Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Plot AnalysisWritten by: Squall of SeeD/Glenn MorrowVersion: 4.00First Compiled: September 16, 2005; Last Updated: October 29, 2005

***UPDATE***: For personal reasons, I'm going to be retiring from FinalFantasy theorizing and speculation. Take care everyone.

NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE FILM AND THE ORIGINAL GAME INTHIS DOCUMENT. DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU HAVE EITHER A) PLAYED FINALFANTASY VII AND SEEN THIS FILM, OR B) DO NOT CARE FOR INTEGRAL ASPECTS OF THEPLOT OF EITHER BEING REVEALED TO YOU PRIOR TO PLAYING AND VIEWING THESETITLES. NOTE THAT THIS DOCUMENT IS WRITTEN WITH THE ASSUMPTION IN MIND THATONE HAS PLAYED FINAL FANTASY VII AND WATCHED FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENTCHILDREN TO COMPLETION. THERE WILL ALSO BE MINOR SPOILERS FOR FINAL FANTASY X& X-2 WITHIN THIS DOCUMENT.

:Contents:-1) Purpose

-2) Frequently Asked Questions

-3) Theories and In-Depth Analysis -Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children1) The Origin of the Silver-Haired Men2) How Sephiroth was Able to Return in Advent Children3) The Origin of the Shadow Creepers4) Sephiroth: Gone Forever?5) The Final Battle Between Cloud and Sephiroth was not a Hallucination6) Sephiroth Formed His Masamune Out of Thin Air7) Symbolism in Advent Children -Final Fantasy VII1) The JENOVA Thesis-Explanation of JENOVA and its Goal-Explanation of the Powers of JENOVA-Explanation of Sephiroth's Identity-The Roles of JENOVA and Sephiroth: The Puppet Master Theorem-Explanation of Just Who Cloud Really Was-Cloud Was Not a Failed Clone-The Sephiroth Clones are not Genetic Duplicates of Sephiroth-The Purpose of the Sephiroth Clone Experiment-The Sephiroth Clone With a "1" Tattoo Did Not Take on Sephiroth's Form, NorDid Sephiroth Have Such a Tattoo Himself-The Sephiroth Forms Encountered Throughout the Game are Pieces of JENOVA2) The Identity of the Voice in Cloud's Head3) It Had Been Five Years Since Cloud Was Last in Nibelheim4) Explanation of the Lost Identities of the Black-Cloaked Sephiroth Clones,And Why Cloud Didn't Lose His Own5) Zack Is Not The Man In The Pipe In The Slums of Midgar

6) Vincent Is Not Sephiroth's Father7) Aerith's Death Wasn't Necessary in Order to Summon Holy8) Aerith Did Not Sacrifice Herself9) Explanation of the Behaviour of the WEAPONs10) The Battle During the Game's Ending was a Real Conflict11) Why Holy Failed and the Truth About the Lifestream's Role in Saving theWorld12) The Cetra are not from Another Planet13) The Promised Land Revealed14) The Cetra Were Really Nomads15) Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth: What they are16) What Did Hojo Do to Red XIII?17) Explanation of the Sphere Cloud Sees During The Ending of Final FantasyVII18) Contrasting Cait Sith No. 1's "Death" With Aerith's19) All that Remained of Sephiroth's Body After His Fall Into The Mt. NibelMako Reactor Was its Torso20) Vincent Does Not Have a Prosthetic Arm21) Spira and Gaia are Connected22) Analyzing the Storyline of Final Fantasy VII Based on Its Symbolism

-4) Acknowledgements

(1)--Purpose--

The purpose of this document is to shed light upon and -- offer analysis of --the storyline of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the CGI sequel to FinalFantasy VII, the Square-Enix RPG released in January of 1997 for the SonyPlayStation game console, as well as its predecessor, the original FinalFantasy VII.

(2)-Frequently Asked Questions-

The first part of this document is a list of frequently asked questionsconcerning the film (hey, this IS an FAQ after all) and their answers. They'reseperate from the main body of the article as they are questions with definiteanswers that also happen to be very short. No theorizing required for these.The questions that require theorizing will be further down. Note that much ofthe information in this FAQ comes from the Director's Commentary included withthe Advent Children DVD. Those that are of my own devising will have "-SoS-"placed beneath them.

*Question (hereafter abbreviated "Q"): What was the name of the form ofBahamut that Kadaj summoned?*Answer (hereafter abbreviated "A"): Bahamut SHIN, or "Bahamut TREMOR." The

prefix and suffixes in the names of the alternate Bahamuts come from oldJapanese fighter planes. For instance, Bahamut ZERO is "Bahamut REKISHI" inJapanese, and NEO Bahamut is "KAI Bahamut."

*Q: Why wasn't Cait Sith's Moogle Toysaurus in the film? It doesn't show up inthe present or in the flashback to Final Fantasy VII's last battle.*A: The Toysaurus was left out due to the amount of extra time and work thatwould have been required to render it into the film.

*Q: What does the wolf that appears at Zack's place of death, Aerith's church,and the City of the Ancients symbolize?*A: It's a symbol of Cloud's guilt and regret. As a result of being unable todo anything to save Aerith and Zack, he blamed himself for their deaths. Thesymbolism of the wolf also works in regard to the expression "lone wolf," asCloud has chosen to live away from others while he awaits death fromGeostigma. Continuing this line of symbolism, Cloud wears symbols of a wolf'shead and his motorcycle is named "Fenrir," the name bore by Loki's wolf childin Norse Mythology.

*Q: What is the name of Cloud's new sword?*A: "First Tsurugi," or "First Sword."

*Q: What is the name of the Limit Break that Cloud used to finish offSephiroth?*A: "Choukyuu Bushin Hakazan Version 5" is its name. One of the more accuratetranslations of the term is "Super Ultimate War God Champion Slash." "ChoukyuuBushin Hakazan" was the name used for Cloud's original ultimate Limit Break,and this was localized as "Omnislash" in English. Therefore, one can call thisnew Limit Break "Omnislash Version 5."

The suffix "Version 5" was added, by the way, because the form of the attackseen in the film was the fifth version of the attack that they developed touse in that scene.

*Q: What were those dark clouds that Sephiroth called forth before his battlewith Cloud began? Some of them even had tendrils.*A: It was something of a negative Lifestream, composed of the Spirit Energyof those who had died with Geostigma. Their Spirit Energy became corrupted bythe influence of JENOVA's Cells and was, thus, under Sephiroth's control.

*Q: What is Geostigma?*A: "Geostigma" is the name given to the side-effects of an internal strugglebetween JENOVA's Cells and one's own Spirit Energy, gifted to them atconception by the Lifestream. These side-effects result from the Spirit Energy

causing one's body to basically over-tax itself in trying to expel JENOVA'sCells from within. These side-effects consist of extreme fatigue, open soreson the surface of the skin, and discolouration of the skin. It is actuallythese negative side-effects that contribute to an individual's death ratherthan the presence of JENOVA Cells alone.-SoS-

*Q: How did people the world over become infected with JENOVA's Cells?*A: When the Lifestream spread over the world at the end of Final Fantasy VII,it unintentionally carried JENOVA's remains to the population. JENOVA's bodyhad been blown apart inside the Planet and its pieces fell into theLifestream.-SoS-

*Q: Didn't Tseng die in Final Fantasy VII? I recall Elena saying to Cloud"...you really got guts doin' my boss in like that!".*A: Obviously Tseng didn't die since he is present in the film sequel. Whilethe PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VII released in North Americacertainly made it seem that Tseng had died due to Elena's statement, this was,in fact, a major mistranslation, and was corrected with the PC version inwhich Elena says "...you really got guts messin' my boss up like that!".

Also notable is that if one speaks to the wounded Tseng in the Temple of theAncients after he has given Cloud and company the Keystone, he will say"I'm... still alive...." Apparently, while Cloud and the others were insidethe Temple of the Ancients, Tseng was discovered badly wounded and rescued.Despite his massive wound, he survived. That Tseng was discovered before theTemple of the Ancients became the Black Materia would actually explain how itis that the other Turks would have known about Tseng being injured in thefirst place.-SoS-

*Q: Didn't Rufus die in Final Fantasy VII when Diamond WEAPON blasted hisoffice?*A: As with Tseng, no, Rufus obviously didn't since he is present in the filmsequel. Rufus is never explicitly identified as dead, though Heidegger,Scarlet, and Reeve all assume it to be the case. Though injured when he wasengulfed in the explosion that enveloped his office, he certainly did not die.-SoS-

*Q: What were the names of the Silver-Haired Men's weapons and what kind ofweapons were they?*A: -Kadaj's weapons- The Souba (a double-bladed katana)

-Yazoo's weapons-

A Velvet Nightmare (a double-barreled gun designed to look like asword)

-Loz's weapons- A Velvet Nightmare (a double-barreled gun designed to look like asword) The Dual Hound (a pile bunker designed to function as a stun gun)-SoS-

*Q: What did the pink ribbons worn by Marlene and the members of AVALANCHErepresent? Also, where did each person wear their ribbon?*A: They wore the ribbons to represent remembrance of Aerith and their bondwith one another.

-Where the Characters Wore their Ribbons-Cloud: Left bicepTifa: Left bicepYuffie: Left bicep; also had one on her ShurikenCid: Left bicepBarret: Left wristRed XIII/Nanaki: Just above the bangle on his left forepawVincent: Right forearmCait Sith: Middle of his left armMarlene: In her hair

-SoS-

*Q: What was that rain that Aerith brought which cleansed people of JENOVA'sCells and disintegrated Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz?*A: It may have been a representation of Aerith's Great Gospel Limit Breakwhich would completely heal party members in Final Fantasy VII, but in anyevent, the rain was Lifestream mixed with water. When looking at the hole thatKadaj blasted in the floor of Aerith's old church, one can clearly see theLifestream mixing with water:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/LifestreamWater.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/LifestreamWater2.jpg

While this answers what the rain was, it still leaves the question "Why didn'tAerith use it sooner?".-SoS-

*Q: Why was Rufus in that wheelchair and wearing that white sheet?*A: Basically, he was putting on an act. He enjoyed the attention for onething, had fun with it for another, and the sheet also served to keep JENOVA'sremains concealed.

-SoS-

*Q: Which Limit Breaks are used in the film?*A:-Cloud-(Note that the following Limit Breaks are used in this order of appearance)1) Blade Beam (against Loz's earth-moving attack in the Sleeping Forest)2) Braver (against Bahamut SHIN; this was the attack Cloud used when heknocked Bahamut SHIN down the first time)3) Climhazzard (against Bahamut SHIN; it was this attack which Cloud used todefeat the Dragon)4) Finishing Touch (against Kadaj; used when knocking him off the buildingthey fought upon, at which time Kadaj loses his Souba)5) Omnislash Version 5 (against Sephiroth; this was the attack that he used todefeat him)

(Note: Each time Cloud uses one of his Limit Breaks, Spirit Energy can be seensurrounding his blade or being channeled through it immediately beforehand.)

-Barret-Big Shot (against Bahamut SHIN)

-Tifa-(Note that the following Limit Breaks are used in this order of appearance)1) Beat Rush (against Loz)2) Somersault (against Loz)3) Meteodrive (against Loz)4) Meteor Strike (against Loz)

-Aerith-Great Gospel (against JENOVA's Cells, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz)

-SoS-

*Q: Who is Zack?*A: Zack was a First Class member of SOLDIER, Shin-Ra's elite miltary force.He left his hometown of Gongaga nine years before the main events of FinalFantasy VII at the age of 15 in the hopes of joining SOLDIER, and succeeded,becoming among the best of the best, second only to Sephiroth.

He also had a relationship with Aerith Gainsborough, though this was cut shortat the age of 18 when he was assigned to journey to Nibelheim with Sephirothto investigate problems with the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor. That ill-fated\journey, would, of course, end with Nibelheim in ruins, most of its villagersdead, Sephiroth and JENOVA's head vanished from Shin-Ra's eyes, and Cloud and

Zack -- along with the other survivors of Sephiroth's massacre -- Hojo'scaptives for experimentation.

Zack and Cloud would spend the next five years as Hojo's captives, eventually,Zack breaking free of his confinement and freeing his friend Cloud, as well.He and Cloud journeyed back to Midgar, though Zack would be gunned down andkilled on a bluff that overlooked the city, while Cloud was left for dead, aswell, expected to expire due to his deteriorating state brought on by Hojo'sexperiments. However, it was Zack's psyche -- unshattered by Hojo'sexperiments due to his acceptance of himself -- that kept Cloud from losinghis sanity, as it gave him an anchor to reality, a point upon which to focus.As a result, Cloud adopted much of Zack's habitual traits and would laterstrongly remind Aerith of Zack, clueing her in to the fact that not all wasright with Cloud.-SoS-

*Q: Who is Aerith?*A: Aerith Gainsborough, the last Cetra, is the daughter of Shin-Ra'sProfessor Gast, and Ifalna, a Cetra that Gast met sometime between hisdiscovery of JENOVA, and the eight years that followed. She was born inIcicle Inn, where her mother and father had gone into hiding from the Shin-Raafter Gast realized his mistake in identifiying JENOVA as an Ancient andconducting experiments using its cellular material. Gast left theorganization, though whether or not this was before or after meeting Ifalna isunknown.

Unbeknowest to Gast and Ifalna, Hojo had discovered their whereabouts on thenorthern continent, though he let them go unbothered for quite some time. Thiswas because he wanted to give them time enough to conceive a child together,giving him not just Ifalna, but another specimen to study. The child, ofcourse, was Aerith, and when she 20 days old, Hojo stormed into Ifalna andGast's home with Shin-Ra soldiers flanking him. Hojo intended to take thefamily -- Gast included -- back to Midgar for study. However, Gast fought backand was shot and killed. Ifalna and Aerith then became Hojo's captives forstudy. For the next seven years, they were in his custody until they managedto escape from Shin-Ra.

Badly wounded during the escape, Ifalna entrusted Aerith's care to ElmyraGainsborough with her dying breath, her last words being "Please take Aerithsomewhere safe." Aerith then spent the next fifteen years being raised byElmyra. During this time, Aerith's Cetra abilities often manifestedthemselves, allowing her to not only sense that the spirit of Elmyra's deadhusband had attempted to come visit her before it was returned to the Planet(at the time, Elmyra wasn't even yet aware that her husband was dead), butalso to discern the cries of the Planet, hear her mother's voice speaking toher from the Lifestream, and to manipulate the flow of the Planet's SpiritEnergy and grow flowers in the church in the Slums of Sector 5, despiteShin-Ra's use of Mako Reactors rendering the entire area within -- and much ofthe area surrounding -- Midgar inhospitable for growing plants.

At 22 years of age, Aerith met Cloud Strife, a mercenary hired by AVALANCHE toaid in the destruction of Shin-Ra's Mako Reactors. They would meet once in theaftermath of Mako Reactor No. 1's destruction, and a second time after ReactorNo. 5 was destroyed, Cloud being lost in the explosion and falling from theUpper Plate of Midgar to the Slums below. Rather than landing randomly in thestreet or into a pile of scrap, Cloud's fall deposited him through the roof ofAerith's church and onto the flower bed below. Aerith would soon after askCloud to be her bodyguard and protect her from Shin-Ra (in exchange for onedate), and Cloud agreed. In a strange twist of fate, Aerith would find thatthe habitual traits and cocky attitude that Cloud exhibited were essentiallyidentical to those of her former boyfriend, Zack, a member of SOLDIER that shehad not seen in five years.

Aerith knew that something was wrong with the situation, and that the personCloud believed himself to be was not the person he actually was. She wasunable to fully explore this matter, however, nor the matter of theever-deepening love triangle that formed between herself, Cloud, and Tifa.Tragedy would strike Aerith's life and those of all who knew her. AfterSephiroth revealed his plan in the Temple of the Ancients, Aerith could feelherself being guided to the Cetra's Ancient City on the northern continent.She knew not what awaited her there, only that she was being led to a secretthat could possibly combat Meteor. Once Aerith arrived there, she learned thatthe White Materia she had inherited from her mother, a relic she had formerlybelieved to have no function, was actually the Materia that would allow one toconnect to the Planet to bring forth Holy, the ultimate White Magic Spell, theonly Spell which may stand against Meteor, the ultimate Black Magic Spell.

While praying to the Planet on an altar in the Ancient City, Aerith wasunexpectedly impaled on Sephiroth's sword as a shapeshifted piece of JENOVAdescended from above. Aerith's life ended and her spirit quickly departed,leaving sorrow and anguish to those who had known her. However, there was somecause for joy, though her grief-stricken companions were unaware of it forsome time. Before Aerith's life was taken from her, she had successfullyconnected to the Planet and activated Holy. It was being held back bySephiroth's will from within the Planet, but the Spell was, nonetheless,active and ready to stand against Meteor if it could only be released. Thistask fell to her friends once they discovered that Aerith had left them withhope to save their Planet.

The surviving eight members of AVALANCHE journeyed to the centre of thePlanet, confronted Sephiroth and the extraterrestrial "Crisis from the Sky"named "JENOVA," and managed to defeat them. With these foes overcome, Holy wasfree to make its stand against Meteor, which was now directly over Midgar andbearing down upon it. Despite Holy being released, it had been held back fortoo long, and as it struggled against the ultimate destructive Spell in theskies over Midgar, their clash was damaging the surrounding area. Holy was nolonger able to realize its full potency after being held back for severalweeks, and Meteor was stronger. Not only was Holy's furious clash with Meteordamaging Midgar and the surrounding area of the Planet, but Meteor was

actually winning, seemingly rendering Aerith's final act, AVALANCHE'sdesperate attempts to carry out Aerith's plan, and Holy's own efforts futile.

This was not to be so, however, as Aerith's spirit was able to guide theLifestream to arise from within the bowels of the Planet and converge onMidgar, its many emerald-coloured strands colliding beneath Holy and rising upinto it, adding enough strength to the Spell for it to stand equal withMeteor. With the strength of the two Spells equal, and recognizing the conceptthat the equal but opposite positive force applied to a negative force willnegate both, the White and Black Magic Spells were rendered sterile, cancelingone another out and saving the Planet. Even in death, Aerith's heart was everwith her friends and the people of Gaia, and it was her that delivered themsalvation in their darkest hour.-SoS-

*Q: Who is Denzel?*A: Denzel is one of the orphans afflicted with Geostigma taken care of byCloud and Tifa. He had previously been the son of a Shin-Ra employee living onthe Upper Plate. When Shin-Ra destroyed the Sector 7 Support Pillar, Denzel'smother and father were inside Sector 7 at the time and were killed in thesubsequent disaster. He was taken in by a kind woman and the two looked afterone another until Meteor's descent, when the Lifestream flooded across Midgar.

Acting as an accidental catalyst, the Lifestream had carried the remains ofJENOVA's destroyed body to the population of the world, and as it's tendrilspassed through them, the JENOVA Cells within took hold. Many -- including thewoman who taken in Denzel -- died shortly thereafter, while others, likeDenzel, would only become infected later. This infection of JENOVA Cells wouldresult in the widespread maladay known as "Geostigma." Over a year later,after living with other orphaned children and fending for himself, Denzelwould be discovered by Cloud and Tifa, who would then take him into theircare.

For more on Denzel, refer to the novella entitled "On the Way to a Smile."-SoS-

*Q: What is the Planet's name?*A: While it's often believed that Final Fantasy VII's Planet doesn't have aname, it, in fact, is named "Gaia." This became evident at the 2004Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), when the Square-Enix booth gave awaypamphlets concerning Advent Children that refer to the Planet as "Gaia." Hereis a scan of one of those pamphlets:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/AdventChildrenE3Handout.jpg

With this in mind, recall that in Final Fantasy VII, the frozen area that mustbe scaled to reach the Northern Crater is called "Gaea's Cliffs." Depending on

the phoenetic values one is recognizing, "ae" and "ai" can have the samepronunciation, and such spellings as this are often interchangable as far asaccuracy goes when translating. In other words, an alternate spelling for thename of that location on Final Fantasy VII's Planet is "Gaia's Cliffs."

The name of the Planet is most certainly "Gaia."-SoS-

*Q: Can Vincent fly?*A: Apparently he can fly short distances, yes. Considering how reserved andfocused all of his movements are, however, it may be that he doesn't employthis ability for extended periods of time to prevent bringing on histransformations.-SoS-

*Q: Can Cloud fly?*A: Not anytime he wants to like Vincent, but he does fly briefly whenperforming Omnislash Version 5 on Sephiroth at the end of the film. This istheoretically something that anyone could do via a surge in their SpiritEnergy (what we know as a "Limit Break"), and we do witness Aerith's stafflevitating a few times in the original game while she performed some of herLimit Breaks or casted Spells.

While he can't fly anytime he wishes, he can jump VERY high. When jumpingduring earlier scenes, notice that his momentum putters out shortly before hislandings. He isn't flying at those points, but his jumps are impressive to saythe least.-SoS-

*Q: Who is Cloud truly in love with? Aerith or Tifa?*A: This is a matter deeply mired in personal opinion, and that is exactly howTetsuya Nomura, Yoshinori Kitase, and Kazushige Nojima intend to leave it.There is no answer to this question due partly to the fact that the player'schoices influence who Cloud's affection is greatest for in the original game,and due to the film intentionally offering no indication of who his affectionis greatest for. The only truly assured statement is "He cares about them bothvery much."-SoS-

*Q: Is Rufus truly reformed? He didn't even tell Cloud that he had the remainsof JENOVA's head. That seems to suggest that he had a hidden agenda.*A: Rufus' hidden agenda was merely keeping the head hidden. He didn't want toin any way risk the Silver-Haired Men finding it and using its power. Hedidn't even tell his Turks that he had the head with him, despite theirloyalty to him. He didn't tell Cloud that the Turks found it because Cloud wasbeing uncooperative at the time and it was obvious that Cloud wasn't going to

join them. Thus, why Rufus said "Nothing. We found nothing. You don't have toworry about it." Rufus wasn't going to give Cloud that kind of informationwithout knowing that he could count on him.

It becomes obvious toward the end of the film that Rufus was truly reformed,however, when he makes a speech to Kadaj in which he says that by respectingthe will of the Planet and recognizing that it governs life, he and the otherswill be victorious over the likes of Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, and JENOVA andSephiroth as well.-SoS-

*Q: Do Aerith and Zack's ghosts appear in the photograph of the entire teamthat appears after the credits of the film have rolled?*A: No, they do not. Refer to this close-up image of the photograph:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/FamilyPhotographs.jpg

As can be plainly seen here, they are not present. While the smudge near Cloudcoupled with the support joint of the structure behind him is often mistakento form Zack's right shoulder and face, they are not at all parts of Zack.When seeing this occur, one's mind is merely attempting to ascertain anidentity to the image based on recognizable patterns. In other words, it's anoptical illusion formed by one's own mind. While one may argue that this wasdone intentionally by Square-Enix, it should be kept in mind that thisillusion really only takes form when one is looking at a smaller version ofthis photo rather than a close-up. For an example of a smaller version of theimage, look to this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/FamilyPhotographsSmaller.png

While one may still yet argue that since the image was rendered by people,whatever is there is there intentionally, and, thus, it was Square-Enix'sintention that this illusion be formed, it should be kept in mind also thatthere are other points of light on the photgraph aside from the smudge nearCloud, and that they distort as the camera angle rotates; further still, thereis a light source pointing down at the photograph diagonally from above (referto this shot of Cloud's desk that comes before the close-up on the photograph:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/LightSource.jpg),meaning that the smudge is intended to be glare. Further yet, it hardly makessense for Square-Enix to attempt to have an illusion of Zack present withouthaving one of Aerith. Aerith was actually a member of AVALANCHE, whereas Zackwas not. Finally, it should also be noted that both Zack and Aerith's spiritshad said their goodbyes and left together before the photograph was taken.There's nothing logical about concluding that Square-Enix attempted to formsuch an illusion intentionally.-SoS-

*Q: The box that held JENOVA's "head" was a bit small for holding an entirehead. Was that what was actually in it?*A: According to Takeshi Nozue, Co-Director of the film (as stated in aninterview in the Advent Children Prologue book), the contents of the box arereferred to as "the head," but what the box actually contains is just therandom remains of JENOVA's Cells. Of course, this might mean that somematerial from its head was within the box, but Nozue doesn't indicate it tonecessarily be the case. They simply refer to the box's contents as "the head"for simplicity's sake.-SoS-

*Q: Why does Kadaj scream out in anguish when he looks into the box holdingJENOVA's remains?*A: According to the script of the film packaged with the Ultimate Edition ofthe film -- the one that includes the Advent Pieces collection -- Cloud'ssword shattered the box further after Rufus' earlier shot and damaged some ofthe contents. It also goes on to say that Kadaj assumed Rufus was solelyresponsible for the damage rather than Cloud. Why it bothers to say this, Ipersonally don't understand, as it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference whoKadaj believed was responsible.-SoS-

*Q: What is the black substance that permeates the water at the City of theAncients when Kadaj steps into it?*A: It was his will.-SoS-

*Q: Why do Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz have the children drink the water thatKadaj's will permeated throughout?*A: This was to activate the JENOVA Cells within them, causing their Reunioninstinct to take over. The idea was that the children would then be drawn tothe location of JENOVA's remains, allowing the Silver-Haired Men to locatetheir "Mother."-SoS-

*Q: "Aerith" or "Aeris"?: Which Should it be?*A: In Japanese there are the Katakana and Hiragana alphabets, as well as theRomaji alphabet (there's also Kanji, but that's irrelevant in regard to thismatter; Romaji, by the way, is basically "Englishized Japanese"). Hiragana isused for Japanese names, however, as Aerith's name isn't of Japanese origin,Katakana is used. Aerith's name originates from the word "Earth"transliterated into Japanese. When done so, her name written in Katakana is"Earisu." This is due to consonants almost always being followed by vowels inJapanese, thus the "i" after the "r," and also due to "th" carrying the

phoenetic value of "su" in Japanese. Therefore, a possible Romanization of"Earisu" is "Earith."

Romanized, it could also become "Aerith," however. "Ea" in Japanese ispronounced closely to how "Air" is pronounced in English ("Eakon" is theJapanese word for "Air Conditioner," for instance). This form of the namecould still be pronounced with the "th" having the "su" sound if the Japanesephonetic value of "th" was recognized, causing this name to be pronounced as"Air-riss" or "Aeris."

Where the confusion between "Aeris" and "Aerith" comes from is that when FFVIIwas brought to the English-speaking and reading market, the pronunciation ofthe name "Aerith" in its Japanese form was localized to fit with Englishphoenetic values. In other words, the spelling was altered to more closelyreflect with English phoenetic values how the name is pronounced whenemploying Japanese phoenetics: "Air-riss." This was possibly due to thetranslators not being aware of the origin of the name, or preferring to renderit into English with its Japanese pronunciation.

Therefore, "Aeris" and "Aerith" can be pronounced essentially the same way ifone so desires, depending on the phoenetic values they're recognizing at thetime. There is little difference in the two pronunciations, though one canchoose to localize the pronunciation of the phoenetics for "Aerith" to Englishif they so wish, or even call her "Earth." Both "Aeris" and "Aerith areequally appropriate and equally accurate spellings of the name. Theirpronunciations do not vary unless one wishes to localize the pronunciation ofthe phoenetics into English with "Aerith," while the spelling of one is simplylocalized in such a way that it fits with English phoenetic values whenpronouncing the name based on its Japanese pronunciation.

To summarize, "Aeris" is an English localization of "Aerith," the Romajirepresentation of the Katakana word "Earisu," which is the Japanesetransliteration of the English word "Earth."

(Note: Thanks go to PMog of GameFAQs for information regarding the mechanicsof written Japanese.)-SoS-

*Q: "Lockhart" or "Lockheart"? Which is actually Tifa's last name?*A: "Lockhart" (without the "e") is Tifa's last name. Though it has beenpublished as "Lockheart" in official materials over the years, it was alwaysin the English versions of such materials that this misprint saw the light ofday. In Japanese materials, including the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania OmegaGuide -- which was compiled and published by Square-Enix and the creators ofFinal Fantasy VII themselves -- it is spelled as "Lockhart," indicating it tobe the actual intended spelling. Just as with Squall Leonhart of Final FantasyVIII, there is no "e" in the "hart" part of the name.-SoS-

*Q: Cid's new Airship, the Sierra, bears a name reminiscent of his assistantShera. Is there any connection there?*A: Yes. The Airship is actually named after Shera. "Shera" was amistranslation in the original Final Fantasy VII. "Sierra" is her actual name.-SoS-

*Q: Was Aerith ever intended to be revived?*A: Perhaps the most enduring matter of speculation concerning Final FantasyVII is whether or not Aerith was intended to die, whether her death could beprevented, and whether or not she could be revived after her death. In thecase all of these metters, I will touch upon them one at a time and reveal thetruth.

First, to the matter of Aerith's death being preventable. It should be kept inmind that there is no alternate FMV in the scene where Aerith's death takesplace. This can be ascertained easily through the use of the PC Version of thegame and reading all the FMV data aon the disc, or through any computerprogram that can read FMV data straight off of the PlayStation game discs.

Granted, perhaps there would be no FMV if she didn't die. However, in thiseventuality, consider how much of the storyline would be altered if Aerith didnot die:

Aside from all the dialogue that speaks of Aerith in the past tense, there'sthe fact that if she were to live, going to speak with Bugenhagen during Disk2 would be rendered unnecessary, going to the City of the Ancients after, aswell, as would the search for what became of the White Materia, in whichBugenhagen sends the party off to find the Key of the Ancients in order toactivate the Ancient Machine in the City of the Ancients.

It was only after activating that machine that the party learned that theWhite Materia was glowing a pale green, meaning that Aerith's prayer had wentthrough and the White Materia had already been activated. It was also theabove incident that allowed them to learn that Holy was activated, but wasn'tmoving because JENOVA/Sephiroth was holding it back. Further, the party learnsthat the Junon Canon had been moved and that Diamond WEAPON was approachingMidgar while still at the City of the Ancients, which immediately preceded thebattle with Diamond WEAPON, the apparent death of Rufus Shinra, and the finalshowdown with the Shin-Ra. This being the case, essentially the entire mannerin which things play out for the rest of the game beyond Aerith's death wouldbe altered in one form or another, with the majority of these being majorchanges.

Also, in regard to both this matter, and the matter of Aerith being revived,consider that the ending itself would have needed to be altered, as she is notwith the main party in the Northern Crater, nor on the Highwind, and only aghostly image of her appears in the wake of the Lifestream during the ending.Considering how much of the game would have needed to be altered, it's not at

all possible for Aerith to be revived -- or intended to be so in regard to thefinal version of the script -- while preserving the integrity of the storylineitself. Granted, it may yet be argued that in earlier versions of the script,such a revival was intended but later removed -- and it's also true that inthe first draft of the script, Aerith was not intended to die at all -- thatsimply isn't the case and is a matter which shall be touched upon later; asfar as the original draft of the script goes, this examination is focusingsolely on the developers' intentions at the time of conceiving of Aerith'sdeath.

To those who may argue that GameSharks allow for Aerith to be revived, andthat there are even different lines that she will say from the generic linesrandom other characters will say when in her place at that point (such as the"I'm sick of this" line -- which can be seen farther down -- after thesnowboarding crash incident), keep in mind that GameSharks only alter existingmemory that is on the discs, and that her lines are still -- nonetheless --pretty generic, and nothing significant in regard to the storyline, noranything necessarily Aerith-specific based on what is said. It's basically arearranging of what is already there, not something that can unlock newaspects of the game, or be a key to unlocking the hidden parts of itsstoryline. Characters such as Cid and Yuffie have lines as early in the gameas the Mithril Mines beyond the Chocobo Ranch, yet they're also generic lines.With this in mind, any generic lines from Aerith beyond the point in the gamewhere she should be dead should not be regarded as significant, nor indicativeof a possible -- or intended -- resurrection.

It should also be pointed out that the GameSharks don't provide access to anyscene involving a revival of Aerith. They simply allow Aerith's battle andenvrionment map renderings to be present when they shouldn't be, just asSephiroth can be placed into the player's battle formation, as is shown in thepictures below:

(Note: The first of these screenshots ("Aerith in the snow") comes from FinalFantasy VII Citadel: http://www.ff7citadel.com/index.shtml)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/secsnow1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/sephchaos.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/BraveSephiroth_979415243.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/UltimaSephiroth_979415244.jpg

This function of Game Sharks and other gamecode-hacking programs is simply torearrange the existing code within the game. That's why one can be at theNorthern Crater on Disc 1. The entire game, in terms of environment andbattle maps, was placed on the first disc, but the seperate discs were neededdue to the FMV sequences taking up so much space. Being that the ending FMVs

on Disc 3 are longer than most all the rest of the FMVs put together, itshould be obvious that there's no extra space for FMVs depicting alteredversions of the ending, featuring Aerith in the Northern Crater with theparty, or on the Highwind with them. In fact, Aerith being alive and beingthere would completely screw-up what IS in the ending, such as Cloud seeingAerith's hand after the mental battle that occurs against Sephiroth's form,Cloud saying "An answer from the Planet... the Promised Land...I think I canmeet her... there," and then Aerith appearing in the wake of the Lifestreamjust as Meteor was being destroyed.

Further, being that there wasn't even enough space to take into account in theFMVs that the player might do something as simple as recruit Vincent or Yuffie-- due to them not being viewable in any FMVs -- it should be very obviousthat no such thing would be done with Aerith in the event of a revival. Forthat matter, all of the FMV coding on the discs can be read and copiedstraight from the discs themselves with programs designed for just thatpurpose, and with the PC Versions of the game, all the FMV sequences on thediscs could be saved straight off the discs. No alternate ending FMVs arepresent on the third disc of the game in either the PlayStation or PC formatof any version of the game.

More to the concept of whether or not such a revival was ever intended, allthe game's FMV sequences, including the one in which Aerith died and theending FMV, were all made during 1995. They were the first things that weremade aside from the script that the game would follow, made even beforeenvironment maps. The game wasn't released in Japan until January 31, 1997.The FMVs were completed more than a year before the game was released, and thefinal version of the script was completed even before the FMVs.

While it has long been claimed by many that Final Fantasy VII was incomplete,an intended resurrection of Aerith being left out due to time constraints --and true that the original Japanese release suffered from time constraints,and despite pushing back the release date a full month to work on the gamelonger, they still failed to add in a pivotal scene of backstory (Cloud'sflashback in the Shinra Mansion basement on Disc 3 in which remembers his andZack's escape from Nibelheim) -- the game was completed in the half year oftime between the game's Japanese release and its North American release. Theadditions made were on the order of the flashback sequence in the ShinraMansion's basement on Disc 3, the boss fight against Diamond WEAPON, the twooptional mega bosses (Ruby and Emerald WEAPONs), and a few other small thingsin regard to Materia, equipment, and items that were added into the NorthAmerican release.

With the exception of the first addition mentioned in the previous sentence,none of these were of absolutely pivotal importance to the main plot, yetthose who have argued that the game remained incomplete even after its NorthAmerican release expect for one to assume that such comparitivelyinsignificant matters were thrust to the forefront of the developers'priorities, rather than an Aerith resurrection, which would have been amassive plot element. Common consideration of the order of priority, as well

as consideration of the fact that the pivotal plot addition of the flashbacksequence in the Shinra Mansion's basement render such an argument ridiculus.

At this point, I wish to present the most important bit of information thatargues against the notion of an Aerith resurrection having ever been intended:The proof. During an interview in the May 2003 issue of EDGE magazine, TetsuyaNomura (Character Designer of Final Fantasy VII) and Yoshinori Kitase(Director and Co-Scenario Writer of Final Fantasy VII) speak on theirrespective intentions and hopes for Aerith's death, and touch upon the matterof a resurrection.

Nomura, concerning Aerith's death:"Back at the time we were designing the game, I was frustrated with theperennial cliche where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has tosacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love. We foundthis was the case in both games and movies, both eastern and western. But Iwanted to say something different, something realistic. I mean, is it right toset such an example to people?"

Kitase's follow up to Nomura's comments about Aerith's death:"In the real world, things are very different. You just need to look aroundyou. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Deathcomes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad attached to it. Itleaves, not a dramatic feeling, but a feeling of emptiness. When you losesomeone you loved very much you feel this big empty space and think 'If I hadknown this was coming I would have done things differently.' These are thefeelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relativelyearly in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."

Kitase, concerning the fans' responses to Aerith's death, and the possibilityof her being revived:"The world was expecting us to bring her back to life, as this is the classicconvention. But we did not. We had decided this from the beginning. There wasa lot of reaction from Japanese users. Some of them were very sad about it,while others were angry. We even received a lengthy petition addressed to ourscenario writer asking for Aerith's revival. But there are many meanings inAerith's death and that could never happen."

Here, we have proof from one of the core creators of Final Fantasy VII thatno such resurrection was ever intended, even from the inception of the conceptof Aerith's death.

Finally, I wish to emphasise once more that -- contrary to popular belief --neither the Japanese nor the International Version of FFVII included an Aerithrevival. As has been previously stated, the Japanese Version didn't featureas much as the North American Version. As for the International Version(re-release in Japan), it is identical to the version that North Americareceived, with the only exceptions being a few novelty items that areavailable within the game (such as Johnny's Jacket), and a bonus disc thatcame with the game in which vehicle schematics, an item list featuring

pictures of the items, and concept designs could be seen. While North Americahas been shafted in regard to International Releases ever since, with FFVII itdid receive it in every capacity that relates to the storyline itself. It wasthe first and only version released in North America.

In conclusion, with all the evidence born of logical reasoning, as well as theproof from the very lips of the Director/Co-Scenario Writer of Final FantasyVII -- who also happens to be the Producer of Advent Children -- its isunquestionably fact that Aerith was never intended to be revived.

Points often brought forward to argue that a revival of Aerith was intendedand why they don't actually support the notion:

(Note: These are taken from RTSmith005's contribution in falsehead's FinalFantasy VII Plot Analysis FAQ at GameFAQs. I've reworded the points that weremade, but they still convey the same intention. Here is the URL to that FAQ:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/final_fantasy_vii_plot.txt)

*Point: At the bottom of the Northern Crater, before going down to fightJENOVA, there's a spot for everyone to stand, but there's also a ledge that'sempty where Aerith could have been intended to stand.

*Response: Technically, there's more than just one spot where Aerith couldhave conceivably been placed. This, in and of itself, does nothing to suggestthat the notion was intended by the developers.

*Point: For the battle against Bizarro Sephiroth, if the player has acquiredall the game's characters (this meaning including Vincent and Yuffie), theywill have only 8 party members, not enough to form three full parties ifprompted to do so when battling the boss.

*Response: As with the matter of there being an "empty ledge" above the areaof the final battles, this alone does nothing to support the notion.

*Point: Throughout the game, Cloud has to make decisions that extendfavoritism to either Tifa or Aerith (or Barret or Yuffie, as well), yet afterAerith's death, the matter is dropped and no longer affects anything. Surelyit was intended to affect more than just who Cloud dates at the Gold Saucer.

*Response: It does affect more than that. It affects the dialogue and dynamicbetween Cloud and Tifa when they spend the night together beneath the Highwindafter Hojo's defeat and before the descent into the Northern Crater. IfCloud's affection value for Tifa is high to moderate, their dialogue will bemuch more indicative of a close relationship and strong feelings for oneanother. If Cloud's affection value for Tifa is low, however, the dialoguewill be rather one-sided in regard to affection, with Tifa being openly

affectionate toward Cloud, while he seems to have little in the way of strongattachment to her. Screenshots, as well as a script comparison of the matter,can be found here:

http://www.geocities.com/ffviilovetriangle/LastNight.htm

(Note: This webpage is part of the website known as "Destiny Fulfilled" (http://www.geocities.com/ffviidestiny/) and is in no way the product of my ownlabors.)

*Point: Aerith's ultimate weapon, the Princess Guard, has only seven singleslots for Materia and gains AP, whereas every other character's ultimateweapon has eight slots consisting of four linked segments, and with none ofthem gaining AP. This would suggest that this wasn't really intended to be herultimate weapon.

*Response: If the player were to suddenly acquire a weapon for Aerith that wasfar superior to the other weapons for her in terms of its flexibility,specifically if it gained no AP, that could possibly convey that this wasintended to be her ultimate and final weapon, thereby prematurely conveyingher imminent permanent departure from the party.

*Point: Aerith's Umbrella weapon has a higher attack power than her ultimateweapon, the Princess Guard, yet every other character's best weapons have ahigher attack power than any of their other weapons. This could also suggestthat this wasn't really intended to be her ultimate weapon.

*Response: Again, if Aerith were to suddenly acquire a weapon far superior toher other weapons in every regard, that could possibly convey that this wasintended to be her ultimate -- and, thus, her final -- weapon, prematurelyconveying that Aerith's permanent farewell would be soon.

*Point: When the player acquires Aerith's final Limit Break, in alllikelihood, she is already dead, as one essentially must know what they haveto do to acquire and make use of it before her death, and must go out of theirway a great deal to do so, spending a large amount of time in order toactually make use of it. This would somewhat suggest that the player has itbefore they should.

*Response: But the fact remains that the player can have it before Aerith'sdeath by making use of the Buggy supplied by Dio, riding it into Costa del Soland returning to the Midgar continent, then fulfilling the requirements forobtaining a piece of Mithril, and later giving it to the Weapon Seller east ofGongaga in exchange for the Great Gospel. Further, the player can make use ofit before Aerith's death provided that they raise her Limit Break levels tothe point that the Great Gospel item can be used to teach her this final LimitBreak.

The fact that she can get it before her death and use it completely underminesthis point in regard to reviving her. Further, consider that if Aerith weremeant to be revived, or were meant to remain alive, that -- with her finalLimit Break -- the latter Boss battles of the game would be made ridiculouslysimple.

While true that it takes a great deal of time to actually acquire and make useof it before Aerith's death, it's simply an extra challenge for players totake on during the course of the game.

*Point: In front of the steps up to the altar where Aerith dies in the City ofthe Ancients, there is a doorway in the background that cannot be reached.Programmers usually don't waste the time and effort to put stuff like that ina game if there's not supposed to be a way of reaching it or going through it.

*Response: Final Fantasy's programmers pretty much always have done that. Forthat matter, they do it in VII on more than one occasion. In the first fewminutes of the game even, there's a doorway right behind the first Save Pointin the Mako Reactor that AVALANCHE blows up, yet one cannot pass through thisdoorway. The programmers even bothered to render doors that can be opened intosmall rooms that contain absolutely no items and where no cutscenes takeplace, such as what appears to be a storage room in the inn of Sector 6's WallMarket. One can merely open the door and take about one step forward beforethey can't go any further. Things like this are just there to give the playerthe feeling of actually being in a real world. The same is true of thatdoorway in the City of the Ancients. If all we ever see or interact with/in isall there ever was shown to be, it would be somewhat more difficult to immerseoneself into the fictional world of the game, as this would remind them thatthey are playing a game.

*Point: If one looks at the floor of the altar when Cloud is almost forced tokill Aerith, there is a spiral staircase. While it's possibly intended to bethe reflection of the spiral staircase above, the glass dome around the altarAerith is kneeling on should already be reflecting it. There must be anotherstaircase beneath the altar.

*Response: There obviously isn't. Compare this picture of the support columnof the altar to the reflection on the floor when Cloud stands before Aerith:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/AerithFacingtheStairs.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/AerithandCloudintheCityoftheAncients2.jpg

Most obviously, the spiral staircase is too wide to go down through thatcolumn, and when considering what its depth would be in regard to that

reflection, it would be far enough down that it would already be below thepoint of the column where it became narrow.

For that matter, Aerith's death scene and that environment map are riddledwith mistakes as it is. Depending on the version one is playing, whenapproaching the altar, she either has her back to the stairs or is facingthem. In any event, when Cloud gets up there and holds his sword above her,she's facing the stairs. As the FMV of her death begins, she is still facingthe stairs. When the Sephiroth form descends, it isn't wearing gloves, nor isthere a glass dome around the altar any longer. When Aerith is skewered, notonly is the Sephiroth form now wearing gloves, but the stairs are behind bothAerith and the Sephiroth form. When the FMV ends, the Sephiroth form is nowfacing the stairs and there a glass dome around the altar once again.

One more mistake added to that list is hardly a surprise.

*Point: There are solo FMV shots of each character in the game manual or onits cover. All of these actually do occur in-game or realistically could have(Tifa sitting on the well in Nibelheim, Vincent sitting atop the ShinraMansion and looking across Nibelheim, Yuffie overlooking Wutai from atop Mt.Dachao, etc.), yet the shot of Aerith depicts her looking at the Highwind at aclose distance. When Cloud first saw the Highwind at such a distance, Aerithwas not with him. Further, Aerith is dead before Tifa, Barret, and the otherssteal the Highwind later in the game. Also notable is that she's wearing awhite skirt here instead of her pink one. This is a heavy indication that thedevelopers intended to revive Aerith.

*Response: Aerith isn't wearing white in that FMV shot. She's wearing herstandard outfit. The manner in which the light shines on her makes it appearas though she is wearing a white skirt, however, the pink hue of her skirt canstill be easily observed:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/AerithandtheHighwind.jpg

As far as it having never occurred in-game goes, that's hardly to be taken asan indication of the developers' intentions. For that matter, the FMV shot ofBarret Wallace involves him holding Marlene while standing in Aerith's church.That hardly could have taken place during the course of the game, as Barretdoesn't see Marlene during the game after leaving her in Elmyra's care, norwould the church have looked the same if the scene had taken place after thegame due to the damage rendered to Midgar and the church during Meteor'sdescent (as can be seen by comparing shots of the church during the game toshots of the church in Advent Children):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/BarretandMarleneinAerithsChurch.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/AerithsChurchinAdventChildren.jpg

Supposing that Barret saw Marlene the day after Shin-Ra was defeated, he wouldhave gone to Kalm to see her and not to Midgar anyway.

While one may argue that Barret and Marlene had visited the church before thegame unfolds, that's rather going out on a limb, as it's never suggested andneeds to be kept in mind that Midgar is vast in size and the odds of Barrethaving taken Marlene for a stroll through the dangerous city to Aerith'schurch before they even knew Aerith is unlikely. For that matter, just becauseAerith wasn't with Cloud when he saw the Highwind doesn't mean she couldn'thave gotten as close to it as he did. The other members of AVALANCHE had tofind a way up to the upper level of Junon somehow, after all, and we're nottold much of what they did or saw on the way, with the only exception beingthat we're told that Aerith DID see the Highwind:

(On the Shin-Ra Cargo Ship)A soldier "Umm.... It's me, Aerith." Aerith "Hey, Cloud. Did you see the Airship at Junon?"

Cloud "...I heard it was big, but I didn't expect it to be THAT big."

Aerith "That was REALLY something."

*Point: From a conversation between Cloud and Tifa rather late in the game,there's foreshadowing of a possible resurrection of Aerith, as Tifa speaks ofAerith having always been one to speak of the future:

Tifa "I wonder what Aerith felt... when she was on that altar...?"

Cloud "I'm sure she wanted to give her life for the planet..."

Tifa "Really? I wonder? I don't think that's it at all." "I think she didn't think she would die at all, but that she planned on coming back all along." "She always used to talk about the 'Next time'." "She talked about the future more than any of us..."

*Response: The point here was not that Aerith had intended to die and return,

or that the developers intended her to do so. She, indeed, had no idea thatshe was going to die, which is why she spoke of the future and of coming backwhen things were finished with Sephiroth. Based on the aforementionedinterview in the May 2003 issue of EDGE magazine, we can determine that thepoint of this scene was to emphasise the realistic nature of death: It'sunexpected and there's no time to prepare for it:

Yoshinori Kitase on the Subject of Aerith's Death:"In the real world, things are very different. You just need to look aroundyou. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Deathcomes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad attached to it. Itleaves, not a dramatic feeling, but a feeling of emptiness. When you losesomeone you loved very much you feel this big empty space and think 'If I hadknown this was coming I would have done things differently.' These are thefeelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relativelyearly in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."

*Point: Probably the strongest piece of evidence toward the truth of thismatter is that when you go back to Aerith's church on Disc 3 of the game aftergetting the Key to Sector 5 in the Bone Village, you'll see her ghost appearbriefly. This is obviously part of a side quest that wasn't fully completed.

*Response: That "ghost" will actually appear even on Disc 1 while Aerith isSTILL ALIVE, appearing in the same manner as it will on Disc 3 anddisappearing just as quickly. One can return there after Aerith has beenkidnapped by Tseng on Disc 1 and see the image the same as they can later inthe game. For that matter, the children in the church say nothing which wouldsuggest the presence of Aerith in any form. At best, it's simply Cloud'smemories.

(Note: Much more information concerning the "ghost" phenomenon can be found atFinal Fantasy VII Citadel (http://www.ff7citadel.com/secrets/sa_church.shtml),the first site to list the discovery of Aerith's "ghost" being visible in thechurch on Disc 1, and also the only known site with documentation ofdiscoveries of the "ghost" made by hacking the game's code. My thanks toCanadian Ninja for bringing the presence of the "ghost" on Disc 1 to myattention.)-SoS-

*Q: Did the Death of Hironobu Sakaguchi's Mother Inspire Aerith's Death?*A: No. One of the most common misconceptions concerning Final Fantasy VII isthat the death of the mother of Hironobu Sakaguchi (Executive Producer andstory conceptualist of Final Fantasy VII) inspired the death of Aerith, orthat she was originally intended to be resurrected, yet his mother's deathinspired the development team not to bring her back to life. In either case,this is wrong.

This belief most often arises from a misunderstanding -- or misinterpretation

-- of an interview Sakaguchi had with PlayStation Underground in 1997. In thesecond issue of the quarterly CD publication, an interview with Sakaguchi wasincluded in which he touched upon various poins concerning the production ofFinal Fantasy VII. While answering the question "Are there any new themes inFinal Fantasy VII?" he answered with the following:

"When we were creating Final Fantasy III, my mother passed away, and eversince I have been thinking about the theme 'life.' Life exists in many things,and I was curious about what would happen if I attempted to analyze life in amathematical and logical way. Maybe this was my approach in overcoming thegrief I was experiencing. This is the first time in the series that thisparticular theme actually appears in the game itself. See if you can spot it!"

Where a misunderstanding arises from this is that -- either intentionally oraccidentally -- someone at some point in time replaced "Final Fantasy III"with "Final Fantasy VII" in Sakaguchi's response, thus resulting in him havingbeen misquoted many times over the years. Sakaguchi's mother most certainlydid not die during the production of Final Fantasy VII. She died in 1988,during the production of Final Fantasy III, as Sakaguchi suggested in theactual transcript of the interview.

Of this we can be certain, as Sakaguchi wrote the foreword to The Making ofFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within (published in 2001), and stated that it hadbeen 13 years since he lost his mother. Here follows proof concerning thebook:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/TSWBookTitlePage.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/BookCopyrightPage.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/13Years.jpg

One conceivable explanation concerning the misquoting of Sakaguchi over theyears is that some people may have confused the Final Fantasy III thatSakaguchi was talking about with the game that was released in North Americaas "Final Fantasy III" (Final Fantasy VI). Thus, the rumour may have taken offfrom there, with people thinking that Final Fantasy VII was the next FinalFantasy made after his mother's death.

Finally, it was not Sakaguchi at all who came up with the concept of Aerith'sdeath. It was Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura, tiring of the clicheddramatic deaths that were so commonplace in Eastern and Western game in film,usually involving self-sacrifice. With Final Fantasy VII, both Nomura andYoshinori Kitase (the game's Director) -- whom Nomura passed the idea on to --wanted to say something about death that was realistic and final, empty ratherthan dramatic, depressing instead of awe-inspiring. Thus, it was, that theidea was not even Sakaguchi's. He merely approved it.-SoS-

*Q: Did the Blue WEAPON that Attacked Junon Have a Name?*A: Yes. The official name of the WEAPON that attacked Junon is "SapphireWEAPON." This is known due to the official toyline featuring a small toy ofthe WEAPON, it including a character card clearly entitled "Sapphire WEAPON":

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/SapphireWEAPONToy.jpg

Likewise, the official Japanese Square-Enix site's toy section refers to theWEAPON's toy as "Sapphire WEAPON" (check the toy on the top-right):

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/shop/goods/ff_s_creatures_4.html

Finally, various official materials released over the years have referred tothe WEAPON as "Sapphire," these materials ranging from the Final Fantasy VIIKatai no Shinsho game guide released by Famitsu/Aspect, to Final Fantasy VIItrading cards.-SoS-

*Q: Are the WEAPONs alive or are they robots?*A: While Ultimate WEAPON at the least is most certainly made of metal andbears a distinctly cybernetic-looking core in its chest, it should be notedthat the WEAPONs are referred to as monsters in-game, and that they werecreated by the Planet rather than constructed by Homo Sapiens. It shouldfurther be kept in mind that if such creatures in the game as the Hell Housemonster or the Dorky Face are to be taken as living creatures, then simplybecause one or more of the WEAPONs might be made from materials that onetypically doesn't associate with living creatures -- especially when thosecreatures were created by the Planet (the Lifestream), the source of life --doesn't mean that those creatures are necessarily non-living.

The Planet likely used the raw materials (natural resources) that composed thephysical material surrounding the Lifestream to make its automated defensesystem of monsters that came to be known as "WEAPON," and then imbued SpiritEnergy (the energy of life) into these physical materials.-SoS-

(3)--Theories and In-Depth Analysis--

-Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

In this section, we will examine the larger points of speculation and debateconcerning Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, as well as address someanalytical matters of the work. It is my hope that these articles will bring

a greater appreciation of the title to others, as they have to myself.

1) -The Origin of the Silver-Haired Men (Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz)-

The most hotly-debated aspect of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the CGI(computer generated imagery) film sequel to the original Final Fantasy VII,concerns the origin and nature of Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, commonly referred toas "the Silver-Haired Men" (or "SHM" for short) by the fandom of Final FantasyVII. Most often misinterpreted as being part of the Sephiroth Clone projectthat Hojo conducted five years before the main events of the original game, oras being individuals that were genetically altered with JENOVA's Cells priorto birth the same as Sephiroth was, I will here explain the true nature ofthese three enigmatic young men.

The official translation by Square-Enix used the term "Remnants of Sephiroth"to refer to Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. While this is an accuarate term, it'ssomewhat inconclusive. It lacks the complete context of just what the threeare. The Japanese term used for the three is "Shinentai," which literallymeans "Thought" and "Physical body." It is most commonly used to identifyspirits that manifest a physical form to remain in the world due to the needor desire to fulfill some unfinished business from their lifetime. The wordhas this connotation because the thoughts (spirit) of the deceased individualin question manifest into a physical body.

When examining the matter of the Shinentai in Final Fantasy VII: AdventChildren, we should keep in mind just how ever-present a force the Lifestream-- and, consequently, Spirit Energy -- happen to be, the point here being thatSpirit Energy (spirits/souls) are an authentic aspect of the nature of thestory's world, easily leaving open the door for a concept such as Shinentai tobe present. As Bugenhagen once said, while the cycle of Spirit Energytheoretically functions in the manner that when a living life form dies, itsSpirit Energy/soul/spirit returns to the Lifestream, only for this energy tobe placed into a newly conceived life form, "there are exceptions." AShinentai would be a very obvious exception to this "rule."

The point being made here is that what we witness with Kadaj, Yazoo, and Lozis an actual illustration of the concept of Shinentai at work. TheSilver-Haired Men are -- quite literally -- "Spirits of Sephiroth," or"Shinentai of Sephiroth." They are his thoughts made manifest into physicalbodies through Spirit Energy. When Sephiroth was defeated by Cloud at the endof Final Fantasy VII, his consciousness was absorbed into the Lifestream.However, Sephiroth's will is -- as was said by Tetsuya Nomura in The Distance:The Making of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children -- above all and second tonone. He refused to allow himself to be absorbed into the Lifestream to simplybecome a memory. As such, his consciousness -- as it dispersed through theLifestream's Spirit Energy -- contaminated the surrounding Spirit Energy withhis will, and he then made himself manifest once more, though he was nowdivided into three seperate entities, all with seperate aspects of hisconsciousness, and, thereby, their own unique personalities.

For evidence of this, we can first look to their appearances. Like Sephiroth,they all had silver hair, green cat-like eyes, and wore black leather outfits.Further notable is that they were all left-handed. Sephiroth led with his leftarm when fighting, often swinging using just his left arm, but never just hisright. Even when holding the hilt of his sword with both hands, he was leadingwith his left. When not swinging the sword and simply holding it, it wasalways in his left hand with this hand close to the blade, clearlyestablishing his left hand as his dominant hand. With Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz,their left hands also dominated the use of their weapons. Kadaj fought thesame as Sephiroth, using his left arm to swing, even choosing to use just hisleft arm in the Sleeping Forest and later when holding the box containingJENOVA's remains in his right hand. Yazoo used his left hand for holding andfiring his Velvet Nightmare, and also when using the gun to parry Cloud'ssword strikes. Loz's Dual Hound was on his left arm, and he also used his lefthand to fire his Velvet Nightmare when firing at Cloud alongside Yazoo in theSleeping Forest.

We further find evidence of this concept with the Silver-Haired Men's abilityto summon and control the Shadow Creepers, beings that are also made manifestfrom Spirit Energy that has become tainted by Sephiroth's will. When Cloud andSephiroth have their final confrontation near the end of the film, Sephirothsummons a large dark cloud in the sky. This "negative Lifestream" as Nomuracalled it consisted of the Spirit Energy of those who had died due toGeostigma. Their Spirit Energy had become corrupted by the JENOVA Cellspresent in their bodies, causing it to not only take on this dark appearance,but also to be subservient to Sephiroth's will, as well as that of hisShinentai. The Shadow Creepers take form out of the very same style of darkmist as the negative Lifestream, and likewise disperse back into it whendefeated or dismissed.

Further still, we find yet four more inferences of this concept. The first iswhen Kadaj places the Bahamut SHIN Materia into his left forearm. Dark mist --like that of the negative Lifestream -- rises from the spot on his arm as theMateria sinks into it:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/DarkMist.jpg

This unnatural composition of the Silver-Haired Men would further explain howit was that these three were able to absorb Materia into their bodies in thefirst place.

For the second of these final inferences concerning the Silver-Haired Men'sorigin, we will now look to when Kadaj steps into the lake in the City of theAncients. A dark cloud disperses from him, contaminating the water in the samemanner as Sephiroth's will contaminated countless amounts of Spirit Energy:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Contamination.jpg

Next, we shall look to the moment when Kadaj takes JENOVA's remains into hisown body, absorbing it directly into his torso. At this time, we once againsee dark mist rise from Kadaj's body:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Assimilation.jpg

Finally, note that when Kadaj dies, his body dissipated by Great Gospel, itdisperses into green Spirit Energy, the natural colour of Spirit Energy, nolonger black as had been the mist that arose from his form on previousoccasions:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Salvation.jpg

The Spirit Energy of which his form was composed had been cleansed. We alsosee this process underway with Yazoo and Loz after Kadaj's death.

While it might be also seem possible that the Silver-Haired Men could havebeen formed of Sephiroth's consciousness as dispersed throughout JENOVA'sCells (due mainly to their instinct for the Reunion, as well as the fact thatAerith's Great Gospel dissipated them just as it did the JENOVA Cells withinCloud and the other victims of Geostigma) and transformed from them, thusmaking the three be entirely composed of that viral tissue, it should be notedthat they didn't feel anything actually drawing them toward JENOVA, unlike theClones in Final Fantasy VII, and unlike the children in Advent Children. Infact, it was for the purpose of locating JENOVA's remains that theSilver-Haired Men took the children afflicted with Geostigma and activated theJENOVA Cells within them. They were to essentially be used as bloodhounds thatwould lead the Silver-Haired Men to their "Mother." This is why Kadaj, Yazoo,and Loz believed JENOVA's remains to be buried beneath the Midgar memorialstatue in Edge, as the children had formed a circle around it. Regarding thematter of their instinct for a Reunion with JENOVA's Cells, due to the threebeing Sephiroth's divided consciousness -- and with Kadaj making it clear thatthe three felt an instinctual drive to become whole and could also feel thewill of Sephiroth himself -- this matter is easily explained in thatSephiroth's will would wish for them to join with JENOVA's remains, thusgranting him a means to manifest himself directly once again.

As for them being survivors of the Sephiroth Copy Project, that is mostcertainly not the case as none of the individuals involved in that experimenthad silver hair or green cat-like eyes; they looked just as they always had,only now with the glow in their eyes that comes as a result of being infusedwith Mako. For evidence of this, look to Cloud and the Clone branded with the"2" tattoo, who can be seen early in the game in the Slums of Sector 5 restingin a pipe: Cloud's hair was blonde and his eyes were blue, and Clone 2's hairwas black and his eyes were brown:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Clone2.jpg

With all this in mind, recall that Shinentai are not at all a foreign conceptto Final Fantasy. In fact, in Final Fantasy X and X-2, there are numerousShinentai encountered throughout the game, though we were introduced to suchindividuals as "Unsent." These were individuals who were dissatisfied withtheir deaths and could not peacefully go to the Farplane where their SpiritEnergy (Pyreflies) could "deposit" their memories and then be used once againfor granting life to living beings. Powerful emotions coupled with theirstrong wills kept these individuals' spirits bound to the physical realm, evenallowing them to manifest physical bodies for themselves that were fullycapable of physical interaction directly from their Pyreflies. For all of theindividuals' who became Unsent, there was a case of unfinished business toattend to, just as the concept of a Shinentai would imply.

For that matter, the concept isn't foreign even to Final Fantasy VII. Severalindividuals from Beginner's Hall in Sector 7 who died when the Slums werecrushed beneath the Upper Plate can be found in the Respectable Inn in Junon,their curiosity having prevented them from peacefully returning to the Planet.Another example of such a concept can be seen with the vengeful spirits of theGi Tribe. Their hatred of the people of Cosmo Canyon allowed them to remainpresent in the living world and to even manifest forms capable of physicalinteraction. The hatred these spirits bore for the still-living people ofCosmo Canyon and their subsequent manifestation as monsters is reminiscent ofthe Fiends of Final Fantasy X and X-2, the malevolent spirits of the dead whocame to evny and hate the living.

Therefore, in conclusion, when Sephiroth's body was dismembered, his SpiritEnergy unbound from it, and his will (thoughts) absorbed into the Lifestream,his will contaminated that Spirit Energy it came into contact with, allowinghim some measure of control, resulting in his divided consciousnessmanifesting into the three Silver-Haired Men known as "Kadaj," "Yazoo," and"Loz." It is for this reason that they are called "Shinentai of Sephiroth," or"Remnants." His thoughts (will) contaminated the Lifestream and allowed him tomanifest physical bodies for himself (Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz). The context ofthe term "Shinentai" clearly establishes the three as something that remainedof Sephiroth's thoughts and manifested from them, and with this kept in mindand then consideration given to the inferences of the Silver-Haired Men'sbodies being composed of negative Lifestream, we can conclusively determinethat Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were essentially Shinentai of Sephiroth in thetraditional sense: They were physical manifestations of his will throughcontaminated Spirit Energy.

Points Often Brought Forward to Suggest that the Silver-Haired Men wereSurviving Sephiroth Clones from the Sephiroth Copy Project or Individuals WhoWere the Result of Exactly the Same Experimentation as Sephiroth, Along withResponses to these Points:

*Point: The Silver-Haired Men are given age-ranges on the official AdventChildren website under their profiles. Yazoo and Loz are said to be in their

twenties, and Kadaj is said to be a teenager. With this in mind, theycertainly can't be only two years old or younger. They must be survivors ofthe Sephiroth Copy Project or other Homo Sapien/JENOVA hybrids.

*Response: The official website is a promotional tool, which is obviously notintended to reveal the finer aspects of the story, and, therefore, only statesthe age-ranges that the three would appear to fall under. While true that agesaren't even given for Denzel, Marlene, or Zack on the official website,despite us being aware of their ages through other materials part of theCompilation of Final Fantasy VII (Denzel is 8, Marlene is 6, and Zack was 23at the time of his death), yet age-ranges are given for Yazoo, Loz, and Kadaj,it should be kept in mind that in the past, Square-Enix has intentionallypublished erroneous and even outright false information to prevent leakingspoilers, or to mislead players of their games into thinking one thing upuntil the point that another was revealed as truth during the game itself.This was done with the Final Fantasy X Scenario Ultimania Guide regardingcertain information about the Temples of Yevon and the nature and origin ofSin.

That in mind, the very context of the term "Shinentai" establishes that theSilver-Haired Men are not normal people. This word establishes that they'resomething that took form from that which remained of Sephiroth's thoughts.Considering the context of the word, plus the contaminated Lifestream that thethree are seemingly composed of, plus Sephiroth's assimilation into theLifestream at the end of Final Fantasy VII, we have the explanation for theSilver-Haired Men's origin right in front of us.

The only "inconsistency" this leaves is age-ranges on a promotional websitethat's obviously not supposed to give away the story to begin with, and wouldintentionally mislead viewers if necessary in order to maintain the integrityof a plot point's revelation. In this case, the viewers were obviouslyintentionally misled so as to believe that the Silver-Haired Men were normalpeople, rather than giving them suggestion -- or lack thereof -- enough toponder that they may be Shinentai of Sephiroth.

*Point: If the Silver-Haired Men underwent the same procedure as Sephirothprior to birth, then they would also have the attribute that he does of theirbodies being completely composed of JENOVA's Cells, and could, thus, still bein the age-ranges reported on the official Advent Children website, and itwould make sense that they would dissipate when Aerith's Great Gospel touchedthem.

*Response: While this is true, there is, however, no suggestion to this effectoffered in the film's story, nor is it very logical. If the three had beenaround prior to Sephiroth's defeat by AVALANCHE in Final Fantasy VII, backwhen AVALANCHE was consistently offering problems for Shin-Ra, it makes littlesense for them not to have pitted the three against the rebel group.

Further notable, once again, the very context of the term "Shinentai"

establishes that the Silver-Haired Men are not normal people. It establishesthat they're something that took form from that which remained of Sephirothhimself, and in light of the consistent inferences to them being composed ofcontaminated Spirit Energy, that is the far more likely possibility.

As far as their dissiptation due to Great Gospel goes, the influence of JENOVAand Sephiroth is a blight to the Planet and something to be purged; GreatGospel was used in Final Fantasy VII to the effect of complete recovery forcharacters in all respects, removing all negative Status Effects and fullyrestoring their HP and MP. While such things as Status Effects, HP, and MP areaspects of gameplay and have no place in storyline matters, the implication isobviously that the Limit Break completely purges negative influences.Considering that the influence of Sephiroth had contaminated some of thePlanet's Spirit Energy, it fully makes sense for Great Gospel to purge theSpirit Energy of that negative influence.

*Point: Where would the three newborn adults have suddenly acquiredmotorcycles mounted with machine guns (Tetsuya Nomura stated in the Director'sCommentary on the DVD that the motorcycles have machine guns mounted on theirfronts), their clothing, and their weapons were they Shinentai of Sephiroth?Further, where would they have acquired the skills to use their vehicles andweapons? Further still, where would they have acquired knowledge of Cloud, aswell as a personal vendetta against him for what he did to "Mother"? Were theyindividuals that melded with JENOVA's Cells prior to birth and were also partof Shin-Ra, one can explain their battle prowess, their weaponry, and theirknowledge of Cloud and his defeat of Sephiroth (or JENOVA, as they viewed itseperately from Sephiroth), and, thus, their enmity for Cloud, as well. Thiswould also explain them having Rufus' phone number. While on the subject oftheir celular phones, who was footing the bill for their use of such things?

*Response: Kadaj and Sephiroth both randomly spawn their clothing and weaponsout of thin air. Sephiroth's Masamune simply appears when he fights Cloudbecause he willed it to, and his clothes replaced Kadaj's when Kadaj unitedwith JENOVA's Cells. When Sephiroth is defeated and reverts into Kadaj,Kadaj's clothes have returned, and Sephiroth's Masamune has become a secondSouba katana for Kadaj, replacing the one he lost earlier when Cloud usedFinishing Touch against him. That in mind, it's hardly a mystery that Kadaj,Yazoo, and Loz are using custom weapons and have black outfits. These thingssimiply manifested the same as Sephiroth's clothing and sword manifested. Notethat their clothes dissipate along with their bodies when Aerith's GreatGospel hits them. For that matter, the very fact that Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz'sclothing would be akin to Sephiroth's suggests a subconscious connection tohim.

On to the matter of the trio's mobile phones, it's hardly a requirement thatthey were using mobile phones that required a company contract. Not all mobilephones in reality are operated through satellite relays of signals maintainedby companies that charge a fee for this service. Many operate through radiowaves relayed on the ground through towers connected to the landline telephone

infrastructure, with no fee being charged for their use. There are many mobilephones sold that require no company contract and can simply connect to thebasic landline telephone infrastructure.

Regarding the Silver-Haired Men's skills and battle prowess, being that theywould be Shinentai of Sephiroth, it's to be expected that they would retainsome of his thoughts and/or memories, even if -- as Kadaj said -- they don'tfeel like they personally knew him. By Kadaj's own admission, he could feelSephiroth, despite not actually knowing him on a personal or conscious level.Further, considering that they've inherited Sephiroth's left-handed nature, aswell as his taste in clothes, his hair colour, and his eyes, it's not much ofa stretch to assume that they would inherit some of his memories pertaining tobattle. As for their enmity for Cloud, this would also arise from Sephiroth'sthoughts.

Finally, on the matter of their motorcycles, if it's plausible to assume thatthe three were to be individuals that underwent the same experimentation asSephiroth, yet they've somehow alluded anyone being aware of them, mentioningthem, or enlisting them to take out Shin-Ra's problems for over 20 years, thenit's equally plausible, if not more so, to assume that they simply stole thesemotorcycles from somewhere. A brief gander at Cloud's own motorcycle showsthat this world features some unique and interesting vehicles.

In conclusion, the three Silver-Haired Men were physical manifestations ofSephiroth's consciousness as formed through the Spirit Energy of theLifestream that his mind contaminated and bent to his will.

2) -How Sephiroth was Able to Return in Advent Children-

Quite simply, Sephiroth's divided consciousness (made manifest throughcontaminated Spirit Energy as Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz) needed to join withJENOVA's remaining Cells in order to grant Sephiroth the means to impose hiswill and transmogrify the remains of JENOVA into his form once again. Thesethree Shinentai, or "Remnants," of Sephiroth then felt an instinctual urge toacquire the remains of JENOVA and merge with them. This instinct came fromSephiroth's desire to become whole once again and to unleash his vengeanceupon the world.

However, Shin-Ra, of course, interfered in this matter, the Turks recoveringthe remains of JENOVA from the Northern Crater before the Shinentai could.When Kadaj does finally acquire the remains of JENOVA from Rufus Shinra andmelds with those remains, his body transforms into Sephiroth and became thevessel for Sephiroth's will. The reason this occurred was because Sephiroth'swill was hindered by it having been previously divided and manifestedseperately into Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, thus, granting the three individualstheir own seperate personalities rather than them being Sephiroth himself.With what remained of JENOVA's Cells being introduced into Kadaj's system,

however, and with him completely submitting hiimself to the will attached tothem (Kadaj believed that will to be JENOVA's rather than Sephiroth's; he wasunaware that the two were no longer seperate entities, and that, rather,Sephiroth's consciously perceiving mind had replaced JENOVA's original purelyinstinctual one), Sephiroth's will was able to to manifest itself directlyonce again.

While Sephiroth only managed to complete this process with Kadaj alone due tomore interference from the Turks, it was enough for him to manifest himselfand his will through the bit of his consciousness that took part in theformation of Kadaj and those JENOVA Cells that had been in Rufus' possession.

3) -The Origin of the Shadow Creepers-

An often-pondered question concerning the film's plot is how Kadaj, Yazoo, andLoz could call forth and dismiss -- at will -- the large beasts that attackCloud early in the movie, and are later released upon the populace of Edge,seeing as how they do this without Materia. The answer to this question lieswith the negative Lifestream that Sephiroth calls forth during his battle withCloud. This negative Lifestream was composed of the Spirit Energy of those whohad died with Geostigma. Their Spirit Energy became corrupted and"JENOVA-fied," thus, it could be controlled by the Silver-Haired Men who hadsimilar origins.

Tapping into this negative Spirit Energy, the Silver-Haired Men could manifestit as the beasts called "Shadow Creepers." For evidence of this, look to thefact that the Shadow Creepers disperse into a black cloud when destroyed ordismissed, these black clouds being akin to the large swirling mass of darkclouds that Sephiroth later calls forth, as well as the dark mist that risesfrom Kadaj's form on two occasions (once when he places Bahamut SHIN's Materiainto his left forearm, and a second time when he plunges the remains of JENOVAinto his chest).

4) -Sephiroth: Gone Forever?-

An often-raised question concerning Advent Children is this: "Is Sephirothforever vanquished?" The answer is... "Maybe, but probably not quite... butsort of kind of." As long as there are JENOVA Cells, it's possible thatSephiroth's will remains. It once permeated all JENOVA Cells in existance,even those in living people, unable to impose itself though it may have beenat times. Sephiroth's spirit lived in all of JENOVA's Cells, as he became anew JENOVA. Until all of those Cells are forever destroyed, it's possible thathe may not be vanquished to the Lifestream for all time.

As of the ending of Advent Children, a great victory has been won forAVALANCHE and for the Planet: Many of JENOVA's Cells have been destroyed. In

fact, most have in all likelihood. Those that were within Cloud have beendestroyed by Aerith's Great Gospel, as have all those that were spread amongstthe populace of Midgar and had inflicted them with Geostigma as a result.Further still, those the world over who may have been afflicted with Geostigmawould likely make a journey to Aerith's church in the ruined Slums of Sector 5to be cured. On top of this, those Cells that once composed the head of JENOVAwere destroyed along with Kadaj.

However, Sephiroth's "body" is really all JENOVA Cells that exist. While mosthave been destroyed, some small few remain in former members of SOLDIER, andthe Deep Ground SOLDIERs living in the catacombs beneath Midgar. That said,how many carriers of JENOVA's Cells that there there may still be is unknown,especially in light of the former members of SOLDIER possibly having sufferedfrom Geostigma in the two years since Meteor's destruction, just as Cloud had(recall that the Sephiroth Copy Project that Cloud was part of involved thesame experimental procedures used with members of SOLDIER). With that in mind,if the former members of SOLDIER have all died, then the only JENOVA Cellsremaining in existance as of the beginning of Final Fantasy VII: Dirge ofCerberus (which begins one year after Advent Children ends) may be those inthe Deep Ground SOLDIERs, who will themselves be Vincent and the WorldRestoration Organization's (WRO) adversaries in Dirge of Cerberus.

As of this time, Sephiroth has no means by which to impose his will andinteract in the world again. Much of JENOVA's Cells have been destroyed, andthose few that remain are within strong-willed individuals (as all members ofSOLDIER were), and, further, his divided consciousness has been purged fromthe Spirit Energy it contaminated, and likely absorbed into the Lifestreamonce again, where it may be further diluted, even unto the point of hiseternal defeat. However, he has not yet been utterly destroyed beyond allquestion as what are now HIS Cells have not been completely undone. That said,however, the likelihood of him ever again imposing his will are slim to none,and it's far more likely that his consciousness will be diluted into theLifestream forevermore.

5) -The Final Battle Between Cloud and Sephiroth was not a Hallucination-

Perhaps the greatest misconception concerning Final Fantasy VII: AdventChildren, is that the final battle that took place between Cloud and Sephirothwas a battle in Cloud's mind, with the actual physical battle being betweenCloud and Kadaj. However, this is simply not so and I will here explain why.

First and most notably, throughout the film, the Scenario Writer, KazushigeNojima, served to offer foreshadowing toward the physical event of Kadajbecoming Sephiroth. This was done first when Kadaj spoke to Rufus in Healin,during which time he kneeled before him. Several flashes of Sephiroth himselfkneeling before Rufus instead of Kadaj are shown at this time. Shortlythereafter, in the City of the Ancients, during his speech to the childrenafflicted with Geostigma, Kadaj's form is yet again replaced by Sephiroth's

briefly at the moment he releases a wave of energy from himself. Later still,we find that Kadaj tells Rufus that should the Reunion of theShinentai/Remnants and JENOVA's remaining Cells take place, Sephiroth willreturn. Finally, we find Vincent outright stating that the natural developmentof Kadaj's existance as a Shinentai of Sephiroth will have the end result ofhim becoming Sephiroth. With all this foreshadowing and these hints offeredthroughout the film up to the point of Sephiroth's return, one would have toconclude that Nojima-san was simply incompetent in how he wrote this story ifit was not his intention that the opponent Cloud battled was really Sephiroth.

This would be true, first, because the foreshadowing -- itself a literarydevice -- offered up to this point would be useless; second, because themanner in which the story unfolded suggested the exact OPPOSITE of this battlebeing a hallucination, as everyone in Edge witnessed the descent of thenegative Lifestream Sephiroth called forth (the black tendril-like clouds thatdarkened the sky and descended on the ruins of Midgar were identied by TetsuyaNomura in the Director's Commentary on the film's DVD as something of anegative Lifestream, composed of the Spirit Energy of those who had diedbecause of Geostigma), and the members of AVALANCHE onboard the Sierrawitnessed Cloud's victory. While one might argue that Cloud was simplysuffering from hallucinations due to him having been known to suffer frommental problems in the past, those mental problems were never on the order ofoutright schizophrenia, perceiving stimuli that is not at all present. Cloudsuffered from an identity crisis and a weak self-esteem, which further led toan inability to accept himself for who he was, not schizophrenia. Even havingmultiple personalities is not the same as having schizophrenia. MultiplePersonality Disorder is the case of an individual having two or more\disconnected fragments of their psyche. Schizophrenia is the condition ofinterpreting stimuli that isn't present, or interpreting it in a manner thatis not congruent with reality. Though the term comes from the Greek for"Shattered Mind," this is in reference to the inability to properly interpretstimuli, not in reference to a fragmented psyche.

Also notable is the very obvious fact that Cloud's identity and self-esteemissues were more or less repaired in Final Fantasy VII, with him even comingto accept himself for who he is, admitting his weaknesses and his true self tothose closest to him onboard the Highwind. It had been this inability toaccept himself for who he was that had made him weak enough to be Sephiroth'spuppet in the first place, and as a result of accepting himself for himself,Cloud was able to fend off Sephiroth's will during the ending of the game. Atworst, during Advent Children, Cloud is suffering from guilt andself-loathing, neither of which is exactly on par with schizophrenia.

Something else worthy of consideration is the simple fact that there is noline of differentiation between reality and a hallucination produced byCloud's mind. While one might argue that the presence of the negativeLifestream was said line of differentation, there's the obvious fact tha Sephiroth was present for a full minute before he even conjured up thenegative Lifestream, and was further present for another fifteen seconds afterthe negative Lifestream had begun to clear. Also worthy of noting here is that

after Sephiroth's defeat, Kadaj has a Souba once again, despite his havingbeen lost a few minutes before. Kadaj's second Souba is what remained of theMasamune that Sephiroth had conjured during his appearance.

The argument has also been made that the flashes of cells (represented as theflashes that occasionally appear during the movie with a blue flash) on-screenmarked the line of demarcation for the beginning of Cloud's hallucination, butthis argument is flawed in that such flashes occur frequently throughout thefilm, even when Cloud is not present. To conclude that these were the lines ofdemarcation between hallucinating and perceiving reality for Cloud is toconclude that many characters throughout the game were suffering similar boutsof disassociation with reality.

Also notable is that Sephiroth clearly flies, something that Kadaj and evenCloud cannot do. Further still, Sephiroth is much more powerful than Kadaj.During Cloud's battle with Kadaj, it was Kadaj that was on the defensive; hewas clearly outmatched. In fact, Kadaj never so much as lands a single blow onCloud. Sephiroth, however, had Cloud on the defensive during their entirebattle and landed several hits against him and would have actually been ableto end the fight by running Cloud through with his sword had he chosen toskewer him in a vital area rather than in his organless shoulder. While onemight argue that absorbing JENOVA's extra remaining Cells made Kadaj morepowerful, granting him the ability to fly, greater battle prowess than Cloud,and even a Masamune if he so wished it, there's also the very simple fact thatSephiroth does not have Kadaj's personality.

Kadaj was a conflicted, unsure boy. Sephiroth was a self-confident, stableman. Kadaj didn't even know if he would retain his own personality should hemerge with JENVOA's remains. He didn't know if he would be taken over bySephiroth or not. Nonetheless, he carried out his instinct to merge withJENOVA's Cells simply out of the hope that it might please a mother he hadnever known. Sephiroth on the other hand knew exactly what the results of hisactions would be, what he wanted, and how he was going to go about achievingit. Sephiroth spoke and acted with confidence, even skewering Cloud throughhis shoulder rather than his heart, simply because he was confident enough inhimself that he didn't believe he was going to lose, no matter how long hedragged the battle out, or how many chances he gave Cloud to get back up. Hewas intent on breaking Cloud's spirit. As he told him, he wished to give himdespair; he wanted to take away what was precious to him. Kadaj, on the otherhand, was desperate and would have taken an opportunity to kill Cloud as soonas it arose.

On top of all that, there's also the fact that Sephiroth speaks of his goal,taking advantage of the malady known as Geostigma to achieve his plan. TheSpirit Energy of those who died with Geostigma would become contaminated, andwould, thus, infringe upon the positive Lifestream over time. Basically, theSpirit Energy of those who died due to Geostigma would become "JENOVA-fied,"granting Sephiroth dominance over that Spirit Energy. Eventually, he wouldhave enough of this Spirit Energy bent to his will that he could use it toassimilate the rest of the positive Lifestream.

With all this in mind, there's absolutely no indication that Cloud washallucinating. All indication points to what viewers of Advent Childrenwitnessed as the final battle having been the true final battle. The idea thatCloud was experiencing a hallucinogenic battle with Sephiroth while actuallyfighting Kadaj requires assuming many things, none of which have any support:

1) That the Scenario Writer offered continuous foreshadowing and hints thatKadaj would become Sephiroth -- even going so far as to have Vincent outrightstate that Kadaj's natural development as a Shinentai of Sephiroth would havehim become Sephiroth -- but never went anywhere with the idea in reality.

2) That Kadaj gained the ability to fly.

3) That Kadaj somehow gained a completely different personality, lost hisaggressive and desperate drive to take Cloud out at the earliest availabletime, and suddenly gained a confidence boost as though he had spent a lifetimein therapy, but despite all this, was still himself... and that he thenreverted into his old unsure, desperate-to-get-to-talk-to-Mother self afterCloud beat him.

4) That Cloud conjured up a goal for Sephiroth who he wasn't even fighting.

5) That Cloud conceived of a negative Lifestream in the first place, and thatthe Director would bother to mention this in a manner that suggests it is partof what actually took place in the film, not in a manner that would suggest itto be the line of demarcation between reality and insanity.

6) That Kadaj falls out of the sky, inexplicably losing his ability to flyafter being wounded by Cloud.

7) That Cloud and Kadaj had an apocalyptic, epic showdown that we don't getto see.

8) That the Writer was a moron.

While one might argue that things in a story can be interpreted any number ofways even despite a lack of support, this applies to themes, symbols, subtext,and other subtleties. This does not, however, apply to events that areexplicitly illustrated or stated to have occurred. Interpretations must fallin line with what has otherwise been presented as fact, not distort or alterit to fit the interpretations themselves.

6) -Sephiroth Formed His Masamune Out of Thin Air-

A common question concerning Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children pertains tohow he acquired his Masamune before his battle with Cloud began. Some have

concluded that Kadaj landed in the vicinity of his Souba (his double-bladedkatana) that he dropped a moment before, and that Sephiroth then used Kadaj'sSouba to block Cloud's strike, and that he then transmutated the Souba intohis Masamune. Seemingly, support for this notion would come from the fact thatwhen Sephiroth is defeated and he disperses, his Masamune has beentransmutated into Kadaj's Souba. However, this is not accurate and I will hereexplain why.

While Kadaj does fall in the general direction that his Souba had fallen, whenhe lands, stands up, and then stretches out his arms toward the descendingCloud, there is no indication that there is a sword in his hands:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/KadajsTransformation.jpg

Further still, we find that in the very first frame we see when the cameraangle switches from looking at Sephiroth blocking Cloud's attack to theclose-up of the two, the hilt that Sephiroth is holding doesn't have a bladeat all, and that Sephiroth had blocked Cloud's attack with his will:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/KadajsTransformation3.jpg

We then find that Sephiroth wills a blade for his sword into existance, theblade taking form out of thin air:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/KadajsTransformation4.jpg

Also notable is that there are no tassles attached to either side of the hiltthat Sephiroth is holding, whereas there is a tassle attached to both sides ofthe hilt of Kadaj's Souba:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Tassle.jpg

Interestingly enough, when Sephiroth is defeated and his body reverts intoKadaj's, the Masamune becomes a second Souba, tassles and all:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Tassle2.jpg

Based on these observations, we can conclusively determine that Sephiroth didnot transmutate Kadaj's Souba into the Masamune, but, rather, he simply willedit into existance, the same as his clothing and the metal shoulder plates hewore.

7) -Symbolism in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children-

*"Advent Children": The term "Advent" means "An anticipated arrival." In thecase of Christian Mythology, it refers to the Second Coming of Christ. In thecase of Advent Children, the title was used as the film featured the return ofSephiroth, the "New God." The "Children" in question in the title would beKadaj, Yazoo, Loz, the children who were afflicted with Geostigma, andpossibly Cloud himself.

*"Kadaj": This name is a take on "Kaddish," a Jewish prayer of mourning.

*Aerith's Role: Aerith has essentially become the will of the Planet itself.She guided its Lifestream to the salvation of humanity at the end of FinalFantasy VII, and she again guides the will of the Planet in Advent Children,bringing Great Gospel to cure Cloud and others of Geostigma, destroying allJENOVA Cells that she touches with it. The symbolism here is that she hasbecome "Mother Earth," the name given to the spirit of the Planet Earth inmany cultures. Recall that Aerith's name is a Japanese transliteration of theEnglish word "Earth."

*Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz as a Trinity: According to Christianity, God iscomposed of three spiritual components, or personas; one might even call themdifferent functions. These are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Manalso is said to be composed of a trinity, in this case consisting of the Mind,the Body, and the Soul. Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz are a trinity that arose fromSephiroth's defeat at the end of Final Fantasy VII. His will manifested themfrom the Spirit Energy it contaminated, thus, they are him, though they havedifferent personas from his as individuals.

*Cloud Pouring Water on Denzel's Head: This is symbolic of Baptism, theconcept in which one anointed with the Spirit of God and empowered with hisauthority to cleanse one of their sins pours water on the head of a repentantsinner, the action symbolizing that the individual is cleansed of their pastevil and is granted spiritual rebirth. In the film, this was symbolized byCloud "baptizing" Denzel in pouring water on his head and cleansing him of the"evil" of JENOVA's Cells, curing him of Geostigma.

-Final Fantasy VII

To better understand Advent Children, one may benefit from a greaterunderstanding of its predecessor, the original Final Fantasy VII. In thissection, I will offer in-depth analyses and explanations concerning some major-- and minor -- aspects of Final Fantasy VII's plot.

1) _-The JENOVA Thesis-_

-Explanation of JENOVA and its Goal-

JENOVA is an ancient lifeform that arrived on the Planet Gaia some 2,000 yearsbefore the main events of the game. Its landing site was the giant fissure --and wound to the Planet -- known as the "Northern Crater." The area whereJENOVA had arrived was in the vicinity of the land known as the "Knowlespole"in those days. The Knowlespole was likely a lush and fertile land, as it wasthe home of a Cetra tribe that had cultivated it. These Cetra at theKnowlesple had been the first to discover the Planet's wound and attempted tohelp the Planet heal, using their abilities to guide the Planet's flow ofSpirit Energy to the wound. However, the wound was too severe, and would haveto be left to the Planet to heal on its own. Further still, due to thePlanet's Spirit Energy being redirected to the Northern Crater, the landaround the area of the Crater -- the Cetra's Knowlespole -- withered away, andthe Planet tried to persuade the Cetra to leave the land they loved.

As they prepared to abandon their land, a being appeared at the NorthernCrater and approached them, feigning friendship, appearing to them (eitherthrough projected psychic illusions, or through shapeshifting) as their deadrelatives. When it got close enough, it infected those Cetra that it couldwith a virus that caused insanity and physical transformation into monsters,and then proceeded to approach other Cetra clans and do the same to them. This being was JENOVA, the Crisis from the Sky:

Gast "Tell us Ifalna... Where is the land called 'Knowlespole'?"

Ifalna "Knowlespole refers to this area. The Cetra then began a Planet-reading."

Gast "Ifalna, what exactly does Planet-reading entail?"

Ifalna "...I can't explain it very well, but it's like having a conversation with the Planet..." "It said something fell from the sky making a large wound." "Thousands of Cetra pulled together, trying to heal the Planet..." "But, due to the severity of the wound, it was only able to heal itself, over many years."

Gast "Do the Ancients, rather, the Cetra, have special powers to heal the Planet?"

Ifalna "No, it's not that kind of power. The life force of all living things on this Planet becomes the energy." "The Cetra tried desperately to cultivate the land so as not to

diminish the needed energy..."

Gast "Hmm, even here so close to the North Cave, the snow never melts." "Is that because the planet's energy is gathered here to heal its injury?"

Ifalna "Yes, the energy that was needed to heal the Planet withered away the land... then the Planet..." "The Planet tried to persuade the Cetra to leave the Knowlespole, but..."

Gast "Ifalna... Let's take a break."

Ifalna "I'm all right... When the Cetra... were preparing to part with the land they loved..." "That's when it appeared!" "It looked like... our... our dead mothers... and our dead brothers. Showing us spectres of their past."

Gast "Who is the person that appeared at the North Cave? I haven't any idea."

Ifalna "That's when the one who injured the Planet... or the 'crisis from the sky', as we call him, came." "He first approached as a friend, deceived them, and finally...... gave them the virus." "The Cetra were attacked by the virus and went mad... transforming into monsters." "Then, just as he had at the Knowlespole." "He approached other Cetra clans...... infecting them with... the virus..."

A small number of uninfected Cetra banded together and mounted an assault onthe Crisis, defeating it and sealing it away, though how is not explained inthe game. JENOVA is eventually discovered by Professor Gast of Shin-Ra Inc.,studied, and falsely believed to have been a Cetra by the Professor. Sadly, heand his assistant Hojo extract some of the creature's Cells and use them tothe effort of enhancing Sephiroth while still in the womb of his mother,Lucrecia, in an attempt to create a new Cetra, and thus a great many of theproblems that have to be faced by AVALANCHE and the Planet Gaia begin.

The exact details of the creature's origin are unknown, but what it is, andwhat it's goal was, can be determined. JENOVA was essentially a virus. The

virus it unleashed upon the Cetra was actually its own Cells, which are statedin-game to be capable of changing form:

"The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words, is the power of Jenova."

Viruses have two goals: 1) Survival, and 2) replication. By infecting otherlife forms, JENOVA was replicating, as these other creatures would be part ofJENOVA itself, an extension of the creature.

We find further suggestion of this concept in the official Final Fantasy VIInovel, "On the Way to a Smile," written by Kazushige Nojima, which serves tobridge the two-year gap between the events of Final Fantasy VII and those ofAdvent Children. In this story, Denzel tells Reeve that those people INFECTED(note the terminology) with JENOVA's Cells that were spread by the Lifestreamflowing across Midgar were discharging a black pus through the pores of theirbodies. With this in mind, recall that the malady known as "Geostigma" isrevealed in the film to be the result of the body overworking itself in aneffort to rid itself of JENOVA's Cells. When JENOVA's Cells entered people, atfirst they would discharge this black pus, as this is the body's naturalreaction to an intrusion by viruses: One's natural immune system involuntarilyrushes white blood cells to the location of an infectious substance withinone's body in an attempt to contain it and then discharge it from the body.That's exactly what was happening with those infected by JENOVA's Cells.However, the virus was too strong to be removed as simply as random bacteriawould be.

In regard to the creature's gender, while it typically appears as a femaleduring the main events of the game, in light of its ability to change itsshape ("Sephiroth: 'Cloud... Don't blame Tifa. The ability to change one'slooks, voice, and words, is the power of Jenova.'"), and it -- or parts of itto be more specific -- taking the form of Sephiroth during the course of thegame, it cannot be reasonably classified as female with any strong measure ofcertainty, nor as male. It may very well be genderless.

NOTE: That JENOVA had taken a male's form before this point, and that theCetra had not even identified it as having a gender for certain, is somethingthat is often fallaciously made reference to based on the following dialogue:

Gast "Who is the person that appeared at the North Cave? I haven't any idea."

Ifalna "That's when the one who injured the Planet... or the 'crisis from the sky', as we call it, came." "HE first approached as a friend, deceived them, and finally...... gave them the virus." "The Cetra were attacked by the virus and went mad... transforming into monsters." "Then, just as HE had at the Knowlespole."

"HE approached other Cetra clans...... infecting them with... the virus..."

Note that other times, JENOVA is simply referred to as an "it":

Cloud: "...Did IT get away? Jenova...?"

Barret: "Where's ITS $#&*&@ head? This whole thing's stupid. Let's keepgoin'."

Ifalna: "When the Cetra... were preparing to part with the land they loved..." "That's when IT appeared!" "IT looked like... our... our dead mothers... and our dead brothers. Showingus spectres of their past."

Further, while the PlayStation Version of FFVII's script has JENOVA beingreferred to as a "he" during those first parts of Ifalna's story related abovefrom the Original Crisis Reports seen at Icicle Inn, in the PC Version of thescript, in which many errors were corrected, all dialogue during the OriginalCrisis Reports refers to JENOVA as an "it." Taking this into account, thegender references within the PlayStation version of the script would not bevalid in regard to discussing the matter of JENOVA. JENOVA's shapeshiftingabilities and the fact that Ifalna didn't identify the creature by any gendertells us that JENOVA cannot reasonably be considered as definitely beingfemale, or definitely having a gender at all.

-Explanation of the Powers of JENOVA-

Based on what we're told by Ifalna ("It looked like... our... our deadmothers... and our dead brothers. Showing us spectres of their past."), andthe illusions that appear during the Reunion so as to display the events thathad taken place in Nibelheim five years before the main events of the game, weknow that JENOVA had the capacity to create powerful illusions of a realisticnature.

We also know that JENOVA had the capacity to shapeshift:

Sephiroth: "The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words, is the powerof Jenova."

We're further made aware of this through separated parts of JENOVA -- such asits arm/tentacle -- transforming into large creatures that were complete withtheir own heads, despite being separated from the head of JENOVA's body, andthe main body itself. Further still, this is brought to our attentionthrough separated parts of JENOVA having taken on the form of Sephiroth, as

we're shown through JENOVA-DEATH's transformation and also through theappearance of JENOVA-LIFE, as well:

Cloud"Sephiroth!!!"

::AVALANCHE runs toward Sephiroth and stands behind him; he doesn't turn toface them::

"This is the end!"

Sephiroth"You're right. This is the end of this body's usefulness."

::The area goes dark and Sephiroth vanishes, leaving only a plume of darksmoke::

Cloud"He disappeared!?"

Tifa"He might still be nearby......"

...

::Later, Sephiroth reappears, hovering above the party as the light returns tothe area, with his sword drawn. He descends upon AVALANCHE, knocking them tothe ground as he had done back on the Shin-Ra cargo ship. He then lands andslowly turns to face them and assumes a battle-ready position as AVALANCHEgets back to its feet; the battle with JENOVA-DEATH commences::

Cloud"Jenova's cells...""...hmm. So that's what this is all about.""The Jenova Reunion..."

Tifa"Not Sephiroth!? You mean all this time it wasn't Sephiroth we were after?"

::Cloud shakes his head::

Cloud "My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!"

Sephiroth "What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me you have feelingstoo?"

Cloud "Of course! Who do you think I am!?"

Sephiroth "Ha, ha, ha...... Stop acting as if you were sad." "There's no need to act as though you're angry either."

Sephiroth "Because, Cloud. You are..."

::The battle with JENOVA-LIFE commences; when the battle ends, the screenfades to black::

Jenova "Because, you are...... a puppet."

We also know that those with JENOVA Cells within them can be controlled bySephiroth, with his will able to permeate each JENOVA Cell, despite them beingseparated. This is displayed on more than one occasion in regard to Cloud andthe black-cloaked experiments that were drawn to the Reunion, as they wereordered to bring the Black Materia by Sephiroth.

We're also made aware that the JENOVA Cells were capable of phasing throughsolid objects, and then solidifying again afterward, similar to the MartianManhunter/Jonn Jonz of DC Comics, as we see a form of Sephiroth phase upthrough the floor in the Shin-Ra cargo ship, after having slaughtered theShin-Ra crew onboard.

We're further made aware of the fact these Cells could phase through solidobjects and then solidfy once again because a Sephiroth form does so at theTemple of the Ancients, phasing down through the cieling behind Tseng,solidifying and speaking with him momentarily before skewering him with asword.

As for another of JENOVA's abilities, we know that beings with JENOVA Cellswithin them can fly or even just float in the air, as Cloud is lifted into theair at the Reunion. JENOVA-SYNTHESIS itself, the form of JENOVA fought withinthe Planet at the bottom of the Northern Crater, flew up to the area where itbattled AVALANCHE and was floating during the battle against it.

Based on all these things, we can conclude that JENOVA was a being of vastpsychokinetic/telekinetic and telepathic power that, through the virtue of theafore-mentioned abilities, possessed the capacity to alter its form at will,create realistic illusions, fly/levitate, phase through solid objects and thensolidify once again, and either itself or Sephiroth could use the presence ofits Cells in another being's body as a conduit into that being's mind.

-Explanation of Sephiroth's Identity-

Sephiroth was the son of Hojo and Lucrecia (not Vincent and Lucrecia, as isoften misinterpreted). While still a developing fetus in Lucrecia's womb, hewas brought into contact with JENOVA Cells through Gast and Hojo'sexperimentation when the Cells of the ancient being were injected intoLucrecia's womb, the Cells then melding with his still developing body andbecoming one with his natural cells, being distributed throughout his entirebody as it formed and developed. He was told that his Mother's name was"Jenova," though why he was told this is and the intent behind doing so areunknown.

We learn in the game that the purpose of Gast's JENOVA Project was to producepeople with the powers of the Cetra, and based on Shin-Ra's later actions inregard to Aerith, it's likely that -- as they believed JENOVA to be a Cetra,or Ancient, one of the original caretakers of the Planet -- they believed thechild would be a Cetra by having melded with JENOVA's Cells, and that it couldlead them to the Promised Land of the Cetra, a land of bliss, which theyfurther believed to be rich with Spirit Energy from which they could deriveMako.

However, at roughly thirty years of age, while on a mission to investigatemonster appearances in the Nibelheim area, in the library of the Shin-RaMansion, Sephiroth discovers the scientific journals of Professor Gast. Makinga connection between the JENOVA of Gast's experiments and the Jenova he hadbeen told was his mother, as well as contemplating that he may have beenproduced through experiments involving Mako, he believed himself to be the sonof this JENOVA -- or, more accurately, a being produced from its geneticmaterial -- and that he and JENOVA were the last of the Ancients (Cetra):

Sephiroth "Hmph... traitor."

Cloud "Traitor?"

Sephiroth "You ignorant traitor. I'll tell you."

Sephiroth "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on..." "At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness."

Sephiroth "But, those that disliked the journey appeared. Those who stopped their migrations built shelters and elected to lead an easier life." "They took that which the Cetra and the planet had made without giving one whit in return!"

Sephiroth "Those are your ancestors."

Cloud "Sephiroth..."

Sephiroth "Long ago, disaster struck this planet."

Sephiroth "Your ancestors escaped... They survived because they hid." "The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to increase."

Sephiroth "Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."

Cloud "What does that have to do with you?"

Sephiroth "Don't you get it?"

Sephiroth "An Ancient named Jenova was found in the geological stratum of 2000 years ago." "The Jenova Project."

Sephiroth "The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients..... no, the Cetra."

Sephiroth "...I am the one that was produced."

Cloud "Pr... produced!?"

Sephiroth "Yes." "Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me."

Cloud "How... how did he...?"

Cloud "Se... Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth "Out of my way. I'm going to see my mother."

He then began to believe himself to be superior to all other Homo Sapiens, andbegan viewing the rest of humanity as usurpers of a world that rightfullybelonged to himself and JENOVA.

After arriving at this belief, Sephiroth proceeds to slaughter the citizens ofNibelheim and raze the town to the ground. Zack and Tifa go after him, Tifaattempting to kill him with his own sword, which he had left behind when hekilled her father. Cloud also follows after, determined to protect Tifa thistime, as he had failed to do years before. Tifa and Zack follow Sephiroth tothe Mt. Nibel Reactor. After taking his weapon back, nearly fatally woundingTifa, and then dispatching Zack when he arrives, Cloud charges into JENOVA'sRoom where Sephiroth is preparing to free the being, grabbing Zack's swordfrom the floor and carrying it with him as he goes, taking Sephiroth bysurprise as he enters and stabbing him through his back. While Cloud tends toTifa, Sephiroth takes JENOVA's head off, likely too weakened from Cloud'sattack to take the rest of its body with him, and then attempts to leave withthe head. However, Cloud goes after him again. As Sephiroth attempts to leave,Cloud rushes him, yet Sephiroth skewers Cloud with his sword and holds himabove the heart of the Mako Reactor, a direct path into the Lifestream. Thisis when Cloud -- likely in a moment of adrenaline-charged desperation beforehis body gave out -- grasped the blade of Sephiroth's sword and hurled hisopponent away from him, using the sword that had skewered him as his pivot.Sephiroth then flees, leaping into the Lifestream with JENOVA's head held tohim.

After this, Sephiroth's body is carried to the Northern Crater where thePlanet's Spirit Energy was being constantly directed in order to heal thewound that is the Crater. There, Sephiroth's body becomes encased in Mako(condensed Spirit Energy). In the present, Sephiroth acts as the embodiment ofJENOVA's will, acting to use the Black Materia to bring down Meteor and rendera massive wound unto the Planet. Sephiroth then intended to join with theSpirit Energy that would be gathered as a result, and become one with thePlanet.

After Sephiroth is defeated by AVALANCHE and his body destroyed, the battlebetween Sephiroth and Cloud actually takes place solely as a mental battle ofwills (as is evident by Cloud not having moved from where he was standingbefore his "journey" to face Sephiroth began), in which Cloud defeatsSephiroth's will as he made one final attempt to fight for dominance of hismind and body, Cloud being the only person nearby with JENOVA Cells and a willthat had proven weak enough for being controlled in the past. With this done,Holy -- the Ultimate White Magic, which may have been able to stand againstMeteor -- began to move.

-The Roles of JENOVA and Sephiroth: The Puppet Master Theorem-

The long debated matter of Final Fantasy VII: The Puppet Master Theorem; wasJENOVA or Sephiroth in control? Who was the grand manipulator, the mastermindbehind it all? I will here present the truth of the matter.

Before examining this matter, it may be best to first explain what JENOVA isand functions as: A virus. Whatever its origins, JENOVA's behaviour 2,000years before the main events of the game was indicative of that of a virus,the goals of a virus being to spread and to replicate. This is exactly whatJENOVA does upon its arrival on the world of Gaia. It approaches the Cetra,tricking them with its appearance by appearing as their dead relatives, andthen it released upon them what Ifalna referred to as "the virus." She saidthat this virus drove the Cetra insane and turned them into monsters.

At face value, this may sound like an attack. But think a bit further: Ifalnais not saying that these Cetra were being killed; rather, she is saying thatthey were being TRANSFORMED. JENOVA's Cells are known to cause mutations. AsSephiroth says at the Northern Crater, "The power to change one's looks,voice, and words is the power of Jenova." What, then, was JENOVA releasingupon the Cetra? Its very own Cells. It was transforming them into more ofitself. JENOVA was seeking to replicate.

We find further suggestion of this concept in the official Final Fantasy VIInovel, "On the Way to a Smile," written by Kazushige Nojima, which serves tobridge the two-year gap between the events of Final Fantasy VII and those ofAdvent Children. In this story, Denzel tells Reeve that those people INFECTED(note the terminology) with JENOVA's Cells that were spread by the Lifestreamflowing across Midgar were discharging a black pus through the pores of theirbodies. With this in mind, recall that the malady known as "Geostigma" isrevealed in the film to be the result of the body overworking itself in aneffort to rid itself of JENOVA's Cells. When JENOVA's Cells entered people, atfirst they would discharge this black pus, as this is the body's naturalreaction to an intrusion by viruses: One's natural immune system involuntarilyrushes white blood cells to the location of an infectious substance withinone's body in an attempt to contain it and then discharge it from the body.That's exactly what was happening with those infected by JENOVA's Cells.However, the virus was too strong to be removed as simply as random bacteriawould be.

With that touched upon, I will now move on to the events of the game itself.I would argue that the acts of murdering President Shinra, much of the Shin-Rapersonnel in the Shin-Ra headquarters, Tseng, and Aerith were Sephiroth's,being committed while he carried out JENOVA's will, it also being his ownwill. Sephiroth was essentially the ebmodiment of JENOVA's will in a native ofthe Planet of Gaia, while still retaining his own individuality. JENOVA's willwas not so much that of consciously perceiving thought-processes, but, rather,that of an instinctual beast, a virus seeking to perform one function: To makemore of itself.

What became Sephiroth's intent was JENOVA's will all along. JENOVA Cells had

been injected into the womb of Lucrecia, Sephiroth's mother, when Sephirothwas still a developing fetus, and there the Cells melded with his body as itdeveloped, becoming one with every aspect of his body as it developed into itsnormal infant form. In some respects, one could argue that Sephiroth wasessentially an extension of JENOVA, a new form of JENOVA.

It has been argued by many that Sephiroth was controlling JENOVA, and it hasalso been argued that JENOVA was outright controlling Sephiroth, yet I havecome to conclude that what we witness throughout the game was simplySephiroth's natural growth into that which he always was: Another face toJENOVA's will. One might even say he was a mutation of the virus that WASJENOVA.

Once Sephiroth fell into the Lifestream with JENOVA's head, his life changed.The knowledge of the Lifestream would have become privy to him. Sephirothwould have come to learn just what JENOVA was, and just who he was. Sephiroththen simply desired to assume the role of that which he now was: A virus. Hewanted to become everything. He wanted the world to be his. He wantedeverything to be part of himself, just as he and JENOVA were part of oneanother. He wanted to shape the future in his own image, living now as theJENOVA virus with the mind and emotions he had as a consciously perceivinghuman being:

(Inside the Temple of the Ancients, and Out)Sephiroth "I am becoming one with the Planet."

Tseng "One with the Planet?"

Sephiroth "You stupid fools. You have never even thought about it." "All the spirit energy of this Planet. All its wisdom... knowledge..." "I will meld with it all. I will become one with it... It will become one with me."

...

Aerith "How do you intend to become one with the Planet?"

Sephiroth "It's simple." "Once the Planet is hurt, it gathers Spirit Energy to heal the injury."

Sephiroth "The amount of energy gathered depends on the size of the injury."

Sephiroth "...What would happen if there was an injury that threatened the very life of the Planet?" "Think how much energy would be gathered!"

Sephiroth "Ha ha ha. And at the center of that injury, will be me." "All that boundless energy will be mine."

Sephiroth "By merging with all the energy of the Planet, I will become a new life forn, a new existence." "Melding with the Planet... I will cease to exist as I am now." "Only to be reborn as a 'God' to rule over every soul."

...

Sephiroth "I'm far superior to the Ancients." "I became a traveler of the Lifestream and gained the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients." "I also gained the knowledge and wisdom of those after the extinction of the Ancients." "And soon, I will create the future."

As can be seen here, Sephiroth desired to become one with everything else. Hedesired to make everything be a part of him. He desired to replicate.

Further, he had apparently remained devoted to JENOVA, despite learning thatneither it nor he were Cetra. Perhaps this was due to him sympathizing with itfor being used by Shin-Ra as well, or perhaps it was simply because it waspart of him and he was part of it, and they were one. In any event, he stillreferred to it as "Mother" and had now adopted the creature's behaviour as hisown. Sephiroth's growth was essentially that of introducing consciousperception to a viral entity that "thought" based on instinct.

Sephiroth's goal is further supported by the game's CGI film sequel, FinalFantasy VII: Advent Children. During the film, after Sephiroth has been reborndue to JENOVA's Cells that were in Rufus Shinra's possession merging withKadaj, he tells Cloud that his goal is to use Gaia itself as a vessel to sailthe cosmos until he can find another Planet, one which has not yet been"corrupted" by the presence of Homo Sapiens. He then intends to make thisworld be his new "paradise."

In summary, I would describe the matter of JENOVA and Sephiroth as aunification in which JENOVA's own will was being carried out through what wasessentially the embodiment of that will within a human being: Sephiroth. Onthe whole, the plot that unveiled was formed of a symbiotic existance, perhapseven a fusion, between JENOVA and its Gaian embodiment/mutation/evolution,

Sephiroth.

Does this mean that JENOVA really is the Puppet Master of Final Fantasy VII?In a very loose sense that ignores the full context of the situation, yes.JENOVA's will plays out through Sephiroth, however, it was not consciouslymanipulating or controlling him into doing anything. There was not anypuppeteering going on except that which was exerted over Cloud and theblack-cloaked Clones from Nibelheim. There was just growth. Sephiroth simplygrew as a mutation of JENOVA.

As far as an argument that Sephiroth was controlling JENOVA goes, this wouldbe rather illogical in light of such an argument calling for Sephirothconsistently displaying reverence toward the creature while simultaneouslycommanding it about like a slave. Such an argument collapses upon itself,whereas the notion that the JENOVA that once was is no more, and what remainsis this mutation, Sephiroth, does not.

Just as an argument that Sephiroth controlled JENOVA falls apart, so too doesone that argues that JENOVA controlled him, as it's made obvious in both FinalFantasy VII (the original game) and Advent Children that this was not thecase. In Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth's utmost enmity toward Cloud andconsistent mental torture of the protagonist displays that Sephiroth himselfwas certainly very much aware and active, as JENOVA would have no cause torender such agony unto Cloud, whereas Sephiroth, one who was filled with pride-- pride that had been hurt when Cloud beat him five years earlier -- would.Further still, he speaks of JENOVA in the third-person. This continues intoAdvent Children, when he speaks of sailing the cosmos "As Mother did beforeme."

Symbolically, Sephiroth could be described in much the same way as JesusChrist is described in regard to God in Christianity: An embodiment that isnot so much a separate entity as it is a separate function, or different faceto the same being. Sephiroth is to JENOVA what Jesus is to God. This waslikely set up in such a manner intentionally, as JENOVA's name is abastardization of the Hebrew "YHWH"/"JHVH" (commonly localized in English as"Yahweh"/"Jehovah"), possibly combined with the Latin word "Nova" to form ablended word meaning "New God." The music that plays as Safer Sephirothhatches from Bizarro Sephiroth is called "Birth of a God," reflecting theseconcepts. Further of note regarding this Jesus-like symbolism is thatChristian mythology recognizes that Jesus was God made manifest in a humanwoman's womb. The closest thing to such an occurrence takes place in FinalFantasy VII's backstory regarding Sephiroth, as the Cells of JENOVA ( the "NewGod") were injected into the womb of Sephiroth's mother, Lucrecia, where theymerged with Sephiroth's body as it developed. Further still, we find that theCGI film sequel to Final Fantasy VII is entitled "Advent Children," the"Advent of Christ" being another name for what is known as "the Second Comingof Christ." In this film, we witness the "second coming" of Sephiroth.

In conclusion, my determination is that there was no issue of control in thefirst place, as Sephiroth WAS JENOVA, but an evolved -- or, rather, mutated --

form of the creature.

(Note: The rest of this article will contain points that are often brought upin favour of either JENOVA or Sephiroth being in control of the other; eachpoint will receive as though it were made by one holding the opposite view,detailing why the point fails to support the possibility in question.)

Points Often Brought Forward to Suggest Sephiroth's Control, but Which Don'tNecessarily Support the Possibility:

*Point: Sephiroth fell into the Lifestream and gained the knowledge and wisdomof the Ancients. He says as much himself at the Temple of the Ancients. It washim that was doing everything.

*Response: There's also the fact that JENOVA's head fell into the Lifestreamwith Sephiroth (refer to this picture: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/SephirothsFall.jpg), so this in no waygrants Sephiroth a superior position in regard to the Puppet Master Theorem.The whole perspective of the matter of JENOVA having influence over him is dueto the presence of JENOVA's Cells in his body and brain. Accessing anyinformation that he gained while floating about in there should have beentheoretically as simple as speaking into his mind or even examining its ownthoughts.

*Point: JENOVA was already braindead all along, defeated by the Cetra 2000years before the game begins. Sephiroth just utilized its power in thepresent. If the creature were not a vegetable all along, why did it wait solong to break free or to manipulate Sephiroth into freeing it?

*Response: JENOVA was still very much alive. Ifalna's statement concerningJENOVA at Icicle Inn should be kept in mind:

"Even though Jenova is confined, it could come back to life at some time...""The Planet has not fully healed itself yet. It is still watching Jenova."

Ifalna specifically tells us that the creature wasn't dead, and, further yet,there's the fact that Sephiroth -- while standing outside of JENOVA's Room inMt. Nibel's Mako Reactor -- reacts as Cloud does whenever another psycheentered his mind in how he clutched at his head after he began questioning hisorigin. This suggests the possibilty that JENOVA was awake again and enteringhis mind.

As for JENOVA having waited "so long" to take action, JENOVA had been confinedfor over 2000 years, and was used for experimentation while still confined forthe last 25 of those years. Considering the creature's power, whatever meansthe Cetra used to confine it must have taken a toll on it and left itweakened. It may have simply not had the power to reach out to Sephiroth all

the way across the world, or may not have even awakened once more until hecame into close proximity with it, the presence of its Cells within himlending a "spark" of sorts to JENOVA's consciousness. What is certain,however, is that JENOVA was not dead.

*Point: The fact that the pieces of JENOVA took on Sephiroth's form in thefirst place suggests that Sephiroth was the manipulator.

*Response: Or it could simply be that he was carrying out JENOVA's will byemploying his own methods.

*Point: During the Reunion, Hojo specifically says that Sephiroth's will wasmanipulating the Sephiroth Clones:

"Sephiroth is not just content to diffuse his will into the Lifestream; hewants to maniplate the Clones himself."

*Response: Yes, it's obvious that the Reunion was being used for anotherpurpose. The Clones were naturally being drawn to JENOVA, but were being senton a side trip of sorts to look for the Black Materia as they made their wayto JENOVA for the Reunion. If Sephiroth were the one ordering them to do this,that still doesn't remove the possibility of JENOVA having given him the ideasfor the main points in question.

*Point: The Sephiroth Clones wear black because Sephiroth does, and alsorefer to him as "the great Sephiroth" and their master to whom they were totake the Black Materia. This, coupled with the fact that Lucrecia had beenseeing Sephiroth in her dreams around the time the call of the Reunion wentout, is strong evidence toward Sephiroth having been the grand manipulator.

*Response: Again, it's obvious that the Reunion was used for another purpose,but Sephiroth may have simply been making use of the Clones while they were ontheir way to the Reunion. That still doesn't negate the possibility thatMeteor and melding with the Lifestream were JENOVA's ideas. Him serving as atool of JENOVA could easily involve him having manipulated the Clones and themperceiving him as their master.

*Point: The final boss battle (the Safer Sephiroth fight) is fought againstSephiroth, not JENOVA. If JENOVA were in control or if neither was controllingthe other, why would it put itself in danger by fighting AVALANCHE instead ofsending Sephiroth? It got killed in the JENOVA-SYNTHESIS battle. For thatmatter, it's a rule of RPGs that the last opponent you fight is the truevillain.

*Response: The final boss battle is fought against a transformed Sephiroth,

obviously transformed through JENOVA's Cells, and bearing a wing in place ofits right arm that is composed of the same colors as JENOVA-BIRTH,JENOVA-LIFE, and JENOVA-DEATH. JENOVA wasn't killed in the JENOVA-SYNTHESISbattle. The fact that its individual parts can act while separated from themain body, or that its head being removed from its body without killing it,shows that the creature lived so long as its Cells remained. It had Cells inSephiroth.

For that matter, JENOVA's head is present in Final Fantasy VII: AdventChildren, based two years after the game ended. JENOVA wasn't killed at theend of Final Fantasy VII. It was present in the final battle as much asSephiroth due to the presence of its Cells in his body

As far as the last opponent fought in RPGs always being the true villain goes,that wasn't the case with Necron in Final Fantasy IX. Not only does this"rule" not hold true with all RPGs, but it doesn't even hold true within thesame RPG franchise as Final Fantasy VII.

In any event, JENOVA most likely needed Sephiroth's body to absorb theLifestream as its own wasn't of Gaia, so even were it outright controllinghim, sending his body to get destroyed wouldn't have been wise.

*Point: Sephiroth wasn't speaking at the end because he was too busyconcentrating on holding back Holy.

*Response: Sephiroth had been holding back Holy for weeks as it was, evenwhile he was being his usual cocky self and rambling on as before (immediatelyafter killing Aerith at the City of the Ancients, and at the Northern Crater).There's no reason for holding back Holy to suddenly be such an arduous taskthat he can't speak even while he talked as much as he ever did before whiledoing so.

For that matter, he created realistic illusions of Nibelheim in the NorthernCrater while Holy was being held back, as well as summoned Meteor. Wereholding back Holy something that would strap one for power and focus sogreatly, one has to wonder where Sephiroth found the time and focus tobelittle Cloud and diminish his confidence in himself through both verbalassaults and visual illusions, as well as call down a giant chunk of rock andfire.

*Point: Sephiroth is the one promoted as the main villain by pretty mucheverything in the game: He is the one that Cloud is seeking revenge upon, heis the one with the theme that has vocals in it, and he is the one that theparty believes is their adversary. The game generally promotes the idea thathe is the villain.

*Response: Chrono Trigger does much the same thing in regard to Magus.Granted, he is eventually revealed to not be the game's main villain, but up

until the point that one actually fights and defeats him, they've been led tobelieve that he is the one behind Lavos. Everything from the little girl inLeene Square talking about the Wizard that was defeated 400 years before tothe battle that is taking place at that very moment encourages the player tobelieve that. However, he wasn't.

As far as musical themes go, Magus has the theme with the darker tone, and theonly point in the game with vocals of any kind is heard when confronting him,it being chanting that was either his own chanting of the Spell that he wasgoing to use to summon Lavos, or just something added to further darken themood.

That said, however, Sephiroth was most certainly promoted as the mainANTAGONIST of the game, and being a villain, that also serves to make him themain villainous antagonist. However, that doesn't necessarily make him themain villain, though that really depends on one's opinion of the term "mainvillain." If one believes that the main villain of a game is the one that hasthe greatest amount of contrast with the main protagonist, then that would betrue of Sephiroth, for certain.

For the purposes of this response, however, the term is being used todesignate the villain that is behind the tragic and villainous events takingplace, in which case Sephiroth certainly has a major hand in things, but isbeing viewed more as a consenting tool toward that end rather than themastermind behind it.

I would describe the matter as thus: In "The Lord of the Rings," the mainprotagonist is Frodo, and the main villain is Sauron. However, the mainvillainous antagonist is the One Ring, created from some of Sauron's own powerand with a will of its own that can only serve to follow Sauron's will. Inthis analogy, I would argue that Sephiroth is the One Ring, whereas JENOVA isSauron.

Points Often Brought Forth to Suggest JENOVA's Control, but Which Don'tNecessarily Support the Possibility:

*Point: Sephiroth displayed no powers at any time in his life, including theNibelheim incident, beyond his physical prowess, higher-than-average strength,and what magical powers were granted to him through the use of Materia. SuchSpells as Pale Horse and Super Nova were not naturally his, and, further, itis obvious that not all of Sephiroth's powers would have come from absorbingSpirit Energy out of the Planet, for much of the powers that beings inSephiroth's form display are illusions and abilities pertaining totelekinesis and telepathy, the telekinesis of which we see displayed whenJENOVA-SYNTHESIS flies, and the telepathy of which we know JENOVA had based onIfalna's description of JENOVA's appearance 2000 years before the main eventsof the game:

"It looked like... our... our dead mothers... and our dead brothers. Showing

us spectres of their past."

JENOVA had the mental capabilities to create illusions, one of the abilitiesdisplayed by Sephiroth, or someone/something that looks like him. That beingthe case, we know that Sephiroth -- if it, indeed, was him performing suchacts -- would have acquired his powers of illusion and other powers of apsychic nature from JENOVA.

*Response: While true that Sephiroth would have acquired such powers fromJENOVA, that doesn't necessarily rule out the legendary SOLDIER from havingsomehow utilized those powers.

*Point: Back in Nibelheim, Sephiroth states that he was under orders to takethe Planet back for the Cetra. Who gave him these orders? We never see anyonedo so. Obviously, JENOVA telepathically transmitted them to him:

Cloud "Sephiroth..." "My family! My hometown! How could you do this to them!?"

Sephiroth "Ha, ha, ha..... They've come again, mother."

Sephiroth "With her superior power, knowledge, and magic, Mother was destined to become the ruler of this Planet."

But they... Those worthless creatures are stealing the planet from Mother But now I'm here with you so don't worry

Cloud "What about MY sadness!? My family... friends... The sadness of having my hometown taken away from me!?" "It's the same as your sadness!"

Sephiroth "Ha, ha, ha... my sadness? What do I have to be sad about?" "I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to be the leader of this Planet." "I have orders to take this planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. What am I supposed to be sad about?"

This is the most damning piece of evidence toward Sephiroth having been themanipulator. Who chose him? Who were his orders from? JENOVA.

*Response: The possibility that he was simply insane -- or just angry -- andwas assuming that he was bound to such "duties" shouldn't be ignored, and area strong possibility in light of how unstable he was at the time.

*Point: The Sephiroth forms seen throughout the game were pieces of JENOVA.That's obviously an indication that both he and his identity were beingmanipulated, perhaps even to cause Shin-Ra to believe they were dealing withtheir most powerful soldier returned rogue rather than an interplanetarymenace.

We know that JENOVA's pieces took on Sephiroth's form for the followingreasons: JENOVA's Cells can change their form ("Sephiroth: 'Cloud... Don'tblame Tifa. The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words, is the powerof Jenova.'"), so it would be simple enough for its pieces to appear asSephiroth. When the forms of Sephiroth fly off into the air those timesthey're encountered on the Shin-Ra cargo ship and in the City of the Ancients,boss battles against parts of JENOVA follow, and in the case of the formflying away at the City of the Ancients, something falls, it being a piece ofJENOVA. Many have taken this to mean that Sephiroth, a Sephiroth Clone with analtered appearance, or an astral projection of Sephiroth capable of physicalinteraction flew away and dropped the pieces, due mainly to Cloud's statementon the cargo ship that Sephiroth was carrying JENOVA ("He was carrying Jenovawith him"). However, no rendering of Sephiroth carrying anything at that pointwas placed into the game, even while JENOVA's head was rendered during thescene in which Sephiroth carries it. The validity of Cloud's statement canfurther be called into question as, perhaps, having been an assumption on hispart; AVALANCHE had just been knocked to the floor -- as they would be laterin the Whirlwind Maze -- as the Sephiroth form flew away, and possiblywouldn't have had a good look at the Sephiroth form as it ascended into theair in the first place, so with a piece of JENOVA falling and transformingbefore them, he may have simply assumed Sephiroth must have been carryingJENOVA's body.

Just for clarification, it should be noted that the Sephiroth form on theShin-Ra cargo ship was more than likely the entirety of JENOVA's body whichhad escaped from the Shin-Ra headquarters. In the instances of the slaughterof Shin-Ra personnel in both cases, either Red XIII or a Shin-Ra employeemakes note that the perpetrator couldn't be human (Red XIII: "No human couldhave done this"; Shin-Ra employee on the cargo ship: ""....the Engine Room...a suspicious..... character... No... there's no way.... that...... not ahuman..... That thing's not human....."), and back in the Shin-Raheadquarters, JENOVA's containment vessel appeared to have been blasted openfrom within. Further, Palmer makes no note of the Sephiroth form that killedPresident Shinra carrying JENOVA with it at the time of murdering PresidentShinra. This is because that form of Sephiroth WAS JENOVA. Also notable isthat the Sephiroth form on the cargo ship doesn't recognize Cloud, whereaslater forms of Sephiroth that show up do.

Despite Cloud's statement on the ship, there is evidence that the second andthird JENOVA bosses (LIFE and DEATH) were actually the Sephiroth formsthemselves, transforming to face the party. First, in regard to the realSephiroth having been present, his real body had been encased in Mako in theNorthern Crater all this time, and could not have been off doing those thingsseen in the game. Further, of his own body, only the torso remained. In regardto the possibility of Clone transformations, when Aerith is murdered, theSephiroth form that killed her rises into the air and vanishes, followed bysomething small falling to the ground from the spot where the Sephiroth formhad been, commencing the battle against JENOVA-LIFE.

Also consider that the Sephiroth form seen at the Northern Crater -- whoslaughters the Sephiroth Clones that had been Hojo's experiements fromNibelheim -- descends upon the party, lands near them, turns to face them in abattle-ready position just as AVALANCHE stands and prepares to fight, andbefore the battle against this being begins, the form of Sephiroth is seen onthe environment map as being AVALANCHE's opponent, yet when the battle beginsand switches to the battle map, JENOVA-DEATH is in the Sephiroth form's place.The scene further shows that Cloud had realized that it had not beenSephiroth's real body that AVALANCHE had been chasing at all:

Cloud"Sephiroth!!!"

::AVALANCHE runs toward Sephiroth and stands behind him; he doesn't turn toface them::

"This is the end!"

Sephiroth"You're right. This is the end of this body's usefulness."

::The area goes dark and Sephiroth vanishes, leaving only a plume of darksmoke::

Cloud"He disappeared!?"

Tifa"He might still be nearby......"

...

::Later, Sephiroth reappears, hovering above the party as the light returns tothe area, with his sword drawn. He descends upon AVALANCHE, knocking them tothe ground as he had done back on the Shin-Ra cargo ship. He then lands andslowly turns to face them and assumes a battle-ready position as AVALANCHEgets back to its feet; the battle with JENOVA-DEATH commences::

Cloud

"Jenova's cells...""...hmm. So that's what this is all about.""The Jenova Reunion..."

Tifa"Not Sephiroth!? You mean all this time it wasn't Sephiroth we were after?"

::Cloud shakes his head::

This scene also shows that -- with the Reunion complete by killing Hojo'sexperiments and some falling down into the Northern Crater where their Cellscould be reclaimed, and with the time to call Meteor almost at hand --Sephiroth no longer needed that piece of JENOVA to go about in Sephiroth'sform, thus, the line "This is the end of this body's usefulness." Also notableis that when JENOVA-DEATH is defeated, left behind in its place is the BlackMateria, which Cloud had handed over to a Sephiroth form earlier in the game.

At this point, one could argue that this only proves that the Sephiroth formsare what transformed into the JENOVA bosses, and not that they are pieces ofJENOVA. However, referring back to JENOVA-BIRTH, when it is defeated, itreverts into a tentacle of JENOVA that the party recognizes as having beenpart of JENOVA's body back in the Shin-Ra headquarters:

Tifa "I've seen this somewhere... before."

Cloud "...Jenova. The arm of Jenova."

Aerith "Jenova... With this thing?"

With this kept in mind, again recall that when the form of Sephiroth risesinto the air in the City of the Ancients, it is something small that fallsfrom its location and then transforms.

With all this in mind, the Sephiroth forms encountered throughout the gamewere most certainly pieces of JENOVA -- or, in the case of the forms in theShin-Ra headquarters and on the cargo ship, its entire body -- in Sephiroth'sform, the exceptions to this, of course, being those seen after JENOVA-DEATHwas defeated. Both of the Sephiroth forms seen after that point were astralprojections. It should be noted that neither of these performed any kind ofphysical interaction (the picture that the one inside the Crater lifted wasalso an illusion), and both vanished, though not in the same manner as did theone in the City of the Ancients, which simply vanished, only for a piece ofJENOVA to fall and emit red light, and then rise up as JENOVA-LIFE.

*Respone: All this information only proves that the Sephiroth forms were

pieces of JENOVA. This alone does not confirm JENOVA as the Puppet Master, asSephiroth may have been acting through these pieces. In any event, if JENOVAwished to mislead Shin-Ra as to who they were dealing with, it could havesimply become a random "nobody" instead of taking on Sephiroth's form. For itto have done so, there simply must be more to the matter. Of course, what morethere may be to the matter may only be that JENOVA was manipulating Sephirothinto carrying out its will.

*Point: Sephiroth doesn't have all those powers we see used in the game.Ifalna's recounting of what transpired 2000 years before the main events ofthe game, as well as various in-game points such as JENOVA's ability to haveits Cells take on other forms and its ability to fly in its JENOVA-SYNTHESISform make it apparent that JENOVA was a being of vast mental power, itsabilities extending -- but not necessarily limited -- to astral projections,telekinesis, telepathy, and generating realistic illusions. This stronglyindicates that JENOVA was using HIM.

Response: Falling into the Lifestream together, it may well be that JENOVA andSephiroth's minds linked in much the same way that Tifa and Cloud's did whenthey fell into the Lifestream together in Mideel, or perhaps -- with JENOVAbeing incapable of interacting with the Planet's Spirit Energy -- Sephirothchose to reach out to JENOVA's mind while the two were in the Lifestream. Inany event, the creature may have been letting him use its power.

*Point: On the Shin-Ra cargo ship, the Sephiroth form that rises up from thefloor doesn't recognize Cloud, despite Cloud having been the very one whothrew him into the Lifestream, yet later -- at the Temple of the Ancients andbeyond -- suddenly seems to know all about him and is intent on tormentinghim:

(On the Shin-Ra cargo ship)Cloud "Is it........ Sephiroth?"

Cloud "No... not Sephiroth!"

"........After a long sleep..."

"...the time..." "...time has....... come....."

Aerith "Look, Cloud!!"

Cloud "Sephiroth! You're alive!"

"........Who are you?"

Cloud "You don't remember me!? I'm Cloud!"

"Cloud..."

Cloud "Sephiroth! What are you thinking!? What are you doing!?"

"...the time..... is now......"

Sephiroth should have recognized him, yet JENOVA probably wouldn't. HadSephiroth been in control at all, he should have recognized the face of theone who threw him into the Lifestream.

*Response: The point that was made resolves itself: Sephiroth would haverecognized him; JENOVA probably wouldn't. The Sephiroth form seen at thatpoint is the same one that was seen back in the Shin-Ra headquarters byPalmer. It's JENOVA's body in Sephiroth's form. Recall that Palmer makes nonote of having seen the Sephiroth form that killed President Shinra carryingJENOVA's body. Also note that in both the Shin-Ra headquarters and on theShin-Ra cargo ship, note is made by Red XIII and a Shin-Ra employee that theentity at work committing the slaughter of the Shin-Ra personnel was nothuman:

(Nanaki in the Shin-Ra headquarters)Red XIII "No human could've done this."

(A Shin-Ra employee on the cargo ship)"....the Engine Room... a suspicious..... character..." "No... there's no way.... that...... not a human..... That thing's not human....."

Thus it was that JENOVA didn't recognize Cloud, whereas the next times we seeSephiroth forms, it is Sephiroth controlling them, and, thus, it is thatSephiroth recognizes Cloud then.

-Explanation of Just Who Cloud Really Was-

Cloud was a boy who grew up in Nibelheim and left around the time he was 14 or15, in the hopes of joining SOLDIER and becoming strong like the legendarySephiroth. The reason he wanted to do this was two fold: 1) He wanted toimpress Tifa, and 2) He wanted to be able to protect Tifa if she ever neededrescuing, as he had been unable to once before.

He had been an outcast among the children of Nibelheim, whereas Tifa was verypopular, and barely noticed that he existed. Then her mother died one day, andshe ran out of her house in grief and began to climb Mt. Nibel, and Cloudfollowed. However, on the rope bridge leading into the mountain, Tifa missedher step, losing her balance, and though Cloud tried to save her, he couldnot, and both fell into the gorge. Cloud was barely hurt, while Tifa was in acoma for a week, others putting the blame for the entire matter on Cloud,believing him to have taken Tifa into the mountains.

Cloud was determined that he wasn't going to be so useless again, and so hewanted to join SOLDIER, become stronger, and prove his worth and hopefullygain Tifa's attention. The Spring before leaving Nibelheim, he had called Tifaout to the town well and told her of his decision, and after doing so, sheasked him to make a promise to her that if she were ever in trouble that hewould come rescue her, which happened to be one of his reasons for wanting tojoin SOLDIER to begin with, and so he promised.

He leaves Nibelheim the next Summer and goes to Midgar in the hopes of joiningSOLDIER. Of course, he doesn't make the cut and is deeply ashamed, which iswhy he insists upon hiding his identity from Tifa when he returns to Nibelheimas part of Zack and Sephiroth's entourage.

After the events that take place during their mission there (Sephiroth'sdestruction of Nibelheim, murder of its People, and his assault upon Tifa,Zack, and Cloud, culminating in Cloud defeating Sephiroth and thesilver-haired villain taking his plunge into the Lifestream beneath the Mt.Nibel Mako Reactor), Cloud and Zack are captured by Hojo, along with theremaining survivors of Nibelheim, and over the course of the next five yearsare captives in his laboratory in the Shinra Mansion, where he performs Makoinfusion upon Cloud and the other survivors, as well as injects them withJENOVA Cells. Hojo's Sephiroth "Clone" project was unsuccessful in regard toZack as his body failed to have the desired effect to the JENOVA Cells,whereas Cloud's had said reaction, as was also the case with the black-cloakedfolks seen throughout the game, them having actually been the other survivorsof the Nibelheim massacre:

(From the Escapee Reports in the back of the Shinra Mansion's Library)Escapee Report No. 2Description of the time of capture.A - Former member of SOLDIER/Number ( )No effect could be detected from either Mako Radiation Therapy or Jenova onhim.B - Regular/Number ( )Reaction to Jenova detected.

Those in whom the Mako had been infused, but did not have a resistance to theeffects of Mako Poisoning as Zack and other members of SOLDIER did, sufferedfrom extreme Mako Poisoning, likely due to an overload of knowledge in their

minds. This is because Mako is derived from the Lifestream, which itselfcontains the knowledge of those who have lived before. The result of this isthat those with a low sense of self-awareness/self-acceptance -- usuallyhaving weak wills as a result -- lose their identities and very sense of self.Having been unaccepting of who they were before, as so few People are, havingmany other thoughts suddenly flooding their minds no doubt made it almostimpossible for them to determine their own place among them, and, as a result,they became little more than vegetables in mind.

After five years of imprisonment, Zack manages to break himself and Cloud outof the Shinra Mansion, and they make their way back to Midgar, with Cloud in asemi-catatonic state the entire way, suffering from the effects of extremeMako Poisoning. When they finally return to the outskirts of Midgar, Zack isgunned-down and killed by Shinra soldiers and Cloud is left to die. Cloud,however, survives, and takes Zack's sword, stumbling his way into Midgar, andis then found by Tifa at the train station. Due to the fragile state of hismind at this time, he had little concept of his own identity remaining to him,beyond that concept which he had aspired to be like and had been able towitness in another for the last five years: Zack.

This is likely what kept him from remaining with a broken mind as theblack-cloaked folks did. He had Zack's identity to focus on during hisweakened state, Zack being one whom he admired and aspired to be like himself.Perhaps seeing Tifa would have pushed that desire to the forefront of his mindaltogether due to him having wanted to be someone like Zack to impress her,but in either case, he adopted several characteristics of Zack's personalityand mannerisms at this point and incorporated events in Nibelheim involvingZack into his mind as events that had involved him instead.

This was made all the easier by the fact that he was now wearing a SOLDIER'suniform, was in possession of Zack's sword, and possessed great strength andagility due to Hojo's experimentation. Cloud had an identity to focus on withwhich to pull himself out of his lost state amidst all the memories floatingaround in his head that were not his own, whereas the black-cloaked folks didnot. This would later spell disaster, however.

Hojo and Cloud both later believe Cloud to have been a failed experiment dueto Cloud having never been issued a number as the black-cloaked folks were. Cloud is first told by Sephiroth at the Reunion that he was an incompleteSephiroth Clone, and Cloud himself then goes on to tell Hojo that he had beena failure. It was a result of Cloud coming to believe he had been nothing more than a failed Sephiroth Clone and that he had been simply manufactured inHojo's lab that led him to simply hand the Black Materia over to Sephiroth,allowing Meteor to be summoned forth. What Cloud did not yet remember at thistime, however, was Zack's role in his past, including the fact that Zack hadbroken himself and Cloud out of the Shinra Mansion shortly before the mainevents of the game began, and before Cloud could be given a number. Cloudhad, in actuality, been a success. In fact, Hojo later regarded him as theonly success:

(On the Sister Ray, near the end of Disc 2.)Cloud "Hojo! Stop right there!!"

Hojo "Oh... the failure."

Cloud "At least remember my name! It's Cloud!"

Hojo "Every time I see you, I..." "It pains me that I had so little scientific sense..."

Hojo "I evaluated you as a failed project." "But, you are the only one that succeeded as a Sephiroth-clone." "Heh, heh, heh......... I'm even beginning to hate myself."

As can be seen from all this, the often believed concept of Cloud being aSephiroth Clone is inaccurate in the sense that he was a genetic duplicate ofthe legendary SOLDIER. Rather, this term of him being a Sephiroth "Clone" isintended in the sense that Cloud would be similar to Sephiroth in terms of theexperimentation conducted on him, having been infused with Mako and injectedwith JENOVA's Cells.

The Sephiroth Clones are simply the people that were the survivors ofSephiroth's massacre in Nibelheim five years before the main events of thegame, and which Hojo captured upon his arrival there shortly after Sephiroth'sdefeat at the hands of Cloud. We know this based on Zangan, Tifa's MartialArts instructor, letter to her:

"Tifa, what's happened to our town? Was it all an illusion, orjust a dream? No, it was neither. I remember trying to get people out ofthe flames, but not having the strength... Burning with anger, I went tothe reactor to kill Sephiroth.""But he was nowhere to be found. Instead, I found you, collapsedinside. I felt saving you was far more important than going afterSephiroth. There were several others that were still alive inside, but Iwas only able to save you.""As I was coming out of the reactor, Shinra troops were justarriving. I recall a scientist named Hojo was in charge. He ordered thetroops to gather up everyone still alive for the experiment. I didn't knowwhat type of experiment he was talking about, but I wasn't about to letthem have my dearest student."

We also know this based on the Periodic Report to Professor Hojo that can befound in "Tifa's House" on the desk across from the piano in Nibelheim in the

game's present:

1 Clone Activity Report

Unforuntately, no 'CLONES' have left this town this quarter. As previouslyreported, the 'CLONES' seem to be sensing something. But all they say is'reunion' or 'Sephiroth' and show no other signs of activity.

Based on this we know that the point of origin for the Sephiroth Clones wasNibelheim, and taking into consideration that Hojo had ordered the Shin-Rasoldiers that accompanied him five years before to round up all the survivorsof Sephiroth's massacre for an experiment, these survivors are certainly theSephiroth Clones. Also, we know that Cloud had a real childhood and truly grewup in Nibelheim based on the memories that Tifa helps him piece together inthe Lifestream. With all this in mind, it would be more accurate to say thatthe experiments performed on Sephiroth were "cloned" rather than Sephirothhimself.

Finally, keep in mind that the term used in the Japanese Versions of the gamewas "Copy," this obviously not necessarily being indicative of the sameconcept as "Clone." All that was copied was the experimentation conducted onSephiroth, and even that wasn't an exact reproduction.

Finally, Cloud frees his mind and becomes autonomous from Sephiroth during thegame's ending after having accepted himself for who he truly was earlier inMideel. Cloud had gained autonomy and a strong enough will to carry himself.

-Cloud Was Not a Failed Clone-

Perhaps the most often misunderstood matter concerning Final Fantasy VII'splot is the matter of Cloud being a Sephiroth Clone. Aside from the fact thatmany have misinterpreted this to mean that he was a genetic duplicate ofSephiroth, there's the fact that he is so much more often misperceived to havebeen a failed experiment. This is simply not the case.

Where the confusion regarding this matter arises is from Cloud and Hojo'sdiscourse in the Northern Crater before Meteor is summoned:

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... this is perfect!!!" "It means that my experiment was a complete success!"

Hojo "What number were you? Huh? Where is your tattoo?"

Cloud "Professor Hojo... I don't have a number."

"You didn't give me one because I was a failed experiment."

Hojo "What the--? You mean only a failure made it here?"

Cloud "Professor... please give me a number. Please, Professor..."

Hojo "Shut up, miserable failure..."

This is often cited as the evidence of Hojo considering Cloud to be a failure.What should be noted about this is that it was CLOUD who told HOJO that Cloudwas a failure, and, bearing his "proof" in that he didn't have a numberedtattoo, Hojo believed him. Cloud believed that he was failure based on hislack of a tattoo, and what Sephiroth had told him moments earlier:

Sephiroth "Ha, ha, ha......" "I want to take you back to your real self." "The one who gave me the Black Materia that day..." "Who would have ever thought a failed experiment would prove so useful?" "Hojo would die if he knew."

Cloud "Hojo!? What does he have to do with me!?"

Sephiroth "Five years ago you were..." "...constructed by Hojo, piece by piece, right after Nibelheim was burnt." "A puppet made up of vibrant Jenova cells, her knowledge, and the power of Mako." "An incomplete Sephiroth-clone. Not even given a number. ...That is your reality."

Deceived by this false information, Cloud believed that he not only wasn't anormal human being, being instead constructed from JENOVA Cells infused withMako, but that he was a failed experiment at that. This influenced what hetold Hojo, and subsequently, Hojo's feelings toward Cloud. What Cloud failedto recall at this time was that Zack broke himself and Cloud out of the ShinraMansion before Cloud could be given a tattoo, for Cloud was not the failure atall. Zack was.

In defining who is and is not a failure in the experiment that Hojo wascarrying out, one must first understand what it was that Hojo was attemptingto test with the Sephiroth Clones, and how he was going about doing so. His

Nibelheim experiment was conducted for the sake of testing his JENOVA ReunionTheory, it stating that even if JENOVA's Cells are separated, those separatedpieces will eventually reunite:

(Hojo, at the Reunion)Hojo "You see, even if Jenova's body is dismembered, it will eventually become one again. That's what is meant by Jenova's Reunion."

In order to conduct this experiment, Hojo had the survivors of Sephiroth'smassacre in Nibelheim rounded up for experimentation:

(From Zangan's letter to Tifa, as viewable on Disc 3 of the game)"Tifa, what's happened to our town? Was it all an illusion, or just a dream?No, it was neither. I remember trying to get people out of the flames, but nothaving the strength... Burning with anger, I went to the reactor to killSephiroth." "But he was nowhere to be found. Instead, I found you, collapsed inside. Ifelt saving you was far more important than going after Sephiroth. There wereseveral others that were still alive inside, but I was only able to save you." "As I was coming out of the reactor, Shinra troops were just arriving. Irecall a scientist named Hojo was in charge. He ordered the troops to gatherup everyone still alive for the experiment. I didn't know what type ofexperiment he was talking about, but I wasn't about to let them have mydearest student."

These survivors included Cloud and Zack. Once captured, the two former membersof Shin-Ra and the other survivors of Nibelheim -- minus Tifa and Zangan, ofcourse, the former having been taken to safety by the latter -- were infusedwith Mako and injected with JENOVA's Cells. A body and mind that displayed noresponse to JENOVA's Cells would obviously be ill suited for testing thevalidity of the Reunion Theory, as their own will may override JENOVA'sattempt to call that individual to itself. With this in mind, only theweak-willed would be suitable for the experiment, and, thus, successful. Itwas Cloud that had a reaction JENOVA's Cells, whereas Zack did not:

(From the Escapee Reports in the back of the Shinra Mansion's library; notethat Zack is Specimen A (the former member of SOLDIER), while Cloud isSpecimen B (the regular))Escapee Report No. 2Description of the time of capture.A - Former member of SOLDIER/Number ( )No effect could be detected from either Mako Radiation Therapy or Jenova onhim.B - Regular/Number ( )Reaction to Jenova detected.

Note also that in the parentheses where the two would have had numbers, thereare blank spaces. They had not yet received their numbers.

What's made obvious from this -- as well as the deteriorating state of Cloud'smind after his and Zack's escape, whereas Zack seemed relatively unphased --is that Cloud was a successful Clone, but -- at worst -- could be described as"incomplete" rather than a failure. This is made further obvious due to Hojooutright stating that the purpose of the Sephiroth Clone Project was to testthe JENOVA Reunion Theory, as he states that his experiment was a success whenhe receives confirmation of the theory:

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... this is perfect!!!" "It means that my experiment was a complete success!"

...

Hojo "...I'm not wild about the failure part, but the Jenova Reunion Theory has now been proven."

Further evidence for this stems from the fact that Hojo was having the Shin-Raemployees planted in the reconstructed Nibelheim monitor the behaviour of theClones, and report to him when or if they were leaving the town of their ownvolition:

Periodic Report to Professor Hojo:

1 Clone Activity Report

Unforuntately, no 'CLONES' have left this town this quarter. As previouslyreported, the 'CLONES' seem to be sensing something. But all they say i'reunion' or 'Sephiroth' and show no other signs of activity.

One final point of note to consider is that, in the moments preceding hisdeath, Hojo himself declares Cloud to be the only Sephiroth Clone that wassuccessful, as Cloud was the only one he saw at the Reunion, those in theblack cloaks having been killed moments before and their bodies cast down intothe Northern Crater to be assimilated by JENOVA:

Hojo "Every time I see you, I..." "It pains me that I had so little scientific sense..."

Hojo "I evaluated you as a failed project." "But, you are the only one that succeeded as a Sephiroth-clone."

"Heh, heh, heh......... I'm even beginning to hate myself."

The answer to the seemingly eternal question of Cloud's failure or success asa Sephiroth Clone is that he, indeed, was a success.

-The Sephiroth Clones Are Not Genetic Duplicates Of Sephiroth-

While the term "clone" is used in reference to Sephiroth's Clones, what isintended by this meaning is that they are people who underwent similarexperimentation to Sephiroth, involving their bodies being injected withJENOVA's Cells and infused with Mako. The Sephiroth Clones are simply thepeople that were the survivors of Sephiroth's massacre in Nibelheim five yearsbefore the main events of the game, and which Hojo captured upon his arrivalthere shortly after Sephiroth's defeat at the hands of Cloud. We know thisbased on Zangan's (Tifa's Martial Arts instructor) letter to her:

"Tifa, what's happened to our town? Was it all an illusion, or just a dream?No, it was neither. I remember trying to get people out of the flames, but nothaving the strength... Burning with anger, I went to the reactor to killSephiroth."

"But he was nowhere to be found. Instead, I found you, collapsed inside. Ifelt saving you was far more important than going after Sephiroth. There wereseveral others that were still alive inside, but I was only able to save you."

"As I was coming out of the reactor, Shinra troops were just arriving. Irecall a scientist named Hojo was in charge. He ordered the troops to gatherup everyone still alive for the experiment. I didn't know what type ofexperiment he was talking about, but I wasn't about to let them have mydearest student."

We also know this based on the Periodic Report to Professor Hojo that can befound in "Tifa's House" on the desk across from the piano in Nibelheim in thegame's present:

1 Clone Activity Report

Unforuntately, no 'CLONES' have left this town this quarter. As previouslyreported, the 'CLONES' seem to be sensing something. But all they say is'reunion' or 'Sephiroth' and show no other signs of activity.

Based on this we know that the point of origin for the Sephiroth Clones wasNibelheim, and taking into consideration that Hojo had ordered the Shin-Rasoldiers that accompanied him five years before to round up all the survivorsof Sephiroth's massacre for an experiment, these survivors are certainly the

Sephiroth Clones. Also, we know that Cloud had a real childhood and truly grewup in Nibelheim based on the memories that Tifa helps him piece together inthe Lifestream. With all this in mind, it would be more accurate to say thatthe experiments performed on Sephiroth were "cloned" rather than Sephirothhimself.

Finally, keep in mind that the term used in the Japanese Versions of the gamewas "Copy," this obviously not necessarily being indicative of the sameconcept as "Clone." All that was copied was the experimentation conducted onSephiroth, and even that wasn't an exact reproduction.

Linguistics aside, the game shows us in very clear no-question terms that theresidents of Nibelheim who survived Sephiroth's massacre (and weren't Tifa,who was taken to safety by Zangan, or weren't Cloud who was broken out of theShinra Mansion by Zack) became those black-cloaked experiments, both throughZangan's letter to Tifa and the Periodic Report to Professor Hojo. This wasfurther accomplished through the obvious similarities between two of theblack-cloaked folks in one of the upper bedrooms of a house in the game'spresent and the two children who had been in the upper bedroom of the originalhouse in that location five years earlier. Further still, to even considerthat these black-cloaked experiments were not in any way connected to theexperiment Hojo ordered the surviving residents to be rounded up for would --when it's also pointed out that the black-cloaked folks' migrations originatedfrom Nibelheim -- require believing that the writers left a plothole moremassive than most of those that are present in the game already, as it wouldleave the questions of "What became of the surviving residents," "Whatexperiment was Hojo talking about when he said he wanted the survivors roundedup," and "Why were Cloud and Zack subjected to different experimentation fromthe other survivors who were rounded up?"

To assume that the black-cloaked folks were anyone but the other survivingresidents of Nibelheim is to pose questions that can't possibly be answered,ignore the only logical connections concerning the fate of the Nibelheimsurvivors when there is even evidence presented to indicate them being theblack-cloaked folks beyond any reasonable inquisition, and to assume massiveignorance on the part of the writers (greater in most -- if not all -- casesthan that which other plotholes in the game would suggest them capable of),all for the sake of a Western connotation attached to a word translated bysome people who would not necessarily be well-versed in the context intendedby the writers of the story, when the original language isn't even a languagewhich necessarily will translate directly into English, both in terms of wordsused and the context surrounding them. To put it another way, it brings upmore questions than can reasonably be assumed to require explanation when avery simple explanation is already present.

-The Purpose of the Sephiroth Clone Experiment-

It is commonly misconceived that the purpose of Hojo's experiments regardingthe "Sephiroth Clones" was to produce a large group of people like him, with

his strength, skills, and dominance in warfare. However, this is simply notthe case, and I will here explain the true nature of the experiment.

Hojo's experiment was designed to test the validity of his theory concerningthe JENOVA Reunion. We know this for the following reasons:

At the Northern Crater, upon seeing Cloud, Hojo declares his experiment asuccess, saying that the JENOVA Reunion Theory has been proven:

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... this is perfect!!!" "It means that my experiment was a complete success!"...

Hojo "...I'm not wild about the failure part, but the Jenova Reunion Theory has now been proven."

With that in mind, recall that Hojo arrived in Nibelheim shortly after it wasburned down by Sephiroth, bringing with him troops to round up the survivorsfor experimentation, this suggesting that he had conceived the JENOVA ReunionTheory before Sephiroth was ever even lost to the Lifestream. We learn of thisfrom the information in Zangan's letter to Tifa:

"As I was coming out of the reactor, Shinra troops were just arriving. Irecall a scientist named Hojo was in charge. He ordered the troops to gatherup everyone still alive for the experiment. I didn't know what type ofexperiment he was talking about, but I wasn't about to let them have mydearest student."

Further, we find that Hojo had the Shin-Ra employees planted in the rebuiltNibelheim monitor the behaviour of the Clones and report to him concerningwhether or not they were leaving the town. This was of interest to Hojo, as hewas waiting to see if they would be drawn to a Reunion:

Periodic Report to Professor Hojo:

1 Clone Activity Report

Unforuntately, no 'CLONES' have left this town this quarter. As previouslyreported, the 'CLONES' seem to be sensing something. But all they say is'reunion' or 'Sephiroth' and show no other signs of activity.

While one might argue that Hojo conceived the Reunion Theory later on, usingthe Sephiroth Clones to test it, despite his intention having originally beento produce an army of Sephiroth-like soldiers, the story only ever indicates

Hojo having wanted to use them to test the JENOVA Reunion Theory, that beingthe only experiment which he himself makes reference to regarding them. Thusit is that we can conclude that the purpose of Hojo's Sephiroth Cloneexperiment was to test the validity of the JENOVA Reunion Theory.

-The Sephiroth Clone With a "1" Tattoo Did Not Take on Sephiroth's Form, NorDid Sephiroth Have Such a Tattoo Himself-

A common misinterpretation of the game's script is that the fellow that Diospeaks of having met that had a "1" tattoo is the same individual he latertells Cloud was Sephiroth. This has led many to believe that Sephiroth eitherhad such a tattoo himself, or that the body of Sephiroth Clone Number 1 fromHojo's experiments in Nibelheim was altered to look like Sephiroth. Both ofthese conclusions are inaccurate. While both individuals, of course, wouldhave wore black outfits, there are some very important key words in Dio'sdescriptions of his meetings with the individuals -- and in his description ofthe fellow with the "1" tattoo himself.

We first hear word of this fellow with the tatto from a resident of NorthCorel, him saying that a young guy with a "1" tattoo was heading toward theropeway that leads to the Gold Saucer:

"I hear it's a big fad now in the city to get tattoos. Is that right?"

[The player can choose to have Cloud respond with "I wouldn't know" or "That'sright." If the player has Cloud respond with "I wouldn't know," the followingdialogue is said.]

"Really...? I saw a big '1' on the arm of a young guy heading towards theRopeway. That Black Cape he had on was really cool."

Right here we should take note that the NPC in North Corel has described thefellow he saw as a "young guy." At 30 years old, Sephiroth certainly wasn't anold man, but he wasn't all that young by most people's standards either. Inany case, we've not gotten a very thorough description of this individual yet,so we must hold off on passing judgement until we learn more. We can, however,do this with what we learn from Dio in the Gold Saucer.

When Cloud meets Dio, Dio asks him if he's ever heard of something called a"Black Materia," as he states that a "boy" about Cloud's age (the fellow withthe "1" tattoo) had been asking about it. He goes on to say -- when questionedabout it by Cloud -- that he doesn't know where the fellow went. Both of thesethings are key matters to keep in mind.

Dio "By the way, boy, do you know what a 'Black Materia' is?"

Cloud

"Why d'you ask me?"

Dio "Well, a while back, a boy your age came in and asked me if I had a 'Black Materia.'" "I thought you might know who he was, seein' as how you're both about the same age."

Cloud "Did he happen to have... a Black Cape..."

Dio "Why yes, yes indeed. And a tattoo on his hand that said '1'."

Cloud "Where did he go!?"

Dio "Ha ha ha, I have no idea."

First off, it's notable that Dio suggests that Cloud and the individual withthe tattoo are about the same age, whereas there was roughly a nine yeardifference in the ages of Cloud and Sephiroth. Also notable is that he statesthat he doesn't know where the fellow went, nor does he make mention of thisindividual being Sephiroth, yet later, when he mentions having met Sephiroth,he not only knows in which direction he has gone, but also again refers toCloud's age, stating that Sephiroth must be very popular among "boys" thatage, and he recommends that Cloud follow him and try to get his autograph:

"P.S. I just recently met Sephiroth. He must have a lot of fans with boys yourage." "Why don't you get his autograph? It seems he's headed toward the South of the river, towards Gongaga."

What's relevant about this is that Dio had no idea that Cloud was pursuingSephiroth in the first place. He simply assumed that Sephiroth would bepopular among young men Cloud's age and decided to tell him about it. Withthat in mind, had the fellow with the "1" tattoo been Sephiroth, it makes nosense for Dio to not have mentioned it then. It's even likely that this "boy"about Cloud's age having wore a black cloak is what caused Dio to determinethat Sephiroth must be popular among young men Cloud's age once he metSephiroth, due to the similarities in their attire.

What's further notable is that he didn't know where the young man with the "1"tattoo had gone, whereas he knew that Sephiroth was headed toward Gongaga.There would have been no reason for him to lie about this before. It shouldalso be noted that -- while the fellow in North Corel spoke as though it wasonly recently that he saw the guy with the "1" on his hand -- Dio said it had

been "a while back" when he had spoken with the young man with the tattoo,whereas he makes a clear differentiation in when he had met Sephiroth, sayingthat it was "just recently." In other words, it was likely during Cloud andthe others' time in the Corel Prison.

Dio had no reason to lie if he had known where Sephiroth would have beenheaded, nor does it make sense for him to randomly think it important to tellCloud that the guy he mentioned earlier was Sephiroth when he hadn't thoughtso before. With these facts in mind, as well as Dio's knowledge of thedirection in which Sephiroth had headed, as well as his clear differentiationin time as regarding when he had met the guy with the "1" tattoo and when hehad met Sephiroth -- as well as the obvious fact that the game makes noattempt to imply that they were the same person -- there's no reason tobelieve that Sephiroth has a "1" tattoo, nor that the Clone with the "1"tattoo took on Sephiroth's form.

-The Sephiroth Forms Encountered Throughout the Game are Pieces of JENOVA-

Often confused to have been astral projections or transformed Sephiroth Clonesbeing controlled, the majority of the Sephiroth forms seen throughout the gameare pieces of JENOVA -- as well as JENOVA's entire body -- in Sephiroth'sform. We know that JENOVA's pieces took on Sephiroth's form for the followingreasons: JENOVA's Cells can change their form ("Sephiroth: 'Cloud... Don'tblame Tifa. The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words, is the powerof Jenova.'"), so it would be simple enough for its pieces to appear asSephiroth. When the forms of Sephiroth fly off into the air those timesthey're encountered on the Shin-Ra cargo ship and in the City of the Ancients,boss battles against parts of JENOVA follow, and in the case of the formflying away at the City of the Ancients, something falls, it being a piece ofJENOVA. Many have taken this to mean that Sephiroth, a Sephiroth Clone with analtered appearance, or an astral projection of Sephiroth capable of physicalinteraction flew away and dropped the pieces, due mainly to Cloud's statementon the cargo ship that Sephiroth was carrying JENOVA ("He was carrying Jenovawith him"). However, no rendering of Sephiroth carrying anything at that pointwas placed into the game, even while JENOVA's head was rendered during thescene in which Sephiroth carries it. The validity of Cloud's statement canfurther be called into question as, perhaps, having been an assumption on hispart; AVALANCHE had just been knocked to the floor -- as they would be laterin the Whirlwind Maze -- as the Sephiroth form flew away, and possiblywouldn't have had a good look at the Sephiroth form as it ascended into theair in the first place, so with a piece of JENOVA falling and transformingbefore them, he may have simply assumed Sephiroth must have been carryingJENOVA's body.

Just for clarification, it should be noted that the Sephiroth form on theShin-Ra cargo ship was more entirety of JENOVA's body which had escaped fromthe Shin-Ra headquarters. In the instances of the slaughter of Shin-Rapersonnel in both cases, either Red XIII or a Shin-Ra employee makes note thatthe perpetrator couldn't be human (Red XIII: "No human could have done this";

Shin-Ra employee on the cargo ship: ""....the Engine Room... asuspicious..... character... No... there's no way.... that...... not ahuman..... That thing's not human....."), and back in the Shin-Raheadquarters, JENOVA's containment vessel appeared to have been blasted openfrom within. Further, Palmer makes no note of the Sephiroth form that killedPresident Shinra carrying JENOVA with it at the time of murdering PresidentShinra. This is because that form of Sephiroth WAS JENOVA.

Despite Cloud's statement on the ship, there is evidence that the second andthird JENOVA bosses (LIFE and DEATH) were actually the Sephiroth formsthemselves, transforming to face the party. First, in regard to the realSephiroth having been present, his real body had been encased in Mako in theNorthern Crater all this time, and could not have been off doing those thingsseen in the game. Further, of his own body, only the torso remained. In regardto the possibility of Clone transformations, when Aerith is murdered, theSephiroth form that killed her rises into the air and vanishes, followed bysomething small falling to the ground from the spot where the Sephiroth formhad been, commencing the battle against JENOVA-LIFE.

Also consider that the Sephiroth form seen at the Northern Crater -- whoslaughters the Sephiroth Clones that had been Hojo's experiements fromNibelheim -- descends upon the party, lands near them, turns to face them in abattle-ready position just as AVALANCHE stands and prepares to fight, andbefore the battle against this being begins, the form of Sephiroth is seen onthe environment map as being AVALANCHE's opponent, yet when the battle beginsand switches to the battle map, JENOVA-DEATH is in the Sephiroth form's place.The scene further shows that Cloud had realized that it had not beenSephiroth's real body that AVALANCHE had been chasing at all:

Cloud"Sephiroth!!!"

::AVALANCHE runs toward Sephiroth and stands behind him; he doesn't turn toface them::

"This is the end!"

Sephiroth"You're right. This is the end of this body's usefulness."

::The area goes dark and Sephiroth vanishes, leaving only a plume of darksmoke::

Cloud"He disappeared!?"

Tifa"He might still be nearby......"

...

::Later, Sephiroth reappears, hovering above the party as the light returns tothe area, with his sword drawn. He descends upon AVALANCHE, knocking them tothe ground as he had done back on the Shin-Ra cargo ship. He then lands andslowly turns to face them and assumes a battle-ready position as AVALANCHEgets back to its feet; the battle with JENOVA-DEATH commences::

Cloud"Jenova's cells...""...hmm. So that's what this is all about.""The Jenova Reunion..."

Tifa"Not Sephiroth!? You mean all this time it wasn't Sephiroth we were after?"

::Cloud shakes his head::

This scene also shows that -- with the Reunion complete by killing Hojo'sexperiments and some falling down into the Northern Crater where their Cellscould be reclaimed, and with the time to call Meteor almost at hand --Sephiroth no longer needed that piece of JENOVA to go about in Sephiroth'sform, thus, the line "This is the end of this body's usefulness." Also notableis that when JENOVA-DEATH is defeated, left behind in its place is the BlackMateria, which Cloud had handed over to a Sephiroth form earlier in the game.

At this point, one could argue that this only proves that the Sephiroth formsare what transformed into the JENOVA bosses, and not that they are pieces ofJENOVA. However, referring back to JENOVA-BIRTH, when it is defeated, itreverts into a tentacle of JENOVA that the party recognizes as having beenpart of JENOVA's body back in the Shin-Ra headquarters:

Tifa "I've seen this somewhere... before."

Cloud "...Jenova. The arm of Jenova."

Aerith "Jenova... With this thing?"

With this kept in mind, again recall that when the form of Sephiroth risesinto the air in the City of the Ancients, it is something small that fallsfrom its location and then transforms.

With all this in mind, the Sephiroth forms encountered throughout the gamewere most certainly pieces of JENOVA -- or, in the case of the forms in theShin-Ra headquarters and on the cargo ship, its entire body -- in Sephiroth'sform, the exceptions to this, of course, being those seen after JENOVA-DEATH

was defeated. Both of the Sephiroth forms seen after that point were astralprojections. It should be noted that neither of these performed any kind ofphysical interaction (the picture that the one inside the Crater lifted wasalso an illusion), and both vanished, though not in the same manner as did theone in the City of the Ancients, which simply vanished, only for a piece ofJENOVA to fall and emit red light, and then rise up as JENOVA-LIFE. Thisinformation has been confirmed by the Ultimania Omega Guide for Final FantasyVII, and is certainly to be taken as accurate.

2) -The Identity of the Voice in Cloud's Head-

An often pondered matter is the identity of the voice that Cloud often hearsthroughout Final Fantasy VII. I will here explain this matter.

The voice was certainly Cloud's subconscious. For the reasons why this is thecase, simply read ahead.

At one point the voice tells Cloud to ask Tifa about what happened five yearsbefore:

(At Junon.)"...That reminds me."

"You again?" "...Who are you?"

"...You'll find out soon. ......But more importantly, 5 years ago..."

"5 Years ago... Nibelheim?"

"When you went to Mt. Nibel then, Tifa was your guide, right?"

"Yeah.... I was surprised."

"But where was Tifa other than that?"

"...I dunno."

"It was a great place for you two to see each other again."

"...You're right."

"Why couldn't you see each other alone?"

"...I don't know. I can't remember clearly..."

"Why don't you try asking Tifa?"

"...Yeah."

"Then, get up!"

"Hey wake up. Wake up, Cloud!"

It would have been detrimental to Sephiroth's plans to tell Cloud to do this,as it was Cloud's fragmented psyche that allowed him to be weak enough tocontrol. Learning the truth would cause him to have to piece the pasttogether and become "fixed," possibly solidifying his sense of self and hismental fortitude, which would make him mentally stable enough to resistSephiroth's control.

Note that at the Reunion, Sephiroth makes a point of trying to cause Cloud toquestion himself, breaking down all confidence in his sense of self thatremained, and, thus, making him vulnerable to control at the crucial moment ofhanding over the Black Materia.

While it would have been a hindrance to what Sephiroth had in mind for Cloudto learn the truth at that point, as it would have strengthened his mentalfortitude, it would have done exactly what Cloud's subconscious wanted. Whenhis subconscious speaks with Tifa in the Lifestream, it's trying to help Cloudlearn about the truth of his past, the same as the voice telling him to askTifa about Nibelheim no doubt must have been, for Cloud's mind would have beenstronger had he known the truth of his past, and he would have possibly beenable to fend off Sephiroth's control.

Note also that at an earlier time than Junon when the voice spoke to Cloud, ittried reminding him of a time that had taken place five years before in aneffort to try to get him to remember the rest of it which didn't come untilmuch later and with Tifa's help:

(While sleeping at Aerith's house)"...seem pretty tired......"

Cloud ".......!?"

"I haven't slept in a bed like this ....in a long time."

Cloud "....Oh, yeah."

"Ever since that time."

::The scene fades in to Cloud's house in Nibelheim::

"My, how you've grown." "I'll bet the girls never leave you alone."

Cloud "...Not really."

"...I'm worried about you." "There are a lot of temptations in the city..." "I'd feel a lot better if you just settled down and had a nice girlfriend."

Cloud "...I'm all right."

"You should have..." "an older girlfriend, one that'll take care of you." "I think that would be the perfect type for you."

Cloud "I'm not interested."

::The scene fades back in to Aerith's house::

That Cloud remembering the truth of his past would have been detrimental toSephiroth's plans to use Cloud completely disqualifies him from having beenthe voice.

Something else to consider -- and that is perhaps the greatest piece ofevidence toward this possibility -- is that in the Honey Bee Inn's &$#% Room,Cloud actually encounters his subconscious (in the form of his younger self)and speaks with it briefly:

::Cloud enters the room and a bright flash occurs. A translucent form of hisyounger self his before him::

Cloud "Hmm.....? You.....?" "What are you doing in a place like this?"

::Cloud clutches his head::

"That's what I want to ask you. Should you be foolin' around here?" "You think problems will go away just thinkin' about them?"

::The younger form of Cloud rises and flies forward into Cloud's body::

"Oh no!" "Help! Someone...! Hurry!"

"You can't change anything by just sitting back and looking at it."

Cloud "What are you saying?"

"It's started moving."

Cloud "What has?"

"Wake up!"

Note particularly that the double of Cloud in the Honey Bee Inn is a youngerform of him, just as the form of his subconscious was in Cloud's mind whenTifa helps him piece his past together, and note also that this younger formcalled to him to stop when he was handing the Black Materia over to Sephirothat the Temple of the Ancients:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/YoungCloud.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/YoungCloud2.gif

It is with this same younger form of Cloud that the other transparent forms ofhim fuse once Tifa has helped Cloud regain his past in the Lifestream. Afterthat, the adult form of him that was hanging overhead fused with the youngerform. Beyond this point, there ceases to be any voices in Cloud's mind asthere had been before.

Something else to consider is the following dialogue which takes place inCloud's head after his fall from the Upper Plate of Midgar into Aerith'schurch below:

...You all right? ...Can you hear me?

Cloud ".....Yeah....."

Back then... You could get by with just skinned knees.....

Cloud "What do you mean by 'back then'?"

What about now? Can you get up?

Cloud ".....What do you mean by 'that time'? .....What about now?"

Don't worry about me. You just worry about yourself now.

Cloud ".....I'll give it a try."

Note particularly that the the voice says "back then" Cloud could get by withjust skinned knees. Later, in the Lifestream, when Cloud's past is beingrevealed, a very important aspect of the past for Cloud is unveiled: This waswhen he and Tifa fell into a gorge on Mt. Nibel, Tifa suffering injuries thatresulted in a week-long coma, whereas Cloud only received skinned knees. Itwas this event that propelled Cloud toward wishing to become stronger, and,thus, inspired his desire to enter SOLDIER. Seeing as how the voice in Cloud'shead made an allusion to this very important aspect of Cloud's past, it's safeto assume that this was once again his subconscious bringing up matters thatwould possibly spark Cloud's recollection of his true past.

Finally, consider that in the game's ending, when we're shown the mentalbattle with Cloud, the double that rises out of him is an adult at that point,rather than a child, and Cloud was then easily able to either fend offSephiroth's mental assault, and purge his mind of his influence. This wasafter the child form of Cloud's subconscious had fused with the adult form inthe Lifestream:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/FinalConfrontationAwaits.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/FinalConfrontationAwaits2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/FinalConfrontationAwaits3.jpg

While it has been argued that Zack was the voice which Cloud heard, we'regiven no indication that this would be so, nor is there any logical reason asto why Zack would have been the voice. Zack had been killed by Shin-Rasoldiers before Cloud ever began hearing the voices, and there's no logicalreason as to why Zack's Spirit Energy would not have returned to theLifestream, instead hanging around to speak to Cloud, nor is any indicationgiven pointing toward Zack being the source of the voice.

The only logical conclusion that can be drawn -- and the only one with actualsupport within the story -- is that the voice was none other than Cloud'ssubconscious, attempting to get him to recall the truth of his past.

3) -It Had Been Five Years Since Cloud Was Last in Nibelheim-

An often misunderstood aspect of Final Fantasy VII's plot concerns how muchtime had passed since Cloud had last been in Nibelheim before the game began.I will here explain the matter in full.

It had been 5 years since Cloud had last visited his hometown. He was therethe night that it burned to the ground, and returned again alongside Tifaduring the game's present. Where the confusion concerning this matter comesfrom is that Tifa believed it had been 7 years since Cloud had last been inNibelheim (when he left at 14 in hopes of joining SOLDIER), while he knew itto have been 5 years. In light of many of Cloud's memories regarding Nibelheimbeing revealed as inaccurate, many have believed that this meant that hismemory concerning when he was last in Nibelheim was also inaccurate.

However, one must keep in mind the circumstances surrounding Cloud's return toNibelheim. He had failed to become a member of SOLDIER, and, as a result, feltdeep shame and chose to hide his identity from everyone but his mother when hereturned to Nibelheim. He kept his soldier helmet on, concealing his identityfrom Tifa while he was there. This truth is revealed during the Lifestreamincident in Mideel, as Tifa helps Cloud to uncover the truth of his past.There were not only revelations for Cloud in that scene, but some for Tifa, aswell, this being, perhaps, the greatest:

Tifa "...You came. ...You kept your promise."

Tifa "So you really did come when I was in trouble!"

Cloud "Sorry... I didn't get there... fast enough..."

Tifa "It's all right... Cloud."

It was Cloud who took on Sephiroth that night in the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactorand bested him, taking Sephiroth's blade into his own torso, but throwingSephiroth over the railing of the catwalk inside the Reactor and sending himinto the Lifestream. Cloud was last in Nibelheim 5 years before the gamebegan.

4) 4) -Explanation of the Lost Identities of the Black-Cloaked SephirothClones, And Why Cloud Didn't Lose His Own-

One's sense of self-acceptance (or self-awareness if you choose to call it assuch) seems to determine their mental fortitude. Folks like Zack and Lucreciaaccepted theirself for who they were, even if in Lucrecia's case, she wasn'tespecially fond of her self:

Lucrecia "Lately, I dream a lot of Sephiroth... My dear, dear child." "Ever since he was born I never got to hold him, even once..." "Not even once. You can't call me his mother... That... is my sin..."

While she didn't like herself, as this bit of dialogue shows, she had a clearconcept of who she was in her mind: One who had failed her child and wasn'tdeserving of being referred to as his mother.

In the case of Zack, we again find one who clearly expresses acceptance oftheirself, though in his case, he certainly seems comfortable with who he is,as Aerith describes him as a ladies' man:

(In Gongaga, after meeting Zack's parents if Aerith was in the party at thetime.)Cloud "Aerith..."

Aerith "What a shock..... I didn't know Zack was from this town."

Cloud "You know him?"

Aerith "Didn't I tell you? He was my first love."

Cloud "............"

Aerith "Zack.... SOLDIER First Class. Same as Cloud."

Cloud "Strange, there aren't that many who make First Class, but I've never heard of him."

Aerith "That's all right. It's all in the past now. I was just worried because I heard he's been missing."

Cloud "Missing?"

Aerith "I think it was 5 years ago. He went out on a job, and never came back." "He loved women, a real lady's man. He probably found someone

else..."

As such, Zack was comfortable with himself and had no reaction to eitherJENOVA's Cells or the Mako treatment that Hojo performed on him aftercapturing him along with Cloud and the other survivors of the Nibelheimmassacre:

(From the Escapee Reports in the back of the Shinra Mansion's library)Escapee Report No. 2Description of the time of capture.A - Former member of SOLDIER/Number ( )No effect could be detected from either Mako Radiation Therapy or Jenova onhim.B - Regular/Number ( )Reaction to Jenova detected.

Assuming that all members of SOLDIER would have a strong measure ofself-acceptance like Zack (which seems safe to infer in my opinion; theobvious differences between Zack and Cloud were their opinions of themselves;Aerith noted these differences, as well, calling Zack a ladies' man and -- ifthe player accesses the date in the Gold Saucer between herself and Cloud --calling Cloud a mixed-up kid), this would also account for why the JunonAccessory Shop owner -- a former member of SOLDIER -- was not forced to go tothe Reunion. The extent of his reaction to JENOVA's Reunion call was donning ablack cloak, despite it being out of season, only slightly more of a reactionthan Lucrecia's reaction of seeing Sephiroth in her recent dreams:

"I used to be in SOLDIER. Recently, I've felt like dressing up like this... Idon't know, it's out of season, but..."

From here, one would have to make something of an assumption, though I believeit's certainly not an inaccurate one: Most people aren't comfortable withthemselves. The massive amount of cosmetics one can see in a retail store isproof of this. Few people really are comfortable with who they are and exudeself-confidence in all they do. If this self-acceptance were the requirementfor mental fortitude, that would explain why only a few would be capable ofentering SOLDIER (Cloud: "For better or for worse, only the strong can enterSOLDIER."). While one might consider it a bit of a stretch to assume mentalstrength to be what Cloud meant, considering that when he speaks of his ownweakness in that same scene, he's referring to his mental weakness, it's asafe assumption:

Cloud "You see, someone in SOLDIER isn't simply exposed to Mako energy." "Their bodies are actually injected with Jenova cells......" "For better or for worse, only the strong can enter SOLDIER." "It has nothing to do with the Jenova Reunion."

"But weak people...... like me, get lost in the whole thing."

I say he's referring to his mental weakness here because he says that weakpeople like himself get lost in the experimentation that members of SOLDIERundergo. We see him lost mentally on more than one occassion, first after Zackbroke him out of the Shinra Mansion, and later after his fall into theLifestream.

Cloud displays that he doesn't accept himself for who he is on numerousoccasions. Most notably, when he returns to Nibelheim as part of Zack andSephiroth's entourage, he wears a mask so as to prevent anyone fromrecognizing him and knowing that he failed to enter SOLDIER. Further, whilethere when speaking to Zack in the courtyard in Nibelheim, he shows that hewas worried with what others would think of him, this being due to his lack ofconfidence in himself:

(Note that the regular soldier in this scene is actually Cloud, while "Cloud"is actually Zack; this scene is shown to the player before Cloud's true rolein the Nibelheim scenario is revealed)Soldier (Cloud)"It's so boring, being on watch."

[The player can choose to say "You want to do what we always do?" or "Justsit tight, it's your job, right?" If the player chooses "You want to do whatwe always do?" the following exchange takes place.]

Cloud (Zack) You want to do what we always do?

Cloud (Zack) "Shall we practice?"

Soldier (Cloud) "Practice... oh, you mean practice my pose." "Does someone in SOLDIER always have to be careful about what other people think?" "...How did it go?"

::He poses::

Soldier (Cloud) "Was it like this?"

Cloud (Zack) "Good job!"

Soldier (Cloud) "I really don't want to be in SOLDIER."

Now one would need to question what caused Cloud and the survivors inNibelheim to become lost in the first place. I believe this would be due tothe knowledge of those who had lived and died in the past contained within theMako that was infused into them. Early in the game, during the Kalm Flashback,Sephiroth reveals that Materia functions the way it does because theknowledge/memories contained within interacts between the wielder of Materiaand the Planet, manifesting Magic:

"...the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the materia.""Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the Land and thePlanet.

Keeping this in mind, Materia is crystalized Mako, and Mako is condensed (moresolidified) Lifestream. If the knowledge is within the Materia, then it musthave been in the Lifestream, and is, consequently, also within Mako (referalso to what is said in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within concerning Earth'sGaia (Lifestream): It is said that when a lifeform dies, their soul returns tothe Gaia (Lifestream), taking the experiences of its lifetime with it;knowledge would be part of that).

Therefore, when one is infused with Mako, their body is essentially beingflooded with not only solidified Spirit Energy, but the memories of the pastdead, as well. Obviously, this would place a strain on anyone's mind, butimagine the strain it would place on the mind of one who wasn't comfortablewith theirself to begin with, didn't understand theirself, or didn't accepttheirself for themself. This would certainly account for why these peoplewould become lost. In having all that other knowledge and those otherconsciousnesses flooding into their mind, it's easy to see why one who hadn'taccepted with their own self would have difficulty holding on to it amidst allthose other selves.

One final bit of information to consider in this matter is that after Tifahelps Cloud find himself in the Lifestream and his consciousness pieces itselfback together, Cloud admits his weaknesses to the rest of AVALANCHE, andaccepts himself as being weak:

Cloud "Everyone...... I'm sorry. I don't know what to say......"

Red XIII "Don't say anything, Cloud. All you've been doing is apologizing."

Cloud "I never was in SOLDIER." "I made up the stories about what happened to me five years ago, about being in SOLDIER." "I left my village looking for glory, but never made it in to SOLDIER......"

"I was so ashamed of being so weak; then I heard this story from my friend Zack..." "And I created an illusion of myself made up of what I had seen in my life....." "And I continued to play the charade as if it were true."

Barret "Illusion, huh...? Pretty damn strong for a 'lusion, I'd say."

Cloud "I'm physically built like someone on SOLDIER." "Hojo's plan to clone Sephiroth wasn't that difficult." "It was just the same procedure they use when creating members of SOLDIER."

Cloud "You see, someone in SOLDIER isn't simply exposed to Mako energy." "Their bodies are actually injected with Jenova cells......" "For better or for worse, only the strong can enter SOLDIER." "It has nothing to do with the Jenova Reunion." "But weak people...... like me, get lost in the whole thing."

After this point, he never again displays the mental weaknesses that hadcaused him to be forced into handing over the Black Materia, forced intobeating Aerith, nearly forced into kill her, and, finally, coerced intowillingly handing over the Black Materia.

During the game's ending, involving the battle with Cloud's consciousness, heshows that he has become strong mentally, fending off the final mental assaultset against him, setting himself free and becoming autonomous. His mentalstrength had grown, and had done so in a very short span of time. The onlymajor event that had recently come to pass involving his mind was thedefragmentation of his psyche, and his subsequent status of being forced tocome to terms with who he was, and even admitting it before those closest tohim. After accepting that he was weak, he became strong.

I doubt all of this was unintended by the writers, nor does any otherexplanation I've become aware of offer reasoning as to why there is such highvariability in reaction to the Reunion displayed among those in whom JENOVA'sCells were injected.

At this point, one could fairly ask "If all this is true, why then did Cloud'smind not suffer the same effects as those of the other Nibelheim experiments?"The answer, however, is a simple one: Cloud had both Zack and Tifa to anchorhim to consciousness. He had Zack's psyche -- that of someone whose mindwasn't shattered -- to focus on for five years, and then he was discovered byTifa, someone who had powerful emotional ties to Cloud's past, and for whomhe had wanted to be someone like Zack. That Cloud's psyche adopted some ofZack's mannerisms and incorporated some of Zack's past into Cloud's own after

having spent five years with him and then being discovered by Tifa -- the onefor whom Cloud had wanted to become someone like Zack -- would stronglysuggest that it was being able to witness Zack's psyche at work that allowedhim to maintain some sense of self, even if it was a false identity.

5) -Zack Is Not The Man In The Pipe In The Slums of Midgar-

Many seem to believe that Zack somehow survived the 20 or so rounds ofammunition that were fired into his head at close range, and then stumbled hisway to the outskirts of Midgar, where he was found and taken to recuperate ina pipe.

This misunderstanding can be easily explained away, however.

The fellow in the pipe has a number 2 tattooed on his hand, as he is one ofthe Nibelheim Experiments that received Mako infusion and JENOVA Cellinjections. We further know this because on Disc 3, should the player returnto Midgar and visit the fellow who had been looking after him, he will mentionthat the sick guy who had been recuperating in the pipe left some time before,muttering something about a Reunion.

There are a couple of reasons that we can be certain that this isn't Zack. The first is that Aerith does not recognize him, despite Zack having been herboyfriend that she loved so much that, upon meeting Cloud, she found herselfdrawn to him because of his habitual similarities to Zack and the similaritiesin personality. Were he the boyfriend that she had loved and lost, because ofwhom she was then finding herself attracted to one that was greatly similar tohim, it's a safe assumption that she would at least recognize him, or that hewould have recognized her. However, neither display any recognition towardthe other.

The most conclusive evidence toward the fellow not being Zack, however, isthat Zack never received a numbered tattoo, just as Cloud did not, as theyescaped from the Shinra Mansion before that could take place.

Noting the Escapee Reports that can be read in the back of the ShinraMansion's Library, we can clearly see that where there should be numbers wereeither of them given numbers (within the parentheses that follow the word"number" in their descriptions), there are none and the area is blank:

Escapee Report No. 1X Month X DayThe two escapees were located near Midgar.

Escapee Report No. 2Description of the time of capture.A - Former member of SOLDIER/Number ( )No effect could be detected from either Mako Radiation Therapy or Jenova on

him.B - Regular/Number ( )Reaction to Jenova detected.

Escapee Report No. 3Concerning their disposal.A - Shot for resisting.B - Escaped during A's resistance.

Escapee Report No. 4OtherB's whereabouts are currently unknown.But, we submit there is no need to pursue him, due to his diminishingconciousness. Awaiting further instructions.(Bolded for emphasis.)

Zack never received a numbered tattoo, just as Cloud did not. Also, again,Aerith, the woman who loved him, did not show any recognition toward the manin the pipe. Zack simply wasn't him.

6) -Vincent Is Not Sephiroth's Father-

It has long been argued by many that Vincent is Sephiroth's father, not Hojo.However, this is not the case and I will here seek to explain why.

We know, of course, that Vincent was in love with Lucrecia, and in oppositionof the claim that Vincent is Sephiroth's father, it is often pointed out thatit is not implied that those feelings were reciprocated. From what we areshown in Vincent's flashback, that Lucrecia loved Hojo seems to be clear --such as when she rejects Vincent after what appears to be a declaration oflove to her on his part, only to find her kissing Hojo a moment later -- andVincent resigns himself to that fact, saying "If she is happy then... I don'tmind."

That said, however, it could still be argued that Lucrecia had a sexualrelationship with Vincent solely for the physical satisfaction of the matterand that she didn't actually love him or intend to be with him, and when thechoice came to choose between him or Hojo, she chose Hojo. A case can at leastbe built in this regard. While it's often argued that the be all and end allof the matter was that "Vincent loved Lucrecia, but she loved Hojo," there area couple of points in-game that should be considered. First, when speaking toVincent on the Highwind after the barrier around the Northern Crater isdestroyed, he will say the following:

"Hojo...what a queer fellow. Such utter lack of scientific talent... comparedwith the genius of Dr. Gast...Lucrecia chose him in order to protect him. NowI understand...I understand...but..."

This suggests that there may have been more to the matter than simply "Vincentloved Lucrecia, but she loved Hojo." There shouldn't have been a choice forLucrecia to even have to make if she just loved Hojo and hadn't expressed anyinterest in Vincent.

Also notable is Vincent's reaction when Hojo reveals that he is Sephiroth'sfather:

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... HA, HA, HA...!!" "What will Sephiroth think when he finds out that I'm his father?" "Always looking down on me like that." "HA, HA, HA...!!"

Cloud "Sephiroth is your son!?

Vincent "......!"

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha..." "I offered the woman with my child to Professor Gast's Jenova Project." "When Sephiroth was still in the womb, we took the cells of Jenova..." "HA, HA, HA!!"

Vincent "You......!"

Cloud "I can't believe you're the one who did this..." "The illusionary crime against Sephiroth..."

Hojo "Heee, hee, hee, hee! No, you're wrong!" "It's my desire as a scientist! Heee, hee, hee, hee!"

Vincent "......" "I was......wrong." "The one that should have slept was..." "You, Hojo!"

It is from Vincent's reaction that it can be determined that he had believedhimself to be the father, with it being part of his reasoning for desiring

that he be punished. He reacts with surprise when Hojo makes this relevation,the same as the rest of AVALANCHE. He then goes on to say that he was wrongabout himself deserving the punishment he placed on himself, and that it wasHojo that deserved it instead. There can be no reason for Hojo's revelation tohave affected who Vincent felt deserved to be punished save that he believedthe father of Lucrecia's child, Sephiroth, should be the one that waspunished. Seeing as how upon learning that Hojo was the father, he felt thatHojo should be punished, whereas he had prior believed it was himself whoshould be, he must have believed that he was Sephiroth's father beforehand.However, he learns otherwise with Hojo's revelation that he himself wasSephiroth's father, and Vincent realizes that it was not himself that deservedto have been punished, but Hojo. Vincent is then absolved of his guilt andgranted a new lease on life. If chosen to be a party leader before the battleagainst Safer Sephiroth, Vincent will declare "I was frozen in time, but Ifeel as if my time is just beginning."

However, despite this, the manner in which the story unfolds does not suggestthat Vincent is Sephiroth's father, and only serves to contradict that he is.

It should be noted that Vincent's flashback in Lucrecia's cave first becomesavailable on Disc 2, after gaining control of the Shin-Ra submarine. In otherwords, this aspect of the storyline first becomes available before Hojo'srevelation that he is Sephiroth's father at the end of Disc 2 on the SisterRay. Considering that -- as far as the storyline's progression goes -- theplayer is obviously meant to acquire the secret characters, Yuffie andVincent, at the earliest available time, and to do likewise with partaking oftheir sidquests, chronologically, the viewing of Vincent's flashback comesbefore Hojo's revelation on the Sister Ray. Hojo's revelation, thus, qualifiesas a last minute revelation, made all the more "last minute" due to Hojo beingthe last opponent faced before the final battles within the Northern Craterbecome available. Hojo's declaration is the last bit of evidence regarding theidentity of Sephiroth's father, and it isn't contested by anyone, not evenVincent. In fact, rather than thinking it over, Vincent outright accepts itand then feels that he can live a life outside of suffering for something thatwasn't his fault.

Everyone in-game accepts it as the truth, including the only other possiblecandidate for being Sephiroth's father. Something to be kept in mind is when amatter in a story has conflicting possibilities and only one has received anoutright declaration within the story without any evidence present that couldserve to contradict it, or anyone within the story opposing it, it would befact until new evidence that may contradict it was brought forth from a sequelor prequel title, or by the creator(s) theirself/themselves in an interview.This is especially the case when the introduction or development of thepossibilities are equal until one has been declared to be so and has not beencontested by something else in the story. In the case of there being nocontradictions, as there aren't in this case, what has been declared is factuntil new information is brought forth. With there being no contradiction ofHojo's claim, which even Vincent accepts as true, it is true. For that matter,it's not all that far-fetched to assume that Hojo would have the presence of

mind to conduct a paternity test if he believed there was a chance he wasn'tthe father of Sephiroth, nor is it likely beyond the technologicalcapabilities of science in Final Fantasy VII to conduct such a test.

In any event, with Hojo's last minute declaration -- which is further made"last minute" by the fact that journeying into the Northern Crater for thefinal showdown with JENOVA and Sephiroth is made available immediately afterthe showdown with Shin-Ra, the last battle of which takes place against Hojo-- and the manner in which the story unfolded, Hojo has to be accepted asSephiroth's father until more evidence from the creators can be brought forthto suggest otherwise. Such an eventuality is highly unlikely, however, as theUltimania Omega Guide for Final Fantasy VII outright states that Hojo isSephiroth's father multiple times.

7) -Aerith's Death Wasn't Necessary in Order to Summon Holy-

Aerith's death was not needed in order for Holy to be activated, nor does itseem that she knew she would die in praying for Holy. While it's oftenbelieved to have been the case, the opposite is actually true. I will hereattempt to explain why.

First, in regard to Aerith being aware of her imminent death and choosing tosacrifice herself, this was not the case at all. In the May 2003 issue of EDGEmagazine (issue 123), there is a six-page "Making of..." feature on FinalFantasy VII in which Yoshinori Kitase (Director and Co-Scenario Writer ofFinal Fantasy VII) and Tetsuya Nomura (Character Designer of Final FantasyVII) were interviewed and asked about various points concerning Aerith'sdeath. During the course of this interview, Nomura says the following:

"Back at the time we were designing the game, I was frustrated with theperennial cliche where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has tosacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love. We foundthis was the case in both games and movies, both eastern and western. But Iwanted to say something different, something realistic. I mean, is it right toset such an example to people?"

Kitase follows that up with this:"In the real world, things are very different. You just need to look aroundyou. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Deathcomes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad attached to it. Itleaves, not a dramatic feeling, but a feeling of emptiness. When you losesomeone you loved very much you feel this big empty space and think 'If I hadknown this was coming I would have done things differently.' These are thefeelings I wanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relativelyearly in the game. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."

With Kitase's words about death being unexpected in mind, consider Cloud'sdream in which he speaks to Aerith in the Sleeping Forest. Aerith intended to

handle Sephiroth on her own, and then come back:

Aerith "And let me handle Sephiroth."

Aerith "And Cloud, you take care of yourself."

Aerith "So you don't have a breakdown, okay?"

Cloud "What is this place?"

Aerith "This forest leads to the City of the Ancients... and is called Sleeping Forest."

Aerith "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor." "That's why I'm going to protect it. Only a survivor of the Cetra, like me, can do it."

Aerith "The secret is just up here."

Aerith "At least it should be. ...I feel it. It feels like I'm being led by something."

Aerith "Then, I'll be going now. I'll come back when it's all over."

Also consider Tifa's insight into her friend's intentions:

Tifa "I wonder what Aerith felt... when she was on that altar...?"

Cloud "I'm sure she wanted to give her life for the planet..."

Tifa "Really? I wonder? I don't think that's it at all." "I think she didn't think she would die at all, but that she planned on coming back all along." "She always used to talk about the 'Next time'." "She talked about the future more that any of us..."

Further note that in Aerith's dialogue with Cloud in his dream, she didn'tknow what she was going to find when she got to the City of the Ancients. Sheonly knew that something was awaiting her there and that she could feelherself being led there. Based on Bugenhagen learning of Holy when he gotthere from the knowledge floating around in the City, it's logical to assumethat Aerith did likewise:

Bugenhagen "This is..."

Bugenhagen "Yes...... exactly..."

Cloud "Are you getting something?"

Bugenhagen "...Give me a moment."

Bugenhagen "The knowledge of the Ancients swirling around here is telling me one thing."

Bugenhagen "The planet's in a crisis..."

Bugenhagen "A crisis beyond human power or endless time." "It says, when the time comes, we must search for 'Holy'."

Cloud "Holy?"

Bugenhagen "Holy... the ultimate White Magic. Magic that might stand against Meteor. Perhaps our last hope to save the planet from Meteor."

Aerith clearly had no intentions of dying, nor did she know she would. Hersudden death was as much a surprise for her as it was for many players of thegame. Kitase intended this to be so.

While it has been argued that Aerith's statement that "only a Cetra like me"could handle things in Cloud's dream, note that she was referring toprotecting the Planet, as the Cetra were once its caretakers:

Aerith "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor." "That's why I'm going to protect it. Only a survivor of the Cetra,like me, can do it."

For that matter, recall that she didn't even know what she would find when shegot to the City of the Ancients, only that she felt as though she was beingled by something and would find the answer when she got there.

With that said, we'll move now to the matter of Aerith's death being requiredfor Holy to be activated. The fact that Aerith didn't intend to die nor knewthat she would alone is enough to suggest it isn't so, but we'll examine eachpoint in regard to the matter without considering that. First, consider thatthe Black Materia -- the key to activating Meteor, the ultimate Black Magic --didn't require a death in order to summon Meteor. While true that the CaitSith construct had to remain in the Temple of the Ancients and be crushed totransform the Temple into the Materia -- as someone had to remain inside anddie -- this was to transform the Temple and make the Materia accessible andusable, not to actually use the Materia itself.

The White Materia logically wouldn't require a death either. The Black andWhite Materias were like any other Materia in this respect, as we're not shownany other Materia that required a death in order for them to function, nor isit suggested that the White or Black Materias required such a sacrifice.

Also consider this: Sephiroth knew how the Black Materia worked. His entireplan revolved around using the Black Materia to summon Meteor, dealing a fatalwound to the Planet, which the Lifestream would then attempt to heal, pouringout a huge amount of energy, which hewould then absorb. Knowing how the BlackMateria worked, Sephiroth would logically also know how the White Materiaworked from having been in the Lifestream. And obviously Sephiroth DID knowabout the White Materia, as he attempted to kill Aerith before she couldsummon Holy, and was holding Holy back for the entire course of the game afterAerith summoned it:

Cloud "Thank you... Aerith." "Aerith's voice has already reached the Planet. Just look at the glow of the White Materia." "But...... how about Holy? How come Holy isn't moving?"

Cloud "Why?"

Bugenhagen "Something's getting in its way."

If it were true that Aerith' death was required for Holy to work -- and,again, no other Materia, including the Black Materia, is shown to require adeath to function -- then it would have been counterproductive to kill Aerith.If Sephiroth's intentions were to summon Meteor, initiating the key toactivating Holy (which could conceivably negate Meteor) would be undermining

his entire plan. Logically, it makes no sense whatsoever for Sephiroth to killAerith if her death would be required for Holy to function. Granted, one couldargue that he were attempting to kill her before her death would matter, butthat's stepping a bit outside the realm of reasonable assumption.

Further consider that it is shown that activating Holy didn't require deathwhen the function of the White Materia is explained.

Bugenhagen"If a soul seeking Holy reaches the planet, it will appear."

Many take this to mean that Aerith's spirit had to reach the center of thePlanet in order to activate Holy, however, in conjunction with the rest ofwhat Bugenhagen says, this is shown to not be the case at all, as "reach"-ingthe Planet in this case, merely meant "communicating with the Planet" throughthe White Materia:

Cloud "Search for Holy... How do we do it?"

Bugenhagen "Speak to the planet." "Get the White Materia... This will bond the Planet to humans."

Bugenhagen "Then speak to the planet." "If our wish reaches the planet, the White Materia will begin to glow a pale green."

The matter was as simple as that.

Anyone who had the White Materia could have prayed for Holy, and "reached" thePlanet, as the White Materia opened a line of communication between itsholder and the Planet itself. It's possible that being at the City of theAncients wasn't even required, since Aerith was only performing the prayerthere because she learned about the White Materia's function there. Theconcept of establishing a link between oneself and the Planet through theWhite Materia isn't really any different than using any other Materia, as allMateria contain knowledge of those who have lived and died in the past, withthese memories and knowledge acting as a link between the wielder of theMateria and the Planet itself:

(Stated by Sephiroth in Nibelheim during the mission there five years beforethe main events of the game.)"...the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the materia." "Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the Land and the Planet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the planet

calling up magic..... or so they say."

For a final point, if establishing a mental/spiritual connection with thePlanet through the White Materia were not needed, and only dying was, Aerithcould have as easily thrown herself off a cliff or stood out in the open andcalled out to Sephiroth to come kill her, rather than going about things asshe did.

This is not to take anything away from Aerith, or to say that what she didwasn't heroic -- for she indeed displayed heroism in traveling to the City ofthe Ancients on her own -- but to point out the facts surrounding what shedid. From the quotes from the script seen above and the interview with Nomuraand Kitase in EDGE magazine, it is obvious that she did not expect to die, andby the evidence pertaining to the Black Materia, Materia in general, andSephiroth's knowledge of the Black and -- likely -- the White Materia, as wellas the quotes that establish that all that was required to activate Holy wasconnecting to the Planet, it can be seen that her death was not necessary inorder for Holy to come forth.

However, that said, it is likely that Aerith's presence in the Lifestreamallowed her to somehow manipulate it, or convince those who were part of it toaid in thwarting Meteor during the ending, rather than allow it to cause thedeaths of most, if not all, living things on the Planet. Her theme playing asthe Lifestream rises to add strength to Holy in combating Meteor and then herappearance after Holy flashes and negates Meteor certainly suggests this.

8) -Aerith Did Not Sacrifice Herself-

One of the larger misperceptions of Final Fantasy VII is that Aerithintentionally sacrifced herself for the Planet, knowing that her death wouldbe needed in order to save the world. This was simply not the case.

In the May 2003 issue of EDGE magazine (issue 123), there is a six-page"Making of..." feature on Final Fantasy VII in which Yoshinori Kitase Director and Co-Scenario Writer of Final Fantasy VII) and Tetsuya Nomura(Character Designer of Final Fantasy VII) were interviewed and asked aboutvarious points concerning Aerith's death. During the course of this interview,Nomura says the following:

"Back at the time we were designing the game, I was frustrated with theperennial cliche where the protagonist loves someone very much and so has tosacrifice himself and die in a dramatic fashion to express that love. We foundthis was the case in both games and movies, both eastern and western. But Iwanted to say something different, something realistic. I mean, is it right toset such an example to people?"

Kitase follows that up with this:"In the real world, things are very different. You just need to look around

you. Nobody wants to die that way. People die of disease and accident. Deathcomes suddenly and there is no notion of good or bad attached to it. It leavesnot a dramatic feeling, but a feeling of emptiness. When you lose someone youloved very much you feel this big empty space and think 'If I had known thiswas coming I would have done things differently.' These are the feelings Iwanted to arouse in the players with Aerith's death relatively early in thegame. Feelings of reality and not Hollywood."

With Kitase's words about death being unexpected in mind, consider Cloud'sdream in which he speaks to Aerith in the Sleeping Forest. Aerith intended tohandle Sephiroth on her own, and then come back:

Aerith "And let me handle Sephiroth."

Aerith "And Cloud, you take care of yourself."

Aerith "So you don't have a breakdown, okay?"

Cloud "What is this place?"

Aerith "This forest leads to the City of the Ancients... and is called Sleeping Forest."

Aerith "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor." "That's why I'm going to protect it. Only a survivor of the Cetra,like me, can do it."

Aerith "The secret is just up here."

Aerith "At least it should be. ...I feel it. It feels like I'm being led by something."

Aerith "Then, I'll be going now. I'll come back when it's all over."

Also consider Tifa's insight into her friend's intentions:

Tifa "I wonder what Aerith felt... when she was on that altar...?"

Cloud "I'm sure she wanted to give her life for the planet..."

Tifa "Really? I wonder? I don't think that's it at all." "I think she didn't think she would die at all, but that she planned on coming back all along." "She always used to talk about the 'Next time'." "She talked about the future more that any of us..."

The in-game dialogue of Final Fantasy VII not only serves to contradict thenotion that Aerith sacrificed herself, but the words of two of the game's coredevelopers establishes that she did not sacrifice herself.

9) -Explanation of the Behaviour of the WEAPONs-

An often-raised question concerning Final Fantasy VII is "Why did the WEAPONsbehave in the manner that they did?" This is asked due to them having beencreated to protect the Planet, yet we typically only ever find them attackingthe Homo Sapien populace, whereas Meteor is the threat at hand. Further, it isJENOVA and Sephiroth who would likely cause the death of the Planet onceMeteor had struck by asborbing the Spirit Energy that the Planet would send toheal the wound rendered by Meteor. One major point of curiosity is why theWEAPONs make no attempt to penetrate the barrier around the Northern Crater(or blast their way under it) and seek to attack JENOVA and Sephiroth. As aresult of this, many mistakenly conclude that the WEAPONs may have beencontrolled by Sephiroth. However, this is not the case. Here, I will attemptto answer these questions and explain the behavior of the WEAPONs.

Quite simply, the WEAPONs were an automated defense system that the Planet hadoriginally created to defend itself from the Crisis from the Sky, JENOVA.However, due to a small band of Cetra confronting and confining the Crisis, itwas no longer necessary to use the WEAPONs and they were placed into a stateof hibernation, to awaken again should the Planet face a crisis from JENOVA oranother threat:

(From the Original Crisis Report tapes at Icicle Inn) Professor Gast "Ifalna, can you comment on the thing called 'Weapon'?"

Ifalna "Yes, Professor." "The one the Professor mistook for a Cetra... was named Jenova. That is the 'crisis from the sky'." "The Planet knew it had to destry the 'crisis from the sky'..." "You see, as long as Jenova exists, the Planet will never be able to fully heal itself."

Professor Gast "Back then, Weapon was a weapon the Planet produced of its own will?"

Ifalna "Yes, but... There is no record of Weapon ever being used." "A small number of the surviving Cetra defeated Jenova, and confined it." "The Planet produced Weapon... But it was no longer necessary to use it."

Professor Gast "So, Weapon no longer exists on the Planet?"

Ifalna "Weapon cannot vanish. ...It remains asleep somewhere on the Planet." "Even though Jenova is confined, it could come back to life at some time..." "The Planet has not fully healed itself yet. It is still watching Jenova."

Once placed into hibernation, they would only activate during times in whichthe Planet's crisis level was high enough that the Planet itself might be indanger. Once activated, however, rather than seeking out the cause of thethreat to the Planet and targeting it, they would destroy EVERYTHING. Not justanything that might pose a potential threat to the Planet, as is oftenbelieved to be the case, but everything that was alive. They had noprogramming pertaining to the effect of "Seek out the cause of the planetarycrisis and eliminate it." The programming was simply "Annihilate anythingthat's alive." We know this because of what information Hojo revealsconcerning the WEAPONs at the Northern Crater before Meteor is summoned:

Hojo "Weapon..." "Then it really does exist... I didn't believe in it."

Rufus "What does this mean?"

Hojo "...Weapon. Monsters created by the Planet." "It appears when the Planet is in danger, reducing everything to nothingness." "That's what was stated in Professor Gast's report."

His information came from Professor Gast's report. Gast's information camefrom Ifalna, his wife, who happened to be a Cetra. Her information would have

come from the Planet, so it's most certainly accurate.

We are further able to ascertain this conclusion that the WEAPONs wereattacking all living things due to behavior that is mostly never shown, but isindicated either through dialogue or through us witnessing their visualresults:

(When Tifa wakes up in Junon, a week after Meteor has been summoned.)Tifa "How long... was I asleep?"

Barret "Lessee now...... Must've been about 7 days."

Tifa "What about Sephiroth?"

Barret "You ain't over it yet. Remember that huge light, in the Northern Cave?"

Barret "Since then, the crater's been surrounded by a huge barrier of light." "Everyone knows Sephiroth sleeps in that big hole, protected by the barrier." "We can't do a damn thing about it. We just gotta wait till he wakes up."

Barret "And on topa that, some huge monster called Weapon's been on a rampage."

Tifa "...Weapon?"

Barret "Remember that huge monster that was made with Sephiroth, at the bottom of the crater?" "Well it's up here now. They say it's some legendary monster from the past."

Tifa "Weapon... is protecting Sephiroth?"

Barret "Dunno. But he's up here goin' around tearin' shit up."

From this, we can ascertain that Hojo's information concerning WEAPON is

correct, as Sapphire WEAPON, at the least, is going about attacking randomly("...he's up here goin' around tearin' shit up"). That the WEAPON had specifictargets is not implied.

Something else to consider is Ultimate WEAPON's behavior, of which we can seeboth the results after the fact in one case, and the results as they occur inanother. First to note is that late in the game, the area in front of Junonnow features a giant crater into which the sea has flooded due to the Planet'ssurface in the area having been ravaged all the way out to the ocean. Therewas once a forest (full of life; full of Spirit Energy; take note of this fora matter to be brought up soon) in this location that has since been utterlydestroyed, and Ultima WEAPON is found on Disc 3 of the game hovering over thiscrater, indicating that the WEAPON is what caused the damage to the Junonarea:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/UltimateWEAPONnearJunon.jpg

Something of further consideration is that Ultimate WEAPON made an assault onMideel, an area of the world in which its residents lived relatively inharmony with nature. Granted, they would have used trees to create theirvillages' structures, but for the most part, they were posing no threat to thePlanet. There wasn't even a Mako Reactor on the entire continent on whichMideel resides, and the closest one would have been on the eastern continentat Fort Condor, with that Mako Reactor having long since fallen intodisservice. In other words, the people of Mideel were no threat to the Planetand there must have been another reason for attacking them.

Here we come to the matter I previously mentioned in regard to the forest thatUltimate WEAPON destroyed: The link between both of these areas that posed nothreat to the Planet were that they both contained Spirit Energy in the livingbeings present.

We already know based on what Hojo said concerning Gast's report and thebehavior we see demonstrated by the WEAPONs that they will reduce "everythingto nothingness" indiscriminantly, except in regard to differentiating betweenliving targets/areas populated with life, and non-living targets/areas notpopulated with life. The WEAPONs' targets are creatures that contain SpiritEnergy.

As for why this may be so, the WEAPONs only arise when the Planet itself isfacing a crisis. During such a time, what would likely be of greatestimportance to the Planet overall is its own survival. Thus, in having theWEAPONs annihilate all living things, they would be causing Spirit Energy toreturn to the Planet and add more strength to the Lifestream. For evidence ofsuch a concept, we can look to Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis, in whichFuhito of AVALANCHE -- attempting to assassinate President Shinra -- tells thedespotic corporation's head that his death will be of benefit the Lifestream:

FuhitoHeh heh. So we meet again, President Shinra. There's no need to fear. Yourdeath will release your soul into the Lifestream and help this planet.

(Note: For a translation of Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis' script, referto this website: http://www.freewebs.com/gunshotromance/index.htm)

Based on all of this, we can conclude that the behavior of the WEAPONs was notto target the source of the threat to the Planet, but to annihilate all life,strengthening the Lifestream. While it's true that this behaviour would alsobe of benefit to Sephiroth -- as he intended to absorb the Lifestream -- thebehaviour we see displayed by the WEAPONs falls into the range of that whichGast had reported when Sephiroth was still only 8 years old. The storyline ofthe game offers an explanation as to what the purpose of the WEAPONs is, andwhen released, we merely see them display behaviour in that regard without anyindication that they were being controlled by Sephiroth or were adhereing toany purpose other than that which was reported by Gast.

Points often raised to argue that Sephiroth was controlling the WEAPONs, yetwhich don't actually support the notion:

*Point: The WEAPONs wake up just as Sephiroth calls Meteor. This would makesense as he would likely want them to act as extra protection now that he waswaiting for his plan to be fulfilled, with Shin-Ra and AVALANCHE knowing wherehe is.

*Response: The WEAPONs awakened because Meteor was called and the Planet'scrisis level became astronomic. As Hojo said, they awaken during such times ofcrisis. As far as the matter of protection goes, AVALANCHE only knew whereSephiroth was because he brought them to him. He wanted them to know he wasthere. It makes little sense for him to draw them to him and then fear whatthey may do with this knowledge. For that matter, he had the barrier aroundthe Northern Crater for protection.

*Point: The WEAPONs awaken in the vicinity of Sephiroth, yet they don't justattack him, despite him being the threat to the Planet.

*Response: Technically, Meteor was the threat to the Planet. But in any case,that the WEAPONs would know what the threat to the Planet was is not implied.It's only implied that they somehow knew when there was a threat. For thatmatter, the parameters of their purpose was to seek out living things anddestroy them, not to actively seek out the cause of the Planet's crisis.

*Point: Even assuming the WEAPONs didn't seek out the cause of the Planet'scrisis, rather than attacking what living things there were in the area of theNorthern Crater, they fly off to seek out other targets. The Northern Craterwas abundant with life within.

*Response: During a time of crisis such as that, with impending doom hangingoverhead, efficiency would likely be the order of business. Spending one'stime digging down into that hole in the ground to vaporize a few Dragons andMovers would hardly be as effective as reducing entire forests full of plantand animal life to smoldering craters.

*Point: Until after the barrier around the Northern Crater is destroyed, theWEAPONs don't attack anything but places where Shin-Ra or AVALANCHE are. Afterthat, they're just trying to go around and cause chaos to keep everyonedistracted.

*Response: We don't know that. Barret tells Tifa when she awakens in Junonthat the WEAPONs have been going around "tearin' shit up." Tifa had beenunsconsious for two weeks. While Barret does say that Rufus had been fightingthe WEAPONs during this time, that does not mean that they had necessarilybeen targeting him and Shin-Ra. The WEAPONs were going around attacking placeson Rufus' Planet, harming Rufus' people, and Rufus had the means by which toat least oppose the WEAPONs. It makes sense that he would be fighting them. Inany event, the WEAPONs' apparent intent on taking him out in the present mayhave been a result of his interference over the course of the preceding twoweeks.

While that's somewhat heavy speculation, there's also the fact that Barretmakes no suggestion to indicate that the WEAPONs had been attacking JUSTShin-Ra during this period of time.

*Point: Diamond WEAPON took the Sister Ray's blast at Midgar full-on in anattempt to stop it from hitting the barrier around the Northern Crater. He wastrying to protect Sephiroth. Surely he wouldn't do this otherwise. For thatmatter, it fought AVALANCHE, but then began ignoring them as soon as theSister Ray was preparing to fire at the barrier. While one may argue thatDiamond was trying to prevent the Sister Ray from sucking Spirit Energy out ofthe Planet -- something that would render it and the other WEAPONs' actions oflate useless -- it could have just shot the cannon from where it stood insteadof wasting the time to walk toward the shore and then get in the cannon's pathto fire. It clearly intended to protect Sephiroth.

*Response: The matter of shooting the cannon before it could fire applieslogically in either situation. For the WEAPON not to simply stand where it wasand shoot the cannon or the Mako Reactors that would power it makes no senseno matter what the situation is, as it was obviously trying to prevent thatdue to disregarding AVALANCHE as soon as Rufus was informed that the SisterRay was prepared to fire. Most likely, however, it WAS taking action due tothe Spirit Energy within the Planet being sucked out to power the cannon basedon what we know to be facts concerning the WEAPONs, and what Cloud says as theWEAPON walks away:

Cloud "No, it's...... feeling something. ......Yeah, it senses murder."

With that in mind, recall that Bugenhagen described the Mako Reactors'activities as throwing all living things away:

Bugenhagen "Everyday Mako reactors suck up Spirit energy, diminishing it." "Spirit energy gets compressed in the reactors and processed into Mako energy. All living things are being used up and thrown away."

Most likely, it was sensing that Spirit Energy was about to be thrown awaythat would motivate the WEAPON into action, not a concern that Sephiroth'sbarrier would be destroyed.

As for why it would move into the path of the Sister Ray, this was most likelya plot device just to get the WEAPON destroyed.

*Point: If the WEAPONs were trying to flood the Planet with Spirit Energy, whydidn't they destroy a place like the Gold Saucer? It obviously took a lot ofSpirit Energy to power that place, and it was also full of people andChocobos. There was tons of Spirit Energy in that place.

*Response: Like the previous point, this applies no matter what the situation.If Sephiroth wanted to cause chaos and/or hurt people's morale, he shouldattack this place. If he wanted to hurt Shin-Ra, he should attack this place,as they own it (Dio introduces himself as the owner, but he's later referredto as the manager by the Weapon Seller east of Gongaga, and the boarddisplaying the layout of the Gold Saucer near the entrance clearly shows thatit is Shin-Ra that owns it).

In any event, the Gold Saucer couldn't be destroyed as that would reduce theplayer's choices of mini-games from more than 10 to just 3 (the Fort Condormini-game battle, the Ancient Forest, and the snowboard ride to the GreatGlacier). Even Chocobo breeding would no longer be fruitful, as the playerwould be unable to race their Chocobos and train them.

For that matter, though, the position of Ruby WEAPON (in the desert near theGold Saucer) would suggest that the writer was trying to imply that the GoldSaucer WAS a target of the WEAPONs, though obviously not one that could bedestroyed without severely hampering gameplay.

*Point: When Bugenhagen learns of Holy in the City of the Ancients, he saysthat WEAPON will disappear along with Meteor:

Bugenhagen

"Holy... the ultimate White Magic. Magic that might stand against Meteor. Perhaps our last hope to save the planet from Meteor." "If a soul seeking Holy reaches the planet, it will appear."

Bugenhagen "Ho Ho Hoooo." "Meteor, Weapon, everything will disappear."

Bugenhagen "Perhaps, even ourselves."

If this is true, then why would the Planet be removing its own automateddefense system unless it was being controlled by Sephiroth?

*Response: It likely isn't true. Bugenhagen was merely told by the memoriesfloating around in the air what Holy is and how to use it. It's not suggestedthat there was a consciousness in the City that was still aware in thepresent, that was monitoring the situation, and was then passing alonginformation to Bugenghagen on what was going to happen if Holy should beemployed. Bugenhagen and the others regarded WEAPON as something bad. Thememories in the Ancient City were informing Bugenhagen that Holy would removeanything that the Planet deemed as bad. In his excitement -- which was obvious-- he likely assumed that WEAPON would vanish with Meteor. For that matter, ifhe was being given a list of those things which would be undone by Holy,there's no reason that he should have to speculate on whether or not HomoSapiens would vanish as well. He should already know.

For that matter, though, even if the WEAPONs were under Sephiroth's influence,their behaviour would have benefitted the Planet, as killing things as theywere would flood the Lifestream with Spirit Energy, and -- when they targetedShin-Ra -- would take out the biggest threat to the Planet among Homo Sapiens.The Planet should still consider the WEAPONs of benefit to itself.

*Point: Even Tifa and Barret acknowledge the possibility that the WEAPONs maybe protecting Sephiroth:

Tifa "Weapon... is protecting Sephiroth?"

Barret "Dunno. But he's up here goin' around tearin' shit up."

*Response: Actually, Tifa asks Barret if the WEAPONs are protecting Sephiroth,and Barret responds that he doesn't know. Neither of the two were present whenHojo declared what was stated in Gast's report. For that matter, Tifa'swording obviously expresses uncertainty:

"Weapon... is protecting Sephiroth?"

She's clearly confused by what Barret is reporting, as she knows the WEAPONsto have been created for the Planet's defense, and them going around attackingthings seems to be a contradiction to her. As for Barret himself, he onlyknows what he's seen and heard, and both of them are out of the loop in regardto what Hojo revealed back at the Northern Crater.

*Point: In the tapes we see at Icicle Inn, it's never suggested that theWEAPONs rise up with the intention of destroying everything. It's said thatthey were created to destroy JENOVA. Hojo must have been exaggerating -- oroutright lying -- about what was stated in Gast's report. We are able to seeevery other report in the game (the Periodic Report to Professor Hojo, theEscapee Report, the Original Crisis Report) with the exception of this allegeddocument.

*Response: Then it would be far too much of a coicedence that he should saythe WEAPONs awaken when the Planet is in a crisis, with them doing just thatshortly thereafter when Meteor is called, yet with it having absolutelynothing to do with the Planet being in a crisis. In any event, like it or not,there was more to Gast's report than that which we are able to see.

For that matter, there's even more to those tapes in Icicle Inn concerningAerith than we are able to see. Recall these lines from the second tapeconcerning Aerith, entitled "Daughter's Record: 20th Day after birth":

Ifalna"Video again? You just got through taping!"

Gast".........Please don't say it that way.""It's our lovely daughter, both yours... and mine!""Don't you want to capture her childhood on videotape?"

Ifalna"If you keep doting on her like that, she won't grow up to be strong..."

Ifalna says that he "just got through taping." The only other tape concerningAerith is entitled "Daughter's Record: 10th Day after birth." A difference of10 days is hardly just getting through with taping, and considering how shortthat first video was, there's hardly reason for her to speak as though Gastwas excessively doting on Aerith if these are all the tapes that there were.

Based on all of this, the most simple explanation, and the only one which isactively supported by the storyline of the game itself, is that the WEAPONswere doing exactly what they were intended to do without any outside

interference from Sephiroth.

(Note: Thanks to Fade of AdventChildren.net for bringing this possibility tomy attention; heavy thanks go to Katicflis for supplying counterarguments tothis matter. The only way to make an argument stronger is to try to break it.)

10) -The Battle During the Game's Ending Was a Real Conflict-

One of the more enduring questions concerning Final Fantasy VII's storyline iswhether or not the battle between Cloud's mind and Sephiroth's form during theending was real or not. While certain that it was a mental ordeal due to Cloudhaving not moved from his location on the ledge when he began hearing laughterinside his head, quite often, it's argued to have been nothing more thanvisceral imagery representing Cloud gaining autonomy and removing Sephiroth'sinfluence from his mind. However, while true that he did these things duringthat battle, it was still just that: A battle. I will here explain why this isso.

Of course, being that Cloud's body contained JENOVA Cells, his mind had beenaccessed several times before this point, often to force him to do thingsagainst his will (for example, handing over the Black Materia at the site ofthe Temple of the Ancients and then proceeding to beat up Aerith). In thisparticular case, the JENOVA Cells were being used to access his mind in anattempt to completely take over his body (due to JENOVA and Sephiroth's ownhaving just been pulverized).

Where's the evidence for this one might ask? It's in the fact that Holy wasstill being held back even after the Safer Sephiroth battle. It wasn't moving,for the will of Sephiroth was still in play and he was still attempting tocarry out the plan to absorb the Lifestream, but in order to do so, needed abody. The intended host was Cloud's body. Due to Cloud having come to termswith himself in the Lifestream, his will was now too strong to be subverted,and he easily fended off Sephiroth, expelling him from his mind. Once this wasdone, the crater that led down into the area where JENOVA-SYNTHESIS had beenfought (always green up to this point) flashed white, the colour of Holy, andHoly began to move only a few seconds later, whereas it had continued toreside in the centre of the Planet even after Safer Sephiroth's defeat. Itwasn't until the mental form of Sephiroth was defeated by Cloud that theinterior of the Crater began to flash with Holy's brilliance, signaling thatHoly was free to move:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/HolyFlash.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/HolyFlash2.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/HolyFlash3.jpg

The only means by which to explain Holy's behavior is to account for thismental conflict. To those who would continue to argue that a mental battle

would be unlikely, I would like to take this moment to remind everyone that inFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Aki acquires the Eigth Spirit during adream sequence, it plunging its tentacles into her dream form's stomach, wherethey came into contact with her child. In light of the rather "A to B" mannerin which things play out (Sephiroth's mental form is dispersed and Holysubsequently begins to move with nothing else falling between the events thatcould have possibly triggered Holy's movement), I would conclude that the mostlogical explanation for these events is that the mental ordeal truly was abattle of wills.

11) -Why Holy Failed, and the Truth About the Lifestream's Role in Saving theWorld-

When the Ultimate White Magic Spell, Holy, collided with its polar opposite,Meteor, in the sky over Midgar, it seemed that deliverance had arrived for thepeople of Gaia and the Planet itself. However, seemingly, the Spell failed andwas being overpowered by the Black Magic Spell. Why was this? Was it becausethe Planet had deemed to allow Meteor to pass, so as to annihilate HomoSapiens, as is so often concluded? No. Were that the case, having Holy assaultMeteor to begin with would not have been necessary, nor should it havelogically occurred. For that matter, if the Planet was targeting Homo Sapiens,based on Bugenhagen's description of Holy from what he learned in the City ofthe Ancients, Holy should have been able to remove both Meteor and HomoSapiens, as the intention behind using it is to allow the Planet to remove allthat which it determines as bad for itself. Why, then, does Holy fail? Whatdoes Red XIII mean about it having "the opposite effect"? I will here explainthese matters.

The following statement from Red XIII is what most-often inspires theconclusion that Holy was helping Meteor, and, consequently, has inspiredthoughts that the Planet deemed to allow Meteor to strike so as to rid itselfof Homo Sapiens:

"Holy is having the opposite effect."

However, this conclusion takes Nanaki's statement out of context, ignoringthose words that he stated beforehand:

"It's too late for Holy. Meteor is approaching the Planet."

What, then, does this mean? Why was it too late for Holy? In what way?Meteor's proximity to the Planet was a part of this problem for what reason?

To start with, let's recall again that Holy and Meteor are essentiallyopposites: The purpose of one is to protect a Planet, while the purpose of theother is to destroy Planets. They are the Ultimate White & Black Magic Spells.

As equal but opposite forces, they have the means to cancel one another out.When Holy collides with Meteor above Midgar, it's Black Materia versus White,Meteor versus Holy, negative versus positive, opposed like Fire and Ice orLightning and Water.

What happens if you have positive 45 and negative 45 and you put themtogether? They cancel one another out and become 0. Positive and negative onlycancel each other out when they are equal. Holy had doubtless lost some of itspotency due to being held back for weeks, so it -- for the sake ofillustration -- was positive 30 and Meteor was negative 45.

Think of the property of Kinetic Energy that Newton noticed: For everyapplication of force, there must be an equal in magnitude, but opposite inpolarity application of force. Now what happens when two opposing forces thatare equal collide? The sum becomes zero and the forces are balanced. This iswhat is called being "at rest" in Physics. It's akin to when one has a booksitting on a table. If the table isn't flat, the force of gravity is going tobe acting on that book greater in one direction that it is in another. Whenthe table IS flat, the sum of the forces acting on the book is 0. The forcesacting to cause the book to slide to the left are balanced with those thoseacting to cause it to slide to the right, and, thus, they cancel one anotherout.

It's the same concept here. With Holy having been weakened due to being heldback for so long, it was not at its full potency and was unable to properlyperform its function in the situation. Where Red XIII's words come into playconcerning it being too late for Holy is that with Holy not canceling Meteorout straight away, the conflict raging between the two Spells was damaging thesurrounding area. While Holy and Meteor struggle, a storm kicks up in Midgarthat tears up much of the city. Meteor was "approaching the Planet," and was,thus, too close to the Planet for Holy to struggle with it without theconflict damaging the Planet in some way. With Holy's purpose being to protectthe Planet, for its struggle against Meteor to be damaging the Planet, it was,thus, that Nanaki had cause to say that Holy was "having the opposite effect,"which is true. It wasn't attempting to perform the opposite effect, however,as is so often misunderstood; it was just unable to perform its intendedfunction and was engineering the opposite of said function as a result of itsinability to perform as intended.

This changes, of course, when the Lifestream rises to add strength to Holy,which IS what it did. It's often misinterpreted that Holy outright failed andthe Lifestream saved the world from Meteor on its own. However, this is notthe case at all. Meteor was a derivative of the Lifestream, as was Holy, Fire,Ice, and all other Spells. As such, it had its opposite in the derivative ofthe Spirit Energy of the Lifestream that was Holy. In order to cancel Meteorout, it needed to be faced with an equal in magnitude but opposite in polarityforce. That force was Holy. The Lifestream added strength to the weakenedHoly, giving it the extra strength needed to be equal in magnitude to theBlack Magic Spell, and, thus, causing the two to cancel one another out.

For a heavy indication that the Lifestream was adding strength to Holy, wemust refer first to Holy parting above Midgar as Meteor overpowered it, withthe center of Holy turning red, the colour of Meteor, before it parted. Withthat in mind, we must then recall it was at the center of this conflict thatwe saw the conversion of Holy take place. When the Lifestream rises, itconverges directly beneath the center of Holy, where Meteor is passingthrough. It seemingly then rises up into the Spells above, and just beforeMeteor and Holy vanish, we see the colour of Holy return at the center of theconflict in a bright flash, this flash generating from where the White MagicSpell had previously turned red. The Lifestream added potency to Holy'spolarity, granting it equal footing with Meteor and allowing the two tonegate one another.

The following images depict this conflict from its beginning to its end:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/HolyArrives.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/HolyAltered.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/HolyParts.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/MeteorisNeutralized.jpg

12) -The Cetra are Not from Another Planet-

A misconception that often arises concerning Final Fantasy VII's storyline isthat the Cetra were not from Gaia, but another Planet, and that theirmigrations took them from one Planet to another. This misconception arisesfrom a misunderstanding of the following dialogue:

Sephiroth "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on..." "At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness."

What should be kept in mind is that Aerith -- a Cetra herself -- specificallystates that the Cetra are born from the Planet and then return to it when theydie:

Aerith "All I know is..." "The Cetra were born from the Planet, speak with the Planet, and unlock the Planet." "And....... then......" "The Cetra will return to the Promised Land. A land that promises supreme happiness."

Something else to be kept in mind is that the word "Planet" is used

interchangably with the word "Land," even by Ifalna, a Cetra. Further, whenrelating the function of Materia to Cloud, Sephiroth uses both words in thesame sentence in the same context:

(Ifalna in Icicle Inn, commenting on the Knowlespole of the Cetra freezingover)Professor Gast"Hmm, even here so close to the North Cave, the snow never melts." "Is that because the planet's energy is gathered here to heal its injury?"

Ifalna "Yes, the energy that was needed to heal the Planet withered away theland... then the Planet..."

(Sephiroth's explanation of Materia's function)Sephiroth"...the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the materia." "Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the Land and thePlanet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the planet calling upmagic..... or so they say."

With all this in mind, Sephiroth was most certainly speaking in regard to THESURFACE of the Planet.

Another point that raises the misconception is Aerith's statement concerningthe spirits of the Ancients in the Temple of the Ancients:

"Those are the spirit bodies of the Ancients." "They've been away from their Planet for a long time to protect this Temple."

While she says that the Ancients' spirits in the Temple had been away fromtheir Planet for a long time, that doesn't necessarily imply a differentPlanet. "Planet" can also refer to a world's Lifestream, and in Final FantasyIX, we're told that the true form of a Planet is its Lifestream. This is whatall life returns to at the time of its death.

Thus, it can be concluded that the Cetra were most certainly always residentsof the Planet Gaia.

13) -The Promised Land Revealed-

"What is the Promised Land?" The great question of Final Fantasy VII's mythos.The question that players, in-game characters, and game developers have soughtan answer for. Is the Promised Land the Northern Crater, a land filled withrising Spirit Energy, as Shin-Ra believed the Promised Land to be? Or is it

Midgar, the technological behemoth of metal and highways where Shin-Ra heldits seat of power for decades, as the game's Character Designer, TetsuyaNomura, once said he believed it to be? Is it the Lifestream itself, the greatriver of Spirit Energy from which all life on the Planet Gaia springs? Or isit something which we find within ourselves? Here, I will seek to answer thegreat question.

The answer to all of the questions above is this: Yes. Yes, the NorthernCrater IS the Promised Land. Yes, Midgar IS the Promised Land. Yes, theLifestream IS the Promised Land. Yes, the Promised Land IS a peace which onefinds within theirself. But the answer to the above questions is not "Yes" foreveryone. For many, the answer to all these questions may be "No." ThePromised Land is something personal for every individual. Someone can't tellanother individual what the Promised Land is. The Promised Land isn't the samefor every person. It is whatever grants a person a sense of completion, asense of supreme joy and happiness. For one person, this may be their romanticpartner; for another, it may be their children; for another, it may be money;for yet another, it may be achieving, acquiring, or learning any number ofdifferent things.

We find two indications in-game of the Promised Land being something personal.The first comes from Aerith when AVALANCHE has been jailed in the Shin-Raheadquarters, and the second comes from Elder Hargo of Cosmo Canyon. Aerithsays that her mother's spirit has told her that one day she would leave Midgarand find HER Promised Land:

Aerith "Someday I'll get out of Midgar... Speak with the Planet and find my Promised Land." "...That's what mom said." "I thought I would stop hearing her voice as I grew up, but...."

As for Elder Hargo, he first states that he believes there is no one thingcalled the Promised Land. He then goes on to describe what he believes to havebeen the Promised Land for the Cetra, citing them rejoining with the Planet(the Lifestream) at the time of their deaths as being the fulfillment of theirjourneys and the acquisition of their supreme happiness:

"There is no one place called the Promised Land. That is what I believe. Nono, it does exist. Hmmm... You can say that too. In other words, it doesn'texist for us, but it did for the Ancients. The Promised Land is the restingplace of the Ancients. The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. Ajourney to grow trees and plants, produce animals, and raise mako energy.Their harsh journeys continued throughout their lives... The place they returnto after their long journey... Their burial land is the Promised Land. Huh?Supreme happiness? I believe that, for the Ancients, it was the moment thatthey were able to return to their planet. At that moment they were releasedfrom their fate, and gained their supreme happiness..."

The Promised Land for the Ancients was the Lifestream. This does notnecessarily hold true for everyone, however.

To summarize things thus far, the Promised Land is not the same for everyone.It may be anything for anyone, but it is whatever gives that person supremejoy, whatever grants them fulfillment. Considering that people are quitepossibly as varied in desires as there are things to be desired, there may bea limitless number of Promised Lands, a different one for every person thatone sees.

Having now established what the Promised Land is, or -- more accurately --what the Promised LANDS are, let us now examine how one finds this place ofultimate joy. According to Aerith, the location of the Promised Land is notsomething one will know until they've found it:

Aerith "...You don't 'know' where the Promised Land of the Ancients is." "You search and travel, until you feel it. Like you just know, '...this is the Promised Land.'"

What's interesting to note about this is that Aerith only says that onedoesn't know WHERE their Promised Land is. To put it another way, they don'tknow HOW TO FIND it, though they may know full well WHAT it is for them. Togive an example, one whose Promised Land is fulfilling their desire to have aromantic partner that they will love wholeheartedly and who will love themback wholeheartedly may know that this is their ultimate desire, yet they maynot know at all how to achieve it. This is true of many people who will findfulfillment in all-consuming romantic love, and also true of many others whoknow what their ultimate desire is. According to Aerith, they all would"search and search" until they just felt it and KNEW that they had found theirPromised Land, their ultimate fulfillment.

Another side to the difficulty in knowing where/how to find one's PromisedLand is the hardships that they most likely will face in searching for it.Using again the example of one who seeks all-consuming romantic love, they mayfind that the path to this is not an easy one. They will likely face a greatdeal of emotional sorrow and hardship before they find this ultimatehappiness. Quite often, those who seek this particular brand of fulfillmentwill find themselves becoming "desperate for love" as such folks are oftendescribed, possibly resorting to any number of means by which to find thislove, whether it is singles clubs, love match websites, or ads in thePersonals section of their local newspaper. To clarify this particular point,'a Promised Land will not be achieved save by overcoming hardship. This isdirectly connected to the game's theme of building off of the concept of theSephiroth of Jewish mysticism.

In the Kabbalah, it's stated that man is separated from God by the sin of theworld, and the only way he can return to God is by navigating the paths of the

Sephiroth. The Sephiroth, also known as the "Tree of Life," is a spiritualgrid that represents the 10 divine emanations of God as projected into themortal world. These 10 aspects of God are comprised of 22 paths based in sevenrealms of mortal existance. Along each path, a soul must overcome obstacles toreach the next node, gaining a further understanding of itself and more of itspotential -- yet still limited -- understanding of God. If it is triumphantthroughout the life of its time as a mortal, it will gain a full understandingof itself and as great an understanding of God as is possible for a mortalbeing. The soul attains this great understanding when it reaches the centralnode on the grid, the Tifaret (also spelled as "Tipharet," "Tiferet," and"Tipheret"). From here, the soul will ascend to the seventh and highest realmof conscious mortal existance, where it gains full understanding of itself andmay rejoin with God.

Just as an individual following the paths of the Sephiroth and seeking theirway back to God must overcome obstacles along the paths in order to achievethis, so too must one do so in seeking their Promised Land. This isdemonstrated in-game by the Cetra's journey. It is described as a "harsh, hardjourney" at the end of which they would find their Promised Land:

Sephiroth "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on..." "At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness."

Referring back to Elder Hargo's comments on the Cetra, again, he states thatthe "harsh, hard journey" of the Cetra ended when they were allowed to rejoinwith the Lifestream:

"The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A journey to grow treesand plants, produce animals, and raise mako energy. Their harsh journeyscontinued throughout their lives... The place they return to after their longjourney... Their burial land is the Promised Land. Huh? Supreme happiness? Ibelieve that, for the Ancients, it was the moment that they were able toreturn to their planet. At that moment they were released from their fate, andgained their supreme happiness..."

We can connect the matter of rejoining with the Lifestream to the matter ofrejoining with the Promised Land in the case of the Cetra based on what Aerithsays concerning the Cetra's origins, and what Bugenhagen says concerningSpirit Energy and the cycle of rebirth in Final Fantasy VII:

(Aerith in the Shin-Ra headquarters)Aerith "All I know is..." "The Cetra were born from the Planet, speak with the Planet, and unlock the Planet."

"And....... then......" "The Cetra will return to the Promised Land. A land that promises supreme happiness."

(Bugenhagen in Cosmo Canyon)Bugenhagen "Well, let's get to the subject." "Eventually... all humans die. What happens to them after they die?" "The body decomposes, and returns to the Planet. That much everyone knows. What about their consciousness, their hearts and their souls?" "The soul too returns to the Planet." "And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In fact, all living things in the universe, are the same."

Bugenhagen "The spirits that return to the Planet, merge with one another and roam the Planet." "They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the 'Lifestream'." "Lifestream.... In other words, a path of energy of the souls roamingthe Planet."

Bugenhagen "'Spirit Energy' is a word that you should never forget." "A new life... children are blessed with Spirit energy and are brought into the world." "Then, the time comes when they die and once again return to the Planet..."

While this brings up the question of why the journey to DIE is made sodifficult for the Cetra, there may have been any number of culturalassumptions amongst the Cetra that led them to feel that they must do theirbest to help cultivate life on the Planet in order to rejoin with theLifestream, or perhaps it was a sense of duty that drove them in such aregard. The game is, sadly, unclear on this matter, nor are hints provided.For all we're made aware, there may have been a cultural assumption amongstthe Cetra that they felt they would only be worthy of the return to theLifestream by helping to cultivate life on the Planet's surface. Whatever thereason, this journey of the Cetra along the paths of the Sephiroth to reachtheir own personal Promised Land was a journey to the Lifestream, made moredifficult for them than it was for other forms of life due to it being thefulfillment of self for these Ancients.

What we can conclude from all this is that the Promised Land is not the samething for everyone, nor is there any means by which an individual candetermine HOW to find their personal Promised Land. They simply must seek itout, and when they find it, they will just KNOW they have found it. We can

also conclude that -- whatever an individual's journey may be for -- the pathto one's Promised Land will be made harsh for the sake of them overcomingobstacles in order to reach it. While one individual may be able to easilyattain something that is not very special to them, for another, that is theirPromised Land and it will be a harsh path, indeed, before they can acquire it.

As for why this may be, it is likely to provide the Spirit Energy of theindividual with the necessity to undergo experiences, forming memories andmaturing as a result. All this is done so that when the Spirit Energy's hostbody dies and the Spirit Energy returns to the Lifestream, it will be able toprovide memories/experiences for the Lifestream as a whole to learn from andgrow. We know that it is these memories and experiences that provide theLifestream with the ability to live and grow based on a statement made in thefirst Final Fantasy film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within:

(Aki Ross, quoting Dr. Sid's journal)"All life is born of Gaia and each life has a spirit. Each new spirit ishoused in a physical body. ...Through their experiences on Earth each spiritmatures and grows. When the physical body dies the mature spirit enriched byits life on Earth returns to Gaia bringing with it the experiences, enablingGaia to live and grow."

The implications of the matter would suggest that limits are placed on anindividual's abilities, the situations they're placed in, or both, so as toprovide them with the NECESSITY to struggle for their ultimate achievement ofself.

In conclusion, the Promised Land is a reality, and it is a different realityfor different people. It is also the culmination of their effort and thehardships that they must face and overcome. These are hardships that they willabsolutely be required to deal with in order to mature as an individual andreach their Promised Land, in so doing, ensuring that they will provide thelifecycle as a whole with the means by which to grow.

(Note: For where to find the information concerning Tetsuya Nomura stating hisbelief that the Promised Land is Midgar, refer to FLAREgamer.com:http://flaregamer.com/b2article.php?p=81&more=1)

14) -The Cetra Were Really Nomads-

A misconception that has arisen concerning Final Fantasy VII is that the Cetrawere not truly nomads, Sephiroth's statement that they were -- coming fromGast's scientific journals -- possibly being misinformed due to a belief thatGast found space dust or otherworldly particles on JENOVA's body when he wasstudying it and concluded that JENOVA -- whom he believed to be a Cetra -- hadbeen a nomad that traveled from one Planet to another, and then concluded thatthis must be true of all Cetra. This belief is fallacious, however, as will beexplained. It could possibly be argued that Gast reached this conclusion based

on false information, but in any event, Gast was certainly correct concerningthe Cetra's migrations, though he was wrong about some other things.

Most notably, it's stated in Cosmo Canyon that the life of the Cetra was onecontinuous journey, a journey to cultivate life:

Elder Hargo"There is no one place called the Promised Land. That is what I believe. Nono, it does exist. Hmmm... You can say that too. In other words, it doesn'texist for us, but it did for the Ancients. The Promised Land is the restingplace of the Ancients. The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. Ajourney to grow trees and plants, produce animals, and raise mako energy.Their harsh journeys continued throughout their lives..."

While it could possibly be argued that the Cetra's "journey" was a metaphorfor life, it should be noted that the rest of Gast's information concerningthe Cetra seemingly pans out to be correct. His information concerning themwas 1) that they were nomads, 2) that they sought the Promised Land, 3) thatsome of them gave up the ways of the Cetra and became Common Homo Sapiens/theancestors of the people that dominate the Planet during the game's present,losing their Cetra abilities and intimate relationship with the Planet, and4) that the Planet faced a crisis that the Cetra alone stood against, withmost of them perishing before the threat was abated.

Most obviously, the Cetra did seek the Promised Land. Less obviously, butstill accurate nonetheless, is that the Common Homo Sapiens of the presentbear similarities to the Cetra both in that they're all Homo Sapiens and canbreed together (Aerith's parents were Ifalna, a Cetra, and Professor Gast, aCommon Homo Sapien), and in that Homo Sapiens who follow the ways of the Cetracan even pick up some of their abilities. The entire main cast gains theunderstanding of hearing the Planet's cries and being aware that they are thecries of the Planet, and Bugenhagen even gains the understanding and capacityto interpret the knowledge floating about in the memories in the air in theCity of the Ancients, thus allowing him to learn of Holy. If nothing else, atleast, no information in-game ever serves to contradict the matter. With thesematters in mind, for the Common Homo Sapiens to be devolved Cetra is certainlya reasonable possibility, if not outright meriting the status of fact.Regarding the fourth matter, this was also correct, as the Planet did, indeed,face a crisis that the Cetra alone faced and conquered, though at their ownexpense, this crisis later being revealed to have been JENOVA, the "Crisisfrom the Sky."

With all this in mind, three of the four assumptions Gast had concerning theCetra are certainly correct, and the fourth itself receives no contest fromany evidence in-game.

While it has been argued that Gast's information arose from studying JENOVA'sbody and is, thus, inaccurate, as was his conclusion that JENOVA was a Cetra,there is no in-game evidence to support the notion that Gast reached this

conclusion after studying JENOVA. For that matter, the same logic that arguesthat because Gast mentioned the matter in his scientific journals of theJENOVA Project, it must be information that he had gained from studyingJENOVA's body would also have to account for the other information mentionedin the journals, all of which most obviously could not have been assumptionsdrawn from studying JENOVA's body, and all of which were correct. This leavesus to ponder where Gast had gotten this information concerning the Cetra, andwith 3/4 of the information definitely accurate, then so too is the fourthmatter likely to be.

Something to be kept in mind is that Gast was a lifelong scholar of theAncients, and had long studied them before he ever conducted the JENOVAProject. The information he had concerning the Cetra most likely came from thepeople of Cosmo Canyon, a place had been known to visit, likely for thepurposes of studying:

Elder Bugah"You can't talk of the Ancients without mentioning Professor Gast. He used tocome here sometimes. He was a ShinRa scholar who spent his life studying theAncients."

Considering the likely origin of Gast's knowledge concerning the Cetrathemselves -- regardless of misunderstandings concerning JENOVA -- it standsto reason that if one point of his knowledge concerning the Cetra was off,then so too would all of it be. However, the other 3/4 of Gast's assumptionsconcerning the Ancients pan out to be true, and so too then was this one mostlikely to have been, as it's never contradicted or contested by anythingin-game.

The Cetra were most certainly nomads that went about cultivating life acrossthe surface of the Planet.

15) -Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth: What they are-

These are two of the most often-debated matters of Final Fantasy VII'sstoryline, sadly rendered all the more difficult to determine due to thegraphical limitations that were in place at the time of the game'sdevelopment. However, coupled with Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura's designsof the two bosses, the nature of the creatures can be determined.

Bizarro Sephiroth is actually a pupa-like entity in Sephiroth's form (noticethat its bangs matches Sephiroth's hair, his bangs often referred to among thefandom as "the Bangs of Doom") from which Safer Sephiroth was arising, thusthe name of the background music for the Bizarro battle being "Birth of aGod." This certainly fits due to the angelic and heavenly appearance of SaferSephiroth. We can be certain that Safer Sephiroth was "hatching" from BizarroSephiroth due to the torso of Safer Sephiroth protruding from Bizarro

Sephiroth's head, as well as the wings of Safer Sephiroth extending frombehind the smaller torso:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/BizarroSephiroth.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/SephirothofBizarroSephiroth.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/JENOVAofBizarroSephiroth.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/FF7Analysis/Bizarro.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/BizarroSephirothbyNomura.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SaferSephiroth.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/SapherSephirothbyNomura.jpg

Thus, it is that Safer Sephiroth is clearly an ascended form of Sephiroth thatevolved out of the pupa-like form that was Bizarro Sephiroth.

(Note: Credit for this concept goes to Carys Young.)

16) -What Did Hojo Do to Red XIII?-

One of the enduring questions of Final Fantasy VII is "What did Hojo do toNanaki?" Was he injected with JENOVA Cells? Was he infused with Mako? Were anynumber of other experiments carried out on him? Sadly, we cannot determinethis from the game. Even Red XIII himself seems unsure of what Hojo may havedone to him. All he ever expresses in this regard is a fear that he may turnout mindless like the black-cloaked Sephiroth Clones:

Red XIII "Cloud..."

Red XIII "I'm number 13. Am I going to go mad too?"

Tifa "I don't know what Hojo did to you, but you've been all right so far, right?"

Red XIII "But..."

Tifa "Be strong."

Red XIII "But, I..."

Tifa "Stop it, Red XIII! Be strong!"

Whatever Hojo did to Nanaki, he's never implied to have glowing eyes (the signof Mako infusion), nor does he demonstrate any of the behavior of anindividual injected with JENOVA's Cells. That said, he is listed as one of theSephiroth Clones in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide. My guesswould be that he was labeled for being part of the experiment, but that Hojonever got around to infusing him with Mako or injecting him with JENOVA'sCells before AVALANCHE freed him.

17) -Explanation of the Sphere Cloud Sees During The Ending of Final FantasyVII-

One of the enduring mysteries of Final Fantasy VII -- and a point of quite abit of speculation -- is the nature of the sphere that Cloud sees in his mindwhile it journeys to battle Sephiroth's form after the destruction ofSephiroth's body (see the sphere here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/GaiasCore.jpg). Sometimes speculated to have been the PromisedLand, other times speculated to have been the Cetra's homeworld, and anynumber of other things, I believe the answer lies in just where it was thatAVALANCHE had confronted Sephiroth: The centre of the Planet.

To be more specific, AVALANCHE would have been in close proximity to Gaia'score, and I believe that the sphere that Cloud witnessed overhead is THE coreitself.

For why I believe this to be so, there is, first, the Lifestream's presenceafter Cloud has defeated Sephiroth's form, and, second, the very similarsphere seen within Final Fantasy X/X-2's world, Spira, on the Farplane:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SpirasCore.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SpirasCore2.jpg

Recall that the Farplane lay at the center of Spira, and the abundant amountof Spirit Energy (Pyreflies) floating around in there. We know that thelifeforce of the Planet itself resided within the Farplane based on Shinra'sanalysis of the area in Final Fantasy X-2:

Shinra: Aha...

Yuna: What are you looking at?

Shinra: Farplane data.

Shinra: The more I study it, the more fascinating it gets. There's limitlessenergy swirling around in there.

Yuna: Limitless energy?

Shinra: The life force that flows through our planet...I think.

Like Spira's core, where Pyreflies (Spirit Energy) freely moved about inclose proximity, when Cloud looks up at the sphere above him, there are smallorbs of energy floating about.

We find another similarity when looking at the Gaia of Earth in Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/TheGaia.jpg

While we can't determine from this shot if the energy below Aki and Gray has asphere form, based on its depth within the Earth and the nature of densitywithin the Earth, it's safe to assume (as even the metallic core of our ownEarth is believed to be a sphere due to density).

While not a very elaborate explanation, I believe that the simplicity of thistheory adds to its plausibility, and that it is the most likely of all allpossible explanations.

18) -Contrasting Cait Sith No. 1's "Death" With Aerith's-

Something interesting and worth noting concerning Aerith's death is that thegame had previously set-up death in the very cliche manner that YoshinoriKitase and Tetsuya Nomura spoke of in an interview in EDGE magazine in May2003. Cait Sith No. 1's "death" was made overly dramatic and followed by areturn of the character -- completely negating any tragedy or sense of loss inthe process -- to intentionally offset the player's emotions concerning deathand cause them to disassociate it with the realistic nature of death. In thisway, when Aerith's death arrived, it was an even greater shock than would haveotherwise been the case. The developers further capitalized on this shock byhaving Cloud be nearly forced into killing Aerith himself, the other partymembers yelling at Cloud and bringing him back to his senses, only for theform of Sephiroth to descend from above and pass a sword through her.

A brief analysis of both scenes yields what is the most realistic of the two,in that one is set-up in a very dramatic over-the-top fashion, only for the

entire matter to be rendered moot less than two minutes later, whereasAerith's death came like a whisper and its effects lasted for the rest of thegame. To further emphasise the point, note the level of drama in the dialoguethat went into Cait Sith's death scene, and then the amount that went intoCloud's. Further note all the behaviour involved, both in regard to Cait Sithand Aerith, and those around them, keeping in mind that Cait Sith's "demise"was obviously coming from the moment that the Cait Sith doll said that itwould sacrifice itself, while Aerith's death seemed to have been completelysubverted by Cloud being pulled back to his senses:

(Cait Sith's death sequence)Cait Sith "Sorry to keep you waiting!! It's me!!" "I'll handle the rest!"

Cait Sith "Well, everyone.. Take care of yourselves!"

Aerith "Cait Sith..."

Aerith "Come on, Cloud... Say something."

Cloud "I'm not good at this."

Cait Sith "Mmm, I understand. I feel the same too."

Aerith "Why don't you read our fortunes?"

Cait Sith "Say, that's right... I haven't done it in a while, huh?" "I'm so excited. Right or wrong, I'm still the same 'ol me." "Now, what should I predict?"

Aerith "Hmm, let's see how compatible Cloud and I are!"

Cait Sith "That'll cost ya. Exactly one date!"

Cait Sith "Here I go!"

Cait Sith "This isn't good. I can't say it." "Poor Tifa."

Aerith "No! Tell me!" "I promise I won't get mad!"

Cait Sith "Is that so? Then I'll tell you." "Looks good. You are perfect for each other!" "Aerith's star and Cloud's star! They show a great future!" "Cloud, I'll be your matchmaker, preacher... I'll do whatever you want me to!" "You just call me when it all happens!"

Cait Sith "Thank you for believing in me, knowing that I was a spy." "This is the final, final farewell!"

Aerith "Be strong Cait Sith!!"

Cait Sith "She told me to 'Be strong.' I feel so happy."

::He trips and falls::

Cait Sith "Owwww......"

Cait Sith "What happened?"

Cait Sith "I can still move more."

Cait Sith "This must be it!" "The Ancients sure did a great job making this."

Cait Sith "I can protect the Planet too! I'm kinda embarrassed..."

Cait Sith "There's plenty of stuffed toys like my body around, but there's only one me!"

Cait Sith "Don't forget me even if another Cait Sith comes along."

::Cait Sith approaches the altar::

Cait Sith "Good bye, then! I guess I'm off to save the Planet..."

::Cait Sith turns to face the altar and screen flashes white::

(Aerith's death sequence)::AVALANCHE enters the Sleeping Forest with the Lunar Harp::

The Sleeping Forest awoke...

::AVALANCHE advances to the City of the Ancients and finds some beds in one ofthe houses::

Cid "Yeah, and it looks pretty comfortable."

Tifa "Shall we take a break here?"

::They stop to rest for the night; during the night, Cloud awakens and looksaround::

Cloud "I feel it..."

::The others come in; Cloud's speaking likely awoke them::

Cid "Do you know what TIME it is!?"

Cloud "Aerith is here. ...and so is Sephiroth."

Cid "Wa, wa, wait a minute. You serious!?"

Tifa "But how can you tell?"

Cloud "...It's not an excuse. I feel it in my soul."

Cid "Shit, Cloud, we can't be sittin' around on our asses."

Cloud "...right. Let's hurry and find Aerith."

::They leave the house; AVALANCHE heads down the central path at theintersection that lies near the entrance to the City of the Ancients::

Cloud "Aerith's voice...... Coming from there?"

::Eventually, AVALANCHE reaches a structure with a glass stairway leading downunderground; they follow the staircase and see Aerith kneeling on an altar::

Cloud "Aerith?"

::Cloud advances toward Aerith's position; the other members of AVALANCHEstart to follow him, but he waves them back; when he gets in front of Aerith,a red light flashes and Cloud clutches his head, and is then forced to drawhis sword and hold it above his head, set to bring it down on Aerith; he'sobviously fighting against Sephiroth's will that's trying to force him tocrush Aerith beneath his Buster Sword; after a long moment of tension, Cloudprepares to bring down the Buster Sword::

Cid "Cloud!"

Tifa "Stop!"

::Cloud shakes his head and steps back::

Cloud "Ugh... what are you making me do?"

::The form of Sephiroth descends from above and pierces its blade throughAerith's back and out her stomach; her head lolls forward and she collapsesinto Cloud's arms::

As can be seen from this, Cait Sith's "death" was given a lot more of adramatic build-up than Aerith's, at least in the sense of how charactersin-game reacted to the matter, and also in that Cait Sith's "death" wasobviously on the way, whereas Aerith's seemed to have just been averted, onlyfor her to be killed a moment later.

As can be seen from comparing these matters and examining the interview inEDGE magazine with Nomura and Kitase, Cait Sith's "death" served to act as acontrast with Aerith's, it representing all those things that Nomura andKitase wished for death not to be in a story, whereas Aerith's representedthose things that they wished for one to be. Whereas Cait Sith's was overlydramatic, sacrificial, and rendered moot by an immediate "resurrection,"Aerith's death came like a whisper, was tragic, and held meaning for the restof the game.

19) -All That Remained of Sephiroth's Body After His Fall Into The Mt. NibelMako Reactor Was its Torso-

An often-overlooked -- or disregarded -- matter concerning Final Fantasy VIIis that all that remained of Sephiroth's body after its fall into the Mt.Nibel Mako Reactor was his torso. Only being noticeable for a few secondsduring a couple of in-game FMVs, it is often overlooked or dismissed as havingbeen the developers saving time by not rendering any of Sephiroth's body belowhis waist, and that the scene wasn't intended to indicate that his legs weregone at all. Others have said that a hair-like material was growing out of hiswaist where his legs once were, as part of some mutation incited by JENOVA'sCells or from absorbing Spirit Energy, while others yet have said that it wasa move performed for censorship purposes, with it, again, not being indicativeof Sephiroth's legs being gone.

I will address each of these matters and reveal the truth.

To start, Sephiroth's legs were most certainly gone. Note these screenshots:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephirothsTorso.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephirothWithNoLegs.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephirothWithNoLegs2.jpg

Next, particularly note these, the first of which using arrows that will pointout that hair can be seen over his shoulder (indicating that it is, indeed,behind him), and that it can be seen below his waist where he should havelegs. Another screenshot with arrows will point out the boundary where historso ends in torn, hanging flesh, and will also point out both rock and hairas visible when they would been blocked were there legs:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephysTorsoEdited.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephysTorsoEdited2.jpg

As we can see from these screenshots, there is only indication thatSephiroth's legs were gone, and none that they remained. Based on what thegame shows us, there is only indication that Sephiroth's legs were gone.

Now on to the matter of rebuttals:

Rebuttal #1: "The developers attempted to save time by not renderingSephiroth's legs, assuming no one would notice that they weren't there due tothe brief timeframe in which they fail to appear. For that matter, they neverintended for the FMVs to be scrutinized to this degree. Someone slowing downthe video with a program to watch it frame-by-frame wasn't something they

expected."

In regard to this, it likely wouldn't have taken as much effort to render thetops of legs and a waist wearing black pants as it did to render all that hairand the rocky background that are visible instead. Further, if it wasn'tintended to convey that his legs were gone, then this wasn't just a case ofbeing lazy during the making of an FMV, but a case of outright stupidity, asthe scene shows us beyond all reasonable doubt that his legs are not there.Thus, the developers would have been irrefutably conveying something not atall intended to be the case.

As for the point about the FMV not being very long and not intended to bescrutinized to this degree, the obvious lack of legs is visibile for a solid2.5 seconds in JUST the FMV in which Cloud hands over the Black Materia toSephiroth's body. Considering how quickly the human eye can process incomingstimuli (a lot faster than that), it would be a vastly stupid assumption ontheir part to think that no one would notice without the aid of a videoprogram.

Rebuttal #2: "Sephiroth's legs aren't so much gone as being replaced, asSephiroth's body is absorbing Spirit Energy and mutating (or being altered byJENOVA's Cells mutating within him), fibrous material growing from his waistas a result. The hair appears to be blending right in with the skin,suggesting that there's no boundary, but, rather, that it is growing out ofit. What may seem to be torn flesh is just thick locks of hair. It's the samecolor as the hair.

Anyway, this transformation is just being incited by JENOVA's Cells. In theTemple of the Ancients, Sephiroth's form says that he is becoming one with thePlanet and "Mother" (JENOVA), the word "becoming" suggesting the presenttense. In other words, the process is already taking place. No forms of JENOVAhave legs, after all. Him merging with JENOVA in the present tense wouldexplain why his body would be the focal point of the Reunion."

To begin with, the first shot we see of Sephiroth's body in the Mako crystalmakes it obvious that the only hair in there is that growing out of his head:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephirothsTorso.jpg

As for the hair blending in with the skin, it isn't the same color at all.Refer to the pictures posted above. The hair is white, whereas his skin isflesh-colored. They aren't the same color at all. Further still, his hairisn't even touching the bottom of his torso. Refer again to this picture:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephirothsTorso.jpg

That's from the first FMV that is shown of his body, when it is revealed. Fromthis image, it is obvious that Sephiroth's hair is behind his body and off toits left.

The next FMV (in which Cloud hands over the Black Materia) is looking at thetorso from the angle of its front-right. With that in mind, recall that thehair is positioned behind and to the left of the body. Therefore, when lookingat the torso from the front-right, its hair will be seen directly on the otherside of the torso, creating the illusion that the hair is extending straightdown along where the waist should be:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephirothWithNoLegs2.jpg

Here is a visual representation of this:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/Final%20Fantasy%20VII/AngleOfTorsoView.jpg

Further, it should be noted that after this front-right perspective is shown,the angle switches back to a head-on shot when the Black Materia beginsinteracting with Sephiroth's body, the hair still in the position it had beenin before: Behind the torso and to the left:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/SephysTorso2.jpg

There was no hair growing out of the torso's waist.

As for the nature of Sephiroth's ribs, the graphics of the FFVII FMVs -- whilespectacular at the time of rendering -- are not perfectly representative ofreality. This extends to the anatomy of the characters.

In any event, his body wasn't the focal point of the Reunion. It was alreadyover and done with moments before when the Sephiroth Clones were killed andtheir bodies cast down into the Crater to be absorbed by JENOVA's main body.The name of the JENOVA-SYNTHESIS boss suggests the combination of two or moreparts to create something more complex.

Rebuttal #3: "The scene was just handled that way for censorship purposes. Itwasn't intended to convey that Sephiroth's legs were gone. He was simply nakedand his genitals could not be shown."

If this were at all plausible, simply choosing to render tree roots or rock infront of Sephiroth below his stomach would have sufficed, as would having himwear his black pants. Neither is the case. The intention is conveyed by theFMV itself: Sephiroth's legs were gone.

I hope that I have successfully conveyed the nature of this scene, it beingthat Sephiroth's torso was -- beyond all doubt -- lacking its legs at thatpoint.

20) -Vincent Does Not Have a Prosthetic Arm-

A common misconception concerning Vincent of Final Fantasy VII is that hisleft arm is a prosthetic replacement, placed there to replace his arm after itsuffered damage at Hojo's hands and had to be ampuatated or that it what wassimply replaced out of cruelty. However, this is simply not the case. Thegauntlet is nothing more than that: A gauntlet.

Note that in Final Fantasy VII, Vincent wears a completely different gauntletfrom the one he can be seen wearing in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children,meaning he can take either off or put them on:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/VincentValentine.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/VincentFigureNew2.jpg

While it could, perhaps, be argued that he simply acquired new prosthetic, forevidence toward it being a gauntlet, when looking at the gauntlet in bothDirge of Cerberus screenshots or Nomura's character design linked to above,black leather is visible between the joints of the gauntlet, meaning that it'ssimply metal grafted onto leather:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/VinnysGauntlet2.bmphttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v132/Squall_of_Seed/VinnysGauntlet.bmp

In all fairness, at this point, it could still be argued that the prostheticitself is merely metal grafted onto a leather covering that covers aprosthetic. However, when taking note of Vincent's transformations, Vincenttransforms into creatures that have two arms with no suggestion that theirleft arms are prosthetics as they appear the same as their right arms. Mostcertainly Vincent's left arm is not a prosthetic.

(Note: Thanks go to Peter McConville for bringing up the matter of Vincent'stransformations.)

21) -Spira and Gaia are Connected-

According to Kazushige Nojima, the Scenario Writer of Final Fantasy VII, VIII,X, and X-2, yes, there is. In the Final Fantasy X-2 Ultimania Guide, hereveals in an interview that he wrote the game's story with the intention inmind that the character named "Shinra" (a member of the Gullwings, the SphereHunter group that the game focuses on) was the ancestor of the founders andrulers of the Shin-Ra Corporation seen on Final Fantasy VII's world of Gaia.

According to Nojima, after Vegnagun and Shuyin's defeat, Shinra receivedmassive financial backing from Rin and attempted to use the remains ofVegnagun to extract the Spirit Energy on the Farplane into a usable form that

would allow it to be a power source. In-game, we see Shinra arrive at theconclusion that this could be done in Chapter 5:

(If one returns to the bridge of the Celsius after reaching the Farplane Glenand speaks with Shinra)Shinra"Aha..."

Yuna"What are you looking at?"

Shinra"Farplane data."

Shinra"The more I study it, the more fascinating it gets. There's limitless energyswirling around in there."

Yuna"Limitless energy?"

Shinra"The life force that flows through our planet...I think."

Shinra"With a little work, we could probably extract the energy in a useable form."

Brother"Sweet!"

Shinra"Of course, that'd take generations."

Brother"That's no fun!"

Buddy"Well, still, it is something worth shooting for."

Yuna"Think how much Spira would change if we ever got it to work!"

Yuna"Maybe one day we could build a city full of light, one that never sleeps!"

Shinra"No doubt about it."

Yuna"Just imagine!"

Yuna"But I'll never get to see it...will I..."

::Shinra shakes his head, meaning "No"::

Brother"Shinra! Don't make Yuna sad!"

Shinra"Right. My bad."

This is obviously a suggestion that energy from the Farplane could beextracted and used in such a manner. It's also made apparent in-game thatfinding a means to utilize the energy within the Planet Spira is somethingthat Rin would have supported:

(If Rin is pinned as the culprit behind wrong-doing on the Mi'hen Highroadinvolving the malfunctioning Machina, it's revealed that the Machinamalfunctioned and that he attempted to cover it up)Rin"This chocobo was being employed to power a ferryboat, so I purchased him."

Yuna"What did you find out about the machina incidents?"

Rin"I have deduced that both the hover incident and the malfunctioning machinadrones were accidents."

Paine"And what caused these "accidents"?"

Rin"I am trying to clear that matter up. I asked my assistants to inspect ourmachina some time ago."

Yuna"An inspection? I had heard that it was an experiment, to synchronize themachina."

Rikku"Yeah, I heard that, too."

RinYes... while performing maintenance to keep the machina under control, we alsoexperimented with upgrading them."

Rikku

"But you still couldn't control them!"

Rin"True, but-"

Yuna"How about this: The modified machina that went haywire might have been whatattacked the hover."

Yuna"What's more, synchronized machina always act in unison."

Yuna"One malfunction could have triggered a similar effect in all the Highroad'smachina."

Yuna"Something strange happened while we were investigating."

Yuna"Someone cut off our CommSphere's transmission."

Rin"It broke?"

Yuna"No. It was broken. We could see the culprit through a separate CommSphere."

Yuna"Rin... it was you."

Yuna"That's when I realized: you never intended to catch the culprit."

Yuna"When I think about it, I've seen you on the Highroad a number of times now."

Yuna"Once before the machina started acting strange. And then again after theincident was over."

Yuna"But before I could talk to you, you vanished, as if you didn't want to beseen."

Yuna"When the hover was destroyed, you knew the upgraded machina were behind it."

Yuna"But then, when you tried to investigate, they all rebelled at once."

Yuna"So, you went around dismantling the rogue machina. Yes, while we were busyfighting them."

Yuna"Then, you slipped away just as everything was settling down. I am right,aren't I?"

Rin"You are suggesting that my decision to upgrade the machina resulted in anumber of casualties... ... and that I tried to cover it up?"

Yuna"You put the investigation in our hands because we were amateurs. You hoped wewould botch the case."

Yuna"And then, I kept calling you even though I didn't have any leads."

Yuna"You would have objected to the meaningless interruptions, if you reallywanted to solve the case."

Rin"I see. It appears that I have underestimated you, Yuna."

Rikku"Why, Rin?"

Rin"If word got out that machina pose a danger, people would fear them and stopusing them."

Paine"So Yevon's not alone in sweeping things under the rug."

Rin"I firmly believe that machina are an indispensable part of Spira'sdevelopment."

Rin"Even if there is another incident, I intend to conceal the evidence."

Yuna"You really think people will follow you that way?"

Rin"I am not alone in my thinking."

Rin"We are researching ways to extract the vast energy that sleeps in Spira, anduse it to power machina."

Paine"You're a jackass."

Rin"I will take that as a compliment."

Also notable is that during the interview, the Director reveals that hearranged the first shot of the Bevelle Underground to be the same as the firstshot of Midgar in Final Fantasy VII. Doubtless, this was intended to besomething of a tribute to the concept Nojima had conceived.

Another bit of homage to the idea comes with the North American and Europeanversions of the game, this done with the name of the Fiend called "KingVERMIN!." In Final Fantasy VII, this is a title that Barret addressesPresident Shinra with at one point, using the same capitalization andpunctuation as seen with the Fiend's name:

President Shinra "And such a waste of good fireworks, just to get rid of vermin like you..."

Barret "VERMIN? That's all you can say... VERMIN!" "Y'all Shinra're the VERMIN, killing the planet! And that makes you King VERMIN! So shu'up jackass!"

Here follows a full translation of the segment of the interview from which theinformation regarding the connection comes, as well as one partialprofessional translation, and a partial translation of the same segment, asinterpreted by an online translator:

(Note: All three translations are taken from this website under the Nojimainterview section of the "Evidence" category:

http://www.willamette.edu/~ejohnson/findex.htm

Daisuke Watanabe is the game's Scenario PlannerKazushige Nojima is the Scenario WriterMotomu Toriyama is the Director)

(Full translation)Question:"The story's keyword is 'connected.'"

Daisuke Watanabe: "When we put all the scenes together, I personally like the

keyword 'connected.'"

Kazushige Nojima: "Inside the game, I try to connect all the scenes andstories together. The name Shinra, that was also in FF7, is it connected? Yesit IS connected. For example, 'Graduation mission' and 'Rin Detective mission,' Rin says 'we are the same mind,' which is a mysterious line from thegame."

Nojima: "Shinra (the kid) quits the Gullwings. Rin gave Shinra a HUGEfinancial support. He found out by using Venagun, he can pull out lots of Makoenergy from the farplane, BUT he cannot complete this mission by himself.Later generations moved to another planet and created the Shinra company...This occurs 1000 years later."

Question: "AFTER that, does the story of FF7 occur?"

Nojima: "Yeah, I guess so. In my mind I have those feelings in me. If I thinkabout those characters involved in the story, I'm holding those images insideme. Shinra was a good person, but his later generations will be like the'president.' ::laughs::"

Watanabe: "One of the staff from FF7 saw Shinra's episode, the camera work weused under Bevelle gave that staff member a 'familiar feeling.'"

Motomu Toriyama: "Yeah, that scene looked like the opening movie of Midgarfrom FF7."

(Partial professional translation, with the dialogue localized into Englishmannerisms)Question: "Is there a connection between Shinra and FFVII?"

Nojima: "Yes, actually. After Shinra quit the Gullwings he got enormousfinancial backing from Rin and went to the Farplane to start extracting theMako energy used by the Vegnagun. But the system for utilizing this energycould not be completed in his generation, so far in the future when spacetravel was possible, the Shinra Company was founded on another planet... orsomething like that. That would be a thousand years or so from this game'sstory."

Question: "And VII's story takes place after that?"

Nojima: "Well, you could say that's how I personally feel about it."

(Partial online translation; translated by Altavista's Babel Fish OnlineTranslator)Question: "It is connected to ?V?"?? your ,Á ,Ä "VII", it is?"

Nojima: "To tell the truth so is. ?V?"?? you who stop gull group, receiving

the enormous financial help by phosphorus, it starts pulling the demon ?æenergy which ?"?F?O?i?K?" used in the strange boundary. So with his onegeneration very, you do not complete the system in order to utilize the energyand the ,Ä, future reaches the point where it can go to the distant star, theShinra company you are possible with another star, that.... . About 1,000years passing from the latest story, however it probably is thing what."

Question: "After that there is 'VII' story?"

Nojima: "Even well, in me such feeling you will say."

It should be noted that in the context of Nojima's response to the question of"And VII's story takes place after that?" he is responding that he has theconcept for it conceived and did write X-2's story with that intention, buthas not fully fleshed out the idea of bridging X-2 to VII, thus, the line fromthe larger transcript of the interview in which he says "In my mind I havethose feelings in me. If I think about those characters involved in the story,I'm holding those images inside me." In other words, what he's saying is thatwhile this is his intention for the story and he has set it up to happen withthe way Final Fantasy X-2 left off, he has not yet conceived the specifics ofthe matter and has only placed the matters previously mentioned into the gameto set it up so far. The concept obviously couldn't be touched upon even tothe extent it was during the interview in the Ultimania Guide withoutcompletely getting away from the main story (Yuna's story) that was resolvingitself during the game's ending, must less a fully fleshed out application ofthe idea.

That said, however, Nojima did fully intend for the connection he mentionsduring the interview to be the canon of the storylines of both Final FantasyX/X-2 and Final Fantasy VII. He has just yet to apply it into a publishedtitle (game or movie). At the time of the interview, he was basically saying"It's all in my head." As of September 2005 and the publication of the FinalFantasy VII Ultimania Omega Guide, that is still the case, though the mattercan now be accepted undeniably as canon with the Guide stating this concerningShinra of the Gullwings in the "Final Fantasy VII in Other Games" section ofthe book under the "Final Fantasy X-2" heading:

(As translated by PMog of GameFAQs)"The boy named "Shinra" has a name reminiscent of the Shin-Ra Company, and isresearching for a way to use the life force flowing through the planet asenergy. The results of that can't be seen during FFX-2, but will the day thathis descendents found a company supplying planet energy come before long?"

Whether Kitase will expand on those ideas for a future title or not remains tobe seen.

Points often brought up by fans to contest the concept:

*Point: The idea totally contradicts the story of Final Fantasy VII. In thegame it's stated that the first Mako Reactor was approved for use only some 30years before the main events of the game begin, and it had only been about 15years that Shin-Ra even realized that Mako extraction could be profitable.Nojima's idea that this has been going on for possibly thousands of years fitsin nowhere.

*Response: This point is the one brought up most often to contest the idea,when, in fact, it fails to actually contradict it. Nojima's concept in no waycontradicts the established storyline of Final Fantasy VII, and only takingwhat Nojima said out of context -- accidentally or deliberately -- will lendto the belief that it does.

What he said is that Shinra attempts to apply the concept using the remains ofVegnagun. However, he finds that he cannot successfully implement the concept,and some 1000 years later, his descendants will travel from Spira to thePlanet Gaia. He does NOT say that they start setting up Mako Reactors as soonas they get there. He merely says that on this other Planet they will foundthe Shin-Ra Corporation. He does not imply that they do so straight away, nordoes he suggest that they begin using Mako extraction as soon as they foundthe Shin-Ra Corporation.

What his concept amounts to is this: "After Vegnagun and Shuyin are defeated,Rin invests a large amount of money in Shinra's concept of drawing energy fromthe Farplane and harnessing it in a usable form. Shinra attempts to use theremains of Vegnagun to do this, but is unsuccessful. 1000 years later, hisdescendants will travel to the Planet Gaia. Sometime in the future after that,they will found the Shin-Ra Corporation. Sometime in the future once again,they will discover that they can successfully implement the concept conceivedby their ancestor and will utilize the correct means to do so."

*Point: There is no mention of JENOVA anywhere in Nojima's concept. He leftout one of the fundamental aspects of Final Fantasy VII's prehistory.

*Response: By his own admission, Nojima's concept is not a fleshed out idea.It is a very basic concept that is taking the full spectrum of the timeline ofevents into consideration in the same sentence or two. "And VII's story takesplace after that?" does not mean "So VII's story begins immediately afterShinra's descendants arrive on Gaia?" It just's a general inquiry as towhether or not VII's story chronologically falls after that point. With thatin mind, Shinra's descendants may very well have arrived before JENOVA did.

*Point: It's a bit farfetched that VII's story begins immediately after theseguys show up, meaning at most, they couldn't have been around for more than100 years before the game starts, yet no one seems to recall that they'realiens or make menton of it.

*Response: Again, by his own admission, Nojima's concept is not a fleshed outidea. It is a very basic concept that is taking the full spectrum of thetimeline of events into consideration in the same sentence or two. "And VII'sstory takes place after that?" does not mean "So VII's story beginsimmediately after Shinra's descendants arrive on Gaia?" It just's a generalinquiry as to whether or not VII's story chronologically falls after thatpoint. This is not very different from the argument that the conceptcontradicts VII's story. It's only by taking what was said out of context thatthis argument is ever applied.

*Point: Nojima's idea would suggest that the Spirans will develop technologythat allows for space travel, yet in the game's present, Shin-Ra had todevelop 26 prototypes before they could even produce a rocket that would becapable of going into space. That leaves quite a plothole seeing as how thetechnology of the game's present is not as developed as that of it's supposedpast.

*Response: Once again, Nojima's concept is not yet a fully fleshed out ideaand is all in his head. He has not yet touched upon the matter of the losttechnology, though he, doubtless, would do so should he fully flesh out theidea. For that matter, it's not as though it would even be all that difficulta thing to arrange. The Spiran vehicles used for space travel could easily bewritten to have been destroyed -- along with the technology to reproduce them-- due to a crash landing on Gaia, or they could be written to have beendestroyed by JENOVA during its assault upon the people of Gaia.

*Point: The world of Spira operates on entirely different concepts of life anddeath, as well as Magic and summoning. For example, there's never a need forSendings on Gaia, nor are there Fayth who are used as the conduit by which tobring forth Summons.

*Response: The worlds actually operate on exactly the same concepts of lifeand death, as well as Magic and summoning. Pyreflies = Spirit Energy = Mako =Spheres = Materia = Lifestream. Spheres (the source of Magic in FFX) arecrystalized Pyreflies which were able to coalesce through their attachment tophysical matter (usually water). Pyreflies, after all, permeate everything inSpira.

Materia (which, interestingly enough, has a spherical shape) is crystalizedMako, which is itself a condensed/liquidized derivative of theLifestream/Gaia's Spirit Energy.

Also notable is that both worlds feature the concept of SpiritEnergy/Pyreflies returning to the Planet and then being sent back to thesurface world to give life to more creatures. Further still, on Gaia, therewere the Cetra, people who could manipulate Spirit Energy through theirconnection to and understanding of the Planet. On Spira, there were Summoners,people who could manipulate Pyreflies because of their strong wills,

formidable mental prowess, and their understanding of the mechanics of suchthings.

As far as there being a big difference in terms of summoning, there's actuallyno difference at all. Materia merely connects one to the Lifestream, using thememories within this crystalized Spirit Energy as a conduit, and through thisconnection, one can manifest Magical Spells (including Summons) based on thosememories.

On Spira, Aeons were called forth through one's mind connecting to that of aFayth, one whose body and spirit were bound within a statue of a powerfulcreature. The Fayth's memories are then processed through their dreams, whicha Summoner will be able to glean through their mental rapport with that Fayth.The Fayth's memories essentially serve as a blueprint of sorts for theSummoner, who will then tap into Pyreflies and manifest them in a form basedon the memories of the Fayth as regarding the statue their spirit is boundwithin.

The concept -- that of tapping into the memories of another to manifest themas a Magical Spell or a Summon through Spirit Energy -- is the same on bothworlds. It all comes back to memories in the end.

For more on this matter, refer to the "Spirit Energy and Memories: The Magicof Final Fantasy" article of this document:

http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/final_fantasy_ix_plot.txt

As far as Sendings go, there seems to be something a bit off-kilter withSpira's Lifestream. Rather than Spirit Energy being one massive swell onSpira, it swirls around everywhere, rather aimlessly. There doesn't reallyseem to be any coherence to it all. This is, of course, why people can becomeFiends or Unsent.

However, that said, pretty much the same things can happen on Gaia. Arequirement for one becoming an Unsent, for example, is a strong emotional tieto the living world. An example of this in Final Fantasy X would be Maechen,whose unquenchable thirst for knowledge kept him bound to the surface of Spirafor 1000 years. Similarily, in Final Fantasy VII, the guys from Beginner'sHall weren't able to be at peace after dying due to their thirst forknowledge. When encountering their spirits in the Respectable Inn in Junon,one of them tells Cloud that he wasn't able to rest because he wanted to learnmore.

As far as Fiends go, recall that it was enmity for the living that would causepeoples' restless spirits to manifest as such creatures. In VII, the spiritsof the Gi Tribe became Fiend-like entities in the Gi Cave due to their hatredfor the people of Cosmo Canyon.

Really, there's not any notable differences in the mechanics of life, death,

and Magic on Spira and Gaia. They're essentially the same.

*Point: Nojima isn't even a Square-Enix employee any longer. His personalopinion is hardly anything to take as canon.

*Response: If Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura were then to no longer beSquare-Enix employees, would their claims from the May 2003 issue of EDGEmagazine concerning how Final Fantasy VII was written (that it was intendedfor Aerith to die to cause the player to experience the feeling of tragicdeath and that Aerith was never intended to be revived) no longer be valid?The matter in question is the intent with which the story was written. It'snot even as though the idea is entirely from left field. The set-up for it wasplaced into Final Fantasy X-2.

For that matter, being that Nojima is the writer, his personal opinion is whatconceived the story of the game in the first place. Further still, as of thiswriting, Nojima is still working with Square-Enix on several projects,including Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core,Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, and Kingdom Hearts II (for which he alsois serving as the Scenario Writer, having written its predecessor, as well).

(Note: Thanks to Richard Van Moppes for bringing up the matter of themechanics of life and death in Spira as a possible counterpoint.)

22) -Analyzing the Storyline of Final Fantasy VII Based on Its Symbolism-

While it's well known that Final Fantasy VII draws on Jewish mysticism,establishing a great deal of symbolism with the ancient belief system, theextent of that symbolism is not always realized. I have here attempted toestablish an explanation that points out the correlation between in-gameevents, scenarios, and concepts that are a direct reference to theircounterparts in Jewish mysticism. What I have determined from my studies isthat the core themes of Final Fantasy VII are taken straight out of the loreof Jewish mysticism, and given an in-game representation. The level ofinspiration that these ancient concepts provided for Final Fantasy VII isstriking, as are the intricate levels at which they were interwoven throughoutthe game's story. I hope that with this document, fans of Final Fantasy VIIand Final Fantasy as a whole -- as well as those who may simply have aninterest in religious symbolism as used in games -- will be able to find awhole new angle by which to examine this groundbreaking title in the FinalFantasy series.

-The Set-Up

In the Kabbalah, it's stated that mankind is separated from God by the sin ofthe world, and the only way it can return to God is by navigating the paths ofthe Sephiroth. The Sephiroth, also known as the "Tree of Life," is a spiritual

grid that represents the 10 divine emanations of God as projected into themortal world. These 10 aspects of God are comprised of 22 paths based in sevenrealms of mortal existance. Along each path, a soul must overcome obstacles toreach the next node, gaining a further understanding of itself and more of itspotential -- yet still limited -- understanding of God. If it is triumphantthroughout the life of its time as a mortal, it will gain a full understandingof itself and as great an understanding of God as is possible for a mortalbeing.The soul attains this great understanding when it reaches the centralnode on the grid, the Tifaret (also spelled as "Tipharet," "Tiferet," and"Tipheret"). From here, the soul will ascend to the seventh and highest realmof conscious mortal existance, where it gains full understanding of itself andmay rejoin with God.

Of specific importance to a matter we'll be addressing here are the propertiesof the Tifaret. As previously mentioned, the Tifaret is the central node onthe Tree of Life, and is associated with ascension, as well as representativeof beauty and certain virtues and vices. It's virtues are love and balance,while its vices are pride and self-importance. When unbalanced, the Tifaret inan individual will give way to an illusionary dilemma in which they sufferfrom over-identification with others.

Also of importance to the matter we'll be analyzing here is the name of God,"YHWH"/"JHVH" (commonly written as "Yahweh"/"Jehovah").

(Note: For more information on the Sephiroth and its multitude of properties,visit these webpages:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephiroth_%28Kabbalah%29http://www.humanenergyscience.com/articles_kabbalah.htmhttp://www.colorsystem.com/projekte/engl/65hebe.htm)

-Analyzing the game in regard to symbolism and/or themes of Jewish mysticism-

There are two "Gods" in the story: JENOVA and the Lifestream. For both, thereis a concept that involves their "children" rejoining with them: JENOVA hasits "Reunion" with the Cells in the Clones drawing them to the creature, andthe Lifestream has its Spirit Energy returning to it upon the death of a"child" -- which it gifted with Spirit Energy when its life began -- theSpirit Energy taking back with it the memories of that individual's lifetime,from which the Lifestream will live and grow. One could say that JENOVA is adark "God" that attempts to conquer the light "God" (the Lifestream). Withthese concepts in mind, recall the name of God, "Jehovah." "JENOVA" is acorruption of this name, and this is reflected through the creature'sdefilment of the Planet. Ifalna states that so long as JENOVA remains, thePlanet Gaia will never be able to heal.

Moving on, "Sephiroth" means "Numbers" when loosely translated from its Hebreworigin, and in the game we have numbered "Sephiroth Clones." They're naturallydrawn back to JENOVA (God calling His children back to Him, and them being ledback on a grid of paths that is God's tool, it actually being emanations of

God Himself as projected into the mortal world), and Sephiroth in FinalFantasy VII places the Clones on "paths" to seek out the Black Materia as theymake their way to the Reunion.

When the Clones finally get to the Northern Crater's Whirlwind Maze, theCrater being the site where the Reunion is to take place, they are killed andknocked into a chasm, no doubt for their Cells to be assimilated by JENOVA,thus the creature fought inside the Planet later bearing the name"JENOVA-SYNTHESIS," a synthesis being defined as the combination of two ormore separate parts into a complex whole. They've rejoined with "God." Alsonotable is that -- briefly returning to the matter of the "Tree of Life" title-- at the Northern Crater, Sephiroth's body lay at the centre of a large tree.

While on the subject of the center of the Tree of Life, let us return to thematter. As mentioned before, the central node on the Tree is called theTifaret. Interestingly enough, the name bears a very striking resemblance tothe first name of the character known as Tifa Lockhart. Tifa is the Tifaret,so to speak, at least for Cloud. In the Lifestream, she helps him findhimself, and he comes to fully understand himself, the penultimate goal offollowing the Sephiroth's paths. One seeks to find an understanding oftheirself and then they may ascend to the final realm and rejoin with God.

Through Tifa, Cloud reaches the highest plain of conscious existance, gainingan understanding and acceptance of himself, and, in so doing, is easily able to purge JENOVA and Sephiroth from his mind during the game's ending. Inactuality, both Tifa and Cloud constitute a Tifaret. Tifa bears its virtues,while Cloud bears its vices. He also is the one to experience the effects ofan unbalanced Tifaret, the illusion of over-identification. In being unwillingto accept himself for who he was, Cloud over-identified himself with thatwhich he felt he must be in order to be special: Someone like Zack. Thisillusion of imbalance nearly crippled Cloud's mind during the game. WithTifa's help, he was able to overcome it, and accept who he was, thus,achieving balance:

Cloud "Everyone...... I'm sorry. I don't know what to say......"

Red XIII "Don't say anything, Cloud. All you've been doing is apologizing."

Cloud "I never was in SOLDIER." "I made up the stories about what happened to me five years ago, about being in SOLDIER." "I left my village looking for glory, but never made it in to SOLDIER......" "I was so ashamed of being so weak; then I heard this story from my friend Zack..." "And I created an illusion of myself made up of what I had seen in my life....."

"And I continued to play the charade as if it were true."

Barret "Illusion, huh...? Pretty damn strong for a 'lusion, I'd say."

Cloud "I'm physically built like someone in SOLDIER." "Hojo's plan to clone Sephiroth wasn't that difficult." "It was just the same procedure they use when creating members of SOLDIER."

Cloud "You see, someone in SOLDIER isn't simply exposed to Mako energy." "Their bodies are actually injected with Jenova cells......" "For better or for worse, only the strong can enter SOLDIER." "It has nothing to do with the Jenova Reunion." "But weak people...... like me, get lost in the whole thing."

Cloud "The combination of Jenova cells, Sephiroth's strong will, and my own weaknesses are what created me." "Everyone knew that. I'm...... Cloud."

Cloud "......the master of my own illusionary world." "But I can't remain trapped in an illusion any more......" "I'm going to live my life without pretending."

Tifa further has a connection to the Tifaret through the name of her finalLimit Break and the name of her bar in the Slums of Sector 7, entitled "FinalHeaven" and "7th Heaven" respectively. As previously mentioned, the Tifaretgrants access to the highest realm of mortal existance, it, thus, being the"Final Heaven" and -- being the seventh realm -- also the "7th Heaven."

Next up for consideration is Bizarro Sephiroth (also known as "ReverseSephiroth"), the next-to-final form seen of Sephiroth's body, in which hisbody is being reborn as Safer Sephiroth from the pupa-like entity that is seenas the bottom part of the boss in that battle. The name "ReverseSephiroth"/"Bizarro Sephiroth" is symbolic in the sense that what Sephirothwas doing was a reversal of the religious Sephiroth's purpose. It's supposedto lead to God, the holy of holies. Sephiroth had, indeed, been brought intocontact with JENOVA's Cells while a fetus in Lucrecia's womb for the purposeof leading Shin-Ra to the Promised Land. Yet despite all this, here we findhim serving as the obstacle to the spell known as "Holy" being released. Insymbolically becoming the opposite of what he's supposed to be, this was a"fall from grace," thus the symbolism of a one-winged Angel in the SaferSephiroth battle that follows the Bizarro battle.

In the battle with Safer Sephiroth, there is not only symbolism in the

appearance of Sephiroth, but also in his name. As with "Tifaret," "a" and "e"can and are often used interchangeably for Hebrew words. That is also the casewith "Safer," which may also be spelled as "Sefer," "Sapher," and "Sepher." InHebrew, "Sefer" means "Book." Therefore, "Safer Sephiroth" means "Book ofNumbers."

When examining the Book of Numbers of the Pentateuch, as seen in both theBible and the Torah, we find that it involves taking up events after theIsraelites had spent nearly an entire year in the Mt. Sinai area, during whichtime they were promised the land of Canaan should they be obedient to God.This land came to be referred to as "the Promised Land." Worthy of note isthat the Book of Numbers picks up in the second month of the second year sincethe Israelites' Exodus from Egypt. With this in mind, I refer back to therebeing 22 paths that link the 10 spheres of the Sephiroth (2 & 2). Also of noteis the fact that the Book of Numbers involves the Israelites ending theirsettlement in Sinai, preparing to depart to claim the Promised Land of Canaan,and then setting out. In the Safer Sephiroth battle, the player is facing theascended form of Sephiroth, with him at last prepared to claim the PromisedLand of the Ancients: The Lifestream.

One major point to emphasise is that the Kabbalist Sephiroth is the emanationsof God Himself as projected into the mortal world. In Final Fantasy VII, itwas much the same case in regard to JENOVA and Sephiroth's relationship. He isessentially the embodiment of JENOVA's will in a Gaian, its "emanations" asprojected into the world. While his own self and possessing his ownindividuality, Sephiroth is the "evolution" of JENOVA's will, his consciouslyperceiving mind combined with its instinctual viral desire to replicate.

Finally, I wish to point out the connections to Jewish mysticism as found inAerith, the Cetra, and the Promised Land. To start with, Aerith is 22 yearsold and there are 22 paths of the Sephiroth. The Cetra and the Promised Land'sexplanations are intertwined, so I will here present them together:

Just as an individual following the paths of the Sephiroth and seeking theirway back to God must overcome obstacles along the paths in order to achievethis, so too must one do so in seeking their Promised Land. This isdemonstrated in-game by the Cetra's journey. It is described as a "harsh, hardjourney" at the end of which they would find their Promised Land:

Sephiroth "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on..." "At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness."

Referring back to Elder Hargo's comments on the Cetra, again, he states thatthe "harsh, hard journey" of the Cetra ended when they were allowed to rejoinwith the Lifestream:

"The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A journey to grow treesand plants, produce animals, and raise mako energy. Their harsh journeyscontinued throughout their lives... The place they return to after their longjourney... Their burial land is the Promised Land. Huh? Supreme happiness? Ibelieve that, for the Ancients, it was the moment that they were able toreturn to their planet. At that moment they were released from their fate, andgained their supreme happiness..."

We can connect the matter of rejoining with the Lifestream to the matter ofrejoining with the Promised Land in the case of the Cetra based on what Aerithsays concerning the Cetra's origins, and what Bugenhagen says concerningSpirit Energy and the cycle of rebirth in Final Fantasy VII:

(Aerith in the Shin-Ra headquarters)Aerith "All I know is..." "The Cetra were born from the Planet, speak with the Planet, and unlock the Planet." "And....... then......" "The Cetra will return to the Promised Land. A land that promises supreme happiness."

(Bugenhagen in Cosmo Canyon)Bugenhagen "Well, let's get to the subject." "Eventually... all humans die. What happens to them after they die?" "The body decomposes, and returns to the Planet. That much everyone knows. What about their consciousness, their hearts and their souls?" "The soul too returns to the Planet." "And not only those of humans, but everything on this Planet. In fact, all living things in the universe, are the same."

Bugenhagen "The spirits that return to the Planet, merge with one another and roam the Planet." "They roam, converge, and divide, becoming a swell, called the 'Lifestream'." "Lifestream.... In other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the Planet."

Bugenhagen "'Spirit Energy' is a word that you should never forget." "A new life... children are blessed with Spirit energy and are brought into the world." "Then, the time comes when they die and once again return to the Planet..."

While this brings up the question of why the journey to DIE is made sodifficult for the Cetra, there may have been any number of culturalassumptions amongst the Cetra that led them to feel that they must do theirbest to help cultivate life on the Planet in order to rejoin with theLifestream, or perhaps it was a sense of duty that drove them in such aregard. The game is, sadly, unclear on this matter, nor are hints provided.For all we're made aware, there may have been a cultural assumption amongstthe Cetra that they felt they would only be worthy of the return to theLifestream by helping to cultivate life on the Planet's surface. Whatever thereason, this journey of the Cetra along the paths of the Sephiroth to reachtheir own personal Promised Land was a journey to the Lifestream, made moredifficult for them than it was for other forms of life due to it being thefulfillment of self for these Ancients, with the Promised Land -- and, thus,fulfillment -- being a personal thing that varied in nature from oneindividual to another, and absolutely could only be reached through overcominghardship.

(Note: For more on the Cetra and this theme of hardship, refer to the sectionof this document entitled "The Promised Land Revealed.")

Something else worthy of note is that the Cetra's migrations mirrors thewanderings of the Israelites that left Egypt in the Pentateuch and Torah. Theytoo sought their Promised Land, the Land of Canaan. It was even referred to as"the Promised Land."

Also notable, and -- perhaps -- more interesting, is that Final Fantasy VIIalso plays somewhat on Christianity, with Sephiroth essentially being theJesus to JENOVA's God. In Christianity, it is believed that Jesus was theproduct of an emanation of God manifesting inside the womb of a mortal woman,developing, and then being born. In Final Fantasy VII, we find the closestthing possible occur: The Cells of JENOVA are injected into Lucrecia's womb,where they meld with Sephiroth's body as it develops.

Further, the game's sequel, Advent Children, features another such referencethrough its title. The Advent of Christ is said to be his return, or "secondcoming" as it is often referred to as. In the film, Sephiroth is reborn, andhis "second coming" is witnessed.

I hope that with this I have successfully conveyed the symbolic nature ofFinal Fantasy VII and provided a new reason to appreciate the thought that laybehind it on the part of its developers.

(4)-Acknowledgements-

I would like to thank the following members of GameFAQs regarding their

contributions -- uninentional as they may have been --toward the wiritng ofthis FAQ:

KaticflisLeuchest/The Dark LegendMobiusGear1

I would also like to thank Square-Enix and the staff behind the storiesdiscussed in this document for having made these wnoderful works that have soengrossed me since their creation.

Most of all, I must thank my wonderful fiance Carys for everything she's donefor me, accidental though most of it has been. You've made me one happybastard, livvy. I love you, Carys. You're absolutely amazing.

Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Final Fantasy VII:Dirge of Cerberus, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, andFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within are all registered trademarks ofSquare-Enix. They own all rights to these works, their featured characters,and the likenesses of said characters.

This article may be linked to on other sites. Further, it may be quoted onother websites PROVIDED that the URL to this webpage is provided. However, itmay not be otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permissionfrom me. Use of this document on any other web site or as a part of any publicdisplay without my consent is strictly prohibited, and a violation ofcopyright.