowledge that he never would have been truly free. 

Yet he is in the sense that he can choose- actually choose- what he wants, what he values. He chooses Aerith and he chooses Cloud as he has each time before. He chooses violence. It is something he knows and among what he is good at. It is not all he is but it is a tool he can use. 

He chooses to pay the price of freedom. 

Crisis Core is a tragedy and Zack and Genesis both are tragic figures at its center. Zack’s arc is angled to the viewer for maximum effect but Genesis’s does mirror it in a way just on an offset path already initiated. Sephiroth is also a tragic character, undeniably so. However structure wise his role is more murky given the way he has the ability to be the god waiting in the machine, a guaranteed victory or unavoidable altered trajectory should he choose to act, for most of the story. 

And that’s a large part of why I love Zack as a character, aside from things I’ve said before about what makes him such a good narrator. Zack is the unlucky prodigy at the center of a story about wars, abusers, connections, and perspectives. He wants to be good, he wants to be a person that helps. 

He can’t, not really, not in the way he wants. 

Crisis Core is a cautionary tale about exactly that going wrong and how anyone can be taken advantage of. 

*Adds to FF7 Lore Breakdown/Speculation list*

The parallels between Masamune & Robio and Sephiroth & Nibelheim cases are so on the nose, it's not even funny.

FS ep. 2 chapter 2 makes a point of using similar expressions when describing Masamune's and Sephiroth's descent into madness and subsequent murder spree.

(Sephiroth): And that was it. He stayed holed up in the basement...reading and reading... like a man POSSESSED. (Masamune): Robio's tools and weapons were the responsibility of a single smith. One day, he took up his hammer as if POSSESSED, and poured all of his energy into crafting a remarkable blade.]

As a result, both men's behaviour is described as obsessive to the point of appearing possessed.

This possessed-like behavior eventually leads to a very specific type of carnage: the settlement is burned down, and the townspeople are slaughtered one by one. The opening sequence for the FS, episode 2, emphasizes the parallel by depicting a young Sephiroth standing amidst burning Robio in the same iconic pose as during the Nibelheim massacre. Furthermore, one of the first FS teasers cleverly superimposed Nibelheim footage over that of FS to create the glitching dejavu effect, almost as if history repeats itself.

In the case of Sephiroth, we can be fairly certain that his proximity to Jenova, combined with prolonged mental and physical degradation due to stress, lack of sleep, food, and so on, caused his mind to "slip" — or be hijacked.

What about Masamune? According to Alissa's account, as far as it can be trusted, the massacre was motivated by villagers coveting the masterwork weapon for themselves, which resulted in hostilities and infighting. Thus, it can be concluded that the problem began with the forging of a weapon, both the process and the end result.

(The villagers started fighting amongst themselves to claim the sword as their own. Some even attempted to sneak into the smith's home and steal it for themselves.)

Incidentally, to the point of being conspicuous, Alissa plants the idea that Sephiroth is deserving of a weapon as special as himself.

Eventually, Sephiroth makes a rather odd statement, that he feels the sword calling out to him. It's not the first time Sephiroth demonstrates some kind of extrasensory perception, despite vehemently denying it out loud.

Shortly before those purple orbs first appear on-screen in Chapter 1, Sephiroth mentions that he feels they're being watched. Later he makes an even creepier remark that he senses the presence of a strong will of some sorts.

The statement is linked to the fact that Masamune the swordsmith is thought to have been alive for the past 500 years, and that some power — allegedly the strong will that Sephiroth senses — is seemingly responsible for keeping him alive. 

Excluding ShinRA's R&D vicious experiments with biological samples and various types of Mako, there's only one known case of keeping one's body in an undying state — and that is the case of Lucrecia, according to whom Jenova cells keep her from dying. Jenova itself is mentioned by the Cetra as not capable of dying during the Temple of Ancients exploration. 

Moreover, why would Sephiroth sense a presence? Unless, of course, he shares a strong link to the source, perhaps on a cellular level.

I've already discussed the possible link between Masamune and Jenova here [read here].

(In ancient times, before the discovery of smelting, people forged weapons and tools from **meteoric iron**. Interestingly, there is a phenomenon known as telluric iron, derived from the Latin word for earth, "tellus," as seen in terms like "Telluric Fury" or "Telluric Scriptures.")

In short, in the distant past, people forged cold arms from using matter from meteors. Oddly enough, the most recent chapter mentions meteors, as Bachman relays a "hogwash" rumour that ShinRA creates their new breed of SOLDIER by scraping something (cells) off a meteor.

A strange introduction to the meteor subject, given that the general lore held that ShinRA unearthed an alien body and used it as a source of tissue. In the previously linked post I theorized that the meteor Jenova had arrived on splintered upon entering the atmosphere, and a piece landed in Wutai vicinity, centuries later to be discovered by Masamune and used in the forging of the sword. This splinter may have contained some of Jenova's organic matter. It fits well with the newly introduced concept of "special cells" being scraped off a meteor. On the other hand, the rumour clearly contradicts known lore; it could have been purposefully planted by ShinRA to obscure the true source of SOLDIER procedure in the hopes that it would be perceived as too absurd to be taken seriously.

Another similarity connects Robio's story to that of a "calamity from the skies". If Alissa's story is to be believed, a great battle took place in that area — a fight between Ancients and a vicious beast, similar to the story told by the Cetra hologram in the Temple of Ancients.

(But then, without warning, a fearsome beast invaded the region. Its attacks on the village claimed the lives of its people and their animals. The fiend existed only to slaughter.)

Specifically, the game depicts Cetra battling Jenova as a tentacled monster, a BEAST, that transforms into a human Goddess-like figure upon defeat.

Powerful fire magic was mentioned as being at work in Robio (fire being exceptionally good at eroding organic matter as well as preventing deadly bacteria/diseases from infecting new hosts), but more importantly, the village area is repeatedly mentioned in conjunction with the concept of "sealing". Angeal, Sephiroth and others initially conclude that the zone is abandoned, "forbidden," and "sealed" to prevent the truth about the heinous massacre from being revealed, but later hypothesize that the village was sealed together with whatever evil emerged there.

One detail that comes to mind is that since the Cetra's "celestial adversary" could not truly die, so it could not be defeated in a true sense, which is why the Ancients sealed/imprisoned it in geological strata (where it fell into slumber, per Temple of Ancients narrator).

So, here's the idea. The Temple of Ancients refers to "celestial adversary" as having been scattered in some way since the Age of Ancients [more on this here].

(“Heed well to our warning of that which is to come…<...> The reunion. When our adversary's scattered malignancy shall converge to plague the Planet once more.”)

Indeed, what if, upon arrival, Jenova was fragmented, either by meteor splintering or by design (Ancients cleaved it into pieces to weaken it, defeat it bit by bit, and eventually prevent the parts from converging into a single organism). Whatever the case, the Robio area may contain some of Jenova's organic remnants, such as a meteor (or its metallic core within Masamune's sword) or a body part sealed in the Petra-inspired temple. Masamune the swordsmith discovered it over 500 years ago and became exposed to its mind-altering properties, which resulted in corruption (perhaps unsealing and a letting the contaminant outside?), subsequent crazed behavior, and an eventual massacre. In its turn, the villagers' sporadic coveting of the blade and hostile behavior evokes some strange parallels with a "celestial adversary" sowing discord among men.

Interestingly, the settlers of Robio—I'd call them proto-Wutaians—are said to be Ancients or their descendants. The interesting part is that the descendants of those who defeated "the beast" appear to die in the same way the beast was slain: they are burned down, as if in vengeance.

And to point out the obvious: it oddly mirrors Sephiroth's deranged decision to burn down the town of Nibelheim, all while sticking to a paranoid delusion that humankind attempted to take something of his [The Planet]. Like the sword, like the world.

----

@pen-and-umbra

Why is the last scene giving Edge of Creation, like besides the music, the way he looks up is very similar to the way he looks at the dying universe (ultimania).

New Teaser

thinking about how zack was such a fighty angry kid at first in crisis core, and how he learned to bottle it all up because nobody took his feelings seriously.

i bet zack died on that cliff resentful and enraged and covering it up with a thin layer of heroic cheer, just like he always has.

he was so close. he was so tired. he tried to be a hero and it turned him into a monster instead, slaughtering hundreds and hundreds of infantrymen, all to protect just one. and it didn't even matter because they still won. shinra still fucking won.

zack lost his entire sense of self and identity to SOLDIER and shinra, and now they're taking his life too, right when he was this close. not just to physical freedom, but mental freedom too. and he copes with the indignation the same way he always has: he's so Nice about it.

and so he dies as a friendly nobody, instead of what he really was deep down: a scared, angry, exhausted kid.

I just realized that two of the most impactful people that Sephiroth has ever killed both have bows in the back of their hair.

LADS is really making me post/reblog more often huh, but i love this event so why not.

Reva (meaning rain) & Rainyblobbu 🌧

🌸lemme see y’all’s mc and blobbus!!! here’s mine

daisy and daisyblobbu 🌸🌼🪷

@rosy-crow Don't apologize! I live for analysis like this, big or small.

I just realized that two of the most impactful people that Sephiroth has ever killed both have bows in the back of their hair.